The Paradise: newly renovated, wayyy more open & spacious, no more giant pillar in front of the stage, might actually think about going to more shows there
Keith Fullerton Whitman, Greg Davis, & Ben Vida: Arcade Ambiance style fire swamp, Jupiter basement discotheque, trans-warp glitter noise, FTL drive mechanics, dubbed out white hole, stutter static glory, massive junk rumbling sun drone, chaos bliss supreme
Tortoise: aging like Benjamin Button, getting smoother & tighter as time goes on, a band with a variety of different sounding albums that coalesce into a stupefying live experience, house lights be damned we cheered them out for a second encore, see them already, then see them again
Another blanket of tenderness from Install, this time from the if-you-don't-know-him-already-you-better-got-on-that-shit dronester Greg Davis. Regarding Wave is his latest journey into the euphoric bliss drone waters, a place Davis reigns admiral among admirals.
I understand that this sort of thing might be old hat to some of you, but what Greg Davis does with the shimmer is totally his own. Plus, he's opening for Tortoise so that should tell you something. Clearly enough people think he's got the chops to please many many audiences. And they're right. Davis is the motherfucking man.
The centerpiece of Regarding Wave, "Rainbow Body" clocking in at over 20 minutes, is absolute heaven. Suuuper minimal drone, some low end didgeridoo-like thrum coupled with revolving wine glass sounding tones weaving through the cerebral cortex, massaging the consciousness in to other dimensions, until all of the previously syncopated waves slide into perfect time with each other, eliciting an incredibly beautiful harmonic joy. Wake up. This is as good as it gets.
"Rainbow Body" is book-ended by two shorter songs, parts 1 & 2 of the title track. Both are as equally transcendent as "Body," fleshing out the album from what could have been just a really solid 22 minute EP to a 40+ minute stunning piece of glory drone. Do not wait on this. There's 1000 copies of Regarding Wave and all signs are pointing to "YOU NEED THIS."
Good God how have I not written about this yet? I was going to listen to a new Suishou No Fune record that I picked up recently and passed by Sun Circle. I immediately did a search on my blog for Sun Circle and saw that somehow this record slipped by. I have no idea how that happened because this CD is bitchin'.
Sun Circle is Greg Davis and Zach Wallace, two guys who really know how to get their drone on. Wallace is the guy who did that wine glass armonica tape that I reviewed a while back and Davis is most known (to me) as the guy who collaborated with Keith Fullerton Whitman on Yearlong and who contributed to Project Bicycle. But as cool as it is that these two dudes got together to make some tunes, who they are is completely irrelevant to the sheer fantasticness of the resulting music.
Sun Circle is a limited edition (100 copies) CD-R put out by Lichen Records (sold out) of uuuuh-MAZE-ing drone. The first track has a humming organ as the bedrock with Wallace and Davis howling and chanting like some freaky cult. Their voices blend with the organ until you can't tell the two apart. What may only be 4 or 5 layers of sound end up sounding like an entire chorus in an enormous cathedral. It's utterly hypnotic and I love every minute of it.
The second track is a bit more dynamic and no less impressive. It's super sparse chimes and bells that grows and extends every repetition. At first, there might be a group of chimes and 1 bell but they keep adding just a bit more every...umm...strum? So by the end of the song there's a whole bunch of chimes and bells that echo for a little while. Yeah, that makes no sense at all but it's hard to describe. Go listen to some of it on their MySpace if you want to.
If this is really your kinda thing and your little collector heart is crying, fear not. There is an LP re-issue on the way. I don't know who'll be putting it out but if you befriend Sun Circle on MySpace, I'm sure you'll be one of the first to know.
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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