Bargain On Rangda Melts

Rangda are back! The face-melting trio (Comets On Fire/Six Organs Of Admittance's Ben Chasny, Sun City Girls' Sir Richard Bishop, drummer extraordinaire Chris Corsano) are releasing another slab of frenetic, feverish instrumental rock February next year in The Heretic's Bargain (again through Drag City), and 'To Melt The Moon' is the first salvo. It's a warped Mexican Western jam smothered in macho muscularity, stretched sinew and spasmodic Spaghetti stand-offs. Whenever these guys get in the ring, tightly calibrated carnage ensues. The album has a song called 'Spiro Agnew' and the closing track goes for nineteen minutes. Mind blown already! There is no one out there like this. Pre-order the record here.

Flamingods Dance Towards The Sun

 

On Friday I showed London band Darkstar's filmclip for 'Amplified Ease'. It's good, don't get me wrong - that's why I included it. But if you want to be honest - I think that it's all in who you know. Because there is another London-based band that have really killed a record that are in a similar vein, and I haven't heard much about them - despite Dustin Wong (Ponytail) having some involvement in their record (playing guitar on single 'Quessa').

The record - Sun. The band - Flamingods, a five-piece made up of Kamal Rasool, Charles Prest, Sam Rowe, Craig Doporto, and Karthik Poduval. They have an amazing genesis story too - 4 of the 5 members (Kamal, Sam, Craig, and Charles) met in Bahrain before moving to London and becoming friends with Kartik. As early gigs go, Flamingods’ couldn’t have gone much better. Having all bought tickets to the Animal Collective-curated ATP festival, they decided to take along a selection of their huge instrument collection and embarked on an 8 hour set in a chalet on-site – with up to 60 people crammed in to try and grab a view of their constantly changing line-up and enchanting tribal rhythms, and those who couldn’t squeeze in danced outside or tried clambering through windows.

Sun is a hypnotic melange of African inflection, tribal rhythms and quirk, all centred around discovering a loop or beat that serves as an electric bolt down the spine. Animal Collective, Boredoms, and Sun City Girls are cited as influences, with the former’s irreverence and innate sense of fun most evident in these tracks. This is dance music for those who don’t like dance music, and don’t hate Vampire Weekend enough to turn their backs on the brilliance Afro rhythms. Rave on, you crazy hipsters.

 

Sun is out now on the ever-excellent Art Is Hard Records - head here to get it in sexy green vinyl.

Flamingods - Quesso

And here is a stream of Sun in its entirety - it'll get you moving, even if rigor mortis has set in.

This Fortune Cookie Is Visionary!

Vision Fortune are two brothers spirits from London, UK, who have a great 7" out that is a little hard to explain - but Ill try. When i listened to 'Black Coral' and 'Void Of The Valley', it was as if Id wandered into a Middle Eastern confectionery store, eaten a whole lot of havla laced with barbiturates procured from Britain circa 1973, and then listened to the Dirtbombs played at quarter pace. That is a ridiculous analogy, I know, but there really is something otherworldly about these drone-centric concoctions - there is some Sun City Girls in there, some King Crimson, but it is truly incredible and stands on its own. Im a massive fan, and absolutely cannot wait to get my hands on more of this sweet, hallucinogenic candy - bad for you in so many ways, but the most addictive thing on earth...

Black Coral/Voids Of The Valley comes out next week - pre-order this from Mannequin here.

MNQ 019 Vision Fortune - Black Coral / Void of the Valley 7'' by Mannequin Label

Sun City Girls Chew Over The Past

Those ethno-improv ethereal trippsters Sun City Girls wove a dense and intricate musical tapestry over the 26 years they were together, but out over 50 albums and myriad other types of releases before drummer Charles Gocher lost his battle with cancer in 2007. The Bishop brothers have banded together to release Gum Arabic, eleven tracks reaching as far back as 1983 to look at some of the more esoteric covers the band put to tape, and reinterpreting them. From the Morricone rumble of 'Sev Acher' to the Indian dirge of 'Helwa Shak' and the drunken psych blues ramblings of 'Night In Malta', their skewed jazz improvisational stylings permeated every noodle, strum, treble and beat. Hell - listen to 1988 track 'Esoterica of Abyssynia' and tell me that isnt a direct influence on Deerhoof! Whilst the Bishops have spread their wings to other ventures - notable Sir Richard's part in sludge instrumental supergroup Rangda -the legacy of Sun City Girls will always live on.

Sun City Girls - Sev Acher
Sun City Girls - Space Prophet Dogon (fucking amazing...)
Sun City Girls - Theme of Wild World Of Animals

Baby-eating radness

Do not go to Bali.

Wow, a rather strong statement to make, even if Sonic Masala does not have the clout to bring down the entire Indonesian tourism industry...yet...

But the statement is not meant to be literal. For no one in the world is safe from Rangda, the new collective 'supergroup' that is eviscerating eardrums everywhere via their latest LP, False Flag. Made up of Comets On Fire/Six Organs of Admittance dynamo Ben Chasny, percussion master Chris Corsano and Sir Richard Bishop (of Arizona noise wizard trippers Sun City Girls), Rangda (monikered after the Balinese witch doctor both reviled and adored for her chaotic veagence - see, I was leading somewhere with all this) are a full throttled noisefest, sludging guitar rock of monumental proportions. And they are not trying to paint their wagon in any other fashion - from their own name to song titles such as 'Bull Lore', 'Fist Family' and 'Serrated Edges', these boys are here to tear your being to the ground and devour the child within. Seriously scary stuff then - and immensely satisfying.

But that little grab of words doesn't do False Flag justice. Ive had it in my possession for over a week now, and every time I listen to it I am drawn more and more to it. Its not just the volcanic fury inherent in every bludgeoning sound that makes me salivate - it is the innate intricacy, the soul that writhes within each track, that is equally if not so more enchanting. It is a fucking awesome record, especially for the incendiary drumming of Corsano - what a fucking god! - so imagine catching them live? It would have you throwing your own child into the blender just to appease them.

False Flag is out through Drag City now. They played in London last Thursday, same night as Liars, Male Bonding and my book launch. Suffice to say that last Thursday was not particularly fair to all those bands, what with the hordes of avid readers keen to get their mitts on my grubby novella - but hopefully Rangda will (dis)grace us with their presence in the very near future - including the Godspeed You Black Emperor-curated ATP in December...

Rangda - Bull Lore
Rangda - Serrated Edges