No Eyed Bird

Mighty mesmerizers from Marcia Bassett solo + live with guitars + effects pedals. Side A Glistens with solar power like sunbathing and falling into alpha wave drenched delicious dreams. Oceanic sounds as if suffused with wale songs for a maximalist droner. Side B takes you from drifting to drowning like a percolation pond of power tools. Ambient alien-scape full of mega-intensity. Heavy hypnosis.

9 of 12 tracks remixed from the group’s 1996 Songs of Love and Hate album. This vinyl is a 2008 re-release/ re-master of the 1997 Earache Records original album. Inspired by the UK band Killing Joke, England’s Godflesh began in 1988 as a duo with guitarist/ singer/ electronic programmer Justin Broadrick (currently in Jesu) and bassist Ben Green. Later they added live drums with member Ted Parsons (Swans, Prong, Jesu). Drummer Bryan Mantia (Primus, El Stew, G’n’R, Buckethead) is the credited drummer for this album only, and first studio drummer on a Godflesh release. Robotically precise industrial drumming style, barkingly livid vocals, trance like looped bass lines, lo-fi at times recording, & infinite dub layers shredded through keyboards and your choice of favorite mid-90’s pedal effects. Exploding bass drum heads and bang on a can cymbals live drumming from Bryan Mantia rescue the album.

-johnny darko

Funky first series of instrumental beats by newly signed artist James Pants. This set follows the success of his single Ka$H, which came out in Aug. ’07. In a style similar to Madlib, or Peanut Butter Wolf this Spokane, WA artist hits on everything from electro to soul. Many lo-fi moments with lonely hand claps, finger snaps, early hip hop sampling & retro keyboards from the very start of the album. Dreamscape sounds as Pants mans the drums, & keys. Most of the album programmed on the JP-8000 (crudely drawn on the cover of the album along with fake sticker marks and pressed record stains on the back of the jacket) with mixing and scratching layered in by James as well. Some jams are like slowed down B Boy music with ancient sounding vocals “yeah” and “come on”. At the end of side one, there’s even a tribal beat track with sleigh bells and some oscillated vox.

Mr. Oizo, is smart if anything, signing with the explodingly famous Ed Banger records, run by the former manager of Daft Punk. Not that Mr. Oizo needs any boosting from the label’s success of MTV acts like Justice, because Mr. Oiza, aka French music producer (and recent filmaker) Quentin Dupieux has been making international hits since 1999 when he had electro beats featured in Levi’s commercials. He’s been cleaver enough to remix Scissor Sisters, & Cassius, and on this release, he reworks the track “Do It At The Disco” by Gary’s Gang, calling his work Patrick122. Dupieux has a sickly dry, yet immature sense of humor, much like Wesley Willis with a prior track called “Last Night a DJ Killed My Dog” and an upcoming track for his new album called “Bruce Willis is Dead.” This disc is electro disco loopy magic, narrated by a robotic voice, the self-declared reincarnation of Michael Jackson. “Transexual” is slightly dark and mysterious underneath its pop beat hard candy shell. Inside is something even scarier. It’s a whole race of A sexual, bi sexual transsexuals, and dare I even say, the final evolution of human sexuality, TRI-sexuals!

-johnny darko

Sorry, there is no sax as the cover art alludes, but plenty o’ speedy tempo, guitar sliding NO WAVE action by this Vancouver BC trio. A-tonally amped, shouting, gorilla style drum spasmatics. The vocals are rhythmically in tune with the drums and other parts of the song rather than offering and steady melody. Check out the included liner notes for you fill typewriter typo lyrics about guns, knives and snakes on one side, and a barrage of band live show posters on the other. During the last few years Shearing Pinx have shared the stage with Gay Beast, Animal, Twin, Lightning Bolt, Health, and Leviathans to name a few. They have an upcoming tour in April of 2008 with headliners AIDS Wolf. Overall, the Pinx sound is anti dance pop music for people who still wanna dance. Powerful screams quickly become trippy instrumentals as side A ends, with side B picking off right in the middle where they leave off. Some howling guitars, play tone plucking, silly slides sonically sweet stuff from Erin Ward (guitar), Jeremy Van Wyck (drums), Nic Hughes (vox/guitar), and Nic’s own label, Isolated Now Waves.

-johnny darko

Beautiful Baltimore instrumental duo of Nathan Bell of Lungfish and Arbouretum’s David Heumann. Drifts out and outer into subconscious subspace, 10 strokes above par. Recorded in Kentucky, these men of rock envision a dustbowl full of baritone and orbital spirit guitars, the bowed banjo, and amplified kalimba. If that’s not enough for your tripp into oblivion then your momma taught you wrong, and listen for the sexy trumpet smattered all over the B-side cut Ephaphatha. Themes of flooded spaces with secret hide outs and endless network of sprawling wires like rays of the sun, Human Bell takes elements of Godspeed You Black Emperor and strips them down to the soul. Much like them, it may be difficult to remember much of the melody after even multiple spins, however like their theme, they aim isn’t set to stun. Moody and morose, most build-ups perish as they build, quite opposite of powerfully moving music. Could very well be a good theme to a slow escape, or a lukewarm flood lifting you out of your seat and into the ocean ever so gently, and then leaving you there to float away. Like the best moments in life, enjoyable during the ride, but lost forever after the moment is gone.

-johnny darko

Limited press drone dream split between A side Cloudland Canyon of Germany and Midwesterners Mythical Beast. Instrumental track for the kraut droners on the front, while the flip features seductively sad vocals by Mythical Beast’s female lead singer Corinne Sweeney. Haunting and minimal with no drums, she is backed by guitarist Jeremiah Cowlin, and bassist Aaron Hawn. Very serious and depressed sounds without the look at me emo attitude of the mainstream. Slow and steady vintage sounds fill every crack with Sweeney’s low slumbering notes. Mythical Beast will be performing in the Not Not Fun SXSW showcase along with Pocahaunted & Robedoor March 20th 2009. Cloudland Canyon is an analog duo of early-era drone, mixing tribal beats with simple repetitive but building nowave vocal drones over 70’s kraut guitar much like psychsters Ash Ra Temple and Embryo. The only sad part is that they only contributed one track to this split, and it’s also at 45 RPM. Ignoring the lo-fi elements of the recording, their classic sound is massive and methodical, like a trance dance into sacrificial volcano. Faust and German Oak fans will like their work, which has also been released on the Holy Mountain and Kranky labels.

-johnny darko

Lovely low deep male vocals (provided by Alexander Hacke of Einstürzende Neubauten) float in ambience, minimally droning with surprise beats. Recorded in Berlin, this German foursome is made of 2 percussionists, Tony Buck & Steve Heather, along with guitarist Martin Siewert, and zietblom on bass. Trippy drugged out feel to much of the album with fuzzed out one note surf style guitar delayed fuzz solos leading the way like a super stoned version of Green Milk from the Planet Orange. Mathematical plays with timing and meter on the lap steel guitar along with a percussive eastern vibe make heaven a much easier place to reach. Relaxing vibes are at a peak with the two guest vocal cuts Scarlet Woman and Prince Priest. But beware; sweet heaven is full of demons just like anywhere as luscious vocals turn into nightmarish Golem growls. Side B opens up nearly 4 decades ago into an age where 6-minute intros in rock music was the norm. Keyboards and industrial cymbal hits join the infinite fretless foundation of sadness envisioned by the band. With their musical canvas they paint landscapes with more freedom and even less optimism than Philip Glass’s audial work in the 1982 film Koyaanisqatsi.

-johnny darko

Two experimentalist groups from New Jersey collaborate in “Hear Less/ No Good Trying:” Dälek, an alternative hip hop duo comprised of MC Dälek as vocals and Oktopus in production, and Ifwhen, ex-All Natural Lemon & Lime Flavors with Merc (guitar, production, vocals), Kentaro (bass), Mary MacDowell (keyboards, viola), and Yuko Sueto (optical controller).

“Hear Less (Seymour)” opens with a twang of a guitar, grinding bass, a jarring organ, and drumbeats, set in minor key. This track exudes a dark atmosphere, reminding you of original hip hop meets Phantom of the Opera. Both groups are influenced by shoegazer band My Blood Valentine and it shows in this opening track with the distortion and droning riffs during the bridge, emulating The Beatle’s psychedelic rock song “Revolution 9.” In the end, the jarring organ and bass are emphasized in a repetitive, dissonant melody that eventually dissolves with the guitar ‘twang’ heard in the beginning.

The second track “No Good Trying” opens with a heavy bass like the first track, a drum machine and acoustic guitar which emphasizes the percussionist techniques, similar to Kaki King’s “Ritual Dance” as heard in August Rush. The melting styles of Dälek and Ifwhen produce yet another song that brings about a feeling of inertia or reverse momentum. When they introduce an electric organ, it gives the song a Celtic feel. The bridge shifts from a slower tempo hip hop to a faster vibrating organ blending with keyboard and guitar, bringing in a jazzy ambience seemingly set in 3/4 time. Beginning with guitar riffs and ending with cymbals, this is another experimental track fusing sampling and shoegazing.

The third track is a Deadverse Remix of “No Good Trying.” Opening with celestial keyboard, drums and intensifying echoing vocals, the song eventually distorts the vocals to the point of incomprehensible language and dissolves completely. In the last track, the Deadverse Remix of “Hear Less” opens with lyrics sung in echoing acapella. The drums enter, as the song alternates snippets of an electric organ and a pan flute set in different beats, creating yet another psychedelic ambience.

Overall, the collaboration of these amazing experimentalist and alternative hip hop groups produce unique industrial hip-hop, effectively using their sampling and shoegazing to exude a dark atmosphere of dissonant and amorphous sounds. Yet, it only makes you want more of this fusion of alternative hip-hop and psychedelic rock.

Looking for lounge and dancefloor music? “BatBox” is surely the album you’re looking for. Released in early February 2008 by Miss Kitten, also known as Caroline Hervé, a French electronica singer-songwriter and DJ, the songs are sung nearly entirely in English, reveals a blatant influence from goth culture and mixes diverse electroclash melodies with pop and ska vocals. The cover art is designed by Rob Reger, creator of the character “Emily the Strange.”

The opening track “Batbox” emits a feeling of mod culture with its new wave elements, and simple yet attractive spacey music. But wait, this is just the opening track! “Kitten is High” opens with a fast beat introduction, with vocals similar to Katy Rose’s “Watching the Rain.” Her singing style is reminiscent of a poetic feel. Enhanced with melodies and beats of party dance techno, it gives you a feel of the nonconformist individual at the party scene who dances to her own beat. The lyrics are simple, short, and succinct, a repeating style Miss Kitten uses as she tells of a fun goth epic.

In the third track “Solidasarockstar,” using synthesizers, drums, and industrial music produced by whirring electric sounds, it seems to tell of a story of identifying and abusing a rockstar. Combined with the industrial melodies, it gives you an image of Edward Scissorhands turned into a rockstar. The next track “Grace” opens with drums and cymbals, followed by clapping that signals the next overlaying instrumental–a low bass. With the reoccurring snippets of a grinding steel background, an organ, and a rumbling low bass, this haunting echo of a three-layered melody is reminiscent of Run Lola Run. “Grace” tells of meeting grace by losing herself in bass.

The fifth track “Barefoot Tonight” opens with grinding bass met with a mix of clapping, ethereal male and female vocals. She sings of her interest in guitars and lyrics, and her rise as a kick-ass barefoot vocalist. Towards the end she brings in the clapping once more, while shouting “Shout!” This gives me an image of Nana meets Wir Sind Helden. The style reminds me of “Guten Tag” by Wir Sind Helden. This song interweaves goth, metal, and pop.

The next track “Wash ‘n’ Dry” opens with slow ethereal vocals and just as haunting echoing beat met with repetitive industrial interludes. In this song, Miss Kitten’s vocals emulates the style of ska, especially Gwen Stefani in No Doubt. She brings in synthesizers, an electric keyboard, and slows the music down a notch. The bridge is reminiscent of her favorite use of bass produced with low, gutteral sounds. Overall this song is spacey with organ elements in the background, especially near the end. This depressing song juxtaposed with “Pollution of the Mind,” the seventh track, has resounding differences. In “Pollution of the Mind,” it opens with a fast beat and vocals similar to “Kitten is High.” Met with a lower fast drum tempo and a third layer with an organ, the organ is let go when the chorus is sung full out. Keeping the first two melodies the vocals begin again, bringing cymbals, and organs whilst singing of motivation “You, lost in sadness and pain/ Sun can shine again…” As the end approaches, she loses each melody layer by layer until only the first beat is left.

“Machine Joy” opens with record scratching and blatant hip hop influence with a bass of extremely low beatbox. Singing about DJ-ing, and introducing drums, this song is similar to the 80’s hip hop, particularly Michael Jackson. The melodies only contribute to the picture and feeling of the resounding chorus “Joy is in the rhythm of the machine.” She ends the song with a fast sixteen-beat drum and beatbox.

“Metalhead” opens with three melodies, two drum beats and an overlaying short spurts of an organ. The beats are yet again reminiscent of hip hop dance music. The bridge introduces metal industrial music, and surprises you giving an eerie feeling as she whispers, “Let’s take a record play it loud and fool around.” The finale ends with metal industrial melodies turned techno. This song is a great juxtaposition of metal and techno.

The eleventh track “Sunset Strip” opens with drums and rap. Met by a techno interlude, the low drum bass is mixed while the chorus is sung ethereally. Again, this is another fine example of the juggling and brewing talents of Miss Kitten with opposing styles of techno and pop.

The last track “Playmate of the Century” opens with a fast 16 beat and sings about the truth of the music industry. Mixing a drum producing similar music as a bongo drum, and an organ, the song ends with much energy and the style is reminiscent of 80’s music met with spacey undertones.

Overall, Miss Kitten’s “Bat Box” screams “diversity!” She mixes electroclash and New Wave (mainly ska) very well, and brings some pop and definite goth culture influence. However predictable the melodies are, they are fun to listen to, with surprising tones of industrial and metal music.

Check her website for lyrics and more! If you want to buy her album, go here!

The misguided trio who is actually a 5-piece has done it again, but this time on 12 inches of fury. Monkey Power Trio gets together once a year and spends a few days writing and recording original songs. Their 2007 release “House of the Mechanical Sun” is actually made up of 2 recording sessions from 2005 and 2006, which took place in Minneapolis and Oregon. They decided to ditch cover art and have commandeered old Beatles, Hitchcock and kids record jackets for the limited to 150 release I was fortunate to come across. As usual the bands songs are all a bit off and many from the Oregon session are accompanied by a fancy song flute. Their rap song ‘Another Year’ puts them in the indie Weird Al realm. ‘Meaty Girls’ may get a chuckle out of your gut but I still think NOFX did the fat girl praise better. I like Monkey Power Trio’s more innocent songs, like ‘Hop On The Monkey Bus”. Its like those Six Flags commercials where someone so stupid and creepy looking is dancing and flailing their arms so maniacally that you can’t help but wanna join them. Tracks like ‘Little Billy Oshin’ just plain scare me. Do they have something against Billy Ocean? I wouldn’t want that fuceker living in my foreskin! His “Jewel of the Nile” soundtrack hits were enough for me. It’s too bad this isn’t a cd, since it flows well from start to finish. Perhaps all guilty pleasures include vinyl in some way shape or form. Oh yea, “I live in the suburbs, I drive everywhere, my back always hurts and I’m losing all my hair” sounds like Happy Monkey Trio is content in Orwellian 1984.

The Vinyl Project is 79 sound byte tracks commenting on various political issues in the USA such as the prison system, lesbianism, black power, capitalism, poverty, terrorism, Native Americans, Vietnam War, the police state, Chicanos, the KKK, segregation and corporate media. The clips also point out the problems with the USA’s power over other nations carried out through brute force, war and domination over the world. The release is out of San Francisco and has a California/ Bay Area focus to it. Speeches by key people such as Noam Chomsky, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and Howard Zinn. The first and last tracks are songs sung by the Black Panther Kids. The vinyl also features clips by the Earth Liberation Front. The clips are surrounded by a few seconds of silence and may be hard to find quickly, but its sole purpose is for DJ sampling. The focus of the bulk of the clips is on African American rights and racism. It would be nice to have track times next to each track as some are minutes, and others a few seconds.

Minimalistic drone has is usually hit or miss for me. Hatred hit me in more places then I can count. The project involved members of Wolf Eyes (Nate Young & Alivia Zyvich) and the album bares resemblance to other Ultra Eczema vinyl projects such as Hans Grüsel’s Krankenkabinet and Burning Star Core (minus bXc’s use of standard instruments such as piano) yet Hatred remains 5 snobtastic levels above them with no website, no liner notes, no song titles, and one fucking creepy large poster as the vinyls packaging. I read that its a 500 limited run press and that the label is out of them all so if you got $25 to smoke, go pick it up from Mimaroglu Music Sales or Aquarius Records in SF.

So yeah, the artwork contains no words and not even a mention of the band, just orange scary hairy-faced creatures depicted with line art highlighting vacant eyes, horrible noses and the oddities in teeth architecture. The faces unfold to create a bright green, psychedelic poster on the back to reveal the biggest creature of them all. I’d love to see it in a horror flick on a wall somewhere where the killer lives, perhaps listening to these same sounds.

As for the sounds, well they went something like this:
SIDE A
The 12-Inch opens with piercing sounds that escalates into an intense soundscape of blisters popping while locusts devour the great plains. The next track opens up with demented church bells ringing out of tune followed by a loud bass-level time warping vortex of energy. Blips scurry past as the demented church bells come back into the background of the piece. Laser beams and horror film blasts echo like an alien abduction scene. The looping vortex is joined by other noises, such as steady scraping noise which work to distort what little time signature which existed in the tracks beginning. The 3^rd Track slowly creeps up in volume as an evil organ loop played by bored evil spirts in gothic mansions. Crashing sounds float above and echo into the ends of this nightmare. The trance evoking noise could be the wake up call of the dead or their masters.
SIDE B
Track 4 growls with the pains of starvation with meteor showers breaking up your weenie roast. The fallen starts begin to weep and whine as the hunger blips and bellows from the boiling lake. The streaking remains siren overhead as high frequency antennas shoot static into vapid minds. Everything becomes amplified static into fried amphitheater microphones as this beast retreats back into its cave. #5 brings the same horrory echo beats at random and unexpected times and with distinct amplitudes. The echo never dissipates and bells ring wet filling the emptiness between each crash. A working beat forms as small drills hiss with an assortment of light cymbal hits, sounding more bent than round. Everything becomes quieter and bird calls and squeaking rodents peak from their nests as the long fade out ends.

-johnny darko

Recording in 2003 and released on a small vinyl only label Seventh Rule in 2004, Elephantine (LP) is a special 180 gram record that is complete in its analog nature on vinyl. (cd version by Dopamine/Amalagate). The album is very hardcore heavy with stoner doom guitars and slowing tempos. Often compared to early Cave-In and Botch, with influences from the Melvins and Black Sabbath. While not vocally related at all, comparisons to math-y Hot Snakes can also be made. Now on Alternative Tentacles, Akimbo keeps the Math rock influence alive with its ‘06 album Forging Steel and Laying Stone. Heavy in guitar riffs and anti-hardcore instrumental breakdowns, expect lightning tempo shifts and dueling single note guitar ditties. Its difficult the pin the band down into the hardcore genre completely but you can count on an extreme performance that grooves like rock.

-johnny darko

This is one release not to be missed. Morgan Geist definitely lays down the funk here. Holy SHIT! No matter if you’re black, white, a veteran to disco, or a braindead freak of a vegetable, the 3 tracks in this EP are going to make you want to move. Previous releases may have had various focuses on the music such as the melody, but in here, what matters is the bass. Where some of the other Morgan Geist tracks have a lush atmosphere, this one pairs these retro little tinny treble leads along with the best that the low frequencies have to offer. What you get is an annoying tinny buzz when played at low volumes, and the most amazing, gluteus maximus shaking beats. With this turned up, you can feel the bass pounding down in your abdomen, and it just feels fucking great!

“Epoch” has a great low end, with a tinny, detuned lead that would sound like crap if anyone other than Morgan Geist used it. But he just seems to make everything work. Great intro.

“Probs” sounds a little bit more lush, even though there is a thin sounding lead. What makes it awesome is the combination of the smooth, fat bass, and the mellow keyboards. So hard to describe. Think of the funkiest music you’ve ever heard, and add on an 80s flavor to it, and maybe add some more funk…no even more…

“Jersey Chica” at first seemed a bit boring to me, because it’s a little different from the first two tracks, after getting used to the fairly high BPM. This track is slower, but once you get into it, the funkiness will exhibit itself. Maybe not as ass-shaking as the other two, because it’s a bit more mellow, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad.

Thank God I found Metro Area. Thank God I looked into Morgan Geist and found this. Buy this. Get it. Play it. Loud. And be glad for what disco has done for humanity.