Tusk Lord – Summer 2009 [Dynamo!]/Forest Dweller – Demo [Dynamo!]

A couple of new (and already sold-out!) tapes from Pittsburgh’s Dynamo! imprint.
This tape by Tusk Lord (the moniker of Mike Kasunic) really caught me off guard cause judging by the name/artwork/past Dynamo! releases I expected some kind of dark drone/noise thing. Instead my ears are first met with field recordings and a fantastic, catchy home-recorded song “Museum Fly” written from the point of view of, you guessed it, a fly in the museum (“The pictures on the wall all make me crash.”) You don’t realize at first but there’s a lot of depth in the song, a couple tracks of guitar, couple tracks of vocals, percussion and a stammering piano that does nice job providing rhythmic thrust. This leads into a quick and pretty, overdubbed, guitar interlude which leads into a stripped down cover of Brian Wilson’s “He Gives Speeches”. “Afraid of the Dark” is probably the best thing on the tape, along the lines of Leonard Cohen or Michael Gira but way more catchy and upbeat musically (though the vocals are as dour as can be.) It’s a really simple arrangement of two acoustic guitars but it sounds amazing, and feels like finding some unknown classic from 30 years ago. Another great interlude of reverse guitar follows. After a short track of just field recordings that didn’t really need to be there, Kasunic switches gears to a mega-heavenly, ethereal vocal piece. Another subdued, droney interlude leads to “Blue Eyes” featuring a sinisterly jaunty piano line a la The Birthday Party’s “Blundertown” and layers more tracks of piano top to finish out the side. The side is really varied and solid all the way through. A great piece of work.
There are 3 tracks on the second side, compared to the 9 of the first side. It opens with “Venus”, another cover, though I’m not sure who by. A long live track takes over of garbled speech and simmering electronic tones and lethargic chime melodies. It’s not a bad piece but after how crammed full of (great) ideas the first side is, this track kind of kills the momentum of the tape. “Sewer Drain” closes things up with the weirdest song on here, sloppy detuned acoustic guitar and strange, pinched vocals. I like this tape a lot though, I would like to see grade A Tusk Lord material all the way through, cause Kasunics’s grade A material is seriously grade A.
Forest Dweller, however, is really noisy, and pretty great in his(her?) own right. “Burning Civilization” starts things off in a fit of rage with a pummeling drum machine and an oscillator being torn apart. “Mountain Religion” is a cool piece using a recording some kind of spiritual vocal piece and going all LA harsh noise on it. Really frantic, dynamic and well done. Forest Dweller sounds really focused and confident with the control of this piece. One of the best harsh jams I’ve heard in a while. “Path to the Lean-To (Part 1)” brings back the drum machine for an almost shuffling rhythm. Effected vocals give the piece a bit of an early Yellow Swans feel. “Part 2” of the piece turns metalcore which I’m not totally feeling, but to Forest Dweller’s credit it doesn’t really come off as incoherent to the tape’s overall aesthetic.
On the flip, “Sky Canopy” is similar to last piece but more successfully integrates the noise, electronic and grindcore elements and it’s a pretty sweet track overall. Maybe it’s just the title that gives me the impression but “Bone Garden” sounds like Bone Awl channeled into a one-man noise performance. Relentless drum machine, cool guitar lines and somehow through all the noise it somehow manages to be kind of catchy. “Cedrus Libani” takes it easy, going for a more suspenseful drone vibe. My girlfriend rightly commented that it sounds like a haunted house score. Not in a cheesy way, it’s just very subtly eerie with a looped swelling organ tone and manipulated oscillations. A good thing to be jamming this Halloween.
All in all these two tapes make me really excited for whatever future tapes Dynamo! has in the works. And next time can we please have more than editions of 50 and 25? This stuff’s too good.

Lanterns – White Lodge [No Label]

From the opening notes of Lanterns’ latest CD-r, the perhaps Twin Peaks-inspired White Lodge, they sound a lot more electric than since I last heard them. The sound works for them on the opening track “Divine Slaughter Pavilion,” a single guitar jams out psych-blues evoking a more vibrant, as opposed to rustic, Ignatz. Meanwhile, electronics of some sort spew out chirping and groaning sonics. Really it’s an incredibly simple piece, but something about is really affecting and hypnotic. They trick you into thinking there are more than two things going on. “Brohawk vs. Johawk” has a swirling, fuzzy guitar/synth thing going on covering up some skittering electronics. “They’ve Got Our DNA,” the default epic at 15 minutes, might be my favorite. It’s a woozy affair with guitar masquerading as wind chimes and static buzz and whir. I really like the slinky, understated tom tom pattern laid out underneath. The piece balances on a tense tightrope teetering back and forth between areas of calm and areas of agitated guitar abuse. A full drum kit kicks in eventually, thrashing out the hollow, repetitive rhythm as the guitar starts wigging out and the track heads into full-bore free rock territory. Totally gnarly and displaying sharp teeth Lanterns have previously kept hidden from me. “Hobo’s Meditation” recovers from the previous jam nicely; it’s mellow, glistening, sprinkled with melodic fragments. They manage to use the elements already employed earlier in the CD-r for an entirely different purpose, resulting in a lovely, misty piece with plenty of depth. The last track “Olene” is much more spacious. Unlike the rest of the CD, it’s pretty much just organ and vocals as far as I can tell, really drawn out and relaxing. Rather soft and feathery actually.
Lanterns have yet again proved they’re a talented group and I’m personally pretty psyched for the new direction they’re heading in. The CD-r is self-released and available from the band’s myspace.

Soloing Over Alanis Morissette - Soloing Over Alanis Morrisette [Speed Tapes]

What does Soloing Over Alanis Morissette sound like you may ask? Well, the question can be answered quite easily by reading this project's moniker. Apparently, it's a teen from the Chicago suburbs named Dave Gerhard and he's created one of the more pleasurable and certainly one of the weirdest WTFs I have come across.
I'm not necessarily sure how important my role is here since you can probably fill in the blanks yourself, but Gerhard takes a couple of Alanis's biggest hits and improvises guitar solos over them. To his credit you can tell he is actually paying attention to the songs and forming his improvisations around them--it's not a lame exercise in irony. "You Oughta Know" is a great choice for the opener because Alanis's relentlessly hilarious histrionics put the whole track in a state of constant climax, making the whole duration perfect soil for some burning, cathartic guitar leads. As a personal bonus this tape is the first time I've heard Alanis say "fuck" cause I'd only heard her music (censored) on the radio or in stores or whatever. I really like on the third track, where "Ironic" is the source material, when Gerhard occasionally sings along, murmuring "his very pretty wife" (despite the actual lyrics being "his beautiful wife"). I think singing along with slightly incorrect lyrics is one of the things can be called a universal human experience; relating to the tape is part or maybe most of the fun. The last track "SOAM Gets HEALTHY!" doubles the weird factor by adding some of HEALTH's bootyshaking into the soloing over "Thank You" (which is a weird enough song in its own right, or at least the music video is...) The result is some sort of inbred Alanis Morissette rave mix, somehow both sedate and rabid, even more bizarre than the Alan Jackson club remix cassingle I picked up at Goodwill last year.
Maybe it's because I grew up as one of those kids sitting in my room soloing over other people's songs but I enjoy jamming this a lot more than I thought was rationally possible. I can't explain why but it does me good to know some kid is out there releasing tapes of himself soloing over Alanis Morissette. Here's to hoping the next release has Gerhard soloing over Wesley Willis's song "Alanis Morissette". Worth checking out if it at all sounds interesting to you. And also props to the young label Speed Tapes for throwing their weight behind strange pleasures such as this.

Sean McCann – Phylum Sigh [DNT]/Sean McCann – Midnight Orchard [Roll Over Rover]

So I wrote this back in April and I finally found the notebook I wrote it in and transcribed it, anyway I apologize for the egregious 5 month delay…
From its first second Phylum Sigh, McCann’s first tape for DNT, is a departure from his previous work or least what I’ve heard of it. “Betazoid” is full of day-glo synths moving like slo-mo laser beams across the track over unadorned, plucked banjo. The synthesizer is the dominant presence here providing flickers of melody through a dizzying collage of bite-sized splinters. “Sunk Eyes,” however, is melancholic where “Betazoid” is ecstatic. Here the acoustic instrument, viola, sets the pace and the synth follows suit. It’s a real simple piece but a touching one right up to its snake charmer ending. As I alluded to earlier, McCann is exploring a new sound here and the first two pieces show him adjusting to the new elements but “Ice Age Tea,” the final piece on the side, finds him already mastering them. There is full integration of the old and the new. The piece transports you smoothly. Gentle static and rolling waves of keyboards and a bit of thumping percussion. The sounds unfold beautifully, something McCann is already known for. I’m currently writing this on a plane and this is seriously what you are meant to listen to while gliding through the Earth’s atmosphere and gazing at the clouds. Soft, calming and really heavenly but still having a real weightiness to the sounds. It’s a wonderfully orchestrated trek through space and sound—total magic carpet ride. Really it is an unforgettable experience hearing these sounds while soaring through the cloud streaked sky.
“Mango Christmas” kicks off the second side in ultra lush style. Billowing synths and hums with icy wind whistling a melody, making the track’s climate a bit chillier. The “Christmas” bit to “Mango’s” lushness. One of my favorite Christmas songs. “Meaningless Desire” has some jittery slot machine keyboards over viola and guitar and sputters quickly to a stop before remolding itself in a slightly different manner. There’s a tad more space in the second bit and I like it quite a lot. It wraps with breaking and receding waves of distorted viola. The same feel continues in “Spring Spill” lush synthesizer resonations cradling brittle, stuttering pitch manipulated keyboard which worms its way into your brain by the end. “Just Around” is quite nice featuring a somehow natural chemistry between banjo and whooshing synth. An extremely active track, brimming with melodies, quite a beauty to behold. The final track, “Look Out”, comes from a noticeably more percussive angle. I think there is some processed live percussion but most of the rhythmic feel comes from sequencer-esque bits that slowly take melodic shape.
Not sure if this is my favorite McCann work (not sure that I have one) but this tape seems more like a statement than any of his others. I’m always tuned in to whatever McCann puts out but I’m even more curious to see what’s next.
Released a little bit earlier than Phylum Sigh on Sean’s Roll Over Rover label. Midnight Orchard stands out to me as well because I’m pretty sure there aren’t really any keyboards during the 92 minutes. Viola and banjo are the main instruments and McCann wields them wonderfully. The 40 minute title track is phenomenal, by turns lovely and deeply mournful. I think I remember McCann saying it was a long recording of viola slowed down, which makes sense. It has a slightly slow-motion-like quality where every detail seems to resonate even more. The piece doesn’t sound unnatural because of this characteristic but resigned and elegiac with a beautiful bassy timbre. It’s a great piece. The other piece on the first side “Spun Around” is probably similar to what “Midnight Orchard” sounded like before being slowed down. It’s a caustic, wiry web of viola and possibly guitar though I think that’s probably just plucked viola. Despite small cacophonic clashes throughout the piece, a few melodies develop and return in the midst of the clattering layers of bowed and plucked strings.
Side B is quite different, there are 16 pieces instead of 2 and the banjo is featured prominently. The first piece immediately marks a shift into more romantic territory with an unabashedly sweet pairing of stumbling banjo and singing viola. The third “Straw Hat” (all tracks on the b-side are called “Straw Hat”) takes the same basic idea of the first piece but spreads it out into a drone piece. The fourth one features a tremolo’d guitar I think playing a rather pretty, pulsing melody, while the fifth piece resembles the previous side with only bowed instruments, still possibly viola and banjo, intertwining and twisting in the wind. The sixth piece shifts effortlessly into shimmering bells and such and the seventh is another pretty piece similar to the lightly throbbing fourth piece. Elsewhere on the tape, the eleventh piece an effected viola turns string swells into a synthy fog with occasional near fiddle-isms. The following piece is a nice misty segue into the thirteenth piece maybe the most traditional on the tape. A trundling banjo pattern makes a steady base for a lead viola melody. After two pieces deeply submerged in effects, the last track returns to the melody of the first piece, somehow sounding a tad more rustic and worn in this time around. It’s a great tape, up there with some of McCann’s best stuff.
Both are sold-out from source but definitely worth tracking down.

Josh Lay – Heirophant [Sentient Recognition Archive]/Josh Burke – Imagination [Housecraft]

After reviewing that Josh McAbee tape, I remembered I have a pair of releases to review from the other Joshs I mentioned.
“Hog Gloss,” the strong opener of Josh Lay’s Heirophant, begins with a mild grind, a dwelling synth and leashed feedback with a heavy bass throb quaking underneath. The track seems to be teetering on the edge of total sonic annihilation the whole time. Lay opens things up a bit at a point in the second half of the track. By taking it easy and letting up a bit on the noise he’s able to come back with more intensity when he drops in new, bloodthirsty sounds. It was a good choice on Lay’s part to keep things tightly controlled because it certainly heightens the drama of the music rather than to just go at it full force. The title track is some prickly feedback with throaty vocals over the top. Lay does a nice job with dynamics in the track but throaty vox have never struck my fancy so I can’t really get into this one. Nicholas Szczepanik, the man behind Sentient Recognition Archive, contributes to the third track, “Frozen in Blood.” The the track is pretty bitchin’ from the beginning. The track just keeps gathering intensity with a deep rumbling bass pulse and shrill, shrieking feedback “Frozen in Blood” just grows and grows. What Szczepanik contributes to the track isn’t listed but this piece sounds a bit thicker than the other tracks, a bit more ready to consume everything around it. After having built such a massive beast Lay and Szczepanik let it drift off on a wave of synthesizer. The two and a half minute “Beyond Melted” just pelts the listener with hi-pitched frequencies. My ears are angry with me for listening to this with headphones but you need them to pick out the bizarre little melodies within the feedback. Certainly my favorite title of the record, “Found Dead in the Woods of Kentucky” has heavy crunch on its mind like some sort of amplified bear fight. Weird little melodies emerge over long, looped ominous passages against occasional interjections of frantically jostled feedback. One of the cooler pieces on here. “My Cave is a Poison Cave” is way milder, not excessively distorted, and at one point I hear something that sounds like a flute though it probably isn’t. Guitar plays a much bigger, or at least more noticeable, role in the piece. The piece is sort of an intersection between noise and loner blues. The guitar quietly melts against a smoky bed of synths making it a great, unexpected piece. “These Times are Bad Times” is the most vicious on here, 9 minutes of shredded vocals and maddening sinewave feedback.
Quite a 180 degree shift from Heirophant, Imagination is Josh Burke in full-on dreamy keyboard mode. The beginning of the tape has a lovely lo-fi/rustic feel to it as Burke layers more and more keyboard lines on. A pause button edit leads to a much too short passage of a deeply aquatic melody before the tape stretches out and drones for a little while. A melody slowly burbles up eventually, leading into spacey beboopery sounding a little similar to the sound design in Forbidden Planet but more washed out and atmospheric. I really like a mildly seasick little melody near the end of the tape; it sparkles and twinkles effortlessly, tickling the senses. The melody expands organically until has morphed into something quite different but still quite pretty.
Side B continues with watery keyboard melodies. There’s a real nice, seemingly composed piece a couple minutes into the tape that has a rather beautiful, humble elegance. Burke has a very light touch when creating these micro-compositions, never overdoing it. The fragmentary pieces never seem under or overdeveloped, which happens a fair amount with improvised music. The second of the longer pieces is less airy with a pulsing raygun keyboard accompaniment. Overall, it’s a totally pleasant tape worth throwing on just about any time, in line with the quality Burke is known for producing. Maybe even a little bit better.
Heirophant is still available but Imagination is sold out.

Joshooa and the (7/13th) Moon – Hundred Monkey Effect [Bum Tapes]/Offensive Orange – Brown Future [Bum Tapes]

There are 3 Joshs in my underground sonic lexicon, Josh Burke, Josh Lay and Josh McAbee. Josh McAbee, appearing here under a much more unwieldy moniker, was the last one I needed to hear to complete my self-created trinity.
Hundred Monkey Effect is a cool tape and I think I remember reading somewhere that McAbee mangled tapes to make his sounds which seems very possible. This tape is made up of a lot of loops of amplified something or others, it stumbles along at a quick pace sometimes working with strong rhythmic constructions and others it’s more of an unmetered crawl. The tape is a lot darker than the Sloow Tapes-ish artwork would lead you to believe.
There are 3 or 4 pieces on the first side. The first couple are thick, grimy ventures while the last has a hand percussion-esque loop, squiggly tape manipulation and brash sounds akin to bottles breaking entering at will.
The flipside is a heavy loomer. A lot more drones at work here. After two shorter pieces it settles into its muddy swamp of loops featuring loping crumbling rhythms and very strong sustained tones. There’s a skeletal melody sketched underneath which moves the melting mass along before another short piece wraps things up.
I grabbed this Brown Future tape because two guys perpetrating sonic crimes with guitar, tapes and electronics in a chilly basement seemed right up my alley. Also, I grew up in an offensively orange house. Oh, by the way, David Payne from Fossil$ is in the band.
The tape isn’t necessarily harsh but definitely rough. It kicks off forcefully rhythmic loops before backing off a bit until introducing a whining loop that gets the old tectonic plates a groanin’. The duo works in a pretty fractured way, they aren’t in sync a lot of the time but it comes out sounding like they are for some reason or maybe they are in sync and I’m too dense to see how. They still know how to spread the fizzy feral noise on thick though. Near the end of the first side the duo gets ready to cruise and does so with aplomb.
The second side sputters to a start along to a creepy recording of an autopsy report. I really like the following bit though; they get hot and heavy, wrecking speakers left and right. And then ostensibly because Offensive Orange found their WTF quotient to be at unsuitably low levels, they switch on the stereo and play their noisiness along with some metal core album. I dunno, it’s weird. As far as double O’s playing is concerned, this track is pretty slammin’. The metal jam is kept (thankfully) pretty low in the mix while the guys spew and smear static, feedback and amp innards on the walls.
Bum Tapes is a killer label and these are two perfectly fine examples of it. The Joshooa tape is all gone (only limited to 20 I think(!)) but the Offensive Orange tape is still available.

Caethua/Ancestral Diet – Split [Goaty Tapes]

So, this is technically a split, I guess. But if you look at the included personnel rundown of these Maine-based acts “Ancestral Diet is Andy Neubauer and Caethua. Caethua is Clare Adrienne Hubbard and often times Andy Neubauer” it seems more like the same band on each side with an alternate name, and soundwise it does too. This is no complaint though; these two sides complement each other rather nicely.
If asked to pick between the two I’d go with Caethua side “Surface Waters and Underground Seas”. It moves smoothly through a number of stages beginning with pulsing keyboard melodies and what sounds like a recording of birdcalls. A mellow organ lightly pushes things into the next stage, contrasting the melodious, calm keyboards with brief, manipulated sax screech. The sax, one of the elements that mark this side as my favorite, returns periodically with soaring screeds. An electric piano introduces a new melody (along with a bassoon-like instrument) shifting the piece in a new direction. The addition of singing by Hubbard effortlessly transforms the piece into an airy pop song. There’s nice work from a, I think, bowed instrument providing subtle accents. The pop song evaporates into a light cacophony of field recordings and a foghorn type sound that turns into a looped beat. All over the place but a really impressively composed and orchestrated side. It’s always refreshing to hear something constructed with this much precision coming out of the underground.
Ancestral Diet’s side is titled “Coming Back in Trace Amounts” and it maintains a darker outlook than the Caethua side. With sustained tones coming from keyboards and/or sax perhaps, the piece broods along until a song, voiced by both Neubauer and Hubbard, emerges garnished in guitar and bells. They move through a few melodies with this arrangement, guitar doubling the melody of the voices with chimes tinkling all around. Stuttering, wobbly electronic tones take over making for an unexpected conclusion. The track isn’t crafted quite as tightly as the previous side but there’s still some great material on here.
This tape is packaged phenomenally well as Goaty always does. Two inserts, full color weirdly cut j-card, pro-dubbed/printed tape. It’s a nice slice of strange Maine and the rumor is an Ancestral Diet/Goaty LP is in the works so I’m staying tuned for that.

Historians - Proof [Stunned]

I’ve been jamming this thing a ton and I figured it’s high time I actually write something about it. I wasn’t sure what I was getting into when I put this on, but I knew Historians is an awesome name. The music happens to be even better.
“Slice n’ Dice” comes on like a slurred, Dizzee Rascal-esque beat. Minimal, tactile and totally grooving. The jam ramps up with the entrance of an off kilter thumb piano melody and spacey synth swells. Certainly one of the finest thumb piano uses I’ve heard. The track just keeps ruling, getting better and better, for nearly 7 minutes. The drum machine starts hitting harder, a spirit flute starts singing to the sky and a new awesome, bassy thumb piano melody burbles underneath. Seriously this jam just rules through and through, totally inventive and totally addictive. Timbaland should be watching his back. So that’s one hell of a start then Historians lay on “Bomba.” Way weirder, way more splintered but still just as groovy. Loosey goosey drum programming, grinding synth, messy acoustic guitar plucking, sloshed vocals and a spirit flute on the warpath. A minute and 42 seconds is not enough. After a Malmsteenian shredding intro, “2010 Riot” morphs into a bizarre collage of 80’s hip hop drum patterns and wild clashes of flute and guitar. There’s a weird sinister undercurrent about the track for some reason. “Chapter Three” is the slow jam I guess. Though I use that term very loosely. Where the 3 previous tracks displayed tasteful minimalism, this one is a traffic jam of sound, everything bleeding into each other. “Fours (reprise)” has this slinky, intestine-disrupting bassline pushed front and center and whispy touches of organ and guitar and drum machine that bring the whole thing together. “Some Heads Will Rock Others Will Roll” (killer title) is almost as long as all the other tracks combined. It takes on a dronier vibe and Historians do a fine job. There’s a nice swirling presence, with lots of things going on, and it’s real easy to get lost in. It’s a great track though I must I confess part of me really just wants to hear Historians kicking out the jams like the first half of the record.
I’m kinda bummed this was a bonus CD-r instead of a full-on Stunned release. The world needs more copies of this; I call for a cassette repress! Who’s with me?? A world with Historians pumping on everyone’s ghettoblasters… ah, sounds like Paradise to me.

The Golden Sores - A Peaceable Kingdom [Bloodlust!]

I opened this up when I returned from Europe, I was pretty psyched to see the cover as I had literally seen that painting two days before. Anyway, this isn't an entirely useless anecdote because the vibe from the painting matches the sounds perfectly.
As the title suggests, there's peacefulness to this music but not necessarily in the contented, happy sense. There’s a touch of anguished resignation in the peace, like that lamb which is quietly peaceable, but only as a result of being bound and, as far as I can tell, killed.
Opener, "Double Gyres" is relaxing or maybe even comforting in a way with smooth tones gliding throughout but there's also restlessness present too. A few slightly noisy tones rub against the grain of the track. They don't actually derail the track in any way, but that’s just because the sounds flow around them, the way a river reacts when something is trying to move upstream. It's a simple but effective maneuver, lulling the listener while keeping him on edge. "The Awful Rowing Toward God" doesn’t pull any punches however. Loads of distorted waves splash and swell, creating a fair maelstrom but somehow The Golden Sores keep a sense of calm in the center of it all. A peace in the eye of storm kind of ordeal. After a slow dissolving of feedback, “Klonopin” cautiously takes flight. The piece nearly has a choral quality, despite only a few layers of sound. It’s a little hypnotizing, seeping into you without you really realizing it. The six minutes move by surprisingly fast considering what a leisurely pace the piece moves at. “We’ll Wield Fire” is a sort of midpoint between “Klonopin” and "The Awful Rowing Toward God." A distorted synth wanders alone for some time until a stuttering melody rises nearly consuming the initial synth. The piece is in perpetual forward motion, chugging along building to an unknown climax. Surprisingly, the climax is a pretty, shuffling little melody at the end. Remnants of which carry into the next piece “Ondine,” the most straightforwardly melodic and pretty track here. I think it’s a duet between guitar and keyboard but I can’t be certain; The Golden Sores have a way of melting whatever instruments they use down into pure tones. “A Vision” finishes things off transcendent fashion, with The Golden Sores once more exhibiting their prowess for weaving crystalline drones into captivating compositions.
This CD is worth looking into for the drone-minded legions, The Golden Sores are one of the more mature sounding drone groups I’ve heard if you can make any sense of that statement.
Still available.

Dubbio Nil – Seed, Fruit, Thorn [Hymns]

I was surprised when I first put on this recent 3” from the Hymns label, because it didn’t have the “Hymns sound” I have come to expect, gnarled sourced material chewed up and spit out by a couple hundred broken fuzzboxes and broken radios.
Instead, from the get go, this Dubbio Nil stuff is unwaveringly beautiful. Incredibly lush synth strings sounding like some kind of astral choir. I suggest cranking it up and letting the sound envelope you. The piece moves fluidly, subtly changing through this first section until a repetitive guitar figure replaces the synth pads briefly before it succumbs to the stranglehold of some reverbed, manipulated sounds. The fields of everlasting light and splendor at the start of the track are now forgotten in this dank cavern. The subsequent section balances those two ideas; the synth returns but there is an ominous feel. It sounds more resigned than reveled. Shards of static scratch along while the synth shrivels into a field recording of storm, which itself shrivels into silence.
It is quite a well made piece, it moves pretty effortlessly through all its changes though it’s the first section that I’m really smitten by. The 3” cd-r is packaged in the stark, signature Hymns art work and as a cool little bonus it comes with a seed and planting instructions. I got a Poncirus Trifoliata. Pretty sweet.

Ultra Bonbon - Paradise Vol. 1 [Bonbon Bruises]/Ultra Bonbon - Paradise Vol. 3 [Bonbon Bruises]

A couple of quick tapes from the Bonbon Bruises crew up in Canada.
"Restoration" on the first side of the first tape is probably my favorite of the bunch so it's a good foot to start on. I'm not exactly sure what Ultra Bonbon employs beyond the nebulous "electronics" tag. This track is super jittery, vomiting up all sorts of half formed melodies. The sounds are distorted but not particularly harsh, allowing the melodic sensibilities to really come through. There's even a part towards the end that's a straightforward, unadorned melodic breakdown. The track stays energetic and engaging through its duration, thanks in part to the duo's unwillingness to let a sound sustain for more than a split second. The overall piece is a structure made of exceedingly small splinters making for a very "alive" track. The b-side features "Ancient Tree" which is quite a bit different. It's essentially a duet between some kind of synth/drum machine and what sounds like a keyboard set on "steel drum." It's a really odd configuration but against the odds it works. The melodic presence is important in keeping the track engaging as are small details such distorted eruptions that vanish as quickly as they appear.
On Vol. 3, "The Perfect Laws of Science" gets freaky with a malfunctioning oscillator and drum machine and alien vocals. Some sections flail around and some are incredibly pummeling but the piece in general is just wigging out at every possibility. The whole track is pretty nuts and made all the more confusing with the addition of subtitles "science is not better than the people who pursued after it" and "the laws of science are perfect but the application is not." Is this track meant to be an example of an imperfect application of the laws of science? I have no effin' clue. "Triumphal Fall" on the flip side seems more mild mannered at first before distorted synth swoops drop in. There's a bizarre oscillator melody that hums along against swelling synth notes for the majority of the track. Even though the whole thing is draped lightly in crusty distortion, it approaches being both pretty and hypnotic.
Ultra Bonbon is definitely one of the more interesting noise crews out there cause even with these two tapes, UB made four jams that are each pretty different from each other but when taken together, go to define a single sound. Each tape comes in a mini manila envelope with sweet art and an insert. Vol. 1 is gone but Vol. 3 is available and limited to 30.

7inch Round-up

I've collected a few 7inches over the past few months and each of them is pretty wildly different so I figured I might as well collect them and show the crazy variety the underground has to offer.
Lesson Lesson Lessen Relearn/Russian Tsarlag - Split [West Palm Beotch]
West Palm Beach's West Palm Beotch records is run by one of the subjects of this split, Nelson Hallonquist aka Lesson Lesson Lessen Relearn. His side "Ultra Cultural Bummer" centers around a manipulated tape of two dudes talking about the transcendental effects of sports on the body via metaphysics. The babbling is surrounded by smoky synth and oscillator squeals and an incredibly effective (at being eerie) thumb piano. The piece has a vaguely dub feel to me, it doesn't have any of the genre markings of dub but it carries itself with a loose implied groove that I hear in the trippiest of dub. Hallonquist does a good job navigating the tape through the piece never allowing it to overshadow or distract from the cool sonic ripples undulating through the rest of track.
A lot of people have been really into Russian Tsarlag stuff but I heard a few tapes never really connected with them. However, I knew the day would come when I'd hear a RT jam I dig and "The Master's Speech" is it. I had trouble figuring whether to play it at 33 or 45 at first. It sounded great at both speeds but the vox just seemed too alien at 45 so I'm pretty sure its 33 just like the other side. Anyway, enough jibberjabber. This seems to be Russian Tsarlag at his most electric so far and its real good. Chunky guitar chords, hollow trashcan drums and sleepy vocals. The whole jam is steeped in lethargy and smeary lo-fi production values. The track trudges along for awhile before hitting the almost too slow to be catchy chorus. The fact that this sounds great at both speeds is a testament to the quality of the songwriting; play it at 33 if you're into Pink Reason or at 45 if you're into The Bugs. All and all this is a cool split and it comes on marbled mauve vinyl (awesome!)
The Spread Eagles - Don't Be A Drag [9-11 is a Joke]
The Spread Eagles are Kansas scuzzbags Fag Cop plus two other members and this is their 7inch. While Fag Cop goes for a sound scummier than any other (which I love them dearly for) The Spread Eagles is more of a garage rock party band and pretty much just as awesome. The title track gets things rolling with a fantastic central riff and tears through the track with backing vocals in tow barely pausing for a guitar solo. "Saga of the Year 3000" throws on a spacesuit and goes all sci-fi with an effects-drenched guitar lead and so much energy that they all must have been drunk on rocket fuel. "I Wanna Be My Man" is a throwback to a bunch of styles. For example, this could be one of the fiercest garage bands from the 60s or some early 90s band formed by Dead Kennedys junkies. Another killer riff, that rolls and grooves until it can't anymore and more excellent use of backing vocals too. "In the CIA" is super brittle and garagey as hell with bouncy drumming, unintelligibly howled vocals and a slamming guitar solo. If it sounds like you'll be into this you will be.
Grey Daturas - Barren Planet [Heathen Skulls]
I was lucky enough to catch Australian trio Grey Daturas twice while I was in London in the Spring and they fucking ruled. Twice. I think they're really in their element in the live setting but this 7inch does nicely to stave back hunger for some live Daturas action. Generally I'm a little wary of one-sided 7inches but "Barren Planet" is a monster. Heavy and grimy and just so fucking cool. They ride a great riff for the whole track and pull all kinds of wah'd guitar freak outs. There's so many great little melodic licks in the midst of all it that it flies by causing me to keep playing it over and over again. Though I'd have preferred more music, there's a cool etch of the Grey Daturas logo on the B-side.
Bhob Rainey/Angst Hase Pfeffer Nase - Split [Sedimental]
A split between two of Massachusetts's finest sonic nutjobs, Bhob Rainey of Nmperign and Chris Cooper of Buddies, Fat Worm of Error and his solo project Angst Hase Pfeffer Nase. Rainey's side ""Ain't it Grand" wastes no time fucking up the sonic spectrum. Angry, waspy tones freak and whir in an as indiscernible manner as possible. I'm not sure if a listener is meant to be able make any sense of this scrambled mess but its fun to listen to. The second half is calmer (that term is very relative) and intercuts a recording of a hobo harmonica player and train noise. "Journey to the Center of Something or Other" is among the craziest stuff I've heard from Cooper. At first it's a bit more abrasive than usual but he tosses in the occasional hint of melody making it a bit more palatable than Rainey's side. The song mellows out for a while sounding like machines imitating an orchestra before moving on to noisier pastures but still exhibiting a sense of composition. Nevertheless, it still leaves you with that "what the fuck did I just hear?" feeling. Jess Goddard (Schurt Kwitters/Fat Worm of Error) does the artwork.

Stunned Records Round-up

The formerly Long Beach-based/now Portland-based Stunned label has put out so many of my favorites this year (Warm Climate, Albero Rovesciato, Kabyzdoh Obtruhamchi, Super Minerals to name a few) and here's four more to add to the list.
Chapels - Last Night of the Earth
This is the first I've heard of Adam Richards's (House of Alchemy label) music and man was I impressed when I first put this on. Beginning with a short sonic whipping on "Inhale," the tape finds Richards exploring the transcendental properties of a distorted microphone. He weaves blankets of feedback and, I think, mainly voice into muddy, shifting banks of fuzz. Richards does a pretty good job finding rhythm in the midst of it all and he gets onto some kicks that just flow like liquid. The tape feels like a river at times, ebbing and flowing, dictating its own pace but it sounds more volcanic than peaceful. "Another Lost Night" makes use of sparse looped drumming incorporating it into the simmering tumult. Richards does a really interesting thing where rhythm is one of the main focal points of the track, but the rhythm itself is quite slippery. It seems to continuously get buried only to reemerge slightly warped, bent into something new. It's really the side-long "Beggar" on the second side that gets me going though. It takes its time casting its spell, it's mainly a couple of distorted frequencies interacting for the first bit, but it slowly creeps into a nearly melodic zone. It's not necessarily a hypnotic thing but you just kinda fade into it. The same pulsing loop is pushed up front while cackles and groans and distorted throbs cascade and trickle around it. At some point, probably around half way through, the piece is fully realized, lots of little details working in perfect unison: almost choral bits of vocals, melodically manipulated feedback, a central groove in the form of rumbling mounds of fuzz. It's a fantastic, scraping, gnarled beauty. I'm gonna have to check out more of this Chapels stuff cause Richards seems to have a pretty fundamentally unique approach to the noise/drone genre, I'm curious as to what other stuff he's come up with.
Sparkling Wide Pressure - Seven Inside & Out
I always have a tough time labeling Frank Baugh's Sparkling Wide Pressure project. It's not really drone because there's such an emphasis on melodies and he tends to compose things in a vaguely song-like manner yet the traditionally song-based tags don't fit either. Mr. Baugh's an anomaly; that's for sure. "Color First" eases you into the tape with its fugue/funeral procession hybrid. The track moves at a very mellow, nearly mournful, pace but to Baugh's credit he makes the track incredibly active despite the slow pace. There's guitar, static-y loops and I don't how many layers of keyboard melodies. My favorite, hands down, is "Creeping Cloth Highway." It gets even more "fugue-ier" which is a big plus in my book. There's a fantastic intertwining of synth lines and the thing that seals it all is a distant, probably vocal, whine that resembles a singing saw more than anything else. A break halfway through finds a new melody and minimal drum machine taking over, set against quiet, garbled speech. It all climaxes with a Vangelis-esque rise from the ashes. Awesome. The second side brings "Outside, Above My Head" which is a good deal different, at least on the outset. A recording of wordless vocals and acoustic guitar out in a wood somewhere is the central element with touches of synth making their way in and out. Eventually, with the addition of more keyboard and wiry electric guitar, the track gets to be a lethargic, swollen psych jam. "Rock Wall" starts up more ominously with a modulated, bassy synthtone. This track is way more minimal and it takes a little while to capture me, though once Baugh starts laying on more keyboard lines, I get into it. In an effort to make up my own silly genre like real music critics do, I'm gonna call Sparkling Wide Pressure's stuff "neo-fugues." Baugh's work really does remind me of what Bach was doing but with a much looser, more warped approach. Good stuff and SWP has a brand new tape on Stunned so head there if you're interested.
Silver Bullets - Free Radical
This Sicilian psych crew was discovered by Super Minerals and Magic Lantern member/apparent Stunned A&R man William Giacchi who produced this tape as well. Most of the tape is made up of fat, jungle grooves and opener "Monday Morning in Ragusa" is among the fattest and jungliest. Not too mention an instant favorite. The bass and percussion are wisely pushed front and center while the psych guitar improv's are peripheral, adding to the track's texture and letting the focus fall on the rhythm section. It's heavy, hypnotic and addictive. Twenty more minutes of this would do me just fine but Silver Bullets still have another ten songs to get to. And holy shit do they do it again on the next track, "Flight from Babylon." This time instead of dense and heavy, the groove is a bit speedier and takes on a brilliant pan-world flavor. The percussion is vaguely African sounding and they got some brilliant melodies that sound somewhere between gypsy jazz stuff and traditional South American flute music. Sadly, I don't much about Sicily beyond The Godfather so this could be inspired by traditional Sicilian music for all I know. I do know that this jam has a catchy as hell, rattling groove though. "Black Leaf" isn't particularly rhythmically driven but rhythm still has a presence. The brief track is mainly led by a couple of echoing guitars. The title jam brings back the rhythmic section but the overall effect is more of a full band glide than a focus on the grittiness of the groove. "Revolutions" is heavy on the South American vibes I mentioned earlier. There's some great intertwining guitar and flute-like lines over an active but united rhythm section. There's a great smokiness to it all like it's soundtracking some mystical magic show or show something; that sounds silly but this jam is like a hallucinogenic so no wonder I'm drooling kooky babble. I think there's maybe a sax solo buried in there too but I can't be certain. Needless to say the track rules.
"Il Punto" on side b is some of the most streamlined, "rock" stuff on the tape. It's basically 4/4 and leaves the guitars wide open spaces to shred. Just wait for the introduction of the tambourine near the end, it really gets things moving. "Sister Polygon" is hazier with lovely cascading keyboards and the absence of a rhythm section (though not rhythm.) They're surprisingly good at this kind of stuff too. Though I can't say why, "Shiva" almost seems to have a more acoustic vibe save for some spacey guitar playing. "74 Dream" is similar but wades a good deal deeper into the swamp fuzz territory. The apparent sequel "White Leaf" weirdly enough has an awesome mechanical vibe as the Silver Bullets whip their gangly limbs into shape. The closer "Ascent" is a beefy psych jam, thick and solemn. A perfect conclusion.
I'm the first to admit I get bored with some psych stuff out there but this tape is so punchy, and the Bullets play with such soul, it's practically revitalizing the genre in my eyes. Here's another one to chalk up there with the best that Stunned has ever produced. So great and killer artwork too.
Dead Black Arms - Lake Reflection Catalyst
It feels like it has been a long time since I heard some great Danish drone but no longer. Especially cool is that it's brought to me by an artist unknown to me (one of Stunned's specialties.) Lake Reflection Catalyst is two brooding side long slabs, the first of which is matter-of-factly titled "Lake Reflection Catalyst I." After a few minutes, the piece hits full-on bludgeon mode. It sounds like mainly guitar doing the thrashing with the possibility of a taped-key synth in there too. Dead Black Arms' sound recalls the live-drone vibe of Family Underground and Hototogisu's penchant for heaviosity. DBA don't allow for much breathing room, they seems to be caving your skull in between the headphones to the point of claustrophobia setting in. They slam the same violent chord over and over, only it somehow gets more oppressive each time you hear it. The twenty-plus minute track has a rise/fall action, though it's a fairly shallow curve allowing for maximum time to be writhing in feedback. The flipside "Lake Reflection Catalyst II" begins quite differently with a barrage of clattering cymbals. They create a surprisingly full sound; it ends up working similarly to the blaze of feedback on the previous side with the density of microtonalities generated by cymbals rather distortion. The sound itself more jagged and ruthless than feedback can usually provide. That isn't to say the side is completely devoid of electronics, there's a creeping drone always looming not far off the shore. Dead Black Arms pulls an extended crumble to finish off the track which is a nice touch culminating with some fairly pretty guitar strums. A solid outing worth checking out for those looking to be battered and bruised in freezing cold temperatures as the ominous cover art suggests.

Plankton Wat - Dawn of the Golden Eternity [DNT]

First of all, I must note how beautiful this record looks. Dewey Mahood (Plankton Wat) contributed great artwork from the sleeve to the labels and DNT main man Tynan Krakoff put it all together beautifully with lovely ruby red marbled vinyl. Damn, I just couldn't believe my eyes when I opened it up.
Last I heard from Plankton Wat was last year's tape on DNT. It was a great psych slow burner but Mahood has tweaked his sound just a bit for this LP and topped himself in the process. The first of ten, "The Magic Citadel," caught me off guard as it's a total fist pumper. Glistening waves of guitar set in with raucous tambourine hits before Mahood just starts burning up the fretboard. It's probably only about a minute and a half but it gets your heart racing. The title track cools things down a bit with airy, looped layers of guitar and free drumming. The drums really control the dynamics of the track cause when they're mellow cymbal rolls it's a pretty piece but when they get hectic so does the whole track. "Song of Winter Death" features more great, and completely different, drumming. Hollow, thudding toms make a semi-hypnotic base for acoustic slide guitar and flute to do their thing. "Shrouded Path of Enchantment" reminds me a bit of that DNT tape with stark and brooding acoustic guitar arpeggios. There's a second guitar that provides subtle plucks of the root note occasionally and it creates a strange sensation, the sonic equivalent of an undertow. A single, skeletal melody is doubled by banjo and voice on "Occult Blues." It's short but pretty profoundly eerie. "The Exiled Wanderer" is an awesome rhythmically driven track. Each instrument is used to percussive ends but Mahood deftly weaves flickers of melody from mbira and other instruments within the tangled web of rhythms.
The second side kicks off with "Sphere within the Lotus" and I'm not sure if it's possible to give a song a more "psychedelic" name. It fits cause it's a squall of a song drenched in glorious, or copious, amounts of fuzz and wah, depending on your viewpoint. Mahood is even rocking wind chimes harder than they've ever been rocked before. Sadly, the piece is pretty short. "While the Clouds Gather" is a mellow number, and there's not too much to say other than it's supremely, if unassumingly, gorgeous. It sneaks up on you. "Other Realms" is the default epic of the side, marking the return of Mahood's wordless vocals paired this time with guitar. The track drifts for a while until a slamming groove comes out of nowhere making everything get real good real quick. "Voyage of the Night Pavilion" finds acoustic and electric guitars making a great team, the former handling the melody and the latter producing a fuzzy fog and chiming in on the melody when it feels like it. Its a perfect outro cause of the gently lilting vibe, though it heats up near the end with a melting guitar lead.
Dawn of the Golden Eternity is another great installment of Mahood's 4-track psych excursions. I like that he kept most tracks pretty short so he could cover a lot of ground, but I wish he'd given the openers of both sides a bit more time to jam it out. If you dig Mahood's stuff this definitely worth the pickup and if you don't know it, this is a fine place to start.
Still available.

Dragging an Ox Through Water - The Tropics of Phenomenon [Freedom to Spend]

Initially released last year as an LP on Awesome Vistas The Tropics of Phenomenon by Brian Mumford’s Dragging an Ox Through Water project has now been given the professional CD treatment by fellow Portlander Pete Swanson on his still relatively young Freedom to Spend label. That’s a lot of info to cram into the first sentence but don’t you now have that fantastic sense of being an informed consumer? Moving on; upon hearing such an unwieldy and weighty moniker as Dragging an Ox Through Water I was not expecting a pop album but that’s pretty much what The Tropics of Phenomenon is.
“I Would Understand” instantly reminds me of Microphones stuff from earlier in the decade, a soft voice and a nylon string guitar. The thing is though over the top of that simple arrangement there’s a nutty free guitar/electronics/percussion paste that’s spread on thickly enough to set the track off kilter but not enough to dampen any of the melodic elements. The late introduction of a warm organ completes the lightly elegiac mood. At a minute and a half, it works well as a sampling of things to come. The second track, “Snowbank Treatment” is an instant stand out. The voice/guitar element is still present but augmented by an essentially electro arrangement: a steady electronic kick, a fuzzy synth melody and a heavily modulated, lilting keyboard lead. It’s pretty difficult to pull off an electro/acoustic thing and Mumford does it unbelievably well. It’s more a superficial comparison than anything else but Dragging an Ox Through Water reminds me of The Magnetic Fields where the songwriter’s grasp of the song is so strong that he can assemble odd arrangements culled from a number of sources and consistently end up with a great pop song. Mumford’s work certainly veers onto weirder avenues than The Magnetic Fields though. The beginning of “A.) The Unbearable Dumbness of Being B.) Earthen Airlock” is some kind of plunderphonic pastiche before a grimly buzzing synth coats the track thickly until fading to a long bout of near silence that makes up the rest of the track. “Dice Smiles” is the probably most plaintive, traditional ballad of the bunch with strums backed by a small orchestra of oscillators. It’s a pretty beautiful and surprisingly delicate arrangement. Interestingly enough there’s a silent fifth track delineating the two “sides” of the CD attempting to retain the feel of an LP. “Predictions” turns a sparse, punctuated acoustic arrangement into something reminiscent of a mechanical free jazz band before Mumford’s voice returns attempting to be heard above the din. The most straightforwardly pretty song on here, “Houses and Homonculi,” turns whining electronics, pretty close to the kind of thing you’d hear on a harsh noise tape, into an emotive and even somber expression in the presence of such a lovely fingerpicked melody and multi-tracked vocals. “Lilacs Sprang from These Apes' Brains (Shut Down All U.S. Torture Facilities)” operates more like an interlude than a song, flute-like oscillators singing and electronic gizmos all a fluttering and sputtering before the title, accompanied by guitar, is sung. “Devil’s Prayer” has a sprightly keyboard diddy and a buoyant rhythm before getting swallowed up by a blackened synthesizer and, luckily, its spat out again cause it makes you feel so damn good. Finisher “Not Harping on Powers” seems to have a bit more dramatic weight, making it a good choice to end the record on. This is partially just because of the song itself but there’s this raging inferno of distortion kept at bay during the whole song but it constantly threatens to subsume everything around it.
This record is incredibly solid; not only are there no throwaways, but the whole album is pretty much all highpoints. Mumford has developed a consistently engaging sound for this album and has a pretty good knack for when it’s best to defy expectation and when it’s best to let the melody play out. Also it must be mentioned that the voice can really make or break a record like this and Mumford’s voice, whether it’s not much more than a whisper or when he really goes for it, is really pleasant to listen to. There’s a naturalness and warmth to his delivery which is integral to the success of the whole venture.
I’ve been sitting here for a while, listening to the record for the third time, trying to come up with a good way to wrap this all up but it ain’t happening so I’m just gonna say this: Mumford has made just a fucking great pop record, which is way too much of a rarity these days, and I’m enjoying it immensely.
Still available from Freedom to Spend.