Sutherland, Chriss - “Me in a “field” ” - [Digitalis Industries]

From the post-punk alt-prog ashes of Cerberus Shoal arose the acoustic freak-folk of Fire On Fire (FOF). Members of FOF include Big Blood???s Caleb Mulkerin and Colleen Kinsella, as well as Chriss Sutherland, who makes his solo debut here. All have been fixtures on the South Portland, Maine music scene for a dozen plus years. Mostly a lo-fi solo acoustic affair, Chriss is helped out on banjo, flute, harmonium and vocals by his fellow FOF members.

Chriss spent some time as a troubadour in Spain at the urging of Wooden Wand???s James Toth and he occasionally breaks into a Spanish chorus to great effect. Much of the album comes off dry and dusty as the Spanish Plain and sometimes he???s as morose as a moss-covered Maine moose, but Chriss seems to have a spirit that can???t be crushed for all its world-worn edges.

Standouts include 1,3,8 & 9. ???Coyote Tonight??? is fucking genius. Don???t miss it.
LANGUAGE ON 4. ???Deseos???.

–Jawbone

Keszler, Eli ??? Livingston {Rare Youth}

Eerie tonalities creep over free improvisational percussiveness on Eli Keszler???s experimental debut.?? Keszler???s compositions play out as four singular mysteries executed entirely by his own hands.?? Relying on free jazz styled drumming to exude tension he is also keen on manipulating tape reels, using bowed percussion, processed clarinet, Fender Rhodes, guitar, nail violin and crashing on crotales or cymbals used as mallet percussion instruments.?? Dense drones plow & permeate whilst Keszler tricks our senses with metallic clanks & groans and hovering ambience teased forth from his multi instrumental arsenal.?? Intense, brooding & dark musings of a brilliant mind.?? Another limited run edition of 300 copies put out on Geoff Mullen???s Rare Youth label based in Providence, Rhode Island.

Sick Llama ??? Born Again To Die {Hanson Records}

Sick Llama is Heath Moerland???s mucky manifestation originally released on cassette in 2004 & now on Aaron Dilloway???s Hanson Records on a limited 500 copy run.?? Moerland is a Detroit, Michigan noise monster responsible for the Fag Tapes label.?? This is his first full length & some of his earliest recordings.?? Not sure what???s going on, but something got sabotaged & set on autopilot.?? Treacherous rumbles & sickly cycles indicate screwy mechanistic tampering.?? Gristly gook & grime is slathered all over this machinery mess up. Squeaks & squeals stop short & flower into twittering tweets taught atop terrific scrapes & scratching.?? Warm wobbly welts & fuzz rubber gelling glop about in a static charged soup.?? Abrupt slight pauses segue into slippery sonic stumbles & strains spilling out & all over.?? Pestered parts continuously combust & breakdown into ruin not before screeching out an ugly swan song.?? This is experimental noise but is nowhere near scathing.?? It is odd & provocative but not overly threatening.?? Creatively consumed experiments in sound.?? Grux graciously donated this to KFJC.?? B-Side ends in a locked groove!

Nigeria Special: Part 1 [coll] - [Sound Way]

[coll] Nigeria Special, Part 1
(Modern Highlife, Afro-Sounds & Nigerian Blues 1970-1976) 33-1/3

First of 2 Soundway sets drawing from Nigerian singles and album tracks in the 70s. Part 1 features the early 70s period following Nigeria???s independence, with new approaches to the earlier Highlife style (Sir Victor Uwaifo, St Augustine, Celestine Ukwu, Harbours Band), the influence of American Soul & Funk (Funkees, Mono Mono), ideas from Fela???s Afrobeat work (Don Isaac Ezekial, Semi Colon), and some updated folk tunes (Dele Ojo). What???s nice is there are some 7??? single-only tracks that haven???t been reissued previously, in the Funkee???s case with Parts 1 & 2 stitched together for non-stop dancing pleasure. Plenty of info inside that sets the stage for this interesting era in Nigeria???s recording history, and nice pix of picture sleeves and labels, too.

Le Club De Chats - “Yes Madame! ” - [S-S Records]

MEOW! Super kitty cat themed 7″, artwork AND lyrics. Duo from Paris France! Very short songs, in the vain of a stripped down Deerhoof/Numbers/Kleenex/Monty Python skit. Mostly just drums, guitar and random objects. High pitched squeeky female vox, and funny French-man-BBC style male vox. Check their website (address on 7″ sleeve) for some more crazy kitty pics!

Tarp - “Tarp ” - [Breaking World Records]

Synth-duo of Joshua Burkett & Conrad Capistran (Sunburned Hand of the Man) make the group Tarp. Two sidelong tracks of space probing moogy drones. Feels like background music for Doctor Who. Lots of the synthy “WAH WOH WAH WOH” sounds! Side A for more bubbling hovering, lava drones. Side B for the foaming surprise attack drones. Spacey! Both sides around 3 minutes!

Sutcliffe Jugend / Prurient - “End of Autumn ” - [Troubleman Unlimited]

Sutcliffe Jugend were among the earliest pioneers of Industrial/Noise/Power Electronic noise music, started in the early 80s. SJ consists of Kevin Tomkins & Paul Taylor. Prurient is noise musician Dominick Fernow, who primarily uses just a microphone and an amp. This live 2006 collaboration between the two features lyrics from death poems by Japanese monks. Side 1, 2 & 4 are harsh, distorted, feedbacking, electronic noise tracks. Severe metal blades scraping at the back of your brain, causing bloody eyes. White noise on the TV. Side 3 is way different from the rest. It plays more on the dark, spooky, horror filled torturous nightmares. The ones where you’re bleeding from the head and trying to run in the fog filled woods, with a dagger stabbed in your thigh. Low deep grumbling electronic pulses, fucking killer! Play this when feeling anxious & murderous. Tracks range from 12-15 minutes long.

The Transhumans / +DOG+ {Love Earth Music}

A schplit between the Transhumans and +DOG+.?? TRANSHUMANS ??is Justin Cassidy & Patrick Rodriguez of Send My Regards who swirl sample savvy, synths & eerie psych electronics around Bob Sterling???s spazzy jazzy improvised drum invasions & percussive combinations.?? Transhumans divulge a 24 minute improvised electronic jazz noise session with a trippy powerful tweakitude & energy.?? Chaotic yet listenable & very well done.

DOG has 7 bones to dig up and gnaw on while you bite your own tongue.?? This is raw live action, noisy and squelchified, humming & humongous.?? It rumbles, oscillates, discharges static, saturates & inundates, even wobbles & bobbles too.?? Layered electronics, synths & more makes a shearing mess of sound that is aggressive yet not harshly obliterating.?? Still pretty fucked up, like a generator trying to pump juice into the overloaded car battery of a 1954 Ford truck whose spark plugs exploded.?? Six shorter blasts & one long sonic spillover

FCC:?? #1 COCK(-14:05 to 10:15)

Pants, James ??? Welcome {Stones Throw}

James Pant???s produced & arranged his entire Stones Throw debut from his hometown of Spokane, WA.?? Welcome this instrumental hip hop excursion through psychedelic spacey neon grooves, synth lovin??? club party favors, wobbling rubbery bass and buzzes & mellow disco flavored cuts with unmistakable clap beats.?? Some selections drop occasional harmonies & deadpan voices while others bump the rhythms beneath gaseous robotic vocals.?? The soulful effectstacy of urban new-wavish & no wavish ecstacy transmute into kraut dance-strumentals inspiring big booty shakes & squid motion steps on the dance floor.?? Very diverse styles meshing & mixing into a tasty elixir.?? Funky fresh fun for freak out on the town & lookin??? for the hip action.
FCC???:?? 16 = a Tourette???s outburst screaming SON OF A BITCH a lot!!!

Dawn & Dusk Entwined ??? Septentrion {Cold Meat Industry

I suspect most Cold Meat Industry artists relish their relative anonymity and obscurity.?? Dawn & Dusk Entwined is no exception.?? David Sabre hails from France and his Septentrion is an Old French literary term nodding towards the northern Nordic regions and it???s surrounding mystery shrouded by darkness.?? His solo creations are cloaked by slithering blackness, looming dark ambience, malicious martial raps & strikes, swelling thunderous claps & flowing liquid with touches of mystical swirling ethereality.?? Sabre also combines faint tortured echoes with age-old industrial tones & his own sporadic vocals underlain by cinematic apocalyptic neo-folk, synth strings & bleak frigid showers.?? Further proof of Cold Meat???s asounding consistency.

Chopstick - “Chopstick Floppy ” - [???? (None Listed)]

Chopstick is a guy named Andrew Surber, who goes by “Van”, out of Northern California. This is his first release, full of noisy electronic based improv. All samples and music were created by him. Tracks range from mellow guitar plunking, to guitar freakouts, to full on Tron battle mode. Video games seem to be an influence with this guy. (floppy disc!) Atari-Nintendo wars mixed with sludge noise. Bouncy ball computer guitars. Electronic space wavs. Neat shit.

Charalambides - “Rose/Thorn ” - [Klang Industries]

A sidelong and 2 mid-length improvised tracks from Tom & Christina Carter, recorded back in 2000. Long droning organ tones and bowed instruments waft through the air like frozen petals. Every now and then a vibrating guitar string, or a slight pause in the flow, gives you enough time to start breathing again. Christina’s floaty voice appears, intertwined with mellow, organic, sustaining chimes of driftness.

XYX, “Sistema de terminacio sexual”, S-S Records, 7″ 45rpm

From Nueva Leon, Mexico the duo XYX is Mou (from Bam Bam) and Se??orita Anhelo (from Mam?? Burger). This bizarre project consists of?? a bass, a drum set and a lot of delay.?? Four songs with overblown bass and drums along with fucked up vocals (sung in Spanish).

I.U.D., “Dead Womb”, The Social Registry, 7″ 45rpm

“This is the fifth release in The Social Registry???s ongoing series aptly titled The Social Club. Dispatched monthly via letter-pressed/limited edition 7-inch vinyl and digital distribution, this series presents a full musical array: the established and the obscured, the noisy and the delicate, the tempered and the experimental.” www.thesocialregistry.com The fifth offering of the ongoing Social Club series features the work of Lizzi Bougatsos (Gang Gang Dance) and long-time friend Sadie Laska (the two met in art school years ago).Self described as ???a fucked up mix of Crash Worship and Butthole Surfers”, I.U.D. offers an intense blend of off-kilter drumming, weird (sex laced) vocals and trippy samples. Watch for language on both tracks, Side A is “FF’ing” and?? Side B is “Goat Pussy”. These tracks represent the first released recordings of I.U.D.

Ayers, Kevin - “Unfairground, The ” - [Lomax]

Kevin Ayers ???The Unfairground???

As a founding member of the Soft Machine and a longtime ???Canterbury Sound??? conspirator, Kevin Ayers has had a long career in the UK and Europe but hadn???t released any new products in many years. But the time seemed right for a resurgence, with old friends (Phil Manzanera, Bridget St John) and younger artists (members of Teenage Fanclub, Gorkys Zygotic Mynci, Ladybug Transistor) paying respect by often recreating authentic baroque-psych-pop sounds of the 60s, with lavish backing tracks of horns, strings, and cooing female vocals for Ayer???s rumbling baritone to lumber over. He responds with charm and melodic flair. And Robert Wyatt gets sampled, becoming an instrument on Track 2: the Wyattron.

Ganelin, Tarasov, Chekasin - “Poi Seque ” - [Sonore]

Russian free jazz, and just an absolute monster. This CD is a 1995 release of a 1981 session recorded in Lithuania. The GTC trio lineup was together for 15 years or so throughout the 1970s-???80s, and the guys sound very comfortable with one another here. They have chops for days, and best of all they seem willing to try anything. Things keep moving during these two long pieces, with the music always seemingly heading somewhere else. Pianist Ganelin slips easily from boogie woogie quotes to stately classical to banging noise chords, and he occasionally changes things up with bugle or flute or guitar. Chekasin rips away on the sax, then all of a sudden he???s on trombone, no wait he???s back on sax again; then he???ll gently saw on a violin behind a piano or percussion passage. Tarasov is a loud, powerful jazz drummer who also gets into wind chimes and stuff. The high point for me is the final two minutes of Part 2: after an extended quiet period, things get crazy and intense, with Chekasin blowing two horns at once, then just his sax, while Ganelin???s piano and Tarasov???s drums pound and crash behind him. Brilliant stuff.

Beequeen - “Sandancing Demos ” - [Important Records]

Beequeen is Dutch musicians Freek Kinkelaar & Frans de Waard. This is actually a 10″ featuring 8 short demos for their Sandancing album. Mostly (Lou Reed-ish) male vocals, but Olga Wallis lends a female voice on a few tracks. Other guests include Barry Gray (known for his work in the early 80s with The Legendary Pink Dots) and Kees Rietveld on guitar. Simple, mellow pop songs with a semi-melancholy feel to them. Original versions, stripped down, rough mixes, and one unreleased (B1) track!

Dead Machines - “Plays Kwaidan ” - [Ideal Recordings]

Husband & wife duo John Olson (of Wolf Eyes) & Tovah O’Rourke (of Wooden Wand & the Vanishing Voice) make up Dead Machines.
Late night walks in the haunted forest. Thick fog banks. Screaming ghost trains. Damp tunnels that never end. Frozen winds that torture your ears and stiffen your nose hairs. Whispering drones of ice cold memories. This is the soundtrack to that nightmare. Two sidelong horror tracks to play in the dark.