Sometimes the simplest things are the deepest and the most effective of all. A Simple Sadness, a split between Milwaukee units Apollo Vermouth and Skamp. The first one does a heavenly, minimalistic wall guitar drone while the latter play deconstructed punk with a neurotic math rock edge. It’s fiuckin messy and lo-fi as shit, as it’s supposed to be. As Apollo V. reminds us on their 15 minute monoliuth epic: DON’T BE SAD!
The new album by the Russian duo uSSSy is one of the most singularly uncompromising and stylistically fresh experimental rock releases of the last frew years. Merging the spastic kinetics of noise/math rock in the style of such acts as Hella or Noxagt with traditional Afghan music structures and guitar playing imitating Afghan instruments, Afghan Music House Party is a story of Soviet-Afghan conflict told after many years with an amplified, fuzzy aftertaste - like a modern day version of German Oak’s self-titled album, the 1972 krautrock “concept album” gem about Nazi Germany and WW2. If you enjoyed the blend of afrobeat and psych rock on Goat’s World Music, this album will be right up your alley. Highly, highly recommended!
(CD / Vinyl LP, Blunoise Records, 2012)
If that old 70’s jazz drumset mentioned by the musicians from Jealousy Mountain Duo on their Bandcamp page hasn’t taken a beating in its previous life, with its previous owners then if definitely took one with the drummer of this incredible free improv duo. The German micro-ensemble Jealousy Moutain Duo stormed the scene (and became Weed Temple’s favorites) back in 2011 with their highly energetic debut vinyl record, channeling the post-rock sensibilties through seemingly disjointed free jazz structures. Their newest release, titled simply “No_2” tries to one-up the previous album, by trying to sound even more energetic and spastic. And more melodic.
The opening “The Home of Easy Credit” unveils the intention of JMD very well: it is chaotic at first, but gradually exposes the scraps of pleasant, bucolic melody in a series of violent jerks punctuated by cymbal crashes and amphetaminic drum breaks, all submissive to the irregular, jagged rhythm filling almost every free space left. The guitar and the drums complement each other graeatly: while the strings remain largely ascetic in nature, rarely breaking into the spotlight, rather going for minimalistic strumming with mathematical precision, the drums keep growing in one explosion after another; never going mute or stale, always on the move, like a caged wild animal, seeking release from tension.
Tension is one of the main constructive forces behind the duo; the whole album is 95% keeping it, barely harnessing the power of instruments and 5% release. And when the release finally comes, it is THE RELEASE, in capital fucking letters, blowing up straight into the listener’s face (or in this case: ears), getting off the hook and losing all limits. This is when the post-rock deconstruction transforms itself into a noise rock monster. Like in the shortie-but-goodie “All Day Blizzard”, in which from a series of false starts and sudden jerks rises an atomic monster of a riff, only to be stopped seconds later and forced into free improv again. “All Day Blizzard” is a personal favorite of mine, showing what the duo can do once they leave the constraints of improvisation for a moment and go for a more traditional riff - the power of those few micro-riffs appear to parallel and challenge even those of Lightning Bolt or Hella, which shows the band’s incredible expertise in displaying power.
They are hiding their power well, but I hope one day they just won’t keep the tension any longer and will make a truly explosive album with those superpowers of theirs.
Mathematic power trio from Richmond, VA make music that has every right to be considered technical and expert-like in its execution, yet it doesn’t sound cold, austere or dryly academic. It’s math rock, yet it retains the warm, human feel some math rock bands lose in favor of scientific precision. The sound is close to earth and accessible, yet complex and multi-layered. What Battles might have sounded like if it consisted of talented small town folk with a feel of “local” exp rock instead of avant-garde experimentators.
Until not so long ago, I was one of the many to consider Polish music scene a burned-out wasteland only filled with third-grade, watered-down post-grunge and sung poetry talentless fucks with no vision (or knowledge) of music other than the most maisntream rock music imaginable. Thankfully, it turned out, I was very wrong and gradually I started discovering bands so out of the ordinary and so looking forward it made my head spin. Among many discoveries was a Szczecin noise rock outfit Kristen which exists since 1997 - 15 years of existnce makes them veterans of the scene, doesn’t it?
This review is of a four-track EP I acquired in physical form after their free concert in a small art gallery. It was recorded in December 2010 and released at some point in 2011 by probably the most forward-thinking Polish label (next only to Sangoplasmo Records, maybe) Lado ABC, who also released Kristen’s latest full-length, Western Lands The first three tracks on An Accident follow a similar formula. The initially bucolic and slow post-rock (as in: early, 90’s post-rock, but almost pop in their melodic happiness) melodies are gradually strangled by walls of improvised guitar noise, which can be placed somewhere between Keiji Haino’s brutal workouts and Thurston Moore’s solo work. For example, in the opening title track, the calm baritone guitar line is chopped and slashed by a series of abstract drum breakdowns and feedbacking, droning guitar. The following “The Grid” and “The Mist” build up the tension by layering walls of noise (often played in tremolo) on almost poppy framework of the song.
The whole tension is relieved, however, on the explosive closing track “Hold Me”. An amphetamine monster of a bassline is supported by maniacal, precise drumming and a plethora of noisy guitar effects, ranging from jangly, ear-shattering tremolos to walls of sustained guitar feedback noise, seeminlgy gaining their own will separately from the guitarist. This was even more powerful live, with me thrashing around right in front of the band while the other people in the gallery just kind of stood there semi-interested, bobbing their heads politely, as if embarassed to make any kind of movement that would differentiate themselves from the surrounding inanimate walls. But you know what? Fuck them. Kristen is awesome, and this EP is a document of what they can do live. I just can hope they record more tracks like “Hold Me” in the future.
Like a team of highly skiller guerilla fighters, the technical math rock unit Mother Night attacks suddenly and quits suddenly, parts of aggressive, mathematically precise hardcore punk mix with electronic weirdness and psychedelic rock trippiness into a truly explosive mix of refreshing rock ideas. Heavy shit, man. Recommended. And availbale for free download!
While the German label BluNoise Records might be more known the the fans of “out there” music for the vicious, angular noise rock of Nicoffeine (whose Lighthealer Stalking Flashplayer I reviewed), relentless guitar destruction is not their only forte. The self-titled LP by Jealousy Mountain Duo is a foray into the world of abstract, mathematic guitar-based free improv that sounds like the deconstruction of 1990’s math rock and post-rock groups from the United States. Jealousy Mountain Duo walk the line between improvisational chaos and beautiful, captivating semi-melodies.
In keeping with the math rock and free improv traditions, the music here is technically proficient, the rhythms are tight and the snakelike guitar noodling precise, but there is always place for playfulness and a specific sense of humor - like the wonderfully Don Caballero-esque titles “David Has Awesome Hair” or “A Song Without Handclaps”. Berger and Scheider create some intense chemistry here, jumping from slightly muted, calmer interludes to fully blown out, chaotic maelstorm further propelled by maniacal drum patterns, that follow each other like a late Autechre (late, as in Untilted late) jam rewritten for drums and guitar. Clusters of seemingly chaotic guitar notes range from somewhat pastoral (like a distant cousin of Tortoise) to aggressively distorted and mangled, channeling a slightly less amplified Keiji Haino at his finest - although even more random and unpredictable.
If you enjoy improvised guitar vs. drum duels in the vein of Matta Gawa (but not as lo-fi) and abstraction of highest order without much idea of direction (in the most positive sense, of course), then this is essential listening.
The fresh, new album from the Danish freewheelin’ stoner math rock collective Birthgiving Toad. As Fruit Hat is a collection of 10 songs that are wonderfully, anarchically atonal yet funky and rockin’ at the same time. Burning hard rock solos find common ground with vintage organ workouts and fragmented, deconstructed structure in the vein of rock music’s great experimentalists. A good effort that should be sooner or later noticed.
A hypnotic endurance test from the early days of legendary dopamine rockers Lightning Bolt. Originally recorded during the band’s early days in 1997, “20” is slightly over 20 minutes of maniacal drumming and deafeningly overdriven bass guitar carnage playing in a simple, trance-like manner. Like Pharaoh Overlord snorting half of Colombia instead of smoking half of the Netherlands. Essential for all LB fans.
