Sep 26, 2012
Sep 8, 2012
peter howell & john ferdinando (rare earth XXVII)
peter howell and john ferdinando - alice through the looking glass (uk, 1969)
Alice... is a charming, ornate slice of English whimsy with an appeal that surely extends beyond the limited audience at which it was aimed back in 1969. Much of the attraction obviously delves from Lewis Carroll's surreal poetry, but some of the musical templates are genuinely inspired, end the project is clearly coloured by the more melodic English psychedelic acts of the late 1960s such as the Moody blues and the Pink Floyd (indeed, Alice has been compared else were to a more pastoral equivalent of "Piper At The Gates of Dawn"). There are numerous highlights scattered throughout the album, but pride of place must go to Jabberwocky, an impressive melange of treated vocals and backward tapes that is worth the price of admission alone. With its drowsy atmosphere, myriad sound effects and languid organ-based sound, Alice certainly invokes the spirit of the psychedelic age, albeit from the perspective or photogenic Middle England rather than hallucinogenic Middle Earth. Rarely can an album or book have ended with a more apposite line. Life - what is it but a dream?". David Wells - psychedelic folk
Han sido muchas las veces en que he pensado hablar Ithaca o Agincourt pero que mejor que empezar la historia de peter y john desde el princpio. No creo que muchos nombres representen mejor el espíritu de estos rare earth que el dúo surgido de la pequeña villa de Ditchlinf en Sussex. Hasta la reedición y recuperación de las cintas orginales a mediados de los ochenta con 'A game for All Who Know', sus grabaciones no fueron más allá de, en el mejor de los casos, prensajes privados de 100-200 copias, quedándose su debut en unas 70. Más tarde fueron llegando las reediciones de acme,
background o
lion.
Psych-folk desde la inglaterra medieval en clave naif y con el aroma inconfudible a home recording, la magia imperfecta que el dúo imprimió a todas sus grabaciones se combina con la poesía surrealista de Lewis Caroll. Además se intercalan fragmentos hablados que rompen la estructura de canciones, dejándome sensanciones al estilo de Mayo Thompson. Así es difícil describir que se siente con 'the march of the chessmen', 'dam and dee' o 'jabberwocky', quizá sea eso, un sueño. Para los curiosos el sinfín de instrumentos que desfilan en 'alice through the looking glass' son: órganos, chirimías, mandolinas, glockenspiel, guitarras, bajos, pianos, auto-arpas, varios instrumentos de percusión extraños y un número de técnicas peculiares de grabación.
Psych-folk desde la inglaterra medieval en clave naif y con el aroma inconfudible a home recording, la magia imperfecta que el dúo imprimió a todas sus grabaciones se combina con la poesía surrealista de Lewis Caroll. Además se intercalan fragmentos hablados que rompen la estructura de canciones, dejándome sensanciones al estilo de Mayo Thompson. Así es difícil describir que se siente con 'the march of the chessmen', 'dam and dee' o 'jabberwocky', quizá sea eso, un sueño. Para los curiosos el sinfín de instrumentos que desfilan en 'alice through the looking glass' son: órganos, chirimías, mandolinas, glockenspiel, guitarras, bajos, pianos, auto-arpas, varios instrumentos de percusión extraños y un número de técnicas peculiares de grabación.
Jul 21, 2012
la piramide di sangue
The sound of the band is builded on two guitars, two basses, one clarinet, one synth, several effects, drums and percussions. The songs are a mosaic of meditative and restless sounds that could remind Sun Ra, Art Ensemble of Chicago, ballads with north-african taste, kraut rock rides under the sign of Agitation Free and Neu! Their first 12″ comes out in a 500 copies red vinyl limited edition, in coproduction with our friends of Boring Machines.
buy: soundofcobra@gmail.com
Jun 23, 2012
snails
Bristol based Snails is basically a duo, consisting of Dan Weltman (aka Hollowbody) and Mog Fry (The Wraiths / Ukeytronica). They mentioned that Basil Kirchin, Clive Palmer and Moondog influenced them. “With tips of the hat to Francoise Hardy, The Left Banke and The Pastels.” At first they wanted to “soundtrack a budget slasher movie involving a homicidal nun”. This led to more than one lost soundtrack. It is hard to tell the range of their inspirations, because both songs from the single are already somewhat different, although both have that lovely English countryside flavour in them rooted in folk, with free and fresh new inspirations. The loveliest track with no doubt is “She’d like an hour”. Here we hear fast moody pickings, glockenspiel and layers of texturing strings/brass and flute arrangements and percussion, led by a melancholic sweet female lead voice. The arrangements evolve further and change into a kind of old music dance-folk flavoured tune led by two guitars and hand percussion, with some moody acid folkish progressing on the rhythms with several vocal and flute arrangements ideas. “Daylight ends” is in a lighter happier mode, a song by dual vocals, picking guitars and electric (some kind of string instrument or) guitar, violin and some mouth harmonica, like a softened and sweetened countryside/Appalachian folk flavoured lullaby.
Edition of 300 numbered green vinyl records. psychedelic folk
Apr 8, 2012
least carpet
If you listen to Least Carpet the first time it will remember you of something you do already know, but it’s blurry and then you get pictures. Pictures of sitting on a hill top in the fresh blooming meadow. You smell the weed and maybe yourself, you listen to the birdsongs and hear tiny bells ringing. On the left side, downhill you get a glimpse of some small village, on the right side: your sheep. You pickup your self carved flute and whistle with the birds (...) Least Carpet play Eastern European influenced psych folk in vein of Hala Strana or Thuja. It makes you feel sitting on a bench in front of an old shack, surrounded by nature with sun in your face, daydreaming. Dying for bad music
Feb 9, 2012
ryley walker & daniel bachman
It’s hard to fathom what the Appalachian musical landscape must have been like in the early 1900s when musicians would sit on their front porch surrounded by family and friends while they picked away, but we here at Plustapes have long extolled the virtues of that missing link in guitar wunderkid Ryley Walker. It was thanks to a chance encounter while Daniel Bachman (a.k.a. Sacred Harp) was on tour through the Midwest that their collaborative effort, Of Deathly Premonitions, came to be. Walker was excited to meet this fellow fingerstyle guitar traveller of comparable age and equal ability – the first thing they talked about was a shared love for Loren Connors and Sandy Bull. Not long after, they were talking record collections and collaborations. Of Deathly Premonitions is the result, four songs birthed from a relaxed session in the middle of the week during a trip Walker made to Bachman’s hometown of Fredericksberg, Virginia this past spring. With a few beers and a bit of ambition, the pastoral past meets the fingerstyle future. 100 copies.
No puedo más que confirmar las sensaciones del año pasado. Daniel Bachman se ha convertido ya en uno de esos imprescindibles fingerpickings de esta aldea y las doce cuerdas de Ryley Walker ayudan a ello.
Jan 16, 2012
savaging spires
Enchanting from the off, their eponymous debut is set to become a real cult classic, crossing secret paths between pastoral psych collaging and knowingly meticulous folk composition in the flicker of a hare's whisker. Wicker Man references abound, but there's something far more wyrd at play here, an instinctively organic flow between seemingly improvised jamming and full blown choral harmonies bound to take your breath away. critical heights
Savaging Spires play improvised lullabies and outro jams with here and there a song context but mostly the vocals are with nananas and lalalas in very nice group harmonies, girls and boys in separate choirs. The instruments remain somewhat steady as instant found percussions and hand claps, acoustic guitar strums and pickings, banjos, flute and glockenspiel, here and there a cello texture. This is a staring at a nice forest and environment at a doorstep, a celebration to a time standing still place. Themes like songs are only repetitions of just one sentence. The sound of their improvisations are really nice, which is psych-folk/acid folk minded, performed by new hippies with a forest mind, but it is getting a bit long and limited for a full release doing only that outro, intro, intermezzo, and lullaby jam stuff. psychedelic folk
Oct 23, 2011
john terlazzo (rare earth XXVI)
No sé que más añadir, sólo la poesía de 'Avalanche' de Leonard Cohen o 'Things Behind The Sun' de Nick Drake se acerca a 'Honour Among Thieves' o 'The Older Code'.
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