Midnight Moodswings & Seiswork - The Dopamine Recursive EP

Midnight Moodswings is, as they put it on their Facebook page "... an increment from the confusion and seclusion that "Radio for the Daydreamers" have created. Imaginary people telling imaginary stories to imaginary listeners."

Keeping up the highly enigmatic front that RftD presented, attempting to find info on "Midnight Moodswings" leads to one chasing one's tail. Is Midnight Moodswings a band or a person? I've no idea, but I suspect that RftD and MM are one and the same, as both have their cover art contributed by Fractured Fractals aka Aki Srivastava...possibly, and of course, he may even be the protagonist. Maintaining such an air of mystery can be no easy thing in this day and age of instant access to information, and that is probably the point, so I will forgive what I may have initially thought to be merely a pretentious ruse.

"Seiswork" aka Clément Parmentier (no chasing shadows there, then) is a Belgian producer and musician who has loaned his knob-twiddling, and no doubt, mouse pad abilities to the project, having already worked with RftD, and Aphex Twin amongst others. 

Of course, identity mysteries aside, what we're here for is the music...



While the name "Midnight Moodswings" sounds uncannily like a Herb Alpert album title, the music here is coming from a much darker place, as Fractured Fractals' splendid artwork attests. These sombre minimalistic vignettes of urban angst and displacement laid bare before us are best summed up by the band themselves with a quote like "The pavements are stitched together with one predicament after another", as they put it on the Bandcamp page.

With one-off lines like that it is a shame that there are no lyrics on this album, as Mr Moodswings appears to be more than capable of writing introspective and enlightening poetry if the whole passage I lifted that quotation from is anything to go by.

A weary piano motif forms the backdrop for subtle percussion and effects on opener The Floor Is, and anyone familiar with RftD's sonic palette will know what to expect, albeit bolstered by Seiswork's modernistic flourishes that serve to inform the aural canvas with some intricate and diverting details.

Hints of children's voices fleetingly swirl through A Good Place and for a brief moment optimism emerges blinking into the shrouded halflight.

The overriding instrumental backdrop to this EP is indeed minimalistic and mostly minor key piano and sometimes guitar, overlaid with ghostly electronic atmospherics, and on To Sleep I am put in mind of Robert Smith's more darkly ambient moments from the Pornography era.

It is probably intentionally ironic that dopamine is a neurotransmitter that helps control the brain's reward and pleasure centres, as fun seems in short supply. When You Cannot briefly lifts above the gloom to become merely melancholic, which in the context of this work is as close to upbeat as you're going to get.

Recursive of course is a word that describes the nature of stories (for example) that borrow from one another, and in that sense the themes throughout are reflecting each other. You can tell that Seiswork has collaborated with the Aphex Twin in the past from the repeated polyrhythms that appear on that same track, When You Cannot, and in other bursts of electronic percussion throughout. 

Tell The Difference has a rhythm track that sounds like it is based around the percussion of a dead-eye pool ball shot, and is really quite effective. The music in this piece reverts to the stately piano with guitar, this time joined by a bass guitar set to high treble. Overlaying this is either synth noises or treated guitar notes. The whole thing while musically simple is highly atmospheric.

As with everything here, it is best listened to with some concentration on headphones. As background music it will simply pass on by without making much impression. But, that's how I like my music; it should be there to be thought about, as well as satisfying some inner need. This is music as art, and the mystery surrounding this "band" (let's assume it is a band) is all part of the package.

Suddenly there is a voice...Between Night And Day commences with a pulpit preacher intoning through the murk "How terrible it will be for those who call evil good and good evil, who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness", which is a Biblical quote from Isaiah. The tune itself delves even deeper into Robert Smith's history, the slightly flanged bass guitar being highly reminiscent of Faith-era Cure. Ironic that, given the Bible quote, don't you think? I almost hope it was intentional!

All in all The Dopamine Recursive is a highly atmospheric introduction to the unfathomable world of Midnight Moodswings, as we leave stage left to the sound of high pitched synth winds. Herb Alpert was never like this.

This EP is a taster for a full album, which should be worth a listen, methinks.

Tracklist:
1. The Floor Is 5:33
2. A Good Place 3:27
3. Interlude- Numb As Numbers 2:09
4. To Sleep 4:52
5. When You Cannot 4:03
6. Interlude- Alas! Time Never Flies 2:09
7. Tell The Difference 4:52
8. Between Night And Day 3:50
9. Outro- My Problem With Daylight 2:24


Total running time - 33:25

Line up:
To paraphrase Toyah, "It's a mystery"

Sh*tg*n - Sh*tg*n

MoonJune Records are a label who love to take risks with hitherto little-known bands from all corners of the globe. A linking theme seems to be jazz-fusion or jazz-rock, either as the main element or as a fairly large influence.

Claiming to be "Psychotic Pompous Contemporary Heavy Metal" on their website, Sh*tg*n (pronounced, maybe disappointingly, "Shotgun") take the MoonJune template and shred it with an angle-grinder before gleefully dancing on the remains. To say this album is atypical of this fine label's output is somewhat of an understatement!

This band are undoubtedly heavy metal, but in a genre with as many confusing sub-strata as the Ganges Delta has tributaries, these angry Belgian loons seem to have created their very own niche. Name me another metal band that prominently features the vibraphone, if you can. I'm no expert in this murky nether region of rock'n'roll, but I'm guessing there aren't any. This strange coming together of jazz, punk, metal, and modern classical is the result of the very different backgrounds of the players, whom, as it says in the press release, just want to "let it all out".

The blackly humourous cover above and the track titles below give more than a hint of the vituperative nature of this odd band, who along with the vibraphone and electric piano feature the standard rock band line up that provides the backing for the idiosyncratic lead vocals of Fulco Ottervanger, who, in his high-register voice sometimes sings, fairly often screams, and occasionally delves into cookie monster territory. Imagine if you will Bon Scott doing a barbed-wire gargling version of Whole Lotta Rosie - Fulco's style takes a bit of getting used to, for sure. When he sings rather than shreds the band deliver a hard rock/punk/jazz-metal hybrid that shows the influence of Black Flag and the heavier side of The Mars Volta, but with less unnecessary convolutions in the time signature department than the alt-prog behemoths. The compositions here can be complex or straightforward or a combination of the two, but you could never accuse this group of being pretentious.

Recorded live with no subsequent edits or overdubs, the obviously very well-rehearsed musicians are given free reign to express themselves, and their wildly different backgrounds - band leader and keyboard player Antione Guenet has played with fusion band The Wrong Object for example - clash together in a maelstrom of metallic righteous anger. Or, to put it another way, if John Coltrane was a vibraphone player and he had invented heavy metal, it might have sounded like this.

While 99% of metal bands these days, that I'm aware of at least (ok, that's not many I'll admit, metal not being my particular poison of choice) tend to go in for low-register grunting and downtuned guitars, this lot go in for high-register screeching and normally tuned guitars, and it does make a refreshing change to an over-used and tired formulaic approach that was probably one of the reasons Opeth so spectacularly changed tack on their last two albums.



Yannick de Pauw shows that he can deliver more than just fast'n'slow slab riffing with a solo dipped in all kinds of psychedelic substances on A Glimpse Into Eternity (hear it up there ^) that puts me in mind of Omar from The Mars Volta.  This song shows that there is far more to this odd bunch than dull metal cliché, and for me it is one of the more likeable tracks from the album.

The most visceral of the lyrics are reserved for Esta Mierda No Est Democracia, a song with a Spanish title (This Shit Is Not Democracy) part sung in French and Dutch, as if trying to throw us off the scent. Actually, stench is probably a better word as the song rants and rails, with choice bursts of venom like "..with their brainless ideas you get nothing but crap coming out of their fucking mouths" being one of the more printable translations from this fiery sermon against the austerity cuts and capitalism in general (I think!). Don't you just wish you still had that youthful exuberance?! A very Black Flag influence abounds on this particular ditty, the riff in particular.

A youthful punky attitude is apparent throughout, and this is probably an album the younger listener would appreciate more than me, although there is something here for any lover of out-and-out spleen-venting set to suitable angry noises. If MoonJune are looking at attracting a younger customer, then this may well be the album to do it.

Find out more at MoonJune Records

Track listing:
Dead Baby (2:06)
Deejays Should Have Low Self-Esteem (4:24)
Eyjafjallajokull (3:18)
Shitgun (4:19)
Camera Obscura (6:17)
Shotgun (Afraid Of) (3:58)
Save Us From Bloody Women (1:07)
Erase Her Dad (3:01)
A Glimpse Into Eternity (4:31)
Esta Mierda No Es Democracia (3:12)
J33 (I Don't Wanna See) (4:42)
Black Beetle (7:58)


Line up:

Antoine Guenet - Keyboards, Vocals

Fulco Ottervanger- Lead vocals

Wim Segers- Vibraphones

Yannick de Pauw - Guitars

Dries Geusens - Bass

Simon Segers - Drums

Jay Tausig - The Trip Around The Sun

Or, to give it its full title:

The Art Of Ed Unitsky And The Music Of Jay Tausig

A Cosmic Journey Through The Zodiac

The Trip Around The Sun

One of the reasons I got into this reviewing lark was to satisfy an addiction for the new, the unheard. Well, this guy has made me realise that there are never going to be enough hours in the day, days in year, or years in a lifetime to do much more than scratch at the surface of the music that is out there. OK, I kind of realised that the hours and hours of music released every year, even within a genre, far surpasses the time available to any one individual to experience even a modest percentage of it. However, Jay Tausig alone alone has a discography that makes me go “woah!” A casual glance at his website reveals he has made 7 albums since 2004, as well as numerous appearances on various tribute albums, the first being 1995’s VdGG tribute Eyewitness, to which Jay contributed three songs. I bought this album when it came out, but in those pre-internet days it was difficult to find out who these mostly obscure artists were; Jay included. The fact that this appears to be the first generally released music by Jay is ironic in that until now he had disappeared under my radar. There may well be serendipity involved.

Anyway, rambling aside you may wonder why releasing 7 albums in 7 years is such a daunting prospect, and it is because added to that is his 2012 magnum opus (and if ever that phrase was justified it is now) The Trip Around The Sun, which as you can see from the listing above so far comprises 6 full-length albums, each dedicated to a sign of the Zodiac, and obviously there are 6 more to come! On top of that there is Jay’s third solo album Delirium scheduled for release this year. So much for the slacker new-age generation, then, eh? I’ll let Jay explain the writing processes involved:

The writing process for this project could be described as "Record as I Write". Getting the initial energy of a performance is very important to the way it ultimately flows, and sounds. Much of this music is built up from complete performances on any one given instrument...usually improvised and intuitive. A great deal of this is First Take.
Also, about 50 % of it is written "on the spot" this year, as we go. Whenever delving into other material from the last few years, the "timestamps" on the file allow me know when a particular song was recorded...because capturing the essence and feeling of any particular sign has turned out to be the ultimate focus and goal. The Guests are usually doing their work during their "Birth Sign" as well...Synchronicity is one of the things that makes so much of this project unique and special.
It's a journey, not so much a collection of songs, but an intuitive, highly focused, music and art road map to the myths and properties of the 12 Astrological signs.....

So there you have it; the music on these albums is ever-expanding in a way akin to our universe, and you can leap in anywhere you want and trip off to your heart’s content, which is just as well, as I doubt anyone is going to sit through all 12 instalments in one sitting. Recorded in the gorgeously named Studio Lemuria in Nevada City, northern California, Jay has composed and played nearly everything and is a more than capable drummer as well as a guitarist and keyboard player. He probably made the tea too. Assisting him throughout the series are various vocalists, such as “Rhi-Jenerate” and “Thom World Poet” to name but two who contribute singing and spoken word interludes linking the star signs to the cosmic wonderment, all in a suitably otherworldly fashion. Thom writes some of the lyrics, as does Keith Waye, but if I were to list all the movers’n’shakers we would be here all night! Contributing his trademark visually intense artwork throughout is Ed Unitsky, and this alone is a trip in itself.

The first thought that makes itself known to me, as I sit here typing away with part 6 Cancer - Shell of Silver and the Beehive Heart blasting away is how on Earth…or indeed in Space… can anyone write so much music in what appears to be a relatively short time and not run out of ideas? Well, I’m just going to have to immerse myself in the far-out world of Mr Tausig to find out, am I not?

Let’s rewind to the beginning, Aquarius. After the sultry-voiced intro from Ms Rhi-Jenerate, written by Remy Kiehn-Lindsey, as are all the cosmic astrological pronouncements, Uranus starts things off with a gentle space rock vibe that hots up into a percussion led charge through the dark matter. Jay plays all the instruments on this first album, from the bass-led thundering The Eleventh Hour to vibraphones (?) on Water Bearer he shows a fine ear for melody and subtlety as well as psych wig-out, the latter writ large on Amethyst. Then there’s the complex math-rock extrapolations of the title track The Revolutionist, and we’re only half-way through the first album!

Other names you might recognise helping Jay out are Billy Sherwood & Bridget Wishart (Pisces), who contributed to the writing of and play on the 8 minute space-prog mini-epic Twisting The Tail which has touches of Yes swimming with Gong, like a couple of playful dolphins. Lovely! Now, Let’s Focus On The Fish that follows is a fully-formed song of deft subtlety that gently scatters off in all directions in the middle in the manner of a disturbed shoal, before reforming, led by a simple organ-riff. Although not at all stylistically similar, and Jay’s voice is not at all related, I can somehow imagine Arthur Brown singing this. West Coast vibes with some nice clarinet from Bridget and acoustic guitar inform Vast Ocean Dream (Reprise) and this album has already taken a turn off the highway of space-rock. Strangely, the Reprise appears before the first version on the album but both are fine examples of blissed-out acid-folk. On Fins And Scales we change tack to feature some rather fine soaring guitar reminiscent of Be-Bop Deluxe era Bill Nelson. It’s the melding of styles to the themes of each star sign that works so well, and stops the project from being repetitive, as the aquatic nature of Pisces washing over the listener testifies.

Kerry Chicoine (aka Kerry Kompost) ex of Mars Hollow crops up on his song Vernal Equinox playing sax, guitar and bass on Aries – The Fire Within which is a varied album, moving from the hard riffage of opener Aries Ignited to the whimsical space-rock instrumental Focus And Flame, which has a Green era Hillage feel to it, to the fluid and funky guitar of Bill Berends on Aries Fire Horse. Some nice violin on this album is contributed by Cyndee Lee Rule, a classically trained violinist who has played with everyone from Dave Kerman to Nik Turner and most points in between, along with being a member of Spirits Burning, as is Bridget Wishart.

Taurus – Roots Of The Earth is full of some great dub reggae melded into space rock, with a guest appearances by the suitably named Natty Congo, who lends his throaty proclamations to Glorious Dub, and sundry others on this fine album. Space rock goes Rasta on Ode To Venus amongst swirls of ‘erb an’ t’ing…sorry I and I are getting a bit carried away. For someone who says this is his first skank with de reggae, Jay has got the sinuous bass riffs and the reverb guitar chord-chopping on the off-beat down like a seasoned pro. So far, this is my favourite album of the series; I’m almost dancing, which for me is pretty radical. Contributing drum programming to Glorious Dub is Steffe Sharpstrings, a name no doubt familiar to fans of free festival stalwarts Here & Now. I haven’t listened to much dub since the days of The Clash, and it sure brings back some memories; now, where’s that Blackbeard LP? Stoned reggae rhythms permeate this album like a warm embrace, and boy, is it smoky in here! Yeah, mon indeed.

Gemini - The Chaos And The Calm promises some good contrast but doesn’t quite deliver, and maybe misses an opportunity for a dose of schizoid aural delights. There are only 6 tracks on this 80 minute album, and the closer Two Sides To Every Coin part 2 is 43 minutes long! Kicking the album off, Two Sides To Every Coin part 1 at a mere 12 minutes fades in from some far-off galactic outpost, meditational chanting over more strung-out guitar hints that we have latched on to a trip that has been going on for aeons, A Mass In ∞ if you will, and this is how the album continues. Mirabel, while still strung-out gets more dissonant with some good sax squawking leading the way. Chaos And Calm tends more towards the latter than the former, but features some really good ivory-tinkling for all that. Two Sides To Every Coin part 2 is a gigantic Om Riff, Jay’s spoken and Kimberley Bass’s sung lyrics flitting in and out of the mix as synths swirl and occasional saxes blow looooonnnng notes. This is the kind of thing that would make perfect listening on a train journey across a hot foreign landscape, blissful as it is, yet eerie at the same time.

On Cancer, the first instalment of the two-part song Shell of Silver and the Beehive Heart mixes a distinctly angular Hammill vibe with solid riffing and melodic keys in a manner that gets me headbangin’ like the old days…well it would if I wasn’t afraid of putting my neck out; a really good and unusual take on the given space-rock template. Jay’s admits that Hammill was a big influence on him in his website notes to the aforementioned Eyewitness compilation, and that is no bad thing at all. The second part is more conventional slow-paced space-rock with some nice guitar work by Jay, whose acid-tinged and rough-edged style contrasts nicely with the highly melodic nature of the synth-led backing. This is probably the most “prog” of the albums so far, and on Shelter a quirky bass line takes the languid astral guitar along a different path from the one you might be expecting. That song is one of many on the project where Jay plays everything, and while “one-man-band” pieces can sometimes be a bit flat, that certainly is not the case on The Trip Around The Sun, a project of consistently high production values. A soulful vibe permeates everything, and The Trip has a lot of heart too.

There are many moods and styles covered in the first 6 albums that have so far been released and enough good ideas and imagination to hold ones interest which is a feat in itself for such a long piece of work.

Hopefully my “pick’n’mix” review has whetted your appetite, and you may be wondering how much what will in all probability end up being around 14 hours of music is going to cost? Well, during 2012 for a mere $30 you can subscribe to the whole lot as downloads, which sounds like a bargain to me. There are a load of goodies thrown in too, follow the link to Subscription details for more info.

Album list:

Aquarius – The Revolutionist (1:00:03)

Pisces – Vast Ocean Dream (1:12:08)

Aries – The Fire Within (1:11:09)

Taurus – Roots Of The Earth (1:12:14)

Gemini – The Chaos And The Calm (1:19:08)

Cancer – Shell Of Silver And The Beehive Heart (1:15:24)

Amon Düül II - Phallus Dei

Another album from my formative musical years...

Way back in the early 70s Liberty Records ran a budget subsidiary called Sunset that reissued albums from the mid to late 60s at less than half the price of the “proper” Liberty versions. Among the endless middle of the road American pop featured on this label were a few albums by Canned Heat and The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, and most curious of all Phallus Dei by Amon Düül II.

To a young lad barely into his teenage years, having sampled the “whites play the blues” of Canned Heat and chuckled at “the blues playing the whites” of the Bonzos, this strange looking slab of vinyl was too much to resist. Of course I had no idea of what might lay within the single sleeve of this low-price offering, and even less idea of what “Phallus Dei” actually meant. Needless to say I don’t think my church-going parents were overly impressed, but being liberal in outlook they did at least allow me to keep it.

Anyway, that is the story of how I came into possession of what remains to this day one of the strangest but most compelling 40 minutes of music in my now vast music collection.

Now for the review (“at last” I hear you cry!)….

Amon (from the Egyptian sun god) Düül (a German-Turkish derivative of Moon) were a 60s student hippy commune based in Munich, in what was then West Germany. Among their various expressions of free living they occasionally performed rudimentary music where anything went, and being at all proficient was more of a hindrance than a way in to one of their performances, which were mainly for their own amusement anyway. 

Guitarist and violinist Chris Karrer, frustrated at the lack of direction, along with John Weinzierl (guitars) Falk Rogner (organ), Dieter Serfas (drums) and Renate Knaup (vocals) broke away to form a more focussed musical unit, adding the suffix “II” to the commune name possibly to maintain their links with the ideology that also gave birth to the notorious Red Army Faction. Four albums worth of material recorded by the original Amon Düül in one long session in 1968 were later released by Metronome on the back of II’s success, and all I can say about them is avoid like the plague. They did make one “proper” album, Paradisewärts Düül, which is ok, but really only for the Krautrock aficionado.

So, what we have here is no ordinary rock’n’roll band, and you also have to remember that the nascent German underground music scene did not start from a launching pad of American blues as did their counterparts across The Channel and further across the Atlantic ocean.  This meant that the music of Amon Düül II did not sound like anything that had gone before, and along with compatriots Can with their Monster Movie album can be said to have created Krautrock from…well nothing at all really, a sort of Deutsch musikalischer Urknall if you will.

From the opening slow march of Kanaan one is transported back to the heady idealistic days of ultra-leftist politics, free psychedelics, and even freer music. If there is an olfactory form of synesthesia then to a sufferer this record must reek of pots of simmering psilocybin. Chris Karrer’s cod-operatic falsetto intones the first lines of the poem Dem Guten Schönen Wahren (To The True, The Beautiful, The Good) over eerie organ, guitars and violin backing. The production is sludgy and righteous as the song descends to an outer ring of Hell while Chris whoops and hollers as the Shaman-with-mad-eyes. 

Dominating the music is the dual drum line up, where, along with Dieter’s conventional kit and electric cymbals, Holger Trülzsch is pounding away at Turkish hand drums. This gives proceedings a distinctly tribal feel, as the guitar and violin are used primarily (and primitively it has to be said) in a rhythmic capacity. Luzifer’s Ghilom introduces Renate Knaup’s ethereal backing vocals, swooping around like a mythical bird of prey while Chris intones gibberish words like he means it baby. This is a Germanic mini-operetta featuring naked painted bodies shuffling in stoned ritual around and around a huge burning fire, where perhaps a sacrifice was made, who knows? Henriette Krötenschwanz rounds off side one with two minutes of Teutonic folk song with a military backbeat. Strangely strange but oddly normal.

You cannot imagine a modern mainstream record label letting one of its bands release an album called God’s Penis can you? Such was the artistic freedom allowed at the end of the 60s however, that Liberty execs were probably patting themselves on the back for being well hip cats. Phallus Dei sprawls all over side two of this chunk of parallel universe space-rock like a louche b-movie actor strung out on a massive LSD trip. Partly structured, partly insane this is the sound that you are not supposed to hear, a bit like seeing that tree that was supposedly unobserved fall over in the forest. It makes a nonsense of whatever you may have heard up to that point on a rock’n’roll record. Remember this is 1969, and twenty minute wigouts, although nothing new, were never this strung out. The closest I can conjure up is Hendrix experimenting on side three of Electric Ladyland. Well, imagine that but with a budget of not much more than zero, and relying on atmospherics rather than studio trickery and guitar wizardry to achieve its equally awesome ends.

The thing meanders along in a furious stupor until halfway through a declamatory and slightly off tune violin section over a tramping beat morphs into a country hoedown on baaad drugs before the massed percussion takes us back around ye olde campfire where more hallucinogenics are greedily gobbled up as crazed whoops and desperate yodels from the naked and writhing massed altered-state beings take us down down to the next level. A joyous pagan knees-up follows as things get real wild. We are then told that “the seraphim cries out, he broke his magic stick, oh I’m getting sick”. Hardly surprising really, and the comedown will be long and blissful.

Amon Düül II would never make another record quite as unhinged as this glorious piece of chemically fuelled madness, and although I dig their other work this remains my favourite LP of the band. If you’ve never heard this before, go to Grooveshark or somesuch, try to forget all your preconceptions, leave your post-modern cynicism at the check-in and put yourself in the almost charming but still frightening frame of mind that gave forth this record and enjoy. Or, as Krautrock fan Timothy Leary would say, “Turn on, tune in, drop out”.

Track listing:

Side One

Kanaan (4:02)

Dem Guten, Schönen, Wahren (6:12)

Luzifer’s Ghilom (8:34)

Henriette Krötenschwanz (2:03)

Side Two

Phallus Dei (20:48)

Line up:

• Shrat – bongos, vocals, violin
• Peter Leopold – drums
• Holger Trülzsch – Turkish drums
• Dieter Serfas – drums, electric cymbals
• John Weinzierl – guitar, 12-string bass
• Falk Rogner – organ
• Christian Borchard – vibraphone
• Chris Karrer – violin, guitar, twelve-string guitar, soprano saxophone, vocals
• Renate Knaup – vocals, tambourine
• Dave Anderson – bass on "Luzifer's Ghilom"

Vaiping - Industrial Workers Of The World

From Stavanger in Norway, industrial noiseniks Vaiping forge raw beats through the metal presses and the production line issues forth a concept album in oil-stained overalls, pounded out to the hard rhythms of the burgeoning industrial revolution in the first decades of the twentieth century.

In keeping with the imagery of the production line, the rhythm is constant and implacable, the only short respite given by the Salvation Army. The ceaseless use of robotic beats owe a large debt to Kraftwerk initially, and latterly to the more modern electronica of Depeche Mode, and musically this is an unrelenting trip along the conveyor belt of heavy industry, occasionally counterpointed by short synth melodies. Transatlantik is pure Radio-Aktivität era Kraftwerk, with a slight twist in that the German vocals are sung by the dispassionate female voice of Ann Karin Både. I'm sure I've heard the early melody line in Victory, or something very similar to it on a Kraftwerk song, and the ongoing comparison to the grandaddy of electro beats is unavoidable. The occasional vocals offer a bit of needed variety, especially the ethereal wordless vocalising on High Hopes. The album concludes with a rare example of a fully formed song, Pie In The Sky featuring a repeated and almost oriental melody in place of a chorus, fading away into the smoky firmament, before reprising the song section at the end.

I would imagine this makes for an engaging live set, given the band's reputation for dressing the part, right down to the dirty overalls, but as a piece of music to sit down and listen to it lacks something, maybe a hook here, or a dynamic there, and as such feels a bit flat. However Vaiping are interesting enough to keep an eye on in the future.

Tracklist:
01 Land For Sale
02 Street Talk
03 IWW
04 Transatlantik
05 Wind Will Blow
06 Listen Up
07 Victory
08 The Blue Ribbon
09 Salvation Army
10 High Hopes
11 Pie In The Sky

Line up:
Erik Steffensen -Vocals, keyboards
Håkon Landmark - Guitar, bass, percussion, backing vocals
Per Magnus Johnsen - Bass, backing vocals, 12 string guitar
Rune Horvei - Drums, loops, backing vocals

Additional musicians:
Mina Steffensen - Vocals (10)
Ann Karin Både - Vocals (04)
Hans Edward Hammonds - Voice (02, 03, 06)
David Bowen - Voice (02, 06)

myspace

Karisma Records

Funin - Unsound

Bergen indie outfit Funin released this, their debut waxing back in November 2010 in their home territory Norway but it did not get a world release until a year later, and it seems to have gone under my radar until now, more's the pity. Undoubtedly influenced by heavyweights such as Arcade Fire, Björk, Radiohead, Portishead, they have created an interesting listen with their seven piece line up, expanded from their beginnings as a duo, and now featuring a string section and sundry electronica.

The electronic beats and sundry strangeness on Inch Of Me combined with Marit Elisabeth's elfin tones come direct from the Björk work manual but there are other things going down here, like Øyvind's lounge-jazz ivory tinkling with languid flute that lend the song its own sound.

Away from the sphere of Iceland's premier chanteuse, we have the gorgeous electro-soundscape ballad Everything initially sung by co-vocalist Gaute in the style of an angst-free Thom Yorke before swapping verses with Marit, and very nice it is too as the string section take the lead. Here it is...



Rocking Chair lurches along like a Tom Waits jazz from the dark side moment, but instead of Tom's nicotine stained growl we get more of Marit's dulcet tones, a combination that works well as handclaps and what sounds like a picked banjo bring the song to a close. Machine is not so much mechanical as menacing, eerie electronica on the beat backing Marit again, and this one has the Bristol sound of Portishead and Tricky going on, with Eastern sounding strings on top, ending with some distant piano. Strange and toe-tapping at the same time this song sums up the confidence of a band not afraid to tackle something a wee bit out there. We end with Skywalkers which starts off threatening to be an Arcade Fire style pop song but then abruptly goes deliberately awry.

All in all a confident and complex debut from a band that should go far, and indicative of the amazingly varied music scene that comes out of Norway.


Tracklist:
1. Unsound
2. Everything
3. Wonderland
4. Tornado
5. Last Day
6. Inch Of Me
7. Indestructible
8. Rocking Chair
9. Machine
10. Skywalkers


Line up:
Marit Elisabeth Svendsbøe - vocals and flute
Øyvind Vie Berg - piano and rhodes
Gaute Stedje - vocals and guitar
Aleksander Tveit - guitar
Sissel Ørstavik - violin
Audun Berg Selfjord - cello
Edvard Mjanger - bass
Hans Christian Dalgaard - drums

Buy this here from those fine folk at Karisma Records, a label that gets more esoteric by the day!

Iron Kim Style - Iron Kim Style

Listen to some of this fine album while reading on, here.

Never one to rest on his laurels, Seattle’s Denis Rea fresh from having released Moraine’s debut album Manifest Destiny in 2009 joined up with Ryan Berg in the latter's improv project Iron Kim Style in order to unleash the harder side of his frequently mesmerising guitar playing. This coruscating jazz-fusion ensemble recorded and released an hours worth of improvised densely heavy fusion in 2010 to local acclaim and to anyone outside of North West USA promptly seemed to disappear from whence they came, much to the loss of lovers of challenging music everywhere. Named after the martial arts style favoured by loony North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il, the inner cover of Iron Kim Style's debut playfully proclaims "Your boxing has no power", and proceeds to show us exactly what that power sounds like.

Starting off with The Mean Streets Of Pyongyang, where a sinuous bass groove leads us into an example of free association ensemble playing of the highest order I can tell I’m in for a bit of a treat. Dennis’ guitar strikes some open tuned chords inviting the others to fill the spaces, and Bill Jones’ trumpet duly obliges. There are obvious comparisons to be made with the trumpet playing of Miles Davis but most trumpet players would take that as a compliment I’m sure. Jay Jaskot reprises the military beat and the open chords are back leading to some lurching reluctant ensemble playing – join in or face the wrath of Kim! The crowds fight back after a passage of melancholy world-weary guitar that leads to some incendiary soloing from Dennis. The proletariat will not be stomped down forever! A fine start to the record, painting a bleak picture of oppression, but infused with hope.

There are moments of strange avant weirdness introducing Gibberish Falter, sounding like a traffic jam in Hell broadcast over a short wave radio. Once another funky bass groove from Ryan Berg has nailed things down Bill’s exemplary trumpet playing reminds me of Chris Botti from Bruford Levin Upper Extremities’ wonderful Blue Nights live album. In fact there are a lot of connections between this and the B.L.U.E. sound, albeit that Iron Kim Style have a slightly harder edge. Forgive me if I have missed the contributions of the charmingly Dickensian sounding Thaddaeus Brophy on 12-string, but as a non-muso it’s not always obvious which guitar is which, although I’m convinced the Ollie Halsall style jazz scale runs on Po’ Beef are Dennis’….probably! And Bill’s trumpet blasting goes up another notch here too…boy is he some player.

Time is given to reflect after the martial cacophony with the lovely jazz ballad that is Don Quixotic, and I can definitely hear the 12-string in this song, without a doubt, but Roger McGuinn it ain’t! On these more restful phases of lyrical beauty Denis puts me in mind of Terje Rypdal, and contra to that, athough this track ends in distortion and a soupçon of feedback, it remains a thing of beauty. The otherworldly feel is maintained on Adrift and we have left the city, traversing the starkly lovely hinterland and feeling the pain of the people. Stunningly evocative, Adrift shows what can be done with a basic line up of instruments of just the two guitars, with minimal bass and percussion, and some very understated clarinet from Izaak Mills to lead the track out. The ensemble set out to create a definite mood on this piece, and stick to those parameters, which must be a difficult thing to do in an improvisational setting.

Amber Waves Of Migraine relies on dissonance rather than cacophony to instil its mood, stumbling along in a dystopian nightmare of echoes and reverb and wah-trumpet. Marvellous! This is the sort of record that I can only play when my long-suffering other half is out of the house, bless her, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Bill really lets fly on Pachinko Malice where I can also hear Halsall again in Dennis’ playing. The references I’m making are only for your guidance dear reader, as this band have constructed their own wilful and powerful sound on this beast of an album beyond any kowtowing to styles or other players.

The Dreams from Our Dear Leader are surprisingly peaceful given his many megalomaniacal pronouncements, and Jack Out The Kims (“Motherfuckers” optional!) wins track title of the album award and is a hellish racket as you might expect. Several strings died in the making of this track, although no pandas were harmed. And let’s end by Slouchin’ At The Savoy where an air of faded ersatz colonial influence mixed with Chinese percussion and Bill’s lounge-jazz trumpet from the Seventh Ring bring to a close this at times frightening and at times austere but certainly fulfilling album.

In that same alternate universe where Simon Cowell is on public trial for crimes against the soul, Iron Kim Style are the house band at the Dead Dictators’ Club, but should this group ever decide on another Five Year Agrarian Plan then a name change must be in the offing, now that his son has replaced “Iron Kim”, but I’m guessing that neither “Bewildered Panda Kim Style” or “Fat Kim Style” will be chosen somehow!

Tracklist:

1.      Mean Streets Of Pyongyang (10:32)

2.      Gibberish Falter (4:36)

3.      Po’ Beef (6:17)

4.      Don Quixotic (7:37)

5.      Adrift (7:44)

6.      Amber Waves Of Migraine (5:37)

7.      Pachinko Malice (5:10)

8.      Dreams from Our Dear Leader (3:20)

9.      Jack Out The Kims (2:34)

10.  Slouchin’ At The Savoy (2:24)

Line up:

Dennis Rea – 6-string guitar

Bill Jones – Trumpet

Jay Jaskot – Drums

Thaddaeus Brophy – 12-string guitar

Ryan Berg - Bass
Izaak Mills - Bass clarinet (1,5)

Buy this from the frequently wonderful and rarely disappointing Moonjune Records for a mere $10 (USA) or $12 (outside USA) both inclusive of P&P - another irresistible bargain folks!

Moraine - Metamorphic Rock

One of the pleasures of this reviewing lark is that once in a while something hitherto unheard of will land in your inbox that simply takes your breath away. 

This is as you might imagine, a fairly rare occurrence, for although during the course of a year the reviewer may receive a handful of seriously good CDs amongst the piles of average and worse, to receive something astounding is a rarefied pleasure indeed.

Such a thing is Metamorphic Rock whose irreducible complexity, to borrow one of the song titles is of such a seriously magical content I just can’t put it down. This band is filling mega stadiums in a parallel universe where Simon Cowell is on trial for crimes against art.

Formed by composer and guitar player Denis Rea, Moraine have so far released just one studio album, Manifest Destiny in 2009, and Metamorphic Rock is a document of their appearance at the 2010 Nearfest in the USA (see video below) in front of a small but appreciative crowd, most of whom no doubt know how lucky they were to have witnessed such a wonderful ensemble in action.

Covering the many strata of styles that combines into an easily identifiable cogent whole is no mean feat but Dennis Rea – guitars, James DeJoie – sax, flute, percussion, Alicia DeJoie – violin, Kevin Millard – eight string bass, and Stephen Cavit - drums  make it sound easy. Dennis Rea, guitar player extraordinaire, covers all bases from Page-like riffage to Fripp math excursions, along the way taking on Chinese scales and Far Eastern imagery, amongst a whole gamut of other influences. Until last year I had not heard of this man, and I regret that a lot! He is also a member of Moonjune heavy jazz-fusion combo Iron Kim Style and has recently released a gorgeous solo album, but they are stories for another page.

The compositional credits are dominated by Dennis, with contributions from James and Alicia and Kevin, with one group composition, and another written by since departed cellist Ruth Davidson who appeared on Manifest Destiny. Indeed, since that album her cello contributions have been replaced by James’ sax and flute.

After the almost Zeppelin-esque power of James’ opener Irreducible Complexity, an early highpoint is the three part track Disillusioned Avatar/Dub Interlude/Ephebus Amoebus. The first part is composed by Alicia and her violin takes a plaintive lead melody with Dennis’ subtle guitar sounding like an elongated sigh as the tune sways along, conveying the melancholy of a deity disappointed with the results of mans' “achievements”. When I read the word “Dub” in a rock context, the aural results are often cliché-ridden and cringeworthy, not this time though as the short unobtrusive section soon leads into Kevin’s jazz-infused Ephebus Amoebus. As a non-muso I often wonder how drummers write songs, but this guy has come up with a mini jazz symphony over which Dennis goes through all kinds of gear changes including an avant cacophony. Marvellous!

Dennis’ Disoriental Suite follows with a marked change of style with much Eastern percussion and is lifted from his solo album Views From Chicheng Precipice and manages to mix traditional Chinese music and Dennis’ take on that sound with a sort of alt-blues with absolutely no problems at all. This is a truly beautiful piece of music my friends, and one not to be missed, and the band’s easy intuitive style is one that should, if there was any justice, make Moraine a household name, at least amongst the prog community. Here I should mention the rhythm section which as is necessary cope with all the style changes and Eastern time signatures with a casual ease that should frighten off lesser mortals. Stephen replaced the original drummer and so had to learn most of this from scratch, which shows how good he must be.

Some of the other things I can hear in this are chamber prog, Zappa, jazz-fusion, avant garde sound painting and hoedown….that last one was possibly a joke. Unusually for a live album there are previously unreleased compositions on here as well as a good few tracks from Manifest Destiny, and the aforementioned lift from Dennis’ solo album. The new songs were included to showcase the new line up where the cello is replaced by the sax & flute, and the older songs from Manifest Destiny do sound fuller in this new context.

The Okanogan Lobe has some nice squalling guitar and sax and violin and is a tremendous thing running amok until it ends with a melancholy air featuring some nice reverbed violin and a soaring solo from Dennis. Even when things get a bit out there, as on Uncle Tang’s Cabinet of Dr. Caligari for instance, the madness never takes over to the detriment of the arrangement, such is Dennis’ and the band’s compositional flair. Blues For A Bruised Planet does what is says on the tin, free of tired old 12-bar cliché too. Some nice trading of licks and interplay between the guitar and violin permeates Middlebräu and we reluctantly come to the end of a stunning musical tour-de-force…damn, just hit repeat!

Hell, I’m beginning to sound sycophantic, but honestly, it’s not intended. Metamorphic Rock is a timeless slab of an album and there is nothing at all terminal about this Moraine! Do yourself a favour, if you like good adventurous music, be it prog or any other genre, buy this awesomely good CD, currently available from Moonjune Records at a bargain $12 (USA) or $14 (outside USA) including shipping. That, my good people, is a steal, go treat yourself!

Tracklist:

1. Irreducible Complexity (3:39)
2. Manifest Density (3:45)
3. Save the Yuppie Breeding Grounds (4:07)
4. Disillusioned Avatar/Dub Interlude/Ephebus Amoebus (10:25)
5.  Disoriental Suite (11:46):
a) Bagua
b) Kan Hai De Re Zi
c) Views from Chicheng Precipice
6. Kuru (4:31)
7. The Okanogan Lobe (7:36)
8. Uncle Tang’s Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (3:44)
9. Blues for a Bruised Planet (4:35)
10. Waylaid (5:31)
11.  Middlebräu (9:09)

Line up:

Dennis Rea – guitars
James DeJoie – baritone sax, flute, percussion
Alicia DeJoie – violin
Kevin Millard – NS/Stick (8-string extended-range bass)
Stephen Cavit – drums, percussion

The Flower Eaters - The Spectre Loiters

The first album from this two man London group mixes classic space rock sounds with Klaus Schulze like sequencer led synth extrapolations to produce an open inviting sound.

Stretched phased guitar chords invites us into The Flower Eaters' universe, languorous phased soloing leading into mid-paced riffage that thankfully stays well outside metal territory, Vitamin BC slightly reminiscent of mid-90s Porcupine Tree. The Schulze influence looms large over Hyperspace Mood, and there is also a feel of Quark period Hawkwind.



Suitably distant and swirly vocals feature briefly on Bend The Rainbow whose muddy caveman riffing recalls the heady days of The Rainbow, Finsbury Park circa 1973. You can almost smell the patchouli, and I'm sure that was Stacia I saw, grooving in the corner to Clearlight Symphony. If Jam 2.0 were played at twice the speed it would have made a good rave tune. As it is, it stays in the chillout zone where it shares a bong with an Ozric or three.

After this we head across Le Manche and end up travelling the autobahn for a few hundred klicks as Euro sequencers take charge, Microdots being well into an early Kraftwerk vibe. The album ends with Hyperreality Doom, which as its title suggests rocks out, but in a fashion much faster than that normally associated with "doom" and is a fitting end to the journey, although the ending seems unnecessarily abrupt, almost as if the tape ran out, but maybe that was deliberate? If so, I don't think it quite worked.

Of course, it is highly unlikely that a young modern audience would be aware of all the sounds I've listed as references, unless their grandads' were old hippies, and if it leads to a new audience for good ol' spacerock, then I'm all for it. The sound on my downloaded review copy is not that good, being a bit fuzzy and too muddy in places, but one hopes this is just down to the inferior quality of my low bitrate download over the physical CD. Overall a fine debut effort from this young group of apprentice stoneheads, and it will be interesting to see where the trip takes them next.


Oh, and the guys would like it known that they were never an Avril Lavigne covers band!

Listen to some tracks on myspace.

Buy the CD here.

Tracklist:
1. Vitamin BC
2. Hyperspace Mood
3. Bend the Rainbow
4. Jam 2.0
5. Frozen Technology
6. Microdots
7. Buttercups
8. Hyperreality Doom

Line up:
Thomas Perryman - guitars, synthesiser, bass, and vocals
Leo Pérez - drums

My Brother The Wind - I Wash My Soul In The Stream Of Infinity

You may get the impression from the title and the cover of My Brother The Wind’s keenly anticipated second album that a meditative experience is what is on offer here, and you may be right. However, the opening piece, with the aptly adrenalin fuelled title of Fire! Fire!! will instantly dispel any notions of calm Zen-inspired navel gazing with its wah-noise attack, reminiscent of one of Acid Mothers Temple’s more tuneful sonic assaults. An opening thirteen plus minutes of aural rearrangement that you WILL find a groove in, it won’t let you go until you do. Actually the more you listen to this song the more you can find to latch on to and it gets to the point where I’m not entirely sure I heard that melody, or if it was some random synapse connection in my head that made me imagine it. Once the spaceship has escaped the pull of Earth’s gravity, the bass guitar of Ronny Eriksson propels the song along on a more relaxed but still speedy grove as the sounds become more stretched, spaced out.

Phew! Things chill a bit from here on in, Pagan Moonbeam giving out the Eastern vibe implied by the cover artwork, which would not have looked out of place on a Jade Warrior album. As the band say themselves the music being completely improvised comes “… from the soul, through the fingers, directly to tape” and this work ethic is repeated in the title of The Mediator Between Head And Hands Must Be The Heart, an infectious bubbling piece of sonic mysteriousness where one can almost feel the communication between the players. The drummer, Tomas Eriksson gets credit here for keeping what may have turned into an almost Eno-like ambience on track with some fine playing off the beat.

Torbjörn Abelli, a pioneering Swedish psychedelic bass player who died last year may not be a familiar name to you (or me for that matter), so have a look at Julian Cope's retrospective of his early band Pärson Sound for enlightenment, of course written in the Archdrude's inimitable style! As for the song here it builds to a righteous but respectful celebration, as it should. Things get to (Kraut)rock on Under Crimson Skies which raises the beat to a space boogie shuffle that Amon Düül II would have been proud of. Things eventually get all stretched and spacey and the change is seamless. The chemistry between these guys is something special, and although their first album was a good start, the test tube is now boiling over with ideas. You could describe this as space rock but that is putting far too many limitations on what is almost impossible to describe. On this menu My Brother The Wind have cooked up a dish of Scando-Germanic righteousness that exists on the peripherals of American-British influence, taking the best elements of improvisational Krautrock and running with it until it turns into a creature of some magnificence. An animal that inspires awe and respect.

The closing song and title track I Wash My Soul In The Stream Of Infinity repeats a Zen-like musical mantra over which swathes of gorgeous mellotron leave the listener in a state of near bliss, cleansed in the fading stream. As purely improvisational albums go, can it get any better than this? Buy it as soon as it comes out!

Tracklist:
Fire! Fire!! (13:07)
Pagan Moonbeam (3:47)
The Mediator Between Head And Hands Must Be The Heart (5:40) 
Torbjörn Abelli (10:57)
Under Crimson Skies (10:33)
I Wash My Soul In The Stream Of Infinity (6:19)



Line up:
Nicklas Barker - Guitar and Mellotron
Mathias Danielsson - Guitar and Tenor Recorder
Ronny Eriksson-Bass
Tomas Eriksson-Drums

Links: myspace