Barry Marvin

Man, I love AfricanTape Records' propensity for finding raucous, bombastic, intricate and anthemic instrumental rock bands. The latest band in their ranks to pump out an album (previous highlights have been Electric Electric and Papier Tigre) is Marvin - from Montpelier in France. Fuck, yes - brutally frenetic electro-punk algorithms that also incorporates the occasional 80s guitar lick, just to add pomp to the intensity. Imagine if Civil Civic were a bit more serious and had John Stanier on drums who isn't impervious to riding the cowbell - that's what Barry represents. Its relentless, and relentlessly awesome.

You can buy Barry on vinyl (through both AfricanTape and Sick Room Records) here.

DIY Is Good - DIT Is Better

 

I came across the trailer for this documentary earlier this week, and have spent the consequent time trying to find out what the hell it's all about. Do It Yourself is a collective of youngsters based in Amsterdam who create new media and organise events, bringing together creative people who like and make honest and independent art. Yet the endeavour is to stress that this is global. Currently, their main project is a documentary [named, funnily enough, Do It Together]. It explores the life of independent artists who struggle to survive making music in a changing world, with a large number of DIY artists taking part, giving their opinions and ideas of where this medium is heading to, along with plenty of great live performances. The movie is focused on the DIY ideology and the artists' independence, today's music industry issues, copyright matters, young artists barriers, the experience that people have and new ways they find to spread their art.

Take a look at the collaborators: So far we have many artists involved in this film. To name some:
- Devo [US]
- Steve Albini [US]
- Flux Information Sciences [US]
- Shipping News [US]
- David Yow /The Jesus Lizard [US]
- Lite [JP]
- John Dikeman [NL]
- Adebisi Shank [IE]
- Hella [US]
- Julien Fernandez [IT]
- Polvo [US]
- Tera Melos [US]
- Giraffes? Giraffes! [US]
- Chevreuil [FR] - Deerhoof [USA]
- The Ex [NL]
- Knalpot [NL]
- Le Singe Blanc [FR]
- Boutros Bubba [NL]
- Petrol [RS]
- Parts & Labor [US]
- Aural [UK]
- Deformica [ARG]
- Pneu [FR]
- Aucan [IT]
- Dan Deacon - [US]
- Part Chimp [UK]
- Al Scorch [US]
- Nelson Can [DK]
- Hurtmold [BR]
- Gijs Gieske [NL]
- The Bulletproof Tiger [CA]
- Kit [US]
- Selfkill [TWN]

That's a mere fraction. With the documentary due out in March, the collective aim to conduct some workshops to teach people how to do audio engineering and lights at shows, to get people more involved in their respective DIY communities. I'm very keen to see how this progresses, and what local communities already in existence think of this. You can visit their website here, and by all means, leave your thoughts below. You can also email them here if you are interested in finding out more.

Double Discipline Is Electric

 

There aren’t many bands out there sound as frenetically intricate and cryptic as Battles, yet French trio Electric Electric come damn close on their latest LP Discipline (out through Africantape). Weaving looped and live guitars, drums and electronics into a heaving, tightly coiled whole, the band have crafted eleven feverish songs of breathtaking complexity. The trio like to see their music as electronica or dance music – even “pop”. Discipline is anything but.

However the album title is incredibly close to the bone – the rigour taken in the repetition, the metronomic swings in these angular sojourns into the darker regions of the unknown proffers precision and dexterity that most bands could only dream of. Like the more vicious step-brother of Errors, Electric Electric are so scintillating they have to repeat their name twice – and with good reason. This kind of instrumental music will infuriate, perplex, hyperventilate, but above all else arouse. If this were the future of guitar music, Id be a willing drone to the cause.

 

Discipline can be bought here – this is a highly original album that takes what the aforementioned Battles are renowned for and hybridises it with the aesthetics of Holy Fuck, !!!, The Faint and My Disco. A shitstorm ensues. Make sure you get stuck in it.

Electric Electric –La Centrale
Electric Electric – xx2

Dreaming The Seeds Of An Extra Life

I had no expectations with this record - and the track ' Righteous Seed' floored me. The album - Dream Seeds. The band - Extra Life, a Brooklyn collective with connections to Yukon, Zs and Dirty Projectors. That said, nothing is easy here, and I can't say this will stay with me forever, or even for long. There are elements of Xiu Xiu, Neutral Milk Hotel, VAST, Animal Collective and indeed Dirty Projectors in this acrobatic, verbose, bombastic melange, and some of it comes off as pompous and flowery as it does eloquent and haunting. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the audaciousness of Charlie Looker's quite unique vocal stylings and the religiosity of some of the compositions. Above all, it isn't an easy ride, with many twists and turns, and for that I am grateful for the experience.

Buy Dream Seeds here or here.

Recreating A Papier Tigre

French outfit Papier Tigre (pronounced “Papyeah Teegrr”)'s third album Recreation (out on Africantape) has an element of surprise to it. The band teamed up with John Congleton (Explosions in the Sky, the Roots, Bill Callahan, The pAper chAse...) in order to push the limits of their their unit into a devastatingly efficient performance. It is intriguing, and although the vocals grate on me a little, the musical interplay offers some fervent schizophrenia that I like a lot - plus the lack of a bass means they have to work harder to achieve that bottom-end. They just supported Explosions In The Sky in Paris last month, so things are certainly on the up and up.

Recreation is out March 1.

Papier Tigre 'Home Truth' by Murailles Music

Angular Death Hearts, Dressed in Black And White

Swiss-Canadians Peter Kernel have just launched an angular, aggressive little number in LP White Death Black Heart. I played their first single 'Anthem Of Hearts' briefly here, and it is a weird one - Barbara's chants are kinda off putting to me. Well, the rest of the album explodes. Caught between the crossfire of Blonde Redhead at their most Sonic Youth (in no small part to both Aris' nonchalant snarl and viscous guitarmanship), and the Coathangers, White Death Black Heart is a roiling ball of kinky aggression, one that grooves and thrashes in equal measure. I liked the band before - I love their moxy now.


White Death Black Heart is out now on AfricanTape. Its a nice piece of vinyl, for an electric release. Get it.

Peter Kernel - Panico! This Is Love
Peter Kernel - I'll Die Rich At Your Funeral

Shipping The News Never Gets Old

A mainstay of Touch & Go Records (well, its sublabel Quarterstick Records), Louisville post-rock sluggers Shipping News released One Less Heartless To Fear, their first album in five years, for Noise Pollution Records (AfricAntApe and Ruminance will distribute it in Europe) mid November last year. Im a latecomer to Shipping News, never having made the jump from the band's 90s predecessor Rodan. But when I heard 2003's Three-Four only last year, I was hooked. I only managed to pick this one up last week.

So how does the new LP sound? Having been recorded live in two very different locales (Skull Alley in Louisville, KY and the O-Nest in Tokyo, Japan), we can expect more sprawling and devastating compositions... Er, no. Although the sense of urgency, angst and unease runs through One Less Heartless To Fear like a thick ribbon of coal underneath the surface, its the tightly coiled songs themselves that prove to be the biggest change since the band's hiatus. Songs like 'This Is Not An Exit' and 'The Delicate', utilising sound more like Shellac or Gang of Four than they do like their previous leanings into Slint territory, with a liberal dose of Fugazi thrown in for good measure. Indeed, it is the abrasive post-punk math overtures here that most impress, showing that nothing will slow down Shipping News' verve and drive (founding member Jason Noble has been battling cancer for some time). And even if there are some instrumental tracks ('Half A House'), they are reined in to under five minutes. Whats more, though there is some crowd adulation, its on the whole difficult to fathom this is a live album, so meticulously is it recorded and produced.

Shipping News then have forged out of the blocks here wielding much agression and anger - yet there is vim and vigour that enlightens. There is much life and energy left in the tanks. And just ponder on the bands that Shipping News rose from like a phoneix from the ashes - Rodan, The For Carnation, June of '44. And the fact that they named their band after E. Annie Proulx's brilliant book (one of my all time favourites, a definite top ten). This is a class act. Grab this - now. Then, if you havent already, collect their whole discography, plus those of the preceding acts. Its never too late.

Shipping News - The Delicate

Shipping News - Half A House