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May 2024 = |
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somesurprises |
Ex-Easter Island
Head
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Anton Barbeau
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Empty Full Space
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Hungrytown
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Phoenix
Cube / Kitchen Cynics
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somesurprises
- PERSEIDS
(LP,
CD,
Digital on Doom
Trip Records)
Seattle
band
somesurprises’ incredible album might initially
come across as somewhere between shoegaze, dream
pop, and psychedelic, but by album’s end you’ll
be unsure of how to classify it as anything, so
utterly in its own world and time it floats.
Its sense of psychedelia never subsides,
sometimes in the background, others front and
center, so I suppose it’s more that than
anything else, but really somesurprises has
invented something unique to call their own.
The
first three tracks are where dream pop figures
most, and they’re all killer.
On lead track “Be Reasonable,” songwriter
and singer Natasha El-Sergany’s vocals are
chilly and drifting, as in the rest of the
album. She
gently urges “Be reasonable, be reasonable, it’s
not inevitable, be reasonable” in a hypnotic
refrain, until you realize the song could be an
anthem to sing to everyone from world leaders to
the grumpy guy in line at the store.
The shoegaze-adjacent sound conjures up
everything from Lush, Melody’s Echo Chamber,
Cocteau Twins, Mazzy Star and Marissa Nadler.
Production-wise, there are walls of
sound, and then there’s this, more of a Great
Wall of China of Sound.
It’s massive.
Also, I’ve always loved bands who lark
about after the main part of the song is over,
just tinkering away, which somesurprises does
here till the song slowly disintegrates into the
formless colored blobs in a lava lamp.
On
“Bodymind,” El-Sergany sings “Once I figure out
this body there won’t be any mind left in me.
Once I figure out this mind there won’t
be anybody left behind me.”
Again, the song is mesmerizing in both
its repetition and its thunderous, swirling
production. It’s
that effect of indifferent vocals in the middle
of a maelstrom that’s so effective.
We’ve heard that trick a million times
before, but somesurprises masterfully waves a
magic wand with it.
On “Why I Stay,” she intones “The sun
cannot outrun the moon.
The night cannot overtake the day.
Each moves in its own orbit and you can’t
force it.” El-Sergany’s
melodies are all stunningly gorgeous, and the
band’s colossal backing plants the songs deep in
your cerebral cortex so you want to hear them
again and again.
By
this point, just when you’re thinking you’ve got
Perseids’ style figured out, you’re in
for a change. Psychedelic
instrumentals such as “Snakes and Ladders” and
the later “Untitled” appear, and each cleanses
the palate for the next course.
If the album was already in a state of
slow motion, hanging suspended in the air, it
manages to become even slower and gauzier in the
middle section.
“Black Field” and “Ship Circles” add
tasteful cello from guest Lori Goldston, just
loud enough in the mix to be heard.
I know it may sound simple, but adding
strings, even one cello, to psychy dreamgaze is
bloody brilliant once you hear it.
On “Ship Circles” Josh Medina’s
shimmering jangling guitar dances around
Goldston’s cello while El-Sergany’s soft vocals
take you away. It’s
breathtakingly beautiful.
Closer
and
title track “Perseids” is monumental in scope
and sound. This
might be the most hypnotic track on an album
richly steeped in hypnosis.
It opens with more jangly guitar from
Josh Medina and another catchy, otherworldly
melody line from El-Sergany.
But the song transitions to shock and
awe, Medina’s guitar raining lightning bolts
down amid drummer Nico Sophiea and bass player
Laura Seniow pounding away.
This sets the scene for guest Jessika
Kenney reading her version of a poem originally
by Persian poet Hafez.
Her reading is animated, like a god
casting a curse on the earthbound inhabitants.
Shrieks and cries are heard, while an
offscreen calamity is taking place.
Order and calm are finally restored as
the song and album come to a close.
Perseids
is easily my favorite album so far of this
rapidly moving year.
It’s full of mystery, dynamite melodies,
and bursting at the seams with a superabundant
production second to none.
Natasha El-Sergany’s songwriting and
diaphanous vocals weave a spell like no other.
The music is timeless; it would’ve
sounded unique and original fifty years ago and
will still do so fifty years from now.
(Mark
Feingold)
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EX-EASTER
ISLAND HEAD – NORTHER
(LP/DL on Rocket Recordings)
A
norther means a cold wind that blows down from
the North (which makes perfect sense when it is
explained). Well, look what’s just blown in from
the Northwest on this their first studio album
since 2016 and which the enigmatic experimental
combo has been hatching in its Liverpool lair
this past year. Not that they’ve been idle in
the eight years since the release of Twenty-Two
Strings eight years ago, forging plenty of
expansive external projects with contemporary
and classical collaborators, many of which
seemed to have filtered into this long-gestating
offering.
Norther
is mesmeric, at times jaw dropping, yet
simultaneously measured. A norther it may be but
despite the abundance of creativity and
sometimes-icy chill of clinical precision and
repetition the hatches remain resolutely
battened down and secure. These guys are
undoubtedly in control yet within their
self-imposed discipline there exists a
bewildering use of instrumentation, both
conventional and improvised (Allen keys and
knitting needles, anyone?) where even
traditional tools of trade get bent out of shape
so that they often sound unrecognisable. A
case in point is ‘Golden Bridges’, a reference
to the brass rods they use to shift beneath the
guitar strings to create their uniquely
shapeshifting sound and lending the track a
jarring and vaguely oriental air. It’s one of
six pieces, all unique and evidently patiently
and doubtless lovingly crafted.
Then
there’s ‘Weather’, all tinkling like tiny,
motorised wind-chimes a- dancing on top of pin
heads. Just when you wonder where, if anywhere,
it’s heading, a sonorous bass cuts in and the
ensuing see-sawing effect resembles a more
experimental but less soporific A Winged Victory
for The Sullen. The title track quickly builds
up a head of steam, its pulsating beats and
dancefloor rhythms pulling us towards lusher,
sunnier climes and hinting at what might have
been had David Byrne co-opted the whole of
Talking Heads in My Life In The Bush of
Ghosts and got Georgio Moroder to produce
it. Yes, I’m still processing that, too.
‘Easter’ packs Polynesian punch (there may just
have been a clue in the name) to the extent they
probably sang “gamelan” as they ran with the
gang. It’s mesmeric hypnotic and utterly
wonderful. ‘Magnetic Languages’ deploys smart
phones and modified pickups to re-play their
voices, resulting in fabulous Laurie
Anderson-style staccato, avant-garde minimalism,
which just leaves ‘Lodestone’, a plunking slow
burner in which to set sail for infinite
horizons.
Daring,
playfully irreverent in their approach to
instrumentation and startling innovative, while
still managing to retain ‘the fun’, Liverpool’s
Fab Four (what, you mean there was another one?)
might just have scaled a career peak, once more
highlighting Rocket’s knack of picking their
fruit at its ripest.
(Ian
Fraser)
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ANTON
BARBEAU - AN INTRODUCTION
TO…
Available
on Fruits
De Mer
Barbeau
is a longtime favourite here at Terrascope
Towers, having released over three dozen albums
and ANThologies including several with Three
Minute Tease (collaborating with ex-Soft
Boys/Egyptians Andy Metcalfe and Morris Windsor)
and one backed by the Bevis Frond (Nick Saloman,
Adrian Shaw, and Andy Ward). He is also a
prolific contributor to the collectible Fruits
De Mer imprint, famous for encouraging new and
established artists to have a 21st
century crack at cult, obscure, and well-loved
60s/70s psychedelic, progressive, and avant
garde adventurers. This latest entry in Fruits
De Mer’s Introduction
series offers highlights from Ant’s numerous
cover versions along with original headswirlers
from his own fertile imagination.
In fact, we’re off to a heady start
with the compleat “Psychedelic Mynde Of Moses”
EP, featuring the title track from his 2010
album supplemented with two covers of his
frequently suggested inspirations, Robyn
Hitchcock and Julian Cope. The lead track is an
aggressive pop psych masterpiece in the vein of
Bevis Frond (complete with fiery Salomanesque
solo and Metcalfe’s throbbing bass), Hitchcock’s
‘Sometimes I Wish I Was A Pretty Girl’ is a
perfect slice of avant pop weirdness from the
humourously like-minded Soft Boy, and Cope’s
‘Out Of My Mind On Dope And Speed’ adds an even
more shambolic trainwreck arrangement, complete
with run-amok synths and a bit of a Bowiesque
glitter groove.
Speaking of Mr. Jones, Barbeau delivers
a reverential acoustic take on ‘Ziggy Stardust’
from Fruits De Mer’s second Bowie tribute,
released soon after his death. Perhaps a tad too
delicate under the circumstances, but an
interesting approach. ‘Scary Monsters (And Super
Creeps)’ is, well, scarier than the Thin White
Duke’s contribution to ‘80s sheen and New Wave
disco. Another Terrascope
compadre and long-time Ant collaborator Alan
Strawbridge (from Terrastock performers Lucky
Bishops) provides the suitably “scary bass”
parts and Ant moans encouragingly. It’s from
Ant’s “Heaven Is In Your Mind” EP, also
presented here in its entirety. The title track
(and Traffic cover) is a tad heavy on the drum
kit, but otherwise nicely captures their “back
to the country” stoned vibe, Big Star’s
‘September Gurls’ explores Ant’s love of power
pop, but his out-of-breath vocal and more
maddening drumming detract from the song’s
lovely melody and sentimental lyric, while the
lone original, ‘Secretion Of The Wafer’ may
hearken back to Moses’ psychedelic mynde…or not?
I sense it has something to do with Ten
Commandments and speaking in tongues, and sports
a far-out Alice Cooper-esque spoken word bit but
otherwise my mynde hasn’t ingested the proper
(amount of) psychedelics to absorb additional
meaning. Best to go with the flow and let Ant be
your guide.
Fruits De Mer labelmates The Honey Pot
help out on Rubbles
favourite ‘Dr. Crippen’s Waiting Room’ from cult
hero Wil Malone and his Orange Bicycle. It’s a
perfect choice for their combined efforts to
float through this trippy tale of the popular
doctor’s, er, “patent medicines.” A nearly
unrecogniseable ‘Sunshine Superman’ is heavy on
the drums (again) and drapes Donovan’s fairy
dust poetry and hallucinogenic imagery with
gurgling synths and fuzz box pyrotechnics to
“blow your little minds.” I do however enjoy
what he (and the label’s in-house supergroup the
Fishheads) did to the Monkees’ ‘Pleasant Valley
Sunday’ sticking to the blueprint for some, um,
pleasant pop psych, complete with that wild
ending.
Ant’s originals reflect secret
knowledge absorbed from his favourite artists,
from the proggy psych crunch of Electric Light
Orchestra in the mysterious ‘When I Was 46 (In
The Year 13)’ and I’m not sure what goes on in
the ‘Heavy Psychedelic Toilet’, but Star
Trek references, surreal, religious
imagery, swirling musical accompaniment, and
unexpected fade-out/fade-in keeps us off guard.
And who amongst the Terrascope
faithful doesn’t love that ‘70s’ German
kosmische head music and Fruits De Mer’s Head
In The Clouds compilation features Ant’s
contribution in the form of the hypnotic synth
swashes of the ‘Berlin School Of Doubt.’ Motorik
pulsing electronics meander throughout astral
space voyages in true Tangerine Dream-ish
fashion - this would be a fabulous score to a
surreal sci-fi film from the likes of Andrei
Tarkovsky.
‘Beak’ is mysteriously centered around
the mantra-like repetition of the title over an
ascending synth pounder that grows ever more
ominous as we settle into its hypnotic grasp and
three bonus tracks including a live ‘Trouble Was
Born’ that gives us a feel for the live Anton
experience (a great raconteur in the Arlo
Guthrie tradition) complete the “introduction”
to this wonderfully enigmatic and eclectic
talent.
(Jeff
Penczak)
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EMPTY
FULL SPACE – FROM THE LIMBO
(LP,
CD,
Digital on Spinda
Records)
Newcomers
Empty
Full Space are an underground band from Paris
who blend space rock, psychedelia and krautrock
into a melodic, enjoyable trip.
The band is Nicolas Le Rouelly (guitar,
lead vocals), Maxime Morin (guitar), Antoine
Bruneton (bass), Florent Walker (drums, backing
vocals), and Edgar Payen (synths, percussion).
Most of the five tracks have lyrics, but
really the songs are mostly instrumental with
small vocal passages which are satisfying, and
often with nice harmonies to boot.
Their
writing
is impressive in that for a debut album with a
heavy emphasis on guitar space rock, it has
plenty of variation in melody, style and tempo
between and within the tracks.
It’s not a monolithic slab of trippy
imitations of other bands’ work.
For instance, lead track “From the Limbo”
might be exactly what you’re expecting, a
slow-burn reverb heavy piece of cosmic sound,
but follow-up “Morphogene” incorporates eastern
or Anatolian vibes while still inside that
insular space rock snow globe.
Extending further, next track “The Wheel”
has a slight touch of Morricone and desert rock,
with excellent lyrics, before switching gears in
the middle to a slick rocker with a strong
groove, before returning to the original style.
“Amnesia” starts out heavy, but Empty
Full Space pulls an unexpected left turn with a
brief passage that sounds almost like The
B-52’s, then goes into guitar psych territory
from there, before repeating the cycle.
With
space
and psych figuring so heavily, most of the songs
are expectedly downtempo, but Empty Full Space
wisely never lets them dwell too long in the
lower gears, as just about all the songs speed
up and slow down a couple of times in their
running time.
Spain’s
Spinda
Records continues building and building an
immensely admirable stable of talent across the
psychedelic spectrum.
The bands Moura, Maragda, and The Silver
Linings were all brilliant finds, and now add
Empty Full Space to the deep roster.
From
the Limbo
is a sharp start out of the gate for Empty Full
Space. Their
space, psych and krautrock blend works well, and
the band instinctively knows how to mix things
up to keep the listener’s interest.
It should be interesting to hear what
these fellows brew up next.
(Mark
Feingold)
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HUNGRYTOWN
– CIRCUS FOR SALE
Big
Stir Records CD/DL
Circus
For Sale is the delightful fourth album by
Vermont’s Hungrytown, a duo consisting of
Rebecca Hall And Ken Anderson who together have
created a fine album of chamber folk music,
Rebecca writes, sings and plays acoustic guitar
and Ken also writes and plays nearly all of the
instrumentation, which includes guitars, pianos,
organs, drums, harpsichord, hammered dulcimer,
mandolin, banjo, harmonica and accordion with
three of the songs further embellished by the
Aliento Chamber Players, adding cello, violins
and viola.
This
is their first album for Big Stir records and is
due to be released in June. It is a lovely album
which I have played often since it arrived a
month ago. The album starts with the wistful
rumination on the passing of another trip around
the sun in Another Year, Ken bringing the song
to life with a winsome organ melody. This is
followed by the title track, a story which came
about through a chat with a fellow traveller in
the south west of England they met whilst
touring here, he described seeing a complete
circus for sale in some detail which stuck in
Rebecca’s mind long enough to be the inspiration
for this waltzing carousel of a tune, a song in
which I can just picture the colourful sights
and sounds.
Rebecca
has a pure, untrammelled voice, no warbling or
extending melissimatic trills, I’m reminded of
the first time I heard the wonderful Rabbit
Songs by Hem, that they follow this song with
‘Feel Like Falling’, a catchy chamber- folk song
just reinforces that observation, this is the
first of three songs to feature the strings of
Aliento chamber players. An album highlight for
me is the murder ballad ‘Man of Poor Fortune’, a
family tragedy in which a son murders his
incestuous father; one can’t help but think he
should have just called the police!
With
a title like ‘Green Grow the Laurels’ we are
firmly in folk territory, it is a banjo-flecked,
traditional song of unrequited love. Another
highlight for me is the gorgeous ‘Trillium and
Columbine’, the second of the three orchestrated
songs, a short, pastoral lament written by
Rebecca and Ken, just beautiful as is the
following ‘Tuesday Sun’, a rainy day pop song,
which had me checking the credits to see who
wrote it as it sounds familiar, but it is an
original by them and would serve as a perfect
counter point to Nick Drake’s ‘Saturday Sun’.
They
follow this with a fine cover of the Bert
Jansch’s classic ‘Morning Brings Peace of Mind’.
‘Gravity’ is another song which takes the theme
of the circus as its inspiration, a sad song of
note which highlights Rebecca’s beautiful voice
and Suzanne Mueller’s mournful cello, Ken also
does a great job on the instrumentation, framing
the words and leaving enough space around them.
A jaunty ‘Little Bird’ is well placed on the
album; it’s a song which was written in lockdown
and a paean to freedom. ‘Late New England
(Afternoon in June)’, is the last of the three
orchestrated songs and another highlight for me,
again nature is celebrated in the flora and
fauna of a lazy summer afternoon in New England,
just wonderful. The album ends with the shortest
song on the record ‘Leaving’ in which piano,
acoustic guitar and cello combine, joined by a
portentous organ melody. This is a truly
wonderful album, one I will be returning to
often and comes highly recommended.
(Andrew
Young)
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THE
KITCHEN CYNICS/THE
PHOENIX CUBE -THE GREAT FILTER
Apple
Tree Lament Limited Edition CDr (42 copies)
Here’s
a great acid-folk album by two people well known
to readers of Terrascope. Long time Terrascope
scribe Simon Lewis (The Phoenix Cube) and the
ever so prolific Alan Davidson (The Kitchen
Cynics), the way this works is that they do a
song each alternatively throughout the album,
recorded separately in their home studios. It
opens with a slowly unfurling instrumental song
from Alan entitled ‘Inside Out’, which sets the
scene nicely, all twisted electronica, this is
followed by Simon’s Kaleidoscopic ‘Lazy evening
Moon’, informed by banjo, electronics and
percussion, it’s an infectious song, a delve
into the unknown, with a chant of “we don’t know
where we are going, though we have to take our
chance”, indeed.
The
Kitchen Cynics follow this with the gently
disturbing ‘Plague of Frogs’, informed by what
sounds like electronic sheep and distorted
willow warblers over which Alan describes a very
strange tale involving dancing frogs. The album
is over an hour long so I won’t describe them
all but suffice to say that these opening songs
give an indication of the proceedings. I will
though delve into a few of them. Phoenix Cube’s
‘Just Another Dream’, has some wonky beats and
describes how to travel in your mind, armchair
travelling is something I am good at and can
fully relate, by the end of the song I appear to
have arrived at some distant Polynesian island.
‘Something Is wrong In Our Houses’ is another
unsettling song from Alan concerning gods,
prophets and false idols, so far so good, I’m
bloody loving this album. Simon delivers a
superb ‘Summer Of Our Loving’, over a wonky
mellotron and Alan follows this with the drowsy
‘Song Of Syrie’, whatever I have ingested has
now taken full effect.
The
title track split into three parts arrives in
the form of ‘The Great Filter is in the Future’
‘The Great Filter Overhead’ and ‘The Great
Filter is In the Past’, plenty of found sounds,
church bells, birds and celestial harps all
combine together in some warped alternate
dimension, there then follow a couple of
instrumentals, in the form of ‘Bong’ and
‘Delusyn’, before ‘Bodenham Lakes, for Cara’
appears, it describes a brief visit to a local
nature spot of note. Then Alan’s final song on
the album ‘Every Step’, announces itself,
informed by more slippery and unsettling
electronica plus some advice on hill walking.
The final song on the album is certainly one to
contemplate ‘If the Universe Is Infinite’, an
instrumental song and the equivalent of lying on
some hillside, eyes closed listening to the
birds and bells of a distant church. It wouldn’t
be out of place on an album by Eden Ahbez. There
aren’t many copies of this lovingly made
artefact around so I suggest you get in quick,
it comes in a cloth bag, accompanied by tea
cards and a badge.
(Andrew
Young)
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