Crystallised Glass Vaults

Last year I really dug the Glass and Into Clear EPs from Wellington, NZers Glass Vaults. So when this track 'Crystallise' dropped in my inbox late last week, I was pretty excited. And as it pans out, that excitement was duly warranted. The track slips around from sonorous lullaby to syncopated shudder with nary a shrug. Richard Larsen's voice wafts over the mix much like Sigur Ros' Jonsi - in fact this track is mirroring their landscape as much as any mere mortal can, until three and a half minutes in when everything slips into molten fissures and the world enters a fracturing of symmetry, percussive blasts leading us through another wormhole entirely. It is, quite simply, exquisite - one of the best standalone songs of the year.

'Crystallise' is a precursor to WHAT WE CAN ONLY ASSUME WILL BE A BRILLIANT LONGPLAYER (note the capitals is me imploring, rather than an actual fact). They are currently touring around the US over the summer period, so get in there if you are around (check dates here). Head over to Jukboxr to pick up the EPs, or head here to pay what you want for the downloads. Trust me - these babies are worth some of your bread.

Glass Vaults - Crystallise

Listen To T54, "Because I Told You To..."

Over the past month or two Ive been mentioning a slew of NZ acts that I think are pretty special - Surf City, Secret Knives, The Mint Chicks, Die! Die! Die!, Paperghost, Glass Vaults, FATANGRYMAN, Popstrangers... But what people outside of New Zealand may not realise is that the majority (OK, all) of these acts come from the North Island. Now, Ive spent my fair share of time around Christchurch and the South Island, and there didnt seem to be much of a burgeoning music scene bubbling under the surface - unless you're into dub, then you are pretty much set. (I must admit though that I havent been there since 2006, so that is a lot of time between drinks of Speights...)

T54 are determined to prove me wrong, and if they are anything like the Russian tank they are named after, I best get out of their way. They have an EP on its way on Christchurch label Gold Sounds called Drone Attacks, and if 'Julie K' is anything to go by, they have a record collection solely made up of My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth, along with a healthy fixation on Japandroids' Post Nothing and Male Bonding's Nothing Hurts. Which is fucking great. Where were you guys 5 years ago when I had to gnaw off my own arm in Christchurch just to have some aural anarchy? Sure, its beautiful and all, but still...Im a convert. I had dreams of moving to the Canterbury region back then, and if there is a scene like this being mustered, I may just go back to that dream...

Head over to their bandcamp and not only can you pick up 'Julie K', but a list of demos (which features some Dick Dale-isms along with their no wave love) they did under the name Superdicksystem, a play on a 90s album by NZ band The Feelers. I agree with the sentiments...

T54 - Julie K

Lip-synching at wintry receptions

Paul is absolutely right - it has been an uncharacteristicly slow week on planet Sonic Masala. What with the weather, work, and the unfortunate triple hit of a broken down computer, phone and Hotmail address having meltdowns, so Ive been inadvertanly incommunicado. That's what a lovely solo Gallic getaway gets you, I suppose...

So I thought to make up for it Id cram a couple of new posts into one today (as well as my 2nd Paris-related post later in the evening).

First up is a band we've covered in the past, Bridal Party. These German weirdniks had released Born Again On Dark Star back in June (see our thoughts on it here), and are back at us again with EP Gorilla's Skull, a 4 track opus that continues the spacey, tripped out vein tapped in the earlier release. Yet these tracks (other than moments of ‘The Light Holds’) steer clear of any Animal Collective tagging they may have received in the past, opting for a darker, more industrial chillwave triptych, starting with brooding ‘Our Rise From The Sea’, augmented by the warped swirling and slowed down vocals of ‘Reward’, and closed out with ‘Good Dreams Planting You’, three and a half minutes of echoing minimalism that feels potent in its impotent sheen. Dark, slightly menacing, altogether enthralling. Get both of Bridal Party's releases at their bandcamp here.

Now for the second entry, Wellington, New Zealand based artist Minnelli. 2, his 2nd release (funnily enough) through Sonorous Circle (Glass Vaults, Paperghost), is a half hour of cinematic epics awash with dark rhythms and glacial synth. The ambience conveyed throughout 2 are best captured on 'Winter Steps' and 'The Deployee', which emanates through your head like a frozen tundra illuminated by a Technicolour sunrise. Elsewhere, 'Trenthamer' isnt far removed from a John Carpenter score, except without the cheese, and the sprawling 'Old Negro Wisdom' ebbs and flows like an arctic snake having a seizure. Again, get Minnelli's albums on his bandcamp.

Play both of these as an accompaniement to these frozen weeks ahead.

Bridal Party - Our Rise From The Sea

Minnelli - Winter Steps

Minnelli - The Deployee

Dont Keep Your Knives A Secret

Ive sat on this one for a while, and for that I am paying the consequences! Ash Smith, a Wellington NZ musician who plies his trade as Secret Knives, sent me an email in relation to a post I did about friends of his from Glass Vaults and Paperghost, as well as music collective Sonorous Circle. The release in question is Affection, an effects-laden pop trip that evokes 80s shoegaze but dials down the wall of noise, instead choosing to infuse each track with a sense of innate warmth that most of its ilk commonly lack. Whilst he tours as a quartet, Smith is responsible for the mesmeric wizardry on offer here, and never does there seem to be a weak link in the songwriting process - evocative lyrics delivered in dreamy vocals, awash with spidery guitars and sweeping atmospherics, muted basslines that heighten the otherworldly soundscapes... It still has its loving homages to My Bloody Valentine, never moreso noted than in opener 'Black Hole', and its still got its waves of noise in tracks such as 'The Northwest States' and 'The Garden', yet what makes it special is its sparing usage - it adds to the impressive sonic arsenal, rather than become a staid trick. Affection is a fantastic release, by a fantastic talent. Whats more, he's giving it away for free here! Expect to hear a lot more from this guy, sooner rather than later too.

Secret Knives - Affection

Secret Knives - The Northwest States

TV Candy Is No Good For Paperghosts

Sonorous Circle, a Wellington, NZ based collective (also helping out fellow Kiwis Glass Vaults), sent us the debut LP by Zach Webber AKA Paperghost, The Teledermatologist's Handbook. It is an eclectic affair, a sound pastiche of etchings of a computer dystopia, if said dystopia was in a Commodore 64. Think The Books and Radiohead as done via an Animal Collective-constructed TRON. It drifts along just out of your reach, each song an eerie mist that envelops you just to dissipate and lead you further away into disorientation. Its understated drums and xylophonic tappings in 'Sneaker Country' really got me, along with Webber's whispered AnCo-esque vocals. And then there's 'In The Future We Will Go To War So We Can Base New Computer Games On New Wars'... Its certainly a quirky album, but assured in its strangeness. Definitely worthy of your time.

You can pick up the LP from Paperghost's Bandcamp site here.

Paperghost - In The Future We Will Go To War So We Can Base New Computer Games On New Wars

Paperghost - Sneaker Country

Too transparent? Ah, the price of Animal Chemistry...

So many acts are being put into the Animal Collective basket. Which is all well and good, but one has to realise that the combustible material that AC create is so ridiculous in its intricacy and yet transcendent in its innate brilliance that anyone foolhardy to actually attempt likewise compositions are likely to find themselves with more than singed eyebrows - they will be put in stocks and have rotton fruit laced with shards of glass pelted at them from two feet away. Oh, when the arty music world bare their fangs... Still, it is certainly not a bad thing to take a couple of leafs out of their handbook in order to create one's own twisted alchemy. Keepaway have been grandstanded and lamblasted in equal measure for doing just that - and I love those guys.

Another act that is traversing said divide are Glass Vaults, which brings to mind all kinds of magical tomfoolery and Essex-tanned dwarves with murderous tendencies and a sweet tooth to boot. The fact that they hark from New Zealand shouldn't come as a complete surprise - fans of Flying Nun Records, Split Endz and Mint Chicks (plus previous SM postees Jakob) can attest to that - but the experimental quirks and syrup that Animal Collective have woven into celestial gold is augmented here by glacial ambience and tribal elegaics that shows true strength, character and gives a visual pastiche of NZ itself.

This is a great find - I have to say Fridays are being quite fruitful of late (did you listen to Zorch last week??? If you didn't - go do it now! Its close to the funnest thing Ive heard all year!) And if you like, go get the whole Glass EP at their Bandcamp site - double sweet!

Glass Vaults - Forget Me Not