30 days off

Yob - The Great Cessation. CD.

At first I was a bit weary, 2009 is quickly becoming the year doom broke. As much as it ever will. It seems like everyone and their mother has a doom / stoner metal band at this point. I realize Yob is a reformed band, rather than a new band, but it still seemed ever so slightly opportunistic. That said, The Great Cessation is a worthy slab of squalor. The album is bookended by its two strongest tracks. These said two tracks make up more than a half hour of music, and while all the songs come close to the 10 minute mark-- some over, some way over-- they never drag.

Bergraven - Till Makabert Väsen. CD.

If Fugazi was a black metal band..
Nah just kidding... Sort of.
The more I listen to this album, the harder it becomes to describe. It isn't one thing for long enough to put into words. There are passages of psych grooves, various forms of goth rock and metal, and yet at times the song / chord structures resemble post punk / post hardcore. If the explanation sounds jarring, it most often isn't. The songs meander through various forms, often ending up somewhere completely different than where they started several times over. What they lack in any sense of uniformity, they make up for in compelling melody and delivery. Definitely worth several listens if you ever feel like you're bored of music.
Note to Hydra Head: Please don't use those cardboard envelopes.

Singles Edition

Deerhoof - Matchbook Seeks Maniac. 7" Picture Disc.

Very nice looking slab of vinyl. No idea if this thing is still for sale, but if you can find it, it's probably worth the price tag, providing the price tag is >$10. The remix isn't drastically different, but the b-side is a nice Friend Opportunity era ballad.

Woods - S/T. 7" single.

Two incredibly catchy lo-fi pop songs. There's only about 4 minutes of music on this thing, but it's quite worth it.

The Mayfair Set - S/T. 7" single.

Blank Dogs has been suffering from a bit of overexposure as of late, if you couldn't tell from the middling reviews of Under and Under. That said, this is a very good continuing point for those who needed to take a break. These two tracks feature most everything great about Blank Dogs, plus some pretty vocals from Dee Dee (of Dum Dum Girls) One question though, when are we going to see "Jail La La" get some kind of physical release?

Vibes - Psychic. 7" single.

This is easily one of the best things I've heard this year. It's some scuzzy psych-funk rock from the NNF crew. Very fun. Like early YYYs but with no-fi, no-wave inflections and Cameron Stallones' trade mark wah. Very essential.

Bring them to me. Bring them all.

Heavy Winged / Inca Ore - Ring Mining. LP.

Do you ever yearn for the Comets on Fire who made Blue Cathedral to resurface? Don't get me wrong, Avatar was great and all, but it sounded a lot more like a Howlin' Rain album. Well if you like your psych rock freaky, or your freak rock psychy, Heavy Winged will not disappoint. The first half of the track is a ramshackle cacophony of drums and almighty riffs, and then before you know it, the track derails into a soothing (in retrospect) drone/ambient piece. Hot Shit.
The Inca Ore track on side B is a serious downer jam. Eva Saelens, perhaps better known for her work in Jackie-O Motherfucker works some sludgey Dylan Carlson (circa early 90s) guitar work around blasts of feedback and heavy hit drums. At a LP (on 33rpm) side in length, it's a bit of a marathon, good stuff, but Heavy Winged are a hard act to follow.

Emeralds - Allegory of Allergies. 2xLP.

This record is to drone what Selected Ambient Works Volume 2 was to ambient. A Brilliant, genre defining piece of work. (Sorry it's OOP already. I've gotta try to get these things out faster.) 2 records worth of mind melting mantras. If you're reading this, you probably need this. Check the discogs marketplace, or possibly ebay.

The mind is a mouth

Khanate - Clean Hands Go Foul. CD.

Listening to Khanate has got to be some form of aural masochism. There's a bit more breathing room on this one, but Dubin is as brutally misanthropic in lyric and delivery as usual.



Big Business - Mind The Drift. CD.

At first I was kinda bummed out on this one. I wasn't sure how to feel about the added guitarist to one of my favorite drum & bass duos. Sure there were intermittent guitars on Here Come the Waterworks, but the addition of Toshi Kasai really changes the band's dynamic more than I expected. It's definitely grown on me since my first listen. "Cats, Mice" has become my jam. Give it a couple of listens at least. I would totally grab the BizBot remixes but Hydra Head is charging $12 for the single. With the exchange, shipping to Canada that's like $20. Raw.

The mouth is a mind.

Dolphins Into The Future - ...On Sea-Faring Isolation. LP.

For lack of a better reference point, Dolphins Into The Future is the "one-man tape-loop blue-age ambient project executed by Belgian Cetacean Nation ambassador Lieven Martens." (from the NNF website) Which is to say, this record is deep. It's always interesting to see how people interpret the sounds/life of water in its many forms, Martens plays mainly on the calm, hypnotic repetitions and patterns of oceanic movement. Throughout the course of six tracks, he creates a blissed out zen-psych-scape that instantly catches your ear, and washes calm over you until the record ends, and you're left with the sound of the lp spinning, and whatever other background noise had been temporarily erased from your consciousness.

Emeralds - Fresh Air 7" Single.

A 7" seems like a very odd choice of media format for a band like Emeralds. CDs, LPs, even tapes make sense. Initially, I was put off by the potential length of Fresh Air without having heard it. After all, who zones out for 4-5 minutes at a time? Many of their best compositions / improvisations (IMO) are multifaceted double-digit-minute sprawls. They need not all build into crescendos per se, rather into patterns of different resonant frequencies and tones. That said, Fresh Air succeeds, though it has more in common with "Up In The Air" than "Living Room" (Both from 2009's What Happened. The two untitled tracks offer plenty of ear candy, and if neither quite reach the cerebral peaks and valleys of some of their more epochal work, it's from a lack of content very much moreso than a lack of quality.

And she's a virgin again

Isis - Wavering Radiant CD (because the vinyl is way too expensive)

This is Tool for people who can't bring themselves to listen to Tool anymore. Instrumentally, the band is untouchable, but I have a qualm with Isis (it's actually not Neurosis related.) I find that Aaron Turner sometimes uses his cookie monster growl unnecessarily, I know it's epic-prog-post-metal, but I could stand for some subtler vocal performances. Maybe I'm a jerk.

Brobots

Blank Dogs - The Doorbell Fire. 7" Single

Finally managed to track down an early Blank Dogs single on ebay for a fair price. ($4.50) I'm guessing it's either been recently reprinted or the Blank Dogs Ebay fuckfest of '08/09 has come to a close. It's almost jarring to put on his earliest work after listening to Under and Under on itunes. The two tracks on side B show the very beginnings of Sniper's leaning towards pop hooks, though the songs are still extremely lo-fi and facile at this point. Definitely worth seeking out if you're a serious fan / collector, though I've no doubt that Blank Dogs' more recent output is superior.