OSMAN ARABI - INTENT
fort evil fruit 2017, edition of 60
"From Tripoli, Lebanon, currently based in Berlin, Arabi's various activities encompass harsh noise (notably his 20.SV project), black metal, industrial and free improvisation. Intent follows on from his 2014 solo electric guitar cassette for The Tapeworm, Destroying Symmetry, which Byron Coley suggested combined the 'melodic astringency' of Bill Orcutt with the 'semi-ecstatic [and] hermetic' approach of Matt Valentine. Here, each track consists of two improvised guitar parts, matched in mood but overlaid blindly without specific reference to each other. From the clash of random elements an overarching meditative synchronicity emerges. Improvised, channeled and recorded in one take on the 9th of August 2015 at Big Snuff Studio Berlin. Engineered and mixed by Lucas Behrens." - FORT EVIL FRUIT
mention BILL ORCUTT and cook up phrases like "hermetic improvised guitar" and "meditative synchronicity" and you are sure to pique my interest, but reference MATT VALENTINE and you get bumped to the top of the heap - i vaguely recall perusing DESTROYING SYMMETRY, and though INTENT seems assembled from much the same parts, ARABI took something good and made it great, as this is thee perfect reformation of his sonic assemblage, conjuring a ghost in the machine which exceeds quantification
this MV reference, you gotta go back to early 2000s MEDICINE SHOW output like MOON JOOK and THE URANIAN RAY - sublime spacetime rupture by way of folk guitar deconstruction - with one end cutting closer to avant folk guru JON COLLIN's improvisational wizardry and on the other TOM CARTER's transcendental blues destruction, quite literally, as the tracks have acoustic guitar panned to one channel and electric to the other - i rather enjoy the effect myself - it really grabs you like how COLEMAN's FREE JAZZ and COLTRANE's ASCENSION jump out at you in stereo, except INTENT inverts the function with a less is more philosophy
to be sure, this is top shelf deeply affected flickering single take improvisation, a glorious fusion of monastic meditation and appalachian lonerism, or a tripoli by way of berlin approximation thereof, that comes off kinda like CHARALAMBIDES churnin through outer limits variations on the STOOGES "l.a. blues" approaching JANDEKian reinterpretations of SLINT's SPIDERLAND - yeah, it's that good
LIMITED EDITION CASSETTES
28 July 2017
16 July 2017
RECOMMENDATION #192 - RAISING HOLY SPARKS
RAISING HOLY SPARKS - SEARCH FOR THE VANISHED HEAVEN
eiderdown 2017, triple cassette edition of 50
"Search For The Vanished Heaven emerged from extensive travels throughout the uncanny landscape of Europe Endless during times when dream & reality often became confused. What remains... prog gnosis, lunar devotionals, ancient-future rituals & thanks & prayers to the resident spirits, who know of no borders save those liminal ones we may sometimes glimpse... // For John & Peter, Rolf-Ulrich & Gille ...& Cosmic Couriers Everywhere... // David Colohan, Richard Moult, Alison O'Donnell, Guenter Schlienz, Gary Morrison, Dom Cooper, Declan Kelly, Ulrich Rois, Matt Leivers, Jez Creek, Barry Synnott, John Cavanagh, Bart De Paepe, Enda Trautt // All words & music by Raising Holy Sparks, except for the spoken sections, which are taken from the writings of Arthur Machen (3 March 1863 - 15 December 1947) // Recorded variously across Europe // The Search began sometime in 2012 & was completed Under The Light Of A SuperMoon in November 2016, if such a search can ever truly be completed..." - EIDERDOWN
man this zoned me in and out on a scale of biblical proportions, real quick - in a matter of minutes i was sold the whole way, hook line sinker - even if i had no preconceived notion of DAVID COLOHAN or his RAISING HOLY SPARKS project, or EIDERDOWN for that matter, or a glimpse of the awesome screenprint artwork -which, even considering EIDERDOWN's well established artwork excellence is the best yet for sure- i would surely be singing the same praise -- thousand yard staring metronomic percussion with a repetitive minimalist banjo subtly yet inexorably immersed in a cosmic sea of bliss? was that twenty minutes or twenty lifetimes? close listening makes it impossible to discern - and that's just the first track
i was a bit late to COLOHAN's work - i didn't catch on to UNITED BIBLE STUDIES until AINE O'DWYER's MUSIC FOR CHURCH CLEANERS via FORT EVIL FRUIT started making waves, and then not obsessively enthralled by what little i encountered until 2014 when i picked up RHS and DECLAN KELLY's understated yet overwhelming meditative masterpiece TRIVENI SANGAM / THE SAME RIVER TWICE, then shortly thereafter backtracking to ever greater works ERA OF MANIFESTATIONS and FOUR SACRED MOUNTAINS - the latter blew my mind, it had me reeling, it quickly earned the mental check mark of a vaguely defined (lengthy) shortlist for surefire inclusions on any all-time list i might ever bother to put together at some point, or maybe not, but the point is that FSM is undoubtedly somewhere on that theoretical list
well, here's another no brainer check mark worthy effort
in an attempt to reduce this exemplary work to my typical referential trappings, consider old guards of kosmische minimalism like TONY CONRAD WITH FAUST, NEU! and KLAUS SCHULZE as channeled by contemporary captains DIRE WOLVES, ETERNAL TAPESTRY and EXPO 70, with twists and turns synergistic to SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE or STEVEN R. SMITH, particularly his tenure with/as HALA STRANA, or perhaps more akin to NATURAL SNOW BUILDINGS drifting out on a deep current into zoned krautrock territory, with a reserved styling while achieving impressive motorik cruising speeds at times, despite seeming effortless, organic, minimally guided natural propulsion, like a sleek ship steering downriver, or a satellite streaking across the sky, jettisoning previous stages along the way - but a peculiar moss covered new age mystic futurism permeates throughout, like a BLADE RUNNER street level IAN WILLIAM CRAIG juxtaposed with a ceremonial mound soundscape and touches of HAROLD BUDD meets SEAN MCCANN experimentation
there are some elements of SEARCH that to some extent make A MELBOURNE NOCTURNE (PL13) seem like an elaborate collection of live fire tests, not unlike DIRE WOLVES' HOUSE OF TRIANGLES (PL15) to EXCURSIONS TO CLOUDLAND [REC #169] - i'm quite fine with that - to my ears both PSI LAB tapes are more endearing expressions, in the moment, springboards toward more formed and polished artistic statements, and particularly in COLOHAN's case, toward an unequivocal magnum opus, a clear and present frontrunner for my favorite album of the year
eiderdown 2017, triple cassette edition of 50
"Search For The Vanished Heaven emerged from extensive travels throughout the uncanny landscape of Europe Endless during times when dream & reality often became confused. What remains... prog gnosis, lunar devotionals, ancient-future rituals & thanks & prayers to the resident spirits, who know of no borders save those liminal ones we may sometimes glimpse... // For John & Peter, Rolf-Ulrich & Gille ...& Cosmic Couriers Everywhere... // David Colohan, Richard Moult, Alison O'Donnell, Guenter Schlienz, Gary Morrison, Dom Cooper, Declan Kelly, Ulrich Rois, Matt Leivers, Jez Creek, Barry Synnott, John Cavanagh, Bart De Paepe, Enda Trautt // All words & music by Raising Holy Sparks, except for the spoken sections, which are taken from the writings of Arthur Machen (3 March 1863 - 15 December 1947) // Recorded variously across Europe // The Search began sometime in 2012 & was completed Under The Light Of A SuperMoon in November 2016, if such a search can ever truly be completed..." - EIDERDOWN
man this zoned me in and out on a scale of biblical proportions, real quick - in a matter of minutes i was sold the whole way, hook line sinker - even if i had no preconceived notion of DAVID COLOHAN or his RAISING HOLY SPARKS project, or EIDERDOWN for that matter, or a glimpse of the awesome screenprint artwork -which, even considering EIDERDOWN's well established artwork excellence is the best yet for sure- i would surely be singing the same praise -- thousand yard staring metronomic percussion with a repetitive minimalist banjo subtly yet inexorably immersed in a cosmic sea of bliss? was that twenty minutes or twenty lifetimes? close listening makes it impossible to discern - and that's just the first track
i was a bit late to COLOHAN's work - i didn't catch on to UNITED BIBLE STUDIES until AINE O'DWYER's MUSIC FOR CHURCH CLEANERS via FORT EVIL FRUIT started making waves, and then not obsessively enthralled by what little i encountered until 2014 when i picked up RHS and DECLAN KELLY's understated yet overwhelming meditative masterpiece TRIVENI SANGAM / THE SAME RIVER TWICE, then shortly thereafter backtracking to ever greater works ERA OF MANIFESTATIONS and FOUR SACRED MOUNTAINS - the latter blew my mind, it had me reeling, it quickly earned the mental check mark of a vaguely defined (lengthy) shortlist for surefire inclusions on any all-time list i might ever bother to put together at some point, or maybe not, but the point is that FSM is undoubtedly somewhere on that theoretical list
well, here's another no brainer check mark worthy effort
in an attempt to reduce this exemplary work to my typical referential trappings, consider old guards of kosmische minimalism like TONY CONRAD WITH FAUST, NEU! and KLAUS SCHULZE as channeled by contemporary captains DIRE WOLVES, ETERNAL TAPESTRY and EXPO 70, with twists and turns synergistic to SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE or STEVEN R. SMITH, particularly his tenure with/as HALA STRANA, or perhaps more akin to NATURAL SNOW BUILDINGS drifting out on a deep current into zoned krautrock territory, with a reserved styling while achieving impressive motorik cruising speeds at times, despite seeming effortless, organic, minimally guided natural propulsion, like a sleek ship steering downriver, or a satellite streaking across the sky, jettisoning previous stages along the way - but a peculiar moss covered new age mystic futurism permeates throughout, like a BLADE RUNNER street level IAN WILLIAM CRAIG juxtaposed with a ceremonial mound soundscape and touches of HAROLD BUDD meets SEAN MCCANN experimentation
there are some elements of SEARCH that to some extent make A MELBOURNE NOCTURNE (PL13) seem like an elaborate collection of live fire tests, not unlike DIRE WOLVES' HOUSE OF TRIANGLES (PL15) to EXCURSIONS TO CLOUDLAND [REC #169] - i'm quite fine with that - to my ears both PSI LAB tapes are more endearing expressions, in the moment, springboards toward more formed and polished artistic statements, and particularly in COLOHAN's case, toward an unequivocal magnum opus, a clear and present frontrunner for my favorite album of the year
03 July 2017
UPDATE - PROJECT PL17
broken ground on a massive project, a various artist cassette boxset -PL17- in or among what i often described as "new weird american drone" tentatively due late fall - i won't reveal the lineup just yet, it's a bit early i think as things are still in flux and an email or two is a ways from recordings in hand, but there's not much surprise to it, nearly all involved have been previously recommended here
in other news, the PSI LAB SHOP on discogs will shut down soon, or at least go on another extended hiatus, so act now if you are so inclined, feel free to email reasonable offers to PSILABTAPES [at] GMAIL [dot] COM
also, i posted a midyear review of some of my favorite tapes and non-tapes on the PSI LAB facebook page a few days ago - check that out if you're lookin for a photo-and-grocery-list recap thus far
stay tuned
in other news, the PSI LAB SHOP on discogs will shut down soon, or at least go on another extended hiatus, so act now if you are so inclined, feel free to email reasonable offers to PSILABTAPES [at] GMAIL [dot] COM
also, i posted a midyear review of some of my favorite tapes and non-tapes on the PSI LAB facebook page a few days ago - check that out if you're lookin for a photo-and-grocery-list recap thus far
stay tuned
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