Music For Sleep - Music From A Sinking World (2021)

If I had to choose a theme for the current state of things it would certainly be "uncertainty". Covid-19 continues to mutate and spread, posing difficult realities for everyone from vaccinated adults to unvaccinated children. (PSA - please get vaccinated or we won't be able to get off this shit-rollercoaster.) On top of that, a massive report just released by the UN paints a dire and quickly drying picture of our current trajectory with regard to climate change. 

Threats of another insurrection loom while justice continues to be so blind it can't ever quite spot the people/person in need of punitive action.

Sheesh! The mind is pulled from one terrible loop of thought to the other several times per day. It's fucking exhausting.

Thankfully, there's Music For Sleep: the ambient-meets-analog instrumental music of Italy's Andrea Porcu. Now, I will be the first to admit that I've avoided anything tagged "ambient" with much success throughout my life. But after hearing Andrea's Music From A Sinking World -- I FINALLY get the appeal. Ambient music is a different beast from rock, but it offers something very similar to it's listeners: escape. But whereas rock music gives you lyrics to relate and identify with, defined rhythms, and anticipatable verse-chorus patterns.... ambient music (at least that of Music For Sleep) is more amorphous in shape and completely void of human voice. Without these tangible elements, the listening mind turns inward for things to grab onto.

The music here is distant, almost as if heard through a neighbors open window halfway down the block. The reverb on opening track "A Quiet Storm" conjures feelings of dreaming while walking through an empty mall. Nostalgia is easily evoked in these songs... I found myself thinking of things and people I hadn't in many years. 

Not to overstate things, but this release by Music For Sleep was transformative for me. That said, I've spent months exploring other ambient music and have really yet to find another artist that "does" it for me. So, maybe it's a fluke... a right place at the right moment thing that I stumbled upon  Music From A Sinking World. Then again, even flukes can impart lasting change.

7 songs.

Music For Sleep - Music From A Sinking World 

C. M. Slenko - Royal Blue Days (2015)

The newest album from the folk/anti-folk musician C.M. Slenko, also called Charlie Slenko. Last year Slenko had a double release in September, issuing both a full length Rented Rooms and an EP Moonlight Veneration. The former being a wonderful example of melancholy contemporary folk music and the latter being a far noisier and psychedelic experimentation. These two modes he was simultaneously exploring then have now found a near equal expression in Royal Blue Days. Tracks such as "Pale Moon," "Short Circuit, Long Night...," and "Kings" are charming, emotional folk songs while others like "Somnambulant | Still" and "Clarion, Carillon / Carrion" are examples of droning anti-folk. Perhaps even more compelling are the songs that blend these two forms, having beautiful lyric and folksy guitar with noise erupting or droning seamlessly along side. Check "Not Just Angels" or "Shallow" to hear what I mean by this. A entertaining and lovely display of the power musical juxtaposition. Absolutely the sort of album that is most rewarding to hear from beginning to end with devoted attention. 

Royal Blue Days has been released by Slenko's own Sioux Trails label, which has issued some really notable music including previously featured albums by Galápagos Finches and Glass Men. There is a bunch more on there I've been meaning to get to as well that look super promising and I believe they're all free to download.

To be had here:
C. M. Slenko - Royal Blue Days

The Dictaphone - Hazmat (2015)

A new album by the French heavy psychedelic garage project known as the Dictaphone. Released by the Viennese label, Totally Wired Records, who you might recall as the folks that put out the Drunken Draculas' songs in Austria. I haven't posted about the Dictaphone since the release of 2012's Let's Not. However, it took mere seconds of listening to Hazmat for me to recall why I would have taken the trouble to write them up years ago.

I called the Dictaphone 'heavy' psychedelic garage for a reason, though a looser term like lo-fi is likely more applicable. The songs are incredibly dense and rich and only at times fast and messy, perhaps best exemplified by the amazing song "Wrist Job." Yet in the second half of Hazmat the tone shifts in tracks like "Ex-Cop" and "Remove The Need" to a slower and a more droning style overtakes the brash garage rock. Then in the end it changes back into very lo-fi garage rock, with the fuzzy guitar, pounding percussion and belting, echoey vocals one should expect. Throughout all of them is an innate connection to electronic music, especially in the building introductions and layering of rhythms. Check out the track "Stalker" to really see what I mean and just how excellently the differing dynamics are integrated into a cohesive song. It is a stellar album all around, one I won't soon be moving on from.

To be had here:
The Dictaphone - Hazmat

Nigel & The Dropout - Folderal (2015)

When I wrote of Nigel & The Dropout's previous album, Tumultuous, I mentioned how I only came to know of them from one of them firmly giving me a card with the band's name and the link to their bandcamp on it. It seems it worked so throughly they turned me into a devoted enough fan that I looked into if they had a new album out. Guess how pleasantly surprised I was to see that indeed they've got one out and furthermore that it is pretty damn sweet.

So in case you didn't hear their previous album, which I still highly recommend you check out, Nigel & The Dropout are a duo from Detroit that make electronic dance rock. So while I am the first to admit I truly prefer never to dance ever, not my preferred form expression (not shocking for a man who finds time to write a music blog), but I can tell this shit would be something to move around to. However, this isn't the case for every song. You see, the album has a considerable range. Tracks like "Gestalt" and "I am a Trampoline" are dance rock for sure, but the songs "Blood Brain Barrier" and "Pulled Over, Pulled Under" are far more ethereal to the point of becoming space rock-like. Still others fall outside this binary, being more droning and experimental. I can't decide which of them I enjoy the most, and regardless of which you fancy best I am sure you'll like Folderal.

To be had here:
Nigel & The Dropout -  Folderal

The Citradels - A Night Of Contemporary Feedback Music (2015)

I've made reference to my now living in the city of Hamtramck, MI. It's a unique town and really only for bizarre historical reasons not part of Detroit, which completely surrounds it. It's status as separate city isn't the most bizarre part about it. It's dense, more so than any of the city's suburbs and even much of the city proper, packed with immigrants, cheap hipsters and a lingering breed of poor blue collar folks who worked in the automotive factories. All stacked up in these duplexes with children playing in the streets, Arabic radio blasting through windows, calls to prayer, and bars loaded with rock and roll. The drive bars deserve special mention, they're seemingly unstuck in time, still hosting the Polish speaking old men that used to be common here, selling small drafts for $1.75 and a television mounted to the wall in 1985. I spend my evening yesterday wandering around this town full of ethnic grocery stores, holes-in-wall, and fashion retailers it is hard to imagine still existing while hearing the retro-styled psychedelia of Melbourne's The Citradels. It was pleasantly surreal to say the least.

Hopefully some of you are familiar with this group, as I've written up three of their albums before, most recently last year's Nepenthe. Everything I have heard from them bears the same seed of retro-rock, heavily focused in late 1960s psychedelic and incorporating elements of drone, shoegaze and psych-pop that came in later years. A Night Of Contemporary Feedback Music is not exception, in fact that explicitly cite 1968 in the introduction track. Without having gotten a chance to dip back into their whole catalog, I do feel this new album has created a fresh sound despite how the seem to keep in similar genesis of atmospheric throw-back in the others. Moreover, the second half has tracks like "Dear Ivy" and "Pretty Smooth, Ey " that're excellent fuzzy pop songs. Then there's the non-Western instruments such as the Armenian Duduk, Balalaika, Pungi, Djembe and most noticeably the Sitar providing the experimental and mystic sound that made early psychedelia so distinctive. Finally, when you download this check out the nicknames they've given themselves, they're all great but hats off to coining "Coolerbreeze Cloverstream."

To be had here:
The Citradels -  A Night Of Contemporary Feedback Music

Cold Clouds - Cold Clouds (2015)

With my cold or flu forced hiatus finally brought to a close and my body and head ready for some weird shit to again flood it, I am completely jazzed to get to share Cold Clouds.

This self-titled release is the first I've heard of Cold Clouds, and I haven't got much more information of the musician behind the project. However, some of you might recall the Brooklyn, Outward Records, who put out the likewise eerily entrancing tape by Mislead Navigator. After how strangely evocative that tape was I was prepared to try any drone sent our way from the label. Cold Clouds totally delivered. This tape is a long shimmering, buzzing and what-have-you exemplar of finely done experimental drone. And when I say long I mean not just several of the individual tracks being lengthy, but a sort of unhurried feeling that permeates throughout the album. It never seems to speed up or become agitated in the slightest, yet there is never a lack of activity and sound. I cannot think of a better word than entrancing, for I must've heard both 9+ minutes of "Mirrors" half a dozen times already and keep desiring to heard them more.

To be had here:
Cold Clouds - Cold Clouds

Remy Olandrusso - MPRSSNS F FRC (2014)

Tags on bandcamp are a funny thing. They can be anything the poster of the album decides naturally, and sometimes it they are as vague as can it can fucking be and other times they're beyond genre descriptors, to the point of substituting for a biography of the artist in a backward fashion. Remy Olandrusso has done just that by tagging this album with phrases like "growing up on John Carpenter" and "suspect cultural appropriation." In many ways they tells me more of what to listen for than any words like experimental or drone, though this album can be called both of those. The best tag by far is "unhealthy oulipo obsession," which for a reformed used bookseller and fan of Queneau and Calvino is a sediment I can relate to all too well.

On first impression I believed this would be a math rock album, as it was submitted due to the musician noticing his friends, fellow Chicago-based fellas of Imelda Marcos, were written up. While there certainly is some mathiness to the album it isn't an assault of the angular guitar, rather a step more out into the bizarre.  MPRSSNS F FRC very well could be the soundtrack to a creepy Carpenter-esque film. A weird arthouse one, but I'm sure you'll hear the cinematic quality in the mood of these songs. Equally surreal, anxious and hypnotic. It's incredibly hard to categorize all the different sounds he's layered upon each other, but they are woven in a entirely compelling way. To top it all of they've got the closest thing I can imagine to a ransom note cut out of magazine print I've seen for track titles, such as delightfully named "th3 h1v3 s3nt1n3ls r1s3 t0 sh4rp3n th31r bl4d3s." It might not be recommended to listen to it alone in the dark but I did it and felt fine.

To be had here:
Remy Olandrusso - MPRSSNS F FRC

EP Grab Bag vol. 90

An all North American Grab Bag this time. That is what was in the cards I suppose, but we aren't lacking in any glamor, mystic or bravado without our other-continental brethren today. Garage, country and otherwise for the auditory consumer.

To be had here:

Leon Patriz - Better Luck Next Fall (2014)

This here is from Vancouver, submitted by a dude called Enzio who has got his hands in several musical project out on Canada's Pacific coast. He's even played as part of Slight Birching. As for this EP, it's got only four songs yet manages to be incredibly diverse and consistently experimental. Electronic tones and affects, plenty of droning bass, and lo-fi buzz. Intriguing and hypnotic as anything with looping, droning parts should be. Then the last track throws that all out for a New Weird America-esque singer-songwriter number. Leave it up to a Canadian to make New Weird America even weirder.

Grenades in the Archives - Tokyo (2014)

Garage punk, the hard drinking, smashing into one another sort. Ive a theory there's no where on earth that once experiencing punk rock doesn't have young people eager to make their own fast, loud and intense music. Not sure how young the Bostonians that made these three songs are, but I am sure they didn't just start embracing the lo-fi garage punk style recently. It sounds like they've spent many an evening in tiny venues getting sweaty, drunk and sore all for the chance hear some rock. A promising start and I hope it leads to an awesome LP. Also check out their live set from WMBR.

Los Demolirs - EP.1 (2015)

Garage rock from Florida this time. Los Demolirs reminds me more of the sort of garage rock that was popular when I was a high schooler, the kind that MTV and everything gave two shits about for a second and then dropped like a hot rock for dubstep or whatever bullshit television plays now. It was a golden year for me, and that these dudes sound somewhat like mean entirely complimentary. I still dig on those albums, as I bet at least a few members of Los Demolirs did. Furthermore, for an EP from a garage rock outfit you've never heard of, the production in these songs is outstanding. A finely polished roughness.

Caleb Groh - Down, Dakota! (2011)

This is another EP I found by falling down various rabbit holes on this vast internet. Caleb Groh is a singer-songwriter from Nashville, making remarkably charming country-folk tunes. There is a full-length that followed this EP, but I felt this to be the best way to introduce someone new to his music. Three of the most delightful alt-country songs I've heard in some time and a spoken word poem that's sweetly strange. There's something I can't explain about how cheerful a full sounding country-folk song makes me. Modern and old all at once, I guess that is what they mean by timelessness.

baby dog - adult dog (2015)

Our pal Garrett Linck is back with a new single, "traffic cones," that is part of what should be an upcoming EP. Normally I don't write up singles nor imcomplete EPs, but Garrett isn't a new face on SRM. In fact I was writing him up routinely last year, both under his own name and with the group called baby dog. Always fine indie rock, with an earnest tone, and fine instrumentation that shows an understanding of power pop. I cannot wait for the other two tracks of this soon-to-be EP to drop, but you shouldn't hold up and dive in with what's available now.

Steve Palmer - Fables of the Feral Boys + Unreleased (2015)

The man from Minneapolis is back with some more American Primitivism. For the second time appearance of Steve Palmer on SRM, following his Unblinking Sun LP, what we've got here is an EP combined with previously unreleased material being issued on a cassette for our pleasure by Fall Break Records. The same enterprise that brought us Full Crumb.

Steve Palmer is the sort of musician I feel anyone with a coherently thinking mind should relish, however a background on how this isn't folk music as you might assume is always helpful. I've gone over the love for the music of that John Fahey many times on this blog and on the podcast, and in my write up of Unblinking Sun pointed out the degree of his influence on Palmer's style. I could go on at length regarding this topic, but I'll restrict myself to saying Palmer shares Fahey's vision of combing America's traditional music of folk, blues, country and layering on healthy and enchanting experimentation that can only be accomplished so elegantly through absolutely amazing skill and insight. Fans of psychedelic and drone should recognize the kinship of these genres with what the mesmerizing and experimenting guitar playing achieves here. Those into the blues and folk with hear the fast-picking method that only the greatest musicians execute properly. Hence the name American Primitivism, taking our musical legacy back to a primordial sound such to muck around with it anew. Steve Palmer has shown himself to be an excellent purveyor of this idea. I'd say there isn't a note, or echoing drone for that matter, that he plays in these songs I'm not enthralled to hear.

To be had here:

Steve Palmer - Fables of the Feral Boys + Unreleased

P.S. I feel I'd be remiss without mentioning that Palmer isn't alone in his Fahey-esque sound. Do check out another contemporary American Primitive player hailing from France, Magnus Dewi, who got written up back in July.

EP Grab Bag vol. 81

More EPs, pilgrims. If you can believe it I had all these in the queue when I posted the last Grab Bag less than a week ago. Had to split it up so as to not overwhelm myself and not have a ten EP long post. So here is the rest of what I got sent from around the world lately, two British bands, a French one and an Australian soundsmith.

To be had here:

Creature Kingdom - Teeth Lips And Tongue (2014)

London's Creature Kingdom is a marvelous example of fuzzed out garage rock. The band's female vocalist delivers the lyrics are a higher fidelity that many of the lo-fi rock acts I share, but there is a perfectly good reason for that. Her voice is alluringly mesmerizing. Sure, you've heard garage rock with strong a strong female lead, yet I argue this is has something special in how she sultry and indifferent.In fact, I dare you not to develop a fascination with the whole sound that Creature Kingdom produced after the first listen.

UNQUALIFIED NURSE - Medicine Music (2014)

A quite brief EP full of extremely noisy and distorted hardcore garage punk from Derby, United Kingdom. Really the whole thing is a mere five minutes, but they are some intense minutes. Unknowingly I threw this EP on first thing upon getting up one morning to have my ears blown apart as I made my coffee. I must be some kind of a masochistic as I liked it enough to repeatedly hear it a few more times before I even finished my second cup of joe. 

Carton Sonore - Polvo (2014)

This is the second time we've featured Carton Sonore, but last time it was in conjunction with Broken Jokes when they put out something via our Parisian friend's label, With A Messy Head. So here they are again with a new two song EP of experimental lo-fi drone-noise. Despite being only 2 tracks it is still considerably longer than the UNQUALIFIED NURSE EP, and while still noisy it is very far from hardcore. It is minimalistic and ambient, with light Casio and microphone sounds that aren't easy to describe. Just hear it and feel funny.

Makee -  Makee EP (2014)

Makee is the moniker of a musician from Perth, Western Australia otherwise known as David Cavalli. I gather from the promo info that this dude lost most of his music in a hard drive crash and so what we're getting to enjoy is his attempt to rebuild his compositions. Regardless of all the preambles, the actually songs are fucking chill. They're smooth electronic tunes that he's tagged as "dreamtronica," a term I am sure is of pretty fresh coinage. The songs have an airy ephemeral tone while retaining a solid rhythm. I really found myself liking the track called "tone" with the layering of elements and that very cool bass and psychedelic guitar licks. It's been released through the very awesome Australian label, Hidden Shoal, which if you're not familiar with you should look into.

The Citradels - Nepenthe (2014)

Back to Australia and to a band that I've been very impressed by before as explained in the post on two of their albums, Droned and Rethroned and Our Lord's Secret Service. Well, the Melbourne lads are at it again with another full-length only a scant six months after the prior one. It continues the washed out, mildly droning psychedelic style I liked so much from each of those earlier releases. Moreover, they seems to try playing around with that sound and succeed in making an album with a unique flavor compared to the others in the process.

Nepenthe still has the 60s British still influence on it, and it doesn't help that I am an American and therefore the accents are easily conflated in my ear. However, I dare you to listening to the very dazed and catchy tune "Judas" and not agree. It successfully has exactly what I'd like of a psychedelic track: sedated meandering vocals, a fine guitar hook, loud drums and bass setting the rhythm. It isn't alone among the songs do deliver this either. The final track "ECT" somehow in a clumsy error on my part got set on repeat and I must've heard it five times over and was still enjoying it. Of course, Nepenthe is best heard from first to last, taking int all the odd bits of spoken words and the changes in mood, as with any well synchronized release really. And there's no excuse for you not to, as you already know this Aussies are up to snuff from the other albums, and this one is completely free digitally, unless you're a kindhearted soul that willing pitches them some dough.

Also, that religious and psychedelic album art, in its simplicity and photoshopped nature, does make me very happy to see. Like a collage of odd feelings that life animates while tradition bears down distorting it all. But that's just my take.

To be had here:
The Citradels - Nepenthe

Swimming in Bengal - Vol. 1 (2014)

The name of Swimming in Bengal and the album art adorning an elephant seemingly floating should be enough to suggest what sort of music is on this release. The band already summed it up nicely on their bandcamp and what I hope doesn't mark me as lazier than I am, I'll relate that: "Improvised out-jazz/art rock with a focus on Middle Eastern/South Asian melody, rhythms, and drones." 

That would have been more than enough to have gotten me to give this album a listen, but I didn't get this album sent in, not in a straightforward fashion at least. However, a couple of years ago I was sent in an EP called Drought Times by a group called San Kazakgascar, which proved to be an incredible listen and well-received by those few readers that give me feedback. In an unfocused review of past posts and I have curious to see what that group had released since only to find a new name but on the same bandcamp page, on the same tiny label, Lather Records. It seems San Kazakgascar took a break and the gourd guitarist (yeah, gourd guitar, people) formed a new group to make music inspired by the Indian Subcontinent and Middle East. Swimming in Bengal is this renewed effort's results, and if the naming Vol. 1 is a hint, hopefully just the beginning in a series of releases.

Now, this is improvisational music, a sort of free jazz with Eastern instruments. Therefore, it is something to be heard while chilling out and having something at least a touch mind altering, even if that's just a nice pipe of tobacco or a bottle of cheap wine. Or it could be Larry's weekly allowance for robotripping, however you manage it, the album is fucking great when you get into the right headspace. You'll know it when you get there. Or hear it sober, it is still great.

To be had here:
Swimming in Bengal - Vol. 1

Steve Palmer - Unblinking Sun (2014)

Steve Palmer is from Minneapolis, MN and plays psychedelic folk that bears heavy influence from both krautrock and the American Primitive of John Fahey. Unblinking Sun is a hard-to-predict album because eccentric influences, and that unpredictably is truly an asset. Parts of it are undoubtedly pulled straight from the guitar picking tradition that Fahey inspired, of which I can never get my fill, and like Fahey himself Palmer wasn't afraid to get experimental with it. It has the trappings sound collage with touch ambient noises and spoken word that provide the far out psychedelic folk with a theatricality. Nonetheless, it really is Palmer's amazing skill with the guitar the makes this album anything at all, and boy howdy can he play.

Normally I would not share a link to an incompletely streamable album, but it is my bad that I failed to share this in the window where it was fully listenable and also(I got a link for the full streaming for those of you interested in hearing it all before purchase), these are our buddies over at Dying For Bad Music putting the album out. I defer to their wisdom and will tell you that you'll have to believe me that the second half of this album is as good as the first.

To be had here:
Steve Palmer - Unblinking Sun

Misled Navigator - False Dreams (2014)

I cannot imagine I am the only one that wakes up energized and feels ashamed that the previous night of feeling worn out and sleepy. There were so many things I could have done, I missed several shows I wanted to see, my friend was supposed to come over but I forgot to call him, I could have finally made friends with a neighbor. Yet I didn't do much of anything, I just sat there, tired and hungry and thought I best eat and sleep. Sure, sounds reasonable to eat and sleep, but the kicker is when I get up, rest and still full from the meal and think "why didn't you go out and do something?" that's irrational yet hard to shake.

While I can't exist in some otherworldly state, where I can avoid the necessities of sleeping, eating and bathing and forgo petty desires to focus on more unifying theme, I can let some music lure me into that escapist fantasy. The aptly named False Dreams has been providing that very service for the disappointed ego I bear in the morning hours. Misled Navigator has composed a collection of instrumental ambient-drone tracks that provide me with the non-corporal sensation which I imagine a ghost floating about and watching the world might be down with. Unlike much psychedelic drone that I've shared in the past, this doesn't have much of a place for the guitar and isn't a looping of guitar riffs, rather it is made to sound like it is filled with ethereal organs and the mysterious theremin. Not party music, it is like the soundtrack of very old horror film (The Man Who Laughs, perhaps) or a something where a skinny weird guy plays an alien (think David Bowie in the Man Who Fell to Earth, working on a theme here...) though it would have made either of those eerier yet. The parts of the songs are subtle but take on significance by the repetition that drone is known for, and it has marvelous effects on the theremin-like sounds mingling with a few other sparse elements. I found I could really escape myself in these haunting tracks, become that imaginary ghost, not worried about time nor matter. That seems the mightiest power of ambient and drone and Mislead Navigator achieves it astutely.

False Dreams was put out by the small independent Brooklyn label, Outward Records. One of there things seems to have very limited editions of the cassettes, as of publishing this write-up there are only 3 out of the 5 made for sale, so I guess you best act fast if you want one of those babies. Finally, Elvis did include some of Mislead Navigators music in some EP Grab Bags from last year, if you wanna dig into more releases.

To be had here:
Misled Navigator - False Dreams

Drawn... - Surges (2014)

As I've eluded to, I recently moved to another town. Well, sorta another town, Hamtramck is surrounded by Detroit so it really isn't like I left the city so much as went to a political separate enclave within it. It's much better here, more things to do and see, and it is about as diverse as it gets demographically. However, as a moved and it sapped my cash I haven't much furniture nor funds to go out an explore yet. So I sit on my porch and watch the neighbors, something that would be dull in almost any other part of Michigan, but here there are young men carrying their musical instruments, children at play, Muslim families streaming in and out of their homes, teenagers throwing footballs across the street over the top of traffic, and so many tiny interesting happenings of urban living.

While observing the human landscape around me, enjoying what may be the last of the warm weather this city gets until springtime, I need a soundtrack. Luckily I have an inbox full of potential candidates to assume the role of the sonic background to my stationary sightseeing. The London-based electronic musician known as Drawn... fit this role marvelously. Although one could tag Surges as a dark ambient album, it isn't purely so and it never takes on a sinister tone. The experimental and other-worldly electronic explorations dominate making it a prefect companion to my street gazing. Lightly droning and only momentarily gloomy the album usually picks up pace in unexpected yet incredibly well-transitioned cycles. A feat of electronic mastery, I'd think Surges would make a fine accompaniment to most any my solitary activities and if I ever had a cool party in my life I might be able to play it there too.

To be had here:
Drawn... - Surges

Scenes Of A City, Vol 3: Porto, Portugal

Another addition of the Scenes Of A City series that Amazing Larry has pioneered. It seemed like such a great idea and so much fun to do I was extremely envious that I wasn't doing that shit. So Larry being the nice guy that he is let me in on the action and I hope I his project justice with my first installment. Now, if you haven't heard of Porto before, which I am willing to wager many North Americans haven't, it is Portugal's second city after Lisbon. By that I mean Porto has the second largest population, the second most economical significant city, et cetera. The region that contains Porto is known for its wine, called Port simply enough, and perhaps you've had a wicked hangover or two from that wonderful stuff like yours truly. Moreover, from what I have read the city is known for its music, having furnished Portugal with many of its most popular acts. But we don't do popular here very often, instead you will find us digging around in the nooks and crannies. Found some real gems this time, so enjoy some of the recent releases of Porto.

To be had here:

Cervo - Cervo (2013)

Ambient drone. That really should be enough to sell this. It was for me. Cervo is spares, I am talking stark here. Yet it is some really epic shit, taking its time and slowly seeping into your mind and making you a convert to its gloomy cult. Drone and ambient play a therapeutic role in my life. It is what I prefer to listen to if I am trying to get my shit together when scattered for whatever reason; over indulging, lack of sleep, allergy fueled headaches, and whatnot. Cervo has certainly done that for me today and I'm willing to bet shall again in the future.

Homem Bigode - Homem Bigode EP (2014)

This EP made me smile. I don't know what the fuck is he saying, as it is in Portuguese, but I love how the he is saying it. The delivery reminds me of something I desperately wish I could place. On top of all that the instrumentation side is outrageous. Keys are going goddamn wild on these tracks and the guitar playing is fantastic. It really isn't easy to place this band in a genre, is simply sounds like lo-fi rock and roll, but certainly by musicians who recall then 80s and 90s fondly.

Gonçalo -  Quim EP (2014)

Dreamy psychedelic ambient/electronic music. I'm not trying to go too heavy no the ambient, but I felt there was enough difference in this album from Cervo and it had such merit that I ought to share both. Gonçalo is along the likes of the glo-fi I so often praise with its vague tropical-ness and mixture of sampling, generated sounds and guitar playing. This EP was put out by a Porto-based label, Lovers & Lollipops. They've seem to be doing a fucking excellent job and have much more music that is worth listening to, so I bet you'll see more of them in on
SRM in days to come.

Wild Apes - Wild Δpes EP (2014)

If this wasn't in a post about Portugal one could be forgiven for not releasing this is a Portuguese band, as they sound like a British indie rock outfit. Yes, sung in English, this band makes that popular version of indie rock that borrows enough from garage rock to make it "edgy." I am not trying to be harsh, as I am a supporter of this, and not everything can be the Mummies (as fucking trippy a world as that would make for) and I like popular stylings of lo-fi rock very often. These cats have the makings for radio hit makers... while the would have in 2001. Still solid listening and the last track gets unexpectedly psychedelic.

Sr Eduardo Urso - Histórias Tristes Ao Pequeno​-​Almoço (2012)

A lovely, cheerful twee-folk EP. It has been too long since I put up anything that could be called twee on this damned blog. While not only does that get fixed here, it is fixed with ukulele. Three little tracks done with that happy tiny guitar and some adorable Portuguese singing. This EP was released by Gentle Records, a label that seems to be putting out an awful lot of strange and good releases and they're all completely free to download. Could be worthwhile to poke around on their site.

The Drone Accelerator - The Drone Accelerator (2014)

As a preface to where I am as I listened to this album I'm gonna say I've been having less than ideal conditions concerning my health this week, as I seemingly reacted to something in the water that runs through the rusty old pipes of the bookstore and have had a fucked up tongue days. This means meals are hard to eat and slowly the pain is working its way to my left ear and it is making me have even more socialistic-tinged rants at my boss than I usually do. This has certainly made everyone involved grumpy, possibly me less so than the others around me if I'm honest. Yet the slow crawl toward full convalesce has made me something of a homebody as I eat soft things and take ineffective pills. So to make the best of it as I'm a bit too drowsy to read but too restless to sleep I've been playing video games, or really a video game as I only have a little laptop with enough space for one game. But fuck the music they come up with those, I'm lousy with submitted soundtracks for living out a digital fantasy to.

The Drone Accelerator was by far the very best of these makeshift soundtracks, so much so that I would forget that the video game didn't have improvisational psychedelic free jazz as background music, although the experience has made me question the wisdom of not having this be the case more often. This is seriously some very cool music, and I know this is hard to not make sound pretentious as it is has already involved the term 'free jazz' yet this might lead one to believe there isn't fucking awesome, meandering guitar for prolonged periods. Rest assured it has that shit in spades and it is beautiful thing. It so very much blends that ideas of Pink Floyd space rock with free form experimentation and unhinged jazz ethos that transitions along a spectrum like a crazy asshole on a slide whistle. All right, it is a bit pretentious, but in the most adorable and enjoyable way. I sincerely found this album to be really good, especially the guitar playing that reminded me of a slowed down version of the amazing sounds of Kanoi. Moreover, the whole album does what a good drone, noise or improv album is supposed to achieve, which to stop worrying so much about where all the time is going and sink into the sounds. By the time this album was over I wasn't so bitter about the fact that drinking water was a painful event (a little bitter, I am whining still) and was happy my aching ear could still hear.

This is the debut album by the band as I guess it was recorded in Peru, which is kinda cool and makes me very jealous if they went there to record and aren't there for another reason. It's released by the very solid Tucson, AZ label Sky Lantern Records, but be warned this label has an M.O. that's to sell the cassettes for a reasonable price ($6 in this case) with the digital download accompanying it, but if you want just the digital version it is marked up to the absurd price of $1000. So if you wanna own it I suggest you buy one while they got them, otherwise you'll need to visit the bandcamp page to get your fix.

To be had here:

The Drone Accelerator - The Drone Accelerator

Magnus Dewi - Earth Plates (2014)

I get grumpy about writing up music at times. At these times I'll become detached from this blog, or at best write some reviews that are less reviews than me musing about myself. Check out the Leggy and Menschliche Energie posts to see that for yourself. And I liked those albums, liked them very much, mind you. Just didn't get my fucking kicks, looking like I can write or whatever by just describing the music. Well, this time I don't think I have enough words to tell you what the music is about. Magnus Dewi is the moniker used by a Frenchman play a music style that is of a decidedly American origin. So here is my attempt to explain that statement and turn a few people onto a genre of music I hold especially dear and this new French practitioner of it.

Earth Plates is tagged "american primitive" on the bandcamp page, which immediately caught my eye as this is the name given the style of playing done by a personal favorite musician of mine and something of a cultural hero in my life, John Fahey. This man was many things, but perhaps most centrally to this story is that he was a musician that came into adulthood in the period of the 1960s where in folk and blues revivals were gaining tremendous popularity in the United States. Fahey possessed a vast knowledge of American music of all sorts as a record collector, musicologist and songwriter and he didn't want to pigeonhole his music as "folk" like many of his contemporaries. He incorporated much more than the American folk tradition, pulling from the blues, gospel, bluegrass in the era that provided us with our modern conception of psychedelia to make a raw, essential American music. This has been called American Primitivism and has a listen of adherents to the form, but I still find Fahey's the supreme example. It isn't simple by any means, most of the best songs are long numbers that have a droning element in how this use repetition and variation to a degree that parallels the best of avant-garde psychedelic music.

For this to have traveled to Europe and been taken up by a skilled French musician is perhaps one of the more amazing and delightful features of this over globalizing world the internet is pushing us toward. Magnus Dewi has a stripped down, pure sort of interoperation of the style on this album. So skillfully are the songs played if given the album without context I could have mistook for an established player in the American Primitive pantheon like James Blackshaw or Leo Kottke. Earth Plates is an absolute delight to hear and I have already been lost of hours in repeated listening of this magnificence effort.

In case any of you wondered how I found this, it was a submitted album just like the dozens of others that come in every month. Good on Magnus Dewi for finding me, as I don't know if he heard me go off about John Fahey for several minutes on one of the earlier episodes of the podcast and how I find so much in his personal story, connection to entho-musicology and the sublimeness of his playing to be inspired by. Anything that invokes that strong attachment is wonderful, but to have a musician that can live up to that remarkably high standard is the truly exceptional aspect of this experience for me. So don't hesitate any longer and give a listen to Earth Plates by Magnus Dewi, put out by the Vilaine Mouche label.

To be had here:
Magnus Dewi - Earth Plates

Scenes Of A City, Vol 2: Vilnius, Lithuania

Vilnius is the largest city and capital of the eastern European country of Lithuania. Situated on the east side of the Baltic Sea, the city used to draw comparisons to Jerusalem for it's once strong Jewish population, since obliterated during WW2. Actually, it's suffered a near constant barrage of invasions for hundreds of years, from the Nazis to the Swedes. Despite this, many beautiful and historic buildings still exist there, making this a city I would love to visit some day. Plus, beet soup is a major staple there. And I fucking love beets.

In 1995, four years after finally securing independence, Vilnius raised the world's first bronze statue of Frank Zappa.

So this must be a crazy city full of crazy music, right?

The Sold Outs - Basement For Me
The Sold Outs are a recently defunct punk band out of Vilnius. Crazy good is the only kind of "crazy" this band delivers. They keep it old school, eschewing the Manic Panic-induced pop sentiment that just about killed punk dead in the mid '90s. Which isn't to say that The Sold Outs aren't melodic. I don't know the tiny sub-genres that the umbrella of punk covers: maybe this is "oi" or maybe this is "hardcore". I'm not so concerned with knowing these slight discrepancies. Instead, I'm concerned with getting "Basement For Me" onto my iPod pronto so I can blast my eardrums with this full throttle punk rock loudly and frequently.

Zageron - S/T
I'm not too familiar with the genre of death metal either. But I think the reason I find Zageron so appealing, is that they're almost a perfect combination of the two death metal bands I liked 20 years ago: Entombed and Obituary. I'm reminded of the former in the background band's delivery, and the latter in the vocals. But whereas the lead singer of Obituary sounded like a pissed-off jaguar, this guy sounds more like an evil Cookie Monster with a bad case of indigestion (too many cookies). The drummer is an absolute juggernaut, veering from full on assault to triplets and waltzes. That's right: death metal waltz.


Banda Dzeta - Short and Loudly

This band is pretty much exactly what I hope to find when searching for music from different countries: traditionalism fused with modern elements. Banda Dzeta do just that by layering Lithuanian folk music with beautiful and schizophrenic horn arrangements, over an incredibly heavy bass guitar. To my ears, it sounds a bit like Les Claypool playing with a John Zorn klezmer/polka group. Mostly instrumental, entirely crazy. Tuba solos!


Bruzgynai - Visur Visada Visaip
Here we have a most bizarre record, comprised entirely of strange digital noises. Track one, for example, sounds like R2D2 having pillow talk with an Atari. I'm happy to share the work of Bruzgynai because it's unique in it's noise-scape experimentalism. At times harsh, at other times quiet and eerie, you might put on "Visur Visada Visaip" while watching Lars von Trier's "Antichrist" and the craziness of both might temper each other, offering an almost pleasant viewing experience. Or you might just have found the ultimate fuel for countless nightmares.

Chvad SB - Crickets Were the Compass (2014) & Electric Bird Noise - Kind of Black (2014)

Silber Records does not put out pop ditties on 7 inch records. The music they push is the crank of the artistic community; dissident, difficult, yet timely. This North Carolina based label was kind enough to send me 2 CDs of their newest releases. Little did I know the rabbit's hole of rewarding terror I was in for.

Chvad SB is a Brooklyn based noise/ambient artist that has been chugging along for a few years now. This set of songs might be his most cohesive to date, with some of the oddest and most terrifying sounds you may here this side of the haunted house. No, this is not music that is intended to revolt, but the haunting atmospheres sustained for extended periods of time will surely cause some discomfort in many listeners. Not me however, as I am a serial killer always looking for a new soundtrack to haunt my prey to. This is not "easy" music, but it is worth your time.

Electric Bird Noise is another well established noise artist that is pushing two decades of activity. Crafting hypnotic yet challenging experimental music, this is the dark side of nu-age. No phantom crystals or spiritual transcendence here, this is music to pull your soul right into the muck from which it came. Your alien godparents may be flying by on a saucer overhead, but if you are listening to this, they may assume you have already been conquered by Lord Kinbote and abandon your soul to lesser beings. Beware this record's power.