27 May 2018

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Albums and Singles

This album, Dalt's sixth, is my first exposure to the iconoclastic Colombian's work and it feels like an ideal entry point, as it is quite a beguiling album that is universally hailed as a major creative breakthrough. Due to its stark and unusual futurist aesthetic and constrained palette of primitive-sounding electronics, Anticlines definitely calls to mind both classic Chris & Cosey and minimal wave fare, yet Dalt's vision is transcendently bizarre enough to feel like something radical and new. Her desiccated and industrialized Latin/South American rhythms are certainly a part of that, but the real brilliance of Anticlines lies in Dalt’s lyrics and vocals: on songs like "Tar," she resembles a sexy cyborg, bloodlessly and seductively intoning breathy, cryptic poetry that feels like it alludes to vast depths of hidden meaning and feeling.

RVNG Intl.

Lucrecia Dalt's life and career have had a rather singular trajectory, as she was once a geotechnical engineer, then had some success as an indie synthpop artist.At some point, Dalt moved to Berlin, and her music gradually became increasingly radical, experimental, and abstract.To some degree, Anticlines feels like an inspired synthesis of Dalt's pop side and her more cerebral, outré impulses, but it also feels like she just added a whole new level of playful experimentalism to her existing aesthetic with her poetic word craft.  That is an impressive and rare feat, as Dalt has simultaneously deepened and expanded her art and shaped her vision into an incredibly listenable "pop" album (of sorts).Also, Dalt seems to be almost supernaturally gifted at filtering and diffracting incredibly disparate influences through her distinctive vision, as she drew inspiration from everything from poetry (Alice Fulton) to phenomenology (Dylan Trigg) to Robert Ashley to Aaron Dilloway.She also collaborated with two artists, Henry Anderson and Regina de Miguel.I am sure shades of all of those folks appear here, but I would be very hard pressed to identify any of them after everything has been distilled to just a simple synth pattern and Dalt's voice.Put glibly, I could probably say that Anticlines sounds like Daphne Oram aggressively remixed Songs of Love and Lust and totally gutted most of Chris Carter's contributions, and be stylistically quite close to the mark, but there is too much depth and subtlety in Dalt's work for any comparison to be truly apt.Dalt is making very forward-thinking art, yet her extremely simple arsenal of a compact synth and an effects processor unquestionably harkens back to an earlier era of electronic music: these songs are almost all crafted from repeating patches and little more.Anticlines does not feel kitschy or retro though–it instead feels like Dalt is making something vibrant and sophisticated from relatively rudimentary tools.The simplicity makes these pieces feel direct and undiluted by unnecessary artifice.

Unsurprisingly, the strongest pieces are ones with the best hooks (I like hooks), particularly the album's lead single "Tar."As with every song on Anticlines, the musical component is extremely minimal, but "Tar" is a bit more rhythmic than the other pieces, marrying a sultry and burbling Latin rhythm to little more than woozily passing synth coloration and some eerily seductive vocals ("we have touched…as only atmospheres touch").The vocals predictably steal the show completely, but Dalt also displays a vivid talent for creating a disorienting sense of unreality, as the simmering pulse sounds like digitized dripping stalactites and strange sounds irregularly flutter into the piece like confused electronic birds.  The album's other "pop" highlight is the opening "Edge," as Dalt announces that she is "gathering up skins and blowing them up like balloons" and wonders aloud "how long does everybody last without organs?" over a chirping and squiggling backdrop of electronic bloops and beeps.I am also quite fond of the more inhuman and hostile-sounding "Analogue Mountains," which combines a relentlessly repeating chromatic spew of synth tones with rather cold and distant vocals."Errors of Skin" is similarly robotic, creeping into Throbbing Gristle-esque territory with its mélange of clock-like rhythm; chilly, processed vocals; and warped, sickly intrusions of "melody."The rest of the album is also quite interesting, but the remaining pieces are considerably more abstract and nakedly experimental, unfolding more as a series of hallucinatory interludes than distinct, memorable songs.The best of the lot might be the dreamily slow-motion and clanking fugue of "Glass Brain," which feels like one of Dalt’s catchier songs has been stretched and corroded beyond recognition.Other pieces, like "Axis Excess" and "Indifferent Universe," feel like shards of actual songs that blossomed into something stranger when decontextualized.Elsewhere, Anticlines resembles everything from the ambient sounds of an abandoned space station ("Antiform") to a chopped and alien-sounding gospel choir ("Eclipsed Subject").

My sole caveat with Anticlines is that it is heavily front-loaded with Dalt's most inspired and fully formed songs (the voice-centered ones), which I suppose makes a great deal of sense from a sequencing perspective: Dalt drew me in with her catchy avant-garde pop fare, then expanded into increasingly experimental and obtuse fare once I was ensnared.While I do enjoy the many strange instrumental vignettes that populate the second half of the album, it is the comparatively accessible songs like "Tar" and "Edge" that stand out as memorable and capture Dalt at the height of her powers as a visionary avant-pop auteur.Anticlines is leaner on such moments than would be ideal and would be better if the last part of the album were broken up by another hook-filled gem or two.That said, the album does otherwise have a very distinctive and coherent aesthetic, an effective dynamic arc, and a sense of constant forward momentum, as Dalt is always doing something appealingly unusual and never lets a piece overstay its welcome. Anticlines maintains an unbroken and evocative retro-futurist spell from start to finish.More importantly, Anticlines' minor flaws are easily eclipsed by the magnitude of its success, as Dalt has achieved something quite wonderful and singular: she has conjured up a perversely sensuous futurist dystopia that feels refreshingly simple and intimate.Given all of its conceptual and cerebral themes, this album is unquestionably Serious Sound Art, yet Dalt has found a way to imbue her more challenging impulses with soul, dark eroticism, and DIY charm.

Samples:

• Edge
• Tar
• Analogue Mountains

 

20 May 2018

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Albums and Singles

Three years after his eclectic and excellent solo debut, Bourbonese Qualk founder Simon Crab is back, albeit in radically transformed fashion. Crab's eclecticism certainly remains intact, yet Demand Full Automation is a bit of a tough album to wrap my head around: it kind of sounds like Crab started composing a similarly fine follow-up, then got commissioned to soundtrack some kind of neon-lit impressionist urban noir film…then took a break and time-traveled back to the '90s to do a DJ set at the Haçienda.  Unsurprisingly, those disparate threads make very strange bedfellows indeed, yet the enigmatic logic of Crab's overarching vision is countered by some sizable leaps forward in his craftsmanship. While I admittedly miss the homespun charm of After America a lot, Demand Full Automation is quite a likable (if sometimes quizzical) album in its own right, as it is a considerably tighter, more beat-driven, and more hook-filled affair than its predecessor.

Klanggalerie/Bandcamp

This album is quite an unusual convergence of curious artistic choices, unexpected anachronisms, and seemingly contradictory impulses roughly united by Crab's vision of Automation as a "futurist narrative" that "anticipates our world at a crossroads where either machines liberate the working class to pursue meaningful tasks, or automation is used as yet a another tool to subdue."In practical stylistic terms, Demand Full Automation is an album with very high production quality, as each song has been painstakingly polished to vibrant, crystalline clarity.There is also a very conscious mingling of organic instrumentation, modern electronics, deep human emotion, and exacting precision, albeit not always an entirely seamless one.While the glittering, crisp production is by far the most immediately striking surprise that Automation offers, Crab's restless genre-shifting is yet another unexpected curveball: in the past, Crab has assimilated a wide variety of disparate influences in a relatively distinct (if ever-evolving) aesthetic.He achieves that with Automation a few times as well, but more frequently chooses to completely give himself over to different aesthetics like a master spy trying on various disguises.That approach is where the album loses me a bit, as I would much rather hear Crab focusing his formidable talents on his own vision rather than crafting a series of skilled pastiches.  Occasionally, however, Crab's oddly retro pastiches can be quite good, as the opening "E11" is a lovely throwback to late '90s techno that marries burbling synths, a charmingly blooping melody, and a big, straightforward beat to great effect.The opposite end of the spectrum is the title piece, which sounds like a lost early '90s New Order instrumental (the height of their "dance" phase).Similarly flummoxing is "According to Plan," which sounds like an ABC remix recorded during New Jack Swing's brief window of popularity.

Fortunately, there are a number of legitimately excellent and inventive pieces lurking throughout Automation's kaleidoscopic trajectory as well.My favorite is the gorgeously elegiac "Drop," which beautifully embellishes a twinkling descending melody with dreamily blurred steel drums.The following "I Asked" is another stunner, as Crab is joined by guest vocalist Ksénia Lukyanova–Emelyanova and percussionist Milo Fell in crafting a piece that sounds like something that would be playing in a futuristic S&M club.While those two pieces are definitely the upper tier, the album is peppered with several other unique delights as well, such as the bizarrely lurching, burbling, and broken-sounding dub-techno experimentation of "Dark Harvest."  Elsewhere, the languorously lovely "The Long Days" feels like a warmer, slower variation on "Drop," as its plinking strings and wobbly steel drums weave a bittersweetly blissful spell. There are also some intriguing pieces that are a bit harder to categorize or seem like the complete antithesis of Crab's anarchist/anti-materialist worldview."Kubark," for example, is a very stylish and evocative blend of swooning melody and retro-sounding electro funkiness that would not seem at all out of place in a high-end cosmetics commercial or a fashion show.Elsewhere, the delicate and nakedly pretty "Permanent Emergency" sounds like an intricately rippling web of layered music boxes, which could not possibly be further from Crab's ultra-political cassette underground roots.Interpreted charitably, I suspect Automation can be viewed as a particularly evolved state of post-modernism in a world where rebellion has been commodified and reduced to a mere aesthetic–if overtly resembling revolutionary/countercultural art is ineffectual posturing in the face of late capitalism, then nothing is stylistically off-limits.The machine does not care whether you are using the Crass font or making pristine techno confections, as both will be commodities in the end.

Despite being an incredibly varied and occasionally puzzling album, Automation is a remarkably well-crafted whole in which each song flows seamlessly into the next.As far as songcraft and craftsmanship are concerned, this album is unquestionably the high-water mark of Crab's career, as almost nothing about Automation feels meandering, improvised, exploratory, or cluttered: nearly every piece is a stylish, masterfully executed gem of perfect focus.If Automation has a flaw, it is only that Crab's muse is quite a mercurial and enigmatic one.This album is like a tank being operated by someone prone to uncontrollable hallucinations: it is sometimes quite hard to guess why a particular target was chosen, but Crab definitely makes a significant impact at whatever winds up in his quixotically unpredictable crosshairs.Crab's newly polished and clean production aesthetic, combined with his baffling compulsion to craft anachronistic mainstream-sounding pop makes this album a bit of a baffling enigma, yet all of his weird decisions are beautifully crafted and enjoyable. Demand Full Automation is a lot like watching a great auteur direct a genre film or an installment of some long-running franchise: the result is stylish, skillfully executed, and quite good, but it just is not what that auteur will be remembered for. As such, I prefer After America and some late-period Bourbonese Qualk to this particular direction.Demand Full Automation's stellar execution and wealth of hooks would have been quite amazing if it had been in service of a more distinctive vision though.Hopefully, that convergence will someday come.Until then, Demand Full Automation is yet another strong and unusual album in a uniquely unpredictable career.

Samples:

• Drop
• I Asked
• Demand Full Automation

 

17 May 2018

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Albums and Singles

Kali Malone's sophomore LP Cast of Mind investigates the use of harmony as a force of psychological impact through the exclusive use of the Buchla 200 synthesizer in combination with acoustic woodwind and brass instruments.

The record begins as a cascade of battle calls from the wind instruments that shift ephemerally between triumphant and anguished howls upon each exhale. While the other pieces pull from the septimal harmonic framework of the title track, they extract a more confined palate to depict their sonic identities indicated by the song titles. "Bondage To Formula" weaves synthesis, trombone and bass clarinet in a delicate pattern, conjuring an ambiguous assimilation of the acoustic and synthetic. Dominated by columns of sawtooth waveforms, "Arched In Hysteria" unravels as a sharp and sober harmony perched on the border of violence, ringing in paranoia amongst a foundation of low beating oscillators. The record concludes in the rapture of "Empty The Belief," swollen with undulating bassoon striving to intonate to the towering stability of machine-generated harmony.

Using justly tuned synthetic and acoustic instrumentation, Cast of Mind's rich harmonic textures emit a distinct emotive hue serving to generate a static and captivating depth of focus.

Kali Malone (b. 1994, Colorado) is an American artist living and working in Stockholm, Sweden since 2012. Her solo works implement unique tuning systems in minimalist form for analog and digital synthesis often combined with acoustic instrumentation - such as pipe organ, string and wind instruments, lute and gong. Malone's 2017 debut LP Velocity of Sleep was released on her own label XKatedral following tape releases put out by Ascetic House, Bleak Environment and Total Black. She is active in the groups Sorrowing Christ, Swap Babies and Upper Glossa with Caterina Barbieri. She has performed most notably at Berlin Atonal, Moogfest and Norberg Festival.

More information can be found here.

17 May 2018

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Albums and Singles

Time Exercises is a complex study in amorphous polymetric rhythms by Cam Deas for The Death of Rave. His first album composed solely for modular synths and computer, Cam's follow-up to the acclaimed String Studies for Luke Younger's Alter label marks a headlong tilt from acoustic to electronic spheres with a staggering effect resulting from meticulous research and process. It sounds as advanced as Xenakis or Roland Kayn superstructures, with the rhythmic displacement of FIS or Autechre, and with a grasp of slippery, mind-bending timbral dissonance comparable to Coil and Rashad Becker records.

Cam's six "Time Exercises" form both a bold break with - and an extension of - the avant, folk, blues and outernational traditions that he's worked to deconstruct and fluidly syncretise over the past decade. In the past four years he's stepped away from the guitar as a compositional tool, turning to electronic hardware in a focussed effort to consolidate myriad tunings and meters with a precision that had previously eluded him in the acoustic sphere.

Severed from the tactility and sentimentality of instrumental inflection, Cam's disembodied music plays out a thrilling dramaturgy and syntax of alien dissonance and disorienting rhythmic resolution. Harmonic shapes as densely widescreen as those in Roland Kayn's Cybernetic Music roil in unfathomable fever dream space, where massed batteries of synthetic percussion swarm like an orchestra of Cut Hands in viscous formation, and where polychromatic mentasm figures converge like cenobites laying siege to Rashad Becker’s utopia.

On Time Exercises, Cam articulates a synthetic musical language that speaks to the listener in myriad, quantum tongues awaiting to be deciphered by keen ears everywhere. It's an outstanding record for lovers of forward-looking but deeply rooted electronic music.

More information can be found here.

17 May 2018

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Albums and Singles

The fifth LP by English guitarist Jon Collin is also his first U.S. release. Jon first came to our attention when he started the Winebox Press label. This fairly nuts project involved choosing a wooden object (like a wine box or door) from which to create cases (some of them quite complex) for cassettes he released. The size of the edition was determined by the number of the packages he was able to create from the original object, and the label's creations were pretty amazing.

Some of his early bands, like Whole Voyald Infinite Light and the Serfs were documented, along with artists like the Hunter Graccus, Chora and Taming Power. Eventually he began to issue solo recordings, and they sounded as brilliant as they looked. This led to occasional U.S. tours, interest from other labels and a worldwide explosion of all things JON COLLIN. Well, that’s not all really true. But the basics are.

Collin is a wonderful player, incorporating the distentions of Loren Connors alongside the blues figures of Jack Rose and the lyrical melodicism of Robbie Basho. He can also throw in blurts that are pure Derek Bailey to throw the punters off, but that's his business.

This new album (which will be followed in a few months by Volume 2) is a lovely example of his most evolved beauty-moves, riven with hairs and rivers of discord, but generally dedicated to expanding (rather than collapsing) the head of anyone who will take the time to listen.

Make time for it. You will be copiously rewarded.

More information can be found here.

17 May 2018

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Albums and Singles

Our last Big Blood release was the idiosyncratic Ant Farm (FTR 241), Colleen and Caleb's collaboration with the late composer Elliott Schwartz, which presented music designed for a museum installation. With Operate Spaceship Earth Properly, Big Blood return to the vast universe of strangeness they explore inside their own skin. Now fully incorporating the vocals and guitar of their daughter Quinnisa (previously a "secret weapon" unveiled mostly at live shows, as the Dictators once did with Handsome Dick Manitoba), Big Blood sound nutsier and wilder than ever.

Spaceship Earth is a massively psychedelic investigation of science fiction, science fact and the mythic spot where they reconcile. Specifically referring to the work of writers such as Octavia Butler, Ursula K. Le Guin and Buckminster Fuller, the music mixes the thunder of riff-thuggery with vocals beamed in from planet Comus and beat-slaps equally indebted to the Purple Revolutionary and the Neue Deutsche Welle. The combination is headspinning and gloriously original, but will be immediately identifiable as Big Blood by anyone who knows the band's music.

I mean, it's so freaking Strange and so freaking Maine, who else could it be?

-Byron Coley, 2018

More information can be found here.

13 May 2018

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Albums and Singles

Following the Idle Chatter's label curated tape set Transparens by Wren Turco, the label has released another, similar project, this time by Drekka's Mkl Anderson. Again consisting of three artists, each contributing their own tape (Drekka, Pillars and Tongues, and Skrei), there are a multitude of different experimental sounds and approaches here, blending traditional with electronic instrumentation on this trinity of albums. Like the label’s previous collection, each artist’s work differs greatly from one another others, but the big picture is a series of works that complement one another splendidly.

Idle Chatter

Drekka's tape (credited to the nine person Drekka Ensemble, conducted by Anderson) consists of material initally recorded between 2000 and 2002, but reworked last year.The two part piece differs significantly between the two halves.The first part of "Songs of Reunion" is an immediate burst of metallic clatter and bowed strings, heavily shrill and abrasive.The piece quickly builds to a dull roar, sounding like a gamelan ensemble full of unconventional instruments that eventually relents, allowing the bowed strings to take center stage, paired with some delicate chimes.As it goes on, layers are reversed and the whole thing takes on a weird, hallucinatory feeling before concluding with the denseness it opened on.

On the other half of the piece, treated (but still obvious) guitar becomes the focus as a multitude of effected, non-specific noises drift in and out.As the piece goes on, more painful and harsh tones and sounds are brought into the piece.While it begins somewhat pleasant, the mood shifts as time goes on and eventually becomes dense and full of abrasive sounds, piled upon each other until eventually drifting away with a surprising lightness, with a palindrome-like structure as the piece that preceded it.

Pillars and Tongues contribution is comparably a much more restrained affair."You/Attempted" begins with a rather inviting ambient space, intentionally sparse and muted.The level of subtlety makes it stand out more, especially following the Drekka tape.On "Painting Dust" the stripped-down mix is eventually filled with a gentle crackle, some sustained tones, and even a bit of piano.The second half of the tape, "Counted Utterance, Meaning Countenanced", features a nice, understated bed of gliding tones and piano, but eventually the focus shifts to some conventional singing.Towards the end what sounds like railroad bells herald the conclusion, but before then a large number of false stops where the piece fades away only to come back again and again.

The ambiguous Berlin based Skrei rounds out the three tapes with an untitled piece spread across both sides of the cassette. Compared to the other two artists, this work is more synth-heavy in nature.The first half begins with a droning, prickly bass synth and echoing dialog samples.Layers are piled on: pitch bent voices, bleak electronics, and the occasional noisy stab of electronics.Wet electronics mesh with abrasive static scrapes into a wall of heavily reverberated noise.The second half begins with crunching static and almost string-like low frequency swells.Things congeal into the dull roar of a HNW piece before quickly fading away to a hollow vastness.Rushing white noise and a factory-like ambience come back, eventually balanced out by a natural sounding guitar and some more gentle tones.The piece reaches a conclusion via shrill squeals and harsh feedback, however, ending on a high (and harsh) note.

The three tapes that make up Held There, Beside the Signified all differ from one another:Drekka's excursion is more of an organic discord, Skrei's is more synthetic and inhuman, and the Pillars and Tongues work sits right in the middle is a pleasant, more ambient work that bridges the two extremes.Mkl Anderson has done an excellent job at curating this work with friends and associates, resulting in a compilation that is just as strong together as it is taken individually.

samples:

• Songs of Reunion (Part One)
• You/Attempted
• Untitled

 

13 May 2018

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Albums and Singles

Having sat on these tapes for far too long, I felt that it was a good time to revisit them in light of Stelzer's newest works (reviewed here) to more fully recognize this legendary artist’s work. Dawn Songs is a pleasantly succinct piece of music that covers a nice gamut of sounds while Normal Bias is a sprawling, magnificent set of six tapes that feels like an "everything plus the kitchen sink" type release where everything just happens to be golden and indispensable.

No Rent Records/Ballast

Dawn Songs is two side-long untitled pieces that are joined by the theme outlined in the title:All source materials were recorded between the hours of 4 and 6AM around Stelzer’s Lowell, Massachusetts home.A variety of tape treatments, field recordings, and ambient replications of sound were used.The first part is at first a thin wall of sustained noise that eventually builds in complexity, but stays consistent in volume, like the sound of silence pushed to the highest possible levels.This sound of pre-morning stillness is presented to the nth degree, eventually resembling jet engines and subsonic rumblings.Throughout Stelzer mixes things up from emphasizing the highest frequency sounds to the lowest, keeping an intense dynamic until ending on an open, spacious note.

On the other side, the mix has more breathing room that allows the lighter sounds to rise to the surface.Untreated field recordings of early morning bird songs shine through the simplified layers of sound and subtle environmental hiss.Eventually Stelzer shapes everything into a captivating series of noise waves that stretch out and then are peeled back, allowing bits and pieces to remain and allowing the focus to drift to the smaller, less demanding sounds.Eventually, like the previous half, the sound drifts away in the morning sunshine.

samples:

• Dawn Songs 1 (Excerpt 1)
• Dawn Songs 1 (Excerpt 2)
• Dawn Songs 2

 

Normal Bias is less of a conceptually structured work, and that is by no means a detriment.At 18 copies, it is the largest release to date on Blake Edwards' (Vertonen) Ballast imprint, which I highly recommend as a whole for a multitude of handmade, conceptually brilliant releases.At six tapes, it covers that wide range of Stelzer's work, as well as some roads less traveled, and every moment of it is amazing.

Stelzer's early roots in the harsh noise underground are nicely represented throughout, most notably on "Basalt #1" (with Todd Bowser contributing bass guitar).A wall of noise is sustained throughout; some heavy low scrapes as well, which begins more aggressive than it ends.This unrelenting wall of noise never relents though, and the piece ends on what sounds like a poor bootleg of a rock show played too loudly by next door neighbors and a blasting fire alarm.The rough hewn edges of "Schist" hearken back to his oldest works, with a bit of that frigid, frozen sound akin to the golden age of Japanese noise artists (most notably the Incapacitants and Hijokaidan), with a bit of electronic drone deeply submerged in the mix.

Other tapes in this set are more focused on his penchant for complex tape edit collages."Detriment" is a mass of machine gun like sputters, brittle noises, and whirring helicopter blades that manages to sound both heavily composed and completely random, a juxtaposition that works perfectly."Basalt #2" is another chaotic mix of buzzing insects, random recorded voices giving announcements, field recordings and even some car horns in the distance."Night Light" (recorded live in Boston) captures the pre-show ambience of incidental sounds, strings, and conversations before launching right into Stelzer’s performance.Slowed, murky tape mutations, jerky cut and paste edits and uncomfortably lugubrious recordings all come together beautifully.

At other times on Normal Bias, Stelzer is even more adventurous than usual, which is saying a lot.A multitude of noises opens "Someday/It is Useful", and even a bit of what sounds like field recordings of Mr. Stelzer's classroom (his day job is being a fifth grade teacher) blended with guitar strums.Soon the piece transitions into a flowing mass of slowed down percussive rumbles, giving more of a rhythmic sense to the piece, but as a whole it is diverse and dynamic.There is a bleak murk throughout "Falling Action" that, with the added grinding and whooshing white noise layers, takes on a vintage industrial sheen that nicely complements his analog sensibility.

The contrast between the more succinct and conceptually focused Dawn Songs and the sprawling, gargantuan nature of Normal Bias is one that really does show the breadth and depth of Howard Stelzer's ever growing body of work.The former feels more structured and composed, while the latter is all over the place and adventurous, but without any missteps at all.While they may be a bit dated at this point, I highly recommend searching both out, as they are amazing and brilliant documents of the creative potential of one man and his many tape recorders.

samples:

• Basalt #1
• Someday/It Is Useful
• Falling Action

 

13 May 2018

Administrator

Albums and Singles

Gnod’s previous full-length, 2017's Just Say No..., was a feast of gloriously thuggish and focused brutality, but it was bit of an outlier for the shape-shifting psych collective from Salford. Consequently, I was a fool to expect Chapel Perilous to continue along the same lines, as Gnod is an entity in a constant state of explosive reinvention. There are a couple of lingering shadows of Just Say No's aesthetic in Chapel Perilous's lengthy bookends, however, as this album partially took shape as Gnod were touring in No's wake. For the most part, Chapel Perilous is a completely different animal though, deconstructing the band's more hostile side into something a bit more seething, sprawling, indulgent, and experimental. That makes this release more of an uneven, fitfully inspired detour than a great album, but it still manages to kick open a few new doors in decisive fashion.

Rocket

Gnod is unquestionably one of the most exciting and reliably compelling bands around right now, but I have absolutely no idea what the hell they were thinking when they decided to record "Donovan's Daughters" and release it as the opening song on their latest album.Initially, however, it sounds like a very cool and slow-building extension of Just Say No's winning "scarier and more muscular Gang of Four" aesthetic: a throbbing bassline, skittering drums, slashing guitar chords, and an occasional dub-inspired electronic flourish.It sounds great, but starts to go a little south once the repetitive, snarling vocals come into the picture.Despite that, it boasts some wonderfully see-sawing guitar chaos and appealingly wild drumming, so it maintains enough heaviness and momentum to transcend some of its songcraft shortcomings…for a while, anyway.After about six minutes, the bottom drops out and it transforms into something resembling a roiling and pummelingly repetitive outro.If it ended with that, "Donovan's Daughters" would still be a fine song, but it instead morphs into something that lies somewhere between a perplexing White Hills pastiche and bad hard rock that turns the final five minutes of the song into an unlistenable slog for me.I have no idea what would possess a band to extend a good song into fifteen minutes by tacking on a completely different and significantly less enjoyable song.It feels like a perverse celebration of everything I hate about prog rock with none of the rewards: a very long song with multiple movements, yet little nuance, coherent sense of meaningful progression, or real depth.

Thankfully, Paddy Shine and company manage to right the ship with the following "Europa," a starkly experimental and eerie instrumental piece built from decaying bass pulses, moody guitar swells, lysergic dub touches, and an enigmatic vocal sample that repeatedly urges the world to go back to reason.To my ears, it is by far the most memorable and stellar piece on the album, but the remaining three pieces have their charm as well."A Voice From Nowhere" continues Gnod's mid-album dalliance with naked experimentalism, unfolding as a crunching and industrial-sounding percussion showcase nicely embellished by a complex miasma of crackling noise, echoing samples, buried feedback, and droning synths.If it had been allowed to steadily build and expand further, it probably could have been the album's centerpiece, but Gnod inexplicably decided to keep things relatively concise with that one, killing off their gnarled and clanking juggernaut after a mere six minutes.The following "A Body" is the final salvo into Chapel Perilous's abstract and experimental mid-section, marrying an echo-heavy spoken-word monologue to distantly thundering percussion and distorted guitar loops.That extended abstract interlude is violently shattered with the closing "Uncle Frank Says Turn It Down," however, as Gnod erupt into a churning catharsis of pummeling riffage.I like it a lot better than "Donovan's Daughters," but it is still something of a puzzling piece, as it sounds like the explosive climax of a song with all of the surrounding song excised.Somehow it works though, as it has a very cool dynamic arc that frequently sounds like it is stuck in a bulldozing locked-groove.It would certainly be better if it were attached to some kind of meaningful build-up, but it is still a hell of a wonderfully visceral show of force.

I was bit surprised to belatedly read that "Donovan's Daughters" and "Uncle Frank" were "two tumultuous tracks that [Gnod] had been honing and hammering into shape on the road," as Chapel Perilous does not at all sound like an album that has been chiseled to perfection and road-tested.Instead, it feels like a rather rushed and scattered release from a band that had plenty of good ideas, but not enough time to shape them into a coherent album.While that is admittedly disappointing after Just Say No, that album was the aberration and Chapel Perilous is kind of a return to equilibrium: Gnod is definitely not a linearly evolving band that is particularly concerned about releasing only their best material.Rather, they are like an uncontrollable chain reaction that is prolifically documented–each new release is a snapshot of where their restless creative drive has taken them at that particular moment.Sometimes, that snapshot captures a moment of sustained brilliance and sometimes it comes at a more transitional period.  Chapel Perilous falls more into the latter category, as it features a lot of great moments, yet they rarely cohere perfectly into great songs.That said, however, there is only one significant misstep on Chapel, even if it is the album's longest piece.Without "Donovan's Daughters," this album would make quite a strong EP, as everything else is quite good (particularly "Europa").

Samples:

• Donovan's Daughters
• Europa
• Uncle Frank Says Turn It Down

 

 

13 May 2018

Administrator

Albums and Singles

In his two most recent works, Howard Stelzer branches out to less aggressive, more subdued sounds, while still heavily staying faithful to his core roots as a noisy manipulator of all things cassette. His work with long-time friend and long-time collaborator Brendan Murray shows a wide variety of approaches and styles, while A Strange Object is largely him at his most focused and meditative. The two tapes may seem vastly different at times, but make for excellent complements to one another.

The Helen Scarsdale Agency/No Rent Records

The feel of Connector is established immediately on "one".Murray’s field recordings construct a vast space in which Stelzer introduces the textures of his mangled cassette tapes, coming together at what feels like familiar field recordings with unexpected abrasive outbursts.The two trade off being on center stage, from recordings of cars passing by into heavily panned and wobbling tape detritus, culminating in a nice, brittle sheen.For "two", the humming rumble of an engine is at first the primary element, with the occasionally abrupt pop or click and far off noise added to give a bit of color.Eventually there is an abrupt halt that then introduces a lengthy synth like pulse for the remainder of the piece, making for a unique conclusion.

On the flip side, "three" is at first an immense, pseudo-orchestral shimmer full of heavy, droning organ-like passages that expand outward.It is a rich and complex mélange of sound, and one that is rather dissonant and eventually shifts into some even harsher, grinding passages of noise that teeter on uncomfortable before concluding on a decaying, decrepit note.For most of the concluding "four" things are calm:a machinery hum, some warm organic processing and effects and some subtle, quiet interruptive sounds throughout the mix.Eventually though the mix becomes more tight and shrill, with the abrasive conclusion tying things together quite nicely.

samples:

• two
• three
• four

 

Stelzer's latest solo work, like Dawn Songs, is a kinder, gentler bit of sound in comparison.He himself has said on record that these are pieces intended to reflect smaller, intimate settings, and that is completely evident.There are a plethora of small, light noises within the rhythmic electronic pulses of "A Strange Object Covered in Fur Which Breaks Your Heart" that is wonderfully varied, but also muted and warm.He also constructs a sparse, minimalistic space for "The Historical Aspects Have Been Adequately Trodden by Others", grounded by some sort of distant hum, but everything kept very soft and quiet.If Stelzer was to ever do an unplugged release, this is probably what it would sound like.

"Dressed in Heavenly Blue" is short, but perhaps a bit more boisterous within the context of this tape.A pleasant pairing of brittle static and shimmering drone, it is not as drastically removed from his noisier works, but presented in a quieter, intimate sort of scenario.The second half of the tape is taken up by "And Joy", a complex tapestry of various hums and buzzes filtered in various ways that give them an excellent sense of depth, but in a more airy, open framework.Distortion and noise of course appear, but kept restrained to make for added color and texture, without ever dominating too much.

For these two releases, both sides of Howard Stelzer’s sonic personality come through greatly:the forceful and heavy noise on Connector (not to at all discount Brendan Murray's contributions, which add significantly to the tape), and his more peaceful, meditative tendencies on A Strange Object.The former is a complex mass of sound that is equally Murray’s hand that, at times is challenging and unpleasant fascinating from start to finish. The latter, however, excels in its intimacy.In some ways I could not help but be reminded of a more analog take on the work of Richard Chartier, an associate of Stelzer’s from the earliest days of his Intransitive label.Taken together, both are essential works in his (thankfully) every growing and varied discography.

samples:

• A Strange Object Covered in Fur Which Breaks Your Heart
• Dressed in Heavenly Blue
• And Joy