Not A Uniform House Of Horrors

This was meant to be up for Halloween, but things aren't running on anyone's time around here but it's own, so deal with it. Diabolical duo Uniform released one of my favourite albums of 2015 in the eviscerating form of Perfect World. Ben Greenberg (The Men when they were brilliantly brutal, Hubble, heaps of other stuff) and Michael Berdan (of the brilliant Drunkdriver) brought the 12" bilge pump deluge that is Ghosthouse out just in time for All Hallows Eve (out through - who else? - Sacred Bones) and it is unremitting in its bilious fury.

Industrial punk white noise and vitriol punctures the title track - its brutality that somehow hypnotises in its monotony, with Berdan mordantly spewing forth punishing platitudes. Apparently hacking wholesale from Umberto Lenzi's 1988 schlock horror film of the same name - which, after spending the past couple of days laid up in bed watching Fulci and Bava's masterpieces and missteps (which in themselves remain masterpieces anyway), I can perversely see. But it also tears at its own heart, a endless waking nightmare, a limbo where redemption is never an absolute. 'Waiting Period' takes the manic insanity down a couple notches, playing more like a glitching doom drawl, that mewling moment where death is imminent, most likely to be self-inflicted, yet has been stalled due to further life transgressions and interruptions - and rather than seeing these as divine interventions, they are perceived as painful holding patterns, a mere hiccup to the final solution. 'Symptom Of The Universe' finishes us off, and even a ferocious Black Sabbath cover needs to be fucked with, a mostly faithful thrashing imploding into its own self-hate at the end.

A great release, all told. Grab Ghosthouse (on ltd edition red vinyl) here.

Coming Down In Sacred Bones' Church

I picked up This World Is Not Enough, the "solo" album from Iceage's Elias Bender Rønnenfelt under the moniker Marching Church, last month. It is a strange brooding beast - with slight echoes of Rønnenfelt's "day" band, but with far more contemplative, cantankerous and quietly chaotic measures floating through its veins. Sacred Bones has released something that is even further out in the fringes in the form of Coming Down: Sessions in April 12 (out through Sacred Bones), a haunting improv lurch from eye-scratching purification and soul fires to a coalescing caterwaul of cathartic free jazz emulsions (which featured members of Lower and Puce Mary among others). The slow drag-the-lake in harrowing monochrome flaying of the emotional mind. I absolutely love this. News that they are recording a new album is fantastic news. Dive into these immensely murky waters now - they play at London's Birthdays on Monday.

It's A Brown Death Seance

I have revamped my record player - finally - and have broken it in with back to back John Carpenter - his Sacred Bones-released Lost Themes of last year, and his score for They Live, a clear-vinyl reissue put out by Death Waltz Records, one of my favourite labels. I don't own many of their records, because they are expensive, but it is the attention to detail in their tactile end products that make such prices more than reasonable. They have been stepping out of the horror score to do more contemporaneous works of late, such as the Blanck Mass' curated reimagining of the score to The Strange Color Of Your Body's Tears. I'm excited to see that another of their efforts is from an Aussie source - Miles Brown (The Night Terrors)'s debut solo album, Seance Fiction.

It is co-released by Australia's it Records. Brown's signature Theremin is still front and centre, as you would expect, but the songs here are more focused on scrolling through experimental synth badlands in all their garish, Gothic or gauche glories. Opener 'Space Cadet' is the best primer of this - starting like a crackling VHS score for the imagined early 70s precursor to Hardware, it morphs into a early-console dancefloor marauder. 'Electrics' sees Brown's vocals come to the fore, and with lyrics like "it’s just a case of unexpected electricity" the unpredictability of lightness continues. We see touchstones more mainstream than you might expect, with the likes of Depeche Mode and Ultravox colouring the edges. Don't worry, the dark flourishes that have always informed Brown's work is at play elsewhere. Closer 'Feeder' takes a more ruminative march into the netherworld. But Seance Fiction is Brown having "fun" in this synthmorphic realm. You can grab this album in ectoplasmic green !) here.

Populating A Pyramid Paradise On Mars

The pitch-black dirges that NY malcontents Pop. 1280 have delivered in the past few years have held me in thrall ever since I heard the dire yet droll drawl of 'Get Into The Grid'. We disappear down another rabbit hole altogether on new cut 'Pyramids On Mars', off new album Paradise (pre-order it through Sacred Bones here). It is a viscous attack on the world around us, an existential space-odyssey-in-the-gutter spear through the brain, fear and mental anguish and compromise drip-fed and invasive. Chris Bug's throttled groan and nihilistic moans evokes basement-strung goth puritans of the 80s, the murky production pierced by archaic synth shudders and a guitar death knell, a funereal march into eternity. Not as immediate as other releases, but 'Pyramids On Mars' overflows with intensity and eye-rolling unease. These imps of perversion aren't intent on infecting you with their horrors; they are now eyeing the skies.

Rise Of The L.O.T.I.O.N

My brother-in-law sent me a message the other day, saying that after a long stretch in electronic maelstroms he had found a couple guitar albums that gripped him. Digital Control And Man's Obsolescence is one of these albums. The band - New York hardcore noiseniks L.O.T.I.O.N. It kicks off with the winding up of helicopter engines, cataclysmic drumming sounding like automatic fire, feedback heralding in Hell on earth. The sharp short songs inflict wounds both real and imagined, a firebrand brutalism that revels in industrial destruction and repetitive mayhem - with tracks titled 'Ultimate Wound Kit', 'Torture Report' and 'Fukushima Fallout', the desolation is feral and complete. It plays on real life global fears, and perceived futuristic fallouts on the horizon, as mesmerised by human evil as cyberpunk dystopias. There is no hope, no salve, no miracle cure - and L.O.T.I.O.N. exist to aggravate the wounds.

Destruction Unit

I'm not having much luck this year - I have been ill about five bloody times, never been this sick in my life! And every time I miss some great music. Tonight - Kitchen's Floor are playing at Shacklewell Arms (with Lachlan Anderson), and tomorrow's Rat Columns show at Montague Arms and Friday's Sealings show (also at Shacklewell) are looking remote. So I gotta look beyond - to next Thursday in fact. Another Shacklewell show, this time for Arizona behemoths Destruction Unit. They are bringing out new LP Negative Feedback Resistor on Sacred Bones, and it promises to be a scorcher. Here are a couple tracks off it.

Institutionalised Catharsis

Austin punks Institute impressed with their nihilist stare and punch on last year's Salt EP. They are about to release debut album Catharsis through Sacred Bones, and it's varied but no less self-flagellating. Moses Brown and his cronies are as interested in connection as ever - that is, not at all. Their purge is theirs and theirs alone - but the frenetic fervour that these guys conjure will have you sweating feverishly and gnashing your teeth as you connect with the basest disappointment of living life. With added Kraut rhythms, post-punk intensity and Parquet Courts (Andrew Savage melts down closer 'Christian Right'), Catharsis is a cleansing of sorts - but also a sign o' times to come.

Hypnotized By The Dream Police

Sacred Bones have announced the final two releases of 2014, and one of them is new - yet familiar. Mark Perro and Nick Chiericozzi, two of the founders of The Men, have a new project in the form of Dream Police. Which is a great name when you consider the cover art for the Cheap Trick album of the same name... Where The Men have left behind their hardcore boots to head into a more familiar rock bent, Dream Police brings synth and a bit of hair rock to the mix, if the title track of their upcoming album is anything to go by. It's like distilling Moon Duo, LCD Soundsystem and ZZ Top into a crusty blender. I need to hear the rest of this album for sure - but for now I'm perplexed, amused, and more than a little interested. Pre-order Hypnotized here.

Rubbing Salt Into Your Sacred Institute

Institute are outta Austin, Texas. You'd be excused for double-taking at that, seeing as their geographical brethren would be more akin to the Scandinavian nihilist post-punk set. Lower, Iceage, Holograms - they all know how to remain seductively melodic even as they are stripping layers off the inner walls of your skull. They include members of bands such as Wiccans and Glue (who you will hear more of next week), and from the tense, tetanus-infused squalls of their initial demos to the more fleshed out sound of new EP Salt (out on Sacred Bones), it's clear that Institute isn't part of the system.

Pre-order Salt here.

Perversion Tripping on Sacred Bones

Sacred Bones are a blessing. Forthright and malodorously human in all of their output, they hold fast always to consecrated intention. Their two latest releases, Pop. 1280's Imps of Perversion and Destruction Unit's Deep Trip, grow this collection of modern relics. These bands are worthy of pilgrimage, grimy, wife of no bath, pilgrimage.



There is power in repetition; of pulsing currents, of tearing forces, of ink-stained vaults. Pop. 1280 know this well. Pop. 1280 do this well. The world is a nailhouse. There is no land of milk and honey, it is sour and dripping, it strides towards destruction. But we can be more than vapour, we can be together. We can hold each other when we find out what we didn't want to know. We can feel something. We can live by the light we produce for ourselves, drown in the currents of our own humanity and bask in the death throws. Pop. 1280 grip a fascinating nausea, white-knuckled and brilliant in vainglory.

Look around you. We are at the bottom of a stunning well of gravity. Any notion that we can comprehend such a fact is laughable; a god trip. Reality is torn apart and put back together by our brains like babies using soggy teething sticks to complete crosswords. There are lines we follow that will never lead anywhere. But with volume and with energy we can confront the deep trip; we can take to the desert and, from the rubble, build our own monument, one that the visage of Rameses will fall in front of. Destruction Unit have something for you, it's for your health. Drink from the well.



We will never know the world as it really is, but we can know it is sacred. And sometimes we can feel it. Sacred Bones are a blessing. Get your copies here now.    

Hits From The Box #65 - Get Psyched

This weekend marks the 6th Austin Psych Fest, an event that I've wanted to go to since its inception...six years ago (funny, that). The closest I've come though is seeing Brissie band Dreamtime get on the bill this year. There will be a chance in the near future where I will be partaking in a weekend of excellent psych rock from around the globe, but until then, here are six bands that are on the bill, and for whatever reason I haven't posted about them yet (or for a while).

JJUUJJUU is a duo from LA that love their music long, elongated, a little weird, and very astrally inclined. They have just released their debut LP FRST (through Beyond Beyond Is Beyond - you can grab it here) which is a burnt slab of distorted retina burners. Already the band is gleaning shows with the likes of Cosmonauts and some pretty amazing festivals such as Desert Daze and Psych De Mayo, and are worthy of the high praise.

JJUUJJUU - G 4 A G

Another impressive duo dirge is Nashville's Ttotals, who have just released Spectrums Of Light 7" yesterday through Twin Lakes Records. The squalling echo that emanates on the periphery should be familiar - the tracks were mastered by Sonic Boom (Spacemen 3/Spectrum). These blue desert wanderers delve elbow deep into the dark stuff before launching forth with a crashing fury. Remember when QOTSA where kinda exciting? 'Tricks Of The Trade' holds much of that Rated R magic in its veins, whilst 'Sometimes You Just Are' plays back like a record in reverse, and is just as menacing. Get it here.

Ttotals - Tricks Of The Trade

Continuing on with the unintentional trend of psych duos, most of you will be familiar with the swirling psychedelia of Chile's The Holydrug Couple. They brought out Noctuary a couple months ago through Sacred Bones, and it's a cracker. At its core is a golden hue that emanates out of the speakers and cocoons you, a natural high of the highest supply. Everything feels out of sync, at half-pace, ethereal and enraptured in the paisley underground of 60s psych pop (they even have a song called 'Paisley' for Chrissakes!). Its lustrous, its elegant, above all its excellent. Get it here.

The Holydrug Couple - It's Dawning

Cosa Mesa's favourite junkyard bums The Growlers have just released a new album, Hung At Heart, through Everloving Records. You might remember that one of my favourite songs from the last few years is their 'Graveyard's Full'. And although there hasn't been a song on this album that grabbed me like that one did, it's a solid slice of lo-fi doo-wop skewering, shanties for the disenchanted, ballads for the murderous. I really want to see this band - and if you're in Austin this weekend, you lucky devils, you really should. Dusty Box Social twinkles from Hell. Get Hung At Heart here.

Now I mentioned Brisbane's Dreamtime were in Austin for the APF. Well they aren't the only Aussie reps, as The Black Ryder, The Laurels, and these guys will be blowing all and sundry away. Adelaide's Ride Into The Sun have an added in here - their upcoming album was recorded by none other than Black Angels frontman Alex Maas last year whilst the band toured the Harvest festivals. While we wait for that to drop with sweaty palms, here is the 7" they released to tantalise the third eye.

I bought World Music on Record Store Day for a number of reasons. Firstly, the cover art - of many vibrant colours, with W's and M's cut out of the front - was pretty spectacular. Secondly, it was in 180gm clear vinyl and look delectable. Finally (and most importantly) it's the new album from Swedish psych band Goat. This is hands down one of the best psych records I have heard in years - IN YEARS. Writing only this much is not giving it justice, but trust me, it will be in the reckoning for top honours come year's end. You can get it via Stranded Rekords here.

Goat - Diarabi
Goat - Goatman

And I thought I'd end off with The Black Angels, who themselves have just brought out their latest album Indigo Meadow. Here's the title song from it. I interviewed Alex Maas earlier in the week - more about that to come.

The Black Angels - Indigo Meadow

Happy Saturday!

Men Guided By A (Young) New Moon

The Men have been workhorses, tirelessly touring whilst bringing out a record a year. Their latest album is New Moon, and despite the brilliantly executed shift in tone and musical approach that occurred on last year's Open Your Heart, opening track 'Open The Door' is bound to throw you, starting with a slightly honky-tonk piano a la pastoral Neil Young (also the name New Moon could point to the new direction for the band, or a tip of the hat to Young himself). In fact we see two halves of the album that represent the split personality of the New York four-piece - the part that electrified audiences with their brazen brand of hard-edged punk underlined with an economical, no-frills approach to making noise (and still do); and the earnest songwriters, using the generic tropes of popular song structure to expand on what is and should be expected of any band, let alone The Men. 'I Saw Her Face' is possibly the best example of this - a Neil Young/Crazy Horse countrified dirge, with fantasy/reality lyrics and a wonky, can-fall-apart-at-any-time distorted guitar sound whilst Mark Perro warbles along with the high timbre that mirrors the cagey, cracked-genius Canuck. It's an excellent song, and despite the second half steering closer to past hardcore/garage glories and concepts ('The Brass', 'Electric', the excellent noise wigout closer 'Supermoon') it's becoming clearer than ever that The Men are growing into themselves nicely (listen to the country rock jangle and harmonicas of 'Bird Song' if you aren't a believer). There is no pretension here - the band are finally embracing all of their influences, and in doing so are redefining themselves, and possibly a whole sound. Country as the new punk? That's what true country has always been.

New Moon is out now through Sacred Bones - you can pick it up here. It's bloody great.

The Men - The Brass
The Men - I Saw Her Face

A One Track Mind Makes A Psychic Ill

New York's Psychic Ills have released One Track Mind, their fourth LP proper and their second on Sacred Bones. Sounds like the trio are stepping further away from the swirling cesspit they spawned from. It is still there, fused to their DNA (and explicit in motorik floater 'Western Metaphor'), yet here they have never sounded more defined musically. Each song is exactly that - a song. The smoke has dissipated, and rather than a wasteland, the view is clear - the languid groove and Warren Tres' drawl a transparent foil to the more deliberate approach. 'Drop Out' reminds me of early, "poppier" Warlocks (and seeing that one of my all-time favourite albums is Rise & Fall, this is meant as a big compliment). The album's title is relevant, as despite the space and shape of the approach, for the most part it's business as usual here. Added bonus is that One Track Mind gets tastier with each listen, like a snake biting its own tail - there is no end in sight, nor does there need to be one.

You can get One Track Mind here.

Psychic Ills - One More Time
Psychic Ills - Tried To Find It

The Men Are Electric

 

The Men played in Brisbane as part of this year’s Laneway Festival, which also featured the likes of Cloud Nothings, Japandroids and Twerps. It was quite a good lineup. I was supposed to go. Alas, what has stopped me from going to most gigs the past three weeks – the fact I’ve just had major surgery, and cant do much for a sustained period of time without wanting to collapse – stopped me from attending. The Men are really killing at the moment, and I hope I get a chance to actually see them live in the near future.

At least I have the Electric/Water Babies 7” to soothe my troubled soul, with the nearby release of their New Moon LP to come out on Sacred Bones very soon. If you have seen The Men, leave your experience in the comments below – it may hurt, but I need to know, and it’s no worse than losing an organ…right?

 

Get the 7" here.

The Men – Electric

Triple Trip To The Moon

 

I need to whip this up quick, because I have to get to a cassette listening party, so here are the past three releases from San Fran cosmic sorcerers Moon Duo.

 

Two are through Sacred Bones, and we’ll start with the duo’s new LP Circles, which centres around philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson’s studies of circles within society and their function – really. Which kinda makes sense, seeing as Ripley Johnson and Sanae Yamada essentially deal in repetitive rhythmic patterns, stretched to a certain point before they furl back in on themselves. In the main, I found myself a little disappointed with Circles, which is a shame seeing as Johnson can just about do no wrong in my eyes. Yamada’s synth is more at the forefront, and strangely this is the best and worst element – what she does is incredible, but the songs seem to suffer because of it. It may be a direction that they need to work on, thus their next releases are pregnant with anticipation. That said, there are some killer tunes on there, especially the title track, ‘Sleepwalker’ and the thudding, seven-plus minute finale, ‘Rolling Out’.

Moon Duo – Circles
Moon Duo – Rolling Out

 

Preceding this was a 7” split with another great psych band, Psychic Ills. Their contribution is the six minute ‘Zoned’, which is more befitting of the warbling mind-bending kosmiche experiments that Moon Duo have delved in since its inception. This was left on the Circles sessions’ cutting room floor – thank God it found its place in the world though, because in my opinion, this almost betters every track on that album. ‘Take Me With You’, the Psychic Ills contribution, is also excellent, a folky trance that is more straight up than you might expect from them – the perfect counterpoint. In fact, this is one of my favourite splits of the year.

Moon Duo - Zoned

 

Finally there is the mammoth ‘High Over Blue’ that Sleeperhold Publications saw fit to put out (that should tell you enough about this release...). Twenty two minutes of fragmented, stretched mind-altering magic. Nuff said.

Moon Duo – High Over Blue

You can get ‘Zoned’ and ‘High Over Blue’ as a bonus CD if you purchase the CD version of Circles, which is nice. Get these releases here (for Sacred Bones’ releases) and here (for High Over Blue).

Sleepwalking On The Moon

I have a post on Monday about the 12" tour release that Moon Duo brought out recently. It was going to be today, but I have to punt it for this nice little coup! The San Franciscan sonic conquistadors have a new record on the way through Sacred Bones called Circles. The label has been inundated with pre-order purchases, hence the mail-out getting a little delayed, so to placate the masses they let this track out of the bag. It's classic Moon Duo, and should do more than appease the hordes.


Circles will be out in October. Why not add to the mayhem and get yourself in line for one too? It's in sexy red vinyl if you're quick off the mark...

Moon Duo - Sleepwalker

This Youthful Cult Will Prevail

Very excited about Love Will Prevail, the upcoming record from New York weirdos Cult Of Youth (out September 4, again through Sacred Bones). From the sound of released track 'Man And Man's Ruin', this will be a sunnier yet no less theatrical affair - less dank Pogues on meth and more sunny pagan folk psychedelia. Seth Ragon apparently recorded most of the album himself at his newly-constructed home studio, and the experience certainly appears to be an enlightening one.

Cult Of Youth - Man and Man's Ruin


You can pre-order Love Will Prevail here. A new track off it is 'Garden of Delights' which shows that the woozy swaying darkness that the self-titled predecessor was steeped in hasn't been entirely bleached away - listen to it below. Get excited!!

Donkey Jaw In The Dunes

Seeing as the past few days has had me delving into some back catalogue stuff, I couldn't pass up an opportunity to talk about this record that has been slaying me all over again the past couple weeks. When Damon McMahon AKA Amen Dunes first came onto the scene, I was a little nonplussed. Unlike my first impressions of John Maus (that I didn't "get" it), the New Yorker just didn't grab me the way that other psych bands did. I appreciated some of his efforts - I was an immediate fan of 'Two Thousand Islands' and a couple other tracks off 2009's DIA - but I thought that Amen Dunes were going to be one of those bands that lots of people dug, but I didn't. It happens.


But then Through Donkey Jaw happened. When Sacred Bones put this out, as you can guess I didn't jump all over it like a virginal teen. I still felt that, whilst McMahon could straddle genres like a cowboy astride a rampant bull, he sometimes got swept away by the power of his ambitions - or even trampled underneath them. Not so here. The chopping and changing from drone to fuzzed out psych to intricate guitar meltdowns to falsetto soirees. McMahon's vocals transcend here, yet such confidence is evident across the board. His new-found band have helped to graft flesh on the bones, but truth be told they are only augmenting what is clearly inherent here. McMahon, and therefore Amen Dunes, are getting better with time. The erraticism fits within the paradigm of the band aesthetic now, much more controlled than its scattershot predecessors.

It's funny how much of an about-turn Through Donkey Jaw has been for me. If you haven't checked it out, you are doing yourself a major disservice. You can grab the record from Sacred Bones here.

Amen Dunes - Baba Yaga
Amen Dunes - Jill

Declaring War On The Ice Age

It's no secret that I'm a rabid fan of Denmark's punk nihilist teens Iceage - their New Brigade record is easily one of the best of its kind for the past decade, at the very least. Whilst we all wait anxiously to see if they can ride the wave of expectation to create another killer album, their frontman Elias Bender Rønnenfelt combined with Sexdrome's Loke Rahbek to form weird electro-disco-no wave-punk outfit War. I say weird, because I shouldn't like this - but I do. Very much. They put a 7" out through Sacred Bones last month, backed up by a split with Lust For Youth (through the great Avant! Records), and the resultant feverish aural masturbation that has hit the taste-makers of this insipid world is OTT - but somewhat warranted.

War - Brodermordet

The Men Have Opened Up My Heart

The Men are one of my fave bands. Leave Home, last year's LP on Sacred Bones, was incredible. Now, I'm not sure if the new album betters it, but Leave Home was a tough one to beat. Let's just say that I got Open Your Heart at the beginning of the week, and I'm going to end the week with it. Might end the year with it. Who knows? Alls I know is, this is the shit. THE SHIT.

So listen to the below track ad nauseum, or better yet, buy the album - it's worth a million other shit bands entire back catalogues. Happy weekend people.



The Men - Open Your Heart