hammer of hathor

hammer of hathor • false treef [stunned records 2009]

"Mark E. Kaylor & Heather Vergotis are active members of the burgeoning Portland free music community, having busted their chops around town for years prior to forming the multi-instrumental beast Hammer of Hathor. Some duos in PDX can pull off jazz or punk, and some can pull off scuzz or folk, but HOH venture to ask “why not take it all on?” Their ‘False Teef’ begins at any number of disparate points to launch into super inspired jam mode, as we can testify after 40 such minutes of feedback meditation, string twang trance, surging tape loop, smoked out riffs, and a pair of rattling false teeth perched upon the amplifier. It’s also immediately apparent these partners are synched for optimal 4D pattern-weaving and burnt basement reach-out to the tangential points between the weird and weirder energies. Breathe in a whole new scenery, take on a whole new time — a soundtrack is here to assist the switch." Limited edition of 111 pro-dubbed & imprinted c40 tapes with double-sided color jcard and insert." stunned records

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fotola: alison scarpulla

ye uphall knyte fryars

ye uphall knyte fryars ~ psychedelic underground vol 1 (boondock pissoir 2010)

"Stay up all night with the Fryars! Travel through time and space in the grand tradition of the global psychedelic underground with this pseudonymous quartet of Second Family Banders on the lam. The Trans-Galactic Be-In is someplace to be! But the Trans-Temporal Be-In is the real trip...how did they manage to record this one in Golden Gate Park way back in 1967?? Festivities conclude at dawn with the slow-motion dubscape Sun Arose." boondock pissoir

"Ye Uphall Knight Fryars may be appealing to fans of Second Family Band and indeed, it would seem at least of few of the family are fryars... As you may know anarchy is an essential element in Second Family Band's perpetually bewildering output. This 'no rules' policy is part of what constantly renews them and keeps it churning..." earjerk

psychedelicunderground, un homenaje a free country ¿qué más se puede pedir?

foto: ellen rogers

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rachel grimes

rachel grimes ~ book of leaves (ruminance, 2009)

leí hace tiempo que la angustia es como un tornillo sin fín, y creo que no hay definición más precisa. hay algo fascinante en ese girar y girar provocado por la angustia o la melancolía, aún sabiendo lo malsano del ejercicio de funambulismo en los bordes del abismo, el ser humano se siente seguro en ese estado en el que tirar de palabras resulta del todo imposible. piensa, el ser humano, que es mil veces preferible manejar el tempo de la situación dejándose seducir por la contemplación, ese estado que invita a perderse en detalles insignificantes como el recorrido de una gota que resbala por el cristal de una ventana, en la arquitectura de una telaraña o en el baile de los árboles y las hojas cuando la orquesta es dirigida por el viento.

siempre he creído que en todo eso había algo de revelación, que el paso de los años me daría la experiencia necesaria para licuar la información capaz de desactivar los detonantes. pero la realidad hoy, resuelve que el proceso ha estado, está y estará ahí siempre, es inevitable. para solucionar la angustia sólo tenemos un camino: vivirla. huir de ella es no asumir nuestra vulnerabilidad. creo que rachel grimes inconscientemente habla de todo esto en "book of leaves", o esa es la impresión que me ha dado cuando hace un rato me hipnotizó el humo que salía de la cafetera mientras sonaba "every morning, birds". la vida es un piano.

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foto: belafonte

the goner

the goner ~ behold a new traveler (deep water acres 2010)

"Behold A New Traveler is the second Deep Water entry from Sweden’s The Goner and it marks a confident move forward on all fronts. In contrast to earlier work, most of the new Goner material is song-based and full-band powered, making for an album that’s both thematically unified and stylistically varied, from solo acoustic melancholy to wailing psych-rock. While it is still possible to draw lines from Behold… to the music of other contemporary folk-derived artists such as Six Organs of Admittance, Palace Brothers, and Stone Breath, at the same time the overall feel owes as much to Westerlund’s own cultural roots and the Goner’s creative voice continues to develop with a clarity of purpose that offers much and suggests more." deep water acres

behold a new traveler es un disco precioso, desde el título hasta una voz que recuerda a raymond raposa, within the hour, strong interactions, i traveled far away from you...y el banjo

foto: chelsee ivan

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second family band

second family band ~ jerusalem (boondock pissoir 2010)

"Is their a more mystical and perilous city in the world than Jerusalem? Old Testament dread haunts the first side as the Family sings of Glory while Pan plays his flute and dances impishly outside their circle. Side two commences with the sand blown sounds of the Ancient City, before Night Journey finds the band escaping heavenward through dark skies" boondock pissoir

son muchos los cdr's, cassettes, lp's de second family band, pero jerusalem tiene un clima especial, cánticos, flautas, percusión tribal, ritmos pausados, palmas, guiños a free country de davenport...todo lo que siempre he buscado en sus últimas grabaciones y que sólo encontraba en momentos aislados. no me imagino un sitio mejor para escuchar glory y ancient city que rodeada de montañas y desiertos, como la foto de wearemaps

foto: amanda johnson (wearemaps)

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pocahaunted

pocahaunted ~ make it real (not not fun 2010)

"After a six-month hiatus, a complete line-up overhaul, and a full year-plus of only playing shows and writing songs and amassing totemic objects, finally Pocahaunted return to the recorded realm with their first album since 2008. Time flies when yr having not not fun and all that. Make It Real collects seven of the band’s 2009 live staples for a 40-minute-ish collage of basement body music, garage dub damage, outsider funkadelic sprawl, voodoo rhythm workouts, duo femme soul vocal dynamics, dripping gold sweat, and dream fulfillment. Recorded barefoot and shirtless and direct to tape at Green Machine Studio in summer ’09 by M. Geddes Gengras and featuring guest bamboo sax by jazzmaster Alex Gray (of Dreamcolour/Deep Magic) and mastered by James Plotkin. Black vinyl LPs in jackets with warped LA post-Parliament utopia artwork by vision wizard Spencer Longo" not not fun

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sylvester anfang II

sylvester anfang II ~ commune cassetten (blackest rainbow 2010)

"a new slab of tranced out psychotic psychedelia from the occult loving Belgium based clan. This new incarnation being Sylvester Anfang II reached a new level of awesomeness last year with the incredible double LP on Aurora Borealis, on Commume Cassetten they continue their bizarre trip into the darker, but somehow super psychedelic, realm of the occult obsessed mind. There's a real fucked up krautrock boogie vibe throughout but retaining some of the doomed funeral folk qualities of the original Anfang guise, as well as some loose as hell, total stoned out ritualistic baked grooves..." blackest rainbow

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sons of noel and adrian

sons of noel and adrian ~ rivers ep (wilkommen 2010)

"Sons of Noel and Adrian grew up in the midlands with many like-minded musical folk. A couple of years ago they moved to Brighton to gather more legs and are now a fully formed outfit with sometimes as many as ten members or as few as five..." wilkommen

"The Rivers ep is a collection of dark songs that explore three very differing concepts through a single shared metaphor, which occurred to songwriter Jacob Richardson after spending "three gruelling days in the hottest sun fishing with Jack on the wrong side of the river". Opener and live favourite Black Side of the River came directly from this experience. The theme is continued through the powerful second track Big, Bad, Bold, which explores the concept of "the inner strength of a woman", finally Leaving Mary's Hand brings the ep to a close as Richardson contemplates "a state of love and trust". Rivers is available on 7” vinyl, digital and limited edition cd typeset and pressed by hand by Brighton based letterpress and book artist Anna Fewster." altsounds

en repeat...tres nuevas canciones favoritas entre favoritas que me hacen pensar en feathers, y en especial sounds like de shoreline, aquella canción que fue la más bonita del mundo durante mucho tiempo

foto: anna verlet

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ulaan khol

ulaan khol ~ III (soft abuse 2010)

"As Ulaan Khol, Steven R. Smith (Hala Strana, Thuja, Mirza) creates dense tapestries that revel in the eternal and infinite. At times recalling Neil Young's score for Jarmusch's Dead Man, III is Steven R. Smith's masterstroke. Not only does this work tie together the Ulaan Khol releases into a cohesive whole, it also stands alone as a groundbreaking, breathtaking amalgam of heavy komische & basement psychedelic freak-outs.

Also available a limited edition handmade birch box that nimbly fits all three volumes of the Ulaan Khol Ceremony series. Edition of 75 printed / stamped boxes, crafted by hand in Minneapolis. Available only from direct from Soft Abuse or via Steven R. Smith's web site." soft abuse

foto via sabino

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pm50 peasant magik

va ~ pm50 8x3''cdr (peasant magik 2010)

"Big Blood, Valerio Cosi, Gregg Kowalsky, Super Minerals, Natural Snow Buildings, The North Sea, Fabio Orsi, Andrew Paine, Pillars of Heaven, and Throuroof. 8 hand stamped 3" cdrs all housed their own jewel case. Each cd has its own cover which was designed by an artist from Philadelphia. All cds come in a custom cut, full color printed box along with a full color zine with additional art and info. Edition of 200. Artists: Kris Chau, Mike Bukowski, Melissa Farley, Josh Robison, Chris Lawrence, Zoe Soslow, James Ulmer, Kathryn Moran, and Sienna Freeman." peasant magik

foto: hoy.joy

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natural snow buildings/fabio orsi & throuroof

the north sea/andrew paine

valerio cosi, gregg kowalsky & fabio orsi/super minerals

big blood/pillars of heaven

sun araw

sun araw - geneva hits (mental groove 2009)

"Mental Groove are super good people, and they paid to have the Sun Araw set professionally recorded, mixed, and mastered off the soundboard at our show in Geneva. The result sounds pretty dop. They wanted to use this recording to make a highly limited collector's item, and so they chose just to press 50, hence the cost to recoup their expenses." sun araw

foto: joel leshefka

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second family band

second family band - naked ladies & dragons (boondock pissoir 2010)

"Second Family takes you on an erotic “D&D Quest” in this hour long ambient-prog synthesizer fantasia. On the A side Naked Ladies shimmer in the moonlight; flip it over and Dragons circle dreamily overhead." boondock pissoir

foto: ƒenk/coma

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golden jooklo age & peaking lights

golden jooklo age & peaking lights ~ collaborative lp (holidays 2009)

"An incredible instrumental jam in three chapters recorded at Black Dirt Studios in upstate New York in May 2008 when the two bands met for a tour in the East Coast of the United States. Golden Jooklo Age and Peaking Lights melted their fluxes travelling the astral ways of sound and this is the postcard they sent us from the lands of future psychedelia" holidays

foto: sophie treloar

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cabinet of natural curiosities

cabinet of natural curiosities ~ searchlight needles (for arbors/for satellites 2009)

"Traveling the Montana to New York corridor Cabinet of Natural Curiosities (Jasmine Dreame Wagner) imports the altitudes and attitudes of the lesser-domestic west with her ‘Searchlight Needles’. Composing songs mainly of acoustic guitar and voice, her recordings benefit from subtle melodic supports (xylophone, flute, some keyboards) and an agreement between word and tone..., she returns more the earlier folk-rock revival as Tara Jean O’Neil, Samara Lubelski, and David Grubbs...." for arbors/for satellites

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blue mongolians

blue mongolians ~ s/t (ikuisuus 2009)

"Spiritual cousins musical meeting: collection of songs recorded in Helsinki, mostly in Gallery Mutageeni basement and in local music-library's instrument-room - used the bass & electric piano of the place, along with their own stuff like guitar, effects, bells, flute and crazy voice. Spaced out hippy sounds, almost new age, almost music, almost folk, almost mantra, almost something else." ikuisuus

foto: lilith marigold

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the magickal folk of the faraway tree

 the magickal folk of the faraway tree ~ the soup & the shilling (deserted village/deadslackstring 2010)

"The long-awaited, long-whispered about Magickal Folk Of The Faraway Tree album has finally arrived. Those of you who have been asking for a reissue for a long time and are now being rewarded with a double CD. "The Mildew Leaf" and "The Cat's Melodeon" cdrs have long been out of print. Along with a track from the Gold Leaf Branches comp they make up Disc One. Disc Two is all new recordings, further exploring the Peter Kennedy songbook and beyond. This is a Deadslackstring/Deserted Village split release. We thank for your patience and are delighted to present this collection of songs to you." deserted village

"They capture the atmosphere of a field recording simultaneously catching the perfect sound of their instruments and voices so you can literally feel the music and the buring coal fire..." common folk meadow

por fin...un sueño hecho realidad, el muy muy muy esperado e idializado nuevo disco de the magickal folk of the faraway tree ya está aquí. dos discos, el primero contiene los descatalogados the cat's melodeon y the mildew leaf, y el segundo canciones nuevas, todas tan bonitas como cabía esperar. el genuino disco de la pradera con banjos (blackbirds and trushes!), flautas, canciones tradicionales irlandesas y melodías saltarinas.

foto: rianna cox

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cursillistas / love cult

cursillistas & love cult ~ split (blackest rainbow 2010)

"Edition of 100 copies cassette from Cursillistas & Love Cult, a ritualistic acid/folk outfit that conjure the kind of cultic confusion of galactic explorers like Siloah, Dom and Ghost using bowed strings, drones, smeared vocals and acoustic instruments. First up is Cursillistas' epic 23 minute 'Great Salt Desert', a superb weirded out blues drenched, desert dried, psychedelic mirage... The b side opens with Love Cult's 'Breadcrumb Pony Tail', a swirling blissful distortion dripping psyche dream, a really beautiful 11 minute wonder. This is followed by 'Somn' a more crushing electrifying piece with tinkering and rattling from unrecognizable objects, distorted feedback blurts and what sounds like then objects trying to communicate. Limited to 100 copies with parchment paper (either gold or ivory) cover with black and white print." blackest rainbow

foto: hannah davis

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