A vast monument to the obscure and the glorious, to the dead and the awakened... A soundtrack for the 23rd dimension... a post-genre codex of grave import.
The Caretaker (#10 of 2011, et cetera) finally went and did a soundtrack. Here's a trailer for the film - which came along with a grip of bonus tracks on the 2011 digital subscription!
"When will all vinyl start coming with immediately digestible MP3 downloads?", I sometimes wonder. Just got the new one from Demdike Stare and Andy Votel, familiarly self-titled Slant Azymuth (shades of #8, 2010?)...
"Intervision 1" by Slant Azymuth, from Slant Azymuth (2012)
Like the pre-record playing dribble of Demdike Elemental tracks, YouTube provides some dark ambient solace.
"Intervision 2" by Slant Azymuth, from Slant Azymuth (2012)
I also picked up the split 12" between Demdike Stare and Hype Williams doing remixes of Shangaan Electro stuff - you can stream some at Pitchfork.
This is, uhhh, contemporary hi-NRG South African dance music... listen to, and listen about.
Once again, I'm rushing to provide this for your weekend, and before mine. And as always, these are freely & legitimately available MP3's from all over the World Wide Web.
Because of the Megaupload shutdown, I have moved all the blog compilations over to RapidShare - where they are currently available.
Tracklists and posts can be accessed via the links for each comp over on the right-hand menu.
But here we are, the newest of the new... Split amongst the upcoming and previous Austin Psych Fests, and also a bunch of random other stuff - check it out!!
Hubble Telescope Discovers Sphinx on Pluto's Moon (Vol. 8) (2012)
07 "Black Pullet Blues" - The Cult of Dom Keller (follow on Facebook)
Gracias especial to The Cult of Dom Keller for providing this MP3 for inclusion!! As I've mentioned before, I got to meet these dudes (and see play) at the last Austin Psych Fest. This one's from their newest EP3 (#15, 2011), which you can - and should - buy from either The Committee to Keep Music Evil or their own Bandcamp. Along with other prime releases!
I almost missed Something Awful's 2-part year-end wrap-up, which would have been a shame. Then I would have delayed learning about Food Pyramid, a Minnesota crew of Krautrock jammers.
Hey, wow, that one's still available from Altered Zones. Or just wait for the Vol. 8 blog comp, right?!
You can check out recent release New Omni-Directional Healing Techniques (2011), over at Bandcamp. There's a handy compilation CD also available at Bandcamp, which does include the awesomely-titled song...
"Eulogy for Lee Marvin/Another Round on the Outer Rings" from Food Pyramid III (2011)
Those videos were both from cassette #III, here's one from II (2010).
"Underwater Temple Explorations #4" from Food Pyramid II (2010)
And based on Gödel's Dilemma of Recursive Fractality, a series of numbers beginning with 3, and also including 2 as well, must by necessity resolve to the Prime Numeral #1.
"Das Tier? Die Autobahn? Die Brunnen?" from Food Pyramid I (2010)
Again, I think the title is illustrative - or possibly illustrious. Time to start collecting everything I can get ahold of!!
I don't see the 3 physical cassettes for sale, but they are available as MP3 from Amazon. And Moon Glyph Records is selling a brand-new Food Pyramid split-7" with Deep Earth's "Kontraband." I hope you will enjoy some music.
One of the highlights of the Astral Headspace is back. The Time & Space Machine! (#6, 2009)! 1/2 of Beyond the Wizards Sleeve!! (#1, 2008)!!
New 12" single is "Pill Party in India," with 2 remixes... It's a trip, and you can bug out to it. Now.
"Pill Party in India" by The Time & Space Machine (2012)
Original mix-wise in the TTASM style.
All versions are on the YouTube, the SoundCloud, and all over the InterNets. Physical release apparently on the 6ixth. Psychemagik remix has some hard stereo-panning and wavygravy-FX 4-on-the-floor. Plus la cowbell, plus c'est la même chose.
Mojo Filter remix might be a reference to The Beatles. Indirectly, I'm sure - but really it's this guy.
For those of you put off by Demdike Stare's elaborate 4x12" EP-series/objet d'art, the 2xCD recollection is up for pre-sale. For the (non-importing) US, not yet up at Forced Exposure at this point...
"Violetta" [official] from Elemental #2: Violetta (2011)
I've finally unpacked and listened to Demdike Stare's (#8, 2010) first two installments of new LP-series Elemental. The third one's received, and the fourth ordered... But internet info is starting to come out, so I'm rounding it up!
"Kommunion" from Elemental #1: Crysanthe (2011)
This one's especially good cranked up high, rattling the windows, vaporizing the support beams with sympathetic vibrations, collapsing in waves of the primodrial Drone. "Kommunion" appears towards the end of a new podcast/mix (see below).
"Mnemosyne" from Elemental #2: Violetta (2011)
As always, there are new things for adjusting to and consideration, but a lot seems spare and minimalismic. Several of the early tracks work mostly around the rhythm(s), with lesser accompaniment.
"In The Wake Of Chronos" from Elemental #2: Violetta (2011)
Minimalindustrialisheadphoneskronkdrone... for your brain's ear.
"Unction" from Elemental #1: Crysanthe (2011)
Okay, I'm thinking: SONAR (artificial/mechanical, not dolphins and bats), and maybe some insider jokes about dubstep ("wub-wub", "where's the drop?"), the Hammond Organ of Doom - all mixed up.
"Mephisto's Lament" from Elemental #1: Crysanthe (2011)
The kick-off track for the whole deal. I always forget to check if bands I dig have the Facebook - Demdike Stare does.
That's how I learned about their recent free Modern Love mix/Elemental podcast, "Irrational Advice":
There's also an old mix, "MovingMetals," from awhile back. Still downloadable!
"Erosion of Mediocrity" from Elemental #3: Rose (2011)
Check it out - one day old! Lovely video...
Finally, Pitchfork somewhat recently gave Elemental Parts 1 & 2 a 7.9 review, which seems to be their default number for "pretty good actually." And I just found this this interview with the Demdikes!
I went back out to see the Linus Pauling Quartet (#13, Live 2011) again. While hanging around, I met an associate of one of 3 Linus guitarist/vocalists Charlie Naked and former member of jazz-freaks The Defenestration Unit. Both Charlie and his buddy...
The Defenestration Unit, live at the Art Car Museum
Awhile ago, I had found a Live at Super Happy Fun Land recording by Defenestration (05/27/2005). They play out-there free-jazz improv, which you can stream or download from that link. But what this guy told me was that he'd also played with Charlie in another group: Bartiromo.
Bartiromo, Is This Seat Taken? (1998)
And I discovered all four of their albums also on Archive.org!! Like the Defenestration Unit (but maybe more like a well-'luded Hawkwind spacing out), Bartiromo plays apparently improvised jams and also included guitarist/trombonist Mike Switzer - made famous by the LP4 song and recent soundcheck "Bongfire," but not the dude I met. I'd never heard any of these, nor even heard about it... Four albums for ya here: Is This Seat Taken? (1998), Six Months of Silence (1998), Shitwah (1999), and Human Rinds (2000).
A little more digging unearthed Fist of Kong does stuff (2006), yet another psych-jazz-improv release by yet another combo by Naked. I haven't listened to this yet, but seems like it's gonna be kinda jazzy and occasionally noisy, and probably pretty cool. But maybe you see where this is going...
Even more digging recovered a major stash of Charlie Naked solo works, available on the Archive. Charlie Naked. Solo. According to his age-old website, this barely scratches the surface of solo releases.
Charlie Naked, Divine Homework (1995)
The homepage breaks down three phases of Charlie Naked... First phase: "the first nine cassettes... different from later efforts by its emphasis on the influences of Free Jazz and drone music." Looks like the only one from Archive.org that belongs here would be Divine Homework (1995), "a soundtrack to a movie never made, nor even conceived of..."
Second phase: "moved away from jazz and drone influences and began exploring more electronic experiments, including the use of radio static, television audio samples, and electric guitars more than saxophones or acoustic piano." Don't think this is represented in the Archive. You can sample and download selected tracks and excepts from the earlier days from the Albums page.
Charlie Naked, Expansion and Collapse (2010)
Third (and current) phase: "involved the processing, editing, and construction of sound pieces on the computer, rather than on the 4-track cassette recorder... sparser, more ambient soundscapes, with much less distinct instrumentation, and considerably longer running times." From what I've gotten to, this stuff is fantastic. Starting most recently and moving backwards, Expansion and Collapse (2010) - two-thousand and TEN!! Then Anthracite (2007), "the first of three all-guitar albums" - so there's one missing release already. Factory Drones (2006), which is "Minimalist minimalism." Back to Crinoline (2005), "a rare unreleased ambient album" (highly recommended)! And finally, The Countess (2004), "a collaboration between experimental music creator Charlie Naked and viola player Jo Bird, of Houston's Two Star Symphony." How did I miss that 1/5 of my favorite local Quartet had such an extensive catalogue?
And of course, while searching for images, I literally found a month-old Charlie Naked split-release with Trills, əˈnɛmənii (2011), over at Bandcamp:
Charlie Naked tracks are the two-parter "Abyssal Gigantism" at the very end. Two-thousand-ELEVEN!! A bit more info here. Enjoy the explore.
Oh, and brand news! Linus Pauling Quartet rocking out again on Sunday, Feb. 19th, with Jucifer and Omotai! Linus sure are playing with a lot of metal acts recently...
Something I stumbled upon. Caught them live after the Scratch Acid show (I think)... pretty cool.
I think they acknowledge, but kinda deny, the Donnie Darko influence in the artwork. Saw their flyer after the Linus Pauling show (I think) and thought exactly that.
"Spain" (live) by mr. Gnome, from Heave Yer Skeleton (2009)
And here's a weird concept video. This guy said they'd just seen them recently, so I thought they were local. But no, it's Cleveland. Band ist website. They sounded good & full between the two of them, lots of effects & mood. Most recent release from Bandcamp:
Anyway, I probably would've bought something from their plentiful merch table, but no-one was ever there (travelling light probably). So I went home.
