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Right on cue Messrs Abrahams, Buck and Swanton are back with their follow up to 2011’s startling Mindset. And if you found that album a surprisingly dense and noisy affair you will be relieved to hear that Open returns to the more spacious, slowly developing, and more...well..open type of music we’re used to from them.
Here’s another historical re-issue which some people have got very excited about. Basically, this is the complete set of Robert Wyatt's solo recordings made in the US in late 1968; it would more than likely have been the basis for Wyatt’s first solo album, had Soft Machine (with whom Wyatt sang and drummed) not reformed soon after. It was recorded after a tour with the Jimi Hendrix Experience, at their rented house in California; and, to add further interest, features the great man himself, playing bass on one of the tracks.
Free jazz multi instrumentalist Giuseppi Logan's otherworldly debut "More" originally came out in 1965, and has now been remastered from the original master tapes and reissued by ESP Disk for its 50th anniversary. The album has 4 lengthy tracks, the first two from a concert on May 1st at Town Hall in 1965, and the second two at a studio slightly later in the month.
I first became aware of this Northern California based psychedelic/ space rock project last year when they put out the excellent “Photos of Photos”- that release really seemed to offer-up a very rewarding(if not wholly original) selection of hypnotic tripped-out/ spaced- out rock grooves. This new LP & CD release(I’m reviewing the CD version), sees the band offering up another selection of fairly similar sonic fare to their last release, but I’m afraid to say this release sadly rather lacked the impact or entrancement of “Photos Of Photo”.
“Summertime Tragedia” is the third & most sonically varied release from this Italian project- which now sits somewhere between morose & doomed piano playing, grim lo-fi synth texturing, and suicidal 'n' pained ambience that’s all top off with seriously pained & disturbing vocal shrieks, cries & bays.
“Harrodian Event #1” charts the rather loose & jam like sonic meeting between a group of prog musicians in the early 1970’s. The release mixers together elements of jazz/rock fusion, & loose experimental jamming that mixers together avant classical & mainly un-structured improv. This CD release is on Cherry Reds prog/jazz-rock, ect label Esoteric Recordings, and it's the first ever release of this session.
Russian experimental label Monochrome Vision presents Hierophany | Èåðîôàíèÿ by Belgium sound artist Yannick Frank. Released in the waning days of 2012, Heriography offers listeners 3 continuous suites of dark, ambient drone inspired by Russian orthodox culture.
The past two years have been very good for Poison Idea fans. Southern Lord and TKO records brought us Darby Crash Rides Again: The Early Years and The Fatal Erection Years (respectively). Add to this a small US tour (that I missed because I was too busy being lazy...what a douche) and you'd be sitting pretty. However, Southern Lord ups the ante even further by re-releasing Kings of Punk with three additional live sets. This two disc set is chock full of classic, fast, fun hardcore.
Monochrome Vision presents Ama_Zone 1:Black-Waters by long-running sound artist, Artificial Memory Trace. Artificial Memory Trace is the project name of Czech-born experimental artist and composer, Slavek Kwi. Kwi’s own fascination with “sound environments” started over 30 years and he began recording under the Artificial Memory Trace moniker in the early 90’s. On this 2011 offering, we are presented with an audio travel diary of Kwi’s journeys to a remote area of Brazil in 2007 and 2008.
Norwegian black metal band Throne of Katarsis has been bringing us hell since 2002. Originally a two piece, the group now consist of four players and their latest album "The Three Transcendental Keys" recorded live in studio shows the power of this line-up change. The fact that this album is recorded live removes it from any of the trite over-production that much recent black metal has fallen victim to, and provides us with a raw and heady listening experience. The record is in three acts, each labeled as one of the three "Transcendental Keys".
G’mork is the new(ish) project from Florida based Hal Harmon(of HNW/ Harsh Noise project Vasectomy Party, HNW project Man With The Icy Eyes & runner of the excellent noise/ experimental label Forever Escaping Boredom). The project is HNW based, and takes it’s theme & project name from 1984 family fantasy movie The Neverending Story.
In recent years, there’s been a hive of activity in the area of historical re-issues, especially in the area of gospel blues; and its something that has unearthed some wonderful recordings.
PGA's "Corrections" is the sort of album most any listener would be unsure of what to make of. It is a recording which enthusiastically rejects all forms of known musical organization, and indeed embraces many of the sounds musicians tend to painstakingly iron out of their performances with years of practice, as evidenced by song titles like "Out of Tune" in association the blatant cacophany found within.
Poland's Abandoned Asylum has the honor of putting out its debut on Malignant Records. You may have heard Abandoned Asylum from its appearance on Kalpamantra's massive compilation, The Black Death. If so, you know that Abandoned Asylum rocks some quality, vast dark ambient. If not, HEY! Abandoned Asylum rocks some quality, vast dark ambient.
Phage Tapes and Dismantle Records presents Reverberating Forest, a collaborative effort by 2 titans in the experimental underground: Astro and Winters in Osaka. Astro is the legendary Japan-based harsh noise project of Hiroshi Hasegawa and Winters in Osaka are heavy drone wizards from Chicago.
"Ensepulchred Under The Weight of The Void:Compressed To Nothing" offers up a mix of psychotically sludge bound & stretched blacked metal, suffocating & disorientating doom drone hazes, & buzzing dark drone matter. Behind the project is Evan Craig of creative HNW project Ritual Stance, and the project came about in late 2011 to early 2012.
“Songs Of Aiwass” presents the listener with three fairly lengthy submersions in lo-if & retro electronic focused psychedelic & blackly curdled horror themed drone matter. The Dead End Street Band are a three piece project from North East of England, and they’ve been active since 2011, and have so far released around 3 or 4 full length CDR’s, & a few split releases.
Fantome de Sang is the new project from the super prolific HNW/ ambient artist Cory Strand – who releases under his own name, as well as under other solo project names such as Lethe, Necronom IV, and Lindskold. This new project sees him creating darkly seared & intense HNW, blacked harsh noise & bleak ambience that’s themed around the work of French underground black metal/ dark ambient collective Les Legions Noire- this group of projects existenced between 1993 & 1997, and brought together the likes of: mournful ‘n’ grim black metal of Mütiilation, Vlad Tepes & their raw, minimal and atmospheric take on black metal, and wonky/sinister black grim ambience of Moevot.
The Japanese born, Belgium resident, Hitoshi Kojo describes himself as a 'sound-painter'. It suggests an audio exploratory form of abstract expressionism - a far less cluttered and confused realm than the more constricting, less meaningful tribal genre tags he undoubtedly encounters such as drone or dark ambient.
Christ(aka Chris Horne) is a Scottish project that shimmer up an enjoyable & often cinematic mix of electronica, IDM, and ambience. The project has been active since 1996, releasing seven albums, and five or so Eps. This 2012 full length is the projects first release in three or so years.
Mt. Stromboli, or the Lighthouse of the Mediterranean, is a small volcanic island off of the north coast of Sicily. It has been erupting almost continuously for a several millennium and has regular small eruptions every twenty minutes. Nature has a way of making beautiful music provided you are listening. From recordings from deep space to field recordings of wind in the trees we find stark beauty everywhere as if nature herself was a composer. For most of us the sounds that a volcano makes are completely out of reach and foreign, but now we are lucky, safe at home and far from the heat we can experience them, for Geir Jenssen (aka Biosphere) has brought them to us.
Well, this is one of those releases that I could possibly never stop writing about - but instead, I’m going to say very little indeed.
"Y'Anbessaw Tezeta" is a double album of truly unique and fascinating jazz by Ethiopian saxophonist Getachew Mekuria, his band The Ex, and other accompanying ensembles. The first disk contains new studio material, largely instrumental, recorded within the last two years, while the second features live performances with various ensembles. This release comes in either Vinyl or CD format, I'm reviewing the CD version
"Sähkö-shokki-ilta" (Electro-Shock-Evening ) is a fairly bizarre & unequal release from Finland’s Ektro Records(home of all things Circle related, Muscular 80’s metal Thor, and all manner of quirky reissue fare). The CD takes in a seventy minute performance of “Sähkö-shokki-ilta”- which is a mix of Finish & Swedish spoken word poetry, psychedelic effects, and electronics.