Saturday, May 30, 2009

Sunn O)))-Monoliths and Dimensions (2009)



Note: This will probably be removed at some point. Get it while you can.

"SUNN O))) is proud to present their 7th studio album, after 10 years of existence, entitled Monoliths & Dimensions. The album showcases the core guitar duo - Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson - incorporating influences from a plethora of guest musicians, bringing the SUNN O))) sound to epic new levels. The band also collaborated with composer Eyvind Kang (notable for his work with John Zorn, Marc Ribot, Bill Frisell, etc.) on various acoustic ensembles, in addition to the Helios fueled electric guitars and basses. Key players on the album include Australian guitar genius Oren Ambarchi, enigmatic Hungarian vocalist Attila Csihar (Mayhem, Tormentor, etc.) and slow music godfather Dylan Carlson (Earth), as well as Julian Priester (worked with Sun Ra in the 50s, John Coltrane’s African Brass band, and Herbie Hancock’s Sextant band) and new-music horn player Stuart Dempster. There’s also an upright bass trio, French & English horns, harp & flute duo, piano, brass, reed & strings ensembles, and a Viennese woman’s choir led by Persian vocal savant Jessika Kenney."

Haven't had a chance to listen to it yet but they have never disappointed and this is their best cast of characters by far. Should be a doomy occasion as always!

)))))))))))))))))))))))

Thursday, May 28, 2009

The Time & Space Machine- Vol. I (2007) and Vol. II (2009)

More awesome psych revivalism madness! This is one of half of Beyond the Wizard's Sleeve, DJ Richard Norris, engaging in the same fun, familiar territory. More awesome music to blast since it's summertime and, honestly, this stuff is some bad ass summer music. Does the word "groove" meaning anything to you? Get it, scallywags!




Vol. II (2009)



Vol. I (2007)

"Now onto Time & Space Machine, or Richard Norris, one half of psyche Sun warriors Beyond The Wizards Sleeve. 'Volume One' sounds like it was recorded in a field just outside of Dunwich where the haystacks burned with crimson flame and the Moon rose to meet with the Sun, clashing violently in plumes of cosmic miasma, seeping torrents of blood from a wound that drenched the earth and soaked into Richard's synthesisers, fantastic machines built with the technology from Videodrome."

Both albums together babeh.

Link

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

MV/EE & the Bummer Road-Green Blues (2006)



"

I must confess to temporarily losing contact with the complex universe of Matt Valentine, perhaps our decade’s greatest American vernacular artist, about a year ago: swamped by the (admittedly unrelentingly powerful) wave of solo and duo acoustic guitar CD-Rs he was releasing, I put my hands up in the air and stood back to breathe. Consequently, records such as Green Blues and its predecessor Mother of Thousands, both performed with constant foil Erika Elder and their rural pick-up gang The Bummer Road, hit like a sucker-punch. For one, MV & EE have focused their occasional prolix tendencies while maintaining their fondness for destabilizing psychotropic song forms. Secondly, these records represent a great squaring-off of Valentine’s interests: multi-limbed guitar improvisations; soaring post-Buckley freedom melody, best exemplified by MV’s Space Chanteys album from years back; and loose-arm group-sound that swallows American Primitive threads such as free jazz, early 20th century blues and the rustic melancholy of the Grateful Dead circa American Beauty.

Green Blues is one of the first records released by a newly energized Ecstatic Peace!, Thurston Moore’s imprint, who’ve hooked up an M&D deal with Fontana/Universal. It’s appropriate that Green Blues appears on first blush to be MV & EE’s most coherent recording, the first half of the set tackling C21 campfire songs that nonetheless still carry within their DNA the intensely fucked structural liberties that are part and parcel of Valentine’s song writing. Opener “East Mountain Joint,” floating out on humming mellotron supplied by J Mascis, is a celebratory flash, but it’s tracks like the following “Drive Is That I Love You,” which smear hypnotic acoustic guitar mantras with black-tar electric guitar fuzz as wasted as Royal Trux’s self-titled debut album, that carry the most weight. Most songs on the set are built from simple acoustic guitar, around which collect waves of distortion, floated flute and violin and purring tambura and dulcimer, sediment and grit that pulls the focus out on the aperture. By the closing two songs, “Grassthighs” and “Solar Hill," MV & EE have dropped most of the overt structure and let The Bummer Road fill in the gaps with fractal detail.

MV & EE have been the primary instigators and aesthetic anarchists in the American underground for some time now, and Green Blues is another kick to the solar plexus from the duo and their extended family. Luminous yet dense with foliage, filmed through a haze of smoke and fog, it’s their strongest collection of songs to date."

Like Neil Young, Tim Buckley, and the Velvet Underground thrown into the Psych Folk blender...so interesting and so good


Green Blues

Monday, May 4, 2009

Beyond the Wizards Sleeve-Ark 1 (Re-up)



My album of the year 2008.


No matter what, this album is perfect for any situation. Lounging, tripping, driving, whatever, it moves at such a perfect pace that it's just impossible not to get into it.

For example, we popped on Alice and Wonderland with this album in an attempt to sync it up while under the influence. Not only did us time travelers love it, but my drunk roommates also enjoyed it as well. To me, that's the sign of a completely compatible album. Everyone I've played it for really digs it, regardless of genre preferences.

So what is it? I guess if I had to describe it, I would say it is the Girl Talk of old school Psych, Krautrock, Freak Beat, etc. None of the music is original but goddamn if it isn't perfectly reinterpreted and overall enjoyable. The guys are two premier London DJs with an affinity for Psych and so there you go. If you missed it the first time around, don't this time. If any music makes Zoltar joyous, then it has supernatural powers without a doubt. Get it.

New link

P.S. This is for you Shevrin. No code to enter. Bwahaha.