The no-show of Shit & Shine was a bit of a disappointment but Anthroprophh wiped any dissatisfaction clean away with their deep-bellied spectral scream of speaker abuse.

An impossible to pin chaos that tore holes in a fixed stare of horizon or just flayed epileptically around.An energy contrasted later in some dark electrified cello, Alan trickling broken glass down its spine, as the tensile bows gathered, became destructive, kicked into tow with kettled percussives and a tensile toppling of keylines, forging towards a finale that literally ate into your head with pure satisfaction.

Headliners Gnod seem to have come full circle; gone were the banks of flashing diodes and back in with the guitar-based shenanigans of the past. Pared down to a foursome, they started with a bubbling soundscape, the Rorschach Blot backdrop onscreen dusting out in white powdery growths, as a slow seepage of trance-like energies gave way to a Durutti Column-like sparkle cantering on a miasma of words. Poetics that soon navigated to a storm of activity as the film behind them flickered with a barrage of tasty abstracts and everything notched up into a lime house of effervescent shapes and swaying contours.

Brilliant hard-edged stuff that Paddy later remarked as being “Sounds for our times”.

-Michael Rodham-Heaps-

This review is based on seven of the first 7″s released in the God Unknown Singles Club Volume 1, of a total of 10. What is most apparent is the variety musical output on these tracks. No specific genre is represented, rather it seems like a selection of artists from some underground, more than half of whom I had never even heard of. They vary very much, not only in style or attitude, but there is also a bit of variety in the quality of the recordings. As a compilation, the collection of artists and tracks works quite well together, but mainly I will say something about each single individually.

Gnod / Eternal Tapestry

The Gnod side uses mainly sax, and some additional sounds from synths or something electronic. They are gently and carefully creating an interesting track on “The World is Good” by making repetitive soundscapes. The Eternal Tapestry side sounds like an improvised psychedelic blues track. “The Dream” is well played altogether, changes tempo a bit. The guitarist is making an effort, it seems, but it feels a bit unreleased and unfortunately the mix hides the vocal parts.

Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso UFO / Anthropropph

As usual with Acid Mothers Temple, they give us some loud improvised psychedelic music on “Sign of Benzaiten”, with strange sounds and feedback layers. Nice track, even though the last part ends in loop turned into digital high-pitched feedback. Anthropropph slows it down on their great “Apophenia”, with drums and a slightly changing sound loop with a text or story recited along. I think I can detect some guitar. This split is the strongest release, in my opinion.

Oneida/ Teeth of the Sea

Oneida’s “The Shar Arrives at the Checkpoint” starts off with a guitar riff and loops changing slightly for the entire track. Another rough guitar is layered on top. The track is not moving very much, but sounds interesting still. The Teeth of the Sea side “Up With People” has a minimal bass beat. Guitar. Some singing. A simple, soft soundscape.

Carlton Melton / Mind Mountain

The Carlton Melton side, “Harbinger”, also starts with a guitar riff and a drum beat. There is some guitar happening, but it’s not too apparent in the mix, unfortunately. Good guitar parts at the last minute.

Mind Mountain start off “Astraeus” with a nice bluesy hard rock track which really sets me back to the ’70s; they must have been listening to Sabbath or Deep Purple. The middle part changes into something more boring organ or synth-based, but then, hey, there’s guitar again, and suddenly it is more interesting!

Cloudland Canyon / Lorelle meets the Obsolete

Cloudland Canyon’s “Vocablo No.1” is basically an electronic Duracell fast beat loop. Organ and synth mainly on this track, and it’s quite monotonous. But some chanting appears from the middle approx., making it a bit more interesting. Lorelle meets the Obsolete uses synth and noise and drums and guitar vocals on “Sea Tact” to create a very nice, slow space rock tune.

Mugstar / White Hills

The psych-space rockers Mugstar presents the shortest track this time. “Wire To Wire” is a straight punky rock number, with some vocal mantra going on. White Hills sounds like they have been waiting since the ’80s with some electronic pop on “I Remain In”. Especially with a drum machine that must have been growing up in the same era too.

Hey Colossus / White Manna

The Hey Colossus side is slow Kinks-like rock called “Numbered Out”. The longest track comes from White Manna. They go on for more than nine minutes with their lovely space/stoner rock on “Sandozn”; a fantastic track!

If you are not into 7-inch singles, the series will be available for download as well. I am a fan of physical releases, so I wouldn’t mind flipping singles from time to time. But more importantly, I really liked listening to all the varied output. Compilations are a good way to get to know different bands and artists, and usually it is never boring, and this one isn’t either; and I am certainly looking forward to hear what comes next out of this series.

-Ronny Wærnes-

The latest from the trio of Paul Allen (of longstanding and criminally under-exposed Bristolian psych-rockers The Heads), Gareth Turner and Jesse Webb (both of Big Naturals).

Thus there are passages that sound like an inspired cross-fertilisation of ’70s kosmische with more contemporary post-rock experimentalism, as somewhere behind the wall of sleep the guitar emits jagged squalls of cheese-grater noise and the drums beat out a ghostly clatter. But equally there are other sections, particularly towards the end, where Anthroprophh build driving, throbbing intergalactic grooves that would probably sound amazing if only they were allowed to emerge from the ever-present cloud of murk. You wait in vain, however, for the cathartic release of that imagined dayglo sunburst: the claustrophobic fog never once disperses.

-Haunted Shoreline-

After squeezing through the sardined bodies I managed to catch their blistering finale. A frenzy of double drums, greedily sucking at your skull in pure muscle with overdriven key tones and squealing knives of guitar-groping, hallowed eyes. A totally epic, unstoppable beast; like Test Department at their most vehement, blissfully brutal, yet curving a tight rhythm, Paul crawling the floor, strangling his guitar to that annihilating pummel from Jesse and Gareth – a thistled magic that really needs to be poured into a vinyl groove as soon as.

Wow! Acid Mothers Temple were ripping some insanely toasty noise that night, full of ear-raking porcupines, swaggering out plenty of weighty, really additive grooves. There wasn’t a still body in the place (excuse the pics – I was bouncing around too much!), the charismatic Higashi Hiroshi swinging out the sci-fis. Pre-smoking ban, I remember him almost setting fire to that silver mane of his with a stray spat-out ciggie, but tonight he’s happily igniting the psych further in modular comets and lasering cat’s eyes. From where I was, Kawabata Makoto was in Hiroshi’s shadow, but his distinctive fret attacks were all over this, a blur of angles, wild blades of pedal-pressed volume as a crazy-eyed Shimura Koji peppercorned Tsuyama Atsushi‘s incentive mulching bass and Tabata Mitsuru‘s guitar arcs.

A menagerie of exotic moods that finger-knotted as ideas sparked between the foursome, lingering on a growing anticipation, then gleefully surging off. The ampage so overwhelmed that even when all four were screaming in unison it was swallowed almost completely. Convinced they were paying homage to Gong at one point, the giddy mantra sounded like “Master-Builder.” So compelling a rendition that I was half expecting a knobbly-kneed Daevid Allen to leap on stage at any moment – or were their curling wares just playing fiendish hopscotch with my mind?

What a night!!!

-Michael Rodham-Heaps-

A multi-sided journey that ate into your head between strobe flashes in chunks of swaying righteousness until all objectivity was lost to a disease of swinging bodies. Quite a short set though, after two 15 minute dabblings Paddy Gnod asked whether there was any time for more… ‘5 minutes’ came from the desk, to which he exclaimed (surrounded by infectious laughter ) ‘we can’t do nothing with that!’…

-Michael Rodham-Heaps-