While I’ve always enjoyed Grouper’s recorded work, she’s a whole other beast live. The first 15 minutes of her performance at last month’s ATP festival *slamming head on desk for not going* is nothing but the most epic nature music ever. Flying over mountains, exploring oceanic trenches – her live shit is stratospheric and aquatic. I can’t stop listening to this excerpt. Thanks WFMU for winning at everything.

You can grip the entire bootleg here.

MP3 :::
Grouper – Live @ ATP [excerpt]

As a prodigal son of Burlington, Vermont, home to Ben & Jerry’s and *yaaaawn* Phish, it’s a goddamned miracle that Greg Davis isn’t churning out some rehashed hippie shit. On the contrary, Kranky’s Greg Davis is a student of a happier, warmer school of ambient music. Sublimely optimistic and viscerally beautiful, the just-released Mutually Arising, his first full length in seven years, is the summertime evening response to Tim Hecker’s and Keith Fullerton Whitman’s icier dronescapes.

As with most work in the modern classical/minimalist/drone genre, the album is meant to be enjoyed as a whole. However, the excerpt below should demonstrate what I’m talking about. “Hall of Pure Bliss” is just that – a canticle adoring the opening to a portal, or the soundtrack to sprouting flowers. Truly beautiful stuff.

Mutually Arising just dropped this week courtesy of Kranky.

For fans of:  Stars of the Lid, Tim Hecker, Labradford

MP3 :::
Greg Davis – Hall of Pure Bliss [excerpt]

Earlier this afternoon I posted a review and some tracks from sunny shoegazers The Legends, saying the album was perfect for these warmer months. But I failed to include the Sunn o))) fans in this conversation, many of whom probably find summer to be “lame,” and probably make up a healthy portion of this blog’s readership. Never fear, Chicago’s FSS label just dropped a new doosey by the metal-informed noise/power ambient Grief No Absolution.

Grief No Absolution is truth in advertising. This is suffocating, horrifying, paranoid music – the soundtrack you hear when you’ve been demoted a circle of hell or two for insolence. The group, who formed in 2008 in the orb of primordial ooze that rotates near the Earth’s core, makes Khanate look like more of a “pastel black.” GNA will be releasing two vinyl EPs next month, Eurostopodus Argus and Crypsis, which will also be available for purchase as a single package download. Both EPs play as a full single movement, so the MP3 below is simply an out-of-context taste of what you can expect. Enjoy the sample, then boogie on down to church.

Eurostopodus Argus and Crypsis are available August 10 courtesy of FSS. Celebrate good times.

For fans of:  Sunn O))), Wolf Eyes, Earth, Prurient

MP3 :::
Grief No Absolution – My Hands Are Your Fading Cinder

The long awaited box set of early performances/demos of Animal Collective, spanning roughly 2000 to 2003, recently became available in limited quantities… and said quantities are all gone. Not sure if Catsup Plate is planning on a wider distribution, but Hansen was fortunate enough to grip a copy. Fans of Sung Tongs and before will be absolutely delighted with the sound quality and inclusion of unfamiliar tracks, especially if you were disappointed with Merriweather Post Pavilion (as many of this blog’s readers were, I believe).

That reminds me, if you loved pop-friendly Merriweather Post Pavilion, there’s a good chance you might hate Animal Crack Box. Animal Collective started as a noise and Holy Modal Rounders-style folk band that used to shred hard with C Spencer Yeh and his crew. And now they’re kickin’ it with Letterman! They grew up so fast…  But yeah, I love the older stuff, so Animal Crack Box is Christmas come early for me.

Below is a small selection of some of my favorites from the box set with the corresponding liner notes:
“Hey Friend” – recorded live to MiniDisc winter early 2001 at 67 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn by Avey/Panda
“Covered in Frogs” – recorded live to MiniDisc sometime and somewhere in 2003 (recording details are lost) by Avey/Panda
“Jimmy Raven” – recorded live to MiniDisc 18 September 2000 at the Cooler, NYC by Avey/Panda

MP3 :::
Animal Collective – Hey Friend
Animal Collective – Covered in Frogs
Animal Collective – Jimmy Raven

One of my favorite Lexbros, Mick Jeffries, captured a little bit of Windy & Carl’s drone-out performance last night at new art space slash music venue Land of Tomorrow.

The two music communities most directly responsible for the American post-rock movement are, without much argument, Chicago and Louisville. Since I used to live in the former and currently live in the latter, I suppose I have a natural inclination toward what we know as post rock. In its heyday, post rock was the dominant form of any experimental rock in the indie world, which has since been replaced with the New Weird America dudes. I like both movements myself, but I’m glad to see post rock is making a comeback (particularly since Mogwai’s latter output hasn’t been cutting the mustard). To that end, it’s good to know we have a guy like Bruce Adams, co-founder of Kranky who now runs a new, very art-centric label called Flingco Sound. Of course it’s out of Chicago, and of course the roster is really good (albeit modest right now).

Interbellum is one of these offerings. Hey, remember Rachel’s? Remember how they ruled? Yeah, me too. Interbellum, the project of jazz drummer Brendan Burke, reproduces that exact sunshine through the covers feel wherein minimal stringed instrumentation is utilized to a massive effect. Sparse electronic flourishes and field recordings evoke GYBE and Set Fire to Flames, but with a more cinematic slant. If hopeful chamber noir isn’t a genre yet, let’s make it for Interbellum. The two tracks below can be found on Over All of Spain the Sky is Clear.

Haptic is another group of Windy City weirdo rippers, and man, I like “Patience Worth.”  So don’t look so glum, chums!

Sure, this sort of ambient approach isn’t for everyone, but if aquatic blips and fuzzy, Basinski-style tape loops pique your interest, make no haste in mashing play on the song. Sparse percussion and flapping static make a great soundtrack for flight. I’m pipping this track in on my next parasailing excursion (dude, I’m not kidding).

There are a couple of other artists on the FSS label worth czeching out, and I would encourage you to do so. Between these offerings and massive groups such as Flowers of Hell, post-rock is coming back for more. And I’m excited.

MP3 :::
Interbellum – Gran Canaria
Interbellum – 6EQUJ5
Haptic – Patience Worth

Tim Hecker is not nearly as celebrated as he ought to be, though this notion presents quite a dilemma. His influence stretches far and wide – you hear him in everything from ambient-minded Boards of Canada and Fennesz to pop-oriented M83 (before they sucked it) and Manitoba, to artists that blend the two extremes like Broadcast and Pram. Hecker’s vision and innovation is remarkable, but many of his interpreters have, in some ways, released superior material to him. It parallels the auto industry in a sense – Hecker is the GM to BoC’s Toyota, ya know?  That’s certainly a bummer. To this end, Hecker may have realized that some of his more ambient wandering might benefit from a little pruning. Thus, An Imaginary Country.

Out on Kranky on March 10, An Imaginary Country is one of Hecker’s more concise works.  However, the sound doesn’t deviate too much – Panopticon-sized swells of warm electronic architecture and lots of spacious, slow-burning textures.  “Utropics” ropes in a rather fluid, shoegazey sound a la the Goslings (though less evil).  “Currents of Electrostasy” features the aquatic, pinging electronic static hums with an Atomic Age twist that make Ghost Box releases fascinating to listen to.  “The Inner Shore” hones in on the subtle melodic beauty that made Hecker’s previous project Jetone so remarkable to the IDM crowd (minus the rhythm, of course). However, very little sticks out beyond these aforementioned movements.

Though Hecker’s recordings are always a mysterious embryonic journey, I think he’s overdue to take back his tradmark sound and expand it into new sonic territories.  There’s no doubt how exciting it would be.  But An Imaginary Country is all old-hat, save for a slight but possibly insincere sense of urgency.  Boreds of Canada indeed.

Fagen-Becker Rating for Quality:

MP3 :::
Tim Hecker – Utropics
Tim Hecker – Currents of Electrostasy

Haven’t had a news roundup in a while, so let’s do this like Buddhists…

I’ve been grooving on Psychic Ills’ Mirror Eye since it dropped last month. It’s not groundbreaking material, but it’s good enough, and it’s the sound I enjoy in modern music (which is, let’s be honest, anything droney with lots of reverb and the tweaking of various knobs). I’d give Mirror Eye a solid B. Pitchfork disagreed (a 1.4 no less), and the Ills decided to post a response… for a bit.

Swan Fungus broke this story last week, but since then, the blog entry has disappeared!  Does Pitchfork have wiseguys that pay you a visit for your skulduggery?  Shit is nefarious, dudes.  Gee whiz… so anyway, the Ills wrote a review of P4Ker Joe Colley’s review and it cultivated a respectable amount of lolz.

From all we gather Colly’s transparent interest in and knowledge of music seems limited to recent trend fucking, and while that doesn’t shock, the fact that he gets so bent out of shape about music that he’s not into is interesting at the very least. Definitely not a fan of “abstract tendencies” or “eschewing traditional means of songcraft” Colly seems content in not having a mind of his own.

The response written was not a sour grapes type of retort – it was witty, intelligent, and honestly, they had a bad break with this review and were fairly justified in firing up the keyboard.  Colley admits, indirectly, to liking feel good crap your hands say yeah pop, so it’s no wonder that Mirror Eye harshed his mellow. But now… now the blog entry is gone!  Has a bounty been placed?  Sinister.

Well… thinking logically here, though I would love to uncover some sort of conspiracy with hipster shadow people and deep throats, the Ills were probably advised by management to not get into a pissing contest with the mighty ‘Fork.  Regardless, I’m still shooting Bob Woodward an email.

Perhaps all this will help generate more (and I think deserved) buzz about Mirror Eye, as this writer points out, since a dreadful review gets more exposure than a lukewarm one.  And that makes sense – wouldn’t you, as an artist, rather illicit any response, good or bad, than instill complacency?

::: ::: :::

A calmer and more genial Brian Jonestown Massacre is ready to hit the road next month. Though, I should mention that I’m not going to make any cracks at Anton Newcombe in this article. Sure, there’s little doubt as to Newcombe’s status as being absolutely batshit crazy, but this makes him too easy a target. So, despite TMT’s penchant for poking fun at some artists who we do genuinely like, ragging on Anton is akin to igniting a bag of dog poop on your curmudgeonly neighbor’s porch. You know what you’re getting into and, hence, it’s not really worth it. So to that end, I just wanna chime in here to establish the following premises:

Anton and the latest (seventh perhaps?) incarnation of the Brian Jonestown Massacre are touring.
The BJM are amazing live, under the conditions when everything goes to plan.
Things have been on plan in the last couple of years.

Therefore, you should go see them (make haste!). Expect a cross-catalog setlist, at least one face-kick, and music that’s better than the majority of what’s coming out these days. Oh, and you lucky bastards who live on the Left Coast will get to witness our leather jacket-clad boys open for Primal “fuckin’” Scream! And I hate each and every one of you for this.

03.16.09 – Los Angeles, CA – Club Nokia #
03.17.09 – San Francisco, CA – The Filmore #
03.20.09 – Portland, OR – Crystal Ballroom
03.21.09 – Seattle, WA – Neumos
03.24.09 – Denver, CO – Ogden Theater
03.26.09 – Minneapolis, MN – Turner Hall
03.28.09 – Chicago, IL – The Metro
03.29.09 – Cleveland, OH – The Grog Shop
03.30.09 – Pittsburgh, PA – Rex Theater
04.02.09 – Boston, MA – Paradise Theater
04.03.09 – Northampton, MA – Pearl Street
04.04.09 – Philadelphia, PA – Trocadero
04.06.09 – Washington, DC – 930 Club
04.07.09 – Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle
04.08.09 – Asheville, NC – Orange Peel
04.09.09 – Nashville, TN – Exit/In
04.10.09 – Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse
04.11.09 – Memphis, TN – Hi Tones
04.13.09 – Dallas, TX – Granada Theater
04.14.09 – Austin, TX – Emo’s
04.16.09 – Tempe, AZ – Club House

# Primal Scream

::: ::: :::

Finally, it looks like the Chicago Sun Times’ Roger Ebert has, indeed, acquired a prescription for medical marijuana.  His Feb. 8 entry Ending up in a kind of soundlessly spinning ethereal void as we all must drops some next level science on yr. dome.

As you probably know, Ebert has had serious health problems recently, so it’s fair to postulate that he took some max strength pain killers and wrote a totally insane journal post adorned with fractal art.  It’s one of the more obtuse career moves I’ve seen a writer do – and also one of the more entertaining.

I certainly wish him the best, as I think Ebert is one of the most intelligent and, most importantly, fair critics in the game right now.  But godddammmm. That was the most 420 shit I’ve ever read that didn’t feature the frequent utilization of the pronoun “man.”

MP3 :::
Psychic Ills – Eyes Closed
The Brian Jonestown Massacre – Here It Comes
Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Getting High in the Morning
Frank Zappa – Flower Punk

I failed to mention last week that Psychic Ills also dropped a heavy one on Obama day last week.  Mirror Eye is out now and sounds mighty nice. Replete with skulduggery and a radiating sense of paranoia (not to mention better production this time around), Psychic Ills do well to keep Social Registry evil.

“Mantis” comes correct with tribal bangin’ and a fluid bass line riding the song through ten big minutes of finding yourself lost in a cave.  “Eyes Closed” offers a slight kraut feel, or if you will, modulating jungle bogged down on purple drank, with the sinister aura that Indian Jewelry perfected. Both dirges make supreme use of space – sounding bigger and expansive by what’s not there.

Recommended.  Grip it here and save a couple of bucks.

MP3 :::
Psychic Ills – Mantis
Psychic Ills – Eyes Closed

Sure, the best-of list is already out, but I would be remiss to not take this opportunity to admit missing a few pretty good recordings this year.  New Orleans’ Belong was one of them, and I stumbled upon said artist by way of a time machine.  I was rummaging through a stack of old magazines when I found a copy of Arthur from the summer of 2006 – the one with Brightblack Morning Light on the cover and their interview where they talked about how rad they think nature is.  I had read “Heavy Air” before, a much better title for an article on Belong than the stupid Internet meme I referenced.  However, something really struck a chord with me reading it this time around.  But more on that in a minute…

Belong’s latest is called Colorloss Record.  It dropped a while ago, actually.  But I’m slow at the punch sometimes.  Colorloss Record is a collection of covers, though you probably wouldn’t discern that from just listening.  It doesn’t sound like any of the originals.  Therein lies the power of Belong, covers or originals – Belong appropriates elements of shoegaze, ambient, minimalism, and drone without falling into or sounding like any of the aforementioned genres.  They sound like a pop band through a thick filter, like listening to a neighbor’s stereo.  Really unusual, and pretty exciting.  The volatile surges and swells of balmy, warm analog noise peppered throughout invoke the eroded and washed haze of William Basinski’s The Disintegration Loops by way of Kevin Shields.  Despite hailing from a warm and humid climate, I must say that Belong sounds quite majestic as the soundtrack to the silent and cold winter night we’re enjoying here in Louisville tonight.

Belong is Turk Dietrich and Michael Jones, and both gentlemen probably have a lot of love for Tim Hecker, Lichens, and the Goslings.  But on Colorloss Record, they show a love for the likes of Syd Barrett, July, and Tintern Abbey, laying to tape some obscure covers in a completely unrecognizable, sonically aquatic fashion.  Dig “Late Nite” and “My Clown,” por favor.  Yes, the music really is supposed to sound something like the transmission of an extraterrestrial and/or underwater shortwave station broadcasting distant psychedelic pop music, and it’s unabashedly balls to the wall. Totally otherworldly. 

Now, why I decided Belong belongs in my collection (I’m sure this isn’t the first time they’ve gotten such a punishing statement). Turk Dietrich said a couple of things in the interview that really lit a fire for me:

“I think a lot of people’s ears like stuff really loud.  The depth, maybe, that fuzz brings?  You can layer a bunch of noise, something that’s aliasing in a track, it can bury other elements of the track and it kinda makes you pay attention, to work harder as a listener to find the hook in a track.  I think that’s one reason why people love bands that are totally fuzzed out and are not.. it’s a way to make things less obvious, I think.  It reminds me of the effect I get from some Glenn Branca stuff. It’s just like really repetitive for a while, he’s banging on the same chord and then you start to hear different things that maybe weren’t intended to be there.”

Man, it’s refreshing to hear that.  It’s basically the exact same approach to music that I take when I’m writing, as I’ve done with my Meridian Signals project.  It’s really easy to rehash tired rock music.  It happens all the time.  For me, riffs are not enough.  Texture, tonality, detail, intensity – these are the elements that cultivate a rich listening experience.  Melody is better when not as obvious, which is why records can grow on people and catchy songs can wear out easily.  Tweaking certain elements, such as volume or resonant frequencies, to their absolute breaking point can truly reveal remarkable facets within a piece of music.  This is probably why I write and listen to shoegazing in particular, a genre that celebrates the boundaries of sound and layers of ideas, trojan-horsed betwixt major-key harmonies and melodies. It doesn’t have to be challenging to listen to for the music to challenge the preconceived notions of rock and/or pop.  Who cares how incendiary your finger-tap solos are (although my finger-tap solos are pretty incendiary).  Fuck rock and roll, make your music sound awesome!  So to this end, I’m thankful for Turk’s insight, which certainly assisted in me taking extra special notice of what Belong’s been tinkering with lately.  You can grip Colorloss Record here for the right price if you want to get a better idea of what I’m talking about (and Turk, as well).

MP3 :::
Belong – Late Nite
Belong – My Clown