Yesterday's mail. (Sleep Whale, MGR, Isis)

Sleep Whale - Little Brite

A twenty-six minute electro-acoustic soundtrack to a summers-day is what this Texas outfit offers on their six track EP. Imagine laying on your back in a park, drifting away on the tones of a skilled fingerstyle guitarplayer sitting on a bench improvising on the downtempo electronica from some kid down the street checking out the latest hip Japanese cupboard idm. Add the organic flow of waves caressing - and subtly refracting - a production floating on warm strings and you end up with half an hour of breezy summer bliss. A successful exercise in a genre labeled as electro-acoustic from a band we hope to hear more from in the future.

myspace.com/sleepwhale



MGR (Mustard Gas and Roses) - Wavering on the Cresting Heft.

I love MGR; it's slow, it's dark, it's beautiful sadness on vinyl I want to be devoured by at massive volumes...

The sleeve note describes it rather well:

MGR is an emotionally charged amalgamation of sounds that, much to it's credit, refuses to fit neatly into any particular category. MGR's effectiveness stems from how fluidly Mark Gallagher - of renowned dirge architects Isis - is able to gradually add texture upon texture, building up the intensity of the tracks until they reach a tragic momentum. Imagine Isis with much of the bombast stripped away, leaving only dark, moody and melancholic soundscapes...

myspace.com/mgrsounds


Isis - Wavering Radiant


Read up on my findings of Wavering Radiant here. Both the Isis & MGR albums are released by Conspiracy Records with much love and eye for detail, as always.






There even is a print on the inside of the gatefold sleeve... wow.


ConspiracyRecords.com
myspace.com/isis

xGames 15 (2009) skate park

Possibly even more intense than in the skate vert competition, the skateboard park comp was pushing the skaters to perform their sickest lines in 30 second runs, leaving no margin for bails, making it even harder on the fast-pased semi-concrete set-up. Keep an eye of for the McTwist and Rune Glifberg's über clean style, seeing this guy skate makes you want to get up on that deck yourself. Considering it was his 15th participation and only 2nd (and consecutive) gold medal, you can only imagine how fierce the competition was in the last years.

Pushing Buttons routine

DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist, and DJ Numark performing live on Akai MPC samplers... 'nough said.

xGames 15 (2009) skate vert

Last weekend it was time for the 15th X-Games, I haven't been following up on this event for a few years and was amazed by the consistency of some 'older' skaters and the progression of what some of the new kids in the park were bringing. This is what went down in the vert...



X Games 15 homepage

Isis - Wavering Radiant

Blurping on Isis' latest in the Release of the Month article at TSB.

After their 10 year jubilee and related vinyl box re-releases, a Seldon Hunt documentary and a whole lot of patience and speculation, Isis astonished fan and foe alike with an album that recapitulated and expanded upon their decade of unique post-metal. Unlike its predecessors, Wavering Radiant revisits the strong points of a strong career, from Celestial to In the Absence of Truth, rather than building on the work of a single album. A more notable place is reserved for haunting vocals, while sturdy bass and subtle, supportive soundscapes (containing Rhodes-like accents) carry the weight of the sometimes uplifting, sometimes destructive guitars. Isis’ eye for detail and the progressive nature of this album makes it their most complete and refined work to date: a standout album in their already impressive catalogue as well as in the progressive post-metal genre itself. full article

written for and published by The Silent Ballet

Scratch (2001)

A feature-length documentary film about hip-hop DJing, otherwise known as turntablism. From the South Bronx in the 1970s to San Francisco now, the world's best scratchers, beat-diggers, party-rockers, and producers wax poetic on beats, breaks, battles, and the infinite possibilities of vinyl. -imdb

It's simple really, this documentary is as essential as essential can get when it comes to hip-hop. A step by step walk-through of how it all began with dj-ing and evolved into scratching, juggling, turntablism etc. Passing through with insight, anecdotes, tips and tricks or general BS are oa.: Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Flash, DJ Krush, Mix Master Mike, DJ NuMark, DJ Q-Bert, DJ Shadow, X-ecutioners, Steinski, Cut Chemist, ... The feature won the audience price at the Atlanta Film Festival and was nominated for the Grand Jury Price at Sundance, so you know this is a decent documentary and not just a collection of home shot clips, it just looks real good too, just check the first few minutes below..





torrent meta file | Amazon
Doug Pray (director) website

Larvae - Loss Leader

6.5/10

Loss Leader consists of two parts with several years in between composing and recording, but the sound of Larvae is etched in a monolith - concrete and defined as mathematics, yet organic and intelligent, soothing and at the same time uplifting, with enticing dramatic builds. Upon listening to the music, the references that could be heard range from epic instrumental post-rock bands to sampling legends, and brought in a fashion that has very few criticisms in terms of sheer "listenability."

Opening the proceedings is Larvae's more contemporary work, offering four pieces of dark and moody ambient entwined with the warmth of a Fender Rhodes, an awkwardly obscured melodica, and a drummer that sounds like he could just be Josh Davis himself laying down some loops. Although having a breathtakingly shaded atmosphere and a lazy rolling vibe, there's a distinctly upbeat quality to this first half of the presented feature. The combination of the bass that seems to be playing a stoner's lullaby, the drummer who is exploring trip-hop drumlines from over a decade ago, mathematically challenged drum-computers, and vibrant ambience all work together on the Turning Around EP chapter of this release.

"Attention everyone, this is an emergency broadcast. The unpleasant noise you're about to hear coming from your radio is not a mistake, please do not turn off your radio but turn up the volume on your receiver is high as it can go. So you can make the sounds we broadcast as loud as possible"

Although this would be the logical (both sonic and chronological) choice of an opening, the second chapter of the album, the Monster Music 2 EP foursome, starts with this sampled instruction. I urge you to comply anyway. The closing half of the album takes the listener back (as this is in fact also the extension of the 2003 Monster Music EP) with breaks and bass lines hailing from an age where trip-hop was digging its grave and dubstep was safely guarded in the womb of drum and bass. The protagonists of the last four tracks include clear rhythm patterns and self-destructing, almost industrial-sounding, beats only guided by a submerging synth on the low end of its chords - but always with that spine-tingling new layer on the right moment. These organic IDM tracks remind of obscure, smoke-filled chill-out rooms where those who seek more than fast crowd-pleasing thrills roam around and lose themselves in the music until dawn.

It's a shame that the good people of the Ad Noiseam label and Larvae opted for an environmentally-friendly release by cramming two EPs on a single non-decomposing disc. Don't get me wrong, it's not my fantasy to see humanity drown in its own filth, but if that's the reason to molest two sufficiently-structured pieces of enjoyable post-rock meets electronica, you didn't think it through. A simple brainstorm session could've ended with a more creatively appealing solution without giving the impression that there's a label cleaning stock or a void in artist activity to be filled. Loss Leader is, nevertheless, one to have if you're for introspective post-rock with a dash of IDM or if pre-dubstep breaks with a hint of droning guitars sounds appealing. It would've been an added value if the concept had matched the music of the release, but it was not to be.


written for and published by The Silent Ballet
stream the album @ Last.fm
Larvae website

Ren & Stimpy

An intense, hyperactive chihuahua (Is there any other kind?) and a happy-go-lucky, empty-brained cat share bizarre and often repulsive adventures. Their experiences usually involve hairballs, filthy litterboxes, "magic nose goblins", sentient farts, jars of spit, outhouses, eating dirt, monkey vermin and any other imaginable disgusting substance. -imdb





The Ren and Stimpy Show is an American/Canadian animated television series created by Canadian animator John Kricfalusi. The series follows the adventures of the eponymous characters: Ren Höek, a neurotic "asthma-hound" chihuahua, and Stimpson J. Cat, — a simpleminded manx cat. They wander around in nonsensical adventures in a style reminiscent of the Golden Age of American animation.

A series from the children's cable network Nickelodeon, The Ren and Stimpy Show had a reputation for subversive humor. The controversy mostly stemmed from imagery and cartoon violence. In 1992, Nickelodeon fired Kricfalusi and production moved from Kricfalusi's Spümcø studios to Games Animation, where it stayed until its cancellation in 1997.


Marooned/Untamed World
classic episode (1x05 -1991 12 15)



src

Metro Area - Fabric 43

Those who were around in the early 80's might have had the pleasure of being introduced to a pop phenomenon called Stars on 45, also known in the States as Stars On and as Starsound in the UK and Oceania. This Dutch studio project under direction of Jaap Eggermont (see Golden Earring from the hits "Radar Love" etc.) embodied the idea to have a more polished, and legal, alternative for bootleg mashups appearing on compilation albums and radio stations. A more danceable mix was filled and strung together with popular compositions in an enjoyable medley fashion with one underlying uniform (disco) drumline. These early vinyl rarities bring me to the concept set Metro Area has thrown down on the 43rd of the Fabric Series.

At best, Metro Area achieves mediocrity on all fronts. The first half (apart from the intro) is a solid mix with a nice tempo, no extreme shifts in style and a cohesive vibe that delivers the promised groovy stuff. After the danceable first half comes a mess of awkward mixes held together by namedropping and the recognizability of a few classics. It's good fun if you feel the need to deviate from the usual Fabric Series sound or feel like busting some Chandleresque dancemoves in your bathroom, but definitely a fabrication to stay clear of if you like to pretend disco and the 80's never happened.


written for and published by The Silent Ballet
Fabric Records

Bill Hicks

a draft that what waiting the right moment I guess,
earlier today this announced was made by Rykodisc ...

The Late Show with David Letterman has scheduled a telecast of the never-aired October 1, 1993 Bill Hicks appearance. The show was pre-taped Jan. 26th (with Bill's mom as a guest) and will air Friday, January 30th on your local CBS affiliate. We'd like to acknowledge and thank Bill's many fans and everyone who has had a hand in keeping Bill's comedy and philosophy alive. We hope everyone can tune in and experience what you may have missed or what you barely remember – Bill Hicks performing for a national audience on network television.

William Melvin Hicks was an American stand-up comedian.

Finding moderate mainstream success in the late 1980s and early '90s, Hicks tended to balance heady discussion of religion, politics, philosophy and personal issues with more ribald material; he characterized his own performances as "Chomsky with dick jokes".

The British movie Human Traffic referred to him as the "late prophet Bill Hicks"...
that pretty much describes the man best I think.

In 1990, Hicks released his first album, Dangerous, performed on the HBO special One Night Stand, and performed at Montreal's Just for Laughs festival. He was also part of a group of American stand-up comedians performing in London's West End in November. Hicks was a huge hit in the UK and Ireland and continued touring there throughout 1991. That year, he returned to the Just for Laughs festival and recorded his second album, Relentless.

Hicks made a brief detour into musical recording with the Marblehead Johnson album in 1992. In November, he toured the UK, where he recorded the Revelations video for Channel 4. The show was in contrast with the harsh and brutally frank style he had developed in reaction to the many unwelcoming and often hostile audiences of America, and shows Hicks in a playful mood and at ease with his audience. He closed the show with "It's Just a Ride", one of his most famous and life-affirming philosophies. Later that year he recorded a stand-up performance that would become Live at Oxford Playhouse and Salvation. Hicks was voted "Hot Standup Comic" by Rolling Stone Magazine, and moved to Los Angeles in early 1993.


The progressive metal band Tool invited Hicks to open a number of concerts for them on their 1993 Lollapalooza appearances, where Hicks once famously asked the audience to look for a contact lens he'd lost. Thousands of people complied. Tool singer Maynard James Keenan so enjoyed this joke that he repeated it on a number of occasions. In 1996, Tool released their album Ænima which contains mentions of Hicks in the liner notes and on record. The track "Ænema" references Hicks's Arizona Bay philosophy and the closing track "Third Eye" contains samples from Hicks's Dangerous and Relentless albums. Experimental rock outfit Faith No More also quoted Bill Hicks in "Ricochet" from their King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime album, singing "It's always funny until someone gets hurt and then it's just hilarious". -wiki



Totally Bill Hicks (1994)
documentary
41:17
imdb



video source

A.Armada - Anam Cara

A.armada, an allience with base camp in Athens, Georgia is the combined effort of members from Cinemechanica and Maserati's tour guitarist Josh McCauley, they bring us the result of their second recording mission. Their long player follows up their 2005 EP, Anam Cara, if you can call a 5 track- 28 minute listen a long player that is. The debriefing of their latest mission is presented in a packaging that wouldn't look to bad in my vinyl collection but obviously there's more to the album then meets the eye. Anam Cara, Gaellic for soul mate, begins their mission like a brave trooper in a dismayed frenzy, running into the woods throwing a hand pomegranate to alert the listener.


Fully loaded and their hearts set on victory they guide us onto the well balanced battlefield of post-rock instrumentation, years of training and drilling make it sound so controlled and in place that there's a cornucopia of tightness. All the pieces on this musical Stratego board have their objective to fulfil, sneaking Scouts of subtle swelling guitars aiding the ruthless Spy of straight forward face bashing riffs in outlining the field for the General. Once the these outposts are set there's no escape from the A.armada stranglehold, it is docile to the post-rock supreme command of the late 2000's supplemented by a distinct striking private of the Cinemechanica squadron.


The clash of the highly combustible, rampaging frenzy that is own of the Cinemechanica chapter and the neo-psychedelia of Maserati might be the components of A.armada, the sum of these Athenian wings is not the sum of their combative power. Once they join forces, they face the reality that their individual strength is absorbed in the clockwork mechanism they've signed up for. Mayhem and mushroom snacks don't go hand in hand all that well and only brings a welcome deviation of the thirteen in a dozen post-rock sound. Nonetheless, the achievements of this Athens Axis of post-rock are not to be regarded lightly. Anam Cara is broken down in five very similar sub-missions but each of them has it's appeals and unveils a bit more of the A.armada weaponry.


The only major flaw of the entire operation is the overconfidence of their opening move, going in with a bang and dispersing over the field opened up their perimeters, but they failed to deliver 'the smell of napalm in the morning'. It's better to blow up then to fade away is a cliché, I know, yet applying it on an albums structure will give the listener a reason to hit play again once the battle has been fought. As many beautiful pieces of dreamy ambience and adrenaline pumping themes Anam Cara may contain, none of these will keep abreast for a long time. The only post-listening stress souvenir I got of this album came from If Only You Knew What the Lost Soldiers Did to Me, one minute in the track. A delightful panned simple riff opens, sober drums fall... easing in the otherwise fine five minute track. In one of the longer breaks they overlooked -or ignored- the guitar riff that drops in a fraction earlier as the drums. Sure, a minor flaw most won't hear unless they go looking for it, but overlooking this when recording/mixing/mastering the album is a deadly flaw in this reviewers opinion. Fixing it could not have taken much longer then a minute...


In the end, what remains after several listens is the need of closure on this album. Something to mark the end of this campaign that is excecuted according to the textbook guidelines, no bodycount, just one annoying fleshwound.



Website A.Armada
Myspace A.Armada
Hello Sir Records