Sheeeeeeeit, guess I know what I’m doin’ on May 13th. I saw the Growing bros open for Mogwai in 2006, so I can attest – see them! They ripped open a hole in the sky approximately six meters above the crowd’s head. It was gnarly. Wasn’t sure if it was a portal or not, but I wasn’t about to find out – kinda like the theory that the post-mortem light at the end of the tunnel is actually a trick…

04-06 Brooklyn, NY – COCO66
04-08 Winooski, VT – Monkey House
04-10 Montreal, QC – Casa del Popolo
04-11 Toronto, ON – The Garrison
04-12 London, ON – Call the Office
04-14 Detroit, MI – Contemporary Art Museum
04-15 Chicago, IL – Bottom Lounge
04-16 Madison, WI – Project Lodge
04-17 Minneapolis, MN – 7th Street Entry
04-18 Fargo, ND – The Aquarium
04-21 Seattle, WA – The Vera Project
04-22 Vancouver, BC – Biltmore Cabaret
04-23 Olympia, WA – Northern
04-24 Portland, OR – Berbatis Pan
04-26 San Francisco, CA – Bottom of the Hill
04-28 Oakland, CA – The Parish
04-29 Santa Cruz, CA – Brookdale Lodge
05-02 Irvine, CA – UC Irvine
05-04 Tucson, AZ – Solar Culture
05-07 Austin, TX – Mohawk
05-10 New Orleans, LA – Circle Bar
05-11 Atlanta, GA – E.A.R.L.
05-12 Knoxville, TN – Pilot Light
05-13 Lexington, KY – Al’s
05-15 Pittsburgh, PA – Garfield Artworks
05-16 Huntington, WV – Pleasant 123
05-18 Baltimore, MD – Floristree
05-19 Philadelphia, PA – Kung Fu Necktie

No word on support yet, but I’m sure it shall rule as well.

MP3 :::
Growing – Hormone
Growing – Innit

Over the past few months I’ve listened to a ton of poorly recorded drone music, so it’s pretty refreshing to hear a beautifully mixed ambient album like loscil’s Endless Falls. loscil, a.k.a. Scott Morgan, is from Vancouver, and this is his fifth album under the loscil name (he also drums in Destroyer). Beginning and ending with the sound of rain, Endless Falls is a dour, contemplative album that uses the tools of dub techno (phasers, heavy echo, flangers) and instruments like viola, piano, and harp (?) to create poignant soundscapes that are both tense and becalming. Like fellow Canadian Tim Hecker, Morgan is a master at creating instrumental music with hidden depths; songs that seemed pleasant on the first listen later sound on edge, and vice versa.

According to the album’s press release, many of the songs are built around samples of rain recorded in Morgan’s backyard. This is most apparent on songs like “Showers of Ink” and “Shallow Water Blackout,” which capture the way in which the rhythm of the rain can be both eerie and comforting. “Lake Orchard,” which I’m including for streaming, has a deep low end that pulses beneath shimmering loops and strings–it’s an amazing track.

Endless Falls will be available March 1 on Kranky.

timelapse1 from loscil on Vimeo.

MP3 :::
loscil – Lake Orchard

Awwwwwwwwwww shit, ya’ll! Growing is back like a Mac Attack. “Hormone” showcases a more choppy, tinty, bit-crushed electronic feel compared to the body buzz-inducing aquatic growl of All the Way. This is the first track released off of the forthcoming Pumps, out April 6. Saying “growing” and “hormone” close together in the same sentence kinda conjures some unsavory imagery, but the beautiful glitch on this track is nothing but good vibes.

Remarkable album cover as well, dudes.

MP3 :::
Growing – Hormone

In the infamous Wire article on hypnagogic pop, James Ferraro had at least two incredible quotes. The first was about his membership in the “first church of Lenny Kravitz”: “My membership there has helped me with this process: trying to download someone else’s headspace–sometimes the most extreme being that of a virtual celeb image–opened up different aspects of consciousness and life potential and interactions beyond my wildest dreams.” The second concerned his interest in so called “trash” culture: “I think aspects of human culture that some people regard as unimportant actually operate within a really deep system of ancient symbolism and human archetypes. Hard Rock Cafes, strip clubs, gyms, celebrities, etc, are all great examples of this, of roadside temples. My albums are like downloads from that body of information…”

Whatever you think of these quotes, you’ve got to admit that Ferraro has done something few artists making new age instrumental drone music can do: create an aura about themselves. You could argue it’s ridiculous to attach all these ideas about trash culture and downloading celebrity “headspaces” to what sounds like a sixth generation tape dub of a “Sounds of the Ocean” meditation tape (or a warped Betamax of a Jane Fonda workout video), but music has always been a conduit for fantasies and meditations. Drone and ambient music have always been difficult genres to describe without resorting to vague cliches like “trippy” or “chill” or “stoned” (something I’m certainly guilty of); that’s why brilliant albums like Infinity Window’s Artificial Midnight or Super Minerals’s Multitudes so easily slip through the cracks–they’re gorgeous, impeccably made instrumental drone albums, but without a larger context (a scene, a sound, a crazy live show) to connect them to, they don’t stand much chance of being heard outside certain small circles. By creating a context within which to hear his music, Ferraro has made sure that his music won’t be ignored.

Released in October and November, The Summer Headrush series so far consists of the following albums: Rerex 1 and 2, Body Fusion 1 and 2, iAsia, Wild World, Son of Dracula (the only one I haven’t heard yet), and Hacker Track. Rerex 1 and 2 sound like Ferraro’s most conventionally beautiful records, Discovery, Clear, and Marble Surf. This side of Ferraro is closest to the new age ambient music of Tangerine Dream or Eno, full of fluttering keyboard arpeggios and whale sound synths. With track titles like “Shemale,” “Angel Alien,” and “Species Within,” Body Fusion 1 and 2 are darker, sounding a lot like wholly electronic versions of Popul Vuh’s soundtracks for Herzog’s “Aguirre, Wrath of God” and “Heart of Glass,” all minor key drones and eerie bell sounds. Wild World, probably my favorite of the series, is very similar to earlier Ferraro projects like Lamborghini Crystal’s Roach Motel, sounding like an unholy version of the music to a 1980s action movie, with seriously creepy audio samples of the members of the Heaven’s Gate cult talking about their group suicide. iAsia sounds similar to Wild World, though the vocoder vocals on “Casino Neptune” are something I don’t think I’ve ever heard from Ferraro before. Hacker Track sounds like a dub version of The Skaters, Ferraro’s long running collabo with Spencer Clark,  adding a ton of reverb and phaser and water-in-a-bucket sounds to that group’s clattering drones.

You can brown Ferraro’s extensive catalog and purchase the good via Volcanic Tongue.

MP3 :::
James Ferraro – Casino Neptune
James Ferraro – 3 [edit]

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