Brainwashed Radio: The Podcast Edition

Aurora Borealis image from California by Steve

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.

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Dälek, "Gutter Tactics"

Dälek unleash industrial-strength beats, layers of juddering ambience, and a fierce verbal polemnic. Gutter Tactics matches rough, suffocating production to brutal subject matter. A few piano figures provide relief but the general mood of uncompromising defiance is signalled by the cover depiction of a lynched human recreated as a mtuant, and an opening track sampling Reverend Jeremiah Wright.
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Wino, "Punctuated Equilibrium"

cover imageScott "Wino" Weinrich (no relation to the band also being reviewed this week by Creaig Dunton) has been in many groups over the years. Saint Vitus, The Obsessed, Spirit Caravan and The Hidden Hand. After a couple of decades moving from one classic doom band to another, this is first time releasing an album under his own name. The formation of a new band for these sessions has worked to his benefit as this is a return to form after a few years in a songwriting wilderness.
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irr. app. (ext.)/Mykel Boyd, "Dented Switchery"/"Compare Me to a Shadow"

Usually any 7" singles I buy get a couple of spins and are then consigned to a box, only occasionally dusted off for curiosity's sake. However, this split single from Matt Waldron and Somnimage boss Mykel Boyd is something special. All week I have been putting this on and getting lost in the unfortunately brief pieces.
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Melvins, "Star Spangled Banner"

Another day, another limited edition Melvins release. Even as a long time fan of Seattle's best band ever, the two covers featured on this 7" do little for me. Judging from the timing of this release, "Star Spangled Banner" is almost a political statement from a band not known for making any serious statements. Any fears of the Melvins becoming an "issues" band like U2 are unfounded based on this hammy release.
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Wino, "A Bottle of Pills With A Bullet Chaser"

cover imageTemporary Residence has once again been the bastion of preserving little known music with this double disc compilation.  Much like the disc by The Loved last year, this 2+ hour collection compiles every single track Wino recorded or released during their brief career.  Although the band was responsible for a number of really good heavy scum rock recordings, I'm still wondering was reissuing all of them necessary.
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Detroit Grand Pubahs, "Nuttin' Butt Funk"

cover imageWhile they had a modest hit with 2000's "Sandwiches," the DGPs aren't simply a gimmick band.  There is an explicit amount of humor to their songs, but for every sophomoric skit on this album, there's a nuanced instrumental track that demonstrates their musicianship.  With the genre hopping sound, heavy amounts of funk, a bit of rock, and a little social commentary, they really do seem the antecedents of Parliament Funkadelic.  Plus, they're also obsessed with ass.
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Luasa Raelon, "The House of Flesh"

David Reed's latest as Luasa Raelon shares more with his Envenomist namesake, filled as it is with lonesome and metallic drones. In The House of Flesh there is no soul and whatever is left in its absence is a bleak and threatening specter.
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Spherical Objects, "Further Ellipses / No Man's Land"

cover image Part two of Boutique's extensive reissue campaign of obscure Mancunian post-punk group Spherical Objects, this disc collects the band's last two albums, released in 1980 and 1981, showcasing Steve Solamar's restless search for an artistic resolution to his inner contradictions. While the music here is reliably interesting in an anthropological sense, it doesn't always work.
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Spherical Objects, "Past and Parcel / Elliptical Optimism"

cover image As the centerpiece of a campaign to reissue the entire discography of Manchester's short-lived Object Music, LTM's Boutique Label presents an extensive reissue of the complete works of label founder Steve Solamar's project Spherical Objects. This disc collects the band's first two albums, which evidence an idiosyncratic approach to prevailing post-punk modes, filtering glam rock, 1960s garage psych and disco through a uniquely paradoxical artistic sensibility.
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Zak Riles

Zak Riles' solo debut on Important forgoes the rock 'n' roll of Grails for the sake of more introspective fare. Sitting at a crossroads where psychedelic meditation, classical technique, and foreign intrigue meet, Riles concocts a breathy and sultry record littered with esoteric allusions and familiar ideas.
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