Polyvinyl/ATP The release of Deerhoof vs Evil means that San Francisco-based Deerhoof have been putting out their genre-hopping ditty-bopping noisy beautiful schizophrenic pop for about 16 years now – for the record, that’s 60% longer than the Beatles were around. Deerhoof haven’t sold nearly as many records as the Beatles though. Even in France, where the Beatles have apparently sold less records than astigmatic Greek charity-shop stalwart Nana […]
Album review
2397 posts
Triple Bath The title Soundscape Study is immediately misleading – while ostensibly sourced from the sonic ambience of dreary and audibly sodden holidays (in Scotland’s Isle of Barra and France’s Fitou respectively), this disc lacks the arid mic-fetishising of a great many soundscape pieces. Daniel Hignell has come to this work with a peculiar ear for the ambient sounds of thunderstorms and tidal crashes, holistically stitching and interlacing […]
Topplers Topplers Records are an old-style independent label based in Scotland who specialise in limited runs of beautifully presented eccentric pop gems. Depending on your point of view (or age), it’s a sign of either the label’s willful obscurity or unquestionable genius that a high proportion of these releases are by ex-members or associates of Swell Maps. To someone whose formative years were soundtracked by the likes of […]
ROIR
Like many of the best things in life, the Legendary Pink Dots are a mystery. At least, it's a mystery how come they're still so criminally obscure, when not only have they been releasing awesome music for a good thirty years now, they also have tunes and a fanbase who tend to verge on the obsessively evangelical side of things. They straddle genres like a post-modernist doing the MC Hammer dance over an ADD sufferer's iPod, with everything from industrial to pop, from jazz to space rock, from folk to dub being dragged into Edward Ka-Spel and co's music factory, later to emerge from the crystal chimneys as beautifully majestic music.
Staubgold As the slipstream of punk washed its way through the record industry in the late 70s and early 80s it seemed to many of us that commercial music might be changed forever to become permanently open to imaginative, offbeat constructions and general weirdness. That was, of course, the kind of naïve illusion that makes youth bearable. What really happened was that the genuine musical revolution happening at […]
Applebush/Easy Action Back in the late 60s, Up were part of the same fired-up Detroit scene that gave us the MC5 and the Stooges but have been largely forgotten over the years. This is perhaps understandable as their only releases at the time were one and a half 7” singles – 1968’s “Just Like an Aborigine/Hassan I Sabbah” and “Free John Now,” which appeared on a split release […]
Neurot Run Thick in the Night is USX‘s (as they are sometimes called) fifth album and the first I have heard and I’m really quite impressed… The album begins with the 13 minute opus “In the Night” witch starts off with a guitar and keyboard drone reminiscent in sound to that of The Doors‘ “The End” before the track catapults into the main section of big power chord […]
Important Smegma was formed in Pasadena, California in the early 70s, found no fans there and moved to Portland, Oregon, though they’re still an important part of the Los Angeles Free Music Society. Geographical lessons aside, in addition they have made wonderful avant-garde free noise improv music ever since. So a new release by Smegma is always something to look forward to, and not to be drowned in […]
There are four main ways of making music that sounds different to anyone else: by devising your own conceptual framework; using rare or unique instruments and equipment; developing an unusual approach to your instrument; or by training until your technique is broader, faster or more specialised than that of other players. Depending on your level of insecurity you may reinforce these with deliberate obfuscation, whether that entails removing the labels from your vinyl, claiming that you don’t understand or aren’t interested in your own process or ability, hiding your equipment or simply not answering questions. It depends whether or not you’re afraid of the competition or you think you’re the kind of person who’s only going to have one decent idea in your lifetime...
Ectopic Ents Orchestras. I wanna talk about orchestras, the poor maligned things that they are. Once mighty engines of bombast and glory, capable of simultaneously breaking your heart and conquering the world, like smooth-talking dictators of sound. People rioted at the opening performance of The Rite Of Spring. Hitler had a successful second career as one of those guys who concentrates rather too much on the bits of […]
Monty Maggot Well this isn’t what I was expecting (which of course is never a bad thing), before spinning the disc I did my usual thing of checking the sleeve out, reading lyrics, etc, to get a general feel of what an album may sound like. Added to this the fact that I knew that vocalist Bridget Wishart is an ex-member of Hawkwind. So can I just say […]
Rocket “Klytus I’m bored. What plaything have you for me?” “It’s a band from the SK system your majesty – the inhabitants call them Teeth of the Sea”… Teeth of the Sea’s second album builds up on the momentum and foundations laid down by the first and from their EP. It’s an eclectic mixture of styles that sees the band lurch between Terry Riley minimalism to full-on space […]
Thrill Jockey Music that stops you in your tracks is a revelation and there’s a clue in the sleeve notes to the selective but universal world this recording inhabits, revels in. A mossy rock somewhere up a mountain trail, overshadowed by its misty Appalachian cousins and yet once stumbled over, no less significant and astounding than the mountain giants that threaten to overshadow it. No less difficult to […]
Staubgold Timo Reuber‘s fifth solo album finds him plucking sounds from his collection of samples and loops mixed in with a few restricted-instrument selections, and spewing them out in the visceral statement of intent which is opening track “Ring Ring.” And it does just that, in layers recursive loops which bounce off each other like an clockwork piano miniature. Deliberately lo-fi, it and two accompanying hi/lo tech electro […]
Conspiracy Sunburned Hand Of The Man member Paul Labrecque turns his hand here as Head Of Wantastiquet to his own particular variation on American primitivism, taking the form down meanders which can be as strikingly wondrous as the packaging the record is released in. Both the music and visual imagery are redolent of shadow-dappled ruralism and forest-dweller rusticism, though rather than the US backwoods, Dead Seas was recorded […]
Stolen Recordings If you’re thinking of buying one Japanese cross-dressing psych rock freakout album this year, I would suggest you shed out your hard earned cash to get this one. The opening track “4 Seconds To Ascension” is a statement of intent. It’s fast and powerful and kicks you in the gut like High Rise playing Black Sabbath on speed and falling into a factory that makes Stooges […]
Barbelo Remix albums never seem to make a very cohesive whole; they also don’t serve very well as an introduction to an artist in general. Some are just a money-making activity rehashing band material whereas others are for die hard fans and completists only. Some artists even refuse to talk about their remix albums as was the case with Blixa Bargeld when I interviewed him around the time […]
Demdike Stare This is a budget priced (around £7) mix of some of the earliest of Demdike Stare’s recordings. The one track is housed in a basic cardboard sleeve with no information on it except the name of the artist. The music itself though is magnificent and makes up for the lack of information on the packaging design. It shifts between elements of 70s sounding free jazz, Arabic […]