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
Strangers Family Band offers a fine pastiche of the various splinter genres of flower power much like The Brian Jonestown Massacre’s finer catalog (czech “Wooden Hands” and hear how the vocal interplay is almost dead-on Anton Newcombe and Mara Kegal via Their Satanic Majesties’ Second Request). However, also like the BJM, Strangers Family Band do not amalgamate old sounds with new. They are unquestionably channeling the various strata of late ’60s mindbending west coast pop art experimental jangle – light garage rock timbre, pinch of British blues a la John Mayall, and homage to Ravi Shankar that became nothing but en vogue in the post-druggy Beatles summer of love. With that said, they take full advantage of recording technology today to really sharpen the feel and sound of classic true-blue psychedelia to cultivate a truly polyphonic headtrip. Nowhere is that more apparent than the seven minute “Transmission,” bolstered by crisp Twin Reverb distortion, lots of sitar (real sitar, not effect-created), and dark, thick Rhodes organ, punchy tablas – all of which almost play second fiddle to the distant, dark, saturated vocals.
I understand that, as either Kickergaard or Dick Van Patten said, to label me is to negate me. So I’ll stop the labeling and comparisons and let you all just peep the group. However, and this is the last thing I’ll say about Strangers vs. Jonestown – they also adopted the excellent “give your shit away from free and worry about sustainability later” model that Anton discovered when he started digging on the Interwebs. And it’s a great idea. Get your stuff out there, and if it’s good (which it is), people will come to the show and buy your merch. So to that end, czech the MySpazz, have a look at their dates, and see them live. Admire their sitar. Get lifted.
For fans of: The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Outrageous Cherry, The Yardbirds, 13th Floor Elevators, The Black Angels
MP3 :::
Strangers Family Band – Strange Transmission
![4046087340_af951b71c1_b [Bootleg] Broadcasts Krautrock Hoedown Finale](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2756/4046087340_af951b71c1_b.jpg "[bootleg] Broadcasts Krautrock Hoedown Finale")
I am completely in love, perhaps an agape love, with the new song Broadcast has been ending all their shows with on the current tour. You know the one I’m talking about… the one with Trish Keenan shredding on a customized electric dulcimer. Like, total “My Dear Companion” meets “Astronomy Domine” meets “Autobahn” meets “Fight For Your Right (To Party)” action. Ya know, the krautrock hoedown. With the help of Pretty Creatures‘ warm analog tape bootleg of the show (you can download it here), I grabbed the finale, cleaned it up a bit (with just a couple of compressors, filters, and a peak limiter – no manipulation of the actual sound), and am providing it below for maximum damage (you can grab the cleaned-up-a-bit version here). No one knows the actual name of this song yet, so I’mma call it “Dulcimer Jam.” Because it features an amplified dulcimer. And it’s a jam.
MP3 :::
Broadcast – Dulcimer Jam [Wexner Center, Columbus, 10.25.09]
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
Shiver me timbers. Reader Benjamin in Atlanta shot me a message letting me know that Broadcast has a tour EP available called Mothers of the Milky Way (as you might’ve inferred from, ya know, the title of this entry). Anyway, I did not see this EP at the Columbus show, as the band had no merch presence, so I’m a little bummed I wasn’t able to grip a physical copy there. It totally rules, as is expected. Mother is the Milky Way is, in some ways, a continuation of Witch Cults, though I’m not sure if The Focus Group was involved in its recording.
Turns out the second song they played in the show’s second half Sunday night was “In Here the World Begins” from this EP.
MP3 :::
Broadcast – In Here the World Begins
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.
For Fans Of: Pumice, Jeff Mangum, Ganglians
MP3 :::
Dublin Duck Dispensary – Zoo on Yr Back
Dublin Duck Dispensary – The Jester
