No Eyed Bird

Norwegian Guitarist Eivind Aarset works in some intriguing guitar on this instrumental electronic-jazz release on Jazzland. Other typical jazz instruments weave in and out of tracks like Nils Peter Molvaer on trumpet (track 8), sax, live drums, and stand up bass (track 3). The overall mood is one of snow and mystery with darkness all around. It’s got a sex appeal to it that might turn off an average listener who could possibly label tracks porn music. If you are one of them, then track 7, Self Defence should change your mind as it’s an acid jazz noise hardcore beat. Aarset’s sound is very similar to electronic jazz artist David Torn. The textures created by the guitar are slow and flow like water over jazz bass lines. The tracks compositionally create very different moods with electronic music being the only common element. Slow movements of air and light touch playing on all instruments cut out the higher frequencies and deliver a relaxing sound that the cool jazz era established. Check out the sample of Self Defence below (96k bit rate, mono, 1/2 of the full track).

 

 Self Defence [2:50m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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.

For the Forgotten is the bands 7^th album with 20 songs of metal led by bassist vocalist Zakk Z. Out of Milwaukee Wisconsin, the New Society of Anarchists began in 1990 with brothers Zakk and Arlo. The trio plays a hardcore style metal with punk style drumming. You hear vocal influence from thrash/metal bands like Slayer and Pantera with punkrock music in the D.R.I. direction. Everything from this band is DIY as they tour and release their albums independently. Their bio shows they’ve been able to get by with this attitude, having played Warped Tour in ’96. More recently the band plays shows in and around Wisconsin in their attempt to unite the scene. As for the sound of the album, the vocals are deep and like Hoods style hardcore except less discernible and faster. I can only imagine from track titles and the subtle and occasional gang vocals that the group sings mainly about issues of politics and power struggle. The guitars are raw and you can actually hear the amp tones instead of fancy effects or pedals. The sounds all blend together and unlike most hardcore records the drums take a backseat to the guitars and vocals giving you that live set DIY feeling. The track Propaganda 2 is a cool sound clip with instrumental backing from the 1989 film “Lean on Me”, a speech from the principal firing up the minority students of East Side High to prove their naysayers wrong.

The Unseen from Boston MA is back with their 6^th full length. Their sound (dubbed street punk) is still very punk with new hardcore/metalcore high-pitch AFI style vocals. You can also hear the roots of Rancid and Bouncing Souls in vocalist Mark Unseen’s raw shooting. The lyrics of the songs are mainly based on real life murders, true horrific events like mass school shootings in order to remind people how horrible we all are. Quoted from the liner notes, “For some its just a headline, for the unlucky it’s a reality”. Gang vocals, catchy guitar riffs and memorable choruses make the album an energetic barrage lead by hard hitting bass kicks. While the sound may conform more to the newer style metalcore, the bands image remains uniquely punk with foot long Mohawks and skull n crossbones tattoos. Since ‘93 this band has gone from high school to MTV2 and the Warped Tour.

 

 Standard Podcast [2:18m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Drawing on influences from Throbbing Gristle and Joy Division, this LA based old timer band has been around since the good old ’81 and the no wave scene. Savage Republic came from the mind of Bruce Lichter, owner of IPR and also leader of the AZ band Scenic. The band has a three of its original members: Thom Fuhrmann, Greg Grunke and Ethan Port along with 3 new dudes. The band is still alive and kicking and touring too (currently touring Europe). I like how their Myspace says they sound like Godspeed and Mogwai. While some songs like ‘Song for Rikki’ have their Mogwai moments, I don’t think they are as effective at staying inside one genre, not to mention that their recording style and vocals are still rooted in Joy Division’s pot. 1938 is one of those albums that isn’t very good until it is over. The final tracks are very long instrumental sound maps of places you want to go to and will make you spin the disc again. If you like older indie-rock sound, slightly out of key guitars, the New Zealand sound and reverb ridden surf beats, then you’ll like the album.

Second release by Los Angeles punk/surf rock trio, Lamps is Monty Buckles (guitar, vox), Josh Erkman (drums) and Tim Ford (bass) with everyone contributing vocals. For their sound, think The Cramps, Harry Pussy, or a surf band with distant punk reverb vocals. The beats are slower and steady with loud moments good for waking people up at any hour. They tracks are all short and sure many of them sound alike, but their originality comes from their blended sound. While you might not understand the lyrics, this band is definitely pissed off. I just can’t tell if they wanna hang out with Phil Dirt or piss on his face.

Comet Gain is a UK (London, Brighton) male & female duet band, with British vocals. Moments of folk, Brit-Pop, and indie in the vein of Yo La Tengo but with much more punk. Heavily influenced by Dexy’s Midnight Runners and Northern Soul style. The band is Rachel Evans (vox), David Feck (guitar, vox) MJ Taylor (drums). They also have Jon Slade (bass) of Huggy Bear. Organs, violas, acoustic guitars, and female harmonies all make their way into many of the tracks. The songs are all very different making for an interesting album with songs you’ll love and ones you will hate.

This album is a reissue of two old out of print cassette releases by Kid Icarus from 1999 and 1997: The Cucumber Album, and Laughing Skeletons EP. Now a four-piece, this recording is the earlier solo acoustic guitar/vocals only, project of the bands front-man Eric Schlittler. The songs sound more like cool demos and contain only a few layers of sound with the occasional female vocal or backing electric guitar thrown in. This album features a cover of The Beatles “Norwegian Wood” and Schlittler’s pal Cassie Rose singing a Jandek cover “Spanish in Me”.

This is Tennessee’s James Toth of the Wooden Wand and his first solo release. The song tempos are slow and the sound is slightly psych-acoustic-folk. The folk has some country twang in it, and knee slapping wah-wah pedals galore. There are some female backing vocals but they are slight and so quiet you have to listen for them. Everything sounds like its warped and coming out of a tin can of chew. Some tracks sound live and other sound unmastered. The overall effect is a folk album in a dreamland of eerie vocals that leave their mark on your ear.

This self-released 2006 album is hip hop fused with experimental, noise and ambiance. I’ve never heard anything like it. Sleeper (aka Mad awkward) and ID are from Lawrence, Kansas and their music is the perfect combination for drug addicts, antisocial and avant thinking persons. This is Sleeper’s third full length and you can find many remixes and rare tracks their myspace pages. The album features songs created between 2003-05. I bet he has some cool equipment because he thanks bentinstruments.com and I’ve seen some of the cool tricked out instruments they make.