It was extremely interesting talking with Mario Anzola of Captan, Obvio over email. Captan, Obvio comes to us from Caracas, Venezuela, where Mario says there is virtually no appreciation for any sort of musical experimentation. In essence, these guys are on their own. This information totally intrigued me to listen to this record. What I found was music that was very similar in sound and approach to the scene in which I currently reside – Louisville, and its historic post-rock period, from 4,000 miles away!
Though the band cites classic psychedelic influences, Wachu Min takes pages out of the books of June of 44 and Rodan. Spastic and angular guitar interplay, moods rife with paranoia, tinty electronic textures, and an improvisational attitude dominate Wachu Min. If the following tracks sound rather cohesive, they should. Captan, Obvio recorded this record in a single day and session, which you don’t hear of too often (Electrelane’s Axes was the last album I can think of produced this way).
Only a few years into his career, understated folk alchemist Stephen Wilkinson aka Bibio already has three stellar full-lengths under his belt. That’s a tall order to add on, especially considering the most recent one dropped a couple months ago, but I guess Wilkinson doesn’t sleep, because his next installment is already prepped to go. In hindsight, you could look at this spring’s Vignetting the Compost as the final word a trilogy of albums, because having perfected his blend of folk, ambient electronica, and other lush antiquities into a seemingly effortless recipe, Wilkinson makes a crossover bid towards synthetic wilderness on Ambivalence Avenue.
This debut for Warp Records (where Wilkinson can now release music beside his heroes the Boards of Canada), is built around the same aesthetics of past albums, but then chopped and chewed into both awe struck and knee-jerked forms of electronica, glitch-hop, folk/funk, and straight dance. He is not afraid to flex his production skills like on the Dilla/Prefuse inspired “Fire Ant”, which marries his love of IDM and ambient nostalgia into a seriously soulful crowd-pleaser. If anyone picked up Bibio’s remix of Wax Stag’s “Folk Rock”, you have a pretty good idea of what the up-tempo segments of this album will sound like.
But then again it wouldn’t really be a Bibio release without some textural ADD, and there are a few interjections of his singer-songwriter persona throughout, like the frail warble of “The Palm of Your Wave”. Individually, these songs are all evidence of a high point in Wilkinson’s adventurous output, but when you put them side to side it’s difficult to imagine a similar creator, with a few exceptions. “Cry! Baby!” makes a strong case that Wilkinson has a concrete vision for integrating his folk arraignments into an IDM platform. Of course, with the title Ambivalence Avenue, it’s obvious that this album was intended to be an exploration of the contrasts and compliments of these disparate genres.
Other points of interest include the howling lo-fi banger “Jealous of Roses” that sounds like the alumni of an Ariel Pink-run class on funk classics, and “S’Vive” which if it had only come out a few months earlier could’ve been a contender for the now-announced Warp20 tracklisting, boasting a euphoric Hudson Mohawke-esque spindle of glitchy drums and tweaked vocal snippets.
We’ve been a believer in Bibio for a long time now and we haven’t had to eat our words yet. This LP isn’t as conceptually dense as Fi or Hand Cranked, but basically, your car’s stereo is fiendin’ for this album, and even the pop-oriented segments can’t escape being colored by Wilkinson’s warm psychedelic leanings.
Ambivalence Avenue is out June 22nd on Warp Records.
Oh, and just for kicks/reference, here’s a vid of Bibio dusting off his MPC back in 2007 under his Duckular project:
Even more excellent events coming up around the corner! The Last Call Film Festival, at Old Louisville’s Rudyard Kipling, is one of the only film festivals in the country that does not require a submission fee. As such, I can only imagine some of the insanity that might creep up on the screen. However, the best part might just be the full AV performance by The Octopus Project on Saturday evening. The schedule of films is not yet available, so czech Last Call’s website soon for updates.
Last Call Film Festival feat. The Octopus Project and More!
Friday, June 26 and Saturday, June 27
Doors @ 6 p.m.
The Rudyard Kipling
422 W. Oak St, Louisville (map that shizz)
The mighty WFMU brings the goods once again, archiving a soundboard quality recording of Oneida’s insane performance at last month’s Primavera Sound Festival (known for its beautiful ambience along the Spanish Mediterranean and the location where Wavves lost his shit but I totally don’t blame him for it). The recording includes an Acid Mothers Temple-esque, undeniably evil, kaleidoscopic, 43-minute brain busting rendition of “Each One Teach One.” It’s fucking ridiculous and delightfully unnecessary. I feel stoned listening to this right now. Love this band.
Unfortunately, the kraut punk collective opted to not play any new material from the forthcoming Rated O. But who gives a shit – it’s Oneida, and it’ll be good. Nevertheless, the group will be celebrating its July 7th release with a couple of stateside dates, and a couple of European ones, too. The domestic rockshows will feature some big ballaz – Amps For Christ, Sunburned Hand of the Man, Wooden Shjips, and more:
07.10.09 – Hoboken, NJ – Maxwell’s
07.11.09 – San Francisco, CA – Bottom of the Hill #
07.12.09 – Los Angeles, CA – The Echoplex &
07.24.09 – Brooklyn, NY – Todd P Event – TBA %
07.25.09 – Medford, MA – Outside the Lines Studio %
07.26.09 – New Haven, CT – BAR
08.07.09 – Kutna Hora, CZ- Art Festival
08.08.09 – Berlin, GER – Berlin Festival
08.09.09 – Scheer, GER – Klangbad Festival
08.14.09 – Amsterdam, NL – Paradiso
08.15.09 – Tilburg, NL – TBC
# – Wooden Shjips, Jonas Reinhardt
& – Amps for Christ, Clipd Beaks
% – Sunburned Hand of the Man
Yes, Bonnie Prince Billy’s latest releases, Beware and his Among the Gold collaboration with Chyenne Mize, are excellent. But Bachelorette’s My Electric Family (The Deicbel Tolls review) is next level shit. This is your heads-up to arrive early to the show tonight at The Red Mile in Lexington. Doors are at 9 p.m. Get there at exactly that time, render your $12, and have Annabelle Alpers destroy your brain for 45 minutes (show info).
Congrats to Alex for gripping the tickets in last week’s giveaway. Enjoy this video of “Intergalactic Solitude” from Isolation Loops in Brooklyn. Yay for mushrooms.
And man… I. Just. Can’t. Stop. Listening. To. “Instructions For Insomniacs.” Good gawd, ya’ll. Enjoy this too.
Bay Area drone architect Gregg Kowalsky is one of Kranky’s newest offerings. Of course, Kranky is one of maybe four labels wherein if the skewed rectangle logo is present on any given album’s spine, said record will probably be blazin’. Kowalsky’s Tape Chants is no different.
While I enjoy ambient music, there are very few ambient artists I can truly cheer for outside Christian Fennesz and William Basinski. However, Kowalsky, who holds a masters in electronic music performance and recording, is one of them. The potent alien oscillator tone that opens “Vi-Vii” makes your eyes dart about the room, provoking you to think someone else is present. Sound interesting to you? It should, I love that feeling. And like Basinski, Kowalsky has an affinity for tape loops. For live performances, Kowalsky uses between six and ten cassette recorders and commercial stereo units scattered about the perimeter of the performance space. The amplitudes of the individual tape players are adjusted, and Gregg walks around the space listening to the overall mix, acting as a true sound alchemist. As he describes himself “the live set fits somewhere between sound installation and performance.” Many of the tapes from these live installations make up his sophomore release.
Sure, to an extent, Kowalski makes academic music. But you don’t have to be a music academic to find the timbre, tonality, and serendipitous deameanor of tape loop performance completely engaging. Kowalski craftily cultivates a sort of breathing organism in his fascinating thick analog stew – creating ambient music to get excited about.
Tape Chants is available now courtesy of the good bros and broettes at Kranky. Greg is also hitting the road this week, so peep his MySpace page for the latest date confirmations.
How can you pass on a band called Psychedelic Horseshit? These Columbus, Ohio psych-poppers are largely dismissive of the shitgaze scene that they are often lumped into, and talk their fair share of trash about its guilty participants. Core member Matt Whitehurst recently chatted with the Washington Post about the current state of lo-fi music noting, “I’m not Rick Rubin, but I wanna be,” and going on to accuse peers like Wavves of, “hiding behind static.” And while he’s probably right, all this “constructive criticism” is just gonna land these guys in the bitter has-bin with Lydia Lunch one day.
Of course, none of this gossip would matter if Psychedelic Horeshit didn’t have some killer bite to back up the nagging. Their most recent assault is the cheekily-titled Shitgaze Anthems, a self-desribed “b-sides EP from an album that hasn’t come out yet.” It’s loud, catchy, and filtered through the kind of fuzz that really sticks to the bottom your shoes. These six songs willfully interchange psych, punk, dub, folk, psychobilly, and garage rock for their unique sound that could sit comfortably within the Black Lips early catalog. Opener “We’re Pink Floyd, Bitch” juxtaposes snot-nosed vocals and insane choral explosions of grinding stone melodies and chirping synths into some seriously thick-skinned pop. There are many surprises on this EP, from amphetamine C86-style punk of “Dreadlock Paranoia,” that abruptly dissolves into a clunky reggae bridge, to the coarse acoustic strumming of “As in Dreams Pt. 2″. With the adventurous song-structures, the vocals are the most lack luster component of this outspoken group, but if he ever takes the clothes pin off his nose, these guys may someday replace their umbrella-peers like Vivian Girls as no-fi royalty.
Shitgaze Anthems is available now on Woodsist, and no one blames you if you can’t get into it.
For fans of: Sic Alps, Eat Skulls, early Black Lips
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