Download a CD length Compilation HERE. Or just peruse the post for a flavour of what's floated my boat.
Destruction Unit - Deep Trip
Fantastic nosie rock from longstanding collective, once home to the almost legendary Jay Retard.
Think Chrome, think Helios Creed, Think prime 80's Amphetamine Reptile, add a dash of space rock phase and your in the (outer) regions of Deep Trip.
A Place To Bury Strangers - Strange Moon
One of those slightly expensive Record Store Day releases, but price can be forgiven for the low down and dirty garage punk grooves contained within. I gotta say, I think this is the best record they've ever released. They've come a long way from those early wanna be Jesus & Mary Chain infected grooves of the first two albums.
Pop. 1280 - The Grid EP
Named after a novel by legendary crime writer Jim Thompson, Pop. 1280 more than fit their namesakes sleazy criteria. Treble Skuzz Birthday Party-esqu guitars and drums sit alongside hollered and spat vocals/lyrics of distopian reverie and demise. Anyone whose perused the blog to any degree will know my love of this collective, debut album The Horror was one of my albums of the year in 2011. The Grid isn't a new relesae, insdeed it's from the period just prior to the release of The Horror, but it still contains enough bile and vitreol to recommend it. Sadly, the most recent album Imps Of Perversion seems to tread similar ground, whilst pulling back on the reigns somewhat. As yet it's not gotten under my skin to the same degree as previous releases. Maybe the next one will fan the flames a little higher.
The KVB - Immaterial Visions
Another band who I've followed for some time. Debut release 'Always Then', was a firm fav' back in 2011, now getting a lush whie vinyl repress, well worth picking up if your a fan of My Bloody Valentine-esque sheets of noise. New album Immaterial Visions takes the MBV template and runs with it adding textured synth and the odd motorik beat. Deffo one to watch in the future.
Cave - Psychic Psummer
Psychic Psummer was an album I bought years ago, stashed in the racks and promptly forgot I had. How the hell that travesty was allowed to happen is quite baffling, but I stumbled across it again this Summer, and it's not left the turntable since. Absolutely stunning piece of post rock/ kosmische/kraut/drone. Really, this is deffo one to track down if you don't own it. Originally released in 2009, this should have been on everyones end of year list, but turned up on only a few.
Acid Mothers Temple - In Search Of The Lost Divine Arc
AMT release cohesive 'normal' album shocker. This record is a blast, All the trademark AMT 'tricks' are in place, but with most tracks coming in at a mind numbungly short 5 or 6 mins. Of course there are a couple of strung out freak outs, but this is da bomb, plain and simple.
Lumerians - The High Frontier
Superb slice of acid fried psyche from San Frans resident spaced out stoners. Not quite as out there as the drawn out jams of Transmissions From Telos, but still a great cohesive trip of a record.
VÅR - No One Dances Quite Like My Brother
This stunning and unsettling debut by Ice Age offshoot VÅR (trans. Spring) gives me goosebumps in much the same way as Scatology by Coil still does. They both share an under current of the uncanny, of something left unsaid, with sounds that at times make me quite nervous. Though recorded in a fairly cramped bedroom, the sound is full almost of wide open spaces and horizon like vistas. There is a tense almost homoerotic undertone that's hard to explain, and singer Elias Ronnefelt adds a slightly mournful vocal to many of the songs. Though a recent recording, this could have been released at any time during the early eighties, it has that D.A.F. like teutonic sound, everything is very stripped back and glacial. Marsha drums pepper the pace of a few songs adding to the brooding, almost militaristic air .
Death and Vanilla - From Above 7" Single
See Previous posts below....
Silver Pyre - Frozen Tropic
This is one of my fav' tracks from the awesome Outer Church compilation. It has an almost balaeric ambience to it that's at odds with much of the dark matter contained over the two discs.
Sat watchnig a stunning sunset on Cleeve Hill to this on repeat recently, was a sublime (if cold) experience. See Post for Death and Vanilla for brief Expo of Outer Church Compilation.
The Afternoon Exchange - Shamen
Side project of noise terror meisters Prostitutes (a.k.a. Jim Donadio). This cassette release is a different barrel of fish altogether. Soothing analogue drones and tones transport you to hushed inner oceans of tranquility. Each track novelly named after a 90's 'indie' dance act, the songs bear little resemblance to their namesakes. More akin to drawn out Conrad Schnitzler ambient pieces. Listened to this on holiday whilst crawling amongst the rock stcks of Carn Menyn (original quarry to the Stonehenges bluestones) and had a delightful afternoon. A Wonderful happenstance discovery. Out on the never less than wonderful Foxy Digitalis label.
Verma - Salted Earth
Originally released in 2010, this review of Salted Earth explains the album more succinctly than I ever could. Awesome record (Plus it's a free DL from Bandcamp along with Verma II). If you enjoy, put your hand in your pocket for Coltan, it's equally imressive.
Bent equally on bristling psychedelic squall and driving motorik, Verma emerged in the wake of an experimental improvisational collective. Blending a wide range of influences from proto-metal, minimalism, electronic, space rock and drone, the group constructs and explores cinematic sonic landscapes. Verma is amoebic in nature, coexisting with the mechanical. The driving rhythm section creates a solid architecture for swirling guitars and haunting vocal melodies, all beneath a haze of sweeping synthesizers. This repetitive dervish of sound rises from dark roots to a meditative plane, at once the atmosphere of metamorphosis and cerebral introspection.
Algebra Suicide - Recalling The Last Encounter
Feminine Squared is the long overdue reissue of 80's DIY unit Algebra Suicide entire catalogue on vinyl.Simple guitar, Vox, and drum machine tarry with super sarcastic vocals delivered in that inimitable 'bored' style. Great discovery, and a wonderful record. Sadly, singer Linda Tomkiw passed away in 2007.
Savages - City's Fall
Uk band Savages do a pretty great reproduction of Post Punk, almost too good you might say. Savage Siouxsie-esqu vocals cut across glass treble guitars, tribal drums and ominous bass. Hell, I love it. Takes me back to many of my fav' bands of the 80's, Bauhaus, Joy Division, Banshees, Wire et al. My only concern would be that the artifice is a little too authentic, even down to the stark black and white imageary. There seems to be not much of themselves and plenty of everyone else on this record. Still, it's not been off my turntable, so comes highly recommended.
Fuck Buttons - Red Wing
This is a great record, a digital/industrial amalgamism of the first two Fuck Buttons albums, Street Horrrsing and Tarot Sport. Industrial strength beats force your attention to the wayward and distorted undercurrents of sound that fight for your attention. Took me a while to plough thrugh the depths to appreciate this recording, but it's an effort that's ben well rewarded. They might as well give up now, they'll never better this.
Camera - Skylla
Fluctuating German Kosmische Kollective Camera (phew, there's a gob full!) have been plying the Berlin underground with their unannounced Geurilla gigs for some time now, but when they finally commit their sound to vinyl, it's like a lost artifact from the great days of German underground rock. The LP Radiate! is every bit as impressive as Can, Neu, Amon Duul etc. When I stumbled across this release I died and went to heaven. Part motorik beats, part cosmic drone, part trance inducing repitition, this is a thing of absolute beauty. Do yourself a favour and bury yourself in it, you won't surface for weeks. Skylla is a non LP track released on the System Solaire EP.
Follakzoid - Trees
Taken from the LP Follakzoid II, more Kosmische grooves and Neu! tinged guitars. Superb record on my label of the year Sacred Bones. I've bought more music from this label than any other over the past few years, they seem to put out the kind of noise/psyche/folk/drone that has a hotwire to my heart and soul. Keep it up in 2014, and I'll have to sell the house to fund my addiction. There is a rather nifty Follakzoid remix EP too. Psychic Ills and Moon Duo take on the task admirably.
No comments:
Post a Comment