Seth Is Frightening - B.Hoo!

You might remember some time ago I introduced you to Seth Frightening (AKA Sean Kelly), a Sonorous Circle acolyte whose album The Prince and His Madness was one messed up anti-folk delight. Well he has a couple new releases under his belt, both of which came to light in the waning hours of 2011. B.Hoo and High School follow in the SF tradition, i.e. more than a little weird (and free! Grab em both here), yet it's the hooks that are buried deep within these tracks that truly delivers. Listen to 'Wake Up' from B.Hoo below and tell me that there isn't a cracked genius at work here. sure, it's mildly disturbing, like the elongated dream-state moments in a Lynch film before the hobo or the backwards-talking dwarf makes an entrance, and you can be assured that rather head down that terrain, we may just enter an aeroplane over the sea and land in a land where up is down and black is white, yet it all seems more than OK. I so want Seth Frightening to bring out a Jeff Mangum opus; here's hoping it's just around the corner.



Seth Frightening - Wake Up

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