Monday, June 25, 2007

A Sunny Day in Glasgow


ASDiG will be hitting the road this summer for their first ever cross country tour. Available at shows will be a handmade, limited edition, tour only ep featuring 7 new tracks from the band and 1 track "laughter (victims)" only previously available on their out of print ep the sunniest day ever. July 10th, the Tuesday after the tour is completed, tracks on this cd will be available for purchase in digital form on itunes + emusic + insound and many others.

Expo '70


Justin Wright’s EXPO ‘70 has been very prolific this past year, having released a hand full of CD-r’s that were picked up by Aquarius Records late Summer caused quite a buzz with favorable reviews. Wright conceptualized EXPO ‘70 while playing guitar in Living Science Foundation (Second Nature Recordings; GSL50 Compilation). Initially, the group also included Wright’s friend, Paul Kneeje (The Pope, The Manifolds, Bipolar Bear, SXBRS). After the break up of LSF at the end of 2004, Wright moved back to his home town of Kansas City, Missouri and further developed the project.

Having been compared to Brian Eno, Ash Ra Tempel, A.R. & Machines, SunnO))) and Earth, Wright’s music is an eclectic mix of krautrock, ambient drone, space exploration and minimal compositions, most of which are performed with heavily effected guitar in alternate tuneings. Releases have varied from a 3 piece performing vocal drones, Fender Rhodes, guitar, bass, sitar, reel-to-reels of old ethnic music delayed to single guitar and moog improvisations. “Center of the Earth”, Wright’s first solo venture, compiles heavily effected and layered guitar drones that pushed textures sonically into a mesh of cynical rhythms, a recent review from The Wire in U.K. cites “There’s a crossword puzzle cleverness to the weave of riffs...”, which is true to most of Wright’s natural playing.

2007 brings EXPO ‘70’s first official CD release, “Animism”, collecting improvised guitar tracks, an improvisation of 3 gongs and a layered acoustic & synthesizer track with saxophone, this album is truly varied and quite a unique blend of aggressive and psychedelic drone compositions, every track takes the listener on a unique journey.

Wright continues to release CD-r’s with the popularity and cult following gained after the induction to Aquarius Records and will be playing select cities through out the states this year. He also designs and packaged all releases himself.

Friday, June 22, 2007

After Dark (Italian's Do It Better Comp)


Troubleman Unlimited sub-label Italians Do It Better has finally cranked out its first compilation for the legions of Italo lovers across the globe. Featuring a flurry of lo-fi disco tracks from the likes of Glass Candy, Chromatics, Farah, Mirage, and Professor Genius, After Dark makes for IDIB’s first endeavor as a separate entity from its parent.

After Dark is out now on Italians Do It Better.

Tracklisting
1. Glass Candy "Rolling Down the Hills"
2. Chromatics "Hands In the Dark"
3. Indeep "Last Nite A DJ Saved My Life" (Mirage Remix)
4. Mirage "Lady Operator"
5. Glass Candy "Computer Love"
6. Professor Genius "la Grotta"
7. Chromatics "Killing Spree"
8. Farah "Law of Life"
9. Chromatics "In the City"
10. Glass Candy "Miss Broadway"
11. Mirage "Lake of Dreams"
12. Farah "Dancing Girls"
13. Glass Candy "The Cameleon"
14. Professor Genius "Pegaso"

Sunday, June 17, 2007

La Otracina


La Otracina was formed in Brooklyn, NY, in the summer of 2003 by drummer Adam Kriney and guitarist Joshua Anzano (now of Tee Pee Records' Titan) to penetrate the deepest and most surreal realms of psychedelia, prog, and Krautrock, with an emphasis on exploration. Taking heavy nods from psychedelic forefathers (Flower Travelin' Band, Guru Guru, King Crimson, Neu!, Yes, Agitation Free, Blue Cheer, Amon Duul, etc.), their music is also rooted in a deep understanding and appreciation of free jazz/improvisation and the wizardry of minimalism -- not to mention the extreme sounds of the Japanese underground. La Otracina's brew of cosmic music is a ride across the galaxy, a slice of magical lemon wedges, a rainbow of crystallized comet dust. La Otracina is Adam Kriney on drums, Ninni Morgia on electric guitar, and Jordon Schranz on electric bass. KindaMusik listed La Otracina's Love Love Love 2 CD as one of the top 20 best psychedelic albums of the new millennium, along with releases by Six Organs of Admittance, Bardo Pond, Ghost, and Tower Recordings.
Tonal Ellipse of the One

Vladislav Delay


If the true index of a one's artistic vitality is the adherence to one's own musical language,
Vladislav Delay seems to be developing a dragon spirit. The year 2007 marks a satisfying 10-year
anniversary for the artist;
it was in 1997 he released his first solo EP "The Kind Of Blue" on his own label. Had he continued
with the
label back then it would also be full ten years of Huume Recordings today but instead he begun his
run of
critically acclaimed releases for labels like Chain Reaction and Mille Plateaux for the next few years
to come (Huume Recordings was re-established in 2004).
Whistleblower. A working title influenced by surrounding circumstances, describing the mood and
receptions around the time of making the album. It also became the obvious choice of the title for
the album afterwards as very little had changed in that short time.
His work doesn't normally involve any politics but in the last few years it's been impossible for him
to not let some current global events sneak into the work, as an underlying influence shaping his
creative atmosphere. Contrary to inconceivable pipe-dreams he's been chasing on and the movies
and visions he's often living in, these days Vladislav Delay confesses some bewilderment at the
cruel reality of the world affairs and how much and what kind of headlines they create.
He's got very taken with the idea that what he does is just his environment shaping his
productions in turn, just as his and everyone else's productions and actions are shaping the world
as well.
His far-flung soundscapes and futuristic sound-processing are merely a way to analyse and handle
the contemporary, and in this respect it is slightly politically engaged activity; one he's aware of
but not taking advantage of for the sake of publicity. Motifs that may appear trashy or messy to
the uninitiated - sound exploration, distortions, dub technologies - can in fact be for him surprisingly
sophisticated tools for dissecting and examining the world as it is, piece by piece, layer after layer.
How he turns it out in the end is as if hundreds of radios were left playing all at once, magically
staying somewhat in synch.
The new album, consisting of 7 songs, displays somewhat a resurgence of his older drug-infused
sound-states; them utopian audio-visions large and vast enough to hide away from the reality.
it's clear from the first listen that this is no background music, nor is it anything but rather
rewarding content for those active listeners who enjoy following his multi-speed now-you-see-it-
now-you-don't-rhythm conversations and cinematographic sound visions spread across the audible
spectrum, challenging the possible and pushing the sensible boundaries of audio.
A seasoned traveler, musically speaking and otherwise, he's not afraid to devise a way to turn off
rational decision-making in his music and rather become a soul-searching intuitionist, leaving all the
radios turned on, but equally he's willing to spend weeks on end sifting through a huge pile of data
to just find one satisfying sound or musical momentum, whatever it was that was needed.
In the end, these ultimately personal musical visions serve a role to escape the persistent
transience of modern life and art, like so many commodities in our ultra-retail environment, so
hyper-linked and so videoclipped together that there is scarcely any room left for more input, all
the while the content is consumed so fast that the need for more is greater than ever

The Donkeys


The Donkeys self-titled debut is an instant classic. We know you’ve heard this sort of hyperbolic crap before and it’s usually a total letdown. We at Antenna Farm can’t change the past but we can guarantee the supreme ruling-ness of The Donkeys. They hail from San Diego and if you need credentials they’ve played as the backing band for both Casiotone For The Painfully Alone and Cass McCombs. That alone should give you an idea of their range. These dudes draw a line from classics like The Velvet Underground, Curtis Mayfield and Television to The Kingsbury Manx, Of Montreal and The Radar Bros.

The Donkeys debut album covers a stupefying amount of musical territory in the span of 40 minutes. From the fuzzed out psychedelics of “She’s A Wolf” and “No Need For Oxygen,” to the country-rock of “Come On Virginia” and “Blood Hill,” to the indie-pop of “In The Morning” and “Black Cat,” these boys don’t care about distinctions of pop music, and after a listen, you won’t either.

Recorded throughout 2005 by Jason Quever (Papercuts) at his Pan American Recording Studio, The Donkeys is a timeless collection of American popular music. That is, if your definition of pop music goes all the way from Blind Willie McTell to Pavement. And even if it doesn’t, you’ll want to add this album to your short list of essential listening.

Municipal Waste


Municipal Waste, undisputed kings of the new wave of Thrash Metal streaking across the globe, have finished work on their second Earache mosh masterpiece entitled 'The Art of Partying'.
Sticking it in the face of depressing modern eyeliner fuelled rock with a blatant disregard for their own safety in honour of the thrash party gods and armed with an arsenal of nuclear beer, boogie boards, food fights and steaming riffs, Municipal Waste have only one aim: to put the fun back into rock music.
Offering lessons in how to Party, the notoriously well experienced beer mad Virginia based band, return with 'The Art of Partying' which is building up to be one of the most anticipated records of the year. Fresh out of Zeus's' Planet Z studios drummer Dave Witte enthuses:
"We couldn't be more stoked with the outcome. Fast, furious and fun all rolled into one...a real animal."

Kohn


Very much anticipated worldwide, and a long while since his previous full album it finally was and is clear that the third album would been something of a classic. Meanwhile he released records/contributions on Tomlab, Bip-Hop, Darla, and Mixer to state only a few. But nothing of all this stand in real proportions to the immense impact of this double album. 130 minutes of pure ecstacy for brain, feet and boiling emotions. Taking up anything you can find in musical history and transforming it into which can only be described as Köhn. Going of raping glitch. Initiating electronica fans to contempory classical movement, introducing pure popriffs in a completely fucked up surrounding, incorporating the 80's revival into something which will last forever. Taking the term drone into a structured masterpiece, and reconstructing the term 'twisted beats' it is clear that everyone can and should be amused, thrilled. It takes you a full two hour of this planet into a world where you wander where you are when the final seconds are vanishing. Time will tell, but this is the 'Loveless' of this first decade.

Koen 1 2

Carta


Carta began as a bedroom recording project in 2002 by Kyle Monday, Jason Perez, and a revolving door of San Francisco musicians. Ambient instrumental songs developed organically from looped guitar melodies, which also served as metronomes in the absence of a drummer. As members joined and left, the desire to perform the songs in another setting arose, so the duo formed a band with bassist Ray Welter and drummer Sonny Culbertson and honed a set of material for live shows, including some songs with vocals (supplied by Sarah Bell).

In 2005 the band began recording the album "The Glass Bottom Boat" with engineer Eli Crews (of Elephant 6 band Beulah). The album features contributions from keyboardist Jared Matt Greenberg and bassist Sacha Galvagna (both of Charles Atlas), and cello by Alexander Kort (of the band Subtle).

After recording the album, Carta returned to a small lineup, and Kyle began working closely alongside Sacha and percussionist Raj Ojha on a long-form composition meant to invoke the slow sinking of the boat referenced in the title of the first album. The new piece, 'le bateau de descente', will be finished by Carta in 2007.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Summertime Mix!


I just made a mix because i am bored.

Summertime!

1. Justice - D.A.N.C.E.
2. Cut Copy - Hearts on Fire
3. George Kranz - Din Daa Da
4. Cracked Out - Benniganz
5. Caribou - Niobe
6. Handsome Furs - Dumb Animals
8. Soulsavers - No Expectations
9. Roy Orbison - Crying
10. Life on Earth!- Sell Your Soul To Me
11. Epitaph - Big City
12. Spacemen 3 - Feel So Good
13. Bedhead - Inhume
14. Joy Division - Atmosphere

Monday, June 04, 2007

Religious Knives


I love Religious Knives, and apart from having a simply awesome name they make some of the most delicious noise I've heard all year. Consisting of Double Leopards stalwarts Mike Bernstein and Maya Miller along with Nate Nelson of percussive noise troupe Mouthus you know you're in for something special, but quite how special this is could never be predicted. Released on Carlos Giffoni's immense No-Fun imprint the signs were good for something of a 'classic' release, but the depth of the album has just amazed me, and each time I play 'Remains' I'm sucked further into the murky depths and i'm convinced that this could even knock Double Leopards classic 'Halve Maen' off the droney, noisy top spot. For starters, 'Remains' isn't your typical noise record, it's not even that noisy actually, rather it uses distortion sparingly - synths are saturated with noise and fuzz, vocals are gargled hauntingly and that percussion, oh that percussion. The whole record sounds as if it's been recorded to Dictaphone tape in the 1970s and then brought out of retirement by a Dutch scientist; it has an eerie quality which is usually impossible to replicate and I have to tell you now, I'm totally in love. Hell, I can even hear echoes of John Carpenter in amongst the noise, those wonderful layers of bubbling synthesizer combined with the almost tribal pots-n-pans percussion, it's a soundtrack not to a film but to a drunken daydream, to the best and worst ideas you ever had. There's doom, there's grit, there's Krautrock, there's noise - but this album is way more than the sum of its parts, or the combination of sprawling genres, it's a dense, decomposing story of modern experimentation and I'm absolutely hooked. Don't sleep on this incredible record - if you're fans of any of the aforementioned albums you just can't let this one slip by. Essential!

Life on Earth


Life On Earth!: Mattias Gustavsson. Dungen bassist Mattias Gustavsson's solo project Life On Earth features the performer Mia Doi Todd, as well as members of Town & Country, in a joyous mix of jazz, folk, and pop that boasts a wealth of influences, from the floating, flute-accompanied neo-psychedelia of "Life on Earth" to the funky boogaloo of "Life Turns Fast."

The 2007 issued solo album from talented multi-instrumentalist Mattias Gustavsson of the Swedish band Dungen. Together with some fellow travelling kindred musical spirits (musicians from Dungen, The Works, Town & Country and Mia Doi Todd) he has created an amazingly deep and timeless album filled with shimmering vibrant psychedelic folkrock-pop.

Dark Yoga


Crutial re-press and re-design of the Dark Yoga CD that came out in very limited numbers a little while ago.
Dark Yoga is an obscure Northwest American Psychedelic NOW VIBRATIONAL Music Commune founded in early 06 by Adam Forkner, Honey Owens, Brian Thackeray, Matt McDowell, Aria Benner and Dan Barone. Dark Yoga's music is a heavy heavy weird brown fog of loose psychedelic improv in a fuzz-wah style with 70's Miles vibes, distant flutes, bongos, etc etc etc.
LIVE BROADCAST: HEAVY TRUTH is a Radio Transmission from the Spiritual Heart of this Commune at the Apex of their groove recorded in May of 2006. Its an hour-plus of continuos improvisation that wanders from heavy psyche fuzz funk to strange passages of pastoral hippy bongo and flute melt-downs, and everything in between...
EDITION OF 100 in hand-screened covers

Tunnels



TUNNELS is Nicholas Samuel Bindeman (of Eternal Tapestry, Jackie-O Motherfucker, Hustler White, Malibu Flacon, Alarmist etc) in full-on beautiful pastoral dreamy psychedelic drifted drone mode. Colour Seance is four ambient clouds of gentle, blurred color-blasts of sampled/looped/delay-drenched guitars chimes, synths, voice, etc. that evolve in dream-time and slowly fold in on themselves. A key example of the power, breadth and sophistication of the Portland Psychedelic-Drone underground.
EDITION OF 100 IN HAND-SCREENED COVERS