Rocks-Cakes-Cloud-Hand

It's hard to describe NY five-piece Cloud Becomes Your Hand. Best just jump wholeheartedly into their world then. Their latest release is Rocks Or Cakes, out now on Northern Spy Records. A cross between Animal Collective ADD energy underscored with the more Xanax-sprinkled undercurrents of Inner Islands releases, with a bunch of quirky, deliberate missteps along the way, Rock Or Cakes is a pretty good album title for what lie within. There are traditional pan pip folk from a mechanical Hell ('Bees Going Postal'), Dirty Projectors on acid in a paint mixing machine ('Felt Beetle'), Mr Oizo on downers in a vat of formaldehyde at the penultimate scene of a Paul Thomas Anderson film ('Theme From Baby Age') - its a fantastic yet mind bending sojourn into a rancorous world. (I realise that this review is pretty ridiculous - but I did warn you they were hard to describe...plus they are on Northern Spy, that should have been all you needed to know)...

Grab Rocks Or Cakes here.

Double A Voyages For Maates Of No Return

I didn’t know who Aa was until I saw them at Woodland in 2011. I was with my mate Andy, and we were debating the current conflagration of auxiliary drummers in indie rock. We had seen some Aussie bands who shall remain nameless whose use of the extra percussion was at best a novelty and at worst a waste of time, poorly masking the basic nature of the band’s music with what was deemed as “tribal rhythms”. Tropical pop? Don’t make me laugh. Yet Aa are a percussion tour de force, continual drumbeats layered over each other until the resultant cacophony is a myopic catharsis, a trembling pummelling. When they brought out more drums onto the floor, I was swept up in the theatrics, commandeering one to join in myself. Such audience participation can become a nightmare, but like the Boardrum experience, Aa kept everything loose yet precise, with every “drummer” attuned to their worldview. It was a killer show and showed that there are a few bands out there where more than one drumkit isn’t just warranted yet essential.

But after their great 2011 release mAate (itself a combination of their 2007 debut GAame and their Glossy EP from 2009), I hadn’t kept track of the Brooklyn collective. Now Northern Spy Records has released their new album, VoyAager, and…well, I don't know. It goes without saying that change is good in the world of music, but also without saying that change for change's sake is bullshit at best. I'm not saying that Aa are doing something wrong with mixing things up, but the more Battles-esque tracks here (I'm talking Tyondai Braxton-era Battles too, just listen to 'Drug Mom') bewilder me more than energise. The paring back of older track 'Glossy' does give a sense of distilled acidity, yet the elongated tension was what brought this band into their element. The kaleidoscopic hallucinogens were part and parcel to Aa's MO, I know, but it just all seems too saccharine. Still, there are ominous freaks like 'Pug Pit' to look forward to.

Maybe I'm the one who's changed. I bet these tracks kill live, which to be honest is the only way to experience em. Istill have their drumsticks at home too, so we're still mAates.

Grab VoyAager here.

Can't See Through The Screens

Oh, you bands with every so difficult names to Google! Screens are from New York, have just released the album Dead House through What Delicate Records, and make a sound that is part times ATDI art rock, at others chillwave crossed with no wave, at other times has an industrial drone bent a la Factory Floor. Overall this is a very solid record, as the below tracks attest - and these aren't the best gems to find on Dead House at all in my opinion. They are making minor splashes in their chosen hometown too, if an upcoming show with the likes of Sightings, Aa and Golden Triangle is any indication - which it is, my children.

(NB - I think this is the band that my mate Andy was trying to tell me about. Mate, if its another Screens - and there seem to be a few around - let me know. But if Im on the money, kudos to you!

You can grab Dead House at their Bandcamp site, whilst physical copies are available through What Delicate here.

Screens - Shudder
Screens - Pop Logic

Big A Said To Little A - Get Louder!!!

NY percussive miscreants Aa (pronounced Big A Little A - hmmm) are re-releasing their 2007 album gAame, plus a couple other little pressies, as a new album of sorts called mAate (through Sensory Projects Records), and are following that up with a tour here in Australia, playing at Woodland on May 5. This promises to be something else - a cataclysmic sound that owes much to the likes of Ponytail, Black Dice and Battles amongst many more (Foot Village also comes to mind) for paving the way to making crazy noise montages a more viable sound, thus allowing them to come our way! They were involved in The Boredoms' drumming revolution Boardrum last year - so they are at THAT level...

Oh, and their artwork is fucking amazing. Aa's Aron Wahl is responsible for the above piece, plus all their cover art and most of their post work - seriously, hunt it down, its really impressive - look at some more here!

Aa - Crass