December 2011
3 posts
11 tags
Favorite Vinyl of 2011
The Deeep - Muddy Tracks, 12” (100% Silk)
This elusive astral-dub trio seem to exist in the smokey either of Toronto’s experimental music scene, only surfacing to prove that they can breath our air as well. Solid remixes on the B-side. (Quick prediction for 2012: Trip-hop (think early Trick/late Portishead) is coming back.)
Sic Alps - Napa Asylum, 2xLP (Drag City)
“When...
10 tags
Favorite Tapes of 2011
Taiwan - Belladonna (Self Released)
Angelo Badalamenti inspired instrumental bleakness. Sounds like falling asleep to a warbly VHS of Twin Peaks.
<img src=”http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lwtxkzeNnG1ql3tlt.png”...
8 tags
Afro-American Folk Music From Tate And Panola...
An amazing collection of field recordings made in 1942 by the legendary archivist Alan Lomax, and in 1969-‘71 by Dave and Cheryl Evans, showcasing the relatively unknown folk styles of the region. Unique to here was the heavy emphasis on instrumentation, especially fife and drum, a militaristic style leftover from the revolution/civil war.
While Lomax’s early recordings provide...
November 2011
1 post
2 tags
Silver Dapple - English Girlfriend
(Originally published in Offerings, Toronto’s free music monthly.)
It’s starting to get cold again. Soon you will need to start stalking up before outside travel is impossible. While out collecting cans of food and things to burn be sure to grab the handsome new LP by Silver Dapple, Elgnisg Girlfriend. Wrapping you in a warm blanket of fuzz-pop and rubbing your belly with memories of how...
October 2011
1 post
3 tags
Leyland Kirby - Eager to Tear Apart The Stars
What makes this music so compelling is that it is like watching someone die, but made beautiful. Watching a person pass is rarely a dignified thing and many of us find it hard to watch due to our own sense of shame and helplessness, whether grandparent or the plants we have let go brown and brittle.
This is brittle music.
Most of the leaves have fallen away in flakes and you can see the stems...
September 2011
1 post
7 tags
Numero Group - Local Customs - Downriver Revival
I’ve developed some what of an obsession with the Numero Group who, since 2003, have been reissuing the some of the finest soul, funk, rock and whatever else they like from around the world. Specifically I’ve fallen in love with the too brief Local Customs series, documenting specific, relatively unknown, regional American studios and the local talent they recorded.
Lone Star...
August 2011
2 posts
2 tags
John Micah Rapp - Catharsis
So the story is the diverse Mr. Rapp recorded one instrumental track a day for six months and Allready Dead Tapes edited it down to this beautifully designed double cassette.
It plays like a stream of consciousness mix tape, ever changing in style and tone yet somehow manages to stay away from sounding isolated at every moment. I say this because often when we think of the lone musicians,...
"With Apologies To. . . ": Paul McCartney
An ongoing series in which I make amends with artists who’s (usually later) careers I have misjudged in youth and changed my mind on with age. Fist up, Sir Paul. (Special thanks to Brandon Hocura (Polyphasic), Dan Bedard (White Suede) and Simone TB (Tropics/ Elle V. Gore) for helping to open my eyes.)
Dear Paul McCartney, I’m sorry I misjudged your solo career. In my angry youth I...
July 2011
7 posts
1 tag
Holy Cobras - Forever
Are we on the cusp of a full blown new breed of psych-punk? We can only pray for more of these harsh buzz and hazy fuzz. Holy Cobras share a similar digital-apocalypses vein with The Pink Noise, drum machines and Casios get trampled by Asheton guitars, but where The Pink Noise practices the restraint of The Fall, Holy Cobras deal out more of a looser, Chrome vibe.
Everyone do more of this...
1 tag
3 tags
. . . i listen to the wind that obliterates my...
i listen to the wind that obliterates my traces./ the wind that resembles nothing,/ understands nothing nor cares what it does,/ but it is lovely to listen to./ the soft wind,/ soft like oblivion.// when the new morning breaks/ i shall wander further,/ in the windless dawn begin my wandering afresh/ with my very first step/ in the wonderfully untouched sand. Par Lagerkvist, Aftonland
So begins...
3 tags
Bunker Hill
Bunker Hill, born David Walker, contained as much blood, grit and violence in his voice as the revolutionary battle from which he took his nom de plum. He has one of the roughest, and certainly one of the loudest voices in the history of rhythm and blues. In it you can hear that he was born in the rough part of 1940s Washington DC. You can hear his time as a heavy weight fighter (18 wins, 5...
4 tags
Notes on New Sampling
Three recently released records, all making use of samples in a way not unlike classic hip-hop, sourcing various vinyl for foundation, yet are definitively non-hip-hop. Each record also references its own different genres of music, creating a distinct sound; relying nostalgia and peoples compulsion to recall music
First up U.S. Girls/Slim Twig Split on Palmist (who have also scooped up...
3 tags
Andy Boay - Born To Fully
I received this gem in the mail from a trade with Ottawa’s Bruised Tongue along with a bunch of other stuff I’ll get to writing about later.
Mr. Boay (half of TONSTARTSSBANDHT) gives us a heavy heaping of hypnotic solo-guitar that warps hard-rock riffs (almost Sabbath-sounding) into shimmering pulses. Think a one man prog band. The compositions are light and sunny; optimistically...
3 tags
