Sink or Swim: small update

Just a quick little note that I'm still in the process of new material for an as-yet untitled, release. I have no plans for the actual release yet at this point. All I can say is that I'm excited by the new material, and that it's a bit different from my previous work, both technically, sonically and texturally. I hope you like it. I hope to post a snippet soon.

For those of you in the Winnipeg area, I'll be playing a set this Friday at NGTVSPC. I'll be trying out some new approaches I've been working on at home. Sink or swim.

Thanks

Current listening: Kevin Drumm - Tannenbaum; Mike Shiflet - The Choir, The Army; Pan Sonic - A; Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

Progress

Productive day of recording yesterday. New material is shaping up. It's not ready yet, but I'm really excited about it.

Currently enjoying: Andy Stott - Luxury Problems; Fermentae - Alllusions; Pinkish Black - s/t; The Evens - The Odds; Pile - Dripping.

Greenhouse/MSSNG Split cs on Back Alley Bazaar

Here's some brief, though very nice words about my split cs with MSSNG from Back Alley Bazaar. A nice way to start a day, reading words like these.

http://backalleybazaar.wordpress.com/2012/12/10/item-greenhousemssng-split-tape/

I think I have one, maybe two copies of this left. If you're interested, send me an email.

Favourites of 2012

Here's a list of some of my favourite records released this year. No particular order. Thanks for reading.



Locrian and Mamiffer - Bless Them That Curse You (Utech, Profound Lore)
Locrian and Christoph Heemann - s/t (Handmade Birds)

Locrian continue to push the boundaries of metal, drone and experimental music in some exciting ways. I've spun both of these LPs heavily this year, and I cannot say enough about either of them. Bless Them That Curse You traverses the very sparse and minimal with the very maximalist and crushing, the beautiful with bleak, all the while feeling extremely organic. I've written extensively about the Locrian/Heemann LP. Read that here.  Highly, highly recommended listening to say the very least.

Swans - The Seer (Young God)

Holy shit. What a massive album. When was the last time you listened to a two-hour record without getting even remotely tired or bored? When was the last time you heard a two-hour record? But it isn't just the length of this record that's impressive, it's the attention to detail, the restraint, the unhinged moments and overall, the control that Gira and co. exhibit here. I'm not sure I can pick out a specific highlight. This is an album that you just need to listen to. Over and over again.

High Aura'd - Sanguine Features (Bathetic)

I like this record so much that I almost avoid listening to it. That doesn't make any sense, I know, but there it is. My favourite albums, especially drone/experimental albums, evoke a sense of place or atmosphere, and Sanguine Features does it so superbly that it stuns me every time I hear it. Koner-esque glacier concrete, restrained-yet-sinister hiss and far-distant melodies, all expertly arranged and produced. It's a beautiful record, but it carries this dark, foreboding edge to it that I find very compelling. I like this album so much that I bought a digital copy and the LP.

William Fowler Collins - Tenebroso (Handmade Birds)

I'm a huge fan of WFC, and I was so excited for this disc to show up in the mail. And Mr. Collins delivers the goods again. With Tenebroso, he's pushed even further in the the dark recesses of, well, darkness. His sound sources (guitar, mainly) are almost completely unrecognizable, leaving the listener in a dark boiler room of churning low end and caustic static. Even at its harshest, this is an incredibly listenable affair. 

Burning Love - Rotten Thing To Say (Southern Lord)

Great record. It's loud and pissed off, but it's also really fun and catchy. And it has some SERIOUS hooks. Check out "Hateful Comforts." The riffs are mind-numbingly perfect and hit you square in the chest every time. I finally got to see them live when the came through Winnipeg, but sadly the folks who booked the show booked it in a coffeehouse, so the PA Colohan was using was the same one used for book readings. Needless to say, you couldn't hear a damn thing. Still, they killed it. A fun-filled, angry, heavy album with no filler whatsoever.

Propagandhi - Failed States (Epitaph)

I love this band. I always have and I probably always will. This band just gets better and better. Razor-sharp songwriting, goosebump-inducing shredding, terrific vocals and some of the best lyrics of our time. I don't really think I need to say much more. If you know, you know.

Converge - All We Love We Leave Behind (Epitaph/Deathwish)

Similarly to Propagandhi, I've been a massive fan of Converge since I was about 16, so it's hard for me to get really objective here. This guys still do what I love about them: blindingly fast, dark, technical and angry hardcore. Just unhinged emotion and piss at it's most vitriolic and convincing. Now if only my copy of the LP would ship...

Minus the Bear - Infinity Overhead (Dangerbird)

Another one of my all-time favourite bands. While this list may lead you to think otherwise, I am a massive sucker/fan of smart, well-executed pop. And when I say "pop," I don't mean top 40 horseshit, I mean "pop" in the sense of hooks, verse/chorus/verse structures, songs that stick in your head for days, that kind of pop. Minus the Bear pull this off effortlessly, but they infuse it with top-shelf musicianship and creativity that you don't even notice the simple structures that lay underneath. They're just a great band. "Diamond Lightning" is probably my favourite song of 2012.

Flying Lotus - Until the Quiet Comes (Warp)

FlyLo delivers another record that just gets better with each listen. There's so many textures, emotions and valleys for you to get lost in. This guy is a master of his craft, without a doubt. I'm really enjoying the mix of bangers and mellow, jazzy tracks on this album. Perfect nighttime listening. Perfect anytime listening, as long as it's uninterrupted.

Vatican Shadow - Kneel Before Religious Icons (Type)

It's tough to keep up with Dominick Fernow. His releases come in a seemingly unending deluge in limited runs and expensive price tags. Thankfully, I was able to snag a copy of this LP and I think it's the most solid release of his Vatican Shadow project to date. It's just so cold and restrained, but it's also very dark, creepy and paranoid.

Deathspell Omega - Drought (N.E.D.)

Perhaps another trump card in this list as everything this outfit has done has been great. This EP crams in more finger-wrecking discordance and blurry riffiage than most metal bands can muster in their careers. Most alluring, perhaps, is the more gentle, Slint-like moments that have always been present in Deathspell's music, but are given much more space on Drought. It's also exciting to hear a little bit of groove sneak in amongst the swirling cacophony.

Pallbearer - Sorrow and Extinction (Profound Lore/20 Buck Spin)

Doom is genre that I really never fully got into. Sure, I've got some albums in my collection, but I've always felt luke-warm about most doom that came my way. I could never get into the whole stoner culture of bands like Electric Wizard and Sleep, and most of the "scary," stacks of expensive amps, ugly sounding doom bands are nowhere near, and never will be, as scary or as heavy as Khanate. But Pallbearer are such a breath of fresh air to my ears. Sure, comparisons to Sabbath are inevitable, but this album feels so genuine and organic that I think it's unfair to tag them as a Sabbath clone. Way unfair. Soaring vocal melodies, crushing riffs and, what's this? melodic guitar leads. Sure, it's very listenable and approachable and I'm sure there are scores of doom fans out there who think this isn't true doom or whatever, but I could care less. A terrific record, regardless of genre tags.

Extremely hounourable mentions: Aaron Dilloway - Modern Jester; Ash Borer - Cold of Ages; Pete Swanson - Pro Style; The Subtraction - Those Who Infest Ships; Tragedy - Darker Days Ahead; Sutekh Hexen - Larvae/Empyriarcsh; Sophie Hutchings - Night Sky; Andy Stott - Luxury Problem; Fermentae - Glossolalia; Silent Servant - Negative Fascination;  

Wrecks

 I seem to be obsessed with abandoned, man-made structures lately: mansions, ships, towns, factories, cities. Here's just a few really amazing photos that really get my imagination running wild.

I don't intend to claim the rights to any of these photos, just sharing some amazing work. I've posted links to the original sources, where possible. If you are the owner of these works and you don't want them posted here, just contact me and I'll remove them immediately.

http://www.lovethesepics.com/2011/06/wreck-diving-the-mysterious-ghost-fleet-of-truk-lagoon-33-pics/

via gh0stdot's flickr

Kowloon Walled City. I need to do more reading about this place. I can't actually believe something like this actually existed. From this article here.

 

via alterallensteiner's flickr. Highly talented photographer of abandoned mansions in Eastern Europe.

Again, if you are the owner of these works and you don't want them posted here, just contact me and I'll remove them immediately.

Current listening: John Coltrane - Om; Metz - s/t; Depeche Mode - Violator; Ash Borer - Cold of Ages; Sutekh Hexen - Empyriarsch.

It's been a long, lonely time

Yes. I haven't posted anything is a super long time. I've been busy with several other avenues of life as of late.

Just wanted to put it out there that I'm still here.

And while I'm at it, go check out the new Prairie Fire Tapes site. It's awesome. Plus, their latest batch of tapes look terrific. I will need to get my paws on them. While you're there, why not grab a copy of "Tired Forever"? It's been too long since I've had some new tracks to offer. I will be doing some recording as soon as my schedule allows. Definitely over the winter months. Definitely. Without giving away anything, I'm very excited to record and very excited about the next year.

Current fixations: Pete Swanson - Pro Style; Locrian & Christoph Heemann; Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell; Pallbearer - Extinction and Sorrow; Tragedy - Darker Days Ahead; GY!BE - Don't Bend, Ascend!

Locrian & Christoph Heemann - s/t LP

It should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me or is familiar with my music that I'm a massive fan of Locrian. Over the course of four LPs and countless EPs, splits and cassettes, this Chicago-Baltimore three piece have created a blackened body of dense noisescapes and bleak atomspherics like no one else. While the trio skillfully touch on decidedly narrow genres like black metal, doom, noise, experimental and minimalism, Locrian remain largely unclassifiable, where strict genre trappings and record store organization is concerned. Locrian are able to blend tormented screams straight out of Norway and buzzing guitar melodies with analogue synth tones and clattering electronics seamlessly, though such descriptions do not remotely come close to describing or understanding the magnitude of the band, which makes writing about Locrian no simple task.

It may be helpful, then, to begin to understand Locrian by way of the themes they explore - or at least seem to explore. Certainly, their previous full-length, "The Clearing" invoked themes of decay, urban and otherwise, and collapse — from the eerie photographs of an abandoned shopping mall on the sleeve to the sounds that lay within. To be sure, this is a far cry from the eschatological or "satanic" end-time tropes so common in metal — and this is perhaps where one can begin to draw some lines in the sand: Locrian does not see the devil walking the Earth, laying waste to humanity; there are no inverted crosses or pentagrams on their records. For Locrian, our end is of our own design, from our own hands: environmental ruin, the depletion of resources, economic collapse, greed. And this distinction is what makes Locrian truly unique, fascinating and terrifying: their ability to evoke through sound the reality that many of us cannot (or blindly refuse) to face. Listening to Locrian, one cannot help but picture crumbling skyscrapers, dust whipping through derelict streets, or imagine the detritus left behind by humankind after some undisclosed, unspoken fallout.

If "The Clearing" was the soundtrack to the seismic fall of Western civilization, this collaborative LP with German electronic musician Christoph Heemann is what life on our ruined planet sounds and feels like in the weeks and months that follow.  The fires have long since burned out, no birds fly. All that remains is an eerie silence. This is some of Locrian's most restrained material to date, and it is also some of their strongest. Yet by no means is this easier listening. The restraint shown by these musicians ratchets up the tension and rarely, if ever, releases it. Admittedly, I am unfamiliar with Heemann's work until now, but he sounds perfectly at home next to Locrian. Those familiar with Locrian will no doubt notice some new sounds, but buy the end of the record you will be hard pressed to pick out who's playing what. One of the strengths of this collaborative effort is that this record is not about guest spots or trading riffs. These four artists have created something that speaks for itself, a work of singular vision that some artists fail to create throughout their entire careers.

"Hecatomb" begins with ghostly electronics and acoustic guitar work that almost brings to mind Popol Vuh, but before any motifs can anchor themselves in the ears of the listener, the guitars begins to double back on itself before disappearing into the ether of swirling synths, while the slow thrum of drums pounds in the distance and a piano surfaces, providing one of the only glimmers of light on this record. The various elements at work on this track, and on this entire album, both acoustic and electronic are used masterfully. Sounds and textures and introduced and removed with surgical precision, yet these four tracks maintain a free, structureless feeling — another testament to the abilities of these four individuals.

The middle two tracks see Heemann and Locrian really stretch out and create some serious space. To be sure, this space is tension-filled, bleak and covered with a fine layer of ash. Terrence Hannum's anguished vocals provide the lone human element in an otherwise hostile, bleak sonic landscape of low frequency hums and shimmering cymbals on "Loath the Light." While the slowly shifting tones of "Edgeless City" bring to mind just that, wandering through a darkened, indistinct, abandoned city with the echoes of a fallen civilization ringing through the concrete caverns of a ruined metropolis.

The closer, "The Drowned Forest," is certainly the most unique and powerful track here. The foundation of the piece is vocals, nearly five minutes of several voices singing a mournful, positively haunting melody, as if only a choir were left to bear witness to humanity's final days. Only slowly does some tape hiss and very distant drones start to surface before everything is swirled together, with the occasional voice reaching out above the din. Finally, everything dissolves.

Impeccably performed, this LP is a harrowing, spellbinding and unforgettable listening experience. 

 Handmade Birds Records
Locrian