The artwork of this split CD-R wins the award for creepy package through the post for this week. A card sleeve with scarlet stencilled skulls inside a red flecked bandage runs a close second to receiving dead rodents in a jiffy bag. Out of the three pieces here (two Robedoor tracks and the single piece by Bologna Pony), only one piece, the Robedoor finale, fails to balance on the awkward line between a riveting listen and a generic elongated feedback blow-out.
Look up Music for gazing upwards brought to you by Meat Beat Manifesto & scott crow, +/-, Aurora Borealis, The Veldt, Not Waving & Romance, W.A.T., The Handover, Abul Mogard & Rafael Anton Irisarri, Mulatu Astatke, Paul St. Hilaire & René Löwe, Songs: Ohia, and Shellac. Aurora Borealis image from California by Steve. Get involved: subscribe, review, rate, share with your friends, send images!
|
An aberration among their label mates, Silk Saw has consistently managed to operate on the fringe of the so-called rhythmic noise scene, with compelling sonic consequences. Thankfully, Ant Zen founder Stefan Alt continues to stand by the often difficult listening crafted at Laboratoire Central, collaborators Marc Medea and Gabriel Severin's enduring Brussels studio.
The good ship Archive has reissued another great Japanese underground release, this time an album by Astral Travelling Unity. As the title suggests it is half live, half studio; one long track from each. The quality of both pieces is high but a little samey. I am intrigued, however, and keep coming back for more.
This Italian three-piece combines electronic beats and sampling with some beautifully menacing guitar and saxophone in a very pleasing way. They are not breaking down barriers but they are certainly no chore to listen to. The six pieces included here all work around the same mid-paced jamming style, the same patch of ground being covered but from alternative angles and viewpoints.
Originally released as a seven inch and two CD-Rs on the American Tapes label a couple of years back, this is a gratefully received reissue. Combined into one ugly genetic mishap and flesh hacked covered package by Aaron Dilloway's Hanson label, this is a disintegrated release full of blossoming black sounds. Collection is another piece of weighty evidence in the already inexorable case for Wolf Eyes' limited items needing to receive the same sort of press as their Sub Pop releases.
This long awaited, much delayed "best-of" release doesn't come close to the grandeur of the new Fad Gadget package, though it satisfies a long overdue need to formally acknowledge Nitzer Ebb as groundbreaking revolutionaries, the shockwaves of their speaker-rattling, dancefloor devastating diatribes still being felt in electronic music today.
Andy Cabic finally steps out from under the shadow of pal Devendra Banhart on this follow-up to Vetiver's self-titled debut. While there are some standard folk moments, much of the album points to an expansion of the band's sound.
Campbell Kneale’s one man doom project is a work of immense force. Taking some influence from his other project, Birchville Cat Motel, Bliss and Void Inseparable is an intense and atmospheric journey through the dark. I must point out that the title does not capture the mood of the album, I can identify the void components but the bliss is well hidden. This album is desolate and soul destroying, I love it.
The beautiful photographs of little houses in the countryside capture the vibe of You Are My Home succinctly. The album very much encapsulates the feeling of being very small in a wide open space, unable to do anything but sit and take in the splendor of the surroundings. Nathan Amundson's songs are deceptively simple. They are gentle but with a hidden strength that only occasionally erupts (and when it does come through it is impressive to say the least).
If the original Hafler Trio performances and releases of How to Slice a Loaf of Bread can be seen as full meals, Colin Potter’s reworking is a compact collection of ideas shoved into one of those toasters that squish the sandwich into a condensed snack. A Pressed On Sandwich doesn’t cover the depth and breadth of the original releases but Potter does augment the material into a worthy piece in its own right.
