 |
|
Hotter than July. This week's episode has plenty of fresh new music by Marie Davidson, Kim Gordon, Mabe Fratti, Guided By Voices, Holy Tongue meets Shackleton, Softcult, Terence Fixmer, Alan Licht, pigbaby, and Eiko Ishibashi, plus some vault goodies from Bombay S Jayashri and Pete Namlook & Richie Hawtin. Solstice moon in West Midlands, UK photo by James. Get involved: subscribe, review, rate, share with your friends, send images!
|
Dominick Fernow has always been a polarizing figure in the noise scene: people either obsessively buy every limited tape he puts out, or they like to rant about him and his label on various noise message boards. So upon hearing that this album was going to be even more divisive than anything has yet released, my interest was definitely piqued. After hearing it a few times, it’s different, and yet not completely out of character in his discography.
If I could think of any condition that exemplified life today, it would be distraction. Even the most contemplative life is arrested by a thousand nagging interruptions. For my part, I was especially distracted while reviewing Old Punch Card, constantly turning away from the work to read some random article or watch some Internet video. Nothing peculiar about that, I’ll admit, but then I realized how well the album evokes distraction as a state of mind. It’s the sound of our own attention scattering into the ether.
This five disc box set collects all of Tindersticks' soundtracks for the French director Claire Denis. Dating back to their classic second album and continuing right up until their current incarnation, their relationship with Denis has borne exquisite musical fruit that covers a surprising spectrum of styles. This collection is an absolute treasure, covering the two previously released soundtracks with four unreleased works and each one is a masterpiece.
Somehow Mick Harris has slipped a couple of records by me in the last few years starting with the Super Mantis Part 1 single released by Combat Recordings in 2008. Scorn somehow makes simple drum beats and atonal bass sound angry. He's been working out this formula for over a decade and has left a traceable line from Super Mantis all the way back to his one-off Weakener project from 1998. In some ways, not much has changed: the bass still warbles and wobbles, the beats are still dead straight and simple, and the ambience is slowed down and impossible to pinpoint. But in other, subtle ways, Harris has refined these tracks over time and he's kept up with and just one step ahead of the legions of younger producers that he has inspired.
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma is best known for his work in Tarentel and The Alps, but his latest solo release doesn't sound much like either of those bands (no surprise, since they don't sound much like each other either). Instead, his self-described celebration of love itself plunges wholeheartedly into dream pop/shoegazer territory, sounding like Lovesliescrushing's best moments expanded into a warm and enveloping ocean of artfully layered guitar noise.
The Dead C's Michael Morley has been releasing solo albums under the Gate moniker since the mid-'90s, but his latest effort is a curve ball that probably no one saw coming: after a decade-long hiatus, Morley has surfaced with an electronic dance album...of sorts. Thankfully, despite ditching his signature gnarled guitars for synthesizers, drum machines, and a laptop, there is no evidence at all that Michael has gone soft. In fact, A Republic of Sadness attains a whole new level of inspiration and subversion, proving that even catchy dance beats can be crushed beneath the weight of Morley's party-killing world-weariness.
America's knowledge of African culture is quite minimal, but the tireless work of Alan Bishop and his Sublime Frequencies label has helped us come to a better understanding of some of the music and many folk rituals found across the greater African continent. The latest from Niger import Group Bombino provides another mind-altering picture of musical idioms from an ocean and a lifetime away.
Finding themselves a drummer down for their ninth release, Supersilent have this time approached their music from a completely different angle. Dispensing with their usual instrumentation, the remaining members have instead utilized Hammond organ exclusively for these four pieces. While the end result sounds nothing like their previous work, this is a thrilling and captivating album that is an unusual entry into an already curious catalogue. The music is cosmic, sacred and psychedelic in ways that have not previously been delved into by the group.
This self-titled album (not to be confused with their eponymous tape on Hanson from 2007) sees the Ohio trio further refine their cosmic sounds. A huge leap forward from their already impressive releases like Solar Bridge and What Happened, this LP confirms my belief that these guys are creating some of the most important music being made today. There are several moments during this LP that make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, proving that Emeralds are tapping into something here that is truly extraordinary.
Now reissued on CD after a very limited vinyl-only release in 2008, this fun and absurd compilation of not-quite-surf may very well be the last (and first?) word on the enigmatic Shadow Music scene that very briefly flourished in 1960s Thailand. This feat of DIY ethnomusicology contains some of the most improbable, strange, and obscure pop music that will reach Western ears this year.
