Slight Hiatus

I won't be posting too much in the next week or so as I'm busy preparing for my band's first show on Friday at the Lo Pub here in Winnipeg. After that's done, I plan to do lots of recording. That's the plan, anyway.

Daniel Menche

Once again, I'm late to the party.

Having been heavily involved in listening and creating experimental, drone, noise, whathaveyou for a however many years, Daniel Menche is a name that comes up all too often, and for good reason. He has an extensive discography and his records really don't sound like anyone else. They're harsh, haunting, beautiful - sometimes all at once.

But for some reason I never really took the plunge. I knew he was out there, knew he was one of those "must listens," but I suppose I never really got around to it.

But after stumbling upon his blog, I realized my error. First off, his photography work is really interesting. I'm convinced Portland is magical. Plus, he's got a series of raw field recordings loaded to his Soundcloud, which honestly could be stand-alone albums (check out the "Abandoned School Basement" - it's really creepy and awesome). But he's also uploaded a ton of albums to his Bandcamp, which is great for someone like me who isn't sure where to start. I'm listening to the Utech releases, "Terre Paroxysm" and "Wolf's Blood" today, and I'm really enjoying them. You should go and check them out. They both feature some really icy tones with some more textured, harsher elements expertly mixed in. It's great work.

Music in the mail

A few of the great albums I received in the mail:

Mirrorring (Kranky): Simply beautiful and spellbinding work from two highly talented individuals. Tiny Vipers' ghostly folk doesn't sound out of place wrapped up in Grouper's ethereal drones for a second.

The Sight Below - It All Falls Apart (Ghostly International): I was unfamiliar with this, but I'm do glad I'm in the know. Imagine if Tim Hecker was on Kompakt. Really beautiful textures with some barely there minimal throb. There's also some pretty hefty low end buried in there, so listen on some decent speakers.

Locrian - The Clearing & The Final Epoch (Relapse): No mystery what a huge fan of Locrian I am. I own most of the material on this collection on vinyl (naturally) but some of it I don't. Plus, I'm a bit of a completist and I will gladly give my money to this band.

Not pictured: Fermentae - Glossalia cs: Kevin from Sutekh Hexen's solo project. Admittedly I haven't finished listening to this yet, but I really, really like what I'm hearing so far. Plus, the design (also done by Kevin) is terrific. Hey Kevin, want to design something for Greenhouse one day?

Live from ArtsJunktion - visual

Here's some photos from the Robert Szolnicki. Robert is an absolute delight. He's super supportive of the arts in our city and takes terrific photos. Plus, he was super patient with my 15-month-old as she tried to look through the viewfinder while he was shooting and even pressed the stop button on his video recorder at one point during the set. Get wise and follow his blog right here.

Welcome to my Nightmare

Trying to do some home recording.