Vitamin Fuzz

2009-05-20T21:38:00.004-05:00

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO VITAMIN FUZZ EPISODE 4 [5.20.09]

The night before this program I fell into a hallucinatory slumber only to learn that my sleepy night terrors weren't hallucinatory. I felt an eerie tickle shoot up my leg. With a slap to the thigh I grabbed hold of a crimson cockroach antenna, but the juicy armored bugger slipped through my fingers and quickly scurried out of sight. The rest of the night I woke up panting at a 90 degree angle, bug eyed and defeated. Thus, I have to agree with Michael Ghira, "God Damn the Sun", bring on the "Dead Moon Night"!

Sleep deprived and blurred by the heat, here are another two hours of bleached-out jams from the heavens to the depths of the darkest ocean caves.

Vitamin Fuzz Playlist 5.20.09:

Diana Rogerson & Andrew Liles – Can I Tempt You With All This – No Birds Do Sing [United Dirter 2009]
Thrones – Django – Sperm Whale [Kill Rock Stars 2000]
The Deviants – I’m Coming Home – Ptooff!! [Edsel 1967]
The Deviants – Garbage – Ptooff!! [Edsel 1967]
The Pink Fairies – When’s The Fun Begin? – Kings of Oblivion [Polydor 1973]
Dead Moon – Dead Moon Night – Dead Moon Night [Music Maniac 1990]
Debris – Witness – Static Disaster [Anopheles 2008, orig. 1976]
Nurse With Wound – Tune Time Machine – Who Can I Turn To Stereo [United Diaries 1996]
Nurse With Wound – Landed at Granma’s – Who Can I Turn To Stereo [United Diaries 1996]
Legendary Pink Dots – Disturbance – The Maria Dimension [Play It Again Sam 1991]
Death In June – Break the Black Ice – The World That Summer [New Europeans 1986]
Swans – Trust Me – Children of God [Caroline 1987]
Michael Ghira – God Damn the Sun – Songs For A Dog [Lumberton Trading Company 2006]
My Bloody Valentine – Slow – You Made Me Realize [Creation 1988]
The American Analog Set – White House – From Our Living Room to Yours [Emperor Jones 1997]
Jessamine – Cellophane – Jessamine [Kranky 1995]
CAN – Pinch – Ege Bamyasi [Mute 1972]
Black Sabbath – Sweet Leaf – Masters of Reality ¬[Warner Bros. 1971]
Het – Alleen Op Het Kerkhof – Kejje Nagaan Ik Geen Om Op Te Staan [Op Art, orig. 1966]
Blossom Toes – Look At Me I’m You – We Are Ever So Clean [Marmalade 1967]
The Outsiders – Strange Things Are Happening – Strange Things Are Happening: The Complete Singles 1965-1969 [RPM 2002]
White Noise – Firebird – An Electric Storm [Island 1969]
Alexander ‘Skip’ Spence – Cripple Creek – OAR [Sundazed 1969]
Nagisa Ni Te – Same as a Flower – The Same as a Flower [Jagjaguwar 2004]
Nico – These Days – Chelsea Girl [Polygram 1967]

Tune in on June 3rd when the sun skips across the lake (6-8am) for the next installment of Vitamin Fuzz on WHPK 88.9 fm.

Godspeed.

2009-05-06T21:13:00.010-05:00

Three episodes in and still brain-dead and rusty. I guess it's how it goes, Rust Never Sleeps when you're rockin' to sounds of the "Six Six Sixties". Vitamin Fuzz greeted May with schizo echoes of sunshine sprinkles and wet shiny drizzles and insomnia clicks and sunrise clanks. Though the first hour highlighted the softer side of the vitamin with freaky-folk-hippie-jams... yes flutes, bongos and all; you can only sniff a hi-lighter so long before the scroking noise and endless delay kicks in!

Playlist 5.6.09:

Smegma – Id-O-Matic – Pigs for Lepers [Pigface 1982]
Throbbing Gristle – Six Six Sixties – 20 Jazz Funk Greats [Industrial 1972]
Feathers – Silverleaves in the Air of Starseedlings – Feathers LP [Gnomonsons 2006]
Scott Tuma – Nobody (Rive of Tin) – Not for Nobody [Digitalis 2008]
Pelt – Deep Sunny South – Ayahuasca [VHF 2001]
Incredible String Band – A Very Cellular Song – The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter [1968 Hannibal]
Pearls Before Swine – Morning Song - One Nation Underground [ESP-Disc 1967]
Espers – Black is the Color – The Weed Tree EP [Locust 2006]
MV & EE with The Golden Road – Drone Trailer – Drone Trailer [Dicristina Stair 2009]
Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Thrasher – Rust Never Sleeps [Reprise 1979]
Tim Buckley – Once I Was – Goodbye and Hello [Asylum 1967]
*Amok Pe Current 93 – 26 April 2007 – Aleph at Hallucinatory Mountain [Durtro 2009]
Movietone – The Blossom Filled Streets – The Blossom Filled Streets [Drag City 2000]
Movietone – Mono Valley – Mono Valley/Under the 3000-Foot Red Ceiling 7” [Planet Records 1995]
*Bardo Pond – Karwan – Peri [Three Lobed Recordings 2009]
Brainticket – Black Sand – Cottonwoodhill [Bellaphon 1971]
La Düsseldorf – Rheinita – Rheinita/Viva 7” [bureau b 2008 reissue/originally from 1979]
Cave – The Ride – The Ride/Bobby’s Hash 7” [Static Caravan 2008]
Circle – Andexelt – Andexelt [Metamorphos 1999]
High Rise – Outside Gentiles – Live [Squealer Revisited 1994]
Ghost – Live With Me (The Rolling Stones) – Snuff Box Immanence [Drag City 1999]
The Warlocks – Cocaine Blues – The Warlocks EP [Bomp 2000]

*so new the paints wet

To hear Vitamin Fuzz live, tune into Chicago's WHPK 88.9 FM every other Wednesday from 6-8am. The next episode is on May 20th of this very year. See you then?

Amok Pe Current 93 - Aleph at Hallucinatory Mountain [Dutro 2009]

2009-04-30T10:37:00.003-05:00

After a three-year hiatus David Tibet and his malevolent regiment have returned to sustain the kingdom of Current 93 with the potent, poetic and poignant Aleph at Hallucinatory Mountain. Under the guise of Anok Pe Current 93, Tibet’s acute collaborative drive has reached its zenith—Nurse With Wound producers Steven Stapleton and Andrew Liles are back and joined by 12-string virtuoso James Blackshaw, out-percussionist Alex Neilson, guitarist Matt Sweeney, Baby Dee and strangely enough Andrew W.K., which is just the tip of the iceberg.

With Aleph, Tibet’s unmistakable lyricism is another labyrinth of obscure and phantasmagoric Aleister Crowley inspired prose, akin to the delirious monologues of Dostoevsky’s morally wounded Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment and Ivan in The Brothers Karamazov. Enigmatic references of Adam, Aleph, murder and Docetic Mountains reiterate with fervor to the point of obsession.

James Blackshaw’s finger-picking is the perfect backdrop for Tibet’s antediluvian folk songs. However, some of the heavier guitar work fueled by repetitive stoner riffs and 70’s hard rock solos fail to uphold the austere atmosphere. Where electric instruments fail, the piano, viola and cello, along with the onslaught of cryptic Nurse With Wound effects and samples retains the feverish pulse.

The descent into the depths of darkness begins with the sludgy epic “Invocation of Almost”, where Tibet’s fixation with murder twirls around an unhurried tempo similar to Chris Haikus’ hypnotic rhythms in Sleep and Om. The drones of “Poppyskins” unlock a third-eye pried open by the obvious abuse of drugs till dawn. Drug reverberations continue as Tibet recalls his acid trip of “26 April 2007” by reciting, “my back was attacked by hallucinatory mountains, where teeth were possessed by demons and devils and I was by myself and of myself, just me and bones and thoughts”.

Many of Aleph’s pieces are expanded and reshaped works from Amok Pe’s first EP, 2008’s stunning Birth Canal Blues. Like the preceding EP, Aleph at Hallucinatory Mountain might not be as sinister or out-there as I Have a Special Plan for This World or the repetitive and operatic perfection of “Where the Long Shadows Fall”, yet it does drip colorfully from Tibet’s constantly expanding palette.

Bardos Freedoom

Some LP Saved My Life Tonight... Seems Like A Freeze Out - Uncle Jeff's Most Prized LP

2009-04-30T10:09:00.006-05:00

We were talking about our most prized piece of vinyl and I had to go into the stacks and pull out an old Dylan bootleg I picked up in Boston as a kid. It was one of those rubber stamped LP's with no track listing, but it had the TMOQ (Trade Mark of Quality) sticker on it and that meant you were in for something good. Now back then, around 1971, there was no stinkin' Internet, no bittorent, and believe me, we didn't like it. The only way to hear unreleased gems was to buy sketchy bootleg recordings from underground record shops, places Uncle Jeff was known to inhabit as a toddler. I had to take the train downtown and sure enough near Cambridge I found this mysterious Dylan LP, pink cover and all. The hairy dude at the counter said it was on colored vinyl and this might have been the LP that caused my lifelong fetish for sexy vinyl—it was splattered white, brown and black like a spin-art painting done at the amusement park. And the recordings have an excellent studio sound, all unreleased Bob takes of which only some are available on the Bootleg Series Dylan has so mercifully unleashed for the masses.

Track listing:

Side 1:
1. California
2. Lay Down Your Weary Tune (a Whitmark Demo)
3. Dusty Old Fairgrounds
4. If I Could Do It All Over, I'd Do It All Over You (one I'd heard Artie Traum do)
5. Whatcha Gonna Do
6. Farewell

Side 2:
1. I Wanna Be Your Lover (with the Band in 1965)
2. Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window (fast version)
3. From A Buick 6 (outtake)
4. Visions of Johanna (piano version)
5. She's Your Lover Now (amazing!)

Now before you start thinking, "Aw I've heard all these before…", you gotta realize at the time none of these tracks were even remotely in circulation. Thanks to the good late night DJ’s at WBCN, I'd heard one or two of these songs and the double Great White Wonder LP that I picked up before was a good primer (3-sides of Basement Tapes), but this LP is the ONE that started the lifelong love of collecting BOOTLEGS, say it again, BOOTLEGS, the wondrous source of insights and magic that later became somewhat of a thorn in artists' sides. TMOQ, the amazing Kornyphone Label, Rubber Dubber, you betcha! And if it was on colored vinyl, all the better!

Well, the LP is wrapping up side-two right now, and it's still all in the grooves, the magic of illicit adventure, the revelatory insight into the recording process, the mystery of why some songs don't make it and the desire for more. The second side ends with the most famous cut-off fade-out lyrics in all bootlegdom, "Now your mouth cries wolf...", the song was never finished.

We'll save the story of Neil Young's Live on Sugar Mountain LP for another day.

Uncle Jeff

2009-04-22T09:38:00.005-05:00

Here it is folks, the second episode of Vitamin Fuzz, featuring two sugarcoated hours of 60's garage-psych. from the British Invasion and of course the good ol' U.S.S.A., Swedish LSD-punk, Rocky Mountain Highs and Great Lake Lows, repetitive sun-drenched desert jams, kraut freak-outs and a slew of extraordinary hallucinatory echoes. Those cryptic voices yelling demonic chants may be in your head, but most likely they're Vitamin Fuzz radio signals beaming into your cochlea. Relax, they'll subside in a bit. In the meantime have some chocolate or a nice ciggy wiggy dilly and let the fumes waft with the horrors!

Vitamin Fuzz can be heard live every first and third Wednesday of the month on WHPK 88.5 FM. from 6-8am CST. The next show will be on May 6th when the darkness meets the pink clouds on the horizon. Tune in or 2012 won't take kindly to you.

Thanks to Webmaster J, a.k.a. Professor Doom for his guidance through the foggy abyss.

Playlist 4.22.09:

Clara Rockmore – Tchaikovsky: Valse Sentimentale – The Art of the Theremin [1977 Delos International]
The Byrds – Mr. Spaceman – Fifth Dimension [Colombia 1966]
The Kinks – Waterloo Sunset – BBC Sessions 1964-1977 [Essential! 2001]
The Monks – Pretty Suzanne – This LP Crashes Hard Drives [Various Labels 2009 Record Store Day Release]
Lollipop Shoppe – Mr. Madison Avenue – Just Colour [UNI 1967]
Icewater – Feeling High – Thank You Friends: The Ardent Record Story [Big Beat 2008]
Brainbombs – After Acid – Burning Hell [Blackjack 1992]
Royal Trux – Back to School – Back to School between Cleveland 7” [Drag City 1993]
The Druids of Stone Hedge – Bald Headed Woman – Self-Titled Double Mono 45rpm [Sundazed 1996]
Donovan – Legend of a Girl Child Linda – Sunshine Superman [Epic 1966]
Pisces featuring Linda Bruner – Sam - This LP Crashes Hard Drives [Various Labels 2009 Record Store Day Release]
Current 93 – Where the Long Shadows Fall – The Inmost Light [Dutro 2007]
Yoko Ono – Midsummer New York – Fly [Rykodisc 1971]
The Red Crayola – Hurricane Fighter Pilot – The Parable of Arable Land [Collectables 1967]
Amon Düul II – Eye Shaking King – Yeti [Repertoire 1970]
Religious Knives – Downstairs – The Door [Ecstatic Peace! 2008]
Spacemen 3 – Come Down Easy – The Perfect Prescription [Taang 1987]
Blue Cheer – Summertime Blues – Vincebus Eruptum [Polyvinyl 1968]
Dead Meadow – Rocky Mountain High – Dead Meadow [Tolotta 2001]
Comets on Fire – The Antlers of the Midnight Sun – Blue Cathedral [Sub Pop 2004]
Wooden Shjips – Shrinking Moon For You – Volume I [Holy Mountain 2008]
Kraftwerk – Radioactivity – Radio-Activity [Capital 1975]

Sleepy Sun - Embrace [ATP 2009]

2009-04-19T11:04:00.000-05:00

Luck found me in the dark, locked down dungeon of my favorite radio station. I was searching out the new sounds and got sidetracked by a copy of Embrace, the debut project of San Francisco's Sleepy Sun. Music Director Matherine assured me this compact disk would take me where I wanted to be, so I grabbed it up and moved out the exit. Of course anyone at last month's SxSW would know Sleepy Sun, but I am not much of a wanderer. Me f'ing bad.

This release is a gambit of sludgy, tribal, whispering melded to heavily syncopated jams. Modal illusions of evilness morphing towards gospel-esque purity. These songs span where we are and the world we want to be in. Reality exists only in the silent gaps between the tracks. Listen on headphones in a face painted hypnosis and the mind alteration takes over.

If you're into the Black Mountain Army, Dead Meadow, Blue Cheer or lonely fogs of happiness you found the next CD for your collection.

Sleepy Sun claims, "Pizza, horticulture and Neil Percival Young," to be their shared interests and their inspiration, "bats, coming directly out of hell." Duh!

Tracks:

1 New Age 7:25 > tribal breaths
2 Lord 5:39 > spaced-out religion
3 Red/Black 2:11 > heavy trance
4 Sleepy Son 7:24 > haunting, drawn-out jam
5 Golden Artifact 3:42 > modal medicine
6 White Dove 9:23 > batty bells, wall-o-sounds
7 Snow Goddess 5:38 > calm & a storm
8 Duet With Northern Sky 2:58 > folksy Ryan Adams

You will love every fuzzy ghost and whisper on this CD. Embrace is due for release May 11th.

Professor Doom, Esq.

Viatmin Fuzz Radio 4.8.09

2009-04-08T09:40:00.010-05:00

Vitamin Fuzz is a cryptic and medicative sunrise dose of freak-out reverberations; a black hole of kraut, space, psych., doom, drone, stoner-metal and a plethera of obscuro hisses and hums. You can tune into Vitamin Fuzz on Chicago's WHPK 88.5 FM every other Wednesday from 6-8am CST.

Vitamin Fuzz Playlist 4/8/09:

Nurse With Wound/Stereolab – Simple Headphone Mind – Simple Headphone Mind [Duophonic 1997]
Black Mountain – Druganaut (Extended) – Druganaut 12" [Jagjaguwar 2004]
Quickspace – Song for Someone – Quickspace [Slash 1997]
Hawkwind – D-Rider – Hall of the Mountain Grill [1974 One Way]
Bardo Pond – Lord of Light – Sonic Attack (Lords of Light) 7” [Trensmat Records 2008]
Bardo Pond – Tommy Gun Angel – Lapsed [Matador 1997]
Les Rallizes Denudes – Strong Out Deeper Than the Night – Heavier Than a Death in the Family 1973-1977 [Ain’t Group Sounds]
Scott Walker – Farmer in the City – Tilt [Drag City 1995]
Sonny Sharrock with Linda Sharrock – Portrait of Linda in Three Colors, All Black – Black Woman [4 Men With Beards 2001]
Harvey Milk – Death Comes to Winter – Life… The Best Game in Town [Hydra Head 2008]
Pontiak – Dome Under the Sky – Kale (Arbouretum/Pontiak Split 12”) [Thrill Jockey 2008]
Faust – Picnic on a Frozen River, Deuxieme Tableax – Faust IV [Virgin 1973]
The Velvet Underground – Ocean – Peel Slowly and See [Polydor 1993]

Alela Diane - To Be Still [Rough Trade 2009]

2009-03-19T20:00:00.000-06:00

In a dive urbanized java-stop I'm giving a first listen to Alela Diane's latest Rough Trade release, To Be Still. This CD is so deck it's killing me, the grayed out bohemian goofing my mind through ear-buds and window reflections, typing on a single-finger keyboard and getting off to the effortless melodies and seemingly overcast lyrics. All the while tapping my foot and abusing the free Wi-Fi, searching out exactly who is Alela Diane Menig?

Running up and around the west coast between Northern California, S.F., and Portland brewed up the smooth loathing Psych Folk style Alela is becoming known for. Her lyrics float and sink on cloudy mountains and snow-covered paths. Windy relationships pull at this child like a sedated kite over a rocky beach. The range of her voice spans the clarity of Arctic ice and the mellowness of a 56 year old whiskey I just dug out of my dead father's liquor stash.

Sniffing through the world-wideness does not give up much dirt on Alela's backing band, except it consists of her father Tom Menig (Deadbeats), hipster Michael Hurley (hepcat fiddler with Son Volt, Calexico and Lucinda Williams) and a host of musically adept friends she keeps in her kitchen by feeding them grilled cheese sandwiches and smoky lyrics.

This 11 track CD is a complete joy and I predict it to be my top pick for 2009... now I am committed. The vocals are right out front and the accompaniment includes a diversity of stringed instruments (cello, fiddle, mandolin, banjo), plenty of tribal beats and interesting effects. It all fits so perfectly with Alela Diane's vocals.

The eerie stillness of "Every Path" makes it my favorite track. Other joys of solace include the walking beat with steel guitar in "To Be Still" and the somewhat traditional folk sound of "The Alder Trees".

Alela Diane Menig is playing SXSW this week, then directly off to the UK for a European tour through April. She returns to the states in early May to play Seattle's Triple Door with Iron & Wine. I can only imagine the harmonic possibilities of a Sam Beam/Alela Diane duet.

Previous releases by Menig include The Pirate's Gospel [Holocene Music, 2006] and two self-released EP's, Forest Parade [2003] and The Pirate's Gospel, [2004].

Jay Niemoth March 2009

Grandmaster Flash Interview

2009-03-11T09:37:00.000-06:00

Grandmaster Flash, a.k.a. ‘The Wheels of Steel” is one of the originators of hip-hop, making up the triad of forefathers along with Kool Herc and Afrika Bambaataa. Leading the MC crew, The Furious Five, Flash unleashed some of the most renowned hip-hop of the 70’s and 80’s, including the 1982 classic “The Message”, which transformed hip-hop from party music to a conscious culture with a socio-political message. Now more than 30-years after the music’s inception Grandmaster Flash is back with The Bridge, his second release on Strut following the innovative The Official Adventures of Grandmaster Flash, which tells Flash’s story through a mixtape-like format, weaving together interviews with old and new material.

When I spoke to Grandmaster Flash he was at his home in New York City, packing his suitcase for an eight day Australian tour. Excited to leave New York’s winter for the Australian sun, he was eagerly packing shorts and sandals and excited to venture ‘Down Under,’ mentioning that they are “deep into hip-hop, both old school and new.”

Bardos Freedoom: Where did you get your nickname, “The Wheels of Steel”?

Grandmaster Flash: People call me that? Well the wheels of steel are the turntable platters, so I guess people think of me as a turntable.

BF: Your new album is called The Bridge; can you talk about some of the bridges you’ve crossed throughout hip-hop’s history?

GMF: I created the album like a DJ set. It’s got a 70’s template with a 2009 feel. The bridges refer to going from one genre to another. Like in a DJ set you might move from “Apache” to Jay Z. But the album is also a mirror of international talent that I have been lucky enough to experience while traveling the world. On the track “We Speak Hip-Hop”, there is a mix of international MC’s rapping in English, Swedish, Spanish and Spanglish. I wanted to create an album with a diversity of tracks to reflect the diversity of hip-hop; pairing famous MC’s with unknown MC’s and American MC’s with international rappers.

BF: Do you think hip-hop is now a global music?

GMF: Hip-hop is the most popular music in the world. It used to be country, but now it’s hip-hop. Journalists say that hip-hop is global. But I think for hip-hop to truly be global you have to be able to turn on the radio and hear a track with American and overseas influences. And that hasn’t happened yet. But music is a universal language so it will happen.

BF: Do you think hip-hop has stayed true to your “Message”?

GMF: The last thing I am thinking about is politics. I am a DJ, I jam. I play funky breaks for dope audiences. I love KRS-One and Public Enemy and that facet of hip-hop, but if I only thought about one facet of hip-hop, we wouldn’t have the diversity that we do.

BF: Hip-hop began as a DJ centered culture, where rapping served the purpose of prepping the audience for the next record, but today MC’ing has become the primary focus. Because of this change some people mistake you as an MC even though you’re a DJ and producer. What are your feelings about this?

GMF: There was a time when people thought I was an MC, but thank God that doesn’t happen anymore. That confusion was mostly because someone in my crew decided to steal my name. So people were like, are you the hairy or the bald Grandmaster Flash. But that’s over now.

BF: The Bridge features guest appearances by Q-Tip, Big Daddy Kane, Snoop Dog, KRS-One and many others. What is it like to make an album with such a large and rotating cast of artists?

GMF: It’s interesting. When I made these tracks I would burn a CD, put it into my car stereo and drive around for hours listening to them. With “Swagger” I was like that is a Snoop track, and so I found him. With “Bounce Back” I thought, man I miss the old school Busta Rhymes, so I contacted Busta and told him that I missed his old flow style. After we did the track he thanked me for getting him to go back to his roots.

BF: On The Bridge you feature mainstream and underground MC’s and DJ’s, what differences and similarities do you notice between these two cultures?

GMF: From my point of view I am just pro hip-hop. I don’t see a difference, I just see one being more accessible than the other. A lot of the underground shit is dope and a lot of the mainstream stuff is dope. But I did think the album would be incomplete without unknown talent.

BF: Why do you think mainstream hip-hop is more accessible than the underground?

GMF: It’s you journalists, TV announcers and the media from the Internet. Journalists are the new boombox’s, the new hand fliers. And I think it is a shame more underground artists aren’t covered. There are so many people in hip-hop from the 70’s that never get interviewed and are being forgotten. Everyone always asks me about the 80’s, which is when the music became commercial. But that is just the way it is. As for the Internet, I don’t want people to find out about Grandmaster Flash on the Internet. You know I could be in your town and we could jam in your car. I don’t want to be a folklore just yet. In order to leave an impact you have to connect with people.

BF: I think women’s impact on hip-hop is very underappreciated. On “Those Chix” you feature all-female MC’ing with Byata, Princess Superstar, Hedonis de Amazon and Syndee. What are your opinions about women’s impact on hip-hop and whether or not they have been misrepresented?

GMF: I agree, they have been misrepresented. I had to do that song. I wanted to put women MC’s who come from a different walk of life to an up-tempo beat.

BF: Where do you want to see hip-hop in another 30 years?

Growing. That’s all I can say. I want it to keep growing.

Bardos Freedoom

Marissa Nadler - Little Hells [Kemando 2009]

2009-03-11T09:32:00.000-06:00

The unsuitably named genre free-folk has gained enough praise and attention in the past couple of years to raise its leading artists to rock star status; specifically Devendra Banhart, Coco Rosie and Joanna Newsome. In doing so the music has practically wilted away, becoming stale and formulaic. The name ‘free-folk’ implies a devotion to free-improvisation and unconventional structures; yet few artists have followed these obvious implications. Apart from Sunburned Hand of Man, Jeweled Antler Collective, No-Neck Blues Band and a few other intrepid souls, most artists choose the formula to success rather than the more uncharted path of exploration. Marissa Nadler on the other hand is a bit of an enigma. She too doesn’t employ free-improvisation and although she is stylistically connected to some of the more famed names of the so-called free-folk scene, her traditional style is somehow distinct, a mirror of the past with a haunting ghost-like presence. Perhaps her uniqueness is because she’s managed to stay under the radar, which has enabled her from selling-out. However, I don’t think her distance from mediocrity is as dogmatic as fame equals unauthentic art, but rather because the honesty of her songwriting is unwavering.

In the same desolate vein of Songs III: Bird on the Water, Nadler’s latest offering winds through a decaying forest of isolation, heartbreak and longing. But it would be foolish to expect an album called Little Hells to be a strict joie de vivre. But unlike her sorrow filled contemporaries, namely Jason Molina and Mark Kozelek, Nadler’s delivery offers an unspoken sense of hope, like on “Ghosts & Lovers” as she gorgeously utters, “I’m more than blue, I’m violet.”

Little Hells utilizes the dramatic change of seasons as an allegory for the unpredictably of love. Change shapes more then the lyricism of Little Hells; Nadler leaves behind the barren instrumentation of her usual guitar and voice for a beautiful warmth of organs, strings, percussion and steel-guitar, which together with lyrics like, “I know we had a beautiful life, but things change like the leaves on the vine” and “the flowers died a long time ago”, craft a poignant impression. When Nadler sings, “cob webs and rose pedals define her,” on the albums title track, although she is speaking of “a dark cloud of little hells”, it is also a fitting line for Nadler herself: an emblem of her dusty sound, sincere soul and austere charm.

Bardos Freedoom

Ian Anderson's Country Blues Band - Stereo Death Breakdown [Fledg'ling 2009 reissue]

2009-03-11T09:23:00.000-06:00

Influenced by the post-WWII blues of the American South, Ian Anderson (not to be confused with the leader/flutist of Jethro Tull) founded the Bristol blues scene of the 1960’s. Stereo Death Breakdown from 1969 is Anderson’s only full-band LP with the Country Blues Band. The Fledgling reissue has remastered the misplaced masters of Stereo Death Breakdown and added two of Anderson’s contemporary tracks. Though John Peel consistently spun the album, it is no astonishing document lost in the vaults of time.

Like other African American styles that flooded British ports during the 60’s, namely R&B and its creation of the British Invasion, Ian Anderson’s distance from the original source harbors a misunderstanding, a disconnected notion of working within a other-worldly and foreign medium. Weston-super-Mare, where Anderson is from is more culturally dissimilar to the Mississippi Delta than almost anywhere on the planet; I know because my father is from Weston-super-Mare. This cultural disparity is obvious in Anderson’s music and comes off as an asinine reproduction. In the liner notes, Anderson himself even notes, “to me now, it seems that in trying and failing to become something else, we accidentally created something local, of its time.”

Cultural appropriation is a common trend in popular British music, but with acts such as The Beatles, The Pretty Things, and The Rolling Stones, the imitation of American R&B was channeled through a uniquely British sound: whereas the country blues scene of 1960’s Britain was nothing more than a feeble facsimile. Quite frankly, why listen to an imitation when you can listen to Sleepy John Estes, Robert Pete Williams, Charley Patton and Mississippi John Hurt play the original sound more inventively, passionately and with a genuine connection to the issues and struggles being excavated. When compared to the African American sound of the post-Civil Rights Era, white British country blues is utterly pathetic and unauthentic.

Bardos Freedoom

Various Artists - Fly Girls! B-Boys Beware: Revenge of the Super Female Rappers [Soul Jazz 2009]

2009-03-11T09:18:00.000-06:00

Perhaps the most underappreciated element in popular music is women’s immense contribution to hip-hop. An impact that has been suppressed by prearranged mainstream strategies to enforce hip-hop through ridiculous notions of hypermasculinty and chauvinism. Telling the true tale of hip-hop is long overdue and fortunately Soul Jazz Records has once again stepped up the task with the celebratory compilation: Fly Girls! B-Boys Beware: Revenge of the Super Female Rappers. A fitting title, for revenge is best served cold on two turntables and a microphone.

Fly Girls commemorates thirty years of women MC’s on record. Sugar Hill Records entrepreneur Sylvia Robinson produced the first commercial hip-hop album in 1979 with “Rappers Delight”. Nevertheless, women in hip hop follow a lineation further back than Sugar Hill Records and can be traced to the funky-sassy-attitude of Millie Jackson “The Grandmother of Rap” and depending on how flexible your definition is, to Nina Simon’s “Funkier than a Mosquitoes Tweeter”. But Soul Jazz’s timetable on Fly Girls is appropriate for the sound we’ve come to identify as hip-hop today.

Soul Jazz has done a bang-up job blending legendary names from the Golden Age, with the likes of Queen Latifah, MC Lyte and Roxanne Shante, with forgotten artists like JJ Fad and Cookie Crew, while also mixing in contemporary names such as Missy Elliott. From the old school to the new, from boom-boom-bap, club bangers and G-funk to dope jazzy beats, with so much diversity, Fly Girls is sewn together with the flow of empowerment.

Bardos Freedoom

Emeralds - What Happened [No Fun 2009]

2009-03-11T09:12:00.000-06:00

What Happened is an extension of pioneering kraut rock a la Cluster and Neu! and the early electronic experimentation of Marcus Belgrave, Tod Dockstader, and Edgard Varèse. Regardless of the treaded path Emeralds follows, their latest force is an excursion into the unknown. Either as a glimpse of a soothing end of existence where time fades away or as an aural physics lesson, in which molecules buzz by, ripple on the horizon, collide and ring out, expand and diminish into the soft hiss of the surroundings. Either way, What Happened is much more enlightening than merely rehashing the past or the implicit confusion that the title harks upon.

Like previous Emeralds releases, a bed of glacial drones harnesses the foundation—creeping gradually but with vigor; however, on What Happened the atmospheric serenity of the group’s previous undertakings are magnified by swirling synthesizers and plentiful electronics. The supplementary instrumentation does busy-up Emeralds' resonance, yet they pull it off with majestic ease, without sounding cluttered or out-of-control. There is no need to single out any of What Happened’s five tracks because the whole album dissolves together with such elegance and delicacy. What Happened is Emeralds' magnum opus: they have finally become the shimmering hexagonal crystals embedded in their name.

Bardos Freedoom

Faust - C’est… Com… Com… Compliqué [Bureau B 2009]

2009-03-11T09:04:00.000-06:00

Faust’s unpredictability is exactly what is necessary to fuel a collective through four decades of innovation. Faust has pushed rock music through many envelopes since their 1971 debut. Where even the aesthetics of 1971’s packaging was a breakthrough, with its clear vinyl, transparent jacket and black screen-printed insert. Although Faust’s post-Millennium content may not be as groundbreaking as their prior accomplishments, their longevity extends their colossal impact to absurd proportions.
C’est… Com… Com… Compliqué is superb: a monument that could only have been sculpted by the group’s original hands. The hour-long force finds founding members Jean Hervé Peron and Werner "Zappi" Diermaier reunited and at the helm alongside Ulan Bator’s Amaury Cambuzat. C’est… Com… Com… Compliqué opens with “Kundalini Tremolos,” where a pulsating organic beat meets repetitive tremolo swells and breathy vocals. The piece is highly ocular, resembling the brutal efficiency of a factory. With sheets of metal flexed and scraped into a white noise like that of the deep sea, followed by slow steady paced organs and hypnotic vocals, “Accroché à Tes Lèvres” illuminates the diversity of Faust's ability to shift from piece to piece. As the remaining pieces take command a reverie expounds that captivates the detainee through a breadth of acute minimalism, throat singing, paranormal atmospheres and avant-pop. “Bonjour Gioacchino” sounds like a postmodern interpretation of a nationalist dedication to a space race for the 21st Century. With C’est… Com… Com… Compliqué’s 14 minute self-titled closer, the history of Kraut-rock is divulged: this breathtaking preservation of likeminded contemporaries including the likes of Kraftwerk, Neu!, Cluster and Can effortlessly displays the past, present and future of this timeless music.

Bardos Freedoom

Various Artists - Boogaloo Pow Pow: Dancefloor Rendez-vous in Young Nu Yorica [Honest Jon's 2009]

2009-03-11T08:59:00.000-06:00

Honest Jon’s latest compilation, Boogaloo Pow Pow: Dancefloor Rendez-vous in Young Nu Yorica is a fascinating glimpse into the ignition of a culture on the peripheral and a magnificent display of a peoples expressive breakthrough at balancing their culture of origin with the culture they discovered in modern America. The challenges of deciphering this cultural amalgamation plays a large role in the boogaloo sound, which begins immediately with Willie Rosario’s “Calypso Blues”, where perplexed lyrics question his new life as an immigrant in New York: “Don’t got the money to take me back to Trinidad, me throat she sick from necktie, me feet she hurt from shoes, me pocket full of empty, I got calypso blues.”

Boogaloo Pow Pow illuminates the diversity of Latino dance music in 1960’s New York better than previous collections and even ranks superior to Soul Jazz’s excellent New York Hustle. To say that the substantial array of styles featured on Boogaloo Pow Pow is a hybrid is an understatement. The constant but fluid shifting of Latin jazz and bolero to Cubop and earlier Afro-Cuban styles and from cha cha chá, típico, guaguancó, pachanga and salsa to the unique style of 1960’s Nu Yorica where the compilation derived its title from is all encompassing. Boogaloo Pow Pow is an empowering rhythm of scorching dance grooves, horns of fire and a proudly conscious blend of Spanish, English and Spanglish lyricism, giving the music and people a distinctive identity that rejects and leaves behind both the whitewashing of the ‘American melting pot’ and the atrocities of Latin American colonialism.

Bardos Freedoom

Richard Pinhas/Merzbow - Keio Line [Cuneiform Records 2009]

2009-03-11T08:37:00.000-06:00

Merzbow is the king of dense Japanese noise-scapes, and Richard Pinhas is one of the most innovative French electronic pioneers, founding Heldon in the mid-seventies and continuing to explore his layered guitar and sequencer based walls of sound. This disc is surprisingly good, showing why both of these artists have longevity and interest today. The melding of each individual style is seamless. The only beats are the propellant hum of the machines. The trick that many current experimental-noise projects miss is that density of sound is not the only criteria! This release exhibits swells and levels of drones and melodies panning across the frequency spectrum. The clarity of the recording results in a shimmering mesmerizing dose of sound.

Merzbow now has hundreds of releases, driving noise collectors nuts. Richard Pinhas was heavily influenced by Robert Fripp & Eno's experimentation with Revox tape-loops in the early '70s (No Pussyfooting and Evening Star), and even titled an early Heldon track "In the Wake of King Fripp". Building on the sound developed across Electronique Guerilla and the Chronolyse LP's released on obscure French labels, Pinhas's looped methodology has advanced with technology. Merzbow's anchoring pulses in the mix are reminiscent of Germany's Klaus Schulze, making this release both a referential and contemporary polyglot of global electronic experimentation.

Uncle Jeff

Group Bombino - Guitars From Agadez [Sublime Frequencies 2009]

2009-02-24T20:02:00.000-06:00

The desert is often romanticized in modern music. From Josh Homes’ Desert Sessions and Six Organs of Admittance’s “The Desert Is a Circle” to Magic Lantern’s “Cactus Raga,” the desert's vast desolate landscape and its encompassing mystery is revered for its ability to inspire. As a Southwesterner, I've often fallen pray to this admiration, and I generally flock to music associated with the desert in any way. The Sublime Frequencies label hails from Seattle (a lush location for the home of so many arid sounds), but it has found a more authentic desert sound than most of the American underground. Group Bombino's Guitars From Agadez Vol. 2 is a further exploration into the Saharan guitar culture, and the music doesn’t merely rely on desert themes or use the desert as a muse; it is entirely a product of the desert.

Sublime Frequencies has proven that Saharan guitar culture is flourishing. The label introduced the scene to Western audiences through the auditory documentary Folk Music of the Sahara: Among the Tuareg of Libya and the group Tinariwen, which translates to "many deserts" (after the Tuereg belief that the Sahara is a region of numerous deserts). Since its initial Tuereg guitar release, the label has put out Group Doueh’s Guitar Music from the Western Sahara and Group Inerane’s Guitars from Agadez.

It's the second in the Guitars from Agadez series, but it's a perfect introduction to the Tuereg guitar sound because it features the two fundamental styles. The first side displays what Sublime Frequencies calls “dry guitar,” a stripped-down acoustic style, whereas the second side boosts the vigor with the Tuereg electric sound. Propelled by the innovative guitarist Omara Mochtar, Group Bombino offers a vivid glimpse into one of the most hidden regions and ethnic groups on the planet.

The Tuereg, a suppressed minority group in the Western Sahara (primarily in Mali and Niger), have struggled for autonomy for nearly a century: Group Bombino’s revolutionary sound parallels this struggle. The area of Agadez, where Group Bombino resides, has been shut off from the rest of the region. Although the political turmoil in Agadez is as dismal as the harsh environment that encompasses the region, Bombino’s reverberations are hopeful, optimistic and fertile.

Bardos Freedoom

Grouper/City Center - Split 7" [Self-Released 2009]

2009-02-20T10:27:00.000-06:00

Grouper, the moniker of Portland’s experimental song crafter Liz Harris, showed up on numerous best-of lists last year with her debut for Type Records, Dragging a Dead Dear up a Hill. The moody landscapes and darkly delicate vocals parallel the title in its resemblance of a wistful forest, at times howling only to be followed by faint whispers. For Harris’s first release of 2009, she’s self-released a split 7-inch with City Center, the latest lo-fi project of Fred Thomas, of Saturday Looks Good to Me and His Name Is Alive.

The A-side, “False Horizon,” harbors the familiar sound of Grouper’s previous release, yet the vinyl gives her murky strums and croons added warmth. City Center’s “This Is How We See in the Dark” utilizes backward masking and vocals hidden behind the haze of the instrumentation to create a lovely odd-pop number to finish the split. All that on limited-edition clear vinyl.

MV & EE with The Golden Road - Drone Trailer [Dicristina Star 2009]

2009-02-18T11:35:00.000-06:00

Experimentation often leads to failure before success. Such is the case with MV & EE, which has used multiple monikers (Tower Recordings, Medicine Show, the Bummer Road and now the Golden Road) to traverse acid and free-folk, psychedelia and drone. If MV & EE have experienced much failure to this point, the group's interstellar opus, Drone Machine, is the reward that follows the disarray.

Drone Trailer opens like a Bardo Pond record rather than a free-folk recording, with a blizzard of fuzz and incomprehension called “Anyway.” The storm clears with “The Hungry Stones,” as acoustic strums, harmonic hums and Matt Valentine’s stoned impression of Neil Young whist about in harmony.

The resemblance to Neil Young is unswerving throughout the record, but Valentine’s strange interpretation is like Young in a capsule beaming radio signals down to Earth. Lines like “I reckon I’ll go toward the drone and head out for the slow tapes” exemplifies how detached Valentine has taken his drugged-out Young impersonation: The line is like a mirror of “Ambulance Blues,” where Young desperatly croons, “I’m deep inside myself, but I’ll get out somehow.”

The title and music that encompass Drone Trailer seem to sum up what MV & EE have attempted all along -- a peculiar, acid-drenched and improvised take on American traditional music. Even while working inside a style that has changed very little throughout its multiple-century lifespan, with Drone Trailer MV & EE have learned that looking outside tradition and beyond the past is a precious means of progression.

Bardos Freedoom

Nels Cline - Coward [Cryptogramaphone, 2009]

2009-02-18T11:29:00.000-06:00

Coward, the first solo album from Rolling Stone Magazine’s “Guitar God” Nels Cline, is the culmination of three decades of guitar virtuosity spanning Cline’s work with Wilco, to his more adventurous original compositions and free improvisations with the Nels Cline Singers. Here Cline demonstrates his proficiencies in the fields of finger picking (ala John Fahey), improvisation, and composition.

The moods exhibited on this recording run the gamut from melancholia to exuberant joie de vivre, from meditative to “rootsy” to other worldly. Where some solo albums give the impression of eaves dropping, Nels Cline grants the listener exclusive access to the inner depths of his creativity via his guitar and various electronics. Coward opens with the horticultural themed drone piece entitled “Epiphyllum”. The mysterious soundscape of the opener segues beautifully into the arpeggiated acoustic guitar of “Prayer Wheel”, perhaps named with respect to its repetitious qualities, as in the Tibetan Buddhist practice of spinning prayer wheels adorned with Tantric mantras. “Prayer Wheel” as is the rest of Coward is crafted to perfection with profound devotional undertones.

Cowardice has no place in this recording.

Charles Ballas

Matthew Shipp - Harmonic Disorder [Thristy Ear 2009]

2009-01-18T18:49:00.000-06:00

Harmonic Disorder is the latest release from pianist/composer Matthew Shipp on the Thirsty Ear recording label’s Blue Series, a subsidiary dedicated to adventurous and creative modern music. Matthew Shipp’s music is highly idiosyncratic and simultaneously derivative of the forbearers of modern Be-Bop and out-jazz piano. Throughout his career Mr. Shipp has forged a totally unique improvisational syntax as the modern extension in the continuum of history’s most influential jazz pianists such as Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, Paul Bley, and Cecil Taylor. Certain elements from the aforesaid appear in Matthew Shipp’s playing, such as dense tonal clusters, use of tri-tones, substitutions, and twelve-tone scales. However, Mr. Shipp’s skills in composition and improvisation are uniquely his own and do not in the least rely on the mere ‘mimicry’ of past players. Joining Mr. Shipp for this session is bassist Joe Morris, and drummer Whit Dickey, completing the same lineup from the acclaimed 2005 recording Piano Vortex.

The album opens with an original composition entitled “gng”, with a head whose intervals sound as if they could belong to a Thelonious Monk composition/solo, but retain such an exclusive execution on behalf of Mr. Shipp that they sound wholly original and modern. The band plays a solid swing from beginning to end maintaining a high degree of intensity and momentum while the next four minutes are opened up for an inspiring piano solo complete with tastefully executed comps, and minimal tension enhancing drum fills, and a walking bass line that appears to intuitively “interact” with the piano solo instead of merely following chord progressions. The trio then seamlessly returns to the head of the song thus creating a refreshing compositional symmetry.

Following “gng’ is the trio’s interpretation of the standard “There Will Never Be Another You”, deconstructed almost beyond recognition but still retaining some semblance of the original melody and played with an intense swing pulse. The group’s rendition of “Someday My Prince will Come,” a standard that has been played by a multitude of jazz pianists including Dave Brubeck, Bill Evans, Art Lande, and Oscar Peterson, is both hauntingly beautiful and inspiring.

Harmonic Disorder is the most enjoyable recording I’ve had the privilege of hearing in the last year (that is the last 365 days, not the three-week-old 2009). In its entirety the record contains everything from straight-ahead 2 & 4 swing, lush ballades, beautiful minor chord dirges, and the most expressive use of twelve notes I’ve experienced since Cecil Taylor.

Charles Ballas

Best of 2008: Alex Shaw's Top 10 Out Jazz Records of 2008 (All LPs, no reissues)

2009-01-03T13:20:00.000-06:00

Slither- Self-Titled [QBICO]

Another one-sided LP from this Italian LP only label. Where would the Top 10 of the Year be without these guys? Nowhere, that’s where. From what I have heard from this duo, they stick to a fairly predictable, but singular, formula: ping-pongy low-end electronics, molasses-slow tempos, and interweaving layers of horns. Clarinets, Mizmars, both? Slither is the musical equivalent to that Nick Cave book And the Ass Saw the Angel.

Andrew Barker/ Jaime Fennelly /Charles Waters- Acid Birds [QBICO]

Barker (saxes) and Waters (drums, jaw harp) made the countdown last year as part of a trio with Sabir Mateen. This year I put them up here again, but in a much different context. Now, they are joined by Jaime Fennelly on electronics. This trio broods and rages over three pieces. The vinyl is colored beyond comprehension, and is the only evidence that you will ever have to present to someone that vinyl records are the supreme musical document of human existence.

Box – Studio 1 [Rune Grammofon]

I have no idea why I am always game for a free jazz horn record, no matter how shitty, yet I hold guitar players within the same genre up to a much higher standard. Guitar/ Viola da Gamba player Raoul Bjorkenheim literally sounds like a horn all across this record without the aid of dorky effects; Stale Storlokken makes telephone noises sound like music and not a sample. Both of these things are hard things to do.

Ara - Pick Up and Run 2007 [What the …? Records]

A duo playing beautiful drift. One part saxophone, one part electronics, and a heaping teaspoon of ESP. Two side long tracks comprise the release, with the first being far superior to the second. Both pieces are noticeably live, and the ambience of the recording is another attractive element to the whole endeavor.

Mohel - Babylon Bypass [Tyyfus]

Due to how late it arrived in 2008, this one almost did not make the countdown. A pile-up of Finnish free jazz musicians is Mohel. Their playing is frenzied and overlapping. I mostly enjoyed this record because all of the horns remind me of metal-on-metal rubbing with no lubrication. Musician of note: baritone sax player Janne Martinkauppi.

Jeffrey Leighton Brown - Dreams [Jaffe]

Brown is a former member of Jackie-O Motherfucker, and currently directs The Evolutionary Jass Band. Dreams is the first record to be released on Brown’s Jaffe records. After listening to this LP, I learned a lot about Jeff Brown (the musician) that I did not already know. Namely, his interests span a wide range of musical styles, and he is a talent not just on the saxophone, but also the guitar. Maybe the guitar playing here is inappropriate for inclusion on the Top 10. However, the sax playing is woven in everywhere, and that aspect of the release qualifies it.

Arthur Doyle Trio – Live at the Alterknit [QBICO]

Whoa, momma! Doyle busts back on the scene with a white vinyl. I like this trio record for several reasons:

1) Doyle sings his ass off on both tracks.

2) The group plays well together, rather than just letting Doyle steal the show.

3) The album sounds like it was recorded in an enormous bathroom.

Scorch Trio - Brolt [Rune Grammofon]

Another guitar record on my out jazz chart! What the hell is happening to me? This trio left very little room for improvement after their last outing entitled Luggumt. I have the same reaction to this group as I do to Lightning Bolt. That is, just when I am sure that there is no way to intensify what is happening, that is just what happens.

Spider Trio - Self-Titled [Assophon]

Assophon is a label that started this year in Seattle. Spider Trio was one of three LP only recordings that came out simultaneously on Assophon. Also, this release is the only jazz-oriented recording of the bunch, unless you count a loose cover of an Albert Ayler song by The Sea Donkeys. This Spider Trio show was recorded by someone else at a performance that I attended in 2007, and it was the first time that I saw Wally Shoup (alto sax), Dave Abramson (Drums) and Jeffery Taylor (guitar) play together live. Anyway, the whole thing has a visual connection for me, and I vividly remember how satisfied I was after the show as I walked out to my car. I am not sure that this LP will snare anyone that was not there. Listening back to the music, there was a lot that I did not remember. In particular, Abramson’s drumming now seems a lot more nuanced and responsive, versus the juggernaut that remains planted in my mind.

Talibam!/Wastland Jazz - Ecstatic Jazz Duos [Thor’s Rubber Hammer]

The idea that this type of playing is being identified as jazz is a fact that makes me proud to be alive in my particular time and place. It tells me that people are taking the energy from previous jazz forms, but none of the structure. Talibam!, while sometimes a trio with a sax player, are streamlined here to a drum and synth duo. The drumming is an exhausting and pleasurable listen; the synth work is totally remedial. As for the Wasteland Jazz side, horns are heard trilling throughout the piece, but most of the reed work is processed into pure noise. You can sign up on the label’s website as a subscriber to the entire Ecstatic Jazz Duo series. I can’t wait for the second installment.

Best of 2008: Uncle Jeff's Top 15

2008-12-30T08:58:00.000-06:00

1. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever [Jagjagwar]
2. Hank Williams - The Unreleased Recordings [Time Life]
3. Ilyas Ahmed - Vertigo of Dawn [Time Lag]
4. Neil Young - Live At Canterbury House 1968 [Reprise]
5. Willy Vlautin & Paul Brainard - Northline [Soundtrack CD with Novel-Harper Perennial]
6. Stephen Malmus and the Jicks - Real Emotional Trash [Matador]
7. Josephine Foster - This Coming Gladness [Bo' Weevil]
8. Paul Westerberg - 49 [mp3 release]
9. Suarasama - Fajar Di Atas Awan [Drag City]
10. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes [Sub Pop]
11. Hank III - Damn Right Rebel Proud [Sidewalk]
12. Whiskeytown - Strangers Almanac Reissue [Lost Highway]
13. Drive-By Truckers - Brighter Than Creation's Dark [New West]
14. Blue Mountain - Midnight in Mississippi [Broadmoor]
15. Bootleg Soundboard of the Year: Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter at the Fox Theatre

Best Show of 2008:

Boris, at the Marquis Theater , Denver, CO [7.25.08] Mind melting!

Best of 2008: Bardos Freedoom's Top 20

2008-12-29T20:02:00.000-06:00

1. Current 93 as Amok Pe – Birth Control Blues EP [Dutro]

David Tibet knows how to summon inspiration and genius better than anyone. This teaser EP (with the full-length coming in 2009) is no different. Here Tibet recruits Nurse With Wound collaborator Andrew Liles. The result is as beautiful and terrifying as anything Tibet has ever done. Liles’ sample of horses storming the countryside on “Suddenly the Living Are Dying” is utterly jaw dropping. And before you go to sleep, Tibet et al. want you to know that “We Will Murder You”.

2. Lindstrøm – Where You Go I Go Too [Feedelity]

Six months after its release, I still don’t know why I like this album so much: my only explanation is that I’ve become that which I despise—hipster trash. I never imagined disco could ever be listenable, that is until Lindstrøm combined it with space-swirls, extended tracks (not club-style, but sit in your bedroom stoned and listen to a single-sided track) and minimalism.

3. Scott Tuma – Not For Nobody [Digitalis]

Not For Nobody is exceptionally slow in the most gorgeous of fashion, like the work of Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky. The otherworldly opener, “Nobody (River of Tin)”, features the albums only vocals. As “No one at all, no one to, so cold and so alone…” is warbled, the chill that surmounts is breathtaking. The residue left after the desolation of “Nobody” hallows out beautiful landscapes of soft drones and acoustic finger-picking akin to John Fahey, yet too foreign to resemble the usual folk and blues traditions. I hope that death is as mysteriously serene as Not For Nobody.

4. Josephine Foster – The Coming Gladness (Bo’ Weavil)

Dabbling in improv. and moving to Bo’ Weavil, one of Britain’s most consistent esoteric labels was a brilliant decision. But then again everything this Colorado native/Spanish ex-patriot puts out is the result of brilliant decision-making. Foster is far ahead of her time and probably wont gain the respect she deserves for decades to come.

5. Arbouretum/Pontiak – Kale (Thrill Jockey)

What could be better than a split between Baltimore Oldham-style psych-rockers and three brothers improving with each release, while becoming more wide-ranging? Not much, besides the fact that Kale mixes originals with John Cale covers. I’ll rant about the Pontiak side, because it’s the superior of both fine sides. It opens with “Dome Under the Sky”, one of the premiere stoner-rock anthems of the year. The two Cale covers come out of nowhere as perfectly crafted resurrections of the White Album.

6. Harvey Milk – Life… The Best Game In Town [Hydra Head]

Brutally heavy, more diverse than any other metal act (utilizing stoner, doom, cock-rock, art and noise) and dynamic like the terrors of hell: at last Harvey Milk drop the bullshit and return to their original sound while also moving forward. Though hinted at with previous releases, Life… proves that the Melvins have a lot of catching up to do.

7. Fennesz – Black Sea [Touch]

The title fits like a blanket of fog over a harbor. Black Sea is both dark and oceanic. The ambient landscapes flow with austere beauty and the pieces ability to be still and in-motion is astounding.

8. Bardo Pond – Batholith [Three Lobed]

Culled from the group’s favorite unreleased tracks, Batholith is surprisingly cohesive and stands up against their greatest material; Lapsed, Amanita and Dilate. Not as hazy and muddled as their work with Roy Montgomery under Hash Bar Tempo, but just as stoned-out and as dark as anything Psychadelphia's 'Death Pond' has revealed.

9. Neil Young – Sugar Mountain: Live at Canterbury 1968 [Reprise]

Live at Canterbury bridges Mr. Soul’s spell with Buffalo Springfield and his development as a solo-artist better than any document to date. Throughout the performance, Young’s gorgeously ominous songwriting is channeled through his warm and mirthful personality, which unravels as a series of uproarious banters. Live at Canterbury, the third part in Young’s Archive Series, is yet another reason why Dylan should step aside and bow down.

10. Bill Dixon with Exploding Star Orchestra – Self-Titled [Thrill Jockey]

Bill Dixon is ancient, yet in his old age his creations are becoming more and more vigorous, expressive and uninhibited. A massive triumph, considering he’s released some of the most forward-thinking compositions of the past half-century. The self-titled powerhouse with fellow out-jazz Chicagoan’s, the Exploding Star Orchestra is one of those LP’s that Milkman Dan dearly wished he didn’t let fall through the cracks.

11. Eddy Current Suppression Ring – Primary Colours [Goner]

I never thought punk could sound as good as the Buzzcocks or the Undertones again. That is until these Melbourne lads shattered all my expectations and prejudices of the contemporary scene. Eddy Current refueled my lust for quick angst anthems and got me into another grandiose first-wave revival act—Nodzzz; whose 2008 7” single, “I don’t Wanna (Smoke Marijuana)” and self-titled debut are also noteworthy.

12. Sun Kil Moon – April [4AD]

April is another graceful collection of songs from Mark Kozelek. Finally he abandons the whiny corridors of his past and grows up.

13. Nudge – Infinity Padlock EP [Audraglint]

Infinity Padlock is a beautiful four-song outing where pop, white noise and experimental electronics are filtered into bliss.

14. Earth – The Bees Made Honey in the Lions Skull [Southern Lord]

Earth is simply unstoppable and one of the greatest heavy groups of all time. On The Bees Made Honey in the Lions Skull they continue the doom-country laid forth by Hex and perfect it. Moreover, the vinyl is absurd and as heavy as an artifact from the Stone Age.

15. Gas – Nah and Fern [Kompakt]

I am slowly coming around to ambient techno and Gas is more than helping me through this hesitant process. So what better of a time (at least for my own selfishness) for Kompakt’s guru to release a box set of his four previous albums, which all in their own right stand up against anyone else in the field, Aphex Twin included.

16. Magic Lantern – High Beams [Not Not Fun]

These repetitive stoner-pysch freak-outs made me scrape resin throughout my initial weeks experiencing Chicago’s vicious winter. Their name is warm and their sound melts the ice with thoughts of fizzing suns and milk and cookies.

17. Magnetic Fields – Distortion [Nonesuch]

Combining Beach Boys songwriting with Jesus & Mary Chain fuzz marks the best Magnetic Fields record to date. Distortion was released during my last semester of college and “California Girls” became the anthem of four years of fraternity/sorority hatred and disgust: “They come on like squares, then get off like squirrels. I hate California girls”.

18. Boscoe – Self-Titled [Light in the Attic]

A recovered and restored treasure, Boscoe’s only album is purely revolutionary: Revolutionary in its politics and its combination of soul, funk, poetry and experimental jazz. I can’t believe this artifact of the Black Arts Movement hasn’t gained the reverence it deserves. Boscoe should be placed in the ranks with Gil Scott Heron, another true American hero.

19. David Grubbs – An Optimist Notes the Dusk [Drag City]

Nothing new from Mr. Grubbs, but at least his relocation from Chicago to Brooklyn didn’t spawn a side project with Coco Rosie. In actuality, An Optimist Notes the Dusk is Grubbs' best work since Gastr Del Sol.

20. Sic Alps – U.S. EZ [Slitbreeze]

I came around to the Sic Alps late. But sometimes a good delay comes at the perfect time. Thus, U.S. EZ has become a lush blossom in the depth of winter. Sic Alps are a smorgasbord of arty garage, folk-rock, lo-fi noise and sunshine pop. Their warm catchy sound keeps me pining for an early Spring.

Honorable Mentions:

Various Artists – Give Me Love: Songs of the Brokenhearted – Baghdad [Honest Jon]
James Blackshaw – Litany of Echoes [Tomkins Square]
Wooden Shjips – Volume 1 [Holy Mountain]
Pete Rock – NY’s Finest [Pinoneer]
Sao Paulo Underground – The Principle of Intrusive Relationships [Aesthetics]
GZA – Pro Tools [Babygrande]
Yo La Tengo – They Shoot We Score [Self-Released]
Boduf Songs – How Shadows Chase the Balance [Kranky]
Valet – Blood Is Clean [Kranky]

Best song released before 2008 that I heard for the first time in 2008:

Jason Molina – “No Moon On The Water” No Moon On The Water 7” [2004 promo accompanying Chunklet Magazine]

“No Moon On The Water” is as desolate as anything Molina has written, which is astonishing considering Songs: Ohia is my crutch through the darkest depressions. The bleakness of the recording is profound and is only matched by the strength of Molina’s prose: “Tie my wings behind my back. Cut out my eyes and fill them with lead. Cut off my head and put the black mules there. Trade my heart for a fire”. The raw beauty of the B-side, “In the Human World” is nearly as tremendous as “No Moon On The Water” and better than the more polished version that ended up on Magnolia Electric Co. prolific Sojourner box set.

Favorite Sonic Outings of 2008:

Kraftwerk at the Fillmore Auditorium, Denver, CO [5.11.08]

With hash joints, old friends who have worshiped Düsseldorf’s finest since before calculators and the best video production sequenced with live music I have witnessed, following a five-decade output, Kraftwerk are still profound, acute and prolific. The black and white footage of the Tour de France closely resembles the work of Leni Riefenstahl, except that Kraftwerk craft their art into an extraordinary mockery of fascism and modernism.

Nick Cave at the Bluebird Theater, Denver, CO [9.30.08]

Firstly, I’d like to mention that Warren Ellis (Dirty Three) is a complete maniac. His appearance is that of a neglected wizard, where mad science, mysticism and overgrown hair meet. On top of his outer shell is his virtuosic playing of forceful violin bows that guide the Bad Seeds through epic symphonies of horror, cacophony, and enlightenment. Nick Cave on the other hand is petite, sexy and absolutely terrifying. Cave is a true seductress; carefully dragging his victims into the darkest corners of his twisted gothic-induced mind. The evening was like an absinthe nightmare of synesthesiac proportions.

Glass Candy at Pasaje América, Cuidad de Mexico, [9.05.08]

Pasaje América is an absurd marble palace in D.F.’s (México City) Zocolo. Maroon velvet ropes keep the riffraff out and if you want to sit on one of their classy couches you must purchase an overpriced bottle of liquor. Poutie because of the posh, plush and pricey environment, I sleazed my way to Glass Candy’s sparkling booze castle where glass upon glass of Jack Daniels was poured by Johnny Jewel. It was my first American whiskey in months. In return for Jewel’s services, I had to flash a titty while they banged out their Italo-disco sexcapades; a beautifully flabby display meshed in the backdrop of fashionistas posing for cameras decked head to toe in neon tight-fitted wear with Nintendo controllers dangling from their necks like bling!

Best of 2008: Charles Ballas Top 10's

2008-12-26T10:41:00.000-06:00

Top Ten Jazz Releases of 2008:

1. Matthew Shipp Quintet - Cosmic Suite [Not Two]
2. Orange - In The Midst of Chaos [De Stijl]
3. Guiseppi Logan Quartet - Self-Titled [ESP-Disk]
4. Conveniens - Clear [Self]
5. Paul Bley Quintet - Barrage [ESP-Disk]
6. Milford Graves Percussion Ensemble - Self-Titled [ESP-Disk]
7. Charlie Parker - Bird in Time [ESP-Disk]
8. Totem - Solar Forge [ESP-Disk]
9. Steve Reid Ensemble - Daxaar [Domino]
10. Scott Dubois - Banshees [Sunnyside Communications]

Top Ten Albums of 2008:

1. Boris - Smile [Southern Lord]
2. Yximalloo - Unpop [ESP-Disk]
3. Matthew Shipp Quartet - Cosmic Suite [Not Two]
4. Various Artists - Como Now: The Voices of Panola, Co., Mississippi [Daptone]
5. David Byrne & Brian Eno - Everything that Happens, Will Happen Today [Todomundo]
6. The Black Angels - Directions to See a Ghost [Light in the Attic]
7. Larkin Grimm - Poplar [Young God]
8. Steve Reid & Kieren Hebdan - NYC [Domino]
9. Various - Algerian Proto Rai Underground [Sublime Frequencies]
10. Pete M. Wyer - Stories from the City at Night [Thirsty Ear, Blue Series]

Top Ten Reissues of 2008:

1. Debris - Static Disposal [1974, Static Disposal]
2. Boscoe - Self-Titled [1971, Numero Group]
3. Giuseppe Logan Quartet - Self-Titled [1964, ESP-Disk]
4. MIJ - The Yodeling Astrologer [1965, ESP-Disk]
5. Hank Williams - The Rare and Unreleased [1954, Time Life]
6. Charlie Parker - Bird in Time [1936-46, ESP-Disk]
7. Matthew Shipp Trio - Cosmology [1998, Hatology]
8. Various Artists - ReR 25th Anniversary Compilation [1983, ReR]
9. George Coleman - Bongo Joe [1965, Arhoolie]
10. Orange - In the Midst of Chaos [1974, De Stijl]

Top Five Concerts of 2008:

Boris with Torshe at the Marquee Theater, Denver, CO [7.25.08]
Kraftwerk at the Fillmore Auditorium, Denver, CO [5.11.08]
Spiritualized at the Ogden Theater, Denver, CO [9.23.08]
Low at the Bluebird Theater, Denver, CO [7.16.08]
Radio 1190 10th Anniversary: Moonspeed at the Hi-Dive, Denver, CO [11.24.08]

Best of 2008: Tyler Broeren's Top 12 (In no particular order)

2008-12-25T23:13:00.000-06:00

1. Heaviness - Self-Titled [Self-Released]
2. LSD Pond - Self-Titled [Archive]
3. Boris - Smile [Southern Lord]
4. Patti Smith and Kevin Shields - The Coral Sea [Pask]
5. Current 93 - Birth Canal Blues EP [Durtro]
6. Earth - Bees Made Honey in the Lions Skull [Southern Lord]
7. Black Angels - Directions to sea a Ghost [Light in the Attic]
8. Oneida - Preteen Weaponry [Jagjaguwar]
9. Darker My Love - 2 [Dangerbird]
10. Wooden ships - Volume 1 [Holy Mountain]
11. Bardo Pond - Batholith [Three Lobed]
12. Stereolab - Chemical Chords [4AD]

Best of 2008: J Nemo's Top 10

2008-12-24T11:26:00.000-06:00

1. Suarasama - Fajar di Atas Awan [Drag City | August 11]

The wandering vocals, simplistic melodies, drones and offset percussion mend my withering soul. Originally broadcast in 1997 by Radio France International, this collection of music is a must for students of music, vocals or the droning beat. Track 5, "Silang Bertaut Bunyi," is a mystifying puff of smokey incense, free-form vocals and repetitious droning strings. This is the music playing on Sandy Bull's transistor radio.

2. Human Bell - Human Bell [Thrill Jockey | January 29]

An atmospheric instrumental cocktail conjured up by Arboretum's Dave Heumann and Lungfish's Nathan Bell. The guitar work, drones and "quartz singing bowl" veil over you like incense at the Great Stupa. Each track is an altering experience.

3. Black Mountain - In The Future [Jagjaguwar | January 22]

Psychedelia amplitude as defined by a fraction of the Vancouver based Black Mountain Army collective. Heavy texture laden anatomy, wafting vocals and just the right mix of mood. Play it loud on the summer patio to draw in the locals for a drink or wait out a deep winter blizzard inside your headphones. If you're craving escape without the hassle of chemicals this one's the ticket. Favorite tracks: "Wucan" and "Bright Lights"

4. Neil Young - Sugar Mountain: Live at Canterbury House [Reprise | December 2]

Old is new. Folk rocks and ROCK unplugs. Recorded at Canterbury House, November 9th, 1968. The wonderment of Neil giggles and sparkles, "I don't even know what to play," as if he's sitting crossed-legged at your kitchen table talking to YOU. I'm not sorry to say that Neil is one of my heroes. Is he a Folkie or a Hippie? A Punker? Maybe Country? He's a legend. This live acoustic release proves he's got the voice, lyrics, and skill. To top it all he's got Hank Williams' guitar. My favorite track is "I've Been Waiting For You."

5. Fleet Foxes - Sun Giant EP [Sub Pop | April 8]

Simpatico harmonies draped seamlessly over instrumental laminations. Digital decoupage to play as you pour the wine on a first date. Keep in mind the run time is only 19 minutes, so don't daddle around. "Mykonos" stands strong, but all the tracks make the listen complete.

6. Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks - Real Emotional Trash [Matador | March 4]

The dialogue of distorted strumming. Kibitzing, ruminating whines from a Portland alley riding a lapping wave as it thumps an effects pedal. Malkmus plays it just like you want it on his fourth release with the Jicks. Each track is a keeper.

7. Boris - Smile [Southern Lord | April 29]

Driving metal bound wah wah fuzz-fed guitars. Sound samples and Japanese lyrics. Boris is real. Anything on their albums can be done live and that is exactly what you should strive for. If you're unable to make the show Smile will do. Beware, some riffs and feedback chaos could possibly blow the cones off your speakers.

8. Paul Westerberg - 49:00 [Dry Wood | July 21]

49 cents can't get me much satisfaction these days, but a Westerberg long-run album with a single track can. My suggestion, play this 49 minute track to warm up the crowd at your daughter's wedding rehearsal dinner and croon on the vibe both youngsters and Xer's can agree. The tunes breed feel good, care-freedom while provoking lyrical wonder. Westerberg wrote all the snippets and played all the musical devices. Even so he caught legal hell from publishers wanting their CUT!!! Released as a digital download only. Pulled from the worldwide inter-web, but you may find it tucked away in some dark corner.

9. Blitzen Trapper - Furr [Sub Pop | September 23]

The production is immaculate. Quirky sounds and beats fill every corner of each track. The vocals blend smoothly with fitful guitar jams, melodic organ and biotic soundscapes of bells, whistles, steel guitar and bohemianite accents. If you're keen to exploring without travel and see vivid colorized shapes from your personalized porthole you will enjoy this release. Note worthy tracks; "Furr", "War on Machines", "Black River Killer".

10. Hank III - Damn Right Rebel Proud! [Sidewalk Records | October 21]

Hank III's 6th release rasps through lyrics like 60 grit paper, twangs at the right time, then bleeds out in a puddle of raunchy back woods punk. Throwing the finger at is his namesake's Country genre, Hank Williams III has stuck it to the man in just the right way, by proving the business chart wrong. Favorite tune: "Stoned & Alone". Watch out for F bombs.

Runner Ups:

The Black Angels - Directions To See A Ghost [Light In The Attic | May 13]

I Should of Listened to but never did:

Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago [Jagjaguwar | February 19]

Concert:

Boris with Michio Kurihara - [Marquis Theater | Denver, Colorado, July 25]

Best of 2008: Pat Collin's Top 20

2008-12-23T11:23:00.000-06:00

1. Why? - Alopecia [Anticon]
2. Man Man - Rabbit Habits [Anti]
3. Various Artists - Going Places: The August Darnell Years 1974-1983 [Strut]
4. Mt. Eerie with Julie Doiron and Fred Squire - Lost Wisdom [Southern]
5. Graham Smith & KGW - Yes Boss [Self-Released]
6. The Foxglove Hunt - Stop Heartbeat [Common Wall]
7. Metronomy - Nights Out [Because]
8. Human Highway - Moody Motorcycle [Suicide Squeeze]
9. Lindstrom - Where You Go, I Go Too [Smalltown Supersound]
10. Land of Talk - Some Are Lakes [Saddle Creek]
11. Mirah - The Old Days Feeling [Modern Radio]
12. Beach House - Devotion [Carpark]
13. Parenthetical Girls - Entanglements [Tomlab]
14. Boscoe - Self-Titled [Light in the Attic]
15. Various Artists - Monika Baerchen: Songs For Bruno, Knut, and Tom [Monika]
16. Lambchop - OH (Ohio) [City Slang]
17. Arthur Russell - Love Is Overtaking Me [Audika]
18. Noah And The Whale - Self-Titled [Mercury]
19. Buraka Som Sistema - Black Diamond [Enchufada]
20. Various Artists - Cosmic Balearic Beats Volume 1 [Eskimo]

Best of 2008: Ed Post-Mortem's Top 20

2008-12-22T12:06:00.000-06:00

1. Eddie Current Supression Ring - Primary Colours [Goner]
2. Black Mountain - In The Future [Jagjaguwar]
3. Clinic - Do It [Domino]
4. Dr. Dog - Fate [Park The Van]
5. Black Keys - Attack & Release [Nonesuch]
6. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago [Jagjaguwar]
7. Black Hollies - Casting Shadows [Ernest Jenning]
8. Git Some - Cosmic Rock [1-2-3-4-GO]
9. She & Him - Volume 1 [Merge]
10. Davila 666 - Self-Titled [In The Red]
11. Slim Cessna's Auto Club - Cipher [Alternative Tentacles]
12. Porlolo - Meadows [Pomade The Sun]
13. The Dirtbombs - We Have You Surrounded [In The Red]
14. Deerhunter – Microcastles [Kranky]
15. Spectrum Meets Captain Memphis - Indian Giver [Birdman]
16. Brimstone Howl - We Came In Peace [Alive]
17. Harlem - Free Drugs [Female Fantasy]
18. Spiritualized - Songs in A&E [Fontana International]
19. No Age – Nouns [Sub Pop]
20. Calexico - Carried To Dust [Quarterstick]

Comps and Reissues:

1. Figures of Light – Smash Hits [Norton]
2. Charlie Feathers – Honky Tonk Kind/Long Time Ago/Wild Side Of Life [Norton]
3. The Nerves – One Way Ticket [Alive]
4. David Bowie – Live in Santa Monica ’72 [EMI]
5. The Scientists – Swampland [PID]
6. Various Artists – Don’t Press Your Luck [Sundazed]
7. Roky Erickson & The Explosives – Halloween: Recorded Live 1079-1981 [Norton]
8. Various Artists – Local Anesthetic [Smooch]
9. Various Artists – Shadow Music of Thailand [Sublime Frequencies]
10. Various Artists – Fight On Your Time Ain’t Long [Mississippi]
11. Various Artists – Wayfaring Strangers: Guitar Stoli [Numero Group]
12. Davie Allen & The Arrows – Cycle Breed – 16 Vintage Widescreen Rarities & Unissued Cuts [Sundazed]
13. King Khan & The Shrines – The Supreme Genious Of… [Vice]
14. Various Artists – Rock-A-Round [Norton]
15. Mission Of Burma – Signals, Calls and Marches/VS./The Horrible Truth About Burma (2LP/DVD) [Matador]
16. Neil Young – Sugar Mountain: Live at Canterbury House 1968 [Reprise]
17. Hank Williams – The Unreleased Recordings [Time/Life]
18. Johnny Cash – At Folsom Prison [Legacy Edition 2CD/DVD] (Columbia/Legacy)
19. Big Dipper – Supercluster: The Big Dipper Anthology [Merge]
20. The Replacements – Tim/Pleased To Meet Me [LP] [Rhino]

FM3 - Buddha Machine II

2008-12-16T00:20:00.000-06:00

I'm like my friend Dave with his phone camera, it takes photos but ain't worth the cost and hassle to download the photos. That's what a digital camera is for. I have become a luddite with new tech gadgets I don't really need and really hate text messaging. I must be an old fart. As for useless tech gadgets, now that's another story. I'm running my new FM3 II through my Mesa Boogie Amp right now. Somehow I managed to break the new toy yesterday (it was in my coat pocket, showing it off at my radio-show and lunch over Margaritas). After all, this little unit is "made in China", where quality control is not in the vocabulary, as Walmart customers know so well. Had to disassemble the FM3 to figure it out and I finally traced the problem to cracks in the solder on the EPROM chip, which probably broke in shipping. Heated up the ol' soldering iron and after a few attempts everything was fine again.

As for the sound, gotta say I'm a little disappointed in the speaker sound, since the FM3 guys have made enough money on the first one to do a little more research. It does sound a lot better through the amp or computer. And only 9 loops is a step backwards. I think the attempt to try new loop ideas is noble, but a few of them, especially the morse code percussion and the two-quick-note loops, are annoying, no matter what pitch they are in. But you'll like the 'Satie-like' piano loop and the bowed prayer-bell ones for sure!

The FM3 guys were a little disingenuine in their net-interview when asked about the pitch wheel effecting the loop tempo-speed. That one has an obvious correlation. The amazing thing about the little FM3 boxes is that they have gotten more people into ambient soundscapes than any other recording device. There are web-pages devoted to mod'ing and 'bending' the electronics, and the amount of re-mixes using the device is ridiculous. 'Music for Airports' has turned into 'Music For Cubicles'.

For the advanced user, save your pennies and buy a Raagini Electric Tanpura Box from India. About the size of a motorcycle battery, it comes with more buttons and patterns than a barrel of monkeys, and the drones are proven to cure any malfeasance caused by Western Civilization.

Uncle Jeff

Magic Lantern - High Beams [Not Not Fun 2008]

2008-12-14T11:27:00.000-06:00

The hipster canon is masturbatory in the most prepubescent sense of the word. A quick flick of the wrist and it’s all over, until the fidgety-clouded mind leaves its focus and moves on to the latest hype. With a double-click of the mouse, countless web logs or lets just say webs, and numerous vehicles dragging us into a culture of musical disposability, it’s no wonder twee-pop is the hot genera for spring until the sweat of summer begins to trickle and Italo-disco begins to sound much better than it did a month earlier.

In recent years stoner-metal has fell victim to this disparaging course of the trendy anti-canon. Yet, somehow stoner-metal manages to stay a float and move forward. I admit my bias; I am a complete devotee to stoner-rock and all forms of sludgy dark pysch. Regardless, compare the resurrection of disco (a genre everyone hated for nearly thirty years) compared to the multiple resurrections of stoner-rock. From the get-go; Black Sabbath, Pentagram and Blue Cheer; to the next wave of heavy-hearted sloth’s; the Melvins, Kyuss, Sleep and Burning Witch, to the latest crop; Electric Wizard, Harvey Milk, and now Magic Lantern, a renewal keeps the music vibrant and progressive rather than many fashionable genre's that eventually become a flash in the pan.

Magic Lantern for instance (not to be confused with the 60’s British group of the same name), relies on Sabbath riffs and sleepy tempos, but their minimalist drive of swirling milky guitars, beaming space noises and repetitive slushy rhythms illuminates that stoner-metal is not as dormant as its buried bellowing sounds. High Beams, Magic Lantern’s second full-length and heftiest achievement to date makes it clear that these Southern Californians have spent a fare share of time prowling Death Valley, Nevada ghost towns, The Land of Enchantment and anywhere saguaros blossom. The LP’s opener, “Deathshed Hawkmoth” and closer, “Cactus Raga” are bookends squeezing a mammoth library of acid trip desert jams and murky-space drones. Simply put, Magic Lantern is a profuse mushroom cloud spewing lustrous lava from its unknown bowels. And unlike ‘hyped’ bands that may be lucky enough to fit the mold at the exact time that the mold is ready for the frenzied masses, Magic Lantern are too grandiose to fit molds and hopefully they will have the longevity to help shatter the destructive trends of modern consumerism.

Bardos Freedoom

Negativland “It’s All In Your Head FM” (Live) December 3, 2008 @ Old Main, CU Boulder Campus Boulder, Colorado

2008-12-09T15:50:00.000-06:00

Legendary Bay-area culture jammers Negativland came to the CU-Boulder campus at the behest of the Media Production Consortium, a student run organization devoted to presenting progressive electronic and multimedia performance artists. For two consecutive evenings Negativland performed a stage adaptation from their weekly radio broadcast Over the Edge featured on KPFA 94.1 FM (Berekly, CA). The performance was entitled It’s all in Your Head FM, a radio themed commentary on Monotheism, the super natural, the abrahamic religions and evolution. The performance was formatted as a live radio broadcast on the Universal Media Netweb affiliate It’s All In Your Head FM “Your home for monotheism in stereo”.

The members of Negativland appeared on the stage adorned with an “On Air” light, clad in tacky dress shirts with complementary neckties and name tags and commenced the inaugural broadcast of “Its All In Your Head FM” on it’s newest affiliates KGNU 88.5 FM and KVCU 1190 AM (the two community radio stations in Boulder). What proceeded was an hour-long journey into the world of monotheism, Darwinism, and fundamentalism from the American Christian perspective hosted by Dr. Oslo Norway, chairman of One World Advertising. Dr. Norway explained to the audience that the modern day radio audience has shrunk so drastically that the last refuge for broadcasters to increase their ratings was to deny the existence of god and to shave a chimpanzee in an attempt to reveal the evolutional proximity that we the human race share with our living ancestors. After an intermission the second hour commenced that examined the worlds of Islam and Judaism and their portrayal in the American news media. And for all of you die-hard Negativland fans The Weatherman (cable TV repairman turned sonic outlaw, Negativland collaborator, and recluse) also appears several time in the forms of intercalary station id’s

A scene by scene synopsis just seems tedious so at this point I will refer you to the interwebs so that you can experience It’s All In Your Head FM, for yourself. Also check out the archived programs of Over the Edge at kpfa.com.

Charles Ballas

Boduf Songs – How Shadows Chase the Balance [Kranky 2008]

2008-11-16T18:07:00.000-06:00

Boduf Songs (the moniker of Mathew Sweet) blurs the lines between darkness and beauty or in Sweet’s own words illuminates: How Shadows Chase the Balance. In line with his previous work on Chicago’s ambient-experimental label, Kranky, How Shadows Chase the Balance exists in a soft haze, due in part to the nature of his lo-fi home recordings and the curious clash of British folk and gloom-centered imagery that tend to appear in the darkest of sounds, most notably metal. Sweet’s voice only furthers the haze; it’s soft, kind and revealing and is the most obvious element bridging his mysterious instrumentation and cryptic lyricism into an oblivion of comeliness.

It takes a genuine talent to turn morbid tales of the unknown, the ambiguity of zombies/cannibalism, dying stars, and absolute desolation into peaceful sonic bliss: a gift as rare as H.P. Lovecraft. “Things Not to be Done on the Sabbath” tenderly sways as Sweet utters, “We fell upon the Earth from pitch black skies. We feed upon the left behind”. On “Pitiful Shadow Engulfed in Darkness” underworld motifs fuel the shadowy depths of the albums central themes as Sweet makes his entrance by declaring, “We abide under bridges, we are sunk in the swamps, to hide in the hollows or to rest in the flood”.

How Shadows Chase the Balance is the perfect record to welcome winter while still keeping cozy: it’s a roaring fireplace and the rug atop a cold stone floor, a comforter and the frosted windows next to the bed.

Bardos Freedoom

Hank Williams - The Unreleased Recordings [Time Life 2008]

2008-11-13T00:28:00.000-06:00

Holy Shit! it's the motherlode, finally available in a nicely trimmed down book-set from Time Life. The 'unreleased' refers to a treasure trove of 72 fifteen minute radio transcriptions recorded in 1951-52 for Mother's Finest Flour, all for one-shot broadcast at WSM in Nashville, broadcasting at 50,000 glorious watts back then. This 3-CD set excises the entertaining and historically enjoyable conversation and sales-patter of the full 16-inch radio transcriptions, in exchange for presenting wonderfully cleaned up and re-mastered live takes from the shows. A couple dozen of never-before heard renditions of popular spirituals, Appalachian standards and formative tunes in Hank's career like Fred Rose's "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" make this a must-have for even the casual Honky Tonk Country fan. This is a gift that rivals the archival Dylan Bootleg series, fleshing out the inspiration and context of Hank Williams finest work.

Included is a 38 page booklet documenting the legal wrangling and history of these recordings, found in a dumpster behind the WSM studios in the early 1980's. The fragile transcription discs were recorded to tape by Bob Pinson and circulated among hard-core collectors and bit-torrenters until the legal arm stepped in to curtail their distribution in any form. What will happen to the complete recordings is anybody's guess. In the meantime, the opportunity to hear clear and mournful renditions of Hank singing material like "Drifting Too Far From Shore" and "Ill Fly Away" with the original Drifting Cowboys serving as a crack supportive honky-tonk backing band is worth the price of admission. My only quibble is this Time Life set is not as all-comprehensive as collectors like me have come to expect from the great Bear Family box-sets, and annotation of the recording dates and personnel are lacking, but I'll get over that pretty darned easily by listening. It's nice to have the individual songs in this format and quality in addition to the 15 minute blocks the circulating "Mother's Finest" tapes offered. This set offers a more digestible dose for just about everyone, and will it will surely show up on a number of 'Top Ten' lists as 2008 draws to a shuddering halt. -Uncle Jeff

Hear many of these songs in context on Route 78 West, Sundays 10-12 noon MST on Radio 1190, KVCU Boulder, or get your daily dose from the show archives at www.route78west.com

The Unreleased Recordings Track List:

Disc 1:

Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain
Dust On The Bible
I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
I Heard My Savior Calling Me
Precious Lord, Take My Hand
Hey, Good Lookin'
On Top Of Old Smoky
I Can't Tell My Heart That
I Dreamed That the Great Judgement Morning
Next Sunday Darling Is My Birthday
At The First Fall Of Snow
Dear John
The Blind Child's Prayer
I'll Have A New Life
On The Banks Of The Pontchartrain
Low And Lonely
Drifting Too Far From The Shore
I'm Gonna Sing

Disc 2:

I Can't Help It (If I'm Still In Love With You)
Seaman's Blues
The Prodigal Son
Cherokee Boogie
Where He Leads Me
From Jerusalem to Jericho
Cool Water
I've Got My One Way Ticket To The Sky
Searching For A Soldier's Grave
California Zephyr
Softly And Tenderly
Just When I Needed You
Gathering Flowers For The Master's Bouquet
Why Should We Try Anymore
The Old Country Church
May You Never Be Alone
When The Fire Comes Down
Lonely Tombs

Disc 3:

Pictures From Life's Other Side
I'll Fly Away
Cold, Cold Heart
Have I Told You Lately That I Love You
When God Dips His Love In My Heart
Thy Burdens Are Greater Than Mine
When The Saints Go Marching In
I'll Sail My Ship Alone
Wedding Bells
Mind Your Own Business
You Blotted My Happy Schooldays
Where The Soul Never Dies
Pins And Needles (In My Heart)
Tennessee Border
There's Nothing As Sweet As My Baby
Wait For The Light To Shine
If I Didn't Love You
The Pale Horse And His Rider

Uncle Jeff

Valet - Naked Acid [Kranky 2008]

2008-11-06T14:36:00.000-06:00

As the first low murmurs began to arise from Valet's second album, I half-jokingly told my friend that Naked Acid was to be my favorite album of the year (having never heard it). With bare- skinned, unmasked passion I can now confirm my suspicions and admit to having fallen deeply and amorously in love with this record.

In three quarters of an hour, Honey Owens the architect behind Valet, walks through slow hypnotizing changes in sound and exploration. From fuzzing to murmuring, finger harp kalimba sprinklings to distorted underwater guitar, collaborator with Jackie-O-Motherfucker, Nudge, and Dark Yoga, Owens never wavers. At times, like those sleep machines stale rich people buy their siblings with sleep apnea (unaware of their distaste for anything but white noise), the album sweeps over like an electronic ocean. Never purely organic, orchestral or electronic, it becomes a crystal sea shell held to one's ear—as you turn it in your hand, the sounds and tracks creep in from all around, grow and give color, trickle out, buzz, sting and shine.

On songs like “Kehar” and the opening piece “We Went There”, which exemplify the little use of structured vocals, Owens with Adrian Orange draw the rotting out of Portland, to the growing of fresh lichen on a time-lapse video while collecting electricity bouncing from dirtied silver pools. Never purely dreary or stoned or sexy, Valet, halfway through the album, merges into the song "Fuck It” with bluesy, exhausted twang and whispers that are surprising and strangely essential. Just imagine burying your face in the neck of a graying stranger, only to smell cigarettes on your own hands that you shouldn't have smoked only then to flash suddenly to a Naked Acid trip sunrise, and finally seeing through the eyes of Bowie in the Man Who Fell To Earth.... finally questioning if maybe it all began from looking at leaves as the sun shines behind them, wincing while trying to see the veins of each illuminated leaf.

Whether texturally lending wrinkled sepia tones, the crawling of electric screeching bugs, a bag of shaking tiddlywinks and the distant turning of a jack in the box—there is a cinematic wailing and a guitar flossing with harp strings, back-bending over the sea and a distinct set of blurred memories which each listener will face. I feel that Valet resonates frighteningly well with the late Francesca Woodman, and, had I the abilities, I would contact the self-slain photographer (via Ouija) for a discussion on these parallels. In either case, like Woodman's work wherein the artist herself is often hiding in the streaks, creaks and shadows of the desolate, decaying rooms in which she photographs, Valet's Naked Acid is exceptional and mystifying.

Talitha Cum

Andrew Liles & Jean Hervé Peron – FINI! [Dirter Promotions 2008]

2008-11-02T11:17:00.000-06:00

When I saw that producer Andrew Liles, the true manipulator of darkness who works with the likes of Current 93 and Nurse With Wound, combined forces with Faust’s Jean Hervé Peron, I anticipated profundity. Krauts influence on the shadowy side of experimental music (Steve Stapleton, David Tibet, Douglass Pierce, Boyd Rice, etc.), not only birthed intriguing material, it also harbored fantastic collaborations of old originators with new carriers of innovation (e.g. Faust and Nurse With Wound’s Disconnected [2007]). But Liles and Peron’s latest tangent is a digression from successful past collaborations. Though flirtatious, FINI!’s flaws do a first-rate job of erasing anything worthwhile; especially the tasteless guitar flourishes, which only serve to spoil the work. The opener, “The Drummer is On Valium”, begins as a Faustian ode—a classic krautrock beat alongside the repetition of the title—yet like many tracks to follow, a tacky 80’s guitar solo quickly destroys the piece’s original curiosity. In line with the opening track, “Shake Your Hooves” is at once fascinating as a beat is crafted from fearful human breaths obstructed by the clapping of beasts’ hooves and ominous snorts, but it too sours with obnoxious guitar wanking.

The most interesting song is “Nasferatu”. It is also the most straight forward, opening with whistling and acoustic guitar strums and witty lyrics that transform the song into a vampire ballad: “I want to be near you, but I cannot touch you too soon, it’s too bright, come the night”. However, I don’t listen to Andrew Liles or Jean Hervé Peron for singer/songwriter ditties. The other standout track is “The Fly On The Windowstill is Dead”, and though Liles’ obscure and well-shifting samples are astounding, they are too familiar with Nurse With Wound.

Andrew Liles has produced some of the most spellbinding dark ambient since Boyd Rice’s NON, and Jean Hervé Peron's work with Faust has proven over the decades to be more massive than ever imagined. FINI! on the other hand is a dud in both masters’ cannons.

Bardos Freedoom

Holly Golightly - Dirt Don't Hurt [Transdreamer 2008]

2008-11-01T14:33:00.000-06:00

Not too long ago I sat next to Holly Golightly in a dark Denver bar, taking note of her knotty black hair and dry, bright red lips before drinking in her British accent and connecting all the dots. Her performance was delightful, and I left the show believing in (and crushing on) Golightly as a purveyor of the garage/blues/country reworkings that keep young men growing beards and the lot of us sneaking whiskey flasks to dim haunts. Her newest album, Dirt Don't Hurt does not nullify my adoration for Golightly as a coy songstress, but I do feel she may have been lead off the good ol' dusty trail...towards the tempting revival of circus-infused kitschy craftshow country hipsteria. Sliding away from musician and towards performer, or maybe showing true campy feathers, on Dirt Don't Hurt Golightly is working alongside the Brokeoffs, and nearly every song is a duet or has dueling vocals. The story behind the recording is a bit interesting: the Brokeoffs and Golightly crammed a five day recording excursion into their 50-gig tour, finding themselves in an analog studio named Circo Perotti in Gijon, Spain where they played with vintage microphones and other baubles.They've now toured together for two years, and this album marks their third collaborative effort. The Brokeoffs, from Texas, claim (on their website) to have formed in order to "git them ghosts to shut the fuck up" and are steeped in backwoods mysticism.

Much of this kettle corn album is reminiscent of all the "wild west" seen on Southwestern highways and the successful pairings of say Nancy Sinatra with Lee Hazlewood, or the recent (overlooked) Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan treasure chest. On songs like "Slow Road" Golightly seems to acknowledge the kitsch: squeaky clean production contradicts carnival-esque clanking, and she says "I learn to live with what I find in my company..." Could she be jabbing her co-conspirators the Brokeoffs for this bland album? For me, the song draws an image of Golightly hanging around Billy Childish, the Delmonas, the Headcoat-Headcoatees family, linking arms and refusing to step too far outside of the garage...or maybe in this case, spending too many hours at one of those souvenir western photo studios, sighing through the set list.

But the album is not exactly a fizzled out recycled heap. "My .45" is a honky-tonk battle ballad, and the vocals make you feel like you are watching the band leaning into and away from each other in perfect measure, ruffling up the crowd in a juke joint somewhere near Greenville, MS or anyplace where coleslaw is served in the barbecue sandwich, not on the side. "Cluck Old Hen" is another playful song, fingering traditional American story-songs into a possibly feminist, definitely sassy little diddy. Another highlight includes "Gettin High For Jesus", lending tacky sacrilege with a smoking harmonica.

Ultimately overflowing with twang and smoke, this is an album that induces visions of the South and Southwest. If slumping with a beer in a claw-foot tub, playing antique spoons and stomp boxes or Blondie's "One Way or Another" in fringe and spurs gets your goat- you might want to grasp this campy record for a go-round or two (three at most).

Talitha Cum

Pussy Galore - Exile On Main Street [Bootleg of 1986 cassette only release]

2008-10-28T21:55:00.000-06:00

Pussy Galore proves the slippery slope argument hammered down by anti-rock n’ roll conservatives who found the music to be of the devil and felt it necessary to attack it in order to protect their precious nuclear families, white flight and a slew of other hidebound institutions, frameworks and morals. This force of commie hating nut jobs thought, ‘who needs Ike Turner when there’s Glenn Miller’. Well hey, ‘who needs the Rolling Stones when there’s Pussy Galore’.

With Exile On Main Street (1986), Pussy Galore (a name that alone strikes terror into squares, even though it’s reference to the James Bond flick Goldfinger softens the crassness a bit) completes the lineation or more appropriately the downward spiral of rock n’ roll into the debauched depths of devastation and destruction by covering the Rolling Stones notorious 1972 album. You only have to listen to the first fifteen seconds to understand that the predictions and fears of 1950’s anti-rock n’ rollers were dead on when Cristina Martinez irritably shouts out, “Hello. I hate your fucking guts. Fuck you. I hate your fucking guts. I hate your fucking guts. I hate your fucking guts. I hate this fucking machine. I don’t know how the fuck to use it. I hate your fucking guts. I’m going to make my own fucking music”. And so you have it, less then fifteen years after the Stones released Exile On Main Street, this is where rock n’ roll squatted, like an untrained dog taking a shit in an Evangelist neighbors front yard.

Exile On Main Street reads like a hobo rummaging through a dumpster; throwing shit everywhere, eating rotten fish and licking the insides of old beer cans. The recording quality is atrocious, their instruments are out of tune to the point of no return, naughty words clutter and blur the original lyrics and melodies and when the tape begins to hiss and screech, it’s as though booze was poured into the already broken recording equipment. Yet Pussy Galore’s re-visionary effort harps upon all the best qualities of rock n’ roll—the ‘fuck you mom and dad, I’m drunk, on heroin and noisier than your divorce court’ attitude. Whether you love it or loathe it, Exile On Main Street is one of the most politically incorrect albums you’ll ever hear, and that alone entitles it at least a little respect. It's also a significant document because it bears all the pulpy fruits of the extraordinary noise to follow in its wake, that of Jon Spencer’s Blues Explosion and Royal Trux.

In line with Pussy Galore’s over-the-top lo-fi aesthetics, Exile On Main Street was originally released as a double-cassette that was limited to 550 copies. However, it has been bootlegged and reissued on vinyl, so now you can experience it on a black spinning plate of Satan, fornication, and substance abuse like the lost days when records where hidden under mattresses alongside pornography magazines and dime sacks! While I watch Exile On Main Street whirl round my record player, I wonder what happened to bands like Pussy Galore, Mission of Burma, Crass, Hüsker Dü, Mudhoney and so forth? These groups shat out an unadulterated vigor that is now being spoiled by fashion-obsessed hipsters. These current underground replacements are one-dimensional travesties, as is the case with such acts as Chairlift, Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah!, Of Montreal, and The Arcade Fire. It took rock n’ roll three decades to descend to the gutter the way Pussy Galore did, it’s time for another plunge.

P.S. I take back my dirty shit talking. Give me the Rolling Stones and Pussy Galore!

Bardos Freedoom

Blitzen Trapper - Furr [Sub Pop 2008]

2008-10-20T13:17:00.000-05:00

Deconstructing Blitzen Trapper's fourth release to this or that similar sound would come easy, but doesn't detract from the arrangement's righteous edge. After a few weeks of Furr filling the background during urban transit and errand runs I have brought this one into the house for a closer listen. My first response is uncorrupted happiness. A sort of audio feather to my ears. It's not inducing me to sing-a-long or hum. I don't remember even smiling to myself. The goodness revolves inside my mind. The music is textured and layered with a breath of life. It's playful and hopeful. It's spacial, earthy and driven.

The studio production is immaculate and quirky sounds and beats fill every corner of each track. I wonder if the tunes can be done live. If not, that's OK. The vocals blend smoothly with fitful guitar jams, melodic Hammond organ and biotic soundscapes of bells, whistles, steel guitar and bohemianite accents. The mood is the soundtrack to the scene outside my kitchen window.

And yes, lyrics abound within the composting gears of Furr's audio-gram. At times religious overtones surface amid the mire, time-travel and brevity. Honestly, I don't care to decode the meaning in the words except to reveal there is a subtle message of roving exploration. When listening I find myself falling in and out of the lyrics owing that the orchestration is so absorbing.

Blitzen Trapper formed in 2000 and works out of an old telegraph building in Portland, Oregon. Their first three CD's were self-released on Lidkercow Ltd. Furr is their first venture with Seattle, WA Sub Pop. The 2007 release of Wild Mountain Nation wheeled widespread attention and no doubt opened Sub Pop's wallet. Blitzen Trapper is Eric Earley (guitar, vocals, songwriter and producer), Brian Adrian Koch (drums, vocals), Erik Menteer (guitar, keyboard), Drew Laughery (keyboards), Michael VanPelt, (bass), and Marty Marquis (guitar, keyboards, vocals).

If you're keen to exploring without travel and see vivid colorized shapes from your personalized porthole you will enjoy all 39 minutes of this release. Note worthy tracks; "Furr", "War on Machines", "Black River Killer".

Blitzen Trapper is currently on a European/US tour in support of the September 2008 release of Furr.

J Niemoth October 2008

ONE ABOVE GROUND & A BUNCH BELOW

2008-10-17T23:03:00.000-05:00

Joy Division- In the Studio with Martin Hannett [Dandelion/Ozit Morpeous Records 2008]

This one's for absolute completists only. There are not many JD/New Order fans who need 16 minutes of "Synth Ambiance Warm Up" or 15 minutes of "Cups Smash 'Synth Filter Sweeps', Take 1". Not even me! The heirs to Martin Hannett's vast collection of studio tapes have seen to it that even the most arcane moments recorded in the studio as set up and preparation for Joy Division tracks like "Digital", "Glass", "Atmosphere" and "Ice Age" are now available to the curious. Now count me in as someone who looks at car wrecks when he drives by, but even the avid devotee will find little in this 2CD set. It's all legal and everything, but looking at Michelangelo's crumpled paper scraps does not the Sistine Chapel make.

Much more interesting and vital are the number of sound checks, studio practices and soundboard recordings recently leaked to the obscure corners of the internet. New Order sound man Duncan, was there at the beginning and toured for years, serving as the fifth pair of ears to make things clear and interesting. Such intimate knowledge of the band, through repeated listening and watching the band's growth trajectory makes him the man of the hour. These well preserved cassette tapes are what should be easily available!

"Glastonbury, June 20, 1981" is an interesting start, with an excellent recording but ultimately bad early performance with a drunk Bernard forgetting the words and merging songs. What is interesting here is how the rest of the band works to hold it together. For fans of train wrecks...

"The Venue, Blackpool 8/30/1982" is an unusual performance because it's missing the trusty AMS Delay that defined so much of the JD/New Order sound. The premier of 'Age of Consent' and this short, tight set make this soundboard recording worth searching out.

"New Order Basement Tapes 80-84" is the mother of insight into the inner workings of the band. These liberated recordings feature the first New Order demo in July 1980, and a wealth of very interesting practice jams that resulted in songs like 'Hurt', 'Ultraviolence', 'Ecstasy' and one completely unknown excellent 11 minute instrumental track. Start here if you are a fan of in-studio creation at its best.

"Duncan's Scandinavia 1981 Outtakes" is highly recommended if you only have time for one of these unreleased tapes. It offers up five extended sound checks serving as workouts for new and re-invented material performed before gigs in Stockholm and Gothenburg. Tracks like 'ICB', 'E.G.G.' and 'Senses' are 15 minute explorations. The highlight here of course is both the set-up/sound check and gig versions of 'Everythings Gone Green', You get to hear the gated tremolo synth set-up, played with the fury and inventiveness that defined the dance-punk genre. Good stuff for moderns, and old farts!

"New Order - Heaven Ultradisco, London Feb 9, 1981" Tying this all up with a nice bow, this soundboard recorded by Duncan, with Martin Hannett at the mixing desk, gives us a chance to hear the band at it's best. It's the sound checks included with deconstructed performances of 'Love Will Tear Us Apart', 'Atmosphere', 'Walk In Line' and 'Ceremony' that bring it all back to the beginning. 'Ultradisco...' like A Clockwork Orange, indeed!

Uncle Jeff

All Rights Reversed. For an excellent source of information and gigiagraphy, visit www.new-order.net

The Magnetic Fields live at the Boulder Theatre [10.15.08]

2008-10-17T01:21:00.000-05:00

Wednesday night at the Boulder Theater was a typical Boulder elitist event. The theater was filled with row upon row of seats, equipped with maroon velvet ropes that separated the dinky general admission sections in the back corners from the assigned seating up front. Furthering the snobbishness was the fact that the bar closed during the performance, which only enhanced the stale environment. Yet Stephin Merritt’s Magnetic Fields worked well in the pompous-theatre-like setting, in that two one-hour sets where split up by an intermission. Adding to the theatre milieu was the back and forth bickering of Pianist/vocalist Claudia Gonson and Stephin Merritt, which felt more like a viewing of Albee’s Whose Afraid of Virginia Wolf than a concert. Gonson was relentless in spouting out silly ironies of politics, New York and the film industry, whereas Merritt was much more reserved, only speaking when he had something cunning to spit out. As Gonson drawled on about dogmatic Denmark director Lars Von Trier, Merritt responded, “one of the worst things about touring is that when you want to look something up on IMDb (The Internet Movie Database), you can’t because you’re on stage”. His satirical banter continued with critiques of iPhones and Facebook. The crowd’s response was hilarious and more of Pavlovian conditioning: one mention of the iPhone sent a few yuppies walking to the back of the theatre to check their email on their apple devices.

Merritt’s stage persona composed of dark witticisms flowed flawlessly into his songs of desperation and an American underbelly, which hasn’t been fleshed out since Lou Reed’s sixties and seventies output. Sporting a baseball cap, a guitar which looked more like a lute and a lunch box sized amp atop a bedside table, Merritt’s appearance was so far detached from the emblematic front-man that if it wasn’t for his painfully gorgeous baritone voice (which is even more captivating in person), he wouldn’t have been noticed at all. The Magnetic Fields where much barer than the fuzzed-out sound of their aptly titled album Distortion (2008). With a drumless stage splattered with acoustic guitars and a grand piano, the songs from Distortion were more intimate and lyrically understandable. Merritt’s voice was soft, but clearer than I imagined it to be. Standout tracks from Distortion included “Drive On, Driver” and a beautiful weepy rendition of “Old Fools”, a twisted love song about the desolation of aging. With “California Girls” (also from Distortion), Merritt criticized Californian’s in saying, “they breathe coke and get off like squirrels”. Since the event did take place in plush Boulder, there must have been a few Sorority girls who where uncomfortable in the presence of Merritt’s anti-California ballad.

Though Distortion was highlighted, it was not the only focus. The Magnetic Fields did a bang-up job playing an assortment from their entire career, reaching back to 1994’s Holiday, 1995’s Get Lost, 1999’s 69 Love Songs, and 2004’s i. The pandering to older records may be because the entire Magnetic Fields catalog is being re-released on vinyl, with a 69 Love Songs box-set coming out in 2009.

Besides Boulder’s yuppie vibe, on every other element the concert was nothing short of magnetic. Especially considering Stephin Merritt has said he hates playing live, which has garnished a fabricated reputation that The Magnetic Fields are a dry and futile experience.

Bardos Freedoom

Stereolab live at the Gothic Theatre in Denver, CO [10.14.08]

2008-10-15T16:48:00.000-05:00

After commenting on the vastness of the American Midwest and not realizing how faraway Denver is from anywhere, Stereolab was pleased to meet an almost sold out crowd; an oddball mix of mainly thirty to fifty year olds, with small pockets of high school kids. The night was distinctive not just because us middle-of-no-where Coloradan’s got to experience legendary French/British post-modern rockers, but also because Monade, led by Stereolab vocalist Laetitia Sadier, opened the night. Monade, the illusion before the main act, was similar to the more straightforward side of Stereolab, with a more stripped down sound. Instead of a stage overflowing with synthesizers, Monade only used one and rather than pump the theatre full of electro-pop madness, Sadier’s strumming of her left-handed Fender Mustang led the group. With poppy French harmonizing, I was surprised when Sadier announced, “this one is about things that are dark and luminous”. But Monade had such a similar feel to Stereolab that Sadier reminded the crowd to stick around for more music to come.

Steorolab transformed the stage from that of a basic combo, to a space station. Vintage synthesizers were placed ubiquitously for the sestet to churn out their perfect blend of bubblegum and moonbeams, with a greater emphasis on their more recent pop heavy material. Chemicals Chords (2008), their first release under the legendary underground label 4AD dominated the performance. However, the pinnacle of the event was Sean O’Hagan, a mad scientist equipped with mallets, hissing knobs and throbbing synths. He led a few spaced-out kraut freak-outs, which reminded the audience of Stereolab’s avant-electro mayhem from their earlier years. At times O’Hagan was transformed by under glows of green lighting and as he experimented into oblivion I thought Frankenstein would surly be resurrected. Like the best Steorolab records, the show spotlighted their immense range, from weirdo 50’s space-pop to Faust inspired celestial territory.

Bardos Freedoom

Of Wonderous Legends (O.W.L.) [Locust 2008 re-release originally from 1972]

2008-10-14T16:06:00.000-05:00

I first put Of Wondrous Legends (O.W.L.) on after a bit of indecisiveness. Juggling between reading local Denver historian Phil Goodstein’s In the Shadow of the Klan: When the KKK Ruled Denver 1920-1926 or listening to the latest Locust release (a fantastic esoteric label out of Chicago), I decided to wait on delving into Denver’s villainous past and instead found myself drifting away to a very different hidden history. An ambitious and ambiguous first release, O.W.L. is a once lost (with an initial pressing of less than twenty) and strange treasure from 1972.

Stephen Titra, the architect of O.W.L. works with vast instrumentation in creating a union of baroque-folk, politically and historically laced poetry and progressive but sneaky rock that veers on the folkier side of the British Invasion. Sneaky in its ability in housing a sense of wonder, visions of the past, present and future (well a time which can only be romanticized, considering I didn’t live through a single year of the 70’s) and an unexplainable desolation; the kind commonly felt in listening to something that’s laid to rest in a coffin for decades.

As the liner notes reveal, Dawson Prater of Locust stumbled upon one of the original 20 pressings while thrifting along Chicago’s Western Ave. Dawson describes his first listen as follows: “Once home, I put on the record, sat back in a favorite chair, listened as the album took subtle shape and stared at the litho for awhile. By album’s end – after hints of the record’s enchanted, inward looking some cycle – I was suitably knocked out”. After experiencing the mesmerizing sounds of O.W.L., Dawson hunted Stephen Titra down (who was still living in Chicago) and finally released what unadventurous mainstream labels wouldn’t take a chance on more than thirty years earlier.

Like much of early 70’s folk-rock, Of Wondrous Legends may not have aged too well. But then again no one has been able to experience its aging process, which gives the overall art a novel, but cryptic beauty. Even the brilliance of Tim Buckley and Roy Harper haven’t aged as well as they should have. But whose fault is that, the artists, or confused and scattered modern notions that dictate the relevance and hipness of the past?

Bardos Freedoom

Yo Majesty - Futuristically Speaking... Never Be Afraid [Domino 2008]

2008-10-08T14:44:00.000-05:00

Yo Majesty is the most subversive and refreshing phenomenon in hip hop in many years. And since hip hop has become a wasteland of misogyny, homophobia, hypermasculinity, and uniformity, Yo Majesty’s latest Domino release, Futuristically Speaking… Never Be Afraid couldn’t have come at a better time. Jewel B and Shunda K, the two open and proud lesbian MC’s who are gaining quite the reputation for performing topless, speak their mind and powerfully assert a queer message that breaks through the confines of heterocentrism. Yet, Yo Majesty is under attack for promoting the same sexual and gendered exploitation of mainstream hetero rappers. But assuming that queerness must be restrained in the limitations of political correctness is homogenous and despotic. Queerness speaks to the spectrum of diversity and I applaud that Yo Majesty aren’t afraid to yell ‘get down on your knees and slurp it’.

Dusted’s Ben Yaster’s statement that “Futuristically Speaking isn’t a thesis, and Yo Majesty is a far cry from academic provocateurs. They might provoke, but they aim primarily to entertain” is absurd and completely missing the point. Fortunately, hip hop has created a critical dialogue that exists far from the elitism of the Ivory Tower. Hip hop is about expressing real life problems and realities, a street life that is much more connected to actual cultures than a separatist university existence. In doing so, Shunda K and Jewel B etch out and call out the multiple facets of oppression in combining criticism of homophobia, white racist violence, and male constructions of beauty. When their forceful and progressive MCing proclaims, “Dis country boys eat niggers like us for dinner, while thick, black beautiful women is getting thinner”, what’s the point of writing a thesis?

Futuristically Speaking is strongly recommended for anyone proud to bounce to jolting the nuclear family, the religious fundamentalists, frat-boys, a square P.C. doctrine, male and heterosexual dominance in hip hop and plastic surgery bods. Like the great political hip hop artists of the Golden Age (1985-1995), Public Enemy, Poor Righteous Teachers, Paris and X-Clan, with Yo Majesty true hip hop is back on the map. Futuristically Speaking... Never Be Afraid is a well-drafted title: Yo Magesty's forward thinking attitude is what is necessary in "never be afraid" to surpass all conservativists, the homophobes and the square politically correct.

Bardos Freedoom

Chug - Sassafras [Alias Records 1996]

2008-10-08T13:48:00.000-05:00

Chug were a band from the early to the mid nineties who played dark, brooding, sludge-laden, distorted rock. This is their first full length album following their first EP entitled ‘Kisser’, from which the title track was used as incidental music in the Nickolodeon cult favorite The Adventures of Pete and Pete, a show that was so hip and offbeat that at one point Iggy Pop was cast to play the role of a single parent, Michael Stipe as a depressed ice cream man, and David Johansson of the New York Dolls as a no nonsense state trooper… but I digress.

Chug’s music is a solid tour de force of distortion, feedback, distorted bass, and melancholic male-female vocal harmonies. The songs of Sassafras can be sonically characterized as being derived from elements of late 60’s psychedelia with a gooey coating of metal guitar riffage festooned over the surface. The occasional appearance of Farfisa organ and harmonica beautifully compliment the fuzz laden Fender Mustangs…at least that’s what I would bet the guitar of choice would be for an early 90’s garage sludge rocker.

Charles Ballas

The Silver Jews Live at the Bluebird Theatre in Denver, CO [10.05.08]

2008-10-07T01:11:00.000-05:00

David Berman and his fellow Silver Jews performed at Denver’s Bluebird Theatre on Saturday to an almost packed house. In line with Berman’s consistently witty records, the show blended the profane and sacred with the old and the new. Though they didn’t play their early anthem “Rebel Jew”, which bluntly but poignantly reminds us that Jesus was “a rebel Jew who died for you and your sins”, I was glad to see Berman sporting a Star of David necklace. Besides kooky jokes such as, “this one’s going out to my Aunt Fatty… all of them”, most of the profane was the product of the preposterous opener, a trio of Weird Al look-a-likes from Tel Aviv Israel known as Monotonix. The lead singer dumped a trashcan on the drummers head and later dove from the balcony of the Bluebird atop a confused and mostly apathetic crowd. Monotonix may be attention grabbers, but their music, a spoof of MC5-like rock n’ roll wasn’t their main focus and as a result the substance of the group is seriously lacking.

As for the Silver Jews, old classics such as “Trains Across the Sea”, “New Orleans” and “Random Rules” where intermixed between the greater moments of their latest and sixth release, Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea (2008 Drag City); like “Suffering Jukebox”, a parable about an unfortunate Jukebox stuck in a ‘happy town’ whose volume is “always kept way down low” because “there’s a lot of chatter boxes in this town”. The diversity of the material became a jaunt through the Silver Jews clever fifteen-year career. Yet the well-crafted song selection was merely a shadow hidden behind the dullness of the performance. For one, Berman didn’t even pick up a guitar until the last few numbers; which would have been fine if he was even half as exhilarating as Nick Cave (who played in Denver last weekend and was utterly stunning). Instead of charisma, Berman relied on his monotonous voice and awkward body movements. When he finally picked up his guitar it became clear why he waited so long: the man knows less chords than the Shaggs. Adding to the awkwardness (which I must admit where at times a bit cute) was Berman’s interacted with his wife Cassie, the bassist/backup singer of the Silver Jews. Interspersed between songs, Berman placed his hands on her hips, sneaked cheeky glances at her and softly swatted her nose. Maybe if Stephen Malkmus of Pavement was still in the group he could use his charm to steer the Silver Jews in more exciting directions then clumsy husband/wife stage flirting. But I guess we’ll just have to find out when Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks play the Gothic on November 6th.

In spite of their boring stage presence, his cunning poetry has always outshined the sometimes-bland instrumentation and overall performance. In this sense it was enjoyable to see a talented wordsmith literally come to life in the flesh. And although Berman can’t play a chord or sing a melody to save his life, his ability to transcend sonic disabilities demonstrates a vital connection of the singer/songwriters from the American Underground and the D.I.Y. attitude birthed from punk that called for a backlash against the tactless perfection and wanky technical noodling of the monotonous mainstream.

Bardos Freedoom

The Guiseppi Logan Quartet [ESP-Disk 2008 Reissue from 1965]

2008-09-25T17:07:00.000-05:00

This hauntingly beautiful session was almost lost when the producer and the engineer, themselves being entranced by the transcendental sonic tapestry unfurling itself before them, did not notice that the master tape was running dangerously close to its end, when it finally sounded the ominous "kathwump" and they noticed that this brilliant group interplay will be lost forever. However, The four musicians present in the studio that afternoon (Eddie Gomez b, Milford Graves drs/tabla, Don Pullen p, Giuseppi Logan ts/pakistani oboe) were able to back track a few bars into the master, pick up where they left off, and continue to recreate what had originally been perceived as free form improvisation, and later splice it all together.

The result was a type of jazz that had not yet existed, a type of jazz that sounded more like the soundtrack to a nightmare, or a surrealist film. The sound of the Giuseppi Logan Quartet can be described as exotic, haunting, atmospheric, and chaotic. However, knowing the groups ability to recreate the conceivably "free-form" improvisation from a previous musical juncture is proof that although sonic chaos, nightmarish textures, and surreal random dissonances ensue, there is an extremely complicated unorthodox syntax governing the improvisation existing beneath it's surface.

The five tracks committed to tape that afternoon in 1964 are a captivating and disturbing insight into the mind and psyche of Giueseppi Logan, a realm which was/is profoundly and creatively brilliant while at the same time being deeply disturbed and in the throes of debilitating mental illness and drug abuse. Within six years of this recording Logan was living in various hotels in Harlem where for the last 38 years he has been spotted wandering the streets near the Apollo theater on 125th street.

Charles Ballas

LCD Soundsystem - "Big Ideas" [DFA 2008]

2008-09-20T00:47:00.000-05:00

I usually enjoy LCD Soundsytem’s singles more than their full-lengths; well that was the case until the dynamic Sound of Silver (2007). Yet “Big Ideas” (recorded for Robert Luketic’s film 21), tracks James Murphy in his old fashion form with another bang-up EP.

With a definite kraut influence akin to La Düsseldorf and Harmonia, “Big Ideas” tacky lyrics lay atop a victorious bass line reminiscent of Neu’s “Negativeland”. Next to the original, Babytalk’s B-side remix is rubbish, but it isn’t a complete throwaway and will hit hard at all the 80’s hipster clubs “All Night Long”.

For now we’ll just have to sit back and see which version of “Big Ideas” the tight panted ‘fashionistas’ dance harder too. Either way, Babytalk won’t be played in my living room, whereas LCD will be spun again and again.

Bardos Freedoom

Various Artists - Life is a Problem... But Where There is Life There is Hope [Mississippi Records 3rd-Pressing 2008]

2008-09-11T17:08:00.000-05:00

Like Smithsonian Folkways, Document, Vanguard, and countless less prominent labels, Mississippi Records has released a collection of rare, obscure, and wholly American music. The offerings here cover everything from straightforward gospel to swaggering slide guitar, soulful R&B, and gritty electric and country blues. Unlike many various artist compilations that have a narrower focus, the variety of styles is one of the strongest elements of this release.

The Willanette Singers' soulful "Pray on", stands in stark contrast to "Rock & Roll Sermon, pt 1 & pt 2" by Elder Charles Beck's, who while preaching the ills of the devil's music unconsciously delivers one hell of a rockin’ blues number. "Amazing Grace" by Oaklands Famous One Man Band is an emotive instrumental featuring only slide. The title track from Sister Ola Mae Terrel follows in a more traditional country blues style. The Crumb Brothers' "Seat in the Kingdom" has all the makings of a vintage soul/gospel classic a-la Ray Charles. "I Pound A Solid Rock" sounds like an Alan Lomax field recording, thrusted into the modern age by its distorted guitar and primitive percussion. The religious theme runs throughout, but each track comes with its own mood, atmosphere, and stylistic elements.

This vinyl-only LP was originally released in late 2007 and featured a bonus 7". The batch of 500 pressings flew off the shelves of the small, independently owned Portland record store, which doubles as a reissue label, and the records have started to bring at least twice their sticker price on the web. Currently in its third and final pressing Life Is A Problem… isn't easy to come by if you're browsing the local shop and just as difficult to keep in stock if you run one. It's a worthwhile addition to any gospel, soul, R&B, or blues collection. Though some titles and artist may be familiar to the seasoned collector or fan, the record can provide worthwhile stylistic insight into the roots of rock and R&B for the layman. Highly recommended. Happy hunting!

Ed Post-Mortem

Brightblack Morning Light – Motion to Rejoin [Matador 2008]

2008-09-08T00:51:00.000-05:00

Brightblack Morning Light (Nathan "Nabob" Shineywater and Rachael "Rabob" or "Rabinyah" Hughes) are topnotch sloth-rockers reigning from Alabama. Unlike most modern hippie sounds (jam bands in particular), Brightblack take their subcultural leanings and branch out into territories that are inconceivable to jammy nitwits. They don’t dwell on thirty-minute guitar solos or release hundreds of repetitive live bootlegs, nor do they pamper to half-assed musical fusions, but the banner on the groups web page does read: “Anti Corporate, Anti Nuclear, Anti Coal, Recorded with 4 Solar Panels”, which my inner-hippie applauds. Brightblack’s hippie vibe is atypical; as is the case with the fantastic split cover EP with Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Pebbles and Ripples (2004), in which Brightblack compel Oldham to cover The Grateful Dead and Bob Marley.

Furthering their hippie leanings, Brightblack’s connection to the natural environment is a crucial influence on their sound. Residing in the “The Land of Enchantment”, their music reflects the area, as hinted at on Ali.Cali.Tuky’s (2004) beautiful opener, “New Mexico”. I’m sure the fact that Motion to Rejoin (the groups third full-length and second with Matador) was recorded in an intimate cabin in middle of nowhere New Mexico has something to do with nature’s infusion with their resonances. Their respect for the Southwest pleases me, as it’s a region that I am deeply indebted to and fond of. Thus, on Motion to Rejoin the mysteriousness of their compositions shines through like an alpine glow sunrise over a horizon of plateaus.

The opening number, “Hologram Buffalo” is like Stereolab on downers. In fact most of Motion to Rejoin sounds like a lot of music on downers: gospel, blues, soul-jazz, and even bizarre country and folk. Brightblack have always displayed beautiful down-tempo rocking reminiscent of distant styles, but with Motion to Rejoin they pull it off flawlessly, sounding both beholden to their forbearers and original. Motion to Rejoin is an idyllic dusk till dawn record, especially if on the road. I thought Pram’s latest, The Moving Frontier (2008), which shares a similar title with Motion to Rejoin, was a shining example of the same tender and cool soundtrack-like aesthetic common with Brightblack. That is until I heard the near perfect execution of Motion to Rejoin. In which each track blends seamlessly with the surroundings and the atmospheric gush felt with its flow is gorgeous and soothing.

“Gathered Years” is a lethargic wave of time and space. “Oppressions Each” is spread under a bed of electronics, a beat caught between dub and Mo-Town and lyrics evocative of freethinkers of the 1960’s. Some of the duos harmonizing is distorted, like on “Another Reclamation”, but it’s done in such a manner that the hum and hiss of the vocals only add to the hazy feel of the album. “A Rainbow Aims” is as if a late-60’s Miles Davis hired Otis Redding (when backed by Booker T. & the MG’s) and fed them basins of cough syrup. With chimes, lush keys and the eventual rise of horns, “Summer Hoof” is a great instrumental to flush out anxiety. “Past a Weatherbeaten Fence Post” is the most psychedelic number with wah-wah’s, pastoral production and a breezy ambiance that works well with the title. Motion to Rejoin’s closer, “When Beads Spell Power Leaf”, begins seeped in fusion-funk via Lonnie Liston Smith until reverberations bury the record behind a shadowy chasm.

Regrettably, Brightblack harbor some pseudo aspects of the free-folk scene: Native American imagery and monikers as romanticized by white hipsters, a fabricated drifter lifestyle and an adoration for magical realism (which is spurious in and of itself). All of these falsehoods are evident on the albums front cover, which is strewn with feathers adorned above a boat floating in an incandescent blue abyss. Yet Brightblack’s latest work is too powerful to dwell on such mishaps. Like Neil Young, who the celestial duo don’t necessarily sound like, Brightblack elucidate an ambiguous warmth and sincere energy that shouldn’t be overlooked just because the hippie label is seen as a “Scarlet Letter” or because of their free-folk veil.

Bardos Freedoom

Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – Is It The Sea? (Live) [Domino 2008]

2008-09-05T16:45:00.000-05:00

Overstating an artist’s importance is a common dilemma among music criticism. Yet with that said, I truly believe that along with Jason Molina (Songs: Ohia & Magnolia Electric Co.), that Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy is without a doubt the greatest songwriter in many decades. He deserves as much praise and revere as Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. With his brilliant mid-90’s output as Palace, Palace Brothers, Palace Songs and Palace Music, his transition into his birth name (Will Oldham) and the many crucial albums released under the moniker Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, such as his 1999 magnum opus I See a Darkness, it is a challenge to not be hypercritical of his latest work. Though mysteriously charming, 2006’s The Letting Go and 2008’s Lie Down in the Light demonstrate that Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy is heading towards the polished adult contemporary sound of NPR. Unfortunately, Is It The Sea? follows in the same adult contemporary vein, except with a noteworthy adjustment.

Recorded live in Scotland, Ireland and Newcastle in 2006 prior to the release of The Letting Go, on Is It The Sea? Oldham performs alongside the Celtic folk outfit Harem Scarem and British drummer Alex Neilson, who has worked with the likes of Jandek, Alasdair Roberts, Alastair Galbraith, Baby Dee, Six Organs of Admittance and Isobel Campbell. Though recent live performances show Oldham being almost as polished as his latest records, touring in the United Kingdom with a Celtic backing band brings an interesting and nearly mystical presence to his songs. Granted some tracks are complete throwaways, as is the case with “Bed is For Sleeping”, while the first half of the record gives rise to his impressive back catalog, the second half becomes a heart wrenching and remarkable presentation. Fruitfully, the finest selections on Is It The Sea? do not appear on previous Oldham releases.

The best song on the album is the Irish traditional, “Molly Bawn”, in which Molly Bawn’s love mistakes Molly for a swan and shoots her dead “by the setting of the sun”. Following Oldham’s opening verses explaining the tragedy of Molly Bawn’s demise, vocalist Eilidh Shaw (of Harem Scarem) responds as the ghost of Molly Bawn by avowing: “tell him he’s forgiven by his old Molly Bawn”. Other standouts include back-to-back maritime numbers, “Is It The Sea?” and “My Home Is The Sea”. Here Bonnie’s dear croon is gorgeously strewed across beautifully bleak instrumentation that harks upon the desolate Scottish and Irish shoreline.

Some may find Oldham backed by a Celtic group as another step towards a mainstream audience and though I too wish he would develop while still staying true to his dark witticisms and ingenious song crafting, I find Is It The Sea? to be endearing. Perhaps it’s nostalgia of the Irish summers of my childhood or an absolute obsession with Oldham's music. Regardless, the Celtic influence does provide an intriguing alteration of Oldham’s songs and works well with his stark stories.

Bardos Freedoom

Eddy Current Suppression Ring - Primary Colours [Goner 2008]

2008-09-02T18:28:00.000-05:00

Borrowing their name from the process of the circulation of electrons caused by changing the direction of a magnetic field, the Eddy Current Suppression Ring are a spiraling surge of first-wave punk rock and a definite directional shift away from the homogeny of the third-wave. This circulation brings forth resurgences of The Buzzcocks, The Undertones, The Fall, and fellow ‘Down Under’ rockers Radio Birdman. Eddy Current Suppression Ring isn’t the only fitting name the group has come up with. As the title of the album suggests, Primary Colors sticks to the basics without destroying the group’s palate and canvas with a confusing and polluted mess. The albums opener, “Memory Line” also hints at the groups intentions of taking punk back to its essence as vocalist Brendan Suppression spastically croons like Howard Devoto (The Buzzcocks, Magazine & Luxeria) by spitting out, “I took a walk down memory lane”.

Eddy Current evokes the type of punk our generation has thrown to waste—a music and a time we can only romanticize. Yet these Melbourne lads allow us the opportunity to drop the romanticism and explore the true and original spirit of punk in all its filthy glory forty years after the music’s inception. Maybe it's Australia? The ‘Land of Oz’ has generated quite the punk lineation (it must be all those bloody criminals). Radio Birdman must be proud parents, for their children haven't rebelled against the beauty of elemental angst! Whatever the reason, it’s revitalizing to hear stripped down rock n’ roll and a style of pop music that over the past few decades has blown off course.

Brendan Suppression’s voice is dead-on in its mingle of Mark E. Smith and Half Japanese with the grimy twist of his Melbourne accent. An accent I usually despise, unless of course it's belting out over a bed of distorted three-chord madness and a 4/4 beat. “Colour Television” is centered on the lyrical repetition of, “ It’s coming from my colour television”, which is evocative of Wire’s 1977 anthem “Ex-Lion Tamer” and its central line: “Stay glued to your TV set”. Like all spot on punk, Primary Colours stays true to its sound while also straying clear of monotony. The albums halfway point is met with the catchy power-pop instrumental “That’s Inside of Me”, before returned back to familiar ground with the albums longest number, “I Admit My Faults”. The vocals “I still don’t know which way to go” are ironic, because on their second release Eddy Current Suppression Ring have found their calling. In just under forty minutes, Primary Colours successfully accomplishes the music’s basis: a mass of solid songs in the shortest possible time span.

Bardos Freedoom

Andre Williams & the New Orleans Hellhounds – Can You Deal With It? [Bloodshot 2008]

2008-09-01T16:59:00.000-05:00

With Can You Deal With It?, the seventy-two year old “Father of Rap” has returned with all the filthy sex, cocaine, and greasy rock n’ roll of his half century career. His latest backing band, the New Orleans Hellhounds, help “Mr. Rhythm” expound a healthy dose of raucous rock n’ roll, country and the blending of Detroit and Crescent City soul and R&B. But the wit and flame present on such classics as 1998’s Silky are for the most part absent. Instead of stylish descriptions like “pussy stank, but so does marijuana”, on Can You Deal With Its? title track opener, he transparently utters, “I like the way you care your pussy, it makes me think you'z a hussy”. Chauvinist lines such as the aforementioned only seem to serve the shallow purpose of crudity, whereas in the past Williams spat out comical lyrics that though were still loutish, had a bit of flavor.

Nevertheless, crudeness has always been apart of Williams’ bag, from his teenage days as the filthiest R&B act of the ‘Motor City’ to his senor citizen skuzz rocking on In The Red Records and Bloodshot. In fact Williams vulgar delivery is one of the reasons he’s been appointed the “Father of Rap”, that and his revolutionary talked-out vocals, which were originally adopted on “Bacon Fat” (1956), his third and biggest single for Detroit’s Fortune label. This smooth talking approach was later adopted by the likes of Bootsy Collins, Millie Jackson and the hip hop generation that ensued by the end of the 70’s.

Although there are plenty of recordings that better highlight Williams’ humorous and sharp vocal style, Can You Deal With It? excellently displays his diversity। With the New Orleans Hellhounds Williams is a rock n’ roll chameleon: morphing from Chicago electric blues to C&W and from garage-punk back to the blues with a harder rhythm and a grubby Detroit feel. On all of Williams’ recent releases he reveals that he has enough grime to fill another half-century full of rude and rough rock n’ roll.

Bardos Freedoom

Black Taj - Beyonder [Amish Records]

2008-09-01T14:46:00.000-05:00

Late summer skateboards clicking along the sidewalk comfort my psyche. Ditto BLACK TAJ's second release Beyonder.

The genetics of Black Taj draw from Brylawski and Tenmile's exploits in the Folk, Blues, World Roots trio Idyll Swords, typicalis Fahey, Basho, Kottke and Bhatt. Their instrumental cache encompasses Sitar-Guitar, Tamboura, Cumbus, Oud, Rubab and Baglama Saz. Both are well versed fret-tarians of lead and rhythm guitar. The family tree also reveals an eight year (90-98) Brylawski/Popson noise/math collaboration in the Chapel Hill N.C. based band Polvo. The Black Taj lineup is Dave Brylawski (guitar/vocals), Grant Tennille (guitar/vocals), Steve Popson (bass) and Tom Atherton (drums).

From that résumé I picture Black Taj a quasi-speckled analog hybrid of Steve Albini's band Shellac and the Master Musicians of Jajouka. Based on their range of experience I would not disbelieve their capability to pull that off, but I am here to enlighten you. Beyonder is eight tracks of Boomer Generation 70s Rock that even Gen Y can, with a bribe of using the car Saturday night, appreciate. I am not going to make comparisons to Steve Miller, Yes, Bad Company, Led Zeppelin, Heart or Hendrix because that would be so uncool to do. I have a reputation to maintain.

The hell with it! I even think Bob Lefsetz would agree with me on this one. At the time I enjoyed those bands and I want to believe that connection to my heyday is living on. I'm 52 years on the way to here and listening to this compact disc is a feel good summer drive in a '69 Dodge hemi-powered V8 beast on a two lane road speeding west out of Joliet to a kegger in Moline. Avoid the tollway. There are wardens in the woods.

Beyonder's production melds toe tapping head bobbing slabs of U.S.D.A. Rock with transparent primordial harmonies. The bass line drives on through repetitive guitar riffs and vocals stand more as an instrument than a message. Granted, there are no huge steps into unexplored territory, but each listen has my foot tapping and my gray haired head bobbing. My greatest anticipation is the next release combine more eastern instrumentation as demonstrated on Damascus (track 4) and forge a distinctive style indicative of the name Black Taj. Come on, BLACK TAJ evokes cross-legged Sitar pickers and rhythmic Tabla percussionists with fists held to the sky in defiance. No indication of any tour in support of this release.

Track-by-Track; 1. Move Me [Led Zep deep throats YES, fav track] 2. Fresh Air Traverse [Sick smooth vocals, dual lead guitars] 3. Cold Comfort [Heavy contrast, "Your love is cold"] 4. Damascus [Retrospective reverb] 5. Spacewash [Arena rock instrumental] 6. Only For A Moment [Fly Like An Eagle] 7. LA Shift ["You'll never hear surf music again"] 8. Little Child/Idyll Hill [weak]

Released May 13, 2008 [running time 33:57]
Previous releases BLACK TAJ - Black Taj [Amish Records | October 21, 2005] CD

J Niemoth August 2008

UNCLE JEFF'S BOOTLEG CORNER...

2008-08-30T14:40:00.001-05:00

The goal of this area of our wonderful little blog is to highlight and call attention to releases that have fallen into the cracks of the shadowy world of unofficially released bootleg gems। There is too much to know these days, but we'll help you on the path to enlightment as we can. Of course, the legal ramifications of these searches are your own problems! "Can you say bittorent?"

The Beatle's - Esher Demos and the Beach Boy's - Smile [unreleased 1968]

2008-08-30T14:31:00.000-05:00

The year was 1968, and the Beatles had just returned from India with a bag of new songs and ideas. Having spent time with Donovan, Mike Love and the Maharishi must have been a gas, for the demos knocked out quickly at George Harrison's Esher house upon return provided all the love that was needed for the 2 LP White Album, to be put out later that year. Hearing these beloved songs in their creative inception is a joy and privilege not to be missed. The background talking and one-off charm add to the vibe, and it is still amazing forty years later to think that this amount of great material could be contained. Cuts like John Lennon's "Child of Nature" later surfaced as "Jealous Guy", and the mostly acoustic takes are like a love letter from the past, before it all got complicated.

In the post-Sgt. Pepper world, on the other side of the globe, Brian Wilson was strategizing and struggling with the next Beach Boys release, Smile. The other members of the band reportedly hated the new material, and were concerned about playing it live. Tracks like "Good Vibrations" and "Heroes and Villains" were recorded 30 or more takes, with wildly varying ideas using orchestra, theremin and radical edits. As Brian Wilson's LSD use and increasingly disorientated state affected the Smile project, Van Dyke Parks was brought in to help with lyrics and assembly. Final tracks like the still incredibly moving "Surf's Up" were completed, but ultimately the project was scrapped.

There have been various attempts at reconstruction of Smile over the years, and Mr. Wilson himself released his 2004 version of this mythical record with newly recorded parts. The good folks at Purple Chick have made the definitive version to look for, with some judicious edits merging various sources to make the most listenable, correct running song order matrix available. The amount of research and debates as to what "would have been used" is mind bending. Ah if all this effort were to be applied to something simple like cold-fusion!

Forty years later, with the times in an ever-repeating spin-cycle, we have an antidote for you. Find these two bootleg at all costs. The key to the Universe may just be contained in the ones-and-zeros there-in.

Uncle Jeff 8/2008

Paul Westerberg - 49:00 [released, then un-released]

2008-08-30T14:06:00.000-05:00

Another brilliant marketing strategy or a gift to the fans? It's in your face and all over the place! This MP3 only release by the ex-Replacements main man is a glorious mess with some of the best songwriting Paul Westerberg has coughed up in years. The release was put up on Amazon for 49 cents as one long track, then quickly pulled down, reportedly for some of the samples contained at the end. As a response, he put up ‘5:05’ with the lines: "So you want to sue me, You can see right through me, Fuck You, Fuck You!" Ah, the internet is a wonderful way to air dirty laundry and get things out fast.

This was recorded in Paul’s studio and jumps from finished tracks to low-fi and back, sometimes simultaneously on different channels. Standouts include “Terry, Who You Gonna Marry”, “Devil Raised a Good Boy”, “Out of My System”, “Money Goes Straight to Her Arm”, and “It’ll Never Die”. This is a great record in the "Beggar's Banquet"/Guided By Voices tradition, cut up and diced for your listening pleasure.

Artists frequently lose the emotional content when they do 30 takes and produce a song. Here you get that warm and direct feel so often neutered by A&R guys and big record companies. Download this one right away at one of your favorite pirate sites. Even if these songs come out later as finished and polished tracks, this document will stand the test of time as one of Westerberg's best.

Uncle Jeff 8/2008

Figures of Light - Smash Hits [Norton 2008]

2008-08-29T17:25:00.000-05:00

It's hard to imagine a band releasing one single in 1972 that barely saw the light of day, let a lone a record store shelf, and managing to come back some 35 years later with something interesting to offer. But, you don't need to listen to the Figures Of Light for very long to realize they're not your average early 70's rock combo. In 2005 Norton records continued in a tradition shared by the likes of Tim Warren (Crypt records and “Back From the Grave") and the late Gregg Shaw (Bomp! records and “Pebbles”), by releasing another lost gem of seminal embryonic punk rock . Wheeler Winston Dixon (vocals/slide guitar), Michael Downey (rhythm guitar/backing vocals), Phil Cohen (lead guitar), and Dennis Druzbik (bass) were ahead of their time to say the least, and if the New York based label's reissue of their extremely limited 1972 two-sider "It's Lame" b/w "I Jes Wanna Go To Bed" wasn't evidence enough, Smash Hits is the nail in the coffin.

As I stood in the record shop holding the LP I had so greatly anticipated, I can’t say I was thrilled to find out that more than half the material featured on Smash Hits was recorded in 2007. In fact, I left the store with an unshakable feeling that I had been duped, was a victim of "hype”, a sucker. After all, it wouldn't have been the first time. But, that feeling was knocked right out of me as soon as the needle hit the groove on what has to be one of the best rock 'n' roll releases of the year. When “Gimme Gimme Gimme” and it’s snotty delivery came through the speakers I felt like I was socked hard in the gut, left gasping for breath and stunned. You might think I'm exaggerating, but let me point out first and foremost that I'm a total and complete wuss. And, secondly, whether it's me, you, or some hives/strokes hipster wannabes getting the beating, this record kicks fucking ass, literally and metaphorically speaking. Punk, half a decade before “Punk”, covered in sharp two-chord fuzz, seething with angst and frustration, and rooted in garage trash. Dixon and Downey, joined Miriam Linna, Matt Verta-Ray, Marcus The Carcass, Heath Cole (line-ups for more than one recording session) sound like they could hold their own face to face with any of the garage punk outfits around today. If the forty-five second pop nugget "Why Not Knock Yourself Off?" isn't punk rock, than I don't know what is. "Velvet Touch", as the title implies, is an audibly Velvet Underground inspired instrumental and the least aggressive offering of the bunch. The Stooges influence is spread across the board, but the Figures of Light, in reality, precede half the references I'd like to make here. "Ritual TV Smashing Finale" which was pulled from a recording of the original line-ups debut performance in 1970, is a product of show-stopping manic energy. The perfect end note to a night that supposedly started with a motorcycle crashing into a turntable playing Gershwin's "An American In Paris”, and ended with around six minutes of pure mayhem set to the tune of 15 television sets being smashed on the stage and the cries of a crowd that may very well, have feared for their lives! (The entire show must be released!) Billy Miller who produced the band's July '07 sessions and Tony Hillhouse who recorded their June '07 studio material, do a fantastic job capturing the raw energy of the original '72 sessions in their respective production efforts. A stripped down and full-throttle, production that has become a standard for rock 'n' roll bands of recent years। Truth be told, outside of the live recordings, if the '07 sessions were just a little grittier they could easily be mistaken for recordings made over three decades ago.

Ed Post-Mortem

Various Artists – The Garden of Forking Paths [Important Records]

2008-08-27T19:39:00.000-05:00

Like so many fractured hipster trends, these hyper-sped up times have created a disposable interest and an overabundance of underground styles: left-field hip-hop, revival post-punk and no-wave, Favela booty beats, the resurrection of disco but in a more obscure and pretentious form, that of Italo-disco (which I am a complete sucker for), sludge/doom/stoner/drone/art metal, twee pop and this confusing mess called free-folk. I do not intend on criticizing the musical styles themselves, rather that their surfacing within a hipster existence is very limiting. For instance, with free-folk a profusion of drivel has occurred, as illustrated by the likes of CocoRosie, Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom, and an exhausted list of fellow imitators who seem much more into the camera and mirror than their actual sound. However, as irritated as I am with Devendra Banhart prancing around a photo shoot wearing a Navajo headdress and American Apparel briefs, there are plenty of experimental-folk artists who are more concerned with pushing the envelope then their Pitchfork derived image. Those who come straight to mind are Josephine Foster, Paul Metzger and James Blackshaw. The former of which and curator of The Garden of Forking Paths (also the title of a 1941 short story by Argentinean writer/poet Jorge Luis Borges) proves that contemporary acoustic music is beyond that which the hollows of Williamsburg let on.

The compilation showcases four artists and five pieces from across the globe that are purely instrumental, inventive and separated from the hipster derived free-folk scene, meaning no campy costumes retrieved from Shaman retreats and no artificial moccasins or rabbit foots glued to the back of instruments. Blackshaw lends his Fahey inspired finger-picking on “The Broken Hourglass”, which somehow reminds me of the central motif in Ennio Morricone’s “Il Triello” from The Good the Bad and the Ugly, yet with only a single 12-string guitar. Chieko Mori, a virtuosic koto player (a traditional Japanese 13-stringed instrument), is the only artist given two pieces. This additional space allows her to show the breadth and beauty of her unique improvisation. Helena Espvall’s “Home of Shadows and Whirlwinds” is distant from her work with the Espers. In a solo setting, the undertones of her cello are given breath as the drones encompass the imperceptible. And on “The Mirror of Eternal Light”, Josef van Wissem, a Dutch renaissance-lutist, blends the dark tones of the antiquated instrument with an ambiguous modernity. With The Garden of Forking Paths, each piece is salient, thought provoking, and clear ahead of fashion-free-folk and as a whole is a brilliant statement in forward-thinking music.

Bardos Freedoom

GZA – Pro Tools [Babygrande]

2008-08-24T17:46:00.000-05:00

With Wu-Tang Clan’s 1993 debut Enter the Wu-Tang 36 Chambers, the nine MC's revolutionary approach to hip hop has proved that the Wu is the greatest crew of the post-golden age. Yet when the Wu Empire began splintering with solo releases, only two records reached the cleverness, originality and scope of 36 Chambers: Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx and GZA’s Liquid Swords. This is not to say that the RZA, Method Man, O.D.B., and the remaining clan members didn’t release worthwhile albums, but rather that GZA and Raekwon’s debuts proved to be two of the finest hip hop records of the mid-90’s. However, Raekwon’s follow-ups fell short, whereas GZA (though he has yet to release anything quite like Liquid Swords) has kept his intelligent flows vibrant and interesting. Thus with Pro Tools, the ‘Genius’ remains an accurate alias for Wu-Tangs most gifted MC. The album begins with “Pencil”, in which a classic Bobby Digital (RZA) beat provides the background for verses by GZA, RZA and Masta Killa. As with all of GZA’s flows, on Pro Tools he is clear, grounded, clever and mature. His rhymes are refreshing because they are pathways into the mind of a modest but sharp master, rather than the narcissistic bigotry of many mainstream rappers/hip-poppers. On “Paper Thin” GZA criticizes this faux and exaggerated mob-mentality of the mainstream by attacking 50 Cent and in doing so reiterates his assertion: “MC’s are like sperm cells, they’re dangerous”. The Genius’ jabs at 50, such as, “You ain’t nothing but a pig on a blanket, hog head, the deadliest food at the banquet”, will not birth another infamous rap war, because GZA’s attack is so dead-on that he has left 50 Cent without room to retaliate. 50 may have been shot nine times, but not even “Formula 50” can bring his pulse back from GZA’s lethal killa bee bullets. Like the best Wu-Tang solo efforts, Pro Tools enchantment couldn’t be possible without Gemini figures. Again Bobby Digital's production (along with Mathematics) is vital to the success of GZA’s MCing. With “Life Is a Movie,” a brilliant Gary Numan sample carries the track and RZA’s beat is matched by his post-modern apocalyptic flow: “I’ve got scientist killas that will jam your cell phone, send a text message, kill you over a ring tone”. Although the title is weak, with the help of fellow Wu-Tang members and GZA’s striking flow, Pro Tools is another example that the “Wu-Tang Clan ain’t nothing to fuck with”.

Bardos Freedoom

Asva – What You Don’t Know Is Frontier [Southern]

2008-08-22T21:37:00.000-05:00

What You Don’t Know Is Frontier starts like an ear glued to a shell with the ocean crying within. In moments, an electric pulse rushes through the sea and swallows its calm hum. As doom infested chords gradually build alongside funeral organs, the resonations make apparent that What You Don’t Know Is Frontier is an honest title for a haunting expedition into unknown darkness. As the second track, “Christopher Columbus” slowly sneaks in, Asva redirects the ignorant explorers journey by entrapping his ship in a glacier. Led by Stuart Dahlquist of Burning Witch and Sunn O)))), What You Don’t Know Is Frontier is a reverence to his brother who recently passed away. Yet the homage doesn’t quite set in until the albums intimate opus, “A Game in Hell, Hard Work in Heaven” drifts into slow reflective motion. Compared to the rest of the album, “A Game in Hell, Hard Work in Heaven” commences in serenity, like the eye of a hurricane, in which the damage of the disaster is mirrored by a few moments of ominous stillness. “A Trap for Judges,” the albums twenty-four minute finale develops through the elongated vibrations of a doomed atmosphere before vanishing under a bed of church organs. What You Don’t Know Is Frontier sees Asva furthering their droning experimentation started on 2005’s Futurists Against the Ocean and taking their sensorial sound and protracting it. The record is a breathtaking exploration of composition, but it is disappointing to lose the shear terror of Jessika Kenney’s vocals: an onslaught that gave Futurists Against the Ocean an atypical edge. Not only in that Kenney is one of the few female doom vocalists, but also due to the operatic force of her voice and its effective shaping of Asva’s initial sound.

Bardos Freedoom

Josephine Foster – The Coming Gladness [Bo’Weavil]

2008-08-21T15:05:00.000-05:00

“Brothers... Sisters... Welcome to the garden of earthly delights,” the opening lines of The Coming Gladness, which unfold (without delay) the truths of Josephine Foster’s unbounded talent. Foster, an opera dropout born in Colorado whose captivating voice sounds like a grouping of Peruvian goddess Ima Sumac, free-jazz songster Patty Waters and the vocal styles adopted by the British psych-folk artists of the 1960’s is not only at the forefront of outsider folk, but existing and creating entirely on her own plane. The Coming Gladness remains faithful to Foster's peculiar folky methodology, revisits her psychedelic days when she was in The Supposed, while also balancing new and fascinating territory. With the help of percussionist Alex Nielson (who has worked with Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and Current 93) and guitarist and fellow Bo’Weavil label mate Victor Herrero, The Coming Gladness takes slight free-improv wanderings. At times Foster, Nielson and Herrero sound like the Tren Brothers and Gastr del Sol. Yet unlike some of Gastr del Sol’s work, The Coming Gladness has an enchanting way of taking tangents that unearth the arrangements rather than lose them. Dissimilar to the majority of free-improvisation, the centerpiece of The Coming Gladness is Foster’s remarkably potent voice, which casts a spell on the instrumentation and congregates the content. The result is radiant and completely of its own. Foster parallels Tim Buckley, not that she emulates his sound, but that her voice and accompanying instrumentation is like nothing heard before or since.

Bardos Freedoom

Spectrum Meets Captain Memphis – Indian Giver [Birdman]

2008-08-20T22:00:00.001-05:00

Spaceship commander Sonic Boom (Spacemen 3, Spectrum, & Experimental Audio Research) has traversed many foreign galaxies, but never has he landed in the alien land of Mississippi। Birthed in deep murky swamps, Indian Giver is the bazaar encounter of Spectrum and legendary producer Jim Dickinson, a।k.a. Captain Memphis at Dickinson’s hidden Mississippi estate. Captain Memphis has worked with fellow Spacemen 3 offshoot J. Spaceman of Spiritualized, the Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin, Mudhoney, the Replacements, and Big Star. Recorded in 2003, the only testimony of this strange muggy meeting are the nine tracks featured on Indian Giver. Sonic Boom lays down classic Spacemen 3 supernova-grooves that shape the flow and texture of the entire session while Captain Memphis lends his hobo-blues, Captain Beefheart/Tom Waits/Charles Bukowski rants, which fit surprisingly well with the layers built by Sonic Boom and co. Indian Giver is Spectrums most palatable work since 1992’s Soul Kiss (Slide Divine) and yet the interesting motion in combining Sonic Boom and Captain Memphis reaches the perfect level of experimentation. The pinnacle of Indian Giver is a cover of Mudhoney’s, “When Tomorrow Hits,” in which a tsunami of fuzz soars into a melting universe. The racist title of the album is unnerving, but what can you expect from a kooky white-skinned producer and a space-obsessed Englishman in the backwoods of Mississippi.

Bardos Freedoom

Pram – The Moving Frontier [Domino]

2008-08-20T21:51:00.000-05:00

With only five vocal tracks, the Birmingham oddball avant-pop outfit Pram returns with The Moving Frontier, one of the groups most interesting and finest records in their fifteen-year existence. The nostalgic movie-like instrumentals work wonderfully with time and space, while also making the few songs with vocalist Rosie Cuckston that much more special. With thumb pianos, electronics, strings, plenty of brass and innumerable amounts of other instrumentation, The Moving Frontier creates a lush and consuming atmosphere. Cuckston’s vocal numbers on The Moving Frontier’s are the albums peaks, yet the instrumentals put the entire composition into perspective, only helping to stimulate reflection. In fact reflection sums up The Moving Frontier. It’s obvious that Pram (as all bands should) relied on reflected and sonically documented their findings with The Moving Frontier. As well, The Moving Frontier has an interesting way of allowing the listener to reflect upon the music while the album is still in motion.

Bardos Freedoom

Spiritualized – Songs In A&E [Castle]

2008-08-20T21:39:00.000-05:00

After Spaceman 3 disbanded Sonic Boom took the experimental drones and minimalist galaxy-noises of the group to new depths with Spectrum and Experimental Audio Research, whereas Jason Pierce (a.k.a. J. Spacemen) utilized Spiritualized as a means to jump start space rock into pop formats. More than fifteen years since the group’s birth, J. Spaceman and Spiritualized have mutated into Roger Waters destination with Pink Floyd during the post Wall years. Yet, as much as Spiritualized may have shifted from their initial sound, unlike Roger Waters, Spiritualized have not degraded into futile squander. Although Songs In A&E (meaning accident and emergency not songs in the key of A and E) may be Spiritualized’s most palatal work to date, Jason Pierce’s resent near death experience ignites an emotional vigor, which Roger Waters couldn’t even reach through euthanasia. Songs in A&E is more acoustic than previous works and the lushness of Spiritualized classic orchestrated sound meshes well with the intensity of the lyrical content. Though Songs in A&E may not be the Tibetan bardo, it’s invigorating to know that an imaginative figure is still flourishing.

Bardos Freedoom

Pete Rock – NY’s Finest [Pioneer]

2008-08-20T21:06:00.000-05:00

Legendary MC, producer and DJ Pete Rock of the mid-90’s duo with C.L. Smooth (who together released 1994’s golden-age classic Meccca and the Soul Survivor), return with 2008’s NY’s Finest. Rock’s devotion to the hip hop community is obvious as he always features other talented MC’s and producers on his records. NY’s Finest continues this communal lineation, featuring guest appearances by Redman, Little Brother, The Lords of the Underground, Wu Tang personnel Raekwon and Masta Killa, and a slew of other hip hoppers. Highlights include “Till I Retire,” in which Rock mocks infantile MC’s that these days pass for rappers alongside a masterfully simple DJ Green Lantern beat, “Don’t Be Mad” in which Rock flirts with similar cocky themes by proclaiming, “I’m the poster boy of the MPC,” and “Bring Ya’ll Back,” a duet with Little Brother in which they invite the listener back to hip hops golden-age (1985-1995). Unfortunately chauvinist and heterosexist lyrics are prevalent on NY’s Finest; however, at least a witty picture of street life is presented with lyrical motifs that critique and poke fun at the white status quo. In these desperate times, when most hip hop is either lofty hipster white-boy rubbish (such as most of Anticons output) or the exaggerated gangster rap/hip pop of the mainstream, it is refreshing to hear one of hip hops finest (no pun intended) veteran members wrecking his lack of competition.

Bardos Freedoom

Sun Kil Moon – April [4AD]

2008-08-20T21:02:00.000-05:00

Altering back and forth from the Red House Painters to Sun Kil Moon to Mark Kozelek and back again to Sun Kil Moon, one thing that always remains steady is Kozelek’s soft croon and slow but vivid story telling. The tragedies that once plagued Kozelek’s past haven’t disappeared in April’s lyrics; instead they have settled and matured. As giftedly melancholy as the Red House Painters were, at times the depressive overload came off as pathetic, self absorbed and whiny. With April this fragility has been fully dropped and replaced with a wisdom that only the greatest songwriters reach. The songs of April may not be received as being as classic as those from the Red House Painters, but the way they luster is nothing short of eternal. It’s surprising how little Mark Kozelek has changed, but it has allowed him time to explore the trenches of his own songwriting and though it’s hard to track any sort of evolution it’s noticeable in a subdued form. In a way, Kozelek’s consistence, and restrained development parallels that of Leonard Cohen, a songwriter that like Kozelek shouldn’t be regarded as petty or trapped.

Bardos Freedoom

Lindstrøm – Where You Go I Go Too (Smalltown Supersound)

2008-08-20T20:56:00.000-05:00

I have no idea how and why I’ve fallen so deeply in love with Lindstrøm’s Where You Go I Go Too. I generally despise cheesy dance music and like the obnoxious American that I am, if a club artist is from Europe I generally dismiss their music as Eurotrash. The only thing I can identify with Lindstrøm is his scruffiness and that has nothing to do with his music. Whatever the reason may be Where You Go I Go Too is mysteriously magnificent. Maybe it’s the lengthy progressions, the kraut rock pulse, the disco melodies or that the tempos make me feel like I’m on cocaine and quaaludes simultaneously, and not in that terrifying ‘I am going to die’ way, but in like an exhilarating rush. Other than that, I’m dumbstruck; I don’t even know how to categorize Lindstrøm's genera; disco revival, ambient techno, underground dance, left-field something, I have no idea? To add to the confusion, I read on Dusted that Lindstrom describes his music as the opposite of minimalism. His sound is by no means minimalist, but he does carry and develop motifs across extended sound-scapes. So I wouldn’t go as far as labeling his music as the ‘opposite of minimalism’. Whatever the case, Lindstrøm’s Where You Go I Go Too is sensational, all three prolonged tracks.

Bardos Freedoom

Patti Smith & Kevin Shields – The Coral Sea [Pask]

2008-08-20T20:42:00.001-05:00

The Coral Sea brings death into rare beauty through Patti Smith's intimate prose and Kevin Shields' scenic guitar swells. Recorded as two personal London concerts in 2005 and again in 2006, The Coral Sea is Smith’s homage to her close friend Robert Mapplethorpe, who due to complications with Aids passed away in 1989. Mapplethorpe was a prominent black and white photographer who worked with the likes of Andy Warhol, Debby Harry, Patti Smith, and other New York artists. His most renowned piece is the portrait of Patti Smith that is used on the cover of Horses (1975), Smith’s classic debut. The Coral Sea is a book of poetry Smith published in 1996 describing Mapplethorpe’s experience with Aids and the course of dying, which is conveyed through a picturesque metaphor of a boy traveling to the sea. Until these two performances with Kevin Shields, Smith was unable to read The Coral Sea publicly without becoming too upset to finish. With Shields at hand, the long awaited public readings of The Coral Sea illuminate the gorgeous textures of Smith's writing and add an emotional intensity to an already touching work of art. Though never structured into cohesive songlike forms, Kevin Shields guitar work is reminiscent of classic My Bloody Valentine. Smith and Shields' interplay is breathtaking and her emblematic tails of the sea are taken beyond life thanks to Shields' truly enchantingly marine instrumentation.

Bardos Freedoom

Stereolab – Chemial Chords [4AD]

2008-08-20T20:23:00.001-05:00

When I first heard Chemical Chords I had just moved into a new apartment in Mexico City at the height of the rain season; a season that I so ignorantly didn’t know existed. The initial days in the apartment were grey, damp and mopey. But within a few days the August sun returned and I was buried under the hot smog and wires with a new Stereolab record. Chemical Chords is a groove-pop album layered within a canopy of lush instrumentation. Though on Chemical Chords they haven’t broken any new ground, their consistency and ability to invent catchy, intricate and exploratory material all wrapped up in a lovely candy coated package is beyond my feeble mind. A continual complaint I hear regarding Stereolab’s newer recordings is that they still sound like Stereolab. But why reinvent, when their sound is unique, identifiable, and open to a spectrum of possibilities. In fact the consistency of Chemical Chords forced me to revisit their impressive ten album back catalog. Stereolab quickly became the soundtrack to my summer in Mexico City. Whether in my kooky apartment, buzzing down unknown streets, through hectic markets and colonias or in stuffy subway cars, Stereolab was always nearby as a backdrop to an unpredictable metropolis. And like the modernity that sculpts massive cities, Stereolab’s approach to melding sound lies in their ability to merge, expand and alter styles. Their fuel is amalgamation and it harbors their distinctiveness. Shifting and working within reverberations of the 50’s space race to Kraut rock rhythms, from 60’s sunshine pop to post-modern electronica and from avant-lounge to acute walls of sound, Stereolab has erected a beaming radio tower that illuminates the groups depth, sonic prosperity and prolificacy.

Bardos Freedoom

Harvey Milk – Life…The Best Game in Town [Hydra Head]

2008-08-20T20:20:00.001-05:00

More than half the year burned away before I became seriously worried that 2008 would pass without a laudable metal release. Yes Earth and Boris put out fabulous records, but I mean pure metal, the kind that features slaughter guitar with murdering drums. ‘Will metal be absent from the Armageddon,’ I fretfully pondered? My impatience finally subdued when Athens goliaths Harvey Milk appeared out of the abyss with an oceanic dose of all the vital metal rudiments. Before I list such rudiments, let me first admit my biases; though I come off as a raging hesher, I am quite picky about the type of slaying I slay. Sabbath and Pentagram are my temples, so I like it low and slow and if it’s going to be technical it better be with a slothy-sludge riff, not a throbbing boner solo. Thus, Harvey Milk’s latest release, Life… The Best Game in Town delivers everything: dark and murky riffs, a doom infested atmosphere, an abundance of stoner tempos and enough art metal to make Neurosis weep blood. The double-disc special edition features a slew of Life… demos and a remarkable and almost entirely acoustic interpretation of Leonard Cohen’s, “Seems So Long Ago, Nancy”. Joined by fellow doomster Joe Preston of Earth, Melvins, Thrones, High on Fire and These Arms are Snakes it is no surprise that Life… is so profuse and severe. Not a fluffy cumulous cloud but a black cloudburst that devours the breadth of the sky. Shifting from harmonious lyrics of Christmas and Santa Claus to cavernous chugging, Life… churns with trickery. The variation is fluid, moving effortlessly from vicious sludge metal to cock-rock and from experimentation to stoner metal: creating a free-lineation of unreserved but malevolent profundity.

Bardos Freedoom

Current 93 as Anok Pe– Birth Canal Blues EP [Durtro]

2008-08-20T20:12:00.000-05:00

How can a dinky four song EP be one of the finest albums of the year? The answer is clear; yet again Current 93 has crafted an outlandish oeuvre—balancing beauty with horror and simplicity with scope. And unlike many enduring groups, David Tibet et al. rarely make me cringe. In fact that’s not true at all, while listening to Current 93 I am a fidgety and frightened child, but my cringes aren’t due to dire compositions, but rather because of their colossal continuation of obscure darkness, fascinating poetry, and utter sinister-creepiness. Current 93 as Anok Pe is the triad of svengali David Tibet, transgender street marvel Baby Dee and dark ambient producer Andrew Liles. At first listen Birth Canal Blues comes off as a collection of piano ballads laced with classic cryptic Current 93 lyricism. Nonetheless, as soon as the nonsensically distorted vocals of “She took us to the Places Where the Sun Sets” clobber out of an eerie piano line, the terror unleashed has enough clout to make Judas cower. As ‘we will murder you’ is shrieked and intertwined in a cradle of static, it is apparent that the likes of Wolf Eyes, John Weiss and even Merzbow are mere stuffed animals compared to the malicious monster that is Current 93. If after listening to the first three tracks of Birth Control Blues you aren’t convinced of Tibet’s sonic luminosity, the final clip from “Suddenly the Living are Dying,” is one of the most inventive samples in recorded history. As a stampede of horses gallop through the unknown, the increasing volume of their hooves is a masterful display of the passage of time and space, until suddenly the entire EP is demolished and obscured with a finale of blaring noise. I imagine the closing rabble to be analogous to the noise that must blare off of stars before their death and inauguration as black holes.

Bardos Freedoom