A Winged Victory...

I was waiting for the Tube yesterday and saw this poster for an event in January 2015 called Minimalism Unwrapped (and yes the excellent photography above is from yours truly). The first names that jumped out at me was obviously Steve Reich and Scanner. The second though was A Winged Victory For The Sullen, which was more of a surprise as I had only heard of them twenty four hours beforehand. Coincidence? I think not...or probably.

Anyway, A Winged Victory For The Sullen is a duo who make incredibly haunting and uplifting ambient tapestries. It isn't surprising these guys are so adept at crafting intricate aural infinities - Adam Wiltzie is Stars Of The Lid and played in Sparklehorse whilst Dustin O'Halloran is a composer. They have just released second album Atomos and it is breathtaking. Made as a score for a dance piece performed at Sadlers Well in London, the suite of songs hang together like gossamer in twilight, an effervescent mirage of texture, grandiose in the most primal sense, strings, piano and electronica melding together to melt the hardest of hearts.



You can buy Atomos in beautiful clear double vinyl through Erased Tapes here, and tickets to Minimalism Unwrapped here. Both are/will be amazing.

Lotus Plaza Grows Outward At A Distance

There isn't much that comes out of the Deerhunter collective's stable that I am not a fan of, and whilst it's Bradford Cox's antics that gain most of the attention, the rest aren't laying idle either. Guitarist Lockett Pundt's output as Lotus Plaza is nothing to be sneezed at, and on latest LP Spooky Action At A Distance he truly comes into his own.

Sure, tracks such as 'Strangers' don't stray too far from the DH format of shimmering sunny psych shoegaze (hope you can pronounce your s's - that phrase is a spit-sprayer...). It showcases a number of things, not least how integral Pundt is to Deerhunter's writing process, and how on this album he has stepped up into the sunlight, discarding the ambient netherworld for a front-line assault on glorious guitar pop swathed in warmth. What's more, Spooky Action At A Distance is an album with a spectral magic built into its mainframe, for every time I have listened to this record (and I have listened a lot), a new track takes precedence over all others. Whether it be the glossy ambling of 'Strangers', the ascendant glory of 'Out Of Touch', the sparse folk gravitas of 'Dusty Rhodes', the bliss out shoegaze of 'Monoliths', the harmonious, uplifting 'White Galactic One' - seriously, each track holds its own emotions and memories, real or imagined. It is this sense of a musical equivalent of fireflies in a jar that this album evokes - there is a glow in between the spaces of these compositions, and when Pundt opens them up, the light envelops you whole.


True, this is a glowing review (pun semi-intended) - but it is well worth it. Spooky Action At A Distance (out on Kranky) can be bought here - don't be surprised if this becomes an underground hit for years to come.

Lotus Plaza - Strangers
Lotus Plaza - Out Of Touch

Disappearing Languages

Disappears is an amazing, grossly underrated band. Their first record proper Lux was a fantastic broiling pot of motorik dissent. They backed this up with last year's Guider, an album that scraped onto our best of lists, not because it wasn't great, but because it felt like more of the same. It's on my list because more of the same is brilliant nonetheless. Since then Sonic Youth's Steve Shelley has joined the fray. Now the Chicago destroyers bring us Pre Language, an album that sticks to the mantra of "if it ain't broke..." and for the most part succeeds to reignite those heady sensations from Lux and Guider. The tracks alternate between the chugging repetitive pace of old with the lurking intensity of brooding slow numbers. Funnily enough it is these slower tracks that bog down the album a little, thus making their 3rd foray into the longplayer realm a less enjoyable listen. It's still pretty killer though, better than a lot (A LOT) of shit that is out there at the moment, so it's strongly recommended.


Pre Language can (and should, post haste) be grabbed here.

Disappears - Replicate
Disappears - Hibernation Sickness
Disappears - Brother Joliene

Steve Hauschildt

Last week's Mark McGuire show was nothing if not incendiary. I have spoken about his brilliance on this very blog many a time. However, he is not the only member of the beautifully eclectic Emeralds collective to step out under his own name. The solitary figure of Steve Hauschildt has been the steady fulcrum to McGuire and John Elliot's more out-there performances, yet he brought out last year's Tragedy & Geometry, an album full of nuance, shade and light that is at once an obvious progression from the band and a chance to expand boundaries in a different conceptual tone.

A nice way to ward off the cold and bring forth the astral sun; a stroll down memory lane of synth's historical flights of fancy. Is it just me who hears Tangerine Dream in the wings? Yet there is an inherent warmth here that actively distances Hauschildt's efforts from his influences, and that is what elevates these sounds. They bleed together like any synthscape is wont to do, but it's a pleasant, at times euphoric experience. I really like this.


Tragedy & Geometry is out on Kranky Records now.

Steve Hauschildt - Polyhymnia
Steve Hauschildt - Tragedy & Geometry

Backwards Looking Forwards 2011 - Hired Muscle, Charalambides, OBNIIIs

I'm almost done with the albums that I should have posted about last year but didn't. These three releases are deserved of more attention, so I'm gonna give it to them.


Hired Muscle are yet another band outta Leeds whose discordant nihilism elicits migraines and orgasms simultaneously. These crazy cats splurge on some balls-out mania on the tracks on their The Last Minute LP. Paul extolled these guys' virtues to me a couple months ago, and the proof is in the pudding. Pavement meets Action Beat. Delish bom bish.

Hired Muscle - Evil Genius


Exile is the new record from Charalambides. It is the only thing I've heard from the prolific spiritual conquistadors, and that is saying something, as they have releases a plethora of aural excursions since forming in Houston back in 1991. Their sound wavers in and out of sonic parameters, but their chakras are always aligned, ensuring that you never stray far from the ethereal pathway that the band has crafted for you. Its still ambitious, being a double LP and all, but when Kranky Records agrees to put it out, you know that the wealth within is worth mining.

Charalambides - Before You Go


This final album is related to one from two days ago, Bad Sports' Kings Of The Weekend, as Orville Neeley also plays in OBN IIIs (named after himself), whose The One And Only LP is razor sharp and energetic with gritty swagger and lecherous intent slathered all over it. Its verve and tenacity electrifies every song, never repelling the listener with overt aggression or obnoxiousness. These tracks are made for delighted repeat listens. One can only imagine how stellar these guys could be in the live arena... Grab their record here.

OBNIIIs - No Enemies

1972, 2011 - A Ravedeath Is A Ravedeath, Better Late Than Never...

Now I know this is almost five months old, but I think I would be lynched by some of my dearest and nearest if I didnt at least mention in passing the excellence that is Tim Hecker's Ravedeath 1972. My only reason for not talking about it sooner is that I have been waiting to receive a copy of the album since March, but I am in isolated climes over here in Australia...

Anyway, its is great. Recorded in a church in Reykjavik, Iceland and using a pipe organ as the primary sound source, this new piece is essentially a live recording. In reality though, it exists in a netherworld between captured live performance and meticulous studio work, melding the two approaches to sonic artifice into a unifying force. It is in parts a document of air circulating within a wooden room, and also a pagan work of physical resonance within a space once reserved for the hallowed breath of the divine...

You can tell that Iceland-based artist Ben Frost is involved in this production - it has his glacial tonality permeating throughout. But this is Hecker's beast, pure and simple - a comment on sonic decay, its a suite that transcends the experimental drone milieu to enter its own ethereal domain. The cover art - a B&W photograph of people in top of a building, tipping a piano over the edge - says much about what Hecker is building here on record. The organ stands throughout as the last bastion of aurality, its organic structure constantly wading through the sonic morass that the effusive waves of synthetic instrumentation flowing around it create. Its a beautiful conceptual piece, evoking an arm wrestle that is as arresting as it is elegiac. The biggest attractor here though is the fact that it is so immediate, and warrants repeat listens. Now that is a triumph for modern music.


Ravedeath 1972 is out now via Kranky. You can purchase it here - I hope you have better luck than I did... So what the hell! Because of my long wait, and just in case you suffer the same fate, here is the entirety of one of the movements on the album, titles "In The Fog"!

Tim Hecker - In The Fog I
Tim Hecker - In The Fog II
Tim Hecker - In The Fog III

Disappearance Guide

Paul posted about Disappears some time ago, and its one band that I have latched on to ever since. The Chicago motoriksters brought an amazing debut in Lux, and have wasted no time in delivering their second LP, Guider - and it builds on the promise. There is a determined shift in perspective and focus here though - there is much more of a chugging rhythmic unrest here, the band preferring to create a maelstrom of sound that keeps the listener in the eye of the storm whilst the noise swirls around them. The added drumming nous of SY skinsman Steve Shelley notwithstanding, Disappears have fully embraced their krautrock roots (which could also do with the fact that Neu! frontman Michael Rother chose them especially to mark out their midwestern US tours) and married it to their ambitious beginnings, and the result may not be as immediately engaging as Lux, yet for me I was in love from the get go. Most tracks here are succinct, showing a levelheaded approach to their transitional move in musical mastery, ensuring that every ounce of effort is wrung out of each track...that is, until we hit 'Revisiting', a 16 minute epic that proves that you can be more angsty and ferocious if you dial down the speed and ratchet up the tension inherent with a slowly escalating fist of sound. As its half the album's length give or take a couple minutes, 'Revisiting' becomes the flipside, the gaps in between the tightening of the coil just as important as the propulsive rhythms that are constantly at play. All in all, Guider is a very good release, and should help to heighten the band's cult status, their mystique, and the burbling excitement as to where Disappears will disappear to next.

Guider is out now through Kranky Records. They are touring Europe in February, culminating with a London show on the 22nd, so get your tix asap.

Disappears - Superstition

Disappears - Halo

Carnivores Know Best

I got an email from Bruce over at FFS (Flingco Sound System - started after he left Kranky Records a few years back) about some bands we might be interested in that he deals with. We get this kind of request quite a lot. As you can tell, we tend to sift through and pick what we like to listen to, then pass it on to you (except for maybe in Bad Panda Record's case - Ive gone a bit overboard this week - it should be called Bad Panda Week - but most of the music has been pretty stellar, and very eclectic...ahem, sooooo...) Whilst FFS have a lot of bands at their disposal, I was offered up a 7" sampler of San Fran via Miami's Dead Meat.

Its really fucking good.

Dead Meat's sound encapsulates the likes of Killdozer, Murder City Devils and a lighter (?) Jesus Lizard, but slowed down to a bluesy drawl and dragged the back of a pick up truck by a one-eyed alcoholic narcolept. There is something lazy and yet dangerously relentless in what coils at the heart of this beast. The name befits the band - it pulverises, rancifies and eviscerates, all in incremental stages...

Its also of no surprise that Surfer Blood have championed them earlier this year, not because they sound anything like Surfer Blood, but because they bear a striking resemblance to the dirge blues evillness that makes up their side project, Weird Wives. I wanted to put all Dead Meat songs on here, but I have to settle down and just a couple. I also tried to pick songs that arent floating about already so that you have a fresh ear to what these guys are going to bleed all over you. Hunt the 7" down, and you'll get a 9 track digital record of everything these boys have put to tape thus far. Deal, sold, gimme gimme gimme!

Oh, and make sure you check out their website - its amazing...

Dead Meat - Burger Bash
Dead Meat - Fuck Amsterdam