NO-CORE

I really admire consistency of presentation. Dave Smolen’s album is called “Flannel Injection,” the disc has a flannel plaid pattern on it, it comes packaged IN flannel, and I am pretty sure Dave himself was wearing a flannel shirt when he handed this to me.

Strangely however, I cant find anything flannel-ey about the sounds herein. In fact, I’d be far more likely to liken the sound to things metallic, electronic, or alien. This conjures up H.R. Giger settings in my mind, much of it sounding like what you’d expect to hear as you made the descent into the heart of some kind of scary, bio-mechanical mothership.

The album starts and ends with more rhythm-based tracks, the first one almost sounding like a drum machine run through effects, the last based on a fast pulsing sound that goes through some very Mincemeat or Tenspeed-like changes. (You might note that, both Smolen and MMOTS coming from the same Philadelphia scene, the influence likely runs both ways) In the middle, the album comes closer to soundscapes, filled with grinding machines, lasers, dripping goo, and mechanical reverb. Rhythmic elements still crop up throughout in the form of pulses, flutters, and very loosely looped sounds. Like the soundtrack to a surrealist, industrial, sci-fi/horror film.

I really like how this is composed as an album, many different tracks with a different sound to each, just less than 30 minutes altogether, opening and closing with the more “catchy” tracks. Makes for great repeat listening. Dave Smolen’s performance at I.N.C. was also fantastic, based on many of the same sci-fi sounds, but gradually layering them up into a complex mess.

CDR from Malleable Records.

http://www.malleablerecs.com

Dave Smolen live video!

Alright, so I’m not quite on top of my new releases, but I have finally caught up with the new one from AIDS Wolf, who are proudly carrying the no-wave/bad-vibes-noise-rock torch right now. AIDS Wolf use loud, dissonant, non-chord guitar parts, flailing drums and the caterwauling of singer Chloe Lum to assault the listener. (All of these are good things in my book)

The first thing I notice is that they’re not going to shake the Arab on Radar comparisons with this record, especially starting the first song off with that fluttery guitar sound that opens some Arab on Radar songs also … but from there things take a turn for the more difficult. In fact, the first track, “M.T.I.,” is probably the most “out” on the record, just barely holding together and sounding like maybe, just maybe, it was an inspired improvisation.

I went back and listened to AIDS Wolf’s earlier “Lovvers LP” for comparison, and this one is much denser (both in terms of production values and playing) and more complex. “Lovvers” is similarly dissonant, but the song structures are rather straight forward. On “Cities of Glass” a clear effort has gone into deconstructing the music-making blueprints, not just the guitar sound and tuning. For example, on “Ch-ch-chatter” the guitars and drums sound ALMOST like they’re going to lock into a groove, but all the players are counting different numbers of beats and it never completely synchronizes. Most of the songs work this way, at least partly. (I’m guessing AIDS Wolf want this album to be their “Sang Phat Editor”)

For me, this makes for a much deeper and more fascinating listen. There may be some direct cues taken from the aforementioned Arab on Radar and U.S.Maple (it would be appropriate to name-drop Harry Pussy here too), but seriously, since all of those bands are defunct, how many current bands are trying to advance new music composition techniques? I don’t mean trying to advance new combinations of effects pedals, but trying to reconstruct “rock” music from the DNA up. (If you want to take that as a reference to the band, DNA, that works too!) I’m not going to go quite so far as to put “Cities of Glass” on a level with U.S.Maple’s “Sang Phat Editor” but right now AIDS Wolf largely have the field to themselves.*

One complaint, I wish Chloe’s vocals were clean, without that distortion on them through every song. I think they’d be far more expressive.

CD & LP on Skin Graft. Killer live show too, touring the States in March!

AIDS Wolf page at Skin Graft Records
AIDS Wolf on last.fm
AIDS Wolf blog

* Correct me if I’m wrong! I always appreciate musical recommendations!

“I will believe it when I see it.” That’s what I’ve thought every time I’ve heard that there would be a new Six Finger Satellite album. Well, I haven’t seen it but I have heard it. There is no physical album yet, but all the tracks can be heard HERE AT LAST.FM and the mp3s can be BOUGHT HERE. And it’s GOOD.

Six Finger Satellite were one of my personal favorite bands back in the 90′s, putting together Big Black guitars and Jesus Lizard rock with DEVO rhythms and synthesizers to create a sound that tons of bands are still just catching up to. They fell apart in 98 or so after releasing “Law of Ruins” – an album that was far more minimal and stretched out than any of their previous stuff. It definitely seemed like a “final album.”

Then I think it was 2001 or so when I tried to see a “reunion” show in Brooklyn. They were touring with Landed, 2 members of which were now members of Six Finger Satellite. Except that 6FS didn’t play, with no explanation. Then there were rumors of a new album, another reunion, etc. but years went by and nothing happened. Maybe a year or more ago a couple of the band members started an official MySpace page – with the usual claims of a reunion and new album in the works. By this point I was much too skeptical to believe it, but then they just recently posted the above links!

I tried to do some research by looking at the 6FS wikipedia entry and apparently this album was recorded back in 2001 (or partly recorded?). Maybe everyone was just waiting for a real stable line-up to come together so that there could be some shows around the release. I don’t know if I can make sense of the membership over the last decade, but it seems that every incarnation, including the one which recorded this album and the current line-up, includes founding members J.Ryan and Rick Pelletier (also in Chinese Stars). Wikipedia claims that the current drummer is Jon Loper, member of Made In Mexico, which would be cool.

Anyway, here’s the important information. This “new” album sounds like classic Six Finger Satellite. No one would be surprised by the sound or suspect a membership change if it came out right after “Paranormalized.” The guitar has that characteristic shrill metallic feel and all the drums hit hard while always staying seriously off-kilter. The sci-fi synthesizer sounds are in place. Mostly fierce little rock songs, with just a few touches of the minimalism that filled “Law of Ruins,” like maybe in the title track “Half Control.” It’s built mainly on a single lurching, pulsing rhythm but keeps the energy very high throughout. Only the last track stretches out enough to feel like a long song, but really, there is no filler and you get to the last track so fast that you’ll want the album to be a little longer. The whole thing hits hard and fast. If you love Six Finger Satellite, you will love this record too.

Apparently the real thing will be released by Load Records – date unknown, but I now believe it may happen. No mention at the Load Records website site yet. There are shows in April listed – I’m less convinced those will happen, but let’s hope!

Relevant links:
Six Finger Satellite on MySpace
MySpace page
The album on LAST.FM
Buy the mp3s from fina
Boomkat also sells FLAC files.

I got this press release from Philadelphia label Badmaster Records specifically stating that this compilation would be released as a free download on Thursday, Feb.26th. So it only makes sense to post something about it on Feb.26th and see if we can overload their bandwidth.

If “it’s free!” isn’t enough of a reason to go download the comp, then here’s why else it’s cool. Philly has one of the best music scenes going on right now. All the current artists I know from there (and those I learned about on this comp) are totally DIY, unpretentious, sincere, hilarious, and good-natured. I mostly know about the noise/weirdness scene, but there’s also plenty of bleed over into punk, indie, art-rock, etc. – which is also a reason that the scene is cool. And this comp covers some examples from all of the above mentioned genres. “Something for everyone” also means “not everything’s for everyone” and there are a few tracks here which I’m not personally into, but I’m also not into doing negative reviews so I’ll just mention some of the highlights for me. Besides, it’s a free mp3 comp! Just delete the tracks you’re not crazy about!

First of all, this is worth downloading for the new Mincemeat or Tenspeed track, which is a top-notch example of his stuff and has these bizarre melodies that crop up which you almost feel you could sing along to. Noise music you could sing to! A bunch of bands fall into the category of “noise-pop” which falls nicely (for me) on the noisy side, for example Hot Guts and U.S.Girls. (Hot Guts would probably be way too heavy for most to classify as noise-pop, but I call it like I hear it, and that’s a pop hook!) Pretty much all the bands share some kind of element of noisiness or a lo-fi edge. The prog/noise-rock band Satanized does a cool cover of NON’s “Total War.” There are a handful of bands which fall into some kind of post-Unsane sludgy-noise-rock category, like Talk Me Off, The Blacks And The Blues, and Rawar. I might have believed someone if they told me that the Birds of Maya track was Guitar Wolf – except that guitar solo was a little too fancy. The track by Fun Dogs was a cool surprise, being really hard to pigeonhole with elements of metal, noise-rock and post-hardcore, with a strong melodic sense – closest thing I can think of might be Killing Joke. There’s also something from a personal favorite, Drums Like Machine Guns, a weird little song by them which leans more heavily on electronic beats than noise. No Tickley Feather track, but we do get the Serpents of Wisdom, who lives in a similar foggy Casio-goth world.

There’s more too, but hey, free download. Check it out for yourself. Go to the Badmaster website:

http://www.badmasterrecords.com

Oh yeah, and someone did a smart mastering job on the whole thing so that you don’t have to hover over the volume control as you listen, which is much appreciated in a comp.

Lazy Magnet is one of those “you never know what you’re going to get” acts, but you can be assured that it will always be good stuff. This tape is mainly drone/mood music, with some curious twists.

The first side definitely drops you into heavy drone territory with what sounds like an infinite-sustain vibrato keyboard note and some hissing/whistling that sometimes sounds like a tea kettle or a distant jet plane gradually taking off. It’s actually well-paced for the length of the side, building (or achieving lift-off) and then gently settling again just before the side is out. Then the piece starts to fade into some guitar strumming and vocals and I almost thought this was going to transition into some kind of moan-wave/new-weird-america/retro-hippie thing. But then the side abruptly ended.

Then strangely side 2 starts off sounding like it’s rewound 30 seconds and you’re still in the same drone, except instead of fading into some kind of meandering hippie jam, it (thankfully) transforms instead into what sounds an awful lots like a John Carpenter soundtrack. Gradually shifting and melodic plink-plonk 80′s synthesizer notes keep the tension at a slow boil. The knobs get tweaked a bit here and there and everything gets a little Moogey until the piece fades out. Then as a final head-scratcher, there’s some low, distant droning and what sound like the beginning of a new piece of music begins to fade in, but the tape ends before it becomes very audible.

This is definitely background or soundtrack music, though there’s a slow constant shift to everything. The mysterious end of each side also makes me wonder if my tape got dubbed wrong. Is it just a fake out, or a genuine mistake? I guess if you get a copy of this tape I can’t guarantee it will sound exactly the same as what I describe, but then that would be in keeping with the Lazy Magnet anti-aesthetic. You really do never know what you will get.


http://www.ijustlivehere.net
Lazy Magnet on MySpace

This is a really enjoyable tape from Virginia’s scum-noise royalty Head Molt. Enjoyable that is, if you’re into exciting and dynamic noise music.

If you’ve seen Head Molt live, you know they’re a pretty ferocious act, with lots of rolling around, screaming, basically taking cues from the Cock ESP school of noise performance. So it’s pleasantly surprising that their recordings sound so planned and well-composed. “Police Dhajaal” starts out fierce with overblown fuzz noise and shrieked, almost black-metal-style vocals (something like the style both Wolf Eyes and Hair Police now employ), but from there it moves through a nice variety of crazy sounds. A synth bass-drop sound keeps things heavy with some BOOM… BOOM… Either some post-editing went into this material, or the four credited band members showed impressive restraint and organization because often all but one sound will drop out before new noises emerge.

The b-side is more restrained, or at least less dense. It’s just as loud, but walks a razor-thin line between tense drone and piercing harshness, tipping back and forth throughout. The track ends before the side is finished and there’s a long period of silence (or sounds too quiet to be heard while listening on headphones at the Laundromat) before a brief, fierce squall of noise closes out the side. (bonus track?) The whole tape makes for a nicely paced listen and feels like a complete album, despite the 22 minute length, some of which is silence.

This would make a perfect sample and introduction to Head Molt, in my opinion one of the most exciting and consistently rewarding bands making noise today. I am always surprised by how well their recordings hold my attention and reward repeat listens. Highly recommended for fans of early Hanatarash or Gerogerigegege (Perhaps a giveaway, one of the lead Head Molters, Gary, goes by Garygegege) as well as more “song-based” Wolf Eyes. The tape is on Gary’s anti-everything label and has nice rainbow-pop-vomit cover art.

Aww shoot, it’s sold out! Don’t sweat it, just grab some other Head Molt release, it’s all quality. I guess in that case I can tell you that the “Police Dhajaal” track is a free download at their last.fm page! Grab it now!

http://www.last.fm/music/head+molt

http://ratward.blogspot.com

I know exactly what will launch one-woman-band Tickley Feather from her current level of buzzy sub-notoriety to national indie super-star. Someone just needs to slip a copy of this album to Sofia Coppola, who will realize that it would make the absolutely perfect soundtrack to her next dream-like film filled with achingly beautiful melancholy. In fact, this album even opens with “Buttshot,” just like Coppola’s “Lost in Translation!” (after a little droney intro that is) It’s a perfect match! The closing scene of this film, set to the song “The Daylight” or maybe “Keyboards is Drunk” will bring movie-goers to tears and send them immediately rushing to their nearest record store for a copy of this LP.

It’s a really hard mood to nail, so how does Tickley Feather do it? The formula seems pretty basic: lo-fi Casio keyboards, simple haunting tunes and lots of reverb. But the real Tickley Feather secret weapon is her voice, which is what really takes the mood and the beauty of the music over the top. It actually reminds me of Annie Lennox. It also makes the “lo-fi” really work, because everything has this diamond in the rough feel. Even a really great singer with pristine backing music recorded in a million-dollar studio would just sound like mundane blah. This, however, sounds really special. I seriously can’t deal with most music which is supposed to be “pretty” or “sweet” or “nice” but Tickley Feather’s stuff works because it’s got plenty of rough edges. This will appeal more to fans of Tom Waits than Tori Amos.

My only complaints with the record would be that I actually wish some clean singing would peek out of the fog now and then because it’s that good, and the album seems kind of short, with several songs being less developed than they could be. But, you know, changes to those qualities might just upset the delicate and perfect balance here.

I was kindly sent this nice LP by the folks at Badmaster Records, who asked that I point out that they still have vinyl copies available. The CD is out on Paw Tracks, but when you’re in your bedroom on a rainy day and you realize you need to listen to that Tickley Feather song because it’s exactly how you’re feeling at that moment, you’ll want to put a vinyl record on the turntable, won’t you?

Tickley Feather
Badmaster Records

Scissor Shock is an interesting mix. It’s mainly a one-man project (Adam Cooley is the man responsible) which on the one hand sounds almost like a laptop band. The drums sound synthetic and programmed, the vocals are usually effected, and there’s some digital fuckery throughout. However, the playing style is closest to loose-knit multi-member ensembles who specialize in semi-improvised chaotic rock. Think of a digital version of Fat Worm of Error, or a Caroliner from the future instead of the past. It’s not quite as tightly choreographed as U.S.Maple (I think!) but each song definitely has a plan.

Scissor Shock is really prolific and this full-length release follows right behind an equally full-length release which seems like it came out less than 6 months ago. From what I gather, Scissor Shock started out doing something more like the usual kid-with-a-laptop style of grindcore/8-bit. I’m glad that the project has evolved into this more challenging and interesting style.

The arrhythmic beats are accompanied by some equally off-balance guitar manglings, trombone, miscellaneous, and some Wicked Witch of the West vocals. There are also a couple of tracks to break things up with only some acoustic guitar noodling, which actually sounds quite skilled and even pretty. These tracks are called “Ghost Fahey” and “Fahey Ghost” and while I’m not really familiar with John Fahey’s music, I’m guessing these tracks are some kind of homage. (maybe also an homage to the band Ghost?) I really respect that actually. If you’re going to try to play like a favorite artist, just call it like it is, don’t try to pass it off as your own invention. In the same vein, this album also includes a track titled “Blood Infinitive” and yeah, there’s definitely a link between this and Royal Trux’s “Twin Infinitives” too. Strangely, while being far more honest about who he’s stealing from, Scissor Shock has also created music that is far more unique than most other bands.

P.S. Adam is also very generous about giving his music away online. Poke around a little bit and you can find plenty of Scissor Shock for free download, but you’ll want to buy an album too!

“Synonym for the Word Decay” is to be released September 26th on Laser Seizure Records.

http://www.geocities.com/scissor_shock/

http://www.myspace.com/scissorshock

You couldn’t be blamed for expecting Hagony to be a rather goofy and lo-fi affair. This is a project featuring Emil Hagstrom of Cock ESP and Jason Wade of the notorious Minneapolis band Faggot. When I first saw this project appear on MySpace, I think they claimed to exclusively play amplified empty beer cans, a statement which seemed perfectly believable. This CDR comes in an economical plastic sleeve with paper insert and no attempt has been made to cover the standard branding on the disk itself. Then there’s the cover art. You can see it here. It’s not terribly offensive, but it’s not safe for work. Emil’s face and those of some political figures are pasted onto a group photo of… nudists? The back cover has Wade’s face inserted into a newspaper article about a man who ate his underwear in an attempt to beat a breathalyzer test.

Okay, I think I’ve painted a picture for you. You would now probably be just as surprised as I was to find that this album is actually carefully crafted, detailed, and intricately-layered noise. Seriously. This is every bit as good and worthy of repeat listens as any noise record pressed onto 180 gram vinyl this year.

The first track is mostly varying layered tones, somewhere halfway between drones and piercing feedback. The way the tones almost harmonize here and there creates an unsettling mood, a tension builder that leads into the second track, which explodes in a dense squall of noise. Things proceed from there with these two properties, harsh/dense and subtle/ominous, more carefully intertwined. No recognizable instruments or sound sources emerge, although I’m pretty sure those are some kind of horror movie screams submerged in the mix. And then best of all, it ends too soon! This is definitely an album and not one of those 3-minute Cock ESP releases, but it doesn’t overstay its welcome.

I am 100% behind artists who do not take themselves too seriously. Sometimes however, such artists’ work deserves to be taken seriously itself, and this is a fine example. Now, someone repress this thing in a deluxe vinyl format already.

http://freenoise.org
http://www.myspace.com/hagony

Most of the postings here take the form of “Maybe you’ve never heard of this, but it’s amazing!” but now and then I think it’s helpful to post a little something of the form: “You’ve heard of this, but is it worth buying?” You know, a review! Crazy, right? So I’m going to assume you’ve heard of the Boredoms and know something of their history. Maybe you also know that they transformed into a 3-drummers and noises band called the Vooredoms (where the “oo” is supposed to be written as a sideways infinity symbol) which eventually reverted to the name Boredoms again. So along comes this album, the first release by the Boredoms that’s not a remix thing in who-knows-how-many years, and the first official release of the full-blown Vooredoms style music.

I have actually really been digging the Vooredoms sound, which I’ve heard by downloading recordings of live performances. It’s pretty much always the same basic performance with variations, one big piece with various movements. Band leader Eye plays what sounds like a big euphoric-sounding keyboard chord sped up and slowed down on a reel-to-reel. I don’t know if that’s what it is, but that’s what it usually sounds like. There’s chanting, truckin-along 3-drummer drumming, Yoshimi (the other founding member still with the band) sings, and the whole thing repeatedly builds to climaxes on top of climaxes with chill-out sections here and there to give you a break. It’s really not the kind of thing I would have listened to a decade ago, but I have discovered that it actually makes the PERFECT exercise music! Seriously, the ebb and flow works perfectly for a workout.

So Super Roots 9 is not quite a recording of what I just described! It’s almost the same thing, but most of the noise and synthesizer sounds have been replaced by a choir. At first I thought that the chord sounds had just been replaced by one of those “voice” keyboard settings with lots of reverb, but from studying the pictures in the enclosed booklet, it would appear that an entire real choir performed this. (there are also some sleigh bells at the beginning, since this was a Christmas Eve performance) I’m sure it was much more impressive in person. In fact, the entire premise of this line-up is much more about being cool to see live, which is probably why there has been no official release of this material until now.

Unfortunately, the choir is a bit of a let-down to me. I have a hard time with music that’s too nice, that’s a little too “correct.” The wilder sounds that usually make up this piece are far more interesting to hear, and when some harsher noises get mixed in and Eye let’s loose with a little screaming, that’s when things start getting exciting. That happens a little bit on this recording, but just barely. So the bottom line is this won’t replace my bootleg Vooredoms recordings in the workout mix, most of which is recorded just as well as this and sounds more exciting. It’s probably smart of them to make an official release of this, and I understand why you’d want it documented, but it’s not the best representation of this material.

Nice packaging though, with the full score included so you can sing along at home. On Thrill Jockey.