Joshua McAbee & the (7/13) Moon - Accidentally Transcending cassette (Housecraft) 3.25

This comes sweeping in like a melodic fog off the sea: oscillations turn into a radio dial tuning in strings on the shortwave, a voice squelches up and down in pitch like scratching vinyl and there's a very hopeful sounding end too. All on a neatly packaged tape with 5 screw fixing on the cassette shell, just so you know it's good quality. (JC)

Sean McCann 

• Flutter Oasis cassette (Digitalis ltd) 4.50
• Shore Net cassette (Housecraft) 3.25

One side of this starts quite serene and droney, building to something wild and droney. The overload of the lo-est-fi sound makes it all pretty intense. The other side starts with bongos (I think) and drones, but soon escalates like a fairground ride flaying at top speed with no brakes on it. More fun than the waltzer any day! (JC)

Raymond MacDonald / Neil Davidson - Flapjack cd (FMR) 7.50

Saxophonist Raymond MacDonald and guitarist Neil Davidson have worked together extensively within the large ensemble framework of the Glasgow Improviser's Orchestra. Honing the empathy down to a duo performance shows how well they react to one another. For me, they key to this album lies in their joint feel for the quiet side of their playing. Sure, they can cut it at the harsher end of improv sound, but the real magic turns on when Raymond is underpinning the rising tension of Neil's guitar with a soft warmth suggesting a subtle glow in the dark or when Neil is using his guitar as a sound generator, applying a battery powered fan to the pick-up. These two should do more together and I hope they will. (JC)

Raymond MacDonald / Neil Davidson cdr (Iorram) 5

An album of highly focussed playing which is also very soulful - two qualities which make it easy to recommend. Although it lists only sax and guitar, the opening piece, Rake, has some beguiling harmonics going on which sound like an organ. Prospect reveals an ominous low register rarely heard from an acoustic guitar and the album flows so well, as the full force of the player's energies in the middle of the record resolve to the beautiful closing music which sounds rather sacred. All lovingly hand-packaged for you by the Iorram label's artistes... need I say more? (JC)

also: Neil Davidson

Scottish film maker David MacKenzie has made some interesting choices for soundtrack material thus far. The music on this album will feature in his new movie Asylum and it's very spacious and atmospheric stuff. Saxophone and treated piano weave angular, yet eerily melodic patterns that sometimes remind me of Town and Country's recent work on Thrill Jockey and, at others, imply a world where Roy Budd morphed into Schnittke when he was scoring Get Carter. Slightly glacial; oddly beautiful. (JC)

also: Phosphene, GIO, Tatsuya Nakatani, Neil Davidson, Peter Nicholson, Raymond MacDonald, Nick Fells

Even if you think you have enough saxophone and drum improv duos on your shelf (and there have been a few of late), this record comes with a high recommendation to make room for another one. Gunter Baby Sommer is the leader of the Dresden Ensemble. Their two way collaboration with the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra led to some exciting concerts and workshops on each side of their Scottish and German home turf in 2005 & 2006. Meanwhile, MacDonald and Sommer found their playing gelled as a duo and - voila - along comes an album full of expressive and melodic playing. The recording is top class and Neil Davidson's witty sleeve note raises the question: how many quality-lit references can you get into 3 short paragraphs? A record to enjoy in so many ways. (JC)

New label specializing in improvised and experimental music in handmade packages and run by Una MacGlone, Raymond MacDonald and Neil Davidson of Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra. The one features the above trio - double bass, voice and guitar. It opens with a beautifully pure tone-drone that makes me thing of distant planes overhead on a summer's day. Later on the disc "Muslin" employs buzzing drones that seem to make the air throb. The trio's improvised pieces are equally impressive with Neil & Una manipulating strings with real energy and Aileen's squeaks, croaks and gurgles the quiet sound of nightmares. The air of unease is palpable, particularly on "Slither" where the bass and guitar seethe and indeed slither around the vocal contortions, and again on the closing "Clearing", a writhing mass of quiet noise. Beautifully recorded by our own Mr Cavanagh! Highly recommended.

sean mccann hails from brooklyn, nyc and is channeling prehistoric ghosts on "flutter oasis." ramshackle guitar dirges get broken into pieces and glued back together with paste made from analog synthetics. "flutter oasis" is aptly named as it whirrs its way up and down dunes, through valleys of glistening sand. with hints of makeshift percussion acting as leader of the caravan, mccann molds the distorted, washed-out guitar tones into something catchy and fit for a king. "flutter oasis" is a short but sweet statement. it begs for nothing more than an ice-cold beverage and a place on the beach. this is music put through the ringer, and when mccann's voice finally shows up, battered and worn, you can help but want to give the guy a hand. Sold out at source now.

Solo cdr of guitar from Matt McDowell of Arco Flute Foundation / sometime Mike Tamburo collaborator. Some incendiary burnout, heavily distorted percussive clang and the short but surprisingly pretty (after all that ear burrowing noise) "Amanita Sunrise".

• Headlong Into the Fire 3" cdr (New American Folk Hero) 1.50

The sinle piece on this cd starts with a humming drone, like a power station in harmony with swarms of crickets. Intensity builds with light touch drumming - in super-wide stereo - before all is consumed by a blazing guitar. Phew, what a scorcher, as the saying goes! (JC)

also: Mike Tamburo

Aberdeen meets Glasgow: Kitchen Cynics (aka Alan Davidson) and Rory McIntyre share this disc and the results are very pleasing. Some tracks are collaborations, others are solo (McIntyre plays a lovely cover of the Cynics song Now's the Time and Marissa Nadler's Virginia) and the "best title of the set" award has to be taken by A slow dance for Alfie Bass! Enchante, for sure! (JC)

"A 66 minute excerpt from a 2 hour session from 2005. Recorded in the middle of the night after Christmas - the result being the most detailed mess this trio has ever made. Bella is banging the drums naked, releasing lots of skin power. Fricara is giving the bass some feedback and Hesedelic is playing guitar very, very fast." Lal Lal Lal

Were you needing to visit the dentist to have your teeth de-scaled? No need: just open wide, play the first track on this cd at volume and the plaque will be melt away in seconds! It's called Flash Pumper: fairly short, but very effective and an overture to the sonic warfare to follow. Ominous subsonics, hypnotic morse-like patterns, extreme electronics from Jaime Fennelly and Chris Peck. Mr Fennelly's other credits include Phantom Limb, Bison, Peeesseye, and the splendidly named peeinmyfacewithsurgery. I am not familiar with the oeuvre of the latter combo, but decided it might be prudent if I avoided searching for them on the computer where I work. (JC)

Two extended imrprov pieces exploring the harmonic ranges and possibilities of 'cellos, voice and saxophone. Simultaneously intense and subtle, this music was captured in the spacious acoustic of the Luggage Store Gallery in San Francisco in front of a commendably quiet small audience. I liked the closing moment of the album, after the applause dies, when a voice confirms "Yeah, we're done"! (JC)

improvised-on-the-spot guitar, cello and vocals songs by London-based Basque artist Mattin (also a member of Sakada, along with Eddie Prevost)

also: Sakada

Merrill Baker & Jordan cd (ArchiveCD) 7

One hour, 3 performers, 4 pieces recorded live in Hartford, Connecticut. Todd Merrell, Aidan Baker and Patrick Jordan create huge patterns of drone with guitar, shortwave radio and electronic processing. The cover, which opens from the centre, has mirror images of trees and cloud, which suit the sounds admirably. (JC)

Metal Rouge 

• Ephemroptera cdr (Seymour) 6

New cdr from Andrew Scott and Helga Fassonaki (who also records as Yek Koo). Manipulated strings (guitar and santur mainly) that rattle and jangle metallically and build into scouring shrieks of sound. The final track is a dense piece of drone, full of jangling strings, black voids and drowned howl. Recommended.

• Ephemeroptera 2 cdr (Seymour) 6

Metal Rouge are Andrew Scott and Helga Fassonaki (who also records as Yek Koo) and this is their second release in the  "Ephemeroptera" series. Again it's based around string sounds from layers of coruscating high-wire buzz to the Charalambides-like shimmering web of guitars on "Boatman Raga". Indeed the opening to "Larval Movement II" with its sparse guitar and Helga's wordless wails remind me of Christina Carter before it heads into a more full-on shredded wall of wailing metal. I've listened to this on repeat again and again. Highly recommended.

chaotic fuzzy blurry noise improv

early recordings (1997 / 98) from Antony Milton of A.M., Claypipe, Pseudoarcana records, these are reissues of cassettes / cdrs. Wayward NZ pop played on guitar, organ and violin that would fit right into the Xpressway label and also reminds me of the early days of Hood.

• The End of the Short Road cd (Deserted Village) 7.50

New cd from the guy who runs Pseudoarcana and is also A.M., Mrtyu!, Nether Dawn as well as sometime Black Boned Angel member. A lovely collection of wayward lo-fi NZ pop songs that sound so insular it's as if they were never intended for our ears. Mumbled vocals, scratchy violin and acoustic guitar never sounded better.

• Live @ The Cake Shop, August 2005 cdr (Transient) 6

  raw live document of Antony Milton (A.M., Nether Dawn, Mrtyu!, Pseudoarcana). 35 minute collection of ragged songs.

Minn Minn Lights - s/t cdr (Sharks & Pfennigs) 2.50

Daniel Meyer Grønvold, Eirik Renton and Oivind Koppand Eriksen. There's lots of chiming here: the striking of metal bowls and musical box-like bells, the soft pluck of guitar, a fair squawl of feedback too and and a lot of harmonious collisions of all these voices… oh, and a walkie talkie too! (JC)

Mirag - Black Temple Carved In Smoke cd (Battlecruiser) 6

Cd reissue of this Matthew Bower project, originally released on cdr on Battlecruiser. Two pieces of music: the first is a voluminous flurry of sound with the same disorientating, hypnotic effect as flicker films, the second ear-wringing sheets of metallic noise / feedback

Miss Violetta Beauregarde - Odi Profanum Vulgus et Arceo cd (Temporary Residence) 4

What's in a name? Miss Violeta Beauregarde suggests, to me, perhaps a star of Edwardian stage, sweety trilling ballads against a backdrop of potted palms... or maybe an equestrian trophy winner, darling of the show jumping set? This Miss thankfully dismissed such thoughts at a stroke: she could easily give Melt Banana and Atari Teenage Riot a run for their money anyday, with her visceral vocals, twisted lyrics and savage beats. A record to blow many amps of fuse and definitely more pogo than pony! (JC)

Misspelled Cult of Balvack - s/t cdr 5

This "occasional gathering of improvisers" hail from Scotland's Northeast and appear to have ties with Kitchen Cynics and Mickel Mass. I could check this, but I rather like the identities of those involved to be swathed in mystery: their lovely and ethereal music certainly is. One track in particular reminded me of Vibracathedral Orchestra and something I once heard in a temple in Hanoi. This piece is called Loftier shenanigans and I suspect that might mean it was recorded in Alan Davidson's loft, which is surely Aberdeen's answer to a temple in Hanoi! (JC)

intimate guitar and mandolin strums with a laid-back, melancholic feel provide an appropriate backing for these sad, folky songs - at times makes me think of Simon Joyner had he grown up on 90s little label indiepop 

Moglass 

• Telegraph Poles Are Getting Smaller cd (Nexsound) 6 
• Tom Carter / Vanessa Arn split cd (Nexsound) 8.50 

Moglass are a trio from Ukraine who use guitar, bass and electronics to create a glacial world where space and time are drawn out to the point of becoming meaningless. 

also: Tom Carter

Mok Nok cdr (Reverb Worship) 5.50

Mok Nok is "best friends" in Innuit and this duo from Copenhagen are clearly united in a love of overloaded lacerating guitars, vintage synth tones and pounding beatboxes in a sound quality which is more fuzz-fi than lo-fi. Every splatter-painted cover has a paste on witch with red eyes, just to keep things friendly, like... (JC)

the lead track is a fairly stromping power pop number built on swirly keyboards and a propulsive rhythm section whereas on the flip the songs are more reflective and occupy a similar space to later Belle and Sebastian

Mono 

• You Are There 2LP (Temporary Residence)  6
• You Are There cd (Temporary Residence) 6

6 tracks on an album running for around one hour, the longest of these taking up more than a quarter of the whole set. Yes, this is music of expansiveness and grand sweep, music of towers and mountains and ice floes and emotional peaks and troughs. I've seen Subarachnoid Space used as a comparison to this band, but my ears tell me of something a little further back in the progressive lineage. I run the risk of being drummed out of the Melodybar reviewer circle for mentioning the follwing in these hallowed pages, but here goes… Steve Hackett's Voyage of the Acolyte and the Snow Goose by Camel. There, I've said it! (JC)

Monopoly Child Star Searchers 

• Gitchii Manitou cassette (Pacific City) 4.50

New cassette from Spencer Clark (Skaters, Vodka Soap). Vividly hypnotic ecstatic reverie of hyperactive cheap casio reams, Balinese atmospheres and hand percussion beat.

• Start Levitating Now! cassette (Pacific City) 4.50
• Mandala Levitations cassette (Pacific City) 4.50

Two new instalments of mesmerizing casio / fuzz gloop from Spencer Clark (Skaters / Vodka Soap) - cheap keyboard sounds flutter rhythmically, jungle beat percussion throbs and a levitational vibe permeates both cassettes.

• Infant Spirituality cdr (Pacific City) 4

Latest release from Spencer Clark. Enchanting recorder plumes, frenetic jungle handdrums, that wonderful sound of cassette recorded saturation and as hypnotic and out there as those '60s flicker films.

• / Angel Snake split cassette (Pacific City) 4

Split featuring a new James Ferraro project on the other side.

Ilya Monosov / Preston Swirnoff 

• Seven Recorded Works LP (Eclipse) 6
• Two Recorded Works LP (Eclipse) 6  

volumes 1 & 2 in the planned series of 4 LPs for Eclipse from this duo: Volume 1 is 'Seven Recorded Works' and feels the most improvisational of the two LPs. Sunsplashes of piano fall over creepy textures of hurdy gurdy and high pitched harmonica on side one; on two the shapes and shades are darker like a ghostly rendition of an Erik Satie piece. 'Two Recorded Works' begins like the soundtrack to a seabound tragedy with minor chord air organ from Swirnoff, aching bowed guitar and barely breathed vocals from Monosov and develops explicitly into a swaying mournful sea shanty. Side 2 is recorded under the name The Shining Path and changes pace dramatically: wrecked guitar / organ speeded-up rock'n'roll blitz that owes a little to Suicide. Great stuff.

Thurston Moore - Built for Lovin pic disc LP (Lost Treasures of the Underworld) 15.25

" A scabrous grab bag of weirdo recordings assembled by Thurston Moore: hardcore basement slam jammer with Mark Ibold (bass) and John Moloney of Sunburned (drums), a rough demo cue made for an HSBC TV ad (w/ Steve Shelley-drums
– uncredited – sorry Steve!),  a few noise b-sides from various lost releases and a couple of long psycho-bead kosmi-killersz. And some subterranean acoustic luv — all wrapped up n a pic disc with art by T Moore extracted from his Street Mouth series of collages....... " (label)

cascades of acoustic guitar pickings with lots of lovely warm room ambience that lifts it a cut above

Morning Stalker / The Ghost of 29 Megacycles - Silhouettes 2 cdr (Hello Square) 6

Two long tracks of manipulated guitar tones. First up Morning Stalker - swirling breezes of wowing breath and single note repetitions on guitar that sparkle like dew drops. Ghost of 29 Megacycles is more contemplative still: gentle undulating drone and single droplets of guitar occasional forming above the haze.

Mosaic Antenna - s/t cdr (Foxglove) 4.50

solo release by an associate of Keijo and member of the Free Players, Sami Virtanen - equipped with an army of loops made from an exotic-sounding assortment of pluckings and metallic clangings and the haunting bloodless tones of an old casio, he creates an incredible array of experimental melodies, much in the way Robert Horton does, that sometimes evoke the same ancient creaking of forest environs to those Keijo & the Free Players' recordings and sometimes sounds like & demented homemade-electronic birdsong. Recommended.

also: Keijo and the Free Players

Moth 

• Kodak Ghost Poem cdr (Rhizome) 5.50

KGP is a reissue of an earlier release not many people have: the original edition of 20, complete with a handful of sheets of photographs. This comes with just a couple of those photos but the music (by Jon Dale, Rhizome boss) is there in all its mesmerizing glory. A HUGE haze of dronage - I can't distinguish what's in there, it's like the engulfing sound of a magnificent pipe organ in a vast, empty cathedral. 

Compiles recordings from previous cdrs (Ghost Town By the Sea, Kodak Ghost Poem and Secret Tapes).

also: Jon Dale

this Finnish band have been going for about a decade now and had releases in the 90s on Mute: power trio art-rock with moments of discordance

Mountainhood is the new project from the guy who formerly recorded as Almaden and this is his second release on Reverb Worship; the first sold out pretty fast. The deals in similar territory - late night lo-fi melancholy. Hand-painted sleeves.

"An inevitable match made in Hades. Four titans workin' it out in the primordial mulch and all the gods are cowering in their presence. The dual intertwining guitar-attack impacts and fragments into the dense concrete percussion forest surrounded by a shroud of pulsing caterwauling skree. A harum-scarum locomotive ride of thick, bombastic & heavy proportions... just like you want it to be. Play loud for optimum effect! Cover art by Brian Sullivan." (Weird Forest)

Cd issue of the LP on Not Not Fun, and part of Digitalis's Arts and Crafts series. Drawn-out sea shanties with an Eno feel, haunted fairground reveries and some analogue warpery with seriously drug-addled vocal meltdown. Also includes a short video by Mudboy. 

also: Invisible Pyramid

Mudsuckers - s/t cd (Important) 5

4 way meeting of some pretty important underground minds: Tom Carter, Robert Horton and Gabe and Pete of Yellow Swans. The first 3 tracks and last are raw howls layering Horton's tape manipulations, Carter's laptop re-worked e-bow guitar and Yellow Swans' digital fuckery. "Electric Sunflower" is much more soporific territory - elongated guitar tones and ebbing feedback. Also features guest appearances from Michael Donnelly (Brothers of the Occult Sisterhood) and Henry Kuntz on sax.

Rob Mullender - Human Resources cd (Bo'weavil Recordings) 7

This album broadens the scope of the Bo'Weavil catalogue into the realm of expressive acoustic improv. Rob Mullender plays nylon & steel string guitars in a distinctive style which can be sparse, expansive or frenetically attacking. I especially liked the piece where he detunes the string throughout, reminding me of an old spring driven gramophone winding down. It's a case of folk roots, very new routes - and packaged to the usual high standard of this label. (JC)

Narita Munehiro - Ether: Solo Electric Guitar Works cd (ArchiveCD) 7.50

Solo electric guitar from ex-member of High Rise with all the high octane fuzz worship, lightning burst flurries of notes and garagey power chords you could hope for. Usual lovely sleeve work from Archive CD.

Muntjac 

• Imaginary Conservation Sounds cdr (Azriel) 5

Death Chants related release of out-there cosmik funk, crawling through the undergrowth creepiness, dreamy space-folk (Death Chants on a serious Joe Meek kick) and a whole host of craziness. 

"Paul Grimes, member of the now defunct DEATH CHANTS walks a surprisingly personal path on this album. very outside the common psychedelic genre he draws a path of his own. on WARP, Grimes scrapes together a faboulous blend of easy listening, light marbles and more retro space tunes. a hot mix of elements of KITARO, JOE MEEK, and even some hits of an introspective DENNIS WIZE. fantastic stuff for the upcoming summer hangovers." (Label)

also: Death Chants

Brendan Murray - Wonders Never Cease cd (Intransitive) 3.50

These 5 tracks are based on live recordings made in Massachussetts and New York. Mostly the pieces revolve around luminous drones that seems to fizz from the speakers. Particularly fine is "Seas" with its multiple discordant breaths of melancholic harmonica. "Hymn Two" lays on layers of blistering machine-driven chatter, like being plugged into the mainframe.

Featuring some of the Deserted Village folks, this live disc features 3 Murmansk performances from 2004 / 2005 from Warrington, Belgium and Amsterdam. Eerie improvised soundscapes with lots of bowed drones, submerged voices and some depth charge electronics. Evokes the same haunted underwater world as some of the Bjerga / Iversen recordings, with a little more light and shade. 

also: United Bible Studies, Arkhangelesk, Cosmic Nanou

Music and Movement - s/t 7" (Aufgeladen und Bereit) 1

The sticker on the front says "with Teenage Fanclub & BMX Bandits members", so Music and Movement score a few points immediately by sounding completely distinct from either of these bands which Lorna Lyon & Finlay MacDonald have been involved in previously and ploughing their own furrow instead. I hear the amalgam of Stereolab's motorik drive with, sometimes, the laconic vocals of the Pet Shop boys and, at others, the harmonies of '60's folk pop. This is the sort of imaginative pop single which, once upon a time, could even have reached the top 50. This juke box jury will vote it a hit... one has to live in hope! (JC)

also: Teenage Fanclub

Muura 

• Scarlet Urmine Sandstone Lady cdr (Black Petal) 6

Beautifully packaged cdr in pink card and white gaffa tape on Anthony Guerra's Black Petal label. Muura is Australian Matt Earle playing drums, analogue synth, spiked guitar and vocals simultaneously. A disc to awaken your caveman impulses, Matt's drumming is a primal beast, matched in Neolithic intensity by his distant sorrowful moans.

• Sun Dreamer / Moon Shaker cdr (MYMWLY) 6.50

This disc matches the intensity of Matt Earle's earlier release on Anthony Guerra's Black Petal label but is a much sparser sound. A repeated note resonating with an Oriental metallic clang marks a slow descent into humming silence, broken by uneasy brushes of percussion. An intensely focussed and singular journey into the unknown.

also: Minerals

MWM / Maryfist cassette (Lal Lal Lal) 1.50

Lal Lal Lal seems to find the strangest things to release: MWM include 2 members of Avarus and serve up industrial electro-punk with deliciously silly vocals; Maryfist is Tomi from MWM and is more metallic screech, creepy electronics and growling vocals

Amazing art edition LP with screen-printed artwork by Roberto Opalio on the cover, also an etching on one side of the vinyl by him and as if that isn't enough purple vinyl. Yum. The music is great too, opening on an unearthly high with legions of looped vocals. It's MCIAA at their most pared down as the LP progresses with notes echoing out into deep space amidst primal tribal drumming. 

Mystery Water Saloon Boys is, on this disc, Phil Todd (Ashtray Navigations) and Chris Hladowski (Scatter / Nalle): spacious improvised folk jams using string instruments (guitar, bouzouki, lyre), bells, clarinet, harmonium and occasional vocals. Magical.

also: Nalle, Ashtray Navigations, Family Elan

"n.213 is the godchild of the inimitable nic hughes. most are probably more familiar with the band he plays guitar & sings for: shearing pinx. but his solo digs never disappoint. jolting bursts of electronic mayhem laced with pcp-inflected vocal incantations make "vexaction" a hypnotic & catchy carnival ride. blitzkrieged pop elements even make an appearance, but these short & noisy bones are nothing but the sweetest candy for the noiseniks in all of us. the weapons used range from drum machines, keyboards, reel-to-reels, & guitars to shakers, bells, trumpets, pedals, and more. it's a virtuoso circus of all that is juicy." Sold out at source.

Tatsuya Nakatani, Neil Davidson, Peter Nicholson, Raymond MacDonald, Nick Fells - Aporias cd (Creative Sources) 8

Here we have several members of the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra with percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani during a late 2004 visit to Glasgow. Although some of the expression is wild and full-on, it's a tribute to all involved that a lot of the strongest material on Aporias lies in the most restrained sections. The big reverberant soundstage is especially well suited to Nakatani's deepest drums too. Incipient is the common word throughout the five titles. Thus far, I've tracked down the source for one line as Samuel Johnson... there should be a prize for the person who gets all five! Anyway, the suggestion of something new and fresh is just about right for this meeting of forces. (JC)

also: Neil Davidson, Raymond MacDonald

Nalle 

• By Chance Upon Waking cd (Pickled Egg) 9.50

Nalle is the Finnish word for teddy bear or little bear and as this gatefold card cover is adorned with Hanna Tuulikki's exquisite drawings of bears, trees and more, I'm sold on it at once! Nalle is a trio: Hanna, Chris Hladowski (Scatter) and Aby Vulliamy (One Ensemble of Daniel Padden). They play an exotic selection of stringed and percussive instruments in a style that's tinged with hints of North African, Eastern & Northern European musics. You might call this "folk", although that falls short of describing the beguiling noise they make together. Pinning Hanna's voice down in a few words is the hardest part of all... at once she can sound childlike and as though she's a conduit for some ancient force from the depths of a stone-age well! Nalle have something unique to offer. That's a rare thing and this album is one to cherish. (JC)

An exquisite album of experimental folk from the stunning gatefold sleeve to the extraordinary music within. Glasgow-based trio Nalle are artist Hanna Tuulikki, Chris Hladowski (One Ensemble, Family Elan) and Aby Vulliamy (One Ensemble, National Jazz Trio of Scotland). Side one opens with an adaptation of a poem by Robert Frost: a warm cocooning drone of singing bowls and harmonium, delicate improvisatory fingers of oud playing and Hanna's voice and Aby's viola swooping and swooning round each other. The album mixes Eastern European and English folk forms with modal drones and madrigals with Japanese Gagaku and throughout Hanna's vocals are in stunning shamanic form almost as if she's trying to birth a new emotional language. The Japanese influence can be heard most strongly on "Alice's Ladder" with vocal, bowed bouzouki & flute carrying the melody / harmony lines amid the otherworldly pluckings of kantele and also on "Young Light" which features some great hammer dulcimer playing from Chris. "Voi Ruusani" is a reinterpretation of a Finnish gypsy song as atonal funereal dirge, and at 10 minutes long it forms the backbone of the album along with joyful episodic "Seven Sirens" which comes over like Family Elan playing "A Very Cellular Song" with a hand-clapping, bells-a-jingling Hanna defying you to resist a jig around your bedroom. The album ends austerely with the avant-madrigal "First Eden Sank to Grief". This is an album that slowly uncoils its secrets and magic and although the influences are often obvious, it's woven together by 3 very talented individuals into something completely unique. The music is beautifully recorded by our reviewer John Cavanagh at Glo-spot and I've been a big Nalle fan for some time so I may be biased, but this is an utterly magical album I can't recommend highly enough. 

also: The Mystery Water Saloon Boys, Singing At the Moon comp, One Ensemble, Hanna Tuulikki, Family Elan

Alex Neilson & Richard Youngs - Electric Lotus LP & Lotus Eedition cd (VHF) 12

This is a entirely different experience to previous Neilson / Youngs recordings with the emphasis on a breathtaking form of free rock improv, Richard Youngs guitar work ranging from over-amped heavy riffing to searing psych-metal solo-ing while Neilson is in similar territory to the recent Motorghost record with ben Reynolds. The accompanying cd "Lotus Edition" features a quieter but no less intense set of drums / shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute) duets. Highly recommended.

Nest / MHFS 3" cdr (Gest) 3

Nest is Andrew Scott (Muffin Seeks Sunship / Metal Rouge) and Nigel Wright, and along with MHFS (Mark Sadgrove, also of Plains), they create 14 minutes of guitar-based bliss-out, building layer upon layer of noise and harmonics. Lovely stuff.

also: MHFS, Metal Rouge

The Nether Dawn 

• Whiskey Mute-Down cd (Last Visible Dog) 5

drone, atmosphere and sound that seems to exist as an eerie fuzzy transmission from some distant place - violin, guitar and voice from Pseudoarcana's Antony Milton give heavy-lidded rumblings for sleepless nights

• Outer Dark cd (CPP) 10

another essential release from Antony Milton (A.M., Clay Man in the Well, Pseudoarcana label, new third member of Black Boned Angel) - ghostly melodies, desolate backwoods blues and fuzz-blanketed drones in a crepuscular gloom. Highly recommended.

also: Swagger Jack, Antony Milton, Organ Organ Organ Organ

Stefan Neville - Do Not Destroy cd (Last Visible Dog) 5

Stefan Neville is, of course, Pumice. These are a collection of early recordings (issued originally on Stabbies etc I think) and as shambolic and ragged as it gets. Distorted to the point of disintegration guitar-and-organ squall and drone.

also: Pumice

A delightful tape of melodic keyboard driven music with twists of the gentler end of electronica glitch here and there. Newlyn's music is fairly minimal throughout, but continuously inventive. (JC)

Nihil Project - Plough Plans cdr (Barl Fire) 3

With the large number of people involved in this international collaboration (about 16), it's not surprising the sounds are richly textured. What comes as a very refreshing surprise is how it all works together as a joyous whole. The folk feel of that lovely old Dandelion Wine lp I keep going back to is evoked, then again so is the first Horslips album, before the rock elements overtook their sound. Just when I thought I had the measure of what was going on, in came the gentle looped beats, trumpet and oscillations. For me, On Bennachie (A Field Trip) with a spoken word tour-de-force from Alan (Kitchen Cynics) Davidson is worth the price of this record on it's own, but there are another 11 tracks and they make an album which truly deserves the highest recommendation. (JC)

a welcome return from Finland's Octane Grammophon label with more musical alchemy from Daf Roberts (Alphane Moon / Our Glassie Azoth), who unplugs his guitar from the delay pedal and routes an old synth through it instead, evoking memories of Klaus Schulze - includes 3 previously released tracks and two unreleased

also: Yr Agog comp

Interesting split in a hand-painted sleeve: first trakc is from Can't - tone blurts and alchemical bubbles rung from Jessica Rylan's home-made synths. Second is an 8 piece guitar orchestra including Thurston Moore and Tom Greenwood (Jackie O'Motherfucker) - intense, densely textured clipped modal riffs, like Velvet Underground at their droniest and in double vision.

Once upon a time Lol Coxhill was set to play a show with drummer Steve Noble and double bass player John Edwards. Unfortunately, Lol wasn't too well, so Alan Wilkinson, who was due to play a solo set at the same show, joined the others instead and that's how the trio we find on this record got together. I'm sure that Lol, ever the generous spirit, will be pleased at the results which have come out of such adversity, for this trio recording is a very good set of free pieces. I'm especially struck by the energy and soul in Wilkinson's baritone playing and the way that big, sonorous tone and such a fluid rhythm section seem to propel each other's energy. (JC)

scuzzy noise and scrawl from a trio featuring CJA, Rahmane and Matt Middleton

• On the Endless Golden Skyway cdr (Black Petal) 6

One of Brad Rose's best releases, and on one of my favourite labels, Anthony Guerra's Black Petal. This is much more song-based than previous North Sea cds, Brad's breathy post-midnight drawl amid the lovely lazy string sounds, with autoharp being added to the usual bouzouki, banjo and guitar. This is made even more special by the appearance of the wonderful valerio Cosi on saxophone. Nice handmade packaging as always from Black Petal.

also: Sunmilk, Golden Oaks, Juniper Meadows, Autumn Galaxy, Akhet, Eastern Fox Squirrels, Ajilvsga

Reissue of a 1973 Brazilian private press LP from ex-Satwa members and poet Marconi Notaro. Uplifting folk pop with a real loose groove, fried exotica, some gorgeous sunshine ragas (similar to the Satwa LP) as trance-inducing as the midday sun, echo-ridden garage-psych. Heavy vinyl and gorgeous artwork. Highly recommended and guaranteed to make you feel like it's summer again.

Electronic / oscillator / synth sounds from Roope Eronen of Avarus / Maniacs Dream. Dense analogue drones and primitive Suicide-like pulsing melodies. 

acoustic-based duo featuring John Dwyer, also of  Coachwhips & Pink & Brown, and Patrick Mullins: charmingly simple guitar paired with the wavering singing on beautiful little melodies ... so far so good ... but the unnaturally high-pitched vocals that sound as if they've been phoned in from afar and the smattering of homemade electronics make this album of spaced-out country-blues something pretty special

Infernal electronics and noise from Dr Bibber, a Dutch guy who released Enema Syringe stuff as far back as 1987. One of the wildest Imvated-related packages yet - flowery plastic sleeve and a slimy lizard stuck to the box.

unnerving electronic ambience from this French artist

Lovely new album from Loren Chasse (Blithe Suns / Thuja) of horizon-reaching floating tones carved from autoharp, cymbalon, zither, sheng, guitar and stones. 

layered and reconstructed radio twiddling: interference and the occasional station glare fizzed up, glitched and manipulated beyond (almost) all recognition

Old Man Polka - I Go To Work To Come Home To You cd (Dead Slack String) 1

Steve Fanagan sings with a high register huskiness that suggests he might record by the light of a candle. it's an intimacy of shade rather than light, a balance of edginess and vulnerability. A long shadow from a street lamp might suit, but no brighter than that. There are a few helpers, but Old Man Polka is, in the main, Steve's vision. Some tracks are acoustic and melodica is always a welcome touch, but even when he rocks out that closeness is never lost... the last track made me think of both Dinosaur Jr. and Colin Blunstone! (JC)

On - s/t LP (Saucerlike) 9.50

Vinyl issue of the recent C/Psi/P cdr. Germs-style primal punk from Australia, propelled by a two pronged bass rumble that's loaded with menace.

One Ensemble - Wayward the Fourth cd (Secret Eye) 10.50

Third album proper from The One Ensemble and featuring the same line-up as the limited VPRO session release, Aby Vulliamy and Chris Hladowski (Nalle and Scatter), Peter Nicholson (Glasgow Improvisers' Orchestra) and Daniel Padden (Volcano the Bear) - Hanna Tuulikki of Nalle also guests on one song. I've been a fan of Daniel Padden's skewed and intriguing songwriting for some time but the interplay between the 4 players on here lifts it onto a truly magical level. Wonderfully inventive songs and melodies that course through your head all week after one hearing and often veer off into enthralling improvisations. Influences include heavy doses of Eastern European folk music, music hall, 20th century chamber music and Robert Wyatt but no-one else puts these elements together or sounds quite like One Ensemble. One of the contenders for album of the year.

also: Family Elan

Roberto Opalio 

• The Last Night of the Angel of Glass cdr & dvdr (Foxglove) 13.50

Vast chorales of looped wails and cries dissipating into pure tonal guitar traces. Carrick's son wants me to point out that the vocals made his internal organs rise into his neck and his soul shrivel ... Anyway, he's still alive and he's right about one thing, this is as far from aural wallpaper as it gets. Mind-messingly beautiful. There's a dvd-r with a hypnotic film shot in real time of an Opalio glass art creation and candle burning on his balcony. Highly recommended. Sold out at source.

• The Last Night of the Angel of Glass, Vol I & II 2cd (A Silent Place) 10.75

This double cd release comprises a reissue on Disc 1 of the Foxglove release (which came with a dvd-r of the film it soundtracks), vast chorales of looped wails and cries dissipating into pure tonal guitar traces. Disc 2 features the second half of the recording session and is previously unreleased: sparse guitar murmurs and Opalio's luminous looped vocals disappearing into a thick electronic morass.  

• Whispers of the Last Night dvdr (Opax) 10.50

I've been having a bit of a fight with the dvd player and remote controls to try and play this (my pathetic failure is down to me, not any deficiency in the disc) so the review itself will have to wait til next week. Here's what Opax say: "New short film by visual artist / musician Roberto Opalio, one half of My Cat Is An Alien. Filmed on March 21st, 2006, the video represents a visionary, introspective view of the empty spaces over the city, Torino. Through a unique, hand-manipulated shot made in real-time, Roberto Opalio's poetic fragmentation and distortion of real objects recalls early film experiments by Man Ray, as well as a certain Warholian psychedelia in the use of filtered light as a main principle of creation / perception of one's own reality. The soundtrack, recorded the same day appositely, leads to a further estrangement with the use of Opalio's looped wordless vocals and electronics merging into a heavy, ecstatic stream of sounds."

• Chants From Isolated Ghosts cd (Important) 8

Reissue of Roberto Opalio's debut solo album, originally released on Opax as a limited edition cdr / lathe cut. Fragile wordless vocals levitate over a very minimal background of tone-drones, field recordings, static and hiss. Utterly enchanting.

also: My Cat Is An Alien, Praxinoscope, Painting Petals on Planet Ghost

Ophibre - NNNE cdr (Reverb Worship) 5.50

One long piece of analogue electronics / synth gloop - pulsing endlessly. Lovingly handmade sleeves with silver spots.

Italian sound-artist Fabio Orsi never fails to create something compelling and mysterious from his array of field recordings paired with guitar and piano and this is one of his finest creations to date. The middle track with its lulling repeated piano melody and dreamy drones / submerged ticks and clicks reminds me a bit of the more cinematic end of Yellow 6's work, which is no bad thing. The other tracks are dense dronescapes. This has been reworked and produced by sometime collaborator Gianluca Becuzzi.

• The Psychedelic Power of Bubbles 3" cdr (Students of Decay) 4

Lovely waves of orchestrated tone flow, some sort of pipe (possibly North African?) makes a high'n'lonesome sound, there's a sense of tension as strings pluck and field recordings wash up like an incoming tide. Fabio Orsi on top form here. (JC)

• Before Long Before Anyone The Stars Will Be Walls in my Mind 3" cdr (Students of Decay) 4

Sigh & swoon to another Fabio Orsi release. This is another beauty with glacial harmonics and subtly disquieting undertow.

also: Gianluca Becuzzi / Fabio Orsi

Outerdrive - Hallucinations cd (Mar / Ino) 9.50

A superb example of the big, brooding beast they used to call space-rock on Elsie and Jack offshoot label Mar / Ino. Bass- and delay-heavy, some great trumpet, cosmic vocals: in some ways it's like a psychedelized version of the Drift. Packaged in a gatefold cardboard sleeve with some nice inserts. Be sure to 'rewind' the cd at the start or else you'll miss the best track on the album!

Ozone Layer - Formidable Circle cdr (Manhand) 5

debut solo album from Marc Orleans from Sunburned Hand of the Man: wonderfully warped takes on backporch folk blues & ragtime, plus one seasick klezmer. Fuelled by an overactive echo, this sometimes sounds like Joe Meek had recorded Jack Rose doing his Dr Ragtime stuff; at other times like a psychotic Dub Narcotic. Can't recommend this highly enough.

also: Sunburned Hand of the Man

Cosmic meditations from the Opalio brothers (My Cat is an Alien) and Ramona Ponzini (also Praxinoscope). The piece (on both sides of the tape) is formed around Ramona singing one word (the Japanese word for "ocean") and playing a selection of chimes and bells while the Opalios work their outer space magic on the sounds 'til they swim in a disorientating well of echo. Beautiful stuff. And a lovely package too - outside  card, art paper with individual paintings in copper ink. Very limited.

Outsider folk from Finland featuring members of Kiila, Rauhan Orkesteri & Avarus: acoustic free-jazz / folk - percussion is battered and shaken and strings scraped - this is utterly essential.

This is similar to the Rokkiryma disc: unhinged bedroom lo-fi pop with basic strummed guitar, whistles, handclaps and "incidental" vocals. Again it reminds me of the days of Slampt cassettes which is a very nice memory indeed!

The latest on Dublin's Deserted Village is a split cdr featuring 2 tracks, a collaboration from papercut and Wrecking ball. The first track is a lovely piece of drifting submarinal drone that starts off gloomy in a Bjerga / Iversen way, then brightens like the sun is piercing the depths.The 2nd is a longer piece of slowly uncoiling manipulated tones that buzzes initially with distant electronic chatter then evolves into piercing tones feeding back on each other.

Some folks start out wanting to be pop stars as they watch the idols of their early experience. It's a case of "I want to be just like Mark Owen/Kylie/Adam Ant/Frank Ifield..." (well maybe not quite!). With Park Attack, it sounds as though they cut their teeth on a raw diet of the Residents and Pere Ubu and thus was their twisted vision formed... bass lines bubble to boiling point, oscillators wail and vocals aim for 13 on a dial that stops at 11. This band are a very polular live attraction in Glasgow. this record goes some way to explaining why. (JC)

mini album of soundtrack music to 'The Last Great Wilderness' - Pastels releases are few and far between but every note of this is a treat - the Pastels are joined by Bill Wells, Gerry Love, Tom Crossley (International Airport), Tori Kudo (Maher Shalal Hash Baz), John McEntire and others in creating a beautiful pastoral dreamlike work

also: Nu Forest

Pefkin 

• Pingle Pangle cdr (Pseudoarcana) 6.50

"Pefkin is the Scotland based solo project of Gayle Brogan (ex Electroscope member and owner/operator of the amazing Boa Melody Bar mailorder). Pingle Pangle is the 2nd album for this project and picks up where the similarly astonishing "Asa Nisi Masa" (Foxglove CDR) left off. Pefkin's music flows easily between swirling melodic psychedelic 'almost-pop' songs, tonal electronic experimentation through to eerie whispered ancient forest folk. Melodica, violin, percussion, guitar and voice are built up with a crystal clear use of delay and other effects to produce a fragile beautiful whole. Pefkin has been compared favourably with Nico and Alastair Galbraith. Such comparisons are well deserved." (from Pseudoarcana website)

It's a bit weird to review one's own music but here goes - the pefkin track is an extended piece of string reverie (little lute type thing, hammer dulcimer and electric guitar) with bursts of almost distorted melodica blast which eventually dissolves into a lengthy drone section of harmonium wheeze and VCS3 which I like to imagine is Oliver Postgate meets Brian Eno. Anyway, enough of me, and onto the Circle and the Point: Grant Capes (of (VxPxC)) and Adam Richards (House of Alchemy). These 4 tracks find them at the more blissful hazy end of their sound with guitar, organ, percussion and flutes merging into a sunlit blur.

also: Electroscope, Gold Leaf Branches comp, Rewriting the Book comp, Kanoja, Myos Hanoja comp, Wailing Bones Volume 8 comp

Pekko Kappi - Jos ken pahoin uneksii cd (Peippo) 10.50

Long-awaited album from Pekko Kappi, sometime member of Paivansade, Lau Nau, Avarus and Killa. Pekko plays jouhikko, a Finnish-Karelian horse-hair bowed lyre, which has an ancient earthy tone. There are traditionals on here are well as his own compositions. As well as melancholic folk songs, there are moments on here that chime with the raw hillbilly fiddle intensity of Henry Flynt and more up-beat folk songs too. Pekko Kappi has a wondeful unique singing voice too. Highly highly recommended.