3" CD-r Round-up

Every so often I collect a bunch of examples of my favorite digital format to make one big party review. And it's that time again.
First up from the Netherlands is Dead Neanderthals - Dead Neanderthals [No Label]. When this little disc showed up I thought I was in for some black metal or something of a similar ilk. I was immediately inundated with plenty skull (and bone) imagery and titles like "Cannibal Ambush," "Rat on a Stick" and "Napalm Death Trap." Anyhow, do you remember Ettrick from a couple years back? I know that's ancient history in small-press land but that's probably the closest comparison I can make to the Neaderthals even though neither really sounds that much like the other. The key is that Ettrick was a black metal duo on saxophone and drums. There's no personnel listing on the Dead Neanderthals CD-r, and the first couple listens left me in such a perplexed state, I had a hell of time trying to figure out how many people were in the band, sometimes it sounded like two, sometimes four, sometimes in between (3.5??). I checked myspace, the keeper of all secrets, and it turns out its a saxophone/drums "grind-core" duo with the ominious monikers of O and R. Whereas Ettrick indulged in 15 or 20 minute single pieces on their 3inches, Dead Neanderthals tear through 10 tracks in as many minutes, rattling your skull harder and harder each time through and giving you no time to collect yourself. "Idiot Runt" pelts you with squealing baritone sax and thud-thud-thud drumming as if you're the idiot runt in question with these two neanderthals pounding you into a pulp. "Fire From the Sky" uses a lot of effects on the sax making it sound like an otherworldly synth while overdubbed deep bass sax parts drive the piece. "Rat on a Stick" is all machine gun drumming against a killer(!!) solo evoking all sorts of apocalyptic urban decay. "Bloodied Knees" is "Rat"'s song-like counterpart that continues the vibe but with a more melodically-minded approach. "Cubic Aesthetics" is the longest at 1:48. It features a number of overdubbed, interplaying sax-lines that O twists and mangles until out of breath while R huffs and puffs relentlessly on his drumkit. "Sneak Attack" stands out as the most "jazzy" in a spastic Zorn way. There's even a touch of blown-out Wasteland Jazz sax at the end too. "Demonic" rips a screaming solo (that sounds a lot like trumpet even) over a juggernaut bari-arpeggio. "Cannibal Ambush" begins with a scream and then turns into what I'd say is the most fun track on the disc, very boisterous and with a big grin plastered across its face. The finale, "Metal Totem" totally rules, as its basically one long decrescendo as the band splinters apart leaving a brief but excellent solo sax moment at the end. This thing is a lot of fun and it hasn't gotten any less fun after a bunch of listens. I also dig that the band doesn't really sound too much like jazz or metal or this, that and the other. They aren't doing something completely unheard of but they definitely synthesize all their influences into something with their own vibe. Can't wait to hear more from this crew, now just get working on something for an analog format, ok guys? It's a self-released disc so check the myspace if your interested. It comes with a sticker too.
Fossils From the Sun - Lights [Kimberly Dawn]
I've been totally out of the loop on Ray Hare's Fossils From the Sun project. Last time I heard him he was making minimal electronics experiments with his guitar. Now hearing this disc, he has totally revamped his sound into a bleak, post-Suicide world. One that removes any of the few pop elements Suicide had. Over a repeating arpeggio (sounds like a synth, could be a guitar) Hare gets into Frankie Teardrop-mode muttering and snarling about flashlights, greenlights, stoplights and "everybody's dead" in a dubby, mental patient haze while the machines occasionally malfunction around him. Super-minimal and ten minutes long, the song is still entirely captivating. It's lack of "progression" actually works in its favor as you sort of enter into this black hole where the beginning sounds like the end and when you exit you wonder where the hell your mind has just been these last 10 minutes. The 3" sort sort of works like an extended cassingle or 12" single as it gives you the "b-side" a longer, louder, less minimal live rendition of "Lights." It is interesting as the track is a basic approximation of previous track but I think the melody is only similar and not the same. Hare shrieks a bit more here and he's got an extra instrument around providing both squalls and a surprising and rather pretty mid-section of swelling tones. This lulls you into a false sense of security before Hare burns the place down in crazed, ring-modulated fury. Despite ending on whispers of "don't be afraid," I remain uncomforted, Ray, thanks anyway. Totally chilling and great. We need more people de-constructing song-forms into... well, this. Check out Baronic Wall for similarly excellent, paranoid vehemence. Sold-out at source. Check distros or with the artist.
Interstates Etc. - Sanctuary of Memories [Kimberly Dawn]
Another one from Frank Baugh's (a.k.a. Sparkling Wide Pressure) Kimberly Dawn 3" CD-r label, which is one of the big players in keeping 3inchers (and consequently these round-ups) in business. This one is by Brandon Greter who runs the Dream Root label and also operates this great new project. I think this release might be better than the tape I reviewed a few months ago. The phenomenal first track "Inescapable Rain in Yoshiwara" sets things off down the right track as Greter rustles all sorts of junk and clatter together over a brooding, infectious barely-there melody that twinges of Twin Peaks to me. It's a really unified track despite lots of bizarre sounds constantly smacking you in the face. That Greter maintains the uneasy, mournful mood over the seven minutes is a feat in itself. "Fog at Toluca Lake" changes things up with a coventional-sounding guitar starting things off. It takes a few slowly plucked notes and twists them a little with various effects, never deviating too far from the original melody. Greter keeps things pretty minimal save for some more guitar fuzz near the end. "White Claudia" is a fuzzy guitar piece that Greter fucks with a whole bunch, I'm guessing in post-production. Unless its a loop and all the fuckery is live. Anyway, it's a nice wandering melody and Greter balls it up and uncrumples it with all sorts of stutters, bloops and spoonfuls of saturated fuzz circuits. Around halfway through a beat picks up in the back which helps complete the arrangement. It amounts to some kind of sleepy, guitar-fuzz-laden two-step, which, hey, that's perfectly fine by me. Dude's all over the place but definitely does it with his own style, it'll probably be a good move to keep your eye on this guy. Sold-out at source. Check distros or with the artist.
Extra Sexes - Muted Collar [412Recordings]
AG Davis is back with his heavily fucked up, garbled electronics/objects/tape+software edit creepjunksplattercrunchmayhem. The last Extra Sexes tape had some weirdo basement dance grooves mixed in with the brain assaults. Not so, here. This 16 minute beast, in two parts, goes for the psychic jugular. The sound sources Davis is drawing on around this time seem to range far wider than anything else I heard from him. Furthermore, he picks and chooses his times to pummel you rather than just making it an all out gorefest. There's a new sense of restraint and thoughtful use and embrace of patchs of silence. Though the first minute of "Part 2" may give you whiplash it morphs into a weird spaced out siren/bell tower passage. After which, Davis pulls out all the stops with a great, spluttering battle-ram of a showdown. Culling bits and pieces of too many machines on the verge of breakdown to name, its a well-played card before receding into silence, bell tolls and trickling creeks punctuated by severe spikes of distortion. Going out in a blaze of gore, Davis presses detonate and launches a decimating, harsh breakcore explosion. Dare I call this Davis's most mature and detailed slice & splice freak out yet? I hope this disc is a taste of what's to come on his upcoming LP. Still available.
Mesa Ritual - Voltaic Processions [SickSickSick]
Like the Extra Sexes disc, this 3inch comes in an oversized (i.e. regular sized) jewel case but does it one better with invisible artwork I don't get to see often enough. Mesa Ritual is SickSickSick head honcho Raven Chacon and William Fowler Collins, and they offer a 20 minute slab of thick ass, mastered-by-Pete-Swanson noise. The track isn't especially aggressive, it's just grimey. Seriously grimey. It's pure caked-on grit, you can't see what's what. I don't know what was at Chacon's and Collins's disposal here so I'm gonna go with the age-old catch all: electronics. What sounds like a hefty stack of machines sputter and crumble and whistle and stumble as the piece gradually gets louder and louder. Definitely an exercise in "monolithicism." Oh! But wait! Out of nowhere in the middle of the piece, still caked in dirt mind you, is a beautiful, heavily buried melody. Is there a way out of this bog after all? The melody vanishes after moments so I'm guessing the answere is no. It's back to slogging through the dense, disease-laden terrain. Mosquitos keep buzzing in my ears and chewing up my flesh and I can feel the earth shifting and lurching under my feet. Something that sounds like electronic windchimes creeps up behind me before turning to a swarm of angry wasps. There's an end in sight, but I'm already a swollen, malaria-infected, and utterly broken man by the time it arrives so who cares. Sold-out at source. Check distros.

Fossils from the Sun/Rambutan - Vertical [Tape Drift]

What's better than solo work from one Century Plants member? It's easy question. Duh. Solo work from both Century Plants members on the same tape and that's exactly what the Tape Drift label has delivered.
Fossils from the Sun (also known by his Christian name Ray Hare) fills out the first side with "Circle 3" further delving into his signature subterranean sonics. If I'm not mistaken Hare generally uses just a guitar as his sound source to create the microtonal swampscapes which is pretty rad. Maybe it's just cause I play guitar, but I'm interested in those who take a just a guitar and mold it into some unrecognizable sound concoction. There's a heavy murk that looms along with the track but underneath that constant dark cloud there's a slew of strange, garbled alien transmissions or something going on. It's quite an odd piece because it crawls along steadily with an elliptical rhythm and only very subtle changes; it sort of has the feel a groove turned to molasses. It's a strange trip indeed.
Rambutan (a.k.a. Tape Drift head Eric Hardiman) splits the last side into two pieces. "Alluvial" is even murkier than FftS's side and more distorted too. There's an easily detectable rhythmic figure in there but it's difficult to access through the gritty fuzz. An almost keyboard-like bit appears briefly before the track falls into a melodic grind and slowly drifts away. The second track is the one I'm really excited about though. I still feel like "Sideswept" is the best Rambutan piece yet made (that I've heard anyway.) A couple of delayed guitars roll in along with another percussive layer (possibly still a guitar) and set the room ablaze with their grooves. This is a serious, serious jam. Only the most adventurous DJs would throw this on in a club, but fuck man, this track belongs there or at some warped analog of a club anyway. After building the abstract, tumbling, airtight groove Hardiman expands it with manipulated vocal samples (I think) and siren-like guitar swells (I think.) Hardiman is definitely onto something really unique and interesting with this, and just something really fucking cool. A magnificent piece of work, I hope Rambutan continues to draw gold from this mine.
As far as I can tell Tape Drift is still in stock so pick this mofo up and dance yourself into a bleary haze.

Fossils From the Sun – The Living Mixer [Peasant Magik]/Transcendental Manship Highway – Lord of the Trees [Carbon]

Continuing to make my way through the stack, I got these two releases Ray Hare (Century Plants, Burnt Hills) sent awhile back.
The Living Mixer is a thirty minute tape of super minimal electronics under Hare’s solo moniker, Fossils From the Sun. The thing that’s amazing about it is that guitar looks like the only sound source. The first side consists of five tracks ranging from one to six minutes. “A Livication” is the shortest and introduces the listener to the pulsing pallet of the tape. “Rockers” is louder and crunchier, where frequencies are molded and manipulated over a pseudo-rhythmic juddering. The track covers quite a lot of ground for clocking in under two minutes actually. “Sun Selector” is my favorite here. Hare gives the track plenty of room to stretch its legs, focusing on a repeating swell and dissipation of a tone more akin to a didgeridoo than a guitar. There are little prickles of quiet, metallic feedback that form, very slowly, a vague rhythmic counterpoint to the central loop. There really isn’t a lot going on to be quite honest, but there is something incredibly hypnotic about it and an attractive strength in its subtlety. That main loop is like the donging of a church bell almost. A super hard track to pull off, especially communicating to someone with a short attention span like myself, but Hare does it with style——though style seems like the absolutely wrong word to use there. I suppose “concentration” would be a bit more accurate. “A Damaging Air” is another short piece, this time of echoing percussive contact noise. “Not Waving” finishes the side with more of those metallic, hi-frequency feedback tones. Hare expands the sound spectrum deliberately over the course of the track, leaving the initial sounds the same by the end but swollen somehow.
Side B starts off with “The Living Mixer (a Sound Clash)” which clocks in at nearly 12 minutes dwarfing all the other songs on the tape——at least, lengthwise. The track works with a round, lightly pulsating drone for a while. That tone casts a constant, whirring fog across the track which experiences slight ripples in its static fabric by various sounds, some of which are actually somewhat identifiable as guitar. It’s a hard piece to describe really. The last two tracks are both just over a minute. “A Simple Star Vibrating Slowly” is quite nice and develops an intuitive melody amidst the pulsing electronic signals. “A Livication (version)” actually features of some straight-up guitar playing (though still heavily effected.) It works as a nice coda/transition back to the world outside the tape. This tape is certainly way different than any other of Hare’s projects, even quite a bit different than the FFtS 3” I reviewed in the fall. While it’s not necessarily something I put on a lot, I don’t have anything else in my collection that covers this ground. Hare does a pretty great job creating a world of his own on tape and really altering your consciousness in a way. He’s sculpting some deep meditations here but stripped of any put on “psychedelia.”
The awesomely christened Transcendental Manship Highway is an upstate NY “supergroup” featuring Hare, Eric Hardiman (Century Plants, Burnt Hills, Rambutan,) Cory Card (Stone Baby) and Joe Tunis (Joe+N). This CD-r is a single half hour bludgeoning and damn fine one at that. Beginning rather quietly with a lone drum and indecipherable speech, guitar tones drift in along with a vocal sample submerged in a effects. Tension is built up gradually with some frantic, slicing wah-wah work before the tempo picks and the full crew gets moving. It’s actually nearly relaxing at first. Shuffling mid-tempo drums and 2 or 3 blurry guitars combining with ease, but there’s always a suggestion of something a bit more evil on the horizon. Around the 7 minute mark, TMH shifts to sinister. A lot of cymbal smashing and wah freak outs and general disarray. The drums drop out a bit revealing a pretty solid chunk of noise being kicked out by the other dudes. I think there’s someone shouting an arena rock chant but it’s completely buried by grimy feedback. About halfway through the drummer picks up a fast groovy pattern and the track takes off. All of sudden the psychedelic feedback bath becomes a foot stomper with the return of a (still buried) lead vocalist. It’s all pretty ruling, especially an aborted guitar solo during a breakdown. Whoever was watching this gig was treated to quite a show. Things slow way down and get a little heavier and there’s a killer repeated synth swoop coming from somewhere that adds a second point of rhythmic orientation. All guitars take this as a cue to go to town, some go wild but one keeps things steady with a nice melody. If this was completely improv’d then, damn, these guys know to write great songs on the spot. The track actually fits somewhere between a long jam and already worked out songs. No one ever gets lost either which is always good in long jams like this because it can be a bit of a bummer when some dudes are roaring but another isn’t sure what he’s doing. An amazingly protracted drum pummeling ensues against more feedback and wah-wah excursions. There’s a come down which actually a total fake out before the four horsemen lay waste to the room and everything in it in the final minute. Pretty rad set, I’m looking forward to seeing more of this combo; so hopefully this wasn’t a one-off performance cause, you know, if it is that would suuuuck.
The TMH CD-r is still available from Tunis’s Carbon label but the tape was dreadfully limited to a mere 39 copies and thus is long out of print. So if you are remotely interested in the sounds and you see a copy floating around somewhere you should pick it up cause this baby is practically a collector’s item.

Fossils From the Sun – Somebody’s Gotta Lose [Abandon Ship]/Rambutan – Fallen Smoke [Abandon Ship]

This pair of 3inch CD-rs, from the Abandon Ship label, documents two solo efforts from the members of the Albany guitar duo Century Plants. Eric Hardiman (also of the Tape Drift label and Burnt Hills) is Rambutan and Ray Hare (also of Burnt Hills) is Fossils From the Sun.
Going by catalog number, I’ll start with Fossils From the Sun. Somebody’s Gotta Lose features some thick guitar playing. I don’t know if there are loops here or what (doesn’t necessarily sound like it) but Hare has a really expansive, robust fuzztone at his disposal here. And he uses it real well. A few minutes in there are some multi-tracked and/or looped layers of guitar. I like the sound Hare has created here where it feels pretty whole and unified but all the while he remains very active on his axe. He seems to have melodies going in every register; I particularly like the evocative, gliding tones he creates higher up on the neck—shimmering isn’t the right word, but I’d say they sound full of electricity. Later, Hare introduces some percussive vocal type sounds. Not beat boxing, just so we’re clear. Though that sure woulda thrown me for a loop. The vocals add an interesting, stammering dimension to the heavy sustain of the guitar. Roughly halfway through, the track takes a sharp left turn. The guitar drops out (vocals too), leaving a pulsing, crusty feedback loop. It seems like there are a number short repeating loops here all offset a little making for strange cross-pollinated rhythms. Vocal fragments and effect manipulation is introduced a bit later. It’s interesting that the project is called Fossils From the Sun, cause this moment reminds me vaguely of a milder hypno-junk noise session by Canada’s Fossils. It’s a head scratching but successful changeup going from full on fuzz riffs and drones to a freaky bit of basement squalor.
The Rambutan disc is called Fallen Smoke which I’m pretty sure doesn’t make any sense in physical contexts but it seems pretty spot on here. Hardiman offers no help as to what he was playing during this live performance so I’m gonna guess guitar, vocals and some other gadgets for right now. With the first disc I could see the Century Plants resemblance pretty easily; the opening of this took me a moment to place though. In a way, this sounds like the point when one of the Century Plants guitarists goes off and freaks out, but isolated and terribly more mysterious. There’s a few relatively steady drones here, which a number of strange percussive guitar(?) sounds encircle. It may be the live setting, but the piece as a very spacious, foggy sound—almost like you’d hear it creeping in the window or something. It slowly gathers steam, pushing the ethereal mist to all corners. Occasionally you can barely hear a short loop of guitar which is a nice touch. An invisible rhythmic push springs up around halfway through and man, the piece just starts to rule. Very subtly there is a spreading out of sound where a bunch more loops are piled on making for a really multi-dimensional drone. Like the FFTS disc, there’s a big left turn here. Everything drops out and, over a single droning loop, an acoustic instrument of some sort (dulcimer? mandolin? guitar?) is strummed. Unfortunately, this section is marred by a really transparent phaser pedal or something akin to that. The heavy use of that effect takes me out of the track, which is too bad cause I like what Hardiman is doing otherwise (going to town on whatever he’s playing). I guess it just doesn’t work for me in the context that he set out in the first 15 minutes. Despite my uneasy feelings towards the last bit, the first 3/4s are pretty phenomenal.
Both are cool discs, that in tandem may work as a little decoder ring to figure out who’s doing what in all those C-plantz jams. It was cool to see that these discs didn’t sound like “half of Century Plants” as duos sometime sound when they go solo. Both Hardiman and Hare brought something interesting to the table here. Both are still available, but each is only in an edition of 50. Hit up Abandon Ship for one (or two).