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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