We have finally cleared out the backlog of great music and present some new episodes.
Episode 711 features music from The Jesus and Mary Chain, Zola Jesus, Duster, Sangre Nueva, Dialect, The Bug, Cleared, Mount Eerie, Mulatu Astatke & Hoodna Orchestra, Hayden Pedigo, Bistro Boy, and Ibukun Sunday.
Episode 712 has tunes by Mazza Vision, Waveskania, Black Pus, Sam Gendel, Benny Bock, and Hans Kjorstad, Katharina Grosse, Carina Khorkhordina, Tintin Patrone, Billy Roisz, and Stefan Schneider, His Name Is Alive, artificial memory trace, mclusky, Justin Walter, mastroKristo, Başak Günak, and William Basinski.
Episode 713 brings you sounds from Mouse On Mars, Leavs, Lawrence English, Mo Dotti, Wendy Eisenberg, Envy, Ben Lukas Boysen, Cindytalk, Mercury Rev, White Poppy, Anadol & Marie Klock, and Galaxie 500.
Skolavordustigur Street in Reykjavík photo by Jon (your Podcast DJ).
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June 17th 2008 is the auspicious date when Drag City will release a never-before-shown-to-the-world recording - Children of the Sixth Root Race: Songs from the Source. Twelve amazing songs recorded live in the Father House garage as a rehearsal for a live date that Spirit of '76 (aka YaHoWa 13, also now known as Children of the Sixth Root Race, Father Yod's "house band") had at the Whisky in the summer of 1973.
It's still a mystery how a 1/4" tape copy of the recording was found in Chicago in 2006. Djin Aquarian, guitarist of Children of the Sixth Root Race and composer of all but one of the songs on the album, recalls being sent on a mission to Chicago later in 1973, where he may have left the tape with an old friend. Though this rehearsal was not initially meant to be an album and isn't a part of the Yahowha collection of albums, there are no other remaining recordings of this band doing these songs in existence. There's something different in the energy of the Drag City release, with an R'n'B-infused vibe different than most of the other Yahowa albums.
The Source family came into existence in the 1970s, the era of the cult commune. The community lived in two spheres. During the day they moved among the Los Angeles elite, serving organic food to celebrities at their acclaimed Source restaurant. But back home in their Hollywood Hills mansion, the family explored the metaphysical world by following their charismatic leader, Father Yod. Father Yod was also the front man for the family's transcendent psychedelic group.
Tracklisting:
1) How Long in Time 2) Godmen 3) Get Into the Music 4) Beggar 5) Do Me 6) The Great Woe 7) Lost Dead and Hoping 8) A Lady 9) Sea Like Me 10) Catastrophy 11) Go with the Flow 12) We Are The Dinosaurs
One of the early bands associated with Factory Records, Section 25 never quite got the recognition that their peers did, and unfairly so. Their sound captured the zeitgeist of that early era just as effectively as Joy Division or A Certain Ratio, but they never seemed to set the world on fire quite the same. Coinciding with their "reunion" album, last year's Part-Primitiv, LTM has reissued early S25 material, including this first "best of" compilation, spanning their entire 30-year career.
Early tracks "Knew Noise" and "Dirty Disco" places them squarely in league with a non-Factory band, Public Image Ltd's contemporaneous Metal Box in its razor sharp disco beat, rumbling dubby bass and raw guitar. Other tracks from this era might have a similar pallet being drawn from, but the result is different: the sprawling "New Horizon" is more enigmatic and isolated feeling than the more caustic dubby stuff. Being that they were Factory recording artists, the reverb heavy hand of Martin Hannett is obvious at times, bringing early tracks such as "Haunted" into the realms of Unknown Pleasures via mania inducing echos and walls of reverberation.
Although ostensibly always a danceable band, given the hard hitting rhythms that would function quite well on a dance floor, around the time of "Sakura" the style got a bit more blatant: the rapid arpeggiated synthesizer and tribal percussion leans it even more towards dance music than before, but in a much different way than how New Order were implementing synths at the time. "Warhead" and "Looking From A Hilltop" (the latter as a 12" Mix) are much more blatant stabs at the then-new synth pop movement, the latter especially apes folks like the Human League at their best.
The tracks from the era are indicative of the time period: the synth heavy production now sounds dated and perhaps not as timeless as the earlier tracks, but the earworm rhythms and melodies are unavoidable and surpass the then trendy production techniques and instrumentation. Two tracks from the Past-Primitiv album appear here as well, the upbeat, almost 1980s revival, of "Power Base," which is as memorable as any of their dancier work but modernized in a way that will satisfy those who are both nostalgic for the early days and those revivalist hipsters that seem to be growing in number (DFA, I'm looking at you). "Winterland II" is a different beast, waltz type synth and rhythms meshed with dissonant rock elements in a unique, interesting way.
A few low points are notable, however. The 12" mix of "Beating Heart" sounds almost too much like something left off of New Order's Movement, which might very well be the fault of producer Barney Sumner. The production also is far too tinny and reverb heavy, as if Sumner tried to do his own Martin Hannett imitation and was not successful. The closer "Knew Noise (Lounge Version)" is exactly what it sounds like: female lounge vocals, piano, and a thunderstorm background. It's an interesting concept, but when placed on the same disc as the thumping original, it feels closer to a joke that didn't need to be told.
Personally, I always have mixed feelings about these "best of" type releases: as someone more obsessive than the "average" music fan, I always feel a bit slighted being told what is someone else's perspective of a band's top releases, and I'd rather just seek out all of the original material myself to make my own decisions. I realize that I am not the average listener though, and given that Section 25 has been recently reawakened and entering a new period of productivity, it is the perfect time for such a collection to be released and to expose a new generation of people to this band that didn't quite receive the same level of attention through the ages as their contemporaries.
The title couldn't be more appropriate for this album: the band's work has always seemed to come out of a smoky, hallucinogenic haze, and this collection of rare and unreleased tracks demonstrates this clearly. The sound is an odd mix of 1960s psych tinged rock with some of the more current attention to drone and noise that works extremely well.
The disc opens and ends with two distinctly different takes on the same track, "In The Back." The opening studio cut is heavily propelled by overdriven bass leads and pounding drums that put it alongside the likes of Skullflower and Ramleh in their heydays, and the screamed vocals don't hurt either. The live cut is even rawer sonically, but puts the focus on flanged and phased effects rather than the distortion, propelling it more into multicolored space as opposed to the grimy earth tones of the studio track.
Some of the other tracks are far less commanding, "Luck" channels a vibe consistent with Nico era Velvet Underground with its glacial pace, fuzzy organ, what may be a clarinet and disconnected, paranoid vocals. "Growth" goes more into abstract space, drums are used as a general instrument rather than as a rhythm, and there are massive slabs of wide open space that are akin to the more out there moments of Kraut Rock than anything else. Other tracks are pure 1960s psych rock, both "Everything Happens Twice" and "The Sun" feature organ leads that are pretty reminiscent of the Doors without the pretense and the suck.
Even jazz gets a nod in the two part "Twelve Bottles and One White Cone," an extended improvisation that features organ being used in ways not intended by the designer alongside a skuzzy bass lead and jazz tinged percussion section that is in league with fusion era Miles Davis, except filtered through weed and inhalants instead of heroin. Even though the tracks differ from one to another, they all do have that blunted, smoky quality to them that just feels as if some chemicals were partaken in during their recording.
Religious Knives take the approach to drone more in a sense of repetition: most of the tracks on this album clock in the eight to nine minute range and meander somewhat in their repeated motifs, but never to a level of boredom but instead remains more hypnotic than anything else. For such a young band they are already establishing their own niche in a market that has been flooded with too many sub-par Wolf Eyes clones and Sunn O))) pretenders that this is something both fresh and invigorating.
This 7" only release sees Andrew Liles form yet another collaborative unit, this time with Clodagh Simonds' wonderful (and ever changing) group. Established Fovea Hex approaches to song recur only to be almost completely dashed aside with new approaches to their work. That so much can happen on two shorts sides of vinyl is not very surprising considering how epic Simonds' previous EPs with her group have been. With Liles' sonic alchemy, the results are breathtaking.
The A-side contains "Every Evening," which sounds as expected. The ethereal ambiences paired with the clear, striking piano makes a glorious backdrop for Simonds' vocals. Lyrically it continues a stream of thought that began on "That River" and flowed through "While You're Away" from Fovea Hex's Neither Speak Nor Remain Silent EPs. Stars shine and rivers meet the sea in an almost Joycean expression of the spectacular amidst the normality of life.
On "Gone" there is a very different mood. Simonds is joined on vocals by Laura Sheeran (veteran of the three Fovea Hex EPs) and by Larsen's Fabrizio Palumbo. Palumbo's somewhat indifferent-sounding voice when narrating the story of a man who finds their world disappearing is at odds with the two ladies' emotive singing. The song ends with an almost panicked screaming, a far cry from the womb-like calm that I expect. The song is so jarring that at first I could not decide if I liked it or not, it completely went against my expectations. Now that the shock is gone, it is definitely a keeper.
Liles continues to show his versatility as a sound artist. He seems to be able to sit himself in comfortably in any musical situation; the variety on show in his own back catalogue and his ever increasing list of collaborations is a testament to his talent. Here he manages to keep the dynamics of Fovea Hex's music intact but still put a different veneer on the production. It sounds like Fovea Hex has been channelled through a filter slightly different to normal, certain sounds are accented more and familiar styles are of a different hue. It is a meeting of minds that really should become a regular occurrence (hopefully on something more substantial than a single or an EP, a Fovea Hex album is well overdue!).
This latest album by one of the greatest living singers is a celebration of the damned by the damned. It stands out in stark contrast to her more usual themes, a smirk and a wink to co- conspirators instead of the damning finger of accusation or cry for those who never got a chance to cry out. This change of tact makes Guilty Guilty Guilty one of her more instantly listenable albums. Instead of working myself up to listening to an hour or two of dejected misery, this is a far more accessible voyage through some of the not so dark ballads in Galás' songbook.
The ecstatic cheering of the audience is an unexpected introduction to a Diamanda Galás album. The rowdy crowd punctuate the album with occasional whoops and applause. This, along with the choice of songs for the evening's set, gives the impression of a satanic form of gospel music. On the opening song, "8 Men and 4 Women," Galás' distinctive piano style has an added jauntiness that is absent from much of her playing on previous albums.
With Guilty Guilty Guilty I cannot help but be reminded of Nick Cave's Kicking Against the Pricks album (probably helped by both artists covering "Long Black Veil"). Even though Galás is no stranger to doing covers, here there is that same dark humor that runs through Cave's covers. That being said, there are still moments where Galás can break us down into a sobbing mess. "Interlude (Time)" is heartbreaking, the delicately sung vocals and equally fragile piano sounding so haunting after the more rambunctious delivery of the songs previous to it. For a moment it almost sounds like someone else is occupying the microphone and piano stool.
There can be no mistaking the artist on "O Death," a topic that Galás is no stranger to. Whipping herself up into a frenzy, "O Death" is one of those classic Diamanda Galás moments where the tension is palpable and I am not sure if I am more afraid of death or the singer. This gives way to the album's finale, "Heaven Have Mercy," where the song made famous by Edith Piaf is accompanied by the sound of an air raid siren, conjuring up images of an occupied Paris during the Second World War.
Normally at the end of a Galás album I am in the mood for something else. The heaviness of the emotions wear me down and I need something else, anything else, to get over it. However, despite the sombre ending to the album, with Guilty Guilty Guilty I am more than happy to press play again. She will never be easy listening but this is certainly an easier listen than the more definitive Galás album which will always be something that is psychologically and physically taxing to listen to. Having an album like this is welcome as sometimes you need that hit but cannot take the pressure.
Czech psych group Seven That Spells add Acid Mother Makoto Kawabata into their fold for an album that sounds almost exactly like an Acid Mothers record. Be that as it may, it is still a high-quality recording that holds its own against some of that band's better material.
This music doesn't come across as a form of imitation either. The overarching but never overreaching walls of guitars and spacey electronics are seemingly engless throughout the five sections of this sprawling album. Curiously, Kawabata doesn't play guitar himself on this recording, sticking to electric sitar, tambura, and hurdy-gurdy. Much of the material is familiar territory to Acid Mothers fans, but it is so consistent in tone and mood that it's a particularly blissful experience that lacks any drastic or dramatic mood shifts. Even so, the dynamic impact hits in all the right places.
The whole thing begins with a man chanting as if in a discombobulated evocation of the guitar gods, who explode on arrival on the second track. The rhythm here is strident, and the texture gives it a near-mythical quality that's only reinforced by Kawabata's sitar runs. The third section finds the group stretching out a bit into some outer dimension, and it is a fun and convincing excursion. The latter half of this track leans a little too closely to the Acid Mothers flame before falling into a schizophrenic breakdown on vocals. The fourth section has its own metallic wails that are soon joined by bass pulses and hurdy-gurdy. The tone gets more alarming but never quite delves into paranoia. The final piece is the most meditative with its shimmering walls and warped vocals. An echoing chant works its way into the music, gets briefly monstrous, then is joined by a female counterpart to balance the album by its conclusion.
Seven That Spells put together a strong album that matches their influences without sacrificing quality. Their cues may be obvious, but the music is no less worthwhile as a result.
Excepter's fourth album seems like an obnoxious mess at first, but repeated listens reveal patterns in the chaos. Using deceptively simplistic beats, electronics, swimming voices, and even a bass clarinet for good measure, they add rich textures to uneasy rhythms for music that is ridiculously addictive.
On most of these songs, the deceptively simple rhythms become the core on which the other elements depend. Voices are thrown into the mix seemingly at random while counter rhythms, found sounds, and melodic bits from other instruments come and go. It is this constant motion that propels the album forward, albeit at such a similar pace for much of it that some of the distinction between tracks is blurred. The rich stimulation overload quickly becomes the norm, making anything simpler boring by comparison.
Many of the lyrics are about economic politics but are more sarcastic than didactic. A good example is the opening line of "Shots Ring": "Did you know the cost of life is $1/That's why there are slaves." In a similar vein is "Kill People," in which a variety of voices shout the title in different styles and are processed in a number of ways. Instead of becoming an annoyance, the lyrics serve the purpose of keeping the songs playful rather than succumbing to overseriousness.
There's a sense of humor at work here, but the album has its share of uneasy moments as well. "Greenhouse/Stretch" has a strange electronic opening vastly different from the songs the precede it and eventually delves into some dark areas in its second half. On its heels, "Walking Through the Night" has sinister distorted sounds on top of heavy beats. One definite head-scratcher is "Sunrise." While it is a decent song, it initially takes its cues so obviously from Sonic Youth that I assumed it was a cover or at least an interpretation of sorts, but no credit to that effect appears anywhere on the booklet. Even more puzzling is the last-minute addition of a line from Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground." I'm not quite sure what the band's getting at on this track, but it's fun to listen to anyway.
Excepter take the kitchen sink approach to composition with this album, and it succeeds despite the initial vertigo of having to make sense of it all. Yet the group throws out a lifeline with its beats, allowing the rest of the music to unfold one glorious step at a time.
The new work from Mike Gallagher of Isis finds him using a subtle touch with sparse guitars and hazy drones to create instrumental atmospherics with a dramatic edge. While it works great as background music, there are also plenty of nuances to reward attentive listening.
"Allusions" begins the album with a low-end pulse and sustained notes while a clean, minimal electric guitar plays. Other textural sounds make themselves known as the guitar slowly takes on a central role. Most of the songs here don't stray too far from that formula, but neither do they all sound the same. "It Darkens His Door" uses subdued distorted riffs, while "Equilibrium" takes a more delicate approach. The best tracks are the last two. "The Night Splits, Wide and Open" uses epic builds to achieve a dramatic conclusion, and "And It Falls by the Gallons" uses bouts of churning, sputtering distortion to cathartic effect. The most ordinary song is "Ruminations of Before." It's not a bad track by any means, but it is a little boring compared to the others.
I like this album better than Nova Lux. The compositions are structured a bit more cohesively yet still retain a unique mood, one that never fails to immerse me completely.
Starving Weirdos Brian Pyle and Merrick McKinlay and guests don their wizard robes to invoke unknown realms of existence. Some of the methods may change from song to song, but each has an allure and mystery all its own.
"Summon" is like walking through a vast, majestic hall with its airy pitches, panned rattles, and swooping tones. The only bit of melody comes toward the end, played on an exotic scale. "Orchestra at Twilight" begins more contemplatively with breathy electronic exhalations and roiling mechanical sounds, eventually joined by what could be pterodactyls crying for food. The album's only rhythm comes from hand drums and light percussion on "In Transit," accompanied by a thirsty beehive on the prowl. "Sunset at the College Cove Bluffs" uses subtle washes and forlorn foghorns to give a sense of space, as if opening a tunnel to another plane entirely.
The group is quite effective at making alien worlds seem like normal ones by slowly unfolding various textures throughout the tracks. They've certainly got my attention with this sublime recording.
The four untitled tracks that make up No Canal are stylistically both familiar and new. While two of the songs feature the mechanical churning of previous Mouthus efforts, the other two stray from the group's comfort zone with mixed results.
The first track signals a departure right away with its clean pitches, backing drones, and a contemplative mood that almost feels maternal. Unfortunately, its high level of tape hiss somewhat sullies the effect, but it works well enough at low volumes. The second track returns to the abrasive guitars and drums I have come to expect from Mouthus, and it doesn't disappoint. Its crushing rhythm shambles along nicely with the guitar loops and feedback, falling into an enjoyable ear-splitting groove.
The album's most puzzling anomaly is the third track. While the instruments play light jazz that would sit well in a David Lynch movie, it is ruined by excessive distortion that quickly becomes grating and unnecessary. While much later on in the song the two parts find a somewhat peaceful coexistence, the abrasion has already done its damage. If it had been lower in the mix it may have worked better with the other instruments, but as it stands, the track is memorable only for its annoyance. Conversely, the last track is the album's best with its loping rhythm, distant harmonics, and scattered noises.
Despite a misstep or two, the good outweighs the bad to make this a solid album. If nothing else, the departures here prove that Mouthus still have a lot of uncharted territory to explore.
The Trunk label rescues from extinction Vernon Elliot's composition for two 1960s children's TV shows: the charming Ivor The Engine and the decidedly surreal Pogles Wood.
Vernon Elliot took up the bassoon as a toddler, became a founder of the Philharmonic Orchestra, player at the Royal Opera House, conductor of the RPH, a music teacher, writer, and jazz enthusiast. The exquisitely contemplative music for Ivor The Engine was his first work for television and he went on to compose for almost all of Oliver Postgate's Smallfilms productions. Postgate was an animator, puppeteer and writer who made some marvelous TV series including The Clangers, Ivor The Engine, The Pogles, Pogles Wood, and my particular favorites Noggin the Nog and Bagpuss. He was assisted by illustrator and model maker Peter Firmin. Given that, perhaps we can forgive Firmin for co-creating Basil Brush, mouthy fox hand-puppet and one of the biggest nuisances in British television history!
Trunk has already released music from The Clangers but this new release captures a little slice of music-making history. Jon Brooks at Newyattsounds has sifted through a huge cardboard box of tape reels that were getting close to disintegration. The remastering job is done with the loving care that these recordings deserve, since it mirrors that which went into them in the first place. Along with the musical themes and episodes are studio exchanges and sound-effects and the package includes handwritten labels and notes. All this gives a real glimpse into the working processes of Postgate and Firmin. The Ivor music aches with melancholy charm and sound effects (such as donkey departing, coal being tipped, and the engine chuffing or resisting starting) are sweet and ordinary. The endeavor evokes cardigans and cups of tea.
Ivor is totally off the breakneck digital pace of today, but ThePogles is worlds apart. It could never be made now. The joy is too simple, the element of fear too primal and naturalistic, the whole concept too languid and effortlessly politically incorrect. The original 1965 version was cut from the BBC's Watch With Mother series after complaints from parents that the character of The Witch was too scary for pre-schoolers. With all due respect to her pre-Thatcherite visual weirdness, much of the anxiety stems from Vernon Elliot's slashing music that accompanied her appearance. PoglesWood (1966-68) is still wonderful and crazy. Some of its magic and innocence is conveyed by Elliot's playful compositions. Adventures consist of Mr Pogle supping bilberry wine and feeding it to his plant (called Plant) The cast walk, run and play games as a ritual strangeness envelopes everyday life. Once seen, the characters of Mrs. Pogle, Pippin, Hedgepig, and Tog (a stuffed toy brought to life to fight The Witch) are unforgettable. As with (the unrelated) The Singing Ringing Tree, from East Germany's DEFA studio, they really don't make them like this anymore.
Trunk has plans to release many of the other recordings from the Smallfilms series in the near future.