OOPs: Keep Breathing - Keep Breathing (Rhizome, 2005)

Mysterious stuff here. Originally a ridiculously limited run of 5 or 6 copies on Winter Records, then reissued by Rhizome in a slightly more acquirable, though no less limited, run of 30 copies. No names. No liner notes to speak of (other than what I just mentioned). Song titles are dates. Just about as bare bones as it gets.

The music is where it's at, though. Three 20+ minute tracks (one nearly a half hour) of some long form drones that sound like bagpipe/harmonica/melodica/you get the idea, like the perfect union of Yoshi Wada and Eluvium. I assume it's recorded live using circular breathing, which makes this prime AGB material. I seriously love any/all of those instruments and turn 'em into some sprawling drone via circular breathing and I'm fucking GONE. Plus, the length of these pieces makes it all the more incredible imagining a single dude pushing his cheeks & lungs till the point of almost passing out.

This is some intense stuff, not exactly blissful but still quite a pleasant experience. Very hypnotic, open ended, intricate, layered drone, at times abrasive and enlightening. My wife Elise is pretty tolerable of most drone, but I'm fairly certain she wouldn't dig this. Which hopefully means you're all about this because I give Keep Breathing some of the highest praise possible.

Long live the drone.

MP3: The Haters - Dirwyn 22

The Haters - Dirwyn 22


Sloppy copy/paste 'cause I'm heading to work. "Amplified calculator being pushed into a desk fan." That means it's noisey & atonal & awesome as fuck. From a split The Haters did with Lockweld.

via GX Jupitter-Larsen's Communique

Hard Format

I got a heads up on Hard Format from one of the many TempRes Twitter accounts when they linked to the post on Eluvium's Life Through Bombardment. Hard Format is a super sleek site dedicated to showcasing some of the more finely designed & packaged music (like these Pan releases, Fennesz's Black Sea, Celer's origamied Mane Blooms). They seem to do a lot of scans, which I don't think are always the best way to display such beauties (evidence: Exhibit A / Exhibit B), but the attention to detail is really fantastic and all of the artwork really shines. Definitely a place that further proves music in a purely digital world will never win.

Update: No scans on the site. Everything is shot with a Nikon.

Haiku Review: PK Mao - Raptendo 64 Vol. 1-3 (self released, 2010)

Del Tha Funkee Homosapien Vs Perfect Dark - Help Me Out


PK Mao
Raptendo 64 Vol. 1-3 (download)
/super hit or miss/
/hip hop with 64 beats/
/when it's good it's grand/

OOPs: Voices Of The Loon (National Audubon Society, 1980)

If you know what loons sound like, you've probably skipped all the text and are already downloading this. If you've never heard a loon call, either recorded or in the wild, then just start downloading now and thank me afterwards.

Loons make the creepiest fucking sounds out of any animal ever. The different technical names for loons calls are wail, tremolo, yodel, hoot, and various combinations like tremolo-wail but the word "ghostly" pretty much sums it all up. They sound like ghosts. Beautiful, horrifying ghosts. The specters of the northern wilderness that wake you up in the middle of the night and give you the sweats, who then soothe your fears and lull you back to sleep.

The first side is narrated by Robert J. Lurtsema who helps to identify the different calls. The second side is uninterrupted by humans, just 21 minutes of sounds like "Chorus From A Distant Lake," "Wails During A Thunderstorm," and "Coyotes Calling With Loons." So you can just throw that on and remember those late nights spent staring at the stars on a Maine lake.

The back of the jacket (included in the zip) has plenty of detailed notes, including some spectrographs showing what the different calls look like. So cool. But the best part of this whole thing (other than the recording, obv) is the "Important Note" that warns you not to play this record "near waters occupied by breeding pairs" because apparently loons are a bunch of pussies that can't handle some stiff competition.

LOOOOOOOON

Video: Walls - Burnt Sienna

A truly fine slow burning jam by Walls off their self titled debut on Kompakt. Listen to the song on repeat and it creates a nice ebb & flow of beats & drones. So super awesome. The video reminds me a bit of the artwork for Unknown Pleasures mixed with A Place To Bury Strangers' aesthetic.

Millipede - Full Bloom (Install, 2010)

Millipede - Full Bloom


Millipede is back with another dose of beautiful steel wool guitar noise on Install. To tell you the truth, it's hard to notice many differences between the new Full Bloom and his previous albums. I'm not just being a noise condenser, either. Millipede has a very specific sound and if you make 7 or 8 albums worth of it, I supposed it might become difficult to continue innovating. That being said, is Full Bloom worthy of your time? Hell fucking yes.

Millipede has got it made. He can keep putting out albums of caustic feedback and I'll listen to and love every last one. The intricately dense abrasive layers are endlessly enjoyable. There's so much to listen for and decipher. I could spend hours figuring out if it's a single guitar blown WAY the fuck out or a dozen acid spewing axes, hearing shapeless mourning voices, waiting for the next wave of crumbling corrosion to scrub my ear canals and peel the paint off my walls.

I suppose I should mention, as I do in almost every Millipede review, that Skullflower and Yellow Swans are some big soundalikes, along with hints of Brian Grainger and My Bloody Valentine. But regardless of how many times I write about Millipede, no matter how many albums he puts out or how frequently you listen to him, one thing is certain. Every time you hit play, you need to blur your eyes and crank your speakers until they bleed. Make it fucking LOUD.

Haiku Review: Concord Ballet Orchestra Players - Palindromes (self released, 2010)

Concord Ballet Orchestra Players - Boston Did Not Sob


Concord Ballet Orchestra Players
Palindromes (download)
/grooved out psych noise fuzz/
/quick third eye glimpses of time/
/homespun texture beats/

OOPs: Getting Through: A Guide To Better Understanding Of The Hard Of Hearing (Zenith, 1971)

I got pretty psyched when I saw this record sitting in the back of the last crate on a small table at a record fair. One, because it's a bit strange. Obviously. Also, the "Unfair Hearing Test" was pretty intriguing. But also because I'm nearly deaf in my right ear.

Most of this record is geared towards a person living with someone who has hearing loss, rather than the actual person with hearing loss, so for me it's more novelty than anything else. It explains how to cater to someone who is hard of hearing, ranging from the obvious ("When talking to the hard of hearing, face him directly") to the ridiculously impractical ("When the hearing handicap joins a group, be sure he knows the subjects being discussed").

The best parts of Getting Through are all of the filtered & altered sound samples, trying to replicate what hearing loss sounds like, and what it's like for someone who has a newly acquired hearing aid.

And I'm 99% certain the whole record is to make you feel sorry for your deaf grandparents and buy them a pair of Zenith hearing aids.

You might want to grab the extra large version of the back cover which has some instructions for the record as well as the answers to the "Unfair Hearing Test."

Wear earplugs at concerts.

MP3: Aboombong - Daymare

Aboombong - Daymare


The dude who runs the Pen & Mallet blog is also a music-maker as Aboombong, and a damn good one at that. He's got a few "name your price" albums up on Bandcamp, but "Daymare" is from my particular favorite, Asynchronic. It's a super lush muted free jazz/post rock workout, chaotic enough to blend everything together into a homogeneous blur of skittering drums & intense guitar noodling. Well worth your time, and I highly recommend checking out the rest of his stuff.

Marinos Koutsomichalis - Malfunctions (Agxivatein, 2010)

Marinos Koutsomichalis - Untitled 2


I'm thinking this new Agxivatein label might be on to something... They put out that user-manipulated album by Bozkurt, and now they got Marinos Koutsomichalis' Malfunctions, which also has a bit of a surprise element.

I don't make music. Never have, probably never will. But from what I'm told, it's not an easy process. Lots of shit can go wrong, equipment breaks, strange feedback coming from unknown places, the whole Murphy's Law thing. Koutsomichalis laughs in Murphy's face. Malfunctions is an album comprised entirely of those unwanted sounds. The mistakes that you seek to eliminate and destroy. Marinos purposefully manufactured those random artifacts and fine tuned them, resulting in a brilliant electronic noise album.

If I hadn't been told the sound sources on Malfunctions were "mistakes," I wouldn't know. I mean, come on, it is a noise record. That being said, this is some seriously fantastic noise. Huge harsh squalls of static folding over itself, hidden blips on the radar, power line hum, bug zappers, there's even an entire track that sounds like Airsoft machine guns blasting from single shot to full-auto.

Not all of the songs ramp up to full blown body crushing walls of sound, some are sparse glitchy skipping hard drives, but the ones that do are absolutely beautiful. So many fucking layers of astounding chaos. Honestly, my speakers can't go loud enough when I listen to Malfunctions. Cranked all the way up, I feel my bones vibrating to dust and I still want more. This album works great as a concept, but throw that idea out with your hearing, fucking turn it UP and you just have one of the best noise albums of the year.

Chicagojazzen - Misantropi För Nybörjare (Irrlicht, 2010)

Chicagojazzen - Bränn Ner Jörn


The Swedish dude who put out that sweet Brachiosaurus tape on Native Parts last year is back with his debut vinyl slab on Irrlicht. If you loved that tape, then you're really gonna love Misantropi För Nybörjare. And if you're new to the whole Chicagojazzen thing, let me introduce you.

I think the heart of this music is in pop, although it takes many strange routes and uses some irregular means in getting there. The best comparison might be if A Faulty Chromosome and Madagascar joined teams to make a blown out beat heavy pop folk record.

The artsy collaborative feeling found on Brachiosaurus is still in full force here. Tons of instruments, all the usuals plus melodica, xylophone, some electronics shit, and who knows what else, making sweet drone lullabies, waltzy carnival tunes, and weirdo basement dance jams.

And then there's the black metal influence. Yup, this guy is all over the fucking place and it's awesome. "Bränn Ner Jörn" is a perfect example of the bizarro fucked sounds from Misantropi. It's totally in the red, thick with a hundred layers of nondescript buzzing & tweaking making a mostly danceable song with scratchy roaring demon vocals.

There's no way to really peg this record without omitting a dozen plus elements. Every song is its own mini-album, and the record as a whole speaks for itself. There's no use trying to translate it or help finish its sentences. It's a wild beast. And you know not to fuck with those things.

Sun Boxes At Important Records

This has been in the planning and almost-happening stages for months. Every time they would set a day, it would get rained out, and I would get cranky. This is something where rain is more than just a gross, wet nuisance. It actually makes the Sun Boxes not work.

Sun Boxes are a creation of Craig Colorusso, which he installed at Important Records HQ for a one day affair. Each box is a solar powered speaker with a chip that emits a single guitar tone played by Colorusso. Very straightforward. There are no batteries, so when the sun fades, so does the music. There were 20 Sun Boxes, each with a different guitar loop that, according to Craig, would take about 7 months for all of the boxes to reach point zero again. That means walking through the boxes yields a new aural experience every time, even if you trace your previous path.


There was something magical about the Sun Boxes in that it seemed damn near impossible to pinpoint which sound was coming from which box. I could be sitting in front of one box and still not be able to tell what sound it was making. All of the boxes seemed to be fusing together under the sun, creating a single organic harmony that incorporated the surrounding sounds of trees rustling, overhead jets, and the nearby golf course.


The simple serene fun of walking through a field of drone boxes is nearly indescribable. It's just something that needs to be participated in on your own. Colorusso lives in the Boston area, but the Sun Boxes can be deployed anywhere, at any time (as long as it's not raining). So keep an eye out and maybe you'll spot one in the wild some day.

I shot a shitty video that does nothing to convey the experience, which you can see below, and there are more photos of the event on Flickr.

Video: Tobacco - Super Gum

ET's sister gettin her fuck on to some sexy Tobacco jams. I mean let's face it, that's all anyone ever wants to do when Tobacco is playing. And strangely this is safer for work than most other Tobacco videos.

And don't forget the man himself is stopping by The Middle East in September. Awwww yeah.



via

Spermwhales - Time Warp EP (self released, 2009)

Spermwhales - Time Warp


Spermwhales, the dude who crafted that burlap cased Endless Sea Of Clouds, has offered up a free 20 minute EP and it's glorious. It's a textured drone love affair with lots of water squiggles & warble glitches thrown over some unhindered hypno-drone. It sounds like The Snorks partying in a champagne ocean, or The Jetsons buzzing along in their aerocars during a golden sunset. So, obviously, there's no reason not to grab this.