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Free song download of "Try to Find a Memory in a Dark Room," off of the Blithe Son's new full-length, The Great Orthochromatic Wheel. The duo of Loren Chasse (Coelacanth, Of, Thuja, Child Readers) and Glenn Donaldson (Skygreen Leopards, the Birdtree, Thuja) create an airy, textural soundscape of drones and chirps, swells and buzzes employing both found sounds and created ones; it's an extremely environmental breed of ambience.
I've no reason to doubt Jan Jelinek's sincerity, so let's just assume this remarkable story is true. A couple of years back, Jelinek was flying to Vienna and got into a conversation with the passenger seated next to him, whereupon it was revealed that this passenger's mother had been a dedicated electronic music enthusiast for over thirty years, recording hundreds of hours of four-track tapes in a mini studio set up in the family's den room. Her name was Ursula Bogner, and she had had a long, professional career in the pharmaceutical industry before passing away in 1994. Her son, Sebastien, recounted how despite the outwardly ordinary trappings of her life, she was possessed of a general inquisitiveness, as well as a great curiosity towards so-called "new age" belief systems, and was a proponent of the theories of Wilhelm Reich, going so far even as to construct an Orgone Accumulator for the family's back-yard! Sebastien Bogner gave Jelinek a crack at the hours of accumulated reels, and he was enthused enough to launch a brand new label to bring this unheard music to the world. He states that the tracks he selected for this initial release were those most closely allied with his own aesthetics, and one can definitely see how Jelinek would feel an affinity for Ursula Bogner's rubbery and elastic vintage synth exercises. (In fact, a reviewer more suspicious than myself might swear to hearing Jelinek's own indelible mark on these recordings, and wonder if perhaps the stated origin of these excellent tracks is somewhat suspect.) It's easy enough to sense her amateur enthusiasm, and it's probably for the best that she stayed clear of the academy as not a single track here has that stale, dry, and musty odor one associates with institutions. They're generally jaunty and percolating little explorations of her gear's possibilities that almost sound like cells reproducing in a Petri dish, while at other times they bring to mind someone's idea of techno with a head cold, enveloped in a fog of Robotussin. A totally engaging and fascinating discovery, and such a fortunate coincidence that brought these little pieces to light. -Michael Klausman
It's been three years since the last installment of the Fat Cat split series, with their characteristic pop-gun knocked white sleeves and unusual artist pairings. I must admit I thought the series had been brought to a close, but here we are with a brand new installment and sounding better than ever matching up Finnish psychedelic darlings Kemialliset Ystävät with the sheer power of noise-god Matthew Bower under his Sunroof! moniker. Fat Cat have always managed to hoover up the most interesting artists working on the peripheries of the scene for this series, and moving on these, now of all times is a move nothing short of inspired. Fonal's Kemialliset Ystävät, the brainchild of renaissance man Jan Anderzen, are first into the fray with a handful of concise, bubbling, kinetic experimental psychedelic work-outs much in the vein of last year's stunning full-length. Where that album took their sound and refined it into something clever and coherent, these few tracks take us still further into the soft-focus yellowing foliage of this ever-changing collective. Sounding at some times like a Sublime Frequencies compilation, and at others like a long lost early electronic experiment from somewhere in Eastern Europe, it just shows off their status as Fonal's most consistently arresting slice. Flipping over we are hit with a veritable sonic assault from Bower, but where his more well-known Skullflower material hits the noiseniks with what in black metal terms would likely be KVLT, Sunroof! does similar things for experimental psychedelia. There is none of the loose structure or instrumental variety of Kemialliset Ystävät here, but Bower more than makes up for this in sheer unabashed conviction -- his guitar crashing through walls of white noise, jump-cutting over tidal waves of feedback and pummeling the senses like reams of acid. It's not easy listening that's for sure -- and thank the Gods for that. Incredible stuff. -John Twells
At first listen, this stellar Latin jazz album sounds like the product of dyed-in-the-wool, old-school cats who've spent a lifetime honing and sharpening their chops. The reality is that this record is the product of Harlem teenage boys, brought together by a federally funded after school program geared towards keeping teens from participating in the notorious Harlem riots of the sixties. The Har(lem) You(th) Percussion Group was under the direction of famed percussionist "Montego Joe" Sanders, who handpicked these talented kids and worked with them for three years before they cut their sole album for ESP-Disk in 1969. This 11-piece band stormed through seven original numbers that ranged from straight up Latin jazz floor burners like "Welcome to the Party and "Feed Me Good" to impressive modal tunes like the John Coltrane tribute "Oua-Train" which features some impressive reed work. This record has been championed by groundbreaking DJs like Gilles Peterson, Danny Krivit and HYPG's tracks have been remixed by Jazzanova and Nicola Conte, the group continuing to gather more and more fans as time goes on. There isn't anything outsider or leftfield about this album and it deserves a place next to your favorite Joe Cuba, Coltrane and Oscar Peterson records. It's that joyous and that essential. -Duane Harriott
Jens Uwe Beyer's Popnoname project definitely feels like it's coming at the right time -- although his sound has one foot firmly in the 1980s there's a sense of current practice, a sense of the Norwegian space disco and British nu-gaze without directly aping either sound. Sure there are nods towards Lindstrom or more obviously Royksopp, and vocally there's even a hint of Erland Oye but this is fused with the shoegazer sentiment of early Ulrich Schnauss or James Holden while retaining something undeniably German. You see if you didn't already get the hint from this being released on the Italic label, at its core Surrounded by Weather is a dance record, and that German touch of electronic expertise is never too far from every track, and while 'pop' is the focus, there is always a throbbing beat to remind you what you're listening to. Sure there might be no shortage of indie/house crossovers these days, especially with every indie band in the universe looking for remixes left, right and center, but Popnoname has a refreshing credibility, an honesty if you will that makes for a pleasurable listening experience. Even the most po-faced early Mode/Human League/Foxx fans should poke their nose in here, you won't be disappointed. -John Twells
I don't know much about the Birmingham Jubilee Singers, apart from the fact that they were a fine quartet active on both the Black Gospel and Vaudeville circuits. They were led by Charles Bridges of Pratt City, Alabama, and they enjoyed modest race record sales for the Columbia Record company, for whom they recorded. This is an excellent collection of both sacred and secular work, but the main reason I'm writing this review is due to a piece on here called "The Steamboat." It's simply one of the most ingenious, baffling, crazy, and awe inducing songs I've heard in ages. Maybe I'm overdoing it, but something about this song has burrowed into my consciousness and I can't shake it off. Despite dozens of listens I can't exactly claim to understand what the hell is going on in this tune, but it seems to draw some sort of parallel between Noah's Ark and a steamboat, with a baffling digression about two preachers stealing in a cornfield. The final minute of this three minute song is so sublimely nutty, with four grown men approximating the sound of a steamboat coming 'round the bend, that it has to be one of the most genius and bravura vocal performances I've ever heard, and it makes me giddy with happiness every time I hear it. -Michael Klausman
Dennis Young is probably best known to most as the marimba player in the influential Liquid Liquid. His rhythms and percussive prowess formed the backbone to one of post-punk's most important acts, and it's great to see him back in the scene, this time working in an electronic mode along with guitarist and producer Rick Coffee. The mood here is surprisingly ambient, but this is ambient music as laid out by Tangerine Dream -- drifting pads, reverberating guitars and dipping synthesized sequences. At times we even breach the under-valued new age sound; I know it's a genre that gets a bad name but it's also a genre Florian Fricke and Klaus Schulze weren't afraid to broach, and both these artists prove good comparisons for the Nebula Project. The album's finest moment is saved until last, with the mammoth twelve minute "Supernova," which echoes Schulze's experiments on the seminal Cyborg -- all cascading sci-fi synthesizers and shifting harmonic tides. I can't say I've ever taken an excursion into a floatation tank but if I did, this is what I imagine my mind would sound like... -John Twells
Look, I realize that the supremely cheesy personage known as Sting released an album of Elizabethan era composer John Dowland's works a couple of years back, but that in no way means that you're too cool to not have at least one Dowland album in your collection, so let me suggest volume four of famed lutenist Paul O'Dette's complete recordings of Dowland's works. I've no doubt that Sting is a very sensitive individual, and faced with the exquisite, heart-rending beauty of Dowland's lute works who wouldn't be? You'd have to be a barbarian to not be waylaid by the emotional wreckage Dowland leaves strewn about here, as he was the most melancholy composer in an era defined by its melancholy. This recording is so sensitively rendered I'm left with the feeling that it may not even be O'Dette's fingers plucking the strings of his lute, but instead the warm patter of his tears, drip dripping on his instrument. The only thing that should give you pause before purchasing this perfect piece of art is the fact that it will make everything else on your hard drive crass in comparison, and you'll most likely be physically unable to leave your home whenever the forecast calls for even so much as a slight drizzle. But purchase it you must, and consider it your cultural obligation to mankind, akin to being familiar with the works of Shakespeare, or a yearly trip to the Metropolitan. -Michael Klausman
Pit Er Pat have a sound that almost defines the poise of the Thrill Jockey label right now, but at the same time is very hard to define itself. Some kind of amalgam of post rock, dub, disco, world music and what is thankfully not called New Weird America any more, the music of Pit Er Pat is many things but never dull. They hop, skip and jump their way through their cache of ideas without taking so much as a breath, giving nods to the Animal Collective, the Wackies back catalogue and countless exponents of the early 80s New York art scene but appear successful, and have certainly refined their sound since the last record. It is, in the end, the band's experience and knowledge that elevates High Time further than so many of their equally zany contemporaries. This is a band than can not only play but refine their technicality into something actually worth listening to, and unlike the horde of Animal Collective soundalikes, they ceaselessly impress. It's not always coherent, but then I don't get the feeling it's supposed to be, rather this is an iPod on shuffle, sidling on through a jumbled collection only occasionally stopping for a sip of malt liquor. -John Twells
This debut full-length from this New York trio is soulful, quirky dance-rock with a new wave-y spaciousness as well as grimey gospel vibe. Featuring last year's single "Cool Town Rock," with its catchy chorus and simple, disco-synth hooks, Independent Pleasure Club is more than just a party album, but nevertheless embodies the perfect soundtrack for a night of reckless mayhem.
Following a series of reissued seven-inches come these two remixes of Danielson songs. Od Nosdam transforms "Our Givest" into a haze of deep, distorted bass and fuzzy background noise, while Jeremy Novak's (Dymaxion) "Jokin' at the Block" (from "Tell Another Joke at the Old Choppin' Block)" evolves from a sweet, orchestral folk tune to a sinister, cyclical, tribal chant. Look for a career-spanning Danielson collection out on November 4th. |
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