It’s a bit shameful that I’ve waited a few weeks to share this album, but I’m rectifying that now. Here is Waste the Night, the debut album from Low Praises. This dynamic duo consists of Jimmy Spice (Liquid Skulls, Poppy Red) and Neil Lord (Future Museums, Niall) and showcases the wonderful byproducts that result from mashing these two creative brains together. Featuring album art by Nicolas Nadeau (Single Lash), Waste the Night is an opus of glistening pop psychedelia that’s as bright as the colors that grace the cover.
Bringing everything in their respective arsenals to the table, it’s as if Jimmy and Neil spread everything out in front of them and said, “Okay what can we make with this?” From there they started stacking elements to create new structures. Some swirling synth tones here, some shimmering guitar lines there, and a healthy dollop of warbling vocals right in the middle. The resulting album is a work of varying temperatures and depths. Feel free to wade around in it, but I would recommend diving in headfirst and swimming around for a while.
Title: Mr Wilson Metal BeachArtist: AFRIKA PSEUDOBRUITISMUS357 plays
AFRIKA PSEUDOBRUITISMUS // Waikiki Kosmos
The internet is a strange place, guys. Where else could something like this exist? I mean, I can’t even pretend to understand exactly what this is and frankly I don’t really want to either. Released on the vibe-alicious label Ailanthus Recordings, Waikiki Kosmos is an amalgam of sample-collaging and internet drone that does its best to defy description. So bear with me, I’m going to try and somehow squeeze this into my box of understanding.
According to the label’s bandcamp page, AFRIKA PSEUDOBRUITISMUS operates two different soundcloud pages. One puts the project in Morocco, the other Spain. The project’s blog is a collection of bizarre collage work with accompanying soundcloud and youtube links. It’s this sort of messy ambiguity that defines the music as well as the overall aesthetic. Misplaced samples run rampant, interwoven into pools of watery, era-ambiguous, droning synths. It’s like the byproduct of a pseudo-tropical pool party hosted in ReBoot’s Mainframe City. Hands up if you know what I’m talking about.
Title: Wakeup CallArtist: Diane Kensington Devotional Band131 plays
Diane Kensington Devotional Band // 34 Wordless Mantras
In all honesty I don’t even know where to start with this one. Today has been a very strange day for me and I didn’t really feel like sharing anything, but then I remembered this double-album (I guess you can call it an album) and it just seemed to fit whatever I was going through. I mentally just refer to it as 34 Wordless Mantras when in fact the complete title is: 34 Wordless Mantras For Augmented Ascension Meditation And Silencing Your Inner Monologue NOW! Vol. 1: Deep Listening Party + 32 Wordless Mantras For Augmented Ascension Meditation And Silencing Your Inner Monolgue NOW! Vol. 2: Immersion In “Secret Harmon. So yeah…suck on that, Fiona Apple.
Created by the same mind(s) that brought us Zonotope™ (which is strange enough in its own right), Diane Kensington Devotional Band is an outlet for subconscious expression and sci-fi romanticism. The entire release is a whopping 66 tracks long and they are currently all sitting pretty in my iTunes. I have yet to make it through the whole thing but the decent chunk I have digested has been bizarre yet intensely listenable. Silky tones and pastel colors run rampant and there is so much to dig into here. It really runs the gamut as far as sound experimentation so if you aren’t digging a particular track then just wait a few moments because everything will mutate from top to bottom.
You can purchase the double-album either on cassette or digitally from the bandcamp site. I can’t guarantee that you’ll like it, but hopefully you’ll find it as curious and endlessly fascinating as I have.
I might not always understand what chushi is doing, but I’m always fascinated by it. In truth, I don’t even know anything at all about whoever is behind this. So, chushi if you’re out there hit me up because I’d love to know.
Anyways, here is their latest entitled V0SLF. The SLF part of that stands for Seven Legged Face, a label that is just as mysterious. The whole release is around three minutes long and it plays pretty much straight through, so it’s basically pointless for me to choose just one “track” to share. But alas, it seems that I’ve done just that.
If you’re familiar with what chushi does, then you’ll know that they specialize amorphous blobs of dissonant and ambient noise. And as time goes on it seems that the tracks not only get shorter but they also shy farther and farther away from convention. It might sound like I’m being negative, but all of this is what makes the music so alluring to me. I’m fascinated by the trajectory of these releases and I’m always anticipating what is coming next. You can download V0SLF for free on bandcamp or you can also grab it from this link. Give it a shot.
If you ever, like me, get in the mood for some absolutely soul-crushing drone the search can sometimes be long and arduous. For me, drone is either something that sucks me in or it doesn’t. Fortunately, the folks at Sweat Lodge Guru made the search a little easier by releasing Wroom’s Fungal Overlord. The label not only claims it as one of their best, but also likens it to an “intense, stunning walk through a spidery metallic drone mansion.” There you are, poetry.
It seems a bit criminal to listen to this beast any other way than straight through on a pair of solid headphones or speakers. But to give you just a taste check out the album opener “Cylindrical Cubezoid” a buzzing, creeping monster of viscous gothic noise with doom-like undertones. Fungal Overlord is a dark journey, to be sure, but one that must be taken. You can download it for free on bandcamp or own it on cassette from Sweat Lodge Guru.
Title: Put an Implant InArtist: His Naked Torso120 plays
His Naked Torso // Eapy Sampol
This EP just made my day. If you are into noise or math rock then I highly suggest checking it out. The duo, called His Naked Torso, hail from Cardiff and are all about controlled chaos (if that’s possible). It’s interesting that the songs are initially written as improvisational spazz sessions but are then consolidated down into more coherent and cohesive blasts of pure energy.
And although their Eapy Sampol EP is four tracks, I feel like the first three are directly leading up to the crowning jewel, “Put an Implant In.” Everything on that track is just crazy with no holds barred. The spastic drumming and blistering guitars meet head on in a crash of metal and noise that never once feels out of the duo’s control. It’s a harsh, abrasive world that might not be the light-hearted, but is one that I’m eager to revisit.
The last couple of times I wrote about Brown Bread, I seemed to be tracking her sound’s trajectory from the experimental side of pop to the more dreamy and ethereal. I thought I had an idea of what Rebecca’s next release was going to sound like (more or less), but after listening to her newest EP it turns out that I was wrong.
Writing and recording Body Combat with her frequent collaborator and friend Colin Cheyne AKA Von Holt, the pair sidestep the dreamier things and seem bring everything closer back down to earth. In doing so what Rebecca and Colin have managed to do here is create their most focused work to date while still allowing the songs to wander around where they will. My favorite track is definitely “You Came At the Right Time” which is really just a stripped down piano-based pop song showcasing Rebecca’s sweet vocals. The perfect kind of wind-down music to come home from work to.
I’m home sick for the second day in a row and this stuff just shook the snot right out of my nose. So yeah, listening to this an entire EP is quite the experience. I’m posting the track “Basement Song”, but that song is not even close to giving you an example of what the EP holds in store. “Basement Song” is an expertly crafted sunny pop jam with the boy/girl vocals playing tag the whole way through. But if you listen to the whole EP then don’t let this clever ruse fool you, because the five tracks that follow don’t sound anything like “Basement Song.” In fact, none of the songs really sound all that similar to anything else on the release.
Now I could easily see how this approach would be off-putting, but I don’t hold anything against DDIILLIIAANN for the sole reason that every genre that is dabbled in here is done really, really well. Whoever this Brooklyn resident is, they manage to tread these waters without once sounding amateur. It’s an intensely bizarre experience but one that I definitely enjoyed (although I feel a little funny looking back on it). Now if you are brave enough to take the plunge then I’d direct you to DIILLIIAANN’s website (which is just as jarring/disorienting) where you can download this thing for free. Now go!
Here is another one for you to start out the weekend right.
According to his (their?) badcamp, Bodhi Syurfs is “a dude from California with a surf board and some recording equipment in the van.” Now whatever you do, don’t read this as surf rock or beach pop or summer whatever, because that is so not what is going on here. More of a droning experimental noise project, Bodhi Syurfs will smack you upside the head and leave you feeling slightly fuzzy.
It’s sort of like when you are having fun chillin in the ocean and then before you know it a particularly strong wave comes and knocks you off your feet. After tumbling around in the surf and smashing into the sandy ocean floor for a few moments you finally find your footing. You stand up, fix your bathing suit, and head right back out into the surf laughing to yourself.
If for some reason you have slept on listening to Brown Bread, all can be forgiven by simply clicking play on this, her newest track. Rebecca told me that she just made this track with her friend Colin. I am not sure if it was a spontaneous burst of creativity between the two of them or not, but whatever it was that drove them to pen this track the result is nothing short of inspired.
Now on her most recent EP Cucciola, I felt like the tracks could have profited from a bit more cohesion. There seemed to be a dichotomy of two worlds that her music occupied: the dreamy pop and the experimental noises. On “Where Were You Last Night”, Rebecca seems to have let Brown Bread’s music gel a little more resulting in this otherworldly jam that seems to occupy that dead space between consciousness and sleep. It’s as if she is meditating through music and is allowing us to experience the free flow with her. So take her hand and let the inspiration ooze. I’m really hoping she builds on this sound for her next release because I am in L-O-V-E.
I really don’t know if last year’s oil disaster in the Gulf was of inspiration to this song or not. Either way, it’s a scorching five minute drone piece that unfurls a brutal tone on the listener despite a pace that plods along sluggishly on its five minute run. The project itself was originally called BP Gulf also, but has since been changed to Star Destr❀yer.
I’ve actually been spinning this track quite regularly for the last few weeks thanks to mastermind Scott Michael. It was really only a matter of time until I shared it with yall. If you’re a fan of blistering drone then I would highly recommend checking it out. Like a constant barraging sandblast, this track will rust metal and strip the paint so make sure you listen to it on headphones.
Here’s the second installment of mega post week. Enjoy!
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Greg Cee // Demos: Volume Three
One dude that I am super excited to share with you is Greg Cee. He emailed me before I left for vacation and it’s been torture having to sit on his tunes for a few weeks. But if there is one blessing in that waiting period it was that my love for his music has done nothing but grown in that time. He released a digital single with White Moon Recordings (which you should be familiar with if you are a fan of the ever-awesome Waylon Thornton) as well as several sets of “demos” on his bandcamp. If you are a fan of dirty southern garage rock that will rock the fillings out of your teeth, then look no further than Greg Cee. His grimy rock’n’roll is so addicting, I’ve been listening to it for weeks. Fans of Waylon Thornton and Ty Segall won’t be disappointed. Get your grubby paws on all of it on his bandcamp site.
This is dreamy ambient goodness at its best. According to his bandcamp page, Cinema Beach is “a California slacker recording music with a keyboard and a 8 track.” The music is so light and airy but there is a heartbeat pulsing underneath the paper-thin flesh of these tracks. The indistinct vocal samples playing in the background only enhance the dream-like qualities of these tracks. They are like a walk on the beach in the early morning when the sand is still cold underneath your feet. They are the light misting of the sea spray as it peppers your face and the sounds of the crashing waves. It’s that moment after you awake when you can still recall every detail of the dream. Hold on to it tight though, those memories are fleeting as you rub the sleep from your eyes.
Yoke uploaded two new tracks on his bandcamp page under the album title Papitan. Now I don’t know if these are a sampling of a larger work in the future or if they stand alone as their own release. Either way they are both great and represent the quality of music that we’ve come to associate with Yoke. On “Earth Cream Cone” he creates this unsettling world of noise. Genres are irrelevant and any real description of the tracks falls short. Layers of noise echo and reverberate on top of each other. Electronic lines and synths warble and shimmer in the warped sunlight. Blown-out beats and claps remind us that we are still on Yoke’s turf and here he calls the shots. And then on top of it all he throws in some Beach Boys style melodies. I’m hoping that these tracks hint at a future release but if not they are still testament to the fact that he is getting stronger all the time.
Branching out from their doom/spoken word beginnings, dynamic duo Heinali and Matt Finney bring us their newest opus, Dreamcatcher. According to the duo this gargantuan thirty-minute piece was “the music for the opening of Dreamcatcher photo exhibition by Olia Pischanskaya, which took place 27.4.2011 in Odessa, Ukraine, at the A. Korobchinsky Art Centre.” The swirling post-rock epic is a beautiful thing to behold, but being half an hour in length it requires some patience. Best experienced with headphones, you will be sucked into a dark yet beautiful world where nothing is as it seems. Reading along with Matt Finney’s lyrics only enhances this experience. It demands much of the listener but also rewards in equal measure. If you have the time and the patience I highly suggest checking it out. Download it for free on their bandcamp.
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I hope you guys are enjoying all the music. See ya tomorrow!
Thanks to Stephen Dorman (who you’ll remember as Surf Siberian) for this tip. This video is just one of a live set that Stephen shot for New Terrors. Watch New Terrors play it cool as he performs his catchy noise pop track “Seagulls” and then head to Flannelgraph Records bandcamp where you can download the single for free.
Nestled underneath the thick haze of noise are some Caribbean drumbeats and bassline. The whole thing dredges up imagery of a tropical storm witnessed from the shoreline. The raw power of palm trees being pummeled by the wind and lightning streaking across the dark sky. As chaotic as it all seems it’s also a very beautiful thing to behold.
Title: Rock & RollArtist: Grandpa Was A Lion70 plays
Grandpa Was a Lion // Archaic EP
I honestly don’t listen to much folk these days. That being said, there are a few artists that I always make an exception for. Grandpa Was a Lion is one of them, especially when he is putting out quality jams like the ones on his newest EP, Archaic.
In the past, I saw Justin’s folk songs as being so brittle that I pictured them as leaves clinging onto a tree as fall approaches. One swift gust would strip them from the branches to which they clung. But that is what made them so beautiful. He was able to capture that delicate balance without taking it too far.
Pushing past his delicate lo-fi beginnings, Justin nudges the tracks on Archaic in more exploratory directions. He has clearly found his footing and has pulled his songwriting even closer to the forefront. My favorite moment on the EP is a tape-hiss-laden track called “Rock & Roll” and it finds Justin incorporating some doo-wop influence as well as some plinking, icy synths. It’s a prime example of how Justin is trying new things and I hope that this sort of exploration is something he continues to tinker with in the future.
Download Archaic for free on Justin’s bandcamp, and to stay up-to-date on what he’s working on, follow him on Twitter while you’re at it.
This track by Dead Guy is called “Bad Elvis”, and it is not to be confused with the title of the album it comes from, Bad Evils. Although you can’t really go wrong listening to either. Dead Guy is the moniker of one-man-band Tommy Bones and everything about this whole project for me dredges of the aesthetics of the celebration of the Day of the Dead. It’s an eight-and-a-half minute romp through the south complete with the screams of lost souls and even some spicy Latin guitar work. Like I said, the track is long so just give it a chance and hopefully it will work its magic on you like it did on me.
You can download this as well as Dead Guy’s other stuff on his bandcamp. Make sure you scope out his soundcloud for some other gems too.
