White Dot Music

Kreidler - Appearance And The Park

2012-01-21T15:25:00.002Z

Excellent 1998 album from this enduring German band, who fuse live instruments and electronics. They were among the early exponents of this sound - their own take on post rock, I suppose; combining solid rhythms of live drums and bass, with often strange synth sounds. Often they would add pretty melodies, or some vocoded vocals, and some blippy, dancey elements on top to help propel the music along. Some synthy strings sometimes link the music to the Detroit-Berlin techno axis, but the music never gets exactly banging. On record there is an almost restrained, icily distant feel to much of the music, but I saw them live two or three times, and they certainly rocked, as the rhythms took on a large physicality.
There are some small, experimental sketches on this album that feel like they were worked out mucking around in the studio. These distinguish the more substantial compositions, such as 'Au Pair', where syncopated guitar and bass melodies are built up, with lushly soaring synths gliding across the surface. There are times when they reference the German masters of the 70s, but the tight rhythm section is usually to the fore, adding a swing that was usually absent in the earlier music.
There are lots of great tracks on here, but 'Il Sogno Di Una Casa' is one of my all time favourites: driven by a high bass arpeggio and grooving drums, this lays down a brooding, mesmeric and trippy carpet of dubbed out effects, vintage synth drones and subtle melodies to create a dark and driving beast of a track.

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Richard Youngs - The Naive Shaman

2012-01-05T23:53:00.004Z

'We were born on a laser beam' is the first line of this album. It is a better representation of the delicate yet insistent, raga-like psychedelia contained within, than the homespun folksiness of the cover art. Richard Youngs has released a wide range of music over the years; from raging slabs of noise with Matthew 'Skullflower' Bower, to the more indie-pop strains of 2009's 'Beyond The Valley Of The Ultrahits'. For me, this is the most satisfying, and brain-spacing, output of his. This could be described as psych-folk, but it eschews traditional song structures. The pieces consist of fairly modal vocal loops, often delayed to give the feeling of a 'round'. Layers of psych guitar are introduced - noisy distorted leads; fuzz; processed wah-grooving; atmospheric embellishment and hazy drone are all used. Also some bass; hand drums; a bit of acoustic plucking and some spacey sound manipulation. At its best, the results are marvellously alchemical: Youngs' vocals have a naturally tremulous and worshipful feel to them, which is perfect for the throbbing miasma of tracks like the epic closer 'Summer's Edge II', which is deeply trippy, with churning bass tones and all kinds of ringing and chiming guitar and percussion detail organically glowing across the stereo spectrum: circling, receding; building, burning and glowing.
My favourite, though, is probably the penultimate 'Once It Was Autumn' - possibly the most accessible track: short, with a very pretty tune, yet deeply trance-inducing. Like a lot of my favourite psychedelic music, it sounds like it was designed to soundtrack ones consciousness separating from the body - whether that be through death, or some form of extremely altered consciousness: drugs, fasting maybe, prolonged chanting, all of the above at once, with a can of special brew - who knows. A wonderful album.

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Various - White Dot Music Best of 2011

2011-12-23T20:53:00.011Z

3 month posting gap, blimey. Here's a kind of best of 2011 - there's a few omissions, like Radiohead, and Innercity's Terrestriality, which is a great album, but I don't have it on mp3. I've left off some metal, too - not a vintage year for metal, but I've also been listening to lots on older metal. I would say my favourites of the year were Ulcerate, Rwake, Cannabis Corpse, Azarath, Trap Them; and probably my favourite - Glorior Belli - The Great Southern Darkness. I've also been listening to tons of techno, and hope to get a mix together of recent stuff.
Best albums of 2011:
Bill Callaghan - Apocalypse
Grails - Deep Politics
Byetone - Symeta
Kronos Quartet, Kimmo Pohjonen & Samuli Kosminen - Uniko
The Fear Ratio - Light Box

What's left then? Lots of psych-synth-space rock. This is a slightly smaller list than the one I originally posted, which got reported because because because tiresome bollocks. Hopefully nothing on this list now contains anything tainted with a major label or distributor. If you are going to spend cash on music, don't buy anything on a major - support the independents, and buy direct from bands wherever possible.

1. D Charles Spee r - Markos's Cave (Arghil edes )

2. Deerhoo f - Must Fight Current (Deerhoo f vs Evil)

3. The Haxan Cloa k - The Fall (The Ha xan Cloak)

4. Six Organs of Admitt ance - Light of the Light (Asleep on the Floodp lain)

5. Byeton e - Black Peace (Sym eta)

6. Grail s - Future Primitiv e (Deep Po litics)

7. Uganda n Methods - Untitled (Mat Opu t 1/2 Vinyl)

8. Le Révélateu r - Age Maze (Fictio ns)

9. Locria n - The Crysta l World (The Crystal Worl d)

10. Mini Mansion s - Kiddie Hyp nogogia (Mini M ansions)

11. Oneid a - Pre-Human (Absolute II)

12. Anim a M orte - Devoi d of a Soul (Face the Sea of Dark ness)

13. Circle - Saarnaa ja (Infektio)

14. Surgeo n - Transparen t Radiation (Break ing The Frame)

15. Seefe el - Sway (Seefee l)

16. Alexand er Tuck er - His Arm Has Grown Long (Dorwy tch)

17. Evan Camin iti - heavy wh isper (When Califor nia Falls Into The Sea)

18. Bill Callaha n - Baby's Breath (Apocalypse)

19. Kronos Quarte t, Kim mo Pohjonen & Samu li Kosmin n - Unik o: III Sarma (Un iko)

20. Mind Over Mirror s - Round, Around (The Voi ce Rolli ng)

21. Master Musicians Of Bukkak e - Prophec y Of The White Camel / Namou arre (Tote m Three)

Part 1
Part 2

Genre for these tracks = 'white dot 2011'

You need both parts to unpack.

4E - 4E4ME4YOU

2011-09-22T20:32:00.004+01:00

Back to Cologne for another freaky dose of the mighty Khan. Released in 1998, this is actually by Khan as his alias 4E 'introducing DJ Snax'. I'm not sure exactly what Snax contributes to this (just looking at the liner notes: co-wrote 2,3,10; additional keyboards and trumpets on 5 & 9) but this has Khan's personality stamped all over it.
This album is made up of the murky, granular and acidified instrumental hip-hop beats that were being released on the Pharma label, and by some of his compatriots who had moved on from the more bleepy spaced out techno of the early/mid 90s. Air Liquide pursued a similar path, but to be fair, they were doing it pretty early on. This loses none of the trippyness of the earlier work, but achieves the mong-factor through different methods. The beats are insistent and thuggish, and overlaid with freeform acidic splurges, manipulated vocals and a kind of lurching, drunkenly woozy danger; like a possibly scary dude looming in and out of your face speaking a loud foreign language at you in a strange club at 4am, when your eyes aren't focusing properly and you keep having to remind yourself where you are.
It's not all menacing weirdness - there are some cheeky tunes, like the perky 'Smoke Me Up I'm A Cigarette' and 'Stay Fresh', and 'Sleep Taster' and 'Swamp Foot' hit danceable speeds. My favourites, tough, are the slow moody numbers - 'Sonog' weaves some strangely manipulated Polynesian-sounding female vocals aroung a chugging fist of a beat, with some growling analogue. Probably the best of all is 'Iglesia Pentecostal De Electronica', which has Tie Fighter samples added to completely mashed vocals and disconcerting out of time industrial percussion.

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Ovil Bianca - Gravity=Love

2011-08-21T21:40:00.002+01:00

I've had this one for years, and like many things I post here, I only find out the details about them when I'm making the post. Released in 2001 on avant/electronica label (K-RAA-K)³, it turns out that this is by a Belgian fellow called Tim Wijnant. He also released a subsequent album in 2003, which I'm now going to have to seek out, because there is some really excellent stuff on this one. The opening track 'Sermon On The Mount' was 10 years ahead of its time - it's blend of coruscating synth tones and sky-scouring drones is pretty similar to Emeralds or Cloudland Canyon. It builds in ecstatic, eye-shaking fashion, with roaring low end and powerfully disciplined distortion. This is balanced out with some wispy high lines, swathed in ringing harmonic tones. Gorgeous stuff - it should have been 10 minutes longer, but I don't think 20 minute drone epics would have met with quite the same level of acceptance that they are today.
This kind of cosmic overdrive is employed again on 'Casioland', in which tinkling minimalist arpeggios give way to the kind of gutsy techno distorted synth splurges that make you raise a fist in the air. Final track 'Daylight' is a dark, throbbing and atmospheric beast: surging sepulchral waves of bass underpin some distant and mournful wraith-like cries.
Elsewhere there are more experimental sound explorations: 'RadiIO' is a cut-up and phased blend of vocals, bleeps and synth that wouldn't have been out of place on an early Akufen 12"; there are Raster-Noton-like tone constructions, and some spooky and abstract creations with mumbled vocal samples. The whole album is artfully and painstakingly constructed, but is still highly listenable, and very engaging. A bit of a lost gem, really, and sadly out of print.

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Zombi - Spirit Animal

2011-08-10T22:15:00.004+01:00

Excellent grooving synth-prog rock-out from 2009. Obvious comparisons are John Carpenter and Goblin, but with a more toughened up and streamlined sound - propulsive drumming and metal/post rock bass drive along the layers of vintage synth sweeps and arpeggios. The tracks also tend to be longer than the aforementioned people, who generally composed shorter pieces for soundtracks. On this album are lots of epic instrumental songs that evolve and develop, change pace; ebb, flow and build to sometimes euphoric peaks. This duo has a great sense of melody to back up their obvious musical skill, and they aren't afraid to chuck in a suitable key change when necessary, which makes this a wholly satisfying listen, rather than just an apreciation of old synths and cinematic references. It's brilliantly conceived and performed, and hugely enjoyable. Also, highly recommended for driving.
Most of their stuff is frustratingly out of print and expensive on LP, you may still be able to find their excellent new album 'Escape Velocity' on vinyl. Also available on cd as well as various Ts etc - buy direct from Relapse

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The Orb - Blue Room

2011-07-30T19:35:00.005+01:00

This is the epic 39'58" mix from 1992, which is a single track cd single. I've listened to this a few times recently, and I'm sure it's not just nostalgia which has made it so enjoyable. Whilst this does transport me back to the early 90s, and the sound of this music is powerfully redolent of the spaced-out listening sessions I used to have, I still think this is objectively excellent. Alex Paterson always has had an inspired touch with samples and synth-scapes. I'm sure he is significantly aided by co-producers Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy from System 7, as well as Thrash, and of course, Jah Wobble.
The opening 6 minutes are classic ambient - spacey samples and synth washes, before a beat kicks in, followed shortly by Wobble's massive striding bass line. It is then just dubbed into oblivion over the next half an hour. Cheeky samples, cavernous breakdowns, percussion overloads, NASA type radio communications, and a great deal of liquid synth effects precede a very monged breakdown halfway through. It builds back up with a variation on the bass line, and chugs away into a blissful distant horizon.

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I highly recommend the U.F.Orb album, currently available from Amazon for around the same price as a pint of beer. Much as I love beer, a pint won't be providing me with much joy 18 years after I've consumed it.
Buy it - it's brilliant.

Pharaoh Overlord - IV

2011-07-21T22:29:00.003+01:00

Time to get posting again, now that my insanely busy time has passed. This may involve writing a bit less about the albums from time to time, and this one is a prime candidate for less words/more music.
PO are essentially Circle, and to be honest there is not a great deal of difference between this and normal Circle music, except that this is maybe more overtly metal: 'See Me Evil' definitely has essence of Judas Priest. Don't let that put you off, though, because this has all the deranged atmosphere, heavy cyclical riffing and general psychedelic miasma that makes Circle so awesome.

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Family - Music In A Doll's House

2011-05-16T21:27:00.003+01:00

I was going to post this on the 12th - the 2nd anniversary of starting this blog - but Blogger wasn't working. Here it is anyway: a classic psychedelic debut album from 1968, one I still get huge enjoyment from 20 years after I first heard it. There is plenty to love about it, most of which is displayed in the opening bars - Roger Chapman's amazing crazed vocals (double tracked, phased), unusual prog arrangements with strings and woodwind of a great song; and a general air of hash smoke and musical adventure that doesn't let up until the end. There is a lush string arrangement by Mike Batt for the hazy second track 'Mellowing Grey', and it's all produced by Traffic's Dave Mason with no oppurtunity to add some phaser or delay to that harmonica riff, or some bowed double bass. Indeed, virtually everything on the eastern-tinged 'Me My Friend' seems to be phased to varying degrees, which gives a very weird impression of the different phases of the song being recorded in different rooms, times, spaces. Later Family albums would all have a heavier R&B/Blues influence, but the music of the band's formative years is never that far from the surface, and bursts out on groovers like 'Old Songs New Songs', which rocks out with horns from the Tubby Hayes Quintet. Side two features the most psychedelic tracks - the strange guitar/harmonica riff that drives 'See Through Windows', and especially 'The Voyage', which is pretty far out. There is some great tape, feedback and voice manipulation in this one, and it is very trippy indeed.
The album tracks are programmed perfectly, and a nice touch are the handful of miniatures, under a minute each, that are variations on themes of songs on the album. These make it all hang together beautifully, and the album finishes with the band almost sending themselves up as a rather lovely song descends into a comedy vamp interspersed with an eastern sounding psychedelic groove before a farcical fade.
I recommend all family albums, as well as Chapman/Whitney 'Streetwalkers' - their first post-Family album, but in particular 'Fearless', 'A Song For Me', and 'Bandstand'.

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Tortoise - Millions Now Living Will Never Die

2011-05-09T19:42:00.003+01:00

Released back in 1996 as the burgeoning post rock scene was rising to prominence, this contains what I think is still one of the genre's greatest ever statements - 'Djed'. This was the 21 minute epic that took up the entire first side of the album. At the time, it was a common characteristic of post rock that the bass would often lead the melody, and this piece is driven by a monstrous chugging bass line that provides rhythm and melody in equal measure, as an electric piano slowly comes in riffing over the top. Obviously a 21 minute track has to progress, as in Prog-ress, like all great tracks that take up an entire side of an LP. The beat slows down as the bass mongs out on one note, before some slightly Phillip Glass-esque syncopated keys and vibes arpeggiate all over the place in a rather epic section. Everything then spanners out as if your stereo has broken, then these broken sounds are looped into their own groove, while more instruments are brought in, until this, too breaks down into an ultra-low, slow pulsing bass groove. An awesome track, an inspired construction.
The rest of the tracks are also excellent, combining clenched brain jazzism with piles of bass blocks and electronic smudges vibraphones and a lush closer. The desertified beauty of 'Along The Banks Of Rivers' soundtracking an imaginary western where all the protagonists are having an afternoon kip in a hammock for the film's duration.

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Various - Reggae Vocal Groups

2011-05-08T12:08:00.003+01:00

We've been hit by summery weather for weeks now in London, and I've been enjoying myself compiling reggae favourites. I had so many tracks that I had to separate them into vaguely themed groups, the first one being comprised of vocal groups. I've cheated a bit here, as some tracks aren't really much more than two part harmonies, and not all the tracks are by recognised vocal groups, but it all hangs together quite nicely. I think all the tracks are fabulous, but there are some of my all-time favourites in here; namely The Congos, Israel Vibration and the masterpiece that is 'Mystery Babylon' by The Heptones.
Hot weather is not necessary to enjoy this glorious music, but it does help. Also, that isn't London in the picture: I don't know where it is, but I would very much like to be floating on that boat listening to these tunes.
Album artist on all tracks = 'White Dot Reggae vocal groups'

1. The Congos - Don't Blame On I [V/A - Arkology]
2. The Upsetters - Natty Take Over [Baffling Smoke Signal]
3. Yabby You - Conquering Lion [Conquering Lion]
4. Culture - Natty Dread Naw Run [Cumbolo]
5. Byron Lee - Rat Race [The Essential...]
6. The Heptones - Mystery Babylon [Unreleased Black Ark Sessions]
7. The Meditations - Rebounce [I Love Jah]
8. The Gladiators - Dreadlocks The Time Is Now [Proverbial Reggae]
9. African Brothers - Hold Tight [V/A - Randy's 17 North Parade]
10. Watty & Tony - Rise & Shine [V/A - Rastafari Liveth In The Hearts...]
11. Lee Perry - Dyon Anaswa [Return Of The Super Ape]
12. Israel Vibration - I'll Go Through [The Same Song]
13. The Abyssinians - Abednigo [Satta Massagana]
14. Black Brothers - School Children [V/A - Studio One Roots]
15. The Gladiators - Belly Full [Trenchtown Mix Up]

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Michael Rother - Sterntaler

2011-05-07T22:24:00.002+01:00

From 1978, this is the second solo LP by the Neu guitarist. He is quite clearly revelling in his freedom to be both more expansive, and more tuneful than he generally was in Neu. He has a good ear for melody, and the tunes on this album are very redolent of the period, too. Sometimes the songs veer toward the wistfully epic, especially combined with the driving, post-Kraut rhythms, which almost prefigure the headband-wearing sleeves-on-the-jacket-rolled-up excesses of bombastic 80s rock. However, these tracks always stop way short of cheese, because they are gorgeous, and because the love and enthusiasm of Rother is always shining through. Also it has Jaki Liebezeit on drums, but more importantly, is produced by Krautrock superhero Conny Plank, and therefore sounds lush, luminous and beautiful. What you have, then, is a set of guitar-led intrumentals with glorious melodies over driving, minimal grooves with shimmering, spectral synths, and it is rather wonderful.
I've seen Michael Rother play live with Moebius a couple of times, back in the early 2000s when Moebius was still using lots of analogue synths. They were both excellent gigs, but definitely had moments high on the cheese-ometer as Rother went into guitar hero mode, before reining himself in as the track gradually morphed into some warped analogue noodlings. They seemed to be semi-improvised sets, and hopefully they will team up again in the future.

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Senking - Ping Thaw

2011-05-01T09:47:00.004+01:00

During a long-overdue rewatch of John Carpenter's The Thing last night, I thought of this excellent album, which is strongly influenced by both the soundtrack and the general ambience of the film, and contains some speech samples on 'Thaw'. This is a cd compilation of two 12" EPs from 1999 and 2000, both of which are highly atmospheric, with a sense of looming dread. There is a definite sense of Arctic isolation, and heavily reverbed sounds of ice cracking, and glaciers colliding, under washes of spacy synth. 'Risk' from the first EP heads into quite heavy industrial territory, but it's the later 'Thaw' EP that shows a more assured touch, and mastery of foreboding atmospheres, with growling low synths, and syncopated, dubbed out delay - definitely fits nicely into the Chain Reaction/Uusitalo/Vladislav Delay spectrum. Jens Massel is still producing quality electronica as Senking - last year's 'Pong' is excellent, and highly recommended - veering into the more abstract outreaches of dubstep.

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Ufomammut - Godlike Snake

2011-04-21T21:44:00.005+01:00

I haven't posted any metal for a while, so here is some uber-heaviness. Ufomammut are an Italian 3 piece, augmented live and on record by tapes of theremin, synth drones and movie samples. They specialise in a kind of pounding psychedelic stoner sludge, which is most effective live. I would say they were the second best live act I saw last year - a close second behind The Master Musicians Of Bukkake. They achieve their superb effect with repetition, tightness and dynamics, as well as the aforementioned atmospherics; but they also have a mean guitar sound - ultra heavy and bludgeoning. Their grasp of dynamics is becoming more consummate with every album, as far as I can tell: the last album 'Eve' is basically a suite of tracks that don't deviate a great deal from the main blueprint, but it works fantastically as a whole, and is thoroughly recommended. This one is their debut from 2000, and is out of print - it's a good place to start, and a brilliant slab of mammoth spaced-out sludge groove.

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EDIT: Ufomammut are playing in London on Thursday October 6th - the Purple Turtle in Camden. I highly recommend this gig if you like all things heavy and psychedelic!

Marc Ribot - Asmodeus: Book Of Angels 7

2011-04-14T20:13:00.003+01:00

This is Volume 7 in John Zorn's massive Book Of Angels series - a series I have found it pretty impossible to keep up with, what with all the other music in the world. Not to mention the stuff. The others I have heard: Secret Chiefs 3, Zorn with Medeski, Martin and Wood; Bar Kokhba have all been excellent, so it's probably worth checking them all out. Marc Ribot is perhaps most famous for playing with Tom Waits, but on this disc he is eschewing his tasteful embellishments in favour of acid-jazz/rock onslaught, in power trio mode with Trevor Dunn and G. Calvin Weston. The results vary from chugging heavy riffs such as the opening of 'Dagiel', to more free jazz explosions, such as the opener 'Armaros'. Whilst they stay in touch with Zorn's East European/Klezmer themes, they rock them up beautifully, and intersperse wilder, freer passages of group improv and fret burning. I don't mind admitting that I prefer the slightly more structured numbers, and 'Mufgar' and 'Sensenya' are fantastic masterpieces of controlled acid power trio chaos: superb riffs backed up by relentless chugging bass runs and beautifully swinging propulsive drumming.

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Kemialliset Ystävät - Kemialliset Ystävät

2011-03-23T22:16:00.003Z

Self-titled/untitled 2007 album from this Finnish collective. Psychedelic is the only word for this - gloriously trippy and mangled. There is a real organic, homespum feel to this music; as if it was conjured out of homemade instruments and recorded onto a walkman. There is obviously some heavy effects work, but it all sounds so natural. At times it sounds like just about every instrument that exists was used - all at the same time: there is a woozy, lurching, deranged and cacophonous non-structure driving each track along with some inverted wood-elf logic, which is no logic at all, but sounds wonderful. Bubbling, burbling wobbly noises pootle about, over garbled mong vocals and cast-off Magic Band runs played on improbable stringed instruments, while some elaborate pump-driven mystical noise generator flings out squelches and belches. If this all sounds a bit improv, the tracks are held together with a driving harmonic unity and sense of euphoric glee, just about kept under control.
Excellent, beautiful, and very weird.
Recent album Ullakkopalo is also excellent, so buy that. Both albums are still available on vinyl, too (Norman Records in the UK)- I recommend Ullakkopalo as it has some excellent artwork on the sleeves.

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Blue - Mexican Church

2011-03-21T21:35:00.004Z

A dark and classy electronica album from 1996. This was released on the venerable Andrew Weatherall's Emissions Audio Output label, and other than that I know very little about these chaps.
This draws heavily from industrial (and) dub sources, which is perhaps why it has dated better than most of the electronic music from 1996 - foregoing the crispy drums machines and crystalline synths in favour of a more murky and sludgy concoction. Some of the melodies remind me of Coil, which is probably why I like this album so much: the synths at the end of 'Gorgon', for example. There's nice use of backwards sounds, and slightly pitch-bent lines which inject that element of queasy psychedelia. They don't entirely abandon danceability, though - there are some squelchy bass breakbeat groovers ('Dark Blue', 'Lower') for the more mogadon discoteques. Weirdly, last preoper track 'Sand Stone' is a decent example of the more chirpy IDM sound of '96, and although it's good, I prefer the darker areas the rest of the album deals with.

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Golden Palominos - Dead Inside

2011-02-21T22:49:00.002Z

The Golden Palominos was the art rock project of drummer and producer Anton Fier. Often featuring Bill Laswell and Nicky Skopelitis, it was a bit of a who's who NY outfit. This 1996 album has loads of obvious influence from the contemporaneous illbient scene - lots of cut up drum and bass percussion along with Laswell's thunderous bass, and some nice trippy sound design - even some acid lines! Somewhat akin to Meat Beat Manifesto. What sets this apart is the spoken word/poetry from Lori Carson on all tracks. Her delivery is excellent - covering a variety of voices, and is authoritative as well as rich. The words themselves are excellent - the first track is a first person account of an abductee locked in the trunk of the moving car of her abductor; delivered over an ominous, beatless tapestry of sound. The album's centrepiece is 'The Ambitions Are' - a bleakly dystopic vision delivered unflinchingly: the ambitions are "Wake up; breathe; keep breathing". A really good album for engaging your brain.

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Kangding Ray - Stabil

2011-02-06T21:07:00.003Z

Kangding Ray is the project of David Letellier, and this is his first album, from 2006, released on the splendid Raster-Noton label. It is a suite of elegant, introspective and beautiful electronica. Lush yet airy synths glide back and forth in waves - a lot of reversed samples are used, and the percussion is mostly the purely electronic clicking, tapping variety, deployed in a restrained fashion. Some tracks are dominated by the highly musical synth arrangements, and others get a bit of a groove going - 'Sub.res' introduces a throbbing bass tone, some sampled acoustic guitar, and a wider variety of percussive noises to build a gently rocking rhythm. 'Mai' is an exquisite construction - gently pulsing arpeggios of a variety of sounds sweep across each other in a vaguely melancholic haze. 'Nine' rocks it up again, with an Autechre-like beat and some sub bass over a clanking machine noise, then the album finishes with a lovely, luminous synth-only piece called 'Wellen'. Fantastic stuff - also highly recommended is the Pruitt Igoe EP from last year, and his second album 'Automne Fold' which has some heavier beats, some vocals, and also some ominous and scary distorted synth waves used to great effect, but retains the rich musicality.

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Various - Acid Techno

2011-01-31T22:26:00.002Z

January's a bit shit, isn't it? Here's some acid techno - it never fails to cheer me up. This selection runs from 1988: Bam Bam's sinister and brilliant 'Where's Your Child?' through to about 10 years later. I had to include a couple of Hardfloor numbers, obviously, since they are the absolute masters of the form. There's also a couple of Richie Hawtin efforts - an early, headfuck one in 'Substance Abuse', and the relentless acid epic of his System 7 remix. Some of my favourites are the slightly less well known tracks that rocked my socks back in the day - Gamma Loop, Hexagone and Cyan are particular favourites, and my vinyl copies are suitably crackly. (The mp3 of Cyan unfortunately has a skip). Actually, they are all favourites - the list could have been massive, but these are just the ones I've collected on mp3 over the years. For some reason I feel I should point out that I have all of them on vinyl except the Edge Of Motion one, which I've never got around to buying.
If you have trouble collating these tracks in your player, album artist is 'white dot acid techno'.
I hope these tunes soundtrack a spannered evening for someone, somewhere.
1 - FUSE - Substance Abuse (Warp)
2 - Gamma Loop - 4X3 (Hyper Hype)
3 - Robert Armani - Circus Bells Hardfloor Remix (Djax)
4 - Hexagone - Burning Trash Floor (Djax)
5 - Alaska - The Thing (F Comm)
6 - Hardfloor - Confuss (Harthouse)
7 - Bam Bam - Where's Your Child? (Tresor)
8 - Air Liquide - Psy 9 (Blue)
9 - System 7 - Alpha Wave Plastikman Remix (Butterfly)
10 - Magenta - Boost (Experimental)
11 - Cyan - Peacekeeper (Experimental)
12 - Barbarella - My Name Is Barbarella/The Spaceship (Harthouse)
13 - Edge Of Motion - Set Up 707 (Djax)

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Chrome - Blood On The Moon

2011-01-13T22:43:00.004Z

Weirdo sci-fi new wave proto-punk from 1981. Edgy and slightly deranged, primitive grooves and processed vocals abound, with heavily phased, fucked and flanged keyboards and guitars panning around the mix. This falls somewhere in the middle between Simply Saucer and Weird War, with bits of Devo, Hawkwind and Low-era Bowie (or his band, at least) thrown in. It's all delivered with speed paranoia post punk energy, and speared through with searing guitar lines, and littered with enough kosmiche debris to make it freaky and unique.

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Etienne Jaumet - Night Music

2011-01-09T16:48:00.005Z

This superb album came out in late 2009. Etienne Jaumet is also in synth duo Zombie Zombie, who are not ashamed to reveal their influences - releasing an EP of their interpretations John Carpenter music. Whilst the influence of John Carpenter can be clearly heard on Night Music, the influence of Carl Craig takes the sound away from the more retro synth-fest of ZZ, into a more techno influenced direction. Craig is credited: 'Mix directed and imagined by Carl Craig', so it's not clear exactly what he does, but the grooves are allowed to run here, opening up into spacious vistas. First track 'For Falling Asleep' is a 20-minute epic masterpiece, driven by an arpeggiating synth, and simple kick drum. The track is pulled into the stratosphere with restrained duelling saxophones lines with heavy delay, and some trippy vintage synth noises. Like most of my favourite synth based music, it looks both forward and backward in time, with a futuristic ambience perfectly suited to driving around ultra modern cities at 3am. Although this is clearly the best track, every track on here is brilliant. The fat analogue lines and simple, classic drum machine grooves are always perfectly embellished with great melodies, and lush, deep ambience. On 'Through The Strata', what sounds like a hurdy-gurdy adds harmonic richness - hurdy gurdy and saxophone are not instruments I would generally associate with this kind of music, but they are inspired choices. The saxes return on the beatless last track 'At The Crack Of Dawn' - a reprise of the first track, which rounds out this hypnotic, resonant LP. Utterly brilliant: this was probably my album of 2009. Also, it makes a good companion piece to the Sinoia Caves album.

Versatile records asked me to delete the link. I'm going to leave the post up anyway, because I wholeheartedly endorse this brilliant album. I bought mine on vinyl from Juno, but they don't seem to have it any more. You can get it here or here in the US.

Youtube clip of 'For Falling Asleep'.

Six Organs Of Admittance - Nightly Trembling

2011-01-04T21:06:00.004Z

This is probably my favourite release by Ben Chasny's cosmic folk project. From 2003, it consists of two epic and glorious tracks based mostly around layers of vocals and guitar. 'Redefinition Of Being' has a wonderful chant for multiple voices that seems perfectly circular in nature; running on and on and into itself. This line is echoed in acoustic guitar, with some primitive hand drums offering laid back percussive impetus. There are numerous steel stringed guitars creating a chiming undergrowth of reverby harmonics. It generates a kind of occult ambience that I can imagine soundtracking some of the weirder end of 70s cult or horror cinema: the day for night scene of the Knights Templar on horseback from Tombs Of The Blind Dead springs to mind for some reason.
'Creation Aspect Fire' has more of a ritual feel to it, with a more intense delivery of vocals and instruments. This breaks down into a harmonic temple drone, with some high chiming bells piercing the churning ambience with crystalline clarity. This slowly gives way to a gentle combination of voice and gently freaking out acoustic guitar that echoes the first track.
Also recommended: Dark Noontide; The Sun Awakens; Dust & Chimes.

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21/08/2011 - just a quick edit to say that Luminous Night is probably my favourite Six Organs album right now, and the recent 'Asleep On The Floodplain' is also superb - both highly recommended.

Coil

2010-12-31T14:40:00.004Z

2010 was the year that Peter Christopherson joined Jhon Balance in the land of the not living, so I'm going to end the year with a fairly substantial upload of some of my favourite Coil tracks. I had a bit of a Coil-fest when I heard PC had died; put this compilation together; then had doubts about whether uploading a load of their music was a fitting tribute, bearing in mind that quite a few other folk made large contributions to Coil's music.
Here it is anyway: there are no more than 2 or 3 tracks from any one album; approx 590mb. This contains some of my favourite music ever.

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Air Liquide - Neue Frankfurter Elektronik Schule

2010-12-23T21:02:00.004Z

A classic for Christmas. From 1992 this is archetypal Cologne business - deeply atmospheric and trippy. It's all one track, so you get samples of UFO spotters over ultra deep and spaced synth washes and bleepy noises. These blend into speedy acid trance-outs, with pattering drums and squiggling 303s. Swathes of panned static, radio noise and samples are the backdrop. It's a formula I love, and an album I love.

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Mordant Music - SyMptoMs

2010-12-20T23:15:00.002Z

Mordant music are a mysterious and intriguing collective. Their music is fascinating, and they don't seem to be the kind of folk who employ voracious lawyers who are desperate to keep themselves in employment, trying to influence thinking and policy about music rights or legislation about copyright. The kind of cunts who offer nothing creative, who only want to syphon off their earnings from the creative industries. Expect lawyers to be at the forefront of all forthcoming copyright/mp3/pirating debates, trying to save their own bacon, and fatten it up at the same time. They don't give a shit about artists, but they certainly earn a shitload of money from them. But I digress.
This album sees this weird collective sometimes embrace a Pop Group-style polemic; classic Underworld repetition, and an ultra-modern aesthetic that keeps them fresh and strange. The title track is a truly glorious combination of these elements: pulsating epic Berlin techno backgrounds some proper spoken vocals, but also surges into the foreground, with chiming, tinkling melodies. This track is truly magnificent, and is worth downloading for. 'You Are A Door' is another fabulous track, with a wickedly chugging electro beat, and more spaced out atmospherics. Mordant are a curious bunch - definitely worth investigating further.

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Various Artists - 2009 favourites

2010-12-14T22:26:00.007Z

I was just putting together a best of 2010, and realised I never posted my 2009 version, so here it is. The picture is unrelated - just a good one I took last year. I probably would have had more to say about these tracks if I'd done this post at the time. I do remember that Various Production ft. Gerry Mitchell 'The Invisible Lodger' was my album of the year - I highly recommend it. Actually, looking at these tracks, they were all from excellent albums - something that cannot be said for my 2010 selection - these were all pretty good albums.
You can find these in itunes by album artist, which is 'White Dot 2009'.

2009 tracklisting:

1-Various Production feat. Gerry Mitchell: This Invisible Blood (The Invisible Lodger)

2-Oneida: Luxury Travel (Rated O)

3-Lord Newborn and the Magic Skulls: Escape From Prism (Lord Newborn and the Magic Skulls)

4-Valet: Blood Is Clean (Blood Is Clean)

5-Bardo Pond: Silver Pavilion (Peri )

6-Fever Ray: If I Had A Heart (Fever Ray)

7-Alva Noto: Xerrox Tek Part 1 (Xerrox Vol. 2)

8-Wolok: Transubs(a)tantiation (Caput Mortuum)

9-Various Production feat. Gerry Mitchell: A Hole In Your Memory (The Invisible Lodger)

10-Alexander Tucker: Bell Jars (Portal)

11-Cave: Made in Malaysia (Psychic Psummer)

12-Oneida: What's Up, Jackal? (Rated O)

13-Shackleton: Let Go (Three EPs )

14-Ben Frost: Peter Venkman Pt II (By The Throat)

15-Bill Callahan: Eid Ma Clack Shaw (Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle)

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Since Blogger decided to remove my best of 2010 this posting looks faintly preposterous. Ho hum.

Circle - Prospekt

2010-12-08T23:04:00.004Z

Another great Circle album: I'm uploading this because they have a new album out called Rautatie which you should buy from Ektro Records, as it's excellent. It's like a summation of all the threads of their sound: it has the weird ethereal avant-metal atmospherics they perfected on Katapult; it has spaced out jams in weird time signatures; plenty of deranged vocals; and in 'Vaellus', a magnificent anthem that seems to perfectly embody the New Wave Of Finnish Heavy Metal tag that Circle have bestowed upon themselves: it's epic, glorious, slightly weird - with tightly rocking instrumental passages in 7/8 which build the tension before that tune powers back in with fists raised.
Prospekt, from 2000, is definitely from the spaced jam end of the Circle spectrum. First track 'Dedofiktion' has some fabulous freaky vocals as it charges towards meltdown, but the rest of the album mainly consists of Krautified loop-jams with confusing time signatures that suck in your mesmerised brain. Often they will build up a groove with chugging bass and fuzzy synths until you think you have nailed the rhythm in your head; then they bring in some guitar stabs that sound like they are being played to another rhythm. On 'Stimulance', they just pound along in monster fuzz 5/4 until the mind threatens to melt. 'Varhain' confirm's Egg's assertion that seven is indeed a jolly good time. The album ends with a pair of 10+ minute jams, and some chanted vocals, that just confirm Circle's mastery of confounding space rock jams.
Also, this album is out of print and rather expensive.

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Laub - Unter Anderen Bedingungen Als Liebe

2010-11-18T22:13:00.005Z

Laub were kind of electronica/post rock crossover who fitted nicely into a loose scene alongside To Rococo Rot, Kreidler; and labels like Payola, Kiff SM, and Kitty Yo - on which this album was released in 1999. These labels and artists are German, and the vocals, by Antye Greie-Fuchs are delivered in German, and it shares the live drums favoured by many of their contemporaries. There is a kind of detached iciness to the vocals that fits perfectly with the clean synths, crisp noises and crystalline tones underneath them. Delivered often in half whispered, or half spoken manner, they add a quiet and restrained intensity to the music. This intensity peaks and bursts forth in the epic title track. It begins with gorgeous pulsating harmonic synths, hi hats, and a keening, melancholy descending 3 note trombone line. Antye is joined by one of her male bandmates on vocals, their combined whispers giving the impression of some kind of ominous warning being delivered, or a description of some kind of ruined dream-like world from a Tarkovsky film. My German is poor - it's probably about something banal, but it certainly doesn't sound like it. The bubbling, resonant synths all the while are rising in the background, becoming more acidic. Some nicely understated guitar lines, and more horns propel the song further upwards. It's a wonderful track, not to dissimilar in overall mood to The For Carnation album, and makes an otherwise decent album completely worthwhile.

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Phantomsmasher - Phantomsmasher

2010-11-10T19:49:00.003Z

Phantomsmasher is the pet project of avant guitar master James Plotkin, who has collaborated with a large and fine array of weird-beard musicians, including harrowing mega-doom merchants Khanate. This album couldn't be further from Khanate's crawling, crushing music: it's often hyper fast, with the beats ranging from metallic blast beats to splattercore drum & bass style, played by grind master extrodinaire Dave Witte. It's severely ADHD, manic and brilliant. Smeared across the top are harshly edited and scratched vocal loops, and Plotkin's spangly clanging guitar and bass - often heavily processed, playing queasily grating riffs, and chords that tremble like metal pylons in an electrical storm. It's pretty harsh, and totally unhinged, but is great fun. Plotkin's level of invention on his instruments, and the crazy range of noises and brilliant editing keep up the interest, although the music can be challenging.

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Salaryman - Salaryman

2010-11-09T23:03:00.003Z

1996 album on City Slang by this bunch of geeky-appearing bods (I saw them live), that seems to have disappeared into a historical crack. Sumptuous psychedelic grooves abound, with a plethora of overdriven synth lines and a heavy, over-arching sci-fi ambience. Live drums are the driving force, with a backdrop of whispered speech loops, but the trippy looped synths are the stars - pulsating blips and burbles alongside moody throbbing tremelo waves. A live band feel adds a sense of urgency to the sci-fi paranioa soundscapes, and indeed they were pretty good live. It's all good, but closer 'Hummous' is a highlight, with its squalling harmonics and heavy drone dirge; bettered only by the magnificent 'Voids And Superclusters', which lives up to its stellar title: a swirling black hole of churning synths, that has an almost Electric-Wizard-heavy moment as the pounding bass kicks in to glorious, stomping effect.

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Mick Harvey - Intoxicated Man

2010-11-04T22:10:00.003Z

Yes! An album I can post and get away with writing very little about. An album of Serge Gainsbourg covers by Bad Seed and all-round top man Mick Harvey. Terrific interpretations in a grooving, boozing, Bad Seed/Lee Hazelwood kind of style - hugely enjoyable. Also, check out his last solo album - 2007's Two Of Diamonds - it's rather good.

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Weird War - If You Can't Beat 'Em, Bite 'Em

2010-10-22T23:18:00.002+01:00

From sublime space-scapes to the futuristic plastic sleaze-freakery of Weird War. This is a concoction that didn't grab me on the first couple of listens, but then its brilliance shone through like a revelation. Much like the grotesque cover - which initially looks dreadful, but then becomes perversely wonderful.
Weird War mainly consist of Ian Svenonius and Michelle Mae, and Royal Trux's Neil Hagerty, and this album is from 2004. It's a pretty unique sound, with elements of The Stooges, swamp rock and acid funk put through a sleaze-blender, topped off with wired-sounding, quasi-deranged vocals from Svenonius (I think) and terrific lyrics. It's driven along usually by tight grooves, and peppered with superb wah riffs and other mutant guitar lines, with some magnificent vocal interplay. On the terrific 'AK47' the fade out grooveathon is perfectly completed with a beautifully vulgar and spangly keyboard riff. Everything makes perfect sense on this album, it's such an inspired combination of sounds that seem casually thrown together but work so perfectly. There are times listening to this album when Weird War seem like a lost political cult/cultural subversive outfit from the 70s, and this is their manifesto.

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Emeralds - Solar Bridge

2010-10-20T22:20:00.002+01:00

There's a fair amount of hype about these space/psych dronesters at the moment. Is it deserved? If you like rich, syrupy waves of gorgeous synth; rasping and rippling space reverberations; the sound of consciousness cast adrift in the singing cosmos, then yes, it is. Utterly lovely, spaced-out and mesmerizing: this is a two track, 27 minute release from 2008.
Do yourself a favour and buy a copy of this, or more of their releases from Hanson Records - the self titled album and 'What Happened' are both highly recommended, and are pretty cheap, especially if you're in the States.

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Mercury Rev - The Hum Is Coming From Her

2010-10-10T20:50:00.002+01:00

Another of my treasured bits of vinyl, this came out in 1993, when Mercury Rev were still dedicated to being weirdos. Or maybe they just couldn't help it. The title track is brilliant: it's just David Baker over a piano vamp, with some distant flutes, and I wonder if it's possible for anyone to sound more like they've had too much acid than he does here. It's rambling, incomprehensible, and totally monged. B-side 'So There' consists of poet Robert Creeley reading one of his poems over a jaunty rag/trad-jazz influenced number, and his strangely phrased delivery and weird words fit utterly perfectly into the whole Mercury Rev scheme of things. What a great single.

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Kiyoshi Izumi - Effect Rainbow

2010-10-10T20:40:00.003+01:00

I've been a bit slack recently, so I'm going to post a couple of EPs tonight, and not write much about them. First up is a brilliant EP from this obscure Japanese gent. This 3 tracker was released on Rephlex in 1997. I don't remember if it caused much of a stir, but I bought it on vinyl and was blown away by it. It's full of oddball melodies, wonky drums, and crazy arrangements. There is some great drum programming, and some strange little samples and vocals thrown into the mix for extra trippy effect. There is a real eastern feel to this, from the chiming, ringing sounds that evoke old Japan, and also from the 8-bit game noises bleeping about. Fabulous stuff, that really peaks on the last track 'Bedroom Glow', which is a bit of a rocker.

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Harvey Mandel - Cristo Redentor

2010-09-27T18:47:00.005+01:00

Harvey Mandel is a fantastic guitarist who never settled in a band, although his talents would not have been out of place in virtually any rock band of any kind of the late 60s or 70s. This was his debut album from 1968, and is an intrumental psych blues rock bonanza. The opening track, a version of the old gospel blues track 'Wade In The Water' shows off a variety of styles: he comes in with a filthy fuzz tone over a strings and rhythm groove, before switching to a clean tone to demonstrate his trademark liquid style of play, using volume pedals, panning and delay to awesome effect. This is a real guitar-heads album, with some glorious guitar tones, and some ridiculous sustain that out-Santanas Carlos Santana. It's also beautifully recorded, with a crystal clear mix, and is a joy to listen to. There are great string arrangements aplenty, and the layering of Harvey Mandel's guitar lines is genius: the wah stomp of 'Bradley's Barn' has some scintillating backwards guitar over the top as well as some unusual low end dive bomb noises. The gloriously expressive 'You Can't Tell Me' is even better, as sweet phrases flow into and over one another over a great groove. The sound palette is expanded on a few tracks: the title track has a female choir, and sounds like a prog synthesis of Nelson Riddle and Santana. Then 'Before Six' comes on like fuzzed out acid jazz, with some tremendous horn section blasts and Jimmy Smith type organ duelling with the guitar, and the best bass and drum rocking out of the album. Looking at the sleeve notes, this appears to have been recorded all over the place, and the producer credit says "Believed to be produced by Abe Kesh'. It's amazing that there is such a unity of (fantastic) sound, and that the album has such a strong identity.
Harvey Mandel released a few more solo albums in the following years, and the one I've heard are all pretty decent - they toned down the psychedelic elements a bit, and became slightly more jazzy - Feel The Sound, Shangrenade and Baby Batter are all worth checking out. Lastly - check that classic cover! I'm pleased I've also got this on vinyl.
I haven't included the bonus tracks - buy the cd!

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Locust - Natural Composite

2010-09-25T23:36:00.003+01:00

A classic example of electronica from 1994. Mark Van Hoen has been responsible for some excellent music over the years under his own name, as Locust, and as a part of Autocreation amongst others. Some of his later work became more lush in texture, incorporating vocals to great effect (The Girl With The Fairytale Dream from the Morning Light album is a beautiful example) – but this album is rooted firmly in the realms of dark, moody abstract electronica. Pattering percussion, low-pulsing bass and restrained metallic rhythms are integral to the sound, but secondary to the dark, sombre and disquieting soundscapes enveloping them. This is mainly synth based, but sunk into depths of reverb; and accompanied by loops and samples, an alien and claustrophobic feeling is evoked on the darker tracks. There are some more driving, rhythm based tracks that call to mind similar artists from the period like Reload and Aphex Twin, but the best stuff is the more ambient material. It’s a soundtrack to paranoia, dissociation, mental disintegration in a flotation tank. My favourite, ‘Good God’, has a repeated sibilant whisper of a sample – a woman repeatedly intoning the words of the title. This is incredibly effective, summoning up some kind of abstract nameless dread.

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In reply to the comment, this was ripped from the old cd. The version available on itunes is remastered, and has extra tracks, so go and purchase them. Check out Mark Van Hoen's website - it has a soundcloud mix of selections from his discography, as well as details of all his releases and their availability.

Grails - Burning Off Impurities

2010-09-17T20:14:00.003+01:00

Grails are a psychedelic instrumental band from Portland, and this is one of many excellent releases by them, from 2007. They specialise in a hazy, drifting, shuffling kind of post rock forged from ostensibly cliched components - reverby psych guitar, eastern cadences and a smattering of acoustic instruments (sitar, mandolin, piano); all held together with gummy resin from the inside of a bong. The whole adds up to much more than the sum of the parts, convincingly delivered at a perfect pace, with a masterful grasp of ambience and dyamics. They often rock out as a counterpoint to the glowing ambient parts, but never with a wall of heavy guitars, which is quite refreshing, despite how much I love heavy guitars. Brilliant stuff - you can buy loads of Grails stuff from Temporary Residence.

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James Plotkin & Mick Harris - Collapse

2010-09-15T22:14:00.003+01:00

Excellent slab of ominous, industrial dark ambient from these two purveyors of fine sounds, released in 1996. Both had beginnings in far heavier musics - Napalm Death in the case of Mick Harris, and although this is superficially a long way from metal, it could also be seen almost as its logical conclusion. This is uncompromising, and very heavy; but also beautiful and meditative: it can be used for wholly immersive listening, or as a background wash. It responds to the volume level - if you turn it up you are shaken by the wall of bass; at lower volumes it becomes spectral and sepulchral. The exception would probably be 'Collision', which reflects its title with some clashing industrial noise, but on the whole this is a brilliantly executed and intriguing exploration of dark soundscapes. The best example of which is the 20 minute title track, which manages to convey both dread and exultation at once with its churning sonics.

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Olivia Tremor Control - Dusk At Cubist Castle

2010-09-06T20:13:00.003+01:00

Also known as Music From The Unrealized Film Script "Dusk At Cubist Castle", from 1996, this is a lovely, unashamedly retro slice of kitchen-sink psychedelia, of a similar variety to Dukes Of Stratosphear - particularly their '25 O'Clock' mini LP. Like the Dukes, OTC display a massive Beatles influence, with some terrific harmonies, and some gloriously tuneful songs. There are also loads of counter melodies on fuzz bass, little backward tape loops, weird intrumentation, phased vocals, and that's just on 'Define A Transparent Dream'. Things reach a peak with a wonderful trio of songs in the middle: 'Memories Of Jacqueline 1906' is a fab song that could have come from Ween's Mollusk, which breaks down in to the deeply psychedelic jam of 'Tropical Bells', with chugging raga fuzz and hookah bubbles. This segues into a classic Nuggets type eastern tinged groover called 'Can You Come Down With Us'. A suite of 9 tracks, all called 'Green Typewriters' follows, comprised of ever weirder sketches, where they indulge their more experimental side, with some chaotic and trippy moments - treated vocals, drones and sci-fi noises with a pulsing and spooky 9'40" track that sounds like the tour of the bowels of an alien spaceship, which is full of weird things hiding.
A hugely enjoyable combination of smoked out psych and great pop. Also recommended is 'Black Foliage'.

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Alva Noto - Xerrox Vol. 2

2010-08-29T10:46:00.006+01:00

Alva Noto is a recording alias of Carsten Nicolai, one of the founders of the excellent experimental electronic label Raster-Noton: a label that embraced the aesthetic of clicks-and-cuts but forged its own distinct identity which was expressed in both the music and visual design. Obviously minimalism is an important factor in compositional terms, but the sounds on this album also include lush and epic soundscapes, as well as churning waves of noise. 'Xerrox Soma' has a bed of ambient Eno-esque synths, over which string-like drones swell and recede, amd some processed noise crackles like electricity. It creates a sense of massive space, and is rather beautiful, too. This fades into 'Xerrox Meta Phaser', which sounds like you are descending into the depths of some gigantic generator building, with throbbing humming and metallic drones building to a noisetastic peak.
The album is laden with glorious string drones - on 'Xerrox Monophaser 1' sounding very much like Cliff Martinez's amazing soundtrack to Solaris. These are adorned by crusts of static, or they throb in unison with distant, booming noises; drones, or airy ambience. Although occasionally bordering on harsh, it is a mostly lovely combination - a marriage of abstract, experimental electronica with lush classical ambient.

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Bardo Pond - Set And Setting

2010-08-17T23:24:00.002+01:00

I love Bardo Pond - a fuzz/drone/psych/space ensemble, heavy on the bongtastic distortion and wasted atmospherics. Their particular formula is a lush, sludgy, hedonistic sounding one that especially appeals to me. Isobel Sollenberger's drawled vocals aren't too dissimilar to Kim Gordon's, and perfectly fit the super-loose, bluesy psych-fuzz riffs. First track, the 11 minute 'Walking Stick Man' sets the tone in wonderful fashion: a swaying groove churns along, with perfectly damaged vocals, and a wall of glorious fuzz, helped along by Sabbathy harmonica: it's a woozy worshipful hymn to the power of distortion and the guitar. Actually, the whole album is. 'This Time, So Fucked' steps it up a notch, with some wailing wah fighting off feedback. There is a bit of variation - the disembodied and detached 'Datura' is on the verge of descending into shaking-eyed psychosis, and is following by the chugging and thunderous rock out of 'Again', before the 9+ minute 'Crawl Away' returns to the meandering, head nodding fuzz waves. If you like this, check out 'Peri' and 'Amanita', although all their albums I've heard are pretty good.

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Tricky - Angels With Dirty Faces

2010-08-14T21:27:00.003+01:00

Tricky's 3rd album from 1998 saw him retain his unique production style, but removed a lot of the lushness and melody that were apparent on the first two albums, especially on Maxinquaye. This upset a few people, and a lot of critics complained that it was too dark, uncommercial etc. Whilst this isn't quite the joy to listen to that the first albums are, it's still brilliant, just a bit more intense - the miasma of wobbly guitars, sax parps and assorted weird samples that throb along under the beats of 'Singin' The Blues' is a perfect example. This is definitely music of the bong - Tricky's smoke addled, rasping vocals just about intelligible; layers of relentless, weird-noir loops; loping beats. There is a tangible sense of both claustrophobia, and paranoia - Martina Topley-Bird's vocal contributions sound vaguely distressed and strung out. All that may sound slightly negative, but each song has a hypnotic and enthralling wall of sound effect, almost alchemically conjured out of the sounds and samples. Strange, offbeat rhythms and patterns work their way into solid grooves by way of repetition. 'Carriage For Two' has an amazing backing track that, except for a tolling bell and some weird guitar, almost defies analysis - it's almost like an organic being pulsating in a dark room. Last track 'Record Companies' is a glorious psychedelic swamp beast.
I thought Tricky has lost the plot with 'BlowBack', which I pretty much hated instantly, but 'Knowle West Boy' was a return to form, with some really excellent stuff on it, and is well worth checking out. Also, if you've never heard 'Maxinquaye', do yourself a favour and buy a copy.

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The One Ensemble Of Daniel Padden - The Owl Of Fives

2010-08-08T18:37:00.003+01:00

2003 solo album by one third of Volcano The Bear. This more of a psychedelic world-folk brew than VTB, and has less of the derangement of that band. That is not to say that this album does not contain it's fair share of weirdness; just that crazed vocals are more restrained, for example on the excellent French-Arabic sounding 'Farewell My Porcupine' they are just part of the backing rather than the main focus of the track. Most of the songs on here are lovely sketch/compositions based around piano, fiddle, guitar and other acoustic instruments, and embellished with found sounds, drones and odd vocals.
There is a dusty aura of otherness, that suggests lost archive folk of some corner of Europe that doesn't actually exist - perfectly encapsulated in the music and title of 'Baltic Chunks Of Antiquity'. This album is imbued with a skewed charm, and just enough oddness to keep it interesting without interfering too much with the music.
Volcano The Bear were another band I saw at the sadly missed venue Spitz, and they were very entertaining indeed. Check them out if they play near you - they toured less than a year ago.

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Deadbeat - New World Observer

2010-08-05T20:59:00.003+01:00

Deadbeat is Scott Monteith's electronic dub project, and this 2005 release perfectly encapsulates the gorgeous blend of surging bass, sweet melody, and shimmering ambience that is his trademark sound. Right from the beginning 'Slow Rot From Rhetoric' has a wispy, delayed weave of electronic sounds that builds up to the introduction of a gloriously monstrous bass throb, upon which a sweet, simple melody is introduced on a panned electric piano type keyboard, before the gently rocking rhythm sweeps the track away. The effect is head-nodding, blissful and spacious; yet the manipulation of reverb and delay, and various other knob twiddlery keeps the ears on their toes, so to speak, and keeps things interesting like the best dub should. 'Port Au Prince' introduces some spacy female vocals, some more glitch, and some chopped acoustic guitar samples. A faster, dancehall-styled beat gives the track a more propulsive edge, as it does on 'Texas Tea', but neither track really enters clubbable territory. The multi layered glittering, pointillistic bed of ambient sound that cocoons every track reaches a dense climax on the final, virtually beatless closer 'Habitat For Heavy Hearts', as cavernous and slightly mournful stabs fade into silence.

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Khan & Walker - Radiowaves

2010-07-31T16:38:00.003+01:00

I haven't posted anything involving Khan for a while, so here's another excellent album beamed down from the acid bleeposphere. There's super-minimal packaging on this one - they usually tell you what kit they have used to make their records, but I'm pretty sure it's the same equipment they were using on all their other releases around 1995 when this one came out. Actually, my album cover is different to this one, but I can't seem to find a decent image of it. This has the usual crispyRoland percussion pattering away; phased and dazed synths sweep across the background while acid lines, bass and the odd syncopated mid range line bubble and swing in the centre of your headphones. Throw in the odd bit of speech sample, some high wispy frequencies, twiddle the knobs a bit, and there you have it - a classic snapshot of the Cologne sound which is glorious to my ears: deep, spacy and trippy. The beats are all fairly light - no pounding 808s, here - ranging from slow breakbeat rockers, to jittery electro, and 5am trance-out on the splendid and epic 'Radiowaves 4'.

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White Rainbow - Prism Of Eternal Now

2010-07-22T21:22:00.003+01:00

Rather superb space-psych from one man band Adam Forkner. The fabulous opener 'Pulses' is a real statement of intent - bongos and shakers usher in a fat analogue synth riff, which is soon accompanied but some fantastic looped vocal ejaculations - referencing the kind of 70s art rock/serialism of Laurie Anderson, and some kind of ecstatic stereo pan sect. Then in come the stratosphere-scraping lead synth and guitar(?) and the track takes off into space, with some more chanting for company. Gorgeous and sublime freakery. Although it's possibly the highlight, every track on this album is excellent - there are lushly cosmic ambient washes like 'Waves', 'Awakening' and 'Middle' - flotation tank splendour. There is more wild and driving psych in the shape of 'Mystic Prism', and further expansion of the sound in the electronic dubby textures of 'Warm Clicked Fruit', which brings to mind the warmly enveloping digital pulsations of deadbeat and Vladislav Delay. There is another fantastic avant synth exploration in 'For Terry' (Riley), which has a similar fat mid range analogue synth wobbling along in a strange out of time sequence, while a high pitch line oscillates and flutters upwards. Then some beautifully processed lead guitar comes in, recalling mid-70s Fripp, and a more rocking take on his collaborative albums with Eno.
Luscious and deeply psychedelic, this is a real recent favourite of mine. This and the more recent White Rainbow album are available from Kranky: what a brilliant label - so much good music. Go there and buy something direct from them.

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Sensational - Loaded With Power

2010-07-13T19:17:00.002+01:00

1997 debut album by this very idiosyncratic rapper, on the Wordsound label. This may be the most mashed hip-hop album ever recorded, from his superb, lurching, deranged rapping style, to the ultra low fi beats. The vocals on this album were recorded through headphones, and the music with a four track and not much else. Whatever was used - it usually sounds like it's malfunctioning, with stumbling beats and massively overdriven bass. It's an album full of wrongness and experiment, but works brilliantly. It does sound like the product of a demented brain, and I remember reading in The Wire that later in his career he sold his equipment to buy crack, although I should add that he sorted himself out again and has continued to record.

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Ghedalia Tazartes - Tazartes' Transports

2010-07-11T17:27:00.003+01:00

Back to the weird end of the spectrum! This contains music written between 1977 and 1998, and despite being firmly in the experimental/avant-garde camp, this is extremely listenable and enjoyable, if you are open to strange music. This is a real psychedelic jumble of found sounds, tape loops, odd snippets of speech, as well as a variety of instruments. It is masterfully created, using abrupt introduction of sound as well as cogent and structured phrasing. The clashes of sounds work brilliantly - like the bleeping analogue meltdown, with mongo percussion, and bird chattering panned across the top of it on track 5. Of course, it is virtually all deeply weird, but can also be very beautiful: track 6 is composed from wisps of backward tapes - voice, piano and possibly orchestral samples, to create an ethereal and otherworldly hymn to something quite likely beyond human understanding.
There is also a healthy sense of mischief - you would think that some of the blurting vocals on track 7 are purely designed to freak out stoned heads: there are definitely echoes of some of the weirder bits of Revolution 9 off the White Album. This is an inspired and freaky gem of an album, and I have Dimitri to thank for it. Check out his blog for a selection of amazing and far-out compilations.

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White Dot Electronica 2

2010-07-09T21:46:00.002+01:00

Another wad of superb electronica for you. Slightly more upbeat, lush and tuneful this time, epitomised by the glorious opener by Four Tet vs. Pole. This also contains what I think could be the finest piece of electronica ever: Autechre's remix of Beaumont Hannant. I'm sure there are proponents of Carl Craig's 'At Les', too - a total classic. The other Autechre remix is completely awesome, too, and the Balil track is one I never tire of. Two hours of niceness: hopefully there will be some revelatory discoveries within.
Tracklisting:
1 - Four Tet vs. Pole - Cload (V/A - Osmosis Leaf Sampler)
2 - Apparat - Limelight (Walls)
3 - As One - Meridian Max 404 remix (Reflections On Reflections)
4 - Softballet - Jail Of Freedom Autechre remix (Softballetforms)
5 - Bersarin Quartet - Mehr Als Alles Andere (Bersarin Quartet)
6 - Mouse On Mars -Owai (Instrumentals)
7 - Dabrye - No Child Of God (Instrumentals)
8 - Kettel - Any Waken Sly Bonda (Whisper Me Wishes)
9 - Balil - Parasight (V/A-Artificial Intelligence 2)
10 - Kiyoshi Izumi - Bedroom Glow (Effect Rainbow 12")
11 - LA Synthesis - Agoraphobia (Matrix Surfer)
12 - Nonplace Urban Field - Roll Over Ehrenfield (V/A-Deutsche Funk)
13 - Boy Robot - Magic Toys For Girls & Boys (Rotten Cocktails)
14 - Principles Of Geometry - Golem (Lazare)
15 - Vulva - Kellog's Corn Circles (From The Cockpit)
16 - Cristian Vogel - The Time Lock (Station 54)
17 - Carl Craig - At Les (V/A - In Order To Dance 5)
18 - 16B - Falling: Two Lone Swordsmen remix (Falling 12")
19 - Beaumont Hannant - Psi Onyx Autechre remix (Psi Onyx 12")

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Roy Andersson - World Of Glory (Härlig är jorden)

2010-07-09T20:23:00.006+01:00

When I started this blog I had grand plans to post loads of short films, but for some reason I never seem to get around to it. Here is a remarkable and brilliant short by Swedish director Roy Andersson, from 1991.
It is a series of still-camera vignettes, based around the wan, distant and tormented figure you can see in the stills above. This character speaks directly to camera, and the combination of his measured voice (I find the Swedish language inexplicably lovely); the washed out colours and the ghostly and brilliant music to be totally mesmerizing. I don't really have the mental energy to go attempt an explanation of the themes and meaning within: it deals with guilt, with ones engagement with the world: basically life, the universe and everything - yet in a series of often painful, sad, short scenes that are laced with pitch black humour, but which deal with the minutiae of everyday life. However, there is a horrific opening scene that obviously calls to mind the dominant historical happening of the 20th century, one that is possibly more prescient to a Swede. It also defies a perfect reading, so that's my excuse - you have to interpret it yourself. Not only that, but it is as much about an emotional reaction as an intellectual one.
I am a huge fan of Samuel Beckett, and to me this film dovetails nicely with his latter novels and short prose - the way that the narrating character breaks down the relationship with the reader/watcher and author; with the characters inhabiting the grey area in between. Literally grey, too, calling to mind the foetal characters inhabiting the wastelands in Beckett's short prose. But it's the dark humour that mostly connects the two. And if you're a Beckett fan, the same desolate beauty.
This is a .avi, with a .srt subtitle file, whatever that means for mac users, as I'm a pc man.

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Susumu Yokota - Sakura

2010-07-08T17:38:00.003+01:00

Susumu Yokota is a prolific electronic musician, and this is a fabulous offering from 2000. Highly recommended for fans of Eno, Cluster, and early ambient music, this displays strong influences from this scene right from the beginning. Opening track 'Saku' has gently pulsating synths, phased drones, and gently tinkling electric piano lines all wrapped up in a cosy cloud of reverb. This would be good isolation tank music, but is gorgeously engaging, too, as it develops organically into throbbing bass. 'Ucho Tanjyo' adds some grooving ethnic percussion, with some gent from distant shores mumbling cryptically, which works excellently with the tremolo, phased synths soaring in the background. 'Genshi' even has a kick drum and cymbals driving it along, but the same lush and lovely synth melodies are present throughout the album: this is almost a set of variations, until 'Naminote' rather strangely injects a bit of a swinging jazz vamp. Highly recommended.

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Alexander's Dark Band - Dobutsu Bancho

2010-07-01T20:20:00.002+01:00

A 2005 album by J Saul Kane, aka Depth Charge. This is a loose and dirty beast of an LP, full of rough and drunken beats - mostly breakbeats, distorted bass, and rotten analogue keyboards held together with sellotape. There's plenty of influence from dub - check out the rude, throbbing bass on 'Dead Metal Dyno Rock', with nasty backwards sounds and some expert knob twiddling. There are some terrifically monged sounds on here - tweaked beyond the realms of good taste, and ending up crashed in a smoking heap at the end of brainfuck road. Virtually every track exudes a bad attitude, and has the rough beats to back it up, and twisted editing/brain prodding sounds poking you in the chest for extra provocative effect. It also rocks mightily, and has plenty of raised-fist triumphant moments, some lino-polishing retro grooves (The Immortal Squirrel), as well as some menacing frequency assaults (Baka Monkey Doll, EH O400).

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Sonic Boom - Spectrum

2010-06-19T17:39:00.003+01:00

Sonic Boom's first solo album after leaving Spacemen 3 continues in pretty much the same vein, and has some really great stuff on it. The kind of wasted-on-drugs/gospel vein runs through virtually all of Sonic and Jason's work, borrowing liberally from blues music (Lonely Avenue); although in this case the presentation is pretty lo-fi, with drum machines and trashy organ accompanying the fuzz and reverb guitar. The formula is often incredibly simple, as on 'You're the one' - a simple riff is repeated, and the layers of fuzz guitar/organ are gradually turned up until the tune is rocking nicely. The only track that deviates slightly is my favourite track on the album, a masterpiece, and a worthy successor to 'How Does It Feel' from 'Playing With Fire'. It has a flotation tank feel, with a heartbeat-like pulse, some guitar loops, and distantly spaced keyboards. Occasional descending bass notes, chimes, and some brilliant use of reverse echo embellish this moody yet blissful track. It really does evoke the feeling of someone drifting off this mortal coil in an incredibly smashed state.
I saw Sonic Boom perform this a couple of years back - it was pretty special, even though his vocals haven't really improved over the years ( I like them for what they are). I can also recommend seeing the current incarnation of Spectrum. I saw them last year and they were excellent: it was a joy to behold excellent live versions of 'Transparent Radiation' and 'Revolution'. I was lucky enough to see Spacemen 3 once, and I must have seen virtually every spin off band since, including Spectrum in 1990, and even The Darkside. I seem to recall that Sonic supported My Bloody Valentine at ULU, accompanied by some bloke with a harmonica.

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Chronomad - Chronomad ep

2010-06-15T23:27:00.003+01:00

A rather lovely 4 track ep from 2003 on the Alien Transistor label. These are 4 tracks with a sombre beauty, driven along by tuned ethnic percussion which keeps a driving rhythm, but also manages to be intricate and intriguing. The ep was co-produced with Markus and Micha Acher from The Notwist by Saam Schlamminger, a Turkish born student of eastern music. This accounts for the excellent complex rhythms, and the understated, moody use of melody. The second track 'Sabs' is a brilliant combination of twisting percussion loops and the half-obscured sounds of a dusky bazaar - a use of ethnic music samples that could not possibly be further from cheese. Shady strings surge and retreat as a rhythm is picked out on an Oud-sounding instrument. Although the native drums are played, they are also manipulated with some chopping and timestretching, and although the tunes elicit a kind of sweetly doleful ambience, this is good head-nodding gear.

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Boredoms - Chocolate Synthesizer

2010-06-10T19:33:00.004+01:00

Another band I saw recently, although their current incarnation sounds quite different to this album from 1994. They currently play with varying amounts of drummers (7 the other night), and churn out a kind of bludgeoning performance art space rock. Main man Yamatsuka Eye had a pretty cool multi-necked guitar totem thing, which he would bong occasionally with his wand.
Ideally the picture of this would be here, and not at the top, but I can't get blogger to upload pictures where I want them to go, which fits in nicely with the general air of retardation that imbues this album. It's full of greasy mong-riffs and guttural imprecations, screaming derangement, bursts of noise, hardcore style rock outs and general freakish lunacy. Probably best not listened to with a raging hangover, at all other times this is great fun, and often hilarious - generally for the nutty vocals: 'Smoke 7' is a particular favourite. The cover gives a good impression of the music, prompting the question 'What the fuck is going on?'

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Dungen - Ta Det Lungt

2010-06-03T12:35:00.005+01:00

I'm posting this while the experience of seeing Dungen live 3 nights ago is still fresh, even though I'm sure I will remember it for a long time. They were absolutely fantastic - tight when appropriate, and jamming marvellously. They absolutely nailed the sound of this album, with it's hazy sheen of reverb and sun-drenched psychedelic atmosphere. The songs on this album are terrific, adding harmonies and a unique folky element which is perhaps a result of the groups Swedish origins.
Dungen are the brainchild of Gustav Estes, who writes and produces, as well as playing sundry instruments (it was great to see a bit of flute playing live!), but this incarnation of the band has been playing together for a few years, and the live sound they generate must contribute in some way to the songwriting process now. Not least the scintillating guitar playing of Reine Fiske, who is an acid rock maestro - one of those guys who knows his instrument (a well battered strat), amp and effects inside out - it was awesome to be stood right next to him by the side of the stage the other night.
This 2004 album is a glorious introduction: go to Dungen's website for mp3s of lots of rare and obscure non-album tracks, including some epic jams.

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06/09/2010 - a Dungen live alert for those in London - they are playing at the Islington Academy on November 16th - get yourselves down there!

Various - White Dot Electronica 1

2010-05-28T00:52:00.003+01:00

I went through my itunes recently and picked out enough tracks for a couple of electronica compilations. Therefore, this is all amazing. I was going to divide all the tracks into 4 playlists, but there was no thematic cohesion to any of it, and I ended up with two lists, called 'down' and 'up' at roughly 200mb each. Even those descriptions are fairly arbitrary, although I suppose this one is slightly moodier than the next one, tending slightly toward the glacial, trippy, isolationist, or just plain abstract.
I absolutely love all of this stuff: there are some all-time favourites in here, so check it out - you may discover something incredible.
Tracklist:
1-Burnt Friedman-Platin Tundra (Nonplace EP1)
2-Alva Noto-MM (Archiv 1)
3-Anders Ilar-Illusions Of A Summerbreeze (Everdom)
4-Autechre-Weissensee (V/A-A Homage To Neu!)
5-Bionaut-Wild Horse Annie: Pluramon remix (V/A-Harvest In Technicolour)
6-Biosphere-Mir (Patashnik)
7-Black Faction-Modanese (V/A-Voices In My Lunchbox)
8-Console-Untitled (Pan Or Ama)
9-Dabrye-Infinite Wavelength remix (Additional Productions 1)
10-Funkturm-Shimmer (Urban Mantras)
11-Cepia-Wavebnc1 (V/A-Meadow, Cottage Industries 4)
12-Grain-Untitled (V/A-Across Uneven Terrain)
13-Jake Mandell-Beartrap (V/A-Wanna Buy A Craprak?)
14-Julien Neto-Shiney Eyed Gal (V/A-Meadow, Cottage Industries 4)
15-Max 404-Quiddity Last Visit (Eevolute 12")
16-Nonplace Urban Field-Chilled #6 Muslimgauze rmx (Golden Star)
17-Air Liquide-Homicidal Diary (V/A-Harvest In Tecehnicolour)
18-Psyche/BFC-Neurotic Behaviour (Elements 1989-1990 by Carl Craig)

It's hard to pick favourites out of these: there are timeless classics like Quiddity and Neurotic Behaviour; The Anders Ilar track is a relatively recent discovery that blows me away; the Autechre rocks (is that actually a 303 I can hear in there?), and the Black Faction track is a sublime offering from a really unsung talent. Actually, I ought to rip some of the vinyl I have by him. Anyway - treat your brain.

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Skullflower - Orange Canyon Mind

2010-05-27T00:09:00.003+01:00

Utterly glorious noise psych-out from Matthew Bower. Euphoric, blasting, coruscating waves of fuzz; juggernauts of pulsating bass. Warping witches' fingers of liquid sound lick at your ears like cold flames while crashing planets destroy the gravity in your brain. That's just track 1. Despite being cacophonous, this is beautiful to my ears: it's a richly harmonic maelstrom of overdriven analogue. I'm not sure how it was created, but it's super-effective: all kinds of power-electronics mayhem, plus some acid guitar, and barely audible percussion in a thick, lurching, surging syrup of cosmic goodness.
Sometimes the tracks are underpinned by spacy nodding grooves, sometimes there is just a clenched roar of sound, an electrical storm of wild sonics; but there is always a dense and captivating tapestry of noises, tunes and distortion.

Buy it from crucial blast

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Exile - Pro Agonist

2010-05-19T21:45:00.004+01:00

Nutty drum & bass from 2005. Chock full of crazy edits, wild sounds and, of course, multitudes of chattering breakbeats. Oh yes, and some monster bass sounds - plenty of the ravetastic hoover variety. Completely in your face, but also head twisting, euphoric, hilarious, and ultimately jolly good fun to listen to. Not much else to say, really - some genius production on show. Recommended for fans of Venetian Snares, and everyone else in the world.

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Gong - You

2010-05-12T16:17:00.002+01:00

This blog has now been going for a year! There is no better way to celebrate this anniversary than by posting one of my all time favourite albums.
This was released in 1974, and is third in a trilogy of albums that also includes 'Angel's Egg' and 'Flying Teapot', both of which are excellent, and highly recommended, as is 'Camembert Electrique' which precedes them. This album, though, I think is the pinnacle, both of Gong's output, and psychedelic/space rock in general. The playing throughout is absolutely masterful; and the arrangements are completely brilliant. There is a fair amount of silliness, it is true, but I love every second of it, and it helps create the dramatic dynamics that drive the album along. The way that the two short whimsical opening tracks segue into the very spaced out chanting of 'Magick Mother Invocation' which becomes the blistering, heavy progged out space rock of 'Master Builder' is magnificent. Steve Hillage is on fire here, and the bass and drums pretty much rival the heaviness and technical excellence of early 70s King Crimson. Also, the horn/wind playing of Didier Malherbe is an absolute delight. The key element that completes sound is the brilliant use of synths, which are particularly showcased on the next track 'A Sprinkling Of Clouds', where they beautifully build up a trippy spacescape which leads into another heavy freak out. The interplay of Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth's vocals, another great feature of Gong, is shown on the next short track 'Perfect Mystery', which also has some awesome drum fills from Pip Pyle. The last two tracks are an excellent long jam with a terrific groove, allowing some extended solos; then a real Gong masterpiece in 'You Never Blow Yr Trip Forever' winds down the album perfectly. Awesome stuff. I still get pure unadulterated joy from listening to this, 18 or so years after I first heard it.

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Kev Hopper - Whispering Foils

2010-05-07T21:24:00.002+01:00

Excellent release on Stereolab's Duophionic imprint from 2000. Kev Hopper was the (fantastic) bassist in 80s musical-weird-beards Stump ('Chaos' on Youtube). He went on to release mostly instrumental albums, featuring samples, bass, and lots of musical saw, which he plays.
The results vary from the totally brilliant 'Return Of The Bung', with it's basslines slithering and rolling around weird ambient textures and some clean tremelo guitar - this could almost be an outtake from Eno's Another Green World. 'Lamalou Les Bains' is a combination of saw, acoustic guitar and vibes, and is very High Llamas-y; and I could even imagine Monsieur Hulot wandering around with this in the background. 'Canary Lights' is another excellent track based around the tumbling sound of Hopper's percussive bass - tapping and popping over a shuffling groove while mandolin, accordion and vocals add the melodic textures. The whole ambience also reminds me of Tortoise, and this could obviously fit into the post rock category, but comparisons do this album a bit of a disservice (even though I've made loads), as it sounds quite unique. Also, it is rather lovely sounding.
Check out Kev Hopper's Website. It's pretty interesting, and also he is giving away all his music - so download it and donate him some money: I recommend 'I Saw Spoombung's Daughter Consumed By Kirby Dots'.

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Ulaan Khol - I

2010-04-30T11:40:00.003+01:00

Ulaan Khol is an alias of Steven R. Smith, who is a prolific guitarist in the realms of ambient/psych/drone. I didn't know anything about him until I decided to post this album, whic I have been enjoying immensely for quite a while. Composed from layered guitar and feedback, enveloped in an atmosphere of reverb. It begins with a full band fuzz psych-out sound, but most tracks have minimal, distant percussion, or none at all. There are ringing overtones, angelic choirs and space horns singing in the mix, conjuring an epic devotional vibe of mystic depth. This is the first part of a trilogy, which I must acquire now that I know about it, especially as the last track is like a laser of distilled and focused Popol Vuh at their most ecstatic. Beautiful and cosmic.

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Ween - Push Th' Little Daisies +

2010-04-29T23:25:00.003+01:00

I love Ween, and this 1993 Ep was a bit legendary amongst me and my chums. This has a few extra tracks thrown on, various b-sides etc, and I thank the proprietor of whatever blog I got it from a few years back. I have this on 12" and the three b-sides from this are brilliant. This single preceded Chocolate And Cheese, and a period where they recorded a lot of songs in certain musical styles. Not necessarily always a pastiche - there seems to be a genuine love of the original forms. Thus you have 'Mango Woman', a ludicrous(ly brilliant) reggae track - a style they would revisit (King Billy, The Fruit man). My favourite is 'Puerto Rican Power' - a kind of teen power rock anthem, with bad drum fills and inept guitar leads. This so beautifully evokes a bunch of spotty hispanic teenagers rehearsing in their parents basement it's unreal. It's also a great song. Then there is 'Ode To Rene', where they effortlessly offend Francophones with a load of nonsense lyrics in a breezy easy listening style that used to dominate French airwaves. Excellent stuff. All the tracks demonstrate Gene Ween's brilliant vocals in many styles, which just seem to improve with age - there are some amazing performances on their most recent album La Cucaracha.
Tracklist:
1 - Push th' Little Daisies
2 - Mango Woman
3 - Puerto Rican Power (Pts. 1&2)
4 - Ode to René
5 - I Smoke Some Grass (Really Really High)
6 - I'm Fat
7 - I'm Fat (Remix)
8 - Sky Cruiser
9 - Cruise Control (Sky Cruiser Remix)
10 - Cover It with Gas and Set It on Fire
11 - Silent Night

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Black metal compilation

2010-04-28T16:04:00.005+01:00

I know I've just posted the Wrnlrd album: this is a request/dedication to Steve, to cheer him up. Because black metal was invented to cheer people up.
This is not supposed to be definitive, even of my taste - it's just some of my favourites, and I am aware of glaring omissions. Lots of harshness, noise, violence and general nastiness; but also some great, triumphant tunes and riffs, as well as an assortment of amazing vocalists. You also have the two best BM drummers - Frost (1349) and Hellhammer (mayhem), but also some pretty inept work (Judas Iscariot - great track, though). It all sounds great to me, from the strange and technical compositions of Deathspell Omega and Mayhem, right down to the primitive thrashings of Bone Awl and Ildjarn-Nidhogg. Also, plenty of outrageous speed.
Tracklisting:
1. 1349 – I Am Abomination (Hellfire)
2. I Shalt Become – Fragments (Wanderings)
3. Gorgoroth – Wound Upon Wound (Ad Majoram...)
4. Belenos – Tal Ifern (Spicilège)
5. Bone Awl – In Eternal Dark (Magnetism Of War)
6. Darkthrone – A Blaze In The Northern Sky (A Blaze...)
7. Funeral Mist – Sword Of Faith (Maranatha)
8. Nehemah – Nehemah In Vulba Infernum (Light Of A Dead Star)
9. Gorgoroth – Procreating Satan (Twilight OF The Idols)
10. Judas Iscariot – To The Black Tower Of Victory (Distant In Solitary Night)
11. Burzum –Dunkelheit (Filosofem)
12. Mayhem – Whore (Chimera)
13. Diaboli – As I Walk Through The Shadows (Anthems Of Sorrow)
14. Leviathan - Fucking Your Ghost in Chains of Ice (The Tenth Sub Level of Suicide)
15. Ildjarn-Nidhogg - Svarte Hjerter (Ildjarn-Nidhogg)
16. Satyricon – Dawn Of A New Age (Nemesis Divina)
17. Blut Aus Nord – Choir Of The Dead (The Work Which Transforms God)
18. Endstille – Monotonus II (Navigator)
19. Triumphator – Heralds Of Pestilence (Wings Of Antichrist)
20. Watain – The Limb Crucifix (Rabid Death’s Curse)
21. Deathspell Omega –Sola Fide pt. 1 (Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice)

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Links dead

2010-04-27T10:35:00.003+01:00

Yes, lots of links are dead, which is why you should never use Rapidshare for anything. I am replacing them from oldest to newest, and they should be fixed in a few days; but if you have any particular requests, leave a comment.
Also, Blogger has been known to pull the plug with no warning, so I have backed up the entire blog at Wordpress here. This was surprisingly easy to do, and is a very cool function.

Shipping News - Flies The Fields

2010-04-25T21:06:00.005+01:00

Excellent album of muscular, focused and intense US indie. Released on Quarterstick in 2005, this band has quite a serious pedigree - the members featuring in such groups as Rodan, Rachel's, June Of '44 and The For Carnation. A look at that line up gives a good indication of the sounds herein - there is a large post-rock influence, with rumbling bass and angular, repetitive guitar lines dominating fairly long instrumental passages; but there is also plenty of powerful melody, very much in the vein of Shora and The For Carnation, but mostly played with the standard band instruments of bass, drums and guitar.
There are some nicely heavy moments, too - achieved as much by considered composition as stepping on a distortion pedal: the way that instrumental 'Louven' builds is a beautiful example. Some of the songs occasionally explode, too: 'Morays (Or Demon)' is gloriously adorned by brilliant guitar lines, fractured by metal vocals and distortion a couple of times.
The building of tension is key to the success of this album - the stronger melodies are thrown into bold relief when they appear; the heavy moments appear more violentm and throughout, there is a seriousness of intent, and a sense of lurking threat amidst the sober introspection.
"We are a generation of everyday collision" is one of the lines from the magnificent 'The Human Face', and might well sum up this band, although that song is followed by the rather lovely 'Untitled With Drums', which is sweetly softened by the addition of duet vocals by Fay Davis Jeffers of Pit Er Pat. It has a similarly effective magic as the unexpected female vocals in the Shora album, and perfectly sets up the epic album closer 'Paper Lanters (Zero Return)', with its relentlessly heavy bass.
As I sit listening to this album writing about it, I am wondering why I haven't tracked down all their other releases.

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Tipsy - Trip Tease

2010-04-22T22:20:00.005+01:00

1996 album from duo Tim Digulla & David Gardner, with the help of a horde of musicians. This is a giddy and psychedelic fusion of the already-weird sounds of Les Baxter-styled exotica; mashed together with the then-current sounds of experimental trip hop and a palette of loungetastic horn stabs, vamps and not-so-E-Z casio-keyboard-gone-wrong plinky plonky cheezerama, soundtracking rictus-faced grinning flourescent zoot-suited 50s TV presenter-clowns on acid.
Marvellously executed - everything is played live by the en-suite musos, then sampled, looped, edited and generally manipulated into a freaky yet 'seductive' weird-out: a blend of swinging advert music for space-age fridges, bombarded with springy cartoon sound effects and twangy surf guitar. It's all joyous good fun, but with a real undercurrent of hallucinogenic displacement, which means it could cheerfully soundtrack any party population from Eleven Mustachioed Hipsters, to ultra-heavy hair-bear bunches.

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Wrnlrd - Cperadt

2010-04-12T22:26:00.003+01:00

Is April the cruelest month? If so, here is a suitable offering from this US black metal band. I say band - I think this is yet another USBM one man operation. It's nasty, cacophonous, and very dense. Where a lot of the similarly spaced-out and psychedelic black metal bands go for a thin shoegazey guitar sound, this has grinding, amped up mid-range and treble riffs piled on top of one another, making for a pretty heavy sound. It sounds like there are some quality distortion pedals in use, here, and the heaviness is most welcome. This also has plenty of blasting speed, and some excellent distorted, grim and generally unpleasant vocals which merge in a muddily splendid fashion with the guitar assault. There is great use of very well executed doomy atmospheric moments which punctuate the ferocious and strange riffs, and give the album a bit of depth.

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Byetone - Plastic Star

2010-04-08T10:11:00.004+01:00

Byetone is a recording alias of Olaf Bender, one of the co-founders of the Raster-Noton label from Germany. I love a lot of the music on this label, which is normally a kind of icy, detached electronic minimalism; sometimes even distant and sterile (and often brilliant). This, on the other hand, is a bit of a beast. Right from the off it storms in with an electro kick drum and a glorious throbbing bass. This is driven along by minimal cymbals, and punctuated with stabs of distorted harmonic noise, before a triumphant droning melody is introduced and the track rises to a victorious peak. This demands to be played loud, and is the kind of tune that makes you raise your fist into the air.
There are four mixes on here, all excellent, none of which deviates greatly from the original, which is a good thing. Sleeparchive does a characteristically excellent job, shaping it into a more syncopated techno pounder. Fellow Raster-Noton luminary Alva Noto (Carsten Nicolai) funks it up a bit, cutting and chopping with clipped beats and some of his trademark high pitched noise signals. And it's nice to see Dr Walker turn in an Air Liquide-style acid-hop version, adding some acoustic bass and swirling trippy synths in the classic mid 90s Air Liquide style.
Marvellous. After hearing this I had to buy it on vinyl.

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Odawas - The Aether Eater

2010-04-07T18:26:00.004+01:00

2005 release on the excellent jagjaguwar label. Odawas are a west coast two man psychedelic band, with ambient, spacy, and occasionally folky overtones, making them right up my street. The songs are delivered in a tremulous tenor that gels perfectly with the music. The music is generally strummed acoustic with hand drums or simple percussion, with drums on a few tracks. A fairly simple formula that is overlaid, often overloaded with a distant hazy wash of reverby keyboards, harmonica, spangles of space synth, blasts of noise and strange found sounds. It even gets a bit 'Dark Side Of The Moon' with the sax and vocals drenched 'Song Of Temptations'. It's a heady concoction, and highly successful, as well as quite lovely. The brevity of the songs helps - instead of protracted jams, we get short blasts of hazy psych sweetness.
Odawas have had two subsequent album; 'Raven And The White Night', which is also excellent, and 2009's 'The Blue Depths', which I haven't heard but will confidently predict is also very good. So check them out, and buy an album.

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Do Make Say Think -Do Make Say Think

2010-04-01T16:59:00.003+01:00

Debut album from the still-going-strong DMST - scary to think that this came out way back in 1998. I saw them on tour shortly after at the Garage in Islington - the refurb of which I still have yet to see. I don't think I've heard all their output since, and the other albums I've heard have been decent, especially the new one; but none have bettered this. A lot of post rock albums in the intervening years are quite obviously influenced by other post rock, but this still has loads of influences from all over the shop. Like a lot of similar albums this has a strong dub element, with bass-led melodies, as well as references to post punk/industrial experimentalists; soundtracks, and prog/space rock. This music is also completely comfortable rolling along at a very slow pace, and letting the compositions unfold in their own time. Opener '1978' rumbles along for 9 low slung minutes before a guitar melody comes in. 'Highway 420', probably my favourite, is a definite throwback to the 70s - opting for a 'Wish You Were Here' style intro of shimmering synths which ushers in some space-country style guitar twanging; then a sax joins in, and the track becomes something like 1973 Gong stretched out to a 10th of its speed before dissolving into the ether in a blissful haze. It's not entirely laid back - 'Dr. Hooch' lays down a thundering and pretty menacing groove of strident bass, with alien attack siren synths cutting though the mix to slightly fry your brain. Later on, 'Disco & Haze' explodes with fuzz and wah guitar.
Another refreshing aspect of this album is that it steered away from the consciously epic crescendos of a lot of other instrumental and Constellation bands; relying on great grooves, tuneful embellishment and finely recorded analogue sounds to make its case. Terrific stuff that I've listened to countless times over the years.

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Dr John - The Sun, Moon And Herbs

2010-03-30T19:18:00.004+01:00

Brilliant 1971 album from the swamp voodoo soul blues-meister from New Orleans. Dr John made a pretty consistent transition from the spooky twilight sounds of 'Gris Gris' to fairly standard (but still excellent) rocking R&B of mid 70s albums like 'Desitively Bonnaroo'. This album still retains some of the oddness ('Craney Crow' and 'Zu Zu Mamou' reprise the smoky voodoo feel of the previous album), and definitely the more sprawling arrangements of 'Gris Gris' - loping grooves sway along without a care in the world, in no rush at all. Dr John is in fine voice, and the interplay with the female backing group is fabulous. Everything is driven along by superb horn arrangements in a quite joyous fashion. An immensely enjoyable album, definitely recommended for lifting the spirits.

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Various - Temple Records NYC vol 1

2010-03-30T19:03:00.004+01:00

More Germanic goodness from 1995. Despite that hippyish-looking cover this has nothing to do with trance, and comprises tracks by Khan, Walker and Jammin' Unit under various aliases. There are some nicely distorted monolithic robo-groovers in here, but the compilation is dominated by Khan rocking his 303 into oblivion on 'Blues', 'The Truckdriver' and the blistering acid of opener 'Praise The Lord' as the aptly named Madonna 303.
I went to the Temple Records shop in 2001, where I bought a couple of Khan 10"s. I wonder if it's still there.

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Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwali - A Better Destiny

2010-03-27T12:18:00.004Z

Stunning and spellbinding album by this group featuring two nephews of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. The MO is the same: this is intensely religious music, and the goal is to reach a higher spiritual state, or get closer to god. I feel like a bit of an amateur describing that side of it - it's the music that interests me (and quite a lot of my favourite music is religious) and the transcendent qualities come across powerfully. The group comprises two lead vocalists who perform the ecstatic improvisiational passages, in between trading call and response lines with the backing chorus, backed by harmonium and tabla and driven along by the handclaps of the chorus. This is such a brilliant formula and is richly harmonic and glorious. The opening track 'Ay Sarwey Naz Neney Mun (Holy Friend)' would be a Desert Island Disc selection for me. It's truly beautiful, and there is a tempo/key change near the end that is mind-blowing. I saw this group at Womad a few years back, and it was pretty incredible.

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State River Widening - State River Widening

2010-03-11T17:53:00.004Z

1999 debut album of acoustic post rock loveliness. State River Widening are a trio featuring Kieron Phelan and David Sheppard who have also recorded an album under their own names, playing instrumental music of a very laid back and pleasing variety. Consisting almost entirely of real instruments - very nicely recorded shimmering electric guitar, acoustic, electric organ, and adorned with glockenspiel and vibes, this is music with a definitely sunny disposition, but is no less engaging for being sweet and light. It's not too dissimilar to The Sea And Cake without vocals, possibly being more syncopated and arpeggiated, and occasionally stepping up the tempo somewhat.
Ideally this music would soundtrack some hot sunny weather. We can live in hope.

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Joe Harriott - Indo Jazz Suite

2010-03-09T17:09:00.003Z

You can see the full title on the cover above. Originally released in 1966 on Atlantic, this is a weird oddity - the kind of thing that sounds like it would be playing if you ever go into an Indian restaurant on acid. The opening 'Overture' is terrific: snaking eastern-tinged horns grooving over a simple foundation of tablas and sitar drone. I'm not sure how successful this is as jazz, but it's very groovy, and is pervaded by an unassailable air of strangeness. The soloing is fairly sparse, featuring plenty of muted trumpet, and there is lots of horns playing in unison - flute/sax etc, which I like a lot, being a bit of a jazz div.
My friend Sam found this on LP in a Chelmsford charity shop back in the day - what a great find. Luckily I bought the cd when it came out 10 years ago, as it now seems to have become a rarity.

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Laika -Sounds Of The Satellites

2010-03-08T12:33:00.005Z

Another all-time favourite of mine from 1997. Mainly the work of Margaret Fiedler and Guy Fixsen, with Rob Ellis on drums. Fiedler and Fixsen were a seriously creative pair, and forged a unique and beautiful sound on this album especially, although all the Laika albums are pretty good.
Margaret fiedler has a breathy, gentle voice, and this is backed by a dense and rhythmical weave of layered percussion, samples and synths driven along by strong, rolling bass lines and excellent, offbeat drumming. Despite sounding quite alien, sometimes, and the strong electronica element, this music feels very organic: the synths are voice-like, and the massed percussion elements sound like insects chirruping in crepuscluar hedgerows. The sound is best showcased on 'Breather', an excellent song that goes into blissed out dub overdrive for the last two minutes. A relentlessly hypnotic rhythm is embellished with gentle percussion that sounds like it could be from any and no country in the world at once, but the really spaced out textures come from the synths - moogy and gorgeous sounds rise and fall, and weave around a tapestry of samples and percussion with perfect counter melodies. This is a track I would be quite happy to listen to if it went on for another 20 minutes. The opener 'Prairie Dog' is based around what is ostensibly a more trip-hop orientated beat, but again is raised way above the mainly pedestrian output of that genre by the brilliant amalgamation of sounds: electric piano, vibes, flute and an otherworldly, cello-like synth. 'Out Of Sight And Snowblind' has a brilliant, driving bass and drum foundation, with the same briliantly arranged synths in patterned filigree, and judicious use of echo on Guy Fixsen's voice again creating a hypnotic, rolling groove. 'Poor Gal' is a rhythmic beast in 7/8, driven by a pumping bass and punctuated with some aggressive guitar stabs to great effect.
It seems that Laika are unlikely to release any more records, which would be a great shame, as I think this is quite unique, beautiful, and very spaced out (and they were good live!). Guy Fixsen does not seem to have been too prolific as engineer/producer in the interim. However, I thought Margaret Fiedler had quit music entirely but I've just checked Wiki and she toured with Wire as guitarist on tour in 2008, so maybe it will happen.

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White Dot Techno 2

2010-02-24T18:24:00.005Z

Time for some more techno, I think. 9 more top tunes from back in the day - if you were clubbing a lot in the mid 90s you may well have heard all of these tracks played out, and I'm sure a few of them are still played regularly, particularly Dave Clarke's Red 2 and Red Planet's Stardancer. The latter was absolutely hammered in London clubs when it came out, and it took me a while to track down in the days before the internet, as usually I was too busy going mental to try and see what was revolving on the decks at the time.
As far as I am concerned, these tracks are all brilliant. From the house/techno crossover anthem of Planetary Assault System's Booster; the brain-mashing sound that permeates Teste's The Wipe to the face-punching aggro of Mark Bell's Hardfloor remix.
I think my favourite, though, would have to be possibly the least well known track. Secret Cinema's Jeroen Verheij turns in an epic remix of Yantra's 360. Driven along by a bashing snare breakbeat and razor sharp cymbals and percussion, before a subtle rasping bassline comes in, this track takes off into a weird spacy soundscape with alien synths echoing around. Strange and brilliant, as well as being a terrific techno stormer.
Bitrates vary as before, but it all sounds pretty good to me.
Tracklist:
1 - Dave Clarke - Wisdom To The Wise ['Red 2', Bush]
2 - Dave Angel - Bounce Back [R&S]
3 - The Martian - Stardancer [Red Planet, by Mad Mike Banks]
4 - Teste - The Wipe (5am Synaptic) [Plus 8]
5 - Planetary Assault Systems - Booster [Peacefrog, by Luke Slater]
6 - Yantra - 360 (Flutter Mix) [Music Man, remix by Jeroen Verheij]
7 - Laurent Garnier - Astral Dreams (Speaker Mix) [F Comm]
8 - Slam - Positive Education (2nd Morganistic Mix) [Soma, remix by Luke Slater]
9 - Hardfloor - Strikeout (Orbit Mix) [Harthouse, remix by Mark Bell]

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Back Door - Back Door

2010-02-22T15:24:00.004Z

Debut album from 1973 by this bass/drums/sax trio. All instrumental, this is a terrific display of musicianship by all three members - playing super-tight, punchy, proggy jazz rock for the most part. The drums and sax are both excellent, but the virtuoso bass of only surviving member Colin Hodgkinson is the real highlight, driving the sinewy melodies with some inspired percussive sounding picking and slapping, demonstrated by the dazzling ensemble playing on 'Catcote' - similar to the super-prog section of '21st Century Schizoid Man'. There are deviations - the gorgeous bass solo 'Lieutenant Loose' is splendid, the lyrical duo of bass and sax on 'Turning Point' is truly marvellous, and the flute and bass track 'Human Bed' grounds the band in the early 70s, sounding more like contemporaries Traffic. Sharp-eared listeners will spot a sample used by the Beastie Boys (on Paul's Boutique, I think) from 'Slivadiv', way back when this was a real obscurity. I actually paid £20 fro this on vinyl back in the early 90s - I was going to photograph the original artwork for this post, but I think it's been in my 'buried' vinyl stack since I got the timely cd re-issue back in 2000. Also the original artwork is not that great.
This is a real unique gem, and thoroughly enjoyable due as much to the good tunes as the playing. I recommend checking out some clips of Colin Hodgkinson on Youtube.

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Tindersticks - Waiting For The Moon

2010-02-15T18:57:00.005Z

2003 album from this magnificent band. I was going to post the masterpiece that is their second album, but someone requested this one, and it's a beauty. I feel that a band as consistent and durable as this often fade almost into background noise in the world of music - only a trickle of new fans are won, although there is a significant and loyal fan base. I am guilty in this respect - I only realised they had a new album out whilst I was idly browsing discogs. I promptly bought it, and you should too: this band are a glorious institution.
Singer Stuart Staples has a unique voice - a quavering, world-weary baritone that suggests fragility as well as a plethora of hedonism experienced. This a collection of really strong songs, which are only improved by the the great arrangements: string sections along with Dickon Hinchcliffe's lead violin; horns; vintage organ all create a warm, fuzzy, sumptuous envelope around the shuffling songs which inhabit the region somewhere between Nick Cave and Lee Hazelwood (not a huge region, admittedly, but a fabulous one.) This is most evident on the beautiful, string soaked duet with Lhasa De Sela on 'Sometimes It Hurts'.
I first saw Tindersticks in Dublin promoting the second album, and it was pretty incredible - a real emotional revelation that completely blew me away, and is still one of the best gigs I've ever seen.

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I also highly recommend the second album, Curtains, Can Our Love. And everything else by them.

The Necks - The Boys OST

2010-02-03T11:04:00.004Z

The Necks are an Australian instrumental 3 piece who have been around for over 20 years. The basic formula is piano, bass and drums, and they display a mastery of both their own instruments and their overall sound. This is not expressed in explosive virtuoso passages, even though they definitely play jazz tinged music: they play acoustic instruments, but they also explore the usually minimal themes of their music, with the same kind of repetition and recapitulation of motifs and themes that you would normally find in jazz. However, they usually do it in an elegant and sedate way that owes as much to post rock as it does to any jazz master, and on this album there are understated embellishments, such as small blasts of distorted guitar, some reversed atmospheric echo, and wonderful electric organ. Often their albums and gigs will be a single piece of music, but on this disc, the soundtrack to 1998 Australian film The Boys, there are seven. This does include three ten minute plus tracks to give you a good illustration of their MO, not to mention three versions of the main theme, which is superb - a brooding and noirish piano led theme, full of menace and rippling with atmosphere. Although many tracks and the addition of extra noises to the mix may make this a more expansive and less representative Necks album, they also help it to be fantastically listenable.

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Ausgang - Electric Arc

2010-01-29T15:56:00.005Z

Another space rock one man band, this was released on the Foundry label in 1999. Similar in many ways to Tank, this consists of spacy instrumental jams and grooves, with a heavier sound, something akin to Tank meets Appliance. Bass and drums groove away, with some nice fuzz guitar lines rocking out, and a thick smear of psychedelia spread over the top. Moogy sputterings, warm organ drones, and lots of tape manipulation comprise most of the cosmic layer, heard to good effect on the 14 minute epic 'Projectile Crockery'. Tapes of various horns are sped up and slowed down manually, and generally messed around with; while the warmly distorted bass and guitars groove away, before it breaks down into a chaotic synthy sci fi soundscape. 'Speak To Me' adds a bit of radio noise to the mix, and there are some more ambient or Krautrock experimental passages, but the albums never strays too far from the template of cheerful freakout, and is great fun.

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Lee Perry - Produced & Directed By The Upsetter

2010-01-26T18:33:00.004Z

This is probably my favourite Lee Perry compilation. Although Arkology was really thorough, and has some stupendous music on it (notably Junior Murvin's 'Tedious', which has the incredible dubbed out section that isn't on the current cd), it was just a bit overwhelmingly large. What makes this one so good is the strength of the individual songs as much as Perry's studio wizardry. The production varies from the economical and punchy, to the spacious and weird, as you would expect, but every song is excellent, with some superb horn arrangements and vocal harmonies. The vocalists on here range from well known acts like Junior Murvin and The Heptones, to more obscure names like Winstone Heywood and King Burnett. I can't help thinking of the fantastic film Rockers when I listen to these lesser known artists - they knew they had a great song, probably had to fight to get it recorded, and made bugger all money out of it. The lyrical subjects runs the gamut, from relationship traumas, to problems with the police, to politics, and serve up a brilliant snapshot of Jamaica in the mid 70s. Of course, there is a dub for every song, but I think the great element of Perry's genius demonstrated on this disc is his ability to complement the vocal versions with perfect backing tracks.
Also, this one is worth downloading for the utterly amazing 'Guide Line' by George Faith. Apparently this was from an album which he recorded in 1978, just before Lee Perry lost the plot in a big way and burned down the studio. Most of this album was never released, which is a terrible shame.

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Geinoh Yamashirogumi - Akira OST

2010-01-24T19:50:00.004Z

Fabulous soundtrack from what is still one of the best anime films ever, in my opinion. It's scary to think that this came out in 1988. From the opening peal of thunder on 'Kaneda' this is spine tingling stuff, as a chorus of beautifully musical drums and wooden percussion introduces some brilliantly arranged choral work. It's pretty unique and breathtaking, and one of my favourite tracks ever. The themes are reprised with variations on the epic last track 'Requiem', which adds some serial/minimal keyboards, and even more layers of awesome choral lines. The whole album is a brilliant exploration of what can be done with tuned woody percussion, bells, drums and voices, with some additional sampling and sequencing - the almost techno explosion of rhythm that is 'The Battle Against The Clowns', with voices chopped in, and tiny beacons of melody. There are also the more traditionally synthy sounds on 'Winds Over Neo Tokyo', and the whole album blends these styles in a perfect balance, and the result is a unified suite of almost modern classical composition.
I always thought Geinoh Yamashirogumi was a person, but it's a musical collective. So I'm off to search the web for some more of their output, and I think another viewing of Akira is in order.
There is a shorter Akira soundtrack; this one is the 9 track, 56 minute one.

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Nodern - Nodern

2010-01-22T21:11:00.004Z

A rather obscure electronica album from 2005 on the Sub Rosa label. It's a shame there seems to be no follow up releases, as this is brilliant, and Nodern clearly has some real talent. This music would definitely be at home on the Rephlex label - it has the same stuttering weird beats and synths as classic Aphex material, and both the beats and the melodies are classy. Their is also a trippy and disturbing element to a lot of this, too - 'The Coal Mine Worker' is a freaky slice of genius, with cut up whisper snippets above mysterious curdling synth drones. 'Letter Puncture Pnx Pass' rocks along with some classic electro sounds and great melodies over a swinging shuffling beat. 'The National Republic Of Hairlip' has more well programmed chopped up speech over springy beats, and builds up a sense of uneasy menace with some brooding, dark synths. Like the best parts of this album, it inhabits a strange place, where the sounds from other realities seem to be leaking in. The tunes are generally melancholic, and this makes a nice combination with the messed up beats and weirdbeard cut up and time-stretched oddments.
I hope this isn't going to be the last Nodern record ever.

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Current 93 - I Have a Special Plan for This World

2010-01-17T12:47:00.004Z

Released in 2000 on Durtro. This is a single 22 minute track, consisting of David Tibet speaking words by American author Thomas Ligotti, with a minimal industrial/ambient musical backing. The words are remarkably dark, intense and apocalyptic; and David Tibet's voice is perfect for them - hinting at a kind of staring-eyed derangement. The speech is delivered in segments, as if they are being played on a portable tape player, with the sound of the play button being pressed. In between, there are weird granulated speech sounds, and a chilling tomb-like drone throbs all the way through.
Bleak and unsettling - one to listen to on your own, in the dark.

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Bill Wells et al - Pick Up Sticks

2010-01-12T23:17:00.006Z

Collaborative effort of four artists coming from two distinct (-ish) backgrounds - Scot Bill Wells and prolific trombonist Annie Whitehead from a predominantly jazz background, and the Germans Barbara Morgenstern and Stefan Schneider (also in To Rococo Rot) from electronica. Of course, the boundaries of what these artists produce are not anywhere nearly so clearly defined, but the resulting mini album (just over 20 minutes) seems to be balanced perfectly in the middle. It's a set of 8 sketches that combine horns, both natural and processed, with electronica and the more laid back and glacial end of the post rock spectrum. There are often similarities with To Rococo Rot's excellent debut Veiculo, but the brass definitely adds a lot to the mix. These would perfectly soundtrack a drama of the more sombre type, although there are low glowing embers of warmth and tenderness throughout, as well as moments of stark beauty. In fact 'Three Line Prayer Pt 2' is magnificent, and a real favourite of mine.
A really nice downbeat little gem. Released on Leaf, 2004.

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Roy Harper - Stormcock

2010-01-10T15:28:00.004Z

This is undoubtedly Roy Harper's masterpice. From 1971, it's ostensibly a one-man-and -his-guitar singer/songwriter album, and begins that way. Harper's beautiful, querulous voice, always betraying his roots in the north west of England, accompanied by his own acoustic (well, two tracks of acoustic). The four tracks on this album, though, are epic in every sense - in length, scope, and arrangement. Roy Harper often double-tracked his vocals, a technique that seemed to suit his voice particularly well, usually with a perfectly rich envelope of reverb, and on the first track 'Hors d'Ouvres' he is backed up halfway through by an otherworldly chorus of his own multi-tracked vocals, and electric organ. This was recorded at Abbey Road, and has that beautiful ringing clarity so redolent of that time and place, like on The Pretty Things' Parachute, or Pink Floyd's Atom Heart Mother. 'The Same Old Rock' follows, Jimmy Page adding some glorious acoustic lead work. This is an amazing track, switching between yearning and sombre moods as the different sections move along, until Harper is backed again by his own space-choir, brilliantly arranged to spine-tingling and psychedelic effect. 'One Man Rock And Roll Band' has a touch of eastern-raga-blues, with some light phaser(?) type effects on the vocals, and strangely flowing vocal phrasing. The Final track 'Me And My Woman' is an amazing track, beginning with a more traditionally English Folky tune, and some of the most haunting and gorgeous backing vocal arrangements, and some fabulous orchestra, arranged by David Bedford. This ranges from doomy strings, to plaintive clarinet, to Atom Heart Mother-style brass, all the time melding perfectly to Harper's long and winding song structure. It is a truly brilliant way to end this masterpiece of an album.

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Buy it
Also highly recommended is Flat Baroque And Berserk.

Burnt Friedman & Jaki Liebezeit - Secret Rhythms 2

2010-01-08T00:46:00.005Z

Second installment in an ongoing (and hopefully endless) series of collaborations between sound designer/genius Burnt Friedman and Can drummer Jaki Liebezeit. Although this would probably be classified as electronica, there are other musicians on this disc - notably reed player Hayden Chisholm, who I recognise from a number of other Friedman records - and the sound is definitely one of a band, although it's very hard to categorise the exact sound. It's a mellow and spacy blend of electronica, jazz and post rock. The instrumentalists provide backing, and, presumably, sound sources for Friedman to manipulate - there is always a shimmering haze of morphing and drifting ambience behind the picked acoustic guitar, reeds, vibes, and Jaki Liebezeit's springy drums. The temptation is always to describe this awesome drummer as metronomic, as he so often was in Can, but many of the tracks on this disc are in strange time signatures, and he plays around the beat, often adding an accent on unexpected drum hits.
David Sylvian sings on 'The Librarian' (also on the Nine Horses album), and this is probably the most traditional track - a sung song. The following track 'Mikrokasper' shows the other end of the spectrum - very electronic, delicate and beautiful, it sounds like it was created almost entirely in post production from samples. The next track, 'Niedrige Decken', perfectly sums up the rest of the album. Pattering along in 9/8 time, after an introduction by sombre and elegant clarinet, which continues throughout; melodica, and a mesh of intricate samples and picked guitar harmonics. For me these tracks conjure up images of sun-blasted landscapes, with an unreal blue sky, and powerful heat haze distorting the edges of visible reality. Strangely laid back and intense at the same time.
Volume 1 is also great, volume 3 is amazing, and volume 4 is due out this year. Also highly recommended is any release by Burnt Friedman & The Nu Dub Players, and 'First Night Forever', just by Burnt Friedman. This last one features a selection of excellent vocals, creating a weird kind of acid fried electronic soul. Check out all these releases at Nonplace.de, and support the artist!

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Circle - Katapult

2009-12-23T00:25:00.003Z

Terrific 2007 album by the prolific and inspired Finnish lunatics. Circle have probably put out more excellent music in the last decade than any other band. Their forte is riff-heavy cosmic jamming, often in brain twisting time signatures: the album Prospekt is a good example of this, and I would have uploaded that one if I'd realised that it's currently unavailable. Also, they do space epics (Arkades)...basically, it's hard to go wrong with a Circle album. What I like about this one is that it has a great deal of vocals on it. Vocalist and band mainstay Jussi Lehtisalo has a kind of deranged, sometimes operatic, growling, dramatic delivery, that is at once awesome and hilarious. On this album it is generally smothered in reverb. Opener 'Saturnus Reality' gives a good idea of what is to come as it goes straight for the jugular, but 'Understanding New Age' has some amazing delivery (possibly not all by Jussi Lehtisalo , it's hard to tell). The music is hard to describe, veering from buzzing thrashing walls of guitars (I'm sure I read that this album was their homage to black metal influences). Often the guitars are chugging - the band refer to themselves as NWOFHM - New Wave Of Finnish Heavy Metal, but everything is always refracted through a hazy fog, and there are certainly no harsh edges anywhere. Instrumental 'Tree On The Higher Mountain' evokes a pastoral folky fug, and 'Four Points Of The Compass' is driven along with Kraut type synths. 'Fish Reflection' follows with what could almost be a Saxon riff, undermined by some abstract gentle guitar plucking, and some of the craziest vocals you could wish to hear, and is a work of inspired genius.
Underneath all the derangement, though, there is a lot of beautiful music, which is probably what makes this such a hugely enjoyable and inspiring listen.

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El-P - Fantastic Damage

2009-12-22T21:02:00.005Z

This is one of my all time favourite albums. It's about as heavy and psychedelic as hip hop can get without imploding, and is definitely not one for hip-hop conservatives, seeing as very little of the instrumentation is made from soul/funk samples, but instead is created by El-p with synths, samples and drum machines. It's the arrangements and mix that make this so excellent, and such a head trip. The opening line sets the scene: a distorted synth, with a slightly chipmunked voice reciting some cheesy but somehow ominous lines of poetry. The remainder of this track is pretty sparse, martial distorted beats and scratches allow the lyrical manifesto to be promulgated with little audio interference, and it's only as it fades into 'Squeegee Man Shooting' that the musical blueprint for the rest of the album is revealed - a tapestry of wah-scratching that peaks almost into a 303 line halfway through; piano arpeggios; driving bass; searing phased synth drones - all backing a relentless stream of vocal which is often cut up, overlaid and delayed. It's definitely a heady and intense mix, one that doesn't let up. The listeners brain is equally divided between the rapping and the music, and the weird pitched-down vocal echoes that weave around the mix fall halfway between the two, making fora disorientating but hugely satisfying listen. This is taken to extremes on what is probably my favourite track, the very weird and fabulous 'Dead Disnee', which is a real brain odyssey. The density of this music means these tracks still blow me away many many listens down the line; the apocalyptic, claustrophobic vibe, and exhilarating swarms of noise and clusters of words that drift in and out of my conscious hearing...makes my sentence construction deteriorate.

An awesome album.

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Richard Thomas - Soggy Martyrs

2009-12-17T01:37:00.005Z

Rather odd and wonderful offering from 1999 on the excellent Leaf Label. Richard Thomas has definitely got a good grasp of the terms 'weird' and 'wrong', but he keeps it pretty low key on this album; unless you turn it up loud, I suppose. This is like Blue Jam sublimated into purely musical form. Over an often fairly down to earth premise - a shuffling drum beat, say, a whole load of queasily played horns lurch around in a monged fashion over lots of processed samples and unsettling noises. The attention to detail is terrific, but the profound weirdness of it all could easily pass you by, as the general sound is often one that approaches a kind of easy listening - trumpets parp, guitars are strummed, drums are drummed; on 'Manicougan 5', for example - but they are played like a band whose members are on different planets, so to speak. It took me a while to get a handle on this album, and then it suddenly all became clear: what an unhinged master Richard Thomas is. Some of it certainly reminds me of Mike & Rich - Expert Knob Twiddlers, but these tracks are far more freeform in structure, and fade in and out of a hazy, muddy ambience. With extra jazz noodling.

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White Dot Techno 1

2009-12-09T11:36:00.005Z

Here are a few banging techno tunes, mostly from the mid/late 90s. These have come from a variety of sources, and the bit rate is variable - in one case as low as 128kbps. I thought about this after I'd compiled it, but really, it's banging techno, not Steely Dan. I have changed the album artist for all tracks to 'White Dot Techno 1' (there are more selections coming), so you can find them in itunes - some of the volume levels may need adjusting for consistency.
Tracklisting:
1-Aphrohead-In The Dark We Live (Dave Clarke's 313 Mix) Bush
2-Gaetano Parisio-19.99 A1 Drumcode
3-Grain-Untitled (4th EP A1) FatCat
4-Henrik B-Recollections A1 Drumcode
5-James Ruskin-Dilemma Tresor
6-Joey Beltram-Ballpark Tresor
7-Oliver Ho-Fusion Meta
8-Speedy J-Electric Deluxe Plus 8
9-Secret Cinema-Cartoon Clip no label

Later comps will be slightly different, but this one is heads down car chase/crash music, especially the Secret Cinema track, which is a beast.

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Populous - Quipo

2009-12-08T09:50:00.004Z

This is one of my favourite electronica albums of the last decade. Released on Morr Music in 2002, and produced by Italian Andrea Mangia, this shows all the hallmarks of a debut album - it is rich with melodic ideas and expression, and no amount of attention to detail is spared. In fact, luscious opener 'Bottom 01' is cut off in its prime at two and a half minutes, when such a gorgeous conflation of melodic bass, sweeping synths, glitchy mesh and morphing arpeggios should ideally play out for about 6 minutes, and probably would on a 3rd or 4th album, when the life's-worth of musical ideas have been used up. I would recommend this to fans of Boards Of Canada, as it obviously inhabits the same sphere - the pace is hip-hop, and it is heavy on the melodic synths. The beats here are somewhat lighter, and skip along more. There is more dynamics created by fading the volume up and down and panning; and there is a more delicate filigree of scrunches and glitches that help move the phrases along. I would say that the best of this album matches the best of BOC: the melodies are often exquisitely turned, and the whole sound is so perfectly at one, it glows with the obviously huge amount of love and effort that went into producing it. Summed up perfectly on the awesome 3rd track 'Flu', which is truly glorious. I actually bought this on cd as well as vinyl, to protect my LP from wear and tear.

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Korea Soundblaster - Korea Soundblaster

2009-12-06T18:14:00.003Z

From 2003, this album is a wild blast of completely acid-drenched mayhem. It's a full-on, saturated melting pot of metal riffs, deranged warbling vocal samples, bombastic organ, stumbling drums, outrageous dub echo and distorted noise. Not to mention the OTT moog-style burblings, atonal guitar leads, screams, bleeps and unidentified scary noises. All this is mashed together with little regard for niceties such as song structure or pleasing melodies, but it's such good fun to listen to that these absences are irrelevant. The songs tend to fade into each other, making this one long, crazed assault on your senses.
Thanks to Dimitri for this one.

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Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom - The Days Of Mars

2009-12-04T17:02:00.004Z

Another one of my favourite albums of the decade, and another blissful blast of analogue synthery. Released in 2005 on DFA, there is nothing punky or funky about this disc. It clearly harks back to the 70s peak of soaring, pulsing and oscillating synths, and contains 4 long tracks, all over 11 minutes. There is also a definite 80s feel to this music - not in the crappy synth pop sense, but in the excellent-John-Carpenter-soundtrack sense: the arrangements are a bit more spare; the sounds are slightly less cosmic (only slightly!), slightly harder, and there is a faint sense of menace, of imminent technological danger. There is also none of the stratospheric guitar work from the 70s - it's all synth, and there is also the same authentic sense of techno-about-to-happen: especially in the pumping bass arpeggios of 'Relevee'. You can bet that if this was out in 1981, the Electrifying Mojo would have been playing it on his radio show. The rather lovely cover knowingly represents this wilful embrace of the past, with (presumably?) Delia and Gavin in period dress, juxtaposed with the somewhat sci-fi title.
All this is secondary, though, to the glowing beauty of these four tracks.

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Pluramon - Render Bandits

2009-11-30T11:48:00.003Z

Pluramon is Markus Schmickler, and this is the second Pluramon album, from 1998, on Mille Plateaux. Schmickler was an early pioneer of of a fairly even mix of acoustic instruments and electronics - the kind of mix and sound palette which Four Tet had subsequent success with.
Most tracks proceed with a head nodding groove played on an acoustic kit, with layers of guitars both spangly and fuzzy; along with bass and an assortment of keyboards, drones and more abstract electronic burblings. Occasionally the grooves retreat, like on 'Flicker', or the end section of 'Formant', and the album fits perfectly with the label - sounding very much like Snd, and the digi/glitch sound the label is synonymous with. These moments provide a nice contrast, but the album is best when the heavy grooves chunter along. When 'Gloop' hits its stride and sucks you into the wake of the stomping groove, loads of distorted, edited and messed up sounds are smeared across the pummelling rhythm.
Like much of my favourite music, this harks back to the more groove-laden German music of the 70s (especially later Can), but the detailed digital processing and editing keep it modern and forward looking at the same time ( as well as trippy). The predominance of acoustic intruments, especially guitar, maintains the warm fuzzy sound envelope and rich harmonics.
Previous album Pick Up Canyon and remix project Bit Sand Riders are also excellent, and Pluramon has gone in a more shoegaze-oriented direction with recent albums reams Top Rock and The Monstrous Surplus, both of which are decent, and feature more vocals.

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Black Heart Procession - 3

2009-11-26T01:28:00.004Z

Released in 2000, I consider this to be The Black Heart Procession's masterpiece. I suppose this would have fallen under the alt. country banner at the time, but there is something majestic and timeless about this album, and it has probably shed that label in the intervening years. This is a collection of spare, stark and very beautiful songs, with a consistent unity of character. 'Doom Country' I think I have referred to this as, although there is something uplifting in these baleful, resonant songs. All delivered in a downbeat, plaintive voice; and backed by a glorious palette of acoustic instruments, organ, piano, trumpet - all slowly stomping to the funeral march pace.
There are no highlights, because the whole album is brilliant and mesmerising from start to finish, and I'm not going to write any more about it.

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