Theo Angell & the Tabernacle Hillside Singers – Auraplinth [Digitalis]

This is the first time I’ve gotten a real advance promo copy of something, so I made sure to get a review done by the day it came out. Rather than mess it up, by finally getting around to writing a review in three months or something. So anyway, this Theo Angell record comes out today, on Halloween man. It seems like on odd day to release Auraplinth on because it’s not really spooky or ghostly at all. But maybe it’s here to cheer us up during the dreary upcoming Thanksgiving season.
The record begins with “In About a Half Hour”, built around autoharp, tambourine/rattles, acoustic guitar and hand drums. And of course Angell’s voice as well. It’s a nicely off kilter folk ditty with a few choice melodic flourishes, pretty characteristic of the rest of the record. The only thing I’m not digging on the track, is some not so subtle use of effects namely autopan, it distracts from the song a tad and feels superfluous among the all-acoustic arrangement. “Crows Landing” follows focusing on Angell’s vocals. His voice’s only accompaniment is a repetitive, unchanging pattern on a banjo (I think). Had the vocals been dull, the track would have easily floundered, but Theo does a hell of a job carrying the song and being the central source of melody on the track. “On the Willow” returns to a bit larger arrangement this time rattle, electric and acoustic guitar, glockenspiel and a (wooden) flute. But again, Angell is the main melodic presence, and leads the band to strange but beautiful places, with subtle additions by the various instruments. Both “Stuttgart Summertime” and “Bountfling” are short tracks based around acoustic guitar and vocal, they are both nice enough but don’t leave a particularly strong impression after they’re done. When I listened to this album the first time, the first track that really grabbed me was “Have U Seen the Birds Lately”. Angell moves back and forth between a stronger deeper voice and a witchy falsetto. Though his voice leads the track, the simple accompaniment sounds determined and effective. Basically, just a rapidly plucked guitar, a couple insertions of a slide guitar and some nice subtle backing vox as well. It’s hard to say exactly what about it works so well, but it does nonetheless. “Written With the Word” is a brief acoustic ditty, a little reminiscent of Devendra Banhart before he started making really shitty records. However, it’s the next track that everyone is/will/should be talking about/listening to.
”Apparently Someone Tried To” is one of the best rock songs I have heard in a long time. From the first to the zillionth time I’ve listened to it, the track is always absolutely incredible. It’s kind of funny, that when conventional rock elements (i.e. drum kit, electric guitar) are introduced, Theo Angell creates his most sublime work. The whole track is just a little askew, the guitars are melodic but not in a predictable way, drums are steady but not repetitive. And like many other places on the record the song is taken to unexpected, though fitting, places. One of my favorite aspects is there is a guest vocalist (maybe one of the Hillside singers) that just fucking rules! He has a great, cunning Bill Callahan-esque voice and navigates his way through the track with a strange sing-speak that, somehow, just totally works. I’m not actually sure what he’s talking about, but it sounds so cool just by the way he delivers the lyrics. Props to Theo for, being chill enough, to let another guy sing lead on his album. By the way, Angell provides backing vocals and sings the chorus and his voice blends beautifully with the voice of the mystery guest. Seriously this track is just fantastic, and I don’t feel like I am adequately describing it which frustrates me but whatever, take my word—you know I’m good for it. I keep drawing this paragraph out just so I can listen to the song again. If I ever made some ‘Sweet Stuff From Double Oh Seven’ mixtape, “Apparently Someone Tried To” would be there, without a doubt. I’d have to put it first too, so it’d be easy find for all the times I’d want to play it again. I might not actually end up listening to the rest of the tape if I did that though.
So after the profound, momentous “Apparently Someone Tried To”, come the albums three weakest tracks. “Flurdrid Mourning” is a pseudo-drone type track with a single looped drum hit and weird alien-through-a-wahwah vocals. I don’t mean to sound like a jerk, but I don’t understand how the track made the cut. It would be one thing if it was a one minute interlude or something, but it gets very tiresome after its relatively unchanging five plus minutes. “Is the Worst Ever Best?” works a little better, though it isn’t a strong track in itself. It is a vocal and tambourine duet, and it does what it does and moves on quickly. “The Golden Hour” certainly has some pretty moments but on the whole feels aimless and adrift, not quite cohering as well the stuff on the first half of the record. Footing is regained for the next tracks though. “Gardenfull” is similar to “Written With the Word” but with some really nice backing vocals which add a lot of dynamics to the track. There is also a great change-up towards the end, taking the track out on a high note. The title track features first-rate flute accompaniment and a strange sinister/beautiful vibe. “She King”, the album’s longest track, has kind of a Wooden Wand backed by a super-subtle Family Underground type sound, which is something I never thought I’d hear but it sounds good. The finale, “Forward With the Veil”, sounds similar to something off the most recent Justin Shay record on Foxglove, not one of the strongest tracks but gives the record a low-key finish.
All in all, Auraplinth is a pretty good record with many magnificent moments that will delight anyone into folk-pop oddity. I hate to tell someone else how to make their art, but to my ears, the album would have been stronger if it had been cut down to eleven maybe twelve tracks, but that’s just me. Angell has done a good job establishing is own sound and the record is definitely one that gets better the more you listen to it, which is probably the greatest quality an album can have. Oh, and in case you missed it, “Apparently Someone Tried To” is one my favorite songs of the year.
Other notables are: the album is released today-according to the press release, comes in a “heavy duty gatefold jacket w/ full lyric sheet” and was mastered by Pete Swanson. Czech it out.

Auxiliary Out Radio Programme #4 (10/28/07)

”The Casual Joke” Turner Cody Buds of May (CD) [Digitalis, 2007]

”Apparently Someone Tried To” Theo Angell & the Tabernacle Hillside Singers Auraplinth (CD) [Digitalis, 2007]

“Dun Dan” Group Doueh Guitar Music From the Western Sahara (LP) [Sublime Frequencies, 2007]

”Untitled 5” Richard Youngs & Tirath Singh Nirmala Richard Youngs & Tirath Singh Nirmala (LP) [HP Cycle, 2007]

”Sequins” Big Blood Space Gallery Jan. 27, 2007 (CD-r) [Dontrustheruin, 2007]

”Neutron Dracula” Crappy Nightmareville Neutron Dracula (7”) [Black Velvet Fuckere, 2007]

”Glisters” Ray Off Nothing Like a Ribbon Round a Parcel (CD-r) [Black Petal, 2007]

”Side A” Fantastic Magic Witch Choir (CS) [Abandon Ship, 2007]

”Fonta” The Reggaee Catolistal (CS) [No Label, 2007]

”Vlige” Benjamin Franklin Takes Time (CS one-sided) [Dreamtime Taped Sounds, 2007]

”De Transistions Van Hallucinatorische Knikken Tussen” Miles Devens Atlantic Woman (CS) [New Age Cassettes, 2007]

“I Am Your Charred Remains” Ajilvsga Thorazine To Infinity (CS) [Peasant Magik, 2007]

”For What It’s Worthless” Barrabarracuda Abasement Tapes (CD-r) [Not Not Fun, 2007]

”Human Friend/Snail Territory/Megasolar Bodyslam” Fricara Pacchu Space Puppet (CS) [Lal Lal Lal, 2006]

mp3: Part 1 Part 2

Tent City – Tent/City [Arbor]/James Fella – D888 [JK Tapes]

When I can, I like to do some sweet theme-teamed reviews, and here it’s themed times two. Theme one is James Fella does his thing on both releases, the first with his Tent City crew and the second all by his lonesome. The other theme is Chicago area label bros Arbor CDR and JK Tapes each put out one of the releases. So they are, like, connected but times two.
Anyhow, nuff o dat. The Arbor CD-r starts us off, man I have to say this thing looks and feels totally sweet. Arbor always brings its A game on the aesthetic front, but Mike Pollard has outdone himself this time. As you can see this thing is sewn from a classic red cowboy bandana and even has a little button snap to make sure yr CD-r is nice and cozy and don’t fall out (dontcha hate that?). This release is apparently the studio debut of Tent City, which is interesting cause they’ve been around a while you’d think they would have done it by now, but who knows. They seem to be pretty fucking good at the live thing considering the long live recording on their Cascade Trinkets CD-r is one of my favorite pieces of music from this year. Anyhow, enough about that. The CD-r is made up of 5 untitled tracks ranging from 2-12 minutes. The first track starts out with a little of the typical Tent City sound, wind instrument and thumb piano type sounds over shaking and tinkling, then about a third of the way through a really low (in pitch and volume) synth pulse takes over. The synth continues to the second track and is joined little by little, by muted guitar and sounds akin to the rustling of broken glass. At the end a neat little dilapidated piano loop materializes which is sweet, but it’s a little too late though. The first two tracks are much too drawn out, and for some reason everyone seems really timid like they aren’t comfortable with the synth loop or something. There’s just not a whole lot interesting going on. Things begin to pick up in the third track, however. A guitar is riffing on the melody from “Unmade Bed” against some thumb pianoing and rattling and shaking. It happens gradually but things get jammin’, anchored by some sweet thumb piano licks. The fourth track is the longest and best. It’s a bit more aggressive, with a percussive presence something the previous tracks lacked. There is actually a distinct rock vibe to the track courtesy of a grinding, dirty guitar riff and later a 4/4 drum beat. It seems like an odd fit at first but it actually ends up being pretty groovy. The caravan moves along getting to a surprisingly noisy crescendo. The final track, a two minute coda, is a nice droney sendoff with a bunch of loops and the plucked sounds of something. A pretty little piece.
It seems like the studio recording may not be Tent City’s forte, at least not yet. The record gets off to a needlessly slow start but the second half is quite cool. Still respek to TC for trying something different. They’re still one of the better improv’d jams acts (I don’t mean that like jam band) around. The thing that’s so sweet about the live stuff I’ve heard is they always seem to be movin and groovin to a vibe of raw, communal inspiration. But here, you don’t really see it too much until the fourth track when things start clicking. It’s a decent but not perfect effort, but certainly worth checking out if you are a fan of the group or sweet bandana packaging.
D888 is interesting cause the insert gives a pretty detailed, second by second breakdown of the sounds heard for each side by Fella himself. This makes my job really easy cause I don’t have to guess or hyperbolize the sounds coming out my speakers. I can straight up tell you, “Dudes, the sounds you hear at 2:25 in on the A side is empty mic sockets while phantom power was turned on and off, tracks then punched in and out while making one master from the eight tracks.” But that doesn’t have the same mystery to it, so I’m gonna go with a sorta old fashioned type review.
The alternate title for the tape is “compiled sounds salvaged from the memory bank of a digital eight track recorder late summer 2007”. And that is pretty accurate to what it sounds like, but it’s also a bit more. It took a couple listens for my ears to figure it out, but after they did D888 became a rather fun tape to listen to. I’m generally not into the whole collaged aesthetic cause it usually comes off as too scattered, and I am a man of composition (whether it’s improvised or meticulously constructed). However, this tape is pretty well paced. Side A begins with echoing guitar until a bit of noisy drones and whathaveyou join and eventually take over the track. Noises are looped and layered building to chiming feedback which promptly cuts out and more looped noises replace it. Then a zoo of squiggly sounds emerges. They sound like the “telephone” setting on toy keyboards, but at all different speeds. The track continues this weird wobble for a while until guitar and a fuller drone take over until the end click. My apologies for all the “untils” and “thens”. Odd little track but it moves fast over a relatively wide range. Side B begins with guitar as well but it’s a weird muffled fuzz tone and some vocals are in the mix too I think. Quickly after, there is some clipped electronic sounds hopscotching around and eventually cohere into a steady stream. Then similar sounds but a bit more dronier (which consulting this handy insert are the “same sounds, less loud and slower”). After that comes the coolest part of the side, a bunch of skittering sounds all combining into a wicked cacophony of sound. Overall, it’s a pretty interesting tape worth repeated listens.
The James Fella cassette comes packaged in JK’s, signature by now, d.i.y. aesthetic; this time a paint drenched tape case. Both releases are still available from their respective labels, though they’ve been out for a little while so you may want to hurry and snag a copy if you want either of them.

Evan Miller/Gown – Split [Arbor]

I was browsing random websites the other day and anyhow, I noticed that this Evan Miller/Gown isn’t sold out. And well, dammit, it should be. I bought my copy immediately when I heard about it, figuring it would be gone quick. So now, I feel I must do my part to vouch for this tape’s greatness and give it the proper props.
You know the drill, two guitarists, two sides, one sweet spool of tape. I think Evan Miller is a relatively new face but lately he’s been rollin’ out some tapes on Night People and I’ve been digging ‘em. I’m no scholar of Fahey or Jack Rose or whoever the god of the acoustic guitar is. But I do know that I like the way Evan Miller plays. Apparently, “Spectre” was recorded in a storm which is rad cause you can hear thunder rolling in the background, which sometimes provides great punctuation, and maybe even a bit of rain too but I might be confusing that with tape hiss. This track moves a lot slower and is less sweetly melodic as his other work I’ve heard. However, there is way more sparseness and tension in this piece. It makes me think of a lamenting score for a wounded cowboy in a western. Like the dude is shot and the music starts and there is a ten minute long slow motion sequence of the guy stumbling around all bloody, crawling through the dust and writhing in agony. The track is based around a couple circular arpeggios, which are broken up every so often with melodic flourishes. The track actually reminds me of Earth’s latest stuff, not so much aesthetically but in the way that restraint is used to create intensity. Cool track and an interesting take on the solo acoustic guitar thing.
Miller’s track is cool and all but the real reason you need this tape is what comes on the backside. Gown (a.k.a. Andrew MacGregor) is probably most well known, at least nowadays, for playing with Thurston Moore in the Bark Haze, however based on “Pigeon Church”, Gown could kick Thurston’s and his own ass at guitar—combined, which doesn’t really make sense but this track is that good. This track is so good that my friend who loves Daft Punk stopped everything he was doing said “Drew. Who is this? This track is incredible!” “Pigeon Church” is like a wind storm, an electrical storm, and a snow storm combined and played on guitar. I’m not sure if this thing is multi-tracked or looped but either way it’s rather dense. There are tons of frequencies flowing out of the amp and Gown blows them every which way, all around the track. What’s amazing to me is, for ten minutes, the track somehow never loses the blustery, weathered texture, or its undulating intensity or its melodic center. Sorry to quote Radiohead, but everything is in its right place you know? The guitar tone is very electric and powerful, but not noisy in the way you think of Hototogisu or someone being. Its palette is very much whites, greys, silver rather than black. Last I heard, MacGregor moved up to Newfoundland, so I hope he’s basking in its remote, solitary chill and recording shitloads of stuff. It’s almost mean to just give me one track; I need a hundred more at least. I mean really, only one windswept, classic, masterful, mind ripping Gown piece per release? Come on! How am I supposed to live on that?
The tape, as mentioned, is still available from Arbor and it comes with an insert, printed tape labels and a classy, 3 color screen printed J-card of a wildcat battling vapor (or something like that). So, get it already.

Auxiliary Out Radio Programme #3 (10/21/07)

“Ink Sac” Aaron Dilloway & C. Spencer Yeh The Squid (LP) [Hanson, 2007]

“Confessions of a Digestive System” Chris Cooper Bill Nace Duo I’m Fucking in a Sitting Room (For Nmperign) (CS) [Night People, 2007]

“The Lionshead” Scumm O)))) Brown One: The Bathrobe Demos (CS) [No Label, 2007]

“Summoning the Recluse” Ettrick Brutal Sound FX Compilation and Exhibition of Strange Fact (2xCS) [Enterruption, 2007]

“Lanzarse” Goliath Bird Eater Brahmans (CS) [Nurse Etiquette, 2007]

“Eureka” GHQ California Night Burning Dreams (LP+3” CD-r) [Not Not Fun, 2007]

”Untitled 2” Menstrual Chinese Dream Menstrual Chinese Dream (CD-r) [Nature Tape Limb, 2005]

“Curly Fruit” Quilts Acid Flower (3” CD-r) [Ruralfaune, 2007]

“Standing Water” Emeralds Grass Ceiling (CS) [Fag Tapes, 2007]

“Wanderlands” Agitated Radio Pilot Ghost of Medb/Under Your Night (split with Nether Dawn) (LP) [Pseudo Arcana, 2007]

”Drifter” Pillars of Heaven Silver Tusks Vol. 1 (CS one-sided) [Peasant Magik, 2007]

“Rope” Gowns Red State (CD) [Cardboard, 2007]

“Aborescent” Arachnid Arcade Crepuscular Aborescent (CS) [Psychform, 2007]

“December, 6th 2006” Dull Knife Untitled (CS) [Psychform, 2007]

“Love Falls” (VxPxC) Stoned to Death (CD-r) [Leaf Trail, 2007]

(some of the voice parts didn't record very well, sorry)
mp3: Part 1 Part 2

Auxiliary Out Radio Programme #2 (10/14/07)

“The Story is Told in a Different Sphere” Brothers of the Occult Sisterhood Temicxoch (CD-r) [Foxglove/Digitalis, 2007]

”I Need Her” CJA/Smokehouse Whiskey & Freedom (CS) [Abandon Ship, 2007]

“Cyuti” Xochipilli Aircquocces of the Arc Tones (3” CD-r) [First Person, 2007]

”Feggic Shoam” Non-Horse Horse Split (with Horse Head) (CS) [JK Tapes, 2007]

“Untitled 3” Sarin Smoke It Chars Our Lips Yet We Still Drink (LP one-sided) [Wholly Other, 2007]

“Kuni Majagani” Group Inerane Guitars From Agadez (Music of Niger) (LP) [Sublime Frequencies, 2007]

“By a Thread” Pink Reason By a Thread (7”) [Trick Knee Productions, 2007]

”Chapter of the Fog” Family Underground Riven (LP) [Not Not Fun, 2007]

“Flash Pumper” Manpack Variant Sticky Wickets (CD) [Digitalis, 2007]

”Larvae” Family Battle Snake Split (with Owl Xounds) (CS) [Blackest Rainbow, 2007]

“The Mirror Speaks” James Blackshaw The Cloud of Unknowing (CD/LP) [Tompkins Square, 2007]

“Miami Morning Coming Down” Earth Hibernaculum (CD) [Southern Lord, 2007]

Auxiliary Out Radio Programme #2 (mp3)

Pocahaunted – Emerald Snake on Ruby Velvet [Not Not Fun]

A little while back I was having a conversation with a friend about Pocahaunted. We were both fans, we always enjoy stuff we hear by them but what we were really discussing was the standard Pocahaunted framework (i.e. two chords repeated ad infinitum and vocal coos and moans). This framework has served them well thus far, but at this point it seems to be inhibiting their potential (could you imagine how awesome they would sound if there was some big glorious change in chord progression every so often?). So seriously, days after we had that convo the Phaunts dropped this little baby. It was sold out in an instant like all their stuff, but it’s still worth noting even almost two months after its release.
While Pocahaunted has yet to work in a third chord, their overall aesthetic has been given an update. The most obvious change here is the steady dubbeats supplied by Bobb Bruno (of Goliath Bird Eater and Bobb Bruno). The repetitive drum pattern is hypnotizing, like traditional Pocahaunted but in an entirely different way. It’s actually somewhat reminiscent the drums (sample?) in “Gates of Ballard” by Sunn o))). Anyway, back to the whole hypnotic thing; this isn’t Portishaunted or nothing (ha?) but the dubbiness actually really works well in duo with Pocahaunted’s style because they both go for atmospheric and spellbinding but do it coming from two distinct directions. It’s a mutualist relationship, the beats keep the rest of the track focused and the rest of the track keeps that same drum pattern repeated over and over from getting on yr nerves. So anyway, it’s an unexpected though very welcome addition to the Pocahaunted teepee (tipi?). Elsewhere in the track there is some rad fuzziness, coming from one of the guitars and a bass or keyboard or something, giving the track a much fuller overall sound and richer texture. It also has a bit of a home-taper feel due to a recording bobbles, which is fine in my eyes.
As evidenced by this tiny CD-r, Pocahaunted still have a few tricks up their sleeve which warms my little knife (I hope they expand the scope of their songwriting sometime soon though). And the dang thing comes with fake snake skin sewed on too! As mentioned, it’s sold out, but if you can find it pick it up.

Robedoor + Pocahaunted – Hunted Gathering [Digitalis]

Both the Robedoor and Pocahaunted crews have been making a name for themselves this year, especially when in tandem it seems. They opened for Sonic Youth in collaborative live form pretty recently, and their first shot at a collabo release, Mouth of Prayer, was reissued by Blackest Rainbow only mere months after it came out in the first place. This double disc split/collab slab, courtesy of Digitalis, is the next piece in the ever expanding RBDR+Phaunt puzzle.
The excellently titled, Hunted Gathering starts off with Robedoor in classic dread drone mode. There is sloshed vocal murk a plenty, but what Robedoor has always been killer at is the way they incorporate rather typical instruments into their palette of scuzz and hum. This track, “Plague of Settlers”, has an organ of some sort, bass, a drum kit perhaps a guitar, all mingling and forming into a heavy monolith exploding underneath the Earth’s surface. Pocahaunted follows with “Roman Nose”, beginning in typical Phaunt fashion, two guitar chords cycling back and forth and female vocal séance. In addition, the girls are joined by subtle drumming (I’m assuming by Goliath Bird Eater’s Bobb Bruno) and I’m pretty sure I hear a male voice in there too but don’t quote me. It’s a nice unified procession, almost to a fault, but vocal “solos” towards the end help break the sameness up a bit. Another Pocahaunted track, “Crow Scout” follows but it doesn’t quite do it for me. The central melody and arrangement doesn’t gel well enough to sustain the piece across its almost 14 minutes. There are some of those classic, sublime Pocahaunted vocal moves in it though. My ears like that. Robedoor gets back on the mic and closes out the first disc with “Spectral Outpost”. It’s a long, gradually winding piece, like riding a rollercoaster in slow motion, in the dark. Except instead of being filled by excitedness, like you would be on a rollercoaster in regular motion, you’re filled with utter creepedoutness. This is real digging-up-bodies-on-an-ancient-Indian-burial-ground shit, total looming doom. Give it a few minutes and you’ll be under its spell, marching hypnotized into oblivion just as I am.
Robedoor opens up the second disc as well. But out of left field, it’s a pretty serene piece called “Ancestress Moon”. And it’s the only track length on the album that doesn’t make it to double figures. It doesn’t go anywhere particular but it doesn’t really have to, it’s a nice comedown after “Spectral Outpost” AND it’s a great lead in to the final solo Pocahaunted track “Warmest Knives”. “Warmest Knives” starts out almost identically as “Roman Nose”, but soon enough it morphs into a rather lush echoing piece. The mysterious Laena (whose violinwork was the standout on the Phaunts’ Rough Magic tape) makes a much welcomed appearance here. Her violin isn’t front and center, but it comes in at all the right places. This may be the foggiest Pocahaunted has ever sounded and it suits them well. The track still feels a bit long, but the fine use of dynamics by all parties involved excuses that. “Razed Terrain”, Robedoor’s final bout, is a decent enough though repetitive vocal-dominated affair, that can't quite compare to their excellent cuts on the first disc. Though I do dig the cymbal smashing towards the end. The grand finale, the collaborative title track, is a very disembodied sounding piece. The Pocahaunted element is prominently on display while the Robedoor faction snakes around in poisonous mists. Towards the end of the track the intensity has increased a bit but it doesn’t sound too much different from when it started. It feels more like a Pocahaunted piece with Robedoor sitting in rather than a full on meeting of the minds, though maybe it’s just me.
While I wouldn’t call Hunted Gathering either group’s best work, it’s still a good showing (especially for Robedoor) and unlike the rest of the groups’ other work, it’s still available. All in all, the whole thing is a classy, well put together project by Digitalis. The sound is crisp thanks to Bobb Bruno and Pete Swanson, on recording & mixing and mastering duties, respectively. The sweet collage plastered all over this thing is by Manda and Bethany of Pocahaunted (also Roy Tatum of Buried Valley is credited to layout, as well as additional instruments) and it’s just totally fun to look at, especially the inside. So if you’ve yet to hear either subject of this review, I suggest you pick this up. It’s definitely the best bang for your buck. And if yr a fan of either group, well, you already know what to do.

Auxiliary Out Radio Programme #1 (10/7/07)

“The Mighty Mississippi” The Cherry Blossoms The Cherry Blossoms (LP) [Apostasy/Black Velvet Fuckere/Breaking World/Consanguineous/Hank the Herald Angel/Yeay!, 2007]

”a-doz-hiel-z” The Skaters Lal Lal Lal Festival Compilation (CD-r) [Lal Lal Lal, 2007]

”Pigeon Church” Gown Evan Miller/Gown Split (CS) [Arbor, 2007]

“Cops Wet Pussy” Deep Jew Bored Fortress Split Series (with Mindflayer) (7”) [Not Not Fun, 2007]

”Guru Femmes” Wooden Wand More From the Mountain (7”) [Woodsist, 2007]

”The Pig That Stood Upright” Medroxy Progesterone Acetate Something in the Weeds (CD-r) [Midwest Death Cult, 2007]

”Untitled 2” Orphan Fairytale Speaking Spooky (CD-r) [Foxglove, 2007]

“Fraha” Softwar Softwar (CD) [Digitalis, 2007]

”Side B” Slow Listener Untitled (CS) [JK Tapes, 2007]

”Undying Glare” Bone Awl Undying Glare (7” one-sided) [Nuclear War Now! Productions, 2007]

”Heart Current” Grouper Cover the Windows and the Walls (LP) [Root Strata, 2007]

”Violent Memory” Robedoor Hopeless Transformation (CS) [Goaty Tapes, 2007]

”Untitled 3” Tent City Cascade Trinkets (CD-r) [Night People, 2007]

”The Fire Sky” Kiss the Anus of a Black Cat An Interlude to the Outermost (CD/LP) [(K-RAA-K)³, 2007]

”Sandwall” Drowner Yellow Swans Drowner Yellow Swans (CS) [Tape Room, 2007]

”Untitled 1” Burnt Hills Cloud Nine (CD-r) [Tape Drift, 2007]

I've posted a link to download an mp3 version of this show. Audacity was being a son of a bitch this week but I finally got a passable recording. I had to chop the show up weirdly (the Slow Listener track got split up, sorry) and there are some volume inconsistencies but overall it sounds okay. I've got another program I'm gonna try using for next week's show, so hopefully I'll fair better then. Thanks for your patience.

Auxiliary Out Radio Programme #1 (mp3)

Elephant Kiss – Introduce: Red Cat Green Cat [JK Tapes]/Loopool – Spells [JK Tapes]

Alright, so here we have another installment of JK Tapes madness. This time both acts hail from Pacific Northwest outpost (and AuxOut HQ) Seattle, WA. The first is a short tape by arcade pop duo Elephant Kiss which I know next to nothing about and then a one-sided cassette from weird dude/palindroner Loopool a.k.a. Jean-Paul Garnier, who’s had many bizarre releases on Not Not Fun, Sycophanticide and others. I didn’t really know what to expect going in for either of these because I’d never heard EK before, and because Loopool seems to pretty much refuse to do anything similar to his past sonic explorations. The Elephant Kiss packaging was recognized as killer immediately though.
On the insert, Tiffany and Kyle command me “know us!!”, so I guess that’s as good a place as any to start. Kyle deals in drum machines, toys and keyboard, while Tiffany exclusively plays a gameboy. And they both take part in singing, doubling each other virtually all the time. You know that brilliant line in This is Spinal Tap when David St. Hubbins says “It's such a fine line between stupid, and clever.” Well that comes to mind a bit here. Not really a clever/stupid thing, but more like a catchy/annoying line. Because for cool tracks like “Rock and Roll Lazer Land Grocery Store” or “Float Away” there is “Super Magic Bicycles”. For the most part I’d say this tape falls on the catchy side, but it’s still walking a pretty fine line. Musically speaking, I’d say Elephant Kiss is pretty solid, there are a few keyboard lines and beepbeeps here and there that miss the mark, but it’s a jaunty spree of lo-fi electropop. What it really comes down to is the vocals. It’s not so much a problem that their voices are pretty tuneless, but the fact that their delivery is so flat. They sound totally bored and uninspired through most of the tape, and not even in an interesting manner. However, on the exquisite and woefully short “Float Away” their boredom instead sounds discouraged and depressingly inspired and the vocals are actually a strong addition to the sad/pretty melodies that make up rest of the track. The best track on the first side, “Rock and Roll Lazer Land Grocery Store”, is propelled by a buoyant, pulsing synth bass line and cool keyboard counterpoint melodies galore. It’s a groovy jam, worth many repeat plays, and the lyrics are about making a grocery list or something which I imagine some people would find to be entertaining. The final track and default epic is “Cat Lives”, while the elephant kissers say a bunch of nonsense about dance parties, rescue balloons and cat power (not Chan Marshall I don’t think), they move from catchy twinkling bee-boopy beats to catchy casio crunk beats and back again.
I feel as though I’ve been a bit too rough, because even the weaker tracks still have some redeemable elements and if you dig electropop type stuff you will probably be into this. I’d make the comparison of a jumpier, way lo-fi/less emo version of fellow northwesters The Blow. And what the hell, I’ll also throw a weird suggestion out there, maybe Elephant Kiss should hook up with an emcee; Seattle is full of them, they just need to find a forward thinking one. EK already knows how to make groovy trax, they just need someone who knows how to groove over them. They’d probably sound like a little like Food For Animals, but cute and disarming instead of rabid. Anyway, just a thought. This tape is worth picking up for its sweet costume though, pink hand made cloth slipcase with screen printed octopus artwork and sparkly flap/cape.
I think I’ve mentioned before that one thing I do not dig is musick based around creepy vocals, and, well, that’s kinda just what this Loopool tape is. However, I’m a professional and I’m going to do the best job describing it as I can, despite my predisposition. The first track “At Least One Thing in Common” is based around a pulsing synth loop and chattering electronic programming. Garnier also chatters away himself, spewing forth a steady stream-of-conscious/free-association/whatever bit of rambling speech about “learning processes”. The second track “Be Shamed” is pretty minimal and its near impossible to make out what Garnier is saying. “For You” has a bit more antagonistic vibe though. Lots of swishing waves of sound in the background, and pretty backing vocals by Alexandra Crockett, create a strange but compelling bit of sonic space. Garnier’s vocals are supersloshed and manipulated this time around which adds to the general weird, mysterious factor of the track. “Become God” glides along on bass swells and nothing more, and it’s actually one of the musically most compelling moments on the tape. Things get a little hazy after this. Closer, “I Want My Mother Back”, comes next, starkly different than the previous track. Between all the clanging and waves of fuzz cascading into each other, there is little space left open. It actually sounds really great in contrast to the mostly minimal atmosphere of the rest of the tape. Then it drops out leaving the bassline and a pitched down version of vocals from the previous track. Weird, man. The tape comes with watercolored labels on both sides despite its one-sidedness and also an oversize, folded up lyrics sheet that was spilling out of the case, so you have all the craziness/philosophy recorded in textual form too. These tapes are all sold out though, at source at least. Give this a shot, if yr interested.

Schofield/Jarvis – Near Field Hypnosis [FrstPrsn]/Slow Listener – Bruise Journal [FrstPrsn]/Xochipilli – Aircoquocces of the Arc Tones [FrstPrsn]

AuxOut is back from its extended hiatus, fiiinnnalllyy. I’m sure you enjoyed ogling at all the pretty ladies on that Kevin Shields CD cover for the past couple weeks though. Anyhow, I am back with half of the newest batch from UK’s First Person label (abbreviated in the review title due to Bloggers lame limit on the amount of characters in the title; yr holding be back Blogger!). First Person, in case you don’t know, is run by Andy Jarvis and he rolls exclusively with 3inch CD-rs in transparent acetate slipcases. The label is 45 releases deep and has put out stuff by Uton, Amber Lions, Ben Reynolds, Ashtray Navigations, Neil Campbell, Taiga Remains, Voice of the Seven Woods and the list goes on and on. These three however come from Jarvis himself in collaboration with John Schofield, overnight sensation Slow Listener, and yet another Florian Tositti project Xochipilli.
Starting with the lowest catalogue number is Near Field Hypnosis. I'm sorry to say that I know absolutely zero about either of these guys musical pasts. First of the three tracks here, “An Arc”, is full of hovering fuzzy motion. It moves at a slow place that would almost feel floaty if the sound wasn’t so dense. There is digital twinkling and occasionally piercing shards of feedback punching holes through the muck and pretty soon it segues into the next track “A Line”, continuing the geometric theme. A good portion of the track is a guitar fuzzed 2 tha maxx and loops of different sounds kind of orbiting around it. More loops are slowly added, including some nice ones towards the end which I think came from a keyboard and maybe tapping on some percussive item. The epic finale, “A Full Stop” swells gradually, as the prior track fades. This one is somewhat similar in style to “A Line” but ups the eeriness to a considerable degree with some not-quite-scraping metallic sounds circling the drowning dual guitars like vultures. At some point though, the guitars’ sludge steadily expands, almost masking the other sounds and seeping into all remaining sonic space to rad effect. I’m having trouble putting my finger on the Schofield/Jarvis “sound”, some of it sounds a little like tense “mood” music employed in some films and the last track had a bit of Earth/doom influence in it’s dynamics but a different kind of aesthetic. So I guess if yr into fuzzcrawls and other strange clatter, this disc is certainly worth checking out.
Next up is Bruise Journal by Slow Listener a.k.a. Robin Dickinson, one supplier of the Curor label. You may remember a while back, I fell head over heels for the Slow Listener JK tape, I think I called it “lovely zombie murk” or something to that effect. This one has bit different, rougher, less expansive sound to it, part of which I attribute to its digital format. There also appears to be less looping going on, but maybe I just can’t pick them all out. I might apply the term “roughnecking drone” here (which I totally stole from some place I can’t remember). Distorted drones are manipulated almost in a way like kneading dough (that pops into my mind for some reason) and gather intensity. Around a third of the way through everything coalesces into a sweet climactic thicket of overtones and with a blink of an eye it’s all gone, replaced by a single high pitched tone. Come on Robin, give me a minute to bask in the splendor before you move on to a new idea. Thanks :) The next part of the track moves pretty slowly (I guess that’s the operative word today) but has a much fuller aesthetic than the first part. It sounds really nice but I wish it got a bit more active. While, this one didn’t blow me away the way the tape did, it’s still a decent entry and I’m definitely looking forward to new SL stuff. Speaking of new SL stuff, he has a Tape Drift CD-r on the way, and his lauded Peasant Magik tape I missed out on is being reissued too. I'm looking forward to those and I advise you to do the same.
I remember downloading a rip of some self-released hyper-limited Xochipilli tape. I also remember it being pretty killer though I don’t remember why. No need to say I was looking forward to this, which I believe is Xochipilli’s first release on a label and second release overall. As I alluded to earlier, Xochipilli is Florian Tositti (Ghost Brames/Capricorn Wings, Heads of Pagan, The Reggaee etc.) and Antoine Clemot, and I think it may be my favorite of Tositti-related projects. Aircoquocces of the Arc Tones is split pretty cleanly into two tracks, the first “Aircoquocces” begins with a heavily autopanned vocal loop and is eventually augmented by rather unadulterated field recordings of wildlife and a strange percussive rustling. The track takes off when a buoyant acoustic guitar begins strumming stridently. Pretty soon the guitar takes a backseat to some French sing/chanting and homing beacon type sounds. The thing that I like about the piece is that even through each element comes through very clearly, each element clouds the other a little bit. Despite working with so many jagged edges, Tositti and Clemot are able to fit everything together pretty damn well. Meanwhile, the guitar comes back for a bit along with some spacey oscillatorwork. The track ends at its most bizarre with some sampled vocal is thrown into the restless cacophony. Other than the vocals get a bit too breathy for my tastes, the track is pretty great. Though, the real jam here is “Cyuti” (perhaps pronounced like 'cutie'?). It’s a bit murkier than its predecessor, where the strange noises are wrapped in a coarse blanket of drone. There is a muffled bass drum type sound that sounds like a really heavy heartbeat. The pace quickens and other layers of slightly irregular rhythm emerge and the track actually gets really movin'. I’m confused too because neither guy is credited to percussion, so I guess they must be field recordings or something. The thick droniness is really excellent too, subtle, but also lightly melodic and there is a slow but constant shifting of sounds rather than a static drone... Then at the end you hear a sheep ‘baah’ing and the animals come back chattering. Uh, it’s weird man. But totally sweet too. I didn’t even realize it but I was taken on a journey through the fuzzy marsh to some French farm I’ll never go to otherwise. And I thought I was just gonna be jammin’ some tunes...
So anyhow, really diggin’ on that Xochipilli one, hope that unit stays active and puts out some more tapes. The Schofield/Jarvis and Slow Listener entries were nice enough too. As mentioned, the CD-rs come in clear slipcases with the artwork/info printed right on them. I digging the Slow Listener educational coloring book style artwork the most of this bunch. As far as I know, all are still available at the label, along with the other half of the batch (Ys Trys, Ghost of the Octopus and Culver). And if yr in the UK, you get free shipping so check em out.

Kevin Shields – The Death of Patience [Deathbomb Arc/EMR/Entropic Tarot]/Foot Village – Fuck the Future [Deathbomb Arc/ExBx Tapes/NGWTT/olFactory]

Now that the awesome folks over at Animal Psi have beaten me to the punch (I was not expecting such a sneaky Labor Day weekend update), I am here to REALLY give you no excuse not to pick Kevin Shields’ newest, The Death of Patience. It’s a first rate scorcher to be sure. Also joining Kevin is the good people of Foot Village, whose Fuck the Future CD came out last year and compiles various out of print releases. They both come courtesy of super nice/apparently a tad bit crazy Brian Miller, purveyor of Deathbomb Arc and the oh-so-rad Cassette Gods site. So now that I’ve bludgeoned you with a million names, I’ll let miss Kevin Shields bludgeon me into sweet sonic submission and then let the Foot Village just straight up bludgeon me to a bloody, baffled pulp.
Kevin Shields, in my humble expert opinion, is one of the raddest names you could give a musical project. And hey, a rad name is half the battle, right? Well, no. But it does help sometimes. Eva Aguila doesn’t need any though, so all the points she gets for the name are bonus ones. Anyway, now that yr probably confused out of yr mind, it’s a perfect place to start talking about The Death of Patience. I’ve been listening to this thing a lot since receiving it, and this baby is HARSH. The album starts in classic bait and switch mode, with a few twee keyboard notes then promptly murders yr brain with roughly one and a half billion daggers of white noise. It’s dense and visceral and, just, wow. Aguila really knows how to build a track. It’s very well paced, well composed and becomes increasingly interesting as it moves along rather than vice versa. I’m not exactly sure what she’s using here but there is mondo amounts of feedback and it sounds like she’s manipulating it with delay pedals and probably a bunch of other things. Though even minus the musical merits, the track would be impressive for its pure force alone. “Nothing’s Never Ending” travels along steamrolling everything in site, until a start/stop static breakdown and then all of a sudden there is a totally lucid drum machine and keyboard duet. What the hell? Is this what she has been riffing on this whole time and we just couldn’t catch it through the fuzz? I don’t know. But she ain’t content to just let the duo serenely waltz off, she whips up another sonic windstorm before the tracks end. Maybe my favorite track on here, “Apparently” is quite though subtly rhythmic. Layers upon layers of jumpy, crackling sound. The track sounds like your house (or yr skull maybe) is being ripped apart. Walls are crumbling, electrical outlets are spewing a thousand sparks a minute, you used to be in yr cozy bed on the second floor but now yr in the basement crushed under piles of plaster and wrecked floorboards. Yr being swallowed up into the Earth as everything caves in around you. Abruptly yr shot back into real life as the track ends. Intense, to say the least. “Catholic Guilt” riffs on a sequenced synth loop, a pitchshifted almost rave-like kickdrum sound joins in before tape squeal breaks things momentarily. Then things get going like those rollercoaster cranks that pull you up the hill but, you know, run through hundreds of distortion pedals. The whole thing just builds and builds, occasionally giving you a moment to catch your breath. There are so many things going on in this poisonous fog, various rhythmic loops of stuttered screeches, pitch manipulations, undulating noise unguent at seemingly every possible frequency. It’s like taking a drop of pond water and examining it under a microscope, and seeing the endless amounts of life forms that reside there. The closer, “Bless You” (aww, how polite) is another favorite and centers itself around a percussive loop which plays out untouched for awhile at the beginning until Eva brings da noize hot and heavy. A few reviews and things I’ve read about Kevin Shields’ music makes reference to cold or icy things which doesn’t make sense to me. This is a fucking firestorm! Most of the heaviest moments on the record reside here. There are some thoroughly devastating sounds to be had here. Totally savage but totally under control. Moving with, around and sometimes just obliterating the beat. The last couple minutes segue into an infinitely echoing bit of ‘xylophone setting’ keyboardwork. Each of the five tracks was recorded in a different place but Brian Miller did an excellent job with the mastering, keeping a continuous consistent “sound” to the album (not to say Aguila had no part in that though). This thing really is intensity in 10/2 cities—sorry, I’ve got to meet my daily lame joke quota. Hototogisu have always been the titans of harsh, dense noise, in my mind. But it looks like Kevin Shields has made a place right up there along side them. My ears are on all things Aguila now.
In case you have yet to hear, the D.L. Hughley on Foot Village is drums, drums, drums and crazed singalongs too. There is at least one drum kit and then all sorts of other kinds of percussive tools. The other thing is that most tracks are named after a place i.e. “Brazil” and the Village is fond of shouting the title at the beginning of each track. Foot Village falls somewhere between interesting sonic experience for the listener and what was probably a really fun sonic experience for the players. What I like about the percussive only attack is that, although there is no melodic instrument or melody being purposely performed, occasional melodies randomly emerge from the barrage of tones. The other thing that I am quite thankful for actually is that Foot Village knows how to play drums and plays them well. Whenever I hear about an all drum band, I can’t help but think of Burning Man-style drum circles which I am not down with. Anyhow, the Foot Villagers do a great job with various kinds of dynamic arrangements and just no-nonsense, bodyrockin’/bodyslammin’ beats. Which is a good thing because the vocal side of things has probably wayyy too much nonsense. Sometimes their words are so bizarre it nearly works (“World Fantasry” with the now deceased Weirdo Begeirdo) and sometimes their vomiting is so grating that it nearly hurts (“Egypt”). I’m not sure how things would sound if the album was strictly drums only, but at this point in my life at least, not feeling the vocals too much. As far as comparisons, I’m kinda lost. The group that is most like them in theory is Big A little a and, they do a little but Foot Village is just way more out there and deranged. They don’t really have too much in common with Taiko or other kinds of drum music that I know of, though I am certainly no drum scholar. The best thing I got for you is the double drummer line-up of Ettrick. (Now there’s an idea, a Foot Village/Ettrick collabo would be off the hook) FV and the Ettrick drum squad share the same wild-eyed fury and penchant for busting heads (at least drumheads). The most fish-outta-water entry here is a Pete Swanson remix of “Antartica” (which in it’s original version is one of the strongest tracks anyhow). It’s got some minimal Yellow Swans-esque droning a la Descension Yellow Swans or Drift Yellow Swans with cut-up, effect drum crashes spliced in. An interesting re-imagining of the FV sound. All in all, I’d say lose the vocals (or least make them less of the focus) and I’m totally on board. Otherwise, I really dig the rawness and blockrockin’ beats as I mentioned before, and that, love it or hate it, Foot Village has carved out their own weird little niche in the world (or their fantasy of it anyway.)
Both CDs are professionally packaged/pressed in jewelcases and the whole nine. As you can see both come with their own brand of weird/sweet cover art too. Oh yeah, Fuck the Future comes with lyrics?!?

**due to restrictions on the amount of characters in the post title, I had to abbreviate three label names, so EMR = Experimental Music Research, ExBx Tapes = Excite Bike Tapes and NGWTT = Nothing Gets Worse Than This. My apologies to those labels.

Fantastic Magic – Witch Choir [Abandon Ship]/CJA/Smokehouse – Whiskey & Freedom [Abandon Ship]/Turner Cody – Buds of May [Digitalis]

What we have here is a trio of folkish releases (tri-folk-cta of releases?) that aren’t all that connected except by their vague (sometimes not so vague) folkiness. Well two of them came out on the same label but I’ll just ignore that connection for now. All are pretty great and add or develop a different dimension of “folk”—I used it a million times in the opening sentence, what’s one more gonna hurt.
Xzibit number A: Witch Choir by Fantastic Magic. Leave it to Nate Rulli over at Abandon Ship to be the man to hook me up with something I never knew existed and never knew I needed so badly. This tape flat out rules, murdering the competition with one fell swoop. These guys have an uncanny accuracy with words, this tape is fantastic, magical and sounds like the sweetest damn bunch of witches you ever heard. I’m reminded a bit of the Cherry Blossoms but where they jam (and jam unbelievably well) on zany hillbilly ground, Fantastic Magic have a lightly tripped out, free floating and totally bewitching vibe. And just like the Blossoms they are totally addicting. The tape runs through 10 tracks in 25 minutes so it’s not really worth singling specific ones cause they fly by so fast and, really how can you pick out highlights when the whole thing is a highlight. I’ll try though, at the end of the A-side there is a brilliant Morricone inspired spaghetti western breakdown, and throughout the rest of the tape you’ll hear dreamy forest lullabies (especially the album opener), lots of lo-fi lushness, dazzling, ear catching melody after melody after melody (and so on…) courtesy of voice, guitar, trumpet, and, um, everything else they play. I’m not fucking around here, you gotta hear this. I’ve forgotten how many times I’ve listened to it and its always new and great and with the melodic hooks continuously popping up in my mind and on my lips. I will say two things though; one, there is some pretty high pitched singing on here in spots which initially took a bit of getting used to, but it isn’t annoying or anything. The other is there is a free jam on the second side that goes on a bit too long but it’s still short anyway, so really not much to complain about actually. But no matter, go buy this before these guys are big stars and on Paw Tracks or something. Highly recommended. One of my favorite things all year. And it only costs 5 bucks postpaid! Small price to pay for an eternal smile on yr face. And word from Nate is that he hopes to have a Fantastic Magic LP out by the end of the year, so start drooling, I already have.
Next up, CJA/Smokehouse, which despite the slashing punctuation is in fact a 100% collabo. Don’t know Smokehouse at all but, I’ve heard a few things by CJA before. Anyhow, both guys sing, play guitar, organ and drums. Though it seems like they only do them at a time. Most tracks sound pretty minimal, like maybe voice with guitar accompaniment. This tape has a real nicely beat up lo-fi aesthetic, a tad warbly and fuzzy and warm. Opener “I Need Her” is a stand out cause the dude singing (CJA?) just sounds so tired and wrecked, slumped over a few beautifully simple guitar chords. Also “Vegemite Eggs on Toast” closes out the A-side with a lone guitar ringing out many a sweet, heart wrenching chord. Basically encompassing, in guitar chords, the misery of the dude who sang on the first track. No easy feat I must say. In between the two there is the incrementally more riotous “Let Her Go” which features some drumming in addition to guitar and vocals with a bit of an anguished, frustrated vibe. Maybe a sequel to “I Need Her”? There are also a couple almost interlude like tracks with organ and whatnot, which I guess add a bit of atmosphere but not that much else.
On the flipside, we’re met with a much more confident, bordering on bombastic strum on side opener “Sunshine Stream”. Things get unexpectedly noisy, and it’s actually rather cathartic even just for the guy (me) listening to it. That is something I’m really digging about this tape is the basic emotional connection it forges with the listener, in spite of (or maybe because of) such a limited palette. “In Bed” follows with a guitar/organ dirge, with the weird vibrating organ tone overtaking the much more mild mannered guitar progression. “Another Day, Another Beer” sees the voice that I think is CJA’s get back on the mic, this time with a much stronger guitar accompaniment which overpowers his vocal in some spots. There is a second guitar too, which is a welcome presence adding different aborted guitar solo-type deals that get occasionally spattered across the rest of the song. “A World Without Love” is another solo guitar instrumental, with a very angsty alternative vibe (didn’t I say that about a Buck Paco track too?). All in all a cool release, though the A-side is a bit spotty in places, there is more than enough good stuff to dive into here. Again, really dig the emotional presence that resonates in the majority of the tracks too.
Buds of May is the most traditionally “folk” of the three here. Turner Cody is a pretty prolific songwriter who has garnered rave reviews from Wooden Wand and Glenn Donaldson, who I heard know a thing or two about writing songs. As exhibited on excellent opener “Break for Boar”, (I’m all about the openers today) Cody shows his penchant for ambling about bouncy blues-inspired progressions and sings with a bit of swagger and confidence. Though he certainly knows how to sing, Cody definitely retains that everyman vibe in his voice that all the best vocalists have (Will Oldham, Bill Callahan, Bob Dylan etc.) “Lashes That Go Wide” reminds me of the more acoustic moments of Magnetic Fields. Cody gives a droll, dry delivery but manages to be incredibly tuneful as well. Tough to pull off, but he does so admirably. “Up Up High” has a catchy jaunt a la Pixies’ “Vamos” and some classic cowboy lead guitaring. Definitely a foot tapper. I always have a hard time writing about simple acoustic ditties such as these, but I really wish I was good at it because “The Casual Joke” is a killer. It’s one of those songs that just hits you and knocks you out. One of those, you hear for the first time and know it’s special and you’ll be damned if you don’t listen to it another hundred times. Everything comes together to absolute perfection. Cody’s voice winds through the lyrical lines wonderfully and the chord progression is a tearjerker. I feel like maybe the best thing I can about this album is there is nothing bad about it, nothing to criticize or nitpick. It’s just incredibly well written, well sung/performed, well paced (12 songs in a half hour). It’s just a bunch of great songs, with lyrics snaking around the chords united by the overarching melody. Also, I’m totally not doing justice to Cody’s lyrics in this review but I’ve never been a big fan of taking lyrics out of context and using them in reviews (though in a second, I’ll render that statement irrelevant, sorry) His lyrics are often very clever and always have an odd but fitting sort of structure and syntax. A unique voice to be sure. I will leave you, however, with a quote of Cody’s that I think sums him up pretty damn well: “An image is a prison, babe/and I ain’t got one”
Both Abandon Ship releases come packaged totally classy as usual, transparent color tapes and color inserts. Cheap too. Buds of May is Digitalis’s first release under the new Arts & Crafts guise, and it’s got a beautifully printed three-color arigato pack, very very nice and professionally pressed CD. Obviously, I’m in love with Fantastic Magic, but you can’t go wrong with any of these whatever way you go.

Goliath Bird Eater – Brahmans [Nurse Etiquette]

Hot off the heels of the doomy/baffling Mrtyu tape comes Bobb Bruno’s Goliath Bird Eater with 30 minutes of heavy, metal, heavy metal. Or maybe some other kind of metal or maybe not metal at all; I was never good with that whole metal classification system and figuring out which phylum Morbid Angel belongs in (does it matter?). Anyhow, I can tell you from experience this shit is H-E-A-V-Y. GBE, to my knowledge, haven’t released too many things so far. They had the Blood Venus CD and a split tape with Robedoor on Not Not Fun and some tracks on various compilations, but Brahmans is, I think, their only release so far this year (but a 12” on Trashskull is in the works). But enough discog gobblygook, let’s get to the music.
There is no demarcation on either side of the tape, so when I first listened to it I listened to the b-side first cause it was wound for some reason. I got it all straight now though. “Lanzarse” takes up Side-A. It takes a moment to get going, beginning with some synthiness and a spacey guitar figure before the bonecrushingness begins to set in. It sounds like an intergalactic trudge through hell. There is a constant propulsion to the track, but it doesn’t feel so much like it’s being pushed by the drums or guitar but instead like it’s being slowly pulled by a tractor beam or into a black hole. I’m not sure how Bobb achieved this effect, cause I haven't heard it anywhere before and it’s pretty spectacular at that. After that bit of heavy weightlessness, everything drops out to near silence, only to let another phoenix rise from the ashes. The track builds somewhat unstably, which again is an odd effect, until it reaches an actually really pretty arpeggio while a weird tape loop lurks in the shadows. The side ends somewhat abruptly, but whatcha gon’ do? It’s an awesome, awesome side nonetheless.
While the first side was Bobb solo, he’s joined by Corey Fogel on drums for the title track on the back side. This one begins slow with rustling, distorted loops circling round and round. The repetitive distorto-drones is offset by some relaxed drum solo-type moves. Then things start coming together until they take off completely. The sound goes from murky to sharp pretty much instantly when things start picking up, a really nice production touch. There is kind of an ebb and flow that results where the duo forge ahead into the feedback dirge and, subsequently, plunge back into the wall of noise only to reemerge again. Part of me wishes they would just throw caution to the wind and riff my brain to dust, but I can respect the restraint exhibited. Sustain is much more menacing than pounding rhythms sometimes, at least in my experience.
So, overall Brahmans is quite a tape, both sides are great but I really like “Lanzarse”’s cosmic but still batholithic aesthetic and that it pretty much takes you on a journey through space and time. Nurse Etiquette put this tape out, and did a classy job. Glossy j-card and all. I’m sad to say I don’t know the label but I’ll keep an eye out from now on. Brahmans was released in addition of 66, and according the Nurse Etiquette website every single thing they have is sold out, which unfortunately includes Brahmans too.
I think a few distros might still have copies, though, so I’d run a quick google search before you weep.

The Reggaee – Balthar [Tipped Bowler Tapes]/Mrtyu – Ritual Terra Continuii [Tipped Bowler Tapes]

This is a Tipped Bowler Tapes double feature. Tipped Bowler is a mysterious label that I think is based in Texas. That’s all I could really find out and I’m not even sure if that is correct. There is no website or myspace so I sent an email to the contact address inquiring about info for this review and haven’t gotten a response, so far at least. Terribly mysterious, I must say. Though, terribly great as well. TBT 001 is this tape by the Reggaee A.K.A Frenchman Florian Tositti A.K.A. one of the dudes in the, just reviewed, Ghost Brâmes. The Reggaee had a cd-r on Ruralfaune last year and other than that the only other releases I’ve heard about from the project have been self-released, including the pretty sweet Catolistal tape earlier this year. Anywho, this one is called Balthar and it’s got some crazy lizard/balloon popping action crawling all over it. If you pop in the yellow/green sprayed tape your ears are met with a windy loop and various rattling percussives. Moments later, a twinkling keyboard and drunken vocal moans enter the fray. All the loops grind gently against each other, while the addition of more melodic vocal layers and what sounds like some frantic hand percussion comes in for a little while. It’s relatively low in the mix so I can’t be too sure of what is it is exactly but it adds a bit of kinetic impetus to the proceedings. The part I dig the most is the end. Where the rattling and other bells and whistles (which I sort of mean literally) drop out and your left in a puddle of unobstructed, delay pedal drenched vocal loops. But you probably figured out that I love my vocal loops by now.
Flip the tape over to the yellow side, and yr hit with “Balthar 2”. Luminous, droning keyboard and distorted percussive sounds, both human made and mechanically perpetrated, abound, creating a wall of cosmic sound. There is some weird tinkling business going on, that I can’t tell if its chimes or dropping coins into a cymbal or what. The mechanical loops help keep the whole thing buoyant with their constant hypnotic push until the whole thing breaks down into scratchy electronic scramblings. Side A kinda feels like a warm up, prepping you for the more focused heavy floating (confusing, I know) that is to come on the flip. I always knew yellow was my favorite color. This tape is cool but a bit too short for my tastes (though most tapes are), I hope to hear a longer, more fleshed out release by the Reggaee in the future cause it looks to me like Tositti has great things brewing in that brain of his.
TBT 002 comes courtesy of the Pacific Ocean. Mrtyu is led by Anthony Milton (purveyor of the Pseudoarcana imprint and about a billion other musical ventures it seems) and what I assume is a crew of fellow New Zealanders. They had a release on Campbell Kneale’s Battlecruiser label a while back, and if I remember correctly, the idea behind the label is to have various drone/noise/psychedelic dudes make doom/black metal records, which sounds like a great idea to me. Anyhow, Ritual Terra Continuii is the group’s first tape, as far as I know, and pretty much everything about it is first rate. From the tongue in cheek but totally awesome liner notes/poem/font/cover to the tongue in cheek but totally awesome sounds encapsulated within.
The title track, which takes up the blood flecked side A, was “recorded to cassette at Peel Forest in March 2007 during blood ceremonies composed by The Unnamed One and orchestrated by Mrtyu fellowship” so, um, how could you not love it? It’s total metal bewilderment. And whadya know? The sounds on the track are too. Against feedback, human mutterings, rattling of silverware or something, various incidental noises and even some kind of music boxish type thing, there emerges an indecipherable megaphone speech. Then comes the fuzz. Some dude starts riffing a lethargic bassline alongside the Mrtyu fellowship’s cacophony. The bass gathers steam and starts warranting severe slo-mo headbang moves from myself and probably any other sensible person who hears it. Besides some clinking percussion and interjections from the master of blood ceremonies, the bass is just taking over and ruling hard. Then the people in attendance all of a sudden start cheering and shouting and going crazy and probably jamming just hard as I am. Encouraged by the hollers of “WOOOOOOH” the bass slinger starts going nuts with all sorts of heavy improv’d swamp riffage—probably burning holes through his fingertips. The whole thing is just bizarre but oh so sweeeet! I love tapes and all but what I really need is a Mrtyu live DVD, so I can experience this madness with my own peepers. Better yet, a Mrtyu world tour so I can be bathed in sacrificial blood from the front row. Get on that The Unnamed One.
The B-side, “The Marriage of Birth and Death”, was recorded during an initiation rite for Brothers X7 and X8, and leads me to wonder how I could become a Brother X# cause I’d be really good at it I bet. The track starts out with some manipulated feedback and then heavy chugging bass frequencies come out the gate, fuzzed off their collective ass. The bass just goes to it for a while with relentless , off the cuff riffing. Then, of all things, a flute comes in. The bass/flute duel goes on for a little while, and, well, to be frank the flute never stood a chance. Somewhere down the line there is some speaking/howling (probably the initiation rites) that is buried underneath the sludge. And then, oh man, there is a so rad bass breakdown and the flute comes back with a vengeance. The track descends the endless spiral in all its detuned glory until some poor soul howls his brains out and we’re met with the dreaded end click. Please excuse the play-by-plays but I know no other way to really go about describing the tape.
Alright, so Tipped Bowler is only two tapes in so far but they are seriously swinging like the pros already. Great, great music and excellent packaging. My Mrtyu tape case won't even close it's crammed so full, how awesome is that? (answer: very.) Each tape comes nicely sprayed with a two-tone color job, a professionally printed cardstock J-card, and two inserts—each tape comes with a fold out paper titled “The Adventures of Ambrose Jones” which is two columns of stream of conscious ruminations following Ambrose Jones, I guess. It looks like it may be something that comes with every future release as well. I am looking forward to hearing/seeing more from this label, hopefully whoever the head tipped bowler is, he/she will relax the shroud of mystery just a bit.
I have no idea whether these are sold out at source or not. Balthar is an edition of 68 and Ritual Terra Continuii is an edition of 120 (so you should be able to snag a copy, and yr a fool if you don’t). I advise either sending an email to TBT at tippedbowlertapes[at]gmail[dot]com to try and order or hit up the distros, try here. Good luck.