microphones in the trees

Sunday, August 31, 2008

we in a tree

01. my eyes are disconnected from... ~ maestro echoplex
02. boats up the river ~ holly golightly
03. i wish i was a stone ~ derroll adams
04. cave ~ sons of noel & adrian
05. preacher ~ christian williams
06. mama tried ~ merle haggard
07. hollow's cove ~ beat beat whisper
08. bella ~ angus & julia stone
09. i of mine ~ papa m
10. i'm satisfied ~ mississippi john hurt
11. one two three ~ castlemusic
12. a good thing ~ domingo
13. and then you left ~ viking moses
14. freezing moon ~ wyrd visions w/ jennifer castle
15. the jute mill song ~ mary anne paterson
16. nothing lasts ~ karen beth
17. lifetime ~ rf & lili de la mora
18. now i love someone ~ holly throsby

Saturday, August 30, 2008

jackie peludiño

el otro día claire le contó a mariña: "¿mamá sabes que morimos dos veces?, una cuando te mueres y otra cuando te olvidan". perdóname peludiño por no poder evitar que un coche te enviase antes de tiempo al cielo de los perros, lo que sí puedo asegurarte es que será la única vez que vayas a morir porque jamás voy a olvidarte, esto quiero que lo tengas muy claro, porque voy a grabar un disco que llevará tu nombre y porque siempre, siempre, siempre seremos uno aunque ahora estés en el cielo de los perros y yo tenga instalada una cortina de lluvia salada en los ojos. porque te quiero más que a mi vida y eso no nos lo puede robar nada ni nadie. hasta pronto peludiño!

p.d.: hoy es uno de esos días en los que a uno le gustaría poder estirar los brazos hasta el cielo para abrazarte.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Friday, August 22, 2008

bird show

"Ben Vida’s latest is hippie-tastic, a mellow trip replete with drum-circle beats, all-together-now vocals and a free, open vibe. It’s easy to imagine Vida and his colleagues (including labelmates Robert Lowe of Lichens and Greg Davis) sitting cross-legged in the woods, emitting sonic smoke signals as they stare at the sun—an image encouraged by the cover, which shows Vida’s collection of bells, tambourines, and pan flutes (he plays 25 instruments in total) atop a weathered oriental rug. It’d also be easy to call Bird Show nostalgic, but that would be wrong. On “Green Vines”, one of the few songs not named for the instruments used, Vida’s Terry Riley-style keyboard laps against the rattling percussion, creating soft waves for the vocals to happily ride. As curlicues of guitar drift away, the whole thing can start to feel almost too good, but don’t fight it: that’s just the track kicking in." paper thin walls

"...“Green Vines” is about the effect that certain places, physical settings, have on the senses. How being in the desert or deep in a woodland area can have an almost drug-like effect on you." ben vida

dibujo: seth neefus

Sunday, August 17, 2008

zeitgeist, the movie


lo peor: que intuíamos algo así / lo mejor: que intuíamos algo así

conclusión: hazle caso siempre a la intuición

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

caethua

caethua - queenly women crowned and uncrowned (abandon ship 2008)

"Cold marriages of growing up in the snow covered cornfields of upstate New York, moldy nylon-stringed guitars, a hissing blend of flea market electronics, rusted pots and pans, field recordings of a doomed boat trip down the St. Lawrence River, birds in the ice covered trees, the groan of an overheating diesel engine, shortwave radio in the middle of nowhere, busted cars sliding in the sleet of Indiana, the soft hum of a dusty living room, bugs and reptiles singing from Florida swamps, and a sorrowful voice leading us into the frozen ground.

Recorded, written, produced and mixed by Clare Hubbard, featuring the accompanying sounds of Justin Clifford Rhody and friends. Queenly Women Crowned and Uncrowned is Caethua's 3rd release." tomentosa

pantaleimon

"Heart of the Sun is the wonderfully remixed and realised version of 'Mercy Oceans'. It also features four brand new exclusive tracks including a collaboration with Strings of Consciousness and a cover version of Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's 'Even If Love'." durtro
"Andria Degens is making such beautiful and haunting music as Pantaleimon that we almost hesitate to mention that she's married to David Tibet of Current 93, as her own music more then stands on its own. While the sound is similar to the music of folks like Fursaxa, Grouper and Christina Carter, there is much more immediacy, focus and a connection to folk history in the songs of Pantaleimon. There is also a rustic quality in these stripped down songs that makes us think of Bridget St. John and Hala Strana recording a record together. Heart Of The Sun is becoming the record we listen to both early in the morning and then late at night as we surrender to sleep. So beautiful!" aquarius
*download cd I & cd II*

Monday, August 11, 2008

silver summit

"...Silver Summit is a Brooklyn-based song-writing partnership between longtime friends and multi-instrumentalists, Sondra Sun-Odeon & David Shawn Bosler. they combine their love for folk music of the world with contemporary melancholic and psychedelic sounds. Much like the haunting and ethereal album closer "The Bridge," Silver Summit's earnest and captivating self-titled record bridges unexpected musical realms of light and darkness, and yet the effect is at once, dark, joyous and hopeful. " neufutur
"...Hazy, smoky, and macabre, the record's mellifluous vocal harmonies and meandering multi-ethnic instrumentation paint mental portraits of foggy Victorian streets, gypsy caravans, and Baghdad bazaars with effortless execution." naturalismo
foto: molly see

Friday, August 01, 2008

dredd foole

"For over 30 years troubadour wailer Dan Ireton, aka Dredd Foole, has called upon the spirit of 78 shellac blues n' psychedelic Stooges n' Velvets to fuel his guttural, pure soul ethos of the song. Whether solo or leading mass, Foole hints at the classic forms of Blood On The Tracks and the celestial fug of Sun Ra's third-eye vision to create an approach untraveled yet increasingly influential (see: Six Organs of Admittance, Sunburned Hand of the Man).

Produced in multi-dimensional spectrasound by Matt Valentine, Kissing The Contemporary Bliss spans 50 miles of elbow room and kicks up the most outward bound and staggering approaches to Gus Cannon's "Walk Right In" and Robert Johnson's "Stones In My Passway" while offering ear-popping originals colored by Erika Elder's jug blowin' and Coot Moon's ecstatic, reverb dosed banjo. You'll hear nothing like this in 2008 or beyond.." family vineyard

 cd1 & cd2

microblind harvestmen

"...Microblind Harvestmen are Robert Horton and Hal Huges. Microblind Harvestmen are the rare creature, like those only found in a few places in nature, that manages to avoid simple classification. This is drone. This is raga. This is bluegrass. This is folk. This is free-jazz. This is pure, covered-in-dirt, dancing-in-the-rain psychedelia. The death bottom slide is a riveting world, finally unleashed after years in the barren wilderness." digitalis

foto: soƒia

Thursday, July 24, 2008

the blithe sons

"cuando grabamos en la naturaleza, la música se impregna de su sonido, el viento, el espacio acústico, los cuervos siempre presentes, el sonido del mar en la distancia... pero además, perderse en el medio de un bosque es una lección de humildad. me intimida, y creo que influye en mi forma de tocar." Glenn Donaldson

"...‘Waves of Grass’ sí puede darnos una idea de la dirección que las bandas del colectivo Jewelled Antler comenzaban a tomar en sus inicios. Temas como ‘Summer Blazes’ y ‘Tree-Lined Road’ dejan ver la religiosidad y belleza que estos músicos extraían de su comunión con la naturaleza." ruido horrible

"Recorded this past spring in the open air of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, Waves of Grass is the second release from The Blithe Sons, an offshoot of the improv-drone ensemble Thuja, featuring Loren Chasse and Glenn Donaldson. this work finds Chasse and Donaldson performing their semi-improvised songs for harmonium drones and gently sad guitar strum for a indifferent audience of grass, insects, and birds in the Park. These extended droning passages occasionally arppegiate into simple melodies and are often interjected by the cackle of a crow or the buzz of a marauding fly. aquarius

Sunday, July 13, 2008

beggin' your pardon miss joan / luminous craft

beggin' your pardon miss joan - dear nautilus (reverb worship, 2008)

"We are an amorphous group, psychonauts who began recording in December 2007. Our music is determined by our surroundings, sometimes quiet, sometimes not so quiet. We thrive off fuzz, harmonies and repetition. If you dig on what we do, jump in, come join us."

no tengo ni la menor idea de cómo hacer una crítica de esto. podría decir que todas las canciones ponen los pelos de punta, pero eso aunque no lo sepan lo podrán imaginar. si les digo ahora que todos estamos incompletos, que a todos nos falta algo me dirán que ya lo sabían. seguro que si les digo que la felicidad como meta no existe, que es un ir y no un llegar, también me dirán que lo sabían. si les digo que yo tampoco sé qué sucedió el día en el que me vine a este lado de las cosas, bueno en realidad si lo sé pero sería extremadamente difícil vestirlo con palabras, asentirán con la cabeza. el caso es que un día apareces aquí, irreversiblemente lejos de todo, más que perdido diría que encontrado aunque sin poder precisar que mecanismo activó vete tu a saber qué palanca y volteó las cosas envolviéndolas con un manto del que es imposible desprenderse. cuando era pequeño, más bien cuando tenía licencia para serlo, en clase un profesor solía decirnos que nunca explicásemos las cosas empezando por un "es como..." pero es como si aquello no hubiera existido nunca. cada vez cuesta más creer las cosas como son en sí, es más fácil el es como porque todo recuerda a todo y ahora hay pocas sorpresas. a veces recuerdo el otro lado de las cosas como un entreno que no sirvió para nada, nadie nos avisó de que llegaría un día diferente a los demás y que nada volvería a ser igual. a veces también pienso que mis padres debieron avisarme pero al mismo tiempo que lo pienso los excuso porque ellos no tenían ni idea, ¿cómo iban a saberlo?...

luminous craft - 4 jar ep (pirate and cowboy, 2007)

...las cosas ahora viven en un "es como" perpetuo porque es difícil precisarlas, masticarlas o desmenuzarlas, es como lo que pasa con la fotografía, quiero creer que las fotografías le eligen a uno y no uno a ellas, hay quién las busca y hay a quién lo buscan. las cosas pasan, te buscan y aunque las despistes te encuentran. no sé porque digo todo esto, o sí porque un día nos entendíamos hablándolo lex, dominick y servidor, a lo mejor ustedes también lo sabían. el caso es que ana dijo que me regalaba la sudadera más bonita del mundo a cambio de las críticas de beggin' your pardon miss joan y de luminous craft, yo le dije que ya no tengo palabras, es como si las hubiera gastado todas, ella dice que es normal y yo ya no sé qué decir, es como si nada tuviera sentido, le digo que todo esto sobra, ya no es necesario. por eso es mejor subir los discos enteros y dejar que los curiosos decoren la música con sus sensaciones. si les digo que "dear nautilus" es el mejor disco del año me dirán que no lo sabían, si les digo que a "luminous craft" le sucede los mismo me creerán o no, lo que es muy probable es que si les digo que no subiremos ninguno de estos discos porque son de los que merece la pena comprar, me mandarán a freír espárragos y yo les haré caso, porque los espárragos trigueros con tofu, patata cortada en taquitos, un poco de jengibre y salsa de soja están muy ricos, aunque eso a lo mejor no lo sabían. o sí, ojalá.

beggin' your pardon miss joan - red dusk

luminous craft - song for nana

Saturday, July 12, 2008

kemialliset ystävät

"Kemialliset Ystävät (based in Tampere, Finland) is the drunken bird's dream, the mouldy instrument, the song of half past four am joy, people bathing in fairy's pee and releasing the enchanting sound and the tantalising sound. They have been active movers in the Finnish underground for over a decade now, slowly building their own castle of sound. Someone wrote that is was like "landscapes glimpsed from a train: marching band melodies scored for duck calls and bells, huge fields of teleporting percussion, accordion-led music box refrains and heartbreaking almost-songs carried on tides of wordless vocals". With members coming and going, the music of Kemialliset Ystävät is always moving to new and unknown territories.
Harmaa Laguuni feature performances from quite a few of our favorite Finnish noisemakers, including members of Avarus, Kiila and Es. Also - Tom & Christina Carter of Charalambides guest! All exclusive tracks, this was released for Kemialliset Ystävät's 2008 usa tour. Limited tour-only release...and not available in stores! Eat up. Fast." secret eye

Thursday, July 10, 2008

we in a "field"

 

01. heat & birds ~ field recording
02. song to laughter, tree at dusk ~ the child readers
03. sleeper under a tree ~ the birdtree
04. imi the king ~ steve gunn
05. buck dancer' choice ~ jack rose, dr. ragtime & pals
06. crossing the james ~ black twig pickers
07. that was then, this is now ~ my two toms
08. lift him up, that's all ~ washington phillips
09. ghost light ~ barrett lindgren
10. loudest void ~ cartoon monster
11. robin & beth ~ hezekiah jones
12. coal or smoke ~ joshua marcus
13. sasquatch ~ beggin' your pardon miss joan
14. dogwood tree ~ luminous craft
15. nothing elegant ~ tender buttons
16. a long time ago ~ the cherry blossoms
17. amazing grace ~ wild gunmen
18. after death ~ the ray pacino ensemble
19. things in the ground ~ mont smokey
20. collapse into the sweet grass the north sea
21. waves of grass ~ the blithe sons

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

pocahaunted

"The hardest working ladies in show business are back! Pocahaunted offer up two side long siren excursions into the otherworldy plains. On "One Another" our enchanted twosome ride a cindering tapestry of guitar string propelled by other-worldly beats of oblivion. And "Sister Calypso".. a hauting ode to the lovestruck daughter of Atlas or uncanny caribbean sea breeze lullabye that transmogrifies into full blown tropical thunder? Who can say? This dynamic duo is on a roll! Likes: Billy Joel, cuss words, candy corn, diamonds and furs, psychic connections, african percussion, and kombucha. Dislikes: flat tires, the ocean, and silent movies. Extra skronk and skree provided by Andy Spore and Bobb Bruno. Label art by B&A. Beautiful full color covers with artwork by Olga Balema." weird forest

Sunday, June 29, 2008

david a. jaycock

"new solo outing from big eyes family players' david a. jaycock. named after a hitchcock-esque nightmare in which he was set upon by a pair of hard-winged, marauding cuckoos, david a jaycock's second album is step forward from the pastoral motifs of his debut, incorporating an expansive country-folk sound alongside the indigenous qualities and general oddness that have made his name. taking inspiration from players such as segovia and john fahey, there are drones, waltzes, dirges, sea shanties, dissonances, bells, european flavours and the sound of ghostly train journeys. “Some longer songs, some shorter songs, some singing songs”, explains David, “sinister fairground melodies, Spanish preludes, improvised laments…" woven wheat whispers

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

james blackshaw

james blackshaw - litany of echoes (tompkins square 2008)
"...Litany of Echoes, James Blackshaw's sixth studio album in five years, shows a more mature, focused and, on the whole, accessible approach to composition. While the album often feels darker and more introspective in nature than on previous releases, many of the songs have a huge-sounding, classical quality to them. With Blackshaw adding some glistening piano work for the first time and Fran Bury returning to play swarms of sweeping string parts for violin and viola, Litany of Echoes is a truly original, affecting and timeless album from a guitarist/composer coming into his own." tompkins square

Sunday, June 22, 2008

fantastic magic

"For anyone who missed out the first time around, or those looking for a higher fidelity version of this release... "Take a magical trip on a pegasus through a field of lsd. Flowers harmonize and dance among young wizards at the festival of the equinox.", stated a mystical nypmh as he sat perched apon a toadstool, shanai in hand. These thoughts come to mind as a neo-psychedelic journey begins through a field of emerald green grass and a multicolored sky that is Fantastic Magic. Pull up a woven floor mat and enjoy the fruits of the earth as you delve into three young wizards journey through the island forest." orion ferguson