The first thing I noticed upon picking up this disc was the cover,startling in its divergence from Touch photographer Jon Wozencroft'stypically blue-toned design. The majority of images here are gradationsupon a white scale, slow and detailed blends like the windowledge-fragment on the front, juxtaposed with the dramatic plunge intopure white of the tree silhouette on the inner sleeve.
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At first I thought, "Great, another duo playing guitar and drums isreleasing music with the intent of resurrecting the lost heart and soulof lead-lined rock." This time around it's Jared Warren of Karp playingbass guitar and singing with drummer Coady Willis from Murder CityDevils. The most immediately obvious and awesome feature of Head for the Shallowis its neutron-thick production.
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The ever revolving cast of characters that form Smegma grew out of theLos Angeles Free Music Society in the mid-70s and has not stoppedreocrding or performing since. This, however, is their first "proper"album in over ten years. Rumblingsincludes a cast of familiar characters, but also includes the infamousRichard Meltzer (known for his writing and for his involvement in theBlue Oyster Cult).
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This album is going to make a lot of people very happy. Jesuis the first full-length, all-cylinders-firing rock-oriented releasefrom Justin Broadrick in quite a while, following a long period of timeduring which the former Napalm Death guitarist and Godflesh founderindulged his interest in hip-hop, dub and other, more experimental,less satisfying projects.
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In a proper offering of respect, LTM has assembled three releases(including a double CD) collecting all of the Field Mice's output whichhas been out of print for a number of years. The majority of songs arelicensed from the now defunct Sarah Records, a label which was createdfor the very specific teleology of releasing 100 singles (though inactuality they surpassed that initial vision).
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More than 35 years after Bill Fay's work first surfaced on DeccaRecords, the unique singer-songwriter is finally getting his due. Isuppose its inevitable that an artist who recorded two such singularlyidiosyncratic and intensely rendered albums—1970's Bill Fay and 1971's Time of the Last Persecution—andthen permanently disappeared off the radar screen would be the subjectof much speculation.
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Yuck. Thankfully this 12" from Vicious Pink Goo is not indicative ofthe depth and breadth of current trends in dance music.
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In 1995, Jody Evans was a 19-year-old studio technician working on Julian Cope's dreadful 20 Mothersalbum, when the Archdrude himself caught the youngster fucking aroundwith his VCS3 synthesizer, creating a marvelous racket.Thighpaulsandra, the widely acknowledged master of all instrumentssynthetic and analog, was also at those sessions, and, similarlyimpressed by Evans' instinctive techniques, joined forces with Cope toproduce his debut album as Anal.
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I think this is supposed to sound grinding, heavy, and intimidating,but the latest from Chondritic Sound's founder sounds more like a blastof dense, hot air than anything else. This single, 42 minute trackfluctuates between a frustrating stasis and short, intense barrages ofmachine noise and static. The bass-like rumble that stays through theentire album undergoes a series of modulations that becomes thicker andthicker while waves of bees, never-ending crunches, and low-endfrequencies boil over one another in an almost indistinguishable haze.
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At the intersection of loopy, downtempo electronica and spoken wordpoetry sits Machine Boy and collaborator Lorian Elbert. It's awell-trodden stretch of road that their project approaches, full ofsuccessful and experimental marriages between the often uncomfortable,confrotntational and confessional vibe of a poetry slam and the more orless easy-to-swallow looped beat, sampled melody routine.
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Maya Arulpragasam is one of those artists whose backstory is so uniqueand interesting that it threatens to completely eclipse the music shemakes. The press release for this, her debut album, spends far moretime talking about her childhood in civil war-torn Sri Lanka, than itdoes talking about her contributions to the modern music scene in theUK.
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The rolling waves of crepuscular sounds on this disc are consumptiveand nightmare inducing. The single 62 minute track that occupies thewhole of Aranos' latest album works on several levels, each of whichcommunicate with each other and inform the shape of the music as awhole.
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Aside from the not infrequent live dates, the strangest dance band on the planet hasn't been heard from since 2002's Street Dad was released to nearly unanimous praise and adulation. One Life to Leave is the long-awaited new single from Out Hud, released as a teaser for their forthcoming full-length Let Us Never Speak of It Again.
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Mirror has expanded: joining Christoph Heemann and Andrew Chalk areTimo Van Luijk of Af Ursin and Noise-Makers Fife's and Vicky Jackman(no relation to David). Van Luijk has described himself as a "musicalbuddhist," and the connotations this carries practically melts into thespirit of this live recording.
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This second album from Montreal's Harris Newman has a timeless quality,sounding modern while drawing on the traditions of acoustic guitaristsfrom the past. While he does appear to be a technically accomplishedguitarist, Newman often seems unconcerned with being one hundredpercent rhythmically accurate, such as on the opener "The Butcher'sBlock."
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This is third volume examining Sumatran popular music to be released onAlan Bishop's non-authoritarian world music label Sublime Frequencies.The first was Folk and Pop Sounds of Sumatra Vol. 1,which was the label's very first release, a compilation of music fromcassettes purchased in the northwesternmost island of the Indonesianarchipelago.
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Of the many countries visited by Alan Bishop and his crew of guerillamusicologists, Cambodia has perhaps the musical heritage with thegreatest history of popular Western listenership.
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Indian Soundscapes is a double-album collecting various fieldrecordings made during four trips to India from 2001 to 2004. Therecordings were made by Iyou, otherwise known as Charles Powne, ownerand proprietor of Soleilmoon Recordings since its inception in 1987.
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It's been close to three years since graphic illustrator and Sea andCake guitarist, Archer Prewitt, released his wonderfully poppy disc, Three.In the meantime he's had a busy few years: performing with his liveband; the death of his father; recording and subsequent touring withSea and Cake. With Wilderness, his fifth recording as a soloartist, he's again picked up with his ongoing love with '70s pop/rocksensibilities, which are apparent in his compositions.
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With 2002's The Creek Drank the Cradle,singer-songwriter Sam Beam established himself as a substantial talent,with a knack for performing uncomplicated, acoustically arranged songswith incredible, unforgettable hooks that stuck in my mind after asingle listen.
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