No Ripcord: Kraftwerk

Kraftwerk
The Catalogue: Four Decades of Masterworks
Kling Klang/EMI/Mute/Astralwerks
CD/Download Released: 10.6.09
CD & Vinyl Box Set: 11.24.09


No Ripcord review
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Letters From A Tapehead

Shopping For Records #16 (Reprise): The Only Music You’ll Have Time To Hear Is That Of Miles Davis Pt. II...

Miles Davis’s 71 CD set, The Complete Columbia Album Collection, is out in time for Christmas and exclusively available at Amazon. As I wrote back in September, I believe this set to be overkill, but it’s still impressive and beautifully packaged and guaranteed to be an overwhelming listen.

It does, however, demonstrate exactly how amazing Miles Davis was. How many musicians can claim to be so prolific as to boast this many works of pure genius? The man was an extraordinary gift. Whether Columbia/Legacy honor the artist with this release, or see it as an opportunity to capitalize on Davis when other labels are so quick to do the same, these albums will always be something to treasure.



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Letters From A Tapehead

What I Heard This Morning: Charlotte Gainsbourg & Beck

I understand her peppy, art snob appeal; her wit and bilingual intellect. Charlotte Gainsbourg owns that “thing” that makes her seem interesting enough to star in a surrealistic video with Beck, that thing that made Michel Gondry go, “Yes, she should be in The Science Of Sleep.” I, unfortunately, haven’t been able to get around her painfully dull performance in Jane Eyre.


But, “Heaven Can Wait,” is at least as interesting and vibrant as most Beck songs typically are. The video is strange, but the intended irony just sort of makes the video’s oddities seem more annoying than special. Listen to the song.



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Letters From A Tapehead

Shining: Fisheye...

Norwegian “progressive” quartet, (“Progressive” because there’s no other close to suitable English word that properly categorizes or describes this band), Shining, is releasing their new album, Blackjazz in early February 2010.



Being a fan of their last album, 2007’s Grindstone, I have only the highest hopes for Blackjazz, though I’m quick to keep my skepticism at an all-time high. Grindstone was a ridiculous album in and of itself: odd, chaotic, loud, fractured and beautiful all at once. It’s going to be a tough album to outdo, though I guess in the rare instance that a creative force manages to author its own language, potential for greatness is easier to attain.



“Fisheye,” a song from their new album, features the band as a group of funk-driven industrial mad hatters, stomping the veritable fuck out of the audience with panache and intensity. And sure, why not throw a little Steve Mackay Stooges sax soloing in there? Go ahead. The genre-mash runs rampant enough, why not add some jazz?

The album is being released by Indie Recordings.

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Letters From A Tapehead

Boris: Japanese Heavy Rock Hits trailer for Volume 3...

This month, the third volume of Boris’s 7” series, Japanese Heavy Rock Hits, will be released. A trailer featuring a snippet of the song, "16:47:52…,” is up to boost your anticipation while lowering your mood slightly.



If you missed it, the review for the series can be found here.



Sincerely,
Letters From A Tapehead

The Mailbox Giveth: Shrinebuilder & Pelican

Shrinebuilder
s/t
Neurot Recordings
Released: 10.27.09

Pelican
What We All Come To Need
Southern Lord
Released: 10.27.09


I realize that seeing a word like “Iommic” in relation to any band basically says it all. When I checked out their artist page over at the Neurot Recordings website, this word was applied to the supergroup, Shrinebuilder, as a way to perfectly illustrate the sort of mesmerizing sludge they conjure on their self-titled debut. But I think sometimes these overused one-word descriptors shortchange a band. At this point, the unending presence of Black Sabbath within hard rock and metal is as inescapable as The Beatles in pop and rock music. Metal is a genre that Tony Iommi fashioned and pioneered with a deft hand and a uniquely dark vision. It’s too seminal to outrun. So, maybe we retire Iommi-as-riff for the sake of Shrinebuilder and instead focus on the brand of epic gloom and theological introspection that they’ve created because, honestly, this album is too good for clever all-encompassing genre-specific adjectives.

Shrinebuilder is comprised of metal legend Scott “Wino” Weinrich, Melvins drummer, Dale Crover, bassist Al Cisneros (Sleep, Om) and guitarist Scott Kelly (Neurosis). With what seems to be an almost complete absence of egos, Shrinebuilder is a sum of pioneering abilities that aim for a new beginning. Though obvious and relatively predictable in terms of their heft and inclination toward the metallic aural odyssey, Shrinebuilder strings together an exact combination of the artists and their respective styles in almost too perfect a way.

With as much blustery might as anything Sabbath or Zeppelin pulled off, and as much exploratory perseverance as Pink Floyd or Hawkwind, “Solar Benediction” rocks, stomps and drifts into a weeping series of guitar solos. The passion is breathtaking, but loud enough to keep the pulse pounding.

“We stand burning before you/Returning wisdom with blood…”

The wistful “Pyramid of the Moon” and shadowy motion of “Blind For All To See” makes for one of the best sequenced pairings I’ve heard this year, the energy rising and falling enough between the two to keep the persistence interesting. “Blind For All To See” in particular has an entrancing rhythm with elements building up, sonic weight and bells that grow in volume without ever exploding into an expected payoff. Instead, “The Architect” takes all the conventional wisdom of a rock n’ roll riff and utilizes it to release any pent up aggression. Cisneros’s bass line leads into what would otherwise be another song, but my incomplete promo copy doesn’t come up with the final track. Based on the four out of five songs I’ve heard, I can only hope that Shrinebuilder’s debut leads the band into many sequels.

”Pyramid of the Moon”

Also plunging into the depths of the swampy metallic riff, instru-metalists Pelican draw from their own time-space continuum, not so much in the stoner/occult sense but as the “winds of destiny” dance notes throughout their newest offering, What We All Come To Need.

Pelican take a mostly straight-line approach with their music. Beginning with the mid-tempo slam of “Glimmer,” they allow themselves to drift, jam, wallow, relax and energize in an organized array of amplification. Pelican’s music has strength in a more life affirming kind of way, which isn’t to say that they allow you see God or help you lose weight, but that they possess a rugged durability that seems to carry on in spite of whatever. It’s motivational in that sense.

As Pelican come to further represent the more progressive aspects of metal music, (the presence of Sunn O)))’s Greg Anderson and Isis’s Aaron Turner making perfect sense), they also present an alternative to the somewhat typical and calamitous aspects of being dark and demonic. “The Creeper” has somewhat of a Southern articulation, “Ephemeral” is high-timbre guitar rock and “Specks Of Light” seems to chew on Kyuss’s desert sand a bit. Songs like “Strung Up From The Sky” and “An Inch Above Sand” play loud n’ heavy against ethereal tones, while the title track seems to play around with Alice In Chains’s “Sludge Factory,” a similar structuring and sound borrowing a bit from the 90s alterna-kitty.

Allen Epley (Shiner, Life & Times) provides the album its only vocal expression with “Final Breath.” The track has a slow burn, Epley a rather graceful presence amidst heavy bass rhythm and near-dissonant guitar soloing. The album ends with high frequency winds and sporadic guitar cutting through what remains of its colossal storm.



Sincerely,
Letters From A Tapehead

Animal Collective: In The Flowers

In terms of clever self-promotion, including a lyric like “I like this song” in your single gets marks for effort. Even better, though? Spell out your lyric in magnetic letters.



The new video for Animal Collective’s not-so new single, “In The Flowers,” is predictably trippy and doesn’t do much to enhance the song’s already celebratory throb. Amateur ballet dancers? Eh. To be honest, Merriweather Post Pavilion's optical illusion of an album cover better expresses the creative surge that courses through AC's music. If nothing else, at least the song is good.



Sincerely,
Letters From A Tapehead

Them Crooked Vultures: It’s out there, so get consumin’...

I know that I’ve been rather aggressive with the Them Crooked Vultures coverage, but to my credit, they keep putting out video announcements with music. They should rename this band, Them Crooked YouTube Whores:



Also, there’s an interview with Josh Homme over at the Record Store Day website.

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Letters From A Tapehead

What I Heard This Morning: Hush Arbors

As Hush Arbors, folk musician Keith Wood has found himself a nice and cozy spot with Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and Dinosaur Jr.’s J. Mascis. His latest album, Yankee Reality, is out now on Moore’s Ecstatic Peace! label with Mascis acting as its producer. The album itself is a poppy mixture of psych-country and folk that focuses solely on storytelling and really sells his attention to melody.





Mascis also collaborates with Wood on “Day Before,” his raw and unmistakable six-string squeal cutting through the walls of acoustic guitar:

”Day Before”

May as well through some distortion in as well:

”The Devil Made You High”

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Letters From A Tapehead

Them Crooked Vultures: Nobody Loves Me & Neither Do I

The ever-distinct brand of Josh Homme continues to shine even under his latest endeavor, Them Crooked Vultures. As excited as I was to hear "New Fang" when it went public, this live performance of "Nobody Loves Me & Neither Do I" injects me with rock n' roll glee: wild rhythmic change-ups and guitar riffs that sneer and flaunt their cleverness and vitality like a stiff middle-finger to FM radio. John Paul Jones is almost in Zeppelin rebellion, having to begin again since rock radio killed "Stairway," and having a great time doing it. I'm even ready to forgive Dave Grohl for the The Foo Fighters after hearing this one.





Sincerely,
Letters From A Tapehead

What I Heard This Morning: Dinowalrus

Already hearing some noise for next year, Brooklyn sound-grinders, Dinowalrus, swat the dust off the Cuisinart and process some weird shit together.

Mostly a garage-based melodic take on New York City No Wave, (more Suicide than Teenage Jesus; more James Chance than D.N.A.), Dinowalrus takes unpredictable rhythmic liberties with bass-driven funk and even industrial-sized power metal. It's as if they've sampled the more impressive loops of twenty or thirty years worth of genre-defining New York amazement and mashed them into another unconventional future sound. The guitar riffs for "Electric Car, Gas Guitar" sound legitimately pulled from any Ramones show, as do the Talking Heads-thick bass licks from "Bead."


"Nuke Duke 'Em"

"Nuke Duke 'Em" (Remixed by The Mae Shi)

"Bead"

"Electric Car, Gas Guitar"

Their album, %, is due out in January 2010.

Sincerely,
Letters From A Tapehead