Daughters Of The Legendary Hearts

A failure to communicate saw my final two Not Not Fun write-ups for last week fail to materialise - that and some awful work-related meltdowns and the lack of Internet-inal attachment. So here they are, jammed into the one...

What I love about Ride To Die, Minneapolis band Daughters of the Sun's fourth album, is how it simultaneously feels like an extraneous entry to the Not Not Fun roster and yet an indelibly intrinsic totem. The trio are effectively a kraut-psych wet dream, filtered through the VHS gloss of early 80s Viacom cyber-sci-fi genre hybrid films. And it's this later part that comes to pass on tracks such as 'Fly By', a lysergic trance mantra that besmirches the more gargantuan psych numbers that bookend it. Don't get me wrong, the psych numbers are what get me humming here - yet even the titular 'Ride To Die', a blasted hallucinogenic bomb with its phasers set to kill, starts with warbled tetravision synth. Meanwhile 'Sater's Ghost' feels like stepping into a Kraftwerk bad dream, marionetting around a circular black hole, the strings manned by Gary Numan.  And the flayed sworl of 'Reigns Of Iron' mirrors the Robedoor black drift spirit, yet with more metallurgic pulse. But it's the inexorable pull to the damned unknown that really hooks you in, and the majority of that power must go to Collin Gorman Weiland's synth wasteland. Check out his and percussionist Bennett Johnson's Dreamweapon too while you are at it. Grab Ride To Die here - it's killer.

And it's nice to end Not Not Fun week with something Australian too. Melbourne duo Legendary Hearts have just released Aerial Views, and it's a swirling hyperventilation under an cloud of opium dreams. The vapours drift effortlessly, whether it be the nebulous guitar lines on 'Vanishing Point', the waveforms that drift over the pastel sunset tones of a romantic comedown that is 'Distance & Desire' or the warped amalgamation of 80s backlit ballads and being caught in a lava lamp that percolates throughout 'Acceleration'. These narcotic inducing songs all pulse with an energy and drive that is often missing from music of this ilk: it's fun yet purposeful; sensuous yet playful. With a dash of sadism in there for that exotic taste of the wild side. Aerial Views is in fact a very sexual record in that regard, and is probably soundtracking the entire spectrum of the Kinsey scale as we speak. Grab it here.

Four Score Ebb And Thrall Of An Alpine Decline

I was sent one of those anonymous Bandcamp emails yesterday, telling me that Shaun over at Tenzenmen Records was releasing yet another album. I still haven't paid lip service to some of the killers that have come through this year (sorry Birdstriking, apologies White+), yet some are frontrunner favourite albums of 2013 (hello Yes I'm Leaving; hi there Bone) so I thought I'd head over and look. It was Disappearance, the third album from Beijing-based band Alpine Decline. But as I scrolled down the side, I saw that there were a glut of albums that Tenzenmen had put out, or were about to put out - and all were from Alpine Decline. Investigation, both aural and journalistic (well as journalistic as I get), was necessary.



Seems that the band released their self-titled debut in 2010 (which comes across like Built To Spill in a near murderous sonic sense of brutality) in LA, where they had formed, then travelled to China and into the Himalayas, before coming back and recording Visualisations later in the same year. It follows a similar pattern to Alpine Decline, yet with a wider expansive of crackle and drone - it was like the trek had started opening a hitherto unknown propensity for languidly and porous drone, albeit still kept in check by an innate drive for melody and conciseness.



Yet something had been awakened, and the band could not sate this creative hunger. In 2011 the duo returned to the studio where they recorded Vizualisations (again helmed by M Geddes - who had helmed productions of Robedoor and Pocahaunted records in the past), and the resultant works, collated into third album Disappearance (the album that brought me on this mystic journey) is decidedly more insular yet kinetic; more warped and yet more focused than their predecessors. The third eye was well and truly alive within these two. A deliberate exercise in hypnosis and concerted, controlled elongation (yet with the inherent melody and groove a cell-level mainstay), the twelve tracks on offer still remained succinct, yet each appeared to contain their own alien technology, their own enveloping worlds. Such strong and clear evolution in such a short timeframe is frightening.



Then the duo disappeared, back to the outskirts of Beijing, for a year. Finally they returned with a fourth album tucked firmly under their grimy arms, and Night of the Long Knives was another transmogrification of Alpine Decline - this time more contemplative, more glazed, more ethereal. There was more of a thousand yard stare here - like returning from self-imposed exile to find the world you left behind rent asunder, nothing left behind, nothing recognisable. There are songs that still echo the very best, maudlin BtS (see 'Sleeping Gas' for example) yet with a gauzy, dystopian hue.


These four albums are still sinking in - yet I think I may have stumbled across a band that is creating albums that I will fall in love with for different reasons; that will seep into my very being; that are, in other words, quintessentially essential listening. And the more that these albums are listened to, and embraced, and revered, the stronger Alpine Decline's id grows - the albums will continue to tumble forth, fully formed and magnificent - and the world will evolve along with them.

Grab all four albums here. Seriously, for the betterment of mankind.

Rippled Ensemble Fever Dreams

I'm writing this with mixed emotions. I have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of Brian Pyle’s newest release under his nom de plume Ensemble Economique (Fever Logic, out through Not Not Fun), and it arrived in the mail yesterday. I opened the parcel…to find the vinyl had warped in transit! So saddened by this… At least the Robedoor Pacific Drift 7" I had also bought was in mint condition, or I would have been inconsolable. But despite its inferiority, you can’t warp a digital soundbyte (can you?), so I have still managed to spend the day listening to the album – and it’s an absolute killer.

Pyle surprises from the onset with Fever Logic with the overbearing presence of vocals throughout these six tracks. Not that Pyle hasn't sung before - but the vocals are rather claustrophobic, complementing with the swirling synth and rhythms to present a mode of pregnant foreboding in monochrome - vignettes of  barely bridled anguish drenched in gloss and buried in the corridors of Anton Corbijn photolens photography. Each song benefits from the way they bleed into view, as if walking into a smoke-filled, mirror-walled theatre mid-act, the ritualistic events depicted out of context yet fully-formed nonetheless. Its a nightmarish malaise, garish thoughts caught in amber, where nothing and everything makes sense - thus the title couldn't be more apt.

Fever Logic is out now. The first 210 copies are in maroon vinyl (as is mine, despite the warped state), then 240 in virgin black. It is a truly mesmerising work, and well worth the time. Probably worth trying in its rippled state, to be honest...

Ensemble Economique - We Come Spinning Out Of Control

Nobly Ruined

It's pretty bleeding obvious that I love me some drone. It started with Mogwai, and continued along that path until albums by the likes of (but nowhere near exclusive to) Barn Owl, Ensemble Economique, Expo 70 and Robedoor consistently circle within my head like sharks in the water. Lee Noble has been an artist that has slowly risen in stocks for me to the point that the simultaneous release of his Ruiner and (reissue of) No Becoming albums through Bathetic Records was something of an event on Planet Masala.

What draws you in isn't the noise, it's the patience that it takes to get to the end point that you know will end in heartbreak and catastrophe; a controlled tension eked out on a knife's edge, time being stalled or stretched without warning. Noble's disembodied vocals are another cipher, an out-of-body experience that refuses to be pinned down, yet irrevocably draws the focus from the sleights of hand that are at play. Ruiner can be glacial and fragmented, isolating yet entrancing - like most drone, it takes you somewhere, often with hundreds of others around you, yet you are cocooned to all but your own experience, your own cryogenic dreamstate.

Yet there is a baroque air to Ruiner, a playful redolence that casts off the oppressive chains and allows the blood to pump through the veins once more. Hard to believe, but Noble at times seems insistent that he is crafting pop - an alien, subterranean version, yet pop all the same. So whilst the icy stabs through your brain still exist, there are counterpoints (often running tangential or parallel to the more industrial moments) where it can either hurt or refresh; paralyse or revitalise. Above all else, Ruiner offers a bruised beauty too - like most experimental music, it plucks at your fraying emotions, forcing you to feel.

You can buy both Ruiner (cover above) and No Becoming (the excellent cover at the top of the post) here. 

Lee Noble - December ∞ 
Lee Noble - Demon Pond

Flannel Robes

For a band raging against sitting still, with releases pushing towards the upper echelons of a hundred on just about all formats and through all labels, including Olde English Spelling Bee (whatever happened to those guys? A serious question there), Not Not Fun, Night People and Woodsist, waiting almost a year for a new Robedoor release feels like being spurned by your S&M-fixated lover. The LA droners lick those wounds though with Primal Sphere, the upcoming album the duo have coming out on Hands In The Dark Records. Their brand of electro-doom secretions doesn't deviate far from the Robedoor norm on the new LP, but therein lies their charm - they are truly insidious, their slight transgressions worming their way throughout a prolific oeuvre so that the beginning and end become indiscernible. Plus, on a track like 'Flannel Shroud,' you can get your undead shuffle on - nothing like a funereal dance number for the apocalyptic ages.

You can preorder Primal Sphere here - highly recommended. And brilliant cover art too.

Interview - Amanda Brown (Not Not Fun Records/LA Vampires)

LA Vampires is the name of the solo venture by Amanda Brown, formerly one half of Pocahaunted along with Bethany Cosentino, who left to concentrate on her own project, Best Coast. With LAV Brown has moved beyond the dark drones and goth-tinged psych-rock of her former base duo towards a more "pop" sound - yet you can take the girl out of Pocahaunted... Brown is also responsible for stellar label Not Not Fun, that she runs with husband Britt Brown (AKA Robedoor). She is currently in Australia, and I spoke with her recently about...well, everything.

SONIC MASALA - Before talking about your current band, I wanted to talk about Not Not Fun. How have you ensured that the label has been able to grow into such a venerable label without losing any of the initial aesthetics that set it apart from its contemporaries when you started it?

AMANDA BROWN (LA VAMPIRES) - That's just the constant struggle. Honestly, Britt and I never claimed the label had a genre-bend, or that it would stay the same, cater to the same audience over the years. We've only ever promised it would remain true to our personal aesthetics, and that means the label goes through the same changes that we do as humans. Finding yrself out of love with long-form drone isn't such a bad thing, if the next musical love goes as deep and feels as intense. It's been quite a turn off for some people, but for us there's no other way to do it. And obviously for the fans who respect that we cut a line straight through trendiness, that we don't get whipped around by what's in favor, that we just release the music we connect with - they're elated that we move and grow and try and strive.

SM - There have been some amazing artists on the label , many of which have emblazoned our blog – Daughters Of The Sun, Ensemble Economique, The Deeep, Robedoor, Zola Jesus – this barely scratches the surface! What do you think attracts them to you?

BROWN - I'd like to think it's our straight-forwardness and our sweat. If you send us a master and we love it, the process begins immediately. We don't sit on great records and wait for the "perfect" time to release them. I think bands love that, they love to move fast and to have their music available to hear and buy. We're also huge fans of the musicians on ourlabel: exploring with them, believing in them, supporting them (often times monetarily, sometimes just by setting up shows or hook-ups with other bands/tours/venues). Britt and I want their records to sell better than our own. I don't think you can find that kind of intensity and dedication in many vanity/underground labels. I wanted Maria (Minerva) on this Aus tour with me, so that I could see HER play!

SM - How do you find running the label?

BROWN - (laughing) It's not easy, man!

SM - Is the cassette form actually a good musical medium, or just a fad?

BROWN - The internet's a fad. Digital music is a fad. The cassette is warm and homey and compact and tangible and aesthetically quite pleasing to touch and listen to. I feel sorry for CDs sometimes, they never stood a chance.

SM - Id be remiss of not mentioning Pocahaunted, the ace band you originally started with Bethany Cosentino (Best Coast) and had Cameron Stallones of Sun Araw and of course your husband (Robedoor) involved. Firstly, these are all disparate directions – how do you think these musical outlets have been influenced by the Pocahaunted days? And is Pocahaunted reached its definitive end point?

BROWN - Pocahaunted is absolutely over. I mean, you said it yrself, everyone wanted to make different music, everyone was evolving into different directions - with side projects, solo projects, or even just hazy dreams of a distinctly different musical future. Bethany wanted to do her spin on 60s pop, Cameron wah-wah psych, Britt Skinny Puppy dark-keyboard stuff.I wanted to do this. I'd like to think we all took something bizarre and cool and transcendent from Pocahaunted, but maybe not. Sadly, with ever-morphing bands, changing their sound and their roster, most members fantasize about a liberating moment when they can "do their own thing." Wait, I don't know if that's sad, that's just the way it is. I definitely wanted more from my music journey by the end.

SM - What about the industry in general – are there labels you feel a kinship towards? Labels that aren’t doing the right thing by its roster?

BROWN - The industry is nuts. I'm lucky I almost never have to think about what the rest of the musical landscape looks like - I don't have to judge it or feel oppressed by it. As a teenager I dutifully loved K, Kill Rock Stars, Matador, and Thrill Jockey. What ghetto-ized their vibe was the time they really shined in. When it's not the 90s anymore, it's hard to stop being so... 90s. Not every label can be hit after hit, just like we can't ...but I do like random output from DFA, Future Times, R & S, Hyperdub, Kosmisk Vag, Brunch Groupe, Stones Throw. Night People is run by Shawn Reed, and I love his art/aesthetic. When Jeremy Earl did Fuckit Tapes, I thought the awesomeness would never stop.

SM - Labels like Shawn Reed’s Nothing People and also Sacred Bones are infiltrating Australia, as is your own label, but there has been a concerning trend of independent record stores closing down over here. What’s the alternative, especially for a far-flung nation like Australia?

BROWN - You have to fight to keep your record stores open! There is no alternative!You guys are SOOO far away from America, and who cares - I mean, it's not like America is the center of the world - but if your interested in hearing what's going on in this country, you have to make sure to promote and support little stores trying to stock our stuff. Don't go immediately to the internet and download. I suppose it also doesn't hurt to throw a lot of money and a few plane tickets at artists to get them to your beautiful country...

SM - We'll try, haha! OK, LA Vampires – I hate to say it (well actually I don't haha!), but…”witch house” or something else?

BROWN - Witch House is a punchline. It's pretty funny, but besides Salem, I don't think there's an artist or a group who would ever claim it. I'm not that witchy. I'm certainly not goth.. You do one record with Zola Jesus... (laughs)

SM - How have your experiences both personally and musically influenced LA Vampires?

BROWN - That's so broad! I mean we're one in the same! LA VAMPIRES is me, it's all my musical and personal experience in a performance/sonic art. Definitely after years of running a label, playing in bands, touring, being elevated by other musicians/label owners/venue owners/bookers/etc, I've become this new thing entirely. Now I follow my own inspiration. If I want to do dub, I do it. If I want to do Skrewed, or Baggy, or Hyphy or anything, I just do it. It's about not having the fear, not having to answer to other bandmates, not worrying about yr old fans or new fans or future fans. Just trying to be soulful, honest, and constantly inspired. When I start to feel bitter or crushed by shows or tours or releases or anything else, I remember to be human. I eat a good meal, I watch a brilliant movie, I sleep, or read Martin Amis, and then I come back refreshed and ready for VAMPIRES.

SM - What can be said about the recording process opposed to the LA Vampires live show experience? Ive found that acts like yours that I saw in London last year were various shades of shit (not slagging you at all, I think I just had a rough run haha!)

BROWN - I have no doubt that you've seen some shit shows. In fact, right before I said yes to this tour I was chewing my nails bloody trying to imagine what the set would look and sound like. My friend Aurora from Innergaze was like, "Yr not gonna just do karaoke-style are you? That sucks!" And she's right. Aren't we all getting sick of just seeing laptops? Or just watching someone press play on an iPod? What a dark time for live music if that's all we have to look forward to! So for this live set, I've put together great beats/tracks and have Nick playing live keys, Britt doing live mixing, and myself on vocals. I dance, I emote, and hopefully the audience will too.

SM - Frankly! is a festival that is very boutique in nature, and is indicative of the change in music-going trends here. Yet these types of shows are commonplace in the US and Europe. What do you think a festival like Frankly! brings to a place like Australia?

BROWN - I wish I knew more about Australian culture so I could answer that properly. To be honest, you all seem very cool to me - like you have your eyes and ears to the serious cultural ground. I love Australian fashion, and I love Australian actors (Cate Blanchett is a goddess!) and so I assume your art and music scene must also be thriving. From just knowing Blank Realm, Angel Eyes, Canyons, and Rites Wild I can tell something incredibly vivid is already happening right on your Aussie doorstep. But festivals are wonderful ways to get the world together on one vibe, and it's bringing me to you, so I'm endlessly thankful for that.

SM - What bands are you into at the moment? Any that particularly should be followed fanatically by Sonic Masala/NNF acolytes?

BROWN - I love so much of what's on 100% SILK (of course):SFV ACIDOCTO, OCTAMAGIC, TOUCH, INNERGAZE, PHARAOHS, STRATEGY and Miracles Club, Maria Minerva, Rangers, Zola Jesus, Sapphire Slows, Mi Ami...I saw you're a big fan, Daniel's great...and then there's the old stuff I always listen to: Sylvester, Bjork, Deee-Lite, Digital Underground.

SM - Have you ever been to Australia before/are there any parts of the country you're excited to be visiting?

BROWN - I've never been! I'm crazy excited, I can't wait! I hear amazing things about Melbourne and Sydney, but Nick keeps telling me about the coral reef in Cairns. He wants us to go on a glass bottom boat and check out the sea-life. Not really my bag, but how can I resist?

SM - Finally – what is sonic masala?

BROWN - It's putting silk in your ears.

LA Vampires plays the Frankly! It's A Pop Festival at Brisbane's Powerhouse tomorrow, alongside Wet Hair, The Twerps, Blank Realm, Angel Eyes and loads more. Get tix here.

Robedoor Spirals Ever Downward...

Doom psychedelia has never sounded so sinister as it does in the hands of LA drone merchant Robedoor. Always the productive megalo-alchemist, Robedoor has released a couple of items in the past couple of months. First up there was Rock Bottom, a cassette put put by the inimitable Night People label (buy here), and the hiss and gurgle of the tape adds the resonance that such discordant, somnambulist dirge craves and desires. Then along came Too Down To Die (he's a cheery chap, isn't he?) on Not Not Fun Records, and its a step up in production but relatively more of the same. But to be fair, who does anything like this, with the same longevity and intensity, with this much productivity and creativity? No one, that's who. I thought his Pacific Drift was killer - seems like that was just another stepping stone...

Robedoor - Back On The Ground (from Rock Bottom)
Robedoor - (In The) Cybershade-Universal Migration (from Too Down To Die)

Not Not a Bored Fortress for Infinite Body, No Age, Rangers, Gnod, Robedoor and NNF gang

No set of posts about Not Not Fun would be complete with out mentioning their Bored Fortress 7" club, thus picking out a couple of the many gems that make up this year's selection.

The Bored Fortress 7" Club, now in its fourth year, is a series of split 7" featuring some of NNF fave bands, such as Wet Hair, Sex Worker, Ducktails, Rangers, Infinite Body, Psychic Reality, No Age, Gnod and Robedoor, all married together with NNF fave visual artists, this year including Cody De Franco, Julien Langendorff, Carlos Gonzalez plus many more. The packaging is a big part of it, along with the limited releases and lucky dip nature of the club. The club runs from August to December, a precious 7" dropping every other month. This is really a 7" club at its best taking all out visually and sonically.

As you've probably noticed the club has finished but you can still pick up these gems on a individual basis from NNF and other places. One choice pick for me from this year's club was the Gnod and Robedoor split - both normally expansive bands from either side of the pond are forced by 7"s of wax to form tightly bound knots form the psych depths. Gnod's 'A Very Special Request' slowly plummets to the darkest regions whilst Robedoor's 'Solid State' descending into a hard psych meltdown.

No Age and the Infinite Body's 7" is another highlight. Two bands you might not naturally sit together but some how Bored Fortress has created a match made in heaven, No Age reeling back to their instrumental noise origins with 'Wintry Kk' and Infinite Body picking up from this year's LP, Carve Out the Face of My God, offering soft snow noise sweeping all before it with 'Between You Can Crawl Like This Is The End'. And don't get me started on the Sex Worker / Psychic Reality split, not to mention the Rangers/Ducktails spar off...

I could go on forever about these six slices of 7" awesomeness, a testament to the genius work of Not Not Fun in one top tip bundle. Of course my posts have only scratched the surface of all that NNF has to offer, hopefully they've convinced you delve deeper into their delights. Have a taste and support their sterling work here.

Infinite Body - Between You Can Crawl Like This Is The End

Gnod - A Very Special Request

Not Not Robedoor's Pacific Drift

When I mentioned to Brendan that I was planning a set of posts on the mighty west coast Not Not Fun Records Brendan mentioned that he was gagging to post again about Robedoor, but I begged him to hold off and let me take the post for Robedoor's last 7" Pacific Drift, and its taken me this long to commit to the task, shame on me.

Now on Robedoor's previous releases (last year's Raiders LP springs to mind) I've always had the impression that Los Angeles' Robedoor are a band in no hurry at all, a band that take their time over their dark noise craft, both musically and the quantity of their output. In some ways Pacific Drift, the title track from the three track 7", sums this ethos up beautifully. The track grows, like a stain on soft paper, creeping across a distant landscape until it covers everything, right to the edges, and then just stops. The second track 'Exploited' certainly takes on a more urgent vibe, tribal rhythms driving it forward, but its a distant urgency, like noise floating over a horizon or a dying party through muffled walls. The third slice on this excellent 7" 'Blanked Out' winds the whole show down, seeping away from you. In whole this 7" leaves you feeling like you've just heard the opening tracks from a disturbingly good album - I need to hear the rest of this fictitious album. Buy here.

Robedoor - Pacific Drift

In Through The Robedoor

What a dazed plain Robedoor lives on. A plain devoid of colour, either because there is no light, or there is so much light that the landscape has been bleached into nothingness. A plain where nothing really lives - its just being. Billions of particles of interstellar sludge rolling across the scorched earth like minuscule tumbleweeds. Gravital claustrophobia. Blue filters. Monochrome sleepwalkers. Acetate. Liquid metal...

Sorry, but Robedoor is a droning, growling psych behemoth in the truest sense, following in the footsteps of the likes of Skullflower and Yellow Swans in the underworld dirge, hypnotizing you and drawing you into their realm. They have brought out a plethora of releases over the past few years, steadily developing their status as a frontrunner in the drone underground (Im not kidding - check here for their discography - Im not even sure its complete!). Most notably have been the Raiders LP of last year, out on lead Britt's own label Not Not Fun, also responsible for the Bored Fortress 7" split with Gnod, and the upcoming Burners (Important Records). Not Not Fun has also finished prepping the Pacific Drift 7" as we speak. This abundance of material showcases a beast that is slowly, organically evolving its craft, the songs becoming, well, songs, focused and compacting sprawling deluges in short time frames, thus magnifying their aural alchemy.

Robedoor - Solid State

Robedoor - Countdown To Depression Cruelty