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Aethenor

En Form For Bla

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Aethenor is comprised of Stephen O'Malley (Sunn0))), KTL), Daniel O'Sullivan (Ulver, Mothlite, Guapo), Kristoffer Rygg (Ulver) and Steve Noble (N.E.W., Company, etc.). En Form For Bla documents the continued evolution of this unlikely collective, a collision of players from various avant, improv, metal, and "other" threads who together make a unique and arresting sound. Documenting three gigs in Oslo recorded in 2010, the album is deep and weird, with liquid sounds juddering around the occasionally identifiable percussion or Rhodes motif. In the evolution from a side project / studio group to a frequently working live act, Aethenor kept their sound intact, taking the musique-concrete-style transitions and "what's that sound" ethos of their three previous efforts directly to the stage. Noble, having spent a couple of decades playing drums with Derek Bailey and other well-known UK improvisers, moves the music along subtly, keeping much of the focus on the burbling sound mass. O'Malley's guitar, an instrument of extreme viscera in Sunn0))), is used with restraint, providing occasional low menace but mostly mixing it up with O'Sullivan's thematic lines and Rygg's sound treatments. The overall effect is atmospheric rather than sedate--something like a modern, small group version of Miles Davis' classic "He Loved Him Madly" or Nurse with Wound's Spiral Insana. Other than perhaps Supersilent, no one else is working this sonic vocabulary today. Designed by O'Malley, the deluxe double-LP version is pressed on white vinyl and packaged with printed inner sleeves; the CD is in a card folio. Aethenor will continue to tour...

Fern Knight

Castings

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Castings is the third VHF release of lovely psych/folk by East Coast quartet Fern Knight, written, arranged and performed with their trademark quality and verve. Somewhat less fastidious than 2008's exquisitely arranged Fern Knight CD, Castings has a warm, analog feel, with looser and louder performances. Led as always by Margaret Ayre's voice, guitar and cello, the group stretches out on rockier fare like "The Poisoner," growling with fuzz, while leaving plenty of room for softer moments of beautiful clarity. There are "jammy" moments here, but everything is expertly sized and placed, with not a moment wasted on doodles. The centerpiece of Castings is Fern Knight's treatment of the epic King Crimson doom classic "Epitaph." Trading their own cello and violin for the original's signature mellotron, the group channels the vibe of the original while making it their own. Ayre's cool and understated vocal plays it straight where less assured players and performers would make a bombastic mess. As on the self-titled CD, Jesse Sparhawk's harp and James Wolf's violin provide the heart of the sound, allowing the band to mold classic genre forms into a unique, singular style.

Youngs, Richard And Simon Wickham-smith

20 Years

Vhf

20 Years celebrates two decades of music from Richard Youngs and Simon Wickham-Smith, featuring four previously unreleased albums. The set includes the first new vinyl from the pair in almost 15 years, plus three other projects (presented here on CD) that were all completed and intended for release by the duo in the '90s, but fell by the wayside for various reasons. 20 Years, the newly recorded LP, is one of the heaviest, most uncompromising records of the duo's long career. It consists of eight electro-acoustic reworkings of their first (unreleased) recording from 1987, and is a blistering set of tracks as wild and weird as anything they've ever done. The SMIRR CD features four epic instrumentals in the vein of classics such as LAKE and Asthma and Diabetes, flowing with extended grandeur, mixing drone and eccentric instrumentation in the duo's immediately identifiable style. Songphase's ten simple, lovely tunes are a reminder of their considerable "trad" songwriting and performing prowess. While Youngs has worked in this style on his solo efforts, hearing Wickham-Smith match him track for track is a revelation. "Dream Song" is among the former's most moving pieces. Finally, LIVE!!! is a head-scratcher of an album, recorded live in-studio in full-on Dadaist style--extended clavinet mania, Casio jams and plenty of outre expression. This set is packaged in a gatefold jacket with essays by David Keenan, Neil Campbell, Marc Masters and Jon Dale and an extended interview with Youngs and Wickham-Smith. The CDs are housed in a custom-bindered insert...

Vibracathedral Orchestra

Joka Baya

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The ever-mysterious Vibracathedral Orchestra returns from another relatively quiet period with an uncompromising set of outre jams on a trio of limited-edition LPs. Slightly reorganized around a line-up of stalwarts Mick Flower and Adam Davenport with frequent collaborators John Godbert (Total) and John Moloney (Sunburned Hand of the Man), the band here stretches way, way out over these six sides. Joka Baya offers up a set of shorter pieces on the A-side in a high-fidelity style that contrasts the dark, smoky sound of the rest of the tracks. The percussive grooves are overlaid with Sunroof!-like shimmer, stabbing electric leads, gentle acoustic rain, and droning organ peeking through at opportune moments. The roaring side-long epic on the flip is a droning, phasing slice of psychedelia with Moloney's drums battering the tape in between long stretches of humming stasis.

Vibracathedral Orchestra

Smoke Song

Vhf

The ever-mysterious Vibracathedral Orchestra returns from another relatively quiet period with an uncompromising set of outre jams on a trio of limited-edition LPs. Slightly reorganized around a line-up of stalwarts Mick Flower and Adam Davenport with frequent collaborators John Godbert (Total) and John Moloney (Sunburned Hand of the Man), the band here stretches way, way out over these six sides. Smoke Song's more gentle exposition starts with Davenport's santoor (a type of hammered dulcimer) leading the band into a lengthy mid-tempo groove on "Smoke Song," followed on the second half of the side by the short, quiet "Cholita Maria." The second side's 17-minute "Get It?" lays down the tremolo and phase in a manner reminiscent of the best Spacemen 3 comedowns, taking a pulse and riding it into organ- and percussion-fueled bliss.

Vibracathedral Orchestra

The Secret Base

Vhf

The ever-mysterious Vibracathedral Orchestra returns from another relatively quiet period with an uncompromising set of outre jams on a trio of limited-edition LPs. Slightly reorganized around a line-up of stalwarts Mick Flower and Adam Davenport with frequent collaborators John Godbert (Total) and John Moloney (Sunburned Hand of the Man), the band here stretches way, way out over these six sides. The Secret Base starts up at full throttle, straight into a raw-sounding live outing, with Flower's overdriven guitar occupying the same sonic space that gives his Japan banjo / shaahi baaja workouts with Chris Corsano their urgency. The sound is dark and rough, almost Xpressway-like in its claustrophobic atmosphere. The percolating krautrock stylings of "If You Can't Smoke 'Em" chugs along hypnotically for over 13 minutes to close out the side. The entire B-side's 20+ minutes are devoted to the clanging free sound of "Eyes of Wood," where gamelan-like metal percussion dominates the proceedings.

Rose, Jack & The Black Twig Pickers

S/t

Vhf

This raw and rocking collaboration between Jack Rose and The Black Twigs features some of the most swinging, hard-hitting string music waxed in many a decade. Rose's solo playing has always had a tough edge, with his prodigious technique often employed to drop right-hand bombs. His use of a thumbpick originates from years of duets with Twig Mike Gangloff, struggling to make his guitar heard over Gangloff's crashing banjo. The front line of Rose and Gangloff's strings are joined by Isak Howell's no-nonsense guitar and harmonica and Nate Bowles' variety of expert percussion. The four lock together with a sure-footedness honed by frequent touring and a singularity of intent to rock. Gangloff takes the vocals, howling out standards like "Little Sadie" firmly in the old-time tradition--without reserve. A few of the tracks here are updates of Rose & Family classics, with the group turning the stately "Kensington Blues" upbeat and issuing an assured take on "Bright Sunny South," first recorded by Pelt (with Rose and Gangloff) back in 2001 on their gonzo classic double-disc Ayahuasca.  

Turnquist, Alexander

As The Twilight Crane Dreams In Color

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As the Twilight Crane Dreams in Color is the second full-length from New York-based guitarist Alexander Turnquist, who defies expectations with a set of hypnotic epics that owe more to classic minimalism than current notions of solo guitar.  Forgoing most of the extended techniques of his debut, Turnquist lays down a thick blanket of 12-string that sets up persistent, loop-like patterns in the music. Simple and lovely strings, piano, and percussion provide the melody, carrying most of the movement in the pieces. Turnquist uses extraordinary control and restraint--the orchestrations are as reductionist as possible, with no cringe-inducing "string drama" or unnecessary virtuosity. An almost-monomaniacal tremolo thrum of the guitar dominates the album, but there is a lengthy ambient breakdown that occurs mid-way through the 18-minute "The REM Cycle - Dream Phase" that is a thing of elliptical and drifting beauty.  As the Twilight Crane Dreams in Color is a bold statement even in the context of the frequent micro-parsing of styles in the sub-underground--there's really not much else out there like it.

Spiral Joy Band

Little Sparrow

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Little Sparrow is the third VHF release for this Southwestern Virginia ensemble that specializes in transportational sound sheets. Derived from the extended Pelt / Jack Rose / Black Twigs family, Spiral Joy Band traffics in lengthy microtonal explorations rooted in the expansive tradition of beards like Taj Mahal Travellers, Henry Flynt, Theatre of Eternal Music, etc. The four tracks here are an evolution from the trance-like gong and percussion sounds of recent Joy Band releases, with the quartet putting more of an emphasis on heavily bowed string sounds. Mike Gangloff's fiddle, which plays it relatively straight in the Black Twigs (and occasionally Pelt), cuts loose here with some of the gnarliest string scratching this side of Tony Conrad's Four Violins, giving the music a searing, visceral edge. The final track finds the band literally standing in the Atlantic Ocean, with their gongs and Tibetan bowls shimmering out a gentle lullaby. "No overdubs, no amplification, no effects."  Little Sparrow has been printed in a very limited edition, with an elegant heavy card wallet featuring illustrations by Emily Keown.

Flower-Corsano Duo

Four Aims

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The Four Aims is the much-anticipated second full-length by the long-running duo of Mick Flower (Vibracathedral Orchestra, Sunroof, Michael Flower Band) and Chris Corsano (Flaherty/Corsano, Jandek, Bjork, Sunburned). In the couple years since their debut, The Radiant Mirror (Textile), the two have toured and recorded frequently, expanding their range to include a mind-boggling array of free sound.   "I, Brute Force" kicks off the record with their signature--one of the most original in rock/free/whatever music--the electrifying sound of Flower's virtuosic, heavily amplified Japan Banjo (also known as a Shaahi Baaja) over Corsano's free-wheeling percussion. Other tracks show off subtle improv moves, with both players using extended techniques to generate a wide range of unusual sounds. Corsano's technical mastery is almost without peer in his generation (Alex Neilson, maybe)--his ability to take the lessons of nearly five decades of free playing and extend them into new ranges is startling and exciting. Rather than play backup, Corsano meets Flower's strings and organ head-on with his own drum-bowing, cello, and circular-breathing-fired melodica.   Both busy players and collaborators, Flower and Corsano will tour extensively as a duo in 2009.

Aethenor

Faking Gold And Murder

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Faking Gold and Murder is the third Earth-shattering full-length by Vincent De Roguin (Shora), Stephen O'Malley (Sunn0))), KTL) and Daniel O'Sullivan (Guapo). This time, the core trio is joined by percussionists Nicolas Field and Alex Babel, as well as renowned guitarist Alexander Tucker and the inimitable David Tibet.   AEthenor's heaviest outing yes is driven by a weighty low-end and the full fury of Babel and Field's free-wheeling drums. The band's electronics, guitar, Rhodes, and organ ride waves of sound in a tightly-controlled blare, leaving plenty of space for Tibet's declarations of the mystical and supernatural. Tibet is in top form, rising out of the tempest at just the right moment, almost plain-spoken in places--grounding the squall at times, voicing the apocalypse at others.  Faking Gold and Murder features another elegant cover by Vincent de Rougin and Nicola Todeschini, letterpressed by Stumptown Printers.  "Brooding, primeval, dark, alchemical epics are full of a ferocious intensity, sounding more like a starlit night being ripped open by lightning than a musical group. Intelligent and primal, like a daemonic workshop, battering up Pandemoniums and dreaming of gold and murder, AEthenor are spectacular." --David Tibet

Astral Social Club

Octuplex

Vhf

After a couple years in the underground wilderness, Neil Campbell's unique Astral Social Club returns to VHF with the squelching, restless ambience of Octuplex.   The CD is split roughly in half between Harmonia / Voigt-style chuggers and sweeping swirls of instantly recognizable dronage, familiar to fans of Campbell's extensive contributions to Vibracathedral Orchestra, Sunroof! and others. His interest in techno comes out on "Caustic Roe" and "Muscle Adductor," which neatly compile the influence of recent minimal jam innovations with piles of synth and effects noise, lending the beat-driven tracks a rough, unfussy style. Other cuts like "Muegik Churn" and "Pilgrim Sunburst" swell with twittering electric birdsong and synthetic rain, the trademark sound of many Astral titles.   Octuplex is full up with collaborator cameos, including the familiar (Richard Youngs, John Clyde-Evans), and the novel (Spider Stacy from The Pogues!).

Pelt

Dauphin Elegies

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The first new studio recordings from Pelt in three years picks up where 2005's Untitled CD leaves off--delivering massive slabs of heavy, all-acoustic drone action. "Waning Crescent" is an ominous workout for three large gongs, rich with overtones and subsonic rumble. "Fire Signs Along the Field" offers a slightly jarring quartet of spare string noise, with Nathan Bowles (Black Twigs, Spiral Joy Band) sitting in on double bass. "Cast Out to Deep Waters" is an immense 30-minute epic in the vein of Empty Bell Ringing in the Sky and Untitled's "I" that fits into the archetypical classics in the Pelt canon. The all-too-brief "Crown of Comets" closes the CD with the chiming, overlapping ring of bells recorded in Virginia's Falls Ridge caves.

Fern Knight

S/t

Vhf

This is the third CD of beautiful music from Philadelphia quartet Fern Knight, led by the crystal voice, guitar, and cello of Margaret Wienk. Drawing from diverse influences such as '70s Krautrock, UK folk, and baroque and renaissance music, the band's eponymous recording juxtaposes the calm surface of harp, cello, and violin against the perfectly timed distorted squalls of a Flying V and a dark undercurrent of lyrical and vocal mystery. The overall effect is a lush, pastoral, and warm ode to all things green and living, a running theme that winds through the songs' post-apocalyptic landscape: "All is lost / And all will run / Over graying ground / To the rays of the sun," sings Wienk in the album's closing track, "Magpie Suite: Part III."   The album's cohesion rests upon the core quartet's combination of acoustic and electronic instruments--the perfect vehicle for Wienk's unique songwriting and string arrangements. Since the 2006 release of Music for Witches and Alchemists, Fern Knight has toured extensively in the US and Europe, as well touring and recording as members of The Valerie Project (Drag City Records).

Aethenor

Betimes Black Cloudmasses

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Betimes Black Cloudmasses is the highly-anticipated second album from Vincent De Roguin (Shora), Stephen O'Malley (SUNN0))), KTL), and Daniel O'Sullivan (Guapo). Like their genre- and audience-confounding debut Deep In Ocean Sunk the Lamp of Light, Betimes is an atmospheric, constantly changing piece that encompasses a mind-boggling array of different performance and processing techniques. The deeply psychedelic and moving results present a soundstage that is continually evolving, with new elements entering and leaving the fray every couple of seconds.   Betimes includes significant contributions from free percussionists Nicolas Field and Alex Babel, who sprinkle the sound field with an almost FMP-style rush of splattering drum sound, raising the intensity of the music (without resorting to bashing). The album also features a brief but affecting vocal from Ulver mastermind Kristoffer Rygg, who will make his first live appearance in over a decade when Aethenor plays the Roadburn Festival in April 2008. Aethenor's third LP, featuring vocals and lyrics by David Tibet, will be released in Autumn 2008.  "Musically, Aethenor summon the most somnolent examples of Bernard Parmegiani, Organum, Nurse with Wound, Klaus Schulze, Igor Wakhevitch, Coil, Iancu Dumitrescu, and Charlemagne Palestine. Acousmatic drones ebb and flow into crackling and bubbling sonic clusters. Lulling piano motifs and lamenting chants shimmer into distant lunar horizons while oscillators spin and drove serenely into unchartered audial regions. Sometimes as calm as a silvery sea, so that every gentle cat's-paw and lapping wave is deafening. Sometimes as tempestuous as a fuming lava beach, spitting and popping at the surface." --Daniel...

Black Twig Pickers

Hobo Handshake

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Hobo Handshake, the fourth full-length from the Black Twig Pickers, finds a slightly reshuffled lineup and a renewed emphasis on kicking out raw, percussive takes on both traditional Appalachian and original material. With Ralph Berrier Jr.'s retirement from the group, Mike Gangloff has added fiddle to his already considerable arsenal, and along with stalwart guitarist Isak Howell, brought in Nathan Bowles (Pelt, Spiral Joy Band) on percussion and several guests who make substantial contributions to the party.   The Twigs work the fine line between the Friday night old-time dance party and the wellspring of grim and evocative tragedy that runs through the tradition, delivering these laments, travelogues, and wild whoops with sawing, rocking joy. This is a sprawling collection, with visceral group takes on "Crossing the James," "Cherry River Line," and "Old Joe Clark." Charlie Parr and Lane Prekker join the crew on "Last Kind Word Blues," "Train 45" and "Twin Sisters" (first essayed by Pelt way back in '98) with Parr's amazing, ragged voice leading the charge over Bowles and Prekker's driving percussion. Along with the full group material, the Twigs throw in other welcome oddities such as Howell's Fahey-like "At the Head of Every Creek," "P.E.A. Vine Blues," an arrangement of a tune from Portuguese Africa, and a book-ending solo version of "Crossing the James," with Gangloff on baritone banjo.

Kawabata, Makoto

Inui 4

Vhf

INUI 4 is the fourth volume in Makoto Kawabata’s series of solo releases for VHF. While widely and rightly known for earsplitting Deep Purple-style guitar demolition with Acid Mother’s Temple, Gong, etc., Kawabata’s INUI works are highly personal and introspective, with lots of room given to cosmic atmosphere and acoustic instruments. INUI 4 is a single 68 minute track, a slow-building and evolving multi-layered swath of acoustic and electric guitars, electronics, and hurdy gurdy. The final 20 minutes feature prominent “glissando” guitar, à la Daevid Allen - a very fine sound to be lost in. Like the other INUI volumes, this includes great photos and design by Makoto and Sachiko Kawabata.

Spiral Joy Band

Wake Of The Dying Sun King

Vhf

Wake of the Dying Sun King is the second full-length of epic meditative drone from this Southwestern Virginia collective. Like Pelt (with whom it shares several members), Spiral Joy Band uses mostly acoustic instruments to create slow, building pieces rich with human detail. The steady rolling of multiple Tibetan bowls, bowed and struck gongs, hypnotic fiddle, sruti box, and other instruments are recorded live in continuous performances that frequently stretch beyond an hour per piece. The performance aspect is key to Spiral Joy Band’s aura - the variations in approach, force, etc. with which each tone is played, and the clear, open recording (mostly in Blacksburg’s Glade Baptist Church) highlight the subtleties of the music. Wake is a much more percussive set of music than Spiral Joy Band’s previous Lullabies for Jeff Dean CD (VHF#94), with Nathan Bowles’ expert percussion lending a lot more clang to the mix. Cover paintings by Emily Keown.

Turnquist, Alexander

Faint At The Loudest Hour

Vhf

Faint at the Loudest Hour is the astonishing solo debut by guitarist Alexander Turnquist, part of a young generation of guitar players who have taken their incredible virtuosity and turned it into something actually worth listening to. Like James Blackshaw, Jack Rose, Glenn Jones, et al., this could roughly be described as “raga” guitar, with its long, modal compositions and hypnotic overtone play. Unlike most of his peers, however, Turnquist employs a variety of extended techniques à la Hans Reichel, grappling the strings with both hands and using a variety of approaches and attacks on both the steel and wood. There’s also a distinct lack of audible “roots” influence here, with Turnquist sidestepping the Fahey-isms that dominate so much current acoustic guitar music. Along with the six- and twelve-string acoustics, Turnquist makes subtle use of electronic textures, such as the surprising Fennesz-like dissolve that occurs midway through “Amongst a Swarm of Hummingbirds.”  Faint at the Loudest Hour was recorded by Scott Solter (Mountain Goats, Liam Singer, many others) with cinematic depth and detail.

Sunroof!

Panzer Division Lou Reed

Vhf

Beneath the usual lovely psychedelic artwork on the cover of Panzer Division Lou Reed lurks Sunroof’s most explosive and assaultive record ever. The key track here in the Sunroof! evolution is the opener “Slew Plateaus #1,” with Mick Flower (Vibracathedral Orchestra) on guitar and John Moloney (Sunburned Hand of the Man) on drums. This live shot of electricity gradually ramps up from Flower and Matt Bower’s dueling guitars to the point where Moloney’s drums come crashing in after about six minutes, leading to a furious crescendo that lasts for the remainder of the 19-minute track. “Slew Plateaus #2” is a lengthy collaboration with underground gadabout Mattin, whose previous collabs with Tony Conrad, Bruce Russell, Eddie Prevost, et al. hopefully prepared him for the Bower wrecking ball delivered here. The other two cuts are absolutely blistering demolition work, which, in spite of their visceral impact, reach a state of zen-like stasis after a couple of minutes, à la the best of Bower’s work with Hototogisu.

Wingtip Sloat

Add This To Rhetoric

Vhf

Long planned (and frequently delayed) restoration of this Virginia trio's rare and out of print singles and compilation tracks from the early 90's. All 30 tracks make their first appearance on CD here, restoring two of the earliest VHF titles to print, along with a wealth of other impossible to find gems. Covering their most active years, "Add This to Rhetoric" captures Sloat at their baffling, fragmentary best, dealing out slashing rock sides that bristle with hooks and ear-catching weirdness. Sloat's superbly packaged, handmade/homemade singles were among the finest of their era, and although they appear here on a plain ol' CD, the music still sounds as revelatory as it did 15 years ago. Rifling through ideas with Wire-like efficiency, Pat Foster's trebly, jabbing guitar, Ange Dubuc's rumbling bass, and Dave Bishop's unpredictable drum splatter carried the charge that pretty much invented the VHF label itself. Wearing their influences on their sleeves, the CD includes smashing covers of key tracks by the Clean, Tall Dwarfs, Sun City Girls, and World of Pooh. Booklet includes liner notes from the band and VHF HQ along with period ephemera for a full immersion experience.

Youngs, Richard, And Alex Neilson

Electric Lotus

Vhf

This epic double set combines an LP of all-electric rock mayhem with a CD of subtle drum/shakuhachi tracks. Electric Lotus is the Youngs and Neilson’s self-proclaimed “rock” album, and it is a mind-boggling clutch of guitar/bass/drums demolition. Coming off like an amphetamine-fueled Guru Guru, the music tumbles out in a crazy quilt of stun-level attack zonage, especially on the side-long “Electric Lotus.” Neilson’s staggering free-drumming hits a new peak here, stepping beyond his laudable work with Jandek, Bonnie Prince Billy, etc., into new realms. Youngs lights it up with raging guitar and bass action, including some deeply psychedelic leads, and on “Kickin’ The Glass,” some killer “heavy” riffing. Lotus Edition is a companion CD of restrained and completely live duos for drums and shakuhachi. Youngs had previously issued a disc of shakuhachi solos with dense delay and layering effects, but here his untrained but highly musical output on the ancient instrument is in deep conversation with Neilson’s drum set. A couple of the tracks feature the kind of long notes, bowed cymbals, and other droneage heard on previous releases like Partick Rain Dance, but in a stripped down live setting.

Richard Youngs & Alex Neilson

Lotus Edition

Vhf

Download / Digital Only releases

Vibracathedral Orchestra

Wisdom Thunderbolt

Vhf

Wisdom Thunderbolt marks the triumphant return of Vibracathedral Orchestra after more than three years in the wilderness of intermittent performance, tangential projects, and unfindable limited editions.   The seven tracks on Wisdom are thee VCO’s most rocking dispatch ever, neatly combining the Ra-like collage of tracks like “Wisdom Thunderbolt” with the insistent pulsing jams of “A Natural Fact” and “Order of the Broad Eraser.” “Ochre Dust” and “Rainbow Whirlwind” are more in the old-school VCO thick-blanket of sound, with tuned-percussion melody peeking out from the fog. After a surprise opening, “Sway-Sage” heaves with raucous drumming (courtesy of Magik Marker Pete Nolan) under the swells of sound.   Hard to imagine, but this is the first widely available music (except for the Tuning to the Rooster comp) from the VCO since 2003’s acclaimed “The Queen of Guess.”

Aethenor

Deep In Ocean Sunk The Lamp Of Light

Vhf

Deep In Ocean Sunk The Lamp Of Light is the debut release from the trio of Stephen O'Malley (Sunn0))))), Daniel O'Sullivan (Guapo), and Vincent de Roguin (Shora). Taking its title from The Iliad, the music is deep, cosmic, and equally epic, completely unlike anything you'd expect from three such heavyweights. More in the tradition of Nurse With Wound's Spiral Insana or Klaus Schulze's Cyborg than any contemporary trend, the tracks float along in a masterful collage of activity, where careful scene changes highlight O'Sullivan's classic but artfully placed Rhodes bombs, de Roguin's organ, and O'Malley's guitar. Extraordinary effort has gone into editing, mastering, and shaping these pieces--they are not tossed off improvisations or "side-project" orphans. The group recently completed a small European tour with Jackie-O-Motherfucker's Alexander Tucker, playing dates with with Ulan Bator, The No Neck Blues Band and Netwerk. Both CD and LP editions are housed in beautiful, custom jackets hand-printed by Alan Sherry of SIWA.  

Fern Knight

Music For Witches And Alchemists

Vhf

Music for Witches and Alchemists is a dark and beguiling collection of songs by Fern Knight, the primary cover for Margaret Wienk's singing and songwriting. Beautifully recorded by Greg Weeks, the songs are cast in rich, detailed arrangements with Alec K. Redfearn (The Eyesores), Greg Weeks and Meg Baird (Espers), and several other Philadelphia-area luminaries contributing to the sweeping sound. At the heart is Wienk's strong voice, cello, and guitar, leading the tunes with feeling and subtlety. Following in the footsteps of of electric-trad legends such as Pentangle and Trees, Wienk's music rings of the intensely personal and is delivered with crystal clarity, not the hipster-fuzz obfuscation of some contempo "folk." Music for Witches and Alchemists is Fern Knight's first domestic release, following their barely available debut on the German Normal label.

Astral Social Club

S/t

Vhf

With this release the VHF catalog moves into triple digit territory and the label is celebrating with the first official album by Neil Campbell's (Vibracathedral Orchestra) genre-destroying Astral Social Club unit. Following a series of instantly sold-out limited edition CDRs, Campbell agreed to select, edit and remix a collection of tracks for wider release from the group's rather exclusive catalog. VHF100 is a dense mega-mix of continually peaking sound-flow. Working a tricky hybrid ground between contemporary UK teams like Sunroof! and Vibracathedral Orchestra, and the influence of Kompakt-style pulsating electronic "techno," Astral Social Club's music shimmers and throbs in a truly psychedelic manner. Campbell and Tirath Singh Nirmala have radically re-worked these tracks to be unrecognizable from their original CDR issues, but they are instantly recognizable as part of the unrelenting Astral Social Club rainbow stream.  

Youngs, Richard & Simon Wickham Smith

5 Years

Vhf

5 Years is the venerable duo’s first release since 2001’s Lammergeier. After recording and releasing nearly twenty albums between 1990 and 2001, Richard Youngs and Simon Wickham-Smith attempt an opposite approach to music making — an annual meeting to record a solitary ten-minute track. The resulting songs, each named for an intervening year, show the duo remarkably unaffected by the elapsed half-decade. Their signature mix of electronically treated percussion, ululating noise, and hand-on-the-knob tweaking continues to adapt “real human” instrumental expression to musique concrete sensibilities.

Rose, Jack

Raag Manifestos

Vhf

Part of a collaboration with Jack Rose’s estate and Three Lobed Records to restore all of his LPs to print, VHF presents new vinyl editions of the celebrated guitarist’s first three solo albums, newly cut by John Golden Mastering from the original source material. Originally issued on LP by Eclipse Records between 2002-04, these releases chart an eclectic, more experimental approach left behind as his technique and compositions became more refined and deliberate on later works like Kensington Blues. Originally compiled from a variety of sources as a limited-edition CD to sell on tour in 2004 (released by VHF, later released on vinyl by Eclipse), Raag Manifestos presents much of Rose’s rawest and most experimental music, cutting across various acoustic styles, but with a much more jagged and aggressive attack than later music. “Black Pearls from the River” and “Hart Crane’s Old Boyfriends” are dense, serious assaults on the 12-string, with the intensity of the latter enhanced by Ian Nagoski’s roaring electronic backdrop. With subtle tabla accompaniment by Eric Carbonara, “Crossing The Great Waters” is another epic modal journey in the style of Pelt’s “Road To Catawba” and Rose’s own “Red Horse.” The traditional “Blessed Be the Name of the Lord” finishes off the LP on a calming note.

Kawabata, Makoto

Inui 1

Vhf

Long-planned reissue of Makoto Kawabata’s first solo LP, from way back in 2000 (or roughly 100 releases ago, in Kawabata terms). Originally released by the mighty SIWA label in a tiny, hand-printed edition of 300, this has long been the most sought-after Kawabata item, pretty much impossible to track down without a wallet full of eBay slush funds. The music, as on all the releases in Kawabata’s Inui series, is intensely personal and introspective, with long, softly focussed tracks featuring acoustic stringed instruments from around the globe (including violin, sarangi, oud, sitar, bouzouki, lyra, shou, and nei). French filmmaker, musician and longtime Acid Mothers Temple collaborator Audrey Ginestet lends her crystal voice to the album opener, “Shin.” This new, limited reissue is packaged in a fabulous multi-color, hand-screened mini-gatefold printed by Alan Sherry of SIWA.

Pelt

Skullfuck / Bestio Tergum Degero

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Now available to all, a new pressing of the extremely limited edition live CD previously attainable only on the band’s 2006 European tour. Contrary to the Grateful Dead reference in the title, Skullfuck is a tight recording of a single, intense November 2005 performance from NYC’s Knitting Factory. The set begins with an epic group arrangement of Jack Rose’s “Calais To Dover,” with Rose’s 12-string shadowed by Mike Gangloff’s fiddle, and the thick drone of Mikel Dimmick and Pat Best’s harmonium and srutis. The three-part “Bestio” suite follows, with the group moving to Tibetan bowls and gongs, building up a huge sheet of sound which peaks in a brief “encore” of wild gong smashing. This new edition is packaged in a gatefold “eco-wallet” with cover art designed by fabric and fiber-artist Emily Keown.

Neilson, Alexander & Richard Youngs

Partick Raindance

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Follow-up to 2003’s Ourselves by this Glasgow duo extends the already broad range of sound heard on that stunner into new worlds. These two prolific players are at the top of their game, pairing some immediately identifiable elements — Alex Neilson’s superb jazz-influenced drumming, Richard Youngs unmistakable voice — with a thick layer of truly psychedelic clamor. The brief “Chamber” rips out a noise like a ’60s Sun Ra / Pat Patrick duo, segueing into the also Ra-ish masterpiece “Music of the Lost Sun.” The point in “Lost Sun” where Young’s voice and guitar emerge from the polyglot sound for a beautiful melodic interlude is just too much. The second half of the record has a less layered feel, beginning with the a capella “Noatak Beacon,” then moving into more aggro territory where Neilson’s bowed cymbals taking on Youngs’s guitar on “Mountain.” The short cut-up “Big Aeroplanes” ends the record on a final note of mystery.

Spiral Joy Band

Lullabies For Jeff Dean

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*** This long running but until-now-undocumented Virginia group was founded in 2001 by Pelt members Mikel Dimmick and Mike Gangloff with Karl Precoda (Last Days of May, The Dream Syndicate). Their debut CD concentrates on live performances featuring marathon, unorthodox drone treatises for acoustic instruments, including Tibetan singing bowl, gong, sruti, and esraj. The bowed, rolled, and (usually) gently struck metal percussion anchors the sound with rich, resonating tones. The music is a cousin to Pelt’s explorations on (Untitled), and Keyhole and Keyhole II (Eclipse). “Lullaby 1” is built almost entirely on the gongs and bowls, a slowly building narcoleptic trip. The forty-one-minute epic “Lullaby 2” begins with Gangloff on esraj, building up a trance before the shenais and sharply struck gongs take over at the climax of the piece. “Lullaby 3” throws some surprisingly melodic and active piano into the mix, evoking a long-form version of Popol Vuh’s “Die Nacht Der Seele.”

Sunroof

Silver Bear Mist

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Silver Bear Mist, Sunroof!’s first release in over two years, is an epic double-CD of inimitable buzz. Recorded during a period when guitarist Matt Bower (Skullflower) was also concentrating on writing material with Marcia Bassett of Double Lepoards for their duo, Hototogisu, Silver Bear Mist diverges from recent releases like the collagy USSA, Splat, Wings Over America, and the last major Sunroof! release - the krautrock-ish Cloudz - to revel in thick, billowing fuzz bombs. Aided by Vibracathedral Orchestra’s Mick Flower and US duo The Skaters, Bower lets rip on rockers like the Tibetan-oriented “Buried in the Sky” and the immense “Sky Blue Sword.” Disc two mixes it up a bit, with the unexpectedly docile “Stacked Diamonds” featuring The Skaters, alongside the scouring surge of Bower leads on “Be Sure to Boogie” and “Luminous Kite.”

Rose, Jack

Kensington Blues

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Kensington Blues is the fourth full-length release from Jack Rose and his most diverse outing by far. The album is an inspired mix of styles and sounds, with straight ragtime, heavy 12-string, and that sweet, sweet Weissenborn lap guitar all checking in. Honed during endless touring in 2004, the repertoire here is delivered with maximum authority in a series of first-take performances recorded in early 2005.  "While the new century's novel folk has already seen significant definition, Rose is largely alone in talking new century ideas with the old language.... Kensington Blues is derivative and at the same time nearly brilliant. 8.0." --Pitchfork

Ilk

Canticle

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*** Outrageous CD of prog rock from Richard Youngs’s and Andrew Paine’s Ilk, Canticle is a long promised follow-up to the group’s 1998 CD Zenith, which was released on Youngs’s No Fans label. Unlike Youngs’s more “minimalist” solo records, Ilk drapes his songs and voice in thick layers of heavy jams, and then piles on the production tricks, vocal layers, Steve Howe-style leads, synth bleeps, and other racket in beautifully intricate arrangements.  Canticle is clearly influenced by the classic UK progressives but unmistakably contemporary. “A Guiding Principle” and “Landsong marry Youngs” and Paine’s multi-tracked voices with over the top full rock-band arrangements. “Honour’s Prospect” mixes mystical narration with some searing fuzz-guitar, and is followed by the bass-heavy march of “The Weight of Stars.” “Tilling” shimmers and echoes, leading into the spacey and cosmic “Outward & Homeward.” The folky “Of Souls” serves as a fittingly simple epilogue to the suite. Veronica Rennie’s cover art completes the package in highly appropriate style.

Pelt

Untitled

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*** (untitled) is devastating set of almost pure white light from the newly upgraded Pelt lineup. The album’s intense drone music represents a return to “sonic-ism” for the quartet of Jack Rose, Mike Gangloff, Patrick Best, and Mikel Dimmick. Like 2003’s effort Pearls from the River, (untitled) is an all-acoustic affair. The group concentrates on producing dense clouds of overtones from guitar, cello, tibetan bowls, gongs, sruti, and esraj. Track one is an overpowering straight line à la the Theatre of Eternal Music, an atmosphere of stasis with gong and bowl flickering subtly over the massive track bed. Track two is a 32-minute epic that begins with the soft strains of Jack Rose’s 12 string, picks up dueling cello and esraj and gradually builds in intensity with the sounds of gongs and other unusual percussion. Track three is the live staple “Sundogs,” where Rose’s Weissenborn lap guitar and Gangloff’s resonator guitar produce a stream of unearthly high, singing overtones in an uncanny acoustic impression of electric feedback. The final track is an epilogue of Best’s keening cello, again ignoring the usual technique associated with the instrument in the pursuit of pure weirdness.

Black Twigs

Midnight Has Come And Gone

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*** Midnight has Come and Gone, the third CD by this Southwest Virginia group, is another set of classic bluegrass, country blues, and Appalachian folk. Since 2003’s Soon One Morning, The Black Twigs (also known as the Black Twig Pickers, the trio of Mike Gangloff, Ralph Berrier, and Isak Howell) have expanded to a quartet with the addition of bassist Mike Gayheart. Midnight Has Come and Gone is made up of mostly of original material, roadtested at gigs and festivals along the Blue Ridge. Topical stormers like “Fire in the Stove” and “Blood Red Clay” are live staples, belted out here in a virtuoso hail of guitar, fiddle, banjo, and rough harmony. In contrast to the more trad-sounding fare, the grungy and twisting “Bent Mountain Drag” recalls Beggar’s Banquet-era Rolling Stones. Continuing the Black Twig tradition of beautiful instrumentals, “Twilight on the Radford Army Ammunition Plant” is another hymn-like meditation outside the showy-offy bluegrass tradition. “Original Natural Bridge Blues” is a song from 1941, which has been recorded in an incomplete fashion by many groups over the years. Berrier’s discovery of the original 1940s sheet music in a family photo album (detailed in the liner notes) revealed a lost verse, presented here for the first time.  • aka Black Twig Pickers • Another installment in the unofficial “Mountain Raga” series • Fans of Appalachian folk, classic bluegrass, country blues, and Pelt’s Mike Gangloff will jump off the porch to join these big dogs

Kawabata / Youngs

S/t

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This untitled CD of duets by Kawabata Makoto, the leader of Acid Mothers Temple, and the slightly less available Glasgow librarian Richard Youngs shows the pair in a relaxed yet psychedelic mood where it is immediately apparent that the two are really listening to one another instead of merely adding to their already vast discographies. Throughout the five untitled tracks, simple modal melodies are performed on acoustic guitar, autoharp, organ, voice and other instruments rubbing against the swirling production and layers of shifting haze. Young's identifiable voice, guitar and autoharp greet Kawabata's echo treatments on the first track, while track three reverses the process with Young's minor key picking cutting against Kawabata's thick, visceral drones. Tracks two, four and five all use a base of beautiful fingerpicked guitar melodies, layering organ, synth, tape effects and echo until a mellow cosmic vibe is achieved. In all, some of the most beautiful sounds ever issued by either of these two gentlemen, both known for their edgy experimental work, is on this CD.

From Quagmire

Habitats In The Wound

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***Enigmatic trio From Quagmire's third release of startling art-song works in an area completely devoid of identifiable US / Anglo "folk" influence. The 'Quag's mix of collage and roughly styled human performance is full of dramatic contrast. Most tracks house Dorothy Geller's voice and pointillistic, nylon-string guitar in a thick embrace of droning sound. Much of the CD was recorded in the UK, where guests Helena Espvall-Santoleri (cello), Sharon Krauss (whistle and clarinet) and Simon Wickham-Smith (electronics) added their substantial input to the record. Touches such as Wickham- Smith's understated electronics on "A Father's Vision" and Espvall- Santoleri's dark bowing on most cuts redefine From Quagmire's signature sound-- away from the percussive and jarring avant explosions heard on Tropic of Barren and Caught In Unknowing and toward a more subtle, refined brand of expression.