After the somewhat recent departure of Caralee McElroy, they’ve enlisted the full-time help of previously part-time collaborator Angela Seo on piano, synth, and programming. Production was co-headed by Stewart and Deerhoof’s Greg Saunier, who plays on most of the album as well. On “This To Shall Pass Away (for Freddy)”, a possible ode to the late Queen front man, the group will joined by the Immaculata Catholic School Orchestra. Word is that this new release will be heavy on the goth pop side of things (comin’ for you, Cold Cave), with four songs composed heavily on a Nintendo DS. But however they reincarnate themselves, you can be sure to expect the usual ingredients of superb art-damaged pop, scattershot rhythms, atonal explosions, and embarrassing details. Xiu to the muthafuckin Xiu, 2k10.

Dear God, I Hate Myself will be available February 23rd on Kill Rock Stars.

Track list:
1. Gray Death
2. Chocolate Makes You Happy
3. Apple for a Brain
4. House Sparrow
5. Hyunhye’s Theme
6. Dear God, I Hate Myself
7. Secret Motel
8. Falkland Rd.
9. The Fabrizio Palumbo Retaliation
10. Cumberland Gap
11. This Too Shall Pass Away (for Freddy)
12. Impossible Feeling

MP3:::
Xiu Xiu – I am Hated for Loving (Moz cover)

We’ve been really psyched on all the love that Web 2.0 has shown us in our first year up, so we’re looking to expand our output and get a couple new people aboard. While our focus will remain on music review/commentary/etc, we could really use some people who could help us take photos at shows and/or conduct interviews. Of course, if you don’t have a camera or live in the middle of nowhere that’s okay too, just send us 2 writing samples of your stuff (these don’t have to be published articles). Also, if you’ve got ideas for some feature writing, we’d be happy to house your scene reports, essays, analysis, or anything else you can make interesting. Honestly, we’re flexible as hell with content, all we really ask is that you:

-Understand the general taste and ethos of this website. (i.e. what genres we cover, who our pin cushions are, who butters our bread)
-Have a decent grip on the English language. (if you can fake it with spellcheck, more power to you, we’ll never know)
-Be able to contribute ideally 2-4 times a week. (or as much as you want)
-Can dig that this is a labor or love and therefore compensation will come in the form of free music, dumb e-mails from Bloggins and I, and being able to gain a little bit of exposure/practice in the world of music journalism.

So, if this sounds agreeable to you, send an email to mh[at]thedecibeltolls[dot]com letting us know a little bit about yourself, what kind of music you dig, what you’d like to do for The Decibel Tolls, and a few samples of your writing and/or photography. Happy applicating!

You can cop Chinoiseries here.

For fans of:  J Dilla, Madlib, Oh No

MP3:::
Onra – One Day
Onra – What Up Duyet?

Dragon Turtle, the duo of Brian Lightbody and Tom Asselin (of Lewis & Clarke), is the newest project to arise from the enigmatic La Société Expéditionnaire. Their debut full-length Almanac, is an expansive 45-minute trek that explores an alternating fear and awe of the natural world, and everything in between. They didn’t pack lightly either, hoarding a curious mix of folk, kraut rock, post rock, and small touches of world music.

The maiden voyage of “Causality” pushes off with warm cider acoustic picking, muffled distant bongos and various textural percussion. Mountain-enveloping swarms of foggy synths drift in and idle as quiet wails in the background provoke riffs to thaw out slowly from the mix. Other tracks like “Moon Fallout” follow suit with cloud-bursting strings and downtrodden vox that somberly consent to the ebb and flow, setting up thematic contrast for the desolate episodes that explode like glorious outbursts of cabin fever. So even when ambient side paths like the 11-minute “Hourglass” seem static, and probably run on for longer than they need to, they still manage to artfully contribute tension to the tracklist. This is definitely an album that makes more sense when listened to in one sitting.

At times, the mingling of antiquated instrumentation evokes the hermetic splendor of the Microphones opus The Glow Part 2, while the anxious kraut pace of “Island of Broken Glass” marries fireside calypso, dislocated melodies, and charred guitar work into something that could easily be mistaken for the collage work of Faust. This is exampled especially on the claustrophobic vignette “Apophis”, sporting bizarre french speak-singing, banjo twiddling, and choppy samurai licks.

What we have here is very much a studio-crafted album, with many exhaustive hours spent in the band’s personal hideout One Forest, experimenting and harnessing the perfect textures for their cause. At times, the obsession with pure sound can borrow a limb from their focus on composition. A few cuts like the oddly naked pensive noodling of “Hometime” feels like an afterthought, or a puzzle piece that didn’t quite fit but was jammed in anyway. Almanac is not perfectly conceived, nor is it always spectacular, but it is consistently immersive the entire way through, culminating in some of the most intense moments of frantic beauty to come out of my speakers all year. The unique sound space that these two have carved out is worthy of your attention alone. Highly conceptual with little pretension, and passionately constructed, these ten tracks turn over enough gems along the way that I am already salivating for their next release. Not an album to miss out on.

Almanac is available now through the folks at La Société Expéditionnaire.

For Fans Of: The Microphones/Mt. Eerie, some Faust, Six Organs of Admittance

MP3 :::
Dragon Turtle – Island of Broken Glass
Dragon Turtle – Moon Fallout

Marc Richter may be best known as head honcho of Hamburg-based Dekorder Records, but since 2007 he’s run a parallel campaign as the dark ambient project Black to Comm. Closer in spirit to experimental figures of yesterday like Moondog and Bernard Herrmann than current artists, Richter seems dead set on completely disorienting our frame of reference. His new full-length for Type Records, Alphabet 1968, is a collection of oddities featuring: ‘kitchen gamelan’, smudged and disguised samples of vinyl, radio, and live recordings. Fairly static in composition, these ten tracks of densely forested clips provide a panoramic view of his meticulous sound dioramas.

The fragmented nature of this trip was designed to evoke the sensation of Richter’s favorite records, creating moods ranging from dark, gloomy ambient to sentimental musique concrete. Sparse traces of minimal techno are infused into the pulse of “Forst”, the album’s longest episode, a hat tip to fellow German pioneer Wolfgang Voigt. Dusty interludes like “Rauschen” and “Traum GmbH” tap curiously poignant receptors using only skeletal motifs of dry acoustic notes, phantom organ swells, and an omnipresent, but nearly subliminal backdrop of flickering voices, submerged tape loops, and field recordings. While frustrating at times, Richter does manage to arrive at moments of extremely cinematic avant-garde music that’s unlike much we’ve ever heard before.

Alphabet 1968 is available now through Type Records.

For Fans of:  Burning Star Core, Eric Copeland, Gas

MP3 :::
Black to Comm – Rauschen
Black to Comm – Traum GmbH

Impressionist splatters of found sounds, bright porcelain reverb, and ecstatic song shifts color the work of Philly’s Golden Ages. Working under this project for a little under a year now, he’s just self-released his debut EP Sitting Softly in the Sea. “I had this silly DJ/dance project that I grew apart from,” he told us, explaining his transition from “unabashedly electronic music into something more organic.” Throughout the EP’s four tracks, you can see both sides of the fence. On “Black Swan” ambient post-rock full of Fripp-inspired fuzz and lo-fi textures take a sharp turn into male/female harmonies mingling above minimal electronica beats.

“I’ve been invited to play a few shows but I’m holding off on performing until I finish the first album,” he told us when asked about the project’s future, “once that’s finished I’m going to take things live, which I’m really excited about.” Golden Age’s debut full-length, called Tradition, is set to drop in the near future. “The upcoming album will in some ways have a different mood than the EP. The EP was a reflection on all of the difficult things going on at that time,” he explained, “the new album is equally as introspective, but it’s more positive.” You can keep up with Golden Ages updates via his myspace, where you can also download Sitting Softly in the Sea for free.

For Fans of:  M83, High Places, Wild Nothing

MP3 :::
Golden Ages – Black Swan

I know what you’re thinking, another “castles” band, but these guys cut out the middleman of silicon chips and 404’s and tap directly into the jam spell-book. Magic Castles were assembled in Minneapolis, MN, at the end of 2006 by songwriter Jason Edmonds. Incorporating aspects of blues, classic psych, experimental, and folk, they have since become a fixture their local scene, playing intimate shows at bonfires, farms, and music shoppes.

Fast forward one year and these boys have crafted six new songs for their new album on Moon Glyph Tapes. Recorded “between the witching hour and three a.m” over the past couple months, Songs of the Forest is a collection of simple mantras powering heavy results. They exercise a good range of aesthetics on thier third LP, like the angular guitar and distant UFO organs On “Wayne-O” that lays down the matting for Edmonds’ vexed balladry. While spacious tracks like “Songs of the Forest” build carousel momentum with White Light/White Heat inspired rollicking distortion, slowly levitating the group’s energy, awaiting divine interjections of trombone and unexplained sounds.

Magic Castles could easily be lumped in with New Weird America, but their complexity of influences keeps them arms length from the tedious novelties that tend go with along with that label. These recordings are remarkably well mixed for so many elements going directly to tape, keeping the tones saturated and hypnotizing without sacrificing any clarity. A lot of home made psych jams put out through small labels sound like they were a lot of fun to make, but their indulgence can make them fall flat to third party ears like an inside joke. Songs of the Forest, however, manages to balance that same DIY spirit with an execution of purpose that makes the strength of these tunes self-evident.

Songs of the Forest is available now through Moon Glyph Tapes.

For fans of: Willie Lane, Spiritualized, Velvet Underground

MP3 :::
Magic Castles – Wayne-O
Magic Castles – Songs of the Forest

I’ve been on a bit of an ambient kick lately so it was a convenient time to discover Black Eagle Child. Plus he’s named at least one album after a Twin Peaks reference so I was already pretty much sold from start. The project’s sole member Michael Jantz crafts bright, fog-lifting meditations, sometimes with nothing but an acoustic guitar, digital delay, and an amp. Seeds That Sprout in the Summer, released earlier this year on Stunned Records, focuses on simple pastoral lines, creating waltzes of echos that patiently shift their core in natural directions. Distant synths ping at almost subliminal levels, thickening the organic drone of the music. More upbeat tracks like “Made-Up Name” pose wide-eyed among their backwoods fingerpicking for melting quality similar to Fi-era Bibio.

The most recent cassette Two Days features dual sides of one-take experiments with guitar loops. The songs were salvaged from a few jams conducted in the days following the birth of his daughter. Most of his tunes seem to be framed in a similar way, substituting a four-track or tape recorder in place of a journal. A one-man outpost of delicate accounts of events,  Jantz even offers his releases in exchange for a copy of your own music. What other artists can you think of that operate on the barter system? Until I heard Black Eagle Child, I was positive that Emerald’s Mark McGuire would hold my favorite ambient jams from 2009, but this stuff, especially Seeds, is some healthy competition. Next in line is the Poland LP coming out soon on Sturmundrugs Records, as well as a collaboration with Russian sound-scapist Kabyzdoh Obtruhamchi.

Here is a list of places you can find/purchase/trade Black Eagle Child releases.

For fans of:  Mark McGuire (not the baseball great), early Bibio, The Alps

MP3 :::
Black Eagle Child – Grass Swaddle
Black Eagle Child – Made Up Name

Is it safe to say that Woodsist may have the greatest batting average of any record label this year? Looking to put one more trophy in the cabinet, they plan to release the debut full-length from Real Estate next month. The garden state group uses phased surf guitar working in cahoots with autumnal acoustic overtones to produce something along the lines of a slacker Yo La Tengo. A dejected tropical palette forged by guitarist Matt Mondanile of Ducktails (although this is closer sounding to his recent work with Parasails), and vocalist/guitarist Martin Courtney, whose singing evokes a folkier Doug Martsch. This new self-titled album is largely a collection of rerecorded tracks from previous EP’s and 7″s . The changes are mostly on the mixing/mastering end, and while it’s usually a polarizing venture to polish up a band’s style, the smoother production more than suits Real Estate’s gossamer melodies. You can find all the dates for their current fall tour here.

The self-titled debut will be out on Woodsist November 17th.

For Fans of:  Yo La Tengo, Ducktails/Parasails, Best Coast

MP3 :::
Real Estate – Fake Blues
Real Estate – Snow Days

Having spent a few years wading through chest-level distortion, the L.A. based noise outfit Robedoor have built a cult following for their sinister tape explorations. Coming home to roost from an east coast tour with the recently departed(and dearly missed) Pocahaunted, the group sent six months preparing the follow-up to 2008’s Endlessly Blazing. Their new full length, Raiders, signals an effort to evolve beyond a strictly drone project into an iowaska-drinking mutant of heavy, creeping rock and psychic textures.

Raiders is a colosseum of reverb where inconsolable voices howl and apocalypse-taunting guitar lines smack against the gates of low end tones. With the addition of a new drummer, the group catchs a torch-carrying fever for a sonic witch hunt. A newfound focus on the vocals, coated in bile, kick fresh momentum into the group’s Sunn O))) influenced amplification obsession. This is set to be printed in a limited edition of 500 copies on vinyl, but will also be available in cassette format.

Raiders is available now through Not Not Fun.

For Fans of:  Magic Lantern, Double Leopards, Racoo-oo-oon

MP3 :::
Robedoor – Countdown to Depression