We have finally cleared out the backlog of great music and present some new episodes.
Episode 711 features music from The Jesus and Mary Chain, Zola Jesus, Duster, Sangre Nueva, Dialect, The Bug, Cleared, Mount Eerie, Mulatu Astatke & Hoodna Orchestra, Hayden Pedigo, Bistro Boy, and Ibukun Sunday.
Episode 712 has tunes by Mazza Vision, Waveskania, Black Pus, Sam Gendel, Benny Bock, and Hans Kjorstad, Katharina Grosse, Carina Khorkhordina, Tintin Patrone, Billy Roisz, and Stefan Schneider, His Name Is Alive, artificial memory trace, mclusky, Justin Walter, mastroKristo, Başak Günak, and William Basinski.
Episode 713 brings you sounds from Mouse On Mars, Leavs, Lawrence English, Mo Dotti, Wendy Eisenberg, Envy, Ben Lukas Boysen, Cindytalk, Mercury Rev, White Poppy, Anadol & Marie Klock, and Galaxie 500.
Skolavordustigur Street in Reykjavík photo by Jon (your Podcast DJ).
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Brian (Lustmord) Williams' long-out-of-print 1994 ode to the vastness of space has been remastered and reissued. The record may sound better now than it did 15 years ago, but I’m not sure that all of it has stood the test of time.
As soon as I heard that Wlliams had a ‘side project’ of sorts where he used deep space data from radio telescopes, I rushed out to buy that record. The extended drones and minimalist synths with patches of faint NASA radio chatter were exactly what I was looking for in 1994. Ambient electronic music was everywhere, but most of it teetered on the edge of new age tedium or uninspired techno as vacant as the spaces from which it drew inspiration. I had it in my mind that Lustmord working with some rhythms and space sounds would be the perfect antidote to all of that hippie techno bullshit. And for the most part, it was.
I used to drop a track from Trans Plutonian Transmissions into every one of my DJ sets because whether I wanted to lay some minimal Scorn beats over Arecibo’s atonal wash or mix “Anomalous Intermittent Radio Source” into tracks from Sub Dub and DJ Olive, it always worked perfectly. It was never a record that I would listen to from top to bottom, but it played well with most of the other things I was into in the mid-'90s and it always felt like a rare gem. I guess that the rareness was real, as the record has long been out-of-print and commanding nice sums from collectors at auction. I wish I had known—I still have my original copy and I haven’t listened to it in probably 10 years.
The reissue has been remastered, but it doesn’t sound extraordinarily different to me. In fact, I don’t think that most listeners will detect much of a change at all which is probably a good thing. People will likely just be happy that the record is available again, but I’m not sure that all of it has held up. The lumbering plodding of “Beyond the Heart of Space” wears out its welcome to these old ears long before its 13:45 runtime is up, although I likely would have loved it 15 years ago. The NASA radio samples and control room chatter that dominate a couple of tracks remind me an awful lot of The Orb, and they take otherwise serious, dark pieces and make them sound like a 909 kick drum is right around the corner. I still love “Anomalous Intermittent Radio Source” as an example of Lustmord edging towards dubby trip hop, but most of the slower ambient pieces don’t stand out as much as I remember.
The notion I keep coming back to when I listen to this old record with a new perspective is that if I didn’t know this record used deep space data, I would have no idea that it was inspired by such a source. If I was told that this record used sounds gathered in caves or underwater or from field recordings in the desert, I wouldn’t be surprised. As a composer, Williams surely brings his own perspective to the work, so this record sounds exactly like I would expect a record about space by a guy who is a master sound designer and dark music producer, but I’m not sure it is enough to make it work. In a way, it reminds me of those cooking shows where they give chefs some unexpected ingredients and ask them to whip something up. Of course the Italian chef is going to take whatever he’s given and make an Italian dish out of it!
I wonder if space is really as moody and creepy as Arecibo makes it out to be? On her album “Music from the Galaxies,” Dr. Fiorella Terenzi took a similar sound source and made something much more playful out of it. Trans Plutonian Transmissions would work perfectly as the soundtrack to a movie where the derelict spaceship is drifting off into space with its crew in peril, but it seems a little less honest than it could be given the explosive, violent, and energetic nature celestial bodies.
Perhaps Arecibo is about looking into the vast expanse of the universe and focusing on the emptiness and the dark matter, rather than the light and energy. I get that, and in 1994 that was really all I wanted to hear. Now, though there are parts of this record that I still like a lot, it doesn’t intrigue me as much as the idea of the same composer visiting this same idea with a new take on it.
In the annuls of folk exploration, no modern pairing has explored the outrageous and the traditional quite like Matt Valentine and Erika Elder. The variety of sounds, styles, and effects Valentine and Elder have mined to create their monstrous creations are infinite. This cornucopia is ever-present on the duo’s latest, Barn Nova, which introduces a hefty amount of country spice in MV + EE’s psychedelic stew.
The Caretaker is here to take listeners on a trip deep into the foggy subconscious mind where perception, memory, and dream all collapse into a syrupy void. If this six disc set isn't enough murky drone for a lifetime, I don't know what is.
In a long history of projects that I admire on a conceptual level more than I enjoy on a practical one, this limited edition six disc set has to be right up there. The Caretaker's entire raison d'être is to explore the vibe of a scene from Kubrick's The Shining through sound. Sure, there's a bit more to it as the well-written liner notes instruct, but the basic premise is really that simple. There's that scene in The Shining where the ghostly ballroom emerges and the caretaker seems dislocated in time, unable to distinguish the present from the past, the real from the imagined, or the dream state from the waking, and that's the backdrop for six full length cds of minimal drones. I should start by saying that the music is almost all beautiful, albeit in a creepy way. It appears to be composed of bits of sampled music that have been slowed down, stretched, and reverberated into near oblivion the way that a fistfull of sand is dispersed when you throw it against concrete.
To describe the music is to do the whole project a disservice. In fact, if this were the kind of release that was meant to be described by one person to another, there wouldn't be six discs of basically the same thing. At first, I was mesmerized by the basic sound design and the concept. I don't know that I was really letting go of myself in the kind of way that would be required for this set to work its full magic, but I was playing along. I popped in the second disc and was greeted with more of the same kind of grainy, slow, drifts of sound that populated the first disc. Ocassionally, there are tiny fragments of recognizable music the float into the mix like David Lynch's Lady in the Radiator playing DJ to a Christmas party. Still, trainspotting samples in a set like this is also beside the point.
By the time I was on the third disc, I started to realize that the whole enterprise was either a cruel joke (and V/Vm are known perhaps as much for their pranks and offbeat sense of humor as for their music) or the logical result of carrying out the experiment to lose touch with time and place quite seriously. Because by the third disc, I wasn't sure if I'd already heard these bits before on the first one. By the fourth disc, I was just skipping randomly through tracks and then listening back to the whole thing wondering what would happen if I had six cd players all plugged in to a 12 speaker surround sound setup. I found it almost impossible to concentrate on the music itself or on the mood it was evoking, as I was far too concerned with how the discs might be used in other ways; sped up to sound 'normal' or played backwards or all at once or sampled to make hip hop tracks--my mind was boggling.
At that point, I realized that the experience of Theoretically Pure Anterograde Amnesia is going to be both resolutely individual depending on the listener, and that the whole thing takes a certain kind of release of the will in order to work. I've never been good at sitting in one of those chairs where you strap on some LED flashing goggles while a guy plays you alpha wave inducing drones. I just can't let my conscious self go enough for that not to seem completely corny. In the same way, it feels like a six hour marathon of these discs without interruption would be the only way to truly grok what it is they are about. I must say that I'm absolutely curious what The Caretaker will be doing live to bring this experience to an audience. I'm glad to have this strange and beautiful but ultimately overwhelming artifact of their work if for no other reason than it's a terrific example of a simple idea manifest in a deeply challenging way.
The full 33 minutes of Once in a Full Moon stands as Black Sun Productions finest musical moment to date. This is an ambitious piece of moon music that covers the territory between lunacy, ambition and grace.
Those familiar with Massimo and Pierce’s website will recognize one of the central melodies of "Once in a Full Moon" from the site’s intro. As a welcome, it is like the ominous opening of a door into the site; here it is the full-blown panoramic view from the cliff edge into their world. This great thematic piece moves through several passages which all come together to form this greater whole. The music moves from swinging breeze chimes and bass choir passages that part the moon-obscuring clouds to Massimo and Pierce’s anything-but-innocent choirboy vocals. Their (almost) signature soundclash of percussive clangs, softer electronic pops and liquid sounds filter into the mix like invisible stitches, making this instantly recognisable.
Even though the drowned version of their "Johnny Over the Sea" comes after this heavily involving and lengthy listen, it still holds its own. With the song’s intro not so much drowned as pixel-fucked, the song grows to reveal greater space than "Once in a Full Moon." Broadcast from a distant shore, the droning undercurrent sounds keep a tense edge of loss and longing fresh in the mind. It might be reading a little too much into things, but this could be taken as another paean to the late Jhonn Balance. If it is, this Brecht piece (remade from BSP’s own Operttamorale) is a fitting tribute.
In the planning (and many faxes, emails and discussions in person) for 20 years, finally this stunning collaborative release for Cold Spring from Japanese Noise king Merzbow and legendary elemental sound artist Z'EV is here. The tracks were created in London and Tokyo, with each artist remixing the other's original sounds. Two tracks weighing in at 22 minutes apiece! Dark Ambient Noise in a special card digisleeve.
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Artist: Steven Severin Title: Blood Of A Poet Catalogue No: CSR135CD Barcode: 8 2356650482 5 Format: CD in hardback digisleeve with inner sleeve Genre: Dark Ambient / Soundtrack Shipping: Now
Acclaimed solo artist and founding member of the legendary Siouxsie and the Banshees, Steven Severin’s debut album for Cold Spring Records is titled "Blood Of A Poet (Le Sang d’un Poete). This album is his entire soundtrack to Jean Cocteau’s 1930 black & white surrealist classic and is the second in his ongoing series of "Music For Silents".
During their reign, Siouxsie & the Banshees established themselves as one of the foremost alternative artists and the only survivors of the London punk scene to evolve, innovate and succeed until their final demise in 2002. Severin has since committed himself almost exclusively to scoring for film & TV.
Since May 2008 Severin has been performing live accompaniment to silent films, startling audiences across the globe who have now come to expect the unexpected from the man who has crossed paths with such diverse luminaries as John Cale, Alan Moore, Jarboe, Lydia Lunch, Marc Almond, Merc Cunningham, Robert Smith and the Tiger Lillies. "Blood Of A Poet" received it’s premiere at the Silent Movie Theater in Hollywood in January this year and this October sees Severin embark on his first ever solo tour of the UK hosted by the Picturehouse chain of cinemas. View full tour details here.
The Wounded Hand | 2. Walking Statues | 3. L'Hôtel Des-Folies-Dramatiques | 4. Glory Forever | 5. The Snowball Fight | 6. The Desecration Of The Host | 7. The Card Sharp & The Angel | 8. The Lyre
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Artist: Band Of Pain Title: Sacred Flesh O.S.T. Catalogue No: CSR33CD Barcode: 0 1753326192 1 Format: CD in jewelcase Genre: Dark Ambient / Black Ambient / Soundtrack Shipping: Now
10 Year Anniversary reissue. Ltd x 666 copies only!
The soundtrack was written by Band Of Pain (aka Steve Pittis, ex-Splintered), creating a very dark, brooding atmosphere to compliment Nigel Wingroves' film. Sacred Flesh is dark journey into realms of mental anguish and repression; a very Black Ambient soundtrack. This is Band Of Pain working in the medium to which it is most suited. A incredible album with massive demand from both film and music distributors alike.
Tracks: 1. Sacred Flesh | 2. Elizabeth, Bride Of Christ | 3. Strength To Resist | 4. Submission | 5. In Media Vita | 6. Beat Out Desire | 7. Sacred Flesh - Full Extended Version | 8. The Ambush | 9. The Cell | 10. Sister Ann | 11. Sacred Erosion | 12. Revelations
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Artist: Goatvargr Title: Black Snow Epoch Catalogue No: CSR126CD Barcode: 8 2356649882 7 Format: CD in jewelcase with poster cover Genre: Black Industrial / Power Noise Shipping: Now
The second unholy union of Lord Nordvargr (MZ.412, Folkstorm, Toroidh etc) and Goat (USA). Time, pilgrimages and bloodlines have been bourn since the first testament of Goatvargr was witnessed in this era of false knowledge. The first covenant of Goatvargr was baleful, lycanthropic and lethiferous. A rejection of the techgnostic kingdom and circuitry idols which seduce our era. The downfall of light has brought a world of coldness. This Black Snow Epoch is a time to honour our forbearers such as MZ.412 and the elements of flesh, wood and alchemical steel. Industrial loops and analogue keyboards merge with sheet metal and chains to create a solemn winter hymn where the cold steel stings your flesh. The wolf instinctively hunts through the frost, and the goat is blamed for human transgressions, yet during the Black Snow Epoch, the true hunters will pursue.
Tracks: 1. Goatsbane / Scapewolf | 2. Bearer, Begetter, The Sovereign Wolf | 3. Dark Eyed And Frost Scorned | 4. Goatwalking | 5. Razed Under Cloven Hoof And Bloody Maw | 6. Wall Of Goat | 7. Wall Of Wolf | 8. A Black Drum Droning
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Artist: Fire In The Head Title: Confessions Of A Narcissist Catalogue No: CSR120CD Barcode: 8 2356649912 1 Format: CD in jewelcase Genre: Power Electronics Shipping: Now
"Confessions Of A Narcissist" marks the final full-length release by Fire In The Head ending six years of sonic warfare with an assault of manic, self-indulgent industrial electronics. Drawing as much influence from early punk / hardcore as from industrial / power electronics, F/I/T/H was conceived as a cathartic outlet to explore and ratify the delusions and social perversions resultant of psychosis and the darker side of man's conflicted dual nature, to fan the flames which engulf the borders between obsession, compulsion, lust and need. The tracks on this release were recorded in 2007-2008 and are the last of the "short, sharp, shock" vocal tracks which Michael abandoned in favour of "epic" length industrial / ambient compositions. Features guest appearances from Nick Blinko(Rudimentary Peni) and J. Randall (Agoraphobic Nosebleed), with exclusive artwork from Blinko. Stickered for stores.
Tracks: 1. Gag Order | 2. I'm Not Here To Coexist, I'm Here To Win | 3. Home Is Where The Whore Is | 4. Psychotic Underground Mk. II | 5. Get The Rope | 6. Narcissist's Mantra | 7. A Means To What End | 8. The Machinery Of Death | 9. Home Invasion | 10. Complacency Is Your Disgrace | 11. The Magi | 12. Some Dreams Last Forever | 13. Gag Order (Choked Again)
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Vague Terrain In addition to being the first non-Matmos release to surface on Martin Schmidt and Drew Daniel's Vague Terrain label, Unseen Forcesis also the debut release for the San Francisco audiovisual supergroupSagan. While an increasing number of electronic and experimentalartists are defining themselves as "audiovisual," Sagan is one of thefew I've encountered that have released the visual component of theirwork simultaneously to the audio component, thereby assuring that anaudience, beyond those who see a live performance, will be able toexperience their work in a proper context. The group is comprised ofelectronic heavyweights J. Lesser, Blevin Blectum, Jon Leidecker (AKAWobbly) and video artist Ryan Junell. It's an ambitious project thatpays homage to the late Carl Sagan, popular scientist, astronomer, andthe turtlenecked host of the seminal PBS series Cosmos. In wayof tribute to this looming hero of nerds, Sagan the group offers anhour-long excursion into the far-flung realms of the universe,eschewing the kind of glitched-up laptop pranks we might have expectedfrom these three, in favor of an unexpectedly cosmic amalgam ofanalogue synthesizers, field recordings and sample-driven electronica.The three musicians throw everything including the kitchen sink intothese twelve tracks, but somehow distill and process their many inputsinto a cohesive work that cannot be easily compared to anything thathas come before. The press notes try to make the case for a comparisonto 70s kosmische rockers Hawkwind and Vangelis, and while thoseinfluences are certainly present, it's a misleading way to characterizethe sounds on Unseen Forces. In the span of seven minutes,Sagan travel from windswept ambient spacescapes to crunchy rhythms andsquelching computer glitches; from a Gyorgi Ligeti choir of ghostlyvoices to sudden blasts of heavy metal guitar; from shuddering,synth-heavy science-class filmstrips to a jungle full of screechingmonkeys and cawing birds; from Middle Eastern breaks todigitally-obliterated gabbercore trance and subtle atmospheric passagesof tinkling piano. It may sound like a recipe for short-attention-spandilettantism or plunderphonia, but it's actually remarkably focused,and remains very much on the theme of science and that essential aweand wonder inherent in the infinite possibilities of the universe. Asentertaining as the music can be at times, it works even better incontext with the 40-minute video included on the DVD. In a series ofsilly-to-brilliant Viewmaster slide sketches, video artist Ryan Junellilluminates important scientific disoveries. In one of the openingsketches, a vivid illustration of the Big Bang is performed in front ofaudience by a group of flashlight-wielding astronomy enthusiasts in adark room. In the next sketch, M.C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel of Matmosreenact Pausianus' discovery of air as a substance, doubling as a gaypick-up scene in an ice cream parlor. I learned about the contentiouspartnership of early astronomers Tyco Brahe and Johannes Kepler in avery funny sketch involving quiche and a gold-plated nose. In anothermemorable sketch, Lesser and Blectum portray Pierre and Marie Curie,discovering radiation as well as their love for each other. The DVDalso includes six hours of MP3 audio, documenting Sagan's liveperformances. I'm very impressed by the amount of work put into thispackage, and the artists' genuine love and reverence for Carl Sagan andhis beloved scientific method is definitely contagious. It very nearlyqualifies as educational material, on a par with Charles and Ray Eames'The Powers of Ten, or anything that is genuinely able to make learning fun.
Merge American Music Club triumphantly return after ten years of absence. Foranybody not in-the-know, AMC is much more than Mark Eitzel's piercinglyrics and bleeding vocals: it's Vudi's chaotic guitar, Danny Pearson'sthree-string bass and simultaneous percussive playing acrobatics, TimMooney's shuffling rhtyhms, and Bruce Kaphan's pedal steel and piano(replaced this time around with lap steel by Vudi and piano by newmember Marc Capelle). While Eitzel has recorded and performed solo forthe last ten years, the perfectly paired sounds of the group with hisvoice—the disorder, discomfort, and awe-inspiring beauty—has been sadlymissed. These are sounds of a group which has been such a largeinfluence to so criminally few people. With 1991's Everclear,AMC perhaps recorded their first perfect album, flawless and intense,(conincidentally released at the time I discovered hard liquor!). Theyupped the stakes with 1993's Mercury, a bold album of theirbrand of slow yet raw tunes where the group experimented with new waysof composing and recording, all of which fit into a perfect mix. Ofcourse, for their Warner Bros. bosses, it wasn't enough, and I'm surethe pressure was on for them to have a "hit single." 1994's San Franciscowas probably their most sonically digestible album, primed for popradio, but it didn't feel like everybody was quite on board. Inretrospect, it's no surprise Eitzel was probably frustrated, called ita day, fired everybody, and went solo. Love Songs for Patriotsopens with Eitzel's voice front stage center, with the familiar soundof AMC's past blasting through like an unstoppable train that'sexploded in a tunnel as the smoke and fire move through, ready to comeout the other end, faster and hotter. The gentle songs like "AnotherMorning," "Love Is," and especially "Myopic Books" are excellentbreathers: sweet, gentle, sandwiched in between the rough and loudsongs, and echo fan favorites like "Last Harbor" and "Jenny."Content-wise, Eitzel's lyrics are as brilliant as they have ever been,with new stories about love and god, almost entirely void of rhymescheme, and requiring intense group therapy for any listener who'sactually paying attention. It's for his lyrics alone that make AMC andEitzel a terrible band to listen to in the car, as a driver needs to bepaying attention to the road, not the male stripper with underwear fullof George Washingtons, the star of the brilliant tune "Patriot'sHeart," or Mark's mom who likes Manhattans, which he says "taste likemouthwash." (Even Kathleen makes her way onto this record!) Like Coilonce were encouraging "deep listening" to delicately layeredinstrumental music, American Music Club is "deep listening" for lyricalcontent, super soaked in emotion with obscure references to reitred popicons, the bible, and idealized Americana. Eitzel is equal parts dramaand comedy and only with AMC do I feel he's truly meeting his match atthe same time, all the time. I look forward to their upcoming tour andhope this isn't just a one-off reunion, as AMC is one of the mostinfluential bands to my own musical taste evolution and maturation.