scott tuma & mike weis

scott tuma & mike weis - taradiddle (digitalis, 2009)

Scott Tuma made his triumphant return earlier this year with "Not For Nobody" and continues to answer the call with this new, exquisite offering in collaboration with Zelienople's Mike Weis. "Taradiddle" is a new journey down similar terrain, searching out something new in a landscape that's been visited before. Take Tuma's capable hands and add the fantastic percussive talents of Weis and it's like the wheel reinvented. These two play off one another beautifully, with Weis creating layers of havoc beneath Tuma's pastoral missives. It's beautiful and dissonant.

Weis is the perfect foil for Tuma's brittle sound world. The music breathes underwater, building and building on itself until it's risen into this majestic monument of glass. Archaic drones spit bombastic blasts of fire while the resulting sparks flicker into a million directions, flourescent in the night sky. Acoustic guitars drenched in reverb ring hollow with pianos echoing in the distance. Weis creates a river with swishing cymbals puncuated by fragile bells. Everything is bright, vivid, and new on "Taradiddle." Everything is perfect.
LP comes in fold-out silkscreened poster-style sleeve and is strictly limited to 300 copies.

El el que fuera miembro de Souled American regresa tras el cautivador 'Not for Nobody'. Disonancia y belleza, dos palabras son suficientes, paisajes subterráneos, poesía en desorden, Scott & Mike crean su propio mundo al son de drones y percusiones, uno tan bello y utópico que no puede existir. Jamás Digitals publicó algo tan ensoñador, no quiero salir de 'Tried'. En estos momentos algo más que el disco del año.

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matt elliott

Matt Elliott, Valladolid, 14/03/09

Hace un par de semanas Matt visitó un sábado noche Valladolid, yo me acerqué hasta la ciudad y junto a unas escasas 50 personas, asistí a uno de esos conciertos que no se olvidan. Enseñé la entrada, y una vez en la sala, me senté en uno de los bancos que había a los laterales, a mi lado estaba Matt quién sonrió, cuando ya estábamos todos comenzó: la primera fue 'Our weight in oil' para sorpresa y regocijo personal a la que ya le siguió todo Howlings Songs: una magnífica 'The kübler-ross model', la resquebrajante 'Something About Ghost, 'I name this ship the tragedy, bless her & all who sail with her', 'A broken flamenco'... y la apoteosis final recordando a Third Eye Foundation.

Gélido e impasible ese es el Matt Elliott que se vislumbra en el escenario en esa búsqueda de la tradición eslava y de si mismo en la que se ha sumergido con su trilogía. Un continuo enfrentamiento entre el folk y el ruido, entre sus miedos y secretos. Matt se confiesa desde lo más profundo sin ningún ápice de grandeza o pretensión, se expresa con tal naturalidad y frialdad que su viaje sin regreso a través de soundcapes, ecos y rasgeos de guitarras es de lo más verdadero que he podido experimentar.

Ya fuera del escenario me acerqué, cruzamos unas palabras y es una persona encantadora, cercana, con esa naturalidad que le caracteriza y agradecido con aquellos quienes valoramos su trabajo, hasta tuvo un detalle. Gracias Matt.

Pd.: aquí está la sorpresa -no muy favorecedora-.

torngat

torngat - la petit nicole (alien8, 2009)

Torngat return with “La petite Nicole”, the follow up to the critically acclaimed 2007 effort, “You Could Be”. This time around the band is sporting a grittier, propulsive sounding record that more closely resembles the bands live sound. “La petite Nicole” offers forays into dub-heavy elements of post rock as well hints of kraut rock and the occasional miniature freak-outs. Aside from these flirtations in new directions, the same sound that has made them popular in Canada and festival stages remains. One gets the feeling that the band is creating music for yet-to-be-made films; while cinematic references may be considered standard when describing instrumental music, Torngat’s creations are particularly evocative of the medium.

Torngat put on a very energetic and inspiring performance and sound a lot bigger than a trio. The heavy use of organs recalls elements of Tom Waits and even hints at the pre-jazz era of Soft Machine. Up until now much of the hype about this young band has been linked to their affiliation to Chamber-pop sensations Bell Orchestre and the Luya’s, amongst countless other guest appearances with various Montreal projects.
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Ghostly keyboard figures take the lead with a distorted organ creaking into life, gathering up momentum for the haunting title track - a piece of music that owes as much to Harmonic 33-style library music pastiche as it does to instrumental prog and post-rock. Throughout the record the sound takes on a warm, muffled and generally rather enigmatic feel that's just the right side of lo-fi, with the comparatively full-blooded closing number 'Going What's What' permitting just enough of the track's lamenting brass melodies to poke through the mix. A beautiful album, and one that doesn't quite sound like anything else. Bookmat

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no neck blues band

no-neck blues band - clomeim (locust, 2008)

Clomeim is the new studio album from New York's No-Neck Blues Band.
Clomeim is an evolution, a vital document of Change in The No-Neck Blues Band's 15+ years of para-musical activity. This pivotal recording is a creative distillation of the collective at a new and startling saturation
point.

For three rainy days in March 2007, the seven-headed hydra that is NNCK holed up in Black Dirt Studios, their newly outfitted recording studio in the foothills of upstate New York. With a discipline & a clarity of vision they've rarely displayed before,the collective channeled all of their energies into hours of recording live, real-time improvisation.After months spent sculpting and recasting the raw material, Clomeim emerged--a distinct whole, recalling in its parts the communal howl of Algarnas Tradgard, the dead spirit channeling of Geino Yamashiro Gumi, the glacial shadowplay of 'Heresie' era Univers Zero, and Krautrock zenith Faust at their finest hour.
Clomeim is that rare hybrid - a rock exterior with a cryptic, experimental core; a dense groover and a burning, exploratory psychedelic grimoire for the new dark ages.

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aldea f.: Qvaris, Embryonnck

donovan quinn and the 13th month

donovan quinn and the 13th month - donovan quinn and the 13th month (soft abuse, 2008)

The son of Dave Carter, bassist & vocalist for legendary 60's psychedelic group Country Weather (consult Pokora...), and named after Mr. Leitch, Quinn grew up on a horse ranch in Walnut Creek, CA and began writing songs at an early age. Donovan's growing reputation as a first rate darkly romantic penman (thanks to contributions to The Skygreen Leopards and solo as Verdure) has culminated with his latest endeavor, a new solo vehicle known as Donovan Quinn & the 13th Month.Rather than aping or ducking genres, Quinn has crafted a bright spectrum of songs best described as 'American.' X-ian folk, languid indie pop, VU cool, loner country, and west coast psych are touchstones, with Quinn's singular lyrical abilities & taste for sun-baked song at the fore.

Ever the flower bed romantic, Quinn has – at the risk of over-simplification - written a classic "break-up record;" albeit one filtered through surrealistic tenderness and riddled with red herrings & feelings of betrothal. Though not exactly lost in a sea of scarves, Quinn is indebted to the vulnerability, humor and bitterness present in the works of Ronnie Lane, Skip Spence, Nikki Sudden, Gene Clark and Basement Tapes-era Dylan. Weaving earthy melodies around Quinn's characteristically hazy vocals is The 13th Month: a small rotating cast of players that includes Jason Quever (Papercuts), Karl Bauer (Axolotl), Hélène Renaut, and Jess Roberts.

aldea f.: the skygreen leopards
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ignatz

ignatz - iii (k-raa-k, 2008)

III projects the atmosphere of Jack London and The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog onto a modern world ruled by technology. Devens brings us the most genuine melancholy contemporary pop music has seen since quite some time. This album leaves the underground scenery that is troubled by trends so often far behind and just shows us the pure essence of what Music has to be: raw emotions put to sound.

With his third full album Bram Devens has once again amazed us with a masterpiece. In his usual brain-melting retro-futuristic blues folk, he summons the devilish spirits of Bukka White, Robert Pete Williams and Sleepy John Estes as seen through the eyes of an adolescent Lou Reed. III tells a fictive and blurred story about the death of music genres. Tragedies built upon screeching, atonal and repetitive melodies. Smelling like a wet dog or a badly dried towel. III breathes a much more sentimental atmosphere compared to Devens’ previous work because of his grousing voice, that is not unlike Skip James’s. After the closing track “Dead By noon”, the tormented soul frees the listener from a heavy personal trip and leaves him dazzled. III projects the atmosphere of Jack London and The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog onto a modern world ruled by technology. Devens brings us the most genuine melancholy contemporary pop music has seen since quite some time. This album leaves the underground scenery that is troubled by trends so often far behind and just shows us the pure essence of what Music has to be: raw emotions put to sound.

El old-drone blues de Bram Devens, continúa cada vez más sumergido en escenarios subterráneos y atmósferas por las que sólo los maldecidos se pasean entre tormentas, aquellas en las que resúenan los ecos de Ornette Coleman y Henry Flynt. En III, el mejor disco de Ignatz, salen a la luz las melodías de un trovador del appalachian-folk, eso sí, uno extraño y misterioso a lo Jandek, pero más mutado por sus rasgadas guitarras. Como es seña de identidad, música para escuchar, imposible de describir.

aldea f.: ignatz

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josephine foster

josephine foster - this coming gladness (bo'weavil, 2008)

Colorado born Josephine Foster has practically defined what it means to be an outsider folk singer. Initially with Born Heller and then solo and accompanied by the Supposed, her unsettling soprano and way with a song takes the eerie otherness of those early Appalachian ballads and brings them, whispering, into our dreams. The Coming Gladness brings the folk aesthetic that Josephine has explored in her recent albums to the psyche rock territory of her recordings with the Supposed. This intense, uncompromising music is the looming badlands landscape lit by the charged lightning strikes of an extraordinary voice. That voice belongs to no movement, trend or fashion, any more than the equally haunted spirit of Tim Buckley, another outsider, another unique talent, did in his day. It is simply great music and Josephine Foster is, simply, a great singer, simply a great songwriter. Guitarist Victor Herrero and percussionist Alex Nielson more than contribute to the otherworldly sound of the album. Alex Nielson has been the drummer of choice for Will Oldham, Current 93, and many others, while also fronting his own bands Directing Hand, Tight Meat Duo, and Trembling Bells. Victor as accomplished on electric guitar as acoustic, has also a new solo acoustic guitar soon to be released on Bo’ Weavil. .
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One of the finest artists to have emerged from the so-called freak-folk boom of a few years back, Josephine Foster continues to write beautiful songs, and doesn't sound remotely like an artist tied to a particular fad. Regardless of its context, Foster's voice always sounds as if it's emerging from some dusty, wartime 78pm vinyl, with an outgoing, operatic tone probably best described as 'witchy'. Foster has tried out various styles of arrangement of her peculiar song craft over the years, and set into a trio format (with drums supplied by the always excellent Alex Nielson and lead guitar from Victor Herrero) this album probably draws comparison's with the more fleshed out sounds of her A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing album or the Born Heller material. There's nothing that could be branded as especially folksy about this music though, in fact it probably more closely resembles a kind of song-based free jazz at times: on the woozy piano psychedelics of 'Lullaby To All' she sounds like a 1940s Kate Bush, as a rampaging, atonal solo scrawls mercilessly across the song from Herrero's guitar. His inky lead playing leaves its mark on much of the album, and it's particularly effective on the more atmospherically charged moments, such as 'Indelible Rainbows', which is swamped in glistening echo. Despite its ventures into dissonance and the more exploratory dynamics of free jazz, this latest body of song from Foster finds her at the peak of her songwriting form, and she actually seems all the more effective for having other musicians to clash against. Very highly recommended.

Entre que con el paso del tiempo cada vez resulta más complicado escribir palabras que aporten verdaderamente algo y que me llegara el Lp, el regreso de la sirena se ha hecho esperar. Querer intuir que nos esperaba tras A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, el folk más misterioso y desolador que yo haya oído y un disco bellísimo que siempre habrá que reivindicar, era tarea perdida. Abandonado el romanticismo alemán y también a Locust, lo cierto es que aún perduran recuerdos de aquel viaje y, en realidad, por aquellos parajes aún vive pero fuera de la cueva en la que se refugiaba. Su compañero Victor Herrero resquebraja ahora la guitarra aunque las consecuencias son menos fatales, algo más enmascarado en una densa atmósfera. Más Alex Nielson a la percusión, This Coming Gladness, se rinde a la exploración psicodélica y a un folk con alma de blues, eso sí la sensación de free-songs de 'A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing' sigue ahí. Cada paso de Josie en su trabajo es un nuevo vacío a llenar, en sus diferentes reencarnaciones el paso intermedio e invisble nunca había existido, así que por fin llegó.

aldea f.:josie, hazel eyes, a wolf in sheep's clothing, the cherry blossoms & josie

ulaan khol

ulaan khol [steve r. smith] - ii (soft abuse, 2008)

All heavy with warmth & mystery, Ulaan Khol returns with another round of vertical incantations aimed at the heavens. As Ulaan Khol, Steven R. Smith (Hala Strana, Thuja, Mirza) creates dense tapestries that revel in the eternal and infinite. The bursts of tones & grip on formal structures can compare to the best of Hototogisu or Handful of Dust, though filtered through an ample dose of Ash Ra Tempel.

Supreme while discreet, these songs carry a sense of unnerving calm and optimistic gloom, often within a single composition. Swaths of heavy feedback cascade against sinister organ workouts & varied percussion that’s at times pounding, and at others distant. Throughout, Smith’s works emerge as vessels of possibility, exploratory rituals of hope.
Under the Ulaan Khol banner, Smith has planned a maximalist three-part suite, 'Ceremony.' Following the cryptic first installment, II shines with hazy, rolling atmospheric works that drift and shift with ease. Riding a crumbling riff into oblivion, Ulaan Khol's II emanates with the gleam of pure white light.

aldea f.: ulaan khol - i
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