While the final studio release from Khanate seems to be in cold storage, two essential live albums have been given the remaster and reissue treatment. Recorded a year apart from each other, these two discs provide a couple of vivid snapshots of an imposing live band. Both performances see Khanate in top form, destroying all hope with their sub-bass despair. It is exhilarating to hear such a ferocious racket channelled with such precision and purpose, yet utterly depressing that the group responsible is now no more.
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10660 Hits
Originally released in 1971 as a tiny private pressing in Japan, this rare psychedelic album finally makes it to CD for the first time. Apparently it took a couple of years to track down the material, but the effort was certainly worth it. Great musicianship, excellent production, and the skillful mixture of various styles make this album enjoyable from beginning to end.
7400 Hits
One of the most revered musical pioneers of the 20th century, Erik Satie also had connections to the avant-garde of other artistic disciplines. This album contains primarily his collaborations with Picasso and Cocteau, as well as a couple of other seldom heard works. Performed by Bojan Gorisek, who has recorded Satie's entire piano oeuvre, this is a playful and entertaining collection that presents another fascinating side of this eccentric composer.
10896 Hits
I doubt anyone would disagree that following up last year's stellar In the Maybe World would be a difficult feat, so Young God and Lisa Germano decided to reintroduce this scarcely available 2003 release (ironically frequently heralded as her best release to date) to a larger audience, adding a bonus disc of home demos and live recordings.
7653 Hits
This 3-CD compilation of singles, non-album tracks, and unreleased material by Amp stays true to their mantra of honoring composition and accident equally. The resulting harmony is by turns uplifting, somnambulant, frustrating, lush, raw, glorious, and imprecise while a hollowness seems to lurk beneath the distorted beauty.
10570 Hits
Porn Sword Tobacco's delicate new album reminds me of flexi-discs that once came stuck on the front of music papers, containing excerpts from a band's forthcoming album. Similarly, it succeeds in creating an intrigue disproportionate to its miserly length.
12327 Hits
While the poppier approach taken by Justin Broadrick on the recent Conqueror album has received a mixed response Jesu fans, this double A side EP should restore faith in anyone Conqueror naysayers (myself not included). These two lengthy songs sound more like Jesu's self-titled debut than Broadrick's recent work, slowly building up the pressure before a loud and mighty release.
12019 Hits
Despite sharing a rhythm section with Graveyards, this Mêlée release feels like a completely different unit. Having recorded Bare those Excellent Teeth pt. I as part of the Graveyards trio, Ben Hall and Hans Buetow have utterly revitalised the idea. With Mêlée's third member, Nate Wooley on trumpet replacing John Olson's sometimes barbaric saxophone, the slate is cleared.
9452 Hits
The material that makes up Her Name was recorded across the world over 2006 and features vocal contributions from local musicians that treats the voice not as much as a means of communication, but as a unique instrument unto itself.
7612 Hits
While looking at the instrumentation one would expect a jazz album (saxophones, guitar, percussion, electronics), the result is more of a jazz damaged electro-acoustic improvisations that manages to be both extremely minimal, yet surprisingly complex.
7646 Hits
The electronic improviser's first solo release (after collaborations with the likes of Kevin Drumm and Zbigniew Karkowski) is a succinct yet powerful burst of harsh analog noise that is reminiscent of the old titans of Japanese noise, yet still allows for some rhythmic elements that are consistent with the current scene.
8541 Hits
It's an odd proposition for a compilation: have the participants, most who are well known luminaries in the modern electronic avant garde world, submit tracks for a compilation that are idiosyncratic by nature, or essentially a very specific piece unlike their 'normal' work. The product of which is a surprisingly diverse mix with little in the way of 'low' spots, and also makes for a great genre introduction.
9520 Hits
On this sprawling double disc compilation (one all new material, the other reworkings of the aforementioned material), there is a combination of an artist trying out new things, but presenting them in the framework of a DJ mix album. It's a difficult proposition, but one that works.
11219 Hits
Earth might well be pioneers, but Hibernaculam feels like its treading water and diluting what made Dylan Carlson's project so great. Cleaned up and thinned out, these three re-versions of Earth tracks and a b-side feel like empty filler. Celebrating repetition over creating atmospheres, this is Earth hollowed from the inside out, the shell of the tracks brittle and insubstantial. By attempting to recontextualize Earth's music within classic American music forms means that it has lost what made it great; the fact they didn't fit in.
9175 Hits
Mick Harvey's third release in less than two years is one of the finest albums he has ever put his name to. Like his previous solo output, this album is largely composed of pristine covers with a couple of songs written by Harvey thrown in for good measure. Covering artists closer to his heart has resulted in a far stronger album than 2005's One Man's Treasure. As a Bad Seed too often overlooked, it is great to hear him produce such a gem.
11409 Hits
Fully divested of their signature drones, Growing explores rythmic loops and unnatural electronics. An acquaintance of mine has expressed his dismay that Growing turned away from their established sound, but I applaud their efforts. The result is easily their most engaging and unique album yet.
10806 Hits
Three years after the superb Ozeanische Gefühle a sequel arrives. I was so excited to have new music from Matt Waldron in my hand that I didn't bother to notice this fact printed on the back of the album's case; the relationship is evident nonetheless. The second in a proposed trilogy of recordings dedicated to the writing of Willhelm Reich, Cosmic Superimposition is another cinematic exploration of dynamic and organic relationships both sonic and metaphysical.
8957 Hits
Had this been released before the interminably detained Throbbing Gristle album, Part Two - The Endless Not, it might have retained some of the potent momentum from that legendary quartet's unexpected and bizarrely protracted reunion. Yet after years of delay, the reconstituted Psychic TV's unremarkable return to disc seems barely worthy of a dismissive shrug.
16571 Hits
Much of Rainbow is the next logical step after Boris' fantastic Pink album, there is the same mixture of heaviness and melody but with a greater emphasis on the latter. With Ghost's Michio Kurihara on board there is a greater exploration of what a guitar and an amp is musically capable of as opposed to physically capable of. This is easily one of the best albums Boris have put their name to, there is not one boring moment at any point during the album.
7618 Hits
Always content to play by its own rules, M_nus takes a chance on a virtual unknown with this dizzying set of melodic yet dissonant beeps and beats. Although adherent to the prestigious imprint's ethos, the artist twists and deforms his unstable tracks in a manner that connotes a possible evolutionary direction for the label's sound, assuming listeners can even detect it.
10328 Hits
