Xela - The Divine

Not The Original Cover Art

Genre: Ambient, Noise, Drone, Experimental, Abstract
Label: Digitalis Industries

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oh xela, what's left to say? just in time for john twells' move to the united states, "the divine" drops at your door. whereas it's predecessor, "the illuminated," was a dark, twisted trek through the most uncomfortable reaches of the xela psyche, "the divine" looks toward the light, attemping to find solace but, again, finds nothing to hang on to. and it's one hell of a jam.

starting out with endless loops of church bells battering your skull into a reverie, the next thing you know it's like you're suddenly a cockroach in the house of god. cryptic voices haunt the bells and get dragged through the dirt. everything and everyone is lost in the static. toward the end, a choir of voices emerges, escaping the black hole plague.

but twells ain't done yet. flip things over and it leads to something else entirely. an electronic stew is the bedrock and twells' voice is the steeple. washed-out drones build momentum until the only place to escape is into the galaxies beyond. there's something sickly beautiful at work here with everything under a layer of frosted glass. twells wails, a siren song to certain doom no doubt, but it's a choice we make time and time again to embrace our delicious demise.

Aidan Baker & Noveller - Colorful Disturbances LP

Link removed by request

Genre: Drone, Experimental, Noise
Label: Divorce Records

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Guitars warped so hard they dissolve into pure consciousness! Seriously, this record had to happen because these two are the NOW of transcendental guitar weirdness. In families like ours where deformed music of one kind or another pours out of the speakers all day long, Toronto's Aidan Baker is a household name. He is no doubt one of the most imaginative experimental musicians of the new generation, quickly creating a universe of limitless sound with his bursting discography. He offers this record an extensive piece which mixes drone, texture, and an ever-bowing foundation--imagine the sound of falling backwards...forever. The new blood on this split is guitarist Sarah Lipstate from Brooklyn, New York (aka Noveller). Sarah's prepared twin guitar works up a slow hypnotic force, gently pulling way out to the furthest deep end of pulses and patterns. Beautiful repetitions effortlessly skirt over a dark undercurrent. Edition of 600 copies.

Infinite Body & Emaciator - Split Lp

Link Removed By Request.

Genre: Drone, Noise
Label: Monorail Tresspasing

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A bristling static rests upon the tone-float arcs of guitar and analog synth on both sides of this exceptional split release from SoCal’s Infinite Body and Emaciator. The two share an ability to coax bright distortion capable of an enveloping warmth rarely witnessed in the context of noise culture. But, these two artists cannot be accused of being interchangeable with each other. Infinite Body (aka Kyle Parker) overlaps chords into harmonic sets of roughly stitched minimalism set below that pulsing stream of distortion; and if anything, the Infinite Body tracks resemble the more aggressive pieces from the Spire commissions for church organ. Emaciator’s taut lazer-beam of sound is far more linear in structure, pulsing with buzzing vibrations and steadily evolving from cold steely mass into a golden mist of radio-luminescence. After this track and the 2008 Reflection 2LP, Emaciator (aka Jon Borges) is quickly developing into quite the craftsman.

Yellow Tears - Don't Cry

Not the original artwork

Genre: Noise, Experimental, Drone
Label: Hospital Productions

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Yellow Tears is the sound of a drop of urine being pushed through an infected urethra. An uncomfortable attraction to the golden realms of natural expulsion, this is the audio collage equivalent of a child's worst day at a carnival as an actionist nightmare of disturbing imagery and sounds. Don't Cry shows these young masters at work, carving out sculptures of depravity using god-knows-what for source sounds. The listener is introduced to a mostly quiet, subtle psychology of fear, childhood trauma and locked cellars. Power comes from the absence of the familiar. Separating themselves from the narcissistic herd, the band requires decades of therapy to begin to solve their problems. Bad dreams are supposed to be frightening.

Following shocking albums from Kevin Drumm, Cold Cave, Wolf Eyes and Grey Wolves, Yellow Tears join one of the strongest label schedules around with their latest album 'Don't Cry' on Dominic Fernow's Hospital imprint. The group are an intense bunch of characters, devoted to creating a totally unhinged blend of repressed violence and engrossing drone layers that will uplift and terrify you with equal force. 'Don't Cry' is just an uncomfortably reassuring listen from start to finish, coating two sides of the black stuff in dismantled sketches of brutality and internal noise expunged from sources unknown. The album takes the form of an audio collage, cutting out and pasting sections of your worst nightmares with subtle use of hovering synthlines and close attention to atmospheric detail, presumably using field recordings to create a morphing sense of space alternating between claustrophobia and widescreen loneliness. We're not smart enough to coin a new genre for this sound, but it really is a visceral exercise in aural narcosis that is just ruling our world.

Moon Duo - Killing Time Ep

Genre: Psychedelic, Rock, Noise, Space Rock
Label: Sacred Bones

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Moon Duo is a project of Wooden Shjips guitarist and singer Ripley Johnson. Under the Moon Duo moniker, Johnson and collaborator Sanae Yamada create expansive Krautrock influenced tapestries of warm cascading fuzz and controlled feedback, organ, and accenting keyboard.

After lambasting those Wooden Shjips and their rotting bows and decaying hulls since I was first subjected to their largely boring ouvre, I scoffed at the ridiculous travesty of one of them having some sort of "solo" career. What's that gonna entail then? A solitary 2 note bassline looping for nigh on 10 minutes? Erm I was a bit wrong and now with the new Moon Duo EP 'Killing Time' on Sacred Bones shaking the office, i've gotta eat humble pie a little. It's repetitive alright, opening with the stunning self titled lead track, the relentless primitive 60's Motown-esque beat grounding a blurred echoed vocal whilst guiding this hollow wail of harrowing, fuzzy distortion that simply renders the tune sound quite stunning, eerie, claustrophobic & dystopian, like a Phil Spector production fed through the heart of a holocaust. 'Speed' possesses a juddery, nihilistic seedy bent with heavy nods to the hypno-sleaze overload of Suicide, the beat remaining a metronomic 60s flecked pulse whilst walls of sneering overloaded organ pulse & grind away like the soundtrack to some psychedelic orgy. More mellow edged lo-fi motorik psych beginning the flip slide that sounds quite Neu-ish, concluding with 'Ripples' a hazy mid 70's Komische style slice of desert baked chill-out that'd sound even better after a Peyote & Mescaline shake & a large doobie - but after the blistering shellshock of the opening track you're just nodding along obliviously with a spannered, lopsided smile on yr face.

Wet Hair - Dream

Genre: Experimental, Psychedelic, Noise, Drone
Label: Not Not Fun

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When Iowa City freak-out free-rockers Raccoo-oo-oon called it quits last year it left a bummer scar in the Midwest underground scene. But time is a great healer, and so are new bands. So out of the ashes of the Rac pack comes Wet Hair, a synth-punk-trance duo composed of keyboardist/vocalizer Shawn Reed and keyboardist/drummer Ryan Garbes, and Dream is the band's debut vinyl full-length after a series of increasingly shredding limited-edition cassettes on their own Night People label. Piling together an unlikely trash heap of Suicide-style drum machine beat-bops, zone-droned krautrock keys, and fucked up outsider crooning, the LP's four tracks careen across a spectrum of moods and mangled melodies. Wet Hair's cult electric annihilation has never gleamed with such razor-edged weirdness; this is their dream made real.

Wet Hair - Glass Fountain

Genre: Psychedelic, Noise, Drone, Experimental
Label: Not Not Fun

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The Reed/Garbes duo mainly sticks to their guns, mining the same post-Suicide art-trance vein they perfected on Dream, but with Glass Fountain there’s an added emphasis on the disembodied, oscillator pop mode that Wet Hair often toy with. Fountain’s five tracks include some of the band’s simplest but catchiest songs (“Crucifix In The Waves,” “When The Right Time Comes,” etc), mesmerizing organ melodies over plink-plonky vintage drum machines with weirdo soulful singing and outer space electronics, like an outsider-punk Silver Apples or something. Hard to say exactly what universe Wet Hair are operating in and that’s probably part of why we love it so much. A killer record that gets better each spin.

Meth Teeth - Everything Went Wrong Lp

Genre: Lo-Fi, Noise, Psychedelic
Label: Woodsist

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Meth Teeth reside in Portland OR. and in some ways embody the rainy day big country vibe of the city with its youth culture dreamers, old druggies, and rustic history. There is something that is really hard to pin down about Meth Teeth, the songs rely on simple ramshackle rhythms, upbeat shinny guitar interplay, and big fat chord churners, and a lot of tambourine banging away on the snare drum. Ultra catchy summertime rockers keep you sad and lonely, and upbeat and hopeful all at once

Chris Corsano - Another Dull Dawn LP

Genre: Experimental, Free Jazz, Psychedelic, Noise
Label: Ultra Eczema

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Corsano, the last drummer on earth, always remained calm and polite and made this full on incredible LP of absolute madness played on different drum sets, toy percussion, baritone sax mouthpiece on a 2 foot metal pipe, violin strings, banjo and violin bridges, contact mics, effect pedals, claw bell, metal strips from windshield wipers, toy comb, clarinet, toy gamelan, guitar cable, gongs, metals, triangle, nylon guitar strings, amps, melodica, pot lids etc. In every collab he played in (with Bill Nace, Thurston Moore, Spencer Yeh, John Olson, Eric Thielemans, Bjork, Byron Colley, Blood Stereo, Paul Flaherty, Greg Kelley, Idea Fire Company, etc.) he always changes things and never sounds the same.

Implodes - Implodes CS

This is no the original cover art

Genre: Ambient, Drone, Noise, Psychedelic
Label: Plus Tapes

Implodes is a Chicago quartet that prefers to keep the melodies and lyrics hidden in fuzzy distortion, reverb, echo & effects. Mostly the sounds are distant and dissonant, but slyly hidden below the surface are rays of melodic sunshine that peak through the clouds from time to time. Think Jesus & Mary Chain, Spacemen 3, Suicide and Flying Saucer Attack, but, you know, more… schizo. 100 copies, hand numbered.

Zola Jesus - The Spoils LP

Genre: Psychedelic, Noise, Experimental
Label: Sacred Bones

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Hailing from the unsuspecting locale of Madison, WI, Zola Jesus—the alter ego of Nika Roza Danilova—occupy a sphere of sparse industrial rhythms, no-fi drones, and ethereal femme vocals. Those who have seen her handful of live shows, heard her WFMU set, or caught any of the acclaimed, sought after, and now mostly out of print releases on Die Stasi or Troubleman Unlimited already know. For those uninitiated The Spoils may be the most fully realized representation of her sound. Zola Jesus have two previous releases on Sared Bones, the Souer Sewer single and a limited CD of a live performance from WNYU. The CD contains the entire “Soeur Sewer” 7" as well as the three songs from the Die Stasi single.

Blues Control - Local Flavor

Genre: Experimental, Psychedelic, Noise, Drone
Label: Stiltbreeze

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A few years back, former Quiet Sun / Roxy Music / 801 behind-thescenesmastermind Gill Manzanera—no relation to guitarist Phil Manzanera(whose real name is Philip Targett-Adams)—offered up a beguilingreminiscence of those heady days to the Swiss fanzine Sombre Reptiles:“What we were trying to do, you see, was harness the future into thepresent. However, we were severely at odds with technology, a ring modulator on a Fender Rhodes and a bit of funny business through an analogsynth being about as far as one could go then. The work with Quiet Sunwas the foundation, then later Phil and Eno built upon that within Roxyand if only Ferry had acquiesced to Brian having a go at ‘Bogus Man,’I think the results would have been stunning (as well as longer-lasting).But alas, so then for 801, the decision was to incorporate the progressiveand avant garde through a chamber of fusion (so to speak), the results ofwhich are undeniable. Mind you, this was all during the burgeoning punkera, so it took a bit of time for some to settle in with what was happening.But isn’t that the future, really; someone has to be the first out the door toknow if the rest of us will need a jumper or not. It was all quite brilliantin that way, absolutely so, I should think.”Hmm, well, that all sounds… quite English. Oddly enough, that sliverof quinine-sotted nostalgia could be used as a swab of historical DNApap to describe the fantastic newest shimmer from Blues Control. Whilepast releases have been beauteous extrapolations into the miasmic coreof psychedelia and billowing fog of ambient space, Local Flavor is theone where all the chickens have come home to roost.The opening track “Good Morning” is practically a sideways step intoboogie rock (horn accompaniment provided by none other than JesseTrbovich and Kurt Vile); with the proper seismic shift, it could almostbe heard as an alternate reality take on “Re-make/Re-model.” It’s easilythe band’s longest stomp in the forest of rock since their debut cassette,and, man, them boots leave a bruise! The remaining three tracks morph and ebb harmoniously—in trueBlues Control fashion—the timbre occasionally elegiac, yet more oftenriffing on a plane that has yet to be transcribed. Local Flavor is 801 plusan extra one (8101, if you will), providing an unimaginable future thatwill take your breath away. So make sure you’ve paid your oxygen bill,because there are no free rides in the 82nd Century. Features guest musicians JesseTrbovich and Kurt Vile.

Bardo Pond - Gazing At Shilla LP

Genre: Psychedelic Rock, Drone, Noise

Label: Important

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Limited edition pressing of 1000 copies on vinyl heavy enough to hold some of Bardo Pond's headiest jams. This is the first of four vinyl only Bardo related releases coming out simultaneously on Important Records. Gazing at Shilla is Bardo Pond's first release on Important. The two pieces, both very different in sound and feel, have sat patiently in the Bardo archive waiting for the most opportune moment for release. Eight-Thousanders and Kali are both entirely improvised pieces with no overdubs. Slide blissfully into a smokey heaven and then forget your mind in a lower world of strange tones on side A. If you're still able to flip the record when the needle hits the runoff groove you'll find yourself exposed to the Goddess Kali's naked blackness.

Nate Young - Regression

Genre: Noise, Drone
Label: Ideal Recordings

Detroit based Nate Young formed Wolf Eyes as a solo project a bit over ten years ago, probably right after he left Nautical Almenac. He was soon joined by Aaron Dilloway in '98 and John Olson in 2000. Dilloway dissapeared to Nepal and was replaced by Hair Police beast Mike Connely.

Enough of the Wolf Eyes history lesson, we are now at 2009 and Young is releasing one of his strongest works ever, the deep and impressive Regression solo album on iDEAL! Analog synths, tape delays, loops - presented in a restrained, relaxed and controlled way. This makes the music even more sick and dark than the WE sound. I guess Young was inspired by vintage horror movie soundtracks, 70's ambient synth stuff and intoxication. These things comes to my mind anyways. Nate Young is here proving that he is covering a wide range of experimental music and that he is no doubt one of the few masterminds in the rougher parts of electronic music. iDEAL is highly recommending this to anyone claiming to be interested in synth and tape music. All right.

Children's Hospital - Alone Together (LP)

Genre: Noise, Drone, Psychedelic, Experimental.
Label: Sacred Bones Records
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Alone Together is the debut release from Children's Hospital. If their despondent sounds remind you of something you may have once heard it's because this is the latest project from the A-Frames/Intelligence/Rodent Plague/AFCGT axis. Reminiscent of the brooding and gray skyline of their hometown of Seattle the duo hover between abstract soundscape compositions, Jandek inspired bouts of melancholy droned out dementia, and stripped apart abrasive punk - often combining several of the forms at once. If recent Rodent Plague releases on Killshaman and Jerkave Tapes are any indication it would be ill-advised to sleep on Children's Hospital.

Tracklist:

1 - Roots
2 - Unseen
3 - Preschool Of Atonement
4 - If You Find Me I´m Here
5 - Left Handed
6 - Exodus Return
7 - After The Aftermath
8 - Blue/Green Algae
9 - Words Of The Prophet