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James Blackshaw makes beards a thing of the past.

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August 21, 2007 in dronez, instrumentals, psychedelia, folk and tunes. 1 Comment

Dragon lizards are born with beards, and male turkeys have the innate tendency to grow chest hair which we affectionately call a “beard”. We, like mountain goats, must brave this brazen landscape of follicular transcendence and nurture them to their fullest potential, all the while hoping for the best, most vikingest of beards to bristle forth from our chins.

Imagine to everyone’s surprise when they find out that the spirtually tuned James Blackshaw, like myself, can’t hardly even grow one. He can, on the upshot, play a mean 12-string though.

I’ve been dipping into the world of 12-string guitar, and not long after first setting foot in this realm did I find Sir Richard Bishop, who is perhaps the most prolific and worldly player alive today of this instrument. His fingers spider along the strings creating aural, sonic webs that entrap you in his state of mind, which is often one of spiritual dualism, both with a concrete appeal (often to the tune of an Eastern ceremonial tradition), and with an improvisational air that clues you in to the fact that he’s gone somewhere you can’t hardly imagine.

By no means is it a stretch to say that improvisation and spontaneity are a necessary condition for transcendence. That is perhaps one of the most fundamental ideas carried forth with Buddhistic (and related) religions. No amount of calculatable planning will ever lead anyone beyond; even modern-day thinkers like Maslow (of my own school of thought) knew that much.

James Blackshaw may not be as indoctrinated to the Eastern school of thought, but he certainly has technical ability nearly on par with Sir Richard. At 25, he’s already put out 6 full-lengths, 2 compilations, and a live CD. It is with his latest, The Cloud of Unknowing, that he abandons most any element that may soothe, in favour of those with a more characteristic light.

“The Mirror Speaks” for instance, has its entire atmosphere caked in the dirty tones of a frantic funerary ballad, and only in the hazy front of the piece do you hear notes that in their definition seem to be waging war on the darkness looming; a short-formed Ragnarok of sorts, as the demons dance on his 12-string. The end, a slow decay into one is as the two sides approach slumber, and for now rest.

It’s hard to describe what it is to be entranced by this music, but to say that he himself recognizes the drone-like features of his music is to say a whole lot. It is at once a fog of threaded states of mind, and it seems almost as though he were depicting the mind’s tangled activity itself in song as a microcosm, with the unconscious as the hazy overtone, and the conscious as the intermitently defined plucking of strings.

I think the one clear line to be drawn between his works and Sir Richard’s would stem from his young age; he has a furor that is hard to restrain, and because of this it tends to go fewer places within each 10-minute span - the places though, are assuredly just as rich wherever they may go.

entrance:
James Blackshaw - The Mirror Speaks

The Cloud of Unknowing is out on Tompkins Square records, and can be had for $15, over here.

Dance, California & Wooden Shjips

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tyler

August 15, 2007 in dronez, 60s, psychedelia, videos and tunes. 0 Comments

As far as music videos within the noise-psychedelia realm go, this one takes the cake. Set in California at what seems to be the largest dance party ever. This semi-political (note the flashes of war) video collage is taken from a multi-span of decades (mostly the 60s), documenting one craaazy night of people gettin’ down with their freaky-selves.

The party begins with all lights on, and everyone fully dressed, but then someone spins a record that ain’t never quit. One three-note guitar riff will drive everything instrumentally, everything being a vesicating wash of 60s verve psychedelia. The night pushes forward, clothes are lost, minds are shot from dance & binge, but it all comes together with the obvious east-coast run-through-the-beach-at-midnight scene, and everyone wakes up to carry on with their placid, innocent lifestyles.

(high res version)

Wooden Shjips have a new self-titled 7″ coming out on Holy Mountain not too long from now, and it’s more of the same, psych-repeato drone and orbital space-guitar fuzz, always set to something funky. Whether it’s the bass riff on the opening track “We Ask You To Ride,” or the organ on “Losin’ Time”.

The music found within is the kind you can fall back on a couch and lose yourself in. It never fails to take you on a journey with its laid-back attitude, one that only really embarks for somewhere when the mood strikes, and otherwise drones on as if in a void.

When it picks up, it’s often by peeling some brazen improv guitar riff, which brings you to rapt attention so the feeling of the song can gravitate toward something else, only to come back again. Always back again. It’s a careful balance like that, never departing for anywhere too foreign, and as focused as it is like that, it has a sort of meditative vibe, and a listening session is not unlike staring into a candle flame at night.

I’d tell you to go find somewhere to buy this, but it’s not out yet, and my guess is when it does deliver it’ll be on a limited run, so all I can say is good luck to you. If you happen to live in CA, you might catch them at one of the few festivals they’ll be at (Fuck Yeah Fest, and Diamond Days), but otherwise, you can just sink your teeth into these.

Listen:
Wooden Shjips - Lucy’s Ride
Wooden Shjips - Losin’ Time

Wooden Shjips: Official Site | Myspace

With Ambience So As As Paper

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tyler

July 30, 2007 in bassbass, house-special, dronez, summertime, idm, hypnotic and tunes. 1 Comment

Today is very much an ambient day.

When I think on genres, and I think of them fondly, one that always comes up in my iPod playlists is of ambient. Its ability to squeeze into so many different rooms, situations, moods is what characterizes the vibe, and its conception dates back to Brian Eno’s imagining of the idea in the 1970s (perhaps most notably with Music for Airports).

Music is a social catalyst. If you take your typical university party, and break it down into elements you’re left with three main components: drugs, people, and music. Often the best parties have the most popular music, which is why where we’re from, you won’t see a party on Reid go without the Chili Peppers or Bob Marley. It’s a strange brew to be sure, but they both carry the same weight in this sub-culture and since they’ve been listened to so very many times by everyone in attendance, they are so easily tuned-out, left to become part of the heightened blend of sensations that is the party.

I believe it is precisely that kind of mentality that breeds ambient music, only instead of going for the brain-dead approach, it tries to garner a translucency on the first listen. What that means is there still is something there you haven’t heard, but you can choose to listen for it or completely ignore it; go back and forth. It allows a room to go without intermittent silences, and is a conversation piece that can be used to pick up and go somewhere else because it’s so effortlessly overridden by conversation (or any other activity). Even as a solo listening experience it can take your mind places, or simply accompany it; like the concilatory rub of a kitten.

Enough genre blather though. What’s important is that with the artists that sprout up from these roots, I can get especially excited by artists like Paper, who, with their debut As As were able to maintain the genre’s opaque nature even while layering so much electronic noise, and folding jazz drums & post-rock guitar into the mix.

[paper - as as]

I especially like tracks like “Love,” which is so obviously built for headphones, with synth-in-brass drones that completely submerge one ear, leaving the other side of your brain to thread everything else into a whole picture. It’s hypnotic, in a way. The nerves are laid by its repetitive oompa-synth, and the spine is built on vocals and violin, making for a decisively fleshy track. And, while I usually find something irking about most sequencing in this genre (the artists tend toward formula, and it reflects that), here it’s a little different; the follow-up to that fleshy “Love” drone is “Underground,” a rhythmic drum-laden, mellow acid-bass track that is as much Caribou as it is Eno.

It continues in that fashion, and further down the line its most break-out attempt from being pinned down is with “Mountain” in all its drum & bassy goodness. Again… Caribou? Yes… yes. The title track “Boy” is almost just as pleasant, including some mysterious female guest vocals. It would seem that even if you’re the kind of person with a mind like a ninja, deciding to go out with this on a solo listening adventure, this album won’t fail to keep you on your toes, or can play to the knives & forks, so to speak, and be some easy-go dinner atmosphere.

On a final note, I discovered that the two lone members, Aaron & Adrienne are also part of a group called Landing. A group who, despite the larger cast and somewhat lo-fi recordings, carry a similar vibe (no doubt because of the Snow brothers’ spearheading there as well). It seems after reading the Landing news page though, that sentence may need to be past-tense. Paper may be more than just a side-project of the Snows in the future.

mp3:
Paper - Mountain
Paper - Boy

see also:
Paper get some Love over at Obscure Sound.

As As is out now, and can be had direct from States Rights for a mere $12.

Land Patterns: the Moon, the Sea, & the Highway

Published by

tyler

June 15, 2007 in dronez, hypnotic, fuzz, videos and tunes. 2 Comments

This isn’t the season to be staring at our shoes, nay, that’s a winter activity for the weather-worn. I always find the seasons so very disparate like that. Warmer times always have my attention on the fritz, and I find it difficult to sit down and listen to a 10-minute track of drones - as beautifully crafted as it may be.

Still, I was introduced to a band with dreamy soundscapes that are sure to fill a nice cool summer night if you’d give them the chance. They call themselves The World on Higher Downs, and the base of their collective sound is a blend of brainwave-esque loops, mixed with bells, strings, and a wide array of orchestral elements. This gang just joined up on the Wisconsin scene, and their fuzzy drones are something akin to a sultry sea breeze; a sea that flows by the wayside of the Trans Canada Highway no doubt.

Their first track, Euclid, has been arranged as a video, and it chronicles the presence, impact & beauty of the moon as it travels in stages around our very own rock. Dig it: