Saturday, February 6 Bone Zone, General Interest, World Map, Thunderhole at Problem House / House 11 (7:00, $5, all ages) Use your money to benefit Haiti and listen to awesome DIY stuff.
...for 30 minutes, your ears go on a magical journey with blissful beds of warm fuzz creating the foundation for mostly melodious wheezing tones and weaving chords.
Here's a crazy idea: Put out a tape dedicated to a Nordic skier who competed in the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics. Here's a crazier idea: Do a whole series devoted to various skiers from said Olympics. Not sure who thought of this, but sir, I would like to shake your hand.
The great thing about a split on Sunrise is that even though the chances are that I'll only know 1 or 2 of the bands involved (in this case, only German Shepherd), I still fully expect to be won over by everyone involved. For Gunde Svan is no different. It's the first in a planned series and on this one, 4 artists gets 15 minutes each to speak their mind.
Tuluum Shimmering starts things out with a vaguely Asian sounding rhythm drone. Guitars and wooden blocks go back and forth, weaving a Zen like tapestry while chimes twinkle throughout. Cheb Samdoun goes almost 100% guitar, with melodic loops laid on top of a wall of fuzz that gets into a real solid groove, almost like some mellow psyche jam. That piece dies out and another scarier one emerges. The once dreamy fuzz has turned into a more ominous static. It's full of recycling feedback that sounds Skullflower made an easy listening record.
Flip the tape over and you're treated to the best guitar drone Wisconsin has to offer. German Shepherd makes sweet cloud static that is unmatched in its tranquility. His piece here is as blissful as ever, making the most beautiful un-guitar like sounds rise from his axe. The subtle soft silver sheets (alliteration ftw!) of delicate tones are fucking top notch. Finally, Zac Keiller closes the tape with his feathery Stars Of The Lid style chords. It's got some rainstick/stream sounds that skim through under the guitars a little bit, until the mood changes to something darker, like some sort of nightmare lullaby about buzzsaws made of marshmallows. I couldn't think of a better way to end a tape dedicated to Gunde Svan.
Like most things Sunrise, this little diddy is limited. Only 100 copies made. High quality pro printed folded inserts with plenty of liner notes plus a yellow tape with perhaps some screenprinting going on? Very nice indeed.
You remember Technoir MA, right? The two dudes from Boston making some of the best '80s inspired punk gaze kraut pop? Well, they followed up their debut self titled EP with another one called 2/B and it's awesome.
2/B has everything Technoir MA had except 10 times better. The guitars are catchier, the drums are poundier, and the echoes are echoier. Plus they went totally crazy and wrote a 9 minute song that blows every other 9 minute song out of the water with its shoegaze cannons.
And just like the debut, 2/B is a Creative Commons release so fucking remix the shit out of it. Put some "Pants On The Ground" lyrics to their killer riffs. Or something. I don't know how remixes work.
There was a night last November where all of the amazing modern synth masters converged in Brooklyn to play a show that was unlike any other. Prehistoric Blackout, No Fun Acid, Keith Fullerton Whitman, and Oneohtrix Point Never played at Glasslands (along with Northampton Wools who didn't make it onto this release for some reason) and some kind souls decided it would be worth their time to let the world hear what kind of magic went down that one fateful Synth Night.
Prehistoric Blackout's set is teeming with inconsiderate douchebags talking for the first half but otherwise is a super sweet landscape of chimes and alien jungle sounds. No Fun Acid drops his crazy acid techno house shit, but only after a dramatic 2 minute throbbing drone intro and then he slips some subtle beats into the mix. Before you know it, the party is going full force, people yelling and dancing and it's just the best fucking non-rave ever.
Then Whitman comes on with scattered beeps and bloops while people are still chattering, trying to get their attention before he launches a full scale assault on their ears. Once things get going, it's like the control panel in a flying car is malfunctioning in the most glorious way possible. Finally we got OPN coming in to clean up, a perfect set to follow KFW's. It starts out all blorpy, gets itself in a major space groove, then he brings in some divine hazy drone and sprinkles it with his trademarked synth noodling. Near perfection.
Who couldn't love this stuff? 2 tapes/1.5 hours of live synth jams from the dudes who do it best. Slick art and packaging, double bubble case, vellum cover AND insert, limited, this is just too fucking cool. Get it while you can.
Question: Why didn't I post this back in November when I received an e-mail about it?
Answer: I have no fucking clue.
Right from when the old dude started playing those opening chords, I knew this was special. The animation is outstanding and the song is so catchy and grandiose. And the story is SO CRAZY. I wanna watch an entire movie about this. The best part is it manages to take all sorts of ridiculously trendy ideas and imagery, yet manages to transcend the trend and make something WHOLLY worthwhile. I don't remember seeing this very many places online, so it's about fucking time Ramon Falls gets their due with what should have been the video that won every award ever.
Take note, drone lovers. Benjamin Nelson may need an introduction this time, but in a couple years this dude is going to, like, not need an introduction... or something. HE'S GONNA BE FAMOUS.
Anyway, Nelson used to play in the hardcore power duo Fire In The Head, he also played in Tides, but now he's all by his lonesome, and something tells me he prefers it that way. Nelson does some minimally grandiose shit, without going all epic climax on your ass. It's drone done right.
The A side has his first live solo set with modular synth opening for John Wiese at The Piano Factory. It's astoundingly mesmerizing, so lush and delicate. The densest, unwavering solid He-man drone ever. It doesn't really grow or fade so much, it's more focused on the subtle shifts that have created a same-but-different piece halfway through, only to change back to the different-but-same sound at the end.
"Standing Field" is what you get on the flip side and it's a bit less blissful. It's a heavy slab of bottom feeding drone, so close to gripping the doom label, but ends up settling for "unsettling." Slow moving to the point of paralysis, with the most subdued flickers of light weaving their way throughout. This shit is so barely there that the tape hiss becomes part of the piece by necessity and it works wonders.
So, in conclusion, keep your eyes fucking glued to this guy. Way to go Semata for putting out Nelson's (first?) solo release. Look out for a split LP with Brandon Terzakis and some more solo output on Intransitive offshoot Squirrel Brand (which perhaps has been renamed to Songs From Under The Floorboards?).
I had an especially unkind awakening today and, unable to get back to sleep, I'm still groggy and in a post-grumpy haze, feeling a bit like that Asian dude right there. I'm pretty sure the only thing that's gonna get my blood flowin is some Cop Magnet.
One dude from Boston dedicated to his dance jams, Cop Magnet sounds like he's having the best fucking time all alone in his bedroom. Throws on some strobes, kicks the fog machine into gear, and just has his own private rave. None of the songs are too straightforward, though (not that I would know what straightforward house or techno or whatevertehfuck it is sounds like), but there's a strong weirdo fuck-it-all vibe I get from Cop Magnet.
As long as you're not uptight about your dance tunes, Cop Magnet should give you a little thrill. And, at the very least, it's a solid replacement for caffeine.
Oh, and keep an eye out for a Cop Magnet tape coming out on Breakfast Of Champs. Should be out soon.
I went to The Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival last year and it was cool and all but not especially what I was hoping it would be. It was all dance music. Granted, there was all different types of shit to shake your cosmic thing at, but I'm not a 24 hour partier. And here is why Boston is better than Brooklyn.
There's drone, hipster shit, trip hop, super slick DJs, and tons of awesome dudes that make sure you have the best time possible. This is taking place all over Boston for an entire week in February.
Update: Mobius show not happening. :( Aaaand I got some extra info about a specific show that's going to be top fucking notch. Brendan Murray, KFW & Geoff Mullen, and Max Lord will be playing at Mobius on the 10th. $$$ says that will contend with Tim Hecker for best show of the fest.
There's going to be tons more (100+ performers) plus a record fair, DJ classes, film screenings, and, well, you can read the bottom of the flyer. No word yet on cost of passes but here's hoping they're cheap. And if they're not? Fuck it. It'll totally be worth it anyway.
Sure, dance a bit, but I’m pretty sure by the end you’ll be air drumming and head thrashing like the unabashed dork in the back of the room at an Oxes show.
Skywave was an awesomely awesome band. They sounded kinda like A Place To Bury Strangers. One of the dudes from Skywave went on to form A Place To Bury Strangers. Surprise! The other two made Ceremony. Ceremony also sounds like APTBS except less loud/more poppy. Really super cool stuff. Good enough to warrant a review perhaps without mentioning APTBS once.
"Someday" is echoey, catchy, distorted, rooted in the '80s, but still plenty loud and totally fucking rocking. It's the single off their next album Rocket Fire coming out on the Brainwashed affiliated Killer Pimp label (emphasis on the killer). The B side, "Cracked Sun," will only be available on the 7". So if you slicksters like to be completists and all, best get on that shit.
I'M BACK BRITCHES! I have an epic back log of shit to write about, so there might be a sacrifice in quality to catch up in quantity. But whatever happens, I hope to be shedding light upon things you might otherwise not have heard of. I thought I'd start the new year off with one of the stranger tapes I picked up lately, Jana Winderen'sThe Noisiest Guys On The Planet.
I have a special place in my heart for people who are able to make field recordings of the most innocuous sounds and create fantastic music out of it. Add Winderen to that list. The Noisiest Guys is seemingly straightforward; it's just a tape of shrimp sounds. Done.
However not even shrimp scientists (they exist) know exactly what these sounds are. Not everybody agrees, but the general consensus is that they're feeding. But I can assure you there are sounds on here that are not eating noises. Like that deep terrifying thunder rumble. Wtf is that? The ominous and eventual arrival of the kraken to feast upon millions of shrimp, most likely (fact: kraken eat shrimp).
So there's plenty of mystery surrounding these noisy guys and that's cool. Everyone loves a little mystery cloaking. But forget that for a minute. Pretend you know everything there is to know about this tape and there's zero magic involved. IT'S STILL AWESOME. The crackling and popping, the rumbling and squeaking, the hissing and rushing make this one of the best ambient electronic albums ever. Except not. 'Cause it's shrimp. And that makes it better.
Intransitive Recordings once again put on the coolest New Years Eve event in Boston. I promise nothing you did last night was as fun as this show. Plus, they were selling the debut release from the new Intransitive offshoot, Songs From Under The Floorboards, which will be issuing limited edition hand made art CD-Rs and tapes and such. The first one is Kyle Bobby Dunn's The Intimate Rituals Of... and it's absolutely gorgeous. Anyway, here are some photos I shot last night. There are tons more on Flickr.
I Want To Review Your Music If you make music and you want it reviewed on my blog, just send me an e-mail. I would love to hear what you're making and give you a little more exposure in the process.
Disclaimer All of the music on this site is for promotional and sampling purposes only. If you enjoy it, please consider buying the record or going to see the band live. They will appreciate it, I promise. If you own the rights to a song on this site and you would like it removed, please contact me and I will do so as quickly as my tiny paws allow.
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