Long Overdue Update

A new batch of Archive discs arrived earlier in the week. Being the Archive fanatic that I am, I bought the limited edition LP+CD for the Hasegawa & Igler release and the lathe cut 7"+CD for the Zaika release. Some excellent instrumental music from both. Hasegawa & Igler create some noisey, psychedelic-like sounds that go to the verge of harsh noise but they manage to keep it listenable. Zaiaka is the duo of Tom Carter and Marcia Bassett who create some spacey, haunting sounds.

Other new music arriving was the huge double LP, single CD release by Three Lobed of Sunburned Hand Of The Man's 'A Grand Tour Of Tunisia'. The CD is a live set called 'London Zero' that features some Beat-like poetry with sparse instrumentation throughout. The double LP on the other hand is a free folk, psych-tinged adventure. I also picked up the new Mastodon album with the DVD that has a documentary on the making of the album. It's a different sound from them as they were going for a classic progressive rock sound.

From Sub Pop's subscription series, singles from Arthur & Yu, Tyvek and Circle have showed up. I started a new 7" series with Volcom Entertainment and the first edition is a split between Kandi Coded and Valis.

On the gear front, I've added a Agile 2000 guitar to the mix. It's a Gibson Les Paul style guitar with a flamed top. For effects pedals, I've added the Devi Ever Bit and MXR Bass Auto Q Wah to the mix. I built up a Cream Pie boost/overdrive and combined it with a clone of Electro-Harmonix's Mole/Hog's Foot bass boost. I've found it to be a great combination that works very well with my fuzz pedals. I'm also working on an original project that generates different waveforms where you can modulate the amplitude and frequency.

Some 2008 New Releases

A couple of packages arrived yesterday with some new releases.

Germany's Colour Haze have released a monster of an album appropriately titled "All". It's lengthy album with quite a few tracks to show their range as a band. It's an album that will take several spins before it sinks in. The debut album from The Freeks has finally arrived. The Freeks are the "all-star" collective of Ruben Romano (Nebula / Fu Manchu), Scott Reeder (Kyuss / Across the River), John McBain (Monster Magnet / Wellwater Conspiracy), Isaiah Mitchell (Earthless), Lorenzo Woodrose (Baby Woodrose / On Trial), Jack Endino (Skin Yard / Earthworm), Jason Corbin (Bartenders Bible / The Casbah), John Cobett (Hammers of Misfortune / Ludicra) and Bernie Worell (Wizard of Woo & Woo Warriors / Funkadelic / Parliament). Should be interesting to hear what they come up with.

Another new release from Three Lobed Recordings is out. Matt Valentine and Erica Elder have a strickly duo LP that features songs with a heavy influence from India and surrounding areas. With the help of some non-Western instruments and a couple of Electro-Harmonix effects pedals, they create some interesting sounds. As a bonus, there's a full length CD that contains a collection of unreleased material from MV&EE with The Golden Road appearing on some of the tracks. As always the final is on 180g black vinyl and this time housed in a thick single pocket sleeve. The CD comes in it's own plastic sleeve with artwork. I'm not a huge fan of the duo but this a solid release.

Oscillation III, Part 2

Part two of the Oscillation III CD series from Three Lobed arrived on Saturday with three discs. That leaves one final disc to complete the series.

The second set contains albums from Bardo Pond, Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth fame and The Micheal Flower Band featuring members of Vibracathedral Orchestra and Sunburned Hand Of The Man. Will all the recordings they do, I expect a quality disc from Bardo Pond. Lee Ranaldo is always doing something different that's interesting. The Michael Flower Band is something I have no clue what it will sound like but a mix of those bands would be interesting. Time to get listening.

Heavy Winged - Alive In My Mouth

The latest release from Three Lobed Recordings continues their trend of an LP on 180g black vinyl with a CD of the material with a bonus track. Heavy Winged have a previous release on TRL that featured material released on a pressed CD for the first time. That was my introduction to the trio. Since then I've bought their Archive release 'Feel Inside' and the vinyl-only 'We Grow' LP which I think is their best material to date.

Until now. Side A offers the familiar sound of Heavy Winged with a few new elements/textures to keep things interesting. Then comes Side B which contains the most crushing song they've yet to record. The first half the 16+ minute track is a wall of sound that comes crashing down half way through and then simmers until the end. The CD contains a third song clocking in over 17 minutes alternates between a frenzy of sounds and quieter, moody parts. Chalk up another stellar release from Three Lobed.

The Week's Haul

Arriving earlier in the week was the latest from Three Lobed Recordings. A three-sided LP from Enos Slaughter who features members from Sunburned Hand Of The Man and No Neck Blues Band. The two LPs come on heavy 180g vinyl and a CD of the material is included as well. The music is rather hard to describe as I haven't heard any of the group's previous material. They take acoustic instruments and make a junkyard-like brand of folk music. It's going take more listens to get a handle on what they are doing since no traditional sound structures are used.

From the fantastic distro and label Eclipse Records came a bunch of new releases and reissues. Tompkins Square has reissued a bunch of early material from James Blackshaw that has long been out of print so I ordered the albums I didn't already have. In order to get everything I can get my hands on by Raccoo-oo-oon, I bought my first cassette tape in 13 or so years. The tape is entry number 4 in their Mythos Folkways series. Rounding out the order are a couple of LPs, the latest from Belgium's Silvester Anfang and a pervious CD-R only release from Six Organs Of Admittance.

Bardo Pond's Batholith

Three Lobed Recordings has unleashed a beast of a new album from Bardo Pond. The material itself is not new but a new batch of recordings that never properly got released. Coming in a beautiful gatefold sleeve on heavy duty 180gram vinyl and a pressed CD, it's another impressive package from TLR. Pre-ordering it also got me a bonus disc with a 13 minute exclusive track.

Since it's more dated material, the tracks on here are a bit shorter and more "song-based" which is a welcome after all the jamming they've done in all their side projects recently (not that I'm complaining). I need some more listens for this one to sink in but after a spin the album flows nice as a whole and there's a good variety. It's been a good month for Three Lobed with this and part 1 of the Oscillation III series.

Oscillation III, Part 1

The first part of the CD subscription series from Three Lobed Recordings, Oscillation III, has arrived. The first batch includes 6 albums and a silk-screened slipcase to hold all the CDs. The albums length range from long EPs to short LPs. The previous series, Modern Containment, had what appeared to be a decent lineup but after going through the series I found it to be excellent with some of my favorite releases of the year coming from it. Oscillation III has an even better lineup so I'm hoping for it to surpass Modern Containment in quality.

The first batch features albums from GHQ, Jack Rose, Howlin Rain, The Bark Haze, Tom Carter and Vanishing Voice. It's almost too much good stuff at one time. I can't wait to dig into the series in the next few weeks.

Looking forward to part 2 in eight weeks!

Gown's 'For The Maples'

The first release of what promises to be an amazing year from Three Lobed Recordings has arrived. Gown, aka Andrew MacGregor, has teamed up with Sunburned Hand Of The Man for an album titled "For The Maples". Another fantastically produced album from Three Lobed. The LP is on black 180 vinyl and comes with a pressed CD of the vinyl material in a silk screened jacket. And for pre-ordering a bonus CD has been included with a 20 minute track.

Having just spun the record for the first time, I'm loving both sides of it. The first track has some vocals on it but it's nothing but some great jamming the rest of the way out. The second side-long track is a real psychedelic rock burner. Absolutely a fantastic way to start 2008 for Three Lobed.

Week In Review

Lots of new stuff arriving this week in the post. First in was the latest vinyl release from Three Lobed Recordings. A 12" from Sarin Smoke (the duo of Peter Swanson and Tom Carter) along with a CD EP live recording is some mellow, "meditative" guitar duo work that works great as background music or something to relax to. Nice silk screened black and white artwork and thick heavy black wax make for another solid release from Three Lobed.

Coming from No Idea Records, who are mostly a punk rock label, was three albums from Atom And His Package ('Package' being his sequencer) and the second "lost" album from Floor. Atom is someone who I heard about years ago in college and I finally got around to buying some of his albums. I've not heard Floor's 'Dove' yet but hopefully it's as good as their self-titled album.

Forgetting that I was going to see them on Thursday, I made the mistake of ordering the deluxe edition of High On Fire's new album from Relapse. It comes with a "making of" DVD that hopefully is worth the few extra bucks. But I did finally order the latest full length from Zombi, who I saw live last year. The album is good but it doesn't match the experience of their live show. Also coming in the order is the remaster of Sun Dial's 'Other Way Out' psych rock album along with an outtakes disc titled 'Other Way In'. They sort of fit in with the Spaceman 3/Spiritualized side of psych rock.

Trio Of CDs

For the weekend three CDs arrived.

First in was the latest from Three Lobed Recordings. Heavy Winged makes their debut on TLR with 'Blacc Lust' which collects a pair of CD-R releases that are probably long out of print. I heard about Heavy Winged before but never had a chance to listen to their music. Someone described them as Bardo Pond mixed with The Goslings and that's probably a decent description of what they are doing. It has the long psych-ish jam of BP mixed with the intensity and noisy abrasive side of The Goslings which creates an interesting sound. They are like the link between psych rock and noise rock but take the better qualities of each side. This one needs to get more spins to really sink in.

Two years ago Bass Communion and vidnaObmana (aka Steven Wilson and Dirk Serries) got together for a collaboration titled 'Continuum'. They are now back with 'Continuum 2' and a much different sound. The first in the series was minimalist ambient work while the second release goes in the complete opposite direction and sounds more like a mix of Sunn O))) and Black Boned Angel with ambiance of the first release underneath the wall of guitar.

Zoroaster released a self-titled EP last year that reminded me of Electric Wizard and Sleep. While I still need to pick up that album, I ordered their first full length CD titled 'Dog Magic'. I haven't given this one a spin yet, but from what I've read it's supposed to have more of a psychedelic tinge to it.

Pair Of Collaborations And A New One From Three Lobed

Out on Supernatural Cat Records is a collaboration between Italian psychedelic doom kings Ufomammut and the "ambient postcore" (that what it says on the website) of Lento. Lento I have never heard of before but I love everything that Ufomammut has released so far. I bought the special edition which has been hand-printed and numbered by artist Malleus. I like what Malleus did with the Morkobot album and decided to get the limited artwork. The packaging isn't quite as good as the Morkobot artwork but it's still very nicely done.

The other disc is both a split and collaboration between Rosetta and Balboa titled "Project Mercury". Balboa goes first with three tracks, then Rosetta with a pair of songs and the final track is the collaboration between both groups.

The latest from the ever consistent label Three Lobed Recordings is a recording from Tom Carter, Robert Horton and Michael Shannon called Turnstone. Apparently they all got together for a five hour jam session and this disc represents the best material. There's definitely a jam type of vibe as the music just seems to be stream of conscious without much structure. There are all kinds of instruments used throughout which makes it harder to grasp the first listen through. Seems to be a continued thread in the recent crop of albums from Three Lobed that requires that the listener give repeated listens to uncover all the nooks and crannies of the album.

Trip To Lou's + TLR

Arriving on Thursday was the latest CD release from Three Lobed Records. Actually coming in a standard jewel case, the disc collects the best from three CD-R releases by Wooden Wand Hassara.

Titled Hassara 'Backyard I-III', the album features eight instrumentals that sounds nothing like I've heard from a Wooden Wand release. I had no idea what to expect on this release (would it be like the "free folk" of the Vanishing Voice albums or more like the folky singer-songwriter approach of the Sky High Band and Omen Bones Band) but find it's a bit of both styles with more of a psych rock approach. There are some nice long jams with most of the tracks over nine minutes in length. With only one listen under my belt, I've only scratched the surface. Should get better with more listens. Another solid release from Cory at Three Lobed. Can't wait for the Turnstone album.

Yesterday I went to Lou's to pick up a bunch of new releases that have come out in the past couple of weeks. The list:

CDs -

Do Make Say Think - Do Make Say Think :: finally completed their discography
Earth & KK Null Tour Split CD :: out of print so I had to snag a copy
Goon Moon - Licker's Last Leg
Grave Temple - The Holy Down
Michio Kurihara - Sunset Notes [2007 Reissue] :: finally released domestically for a much lower price
Nadja - Truth Becomes Death
Neurosis - Given To The Rising
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - Se Dice Bisonte, No Bùfalo
Pelican - City Of Echoes :: I found this to be a much better album than I first thought
Queens Of The Stone Age - Era Vulgaris
Queens Of The Stone Age - The Fun Machine Took A Shit & Died (Single) :: Came with the above
Year Of No Light - Nord :: Domestically released by Crucial Blast

LPs -

Bardo Pond / Pre - Split 10"

3 Lobed And More

The latest slabs of wax from Three Lobed Recordings and a couple of CDs from At A Loss Recordings arrived on Monday and Tuesday.

Three Lobed does vinyl just the way I like it - on heavy 180g black wax. GHQ's 'Crystal Healing' has a nice gatefold sleeve that feels like it's from the 70's and because I pre-ordered it, a nice 13 minute EP on CD was thrown in as well. I've only listened to it once so far, so I don't have a concrete opinion of it. I will say that it's their most varied release so far and that the title track is fantastic, a great way to close the album. Coming in a dark, hand silk-screened cover was the latest from Yellow Swans (who go by Descension Yellow Swans on this album). Again, only one listen so far. From what I've heard from Yellow Swans, this album is less noisy than their other work.

A big thanks to At A Loss Recordings for releasing the latest album from Blutch, 'Materia', stateside. I'm glad I didn't have to pay the import price for this fine album. The other CD from At A Loss was Minsk's 2005 release 'Out Of A Center Which Is Neither Dead Nor Alive' which I had download but didn't listen to recently. Minsk recently released a new album which I will also checkout in the future. Also a thanks goes out to Stickman Distro who through in some promos with my order.

Vinyl and Compact Disc

A couple of orders arrived today, both having a CD and LP. From Three Lobed Recordings came the second LP from Bardo Pond's Michael Gibbons under the moniker 500mg. Along with the nicely pressed 180 gram record came a CD featuring 15 minutes more of 500mg material. Just another fantastic release from Three Lobed.

The other order was yet another from Important Records. On black wax with a text-less black label and a black on black front cover attached to an all white sleeve is a recording from Eleh, who I know nothing about other than they dedicated the album to La Monte Young and there's a second volume coming in the future. The CD is yet another one from Vanishing Voice, this time a pressed disc of their vinyl and CD-R release Nordic Visions from a couple of years ago. I like the fact that ImpRec is reissuing rare CD-R and vinyl-only material like they have recently with Slomo, Vanishing Voice, Grails, Axolotl, etc on factory pressed CDs. I refuse to buy CD-Rs and have missed out on too much vinyl.

Three Lobed, Part 1

I received the Bardo Pond and Tom Carter collaboration from Three Lobed yesterda. For whatever reason they had a distributor return copies and I was lucky to snag it. I tried a couple of times to get it from ebay but the price was just too high.

At the same time I put in a pre-order for the new 500mg LP that comes with a bonus CD of more 500mg material. I'm very much looking forward to this.

2006 Surprises

Some of the albums that surprised me either came from unexpected artists that I didn't listen to much before or came from seemingly nowhere.

Harvey Milk - Special Wishes: Until this year I had never heard of Harvey Milk. When I saw a documentary and 3" CD release for sale on the archivecd.com shop I had to see what the fuss was about. Turns out that "Special Wishes" is one of their best albums to date and one of my favorite releases of the year.

Charalambides - A Vintage Burden: I had listened to them a bit for hearing "A Vintage Burden" but this album just blew me away with it's gorgeous songs and simple but effective guitar playing.

The Goslings - Grandeur Of Hair: "Grandeur Of Hair" is by far their best release so far. It's a crushing album that never fully relents and has many sounds buried beneath that can be discovered with repeated listens.

Monkey3 - 39 Laps: Being a huge fan of 35007, as is Monkey3, I'm surprised I hadn't heard about this band until this year. They take what 35007 has done and give it some crunch in places and add more of the space effects that Acid Mothers Temple are known for.

GHQ - Heavy Elements: Although it's one of the shortest drone albums that I own, it's also one of the best. After hearing their previous release "Cosmology Of The Eye", I though they were a decent drone group, but Three Lobed were excited about this album so I ordered it.

Modern Containment CD series from Three Lobed Recordings: When the lineup was announced for the series it certainly had some potential to be great. Not only did it live up to my expectations but it surpassed them. The only weak album was by Sun City Girls, but the rest ranged from great to fantastic.

Xasthur - Subliminal Genocide: I've never really cared for black metal but this album sparked my interest into the genre, particularly black metal coming from the United States. I'm sure their are some better albums out, but the atmosphere Malefic creates is fantastic.