microphones in the trees

Monday, August 09, 2010

lower dens

"Swarming guitar fuzz, bass waves, insistent drum throbs and Jana Hunter's redolent, charred voice are the core components of Baltimore's Lower Dens. Hunter, sometimes known for intimate, ghost-heavy weird-fi, now writes and plays with a group that might get filed under new wave, or drone pop, or post-punk. With due deference to her solo work, we're very glad..." gnomosong

foto: old chum

jana hunter meets electrelane (two cocks!)

Friday, August 06, 2010

beggin' your pardon miss joan

"Edges will be the first widely available release by Beggin' Your Pardon Miss Joan, and is a collection of several old songs from previous highly limited releases on Centre of the Wood, Dead Pilot and Reverb Worship, plus 5 new tracks. The project is from the minds of Lex and Vanessa Panayi, Lex some of you may recognise as he also plays under the name of Guanaco±, who earlier this year had the Sky Burials LP released on BR. On this 9 track cd there are moments comparable to some of the material on the aforementioned LP, but at times it has a more singer-songwriter sound with more vocals, as well as merging autumnal psychedelic vocal excursions and traditional folk guitar meanderings. A really gorgeous collection of songs." blackest rainbow

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Mark Borthwick

"Dazed & Confused: Music is a big touchstone in your work. You’ve collaborated with musicians and make your own music. How does making music and making art linked with each other?
Mark Borthwick: It all comes together pretty much as one. Initially it was just a sweet pastime that you do at home. Cooking is one of my favourite things and my wife would say, “You should do it in a gallery!” I was invited to the art fair in Cologne and I lived in the space every day and people would drop by and say hi, and I would cook dinners. I brought my guitar along and didn’t intend to start performing but I did.
Me and my friend, Hisham (Baroocha from Black Dice) started making music as Usun. We haven’t released anything yet. We played this summer with The Boredoms and we may release something this year. I don’t think I’ve ever pursued something as a professional career, I like the amateur side. Not only has it become one thing but I think it’s become a bit like my photography – very communal and collaborative. It is about bringing people together. By creating these communal evenings where we’re cooking and playing music, it’s on a very small scale which is just how I like it. Because then it’s just like doing it at home."
free to download here

Friday, July 30, 2010

topaz rags

"West Coast ghost squad Topaz Rags stalk back into the deadlights, ...recorded in the heart of winter in a room with one blue light bulb, “The Crown Center” is pure nightprowler music: quaking bass, grime-jazz keys, dusty drums, witch choirs floating through the smog and into sleeping homes with the power lines cut. The sound of crime to come. The flip (“You Go On”) slips deeper into the psych-psycho psyche, a bleached-brain riff-rhythm grinding away endlessly while voices and electric piano stabs arc across the stereo field, raining ash. A grimmer twist on the Topaz formula, the dreamer’s dream turned dark." not not fun

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

on

"Something That Has Form And Something That Does Not is the third album from Sylvain Chauveau and Steven Hess under their On moniker, and continues their excavation of abstracted experimental sounds. As with the previous records, improvisations were recorded in a studio in Chicago and then handed to a guest musician to rework in whichever way they saw fit, and this time around the guest musician is none other than experimental pioneer Christian Fennesz. Christian’s association with the band goes way back – he performed with them in 2004 as a trio so it seemed almost inevitable that a collaboration would emerge at some point, but this treatment truly takes the notion of collaboration to another place entirely. When we close on the blissful near 20-minute ‘The Sound Of White’, echoes of Fennesz’s best work drifts through the crackle and pulse of Sylvain Chauveau’s prepared guitar and Hess’s distant percussion. These hypnotic patterns slowly rise and fall, giving the listener time to truly hear each subtle shift." type

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

second family band

"Humming and wheezing through 40+ minutes of electro-acoustic tension and release, with the usual mood swings from good vibes to hysteria, the Second Family Band is the still-raging avatar of our lonely local folkspirit....This cassette contains six choice excerpts from two sessions given near the end of summer, 2009. The first session was a huge family gathering at the newly installed Harvest Abbey in Madison. The second session was a beautiful performance by a trio of elders within St Mary's of the Oaks, a 154 year-old Marian altar built on a hilltop in the forest around Indian Lake. Loads of percussion, singing, plucking, pounding, tapping, dropping, alien choirs, bass grooves, naked ladies, strange fidelities, chanting, praying, drinking, strumming, smoking, ringing, clapping, bowing, pulsing, losing, forgetting, and finding everything in every type of mood from the sinister to the blissful. Yet, one local cynic described the music on this tape as sounding "too good for Second Family Band". Whatever the case may be, Brave Mysteries is proud to release this document of a momentary glance into the native spirit and biodynamic soundscape of central Wisconsin, in hopes to keep these gentle old family flames burning for yet another season." brave mysteries

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

big blood

"...dead songs is as sorrowful & joyful in its mirrored symmetry as the infinite life cycle itself, flowing on cleansing waves of inner release & spirit absorption… wailing fuzzed-up garage folk anthems mesh into twisted poetic acidfolk and drift to expansive melancholic meditations of boundless depth. two voices howl, swoon, alternate & join, lyrical layers peel away endlessly, tiny amps weep in pain, crude percussion booms thunderous, and ragged, beautiful hooks unfurl straight out of the void" time~lag

foto: old chum

la vampires & zola jesus

"...overflowing with damaged dub and desert ghost vocals, the ideal soundtrack for a summer spent melting in the heat on the porch" omg vynil

"La Vampires is the latest project from the equally prolific Amanda Brown, who doubles as an active member of Pocahaunted, & the seductive charm of nu-goth singer Zola Jesus. The duo have combined styles for some new haunted melodies, rumbles into motion with those familiarly smudged out, indecipherable vocals and evaporating drum machines but there's a heavy bass groove and some ghoulish melodic developments set to balance out any of the more noxiously no-fi elements" boomkat

foto: nequest

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

big blood

"Caleb Mulkerin & Colleen Kinsella (Cerberus Shoal, Fire on Fire) have slowly been filling the Big Blood book for a while now and this is definitely the year to kick it off big. This tape finds them in a different space than most of their previous releases, going toward strange short form clattering instrumental pieces and increasingly off-kilter acoustic grooves. The string bass chugs through while the trainwhistle melodies photograph the whole scene just to pump it back out of the scratchy guitar. Don't you fret though, the beautiful Big Blood vocal harmonies are all still there underneath the dust and as strong as ever. Wood block boogies in tribute to the Viking of Sixth Ave: Moondog. In a special edition of 25 in sewn pouches with three inserts (two by the artists), and a 16 page full-color book of artwork from Colleen with glow-in-the-dark silk-screened inside-and-out cloth covers and sewn spines. Only available direct from Cabin Floor." cabin floor esoterica

foto via old chum

Sunday, July 04, 2010

lost

anteayer vi el último capítulo de lost y aunque no pretendo revelar nada más allá de mi opinión, seguramente equivocada, si no has visto aún la serie mejor no sigas leyendo.

lo que más me ha chocado han sido los constantes mensajes que llegaban antes de ver la última temporada alertando de un final lejano a las expectativas, el denominador común de esos mensajes aludía a la peor elección posible, por parte de los guionistas, dentro de las múltiples salidas factibles. tras ver el final no entiendo la desilusión, de hecho no encuentro respuesta a la pregunta ¿qué otras opciones había?. pero bueno, debo dejar claro que por ejemplo el final de la segunda temporada de carnivale me valió como final de serie a pesar de la ensalada de interrogantes sin resolver.

antes de seguir también debería reconocer que en lost siempre he buscado paralelismos con la vida, con mi vida, con la necesidad de resolver, a través de una serie, muchas de las interrogantes que pululan dentro de mi cabeza. de ahí que me haya parecido una serie tremenda, definitivamente distinta, no sé si la mejor (pienso en a dos metros bajo tierra) y que le perdone todo como a una madre.

lost no pretende revelar el de dónde venimos o a dónde vamos. la felicidad es ir, no llegar. desengáñate rafa, eso no lo iba a resolver una serie de televisión, lo que sí ha hecho esta serie es darnos pistas del quiénes somos, o mejor dicho, del cómo estamos. y eso nos lo han dejado claro al principio y al final de cada capítulo a través de un telón negro, de la propia palabra "perdidos" y de una música inquietante, porque ante esas preguntas no cabe otra respuesta que la inquietud. el valor añadido de la serie, más allá de las subtramas, es demostrar que incluso la mentalidad más hermética, hablando de razonamientos científicos, puede aceptar que el conocimiento empírico, aun no siendo tangible, es igualmente referente. y la serie sí ha conseguido que esa evolución resultase tangible gracias a jack, el eje de la serie. porque lost parte de un posicionamiento de ciencia ficción pero es más una serie de personajes y en concreto de uno, jack, algo que ha quedado claro desde la primera escena del primer capítulo hasta la última, con un abrir y cerrar de ojos tremendamente explícito. jack es el viaje iniciático que todos recorremos, con mayor o menor suerte, desde que nacemos hasta que morimos. por lo tanto preguntarse ¿qué es la isla?, ¿qué significan los números?, ¿qué pasa con la iniciativa dharma? ¿y la estatua?, ¿y walt? etc... creo no tiene sentido alguno, la isla es un escenario, la isla y todo lo que la rodea es attrezzo. lo importante es la evolución de los personajes y ahí todas, o casi todas, las interrogantes se despejan. como mucho puedo aceptar que la isla es otro personaje más, un ente que, como tal, es y será siempre enigmático.

en cuanto al final en sí, también debería confesar que me he venido a pasar el día a las islas cíes, nada mejor que venirse solo al punto más alto de estas islas para hablar de la isla. estando aquí he recordado algo que me dijeron hace muuuuuchos años ante un ataque de ansiedad que sufrí tras un mal viaje, quería morir, deseaba morir y despertar, “rafa no quieras morir porque ya estás muerto”, esto dicho así suena a conversación de algún personaje chamánico de carlos castaneda y a que estoy como una regadera, lo asumo, pero es algo que me hizo pensar mucho. de hecho cuando hace tres años akron/family publicó love is simple no pude más que esbozar una mueca cómplice al oír por primera vez "don't be afraid, you're already dead". hablo de mueca porque hace tiempo que estoy convencido de que todos estamos muertos, que el cielo o el infierno son sólo estados mentales, que esta vida que vivimos no es otra cosa que un purgatorio, es aquí donde tenemos la oportunidad de redimirnos o condenarnos, pero las buenas noticias es que en este ahora las cosas sólo dependen de nosotros, que aquí no hay más humo negro que nuestro miedo, y que la resistencia a los campos electromagnéticos podemos trabajarla sabiendo que somos el imán de nuestras circunstancias, con nuestros temores sí, pero también con nuestros deseos. y que el sentido de la vida lo marca todo aquello que da vueltas en nuestra cabeza y corazón, el esfuerzo que empleamos en soltar los lastres que nos aprisionan y el esfuerzo también por satisfacer nuestros anhelos, porque esta vida en la que haces la compra, pagas impuestos, vives solo o en pareja, madrugas o no para ir a trabajar, escuchas o no a mountain man es sólo parte de un camino que hasta que físicamente desaparezcas no podrás saber a dónde lleva. de ahí que el final de lost a mi me colmase por completo.

¿alguna conclusión? mmmmm la mía es sencilla; sé y confirmo que hay otra, o más vidas, por lo tanto en ésta seguiré cuestionando mis límites, el umbral de mis temores, seguiré disfrutando de las pequeñas o grandes cosas que me rodean y procuraré ir atando cabos sueltos. lo sé, lo sé, menuda conclusión de escotilla, perdón, de pacotilla. peeero, ¿y si fuera verdad?. uh.

Thursday, July 01, 2010

high wolf

"excellent french loop/keyboard/psychedelic exotica outfit that projects post-Vibracathedral Orchestra/Astral Social Club styled trance into the future on waves of spectral technicolour. Ascension feels more haunted than previous High Wolf releases, with deep strata of subtly obscured melodies wheeling beneath fuzz, shaker percussion and glorious vertical take-offs. Psychoactive electro-minimalism with a heavy devotional atmosphere. Hypnotic/melodic palm tree tronics sculpted into jangly rhythmic pop fogs" volcanic tongue

foto: ntmtk

meeting of the three seas, solar system is my god, ...siempre favoritos

Sunday, June 27, 2010

mike tamburo


"You must LISTEN. You must listen through the noise. You must listen through the chaos. If this song is yours then it is in your heart. You must play from your heart, listen from your heart. Then you will hear your music. It will play through you and you will not miss a note. What is going on outside does not matter. What matters is that you can be in this moment, that you can be truly with yourself and not out there. To be a great at anything, you must be able to listen. Beyond that, you must always find a pleasure in listening. You are not here to please this crowd. You are here to play through this chaos and please yourself and through this you shall attain an infinite awareness of the present. " SAYAS


somos un híbrido de universos y la música nos desdobla en el latente aquí*

fotola: árbore

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

mv & ee

"a collection of massively dosed studio recordings, Liberty Rose opens with beams of elegiac solo guitar before dropping into a classic slow-burning jag with puffs of echo/delay damaged vocals melting into hallucinatory afterimages while Erika slides quicksilver runs all the way down your spine. “Crow Jane Environs” has a deep desert feel that could almost be Mu if it wasn’t for Erika’s oracular vocals and Matt Valentine’s post-Takayanagi soloing. The stark, stripped down version of “Death Is My Friend” features a stunning/chilling vocal performance from Erika and Doc Dunn joins the duo for the last two tracks, with “Out In Space” as dazed and lonely as anything on Skip Spence’s Oar and “Streams” featuring clouds of lucid unison vocals that you could disappear inside. Dedicated to Dr Ragtime. Highly recommended." volcanic tongue

Friday, June 18, 2010

two-lane blacktop


Porque es la más auténtica road movie americana de todos los tiempos.
Porque es como una película para ver en el autocine dirigida por un autor francés de la Nouvelle Vague.
Porque lo único que puede entrometerse entre un chico y su obsesión por los coches es una chica, y Laurie Bird desarma perfectamente la unidad entre el Conductor, el Mecánico y su coche.
Porque Dennis Wilson lleva a cabo la mejor interpretación de un conductor jamás hecha.
Porque James Taylor parece un refugiado salido de una película de Robert Bresson.
Porque una vez un Dios llamado Warren Oates caminó sobre la Tierra.
Porque hay una prolongada controversia sobre quién lleva realmente las riendas en esta película. Hay diferentes posiciones. Algunos dicen que es el Chevy modelo ´55; otros, el Gto.
Porque tiene el final más puramente cinematográfico de la historia del cine.
Porque es como un western. Los tipos son como los viejos cowboys, listos para vencer al pistolero más rápido del pueblo. No hablan de viejos esplendores, más bien de viejos coches que tuvieron.
Porque Warren Oates tiene un suéter de cashimira diferente para cada ocasión. Y, por supuesto, un minibar en el maletero.


Porque al contrario de otras películas de la época, con una alienación preestablecida de la cultura de la droga y de quienes protestan contra la guerra, la película se ocupa de la alienación de todos los demás, como America Comes Alive, de Robert Frank.
Porque Warren Oates, como gto, pide una hamburguesa y un Alka Seltzer y dice cosas como “Todo está yendo muy rápido y no lo suficientemente rápido”.
Porque es la última película de los 60, aún siendo de 1971, y a la vez la primera de los 70. Ya saben, la época de las películas estilo “¿Cómo demonios pudieron hacer una película así en un estudio?/ Hollywood nunca haría eso hoy”.
Porque nunca sonaron mejor los motores en una película.
Porque estos dos jóvenes en su viaje a ningún lugar en realidad no saben hablar. El Conductor no conversa cuando está al volante, y el Mecánico no habla cuando está arreglando el coche. Así que se trata de una experiencia sobre todo visual, atmosférica. Verla correctamente implica ser absorbido por ella.
Y, lo más importante, porque Two-Lane Blacktop se mantiene fiel a sí misma hasta el final. Y eso es algo raro en el cine; una película completamente honesta.

Monday, June 14, 2010

moonwood


"70 mins. Limited edition of 25. Lino block printed and hand-stamped discs. Fuzz and feedback blend with free-jazz, post-rock, delicate acoustic guitar, mantra-like vocals and ethnic rhythms as acid-folk guitarist Moonwood (also of New Yaki and Babel) collaborates with friends, lovers and strangers. Guests include Andrew MacGregor (Gown/The Bark Haze/New Yaki), Stephen Wolf (Summer Amp/New Yaki/Partli Cloudi) and Ameen (Healthy Animal) plus others." jakob rehlinger


fotola: TIOM

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Thursday, June 10, 2010

the magic carpathians

the magic carpathians • acousmatic psychogeography [world flag records, 2010]

"The new Magic Carpathians album is finally out on our own World Flag Records. Somehow it means coming back to our roots, since the Magic Carpathians Project first album, "ethnocore" (1999), was self-released as well. "Acousmatic Psychogeography" is the outcome of almost fully improvised session we have recorded back in 2008 (I mentioned it here already I guess) - we've had immense pleasure to share the space with Eric Arn and Andrzej Widota. Without their creative contribution the outcome would be entirely different I guess and we think this album is our common effort. Staying for two days at the mountain lodge (where all the studio equipment has been provided by extremely skillful and entrepreneurial Piotr Pietrzak of NS Studio) and playing for almost 48 hours with just a few moments of short sleep definitely was one of the most beautiful ways to celebrate: in 2008 the Magic Carpathians Project hit the 10th anniversary and were really surprised to realize it. Ten years flashed like one short moment, the only thing that reminded us about time passing by was the memories of how many wonderful people we have met on the way and these are global connections for the most part." the magic carpathians


foto: hui+

Monday, June 07, 2010

keijo

"The Finnish free folk elder statesman Keijo Virtanen is back with another album in his vast discography. However, this work is titled "First Time". The album follows his recent output of his own very open approach to blues. But no W. Guthrie covers here, only Keijo's own pieces, with help from friends on two tracks. This is where free folk meets blues in the most beautiful and stunning way. Cardboard sleeve with photocopied collage pieces, hand-stamped cdrs. 100 copies." full of nothing

foto: vamitos

at night, at night, at night....