about the same time that i got the latest psychform batch, i also got a few of debacle's most recent albums. jeez, i still need to get to the stuff from weak sisters, anarchymoon and flat grey that i also received on the same day, a little over a month ago... patience is a good thing.

what the fuck are you looking at sugar tits???
[2007, debacle]

what a great fucking title. fuck mel gibson. i get drunk all the time, but you won't see me telling people that they look like jews, so don't sully alcohol's good name with your bigotry, mr. gibson. right then. extraordinary pigeons are a seattle-based improv collective. being that it is indeed a collective, membership is revolving, and for this particular album we have jason young (red squirrels, frühe werke), richard rehm (supplied the excellent artwork) and jeremiah smith. i have no idea if any of these people are in this picture of the band, if not, at least it was some visual stimuli. i guess.

listening to sugar tits??? i'm not so sure that the improv tag is fitting here. any time that you see that word, it paints a pretty distinct picture in your head, but once you hear this music you have to think really?! this is too good to be done on the spot. there are quite a few periods of structure throughout the disc along with other aspects of the music that don't really seem like spur of the moment things.

survival strut starts off the disc with multiple layers of pleasant, yet noisy sound. the throbs of bass are a fine addition. there's a lot of repetition, not to mention, rhythm, to keep you immediately interested as the prominent guitar fuzz will play to your subconscious.

blue blood black reign (a nod to bsbc, perhaps?) is next and i'm really liking this one. the best part of it is the sound sample, from some movie. they way that it'll get manipulated and repeated in the beginning is great. even though, for the most part, this reminds me of ambient techno. like zoviet*france or something. the light drum machine percussion and various electronic sounds do nothing to alter that feel.
scavenger will see a drastic increase in the noise factor with its denser base of distortion. eventually joining, what i'm imagining are, the tape manipulations will be cymbal crashes that are manipulated to the point that they get strangled to an over-driven mess. also, barely audible, are more musical sounds, with a whimsy feel, getting drowned out by the severely wind-blownlike noise. very nice.

the pace will slow up a bit for dusting off the bomb shelter. the pacing is pretty key to the success of this track. there's great captivating ambiance as the foundation, but it's the sound manipulating happening right up front that makes bomb shelter so fucking good. love it. sounds like vinyl tweaking, but what do i know? well, i do know this, the source, first off, is really good, plus the way that it's being worked with makes it noisy and catchy all at the same time that you have this wonderful etherealness with the mood.

the humorously titled wake the mutant (hit the snooze) takes a turn towards a darker sound. the tinkling of the chimes somehow makes it even darker, which is interesting. it's a bit of a chaotic track with a monstrous sound to it (mainly in that murky layer of background noise, bringing to mind some wicked roaring), without being oppressively loud and hard to listen to. this was one of the few times that there weren't rhythmic or really any repetitious elements drawing you in. it was constantly evolving all throughout its nearly nine minutes.

wake of the mutant, is a lot more pleasant. guess it's a morning person, err, mutant, once it gets going. extraordinary pigeons will return to using looped sounds to pull us in, and as usual, it'll do the trick. an odd, yet, throughly warm ending to an impressive cd.

a key thing to note here with this group is that you really don't know what you're going to get. the picture up at the top would seem to indicate something more rock-oriented which this is far from. thinking about seeing them live? expect the unexpected. want to hear a rad cd of experimental, but not polarizing, music? here you go.

Dusting Off the Bomb Shelter

hot damn, i actually got this done on time and it didn't take me forever to make. there was a ton of stuff that i wanted to put on this one, but i didn't want it to end up too long. this one's just a few minutes over an hour in length. well, at least i'll have a jump on #4. this (bi)week's episode is real thin on the noise front and pretty light on the experimentation, too. it wasn't really a conscious thing, it just ended up that of all the prospective songs i was going to use, these are the ones that worked the best together. it turned out pretty worldly with music from a lot of different places. there's french, russian, chinese, swedish, new zealish (i'm making this a word), canadian and british artists (amongst some u.s. denizens). psychedelia, noisy garage rock and regional music are the more prominent features this time out.

essay #3



sonny sharrock - black woman
kidd jordan trio - so often
brigitte fontaine & areski - je suis venu te voir
turid - välkomme-hus
wang weiping - wang shaojun
the functional blackouts - i'll be famous... when i'm dead
a-frames - frankenstein
black time - ambulance
the intelligence - dating cops
demon's claws - who needs a girl?
m.k. maltseva - south russian solo song from belgorod province
the daisy chain - zzotto
kevin ayers - shooting at the moon
1/3 octave band - capacitance
sculptress - yume
rosy parlane - guitar loops
the goslings - flowerpot
the mans - high
magic is kuntmaster - dots

because the focus is less on experimental and noise music this time, i doubt that anyone will have any issues figuring out where one track ends and the other begins, but i will post the times if need be.

this is the first of two pieces of vinyl sent to me by oakland, california's black horizons.

split 7"
[2007, black horizons]

here's a split between a couple of dudes who have a bit of history between them. adam cooley, of robe., had a collaborative effort with warmth's steev thompson a few years ago called solder teenage daughter (s.t.d.), and steev also put out a few of cooley's projects including ruinhorse (we sucked dick before you made it a trend), stagedive suicide (raping in binary) and scissor shock (steev's funeral, super yum surgeon boy and how to make a scream queen cream) on his old x died en route y imprint. speaking of scissor shock, that group... christ, i'm not even sure if anyone other than adam is still in it (too many changes), put out one of the best titled releases of this year in the mars travolta. i need to look for that..
warmth's side is first and it's another hauntingly gorgeous piece from him. it's very musical with none of the drone or noisier tendencies from the past creeping in. there's some really light electronic sounds sprinkled over the top of this somber affair, but that's about it, until the end when you get ten seconds or so of synth fuzz. restrained, understated, shadowy and wonderful. the crackle of the vinyl comes across as an added layer of sound, too. it's the perfect companion.
columbus, indiana's robe. also features two other people, in addition to cooley: booe, and i'm not sure what the other one's name is since there's just a vague nickname for him on their myspace page. this group is also trafficking in darker soundscapes, but there's nothing pretty about their submerge. it's every bit as cold, dank and desolate as you'd imagine being in a submarine to be. the warbling synth trombone (i need better speakers) notes in the background do a good job of aiding the overall feeling of eeriness, and also give submerge the uniqueness that you need to want to hear it again. i haven't had the opportunity to listen to any of scissor shock's newer stuff, but i've gotta imagine that this is on a whole different plane; i like it quite a bit. it certainly lacks the immediacy of warmth's track, but the similarities as well as the contrasts between these two make for a real nice split.

Robe. - Submerge

let me incorporate this rather sizeable package that i got from peter friel's chicago-based jk tapes into the mix. aesthetically, they fall in line with not not fun, arbor, dnt and the like. i feel kinda bad that when peter asked me what other blogs would be good for reviewing music, one of the ones that i mentioned (that he sent stuff to) was machete mob, which seemed to have ceased to exist after levi started in on the package. all of the old reviews are all gone. that sucks. my blog won't disappear, but i might take forever to review your shit. i am only one man. with way too much music.

lazy rivers c23
[2007, jk tapes]

tan dollar is a three or four-piece band from irvine, california. the line-up for this cassette is chris thorne, mike mcdowell and paul figueroa.
i bet that some might fancy affected vocals and a lack of structure as psychedelic. i'm not so quick to affix that label here. tan dollar are an experimental rock band and i'll leave it at that. what i'm enjoying the most about this band is the instrumentation. it's surprisingly good. a lot of the percussion has a jam session vibe to it, where it's more like fills and such rather than anything too structured, yet, at times, it can provide a solid rhythm. the guitars will also do their part, churning out some memorable chords all throughout lazy rivers. so yeah, the music's great, but it's the singer that i take issue with. it's part plaintively delivered teenage math-rock pseudo poetics, and part cringe-worthy nonsense. wisely, most of the vocal weakness is masked behind delay effects and other manipulations so you can't really make out what he's saying the whole time, but towards the end of the b side we get lyrics like this: "i wonder why i call this getting my rocks off, it comes and goes and it comes and goes and it goes to hell, where there is no more time to get your rocks off, cuz you have to avoid getting set on fire by the big cheese with the pitchfork who really knows how to get his rocks off." gah.
there's no denying that tan dollar are a talented group of individuals, but the talent begins and ends with their ability to play music. ultimately, if you can look past the vocals, you'll like what you hear.

Lazy Rivers Side A

stoned nuisance c72
[2007, fag tapes]

here's another one of those solo project mash-ups that members of wolf eyes (and extended family) are known for. you know: circuit refusal, sick evenings, speculum spyked, burning graveyard lights... fail sick combines mike connelly's failing lights with heath moerland's sick llama. i hope the next collaboration is between john, tovah and alex kmet, as climax machines.
stoned? most likely. a nuisance? hells no. fans of failing lights (or of sick llama's skin walker) will be able to immediately identify with the omnipresent synth work throughout this cassette. while lights never really got too noisy, this is even calmer. real fucking hypnotic with the repetitious and layered tonality. the brief shards of looped feedback which spring up after a minute or so is great. there's at least four different repetitious layers of distinct sound all happening at once and it's brilliant. the feedback will fall out after a few minutes and all of the supporting sounds will skew slightly, changing the entire feel of the piece as it goes from mesmerizing to more of a humming drone, then back to hypnotic. i'd have to say that subtle shifts in the dynamic are stoned nuisance's calling card. the main layer of a throttling tone is used pretty much all the way through (tweaked a bit, sometimes), but everything beyond that is liable to change at will. and will. despite the amount of time spent on the lulling hums and drones, there are plenty of times that connelly and moerland will interject noisier segments, but nothing very jarring. these deliberate changes of pace (in accordance with the nuanced ones) will provide terrific texture, keeping the twenty-eight minute long a side from becoming monotonous. also helping out in that department is the conclusion of this side, a bit of a pick up in the pace, it's a nice payoff for having invested so much time in listening to just one track. they may have used a seventy-two minute tape, but an hour long one would have sufficed since stoned nuissance is only a shade over forty-nine minutes long. the b side is comprised of two tracks, totaling twenty-minutes. it's much more palpable than the other one was. it's also quite a bit different. this side also builds off of a repetitious loop, but that sound is faster than the slower and echoing noises that they're making, which creates a unique sonic contrast. the final track, interesting enough, has everything panned to the right stereo channel. expect plenty of layers, as usual, methodical and enchanting. i love how it will just start off with a memorable bit of harmonics, before it gets broken down as the track slowly adds more and more layers of sound. this one has a few tricks up its sleeve (unexpected brief musical passages) and it would've been nice to hear what they could've done had they opted to utilize both channels, but it's great as is.

failing lights and sick llama were a very logical choice for collaboration. both of them make experimental music of a similar vein, and their differences worked to compliment each other. seeing as how these guys release a ton of music, both solo and with others, i was surprised with how outstanding this tape was. definitely recommended.

Stoned Nuisance B1

stretch & burn c15
[2007, iatrogenesis]

ahl-za-gail-zeh-guh. sound it out, kids. it's not that hard. now, i've heard of artists having ungoogleable names before (fuck, can, can't, is, the the), but this is one the most googleable names ever. despite this, i can't really find anything about this dude other than that he's from brooklyn...do you like your noise fast-paced, punishing, loud and fueled by an a.d.d. inflicted sense of dynamics? if your answer's yes, you better learn to how to pronounce this guy's name properly so you can go tell your friends how much he rules. side a's contour strip mining is the harder of the two to give a detailed account for since ahlzagailzehguh's mind and hands are moving at such fast speeds that he's cycling through ideas and chopping up sounds before anything has a chance to make its impression felt. this is easily the better of the two tracks. it's constantly interesting and evolving. there's screaming, feedback, denser noise, as well as unexpected subdued moments breaking up the aggression. i'd say that what he's giving us on contour strip mining is up there with some of pedestrian deposit's work, though less concerned with delicate flourishes than borges. his cut-up approach on this first side also brought to mind facialmess's ridiculously great dub made flesh. dub specialist! side b's repetition of disgrace is pretty repetitious, not disgraceful though, just less involved than the first track. it's your fairly tried and true dense noise. there are changes occurring beneath the maelstrom, which i appreciate. not bad, not bad.

this was limited to 100 copies. if it's all gone, fret not, you can still drop twenty bucks on the new twelve inch that dom just put out on hospital productions.

Contour Strip Mining

ahlzagailzehguh live @ thunderdome 7/14/07

split c20
[2007, bent over cowboy]

the title of at jennie richie's side time: or fractal waves of increasing novelty, interestingly enough, can also be applied to their music. the title was taken from a principle of counterculture philosopher terence mckenna. the increasing novelty bit, doesn't suggest that they're becoming jokier (though, they're no strangers to humor), but rather, dynamic change. seeing as how happiness and forever aren't content with making the same music over and over again, i think the title's rather appropriate. as far as the music here goes, it's really, really minimal and bare. all they're giving us are slow and chopped up waves. think of a helicopter, going very fucking slow. it sounds neat, but don't expect any real changes to the minimalism during these ten minutes.

blake will shake himself out of the drone spell that it seems like he's been in lately for a great trio of pieces under the soilure title. okay, maybe there's still some residual drone, but he's taking quite a few steps forward from the sparse approach. soilure i: rolled both ways is dominated by multiple layers of synth. there's the buzzing drone of the far off one along with fluttering sounds and tone play. soilure ii shows an increase in the noise factor, though it's all different synth tones and effects. nothing really noise-based at all, just a lot of layers of sound all occupying the same space. after disappearing for a bit, more backing drone will come into play, but this time it sounds more like a motor. that particular sound will get carried over into soilure iii: rolled both ways (return visit). contrary to what its title might indicate, it's not a reprise. the drone will get matched up with a sustained high-pitched tone, which isn't very obtrusive since it's fairly mixed down. the third component are synth sounds that are like the ones used in the first soilure movement, but they're tweaked slightly to give them different character.
this is a solid tape which is really made worthwhile by vertonen's contributions as well as the great artwork, on a nice heavy card stock, and the cassette itself has the artists' names etched onto it.

Vertonen - soilure i: rolled both ways

(somehow i just now noticed that ajr is spelled as at jennie ritchie on the cover of this release.)

crepuscular aborescent c20
[2007, psychform]

alright, i don't know a whole lot about this project other than that they're from seattle and john from slicing grandpa (and several others) is in it. i also know that his partner this time is a lady. not quite sure who that lady is. i'm going to venture a guess here and say that it's charlotte aurevoir. if that's the case, she's also in dull knife (got a tape from them to review soon), zdefekt and brigham/mahgrib (with gerald hansen and nicholas martinez (kount fistula)).

seeing as how this is my first foray into arachnid arcade's music, i've been a little confused by the descriptor of "harshnoise" that i've seen while looking up info for this project. harsh, this is not. calling this noise might even be pushing it. my main point is that this crepuscular aborescent may not be the best indicator of their general sound. i couldn't imagine someone saying they're harsh for no reason. and no, it wasn't ironic. i was just struck by a bit of common sense, and checked out aa's tracks on their myspace page, still not harsh. okay then. weird.

with the previous in mind, crepuscular aborescent does feature a shift in their sound, if those myspace pieces are to serve as at least a vague example. the two recordings on this cassette don't weigh nearly as heavily on synthesized or overt electronic work, and instead center around more organic sounds and instrumentation. well, some of that instrumentation is given a nice dose of affecting through guitar pedals, but it's still a far cry from their earlier output.aborescent drifts along slowly with an electric guitar droning away in the background. there might also be a cello, providing the nicer sounds amidst the hazy psychedelia. while the guitar is great, especially in tandem with the cello, it's the use of shakers that really completes this track for me. there are also occasional synth flutters throughout aborescent, but they blend in well. this is a real nice piece of music.
side b's careful with that wax justine opts for a more haunting aura. whereas previously there was more than a strain of rock music to be heard, you're not going to get that here. multiple layers of dungeonesque drones coupled with a steady wash of white noise is the formula. i like the bell-like synth sounds that are also present, especially when they were the focal point in the onset, along with the heavy atmosphere, preceding the drone. upon first listen this track didn't stand out, not nearly as much as the first one did, but it has definitely grown on me. who knows what future releases by arachnid arcade will hold, but one thing's for certain: this tape's a keeper.

Aborescent