Somehow managing to simultaneously cover krautrock, black metal, noise, and post-rock, this trio's second full length album is somewhat of a departure from the largely drone oriented URSK series on Utech, yet keeps enough of that ethos and ambience to not seem out of place, but stands out as a more metallic shard amidst the warm murkiness.
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Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of the solo project of Kemialliset Ystavat frontman and respected Finn Jan Anderzen. This reissue finds Anderzen further pursuing his deranged and chaotic sound worlds, albeit on a much smaller, more intimate scale than with his better known group. Almost childlike in its playfulness, the album is a rich and colorful affair that will have heads spinning with delightful sensory overload.
After a few limited digital releases, this 23 year old Polish composer has released two albums near each other temporally, and while both focus on pure, gliding tones, Let’s Make… emphasizes the more digital and static elements of his sound, while Painting Sky Together leans more towards his fondness for simple tones and field recordings.
Thomas Meluch's music is always thick with atmosphere and always utilizes textured or ambient sounds, but seeing him live was a surprise. Bathed in steaming noise, Benoît Pioulard's performance in Boston was a psychedelic jam that heavily favored his abstract side. The two 7" records he had with him on that tour provide a sense of just how diverse an artist he is and one of them has me excited about the prospects of a Benoît Pioulard noise record.
Editions Mego has finally reissued the woefully out-of-print complete recorded oeuvre of this massively influential and infrequently convening laptop supergroup. Unsurprisingly, it still sounds great.
Orgonautic continues to captivate me with their stunning production values, overtly occult lyrics, psychedelic rhythm guitar, blistering electronic synths, and heady beats. Each new release from them shows a step up in quality in terms of both the sound and the artifact. From the first few simply packaged CD-Rs to the now lavish gatefold and silver embossed digipacks they release, Orgonautic have been building a solid and steadfast body of work. Full Circle brings ten new songs to an already well-laid table along with four songs from last year’s free digital download EP, The Moebius Strategy.
Analog Africa has unveiled another lovingly assembled and lavishly packaged overview of funky lost recordings from the birthplace of voodoo. Tireless German vinyl-monger Samy Ben Redjeb has already tackled Benin once (with last year’s excellent Orchestre Poly-Rythmo compilation), but Legends of Benin aims for a somewhat broader survey. This compilation is devoted to four legendary composers from that country's strikingly fertile period of 1969-1981: Gnossos Pedro, Antoine Dougbé, El Rego et Ses Commandos, and Honoré Avolonto.
A lost gem of private '60s psychedelia, Dave Bixby's debut solo effort is a lonely affair to be sure. With only acoustic guitar in hand, the songwriter penned this album in about a month in reaction to a year of drug abuse. Having filled his head with plenty of acid, the songs here serve as an intimate portrait of an unhinged victim of counterculture.
Every word, rhythm, and melody that seeps from David Longstreth's brain reeks of insincerity and pompousness. The most recent fruit of his ego, Bitte Orca, has come to be pornography for writers and aimless hipsters hungry for something "eccentric" and "unusual" over which they may pant. In truth, it's a dull and transparent mish-mash of pop styles seasoned with empty gestures and overwrought arrangements.
Too often overshadowed by the shrine that is Nuggets, this compilation, along with its companion Testament volume, has nevertheless earned significant cult status among garage aficianados, and rightly so. Comprising a plethora of rare singles from the era, the album is a near necessity for those even tangentially interested in this material.
