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Katie GatelyLast Day
'Katie Gately is an LA computer whizz whose work spans sound design, electronically rendered polyphonic choral music and a nascent form of laptop pop. Pop music that can’t sit still, is exploding with ideas. Sometimes it sounds overloaded with thoughts, which find literal expression in Katie’s dense Disco Inferno-like lattices of words. But then on other tracks her vocals pull back and space out, disassociating from the rhythms and finding unlikely companions in choirs of pitch-shifted and manipulated vocals – her voice made into marching, chirruping armies of munchkins, automatons, Substance D-stretched friend-apparitions.'-- collaged
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BoothroydColony
'Boothroyd is working in a very strange space right now. He’s almost definitely genre-less (assuming you’re not the kind to count “electronic” and “experimental” as real tags), but he’s certainly not peerless. If anything, his association with Tri Angle is actually the most predictable thing about him. Following drops from Fis, SD Laika, and The Haxan Cloak, the harsh specters of Idle Hours feel quite natural. The former’s skeletal D&B skank casts a long shadow over this release, particularly with respect to the fluttery, abstract percussion, and the whole thing feels like a cross between Evian Christ’s early ambient “Duga-3” tape and his more garish Waterfall EP from this year. However, I think one would be remiss to chalk Boothroyd up to a Frankenstein’s monster of the Tri Angle roster. The twitchy, rainy vibes of “Y5” in particular, replete with cascading sheets of hiss and ghastly moans, feel like they point to entirely new dimensions of darkness.'-- Tiny Mix Tapes
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Blut aus Nordmemoria vetusta iii: saturnian poetry: 04 forhist
'Consider the fact that enigmatic multi-instrumentalist Vindsval made his Blut Aus Nord debut in 1995 – the same year that ushered in the likes of black metal milestones like Immortal’s Battles in the North, Dissection’s Storm of the Light’s Bane, and Behemoth’s debut full-length Sventevith (Storming Near the Baltic). There are others of course that bear their own significance to heavy music, but the mention of these black metal releases in particular is significant in the context of the nearly two decades since their release. Of the many things that Blut Aus Nord’s catalogue offers musically, it also provides a striking glimpse of what’s likely to be seen as black metal’s most substantial point of creative evolution since the Second Wave. The climb upward for Blut Aus Nord has included all manner of soundscapes ranging from the most bleak and frayed black metal to the cold and sinister language of electronica. Here at their apex thus far, Saturnian Poetry finds Blut Aus Nord appropriately at their very beginnings, only now the music carries alongside it those shadows and landmarks of experience and expertise, all culminating in a sound that unsurprisingly remains solely in the cosmic grasp of this band.'-- Steel for Brains
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Jason CrumerWellsley's Philosophy
'If you’re listening to Jason Crumer albums without quality headphones, you’re doing it wrong. The Baltimore-based noise artist’s catalog teems with eldritch nuance that rewards close listening. From 2006’s Hum Of An Imagined Environment onward, a strong cinematic streak has characterized Crumer’s solo work; it’s often impossible to experience without succumbing to the whys and wherefores, the mysteries of creation. Disqualifier is no different in that sense. ‘Wellsley’s Philosophy’ is the most striking moment on Disqualifier. It opens inauspiciously with the concussive throttle of machinery, quickly gathering pieces of dander: the clink of pickaxes on steel, the rumble of locomotives, inaudible masculine shouts. The clinks accumulate, the shouts recede, Native American flutes interject, drums thunder through, distortion floods the scene, is chased out by equanimous synthesizers. There’s a strong whiff of blue-collar, all-American mettle in the track, communicated with the evocative, concentrated intensity that characterizes professional advertising. A narrative of some sort clearly unites Disqualifier— why else would the names of characters recur in the titles?—but ‘Wellsley’s Philosophy,’ taken as a single chapter, makes a greater showcase for Crumer’s storytelling potential.'-- City Paper
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Moniek DargeTurkish Square
'Born in Bruges, Belgium in 1952, Moniek Darge has worked as a composer, violinist, performer and installation artist. She studied music theory and violin at the Music Conservatory of Bruges as well as painting at the Ghent Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Arthistory, Philosophy and Anthropology. She has published extensively on her musical experiences in Kenya, Rwanda, Japan, China, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand, both in 'Logos-Blad', the monthly magazine of the Logos Foundation (of which she is editor), and on numerous radio programs.'-- Discogs
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ObjektOne Fell Swoop
'With these experiments of form and response with so-called “dance” and “experimental” music, Berlin-based TJ Hertz gets at larger issues concerning time and space by surgically slicing, operating, then suturing the operative functions of dance music. The dancefloor is, after all, a speculative space, at once common ground and no-man’s land. Hertz sees this and in turn separates the synaptic nerves of dance music genres to see “how things work.” The genius here is that he puts it all back together with a cold headiness that the legs never notice; the aesthetic here is disconnected from the affected, unaffected.'-- Tiny Mix Tapes
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Ashley PaulI'm In You
'Ashley Paul is a performer and composer based in Brooklyn, New York. She uses an array of instruments including saxophone, clarinet, voice, guitar, bells and percussion, mixing disparate elements to create a colorful palate of sound that works its way into her intuitive songs; free forming, introverted melodies. Heat Source finds Ashley Paul working using her brilliant ears to find a zen like balance between her voice and a sparse arrangement of staccato instrumentation leaving as much open space on one song as most people would create in a lifetime. This open space isn't empty, however, but it's up to you to fill in the meaning. Heat Source is an emotionally challenging and fascinatingly personal listening experience that creates a powerful pace.'-- Brainwashed
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InstituteSalt
'Institute are of the here and now; they hail from Austin, TX, and share members with Wiccans, Glue, Blotter, and Recide. The project began as a set of four-track sketches made by singer Moses Brown, and a full-band demo turned into Institute's six-song, self-titled debut EP, released in February on British Columbia's Deranged Records. The Salt EP builds upon that foundation in subtle ways. The production is just as tarnished, just as ragged, but the elements have snapped ever so slightly more into focus. The songwriting feels sharper, and the hooks sink deeper. "Salt" opens the record on a high point, setting a bassline that flashes back to "She's Lost Control" over rolling, skipping, "tribal" drums straight out of Siouxsie's The Scream. For all their resemblance to deathrock and post-punk greats of yore, there's nothing mannered or simulacral about Institute. They are as real as the lump in your throat and the salt under your nails, and their sting couldn't be sweeter.'-- Philip Sherburne
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D/P/I02 - B.I.D.
'Upon being asked about organizational processes, Alex Gray described his angle to TMT earlier in the year: “I’ll have eight or 10 or 15 micro-compositions based on a sample, and handle each of those things as an uncompressed piece to the overall puzzle.” This would allow for an almost infinite number of combinations — an indication of Gray’s compositional knack — but whereas samples have sometimes been recognizable on past material (from Roy Orbison on FRESH ROSES to R Kelly on I’m Fuckin You Tonight), they are utterly tangled and transformed here, giving rise to only one comprehensible line of dialogue and the occasional garbled phrase amongst a magnificent dream-induced collage of sound.'-- collaged
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Pig Destroyer Red Tar
'Unlike the frantic Phantom Limb— or Book Burner, Pig Destroyer’s intervening album—Mass & Volume is slow. As in, glacier-dragging-a-fallen-planetoid slow. In that sense, it draws from the dour, down-tuned slither of doom metal, but it’s a far cry from either the antediluvian groove of Pentagram or the antiheroic songcraft of recent outfits like Lycus and Pallbearer. “Red Tar” is only three times as long as your average Pig Destroyer song, but those six and a half minutes are milked of every conceivable ounce of sludge. Here the EP finally resembles a Pig Destroyer 45 played on 33, plain and simple, with none of the compositional mutation on display in “Mass & Volume”. It’s the perfect complement; tighter and more coherent—inasmuch as Hayes and Hull’s mutual assured deconstruction could ever be called coherent—the song creeps from plateau to plateau, leaving a trail of viscera in its wake. “Grief crawls in the shadow of time/ Try to keep in mind/ It’s all finite,” Hayes grunts in existential agony. Instead of seeming like some noble savage, he’s a trapped animal, snarling and soon to be gutted.'-- Jason Heller
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Terrence HannumHYSTERESIS
'Terence Hannum’s works all use magnetic audio tape as art media. This an obsolete technology. As such, the deliberate choice of this material reads as symbolic, chosen for its history as much as the way it looks and functions. Audio tape is ferrous powder bonded to narrow strips of plastic film; audio tape records sounds through the rearrangement of the iron particles into patterns by an electro-magnetic head, which also decodes those patterns back into audio. This encoding, the rearrangement of particles, is invisible to the eye. With a CDR or DVR, one can see a different pattern in how the surface of the disc reflects light. There, the unwritten portion looks different from the encoded. The tape is uniformly grey/brown and shiny. Magnetic tape is similar to a traditional hard drive; the magnetic encoding is the same. And with each, the recording of information and change to the material does not leave a visible mark or pattern.'-- Bmore Art
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Pinkcourtesyphone closer to here than you care to be
'The aesthetic Richard Chartier has developed as Pinkcourtesyphone may bear little resemblance to the serious, scholarly work that he issues under his own name, but it features the same level of compositional skill and complexity that sounds like no other. The underlying theme of vintage camp and ennui results in an juxtaposition with the dark sexuality and hints of sleaze that permeates, resulting in a genius reality versus fantasy pairing befitting the 1950s housewife sensibility PCP has featured heavily in his albums thus far.'-- Brainwashed
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MirageBlood of the Return
'The story of Mirage is an interesting one. He put out his album Blood For The Return on Bandcamp at the beginning of the year and contacted Todd Ledford of (mostly-defunct) independent label Olde English Spelling Bee about it, but his emails got more and more bizarre as time went on: increasingly demanding, more rambling, and generally more psychologically unsound. It turned out that Robin Nydal has been listed as a "19-year-old" musician from Los Angeles for a good few years now, and that "Robin Nydal" is, as name's go, awfully close to "Bob Dylan". Whether any of Ledford's story is true or not is, obviously, completely beside the point, as the drunk and woozy psych pop music speaks for itself.'-- DUMMY
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p.s. Hey. ** David Ehrenstein, Thank you, David. Ah, it makes sense that Lordalfreddouglas would tip your scales. Certainly an interesting approach on his part. I imagine his inbox is rather packed with prospectees. ** Bernard Welt, B! Johnny Rapid, I know him. I mean I know him not at all and yet intimately. Now that I'm over my lifelong desire to make a porn, I think you should fill my void. Or you should at least add narration pre-existing porns. I'm not kidding. Awesome that you're serious about Paris. Yeah, sort stuff out, and let me know before you apply to the Recollets, so I can butter Chrystel up, not that she'll need much butter, but still. Would totally, totally love to Skype/phone. Let me know when is good. I should be home here for a while 'cos I've got work/deadlines galore. Not too shabby fiction class indeed! When I saw Paul McCarthy when he was here few weeks ago, he said Benjamin is finally finishing up a new book of stories at extremely long last. Great about Trinie. She's wonderful. I think you should write that NoES essay obviously, clearly. Did you? ** Damien Ark, Damien! Dude, Iceland was insane. Zac took the bulk of the photos, so I'll see if I can pry enough out of him to make a post. School's good? What are you studying, etc.? Never read 'Dhalgren'. It's great? I always meant to, but long books are so intimidating. I think you could marry the Ukraine guy and have the furry as a pet maybe? ** Sypha, Thanks, James. Welcome back to you too! Congrats on the gold pin. That's pretty cool. Oh, the new Nadon is out! Awesome! I'll go get it! Everyone, while the blog was way, the eminent author-slash-many things including composer/ musician Sypha released his new album of music that he records under the moniker Sypha Nadon, and it's called 'Canadian Atheist', and you can hear it, get it, read about it, peruse the lyrics and other related stuff right here, and you so totally should, obviously, if you haven't got it yet. So do that, won't you? Thank you. ** Tosh Berman, Hi, Tosh! I got your emails, and thank you a ton! I'll get the post set up and get back to you with the very imminent launch date right away. Great, great! ** Bill, Hi. Thanks about the ribs. Sucks. I've broken my ribs twice before, but never the ribs in my back before, and that location is a much bigger drag for some reason. Right, 'Zeroville', you like it? I've never read it. I read, I think, two Erickson novels, but early ones, I think. I think I liked them. I need to reinvestigate him. A week off, yay! ** Steevee, Thanks, Steve. Yeah, broken ribs are no fun. Watch your step. I read your top ten documentary list last night. Really interesting. I haven't seen a one of them yet. They all intrigue, I guess especially the first two due to their formal adventuring. Thanks! Everyone, Steevee has made a 2014 top ten best documentary films list for Fandor, and I read it last night, and it's very interesting and will make you want to watch some obviously very strong films, so I obviously recommend that you click this. Obviously, I'm curious to hear that Azealia Banks LP, and those are cogent points on your part, obviously. It is really bizarre and somehow telling how many gay guys refuse to accept bisexuality as a real thing. ** Mark Gluth, Hey, Mark! The trip was crazed great. If you ever get the chance to go Iceland and travel around, grab it fiercely. The broken ribs are a total drag, but, you know, what can you do but stuffer stoically or whatever. I'll have to ask Gisele about future theater piece shows. I know that 'Ktl' went really well in NYC, and I think she said that has lead to some new possible US gigs, but I'll try to find out when I see her. Yay, about the videos of you and MANCY! Can't wait to watch them very shortly. In the meantime, I'll share, duh. Everyone, Here's a serious treat. If you watch the two videos that I'll lead you towards in a moment, you'll get to see both author Mark Gluth and visual artist/musician MANCY aka Stephen Purtill reading/ performing recently in Bellingham, Washington at the launch gig for Mark's extraordinary new novel 'No Other'. Total fun and mindblow awaits on every level should first click this and then click this. Great! ** Kier, K-ster! I am back, yes! Yeah, the ribs thing sucks. I'm in pain right this very moment, though I'm trying not to let it show too much. Three weeks to feel better, but six weeks until I can pick up something heavy or shimmy and shake. Lucifer, ha ha, nice. Oh, I like both your shark and its swoony pose! Based on the photos, I think know what "karding/karing" is, or I mean I've seen it. It's boring? Favorite thing in Iceland, wow. I'll have to give you a handful, 'cos I can't pick one. Mm, riding ATVs wildly over lava fields and black sand beaches and through ponds and hidden valleys; snowmobiling on a glacier in the middle of blizzard; exploring an ice cave formed in/by a glacier; exploring a lava tube cave that was the inspiration for the cave to the center of the earth in 'Journey to the Center of the Earth'; our car getting stuck in the snow by this amazing thermal plant/factory at night and getting scared we would die there or something and then getting accidentally discovered and towed out by this guy we kind of believe was a troll or an elf. There were a lot of great things. My day yesterday was good. Zac and I met up with Kiddiepunk and Oscar B., and we went to the Paul McCarthy Chocolate Factory, which none of them had been to yet, and it was really great, and we had big fun. Then I hurried over to Pere Lachaise to meet up with the brilliant young UK filmmaker James Batley, whose work I've showcased here on the blog, to be filmed/interviewed in the pouring rain in front of a tomb for some website, and that was cool but awfully wet. By then my ribs were starting to kill me, so I limped home on the metro, pain-killered up, and tried to do some work. I bought Zac and me tickets to see Iceage. I texted with him and did sone emailing and stuff. Then ate, crashed. It wasn't a bad at all. How was your Tuesday, buddy? ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. Well, I would hope that he would have thought the Vines idea is a great idea because it is! I do remember that your favorite Viz character is Terry Fuckwitt, strangely. I'll check that new strip out. Everyone, here's _B_A: 'You may remember that my fave Viz comic character is Terry Fuckwitt. Maybe not, but he is, and there's a sublime strip been uploaded onto their website today. What I love is how very meta it is: each panel just flips the narrative as it goes along until the whole story collapses in on itself.' ** Keaton, Hey. I am. It's true. Oh, but I am a strange landscape myself, ha ha. Family ghost, whoa, like ... what did it, like, do or say or whatever? Sweet trip plans. Paris near Xmas time, it doesn't get no more beautiful here than it is then, seriously. Big hug back. ** Zach, Hi, Zach! it was totally really nice to see you outside the 'Ktl' show. Definitely. And that's so awesome that you not only liked it but liked it in such a sharp, awesome way. Stephen will of course love "the most metal shit i had ever seen", so I'll tell him. Thank you really a lot, man. Yeah, man, hang out here, let's blab about stuff. It would be great! ** Misanthrope, Big M and big G! Broken ribs are most highly not recommended as an injury even to those who seek injuries like some of those fellows yesterday. Really glad you dug 'Ktl' again. It sounds like you had a blast in NYC, very cool, and you obviously saw some sweet folks. My pleasure about the yen. Now I've got some Icelandic bills if those intrigue him at all. 6 of you, wow. Yikes. Good move on the home teaching. Little dude needs some exercise for his exciting brain, that's for sure. Great to be back and have you back too, buddy. ** Torn porter, Hi, man! Fim editing is underway, and we'll see. So far so good. As far as I can tell, the 'Ktl' shows went really well. We got nothing but excellent reviews, and that's unusual. The mood of my Autumn has been superb. It has. Broken ribs being the only fucked aspect, but hey. I have not seen 'Birdman'. Have you? Thoughts, if so? Much love back, and give my hearty wave to Ratty. Is she there with you? Where is she? ** Kyler, Hi! Oh, horror, 'Dennis lover', Jesus. I'm fighting the strong urge to retire that term, if that's the case. Ugh. Paris has good cemeteries, that's for sure. Full of exciting former people. Fingers crossed on the awards submissions! ** Okay. Today I give you my latest gig of music that I've been liking a whole lot in recent times, and that's the entire intro and explanation for the post, which is surely enough. See you tomorrow.