LOST TRAIL - DEATH TO OCTOBER MOUNTAIN! LONG LIVE OCTOBER MOUNTAIN!
swan city sounds 2015, edition of 50
LOST TRAIL / STRANGE MOUNTAIN - CORPOREAL & SPIRITUAL / MODERN SAD
bunkland 2015, edition of 50
PLUNDERSHOP / LOST TRAIL - SPLIT
flaming biscuit 2015, edition of 50
highest possible triple recommendation featuring the inimitable LOST TRAIL, a prolific husband and wife duo who utilizes a diverse array of instrumentation, field recordings, found sounds and music concrete principles funneled into wizardly tape manipulation, conjuring a mesmerizing blend of ambient, drone, noise and shoegaze
DTOM LLOM completes a narrative arc in LT's rather brief yet immense catalog - referencing previous titles OCTOBER MOUNTAIN and RETURN TO OCTOBER MOUNTAIN - an awe inspiring third act that dwarfs all LT works i'm familiar with at two hours, LT have plenty of room to put every facet of their homegrown hybrid style on display, with crucial focal points like the absolutely stunning "celestial feathers" - and even though there's a lot to take in here over the winding course of 31 tracks, to be honest it actually feels rather short, not unlike NATURAL SNOW BUILDINGS DANCE OF THE MOON AND THE SUN, this could have gone on for another hour and i wouldn't mind it one bit, always better to leave me wanting more i suppose - i still definitely believe that there is no definitive LT work, but if ever there was one, it's this one
CORPOREAL & SPIRITUAL / MODERN SAD is a dream team split tape, two preeminent artists in their overlapping fields, brought together at the perfect time, at the top of their games and they bring nothing less than their expected excellence, and then some as they remix each other's works on the flipsides of this jaw dropping double cassette, how cool is that?! -- anyway LT deliver more of the same brilliant stuff, kicking off with one of their best weirded out samples i've heard, a brief unstable slice of life that zones me hard n fast kinda like CHARALAMBIDES MARKET SQUARE, and that vibe carries through, climaxing with "our autumn terminology" which is one of their most cathartic songs ever - which is saying something - and which i think STRANGE MOUNTAIN does one hell of a job remixing, whose proper side is eye closingly gorgeous heartfelt ambient bliss - i don't want to shortchange SM's contributions, his sides are fantastic - just listen to "intimate grace" which challenges KURMA's "sweet death" for my favorite song this year so far - which is why this split tape is so amazing, two of my favorite artists come together with some of their best works to date
the FLAMING BISCUIT split kicks off with previously unknown to me PLUNDERSHOP whose side is impressively on par with the expectedly great LT side, PLUNDERSHOP offers two extended psychedelic drone suites that recall NSB and EXPO 70 circa BLACKOUT, huge sweeping tones bombarded by cosmic rays -- meanwhile LT do their thing - goosebump worthy tape stuff and shoegazing dark ambient drone peaking with an unusually unsettling track "surface anomalies" which layers BARDO POND esque moody searing guitar with a stark field recording of some fiery religious soapboxing, things get darker and more disorienting from then on, heading straight into a YELLOW SWANS esque hurricane of distortion, reaching the surreal eye of the storm on the closing track "malevolent shortwave"
all three tapes are now in stock at the PSI LAB SHOP
the following LOST TRAIL titles are also now available at the PSI LAB SHOP
LOST TRAIL - OTHER BURLINGTON - TWIN SPRINGS - $9
LOST TRAIL - RETURN TO OCTOBER MOUNTAIN - INHERENT - $7
LOST TRAIL / ANIMALS LIKE EARTHQUAKES - SPLIT - MADE FOR TAPES - $7
LOST TRAIL / STEPHEN PALKE - AIR WITHIN - SWAN CITY SOUNDS - $7
