To christen his new batcave Sun Ark Studio, Cameron Stallones a.k.a. Sun Araw has released a new 7″ of the same name on Not Not Fun. The A-side “Bump Up (High Step)”, with it’s live lo-fi sampling feel, sounds more like Ferraro-led projects like Matrix Metals or Lamborghini Crystal than his previous dub-revisionist space voyages or romps with Vibes.  This track coasts on a surreal airspace haunted by disembodied funk loops, woodwinds, karaoke mantras, blasting organ stabs, and random FX solutions. Side B’s “Live Mind” is more traditional Stallones, with a busy high-end preference that recalls his Boat Trip 3″ from 2008 on Woodsist, and a scorched reggae line prompting impulsive cracks from the drum pad. This is a limited edition of 500, so act fast. TDT seal of approval.

Sun Ark is available now through the good folks at Not Not Fun.

MP3 :::
Sun Araw – Bump Up (High Step)

Topaz Rags have finally dropped their debut full length for Not Not Fun Records. Full of the old ghostly comforts of Pocahaunted and book-ended with sharp insomniac riffs, Capricorn Born Again is one of the most seductively pessimistic albums of the year, with limping off-kilter jazz tempos dragging purgatory lounge ballads through the afterhours With label veterans Britt & Amanda behind the wheel, they create a natural assimilation from their previous band experiences. Take Robedoor’s misanthropic sludge and dump it all over Best Coast’s swooning melodies, keep the warm tape crackle, but add a touch of morose blues, skeletal piano noodling, and a druggy pulse, that’s what your in for. Eight tracks compiled “via a complex 4-track/boombox assemblage method,” for your degenerate pleasure, into what is one of the most articulate, and stylistically concise outings from this Golden State experimental community ever. Prediction: In 2010 Not Not Fun will consolidate itself into one massive supergroup and create a psychedelic magnum opus, here is a taste of it.

Capricorn Born Again is available now through Not Not Fun.

For Fans Of: Pigeons, Pocahaunted, Wet Hair

MP3 :::
Topaz Rags – Darker Sooner
Topaz Rags – Slow Gin Fizz

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

Sun Araw mastermind Carmerone Stallone must have enjoyed his collaboration as part of Vibes (who also have a new Psychic 7″ out), because the new LP Heavy Deeds finds his work unabashedly returning for a second helping of blistered space funk. Coming from the folks of Not Not Fun, the de facto furnace at the center of this current psychedelic revival, it’s getting harder and harder to compare acts like Sun Araw to anyone except their label mates and various side projects. We recently saw Pocahaunted experimenting with elements of dub and dancehall on albums like Island Diamonds, and similarly here Stallone looks to bring in disparate elements such as funk and blues to expand his psychedelic vernacular. The result is an album that is propelled largely by these contrasting elements sharing the same airspace, which is no back-handed compliment, because as proven on last year’s Beach Head,  Stallone is at his best when he works within a specific concept.

Great celestial chants, tapering organs, and contorted wah-wah guitar workouts combine on tracks like “The Message” for some pretty blissed-out jams, and for an album with extremely minimal drums, maybe a tambourine pulse here and there, the album is surprisingly danceable. Whether it’s the bulging low-end of the mix, the vocal explosions sounding like a medicine man at the peak of an orgasm, or some subliminal ingredient that I can’t quite pick out, Heavy Deeds is just as good a soundtrack for your next mystery adventure as it is for getting stoned in your parent’s basement. I guess NNF said it best themselves, “Free your mind and your ass will follow.”

Heavy Deeds is available now on Not Not Fun.

MP3 :::
Sun Araw – The Message

Ducktails is the solo project of Matthew Mondanile (Predator Vision, Real Estate). The debut self-titled LP is composed of econo-ambient works largely built from hazy guitar jams and blown out Casio swirls over tropical tape samples, producing some Pete and Pete era psychedelic nostalgia. The unique sound is inferred to be a stew of both his early exposure to the Beach Boys and a recent stay in western Mass where Thurston Moore and a few others flood the scene with noise and free jams.

The album has a lulled but not quite hypnotizing quality, similar to the nature documentary sound that Boards of Canada achieve, with occasional lo-fi tape tinkering like on “Backyard,” with its phased bucket-toms and Robert Fripp inspired distortion shifting in between. Nods to lable-mates Pocahaunted and Sun Araw are scattered about via Mondaile’s agenda to strike a balance between pop and drone music, like on the summer bookend “Dancing With the One You Love.” With much of the big releases belly flopping so far this year, I’m putting my money on the understated charmers like this album right here.

Ducktails is available on vinyl from Not Not Fun (edition of 600, so act fast!). Mondanile will also be touring as a grab bag of his many forms in US this summer, starting June 12th as Predator Vision in Brooklyn and working his way around the East Coast.

MP3 :::
Ducktails – Dancing With the One You Love
Ducktails – Backyard

After the untimely break-up of beloved antler-clad freak jammers Racoo-oo-oon, members Ryan Garbes and Shawn Reed reformed as the psych/drone duo Wet Hair. They’ve released a steady torrent of rad tapes and a 12″ through Reed’s own Night People, and are now rolling out the first full-length Dream, their darkest and possibly most rewarding effort to date.

Last year’s The Beach cassette fit snugly into the surge of tropical-themed tape jams embraced by many including labelmate Sun Araw, making our winter experience a lot more bearable. However it seems like Dream is a product of the band’s split personality, a restless night crawler looking for its fix. Maintaining a trance groove, the duo plows through 4 tracks of subterranean lounge music full of industrial spurts, turbulent drones, and apocalyptic fascinations (vinyl liner notes even playfully assert the album was recorded in December 2012).

Album opener “Cult Electric Annihilation” is a particularly good example of how they’ve matured since their first release. Anchored by a kinetic upbeat swing that evokes Mice Parade’s Adam Pierce, it’s topped with glacial synths and squelched chanting, rendering one of Wet Hair’s most vibrant atmospheres ever.

These guys have plans for a massive east coast tour this summer with Zola Jesus. So if they’re coming to your neck of the woods and you know a good venue, drop them a line. Visit their myspace for list of dates and locations.

Dream is available now on cd through Release the Bats, and on vinyl through Not Not Fun.

MP3 :::
Wet Hair – Cult Electric Annihilation

Not Not Fun may have to consider a name change, because on Vibes’ debut release, You God It, Pocahaunted chanteuse Amanda leads the label’s first super-group into psychedelic garage-funk territory.

We could tell the girls of Pocahaunted were getting antsy when they started injecting dub and dance hall elements into their trademark campfire drone sessions on last year’s Island Diamonds. To remedy this, they’ve teamed up with members of Sun Araw, Robedoor, Magic Lantern, and Fantastic Ego to ditch the delay pedals in favor of some wah-wah.

“Honeycomb,” and, “Understand This,” are two head-bobbin’ choice cuts from the tape’s A-side, confidently beaming with a little warped swagger to boot. No moccasins required this time. I’ve been told this is the perfect addition to anyone’s makin’ breakfast mix, so try starting your day with You God It when you’re throwin’ on some pancakes (hold the Nanerpuss) and see if you don’t come back to thank me.

Unfortunately, this release was limited to 100 initial copies, so you’ll have to wait until they re-stock to get one of your own. But in the mean time, your best shot at hearing these jams live is to check out the Not Not Fun Records Showcase, March 20th at the Hideout in Austin, TX. Confirmed guests include: Pocahaunted, Magic Lantern, Ducktails, Barn Owl, Sun Araw, and Mythical Beast.

MP3 :::
Vibes – Honeycomb
Vibes – Understand This