microphones in the trees: September 2009

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Monday, September 28, 2009

hush arbors

"when keith played me Yankee Reality I knew it was not only the best hush arbors album, but also that keith’s work had entered an entirely new world bursting with hauntings.
this is a classic, timeless, ageless american album, full of hope and yearning, beauty and melancholy, and which pours out stories like flowers. are these rainbow-at-end-of-the-world songs? or heart’s break/heart’s ease-at-the-end-of-the-road songs? anyway, I thought of horses and acid, death sleeping in a shack, the river bursting its banks and grinning like whisky, the birdlight and fading empires. starry, dreamlike, plaintive, gorgeous and broken, Yankee Reality is a perfect and utterly individual work, endlessly inventive yet instantly recognizable as being in a noble and generous tradition".
foto: keith wood

black eagle child + seasons (pre-din)

black eagle child + seasons (pre-din) • split [self released 2009]

"I've been in touch with the man recording as Seasons (pre-din) for about a year and a half, during which time my mailbox has been periodically flooded with CDs oozing one gorgeous sound upon another, and I've done my best to return mail across the pond. It only seemed natural then for us to try collaborating on a project. The premise of this project is simply for each musician to craft a piece of music no longer than 11 minutes. We then (as we had done so many times already) send our music off to each other for a listen. Upon listening to each other's music, we each created a 'response' track, borrowing themes, motifs, etc. I think the result has amounted to 40 minutes of work that we are both truly proud of.

Two 3" CDRs, each featuring one original track and one corresponding track. Each disc is housed in a translucent paper sleeve, printed with black ink. Both discs are housed in a large poly sleeve with a printed card insert.

Thanks to Seasons for his diligent work on the production of this project." tormentosa

fotola: el nejo

Sunday, September 27, 2009

earth


phankton wat

"all love to the master, dewmah has arrived. dewey mahood is probably best known these days as being the non-bindeman third of portland's fuzz kings, eternal tapestry. but when he's not burning down houses, he moonlights as the inimitable plankton wat. fractured folk-infused meanderings with warm strings and organic dressing. mahood's vocals are the ideal accompaniment to these bright, understated anthems. minimal percussion and mbira pick up where the vocals leave off, finding a balance with the acoustic haze.
it's been a great year for plankton wat (check his dnt lp!) and eternal tapestry, and "our solar beings" is another vital feather in his discography. edtion of 80, golden red suns." digitalis


Saturday, September 26, 2009

six organs of admittance / azul

"Limited to 800 copies Japan-only split LP between Ben Chasny’s Six Organs Of Admittance and Japanese underground group Azul, on the sainted PSF imprint. One massively extended devotional psych track from Chasny that segues from an almost Popol Vuh-style build-up into a dark downer ballad, easily one of his most ambitious creations in years. (And is that a burst of the fuzz guitar from The Open Mind’s “Magic Potion” near the end there?). Flip features five tracks from Azul who play a gorgeous form of acid folk that factors elements of South American psych styles ala Traffic Sound and Satwa into the mix, using hand-drums, F/X, massed vocals, violin, steel guitar, tambura, flute and kazoo. Beautiful full colour sleeves with obi strip. Very limited and like all the rare PSF vinyl editions, sure to be a monster in years to come." volcanic tongue

Thursday, September 24, 2009

montañas

montañas ~ 7" (tres pies, 2008)

me pasó hace un par de años con o fillo pausado y ha vuelto a suceder ahora con montañas. ¡¡y cómo no iba a pasar con ese nombre!!, es evidente que si en tu vida hay una ventana que deja ver montañas todo cambia, al fín y al cabo somos lo que vivimos, somos el imán de nuestras circunstancias, con nuestros temores sí pero también con nuestros deseos, y por ahí montañas ha encontrado el camino para divertirse y como no, para divertir. así a bote pronto debería sentir cierto reparo ante la velocidad pero lejos de eso me he sentido inmensamente feliz ante la sensación de vértigo y conseguir eso en 9 minutos y 6 segundos suena a genialidad a; "oye, tenéis el don". supongo que todo trasciende las anotaciones meramente musicales, montañas gustan porque son de verdad, orgánicos, no son de plástico, ya saben, el truco es partir de dentro hacia fuera y nunca al revés. asturies, andrín, gatos, burros, picus, piragües (la palabra más bonita del mundo ahora mismo), huertas, dionisios, luarca, silbidos. recomiendo macerar primero y servir después en bucle. el resultado igual de estupendo que la tarta de albaricoque de elena. música para supervivientes como bruno (el panzudo de ahí abajo), para los valientes que abandonan el asfalto por el verde. y si además les digo que uno de los montañas es vegano entenderán más fácilmente el flechazo. de cuando das gracias a quién corresponda por haberte animado a coger el coche hasta peón. gracias elena, gracias walter. como diría terminator, volveré.

download

fotos: arbore

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

deep magic


mystical music. inspired by minimalism, spirits, love, primitive music/culture & aural meditation/healing, the universe, africa, egypt, life & death, inner worship, mental levitation.... deep magic

coming soon on zaagmachien
download

photo: vamitos

*huge thanks to alex*

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

drinking out of the freckled cup

"freak, psych, weird, folk: the words that are always on my mind. so I guess that I try to reflect that in my pictures. like an endless Davenport's jam, or imaginary covers for one of the most beautiful albums I ever heard: trees, chants, and hollers from Valerie Webb & Paul Labrecque. i wish that someday I will take pictures more like that." ana

click

Sunday, September 20, 2009

high wolf

"New High Wolf cdr only release. Random jams recorded after those releases you enjoyed (animal totem on Not Not Fun / gabon on Winged Sun / digital heaven on Stunned) . Expect some fuzzy wah guitars, trancey keyboards, delayed vocals, groovy percussions and jungle spirit! Artwork by Skyler Hitchcox"

old dreams, ¿se puede pedir más? :)

iibiis rouge

"Superastral team, iibiis rooge is the proof that the famous 1+1=3 equation is correct. Modern psychedelic High Wolf jams + Astral Social Club fucked up improv electronics = something we don't have a name for. Better than a one shot collab this duo is made to last. Forthcoming debut LP on Dekorder." winged sun

foto: marie ek

Saturday, September 19, 2009

eternal tapestry

"The Invisible Landscape is the fruit of this from-bliss-to-blistering evolution/revolution. It's packed deep with six kraut-punk psych-shredders, huffing fumes from the twin guitar hero dogfighting of Dewey Mahood and Nick Bindeman while drum demon Jed Bindeman does barrel rolls and nosedives into the eye of the storm. There's also a rawness and warmth to the production that helps the songs bleed into the ear with more electricity than before, and the riff/vocals interplay is streamlined for optimum mainlining. A fiery high point for a fiery high band. Hit it or quit it. Randomly colored LPs (hues range from silt grey to swamp green and beyond) in pro-printed jackets with art by the band plus a photocopied insert. Edition of 500".

Friday, September 18, 2009

eternal tapestry

"three lobed recordings is excited to announce the release of palace of the night skies, the new album from eternal tapestry. while this trio first turned heads with their expansive psych/kraut/blues guitar explorations as embodied within a series of small run cassette and CDR releases, their 2007 mystic induction album on not not fun firmly established the band as formidable players worthy of sharing the stage and spotlight with such current heads as wooden shjips and kinski. palace of the night skies ups the ante and represents this group’s heaviest jams to date, bringing forth some heavily righteous riffs and plenty of drum punishment.
palace of the night skies
consists of two long-form tracks recorded in 2008 at the tapestry space in portland, oregon by the band’s core lineup of dewey mahood on guitar, nick bindeman (JOMF) on guitar and occasional vocals and jed bindeman (heavy winged) on drums. limited edition of 730 copies".

Thursday, September 17, 2009

sun watcher

"brand new release from shane mackenzie's new label. new release/old accordings from the duo of mark mcguire (of emeralds) and shane mackenzie (of lambsbread)...also compiled from sessions since winter. killer bliss out like staring at the suns glare on the water for too long" amethystsunset

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

les glaneurs et la glaneuse

gorman & cursillistas

"Tour split between Gorman and Cursillistas for their short string of mid-west dates together in June during the epic Cursillistas/White Light jaunt down from New England. Gorman side is bowed banjo and bells swirled into a familiar drone. Cursillistas drops a jangling moving extended drone piece at a totally different side of the spectrum from Matt's usual song-based jams. Dropped together in a hurry outside the Morning Glory in Pittsburgh - "Sagittarius" is misspelled! - but full of love regardless. In full-color wrap-around cardstock art with a printed vellum strap and an insert. Limited to something less than 20 and single digit copies left on my end!" cabin floor esoterica

Sunday, September 13, 2009

explorers

"Recorded under the never-again-used Explorers moniker and first edited into album form about a year ago, this hallucinatory patchwork trip into the ether synthesizes all of OLR’s deepest loves – boombox fidelity, quick cuts, keyboard loop sorcery, underwater pop, general mind surfing – into a humbly hypnotic whirlpool of energies. Apparently there was a concept/thesis behind the album’s genesis somehow involving psychic powers, lizard people, and the Bermuda Triangle, but the details are hazy. Which befits the audio in question. Read your palm. Take a walk in your thoughts. Explore away. Black vinyl LPs in jackets with artwork designed by the artist, plus a copy shop poem insert. Edition of 330." nnf

Saturday, September 12, 2009

second family band

"Winged Stomp House indeed, the Second Family Band, a rag tag Wisconsin crew risen from the ashes of the Davenport Family, coast through airy yowls and yelps, stomping the floor in unison, synths blurting, flutes screaming, a swirling mess of a bonfire party. Stay out of the field if you can't handle to riffs. Lovingly captured by Endless to handheld cassette on the first of March, featuring a full on line-up of Dave 3000, Ol'Son, Iam Lee Ian, Woodman, Clay Ruby, Nico Kain, Ivan Mairesse, and Endless himself. This one's a burner.. Edition of 50 ember-orange pro-dubbed tapes in fire singed wrap around sleeves with pine-tree stamp burnt windows and an insert." cabin floor esoterica

Friday, September 11, 2009

castanets

"....Last year's Castanets release, City of Refuge, was dry as Death Valley. Overheated amps buzzing, desert rat life, hot air crackles. Texas Rose, then, comes six minutes before the flood. It's antediluvian, pregnant with impending new-life change and wet with the first sprinkles from that scary mofo of a black cloud in the distance...If Refuge was an "alone record", Texas Rose sounds like Castanets the band..." asthmatic kitty

Thursday, September 10, 2009

cursillistas

"I know a couple months back I said these would be exclusive to the Tryst Haunt subscribers, but thanks to a print shop that gave us a bunch of extra sleeves, combined with the fact that some folks haven't taken advantage of the free tape swap option, there are a few extras kicking around that should be in your hands. Exclusive Cursillistas jams that add up to a prequel or addendum to the Joint Chiefs LP out on Digitalis later this year (see below for more info on that). 45 minutes of headspace dustbowl jams that are a perfect complement to your zoned-out summer heatwave evenings. Limited to 100 copies on transparent sapphire-blue tapes, wrapped in a full-color printed textured art paper sleeve, held together with a piece of golden yarn; few left. $6 + shipping." tryst field

Sunday, September 06, 2009

second family band

"another Second Family Band killer collision with Peaking Lights and this time with Relentless Corpse! Record live to stereo cassette in the barn on the P.L.'s compound. The flip side contains a traditional solstice jam and a small piece performed for Indra and Aaron's wedding. What is it with Wisconsin and barn jams!? Who cares. It's always a cranium cracking, mind melting experience. Feel that warm stuff oozing down your neck? That's your brain....36 copies on yellow tapes with matching case 99 copies on black cassette." earjerk