microphones in the trees: March 2009

Saturday, March 28, 2009

bill callahan

“She lay beside me like a branch from a tender willow tree / I was as still as a river could be”

Friday, March 27, 2009

wooden wand

wooden wand - born bad (mad monk/people in a position to know 2009)


"After probably one of the worst years of James Toth's life, he writes his best album to date, and has asked people in a position to know to corelease it with his Mad Monk imprint. twelve songs of haunting beauty and sadness." people in a position to know

Thursday, March 26, 2009

sore eros


"Sore Eros works as the songwriting platform for Robert Robinson, who in the past has worked with Ariel Pink. That this new album also features Gary War in the group underlines the hallucinatory time-flux quality of the sonics, with that familiar glazed/dreamtone Shdwply aesthetic further bolstered by perfect psych/folk stylings, padding motorik drums and a vocalist that flashes across zones previously inhabited by Woods and Matt Valentine..." volcanic tongue

"Sore Eros es la cara de visible de Robert Robinson, quien dentro de su prontuario, apunta colaboraciones junto a Ariel Pink. Junto a la ayuda del talentoso Gary War, “Second Chants” es un disco que pasea en las arenas del folk psicodélico pero con un sonido que no tiene nada que ver con contemporáneos como MV/EE o Wooden Wand, sino que se encuentra delineado en la ya característica línea volátil que ha llenado de elogios a un sello como shdwply.

La atmósfera generada por este trabajo, resulta ser ideal para acompañar esos días fríos y lluviosos que invitan a la retrospección. Según palabras del propio Robinson: “Me encuentro mas influenciado por la caída de las hojas en otoño y la nieve en invierno, que por las palmeras de Los Ángeles”. Esta fuente de inspiración es clave para lograr los satisfactorios resultados que entrega el disco a rasgos generales" iván daguer

foto: gling-go

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

gin en tsubame

"Gin en Tsubane are the Duo of Tansch and Tsubame. Repetitive acoustic guitar plucking shimmers through the cracks of fragile folksongs reverberating in clouds of acid dust guitar. Artwork by the band, insert by Sloow. Edition of 70." sloow tapes

maravilloso y dulce folk japonés: silbidos, psicodelia, flaviola e o bando do sol, eddie marcon, vashti bunyan...

filed under: delicious japanese sloow food

Sunday, March 22, 2009

the diamond family archive

laurence collyer's diamond family archive is a unique, revolving ensemble, centring around his ghostly, deeply emotive songwriting. imagine mark kozelek's haunting folk with elements of robert wyatt heartwrenching vocals combined with collyer's beautiful songs.. this is a truly great little disc.” rough trade

“Strange and tender songs built around layered loops of live guitar, lap steel and electronica. Leftfield, oddball and gorgeous, a beautiful and fragile noise and sublime lo-fi melancholia” stolen recordings

valentine (music)

* click*




"Valentine is currently making an e.p, which will be released by Dala Horse shortly"

tirath singh nirmala

“An excellent collection of electro-acoustic drones, eye-lolling bell tones and automatic musics in the vein of Neil Campbell/Richard Youngs/Matthew Bower/Vibracathedral Orchestra et al.” volcanic tongue
“Streams of electronic & casio light converge like thousands of beams of sunlight alongside massed hand percussion shake and clatter and frenetically fluttering flutes. A midway spot between Moondog and the jungle ecstasies of some of the recent Skaters’ extracurricular projects.” melody bar
"From elevated drones to gut-spit vocal edits, blown woodwinds and heavyelectronics, this is one of the finest summations of music made in ‘the Tirathera’ - English artist John Clyde-Evans has retired his Tirath Singh Nirmala name and now flies under the jce banner...." tomentosa
no sé qué decir, growing into the wind es uno de esos discos que parecen salidos de una realidad paralela, como the naïve shaman de richard youngs. through damp violence

Thursday, March 19, 2009

the ten thousand things - s/t cdr (the lotus sound 2008)


"Recently relocated to Athens, Georgia, multi-instrumentalist Wes Covey is this time joined by Savannah, Georgia’s psychedelic dreamstress Jessica Calleiro (uncle owen aunt beru), who blesses ‘The Song’ with vocals, drums and weather. Ben Peck, a native of Covey’s birthplace deep in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom adds scorching vocals to a retelling of the traditional ‘Who’s Gonna Be Your Man?’
On the remaining six songs, Covey utilizes his palate of guitars, bass, samples and various percussive instruments to create a series of compositions that face the light more than previous releases, while still holding the darkness at their backs.
Those who’ve had their ears perked by the sounds of Six Organs of Admittance, Pelt, Hala Strana and likeminded folk destroyers will want to set aside some time to give this slab a spin. Mostly, though, anyone interested in blending folk forms with drone experimentalism and the shivering blackness of doom will find want to free their minds to the sound of The Ten Thousand Things." the lotus sound
foto: ▼ A Fötos

red river dialect


qué bien que exista el blog de Lex (Beggin' Your pardon Miss Joan/Guanaco): siempre hay alguna sorpresa en forma de canción inédita del propio Lex...o descubres a Red River Dialect

"debo decir que tengo una nueva canción favorita, de un grupo que me encontré de casualidad en Myspace (también tiene sus cosas buenas). la canción se llama 'Distant Man' y el artista es 'Red River Dialect'. visita su myspace. es un disco realmente increíble.
además fueron el grupo invitado en el nuevo show de radio local fm de Falmouth y Penryn, que se llama 'Orpheus Baubles'. el programa está muy bien. por alguna extraña coincidencia una de las antiguas canciones de Beggin' Your pardon Miss Joan abre el show, lo cual me cogió de sorpresa ya que no tenía ni idea de que iba a aparecer. como ya he dicho es una radio local así que debe ser difícil encontrarla, pero puedes descargarte la primera parte en el blog de 'Red River Dialect', que puedes encontrar aquí. escuchadlo, os lo ruego". Lex Panayi

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

tulasi

tulasi - maa autaa (sloow tapes cassette 2007)

"Ethereal recordings by the duo of Kulkija (Uton, Keijo & The Free Players, Vapaa…) and Kutomo. Waves of flutes, voices and bubbling ambience drifting away on a soft whispered breeze blowing it out into thin cool air. Artwork by the band in an edition of 90 copies." sloow tapes

"Tulasi are a Finnish duo featuring Kulkija (Uton, Vapaa, Keijo & Free Players) and Kutomo." . This is gorgeous haunting music, easily at atmospheric as the Free Players stuff but with a totally different character, maybe more similar to Xenis Emputae Travelling Band. It sounds ancient and ghostly, like forest spirits floating in dense air. Lovely stuff." Boa Melody Bar

long legged woman

otro de esos discos que te hacen perder la noción del tiempo...a mí me recuerda a valerio sartori, the kitchen cynics, greg ashley o ese velo de misterio que siempre ha definido a pocahaunted, pero suena a long legged woman y solamente a long legged woman. voces atmosféricas y desenfocadas, suavidad guitarril y unas canciones pequeñas, cortantes, que no pierden nunca la dulzura: on death & dying part II & III; what comes after part II, we learned to survive...hay tantas
"Newtown Nights finds the Athens, Georgia boys branching out into musical realms once thought untouchable by a band of acid ears. Anchored by heavy waves of macabre feedback and dirty blues, Long Legged Woman has transformed the bastardized Haight-Asbury foreplay of peers into an album's worth of guttural ditties any Mississippi Delta backporch dweller would be proud to call kin. LLW refuse to sit onthe laurels thrown by tye-died consumers and black fedora stylist, preferring to mix it up in the mud and soot of music's filthy underbelly. To count the styles and sounds visited (and revisited) during the all-too-short Newtown Nights would only serve to spoil the supernatural surprises stored within its cardboard home." electronic voice phenomenon
"An endless rain of suffocating feedback and heavily treated loops ensues and if you're wasted enough you could even call it psychedelic." foxy digitalis

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

olives

"Olives' second album was put to tape fast. "Fauna" finds Olives adding elements (beats, vocals, whistles) and layering their sonics as opposed to improvising live. Emboldened by Jorge Luis Borges' The Book of Imaginary Beings, the record was made in just five days. If "Cuba" is the band's wild island of guitar spikes and broken glass piano, their sophomore effort is an expedition into diverse psychedelia. The members could not tell you who played what during that week of recording in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Instruments were traded, concepts were discussed and then employed, unexpected trails were happened upon and likewise followed to stranger environs..." moon glyph tapes

Sunday, March 15, 2009

had a dad

had a dad

"he was the one
made me what I am today
it's up to me now
my daddy has gone away"

Friday, March 13, 2009

pocahaunted

"The Pocahaunted whole album is bathed in a rich, ambiguous echo from which Bethany and Amanda's peyote trip vocal entanglements ebb and flow. In keeping with the African/Native American/other influences that tend to permeate their work, you'll hear plenty of ceremonial-type percussive elements along with strange, droning guitar harmonies that bring to mind Indian ragas and the more out-there work of the Velvet Underground in equal measure. Tremendous." boomkat

"Great new mini LP from this female psych duo, joined here by Bobb Bruno and Cameron Stallones. Four long tracks that combine thudding, nod-out acid rock rhythms with wordless choirs of abandon and power vocals extrapolated from hypnagogic 1980s pop. Something in the achingly elongated guitar lines and orchestras of throat that is just supremely addictive, joining the dots between Father Yod and Brother Louie in ways you never dreamed possible. Pocahaunted are at the absolute peak of their powers right now." volcanic tongue

Thursday, March 12, 2009

beggin' your pardon miss joan

"I have decide to post the new beggin' your pardon miss joan e.p as a digital copy for those that want it. 'No-One Belongs Here But You' is likely to be the last full release you hear from beggin' your pardon miss joan for a while, however there are a number of collaborations in the works. This is a digital copy of the tape due on Centre Of Wood so if you dig be sure to buy a copy to support the label...
In other news updates on Beggin' Tapes will feature here until shit is pulled together. Beggin' Tapes will be a short run label for tapes that are no longer than 30 minutes, be it e.p's or full length's. Copies will run to a maximum of twenty and will be composed of black and white art on white tape, with white casing. If you want to get in and about this idea drop me a line...
Keep well,

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

peaking lights

"Since you asked, here’s a new truism we vibed out of the cosmos: Isolation (not Necessity) is the Mother of Invention. ‘Cause distance makes the heart grow radder, remember? And drift-pop duo Peaking Lights (aka epic newlyweds Aaron Coyes and Indra Dunis) have proven this in spades, by beating a sweet retreat from the big city to a cool commune deep in the rolling, wooded hills on the outskirts of Madison, Wisconsin, where they’re free to bond with the land, breathe easy, and levitate lofty organic magic from their unique analog electronics mainframe. Imaginary Falcons digs deeper and flies higher than anything else they’ve ever laid to tape by miles. Seven strung-out sing-song serenades of Suicide-style drum machinery, groovy lost ghost candle crooning, dubby keyboard echoes, gentle guitar gestures, and narcotic harmonia, woven into an expertly sequenced lucid dream you never wanna wake up from. This is the sound of Peaking Lights peaking; hold it your ear as long as you can. Already dangerously high on our “One To Beat For ‘09” file. Pro-dubbed cassettes in cases with pro-printed full-color J-cards designed by Amanda. Edition of 150. Also available on lp from our friends at Night People." nnf

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

árvore

trains across the sea (silver jews cover)
held (smog cover)
dos versiones campestres y entrañables de bill callahan y david berman, grabadas en un móvil por rafa/arbore. canciones de guitarra, pajaritos y voz. one two three one two three oklahoma soul!
filed under: grabaciones de campo