R.I.P. Mark Bell

I'm really sad to announce that Mark Bell has passed away due to complications from surgery. An electronic pioneer with his work as one half of LFO, his genre bending of house with techno was ahead of the game, and he was one of my favorite album producers of the 90's. Bjork has kept him aboard since he produced her "Homogenic" album. He will be soreley missed.

And...well, Fucking LFO, y'all!!!

New Album Coming from One of My Favorite Artists on My Favorite Record Label.

As you may know, I have a Modern Love addiction. The Manchester label has been running my life for the past few years, and I've just come to accept it. Their somewhat commercially successful artist is Andy Stott. His last album, "Luxury Problems" was my favorite album of 2012.

The new album (Nov. 17) is to be a similar outing in aesthetic, but will include some vocal pop structure more traditional than on the last record. The press release states: “straddles analogue club music and vocal pop songs, somewhere between Ron Hardy, Prefab Sprout, Dome, Actress, Cocteau Twins and Arthur Russell.”

I'm enjoying the sample track. See what you think:

Demdike Stare - The Weight of Culture (Self-released, 2013) CS

One of the finest architects of modern experimental music, the duo of Miles Whittaker and Sean Canty, offers a sampling of crate digging tastes and its even far better than you'd expect.





http://www.discogs.com/Demdike-Stare-The-Weight-Of-Culture/release/4295738

GNOD - Chaudeland (Rocket Recordings,2011)

One of the most relevant groups of the past decade, the collective GNOD was formed in Manchester around 2006. The rotating cast makes predominantly live music, recording in single takes with raw production techniques. A meaningful improvisational aspect is rarely successful these days, and is a large part of their appeal. They are extremely prolific, releasing many singles, albums, cdr's and splits.

Given the need to label a project, I'd have to put them in the Krautrock category. However, this label is very limiting due to their experimental creative apparatus. The two volumes of Chaudeland in particular, run a gamut of styles. Dark and sludgy, metallic and driving kraut rhythms give way to acid-drenched neo-folk with the ramblings of a guru / madman / asthete. The essential process of meditation follows soon afterward, with a real introspection reminiscent of a Jodorowsky presentation. Droning through to the other side , GNOD is a serious and believable operation. Nothing feels like trickery.

I'm growing more and more irritated with all the upstarts being labeled psychedelic these days. I think such misnomer is growing tiresome to many. You want a contemporary band that takes you places? Here ya go. If music is still capable of expanding your mind, this crew is your best bet.

I'm going to go ahead and say, shamelessly, that if you are attending Austin Psych Fest 2014, DO NOT MISS the most relevant band there this year.

Below are youtube clips of the full Chaudeland sessions:

Actress - Ghettoville (Werk Discs, 2014)

"The machines have turned to stone, data reads like an obituary to its user." This was the press release accompanying this latest and supposedly final album from the brilliant mind of Darren Cunningham. And from the reaction of most fans and critics, the end has come none too soon.

 'Ghettoville' is a bit of a departure from the fun yet avant garde outings of 'Splazsh' and 'R.I.P.' His self-described 'R&B Concrete' as well as his heady lo-fi house jams have been replaced with stark, bleak, and utterly dystopian codes. Some nearly beatless, these intentionally numb melodies are held together by the thread of a drum. This is a laudanum funk, with its soul buried lazily beneath minimal breaks and lackadaisical samples. The dancefloor is still represented. Several four on the floor tracks are present. But this time they feel like a specter. The dust and sweat have long since settled, the dj standing in the booth reminiscing that final night. Ultimately, this just feels like something that would have been cozier over at Modern Love.At first listen, I wondered if Cunningham had a love child with Leyland Kirby and it was just still on the downlow.

 I'm opposed to the critics on this one. Here we have a good final document. Cunningham warned us that Actress was dead. Its possible that after being hailed as a golden child for eight years, Actress has been dead longer than we thought. Though, it didn't seem like it when I saw him perform last year. He killed it, enthusiastically stunning everyone in the crowd. The oh so exhausted one could have fooled me. He seemed to be having the time of his life. Then again, his moniker is / was 'Actress'.

   

Young Echo - Nexus (Ramp, 2013)

This is another record I regret slipping past me in 2013. The Bristol collective Young Echo is comprised of several artists with stellar output in the past couple years. Vessel's 'Order of Noise' made my best of 2012, Zhou makes meditative drone, Khan is a respected dubstep producer and the other members, El Kid, Jabu, Neek, Manomars and Ishan Sound have managed to make names for themselves.

Its no coincidence that this album has the Wild Bunch scenario, given that these kids obvious work in that Tricky / Massive Attack tradition. The general aesthetic is the blunted downtempo of their metropolitan mentors. However, Young Echo is deconstructivist. The dancefloor is broken. Beats are fodder for cutups. The hip hop and bass are buried beneath drones, spoken work, ethereal female vocals and frequencies on par with a Raster Noton album. The ghosts of Nurse with Wound and Boyd Rice are here, remixing for some cerebral nonexistent club, a place where sci-fi 2-step co-mingles with dub and introspective pop.

Elements collide, float together, fall apart and fade away, but ultimately, and surprisingly, cohesion is victorious.

Wire:On the Box 1979 (Pink Flag Archive Series, 2004)

It was a decade ago I wandered into my local record store, saw this CD/DVD release, and immediately proceeded to checkout. I knew it was going to be crucial. What I didn't know was that it would soon be my favorite live concert video of all time. I've not strayed from that opinion in all these years. Wire, in that era, was something that could neither be matched, nor improved upon. I'm still in awe of the creativity displayed with guitar, bass, drums and vocals. They are the kings of angular art house snob music, both for the proles and those at university. If you've not seen it, I urge you to do so now. Masters at work.

I've included a great review by Craig Grannell from the 2004 release:

"The gig happened between Chairs Missing and 154, and finds Wire in typically abrasive mood. In front of a polite, but nonplussed German television audience, Wire race through a set of proto-154 numbers and some older tracks, devoid of Mike Thorne's sometimes heavy-handed production. It's testament to the band's creativity and unique vision that the gig still stands up well today and doesn't sound terribly dated, despite it being over two decades old.

 Amusingly, the band's on-stage persona seems to be little different from today: Newman a proto-Kraktwerk robot (albeit wearing a tie in those days), barking lyrics, wrestling with his guitar, then twisting like a marionette, dancing in staccato; Lewis flinging his bass around with merry abandon, with eyes that suggest if anyone wants to start anything, he's all-too ready; Gotobed, the metronome—eyes closed, keeping the beat; and Gilbert, at the back of the stage, carefully and purposely adding counterpoint to the Newman guitar. Although a little bass-heavy, the remixed soundtrack pleases, as does the video, which while having some artefacts and colour distortion, is perhaps as good as you'd expect from a 20-year-old television show. Unfortunately, someone saw fit to ignore one of the main bonuses of DVD: the gig has no track markers whatsoever. We presume that Wire's argument will be something like the gig is a whole entity—a complete performance—and should be watched as such, in one sitting. However, part of the magic of DVD is the viewer having the ability to skip to where they want to. Also, track markers to specific tracks would have made sense, seeing as the DVD retains the original broadcast's rather erratic titling.

 Two extras, both desirable, come with this package. The first is an amusing interview conducted with the band after the gig. Wire are their usual obstructive selves, making life difficult for the interviewer and providing succinct, sometimes abstract answers. The video quality of the interview is notably inferior to the gig, but this matters little: the soundtrack is fine, and Gotobed fans will be interested to note that he offers a few well-chosen words part-way through. The other extra is a CD of the entire gig soundtrack—a nice touch, enabling you to listen to the audio wherever you want, rather than being glued to your TV set. Thankfully, the track marker issue doesn't extend to the CD, which enables you to skip tracks as you'd expect. Overall, this is a promising start to the archive series. We hope the lack of track markets will be addressed on future releases, such as the forthcoming Send DVD, but the CD is a welcome bonus, and the gig itself still manages to excite after all these years."

Pieter Nooten and Michael Brook - Sleeps With the Fishes (4AD, 1987)

On my annual winter way down memory lane, I always revisit that 80's 4AD sound. It had a phenomenal impact on me as a teenager. Hearing This Mortal Coil was life changing. I remember the moment I realized that these embarrassing tendencies I had of listening to Hearts of Space radio and Brian Eno's ambient work were ok. 4AD artists were dark and mysterious and goth. It was ok. Right? Maybe my punk / metal friends wouldn't get it but I suddenly didn't care.

This year's excursion has yielded this lovely discovery. By late 1987, Pieter Nooten had left Clan Of Xymox, but Ivo (bossman) continued to be intrigued by the tapes Pieter would send him. He suggested a team-up with guitarist/producer Michael Brook, who had been working with Brian Eno as well as recording for Eno's Opal label. The result was a quiet album of fragile songs and dreamlike soundscapes entitled Sleeps With The Fishes.

I don't know how I missed this album for so many years, as I'm also a big fan of Michael Mann. His album 'Night Song' with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (Peter Gabriel's Secret World label) was educating and necessary listening for me. I was also very into his film scores (Captive, Heat).

This album produces a elegantly beautiful mix of ambient and chamber music, drifting between faux film score and ethereal vocal melodies. The strings, guitar and synthesizers are definitive 4AD but Nooten and Brook have their own particular chemistry that distinguishes them. Wonderfully somber.

Richard Skelton - The Complete Landings Recordings & Book ( Aeolian, 2011)

In 2004, Richard Skelton's wife passed away. Apparently, his coping mechanism was almost decided for him. He spent the next five years exploring and remapping Anglezarke, an area on the West Pennine moors of Northern England. The book of his findings intertwines with a personal narrative, and this is accompanied by a score. The music is cello and guitar-based ambient experimental. Through the highs and lows, one can grasp his tumultuous emotional journey in a very clear way. Skelton makes incredibly powerful and moving music that, given his inspiration, is incomparable.

Download excerpts / order book and music HERE.


 
Listen to one of the three albums here:

The Stranger - Watching Dead Empires in Decay (Modern Love, 2013)

James Leyland Kirby is, without question, one of my most listened to artists of the past few years. His work as The Caretaker is akin to the static background music of my mind. Whereas that work invokes the ghosts of the Overlook Hotel ballroom, with its chopped and screwed 78's, his new work as The Stranger has a different cinematic feel.

This is like the bleakest scenes from Eraserhead. This is what it would sound like if Raime and Demdike Stare were proles working in a  factory at night. The graveyard shift crew haggard and miserable, overworked and delirious. The ambience is their hallucinations, horrors fit for the dungeon they're in. The percussive elements are the proverbial whips to the back demanding the completion of this sixteen hour task. There is also a bit of Lustmord's "Metavoid" record, like plodding through a marsh knee deep in the muck, as in a nightmare when you have trouble walking. If you find beauty in masochistic doom and gloom, you'll love this one.

Forest Swords - Engravings (Tri Angle, 2013)

UK mastermind Matthew Barnes is back. This time with a full length LP release. 2010's Dagger Paths EP was high on my year end list, and it looks like he'll make the finals again.

There are many misnomers or confusing tags we could lay on the man's music. I like to call it psychedelic r&b, pastoral folk, dub pastoral (as Tiny Mixtapes called it), or ghost box (for the true Brit nerds out there). Regardless, he is brilliant with loops and samples of his own very organic guitar, percussion, keys and voice. These are nostalgic and sensual droning pop structures that result in a futuristic sound that is his, and his alone. Forest Swords is occult, groovy, and introspective. Hip shaking music for the brain. Beauty and the bleak.

Listen to the full album:



Purchase the vinyl HERE

Coil - Colour Sound Oblivion Disc 15 &16 (Threshold House, 2010)

So there's this box set... 16 DVD's of amazing. Coil is my favorite modern music act. The closest to my heart. After Jhon Balance passed in 2004 and the band was obsolete, Sleazy released this incredible document. Its 14 DVD's of live shows anywhere from 1983 to 2004, culminating with 2 DVD's that contain the visual projections from these shows accompanied by the studio versions of many songs (a greatest hits, as it were). Most importantly, there is over 5 hours of music.

You can download these 2 DVD's for free and legally HERE or just stream them on youtube below. Enjoy. Sheer bliss...







Last note: Its fun to check out the ones for sale on DISCOGS. They sell for a mere $2069.68

Chris & Cosey (CTI)- European Rendezvous, Live 1983 (1984)

I was awakened to the sound of my clock radio blasting sensationalized reports of terror all over the United States. As per usual, I'm only effected by this news enough to be extremely annoyed with this type journalism. For whatever reason, this album came to mind, visions of dystopia dancing in my head.

Its no coincidence that Chris & Cosey, as CTI (Creative Technology Institute), released this live piece (with lovely slides and visuals by John Lacey) in 1984, a time in modern history wrought with fear of big brother. The cold war and Reaganomics were at their height and I remember it vividly.  As a 10 year old child , this brainwashing machine made an indelible impact on my psyche.

This record seems to capture all of that emotional intensity, and the visuals aren't bad either. Sit back, relax, and get paranoid and trippy to a couple of my industrial musical heroes.

 

R.I.P. Clive Burr (1957-2013)

Clive burr was the drummer on the three classic Iron Maiden records. He was one of the earliest memories I have of thinking drums were cool. He died peacefully in his sleep last night and he will be sorely missed.

Thank you, Clive burr...

Burial - Truant / Rough Sleeper 12" (Hyperdub, 2012)

One of my favorite UK producers is back with an EP length single clocking in at about 25 minutes. Odd, but everything he does throws me for a loop, most importantly the music. Both tracks are much different than anything he's done before. Exploring flavors of 2-step to dub techno to noise, Burial experiments here in a way that shows his class, still above the rest in his "genre". Nothing sounds like him, and nothing ever will. The first track is darker than previous work, yet the second is er...umm... positive? uplifting? Yep, he even worked in a House anthem. Nothing is stagnant. Fine work from a continually impressive artist. I highly recommend the vinyl.






Read full review of Truant / Rough Sleeper - BURIAL on Boomkat.com ©

LAND - Night Within (Important, 2012)

The band describe this work as, "approaching an apocalyptic noir narrative," and Night Within, despite its slate visual appeal which recalls the grey paintings of Gerhard Richter, thematically points towards a world occupied by the early postmodern detective stories of Paul Auster and the urban neon dislocation of Taxi Driver with its existential protagonist roaming the city alone late at night."

Heavy words for heavy music. The atmosphere of this record makes me think "jazz for a dark alley". There is a definite lurking menace here, a modern take on noir soundtrack. Reminiscent of the doom jazz artists like Bohren and der Club of Gore and Mount Fuji Doom Jazz Orchestra, LAND wisely forego the Angelo Badalamenti elements. They know how to create tension and build to a near crescendo. This is really intense music with a casual delivery, much like the calm and cool demeanor of a film noir character. My first thought was Alain Delon in a 60's Melville film set in a cold Scandinavian climate. 

The two composers are UK musicians Daniel Lea And Matthew Waters. These two assembled quite a cast for this faux soundtrack. Guests include David Sylvian (Japan), Daniel O'Sullivan (Ulver, Guapo, Miasma, Aethenor), Alexander Tucker (everywhere with everyone) and an ensemble of woodwinds, brass, guitar, keys, bass and drums. The album was sculpted in Reykjavik by Ben Frost.

This one will certainly sneak into my End of Year list. 

Read full review of Night Within - LAND on Boomkat.com ©

Andy Stott - Luxury Problems (Modern Love, 2012)

The techno world has been intertwining with the drone world for some time now. Artists that made a name for themselves with the former, now make the latter, and vice versa. For years, Andy Stott made lovely dub techno / house tracks in that 90's Basic Channel / Chain Reaction vein. The international repute only began last year after the release of a couple EP's (We Stay Together and Pass Me By), which he released on Modern Love, a great label with the likes of Demdike Stare and Vatican Shadow. What he did on these releases was shocking. Stott began experimenting with all the traditional elements, slowing the rhythms to 100 bpm, and twisting each aspect of the melodies underneath crippling bass rumbles. Thus, he began making "bass music".

The EP's were experiments that led up the the newest album, which is a culmination of all those ideas, and a masterfully executed one. The opening track is simply the angelic vocals of Stott's former piano teacher, Allison Skidmore. They are effected and layered and set the stage for the entire recording. Throughout Luxury Problems, these vocals are pitted against low frequency bass rumbles, tasteful kicks and snares, and  synth elements so subtle, it would take you several listens to even notice.

The haunting, melancholy, and pensive environments Stott creates are brilliant. Finally, someone has taken this genre to a new level, a place I didn't think it could go, a proper evolution. And he's from Manchester... Go figure.


Read full review of Luxury Problems (Second Edition - Emerald Vinyl) - ANDY STOTT on Boomkat.com ©

Black Dog Productions - Bytes (Warp, 1993)

In the mid-to-late 80's the new sounds coming out of Detroit and Chicago inspired even stranger mutations in England.  The Black Dog released their first record in 1989, part of the initial wave of homegrown UK techno. Technically, Bytes is a compilation of material previously released as DJ-friendly singles and EPs, produced by various combinations of The Black Dog's three members under a variety of one-off pseudonyms. 

The music could initially be mistaken for the work of some Derrick May alter-ego, but there's something else going on here, a different kind of structure being assembled out of the same parts. Instead of America's pummeling four-on-the-floor, the rhythms have a kind of Afro-Caribbean intricacy, venturing into 6/8 times, polyrhythm and polymetry. Everything from acidic synth bleeps, stoned log-drum jamming, blossoming analog chords, and classical counterpoint jostle for your attention, assembling themselves Voltron-style into shambling grooves. This approach to rhythm was soon to be reified as IDM, but this is raw stuff, good on headphones sure, but not "chill," even when it's being pretty.
America's techno was characterized by its own strange futurism, but Britain's techno was truly weird, reflecting not only the Detroit-esque industrial decay of Midlands cities like Sheffield, but also the ancient landscape outside the cities: fens and heaths, deep woods, burial mounds, stone circles. There is a palpable sense of the occult here, of a ritual enacted by Crowleyan candlelight rather than the fluorescent glow of a space station.
Now that hardware-based techno is being rebooted by noise-scene veterans and youngsters who missed it the first time around, an album like Bytes can gesture at directions not fully explored by the original pioneers. Let's hope some of the new generation return to the strange grottoes first explored here.


--This review was written by John Brinker.






Get it Here

Cut Hands - Afro Noise (Very Friendly, 2011)

To "cut pure human states" and produce "the most extreme music ever recorded" was the mission William Bennett had in 1980 with his power electronics act "Whitehouse". When industrial bands like Throbbing Gristle and SPK began to calm the storms within, Bennett took his intentionally vile, lecherous and abrasive sound and visual to new heights, disturbing all who witnessed it.

More than 30 years after the inception of Whitehouse, a new project emerged, one light on the noise but heavy on the listening experiences of tastefully aged pair of ears. Cut Hands is a tribute to Bennett's interest in Congolese and Ghanaian persussion. These polyrhythmic African drum sounds are slathered in industrial reverb and complimented by delicately placed ambient textures, drones and even orchestral feeling electronics. All of these elements work incredibly well, creating a surprising groove with a full range of emotion. All this and Bennett's tactically cerebral expertise continues to shine through, never betraying his original essence.


Read full review of Cut Hands - CUT HANDS on Boomkat.com ©

Nick Nicely - Psychotropia *Compilation 1980-2003* (Castle Records, 2004)

Upon first hearing Nicely's "hit" song "Hilly Fields(1892)", I was quite simply stunned. How had I not heard this before? This track might be the very reason for the early 80's UK Psych revival. In fact, in an interview, XTC frontman Andy Partridge claims that hearing Nicely prompted him to create XTC's retro-psych alter egos, the Dukes of Stratosphear.

Recognizing Nicely's influences, how he incorporated them, and who he has since influenced creates a dizzying schizophrenia. The ghost of Sgt. Pepper era John Lennon is a definitive presence, John Cale is obviously part of the formula (Paris 1919 / Hilly Fields (1892)), a smattering of original New Wave (via electronic experimentation), a hint of Gary Numan, and a solid dose of R. Stevie Moore.

Luckily, his originality has never been copied in its entirety. Robyn Hitchcock borrowed quite a bit from him, and though not fully mimicking him, I feel that Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti might still owe a large portion of their success to him.

This compilation contains his only official release, an EP from 1982 called "Hilly Fields (1892)", as well as unreleased and obscure recordings over a twenty year period. Enjoy and please pass this gem on.

Get it Here