not too long ago, i got a great parcel from jon borges' monorail trespassing imprint. this is the first of a bunch. i am very happy.

the history of your immediate surroundings c26
[2007, monorail trespassing]

while i've found next to nothing being said about caen, i did manage to see gordon ashworth's name connected to this project via cassette gods review of his despairing summer tape. outside of that, this project is a mystery. if it is ashworth, i'm glad that he's chosen a new name for his solo project, since the music is drastically different. when i was reviewing the crawlspace cd, i was just thinking how confusing it can be (and is) when projects or bands you follow decide to go off on different tangents from what their entire fanbase was built off of, yet keep the same name. new name, new musical identity. take luasa raelon's switch to envenomist, or better still, borges' own pedestrian deposit to emaciator.

caen's furthering the harsh vets turned introspective trend that i've seen slowly developing over the last few years. while the stark departure and contrasts in sound have been unique, i wouldn't expect it to work both ways. meaning, you shouldn't hold your breath for that harsh noise album by eliane radigue anytime soon.i find that ethereal is the perfect word to describe the history of your immediate surroundings. a word like ambient has dual meanings and, more often than not, the one that i'll think of first is of the innocuous background sounds variety. the beautiful sonic layers and gently undulating drones of side a's a swell of winter memories (the track's title serves up the perfect description) are a far cry from the ancillary white noise that one would put on just to break the silence. no, this is the type of music that exists for attentive ears. by design, a track like sites isn't going to wow you with its complexity. the formula's pretty simple: multiple layers of warm, repetitious textures, drones and otherwise pleasing sounds. the formula's also beside the point. the only thing that matters is what music like this can evoke in you.
on the inside of the tape's cover, down at the bottom, is this: "intended for high volume listening in cold bedrooms". again, he's making my job easier by being completely accurate. immediate surroundings shouldn't be played for your friends or at work, it feels far too personal. this is what you listen to when you're staring at the world outside your window, wondering why you aren't out there, or for when all you want to do is spend the day in bed with someone you care about. captivating, reflective and easily one of my favorite cassettes of this year.

Sites

the blame for this being one day late is solely due to podomatic being "under construction" nearly all of yesterday. i am guilt free. anyway, for this one i threw in some harsher tracks, but due to their longer length, it seems like they tip the scales a bit, giving the impression that this podcast is noisier than it really is. the first half is calmer, though no's knife has to be one of the greatest misanthropic songs that i've ever heard. the mood will definitely lighten with some great pop tracks by ko & the knockouts and thai pop from onuma singsiri, the guitar on her song is too fucking good. oh, and a verbal error on my part, i'll call the aki takase piano quintet, a quartet. not like anyone would know the difference, but i felt the need to call that out. i can't read so good.

essay #4



pure - no's knife
0:00-4:13
tarantism - occam's razor
4:14-7:16
mammal - cyclops
7:17-15:01
warmth - she went
15:18-19:20
sic alps - when you tell it
19:21-21:46
factums - see inside
21:47-24:35
pocahaunted - warmer knives (excerpt)
24:36-29:06
climax denial - kiss to young ice
29:07-30:41
onuma singsiri - mae kha som tum (papaya salad merchant)
31:10-33:41
holly golightly - sand
33:42-36:16
ko & the knockouts - you're on my mind
36:17-39:10
the hunches - where am i?
39:11-42:00
frantic - nothing
42:01-44:22
aki takase piano quintet - drinking music
44:43-49:50
chris corsano - switches
49:51-52:22
crank sturgeon - smart-in-the-oil (plays the hues)
52:23-59:39
outermost - side effect
59:57-66:23
pita - ii (track 3 from seven tons for free)
66:24-67:22
romance - weeping willow
67:23-70:05
rory storm - little sister
70:06-73:24
sandy bull - triple ballade
73:25-76:35
sibylle baier - i lost something in the hills
76:36-80:00
yikes - the cars
80:32-84:33

mruofekis c12
[2007, psychform]

alright, i've got a real short tape from seattle's slicing grandpa. hrm. seeing as how the last piece of music that i've listened to from this duo was the brilliant daddy o strangler, this tape falls a little flat, in my opinion. you've got one (semi) legitimate song in college graduate 07. it has some helium-esque vocals (not in the mary timony sense, but the gaseous one), but those don't really go anywhere and drop off pretty quickly. what you're left with is a bit of distant guitar noise and some driving percussion, but nothing that you'll remember tomorrow. the other two tracks are more experimental, and i like them a little bit more. the seventy-nine seconds of throbbing bass that comprise soundscape #2 are alright, but that's just about the sum of it.
the b side track is asphalt (radio edit). it's slow paced guitar experimentation mixed with vocal samples from an old sci-fi flick. if this tape has a saving grace, in terms of making it a rewarding listen, it would be this track. the creepiness of the instrumentation, the nice presence of feedback and samples speaking of reanimated corpses work great together. if you have or have heard slicing grandpa's greatest tape on tanz procesz, you'll know that asphalt is essentially an edited down version of mystery guest (from 1993). if you haven't heard that, then this is new to you.
i feel that this would've worked better as a self-released cassette, either given away or sold for two bucks at shows. i don't think that five minutes of (so-so) new material along with a rehashing of an older song needs to be attractively put out by a good label, but that's just me.

Soundscape #2

lazer saber
[2007, jk tapes]

ha, it's only fitting that i should receive this cd in the mail, since i've already covered blue sabbath black cheer. yes, the name is nearly the same. no, it's not coincidental. apparently, bsbc gave these two the okay to use a variation of the name, so everything's on the up and up. black fiji are parisians charles lavenac and janin benecke.
both blue sabbath variations can be lumped into that genre catch-all of experimental music, but that's where similarities cease. charles and janin take much more of a light-hearted approach to noise-making, with nary a bad vibe to be found on this disc.

just because these two like to have some fun, that doesn't mean that they can't kick up a dust storm of racket. after opening up with a buoyant forty-one seconds of synthy sounds, they plow us face first into purple deevil, a dense headache inducer of dual distorted guitars clanging away aimlessly for six minutes... that was a compliment, and a mouthful. extra shows that they're not actually inept at playing their guitars, they just favor the noise which they're able to evoke from them. i support that. the eight minutes of lazer saber do a good job of showing quite a few different aspects of the band. it starts off rather lightly with unaffected electric guitar chord strums as well as a small bit of vocal noise from both parties, before eventually getting noisier as pedals are stepped on. early on, it projects more of a freeform style, as opposed to a noisier one. then the strums and random plucks collide into a wall of dense noise. the strumming guitar can still be heard underneath everything, for a bit, until lazer saber explodes into indeterminable distortion and brain scrambling feedback. nice.

i like how well bsbf vary their sound. there's a little bit of structure, a few touches of rock, some improv and a whole lot of noise. the disc in its entirety (twelve tracks, forty-four minutes) is great, but i definitely have some personal favorites. the first of which is tenderbirds. it will begin slowly with atmospheric vocal sounds and affected guitar, but interjects harsher distortion into the mix every so often. soon, the pauses in between the noise will become briefer and briefer until it overcomes everything else. once it gets to that stage, it will, again, go back to short, repetitious, blasts. it's really their best showcase of actual noise on the cd, and the guitar playing is memorable, too, considering how manipulated it was. black rice is my second favorite. this is one of the few tracks that features any percussion... and it sounds like some novice playing around on acid pro. it's endearingly sloppy and silly. let's see, there's a cowbell, hand claps, and cymbal clashes. it's super fucking clamorous (at times it resembles a salsa band that did way too much speed), but then there's also feedback! once charles' affected vocals come into play... ah, i love it. whatever manipulation he's applying to them are fantastic. while i really dig everything about this track, i've gotta give two thumbs up for all of that feedback. yeah i still give thumbs up, what of it?

Black Rice
FIFA Anthem '98

live @ upset the rhythm; barden's boudoir in london 9/6/07

rears its lovely head, motherfuckers!
[2007, cauliflower dreams]

ah, crawlspace. these guys, possibly currently residing in granada hills, california, have been around for ages. since 1985, to be exact. during that time span they've undergone several line-up changes as well as changes in musical style. eddie flowers is the founding member, and he's the only one on this disc who's been involved with the project from its beginning. flowers also has a pretty nice looking website for new and used music. it's worth checking out. the other musicians on this disc are greg hajic and joe dean. one of this band's most prominent members was bob lee from claw hammer, who was also a founding member of the gits (back when they were ohio-based). additionally, it might be possible that crawlspace's the exquisite fucking beauty of crawlspace inspired the name for skullflower's exquisite fucking boredom, but i'm just guessin'.

this disc catalogs some older work by the band. one from february and march of 2003, and the other from 1997-1999. two tracks, sixty-seven minutes. it's quite the affair. supposedly, this is the last noise release by the band, as it appears that they've made a return to the world of rock music for rock: the spirit of '76, which was released in the fall of last year. i can't vouch for their rock chops, since i haven't heard any of it, but the free improv and noise is good.
listening to this first track, rears its lovely head, by flowers and hajic, it seems a little curious that they'd want to step away from this kind of music, because it's damn good. i really liked the repetitious electric guitar strum in the beginning. it'll slowly fade it into the background, but you can still barely hear it, for a while, anyway. the focus is squarely on the electronics; hums, sputters and modulations. when lovely head nears the ten minute mark, it'll start the first stage of its metamorphosis. the main layer is a chugging sound, like a locomotive. there's a little bit of synthy music paired with more tone work, as well. that part doesn't last for too long, then it's back to the original sounds. in this returning state, it's a bit more minimal then it was before. previously, there were pretty consistent synth tweaks to give it some dynamic, this time that effect will come by way of static. it's a little subtler. the final third of this track is when everything starts coming together. the pace will maintain its infantile crawl (crawlspace.. crawl's pace, it works!), but there are a lot of prominent layers of sound, with more than a couple of them providing a solid rhythm. it's nice to be able to zone out during anything that's over a half an hour in length, and you can certainly do that here.

without an umbrella sees the trio centering their attention on actual instruments. the main guitar riff floating in the background has me hooked, i love it. meanwhile there's some fuzzed out guitar fuckery in the left channel, chimes all over the place, non-fuzzed out guitar fuckery in the right channel, and some heavy atmosphere in the background. as it all starts to swell up, you really appreciate those catchier chords, as a grounding point. all good things, must come to an end, but when that does, a loop of delayed guitar sound takes its place and doesn't miss a beat. honestly, i'm way more into free-improv when there's a concrete foundation. i like to be able to focus intently on one key element, and then slowly start to pick up on everything else that's happening around it. it's because of that that i think umbrella is great. expect plenty of changes with this one as it plays out, culminating in a terrific, and rather unexpected, noisy finale.

Rears its Lovely Head

pique
[2007, debacle]

i haven't a clue about these guys, but their myspace suggest that they are, at the very least, a two-piece. at the very most, they're a five-piece. they're from shoreline, washington. that's about it.

what's in a name? sometimes nothing, other times, quite a bit. this one would fall into the latter category. true, the name is awful, but if i were to surmise anything from it, it'd be electronic. both nova and tron give off sciency-vibes, which are commonplace within that genre. my conjecturing proved to be pretty spot on in this instance. to lesser ears, pique is bound to come across as mere noise; unlistenable distorted clamor. to the initiated, it's a little more complex than that. in fact, there are precious few times throughout this cd that nhvsct revert to a more commonplace dissonant sound. their greatest success lies in their ability to weave together musical elements, of an electronic (dare i say, techno even) nature with great noisework. i'm sure that this would serve as a double-edged sword to a good deal of people. techno is shit. so, this is where it gets complicated.
first, let's talk about the simple part. when they play it safe; i.e., steer clear of discernibly techno music, they still manage to create music, er, noise, that's wholly satisfying and engaging. there's no tricks up their sleeves during the great 3motron. nope, just four minutes and forty-four seconds of synthy noise, peppered with just the right amount of repetitious sounds to keep it interesting. hedcrash and arctic chicken are both built around denser bases of distortion, that sound more like digitized experiments à la carlos giffoni (welcome home) than, say, sewer election.

now for the more acquired taste part. while novahead vs. chickentron will incorporate a good deal of rhythmic elements into their noise, they go about it in a few different ways. some are far more overt than others. take the funhouse for instance, this is just an unfettered techno song. complete with whistling sounds near the end of it. strange... in that it's not strange. graciously, this was their only foray into the world of glowsticks and ecstasy. the following track, 4shock, does the best job of bringing their rhythmic and noisy aspects together, harmoniously. it starts out with some catchier, distorted sounds, but will shift into thicker noise. as it's calming down, the opening layer will make a great re-entry before finally ending with a pretty straight-forward beat that's lightly wrapped up in distortion. i wanna f*%k the kareoke machine for free is another highlight. again, expect plenty of distorted noise, though it does take on more of a supporting role to the catchier noises. this reminds me a lot of one of leslie keffer's tracks from the tape with heart2heart... maybe i like it so much of it because of that... hmmm, rad track though.

pique is definitely an interesting listen, to say the least. personally, i enjoyed how well these guys mixed things up with their sound. it's best not to expect your usual "noise" hallmarks, but something more along the lines of noisy experimental electronic music. i do have to say that there is enough of that vociferous experimentation to easily balance out those electronic impulses, assuming that's not so much your thing. the two tracks which i'm uploading aren't beat-centric.

Blue Sabbath Black Cherry
6ix

live @ the annual noise bbq in kelso, washington.

the big part of the wishbone
[2007, taped rugs]

fact: the tryptophan in turkey doesn't actually make you sleepy, it's a myth. unless you eat half of the bird, you're not going to get enough of the stuff to induce drowsiness. now that that's out of the way, this project consists of michael adams, charles goff iii and eric matchett.

the big part of the wishbone celebrated the ten year anniversary of this group on april 26th, 2007. they decided that getting together (eric's in portland, i believe that adams is in kansas along with charles) to have a day-long marathon recording session, would be appropriate. this disc sees that session edited down and occasionally spliced together to present the ripest fruits of their labor.tmms opts for a lot more of a widely embraceable sound than goff's disism project. granted, that disc was nearly nineteen years old, but i need a base of a comparison. the results, i have to say, are rather mixed. one of the things that i'm taking the most issue with is the lack of restraint. too often throughout wishbone, i'll pick out certain elements that i really enjoy, but they'll pile on more and more different things, and more often than not, i find that these additional layers aren't congruent. it almost comes across as forced experimentation that mucks up the better structure. take the first track, for instance, it starts off with a real nice guitar riff, some ambiance in the background, and light electronic sounds fleshing everything out. while it's not really my thing, i could see this being something that a lot more people could get into. the focus will shift from the guitar (the great initial riff gone, as it finds itself mixed far too low) into more of a clamorous affair. not bad, but i think they missed out on a golden opportunity. actually, the second track is an even better example. it begins with multiple repetitious layers, i especially like the repeating bass chord (and.. is that a cowbell?), i don't even mind the vocal sample that pops up, but then it starts to go downhill when they just add way too much stuff to it. instead of letting it simply be a hypnotic electronic track, it almost sounds like a parody. if they would've just held off on the vocal sounds, the keyboard fuckery and that awful repeated sound of a baby, this would've been so much better. i dig that droning guitar, though. twelve minutes was way too long. the fourth track, is a great example of what they can do when they leave well enough alone (for the most part). beautifully bare in the beginning, with some good acoustic strumming. the droning guitar in the background is perfect as well. they will add some electronics towards the end, at first i was thinking, "no, NO!", but one of the two layers is really great. the other one sounds like a computer spewing forth a read out. i like the sixth track, quite a bit, and it's no big surprise that it's the most held back piece of music on the cd. just a really enjoyable track that centers around acoustic guitars. i could've gone for an album's worth of this...

turkey made me sleepy was far more accessible than i imagined that they would be. i love pop music, give me something catchy, that sticks with me and i'm happy. i just didn't like how some of the catchier elements were presented on this disc. the electronic ambitions as well as the samples (especially the phallic-obsessed ones during the last track) weren't doing it for me. it did have its moments. i'll upload one of the better songs, and one that i didn't like as much, so you can get the big picture.

Untitled #2
Untitled #6