Maniacs Dream - Zanzibar (Arbor, 2008)

Maniacs Dream - Side A (Untitled)


All hail the Finnish super group! For real, Maniacs Dream features members of Avarus, Kemialliset Ystävät, my personal favorite, Fricara Pacchu, making some seriously fucked tunes so this definitely counts as a super group.

Long has it been since I've listened to a band whose name was as accurately descriptive of the music. I bet you heard the name Maniacs Dream and didn't really think too much about it. Just another name. GUESS AGAIN FOOL.

Zanzibar sounds, quite literally, like a maniac's dream. Asynchronous percussion, atonal squeals, blown out static, almost every sound seems like it's trying to break free of the "music" label. If I didn't know better, I'd say a bunch of idiots got trashed in someone's basement one night, grabbed a bunch of non-instruments, and recorded the slop that came out. But these are highly respected musicians that made Zanzibar so that means it's genius, right?

All jokes aside, this record is flat out awesome. Not especially accessible, but fucking rad nonetheless. Total free electronic tribal folk noise with little sense of direction but plenty of depth. Listen to it a dozen times and you start hearing things that weren't there to begin with.

This is a review of the vinyl reissue of the 2006 tape on Lal Lal Lal. I don't think there was any re-sequencing or added tracks or anything but I just thought I'd throw that out there. Oh, also, it's pressed on light blue vinyl with super slick packaging and limited to 450 copies so get on that shit.

Obligatory Top 10 List

I'm going to act like I have to make a Top 10 list at the end of the year because this is a music blog and that's what music blogs do. I'll say that I'm doing this begrudgingly only because people love to read lists and it'll get lots of hits. You see, I don't really have an option at this point. It's fucking mandatory. But in reality, I love making lists and telling people what my favorite things are. So here they are. My top picks from 2008. (Disclaimer: Marijn came out in '07 but I bought it in '08 so screw you.)



10. Usputuspud - Disco (original review)
Usputuspud - Cherished Wig

A wonderfully dancey droney tape, easily the best tape in my collection.




9. Parts & Labor - Receivers (original review)
Parts & Labor - Wedding In A Wasteland

When one of my favoritest bands comes out with a new album, you can bet your ass it'll be on my Top 10 list.



8. The Mausoleums - Blackened Fawns Cleanse The Earth With Fire (original review)
The Mausoleums - The One Who Sees

Super blown out pop metal makes me weak in the knees.



7. Torche - Meanderthal (never reviewed it for some reason, but I did talk about their live show)
Torche - Grenades

I was a little late to the Torche parade. I didn't like 'em the first few times I heard them. I don't know what happened but something clicked and I fell in love with Meanderthal.



6. Prurient - And Still, Wanting (original review)
Prurient - Memory Repeating

At the moment, this is hands down my favorite noise/power electronics record. It's so fucking intense I can barely stand it.



5. Fricara Pacchu - Midnight Pyre (original review)
Fricara Pacchu - Possessed By Possibilities

Easily the weirdest record on this list and possibly the weirdest thing I've heard all year. Those crazy Finlanders sure know how to make good music.



4. Belong - Same Places (Slow Version) (original review)
Belong - Same Places (Slow Version)

Seriously, whenever Belong puts a record out, I will be right at the front of the line worshiping it.



3. Machinefabriek - Marijn (original review)
Machinefabriek - Somerset

This is the first record I've heard from the uber-prolific Machinefabriek and I have a hard time believing he'll ever put out anything better than this. It's a goddamn masterpiece.



2. A Faulty Chromosome - As An Ex-Anorexic's Six Sicks Exit,... (original review)
A Faulty Chromosome - Jackie O

This was sooooo close to being number one record of the year for me. It's one of the oldest records on the list and it still gets played more than any of the others. I am completely in love with A Faulty Chromosome.



1. Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing (original review)
Fuck Buttons - Colours Move

I called it. All the way back in March I knew this would be my favorite record of 2008. I said "This is so so so easily the best record of the year. I can't imagine anything else coming out that can top this. And my imagination is pretty good." Surprisingly, I was right.

Close calls:
Yoshi Wada - Lament For The Rise And Fall Of The Elephantine Crocodile
Mates Of State - Re-Arrange Us (this, along with M83's Saturdays=Youth were my top 2 most played albums)
Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles
Dan Friel - Ghost Town
Njiqahdda - Nji. Njiin. Njiiin.
Lawrence English - Kiri No Oto
Dev/Null - Necrobestial Sadobreaks

Now, just because you hate my list doesn't mean you should hate me too. Lets try not to start any fights just because there's no Animal Collective on here.

Tapes 'N Tapes

Today I spent the majority of my day both procrastinating and being super productive. What I mean is that instead of doing chores (like cleaning the bunnies' litter box or doing the dishes) I transferred the remaining cassettes in my collection to my computer so I can listen to them away from home on my iPod (I don't have a Walkman, sorry). Something I've been meaning to do for quite a while.

Not only was this useful, but also pleasurable as I was able to listen to all of my mostly unlistened-to tapes. What prompted me to do such a thing was the acquisition of those two new ones I found at Time-Lag Records in Portland. Here's a rundown of those fantastic tapes...

Fricara Pacchu - Space Puppet
This is a short tape (15 minutes each side) but full of ass kicking awesomeness. Just like his full length CD that I recently reviewed, Midnight Pyre, it's got bizarre noises that could be interpreted as fucked up Finnish techno. Seriously, though, this guy is officially on my radar and I will be picking up any and all of his previous and future releases that I can. Probably starting with his Stories Of The Old 7" + book from either Forced Exposure or Aquarius.

Ophibre / Adam Sonderberg split
This was a blind buy from Time-Lag, and for 3 bucks, I certainly got my money's worth. Ophibre's side "untitled music for .aiff and magnetic tape" is the better of the two and in fact, I probably won't listen to Sonderberg's side very much, the "untitled music for bell & sine tone." It's a little too piercing for me. But Ophibre's track is wonderful with lots of looped piano.

Evan Caminiti - Buried Light
Intimate, softly beautiful, very droney, somewhat folky. Can you really ask for any more?




Sean McCann - Flutter Oasis
I only got to transfer one side of this one before I had to go into work, but I've listened to the entirety of it previously and it's delicious. Pretty noisy but catchy all at the same time. And it's definitely fluttery, shaking and wobbling all over the place, like some sorta blown out mirage. Hey, that kind of sounds like the album title. Huh. Imagine that.

Back From Maine

Yeah, I was gone for a little while. In Maine. In a cabin. On a lake. It was quite nice, except for the fact that it rained every single day I was there. It was a pleasant respite from work but the best part was what I stumbled upon in Portland on the way home. Waiting for the train ride back to Boston, Elise, her parents, and I ate at a nice restaurant called BiBo's Madd Apple Cafe, where we all ordered the safe soup and sandwich combo (very delicious). Afterwards, we were walking down the street and Elise told me she saw a record store there earlier while they were in town picking me up, so we went looking for it.

Lo and behold, there was Time-Lag Records, one of my favorite online mailorders on the east coast. I was ridiculously fucking excited to actually walk into their store and check out all of the obscure treasures. Due to the in-laws waiting outside, I wasn't able to spend the multiple hours and dollars there that I would have liked to, but I was still able to find a few cool things to pick up. I got two CDs, Quetzolcoatl's Forever Bleeding Canyon Cloud and White Light's For Your Leaves, both of which are great. I also picked up two cassettes that are amazing. I got an Adam Sonderberg and Ophibre split and (this is the best part) I found a Fricara Pacchu tape called Space Puppet for 5 bucks. I didn't even know it existed, and finding something like that it is just so fucking cool. What a great way to end the vacation. If you're ever visiting Portland, Maine, you really should take the time to visit Time-Lag. You won't regret it.

I have a lot of new music to review, I just got my copy of Belong's Same Places (Slow Version) in the mail today, and tonight I'm going to catch The Melvins and Big Business at The Paradise. So hopefully in between all of the hours I'm putting in at work, I'll be able to write some stuff that you'll be interested in reading. And if I'm ever too slow on posting, you can always go check out Forest Gospel. I fucking love those guys and they're always writing new shit.

Fricara Pacchu - Midnight Pyre

Fricara Pacchu - Possessed By Possibilities


Fricara Pacchu is a dude from Finland and Midnight Pyre is his debut full length and boy is it strange. But, as I'm sure you can guess, I mean strange is the best way possible.

It's noisy but not very loud, and has solid beats but not always danceable. I don't know what the hell kind of instruments are used (probably some crazy Finnish stuff) but there's definitely some 8-bit electronics and synthesizers. And that's always a good. Imagine a mix between Fuck Buttons and Shooting Spires, just...more strange. Midnight Pyre is mostly indescribable. Well, lets go with explosive. And I mean explosive in as literal a way possible when talking about music. The second track, "Four Season Of Violins" is a weird dirgey and spacey song, with frequent moments of blown out explosions. Like an actual bomb is going off in the studio. It's the coolest fucking thing. And they show up later on during "Sky Helicopter" as well, in a more integrated way, but I like the disruption they cause on "Four Seasons" better.

"Return Of The Rats" is probably the most fast paced of the bunch and possibly my favorite from the album. It's got this furious drum machine that never lets up, with these lasers shooting around the background while synths play the melody. It's fantastic. And it's kind of a formula they use throughout the album. Lasers, drum machine, synths, that sort of thing. But it never gets old. As soon as Midnight Pyre is over, you want to hit play again.

This is really a record that is all over the place, though. There isn't a single word I could use to sum it up, except weird. Or bizarre. Or any other synonym. And although "Return Of The Rats" one of my faves, it isn't especially indicative of the sound or mood of Midnight Pyre. So I'll put up another one of the cooler tracks, "Possessed By Possibilities."