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
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
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
Sometimes I’ll gladly risk wasting half an hour on a band I’ve never heard of if the name catches me. Such is the case with how I got into the music of Bobby Aherne, a.k.a some Irish guy who makes music as Dublin Duck Dispensary. I can’t tell you what that means, but I assure you that the tunes don’t suffer from the same gap in translation.
At it’s core, DDD is in the business of outsider tape-folk similar to acts like Pumice, but no two releases sound terribly alike. Earlier this year, Bobby released the Ykes Basket EP for free on the internet label Rack & Ruin records. Unaware of the lo-fi obsession smoldering over in the US, he busted out manic sprints of fried pop tunes from his bedroom. The crunchy riffs were supplemented by kitsch decorations of bells, whistles, and some homespun tales of Dadaist situations.
Then he did something expected; he turned it down a notch. Retreating to the coastline, Bobby pinned ten stripped tracks that would become the two sides of his most recent cassette Antique Beach Resort. Trading his electric guitar for a rusty acoustic, these new songs embrace the full-body strumming style of Jeff Mangum and his damp, campfire psychedelia. The vocals, a droll combination of snotty and naive, extract everything from catharsis to celebration. “It’s the same key to the palace as the morgue,” he sings on side b as the melody is overtaken by possessed claps and howls. This tape is a fascinating polaroid of his time spent seaside, and worth saving from obscurity.
Antique Beach Resort is available now on Rack & Ruin records website.
There is a fine line between too much information and too little, which makes conducting interviews a bit like a game of Russian roulette. This is especially true when your subject doesn’t necessarily want to meet your questions half way. Luckily, with eccentric personalities and inflamed egos you’re likely to get something candid if you just let them take the reins. This edition of Adventures in YouTubin’ is dedicated to those journalists who had the good sense to bite off more than they could chew. Featured musicians include: Brad Cox, the Butthole Surfers, and more.
Brad Cox has never heard the term ‘camera shy’. His love of confrontational stage antics is only surpassed by his desire to make people as uncomfortable as possible. Well thank God for that. Skip to 5:00 minutes in to see what happens when he turns a question about Deerhunter’s first record into an opportunity to dig up a precious childhood moment. I would file this under ‘just enough information’.
Hey, we’re not all scholars. Dave Thomas of Pere Ubu understands that sometimes you gotta break it down in layman’s terms if you want people to really appreciate your point. Reflecting on the band’s career in 1989, he uses a simple prop to condense their entire philosophy into one easy lesson. You might want to take notes.
Thurston Moore is sort of like the Kevin Bacon of rock music, you can connect him to just about anybody. This segment is from the cutting room floor of the Minutemen documentary We Jam Econo. When asked about how he met the boys, Thurston instead decides to try out his Mike Watt impression. This video is worth watching for Thurston’s knowledge of Watt’s dietary regiment alone. “Seafood and Punk Rock”, sounds like a winning autobiography to me.
Saved the best for last. For this humble blogger, right here is the Holy Grail of pointless interviews. I don’t know what you expect to get out of The Butthole Surfers, one of music’s most playfully nihilistic children, but this is what happened when one dude tried to talk with them backstage. Looks like he got to the party a little late. I have no words that could do this video justice.
…Cynicism can’t escape the chillness of Washed Out’s hazy electro rip-tide. His new EP High Times is sort of like an 80’s movie soundtrack á la M83 but instead of the bubblegum and popcorn of John Hughes we slide through nine tracks of Risky Business style seduction.
Producer Ernest Greene mashes the kind of retro-future synth touches common on Warp with sunny arpeggios and deep hip-hop bass. Only working on this project for two months, he’s already dropped the infectious, blog-approved Life of Leisure on Mexican Summer, a synth-pop EP drenched in beach coma ecstasy. On this follow-up, Greene rotates the vocals out more to make room for vaporous interludes that play like blissful alter-egos of those found on BoC’s Geodaggi. This cassette-only release is currently sold out (cue bummer), but allow these MP3’s to motivate you to stick around until we can get a restock.
The High Times cassette is currently being released in small runs by Mirror Tapes.
There are certain sounds synonymous with the Summer of Love, but what about the winter that followed? Bronx trio Pigeons have a decent guess in mind. Their account of classic psychedelia is a much colder affair than most’. Stringing together a bizarrely addictive mix of paranoia, mystery, and seduction, their new 7″ Lunettes is something I could only describe as psych-noir.
Warm tape-splintered reverb follows defeated guitar lines on “Lowest”. Singer Wednesday Knudsen positions herself amongst the debris as a writhing chanteuse, evoking Trish Keenan from Broadcast if she had been coached by David Lynch. The sedate hymn, “Tendress”, with drums set to the rowing beat of a ghost ship, furthers the groups fascinating tension between neurosis and delicacy. This little taste is a pre-curser to upcoming LP Si Faustine dropping on Olde English Spelling Bee in the near future, hopefully in time for Halloween. Highly Recommended.
