Author: wwchurch

It seems another run of this Leather Sky cassette release might be in order. If you just cannot wait feel free to help yourself to this inferior digi version…

The debut MC 12″ recently unearthed by SGG from the private-press bunker is available from the finest shop in the land – and they clearly appreciate the post-punk/mutant-funk, art-damaged, Chrome-plated heaviness contained within its grooves. Warm up with this and try to prepare for the acid bath that hits when their “Spaces Tangled” LP drops in a matter of weeks..

“One of two new releases this week on the Sleeping Giant Glossolalia label, the other, the debut from the new Mick Barr / Brooks Headley duo Oldest reviewed elsewhere on this week’s list, and this, the debut from this rhythmic lo-fi post punk noise rock combo, whose sound is a super distorted, lurching, lumbering mathed out monster, all gristly guitar buzz, blown out rehearsal space drumming, the sound fuzzy and washed out, but dense and tense and thick. The songs tangled arrangements of churning downtuned heaviness, of stop/start math rock stutter, angular and chaotic, with the occasional weirdly almost arena-rock sounding chorus, in fact most of the songs have some buried melodies that transform Mutlicult’s blasts of rhythmic frenzy into something much more than just noise rock workouts. The basslines are thick but brittle, the vocals a buried bellow, there’s definitely an AmRep vibe, but there’s also a sort of early eighties UK post punk thing going on, some of the jams downright groovy, everything wreathed in crumbling distortion, but the pop hooks are there somewhere, and seem to surface with repeated listens, but they are subtle, Multicult is more about woozy, dirgey, muddy heaviness, a sound that seems to melt and ooze, almost like someone is dragging their finger along the record as it spins, which only gives the sound an even more tripped out psychedelic feel. For all their pound and crush, the band don’t shy away from the rhythms that drive their sound, often striping things way down, and letting the bass and drums take control, it’s at those points that Multicult sound more like they could be some lost eighties punk/funk artifact, but as rhythmic (and at times, groovy) as these guys get, they never ever stray too far from another blast of churning skull caving noise rock crunch.  Packaged in a red 12″ style sleeve, with a green and yellow sticker.”

– www.aquariusrecords.org

We made the debut LP from OLDEST an aQ exclusive as a sort of “Record Store Week” special to honor our favorite shop. So go to Aquarius Records and pick one up before it officially comes out in May! Here is their right-on review:

“From our pal Mike at the amazing Sleeping Giant Glossolalia comes this latest blast of gnarled metallic guitar heavy whatthefuck from long time aQ fave Mick Barr (Krallice, Ocrilim, Octis, Orthrelm, Crom-Tech) who in Oldest, is teamed up with Brooks Headley (Born Against, Universal Order Of Armageddon), who besides being a rad drummer, is now a fairly well known pastry chef! However, as curious as we would be to hear/see Headley’s pastries combined with Barr’s axe-work, it is in his role as drummer, that he completes the Oldest duo, which Barr describes as sounding like Voivod meets Darkthrone, but which in fact sounds a lot like Barr’s late great Crom-Tech combo. A wild mathy tech metal grindpunk noise-prog blowout that finds the duo unleashing frenzied stretches of tranced out guitars, frantic riffing, the melodies angular and atonal, the drumming dense and complex, the arrangements fractured and fucked up, the vocals a punkish shriek. Intricate and heavy, dizzying and chaotic, the songs super fluid, droney, cyclical and near static one second, lurching stop/start stutter the next, slipping occasionally into chugging classic metal mode or soaring blackened buzz, but always returning to that distinctive twisted technical grinding math/meth metal crush that Barr seems to have a lock on. Fucking awesome. And not even really out until next month, so for now, an aQ exclusive!” – http://aquariusrecords.org/

LEATHER SKY – Neglected Prayer Rug Abomination
Debut tape from this Colorado crew, headed up by aQ pal Mike, who runs the Sleeping Giant Glossolalia label (responsible for recent lps from Vaz, Bobb Bruno and Shit & Shine) and who also plays in aQ faves Epileptinomicon. But where Epileptinomicon was a weirdly rhythmic experimental noise outfit, who trafficked in murky ritualism and kraut-drone soundscaping, Leather Sky is a much more fierce and feral proposition, an ugly, unhinged, hardcore, that owes more to groups like Black Flag, Infest, Void and the like. Neglected Prayer Rug Abomination is a short sharp series of sonic violations, misanthropic musical fury channeled into brief blurry blasts, the guitars angular, the drums tribal one second, a caveman pound the next, the bass a blurred low end ooze, the vocals a howled caterwaul, all but buried in the murk and mire, the sound here super lo-fi, but still dense and heavy and MEAN, recorded in some grim grey bunker, the production perfectly suiting the sound, that sound a pounding, filthy, crusty, chaotic, angular crush like like some unholy union between eighties DC hardcore and nineties Gravity Records post punk. Fuck yeah. -www.aquariusrecords.org

We’re a little behind on the updates due to our Austin takeover(videos/photos to come) but    some of these LS tour dates are still impending meaning you may have a chance to catch them in the flesh…

• FEEDTIME – http://www.subpop.com/artists/feedtime
• VAZ – http://vazavis.blogspot.com/
• SIGHTINGS – http://www.myspace.com/sightings
• MAGGOTED  (Robert Mayson from Grey Daturas and Pete Swanson ex-yellow swans)
• Thursday, March 29, 20129 p. m.

SXSW is indeed a big, dumb, shit-show, or “a self serving hoke of indie mememe! screemers” as our friend Matthew Bower says, but, just like last year, we’re making it worth attending…

Saturday, March 17 2012….

featuring…
SAMESACK – cruel heaviness from members of Butthole Surfers, Shit & Shine, Rubble, Todd, etc…

VAZ – NYC creep-rock mainstays who have dominated forever as Hammerhead, Vaz, and GasWar…

SUBMISSIONS – post-industrial dirge duo with the unlikely resume of Best Coast, The For Carnation, The Pope, Goliath Bird Eater, Bipolar Bear, German Army, etc…

THE SUPREME DICKS – living legends of outsider psychedelic indie rock…

SHIT AND SHINE – British invasion of pounding, rhythmic, droning, heavy artillery art rock…

NIGHT CONTROL – noise-pop perfection from the past/distant future…

PRIZEHOG – this local slo-mo psychedelic sludge power trio return for an encore aQ SXSW performance….

LEATHER SKY – ugly, unhinged hardcore from inside the bunker, with ties to Epileptinomicon, MjolniirDXP, Deth Spa, etc….

HEX MACHINE – psyched to finally see these Virginia crushers live, their sound equal parts gnarled Voivod-ish math metal and grunge infused Amrep style noise…

…possible surprises, daily breakfasts at Tamale House #3, the works…more info to come……WATCH THIS SPACE.

http://www.facebook.com/events/334898713222506/

They’re not making a big deal out of it so we won’t either…but this is pretty damn incredible.

http://www.facebook.com/events/166500776797970/

Kill All Redneck Pricks (Karp Documentary) NYC premiere at Spectacle Theatre!

After party at Death By Audio with Vaz and special guests!

More info here:

http://www.facebook.com/events/130432173740254/

More love from Aquarius…Thanks aQ!!

http://www.aquariusrecords.org/

VAZ Chartreuse Bull

(Sleeping Giant Glossolalia)

Not sure how we managed it, but this is the first we’ve heard from noise rock heavies Vaz, which is kind of weird for a couple reasons, one, this is their 3rd or 4th record so far at least, and those past records were on some seriously kick ass labels, and two, Vaz is in fact two members of the late great AmRep outfit Hammerhead, who we LOVED. But better late than never, and this is indeed a serious chunk of blown out super hooky and heavy noise rock, pop at its core for sure, but wrapped in some thick, crumbling ultra distorted riffage, not to mention some tripped out psychedelic guitar action, anchored by the drums, a wild chaotic pound, and the vocals, surprisingly melodic, which positions Vaz more alongside other poppier heavy rock combos like Torche, but Vaz definitely twists up their sound, atonal and off kilter, jagged and frenzied and frantic, sleeping easily from twisted crunch to soaring hookiness and back, with a definite brooding downer pop vibe running through some of the songs too. And some ridiculous hooks tucked amidst all that crunch and pound. We gave this a quick listen when it first came in, and thought it sounded pretty good, but when we finally sat down to really dig in, it quickly became a new fave, sounding suddenly like some impossible hybrid of Nomeansno, The Melvins and Torche, with a hint of the WipersÉ and we’ve been listening to it like crazy ever since, which pretty much says it all.

Killer stuff, and definitely recommended for fans of heavy pop and poppy heaviness. Packaged in swank silkscreened jackets, includes a free download as well.

One of our all-time favorite places/sites has some kind words for this incredible LP….

http://www.aquariusrecords.org/

BRUNO, BOBB Mellowdramas(Sleeping Giant Glossolalia)

Most folks probably know Bobb Bruno as the guitar player in sunshiney retro poppers Best Coast, although some aQ-ers no doubt know him as the man behind ultra heavy guitar/drums duo Goliath Bird Eater, and still others might remember him as a member of late great nineties indie rock weirdos the Polar Goldie Cats, so with all that in mind we weren’t sure what to expect from this long in the works solo record, on which Bruno plays everything, but has some notable guests along for the ride (including Nels Cline, and Josh Klinghoffer from the Red Hot Chili Peppers!).

The title is your first clue, as these are in fact mellow sonic dramas, the opener is a dark, dreamy gloom pop gem, all murky chordal whir, shimmery organs, and some gorgeous torch song vocals, courtesy of Kandyce Lynn Crane, the song smolders and slithers, peppered with pizzicato strings, sounding a bit like a moodier creepier Best Coast actually, the music could maybe be a Best Coast 45 spinning at 16rpm, but regardless it’s so lovely. The second track is another dark pop gem, this one more orchestral, sweeping and grand, a dreamy softly fuzzy epic, laced with some cool droned out buzz, it’s the sort of sound you might have expected from Cardinal back in the day. “Loveletter” is another symphonic pop number, all swirling soaring strings, swaddled in mysterious electronic chitter, the melody theremin like, hazy and lush and again so lovely, the guitars warm and buzzy, and when the drums finally kick in, the song slips into a Mazzy Star like shoegaze drift, all dreamy slowcore, and again, the song features a cool, weirdly effected super melodic guitar solo.

The vocals return on “We Know You Know” which is all low slung, electro-skitter, which quickly blossoms into a sort of dubbed out Portishead-y downtempo shuffle, but with lush squalls of super distorted guitar and some gorgeous wordless vocals, the sound dark and dramatic and a little bit gothic, sounding like a more post punk shoegazey Zola Jesus, which is not at all a bad thing.

“Loners” is all murky lysergic slow jam, with James Blake like distorted slo-mo soul vox, the sort of track Balam Acab or Clams Casino might conjure up, woozy and washed out, warped and warbly. “Near Ecstasy” starts off all minimal and fuzzy, with some sweetly crooned vox, again sounding very goth, almost Kate Bush like at times, all over an almost krautrock sounding groove, wreathed in flanged synths and swirling gauzy thrum, and then finally, the record finishes with “Over”, a strange bit of experimental synthscaping, that sounds like it was modeled after some Beach Boys outtake, pounding chords, overlapping, all over a hushed shimmer, finally coalescing into a fuzzy chunk of dream pop, with a sweet tinkling chime melody, only to seemingly melt into a warped stretch of druggy murk, that sounds more like the Skaters than anything, but a gorgeously tripped out finish to a pretty fantastic record. Not at all what we were expecting, but all the more exciting for that. Definitely for fans of dark, lush pop and hazy electronic dreaminess, we’re actually digging this like crazy!

Cool bloody panda bear sweat sock cover art!

Did anyone else miss this edition of Dusted’s Listed with Codeine’s Chris Brokaw and our very own Lame Drivers? Link below…

http://www.dustedmagazine.com/features/982