21st c. Krautwerks

I've put a couple of Cloudland Canyon videos up, usually to illustrate what's happening now in Krautrock. I figured it was time for their own post, because Lie in Light (2008) is a really cool album. Plus of the main duo, half is actually German! And the other from Brooklyn... which is not so unusual in a modern band really.


"Krautwerk" from Lie in Light (2008)

Fantastic song. If that doesn't hook you, then theses aren't the droids you're looking for. But anyway, I always include that song so there needs to be more. How about the whole album?

Lie In Light - Cloudland Canyo...

Regardless, I still made some more videos, because I couldn't believe there were only a couple out there from the record. Just some highlights...



"White Woman" from Lie in Light (2008)

Second song lays out a bed of electronic drone, with a little Velvet John Cale string scrapings, while a hip chant to the lady of the spheres detaches completely. Then "You & I" changes again, with hypnotic pulsations and a leisurely motorik rhythm.



"Heme" from Lie in Light (2008)

After a pure synth space-drone, "Heme" brings another floating, burbling drone intro - which settles into a nice melody. A heavy-lidded beat, wah guitar, and German vocals complete the blissed-out but mellow picture. It's like riding a magic carpet in slow motion on some exotic hookah-delivered substance.



"Lie in Light" from Lie in Light (2008)

Cloudland produce one more massive droning soundscape for the title track, before "Mothlight Part 1" again switches gears. Reverbed guitar, distorted vocals, it's almost like a Woods ballad.



"Krautwerk" [live] - May 9, 2008 - Chicago, IL

With the late, great Jerry Fuchs on drums - whose live drumwork in Maserati was posted earlier in the ongoing Krautstorm.


And here's a single, epic track released all on its own - a collaboration with Lichens: "Exterminating Angel" (2007).

Exterminating Angel - Cloudlan...

Snailface II: Fishy Man-Goat

I recently noticed a new-ish comment on the 2009 Next 10 Metalloid list - from Snailface (#18)!


Looks like Snailface II (2010) is upon us. Available at the same site as the debut, and just as free... Just a little run-through and it seems good, a bit more grooviness, with a spoken-word trilogy of interludes and maybe even awesomer song titles.



"Fishy Man-Goat Terrifies Couples Parked at Lake Worth / Mogollon" from Snailface II (2010)

What I'd said about Snailface (2009):

I'd never heard of Kowloon Walled City (the band). But they took up a 6-day album-making challenge, and the results are free! Hilarious, good, dopey (stoner) Doom, recommended for Black Sabbath fans. The riffs are thick and numerous, the playing is right-on, and once again it's a super-bargain.

There's even a promo video, with bison sing-a-long!!




And just for completeness' sake, here's the video that I had made for "Botanomancer (Sap Cave of the Magi)" from I - still available at the same site as before.

Creature With The Atom Brain

Not the song, not the movie, but the band. I was reading the newest Mojo magazine (Peter Gabriel cover) - remember the post on their great compilations? This month's cd is dream POP, with Cluster and Eno, Cocteau Twins, Panda Bear (#10, 2007), Mercury Rev (Top 10 in 1993 and 1995), etc...


Here's their three-star (*** of 5) review of Transylvania (2010):

You can't move for bands claiming a Queens of the Stone Age connection, and for Creature With The Atom Brain it comes in the form of both a B-movie sounding name (a 13th Floor Elevators reference), an appearance by Mark Lanegan, a shared producer in former Kyuss man Chris Goss and former members of Josh Homme-affiliates Millionaire and Evil Superstars. And like many a band in the Queens circle of friends, you possibly have a rough idea of what they'll sound like: hypnotically languid vocals, mantra-like riffs, and songs that seep out your speakers like hot magma at their own slow, clock-melting speed. It's all been done before, of course, but it's hard not to fall for the pulsating head trip of Transylvania or the disorienting slow-psych burn of opener "I Rise The Moon." Just one question: do they have deserts in Belgium?

The reference is actually to a Roky Erickson song, which is a reference to an actual 1955 B-movie. According to the Wiki, "Struyf cit[es] Erickson's former band The 13th Floor Elevators and the man himself as influencing Creature with the Atom Brain's sound." But here are some videos... or just buy it here.


"I Rise the Moon" from Transylvania (2010)


"Is That Lady Sniff?" is a Butthole Surfers reference.


"Transylvania" is the title track of the album.


"Spinnin' the Black Hole" is the 4th video I found.



"My Flag" from The Snake (2005)


O yeah, they're Belgian.

Free Live Tapes with Maserati

I found a great resource for live music bootlegs, authorized by the artists before the hi-grade recording equipment gets dragged in. Most importantly, part of the offerings was Maserati (#2 Live Show of 2009, #2 Album of 2007)!! Awesome...


That sent me on a search for more available live recordings from them, and I found some.

Portland, OR 10/10/09 [back-up link]
The setlists for these 2009 shows are all pretty similar, and I just found them so I can't suggest one over the other. Get 'em all. This is the only one with "Inventions," which is a great song. The longest one, with the most tunes. (Each track is a separate download: make sure they all complete at ~10-20,000kb file sizes.)

Athens, GA 9/19/09
This is the shortest one, but it's the hometown gig. But not the March show famous for the many videos on YouTube.

Charlottesville, VA 5/27/07 [Fuchs pix]
One .mp3 file, about 36 minutes, ~17,000kb. As you'd imagine, the versions are pretty different. Around the time the last new album was out, so the tracks were much newer and the arrangements looser. Set list: Inventions, Synchronicity IV, 12/16, The World Outside, Show Me The Season. Nice! (Main issues: 1 file, 64kbps bitrate.)



So, now to the resource I mentioned. unARTigNYC is for NYC live videos... NYC Taper is for audio, found via this Rocket Recordings blog post.

These seem to be completely authorized by the bands. Obviously lots of NYC acts - Oneida (5) and Yo La Tengo (6) and Antlers (9), plus some other regulars... Animal Collective (5), Fiery Furnaces (11), etc. They don't keep every single recording available, so you might have to e-mail for them to re-up some of the older ones.

All 2009 bootlegs:
[list] Site's 2009 Top 10 Concerts

Maserati - 9/28/2009
This is the one that started the quest, and the only NYCtaper download I've grabbed yet. Very, very nice sound! Includes only 2009 "The World Outside" that I found, and a really good version of unreleased song "We Got the System to Fight the System." Unfortunately omits set opener "No More Sages."

Dungen - 8/14/2009
Feelies play Crazy Rhythms at Maxwell's - 11/21/2009
Double Nickels Anniversary Show - 7/25/2009
Woods w/ songs - 7/15/2009
Woods w/ jams - 2/6/2009

I might add more descriptions later. But you know what you like best...


2008 bootlegs, pt. 1:
[list] 2008 Top 10 Concerts

Black Mountain - 2/23/2008
Squeeze-heavy Chris Difford - 5/13/2008


2008 bootlegs, pt. 2:
Devo - 6/26/2008
Tom Tom Club - 6/26/2008

Not sure about the rest...


2008 bootlegs, pt. 3:
Butthole Surfers - 12/12/2008
Wilco - 8/13/2008.
Epic show, great-looking double encore!

Stereolab - 10/2/2008


All 2007 & 2006bootlegs:
[list] 2007 Top 5 Concerts

Neil Young - 12/19/2007
Roger Waters doing Dark Side plus... - 5/30/2007
Radiohead - 6/24/2006

With No Human Intervention - Aborym (#7, 2004)

Maybe I just like calling them the best Italo-Hungarian Hard/Black Alien Industrial Metal band, by far! But really, this has the most unique take on the Black Metalloid sound of anything since the originators. You'd think the main draw would be the BM+avant superstar frontman and "Voice of Death" Attila Csihar (Mayhem, Sunn O))), The Beast of..., on and on). Partially, but witness the mix of cyber-thrash, straight electronics, even techno!


"With No Human Intervention" from With No Human Intervention

After the Shakespeare-quoting, haunted-radio-tuning seance intro of "Antichristian Codec (Intro)," the title track plunges directly into the raging maelstrom of metal, electro, mystic chants and demonic howls that make up most of this record. Once you grok all of that, the lyrics await [all]. Some of the chanting is Latin: Vivit et non vivit. Black Metalisms glorious as "History bears witness of doctrinal screams!" At half the length, "U.V. Impaler" tackles about 19 times as many different approaches. Chanting now Hungarian. Pounding, shredding, arpeggiating, mellowing, grinding, everything!!


"Humechanics-Virus" from With No Human Intervention (2004)

The riff, with Maxwell's Silver Glitch-Tone! Attila's insane vocals altered further into the depths of sound effect. The musical progression moving towards the end. The middle section with machine noise breakdown, which return to form the basis of "Does Not Compute." Sounds like some kind of printer/lathe cycling through, with additional rhythms gradually layered on. Then it's an all-out "unce-unce-unce" techno beat, which I don't normally like. But I'll tell you why this works better than actual techno: other than the beat and breaks, everything else is working against the rhythm. The machine recording doesn't mesh to it, the synthworks are too floaty to reinforce it.


"Faustian Spirit of the Earth" from With No Human Intervention

Plus another monolith of metal follows, cut from the same cloth as the title track. I'm really digging these lyrics, which I'd never really understood. "Gather your modalistic interchange ability," it begins. Parts of this follow the Absu approach to singing the unsingable - just a few syllables at a time, ignore syntax. "Digital Coat Masque" is another good one. I really like the gothic synth and vocal delay with disco hi-hat sections... the harpsichordian classical-gas not as much. "The Triumph" is 10 minutes long and features some quieter keyboard moments and the female orgasm.



"Black Hole Spell" splits between gloomy synth dirge and more Blackened wailing. Rick Wakeman might even recognize parts of the very end. "Me(n)tal Striken Terror Action 2" was only #10 on the Top 10 Most Ridicvlous Black Metal Song Titles - 4th post! Unusual coda ya got there... "Out Of Shell" gets a bit funky at points, maybe to prepare you. "Chernobyl Generation/The Alienation of a Blackened Heart" two-fer-one. The first builds on pretty straight dancefloor slamming, good for a negative comparison to why "Does Not Compute" is better. The second kinda reminds me of early Black Flag, filtered through 21st century European extreme metal sensibilities. You'll have to check Lala for the outro "Automatik Rave'olution Satan," which is beaty noise-ambient, but only one minute long.

This really could have gone higher on the Top 10. Exceedingly solid album, especially given the unusual style combinations and general noise-making.

Genre - Hard/Black Alien Industrial Metal
Official - code666.net/aborym/
Myspace - myspace.com/aborym666
Location - Italy

Review - Metal Storm
Download - Amazon, iTunes
Lala - With No Human Intervention
Purchase - Amazon

Extreme Metal Update 2010

I'll just leave this here...


New Tom G. Warrior! Triptykon's Eparistera Daimones (2010)



Tom G. was in the early extremers Hellhammer, and the seminal Celtic Frost. His new thing is Triptikon, and apparently this was intended to be the last Celtic album. First official Giger album art in quite awhile, but I think they're Swiss buddies. Warrior is curating a night at this year's Roadburn festival - which should be any minute now. Well, another few weeks yet... looks like fun!



New Darkthrone!! Circle the Wagons (2010)



I'd heard that Darkthrone had moved away from the Black Metal they helped establish, but I didn't realize it had gone so punk 'n' crusty. Pretty funny interview with Fenriz at Pitchfork of all places.

[Edit 3/27: Not worth its own post, but here is Fenriz listing his must-have albums. Can't find any previous list that appears to be continued...]

Krautrock-Sessions 1994-2001 - Space Debris (#8, 2004)

This is where it all began, once again. The original, self-released collection of home recordings and demos. Space Debris has made it here before/later (#7, 2008 and #2 of 2005 new releases). Pretty sweet start... As the title would indicate, a revival for Krautrock of some sorts.


"Long Distance Voyager" from Krautrock-Sessions 1994-2001 (2004)

More and more bands have recently taken inspiration from the German wave of experimental rockers in the '70s. But mostly from the heavy hitters like Kraftwerk, Neu!, Tangerine Dream, even a little Can. Those weren't really very typical of most other Kraut bands' sound, which is what Space Debris does more of... Extended space jamming with a lot of lead guitar stylings, organ riffs and explorations, time signature and mood shifts. As I've probably said before, they're sure-footed on this terrain and only stumble when things include vocals and/or get too bluesy. It's okay, just comes off less distinctive when compared to the full-on jams.


"Green Skies" from Krautrock-Sessions 1994-2001

These first two start off the debut cd, and are both available at their official Free Downloads page, which seems to get updated pretty regular. I'm just about to grab the new "Live Mitschnitt Zürich 2009" myself! After these two 'singles' comes the epic "We Were at the Moon Before You Were at the Moon." 16+ minutes of pre-Dark Side Pink Floyd pastiche, with some heaviness added. So you've got some "Saucerful," some "Interstellar," and whole load of "Echoes" - that sometimes almost reaches into Led Zeppelin's "San Francisco" interpolation from The Song Remains' "Stairway."

Then three quick ones. The short, possibly even sped-up, version of "Lorna's Vibrator." Quick and quirky. Then a brief rocker, followed by the more funky but less experimental long version of "Lorna's." Less than 3 minutes long version.


"Phobos was Here" [edit] from Krautrock-Sessions (2004)

And we're back in 10-minute terrain. "Phobos" isn't necessarily better than "At the Moon," but it's punchier for the most part. Quality dips slightly with a slower blues number and then an organ raver. I'd assume these were earlier '90s sessions, but honestly, these types of tunes crop up later as well. Anyway, Space Debris knew where their bread is buttered, so the album finishes strong. "Daydream" ebbs and flows at length, alternately favoring the organ, guitar, and rhythm. With an unusual Czukay-style cut-and-paste right in the center, or maybe the organist just decided the jam wasn't over. "Miranda" fades in and fills out the disc maximum, literally filler. But pretty fun, an almost '50s-style rave-up with Chuck Berry shredding, etc... This is not so typical later on. Like I say, fun!

Space Debris is a really cool little band, and they're doing it all themselves. I haven't heard the newest stuff, but they were still self-recording, self-releasing and self-booking in 2008. Probably now too. A bit expensive to support, but I'm still tempted by the $55 3xLP Elephant Moon. I found it cheaper to order the cd's by e-mailing the band - not sure if that still works. But either way, the music's worth it!

Genre - Kraut Jam
Official - spacedebrisprojekt.de/
Myspace - myspace.com/spacedebrisprojekt
Location - Baden-Württemberg, Swabia, Germany

Review - a few here at Official
Download/Lala - neither...
Purchase - All That Is Heavy