Author: Dave

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Album Of The Week Album Reviews

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

400_paper-mache-webKing Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard
Paper Mâché Dream Balloon
Heavenly Recordings

King Gizzard & Co. are a band that know no sonic boundaries. Flitting between solid garage rock, kraut-driven wig outs and potent swamp-boogie’s alike on their previous six records, there’s only one theme throughout and that’s to take your mind on a psychedelic trip to remember, every time.

Whatever instruments they find themselves tooled up with, be it warped organ tones or screaming harp riffs, this seven-piece promise to take you on a joyride. And they’ve delivered the goods again with Paper Mâché Dream Balloon. As opening track ‘Sense’ glides in you’re greeted by softly focused clarinet lines and beautiful piano chords, altogether creating something unexpectedly mellow, and far removed from their standard 16-minute psych-out fare, see ‘Head On/Pill’ or the recent Quarters EP, with each of the four clocking in at 10 minutes 10 seconds a piece.

Here you’ll search high and low for a track that barely crosses the four-minute line, there’s only one, ‘The Bitter Boogie’, and it’s a total gem. Albeit curiously un-bitter as it rolls and tumbles past pleasingly familiar swamp-blues territories, with a hefty tip of the hat to their Californian forefathers as they segue into yet more harmonica-honking goodness on ‘N.G.R.I (Bloodstain)’. Is that a sitar noodling away in the background too?

With each of the album’s twelve offerings recorded using nothing but acoustic instruments, this LP is a justification, not that one was ever required, of why King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard repeatedly warrant your ear. Strip away the cooking tube amp distortion and there’s marvellous, accessible song writing to be found, yet remaining forever psychedelic. If you thought the flute was just a fad, you were so wrong.

Categories
Buzz Chart

IMMERSION

immersionIMMERSION
‘Organic Cities’
Swim Records

Revived after an unexpected synth-based shopping spree in New York earlier this year, Colin Newman (Wire) and Malka Spigel (Minimal Compact) have announced the return of their collaborative Immersion project. A nigh two decades on from 1999 release Low Impact, and with new-found sonic territories said to be inspired by the couple’s recent migration to Brighton, Analogue Creatures sees the long awaited fourth chapter in Immersion’s career to be immortalised on 10” vinyl via none other than Swim Records.

First cut ‘Organic Cities’ comes with analogue synth arpeggios in abundance. Seemingly structure-less and pleasantly meandering, the track also sees the first instance of electric guitar present on an Immersion record, with spatial, gloomy lines gliding skywards across ominous, geometric patterns. Check it out below along with a full track-listing.

Analogue Creatures track-list:
1. Always The Sea
2. Shapeshifters
3. Organic Cities
4. Mechanical Creatures
5. Slow Light

Categories
Album Reviews

The Noise Figures

the_noise_figuresThe Noise Figures
Aphelion
Inner Ear Records

A two-piece making serious noise isn’t so rare these days but the power to keep you gripped for the full length of an album is really something of a treat. Reminiscent of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s bruised blues and Death From Above 1979’s hardin-your-guts riffs, Aphelion takes the listener on a multi-paced journey through a desert of brooding intensity, with raw fuzzed-out energy and tender desperation leaving you bloodied and beaten but feeling all the better for it.

Highlights include ‘Shoot The Moon’ with its opening riff sounding as gritty as worn boots trudging through gravel, this dusty opener sets a hypnotic pace for the rest of the album to grind along to. The title track’s spaciousness and sluggish pace conjuring images of scorched earth and desperate lips begging for the first rain on arid plains, though ‘Blood’ stands out as the ultimate peak. With its ternary structure of polar paces, the second half of the bridge takes a beautifully dark tumble into madness before plummeting back in to close with lightening force.

Aphelion is an exceptional collection of formidable tracks that evoke epic imagery throughout with The Noise Figures’ attention to detail being the catalyst. All music was recorded to tape in the short space of an intense five days and, instead of settling for universal tuning, the band experimented at 432Hz. A fairly uncommon method (aka Pythagorean tuning) giving the album an undeniably fresh edge.

The Noise Figures certainly give other dynamic duos a run for their money and without doubt they are one to watch out for with this awesome addition to their catalogue. They’ve built their launch pad, so here’s hoping they’ll use their third release to shoot these Greek titans into the sky.

Out now on Inner Ear Records, purchase a copy of Aphelion here.

Joseph Murray

Categories
Buzz Chart

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

trapdoor_king_gizzard_and_the_lizard_wizardKing Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard
‘Trapdoor’
Heavenly Recordings

Primed and ready to drop their seventh album Paper Mâché Dream Balloon on Friday November 13th, Melbourne 7-piece King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have shared a marvellously daft new music video for the lead track, ‘Trap Door’.

Set to rise above the fuzzing, electric wig-out’s one has come to expect from this old-school Aussie crew, especially after the sonic storm their last full-length I’m In Your Mind Fuzz whipped up, their new album is to feature nothing but acoustic instruments. Let ‘Trapdoor’ set the scene as soft piano chords ensue, a tablecloth comes to life, and a spooky ghost lays down some mean flute licks all over the place.

February 2016 UK Tour Dates

15th Manchester, Gorilla
16th Nottingham, Rescue Rooms
17th Bristol, Fleece
19th Brighton, The Haunt

Categories
Music News

The Moonlandingz detail new LP

moon

via

If the news of The Fat White Family’s forthcoming second LP wasn’t enough to make your pupils pop, two fresh tracks and details of a debut album from The Moonlandingz surely will.

But that’s not even the whole of it. Those in the US will be treated to an extended version of The Moonlandingz‘ late self-titled EP with two bonus tracks, ‘Psych Ersatz’ and the instrumental ‘Blow Football with J Carpenter’, and a ‘Sweet Saturn Mine’ Sean Lennon de-mix. And it’s out today available to buy here!

Whilst over in the US on their first North American tour earlier in October, the band pro-longed their stay to record and album and a half’s worth of material, also with Sean Lennon, at his studio in upstate New York. ERC/Moonlandingz main man Adrian Flanagan spills the beans below –

“We’ve got 17 tracks recorded, enough for an album and maybe a follow up EP. So far, it’s sounding incredible, there’s a lot of different genres on there: deranged glam rock songs about self discovery in foreign countries, east European electronic rockabilly about the fuckers who run our country in the UK, truck driving songs about prostitute killers, there’s a track called “The Rabies are Back” that sounds a bit like vintage Devo, there’s sensual ballads about strangling your lover, a track about indie rock stars acting like pricks called “Drop It Fauntleroy (The Ballad of A.Turner)” and this massive heavy psychedelic Bollywood type track. Yeah it’s gonna knock some socks off, might have a few guests on it too, just got to mix it all first before we plan a release date. I’m guessing late summer for the album, maybe a single in the interim.

Working with Sean was great, he really put the hours in and has contributed to a lot of the tracks on the record, playing musical saw, glass harps, Victorian funfair organs, banjo’s, sitars and lapsteel guitar, he’s practically a member of the group. Musically, he’s on the same wave length as us and he’s a funny fucker, he spent the early hours of one morning, post recording, reciting the lyrics to the Osmonds track “Crazy Horses” to us, he could not believe that such mind blowing lyrics existed in popular music, have you read them though? Utter POPPYCOCK!!!!”

Categories
Album Reviews

Wavves

wavves_vWavves
V
Ghost Ramp Records

Somehow, already five albums in, the LA noise-pop ensemble Wavves delight us further with their latest release V. A genuinely electrifying record, it would fit effortlessly into a plethora of different environments – a gloriously sunny festival afternoon or the cramped crevices of a serotonin-soaked house party, Wavves’ latest release, simply put, is pure magic.

Stepping away from their earlier material, V sees Wavves refine their sound down, cutting back to something with much cleaner edges. Blending indie pop and noise rock seamlessly with lyrical flashes drenched in angst, the smart song-writing and impressive studio work (from the help of Woody Jackson – Beck, Primal Scream etc.) is incredibly addictive and does more than enough to ensure it doesn’t blindly blend with other artists attempting similar things.

The album opens with ‘Heavy Metal Detox’s chewy opening riff swirling us into great expectation. Once V sets off you immediately know what you want, and that you’re going to be getting it just thirty seconds in. The incredibly relatable ‘Way Too Much’, the speedy, Dookie-era, verse chorus pattern of ‘Wait’, and album-closer ‘Cry Baby’, all offer up a cacophonous capsule of creativity mixed with sombre underscoring.

Said to be conceptualized from drawing positivity out of negative experiences and “realistic optimism”, V is undoubtedly the band’s most focused work to date. Wavves have managed to create something warmly familiar but with a fresh, familiar honesty that draws you in even further than before.

Buy the album here.

Words: Joseph Murray

Categories
Buzz Chart Single Reviews

Night Dials

night_dialsNight Dials
‘Waiting At Your Door’ / ‘Little Flame’
Ciao Ketchup Recordings

West London’s Night Dials are set to drop their new AA-side single this month and its sun soaked psych vibes are downright riveting.

Sounding reminiscent of Cosmonauts, Night Beats and The UFO Club, via West Coast-surf scuzz, ‘Waiting At Your Door’ is a lo-fi melancholic daydream. With gushing keyboards and lead guitar rumble and fuzz, jolly, ska-esque rhythms ensue, puncturing the surface with every other beat to keep you bouncing along ‘Obla Di Obla Da’ style. A brilliant metaphor of quite literally waiting at someone’s door, the monotonous, foot tapping, ticking-clock guitar repetition is a nudge in your back every other second just to remind you it’s still there.

Nosediving from the optimism and youthful notion of ‘Waiting At Your Door’, ‘Little Flame’ provokes a darker corner of Night Dials’ musicality. Here we’re treated to a new depth. Gone is the fun and fuzz of the aforementioned track, giving a sharp thrust into the reflective keys showing that Night Dials have the ability, and sensibility, to add a new dimension to their sound and exist beyond the general “psych/garage” scenes.

Words:Tom Churchill

‘Waiting At Your Door’ / ‘Little Flame’ is due October 30th via Ciao Ketchup. Pre-order here.

Categories
Music News

Fat White Family detail new LP for January

fat white family

Inviting you to “dance to the beat of human hatred“, today the Fat White Family have announced a new album, titled Songs For Our Mothers, for release on January 22nd 2016 via the band’s own imprint, Without Consent.

Following in the footsteps of their widely acclaimed 2013 debut Champagne Holocaust, the band detail the forthcoming album to be nothing short of “a sensual odyssey; sex, drugs, politics, death, the Northern Irish A-lister Sam Neil, it’s all here, all that’s left to do now is breathe it in“.

Co-produced by Liam Trashmouth and the band, Songs For Our Mothers was recorded between the Trashmouth studios in New Malden and Marcata Studios (regularly frequented by both Swans and Titus Andonicus) in New Paltz, upstate New York.

Track listing:
1. Whitest Boy On The Beach
2. Satisfied
3. Love Is The Crack
4. Duce
5. Lebensraum
6. Hits Hits Hits
7. Tinfoil Deathstar
8. When Shipman Decides
9. We Must Learn To Rise
10. Goodbye Goebbels

Stay tuned for the first cut and forthcoming UK December tour dates TBA.

Categories
Music News

Tortoise to reissue back catalogue, new album for 2016

tortoise
With a nigh-on 25 year career of genre spanning, multi-instrumental sonic offerings, it is with much excitement we receive the news that Chicago’s Tortoise are to reissue their six-album discography, and release an entire new album, on January 22nd 2016.

To match the anticipated new LP, titled The Catastrophist, and set to include guest appearances from Yo La Tengo’s Georgia Hubley, along with a warped cover of David Essex’s 1973 hit ‘Rock On’, Tortoise have also detailed a full European tour through February with one UK date at London’s Village Underground on the 23rd.

Check out the details of each reissue below and head here to pre-order The Catastrophist from Thrill Jockey Records.

Tortoise 1994
Tortoise (1994)
Re-pressing available on limited opaque brown vinyl.

Millions Now Living Will Never Die 1996Millions Now Living Will Never Die (1996)
Re-pressing available on limited translucent blue vinyl.

TNT 1998
TNT (1998)
Double LP version pressed on limited white vinyl.

Standards 2001
Standards (2001)
Re-pressing available on limited red & white vinyl.

It's All Around You 2004
It’s All Around You (2004)
Re-pressing available on limited edition translucent yellow vinyl.

Beacons Of Ancestorship 2009
Beacons of Ancestorship (2009)
Available on limited edition clear vinyl.

Categories
Music News

Death to tour the UK in November

large_death_dc387

Forty years since their inception, six since their …For the Whole World To See LP was righteously re-released, and with a brand N.E.W. album out just earlier this year, it’s been a long time coming for Detroit’s Death to grace UK shores.

Having long laid claims to being the home of punk, it is with much joy we find Death set to land in the UK for the very first time in history to set the record straight and raise the Detriot flag high. With appearances at London’s 100 Club, Leeds’ Brudenell and ATP’s Nightmare Before Christmas Festival, if there was ever a moment in punk rock history not to be missed, this is it.

UK Tour Dates

November
28 All Tomorrow’s Parties Nightmare Before Christmas, Pontins, North Wales
30 Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
December
1 The 100 Club, London