Tales from the Attic
Volume LVII
Revolutions of a 33 and 45 kind.
Another hard drive find I’m afraid, believe you me I think we have about 4 more of these prepped and near ready to go, most of this stuff was sneaked out earlier in the year. Enjoy.
This edition features sounds from…..
Courtesy, flying colours, noah, wealden, thee eviltones, Barbarossa, tula, moonweevil, cranium pie, kobadelta, craig and yikii, owl service, Klaus morlock, alice artaud, ilkim, the moon band, jim griffin, ocean music, chef menteur, Gilligan smiles, Charles howl, ten mouth electron, goldsmack, repo man, jack name, the cush, Sundays and cybele, unknown metal orchestra, alberteen, star department, od davey, sun curves, novella, colin Stetson and sarah neufield, james welburn, Emily saunders, bell witch, kevin drum, kirk knuffke, holydrug couple, blank mass, cheena, sinderlyn, gut und irmler, moebius story leidecker, Stefan schneider, sea of bees, jon de rosa, carina round, din, red on, blush, cremation lily and the false moniker, lfa, tve, amen call center, sans parents, isobel ccircle, time moth eye, sarah davachi, overscan, portopia, apostille, beaulieu porch, doomsquad, linn osterberg,sea lion, camera, steve moore, pattern forms, doc luden looksharp, serpent power, moon duo, tandem felix, the art of the memory palace, falling stacks, oiseaux tempete, espher, slows, demob happy, evens to death, smiling disease, bad body, eartheater, xtnddntwrk, mark dicker, akhir sheikhs, takahiro mukai, trupa trupa, jeff bridges, plays at home, Benjamin schoos, justin paton, cvn, bordellos, Richard lomax, phillip joseph ad, winter tyres, c Duncan, mothmen, rangleklods, dustin lovelis, pkn, blue giant zeta puppies, efts, trucker, barringtone, monophone, hasil Adkins, Georgian waters
Is it just or does everyone feel like going into occasional bursts of the Modern Lovers ‘roadrunner’ when this rears into ear view, not that I’m complaining or anything because it really is a bliss kissed peach. New thing from Moon Duo prized from their current Sacred Bones sortie ‘shadow of the sun’ – this is ‘slow down low’ – a hip wiggling sub six minute glam psyched babe cut upon swooning struts and the kind of ultra-cooling hypno-grooved dandyness that you’d be forgiven for thinking it’d arrive on your turntable decorated in feather boas, big hair and even bigger heels, without doubt possessed of a T-Rex-ian pout though here shimmered in the softly turned lysergic garlands of Fuxa at their finest.
Literally found lounging on our doormat towards the fall of last week and something we will be revisiting in full later in the week. This is a cut from the forthcoming Tandem Felix EP ‘Comma’ via trout records entitled ‘waiting in the wings’ and a most becoming thing it is to breezing in on west coast trade winds all delicately trimmed in blissfully smoky prairie reclines which as the press release rightly alludes hint of a youthful mid 70’s Neil Young and more so buffalo springfield, yet scratch a little deeper and there’s a mellowing and lilting campfire flavouring that imagines a laid back summit gathering of the Summer Hymns and Moviola headed up by lost Anxious records sorties the Soft Parade. https://soundcloud.com/tandemfelix/waiting-in-the-wings
Absolutely irresistible, to the naysayers – tell me again what is there not to love about this. So far racking up the affection points around these here parts and proving to be an unexpected early running delight in terms of favourite full lengths so far this year. Sadly only 100 of them around – all pressed upon cassette though available on download, this is the Art of the Memory Palace and a track pilched from their debuting set ‘this life is but a passing dream’ for Static Caravan. One of the key note cuts from the album ‘waalhaven’ – all at once sensuous, seductive and savvy it is in short a lunar lilted kosmiche roller disco blended of a milky-way teased fusion of elements made up of the coolly astute essences of Air, the kraut cosmicalia of Fly and the future retro sumptuousness of Space…..
Again another release that’ll be getting much love and adoration in coming musings, heading out of the battle imprint very shortly the debuting long playing platter from falling stacks entitled ‘no wives’ – incidentally stamped onto yellow wax – as though you needed any further prods of encouragement. This bad boy has been getting a fair amount of listening love over at the Sunday experience record shed not least opening salvo ‘pool party’ which comes grilled and garrotted upon an agit core wilfulness that smarts of old school Fugazi as it twists, turns and snags itself upon a densely coiled stuttering math rockist austereness that teeters perilously close to collapsing in a discordant heap beneath its own obtusely angular and snarling jab combinations – quite frankly just what the doctor ordered. Alas no links just yet – we are working on them.
Mentioned this particular release a little while back when if memory serves me well we featured a cut from the set blessed with guest vocals from G W Sok of the Ex fame. Just out or at least imminent via the quite excellent sub rosa imprint this is Oiseaux-Tempete and ‘omen : divided we fall’ a track pulled from amonumental set entitled ‘utopiya’. Possessed of the quiet majesty of godspeed at their most reclined, this sun scorched smoking gun of a cut freefalls in the bliss kissed wastelands of Grails albeit as though found on some middle-eastern retreat with Ry Cooder as their mystical guide whose brought along with him for the excursion a back pack brimming of Ariel Kalma cassettes for travel tuneage. Very trippy and very essential. https://soundcloud.com/oiseaux-tempete/omen-divided-we-fall
You might recall us featuring espher way back last year when he had us all a swooning courtesy of a demurring ice tipped lovely entitled ‘this simple gesture breaks my heart’ for the esteemed hidden shoal imprint, alas we’ve momentarily lost the email we received from Ben but the gist of it ran along the lines of a return back to Manchester from Australia and with him in his packing case a new EP entitled ‘prism’ which will get further deserved scrutiny in coming missives (once we find that aforementioned errant email). For now though this is ‘sacrifice’ – a track culled from that collection – a most beautiful thing it is to, ice sculptured lunar configurations which long time admirers of fortdax’s ‘in bracken’ release for Staic Caravan a few years back will do well immerse yourselves in at your very earliest convenience for here are dinked star crushed orbs longingly teased in the seductive swirl of porcelain pirouettes of divine celestial corteges piping forlorn fanfares into the cosmic ether – utterly arresting stuff and dare we say ethereally enchanting.
Here’s another fully paid member of Wire doing a spot of extra curricula work on the side whilst the rest of bands backs are turned. Via Great Pop Supplement’s more studious library / kraut / radiophonic off shoot Deep Distance, this is the sound of Matthew Simms holed up in his countryside studio well stocked of vintage synths and keyboards doing some nifty noodling on the Farfisa under the guise Slows. Two extended suites figure within, much like the music therein they are named ’13.56’ and ’13.05’ – denoting their running length in case you were wondering. The release comes pressed as a limited edition 300 only heavy duty 10 inch slab of wax all housed in the now trademark (in the future a thing of record collector dreams one wouldn’t wonder) bespoke Deep Distance library sleeve. A meditative voyage is what you get for your time, each of the suites being sub divided into sub plotting mosaics with ’13.56’ piloting upon a trajectory veering ever so close into the galactic slipstream of spacemen 3 not least throughout the second phase whereupon much like a passing lunar visitation or more so a cosmically orbiting Sunday lunch time promenade band, it shimmers through along the way sprinkling all in lulling trance toned motorik murmurs before disappearing out of view and something we’d like to think that old school admirers of Metrotone will dig leaving phase 3 to extend matters a little more by adding in serenely swirled slices of lock grooving mind wiping dream machine loops. Over t’other side ’13.05’ is the lighter and more playful of the compositions that’s strangely wired upon a church like reverence, both the first and second phases of which with their hypnotic and undulating rustic cycles for all the world sounding like recording variations from a space obsessed silver age of intricate aural codes prepped by NASA boffins for transmission into the cosmic ether. Which leaves phase 3 to joyfully guide you out and back hometo cold reality aboard, one would imagine from the sound of things, an astral Wurlitzer. https://slowssounds.bandcamp.com/releases
This comes on like a foo fighting nirvana, damn fine strung out and scuzzed up blues beauty from demob happy both cuts ripped from a debuting EP ‘young and numb’ through milk parlour. We’ve a soft spot for the frankly rampant rash forming ‘fizz’ which is out of the traps up close and personal and slapping you around the chops before you’ve scarcely had a chance to introduce yourself, locked down corkscrewing riffola clipped to a frenetic panic stricken high speed tension tugging turbo underwire that’s liable to cause seizures if your none too careful. Then there’s the ‘young and numb’ previewed here with tongue in cheek video of chainsaw wielding Michael Halloween types rampaging through teen town back dropped by Smashing Pumpkins sounding sorties all impishly gouged with a killer twisted grunge growling power popping chorus hook so mental and s*** faced it’ll duff you up just for being in the same postcode as it.
I’m sure we’ve got Evans to Death gubbins in the form of an email to report back to you with no doubt mentioning oodles of wonderful happenings and goings on, but can we lay or hands on the blighter, can we bugger as like. For now here’s at least one of the Evans to Death troop doing a spot of solo moonlighting under the guise Smiling Disease. ‘beach bodies – 2008 -2014’ out around now on memorials of distinction – a label whose name alone has piqued our interest and had us firing off (onto no doubt stony ears and oblivion) adoring mail missives. Anyway extremely limited – how limited – 100 copies which by our reckoning are vamoosh-ing at quick pace as I write from the imprints welcome counter. In case you weren’t aware – much like us – the cheerfully named Smiling Disease is the work of Oliver Moss who to date has sneaked out four albums worth of bedroom recordings which promise to be a melange of genre bending odysseys incorporating elements of shoegaze, trip hop, 60’s psych and ambience – this ‘best of’ so to speak includes download codes for said albums. By way of a taster this is the kaleidoscopically cooled ‘double locked’ an orbiting psych soaked tempter draped in lazy eyed reclines and west coast after burns which to these ears sounds not unlike a blissed out Avi Buffalo being refracted through lysergic viewfinder of Animal Collective.
Smiling disease along with the previously featured art of the memory palace also appear on a superb cassette only mix cloud pod entitled ‘spools out’ put together by the quietus in conjunction with resonance fm. Much like that tapes out best out we mentioned at the fall of last year, the pod scours the little known hot bellies of the underground scene in search of the most forward thinking artists operating on the margins at the very edge of the great pop firmament. Most unusual of the thirteen cuts featured surely has to be ‘sleep, dream, wake up’ by Jeff Bridges, yes that Jeff Bridges, actor brother of Beau. the selection however opens to the haunting mysterio that is Saffron’s ’morning levine’ a ghostly smoking jacket trimmed in road blues apparitions and coolly chilled down motifs all possessed of an ethereal Meek-esque grooving. Out via tombed visions – run by Dave McLean of Gnod fame (which reminds me – we have tesla tape downloads to investigate) – this is bad body’s ‘redway’ – alas only an excerpt – the original mix extends to some 17 minutes – I guess you could call it a minimalist mausoleum mosaic that had us here much recalling of the Artery albeit as though rewired by Rooney, a scab forming shadow lined vision of bleak suburbia, dark and edgy yet superbly grand in its tone and atmospherics though all the same harrowed in the shrill of desperation and discontent, it’s one of two tracks that form ‘do you know I live?’ alas sold out at source but that won’t stop the more savvy among you nailing a copy. Eartheater – again another act / ensemble – previously unknown to us do that woozy head in the clouds ethereal folk tweaked noir jazz dimpled dreamscaping that once upon a time attracted us to the sounds of Heather Duby though here found dizzily charmed by south sea shimmers and a seafaring sereneness that really wouldn’t to out of place on a Serafina Steer release, anyway the track in question is called ‘homonyms’ from her hausa mountain release of the same name. next up something strangely beguiling from Teresa Winter pulled from her reckon released cassette ‘oh tina, no tina’ – ‘cannot look’ comes kissed with the kind of shy eyed frailty that you suspect if you were to creep up on it and whisper boo it would surely have a heart seizure, ridiculously adorable ghost pop braided with pulsar murmurs that twinkle toe cool sophistication and the kind of demurring lights out chill toning that’s perfect for hot summer’s days night caps. Extended network or as they would have it in text tongue xtnddntwrk usher in a more brooding aspect to proceedings, pensive and panoramic and creeping in portent and ceremonial sombreness which as you all know we here kind of have a thing for, that said it does have you imagining the stumbling upon of the sleeping lair of some legendary leviathan – the track incidentally is titled ‘lay by’. And so to smiling disease who started all this and got us here – somewhat accidentally – in the first place. ‘heavy door’ again pulled from that must have ‘beach bodies’ retrospective sits somewhere between doleful lions, june panic and a youthful ariel pink in terms of sonic spectrum reference markers for what first emerges into the light grizzled in desert dry blues haloes soon begins to fracture into discordant shards of hazily glazed feedback growls. ‘larsen’ by Mark Dicker comes dragged from his ‘universal processes’ set, frustratingly another artist whose so far managed to side step our radar, this noise niking alchemist crafts abstract sonic sore thumbs the type of which ought to appeal to long time admirers of Bruce Russell primarily along the way snaring the odd passing V/Vm disciple. Fancy some lilting dream dazed shoe gazey loveliness, then let me suggest moon diagrams’ ‘sweet surrender’ which comes adored with a pristine pop savviness and a heavenly haloed slipstreaming all hushed in graceful ice sculptured shelling. I wish we got sent stuff like Akhir Sheikh’s ‘dekh tamasha dekh’, heading out of a region sitting between Afghanistan and Pakistan where cassettes are apparently the medium of choice and where musicians are frequently tortured by various rebel factions – it makes for a grim backdrop – so it’s any wonder this is here at all, superb and deserving of support for this radiant reverie comes sun burst in the kind of mind expansive joyful psych tropicalia that the likes of Goat appear to be parading these days all cut to the kind of sultry effervescence that quite frankly you’d have to glue your feet to the floor to stop them tapping to. Strange technoid jiggy wiggy happenings going on amid Takahiro Mukai’s ‘#62214’ the blighter appears to have a life of its own germinating at a furious rate consuming your listening space in all manner of playfully impish binary blips and earthbeat hoochiness which we here where much inclined to root out and re-familiarise ourselves with the more quieter and sane moments from the tigerbeat6 back catalogue. Trupa trupa will be getting further mentions in these pages when that is we manage to rescue an email from our bulging in box we received from blue tapes many weeks back. This release was admittedly on repeat play and due for critical love but somehow got lost in the recent move shenanigans. Anyhow enough of that this is ‘sacrifice’ a killer slice of distractively alluring sleepy headed sun pop that creaks, groans and weaves decidedly off kilter and for that matter off road to sound like a somewhat distressed disciple of the Elephant 6 Collective whose packed its bags for a road adventure to join it heroes only to arrive and find the circus has moved out of town, everything about this works in a vague beaten around the edges kind of way, as to references – well you wouldn’t go far wrong thinking Apples in Stereo. And so at long last that Jeff Bridges visitation. A sleep tape no less, more specifically to assist and enhance your sleeping experience, an absolute bona fide curio of spoken word meditations which quite frankly has to be heard to be believed and may well in years to come be spoken about in the same hushed tones as those bizarre readings by Shatner and Nimoy. Rounding up the pod the very wonderful Art of the Memory Palace with ‘the ghost of benno ohnesborg, part 2’ from their essential ‘this life is but a passing dream’ debut for the esteemed Static Caravan – where the elegiac and ethereal worlds of classical, krautrock and 70’s electronica collide – not wishing to put a finer a point on matters but this could easily be the soundtrack to the entering and the passing through of the mythical white room and beyond, a celestial visitation shimmered in heavenly chorals star spun in subtle noir flavourings, utterly disarming. https://www.mixcloud.com/spools-out-radio/spools-out-radio-1-broadcast-on-resonance-1044fm-on-9th-april-2015/
More about that Jeff Bridges cassette –
Hear the album here http://www.dreamingwithjeff.com/#music-section
Pulled this from a face book notification – alas I can’t recall who actually put this up – but whoever you are – thanks, for sitting in the hospital this afternoon in the waiting to get called this made us forget the dread unease and cheered me up no end. I actually forgot all about this, the vague memories flooding back as though on fast forward. This was from a time when Channel 4 was the cutting edge of British Television as had been BBC2 nearly 20 years earlier. Part of a short season of viewing spaces given up to four bands (the others being the Bunnymen, New Order and Virginia Astley), each an hour long – transmission wise, for them to do as they pleased in telling their story. As you’d imagine the Banshees provided the most trippy and surreal of the quartet, particularly love them Severin tale – very Burroughs meets Chandler, as to the rest think upon it as a doped out Alice (in weirdland) reappraised by Derek Jarman, dark, demented and at times quite disturbing but nevertheless quite creative, amusing and compared to the others making up the ‘play at home’ season – very out there and eccentrically British. The mosaic features the Glove and Creatures as well as live footage from the Banshees which includes key note performances of the schizophrenic ‘eve white, eve black’ and the psychotic ‘voodoo dolly’.
Many thanks to Brian Bordello for giving us a heads up on a free to download set from the much loved Freaksville imprint who in recent memory have been responsible for the serving up of some sterling releases most notably that recent ‘ela’ set from jean-Jacques Perry and David Chazam not to mention the occasionally pairing of head honcho Benjamin Schoos and Laetitia Sadier who I’m certain I’ve made mention previously could read calculus and still sound sexy. Ahem, so back to business ‘lo-fi’ is a gathering of friends and acquaintances set across eleven tracks including a rare demo version of Schoos’ in Serge mode ‘une derniere danse’ alas minus Ms Sadier who if memory serves features on the final mix. A set bookended by two differing sub species’ of space pop, Justin Paton’s bitter sweetly distressed love note ‘when u were mine’ opts to go down the route of wearing his Shinkansen fondness on his sleeve by crafting this acutely ached and forlorn lunar power poppet from assembled cast offs found lurking of the cutting room floors of both Blueboy and fosca. At the back end of the compilation CVn appear to do a neat slice of pulse popping buzz strut groove on ‘la superba’ which disagreeably ends abruptly though not before given you fair amount of warning that these dudes have in their time been known to occasionally orbit the sound worlds of circulatory system which by our reckoning is no bad thing. As mentioned attention to this comp was brought to us by Brian Bordello who features here not once but twice with both a solo salvo and a nugget from the Bordellos courtesy of‘ handsome Jack’ and ‘sunk and screwed’ the latter of which sees them descending ever more into more warping shadow lined Fall-esque territories replete with sparsely weaved spidery riffolas that purr awkwardly over a thought lost Beefheart musical note book. Cut from a more hollowed and intimate perspective ‘handsome Jack’ finds the Bordellos main man exploring his inner Scott, this one strangely beguiled by an at odds blending which has the lightly chirped lo-fi flavouring of obscuring happier times fairground mirages wonkily dissolving amid the reflective scratch and souring of a reflective now. There will be more from the Bordellos later this missive with the (delayed on our part) appearanceof their ‘true meaning of record store day’ EP. Mr Patton – who we mentioned earlier – appears again this time with his band mates NOW who you might recall us mentioning – ooh ages and way back when they came to our attention courtesy of the adored Pickled Egg folk. Is that kazoos or accordions or something – never been the hottest topic of ours in the local musical quiz night spot the instrument round – that we do hear buried to the rear of the mix on this warmly inviting though ostensibly scruffy around the edges smoky campfire oddity, very mellow this one and coolly acute as all the attending musical accompaniments stumble as were sleepily over to hill to join hands for what is by the end a jubilant slacker anthem. Richard Lomax’s ‘please write responsibility’ has been the cause of admiring stirs around these here parts since shimmying its way into our listening life, we’re still not sure whether to file it under (Jarvis) Cocker or (Robert) Lloyd or for that matter Divine Comedy though the mere mention of the three ought to at least give you some clue as to where this is coming from and indeed going, all this caressed beneath by the spring heeled canter of lightly lilted pastorals. Now if I didn’t know any better I’d have wagered my record collection that ‘Jef’ was some long lost Ray Davies demo penned by McCartney and then left forgotten in the vaults until happened across by Messrs Difford and Tilbrook many years later during their creative peak and then mysteriously lost again, it’s not of course but rather more the work of Bruges Willis and beyond that alas the information trail goes very cold. So much adoration for ‘Unicorn’ by Phillip Joseph AD that at one stage we were considering taping down the repeat button, a softly psyched oddity that presaged by a delightfully kooky child-like 70’s TV theme tweaking a la ‘rentaghost’ (or at least some other such kooky kaleidoscopia) – seriously I kid you not and very much something inspired by a quick peek at the musical wares of Soft Hearted Scientists and the much missed Murmurs of Irma. He appears again with ‘take my heart alive’ marooned in the 70’s doing an off centred funky blues spot that in truth has you imagining some freaky Faces mosaic being remodelled by Gary Wilson. Which leaves the Winter Tyres whose tearfully affectionate ‘unhappy hour’ arrives bitter sweetly drizzled in a sumptuous 60’s haloing that’s tweaked in a longing floral hush that owes much to Derek Gamley albeit as though recited by L’Augmentationwith the Siddeleys on hand to add their trademark forlorn caress. Essential then. http://www.freaksvillerec.com/album/lofi
Mentioned this in passing somewhere here https://marklosingtoday.wordpress.com/2015/03/25/c-duncan-4/ – this is the near perfect angelic experience that is C Duncan’s ‘here to there’ – really is quite something else tapping sublimely in the baroque ghost light of the Left Banke. Incidentally it comes ripped from his forthcoming ‘architect’ debut for Fat Cat arriving July.
Anyone manage to grab a copy of this at RSD15 – word has it that half the stock went awol in transmit leaving the finders Keepers crew left with no alternative but to personally deliver the rest of the stock.
Something else that’ll be getting the full on love treatment is a repackaged / re-mastered re-issue of the Mothmen’s ‘pay attention’ set from 1981 – a classic fusion of post punk, abstract funk, art pop and dub that very much prefaced the coming of the likes of brilliant et al, a real sore thumb at the time and a maddening canvas of ideas and generic collisions, check out discogs for information – the set will be released on vinyl, CD and download and will be bolstered by the inclusion of six bonus cuts three of which are previously unreleased, among the set list a killer cover of ‘vegetable man’– in fact I’m certain I’ve got one of those ultra-rare 12 inch promos of ‘show me your house and car’, will check……oh and we found excerpt samples of the album for you to check out, dig and set about rewriting the true history of inspirational post punk culture…..sometimes we are just so good to you….
http://www.rough-trade.net/2015/04/17/the-mothmen-pay-attention-remasteredexpanded/
Out just ahead of his forthcoming full length ‘black halo’ for the adorable rocket girl and released as a download only single this is Jon de Rosa found shimmying up to Carina Round for the quite beguiled ‘dancing a dream’. A romantic conversational love note draped in delicately weaved lysergic pastorals all crooned and cooled within a classic 60’s framing that purrs seductively to a masterclass turn of atmospheric phrasing that simply oozes of a ghostly mysterio not to mention comes equipped with a momentary appearance of a John Barry styled Italo arpeggio sequence a la ‘vendetta’ at the 2.53 mark.
Staying with cassette related podcasts here’s another that shuffled along to pique our interest and put pay to our intended track listed listening experience for the evening. Norelco Mori – an established podcast – now up to transmission number 26 –specifically deals in tapes, the remit being ‘a penchant for dark and difficult music’ which immediately alerted us in the first place not least because they mention – I guess you could call – a musical door policy which we must admit we chuckled a tad when spying that they particularly love ‘depressing bedroom compositions’. Anyhow as advertised previously, episode 26 features an assembled cast of 9 none of whom we’ve previously heard save for Takahiro Mukai. Din open matters with an – from what we can gather – untitledcut from their rapid void released outing and freefall sublimely in the cold wave industrial spheres acutely blending what emerges sounding like a hybrid mutation brought about by the cross wiring of DNA strains of XMal Deutschland and SPK to craft something that ought to appeal first point of contact to those who bought into those Weird imprint releases. Out on magnetic purely and reputedly limited to just 40 copies, the trippy ‘ghana’ by red on for the best of it appearance traverses a lonesome cosmic trajectory whereupon bitter sweet baubles endow it with a mournful persona as it delicately wallows transmitting hopeless distress signals ghostly echoes of its past, it could to a closer and keener ear sound like a discarded suite from ‘Silent Running’ which at its close suddenly shifts gear and go all trippy and dub cosmic. Those fancying a spot of acutely lunar grooved kosmiche better don visors and space helmets for ‘heart of palm’ whereupon the cavernously monolithic tidal waves emanating within appear to be emitted from the dark half of Vangelis, this honey comes superbly studded in a bliss traced cosmicalic 70’s retro replete with pulsar vibes and the kind of impacting wide screen sheen that we here so much adored of Zombi, incidentally its by Blush. Nothing like the sound of peeling church bells, it gives an inner sense that all is well and put you in trance like peace – well it does it for us – which kind of makes cremation lily and false moniker ‘treasury painted roof’ all the more brutal and edgy for out of the serene reverie matters take to a darker path as the ominous sound of whirring drones smother out the sunny regale and in their place the dread headed arrival of gnawing unease and skin prickling fear as alien cultures screech out dictatorial mantras beneath mind wiping aural ray guns, truly uncomfortable and something that ought to delight the Kylie Minoise and Tayside mental health. Those considering themselves lucky to escaped the grasp and harrowing experience of Cremation Lily won’t be too enamoured to find that once out of one cauldron serving frying pan their immediately into another as the enter the skewed and Dadaist industrial head fuck that is ‘MGa inzpirator’ by LFA – best described as a bastardised Atari abattoir of 8 bit terrorism by way of punctuated slabs of power electronics which aside crafting a disturbing and dare I say damaged listening experience also manages to out weird and out wired the more more brutally insane elements of the tigerbeat6 back catalogue. Unease manifests is a radically different setting on the uber chilled ‘profuse, comfortless and antique’ from TVE which ought to appeal to those admiring of the less harsh though readily more petrified elements of Roadside Picnic’s back catalogue and into something that gives a whole new meaning to lo-fi given the dronal field recordings appear beneath the ferric hiss, perfect for those who tuned into the wares of Scotch Tapes. Must admit we’ve grown quite fond of ‘corrupted walls’ the selected cut from a release by Amen Call Center which unless our ears do deceive – and they don’t appears to sumptuously fuse booming drum n’ bass motifs with arid dry Tibetan mantras to create a truly monolithic of the kind that should snare in the passing John 3:16 disciples. A most welcome return for Takahiro Mukai to these pages, the second mention in as many days no less, ‘des crampes’ comes pulled from a cassette put out by the Hyle tapes imprint provides for a head swirling slice of deep mutant hypnotropic trancetrimmed in a cranial mushrooming psyche binary bop pie. Amulets wrap up matters in hulking style with ‘psalm’ from his ‘old testaments’ cassette, the kind of thing if truth be told that you readily expect to greet you having passed through this life and beyond the white room given it comes adorned and draped in heavenly chorals all slipstreamed to the genuflecting arc of tributes that peel majestically to the glorious throng of dronal jubilance traced in celestial happenings, quite something else. http://www.norelcomori.com/podcast/episode26
Mentioned this sun fried slice of buzz sawing power pop loveliness a few weeks back, perfect for those much adoring of the teenage fanclub, velvet crush and all the effervescent teen thrilled tunes stumbling bright eyed out of such legendary sound houses as summershine and bus stop…..
https://marklosingtoday.wordpress.com/2015/03/12/sans-parents-2/
Best looking release by a fair distance that we’ve received this week thus far is the forthcoming Isobel Ccircle set ‘Asterism’ via Soft Bodies (see Midwich Youth Club). Inside a cellophane wallet a booklet of artwork and strangely misleading clues accompanied by a USB stick on a key ring – which we will be plugging in and no doubt delighting to the sounds of earlier next week when we grab a little free time from 9 to 5 boredom to set finger to keyboard to type fond words about. Isobel Ccircle for the uninitiated among you are duo April Larson and Matt Bower who’ve featured here previously though not as often as they both would like and we should want, Mr Bower of course you should need little reminding occasions these pages much to our delight as Wizards Tell Lies and latterly as Revenant Sea. As said we’ll be focusing on this album in lengthier detail next week for now here’s a brace of sample tracks to whet the appetite so to speak. First up ‘supermoon (welcome to space)’ which upon first hearing (and bear with me here for I’ve spent the last hour trying to root out our prized copies with little success in order to compare – so I’m afraid you are going to have to trust our memory with this one) had us much minded of we all inherit the moon for here what emerges through the fire scorched monochromatic clouds of fuzzy haze is a gloriously tranquil celestial snow burst, a heavenly visitation wherein beyond the blinding white light a serene nothingness draws you in to a warming ghost light wherein the jubilant crush of porcelain opines and angelic chorals blissfully caress and wash to softly bathe you anew. A most enchanting happening. By sharp contrast if ‘supermoon’ was the arrival at some kind of life’s end game then ‘we saw its face in the earth, we heard its voice in the stars’ is your fall from grace, a darker daubed slice of apocalyptic ambi-drone more akin to Revenant Sea, concrete (musique) mosaics bend, twist and fracture achieving something amounting to critical meltdown for whilst the former hinted rebirth / renewal the latter in a state of flux and decay.
https://soundcloud.com/softbodiesrecords/supermoon-welcome-to-space
I’m fairly certain that Matt might have sent this earlier and having been chilled by the sample cut copied / pasted below we’re off after this in search of the duo’s previously release ‘the house in harbour park’ via auditory field theory. Atmospherically frosted in a gnawing eeriness of weird dream aftershocks and bad trip flashbacks, ‘the house in harbour park’ locates you in unfamiliar territories, a nightmarish lost in the woods creepiness descends, shadows form into shapes and suddenly everything is alien, bewitched and frightening your only reference point being the hair’s on body in fright mode alerting you that all is none too well. https://soundcloud.com/auditoryfield/isobel-ccircle-the-house-in-harbour-park-extract
I’m sure we have spectral light and the hare and moon lovelies casually a chilling away somewhere in the shadows of our hard drive cooking up all manner of aural alchemy, the former of whom feature on this quite absorbing and alluring release by time moth eye entitled ‘grave needs’, a double disc set available in various formats that include all manner of patch sets and booklets. We’ve been entranced by one of the available teaser tracks ‘grave need’ – a most beautifully beguiling thing it is togrooved to a lost melodic tongue fermented upon centuries past seasons all harvested upon mystical folk madrigals that shadow play to the very arterial core of this green lands rich historical tapestry albeit here spell crafted upon a haunting tinder frame that darkly crows to mythical mayday rituals and a Brit Horror musicalia. http://timemotheye.bandcamp.com/album/grave-needs
New groove from the much admired – around here anyway – Californian based cassette label Constellation Tatsu to whom missives have been fired off in order to secure download codes so that we can feature these beauties in all their full unadorned glory. First up on the inspection block Sarah Davachi whose ‘qualities of bodies permanent’ was sculptured by the utilising of old school analogue keys which ought to pique the interest of those with a fancy for mellotrons, ARPs and Rolands and has I must admit been getting approving nods around these here parts and rightly so given we suspect that those deep distance dudes ought to be taking their keen ear to this six part suite not least because its possessed of the psyche-y dronal qualities much admired by those EAR and Saddar Bazaar types with ‘geneva’ kind of found stealing our heart mainly for the fact that at any time soon I’m expecting the ghost of Nico to emerge from the thick twilight fog – it makes for an entrancing listening experience the tonalities and harmonic resonances that Ms Davachi superbly manipulates craft out swarthy head tripping mystical mosaics that spray colourful pockets of jubilance whilst all at once are equally transcendental, spiritual and head expanding and while I’m here on repeat listens really do have a feel of old school Kranky / Alphane Moon et al. http://ctatsu.bandcamp.com/album/qualities-of-bodies-permanent
Those fancying some chill toned shimmer toned ambience with which to arrest your listening space might struggle to better ‘perspective’ which caught our lobes upon quickly passing the critical ear across a new 6 track cassette release by overscan entitled ‘conscious’. Again on constellation tatsu, coverscan might be better known to residents of Oakland, California as Marcus Miller who appears to excel at the crafting of lushly hushed dream dazed ambient sculptures with the lunar lilt that is ‘perspective’ finding itself softly reclined in orbital shimmers and the delicate deftness of touch more commonly encountered on platters revealing the names maps and diagrams and cheju upon their hide not to say trimmed in a tearfully porcelain framing of lonesome introspection the type of which that makes you feel obliged to wrap an assuring arm around. http://ctatsu.bandcamp.com/album/conscious
Final part of this brief round-up of the spring season wares of Constellation Tatsu comes courtesy of the curiously named Portopia ’81 of whom sadly I have absolutely no information about save to say they / he / she appears to arc, swirl and play in the milky white cosmic clouds of distant galactic realms transmitting meditative mirages back home which we have to admit while we here are more than a tad smitten by opening cut ‘jet stream’ – a man machine cosmic flotilla with Space stickers fitted with Air dream drives which very much oozes to the purr of a 70’s retro electronic pop silver age tongue it’s ‘distant horizon’ that we suggest you fast forward your tape settings to. For here amid the shape shifting intricacy there lies a sensitive heart pulsing away here at the core tripping out love noted pastoral kosmiche upon divinely dinked cosmic carousels which had we not known any better would have hazarded a guess was the handiwork of those spacey alchemists warm digits. http://ctatsu.bandcamp.com/album/jet-stream
Now if we were a little more mindful of email housekeeping we would at this point be blinding your visuals with oodles upon oodles of information about Apostille. Alas we don’t and we can’t unfortunately given that our inbox is a jumbled up chaotic mess that persons steeled in far more brave fortitude than myself have considered, had a peek and passed up on. It’s like this, the conversational traffic is such that were there 72 hours in a day we still wouldn’t have the time to get through half as much as we get through now which is a shame but a cross we bravely bear. So enough of the grumbling and to Apostille, whose email when we track it down will have its contents posted here in all its unadorned glory, have something of an essential release about to break cover on night school records entitled ‘the collector’ which admittedly has been the cause of some frenzied shape cutting on the rarely spoken about sunday experience dance room floor not least for the fact that its connected us to our youthful teen self having us reimagined crouched around crackly transistors listening to evening broadcasts by the much missed Mr Peel c. 81, for what appears one minute sounding like a Mk 1 human league hybrid in cahoots with the passage soon fractures and loosens itself of its chill waving post punk harness and shape shifts to reveal some shadow lined love in between Front 242 and DAF and with that something that ought to appeal to all those tuning into the kind of vintage groove that the Weird imprint once freewheeled. https://soundcloud.com/nightschool/lssn034-a2-the-collector-ten
Happily tripped over this following the checking out of the previous cut by the aforementioned Apostille. Previously unknown to us this is Tamara Goukassova who in recent times has no doubt been adoring the underground cognoscenti with a cassette release for the alpage imprint entitled ‘a sit with no view’. ‘je t’ai toujours aimee’ which we ought to say from the outset we are quite smitten by is apparently a cover of a cut by polyphonic size, a demurring slice of coolly chilled Francophile frost pop which unless our ears do deceive had us much minded of the minimalist electro crush once upon a time engaging our yesteryear turntables by Sophie and Peter Johnston and here sumptuously traced in all manner of 60’s flavoured ice sculptured chic of which admirers of the lighter tonalities of a certain Ms Sadier’s back catalogue are best advised to tune into. https://soundcloud.com/kissmyyouth
And many thanks to Simon of Beaulieu Porch who recently got in touch. Of course you don’t needs me telling you that they’ve occasionally featured in these pages to much admiring glances when they’ve seen fit to emerge from their secret sound bunker and shower us in murmuring musical myriads via the esteemed mega dodo. We here are reckoning those Beaulieu types need to send copies of the two (yes not content with cobbling together one bona fide contender for head turning – no Sir) albums they are currently sporting because both are shaping up rather nicely in our listening room at present and having us somewhat demurred. Now due to time constraints and an unexpected and unwelcomed bout of man flu we’ve only had a chance to briefly pick away at the gems on show noting ‘the Carmelite divine’ (original soundtrack)to prove to being the more psyche-y and lysergic of the two especially if your listening boat happens to sail starry eyed to the evergreen sounds of neutral milk hotel with ‘now is infinity’ emerging regally haloed in a lysergic gothika that hints of a lighter though nevertheless mysterious Paul Roland while the utterly head expanding ‘kim six’ has something of the Keith West’s about its wares. However the real nuggets here are to be found on the ‘we are beautiful’ set with ‘greencroft street’ having hooked our ever keen ear lobeswherein prettified pastoral posies rise and fall seductively to the drift of ghostly chorals whilst sweetly harnessed to the kind of rarefied psych pop classicism that used to adore the grooves of releases by mirror mirror and ooberman.
http://beaulieuporch.bandcamp.com/album/the-carmelite-divine-original-soundtrack
http://beaulieuporch.bandcamp.com/album/beaulieu-porch-and-we-are-beautiful
Imminent via Bella Union soon (and set to tie in with their visit to these shores wherein they will be sharing select stages with fucked up) will be the ‘pageantry suite’ EP from Toronto kaleidoscope dance dudes Doomsquad from which lead cut ‘two way mirror’ has been pulled for your listening love. In an alternative universe, this is the sound of a Stereolab who finding themselves at a career junction following the McCarthy fall out and caught in a dilemma as to whether to go kosmiche kute or swirly studio 54 – opt for the latter. But then that doesn’t really describe fully what’s afoot here for take a peak under its hood and amid the funky strut art poppified jazz jamboree there’s a cosmically attuned tropicalia retro wiring at play here that hints subtly of a Talking Heads relocated to an early 80’s Manchester for a season long sabbatical and finding themselves vibing heavily on the grooving of a certain ratio and quando quango – I could however be wrong but I doubt it. https://soundcloud.com/bella-union/doomsquad-two-way-mirror-1/
We were advised by her press people to don headphones for this, ‘so delicate and beautiful’ they said and they weren’t kidding. An album due to surface sometime summer via turnstile music entitled ‘desolate stars’ this is Linn Osterberg under her Sea Lion alter ego and a teaser track by the name ‘room’. An utterly arresting experience where just for a moment time momentarily freezes and you find yourself removed from the hustle n’ bustle of life’s stresses to a sheltered safe spot to be serenely serenaded by what can only be described as a heavenly visitation. All at once tender and vulnerable and patiently poised, this tear stained beauty appears delicately reclined and draped upon the mournful canter of a sepia framed key recital over which, not so much glidingbut rather more the hushed drift of a seafaring love note in a bottle advances with purring delight aglow in the dream like demur of a lost in the moment freeze framed Mazzy Star ghost light. https://soundcloud.com/sealionlinn/room/
Later today or more likely over the course of the next few days you’ll be regaled with words of fondness for the quartet of Bureau B releases put out on RSD15. As with last year’s tasty trio the quality is up the prices are down with these 12’s retailing at around the 8 pound mark which is refreshing given some of inflated costs of similar releases – which I hasten to add aren’t the shops adding their mark ups – to boot the releases all feature previously unreleased material (at least I think I’m right in saying that) – so well done Bureau B for actually being one of a few select labels who tune into the RSD spirit full on. Four sets this year all featuring in house face offs the first of which finds the much admired Automat sharing sides with the acclaimed Camera. Admittedly a lighter toned and dare we say playfully minded and succulent given an arabesque wrap, Automat are found contributing two tripping slices of kraut dub the first of which ‘Ahhh’ features a guest vocal appearance by Katharina Franck of Rainbirds fame who dreamily coos and navigates her way through the dissipating and swarthy dub mosaics in a most sultry allure, the structures beneath very bonged out in an almost Astralasia meets invaders of the heart type way. ‘VC1 ‘ought by rights to appeal to those of you much attuned to the wares of the Alrealon Musique imprint most notably the work of John 3:16 for here the eastern essences blended sumptuously to a mystic beading that hints at the hypno grooving of 70 Gwen Party under the watchful eye of Muslim Gauze. Over on the flip looms ‘a distant thank you’ from Camera, a slow to burn epic is I think the best way to describe this unassuming nugget whereupon in whose company don’t be too surprised if emotions weave and wane from the tearful to the rejoiced. Takes a fair old while to kick in, draped in all manner of ice sculptured ambient atmospherics and hushed haloes, there’s a tender reflective aura to the way it delicately thaws all the time slowly finding its footing whilst gathering in depth and density before emerging into full focusto step up the cosmic gears and warp drive through the galactic voids looped upon a woozily star gazed space rocking vibe that imagines some lunar outpost meeting place wherein la dusseldorf and vangelis convene to sonically choreography dystopian future worlds.
Part of the ghost box ‘other voices’ series – a collection of seriously heavy duty 7 inch slabs of wax all housed in bespoke (and I have to say – eye catching) Julian House designed die cut test-card sleeves – no doubt ridiculously limited in nature which is the main reason we nabbed this on first sight. Selection number four sees the rare return of Zombi’s Steve Moore with a brace of newly minted vintage sounding lunar carousels. Both mellowing and murmured, the orbiting ‘the moon occults Saturn at dawn’ is a serenely toned dream weaving slice of silver age space symphonia best experienced tuned out from the rigours of the day and max’d up on the volume through cans for the full head-phonic astral glide experience. Over on the flip the looser sounding ‘val sans retour’ arrives more intricately lush in tone and all said our choice cut of the two, a sonic space-walk by any other name swathed in lulling cosmic jet streams of celestial opines and lunar tropicalia mirages, very mesmeric if truth be told.
Alas we never managed to bag one of these but selection three in the ghost box ‘other voices’ series is by Pattern Forms – a collaborative meetings of musical minds between Jon Brooks and various members of Friendly Fires, we’ve only a teaser sample extract of ‘fluchtwege’ but I’m sure you’ll agree there’s more than enough hinted here to suggest those much admiring of the sun kissed lounge kaleidoscopia of the Busy Signals and Ashley Parks albeit as though kookily rephrased by emperor penguin. https://soundcloud.com/ghost-box/the-pattern-forms-fluchtwege-clip
Continuing with the seamless links (what do you mean you didn’t realise there was one), members of emperor penguin have a small hand in the credits of this strange nugget, again another release which caught our eye and very nearly followed us out of the record emporium today this time from Jack Name who apparently can count the likes of Ariel Pink and the Oh Sees as good friends and has just released an album entitled ‘weird moons’ via castle face which we’ve had a brief dip in the result of which has found us hastily pencilling in another visit to the record store to nab a copy of as soon as the blighters open. Anyhow for now we’ve ear marked two – okay three selections for your listening delight, first of which ‘watcher talk’ has something of a glam tech shimmer to its hazy psychotropic bubble grooving that hints of t-rexian aftershocks being fed through the Of Montreal’s day-glo spin dryer while ‘lo’ is caressed with the sighing wonky soul wistfulness of Gary Wilson. All said for now the cause of repeat plays around these here parts ‘something about Glenn Goins’ is haloed in all manner of head swirling hallucinogen mirages and seafaring wooziness that at given points had us minded to spend the rest of the evening thumbing relentlessly through box loads of records in search of prized copies of J Xaverre releases and that spiffing Toshack Highway debut not re-familiarising ourselves with the grooved offerings of mirror mirror – incidentally their second mention of the day – is there something in the water we wonder. https://soundcloud.com/castle-face-1/06-watcher-talk
I had an inkling we’d featured these dudes in passing. Thought this deserved a bit of a mention not least for the fact that a planned vinyl release of their album ‘transcendental heatwave’ nearly hit the buffers when disagreements / delays and other such nastiness ensued with a pressing plant. Happily both the band (the Cush) and label (follyphone) have now managed to find alternatives and are now taking pre-orders for a limited 200 only first press. We’re assuming ‘distant light’ is off the set, such a sweetie rightly tagged as being ‘achingly beautiful’ and really who are we to disagree or argue for scratched beneath the smoky mellowing hymnal hush, shimmering reverb opines and sparsely hollowed delicate psych framing there’s a cool grace and majesty purring away that’s a rare thing on releases these days and it’s something of whose 70’s tweaked retro sound had us much in mind of the much missed homescience albeit in cahoots with the doleful lions and butterflies of love and found rewiring as were love noted spirituals from an old Neil Youngsongbook. And just in case you might be thinking one trick pony along comes ‘broken radio’ to saunter into your listening space veering on a sonic flightpath recently traversed by tokolosh whilst coolly trading in the kind of jaws agape soft kaleidoscopia that blends and fuses progian cultures and mid-west country psych – and don’t get me started on that seductive hypno-grooved snake charming riffola, in short one of the best things to have fallen into our life since the emergence of Woods. https://soundcloud.com/follyphonerecords/the-cush-distant-light
And for those no doubt asleep at the back at the time – that previous mention….. https://marklosingtoday.wordpress.com/2015/01/24/the-cush/
I think we’ve been neglecting matters on the wigged out freak pop axis of late so it’s just as well that we managed to trip over this little nugget, a slab of sterling progressive psych funk wooziness which indeed aside being very bonged out and beatnik-y has all the signs of sounding as though someone somewhere has reset the clock back to 1969 which lets be truthful is no bad thing especially since ‘mystic ocean’ freewheels into the outer spheres of the ever expanding Acid Mothers sonic universe that said repeat listens have had us minded to root out our prized early career green milk from the planet orange demo discs and something which ought to appeal to those much admiring of Dungen. Incidentally before we forget it’s by Sundays and Cybele from an album entitled ‘gypsy house’ through the excellently named guruguru brain – only 250 of the blighters mind.
Much like the Doomsquad, you’d rightly expect all manner of n’er do well musical horrors and sonic trepanning from a band calling themselves unknown mortal orchestra – but happily not so for I must admit we’ve had to bolt our feet to the floor to stop them tapping deliriously to this blighter, ridiculously infectious, a tad kooky and criminally wonky with it, I’m only glad we’ve just got a sound cloud link for now for I fear had we the actual vinyl copy then our turntable would never quite be the same. An imminent album in the shape of ‘multi-love’ – their third as it happens – is due to drop via jagjaguwar with this babe ‘can’t keep checking my phone’ being sent out on a reconnaissance detail to snare passing ear lobes. In short a vividly colourful four minute kaleidoscopic cornucopia that manages to shoe horn an array of hip wiggling shape cutting sassiness into its finite grooves to sumptuously morph a musical magicalia that blends 60’s funk a la Sly and the Family Stone with silky lounge motifs and a fair old side serving of psych soul. https://soundcloud.com/jagjaguwar/unknown-mortal-orchestra-cant-keep-checking-my-phone
We also suggest you check out their cover of Otis’ ‘sitting at the dock of the bay’ – recorded a fair while back for the Marc Riley show……stunning…..
We’ve always prided ourselves at being able to spot a nugget in the offing 10 seconds in from the start and so it was that we here were already in the throes of being suited n’ booted in our finest 60’s sci-fi threads before this next blighter scarcely had a chance to pass the 5 second mark. Just what the boogie doctor ordered, a twang-tastic b-movie adventure prowled in noir accents and possessed of an uncanny appreciation for Meek meets (Gerry) Anderson 60’s futuristic spy groove. This is Alberteen’s ‘a french connection’ – a teaser taster of the action packed happenings about to adore your turntable once their ‘miss world’ set for rhythm and noir locks onto your stylus with this babe proving to be a sub three minute riff rumbling rocket ship piloted by a secret service crew of shadowy men on a shadowy planet, brand violet and the blue giant zeta puppies types, did we mention its essential ear gear. https://soundcloud.com/alberteen/a-french-connection-1/s-FH3P2
May bank holiday weekend, Sunday 24th May to be precise, the location – the Half Moon in Putney, there will be a gathering of the psych / prog clans as both Fruits de Mer and Mega Dodo records join forces for one of the years key note diary events whereupon the venue will play host to the early summer celebration Games for May. More an occasion, perhaps an experience than a live event itself, sure there’ll be stage sets from the Past Tense, Schnauser, Mark and the Clouds, Crystal Jacqueline and the Honey Pot and a very special appearance by the legendary Tir na nOg, however purchase of an admittance ticket and attendance gets you a specially pressed 7 inch EP featuring a track from each of the aforementioned bands along with a ridiculously bulging and dare we say finances busting and generous 9 CD goodie bag – yes you read right – 9 CD’s many exclusive to this freebie. Among the heaving pile of sounds there are a handful of specially curated compilations put together by the Mega Dodo, Stylus and Headspinimprints as well as rare offerings from Cary Grace, ZX+, the Blue Giant Zeta Puppies, the Portraits and the great lost second album from Pipe (the youthful previous life of the Past Tense) along with a head expanding mixtape set put together by resident FdM platter spinner Marrs Bonfire. As though all that wasn’t enough to have you setting off on foot ready to camp out in tents decorated in psychedelic swirls and billowing from their innards strangely intoxicating mind re-arranging essences the event also affords you the chance to grab one a copy of the specially pressed ‘brev fran ederstorp’ sets from Tor Peders – only 150 of these have been made – the track listing minus the 7 inch is a one off – a 100 will be available at the gig.rarer still a chance to nab one of only 50 lathe 7’s featuring two cuts from Tir na nOg in celebration of the launch of their ‘the dark dance’ album coincidentally occurring on the night – the lathes incidentally have been lovingly pressed by 3.45 rpm who we’ll be mentioning in more detail a little later. At the event there’ll be record stalls offering vinyl fixes, signing sessions, poster sales and other such good hearted gubbins and just for those who missed our earlier mention, our earlier take on the contents of that gig 7 inch goes something like this….. https://marklosingtoday.wordpress.com/2015/01/19/games-for-may/
Full details for the Games for May shenanigans including booking information and various eye catching freebies we forgot to mention earlier (like the board game) can be found here….. http://www.fruitsdemerrecords.com/gamesformay.html
Staying with Fruits de Mer – news aplenty to get through – of course there’s the 3 day ’the 13th dream of Dr Sardonicus’ festival in Cardigan, Wales scheduled for early August which we’ll mention in greater detail nearer the time (again a whole host of grab bags and limited press goodies being bundled up for that showcase). More pressing though on the releases front as the track listing for the long mooted four album box extravaganza (you thought they’d never top ‘Strange Fish’) ‘Side Effects’ has been confirmed and released – as follows…..
http://www.fruitsdemerrecords.com/sideeffects.html
http://www.fruitsdemerrecords.com/sidetracks.html
http://www.fruitsdemerrecords.com/sideways.html
http://www.fruitsdemerrecords.com/sideshows.html
http://www.fruitsdemerrecords.com/sidesteps.html
In addition the label has outed details of their autumn turntable collection with sevens confirmed from Nick Nicely, Vibravoid, Magic Bus and Tir na nOg.
The fact that Australia’s Hidden Shoal imprint still remains largely unheralded is a detail that vexes us. Time and time again their knack of tripping over the finest dream dipped, neo classicist and pristine pop offerings that sneak from out of the underground scene and beneath the radar has been as breathless as its been consistent, like esteemed labels past and present (to countless and unfair to single out here – but you know who you are) they’ve established such a quality trademark that when anything bearing their testimonial blessing passes our way then we know in an instant it’s going to be a gem. Case in point the excellently named the Star Department – a duo from Dublin whose debuting full length ‘the pea green boat’ is due to dock sometime early summer and from which has been lowered the lilting life boat that is ‘this ship won’t sail’– admittedly a little crooked and of kilter at times its stuttering and bobbing lolloping motifs adding to the shanty shimmer toned attraction as it emerges sleepy headed from out the haze of a psychedelic prism possessed of a curious out of step artistry that much recalls the criminally undervalued the Crimea while the wheezing antique organ fugues instil a weaving and blissful atmospheric calm that hints of a seesawing sonic axis where sits landshipping at one end and j xaverre t’other. https://soundcloud.com/the-star-department/this-ship-wont-sail
Slightly disorientating in the way it keeps shifting focus this one, avoiding any notion of song structure and seemingly terra forming sonically as it goes. Anyhow this is a track taken from the latest O D Davey set for tomlab entitled ‘catgut tape’ this track going by the name ‘honeymoon blues’ – all glitch grooved minimalist IDM bee bop that’s cutely affectionate though why i’d be buggered to tell you exactly, though if push come to shove I might be minded to offer in my defence the dinky clock working lullaby motifs and the toy room yawns going some way to ensuring guaranteed listening love around these here parts, also makes comparison in the press release to Thom Yorke though you can rest at ease that it’s much more playful and lighter in tonality so you can stop the grumpy looks as of now. https://soundcloud.com/catgut-tape
No doubt we will be revisiting this for a closer inspection later in the next few days or so, once of course we’ve managed to rescue download codes. This quite tranquil dream time suite is by Wigan based ambient alchemist Sun Curves – we are assuming a debut outing which has a limited tape issue via the on the grind imprint. We’ve only had time to briefly dip into its oceanic pools and quite frankly feel a tad buoyed by what we’ve heard thus far with ’soft landing; asleep nearby’ particularly catching our ears affection and sounding not unlike the passing of a shimmering heavenly orb emitting frost speckled love notes as it ghosts by leaving in its wake jet streams of celestial chorals which all said and done listening wise are best experienced late at night for maximum headphonic chill down. https://suncurves.bandcamp.com/album/glades
Following on from our tripping over of that quite special O D Davey release we happened across a pretty nifty 79 track sampler – yes 79 tracks – it’s not as if we don’t have enough music to get through at present and really quite frankly this has added considerably to our wish / watch list. The latest sampler put together by p-dis – what’s that pias distribution or something – features a plethora – nay – smorgasbord of sonic loveliness from such esteemed labels as sacred bones, bureau b, bella union, western vinyl, captured tracks, editions mego and so the list goes on. Now obviously there’s nothing I’d love more than to rummage through and give each and every one a much deserved mention but we’ve got a lovely eggs platter kicking up an attention seeking tantrum and several pods / mix sets from melmoth the wanderer, jon brooks and alrealon musique to woo our listening space. First up in the affection stakes Novella whose two singles ‘land gone’ and ‘sentences’ via sinderlyn appear here in their full beautified glory, this dudes appear to excel at the kind pulse racing feel good radiant shimmer pop that Lush used to turn out at the drop of a hat with ‘sentences’ in particular pricking the earlobes mainly for the fact that it dreamily dream drifts into the kind of lushly lulling sound spaces of a thoughtful Haight Ashbury. Really has been too long since we had any Constellation groove turning on our sound space but I must admit the pairing of Colin Stetson and Sarah Neufeld on ‘the sun roars into view’ really is a listening treat to behold, a kind of after the storm lulls Glass-ian pastoral posy where violins and saxophones dance a seductive jig framed in the most divine Gaelic florals whilst hushed and flavoured in a trimming of regal renascence not to say within in one track invested with more drama, poise and emotion than most artists achieve over a career.Somewhere else courtesy of miasmah James Welburn’s ‘naught’ navigates the kind of apocalyptic furrows that one suspects might find an admiring home on the alrealon musique imprint for this hulking monolith comes adorned in thickening walls of dryly scalped industrial drone whilst the jazz heads and easy listening lovers among you might do well to seek out Emily Saunders’ ‘summer days’ alas only a brief excerpt but there’s enough here to suggest an genteel affinity with free design being cooed between the grooves. That said I’m suspecting that we need the quasi dub development doing their thang on our turntable sooner rather later if the brace of cuts featured here are anything to judge by and while there is the smoking cool lure of Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry guest appearance on the former of the cuts its ‘wolf wolf’ featuring Lady Ann that sealed matters for us. Alas to much grumbling we here don’t have the honour of being on the profound lore records mailing list which is a shame because I’m suspecting we are missing a trick or three especially when their roster features the scare the bejeezus grimness of Bell Witch who I’d like to think are well-adjusted chaps in real life though put them behind microphones, give them guitars and other such trappings and they morph into disciples of doom concocting dark deeds and spreading legion by way of brutally macabre end of days epics. Been a fair old while since Kevin Drumm or any by the Ideal imprint appeared to worry our hi-fidelity system so it’s comforting to note that on ‘purge’ he’s lost none of his want for sonic terrorism and that ability to have your headspace re-locatted in a very uncomfortable and alien place. Now we really must get onto the royal potato family imprint – mainly for name alone they win hands down, mind you Kirk Knuffke’s ‘safety shoes’ is no slouch in the tasty department and might have once upon a time I’d like to think have emerged on the pickled egg label given its possessed of wonderfully wonky late night jazz noir smokiness that imagines a lengthy studio face off between Bablicon and the Wizards of Twiddly. Tucked at the end of the set you’ll find a quartet of Sacred Bones gems featuring holydrug couple and blanck mass both of whom we’ve featured in passing previously so if it’s all the same with you we’ll take a gander at Cheena’s ‘did I tell you last night’ which comes ablaze in all manner of Pistol-ian power chord riffola whilst mainlining heavily on the spirit of Johnny Thunders while tagged to the end a bona fide curio from that golden year 1982 from Part 1 entitled ‘salem’ – this howling agit doom dark heart coming dragged by its hair roots from a recently resuscitated ‘funeral parade’ EP and sounding like some unholy scab picking sonic séance enacted by the tribal elders of killing joke, sex gang children and uk decay. https://soundcloud.com/pdis_inpartmaint/sets/p-dis-sampler-2015-04
Spooky or what, there we were mentioning in passing Sinderlyn poppets Novella and then we get an email from their press folk (totally unrelated to the previous review) alerting us to new label happenings in the shape of Walter TV whose ‘blessed’ full length is due to drop very shortly though not before ‘neighbour’ has worked its surreally eerie handiwork. This slice of weird ear grooving, about a stalker no less, comes crookedly wired upon a woozy kaleidoscopic braiding that suggests it manifested from the fractured psyche of Syd Barrett albeit found rephrasing donovan’s ‘hurdy gurdy man’ whilst immersed in some chemical cloud, freakishly poppy and mildly trippy and disturbed it has a curious want for drifting into dreamy pastures which in truth as playful as they sound only strengthen and fortify the sheer strangeness of the blighter. https://soundcloud.com/sinderlyn/neighbour/
Returning back to Bureau B for those errant RSD15 must have’s – next up a side each for Gut und Irmler and Moebius Story Leidecker. The former a collaborative headspace shared by Maleria’s Gudrun Gut and Faust’s Hans Joachim Irmler both found here colluding on the ominously darkly tripping 12 minute odyssey ‘sometimes less’ – a sometimes macabre mooching monolith whereupon I swear each time we’ve played it the room temperature has markedly plummeted to ice forming levels, a freakish freeform jam of sorts all brooding pulsars, dub dimples, chill trimmed subtronic noodles and disembodied ghostly whispers uttering creeping dread lullabies, certainly not the oddest thing we’ve heard all day but then again not something you are going to hurry in including on a summer party beach tape any day soon and if its references your after then we suggest you imagine a darker more weirded out sibling of the Legendary Pink Dots extended family. Over the other side a brace of cuts from MSL with two previously unreleased out takes, freewheeling amid subterranic terrains the aptly titled ‘squib’ occupies the unchartered inner spaces of sound, more about textures and sub bass density that your actual full on wow sound, that said some subtle inroads into tropicalia give you an excuse to revisit with immediate interest. The skedaddled ‘last image’ is the busier of the brace, much more playful to the point that at times you feel as though you’ve dozed off momentarily only to awake a find yourself in some strangely surreal and skittish Atari game and which to these ears sounds at times not unlike Cornelius having been let loose to cause all manner of musical mischief and mayhem in Raymond Scott electronic laboratory.
Final one of the Bureau B quartet showcases the talents of Stefan Schneider, the subject of two collaborations – one with Hans Joachim Roedelius (which has borne both ’stunden’ and ‘tiden’) and a recently released set with Sven Kacirek entitled ‘shadows documents’. The Roedelius featured side of matters is delicately trimmed in a neo classicist grace all at once tender and fragile and chipped in a touching elegiac poisethat demands undivided attention (‘dashalb’) and while ‘staubchen’ balances on a distant axis with Glass and Riley either end it’s the parting ‘offen’ that proves the gem here not least because aside its sweetly mellowing calm there’s a deliciously demurring sea breeze of oriental florals flavouring the intoxicating grooving. Electroid tonalities reduced to their merest form, minimalist earthbeat murmurs and tribalist trimmings make the Schneider / Kacirek side of releases equation a hypnotically engaging spectacle with the favoured cut of the trio being the parting ‘elements objects’ – love the way this appears to hover ever watchful revealing itself as a prowling panoramic brooding peak through a fractured viewfinder of future visions.
Isn’t this just adorable, blighter has given us goose bumps, ‘dad’ is the first track pulled from the forthcoming Sea of Bees full length ‘build a boat to the sun’ arriving soon in record land via 3 loop music, with nods to a 50’s styled pop fizziness whilst simultaneously possessed of coolly cooed 60’s shimmer this effervescent honey sighs and arcs seductively kissed with a tweaked carefree euphoria that smoulders of a west coast sea breeze caressed in a purring country folk radiance and with it hinting of a deceptively subtle Dylan-esque crush albeit as though lulled by an angelic Smoke Fairies. https://soundcloud.com/3loopmusic/dad
Mentioned this briefly a few weeks back, the result of which its author sent out copies on rapid despatch which I must admit having heard it in its entirety has somewhat initiated worrying looks from our hi-fi. Now those of you with a thing for left field oddness and weird ear groove might well consider all your musical birthdays colliding at once because this is an exceptional slab of off the wall deconstructive pop. The work of Luca Collivasone, he of musical mischief makers .cranio and here found under his impishly bonkers boffin guise Doc Luden Looksharp(indeed don’t ask us – I’m only the messenger) armed with his musical morphing concrete sound generator, which by all accounts is a bastardised vintage singer sewing machine built in tribute to Italo futurist composer Luigi Russolo, heset about locking himself away for long periods in his studio bunker experimenting with effects and techniques whilst musically mangling all manner of household objects and wiring the assembled sonic body parts into the six track suite that is ‘cacophonorgy’. Across this set many familiar generic pools are dipped into, fused and cross weaved to create new off kilter sound species’ which ought to appeal to those well versed in the outer spheres of glitch trance, dub, industrial and art rock. The set opens with ‘te ves Hermosa Cagando’ whose early Cabaret Voltaire styled no wave earthbeat veers into terrains wherein a youthful PIL collide with Neu! Somewhere else the minimalist trance-tech of the dub draped ‘Go back in time kill all your parents’ is the sound of Depth Charge being industrially disfigured by 70 Gwen Party and then force fed through an Autechre shredder emerging the other like a dystopian nightmare of terminator terrorisms. In some twilight zoned parallel universe toasters and various kitchen appliances will be frazzling their fuse wires to this damaged mutant disco salvo while for us mere mortals those ever having a John Peel moment and finding themselves playing some 1919, play dead or einsturzende neubauten release at the wrong speed will be fully prepared for the schizoid happening that is ‘long eroin nympho’ (my oh my where do they get these titles from). Likewise over on the flip of the disc opener ‘I see living creatures’ utilises wiring Dadaist mind cleaning devices which for the best part freefall into the kind of frenetic head flipping territories oft enacted on wax by the mighty Atari Teenage Riot before that is the onset of all manner of manic Krafterk-ian doppelgangers come crashing the mix. Of course those of you preferring your listening delights somewhat grimly frazzled and monastically maudlin in the kind of sombre throat singing dread of say – Soriah – are minded to seek out the quite disturbing ‘motormouth’ – the less we say about the Mysterons (cue – older listener joke) the better. ‘at the mountains of madness’ wraps up matters though not before equally chilling n freaking out your listening space with a slab of eye popping and head expanding no wave-ing super noise psych discordant derangement. Not sure how many of these babies are around or where you’d manage to nab a copy though following the link below should bring you closer to ownership. And ownership you should want for aside being pressed up on bright green wax ‘cacophonorgy’ is essential ear gear for those preferring their sonic pill a little more challenging and off-piste. https://furryheartrecords.bandcamp.com/album/cacophonorgy
Fancy a spot of scouse-a-delic freakbeat, frankly we couldn’t recommend a finer slab of realities turning inside out, senses fracturing wig flipping stereophonia than Serpent Power. A psychedelic summit meeting of mind pooling lysergic happening from members of the Coral and the Zutons whose head expanding trip-a-delic brand of kaleidoscopia as experienced on the woozy ‘lucifer’s dream box’ sounds as though it’s emerged bleary eyed from a late 60’s chemical fog carried aloft on enchanted clouds charmed and turned on by rare blends of musical mosaics drawn from the extracts of love and creedence Clearwater revival. ‘nuff said.
New Active Listener sampler – the 31st as it happens and still up to their impeccable best in terms of track listing tastiness with this one being a gathering of 15 sonic nomads currently traversing the backwaters of pop and opening as it means to go on with the bench setting quality mark set (cosmically) high with the appearance of Cranium Pie. Fruits de Mer’s finest cosmi-delic prog freak heads recently docked into ea0rth orbit dropping off out there head tripping weird ear gear aplenty in the shape ‘mechanisms pt 2’ – be warned you’ll not hear a more zonked out sonic odyssey until the next time they pass by, ‘the last song’ pulled from that set is one of the albums mellower moments would you believe though still sounds as though it was recorded in a different time, space and reality quite possibly all said om a different planet. Talking of parallel time zones Kobadelta wouldn’t look to out of place lurking on a future release roster put out by rise above, as it stands ‘maskirovka’ is only available on a ridiculously limited to 50 only debut ‘one vision’ EP – and well quite frankly the blighter blew us away initially coming on like a reverb soaked psych blues beauty time tripped from the early 70’s though on closer inspection its big bearded beatnik grooving had us much in mind of leaf hound fronted by a seriously wired Jim Morrison. I’m suspecting Craig and Yikii are much deserving of further attention if the lunar lullaby that is ‘whale in the belly’ is anything to judge by as it very much pilots the ethereally woozy sonic seas of smile down upon us (who much to our ineptness and laziness we’ve had a new album by for a fair while that needs immediate love).prized from their ‘three inverted nines’ set – again something else we missed to much forlorn teeth grinding grumbling – the Owl Service used to feature very very regularly in these pages, somehow over the years our path crossing moment have gotten less regular sadly. However glumness aside we’ve noted with interest that they appear to be back, there’s been something of a hive of activity on their band camp release page with redux versions of their much loved ‘fabric of folk’ set and a digitally available bundle of a subscription series they ran many years ago which alas due to us moving we never did complete (bugger) – anyhow ‘how the gods kill’ proves they’ve lost none of their mercurial majesty only on this occasion it appears to have been relocated to a grander stage, touched in a psych folk mystique this honey oozes desire and romance whilst somewhere in the mix buried deep we swear we hear the odd errant Neil Young motif lurking – ‘eldorado’ era if you’re taking notes. Next up ‘first gathering’ from Klaus Morlock an aural alchemist whose melodic mysterios occasion the ghostly twilight divides between wake and dream states, all fading florals cut with ear for Hammer Horror soundtracks. NM and the No Man Band’s ‘pineline’ cleverly joins the dots separating Yellow Moon Band and Peter Gabriel by way of the threading of richly stitched vintage that finds a sonically neighbourly affinity with Tokolosh. Of course regular patrons will be no doubt be well aware that we rejoiced a little while back to the enchantment of Alice Artaud’s ‘ouroboros theme’ – specifically highlighting just this very track noting that it sounded not unlike Goblin’s ‘suspiria’ albeit as though recalibrated by Komeda and then hooked upon a head dissolves tropicalia mantra that would make even Goat turn green with envy. Pressed upon the point we’d have sworn that we’ve mentioned the Ilkin passing previously butt it appears on reflection that our fading memories is playing cruel tricks, anyway ‘jabberwocky’ is an eerie slice of wyrd folk ear gear all spoken word and underpinned by a most becoming and bewitching medieval melodic pageantry – we shall investigate more of that you can be assured. The moon band – again previously unknown to us (I think – really not trusting the old grey matter now) – ‘in my clothes’ – well what can I say except wow – pan pipes cavorting with sitars mightn’t be the desired descriptive excuse to have you all scampering off in search of it, but that voice – well it could melt statues and arrest the coldest of hearts – in short perfect for those much admiring of Mellow Candle. If I had to pick the sets highlight – there are so many mind – this I’ll admit would be hotly vying for the honour – from
Jim Griffin this is ‘the ranger and the cleric’ which I’ll firstly say had us adored immediately mainly for its lightly toned expressiveness, but consider this if you will for a moment – just close your eyes and imagine a bright eyed formative Marr taking a wander into Fahey valleys – think I need not say any more on the subject. Now maybe it’s just me but ‘when I was the setting sun’ by Ocean Music put us very much in mind of a three way campfire get together comprised of Beatglider, working for a nuclear free city and british sea power types with this gorgeously drifting and airily mellow affair coming ripped from a limited self-titled vinyl set apparently the new Yorkers 14th release since the mid noughties. I couldn’t even begin to describe or explain exactly why this has had us furiously hitting the repeat play button, for once I might actually be speechless and wordless come to think of it, but much like the parting ten mouth electron cut this gem has had us frantically rooting for our prized copies of Werewolves platters, it’s by Chef Menteur it’s called ‘terpsichore’ and it could well prove to be the soundtrack for evenings basking beneath sultry sun falls, a kind of drifting psychedelic sea boat floating in Seahawks waters and tripped with the kind of dissolving woozy astral lounge exotica that oozes of the grooves of that well heeled ‘monsterism island’ compilation from a few years back. Takes a few plays before its lilting paisley tweaked lazy eyed 60’s dream drift begins to softly smother you but we suggest there’s much to adore on Gilligan Smiles blissful shimmer serene ‘atlas Johnson and the chestnut green railway’ especially if your listening loves happen to swoon the soft psych pastures of the doleful lions, the music tapes and the freed unit. I’m certain were on the ample play mailing list, if I’m right I’d better rummage through the bulging mail sack because I’m certain we’ve missed a trick not having hooked up to Charles Howl’s debuting ‘Sir Vices’ platter out of which the rampantly infectious ‘give me solar’ is ripped, we here are thinking youthful wonderstuff happenings retuned through a weather prophets viewfinder which is no bad thing, features members of let’s wrestle and talons just in case you needed any further prods in order to get a wiggle on. Oh yes, right up our listening street, ten mouth electron round up this particular sampler with the mighty damn fine ‘young nuns’ – a funky sore thumb which unless our ears do deceive sounds as though its jumped forward through a crack in the time vortex sounding like some mutant Max’s / CBGB’s secret collective from the mid 70’s to be recalibrated in bliss kissed psyched out clouds, in truth one of the best things never recorded by the ultra hip new York combo the Werewolves. http://theactivelistener.bandcamp.com/
Sexiest sounding thing on our turntable right now, debut EP platter from Goldsmack entitled ‘wild season’ from which the purring psychotropic cosmic love note ‘good morning star’ features, imagine Nancy doing her best Nico whilst channelling the dark seduction of Toni Curve all bolted onto a hypno-grooved lunar odyssey that kicks, spits and struts like a bad boy Primal Scream with John Moore aftershocks and you’ll find yourself roughly in the same spiral speckled sonic slipstream – certainly one of the finest platters to have edged our way since the Clerks / Maudite Dance and the Insect Guide.
We are digging this over the Sunday Experience base camp, the work of French musician Maxime Schwartz here trading as Black Psychiatric Orchestra with what we assume is a debuting offering in the shape of the brooding epic that is ‘an American Prayer’ – this hulking and harrowing instrumental hymnal emerges from behind the shadow of godspeed shimmered in on desert winds and haloed in the kind of majestic cinematic bruising that supposes an admirer of brooding storm welling Spaghetti western finales is at play not to mention someone with an acute ear for the use of silent space as a dramatic weapon a la Roy Montgomery – and don’t get me started on those siren-esque arpeggios – sheer bliss.
Again another band who I’d have sworn we’d featured in previous musings, but not so. Repo Man hail from Bristol and have an imminent set by the name of ‘minesweeping’ about to break cover on the lava thief imprint which we suggest is ripe for adoration for those among you who mourn the emptiness of life due to the absence of the sink and stove platters flying thick and fast. These impish souls appear adept at the craft of off the wall punctuated art gouged agit groove with ‘static excess strobe effect’ – incidentally a very Mark E Smith title don’t you think – spiking the stereo player with the kind of furiously wigged outangular party pop and spoken word manic manifestos that had us here fondly recalling the Playwrights. https://lavathief.bandcamp.com/album/minesweeping
And from that (Active Listener Sampler #31) following a little bit of research trawling, as you do, we came upon moonweevil who admirers of fruits de mer should be all too familiar with given they’ve graced the labels wax wares in recent times. This is Cranium Pie Rob’s idea of escapism from the weird ear day job only I’m suspecting he hasn’t quite got the hang of the escape bit of the equation for this mammoth collage takes your headspace ever further still into wiring dreamscapes wherein focus’ blur and your reference points dissolve amid shape shifting landscapes. Described in passing as best filed under rural electronics or train journey soundtracks, ‘a peculiar accumulation of particles’ was crafted and conceived in 2006, a wonderfully warped cosmidelic odyssey peppered by baroque passages and renascence fugues (some very Add N to X it ought to be said), b-movie styled sci-fi sojourns, eerie radiophonic carousels (that hint at an admiration for TV21 styled themology from the late 60’s goggle box) and kosmiche lunar pastorals which viewed in one trip translate like some rare aural artefact rescued from oblivion by those Trunk or Finders Keepers dudes while reference wise somewhat drawing the twinkle toned astral dots between Basil Kirchin and the Assembled Minds with a spot of Tangerine dropped in for added dimension. https://craniumpie1.bandcamp.com/album/moonweevil-a-peculiar-accumulation-of-particles
Musical interlude type thing…..how did I miss this one….the mighty Tangers……the full album no less – better grab it now before some blighter pulls it…….incidentally some killer Carpenter styled passages here and something that old school Zombi fans ought to check out at their earliest….
Here’s the video accompanying the new Tula cut ‘river’ which we happened upon in these musical musings a few weeks back (somewhere here https://marklosingtoday.wordpress.com/2015/03/15/tula/ ) – simply irresistible…incidentally out via telegram studios….
Another musical interlude……this is just divine……
Heartbreakingly beautiful this, a track (‘home’) culled from a forthcoming Barbarossa (James Mathe) set entitled ‘imager’ through Memphis industries which features a guest appearance from old time sparring partner Jose Gonzalez (who features in the chorus line), all at once touching and tenderly elegiac, there’s a hymnal intimacy softly defrosting from its shyly forlorn casing and an alluring magnetic majesty that crystalizes with quiet euphoria at its journeys end wherein fluttering cascades of celestial chorals appear in ear view to arrest and seduce. https://soundcloud.com/memphisindustries/barbarossa-home-1/s-E4DeJ
We actually mentioned this sometime last year, not sure what’s been happening in the intervening period but there’s no keeping uber cooled groove away from our ever keenly wired ear lobes and anyhow the blighters have cobbled together a new video all cut with moody shadow lined photography – as though we needed any excuses for featuring it again. Anyway it’s thee eviltones and a track called ‘surf rider’ swiped from a full length entitled ‘beat macabre’ a copy of which I’m suspecting the band need to send over as soon as for further close inspection. For now though the aforementioned ‘surf rider’ – a nifty slice of simmering 60’s b-movie spy-ology twang-a-rama still sounding to these ears like the bastard off spring of a man or astro man / shadowy man on a shadowy planet secret liaison – strictly for Shadow-y and Link lovers.
Musical interlude time – indeed another one – well the coffee breaks are a little more regular and so while we waste what’ll no doubt be two hours of our lives we’ll never see again watching ‘X-Men – Days of Future Past’ here’s a little bit of a 70’s French fancy we stumbled across to keep you occupied and make you envied among your know it all music pub quiz clan – between you and me a tad Stereolab-ish…..
Frankly this is getting beyond daft now, another corking release would you believe alas no sound cloud links or all dancing videos with which to regale you with. That said I’m not entirely convinced that ‘blue and gold’ by the Wealden – their debut release incidentally – would be in comfortable surroundings amid an all dancing and singing smiley clapping extravaganza, more likely to shyly hide in the corner and wish it could blend into the walls. That’s not to say they prefer to wallow in their own misery, far from it, it’s just that there’s a sensitivity, a frailness and a thoughtfulness that remonstrates throughout this slow burning beauty, its tenderness drawing you in close aglow in its aching bitter sweet and smoky slipstream as its mesmeric spiritual charm hooks tenderly like a forlorn Low Anthemrecital. Incidentally the EP is called ‘rushes’ – more info here….. www.thewealden.com
Late night sophisticat noir pop to go, smoking glitch jazz lounge from Noah on the ever impeccably cool Flau imprint. Caught this by sheer accident whilst having a rummage around on that there interweb, several selections for you to fall in and immerse yourselves within but can we suggest the ultra-sultry ‘take it down’ is where you should start your adventure, minimalist future soul smoked in dissipating down tempo idents all coolly caressed with a lights out seductive purr – in truth if I didn’t know any better I’d hazard a guess that it comes pre-packed with its own branded cocktail drink whilst adorned in variously chic nightwear fashion accessories. Absolutely smoking. https://soundcloud.com/flaurecords/sets/noah-mood
Welcomed return to these pages for Aussie shoegazing dreamers Flyying Colours, this comes prized from a forthcoming Club AC30 EP set ‘Roygbiv’ and a beautifully radiant poppet it is, entitled ‘running late’ this honey toned slice of swoon kissed bliss pop comes longingly trimmed in the uber cooled effervescent rush of jet streaming after burns all packed with a rollicking rollercoaster throb that hints and nods to my bloody valentine albeit rephrased by the demurring dinking of Dead Leaf Echo.
Another album we are yet to catch up with as we rummage and rifle through the humungous pile of CD’s, tapes and email press shots is the latest from Courtesy. Via the ever admired Moon Glyph imprint on limited cassette issue this is the title track (‘slow bruise’) from said set, a darkly stirring slice of stilled paranoiac psychotropic minimalism whose icy exterior has all the marking to suggest it’s just stepped from an early 80’s cloakroom, all strangely warping electronic motifs and chilled toned accents tuned into sonic environments that hints of Cabaret Voltaire, the Passage and Clock DVA being fast forwarded through the years to be relocated in Tarwater landscapes, strangely edgy and disturbing in the way it mooches ominously around your listening space.
<p><a href=”https://vimeo.com/125626248″>Courtesy – "Slow Bruise"</a> from <a href=”https://vimeo.com/moonglyph”>Moon Glyph</a> on <a href=”https://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p>
A talking of cuts that mooch, we suspect this next one will be doing some damage upon the coolest club floors once word gets out. Latest from Danish dark electro grooved duo Rangleklods pulled from a forthcoming ‘straitjacket’ set for tambourhinoceros records sees the strangely magnetic allure of ‘schoolgirls’ forming earworms in the psyche as its snake winding hypno groove insidiously reels you in. trimmed in minimalist murmurs and seductively shadow lined in a frost framed ice sculpturing with its milky pop mosaicscaught in the vapour trails emitted by Noblesse Oblige whilst shimmered in uber cooled 80’s after glows and an oriental dinking. The track incidentally comes back dropped by a video directed by up and coming talent Jonas Bang both the song and video explore the finite line between desire and submission utilising elements of anime porn and nods to ‘lolita’.
Another musical interlude before we unleash the might of Zombie Crash and the mercurial Dustin Lovelis upon you for listening consideration. We happened across this little gem strangely enough whilst listening to something by Roger Roger, must admit to be rather taken by the jaunty lolloping motifs that greet the opening passages – perfect for those fancying a spot of ‘third man’ styled landscapes relocated to an arty quarter of a 60’s era Paris with nods to Morricone – anyhow its by Vladimir Cosma and Gheorghe Zamfir…..enjoy….
Out in the cold with time on his hands following the retirement of the Fling and in need of recharging following tour burn out, Dustin Lovelis quietly set about a slow recuperation schedule whereupon by way of revisiting musical loves of his younger self he slowly steadied himself in getting back on the musical horse with the resulting ‘dimensions’ set emerging out of the process. Set for release shortly on the excellently named porch party records ‘dimensions’ blends west coast cool with mercurial twists of indie-fied slacker groove best evidenced on the sneak teaser cut ‘idiot’ whereupon as the press release is right to note elements of the warping artistry of White Fence ferment with docile lilts to give it an off kilter and punch drunk anthem like slow burn persona all smoked in lunar lulled swathes of starry eyed astral Americana. https://soundcloud.com/porchpartyrecords/03-idiot?in=porchpartyrecords/sets/dimensions-dustin-lovelis/s-2gxat
Many moons ago when we were oh so much younger we happened to mention this lot (Zombie Crash) who at the time where embarking on a tour with Finnish dudes PKN – or to give them their full name – Perrti Kurikan Nimipiavat. Nothing out of the ordinary there you’d rightly think – well so what you’d rightly ask – until that is we mentioned the oh so small detail that both acts where unique in the fact that each member had some form of learning disability, not that that mere fact should prove any kind of prejudice but alas in some small respects it does because the point of the tour was twin pronged in so much as spreading the word about learning disabilities and more importantly to highlight and focus on issues such as access to venues. Since then and now PKN have been chosen as Finland’s entrants to this year’s Eurovision whilst Zombie Crash have in recent times broken ranks and started touring outside the usual close network of acts and have been known to open for the likes of Hey Colossus, Jet Black and Sauna Youth. Now sporting a new single with hilarious video to boot in the shape of ‘hardcore on tour’, Zombie Crash serve up a killer slab of scuzz fuzzed grunged out manic metal boog-a-loo that impishly picks at the bones of discarded Sabbath riffs whilst flying straight into the dark core of Bad News, all this while loosely joining the crooked dots tying together Jack Black and the Butthole Surfers.
Many apologies to Tom of the immensely adored the blue giant zeta puppies who a fair while sent over what we assume is a rare as hen’s teeth homemade assembled copy of their latest EP ‘the devil is in the detail’. Alas caught up in the recent moving home debacle it got somewhat mislaid, forgotten and well – lost – until that is till we turned it up in variously unpacked bags and boxes (along with shedloads of other lost CD’s). Anyway many thanks Tom your care and attention has not gone unnoticed – a three track CD-r with handwritten labels and inkjet-ted sleeve with personalised note has I can assure you now been placed in safe keeping in the rainy day pension pot box. As to the sounds – as advertised three space surf dandies lurk within shimmered in a 50’s styled sci-fi b-movie grooving all action packed TV21 Martian spy cool and twang-a-ramic duels with the snake winding and brooding psychotropic mysterio ‘the colossus’ found entering the lair of the Link while on screen 1 the uber cool ‘devil is in the detail’ comes on like a monster party double feature matinee of cosmic gunslingers, zap happy shimmer toned saucer-ettes and all manner of Dan Dare meets Man…or Astro Man hip wiggling happenings. All said best of the set by a light year is the parting ‘the attack of the steam powered tarantula’ – falling straight out of the atomic age of Harryhausen styled sci-fi-tronic terrors and caught and frozen in the glare of time stopping ray guns this darkly demonic Dadaist chiller comes eerily laced in locked groove pulsar emitting mind melting mantras. Consider yourselves warned. https://thebluegiantzetapuppies.bandcamp.com/album/the-devil-is-in-the-detail
The blue giant zeta puppies also feature on the latest trust the wizards podcast – number 38 – which aside all merriment and musings centred variously around musical happenings aplenty has a very rare appearance in the studio by yer actual Sid Snot while pressing question of the show – the most influential rock album of recent years – Husker Du’s ‘Zen Arcade’ or the Stone Roses debut, among the play listed treats the Efts do the most delightfully skewed and minimalistelectro pop which had the filthy little angels and marquis cha cha imprints still been around would have no doubt be deserving of interest from the artrocker community. Somewhere else the ever prolific Stephen Jones – Babybird to the initiated though he’s long since left behind that moniker – has been releasing albums at a furious rate beneath various guises – all available on his bandcamp site – which if you were delve – and we suggest you should – may we suggest you free up a day or three – seriously – as there’s a truckload of quality ear gear there most interesting of the bunch from what we’ve heard so far are those under the Trucker alter ego – basically dreamy cosmic pop to which admirers of J Xaverre might well adore. As to the here and now the eloquently and elegantly tortured ‘wrecked’ comes adorned in a beat yourself up hollowness twinkled in reflective melancholia – it’s a struggle just getting to the end without shedding a sympathetic tear. Of course there’s barrringtone who we featured too much fanfare in earlier despatches, some rare gold from Cramps seal of approval rockabilly Wildman outsider Hasil Adkins while stealing the show, Monophona’s ‘the hill’ is a beautiful slab of darkly dinked dubtronic down tempo that imagines Portishead lost amid a fracturing bad tripwhilst passing through the noir shadow lined sonic landscapes of Barry Adamson. http://trustthewizards.com/2015/04/14/podcast-number-38/
Here’s the link to the Stephen Jones sound page – you need this in your life believe me….
https://thestephenjones.bandcamp.com/music
Scandinavian territories these days appears to be stamped with a (what one suspects) Government quality seal of approval ensuring it either woos, seduces or knocks you into the middle of next week – in short the centre of the pop universe. Guess you can now add to that seemingly inexhaustible list the name Georgian Waters whose ‘data girl’ has just broken cover into pop world via lotus79 – a dreamy slice of love noted feel good mellowness spiralling on sun speckled south sea shanty shimmers and kissed with an acutely adept purring pure pop alchemy that might hook in those admiring of the leisure society. https://soundcloud.com/hansifriberg/georgian-waters-data-girl-1
Anyhow we are off, thanks for tuning in and all that gubbins and we love records blah blah blah……
Take care,
Mark
x
the sunday experience 