In Old Chicago (Almost)

UPDATE: I am finally in Chicago please check the updated Contact section for the new address.

Hello dear readers,
Auxiliary Out is in the process of relocating its "headquarters" from Seattle to Chicago so the site is going on a temporary break. I'm not exactly sure how long it will last but I'm guessing anywhere from 3-6 weeks.

Meanwhile, please refrain from sending anything to the soon-to-be out-of-date Seattle address (don't want anyone's packages getting lost) and I will make an announcement with the new Chicago address once the transition is complete and AO is open for business again.

In the absence of reviews, I will leave you all with a (long) list of things I have been especially enjoying recently during the endless packing and whatnot ("recently" meaning my enjoyment has been recent, the records may have been released years ago)

In no particular order, of course:

Nmperign with Jake Meginsky Selected Occasions of Handsome Deceit [Rel] (one-sided LP)

Foton Omega [Field Hymns] (CS)

Susurrus Susurrus [Field Hymns] (CS)

Horaflora/Bromp Treb Split [Yeay!] (7")

Slasher Risk Vole [Abandon Ship] (CS)

Gonzalez & Steenkiste Gonzalez & Steenkiste [Eiderdown] (CS)

Alex Barnett Push [DRAFT] (CS)

Dull Knife Dull Knife [Debacle] (LP)

Eli Keszler Cold Pin [PAN] (LP)

Golden Retriever Light Cones [Root Strata] (LP)

Eli Keszler Oxtirn [ESP Disk] (LP)

Kanukanakina A - Arrival B - Departure [A Giant Fern] (CS)

Sheer Agony Sheer Agony [Fixture] (7")

Femminielli/Araignee Split [Fixture] (7")

Long Distance Poison Ideological State Apparatus [Constellation Tatsu] (CS)

Bill Nace Too Dead for Dreaming [8mm] (one-sided LP)

Charlie Mcalister Country Creme/Victorian Fog [Feeding Tube] (LP)

Caethua/Shep and Me Split [Lighten Up Sounds] (LP)

Lab Coast Pictures on the Wall [Eggy] (CS)

Lab Coast Editioned Houses [Night People] (CS)

Son of Salami Deli Days [Night People] (CS)

Miami Angels in America A Public Ranking [Night People] (CS)

Angels in America Allergic to Latex [Digitalis LTD.] (CS)

Running Running [Permanent] (LP)

Running/Loose Dudes Split [Catholic Male] (7")

Running Asshole Savant [Captcha] (one-sided LP + soundsheet)

Hering und seine sieben Sachen Nautical Twilight [Cae-sur-a] (CS)

Voder Deth Squad Voder Deth Squad [Stunned] (CS)

M. Geddes Gengras This Could be the Last Time [Stunned] (CS)

Scuba Death Demon Seed [Semata Productions] (LP)

Evan Parker & John Wiese C-Section [PAN] (LP)

Drowner Yellow Swans Drowner Yellow Swans [Tape Room] (CS)

Social Drag Social Drag [Stunned] (CS)

Nite Lite Marlene [Stunned] (CS)

Stefan Tcherepnin & Christopher DeLaurenti Bleed the Capacitors: Heavy Analog Electronics Vols. 2 and 3 [DRAFT] (CS)

Kirtan Choir The Unquestioned Answer [Skrot Up] (CS)

Andrew Scott Young Slophaus Diver [Catholic Tapes] (CS)

Super Minerals Contacteer [Stunned] (CS)

AG Davis/Kommissar Hjuler und Frau Rodez/Kanzlerjahre [Skrot Up] (CS)

Matt Carlson/Jason E. Anderson Synthesator Vol. Three: Dissociative Synthesis [UFO Mongo/Borft] (LP)

x04 Lost Signals [Ultra Eczema] (LP)

Vapor Gourds Dagger Magic [Yeay!] (CS)

The Bugs The o... The Bugs [Hovercraft] (LP)

Expressway Yo-Yo Dieting Bubblethug [Weird Forest] (2xLP)

Cyndi Lauper She's So Unusual [Portrait] (LP)

Navel All About the Moon [Cosmic Winnetou] (CS)

Pulse Emitter Spiritual Vistas [Cylindrical Habitat Modules/Expansive] (LP)

Basil Poledouris Robocop [That's Entertainment] (LP)

Sewer Election Bristning [Release the Bats] (LP)

The Smiths The Queen is Dead [Sire] (CS)

Brian Ruryk & Fletcher Pratt Canadian Guitar Sounds [Midori] (CS)

Frieder Butzmann I'm a 7inch Single [Ultra Eczema] (7")

Tiger Hatchery Tiger Hatchery [Pizza Night] (one-sided LP)

New Order Substance 1987 [Michael] (CS)

Purling Hiss Hissteria [Richie] (LP)

Purling Hiss Public Service Announcement [Woodsist] (LP)

Yellow Swans/The Goslings Split [Not Not Fun] (7")

Roy Orbison The All-Time Greatest Hits [Monument] (2xLP)

German Army Cattle Border [Clan Destine] (one-sided CS)

Tuluum Shimmering Flowers of the Honey Tree [House of Sun] (CS)

Flandrew Fleisenberg/Flunk Flunk 'n Ice [YDLMIER] (CS)

Various Artists 002 [Hare Akedod] (CS)

Ajilvsga From the Muddy Banks of the Arkansas [Near Passerine Devotionals] (LP)

Vales/Minutiae Split [905 Tapes] (CS)

Klondike & York The Holy Book [Weird Forest] (LP)

Prince & the Revolution Purple Rain [Warner] (CS)

Horaflora/Bromp Treb - Split [Yeay!]/Jason Martin - Harmonic Time Cycles & Scary Guitar Man [Yeay!]

Yeay! Cassettes seems to have officially re-christened itself as the more general, but at least more accurate, Yeay! Plastics. They don't drop things all that often but when they do you can expect only the best in sheer madness technology. It's not about quantity, it's all about bizarro-quality.

This split single from Bromp Treb and Horaflora is a straight up West Mass/Bay Area bonk 'n blurt banger! These are some serious jams!
I nabbed this because of how much I dig Bromp Treb's prior 7" outing on Yeay! Twins and this thing's been burning up the turntable ever since.
This record is my first experience with Raub Roy's Horaflora project (which also struts around town as the Horaflora Sound System at times.) There's no info on the record besides artist, title, label and suggested turntable speed so I don't have a good idea of what Roy is actually doing to create his Horaflorin' sounds. "Glibbertone" sounds like modular synthesizer to me. Roy spews a constant stream of synthetic, generally percussive tones and molds them into something far more groovy than should be allowed with a sound source this abstract. I'm not talking block-rockin' beats or anything but there's enough to get your head noddin'. It's sort of like a drunken stumble put on repeat, while having a barrage of electronic pebbles lobbed at you. The second half of the track takes its foot off the gas a bit and airs things out for a gentle come down from what was a pretty gentle climax in the first place. It's an odd little track, I'm intrigued to hear more from this project.

When Neil "I'm not that Neil Young" Young isn't creating the future of rock & roll with Fat Worm of Error, he's dicking around with his Bromp Treb project. Melding/mutating/mutilating percussion, tape, samples etc. in the name of good fun, always coming up with the wiggiest of jams to show for it. And this wiggy jam, in particular, "Readinessmaxx" may be the most succinct, defining and, well, just the goddam best statement of Bromp Treb's career so far. 

Young crams a 12" side's worth of material into 3 minutes or so. Hand drum samples, boops and beeps, unavoidably groovy drum machine rhythms, record scratch/tape squeal histrionics, odd vocal samples, a gorgeous synthesized sitar part, I'm just scatching the surface. The thing, however, as I alluded to earlier, is not about the quantity--sure, Young is working with a variety of different sounds but it's the im-fuckin'-peccable execution that makes the thing such a wonder and a treat to listen to. The Bromp Treb scalpel is so tastefully precise that all this is synthesized perfectly into a focused, coherent dance floor headscratcher. 

The interplay between the "musical" samples and the sonic anarchy is unwittingly divine and infinitely jammable. This has to be one of the finest pieces of musical composition I've heard all year. Neil, how do you do it man?
Between the two sides, the B-side is for sure my favorite but these artists are so in sync that the two sides complement each other perfectly giving the vague illusion the record was produced with a collective brain.
The single comes in die-cut covers with a slot to slide in images of your favorite expressionist painter, quarterback, exotic locale or supermodel. I've already customized mine a few times!

This hour-long bamboozling from Jason Martin (Location Ensemble) is one half radio-play and one half something or other dedicated to Captain Beefheart. It's an ornately composed mess to say the least.
The first side contains "Harmonic Time Cycles or How the Romans Sent a Disruptive Time Piece to Psychotronically Entrap Us Within Our Own Minds" which is described as a "radio play for guitar, shortwave, tape player, bass, drums, percussion, function generator & organ." Martin cuts up what is ostensibly a "sermon" by a radio preacher discussing, in (pseudo-)scientific terms, time. He discusses the various calendars used through the centuries, including the one imposed by Julius Caesar and the terrible Romans. Around the lunacy, Martin constructs a kinetic mishmash of drums, bass and guitar which ping-pong around the room smashing the pictures off the walls. Periodically, Martin cuts to minimal electronic tones, probably to give his listeners a break from the forceful fits of energy (and, once again, lunacy) that erupt throughout the piece, this thing is a half hour long after all.
In what may just be my favorite moment of the radio play, Martin breaks in with acoustic guitar in hand, and sings over the preacher's nonsensical lecture, doubling the ridiculous words and delivering them as a sing-songy ditty. Martin gets a little more abstract directly after that, manipulating his sample in a spaced out canyon of organ and electronics. This vibe continues for a while with some added tape abuse and the occasional splash of spastic guitar-drum crash. Martin comes up with some nicely mussed guitar/drum/bass/tape improvisation that certainly doesn't sound like it was overdubbed. At one point, Martin gets into pointed Beefheart-styled junkyard scrap (which we'll revisit on the next side.)
Martin actually gets close to a pop song a little bit later, featuring some cool rhythmic interplay between drums and a choral sample. After the moneyshot of "the Romans sent a disruptive time piece to psychotronically entrap us within our own minds," the thing wraps up in a brushfire of electronics. Martin takes another pretty good stab at a pop tune, crooning "Caesar" over and over before splintering into more abstract moves and calling it quits. Pretty damn cool and involved/involving side--never heard anything quite like it before.
The second side, titled "Scary Guitar Man," is a half-hour of excerpts culled from three hours of improvised material. Ranging from lo-fi Matt Bower-style noise to angular Beefheart on Radar shenanigans, Martin serves up 30 minutes of filtered velcro fuzz, tape fuckery, blues guitar strut 'n skronk, percussive pitch-bend string mash and weird spoken word too. There's some cool material, but the length and randomness of the side pales a bit in comparison to the wild but well-thought-out madness of the charming first side. Although, I think it's pretty clear the A-side is the main attraction, and side B is the second feature at the drive-in.

The 7" is a must have and the tape ain't too shabby either. Procure them shits via Yeay! right now!

The Collection of the Late Howell Bend - Beasts for While [Ownness]/Rory Hinchey/The Collection of the Late Howell Bend - Shape is Nature/Long Fields [Ownness]

Pair of long players from Canadian label Ownness displaying two sides of Irene Moon's The Collection of the Late Howell Bend the project, as well as some of Rory Hinchey's work.

One of the first things one notices about Beasts for While is it's an 11" record. Have to say this is the first and only time I've encountered such a thing and I'm not entirely sure what the motivation behind its creation would be. Maybe there was a recession special on 11"s at the plant, or maybe its just in the spirit of the weirdness contained in the grooves

I'm not sure what to call this. I guess you could call it "psych-folk" but this is bad trip psychedelic folk. It feels weird calling it "folk" as the thing sounds like it was recorded almost exclusively with Casios--typically on the "harpischord" setting--but the songs have this sort of shambling vibe that I would undoubtedly label as "folk" if it had been rproduced with more acoustic instrumentation. 

This is seriously loopy stuff, but not in the typical, outrageous way. The performers present themselves in rather stately fashion, it just happens that the instrumentation chosen, production values and in certain cases the performance itself are less than pristine. All those bits of grit and deviation amount to an odd piece of work.

Irene Moon is joined by Krysten Davis and Chantelle Dorsey on Beasts for While but no clues are given as to who's playing what, or what's being played. "Ruby in the Dust" has a procession-like quality to it. Two keyboards march forward in step with each other while an oscillator goes haywire. At least two of the performers chant the lyrics in unison, with each taking a different approach to "singing." One chooses a soft, melodic coo and other, with a deeper and huskier voice is practically speaking. A drum machine springs to life haphazardly in the second half of the track inspiring a speedy, crusty Casio solo.

"Dominated by Splendor" features a cyclical piano line via Moon and one of the other performers providing some Casio counterpoints. The lyrics, once again doubled, are sung in semi-ghoulish fashion with eerie bits of electronics hammering the message home. The folkloric lyrics about the autumn harvest end with the rather ominous passage of "The dark of night is passing away/But what is found in the blackness will stay/For autumn leaves fall from the greenest of trees/In the end finding only what you want to believe."

On the second side, "Haha" bounces along on a springy Casio tone, with the rhythm of a ticking clock. The Collection fill the track with impenetrable, cryptic lyrics like "Time well spent is time not lost/Time well spent is time forgot" and "Time in halves is time times two" which ultimately end in uproarious laughter and a wigged out oscillator. Whether they're laughing at themselves or at you remains unclear. "Neenawwww" follows the absurdity with a mellow instrumental. Sonically, its of the same ilk as the preceding songs but has a different feel minus the vocals. It's a little unexpected to end on an instrumental but it actually works well as transportation from the world of the Late Howell Bend back to reality. 

The Collection of the Late Howell Bend split this Shape is Nature/Long Fields LP with Rory Hinchey, head honcho of Ownness. To say the music contained on this full-sized LP to the 11" is a departure is an understatement. Putting it generally, this LP is 11 tracks of gorgeous chamber music. That said Irene Moon's signature chunky, piano-driven style is present on this record just as much if not moreso than Beasts for While but the dynamic and whole mentality behind the compositions is vastly different.

Hinchey's side is first and it's a pretty minimalist affair working with organ, wine glasses, electronics and tones. The first of six pieces, "Shape is Nature," unfolds over the quiet coo of wine glasses, Hinchey's reedy organ makes measured shifts between notes, making a gradual ascent. Not until the end of the track does a second organ (or Hinchey's second hand as the case may be) enter the picture to elaborate on the basic melody. Hinchey is joined by Alison Corbett on violin for "By Means of the Third" and "Objective (mk II)." "By Means of the Third" is incredibly exquisite. For being purely organ and violin the opening seconds are surprisingly lush. Both Hinchey and Corbett suspend long, lingering notes that play off each other just beautifully. The composition and arrangement is so simple yet it's lovely and rather stunning with a gentle, melancholic sensation; it may be the high point of the entire record.

The evil twin of "By Means of the Third," "Objective (mk II)" is much more atonal than its predecessor but its approach is otherwise very similar. Hinchey and Corbett sustain notes that just can't seem to get along, recalling the work of various 20th century composers, creating a field of agitation on the precipice of something dire. "All is as Nothing" lightens the mood a tad with a sprightly yet still lilting organ melody.

Hinchey delves back into uneasy territory with "The Listener." The piece juxtaposes two organ lines with electronic whine and splatter. Hinchey keeps the electronics on a short leash, preventing them from wreaking any havoc, but he still allows them to muss up the organ's hair a bit. The composition is pretty interesting, it'd be neat to see it arranged for a large ensemble. The finale "Thank You, Ahead of Time" uses the "tones" section of Hinchey's palette. He creates a slow procession of sustained electronic tones that take you to the end of the side.   

The Collection of the Late Howell Bend is in another trio format here, with Irene Moon on piano and Hinchey and Corbett joining her on organ and violin, respectively. The pieces were all composed for piano by Moon and Hinchey arranged them for the recording.

The brief opener "Flight of the Unsuspecting Lark" was an instant favorite. Based around a waltzing, gently dizzying melody the track is utterly beautiful. Making it all the more gorgeous is Corbett's multi-tracked violin work. "Dominated by Splendor" is starkly structured as well with a simple nearly percussive piano melody while the organ and violin provide subtle, supportive counterpoints. Hinchey uses Corbett wisely in his arrangements throughout the side and here she keeps a relatively low profile until the final minute or so when she's allowed to cut loose a little with more florid melodies.

"Hand in Question" is perhaps even more austere, moving at a slower tempo as well. The piano and violin double each other the majority of the time but diverge at significant moments, slowing growing apart through the duration of the piece.

"Pheasants be Forewarned" may top the opener as the centerpiece of the side. Moon's piano provides a propulsive, repetitive melody for Corbett's violin to play off of with syncopated, staccato notes--some of the finest moments of the record. Hinchey's organ all the while acts like a wallflower lingering in the background, laying the groundwork for the other two instruments' dance. 

"Long Fields" was originally released on a compilation via Pineapple Tapes, the defunct cassette division of Swill Radio, and is given a new lease on life with its inclusion here. Hinchey's organ is front and center here, while Moon's piano hammers bass notes on the far left side of her keyboard. The emphasis on the trudging piano and humming organ makes for a more stolid affair than the previous tracks that showcased the winding violin lines. This is such great stuff; somewhere between neo-classical chamber music and mood music for films a la the work of Nick Cave and Warren Ellis.

The Beasts for While 11" is on red vinyl and comes in a full-size jacket with some wild/grotesque artwork. The split LP looks much more stately and austere, with a no-nonsense sleeve and heavy black vinyl. Unfortunately the split is out of print (repress! repress!) but Beasts for While is still in print and available from Ownness.

Lonberg-Holm, Zarzutzki Duo - Feminization of the Tassel [Peira]

Feminization of the Tassel is an absolutely stellar disc of free-improv from cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm and no-output turntablist Aaron Zarzutzki. Released on Chicago's fascinating Peira label which appears predominantly focused on documenting local improvisational activity. What's most interesting to me about Peira, aside from the sounds themselves, is it's released only 13 records since 2007, practically unheard of for a CDr label. The label seems intent to exercise curatorial discretion which is the reason, at least in part, that they yield such great results like Feminization of the Tassel.
Lonberg-Holm's cello is predominantly in the left channel while Zarzutzki's turntable resides mainly in the right--at least I think that's the case. Even with this ostensible knowledge, I lose track at times which instrument is creating what sounds. Those staccato bowed notes? They must be coming from a cello, except they aren't.
Zarzutzki's turntable, which I was first introduced to via his sweet Psychophagi LP with Nick Hoffman, is an entity I still probably won't completely understand until I see it in action live (I have poked around youtube for clues) but my understanding/guess is that no vinyl records are used, I don't think there's a stylus either, but instead Zarzutzki generates sound through friction between the spinning plate and various objects. Pretty wild stuff. Perhaps even wilder, is Lonberg-Holm's cello, which I'm pretty sure is just a regular old cello--though at moments I think he's working with delay and may be using a pickup in addition to an external microphone. Either way, the spectrum of sounds he's able to pull out of the thing is pretty ridiculous.
Anyone who loves sounds (and the physics of sound) will find lots to love here. For this record just being a no-output turntable and cello, Lonberg-Holm and Zarzutzki come up with a hell of a lot of sounds. All manners of percussion, a stuck transmission, reeds and brass, woodshop class, tape-mulch, construction site, an oscillator and, oh yeah, occasionally a cello.
It's a pretty futile endeavor to try to capture music like this with language; I've wrestled with the task for a while and I'm still at a loss. Lonberg-Holm applies jazz vernacular occasionally and every so often you might get a brief baroque cello lick out of him while Zarzutzki's often working in a more "noise" context, grinding out abrasive, mechanical textures. The intersection on the ven diagram for the two is that each gets into free-percussion zones at various points. What's great about their collaboration is that you get a range of approaches to "free music" exchanged, well, freely and, more importantly, seamlessly.
In what is perhaps the centerpiece of the disc, the nearly 15 minute "The Spikelet Pair Meristem" the duo get almost into drone territory. A lengthy section of long, sustained tones and quiet crackle lull you into a surprisingly relaxing stasis before pulling the chair out from under you with fractured cello notes and klang. The control over their instruments exhibited by the duo is impressive and representative of the whole disc. What may sound random on first listen reveals itself to be anything but. Lonberg-Holm and Zarzutzki never sound short of ideas or of ways to execute them.
Totally great and definitely recommended. Hit up Peira for copies.

The shortest track is uploaded so you can get an idea of what the thing's like.  

Electric Jellyfish - Trouble Coming Down [Twin Lakes]

It's always nice to receive a legit (pro-dubbed!) cassingle and this one's by the Melbourne, Australia trio Electric Jellyfish. This is my first time hearing the band although it looks like they dropped a tape on Ecstatic Yod back in 2008 so they've been in operation for a while.
I'll start this thing off by saying this if Touch & Go and Dischord had met halfway (where is that, eastern PA?) and fused back in the 90s, there's a pretty good shot Electric Jellyfish would have been on that label. Containing the minimalist, rhythm-section-focused viewpoint of, say, Shellac or mellow Jesus Lizard, as well as some of the spindly riffs (and also focus on the rhythm-section) and agitated shouts of various Dischord alums--they would have been the perfect signing.
"Trouble Coming Down" starts out with militant drumming and semi-loose guitar melodies. The track really gets moving once they start bashing their instruments a bit as the vocalist gives away to strong shouts full of fury and bluster, somewhere between Ian Mackaye and David Yow when he wasn't frothing at the mouth. Straight-up, no-nonsense power trio rock. No overdubs as far as I can hear. It sounds like being in the basement with the band.
While "Trouble Coming Down" is billed as the A-side, I think "Nothing" might be my preferred track. It's bass-driven, with some alternating guitar grappling and one-chord slashing. After the thumping of the first half, the second half of the track is a long come down of atmospheric guitar ruminations and the vocalist muttering "Nothing on the edge of town" over and over. Nice. The track reminds me a bit of Circus Lupus who always sounded like they were a few threads away from completely snapping. I like that in a band.
This tape is kinda cool cause these guys sound so much out of their time; if I had just bought this randomly in a record store not knowing anything about it I would have guessed this thing was like 15 years old.
Apparently the tape was recorded between dates during Electric Jellyfish's Australian tour last year and sold on their US tour this past spring but Twin Lakes alotted a limited percentage to be available post-tour. Tape can be grabbed here

German Army - Cattle Border [Clan Destine]

I am down with this German Army band. Still don't know anything about these guys other than they're from Southern California (I think) and that their music is awesome.
In a previous review I noted their similarity to Excepter on their Night People tape Papua Mass (one of my early favs of the year) while making the claim that these guys are doing it a little better than Excepter did/do. Well, the frontlines of the German Army continue to advance sounding a little like their last tape while also delving into the worlds of plunderphonics and hip-hop.
Cattle Border, a 5 song, double-A-side affair, kicks off with a banger. "Translate Person" sounds like a dub track slowed down so much that it becomes a nightmarish throb. A bass stomp and rim shot, both steeped in delay, trade hits giving their loping 1-2 rhythm some serious thump. Elsewhere, the vocalist feeds off the lethargy and the Army weave bits of ephemeral, practically evaporated keyboard flutters throughout the joint.
The next track, "Thorax Journalism" rolls on what's nearly a boom-bap loop, samples a really catchy "It's a Small World After All"-esque track that they must have jacked from the local Merry-Go-Round, then gets into some legit MF Doom-style "interlude" material. Nice!! Sick beats, a couple minor-chord strikes to cast an eerie glow, scatterbrained speech samples: I'm sold! "North Small Map" is a jam. It doubles the tempo of the previous tracks so much so one could almost describe it as pumpin'. There's some more sloshed samples, but the track's focus is more on the processed bits of percussion, keyboard webs and grooving drum machine.
The vocalist returns from his break backstage for "Bored Heart Strings." The track is the closest to an actual dub track on the tape but it still ain't all that close. German Army lets everything run a bit more loose here. The vocalist is even more unintelligible than usual. The drum loop grooves reliably but its overrun with lots of samples, keyboard parts and other echoing muck. The brief "Albanian Self-Portrait" closes up shop. Beginning with a slowed-down vocal sample that's rhythmic enough to practically work as a drum track. Then they introduce a sweet hip-hop sample (which I suspect may be the super slow one played at normal speed) and proceed to fuck around with it before pressing "stop."
The Night People tape is still my favorite from these guys but there's some really cool stuff on this one and the appear to be exploring new avenues while maintaining the same identity which is great to hear. Plus, it's always exciting to see some hip-hop collage stuff happening in the cassette underground. UK label Clan Destine dropped this so this is a perfect chance for those across the pond to get acquainted with the sounds of the German Army. If you can handle the grotesque artwork, that is. Hit up Clan Destine for copies.

Sheer Agony - Sheer Agony [Fixture]/Femminielli/Araignee - Split [Fixture]

Received a pair of pretty stellar 7inches from Montreal's Fixture Records, the day before our nation's birthday--incidentally my birthday--and I've listened countless times since. It's always a treat to get a couple 7inches in the mail, particularly when they're as good as these guys.

With a name and a cover like that I don't blame you for thinking Sheer Agony is a hardcore band, the truth is though, they act tougher than they really are.
Delivering four songs in nine minutes, this is a damn fine pop record through and through. The touchstones for each song are easy to pinpoint; yet Sheer Agony subvert their reference points just enough to sound like themselves and not their predecessors.

I'm pretty confident that if the average listener heard "Pet Crow" on the radio, he or she would think it was The Shins. The bouncy bassline and acoustic guitar jangle, even a bit of shaker action, and guitarist/vocalist Jackson MacIntosh's uncanny resemblance to James Mercer's voice on the track. And while it often sounds like the best of The Shins' material, Sheer Agony throw a wrench in the machine at the bridge. The unnerving breakdown at the end of every verse and chorus undermines the sunshine incarnate of the rest of the track. Then they break into a really nice, proper bridge of minor key guitar psychedelia. One of the best things about this record is it's packed with great melodies without actually drawing attention to the fact that it's packed with great melodies.

While hints of (early) Of Montreal's modern psych-pop shenanigans are present in "Pet Crow" they become more clear in "She's an Artist." The vibrato-laden guitar leads the charge with some pretty wild psychedelic bubblegum backing vocals making an appearance at the chorus. The vibe I'm getting is a bit of a 90s college rock feel applied to the bedroom psych palette--or maybe it's the opposite. Either way, the rhythm section thumps to a close, while MacIntosh multi-tracks a tangle of equally catchy guitar lines before the endgroove.

My favorite track shows up on the second side: "Good Cats Go to Heaven" a Ramones-aping power pop number a la Nobunny and other like minded folks. Straight-up ear crack. I can't figure out what the song's about, animals figure in as you'd imagine but so does "Szechuan" (?) Szechuan what, I cannot say. True to form, the band flips the script with an awesome bombastic bridge that must have been yanked from abandoned space rock tune they were working on.

The closer "Claptrap" sounds like a compressed Television tune i.e. no guitar solos. Angular guitar cuts, bass-provided melodic flourishes, snare rim rattle, jangling arpeggios, a little subtle guitar feedback are all present elements making for a solid track, though probably the least spectacular of the four.

The fact the band recorded this record themselves and mixed it (along with Peter Woodford) is pretty crazy to me because this thing sounds perfect. There's so much going on at any given moment and it all sounds clear as day while maintaining that unmistakable home-recorded vibe. Really a hell of a job.

Now when I used the word "stellar" in the intro I really meant it talking about this spaced-out faux-split 7inch. I'm still not totally clear on the difference between Femminielli and Araignee, maybe the confusion is supposed to add to the trippy effect. Both are projects of Bernardino Femminielli, both make their bread on synths and drum machines, and both indulge in galactic vibes.

There are a lot of words one could use to describe this record: lush, cosmic, hypnotic etc. But none of those will give you a complete picture of what it sounds like.

The Femminielli side contains the track "Chauffeur" and it's simple but potent. It's more or less a power ballad when you get down to it, built upon the ever-reliable chug of a drum machine, ethereal synth chords and a spine-tingling synth-melody reminiscent of Halloween that establishes itself a 1/3 of the way in. Add in Femminielli's whispery, non-English vocals and the whole thing has a vibe of an unearthed European private press single from the early 80s. Not only does Femminielli limit the amount of elements in his track, after he's finished introducing them within the first minute, they stay constant. The track works like a piece of mood music, sustaining a single atmosphere over its duration. What that mood is is a little trickier to pin down. A bed of synths, a repetitive drum track, this stuff is trance-inducing but not necessarily in the euphoric sense; there's an underlying tone of creepiness like someone might have spiked your drink. This sounds like being up at 3:00am in unfamiliar surroundings. Seriously perplexing for what's ultimately a pop song at its core.

On the second side is where Araignee's track "Silvia" resides. This track has a similar sound to the previous side if a little more spacious. Where it departs, is the overall vibe which is rather romantic actually. This sounds kinda like Air but with the underground's obsession with vintage synth-ephemera. There's a pretty little keyboard solo and everything. Femminielli's arrangement is more varied here, moving between the minimal verses and the lustrous veneer of the chorus while peppering a few flourishes throughout the track. However, despite the lovey dovey stuff in the preceding minutes, the unsettling climax lets you know that Araignee resides in the world of Femminielli and not the other way around.
Both of these have been getting a lot of airplay here at the AuxOut HQ since their arrival, with Sheer Agony getting the edge. That could be because the sun is out here in Seattle for the first time since, I don't know, last September. It comes down to Sheer Agony's nervous energy versus Femminielli's and Araignee's sedation and depends on if I'm in the mood for uppers or downers. In either case, I'm in good hands.
Visit Fixture for copies.

A Story of Rats - Thought Forms [Eiderdown]

Eiderdown Records debuted, this, its first LP last year and did a damn fine job at that. The label was started by Adam Svenson (who plays in Dull Knife, Little Claw and solo as Karnak Temples)--who previously ran a tape label out of Iowa City in the 90s called Squirrel Energy Now! which put out cassettes by Charlie McAlister among others--in order to realize his lifelong dream of putting out vinyl records. The LP is a perfect encapsulation of the "heavy mellow" sound that Svenson and Garek Druss a.k.a. A Story of Rats have been peddling around Seattle for several years now.
If you thought Svenson was active, take a gander at Druss's resume. He's played in Dull Knife, Ear Venom, Tecumseh, Pussygutt, Wolvserpent, Du Hexen Hase, This Blinding Light and another band with Teeth in the name that escapes me now (Heavy Teeth?) And those are just the ones off the top of my head. Dude gets around. But a constant through all those is Druss's A Story of Rats project which typically captures the sounds of him playing in his psychedelic teepee all by himself. On this, A Story of Rats's vinyl debut, Druss gets by with a little help from friends handling voice, electronics, synthesizers and bass himself with additional help on voice, guitar and auxiliary synth between the two sides.
Thought Forms features two sidelong pieces, unsurprisingly, one titled "Thought" and the other "Forms." And the two titles actually mean something too. The highly minimalist endeavor of "Thought" indeed sounds like a cavernous cranial cavity. The piece is a series of abstract gestures happening in a dank existence. It's amorphous but present; its emptiness is vast and dense. The flickering of lights in a deep, dark place. Yet, it doesn't feel oppressive, only barren; the void on wax. You're hearing more than you probably realize.
While "Thought" is practically a work of anti-form, true to its name, "Forms" is just the opposite. Without departing the atmosphere birthed so thoroughly on the previous side, Druss establishes an absolutely wonderful if often subtle keyboard melody that moves through the piece, revealing itself at different depths. Density continues, but "Forms's" foundation is based upon mythic beauty rather than the big empty. The elements are somewhat discernible: voices ring with hollow tones, modest invocations of guitar and electronics are all around you if you listen. The hypnotic keyboard melody is the center of the universe. You could break down each sound but why undermine this smoked-out world that Druss creates. This is the ascendence to heaven from the purgatory of the first side. Fantastically engaging, terribly mysterious but never completely outside the realm of danger.
"Thought" sets the mood, but it's "Forms" that seals the deal.
The record looks awesome, featuring black and gold screenprinting on the covers and insert of Druss's "pen/paper" work. The vinyl itself is this smokey, bluish marble grey color and looks top of the line. Svenson pulled no punches on his first outing, and with a pair of sweet-looking tapes just released, he's showing no signs of slowing either. Drone hounds take note. The LP can be nabbed from Eiderdown or here

In Brief #1: Allow Me to Reintroduce Myself

I'm starting a new thing here on AuxOut where I'll write "brief-er" reviews of a group of releases. This is basically coming out of necessity due to (free) time constraints. There's so much great music on my shelf waiting to be reviewed and it seems silly to not write about it just because I don't have the time to write pages about it. I have a hard time keeping reviews short (as any faithful reader knows) but perhaps outside circumstances will provide some motivation in that area.
Something being included here doesn't mean I view it differently than something that I write a regular ol' long-ass review about. I may end up writing about shorter releases here because they ostensibly don't provide as much "material" to review, I may end up reviewing all the c90s I get here because I definitely don't have time to do a minute by minute breakdown of one of those beasts and a shorter "here's the jist"-style review may work better, I may end up doing "themed" groupings, I may end up writing about things that I got forever ago and for one reason or another never finished a review. I'm not making rules (nor promises) so I really don't know.
I don't know how often I'll write these things either. Could be in waves, could be quarterly--once again I'm making no rules.
Now that we've gotten that out of the way, I have some fine releases to espouse upon:
Bret Schneider - Model of a Garden Scene With Watering Can [Avant Archive]
Totally balls out computer music tape from Milwaukee's Avant Archive label. I admit I can be a little apprehensive when I hear that something's made on a computer, lots of great music has been made with computers, sure, but enough of the time computer-made music ends up sounding flat and soulless causing me to be wary. That is not the case with Bret Schneider's tape Model of a Garden Scene With Watering Can; this shit is fucking bonkers. Bustling through 11 tracks in almost an hour this thing is filled to the brim with stereo-panning madness, swooshes, beeps, pricks, bonks, hums, whirs, squelches, bumps, thumps, scrapes, clangs and crackles--I know I'm forgetting a least a few more.
Schneider's tenacity with his 1's and 0's is akin to the worlds of blustering percussive, electric and breath-fueled free improvisation as well as modular synthesizer brain splatter, as well as, the more "out" noise and tape-mulch crews. As a matter of fact, this is the kind of synthetic madness I could see coming from the local Gift Tapes/DRAFT Records axis.
Totally and continually unpredictable; once again, allow me to stress that this shit IS FUCKING BONKERS!
This is one of my favorite tapes yet from Avant Archive and it's still readily available so check the mofo out

Bad Trip - Beat is Murder [House of Alchemy]

I love it when House of Alchemy dips into the avant-free-improv realms. This Beat is Murder cassette, along with a sweet solo-percussion tape by Chris Dadge (which I will finally get reviewed one of these days,) are probably my favorites I've heard from the label. (That Amber Lions 3" from forever ago is pretty sweet too.) Bad Trip is the duo of Pascal Nichols (Part Wild Horses Mane on Both Sides) and Julien Dupont (who may or may not be this guy.)

The first track "Sharpennec" is still my favorite. No instruments are listed but it sounds to me like percussion and oboe (or perhaps more likely clarinet.) There's also a degree of electronic and/or tape manipulation of the instruments as well. More dance than a duel. The two instruments have a ball wiggin' out with each other in an unusually groovy slab of musical freedom. The two instruments also tangle in echoey amplification, more minimally and in extended fashion, on "Xuaett." Is that a violin and guitar I hear as well?
Other tracks feature various configuration of percussion, reeds, whistle/recorder and guitar. Bad Trip mostly explores dank textures rather than the free-jazz-inspired rave-ups/blow-outs you might expect from a percussion/reed duo. They develop a moist atmosphere without relinquishing the loose live-jam feel, a difficult feat.
My girlfriend even said this is a "cool tape!" Nab it if you can find it.
Sold out naturally but you can still grab that Dadge tape at House of Alchemy. Hit the distros if yr in search of a Bad Trip. Sweet art by Faye Coral Johnson too.

Napoleon Blownaparte - November and March [Green Tape]

Another crew (sounds like a duo to me) peddling lo-fi junk-prov is Napoleon Blownaparte, who I hadn't heard until this disc. Transmitted by the reliably mysterious entity of Green Tape. The Blownapartes seem to have everything but the kitchen sink at their disposal--scratch that, the kitchen sink too. Primitive percussion rhythms are often the feature but there's wobbly guitar, asthmatic reeds, organ/keyboard/electronics/something-that's-plugged-into-the-wall that all make appearances. The packaging has practically no info but the artist and title (and that it was recorded in '06 and '07) so I'm just spitballing here. Unlike a lot of these processions Napoleon is relentlessly mellow. No ear-burning bleats and crashes, actually the sounds aren't even that "free." There's pretty much always a melodic and/or rhymthic base in each track from which the players deviate and carve their own paths for expedient travel. If a beat seems to be getting too militant they stop the tape and start anew. The sixth track wiggles to an infectious little melody from a keyboard (or possibly a whistle of some kind)--hit single, these boys are going places. Ditto on the grooving wheeze of the eighth track.

A little amorphous as a whole but it's a fun listen for those of us into junk-grooves.

The CD-r is still available from the source

Dementia and Hope Trails - Ethereal Hurt [Dynamo! Sound]

Dementia and Hope Trails is Justin Marc Lloyd (Pregnant Spore, et. al.; the Rainbow Bridge label) doin' his thing on guitar. The most prolific and noisiest dudes gotta drop a pretty 20-minute tape of guitar glistening once in a while or risk losing their cred and, this sir or madam, is Lloyd's.
Ethereal Hurt is as much an apt description as it is an album title. The cassette gives off gently melancholy, head-in-the-cloud vibes sounding probably a lot more like a neo-new age synth tape than most solo-guitar tapes. The texture is ultra-lush, not a trace of a string being hit the entire 20 minutes. I know the six-string is probably heavily processed (this is a noise dude we're talking about here) but Lloyd has to be pulling some major e-bow shenigans because the smoothness of the tones is pretty unreal. The second side has a slight edge but really sounds no more like a guitar than its preceding side. If Lloyd had cranked it up to 11 he'd have had some Hototogisu (am I the only one who misses those guys?) scorched-earth guitar-led manslaughter/euphoria on his hands. Nice.

Hit up Dynamo! Sound Collective for a copy

Talk West - To Hope is to Hanker [Avant Archive]
It seems as good a way as any to bookend this post with another tape from Avant Archive.
Talk West is Dylan Golden Aycock and his weapon of choice is pedal steel guitar. This particular tape, To Hope is to Hanker, was apparently recorded in an abandoned warehouse--where are all these "abandoned" warehouses and factories that everyone gets to record in? I've never seen one! (ignore my jealousy.)
There's not a whole lot of pedal steel players out there so it's always fun to get one on tape. Aycock builds his compositions based on loops of pedal steel; although his compositions range from the shimmer of "Boxcar Billow" to the agitated signal manipulation of "Unseen Weights." "Grace the Humble Stumble" is the strongest piece on the first side as Aycock creates cascading pedal steel phrases and layers them into a lilting, cyclical piece.
However, the second side is really where it's at. "Buddha TV" is pretty beautiful, providing an array of chiming clusters of notes. "Soften" is a little looser in concept, Aycock allows it to stretch its limbs a bit. Aycock comes up with a wider spectrum of sounds to work with than some of the previous tracks, intermingling recognizable "pedal steel" tones with some that are perhaps a little less recognizable. He treats you to all these disparate strands, coexisting but not quite connecting, and then, boom, all of a sudden, things coalesce and make total sense. Really, really great track, certainly the finest of the album. "Holed Honey Shade Tree" is a perfect closer, a simple, elegant piece of mild melancholia.
There's a lot to like here and the tape looks excellent as is always the case with AA.
You can grab this from Avant Archive

David Lackner/John Swana - Struttin' Around with... [Galtta]

While I still have yet to discuss David Lackner's awesome solo tape, it's high time I get to this split he did with John Swana which is also pretty awesome in its own right. Galtta Media is an interesting label as it's got at least one foot planted pretty firmly in the jazz-world, and another planted in a place a little more mysterious. (Not to mention the fact that it's a jazz tape label, that's pretty dang unique) What's most interesting to me is, while I call it an experimental jazz label, I'd say no one would ever classify this as a free jazz label--at least not based on the material it has released so far. Often "experimental" and "free" go hand in hand, not the case here. Both Lackner's and Swana's work here tend to be pretty highly structured and melodically driven with an improvisational component. While working from a jazz framework, both Lackner and Swana create interesting and sometimes, in Lackner's case, ridiculously catchy compositions.

With "Layers, Layers" Lackner's side opens with seconds of friendly industrial music, what I mean by "friendly" is that the music is bright and in no way abrasive despite it's mechanized movement. Then Lackner launches into a series of lovely melodies via either horns and synths doubling each or synthesized horns. Victor North contributes a really great tenor sax solo that quotes, dare I say, The Sound of Music at one point or is he quoting Coltrane quoting The Sound of Music(?) Hell of a way to start a show. Another standout for me is "Thirteen" which features a pretty complex mix of interlocking synth melodies and a gorgeous twinge of a countermelody from a downcast saxophone.
Let me preface the next statement I'm about to make by saying I am paying a high compliment, "Study in Clutter" reminds me of some of the music in Disney's Mulan and it's pretty damn great. (Tangent: if you have not seen Mulan, do so it's one of the few modern Disney classics) Anyhow, getting off that tangent, the central melody in the track is this infectious, circular Asian-inspired arpeggio. Can't get enough of it! I do have to say I'm a bit ambivalent about the vocals present in the track though; give me the bouncing percussion, the catchy-as-all-hell Eastern melody and the crazy stereo-panned sax solo at the end and I am good to go--no vox required.
The hits keep coming with the also excellent "Fourteen" featuring synthesizers zipping around, darting between sax licks. Probably the closest the thing I can think of for a reference is Sean McCann's Phylum Sigh but that's far from putting my finger on it. (Maybe Golden Retriever if they thought they were a pop band???? Sheesh, I give up...) Elsewhere, Lackner plays Robert Schumann's composition "Im Wunderschonen Monat Mai" (!) replete with a nice sax solo and vocoder (!!) and closes up shop with the hyper "Fifteen." Pretty stellar side through and through.
Check this Lackner guy out if you haven't, he's doing some great work and in a little different way than pretty much everyone else I've heard in the tape scene.
While Lackner's side features many collaborators, John Swana does every little thing himself on his side from composing and performing to engineering. "3, 2, 1....Lift Off!" features an overload of twinkling and prickly tones before he starts tearing it up on his EVI (Electronic Valve Instrument; more or less a synthetic trumpet.) The more mellow and subtle "Thyme" features a tabla machine (or something) along with a series of idiophones garnished with almost smokey EVI exhalations. Pretty nice piece of work.
Although Lackner has a bit of a pop genius edge to him, Swana fits a little better into the "soundtracking" world; I can hear some inspiration from film and TV scores, and even forward thinking video game scores (on "Dark and Clammy.") It's not out of the realm of possibilty some of his stuff here could work as a (non-traditional) score, though Swana's work is far from the works of Max Steiner and Franz Waxman.
However, on "Major Man," the jazz influence is literal and readily apparent. Other than the facts that this is all composed from overdubs and sounds as if it was created entirely synthetically, this could be something you'd hear from a modern jazz quintet. The finale "Scene" is stranger. There's rustling field recordings and a synth drone creating a sticky little bed while Swana's EVI emulates all sorts of bird calls which are panned every which way. Weird track but I'm certainly feeling the vibe.
This is an interesting tape all around and has good bang for your buck value, with each player essentially contributing a half hour album. I'm more of a Lackner guy, if we're picking sides, but others may prefer Swana; either way both guys are doing some intriguing things.
You can purchase the tape from Galtta

Cloudland Ballroom - Infinite Mind [Sonic Meditations]

Infinite Mind is a nice tape of synthesizer, drum machine and shruti box on Justin Wright's (Expo 70) Sonic Meditations imprint, which is also responsible for dropping a sweet J.D. Emmanuel reissue recently. I don't really know anything about this Cloudland Ballroom, or if it's related to that Cloudland Canyon band or if the names are just a coincidence. Either way, you can keep the Canyon, I'll take the Ballroom.
I guess James R. Moore is the fellow behind the project and he sure as hell knows what he's doing. The first side covers "Part 1," and spacey signals are the introductory sounds. Oscillations, cosmic sweeps and woozy tones extend across the stereo spectrum. Some actual electric-piano-ish tones appear altering the concept and sharpening the focus. One of the great elements of the piece is how amorphous and expansive it feels but when the matter begins to gather around a few gravitational points--namely the aforementioned keyboard notes and lush synth-strings--Cloudland Ballroom hits it's stride. They hit upon an area that features significant float but never relinquishes its weight. The piece settles somewhat toward the end, landing on a slowly LFO'd bass note. With a subtle boom, a slippery sequenced melody fades in and out, notes drip down bathing the circuitry and we're struck with a forceful drone, unflinching and unfazed. A little drum machine sizzle at the end pumps things up, burning away another layer of ozone. Though even in it's climactic conclusion, Moore's composition never leaves the world it began in.
This a really deep bit of cosmic drones, so much going on. Totally transportive. And that's not even the end of the tape! The thing's got a whole 'nother side!
The spools on "Part 2" get rollin' with a muted jet flying between the two channels. A low percussion loop materializes quietly along with a few phantom synth notes. All that is washed away in favor of a few bold drones. Moore rides the drones for a long while before bringing up a drum machine bumping halfway between a chug and a swing. A few keyboard arpeggios are sprinkled around, but mainly Moore keeps the groove solid. This one's an easy-going jammer.
Still in print at Sonic Meditations, peep it

Baldruin - Nachtfalter [Brave Mysteries]

Wisconsin's Brave Mysteries was very kind in sending over a couple recent tapes including a sweet tape by Eolomea (a collaboration of Andre Foisy from Locrian and David Reed a.k.a. Envenomist) but the subject of today's review is by Baldruin.

I believe Nachtfalter is the second full-length tape from Germany's Johannes Schebler (also the proprietor of SicSic Tapes) after the very nice Schatten & Lichter on Cae-sur-a. Nachtfalter is my favorite of the two as Schatten & Lichter features liberal use of reverb (not necessarily a bad thing) and has a dronier vibe. I think Schebler's work benefits from a little more clarity on the production end because his compositions already innately possess such potent atmospheres.

Nachtfaulter reminds me a bit of song cycles of the likes of Schubert and others, known as lieder if my memory serves. I don't know a whole lot about lieder so I may be talking out of my ass--knowledgeable minds please dismiss me. Anyhow, I love how each short piece exudes the tape's collective vibe while taking you a little further down the path.

Schebler's album is comprised of 12 tracks, ranging from 30-40 seconds to a few minutes. The listener is treated to a series of vignettes that produce an eerie, dream-like quality over their course.
"Irrweg" begins like a lullaby, an echoing chiming melody, with drones soaring and descending and a few clinks and clanks for atmosphere. It's little more than an introduction but performs its deed perfectly. "Wildwuchs" jars you initially with sharp flute bleats and discordant zither. Schebler builds around those sounds adding rather pretty reversed samples and subtle lo-end rumble. By the piece's end, it's become a fantastically complex composition in a short span of time. Really great stuff.

"Undine" invites you into a thicket of muted strings, chimes and tambourine. They form a percussive bed of sorts in which Schebler can lay his drones via violin and another instrument I can't quite pinpoint. On "Hohlraum," Schebler strips away a lot of layers leaving only a couple bowed drones. It's a really nice passage and stands out on a tape full of more ornate arrangements.

"Am Hang" prominently features a chorus of ghouls. The lead ghoul starts speaking in tongues--German, probably, but it's all tongues to me. The words echo and fold over each other against a short chiming loop. Not sure what its saying but it sounds a little creepy by my estimation. Voices continue into "Sackgasse" with a whistle(?) solo and sporadic clatter. A low-rumble rears its head periodically making the whole affair more unsettling. Looking for a realistic, subtle soundtrack to your nightmares? This may be the one.
On the second side, "Siebente Reise" creates a dense little environment with a series of drones, field recordings, sprinkles of percussion and the repeating thump of a guitar chord.
"Spiegelung" begins with a really lovely melody. Voices join in consonant harmony. Things must be looking up; the beauty is fleeting but powerful. Not only can Schebler creep you out, he can enchant with the best of them.
"Weit drauben" takes you right back into chilly chimes but there seems to be some birds calling and crickets chirping. I can't quite tell if they're field recordings or if Schebler came up with a synthetic way to emulate to said creatures. They don't sound entirely real. A dank, detuned acoustic guitar leads "Schurfwunde." Seemingly recorded in a dungeon somewhere, a tambourine rattle echoes every so often. Prison blues, period-gothic-style.
"Die Purpurinsel" changes things up a little, it's heavy on the percussive layers and they're actually relaying some fairly grooving rhythms. Schebler fades those gradually into a wonderful composition of synth, chimes and voice pads. It's an almost intoxicating concoction; one my favorite moments on the tape. The brief finale "Xerooomus" has a little edge to its fidelity. It's rougher; trafficking in (what I think is) reversed/manipulated radio static. 
All in all, this is a really cool tape. While Schebler provides suggestions of darkness, the music itself, as far as timbres go, is fairly bright. He generally avoids the more conventional creep-out routes which I appreciate. The tape seems, to me anyway, to be about altering the environment its played in. And it certainly does one hell of a job at that.
The thing comes pro-dubbed, shrink-wrapped, the works--along with Schebler's Silence of the Lambs-ish artwork, what more could you ask for?

Adderall Canyonly - It was a Dark and Stoney Night [Field Hymns]

Is it a stretch to call Adderall Canyonly a successful pun on Cannonball Adderly? Probably. But I admire the ambition.
This (predominantly) analog synth tape is not new-agey or kosmiche; it's not a modular experiment. Canyonly's music is strongly rooted in popular forms: hip hop, pop music, modern movie soundtracks; but cannot be pegged as a particular one at any given point.
"March of the Lemmings, Right Out of the Documentary" bursts forth with a pumping drum machine and wiggy filtered synth lines. Electric guitar provides a little moral support halfway through, making it sound quite a lot like a home-made Summer blockbuster soundtrack. "Retardtenders, Rectumheads" is a little spooky like Gravediggaz or Kool Keith in creep-out mode. A fat synth groove throbs against faux-theremin and chilling organ chords. The last minute rules especially hard! The first part of "Kerpoodle" sounds exactly like a beat I made in high school--kind of freaks me out. This is lightyears ahead of what I came up with though.
"Magnum P.U." is a highlight and, in short, it's Sonic the Hedgehog in the Mediterranean. Straight up legit Sega Genesis genre music here. "667" works as a good counterpart continuing a similar feel but with a much more chilled out vibe. It's like the soundtrack to the following "night level" with some surprisingly heavy guitar crunch at the end.
"Driving Parker Posey to the Mall" is fucking perfect. It's absolutely infectious. It seems to encapsulate bits and pieces of lots of songs without sounding like any. I definitely hear a little "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" at 1:35 or so but I wouldn't actually compare the songs whatsoever. Canyonly really brings out the goods in the final 90 seconds with a positively lovely shimmering synth bridge. If you've been longing to post a 80s teen movie tribute video on Youtube but haven't found the right song, here you go.
"Hipster Cred" sounds like Timmy Taylor lived through the car crash and Brainiac were born during the dance-punk explosion of the early 00s, with 4-on-the-floor hi-hat bluster and all. Based on some the ghastly puns present in half the titles I'm not so sure Canyonly isn't shouting "Hipstercrite! Hipstercrite!" in the chorus. The lyrics are pretty hilarious: "We read the Pitchfork/Why don't you like our band?" A Six Finger Satellite-style synth-punk freakout was totally unexpected but I sure do love it.
The tape has a very nostalgic feel but not in the literal/referential/ironic way that James Ferraro and his cronies have made popular. This tape is full of things that seem familiar but you can't quite put your finger on. Or in the instances in which you can, you realize there's only a memory or tangential link connecting the two. The connections made might say more about the listener than the tape itself.
For instance, "Krautaquatsi" feels 1990s to me. It isn't on its face; it's not a throwback--and obviously the dates of the references punned in the title predate that period--but there's just something in the melody and atmosphere of the track that takes me back there. Perhaps someone who grew up in a different decade would have an alternate take.
Once it gets moving, "Ponytailed Apes" grooves like nobody's business. There's a bit of minimal techno influence to me but that doesn't stop Canyonly from delivering a big, florid synth wash in the second half. "Now Underwormen"almost goes into music concrete territory with overdubbed guitar improvisations mingling with spurts of static and overlapping speech samples of a hypnosis instructor or something. Another curveball on an album with more than a few. The first minute of "Ty as Wrung from Burns the Cry" is a pretty three-note organ melody that eventually unfolds into a echoing drum track and a lonesome synth-clav solo ending the tape on a somber but tender note. It's actually a rather gorgeous piece.
This is a cool tape, it drives you all over the map in 40 minutes. Definitely worth checking out for anyone interested in playful electronic music. This is still in print, hit up Field Hymns for a copy.

David Kenneth Nance - Let's Argue [Unread]

I don't generally hear much stuff that's coming out of Nebraska so Unread Records's relocation to Omaha is a damn good thing for me. If it weren't for the move I might have never heard this killer tape by David Kenneth Nance that features, among other things, one of the best songs of the year.
Let's Argue appears to be a total bedroom/basement concoction--Nance plays all the instruments ("various synths, guitars, drums and other broken shit,") writes and sings the songs etc.--but what I really love is this tape sounds like it was made by a band. It often sounds like some friends cranking it up and going to town in one of their subterranean dwellings.
"Letters 1&2" begins with a sample of Dolly Parton reading letters she sent to her parents over guitar drones and harmonica exhalations until launching into a 50s rock & roll throwback ditty imbued with the nihilistic vibe of 80s punk. Sets the tone for sure. A messy synth interlude bridges the gap into the lonesome "Joanie." Slowly cycling guitar arpeggios ease the track forward eventually leading to the waltzing chorus of "Joanie hold on/It won't be long/Before you can finally rest your head/Joanie stay strong/The church is wrong/Confession is giving in." Despite the acoustic jangle, the track sounds surprisingly raw and aggressive due to Nance's scaled-back snarl and fizzy production values.
"Who Eats Who Now?" is a jagged, rudimentary punk track featuring a percussive three-chord slash and a seriously great dueling guitar riff that makes its appearance halfway through. Nance's occasionally lethargic, low drawl provides an interesting counterpoint to the insect-swarm guitar and cymbal sizzle. The mostly acoustic ballad "Nebraska Plains" is backed with a swirling synth and features a weird auto-wah guitar solo as well. It's a gentle, sardonic pro-Nebraska ballad ("When nuclear war first starts in NYC and when San Francisco lies in the sea/You'll know you never should have laughed at me") in which Nance takes shots at the Rockie mountains, tall buildings, subway trains and the ocean while professing his preference for Nebraska's plains. If he didn't say "shit" in the song the Nebraska tourism office would snap it right up.
The intertwined guitar melodies that introduce "In Her Kingdom" are reminiscent of 60s jangle-pop via 90s college rock and it's a pretty nice piece of work. The track shifts into a sort of Velvets-style rev up before hitting the chorus once more and then launching into a memorable closing refrain of "In my kingdom of shit."
The tape slips into a fantastic, spacey keyboard interlude that, in turn, slips into a killer bass riff that just screams "shit is about to go down." "Leather in the Box" is one of the best songs I've heard all year, simply love the motherfucker. The aforementioned bass provides a chunky line that's alternately ominous and catchy but, even more importantly, the guitar provides a simple but thoroughly unnerving melody that wormed its way deep into my skull on first impact. They form the perfect backing track for Nance's portrait of the life of a gimp. He sings: "Yeah, I'm sick of these games where my ass is the prize/Yeah, I'm naked on the floor and they beat me til I die/Well, no safety words for me, at least not tonight." You can smell the leather. Sealed by the rollicking chorus of "I'm just a gimp at night/Locked up so tight/No need to fight/I'm just a gimp at night" Nance has penned one of the great S&M-themed rock & roll songs in history. Overall its sound fits somewhere between The Country Teasers and The Velvet Underground--and not just because of "Venus in Furs."
"The Manger," which closes the tape, is another great track. Nance, sounding like a midwestern Leonard Cohen, tells his version of the life of Christ; beginning with the teenage years. While maybe not the "loudest" song, it is the most bombastic and pushes the meter further into the red than any other song on the cassette.
Unread is doing its thing providing great lo-fi pop, rock and folk gems and there's a bit of all that on this tape. Nance is a really good songwriter and this album has grown on me with each successive listen. He navigates a variety of styles, which never seem out of place next to each other, culminating in a particularly cohesive set of songs. On top of that, Nance knows how to record and produce his shit perfectly--there's exactly the right dose of scuzz on each track. Dude's the total package. Definitely lend an ear to this. Available from Unread

Kevin Corcoran - Haptic Music [Weird Forest]

This is one of my favorite tapes from last year. I gave it the blurb treatment but I've been putting off writing an actual review because I don't know what the hell I can say about this. I mean I could gush and gush about my love for this cassette (which will most likely happen, just you wait) but that hardly makes for great reading. I don't think there are any great insights I can provide you with, dear readers, I just really want you to hear this tape.
Kevin Corcoran is the same dude on my Kevin & Chad and DMPH 7"s and also played in Antennas Erupt! but this is his first time ever releasing solo material. My initial reaction is "WHY DID THIS TAKE SO LONG?!???" The shit on this tape is simply incredible, dude's been playing for a while so why the hell have we been deprived of this? Mr. Corcoran, you have some explaining to do.
Corcoran was not s-ing around when he named this thing Haptic Music. The tape is all about evoking friction and resonance through the human touch. This is physical music.
Using percussion and some sort of electro-magnetic amplification on "Like a Thought Hangs," Corcoran concocts these strange clipped emissions. The attack and decay of each sound is totally weird and garbled. Certain sounds create the illusion of stuttering or skipping, others provide brief but violent scrapes, some pitter-patter harmlessly. I'm not sure if there was any live-processing or how Corcoran went about achieving his timbres but the sounds collide in such a measured yet still caustic manner that he imbues a great tension in the track that's sustained over its duration.
Throughout the piece, Corcoran juxtaposes these sounds with silence or near-silence. A quiet tone may feedback gently and hang in the air, or a barely-present thump may whisper and sigh or sometimes there's simply nothing at all. Or you get a loud thwack or a serrated slash of bowed metal, the rattle of a bell, a sustaining cymbal, the creak (or squeak) of surface friction. At it's brief but furious climax, "Like a Thought Hangs" even approaches harsh noise.
Corcoran employs the vernacular of jazz and free-improvisation but ultimately Haptic Music feels a lot like avant-garde composition. I know far too little about 20th century composers to draw adequate comparisons, but Corcoran's work here is very principled and disciplined in its approach to such raw sounds.
I'm still not sure whether this is mind expanding or mind imploding but either way this is one of the best ways to spend 20 minutes that I've encountered in a while; I recommend listening, with headphones, late at night while lying on the floor in a darkened room.
On the next side, the title track continues the vibe of "Like a Thought Hangs" but it's shorter and more compressed. Silence still plays an important, but much less pronounced, role. Corcoran bends the pitches of drum heads, working largely with rounder tones like chiming bells and the smooth reverberations of a floor tom.
"A Drift of Dim Light" for all intents and purposes is a drone piece. I figure that there must be a bow in play somewhere on the track but predominantly I think Corcoran is working with soft, rapid hits (of cymbals most likely) that are amplified into drones. It's a very nice piece and, of the three, probably the one the average listener would be most likely to respond to. And while it is quite nice, I prefer the direct tactile action of the first two tracks to its smoother, obscured resonance.
The tape is austere and it's mesmerizing. There's a certain type of person (such as moi) who will go apeshit over this sort of thing and, damn, if it doesn't feel great to be that type of person. As far as I am concerned there is not near enough avant-garde solo percussion music out there (there can never be enough)--particularly kinds such as this that detonate the common role associated with percussionists, that of a rhythm-generator (which is not to take anything away from that role.) With that said, Haptic Music is a great reminder that rhythm isn't only beats but also the spaces between beats, the interplay between sound and it's absence. Corcoran's parsing and dismantling of rhythm proves to be as dynamic and engaging as anything I've heard.
Long sold out at Weird Forest but try here or here