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Mountain Battles sounded like a superficial hodgepodge with few promising moments. Desperately seeking positives, I sought a suitable listening venue and found one with a Breeders fan: my hairdresser.
Heather gives a relaxing head and neck massage before all haircuts. Unfortunately, not even the pleasantly relaxing effects of that can disguise the fact that opening song "Overglazed" and also "Walk It Off" say next to nothing, nice or otherwise. The pace picks up during "Bang On" (at least if her tapping foot and nodding head are anything to go by). Then, during "Night Of Joy" it is time to decide "what I want doing." This presents no problem at all for someone who has had the same hair style for at least two decades. The song puts Heather in mind of going to the beach, whereas it makes me seriously consider the possibility of getting a shaved head and joining a monastery. One with a vow of silence.
Our opinions are even more overtly divided about "Here No More." I feel it points to a dark countryesque sound that might give The Breeders a well defined and substantial direction to pursue, and that their voices have the right balance of purity and grit to carry such slightly sketched tunes. Heather remembers "Drivin' on 9" from Last Splash, but scoffs at my idea with some snipes about her grandparents' speed, a cattle drive, and the word "pardner." For a few moments I seriously consider asking for a more radical "do" than usual.
She is similarly unimpressed with the language variety of "German Studies" and "Regalame Esta Noche" and, indeed, these attempts to add breadth do seem awfully flimsy and dull. Thankfully, "Istanbul" does not draw any questions about my travel plans for the summer, we agree the vocals are redundant, but while she enjoys the evocative music, I find it trite. With the scissors close to my ears and eyes I keep my own counsel as she says she loves the lyrics "no counsel, no grand strategy, no sword to fall on" from "We're Gonna Rise." This song makes her happy and she digs the carefree, refreshing, style of expression. She also likes the chorus to "Spark" which is just as well since the line "clouds were bruised when the day broke" is relentlessly repeated. "Spark" is the most sensuous track on the album, and the slow crunching bass line and agonized vocals contrast with a slow, clean, sparse, guitar line. At last some clarity and conviction. (It probably helped, too, that the electric clippers were buzzing on the back of my neck; not as good as the massage but my next favorite part).
I have to remind Heather that cutting my fringe too short would really be a mistake, because when listening to "It's the Love" she begins a vague pogoing movement without actually leaving the ground. Thankfully she resists any punky gobbing while she's snipping away and singing along: "It's the love, love, love, love, love"…. She favors the rawness of "No Way" over the slower closing title track, during which she makes a comment that includes the word "suicidal" (though it sounds just fine during my shampooing ) and I make a mental note never to play her any late period Nico.
It's possible to argue that, for their return, The Breeders have chosen repetition and minimalism, but there's a nagging and familiar sense that they just don't have too many ideas. Recent gigs have drawn praise: obscure but revered UK critic 'Whispering' Steve Mills memorably complained that the show at Sheffield's Leadmill was so good he was late for dinner and his onion bhaji's were cold! The vocals on Mountain Battles have a refreshingly calm appeal, the guitar can sound crisp and distinctive, and yet the majority of the record is not what I would have asked for. Heather admits she won't be adding it to her collection. I go home and have a shower to take the loose hairs off my neck. Later, I think that at least The Breeders are not trying to update their style drastically, or disguise their flaws like someone might comb over thinning locks. I kind of wish my hair grew faster, not least as I do enjoy our chats. I remind myself that she is getting paid. Later I think about Roy Harper giving the kiss of life to a sheep, and listen to Richard Youngs' album "Autumn Response."
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Fans of the post-punk shouldn't let fear of diminishing returns dissuade them from checking out The Lines. While Memory Span is not a proverbial lost masterpiece of rock and roll, the songs collected display enough nuance and diversity to separate the band from usual glut of also-rans and could-have-beens.
The Lines had an auspicious beginning. Their first single, the mid tempo creeper "White Nights" was well received by Slash magazine among other punk tastemakers. In the song, singer Rico Conning (who later went on to remix songs from Depeche Mode, Sting, Frank Tovey, and Coil's "Anal Staircase") coos about a midnight rendezvous while dual guitars chime and churn like streetlights drifting in the distance. As good as the single was, it could have been the band's swan song. Soon after its release, Conning flew off to explore America and the band was put on hiatus for a few years.
Following their singer's return to England, The Lines resumed playing and recording, but they were a much different entity. The music now had a manic edge. Conning's voice lost its cool confidence, and his singing acquired a stained, nasal pinch. The chorus of "Dance to a Drop of Blood" is practically sneezed out. Fortunately, the band worked their way out a stylistic rut, immersing themselves in the dubbed out, post-disco zeitgeist of late '70s Britain.
Like their peers on Mute and Factory, The Lines inverted the simplicity and anger of punk-rock into a mechanical, introspective sound. Rhythm and atmosphere began to take precedence over vocals or melody. Thumping bass lines or percolating drum machines now anchored the songs while trumpet, chiming guitar, and echoed sound effects floated about. The lyrics became even more abstract and impressionistic, often focusing disillusionment and neurosis. Conning's voice still strained and buzzed, but seemed more of piece with the songs, rather than a reflection of his limitations as a singer.
Despite their lack of commercial success, the Lines ended as a better band than when they began. They played with notables of that era, among them Fad Gadget, The Cure, The Birthday Party, and Bauhaus. They may have lacked the notoriety (posthumous or otherwise) of their fellow travelers, but it was not from lack of trying. Whatever their limitations were, the band continually changed their sound for the better. They kept innovating, and held their ears open to what was new and important. So many great things about a band are out of the artist's control, but you can at least credit The Lines for working in the right direction.
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Ellen Allien's DJ skills are made available once again in her fabulous Boogy Bytes 4 mix. Following her contributions to the Fabric mixes (Fabric 34), and "My Parade" (BPC094), the long awaited new release on BPitch Control is finally finished and ready for all to hear! And we have to first say a big "YES!" because Ellen Allien possesses a striking intuition for being directly on the sound of the present and never subduing herself to a certain "Zeitgeist". Instead, she is known for shaping her own typology of sound, which at times might seem a bit too far out, crooked, more abstract or technoid than others, but is always her personal reflection of the NOW. As a DJ, Ellen Allien continues the long tradition of having an emotional and direct contact with the audience and she aims to wage all feasible facets possible in the interaction between dancefloor, airports, studio, office, and living rooms. It is important for Ellen Allien to "memorize" her favourite tracks for the club, but besides that, she never stands idle during the week, and thus the motif of motion carries through from her daily life to the mix. The newest mix is impulsive, yet equally subtle and described by Ellen Allien as "emotional, noisy, trippy, weird, and sexual".
The bass drum is not set into the foreground as it is not intended to dominate the feelings of the listener. Rather, Ellen Allien sketches a voyage that consists of bass lines, effects and the arrangement of the tracks among each other, leaving enough space for the listener's own perception of the music. Not only has the last year been a special year for Ellen Allien, but also for electronic music "made in Europe". And thus, that element resonates throughout the mix -- Ellen Allien begins with a poem by producer AGF (who also produces her new long player SooL) and finishes with the ballad "Twice" of Peacefrog's Little Dragon. In between, space is left for the development of concrete moves, and feelings of the last night spent at the club comes to mind. Furthermore, with the current Boogy Bytes 4, Ellen Allien follows seamlessly in the successful series of mixes by BPitch Control artists. The photographer Axl Jansen, a friend of the BPitch Control universe, did a perfect instant-action shot for the cover. Whereas in the previous releases Kiki, Sascha Funke, and Modeselektor stood behind the decks, now it is time to give room to ELLEN ALLIEN!
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Release date: April 22 2008
John Fahey and Ayal Senior layed down the tracks for Three Day Band in a Woodburn Hotel room at some point in 1999. These tracks show an undocumented improvisational side of Fahey. It's certainly not early period Fahey but not TOTE era either. At night after the recording sessions commenced Ayal would record Fahey reading and discussing selected excerpts from his writing. Fifteen tracks of spoken word Fahey are included.
From Ayal Senior's liner notes:
I think I first met John Fahey at a Vince Martin gig in Manhattan at some point in 1998. He was sitting in the back of CBGB’s ‘other’ space, listening to the gig and painting with fat bright markers in a notebook he carried around with him. It was impossible not to notice this guy. Big, bald, white beard, black sunglasses wearing shorts and wool socks with black basketball shoes in a triple sized red t-shirt. I didn’t even know who John Fahey was, but John Allen, who brought Fahey out to the east coast and, who I have always greatly admired, learned me to the game. John Fahey and Vince Martin in the same room. Incredible. I wonder if they spoke… I asked John for one of the pieces he was working on and he casually ripped a sheet out of his notebook and gave it to me.
I spent a few more days with Fahey at John Allen’s place in Jersey. At the time I was in university reading a lot of crap about European philosophy, phenomenology and epistemology. Here I am, in my early twenties, schmoozing with the uncontested literary and intellectual champion/prankster genius of guitar music in the 20th century, not knowing anything, really, about his life and music. It was weird, honest and unpretentious. We hit it off, and I guess he found me interesting because we locked in on Kafka, Camus, Spengler and Loren Connors like we were old war buddies. He called me a Sephardic Troll and wanted to steal my red New Balance kicks.
I ended up tagging along with the No Neck Blues Band for a few shows to Philadelphia and Boston where they played with Lee Ranaldo and Fahey. I think Sunburned played as well. No one would remember I was even there, but I’ll never forget going to the record store in Philly with Fahey, Ranaldo and John Allen looking for records before the show. It was during that trip that I found sound@one #1.The entire Fahey/NNCK axis is so mysterious to me, the recorded fruits of which are truly mind-bending. Back at the Hinthouse in Harlem, I remember David Nuss telling me Fahey said the NNCK were a group of warlocks, which they most certainly are and were. (Ken’s Electric Lake) I kept in touch with Fahey and he picked me up at the airport in Salem with a blind friend whose name I think was Terry. We popped in a tape of my latest jams from the psych shack into his deck and Terry was really digging it. He definitely said it sounded like Hendrix. Fahey said he liked it too and then I think we went to a Denny’s for some french fries and shakes.
Readers of Vampire Vultures will no doubt recall my futile attempts to describe or comprehend the state of Fahey’s motel room during this period. It was basically a crime scene. Empty fruitcups, wet paint on the carpet… My journal from that week records that Fahey’s motel room was not cleaner than his car. We cruised the Value Village scene looking for records. It was during a trip to one of these thrift stores one morning that we bumped into a younger acquaintance of John’s who said he’d want to jam with us back at Fahey’s motel room. I think his name was Barry. Nice guy. We went to his place and grabbed some kazoos and other hobo instruments he had and threw them in Fahey’s car.Next thing you know, we’ve got some guitars and amps and headed back to the Woodburn Inn with two pretty, young ladies. We closed the curtains and I pressed record. I had brought a 4 track minidisk recorder with me with the intention of hopefully doing some spoken word recordings of John but had no idea that I would be laying down some molten hot psych with thee Fahey. On tape, John’s smoking away on electric guitar, but this ain’t Womblife. There’s three other people in the room besides us and I don’t remember any of their names. I don’t remember what they looked like or what the hell they were playing but we were definitely channeling some sort of highway poltergeists. I’m playing guitar as well, tweaking about a bit. For some reason, I kept myself from listening to it or playing it for anyone for a long time. Why?
At night, Fahey would lie in bed and I’d record him reading various excerpts from his writings. He reminded me a lot of Kurt Vonnegut in his cynicism and gallows humor. I think they would have gotten along great. I love the unfinished Fahey short story about Elie Wiesel meeting Doc Boggs on a park bench. Boxes were strewn all over his room filled with spiral notebooks. Fool’s gold. His visual art was incredible, I’m sure there are people out there who have the various pieces of the puzzle to his sketches, drawings and paintings, that I hope, will be compiled in a way that does them justice.
Ayal Senior
Toronto
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Release date: April 22, 2008
Vulcano is sourced from original master recordings discovered by Kluster member and Tangerine Dream engineer, Klaus Freudigmann. Along with Admira, also being released at the same time on Important, Vulcano is presented here for the first time in this deluxe package. These intense sessions were made with Schnitzler at the helm, as always, after the departure of Mobius and Roedelius from the group.
Conrad Schnitzler founded Kluster in 1969 along with Roedelius, Mobius and often Klaus Freudigmann who had multiple roles within the group as a player, engineer and instrument inventor. Eventually Roedelius and Mobius left Kluster and continued on as Cluster while Schnitzler and Freudigmann continued as Kluster often exploring the communal aspects of music by bringing new people into the group. Vulcano is limited to 1000 copies and is packaged in a deluxe gatefold jacket made to emulate the original die stamped puffy packaging for Kluster's album Klopfzeichen. Very deluxe.
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Release date: April 22, 2008
Admira is sourced from original master recordings discovered by Kluster member, and Tangerine Dream engineer, Klaus Freudigmann. Along with Vulcano, also being released at the same time on Important, Admira is presented here for the first time in this deluxe package. These intense sessions were made with Schnitzler at the helm, as always, after the departure of Mobius and Roedelius from the group.
Conrad Schnitzler founded Kluster in 1969 along with Roedelius, Mobius and often Klaus Freudigmann who had multiple roles within the group as a player, engineer and instrument inventor. Eventually Roedelius and Mobius left Kluster and continued on as Cluster while Schnitzler and Freudigmann continued as Kluster often exploring the communal aspects of music by bringing new people into the group. Admira is limited to 1000 copies and is packaged in a deluxe gatefold jacket made to emulate the original die stamped puffy packaging for Kluster's album Klopfzeichen. Very deluxe.
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June 17th 2008 is the auspicious date when Drag City will release a never-before-shown-to-the-world recording - Children of the Sixth Root Race: Songs from the Source. Twelve amazing songs recorded live in the Father House garage as a rehearsal for a live date that Spirit of '76 (aka YaHoWa 13, also now known as Children of the Sixth Root Race, Father Yod's "house band") had at the Whisky in the summer of 1973.
It's still a mystery how a 1/4" tape copy of the recording was found in Chicago in 2006. Djin Aquarian, guitarist of Children of the Sixth Root Race and composer of all but one of the songs on the album, recalls being sent on a mission to Chicago later in 1973, where he may have left the tape with an old friend. Though this rehearsal was not initially meant to be an album and isn't a part of the Yahowha collection of albums, there are no other remaining recordings of this band doing these songs in existence. There's something different in the energy of the Drag City release, with an R'n'B-infused vibe different than most of the other Yahowa albums.
The Source family came into existence in the 1970s, the era of the cult commune. The community lived in two spheres. During the day they moved among the Los Angeles elite, serving organic food to celebrities at their acclaimed Source restaurant. But back home in their Hollywood Hills mansion, the family explored the metaphysical world by following their charismatic leader, Father Yod. Father Yod was also the front man for the family's transcendent psychedelic group.
Tracklisting:
1) How Long in Time
2) Godmen
3) Get Into the Music
4) Beggar
5) Do Me
6) The Great Woe
7) Lost Dead and Hoping
8) A Lady
9) Sea Like Me
10) Catastrophy
11) Go with the Flow
12) We Are The Dinosaurs
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One of the early bands associated with Factory Records, Section 25 never quite got the recognition that their peers did, and unfairly so. Their sound captured the zeitgeist of that early era just as effectively as Joy Division or A Certain Ratio, but they never seemed to set the world on fire quite the same. Coinciding with their "reunion" album, last year's Part-Primitiv, LTM has reissued early S25 material, including this first "best of" compilation, spanning their entire 30-year career.
Early tracks "Knew Noise" and "Dirty Disco" places them squarely in league with a non-Factory band, Public Image Ltd's contemporaneous Metal Box in its razor sharp disco beat, rumbling dubby bass and raw guitar. Other tracks from this era might have a similar pallet being drawn from, but the result is different: the sprawling "New Horizon" is more enigmatic and isolated feeling than the more caustic dubby stuff. Being that they were Factory recording artists, the reverb heavy hand of Martin Hannett is obvious at times, bringing early tracks such as "Haunted" into the realms of Unknown Pleasures via mania inducing echos and walls of reverberation.
Although ostensibly always a danceable band, given the hard hitting rhythms that would function quite well on a dance floor, around the time of "Sakura" the style got a bit more blatant: the rapid arpeggiated synthesizer and tribal percussion leans it even more towards dance music than before, but in a much different way than how New Order were implementing synths at the time. "Warhead" and "Looking From A Hilltop" (the latter as a 12" Mix) are much more blatant stabs at the then-new synth pop movement, the latter especially apes folks like the Human League at their best.
The tracks from the era are indicative of the time period: the synth heavy production now sounds dated and perhaps not as timeless as the earlier tracks, but the earworm rhythms and melodies are unavoidable and surpass the then trendy production techniques and instrumentation. Two tracks from the Past-Primitiv album appear here as well, the upbeat, almost 1980s revival, of "Power Base," which is as memorable as any of their dancier work but modernized in a way that will satisfy those who are both nostalgic for the early days and those revivalist hipsters that seem to be growing in number (DFA, I'm looking at you). "Winterland II" is a different beast, waltz type synth and rhythms meshed with dissonant rock elements in a unique, interesting way.
A few low points are notable, however. The 12" mix of "Beating Heart" sounds almost too much like something left off of New Order's Movement, which might very well be the fault of producer Barney Sumner. The production also is far too tinny and reverb heavy, as if Sumner tried to do his own Martin Hannett imitation and was not successful. The closer "Knew Noise (Lounge Version)" is exactly what it sounds like: female lounge vocals, piano, and a thunderstorm background. It's an interesting concept, but when placed on the same disc as the thumping original, it feels closer to a joke that didn't need to be told.
Personally, I always have mixed feelings about these "best of" type releases: as someone more obsessive than the "average" music fan, I always feel a bit slighted being told what is someone else's perspective of a band's top releases, and I'd rather just seek out all of the original material myself to make my own decisions. I realize that I am not the average listener though, and given that Section 25 has been recently reawakened and entering a new period of productivity, it is the perfect time for such a collection to be released and to expose a new generation of people to this band that didn't quite receive the same level of attention through the ages as their contemporaries.
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The title couldn't be more appropriate for this album: the band's work has always seemed to come out of a smoky, hallucinogenic haze, and this collection of rare and unreleased tracks demonstrates this clearly. The sound is an odd mix of 1960s psych tinged rock with some of the more current attention to drone and noise that works extremely well.
The disc opens and ends with two distinctly different takes on the same track, "In The Back." The opening studio cut is heavily propelled by overdriven bass leads and pounding drums that put it alongside the likes of Skullflower and Ramleh in their heydays, and the screamed vocals don't hurt either. The live cut is even rawer sonically, but puts the focus on flanged and phased effects rather than the distortion, propelling it more into multicolored space as opposed to the grimy earth tones of the studio track.
Some of the other tracks are far less commanding, "Luck" channels a vibe consistent with Nico era Velvet Underground with its glacial pace, fuzzy organ, what may be a clarinet and disconnected, paranoid vocals. "Growth" goes more into abstract space, drums are used as a general instrument rather than as a rhythm, and there are massive slabs of wide open space that are akin to the more out there moments of Kraut Rock than anything else. Other tracks are pure 1960s psych rock, both "Everything Happens Twice" and "The Sun" feature organ leads that are pretty reminiscent of the Doors without the pretense and the suck.
Even jazz gets a nod in the two part "Twelve Bottles and One White Cone," an extended improvisation that features organ being used in ways not intended by the designer alongside a skuzzy bass lead and jazz tinged percussion section that is in league with fusion era Miles Davis, except filtered through weed and inhalants instead of heroin. Even though the tracks differ from one to another, they all do have that blunted, smoky quality to them that just feels as if some chemicals were partaken in during their recording.
Religious Knives take the approach to drone more in a sense of repetition: most of the tracks on this album clock in the eight to nine minute range and meander somewhat in their repeated motifs, but never to a level of boredom but instead remains more hypnotic than anything else. For such a young band they are already establishing their own niche in a market that has been flooded with too many sub-par Wolf Eyes clones and Sunn O))) pretenders that this is something both fresh and invigorating.
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This 7" only release sees Andrew Liles form yet another collaborative unit, this time with Clodagh Simonds' wonderful (and ever changing) group. Established Fovea Hex approaches to song recur only to be almost completely dashed aside with new approaches to their work. That so much can happen on two shorts sides of vinyl is not very surprising considering how epic Simonds' previous EPs with her group have been. With Liles' sonic alchemy, the results are breathtaking.
The A-side contains "Every Evening," which sounds as expected. The ethereal ambiences paired with the clear, striking piano makes a glorious backdrop for Simonds' vocals. Lyrically it continues a stream of thought that began on "That River" and flowed through "While You're Away" from Fovea Hex's Neither Speak Nor Remain Silent EPs. Stars shine and rivers meet the sea in an almost Joycean expression of the spectacular amidst the normality of life.
On "Gone" there is a very different mood. Simonds is joined on vocals by Laura Sheeran (veteran of the three Fovea Hex EPs) and by Larsen's Fabrizio Palumbo. Palumbo's somewhat indifferent-sounding voice when narrating the story of a man who finds their world disappearing is at odds with the two ladies' emotive singing. The song ends with an almost panicked screaming, a far cry from the womb-like calm that I expect. The song is so jarring that at first I could not decide if I liked it or not, it completely went against my expectations. Now that the shock is gone, it is definitely a keeper.
Liles continues to show his versatility as a sound artist. He seems to be able to sit himself in comfortably in any musical situation; the variety on show in his own back catalogue and his ever increasing list of collaborations is a testament to his talent. Here he manages to keep the dynamics of Fovea Hex's music intact but still put a different veneer on the production. It sounds like Fovea Hex has been channelled through a filter slightly different to normal, certain sounds are accented more and familiar styles are of a different hue. It is a meeting of minds that really should become a regular occurrence (hopefully on something more substantial than a single or an EP, a Fovea Hex album is well overdue!).
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