ETERNAL TAPESTRY & SUN ARAW "Night Gallery" LP/CD (Thrill Jockey)

  Sun Araw's Cameron Stallones joins psych juggernauts Eternal Tapestry, for the rawest collaborations we've seen in some time.This is not a split record, nor is it two bands playing one another's music.This is the result of two very like minded, vastly different musical entities, sharing their own personal ideas to create something completely free of boundaries.Six well seasoned musicians holed up in a studio, playing a loosely written piece of music, with no real end in sight.Their vision is focused, yet loose and varied.If you are familiar with Sun Araw's heavily sedated dub-psych wizardry, and E-Tap's hazy instrumental washouts, then you already have  a bit of insight to what this might be like.Now multiply that by 100, and drop a few hits of alien LSD and a handful of downers to the mix, and you've got Night Gallery, which is somewhat of a tribute to the 70's t.v. show, made by Rod Sterling of Twilight Zone fame.It's one massive piece of heavy psych music, spread out over four different movements, and clocks in at just under thirty nine minutes.Sounds about right, given that both parties' have a reputation for accessibly long attention spans.Swagger over awe.
  Night Gallery's moods shift from delay-drenched guitar meditations, to cavernous saxophone and organ wailing, to thunderous riffing and pummeling percussive freak outs on the spot.It's supernatural repetitions carry a continuous flow of glittery waves of golden energies, and collide and break into a wide range of good vibrations.It's terribly easy to listen to, and manages to sound a bit different with each spin.This music is perfect for all kinds of levitation practices and cult rituals alike, or just getting lost in the pure and simple magic of mind altering sounds.Wow.

OVAL/LITURGY - "Split LP" (Thrill Jockey)

 

   

WOW.Just...wow.Markus Popp, aka: Oval, has been dubbed the pioneer of  the "glitch" movement, that swept the electronic music genre in the early 90's.He's very well respected, and a staple among various music publications, and fellow electronic musicians alike.These four new tracks are the first we've herd from him in almost ten years, and despite the long hiatus, it's obvious that Popp has continued to grow musically, expanding on his minimal skittering electro, in a big way.He returns with a much bigger, beefed up sound, with the use of stringed instruments and real percussion."Kreak" opens Oval's side of things, with a scattered acoustic guitar stumbling over live drums, hinting a possible free jazz excursion about to take place.Add his carefully crafted skittering glitches, and that's just what you get.The drums continue to come in random bursts, along with colorful clicks and crackling electronic warble, with the acoustiguitar strumming out of time and slightly off key to create a mesmerizing flood of sharp, sporadic melodies.It's the longest of the bunch, clocking in at just over six minutes, and it's a nice re-introduction to Oval's new organic instrumentation.The next three tracks are short snippets of mini-movements, with the same acoustic vibe of the opener.It's good to hear from Popp again, and hopefully this project will turn out a new LP from Oval.Fingers crossed.

  The B-side offers a brilliant contrast to Oval's subtle warmth, courtesy of Brooklyn 's Liturgy.Originally a solo project of guitarist and singer Hunter Hatchet Hendrix, he's since become quite the live spectacle, with a full band backing him on stage and in the studio.The band has recently released their monstrous new full length, also for Thrill Jockey, called "Renihilation".It's their first recording as a collective, with each member contributing to the recording process,it's a definite first for Liturgy.Here, this forward-thinking black metal act gives us a nineteen minute tidal wave of ethereal movements and open spaces, blending their abrasive guitar assault with hushed electronic drones, and nods to world music."Untitled" starts out with a slow and crushing guitar riff, slightly changing octaves each time it repeats itself.It's got all the elements of modern doom metal pummeling, with some interesting drum syncopation scattered throughout it.After what seems like an eternity's worth of crashing drums and brash riffing, things take a very unexpected turn.As the chords fizzle out and melt into ringing feedback, a loner analog pulse cuts through the pink noise, with no particular melody or tempo, it's just scattered random bleeps.Eventually this single note takes shape, and creates a steady blip, similar to a radar's hum.A slow-rising choir begins to chant in a dark and affected tone, as a jumbled tribal bump enters the picture, beating along at a stumbling pace.Enter the steady build of distant guitars, and all the sudden things being to burst with color.We are now in the midst of epic post-rock bliss, with soaring melodies and thick walls of heavy chords.An electrifying feeling lies within every note of this rise, and the movement holds strong for a solid 7 minutes, before changing tempos on us more than a few times.Eventually fading out into nothingness, we are left with a single male voice that hums repeatedly, sounding like some kind ofaboriginal campfire chant, as it wanders off into the dark.This is Liturgy, free of rules and regulations.Forward thinking black metal has arrived.

ETERNAL TAPESTRY "Beyond the 4th Door" (Thrill Jockey)

 Chicago's Thrill Jockey imprint has always been 10 steps ahead of themselves, with an ever growing roster of experimental pop and avant-garde's most prolific acts of today.In the last two decades they've given us The Sea and Cake, Tortoise, Pit Er Pat, Trans Am, and a slew of other household names, as well as blossoming young acts like Mi Ami, Arbouretum, Pontiak, and High Places.They've become quite a figurehead in underground music, and seem to be diving a bit deeper into obscurity with each release, with the recent addition of Daniel Higgs, Barn Owl, and Boredoms their family.Portland's Eternal Tapestry are one of their newest and most promising foster children, with a number of well received tape and vinyl releases under their belt.Sharing ex and current members with Plankton Wat, Edibles, Jackie-O-Motherfucker, Cloaks, and Heavy Winged, this group of psych-visionaries are no strangers to sonic experimentation, and have given Thrill Jockey their most focused and compelling opus to date.

 Behind the 4th Door contains five epic movements in just over 40 minutes, just as you've come to expect from E-Tap.Fans of their last two scorchers, 2009's "The Invisible Landscape" and "Palace of the Night Skies" will no doubt get their fix of pummeling guitar chops and pounding drums, but they've taken a chunk of their patented Zeppelin-esque freak outs, and transformed them into sprawling, radiant beauty.Unlike the aforementioned, Behind..takes a somewhat different path into the psych abyss, as they've an entirely new environment for their loose guitar improvisations to run free.Now, these aren't the typical, mindless "stoner jams" that are so easily forgotten, although they've certainly been tagged with the term a countless number of times.Whether or not they'd ripped a 10 foot bong before heading into the studio, E-Tap confidently display a style of improvisation that is just as controlled and focused, as it is sporadic and random.There's obviously a strong connection between this talented bunch, as their blinding chemistry shines brightly within the swell of each movement.

 The album's opening track, "Ancient Echoes" seems to set a pleasant and inventive tone for the entire record, with it's distant guitar noodling and slow moving drum sweeps and creeping bass.The addition of breathy, subtle vocals gives the song a bit more depth, and meaning.Although the words are unclear, it's a rather nice touch.As the album slowly rolls on, the moods shift from dark, brooding echoes, to bright and gentle clarity.The band shows us their eternal lust for heavy riffing and crashing drums, with the 7+ minute "Galactic Derelict".The song chimes in with a low, buzzing riff and staggering drums, as the two axe men burn through just about every effects pedal and guitar manipulation out there.A saxophone wails off in the distance, and accompanies the low end perfectly.As the percussion starts to pound away a bit louder, a heavy chord repeats and holds things together, as the other guitar builds up with a bendy, repetitive run.It sounds like they're both stumbling uphill from opposite sides, unaware of the other's existence.When the two finally meet at the top, they blindly collide head first, to form a vibrant, soaring harmony, loosely intertwined yet calculated, and gives the song an exhilarating finish, and the album is only half way gone.The closing track, clocking in at just over 12 minutes, is a  patient, and slowly burning tune called "Time Winds Through a Glass, Clearly".It carefully swims through a sea of layered guitar drones, and organ pulses, with each instrument taking their turns in the foreground at random.Just as you think you've figured out where it's all heading, things pick up and head in the other direction, with an unexpected key change.This reminds me of Grails' blackened post-rock, with that underlying world music influence hiding deep withing it's core.You will most likely find a handful of similarities between E-Tap and your favorite modern and/or classic psych-rock outfits, but this one delivers quite generously, and offers new discoveries with listen.Highly recommended.
 Practice your levitation skills to the "Galactic Derelict" video, below.

MI AMI - STEAL YOUR FACE -12" (Thrill Jockey)

Mi Ami - Steal Your Face 12"

I always thought Mi Ami knew exactly what they were doing from their very inception.As a huge Black Eyes fan,I was stoked-yet-skeptical on them from the start.That "Some Boys" single still runs through my mind on occasion.That has all changed since the "Watersports" album.My mind is made up with this one..Mi Ami is a different kind of threat altogether.A pleasurable one to say the least.And on Steal Your Face,they have finally grown into themselves.This is confident and dangerous music,there is no telling where it's headed and i like it that way.

Abrasive and blown out from the first note,these six songs show the band going for a more raw and untreated punk approach.Or so it seems at first.There's plenty of Daniel's signature squeaky howls and drugged-out chants in the mix,and his scratchy,fuzzed out riffs are churned out at you non-stop,and quickly morphed into delay-soaked pulses that float atop the rhythms to no end.There are some nice and lazy dubbed-out moments here,with some gentle percussion to drift away on,but for the most part the drums remain solid,pummeling,and right where they need to be at all times.Thick bass lines are the glue to hold this all together,they are worked in nicely and crawl right beneath the awesome treble attack of the rhythm section.Another solid release from start to finish.Brilliant.