This seems like something I would have heard of before now... but I just saw it at the bookstore today!
Beyond the Black Rainbow trailer (2010)
Set in a brave new '83, even more oppressive and dystopian than the real thing.
With a soundtrack from Jeremy Schmidt - the keyboardist of Black Mountain (#10, 2008), who is also Sinoia Caves (co-#8, 2006), cover artist for them and Zombi (the last couple)...
Music from Beyond the Black Rainbow by Jeremy Schmidt (2010)
Okay, okay. I don't know much about the director or others, but I think I'm gonna have to pick this one up. You?
Although technical issues continue to arise or persist, I still wanted to check out this up-and-coming 2012 Sight & Sound poll inductee - oh, and Palme d'Or winner!
I'm borderline certain this was my first Thai movie...
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Loong Boonmee raleuk chat, ลุงบุญมีระลึกชาติ) dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul. 2010, Thailand, etc... Sight & Sound 2012: Critics' #202 / Directors' #132
Roger Ebert's movie review
DVD from Amazon [Blu-Ray]
Watch via Hulu-Plus / Amazon Prime only / iTunes / YouTube
Uncle Boonmee trailer (2010)
By my count, if you want to win the Palme d'Or these days, sprinkle your family drama with some metaphysical mumbo-jumbo.
"Jen: How can you expect me to stay here, with all the ghosts and migrant workers?"
Okay, seriously? This is a wonderful movie. It has family, ghosts, rural Thai farm life, forest spirits, spelunking, beekeeping, renal failure, an electric hand-held bug-zapper, and karaoke. Not as many past lives as I expected, though... I'm not sure which side the film focused more on, because the mundane and supernatural seemed to mesh so easily. The characters all accept the arrival of long-gone wives, sisters and children, with a surprisingly easy-going manner. Wait, are these returning ghosts some of Uncle Boonmee's "past lives" - like in the non-karmic sense of the term - that he has "recalled" - in the non-remembering sense?
The film handles the supernatural stuff well, including the iconic Boonsong the Monkey Ghost. Although not reliant on high-tech SFX, whatever effects are attempted work - resulting in a more dreamy, ethereal mood than anything scary or creepy. One flashback to a past life (?), apparently during the reign of Princess Monkeyface, shows the Wisdom of the Catfish.
I don't believe I fully grasped the last part(s) of the movie. I got the significance of the Primordial Cave, but missed out on the future dream and stylistic switch to slo-mo slide-show. Though I don't like the sound of totalitarian F°451-style military destruction of images. Then there's the monastic coda, TV hypnotism in a hotel room, with a Möbius time-dilation (?), and then some dinner in a loud, garish, colorful restaurant. About the only thing I really 'understood' was that all these final locations all somehow stood in opposition to the past, the forest, the rural, family home places earlier in the movie.
After writing up my posts, I usually review a plot synopsis to make sure I didn't miss anything in my notes. Don't think I've ever added anything significant, but I wanted to include this from Wikipedia: "The film consists of six reels each shot in a different cinematic style. The styles include, by the words of the director, 'old cinema with stiff acting and classical staging', 'documentary style', 'costume drama' and 'my kind of film when you see long takes of animals and people driving'." I most certainly overlooked that!
This is why you don't publish a Year-End list at the beginning of December! (Among other late releases...) [which also applies to 2011.]
"A.C.R.O.N.Y.M." by Teeth of the Sea, from Your Mercury (2010)
On its own, Hypnoticon would have probably been in the 20's or 30's. But then I caught word of an all-new full-length album, and it had already been released! In the newest issue of Mojo (Freddie Mercury cover), they have an article on Teeth of the Sea (not the 4-star review of Your Mercury). Influences referred to are: Hawkwind's Space Ritual (#4, 1973), Sleep's Holy Mountain (1992), and Monster Magnet's Spine of God (also 1992)... "Krautrock, Kosmische music, spaghetti western soundtracks, pompous Euro-prog" (per Julian Cope), The Cramps, Steve Reich, Queen's soundtrack to Flash Gordon (!!!), "Iain Sinclair / Alan Moore psychogeography," Sunn O))), Heldon, Bongwater (#4, 1988). But then makes the important point that "their singular wisdom is never to copy their heroes." Right.
"Hypnoticon Viva" [live, 11/22/2010] by TOTS, from Hypnoticon EP (2010)
The Hypnoticon EP is good. You have one tune arising from their Flash Gordon (1980) OST concert, a somewhat non-descript TOTS jam-out, and "The Island Is" – a much longer psychedelic guitar ambient exploration. It kind of made me think TOTS was settling down a bit.
"The Ambassador" by Teeth of the Sea, from Your Mercury (2010)
Your Mercury totally reverses course. After an intro track, "The Ambassador" explodes in a guitar feedback noisefest – and from there, it's electronic drones, guitar freak-outs, the occasional trumpet, some interludes, some epics... basically, everything you (or maybe I) want in an album.
"You're Mercury" [live, 11/22/2010] by TOTS, from Your Mercury (2010)
I just recently made the Mercury/Freddie connection too...
O yeah! Check out the Rough Trade bonus disc (which I didn't know about) - and get it here for free!!
HOWARD SHORE - "Welcome To Videodrome" SLAUGHTER - "Tales Of The Macabre" EINSTURZENDE NEUBAUTEN - "Kalte Sterne" MICHAEL MOORCOCK’S DEEP FIX - "Time Centre" MICK FARREN - "Carnivorous Circus Part 1" KEITH FULLERTON WHITMAN - "Generator 7B" MOONDOG - "Bug On A Floating Leaf" JOHN GIORNO - "Vajra Kisses" NEON JUDGEMENT - "Fashion Party" FANFARE CIOCARLIA - "Hora Cu Strigaturii" PROSTHETIC CUNT - "Dog Got Knocked The Fuck Out" THE MUMMIES - "You Must Fight To Live On The Planet Of The Apes" BUTTHOLE SURFERS - "Something" THE SCREAMERS - "122 Hours Of Fear" UMBERTO - "Red Dawn" XELA - "Halloween" SUN RA - "Astro Black" RZA - "Love Jones" MICHAEL BUNDT - "Tropic Of Night Frost" BROADCAST - "DDL" ODYSSEY - "Who" NICO - "Evening Of Light"
Good stuff.
On a related note, Can't let go without mentioning that Teeth of the Sea were responsible for the #4 Free Internet Mixes of 2010.
Genre - Soundtrack Jazz and Noise Ambience Official/Myspace - myspace.com/thewrongjaws Location - North London, England
This series of extra-hefty vinyl 7"s with really classy artwork reaches a new peak for Ghost Box. For most of its existence, the label was strictly CD's and downloads but just recently took the step into vinyl. In addition to some re-issues, these four singles mash-up two separate acts (British, electronic, hauntological) to either split sides or collaborate.
Ghost Box has delivered 3 more Study Series in 2011 - and they will end up as something for our astral year-end!
"The Young People" by Moon Wiring Club and Belbury Poly, from Study Series 01: Youth and Recreation (2010)
For #01 (my video of: both songs), Moon Wiring Club brings more of a big beat sound to Belbury Poly's synth miniatures.
Side A, "The Young People" by Moon Wiring Club and Belbury Poly: is the jam. The polyrhythms! The masterful command of shifting moods! The depth of the sound design! Hell, it's got riffs.
Side B, "Portals and Parallels": is too funky in its own right. These two fit together real nicely, and I could stand for more from the collaboration.
"Seasons Change" by The Advisory Circle with Hong Kong in the '60s, from Study Series 02: Cycles and Seasons (2010)
On #02 (both songs), The Advisory Circle plays a little background acoustic guitar on Side A, then collaborates with hazy popsters Hong Kong in the '60s.
Side A, "New Dimensions In" by The Advisory Circle: for some reason reminds me a lot of The Wicker Man film - the original one, from 1973. Something about the acoustic guitar (wood), the floutish sounds (pagan), the Britishness, and the pastoral menace... not sure what.
Side B, "Seasons Change" (with Hong Kong in the '60s): makes me think of one of those post-Dave Rick Bongwater '60s-girl pastische tunes, where Ann would do her own background vocals and everything.
"Swingalong" by Belbury Poly and Mordant Music, from Study Series 03: Welcome to Godalming (2010)
Belbury's back in #03 (both songs), this time working with Mordant Music – the wine is chilled, and so is the mood. Mordant takes Side B solo, and smudges up found-sound voices and dreamy sequencers.
Side A, "Swingalong" by Belbury Poly and Mordant Music: is a super-Space Age bachelor-about-Carnaby themesong, with maximum chimes and SFX ejaculations. (... or underwater diving soundtrack?)
Side B, "Inn Ohm the Lake" by Mordant Music: recalls a different side of Bongwater (by way of Shockabilly), with multiple extended-tape samples of people talking over a bed of musical interlude. Only more strictly synthesized...
"The Song Before" by Broadcast and The Focus Group, from Study Series 04: Familiar Shapes and Noises (2010)
By #04 (all three songs), Broadcast and The Focus Group are bringing back more of their mixed-up rituals, a great supplement to Investigate Witch Cults of The Radio Age (#6, Drone/Ambient 2009)!
The final installment is the one of these first 4 that seems most like a whole record (rather than just 2 songs on a single). This entire set reminds me of the Witch Cults album. And also definitely the fact that Trish Keenan of Broadcast succumbed to pneumonia at the beginning of this year. Although I really loved the collaboration LP, I wasn't a lifelong fan - so I didn't post anything at the time. But it's still really terrible.
In some significant ways, 2010 was "The Year of Demdike Stare" for me. Very early on, I was hooked by a Hot Offer on a limited-edition CD called Osmosis (like £6 at Boomkat!). It turned out even better than the typically-glowing Boomkat description, and through the year, they just kept coming. Terrific free online mixes (#3), another excellent full-CD mix release (Industrial Desert), a year-long trilogy of vinyl records... and the pièce de résistance at the end - the best of the full-length 1-tracks: a collaboration with Anworth Kirk, Samhain Slant Azimuth!
After much searching, I found it on the internet - listen whilst you can. Samhain Slant Azimuth is the most horror movie soundtrack-styled one, with creepy terror moods... a "seasonal sound-collage mix," as Boomkat called it. That season is Hallowe'en! Or maybe Devil's Night. Here's some streaming/download video/audio of Anworth & Demdike live-DJ podcastin'.
"Caged in Stammheim" by Demdike Stare, from Liberation through Hearing (2010)
Each release and mix has its own character, although they're all made from a mix of similar elements - ambient electronics, Eastern musics, noir jazz, minimal rhythm music techniques, some drone-some noise-some psych, a haunting mood and a soundtrack approach, obscure source audio blended seamlessly with original material.
Osmosis is the most electronic dark ambient hauntology of the three, although with some soundtrack funkiness. Industrial Desert is the most (Middle) Eastern of the mixes, with some exotica-tinged jazziness.
"Hashshashin Chant" by Demdike Stare, from Voices of Dust (2010)
Honestly it shouldn't work so well, cooking up a stew of idiosyncratic interests and releasing most of it as hour-long tracks. Which is exactly why the success of the experiment - let alone the consistency - blows me away. The only exception being the confusing first chapter of the vinyl trilogy, Forest of Evil [full album on SoundCloud]. It's a 2-track EP, whereas the other two are multiple-tune LP's. It's significantly thinner-sounding and more rhythm-focused than the rest. I just haven't been able to figure out how it fits into the puzzle with the other two, but something weird's going on.
"Dawn" [NSFW!!] by Demdike Stare, from Forest of Evil (2010)
Something weird is definitely going on... Anyway, this series just kept getting better, with (like the mix CD's) the last one being the best. But you might want to just wait for the 3xCD Tryptych release in January 2011 - with bonus mats!! (Bonus tracks are real good.)
"Bardo Thodol" by Demdike Stare, from Liberation through Hearing (2010)
So part two really gets things going, Liberation through Hearing [full album on SoundCloud] brings in more tunes with more punch. Although still with the same vibe of dark forboding. A lot of the music could just be intro's, interludes, and codas for actual "songs," so the records ebb and flow and drift around. Trip out to stoormi kläuds and "Matilda's Dream," the closing epic of the second chapter.
"Rain and Shame" by Demdike Stare, from Voices of Dust (2010)
It's a tough call, but I'm giving the slight nod to Voices of Dust [full album on SoundCloud] over Liberation. The final chapter continues doing everything right, with just a few more tracks that I find myself going back to. Like the completely epic "Repository of Light" or this non-embeddable video for "A Tale of Sand."
The 3xCD set Tryptych was released on January 20th. While I'm glad I had the 3 LP's last year, I'm also very happy that I bought the collection. Six substantial new tracks are added to everything else, and it's a super-nice and handy package. You can even buy it domestically from Forced Exposure (or even Amazon USA, if you must) - which I strongly suggest for anyone interested in the dark arts of electronical music!
Genre - Dark Ambient Official/Myspace - myspace.com/pookawig Location - Lancashire, UK
I'm not entirely sure why I ordered this. I know very little about the previous incarnation as Voice of the Seven Woods, although I had an impression of it as Six Organs-type drone-folk (which might even be accurate). I want to say I was ordering Set Phazer to Stun (#15) to get the Rough Trade bonus disc, and just added this one on a whim. But it's awesome!
"The Burning Mountain" from Voice of the Seven Thunders (2010)
Dat bass!!
"Disappearances" from Voice of the Seven Thunders (2010)
Veering between hard-charging lead guitar rock-out and quiet finger-picked acoustic folk interludes, with very slight vocals, each song just keeps topping the one before - or at least throwing a loop or two. The drone roots lie deeply beneath everything, mainly in its instrumental raga-rock nature...
But to me this doesn't seem like outsider music for the most part. Just rock jams from a guitar band - somewhere between the epic heavy-psychedelia of Earthless (#3, 2008) and the feel-good hippie grooves of The Yellow Moon Band (#8, 2009).
"Out of the Smoke" from Voice of the Seven Thunders (2010)
At least someone did something, thank you! This record feels like a journey through many twists and turns, ups and downs. Heavy guitar work-outs will settle into some quiet moments, folky balladeering will ramp up into blistering rockitude. But always with something beckoning you onward, towards the next step.
"Dalälven" from Voice of the Seven Thunders (2010)
Since no-one else was going to do it, I had to learn some all-new free video software - so maybe not my best work. "Dalälven" is pretty much sui generis on the album, being more of an avant dronescape.
"Set Fire to the Forest" from Voice of the Seven Thunders (2010)
After the mega-video-dump of Gnod + White Hills (#5), I'll direct you to the original At Echo Lake post rather than rehash. It covers different songs, mostly from the early part of the record. They're awesome, check 'em out! And now for something moderately different.
"Time Fading Lines" by Woods, from At Echo Lake (2010)
Great album from Woods! Good tunes, nice playing, just enough noisiness to give it an edge, and a high level of quality through the whole thing. Faint praise? Maybe, but if I had to guess I probably listened to this album the whole way through, the 2nd most in 2010 - 3rd most maybe. It just seemed to catch me at the right time, and continued to hold up really well.
A definite live highlight, "I Was Gone" [one version] shows up later in the album. One of the advantages with Woods fandom is a pretty sweet live gig (opener #4 Live Show 2009). And bootlegs!!
Eugene Chadbourne-worthy rake-style freak-out coda there towards the back end.
"From the Horn" by Woods, from At Echo Lake (2010)
Amidst the drones, the electro-Kraut, the space-rock, the ambient mash-up experiments, the psych and the post-rock, this was an album of laid-back, somewhat catchy, tuneful songs, done really well. And sometimes, that's more than enough.
[A longletter from the faraway past - January 2011...]
White Hills can be pretty inconsistent. But in that best way that bands will be inconsistent - something about the hobgoblin of blown minds. I wouldn't go so far as to call them "all over the map" stylistically, because they do tend towards the psychedelic-space quadrant. But they are, in some ways, an experimental rock band - in the sense that they aren't afraid to play with forms and expectations. So you get standard blast-off space-rock jams, slow-burning drones with ambient noise, collaborations with a British electronics squad, etc... Something in their core style might fall a bit flat, or might play to their strengths. Sometimes when they go farther afield it yields unexpected treats, or something that doesn't work so well.
"Nothing Less" by White Hills, from Stolen Stars Left for No One EP (2010)
I think all the best bands do this to some degree - start with what they know and like, take it apart and tinker with it, experiment and fail or succeed, and put the best results back together into something that works. White Hills just replaces the last step with "make sure the tape was rolling and release it" (echoes of Emeralds side experiments). Having only recently acquired the Gnod, I'm not even sure that group has a core style. They are however inherently experimental and stylistically all over the map. I could see them becoming the flagship Astral Headspace band. The description above goes triple for them: you never know what to expect song-to-song, but much of it rules. The more recent albums probably seem more frequently "good."
The 2xLP collaboration was just an embarrassment of riches. The White Hills self-titled album had a rockin' side and a dronin' side, and the latter was surprisingly satisfying. And them there's EP of loose, extended jams (whether rock or synth) represent the literal embodiment of my exaggeration about skipping the reintegration step of experimentation. It was real good too.
"Drop Out" from Gnod Drop Out with White Hills II (2010)
Just going to skip straight to the best: a tune so great they made it the title track... twice!! That throbbing bass, that kaleidoscope-carnival organ, that synthesizer swoop! And then the fuzz guitar, with some wild kind of ultra-vibrato and/or gating. I'm not sure how, but the drums manage to swing in an off-kilter way. It's totally sweet!
"Run-A-Round" - propulsive psych with all the accoutrements, even vocals! Probably the closest to a traditional rock song of the whole bunch. Guitars and keyboards play - together or alternating - in balanced equilibrium. The drumming's upbeat and steady, actually pretty damn catchy.
"Spaced Man" - phased and chugging space-out, noised up with Gibbytronix-style overlay. Settles down with a spiraling Dr. Who-ish electronic coda.
"Well Hang" - pinging synths over a tribalistic hand-drum, layering on the dramatic soundtrack flourishes. Sorta like Tangerine Dream vs. Popol Vuh in a deep electronic meditation cage-match.
Wow. There's a bonus track on the CD edition that came out earlier this year, "Elka." You can stream a couple minutes of it from Aquarius Records.
That first video-psych up there covers the old-school kraut (and/or Emeralds) style synth-drone bases. From the White Hills' Stolen Stars Left for No One 3-song EP...
"Drift Away" - as the title might indicate, there's a bit of woozy drift involved across this 15-minute expanse. But not entirely. The lead guitar riffs and solos with psychedelic heft, as the rest of the band steps up the intensity.
"Don't Touch Me I'm Bleeding" - a murky stew of guitar feedback, cymbal splashes, bass pedal waveform, and electronic noise.
Whoa...
White Hills self-titled was my first introduction to them ever. I don't even remember why I picked up the CD at the record store... Maybe just wanted something, and nothing else grabbed me. Anyway, it's weird and varied and different tunes hit me at different angles.
"Dead" - weird single. Like most everything on this record, the levels are truly strange. Everything seems submerged in the background, basically forcing the listener to crank it up. The drums come through a bit higher, but still not quite in the foreground. Listening-volume manipulation seems like the only explanation...
"Counting Sevens" - pattern-refracting and wave-crashing freak-out.
"Let the Right One In" - Wow, there's a major difference between the harder half (mostly up until here), and the more diffuse sound-trips (the next few). This one has a liquid bassline, some synth squiggles, and a lot of field-type sound effects (kids playing, sirens wailing, dogs barking) - and then a Slintesque break into heavier moods.
"Polve di Stella" - star-worshiping, sunlight-identifying grooves from the psyche of space. Trip-out guitar explosion wraps up the party.
Well. There are other songs somewhere in there, but my mind's been blown by a hobgoblin!
Continuing with the theme of South America, Los Jaivas reminded me about one of my favorite (current) bands from that continent - Argentina's Go-Neko! Looks like I've briefly mentioned them in only two posts on modern Krautrock: Whaddya Mean? and 3 Who Would...
Real cool band, with a pretty recent album. And yes - they are giving away FREE both of their records for download!
At the band's website, click on through, check out the comix en Español, and click again. On paginanueva, you'll see boxes for both Una Especie de Mutante (2008) and the newer Los Malos de Verdad (2010). "Descarga Gratis!" is Spanish for "Free Download!" Click each in turn, and unpack the downloaded .RAR full of space-kraut goodness. (American prices are very high for physical albums from their label - I'll keep looking.)
On to the new album...
Promotional announcement for Los Malos de Verdad (2010)
Just found Los Manos for Name-Your-Price purchase over at BandCamp (including FLAC format). Other tunes (including "Ask Matusa what to do!") streaming on trusty old MySpace.
This looks like a mini-documentary about Go-Neko! from around the time of Una Especie de Mutante (2008). Speaking's en Español, but the video (and music) is pretty universal.
Adult Swim loves Maserati. They make amazing instrumental pysch rock-ish jams and, like us, are based in Georgia. Their song "Pyramid of the Sun" (from their newest record of the same name) is a key jam, so we decided to make a video for it.
Maserati apparently played the Park It Place Lot in Albuquerque, NM - on April 4th. As part of Adult Swim's Rag Bag of Jollification events. (Best Coast played the Dixie Chicken's at A&M...)
"They'll No More Suffer from Hunger [live]" at Adult Swim Rag Bag of Jollification 2011 (Albuquerque, NM)
The Alps have mellowed out somewhat on their latest LP. Their previous III (#9, 2008) had a dreamy, sleepy vibe - but more like a noisy, hallucinatory quiet-storm. Le voyage seems a half-step more traditionally quiet, with acoustic guitars, pianos, and naturalistic field recordings. Still in the imaginary soundtrack ballpark, but even more aligned with Floyd's late-'60s filmwork.
The way I see it is... If time ran backwards, then 40 years from now, the perfect band to provide music for Zabriskie Point would be located, and they would be heavily influenced by The Alps. Instead we've got this universe, and they had to make do with Pink Floyd, the Grateful Dead (and Jerry Garcia), John Fahey, and Kaleidoscope. Which was definitely alright too...
"Drop In" from Le voyage (2010)
Side A beings with the sparkling, drifting guitar figure of "Drop In," which follows a path so natural it might as well be through a forest. A rustling, flute-like lead hovers, and a few raindrops of piano fall lightly. A stronger lead with pedal steel accompaniment wanders in and out. A tune as inevitable and unforced as a river.
"Crossing the Sands" from Le voyage (2010)
The next "song" is the only one that might be called rocking - the insistent tribal beat of "Crossing The Sands" only shows up here. The freak-out wah-wah breaks and crashes back in, rock 'n' roll style, while the acoustic rhythm just builds forward momentum.
The first half of "St. Laurent" plays like a more full-bodied cousin of "Drop In" - with a strong bassline, drums, more dramatic dynamics, and a violin? It's got that same natural beauty, though. The tasteful beat, the descending guitar line, the lead that actually follows closely to the tune's structure... And then the quiet echo played over on piano for the back half. St. Laurent is, among other things, a type of grape.
"Saturno Contro" from Le voyage (2010)
You like Pink Floyd's mid-early period (c. 1969)? I sure do!
Three brief noise interludes break up Side A, between each of the regular tunes. "The Lemon Tree" is the longest, 2 minutes of various synth squiggles over a shifting backdrop. "Petals" is the best but shortest, moving quickly from sturdy drones to a plucky keyboard. "Marzipan" is the weirdest with Francophone female ecstasy, running water, alien chamber-music, and explosions.
Not sure I fully support the approach - not everything needs to be weird. But I guess that's just part of who The Alps are... And these pieces do break up (though don't mask) a fairly similar (though very good) sounding first side.
Side B is different. "Black Mountain" sets a melancholy piano against an Indian sympathetic resonance drone machine (the tambura), and amid outdoorsy field recordings.
This leads directly into the longer-ish title track, neither an epic nor the centerpiece. Not so much an epic due to both length (under 10 mins) and formlessness ("Le voyage" translates roughly to "the voyage"). But since it is longer, I'm going to say that it's a lot like a prog tune, minus the bombast, with different movements, that with enough ingenuity you could probably equate to an actual or imaginary journey, from history or literature. It is the centerpiece of Side B, though.
"Telepathe" from Le voyage (2010)
Finally, the tambura returns to close things out on "Telepathe" - this time with added bomast. Like drum rolls and fills all over the place! I originally found it odd to call back this "foreign" sound so soon, but it makes sense with what seems to be the structure(s) of the tracklist, alternating back and forth with each song, restlessly moving on and tacking back. Something something about some kind of voyage, right?
Recorded, mixed, and bass by Philip "Tic-Tac" Manley of Jonas Reinhardt (and others), who has a new solo album on Thrill Jockey: Life Coach. Also, check out this 2009 live performance by Portraits - here: one Alp, all of Barn Owl (#11, 2010), the tambura player and field recordist on Le voyage, plus others.
The Alps also put together their ranked free online mix "Summer Trips" Typecast. You can stream or download (arrow button) with this thing:
Whilst looking up that one, I just noticed for the first time Jefre Cantu-Ledesma's solo Typecast: "Wolf Moon Mix", which looks pretty cool also.
Genre - Easy Noise Official/Myspace - myspace.com/thealpssf Location - San Francisco, CA
One-man metal machine Cloudkicker has moved - from Google.UK to a new Bandcamp site. And maybe to America? I called The Map Is Not the Territory the #20 record of 2009 (Metalloid division). And it was free, as are all his download releases.
Then, recently, somewhere I go for news had a composite list of 2010 metal releases, and I was surprised to see Cloudkicker even make the cut - it was a pretty long list. Newest album, Beacons (Sep 2010) is downloadable for name-your-price (including Free), and has been pressed up on vinyl ($15) and CD ($10). It's instrumental metal with computerized back-up, but the song titles seem to tell a story of some kind of military/spaceship/technical mishap via snippets of crew dialogue. Just now getting it, but sounds great so far - and I'll probably pick up the LP.
"Oh, god." from Beacons (2010)
"I admit it now. I was scared." and "We were all scared." from Beacons (2010)
You can stream the whole thing, and all his output, at the Bandcamp site. And that's where you'd download or order more stuff.
I'd missed the 3-song ]]][[[ EP earlier in the year, then it was redone and renamed as A New Heavenly Body (Nov 2010). Haven't even touched this one yet, but I'll definitely get around to it pretty soon.
"What it is Impossible Not to Know and What it is No Longer Permissible to Believe in the United States" from A New Heavenly Body EP (2010)
What can I say? I'm a huge fan of Pong - going way back to when 3/5 (now 3/7) of them were Ed Hall. I mean, I made videos for all the songs on this album, even "Applesauce." Which is kinda frightening... I'm surprised no restraining orders were involved! But this ended up being much stronger even than I'd originally thought.
The older live favorites were excellent of course, but some of the unheard stuff was just as good... Especially the ever-more-mindblowing title track. I still think of Pong as primarily a live in-person event, so this their 3rd album continued a progression - taking them beyond just awesomely documenting the current accumulated live set.
A few of these pull apart the slightly funky, somewhat edgy, space-vibe party-rock components and rebuild them into even weirder shapes. Also, I haven't done a scientific analysis, but I think Escobarb has the richest sound palette of Pong's three albums. Most noticeable on the synthesizers, but also female vocals, different instruments, and various treatments and effects...
I've already said a whole lot about the music on Side A and Side B. As I so rarely do here, what with all the instrumentalism - let's look at the lyrics. A lot of people will tell you to ignore the words - just bug out and/or dance - but not me. Like all great sci-fi, Pong give us a low-culture trash perspective (usually the best) on high-falutin' concepts - or so I can think.
"Rocket Fuel"
Maybe a Thoreauvian DIY blast-off: we, let's, us. Then it inverts the Major Tom dynamic for outsiders. Rather than Pong to Ground Control, it's "please send a message." Like they're not patched in directly? I can imagine Pong in their home-made rocket (in orange jumpsuits), flying past Mir and signalling for a little help. Escape velocity, new philosophy, and trajectory - maybe this "other world" is only in the mind? If so, where can I get some of this rocket fuel?
"Laika" (live light-show rehearsal)
I think the key to "Laika" is the line, "My name is God, if you spell it backwards." A lot of the situations Laika faces with us could also be our questions posed to God. "I've flown through space, yet I call you master?" And in times of trouble, "wonder why you call me your best friend..." All the instruments sound really good here, but especially the guitar-bass-guitar stop/start pattern like at the very beginning.
"Suicide Cat" I can't reconcile the first verses with the rest. The mundane first-to-second person address comes from a different place than the surreal third-person omniscience describing the café scene. Is it the reverse of Valis' fractured resolution from Horselover Fat back to PKD? And is "think of the future" helpful when talking down the suicide cat? I'm not sure whether it's acid house or techno or whatever, but I think the beat and flow tones down some kind of big electro-club style.
"Superwrong"
Swappin' DNA always reminds me of "RNA" and "mutants wearing tight genes" from the previous two albums. I had called this song "It's Great," "Super-great," "Super-eight," and maybe even "Super-right." Which all ended up being sortawrong. The instrumental breaks are classic Pong noise-bump. "This thing's stuck on On." Intense sounds!
"Applesauce" "Can you hear me go...? Now here we go..." Raise the roof, a little bit softer now. Miminalist collage moto-funk ambient, with hushed booty-call rapping and hip-hop beatz? Ayup.
"Umbrella" Nah, yer just paranoid. With a callback to the "New World Order" (from their 2001 debut), dodging the authorities to avoid being locked up and the key thrown away takes on all new meaning after the last 5-plus years. "Run from Big Brother... there'll be no place to run." I've become a bit more of a believer in this song. I like the various parts and with a different arrangement (less farmyard breakdown), I could see it working better overall.
"Sunshine"
A great mash-up of John Denver and Philip K. Dick (again!). A long long time ago, I heard someone describe "Sunshine On My Shoulder" as the epitome of poetry, because of its universal tactile resonance. The same could be said for "Your hands all over my body / oh, and I get overstimulated." That fat synth sound gets pretty overstimulated, and there's quite a bit of craziness going on between it and that hyperkinetic drumbeat, then all of a sudden... drowsy peacefulness. And soon to sleep, perchance to dream?
"Escobarb"
Pure Shakespeare, baby!! The cast of characters, the underground king of the music scene, the baseball guys, Escobarb's tape, Munsingwear, "you don't look really beat up." Reinforcing (or influencing) my Rocket Fuel theory is "we built a spaceship in my front yard." Echoing my Suicide Cat theory are the shifting (or cycling) perspectives throughout this one - definitely between time frames, possibly between characters, even genders... There are a couple of so-far-unintelligeable sections. So many mysteries!!
I think you need to be aware of this bizarre and recently unearthed tidbit, from a 1995 Austin Chronicle article on the state of Ed Hall right before their last album:
However, Chester's most salient early influence was Escobarb, a mysterious rock band/secret society that existed at his school around 1980.
"There was this guitar player when I was growing up named Sean Kelly," Chester relates. "He was this total rock god, but he never graduated high school. Then he decided he never wanted to leave his house. We thought he was the head of this supposed underground cult conspiracy called Escobarb. They played this music that was really weird, like Gong. They had all these really weird lyrics, and they were supposedly all these popular figures at the school with secret names. They would send their tapes to Sean's house in a carved-out book wrapped in Munsingwear underwear like some kind of spy thing. It got really intense. Then, they sent a book called Escobarb R.I.P., saying they had become the New Zandergroids. The book had pictures of every person who had ever been in Escobarb and my picture was in there. No one ever figured out what Escobarb was or where the tapes were coming from."
"You don't know it, but you are, already in Escobarb." Weird, huh?
P.S. I just made up the adjective "Thoreauvian," but apparently that is actually correct!
