Brendan Masala's Albums Of 2013 (Top Ten, Hobourable Mention, and Another Fifteen Because Im Fickle)

Happy New Year! Well I guess this list is kinda redundant now, it being 2014 and all. But I had the list kinda written up, so it may as well be here. I won't bother with links and such - you can do that on your own - but rest assured, we have written about these albums, and you can hunt them down quite easily...

1. Bed Wettin' Bad Boys - Ready For Boredom

2. Batpiss - Nuclear Winter

3. Michael Beach - Golden Theft

4. The Spinning Rooms - Complicating Things

5. Oneohtrix Point Never - R Plus Seven

6. James X Boyd & the Boydoids - James X Boyd & the Boydoids/Super Low

7. Pissed Jeans - Honeys

8. Kwaidan - Make All The Hell Of Dark Metal Bright

9. Yes I'm Leaving - Mission Bulb

10. Running - Vaguely Ethnic

Honourable Mention - Ensemble Economique. Brian Pyle's myriad releases were all of a stellar standard this year, and I found it too difficult to settle on just one. You should hunt them all down though - the guy's stretchin the outer limits.

See also - 11. Thee Oh Sees (Floating Coffin); 12. Dollar Bar (Paddington Workers Club); 13. Barn Owl (V); 14. Shocked Minds (Shocked Minds); 15. Violent Soho (Hungry Ghost); 16. Hey Colossus (Cuckoo Live Life Like Cuckoo); 17. Surf City (We Knew It Was Not Going To Be Like This); 18. Ooga Boogas (Ooga Boogas); 19. Bone (For Want For Feeling); 20. Ovlov (AM); 21. Marnie Stern (The Chronicles of Marnia); 22. Cuntz (Solid Mates); 23. Transistors (Is This Anything?); 24. Popstrangers (Antipodes);  25. Wonderfuls (Salty Town)

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

The Cyclical Tahitian Heroin Economy

Brian Pyle has been pretty prolific of late (well, of always), and here is another Ensemble Economique release to get desperately sweaty over. Combining with Italian Spaghetti wastoids Heroin In Tahiti (whose Death Surf LP of last year is something I inexplicably missed and need to hunt down ASAP) and put out through the No=Fi and Sound of Cobra collectives, this Black Vacation/No Highway split LP is a sight (and sound) to behold. Pyle hasn't sounded more sonically abrasive since Psychical in 2010 (my introduction to his work, in fact) - No Highway is immediate...ly desolate, a sinuous deathcab ride to the soul of the desert, and the deserted. It's cerebral madness, beyond the black rainbow, and it's where I want to be.

But before we can sell our souls to this suave devil, we find ourselves in an airport listening to multilingual departure announcements, and we have slipped into Black Vacation. Heroin In Tahiti are our hosts, and it isn't the flight you fear as much as it's the destination. Hula music for a magnetic meltdown, the only relief that comes is when you think it's over - then a static storm rolls on through, and the emptiness is infinite. Quietly mesmeric - a Western for the Arctic Circle on the cusp of a thirty-day darkness.

Black Vacation/No Highway is out now - grab it here.

The Vastness Is...Ensemble Economique

 

The way I came to Starving Weirdos/RV Paintings alum Brian Pyle's solo output under the pseudonym of Ensemble Economique holds its roots in getting into drone in 2008. I came across his debut At The Foot of Nameless Roads and was floored by the variations on what drone could be, just within this one piece. Since then I have floated in and out of his output (thanks to Paul I was all over the brilliant Psychical) and been able to shine a light on this enigmatic yet entrancing sonic explorer.

 EE's latest release is The Vastness Is Bearable Only Through Love, out through Shelter Press. Such a title is typically allusive, as it precipitates a miasma of acidic, caustic sounds that drill into your inner core, fuelling unease, pushing the needle into the red until the rhythmic undulations claw at the undercarriage of your brain. The haunting piano line in the title track (that takes all of one side of the 12") is, in my opinion, the coup de grace - a touchstone on the most eerie ghost stories, it proves to be more sinister than the metallic blips, shudders and hisses that it mingles with. A study in paranoia and insanity, this track is unnerving in the truest sense.

The two tracks on the B-side don't quite live up to this nerve-grating precursor - 'All That Remains Is Dark Sky' is the arbitrary fallout from such an aural marathon, a wasteland of white noise and undulating synth; whilst 'Something New Is Happening' is exactly that, a hint of a densely-layered silver lining flickering at the edge of the abyss...but to what end? The Vastness Is Bearable Only Through Love is an endurance test, one where the Machiavellian machinations of Ensemble Economique don't become clear until the album is fully ingested - and possibly not even then. Is this what the future sounds like? If so, my nightmares are much safer places to be.

   

 You can pick up The Vastness Is Bearable Only Through Love here - it's in sexy blue vinyl to boot.

Ensemble Economique - All That Remains Is Dark Sky

Paul Masala's Top Ten LPs of 2010

God this is hard. This being the first year of Sonic Masala this is the first time we've had to compile the end of year lists, yeah sure we've done them before, just for the chat down the pub, but committing them to the blog is so much more final, so much more nailed down. So like Brendan mention we sat down with beers in hand last weekend and nailed down our Sonic Masala top ten, we could of done a top 20 or even 40 long players, but we didn't have a week to sit in the pub debating them, much to our annoyance, it took three hour just to get ten! So like Brendan here are my top ten that didn't make that final SM list, plus a few other honourable mentions...

1. Ensemble Econmique - Psychical

I'm sure all end of year lists seem to have a LPs that sneak in at in the last few months and Ensemble Econmique fills that role in mine. A dark slab of future fucked utopia. When I first posted about Psychical I compared it a dark, more twisted, Vangelis inspired ,soundtrack for Blade Runner 2. Its moved on a bit from that lazy comparison to reach new dense haunted depths. Doom drone I've lapped up in the final few months of a fucked up year.

2. Ma Ami - Steal Your Face

Mi Ami's previous long playing outing Water Sports was massive favourite of mine last year so I came to Steal Your Face with big expections, and the Californian trio delivered in a riot of fast passed snaring fury, funk and tribal rhythms. Delicate and savage at the same an album that can shock and humble in equal measure, and I finally got to see Mi Ami live this year too, winner.

3. Cloudland Canyon - Fin Eaves

Falling for for this playful wash of noise was inevitable. I've been a keen follower of Cloudland Canyon ever since Silver Tongue Sisyphus, but with this years LP the band showed a lightness of touch to their drone and noise asthetic, shimmering depth and weight that seems to float just like a cloud. I'm sure it's been massively over looked for the touch bliss it really is.

4. People Of The North - Deep Tissue

People Of The North is the side project of Oneida members KidMillions, Fat Bobby and Showtime. I've always had thing for Oneida and their relentless throbbing rhythms, sure Deep Tissue isn't as expansive and conceptually bold as Oneida's releases (what is?) but the similarities are there. Deep Tissue covers familiar ground, its a step into indulgent unfinished business, an personal experiment shown to the world in all its raw, untouched beauty, same themes but left naked and stark.

5. Sun Araw - On Patrol

I really couldn't make my mind up between Sun Araw's On Patrol and Magic Lantens Platoon but On Patrol had to take it. Where else can you hear this level of stoned-out face melting tribal noise slur. A unique record that consumes you rather than just grow on you. 

6. Thee Oh Sees - Warm Slime

You got to love the Thee Oh Sees, well ok you don't but spend 30 seconds in the company of John Dwyer and friends cranking it out live and you will. Some LPs sick because the impact the band makes live. I might be guilty of that with Warm Slime but I think its the closest Thee Oh Sees have come to capturing their live energy on wax, and for that its a near perfect slice of garage punk swagger and bravado.

7. Caribou - Swim

If one album has popped up a lot on end of year lists then it's Caribou's Swim, a record I believe was on the cards ever since the track Brahminy Kite from The Milk of Human Kindness, a track that seemed, to me at least, to shape Andorra and naturally evolve to the pop perfection that is Swim. And that's what Daniel Snaith has created in Swim, a perfect pop album that will surly catapult Caribou into the mainstream. For me its the tracks like Leave House and Found Out that show the true quality of this album that and the fact that Carbiou still present a formidable and mesmerising live unit. I just hope it says that way.

8. Pocahaunted - Make It Real 

This might of been the west coast psych-dub outfits last LP outing, it might of even been a touch less edgy than previous efforts but it was one of Pocahaunted's best, more straight punk-funk & psych garage inspired than before, the duo went out with a swagger to their ghostly tribalisms, a parting voodoo party.

9. Grass Widow - Past Time

Of all the girl fronted, doo-wop influence, vocal harmony soaked, all girl groups that graced us with LP this year Grass Widow's debut was the best. Better wonky harmonising, better cheeky time changes all left refreshingly garage fuzz free.

10. Titus Andronicus - The Monitor

When I first heard the rumours of Titus Andronicus' plans for their new LP, an album written from the perspective of union solider in the American civil war I was worried, it sounded like it could be a terrible idea, but no this album has more venom and spite than most rock bands managed in a life time, the world is fucked and they're not happy.

Other honourable mentions...

Tame Impala - Inner Speaker

Magic Lantern - Platoon

Tyvek - Nothing Fits

Sex Worker - Waving Goodbye

Autolux - Transit Transit

...I could go on forever but I have to draw the line somewhere. Next up the final all conquering Sonic Masala top ten albums of 2010...

Ensemble Economique not Psychical fun

It's only through Not Not Fun that I've stumbled upon Ensemble Economique. But I'm very familiar with Brian Pyle's other project Starving Weirdos. In fact I've met the man himself (at lest I think I did) when Starving Weirdos supported Deerhunter at the Tufnell Park Dome last year or was it the year before? Anyway that night Starving Weirdos' endless drone landscapes seemed to pass over Deerhunter's London faithful, but not I. I was enchanted, so after the show, and a few pints of the black stuff, I headed over to the merch stand and got chatting to Brain. So pleased was Brian that I decided to part with my dosh for a hand printed Starving Weirdos' 12" that a hand printed tee was thrown into the deal too -what a lovely chap!

Anyway, imagine my delight when I discover Brian Pyle's Ensemble Economique and in particular his new LP Psychical. Now Ensemble Economique has lived on a few labels before settling at Not Not Fun, Digitalis being previous home for At The Foot Of Nameless Roads and No GPs LPs and Standing Still, Facing Forward out on Amish this year too. Ensemble Economique has been around the block and done the hard time.

But in Psychical Ensemble Economique seems to have found a perfect haunted home at Not Not Fun. I don't normally like making comparisons but I can't help with this blast of dark-synth spook. I can't help but think of the classic Vangelis soundtrack for Blade Runner when listening to Psychical. Strange I know, but bear with me. If there was a sequel to Blade Runner, where Earth is even more dark, noise swamped and fucked up, then Psychical would be the perfect soundtrack. Maybe its the synth opening to the first track 'Hail', maybe its the subtle tribal rhythms of 'Red Fro The Sun', or even the doom drone of the title track that grates at the pit of your soul. Its in stark contrast to the light touches of Standing Still, Facing Forward but spot on. If you're looking for a journey into the dense dark future, then this is the drone LP for you, its already slid into my top albums of the year.

Ensemble Economique - Real Things