microphones in the trees: October 2008

Friday, October 31, 2008

sephiroth's knot

"Jow Jow, also known as Sephiroth's Knot or just Sephiroth is a Free-Improv, Psych Music Collective drawing influence from a broad pallet ranging from Sun Ra to the Godz "Third Wave" with a penchant for the obscure sound or instrument. Contains members of Feathers, Red Favorite & Bunwinkies. Born from nightly imbibing of the magic antler. Feel the Wreath." spirit of orr

foto: kittyanais

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

the moss collector

The Moss Collector es en realidad Matthew Riley: folk espectral de la pradera cuyas influencias van desde David Lynch hasta The Carter Family pasando por el General Stonewall Jackson (suya es la frase que da título al disco). algo así como juntar a Natural Snow Buildings con el Bruce Langhorne atmosférico de The Hired Hand. mil gracias a Matthew por enviarme estas dos preciosidades hechas a mano, exquisito diseño en cartón con una foto antigua original cosida en la portada, distinta para cada una de las 50 copias limitadas, además de otra miniatura lacrada, un 3" cd-r que se titula "Disaster and the Unicorn" y que suena igual de bien que let us cross the river...para comprar a ciegas, por lo bonito por fuera, por lo hipnótico y adictivo ('Maltum in parvo' es preciosa, pero 'I sit upon the lonely grave of the arm of thomas J. Jackson' es de pelos de punta!) por dentro. Matthew también puso su granito de arena en Human Bell.
"hand-stitched, silk screened covers (antique pictures vary) ed. of 50"
"silk screened x-ray covers wraped in special silkscreened packaging, wax stamped and individually numbered ed. of 50"

Sunday, October 26, 2008

pantaleimon

"Andria Degens's voice is sometimes heard as part of Current 93, but here she's collaborating with that altogether more bucolic partnership of Michael Tanner and Nick Palmer (Plinth, Directoround etc), The pieces here were recorded in Dorset and East Sussex, England, during the summer of 2007 and breathe an idyllic air of the summers of our imagination which, in the U.K. at any rate, seldom become reality. A short instrumental called The Warming is the first of four tracks and it features Michael Tanner's vibraphone, almost as a scene-setter to what follows. Dance Of The Honey Bees has wordless vocals, guitar and handclaps and although Sing Night Swallow third on the disc - clearly has words, it is the sound of Degens voice which conveys meaning, rather than lyric content. Here, the harmonium sounds as though it's played through a cyclic Leslie effect, is quite hypnotic and stands as my personal favourite song of the set. On the closing title track (which does have audible words), a most unusual and lovely instrument surfaces. The dulcitone is a bit like a small version of the celeste, where keyboard action strikes tuning forks. Its chiming tones only add to what is already an utterly charming e.p." foxy digitalis
lo bueno si breve, dos veces bueno.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

vinter

"Evanescent psychedelia and haunting post-folk stylings on this beautiful debut record by acid folk band Vinter. Sounds like small steps of a troll-like creature on the thin frozen crust on the snow, with heavy boots and a faulty compass. "dream-like fairy-tale worlds, airy meadows, beautiful gardens and a winter-shrouded sadness ... low-key, folk-like structures blend with strange sounds to form a patchwork of meditative images tainted by an elusive sense of desolation. The fragmentary compositions are held together by an outstanding vocal performance that brings Carin Wagner, as well as Christina Carter (Charalambides, Scorces, etc.), to mind ... In spite of the relatively dark atmosphere their music is characterized by their impressive sense of space and detail." Mats Gustafsson

Recorded on a dark winter afternoon and lovingly packaged in a ribbed paper cover with hand-lettered design. cd-r edition of 200

nashville

Monday, October 20, 2008

attar cups

"We hit up our fourth vinyl release with this beauty which was originally intended to be a cassette only release (it still will be available on cassette, but only in a tiny run). This Maine based crew features a host of psychedelic jam talent... Nemo of Drona Parva and head honcho of Time-Lag Records, Sparrow Wildchild of The Bummer Road, and the three members of Visitations, whose record on Time-Lag last year was one of 2007's best! So this is the second recording from this crew, the first being last years Sloow Tape. This beast is different to the Sloow vibe, still with a super nice jam band sound, but projecting to a maybe more 'song' (in the loosest possible way) based plane, a little like Visitations." blackest rainbow

Thursday, October 16, 2008

landscape vol. I: the forest

"Forestes, the most important influence for "Centre of Wood" label, of every kind and in every part of the world, are a magic place where to get lost and then find our deep relation with the nature. 14 bands from the acoustic, drone, lo-fi and free folk underground called to rappresent through music their relation with these places. The result is this cd-r that contains more than 60 minutes of weird music. The projects and the bands involved are : Tim Coster; Donato Epiro; Nebelung; Vapaa; Chora; Aalto; throuRoof; Eyes like Saucers; The Katie Winter; Belly Boat; Prague; Es; Las Vegas Club; We Wait for the Snow. Listening to this compilation is like getting lost in a immense green forest, walking through its trees, meet the eyes of its creatures...The packaging is composed of a brown and green heavy cardboard, closed with a small branch and a brown cotton thread, with an insert in perfect d.i.y. old style. limited to 120 numbered copies" centre of wood

por y para fans :)

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

antique brothers

"all songs improvised live to 1/4" 8-track tape at home by ged in one day some time in early june, except the last song, which we recorded a couple days later. all instruments played by ged & cy. we used martin, silvertone, burswood, and fender acoustic guitars, memphis and epiphone electric guitars, drums, wooden flute, tambourine, tapes, buddha machine, moogs, pedals (rc-20, delays) chord organ, our voices and whatever else we had around to bang on. mixed by ged, mastered by grant capes."
"...If you go down to these woods, you'll find the bears mellowing out to a warm acoustic stew of Fahey-beholden guitar playing. Antique Brothers "Trail in the Woods" is a smoky swirl of echoed finger-picking that segues into the dense sweat lodge of the mystical "Bear Wedding", while "Kodiak Habitat" has a ray-gun tremolo guitar line that sounds like a signal to visitors from the stars. There's a timeless backwoods folk mood here put into collision with glowing rocketship guitars to create a space-folk as big, furry and fierce as the bears the brothers so clearly adore." wire
foto: colinkenniff

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

wheatie mattiasich

"...that's Wheatie muh-tea-uh-sitch or moddy-ahh-sitch...so they say. I decided I would go on a bit of an adventure through the myspace labyrinth in order to find some good music to write about today. I made a promise to myself that I would not start over. I would start in once place and click and click and click until I found something good. Unfortunately I got stuck, really far deep in the labyrinth. I couldn't find my way out. And I couldn't find any good music. So I broke my promise. But you'll thank me for it. Because I found Wheatie Mattiasich. One of her influences is Mother Goose. She says she sounds like the malarchy of a four year old who thinks she's time travelling. I'd say that's about right. Wheatie Mattiasich also sounds like front porch rocking chairs next to glasses of sweating lemonade and rickity old metal fans blowing the hot air and the magnolia's all around. You can pick up the cd for only $5 or a trade. All you have to do is email her with the subject line: heeba deeba geeba neeba. the body of the message should contain your name and right below something that sort of rhymes with your name" jen
 

Sunday, October 12, 2008

grouper / inca ore

"...Grouper's ethereal vocals and plaintive piano backings bring to mind pictures of slow-motion funerals held in rainy, misty forests. As lovely as it is, it's making me a bit too relaxed to carry on typing so I'll move on to the Inca Ore tracks.. I liked the lp they had out on Weird Forest a few months back and the stuff included here is similarly atmospheric. It's mostly very, very minimal and quite like listening to a sleepy child trying to sing themselves to sleep. Some serious voice worship going on here.." normanrecords
"Eva y yo nos conocimos la primera vez que estuve en Portland. Desde entonces, tocamos y componemos música juntas con algunos amigos. También compartimos casa durante una temporada en Oakland. Llevábamos un tiempo hablando sobre hacer un split juntas. Siempre me gustó mucho su música, y había escuchado sus nuevas canciones, cosas que había grabado ella sola...pensé que sonaba realmente intenso, bonito de verdad. Era una música un tanto extraña sobre estar en un lugar lejano, como en una especie de prueba o viaje del que sacas algo en claro. Mientras grababa mis canciones, recibía sus mails desde México, lugar al que había huido precipitadamente, sin planes ni motivos. Me hablaba de fiebres, de la sensación de sentirse feliz o abandonada en un lugar desconocido. Yo estaba pasando el invierno en Portland, sintiéndome muy sola en una ciudad nueva para mí; era esa clase de soledad que sientes dentro de ti, cuando te encuentras sola incluso estando rodeada de gente." Liz Harris (Grouper)

Saturday, October 11, 2008

jow jow

“Jow Jow is western mass' hidden gang still holding the social music torch, members of Feathers, the Rubby Boys, Supreme Dicks, Red Favorite, Sunburned and more. This is their first release for Yod Tapes.” Yod Tapes

Thursday, October 09, 2008

rosa marrero

la primera vez que vi un dibujo de rosa me dio un vuelco el corazón...había ovnis, columpios, ropa tendida, escaleras, cielos, cipreses, nubes, ovejas, globos, pájaros, ballenas, niñas que levitan, sombreros que vuelan, paraguas que flotan, tejedoras, abrigadoras, equilibristas...y viento, mucho viento!

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

sparkling wide pressure

sparkling wide pressure - touching pasture (students of decay 2008)
"Following a stellar release on the newly minted Digitalis Ltd.imprint, Frank Baugh returns with another collection of cracklybedroom nodout. Baugh's compositional sensibility is rooted in nostalgia, as evidenced by the cover photo (an image of his younger self). Sonically, it's one big fog of garbled radio transmissions, voice and sprawling, Appalachian guitar lines. Wonderful, moving stuff." students of decay

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

pocahaunted

"Originally the vision for Chains was "fucked up Tom Tom Club palm tree pop" (or something) but, as often happens when Manda & Bethany get in the studio with too much smart water and too many wisecracks, shit changed as soon as the 8-track tape started to roll. Oh well. The results are still rad and weird, 4 diverse songs that dance between post-rocky grooves, shoegaze drama, drugged funk, and Fleetwood Mac. The LP also does a good job of capturing what the Pocahaunted live set was like for most of the spring of '08: torrential, dramatic, rhythmic, estrogenic. Bobb Bruno kicked in some serious arrangement assistance, and pro-friend Josh Klinghoffer helped with some sick drum stumbles too. On champagne pale yellow vinyl, in jackets with art by the band. On Cali Dewitt's labor-of-love Teardrops label." nnf

"We’re not dark people, and we’re not spooky. We like to move and be moved; we like to dance and feel rhythmic. This album just reflects that." amanda

vuelven, y con el espíritu de Fleetwood Mac flotando en Oh Woe, un pequeño homenaje a The Chain de Fleetwood Mac (canción de la vida). ¿o lo habré soñado? :)
 

Sunday, October 05, 2008

evening fires

evening fires - figures of earth (digitalis ltd 2008)

"evening fires is a quartet of pennsylvanians, featuring members of clear spots and nessmuk, as well as the brains behind the deep water acres website & label. they're busy guys, but still found the time last summer and fall to crank out a set of backporch jams and slipstream electric boogaloos. they get help on banjo and mandolin on a few tracks, too, beefing up the downhome goodness. what really makes "figures of earth" such a stunning album is the diversity that doesn't take away from the overall flow. kraut-infused songs fit seemlessly next to something reminiscent of the black twigs. they don't fight it out, they just keep it mellow and roll on down the way. using an array of instrumentation from guitars, synths, and drums to saxophone, bodhran, and tabla, you get a lot of mileage out of these 47 minutes. the perfect soundtrack to your summer roadtrip. limited to 73 handnumbered copies." digitalis

beat beat whisper

esos dos de ahí arriba son Ayla & Davyd Nereo, es decir, Beat Beat Whisper, es decir, los responsables de la canción más bonita del mundo ahora mismo:

up the long tracks

Saturday, October 04, 2008

the cosmic mandoliners

"cdr 3" in little recycled paper bag / lim. ed. 50 copies. the Gospel Diaries are Vincent Fribault and Florian Tositti. Centre of Wood is the small sister label of Cold Current production and is dedicated to drone sounds, eerie and weird folk and all music with lo–fi and inmost core. The label excludes a priori releases by factories and large editions. Each packaging is handmade / homemade and is created respecting nature and it is in harmony with it. Centre of Wood is interested and directed to all people that love nature and live respecting animals; emotional music, handmade objects, leaves, stones, polaroid photos, the intimacy of a personal room, analogical instruments, music recorded in a garage or in a room with cheap-unusual-broken-toy- instruments..."

download

"fire documents" (mp3 de "colorn lincorn" ruralfaune 2007)

tan or boil

tan or boil - seamstress in a suitcase (preservation 2008)


"...Tan or Boil are as lo-fi as the recording aesthetic may be, the layers of instrumentation flesh out the recordings in a far from shambolic fashion, revealing a complex, nicely crafted set of arrangements. On 'Surgeon', the singing is oddly unintelligible - plenty loud enough, but the slurred delivery is multitracked into a mesmerising Bon Iver-like polyphonic wail. Also worthy of note: fans of earthy, warm electronics will be pleased to find that Aaron Martin and Part Timer's John McCaffrey both help out on the album, supplying additional instrumentation and electronic shenanigans. Lovely." boomkat


foto: miss bob

*download*

Thursday, October 02, 2008

head of wantastiquet

"head of wantastiquet is the solo project of sunburned hand of the man's paul labrecque. this is the long awaited follow-up to paul's debut cassette release on open mouth. this lp is luscious and layered with psych banjo based pieces spread over 12 tracks. i'd compare it to a cross between daniel higgs and doc boggs with sweet vocals. solo guitar & banjo tapestries, a truly beautiful record which comes in a screenprinted double sided sleeve sleeve in a one time edition of 500." mimaroglu
"head of wantastiquet is paul labrecque, who should be a household name to lovers of transcendental experimental music. labrecque has also released an amazing lp with valerie webb entitled “trees, chants & hollers”, which is constructed from acoustic guitar with vocals, electronics, the sounds of crickets, and the wood-burning stove." subterrarium
paul labrecque, otro disco lleno de tópicos maravillosos: banjos, campos de algodón, árboles y cantos.