Live At CAC 7.21.08
2 sides of bent frown jazz from the hardcore supergroup of Lorenz, Yeh and Jewell. Side a comes on all fifth dimension hard think: violin scrunch and squeal, hard tom rub and dense harmonic blowing pushed right to the front of your brain box, jams a frantic fanfare with locked horn and strings before giving in with a wheeze and a tinkle. Side b's call and answer shies away as fragments fragment into bowed skin, seesaw string microtone and rasped mouthpiece until spunk rock free jizz looseness ex…
split 7"
Campbell Kneale moves ever closer to the glistening, levitation altar, with backwards bliss-shimmer, spooked chant and analogue squawk and squeal, kaleidoscoping around triumphant snare punctuation. Bark Haze (Thurston Moore & Gown duo) hit back with focused power-drone guitar duelling from the heart of the bong, smoking out into tunnel-visoned, crumbled-amp chunder. Artwork by Campbell Kneale/Kim Gordon.
Sensacao Do Principio
Sensacao Do Principio is the third release proper from Tropa Macaca and their first with an American label. Their previous efforts on Ruby Red and Qbico were magnificent (though hard to find) efforts of blotted, aural sci-fi codifications somewhere between Anar Band and Blues Control. The two-track full-length continues their foray into post-psychedelic instrumental morphine, where Moolah's LP and Pink Floyd's "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with …
8
Another indispensable tome from Yeti publishing: 192 pages, featuring a brilliant Eliane Radigue interview, plus text on Harry Partch (with photographic accounts of the instruments he created), Bishop Perry Tillis, the late Southern American musician/producer Jim Dickinson, Explode Into Colours and Zola Jesus. On the maxed-out, 27-track CD you'll find rare or previously unreleased tracks from Vaselines, White Rainbow, Inca Ore, Pete Swanson, Little Claw and Ty Segall among a good many others.
In Each Day, Something
Eri Yamamoto released two recording in 2008, each of which—in different ways—demanded attention. In a series of duos with friends such as William Parker and Hamid Drake (Duologue), Yamamoto was expansive and free, readily finding ways to play beyond conventional harmony without sacrificing “beautiful” pianism. With her trio (Redwoods), she was more in the pocket, mining vamps and grooves for what they could say about the blues, but always keeping things intelligently sweet. If you’d barely heard…
Introducing
The Drag City / Galactic Zoo team delve deeply into the recesses of private press obscurity once again, further revealing the underbelly of American music's recorded history - this time the little known songwriter Ryan Trevor is in the spotlight, who released just one incredibly rare, homespun LP (this one, if you're wondering) which surfaced originally in 1977. Not much is known about Trevor, though the guys at Drag City bill him as a "loner genius", whose work is to be filed somewhere between …
Capricorn Born Again
Amanda from Pocahaunted joins Robedoor for this first full-length as Topaz Rags, and the album's a real winner, kicking off with 'Darker Sooner' sounding like a Portishead album recorded over the phone. Elsewhere, twisted blues and moaning, haunted house vocals convene for 'Sightings', and 'Wear You Thin' is like a chill-wave night terror. An uneasy listen, but Capricorn Born Again is a druggy, beautiful raincloud of a record that's got appeal beyond the more conventional parameters of the Not N…
Labor Of Love
We're not complaining. Seems like a week can't go by without some new Not Not Fun opus dribbling out from the west coast label, aimed at bleeding our brains of logical thought processes and launching us into galaxies where laws are read backwards and progress is measured in long, untethering tracks of psychedelia muttered through interstellar Ham radios. This week it comes by way of slow-boiled loops and synth warbling that build towards wordless rantings best quantified as the dark prayers mean…
Musical Paintings Vol 1
"A unique collaboration between a musician and a painter: Sean O'Hagan/The High Llamas and Jean Pierre Muller. The Musical Painting can be described as a large picture composed of wooden shapes that fit into one another. It produces its own soundtrack but with a distinctive novelty - it is the viewer who, by playing with the moveable parts of the painting, is in fact the conductor of the piece. This unique fusion between vision and sound is the fruit of the collaboration between Sean O'Hagan's '…
New Monuments
Formed for the purpose of playing 2008's Instal Fest, this trio comprises C Spencer Yeh (of Burning Star Core), Ben Hall (of Graveyards) and Don Dietrich (of Borbetomagus), coming together for the common cause of relentless, ear-blasting improv. Sax-toting noise legend Dietrich is no stranger to the more abrasive school of free improv, having been operating in the field since the early 1980s, but the comparatively fresh-faced Yeh and Hall hold their own here (manning violin and traps, respective…
Rare Material
Totally essential two cd collection of some of the most elusive Moondog material of all . When the "Viking of Sixth Avenue" single volume compilation was reissued, we pleaded that here was truly a taste worth acquiring. Louis Hardin somehow managed to find the musical continuities between Bach, native american Sundances, be-bop, Stravinsky and yet still pursue his own musical paths and sound utterly unique. Strong claim, but the music truly bears it out. Drawing the entire disc one from the ultr…
In Europe
Moondog’s first release after moving to Germany, “Moondog in Europe” is a very heavy listen. While there are some aspects of his quirky style, most of this album is drenched in seriousness. Despite this being his first slightly somber album though, Moondog cleverly inserts various rounds from “Moondog 2.” Like Roger Waters taking portions of melody and hooks from “The Wall” and incorporating them into his “The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking,” Moondog similarly borrows his own melodies, changing…
H\'Art Songs
Moondog's fanbase seems to be righteously on the up nowadays, with reissue after reissue re-illuminating his singularly out-there musical genius. This is a stranger album than most however: on this one Moondog sings. Yes, this is possibly the only entry into the blind Viking impersonator/singer/songwriter sub genre. Inevitably, it's really good. Even though this album (recorded in 1969, incidentally) reduces the composer's ordinarily expanded palette to little more than voice and piano, there's …
The German Years 1977-1999
The first disc is an anthology of the music Moondog made in Germany, after moving there in 1974. The second is a recording of his last concert, on 1 August 1999. Both are excellent and amazing examples of Moondog's skills. Excellent notes and photographs.
Sound Is
"Sound Is, is delightfully not what I had expected when this fine disc arrived, a beautiful soundscape, awash with more layerings and hypnotic cinematic virtues than I would ever hope to find. Though while saying that, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the ultra fine hazy jazz that both effortlessly, and rambunctiously flows through this release, and stands not starkly in juxtaposition to the soundscape, but gives it the vibrant life necessary to keep you quietly swinging at 4 in the mornin…
self-hypnosis
AWESOME!!!!! What’s going on here? Well, a couple sides of Self-Hypnosis were recorded in a concrete racquetball court (and a couple of sides weren’t) which has been mysteriously transformed into the legendary Black Ark Studios and Lee Perry is going NUTS with the ol’ echo effects. A tiny clatter in the background suddenly rushes up to your ear-bones, magnified into giant sheets of rubberized steel plates which bounces as high as you are. The backwards flow-motion is set on fire as the storm app…
The Path Of Lighting
First off, this 2xLP set has THEE best cover I’ve laid my sockets on in many moons. It is soooo eye-burningly great that I’m tempted to run out and buy a van just to have the image painted on it. It’s about time the art world came around to the lucrative “ray-gun touting topless women riding giant tarantulas through darkened valleys” market. Bra-fuckin’-vo! But I’m not getting off my high horse just yet. I must say that this latest from NorCal’s finest, Starving Weirdos is one of their most swel…
Birth/Speed/Merging
After their second album, “King of Kings,” the Pyramids relocated to Oakland & reshuffled personnel before recording “Birth/Speed/Merging” in ’76. The most obvious change in the band is the addition of an acoustic bassist, on top of the electric bass they already had. This gives the band a heavier sound at certain points, while other times the bass is strummed like some sort of strange guitar. At the same time, they lost the piano which was used on the second album, which allowed them to return …
King Of Kings
The Pyramids second album, originally released in ’74. The band continued along the same general lines as they did on their first album, but they added a pianist for much of the session, & it somewhat changed the character of the music. In some ways, it seems like a more sophisticated album than “Lalibela,” & by some standards, its probably an improvement on that record – the solos in particular seem more confident, & the percussion has become more intricate & inventive, without loosing a hair o…
Lalibela
the Pyramids first album, recorded in Yellow Springs, Ohio in 1973. It was recorded in Ohio, yes, but band leader Idris Ackamoor grew up in Southside Chicago, & this album was recorded after the core of the band had made an extended trip to Africa, & these facts give a better idea of where this music is coming from. The Chicago thing is happening in that this is definitely informed by the AACM approach, especially the Art Ensemble. The African thing is probably the more important element, though…