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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Following soon after the critically praised Black Tar Prophecies collection on Important Records, Portland, Oregon's Grails return with their first proper studio album since the 2004 release of Redlight. Burning Off Impurities - their debut for Temporary Residence Ltd. out on May 1, 2007 - makes good on the promise of those past releases in delivering an album that not only thrusts the group to new heights, but also pushes the instrumental rock genre forward for the first time in nearly a decade.
An increased interest in psychedelic, ambient and world music is most likely to blame for Grails' exploration of the lesser-traveled paths of modern music. In addition, their eclectic range of collaborative endeavors - guitarist Zak Riles is also in M. Ward's band, while drummer Emil Amos has moonlighted as Jandek's drummer - has introduced an element of improvisation and reinterpretation of ideas that is both brilliant and earnest.
Like Black Tar Prophecies, Burning Off Impurities was produced by Grails, with production assistance by Jeff Saltzman and Steven Wray Lobdell (of avant-garde legends, Faust). Influenced in equal parts by Ash Ra Tempel, Erkin Koray, Popol Vuh, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and dozens others, this is very likely the closest Grails will ever get to making a classic rock record; the kind of sprawling masterpiece that you savor for years before passing it on to your younger brother so he can repeat the process.
Track Listing: 1. Soft Temple 2. More Extinction 3. Silk Rd 4. Drawn Curtains 5. Outer Banks 6. Dead Vine Blues 7. Origin-ing 8. Burning Off Impurities
Discography: GRAILS Black Tar Prophecies Vol's. 1, 2 & 3 CD (Important 2006) GRAILS Interpretations... CDEP (Southern 2005) GRAILS Redlight CD (Neurot 2004) GRAILS The Burden of Hope CD (Neurot 2003)
Mute Audio Documents Box Set Out on 26th March 2007 128 tracks over 10 CDs, Mute Audio Documents is a unique insight into the musical development of the label and its artists, highlighting the influence, the success and, most importantly, the great music produced since its inception in 1978.
Mute Audio Documents is a collection of Mute's single releases from 1978 to 1984 and includes the first 4 double CD volumes of an ongoing series plus a 2CD rarities album exclusive to the box set. The series will feature all the A-side and B-side single tracks released by Mute in addition to album tracks by the artists for whom there were only album releases.
Mute emerged in the post-punk era. It was a new era of pop democracy, and anyone could make a record. You didn't even need to know three chords, according to Mute founder Daniel Miller. All you needed, he said, was an idea.
His 'idea' was to create a classic of DIY pop - a double A sided 7" single featuring the songs T.V.O.D. and Warm Leatherette. He called himself The Normal, designed a sleeve with Letraset, stuck the name Mute on it, and accidentally started a record label.
You only have to listen to the music gathered on these 10 CDs to see how Mute became the blueprint for maverick independence and sonic adventurousness - a blueprint that countless labels follow to this day.
The documentary evidence is here. All you have to do is listen.
Volume 1 1978 - 1981 Featuring: The Normal, Fad Gadget, Silicon Teens, D.A.F., Non, Robert Rental, Depeche Mode, Boyd Rice and Smegma.
Volume 2 1982 Featuring: Non, Depeche Mode, Fad Gadget, Die Doraus Und Die Marinas, Yazoo and Liaisons Dangereuses.
Volume 3 1983 Featuring: Depeche Mode, Duet Emmo, Robert Görl, Yazoo, Fad Gadget, The Assembly and The Birthday Party.
Volume 4 1984 Featuring: Einstürzende Neubauten, Fad Gadget, Robert Görl, Depeche Mode, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, I Start Counting, Bruce Gilbert, Boyd Rice and Frank Tovey.
Volumes 1-4 will be available separately later on in the year, but the exclusive 2CD rarities album, which features the legendary live recording of The Normal and Robert Rental - Live at West Runton Pavillon, live tracks from Depeche Mode, Fad Gadget and Yazoo plus John Peel and David Jensen session tracks from Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and Yazoo in addition to Boyd Rice variable speed versions of tracks from the Black album, will only be available as part of the Mute Audio Documents box set.
Daniel Miller has, for nigh on 30 years, been at the helm of a unique and groundbreaking label, which has gained a reputation as one of the most consistently successful, adventurous and challenging labels in the world. With offices in London, Berlin and New York and a roster that includes renowned international artists such as Depeche Mode, Moby, Erasure, Goldfrapp, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and Richard Hawley, Mute Audio Documents unashamedly celebrates the label with a remarkable box set detailing both the known as well as the not-so-well-known tracks (some of which are available here for the first time on CD) and the promise of more volumes in the near future.
Mute Audio Documents includes exclusive sleeve notes by Chris Bohn, Stephen Dalton, Ian Johnston and Dave Henderson, original artwork and exclusive original poster for The Normal.
Full tracklistings
Mute Audio Documents Volume 1 1978 - 1981
CD 1: 1. The Normal - T.V.O.D 2. The Normal - Warm Leatherette 3. Silicon Teens - Memphis Tennessee 4. Silicon Teens - Let's Dance 5. Fad Gadget - Back To Nature 6. Fad Gadget - The Box 7. Silicon Teens - Judy In Disguise 8. Silicon Teens - Chip 'n Roll 9. Fad Gadget - Ricky's Hand 10. Fad Gadget - Handshake 11. D.A.F. - Kebabträume 12. D.A.F. - Gewalt 13. Non - Soundtrack 1 (loop edit of 1'30" at 33rpm) 14. Non - Soundtrack 2 (loop edit of 1'30" at 33rpm) 15. Non - Soundtrack 3 (loop edit of 1'30" at 33rpm) 16. Non - Mode Of Infection 17. Non - Knife Ladder 18. Smegma - Can't Look Straight 19. Smegma - Flashcards 20. Fad Gadget - Insecticide 21. Fad Gadget - Fireside Favourites
CD 2: 1. Silicon Teens - Just Like Eddie 2. Silicon Teens - Sun Flight 3. Robert Rental - Double Heart 4. Robert Rental - On Location 5. D.A.F. - Tanz Mit Mir 6. D.A.F. - Der Räuber Und Der Prinz 7. Depeche Mode - Dreaming Of Me 8. Depeche Mode - Ice Machine 9. Boyd Rice - Side A Track 2 10. Boyd Rice - Side B Track 1 11. Fad Gadget - Make Room 12. Fad Gadget - Lady Shave 13. Depeche Mode - New Life 14. Depeche Mode - Shout 15. Depeche Mode - Just Can't Get Enough 16. Depeche Mode - Any Second Now
Mute Audio Documents Volume 2 1982
CD 1: 1. Non - Rise 2. Non - Out Out Out 3. Non - Romance Fatal Dentro De Un Auto 4. Depeche Mode - See You 5. Depeche Mode - Now This Is Fun 6. Fad Gadget - Saturday Night Special - Special Mix 7. Fad Gadget - Swallow It - Live 8. Die Doraus Und Die Marinas - Fred Vom Jupiter 9. Die Doraus Und Die Marinas - Even Home Is Not Nice Anymore 10. Non - Physical Evidence 11. Non - Man Kills Self While Cleaning Gun 12. Fad Gadget - King Of The Flies 13. Fad Gadget - Plain Clothes 14. Depeche Mode - The Meaning Of Love 15. Depeche Mode - Oberkorn (It's A Small Town)
CD 2: 1. Yazoo - Only You 2. Yazoo - Situation 3. Liaisons Dangereuses - Los Niños Del Parque 4. Liaisons Dangereuses - Mystère Dans Le Brouillard 5. Yazoo - Don't Go 6. Yazoo - Winter Kills 7. Fad Gadget - Life On The Line 8. Fad Gadget - 4M 9. Depeche Mode - Leave In Silence 10. Depeche Mode - Excerpt From: My Secret Garden 11. Yazoo - The Other Side Of Love 12. Yazoo - Ode To Boy 13. Fad Gadget - For Whom The Bells Toll 14. Fad Gadget - Love Parasite
Mute Audio Documents Volume 3 1983
CD 1: 1. Depeche Mode - Get The Balance Right! 2. Depeche Mode - The Great Outdoors! 3. Duet Emmo - Or So It Seems 4. Duet Emmo - Heart Of Hearts (Or So It Seems) 5. Robert Görl - Mit Dir 6. Robert Görl - Beruhrt Verfuhrt 7. Yazoo - Nobody's Diary 8. Yazoo - State Farm 9. Depeche Mode - Everything Counts 10. Depeche Mode - Work Hard
CD 2: 1. Fad Gadget - I Discover Love 2. Fad Gadget - Lemmings On Lovers' Rock 3. Depeche Mode - Love In Itself.2 4. Depeche Mode - Fools 5. The Assembly - Never Never 6. The Assembly - Stop Start 7. The Birthday Party - Jennifer's Veil 8. The Birthday Party - Mutiny In Heaven 9. The Birthday Party - Swampland 10. The Birthday Party - Say A Spell
Mute Audio Documents Volume 4 1984
CD 1: 1. Einstürzende Neubauten - Tanz Debil 2. Einstürzende Neubauten - Kalte Sterne 3. Fad Gadget - Collapsing New People 4. Fad Gadget - Spoil The Child 5. Robert Görl - Darling Don't Leave Me 6. Robert Görl - A Ist Wieder Da 7. Depeche Mode - People Are People 8. Depeche Mode - In Your Memory 9. Fad Gadget - One Man's Meat 10. Fad Gadget - Sleep - Electro Induced Original
CD 2: 1. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - In The Ghetto 2. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - The Moon Is In The Gutter 3. I Start Counting - Letters To A Friend 4. I Start Counting - Adman's Dream 5. Bruce Gilbert - U, Mu, U 6. Bruce Gilbert - Here Visit 7. Depeche Mode - Master And Servant 8. Depeche Mode - (Set Me Free) Remotivate Me 9. Depeche Mode - Blasphemous Rumours 10. Depeche Mode - Somebody - Remix 11. Boyd Rice / Frank Tovey - Extraction 2 12. Boyd Rice / Frank Tovey - Extraction 7
Mute Audio Documents Rarities
CD 1: 1. The Normal & Robert Rental - Live At West Runton Pavilion 2. Boyd Rice - Side A Track 1 - 33RPM 3. Boyd Rice - Side A Track 1 - 45RPM 4. Boyd Rice - Side B Track 2 -33RPM 5. Boyd Rice - Side B Track 2 - 45RPM 6. Fad Gadget - King Of The Flies - Live 7. Fad Gadget - I Discover Love - Live 8. Fad Gadget - The Ring - Live 9. Fad Gadget - Love Parasite - Live
CD 2: 1. Depeche Mode - Excerpt From: My Secret Garden 2. Depeche Mode - Shout - Live 3. Depeche Mode - Photographic - Live 4. Depeche Mode - Somebody - Live 5. Depeche Mode - Ice Machine - Live 6. Yazoo - Bring Your Love Down - David Jensen BBC Session 7. Yazoo - In My Room - David Jensen BBC Session 8. Yazoo - Winter Kills - Live 9. Yazoo - Don't Go - Live 10. Yazoo - Situation - Live 11. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - From Her To Eternity - John Peel BBC Session
Mice Parade Set To Debut New Album Self-Titled Album Continues Gorgeous Pop Odyssey That Spans Seven Albums
It was the winter after returning from extensive touring behind Mice Parade's 2005 album Bem-Vinda Vontade, and founder Adam Pierce moved away from the edge of NYC, up to the wooded country near Bear Mountain. There he spent the following spring converting an old garage into a quite spacious recording studio, the best so far in a long line of his home studios. After the last piece of gear was installed, instruments set up, cables plugged in, some kind of test project was needed to make sure everything worked the way it was supposed to. The result is Mice Parade's first self-titled album, and (depending on how you count) seventh full-length release.
While Pierce has written and played the lion's share of Mice Parade's catalog on his own, this album finds him continuing his recent trend of stellar collaborators. Laetitia Sadier (Stereolab) chimes in beautifully on "Tales of Las Negras". Kristin Anna Valtysdottir (múm, also a touring member of the Mice Parade live band from 2003-2006) lends her incredible grace to "Double Dolphins on the Nickel", complete with Icelandic verse. Other members of the live lineup appear on tracks like "Sneaky Red" and "Satchelaise", notably Doug Scharin (Rex, June of 44), Dylan Cristy (Dylan Group), Jay Israelson (Lansing-Dreiden), and Dan Lippel.
No two Mice Parade albums are alike. While 2004's Obrigado Saudade was intensely personal, close-mic'ed in a basement, and Bem-Vinda Vontade led listeners on more of a thrill ride, this latest album offers bits from all across that spectrum, as well as completely new directions - like the highlife guitars in "Last Ten Homes", or the flamenco percussion rhythms in "Double Dolphins on the Nickel"
Reflecting this eclecticism, the lineup of the touring band includes two drumkits, both nylon and electric guitars, vibraphones, keyboards, and whatever or whomever else is available. Come to a show as they tour the US & Japan in May/June...!
The album is slated for a May release!
Tracklisting: 1. Sneaky Red 2. Tales of Las Negras 3. The Last Ten Homes 4. Snow 5. Double Dolphins on the Nickel 6. Satchelaise 7. Swing 8. Circle None 9. The Nights After Fiction
YELLOW6 ‘Painted Sky’ Label: Resonant Catalogue number: RESCD022 Format: CD Album Release Date: March 19th 2007
A debut on Resonant from a man with a wealth of back catalogue on labels such as Enraptured, Darla, Bearos, Ochre, Awkward Silence and many, many more, spanning almost a decade.
Yellow6 is the solo project of Jon Attwood, a guitarist based in Leicestershire (the first UK-based artist to release an album on Resonant!) who has released six full length albums, five live albums and one remix album, on top of several mini-albums and EPs, singles and contributions to numerous compilations.
"Painted Sky" was recorded between 2004 and 2006, and strips away many of the layers of previous outings, resulting in a collection of melodic, organic guitar and piano soundscapes backed with subtle percussion.
More ambient than post rock, "Painted Sky" draws comparisons to Labradford, Cocteau Twins, Durutti Column, Slowdive, Windy & Carl and Erik Satie, as opposed to the quiet/loud exponents; this is quiet/quiet, with an overall air of wistful melancholy. The previous releases of Yellow6 have established a solid following, both in terms of fanbase and press.
Tracklisting:
1. I Know I Shouldn’t (But I Do) 2. I Loved You More Before I Knew You Loved Me 3. Common 4. NYE 2 5. Realisation 6. Pleasure/Pain 7. Eighteen Days 8. Requiem For Julian 9. Maré 10. Azure
For press pictures and sleeve scans. Please visit : http://www.resonantlabel.com/press-paintedsky.htm
Further Contact : RESONANT RECORDINGS Telephone: (Andy) 01922 406183 / 0208 376 4809 email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. website: www.resonantlabel.com
YELLOW6 BIOGRAPHY
Yellow6 has at times been described as post-rock, space-rock, electronica, shoegaze, ambient… the reality is that Yellow6 has some similarity with each of those genres but is not so easily definable, using apects of drone, repetition, melody, harmony, noise and silence to create absorbing soundscapes to drift off into.
Yellow6 was created out of necessity in the mid-90’s, the necessity to make guitar music not confined to rock song structures, and the necessity of circumstance to be a solo artist.
Jon Attwood is a guitarist who grew up with punk in the London suburbs, playing in the early 80’s London punk scene with a number of bands. Landing in the mid 90’s with no band Jon started to experiment with guitar sounds, drones, programmed beats and loops, resulting in a debut single release in 1998 on Enraptured Records. This was followed by a number of single, compilation and EP releases on as many labels, with a debut album in 2000, also taking yellow6 into the live arena that year.
Over the following years, Yellow6 has amassed over 18 releases on nearly as many labels across the globe, remixed or been remixed by many similar artists (Charles Atlas, Tristeza, Rothko, Maps&Diagrams, Amp, Bauri, Portal, Port-Royal) and played live shows in the UK, europe and north america with Tarentel, Tristeza, This Is Your Captain Speaking, Televise, ISAN, Christ, Jessica Bailiff and Charles Atlas.
‘Painted Sky’ is the 7th album from Yellow6, and his first for Resonant Recordings. This album strips away some of the layers of previous outings and contains 10 tracks of melodic, organic guitar and piano soundscapes backed up with subtle percussion.
Key releases: Icanhearthemusicallaroundme (Atomic Recordings, 1999) Overtone (Enraptured Records, 2000) Catherine Whiskey (Jonathan Whiskey, 2000) Music For Pleasure (Rocket Racer USA, 2001) Lake:Desert (Ochre, 2001) Live @ Ochre 7 (Ochre 2002) NewFoundLand (Music Fellowship, 2002) Disappear Here (Make Mine Music, 2003) Melt Inside (Make Mine Music, 2005) The Beautiful Season Has Past (3 CD collection, RROOPP, 2006) Painted Sky (Resonant, 2007)
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.
The title track sees both players immediately lifting off from the starter's block, Corsano attempting to slip around the sides of the fret-fucking Vibracathedral Orchestra member Mick Flower, at one point almost disappearing off the radar. The heavy raga shred of Flower's Shaahi Baaja (a Japanese Banjo that looks like ZZ Top took up the lap steel) calls to mind more than just its own singular voice, there are flutes, horns and pylon spillage sounds in there too. Despite the massive presence of the instrument, and its authoritative volume, there’s no sublimating Corsano; this is why this is a great improvisational team up.
On the reverse's "The Fifth Truth" both players show what the union is capable of when both are on full steam. Fueled on something illegal cut heavily with heavy vitamins and chili powder, they kick out explosion after explosion of razored notes that veer left of hitting chords. At times the sound is like water storage being emptied through the speakers, the monstrous bull headed guitar sound revealing itself in rare clusters of notes as banjoesque. The almost straight tank-track rhythm from Corsano shows he’s happy to play second fiddle to Flower’s sonic spread. Coating the pile-driven drums in luminous slashes, the duo really shows that they’re playing off each other for the greater good. The slight shifts and emphasis’ on parts of the beat shows Corsano’s inability to sit still on a pulse when there are so many other ticks and tricks to use. Tracking down single lines of enquiry and leaping from these into homilies of how to really investigate an instrument, Flower drags circles from the fret that sit just right with Corsano. These two sides of perpetual peaks ram home the chemistry of Corsano and Flower, another great pairing of minds.
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.
The three songs on The Sunken Threshold are at first listen fairly straightforward examples of doom but with repeated exposure, the layers peel back to reveal more and more detail. The song structures are constantly morphing: it sounds like it is all built on the foundation of one or two riffs but subtle variations and changes in the riffing give rise to new tangents and avenues for the band to explore. The production is unfortunately not as sharp as it could be: the oomph of Wreck of the Hesperus' live presence has not been captured successfully. Instead of bowel wrenchingly huge, the album sounds a little thin. The drums in particular feel hollow, especially on "Stop the Black Coffins," where it sounds like the kit is made from cardboard boxes. With the volume cranked the sound does become better but at lower volumes it does not pack the punch it should.
Luckily when "Grave Signal" erupts from the speakers any thoughts of an inferior production are blown out of the window. What it lacks in polishing it more than makes up for with ferocity. Wreck of the Hesperus pick the pace up and take no prisoners. The vocals are drenched in reverb and their black roar drips from song like venom. The unexpected electronics that make an appearance towards the end of the song add a new slant to Wreck of the Hesperus’ sound. When the instruments and vocals begin to be swamped by a glacier of noise and glitch-ridden drones, the tone of the song lowers to new levels of evil.
One thing that I do not like about Wreck of the Hesperus is their use of vocal samples from movies. This has never worked for me, it is a throwback to the mid-'80s to early '90s when every second rate metal and industrial act would include a line from The Wicker Man or some splatter movie. In the past, Wreck of the Hesperus have relied quite heavily on this cliché. Luckily on The Sunken Threshold the samples are kept to a minimum and are not too intrusive and do not detract from the music but I do find them to be an annoyance.
Quibbles aside, The Sunken Threshold is relentlessly brutal. What it lacks in terms of production it makes up for in spirit. Although, in the future I hope they opt for better recording facilities and record the classic album that I know they’re capable of.
One of the problems with having reached the pinnacle of composition on the album prior is that expectations are high, everyone is looking, and your songs can now be heard every Wednesday on NBC. But Explosions in the Sky marches onward, undeterred by such expectations.
They experimented a little with their submission to their label's Travels in Constants series, tinkering with fewer dynamics, more restraint, and even some original dialogue about their broken-down van (the van is, I believe, the conceit of the entire EP.) All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone incorporates what sounds like vestigial themes from the EP but decorates them in more typical explosiony fashion. The concentration and deliberation, the anguish and triumph, the celestial swells and swoops; all of it is here.
"The Birth and Death of the Day" germinates in low-powered static for thirty seconds until it unleashes amniotic fluid all over the place with one concussive punch. The tide then ebbs into a soft marching theme which, in turn, grows into a loud marching theme once the drums decide to make it their own. Is this the musical portrait of one day's arc, as suggested by the title? If so, I hesitate to embrace this as my typical day. The vicissitudes are too harsh, too steep. My day has (and needs) more constancy and steady plateaus. But as a song, it gets me, as Pat Benatar might agree, all fired up. This introduction bleeds into "Welcome, Ghosts," the song which sounds closest to those from the The Earth is not a Cold Dead Place. It is a study in acceleration and deceleration. The song winds up and winds down endlessly, dropping away and returning without warning.
Imagine when you first learned how to drive a manual transmission. Put that to music, perhaps a little more elegantly and sustained, and you have the song. "It's Natural To Be Afraid," the album's centerpiece, is also its longest offering, though the first five minutes feel more like exposition than full-fledged song. It's going to become a live favorite for the band, if not already, because it has plenty of parts for band members to fall to their knees and bang the hell out of their instruments. "What Do You Go Home To?" has an eerie resemblance to the last scene of Heat where Pacino is chasing Deniro all over the airport and a Moby song, one where he tries too hard to be Brian Eno, is playing loud enough to drown out the airplane engines. The periodic cascading piano recalls both the song and the scene and I think I might be doing some horrible injustice comparing Explosions in the Sky to Moby but what I think I am trying to say is that I sort of like the sound (of both of them, embarrassingly) even though the Explosions piece seems more like a tendon or ligament between songs than its own fully-wrought piece. It joins up to "Catastrophe and the Cure," the album's best song which busts through the door, sits down for a cup of tea, and then frenetically runs around the room for the next two minutes. The song necessitates the demulcent piano coda of "So Long, Lonesome" at the end of the album just to come down from the ecstatic peaks of "Catastrophe."
As Explosions evolves, the albums they are creating more closely mimic the band's live performances, where they have acquired acolytes more devoted than Attis. Interludes are more structurally built into the longer songs and some songs have become interludes unto themselves; turn on the stereo and switch off the lights and you have a home-concert. For anyone who has seen the band live, this is what you would wish: to capture just a fractional essence of an Explosions show, bottle it, and toss it into the album cover's city-devouring, wine-dark ocean.
This latest Birds of Delay communication shows a steelier hide than recent releases, the fluctuating red-hot treble liquefying the layers into a shimmering coating. Like 24/7 road works in your jawbone, this slow burner begins at the harsher, more dissonant end of the spectrum only for familiarity to find a sort-of melody and a kind-of arrangement.
Falling somewhere the slo-mo popping of a cordite bong bubble and the last epic gasp of a moribund Frank Herbert worm this single sided 7" spills severe frequency abuse. Dive bomb screams come and go like sonic whittlings torn out of hissy mix, this alone might have softened the body but left the brain untouched, but deeper listens reveal something nearer the bottom end. It's difficult to discern, it could be bowing or a banging on the low ended amplified strings or some broken bass part quietly implied and looped. Whatever it is, it works. This counterpoint to the whitewash blister becomes more central to this untitled piece with each listen, despite its ambiguity. This semi-hidden part shifts this track from magnesium burn to something a little more controlled.
The single song featured on this limited edition CD-R gives a nice taster of what is to come on the band's upcoming LP. Monarch are tight and the production here captures the immense power of their music. This is a great slab of no frills and no bullshit doom, something that is always welcome.
Bone-crushingly heavy doom is not something I think of when it comes to French music but Monarch pulls it off beautifully. Musically they sit on the same shelf as Khanate, Sunn O))), Ocean and Moss; so there is nothing spectacularly new about their riffing. However, their delivery is spot on. All the instruments sound just right, the mix is great and at appropriate volumes "Swan Song" is deeply hypnotic. The riffs are the right side of monolithic, each chord pummels its way out of the speaker. The vocals are particularly killer, Emilie screams her lungs up without sounding like a parody. It is hard to find a woman who can do great doom vocals but Emilie is the icing on the cake; I am itching to hear the rest of this album.
After hearing the 15 minute digital pan-flute opener "Velvet Octaves," I knew exactly what this disc would be about. Most of the time this CD was playing, I was imagining myself in some little boutique shop filled with water falls and imported pottery from the more mystical countries of the third world.
Wiese has produced a CD of ambient passages that have crossed over to the dark side of the New Age. Nothing on here strikes me as terribly outstanding, though for the most part it attracts too much attention to even be considered background music. A difficult place to put an album of such innocuous style.
Tracks range from ambient passages to more rhythm based songs, like "Deer's Gate," with a down tempo near-trip hop groove, or "Insect Ride," based on a plodding horse trot beat, accompanied with cello, conjures images of Vangelis' "Chariots of Fire" set to the Special Olympics.
The closing track, "Sweet Lemon," a simple, delicate cascade of insectoid sounds, is by far the best on the disc, even though its far too short, too little and too late to redeem the album. Even with its Vidna Obmana-esque closer, "Perfume" is little more than a great way to go stir crazy on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
"Korm Plastics is proud to present the thirteenth release in the Brombron series. Originally a co-production between Staalplaat and Extrapool, it is now hosted by co-curator Frans de Waard. In the year 2000 Frans de Waard and Extrapool started the Brombron project. Two or more musicians become artists in residence in Extrapool, an arts initiative in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, with a fully equipped sound recording studio. These artists can work in a certain amount of time on a collaborative project; a project they always wished to do, but didn't have the time or the equipment to realize.
Jon Mueller and Martijn Tellinga have started a collaboration to explore the musical dialogue between the instrumentalist and realtime computer-performer. Their mutual interest in the outlining and structuring of improvisation, both in sonic properties and compositional shape, resulted in an ensembled playing that is partly responsive, partly autonomous.
During their residency at the Extrapool studio in Nijmegen, Netherlands December 2005, they experimented with a system that consisted of live-sampling and processing of Jon's playing, on top of a layer of pre-recorded soundmaterials taken from a previous session. Crucial to this system, was that the actual triggering of the samples and processing in the computer during performance was also caused by that same playing; i.e., while Jon was improvising he not only provided new sonic material for recording, but also triggered previously recorded events. The realtime manipulation and transformation of these events was done by Martijn following that same structural order. This experimental system was developed to get to a musical body that can either blend into one (percussion and computer) or exist as two entities that function in an autonomous way (bypassing the triggering and playing the computer as a stand-alone instrument, using the same set of soundmaterials) and perform by listening and responding to each others input. This can be seen as an attempt to get beyond the many electro-instrumental collaborations where the computer-performer seems to function as a huge effect-processor of the instrumental input, and by doing that, reduces the instrumentalist to a soundsource for realtime processing." - from label press release