Family Underground - Helium Rug (DNT Records LP)

Denmark dronesters Family Underground are an elusive bunch, but their consistently dazed fields of industrial lurch are prominent enough. With releases all over the map (Not Not Fun, Weird Forest, all over really...) the group has a way with dense, thickly metallic drone works that manage to boil the mind right over.

Helium Rug is a single-sided effort for DNT that especially hits the mark as far as these folks are concerned. This is rich and vibrant stuff that manages to both sound mechanic and utterly organic at the same time. Mixing thick, silver drones with rattling maraca, steady hand drum, and vocal moans, the side manages to pull of the same sort of time-bent delirium that some of MV/EE's stuff does, only through utterly disparate means. The percussive backbone, to which the drones and vocals seem to pay no mind, gives the track a kind of tribal vibe despite its imagery conjuring something closer to stealth jets cruising overhead. The Skaters-y vocal yalps, heavily effected, mesh beautifully as the piece slowly bends itself into less propulsive territory. The whole thing actually morphs into a pretty messy cosmic stew, burning away in total delirium. Everything is off here, the percussion playing among themselves while shelves of drone melt across each other over top and odd cat calls blend into some alternate space the likes of which few drone artists are able to carve out for themselves.

Walloping organ drones start to fill the mix, initiating a new slant for the side that starts to sound a bit like James Ferraro covering the Fugs. Weird stuff, but these guys sure have a grip on what they're doing. Absolutely beautiful screened cover art too, some of DNT's best, not to mention the pink spray job on side 2. Sure to get your money's worth too, as this single side is looong so's you can get lost in it right proper. Well worth finding.

Daniel Clough - A Trip to the Mountain Shark (Sentient Recognition Archive CD-R)

Here's another one from SRA. Really enjoying these discs, especially as head-honcho Nicholas seems to have a clear and righteous agenda of getting new and psychologically effecting music into the hands of people all over. Just check the "about" section on the website if you don't believe me. Given that this particular lens has been provided, it seems particularly apt to view Daniel Clough's A Trip to the Mountain Shark in that vein--needless to say, it works.

I'm not sure exactly who Clough is, but the Brit knows what he's doing with another release out over at Reverb Worship. The first two tracks here lay down some thick static washes that hint at a far more composerly approach than similarly minded material. Bleeps and bloops approach and build into mini melody fragments which emerge out of the dense white noise, giving both tracks a beauty despite the tense, even harsh, atmosphere atmosphere suggested by the tones themselves.

Track three changes the tone quite a bit, starting with a looped string instrument that sounds like some gagaku fragment. Odd whispers and mutterings build behind a wall of distant low end rumbling that eventually grows into a far fuller wash of noise under, over, and on top of which vocals, string clatters, and shards of whatever remains are allowed to bounce in and out of existence. The fourth track similarly begins with a string instrument before delayed guitar mutterings and cello drones build this too. The steady fortification created at the beginnings of this work allows for far greater clarity as the piece descends into a thick cloud of sonic debris. Those small melodic loops presented in the beginning are that much more easily spotted for it.

Track seven might be the most overtly pretty number here, though by the end it too morphs into one gnarly ball of sound. The beginning though presents a series of synth waves a lush as they come. Shards poke through here and there, but mostly this is a benevolent beast, some rainstorm out on the open seas. The production here is strange but ultimately quite effecting, providing a distance to the music, a sort of hushed noise that demands its listener to fill in the gaps it creates. Its steady and logical growth culminates in far more tumultuous territory which the last track tames down and continues to explore.

Given SRA's mission statement, Clough works excellently, though it is equally well suited to those more interested in listening for listening's sake. Clough has an aptitude for allowing each distinct sound's inner chaos to coexist with an arrangement and production that culminates in a distinctive and fully conceived sound all his own, and that's no small task.

Sam Goldberg - Cycles (905 Tapes CS)

With a few releases out on mostly Emeralds related labels/releases, Sam Goldberg has already entrenched himself as a reliable source for the kind of squelchy, warm drone works that get me giddy. Cycles is no different, and it's on the always well done 905 Tapes, so this cassette is an especially good situation for all.

The tape opens with stun gun sputterings over hallucinogenic, new age style synth movements, babbling along with smears of warm waves emitted from some giant flower cannon. This is some thermal stuff, drifting along cloudless like some pollen postal worker. Soon though, the clouds start moving in, vast vents of reverberating heaviness that go nowhere in their monolithic discourse. Everything is blubbering along in some column of heated currents, a wasteland of zoned out synthesizer painting.

Goldberg's approach is as much about the warmth and richness of his textures as it is about his silences though. As each wave of jet engine flop comes, it also goes, diminishing to nothing before it returns or a new sound presents itself. It is here that tension is maintained, though one is also perfectly capable of letting the silences in to fill their own voids here. After the whole blubbering gust thing is finished, a mini-keyboard piece gives way to more looped drone garbling as shores are carved out. Each pulsing tone is doing so at such a rapid pace that it's practically a sheet, only with holes in it (like those shoes that let your feet breathe) so those sweet currents can get inside.

Side two opens sounding like some long lost Mario soundtrack. Like Mario in Crystal Palace or something. Each gesture enters and dissolves, somehow forming a nice little melody of fumbling numbness, eventually being overcome by a darker drone that too subsides in favor of more careening echoes of organic underwater dolphin cries. Not to push the Mario metaphor, but you know the sound he makes when you get one of those power-up mushrooms? It's like a bunch of those slowed way down and layered over one another--surprisingly effective actually. Soon it changes again though, evolving into tinkling high pitched screes over more video game dream sequences. Beautiful lullabies with organ notes that dissolve as quickly as they appear.

A thick drone comes back to initiate the final minutes of the C20, sitting on itself in preparation for the vast infinite ahead before disappearing into more pointillist mutterings. When the piece ends, it could be the melodic framework for some techno meltdown, only its so beatless and undanceable that you have no choice but to be drifted off by the tiny suggestions of melody presented. Each fragment suggests a far greater whole, creating an odd paradox of rich minimalism.

Killer tape, just lie down and let your brain do the walking. Still available from Tomentosa I believe, and each tape has a different cover cut from some piece of film. Nice.

James Fella - Post / Coast (Gilgongo Records / C-Salt CD-R)

Here's another one from James Fella over at Gilgongo. This disc, which consists only of one thirteen minute track, was intended as a gift to people who helped out with his west coast tour with French Quarter this past June. Couldn't resist throwing up a review of it, if only to give everyone a look at the killer package. Orange, no?

Of course I wouldn't give it the review treatment if I didn't think it was a pretty scrumptious piece of sonic delight, and it sure is that. Recorded in one take (the hiss of the room is super present, and ultimately quite nice), the piece starts as a slowly building ambient pool of guitar loops, and what sounds to me like some sort of synth, though according to the description there isn't any.

The work opens on a gliding slant, just bright and lovely arches of sound floating along. These don't last too long though, as they are quickly interrupted by harsher shards of looped clangs of radio static, demolition explosions and sci-fi lasers. As is Fella's tendency, the piece never settles too long, keeping it interesting in each singular segment while maintaining an air of unpredictability by moving from such seemingly disparate styles in such short periods. When the noisier stuff subsides, an underside of buzzes and kinetic hums is revealed, sounding like a bunch of little Miyazaki characters playing inside some paper mache. The creatures subside too though, leaving only crumpled paper sounds underneath higher end air leaks and door creaks.

The whole thing ends quite nicely with an extended romp into glitch land before cutting off. Again, Fella's managed to squeeze so much into such a short period that the whole thing ends up feeling far grander in scope than it actually is. Another strong effort.

throuRoof - Whale Bones (Sentient Recognition Archive CD-R)

The fine folks over at SRA just sent me a nice little package, including this disc from Italian drone unit throuRoof.

Opting for a thick, textural drone on the first track, throuRoof manage to sound almost entirely barren without losing the organic feel that is their strong point. Expelling dark sheets of low-end rumble on the first track, "Humpback Cemetery Blues," the disc immediately throws itself into a bleak locale that doesn't so much move forward as simply evolve along at a steady pace. Humpback whale cries emerge from the deep blackness before reverberating pulsations shift from speaker to speaker. It's cold down this deep, but there's life in those oceans. Each sound that enters is well chosen, and needs to be considering the precipice the piece rests on. Relying on its broad sonic sweeps and the utter slowness of its development--perhaps the track's most important trait--the piece eventually begins moving toward the shallows, with bright piano taps delayed over increasingly bright, luminous drones before ending in a convoluted reef of color shards.

The second part of the two-part sweet is entitled "Sing the Last Dream," and represents the brighter side of Whale Bones. Rather than habitate the same deep sea, black shawl realm as the previous track this one seems to suggest the open seas, blue and crystalline, with giant beasts roaming the waters. Given the similar pacing and methodology, it becomes ever clearer how adept throuRoof is at controlling their beasts, opting for the vertical movement of tones to drive the horizontal one. "Sing the Last Dream" represents a beautiful, ambient infused synth work; at one point, the beautiful solo brings to mind whale songs whether you know the album title or not. It's deep and majestic stuff that works well without becoming cheesy "whale song" music in the least. Rather, throuRoof use the whale as a jumping off point by which to explore something far broader in scope, and thus far closer to something really special. The end only raises further questions, as whale cries emerge from the newly abundant blackness before drifting off with the waves.

Limited to 100 copies, the disc should still be available from the label. A beautiful one.

Lateral Hyetography - Some Girlzzz (Really Coastal CS)

Well I'll be damned if this isn't a legitimate cassingle. And I thought they didn't make them like they used to. Hell, the last cassingle I'd seen was that copy of Mariah Carey's "Butterfly" I scored at Goodwill. Love that jam.

As for this one, Lateral Hyetography is some guy named Jon Issac, who's played with the likes of Pocahaunted, (VxPxC), Robedoor, Mudboy and White Rainbow. This is his first release on what I gather to be his own Really Coastal label. The tape looks quite professional, pro printed etc., but the sounds are more muddy and distorted pop. Starts off quite cheery, with some loping along, let's go for a ride round the block drum machine loop and garage-y guitar muddiness over some hooky vocal melody, chorus and all. It's cutesy as hell, like the Feelies playing over some Ducktails tropical beat style beat before descending into murkier waters. Eventually the whole thing gets pretty cloudy with shimmering high tones oscillating out over the guitar chords. Organ in there too, all played by Issac. Side two is the same track acoustic style, but only if you define acoustic solely in terms of the guitars. Actually, side B has some old analog synth on it, which gives the whole thing a weird buzzing alien descent vibe. The instrumental interlude on that side in particular really shimmers, and the quirky as hell vocal stylings have that creepy childhood thing going on. More Animal Collective-y than the first side.

Bonus feature too: if you're jamming this automobile style, side B has the same track, so you don't even have to rewind to keep getting the hooks. Keep your ears to the ground, this could be the biggest cassingle to drop since Whitney Houston covered "Star Spangled Banner." Except it's good and fun as hell. Already sold out at the label, but a second pressing is on its way as well as releases by other groups including Metal Rouge. Worth keeping up on for sure.

James Fella - Salvaged Tape (21:18) (Gilgongo Records / C-Salt CD-R)

Just got an awesomely generous package sent to me from James Fella over at Gilgongo Records, one of the best realized labels around; their whole output has killer sounds galore (not to mention lovely artwork) and this is no exception.

Culled from what James says are "15-25 out of 50 cassettes found during a recent move into a new home, recorded anywhere from 2003-2007," the release is a quick jaunt that proves that careful pacing and solid source material can culminate otherwise disparate material into a most interesting whole. The piece opens with the sounds of crickets and distant doggy yaps which is then sped up and slowed down over some beautiful chime-like melody and odd glitched drum patterings, some string instrument melding its way in like light through glass. It's a beautiful moment and stunning opening that ebbs along before some ultra-crude lo-fi metallic clanks signal the entrance of far noisier and more chaotic territory. Fella can let the noise juices rip when he wants to, and this is no exception, cutting off that peaceful bit with such immediacy that it becomes that much more effective, startling rather than numbing. Odd paper-crumpling electronic blip-outs are overshadowed by heavy oscillating mayhem. Some weird vocal melody hides behind the murk before more high-end madness leads into a mellow psyched out guitar workout, droney and sparse. Some nice folk meanderings to be sure.

The next section includes some quirky, Skaters-style loops complete with guitar twangs, fuzzy cave drips, and reverb-drenched blats. That cuts too, leading into a kind of kitchen-sink gamelan number, killer little section, nice and sparse and blatantly a spoons on sinks on pots on pot deal. Some nice electro-buzz follows before more of the gamelan thing slows into a muddy, car starting wind clogged mic thing. It all blurs together as a string melody that might be played on koto layers itself over again until its halfway between Nepal and Detroit.

Ok, I could give you the rundown all the way through (half way there ain't bad), but really I don't want to spoil it. There's a long period of looped bird call duets with turntables that starts to meld into one big rain stick. There's the sound of screeching swings and hollow caverns of warm tape hiss. Organ drones happen, musique concrete happens and vomit-inducing, dirty blurty blats of cosmic sci-fi refuse happens. A lot happens. The remarkable part is how much sense it all makes, and how masterfully Fella weaves these worlds together. You've got to appreciate the presence of the raw tape wrapped around the case too, right? The medium is the message. Part of the C-Salt series, though I'm not quite sure whether that's its own operation or just its own thing within the Gilgongo framework. Either way, it's super.

Various Artists - Mash Mansum (DNT Records CS)

As DNT continues to shape its sound, opting towards a kind of proto no wave rock slant (now wave they're calling it I guess), it only made sense for Tynan to release this, a compilation showcasing seven different bands takes on this sound. It works too, serving its purpose of presenting bands who may or may not ever see more releases than this (some are already now defunct it seems...) while definitely fulfilling the DNT mission statement and existing as an album as a whole.

Side one kicks off with Hunting Lodge's "Waiting for the Bus." I'm assuming this isn't the Hunting Lodge of the 80s and 90s, though who the hell knows? Could be some revamped version of that group's industrial slant, only this is some riffy, thudding stuff, scuzzed out and pummeling, all forward motion mayhem. The guitars, in true no wave form, sound like icicles dragged across the torsos of tiny birds while the muffled vocals are the stuff of yore, crying out in frustrated, suburban dementia as the whole thing crumbles in on itself. Nice headless drum beats too, and a pretty tight unit from the sounds of it. The end of the track could be a poorly mic'd Stooges cover into some Northampton Wools feedback fuckery.

Tracks two and three are both by some unit menacingly called Neck Hold. "Oh God; You Devil" opens with some weird ass drum beat on wood blocks and cardboard while some vocalist calls out in a similarly fashioned, muffled ass chant thing. This is a little less standard rocking than Hunting Lodge's brand, weird enough to give the band its own distinct take. "Sibling Rivalry" is a similar approach, all drums in the beginning along with the anthemic chanting vocals (Popul Vuh style, without the production value). Sounds like a pretty stripped down take on the whole thing, with some amateur sax squelching to boot! Shearing Pinx (or Shearing Pinks as they're billed here) close the first side with "Trusting the Forest," lunging their guitars in fits while the drums patter around. Nice angular guitar work, all energy and convulsions across the strings, but they really pull it off. Some of this stuff gets genuinely heavy without the need for cranking the volume any higher. It's all just rhythmic fits and starts, splooging on the strings like some blow up doll. If the forest sounds like this I don't trust it for a second, though maybe I should. I'm not sure what defines now wave as opposed to no wave but this is definitely in the latter category as far as I'm concerned.

Side two opens with The Sticks' "Aerobic Fuck," killer title for a jaunt this explosively weird. Sounds like fuckin Link Wray or something, twanging away with the volume turned up to Mt. Zion. Good old fashion instrumental riffage, heavy on the nowhere slant for the minute it exists.

Gay Beast, who just released a full length on DNT, follow with "Exploding Knee." The guitars here are all over the map, splashing about wildly before going into a Liliput style dance punk thing, weird and bleepy and full of (is that two?) vocalists yelping about. Pretty tight construction on the song here in the spirit of those smart/art funk/punk girl rock of Delta 5 etc. The singer definitely listened to her fair share of On-U Ari Up records. Really tightly wound and jerky stuff full of energy. Tight guitar lines too. Deaf! Deaf follows with Loss of Appetite, another Riot Grrrl style thing with some James Chance vocal stuff. Real crude and nice for some slamming around dance party style. Twin Crystals closes the tape with "Live in Olympia." I've heard a lot about these guys recently and their breed of chugging guitar walls and off beat electro-quarks is pretty compelling for this type of material. At points it starts to sound like a rave party on planet hip, with even the gap between songs and the crowd chatter fitting right in (notice how the bottle cap fits so nicely in the whole vibe...). The second track is even more pulsating and dancey. Nice stuff to close off yet another winner from DNT--some of these bands are weird enough to snag up right away while others I'm sure will be around for quite some time and make a splash in the broader scheme of things. For my money, the whacked out stuff is where it's at.

I think there's a few left at the label so move quick if you so desire, it's limited to 100.

Sky Juice - Empty Telepathy: Early Trancemissions 2000-2005 (Maim & Disfigure CD-R)

Here's another one from that batch of items I snagged from Zac Davis. This one is a solo situation, with Zac playing guitar and overdubbing himself. Apparently a lot of this was actually drawn from old tapes and then reworked. Clocking in at twelve tracks and over forty minutes, it's one of the more unified Maim & Disfigure releases I've heard, feeling quite a lot like a full length album rather than a series of recordings. The feel is way more mellow here too, opting for a more weirdo folksy explorative side.

The first track sounds like Loren Connors jamming with Eugene Chadbourne in some crystal palace--the reverb is layed on nice and thick for a ringing warmth that too many people don't know Zac can pull off. It's almost raga-esque in places, droning along as Zac plucks away at the strings in a melody that's quite effective before breaking it back down into more scraping, languid territory.

Track two switches gears a bit to present a folkier take on Zac's chuggingly hypnotic phrasing. Almost like Fahey, only way more stoned. Eventually the whole thing just drops off for a weird single string bass thing before strumming of sorts eventually comes back. It's all very visceral and heartfelt, and you can tell there's some real playing under there for sure--Zac style of course. The guy has a signature style to be sure, it just manifests itself in a ton of different playing styles. When the whole folksy thing is shunned by moments of heavy chordal riffage, you can't help but feel like following him along in some stream-of-conscious guitar course (intended for players of all levels of course).

Track four is another killer, opening with a sound not far afield from someone like Junior Kimbrough. It's a droney and full take on bluesy houserocking, only again, Zac manages to not sound like that at all. Like any real deal musician Zac can't help but sound like anyone but himself it seems, and he manages to infuse everything with his own brand of blatant riffology as well as a steady internal pulse and plenty of odd disjointed asides. Nice thing about this stuff too is that while it is clear that Zac is playing over previously recorded things here, it never sounds too robotic. Rather than these being a constraint, it simply sounds like two or three Zac's jamming live together. Sick deal if you ask me.

Other highlights include track six, which is all free play, scraping the strings, bending the shit out of them, etc. to create some weird stuck-in-your-head madness. Track seven even has some drums, again from Zac (dude can play), in a nice stop-start anthemic ode to unwieldery. After track eight, the most unapologetically dirty rock riff on the record, the next four tracks basically mellow the album down to a cose, sometimes in thirty second increments and sometimes in the form of five minute improvisatory excursions of droney strumming. The last track is all wavering nausea as strum after strum gets bent towards the skies before taking off into the sun. Stoned as hell, and one of the most beautiful things I've heard from him. Definitely a different side of Zac's output that too few people are aware of.

A Stone For Adam Nodelman

Just got this in from John Moloney. Figured I'd post it as it looks like a great show, and is definitely an awesome cause.

A Stone for Adam NodelmanFlorence VFW - 18 Meadow Street (route 9),
Florence, MA
$7 - All Ages
Music starts at 6:30pm SHARP!

No Neck Blues Band (playing very early - not last
Sunburned Hand of the Man
Dredd Foole & the Din (featuring J Mascis, John Moloney & Justin
Pizzoferrato)
Fat Worm of Error
Northampton Wools (Bill Nace & Thurston Moore)
Tarp (Joshua Burkett & Conrad Capistran
Noise Nomads
Bunny Brains
Matt Krefting Band
Franklin's Mint
Jow Jow
maybe one more act if they can make it

the band order hasn't been set yet but No Neck and Northampton Wools are on
early so come early to have your head checked.
This is a benefit show for Adam's family so any donations beyond the entry
fee will be beautiful.