Windy And Carl & Heavy Winged - "Monolith: Earth"

Monolith: Earth

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1. Windy And Carl - Intelligence In Evoluation (29:00)
2. Heavy Winged - Wool And Water (23:04)
3. Windy And Carl & Heavy Winged - Monolith: Earth (23:45)

"The Monolith series combines two artists on the same one-sided, reverse-cut LP by hard-panning one recording to the right and the other recording to the left. By adjusting the panning controls on his or her turntable, the listener is free to control the degree to which the two recordings melt into one."


What a wonderful, wonderful concept! A single sided picture disc LP showcasing two great bands in collaboration but with a peach of a twist: you get to select the extent of each recording when playing back the entire mix. To put it simply, Windy & Carl are the left speaker, Heavy Winged take the right speaker. You go left, you get all of Windy & Carl. If you go right... well, I won't insult your intelligence.

With the fannying about and playing aside, what does the music really have to offer? You often wonder when it comes to something physically conceptual if the music will ever live up to the hype. In this case, being the great fan of Ambient and Drone that I am, I'm left feeling at least fulfilled. And while it isn't the most satisfyingly brilliant record, it does have it's pros. For starters, the entire Windy & Carl track alone is breathtaking. Reminiscent of one William Basinski, the track bleeds seamlessly from start to finish in a beautiful array of sounds and noises only building to a Drone to the close of the almost half an hour effort.

And again, on it's own, the Heavy Winged track is good. It's abrasive and iratic. It's what you'd expect from a Noise Rock song. The sad thing is that combined, with both tracks panned perfectly left and right, as the collaboration was intended, I'm not so sure. They do add to one another but there's a total lack of a sense of completion within the music. It seems a little bit of a mismatched effort and while I understand that Ambient over Ambient or Noise over Noise would be completely conterproductive, I think that it could have been much, much better.


6.3/10

Æthenor - "Faking Gold And Murder"

Faking Gold And Murder

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1. I (10:34)
2. II (9:51)
3. III (10:17)
4. IV (5:07)

Avant-Metal trio Stephen O'Malley ( Sunn O))) ), Daniel O’Sullivan ( Guapo ) and Vincent de Roguin ( Shora ) return with their 3rd dose of mindblowing sounds but this time they're joined by legend David Tibet of Current 93, percussionists Nicolas Field and Alex Babel, and guitarist Alexander Tucker. This is arguably Æthenor best release yet. One thing for certain is that this is definitely their heaviest offering. Drawing influence from a myriad of genres, sometimes blistering with the free-jazz style drumming of Babel and Fields then meandering into long, low-end passages of bass, drones, waves and washes of electronics, Rhodes and guitar. The only sense to be seen throughout the whole record is the almost insane chanting vocals of Tibet, sometimes closer to spoken word than song. This is one hell of a weird take on Metal.

"Brooding, primeval, dark, alchemical epics are full of a ferocious intensity, sounding more like a starlit night being ripped open by lightning than a musical group. Intelligent and primal, like a daemonic workshop, battering up Pandemoniums and dreaming of gold and murder, Æthenor are spectacular." -David Tibet

7.1/10

Pocahaunted - "Gold Miner's Daughters"

Gold Miner's Daughters

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(A)1. Hideous (5:40)
(A)2. Sun (8:30)
(B)1. Demon (13:30)

It wouldn't be right to bury the first month of the new year without knowing we've seen a release from California's self-confessed "Olsen twins of blissed out drone”. Just over two years on from the absolutely astonishing debut tape Moccasinging, we're presented with their 26th release and it's quite simply stunning. The three tracks of wonderfully psychedelic drones act as a great canvas for the soaring tribal-esque vocal styles and the quiant stringed instruments being scarcely yet lovingly bowed. Coupling this to great effect comes the occasional percussive hit or tap or rattle accompanied by jangling guitars. And while this might, on paper, come across as something horrible or even nightmarish, I can only assure you that this is nothing short of magical. It's the score to a beautiful rainbow-laden dream of distant, far off places and times.

Two new tracks are features on the A side, while side B has a 15 minute live recording. The only downside to a tape release, of course, is the lack of storage to utilize on such a medium. And while it's a pretty addition to any collectors stack, pile, shelf or cabinet, the music itself only clocks in at a little over 26 minutes, and it leaves you wanting.



7.9/10



Information on release: Cassette released by ExBx Tapes. Limited to 200 C30 tapes.

Alva Noto - "Xerrox Vol.2"

Xerrox Vol.2

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1. Xerrox Phaser Acat 1 (12:11)
2. Xerrox Rin (0:51)
3. Xerrox Soma (7:11)
4. Xerrox Meta Phaser (6:23)
5. Xerrox Sora (6:54
6. Xerrox Monophaser 1 (8:04)
7. Xerrox Monophaser 2 (5:31)
8. Xerrox Teion (2:03)
9. Xerrox Teion Acat (5:26)
10. Xerrox Tek Part 1 (5:28)
11. Xerrox Monophaser 3 (6:14)

Finding the words to describe volume 2 in Carsten Nicolai's Xerrox series isn't easy. What we have is a dense and rich atmosphere of vibrant sounds and dreamy drones that flow and merge seamlessly into one majestic opus. While the intention was to hark back to the idealism of film score, employing a linear aesthetic to the music, you can't help but feel that there's something much greater here. The theme itself would require the use of other means of sensory stimualation, but I feel Alva Noto has done more in this collection of sounds than what any picture or word could possibly add to or expand on. Using samples and collaborations from his recent tour of the USA, we find weathered borrowings from Stephen O'Malley and Michael Nyman as well as rehashings of Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto's encore from 2004's "Insen" tour. This is an out and out masterpiece. A true work of great art.

9.3/10

Emeralds - "What Happened"

What Happened

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1. Alive In The Sea Of Information (8:02)
2. Damaged Kids (15:01)
3. Up In The Air (4:02)
4. Living Room (16:43)
5. Disappearing Ink (13:32)

It's difficult to place Emeralds. At their core, musically, what you get is vast and expansive synth drones. While there's still hints of Noise and of Ambient, it'd be wrong to say Emeralds are one or the other. What I can say, however, is that whatever they're doing works and it's nothing short of magical. The Ohio trio produce some of the most touching and brilliant soundscapes, coupling great walls of synth and noise with Mark McGuire's twinkling guitar leads and flashes of feedback. It's unfair to say this early on in the year that I've picked my top album for 2009 but I honestly can't help myself. This is what experimental music is all about.

9.1/10

Grouper - "Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill"

Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill

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1. Disengaged (4:16)
2. Heavy Water/I'd Rather Be Sleeping (2:53)
3. Stuck (5:59)
4. When We Fall (2:07)
5. Traveling Through A Sea (4:23)
6. Fishing Bird (Empty Gutted In The Evening Breeze) (3:51)
7. Invisible (3:55)
8. I'm Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill (2:21)
9. A Cover Over (2:48)
10. Wind And Snow (4:30)
11. Tidal Wave (5:35)
12. We've All Gone To Sleep (3:03)

Wonderfully haunting and dreamy, Liz Harris' Grouper project goes from strength to strength in making great music. Here, unlike previous releases, she's upped the game (and the production values!) to produce a brand of Dream Pop worthy of a Cocteau Twins comparison. Although more drone orientated, parallels can be drawn with the older generation of Shoegazers with the muffled, indistinguishable vocals and reverberated, gentle acoustic guitar work. Probably the best record to come out last year. Liz Harris, I love you.

8.5/10