Various - Acid Techno

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

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

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

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 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.

I've re-upped a Coil selection, in case you are following a link. Follow another link to the post.

Air Liquide - Neue Frankfurter Elektronik Schule

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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