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50 hertz - Hemligheten ar att lagga beslag pa rubbet cdr (Popkonst) 0.50

a

Acid Mothers Temple and the Melting Paraiso UFO 

• Glorify Astrological Martyrdom cd (Important) 9.75

"Acid Mother's Temple's Glorify Astrological Martyrdom is sure to appeal to the myriad AMT fans who have made Crystal Rainbow Pyramid a new fan favorite. Professionally recorded mega riffage for a super defined clean sound. Kawabata and company deliver this focused rock explosion full of hyper repetitive heavy hooks and freaked out pitched up vocals." (Important)

• Dark Side of the Black Moon: What Planet Are We On? (Important) 11.25

"Brand new full length recording from The Acid Mothers Temple And The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. Proggy psych sounds mixing Pink Floyd with fuzzy wah guitars and cosmic sounds. Focused riffing, super fidelity recording and packaging designed by Seldon Hunt. Get ready for the mellow side of heavy psych." (Important)

Acid Mothers Guru Guru - Psychedelic Navigator cd (Important) 7

A real psych-rock blow-out with Acid Mothers Temple's Kawabata Makoto and Atsushi Tsuyama joined by Mani Neumeier from German Krautrock band Guru Guru.

Acolytes Action Squad - Winkle Time cd (Early Winter) 3.50

A quick look at the AAS lp I have reminds me that it's from 1998 and I know this new cd is their first outing in several years. While there's still the odd looped beat here, Winkle Time seems much freer than that earlier record, with moments evoking the primal hoedown of Dr John's Danse Kalinda Ba Doom, multi layered vocal tracks with post-punk edginess about them and a piece that suggested distant trains passing in a desert night. Acolytes Action Squad's return sounds fresh and distinctive, for which they deserve our salute. (JC)

Aethenor 

• Betimes Black Cloudmasses cd (VHF) 9

"Highly-anticipated second album from the trio of Vincent De Roguin (Shora), Stephen O'Malley (Sunn0))), KTL) and Daniel O'Sullivan (Guapo). Like their genre and audience-confounding debut “Deep In Ocean Sunk the Lamp of Light,” “Betimes” is an atmospheric, constantly changing piece that encompasses a mind-boggling array of different performance and processing techniques. The deeply psychedelic and affecting results present a soundstage that is continually evolving, with new elements entering and leaving the fray every couple of seconds. Betimes includes significant contributions from free percussionists Nicolas Field and Alex Babel, who sprinkle the sound field with an almost FMP-style rush of splattering drum sound, raising the intensity of the music (without resorting to bashing)." (VHF)

• Faking Gold & Murder LP (VHF) 17.50
• Faking Gold & Murder cd (VHF) 10.50

The black triptych card sleeve, replete with gold magick symbols provides an overture in itself for the contents of the album inside. Spoken word texts run through this dark music with vivid stereo percussion and the notes inside inform us that "All ÆtherTexts [are] by Anok Pe David Tibet". I'm unable to find when Mr T. adopted this prefix to his name, but his contributions here veer more towards the Great Beast than the Peter Hammill-esque end of his style. Alexander Tucker, Nicolas Field and Alex Babel also guest, along with Stephen O'Malley, aka one half of Sunn0)), Vincent De Roguin of Shora, and Guapo's Daniel O'Sullivan. The recording sounds suitably expansive to compliment the concept. (JC)

Aethr Myth'd - The Eight cdr (Spirit of Orr) 5

A bunch of sprawling psych improv moves from members of Sunburned / Feathers. Things get darker and ore mysterious as the disc progresses - slashes of slide guitar, psych squall and percussive string assault echoing up a cavernous tunnel. Handmade packaging.

• The O-Glow cdr (Spirit of Orr) 8.50

All new recordings from Brattleboro from October 2008 from this Sunburned Hand of the Man / Feathers associated group.

Age of Wire & String - Wolves on Fire (Deluge & Guitary) cdr 5

I know there's a school of thought which would have us believe that improvisers playing together shouldn't listen to one another. Personally, I don't subscribe to it and think that the best improv happens when people are as attentive in listening to others as they are to their own instrument. Fortunately Age of Wire and String seem to share this belief, as the trio often display a "less is more" feeling in their shifting textures, allowing Peter Nicholson's 'cello, Neil Davidson's guitar and the electronics of Jamie Allen to shine individually. They all go for it together at times, but always as complimentary forces and not to overplay one another. All round, qualities to make this a warmly welcomed album. (JC)

Agitated Radio Pilot / Nether Dawn lathe LP (Pseudoarcana) 15

A well-matched split between two creators of fragile sounds. Antony Milton's Nether Dawn specializes in post-midnight bleary-eyed drone-lullabies, fuzzed around the edges wails of lonesome frazzled sound. James Kirk of Sandoz Lab Technicians guests on one track. Agitated Radio Pilot contributes creaky nocturnal drones and melancholic lullabies on the flip. 

Agitated Radio Pilot  - The Rural Arcane 2cd (Deep Water) 8.50

Shoeb Ahmad - Sea Songs, Dead Ends and Sleeping Pills cdr (Sound & Fury) 4.75

also: Pieno

First and much-anticipated album proper from Ilyas Ahmed and it's an absolute gem, a real way-out-in-the-cosmos psychedelic journey. This opens in astonishing style with near-Eastern reeds weaving like duelling king cobras amidst a rumbling roll of percussion, sawed string drone and the ominous roar of gongs. From there it's straight into a fast acoustic ragas with Ahmed's lonesome wail hovering above the dervish-paced guitar and percussion - it falls somewhere between the Family Elan and Six Organs of Admittance. Ahmed's more structured songs evoke a similar feeling as other cosmic travellers such as Skip Spence. He pairs his guitar with the lush dense throb of harmonium on "Unveiled Nightmare" and creates a sound of pure narcotic bliss. This is gorgeous, the kind of release no amount of wordage can do justice too. heavy vinyl, heavy gatefold sleeve - fantastic packaging yet again from Time Lag.

Akiyama / Corcoran / Kiefer - Low Cloud Means Death cd & 3" cdr (special edition) (Digitalis) 10.25

Space, as Sun Ra told us, is the place and there's space a-plenty here... between the notes! Guitar, accordion and piano (both played by key and striking the strings in other ways) and percussion, hit and bowed, keep the listener hanging on for what is to come. This is well captured in Christian Kiefer's recording, the spaciousness of which aids music which is anything but background listening, all packaged in an attractively illustrated card sleeve. (JC)

Tetuzi Akiyama / Tom Greenwood - Stoned Runes cdr (U-Sound) 8

Improvised live outing from Japanese guitarist Tetuzi Akiyama and Jackie O'Motherfucker's Tom Greenwood. The kind of shimmering acoustic guitar loveliness that makes you want to close your eyes in the sun and bliss out.

Akisa - Distant Phone cdr (Foxglove) 1.50

From the ashes of Corsican Paintbrush comes Altar Eagle, another duo featuring Brad and Eden Hemming Rose. This is a different beast altogether - blissed-out synth-pop with a whole lot of psychedelia and fuzz thrown in. It reminds me of the nauseous pop swirls of Azalia Snail which is a very good thing indeed. Highly recommended.

One of two simultaneously released Bardo Pond offshoot projects, this features John and Michael Gibbons with Michael Zangha and Aaron Igler on percussion. Less overtly rock than the Alasehir disc this is dense drone that starts out with devotional Eastern bowings and finishes as an almost impenetrable morass of guitar and electronics.

The latest from Antony Milton (also in Black Boned Angel & Nether Dawn) opens with a whiteout blitz of feedback-drenched psych guitar and heart-racing beats engulfed in fuzz. It's an blast of ecstatic raved-up psych-out that fits in somewhere between Astral Social Club and Ashtray Navigations. The high octane headrush continues with only a couple of let-ups, one being the very fine "Somewhere Between Sky and Night" - a shimmering come-down that is perhaps the best I've heard from Milton.

This is a mesmering release full of fuzzy vocal and organ drones and primeval garage chug, like all Milton 's releases heard through a heavy fug of hiss and distortion. Gorgeous

Ammonites are a duo from Whitby and this release is a mix of ambient drone & field-recordings with simple repeated guitar lines that evokes the wide open horizons of the North Sea - similar in feel to Yellow 6 but without the 4AD-isms. Ltd to 50 with hand-numbered insert.

Anahita - Matricaria cd (Important) 10

Long-awaited follow-up to the excellent Deserted Village cdr from Tara Burke (Fursaxa) and Helena Espvall (Espers). Totally out-of-time and utterly magical, this is medieval plainsong transported into the kind of sound explored on Nico's "Marble Index". Gatefold sleeve.

Theo Angell - Auraplinth cd (Digitalis) 4

This is one of the most description-defying albums I've heard in quite some time, but here goes... Angell's eerie yet soulful voice straddles the words of mountain music and hippie communes. His previous credits include work with Samara Lubelski and Jackie-O Motherfucker, but if this sounds like anything, to my ears it's more connected to the Holy Modal Rounders than either of those artists, but it doesn't sound much like the Rounders either.... hmmm.... a perplexing record to write about, but one that's very good to hear. The elaborately decorated gatefold sleeve is fronted by "a Victorian deathmask of Theo himself" (according to the Digitalis website). I had no idea he'd been around so long - remarkable! (JC)

Annapurna Illusion - Matins of the 12 Passion cdr (Reverb Worship) 5.50

Throbbing electronics and fuzzed-up black synth drones, not dissimilar to recent North Sea releases.

Anvil Salute - This is the Voice of Doom Calling cdr (Deep Water) 5

One of Anvil Salute's loveliest releases that opens with 7 tracks of gazing-at-the-skies pastoral guitar, bass, glockenspiel, melodica and drums weavings. Things get more communal later on when a real free campfire vibe gets going.

also: Gold Leaf Branches comp, Pink Gold comp tape, Wailing Bones Volume 8 comp

A.P.A.T.T. - s/t cd (Pickled Egg) 5

The ghost of Vivian Stanshall looms large here (any ghost of Vivian's could hardly loom small, it has to be said!), along with a few other reference points across an adroitly assembled 28 track collage of music and fun. Whereas the humour element can wear thin after a few plays if there isn't much substance otherwise, with a.P.A.t.T. there's so much detail that it needs several listens to begin to take it all in. The other reference points, to my ears, include the Tubes, Frank Zappa, possibly even Gong. At one point I had to go off and dig out my copy of the Who's Sell Out just to check if one song used the same brass line as Heinz Baked Beans! It doesn't and the whole thing makes a very distinctive new album. (JC)

This album fades in as subtly as early dawn light and builds in layers of differing rhythms into something quite spiritual. There's tabla, chiming percussion, flute, guitar and a whole lot more, but it all melds into one glorious voice. If you're looking for a "sounds like" comparison, then maybe Popol Vuh might set you thinking on the right sort of path, but I was so engrossed in the album that I wasn't thinking of reference points at all. As Neil Diamond once sang (and you don't see him mentioned here very often!), what a beautiful noise. (JC)

"Glassine I was recorded live at the Ambient Ping in Toronto on 03/07/2006; and can be easily described as an organic space ambient, with very strong references to Pink Floyd (Ummagumma), Popol Vuh, Ashra Temple , Jackie-O Motherfucker, O Yuki Conjugate, AMP and Flying Saucer Attack or " Fourth World " ambient music! Four tracks of pure vibrant multi-layered psychedelic drone music! Now, close your eyes, listening to "Glassine I" and start for your trip even without the intake of any substances…" (A Silent Place)

Area C - Sea of Rains cd (self-released) 7

"In April of 2008, AREA C was commissioned by the NASA RI Space Grant Consortium and the Museum of Natural History in Providence, RI to compose an original score for their "Mission Moon: past, present, future" exhibit at the Museum of Natural History." Gorgeous Eno-esque elongated tones and languid drones with some samples from Apollo missions 11 & 14.

This is group improv, but with an unusual warmth to it. Arkhangelesk is a trio: David Colohon, Sean Og and Gavin Prior, names familiar to Deseted Village fans, sounding quite distinct from their other projects. There are slightly creepy wavering drones, Og's gentle and melodic saxophone (a bit like Steve Lacy in places - never a bad thing!), the spoken word passages along with abstract sound recalls Frank Zappa's Lumpy Gravy or suggests Timothy Leary (an Irish Tim Leary?... there's a thought!) and there's something in use here called a "Temporal vox accelorater". Whether this is the thing that sounds like an ondes martenot or purely three words which looked good when written on the sleeve I don't know, but there are fine sounds here, they sing together well and nothing outstays its welcome. (JC)

also: United Bible Studies

Blasted beatbox beats and damaged electronics that sounds a bit like a really mangled Suicide.

Armpit - Tron cd (Last Visible Dog) 9

"Armpit is another Clayton Noone project (along with CJA and the Futurians), this one being (I assume) the oldest of the three.  Back when LVD was in its first year or so, Clayton suggested we do a release, but something terrible went wrong and it never happened.  Here at long last--at least seven years after the last piece of music was recorded for this album--we finally have a real CD of armpit.  Like so many of the people way out in front in the NZ experimental music scene, this is definitely roughly hewn; pure, frantic free-noise taken as a snap-shot, not as a polished, emasculated 'album'.  Yes, I think classic Dead C, along with a bunch of HCorp releases--though Armpit seems far more chaotic than those other bands I've referenced here, and it seems as though at any moment the whole thing is about to fall apart, though it never does." (LVD)

Ashtray Navigations 

• Four More Raga Moods cd (Ikuisuus) 9

Mmmm my mouth is watering at the prospect of listening to this with one look at the various underground luminaries involved: Ben Reynolds, Pete Nolan, Andy Jarvis, Alex Neilson, Chris Hladowski (Nalle / Scatter), Mel Delaney and of course Phil Todd. Do I really need to write anymore?! The album opens with its only raga, an acoustic duet from Reynolds and Jarvis, heavily warped by analogue delay. "Hey Sunflower Motherfucker" has Todd's sun-seeking guitar working its way through thick waves of wow. "The Pete Nolan Effect" is a deep pool of drone (once the microphone returns from its wind-blasted trip outside!) as is the immensely atmospheric final track which sounds like the inners of a dank, dark cave.

• / ROT / Sandoz Lab Technicians split cd (Veglia) 4

Repackaged (in recycled collage-style packaging) release from a few years ago featuring 3 tracks from Ashtray Navigations, 2 from Sandoz Lab Technicians and 4 from ROT

• Those Are Pearls That Were His Eyes cdr (Revival) 6

3rd edition - originally issued on Solipsism in 1998, then Betley Welcomes Careful Drivers in 2000. Cymbal bowings and birdsong find themselves buried beneath layers of guitar fire and a ghostly synth carousel. I have to admit I missed these earlier Ash Nav recordings first time round so it's great to see them getting reissued. More please!

• Four Raga Moods cdr (Revival) 6

Another reissue from Phil Todd's Revival label. This was the first Ash Nav cd, originally issued in 1997 on Betley Welcomes Careful Drivers. This has the disorientating feeling of turning the dial repeatedly on a shortwave radio complete with acres of hiss. There are ear-cleansing blasts of fogged noise, haunting drones echoing down rain-soaked streets and collaged field recordings and primitive electronic whistles.

• Idiot Music Lavatory Floor 2 cdr (self-released) 8

New double set featuring the Phil Todd / Melanie Crowley / Phil Legard line up. Not the fuzzed-out whiteout you may be expecting but bubbling wells of mystery and alchemy with mournful tunes disappearing into the fog as soon as you find them. Excellent.

• Surpls Provncl Hrbs cdr (self-released) 5.50

New release from Ashtray Navigations. Solo Phil Todd recordings this time around of mellow synth / acoustic guitar float, sky-piercing psych guitar towers and haunting near-Eastern drones.

• Hands Under Water Reaching For Nothing 1995 - 1997 cdr (Revival) 5.50

Vintage Ashtray Navigations sounds from the mid-'90s. These tracks were intended for the first (unissued) Ash Nav LP and one for "Four More Raga Moods" (which never made the final cut). 

• Snakestrings / Hollywood Taught You to Kiss 2 cdr (self-released) 7

Double cdr from Ashtray Navigations. "Snakestrings" revels in a cosmic languidity with decaying metal clangs ringing into oblivion opening the disc. Phil Todd plays esraj, kemence, electric sitar and guitars on this, and the long piece ends on pulsing synth drones and electronic hover & hum. "Hollywood" features the trio line-up of Phil Todd, Melanie Delaney & Phil Legard. Still pretty cosmic but of a more malevolent hue with fuzzed psych guitar and electronics whirring and bubbling manically. 

• In Liquid Bravado cdr (Self-released) 5.50

Two tracks from Ashtray Navigations - the first one is "a rendition of a very obscure Spanish folk tune to start things off (so obscure nobody else in history has ever heard it!)". The second is a live set recorded at London's Second Layer records and is murky  slow-seeping nausea with guitar and gaseous electronics fizzling away.

• Red Culture LP (Memoirs of an Aesthete) 8.25

Vinyl reissue of an earlier AN cdr. Another blast of over-loaded psych raga from the trio line-up of Phil Todd, Melanie Delaney and Phil Legard (Xenis Emputae Travelling Band). Red vinyl of course.

• The Cream Wheel cdr (self-released) 5.50

Limited edition reissue of a long gone Ash Nav (solo Phil Todd in this instance) release. This finds Phil Todd at his most spectral and introspective - a mix of the abstract end of the Radiophonic Workshop and kosmische synth / guitar drones.

• Sugar Head Record 2cdr (Deep Water) 8.50

Phil Todd's Ashtray Navigations may be one of the most prolific bands out there but every release that appears through the Boa letterbox is a very welcome event. This is superb as always, perhaps one of his finest, with disc one consisting of one long track of psychedelic guitar bubbling away in the midst of a gorgeous electronic gloop. Disc 2 opens with more psych guitar spirals but this time buried underneath an ocean of fuzz. Melanie Crowley (Ocelocelot) and Phil Legard (Xenis Emputae Travelling Band) join him on the final track, an utterly mesmerizing 40-odd minutes which sounds like listening to the ocean from the midst of an enormous singing bowl. Highly recommended.

• Running on Autokinetic LP (Qbico) 16.25

Reissue of a tour cdr that originally came out on Memoirs of an Aesthete.4 tracks in total -  a couple of harsh electric fizz and a couple of truly dream-like blissfulness, particularly the closer, a gloriously psych-ey array of synth textures and great fuzz guitar spirals. Green vinyl.

• Monocycle American one-sided LP (Qbico) 16.25

Reissue of a cdr which was originally issued in an edition of 50 copies. Sulphurous electronic drone with heavy bass oscillations. Red vinyl.

• Blood Mummies and Dirty Amps cassette (Gold Soundz) 7

Companion release to the "Blood Mummies and Dirty Amps" LP from a year or so ago. Starts with head-messing guitar / synth swirls with all the neon nausea of an acid-soaked waltzers ride. Flip the tape over and you get the sound of machinery clanking in a reverb-to-the-max fog.

• Johnny Fuckoff Minotaur (Easter Exit 2) cdr (Memoirs of an Aesthete) 6

The first Ashtray Navigations recordings of 2009 to be released, this cdr is centred around the incredible middle track which is a real Kraut-prog bliss-out epic, like Rick Wakeman jamming with Ash Ra Tempel. Cosmic stuff indeed but the final track really blasts off, like Suicide playing Can's "Mother Sky" - drum machine throb and a blistering psych guitar solo with the fuzz turned up to 11. Excellent. 

• Caeduceus & Black Sal LP (Memoirs of an Aesthete) 9

Vinyl reissue of the final Ashtray Navigations release on Memoirs of an Aesthete before it went into hibernation last year. This is as good as it gets with the Ashtray Navigation sound at its full-on-est psych guitar spiralling upwards fizz. One track live from ATP. Red vinyl.

also: Invisible Pyramid, Helvetica is the Perfume of the City, Directing Hand, Xenis Emputae Travelling Band, The Mystery Water Saloon Boys, Zen Nuns, Czech Nymphs, El-G, Moral Holiday

Attar Cups - s/t LP (Blackest Rainbow) 8

Automat - Happy Trials cdep (Ravenna) 1.50

Automat is Mike Appelstein, formerly of the Poconos and the wonderful and sadly missed Caught in Flux fanzine: strummy bedroom pop with understated percussion (tambourine / maracas) that is charming in the same way as By Coastal Cafe 

Avarus  

• Vesikansi cd (Secret Eye) 3.50

4 tracks of sprawling psych freak-out from one of the lynch-pin bands of the Finnish underground (including members of Kemialliset Ystavat, Lau Nau, Islaja, Kuupuu, Kiila, Es, Anaksimandros). Free form folk / noise that alternates between tranced and crazed, with growling vocals that sound as if they're emitted from the bowels of the earth. Fursaxa joins them on 2 tracks, recorded live in Dublin. 

• Kirppuren saari LP (Arbor) 7

"Long touted as the forefathers of Finnish freeform psychedlic music, Avarus, a collective bearing members from The Anaksimadros, Kemialliset Ystävät, Maniacs Dream, and more, document their first tour of the United States on "Kirppujen Saari".  The sounds contained show a departure and growth from typical Avarus recordings.  The A side long track begins with a psychrock romper complete with full “band” instrumentation, slowly it deconstructs itself into the abstract electric/acoustic stylings and sonic spattering familiar to their previous work.  Slowness builds into full on clatter filled walls of vocals, toy keyboards, horns, strums, and other acoustic junk, creating a unique and massive drone.  The opposing side is pure acoustic drones composed of vocals, horns, and tribal beats.  Room filling ambiance, corner clatter, and morphing silence also find a way to unobtrusively build themselves into the piece.  In an edition of 350 LPs on coke bottle clear vinyl with printed labels by Bart of Sloow Tapes and proprinted full color foldover art by the band." (Arbor)

also: Kemialliset Ystavat, Kuupuu, Last Night on Earth,  Nuslux 

b

Mariska Baars, Robert Deters & Rutger Zuyderveit - Gris Gris cd (Low Point) 5.75

"‘Gris Gris’ is a collaborative release between Dutch musicians Mariska Baars (who also writes and performs as soccer Committee) Robert Deters (of Vance Orchestra) and Rutger Zuydervelt (also known as the highly prolific Machinefabriek). 
The material for ‘Gris Gris’ (named after Robert’s cat and also the term for a Voodoo amulet that protects the wearer from evil or brings luck) was recorded during a single day in late August 2008.  The session consisted of using Mariska’s voice as source material with Robert and Rutger adding further processing, field recordings and electronics. Whereas previous collaborations between Machinefabriek and soccer Committee used processing principally to supplement the minimal framework of Mariska’s songs, here her voice is used to generate a whole spectrum of different pitches and timbres.  At times the source material is almost unrecognisable, transformed and buried under layers of manipulation, whilst at other moments slithers of untreated tones appear as if they’re part of some vaporous radio broadcast. The end result is some of the three artists most minimal, slow and eerie music to date." (Low Point)

Jean Bach - Sans le Playback 7" (555) 0.50

crazy fun-time electronica with plenty of melody, twists and turns and a delight in pummelling europop to pieces

Aidan Baker 

• The Sea Swells a Bit ... cd (A Silent Place) 9

Three epic length tracks from the Toronto-based musician and writer. The opener - and title track - has layers of melody developing through a haze. Rothko, Mazzacane Connors and Gavin Bryars' Titanic came to mind here, with the additional feel of drum sounds very low in the mix. The drum machine rises progressively throughout the album and with it the mood and feel veers towards expansive post-rock. Baker's cover drawing looks well on the textured gatefold card sleeve. (JC)  

• I Wish Too, To be Absorbed cd (Important) 9.50

"Aidan Baker's I Wish Too, To Be Absorbed is a 2 disc compilation of tracks from various out-of-print, limited edition releases spanning the last 10 years of Baker's output, ranging from his very first release to material that was featured on the soundtrack to a book of his poetry. Toronto based composer Aidan Baker works under his own name, under the name Nadja along with bassist Leah Buckareff and also with the trio ARC. Hailing from the Great White North, Baker incorporates guitar, drums, bass, voice and tape loops into his myriad work hauling down a long iceberg of frigid doom, bliss and sound collage. He has also composed work for the The Penderecki String Quartet & The Uxbridge Chamber Choir and he is also a published poet. The first disc in the set features shorter, perhaps more accessible tunes with a wide range of instrumentation and songs ranging from minimal drone to delicate post-rock to ambient trip-hop. The second disc features longer, more drone/experimental-oriented pieces, primarly using the guitar (with the odd tapeloops and vocals) as the primary sound source. Adventures in ambience. Sonic immersion. Introspective dronescapes." (Important)

Barlow / Pedersen / Wivinus - Transparent World cd (Hand / Eye) 3.50

An album of instrumental pieces by the Minneapolis based trio of artist and experimental theatre champion Rich Barlow, Viaticum member Jesse Peterson and Erik Wivinus of Salamander and, sometimes, Stone Breath. This is acoustic music using guitar, dulcimer, mandolin and various other rather unusual instruments (train whistle, for example) which is at turns both mellow and quite dark. Although the tracks are essentially improvised pieces, they have a strong melodic feel and a style which will appeal to fans of Charalambides & Six Organs. At times I also hear flashes of More/Ummagumma era Pink Floyd, which is no bad thing (JC)

Basalt Fingers - s/t LP & cd (3 Lobed) 8

Guitar wielding trio featuring Elisa Ambrogio (Magik Markers), Ben Chasny (Six Organs Of Admittance) and Brian Sullivan (Mouthus). Detuned doom-riffing and murky guitars that worm menacingly through a thick black fog. Artwork and silk-screening by Alan Sherry of SIWA. This comes with the free cd featuring the same material as on the LP.

Bass Communion - Molotov & Haze cd (Important) 9.25

"Molotov And Haze is packaged in a deluxe tip-on style heavy duty gatefold jacket with the cd slipped into a Japanese inner bag. Design by Carl Glover. Bass Communion is a project dedicated to Steven Wilson’s recordings in an ambient, drone, and/or electronic vein. Most of the pieces are experiments in texture made from processing recordings of real instruments and field recordings. The atmosphere of the music has tended towards the dark and melancholic, but expressed with an almost zen like beauty. More recently Wilson has also started working with a guitar and laptop configuration - the first material in this style is contained on this album." (Important)

Martyn Bates - Mystery Seas (Letters Written #2) cd (Hand/Eye) 3.50

All the songs here are Martyn Bates solo works, but it is credited as being produced by Eyeless In Gaza and Peter Becker, his cohort in the band, plays some drums and recorded/engineered the disc. The main instruments here are vintage electric organ and what sounds like a fine old harmonium - there's something about this music that would suit a Victorian one with bevelled mirrors adorning the overmantle! Bates voice veers more towards Marc Almond torch song territory here than I've noticed on other albums. This includes a 16 page booklet with what looks like old movie stills used therein. I'm sure that's Louise Brooks on page 10… (JC)

Matt Baumann - An Island cd (Reverb Worship) 5.50

An album of spacious solo saxophone - and a very lovely one at that. Matt Baumann's 8 mood pieces begin with An Island (Arriving) and end with An Island (Leaving), so there's an implied journey here, with track titles like Marooned, Ghost Ships and Wraith in between. Much of the time he uses the spaces between his notes almost like a second instrument, playing off huge reverbs. If you were ever into ECM albums by Jan Garbarek, this will definitely appeal, although Baumann's playing is warmer than the admittedly rather glacial JG... actually, this is more akin to John Surman's soulfulness on a wonderful Barre Phillips album called Mountainscapes - another ECM title. Recommended. (JC)

Blake Bayer - Meniere's Disease cdr (Sound & Fury) 2

Nom de plume of Australian Ben Andrews (also of My Disco) who runs the Numerical Thief label (issued "Psychic Secession" by Yellow Swans). This is a live recording from 2006 with ben playing his guitar and tone generators through a mass of effects. This begins with harsh hissing and machine scribble, adds in some guitar drone undercurrents and shadowy breaths of melody and creates something soporific and haunting by the end. 

Beat Poets / Interceptors - The Superior Surf Sounds of ... 7" (Boa) 1.50

super surf instros featuring theremin on the Slampt-affiliated Interceptors’ side & a cover (featuring full horn section) of the "Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased)" theme from former 53^rd & 3^rd recording artists

Gianluca Becuzzi / Fabio Orsi 

• Muddy Speaking Ghosts Through My Machines cd (A Silent Place) 8.50

Everything I've so far heard involving Fabio Orsi has been nothing less than excellent and this collaboration with electro-acoustic Italian sound-artist Gianluca Becuzzi. Orsi creates a nostalgic and otherworldly ambience round the samples of Alan Lomax recordings he uses, and Becuzzi's subtle drones underscore his pastoral guitar soundscapes with a sense of unease. Lovely.

• The Stones Know Everything cd (Digitalis) 8

I was thinking that the big, sinuous tones I was listening to were bell-like, then it came to me: the sensation is - if you care to imagine the scene - like drifting down a river inside a giant bell. There are field recordings bubbling up, backwards sounds, guitar and a particularly lovely distant piano at various points along the double disc journey, and it's a journey which has ominous undercurrents too. (JC)

• Sound Postcards cd (Cold Current Production) 9

Originally released via mp3 this collection of collaborations by Becuzzi and Orsi is one of their most melodic works. At times the aura of innocence and nostalgia makes me think of a beatless Boards of Canada; other more ambient pieces make me think of empty rooms haunted by memories. It's a beautifully contemplative and melancholic album.

Beggin' Your Pardon Miss Joan - Dear Nautilus cdr (Reverb Worship) 5.50

Shimmery reverb-swathed acoustic guitar voices in harmony from Strawberry Hill, London . My first thought was to be reminded of Mike and Mimi Farina - and this is a very good thing. The mood is elegaic/melancholic, the year could be 1966-68, but this doesn't sound particularly retro either and, all in all, the effect is utterly delightful. (JC)

Believers 

• Brontoursaurus cdr (Apostasy) 2.50

raw primeval rock with lurching riffs, pounding drums and fantastic female vocals. Comes in an over-sized stamped card sleeve.

• Forgotten Tracks cdr (Blueberry Honey) 2.50

If you can imagine a voice like Pat from Melody Dog or Anne Bacheley (well, a voice like those, but with an American accent - not Scots or French) being backed by a fairly full-on guitar band for three songs which turn into extended freaky garage jams, you're getting some idea of what's going on here. "Looks like we had a good time", she sings, and I suspect they probably did. (JC)

Big Eyes Family Players 

• Do The Musiking cd (Pickled Egg) 6

Not quite a new Big Eyes album but James Green and David Jaycock with a host of collaborators they admire including Jeremy Barnes (A Hawk and a Hacksaw), James Yorkston, Rachel Grimes (Rachel's), Suzy Mangion (George), James William Hindle and others. Plenty of the old Big Eyes' melancholic magic is present along with the usual gorgeous classical arrangements (guitar, violin, viola, clarinet, accordian, cello, harmonium, piano, vocals) alongside music box lullabies and weary folk songs.

• Donkeysongs cd (Rusted Rail) 7.50

Another gorgeous collection of intimate chamber-folk instrumentals from Big Eyes Family Players (formerly Big Eyes), this time comprising of James Green, david Jaycock and Chris Boyd. Instruments used include harp, violin, guitar, harmonium, percussion, banjo, piano, organ, harmonica, drums and occasional loops. Packaged in a handmade sleeve with lino cut by James Green.

The Big Huge - Crown Your Head With Flowers, Crown Your Heart With Joy cd (Secret Eye) 1

Drew Nelson of Sonna abandons their instrumental post-rock for a delve into tradtional folk music complete with banjo and ukelele pluckings, accordion and dulcimer 

also: Sonna

Birchville Cat Motel 

• Bird Sister Blasphemy cd (Battlecruiser) 6

"Birds Call Home Their Dead"'s dark twin. Squealing guitars and eviscerating metal noise - like thrash metal imploding.

• Seventh Ruined Hex cd (Important) 7

Another fantastic album from Campbell Kneale, this time in collaboration with Matthew Bower (Skullflower / Sunroof!). Layers of super-fuzzy drone with Bower's endless spirals of guitar as luminous as thousands of beams of light. Less metal-orientated than recent BCM releases and more of a heavy fuzz drone bliss-krieg thrill. 

also: Kneale, With Throats as Fine as Needles, Ming, Black Boned Angel, Organ Organ Organ Organ

Sindre Bjerga - Crystal Cranium, Diamond head cassette (Blackest Rainbow) 3

"Solo live blurt from 25 June 2008 from Sindre Bjerga, one half of Bjerga/Iversen. Background drones hit in immediatley accompanied with some minimal scrapes and sputtering kinda growth aura from aforementioned drone, there's a real static vibe cruising through this. Occasional clunk and taps blur away as the heavy dense drone consumes the lot like an electric mist, with feedback clots clogging up your lungs, and creepy terror sounds. Limited to 50 hand numbered copies, each with indvidual handmade weird paper and an insert, everyone looking entirely different." (BR)

Collaboration between Norwegian drone / noise artist Sindre Bjerga and Robert Horton. Mesmerising haunted oscillations, tribal hallucinations that recall Skaters / Vodka Soap, the spectral shimmer and repeated hypnosis from Horton's Boot-guitar, Bjerga's haunted drones reaching into the depths. Other contributors include fiddle player Hal Hughes, Bjerga's usual collaborator Jan Iversen and Lisa Graves on bagpipes.

• Earth Pit cdr (Barl Fire) 1.50

an unsettling mix of noise / drone: woozily bowed strings, twisted machine noise, shortwave chatter and distant electronics floating weirdly in - reminds Carrick of the sound the airplane made in the black & white 'Flash Gordon' film!

• / Madame P cdr (Ambolt Hue) 1.50

Live recordings from shows in Sheffield, Leeds, Newcastle and Brighton. Lots of intense electronic fizz, low level rumbles and voices in harmony with the above. The audience also make quite a strong appearance here: if you listen closely enough, you can probably follow some threads of conversation in Newcastle. Who knows, maybe you're even on the record! (JC)

• Empire of Dirt cassette (Abandon Ship) 2

Recorded live in April 2007 in Amsterdam - pulsing electrical currents, rumbling bass drones and plenty of atmospheric hiss and hum.

also: Iversen, Wailing Bones Volume 6 comp

Gunwales is a 22 minute piece recorded in Wellington, New Zealand, by guitarists Andrew weeks and Ben Spiers. This is an industrial grade onslaught of dueling squall, feedback and no holds barred improv which can probably strip paint from your walls at the right level... no lower than 11. (JC)

Guy Blackman runs Chapter Music and recently spent some time in Japan - while there, he recorded these 8 songs with the help of members of Tenniscoats and Maher Shalal Hash Baz. There is a similar looseness and joyfulness in the recordings that I'd associate with those bands and a charming cover of 'Answer Me, My Love' which I never thought I'd be writing!

also: Maher Shalal Hash Baz

James Blackshaw 

• Waking Into Sleep - Goteborg, 27.05.06 cd (Kning Disk) 6.75

2nd edition of this cd on Swedish label Kning Disk. It features 4 tracks recorded in Gothenburg in May 2006: Sunshrine, Celeste I, Transient Life in Twilight and Spiralling Skeleton Memorial. This is Blackshaw without the harmonium and percussion, just his stunning acoustic 12 string ragas to spirit you into a beautiful sunlit world. Magical.

• Cloud of Unknowing cd (Tompkins Square) 8

A new James Blackshaw album is always a cause for celebration round Boa HQ and as always this is a delight. Blackshaw's 12 string playing is always so intricate and beautifully constructed that it always comes as a shock to find out that yes, he has 10 fingers just like everyone else, especially to someone like me who can barely manage one chord change without a gap of about 20 seconds. This album draws obviously from folk raga but also less obvious influences such as 20th century European classical music and early religious music and creates an awe-inspiring piece of celestial guitar playing.

• Sunshrine cd (Tompkins Square) 8

Originally issued on Digitalis: a stunningly gorgeous piece of Basho-esque 12-string raga exploration, also featuring harmonium, glockenspiel and bells - highly recommended.

• Lost Prayers and Motionless Dances cd (Tompkins Square) 8

Originally issued on Digitalis. One long track that mirrors the passage of the sun during day from the opening wheeze of harmonium through a wonderful section of 12 string raga which fades into heavy-lidded repetition and a shower of bells.

also: Peter walker, Brethren of the Free Spirit

Boris Morgana - Im Plodovosch cdr (267 Lattajjaa) 2

Free psych / improv - weird primal vocals, high-wire drones, free-falling drums, feedback, dense electronics.

Born Heller - s/t LP (Bo'weavil) 8

LP issue of a cd released a while ago on Locust. Haunting folk from this duo featuring Josephine Foster singing and playing harp and mandolin and Jason Ajemian on vocals and bass. Josephine Foster sings with the effortless purity of Shirley Collins and the music seems to be rooted in ancient traditions. Highly recommended.

also: Josephine Foster

Braspyreet - Maamme Laulu cd (Digitalis) 2

It all starts with drums and sounds like a train accelerating on a track that ends with a sharp flight into space over a cliff. There are tooting clarinets, fuzzed out guitars and vocal input possessed (and I mean possessed!) with the spirit of the Legendary Stardust Cowboy - oh and the last track has some of the most outre screaming I've heard in quite some time. Free music of light, shade and wild abandon! I should add that they're from Finland. (JC)

also: Gold Leaf Branches comp

Breathe Stone / The Does cdep (Hand/Eye) 1.50

Stone Breath's electric offshoot meets the Does deliciously wayward swampy and dark rock'n'roll

The Broken Blackbird Ensemble - Gadzooks cd (Early Winter) 5

George Burt - Solo Guitar cdr (Deluge and Guitary) 3.50

Burt / MacDonald Quartet with Lol Coxhill - Tsunami cd (FMR) 7.50

Busy Signals - Baby's First Beats LP (Earworm) 1

Beck influenced loop and sample crazy fun and nonsense from this lot that mixes Elephant 6 style 60s pop with a lazy post-modern vibe

Butchy Fuego  - s/t cd (Pickled Egg) 1.50

I don't know a lot about this person / people except that Bablicon members are involved somewhere and both Bablicon and Pickled Egg can be relied upon for something out of the ordinary. It starts off all mellow clarinet and then goes off on some avant-circus cabaret trip, then off into fuzzed-up amateur electronics land, then pent-up indierock, and then ...

also: Jar

By The End of Tonight 

• A Tribute to Tigers LP / cd (Temporary Residence) 2 

more post-rock fireworks (actually it's not so much post-rock as quite defiantly and uncoolly just rock) from TR

• He's Home With Bones That Grow the Way They're Supposed to 3" cd (Temporary Residence) 0.50

6 tracks, lacerating vocals, plenty of fuzz and distortion, bass, some electronics, high velocity, finger in the socket, punkin' energy. What more need you know? The insert says "Don't ruin your speakers"… aw, go on…. (JC)

• The Imaginary EP 3" cd (Temporary Residence) 0.50

Final disc in the series of 3"s by members of By the End of Tonight, this is from Josh Smith (guitarist / keyboards, who incidentally has now left the band). 6 instrumental tracks with a strong '80s feel to them. Could it be the synth sounds, the fuzz guitar or the approach? A bit of all 3, really. (JC)

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Cahier - Ciudad cdr (Phantom Limb) 1.50

This is truly one of the most full-on sounds... imagine lots of keyboards (sounds like there's a Rhodes in there), oscillators, percussion sounds and effects. Multiply the layers, the overload, the intensity. Varispeed some tracks then layer it again and once that's done, don't let up for fifteen and a half minutes. If you've got a sonic notion of such a sound in your head, it might approach the first piece on this cd. The second track is slightly shorter and seems more subdued. However, on reflection, that's only in relation to the first one! (JC)

Eric Carbonara - Exodus Bull cd (Locust) 5

dinky cdr release from sometime Leighton Craig collaborator: minimal Radiophonic-style electronica and sparing percussion

Tranced electronic meditations not dissimilar to Raymond Scott's "Soothing Sounds for Babies" from Carchesio, perhaps best known for his collaborations with Leighton Craig. Minimal repetitions that have a real early electronics feel. 

Eugene Carchesio & Leighton Craig - Leaves cd (Nature Strip) 7.50

A much-appreciated reissue of a cdr that came out on Kindling a couple of years back in an edition of 30. Recorded in a backyard amidst the sound of cicadas, birds and breeze, Craig and Carchesio at times improvise in response to the sounds around them, using toy xylophones, flute and chimes. Other tracks are mournful instrumentals played on clarinet, organ and acoustic guitar, with the chirrups and hisses a disquieting layer in the sound. Highly recommended

Christina Carter  - Texas Blues Working cassette (Blackest Rainbow) 4.75

6 stunning psychedelic ballads from Christina Carter. The guitar playing is spectral at times, at others it weaves a sparse loner blues. Her vocals are incredible on this recording, often layered, sometimes treated with disorientating effects to sound like a hallucinated siren. Second edition.

also: Charalambides, Directing Hand, Yellow Swans

• Glyph cd (Digitalis) 4

a reisssue of one of Tom Carter's long-gone Wholly Other cdrs, recorded during his last year in Austin, Texas, using acoustic and lap steel guitar. "Glyph 2" (lap steel) is a desolate and devastatingly beautiful piece of shimmering wires and heavy silence, Carter letting the steel strings ring out into nothingness. The other two tracks are frenetic in comparison, flurries of Fahey-esque finger-picking. Gatefold silk-screened and spray-painted sleeve.

also: Badgerlore, Charalambides, Wailing Bones Vol 1, Kyrgyz, Spiderwebs, Turnstone

Tom Carter & Vanessa Arn - What Is Here For LP (A Silent Place) 5

2003 collaboration between Tom Carter (Zaika / Charalambides / Kyrgyz) on lap-steel and Vanessa Arn (Primordial Underground) on custom-built tone generator. This is a record full of empty spaces, with with Carter's trembling shivers and Arn's warm burbling tones stretching across miles of silence, like jetstreams in an uninterrpted skyline. Most of the copies I have are black vinyl.

beautiful channelled drone from Tom Carter and Robert Horton, recorded inadvertently during the winter solstice, equinox and lunar eclipse of 2004: it truly is a dream pairing - particularly the lonesome cosmic wail of Carter's e-bow guitar amid the hushed chatter of Horton's homemade electronics

• Monsters of Felt cd (Preservation) 6

A list of those involved would almost suffice as a review in itself. Aside from the main players, there are contributions from Brad and Eden Rose, Henry Kuntz and Michael Shannon. Sound sources run from gamelans (bamboo and metal ones, no less) to cardboard tube. The result is a swirl of sound where the exact elements are often hard to pin down: exotic and hypnotic (JC)

also: Robert Horton

Great Pop Supplement is a label I should have got round to stocking a long, long time ago ... still, as the old saying goes, better late than never! Glorious improvisations on resonator guitar, lap steel and banjo that alternate between melancholic melodies and languid sun-baked mid-afternoon abstraction. A beautiful record that comes in a beautiful silk-screened sleeve by Rob Fisk.

Castaway Stones - Rose In The Devil's Garden 7" (Boa) 2

It's no secret that here at Boa HQ the merest hint of Pam Berry's velveteen vocal talents are enough to make us weak at the knees and in need of the smelling salts. Gloworm, the Shapiros, Belmondo and her other projects have made our hearts flutter in the past but none have had quite the same effect on us as her new band.

also: Snowdrops, Clientele, Pines, Saturday People

Century Plants - Infinite Eligible Mysteries cdr (MYMWLY) 3

Guitar damage from members of Burnt Hills. Visceral distorted guitar howling into the void, a psych guitar jam echoing down a wind tunnel, intimate scrawls.

2 tracks of damaged guitar improv from Century Plants. Track 3 comes from The Coast which features Florian Tositti (Ghost Brames / The Reggae) and is a fuzzed guitar / gently thudding drums meditation with bells spilling over the throb and slivers of silvery feedback.

The Circle and the Point 

• And So On Forever cdr (House of Alchemy) 4

House of Alchemy is Adam Richards' label and we find him here with VxPxC's Grant Capes. There's an intimate feel to these pieces, with the wheeze of accordion, spacious guitar, distant voices and a twirly tube - always welcome to my ears! The way things start and finish gives the feeling of eavesdropping on the players and the attractive handmade packaging sits well with the music. (JC)

"my love for all things cja knows no bounds. from the shambolic mastery of the futurians to his various solo guises, there is nobody who does damaged pop and punk rock better. ever since he dropped his first solo bomb, "headache," on celebrate psi-phenomenon many moons ago, he's been the premiere burner in the new zealand underground for my money. 
so what does "overgrow" offer? well, it's a short and sweet album about everyone's favorite token pastime. joined on by fellow travelers lee noyes on sampler and john maltravis on drums, cja keeps his fury in check in this session and mellows out on a junkyard set that falls somewhere between his opus, "ironclad," and the futurians bent punk wizardry. bleary-eyed slackers beware." (digitalis) Sold out at source.

Clair - Quincy 10" (Intercontinental) 0.25

dreamy naive pop remixed by Mr Quark, Leverkusen and Supermalprodelica Extra Lucid

Clear Spots

• Mountain Rock cdr (Deep Water) 4.50

A few seconds to make contact with the first track and then they erupt with the kind of full on, fuzzed out riff overload that even the mighty High Rise could be proud of. Based on the opener, you could expect ten pieces of ear-piercing riffola, but there's more to Clear Spots than that. These tracks are all live jams to a four track recorder and they're filled with melody, invention, much light and shade and even a spot of backwards tape, which is always a fine thing. (JC)

• / Niagara Falls split cdr (Deep Water) 4.50

A split release and a good contrast. Niagara Falls have sparse bass, lots of shimmery bells and percussion and washes of guitar. This would all go rather nicely as the soundtrack to some undersea exploration, flowing through blue depths to hidden labyrinths. The Clear Spots are much more outward bound, with a four part piece, which seems to be a composite of extended psychedelic jams. Very hot music, very garage-y recording. (JC)

Corcovado - Arrows, Ghosts and Doors mini cd 1

bittersweet melodies and some neat intricate guitar lines mark this out as a bit different from the usual noisepop crowd - nice handmade packaging too

Ramona Cordova - The Boy Who Floated Freely cd (Active Suspension) 1

Arizona 's Ramon Cordova is clearly one of life's dreamers. He says his songs are "influenced by snow white, pinocchio, and oliver twist" and the dozen on this album (yes, dozen, although the sleeve lists only eleven) are a cycle based on a sort of fairy tale he wrote involving a boy, a band of gypsies, a love potion that doesn't work quickly enough and… you get the idea? There's a Spanish tinge to some of this, plus colourful splashes of toy piano, organ and more, but mostly it's Cordova's high pitched, expressive voice and his guitar which hold the attention. (JC)

Corsican Paintbrush 

• Diamonds cdr (Rural Faune) 5.50

Duo featuring Brad Rose (North Sea, Golden Oaks etc) and Eden Hemming Rose (Wax Ghost). Flurries of percussion that sound like exotic birds fluttering and squawking through dense canopies of leaves and branches sit in between laid-back out-in-the-woods guitar and melodica / flute campfire improvisations. Lovely as always. Nice wallpaper and twig packaging again from Rural Faune. 

• Aquarian Hymns cd (Digitalis) 6.50

First proper cd release from Brad Rose (North Sea, Golden Oaks etc) and Eden Hemming Rose (Wax Ghost). Rural psychedelia at its finest: from the backwoods banjo-and-flute folk with its Eastern overtones of "Mutable Earth" to the strung-out atmospherics of "Carbon Revival" with its disjointed collection of plucked strings and clattering percussion building into a odd and detuned wasted folk based around autoharp, flute and Brad's mumbled vocals. A very fine release.

Cosmic Nanou - Songs About Lies (& Half Truths) cdr (Cosmic Tones) 5

Tim Coster 

Another great 3" from Tim Coster. This features 2 long tracks of slowly unfolding laptop drone and field recordings. On these two the wind in the trees threatens to overwhelm the softly lapping tones and the effect is one of intense contemplation and solitude. Lovely.

also: Plains, Huzun

Tim Coster & Mark Sadgrove 

• untitled cdr (CLaudia 04) 6.50

Tim on computer and mixer feedback, Mark on computer and guitar: lots of short tracks of hiss, distant feedback and crackles that seem to form a more cohesive whole - some of the feedback drone is really lovely, like the tiniest breath of wind

Tim Coster & Nigel Wright - s/t 3" cdr (CLaudia) 3.50

Another lovely little 3" from CLaudia records of New Zealand : Tim Coster and Nigel Wright create a cavernous well of drone from computer manipulated accordian, cello, flute and guitar samples among other things.  

Leighton Craig / Eugene Carchesio - Community of Opposites 3" cdr (Kindling) 5 

I've been very impressed by past releases from Leighton Craig, both aurally and visually: this is just as gorgeous - a warm, liquid, slowly bubbling drone that's like watching porridge cooking on a low heat on a cold morning

Richard Crandell - In The Flower of Our Youth LP (Tompkins Square) 5

"Reissue of this classic solo acoustic guitar album. "In The Flower of Our Youth, originally released on the private press label Cutthroat Records in 1980, was Richard Crandell's first LP. His tune 'Rebecca' was famously covered by admirer Leo Kottke on his Chewing Pine album. Crandell has gone on to record several other guitar albums, as well as two mbira recordings for John Zorn's Tzadik label. Crandell's music has recently been featured on Tompkins Square's Imaginational Anthem Vol. 3, as well as the guitar compilation Wayfaring Strangers: Guitar Soli."" label

Crow Feathers - Imaginary Scores 2 x 3 " cdrs (Abandon Ship) 9

Oceans of oscillations glide and dip ac ross the electronic soundscapes here, the rather lovely picture cut through with harsher tone bursts along the way. These contrasts are more extreme on the second disc, where the first piece has stormy layers billowing over a very attractive tremolo keyboard sound. The las of the four tracks is a complete contrast: Brandon Miller switches to guitar for the sort of piece which would be at home on a North Sea record. The music gets this a recommendation anyway, but the artwork and packaging are very pleasing too (JC)

Cubs - Stonewater 3" cdr (Rusted Rail) 1.50

Semi-improvised pastoral late-night bliss from Galway, featuring some members of United Bible Studies / Agitated Radio Pilot (the latter being closest in sound to this project). A laid-back drift through some beautiful melodies played on guitar, accordian, tin whistle and mandolin with some spacey wordless vocals. Just lovely.

also: United Bible Studies

Current Amnesia / The North Sea split cassette (Digitalis Ltd) 5.50

Current Amnesia is David Sutton of Car Commercials and his side of the cassette is one long track of mesmerising tone drone that drifts from mysterious undertow to high wire whine. The other side finds Brad Rose with a ton of synth-generated drone but in mellower mood than recent releases have suggested. Nice handmade sleeve.

Currer Bells - s/t 3" cdr (CLaudia) 4.50

Another Tim Coster collaboration, this time with Jane Austen. Loops assembled from a range of instruments (bass, cymbals, acoustic guitar, keyboard, drums, glasses, shaker and glockenspiel) and improvised live sounds. The looped percussion on the opener makes me think of a weaver's loom and it's rhythmic thrum is shrouded in computer-generated drone. "Six Feelings" has a loop that sounds like the intense twitter of a flock of goldfinches with live drums. The final track is unexpected - a fragile song constructed from incessantly repeated sparse guitar notes and layered female vocals and unsettling feedback drones. Another excellent collaborative effort.

Charles Curse - Insilverscene cdr (mymwly) 1.50

this opens with a ghostly crepuscular instrumental fug before 4 semi-improvised songs of lonesome country-folk

• Expanses Growing cassette (Sloow) 4

Gorgeous late night psyched ambience from Matt Lejoie. Hazy guitar wanderings amidst a woozy fog of percussion / murmurred vocals. 

Czech Nymphs - 2 LP (Memoirs of an Aesthete) 8

Phil Todd (Ashtray Navigations), in primitive electronic disguise, achieves blast-off with a series of stratospheric swoops and oscillating soundwave whooshes. 

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Jon Dale 

• Rotten Sun cdr (Rhizome) 5

steel string drone and cymbal breath that seems to hang suspended with minimum effort

• Son d'Or cdr (Rhizome) 6

steel string drone and cymbal breath that seems to hang suspended with minimum effort

also: Moth

Jon Dale & Kynan Lawlor  - I've Got a Tiger in my Tank cdr (Fucken Stoner) 6

5 loose improvisations on guitar and drums from Jon Dale (of Rhizome records) and Kynan Lawlor: some of a growling raw punk nature, others fragile and bruised and one of near silence

Darwinsbitch - Steel Hum cassette (Digitalis) 3

Darwinsbitch is Marielle V. Jakobson who creates these quivering drones from synths, violin and tapes. At times they remind me of the sea-bound murk of Bjerga / Iversen but with the charged electric hum of early analogue electronics. Recommended.

Datashock & Black to Comm cdr (Ikuisuus) 4

A collaboration between Datashock and cosmic dronemeister Marc Richter (Black to Comm) recorded at the Goldmund Festival. A cavernous brew of zoned drone, ritual wails and howls and  mystical synth ululations. The cd also features a video.

D/Compute - IwillpushmyselfintotheforestandIwillbedeadthere cdr (Mouthmoth) 0.50

DIY electronicness from Mouthmoth, industrial pounding beats interspersed with a more laid-back, sometimes exotic, and more interesting approach to the genre

Ddamage / TTC - Trop Singe 12" (Active Suspension) 0.50

edgy electro from Ddamage meets French rappers TTC

Dead Black Arms - Caretaker Cherry Bird cdr (Reverb Worship) 5.75

Dead Black Arms is another project from Claus Haxholme, who is also behind The Doom
Riot, Kanada Brothers, Satanism Around Hollywood, Tanko Oroshi and My Love We Found The Skies. The first 3 tracks on here utilize low-end overloaded synth to create a doomy bass throb. The 4th changes tack completely and finds Claus ringing gorgeous muffled tones from his guitar. 

Dead Raven Choir - Cask Strength Metal 3LP box (Weird Forest) 12

bleak folk meets black metal: compiles the 'black metal' DRC releases, the sold-out "Sturmfucklinglieder" (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon), "Grand Ravishing Extravaganza" (Death Aesthetics), "Sevenfold Songs Of Death" (Pink Skulls), and "Sheath And Knife" (Brazos Valley Meat Authority) EPs. Packaged in a lovely big black box.

also: For the Dead in Space II & III comp, Gold Leaf Branches comp, Hand/Eye comp

Decades - The First cd (Poeta Negra) 0.50

early 80s referencing electro-pop with occasional female mutterings - reminiscent of Skanfrom etc

Dialing In - Cows in Lye cd (Pseudoarcana) 5

Fogged drone / noise from Seattle's Reita Piecuch who records, then re-records sounds (in this instance piano, shruti box and field recordings from India) multiple times until the sounds swim and swirl round each other. Guest vocals from Herb Diamante on one track lending an air of Scott Walker-esque decaying grandeur. Fascinating and highly recommended.

Diamondhead - Corrective Action cassette (Digitalis ltd) 5

"junkyard strolls through the outskirts of rock n roll find a home with austin's most underrated jewels, diamondhead.  after releases on russ waterhouse's white tapes and bryan day's eh?, this collection of songs from l.e. methe, r.j. reynolds & company are dinner scraps that have been rehashed and reformed into a total gourmet experience.  guitars and piano knock each other over, trying to get to the foreront while methe belts it out.  scarred, angular riffs fall deep into the dirt at times, leafing around for one last morsel of sanity.  some songs include flute and vocals, sounding like a lounge band on a drunken voyage to west africa.  this is the full package. everything on "corrective action" feels like it could implode at any moment.  it's that last-thread mentality that pushes diamondhead' s boundaries.  there's good times and bad all laced-up and ready go into a pit of magnetic glory.  edition of 70, pro-dubbed & snubbed." (Digitalis)

Diaphragm & Migrations in Rust - Framed in Remission cdr (Peasant Majik) 3.25

"The first time I saw these two play I was sitting, totally sober, in the back of a warehouse in Purchase, NY. Maybe it was the hours of Simpson's arcade game I had just finished, but it was one of the most focused and engaging shows I had seen in ages. Later that night I approached MIR about working together, and 9 month later this finally sees the light of day. Both Diaphragm and Migrations In Rust contribute one slow burner each, with a collaborative track to finish things off. Somewhere between the space of Andrew Chalk, layers of Birchville Cat Motel, and the sinister atmosphere of Abruptum." (Peasant Magik)

Dinmuck#F - Metamorphin 3" cdr (MYMWLY) 1

rhythmic distorted electronic scribble

Directing Hand 

• What Put the Blood LP (Dancing Wayang) 9.50

also: The Black Hands, Alex Neilson & Richard Youngs, Ben Reynolds, Christina Carter, Ashtray Navigations, Aaron Moore, GIO, Matt 'mv' Valentine, Alex Neilson, Erika 'ee' Elder and Moses Jiggs,  Singing At the Moon comp, Galbraith / Neilson / Youngs, Motorghost

Directorsound - The Day of the Dance cdr (Reverb Worship) 5.50

This is Adam Sussman, Muura's partner-in-crime, and like that release, Adam plays everything simultaneously in a super-distorted, feedback squealing frenzy. Buried somewhere beneath the brutal onslaught you may hear warped drum machine beats, primal roars and later when the noise subsides, there are some eerie drones to unsettle instead.

Jeremy Dower - Music for Retirement Villages, Circa 2050 cd (Chapter Music) 1

laid-back electronic instrumentals that remind me a little of Plone 

also: Double Figures comp

Duck - Pass The Spoon dvdr (Spirit of Orr) 1.50

Matt Krefting and Jessi Swenson of Son of Earth / Believers live at the Carhole, Massachusetts 

Dugoutcanoe - Demonstration cdr (Reverb Worship) 5.50

Dugoutcanoe is Jacob Isaacs from Denver, Colorado, and this release features 9 of his frenetic home recordings. Multi-tracked guitar that sometimes veers into jerky Captain Beefheartian rhythms mixed with a '90s quirky US lo-fi feel. The sleeve is fab - hand-stitched Indian fabric.

Tucker Dulin / Nick Hennies cdr (Digitalis) 1

trombone and drum improvisations recorded in the open air of San Diego: minimal clatter

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Matt Earle - Golden Guitar cdr (Black Petal) 6

Earsugar 7" 0.25

lush and summery half-electronic / half-acoustic pop with the least cheesy vocoder vocals ever

Egghatcher - Accidents cdr (New American Folk Hero) 4

Each piece is based around "non-musical" events such as a door creaking or doing the dishes, and "orchestrating" the resultant field recordings. The result is a beautiful and fascinating collection of musique concrete-style melody cut-ups and edgy drones from the restless imagination of Robert Horton.

El-G & Duncan - s/t cdr (Rural Faune) 5.75

Primitive synth minimalism and spooked-out vocals conjure up a real satanic vibe helped on their way by the psyched-out might of Phil Todd's skyward-spiralling guitar and more black synth / electronics from Steven Warwick of Birds of Delay.

Electric Omen - Abandon All Hope cassette (Blackest Rainbow) 5

Solo project of Sindre Bjerga, more often found as part of a duo with Jan Iversen. Bleak analogue synth drone with low bass rumbling ... fit for entry to the seventh circle of hell!

Electroscope

• Homemade Electroscope cd (Wurlitzer Jukebox) 4.50

the first Electroscope album full of hushed minimalism, spacey wonder, subdued melodies and songs about 1000 year old swans, crumbling villages and Joe Meek.

• Follow The Rainbow / Chapter 24 7" (Tinseltones) 2 

pop backwards on the A side and a Syd Barrett cover on the flip

• Out on the Edge of Time / Glycerine Gold 7" (Boa) 2

Baroque pop psych with harpsichord, flute, clarinet and heavenly female vocal harmonies on one side, a swirling zoetrope of sound on the other, in tribute to Syd Barrett.

• Journey To The Centre of Electroscope LP / CD (Boa) 7

A 19 song flight of psych-folk fancy encompassing minimal hush and murmur, melancholic folk-tinged half-tones and a lusher side of dark, bedroom-escapist psych. Instrumentation includes guitar, analogue synths, harp, vibraphone, gong, percussion, clarinet, flute, cello and violin. "Experimental music, something close to the form of songs: for dreamers only" said a recent review. 

• / Warser Gate split 7" (Octane Grammophon) 2

This Finnish release is a concept single (!) based on the four elements.

also: Ataraxia, 19 Ways ... comp, pefkin, Phosphene, Zurich, Beyond Beyond, Noises From The Sound Cupboard, Yr Agog comp

Elektronavn - Blind Turtle Analogy cdr (Rural Faune) 5.75

Elektronavn is Dane Magnus Olsen Majmon who has had a couple of previous releases on Not Not Fun and Ikuisuus. Cosmic drone-folk. Violin, cello and mandolin create dense walls of strum / bowings above which melodica, Japanese flute type instrument the kyotaku float and Magnus's high vocals float. Highly recommended.

Elephant Micah 

• Hindu Windmills cd (Time Lag) 7.50
• Equine Emblem 7" (Great Pop Supplement) 3.50

also: Jason Henn and Joe O'Connell, Gold Leaf Branches comp

Ian Epps - Finds the4yearoldchild: Courtside, Volume 1 cd (Softl Music) 1

part of a series by the New Yorker based on the child's memory of sounds pertaining to a certain activity (in this case a game of tennis) - there's a similarity in sound (warm, organic sound manipulation) and the excellent handmade feel to the design to the 'sparkling composer' series on Lucky Kitchen

Es - Kesamaan Lapset cd (Fonal) 10

Sami Sänpäkkilä's 5th album under the name Es and again it's an absolute gem. Melodies repeated to the point of hypnosis on synth, casio and piano become  minimalist shimmers which remind me of Terry Riley. Elissa Määttänen once again contributes vocals on the most blissed out of songs. The final track combines a wall of fuzzed-up synths and equally fuzzy vocal harmonies to make the most cosmic of songs. Highly recommended.

Ester Poland / Kospel Zeithron cdr (267 Lattajjaa) 5

A split featuring two Finnish bands. Ester Poland are a two man group who create noise / metal squalls. Kospel Zeithorn on the other hand create a hypnotic blend of acoustic instrument / field recordings / electronica.

Another lovely release on Deep Water. This one features members of Clear Spots and Peacefeather. Evening Fires is an appropriate name as this has a really soporific backwoods feel to it: hypnotic guitar pickings, weary flute and a hazy bed of drone. Similar to some of the folk / psych on Foxglove.

• Figures of Earth cdr (Digitalis) 4

I really enjoyed the Evening Fires release on Deep Water so was looking forward to this. Again, it's great, starting with a banjo-led hoedown that sounds like it was played at a campfire beneath the stars: loose and joyous. Other tracks are more mystical with weaving flute and the distant heavily reverbed saxophone on "Zion" sounding like it's been beamed in from afar. Track 5 reminds me of the Clear Spots, with whom they share a few members. 

• Blue Mountain Water cdr (Deep Water) 5.50

5 tracks of this Pennsylvanian trio at their most blissed out: pastoral strums in the sun, amorphous synth / doom meltdown, smoke-wreathed acoustic flute / guitar / percussion jams. All recorded in subterranean locations and indeed the whole recording has the aura of isolation. Gorgeous stuff.

Eventless Plot / Mescalinaeden split 7" (Gracetone) 0.25

split 7" on a new Greek label. Eventless Plot: a sombre fog of ethereal doom finally splintered by electronics at the end, kind of similar to Yellow 6's most supernatural moments. Mescalinaeden: a weird collage of primitive repeating rhythms and backwards tape loops.

f

The Fabulous Nobody

• Love and the City 7" (Kitchen) 1.75
• A Pot of Tea / Where the Girl Gets Blue 7" (Sparticus Stargazer) 1.75

warm picked guitar meanderings, a croon reminiscent of Edwyn Collins / Vic Godard and the nostalgic feel of a record out of its time

Fallen cdr (Cook an Egg) 6.50

Guitar strings chime like distant bells, organ drones are sometimes punctuated by gently swaying beats, other times they shimmer on their own and voices sing of being lost in the branches. The foldout card package is a really distinctive touch too. A rather lovely record all round. (JC)

Farina- Two People 7" (Pickled Egg) 0.50

classic songwriting with some lovely arrangements that reminds of solo Brian Wilson, David Ackles in its gloomier moments and Tom Petty at his most rockin'

also: Jar

This albums starts as though it's going to be tinged with sampled voices, ghostly images, maybe melancholy. Soon we find that Tom Fazzini's lyrical tongue is pointed well into his cheek. Sure, there are ominous lines like "Down in the dell/the smell of rotting flesh lingers", but then again we find "Marissa with the teeth/and her bra on a horse in Cowdenbeath". This image is perhaps boosted to a new level if you've ever visited this particular Scottish town (well, it made me laugh)!. One track ends with a gurgling sound, which runs for rather longer than the Incredible String Band's Water Song, and is rounded off by a burst of wheezy laughter which could only come from a Sid James face with a crinkly grin. The acoustic treatment will probably earn this a "folk" brand from some, but this is more end of the pier than finger in the ear! (JC)

Feathered Totem / The Big Drum in the Sky Religion split cdr (Reverb Worship) 5.50

2 tracks from Feathered Totem of heavily-reverbed drone, like hearing Gregorian chant down a well. Big Drum ... are influenced by shamanic rituals and their track is a ritual-esque clatter of percussion, acoustic / electric guitar and synth oscillations. Handmade sleeve.

Fern Knight - s/t cd (VHF) 9

"Third CD of beautiful music from Fern Knight, led by the crystal voice, guitar, and strings of Margie Wienk. Drawing from diverse influences such as Krautrock, UK folk and early baroque and renaissance music, Fern Knight’s eponymous recording juxtaposes the calm surface of harp, cello, and violin against the perfectly-timed distorted squalls of Jim Ayre’s Flying V and a dark undercurrent of lyrical and vocal mystery. The overall effect is a lush, pastoral and warm ode to all things green and living, a running theme that winds through the songs: “All is lost / and all will run / over graying ground / to the rays of the sun,” sings Wienk in the album’s closing track, “Magpie Suite Part III.” The album’s cohesion rests upon the core quartet’s combination of acoustic and electronic instruments, providing the perfect vehicle for Wienk’s unique song writing and string arrangements. Since the 2006 release of “Music for Witches and Alchemists” (vhf#101), Fern has toured extensively in the US and Europe, as well touring and recording along side contemporaries Greg Weeks and Brooke Sietinsons of Espers and Tara Burke of Fursaxa in Drag City artists The Valarie Project." (VHF)

Ffehro - Gun - Archival Recordings cd2 cdr (Foxglove) 1

another offshoot of the Brothers of the Occult Sisterhood / MYMWLY collective: scrunched up free noise improv

also: Sound Surrounds Us 1 comp, Sound Surrounds Us vol 3 comp, You Will Love Your Music Mind comp

Feedback heavy drums / guitar freakout from part-time Bummer Road members from Portugal. A couple of live tracks. Silk-screened cover.

Flautus Del Chiguire - s/t cassette (Funeral Folk) 1.50

Demented improv from Venezuela - acoustic clatter, grizzled drone and a whole bunch of weird found sounds / tape loops.

• Empty & Marvelous cassette (Housecraft) 2

"tape cuts chew themselves to cerebral fuzz and mush, hacked and hazy"

• Gone With the Sun cassette (Digitalis Ltd) 2.50

Cut & paste noise / freeform freakery. Handmade sleeve. Now sold out at source. 

Fossils From the Sun 

• Associate of Mercy cd (Reverb Worship) 5.50

Fossils From the Sun is Raymond Hare of Century Plants. Unsettlingly repetitive ambience of industrial chug, throbbing electricity, almost inaudible vocals murmurs and the nervy jangling of ghostlike guitar. Edition of 55 hand numbered copies with flourescent orange card sleeves with a design featuring namibian face masks.

• Somebody's Gotta Lose 3" cdr (Abandon Ship) 4

Solo recordings from Raymond Hare (Century Plants / Burnt Hills). One long track which opens with the kind of fuzzed-out solo guitar you might expect from Phil Todd and then breaks down into bass-heavy electro-rumbling and delayed vocalising.

Josephine Foster - This Coming Gladness cd (Boweavil) 9

Great new album from Josephine Foster, backed by Alex Neilson on drums and Victor Herrero on guitar. A move away from the folk influences of her last album and back towards the cyclical psych balladry of the Supposed album. This album gives her unique voice more space to linger and Alex and Victor provide a wonderfully understated accompaniment. 

Josephine Foster and the Supposed - Live cdr (Self-released) 3

Benjamin Franklin - Splitsing cassette (Sloow) 5.50

Messed-up outer space casio synth-scapes peppered with junkyard debris from Buffle / ROT's Benjamin Franklin. 

Friday Group - Universal Illumination Orchestra / Meat Science cassette (Sloow) 1

Shadowy drones, based around an asthmatic chord organ, featuring an extended line-up including Sandy Ewan of Spiderwebs.

also: Charalambides, Ash Castles on Ghost Coast, Iron Kite, Ethereal Planes Indian, Zaika, Kyrgyz

Andy Futreal - Wrack: Oud Improvisations, Reactions and Abstractions cassette (Sloow) 2.50

In the mood for oud ... Exactly as it says, abstract sound manipulations and improvisations on the oud -  a fretless North African lute-style instrument. Quiet and mysterious sounds.

Future Pilot AKA

• Darshan 7" (Geographic) 0.50
• Tiny Waves, Mighty Sea LP (Geographic) 1

Sushil Dade, the principal Future Pilot, bridges the enticing divide between traditional Indian sounds and experimental pop. A veritable melting pop of sounds to calm your soul one minute and uplift it the next. Assisted on 'Tiny Waves' by a crew assembled from various Scotpop luminaries including Teenage Fanclub, Pastels, Superstar, Bill Wells, Delgados, Eugene Kelly, Mount Vernon Arts Lab etc. Vic Godard guests on vocals on 'salute'.