#25: Death Valley Girls – Levitation Sessions: Live from the Astral Plane
Your live psychedelic rock album can’t miss when the first track is a guide to astral projection. You also can’t miss when it’s full of wild rock, passionate vocals, and, for all I know, tantric magic.
#24: Deeper – Auto-Pain
Wow. I mean…Wow. This post-punk record covers some serious subjects (suicide, existential angst, boredom, ennui, technological creep) and does it with serious chops and resolve.
#23: All Them Witches – Nothing As the Ideal
All Them Witches returned with possibly their heaviest album to date. Nothing As the Idealis almost a Black Sabbath record in its tone and sheer sonic weight. It sounds like they were getting out all their frustration of not being able to tour on the record. It’s a cathartic gem.
#22: Protomartyr – Unlimited Success Today
Protomartyr put out one of the mots intriguing records of 2020. Unlimited Success Today is layered with stunning guitar chords, powerhouse drumming, and mysterious lyrics that sometimes read and sound like a madman yelling atop a milk crate in the middle of a busy intersection in your town.
#21: Gordon Koang – Unity
Possibly the most uplifting album of 2020, Unityis the tale of refugee Gordon Koang finally becoming an Australian citizen. Koang is a musical superstar in Africa, but fled the continent due to civil war and threats on his life. Despite all his tribulations, Unity is a record full of hope (not to mention fun Afrobeat tracks) that we needed last year.
I’m not sure what is most impressive about Yardsss‘ new album, Cultus. Is it the epic riffs? The space / stoner jams influenced by early Pink Floyd? The way invites you to get lost in it like a hedge maze?
It might be that the entire album was improvised. Yes, Krist Kreuger, Robin Levy, and Paul Schaefer made up this entire record as they went along – completely trusting each other and letting the journey take them to unknown places.
It’s only three tracks (“Cultus I,” “Cultus II,” and, you guessed it, “Cultus III”), but the first two are over seven minutes each and the third is almost twenty-two minutes in length. All three are stunning pieces. “Cultus I” builds to a spacewalk playlist jam with swollen riffs, rolling drums, and rocket fuel synths. “Cultus II” dives straight into the deep end of the hard rock pool with furious riffs and then swims to the shallow end for a shot of tequila for a bit.
“Cultus III” could be a transmission from V-ger in the first Star Trek movie for all I know. It’s weird, wild, and cosmic. It rolls along like a war machine across a Jack Kirby-drawn landscape in a Kamandi comic.
It’s a stunning piece of work, and proceeds from its sale go to charities that focus on homelessness and prisoners. You can’t miss.
Recorded live in the parking lot of the famous Pappy and Harriet’s music venue in Pioneertown, California, Levitation Sessions by OSees is another great live set put together by the Reverb Appreciation Society and the folks behind the Levitation Music Festival. It’s also another great live album from Osees / Oh Sees / Thee Oh Sees / OCS (By the way, John Dwyer, if you’re reading this – I recommend “Eau Seas” for the next spelling, possibly calling the album under that moniker Water Weird.) that brings out some old tracks the band hadn’t played in years.
The album / show starts with the crowd favorite “Carrion Crawler,” getting things off to a deceptively quiet opening before unleashing rock fury. Mr. Dwyer (lead singer / guitarist) and his crew (Tim Hellman – bass, David Rincon – drums, Paul Quattrone – drums, Tomas Dolas – keyboards) give you a four-count to catch your breath before launching “I Come from the Mountain” at you like a rocket. “Static God” is the re-entry burn of that same rocket, and by now you’re holding on for dear life. Hellman’s bass is the harness keeping you in the rocket’s seat while Rincon and Quattrone are the sounds of the heat shield nearing critical failure. Dolas’ keys rise as Dwyer screams, “It doesn’t matter at all – your fucking institutions!” Impermanence is the only real thing.
The post / garage punk of “Sewer Fire” is outstanding and might cause you to pogo in your living room or office. Just try not to do it in your car while driving. “Chem Farmer / Nite Expo” blends keyboard-heavy prog-jazz with mammoth-heavy riffs and cymbal crashes. It ends with Dwyer yelling, “We have fun!” “Dreary Nonsense” is both fiery and goofy, which means it’s great. “The Fizz” is one of those older tracks they haven’t played in a while, and it has a great call-and-response chorus and fun keyboard dexterity from Dolas.
“Corrupt Coffin” and “Together Tomorrow,” both each under two minutes, blend together like a punk cocktail made out of Red Bull, sweat, vodka, and highly caffeinated Earl Grey tea. “Night Crawler” is pure psychedelic fuzz to lull you into a smoky headspace. You take a breath, and then “Terminal Jape” comes around the corner to mug you and then shove you into oncoming traffic. “The system has been broken down!” Dwyer grunts as the whole band turns into a tsunami. “Rainbow” slows things down a bit, but it’s almost a feint because “Heart Worm” is a straight-up punk boot to the head. “The world’s so fucked up!” Dwyer sings. It’s hard to argue with him if you watch the news.
The band pauses a moment before “Transparent World Jam” melts your mind and perhaps your body into lava lamp ooze. As Oh Sees like to do, they end with a mostly instrumental jam. This one is the nearly twelve-minute-long “Block of Ice” – a track that reminds you of Zappa, Allman Brothers, 13th Floor Elevators, and My Bloody Valentine all at once.
Few things can top the energy of a live Oh Sees show, and capturing that energy in a recording is a colossal feat. Levitation Sessions sounds great and the record’s mastering by J.J. Golden cannot be understated. This is a nice appetizer for, hopefully, many more live shows to come.
Keep your mind open.
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Portland, OR band Yardsss — ethereal music brainchild of Southerly and Sndtrkr leader Krist Krueger — share the first track from their forthcoming new album Cultus today via TrebleZine. Hear and share “Cultus II” HERE. (Direct Bandcamp.)
The album is performed in the full trio lineup of the band, Paul Schaefer, Robin Levy, and Krist Krueger.
The first two Yardsss releases, the Foma EP (2013) and Granfalloons EP (2016) were masterpieces of sonic effluvium, walking the fine line between abrasive noise and gorgeous, sometimes cacophonous melody inviting comparisons to Swans, Glenn Branca, White Suns and Godspeed Y!BE. Later efforts like the collaborative 333 (2016) and musical stream-of-consciousness Epithets (2017) explore conceptual themes of text as well as lineup. With the newly solidified delineation of Yardsss’ varying entities, Krueger and interlopers are free to expand upon ideas as they arise without fear of confusing fans.
Krueger is best known for his work with Southerly, whose 2007 debut Storyteller and the Gossip Columnist was met to national critical acclaim. His collective-run label, SELF Group, began a major relaunching in late 2015, with new releases from like-minded outfits Southerly, Mothertapes, King Who, C^VES, Swansea, Scriptures, and more.
Cultus will be available on September 11, 2020 via SELF Group. Pre-orders are available HERE.
Here we are at the end of 2019. As always, there’s too much good music released every year for anyone to hear all of it, but here are my top 30 albums of 2019 (of 60 that I reviewed) this year.
#30 – Vapors of Morphine – Lyons, Colley, Dupree Live at the Lizard Lounge 5/25/2007
This is a recording of a 2007 show that was the beginnings of what would become Vapors of Morphine. It’s a great recording of jazz, low rock, delta blues, and a bit of psychedelia and was a welcome gift for this lover of Morphine.
#29 – Black Midi – Schlagenheim
This album is difficult to describe. Is it prog-rock? Post-punk? Both? Neither? I think it’s neither. I do know that it’s a wild mix of crazy guitar riffs, epic drumming, and bizarre, frantic lyrics. It’s unlike anything you’ll hear, and I fully expect (and the band has pretty much said) that the next Black Midi album will be completely different.
#28 – BODEGA – Shiny New Model
BODEGA can pretty much do no wrong in my eyes and ears, and Shiny New Modelwas another sharp, witty post-punk record from these New Yorkers. BODEGA capture existential ennui, technology paranoia, and the annoyance of the daily grind better than most.
#27 – Cosmonauts – Star 69
I knew as soon as I heard the single “Seven Sisters” for the first time that Star 69 would be in the top half of this list. Sure enough, the entire album is a shoegaze wallop with their heavy wall of distorted guitars and California sunshine (intentionally mixed with a bit of smog, let’s be honest). Sharp lyrics about being tired of parties and sick of hipsters are an added bonus.
#26 – King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Fishing for Fishies
Never ones to fear experimenting with multiple genres, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard decided to make a blues record and mix it with synthwave. It works. They’re probably one of the few bands who could do it, let alone make it a concept record about environmental issues and the constant creep of more technology into our lives.
Who’s in the top 25? Come back tomorrow to find out!
I was talking with a friend of mine over the summer and he asked me if I’d heard anything by this new English band called Black Midi.
“I don’t know what they’re doing, but it’s pretty cool,” he said.
That’s as good of an explanation of them and their debut album, Schlagenheim, as I can give. The band (Geordi Greep – guitar and vocals, Matt Kwasnievski-Kelvin – guitar, Cameron Picton – bass, and Morgan Simpson – drums) mixes prog-rock, math rock, shoegaze rock, kraut rock, Japanese black MIDI rock (for which they are named) and, for all I know, actual rocks to produce music that is baffling, intriguing, and mesmerizing. The band have stated in interviews that the music they’ll make in ten years will sound nothing like they’re making now. They love experimenting. I heard an interview in which one member said they’ll sometimes jam for two or three hours and only take two or three minutes of material from it. They blatantly defy any attempt to label their music, which some people might find maddening, but it somehow makes my job easier. It’s like when another friend of mine described Aqua Teen Hunger Force by saying, “Once I knew there was nothing to ‘get,’ I got it.”
The album opens with guitars pleading for their lives on “953” as a drum kit is beaten into oblivion by Simpson doing an impression of a drunken kung fu master. The lyrics, which have something to do with the wages of sin (I think) take a back seat to the chaos around them. Just to screw with your head more, “Speedway” starts off quiet and mellow (despite its title) and adds robotic vocals to further disassociate the band with the listener’s expectations.
“Reggae” is anything but reggae (although one could possibly compare it to some of The Police‘s more experimental tracks, as they loved reggae, but why bother?). It’s sharp drumming and post-punk guitars in some sort of three-way with the odd lyrics about “fresh leather shoes” and strutting in style. One can only guess that “near DT, MI” was written while the band was driving to or from there. Don’t expect it to sound like any Detroit bands (Stooges, MC5, White Stripes) because it’s more like angry punk band from Math-magic Land. You’ll understand once you hear the guitars and keys.
The band has been known to wear cowboy hats onstage, which, along with “Western,” might be hint to their secret love of country music. Lyrics about being up before daylight and unrequited love certainly qualify, but this is country music filtered through the computers used to pilot the Mars rover.
“Of Schlagenheim” has Greep singing of a woman with a hot temper while his bandmates create some kind of post-punk madness behind him (and some of Picton’s heaviest fuzz on the record). “bmbmbm” could be a Goblintrack in an alternate universe. “She moves with purpose,” Green singing while a woman cackles, laughs, and / or madly babbles in the background and Picton’s bass thuds like a hammer.
“Years Ago” is like riding a rollercoaster designed by H.P. Lovecraft, and the closer (and first single), “Ducter” is a track that’s evolved from when Greep and Kwasnievski-Kelvin used to busk in train stations that blends kraut rock synths with prog-rock jams.
I realize that this review is almost worthless, and you’ll understand this realization when you hear Schlagenheim. Another friend of mine saw Black Midi at the 2019 Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago. He told me their live set was a highlight of the weekend. I told him what my friend said about them.
“I don’t think they know what they’re doing either,” he said, “but they were amazing.”
Keep your mind open.
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I’m not sure if anyone but Föllakzoid would have the guts to make an album like I. Every track on the album – guitar, synths, drums, vocals, and bass – was recorded in isolation. This is the first time the band haven’t recorded an album all together and in one take for each track. They then gave all of these elements to their producer, Atom TM, who hadn’t heard any of them before, and told him to arrange the elements in whatever order or time length he wanted. As a result, the album is a wild experiment that is a collaborative effort and yet order brought out of chaos.
The album is just four tracks, “I,” “II,” “III,” and “IIII.” They alternate between seventeen and thirteen minutes in length. The first is like a synth wave dreamscape that includes a neon-lit highway and roadside ramen bars. It blends so seamlessly in to “II” that you’ve taken an offramp from that synth wave highway into an industrial park that builds androids before you’ve realized it.
There’s a slight break before “III,” which is not unlike pulling over at one of those ramen bars and getting out of your hover-car to stretch, double check the power source on your laser gun, and scan the horizon for bounty hunter drones before heading inside to order a bowl of soup and a green tea. As the track grows over the next few minutes, you look up at the mirror behind the bar and see the reflection of hunter drone lights in the far distance approaching your location. You might have time to finish the soup and tea, but not much. The ramen is far better than you expected, and might be the last meal you have for a day. Is it worth the risk of being caught, or killed?
In “IIII,” the hunter drones are scanning the ramen bar for traces of your DNA and heat signature while you’re driving, but not too quickly, through an industrial area to camouflage your hover car’s thermal image among all the heat put out by the plants churning out recycled metal. The drones follow your trail to the factories, soon setting up a wide perimeter around it. You ditch the hover car and head out on foot, immediately gaining the notice of unsavory characters in faux-leather coats (Real leather is a luxury only afforded by the elite.) who wonder if you’re the cause of the drone perimeter around their neighborhood. Some wonder if there’s a hefty price on your head. Some look ready to collect. You know someone at the protein mill who might be able to hide you, but…is that an Ultra Corporation helicopter landing nearby? They’re the ones who hired you to find her, but why are they unloading corporate gunmen? The situation has gone from bad to worse. Action is imminent.
I is a stunning record, both in its sound and how it was made. The way it melds so many solo elements into a creepy, trippy, hypnotic landscape is nothing short of astounding.
Following last year’s cover of “O Holy Night,” Texas space-psych rockers Dayluta Means Kindness have released their version of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” for 2018. It’s an instrumental jam that keeps the core of the song and sends it into orbit. It’s only a buck to download it, so drop them some change while you’re in the Christmas spirit.
Keep your mind open.
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Funky and creepy at the same time, the score to Dario Argento‘s 1975 classic giallo movie Profondo Rosso (Deep Red) is a great one. Claudio Simonetti’s Goblinreleased this version a few years back with new performances of the classic material Simonetti made with the original members of Goblin and also with live versions and alternate cuts.
The main theme, “Profondo Rosso,” combines Simonetti’s clockwork synths with church organs, funk bass, and prog-rock drumming. “Death Dies” could fit into any 1970’s action film with its urgent piano chords, TittaTani‘s car chase drums, and BrunoPrevitali‘s groovy guitar squalls. Federico Amorosi‘s bass on “Mad Puppet” is like lava bubbling under a dormant volcano until about the three-minute mark when the tune becomes a chilling walk through what normally is a groovy neighborhood but now feels slightly…wrong.
“Deep Shadows” is bizarre with its quirky synths, Previtali’s shredding, and the rhythm section breaking the tune open into a prog-rock jam. A live version (from 2000) of “School at Night” follows, with its creepy child sing-song vocals and music box chimes, and it flows into live versions (from the same show) of “Mad Puppet” and “Profondo Rosso.”
Rounding out the album are alternate versions of “Death Dies” (from 1992) and “Profondo Rosso” (from 1990). Both are harder, faster versions. Simonetti’s piano work on “Death Dies” is especially frantic and jazzy. The version of the main theme (which is also another live cut) is even called the “rock version” and has bigger drums and guitars with a bit more distortion than usual. Plus, Simonetti goes nuts on his keyboards by the end of it.
It’s a great score, especially if you love giallo movies, Goblin’s work, or progressive rock.
The moment I heard Italian composer and keyboardist Claudio Simonetti was touring with her latest version of Goblin and performing the live score to Dario Argento’s Suspiria while the film was shown, I knew I had to score a ticket to see the show. The closest venue for which I could secure one was the Wealthy Theatre in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This would be the third incarnation of Goblin I’ve seen in the last few years and the first time I’ve seen Suspiria on the big screen.
The Wealthy Theatre is a small venue that hosts retro film screenings and live music performances. I almost literally bumped into two men outside the venue who obtained free tickets after one of them had sold a computer to the drummer, Titta Tani, through Craigslist. Neither of them had seen Goblin or Suspiria. I told them they were in for a treat.
The film was a big hit with the crowd. It had been a while since I’d seen it and I’d forgotten how much of a master’s course it is on lighting. I noticed a couple people having to turn away from the screen during a couple murder scenes, so it’s still an effective horror piece. Goblin did a great job with the live score, building tension and rocking out without overpowering the dialogue during critical scenes.
They played a full set afterwards of music from other film scores. A big hit was their music from Dawn of the Dead.
They were really cooking by this point, and their pieces from Demons, Phenomena, and Tenebrae (which made the guy next to me stop in his tracks as he started to leave for the restroom) were also big highlights. They ended with the main theme from Deep Red – a personal favorite.
The crowd was buzzing afterwards, and Mr. Simonetti and crew were kind enough to hang around in the lobby afterwards and sign autographs. I saw many horror fans with DVDs, special collector’s edition vinyl, posters, and more, and everyone was patient and happy to be there.
It was a nice post-Halloween / pre-Thanksgiving treat. Don’t miss this tour if you’re a fan of horror films, progressive rock, or film scores. It’s selling out at a lot of dates and it’s well worth it.
