#4 - TOM CARTER - all ahead now (root strata)
#3 - PAUL CARY - ghost of a man (stankhouse)
#2 - KING BLOOD - eyewash silver (ignorant gore)
#1 - TWELLS & CHRISTENSEN - coasts (digitalis)
LIMITED EDITION CASSETTES
05 March 2018
RETROSPECTION #4 - TOM CARTER
TOM CARTER - ALL AHEAD NOW
root strata 2011, edition of 120
"Originally released on Root Strata as All Ahead Now, I've restored the original title of Naked, Stoned and Stabbed (originally rejected because someone else used it. Now it seems silly to care). Wholly Other mail-order description: 'It ain't from the streets but i could spit out the window and hit the J train (Z during rush hours). two long tracks recorded in the loft around the same time as the 'Dance From' LP. // Best known for his work with iconoclastic acid-folk improvisers Charalambides, Carter currently focuses on solo performances and recordings" - TOM CARTER bandcamp
"Metallic raga for electric guitar. Dark bliss of feedback and harmonic brick layering feed from the streets of NYC." - ROOT STRATA
"sounds like Terry Riley's A Rainbow In Curved Air re-imagined by Sonic Youth, a dense, druggy feedback meditation as melodic as it is severely face-melting." - BOOMKAT
one of only about a dozen tapes or so thus far courtesy ROOT STRATA, so from inception an exception to the rule, on the surface channeling the "noisy" side of "guitar music" as heard as the 2000s gave way to the 2010s - just look at ROOT STRATA contemporaries - BARN OWL (and HIGUMA and JON PORRAS), JEFRE CANTU-LEDESMA, THE NORTH SEA, and probably no more perfectly embodied than PETE SWANSON's FEELINGS IN AMERICA out just a few months and a couple catalog numbers ahead of ALL AHEAD NOW - but none of that stuff is as good as this
ALL AHEAD NOW didn't hit me dead on at first, it landed in my year end honorable mentions alongside excellent company including the likes of ETERNAL TAPESTRY's BEYOND THE 4TH DOOR, HIGUMA's PACIFIC FOG DREAMS, SEAN MCCANN's SINCERE WORLD, STEVEN R. SMITH's FLOOR OF THE SKY and WEYES BLOOD's THE OUTSIDE ROOM --a rather impressive list looking back-- i won't bother to hash out a then-and-now review of 2011 top to bottom, but i had CHARALAMBIDES' EXILE in my top ten, and i'd likely keep it there, but i would surely find a way to get AAN in there now, which wouldn't be easy because 2011 was loaded - strictly considering tapes that year, only LEE NOBLE's NO BECOMING outright tops it, goin up against other all-timers like DAVID ANDREE's IN STREAMS, EXPO 70's BLACKOUT and DEREK ROGERS' INFORMAL MEDITATIONS - good lord, all five tapes are legendary
so i clearly underestimated ALL AHEAD NOW at first - perhaps it just needed time to work on me - clearly something stuck as it kept creeping into rotation, and with each play it sunk in deeper and deeper until it became apparent to me that what i had here was a masterpiece - or perhaps more likely, i just needed to finish (d)evolving more or less into my present state of sound-mind, which was finishing up right about then i suppose, and then there it was just waiting for me to naturally conform to -it- because expounding on it now, it crystallizes and epitomizes PSI LAB, at least how i see it, to such extent that i suppose one could argue -which i might- that PSI LAB wouldn't exist without AAN's form -and- function influence
right out of the gate, AAN threatens to destroy your tape deck with white hot searing bliss of "go to the mirror boy", unbridled amp melting ecstatic shredding, buried in the red, rapturous in its ecliptic third eye gazing, pushing the limits of the sonic parameters CARTER sketched out via live improvisations captured on 2010's NUMINOUS tape on PRAIRIE FIRE, in turn laying the foundation for the intense sides of his magnum opus LONG TIME UNDERGROUND [REC #74] - but for all its glory, i must say that AAN side one doesn't hold a candle to side two
"gonna tune right in on you" adds an entire dimension to CARTER's wailing guitar, intertwines elevated emotional intensity and immersed anticipation, coalescing suspense and mourning - in one fell swoop he brazenly one-ups NATURAL SNOW BUILDINGS and STEVEN R. SMITH - for all the CHARALAMBIDES and solo stuff out there, there's not enough of -this- to be found - four years before FIVE GUITARS FOR TONY CONRAD [REC #88] came along (and blew my mind in its own singular way), CARTER had already been there and lowered the boom every bit as righteously and exponentially more boldly
recently available digitally courtesy CARTER's bandcamp page, retitled NAKED STONED AND STABBED as originally intended - i don't know, i'm much too partial to "ALL AHEAD NOW" now - either way i definitely prefer the original cassette's dot matrix lookin artwork - either way any fan of this blog should either already have this or else bump it to the front of the line
root strata 2011, edition of 120
"Originally released on Root Strata as All Ahead Now, I've restored the original title of Naked, Stoned and Stabbed (originally rejected because someone else used it. Now it seems silly to care). Wholly Other mail-order description: 'It ain't from the streets but i could spit out the window and hit the J train (Z during rush hours). two long tracks recorded in the loft around the same time as the 'Dance From' LP. // Best known for his work with iconoclastic acid-folk improvisers Charalambides, Carter currently focuses on solo performances and recordings" - TOM CARTER bandcamp
"Metallic raga for electric guitar. Dark bliss of feedback and harmonic brick layering feed from the streets of NYC." - ROOT STRATA
"sounds like Terry Riley's A Rainbow In Curved Air re-imagined by Sonic Youth, a dense, druggy feedback meditation as melodic as it is severely face-melting." - BOOMKAT
one of only about a dozen tapes or so thus far courtesy ROOT STRATA, so from inception an exception to the rule, on the surface channeling the "noisy" side of "guitar music" as heard as the 2000s gave way to the 2010s - just look at ROOT STRATA contemporaries - BARN OWL (and HIGUMA and JON PORRAS), JEFRE CANTU-LEDESMA, THE NORTH SEA, and probably no more perfectly embodied than PETE SWANSON's FEELINGS IN AMERICA out just a few months and a couple catalog numbers ahead of ALL AHEAD NOW - but none of that stuff is as good as this
ALL AHEAD NOW didn't hit me dead on at first, it landed in my year end honorable mentions alongside excellent company including the likes of ETERNAL TAPESTRY's BEYOND THE 4TH DOOR, HIGUMA's PACIFIC FOG DREAMS, SEAN MCCANN's SINCERE WORLD, STEVEN R. SMITH's FLOOR OF THE SKY and WEYES BLOOD's THE OUTSIDE ROOM --a rather impressive list looking back-- i won't bother to hash out a then-and-now review of 2011 top to bottom, but i had CHARALAMBIDES' EXILE in my top ten, and i'd likely keep it there, but i would surely find a way to get AAN in there now, which wouldn't be easy because 2011 was loaded - strictly considering tapes that year, only LEE NOBLE's NO BECOMING outright tops it, goin up against other all-timers like DAVID ANDREE's IN STREAMS, EXPO 70's BLACKOUT and DEREK ROGERS' INFORMAL MEDITATIONS - good lord, all five tapes are legendary
so i clearly underestimated ALL AHEAD NOW at first - perhaps it just needed time to work on me - clearly something stuck as it kept creeping into rotation, and with each play it sunk in deeper and deeper until it became apparent to me that what i had here was a masterpiece - or perhaps more likely, i just needed to finish (d)evolving more or less into my present state of sound-mind, which was finishing up right about then i suppose, and then there it was just waiting for me to naturally conform to -it- because expounding on it now, it crystallizes and epitomizes PSI LAB, at least how i see it, to such extent that i suppose one could argue -which i might- that PSI LAB wouldn't exist without AAN's form -and- function influence
right out of the gate, AAN threatens to destroy your tape deck with white hot searing bliss of "go to the mirror boy", unbridled amp melting ecstatic shredding, buried in the red, rapturous in its ecliptic third eye gazing, pushing the limits of the sonic parameters CARTER sketched out via live improvisations captured on 2010's NUMINOUS tape on PRAIRIE FIRE, in turn laying the foundation for the intense sides of his magnum opus LONG TIME UNDERGROUND [REC #74] - but for all its glory, i must say that AAN side one doesn't hold a candle to side two
"gonna tune right in on you" adds an entire dimension to CARTER's wailing guitar, intertwines elevated emotional intensity and immersed anticipation, coalescing suspense and mourning - in one fell swoop he brazenly one-ups NATURAL SNOW BUILDINGS and STEVEN R. SMITH - for all the CHARALAMBIDES and solo stuff out there, there's not enough of -this- to be found - four years before FIVE GUITARS FOR TONY CONRAD [REC #88] came along (and blew my mind in its own singular way), CARTER had already been there and lowered the boom every bit as righteously and exponentially more boldly
recently available digitally courtesy CARTER's bandcamp page, retitled NAKED STONED AND STABBED as originally intended - i don't know, i'm much too partial to "ALL AHEAD NOW" now - either way i definitely prefer the original cassette's dot matrix lookin artwork - either way any fan of this blog should either already have this or else bump it to the front of the line
19 February 2018
RECOMMENDATION #211 - OJERUM | AARON MARTIN
OJERUM - UNDER GANGE
vienna press 2018
"Following a contribution on the recent Vienna Press compilation, Under Gange marks øjeRum's debut on the label proper. It combines, over a double cassette spread, two discrete suites of graceful arrangements. Taken together, they present an extended study of sombre movements for strings, piano and synthesizer. // øjeRum is the primary sound project of Copenhagen resident, Paw Grabowski, also a prolific visual artist who is well known for his collage work. øjeRum has released a succession of quality releases of on imprints such as AVA and Vaald, among others. // 2 x c32, White cassettes / clear cases. Duplicated in real time on Luxman machines." - VIENNA PRESS
i've been obsessively collecting OJERUM tapes since his first one SANGE TIL DOENDE emerged in 2014 courtesy HORROR FICTION - GRABOWSKI has a penchant for handmade micro editions, initially as supplemental EPs and then as intimate reissues or parallel variants and revisions, uniquely artworked and stylized, some of the coolest tapes i have ever seen
i do not intend to portray favorites like HVID HVILE or NAAR VI VAAGNER or STILHEDENS as less than excellent - to be clear, i think -everything- with OJERUM's name on it is well worth having - but despite my dedicated fanaticism, i must admit --in part due to its unrealistic bar-setting showstopping perfection which i'm in no hurry to refute-- i haven't experienced that feathery knock out punch that SANGE so effortlessly delivers since, well, SANGE
by that measure i suppose UNDER GANGE is a return to rare form, as it finds GRABOWSKI simultaneously reinforcing his established style while incorporating new elements, sometimes comfortably cultivating a familiar fertile soundscape, other times navigating into adjacent territories sharing a border or two with SKITTISH ARM, and beyond toward zones sparsely and infrequently inhabited by the soft underbelly of european post industrial dark ambient dronemakers like C.L. LOBBESTAEL and TREADING BLOOM
the key to UNDER GANGE is the attention to detail, the nuance - this separates UNDER GANGE from the pack, both contemporaneously and intra-catalog - these loop like structures don't just reel you in, they come alive, without any unforced errors like gratuitous clutter - there's no undue gimmick or over-saturation like i often find in my pursuit of new weird ambient drone - this is the good stuff, and -only- the good stuff, and by that i mean in no uncertain terms that UNDER GANGE is -at least- the best OJERUM since SANGE, if not his best outright
OJERUM with AARON MARTIN - NEEDLESHAPED SILENCE
fluid audio 2017
"Mistakes are quickly erased in a world that wishes to erase flaws, but imperfections can be perfect things, too, and that's true of Needleshaped Silence, a collection of muted tracks from øjeRum wherein the past reassembles itself to permeate the present. Accidental sounds become firm roots that can't be displaced, and its solid foundations become defined things which, thanks to the slightly worn, decade-dulled layers around them, don't sound like accidents at all. It isn't always quiet in a dynamic sense: quiet music can be quietly-toned and not necessarily quiet in its overall volume, and it also dismisses the stale, carbon-copy approach of the recording process.
Like a collage, single tracks were taken and moulded anew using the same old software as before. Introverted sounds that were once buried under the woolen clothing of outer layers are now reluctantly exposed, arriving at the forefront of the music. øjeRum added that he 'preferred the seemingly random, anonymous, silent and unpretentious sounds, recorded as mere backdrops and never intended to come to the fore'. Chance encounters are essential ingredients in the magic spell, but the transitions are so subtle as to seem invisible. A new sound slips easily into the old, and Aaron Martin's additional strings help in fleshing the tones out, supporting them in their first steps and hovering around the quivering vibrations, the subdued frequencies. Deeper and deeper the record descends, until the atmosphere sails through a pair of gates and into the inner reaches of the mind, its own kind of deeper-toned ambient seeming to be a perfect fit for the inner cosmos, coming across at times as a sister of space-ambient. Black sunshine fills the world of Needleshaped Silence, its sobering strings levitating in and around the quavering, flexible tones, its near-silent music lit by the past's dull solar flares." - FLUID AUDIO
i was particularly excited to hear this, as with the perfect pairing of SISTER GROTTO and BRAEYDEN JAE on the phenomenal collaboration BORN TO LOSE/BORN TO LEAVE, i figured if there was one artist perfect for a collaboration with OJERUM it would be AARON MARTIN, whose IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT WHEN EVERYTHING IS ASLEEP (also via FLUID AUDIO) made my 2016 top ten non-cassette list - and much like that collaboration where LEONARDO ROSADO provided textural soundscapes within which MARTIN operated, here OJERUM provides these sparse yet engrossing structures, a solemn sonic framework, and then MARTIN expertly adds exquisite string elements, well reserved and perfectly complimentary to OJERUM's flickering ambient drone backdrop, further deepening the emotional immersion of the resultant work, and it is breathtaking - i shouldn't have let this one sit by the wayside as long as i did, and this should not have been absent from my year end non-cassette list
AARON MARTIN - A ROOM NOW EMPTY
preserved sound 2018
"sees him returning to the memory-based recordings of previous albums such as Almond, River Water and Chautauqua, where layered meanings in the music and titles don't allow a single clear-cut reading of the music. 'A Room Now Empty is similar to the concept of Day Has Ended where Christoph Berg and I created music to encompass the passing of a day, but stretched out for the passing of a lifetime or at least a portion of a lifetime' says Aaron. Using cello, electric guitar, bass, roll up piano, banjo, concertina, acoustic guitar, voice, ukulele, singing bowls and lap steel, A Room Now Empty keeps the same intimacy and directness of Aaron's previous albums, with a slightly more processed sound creating distance within the music. / Mastered by Ian Hawgood" - PRESERVED SOUND
released just three weeks ago and PRESERVED SOUND already has a second edition coming down the pike - while perhaps not the over the top exuberant artifact that is FLUID AUDIO's cd packaging modus operandi, A ROOM NOW EMPTY has the best cover artwork i've seen this year thus far (courtesy OJERUM no less, as with the other two titles here) --it has me thinkin, i should spend more time blurbing about the physical aspect of all this stuff, or at least an annual revue, because a lot of this stuff is almost as impressive visually as it is aurally
but, aurally, A ROOM NOW EMPTY is the finest showcase of MARTIN's skill and talent, at least that i've heard anyway, moody modern classical constructs with contemplative traditional abstracts and a tempered experimental edge that cuts straight through a black and white cinematic veil to a much more potent level of intimacy and realism exceeding and wholly independent of any forced imagery or even situational suggestion therein - in that way -and also to some extent sonically albeit tangentially- i find some comparison to STEVEN R. SMITH's most subdued sides, as well as AURALGAMI SOUNDS SERIES contributions from ROB COLLIER and SARA SOLTAU, closing in on SEAN MCCANN's RECITAL imprint where i think MARTIN would fit right in -- to be sure, there -are- vivid images and situations, thoughts and emotions, that appear associated when i listen, but i bring those to the table, knowingly or not, as the artist by way of the music allows - such is a hallmark of a well crafted close listening experience
vienna press 2018
"Following a contribution on the recent Vienna Press compilation, Under Gange marks øjeRum's debut on the label proper. It combines, over a double cassette spread, two discrete suites of graceful arrangements. Taken together, they present an extended study of sombre movements for strings, piano and synthesizer. // øjeRum is the primary sound project of Copenhagen resident, Paw Grabowski, also a prolific visual artist who is well known for his collage work. øjeRum has released a succession of quality releases of on imprints such as AVA and Vaald, among others. // 2 x c32, White cassettes / clear cases. Duplicated in real time on Luxman machines." - VIENNA PRESS
i've been obsessively collecting OJERUM tapes since his first one SANGE TIL DOENDE emerged in 2014 courtesy HORROR FICTION - GRABOWSKI has a penchant for handmade micro editions, initially as supplemental EPs and then as intimate reissues or parallel variants and revisions, uniquely artworked and stylized, some of the coolest tapes i have ever seen
i do not intend to portray favorites like HVID HVILE or NAAR VI VAAGNER or STILHEDENS as less than excellent - to be clear, i think -everything- with OJERUM's name on it is well worth having - but despite my dedicated fanaticism, i must admit --in part due to its unrealistic bar-setting showstopping perfection which i'm in no hurry to refute-- i haven't experienced that feathery knock out punch that SANGE so effortlessly delivers since, well, SANGE
by that measure i suppose UNDER GANGE is a return to rare form, as it finds GRABOWSKI simultaneously reinforcing his established style while incorporating new elements, sometimes comfortably cultivating a familiar fertile soundscape, other times navigating into adjacent territories sharing a border or two with SKITTISH ARM, and beyond toward zones sparsely and infrequently inhabited by the soft underbelly of european post industrial dark ambient dronemakers like C.L. LOBBESTAEL and TREADING BLOOM
the key to UNDER GANGE is the attention to detail, the nuance - this separates UNDER GANGE from the pack, both contemporaneously and intra-catalog - these loop like structures don't just reel you in, they come alive, without any unforced errors like gratuitous clutter - there's no undue gimmick or over-saturation like i often find in my pursuit of new weird ambient drone - this is the good stuff, and -only- the good stuff, and by that i mean in no uncertain terms that UNDER GANGE is -at least- the best OJERUM since SANGE, if not his best outright
OJERUM with AARON MARTIN - NEEDLESHAPED SILENCE
fluid audio 2017
"Mistakes are quickly erased in a world that wishes to erase flaws, but imperfections can be perfect things, too, and that's true of Needleshaped Silence, a collection of muted tracks from øjeRum wherein the past reassembles itself to permeate the present. Accidental sounds become firm roots that can't be displaced, and its solid foundations become defined things which, thanks to the slightly worn, decade-dulled layers around them, don't sound like accidents at all. It isn't always quiet in a dynamic sense: quiet music can be quietly-toned and not necessarily quiet in its overall volume, and it also dismisses the stale, carbon-copy approach of the recording process.
Like a collage, single tracks were taken and moulded anew using the same old software as before. Introverted sounds that were once buried under the woolen clothing of outer layers are now reluctantly exposed, arriving at the forefront of the music. øjeRum added that he 'preferred the seemingly random, anonymous, silent and unpretentious sounds, recorded as mere backdrops and never intended to come to the fore'. Chance encounters are essential ingredients in the magic spell, but the transitions are so subtle as to seem invisible. A new sound slips easily into the old, and Aaron Martin's additional strings help in fleshing the tones out, supporting them in their first steps and hovering around the quivering vibrations, the subdued frequencies. Deeper and deeper the record descends, until the atmosphere sails through a pair of gates and into the inner reaches of the mind, its own kind of deeper-toned ambient seeming to be a perfect fit for the inner cosmos, coming across at times as a sister of space-ambient. Black sunshine fills the world of Needleshaped Silence, its sobering strings levitating in and around the quavering, flexible tones, its near-silent music lit by the past's dull solar flares." - FLUID AUDIO
i was particularly excited to hear this, as with the perfect pairing of SISTER GROTTO and BRAEYDEN JAE on the phenomenal collaboration BORN TO LOSE/BORN TO LEAVE, i figured if there was one artist perfect for a collaboration with OJERUM it would be AARON MARTIN, whose IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT WHEN EVERYTHING IS ASLEEP (also via FLUID AUDIO) made my 2016 top ten non-cassette list - and much like that collaboration where LEONARDO ROSADO provided textural soundscapes within which MARTIN operated, here OJERUM provides these sparse yet engrossing structures, a solemn sonic framework, and then MARTIN expertly adds exquisite string elements, well reserved and perfectly complimentary to OJERUM's flickering ambient drone backdrop, further deepening the emotional immersion of the resultant work, and it is breathtaking - i shouldn't have let this one sit by the wayside as long as i did, and this should not have been absent from my year end non-cassette list
AARON MARTIN - A ROOM NOW EMPTY
preserved sound 2018
"sees him returning to the memory-based recordings of previous albums such as Almond, River Water and Chautauqua, where layered meanings in the music and titles don't allow a single clear-cut reading of the music. 'A Room Now Empty is similar to the concept of Day Has Ended where Christoph Berg and I created music to encompass the passing of a day, but stretched out for the passing of a lifetime or at least a portion of a lifetime' says Aaron. Using cello, electric guitar, bass, roll up piano, banjo, concertina, acoustic guitar, voice, ukulele, singing bowls and lap steel, A Room Now Empty keeps the same intimacy and directness of Aaron's previous albums, with a slightly more processed sound creating distance within the music. / Mastered by Ian Hawgood" - PRESERVED SOUND
released just three weeks ago and PRESERVED SOUND already has a second edition coming down the pike - while perhaps not the over the top exuberant artifact that is FLUID AUDIO's cd packaging modus operandi, A ROOM NOW EMPTY has the best cover artwork i've seen this year thus far (courtesy OJERUM no less, as with the other two titles here) --it has me thinkin, i should spend more time blurbing about the physical aspect of all this stuff, or at least an annual revue, because a lot of this stuff is almost as impressive visually as it is aurally
but, aurally, A ROOM NOW EMPTY is the finest showcase of MARTIN's skill and talent, at least that i've heard anyway, moody modern classical constructs with contemplative traditional abstracts and a tempered experimental edge that cuts straight through a black and white cinematic veil to a much more potent level of intimacy and realism exceeding and wholly independent of any forced imagery or even situational suggestion therein - in that way -and also to some extent sonically albeit tangentially- i find some comparison to STEVEN R. SMITH's most subdued sides, as well as AURALGAMI SOUNDS SERIES contributions from ROB COLLIER and SARA SOLTAU, closing in on SEAN MCCANN's RECITAL imprint where i think MARTIN would fit right in -- to be sure, there -are- vivid images and situations, thoughts and emotions, that appear associated when i listen, but i bring those to the table, knowingly or not, as the artist by way of the music allows - such is a hallmark of a well crafted close listening experience
09 February 2018
RECOMMENDATION #210 - MATT LAJOIE | ML WAH
tackling my favorite new label's fresh batch of tapes, all of em highly appreciated additions to my collection, but these are the standouts by my measure
MATT LAJOIE - THE FOUNTAIN
flower room 2018, edition of 50
"Recorded live at 3S Artspace (Portsmouth, NH) 06.29.17. Special thanks to Daniel Bachman & John Andrews. / Matt Lajoie: electric guitar / Home-dubbed Type I music grade c27, with each cassette shell individually hand-painted by the artist. Full-color pro-printed tip-on cover on clear polybox, hand-numbered and strictly limited to 50 copies." - FLOWER ROOM
LAJOIE at peak electric (slide) guitar wizardry - side one akin to JON COLLIN eschewing his typical "a loner starkly" approach, arming himself with a warm amp and an array of pedals, pulling up alongside criminally underappreciated fellow weirdo folk guitar veteran DOC DUNN (another regular MV & EE road warrior and studio contributor), here LAJOIE conjures an electric vibe parallel to DUNN's 2009 acoustic trip PEACE BE YOUR RIDER courtesy BENIFFER
side two pushes past COLLIN and DUNN toward a more boldly psychedelic territory adjacent to folks like RAFI BOOKSTABER and CLOUDSOUND with glorious gradually de-sychronizing loops nearing the kosmische zone of "golden age" EXPO 70 circa 2009-11, not too far from the last known intergalactic position of LAJOIE's mainline HERBCRAFT triangulated by masterpiece WOT OZ and satellite tapes TABS OUT and AMEN DUEL, bringing to mind another avant rural guitar gem quietly collecting a decade of dust by another unheralded trailblazer in 2008's DUST AMERICAN DUST by PETE FOSCO courtesy DIGITALIS - this is like the best tape DIGITALIS never released
ML WAH - BIG AIR
flower room 2018, edition of 50
"ML Wah's solo debut is a long-awaited return to the brass instrumentation that was the origin of his musical path 25 years ago. An unbroken chain of ambient sample-and-hold-based automatic compositions unfold organically in the cathedral of now time across two sides. / ML Wah: trumpet, slide trombone / Home-dubbed Type I music-grade c52, with hand-painted A-side and hand-stamped B-side on black shell. Full-color pro-printed tip-on cover, hand-numbered and strictly limited to 50." - FLOWER ROOM
a mind-blowing dark ambient drone concerto for trumpet, patient longform improvisation elegantly laid out over hypnotic loops laced with kosmische experimentation - big air, indeed - a tabula rasa dream state where out of the nothingness appears this surging swelling energy, a glorious sonic monolith of origin and inspiration, primitive yet profound, echoing enthralling existential evocations in DEREK ROGERS' SATURATIONS and SOMNOROASE PASARELE's DEMO, kinda like LICHENS' THE PSYCHIC NATURE OF BEING swapping voice for trumpet
LAJOIE offers a crucial bold brass counterpoint to COLIN STETSON's hyped saxophone works, which, aside from the fact that i wholeheartedly believe that the trumpet is a vastly superior instrument (unless you're almighty COLTRANE or SANDERS), right out of the gate i find BIG AIR's approach and execution much more -exponentially more- captivating and exhilarating than anything i've heard from STETSON, but hey, that's just me
BIG AIR kinda taps into the cinematic charge of both LIGETI and STRAUSS courtesy 2001 and to some extent VANGELIS' BLADE RUNNER score, as well as the hushed stark psychosis sides of early to mid 70s MILES DAVIS, sure think BITCHES BREW, but just as much if not more so BIG FUN and GET UP WITH IT
a year end top ten tape heavyweight contender right here
MATT LAJOIE - THE FOUNTAIN
flower room 2018, edition of 50
"Recorded live at 3S Artspace (Portsmouth, NH) 06.29.17. Special thanks to Daniel Bachman & John Andrews. / Matt Lajoie: electric guitar / Home-dubbed Type I music grade c27, with each cassette shell individually hand-painted by the artist. Full-color pro-printed tip-on cover on clear polybox, hand-numbered and strictly limited to 50 copies." - FLOWER ROOM
LAJOIE at peak electric (slide) guitar wizardry - side one akin to JON COLLIN eschewing his typical "a loner starkly" approach, arming himself with a warm amp and an array of pedals, pulling up alongside criminally underappreciated fellow weirdo folk guitar veteran DOC DUNN (another regular MV & EE road warrior and studio contributor), here LAJOIE conjures an electric vibe parallel to DUNN's 2009 acoustic trip PEACE BE YOUR RIDER courtesy BENIFFER
side two pushes past COLLIN and DUNN toward a more boldly psychedelic territory adjacent to folks like RAFI BOOKSTABER and CLOUDSOUND with glorious gradually de-sychronizing loops nearing the kosmische zone of "golden age" EXPO 70 circa 2009-11, not too far from the last known intergalactic position of LAJOIE's mainline HERBCRAFT triangulated by masterpiece WOT OZ and satellite tapes TABS OUT and AMEN DUEL, bringing to mind another avant rural guitar gem quietly collecting a decade of dust by another unheralded trailblazer in 2008's DUST AMERICAN DUST by PETE FOSCO courtesy DIGITALIS - this is like the best tape DIGITALIS never released
ML WAH - BIG AIR
flower room 2018, edition of 50
"ML Wah's solo debut is a long-awaited return to the brass instrumentation that was the origin of his musical path 25 years ago. An unbroken chain of ambient sample-and-hold-based automatic compositions unfold organically in the cathedral of now time across two sides. / ML Wah: trumpet, slide trombone / Home-dubbed Type I music-grade c52, with hand-painted A-side and hand-stamped B-side on black shell. Full-color pro-printed tip-on cover, hand-numbered and strictly limited to 50." - FLOWER ROOM
a mind-blowing dark ambient drone concerto for trumpet, patient longform improvisation elegantly laid out over hypnotic loops laced with kosmische experimentation - big air, indeed - a tabula rasa dream state where out of the nothingness appears this surging swelling energy, a glorious sonic monolith of origin and inspiration, primitive yet profound, echoing enthralling existential evocations in DEREK ROGERS' SATURATIONS and SOMNOROASE PASARELE's DEMO, kinda like LICHENS' THE PSYCHIC NATURE OF BEING swapping voice for trumpet
LAJOIE offers a crucial bold brass counterpoint to COLIN STETSON's hyped saxophone works, which, aside from the fact that i wholeheartedly believe that the trumpet is a vastly superior instrument (unless you're almighty COLTRANE or SANDERS), right out of the gate i find BIG AIR's approach and execution much more -exponentially more- captivating and exhilarating than anything i've heard from STETSON, but hey, that's just me
BIG AIR kinda taps into the cinematic charge of both LIGETI and STRAUSS courtesy 2001 and to some extent VANGELIS' BLADE RUNNER score, as well as the hushed stark psychosis sides of early to mid 70s MILES DAVIS, sure think BITCHES BREW, but just as much if not more so BIG FUN and GET UP WITH IT
a year end top ten tape heavyweight contender right here
05 February 2018
RECOMMENDATION #209 - BURNT HILLS
BURNT HILLS - ROUND LAKE
c/site 2018, edition of 100
"safe to say that the best Monday night house party has been happening on a weekly basis at the Helderberg House in Albany. For well over a decade Burnt Hills has gotten together on Monday nights to jam, host shows and produce some of the best free-form psych rock the 21st century has known. On Round Lake, one such Monday evening is captured. On this night the usual Burnt Hills players are joined by Marc Weinstein, former drummer of the mighty MX-80 Sound (that makes for a total of three drummers on this session). Starting on a slow groove, Round Lake ramps up quickly into the full freakout that has been typical of Burnt Hills jams. The band sustains the heaviness with the confidence and ease of seasoned vets, allowing the listener to be lost in the shred and fury pulsing out of the basement." - C/SITE
ROUND LAKE continues BH's emphasis on the groove, letting in some natural moonlight and cool air to counter some of the daunting claustrophobia of their patented helderberg haze, apparent that -something- is different in the gradient, more than just a third drummer, though crucial in the waning minutes of this hour long excursion - the first few could be a lost basement tape of ASSEMBLE HEAD IN SUNBURST SOUND or hell maybe even DEERHUNTER if they hooked left instead of faded right after CRYPTOGRAMS, but then it slides toward their more familiar careening cacophony
following a wide-open gear-shifting muscular groove, ROUND LAKE channels BEEFHEART's "drop out boogie" and the KINKS "you really got me", elliptically orbiting a vibe triangulated by ELEVATORS' LIVE IN TEXAS, FLYING SAUCER ATTACK's IN SEARCH OF SPACES and COLEMAN's FREE JAZZ with an ambulance siren and table saw added to the lobe-splitting frenzy - that said, ROUND LAKE mostly manages to stay on its hinges, with some sweet lead guitar lines that mange to climb -just barely- above the fray long enough to open pathways previously closed off by gratuitous sonic demolition - if previous efforts might be perceived as "noise" -pejorative sense- then perhaps this is thee BH recording to shed that stigma and earn more appreciative ears
is this stoner rock? eh, sure, but it's sure to send most purveyors ducking for cover, so i might go with somethin a bit more selective like "proto industrial bonehead kosmische" or even the grossly ambiguous "experimental rock" if that helps any fence-riders - perhaps consider BIRDS OF MAYA's READY TO HOWL and MIKE VEST (BLOWN OUT, HAIKAI NO KU) demos, or that ROUND LAKE could be construed as BH siphoning away some of the untapped resources lying beneath adjacent sonic territories of fellow tip-of-the-spear free rock outfits DSDV and DIRE WOLVES, though both arrived on the scene after BH, and ROUND LAKE is still very much (un)filtered through BH's inimitable -untouchable- chaos theory, obliterating everything in its path
get it direct from C/SITE -or- from FLIPPED OUT distro (run by central BURNT HILLS member and helderberg house owner JACKSON WINGATE), who still has some PSI LAB tapes available (PL08 NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, PL14 SKITTISH ARM and PL15 DIRE WOLVES)
http://csiterecordings.storenvy.com/products/23134554-burnt-hills-round-lake-cs
http://flippedoutrecords.com/shop/burnt-hills-round-lake-cassette-c-site-recordings
c/site 2018, edition of 100
"safe to say that the best Monday night house party has been happening on a weekly basis at the Helderberg House in Albany. For well over a decade Burnt Hills has gotten together on Monday nights to jam, host shows and produce some of the best free-form psych rock the 21st century has known. On Round Lake, one such Monday evening is captured. On this night the usual Burnt Hills players are joined by Marc Weinstein, former drummer of the mighty MX-80 Sound (that makes for a total of three drummers on this session). Starting on a slow groove, Round Lake ramps up quickly into the full freakout that has been typical of Burnt Hills jams. The band sustains the heaviness with the confidence and ease of seasoned vets, allowing the listener to be lost in the shred and fury pulsing out of the basement." - C/SITE
ROUND LAKE continues BH's emphasis on the groove, letting in some natural moonlight and cool air to counter some of the daunting claustrophobia of their patented helderberg haze, apparent that -something- is different in the gradient, more than just a third drummer, though crucial in the waning minutes of this hour long excursion - the first few could be a lost basement tape of ASSEMBLE HEAD IN SUNBURST SOUND or hell maybe even DEERHUNTER if they hooked left instead of faded right after CRYPTOGRAMS, but then it slides toward their more familiar careening cacophony
following a wide-open gear-shifting muscular groove, ROUND LAKE channels BEEFHEART's "drop out boogie" and the KINKS "you really got me", elliptically orbiting a vibe triangulated by ELEVATORS' LIVE IN TEXAS, FLYING SAUCER ATTACK's IN SEARCH OF SPACES and COLEMAN's FREE JAZZ with an ambulance siren and table saw added to the lobe-splitting frenzy - that said, ROUND LAKE mostly manages to stay on its hinges, with some sweet lead guitar lines that mange to climb -just barely- above the fray long enough to open pathways previously closed off by gratuitous sonic demolition - if previous efforts might be perceived as "noise" -pejorative sense- then perhaps this is thee BH recording to shed that stigma and earn more appreciative ears
is this stoner rock? eh, sure, but it's sure to send most purveyors ducking for cover, so i might go with somethin a bit more selective like "proto industrial bonehead kosmische" or even the grossly ambiguous "experimental rock" if that helps any fence-riders - perhaps consider BIRDS OF MAYA's READY TO HOWL and MIKE VEST (BLOWN OUT, HAIKAI NO KU) demos, or that ROUND LAKE could be construed as BH siphoning away some of the untapped resources lying beneath adjacent sonic territories of fellow tip-of-the-spear free rock outfits DSDV and DIRE WOLVES, though both arrived on the scene after BH, and ROUND LAKE is still very much (un)filtered through BH's inimitable -untouchable- chaos theory, obliterating everything in its path
get it direct from C/SITE -or- from FLIPPED OUT distro (run by central BURNT HILLS member and helderberg house owner JACKSON WINGATE), who still has some PSI LAB tapes available (PL08 NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, PL14 SKITTISH ARM and PL15 DIRE WOLVES)
http://csiterecordings.storenvy.com/products/23134554-burnt-hills-round-lake-cs
http://flippedoutrecords.com/shop/burnt-hills-round-lake-cassette-c-site-recordings
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