Launder - Happening
Ghostly International
Released: 15th July 2022
John Cudlip started recording as Launder in 2018, releasing just a single and an EP in the first two years before making up for lost time with his debut collection, Happening, a double album that stretches out to just over an hour. Not that it seems that way; this record washes over you hypnotically and appears to fly by in no time at all. The lead guitar is the star; it cuts through thirteen tracks of gazy goodness quite beautifully, stealing your attention every time. This is a record that could have been born in the 1990s, its shoegaze and dream pop influences obvious, but its sense of melody, nice arrangements and impressive flow make it far more than a dull tribute. This record adds to a genre that is undergoing a dramatic resurgence and stands head and shoulders above a myriad of contemporary offerings that fail to inject their recordings with bright ideas, charm and a hint of personality.
Artifacts & Uranium - Pancosmology
Weird Beard / Echodelick
Released: 22nd July 2022
Weird Beard have finally got their hands on some vinyl in what has again been a frustrating year for record labels, musicians and listeners alike. The item in question is
Pancosmology, a collection recorded in the summer and autumn of 2021 and the second collaboration between Mike Vest (Bong, Blown Out, 11 Paranoias) and Fred Laird (Earthling Society, Taras Bulba, Empty House). The debut eponymous album was released last year and contained just three tracks of considerable length whereas here the collection is more song-structured, with eight tracks cutting through some thirty-eight minutes. It's always good to hear guitars screeching and Vest opens proceedings by playing out his best Ron Asheton as his instrument protests at, well, just about everything. He makes a fabulous attempt to splinter the world and only when he needs a rest following the equally savage attack of 'Dive Bomber' does Laird take over with the David Lynch weirdness of 'Shape Shift'. 'Silent Plans' continues the disturbance in the force before the two ends of the spectrum combine beautifully in 'Radio Wolfen' and 'God Of Panic', the former seeing a singing bass dancing over some pretty firm guitar drones, and the latter seeing the pair combine to numb your senses with a rumbling mess of noise before dragging you behind the bikesheds for a well deserved kicking. There's more trembling, distorted synths in the unsettling 'Night Of Comala' before the closing track 'The Inmost Light' slides in, all sharp guitars and
Low rhythms. It's the longest song here, running in at over seven minutes, and it's probably the highlight of the collection, creating a dark atmosphere with just the vaguest hints of light as Laird plays Eno and Vest's guitar drops into any white space that is left for him to exploit. There's even a voice buried deep into the mix that says nothing and everything. It's a riveting end to an intriguing collection, available to order from the WB
webpage now. Just 500 opaque mint green vinyl copies have been pressed, these being split between Weird Beard in the UK and Echodelick in the USA, so don't waste too much time thinking about it.
Traams - Personal Best
Fatcat
Released: 22nd July 2022
We thought we had seen the end of TRAAMS. Following the release of
Modern Dancing in 2015, the band toured, released a digital single in October of the next year, and then disappeared off the face of the earth. It was strange not to see them playing in Brighton, as they had become a fixture there, and there were no responses to social media queries about their status. In reality the Chichester trio had ground to a halt, musically and emotionally drained from three years of constant touring and recording, and vocalist Stuart Hopkins stated he didn't even pick up a guitar for two years. The band members went their separate ways, worked on different projects and wondered if the hunger would return. Things began to move in late 2019 when the trio got together to play some sessions just to see what resulted. Barely having made any ground, their efforts were interrupted by lockdown and it wasn't until the band were allowed to meet up again months later, that work on
Personal Best began seriously. With their rehearsal facility being close to residential flats and with the band only able to meet up at night, they took a new approach in learning to write music in a quieter way, rejecting their standard cauldron of sound and replacing it with a more considered and melodic approach, which ultimately proved fulfilling, opening doors they had never known existed.
Personal Best, then, is not the TRAAMS we know and love, but a band with a new vision and revised outlook. Only two of the tracks on the album feature drums, with Adam Stock reluctant to hammer away at every song, and being encouraged in lockdown by the band's inability to get to a drum kit anyway. He picked up a guitar and programmed a drum machine, while Hopkins took a far gentler approach to his vocals and playing, whilst opening up the lyrics to contributions from bassist Leigh Padley.
What we have here are eight songs, stretching over forty minutes which show TRAAMS still embracing the kosmische influences that informed their earlier work, but moving gently instead of throwing themselves headlong into punishing, looping journeys that send your brain spinning in an adrenaline rush. The electronic opener 'Sirens' clearly makes the point that things have changed, gently pulsing and repeating itself as it refuses to move on in any direction. It is followed by 'Dry', the closest thing here to the band's early sound, and it makes you wonder if the opener had been a deliberate ploy to point you in the wrong direction. Not so; guitars distort and wail, but the journey is a short one, being broken after just three minutes as the new again supersedes the old. Of the remaining tracks, only 'Hallie' echoes TRAAMS past, and even that is the picture of restraint. There are some excellent broken guitars and the sound of the world flashing by, but it is controlled and not left to its own devices. Four of the remaining tracks are collaborations with artists TRAAMS have interacted with in the past. 'Breathe' is a hypnotic nine minutes with Liza Violet of Menace Beach (Softlizard) sharing vocal duties with Hopkins. It's a lovely thing with pretty guitars picking their way through a insistent rhythm that pretty much suffocates any thoughts of a dash to freedom. The duo combine again on closing track 'Comedown', which is immediately made tougher by its live drums, while 'Sleeper' features a verse sung by Soffie Viemose of Danish band Lowly. Protomartyr frontman Joe Casey turns up on 'The Light At Night' and adds some edge, encouraging the guitars to flare up in agreement.
Personal Best is a record about change. Not monumental change but a recognition of how small changes in your life can build into something important. That the record has been made at all is a result of that process, how slowly the pieces of a puzzle move to help you form a new picture. It's such an interesting collection and it's so good to have TRAAMS back.
El Universo - Live Bootleg
Weird Beard / Echodelick
Released: 29th July 2022
El Universo is the personal project of Eder Ademar from Mexico City whose eponymous debut album was released in September 2021. Ademar played every instrument on those six tracks which were recorded in his home studio and then mixed by Alberto (The Obsolete) from Lorelle Meets The Obsolete. A band was gathered together to play live concerts with Emilio Ponce on drums, Samuel Osorio on bass and Ademar on guitar, with the trio performing a showcase for the Hipnosis festival as well as a session for Vans Channel. It was only days after one of these gigs that El Universo discovered their performance had been recorded by Juan Tamayo of Vinnum Sabbathi and, loving the result, they decided the recordings were worthy of release. This Live Bootleg, then, hails from 18th December 2021 and includes four tracks from the debut album, an unreleased track ('Asteroid 85') and a version of 'Revolution' by Spacemen 3. Opener 'El Universo' is atypical of the collection, an ambient twelve minutes of gentle guitar song that only grows into something more in the last three minutes when heavy drums kick in and the guitars become more insistent. 'Monkeys And Apes' is immediately more attacking, an urgent rhythm section driving the song forward as the guitar begins to stretch out and explore. 'Asteroid 85' sees the guitar move confidently to the front, dipping and wobbling on its voyage of exploration, its path never set as it crashes through plenty of turbulence. We are overtaken by space weirdness as 'La Pausa Del Mundo' ('The World Pauses') tries to convince itself it has solutions but spends nigh on ten minutes failing to make them clear. It builds in effort and strength but is never able to break out of its confinement and reveal the answers. Instead, it blends into the weirdness of 'Red Moon' which eventually shakes itself free of extraneous noise as the guitars flicker over the pitted surface of the satellite. It all ends with the Spaceman 3 cover which is pretty respectful without adding any dramatic new shades of emphasis. Live Bootleg is being issued as a stand-alone cassette and will fill time before Weird Beard are able to release the band's next studio album a little way down the line. It sounds great for a bootleg recording and serves as a fine taster of what is to come.
Brown Snake Kills Dog - Collapsist
Weird Beard
Released: 29th July 2022
Along with El Universo, Weird Beard are releasing No.21 in their series of limited edition cassettes with the fourth album from Brown Snake Kills Dog. It's ten years now since this unlikely grouping self-released their first album, Others See What We Are Blind To, with 2018 seeing their last offering, Her Dust Will Envelop You Too. The band describe themselves as "a collaboration across a continent and an ocean. AL is from Oklahoma. NR is from Adelaide. JS is from Brisbane. We have never met. We have never toured. Files started swapping between AL and JS in 2011 when a 'meeting' occurred through a now long-gone metal forum. Real instruments and fake computers used in construction. The music is born of instruments and then crudely decayed via computers." It's a fascinating project and the results are intriguing, the trio shaping patterns of sound that cannot be tied to any genre, often simply repeated pulses of electronic noise behind which some music or a vocal occasionally appears. It's all very post-punk, experimental and brave which is very much to be applauded. The title of the collection sits well with the sounds offered up, the breakdown of society, something debated at the edges of Marxist theory (The Ideology of Collapse), being translated into the breakdown of established musical structures. This is what it will sound like when the world is ending. Deconstruction is an art at which few excel and fewer are bold enough even to consider. Yet when it is taken seriously it is just glorious. The sixth track here, 'Ending' is simply perfect: crunched up notes spilling out of the speakers not even knowing if it is worth fighting for life. It complements the three parts of 'Collapsist' which all fail to take recognised form, yet all of which worm their way into your brain. There's seven songs included here, stretching out to some thirty-seven minutes and, as always, the limited run of tapes will fly out so get in quickly when Weird Beard give the nod.
Pretty Lightning - Dust Moves
Fuzz Club
Released: 29th July 2022
Dust Moves, the fifth album from German duo Christian Berghoff and Sebastian Haas, is a little bit different, being an instrumental collection of fourteen songs over forty-four minutes, half of them snippets under three minutes, with only the opener stretching out to five. It's just over two years since the duo from Saarbrücken released their last offering,
Jangle Bowls, a confident piece of work that strolled through genres, and this is a deliberate side-step to allow more fluidity to both sound and structure.
Dust Moves is more of an exploration than a statement, with instruments bent out of shape in the quest to discover new sounds and lyrics rejected for tying down the music to a certain time or place. There's a woozy psych element here that feeds into some light, dusty songs hinting of desert sands and burning suns. Indeed, a fair part of this collection feels like the soundtrack to Sergio Leone's take on
Barbarella, a film we would love to have been made. It may appear to be an odd mix but it works very nicely; deserts always have spiritual undertones imbued with the tripping visions of old religion, and they also seem to be the first stop for aliens to park their flying saucers, so Pretty Lightning act as our spirit guides as they lead us over endless pyramids of sand into the unknown. As guitars lick away gently in front of native drums, this music is timeless. Gentle drones add weight while distorted space noise swoops in like vultures circling, never threatening directly but hinting of otherworldy malice. It's a sign of the album's success that the mood never alters, with song after song carrying the load on to the next. It's pretty seamless and as 'Enchanted Debris' turns the final page you may struggle to remember if you have listened to one piece of music or a number of different tunes.
Dust Moves has been pressed on 180g orange vinyl and is presented in a hand-numbered sleeve. Numbers are limited so grab one quickly from the Fuzz Club
website. If you are not going away this summer, put this on as you lie in the garden with a couple of beers and it will take you a thousand miles away.
Fred Abong - Yellowthroat
Released: 23rd August 2022
When Fred Abong took his first tenative steps as a solo perfomer back in 2018, we could not have guessed that a mere four years later he would have turned into Frank Sinatra. But there he was on Kristin Hersh's European tour stepping out in his black fedora, performing songs from
Yellowthroat, an album inspired by the Chairman's 1955 collection
In The Wee Small Hours. It is an interesting influence, an album that was sandwiched between the lively
Swing Easy! and
Songs For Swingin' Lovers, two of Sinatra's most famous releases which were glowing with exuberant, uptempo standards. Both are regarded as all-time classics and much of the credit for that was due to Sinatra's new arranger, Nelson Riddle, who encouraged the singer to play more with the lyrics whilst wrapping each record in an overriding theme that gave them a completeness unusual for the day. Whereas many people have credited The Beatles for "inventing" the album in popular music, turning collections of randomly gathered songs into an artistic whole, it has to be said that Sinatra and Riddle had already achieved that feat some ten years earlier.
In The Wee Small Hours stands out for being far more downbeat than the records that surrounded it and, true to the duo's new policy, if one track was downbeat then the rest had to follow suit. Sinatra sings of loneliness and failed relationships, depression, and the shadows of the night, all of which attracted Fred like a moth to the flame; here he covers the title track, dons his darkest suit, and embraces the maudlin.
Yellowthroat marks a huge step-up for Fred in terms of sound. Whereas his earlier offerings were little more than voice and guitar, here the songs are more musically formed and this is in no small part due to him employing the services of his own Nelson Riddle, fellow Electric Trio bandmate, Rob Ahlers. Ahlers has taken Fred's songs and dressed them up in fitting attire. In keeping with the overall theme, Ahlers' touch is subtle but thorough and artful. His light handling is ideal for Fred's gentle baritone; the singer may be inspired by Sinatra but he doesn't sing like him, but frankly who could? Where Sinatra has immaculate timing and artful phrasing, the vocals here are part of the construction of the song, resting on the layers Ahlers fashions under them. It takes repeated listens to discover all of the little touches that help build these songs; so many different instruments make cameos while letting the focus remain on the words. On occasion here Fred's poetry is less oblique than on his previous recordings, and sometimes painfully stark: "Why can't I believe that you love me?" At other times he remains resolutely obscure, "Forms more lucid, unoccluded by fables." It all falls under the same theme though; love is the focus of much of this record yet in a suitably downbeat way love has become an existential crisis: "Strangling me under the deck. Getting tighter until I can't breathe."
Though this record very much works as a complete package, there are shades of emphasis. At times Fred sounds like a less damaged Nikki Sudden, at others like Leonard Cohen's nephew from the leafy suburbs. Always he is careful not to break pace and expose the more gravelly side of his voice and the whole can feel like sitting on a huge pile of cushions. In the room of sadness. Hey, we've all been there. Yellowthroat is available from Fred's Bandcamp though shipping to the UK costs more than the actual vinyl, so the download may be the best option.
Young Prisms - Drifter
Fire Talk
Released: 11th September 2022
Much as we dislike the epithet, shoegaze has undergone a revival over the past few years and a host of new bands have taken to staring at their laces whilst laying down diaphanous soundscapes on which they bare their fragile souls. When used in the correct context the term does ably describe a particular sound of aural introversion that all of these bands strive to capture and Young Prisms succeed in doing so quite beautifully. Their first album in ten years (well, life gets in the way sometimes) is a gem of tenderly flowing guitars, half-whispered vocals and dreamy musings about life. There's a maturity in the shaping of the songs and in the lyrics that appear to recognise that existence doesn't have to be about achieving impossible dreams but has a beauty entirely of itself, rooted in reality and practicality. This really is a pretty record, sometimes sailing by leisurely, occasionally flickering with gentle distortion or graced by sustained feedback as dual voices soothe. There's balance and healing here and who doesn't need that?
Suede - Autofiction
BMG
Released: 16th September 2022
2002's
A New Morning was intended to be a fresh start for Suede, with singer Brett Anderson finally free of his drug addictions and a new keyboard player helping to give the band a fresh outlook and renewed enthusiasm. Unfortunately, it was an album that took seven studios, four producers and two years to make and the result was a million miles from convincing. It was obvious the band had run out of inspiration and the following year they sensibly split. It wasn't until eight years later that Suede once again performed live and another two years before it was announced that new music was to be released. 2013’s
Bloodsports, 2016's
Night Thoughts and 2018's
The Blue Hour revealed a band reborn, all quality collections that presented their sound as widescreen, cinematic soundtracks, epic in scale and ambition. This was serious music for thoughtful outsiders, those who sought succour away from the shallow, poisonous mainstream. Four years and a pandemic later, everything has again changed, with
Autofiction sweeping all of that aside in a tidal wave of vivacity as once again Suede doll up and reach for the stars with all of the glam flamboyance that made
Coming Up such a sparkling gem.
When the band are in this form there is an electricity that crackles out of the music that is hard to ignore. 'Black Ice' is the peak here, strutting with disdain, Richard Oakes's razor guitars fierce and cutting as Brett interjects casual noises as he did in nascent Suede numbers. It's less than three minutes of terror but trumps everything else here despite the overwhelming quality of these songs. Opener 'She Still Leads Me On' is beautifully constructed and Suede to the bone. Anderson hits some very high notes, Oakes sizzles and Neil Codling fills in the gaps wonderfully. Best of all, the song ends when it has said all it wants to with no dragged out climax. One-armed drumming from Simon Gilbert punctuates the fine 'Personality Crisis' with its street punk backing vocals as Anderson narrates the verses before powering through the choruses. It's stirring stuff and certainly amongst the toughest songs Suede have ever recorded. '15 Again' sits on Oakes's shimmering riffs but is filled with such raw ebullience it soars heavenwards and brushes against the stars. 'That Boy On The Stage' has a similar sparkle; these songs just ooze confidence which is both uplifting and energising. This is Suede doing what Suede do best. Intelligence runs through all of their music, and it is one of the things that makes them important, allowing them to comment from the margins. But it is when they break free to celebrate that difference with almost reckless abandon that they become truly great. "Can you feel the sunshine when you turn off your brain and yell?" they ask. It's a revelation, a celebration: a realisation that it is not always good to hide away despite your indifference. Suede know they live on the outside, and their audience dwells there with them: "Oh they stay in shadows all the heart breakers. Oh they stay in shadows all the trouble makers. It's always the quiet ones," but that is no reason not to break free once in a while. Of course, Autofiction is not all rowdiness and there are plenty of gentler moments; thoughtful and poignant. They sound like all slower Suede songs do: easy to drink in but carrying messages that need to be heard. It's not easy to be true to yourself when the world pressures you to conform, but it's wrong to bend. There are "so many ways to do what I do wrong," Brett considers, and one day we will be "gone like the birthday cards on the windowsill," but still "life without danger is no life," so he'll keep on pushing while the world pulls. We'll push with him and if we fuck it up, at least we'll fuck it up in good company.
Korb & El Hombre Al Agua - From The Mountains To The Oceans
Dreamlord / Up In Her Room
Released: 19th September 2022
From the Mountains to the Oceans is the culmination of collaborative experimental transatlantic jams between Korb and El Hombre Al Agua. From minimal atmospheric ambience to all-out psych rock the two tracks here combine a range of analogue synths, electric and acoustic guitars, organ, bass, drums and percussion to create cosmic journeys over ancient landscapes, drinking in the alchemy of the elements and marvelling at the majesty of the tectonics. Following on from 2021's A
rboria II, this is the second joint release by Up In Her Room and Korb's own Dreamlord Recordings, and it is available as a limited pressing white vinyl album or download from
Bandcamp. Both tracks stretch out to around eighteen minutes and nicely fuse Korb's classic space rock with El Hombre Al Agua's more ambient leanings. The latter is of course the electronic project of Anunnaki's Dave Read, with the sessions also including Dom Keen, who records with Korb's Jonathan Parkes as The Hologram People and Studio Kosmische. 'Pathway to the Gods' opens with three minutes of swirling drones which create an unsettling foundation for the song before more classic instrumentation lifts us above the horizon and recognisable Korb rock sets us on our way. This, however, is Korb with a purpose as the atmosphere is heavy and the way uncertain. Weightier drones begin to threaten and they push the band towards a denser, more powerful sound as they seek to build enough power to maintain control. As Korb break free the music changes tack, bursting into the space rock we know and love, psych guitars wailing and space dust trailing in its wake. The music soars, revelling in its freedom before disappearing into the heavens. Side two, 'Chemistry And Chaos', again opens ominously with the weaving drones returning with more power and greater intent. They fight all attempts to usher them away, as drums rattle and metal trembles. Layers of sound continue to build an eerie soundscape full of mystic energy but free from coherence and restraint. The sun may shine and dry winds blow but always the haze remains, obscuring everything that lies below. Available from Dreamlord's
Bandcamp page.
Jah Cuzzi - Panic At The Conservatory
Weird Beard
Released: 30th September 2022
Number twenty-two in the Weird Beard limited-run cassette series comes from Jah Cuzzi, an improvisational / free-rock unit based in Bucharest, Romania. The group in its current form came together in 2017 since when the trio have been actively recording, releasing music and playing shows across central and eastern Europe. You will have heard them before if you invested in the Psych Lovers'
Psych Against Cancer Vol 2 compilation where they contributed 'Kosmokrator', a pulsing twenty-three minutes of grating and swirling sound.
Panic at the Conservatory is an altogether different affair, being some forty-one minutes of slow, grinding menace. Alin Cincă's drums open at heartbeat pace which draws you into the music physically while Nikita Dembinski's keyboards drone away ominously in the background and Dan Michiu's guitar lays down threats all around. His strings scratch, moan and scrape, creating what is a beautifully dark atmosphere. These are dangerous sounds for a particularly heavy night; there is just one track here so there is no respite and when the drums eventually speed up, it almost drags your heart out of your body as it attempts to follow along. The pace lifts halfway through and the music almost adopts a recognisable classical form, but it ends in chaos, with drums hammering and guitars feedbacking befoe the heartbeat rhythm one again takes a firm grip and the guitars get ever more dislocated and distressed. We're not sure what exactly happened in the conservatory but it must have been bloody messy. As usual, the run of these cassettes is extremely small so sprint to the Weird Beard
webshop before they disappear forever.
Los Mundos - Las Montañas
Weird Beard
Released: 30th September 2022
Monterrey’s Los Mundos (The Worlds) are gradually seeing their albums pressed on to vinyl, with 2016's
Las Montañas the latest to be remixed, remastered and reissued by Weird Beard in the UK and Little Cloud in the USA. This follows on from The Acid Test's pressing of
No Hay Quien Se Salve in 2020 and this year's reworking of the band's eponymous debut album by Aurora Central. The duo, comprising of Luis Ángel Martínez and Alejandro 'Chivo' Elizondo, produce dark alternative rock that dips its toes into metal and psych yet also owes much to the grubby distorted sounds of The Jesus & Mary Chain and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. These are driving tunes that are heavy on screaming guitars and pounding rhythms with the lengthy opening track 'El Color Que Cayó Del Espacio' ('The Colour That Fell From Space') filling seven minutes with huge riffs, bruising beats and dispassionate vocals. It's a punishing piece that is followed by the even more extreme 'Re-Animador' which is nothing less than a hardcore charge. 'Los Gatos De Ulthar' (The Cats of Ulthar') is all big Sabbath riffs and gang violence, while 'Lo Que Trae La Luna' ('What The Moon Brings') heads back to familiar territory before falling into a space dust outro. 'Lemmy' flashes by in less than a minute and is clearly a bass tribute to the late Motörhead leader, and it leads into 'Hoyo Negro' ('Black Hole') which is Space Rock laced with amphetamines with the drums driven to overload while the guitars conversely appear to be in no hurry. 'Horizonte De Sucesos' ('Event Horizon') is two minutes of drum abuse, while closer 'Espacio-Tiempo' ('Space-Time') again harks back to BRMC with chiming guitars rising and falling over pointed rhythms. It ends in a sorry mess and is all the better for it. Dark and daring, this is a record to play in a thunderstorm when the gas bill has just arrived. Pressed in a limited run of just 200, there are two different colours of vinyl to enjoy. At the moment there are still copies available from the Weird Beard
website so get in quickly.
