C’è una parte da cui può essere preso ‘Unkindness Of Crows’ che può rendervelo particolarmente indigesto; è l’assuefazione di coloro i quali, ormai saturi, potrebbero liquidare senza reticenza un disco solo per sfiga di uscire in una situazione musicale estremamente frammentaria, che imperversa molte idee ma ciascuna promossa da molti epigoni. Peccato, perchè a patto di digiunare per qualche giorno in termini di titoli Southern Lord, astraendo il contesto da cui proviene e sottolineando le nobili origini di Gentry Densley – Iceburn Collective, Ascend -, un disco simile stuzzica la voglia di coccolarlo e farselo, azzardando addirittura una location in sede di classifiche natalizie. Molto verosimilmente, si tratta di una specie di crossover fra i Cathedral e i Neurosis, collimati per mezzo del drone di casa Greg Anderson e lo stralunato rifferama di Unearthly Trance, un’opzione stilistica ormai non troppo bizzarra ma che consente al duo di calibrare monoliti sludge, autentiche ondate di suono che circolano potenti, doomy ed inesorabili. Soltanto in certi anfratti, il tentativo concreto di staccare e darsi alla macchia dalla citazione mutata surclassa, e miete l’allarmismo di altri presunti sacerdoti di questo mondo sonoro, che mai e poi mai riuscirebbero a sfornare torte saporite senza farle levitare con i grossi nomi del genere. A questo punto, si fa dannatamente interessante disquisire su cosa, come e dove possa definirsi oggi musica doom, ormai sempre più sincretica e psichica, ma al contempo non troppo felice di mascherarsi da cagnolone rabbioso con il face-painting o, peggio, da freak in vena di esegesi cristiana.

philosophically i hate the genre enthusiast. generally a bunchof taste nazis. see metal is what i grew up on, up with and (scene-wise) away from. reason being, as a pup, the willful cuntishness of yr reactionary fan on the street sometimes made me wish i’d never borrowed number of the beast or paranoid or master of puppets.  the ficklest of the fickle; any hint of progression from a band slapped down as a move away from their metal roots towards big gay pop.  exclamation mark.  course it’s all changed hasn’t it?  we’ve moved on from the days where covering nirvana meant death threats from the metal community?  mogwai in kerrang.  goatsnake in the wire.  gabba in terrorizer.  sunn o))) in the telegraph.  it’s all one big musical melting pot innit?

i bring this up for a reason.  pelican and isis released their last albums to a somewhat muted response.  and by muted response i of course mean pissing and moaning on the internets.  the plaintive cries from yr average cockbrained metal aficionado of ‘it’s gone all fucking quiet like pink fucking floyd…’ were heard, howling like maera over icarius’ corpse.  i’m not particularly in favour of change for the sake of it but what was the last ac/dc record you actually honest to god liked?

if i’m being honest city of echoes and in the absence of truth ain’t my favourite pelican / isis sides. both had their moments but generally the records seemed occasionally strained and unfocussed, just didn’t gently tongue my neurons the way i like. so i was interested to see/hear what these new(ish) buggers sounded like.

don’t misunderstand me, while both bands may be from the same stock they are more like third cousins.  but interesting parallels abound.  both incorporate the reflective, progressive qualities of the previous moderately maligned albums.  both hearken back to earlier material.  both put a bit of a pop (relatively speaking) sheen on things.  and aaron turner appears on both records.

moving to southern lord seems to have rejuvenated pelican.  there’s a big fucking fire in the belly that seemed somewhat gaviscon dampened on city of echoes. there’s moments when the uber-amplification hits the thunderous chunder where kyuss and metallica venn-diagrammatically meet, particularly on the creeper with it’s stoner groove and metal bombast.  and perhaps indicative of the sheer giddy glee of being a thousand stringed riff monster again is the fact greg anderson guest geetars on here.

there’s tunes, melodies amongst the australasia-esque heaviness, and the polite intricacies of city of echoes seem more at home here.  there’s a sense of focus and purpose, confidence, indeed confidence enough to ease the record out with the rather pretty final breath which dares even to introduce vocals to this heady brew.

southern lord / pelican

and this sense of purpose seems to have washed over the isis collective too.  it’s their most concise album for a fucking age.  they’ve taken their heavy grandiosity and sprinkled it with a strange psychedelic beauty.  at times sounding like mastodon’s big brother or neurosis’ nephew.  one might use the word prog if one didn’t fear being shouted down.  but there’s an awkward elegance here among the tectonic hypnosis.

recording together (and with joe baressi this time round) seems to have added a whisky dash of warmbloodedness to the proceedings, something which at times is lacking from thissortofthing.  and kindof like the pelican album it’s even catchy at points.  the melodies curl through the panopticon-esque epic power with serpentinian grace.  you could, if you dared, hum along to parts, though maybe not the seven and a half minute entirety of hall of the dead. 

wavering radiant has that hypnotic grace and synapse hurting noise that the moodiest / heaviest of fennesz’ work has.  it also has that earthy bruised psyche feel to it that neurosis do so well.  so a recommendation of the highest order.

ipecac / isistheband

ps.  if a tree falls in a forest and only metal fans are there to hear it, does it makes a noise like a drop d tuned ibanez and full marshall stack?

Pelican's What We All Come To Need will drop from Southern Lord on October 27th.

PREVIEW: DOWNLOAD Pelican’s “Glitter” MP3
WE GIVE IT: 15/20 Watts

Chicago’s Pelican began their career as one of today’s most unclassifiable acts with their debut self-titled in 2001. While their sound is most literally interpreted as post-metal instrumental, one can definitely notice cues from fellow Midwestern post-rock and stoner rock artists in their music, especially in their fourth studio release to-date, What We All Come to Need.

The tracks that come together to make What We All Come to Need inspire a sense of impending apocalyptic doom, with spirally riffs that often fall into one another in a sort of cacophony of distorted guitars. The low, but mostly melodic riffs fill in the songs well and make the music’s inherent lack of vocals almost unnoticeable.It isn’t until you get to the album’s final track, the aptly named “Final Breath”, which is accompanied by vocals from Harkonen’s Ben Verellen, that you start wondering why Pelican didn’t utilize vocals from the start. Verellen’s tasteful singing is mixed extraordinarily well into the track– hardly interpretable and barely recognized on first listen.

Obviously sticking to their southern rock and doom-metal roots, Pelican’s choice in song structure and arrangement is refreshing to any fan of the genre. Some may find, though, that the tracks lack the originality of many of their post-rock peers. Several seem to chug along into sections hardly relatable to one another (see “Glitter” at 4:30). The separate parts of the songs work gorgeously in solo, but when paired together, they give the album a largely disorganized feel that is easily interpreted as blandness in the writing, and a drought of originality.

The record definitely has its moments, however, where you can’t help but revel in the blaring climaxes that Pelican throws at you. On both “Glimmer” and “An Inch Above The Sand”, Pelican is at its best, powering through some very well executed sections. And that’s exactly what sets the band apart in the sea of post-something instrumental acts flooding the scene recently.

While imitators can shoegaze all they want as their fans sway in the audience in front of them, it’s tough to replicate the muscle that Pelican pushes your way during the record’s high points. For listeners, the best advice is positioning yourself in front of some loud speakers, and hanging on tight.

– John Luposello

Ciò di cui avete bisogno, ragazzi, è di una sana reinvenzione. Spesso interlocuire con una musica necessita di molto tempo prima di masticarne l’alfabeto e la grammatica in modo sciolto e comprensibile. I Pelican, che l’ABC del loro metal lo conoscono a menadito, non si fanno più troppi problemi a scrivere partiture con l’esigenza di sembrare originali. Al contrario, mantenendosi arrancati alle pulsioni del tassello della discordia (‘City Of Echoes’), si concedono il lusso di scrivere un disco poco più che onesto. Ed è un peccato vederli in vena di palese autoreferenzialismo, quando cinque anni prima li osannavamo come nome di punta di uno stile, il post-metal, che ultimamente si crogiola nella sua fase terminale. Peccato anche perchè la grinta e le stratificazioni sono tutto sommato buone ma, diciamolo, il passaggio a Southern Lord non ha dato i frutti sperati. Collaborazioni (Greg Andreson, Aaron Turner, Ben Verellen), e compagni di rooster neri e cattivi (i nomi li leggete online) non li hanno agguerriti o rimessi in qualche modo in carreggiata. Al contrario, oggi ci fronteggiamo con spompamento e soluzioni invecchiate sul nascere, deja-vù che ormai ricorrono con cadenza biennale quando si parla di Pelican. Encefalogrammi piatti, melodie di sottofondo, bel suono, si, ma scontato. Sembrerà assurdo pensare che un disco dei Sunn O))) possa suonare meno monocorde di questo e alcuni di voi si disarmeranno nello scoprire una band i cui sviluppi successivi rischiano di scivolare inesorabilmente nell’indifferenza. Abbiatene pietà quanto più potete, e cercate di godervi qualche solido landscape di buona fattura o magari ascoltate questo disco solo per cultura personale: un pugno di mosche, certo, ma sarà sempre meglio che sorbrirsi le influenze sludge-metal di Francesco Renga.

San Francisco dev’essere una città tremendamente assolata o per lo meno caotica quanto basta per sbroccare due personcine a modo come Rafa Martinez e Jason Landrian, al punto da costringerle a rinchiudersi e scrivere un disco come ‘Chronomega’. Girandoci poco attorno e tenendoci in mente le radici di Acid King e Cavity, siamo sempre dalle parti dello sludge, Melvins e High On Fire, costolette rotte e crani sincopati. Praticamente, un brodo primordiale che non smette (e non vuole) mollarti, integerrimo/intransigente manco fosse la prima volta che ce lo filiamo, autentico lassativo per una “scena” ultimamente stitica. Mentre i Mastodon e i Baroness mirano all’aria, sono le band come i Black Cobra a ricordarti di che pasta siano fatti gli estremisti del rock americano: gente brutta, sporca e cattiva, che suona bene per noi (arrabbiandosi con il potente) e suona male per i perfettini, gli austeri e gli adepti al culto di Bublè. I downtuning e i mastini vengono incattiviti, il Suono e le gabbie aperti e fisicizzati da un Billy Anderson (Neurosis, Sleep) in stato di grazia, fondamentale per sbattere il dischetto in questione nella sua ovvia e calzante dimensione do spacco-e-delirio: chitarra continua e incazzatura siderale per meno di quaranta minuti. Inutile menarla troppo, inutile puntualizzare su riff e momenti, inutile anche cercare una qualche analisi estetico-formale che possa calzare disquisendovi sopra: prendetelo nella sua natura più cruda e sporca, e godetevelo, senza pensare che debba esserci per forza un quid. Un disco da idolatrare, nel caso abbiate saturato il repertorio dei dischi nuovi da passare agli amici o vi troviate nella spiacevole situazione di chi sputtana i Baroness declassandoli alla stregua di chi suona rock modaiolo.

(2009, Southern Lord)

Che il nostro O’Malley sia in forma smagliante lo si può riscontrare nella qualità delle ultime uscite dei suoi numerosi progetti (KTL e Æthenor sugli scudi). Non mancava che la ciliegina sulla torta, un nuovo album dei Sunn O))). L’ultimo full-length “Black One” e il successivo EP “Oracle” sembravano un punto di non ritorno per il suono dei sacerdoti del rumore, un pur ottimo insistere nelle solite soluzioni a base di drones massacranti che sguazzavano in un mare di inquietudine. Album strepitosi, ma i nostri potevano e dovevano fare meglio, pretendevamo un’evoluzione. La nuova linfa per O’Malley e soci arriva con “Dømkirke”: un passaggio fondamentale, un’esperienza che ha ispirato loro almeno quanto ha emozionato noi, anticamera del capolavoro che è “Monoliths & Dimensions”. Mai titolo fu più azzeccato. Il monolite sonoro striscia solennemente in svariate dimensioni, moltiplicandosi, scomponendosi e ricomponendosi. Ti travolge, ti risolleva, ti trascina nel baratro e ti riporta alla luce.

Oltre alle collaborazioni “in famiglia” di Dylan Carlson e Oren Ambarchi, la lista degli ospiti in questo disco è particolarmente lunga, stavolta serviva di più: archi, fiati, elettronica, forse anche semplicemente idee, opinioni,  influenze, percorsi. Jazz? Anche, ma non solo; andiamo per ordine.

Si parte con “Aghartha”, ideale per ripassare il suono delle ultime due uscite in studio dei Sunn O))) e come mezzo di trasporto per sbatterci nelle successive dimensioni. Le invocations (come le chiamano loro) del sempre più insostituibile Attila fanno accapponare la pelle, le frequenze del massacro di chitarre e bassi irrompono prepotentemente nelle nostre impotenti casse toraciche. Sfuriate di piano e archi si incuneano, liquide e sfuggevoli, andando inevitabilmente ad erodere il blocco che inizia a scricchiolare, nelle crepe si inseriscono i fiati, Attila proclama, tutto si frantuma, tutto diventa liquido e scorre, scorre, finché non si dissolve evaporando dopo diciassette intensi minuti.    Un suggestivo e diabolico coro femminile viene spezzato da un tuono di chitarra. “Big Church [megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért]” è iniziata, la ricomposizione del monolite è in atto in un’altra dimensione. Il suddetto coro ne scandisce la rinascita, le campane la acclamano, Attila la narra. Un crescendo travolgente, inquietante, solenne, la grande chiesa si riempie di cupa venerazione. Ma il ringenerato monolite fugge, alle sue spalle si chiude pesantemente l’enorme portale, soffia la polvere. Il suo viaggio inizia con “Hunting & Gathering (Cydonia)”. Torna alle sue origini, come a voler essere sicuro di lasciarle. Saluta “White two”, “Black one” e “Dømkirke”, ma li abbandona, la sua destinazione è “Alice”.

La calma iniziale è effimera. Il percorso verso “Alice” è pieno di ostacoli. Vigono inquietudine, fastidio, paura, ansia, ma si può e si deve raggiungere il traguardo. Il cammino pessimista e opprimente di chitarre e bassi procede parallelo a quello di archi e fiati, che incalzano sempre più ottimisti e speranzosi.  Pian piano vi è consapevolezza del fatto che “Alice” è vicina, che arrivarci è possibile, e soprattutto che esiste. Gli amplificatori gradualmente si spengono, il tratto finale è percorso quasi silenziosamente, il monolite si scompone per l’ultima volta ma diventa un’accecante luce. Una speranza c’è.

Tracklist:

1. Aghartha
2. Big Church (Megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért)
3. Hunting & Gathering (Cydonia)
4. Alice

]]> http://theonlythingiknowforsure.wordpress.com/2009/10/20/album-review-pelican/ Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:48:21 +0000 Michael http://theonlythingiknowforsure.wordpress.com/2009/10/20/album-review-pelican/

Album Review: Pelican
Album: What We All Come To Need
Label: Southern Lord

What is it that Pelican are suggesting we all need? Do we really need another post-rock band spewing forth their instrumental odes to whatever hippy freakfest is in season at the moment? Or are they talking about themselves, and admitting that to stand out amongst this gaggle of identikit no-vocal bands you need… vocals? Wait; there are vocals on a Pelican album? Fucking hell, they’ve actually tried something new!

Yes, yes, closing track ‘Final Breath’ is perhaps most breathtaking because it features the vocal strains of Allen Epley (The Life And Times). And Epley isn’t the only one joining in the Pelican gangbang. Buried between What We All Come To Need’s seven other tracks are guest appearances from Greg Anderson (Goatsnake, and co-founder of Southern Lord), Ben Verellen (Helms Alee) and, in a move that will surely get every post-rock fanboy tugging eagerly at their meat, Aaron Turner from ISIS throws down some moves with the Pelican boys on the title track.

But does it make the difference? If there’s one criticism you can easily level at Pelican, it’s that there’s little to distinguish one album, sometimes even songs, from another. They have their sound, that laid back, Southern-influenced take on what could possibly be the apocalypse, and only rarely have they deviated from that comfort zone. Well, their latest showcases a tendency to lean to the heavier side of things, which is much preferable to the sometimes weak displays of vain beauty that populated their past few records.

‘Specks Of Light’ goes through various reverberating mutations before reaching its grinding conclusion; ‘An Inch Above Sand’ with its crunchy guitar-riff that avalanches into a cacophony of noise, and a bass drum that stabs at it all like a rhythmic mass murderer; ‘Ephemeral’, a re-recorded version of the same song that appeared on this year’s EP of the same name, which just about gets away with accusations of laziness by being heavy enough to pummel the memories of the old version out of the brain.

There’s even the odd jaw-dropping surprise. ‘The Creeper’, for example, is a pop song; there’s no denying it. After the languishing intro disappears, Larry Herweg jams out a massive beat behind his kit that almost seems to be begging for a packed out stadium crowd. The trouble is, what it also needs is some kind of lyrical addition, as I couldn’t help but find out when listening to the track – my own vocalised contribution consisted of a freeflow rap on the perils of cats taking over the world. Yeah, don’t ask.

What We All Come To Need is a much more engaging album than anything that Pelican have preceded it with. At times the band is showing off undeniably delicious hooks that prick the ears to attention. Essentially, unlike their hit and miss back catalogue, which suffers from delusions of grandeur and results in oft-drab slabs of instrumental snores, WWACTN is a genuinely enjoyable listen. Maybe that’s what Pelican are trying to suggest – that we all just need to have a little bit more fun.

Originally published on Sonic Dice.

Boris will soon release three 7″ singles, titled the Japanese Heavy Rock Hits series<, and I just found this sweet trailer for the singles from Southern Lord. Maybe a little late, but kick-ass all the same. Buy these things.

Anyone who knows me knows I like my music on the independent side and with the rise of the internet, there is no shortage of independent music. There is, however, a shortage of really good independent labels.

One of my favorite labels is Southern Lord. It was founded 1998 by Greg Anderson of the drone metal band Sunn O))). The label specializes in drone, doom and black metal and has released albums by Earth, Sunn O))), Wino, Wolves in the Throne Room, Boris, as well has some reissues of classic doom and experimental metal albums.

They release music on both CD and Vinyl, and typically issue packages that include the album and a shirt. They also sell albums from other labels in their online store.

What really sets Southern Lord apart from other labels is the effort they put into their releases. While the CDs always have great packaging and designs, it’s the vinyl releases that really stand out.

These LPs always have exclusive artwork and typically use colored vinyl. Many come with bonus tracks. All are 180g Vinyl and are mastered especially for vinyl, so the quality sound is there.

Here are a few of the releases I own:

Earth – The Bees Made Honey In The Lion’s Skull:

“These 180 gram gold vinyl lps come housed in a over the top bible-esque triple gatefold jacket. Outside is faux leatherette with gold embossing. Think CSNY “Deja Vu” lp meets the Holy Bible!. Inside is the amazing artwork and photography from Arik Roper.”

Wino – Punctuated Equilibrium:

180 gram green marble vinyl in gatefold jacket. Came with a bonus 10”, also on 180 gram green marble vinyl

Sunn O))) & Boris – Altar:

180 gram baby blue vinyl. Double LP in gatefold jacket with full color photo booklet and liner notes by Kim Thayle.

If you’re a fan of quality, extreme music and prefer to listen to it on vinyl, you should check out Southern Lord today.

(not for the faint of heart or ear)

To quote the great David St. Hubbins, “it’s such a fine line between stupid, and clever.” It’s also, in American culture, a fine line between the established and the avant-garde. The paragon of this are Sun Ra’s singles, which combine a sincere, straight-faced take on pop music with the deep, but lightly held, eccentricities and naive weirdness of Sunny at his best. And how else to describe Sunn O))), makers of music that is simultaneously heavy metal – mainstream – and deeply experimental, who headed the bill of the Blackened Music Series at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple Tuesday night.

At the end of a long evening, Sunn O))) was alternately amazing and tiresome, with the amazement ultimately winning the balance and producing a rare experience. Part of the amazement is that Sunn O))) is actually doing what they do – they are essentially some of the foremost avant-garde musicians currently in America. They get there by being truly experimental, trying things and judging the results then exploring what they like. Where institutionalized avant-garde too often means drawing a limited and artificial boundary line and then ‘transgressing’ it with self-conscious dramatization, this intuitive and fruitful method requires patience, work and dedication to hone the ear and taste; it requires craft and artistry.

How they do it is clear, as their prepared material is formed through dedicated improvisation, but how they get away with it in front of an audience is a bit of a mystery, and fascinating. By this I mean how they gather a relatively mainstream audience, not the tiny segment of the population that seeks out and listens to avant-garde music in a more self-conscious and self-isolating way. The band is in the tradition of anti-Establishment American culture, where people go their own way and come up with their own, often extremely odd, autodidactic solutions. They are, thankfully, ignorant of or uninterested in the limited and circumscribed possibilities offered by the overly-professionalized conventional wisdom found in politics, business and the institutionalized arts. What university or granting organization would even imagine that music could be made that had no melody, harmony, tempo, beat, rhythm or even pulse? That is Sunn O))) at their best, which is at their most extreme, making music with pure sound.

They are not, however, always at their best. I would say that their not-best work is what helps them gain a relatively large audience (an enormous one vis-a-vis the avant-garde in music); you can listen to tracks that have a drum beat, that have a bit of a riff, and certainly that have lyrical content. The band, Greg Anderson and Stephen O’Malley, make use of the heavy metal performance cliches of hooded robes and smoke machines, all elements common enough to give a listener some familiar place to start. But while these elements are familiar, the application can be unique. They are ritualistic in fundamental and simple ways – at the Temple, they filled the entire auditorium with smoke and then waited an extra, wearying, twenty minutes, playing the multi-phonic chanting of monks over the PA before taking the stage. Once they did, however, they produced their massive slabs of sound completely shrouded in obscurity for most of the performance. This was amazing. The smoke had the effect of eliminating any distractions from pure listening, and with Sunn O))) one listens with the body. My iPhone decibel meter was pinned at 110, the level of a chain saw at close quarters, and the actual volume was appreciably higher (a momentary ear plug gap during Eagle Twin’s opening set revealed that they were casually exceeding the pain threshold 125 dbB).

It was a long set, divided roughly into two unequal parts. The first and longest part was exemplary; deeply pitched, enormous and enormously long chords and tones coming at intervals which, compared to common metal music, could be charted only on a geologic time scale. The sound, through amplification, has astonishing physical presence and fullness without being thick, it’s actual quite transparent and full of pleasantly gritty, crackling details. When it is complex enough to define a chord, it is mainly minor key and never dissonant, although Anderson and O’Malley push the sounds against each other and bend the tunings enough so that the gradual speeding and slowing of wave interference beats spin around the space. Sunn O))) understands how fascinating and beautiful the qualities of sound can be and they have the craft to convey that to the audience, placing musical events with confidence and care through passing time. Their ability to listen and wait patiently for the next musical moment is uncommon. The long, slow first part was so powerful and transformative, with a built-in natural ending, that it would have been completely satisfying all by itself. The second part was solid but inevitably less majestic and surprising and the slightly faster musical activity was unable to carry the same amount of sonic and expressive weight.

And there was heavy-duty expression happening. With each attack, the sound was immediately there, filling the entire auditorium and filling the body as well, and this is the key. As an email from the organizer warned “you will feel this show with you entire body. Please fortify yourselves accordingly.” Sound is a physical phenomenon, waves that reach out and touch the listener, connection the source and object across distance. Sunn O))) literally touches the audience, this is a goal, and they touch with profound power in that what they play doesn’t only reach the skin and the ear, it enters the body and vibrates it from the inside out. When they hit certain frequencies this vibration can produce a reactive sound that is heard from inside the body – there were moments when a distinct, buzzing hum was clearly audible to my inner ear and clearly coming from inside my body, with a quality not far from the sensation of chanting “om” during yoga practice. This was like magic in the sense of the primitive mind experiencing awe. Certainly, one must be sympathetic to the actual sounds Sunn O))) produces, and that response is going to be positive or negative in a fundamentally intuitive way, but for the sympathetic listener the experience of the band at their best, i.e. their most extreme, is like encountering two gods placing mountains on the earth, shaping the land across horizons we cannot perceive. After all, before the first light there was first the sound.

The group was joined on stage by singer Atilla Csihar, with mixed results. With him they were both at their best and at their most ordinary, which is not their strength. Csihar is an astonishing singer and a charismatic performer, appearing first in a scalloped, metallic robe with laser pointers on his fingers, and then in a primitive costume of burlap and wood, he seemed to be a visitor from an alien planet and then a creature from mythology. He has tremendous command of multi-phonic singing and produced impossibly long, sustained tones that were as mesmerizing as the two guitars. He also sang lyrics, some in English and some in Hungarian, and this dispelled the magic. When Sunn O))) is free from the common and confining elements of beats and words, they are marvelous. When they use these elements they are only a little interesting; they circumscribed by a genre they inherently surpass. The lyrics, a rambling mishmash of vaguely pagan incantation seem meant to be unsettling in a standard way, vis-a-vis contemporary Western religion and society, and they are unsettling but in that sense that one is unsettled by an adolescent boy’s misanthropic, anti-social proselytizing and looks forward to the day when he grows out of it. This is an aspect of normal metal music, infantilism, that is a feature, not a bug, and sorely limits its possibilities.

The other aspect is the beat, and Sunn O))) performed without percussion which, considering their basic heaviness, has the paradoxical effect of maintaining a certain lightness in their sound. The other bands, Eagle Twin, Pelican and Earth, all had drummers, and this put a limit on their own qualities. Metal drumming is the weakest musical part of the genre, a stiff, un-syncopated bashing which adds weight and force but also tends to hold the music making in place in the vertical sense, when it could be flowing along. John Bonham wasn’t the greatest drummer, but he could still convey a sense of rhythm and funkiness in a heavy music, and it’s odd that there is so little of his legacy extant. Eagle Twin’s Gentry Densley is a powerful, fluid guitarist, able to solo forcefully while accompanying himself and they are at their best when he’s ripping through the music, but the singing and drum bashing are again ordinary. Pelican and Earth are purely instrumental. The former is a powerhouse group, playing songs that combine familiar seeming riffs with interesting orchestrations and excellent ensemble playing, their set offered the suggestion that they could be truly astonishing if they could only free their beat a little. Earth is a veteran band playing a spellbinding, lyrical and truly minimal metal; sparse, slow, graceful lines placed amidst a great deal of silence. Again, their beat is stolid rather than propulsive, but they have the unique ability to create the sensation that time is standing still, followed by the feeling that only a few minutes have flown by once their set ends. They left the crowd wanting much more, and set the stage for Sunn O))).

-

• Wrest known for his solo works as: Leviathan & Lurker of Chalice
• Malefic known for his solo works as:Xasthur
• Hildolf known for his solo works as: Draguar
• Imperial known for his solo works as:Krieg
• Azentrius known for his solo works as:Nachtmystium

Heard of Fire!? Maybe you haven’t. Yet. But you should check them out. Kinda jazz, but the hypnotic and psychedelic kind. Quite not like anything else in a way. You’ll love it.

The trio exists of Mats Gustafsson (The Thing/Sonic Youth/Merzbow etc etc), Johan Bertling (Häpna/Tape) and Andreas Werliin (Wildbirds & Peacedrums). The record You Liked Me Five Minutes Ago is out on the excellent label Rune Grammofon in October (on my birthday, the 8th).

I took the oppurtunity as an excuse to e-mail Andreas some basic questions.

 What records and/or references where tossed around to get things started?

- Together, our “palette” of musical influences can only be explained as extreme – first of all it’s the age difference (which maybe is not important but a funny thing – there is ten years from me to Johan and ten years from Johan to Mats) so we all brought our own generations sound with us – that sums up everything from early Sonny Rollins to modern Southern Lord releases.

 Will there be live performances following this release, and in that case, where will you play?  

- We will do a short tour celebrating the release. In late October we’ll be visiting Oslo and play at Sound of Mu (home of Rune Grammofon. Funny thing to know – we are actually the first non-norwegian band on that label…). That’s the 26th and we’ll play in Stockholm October 27 and 28. That’s at Strand. For those shows we have invited some great musicians to perform with us. (Rumors of more gigs later on. Editors note).

 Is this like a one off or do you have plans to do more in the future, I mean you’re a busy bunch of musicians?

- We have great plans for Fire! So far we have only played one live show. At Riche(!) in Stockholm. That was truly amazing. So we will try to play as much as our schedules allow us, eventually invent a new time order that makes it possible to be at two places at the same time if it’s needed.

 Finally, give us a juicy story from the recording sessions, feel free to be as nerdy as you want to be!

- To watch Mats Gustafsson – the great “nu” musician doing overdubs on a Rhodes-piano was just beautiful!!!

Read more about the release at Rune Grammofon.

/ Mike Murgatroyd.

For more than 10 years, Sunn O))) have been providing those interested in the darker, heavier side of music with the darkest, heaviest sounds possible from measly human amplification. Pushing guitars and amplifiers to new lows (which is a very good thing) and creating a soundscape suitable for the end of the world or the furthest reaches of space, Sunn O)) peddles Drone Doom in the finest, most crushing way possible.

Monoliths & Dimensions is Sunn O)))’s 7th full-length and features four tracks, the shortest of which clocks in at just under ten minutes. The entire album lasts a little less than an hour, so brace yourself for some good, honest ear-canal abuse.
Opening the album is Aghartha, a typical example of a Sunn O))) track, yet different from their usual offerings through the addition of discernable, spoken-word vocals from long-time session vocalist, Attila Csihar (of Mayhem fame). The sense of dread and looming horror is made even worse through the sounds of thick, harbour ropes straining against some unknown force. This is most-certainly uneasy listening. The track finally fades with the sound of oars in water, a fitting end to a truly epic opener.
The following two tracks again conform to the Sunn O))) formula of positively demonic frequencies coupled with equally unnerving lyrical content. The chants in Big Church are positively chilling.

The closing track, Alice, feels like a nod to fellow doomsters Earth’s most recent effort, The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull, by going a far more subtle route in how they dispense their doom. A lone guitar meanders over orchestral chords and typical Sunn O))) axework and finally gives way to an (almost) Sigur Rós inspired horn and strings riff to wrap up the whole experience. Are Greg and Steve losing their mettle? Of course not, it is the perfect way to emerge from the hellish underworld of Monoliths & Dimensions.

This is my 200th post!! I now I’m not the greatest blogger in the world but I have a lot of fun here and appreciate anyone who takes the time to read this crap, and would like to once again thank Man & Mark (and everyone else) from 11after11 for giving me this platform.

On to the post! (I’m in Seattle trick, part 2)

The ceiling of Cha Cha’s in Seattle, good times, good times.

Sunn O))) live in Seattle…they are wearing cloaks for christ sakes, need I say more???…….. epic.

Pelican live in Seattle, These guys are the reigning kings of Instrumental….also epic.

A wall of magic at the Red Room recording studio in Seattle

Larry of Pelican/Tusk fame, laying down blast beats (jk, but he was laying down some heavy stuff)

Mark of Undertow/Shift fame doing his parts in 1 or 2 takes every time…the kid has chops.

Kim Kinakin from the mighty Sparkmarker also making it look easy, (also one of my fave guitarists) Chris Common form These Arms Are Snakes manning the controls in the background, dude is a wizard.

Stayed at the Marco Polo Motel for a few nights,  this place has some history.

Gnaw – This Face - Backyard Frontier
Burning Witch – Crippled Lucifer – History of Hell (Crippled Lucifer)
Khanate – Things Viral – Dead
Bikini Kill – New Radio +2 – New Radio
Thor – Keep the Dogs Away – Keep the Dogs Away
Voivod – Infini – Krap Radio
Narrows – New Distances – I Give You Six Months
Nadja – When I See the Sun Always Shines on TV – No Cure for the Lonely (Swans cover)

New weird…music…viedo…slideshow thing in the making
Tis going to be about Southern Lord records, but everything always takes AGES.
Not that many people read this, but I shall put it up here AS WELL AS up on le Youtube :]

Ooh ooh and yay Devon next week
And next week is technically in like 5 minutes, but eh
I’m taking waaay too much food and alcohol and…clothes.
I am such a girl.

Frigging tired…

Lair of the Minotaur are one of the best metal bands on the road today. Imagine if Slayer stayed on the South Of Heaven course, and you have Lair of the Minotaur. I really can’t stress enough how brutally awesome they are! Listen to their MySpace tracks here. What I really like about their sound is how they take some standard death metal & thrash elements and add some new blood-crazed, flesh eating energy into it. I get kind of bored with a lot of metal bands playing the same oh-so-heavy bullshit that everyone’s been playing for 20+ years, or even worse, a band who tries to reinvent the sound/crossover or whatever. Both routes usually lead to the same pile of shit. LotM put in plenty of speed when needed, but definitely aren’t afraid of slowing down to let the doom soak in, even in the same song. Very nice!

I’ve seen them twice and will post both shows. This is the first. I showed up late and missed the first song or two, but the sound is better than my second (although complete recording). I was not impressed with the crowd at either of their concerts. They just sat there during the songs, and maybe gave a clap or two at the end. COME ON PEOPLE! I have an excuse not to get all crazy during the show (recording, duh), but what is theirs? I hope the band didn’t get the wrong idea…because I’d like to see them a third/fourth/fifth time!

Here is their amazingly graphic music video *If you are under 18, or are offended at all, ever, by anything, DO NOT WATCH THIS. It will scare you.

Lair Of The Minotaur
w/Ocean, Intronaut

Thursday June 12, 2008
The Clubhouse
Tempe, AZ

Source: CA Cardioids > Church Audio 9100 > R-09 (24-bit WAV 48.0kHz)
Transfer: R-09 usb > WAVE Editor 1.3 > WAV > FLAC or mp3

001 (cuts in) The Ultimate Destroyer
002 Enemy Of Gods
003 When The Ice Giants Slay All
004 Horror
005 Carnage Fucking Carnage
006 War Metal Battle Master

—-Download—-

sample(2MB): Enemy Of Gods sample mp3

mp3(38MB): Lair of the Minotaur_20080612.zip

FLAC(219MB): Lair of the Minotaur_20080612-FLAC.zip

The first thing that comes to mind when I hear this black, burbling, gurgling, humming, thrumming, chaotic cloud of barren-wasteland drone is this: Why did so few talk up Pentemple, the live collaboration between Stephen O’Malley/Greg Anderson of Sunn O))), one-man death army Sin Nanna (Striborg), Oren Ambarchi and Attila Csihar of Mayhem?

Beh nulla, immaginati che arrivi un gruppo per cui sia lecito pensare che tutta la derivazione postcore à la Converge/Botch eccetera eccetera non sia materiale sprecato in imitazioni pedisseque ma una sorta di base di partenza per recuperare tutto il buono che c’è stato negli ultimi vent’anni di musica negativa e depressa e rimontarlo in un formato quanto più dinamico possibile. Ok, vi piacerebbe. Comunque anche se non è questo il caso, in qualche modo ci stiamo avvicinando. Gentry Densley, il boss degli Iceburn (un gruppo di quelli che per noi si dovrebbero beccare un giorno nel calendario al posto dei santi), era già entrato nel giro Sunn (o)))/Southern Lord ai lontani tempi degli Ascend, cioè sei mesi fa. Oggi gli Ascend sembrano una prova generale per l’arrivo di Eagle Twin, gruppo messo su assieme a tale Tyler Smith alla batteria, una roba pesantissima divisa tra derivazioni di doom metal stupido e interminabile alla Teeth Of Lions Rule The Divine, un impianto che sembra una versione per analfabeti dell’ultima parte della carriera dell’Iceburn Collective e un paio di scappate prog stile Storm&Stress in botta sludge. Sostanzialmente riffoni ribassati, e giusto un po’ per romperci i coglioni c’è anche un assaggino di linee vocali maligne e viziose che sembrano entrarci come il crodino a colazione. Un assaggino sta qui, il resto arriva in un 12″ prodotto da Randall Dunn e licenziato dal solito Greg Anderson. E in questi giorni se ne stanno pure andando in giro di spalla ai Sunn (o))).

Ce soir, première soirée Dedans le Sauvage. Un principe mis en avant, celui de l’éclectisme, et on peut dire qu’à cette tâche, ces bougres n’ont pas failli, réunissant pas moins de cinq groupes proposant tour à tour shoegaze, post-rock, post-punk, noise et black-metal.
 
“Bonsoir, on s’appelle Burzum”: voilà comment Team Ghost, premier groupe à s’élancer sur la scène du Nouveau Casino, se présente. Trio guitare/basse/batterie tout récemment formé, avec en son sein un ex-M83, ces parisiens ont l’air d’être encore en phase de rodage. Grosses couches rêveuses de guitares avec blips électro mélancoliques en sus pour un shoegaze venant se caser entre My Bloody Valentine et Boards Of Canada, mais sans malheureusement atteindre l’intensité des deux groupes sus-cités. Car le groupe donne presque l’impression de trop hésiter sur scène, trop hésiter à réellement balancer la sauce et lâcher les décibels quand il le faut. Et même si ce détail n’empêche nullement d’apprécier la teneur du set du combo, il aurait certainement pû le faire décoller plus haut que ce que Team Ghost a présenté ce soir. Sympa, donc, sans plus.  

C’est Microfilm, groupe de Poitiers, qui prend la relève. Groupe qui vient de sortir son second long format, le fabuleux “Stereodrama”, et composé de quatre illustres membres (deux guitares, une basse, un batteur) de la scène française (ex-Seven Hate et Myra Lee). Et autant le dire tout de suite, je m’attendais pas à une telle claque. La musique de Microfilm te transportes littéralement, post-rock, mais pas au sens éculé où on l’entendrait aujourd’hui, car ces types n’ont pas oublié que dans “post-rock”, il y avait “rock”, et le quatuor ne s’est pas gêné pour le démontrer.

Toujours sous tension, sur le fil, d’une intensité constante, leur musique s’impose en jouant sur les ambiances et les structures, maîtrisées et finement ciselées, incroyablement captivantes, que ce soit lors d’explosions ou de moments d’attentes, mais toujours empruntes de mélodies délicatement taillées qui vont droit au cœur. Des vidéos sont projetés au fond, derrière les musiciens, accompagnées de samples de dialogues de films, mais le tout devient presque inutile tant la musique du combo se suffit à elle-même. Concert de grande classe, et Microfilm peut se targuer d’avoir remplacé sans problème From Monument To Masses qui était initialement prévu ce soir.

Snowman a déja commencé lorsque je sors de l’exigu fumoir qui accueillait ma pause goudron. Quatre types qui débarquent du fin fond de l’Australie (d’un bled nommé Perth) mais qui se sont récemment installés à Londres, et auteur d’un excellent second album: “The Horse, The Rat and The Swan”. On s’en tape, ils sont déja à fond dedans, surtout le gnome à lunettes derrière son synthé, complètement en transe, gigotant, hurlant, transpirant sur son clavier, tabassant avec vigueur le tom basse à sa disposition, sautant dans la fosse pour haranguer le public; celui-ci assure l’attraction visuelle du show.

Son comparse guitariste n’est pas en reste, chantonnant, marmonnant entre les morceaux genre “j’ai un grain et j’ai envie que tout le monde le sache” en n’oubliant pas ses gestes étranges et désarticulés pendant les titres, alors que bassiste et batteur restent en retrait. Et la musique dans tout ça? Bonne, très bonne même, Snowman arrive à retranscrire toute la folie et la tension chargé dans son dernier opus, tribal, agressif, surtout avec la voix du mec à la six-cordes, hargneuse, proche de celle d’un John Lydon. Le groupe nuance ses ambiances, faites de montagnes russes, tendant vers le gothique mais sans jamais dans l’excès vaseux que ce genre peut sous-entendre. Très bon set des australiens, même si leurs attitudes sur scène pouvaient parfois être à la limite de la pose, la qualité de leur musique aura compensé.

On passe au gros morceau de la soirée: Enablers. Encore une fois, le groupe retrace une tournée en Europe, encore une fois, celle-ci passe par la France et franchement, je vais pas m’en plaindre. La dernière fois, c’était à la Mécanique Ondulatoire, petit bar qui convenait parfaitement au combo. Aujourd’hui, Nouveau Casino, vrai scène, de la place pour tout le monde, et je me demandais si cela n’allait pas affecter la représentation du quatuor, plus propice à jouer dans un bar miteux et enfumé que dans une salle de concert à proprement parler. “Santé”: traditionnel petit verre d’alcool fort avant de commencer, et Enablers se met en place. Goldring et Thompson aux extrémités, leur six-cordes à la main, Scharin, ex-batteur de June Of 44 , qui remplace Byrnes aux fûts et Pete Simonelli à l’avant, prêt à hypnotiser la foule. Ça commençe avec un morceau du dernier album, le superbe “Toundra”, et non, la magie et la puissance d’un groupe comme Enablers ne souffrent absolument pas d’une disposition dans une grande salle. Au contraire, leurs morceaux n’en deviennent que plus forts, grandis par un son qui fait la part belle aux guitares, aiguisées comme des lames de rasoirs. Ces deux guitares, magnifiques, dont les accords se rencontrent, s’entrecroisent, jouent ensemble, tour à tour mélancoliques, crépusculaires, tout simplement beaux, puis venant détoner dans un fracas métallique relâchant la tension alors accumulé au fur et à mesure, d’une intensité grandiose. Scharin, lui, ne déçoit pas, et donne une nouvelle dynamique au groupe par rapport à son prédecesseur, plus puissant, plus rock, et même si celui-ci perd du coup la superbe finesse de Byrnes, cela n’affecte en aucun cas la musique du groupe.

Et ne surtout pas oublier Simonelli, à l’avant, déclamant ses poésies avec vigueur, se sortant tant bien que mal de l’instrumentation grondante de ses camarades. Car ce type est fascinant, ensorcelant, contant ses histoires de la vie quotidienne d’une voix chaude et posé, totalement pris par sa musique, dansant, s’adressant directement au public, captivant l’auditoire à ses pieds. Cette musique est belle, majestueuse, convoquant la nuit, l’obscurité. Cette atmosphère régnant dans les bars enfumés et assombris, parfaitement retranscrite dans des morçeaux comme “On Monk” ou “Output Negative Sapce” que le quatuor aura joué ce soir. C’est déja fini, et le groupe à encore donné un concert d’une classe phénomènale. Longue vie à Enablers.

On passera sur Wolves in the Throne Room, quatuor plongé dans le black metal, genre dont je ne suis absolument pas friand. Je ne suis apparemment pas le seul à ne pas en être client, la moitié de la salle s’est instantanément vidé, si bien qu’au début du set des américains régnait une ambiance étrange dans le public, comme si voir ce groupe relevait de la simple curiosité plus que par amour de la musique du combo. Bref, quelques secondes à supporter blast beats surhumains et autres growls de la mort, et je sors vite fait de la salle, avec encore la tête la superbe représentation d’Enablers.

Team Ghost

Microfilm

Snowman

Enablers

Wolves In The Throne Room

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I haven’t actually seen the film as of yet, however the score to the film ‘The Limits of Control’ is fantastic and worth tracking down. Featuring a large input from Southern Lord records.

Southern Lord artist songs used in Limits of Control:
Boris – ” ” aka Smile (from the Japanese version of Smile, on Disk Union Records)
Boris – “Feedbacker I & IV” (from Feedbacker, on Disk Union Records)
Boris -”Fuzzy Reactor” (from Rainbow, on Disk Union Records)
Boris -”Farewell” (From Pink, on Southern Lord)
Sunn 0)))/Boris – “N.L.T.” (From Altar, on Southern Lord)
Sunn 0)))/Boris – “Blood Swamp” (From Altar, on Southern Lord)
Earth – Omens and Portents 1: The Driver (from The Bees Made Honey In The Lions’ Skull, on Southern Lord)

Try it Here
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