Rhythmically Creaming Nathan In America

Nathan is actually an older album, having come out a couple years ago, but I have only had the immense pleasure of swimming in American Cream's Krautrock waters this week. Although they have been around for a decade, Nathan is their debut record (out through Old Blackberry Way), a double LP that is stunning in its brazen experiments, elongated mindbending jams and especially adherence to finding the notches in a droned-out rhythm and staying lodged there for as long as hypnotically possible. A carousel of musicians are involved in this kaleidoscopic revelry – upwards to 24 I am led to believe, from such disparate groups as Marijuana Deathsquads, Polica, Flavor Crystals, Chambermaids, Gospel Gossip and a bunch of bands not mentioned on Sonic Masala before – and holds true to the general aesthetic of an American Cream live show – that is, Nate Nelson is the centrifugal force that various musicians revolve around, at random, and with little warning as to what will be played on the night – a truly intuitive motorik confluence. The hushed murmur/chanted mantras of the vocals and the unhinged sax that wavers in and out of tracks like ‘Don’t Buy It’ just adds to the heart-pounding intensity.

Nathan is a really good album in its own right. What makes Nathan a brilliant album is that this is a somehow structured ensemble improvisational album – with cohesion, a hive-mind mentality and an overarching adherence to a heaving, breathing, rhythmic euphoria, never plateauing, never dying away.

Where Are They Now? - Little Dreamers #3

It's time to get reacquainted with some bands that I "unearthed" over the past couple years and see what they're up to (wow, I'm feeling all Rumpus Room right now...)


We all loved a bit of scuzziness due to Toronto's The Bats Pajamas' garage shtick. Well here they are again, with their EP Totally, and like its moniker suggests this record totally kicks arse! OK, the EP doesn't suggest kicking arse, just that its totally... But seriously, 'Red Scared' is one hell of a rocking tune, and the rest of the album follows suit accordingly. You can get the EP for free here.

The Bats Pajamas - Sarai
The Bats Pajamas - Red Scared



Neil Weir loves his shoegaze, most evident in current band The Chambermaids. Their track 'China Blue' from last year really struck a chord with me, and the follow-up 'Whirlpool' mines this rich vein further. It's a slick, sexy number, released through Guilt Ridden Pop, and marries a windswept coastal vibe with a downward spiral of caterwauling guitars. They have been hard at work recording for a new album, and when the fruits of their labour surfaces Ill be the first person to latch on to it!

The Chambermaids - Whirlpool


Reading quartet Tripwires are cranking up for a big 2012 if 'Emerald' is any indication. These kids have been quiet since the ripples they cleaved with their last single 'Cinnamon', but 'Emerald' ensures and mollifies - the wait has not been in vain. The album will be burning its way across the sky very soon...

Tripwires - Emerald


Finally (and no offence to the other acts here, they are all amazing, but I feel I've left the best to last on this occasion), NY/DC's Drop Electric dropped an electric bomb on us all with Finding Color In The Ashes back in March last year. Er, sorry...tequila hangover induces lacklustre puns... But this is kinda fitting, seeing as the band's new track is called 'Santo Domingo' after the capital of the Dominican Republic (that isn't racist is it? To assume they drink tequila or some similar hard liquor in that country? I don't mean to cause international distress, seriously!) It's been a while since a new instrumental band really knocked me for six, but the brooding menace underpinning the Eastern inflections in this track paints an artful, epic soundscape that is nigh on impossible to escape. This is a good un, people. Stay alert on this one.

Drop Electric - Santo Domingo

Dancing With The Devil On The Pale Beach Sand...

Recorded in a one room church in rural Wisconsin and at The Old Blackberry Way in Minneapolis, the self-titled EP from Minneapolis artiste Devil On The Beach (Neil Weir from The Chambermaids, who we caught on Hits From The Box last month, and he runs the Old Blackberry Way, which is rather convenient) is an ambient tour de force. Its a simple construction - Weir only had a Fender Jazzmaster, some pedals and a treated analog drum machine - the end result is an adroit exercise in concise emancipation.

Wha?

Well, at under fifteen minutes in length, there is a languidity to these four tracks that washes you away then rolls you back, the ebb and flow of a sonic tide, at once lulling, tranquil and ominous. Its an impressive effort, one guaranteed to have you on the repeat button incessantly.

Grab Devil On The Beach here.

Devil On The Beach - Side 2
Devil On The Beach - Side 3

Hits From The Box #34 - Brother From Another Mother

So my sister got married on Friday. This is amazing, and Im still gutted to have been stranded on the other side of the world when these festivities took place. Regardless, I now have a good mate who is part of the (let's say Masala) family, so i have this special midweek Hits From The Box in his honour (he'll probably hate on all these bands, but he's my bro - I can't stay mad at him...)


Otro Mundo kick us off, and these Arizona haze merchants waste no time in destroying the ragged excuse for a soul you may have had clinging to the remnants of your consciousness. Jellied is their taped purging, which they released after a stellar show with ace acts The Men and Milk Music (seal of approval there!). A nihilistic slice of fuzzy dread, Jellied can be gleaned from the band for chump change here.

Otro Mundo - Midnight Oil Burner
Otro Mundo - Heart Thrush


Sea Pinks are a three piece from Belfast, formed by singer and guitarist Neil Brogan when he began to write and record songs as a side project from his other band Girls Names (in which he is the drummer). Live Brogan recruits the other two members of Girls Names, yet it is an entirely different beast. The release of this outpouring is Dead Seas, and it is damn tasty. The first song to be taken from the new album is 'Fountain Tesserae', a "not entirely serious but not entirely unserious" song about a girl who (quite possibly on acid) jumps into a fountain while mistaking a mosaic tile pattern for diamonds, and cracks her head open, is the jumping off point. Fair enough then...

Sea Pinks - Fountain Tesserae


Sneakpeek is a female fronted lo-fi/garage/grunge/psych band from Echo Park, California. Featuring former members of The Willowz, a more folk oriented band, Sneakpeek only have demos to show their wares, yet the band describes themselves thus: "our music has been described as a 'nostalgic ride through a sea of flannel' with "lazy, reverb-drenched bassy guitar riffs, perfectly juxtaposed with the sweet (but never sickly so) female vocal'". Heady times ahead... They are currently prepping a seven song EP that will hopefully see the light of day very soon. And if this track is any indication, it should be a growling rocker.

Sneakpeek - Walk All Over Me (Live)


Throwing Up is a London punk mess that consists of Ben Rayner, Clare James Clare and Camille Benett. We got in contact after I posted the killer track 'Teeth' by Fever Fever. Rather than tell you about them, I've left it up to Camille...

"Me and Ben were born in the same month, in 1985, good year for movies and maybe wine, he used to go out with a girl who lived next to my school but I never met him til we were older. He thinks I'm pretty gross, but that might just be something he thinks about all girls that aren't Lauren, his wife, or it might be because sometimes when I'm drunk I take my clothes off in public or lie in the street crying. At any rate, he's adopted me now for better or worse and I think I've given him my cold so at least on a microbial level we're related. Clare I think I’ve known since i was 19, but maybe before that I used to turn up at nights she worked at and demand to be let in free. She hated me for it until one day we just became best friends and moved in together. That was pretty tempestuous and we tried to kill each other so we moved apart, now we're older and wiser and spend just enough time together to uphold the fragile balance between psyched and psycho. She lives in this warehouse where we have a rehearsal space, it's decorated with paper skeletons and silk flowers and we share it with Mazes and Male Bonding. Our rehearsals usually just involve messing around and drinking beers and blue wkd, we have short attention spans and smoke too much and I'm always late. Sometimes I think it's a bit embarrassing but mostly I just write songs about boys and being mental with boys, or people who piss me off, they're kind of the same thing. I'm also really preoccupied with the idea of having nothing to say or saying meaningless things and being a fake or a liar. I feel like everyone's lying to everyone and themselves all the time. Maybe I'm paranoid."

Brilliant.

Throwing Up - Mother Knows Best


Featuring Greg Fox (Liturgy, GDFX), Alex Drewchin Jr, Turner Williams Jr and a continuously rotating cast of guest performers, Guardian Alien follow the road to enlightenment previously trod by the likes of Hawkwind, Boredoms, and Sun City Girls. Their self titled debut LP, released by Swill Children, features a live set recorded at Brooklyn's Shea Stadium, and collaged soundscapes culled from live and studio recordings. Below is an excerpt of what to expect. It sounds bloody exciting in my opinion...

Guardian Alien - Guardian Alien (excerpt)


Finishing off, we have Minneapolis band The Chambermaids. The perfect mix of dream, noise and pop. 'China Blue' is the first cut off their next album, it swims in the waters of Slowdive and Rise, and is a fitting end to today's HFTB, methinks...

The Chambermaids - China Blue

Happy days!!!