Music Reviews

Chaotic Dischord – Don’t Throw It All Away [Puke N Vomit Records]

beastofbourbon   1/17/2022   12-inch, A Library

“Of course it was a joke, and we were actually quite disturbed when so many people took it seriously”

Evo Stix – Drummer -Vice Squad/Chaotic Dischord

Chaotic Dischord are a side project of the legendary Bristol, England punk rock band Vice Squad. Made up from a couple members and roadies as a joke in response to the anarcho-crust punk that started dominating the UK punk scene in the early 80s. The joke went over well enough to get them signed to Bristol’s Riot City along with label mates Abrasive Wheels, Chaos UK, Disorder, and The Varukers. They even gained the positive attention of the influential SF Bay Area punk ‘zine and radio show Maximum Rocknroll even though  founder Tim Yohannon was not fond of Vice Squad. They pulled it off with aggressive, crusty songs about the Government, “Sausage, Beans, and Chips’, Doc Martens, and even a couple of songs featuring Captain Sensible; one being an updated version of the Sex Pistols “Rock and Roll Swindle”. In spite of it being a joke they kept it up well into the late 80s and even re-forming for the Rebellion Festival 2022 in Blackpool, England

Beast of Bourbon

CR Dicks – Dick Moves [Slovenly]

beastofbourbon   1/17/2022   12-inch, A Library

“There is nothing wrong with your speaker. It’s supposed to sound that way”

Beast of Bourbon

Dick Moves, the sophomore release from CR Dicks is an eclectic collection of songs that grows on you. CR Dicks is a project from veterans of the Cedar Rapids, IA skate punk scene, including. Andy Caffery of ‘90s garage punk band The Horrors and Pete Balestrieri saxophonist of  Violent Femmes. All eight tracks bring different forms of music: stoney blues rock, psych, noise, hip hop, trip hop, acid jazz, and hardcore skate punk. I hope to get more of CR Dicks in the future

Beast of Bourbon

Flato, Steve/Microtonal Guitar

carsonstreet   1/12/2022   A Library, CD

Steve Flato is a composer and guitarist from San Diego, CA. He is interested in using the wide vocabulary of sounds and techniques found in experimental music to express and process his own internal experiences. He aims to use sound as a therapeutic tool by exploring anxiety, trauma, and loss and its potential for generating personal growth and meaning. Flato is concerned with process, chance, and the line between improvisation and composition, synthetic and natural sounds. A little drone, a little raga and a lot of great guitar. Experimental but strangely familiar.

Aural Hallucinations – "Hearing What You Want to See" – [Self Release]

carsonstreet   1/12/2022   A Library, CD

Although there are tacks listed on the back of the CD this is one long spacy/psychy track which runs 1:18:58. “Floating Thru Asteroids – Black Liquid – Running Squirrel – Terrorized Smoke Man – Ruptured Brain Valve – December Flashes Bye – Meditation 6 – Sour Lemon Kraut – Meditation 5 – Half Of A Stink Bug – Phat Werk – Meditation 1 – Drone” is the name of the track but Spidey does not like long track names so it will be shortened when you see it on the screen. Spoken word & Audio both with plenty of distortion and interesting twists and turns. Aural Hallucinations is a new project featuring Matt (ex-Elder) on multiple instruments (Synths, guitar, drums, bass, vocals) and Dr Space (Øresund Space Collective, Black Moon Circle, Doctors of Space) on synthesizer and mixing. They also collaborate with Luis Antero who provides us with field recordings made in Portugal. Aural Hallucinations says: “The music is meant to be listened to in one long session, therefore, we have not split it up into individual pieces. Have toke, a vape, a smoke and a really far out trip with Aural Hallucinations and we hope you get to hear what you want to see!!!”

Lamp of The Universe/Align In The Fourth Dimension

carsonstreet   1/12/2022   12-inch, A Library

This is the 6th chapter of the Psychedelic Battles. The concept of the Psychedelic Battles series is a split album between two bands. One must come from Italy. On this, Volume, 6, the band from Italy is Sherpa. The other band comes from Sweden and they are called Dean Allen Foyd. Both bands are playing modern psychedelic music.

Dean Allen Foyd is a psychedelic band based in Stockholm, Sweden, with a wide range of music styles. Syd Barrett’s Pink Floyd, Arthur Lee’s Love and Captain Beefheart can be seen as some of their influences, but at the same time the band takes a step forward making their sound modern and updated.

Sherpa are from Sherpa, Italy and are described as psychedelic occult band. Bandcamp says of Sherpa: ” Sherpa is the new course. Sherpa is what was born from the ashes of Edith Aufn. It’s a necessary change, a natural evolution.”

The A side belongs to the Swedish guys. Dean Allen Foyd have managed since 2010 to establish their own unique style and the opener here “Atlas” is a characteristic Dean Allen Foyd track with a bluesy psych aura and a sharp late 60s rock edge. “The Return Of Burt Burrito” is a heavy rock instrumental while “The Shifting” is a psychedelic rocker, infused with huge amounts of high quality “psychedelic substances”.  The ‘A’ side closes with “My Bloody Walls”, full of acoustic guitars, harmonica, and a bluesy attitude emerging an acid spacey psych feel.

Side ‘B’ is two tracks by Sherpa. “Look To La Luna” starts by creating modern trippy soundscapes, atmospheric and mind-bending, with a spacey edge, becoming “controlled” heavy towards the end with this lazy torturous guitar feedback. “Moon’s Biology Portrait” has a creepy atmosphere under a foggy haunted psych background, a late-night effected tune becoming psychedelically trippy.

Dean Allen Foyd Vs Sherpa: Psychedelic Battles 6 [coll]

carsonstreet   1/12/2022   12-inch, A Library

This is the 6th chapter of the Psychedelic Battles. The concept of the Psychedelic Battles series is a split album between two bands. One must come from Italy. On this, Volume, 6, the band from Italy is Sherpa. The other band comes from Sweden and they are called Dean Allen Foyd. Both bands are playing modern psychedelic music.

Dean Allen Foyd is a psychedelic band based in Stockholm, Sweden, with a wide range of music styles. Syd Barrett’s Pink Floyd, Arthur Lee’s Love and Captain Beefheart can be seen as some of their influences, but at the same time the band takes a step forward making their sound modern and updated.

Sherpa are from Sherpa, Italy and are described as psychedelic occult band. Bandcamp says of Sherpa: ” Sherpa is the new course. Sherpa is what was born from the ashes of Edith Aufn. It’s a necessary change, a natural evolution.”

The A side belongs to the Swedish guys. Dean Allen Foyd have managed since 2010 to establish their own unique style and the opener here “Atlas” is a characteristic Dean Allen Foyd track with a bluesy psych aura and a sharp late 60s rock edge. “The Return Of Burt Burrito” is a heavy rock instrumental while “The Shifting” is a psychedelic rocker, infused with huge amounts of high quality “psychedelic substances”.  The ‘A’ side closes with “My Bloody Walls”, full of acoustic guitars, harmonica, and a bluesy attitude emerging an acid spacey psych feel.

Side ‘B’ is two tracks by Sherpa. “Look To La Luna” starts by creating modern trippy soundscapes, atmospheric and mind-bending, with a spacey edge, becoming “controlled” heavy towards the end with this lazy torturous guitar feedback. “Moon’s Biology Portrait” has a creepy atmosphere under a foggy haunted psych background, a late-night effected tune becoming psychedelically trippy.

Suzuki, Damo / Numinous Eye / Eto, Steve/High School Pharmacy

carsonstreet   1/12/2022   12-inch, A Library

Recorded live at Pink Noise, Tokyo March 8, 2007.

Damo Suzuki is a Japanese musician who has been living in Germany since the early 1970s and is best known as the former lead singer of Can (1970-1973).

Numinous Eye is a project of guitarist Mason Jones (formerly of SubArachnoid Space). Usually working with a drummer, plying psychedelic waters filled with noisy waves of guitar, synth, and more.

Steve Eto is a Japanese percussionist. Born April 20, 1958 in Los Angeles. His younger brother is the percussionist Leonard Eto.

Mason Jones says: “In the spring of 2007 Numinous Eye had a short tour of Japan planned. We had all the shows booked and our plane ticket purchased. Then I discovered that Damo was visiting Japan around the same time. After a quick email we found that he was free to play on March 8, which was the date we would be arriving in Japan! It was providence, so we arranged to play together, and Damo invited Steve Eto as well. Playing an improvised show, with no planning ahead of time, after a transcontinental flight, was probably not wise, but it was psychedelic. And it was great.”

Bipolar Explorer/Recordings For The Dark Outside

carsonstreet   1/12/2022   A Library, CD

The Dark Outside began as a pop-up radio station playing obscure new music in a remote forest. The Dark Outside FM is an eccentric radio station where 24 hours of tailor-made music, that’s never been heard before, is broadcast to the remote Galloway Forest Park in southern Scotland. It began in 2012 when the forest’s artists in residence offered “noise terrorist” Stuart MacLean, aka Frenchbloke, use of a radio transmitter and he “came up with this stupid idea to play music that nobody has ever heard to a place nobody might hear it,” he says. “As far as I know it’s the only radio station where you have to leave your house to listen to it.” Bipolar Explorer has gathered their contributions to The Dark Outside from the years 2019 to 2021 on this CD. Experimental tracks one and all so take a listen.

Crust “Stoic” [No Name]

atavist   1/11/2022   A Library, CD

I slipped a limb into the Slim Bin to reveal a fresh cut of doom metal from Russia. Crust wear their hearts, and their rather earnest lyrics, on their sleeves—all in English, and surprisingly easy to discern. What sticks out to me is the unusual production that brings the vocals to the forefront more than other projects working in the same vein. Mournful, dabbling in faster death metal passages on one track, and stonery guitar meanderings on the next. It was a riff on the third track, A Blind Man in Darkness, where something clicked and I started to see Crust’s full potential emerge. I find myself enjoying the instrumentation despite the self-help/don’t fall victim to your urges/be a stoic! vibe to the lyrics. This is one of the weirder doom records I’ve reviewed for that reason alone. Once we settle into the second half of the album, the works seem more encumbered by resignation than truly unbridled by rage. Tracks six and seven nearly collapse under their own weight, but a more patient listen will discover finer elements. The instrumental closing track, Desert, provides a relief from the vocals with some borderline psych feels from the soaring guitar.

Rider / Horse “Select Trials” [Ever / Never]

atavist   1/11/2022   12-inch, A Library

Those familiar with Spray Paint will recognize the spoken/chanted vocal stylings of Cory Plump. Here he’s getting through a pandemic with some jangly, angular, minimalistic rock in collaboration with Chris Turco, who has contributed to projects like Trans Am and Les Savy Fav. We encounter pounding rhythms, jittery guitars, and various electronically induced textures running underneath. Some amorphous weirdness on the last two tracks must be the pedal steel by Zoots Houston. The sound quality is a little sharper than some Spray Paint stuff I’ve heard—props to Turco for handling the engineering where they opted to make this thing, in Plump’s COVID-shut down music venue. The sound is sharp, anxious, and full despite the minimal instrumentation. A dance of structure and discohesion. Chime Inn and Code Clicker are early favorites. “I’m growing tired of getting tired” he says in The Windows are Your Arms. For real.

File #733 UFO: Further Investigation [coll] – [Modern Harmonic]

Jay Omega   1/9/2022   12-inch, A Library

This is a unique double LP. It is basically a kit for blending a narrated interview with a Psych/Experimental/Electronic bed. The first LP is a reissue of a series of interviews narrated by Jack Jenkins from 1966, with the vintage sound and production you’d expect. The interviews are all with people who have either seen UFO’s, interacted directly with aliens, or have some other relevant expertise. The second LP is designed to be the bed for the first LP and consists of a collection of pieces by various musicians, including some A-listers like Mugstar, Kikagaku Moyo, and White Manna. These contributions have been overlapped and cross faded into one continuous track per side.  What’s great about this format is you can create your own blending by substituting something for one of the LPs. Or forgo the mixing and just play any part standalone. The point, I think, is to have fun with this.

Nubdug Ensemble – “Volume 2: Blame” – [Pest Colors Music]

whngr   1/5/2022   A Library, CD

A sweet piquant of subliminal pneu(ro)ma(n)tic space-lounge orchestral funk.

Strange machines lurch and sway in a hazy Beat cafe on the forty-second deck of a Moon buoy orbiting Ganymede. An eight-armed Sentient Hologram™ of F. V. Zappa conducts a Stravinski concerto accompanied by Mavis Diles (from the Mancini quadrant) on Polytübophon  to a diverse pan-galactic audience bathed in pastel gradients. Several notable figures from the Alien Underground Movement are in attendance, they stand akimbo and consider fractal artifice koans while anthropomorphic felines in sunglasses smoke long cigarettes, awaiting the next Celestial Crawler from the Gamelan sector and the shipment of replicant Mask-trout in its serpentine bowels.

The second outing from Nudbug Ensemble is a strange and up-beat exploration of polyrhythmic extraliminal psychedelia in many various time signatures and modalities. Strange and wildly creative, the vocals of Jill Rogers elevate the bouncing funk and careening jazz foundation of Jason Berry’s (Vacuum Tree Head) latest compositions. Of special interest to this miserable volunteer is the visual art associated with the project rendered by Berry who has continued to explore his bizarre and oblique themes to an increasingly compelling effect. 

San Francisco – 2021

Hyrrokkin / Merzbow – “Faltered Pursuit” – [Sleeping Giant Glossolalia]

whngr   1/5/2022   12-inch, A Library

Weirdo freak-out three piece Hyrrokkin (Yellow Springs, Ohio) join forces with seminal noise project Merzbow (Tokyo, Japan) like an international, sonic sūpā robotto, four separate entities uniting into one electronic ultra-unit, sworn to perforate eardrums and undermine sensible sound appreciation. 

Side A consists of two slightly more subdued, though still raucous, tracks with conventional instrumentation employing poly-metered art rock bursts, processed accordion and diminutive electronics. The reverse is a more oblique collection of mid-weight electronic abstraction and sound collage with meandering, buried vocals and apparently is a remix of side A by one Rob Mazurek though without knowing such one might be hard pressed to hear the source material extant in the side long track.

The name Hyrrokkin is taken from Old-Norse mythology. She was a jötunn (an entity that is similar to a frost giant that is not necessarily dissimilar to a god or a troll) who played an important role in the last decades Iceland’s pagan beliefs.
Merzbow or Mertsubau is drawn from the Dadaist, Surrealist, Constructionist, work of Kurt Schwitters who informed Masami Akita’s interest in the junk art aesthetic.

Transglobal – 2021

Cougar On a Meth Binge – “Dreamy Pea, The” – [C.S. Hellmann]

whngr   1/5/2022   A Library, CD

Cougar On A Meth Binge is a bit of an antonym as the sultry, subdued sounds on “The Dreamy Pea” are pulled from lead singer Lauren Alegre’s dream diary and contain mellifluous, floating, lilting, minimal pop for the sleepy and somnambulant. Recorded at Savvy Rest Natural Bedroom, a mattress store in Berkeley, reinforcing a commitment to the extrusions of the subconscious. Track 4, “Cutie Face” has a slightly more driving rhythm but retains some of the drifting Alpha-wave subliminal exposition present in all of these beautifully sweet and woefully short tracks.

Oakland – 2018

Dissevelt, Tom & Kid Baltan – "Fascinating World of Electronic Music, The" – [We Are Busy Bodies]

cinder   1/5/2022   12-inch, A Library

A reissue of the great 1959 album from Dutch electronic musicians Tom Dissevelt and Kid Baltan. It’s spy noir jazz, electronic squiggles and squirms, playful rhythms, BBC Radiophonic Workshop-esque, 50’s Disney documentary & mid century futuristic visions all mixed together. Magical, charming and whimsical fun! Each track really tells a story with the layout of sounds and themes.

Gustafsson, Mats & Nordwall, Joachim – "Shadows of Tomorrow" – [Astral Spirits]

cinder   1/5/2022   7-inch, A Library

Both Gustafsson & Nordwall are Swedish fish. Mats is a free jazz saxophone guy, using the his breath in experimental ways with the horn, lots of breathy winds and spazz. Nordwall formed iDEAL recordings, and also goes by the alias The iDEALIST. He brings the lurky dark electronics that are the underbelly of a creepy sax. 

Century Plants – "Intrinsic Geometry Vol. 1" – [Tape Drift Records]

cinder   1/5/2022   A Library, CD

Duo out of New York. These improvised tracks were recorded without overdubs in August 2014 and April 2016. Drifting endlessly through haze covered hills and sun drenched highways. Guitar and electronic drone explorations that relax you into a deep hypnosis. Lovely textures and tendrils of wafty psych.

Blectum From Blechdom – "Deep Bone" – [Deathbomb Arc]

cinder   1/5/2022   12-inch, A Library

Duo of composed of Kevin Blechdom (Kristin Grace Erickson) and Blevin Blectum (Bevin Kelley). Quirky, magical and entertaining spunky electronic cacophonies of interesting sounds and whimsical treats! A few with effected vox in robotical ways. Super fun and playful.
Two covers – Jackie (written by Jacques Brel, Gérard Jouannest, and Mort Shuman), and Noise About Boys (Olsen Twins, haha) featuring Eugene S Robinson beat boxing (Oxbow)!   

Wasted Cathedral – "I'm Gonna Love You 'til The End of Time" – [Centripetal Force / Cardinal Fuzz]

cinder   1/5/2022   12-inch, A Library

Hypnotic, drifty and transcendal. Solo project of Saskatoon-based musician Christopher Laramee (Shooting Guns, The Switching Yard, and The Radiation Flowers). This is definitely one to bring together both the psych heads and the electronic peeps. It’s chill, has a downtempo vibe, but also uses droned guitars and pedals for a floating tendril feel. Has the perfect rainy day, window gazing, cozy blanket and hot sipping broth vibe. They say if you’re into Flying Saucer Attack, DJ Shadow, Spiritualized, and Portishead (no vocals) you’ll dig this and I agree. Lovely!  

Chaudhary, Amanda – “Meow Meow Band” [CatSynth Records]

Max Level   1/3/2022   A Library, CD

Good-natured, jazzy electronic pop from Bay Area mover and shaker Chaudhary and a talented cast of players. The first track is a mysterious invocation of some kind that sounds very different from the rest of the tracks, which tend to be bright and uptempo. Chaudhary’s keyboards and synths are the backbone of these tunes, some of which also feature nice saxophone work by Steve Adams of ROVA. The rhythm section (Jamaaladeen Tacuma on bass guitar and G. Calvin Weston on drums) shines throughout. Tracks 3 and 5 are instrumentals and track 6 is mostly so. Those are the tracks I prefer.