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Right from the start, "Subfusc" appealed to my tastes - most of thesongs are quite long (I'm a long-song freak). But what really sets itapart is the fact that it's written really damned well. You will findno contrived distorted dancefloor songs here: the beats are there, andin full force, but they never slip into the four-on-the-floor trap andthey will never make you think you're listening to Noisex.
Which brings me to the point that Tarmvred sounds a lot like an evolvedWinterk¹lte. The structure and approach is kind of the same, but I dareto say that Tarmvred pulls it off better... Nor is Tarmvred afraid tobreak out the Sidstation, and drop in a phat old-skool C64 melody atthe end of track one. The whole album has little cool bits like thesein it, that break away from the cliches and make wonderful use of new,interesting sounds.
The album gets slightly redundant at points (some of the beginningparts of the longer songs are unnecessary)... but this is still awonderful album, especially for anyone who was listening to Ant-Zen afew years ago and then got tired of the club music crap. But hey, theclub kids should like it too: this is something for everyone. Get it.
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The Oakland California trio Replicator ignite their debut album with an instrumental that puts the rock into rocket. Slow burn smouldering dual note guitar atmospherics soon zoom boldly skyward with big brash jettison chords that'd make Trans Am's Red Line go green. For the next six songs they twist and turn through angular song forms with clipped vocals which couple melodic hooks with a complexity which is forceful but never forced. The hard hitting precision production from Shellac bassist Bob Weston gives equal weight to every aspect of Replicator's sound, and might just get them a few more Shellac comparisons than they otherwise would get, but they are definite fans of that band and at times employ similarly dynamic song structures.
However they have a stronger melodic sensibility that on 'Strategery' recalls an angrier Poster Children and on 'Motivationally Challenged' they remind me how good the first Archers of Loaf album was. Replicator play with an engaging energy and exuberance on their songs but it's the three instrumental tracks that really fire me up. The mournful guitar on 'Journey to the End of the Night part II' rises to another crescendo that doesn't quite erupt like the opening '(No More) Salted Beef' did but sounds just fine even so. The long goodbye of their 'Taxi Driving' finale couples a moving piano melody with tub thump drums and a backwards rotor loop betrays a Flaming Lips influence, and perhaps opens the door to more experimentation with their sound next time round?
 
 
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- Check the Replicator site for downloads of three "Winterval" tracks.
 
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- The entire CD-R can also be heard online via Fflint Central.
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'62-56' was first to surface after that, materializing from Tigerbeat6in July. While it's billed as an Extended Play single, the disc haseleven tracks and totals over 45 minutes. What does separate it frommost album characteristics is the whole array of different styles Lanerchooses to let loose with, rather than limit himself to a coherenttheme. Here, Laner's unafraid to play with beautiful melodies,Kraftwerkian/Mousey punchy beat-friendly tracks, glitchy cutups andeven toy with the power of suggestion with the spoken vocals on thedisc's closer. There's even a rather interesting 15+ minute improvbetween Brad and other noteworthy local laptop owners Blectum fromBlechdom, Lesser and Kid 606 which would easily please anyexperimental-Stockhausen worshipping musique concrete fan.
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(new), on the other hand is Laner's contribution to Fällt's 'InvalidObjects' 3" CD series. If I've learned anything from Raster-Noton, it'sthat I never need to buy all the albums in a series ever again.Especially with 'Invalid Objects' where the series consists of 24releases, all priced over $10 here in the USA. Only 250 of each discwas pressed, however, and the series includes the usual gang of idiotslike Pita, Scanner, Kim Cascone, and Richard Chartier. This timearound, I only bought the three I cared about (this one, V/Vm andPimmon) instead of wasting my money on piles of crapola like the 20' to2000 disappointment. Laner's contribution consists of 14 one-minutelong tracks, ranging from low sub-frequencies, frighteningly loudabrasions, live drums, tone bursts, electronic twitters, playgroundrecordings and orchestral samples. It's entertaining and no lessendearing as his other releases, as with each track running right intoeach other, completing the whole more like one intricate 14-minute longtrack. At the end of the day, however, it's not something I'd pull forfrom the shelves frequently.
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Tigerbeat6 released "Greatest Hits" in October, but the cover andpromos were being passed around before September 11th. Unlike any otheralbum which bears the same name, this one features reconstructions by ahost of friends as opposed to collecting old, previously releasedthings. Perhaps it's quite appropriate the cover features a collapsingbuilding, as the "remixes" on this disc are completely reformed piecesfrom the bricks supplied by the Electric Company, himself. (Of course,the back should probably include the new building erected in itsplace.) In addition to the proverbial TB6 posse, re-erectors includePhthalo's Phthalocyanine, Tom Recchion, µ-Ziq, Geoff White and thenotoriously erect Leafcutter John. The erections [you were waiting forme to use that word] aren't a clever display of genre-straddling likethe conventional remix record, but do showcase the reinterpretivestyles of each artist. Like the broken record sounding Pimmon track,the acoustic guitar loops of Electric Company himself. Okay, so it'sreally just a remix album, but it's very nice to listen to.
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- Timeblind - around Rmx
- Pimmon - Knotenansammlung
- Frank Bretschneider - wednes3 Rmx
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The entirely instrumental group seems to have synthesized elements ofold 4AD records with that slow n'heavy Godspeed You Black Emperor! rockdirge. Even if the drums are played by an actual person (I don't knowif they are or not), they have that flat quality most peculiar to the1980s Cocteau Twins drum machine. The ghosts of Angelo Badalamentescores lurk in the reverb-soaked guitar and heavy Godspeed!-like dramatakes the form of one- or two-chord songs that meander over ten minutestretches for maximum "epic" effect. In fact, this band wears theirinfluences so opaquely that they go beyond being simply derivative, andcome out as... really quite nice. They add a noisy rock element attimes, riding that one chord until it grows louder and louder and feedsback over a steady, simple 4/4 beat. And even though gloomy gothicbombast hangs over all the tunes, it's never off-putting. "What a Long,Strange Journey" is a fine album... but please please tell me, what'sthe Grateful Dead got to do with it? Look for these at their website or email
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- CockESP.com, Graeme's especially lazy this week
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Based on my first encounters with Ambarchi’s work, I have always associated him with the abstract, post-rock tinged world of experimental guitar noise and drone. However, following up his recent Audience of One album, this album continues his transition into more "song" oriented work, and brilliantly so. Simple, but hypnotic in its execution, it a taut, dramatic 30-plus minute single track that grabbed my attention immediately and has stood up strongly ever since.
Sagittarian Domain is a single track album, with most of the instrumentation (guitar, synth, drums and vocals) played by Ambarchi himself, with a hint of stings arriving later on, initially as an additional element, but eventually becoming the focus.His penchant for more oblique, dissonant guitar experimentation is still here, but pushed more to the back, punctuating a tight, tense piece of music.
Repetition is the name of the game here:opening with tightly clipped notes and erratic delays, the guitar is soon matched with a robotic Moog synth bass line and subtle, punctuating feedback.It makes for an excellent slow build, never dragging too long, and elements eventually settle into a notable groove.
Once the drums kick in, it becomes a film noir-meets-raut motorik excursion, the perfect score for a car chase or other tense, kinetic scene.Ambarchi's drumming is not complex or exceptionally poly-rhythmic by any means (he is no Jaki Liebezeit), but has just the right sound and production to give a noisy, effective garage quality that makes it utterly engaging. The rhythm section remains consistent mostly throughout the bulk of the piece, with only small variations to be heard.They are minute, but quite effective in the otherwise hypnotic repetition.All the while Ambarchi's guitar scrapes become louder and more forceful, only to retreat back into the mix and come back once again.
It is not until the final third that he lets loose, casting out waves of squalling guitar noise as a frenzied compliment to the tightly disciplined rhythms.When it eventually overtakes the rhythm, everything falls away to reveal a trio of strings in tight harmony with one another, making for a lush, cinematic flourish to the relentless tension that preceded it.
Given that it is a long-form single piece, the intentional repetition might be off-putting to some, but it becomes this album’s greatest asset.It is through this complex, nuanced repetition that the variations and eventually dramatic ending shine through.To use an aforementioned metaphor, it is akin to a tense chase, which seems almost unrelenting, until it does, releasing that pent up energy in a glorious, beautiful ending.
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Much ado has been made about its two hour duration, and Michael Gira's assertion that The Seer represents the culmination of the entire Swans discography, which is not to be disregarded. From the monolithic, visceral guitar stabs, to the dark, folk hued melodies, and dissonant, deconstructed samples and loops, it all appears here, sometimes within the same song. Thankfully, it does not come across as a conclusion, but the culmination and self-actualization of a long, unparalleled career.
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Much ado has been made about its two hour duration, and Michael Gira's assertion that The Seer represents the culmination of the entire Swans discography, which is not to be disregarded. From the monolithic, visceral guitar stabs, to the dark, folk hued melodies, and dissonant, deconstructed samples and loops, it all appears here, sometimes within the same song. Thankfully, it does not come across as a conclusion, but the culmination and self-actualization of a long, unparalleled career.
In some ways My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky felt incomplete as a Swans album in that pieces of it ("Jim," "Reeling the Liars In") sounded more like Gira's work with Angels of Light than the explosive, grandiose drama associated with every step of Swans' career.This was exacerbated to me upon seeing them on their 2010 tour, where the more Swans-like tracks from that album took on an even stronger, more fully realized form in the live setting.While no recorded medium can fully replicate the physical impact of a Swans concert, The Seer comes closer to that intensity than most studio albums could.
The centerpiece of the album, the 30+ minute title track, brilliantly spreads all over the place.Opening with a sustained mass of horns and strings that resemble some of Hermann Nitsch's best compositions, it eventually retreats into a slow build guitar/bass/drums arrangement.It unsurprisingly comes to a dramatic head:a pounding, abusive roar of drums and guitar that has all the aggression of something from Cop, though with full on violence rather than seething rage.It does ascend from music into something different: a living, breathing monstrosity of sound that no other band could build.However, while this song could be the embodiment of Gira's 30-year career, it is not afraid to throw in some curve balls.The uncharacteristic vocal delivery at the end bears more than a passing resemblance to Damo Suzuki, atop an Eastern affected instrumental backing, something I would have never expected to hear.
Closer "The Apostate" is the other monolithic pillar of The Seer.Clocking in at just over 23 minutes, it also does an admirable job at condensing the Swans legacy into a single piece.Expansive, opening textures and ambient loops give way to a glorious wall of guitar noise and massive drums, forming into the pounding riffs and guitars, and ending with Gira literally singing in tongues.With this, the album and song culminates with that sense of religious ecstasy that Gira has been working with since Children of God.While it has been hinted at on previous albums, here it is fully realized.
Divisive former Swans member Jarboe even appears, in the form of vocal fragments on "A Piece of the Sky."Throughout its 20 minutes, it is a backwards journey through the Swans discography.Initially resembling Soundtracks for the Blind via its dissected loops and heavily processed recordings that are almost completely unidentifiable, it all transitions into a melodic bombast akin to Love of Life, with its slower pace and rich orchestrations, with vocals appearing only within its dying moments.
The smaller pieces here could potentially get lost within the sprawling epics, but for the most part they stand on their own, even in their shorter durations."Lunacy" has the unfortunate slot opening for such a dramatic album, but does so very well, embracing that barely contained mass of sound that is Swans which inevitably explodes.It is a bludgeoning introduction, even with the folky vocals from Gira and guests Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker from Low.
The early form of "The Seer" that appeared on the limited first run of We Rose From Our Beds—that Gira said would be discarded—appears in a more fleshed out form as "The Seer Returns," which is not a reprise as much as it as stand alone piece, a vaguely bluesy number that moves along with a relatively high level of restraint.
"Song For A Warrior" is the only odd duck on this album.This is an acoustic ballad of sorts with Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs on vocals (Gira doing background).Perhaps it harkens back too much to the Angels of Light material, or it just has a different sense to it overall, but it just seems a bit out of place.Even after a number of plays, I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about it.
The Seer is one of the few albums that are not listened to as much as experienced.Like the body of Swans discography, it is not as much about catchy songs or memorable melodies, but a cathartic experience like no other.However, it is more than just a work of power and drama, but a piece of art that is best experienced again and again.Like all good art, it is not always pleasant or enjoyable in the traditional sense, but it a vital work nonetheless.
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