Eziak - Nomads cdr

Ambient soundscapes mingle with instrumental prog rock and jazz and infused with a post rock sensibility. Somewhere between Shora, ECM jazz, and the rhythmic elements of The Necks. 2012 cdr on Triple Bath.

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Xqui - Capitulate CD

Xqui was a surprising newcomer in the noise/electronic underground world; refusing to reveal his real name and working with mysterious samples processed through mobile phone apps, he has so far created a number of diverse releases spanning the distance between dark ambient, soundscapes, noise, and epic levitational hymnal ambient. In his new release, which was brought out just a few days ago, he presents an even more expansive painting of sounds; starting with the more surprising additions, there are a few - so to speak - more conventional and accessible tracks; there's "Cypriot," a collaboration with Geiger von Muller, which starts with typical cryptic ambient and builds on a weird acoustic guitar loop; there's "Epiphany," a tribal-sounding rhythmic track that urges the listener to dance naked like possessed and sounds a little bit like William Bennett's Cut Hands, and there's "Valley," which sounds almost like monotonous 80s electro-EBM without the rhythm, but with a bright melody on top. And then there's some of his darkest and most feverish ambient soundscapes, of which I can distinguish "Deathbed," a track with an amazing ringing keyboard sound hovering and returning over layers of sound created by a female voice and a distant percussive sound, as well as "Kismat," a muffled chaos of reverse voices and a swirly loop that just creates fever. I have referred in another post to Xqui's soundscapes as Lovecraftian horror music for the urban individual, and this album reiterates this likening; even the "lighter" moments have an ominous feel about them, and bring to my mind the clubs presented in Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows's The Courtyard in Red Hook, Brooklyn, where Aldo Sax investigates murders and ends up under the influence of the Great Old Ones. Dizzying music, worth hearing and supporting financially, so go to Xqui's bandcamp and donate something to this exceptional sound shaper. 2019 cd on Wormhole World.

The Mickey Guitar Band ‎– Mickey Guitar tape

Their other release (minus Gerogerigegege, who, however, is the recording engineer here) is even more heavily focused on the guitar; side 1 is 27 minutes of ambient guitar effects of ambient nature and even similar to 1980s science documentaries. Again I find a Frippertronics element here. Side 2 is a live recording of the full band with a much grittier sound than in the LP; I get a jam/improvisation/noise feeling over the guitar solos that kinda akin to Les Rallizes Denudes and Taj-Mahal Travellers and slightly Can. Good shit. 2017 tape on Captain Trip Records.

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The Mickey Guitar Band Feat. The Gerogerigegege ‎– From The Deep LP

From the moment I learned of the existence of this, I was wavering on whether I should buy it due to the price, but eventually I did. Second kind-of-mass outing of Gerogerigegege after the amazing out-of-nowhere return of Moenai Hai is this collaboration lp with Japanese psych rock band The Mickey Guitar Band. Gero is listed as playing percussion, which is not that audible actually, as well as handling the production. So what we got here is psychedelic rock heavily focused on guitar solos combined with fizzy, levitating ambient pieces generated mainly by guitar effects akin to 1970s Robert Fripp. I'd say this sounds like a mix between Hawkwind and Popol Vuh, but don't take my word. It ain't that Gero-weird, but it's a good psychedelic record with a nightly sound ideal for night drives and such. 2017 LP on Psych.KG.

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The Golden Gonk ‎– A Thick Ridge Of Low Pressure tape

Minimal psychedelic drone heavily influenced by 1970s kosmische music by The Golden Gonk, the main project of Jamie Azzapardi, who we saw in the previous post with Howl Of The Lacerated. This mainly revolves around static synth drones and voices tuning in to the drone, as well as fun guitar loops sustaining cool guitar solos. 2018 tape on Shack In The Barley Productions.

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Charles Barabé / Howl Of The Lacerated / Andrew Paine / Toucan Lifecycle ‎– 4-way split tape

4-way split tape featuring excellent hypnagogic psychedelic ambient by Charles Barabé (who I'll definitely explore more), horror industrial in the vein of early Throbbing Gristle focused on howling guitar noises and creepy synths by Howl Of The Lacerated (side project of Jamie Azzopardi, boss of the label putting this out), fizzy space psychedelic electronics by Andrew Paine (reminding a little bit of Ashtray Navigations in a live environment, if you've ever seen them in the act), and blissful psychedelic synthetic ambient by Toucan Lifestyle. Nice! 2017 tape on Shack In The Barley Productions.

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Trouble - Snake Eyes 7"

Fortunately this isn't the Christian metal band, but an one-off project between David Lynch's son Riley Lynch on guitar, Lynch's collaborator Dean Hurley on drums and Alex Zhang Hungtai (Dirty Beaches, Love Theme) on sax that performed the title track for the returning series of Twin Peaks. It's a good mood cabaret rock 'n' roll track that could have also appeared in an Aki Kaurismaki movie = perfection. But all the money is on side 2 "Mother's Gone," which is a slow dirge between the Twin Peaks movie's masterpiece track "The Pink Room" and early Bohren & Der Club Of Gore, that can be played on repeat all day, admiring those long accents by Hungtai's sax. Greatness. 2017 7" on Sacred Bones Records.

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