microphones in the trees: December 2008

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

sun watcher

"First release from new Ohio duo of Shane Mackenzie (Lambsbread, Dead Wafer, etc) and Mark McGuire (Emeralds). Pulled from multiple sessions throughout 2008, "Two and a half men" stretches from buzzing organ and guitar drones to full on out-of-tune out-of-time free rock explosions. Much more to come from this duo, including a self-released lp and Albert Ayler tribute 7". Full color art. Edition of 75." wagon

Monday, December 29, 2008

of

"Loren Chasse is responsible for a whole host of vital albums. He was a founding member of the Jewelled Antler label and has sparked so many great moments from the likes of Thuja, The Blithe Sons, Softwar, and of course his main solo guise, Of. For years this project has evolved into something of absolute magical grandeur. "Rocks Will Open" is the latest opus in Chasse's catalog. The music on this album is as organic as it gets. Each tone, each sound feels like it has been culled directly from the Earth's crust. Gentle drones arc toward the hazy sunlight, flickering like distant birds sailing out over the sea. Between the ghostly echoes rises a cacacphony of plucked strings dancing toward oblivion. Loren Chasse's vision is perfectly expressed on "Rocks Will Open." digitalis

foto: jon edwards

six organs of admittance

six organs of admittance - rtz (drag city 2009)

"There might be Six Organs of Admittance, but there will be two discs or three vinyl LPs in the new collection from Ben Chasny, named RTZ after the four-track button called "return-to-zero." (Somewhere, the number five is lonely.)
The box set will include early recordings from splits ("Resurrection" with the Charlambadies and "Warm Earth, Which I've Been Told" with Vibracathedral Orchestra and Magic Carpithans), subscription cds ("You Can Always See the Sun" from Three Lobed Recordings) and limited editions ("Nightly Trembling" appeared on a 33-copy run), plus previously unreleased material and half a dozen Six Organs live performances which are apparently impossible to find anywhere else." paste

más cosas sobre rtz en naturalismo

Sunday, December 28, 2008

mv & ee with the golden road

"Drone Trailer is a consolidation of the previous musical high-life of the duo's space shanties for the 21st century. In other words, mv & ee explore their unique mix of lunar raga and astral string band music, with a couple deep-space burners/covert jams such as opening blast "Anyway" thrown in to bust it all open. Nobody is gonna mind if they hear a little Crazy Horse and Neil Young" midheaven
"Creating a new rural psychedelia mv & ee alternate extended guitar freakouts with more pastoral, folky tunes. Highlights include "Weatherhead Hollow" and the hypnotic title track."
¿es the hungry stones la canción más bonita del mundo?

Saturday, December 27, 2008

mv & ee

"Recorded at Sheffield's Heeley Institute in 2006, this lp by Matt Valentine & Erika Elder finds the prolific duo stripped to barest most essential selves. There's no heavy fuzz or psychedelic chicanery on this lp, just supremely eloquent acoustic blues and some magnificently bizarre and off-kilter slide guitar. The seven songs collected here show that for all their perceived otherness and tendencies toward fuzztone digressions, or twenty-minute rehearsal room experiments, mv & ee are highly gifted musicians, and Valentine's fingerpicking is as sensitive, articulate, and for that matter proficient, as they come. Playing through songs that proven to be live staples this surely stands as one of the very best recordings of the duo's music from this time and one of the purest, cleanest documents of their unique sound..." boomkat

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

beggin' your pardon miss joan



"Hey,
So we have decided to launch a blog to keep up to date with all things related and what better way to start than with some good news...
We are currently finalising a 3" release with Centre Of Wood, and this record has been a long time coming. Excitement abounds within the Beggin' Your pardon Miss Joan camp and Vanessa has really pulled out some stunning artwork (which we will try and post soon)
As an intro to the blog I have made one of the new tracks from the forthcoming e.p available for download. You can get the track, which is called 'Vacuum' by clicking the link at the bottom of the post. I hope you dig!" beggin' your pardon miss joan

foto: lin5

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

antique brothers

antique brothers - hot shit (really coastal 2008)

'Hot Shit' is two long form tracks, charting the development of AntiqueBrothers from insular, tape-scuzz-coated two-piece to the current phase of the Antique Brothers big band, which saw it's birthing at the Bottled Smoke festival, our November Reign tour with Sleepwalkers Local, Stone Baby, Century Plants, and Rafi Bookstaber; and at this years Neon Commune (organized by Echo Curio and Not Not Fun).
Two Songs, Two Sides, 40 odd minutes...
Hot Side: Mostly acoustic, with heavy percussion, lap steel drones and tiny-amp feedback, a good bridge between the original Antique Bros. sound and what we are up to today
Shit Side: Vibing on a very expansive mood, blown out on painkillers and muscle relaxants, and, oddly enough, feeling jazzy.
available on pro-dubbed cassette with pro-printed j-card, this baby screams professionalism! on the hot new imprint Really Coastal." antique brothers
foto: c0rnporn

Monday, December 22, 2008

these feathers have plumes

"These Feather Have Plumes have created one of the most memorable and intoxicating drone-based recordings that I have experienced in quite some time. Employing primarily double bass coupled with subtly manipulate and looped field recordings, the compositions drift languidly across the aural spectrum like ghostly tendrils of fog and smoke over a moonlit harbor..." period tapes
miembros del grupo: andie brown ~ bass, double bass, accordion, melodica, guitar (badly), wine glasses, harmonica, mobile phone, breathing, humming, found sound
influencias: the sea, skylarks, bells, trees, books, wine, the barbara hepworth sculpture garden, friends, family, cindytalk (and specifically, The Wind is Strong)

Sunday, December 21, 2008

ghost science

01 sixth - spyweirdos
02 the stones speak through the fire - barn owl
03 sometimes the night... - barzin
04 blood streaming (entry III) - the end springs
05 wizard earthsea - fantastic magic
06 kind mighty asylum - kria brekkan
07 yert yah matreearchy - stag hare
08 ghost science - teeth mountain
09 golden twigs - tunnels
10 habibullah - suarasama
11 heather - shoreline
12 shake that devil - antony & the johnsons
13 love is everywhere - valerio cosi
14 equus haar - spires that in the sunset rise
15 spiral wave - chieko mori
16 as through a book - evan miller
17 above lewis pass - peter wright
18 hemlock lc gd gb - thuja

foto & recopilatorio: hoy joy

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

mv & ee

"The contents of LP Ragas Of The Culvert from MV & EE were previously released on cd-r (on their own label Heroine Celestial Agriculture, less then 50 copies were made) and on tape (called "The Ground Ain't Dirty" on Fuck It Tapes) with an additional track omitted on lp. Preordered copies of this release came with a bonus cd called Total Loss Songs of songs recorded late 2007 and early 2008. The cd has its own folded coversheet and comes in a vellum jacket. The lp is pressed in an edition of a total of 840 copies on 180gr HQ-vinyl in an "old style" stoughton lp sleeve. The lp/cd preorder combo was limited to 480 copies. Both media were recorded at Maximum Arousal Farm, produced in "MV Spectrasound." discogs

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

cursillistas

"thee seven storey mountain, May 2008. Edition of 30 cd'rs in sewn, Spirographed sleeves, with typewritten insert on graph paper. Available only at Cursillistas shows..."
"Matt Lajoie, mastermind behind Portland, Maine’s L’animaux Tryst label, returns as Cursillistas and delves deeper into folk’s freakish heart, tribal beats, echo chambers, and chugging rhythms..." electric voice phenomenon

arrebatadoramente bonito, con una atmósfera similar a los discos de matt valentine & erika elder, al primero de panda bear, a trees, chants and hollers de valerie webb & paul labrecque,...

Monday, December 08, 2008

aan meets eyes like saucers

aan meets eyes like saucers - kristallivirta (lvd 2008)

"West meets North in this live recording, historic meeting between former Urdog keyboardist (Jeff K.) and Aan (Uton + Kulkija). West meets North and mostly produces music that is either wildly experimental or traditionally psychedelic in that Angus MacLise sort of way. Challenging, weird, and at moments reminiscient of Angus MacLise..." lvd

foto: árbore

Saturday, December 06, 2008

stag hare

"What a bad-ass Stag Hare cd! From the get-go it feels as though I’m being transported into a head-spinning voodoo dance with witch doctors exorcising negative spirits out of my entranced Indian-style seated, immobile body. Pull out the narcotics? Grab the Ouija board? Frolic naked through the forest? The possibilities are endless. Great loops. Tribal beats. Calming voice echoes. Hippy guitar. Harmonica. Tranquil chimes. Flutes and tambourines! Everything seems to be used! It’s like a group of slackers came across an Indian burial ground and got possessed by the spirits residing there—only no nightmare…just the peace-pipe. Hell, the title says it all, “Black Medicine Music”. Nice bi-fold card sleeve. One of the coolest disc designs ever. And I’ve always been a sucker for handwritten liner notes on the inside. Self-released magic. Definitely an anytime album. Stimulate your chakras. 9/10" foxy digitalis

"...as far as comparisons go here, Stag Hare stands strong along side Kranky artists Bird Show or White Rainbow (Adam Forkner actually mastered the album), though he is definitely working at carving out his own nitch. Black Medicine Music is a beautiful, glowing mark on map of Salt Lake City experimental music, even without the incense." forest gospel

przewalski's horses

"Przewalkki's Horses. one week in a former farmhouse, disfigured walls, dead rat in the corner, the great and green valley up front in the morning. a damaged distorsion. maybe the bloody pictures of the hunters on the wall bewildered us? where to go... back to back, on the floor, near the fireplace. one hour in a giant skull on the ground. a nut cracked open. all cardboard walls covered with beautiful tapestries from the past, newspaper from your birthday, and beaches of dream places. the neighbours all destroyed. it rains. slow wind in the wild grass, folk on my lips, weird on the microphone." ikuisuus

foto: violetjulia