SPECTRAL HYPNOSIS is a recurring series, featuring mesmerizing songs for one to lose sense of time and space, mind and body. This post highlights some reliable folks in the psychedelic rock community, including Portland’s Eternal Tapestry and their Thrill Jockey labelmates Barn Owl, along with a new track from Woodsman.
Eternal Tapestry’s records are known for their epic instrumental ebbs and flows — a sound that comes partly from their creative process. On their latest record, A World Out Of Time, Eternal Tapestry broke their usual mold of culling material from hours worth of jam sessions and instead recorded the album at once, in its entirety. The music video for their latest single, “Apocalypse Troll”, was directed by guitarist Nick Bindeman and combines live video footage shot by Anton Long with vintage geometric and extreme sport (?!) imagery. Despite a duration of only 2:23, the abstract footage and the track’s memorable leading guitar riffs propel it forward in a blissfully anthemic way. The remainder of the record wiggles itself all over the psychedelic rock universe like nobody but Eternal Tapestry’s business.
A World Out Of Time will be released November 13th via Thrill Jockey Records, and you can pre-order it HERE. The band has two upcoming Portland shows: tomorrow with Midday Veil at The East End in Portland, alongside Grapefruit and Hot Victory, and November 9th at 7:30pm, as a part of Thrill Jockey Records’ 20th Anniversary Show. That insane lineup also includes locals like Golden Retriever, Mike Scheidt, and Jason Urick, as well as out-of-towners like Liturgy, Barn Owl, and Trans Am.
See the full post for the A World Out Of Time tracklisting and to hear an edit of the notably more spastic track “When Gravity Falls”.
MADNESS! is a recurring series of audio WTFs and head-twitching, spine-tingling experimental or chaotic fun (k-k+st-s-t+l-l)icks. Today, Aperiodic bring chaotic free jazz noise, and we pay slight homage to past sounds via Finland’s haunting Paavoharju and post-hardcore classics The Jesus Lizard.
Aperiodic’s Future Feedback begins with “New West”, a slow growth of jingling bells and static that bumps found sounds up against R2D2-type electronic beeping. Banging, off-tempo jazz drums and distorted guitar all grow in intensity throughout the duration of the 4-minute track, and one could suspect that the remainder of Future Fedback will be comprised of hardly palatable instrumental wankery. In a sense, one would suspect right, but this type of music always took a special musical ear to appreciate.
Elements of musique concrète, free jazz, and noise are at the forefront of Future Feedback, which champions improvisation’s most chaotic possibilities with a natural erratic twitch. Aperiodic have described themselves as “The Jesus Lizard disfigured beyond recognition”, and it is the spirit of the post-hardcore band that shines through, not actual music parallels. The disfiguration comes in Aperiodic’s cramming of heavier noise elements into a free jazz framework in absolute madness. Only on one track, “Amalia’s Regret”, does the band slow down to explore their more minimal side via creepy breathing and classic piano. You can rest assured, though; structure hardly plays a more significant role even then.
The entire album is now available via Phratry Records, and you can stream its digital noise stylings via the Bandcamp embed below. Prepare yourself for all of the guitar distortion, manipulated samples, and pummeling drums you can imagine. And while you’re at it, see the full post for a stream of The Jesus Lizard’s full-length from 1991, Goat.
Bleep is a column focusing on varying degrees of electronic music news, videos and MP3s. In this post, Juju & Jordash make primitive techno waves with their latest release on Dekmantel, and Photek makes a comeback that strays from drum n’ bass territory.
In this generally unsettling music video for “Dr. Strangepork”, directed by James Murray, flesh and rope create tension and discomfort that’s balanced by strange — and increasingly stranger — images of floral bouquets. Here, the gritty repetition seems appropriate for carnal pleasure and displeasure, taste and distaste, but Juju & Jordash show more than just these simple dichotomies on the dualistically-named Techno Primitivism, their latest release on Dekmantel. Some have called the title “ironic”, but there is no semblance of irony here. It’s just that Juju & Jordash know exactly how to push Stone Age atonalism and fire pit hypnotism into the streamlined waves of future music.
(Note: It’s actually a pretty fun mental exercise to craft the hypothetical cinematic in where Juju & Jordash’s music connects those two worlds.)
“Pop music shouldn’t always get a bad rap,” says Top Pops!, a recurring selection of pop music highlights across a selection of styles. In both today’s featured tracks from Toro Y Moi and Shock, the power lies in nuance rather than pounding you over the head with pop hooks.
Toro Y Moi’s Chaz Bundick has proven himself time and time again to be adept at shape-shifting through the indie electronic universe, and his latest, “So Many Details”, spaces its way though the five-minute mark while feeling infinite. Though not as overtly funky as 2011′s Underneath The Pine, “So Many Details” has a quiet allure and power behind it, and moves forward even further from Bundick’s blander chillwave days. I can’t get enough of this track, and cannot wait for his upcoming full-length, Anything In Return, which comes out January 22nd, 2013, via Carpark Records. The full tracklisting is below, along with 2013 tour dates. The So Many Details 7″ comes out November 23rd.
Whim is a collection of media focused on rock/pop/garage and everything surrounding it. Mellowing things out with recent Domino signee Ducktails and the unpredictably satisfying Levek.
It’s still early, but you can now hear a teaser track from Ducktails’ The Flower Lane, which comes out January 29th, 2013 via the band’s new label, Domino Records. Frontman and main man Matt Mondanile has taken the downtime from his involvement with lo-fi rockers Real Estate to mix a new record with Al Carlson (Peaking Lights, Oneohtrix Point Never). And as is often the case with Ducktails’ music, it may take repeat listens before “The Flower Lane” makes a lasting impression, but rest assured that there is emotional comfort to be found in these familiar easy-going sounds, and “The Flower Lane” is but one mellow indicator of the record’s lusher and more robust sound.
DUCKTAILS – THE FLOWER LANE TRACKLISTING
1. Ivy Covered House
2. The Flower Lane
3. Under Cover
4. Timothy Shy
5. Planet Phrom
6. Assistant Director
7. Sedan Magic
8. International Date Line
9. Letter Of Intent
10. Academy Avenue
“Pop music shouldn’t always get a bad rap,” says Top Pops!, a recurring selection of pop music highlights across a selection of styles. Here’s a cheerful post with Sub Pop Records’ Still Corners, Born Gold’s Teenage Sweater, and UK musician Chad Valley, of Jonquil, featuring Glasser‘s Cameron Mesirow.
Glasser‘s Cameron Mesirow turns everything to gold with her New Age delicacy, and Twin Shadow‘s George Lewis Jr. churns out fanatic fans like none other. So it is that both musicians take the ’80s pop-inspired tracks of Hugo Manuel (aka Chad Valley) to the next level. The comparison to “’80s pop” is not used lightly here; Chad Valley pretty much epitomizes the genre, complete with the most straight-forward pop vocals you’ve probably heard in a while. “Fall 4 U” and “I Owe You This” come from Young Hunger, out on Cascine, and the whole record boasts additional contributions from similarly-minded guest stars include El Perro Del Mar, Active Child, and Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs.
Full tracklisting to follow, along with an upbeat remix by Lissvik.
