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.

Blank Sabbath

This Week:

Raccoo-oo-oon - Behold Secret Kingdom LP.

As someone who has toyed around with playing / creating experimental music and noise I feel justified in saying a lot of it is rubbish, though I suppose this is true with pretty much every genre of music. That said, Raccoo-oo-oon are no snake oil salesmen. This record kills. It reminds me of "In The Fishtank 9" but with much more lush instrumentation and several planes higher.

Twisted Wire - One Night At The Raw Deal 12" Single.

Another great single from IDIB. Kind of sounds like Ian Curtis fronting some dark italo disco band. Could have done with a remix or another song on side b instead of just a guitar take and the instrumental though.

Desire - West Coast Tour Demo. CDR.

I'm a big fan of Italians Do It Better, I own everything the label has released to date, hell I even buy the majority of items on the distro. So it does me no pleasure to admit that this is the first thing Mike Simonetti has put out that I'm totally not feeling. Johnny Jewel's production is hype as always, but the lyrics grate on me, and the sometimes francophone chanteuse is "comme ci comme ca." Maybe I need to give it a few more spins and a reassessment, (which I will do this weekend) but on my first listen, I actually found myself waiting for the album to be over so I could put on something else. Quite disappointed.

What am i?

Last week:

The Fiery Furnaces - Rehearsing My Choir. CD.

The notorious grandmother album. Sure it's absurd, and definitely not something you can listen to all the time, but I was mainly purchasing it to complete my Fiery Furnaces collection. It's a surprisingly good album to put on during a long car ride. Matthew Friedberger really brings his A-game to this one. The instrumental backing to the story songs is easily some of his best work.

Japandroids - Post Nothing. LP.

This one really surprised me. The record really kicks off on side b. Vaguely emo circa before it became a dirty word. Sounds like an early, lo-fi @tdi with the big riffs of Failure, Rival Schools and Dinosaur Jr.

El Grupo Nuevo de Omar Rodriguez Lopez - Cryptomnesia. CD.

While I'm definitely a fan of Rodriguez's guitar work and songwriting, I must admit, I approach much of his contemporary non-Mars Volta work with caution. A fair amount of what I've heard is kinda skronky or droney noise, and while usually interesting, does not always warrant a purchase given my budget. In the spectrum between an album like Megaritual and your typical Mars Volta fare, Cryptomnesia lies much closer to the latter. That said, there are a few important differences
1. Zach Hill on drums
2. Shorter songs, and for that matter, the album itself significantly shorter than every album the Mars have put out (By at least 20-30 minutes.)
3. Less emphasis on prog, more emphasis on art/noise rock.