Cobbled to together from out-takes off of the album There Is No Home, this EP splits between fully realized songs and acoustic demos.

 

Gnomonsong

Like all great seven inch releases, this Volcano the Bear disc crams a few of this band’s multiple facets into one value for money package. These three utterly independent cuts highlight a band that never seems to settle into a style, even within the constraints of a single piece of music.

With the name Hulk and a sleeve color of an angry Bruce Banner I was expecting this album to be muscular and dominating but instead it is subdued and peaceful. The title of the album is apt, as there is a serene, supernatural feeling permeating the recordings. It is sad yet deeply comforting music.

The primitive sounding blues being played on White Man at the Door is similar to Tom Waits or Nick Cave’s early excursions with The Bad Seeds. The Lost Domain never match those artists for power and originality but like those artists they do give modern blues playing a swift kick. It is the dark mythological blues that only came into existence when white people came onto the scene (something that is alluded to in the title of the album), something that has been done to death but can still provide the odd surprise. By no means is this a masterpiece but this album at least had some life as the band puts their own spin on the blues.

The mysterious Burial had the jump on everyone in dubstep this year, delivering the burgeoning underground scene's most anticipated artist album months in advance of anyone else.  However, based on the virulent virility of Skream's unpretentious, nearly eponymous debut, I suspect I, and many others, will be more inclined to listen to this album far more regularly.

Gregory Isaacs is most known for his vocal works as a reggae singer, with recordings stretching back to the 1960s and worldwide acclaim through releases on Trojan, RAS, Front Line, and other noteworthy labels. However, back in 1978, with a little assistance from reggae royalty King Tubby and Prince Jammy, Isaacs produced this masterpiece, perhaps my own personal Holy Grail of classic dub.

Given that each of the 51 pieces on this compilation are all roughly a minute in duration, there is a lot of hopping around here, with disparate pieces put aside one another to create some varying transitions, sometimes brilliant, sometimes confusing. Unsurprisingly, the individual contributions follow a similar pattern, with some moments that I wish were longer, and others I could do without.

Celebrating the LINE label's status as a separate entity and Chartier's 2010 Smithsonian fellowship (as well as his 40th birthday), Transparency is the document of an hour long performance using the historic Grand Tonometer as it’s primary source. The result is a subtle piece that is captivating, but also demanding

This is the first in an irregular overview of cassette releases from a variety of labels. This edition features releases from The Tapeworm, Cassauna, Peasant Magik, Goat Eater Arts and Witch Sermon, including works by Pauline Oliveros, Deceh, Francisco López, Moss and Hoor-paar-Kraat amongst many, many others.

Floating silently through space approximately 1.4 billion km from Earth are the rings of Saturn. Composed primarily of ice particles, they appear as simple concentric circles similar to the grooves in a record. Thanks to the intricate play of moons, magnetic fields, and gravity, their structure is actually far more complex, fraught with braids and knots and unexpected waves of debris. Christoph Heemann's Rings also glide and ripple through the ether, but the space in which they float is both inner and outer, and closer to home than Saturn.

I discovered Rachel Evan's music in a somewhat roundabout way, as I stumbled into some music videos that she directed while I was searching for something else on Vimeo.  As luck would have it, the first one that I watched happened to be one for her own project and I was intrigued enough by her blurred, melancholy multimedia vision to immediately track down this vinyl reissue of a long-unavailable 2010 cassette.  Notably, Brad Rose has described that cassette as one of the best demos that Digitalis has ever received.  It seems like a lot of people agree with him, as the first printing of this record sold-out before most of us were even aware that it existed (it has since been reprinted though).

This husband-and-wife duo has been lurking around the cassette underground and amassing an enthusiastic following for several years, but their work has always been a bit too abstract and lo-fi to make a big impression on me.  That has now changed, as 936 is a massive leap forward, artfully shaping the band's noisy, experimental impulses and long-standing love of dub into a batch of killer, bass-heavy, hook-filled songs.  I am absolutely obsessed with this album.

The last year has seen many of hip hop's current biggest stars—Kanye West, Rick Ross, Drake—releasing lavish, star-studded, overcooked albums. In a perfect world, perhaps somebody like J Rocc could reverse this trend. His first collection of original music on Stones Throw is an effective antidote to the opulence and ego trips that too often infect mainstream hip hop.

The cover art of Craft Spells' debut resembles a blurred close-up of one of the flowers adorning the sleeve of Power, Corruption and Lies. While this album is distinctly less stadium-sized than New Order's first of many masterpieces, it is no less riddled with reverb, nostalgia and vibrant hooks.

The new EP from Mira Calix comes with 2 tracks. One by Mira Calixherself, and one Andrea Parker remix from her first album. The MiraCalix track is divided into four parts, and starts out with roughmachinery sounds and a dark static flowing from side to side. A sawwave and beautiful voice then coats these sounds, accompanied by a slowclassical piano melody. The machinery and static morph into a complexrhythm at the very top of the sound range, with a low bass beat in thecenter. The soft voices make sounds that compliment the saw-wave synthmelody very nicely. They warmed my heart. After the beat ends, a flutemelody and a dirty resonance (much like a storm or crickets) arrives.This is coupled by sounds of flapping water, like a seal clapping.Weird stuff. This track is very, very, very peaceful, and could bringme up when I'm at my lowest low. Parker's remix is darker and more beatoriented, and while it's ok, it doesn't evolve over the course of thetrack and gets old.

 

New levels of ironica are reached on this extended play single when retrofitted 1980s heavy metal and analogue techno rock collide. Thinking back a couple decades, I recall that fans of both camps would despise each other. Take a look at Heavy Metal Parking Lot for clues. Today, however, the music is being warmly embraced by indie rock hipsters. Two groups of three members: the Fucking Champs (who I swear are the pawns in a diabolacal plot from Yngwie Malmsteen to stage a crossover attack into the sweater-clad Buddy Holly glasses-wearing indie crowd) versus Trans Am (who confuse me to this day whether they're paying tribute to or parodizing ZZ Top and Kraftwerk).

Inevitably, this UK band must be prepared for (superficial) comparisonsto their better-known countrymen Radiohead, especially as this releasedares to combine Brit-pop/rock with very experimental electronics inthe same vein as the Aphex/Warp Records roster. Soundwise, there'snothing in common with Yorke and crew, as Hood mine a cooler, morelaid-back, jazz-and-groove-influenced territory. Beginning with thecrunchy and glitchified 'They Removed All Trace That Anything Had EverHappened Here', HOOD dives into a melange of IDM-ish programming, dubeffects, and more traditional acoustic vocal/rock styles. HOOD use theelectronics sparingly, accenting their songs with the alien sounds butnever forsaking their penchance for actual songwriting. 'This Is WhatWe Do To Sell Out(s)' sounds exactly like an Aphex Twin outtake, whichis used as a foundation track for the band's incongruous acousticmelodies. And it works. The sensitive and melodic male vocals areunmistakably English, and the band shows a great mastery over theirinstruments, while rhythmic beds of IDM-ish grit and groove bring upthe foreground. 'Cold House' is simultaneously challenging andfamiliar. This is 'post-rock' taken in another direction, brimming withsonic inventiveness and (gasp) real human emotion. Very, very strongwork from a band that's not afraid to fuck things up and take chances.Refreshing and brilliant.

 

samples:

• They Removed All Trace That Anything Had Ever Happened Here
• Enemy of Time
• This is What We Do to Sell Out(s)

The release of 'Wrong' not only marks the first release from Locust infive years, but also a rare foray into the realm of pop music for itsrecord label, Touch. Mark Van Hoen, the driving force behind Locust,has remained prolific despite the lengthy gap between this and theband's previous album, the critically acclaimed 'Morning Light'. VanHoen released numerous side projects (including Scala, Aurobindo andAutocreation), solo albums and has done production work for artistssuch as Mojave 3 and Sing Sing. 'Wrong' is a twin disc set, but "not adouble CD," as the notation printed on the second disc explains. Thetwo are intended to be experienced synchroniously: the first disccontains the songs proper, while the second is comprised of tones anddrones. Van Hoen has stated that his motivation in creating the albumwas to recapture the essence of the 70s British electronic pop music ofhis youth. He succeeds in his effort, especially in terms of theaccessibility of the songwriting, but adds an entirely new dimension tothe unadulterated pop melodies through his typical lush production and,on 'Wrong', through the use of analogue synthesizers as the albums onlysource of instrumentation. The electronics on the record are superblycrafted and meticulous in their detail. Beautiful beats and swirlscarefully folded around one another and densely layered on each of thenine tracks. Played along with the background drones on the seconddisc, Van Hoen creates a profound sonic depth. Accompanying theelectronics are the vocal stylings of of Holli Ashton, who appeared onLocust's previous release. Her voice is pleasant and and versatile,infusing the mostly uninspiring lyrics with a nevertheless subtlegrace. Other artists making guest apperances on background vocals areSarah Peacock, Tara Patterson, Lisa Millet and Vinny Miller. The songson 'Wrong' run the gamut from warm ballads like "Heal" and "Separate"to the hook-laiden centerpieces of "Sweet Sky" (a slightly differentversion of which appeared as a b-side on the "All Your Own Way" single)and the album's most stand-out track, the phenomenal "Make aDifference." The broader array of instrumentation found on 'MorningLight' such as guitar, trumpet and violin may be lacking on 'Wrong',but yet it manages to combine the best elements of all Van Hoen's pastworks: smartly-constructed pop songs and highly sophisticatedelectronic instrumentation. This well-rounded and thoughtfulassemblange of songs may have been a long time coming, but in the endhas been well worth the wait.

 

samples: (for these samples we have strategically assigned the song on the left channel and the background on the right channel)

• Make a Difference
• Sweet Sky
• Impossible Adventure

Korean born artist Nam June Paik is widely credited as the founder ofvideo art and for over 40 years his work and performances have crossedpaths with the Fluxus group and such experimental luminaries as JohnCage, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Joseph Beuys. "Works" is the first CDrelease of Paik's music and it contains 5 tracks spanning 21 years andranging from 20 seconds to nearly 29 minutes. The first, "PreparedPiano for Merce Cunningham" from 1977, is the lengthiest and is muchmore atmospheric than melodic. Paik (rhymes with 'cake') improvises onand moves about a de-tuned piano, the majority of the piece composed ofdampened lower register notes with an eerie timbre that resembles thatof gently struck steel drums. From the 1958-61 period, "Hommage A JohnCage", "Simple" and "Etude for Pianoforte" are all short hand splicedtape collages. 'Samples' of varying length - prepared piano, sped-upsongs, crying babies, Paik screaming - seem to be randomly, yetskillfully, juxtaposed. "Duett Paik/Takis" is just that, about 26minutes worth of Paik improvising on piano while Greek kinetic artistTakis performs on his sculptures. By 'perform' I mean sporadicallyslamming pieces of metal while Paik softly, non verbally hums/sings andquietly plays a pretty but sad song, never breaking concentrationdespite the very jarring interruptions. It makes for a very strangeeffect in that an austere beauty is forced to cohabit a space withindustrial noise, neither apparently mindful of the other. Oddlyenough, for the final 6 minutes Takis audibly bows out and Paikswitches to what I'm guessing is a harpsichord for a much brighterconclusion. While the 3 shorter pieces are yet another reminder thatsomeone else has already done most everything that's being done todaymany years ago, the 2 longer pieces are truly, curiously compellingworks of music/art that bear repeated listening.

 

samples:

• Duett Paik Takis
• Hommage a John Cage
• Piano for Merce Cunningham

When I heard talk about this, I was rather excited. It seemed to bepart of a collaborative effort — perhaps with four contributors allbasing music around selected Hebrew prayers. Arthur Baker was allegedlyat the helm of this project, with a superstar team which includedengineer Steve Albini, and a completion to be mastered at Abbey Road.But what happened in the meantime? Some plug must have been pulledsomewhere and us, the consumers are left with this $6 remnant whichmimics a dangling participle. Mogwai's one-track single here stretchesabout twenty minutes, and if you've seen them live at all in the lastyear, you've heard it already — it's the very last track they've beendoing in concert — you know, the one that gave me hearing damage in myleft ear in Boston and set the PA on fire in Baltimore. The song isinstrumental and starts off quiet and peaceful, with a repeated themeand builds and builds and builds, to a blurry, gritty climax. Strangelyenough, however, there seems to be so much compression performed onthis in the mastering process that it feels like it came in on the samevolume it goes out in. It's not -bad- per se and it sure as hell rocksout, yet on it's own, I'm rather disappointed. I feel it's sort ofmissing something. This song would be great at the end of this year's"Rock Action" LP or on a compilation with four other remotely anthemic20 minute-long pieces. I'm going to suggest this item only for the bigfans who can't live without a recording of their concert finale.

 

samples:

• My Father My King