12/18/2008

Angus MacLise - Invasion of the Thunderbolt Pagoda



When Lou Reed ditched this shamanic man from the original lineup of VU, obviously he made a terrible mistake. After leaving the Velvet Underground for good, Angus traveled around between North Africa, India, Greece, the Middle East and finally finding his place in Nepal. A student of both La Monte Young and Aleister Crowley, he would begin to blend Tibetan mysticism with his music to create magical forms of transcendent sound through various drone techniques. If you try this album, then you will likely to find that the Skaters' music is the mammoth serenaded by this dinosaur music. You just can't describe this. Try it.

Angus MacLise - Invasion of the Thunderbolt Pagoda

12/16/2008

Teeth Mountain - Tour EP



Baltimorean tribal troopers Teeth Mountain's Tour EP. Heavy sets of voodoo percussions mixed with droning rainbow piss electrocuted in seas of electronic bliss. Great stuff!

Teeth Mountain - Tour EP

12/10/2008

Dara Puspita - A Go Go...



Now then, most of my posts are psych-out gatherings but this one is slightly off the hook. Dara Puspita is the only Indonesian garage girl band from the sixites. The band was a popular attraction in Indonesia and also in the region, playing to enthusiastic crowds in neighbouring countries, such as Thailand and Malaysia. In 1968 they took the almost unprecedented move for an Indonesian band of trying their luck in Europe and spent the next few years touring in England, Holland, France, Belgium, Spain, Germany and Hungary. They even played in Turkey and Iran. While in England they recorded two singles for CBS and recorded another for Philips in Holland. In late 1971 the band returned to Indonesia and played a number of concerts, but enthusiasm was starting to wane and in April 1972 they played their last show. But their music never dies. Never!

Dara Puspita - A Go Go...

12/09/2008

Zak Riles - Zak Riles



Grails' brain Zak Riles has take on Fahey and other guitar raga apparitions. Essential listening for followers of Important Records who favor the peaceful minds of rocky shores meditation for the good souls. Current Favorite.

Zak Riles - Zak Riles

Mammatus - The Coast Explodes



Hailing from Santa Cruz County, California, these massive saturn rockers invites you to attend the most insane cosmic rock & roll party ever and get really baked on their thunderous licks of sun heat riffs that washes into darks & lights over the reminiscence of Sabbath, Hawkwind and other smokey heroes of the galaxy.

Mammatus - The Coast Explodes

12/04/2008

Boduf Songs - The Strait Gait



Southampton creepster Matt Sweet came out with another midnight music with timely splashing cymbals, scratchy guitar sounds and deep thunderous drones. Latitudes releases are undoubtedly mental. Hit this.

Boduf Songs - The Strait Gait

Stag Hare - Black Medicine Music



My new favorite chakra-aligner!! Stag Hare is probably one of the most intriguing ethno-ambient chiefs who can guide your soul through the metaphysical journey to another dimensions. Mastered by another greater chief, Adam Forkner, this piece of jewel is highly, highly recommended.

Stag Hare - Black Medicine Music

AKA - Forever in Rock



Okay so this is a great album from the late 70's by the great prog gods from Indonesia, AKA. Afro-powered heavy distortion meets mathematic funky beats and undead anti-stoner vocals of Ucok AKA will easily bring your house down to the very bits. Sober jams but not for the weak hearts.

AKA - Forever in Rock

11/25/2008

Lilypad - Capacitor



Lilypad is 1/3 of the mighty Emeralds. This cassette offers washes of envelope filters and dreamy LFOs and other alien stuff your brain just couldn't handle. Perfect for self-hypnosis evening.

Lilypad - Capacitor

11/24/2008

Sunburned Hand of the Man/Emeralds - What If God Was on the Subway?/Smoke This Now (Split)



This is one of the best split albums ever. You think you are hearing Skaters while its actually Sunburned and Emeralds is getting better and better with their unreal fogs of noises. Must check this out.

Sunburned/Emeralds - Split

No-Neck Blues Band - Clomeim



Mind-blowingly good twisted improv from New York's No-Neck Blues Band. This new album is brilliantly all over the place, taking in a tremendous range of stylistic stopping off points, all handled with the utmost freedom and spontaneity by these seasoned psych-blues travellers.

NNCK - Clomeim

Balmorhea - Tour EP 2008



Pronounced ‘Bal-moor-ay’, the Texan duo of Rob Lowe and Michael Muller have composed a tranquil, glistening affair brimming with organic instrumentation and bereft of any focus-slipping lyricism. Mirroring the vast Texas skies, Balmorhea's music is imbued with a visceral weight and endless space. Tour EP 2008.

link removed by request

11/10/2008

Natural Snow Buildings - The Sundowner



France's mighty NSB is Mehdi Ameziane and Solange Gularte. Over the course of several releases, their music has become the stuff of legend. This is their latest stuff. Must check out.

Natural Snow Buildings - The Sundowner

Eric Copeland - Alien in a Garbage Dump



Taking off where his last record, "Hermaphrodite" left off, these seven jams are steeped in modern media overload; dense, often fragmented blasts of ideas and sounds, representative of a half hour of prime-time TV (or something like that). This is overloaded, over-processed, overdosed music rooted in public sounds, but is somehow a giant leap from any fashion dominating the public mind.

Eric Copeland - Alien in a Garbage Dump

11/06/2008

Magical Power Mako - Super Record



Mako was born in Shuzeni Izu in Japan in 1956, and after commencing his musical education at a young age, making his first public performance in 1973 at the age of 16 with his band Genge in the famous Shibuya Club. Based on these impressive public performances, the precocious Mako was invited to play with one of Japan's foremost contemporary composers, Toru Takemistu, playing alongside the composer in 3 film scores, Inheritance For The Future, Petrified Forest and Himiko. The response to his performances was overwhelmingly enthusiastic, elevating Mako to almost god-like status in his native country. Super Record, the second of Magical Power Mako's 20-plus recordings, is considered by those that know to be his finest, combining strong elements of Japanese folk music alongside innovative psychedelic sounds and broad musical vistas of extraordinary imagination.

Magical Power Mako - Super Record

10/29/2008

Greg Weeks - The Hive



Best known for his work with Philadelphian psychedelic folksters Espers, Greg Weeks returns with his new album ‘The Hive’. Key to the album's sound was the acquisition of a vintage Mellotron keyboard and there’s even a cover version of Madonna’s ‘Borderline’. Recommended.

Greg Weeks - The Hive

10/26/2008

Hush Arbors - Hush Arbors



Virginian forest folk wizard Keith Wood, has come out with a new formula and created the mighty Self-Titled album of Hush Arbors. Combining the pensive songwriting of John Phillips circa Wolfking, the plaintive honesty of Neil Young, and the fishtank-gazing cacophony of Six Organs of Admittance, Wood writes classic-sounding songs that sound readymade for AM radio, circa 1968. Additional guitar by Ben Chasny.

Hush Arbors - Hush Arbors

10/22/2008

Magik Markers - Gucci Rapidshare Download



"gucci rapidshare download is the magik markers at their most intense and subversive. ready to rock your ass with more than just guitar and drums, the markers are coming at you this time around with violins, manipulated dumpster-dived hip hop tapes, synths, joshua burkett on organ, ben chasny on acoustic guitar and all sorts of other fun. despite all of these other diverse elements, the old-style guitar/drum freak out "the clement, the concealing" is the single most shredding moment in the band's complete catalog. grab a six pack and enjoy." -threelobed

Magik Markers - Gucci Rapidshare Download

10/16/2008

Jackie-O Motherfucker - Freedomland



Portland-based space commuter, Jackie-O Motherfucker aka Tom Greenwood has a new album compiling series of their live tour during 2006. Avant-garde style dive bars with loads of alcohol induced crowd heard from track through another. Freely improvised, unusual, yet very entertaining piece.

Jackie-O Motherfucker - Freedomland

10/07/2008

Super Minerals - The Pelagics



"A new age slowburner that leads the listener on drone-descent through the five classified depth zones of the ocean – the pelagics. The deeper the Minerals duo dive, the stranger their field transmissions and creature encounters become. Whale moan symphonies, sonar decay, poisonous urchin, squid in telepathic sex-trance, underwater lava, and the bones of our ancestors who fought for their land over the face of the sea."

Super Minerals - The Pelagics

Pocahaunted - Chains



The new stunning output from the Olsen Twins of drone music. Dubbed-out sioux rituals with extra mantric howl vibes but less schizophrenic and surprisingly feels a bit happy. Huge recommendation.

Pocahaunted - Chains

10/06/2008

Magic Lantern - High Beams



The full-length psych bliss we've been dying for. No need to acid-talk about this release no more, for this is one of the best stuff ever made this year. Now throw your sun shades away cos Magic Lantern's blinding high beams will definitely make your brain self-illuminate in the deepest trance state. No bad trip, guaranteed.

Magic Lantern - High Beams part 1
Magic Lantern - High Beams part 2

Robbie Basho - Venus in Cancer



Robbie Basho released Venus in Cancer in 1969 on the Blue Thumb label. After five albums for the Takoma label in the 60's, Basho had cemented his reputation alongside John Fahey and Leo Kottke as one of the most brilliant guitarists of his generation. His wide range of musical influences from around the globe set him apart from other blues-based players, incorporating Arabic, Himalayan and Indian themes, Japanese and Chinese scales, and classical and European folk music. All are on magnificent display on this sprawling, spiritually-charged album.

Robbie Basho - Venus in Cancer

9/28/2008

Suarasama - Fajar di Atas Awan



Founded in 1995, Suarasama, a Sumatran group led by composer Irwansyah Harahap forms most of the songs around stringed instruments and plays three – guitar, oud (a.k.a. ‘ud), and a Malay lute called a gambus. Many of the songs feature female singer Rianthony Hutajulu. They plays contemporary music, exploring conceptually or instrumentally the sounds of African, Middle Eastern, Indian, Sufi, Pakistani, Easter European and Southeast Asian traditions. Fajar di Atas Awan (Dawn over the Clouds) was originally recorded by Philip Yampolsky in 1997, towards the end of his work on Smithsonian Folkways’s Music of Indonesia series. And now, re-released by Drag City, the tag world music is now a free-folk. Highly recommended.

Suarasama - Fajar di Atas Awan

9/21/2008

Tangerine Dream - Green Desert



This 5th release of German kraut gods Tangerine Dream is originally recorded in 1973 but released in the mid 80's. These proto-experimental tracks deploy acoustic drumming, weird percussions and ambient synths yet still manages to remain musical in its time. Perfect for your evening paper time.

Tangerine Dream - Green Desert

9/20/2008

Megapuss - Surfing



Devendra Banhart: “Well, I have a band — it’s me and the drummer from Priestbird, Greg Rogove. What started off as a joke — “Let’s start a band and let’s make up song titles” — to our surprise and shock, we started writing songs, and we’ve written eight songs that I’m really really proud of and excited about. We’re gonna record a real record, and we’re called MEGAPUSS.”

Megapuss - Surfing

9/13/2008

MV & EE with The Golden Road - Astral Bleachers, Big Moment: Pete's Pick Volume I



Deluxe limited edition CD-R in pro-printed gatefold sleeves featuring the first instalment from legendary king of the tapers’ pit Pete Coward and his pick of recent live blats from Matthew Valentine, Erika Elder and their flower travelin' Golden Road. The tracks seem focussed on the kind of motion that would highlight moments of weird pan-cultural/methodological osmosis, with live takes that run from some of the most beautiful group-mind mass flux orchestrations through classic barn-stomping big band hoedowns. Even Zuma danced to this.

MV & EE with The Golden Road - Astral Bleachers, Big Moment: Pete's Pick Volume I (Link by a good friend, TheBlackPope.)

Gang Gang Dance - Saint Dymphna



The NY wyrd dance party gang did it again! this time with more psycho beats, dubstep injection, brain-melting electronic glitcheries and even a ghetto hip hop collaboration with MC Tinchy Strider! from a great expectations come great satisfaction. DANCE!

Gang Gang Dance - Saint Dymphna

9/07/2008

Sun Araw - Boat Trip



Cameron Stallones, the co-pilot of the Long Beach Travellers "Magic Lantern" has come out with another stunning soundtrack to tropical rainforest psych party following the marvelous "The Phynx". This 2 tracks carbon-rusted noise gem is one of the best pick of the year.

Sun Araw - Boat Trip

9/05/2008

Brightblack Morning Light - Motion to Rejoin



Listening to the 3rd album from the New Mexico-based duo of Rachael Hughes and Nathan Shineywater, is like having a small teepee barbecue party in the chilly open air of the Appalachian mountains. A very very perfect album for a trippy summer evening. Light the roachos up, brother.

Brightblack Morning Light - Motion to Rejoin

9/01/2008

Nisennenmondai - Neji/Tori



Nisennenmondai, a group that creates epic architectural masses of instrumental sound treading somewhere between Lightning Bolt’s noise and Neu!’s Krautrock. Himeno Sayaka, Zaikawa Yuri and Takada Masako met at a noise club while in university in 1999, but apart from a string of self-released EPs and various hand-pressed cassettes/CD-Rs, the group has not released a proper full-length, and has been difficult to source outside of Japan. Neji/Tori is a compilation of two previous EPs that serves as a good introduction to the band’s sound; the songs are stylistically similar enough that there’s no problem in sticking them alongside one another. Twisted kawaiiness.

Nisennenmondai - Neji/Tori

Koi Pond - Volcano



Koi Pond is a three piece from NYC made up of some generally awesome dudes. Erik Roper plays bass and is a legendary artist/illustrator who does work for numerous bands, labels and publications such as Arthur, Southern Lord etc. while also playing in other bands such as Under Satans Sun and Mattalama. Pete Vogal plays synth while also jamming in Bow Ribbons, and designs arwork for clothes, David Aron plays drums, is the perpetrator for Little Cakes Gallery, used to skateboard alot, makes rad visual artwork, and jams in USUN with Mark Borthwick and Hisham Bharoocha. Despite these dudes epic resumes, Koi Pond is epic all on its own. Volcano is all about cosmic grooves, deep often minimal, endless repetitions that slowly evolve into more psyched out blissed out trances. Roper and Arons tight rhythmic foundations create the perfect backdrop for Vogal's synth improvisations. This is a meditative listen that never gets old, it just keeps grooving on and on forever. Like Neu! covering Dark Magus in a Tibetan Monastery.

Koi Pond - Volcano part 1
Koi Pond - Volcano part 2

8/24/2008

Popol Vuh - Das Hohelied Salomos



Popol Vuh emerged from the Krautrock movement and was the first German band to employ the Moog Synthesizer. Popol Vuh was founded by mastermind Florian Fricke in Munich in 1970 and are known as pioneers of electronic music as well as the predecessors of the 90's ambient and trance genre. The name and the book Popol Vuh stems from Incan mythology and is the memory of the evolution of humanity. The roots of all stairs to rainbow.

Popol Vuh - Das Hohelied Salomos

8/23/2008

Religious Knives - The Door



New dope leak, enough said. A summer record for those dread days when the heat holds low and skin sticks to cheap car seats and old patio furniture. These six songs are brighter, sharper than anything that has come before, locking in tight on jugular rhythms. Grab this.

Religious Knives - The Door

8/15/2008

High Places - s/t



The holographic finish line of our buttered anticipation! SELF TITLED! The band creates their layered recordings with Mary Pearson singing and simultaneously manipulating her vocals with various delay and reverb pedals, while playing some hand percussion, recorders, and creating and controlling various loops. Rob Barber handles the drums triggering a variety of percussive sounds with his drum pads, as well as playing hand percussion, wooden blocks with contact mics, and singing some ambient vocals. High Places’ self-titled debut was recorded by Rob and Mary in their apartment in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighborhood between January and May of 2008. So yeah this is it! this is what you guys been looking for yeah? Enough said about these guys! Hit it!

High Places - s/t

8/10/2008

Astral Social Club - Skelp/Ginnel



For Neil Campbell, the ascent to ecstasy has been at the center of his work with the Vibracathedral Orchestra; Astral Social Club is his solo vehicle, and it stands as perhaps the purest expression of his art of the ecstatic on record. Up to now, Astral Social Club’s music has only been available in limited run CD-R pressings. This record is a self-styled “mega-mix” of Astral Social Club highlights culled from those releases. He may be a master of droned out noise, but he's been flirting with club music on and off for the last few years, each full length hiding at least one dancefloor gem, and so Mr. Neil Campbell, ex of Vibracathedral Orchestra, now of Astral Social Club, at least on this here new 7”, is all about the tripped out psychedelic electronic groove with bonus remixes by John Clyde-Evans, Magnetize and RICHARD YOUNGS. MUST HAVE!

Astral Social Club - Skelp/Ginnel

8/09/2008

Lanterns - Mad River



Hailing from Leeds, UK, Lanterns are Rhid Williams, Luke Vollar and Andreas Jonsson. Sonic vibrations of meandering drones resonating in eerie Taj Mahal Travellers-like mushrooms stuffed with chimes, ebowed strings, subtle electronics and other shimmering nightly meditation tools. The track begins with a repetitive but uncompromising drum rythm which occupies pretty much the whole 20 minutes. It starts slow and meditative, but soon various layers of guitar, feedback and violin (burried there somewhere) start to build more and more tension. Torwards the end it turns into a powerful splutter of guitar noise, feedback and fierce drum pounding. Do not wear your life vest.

Lanterns - Mad River

8/07/2008

Boredoms - Seadrum/House of Sun



Honouring the goddess of sun, the Amaterasu, Boredoms (with Gang Gang Dance & Hisham Bharoocha) will conduct an 88 minutes colossal taiko war between 88 drummers TOMORROW in NY and LA, following the prior '77 BoaDrum' last year. To honour this holiest event, please load down this beautiful, rhythmic gallop of harmonic singing, freeform piano, chaotic harp and some of the most insane drumming you will ever hear in your life. My favorite Boredoms release. Tan tan tatatan!

Boredoms - Seadrum/House of Sun

8/05/2008

Ben Reynolds - Two Wings



Glasgow, Scotland guitarist Ben Reynolds has been a prominent player in and contributor to the United Kingdom's fertile underground psych/drone scene for many years. A current member of the long-running and highly influential Ashtray Navigations, Reynolds appears on numerous recordings in the tight-knit UK drone cabal, including those by the venerable Vibracathedral Orchestra and Sunroof, and is also active via his duo project Motor Ghost with Directing Hand's Alex Neilsen. Entirely improvised, Two Wings effortlessly weaves shimmering melodic lines together to form spontaneous compositions of dazzling depth and clarity. Incorporating a variety of pacing techniques with his fingerpicking style, Reynolds explores a linearity that harkens back to the American ragas of Robbie Basho, while exposing Middle Eastern influences much like the acoustic trickery of Sir Richard Bishop. The last tune on Two Wings is a written composition, utterly graceful yet striking in its similarities to the spontaneous compositions, underlying the lyrical quality in Reynold's music making. Two Wings is a remarkably unique, non-traditional take on the steel string tradition from a budding musical talent.

Ben Reynolds - Two Wings

8/04/2008

The Holy Modal Rounders - The Moray Eels Eat the Holy Modal Rounders



The Holy Modal Rounders' fourth album finds Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber joining forces with the Moray Eels, the morerock-oriented sideline band Stampfel had formed with drummer and playwright Sam Shepard, to make the weirdest album of their entire entertainingly bizarre career. THE MORAY EELS EAT THE HOLY MODAL ROUNDERS starts with the utterly loopy "Bird Song" and only gets more strange and fragmented from there. It's not just all freaky and noisy, though: songs like the genuinely lovely "One Will Do For Now" and "Dame Fortune" are actually pretty and melodic, and others, like "Half A Mind", work up a good boogie-rock head of steam. But then there's the unfathomable sonic morass "Mobile Line" and the cheerfully out-of-it "The STP Song", which are about as weird asrock got in the '60s. THE MORAY EELS EAT THE HOLY MODAL ROUNDERS is a true cracked acid-folk classic.

The Holy Modal Rounders - The Moray Eels Eat the Holy Modal Rounders

8/03/2008

Justice Yeldham

Just saw this guy last night at an art school in Jakarta. Fucking amazing!












Check him out here.

Photos by Moses Sihombing

7/30/2008

James Ferraro - Alternative Soundtrack to: Scream in Blue Surf Video



If you are new to the non-toxic humidity of the jungle of The Skaters' music, you might want to try half of it. James Ferraro is the Yang of the joint, sometimes emerge from the darkness of your barn as Pacific Rat Temple Band, Lamborghini Crystal, and other satin smelling smoke entities. Mixing crocodile's eye balls with various kinds of hawaiian red lava honeydews, Alternative Soundtrack to: Scream in Blue Surf Video is a good starter for your foggy morning. Coolness.

James Ferraro - Alternative Soundtrack to: Scream in Blue Surf Video

7/28/2008

Barn Owl - Smoke Loom Ceremony



Rainbow chaser duo from San Francisco, Barn Owl is lurking in the hazy dark throne speaking in tongues of deep heavy riffs, banjo spirits, vibrating guitar cuts, mantric vocal blurs, and mind-shifting tribal drum vibes. But Barn Owl is not there to haunt. Catch them.

Barn Owl - Smoke Loom Ceremony

7/27/2008

Peaking Lights - Clearvoiant



Peaking Lights is Aaron and Indra (also of Numbers) from Rah Dunes new duo project recently relocated to rural Wisconsin from the Bay Area. Floating electronic pulses, controlled feedback, tape loops, organ, snyth, guitar, and vocal harmonies layered into waves of four track noise pop goodness. The perfect soundtrack to walking in mysterious places, haunted neighborhoods, lost river banks, and bike rides at night. This release really glows and grows. - Night People.

Peaking Lights - Clearvoiant

7/25/2008

Chris Watson + BJ Nilsen - Storm



Track Listing and notes:

1. Chris Watson - No Man's Land 15:51

Late October on the strands of Budle Bay where dense layers of transient alien voices are swamped by a full moon tide creeping across the island’s silver causeway.

Now lapping out of the gathering gloom an immersive sea wash is filling then draining away carrying slow currents from here to another place.

There are no reference points in this darkness.

Glimmer dawn in the gaping mouth of a sea cave below Tarbet Gulley where the siren songs of Cromarty, Forth & Tyne ebb and flow with the swell.

Draw in close but hear now a fresh voice from beyond the horizon.

Recorded during the months of October & November from 2000 to 2005 on the North East coast of England and Scotland. Microphones; Sennheiser 2 x MKH 110's binaural pair, MKH 60/30 M&S rig, DPA 2 x 4060's spaced omnis. Recorders; Nagra lV-S, Nagra Pll and Sound Devices 744T. Edited and Mixed in Boston July 2006

2. BJNilsen & Chris Watson – SIGWX 18:50

Viking, Forties; Cyclonic North East gale 8 backing North later 3 to 4.Thundery rain, moderate to good.

Mixed in Boston and Stockholm June & July 2006

3. BJNilsen – Austrvegr 15:28

A black ruthless sea. Heavy winds making it impossible to stand up straight, icy rain hitting your face like needles.

Recorded on the southeast coast of islands Gotland and Ă–land, Sweden, using a pair of Sennheiser 110 binaural mics straight to a Tascam DA P1 DAT during December 2003 and July 2004. Locations used included cottages, sheds, barns, fields and the coast. Edited and Mixed in Stockholm 2006

Chris Watson + BJ Nilsen - Storm

Psychic Ills - Dins



Psychic Ills's first full length "Dins" takes the band well beyond their astounding live dynamic of circular rhythm and guitar theatrics. They seamlessly blend non-traditional instrumentation and studio improvisation with a surging rock dynamic into an incredibly heavy debut. Soon to be a staple for fans of Can, Terry Riley, 13th Floor Elevators, Red Crayola, and other forward thinking individuals. Watch for the slippery slopes.

Psychic Ills - Dins