After two weekends away, the backlog has become immense, so we present a whopping FOUR new episodes for the spooky season!
Episode 717 features Medicine, Fennesz, Papa M, Earthen Sea, Nero, memotone, Karate, ØKSE, Otis Gayle, more eaze, Jon Mueller, and Lauren Auder + Wendy & Lisa.
Episode 718 has The Legendary Pink Dots, Throbbing Gristle, Von Spar / Eiko Ishibashi / Joe Talia / Tatsuhisa Yamamoto, Ladytron, Cate Brooks, Bill Callahan, Jill Fraser, Angelo Harmsworth, Laibach, and Mike Cooper.
Episode 719 music by Angel Bat Dawid, Philip Jeck, A.M. Blue, KMRU, Songs: Ohia, Craven Faults, tashi dorji, Black Rain, The Ghostwriters, Windy & Carl.
Episode 720 brings you tunes from Lewis Spybey, Jules Reidy, Mogwai, Surya Botofasina, Patrick Cowley, Anthony Moore, Innocence Mission, Matt Elliott, Rodan, and Sorrow.
Photo of a Halloween scene in Ogunquit by DJ Jon.
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Deep Frosty bandleader Steve Ruecker is a legend to some, a much loved participant in the California rock scene who often hosts barnburning jams at his house in Encinitas. Enlisting Ben Flashman from Los Angeles and Utrillo Kushner from Oakland (Noel Von Harmonson and Ben Chasny guest) of Comets on Fire, Blues Band could be 2017's great rock record. Guitar progressions undergo a classic Quicksilver treatment, as Ruecker's sincere, Roky-esque vocals make testament to the plight of the indigenous, the horror of modern times, and the hopeless beauty of heartbreak. The band's pure enthusiasm coupled with a distaste for complacency seeps through like blood on fabric, making Blues Band a raw and rocking joy to hear.
High Rise exploded onto Tokyo’s underground music scene with the roar and reckless abandon of a motorcycle accelerating headlong into a dead man’s curve. Born from the explosive chemistry of bassist/vocalist Asahito Nanjo and frenetic guitarist Munehiro Narita, the band blazed a wild new stream of psychedelic guitar music. Their second album, High Rise II, is a defining document of the band and unquestionably one of the greatest albums to emerge from 20th century underground Japan and beyond. With Nanjo’s distorted thunder bass and Narita’s wildly narrative lead guitar playing, High Rise II is a non-stop tour de force of improvised rock music. Combining elements of garage rock, punk and no wave, the band pushed all levels fully in-the-red and transcended the limits of rock and psychedelia to create a raw, unique expansion of the music.
Black Editions is proud to present High Rise II, newly mixed and mastered by Asahito Nanjo in what the band states is the definitive version of their most quintessential recording. Housed in heavy Stoughton tip-on jackets this new edition restores the original vinyl version’s textured black and silver artwork. Insert with unreleased band photographs included. Pressed onto high quality vinyl by RTI.
In the field of music or any contemporary cultural terrain, concepts like development dynamics and progression are used as aesthetic judgement. To any musician or composer, the idea of musical build up comes with a crisis, any attempt towards formal pleasure calls for suspicion that this desire is never one’s own.
In the case of Orchestra of Constant Distress this deadlock manifests itself in an impulse of refusal directed against any evolution and the result is the extreme generic and the absolute distress of normative noise and improvisation. Members with such experiences from The Skull Defekts, Union Carbide Productions, Brainbombs and No Balls are joined in assemblage of catatonic sounds, obstinate riffs and rigid rhythms.
"Just when you think something is about to happen, it doesn't." Review of debut album.
ORCHESTRA OF CONSTANT DISTRESS are :
Joachim Nordwall (The Skull Defekts, iDEAL Recordings)
Anders Bryngelsson (Brainbombs, No Balls)
Henrik Rylander (The Skull Defekts, Union Carbide Productions)
Chris Carter's Chemistry Lessons Volume One is populated with insistent melodic patterns and a distinct sense of wonderment at the limitless possibilities of science. "If there’s an influence on the album, it's definitely '60s radiophonic,” Carter says. "Over the last few years I’ve also been listening to old English folk music, almost like a guilty pleasure, and so some of tracks on the album hark back to an almost ingrained DNA we have for those kinds of melodies. They’re not dissimilar to nursery rhymes in some ways."
That combination of traditional music and the backing track for exciting, potential futures gives tracks like "Moon Two" and "Tangerines" a sheen of inquisitiveness and quiet euphoria, while "Modularity" and "Roane" have an anxious, sci-fi noir charm. Elsewhere skewed voices add a calming, human note to the album. Carter explains, "Sleazy and I had worked together on ways of developing a sort of artificial singing using software and hardware. This was me trying to take it a step further. I've taken lyrics, my own voice or people’s voices from a collection that I’d put together with Sleazy, and I've chopped them up and done all sorts of weird things with them." These moments sit alongside tracks where melodies have a dissonant, noisy, awkwardness that ties the music on CCCL Volume 1 back to the Throbbing Gristle legacy.
As a founding member of Throbbing Gristle alongside Cosey Fanni Tutti, Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson and Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Chris Carter has had a significant role in the development of electronic music – a journey which has continued through his releases as one half of Chris & Cosey and Carter Tutti and a third of Carter Tutti Void – as well as with his own solo and collaborative releases.
He is also credited with the invention and production of groundbreaking electronics – from the legendary Gristleizer home-soldered effects unit through to the Dirty Carter Experimental Sound Generating Instrument and the sold-out TG One Eurorack module designed with Tiptop Audio (issued to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of Throbbing Gristle’s Second Annual Report) – Carter has created the means to make sounds as well as making the sounds themselves.
The 25-track album was recorded in Carter’s own Norfolk studio and the artwork and accompanying videos were self-created, taking cues in part from battered old experimental BBC broadcast LPs.
Despite having been worked on over an extended period between various artistic projects in a variety of different moods, situations and circumstances, CCCL Volume 1’s experiments never feel like Carter noodling around aimlessly in his studio-laboratory. Instead there is an inner coherence and a distinctively Chris Carter approach to sound and execution that showcases the sonic scientist’s restless, questing creative spirit forever scouting for new ideas.
Out March 30th, 2018. More information can be found here.
Once again it's time to thank everyone for their participation in the Brainwashed Annual Readers Poll. As always, the Readers Poll doesn't particularly represent what the staff and writers feel are the best and worst of the year, but we happily once again provide commentary. All the best for 2018!
Album of the Year
Slowdive, "Slowdive" (Dead Oceans)
"This was more of a solid comeback than an Album of the Year candidate for me, but I cannot think of any other band that I wanted to see return more than Slowdive." -Anthony D'Amico
"I like the album a _lot_, however there are some fantastic albums over the last year or two by Monster Movie, Simon Scott, Minor Victories, and Black Hearted Brother that have largely gone unnoticed. At least Monster Movie's album should have placed in the top 100 this year because it was as least as strong as this record." - Jon Whitney
Gas, "Narkopop" (Kompakt)
Drew McDowall, "Unnatural Channel" (Dais)
"McDowall’s first album sounded like the raw material for a great lost Coil album. This one sounds like a good noise tape from the ‘80s. I certainly liked it, but I am surprised that it placed this high." –Anthony D'Amico
The Caretaker, "Everywhere at the end of time - Stage 3" (History Always Favours the Winners)
Swans, "Deliquescence" (Young God)
"Swans are dead, again. And again, Michael Gira marks the occasion with a live album that underscores the power of the band and highlights how, even though the studio albums are great, Swans are at heart an entity to be experienced live." - John Kealy
The Caretaker, "Everywhere at the end of time - Stage 2" (History Always Favours the Winners)
Emptyset, "Borders" (Thrill Jockey)
"This is the album where Emptyset stopped sounding like cerebral, architecture-inspired sound art and started sounding like they were instead trying to reduce all of the architecture around them to rubble." –Anthony D'Amico
Lawrence English, "Cruel Optimism" (Room40)
"English is consistently excellent and his live performance is mesmerizing and cathartic, too." - Duncan Edwards
Gnod, "Just Say No To The Psycho Right-Wing Capitalist Fascist Industrial Death Machine" (Rocket)
"I like several albums by this shape-shifting collective, but the thuggish, bludgeoning vitriol of this bombshell suits them especially well. Just Say No sounds like Crass and early Swans mashed together into a gloriously pummeling outpouring of righteous rage." -Anthony D'Amico
Godflesh, "Post Self" (Avalanche)
"G.C. Green plus a drum machine is still one of the most crushingly heavy rhythm sections in music." -Anthony D'Amico
"Since the last two were more old school metal-sounding Godflesh, I was expecting more of the same (not that that would be a bad thing). However, this went in an entirely different direction, and it works extremely well." - Creaig Dunton
William Basinski, "A Shadow In Time" (Temporary Residence)
"I was not wild about the title piece, but Basinski’s elegy for David Bowie is an achingly beautiful and dreamlike feast of simmering emotion, mesmerizing repetition, and slow-burning intensity." –Anthony D'Amico
Alessandro Cortini, "Avanti" (The Point of Departure Recording Company)
Wire, "Silver / Lead" (Pink Flag)
"I am glad that Wire is remaining active and putting out new material, but I find it increasingly harder to tell one album apart from another." - Creaig Dunton
"This one gets better for me with each listen and has such a strong finish with some of my favorite songs of the year." - Jon Whitney
Godspeed You! Black Emperor, "Luciferian Towers" (Constellation)
"On one hand, you could argue that this is Godspeed by numbers but on the other, it is a satisfying album that ticks a lot of boxes for me - it has majesty, it has power, and it moves me on multiple levels." - John Kealy
The Bug vs Earth, "Concrete Desert" (Ninja Tune)
"I really wanted to love this but I couldn't quite connect with it, despite being a big fan of both artists. I don't know what I expected but it was a touch underwhelming. Maybe I just need to play it louder?" - John Kealy
Diamanda Galás, "All The Way" (Intravenal Sound Operations)
"Nothing commands attention more on this list than this record." - Jon Whitney
The Necks, "Unfold" (Ideologic Organ)
Colin Stetson, "All This I Do For Glory" (52 Hz)
Leyland Kirby, "We, So Tired Of All The Darkness In Our Lives" (History Always Favours the Winners)
Colleen, "A flame my love, a frequency" (Thrill Jockey)
"The best music coming out of synths are from people who can make the best music without the use of synths. It doesn't matter what instrumentation Cecile Schott chooses, it's always an excellent listen." - Jon Whitney
Richard Skelton, "Towards a Frontier" (Corbel Stone Press)
UUUU, "UUUU" (Editions Mego)
Sarah Davachi, "All My Circles Run" (Students of Decay)
"An absolutely mesmerizing album. I am completely hooked start to finish." - Jon Whitney
""For Voice" finds that elusive place where angelic beauty and darkness blur seamlessly together. It's like a Siren is luring me into the fog to kill me with drone music that is too heavenly for human ears." -Anthony D'Amico
Aaron Dilloway, "The Gag File" (Dais)
"Dilloway takes noise into a wonderfully charismatic, broken, and blackly funny place. The Gag File makes me feel like a lonely phantom damned to endlessly wander through a disjointed fantasia of deserted carnivals, bad parties, and sad hotel rooms." -Anthony D'Amico
Anjou, "Epithymía" (Kranky)
A Winged Victory for the Sullen, "Iris" (Erased Tapes)
"This soundtrack has some lovely passages on it that are easily equal to the "proper" Winged Victory albums but for some reason it hasn't made it to my turntable quite as often as it should have. My new year's resolution is to love my records more." - John Kealy
Bill Orcutt, "Bill Orcutt" (Palilalia)
"Bill Orcutt has long been a guitar visionary, but this album presented his art in a more accessible, melodic way without sacrificing much bite. He unrecognizably snaps and scrabbles his way through standards like "When You Wish Upon A Star" like it is his last night on earth and he is battling for his soul: sometimes tender, sometimes visceral, always soulful, occasionally verging on the ecstatic." -Anthony D'Amico
Richard H. Kirk, "Daesin" (Intone)
"A great surprise in that Kirk channeled some of the early CV noisy guitar vibes into his solo work, an excellent added layer of depth." - Creaig Dunton
Windy & Carl, "Blues for a UFO" (Blue Flea)
The Tear Garden, "The Brown Acid Caveat" (Metropolis)
"This probably was not the album that anyone was expecting Key and Ka-Spel to make, but it is quite a wonderfully eclectic, absorbing, and adventurous whole. The disco-tinged "Strange Land" was an especially delightful left-field treat." -Anthony D'Amico
Amanda Palmer & Edward Ka-Spel, "I Can Spin A Rainbow" (8ft Records)
Elodie, "Vieux Silence" (Ideologic Organ)
"The gently rippling and shivering drone nirvana of the title piece is one of the most achingly beautiful things that I heard all year." -Anthony D'Amico
Félicia Atkinson, "Hand In Hand" (Shelter Press)
"The best moments of this album resemble a strange dream in which a mysterious woman whispers an elusively cryptic confession in my ear. Atkinson's recent focus on more intimate, voice-based work has taken her art in quite a striking, unnerving, and unique direction." -Anthony D'Amico
Ben Frost, "The Centre Cannot Hold" (Mute)
Rafael Anton Irisarri, "The Shameless Years" (Umor Rex)
Ben Frost, "Threshold of Faith" (Mute)
Six Organs of Admittance, "Burning The Threshold" (Drag City)
Mount Eerie, "A Crow Looked At Me" (P.W. Elverum & Sun, Ltd.)
"Phil Elverum's tribute to his late wife is a raw, beautiful, and deeply intimate gut-punch of an album." -Anthony D'Amico
Benoît Pioulard, "Lignin Poise" (Beacon Sound)
"Both this and Slow Spark were absolutely gorgeous. Thomas Meluch's wobbly, hiss-drenched drone reveries are pure bliss." -Anthony D'Amico
Chelsea Wolfe, "Hiss Spun" (Sargent House)
Porter Ricks, "Anguilla Electrica" (Tresor)
*AR, "Earth By Means of the Currents" (Corbel Stone Press)
"Richard Skelton and Autumn Richardson's inspirations seem to get more arcane and hermetic with each release, but the warm, langourous drone heaven of "The Primary Menstruum" shows that they are still at the peak of their powers." -Anthony D'Amico
Abul Mogard, "Nervous Hydra / All This Has Passed Forever" (Ecstatic)
"Abul Mogard quietly released some of his most rapturous and essential work this year, as "All This Has Passed Forever" is sublimely gorgeous. His largely unheard remix tucked away on the bonus disc of Fovea Hex's Salt Garden II was great too." -Anthony D'Amico
Cон, "Cон Plays Everall" (Hallow Ground)
Circuit Des Yeux, "Reaching for Indigo" (Drag City)
Ryuichi Sakamoto, "async" (Milan)
The Inward Circles, "And Right Lines Limit And Close All Bodies" (Corbel Stone Press)
"I think I prefer the simpler and more melodic Scaleby EP, but Right Lines occasionally recaptures the crushing elemental power that made Nimrod is Lost such a stunner." -Anthony D'Amico
Wolf Eyes, "Undertow" (Lower Floor)
"Undertow is pointlessly padded by filler, but the more substantial moments take rock music to a compellingly broken and sickly place that only Wolf Eyes can find." -Anthony D'Amico
Bardo Pond, "Under The Pines" (Fire)
Ex Eye, "Ex Eye" (Relapse)
Benoit Pioulard, "Slow Spark, Soft Spoke" (Dauw)
Andrea Belfi, "Ore" (Float)
Aidan Baker / Simon Goff / Thor Harris, "Noplace" (Gizeh)
Alan Vega, "IT" (Fader)
Second Woman, "S/W" (Spectrum Spools)
Caterina Barbieri, "Patterns of Consciousness" (Important)
"Inspired by baroque lute music and a desire to fracture consciousness through subtle shifts in trancelike pattern repetition, Patterns of Consciousness is an overwhelming, disorienting, and subtly psychotropic tour de force." -Anthony D'Amico
Elodie, "Balayes de la Main du Hasard" (Faraway Press)
Grails, "Chalice Hymnals" (Temporary Residence)
Noveller, "A Pink Sunset For No One" (Fire)
""Deep Shelter" was the most swooningly gorgeous song of the year." -Anthony D'Amico
Pan Daijing, "Lack " (Pan)
Earthen Sea, "An Act of Love" (kranky)
The Caretaker, "Take Care, It's A Desert Out There..." (History Always Favours the Winners)
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, "The Kid" (Western Vinyl)
"This album is seemingly on every Best of 2017 list that I have seen this year and I could not get into it at all. I am now completely paranoid that something might be wrong with me." -Anthony D'Amico
Do Make Say Think, "Stubborn Persistent Illusions" (Constellation)
The Inward Circles, "Scaleby" (Corbel Stone Press)
Oxbow, "Thin Black Duke" (Hydra Head)
TALsounds, "Love Sick" (Ba Da Bing!)
"Natalie Chami achieved the seemingly impossible with her her debut full-length: she made synth improvisations seem sultry, sensuous, and emotionally resonant." -Anthony D'Amico
Zola Jesus, "Okovi" (Sacred Bones)
"Very painful and personal, it's a fantastic record which has demonstrated how much she continues to evolve and mature as a singer and songwriter." - Jon Whitney
Zu, "Jhator" (House Of Mythology)
Ulaan Passerine, "The Landscape of Memory" (Worstward)
F ingers, "Awkwardly Blissing Out" (Blackest Ever Black)
Ian William Craig, "Live in Durbē" (self-released)
"I hope I get a chance to see him live some day." - Jon Whitney
Big Brave, "Ardor" (Southern Lord)
Simon Fisher Turner, "Giraffe" (Editions Mego)
Norman Westberg, "Jasper Sits Out" (Room40)
"Every single one of Westberg's unearthed solo releases has been a quiet gem of hypnotic, understated minimalism. Jasper Sits Out is no different and "Homeset Trunc" might be his most gorgeously perfect piece yet." -Anthony D'Amico
Actress, "AZD" (Ninja Tune)
Marissa Nadler, "Leave the Light On: Bedroom Recordings" (Sacred Bones)
Xiu Xiu, "Forget" (Polyvinyl)
"It is nice to see Jamie Stewart back on another hot streak, as his album of Twin Peaks covers was stellar and Forget's "Wondering" is easily one of the most perfect "pop" songs of his career." –Anthony D’Amico
Mary Lattimore, "Collected Pieces" (Ghostly International)
"Such a beautiful collection." - Jon Whitney
"This modest collection of odds and ends sneakily contained some of Lattimore's finest work. The bittersweetly lovely "Wawa By The Ocean" still kills me absolutely every time I hear it." –Anthony D'Amico
Edward Ka-Spel, "High on Station Yellow Moon" (Soleilmoon)
Astrïd & Rachel Grimes, "Through the Sparkle" (Gizeh)
Ian William Craig, "Slow Vessels" (130701)
"I absolutely melt with vocal songs like "A Single Hope." Even though this album features reinterpretations of songs on last year's Centres, it's possibly even a stronger record." - Jon Whitney
Drøne, "A Perfect Blind" (Pomperipossa)
ADULT., "Detroit House Guests" (Mute)
thisquietarmy, "Democracy of Dust" (Midira)
Claire M. Singer, "Fairge" (Touch)
Vatican Shadow, "Luxor Necropolitics" (Hospital)
"As one of the VS apologists, I found this the weaker of this year's two solo releases. But it has a nice throwback sound to the early tapes I guess." - Creaig Dunton
Xordox, "Neospection" (Editions Mego)
Single of the Year
Carla dal Forno, "The Garden" (Blackest Ever Black)
"Four great songs in a row. An absolutely perfect EP." -Anthony D'Amico
"This was a real surprise for me, a beautiful release in every respect. "We Shouldn't Have to Wait" is one of my songs of the year, and the reimagining of Einstürzende Neubauten's "The Garden" is wonderful." - John Kealy
"I love this EP more and more with each listen. I can't wait for the next full-length and to hopefully finally see her live." - Jon Whitney
Emptyset, "Skin" (Thrill Jockey)
"Trying to make an entirely acoustic EP was certainly a challenging and adventurous move, but I hope the experiment is now over. Emptyset is infinitely better without such constraints." –Anthony D’Amico
Coil, "Another Brown World/Baby Food" (Sub Rosa)
"It's very nice to see this available on vinyl, two great dips into the weird world of Coil. I'm not entirely sold on the artwork though but it sounds terrific." - John Kealy
Fovea Hex, "The Salt Garden II" (Headphone Dust)
"While I think Carla dal Forno deserves the top spot, this stunning EP should be at least at second place. I've harped on about how astounding Fovea Hex are since the very beginning and I continue to be amazed by what Clodagh Simonds and her group of elves unveil to the world." - John Kealy
Coil, "Cold Cell in Bangkok" (Optimo)
"Well, this exists." - John Kealy
"Exciting to see someone finally overtake Muslimgauze in posthumous productivity. 2017 was truly a year of surprises." -Anthony D'Amico
Kara-Lis Coverdale, "Grafts" (Boomkat Editions)
"This EP completely floored me. Grafts sounds sounds like a languorous and heavenly bit of chamber pop filtered through a dream where time fluidly blurs, stretches, and undulates." –Anthony D'Amico
Slowdive, "Sugar for the Pill" (Dead Oceans)
Second Woman, "E/P" (Spectrum Spools)
Cон, "Cонgs" (Editions Mego)
Pye Corner Audio, "Island of Ghosts" (Analogical Force)
Biosphere, "Black Mesa" (Biophon)
Windy & Carl, "Godzilla of Snow/Witch & A Cauldron" (Blue Flea)
Biosphere, "The Petrified Forest" (Biophon)
Wolf Eyes, "Strange Days II" (Lower Floor)
Deepchord, "Northern Shores" (Soma)
Soft Kill, "Five Point" (Weyrd Son)
Soft Kill, "Insider" (Self-released)
The Residents, "Santa Dog '17" (Cryptic Corp)
Grouper, "Children" (Self-released)
Nurse With Wound, "Franz Kafka - Rapport À Une Académie" (Lenka Lente)
"These little EPs and books are wonderfully odd and offer a nice, low key way for Steve Stapleton to tease us with new pieces of music - a surrogate for appearing on loads of compilations like in the olden days. The 3" CD format is a bit annoying though in this age of slot CD drives." - John Kealy
Ian William Craig / Olivier Alary, "Remixes" (130701)
Amanda Palmer, "Drowning In The Sound" (Self-released)
Amanda Palmer & Edward Ka-Spel, "The Hands" (8ft Records)
Deepchord, "Campfire" (Soma)
Delia Gonzalez, "Hidden Song" (DFA)
Saint Etienne, "Magpie Eyes" (Heavenly)
JK Flesh, "Exit Stance" (Downwards)
John T. Gast, "wygdn " (Blackest Ever Black)
Sophie, "It's Okay To Cry" (Transgressive)
Acteurs, "Corridor" (MILD VILNC)
Pessimist, "Through The Fog / Peter Hitchens " (Blackest Ever Black)
Suzanne Ciani, "Fish Music" (Finders Keepers)
CCFX, "CCFX" (DFA)
Loren Connors, "Angels That Fall" (Family Vineyard)
The The, "We Can't Stop What's Coming" (Lazarus)
"While the physical release of this seems to have evaporated almost immediately, I have been streaming the hell out of this. I'm lukewarm on The The after Dusk but this is up there with classic The The for me." - John Kealy
Goat, "Goatfuzz" (Rocket Recordings)
Vault/Reissue of the Year
Cosey Fanni Tutti, "Time To Tell" (Industrial)
"This looks stunning, sounds great, and comes at a perfect time when Cosey Fanni Tutti is getting the attention and praise she has always deserved. Listening to this after reading her book, it is impressive to note how consistent and measured her work in every medium has been since the first Throbbing Gristle releases to now." - John Kealy
"I had never heard this album before this year and it totally blindsided me. I think I actually like this more than Throbbing Gristle." -Anthony D'Amico
"It's a fantastic record to begin with and a beautifully done package and remaster." - Jon Whitney
Current 93, "Thunder Perfect Mind" (The Spheres)
"Not sure how I feel about the updated back cover, but it's still nice to have this on a record without paying ridiculous prices." - Jon Whitney
"This is not quite my favorite Current 93 album, but it is one of the first ones that I ever heard, so it totally blew my mind and will always hold a special place in my heart. And now it will finally hold a special place in my vinyl shelf as well. Current 93's golden age started here and "All The Stars are Dead Now" remains one of David Tibet's most transcendent and timeless flashes of brilliance." –Anthony D'Amico
Nurse With Wound, "Spiral insana" (Rotorelief)
Can, "Singles" (Mute)
"Nice to have for archival purposes but this didn't do a whole lot for me." - John Kealy
"Such a weird release considering Can were never a singles band. Nice for the few single-only releases ("Turtles Have Short Legs" is perfect), but the albums are by far the better choice." - Creaig Dunton
Akira Rabelais, "Spellewauerynsherde" (Boomkat)
"Rabelais' haunting and vaporous processing of some forgotten Icelandic folk choir tapes sounds like a field recording from the spirit world. If there is a heaven, it probably sounds exactly like this." –Anthony D'Amico
Psychic TV, "Allegory and Self" (Dais/Sacred Bones)
"Psychic TV's would-be pop breakthrough turned out to be kind of a half-baked, band-destroying mess, but "Just Like Arcadia" is certainly a wonderful glimpse into what may have been if things had not gone so dreadfully wrong." -Anthony D'Amico
Bark Psychosis, "Hex" (Fire)
Coil, "Time Machines" (Dais)
"PERSISTENCE IS ALL." - John Kealy
"Why yes, this is indeed my favorite Coil album. Thanks for asking." -Anthony D'Amico
Keiji Haino, "Watashi Dake?" (Black Editions)
"Given how hard even the CD reissue from the '90s is to find now, this is a gift to fans of experimental and improvisational music. Even in Haino's vast and varied back catalogue, this is a seriously unusual piece of work and well deserving of the fancy reissue treatment." - John Kealy
"An especially bizarre and cathartic album by an artist who has made an entire career out of being bizarre and cathartic." -Anthony D'Amico
Leyland Kirby, "Sadly, The Future Is No Longer What It Was (Part Three: Memories Live Longer Than Dreams)" (History Always Favours the Winners)
Diamanda Galás, "At Saint Thomas the Apostle Harlem" (Intravenal Sound Operations)
Psychic TV, "Pagan Day" (Dais/Sacred Bones)
"Despite being a modest and uneven collection of 4-track sketches that was initially only available for a single day, Pagan Day features some of the most enduring and charismatic moments of Alex Fergusson-era PTV. "Farewell" and "New Sexuality" are both legitimate classics." -Anthony D'Amico
Leyland Kirby, "Sadly, The Future Is No Longer What It Was (Part Two: Sadly, The Future Is No Longer What It Was)" (History Always Favours the Winners)
Midori Takada, "Through The Looking Glass" (We Release Whatever The Fuck We Want)
"Do I really need to say how vital this is? It's really fucking vital." - John Kealy
Spacemen 3, "Playing With Fire" (Space Age)
Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda, "The Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda" (Luaka Bop)
"This collection of Coltrane's largely unheard private-press cassettes of ashram music was one of the year's most revelatory surprises, resembling an almost psychedelic blurring together of gospel and Eastern devotional music." -Anthony D'Amico
Terry Riley, "Persian Surgery Dervishes" (Aguirre)
Nazoranai, "Beginning To Fall In Line Before Me, So Decorously, The Nature Of All That Must Be Transformed" (W. 25th)
"Haino's trios with Oren Ambarchi are as good as Fushitsusha, if not better in places. Nazoranai (with Stephen O'Malley) so far lack the range and scope of the Haino/Ambarchi/O'Rourke trio but they certainly bring the crushing void of nihilism straight into your living room." - John Kealy
Spacemen 3, "For All the Fucked Up Children" (Space Age)
Biosphere, "Cirque" (Biophon)
Tony Conrad, "Ten Years Alive On The Infinite Plain" (Superior Viaduct)
"It's always nice to hear more Tony Conrad, especially now that he has left us for another infinite plain. This is a brilliant document of the New York avant garde scene, hopefully it is just a taste of more to come." - John Kealy
Bohren & Der Club of Gore, "Geisterfaust" (PIAS)
Flying Saucer Attack, "In Search of Spaces" (VHF)
Spacemen 3, "Recurring" (Space Age)
"As I recall this was their final release. A memorable mix of "Just To See You Smile" to which I am still addicted." - Duncan Edwards
Elodie, "La Porte Ouverte" (Faraway Press)
Nurse With Wound, "The Swinging Reflective II" (Dirter)
Annie Anxiety, "Soul Possession" (Dais)
Dub Syndicate, "The Pounding System" (On-U Sound)
"The best thing about this album is that it made me go back and listen to some of the classic Creation Rebel records that Adrian Sherwood produced. This has some cool moments, but nothing compared Starship Africa or Psychedelic Jonkanoo." -Anthony D'Amico
The Tear Garden, "Eye Spy vol. 2" (Subconscious)
Curve, "Cuckoo" (3 Loop)
Laraaji, "Ambient 3: Day of Radiance" (Glitterbeat)
Harry Partch, "And On The Seventh Day Petals Fell In Petaluma" (New World)
Glenn Jones, "Against Which The Sea Continually Beats" (Thrill Jockey)
The Melvins, "Eggnog/Lice All" (Boner)
Glenn Jones, "This Is the Wind That Blows It Out" (Thrill Jockey)
Luc Ferrari, "Hétérozygote / Petite Symphonie" (Recollection GRM)
Various Artist Compilation of the Year
"Mono No Aware" (Pan)
"Tokyo Flashback" (Black Editions)
"This was the big bang for modern psychedelicism. Black Editions have turned it into a bigger bang. Scorching music given a loving and beautiful vinyl reissue. It cost me a small fortune to get it in Europe but it was worth it. That said, Black Editions, if you're reading, please sort out something to make getting these releases available outside the US at a price that doesn't require a mortgage!" - John Kealy
"I was actually somewhat underwhelmed by Tokyo Flashback when I first heard it, as I was expecting the Holy Grail of Japanese psychedelia. I am sure that it seemed like exactly that when it first appeared, but some of that albums that followed in its wake (Mainliner, Musica Transonic, etc.) make this collection feel comparatively tame now." -Anthony D'Amico
"The Folklore of Plants Vol.I" (Folklore Tapes)
"A mesmerizing tapestry of strange, eclectic, and mysterious vignettes inspired by the plant world." -Anthony D'Amico
"Even A Tree Can Shed Tears: Japanese Folk & Rock 1969-1973" (Light In The Attic)
"Sammlung: Elektronische Kassettenmusik, Dusseldorf 1982-1989" (Bureau B)
"Girls In The Garage Volume 10 - Groovy Gallic Gals!" (Past & Present)
"Girls In The Garage Volume 9 - Oriental Special" (Past & Present)
"Bingo! French Punk Exploitation 1978-1981" (Born Bad)
"Studio One Rocksteady Volume 2 (Rocksteady, Soul And Early Reggae At Studio One: The Soul Of Young Jamaica)" (Soul Jazz)
"Studio One Supreme (Maximum 70s & 80s Early Dancehall Sounds)" (Soul Jazz)
"Pop Makossa: The Invasive Dance Beat of Cameroon 1976-1984" (Analog Africa)
"Another characteristically great collection from Analog Africa. The dance beat of Cameroon is welcome to invade my apartment whenever it wants." -Anthony D'Amico
"Magnetband - Experimenteller Elektronik-Underground DDR 1984-1989" (Bureau B)
"Total 17" (Kompakt)
"The Gamelan Of The Walking Warriors: Gamelan Beleganjur And The Music Of The Ngaben Funerary Ritual In Bali" (Akuphone)
"Inner Peace: Rare Spiritual Funk And Jazz Gems - The Supreme Sound Of Producer Bob Shad" (We Want Sounds)
"Sweet As Broken Dates: Lost Somali Tapes From The Horn Of Africa" (Ostinato)
"This was quite a delightful surprise indeed. It is heartening to see another label turn up with such an unerring ear for unearthing international treasures, especially since Soundway and Sublime Frequencies have been so comparatively quiet lately." -Anthony D'Amico
The Caretaker, "Everywhere At the End of Time Stages 1-3" (History Always Favours the Winners)
"To use a darts analogy, The Caretaker's arrows hit the target. His Stairway To The Stars blue vinyl set was the equivalent of a nine dart finish. Stage 1 of this box set is another bullseye. I take my time with his releases and am always rewarded." - Duncan Edwards
Nurse With Wound, "Dark Fat" (Dirtier)
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft, "Das Ist DAF" (Grönland)
The Residents, "80 Aching Orphans" (Cherry Red)
Pere Ubu, "Drive, He Said" (Fire)
Dub Syndicate, "Ambience In Dub" (On-U Sound)
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, "Lovely Creatures" (Mute)
The Sun Ra Arkestra, "Singles Volume 2: The Definitive 45s Collection 1962-1991" (Strut)
"With several brilliant exceptions even as far back as 1959, Sun Ra albums are a risk, since they can be patchy or poorly recorded. One of the joys of my life was seeing him perform, even in his declining health, but the most exciting thing about the first collection was the hilarious shock of the title. Sun Ra? Singles? I shall not be shelling out to discover if Vol 2 is any better." - Duncan Edwards
Coil/Black Sun Productions, "Plastic Spider Thing" (Rustblade)
"Yes because out of all the out-of-print Coil releases, this was the one that needed a box set. This is an awful album and really isn't a Coil release at all." - John Kealy
Shelleyan Orphan, "Shelleyan Orphan" (One Little Indian)
Big Star, "Complete Third: Vol. 3: Final Masters" (Omnivore)
"The deconstructed and agonizing pop-soul of Alex Chilton - who naturally ended up in New Orleans listening to gospel music and local neo-garage groups." - Duncan Edwards
Blancmange, "The Blanc Tapes" (Edsel)
Merzbow, "Pornoise 1 KG" (ZSF)
"Mid 1980s Merzbow is the best Merzbow, so this is a solid six hours of that." - Creaig Dunton
Death, "Human" (Relapse)
The Durutti Column, "Domo Arigato" (Factory Benelux)
"Intricate crystalline guitar compositions. At times absolute genius, crushingly sad, joyous, slightly pointless, but always better than the few accompanying and jarringly bland saxophone outbursts which are not nearly infrequent enough for my liking." - Duncan Edwards
Zos Kia, "23" (Infinite Fog)
Roland Kayn, "A Little Electronic Milky Way of Sound" (Frozen Reeds)
The The, "Radio Cineola Trilogy" (Lazarus)
"Aside from the new single, this was a big load of mediocrity. Very disappointing." - John Kealy
The New Blockaders, "Epater Les Bourgeois" (Obskyr)
Rudolf Eb.er, "How to Die" (Dead Mind)
Jandek, "London Residency" (Corwood)
[V/A], "Nigeria Soul Power 70" (Soul Jazz)
Artist of the Year
Leyland James Kirby/The Caretaker
Label of the Year
History Always Favours the Winners
Thrill Jockey
Mute
Editions Mego
Dais
Fire
Blackest Ever Black
Room40
Corbel Stone Press
Kranky
New Artist of the Year
UUUU
Lifetime Achievement Recognition
Diamanda Galás
"It is hard to put into words how important Diamanda Galás is to me. From the moment I first heard her version of "I Put a Spell on You" and my conceptions about vocals came crashing down, I knew she was a force of nature that deserved to be placed in the upper echelons of musical performers. Somewhere between a hurricane and Nina Simone, an earthquake and Leonard Cohen, a tidal wave and the Coltranes, she is a supreme example of artistic power and personal integrity." - John Kealy
"As an impressionable, socially awkward, synth-pop loving teenager in the 1980s, I discovered her when exploring more Mute releases. To me, her recordings then were both terrifying and exhilarating, genre-defying, aurally challenging, and rich with, for lack of better words, substance and meaning. Her music introduced me to new worlds of music, art, and culture that was nowhere in rural America and it likely had a part in influencing my desire to move to bigger cities to discover more for myself. I was fortunate enough to watch her boundary-breaking Plague Mass live in NYC before a new era was born with The Singer, which elevated her from cult hero to iconic status. While that album reintroduced the world to Diamanda as a pianist, she continued to record and perform in other styles over the years since. Her piano and vocal music continues to strengthen immeasurably, the levels of emotion and precision are unmatched by anyone alive. She remains peerless and powerful, and 2017 was another banner year with two brilliant albums and multiple performances. If you're reading this, Diamanda, thank you for the years of giving your heart, soul, and everything else to us." - Jon Whitney
"Diamanda Galás is simply one of those artists without any point of comparison. Her natural vocal talent is of course what she is most known for, but I cannot think of another artist who can so easily transition from beautifully performed standards to music more frightening and sinister than any black metal/power electronics/death industrial/whatever could dream of creating. Add that to a nearly 40 year career that shows no signs of slowing down and her dedication to bringing light to important social issues, and the final result is an artist who has rightfully attained legendary status, but one who continues to create amazing works of art. I cannot think of anyone else more appropriate for this recognition." - Creaig Dunton
"Always iconic, uncompromising, deeply sincere, and almost supernaturally intense. There is no one else on earth quite like Diamanda Galás, nor is there anything quite like a Diamanda Galás concert. I am delighted to be alive at the same time that she is." -Anthony D'Amico
Worst Album of the Year
Circle, "Terminal" (Ektro)
"Wait, what? This was great!" - John Kealy
Royal Trux, "Platinum Tips and Ice Cream" (Drag City)
"I definitely wish they wrote better songs, but Royal Trux are way too cool and brilliantly ridiculous to dislike." -Anthony D'Amico
Diet Cig, "Swear I'm Good" (Frenchkiss)
Cuchillo de Fuego, "Megavedra" (Humo)
Errorsmith, "Superlative Fatigue " (Pan)
Destroyer, "Ken" (Merge)
"No. Dan Bejar is one of the most consistently delightful and charismatic songwriters around." -Anthony D'Amico
Vang Circular is the first outing from Timo van Luijk (La Scie Dorée / Af Ursin, Elodie) and Mark Harwood (Penultimate Press / Astor). Employing vibes, mellotron, natural reader, an iron ant, synth, metal pipes, slide guitar and a double bass these audacious souls conjure a wonky musical vision that gently peels away the familiar. The results are a surprising synthesis of the two individuals somewhat oppositional agendas. From the farthest reaches of the galaxy to the highest celestial plane the core of this haunted and bewitching release exists as a spectre at the edge of time.
First ever collaboration between Edward Ka-Spel (from The Legendary Pink Dots and Tear Garden) and Steven Stapleton (from Nurse With Wound). It's been years they both wanted to work together and Bisou Records made that happen when they offered them a side on this split LP. The other side is the first musical meeting of Colin "the master of drone" Potter and French sax player Quentin Rollet (The Red Krayola, Mendelson, Nurse With Wound, Prohibition, David Grubbs, Thierry Müller, Ilitch). That first take was then re-worked in the studio with piano overdubs by Isabelle Magnon. Two long tracks which make you travel, far.
Track Listing: A1. Edward Ka-Spel & Steven Stapleton - The Man Who Floated Away (Kaspel/Stapleton) (19:48) B1. Colin Potter & Quentin Rollet - The Closer You Are To The Center, The Further You Are From The Edge (18:35)
- First ever collaboration between Edward Ka-Spel (from The Legendary Pink Dots and Tear Garden) and Steven Stapleton (from Nurse With Wound). - The other side is the first musical meeting of Colin Potter and French sax player Quentin Rollet. Their first take was then re-worked in the studio with piano overdubs by Isabelle Magnon.
Towards A Frontier is a significant new collection of music, short films, photography and visual art by Richard Skelton. Collectively these diverse yet convergent works document his participation in Frontiers in Retreat, "a five-year collaboration project that fosters multidisciplinary dialogue on ecological questions within a European network formed around artist residencies. The project sets out to examine processes of change in particular, sensitive ecological contexts within Europe, to reflect them in relation to each other and to develop new approaches to the urgencies posed by them."
Along with the artists Kati Gausmann and Ráðhildur Ingadóttir, Richard was invited "to live and work in a unique small community where creativity is applied to everyday life in a remote rural setting of East Iceland." The artists first visited Seyðisfjörður in the autumn of 2014, returning in the spring of 2016, and finally in the summer of 2017. During their last visit, they staged an exhibition at Skaftfell Center for Visual Art.
The Standard Edition of Towards A Frontier comprises a CD of music written and recorded in the mountains of East Iceland between 2014 and 2016. Slowly unfolding over 66 minutes, it is Richard's most ambitious composition to date, evoking the seasonal shifts of a remote and singularly compelling landscape.
In addition to the music CD, there is also an Art Edition which includes a book, two short films, and additional music.
"A gorgeous set of new tracks by the brilliant composer and multi-instrumentalist Eyvind Kang. It took him a decade and a half to revisit the vibe concocted on his masterpiece from 2001, Live Low To The Earth In The Iron Age, but the wait was worth it. It features an array of spiritually intoxicating instrumentation: tamboura, electric guitar, organ, trumpet, oboe, trombone, and Korean traditional instruments. Eyvind Kang on Plainlight: "In 2002 I wanted to make a kind of sequel to my first solo record on Abduction, Live Low To The Earth In The Iron Age. I found that the 'weight' of sounds seemed to evaporate the compositions. The last thing I wanted to make was a traditional shoegaze recording. 15 years later, I had a strange dream: a voice said 'Because a plainlight has fallen in Heaven, heartbreak would cease.' This statement then became a kind of guiding image and method. Thus, with Korean traditional instruments playing the ostinato and drone, things fell into place."
Otherworldly and anomalous, hushed and hallucinatory, Pauline Anna Strom's unique style of inner space music reaches across time to futures and pasts far from our own. Trans-Millenia Music compiles eighty minutes of Strom’s most evocative work, composed and recorded between 1982 and 1988, for the first authorized overview of the enigmatic Bay Area composer.
Pauline Anna Strom introduced her music to the world in 1982 with Trans-Millenia Consort, a collection of transportive synthesizer music providing listeners a vessel to break beyond temporal limits into a world of pulsing, mercurial tonalities and charged, embryonic waveforms. Strom's solicitation into the unknown continued through a half dozen more stellar releases during the decade, which, despite their singularity and mastery, slipped into the more obscure annals of want lists and bootleg editions.
Though Strom's work developed during the dawn of San Francisco’s influential new age and ambient scenes, her music remains non-programmatic, an adventurous tangent diverting from the era’s ideological tropes. The artist’s own path to creative maturation was atypical. Raised by her Catholic family in Louisiana and Kentucky, she was tragically deprived of sight due to complications from a premature birth. This impairment would sensitize her to listenable worlds with great acuity and creative engagement, the loss becoming a formative aspect of Strom’s spiritualist take on the power of music.
Recalling her youth, Strom says she was "a loner and heretic." Seeking solace and solidarity, she moved to the mecca of California’s counter culture with her husband, a G.I., who was assigned duty in the Bay Area during the decline of the Vietnam War. Having dabbled with piano as a teen, Pauline’s passion for music reignited when synthesizers became central to the serene scene of San Fran FM radio in the mid-70s. Inspired by the electronic music of the instrument’s early ambassadors (Klaus Schulze, Brian Eno, Tangerine Dream), Strom purchased a Tascam 4-track recorder and a small array of synths (Yamaha DX7, TX816, CS-10) to navigate her own universe of space music.
As she gained confidence to share her creations beyond the walls of the apartment where she meticulously crafted under headphones day and night, Strom took on the artistic identity of the ‘consort,’ spiriting listeners through epochs described by her evocative musical passages. From this moment and represented within Trans-Millenia Music, Strom proves to be a delicate melodist and meticulous colorist, as well as a sound designer of great drama and inspired energy. The celestial sounds evoke the uncertainty of pre-physical and primordial elements, creating an impression of a world beyond access that Strom has always felt was hers. In the collection’s liner notes Strom recounts, “I have always been in touch with the past more than the present.”
Apart from its mysteries, Strom’s curiosity for the non-present was also suffused with a social bent. She believed that humanity was confined by its inability to access the people of the future, therefore suffering in a kind of group solipsism. Designing a world of music that rooted itself in all times but the present, Strom’s alter ego, the Trans-Millenia Consort, became a musical activist for triggering this state of heightened consciousness.
Exemplary passages highlighted in Trans-Millenia Music were selected from the three full-lengths originally issued on vinyl in addition to a group of four full-lengths self-released on cassette. This substantive body of work challenges the canonization of new age and ambient music as one-size-fits-all categories. Strom's music induces a dynamic range of listening that captivates and intrigues, a cinematic experience rather than a meditation for passive listening.
A breath ("adem" in Dutch) is life, air being spread in a body of flesh, blood, organs, sinews and tissue to ensure its continuous functioning. Like a pendulum, like time itself, like the sea and winds, it is endless motion. Take a breath and consider the inevitable advancement of days, weeks, months, and years, while your body is swept along.
Adem is yadayn's third album of composed material and fourth release overall since 2014. The music on this record was mostly composed and developed throughout the course of one quite eventful year, or was improvised during the recording sessions that wrapped up that year at a time of homecoming, when the dust of the year's turmoil was finally settling down. The album is conceptualized as two related suites (an A-side and a B-side if you will), a continuous journey rather than a set of individual songs as postcards. In that sense it is compositionally closer to yadayn's debut album Vloed (2014), though it is sonically very much related to the lo-fi explorations on Pendel (2015), while even a few of the drony, improvised sensibilities of Naam(2015) appear. As such, Adem is a logical continuation of yadayn’s musical trajectory, while at the same time being a moment of contemplation.
The main guitar and ukulele parts as well as a few overdubs for four of the six tracks ("Hoor," "Ruimte," "Tijd," and “Voel”) were self-recorded in a decommissioned telephone exchange building, in a large hall blessed with very spacious reverb, in yadayn's native town of Halle. The building was legally squatted for a short while by artists. The other two songs were recorded respectively in the house of yadayn's grandmother ("Zee") and at his home ("Adem").
Carla dal Forno, "The Garden" (Blackest Ever Black)
Cosey Fanni Tutti, "Time To Tell" (Industrial)
The Caretaker, "Everywhere At the End of Time Stages 1-3" (History Always Favours the Winners)
Circle, "Terminal" (Ektro)
