RECORD REVIEWS
by Larry "Fuzz-O" Dolman (except
where noted)
LIZ
ALLBEE: Quarry Tones CD (RESIPISCENT) Really
good new album from a West Coast noise/experimental/other
type musician whose name I just noticed for the first time
a couple months ago, playing trumpet on the Uncle
Jim LP. Her 'sideman' role on that was real nice, but
it didn't do much to prepare me for this solo vision of creepy
and calm little drone-pop noise miniatures, with occasional
but very memorable singing, and a steady album-length flow
that had me fairly riveted on the couch. Take your basic Residents/Ralph
aura of synth-unease and filter it through weird theater,
Eno, Throbbing Gristle, mellow hip-hop, the soul of a woman,
that good ole Bay Area brutalsfx brainscramble, etcetera.
Then again, maybe it's much simpler than all that -- in an
interview posted on the fine lovemuzzle.org
website, Ms. Allbee says "I'd say about 65-70% of [Quarry
Tones] is horn/shell." Yep, turns out her main instrument
besides the trumpet is a conch shell -- best use of one since
Lord of the Flies!
ALVARIUS
B CD (ABDUCTION)
I've had this album on vinyl for over 10 years and it was
always a nice one, a warm homey/homely collection of go-for-broke
live-to-boombox white-knuckle detuned world-folk "wooden
guitar" solo instrumentals by Alan Bishop of the Sun
City Girls. The album was released in 1994, just as the whole
Fahey/Takoma rediscovery boom was really starting to pick
up, though it definitely predated that trendfest when it was
recorded (from 1981 to 1989), and, while appearing deceptively
simple on the surface, it still touches on more idioms, in
more radical combinations, than almost all of the boomers'
LPs have. The new news is that Alvarius B has now
been reissued on CD, twelve years later, with a different
cover photo (seriously, the cows have moved), some additional
interior photographs, and 4 fine bonus tracks that presumably
just didn't fit on the original vinyl, because they're right
in line with the rest. And the newest new news is that this
thing sounds great on CD, and is jumping out at me all over
again as some fine timeless homespun music. The only thing
missing is those hand-burned inserts ya got with the original
(as described a little bit at the bottom of this
page) . . . .
ARGUMENTIX:
Hoarse Whisperer CDR (DREAMS
GROW BACK) Portland,
Oregon has had weird stuff going on up there for a good 30
years or so (at least that's how long Smegma has lived there),
a logical and geographical extension of (and retreat from)
all the weirdness of California. And whaddayaknow, Argumentix
is a solo project by a Portland, Oregon resident named James
Squeaky. Heard of him? I have, and in fact I know he was (is?)
in a group called Sex With Girls. But I had not heard any
James Squeaky music until this disc, and I immediately have
to say that it reminds me of To Live and Shave in L.A., not
to mention Nandor Nevai's A Capella Cantata (2000).
Which is to say that the guy sings a lot, in a deep wailing
voice that can sound quite a bit like Misters Myth and Nevai.
I can't help but bring up the similarity -- not too many people
really sound like that, you know. But there's something going
on other than mere imitation, and maybe there isn't any imitation
going on at all, just coincidence. This is clearly a solo
work, and in fact could be live with no overdubs, Squeaky
singing into pedals and setting up loops, often thunderous,
and singing more over those, with tons of lyrics as would
befit a more West Coast / SST approach, and who knows, maybe
not Tom Smith but Jack Brewer is the real secret influence.
Then again, track 7 "I've Basically Lost Faith In The
Future (I Keep Fighting Regardless)" sounds like a solo
overdubbed version of some US desert bandit act like Savage
Republic or Crash Worship, and there's also a doom-freak karaoke
version of George Michael's "Father Figure" that
is pretty great, with plenty of the feel of Nevai's Cantata
(if not quite reaching that record's level of singular desperation).
A pretty weird and quite harsh Northwest album, and it comes
in a real nice red foldout homemade action-painted card package....stuff
coming from all over these days......(and I could've spelled
that "daze," you know)........
BADGERLORE:
Stories For Owls LP (YIK YAK) Long-running
Northern California sub-underground super-group release a
new full-length -- what is it, their third? I have no idea,
but they are now a quartet, with longtime members Rob Fisk
of Free Porcupine Society and Ben Chasny of Six Organs of
Admittance joined here by Tom Carter of Charalambides and
Pete Swanson of D Yellow Swans. The result is two long jams,
one per side, hardly any vocals, two electric guitars, someone's
on keys, it's all freeform, organic/psychedelic, and hell
yes these are some stories for owls. Side one is some excellent
downer music, a 20-minute jam extension built around a forlorn
descending chord figure, a fine extrapolation on the aura
that shines in all of us via the life and music of one Neil
Percival Kenneth Robert Ragland Young. I actually had a moment
while listening to this side, watching my wife sleeping through
it, on the couch next to the stereo, our cat on top of her,
tongue-cleaning his haunch. I truly felt without words something
like the sum of what my life and hers (and the cat's) meant
together, the ragged glorious and tenuous weight of our connection,
stretching from the moment into both the past and the future.
And the music? It was very appropriate. Side two is a small
bit of a letdown into "regular improv jam" mode,
though it does reward the devoted, building into a powerful
(possibly gratuitously Skaters-influenced) throat-singing
climax. Nice LP.......
WILLIAM
BELL & TOBE HOOPER: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre CS (DUTCH
OVEN) A
mysterious underground entity called Dutch Oven is putting
out nice bootleg editions of classic horror soundtracks on
cassette only, and here's one of their preliminary offerings.
For many maniacs, a soundtrack version of the beyond-intense
1974 proto-noise score for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre has
been a dream item for decades, but as you may have heard,
any separate master tapes of this music have been lost --
it can only be had as part of the film. Dutch Oven decided
to get around that issue by just putting out a complete dub
of the entire film on a C90, and it's all here: the John Larroquette
introduction, the sounds of furtive corpse-hammering backed
with gruesome news on the radio, and only then the mind-blowing
title sequence music, followed by the entire van ride (so
long and spaced-out, and damn those country songs on the radio
are corny!), and then of course the hitcher, and the gas station,
and that big house behind the gas station, and . . . you know
the rest. Having the whole movie on here is fine with me --
just as the music and the film are apparently physically inseparable,
they have become psychically inseparable, for me at least.
It's almost like the spoken lines and natural sounds are commenting
on the music, instead of the other way around. And without
the visuals to direct attention, I find myself noticing lots
of new stuff on here -- during the first kill scene, for example,
Leatherface makes a LOT more pig sounds than I thought he
did . . . .
BIG
WHISKEY: Hats Off To (Ryan) Taylor CS (WHITE
TAPES) Haven't
heard a peep from these New Jersey devils for a few years,
but all of a sudden here they are again with a really fine
tape. Downright epic-length for a White Tapes release, too
-- almost 30 minutes of music! Starts with a nervous caffeine
motordown that really starts ringing and dinging about halfway
through, wow, and then goes into a wasted solo-type tape-rumble
that might be even better, wow 2, and the closing 'side-long'
jam is a real spaced-out thug-rock pièce de résistance
(which is French for "piece of lastingness"). If
you're interested in Big Whiskey, check
out this tape, quickly (oops never
mind), and/or their Bloated Museum of Treachery
CD release on Warm Freedom of Tongue from way back in 2000
or thereabouts. (It might still be around, they made 500!)
CHRIS
BOZZONE: Hideousness and Beauty CD (NO
LABEL, SELF-RELEASED) You
know, if a music mag like, say, I don't know, Pitchfork really
cared about5 music as much as they do style and trend, they
would've already heard of and written about Chris Bozzone.
He deserves that kind of visibility, but the good thing about
their ignorance is that he hasn't yet been slapped with the
lifestyle-marketing tag "freak folk" -- becuase
you know they'd do it, about two sentences in. (According
to google, the phrase currently appears on pitchforkmedia.com
141 times, down a little from a recent high of 149.) Anyway,
this is Bozzone' ssecond self-released full-length full-press
CD, and the first I've heard, and it's really pretty devastating.
I'm guessing he might've listened to a lot of Siltbreeze Records
back in the day (circa 1995-1997), when something like a true
psych-folk revival was actually happening without any lifestyle-mag
PR-firm help whatsoever), but with or without that knowledge,
he's created a deep style of haunted, drawn-out solo thought
and feel. He works his way patiently through a variety of
instruments (guitars, piano, tamboura, sitar, and more), generally
one at a time -- there are very few overdubs, if any at all.
This instrumental work reaches an early apex with track four,
the beautiful "Reasons to Cry," a solo meditation
played on either sitar, tamboura, or piano harp -- I can't
tell, and I like it that way. As the album progresses, Bozzone
works in occasional dolorous (and sometimes heavily treated)
vocals, and sometimes even lyrics (the appropriate refrain
"you're so haunted" really stands out somewhere
in the middle), and as the whole thing digs deeper it really
kind of gets to the bone, and proceeds to chill it.
CHRIS
BOZZONE: He's got the spook.
WALTER
CARSON & THE THREE LEGGED RACE: Primitive Ash CDR (MOUNTAAIN) Walter
Carson is Walter Carson, from Lexington, KY, and The Three
Legged Race is Robert Beatty, also from Lexington, KY (and
such illustrious combos as The Hair Police and The Eyes and
Arms of Smoke). Together these two one-man acts make a formidable
duo, capable of the harshest and bleakest of psych-noise landscapes,
but also of long stretches of cooling-smoke beauty, and it's
all run through a not-so-secret "20th Century Classical"
filter. At least that's what this under-the-radar CDR releases
sounds like to me. Three longish tracks, three different views
of the same inner mood. Powerful stuff -- and a surprise nominee
for this issue's Popol Vuh award.
CHRISTINA
CARTER & GOWN: We've CD (DIGITALIS) Nice:
a new duo setting for Christina Carter of the Charalambides,
called Christina Carter & Gown (you know, sort of like
Tony Orlando & Dawn). Killer album title too: We've.
One track, a 35-minute performance recorded live at the KDVS
radio studio in Davis, California, February 2005, and it starts
out great with a full five minutes of unaccompanied duo singing.
I've always loved Ms. Carter's unaccompanied vocal solos,
but here her singing partner (Gown) takes it even further
still with a gutsy weird trilling free yodel method. This
is my first time hearing him (his real name is Andrew McGregor),
and wow, she and he have really staked out some habitable
ground deep in Sea Ensemble territory with this one. When
an instrument finally does join in, it's just Christina's
bare-as-bones eternal-chord guitar for what seems like another
10 minutes as McGregor continues singing. He eventually adds
guitar of his own, but the whole thing stays very minimal,
just barely simmering, deep breathing. A very good one.
JOHN
COLTRANE: One Up, One Down: Live at the Half Note 2CD (IMPULSE) Man,
my wife ruled this Christmas. She got me a pretty killer book
of short stories called Chicago
Noir, and even better, this Coltrane double CD set
which I didn't even know was out. It's two discs of never-before-released
1965 live jams from THE classic quartet, and as soon as I
noted that the two discs held a total of four pieces, some
of which were clocking well above 20 minutes long, I knew
everything was gonna be all right. As always, a beautiful
constantly flowing fount, and folks, I've gotta be honest
with you, I'm really digging the parts when Coltrane isn't
playing, and the McCoy Tyner/Elvin Jones percussion intricacies
can really work themselves out, and one might possibly be
able to get a sense of what Garrison is doing, as opposed
to an essence, which is what he usually gives off
when the quartet is at full fire. For me he's one of the most
mysterious players in jazz history, blending so deep into
Elvin Jones' cascade that he just can't be sussed. Except
when the band stops and he plays unaccompanied for very long
stretches, in a style so suddenly measured and patient that
you can't believe such a loud band could get so quiet. Not
enough has been written about this solo music. When Coltrane
was really bold he had Garrison start pieces out, all by himself
for what could be (or at least seem to be -- ever heard that
Live in Japan box set?) over 10 minutes at a time.
That's how this whole set starts, with such a deep and calm
Garrison solo that when the band finally enters it sounds
almost absurd, like The Hot Five playing "The Rite of
Spring" in supersonic sound. After this, I decided I
had to find out more about Jimmy Garrison. What was his biography?
Weeeeeelllll, he was born in 1933 and grew up in Philadelphia.
In 1957, when he was 23 or 24 years old, he met John Coltrane,
who was living in Philly at his mother's house so he could
dry out from heroin and booze. While there, Coltrane practised
constantly, developing new concepts in music that were soon
to blow millions of minds. He also hung out at a neighborhood
jazz club called the Red Rooster, and there he met young local
jammers Garrison and Tyner, though he didn't start playing
with them right away. In 1958, Garrison moved to NYC and immediately
got a lot of work, playing on over 15 albums in the next two
years, including Ornette Coleman's Art of the Improvisers
in 1959. In 1961 he made his recording debut with Coltrane
(on the Impressions album), and by the next year
was a full-time member of the group, which he remained until
the leader passed away in July 1967. Garrison stayed busy
at that time, playing with Alice Coltrane, Pharaoh Sanders,
Archie Shepp, Sonny Rollins, and Coleman (who reunited Garrison
with Jones, on the 1968 album New York Is Now). And,
he was a teacher, counting none other than a young William
Parker among his pupils, circa 1970-1971. And hey, this One
Up One Down set is great and deep for many reasons besides
inspiring Jimmy Garrison epiphanies, so feel free to dig in
at any time.....
AMY
DENIO: Tasogare CDR (PUBLIC
EYESORE) I
remember reading about Amy Denio in Option Magazine something
like 45 years ago, and she sounded cool, but the other name
on this disc is the one that really got my attention: master
musician Eyvind Kang. I've known about him for years, and
heard stuff here and there, but just recently felt a surge
of interest in his music. Not only is he a funky-ass mutron
bass player (check out "The Feel" by Alvarius B),
but when it comes to improvised music, he could play in a
trio with a grasshopper and a cinder block and you still wouldn't
be able to tell which sounds were his. Like on that stunning
recent William Hooker CD Complexity #2, it sounds like he's
not in the band at all until the 37-minute mark, when suddenly
there he is wailing through massive distortion like a one-man
Mahavishnu Orchestra, sounding like he'd been there all along,
and he probably had been. On this Amy Denio CDR, I can't pick
him out for sure until around the 20-minute mark, but he may
actually be one of those very rare musicians who knows that
even if you're just sitting still and silently listening for
20 (or 37) minutes without playing your instrument, you're
certainly still expressing yourself. After all, there are
only two musicians on this disc, Denio and Kang, and Denio
wrote the thing, described as "music for Yoko Murao's
dance piece." She plays accordion and lays down an awesome
Oliveros-worthy wall of sublimely funereal drone that barely
changes throughout. Deeply chilling and instantly relaxing
-- a great combination. And when Kang finally comes in and
starts riding a deep dirge melody, not only is it gorgeous
and heavy, it also really reminds me of all the Led Zep I've
been listening to lately. Then, late in the piece, Denio starts
singing some utterly haunting and beautiful quasi-operatic
ghosts-in-church kind of stuff, and damn. That's
what they call "taking it to the next level."
DOLLAR
BRAND DUO: Good News From Africa CD (ENJA) Working
at a non-profit company has its pros and cons -- the pay is
terrible, but the music that co-workers bring in is excellent.
Sure I could probably "apply myself" and make another
20 grand a year, but then I would have to listen to the Dave
Matthews Band all day, along with -- even worse -- plenty
of commerical FM radio. At my non-profit, on the other hand
. . . well, just this week I was walking by the desk of a
co-worker in another department. I had only met him a couple
times, but this time I noticed a stack of jazz CDs sitting
on his desk, and not just any jazz CDs -- there was John
Tchicai's name and photo, right there on top (a CD called
Witchdoctor's Son, by Johnny Dyani with John Tchicai
& Dudu Pukwana). I had heard of Johnny Dyani, and his
name was on most of the other CDs in the stack too, along
with a few African names I'd never heard of before (such as
Dudu Pukwana). Even the great Don Cherry appeared as a sideman
on two of the discs. I began to realize that this was a significant
1970s South African jazz sub-scene that I had barely heard
(other than the awesome Noah Howard Patterns / Message
to South Africa CD), and barely heard of (other than
reading the interview with South African drummer Louis Moholo
way back in 50 Miles of Elbow Room #2). Needless
to say, I was curious, and my co-worker was generous enough
to lend me the whole stack (he makes $7.50 an hour). I've
been digging DEEP into these, and so far the two I'm digging
the most happen to be two albums by the duo of Abdullah Ibrahim
(formerly Dollar Brand) on piano and Dyani on acoustic bass.
These are Good News From Africa,from 1973,
and Echoes From Africa, from 1979. Both are great,
with Good News (billed as being by the Dollar Brand
Duo) my favorite. We're talking lush mellifluous DEEP ROOTS
of beauty and soul here. In addition to their main instruments,
both musicians sing beautifully, and play little instruments
such as flute and bells, and the whole thing builds up in
a way that does not sound like a mere duo. Not mere jazz,
this is also folk, soul, gospel, world, and even pop -- in
a good way. A very, very good way. Abdullah Ibrahim's 1978
large-ensemble blowout The Journey is great too,
but that should probably get it's own review sometime. For
now, it's back to work, and back to all the great music (if
I could just get them to stop playing Tom Waits and NPR Radio
all the time, it would be perfect).....
ESPERS:
The Weed Tree CD (LOCUST)
The self-titled debut album by Espers, also on Locust, was
a really good album from 2004. The Weed Tree is the
brand-new follow-up to that album, and it's just as good.
Boldly enough, it's an all-covers album (except for one new
Espers song called "Dead King"), in which the covers,
even those of bands/artists recognizable (Durutti Column,
Clive Palmer, Nico, Michael Hurley, Blue Oyster Cult) are
practically unrecognizable as anything but Espers songs, because
that first-LP Espers sound remains so strong. Perhaps the
only one of the 'new folk' units that can actually hang musically
with classic Brit folk, instead of just namedropping it, Espers
play olde ballads with crystal-clear tones, and handsome vocals
in that clear-bell style, and their light-on-the-surface songs
continue to sound heavier to me every time I listen. Track
two on here, a version of a Durutti Column song I've never
heard called "Tomorrow," is one of my favorite couch-melters
of the year so far. Bummer it's only 5 minutes long....
EYES
AND ARMS OF SMOKE: In Three Houses CDR (RAMPART/MOUNTAAIN) A
real simple presentation of two very heavy tracks, this might
be the most stunning Lexington, KY album since Warmer Milks'
Penetration Initials. It starts with the title track,
a gorgeous two-and-a-half minute song, a little haunted melange
from the history of music that will stay in your head for
days, the two women in the band singing an angelic medieval
folk melody ("in three houses, tra la la la la"),
while someone slaps out an ancient dance rhythm on a hand
drum (yes, I said dance) and evil electronics from the future
lurk in the corners. And then suddenly that ends and freefalls
into a super-extended 25-minute Al Silva/Celestial Communication-style
freakout with almost the same title ("In 3 Houses"),
deep-space violins and reeds clawing and wailing while electronics
grind out would-be bass lines and voices haunt and it all
sounds like it's coming from a couple space stations over,
except that in space no one can hear you jam.....unless they
have this CDR on their astro headphones. For this gigantic
coda, Tremaine and Beatty are definitely jamming from their
hours of experience in the Hair Police Terror Tank, while
Molle and O'Keefe bring in all sorts of tones that allow the
sweet and spooked strains of the stunning opening song to
linger throughout. I'm telling you, it's a doozy . . . . .
(And hey, by the way, the Terror Tank was Wolf Eyes' practice
space, not the Hair Police's, I knew that, give me a break,
I've got a lot to keep track of here....)
FE-MAIL:
Voluptuous Vultures 10" (PSYCHFORM) (review
by B. Edwards) I've
had the pleasure of seeing these Norwegian ladies twice in
the US; once in Chicago and most recently in Seattle. The
Chicago show was more "delicate," if you will, with
crackles, drones and intermittent gurgles and crashes punctuating
their set. The Seattle show, though, was a completely different
beast: more like 30,000 cattle prods jammed into a 600 foot
wall of flashbulbs while razorwire wrapped anvils were catapulted
through flaming cars.
This 10" brings
together the best of both of these elements, convincing me
that Maja and Hild are determined to kindly raise the dead,
but only as a means to strapping the physical remains to railroad
tracks and watching them splatter unpleasantly (and amusingly)
all about. On Voluptuous Vultures, the ladies are
armed with an array of electronics, voices that switch between
caterwauling ear shear and glass grinding in the throat of
an irate pit bull, and an instrumentation list that (perhaps
surprisingly) includes french horn, pan pipes, and harmonica.
In short, Maja and
Hild spit out a wild array of electronic mayhem: guttural,
filth-encrusted gristly drones are sent down the river with
shrill sine wave accompaniment; eventually a rockslide jams
the river and the water turns to blood and bathes innocent
animals with the guilt of the ill prepared. Not only do these
ladies decimate, placate, and flagellate, they balance (and
blur) the lines between such things beautifully. The apocalypse
never had such grace or swiftness. The releasing label aptly
describes parts of this record as an "electronics smorgasbord
that will leave your pets hiding in a dark corner of the bathroom,"
and that's a pretty solid assessment. Oh yes; and the cover
art! Verily, a fine cross-pollination of sassy and tacky:
not exactly what you might want but definitely more than you
deserve. Grab it now and get on the right side of the charging
bull.
FEARLESS
LEADER: God Bless The Devil CD (GULCHER)
The Afrika Korps? Gays in the Military? Lou Rone Alone??
Thundertrain??? How does Gulcher get MORE retarded with every
release? And I still love 'em all, and these guys Fearless
Leader from L.A. are definitley in the running for Gulcher's
'most retarded,' cavorting around (as they do) in way-too-colorful
corpsepaint, and playing vulgar rock that sounds almost as
much like friggin' Faster Pussycat as it does The Dictators.
And you know, they're pretty great. They do know how to rock,
with at least some mebers having also played in the Lazy Cowgirls
and/or Clawhammer, and they're funny, they really are. But
then, I can enjoy a song that goes "She's got a toxic
crotch / You know it stinks a lot." Maybe you can't.
Even better is the lyric: "Sittin' at home in my underwear
/ Baby, I-I-I-I-I I don't care!" I can relate, I'm in
my underwear right now! And it's almost noon!
FEATHERS
LP (FEATHERS FAMILY) Even
though I've had this LP for the better part of a year, and
have listened to it quite a bit, I haven't been able to write
anything about it. Maybe it has something to do with how this
photogenic group (I mean, look at the cover and the
inside poster) has been keeping a low profile in the lifestyle
mags, when this whole "free(k) folk marketing frenzy"
has surely cast a few well-baited lines their way. Whenever
I try to write something about 'em, it just comes out sounding
like hype, and I feel like I owe it to Feathers to preserve
the mystery for once. Apparently, they've now "signed"
to Devendra Banhart's label Gnomonsong, who are reissuing
this album on CD, and a couple of 'em are playing in a band
with J. Mascis called Witch, so they are kinda getting into
some would-be hyped territory. But really, this LP release
from last year should've been enough to do that, though it
is a hard nut to crack, and it tastes pretty weird once you
do. Woozy ethereal folk stylings, lots of warbling ladies
(male and female), the kind of folk record that always sounds
like something might just be slightly wrong with the turntable
speed, but never is..... and if you know that's a compliment,
I suggest you check 'em out.
THE
GOSLINGS: Between The Dead CD (NO
LABEL) This
album immediately sounded to me like Twin Infinitives-era
Royal Trux and Bullhead-era Melvins had collaborated
on an album and then baked the master tapes in a radioactive
kiln for the last 15 years. Now don't go running off to the
record store YET, come on, stay here and read the rest of
this review, at least -- I wanted to point out that it doesn't
quite sound like Neil made the session, just Jennifer on vocals,
but Buzz and Dale are there with the endless Sab-devolution
riffery, unafraid to just let a low E (D? C#??) ring for long
periods of time. But it's not Buzz, Jennifer, and Dale, it's
"Max" (guitars, other), "Leslie" (vocals,
other), and "Steve (drums, other)." On most songs
there seems to be an electronic hailstorm going on also, somewhere
in the vicinity, but I have no idea where it's coming from.
Must be the "other." Every song seems to be at least
7 minutes long, and this is some pretty lowdown decrepitude
-- a lot of the guitar riffs sound like they're coming through
a huge radio with a really bad antennae. I know nothing about
this band or where they're from, except: Max, Leslie, and
Steve.
HAIR
POLICE: Drawn Dead CD (HANSON) Speaking
of power trios, the Hair Police usually line up with Mike
Connelly on guitar/vocals, Robert Beatty on electronics, and
Trevor Tremaine on drums. But on this album Connelly and Tremaine
both play guitar while Beatty processes the whole thing in
real time. So Beatty is this album's secret weapon, and he
really rises to the occasion, creating what I just might call
a rock concrete masterpiece! Granted, he has some
great material to process here -- one guitar roars and quakes
low while the other scythes and slashes up high, and the combination
creates a perfect horror mood and just stays there, smoldering
very loudly ("the sound of a burning human body"
says the press release!). Sometimes there are screams, but
the whole thing is really one long smoldering song, and when
it moves, it usually moves only slightly, in sudden harsh
shift-splices, just often enough to keep you jumping out of
your seat. A real supremely focused piece of work...
ERIK
HINDS: Reign in Blood CD (SOLPONTICELLO) Y'know,
people send me CDs they've worked on their entire life, and
half the time I don't even listen to 'em. When and if I finally
do, it takes me months to start a review about it, and another
year after that to 'edit' the damn thing. Then, a guy sends
me a song-for-song cover album of Slayer's Reign in Blood,
and I put it on about 5 minutes after it arrives and here
I am writing a review less than a week later. What can I say,
anything related to Reign in Blood always seems to
perk the old ear up. And in a way Erik Hinds has
been working on this CD all his life; he's been listening
to Slayer since he was young (in the press release, he writes,
"It's no exaggeration to say Slayer helped sustain me
through middle and high school. I nearly wore out the grooves
of my Hell Awaits LP, stared at Live Undead
until the corpses moved, and freaked the fuck out upon hearing
Reign in Blood, one of the strongest artistic statements
ever"), and he's learned how to play an entire Slayer
album on "an upright acoustic instrument with 12 sympathetic
strings," something called an h'arpeggione (although
his website just says he plays "devil cello"), and
I don't know what a h'arpeggione looks like or how complicated
it is to play, but it sounds like he's gotten pretty good
at it. I think all that qualifies as a life's work. It's definitely
a unique interpretation of Reign in Blood -- after
all, it is all acoustic, with no vocals and lyrics, and the
riffs don't always seem to be 'note for note,' and the tone
of the instrument is almost like a hammer dulcimer -- not
very metal -- though it can also sound like a cello (very
metal) and a rather sweetly humming tambura (ethno-metal).
So not as heavy as Slayer, of course, but still pretty dark
and aggressive, while being strangely beautiful and elegant
too. Even if you don't recognize the specific Slayer song,
it still sounds like you're listening to a nice and heavy
post-Bach classical music CD. And when the Hanneman/King riffs
do unmistakably emerge, they will put a smile on your face
and perhaps even non-ironic horns in the air.
ICHOROUS:
Todekapitel CDR; VILLA VALLEY: Cycles CDR; MRTYU: Durga CDR
(all AUDIOBOT) Here
are three new CDR releases that have a few things in common.
For one, all are released by Belgium label Audiobot (a division
of the Freaks End Future empire). For another, all have great
color artwork on quality paper. For another, all feature crushing
waves of doomed-out power-noise, and for yet another, in each
case I can't really tell what the album name or artist name
is. The bright pink one with the monster on it (Todekapitel
by Ichorous) is harsh evil noise with more vocals than usual
for the genre, here scary demon talk like a gore/grind singer
doing spoken word. It's cool and gives the noise a different
spin. The next one (Cycles
by Villa Valley) is pink too, a paler pink, with more subtle
viral art. The noise, on the other hand, is even harsher than
that of Ichorous, but less focused. It also has vocals, more
traditional screamy stuff. Not bad. Two-and-a-half, maybe
three stars. And then there's the black one (Durga
by Mrtyu). It has the best cover art of the three, and the
best start, the sound of at least one-hundred warplanes
to hell making their final descent while at least one hundred
lost souls moan in anticipation. And it pretty much stays
there for the whole disc. And "there" is a stranger
place than the usual noise, a little more occult and arcane,
almost like Double Leopards or some shit. Best of the three,
in my humb. op. Anyway, some unknown names here, but from
what I can tell Ichorous is a new dude from Lowell, MA (future
site of the United States Noise Hall of Fame), Villa Valley
seems to be from Royal Oak, MI, and I have no idea where Mrtyu
is from (hell -- ed.). (Actually, I think I just
heard that Mrtyu is Antony Milton from New Zealand, recording
under yet another name. Down under, just not as far as I thought!
-- ed. again.)
IMAGE: from Any Denio Tasogare, on Public
Eyesore Records
Really
good new album from a West Coast noise/experimental/other
type musician whose name I just noticed for the first time
a couple months ago, playing trumpet on the 
I've had this album on vinyl for over 10 years and it was
always a nice one, a warm homey/homely collection of go-for-broke
live-to-boombox white-knuckle detuned world-folk "wooden
guitar" solo instrumentals by Alan Bishop of the Sun
City Girls. The album was released in 1994, just as the whole
Fahey/Takoma rediscovery boom was really starting to pick
up, though it definitely predated that trendfest when it was
recorded (from 1981 to 1989), and, while appearing deceptively
simple on the surface, it still touches on more idioms, in
more radical combinations, than almost all of the boomers'
LPs have. The new news is that Alvarius B has now
been reissued on CD, twelve years later, with a different
cover photo (seriously, the cows have moved), some additional
interior photographs, and 4 fine bonus tracks that presumably
just didn't fit on the original vinyl, because they're right
in line with the rest. And the newest new news is that this
thing sounds great on CD, and is jumping out at me all over
again as some fine timeless homespun music. The only thing
missing is those hand-burned inserts ya got with the original
(as described a little bit at the bottom of 
Portland,
Oregon has had weird stuff going on up there for a good 30
years or so (at least that's how long Smegma has lived there),
a logical and geographical extension of (and retreat from)
all the weirdness of California. And whaddayaknow, Argumentix
is a solo project by a Portland, Oregon resident named James
Squeaky. Heard of him? I have, and in fact I know he was (is?)
in a group called Sex With Girls. But I had not heard any
James Squeaky music until this disc, and I immediately have
to say that it reminds me of To Live and Shave in L.A., not
to mention Nandor Nevai's A Capella Cantata (2000).
Which is to say that the guy sings a lot, in a deep wailing
voice that can sound quite a bit like Misters Myth and Nevai.
I can't help but bring up the similarity -- not too many people
really sound like that, you know. But there's something going
on other than mere imitation, and maybe there isn't any imitation
going on at all, just coincidence. This is clearly a solo
work, and in fact could be live with no overdubs, Squeaky
singing into pedals and setting up loops, often thunderous,
and singing more over those, with tons of lyrics as would
befit a more West Coast / SST approach, and who knows, maybe
not Tom Smith but Jack Brewer is the real secret influence.
Then again, track 7 "I've Basically Lost Faith In The
Future (I Keep Fighting Regardless)" sounds like a solo
overdubbed version of some US desert bandit act like Savage
Republic or Crash Worship, and there's also a doom-freak karaoke
version of George Michael's "Father Figure" that
is pretty great, with plenty of the feel of Nevai's Cantata
(if not quite reaching that record's level of singular desperation).
A pretty weird and quite harsh Northwest album, and it comes
in a real nice red foldout homemade action-painted card package....stuff
coming from all over these days......(and I could've spelled
that "daze," you know)........ 
Long-running
Northern California sub-underground super-group release a
new full-length -- what is it, their third? I have no idea,
but they are now a quartet, with longtime members Rob Fisk
of Free Porcupine Society and Ben Chasny of Six Organs of
Admittance joined here by Tom Carter of Charalambides and
Pete Swanson of D Yellow Swans. The result is two long jams,
one per side, hardly any vocals, two electric guitars, someone's
on keys, it's all freeform, organic/psychedelic, and hell
yes these are some stories for owls. Side one is some excellent
downer music, a 20-minute jam extension built around a forlorn
descending chord figure, a fine extrapolation on the aura
that shines in all of us via the life and music of one Neil
Percival Kenneth Robert Ragland Young. I actually had a moment
while listening to this side, watching my wife sleeping through
it, on the couch next to the stereo, our cat on top of her,
tongue-cleaning his haunch. I truly felt without words something
like the sum of what my life and hers (and the cat's) meant
together, the ragged glorious and tenuous weight of our connection,
stretching from the moment into both the past and the future.
And the music? It was very appropriate. Side two is a small
bit of a letdown into "regular improv jam" mode,
though it does reward the devoted, building into a powerful
(possibly gratuitously Skaters-influenced) throat-singing
climax. Nice LP.......
A
mysterious underground entity called Dutch Oven is putting
out nice bootleg editions of classic horror soundtracks on
cassette only, and here's one of their preliminary offerings.
For many maniacs, a soundtrack version of the beyond-intense
1974 proto-noise score for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre has
been a dream item for decades, but as you may have heard,
any separate master tapes of this music have been lost --
it can only be had as part of the film. Dutch Oven decided
to get around that issue by just putting out a complete dub
of the entire film on a C90, and it's all here: the John Larroquette
introduction, the sounds of furtive corpse-hammering backed
with gruesome news on the radio, and only then the mind-blowing
title sequence music, followed by the entire van ride (so
long and spaced-out, and damn those country songs on the radio
are corny!), and then of course the hitcher, and the gas station,
and that big house behind the gas station, and . . . you know
the rest. Having the whole movie on here is fine with me --
just as the music and the film are apparently physically inseparable,
they have become psychically inseparable, for me at least.
It's almost like the spoken lines and natural sounds are commenting
on the music, instead of the other way around. And without
the visuals to direct attention, I find myself noticing lots
of new stuff on here -- during the first kill scene, for example,
Leatherface makes a LOT more pig sounds than I thought he
did . . . . 
Haven't
heard a peep from these New Jersey devils for a few years,
but all of a sudden here they are again with a really fine
tape. Downright epic-length for a White Tapes release, too
-- almost 30 minutes of music! Starts with a nervous caffeine
motordown that really starts ringing and dinging about halfway
through, wow, and then goes into a wasted solo-type tape-rumble
that might be even better, wow 2, and the closing 'side-long'
jam is a real spaced-out thug-rock pièce de résistance
(which is French for "piece of lastingness"). If
you're interested in Big Whiskey, 
You
know, if a music mag like, say, I don't know, Pitchfork really
cared about5 music as much as they do style and trend, they
would've already heard of and written about Chris Bozzone.
He deserves that kind of visibility, but the good thing about
their ignorance is that he hasn't yet been slapped with the
lifestyle-marketing tag "freak folk" -- becuase
you know they'd do it, about two sentences in. (According
to google, the phrase currently appears on pitchforkmedia.com
141 times, down a little from a recent high of 149.) Anyway,
this is Bozzone' ssecond self-released full-length full-press
CD, and the first I've heard, and it's really pretty devastating.
I'm guessing he might've listened to a lot of Siltbreeze Records
back in the day (circa 1995-1997), when something like a true
psych-folk revival was actually happening without any lifestyle-mag
PR-firm help whatsoever), but with or without that knowledge,
he's created a deep style of haunted, drawn-out solo thought
and feel. He works his way patiently through a variety of
instruments (guitars, piano, tamboura, sitar, and more), generally
one at a time -- there are very few overdubs, if any at all.
This instrumental work reaches an early apex with track four,
the beautiful "Reasons to Cry," a solo meditation
played on either sitar, tamboura, or piano harp -- I can't
tell, and I like it that way. As the album progresses, Bozzone
works in occasional dolorous (and sometimes heavily treated)
vocals, and sometimes even lyrics (the appropriate refrain
"you're so haunted" really stands out somewhere
in the middle), and as the whole thing digs deeper it really
kind of gets to the bone, and proceeds to chill it. 
Walter
Carson is Walter Carson, from Lexington, KY, and The Three
Legged Race is Robert Beatty, also from Lexington, KY (and
such illustrious combos as The Hair Police and The Eyes and
Arms of Smoke). Together these two one-man acts make a formidable
duo, capable of the harshest and bleakest of psych-noise landscapes,
but also of long stretches of cooling-smoke beauty, and it's
all run through a not-so-secret "20th Century Classical"
filter. At least that's what this under-the-radar CDR releases
sounds like to me. Three longish tracks, three different views
of the same inner mood. Powerful stuff -- and a surprise nominee
for this issue's Popol Vuh award. 
Nice:
a new duo setting for Christina Carter of the Charalambides,
called Christina Carter & Gown (you know, sort of like
Tony Orlando & Dawn). Killer album title too: We've.
One track, a 35-minute performance recorded live at the KDVS
radio studio in Davis, California, February 2005, and it starts
out great with a full five minutes of unaccompanied duo singing.
I've always loved Ms. Carter's unaccompanied vocal solos,
but here her singing partner (Gown) takes it even further
still with a gutsy weird trilling free yodel method. This
is my first time hearing him (his real name is Andrew McGregor),
and wow, she and he have really staked out some habitable
ground deep in Sea Ensemble territory with this one. When
an instrument finally does join in, it's just Christina's
bare-as-bones eternal-chord guitar for what seems like another
10 minutes as McGregor continues singing. He eventually adds
guitar of his own, but the whole thing stays very minimal,
just barely simmering, deep breathing. A very good one. 
Man,
my wife ruled this Christmas. She got me a pretty killer book
of short stories called 
I
remember reading about Amy Denio in Option Magazine something
like 45 years ago, and she sounded cool, but the other name
on this disc is the one that really got my attention: master
musician Eyvind Kang. I've known about him for years, and
heard stuff here and there, but just recently felt a surge
of interest in his music. Not only is he a funky-ass mutron
bass player (check out "The Feel" by Alvarius B),
but when it comes to improvised music, he could play in a
trio with a grasshopper and a cinder block and you still wouldn't
be able to tell which sounds were his. Like on that stunning
recent William Hooker CD Complexity #2, it sounds like he's
not in the band at all until the 37-minute mark, when suddenly
there he is wailing through massive distortion like a one-man
Mahavishnu Orchestra, sounding like he'd been there all along,
and he probably had been. On this Amy Denio CDR, I can't pick
him out for sure until around the 20-minute mark, but he may
actually be one of those very rare musicians who knows that
even if you're just sitting still and silently listening for
20 (or 37) minutes without playing your instrument, you're
certainly still expressing yourself. After all, there are
only two musicians on this disc, Denio and Kang, and Denio
wrote the thing, described as "music for Yoko Murao's
dance piece." She plays accordion and lays down an awesome
Oliveros-worthy wall of sublimely funereal drone that barely
changes throughout. Deeply chilling and instantly relaxing
-- a great combination. And when Kang finally comes in and
starts riding a deep dirge melody, not only is it gorgeous
and heavy, it also really reminds me of all the Led Zep I've
been listening to lately. Then, late in the piece, Denio starts
singing some utterly haunting and beautiful quasi-operatic
ghosts-in-church kind of stuff, and damn. That's
what they call "taking it to the next level." 
Working
at a non-profit company has its pros and cons -- the pay is
terrible, but the music that co-workers bring in is excellent.
Sure I could probably "apply myself" and make another
20 grand a year, but then I would have to listen to the Dave
Matthews Band all day, along with -- even worse -- plenty
of commerical FM radio. At my non-profit, on the other hand
. . . well, just this week I was walking by the desk of a
co-worker in another department. I had only met him a couple
times, but this time I noticed a stack of jazz CDs sitting
on his desk, and not just any jazz CDs -- there was 
The self-titled debut album by Espers, also on Locust, was
a really good album from 2004. The Weed Tree is the
brand-new follow-up to that album, and it's just as good.
Boldly enough, it's an all-covers album (except for one new
Espers song called "Dead King"), in which the covers,
even those of bands/artists recognizable (Durutti Column,
Clive Palmer, Nico, Michael Hurley, Blue Oyster Cult) are
practically unrecognizable as anything but Espers songs, because
that first-LP Espers sound remains so strong. Perhaps the
only one of the 'new folk' units that can actually hang musically
with classic Brit folk, instead of just namedropping it, Espers
play olde ballads with crystal-clear tones, and handsome vocals
in that clear-bell style, and their light-on-the-surface songs
continue to sound heavier to me every time I listen. Track
two on here, a version of a Durutti Column song I've never
heard called "Tomorrow," is one of my favorite couch-melters
of the year so far. Bummer it's only 5 minutes long....
A
real simple presentation of two very heavy tracks, this might
be the most stunning Lexington, KY album since Warmer Milks'
Penetration Initials. It starts with the title track,
a gorgeous two-and-a-half minute song, a little haunted melange
from the history of music that will stay in your head for
days, the two women in the band singing an angelic medieval
folk melody ("in three houses, tra la la la la"),
while someone slaps out an ancient dance rhythm on a hand
drum (yes, I said dance) and evil electronics from the future
lurk in the corners. And then suddenly that ends and freefalls
into a super-extended 25-minute Al Silva/Celestial Communication-style
freakout with almost the same title ("In 3 Houses"),
deep-space violins and reeds clawing and wailing while electronics
grind out would-be bass lines and voices haunt and it all
sounds like it's coming from a couple space stations over,
except that in space no one can hear you jam.....unless they
have this CDR on their astro headphones. For this gigantic
coda, Tremaine and Beatty are definitely jamming from their
hours of experience in the Hair Police Terror Tank, while
Molle and O'Keefe bring in all sorts of tones that allow the
sweet and spooked strains of the stunning opening song to
linger throughout. I'm telling you, it's a doozy . . . . .
(And hey, by the way, the Terror Tank was Wolf Eyes' practice
space, not the Hair Police's, I knew that, give me a break,
I've got a lot to keep track of here....) 
(review
by B. Edwards) I've
had the pleasure of seeing these Norwegian ladies twice in
the US; once in Chicago and most recently in Seattle. The
Chicago show was more "delicate," if you will, with
crackles, drones and intermittent gurgles and crashes punctuating
their set. The Seattle show, though, was a completely different
beast: more like 30,000 cattle prods jammed into a 600 foot
wall of flashbulbs while razorwire wrapped anvils were catapulted
through flaming cars. 
The Afrika Korps? Gays in the Military? Lou Rone Alone??
Thundertrain??? How does Gulcher get MORE retarded with every
release? And I still love 'em all, and these guys Fearless
Leader from L.A. are definitley in the running for Gulcher's
'most retarded,' cavorting around (as they do) in way-too-colorful
corpsepaint, and playing vulgar rock that sounds almost as
much like friggin' Faster Pussycat as it does The Dictators.
And you know, they're pretty great. They do know how to rock,
with at least some mebers having also played in the Lazy Cowgirls
and/or Clawhammer, and they're funny, they really are. But
then, I can enjoy a song that goes "She's got a toxic
crotch / You know it stinks a lot." Maybe you can't.
Even better is the lyric: "Sittin' at home in my underwear
/ Baby, I-I-I-I-I I don't care!" I can relate, I'm in
my underwear right now! And it's almost noon! 
Even
though I've had this LP for the better part of a year, and
have listened to it quite a bit, I haven't been able to write
anything about it. Maybe it has something to do with how this
photogenic group (I mean, look at the cover and the
inside poster) has been keeping a low profile in the lifestyle
mags, when this whole "free(k) folk marketing frenzy"
has surely cast a few well-baited lines their way. Whenever
I try to write something about 'em, it just comes out sounding
like hype, and I feel like I owe it to Feathers to preserve
the mystery for once. Apparently, they've now "signed"
to Devendra Banhart's label Gnomonsong, who are reissuing
this album on CD, and a couple of 'em are playing in a band
with J. Mascis called Witch, so they are kinda getting into
some would-be hyped territory. But really, this LP release
from last year should've been enough to do that, though it
is a hard nut to crack, and it tastes pretty weird once you
do. Woozy ethereal folk stylings, lots of warbling ladies
(male and female), the kind of folk record that always sounds
like something might just be slightly wrong with the turntable
speed, but never is..... and if you know that's a compliment,
I suggest you check 'em out. 
This
album immediately sounded to me like Twin Infinitives-era
Royal Trux and Bullhead-era Melvins had collaborated
on an album and then baked the master tapes in a radioactive
kiln for the last 15 years. Now don't go running off to the
record store YET, come on, stay here and read the rest of
this review, at least -- I wanted to point out that it doesn't
quite sound like Neil made the session, just Jennifer on vocals,
but Buzz and Dale are there with the endless Sab-devolution
riffery, unafraid to just let a low E (D? C#??) ring for long
periods of time. But it's not Buzz, Jennifer, and Dale, it's
"Max" (guitars, other), "Leslie" (vocals,
other), and "Steve (drums, other)." On most songs
there seems to be an electronic hailstorm going on also, somewhere
in the vicinity, but I have no idea where it's coming from.
Must be the "other." Every song seems to be at least
7 minutes long, and this is some pretty lowdown decrepitude
-- a lot of the guitar riffs sound like they're coming through
a huge radio with a really bad antennae. I know nothing about
this band or where they're from, except: Max, Leslie, and
Steve. 
Speaking
of power trios, the Hair Police usually line up with Mike
Connelly on guitar/vocals, Robert Beatty on electronics, and
Trevor Tremaine on drums. But on this album Connelly and Tremaine
both play guitar while Beatty processes the whole thing in
real time. So Beatty is this album's secret weapon, and he
really rises to the occasion, creating what I just might call
a rock concrete masterpiece! Granted, he has some
great material to process here -- one guitar roars and quakes
low while the other scythes and slashes up high, and the combination
creates a perfect horror mood and just stays there, smoldering
very loudly ("the sound of a burning human body"
says the press release!). Sometimes there are screams, but
the whole thing is really one long smoldering song, and when
it moves, it usually moves only slightly, in sudden harsh
shift-splices, just often enough to keep you jumping out of
your seat. A real supremely focused piece of work...
Y'know,
people send me CDs they've worked on their entire life, and
half the time I don't even listen to 'em. When and if I finally
do, it takes me months to start a review about it, and another
year after that to 'edit' the damn thing. Then, a guy sends
me a song-for-song cover album of Slayer's Reign in Blood,
and I put it on about 5 minutes after it arrives and here
I am writing a review less than a week later. What can I say,
anything related to Reign in Blood always seems to
perk the old ear up. And in a way Erik Hinds has
been working on this CD all his life; he's been listening
to Slayer since he was young (in the press release, he writes,
"It's no exaggeration to say Slayer helped sustain me
through middle and high school. I nearly wore out the grooves
of my Hell Awaits LP, stared at Live Undead
until the corpses moved, and freaked the fuck out upon hearing
Reign in Blood, one of the strongest artistic statements
ever"), and he's learned how to play an entire Slayer
album on "an upright acoustic instrument with 12 sympathetic
strings," something called an h'arpeggione (although
his website just says he plays "devil cello"), and
I don't know what a h'arpeggione looks like or how complicated
it is to play, but it sounds like he's gotten pretty good
at it. I think all that qualifies as a life's work. It's definitely
a unique interpretation of Reign in Blood -- after
all, it is all acoustic, with no vocals and lyrics, and the
riffs don't always seem to be 'note for note,' and the tone
of the instrument is almost like a hammer dulcimer -- not
very metal -- though it can also sound like a cello (very
metal) and a rather sweetly humming tambura (ethno-metal).
So not as heavy as Slayer, of course, but still pretty dark
and aggressive, while being strangely beautiful and elegant
too. Even if you don't recognize the specific Slayer song,
it still sounds like you're listening to a nice and heavy
post-Bach classical music CD. And when the Hanneman/King riffs
do unmistakably emerge, they will put a smile on your face
and perhaps even non-ironic horns in the air.
Here
are three new CDR releases that have a few things in common.
For one, all are released by Belgium label Audiobot (a division
of the Freaks End Future empire). For another, all have great
color artwork on quality paper. For another, all feature crushing
waves of doomed-out power-noise, and for yet another, in each
case I can't really tell what the album name or artist name
is. The bright pink one with the monster on it (Todekapitel
by Ichorous) is harsh evil noise with more vocals than usual
for the genre, here scary demon talk like a gore/grind singer
doing spoken word. It's cool and gives the noise a different
spin. The next one 
(Cycles
by Villa Valley) is pink too, a paler pink, with more subtle
viral art. The noise, on the other hand, is even harsher than
that of Ichorous, but less focused. It also has vocals, more
traditional screamy stuff. Not bad. Two-and-a-half, maybe
three stars. And then there's the black one (Durga
by Mrtyu). It has the best cover art of the three, and the
best start, the sound of at least one-hundred 
warplanes
to hell making their final descent while at least one hundred
lost souls moan in anticipation. And it pretty much stays
there for the whole disc. And "there" is a stranger
place than the usual noise, a little more occult and arcane,
almost like Double Leopards or some shit. Best of the three,
in my humb. op. Anyway, some unknown names here, but from
what I can tell Ichorous is a new dude from Lowell, MA (future
site of the United States Noise Hall of Fame), Villa Valley
seems to be from Royal Oak, MI, and I have no idea where Mrtyu
is from (hell -- ed.). (Actually, I think I just
heard that Mrtyu is Antony Milton from New Zealand, recording
under yet another name. Down under, just not as far as I thought!
-- ed. again.) 
