RECOMMENDATION #133 - DESMADRADOS SOLDADOS DE VENTURA

DESMADRADOS SOLDADOS DE VENTURA - THE GRAND CELESTIAL PURGE
golden lab 2016, edition of 300

"almost three hours of dense psychedelic eulogies to the departed musicians of 2016 across 4x 180g LPs in black paper inners, housed in a heavyweight box with stunning skulls and roses cover art by Bart Sloow and a full-colour 8-page booklet." - GOLDEN LAB

sweet fancy moses, a 4x lp boxset from the best rock band on the planet, to my ears anyway, with expectedly fantastic artwork courtesy BART DE PAEPE aka SLOOW TAPES, i can't wait to get my hands on this sucker, i will be celebrating xmas early this year when this one shows up - i'm still reeling from last year's CLIFTON PARK escapade, which was my favorite album of 2015, and there's still plenty of tread left on A PINT OF WINE from earlier this year via VERY BON (REC #100) and INTERPENETRATING DIMENSIONAL EXPRESS which was nearly my favorite album of 2014 if not for MV & EE's ALPHA LYRAE -and that race was/is still too close to call really- or their "bootleg" quadruple cassette box set THINKIN GAME which i haven't broken out and played through half as often as it deserves -- i digress

i didn't need to hear a single note to board the GRAND CELESTIAL PURGE hype train - there aren't many artists / bands i subscribe to blindly, you could probably count them on one hand, and DSDV definitely make the cut - so if you would like to filter my opinion through a helpless fanatic disclaimer then by all means - GCP is DSDV's most refined work yet, as they congeal into thee ultimate stoner psych band, despite the daunting 170 minute running time this is the album that should break them out well beyond basement free rock worshipers like myself - this is straight up like BARDO POND plays LIVE/DEAD, falling in line with some euro stoner psych stuff like COLOUR HAZE and CAUSA SUI / EL PARAISO, exceeding all of it by my measure - there's an abundance of nice spaced out passages here, rather unexpected given DSDV's trajectory, though later track "moonlight mind" (side 6? the longest clocking in at over 23 minutes) reels me in the most as it cuts closest to what i've come to expect from DSDV, approaching the righteous acid jam territories of COMUS and HIGH TIDE -- only 300 copies, if ya'll know what's good for you then this shouldn't last long

higher than highest possible recommendation



https://goldenlabrecords.com/

RECOMMENDATION #132 - LOST TRAIL

LOST TRAIL - LOST TRAIL MEETS THE ROAR OF WINTER
jeunesse cosmique 2016, edition of 30

LOST TRAIL - STAY OUT LONG ENOUGH AND THE NIGHT BECOMES YOUR HOME
unknown tone 2016, edition of 100

"Many factors played into the decision to bring the project to a close. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't glad to get the weight of Lost Trail's massive back catalogue off our backs so we can start fresh. No, we never quite accomplished everything we wanted to with Lost Trail, but the support we received along the way was invaluable. It's been a pretty astonishing six years.

These flames are rather gradually dimming, though. The good part is that Denny and I will continue to be making music together. I firmly believe that Lost Trail was an Uncle Tupelo, and our Wilco is still on the horizon. This time, though, it's going to be in a more collective spirit, with more friends from around the country / globe pitching in, aiming to be less hemmed in by specific genres while still falling under the banner of 'experimental'. It's apt to be a long, careful, patient process; we're going to take the time to carefully craft a lasting statement rather than relentlessly churn out new collections like before. So it may be awhile (years, probably) before you hear from us musically, but I promise it'll be worth it when it arrives." - LOST TRAIL

it's been two months since husband-and-wife duo LT announced the retirement of "LOST TRAIL" as an active conduit for proliferating their glorious singular sound, their unique brand of new weird american drone, by which they have remained at the summit of that most holy mountain, in both quality and quantity, dwarfing and lapping the field as they have been the most crucial musicmakers in all the weirdo cassette world at least by my measure, with their inimitable blend of ambient, drone, music concrete, noise, shoegaze and tape manipulation - and i am honored to have been a part of that - though it saddens me to know the end of LOST TRAIL i am excited to see and hear what follows this hiatus

as prolific as they were, it makes sense that new LT tapes are still popping up and will likely continue to do so for a while yet - already there's these two post retirement tapes for your consideration - it's nice to hear that even as they were hanging it up they were still very much immersed in their own creativity, doin what they do best, no cut corners, nothin phoned in or seeming left incomplete or hastily assembled, their music is still as fresh and as bewildering as ever to my ears

stylistically STAY OUT LONG ENOUGH is a strange yet beautiful assemblage of surreal tape manipulation akin to SEJOURNER (REC #33) whereas ROAR OF WINTER falls more on the drone-noise-shoegaze side(s) of the spectrum not far from PSI LAB's very own NAMES OUTLIVE THEIR MOMENTS - though there may be more LT tapes coming down the pike, ROAR's closing track "farewell o providential hand!" seems a perfect finale for LOST TRAIL, brief yet potent, aptly titled, profoundly being, abruptly ending -- i could not easily parse or reduce their mile long diamond mine of a discography, nor would i want to - no filler, no slumps, only consistent greatness, gem after gem after gem, and these two tapes are no exception





https://losttraildrone.bandcamp.com/

http://www.losttraildrone.com/

https://www.facebook.com/octobermountainforever/

RECOMMENDATION #131 - CLOUDSOUND

CLOUDSOUND - STATIC SENSE & WONDER STASIS
pantheon 2016, edition of ?

immersed ambient drone specialist CLOUDSOUND hit the ground runnin in mid 2014 with tapes spread out on FLUERE (REC #19), ILLUMINATED PATHS and TRANQUILITY, then he seemed to disappear after an early 2015 title via RAINBOW PYRAMID, just as it seemed he was hitting a rather incredible stride -- turns out he has been ambitiously honing his sound, an alchemical fusion of classical ambient, kosmische, new age and shoegaze, channeling the good stuff like ENO's ambient ouvre and WINDY & CARL, adding a STARS OF THE LID alignment to the fold, with touches of FRIPPian guitar flourishes and hypnotic reverb echoing ROY MONTGOMERY - all these are overlapped, intertwined, sculpted into lush shimmering soundscapes with the playfulness of previous works traded in for a zen like focus, yielding a perfectly paced and spaced hour long magnum opus

RECOMMENDATION #130 - ALEXANDER

ALEXANDER - NORTON ST
c/site 2016, edition of ?

"Balancing equal parts Americana, blues, jazz, and avant-garde, and always maintaining the intimate qualities of home recording, Norton St. features 15 concise pieces from Shapiro’s time spent at that address... this recording documents a brief time, at a particular place in this transient artists ever-winding journey." - C/SITE

fringe folk improvisation, country blues deconstructions, bold unabashed american primitive guitar, veering passages coiled into a spool of magnetic tape under the moniker ALEXANDER, half of noise drone duo NAGUAL, branching out into his own inner space, perhaps inspired by folks like PHIL ELVERUM and JACK ROSE, realized like JOHN FAHEY doin a legendary one off session for CORWOOD INDUSTRIES, or like PUMICE via OAKHILL, or ALASTAIR GALBRAITH for that matter, or maybe think MARISA ANDERSON strung out on quaaludes strumming moonlit fantasias til dawn, giving fringe folk guru JON COLLIN a run for his money - NORTON ST is a real stunner, a heavy year end contender that just gets better and better, both as the tape rolls on and with each successive listen



http://csiterecordings.storenvy.com/collections/1311717-cassettes/products/17232711-alexander-norton-st-cs

RECOMMENDATION #129 - OJERUM

OJERUM - HVID HVILE SORT RO
branch 2016, edition of 30

OJERUM - NAAR VI VAAGNER
audio visuals atmosphere 2016, edition of 55

the next level of OJERUM's sound comes into full bloom on HVID HVILE SORT RO ("white rest black peace") and NAAR VI VAAGNER ("when we wake"), still rooted in the same melancholic minimalist hypnotic repetition, but here it takes on a more dynamic styling, a more nuanced character, a more profound close listening experience, neatly connecting the dots within the correlated set of WILLIAM BASINSKI, BRIAN ENO, GREG GORLEN, TIM HECKER and SKITTISH ARM, as OJERUM applies his fragmented folk modus operandi to his longform ambient noir outlet, yielding two striking collected works that are more immediately engrossing than his more involved epics HE REMEMBERS THERE WERE GARDENS (his alternate soundtrack to the film LA JETEE) and SYRENEN while remaining just as potent and immersed - despite repeated listens i'm still digesting both tapes so i'm not quite ready to tout either as his best yet, but i kinda feel like it's only a matter of time

highest possible recommendation

RECOMMENDATION #128 - RAFI BOOKSTABER

RAFI BOOKSTABER - LATE SUMMER
woodsist 2016, edition of 300

"this is a diff kind of human digitata, it's sweet analog. you dig spring reverb, then maybe flesh it with sum RA-fi. pure jam. extended solos and explorations go from downtown woodland discord and eternal reverie to relatively clean rivers & beat earth poetics. what a vapor trail of music, very groovy to see folks finally catching up to this HEAD. find some wampum, blow a journey, be here now for late summer eternal..." - MATT VALENTINE

LATE SUMMER is a cool slab of free flowing hypnagogic folk pop tinted by elevated eastern influences like RAVI SHANKAR, intricately exploring the deeper layers of a sonic territory left undisturbed by previous surveyors like HERBCRAFT, JULIAN LYNCH and KURT VILE - maybe kinda sounds like the VELVET UNDERGROUND "closet mix" reenvisioned by ILYAS AHMED as an "igloo of infinite reverb mix" riding the high of a nitrous oxide induced nirvana, blissfully fried and smoked out beyond the likes of SUN ARAW and WOODS with a vibe that gives thee guru MATT VALENTINE a run for his money, which isn't too surprising considering BOOKSTABER is an inner circle acolyte of VALENTINE as an MV & EE studio contributor and road warrior as part of the WOLFPACK - this is "major label debut" done the right way, it's a refined yet earnest work that finds him at his most comfortable, confident and cohesive

highly recommended



http://www.woodsist.com/catalog/12/rafi-bookstaber-late-summer-lp/

RECOMMENDATION #127 - SISTER GROTTO / YARROW

SISTER GROTTO / YARROW - SPLIT
terrible pleasures / tinyamp 2016, edition of 100

outstanding split co-released by TERRIBLE PLEASURES and MADELINE JOHNSTON aka SISTER GROTTO's imprint TINYAMP -- this is SG's fourth tape in the past ten months or so, third this calendar year - her side subtitled SONG FOR AN UNBORN SUN unveils accelerated maturation and rapid refinement of her "heaven metal / soft gaze" sound, a full realization of her moody ambient drone dream pop amalgamation that's so perfectly executed that i'm not sure what's left for her to conquer in the weirdo cassette world, what's left but to break out beyond the weirdo cassette world to a broader audience with a righteous vinyl debut and maybe a high rung indie label in tow

YARROW offers an equally compelling complementary side, bolder in it's experimentation but working with much of the same tones and textures, veering from SG's softer WINDY & CARL informed approach to a more visceral avant garde style, sometimes in the same vicinity as SPARKLING WIDE PRESSURE, like a fun house mirror reflection of SONG FOR AN UNBORN SUN on a bad trip - there's such a strong synergy here beyond just the sonics that this tape reminds me of that GROUPER and INCA ORE split from a while back (wow that's almost a decade old now, that doesn't seem possible), a comparison which sets the bar rather high, but i'm not so sure this tape doesn't clear it with room to spare

sold out on SG's bandcamp but it looks like it's still available from TERRIBLE PLEASURES



http://terriblepleasures.tumblr.com/Catalogue

https://yarrowsound.bandcamp.com

RECOMMENDATION #126 - GERMAN ARMY

GERMAN ARMY - MOUNTAIN CITY
phinery 2016, edition of 60

i've skimmed the bulk of GA's back catalog on a couple occasions looking and listening for something i missed or perhaps missed me - there's no denying GA's significance in the weirdo cassette world with brazen titles proliferated all decade long by a who's who of labels, but nothin clicked til i heard this, though this might as well be a separate side project a la frontman PETER KRIS's solo ventures (RECs #11 and #55) as this seems as divergent from GA's repertoire as PK titles are

MOUNTAIN CITY is an enthralling post industrial psychotropic trip through a sonic salvage yard of old crusty blues and traditional folk recordings a la ALAN LOMAX and HARRY SMITH, spiced with various untold elements simmering in the background, culled from all over the genre spectrum - no real sense of instrumentation, just a jumble of samples, field recordings, found sounds - looped and manipulated, mixed and matched, deconstructed and reintegrated into a collection of etudes on repurposing sound, bygone, intimate and obscure - the result is a mesmerizing 43-track 76-minute tape that impressively props itself up as a work that seems almost as essential as the source material itself, that seems as much an exercise in new weird american tinted music concrete as it is an old american historical document, albeit heated and quenched into an abstract pop form or sorts, like an immersed weirdo cassette worldview reinterpretation of turntablism, or i don't know, somethin like that

highest possible recommendation

RECOMMENDATION #125 - EKIN FIL

EKIN FIL - HEAVY
no kings 2016, edition of 100

EKIN FIL - BEING NEAR
helen scarsdale agency 2016, edition of "somewhere south of 400"

"born ekin üzeltüzenci, based in her native istanbul, she cites shoegazing classics (cocteau twins, cranes, slowdive, etc.) as her earliest influence, worn issues of melody maker or nme from second hand shops, trading cassettes with friends. obsession with rainsoaked melodies from the british isles blossomed into a foundation for her own art. 'being near' stands as the pinnacle in her luminous career, achingly beautiful arrangements for guitar and electronics saturated in cavernous amounts of reverb, whose semi-mystical blur extends into the vocal melodies... a timelessness of human desire and longing, albeit constrained to this plane of existence. her music is not an escape valve from the patriarchal hammer of the dominant culture in turkey, but a reflection through her own condition, in her own context, from her own body that may have actualized what helene cixous theorized as 'ecriture feminine' but through sound and not language." - HSA

HEAVY is EKIN FIL's first new full length since late 2014's WIND IS NEAR (REC #8), which by my measure remains her most spectral work to date, like a secluded haunted estate, then HEAVY comes along, kicks up some dust, cuts through the cobwebs and lets some light in, but not without consequence as something dormant seems to stir and awaken - the finale run of "let me in" > "heavy" > "stranger" is EKIN FIL at her most intense, as if the spirits she's long been channeling through her music turn on her, perhaps paving the way for her masterpiece BEING NEAR out now just five months later

BEING NEAR is EKIN FIL's most engrossing work yet, it is the absolute perfection of her dirge-like dark ambient deep sleep dream pop, perhaps once indebted to COCTEAU TWINS and GROUPER, but now having meticulously explored and established a territory all her own, as documented by previous efforts on highly regarded labels ROOT STRATA and STUDENTS OF DECAY, informed by the softer zoned sides of said "shoegazing classics" as well as NICO's THE MARBLE INDEX and DESERTSHORE, drawing some contemporary comparison to folks like FURSAXA, RAAJMAHAL and ZELIENOPLE -- BEING NEAR is like some post-possession procession, a rite following the events of HEAVY as it hauntingly sets in like an eerie fog enveloping a cemetery, with a spine-tingling sense of apprehension betraying the surreal serenity, crossing the threshold from funereal into otherworldly, teetering toward netherworldly, as if the other side is but a narrow ledge that EKIN FIL dares to traverse -- BEING NEAR is a vivid and compelling work that delves into a dichotomy of the hereafter, tranquility and trepidation, and neatly wraps it in a veil of gauzy slow motion elegance that's second to none

highest possible recommendation