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James Blackshaw makes beards a thing of the past.

Published by

tyler

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

Published by

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

Bees, Doin’ the Left Foot Stepdown

Published by

tyler

July 31, 2007 in uk, 70s, the brits, summertime, psychedelia, 60s and videos. 0 Comments

It’s a fact! In ancient times, the bandit populus of India would use something like this to guard their mountains of treasure. Bet’cha didn’t know that.

–

[the bees - octopus]

So I may have missed the love train on this one by some few weeks, but it seems my own love pact was sealed when these first keys rang out to the tune of 1960 on my home stereo.

My summer has been, musically, a pleasurable time-warp through decades past, and thankfully there have been a number of bands doing it so well. On the side of IDM, Caribou’s Andorra and Pepe Deluxe’s Spare Time Machine carried their weight through the trodges of the psychedelic decades by pairing up some quality riffs with some equally quality beats. The rock side of the coin has been filled out in part by The Black Lips & Golden Animals (and as pointed out, one’s a little grungier than the next). I’d recommend going back and revisiting them one by one if you have to.

It’s Western, it’s psychedelic, it’s The Yellow Submarine, and I might even have to concede this as the best song of 2007:

In our world where most upstarts forget the importance of cohesion, the seemingly implicit talent of The Bees allows them to keep within such a broad set of bounds, going everywhere on Octopus from south-western folk on “Love in the Harbour,” to bass-culture dub crossed with The Beatles on “Left Foot Stepdown,” to unapologetic reggae on “Listening Man,” to a brass section that just won’t quit on “Got to Let Go,” the proverbial aural glue is stuck, and as it is, coming from this Isle of Wright sextet of multi-instrumentalists, by no means do these boundaries feel like an overextension, but rather they feel like a treat. The album is candy coated in chocolate wrapped in candy foil.

mp3:
Band of Bees - Left Foot Stepdown
Band of Bees - (This Is For The) Better Days

Grab yer own Octopus over at Amazon.

Pepe Deluxé Invents Time Machine! Has Dance Party.

Published by

tyler

June 22, 2007 in 70s, breakbeat, house-special, psych-freakout, summertime, videos, psychedelia, 60s and tunes. 0 Comments

[pepe deluxé as dumpsite tourists]

In a time where cowboys dream of tonal archaeology, ex-sailplane pilots turn to record collections, and Fiji-inspired bacon garb is essential to one’s inner peace, Pepe Deluxé is here to bring you back. Way back to the sunshine-happy era of the 1960s, the funkdefied times of the 1970s, and the hip hop breaks & beats circa 1980.

Once asked about the name James explained: “Pepe Deluxé without an acute accent at the end, is like a gentleman without a hat – a contradiction in terms.”

James Spectrum is Finland’s one and only mad-hatter whose musical abominations parallel some sort of circus-freak lovechild Fatboy Slim might have had with Lemon Jelly. The group’s track record began as two DJs (himself and JA-JAZZ) with way too many records & and sampling rig.

The first release was an over-the-top big-beat/trip-hop all-you-can-eat sloppy aural-pasta called Super Sound, which was then followed up with Beatitude, a much more an extensive effort, and exactly the turning point at which the musical ingredients shifted from strict-turntablism to worldwide recruitment efforts of more than fourty musically inclined friends, all enlisted to the forefront of its production. This was precisely when the Deluxé entered the Pepe.

Moving the clock forward, flash forward even, and we’re now at 2007 with the group’s most elaborate, glossy effort. Its sound genre hops between decades past, decades of now, and decades that never even happened. This is Spare Time Machine.

The Mischief of Cloud Six is the most energetic piece from the batch, so layered with grooves and beats it made Norman Cook weep. It is something The Books might have produced with some sniff-sniffy drugs and a collection of vinyls from the local mullet-sporting record shop.

Moving on without missing a step, Miss Willhelmina And Her Hat is a culture clash of wah-wahs, vocal harmonies and guitar-shredding laced with hip-hop break-beats, and really is just to enumerate the man’s fascination with one gardening, hat-wearing mistress - don’t forget the wah-solo at 4:30, it’s absolutely essential to your ears.

The album slows down a bit from there, moving on with some pieces that are more readily digestable after the all-out vocal-soul freakout that is Go For Blue, but picks up again with Pussy Cat Rocks & Apple Thief.

If you can’t tell, I’m enamored with this album, and still, there’s more! Beatitude has actually been made available by the gang in its entirety, both freely and legally in mp3 format: here. Also, dig this video in all its bizarro-world glory:

And these mp3s:
Pepe Deluxé - Ms. Wilhelmina and Her Hat
Pepe Deluxé - Apple Thief

Okay, now go snag a copy of Spare Time Machine over at Amazon UK, it won’t disappoint.

Angels of Light: We Are Him & This IS Gira.

Published by

tyler

June 16, 2007 in hypnotic, psychedelia, free folk and tunes. 3 Comments

[We Are Him: album cover]

Michael Gira (of Swans fame) started up Angels of Light in the late 90s as what was then a minimalistic-reaction to the Wall of sound he used to imbue. His process of songwriting is simple: write a piece on acoustic guitar, then gather up a handful of friends to pass the tune around the room, and embrace the collective sound that results. This project of his tends to swing on the softer side, but this isn’t Michael Gira gone sour.

In some archaic Gira-words on his Young Gods profile, he sums up his aims with Angels of Light: “After many years … of dwelling on “sonic overload” with Swans, I now concentrate on augmenting the songs I write with orchestrations that support the basic song, rather than the sound itself taking over… I view the arrangements as little films created to make a context for the words and voice, so that one can drift off into the world the music creates… but I intentionally steer clear of a “Rock” sound.”

Until now, I’ve only been respecting them from afar. Having been into Swans back in the hey-day, I always kind of felt like Angels of Light was Gira regressing. Only after some many listening sessions with the 2005 Akron/Family split did I start to enjoy the sound, but it was still not anything I could sink my teeth into.

I always appreciated his words, but there was some element missing from what surrounded his verse; some fundamental quality of music that I felt it lacked, and as a result of that it always felt weak & sappy, like any generic Top-40 country hit. After listening to We Are Him it’s become apparent that what was missing was the characteristic Gira lack of constraint. His reluctance to go with a sound that would “take over” was an incredible fault in the music; or that was my impression.

We Are Him is nothing if not Gira back doing what he does best. As Darnielle put it: “The frightening rage of old Swans surfaces several times, albeit in more bucolic clothing [and] the contrast is bracing. Lyrically Gira’s constantly in-pocket, addressing his subjects with renewed agility, but also in a very relaxed voice; if De Sade had lived long enough to tell folk tales around a campfire, some of them might have sounded like this. The genuinely playful orchestration - banjos? horns? chimes? slide? check – is by turns charming and perverse, and has a band-of-brethren feel to it that’s both ominous and exiting.“

You can read Gira’s own words on the new album in extensive detail over here at the label’s site. The album lands some time in August. Until them you can dig these tracks, and if you happen to see Gira, give him a chummy ol’ pat on the back.

mp3:
Angels of Light - Black River Song
Angels of Light - We Are Him
Angels of Light - Goodbye Mary Lou

Strawberry Jam SURFACES!

Published by

tyler

June 12, 2007 in gleeful, grassroots, electropop, psych-freakout, schizophrenia, psychedelia, blip bloop, jangle-pop, fuzz and tunes. 4 Comments

The word is out, three FRESH Animal Collective tracks have surfaced to the wonderful internets, which means we can all rest a little easy until the daunting September date slated for Strawberry Jam.

Chores contines on the Collective’s Grass-roots pop-experimental journey, with Panda Bear heading up the vocal harmonies in only the way he can, while Peacebone moves from some sort of broken Atari, to a kick-stop drum beat that just sort of bounces, buzzing and teeming with electro-fuzz, and laced with that falsetto I am oh so keen on, which is echoed each time by a chorus of psych-freakout growling.

Unsolved Mysteries is something else altogether. It reminds me of Saturday-morning cartoons in reverse, and at about 1:25 it erupts into a bubbly madness. Here, some important themes will reveal themselves in the form of peaceful sharks & Jack the Ripper.

Some Collective-style lyrics from Peacebone:
“I was a jugular vein in a juggler’s girl.”
“The other side of take-out is mildew on rice.”
“It was the clouds that called the mountains; it was the mountains that made the kids scream.”

mp3:
Animal Collective - Peacebone
Animal Collective - Chores
Animal Collective - Unsolved Mysteries

Liars’ Big Chill.

Published by

matt.

June 12, 2007 in psychedelia, drums not dead, fuzz, jangle-pop, indie psych rock and tunes. 0 Comments

Red Liar.

In the interviews leading up to the release of Liars‘ self-titled new LP, the band was quick to point out that, as compared to last years incredibly dense Drums Not Dead, the new album would be “chill“.

Now, I don’t know if the definition of chill is somewhat different over there in Germany than here in Canada, but damn. What we’ve got is awesome metal distorted guitars, heavy drums and enough psychedelica to drown an entire continent of witches. It’s like revisiting industrial goth, removing the make-up & pretension and adding just enough neuroticism & paranoia to completely defy any expectations you might have had going into the record.

You’ve got songs like “Freak Out”, which, with its jangly guitars, loose drums and deadpan vocal track, is a total throw back to classic Bauhaus. “Plaster Casts of Everything” (which was given an exclusive preview over at p-fork) is the best alternative rock song the genre has produced this year. For shame, Smashing Pumpkins. Or how about how the finale, “Protection”, with it’s 80s synths and almost mechanical drumbeat, could almost pass as a classic Bowie track? It is like the band is sampling all the best parts of music history, filtering out the cheese factor & supplying us with the crème.

And so, here again, we are left with Liars pushing their sound direction forward, making it simultaneously denser (some tracks, like “Leather Prowler” are easily as layered as anything on Drums Not Dead) and lighter. I don’t know if their sense of melody has ever shone so brightly. This dust makes that mud, indeed.

blowin’ yer house down:
01 Plaster Casts of Everything
02 Houseclouds
03 Leather Prowler
04 Sailing to Byzantium
05 What Would They Know
06 Cycle Time
07 Freak Out
08 Pure Unevil
09 Clear Island
10 The Dumb in the Rain
11 Protection

mp3: (removed by request)
Liars - Freak Out.
Liars - Houseclouds.

(Liars‘ Liars is due out August 28th on Mute Records. In the meantime, check out their ~~myspace page~~ & official site!)

French Horror (Kawabata visits the Countryside)

Published by

matt.

June 3, 2007 in destruction, hypnotic, psychedelia and tunes. 1 Comment

Kawabata Makota is probably one of the most intense people currently residing on the planet. A founding (and forefront) member of the Japanese psychedelic collective Acid Mothers Temple, Makota has also been a part of something like 12 different bands (not including AMT permutations) and you can find him on at least 100 different albums. He is nothing if not prolific.

And, to the dismay of France, he recently set his eyes on the small country town of Le Havre like Godzilla contemplating the next attack on Tokyo.

The battle commenced back in February and its outcome is clearly documented on Makoto’s latesest release, Private Sound Drawing 3, a limited edition self-distributed CD-R release, put out by the Acid Mothers Temple Private Disc Series, only available directly from the artist when he is on tour.

And what a fight it was. Neither the promoter nor the audience in Le Havre had any idea what they were in for on that fateful night (as it were, the show was promoted as being ‘free-jazz’), and no-one in attendance could even begin to comprehend the sound that Makota began to elicit from the various instruments and electronics scattered around him.

It was a one-song show. Makota burst forth with a new one-hour long track entitled ‘Virgin Mary Was Raped By The Resurrection’ that, while docile enough in its infancy, would physically change both the listeners and the club itself by its conclusion.

As Kawabata writes in the LPs liner notes, “as my set wound towards its conclusion, in a fury of noise-drone, they were shocked as I ruthlessly blew out all the speakers in the venue. The noise you hear at the end of the disk is that of the speakers exploding.”

Which is one of the most hardcore things I have heard in a while. Sorry, France.

mp3:
Kawabata Makota - Virgin Mary was Raped by the Resurrection
(excerpt; the final 10 minutes.)

[You can support Kawabata Makota by checking out some of his Acid Mothers Temple recordings over at Alien8 Recordings.]

Swedish Joy (Life on Earth!/Dungen)

Published by

matt.

June 2, 2007 in psychedelia, indie psych rock and tunes. 0 Comments

This album may have dropped a while back (early May, to be exact) but, as far as I’m concerned, it has been criminally neglected across these virtual tubes. In fact, it is almost impossible to find anyone really talking about the album. So, let us put an end to that, shall we?

The record in question is Look There Is! by the band, Life on Earth (who hereby get 3 bonus karma points & a free spin on the great wheel for being almost insultingly new-age). If the title is slightly groan-worthy, consulting the press release is even worse. If you are at all put off by hippy overtones & peace/love/happiness ramblings that lack any semblance of proper grammar or a point, I implore you to not click that link. You’ve been warned.

All of this is forgivable though, when we actually discuss the record in question. As it turns out, Life on Earth! is a project spearheaded by the talented Mattias Gustavsson, who y’all should know from the awesome Swedish psychedelic resurgence band Dungen. Akin to modern folk & hip-hop releases stateside, the Swedish scene is all about gettin’ a little help from yer friends and Look There Is! is no exception. The LP features a slew of Mattias’ acquaintances, including folks from Dungen, The Works, Town & Country and Mia Doi Todd. All of whom are cool in my books.

The concept for the album was to, and I quote, “make music that celebrates the incredible and absolutely wonderful phenomenon of life on Earth, hoping to spread some joy to any possible listeners”. Now, no-one can say that isn’t a noble endeavor but jeez. I think I might have preferred not knowing Mattias’ intention. Yet, pushing the sickly sweet naivety aside, I am content with his jams - insofar that he is able to truly channel T.Rex and a sense of psychedelica that has been lost in the West since the early 70s. Enjoy.

mp3:
Life on Earth - Sell Your Soul to Me.
Life on Earth - Bubble of Magic.

Look There Is! was released by Subliminal Sounds on May 3rd and can be bought through Klicktrack Music or… Amazon. You can also check dude’s myspace page, over here.

Caribou’s Andorra is Replete With 60’s

Published by

mystery meat

May 30, 2007 in idm, 60s, psychedelia, jangle-pop, blip bloop and tunes. 0 Comments

Dan Snaith

IDM…. CHECK…
Caribou - Andorra, INITIALIZING…
60’s Psychedelia… BEGIN!

Unlike other IDM, Andorra, the 4th full-length from Ontario-born Dan Snaith, aka ex-Manitoba, aka Caribou, needs no slow-fade introduction. No weak-beat fruity-loopsy mayhem kitsch. This is straight up 60’s psychedelia in its looped, layered, and (probably) echoplexed fury. It is so 60’s it has backup vocals in the mix just to go “ohhh”, “ahhh”, “uhhh” - I mean really, this is the works.

Granted, Snaith will lament about the ladies through-and-through, catching rivers & streams, and even spiraling. I mean shit. Spiraling. Spirals are like soooo 1960’s - am I right? Dan is definitely following the same Brian Wilson-inspired pop ideology that has pushed his previous releases but it is now much more refined and cohesive. This is a must listen if you dig electronic-subterranean-pop-music. And who doesn’t?

Don’t forget the sleigh bells.

Andorra Stylez:
1. Melody Day (4:11)
2. Sandy (4:09)
3. After Hours (6:15)
4. She’s the One (3:59)
5. Desiree (4:12)
6. Eli (3:04)
7. Sundialing (4:40)
8. Irene (3:38)
9. Niobe (8:51)

Merge Records will be dropping the full-length on August 21st, 2007 with the first single being ‘Melody Day’. Prepare the lotions.

mp3:
Caribou - Melody Day.
Caribou - Eli.