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The fourth full-length studio album from this English quartet is boththeir most vocal and most structured release to date, focusing moresoon songcraft and development than ever before. Fear not, however, asthere's still a large amount of improvisational influences and playfulfuckery on nearly everything, including sounds of the bathtub, cellularphones, and kitchen utensils alongside the intentionally mis-playedstandard rock instruments, classical and jazz wind instruments,strings, accordion, and numerous percussion tools. If there's one thingsmoking pot teaches you, it's how to become a craftsman (how to makethe best bong out of a melon, etc,...) and I have always consideredVolcano the Bear to be a crafty group of lads. Over the few releasesthey've had, it's clearly visible how the lot is increasinglyharnessing that craftmanship into a more organized, bridled chaos. Onceagain, the group recorded with Kev Reverb — once described as "a tenfoot tall cowboy with sunglasses, dressed all in black and possessing avoice like The Voice Of DOOM" — who runs an appropriately named'Memphis studios' out of Leicester, UK. The album contains punchdrunksurrealistic singalongs like the opener, "Hairy Queen" and parts of"Seeker" as well as lengthy drawn-out mostly instrumentaleverything-and-the-kitchen-sink pieces like the title track, withsuggestive hints of traveling minstrals in the album's closer, "I amthe Mould". If I could recommend any album to aquire and memorize onlyto bring to your school's art class only to play and sing along withand confuse the fuck out of those "artistes," this would be it. 'FiveHundred Boy Piano' is their second release for Steven Stapleton'sUnited Dairies label, and features artwork from each of the members aswell as Stapleton, himself.
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#15 in the Fading Captain Series, this release from Airport 5 is thefirst LP Rob Pollard has recorded with Tobin Sprout since the latterleft Guided By Voices to focus on his solo career. Given those keypieces of information, one could probably form a pretty solidpreconception about the sound of this record and what they might findwhen listening to it. Let's face it: Pollard is one of those artiststhat you either love or despise. So those who don't Like any ofPollard's music with Guided By Voices or the plethora of other bandshe's in, skip right over this review. The other camp will be happy toknow that these two artists still make magic together, and it's in rareform all over this release. From the first track, "Burns Carpenter, ManOf Science," you're drawn in to that weird land where anything ispossible, at least lyrically speaking. And it's an amazing thing,considering that the music and words were recorded separately (possiblyeven written separately). Sprout is an amazingly talented musician,capable of playing all the components that make up your average bandstructure, and writing melodies that hold great hooks and fantastictwists and variations. And Pollard is just plain weird. Any man whowrites songs about bright paper werewolves or scientists creatingliquid forms of love has some issues to resolve. But together it makesfor fascinating music, as it has in the past. I'm glad theses twomusicians are working together again, because these initial results areproof that thos combination still works. I hope to hear more fromAirport 5 soon.
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The prolific, multi-instrumental and continually tasteful O'Rourke'slatest release appears to be following in the direction of last year's"Halfway To A Threeway" EP but with a slightly rougher edge. Althoughthe seven well-crafted tunes on "Insignificance" vary musically,drawing on 60's garage rock, 70's AM radio, a touch of tropicalia andalt-country with some damn fine pickin', they uphold the fundamentalsof a great pop record. Song topics seem to be about frustration andself-degradation with "It's All Downhill From Here", depravity on thedark "Get A Room" and the weight of triviality on the title track.Tongue-in-cheek titles such as "Memory Lame" and "Life Goes Off"further augment the unique lyrical content. The musicianship is nothingshort of complete. O'Rourke's choice guitar, bass, piano, Wurlitzer andvibraphone performances are consummated by a group of fine musiciansincluding Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, great simultaneous drumming on sometracks by Glenn Kotche and Tim Barnes , bassist Darin Gray, pedal steelfrom Ken Champion and cornet and sax from Chicago jazzers Rob Mazurekand Ken Vandermark. The disc's order of tunes flows nicely from startto finish, ending in a glitch frenzy, which may be the bridge to thelaptop oriented, soon-to-be-released "And I'm Happy..." disc. As with1999's "Eureka", you shouldn't have too much trouble spotting thisdisc's artwork on the wall of your local vendor.
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I'll be the first to say I'm not that big of a fan of Venetian Snares.He seems to be praised and lauded from every corner of the earth as agreat innovator and musician, but most of his stuff bores the crap outof me. For the most part, he seems to be "experimental forexperimentality's sake," with a sort of anti-rhythmic edict and anI-must-change-time-signatures-every-twelve-seconds attitude. That getsreally annoying, in my opinion, and it's probably the biggest problemwith this latest album, but nonetheless I like it quite a bit.That's right, I like the album quite a bit. The atmosphere and samplesreally work well (not to mention the *awesome* Trevor Brown artwork) -"we be friends with a child killer..." but of course the mainattraction is the percussion. Which is the best part of the album aswell as the worst part of the album. Like on the last track, "All theChildren Are Dead"... that is insane percussion. And I mean *insane*.
But then, as on the first track, "Pygmalion," the percussion can holdso much potential and then fall completely utterly flat. Crazy awesomebuildup, as if everything were going to explode right in your bigstupid face, and then - it stops - and doesn't start again. What aGODDAMNED let-down. And these same kind of moments occur throughout thealbum... points where you THINK you should hear a break, or a drum, orsomething - but no! Aaron Funk is experimental! He is not drum'n'bass -this is not dance music! Yeah, whatever. Go have sex with Kid 606.
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I wish I could properly credit whoever once said, "Talking about musicis like dancing about architecture." To Rococo Rot have assembled acollection of music about architecture that, could very quite easily bedanced to. The group return to the core trio for this unique release,out now on the German Staubgold label. The disc features twelve new,unnamed three-minute tracks which provided the sound for anarchitectural exhibit earlier this year. The music is meant torepresent the building of the same name, which consists of twelveequally sized single units, efficiently designed for both living andworking space. (Gosh those Germans sure do love their crafty designs.)While the group consciously chose to work within the 3-minute frameworkfor each track, the tracks are far from identical. Everybody gets thesame amount of space but can do whatever they want within that space,essentially. While it may not be considered a bonafide, typical fullTRR release, many of the songs are quite clearly TRR, using a healthyvariety of electronic beats, organic bass and guitar, and warm synths.The songs vary from mid-tempo multi-instrument interplays to beat-lesssoftware-based aural wallpaper. While it may have been designed for amore chin-scratching artsy acceptance, it's a great listen in,ironically enough, the home office.
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Two years in the making, Michael Gira (SWANS, The Angels of Light) andDan Matz (Windsor for the Derby, The Birdwatcher) casually created andrecorded a dozen songs together in the relaxed setting of Matz's homes.Both men are simply credited with various instruments and vocals (plusengineering by Matz) and generally alternate lead vocals track to tracksave for a lone instrumental. The instrumentation is actually quiteextensive, approaching the ornate fleshing out of an Angels album:acoustic and electric guitars, bass guitar, organ, piano, synth,drums/percussion, drum machine, harmonica, banjo, a few samples andsome guitar by James Plotkin and background vocals by Anna Neighbor. Ifyou're coming to this disc via Gira and/or Matz's other endeavors, youwon't be surprised but will probably be as pleased with the results asI am. These are 'simple', spontaneous 'pop' songs as affected byAmericana as they are the avant-garde. And the pair's voices, poetryand basic song writing skills and styles complement one another well.The sound and feel is mostly slow and subdued, the mood in varyingdegrees of what I like to call 'uplifting melancholy'. Brief commentson a handful of tracks: "Pacing the Locks" beautifully mourns thepassing of time, "Is/Was" becomes soaked in shimmering synth bath andbell tones, "Lines" is pretty pop steeped in blue grass roots, "BrownEyes" and "Waiting Beside Viragio" are sparse, seemingly solo lovesongs, "Forcing Mary" will nod your head with driving guitar stabs and"Sunflower" is the peculiar instrumental, a droning hum with sprinklesof piano, guitar and whistling. Though I'm not (yet) as taken with"What We Did" start to finish as I am The Angels of Light's "NewMother" and "How I Loved You", I'm still more than happy with what theydid. Gira is currently on tour with The Angels of Light in NorthAmerica through mid December.
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Finally... Ant-Zen has returned to form. Or, I should say Cold MeatIndustry by proxy of Ant-Zen, since Azure Skies is a new projectcombining both males (or just one? I'm not too sure) of Sanctum andboth Durling brothers of Mental Destruction, two CMI mainstays. This disc is almost like a renaissance for .. er .. "rhythmic noise" (Iloathe that term, but I'm at a lack for better words). It was ratherunexpected on my part, but it pulls no punches and places Ant-Zen backon the roadmap it was beginning to explore with the early rhythmicnoise releases... it reminds me of one album in particular, ImminentStarvation's "Nord," a classic album. But it goes beyond that.
Sprinkled throughout the album are achingly beautiful structure andmelodies (no doubt written by the Sanctum member[s]), which add untoldamounts of character and replay value to a genre like this. The harsh,drilling beats in "Crater" are offset by a warm, calming melody ...which is literally a breath of fresh air. "Bring Nothing Back" isobviously influenced by Jan Carkelev's (Sanctum) sideproject ParcaPace, which was a 18-minute masterpiece of beats, chants, and violins -they're all here, but the beats are made even better by the Durlingbrothers. Brilliant.
Though, the album does get a tad bit repetitious at points... but doesit ever go so far as to be boring? Nah. You also should stay away fromthis release if you're expecting dance music - it has beats, but thisis mood music. The album is beautifully packaged in a jewel case withwarm, cool tones throughout and a picture of - what else? - beautifulazure skies gracing the cover. For anyone who felt betrayed withAnt-Zen's recent releases (PAL's "Release".. *cough*), this album is areturn to form and a must-have.
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No, it's not a much-needed tribute to the KLF/JAMMs, it's another 2xCDcollection of electronic music from friends of a musician who runs hisown label. It might not be as varied or densely packed like aTigerbeat6 comp or thematically tied as a Morr comp, but it doescontain some fine moments of both label-promoting and friend-promoting.Hrvatski's guitar and click "Lullaby" contribution reminds me all toowell that there aren't enough Hrvatski albums in the world, MikeParadinas' alias Kid Spatula serves up a dish tastier than any Mu-Ziqrelease I own, and the thoroughly entertaining collage of illegal hiphop samples, "Turntable Savage" by Hellfish. However, there are a fewvery weak spots: like the Vincent Gallo-lite contribution by Dykehouseand the obvious oversampling of Coil's "Hellraiser Themes" in thedrum-and-bass-by numbers "Defluxion" by Venetian Snares or theover-predictable, skippable Tusken Raiders track, "Pansy". In allhonesty, this collection would have probably been much more noteworthyif released in 1997. In the end I'm left affirmed by my affection forElectric Company and my interest in whoever this Joseph Nothingcharacter is. Must research deeper,...
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- Kid Spatula - Sharemaker
- Hrvatski - Lullaby
- Hellfish - Turntable Savage
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Chris and Cosey - like their only real peers, Coil - are a band whose ideas have been mercilessly pruned from a succession of increasingly astounding albums by all sorts of different folk, whose tenacious influence is similar to the ghost in 'The Haunting of Hill House' - barely seen, but profoundly felt.
This double CD set manages to serve up about two hours worth of why they were and are such a powerfully unique unit, a duo still militantly convinced by their own vision, still working outside even the smugly comfortable world of experimental dance, and coming up with pure gold every time.
All of the albums are well represented here, particularly key releases Heartbeat (the thunderous 'Put Yourself in Los Angeles' and abrasive/ludicrous 'Hairy Beary'); Trance (the stunning and vastly influential 'Cowboys in Cuba') right through the stunning string of mid to late eighties albums Songs of Love and Lust, Techno Primitive and Exotika up to their ultimate statement of intent to date, Skimble Skamble. One minute they sound like Nico covering Barry White (on 'Dr John'), the next minute they're serving up oceanic waves of sound, buried pulsing beats and oscillating electronica...and they just take another swig of Martin Denny and roll out the joy some more.
Do yourself and your friends a favor - let this compilation burn a hole in your Christmas stocking this year, and then wait a few moments for your life to change.
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After a fascinating re-release on Temporary Residence earlier this year("Maander"), the Kollektief return to reinterpret some of those songswith a live band. and add a few new compositions. The results are amixed bag, but never dull. It's said that Thomas Weber, KammerflimmerKollektief's central figure, gave the members copies of "Maander" andthen asked them to come into the studio to play them as best theycould. Considering "Maander" was beat-driven electronic music, it'shard to see how a live band could rework that and come out with similaror better results. The Kollektief manages just fine. I found thereinterpretations to be better than the originals, but still lacking insome sense. Maybe it's that I like the music but it doesn't affect meall that much. But two of the last three tracks on this release, newmaterial by Weber and the Kollektief, are well done. I liked them muchbetter than anything else I'd heard from the band. The ambient wonderof "Kissen," for instance, is spooky in feel and in the way it buildsbut never quite achieves anything destructive or shocking. It's almostaural teasing, but in a good way. "Venti Latir" is hauntingly gorgeous,with violins and bass and keyboards that can cause the heart to soar.All in all, a solid release, even though two of the tracks are underminute, and really did nothing for me whatsoever. Weber got someamazing results on "Incommunicado," and it would serve this group wellto try a whole release of original material.
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Two years in the making, Michael Gira (SWANS, The Angels of Light) andDan Matz (Windsor for the Derby, The Birdwatcher) casually created andrecorded a dozen songs together in the relaxed setting of Matz's homes.Both men are simply credited with various instruments and vocals (plusengineering by Matz) and generally alternate lead vocals track to tracksave for a lone instrumental. The instrumentation is actually quiteextensive, approaching the ornate fleshing out of an Angels album:acoustic and electric guitars, bass guitar, organ, piano, synth,drums/percussion, drum machine, harmonica, banjo, a few samples andsome guitar by James Plotkin and background vocals by Anna Neighbor. Ifyou're coming to this disc via Gira and/or Matz's other endeavors, youwon't be surprised but will probably be as pleased with the results asI am. These are 'simple', spontaneous 'pop' songs as affected byAmericana as they are the avant-garde. And the pair's voices, poetryand basic song writing skills and styles complement one another well.The sound and feel is mostly slow and subdued, the mood in varyingdegrees of what I like to call 'uplifting melancholy'. Brief commentson a handful of tracks: "Pacing the Locks" beautifully mourns thepassing of time, "Is/Was" becomes soaked in shimmering synth bath andbell tones, "Lines" is pretty pop steeped in blue grass roots, "BrownEyes" and "Waiting Beside Viragio" are sparse, seemingly solo lovesongs, "Forcing Mary" will nod your head with driving guitar stabs and"Sunflower" is the peculiar instrumental, a droning hum with sprinklesof piano, guitar and whistling. Though I'm not (yet) as taken with"What We Did" start to finish as I am The Angels of Light's "NewMother" and "How I Loved You", I'm still more than happy with what theydid. Gira is currently on tour with The Angels of Light in NorthAmerica through mid December.
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