Freq has been online in various forms since 1 April 1998; this iteration has been around as of 2010, with an archive of older material available.
For those feeling forswunk and seeking to switch-off over the mid-winter break, then musical products conceived by artists in hermetic bubbles seem suitably worthy of some eleventh-hour examination, at the end of a very hectic 2024. As the three below albums attest…
What worked perfectly on a sketchy VHS at home suddenly seemed to fall flat on the big screen. It’s all about the suspension of disbelief -- being able to believe something you know intellectually is a fiction is real. Turns out it’s easier to do that when you’re not in a building whose very existence is predicated on showing people things that don’t exist, and when you’re not in the company of hundreds of people eating popcorn.
Such is the sheer abundance of output from the music world in recent times -- which feels particularly acute this year -- it can be quite hard not to miss key things, even from reliable sources. Yet, thankfully, two distinctly dissimilar albums from the trusty homestead of Gard Du Nord Records have been extracted from the review pile just in time for Freq coverage in 2024. Both remind us that the label’s quietly radical diversity remains a compelling force running in the background of the record-releasing business.
Barbican Estate are a Japanese trio now based in London and this release for Feral Child compiles four previously available tracks that were either downloads or pressed on limited cassette runs. Because of this, there is pretty good variety in the selection and with a running time of a little under half an hour, there is plenty of opportunity for them to spread their magic.
When it dropped in 1996, Zoon received a very mixed reception. It landed at a weird time, when the goth / industrial rock alliance had been forged but was still a somewhat uneasy one. On first hearing, I and many others were disappointed that what we were getting wasn’t more Fields Of The Nephilim, but what initially sounded like a softer, more introspective Ministry -- and really, what’s the point of a softer, more introspective Ministry?
Considering each of the six members plays at least two instruments, this is a surprisingly light affair; the bass sways and the guitar licks are textural delights and the slow, steady drums allow everything to slowly unfold. Vocals are dreamy in a Spacemen 3 kind of way; but sort of buried, as if frazzled by the bright lights.
On reaching its twentieth birthday, Nathaniel Cramp’s Sonic Cathedral label has arguably benefitted from a degree of nominative determinism. Whilst he has tirelessly championed the sacred tenets of shoegaze, it’s not been in a restrictive small chapel sect-like way, but in a very broad-church fashion.
This debut from French trio eat-girls is a bountiful beast as the dark-noted dirge-tastic drag of the opener ("On a Crooked Swing") testifies. The male / female coin-flip of vocals slinking over the tightly hooked half-lit gloom. The mournful and whispery Malaria-like creep of "Unison" snaking all seductive in the ear, that nocturnal prowl of guitar lobe mauling as lyrics overspill, tip noisily to retract beautifully back on this lush lullabied afterglow.
Skep Wax Carrying on from a richly productive 2023, Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey’s stealthily effective Skep Wax label set-up has this year continued to alternate between curating latter-day ventures from indie-pop veterans and nurturing newer talents. Whilst this has manifested in a slightly lower output in terms of records […]
Wanu is the solo nom de plume of Swiss bassist and composer Sébastien Pittet, but for this Magma project, he is assisted by Sébastien Guenot, who provides live drawings, and Mathias Durand who deals with multicasting and sound processing. Seb Pittet's background is in jazz, but this latest project moves far away from any kind of structure and into the realms of shadowy soundscape
Australian experimental, improvisational and traditional multi-instrumentalist Mat Watson is known for being part of large and uusual orchestras and collaborations. He has played with Boredoms, conducted an orchestra for 40 synthesisers at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, has multiple solo and collaborative projects on the go at any one time.
Whilst many bands at certain operational levels come alive for evenings and weekends, it seems as if the members of Chicago power-trio Stomatopod need them more than most outside of their day jobs, to discharge emotionally and recharge electrically. With this second full-length album from the ensemble – following on from 2022’s sturdy six-song Steve Albini-cut Competing With Hindsight mini-LP – it feels like the post-nine-to-five uncorking is positively explosive.
Main man David Christian has been releasing bits and pieces since 2019's Fireraisers Forever, but now the admirable but shambolic London punk'n'soul, rock'n'roll band have not only had their BBC sessions reissued as part of Tapete's ongoing campaign, but have also had their 1999 album 'Tigertown Pictures' re-released for good measure and what entertaining listens both these albums are.
Considering that Niton's line-up consists of electric cello, synths and amplified objects, their sparse soundscapes leave plenty of space to accommodate poetry, percussion, saxophone, guitar and more and the guests range from solo performers to bands and hail from all parts of the globe. This truly is the most expansive and inclusive album and one that ranges like a giant across all styles and emotions.
Initially conceived as a parody by feminist author and civil rights campaigner Rita Mae Brown, the film was ultimately financed by exploitation maestro Roger Corman, a man whose ‘bung some topless girls in it’ attitude to making his money back leads popular consensus to dismiss the film as the product of a bizarre marriage that ultimately serves to nullify the film’s best intentions.
With their creative stock having risen again off the back of last year’s Music For KIDS archival release on Domino and this year’s surprisingly strong new studio album Walk Thru Me on Joyful Noise, it’s perhaps no surprise that John Davis and Lou Barlow’s reunion as The Folk Implosion has continued so wholeheartedly for a quite lengthy UK tour.
In a noisy, over-stimulated world, The Necks' new album Bleed provides the perfect antidote -- an intimate homage to quietness and what can be done with the emptiness between.
Having first emerged thirty odd years ago in Leicester, as a lesser-known and more bucolic presence in the UK’s post-rock micro-boom, the longevity of Lazarus Clamp recently feels like it has followed the operational influence of chameleonic Chicago legends Eleventh Dream Day. Not in the sense that the band has had a major label dalliance to survive and evolve on from, but in the way that Michael Larkin and co. have latterly only come together to record when the songs, people, day-jobs, family commitments and logistics all allow -- which can take literally years.
While the gravitational pull and distraction of the festive season leads to a slowdown of new releases in most music scenes, in the expanded electronic sound universe, things carry on pretty much regardless 365 days a year. Hence, the need to wrap a few things up again in a like-minded -- but not limiting – bundle once more, just to keep up.
As a group, they share some aesthetics with the likes of Dinosaur Jr and Shellac: trios with a powerful post-hardcore sound; but where Daydream Three diverges from those groups is in Enzo's diverse vocal stylings, coming on at times like an Italian Ian Curtis, his doomy baritone outlining tales of loss and heartache and at others in a more forlorn manner, almost as if there were two vocalists.