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

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

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

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 Öland, 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

Wet Hair - s/t

Raccoo-oo-oon's mastermind Shawn Reed is not satisfied with all the blasting electric tribal storm he summoned in his band, so he digs up another hole in his cave and discover Wet Hair. This is the first solo outing of Shawn as Wet Hair, recorded during late fall of 2007. Cult vibe organ drone, slowed down tape hiss percussion warble, and chanted vocal bathed in echo, plus extra siliconized army of delayed blood bath. Play it loud. Play it forever. And you'll be a silver fox in your next life.

Wet Hair - s/t

Kawabata Makoto - Hosanna Mantra

Inspired by Popol Vuh and originally released in a tiny pressing of 550 on vinyl from the inimitable Acid Mothers Temple frontman. Guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and leader of Acid Mothers Temple, Kawabata Makoto expresses all his mantric cosmical vocations and spins them into space sonorities! He took inspiration from the Popol Vuh album Hosianna Mantra during his visit to A Silent Place headquarters in late Winter 2006. A few days later, back in Japan, Makoto recorded the Hosanna Mantra album at the Acid Mothers Temple between March 12th and 13th using electric guitar, bouzouki, and sitar. The result is this new fantastic sound coming from the cosmos. A simple gem of crystalline beauty. Licensed from A Silent Place.

Kawabata Makoto - Hosanna Mantra

Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voice - Xiao

Wooden Wand (aka James Jackson Toth) produces a Southern gothic sound, but he's more connected to the New York anti-folk scene than he is the Georgian backwoods. Xiao opens with "Paper Trail Blues," a discordant, amelodic religious rant that's striking but obscure. The album as a whole favors long, droning songs with a ritualistic bent, and though it's a unique listening experience, it's also a tough one to connect to without intense concentration and maybe a few intoxicants. Xiao is a dangerous adventure.

WWVV - Xiao

Sunburned Hand of the Man - Fire Escape

Fire Escape, was released by Smalltown Supersound on October 2, 2007. Produced by Kieran Hebden (Four Tet), and led these days by John Moloney, Sunburned Hand of the Man is not a band in the traditional sense, Sunburned is a collection of like minded artists and musicians gathered together for the purposes of group exploration and an undying search for the 'ecstatic truth'.

Kieran Hebden's relationship with Sunburned Hand of the Man began after Hebden read an article in The Wire that touted Sunburned Hand Of The Man as leaders of the "New Weird America". The story sent Hebden on a search of Sunburned records and he's been a fan of them ever since. Sunburned supported Four Tet for a two-week tour in the spring of 2004. A couple of years later in March 2006, Hebden asked the band if they would like him to record them in a London studio (the Exchange) with the idea that he would take the recordings and construct his vision of a Sunburned record. Fire Escape is that vision.

Both Sunburned Hand of the Man and Smalltown Supersound are fans of Boredoms and they asked the band's leader, Yamatsuka Eye, to create the artwork for Fire Escape. The artwork Eye created perfectly captures the band, the album and the sound.

This is practically one of my favorite albums of the century!

Sunburned - Fire Escape

Emeralds - Solar Bridge

Starting out in 2005, performing live sets using only television sets as sound sources, Emeralds has grown in recent years into a monster of HEAVY improvised drone using analog synths (yeah, MOOGs and Ovation) and masterfully-effected guitar. Solar Bridge is the first full-length album after numerous cassette and CD-R releases on such labels as American Tapes, Chondritic Sound, and the band's own imprints Wagon and Gneiss Things. The band builds a quiet drone into an extreme thick saw blade of swirling noise as beautiful as it is menacing. Must check out!

Emeralds - Solar Bridgee

MV & EE - Total Loss Songs

Another celestial bonus release from the everblooming sunshine couple. If you pre-ordered the Ragas of the Culvert LP, you also received an exclusive CD entitled Total Loss Songs. It might not be as brain-dissolving as the main LP, but it's Neil Young influenced songs are a nice way to slowly come down after such a rush. Big thanks to my good friend, TheBlackPope for upping this marvel. Hope you kids had the tastiest weekend. Here's to celebrate!

MV & EE - Total Loss Songs