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As a follow-up to his last full-length solo album Northern, Deupree has once again captured the changes in seasons in an audio format. Rather than the vast expanse of ice and snow, Shoals is the sound of summer’s transition into fall, of weather-worn trees decaying and other vegetation making early preparation for the coming change.
Deupree utilized a variety of gamelan instruments from Java and Bali as the core of this project, not playing them traditionally but using their surfaces and construction as a means of creating sound.These sounds were recorded and then looped and digitally manipulated via computer, creating a hybrid of ancient organic and modern sounds.The results do not clearly bear the mark of either, instead representing a microcosmic world of music that balances abstraction and melody.
The title track hides melodic tones behind the soft creaking of wood, cut into rhythmic loops and then garnished with the occasional metallic clang, often reduced to a simple blip.Amongst the warm haze of decaying sound, there is the sound of natural movement:Deupree's movement amongst the instruments and microphone arrays during the recording sessions was captured by the recording devices.These "imperfections" in sound were treated as important as any of the other instruments, giving an even more human quality to a style that is often criticized as being too technologically focused.
The carefully restrained clatter of "Falls Touching Grasses" allows the stringed and percussive instruments to show through a bit of their natural color, but kept hushed and subtle, mixed among the pulses of fragmented sound.The combination of the almost collage-sounding dynamic bits and the distant reverberated notes creating a melodic counterpoint works quite well.The extremely textural "Rusted Oak" sounds as if it is hiding an acoustic guitar among its tactile layers, with the most subtle of percussion off in the distance.Of all the pieces, this one has the most natural sound, almost as if it were a field recording of an undiscovered land, complete with the sounds of a tree decaying to construct a relatively bleak sounding track among lighter ones.
While Deupree is a prolific artist, his full length solo albums are relatively infrequent.When they appear, they are as well developed and conceived as any modern composer.His work coaxes the most beautiful threads of sound out of natural and man-made sources and then weaves other-wordly textures with them, and uses them to create worlds that are inviting and compelling.Shoals is no exception to this, and perhaps is one of the best demonstrations of his strengths and creativity.
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This isn't the first collaboration between these two that serves as excellent hot weather listening. While a lot of Andrew Chalk's recordings can seem dark and cold, this short release is serene in a very warm and comforting, almost blindingly bright way.
 
Originally released on vinyl in the summer of last year, and presented as an extended play single, these three pieces total less than 25 minutes, and while the collaborators have chosen to present the recordings in these versions, the fade-outs suggest there's more to them than what we're given.
There's a lot of movement in the stillness here. The faint rhythms on "Queen of Heaven" are only a backdrop to the very prominent sustained layers of keyboards and almost inaudibly low frequency bass. It's like watching the wind blow through tall blades of grass under a stale, mean, and old sun in the mid-afternoon. It's that time that is hottest and brightest before the sun begins to set. All the tall blades hold solid in their ground and sway elegantly, mimicking a water-like ripple with even the slightest breeze. While the instrumentation differs significantly from "Pale Shadow" (from 2007's Ghosts On Water) the hot and bright feeling achieved here is quite familiar.
The second piece, "Of Beauty Reminiscing" is more blatant on a few levels. It not only shares a title with a Vikki Jackman long player, it also incorporates some of Suzuki 's familiar cricket sounds, like those used on "Fuxen" from Chalk and Suzuki's first collaborative release, The Days After, released in 2003. These crickets, however, are faster and livelier, much like crickets heard at dusk. They make the ones from "Fuxen" sound like night time crickets about to fall asleep. Regardless, there's more melodic development here than on the early collaborations, and it continues through the closer, "The Water Clock," which, once again, has very prominent keyboard and bass, with a surprisingly loud, even pinching analog synth melody. It also features piano by Vikki Jackman and a stringed instrument (probably a guitar) being faintly plucked, almost Jandek-like, naked, and uncompressed. But these instruments only add a slight seasoning to the periphery.
I enjoy that the two have, for the most part, pared down their instrumentation, focusing more on what they have and what to do with it. They don't toss as many sources in as they have in previous sessions—there's no singing nor random piano banging this time around. Its brevity is a tease, unfortunately, as I could easily listen to much longer versions. In turn, I found myself repeating the album while doing late afternoon/early evening work in the recent hot weather.
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Originally released in 2005 as a small run CD-R, this album has been given a much needed reissue (albeit only as a limited edition cassette). Slightly remixed, this version also includes a bonus track and new artwork. Simultaneously putting me at ease and on edge, the music is in a constant flux of emotional and sonic content. This is one of Anthony Mangicapra's more fulfilling releases from his early works and it sounds as fresh now as any of his current output.
Acid Casualty Productions
 
Upon pressing play on side A, I am immediately plunged into an unfamiliar environment as Mangicapra brings his listeners on a voyage through the hull of an ancient and huge ship. The sounds running through "The Purifying Order" and "Torment of the Metals" are vast, echoing through the hollow body of this imaginary vessel. Suddenly, with "Iao Habdomai," we are dropped into the center of a ritual being played out through music, the words of the spell intoned by shimmering cymbals. The effect is heady and invigorating, the feeling of some beneficent power being summoned runs through the piece, dispelling the unease previously evoked by the preceding tracks.
On side B, the music takes a different turn as foggy noises emerge from the tape. Unlike the rest of Asha Dasha, "Prepetuum Mobile" is an obviously threatening piece, waves of chilling tones running across the piece like foreboding winds; reptilian shrieks occasionally cutting through the murk, sounding too close for comfort. The bonus track, "Its & It’s," caps off the album, a burst of loudness to counter the relatively sedate sounds that made up the original album. The off-white noise that erupts from the speakers exorcises any entities that might have latched on during playback of the album before fading into nothing.
As regards the remixing of the album, there is not a huge difference between the original version of Asha Dasha and this one. Duane Hosein’s contributions have been removed but I would be hard-pressed to discern where the changes have occurred. Bearing in mind the ritualistic edge of Hoor-paar-Kraat’s music, I would wager that Hosein’s contributions were as much to do with the atmosphere as they were with the recording process. Yet all this is just trivia as Asha Dasha is still a major milestone in Mangicapra’s evolution as Hoor-paar-Kraat.
 
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Christopher Willits Prepares New Full-Length for Ghostly International: Tiger Flower Circle Sun
ARTIST: Christopher Willits
TITLE: Tiger Flower Circle Sun
LABEL: Ghostly International
FORMAT: CD/LP/Digital
TRACKLIST:
01. Portal
02. Sun Body
03. Sunlight Is You
04. Green Faces
05. Uplifting The Streets
06. Plant Body
07. New Life
08. The Hands Connect To The Heart
09. The Heart Connects To The Head
10. Intend-Evolve
11. You Are Always Surrounded By Stars
12. Subconscious Transmission
13. Light Into Branches
14. Branches Into Flowers
15. Flowers Into Stardust (CD/Digital Bonus)
Christopher Willits occupies a unique corner of the electronic-music universe—hovering above the intersection of electronic production’s nuts and bolts and a wide-open creative mind. “I am a conduit of the process, a kind of gardener,” he says. “I simply imagine, intuit, respond and do the work laid before me.” Willits’ tireless responding and doing and working has produced 20 albums in 10 years—solo and in collaboration with artists including Ryuichi Sakamoto on 2008's Ocean Fire —and an organic, multi-faceted sound that expands like the vines of an electro-acoustic kudzu plant. Christopher Willits is a label owner (the experimental hub Overlap ), a meditator, a tech geek, an audio/visual artist, a teacher (he's hosted the series "What You Talkin' About Willits?" on XLR8R.TV since 2008), and virtuosic musician in one. In other words, there's no one out there quite like him.
Willits’ 2nd full-length on Ghostly International, Tiger Flower Circle Sun, is his most technologically complex yet—it's also his most organic, drifting skyward in a swell of ambient hums and subtle polyrhythms. With an imagination as blissfully overactive as our friend Willits', the only place to go is up. Tiger Flower Circle Sun arrives on July 26th in Europe and July 27th in North America.
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UK release date: July 5, 2010
US release date: July 20, 2010
Disc One
1. In the Art of Stopping - 3:34
2. Mr Marx's Table - 3:02
3. Being Watched - 2:57
4. Comet - 3:17
5. The Agfers of Kodack - 3:11
6. Nice Streets Above - 3:45
7. Spent - 4:43
8. Read and Burn - 2:34
9. You Can't Leave Now - 3:41
10. Half Eaten - 1:58
11. 99.9 - 7:42
Disc Two
1. I Don’t Understand
2. Trash/Treasure
3. Raft Ants
4. Germ Ship
5. 1st Fast
6. Artificial Gravity
7. Dj Fuckoff
8. 12 Times U
9. Our Time (Minimal Mix)
10. Desert Diving (Alternate Mix)
11. 12 Times X
Send Ultimate is an archaeology of Wire in the studio between 2000 and 2003--a period during which the band worked on new music for the first time in a decade. This retooled edition of Send gives fresh insight into an exciting chapter for Wire, expanding the frame around the album and providing a larger context with rare and previously unheard material. The double-CD includes both sides of the 12 Times U vinyl-only collectors item (the '12XU' remixes that catalyzed Wire's Send-era burst of creativity); unreleased curiosities such as 'DJ Fuckoff,' an exercise in hyperkinetic dancefloor lunacy; alternate versions of numbers originating in this period that subsequently appeared on 2007's Read & Burn 03; and the tracks from the first two (out-of-print) Read & Burn EPs that were omitted from the original Send.
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Julianna Barwick’s Florine has an enveloping dreamlike atmosphere built from multi-layered vocals and simple instrumental loops. Her choral abstractions are pretty and affecting but will need expanding or she risks being as musically trapped as a third unknown Cocteau Twin who died as an infant yet gibbers from a buried shoebox.
Barwick originates from Louisiana and resides in Brooklyn by way of Oklahoma, but Florine carries no discernible residue from those, or indeed any other places. Instead, this six song self-release evokes states related to the feeling of being in motion, in ecstasy, perhaps in space, or at least floating in a slightly (if not most) peculiar way. On "Sunlight, Heaven" and "Cloudbank," the layered voices resemble a cloned pack of mysterious female Bulgarian folk singers as gorgeous squeaks repeatedly push against the human/dog hearing barrier and deep throbs and murmurs add the effect of a non-orgiastic yet impossibly sublime religious ritual. "The Highest" perhaps most resembles the aforementioned buried would-be doppelganger of Liz Fraser.
Listening in my car to the sections on the album with words that are either deliberately indecipherable or in a made up language, brought back a glorious memory. One beautiful Saturday afternoon in 1987 I was driving in Cambridgeshire with windows up and stereo loudly playing Eno’s Apollo album. Inconceivably puffy clouds lay against a blue sky as the vehicle passed slowly through manicured villages. After some slightly challenging pieces, the track "Ascent" (which has been described as a "reversed choir") put me in a hopelessly awed state where every little thing seemed cinematic, slowed, and significant.
Several of Barwick’s pieces may induce a similar feeling or even an approximation of "saudade" (the Portuguese word for) a longing for something fondly recalled, which is gone, but might return in a distant future yet which carries a fatalist knowledge that the object of longing might really never return. In 1912, A.F.G. Bell described this feeling as "a vague and constant desire for something that does not and probably cannot exist, for something other than the present, a turning towards the past or towards the future; not an active discontent or poignant sadness but an indolent dreaming wistfulness." I am also reminded of Lord Buckley’s "Subconscious Mind" in which he spouts in touching yet hipster detail about someone he was nuts for before remarking upon how he just drove the last few miles in a total trancelike state.
Florine does perhaps have one or two obvious clues as to how Barwick might avoid becoming Enya. For example, "Choose" has a slightly more tribal feel with the chant of "anyway you choose" and a soft pulsing rhythm which might be a sped-up heart beat. Also, the piano and sad pastoral moaning on "Anjos" hint at the lovely duets of Virginia Astley and David Sylvian and the possibility of a fuller and broader sound. I doubted Bibio could break out of his previous musical maze but with Ambivalence Avenue he has done just that. Hopefully Julianna Barwick can progress beyond these looped hypnotic sketches of sound. For me that will be essential, as the vocal gymnastics of the final track "Bode" either are a bit of a mess or my tolerance was reached by the five preceding songs. Anyhow, drive carefully while listening.
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My longstanding hope that the child-eating Balinese demon queen will release an album has yet to come to fruition, but I am now able to content myself with the next best thing, as her name has been appropriated for a staggering improvised collaboration between Chris Corsano, Sir Richard Bishop, and Ben Chasney. By turns violent, soulful, and mantric, False Flag is an unpredictable, spontaneous, and sometimes uneven debut, but also a fascinating and attention-grabbing one.
False Flag begins in an extremely chaotic and abrasive way, as the very brief "Waldorf Hysteria" is essentially two minutes of unmitigated frenzy from all three players.Aside from the fleeting Middle Eastern-tinged surf guitar motif that leads into it, the guitars could’ve been played by literally anybody frantically moving their fingers and their pick as fast as possible.As such, it is simultaneously underwhelming and overwhelming. These guys are capable of much, much more (as they later prove), but they sure woke me up and made it clear that things might get quite blistering.The album actually begins in earnest with the second track, "Bull Lore," which occupies some sort of odd nexus between classic rock, noir, and ripping blues-y guitar solos.It’s quite an unexpectedly restrained, melodic, and conventionally "rock" piece (especially after the album’s searing introduction), but quite an enjoyable one.It is weird to hear Bishop playing a straightforward rock guitar solo or Corsano acting like a simple supporting drummer, but there are occasional eruptions that make it clear that I am still listening to the same band.
The trio resumes trying to tear my head off with the incendiary third track, "Fist Family," as Bishop and Chasney trade clashing and howling sustained notes over what is essentially an absolutely apocalyptic drum solo.It is the first moment of the album where it all finally clicks and it seems like Rangda have some chemistry, as the two guitarists seemed to intuitively grasp that Corsano’s drumming is the song, then set about finding the perfect way to complement it without competing for the focus.
"Sarcophagi" continues album’s sequencing theme of alternating back-and-forth between unhinged entropy and restrained melodicism.I think Bishop handles lead guitar again, unfolding a beautiful and soulful solo over an absolutely sublime chord progression that continually threatens to turn into a solo itself.Corsano, for his part, seems to have finally found the sweet spot between being wildly explosive and pretending to be a regular drummer, as he manages to stay very busy and Corsano-esque without intruding into the foreground.It’s simply a great piece, period, capturing the trio at their individual and collective heights.
As expected, "Serrated Edges" plunges back into the cacophonous maelstrom, a feat that it doesn’t pull off as well as "Fist Family."Nevertheless, it certainly whips up quite a frenzy and Bishop and Chasney manage to inject a bit more of their personalities into this one (which is not easy when you are fighting to be heard over a Chris Corsano eruption).It is followed by the album’s closer, "Plain of Jars," which steers the trio into more pastoral territory with an epic, Eastern-tinged, and psych-inspired jam.It isn’t my favorite piece on the album, but it certainly meanders along in amiable fashion, never outstaying its fifteen-minute running time.That might be because it seems like the least improvised piece here, as it features seamless transitions between sections and, more tellingly, dual-guitar harmonies and an overdubbed piano.Thankfully, it catches fire at the end, as Bishop and Corsano both let themselves get a bit wild for the outro.Also, it made me suddenly realize that I would probably like a lot more vintage psychedelia and hippy-tinged krautrock if the drummers had not been so damn dull.
I’d love to know how much of this album was actually improvised and how much preparation was involved, as the band had only played together for a total of 90 minutes before playing their first show and these recording sessions happened soon afterward.Neither Bishop nor Chasney delve much into the stylistic territory that they are best known for, which could either be the result of a deliberate decision to do something different or just what comes out when they are suddenly put on the spot.Either way, it is illuminating to hear this side of their playing.There are definitely a couple of great pieces here ("Fist Family" and "Sarcophagi") that can stand with any of the band members’ individual work, but much of the album tries to get by on raw power alone or seems to just teasingly hint at greater potential.That said, it is a major musical event just for these three guys to wind up in the same room together and such a sudden union is destined to yield wildly varying results.False Flag isn’t quite a great album, but it definitely has some serious flashes of brilliance and makes a strong argument for making every possible effort to see these three play together before their other activities pull them apart.
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In keeping with Sublime Frequencies' lengthy tradition of unearthing bizarre and amazing music that I didn’t even know existed, guerrilla ethnomusicologist Hisham Mayet’s latest offering delves into the raucous nightlife of Marrakech’s legendary open-air marketplace  Managing to talk his way through a longstanding ban on the close recording of performers, Mayet captures the raw power of three of Jemaa El Fna’s most compelling acts as they blast though blistering, electrified renditions of classic Moroccan pop using homemade rigs of car batteries and megaphone speakers.
Jemaa El-Fna has many possible translations, all of them very enigmatic and somewhat sinister: The Mosque at the End of the World, Rendezvous of the Dead, Place of the Vanished Mosque, Mosque of Annihilation, and several other equally colorful possibilities.More concretely, it is a large central square in the "old city" section of Marrakech that is one of the weirder and wilder marketplaces on earth.By day, it is populated by an eclectic and tourist-friendly array of snake charmers, orange juice and water vendors, tarot card readers, numerologists, trained Barbary apes, henna tattooists, and herbal potion vendors.And a single and very anachronistic dentist.Once the sun goes down, however, the square undergoes a complete transformation into something much more vibrant, unhinged, and packed with natives.All the daytime vendors disappear, and the market gradually fills with an wide array of food stalls, magicians, acrobats, storytellers, dancing transvestites, and (of course) street musicians.
The three groups that Hisham recorded are ostensibly "cover bands," as their repertoire is composed mostly of work by ‘70s/’80s protest/folk groups like Lemchaheb and Nass El Ghiwane (whom Martin Scorscese once called "the Rolling Stones of Africa").Notably, however, the original pieces are rendered almost unrecognizable by the volume, energy, and passion needed to grab (and hold) the attention of a bustling square filled with people (and competing musicians).This is a very "punk" take on the Moroccan musical canon, filled with violent twangs, wah-wah-pedaled banjos, overdriven amplifiers, furious picking, and explosive percussion.The more sparse moments, like "Tal Riabak Arzali" by solo oud player Mustapha Mahjoub, tend to be the most satisfying from a purely musical standpoint, but it is the more furious percussion blow-outs like Troupe Majidi’s "Khoudrini" that probably best capture the boisterous intensity of the scene.
Naturally, given that this album was recorded in a crowded public square and that the musicians are playing through ramshackle and hopelessly overwhelmed amplifiers, the sound quality is quite raw.As a consequence, pretty much all of the subtleties of the much tamer original artists’ works (which are well-worth checking out) are lost, but it doesn’t matter at all.These recordings are a different animal altogether. Ecstatic Music of The Jemaa El Fna has its sights set on something a bit more difficult than simply immortalizing fiery, innovative takes on some great music—it aims to immerse the listener in an atmosphere that is wholly exotic, rapturous, unique, and gloriously alive (and succeeds as well as could possibly be hoped). Mayet has put together an undeniably exciting and very immediate album (and one that has turned me onto to some very cool Moroccan music), but Ecstatic Music works even better at planting the seeds for an overwhelming compulsion to hop on a plane to Marrakech immediately.
Samples:
- Amal Saha- Lahmami
- Mustapha Mahjoub- Tal Raibak Arzali
- Troupe Majidi- Essiniya
 
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Frequently lauded as a high water mark for metal, industrial, and any form of abrasive music in general, Streetcleaner has been included in numerous "Top X of Y" lists since it was first released some 21 years ago. Seeing as how the duo has agreed to perform a reunion show at this year's Hellfest in France this weekend, it is a convenient time for the label to reissue this disc, as well as for me to take a new, critical look at it. Remastered with an entire second disc of alternate/demo/live/rehearsal tracks and overseen by Broadrick himself, it's obviously more of a labor of love than a quick cash grab, and the quality of it makes that apparent.
When first issued in 1989, Streetcleaner was definitely a different monster than other albums on the metal scene.Having already created grindcore with Napalm Death and coming off a stint as Head of David's drummer, Justin Broadrick decided to resurrect his Fall of Because project, opting to play guitar rather than drums (letting a machine take that role), while G.C. Green stayed on bass, and with guitarist Paul Neville staying on for half of the album.It was an album that crossed many "difficult" genres, something Godflesh had started with their first EP, the self-titled release from the previous year.Using the cold precision of a drum machine paired with the barely under control guitar tone, Godflesh formed to push the meandering, sludgy Swans guitar sound with the rhythmic mechanization of contemporary industrial bands to create something that never really "fit" in any pigeon-hole, but somehow managed to appease everyone.
Even though the presentation of this album originally screamed "death metal", there were more than enough signs that it wasn't really an appropriate description, all the way down to the presentation.As everyone knows, grindcore and death metal bands are always in a competition to create the most unreadable pen and ink logo for the band humanly possible, a trend that was still happening in 1989.Rather than that, Godflesh always opted for the bold, Impact font typeface that was the polar opposite. Secondly, though the cover art bears the same violent-blasphemy vibe of death metal, here it was actually a still from Altered States (definitely not a crude sketch of Satan eating Jesus while playing Connect 4 with naked women or whatever else was hot in death metal art then).So it makes sense that, though there are definite traces of those genres here, it is a beast all its own.
The introduction to Streetcleaner is one that stands with the best of any album:the sparse, but menacing feedback that colors the opening before the riffs and drum machine erupt on "Like Rats" sets a tone of darkness that’s enshrouds the whole album.From then, the album never relents; however, it never becomes stale or boring in its continuous bludgeoning.As much as I love Swans, I always found it more of an endurance test to listen to the compiled Cop/Young God release in one sitting, but the oppressive blackness here maintains enough variation to never become "too much."The sludge of "Like Rats" nicely feeds into the jagged, erratic rhythmic structure of "Christbait Rising," which itself transitions into the dour, martial rhythms of "Pulp."
The synthetic elements of the Godflesh sound aren't as overtly presented here, and even the drum machine runs programs a human drummer could play more often than not."Devastator/Mighty Trust Krusher" is one of these exceptions; the predominant part of the track is heaver rhythms and violent dialog and announcement samples akin to Cabaret Voltaire's earlier works.The title track follows a similar pattern, opening with samples of a murderer discussing his crimes over a deep, menacing synth before launching full force into a dual guitar assault, with Broadrick and Neville tackling the high and low frequency spectrums while the machine fires away like the submachine gun the track is named after.
Unlike some other recent reissue campaigns, the four bonus tracks, also known as the Tiny Tears EP remain intact.I could see the band making the argument that they aren't part of Streetcleaner, because they have a different sound and vibe, but thankfully they chose not to go that route.These four songs are rather unlike anything the band did previously, or did ever again.Four short blasts of muffled guitar/bass skree with a rhythm structure closer to punk rock than metal, with Broadrick's vocals buried in the murky mix create something unique, and to me always made a wonderful epilogue to the album.The more uptempo (in purely relative terms) tunes here seemingly were forgotten afterward, with the exception of "Wound" that appeared in a rerecorded form as the other side of "Slateman," but are a pleasant little side note to history.
As for the remastering job, it's definitely louder, but not excessively so.I checked this visually with editing software and found that there's no digital clipping, nor was there any overuse of compression.Considering the source material though, the only true audio dynamic in place to begin with was "loud," so I didn't think that was going to be a problem.A side by side comparison reveals that the new issue is slightly sharper, with a greater high end presence:the snare drum hits sound more piercing and guitar feedback is more shrill.Played loudly enough, it is a bit more of a painful listen, but I think that was always the point.Since Broadrick himself was in charge of the audio clean-up, I figure it's going to be faithful to his original intent.
The bonus tracks on disc two are luckily ones that are more than of just historical interest.The current trend of reissuing old albums with "demos" appended usually results in me saying to myself "oh, yeah, that's interesting how that song used to sound" and then never listening to it again.It's not the case here:the first five pieces on the bonus disc are the initial mixes of the first side of the album that the band decided to tweak later.Broadrick comments in the liner notes that he can’t remember why the band decided to redo these tracks, and that shines through:these could be the original album and no one would really complain.There are differences, i.e., the sharper drum attack and less treated vocals on "Christbait Rising" and greater vocal effects on "Pulp," but the variations are rather subtle. In general, these mixes are strong enough to stand on their own, even with the occasional source material issue:being mastered from cassette, there’s a bit of tape hiss and the occasional drop-out, but nothing to get upset over.
The live takes of "Streetcleaner" and "Head Dirt," recorded during the band’s first major European tour in 1990 are both strong documents of the era, the former sounding even more unhinged and manic than the album take, including a drastically different sounding guitar part from Neville.The jerky stop/start rhythms of "Head Dirt" don't sound as clean live, with significantly more feedback and noise from the guitars.
The rehearsal recordings are another matter, sounding as if they were recorded to a walkman sitting in the practice room with the band.For that reason alone, the fidelity is less than appealing, but give additional insight into what the band sounded like in a live setting at this time.The final two tracks are perhaps the most revealing:two track guitar/machine demos of "Suction" and "Dead Head."Stripped down, the underlying melody of these tracks can be heard far more than they could in the final release.While not as compelling as the finished versions, they’re interesting on their own, with the former showing a bit of post-punk influence in the riffs, while the later comes across as a perverse take on surf rock.
Considering its faithful remastering and plethora of bonus material, this is a worthy reissuing.While I'm sure there will be many who prefer the original recording of the album and decry the additional material as unnecessary, it rounds out the experience of the original album nicely.A monumental album in the history of "heavy" music and, while it’s not as singular today as it was upon its original release, it has lost none of its strength or power in the past 21 years.
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In the mid 1990s Godflesh, along with label mates Napalm Death, Cathedral and Carcass, had a brief flirtation with the major labels in the US. Because of this, their CDs made it to the lame mall record store, leading to my initial exposure to the band. Admittedly, it was a mixed reaction: Selfless took a while to fully "grab" me, and Merciless had its pros and cons. After some time, both would eventually click, and may very well represent my favorite era in their career, compiled into a slim two disc set.
I first picked up the Merciless EP on a whim:I'd heard the band's name tossed about, but always equated them more with the death metal scene (which I was, and mostly am, still not a fan of).Eventually there was enough discussion of them as "industrial" to pique my Skinny Puppy and Front Line Assembly loving attention, and for me in these pre-Web days, the only way to hear new music was to buy a disc.I had mixed feelings when I first heard the downtuned slow riffs and sludgy pulse of the title track.I was ok with the riffs:Rabies was always my favorite Skinny Puppy album, and I still had a love for Ministry at this time, but the growling "metal" vocals turned me off.The more lush chorus parts, where Justin Broadrick actually sings, I thought were great, however.
The following "Blind" and "Unworthy" were a bit too "out there" for me at the time.It was definitely industrial, but more in the classical sense, which I wasn't yet familiar with. Both were built using various samples of Broadrick's guitar, from live and rehearsal tapes, to create a harsh sound more akin to SPK or early Cabaret Voltaire, with the steadfast Alesis drum machine pounding away unfettered and G. C. Green's noisy, loose bass grinding away.The final song on the EP, "Flowers," was listed as a "demix" (originally "Don’t Bring Me Flowers" from the prior Pure), which is exactly as it sounds:the more conventionally structured track is stripped to its barest skeleton.The result is fascinating:the looped guitar noise and ambience is paired with Green's harsh bass and a deconstruction of the guitar solo from the original track, which is possibly one of the purest, most beautiful guitar sounds ever on a Godflesh record.
Selfless, on the other hand, is one of the least experimental Godflesh recordings, which now I believe is its greatest strength.Broadrick has stated that it was their intentional "rock" album, which is what I've now grown to appreciate.While they continued that sound into 1996's Songs of Love and Hate and reprised it on their final album, 2001's Hymns, here it is presented as intentionally cold and sterile as possible.Before integrating live drums into the mix, it was simply the stoic precision of a drum machine, very restrained use of synths, and jagged shards of Broadrick's guitar.
The strongest songs, in my opinion, are the more subdued, emotion tinged ones.Now that Broadrick has publically declared his appreciation for The Cure, especially in their early days, it’s not hard to see that "Empyreal" and "Black Boned Angel" have a vibe akin to Faith, albeit with a much heavy bent.The former is a lugubrious track that stands with Merciless in defining slow heaviness, crawling along with an intentional simplicity, all the way to the lyrics ("Not, everyone can carry, the weight of the world/Feel my decay, feel so alone") that manages to fill six minutes with ease."Black Boned Angel" conveys a similar sense of inward turned despair that doesn’t relent, but doesn’t feel forced or contrived at all.No histrionics or forced emotion, they both display a monastic asceticism towards rock music that make them my favorite tracks on the album.
The closest thing to a single on this album is "Crush My Soul," which is one of the few traditionally "metal" tracks:a heavily mechanized rhythm section and guitar squall is matched with Broadrick’s screamed, overly aggressive vocals.Early on it was TOO metal for me, but I have grown to appreciate it over the years."Anything is Mine" is another from this template, and I still feel it's one of the lower points on the album, from its overtly heavy sound and some rather weak lyrics ("I declare that we're all just shit/And I believe, we'll die like it") make it stand out as a sore thumb in an otherwise great album.
The album also follows Pure in putting a far more adventurous song as a bonus on the CD, in this case the nearly 24 minute "Go Spread Your Wings.""Pure II," the similarly difficult piece on the previous album, was far more abrasive, consisting of a guitar noise and feedback dual between Broadrick and then-second guitarist Robert Hampson that surely left the metal fans scratching their head, but this one is far more varied in its structure.Opening with repeated processed piano sounds and metal scrapes awash in reverb, it slowly builds into a slow, pummeling juggernaut of sound.The heavily detuned bass guitar, which is more of a percussion instrument here creates a vast, hollow metal vortex that eventually engulfs everything, leaving the final eight minutes as a vast abyss of guitar fragments falling apart. The final moments are one more of warm beauty rather than the cold, desolate precision that preceded it.
The two disc reissue appends two tracks to Merciless, remixes of "Crush My Soul" and "Xnoybis" from the Crush My Soul single.Unlike others, Godflesh used this not as an opportunity to appease the dance floor or to fill up a b-side, but as a way to indulge in their more electronic tendencies."Crush My Soul (Ultramix)" recalls Broadrick's work with Techno Animal and The Sidewinder, stripping the track down to a grimy breakbeat and Green's garage-door-spring bass, only bringing in the guitar during the chorus moments.Over the 15 minute duration, there's even a subtle bit of acid house synth that appears, completing the industrial/metal/techno concept they first toyed with on the remixes from Slavestate and predating the electronic/rock music crossovers that would appear a few years later."Xnoybis (Psychofuckdub)" stretches the initial song to some 17 minutes in length, deconstructing it bar by bar into a post-rock sound collage, reserving the latter half to a minimalist recording of sound decay.
To have this era of Godflesh concisely compiled into this two disc set is quite convenient, removing the need to track down singles and EPs; the only mix that’s not here is the "Clubdub" Mix of Xnoybis, which appeared only on a promo single and in an edited form on the shoddy In All Languages compilation.Although I must say, the god-awful packaging should be criticized.I know that conceptually the "moving picture" type textured case that shows the original cover of both releases is interesting in theory, in execution it is a major disservice to a band who's stark design and artwork was always an important part of the presentation.The music is the important thing, of course, but it's still a nauseating blight on an otherwise glorious collection.
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Wasted and Ready, the first song on the single, is fast and furious.  It's ever melodic overtones caress the song's ebb and flow.  The singer however croons the best on the next track.  On this one, he sounds half amazed, and stubborn.  Averkiou definitely has a romantic quality, as it looks through life on a porch with an overblown, oversized monocle.  The intricate guitar work lets the drummer take shape of the song, letting it vibrate with stability throughout.  The rad thing about Averkiou is that they seem to glance at things with instability, an angelic voice for a singer.  The two fuzz pop songs ring true even at a distance.  When the record is over we are left to wonder where the band will go next.
The bonus mp3 song sort of makes you wonder.  The acoustic version of the song called "Jersey" is a stab at stardom.  It's singer songwriter makes sure that you can here his original voice on the track, and it is simply laid out acoustic style.  Overall the 7" aims to appease, and it would be great to hear from from this 5 piece band.