microphones in the trees: 2008

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

sun watcher

"First release from new Ohio duo of Shane Mackenzie (Lambsbread, Dead Wafer, etc) and Mark McGuire (Emeralds). Pulled from multiple sessions throughout 2008, "Two and a half men" stretches from buzzing organ and guitar drones to full on out-of-tune out-of-time free rock explosions. Much more to come from this duo, including a self-released lp and Albert Ayler tribute 7". Full color art. Edition of 75." wagon

Monday, December 29, 2008

of

"Loren Chasse is responsible for a whole host of vital albums. He was a founding member of the Jewelled Antler label and has sparked so many great moments from the likes of Thuja, The Blithe Sons, Softwar, and of course his main solo guise, Of. For years this project has evolved into something of absolute magical grandeur. "Rocks Will Open" is the latest opus in Chasse's catalog. The music on this album is as organic as it gets. Each tone, each sound feels like it has been culled directly from the Earth's crust. Gentle drones arc toward the hazy sunlight, flickering like distant birds sailing out over the sea. Between the ghostly echoes rises a cacacphony of plucked strings dancing toward oblivion. Loren Chasse's vision is perfectly expressed on "Rocks Will Open." digitalis

foto: jon edwards

six organs of admittance

six organs of admittance - rtz (drag city 2009)

"There might be Six Organs of Admittance, but there will be two discs or three vinyl LPs in the new collection from Ben Chasny, named RTZ after the four-track button called "return-to-zero." (Somewhere, the number five is lonely.)
The box set will include early recordings from splits ("Resurrection" with the Charlambadies and "Warm Earth, Which I've Been Told" with Vibracathedral Orchestra and Magic Carpithans), subscription cds ("You Can Always See the Sun" from Three Lobed Recordings) and limited editions ("Nightly Trembling" appeared on a 33-copy run), plus previously unreleased material and half a dozen Six Organs live performances which are apparently impossible to find anywhere else." paste

más cosas sobre rtz en naturalismo

Sunday, December 28, 2008

mv & ee with the golden road

"Drone Trailer is a consolidation of the previous musical high-life of the duo's space shanties for the 21st century. In other words, mv & ee explore their unique mix of lunar raga and astral string band music, with a couple deep-space burners/covert jams such as opening blast "Anyway" thrown in to bust it all open. Nobody is gonna mind if they hear a little Crazy Horse and Neil Young" midheaven
"Creating a new rural psychedelia mv & ee alternate extended guitar freakouts with more pastoral, folky tunes. Highlights include "Weatherhead Hollow" and the hypnotic title track."
¿es the hungry stones la canción más bonita del mundo?

Saturday, December 27, 2008

mv & ee

"Recorded at Sheffield's Heeley Institute in 2006, this lp by Matt Valentine & Erika Elder finds the prolific duo stripped to barest most essential selves. There's no heavy fuzz or psychedelic chicanery on this lp, just supremely eloquent acoustic blues and some magnificently bizarre and off-kilter slide guitar. The seven songs collected here show that for all their perceived otherness and tendencies toward fuzztone digressions, or twenty-minute rehearsal room experiments, mv & ee are highly gifted musicians, and Valentine's fingerpicking is as sensitive, articulate, and for that matter proficient, as they come. Playing through songs that proven to be live staples this surely stands as one of the very best recordings of the duo's music from this time and one of the purest, cleanest documents of their unique sound..." boomkat

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

beggin' your pardon miss joan



"Hey,
So we have decided to launch a blog to keep up to date with all things related and what better way to start than with some good news...
We are currently finalising a 3" release with Centre Of Wood, and this record has been a long time coming. Excitement abounds within the Beggin' Your pardon Miss Joan camp and Vanessa has really pulled out some stunning artwork (which we will try and post soon)
As an intro to the blog I have made one of the new tracks from the forthcoming e.p available for download. You can get the track, which is called 'Vacuum' by clicking the link at the bottom of the post. I hope you dig!" beggin' your pardon miss joan

foto: lin5

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

antique brothers

antique brothers - hot shit (really coastal 2008)

'Hot Shit' is two long form tracks, charting the development of AntiqueBrothers from insular, tape-scuzz-coated two-piece to the current phase of the Antique Brothers big band, which saw it's birthing at the Bottled Smoke festival, our November Reign tour with Sleepwalkers Local, Stone Baby, Century Plants, and Rafi Bookstaber; and at this years Neon Commune (organized by Echo Curio and Not Not Fun).
Two Songs, Two Sides, 40 odd minutes...
Hot Side: Mostly acoustic, with heavy percussion, lap steel drones and tiny-amp feedback, a good bridge between the original Antique Bros. sound and what we are up to today
Shit Side: Vibing on a very expansive mood, blown out on painkillers and muscle relaxants, and, oddly enough, feeling jazzy.
available on pro-dubbed cassette with pro-printed j-card, this baby screams professionalism! on the hot new imprint Really Coastal." antique brothers
foto: c0rnporn

Monday, December 22, 2008

these feathers have plumes

"These Feather Have Plumes have created one of the most memorable and intoxicating drone-based recordings that I have experienced in quite some time. Employing primarily double bass coupled with subtly manipulate and looped field recordings, the compositions drift languidly across the aural spectrum like ghostly tendrils of fog and smoke over a moonlit harbor..." period tapes
miembros del grupo: andie brown ~ bass, double bass, accordion, melodica, guitar (badly), wine glasses, harmonica, mobile phone, breathing, humming, found sound
influencias: the sea, skylarks, bells, trees, books, wine, the barbara hepworth sculpture garden, friends, family, cindytalk (and specifically, The Wind is Strong)

Sunday, December 21, 2008

ghost science

01 sixth - spyweirdos
02 the stones speak through the fire - barn owl
03 sometimes the night... - barzin
04 blood streaming (entry III) - the end springs
05 wizard earthsea - fantastic magic
06 kind mighty asylum - kria brekkan
07 yert yah matreearchy - stag hare
08 ghost science - teeth mountain
09 golden twigs - tunnels
10 habibullah - suarasama
11 heather - shoreline
12 shake that devil - antony & the johnsons
13 love is everywhere - valerio cosi
14 equus haar - spires that in the sunset rise
15 spiral wave - chieko mori
16 as through a book - evan miller
17 above lewis pass - peter wright
18 hemlock lc gd gb - thuja

foto & recopilatorio: hoy joy

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

mv & ee

"The contents of LP Ragas Of The Culvert from MV & EE were previously released on cd-r (on their own label Heroine Celestial Agriculture, less then 50 copies were made) and on tape (called "The Ground Ain't Dirty" on Fuck It Tapes) with an additional track omitted on lp. Preordered copies of this release came with a bonus cd called Total Loss Songs of songs recorded late 2007 and early 2008. The cd has its own folded coversheet and comes in a vellum jacket. The lp is pressed in an edition of a total of 840 copies on 180gr HQ-vinyl in an "old style" stoughton lp sleeve. The lp/cd preorder combo was limited to 480 copies. Both media were recorded at Maximum Arousal Farm, produced in "MV Spectrasound." discogs

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

cursillistas

"thee seven storey mountain, May 2008. Edition of 30 cd'rs in sewn, Spirographed sleeves, with typewritten insert on graph paper. Available only at Cursillistas shows..."
"Matt Lajoie, mastermind behind Portland, Maine’s L’animaux Tryst label, returns as Cursillistas and delves deeper into folk’s freakish heart, tribal beats, echo chambers, and chugging rhythms..." electric voice phenomenon

arrebatadoramente bonito, con una atmósfera similar a los discos de matt valentine & erika elder, al primero de panda bear, a trees, chants and hollers de valerie webb & paul labrecque,...

Monday, December 08, 2008

aan meets eyes like saucers

aan meets eyes like saucers - kristallivirta (lvd 2008)

"West meets North in this live recording, historic meeting between former Urdog keyboardist (Jeff K.) and Aan (Uton + Kulkija). West meets North and mostly produces music that is either wildly experimental or traditionally psychedelic in that Angus MacLise sort of way. Challenging, weird, and at moments reminiscient of Angus MacLise..." lvd

foto: árbore

Saturday, December 06, 2008

stag hare

"What a bad-ass Stag Hare cd! From the get-go it feels as though I’m being transported into a head-spinning voodoo dance with witch doctors exorcising negative spirits out of my entranced Indian-style seated, immobile body. Pull out the narcotics? Grab the Ouija board? Frolic naked through the forest? The possibilities are endless. Great loops. Tribal beats. Calming voice echoes. Hippy guitar. Harmonica. Tranquil chimes. Flutes and tambourines! Everything seems to be used! It’s like a group of slackers came across an Indian burial ground and got possessed by the spirits residing there—only no nightmare…just the peace-pipe. Hell, the title says it all, “Black Medicine Music”. Nice bi-fold card sleeve. One of the coolest disc designs ever. And I’ve always been a sucker for handwritten liner notes on the inside. Self-released magic. Definitely an anytime album. Stimulate your chakras. 9/10" foxy digitalis

"...as far as comparisons go here, Stag Hare stands strong along side Kranky artists Bird Show or White Rainbow (Adam Forkner actually mastered the album), though he is definitely working at carving out his own nitch. Black Medicine Music is a beautiful, glowing mark on map of Salt Lake City experimental music, even without the incense." forest gospel

przewalski's horses

"Przewalkki's Horses. one week in a former farmhouse, disfigured walls, dead rat in the corner, the great and green valley up front in the morning. a damaged distorsion. maybe the bloody pictures of the hunters on the wall bewildered us? where to go... back to back, on the floor, near the fireplace. one hour in a giant skull on the ground. a nut cracked open. all cardboard walls covered with beautiful tapestries from the past, newspaper from your birthday, and beaches of dream places. the neighbours all destroyed. it rains. slow wind in the wild grass, folk on my lips, weird on the microphone." ikuisuus

foto: violetjulia

Friday, November 28, 2008

stag hare

"Stag Hare has blown my mind. The sound on Ahspen is culled from the often touted and equally disowned explosion of a ‘new weird America.’ What Stag Hare has accomplished here is something that should definitely garner notice from the Jackie-O, Six Organs of Admittance and Holy Mountain crowds. The tracks read like Keith Fullerton Whitman's Lisbon as interperetted through Animal Collective in their more ambient moments. Stag Hare’s raga flows meticulously like the most serene metaphysical river, constantly and ever so slightly shifting and surging as it washes over you. Any endeavor to listen to such music of this nature comes with skepticism for me, even with knowledge that I am quite fond of experimental music. Stag hare has obliterated any preconceived doubts and converted a true believer." forest gospel

"el primer disco de Stag Hare es un raga continuo de cuarenta minutos. precioso. escúchalo mientras medites, mientras te estés tomando un baño, o simplemente cuando quieras relajarte." a. star

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

rambling boys

"Original Rambling Boys were Keijo, Jii & Jaakko (2005). Story goes on with open lineup. Lately it has been: Keijo, Jukka, Sami, Lauri, Leila, and Jii. Out now: Rambling Boys: Pastures of plenty (Rambling Boys/W. Guthrie) / Uusi (Rambling Boys) 7" lathe cut. 50 copies. 5 eur + postage. blues, folk, psicodelia."

Jukka Nousiainen, Sami Virtanen y Keijo Virtanen son tres de los responsables de esta maravilla que combina el espíritu de jam y psicodelia de Davenport con la magia de Woody Guthrie y Paivänsäde; algo así como un grupo soñado. Buy you a car, Hard travellin' y Up the birch whisk mountain se convierten en un bucle adictivo en el que todo es perfecto: la voz aguardentosa de Keijo, las percusiones destartaladas, el blues rural, los campos de trigo, el Delta del Mississippi, los bosques de Finlandia...todo a partes iguales y en perfecta armonía

Saturday, November 15, 2008

keijo

"Keijo hails from Jyväskylä, Finland, a small town in the north that claims to be the center of the universe. In the sprawling Finnish underground, Keijo is the wise sage who everyone admires. In his 52 years, he has travelled the world twice and seen his share of turmoil. He was nearly killed in a motorcycle accident and still bears a metal plate in his skull as a constant reminder. But these experiences have been essential in shaping the sound world he constructs with his fingertips.

Palla, Blown From Here sees Keijo finally getting the larger audience he deserves. He has worked and collaborated with Finnish acts such as Vapaa, Avarus, and Kheta Hotem. This nine songs sees Keijo taking a more solemn path, reflecting on the quiet moments nature brings, and showcase Keijo's array of talents, including his impressive throat-singing abilities. Palla, Blown From Here is the aural transition of summer into autumn. Over the course of this album, Keijo's soft acoustic compositions flow from him like prose from a poet's pen. The beauty this music exudes is a testament to his life and his work. This is Keijo's world and we are just living in it." digitalis

Thursday, November 13, 2008

estasy

"black velvet mask, golden wigs, untied shoes, candle flames & beautiful trickling of wax, vine leaves, powder puffs.
mystery is the word. all tracks recorded in darkness. its about spiritual evol love emotion....its not the pills...oh oh whatever" emi estasy
sounds like: hundred goblins
be banshee (sample)
blue feather (sample)
opium song (sample)
der demon (sample)

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

sepviva bells

"Duo recordings by Tara Burke (Fursaxa, Anahita, Tau Emerald) and Grant Acker (Slurp Dogs), smoking one late-period Un/early Fursaxa style. A scorching blend of distorted psychedelia, hypnotic riffing and mellow vocals trapped inside a very trippy atmosphere. Edition of 170 copies with silkscreened fold-out booklet." sloow tapes

Monday, November 10, 2008

higuma

"Higuma is Evan Caminiti (of Barn Owl) & Lisa McGee. Cast in a dark space in SF, Haze Valley holds rather true to its name, filling the edges with smoked out vocals, guitar delays and any number of drone layered acoustics. Very much a distant sound, with distortions burnished down to smooth horizontal planes that lift the music to higher summits. Not at all dissimilar from some of Barn Owl's recent excursions, but with the addition of Lisa's vocals, this goes somewhere else completely. Offset printed sleeve with silver on white." root strata

"Haze Valley" is a totally perfect autumn bummer. Crystal drones and bones to soak up all that smoke you've been exhaling. " brad rose

Sunday, November 09, 2008

talugung

"Talulung is a mystical trip from Canada, heading for deep exotic zone and ethnic space. Acoustic improvisations and clouded forest rhytms on various instruments, including homemade ones. Ideal companion to your morning meditation. 70 copies." sloow tapes

Thursday, November 06, 2008

calm in trees

01 loren mazzacane with kath bloom - it's so hard to come home
02 flaviola e o bando do sol - noite
03 feathers - silverleaves in the air of starseedlings
04 travelling bell - calm in trees
05 aekie - kavyt oksilla
06 nuno canavarro and carlos maria trindade - cmt plan
07 valerio sartori - ester
08 songs of green pheasant - knulp
09 the kitchen cynics - carol by candlelight
10 greg ashley - mona rider
11 jason meagher - no capo new
12 james blackshaw - white goddess
13 idyll swords - sagarika
14 fursaxa - neon lights
15 paavoharju - kuu lohduttaa huolestuneita
16 spires that in the sunset rise - sort sands
17 the big huge - lows at the highland game
18 the magickal folk of the faraway tree - le bon marin
19 giampiero riggio - separation I (souvenir)
foto: séverine
(éste era el primer recopilatorio de microphones, que el lunes cumplía cuatro años!. los demás están subidos y listos para bajar, a un click en compilations)

keijo


"Keijo Virtanen makes his long distance walk into the stream of folk/countryblues continuum. These marvellously rusty and dusty tracks have been cooking with tender flame in Keijo’s mind&soul for a good while: "When I was just a little boy, I used to just lay down under the blanket (just before falling to sleep) randomly switching the channels of our transistor radio. Under the crunches and washes I also found the new pirate radio stations and there, among the speeches came out the echoing, rhythmic, electric guitar music. Eventually under rock music and British pop music I discovered the sounds of the black people of North America. I felt like those deep singing voices and wailing guitars would somehow also belong to this kind of environment, to rural, middle-of-nowhere Finland, surrounded by wildlife and physical work with our own hands and whatever we may get grown from the land." ikuisuus

Monday, November 03, 2008

clothed in moss

01. capable of murder ~ christina carter
02. a bolt cannot turn them back ~ head of wantastiquet
03. tiny lights ~ feathers
04. dharma ~ we wait for the snow
05. this is the spade that descends ~ head of wantastiquet
06. blue werewolf with rainbow eyes ~ the golden oaks
07. halloween is black as night ~ jackson c. frank
08. never know now ~ keijo
09. brigidine ~ shoreline
10. interlude ~ david thomas broughton
11. evening call ~ jani hellen
12. how to catch a lizard ~ larkin grimm
13. qué he sacado con quererte ~ violeta parra
14. clothed in moss and hoary frost ~ the golden oaks
15. jubeltane ~ shoreline
16. dance of the honey bees ~ pantaleimon
17. standing horses ~ rio en medio
18. first there came a letter ~ milton cross
19. dusty train ~ the end springs & a man and a guitar
20. cavaquinho ~ luiz bonfa & maría toledo
21. midnight blues ~ liz green

Sunday, November 02, 2008

the blithe sons

nuevo disco de Loren Chasse y Glenn Donaldson después de casi cinco años, y reedición de la cajita de cuatro cd's de The Jewelled Antler Library, una de esa ediciones originales cuyas ventas en ebay se disparan hasta $350...

"The Great Orthochromatic Wheel is The Blithe Sons first full-length release since 2004. In the years since the California duo of Loren Chasse and Glenn Donaldson may have traversed poppy fields and swam to aqua cities though mostly they've remained active with their Jewelled Antler offshoots: Ov, Of, and Child Readers (Chasse) or Skygreen Leopards and Flying Canyon (Donaldson) and both in Thuja.
These five songs combine nature's melodic pull and minimalist songs forms summoned by a miniature orchestra of eclectic instruments. Each LP side flaunts a different depth of the Sons, one recorded outdoors and the other inside. The indoor set consists of slow-motion ballads built on hymn-like organ, nylon string guitar, analog drum machine & stark percussion. The outdoor side offers a web of exotic wind-instruments & battery-powered electronics reverberating in cavernous hall cut in the side of a sea-cliff." family vineyard

Friday, October 31, 2008

sephiroth's knot

"Jow Jow, also known as Sephiroth's Knot or just Sephiroth is a Free-Improv, Psych Music Collective drawing influence from a broad pallet ranging from Sun Ra to the Godz "Third Wave" with a penchant for the obscure sound or instrument. Contains members of Feathers, Red Favorite & Bunwinkies. Born from nightly imbibing of the magic antler. Feel the Wreath." spirit of orr

foto: kittyanais

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

the moss collector

The Moss Collector es en realidad Matthew Riley: folk espectral de la pradera cuyas influencias van desde David Lynch hasta The Carter Family pasando por el General Stonewall Jackson (suya es la frase que da título al disco). algo así como juntar a Natural Snow Buildings con el Bruce Langhorne atmosférico de The Hired Hand. mil gracias a Matthew por enviarme estas dos preciosidades hechas a mano, exquisito diseño en cartón con una foto antigua original cosida en la portada, distinta para cada una de las 50 copias limitadas, además de otra miniatura lacrada, un 3" cd-r que se titula "Disaster and the Unicorn" y que suena igual de bien que let us cross the river...para comprar a ciegas, por lo bonito por fuera, por lo hipnótico y adictivo ('Maltum in parvo' es preciosa, pero 'I sit upon the lonely grave of the arm of thomas J. Jackson' es de pelos de punta!) por dentro. Matthew también puso su granito de arena en Human Bell.
"hand-stitched, silk screened covers (antique pictures vary) ed. of 50"
"silk screened x-ray covers wraped in special silkscreened packaging, wax stamped and individually numbered ed. of 50"

Sunday, October 26, 2008

pantaleimon

"Andria Degens's voice is sometimes heard as part of Current 93, but here she's collaborating with that altogether more bucolic partnership of Michael Tanner and Nick Palmer (Plinth, Directoround etc), The pieces here were recorded in Dorset and East Sussex, England, during the summer of 2007 and breathe an idyllic air of the summers of our imagination which, in the U.K. at any rate, seldom become reality. A short instrumental called The Warming is the first of four tracks and it features Michael Tanner's vibraphone, almost as a scene-setter to what follows. Dance Of The Honey Bees has wordless vocals, guitar and handclaps and although Sing Night Swallow third on the disc - clearly has words, it is the sound of Degens voice which conveys meaning, rather than lyric content. Here, the harmonium sounds as though it's played through a cyclic Leslie effect, is quite hypnotic and stands as my personal favourite song of the set. On the closing title track (which does have audible words), a most unusual and lovely instrument surfaces. The dulcitone is a bit like a small version of the celeste, where keyboard action strikes tuning forks. Its chiming tones only add to what is already an utterly charming e.p." foxy digitalis
lo bueno si breve, dos veces bueno.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

vinter

"Evanescent psychedelia and haunting post-folk stylings on this beautiful debut record by acid folk band Vinter. Sounds like small steps of a troll-like creature on the thin frozen crust on the snow, with heavy boots and a faulty compass. "dream-like fairy-tale worlds, airy meadows, beautiful gardens and a winter-shrouded sadness ... low-key, folk-like structures blend with strange sounds to form a patchwork of meditative images tainted by an elusive sense of desolation. The fragmentary compositions are held together by an outstanding vocal performance that brings Carin Wagner, as well as Christina Carter (Charalambides, Scorces, etc.), to mind ... In spite of the relatively dark atmosphere their music is characterized by their impressive sense of space and detail." Mats Gustafsson

Recorded on a dark winter afternoon and lovingly packaged in a ribbed paper cover with hand-lettered design. cd-r edition of 200

nashville

Monday, October 20, 2008

attar cups

"We hit up our fourth vinyl release with this beauty which was originally intended to be a cassette only release (it still will be available on cassette, but only in a tiny run). This Maine based crew features a host of psychedelic jam talent... Nemo of Drona Parva and head honcho of Time-Lag Records, Sparrow Wildchild of The Bummer Road, and the three members of Visitations, whose record on Time-Lag last year was one of 2007's best! So this is the second recording from this crew, the first being last years Sloow Tape. This beast is different to the Sloow vibe, still with a super nice jam band sound, but projecting to a maybe more 'song' (in the loosest possible way) based plane, a little like Visitations." blackest rainbow

Thursday, October 16, 2008

landscape vol. I: the forest

"Forestes, the most important influence for "Centre of Wood" label, of every kind and in every part of the world, are a magic place where to get lost and then find our deep relation with the nature. 14 bands from the acoustic, drone, lo-fi and free folk underground called to rappresent through music their relation with these places. The result is this cd-r that contains more than 60 minutes of weird music. The projects and the bands involved are : Tim Coster; Donato Epiro; Nebelung; Vapaa; Chora; Aalto; throuRoof; Eyes like Saucers; The Katie Winter; Belly Boat; Prague; Es; Las Vegas Club; We Wait for the Snow. Listening to this compilation is like getting lost in a immense green forest, walking through its trees, meet the eyes of its creatures...The packaging is composed of a brown and green heavy cardboard, closed with a small branch and a brown cotton thread, with an insert in perfect d.i.y. old style. limited to 120 numbered copies" centre of wood

por y para fans :)

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

antique brothers

"all songs improvised live to 1/4" 8-track tape at home by ged in one day some time in early june, except the last song, which we recorded a couple days later. all instruments played by ged & cy. we used martin, silvertone, burswood, and fender acoustic guitars, memphis and epiphone electric guitars, drums, wooden flute, tambourine, tapes, buddha machine, moogs, pedals (rc-20, delays) chord organ, our voices and whatever else we had around to bang on. mixed by ged, mastered by grant capes."
"...If you go down to these woods, you'll find the bears mellowing out to a warm acoustic stew of Fahey-beholden guitar playing. Antique Brothers "Trail in the Woods" is a smoky swirl of echoed finger-picking that segues into the dense sweat lodge of the mystical "Bear Wedding", while "Kodiak Habitat" has a ray-gun tremolo guitar line that sounds like a signal to visitors from the stars. There's a timeless backwoods folk mood here put into collision with glowing rocketship guitars to create a space-folk as big, furry and fierce as the bears the brothers so clearly adore." wire
foto: colinkenniff

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

wheatie mattiasich

"...that's Wheatie muh-tea-uh-sitch or moddy-ahh-sitch...so they say. I decided I would go on a bit of an adventure through the myspace labyrinth in order to find some good music to write about today. I made a promise to myself that I would not start over. I would start in once place and click and click and click until I found something good. Unfortunately I got stuck, really far deep in the labyrinth. I couldn't find my way out. And I couldn't find any good music. So I broke my promise. But you'll thank me for it. Because I found Wheatie Mattiasich. One of her influences is Mother Goose. She says she sounds like the malarchy of a four year old who thinks she's time travelling. I'd say that's about right. Wheatie Mattiasich also sounds like front porch rocking chairs next to glasses of sweating lemonade and rickity old metal fans blowing the hot air and the magnolia's all around. You can pick up the cd for only $5 or a trade. All you have to do is email her with the subject line: heeba deeba geeba neeba. the body of the message should contain your name and right below something that sort of rhymes with your name" jen
 

Sunday, October 12, 2008

grouper / inca ore

"...Grouper's ethereal vocals and plaintive piano backings bring to mind pictures of slow-motion funerals held in rainy, misty forests. As lovely as it is, it's making me a bit too relaxed to carry on typing so I'll move on to the Inca Ore tracks.. I liked the lp they had out on Weird Forest a few months back and the stuff included here is similarly atmospheric. It's mostly very, very minimal and quite like listening to a sleepy child trying to sing themselves to sleep. Some serious voice worship going on here.." normanrecords
"Eva y yo nos conocimos la primera vez que estuve en Portland. Desde entonces, tocamos y componemos música juntas con algunos amigos. También compartimos casa durante una temporada en Oakland. Llevábamos un tiempo hablando sobre hacer un split juntas. Siempre me gustó mucho su música, y había escuchado sus nuevas canciones, cosas que había grabado ella sola...pensé que sonaba realmente intenso, bonito de verdad. Era una música un tanto extraña sobre estar en un lugar lejano, como en una especie de prueba o viaje del que sacas algo en claro. Mientras grababa mis canciones, recibía sus mails desde México, lugar al que había huido precipitadamente, sin planes ni motivos. Me hablaba de fiebres, de la sensación de sentirse feliz o abandonada en un lugar desconocido. Yo estaba pasando el invierno en Portland, sintiéndome muy sola en una ciudad nueva para mí; era esa clase de soledad que sientes dentro de ti, cuando te encuentras sola incluso estando rodeada de gente." Liz Harris (Grouper)

Saturday, October 11, 2008

jow jow

“Jow Jow is western mass' hidden gang still holding the social music torch, members of Feathers, the Rubby Boys, Supreme Dicks, Red Favorite, Sunburned and more. This is their first release for Yod Tapes.” Yod Tapes

Thursday, October 09, 2008

rosa marrero

la primera vez que vi un dibujo de rosa me dio un vuelco el corazón...había ovnis, columpios, ropa tendida, escaleras, cielos, cipreses, nubes, ovejas, globos, pájaros, ballenas, niñas que levitan, sombreros que vuelan, paraguas que flotan, tejedoras, abrigadoras, equilibristas...y viento, mucho viento!

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

sparkling wide pressure

sparkling wide pressure - touching pasture (students of decay 2008)
"Following a stellar release on the newly minted Digitalis Ltd.imprint, Frank Baugh returns with another collection of cracklybedroom nodout. Baugh's compositional sensibility is rooted in nostalgia, as evidenced by the cover photo (an image of his younger self). Sonically, it's one big fog of garbled radio transmissions, voice and sprawling, Appalachian guitar lines. Wonderful, moving stuff." students of decay

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

pocahaunted

"Originally the vision for Chains was "fucked up Tom Tom Club palm tree pop" (or something) but, as often happens when Manda & Bethany get in the studio with too much smart water and too many wisecracks, shit changed as soon as the 8-track tape started to roll. Oh well. The results are still rad and weird, 4 diverse songs that dance between post-rocky grooves, shoegaze drama, drugged funk, and Fleetwood Mac. The LP also does a good job of capturing what the Pocahaunted live set was like for most of the spring of '08: torrential, dramatic, rhythmic, estrogenic. Bobb Bruno kicked in some serious arrangement assistance, and pro-friend Josh Klinghoffer helped with some sick drum stumbles too. On champagne pale yellow vinyl, in jackets with art by the band. On Cali Dewitt's labor-of-love Teardrops label." nnf

"We’re not dark people, and we’re not spooky. We like to move and be moved; we like to dance and feel rhythmic. This album just reflects that." amanda

vuelven, y con el espíritu de Fleetwood Mac flotando en Oh Woe, un pequeño homenaje a The Chain de Fleetwood Mac (canción de la vida). ¿o lo habré soñado? :)
 

Sunday, October 05, 2008

evening fires

evening fires - figures of earth (digitalis ltd 2008)

"evening fires is a quartet of pennsylvanians, featuring members of clear spots and nessmuk, as well as the brains behind the deep water acres website & label. they're busy guys, but still found the time last summer and fall to crank out a set of backporch jams and slipstream electric boogaloos. they get help on banjo and mandolin on a few tracks, too, beefing up the downhome goodness. what really makes "figures of earth" such a stunning album is the diversity that doesn't take away from the overall flow. kraut-infused songs fit seemlessly next to something reminiscent of the black twigs. they don't fight it out, they just keep it mellow and roll on down the way. using an array of instrumentation from guitars, synths, and drums to saxophone, bodhran, and tabla, you get a lot of mileage out of these 47 minutes. the perfect soundtrack to your summer roadtrip. limited to 73 handnumbered copies." digitalis

beat beat whisper

esos dos de ahí arriba son Ayla & Davyd Nereo, es decir, Beat Beat Whisper, es decir, los responsables de la canción más bonita del mundo ahora mismo:

up the long tracks

Saturday, October 04, 2008

the cosmic mandoliners

"cdr 3" in little recycled paper bag / lim. ed. 50 copies. the Gospel Diaries are Vincent Fribault and Florian Tositti. Centre of Wood is the small sister label of Cold Current production and is dedicated to drone sounds, eerie and weird folk and all music with lo–fi and inmost core. The label excludes a priori releases by factories and large editions. Each packaging is handmade / homemade and is created respecting nature and it is in harmony with it. Centre of Wood is interested and directed to all people that love nature and live respecting animals; emotional music, handmade objects, leaves, stones, polaroid photos, the intimacy of a personal room, analogical instruments, music recorded in a garage or in a room with cheap-unusual-broken-toy- instruments..."

download

"fire documents" (mp3 de "colorn lincorn" ruralfaune 2007)

tan or boil

tan or boil - seamstress in a suitcase (preservation 2008)


"...Tan or Boil are as lo-fi as the recording aesthetic may be, the layers of instrumentation flesh out the recordings in a far from shambolic fashion, revealing a complex, nicely crafted set of arrangements. On 'Surgeon', the singing is oddly unintelligible - plenty loud enough, but the slurred delivery is multitracked into a mesmerising Bon Iver-like polyphonic wail. Also worthy of note: fans of earthy, warm electronics will be pleased to find that Aaron Martin and Part Timer's John McCaffrey both help out on the album, supplying additional instrumentation and electronic shenanigans. Lovely." boomkat


foto: miss bob

*download*

Thursday, October 02, 2008

head of wantastiquet

"head of wantastiquet is the solo project of sunburned hand of the man's paul labrecque. this is the long awaited follow-up to paul's debut cassette release on open mouth. this lp is luscious and layered with psych banjo based pieces spread over 12 tracks. i'd compare it to a cross between daniel higgs and doc boggs with sweet vocals. solo guitar & banjo tapestries, a truly beautiful record which comes in a screenprinted double sided sleeve sleeve in a one time edition of 500." mimaroglu
"head of wantastiquet is paul labrecque, who should be a household name to lovers of transcendental experimental music. labrecque has also released an amazing lp with valerie webb entitled “trees, chants & hollers”, which is constructed from acoustic guitar with vocals, electronics, the sounds of crickets, and the wood-burning stove." subterrarium
paul labrecque, otro disco lleno de tópicos maravillosos: banjos, campos de algodón, árboles y cantos.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

maailma

"Debut record for this free folk trio collaboration between Laura Naukkarinen from Lau Nau and Kristian & Matti from Vinter, featuring out-of-tune meandering, slow paced walking-tunes, and folk songs of a tradition invented on the spot, with delicate female vocals over plucked, bent, bowed and hammered strings: from the fragile lyricism of "Saa puu" or "Pimeyden viimeinen säde," over the insect battle grounds and lonely wanderlust of "Pitkä matka," to the eerie, desolate wastelands of "Ishavets sång," where lonely, ghost-like voices drift over the frozen bass strings of the dampened piano, sounding "...as if already drifting under the ice," as someone said of the poet Heym. Vinyl edition of 133 copies, with paste-on art on recycled paper, hand-drawn labels and an insert." tjärnen

Monday, September 29, 2008

muffin

una chica que susurra en un japonés que parece finés, percusiones finesas que parecen brasileñas, pianos, flautas, algo de lula cortés & zé ramalho, de flaviola e o bando do sol y de kuupuu. acogedor y calentito, hay que hacer esfuerzos para no escucharlo a todas horas, y además me ha recordado lo muchísimo que me gustaba valerio sartori. gracias a nico y caracoles por tan bonito regalo

"Tremendous fragile folk and pop songs with gentle hints of psychedelia by this female Japanese singer/songwriter. Lonesome late-night transmissions from a bedroom somewhere in Tokyo. 80 copies." sloow tapes

Friday, September 26, 2008

second family band


listen



qué alegría al escuchar el nuevo proyecto de Clay Ruby (abajo a la izquierda con gafas y pelo rubio), el gurú de una cadena que empieza con Davenport y sigue así...: The Davenport Family, The Grass Magic, Thee Botanical Shrine Band, Zodiac Mountain, All Do Gather, Organon, Candiru, The Crowned and Conquering Children, A Mercury Ensemble, Orthodox Blood Orchestra, The Midwestern Mudslide Hootenanny and Free Pentecostal Family Jams, Outlet, Jesus Balls, Mirror Man and th' Oshun Oxtra...

ahora, en Second Family Band, una jam band en toda regla, le acompañan William Lee, T Endless, Nico Kain, Clay Ruby, Woodman, Theresa Behnen, Tyler Olsen, Jonathan Matthews, Clay Kolbinger, Lyx Ish, db Pedersen, Mansfield, Nic Stage, Karen Eliot, John Gould, Justin May...y un larguísimo etcétera
futuras grabaciones: Second Family - Unlimited Devotion LP (ourecordings) {{someday}}, Second Family - Harihara River b/w Bram Stoked Her (Funeral Folk) {{soon}} , Second Family meets Anla Courtis - Gangun Guru (Chocolate Monk) {{ soon}} , Second Family - Dirty River b/w Chhinnamasta Cuts Through Mind Jam (sloow tapes) {{soon}}, Second Family - Wisconsin Gospel (ourecordings) {{soon}}

de las seis canciones que se pueden escuchar en su página ya tengo favorita: "4 and 4 is", otra canción-mantra vibrante y maravillosa al estilo no-neck blues band. escuchadla e imaginad cómo podrá llegar a ser el disco entero...