Considering there are 14 different artists on this compilation it is surprising how little variation there is on offer. All the tracks are similar explorations of airy, glitchy, and formless ambience. Luckily, each contribution is quite good and the album flows nicely, which is not the norm for this sort of compilation.
Two new shows just for you. We have squeezed out two extended release episodes for this weekend to get you through this week. They contain mostly new songs but there's also new issues from the vaults. The first show features music from Rider/Horse, Mint Field, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, Anastasia Coope, ISAN, Stone Music, La Securite, Bark Psychosis, Jon Rose, Master Wilburn Burchette, Umberto, Wand, Tim Koh, Sun An, and Memory Drawings. The second episode has music by Laibach, Melt-Banana, Chuck Johnson, X, K. Yoshimatsu, Dorothy Carter, Pavel Milyakov, Violence Gratuite, Mark Templeton, Dummy, Endon, body / negative, Midwife, Alberto Boccardi, Divine. Cow in Maui from Veronika in Vienna. Get involved: subscribe, review, rate, share with your friends, send images!
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Anyone with a seemingly nuclear-powered sound system in their vehicle might consider this record handy to breach urban noise-pollution levels, while simultaneously getting a sleek dose of dub, paranoia, poetry and science fiction.
Mike Kinsella's bedroom poetry has often perplexed me. I could never figure out why someone would present the barest of lyrics in the barest of settings. Though I had always enjoyed Kinsella's American Football project (a band which I have heard that he disowns somewhat these days), I had never really bought into Owen, partly for the natural discomfort it inspired in me and partly because I just didn't understand it. But I have trouble dismissing Owen's latest effort.
Looking at the cover of this album, I imagined Selda's music to be run of the mill acoustic folk; little did I expect the huge and almost psychedelic extravagance of the songs on her self-titled debut from 1976. Some of it is surprisingly modern sounding and some of it sounds kitsch in its own old-fashioned way. Even at its most peculiar it is a remarkable sounding disc.
Mix tapes or DJ mix releases are hardly a unique concept, but it's extremely rare that one isn't a 100% 4/4 techno mix, mildly forgettable, or posing as a commercial for some record label's other releases or a resume for DJ publicity. Get a Room defies all of that and reminds me of another significant mix that defied conventions, KLF's Chill Out.
Christina Kubisch has been experimenting with sound, light and concrete/noise since the '70s, before most of the current crop of underground stopped messing themselves after a bellyful of milk. It feels like another circle has been completed with this latest aspect of her experimentalism, as it has been released by on a label co-run by a member of the experimental poster dudes Wolf Eyes (Nate Young's Aryan Asshole). As part of her Electrical Walks series this single track is a headphone record in more ways than one.
With the timing of this 7" single, this could be seen as a companion to this duo's recent and universally lauded The Radiant Mirror duo LP on Textile records. No less balls-out intense and exploratory, this rougher and more lively take on their musical pairing pins down the chemistry of this improvising drummer and Shaahi Baaja player.
After their live performances and a brace of self released demo CDs caught my attention, I have been eager to hear this band's debut. The sludgy doom presented here is as good as I was expecting but unfortunately the sound quality of the album leaves a little to be desired, especially for an album that is backed by a label and being properly distributed. That being said, Wreck of the Hesperus have offered up a noble sacrifice at the altar of doom.
