Villages - Procession Acts (Bathetic, 2015)

The decade long evolution of Villages (William Ross Gentry) has been a fascinating one. It's been a privilege to watch this personality unfurl. At an impressive fifteen releases, each has growth that is very apparent, one that is indicative of hard work, and a discerning ear.

His initial offering, the lovely and delicate "The Last Whole Earth" in 2010, seems homage to his heroes, a cold yet delicate droning piece that calls to mind artists such as Eno, Stars of the Lid, and Labradford. As his palatte refined, Villages moved in a less ambient / drone direction. At each moment, there is a subtle maturity. The Spilling Past showed leaps and bounds in production, Theories of Ageing sees a shift, not only to cinematic frontier, but a more rhythmic direction with clean piano, acoustic guitar, and banjo, signifying an attempt to distinguish his motif as an accessible music separate from the drone genre. He escaped the pigeon hole only to be dubbed "Appalachian Drone" by several writers.

With "Procession Acts", the ten year oeuvre seems to reach a pinnacle of emotion and individual characteristics. with a production excellence that would inspire all who make music themselves.

If you're a fan of classical music, you know that often it is possible to recognize imagery and incidents the writer was contemplating during the creative process. Gentry's subtleties and nuances are full forward, and he wears his influences on his sleeve: Jonny Greenwood, Cliff Martinez, and Nick Cave & Warren Ellis scores, Type Records artists such as Peter Broderick and Goldmund, western guitar drone and blues from Steven R. Smith to Mississippi John Hurt. All of these elements combine to make a perfect album, and the culmination of an excellent repertoire.

Act One

Beginnings in Dust
Devouring the Whole
The Luddite
Tell the Butcher
Coat of Arms
Pillars in Half Light

Act Two

Open in Reverse
Out of the Mines
Predecessors
Slow Successors
Endings in Rust

Purchase your copy from the wonderful Bathetic Records HERE. Vinyl will go fast!!!

Stream on Spotify HERE.

Listen to a mix he made of his influences for the latest album HERE

Wes Tirey - Home Recordings (Orange Milk, 2014)

Asheville, NC guitarist Wes Tirey runs quite a gamut: A consummate singer / songwriter of charming country melancholia, a player who is proficient with the acoustic Fahey Americana, and one who is sometimes just downright experimental.

This cassette release for Orange Milk is a collection of home recordings from his residences in  Dayton, OH and Black Mountain, NC between 2009 and 2011. Its an intriguing mixture of improvisations and compositions ranging from morose to joyful, invoking anything from spiritual oppression to intimate longing. Regardless of the intent, Tirey's subterfuge is effective. You'll feel it in your bones.

Tatsuya Nakatani & Shane Perlowin - Anatomy of a Moment (New Atlantis, 2013)

This is one helluva couple of musicians. They're hardworking, ever touring, ever recording, and literally subsisting on music itself. How rare true musicians are these days. Well, here I offer up two fine specimens, with a duo recording that has sneaked into my favorite releases of 2013.

I've seen Nakatani and Perlowin play before. The frenetic improvisational energy that I was familiar with has been replaced with something far more enjoyable. This record is a string of compositions that somehow navigate a field of busy and dense percussion experiments underneath pastoral and meditative yet tense guitar lines. The result is predominantly somber and contemplative pieces, flowing effortlessly one to the next, shifting through a spectrum of emotions, creating a quite engaging narrative. This is a fine example of a new direction in modern music, unaffected by environment or expectations. Truly innovative material.

Nest Egg - Demonstrational Cassette #1 (Harvey Leisure Recordings, 2013)

I don't know about you but for the past few years I've felt lost in a sea of psych an kraut revival bands. Trying to dig through all of it has become rather tedious. There are hundreds of acts in this vein, emulating the past, trying to be trippy, trying to be different, trying to sound exactly like something from the 60's... My point is that they're merely trying, and entirely too hard. It exhausts me.

Well, here's a new one that's not trying. It just IS. Asheville's Nest Egg rises from the ashes of  Soft Opening, a long running heavy psych / experimental group. The new venture sees them burning through mostly uptempo motorik jams, with a flawlessly executed repetitive groove. The aesthetic is minimal yet explosive. No one else is doing it like these fellows.  I haven't been this excited about a rock outfit in a long time. This demo is captured on half inch tape because... they wouldn't have it any other way. Check out samples of the band below. If you're interested in gripping this sweet reel, email therealjamiehepler@gmail.com





Check them out on tour NOW:

10/21 pilot light Knoxville
10/22 open. Book us
10/23 green lantern Lexington
10/24 Burlington Chicago
10/25 magnetic south Bloomington
10/26 cincy psych fest
10/27 the moth light asheville with cave
Come hang out.

Also check out their first LP:

Chris Head - Songs (Unreleased Material, 2011)

Its not often I connect with country music these days. Of all the genres that seem tired and unbelievable, its country. In fact, every time I hear a current act I like, I'm shocked. It happened again when I heard Chris Head's songs. A longtime and prolific member of the Asheville, North Carolina punk scene, Head writes heart-wrenching, melancholy and unassuming lyrics about love and loss. Not only that but every song has a classic hook, at least one of which will stick in your head after you walk away.

Sit down and give it a listen. I dare you to shrug it off.    

Gnomeadze - S/T (Headway, 2013)

We have a new release over here at Headway Recordings. Gnomeadze is a collaboration between Will Isenogle (Merryl) and David Grubba (Enea). These four tracks contain fifty minutes of pure drone as well as pulsing rhythms in an improvisational setting. Get ready for Prophet heavy synth bliss.

Stream the entire album and purchase the digital or cassette over at our Bandcamp.

Jaye Bartell - Elation EP (Self-Released, 2013)

There are some musicians that cannot be casually heard. And background listening just will not do with the music of Jaye Bartell. His is an ethereal sounding folk aesthetic with a misleadingly simplistic charm. And if your lazy ear is not careful, the result may be a plague upon your house. This haunting baritone vocal and its poetic delivery derives more from literary sources than musical ones. Combined with the slow and pensive song structure, the overall feel calls many ideas to mind. There is anything from romance, beauty, trust and hope; to fear, envy, sexuality and violence. That elaborate conflict is the very essence, and why his music holds such a mystique. This is outsider folk with an original approach.

Along with his own guitar, vocals and drums, Jaye is joined here by J Seger on piano and drums. Look for a full-length LP coming this summer on Headway Recordings.

For information on purchasing this and other albums, visit Pilgrim Bandcamp

Kangarot - Starborn Architects (Holy Page, 2012)

We've all witnessed the new pandemic of John Carpenter worship. Many are tired of it, many have just discovered it. Personally, I saw my first Carpenter flick around 1984, so this music is branded into my psyche. Anything in said vein works for me. This is not to say everyone does it well, and the phenomenon is to the point where current artists are not only imitating the past, but they're imitating their contemporaries, causing a dull stagnancy that corrupts any collective innovation.

There are a few that are innovative with the nostalgia love. Josh Reed is one of them. Kangarot takes cinematic elements and adds a nice backbone of 80's electro / hip hop, ebm and industrial beats. I see NYC kids in the subway breakin' when I listen. He's a breath of fresh air for this genre. There's also a perfect fluidity throughout the recording, which by the way,  is all hardware. No laptops here.

I've tried to come up with clever tags to distinguish what he does... horror breaks, body rock menace... um, ok, I'll leave that up to someone else.

Also check his personal Bandcamp HERE

Check this new video for one of my favorite bands:

Video by Kyle Tompkins

Stream the album HERE

Purchase the vinyl HERE

New Release on my Record Label. Villages - Music for Savage Flowers (Headway Recordings, 2012)

Cumulus - Nothing Matters (Headway Recordings, 2012)

I'm lost. I remember being guided by someone who's role in this I no longer recollect. Something happened. Gaps in memory. Pain. Abandonment. Confusion...

If it sounds like a Tarkovsky film, that's because this album could pass as a modern score to one of those classics like "Stalker" or "Solaris". A meandering character attempts to discern his reality and destiny through a series of interactions with humans, entities and/or oracles.

Cumulus creates rhythmic droning patterns that are reminiscent of those long panning camera takes that seem to last an eternity. When the percussive elements are introduced, they are as subtle and necessary as a heartbeat. His narrative is lush and epic, incorporating field recordings that seem to be memories filed away in the back of your mind since you were a child.

This music is an existential journey ripe with doubt, pain and fear, but one that is contrasted with a familiar sense of hope and a longing for contentment and peace.

Buy this limited cassette / listen to samples HERE

Tashi Dorji - Improvisations for Guitar (Headway Recordings, 2012)

Bhutanese guitarist Tashi Dorji is an exceptional musician, and a multi-instrumentalist who happens to excel on guitar. Live you can expect either an intense avant garde onslaught of Derek Bailey style electric or beautiful experimentations mostly on the acoustic, which is what is presented on this cassette release.

Over the course of about forty minutes, Dorji runs the gamut of his instruments possibilities. From pastoral pieces to John Fahey-inspired americana to Indian raggas to stabbing primal aggression. All of this is provided with a constant sense of grace and humility.

In the new school of experimental guitarists, Dorji fits well alongside Bill Orcutt and Glenn Jones.



Purchase the cassette here

Starting a record label is time consuming...

So, here goes nothing. A friend and I are starting a record label focused on local (Asheville, NC) experimental music. If I'm not as frequently posting, pleases excuse me. Soon, we'll be releasing a split 7" with these two:






And we'll simultaneously be releasing a full-length cassette from this fine gentleman:



If you are interested in hearing more, the rest of the label roster has tracks posted HERE

Headway homepage
Headway blog
Headway Facebook

Villages - Grey East (Hooker Vision, 2011)

"I love tranquil solitude" --Percy Bysshe Shelley

This quote kept coming to mind while listening to the latest release and first cassette from Asheville composer, Ross Gentry. These soundscapes epitomize the mature and lauded sounds of his contemporaries while succeeding in isolating his own sense of character and vision. Grey East is a recombination of all that has come before and all we've yet to see; a recording that exists on the plane of consistency.

Philosopher Gilles Deleuze posited that an idea dwelling on his plane of consistency, or plane of immanence, exists or remains within. This idea never transcends into a metaphysical beyond. This is a quality I hear and recognize as intrinsic with Villages' general repertoire. None of the pieces are overworked or forced. On the contrary, they emote a near static existence that seems almost aggressively opposed to transcendence. This is work that seems to consciously exist "in between". Perfect examples are his choice in closing sides, A4 "Opt Abysmal" and B3 "The Cryptids". These lengthy compositions buried in minimal nuance exist passionately between the lines, his isolation motif coming into fruition, all the while giving a glimpse into a future direction.

Most fascinating is his choice of track arrangement. Both sides begin with icy shimmering and cerebral etudes that seem to beckon the thaw but ultimately lead to a return of cold hibernation and an ultimate cryogenic state.

Side A with "Postpone Joy", "Mourninga" (brilliant and romantically schizophrenic treatments of vocalist Nathaniel Markham) and "Cemetary Lights" hints at drips from the stalactite before the north wind ices it over once again.

Side B attempts another exit strategy. "All the Bells Stopped" struggles to break free and the soft and slow yet driven guitar melody of "Front Street" looks to open the hatch. Unfortunately, transcendence is not seen. "The Cryptids" make [makes] sure of that. This number has a primal spirituality and sage-like tenacity only comparable to Lustmord. The mantra could have evolved ad infinitum as far as I'm concerned.

This is some of the most thought-provoking ambient music out there today. Beautiful and somber yet complex and well-defined, Villages is one to keep your ears on.

Get this tape Here (if its not sold out)

Excerpt of "Mourninga Here