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Wink Wink 2011 - A bit of a change this year

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KurtMcAllister:
Arrington de Dionyso's Malaikat dan Singa - Suara Naga [K; 2011]


--- Quote from: Tiny Mix Tapes ---Last year, as reported on TMT, Arrington de Dionyso released a cassette called Naga Suara. It was pretty weird, made up mostly of throat-sung splurge, skronking horn freakout, and freakish rhythm. Now comes the relatively more accessible Suara Naga under Dionyso's Malaikat Dan Singa alias. It's only fairly weird, especially if you're already familiar with the self-titled album from this project released in 2009. One reason the disc's more accessible than the cassette is that there are songs. Okay, so they're songs that make use of throat singing, skronking bass clarinet, and, er, lyrics in Indonesian. But they're songs nonetheless, and some of them are kind of catchy. As before, Dionyso's band (which features K labelmates Angelo Spencer and in-house producer Karl Blau) comes on full-force with its mutant Beefheartian blues and Indonesian extreme metal vocals. That is, it asks us to think at least about the relationship between extreme metal vocals, throat singing, Indonesian rock, scorched desert rock, free jazz, and much more besides. The album's title apparently translates as "The Dragon's Voice," and that seems as apt a description as any of the fiery vocalizing and blowing found in its grooves.

The title and cover art also suggest an ongoing obsession with entities magical, mythical, and diabolical, a trait that can be traced back to Dionyso's work with Old Time Relijun. Shapeshifting, shamanic practices, animal possession, and magnetism: all of these come to mind as one looks at the paintings and listens — or, rather, is exposed to — this music. It's music of transformation, new registers, and, if you missed out on Malaikat, is truly unlike anything you've heard before. Dionyso sounds like a man possessed on opener "Kerasukan" (which translates, appropriately, as "possessed by a spirit"), as if some vile entity is speaking through him. Things get even spookier when, halfway through the track, the vocals develop into a kind of call-and-response routine — but who is calling whom? From where? To what? On "Aku di Penjara," the vocals are less hostile but arguably more disturbing, a half-wheezed, half-crooned whisper into the listener's ear. This is the kind of sleazy creep you don't want leaving a message on your machine; you feel sullied just listening. Then, seemingly looped female backing vocals start doo-dooing away like a distant, chilled, dubby take on "Walk On The Wild Side." A chiming desert guitar adds Morricone-like space but only increases the sense of distance and despair.

For much of the album, the bass clarinet, throat singing, and Indonesian lyrics become sonic manifestations of Dionyso's visual art, which can be found on virtually all his album covers and in such publications as Yeti and Prism Index. People change into animals, angels, or demons; masks and wings are donned; chants are sung, secret registers droned. The overall experience is one of summoning-up, of sound as magick, music's ritual origins revealed. At times it's laugh-out-loud hilarious, at other times freakishly scary. (These are stock responses when we hear humans speaking in tongues or being spoken through by others; check out the recent Fringe episode where Olivia Dunham's body is taken over by William Bell — silly and uncanny at the same time.) But Suara Naga is also damn funky in places (and funk's a word you'd never throw at Naga Suara, its tape namesake). Although Dionyso is fond of utilizing a stop-start dynamism and a clipped vocal style in many of his pieces — two features that further invite the comparison to extreme or death metal — he also adds a more flowing element to certain tracks, such as "Bianglala," which sets off on a guitar and bass riff that hints at funkadelia and works through to a spiky post-punk denouement. "Madu Mahadahsyat" also rides out on a catchy groove that suggests possession of a different, dancier kind.

When "Bianglala" ("Rainbow") is followed by the vaguely Middle Eastern sonorities of "Bianglala Batin" ("Inner Rainbow"), one is also put in mind of the modal Ethio-jazz of Mulatu Astatke. "Wada Rohani," a track seemingly about the search for spiritual contact, mixes the best of both worlds as it develops a droning, drawn-out modality into funky liftoff. Dionyso's sense of variety and dynamics is masterful throughout, and, providing that the listener is willing to be possessed by his auditory spell, there is never a dull moment. Incantory, spellbinding, sinister, and surreal, Suara Naga is the work of a highly original mind, a man unafraid to don a demon's mask and speak with a dragon's tongue. Whether Malaikat dan Singa allows Arrington de Dionyso to attain the kind of truth-seeking communicative possibilities he has previously spoken of is questionable, but there is little doubt that he knows how to transfix and transform.
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The Caretaker - An Empty Bliss Beyond This World [History Always Favours The Winners; 2011]


--- Quote from: Pitchfork ---An Empty Bliss Beyond This World sounds like a collection of edits of prewar parlor-room music because that's what it is. "This Caretaker album is built from layers of sampled 78s and albums," James Kirby told me in an email recently. "Things have been rearranged in places and other things brought in and out of focus. Surface noise"-- which is abundant-- "is from the original vinyls." Kirby is an artist whose concepts are sometimes more fun to engage with than his music. As V/Vm-- a project he started in the early 1990s-- he made grotesque edits of soft-pop songs and released an entire 7" of the sounds of pigs feeding. His albums as the Caretaker have been comparatively more subdued, tending toward ambient music made from preexisting recordings.

Bliss was inspired by a 2010 study suggesting that Alzheimer's patients have an easier time remembering information when it's placed in the context of music. What makes it unique isn't that Kirby resuscitates old but vaguely familiar source material; it's how he edits it. Several of the tracks here take pretty, anodyne phrases and loop them mindlessly; several stop in what feels like mid-thought; several reach back and then jump forward. They never feel filled-in from start to finish, and they tend to linger on moments that feel especially comforting or conclusive: the last flourishes of a song, maybe, the pat on the shoulder, the part when we're assured everything is drawing to a close. Kirby isn't just making nostalgic music, he's making music that mimics the fragmented and inconclusive ways our memories work.

Unlike Kirby's last few albums, whether as the Caretaker or Leyland Kirby, Bliss isn't dissonant or heavy-handed. Nobody has to remind me that losing my memory is upsetting, or that I'm losing it as I type, or that the loss will probably accelerate as I get older, or that I'll probably spend my final hours sitting by a window repeating myself. What I like about Bliss is that, as the title suggests, there's something at least metaphorically beautiful-- even slightly funny-- about living inside a locked groove, dancing with nobody. The last five years or so have been filled with music that feels haunted by an unresolved moment or looks at the past from a crooked perspective. The Ghost Box label has been consistently good at making jigsaw puzzles from cultural memories; Ariel Pink's grotesque soft-rock finally has an audience-- even music by a producer like Burial relies on the intrusion of a voice that sounds more part of history than the present, something reaching forward from a time we thought was gone. Kirby isn't unaware of what he's doing here-- everything he's put out in the past few years plays around with these ideas directly, down to his choice of titles (2009's Sadly, the Future Is No Longer What It Was being the most impressively gymnastic). Even calling himself "The Caretaker"-- a reference to the endlessly recurring ballroom parties of The Shining-- feels like an effort to suss out the inherently psychedelic properties of memory.

Bliss reminds me of Ekkehard Ehlers' "Plays John Cassavetes 2" and Gavin Bryars' "Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet", two pieces that transcend high-concept nostalgia. "Cassavetes" is a layered loop of the opening string figure from the Beatles' "Good Night", and the Bryars piece-- which was explored in a column here last year-- is a loop of a homeless man singing a hymn as an orchestra gradually builds behind him. In both cases, the actual amount of musical material is relatively small, and the "work" done on the part of the composer is minimal-- even Bryars' 30-minute build consists mostly of consonant drones. Bryars' and Ehlers' conceptual leap was to wear their moments out as completely as possible. Repetitive music has a way of dissolving a listener's ability to pay attention to it: by the end, Ehlers' and Bryars' pieces sound different from the beginning, but there's no part I can point to in them and say, "here, here's where things change for good." They're constantly changing. They're also constantly returning. With Kirby, the effect is even more subtle and confusing. "Libet's Delay", sounds like it confuses its end for its beginning (or vice versa), and "Mental Caverns Without Sunshine" appears twice, with a two-minute song in-between: It's as though Kirby is trying to trick you into experiencing déjà vu. In all three cases, the source material is music designed not only to comfort, but to sound like it existed before you: hymns, love songs, lullabies. Bliss is eerie because it takes the seduction of those forms and turns it slightly askew; there's something unsettling about the musical equivalent of a permanent smile.

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Prurient - Bermuda Drain [Hydra Head; 2011]


--- Quote from: Pitchfork ---This is not the plug-your-ears Prurient you've come to know and possibly love. In the world of 21st-century harsh noise, Dominick Fernow's one-man recordings have been among the harshest, the most physical, the least compromising. Earlier albums, like 2006's hellishly screeching Pleasure Ground, were overwhelming floods of feedback and heavy psychic ugliness. Like the earliest industrial music, Prurient's records were more than sonically off-putting. They felt pained, beyond urgent, the product of some need to loose inner turmoil into the world, coming as much from Fernow's body as his machines.

Bermuda Ground isn't just pleasant by contrast with Prurient's old unholy racket. It's often actively enjoyable, albeit in a decidedly creepy way, rooted as much in familiar retro-rock moves as formless face-eating noise. Perhaps it's down to Fernow's time playing in the decidedly more accessible and anthemic synth-pop/post-punk act Cold Cave, but Bermuda Drain is full of distortion-free keyboard, perverse disco beats, moments of beauty, even hooks. Especially for those who feel they get enough aural abuse just walking down city streets, it's the first Prurient record they might throw on for reasons other than testing their pain threshold.

Which isn't to say it's accessible, necessarily. It may owe more to the creeping dread of old synthesized horror flick scores than the splatterpunk intensity of exploitation gorefests, but Bermuda Drain still opens with the kind of scream and fried-circuit blast designed to clear the room of everyone but the hardcore. When he's not roaring like a metal frontman let loose on a rave tune ("A Meal Can Be Made"), Fernow's whispering in a way that feels intimate in a decidedly uncomfortable and icky way. And song titles like "Let's Make a Slave" should let you know that Fernow-the-songwriter isn't exactly penning happy-go-lucky new wave here.

Fernow's shrieking and quiet-loner monologues also give Bermuda Drain a real sicko intensity that's been lacking from the recent glut of "dark" early-1980s synth stuff. He has the sound down, somewhere between Factory Records sturm-und-drang and grotty old VHS-tape slasher soundtracks, but you could never accuse Bermuda Drain of being a slick or faceless attempt at mere nostalgia. Like the earlier Prurient records, it comes from a dark and personal place, less an exercise than an explusion. Fernow wants to shake you up, unnerve you, make you understand just how fragile "beautiful" music is, rather than simply make sure he gets the synth tones period-perfect.

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gospel:

--- Quote from: imagist42 on 22 Jul 2011, 09:55 ---
--- Quote from: JD on 20 Jul 2011, 10:14 ---Elder Cunningham is pretty funny regardless of where you come from.

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Yeah, it's all pretty funny regardless, I just meant there are subtle nuances to the humor that are more difficult to pick up on if you're not intimately familiar with the LDS Church's particular peculiarities. Still worth a listen.

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Are there any that aren't pointed out by Trey Parker et al ad nauseum on their other show (South Park) already? Or by this video?

imagist42:
In the soundtrack, maybe not. Some of the idiosyncrasies of mission life in the spoken dialogue seemed to be mostly new territory for them, though. Probably not enough to ruin anyone's enjoyment of the thing anyway.

yop:
great post KurtMcAllister, love "The Caretaker" ,, thanks!

Cut Hands - Afro Noise 1




--- Quote ---Whitehouse's William Bennett indulges his passion for Congolese and Ghanaian percussion on a brilliant debut as Cut Hands. 'Afro Noise' is (surprisingly) relatively short on Noise, but heavy on the African rhythms which form the core of the majority of tracks. The drums are largely suffused and rendered with spacious, industrial-sounding reverbs but played with a polyrhythmic, African sleight of groove which has completely got our attention, while the noise element is well tempered and ranges from atmospheric texturing to immersive drones and even more symphonic electronics. We've not had a chance to spend long with this but it's genuinely impressive from initial listens. Make sure to check the samples! TIP!
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one of my recent favourites by the unstopable william bennett. highly recommended!!!!


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yop:
Funkbias - Last Forever / Heaven Sent




--- Quote ---Swamp81 present the production pairing of Zed Bias and Rinse FM's Funk Butcher. The two work tightly to a sort of tucked and minimal Afro-tek vibe, shuffling and shaking clipped Afrobeat drums and diced tribalist vocal cadences in both instances, and both loaded with Zed's trademark bass weight. You'll love this if you're into Altered Natives, and with killer embossed artwork from Will Bankhead - it's another must-have Swamp81 drop..
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funked up beautiful and crazy UKG rooted house tunes!


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Dam Mantle - We EP




--- Quote ---First run of the year for one of 2010's most intriguing production units, Dam Mantle. Starting up the GetMe! label with the 'We' EP, they concoct an ethereal blend of spidery, skittish 808s, displaced vocals and rustic horror vibes, the likes of which we couldn't recall hearing anywhere else. From the top, 'We' rolls up shroomy, twirling arpeggios and Jukin' 808s with a defintively melancholy lilt which permeates the rest of the 12". It's apparent in the swift highlight of 'Meet Me In The Ambulance', where the rhythms roll in and out of 4/4 sequences under moodily grey-skied pads, and there in the lightly shrill dissonance of 'Somnambulate, My Dear' with it's BoC-like pastoral outro, and twystin' the midnight electronic soul of 'Not A Word' with a more fractal yet fluidly jazzy quality. Quite importantly, their sense of funk throughout these tracks is highly nuanced and way more devleoped than so many in their field, bar the actual Juke guys or the likes of Zomby and others, but applied with their own eerie melodies and voices, it's a unique affective brew. Recommended.
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Osunlade - Envision Remixes




--- Quote ---When Osunlade dropped "Envision" at the DEMF in 2009, Dixon asked him on stage if he could sign it for Innervisions. Now, 2 years later, Ame and Dixon put their remix hands on the original and it's finally ready to lighten up your summer even more.

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excellent deep house tunes...


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The Black Dog - Liber Kult




--- Quote ---Almighty return to the floor from revered electronicists The Black Dog. Following the stately, creepily ambient Music For Airports here Downie and Dust x2 take us through a pummelling trip into jet-black UR styled techno and throbbing, jacked up Rob Hood styled minimalism by way of a sweat covered Berlin warehouse. As ever the sound design is perfect, with techno music this brilliant, less is definitely more.

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great stuff! i've always been a huge fan of "the black dog" and his new ep doesn't disappoint. enjoy!


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The Kvb - Into The Night




--- Quote ---**Limited First Pressing on Transparent Vinyl** Downwards continue to split the crowd with their riveting 10" series, presenting this astonishing slab of motorik depression from The KVB. Klaus Von Barrel, as they're also known, have had a couple releases on FLA Records & Tapes and BEKO DSL, like their Downwrds label mates Pink Playground, but unlike them there's something darker, sexily narcotic and thrusting to their sound. 'Into The Night' is a case in point, with couldn't-give-a-fu*k, glazed-eye vocals heard from behind a wall of Joy Div synths and a bruisingly muscular, meth-fuelled bassline. 'Lost' is perhaps more spacious, mixing everything tantalisingly out-of-reach, but with just enough abrasive guitar to gnash on. Again on 'Hide & Wait' the flanging, fire-and-ice-breathing guitar is upfront, while vocals are half-heard in the murk next to unrelenting drums Stephen Morris would be proud of. Includes 10" x 10" insert. Recommended!

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excellent dark/new-wave shoegaze from the Kvb // if you've been following pink playground, tropic of cancer and dva damas then i'm guessing you'll not be disappointed adding this one to the collection...


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