Thanks to the wonders of Bandcamp, I am able to catch up on old friends’ bands from Los Angeles (like Tunnelmental, Farflung, The Secret Society of the Sonic Six), but it’s also quite pleasing to discover bands I missed out on. Cloud have a vibe that is not dissimilar to bands like Galaxie 500 or Luna, but add a touch of Los Angeles to their work. I’m not quite sure how I can qualify that, but growing up hearing so many bands in this area, there’s something in their music that makes it familiar. I’m really enjoying this band.
Month: June 2019
[Music] Jos Smolders – *.5O (for Frans de Waard)
Experimental music composer Jos Smolders is a friend of these pages, and it warms the heart a bit to see him pay tribute to Frans de Waard, the composer known as Kapotte Muziek and Beequeen who has also been one of the editors of the crucial Vital Weekly for eons. It is because of both Frans and my old friend, David Cotner, that I was inspired to start this blog. I am indebted to all three men.
[Music] Flowers Must Die – Montana / Nusrat EP
The freaks at Höga Nord Rekords release yet another monstrously good EP, this time from Sweden’s mighty neo-Kraut rockers Flowers Must Die. There are pulses and waves of heavy psych that remind one of Amon Düül II and Guru Guru. Lovely stuff.
[Music] Surrogate sigma – Topologie Algébrique
Fifty cents isn’t a bad investment for well over 400 releases on the Genetic Trance label out of Ohio. One of the releases caught my ear – this one by Surrogate Sigma. Unsurprisingly, there is no information on the band that I can find, save that they are from Ukraine and operate under a ridiculous amount of aliases. Still, this particular release reminded me of the works of old composers who were active during the 1980’s cassette culture days.
[Music] VI!VI!VI! – II
Many thanks to Audion Magazine legend Alan Freeman for turning me on to this heavy French band who have Faust and La STPO connections. Very loud, and definitely acolytes of Faust!
[Music] The Jam – All Mod Cons – Classic Music Review — altrockchick
Someone should do a longitudinal study on the applicability of the phrase “third time’s the charm” to rock albums, starting with the hypothesis that it takes three albums for rockers to truly come into their own. The third time was certainly the charm for The Rolling Stones (Out of Our Heads), The Who (The Who […]
via The Jam – All Mod Cons – Classic Music Review — altrockchick
[Music] NUM – False Awakening
Only a fool would believe we’re not living in a great time for music. The world of pop is banal, and should only be seen as entertainment. Actual music, that which is trying to continue breaking borders, bending (or snapping) rules, is doing quite well.
Iranian-born composer Maryam Sirvan has been featured on the blog before, having her powerful solo album reviewed here, but this is a newer release where she teams up with fellow composer Milad Bagheri and saxophonist Rezo Kiknadze. Few composers of this stripe are able to combine the intellectual rigors of electroacoustic music, especially that of the INA-GRM variety, with the gritty, ghostly feel of 20 Jazz Funk Greats-period Throbbing Gristle.
This is a brilliant work, and I hope to see more composers appearing out the of Caucasus soon.
[Art] Remedios Varo At Work
Remedios Varo was the queen of Spanish surrealist painters. She is depicted in her studio in the year 1957. The photographer was Duncan Mitchell.
h/t: underseadevotee
[Music] Lynn Williams – It Takes Two
A bit of deep funk has been rescued by our friends in Glasgow, Athens Of The North Records. From their Bandcamp site:
Lynn Williams may not be someone you have heard of but her pedigree is strong. Her father was Hank Ballard (of King and James Brown Fame) and her mother was 60s Miami Radio Personality and dance group leader Vanilla ”Miss Boom Boom” Williams. Lynn cut 5 Excellent 7”s for various Henry Stone owned Miami labels in the 70s here we present her two most collectable. The first ‘It Takes Two’ is a smokey deepfunk killer that would cost you £1000 any day of the week for good reason. On the flip “Don’t be Surprised” is one of Miami’s best ever deep soul records period, a dark serious ballad pulled off with amazing emotion considering her young years at the time of recording.
[Music] Sublamp – Lianas
Los Angeles based sound and video artist Ryan Connor has quite a reputation behind him, appearing on labels such as Serac (USA), Pehr (USA), SEM (France), Dragon’s Eye Recordings (USA), Friendly Virus (Portugal), Ahora Eterno (Argentina) Hibernate Recordings (UK) and Felt.
According to the composer:
“Every Sublamp record has been about an imaginary space, so the concept of pinning each release on Eilean to a fictional continent was exciting; the perfect excuse to indulge myself in layered textural sound again. Inspired by the cloud forests of Monteverde, Costa Rica, Lianas is an audio map of a densely wooded mountain range, shrouded in fog, where fern and vine drip with condensation and small animals slip quietly through the undergrowth. Very little computer manipulation was used in the creation of these tracks. Most of the sound on the record is simply looped guitar through various pedals and a nice warm tube amp, sometimes recorded through an old reel to reel tape machine for extra crackle and hiss.”
A Miscellany Of Tasteful Music 