New CDs and Gear

An order from All That Is Heavy for some new releases and freebie came in earlier this month. The Kings Of Frog Island, My Sleeping Karma and Hyatari have all followed up their debut albums with new full lengths. Morkobot have put out their third album (I had no idea of the existence of an earlier album than their last release until recently). For I freebie I chose an album from The Mushroom River Band.

In need of more cabinets for my three bass amp heads, I've been looking at Carvin and Avatar for good "bang for the buck" cabs. Both companies have different products but with Carvin being local I would be able to try before I buy. Carvin doesn't have any 12" driver loaded cabs and Avatar doesn't have any 15" or 18" driver loaded cabs and I wasn't set on why type of speaker configuration I wanted. I tried out all of the Carvin cabinet configurations and thought their BRX10.4 Neo cab sounded the best. It handled the low B of my five string very well and can handle the full output of my BX1200 amp. I still might add a 1x15" or 1x18" to it though and I'd like to get a nice lightweight cab for my Markbass Little Mark II for a more portable rig.

November Update

A few orders and a trip to the record store resulted in the following additions to the collection:

Blood Of The Black Owl - A Feral Spirit
Hammers Of Misfortune - Fields/Church Of Broken Glass
Earthless - Live At Roadburn
Mogwai - The Hawk Is Howling
Hush Arbors - Hush Arbors
Nachtmystium - Assassins: Black Meddle Part 1
Asva - What You Don't Know Is Frontier
Religious Knives - The Door
Omar Rodriguez Lopez Quartet - The Apocalypse Inside Of An Orange
Giant Brain - Plume
Dozer - Beyond Colossal
Grails - Doomdayer's Holiday
Serpent Throne - The Battle Of Old Crow
Black Mountain - Lucy Brown 7" (latest in the Sub Pop Singles Club)

In gear related news, the VT Bass pedal I had on back order has finally arrived, good as advertised. I also added Electro-Harmonix's Micro POG to my board. I finished my Woolly Mammoth clone, which is currently on my board, bringing a total of three fuzz pedals to my current pedal board. The Tonebender clone has been built on my breadbaord but I haven't made a decision about it yet. I changed out some of the caps with larger values in hope of getting better low end retention for bass, but I didn't get as good of result that I was hoping for. So I need to find a better way to increase bass response, perhaps by adding a tone stack to the circuit and perhaps use different transistors. Currently the Brassmaster clone is on the breadboard but is not working yet so I have some troubleshooting to do.

Effects Pedals

Been awhile since I've updated this space. Since the last post I've added a Wilson Effects Bass Q Wah (12 position switch with vintage specs) and a Micro POG from Electro-Harmonix. My Tech 21 Bass Driver DI has been sold and I'm on the wait list for the new Tech 21 VT Bass pedal which is an upgraded Bass Driver but without the DI. I'm also looking to sell my Clone Theory chorus pedal and get a different chorus pedal. I'm also interested in adding an envelope filter to the fix so I can get some funky sounds.

The few weeks I have been buying supplies and components to build some effects pedals. Once I get them in I'll finish up my Woolly Mammoth clone and start on Tone Bender and Brassmaster clones and possible some other types of effects other than fuzz.

At the start of October I have finally started taking lessons which should help me trememdously in coming up with more music compositions.

New Releases From ImpRec and Archive

Both Important Records and Archive CD have recently been two of the more consistent labels when it comes to quality releases. In the last month or so, Important has released two albums from Steven Wilson under his Bass Communion banner. The first was a full length CD and the latest is a live collaboration with Pig (who I know nothing about) on vinyl. It's been awhile since they have released a full-length but Conifer also have a new record out that contains some excellent instru-metal with special guest Eugene Robinson of Oxbow contributing vocals on the last track.

Archive has already released two DVDs and with the latest release group have added another four to the discography. The one and only live performance by Khlyst was captured for a short but sweet DVD with more fantastic artwork by Stephen Kasner. Enough footage of Mick Barr, both solo and part of his various duos, was recorded for a double DVD release. Live footage of Suishou No Fune at various shows and jam session at Bardo Pond's Lemur House and a live show from Ai Aso round out the new releases. I also picked up the remaster of Corrupted's long out print CD 'Paso Inferior'.

A New Axe

Since around January I've been on the lookout for a left-handed Rickenbacker 4003 bass. A few have popped up on ebay for ridiculous amounts of money and I've yet to find an online shop that had one in. They seem to constantly going to those on wait lists that can be over a year long.

So when I found one in stock at an online shop and just couldn't pass up the opportunity to own one. My Carvin 5-string is very versatile but there's one sound it can't get and that's the famous sound of a Rickenbacker.

I had to make some adjustments so the pickup cover has been removed. I'm not sure if I will put it back on, but I like the look of it with it attached. My GAS (gear acquisition syndrome) have been heavily relieved by this bass now that have a really nice 4 string to learn, practice and record with.

New 7" Club Releases And A Trade

I'm currently subscribed to two 7" vinyl clubs, one from Volcom Entertainment and one from Sub Pop. Volcom is now on it's fourth volume, a split between Red Fang and Tweak Bird, two bands I know nothing about. Upon first listen I liked the Tweak Bird track a lot and thought Red Fang's contribution was solid. It's always great in a series to hear some good music from bands you've never heard of. Sup Pop's first entry comes from Om, their first recording with new drummer Emil Amos of Grails. I like the new track, especially the b-side dub version. Hopefull this is sign of things to come from Om.

In trade plus money I acquired Earth's "tour only" live CD called Radio Earth that features live versions of songs from the new album plus a previously unreleased track.

Order From All That Is Heavy

Colour Haze's latest album All has finally arrived on double vinyl. Elektrohasch does a great job with their vinyl, making sure that the original analogue recording stays analog. I've been enjoying the album on CD and can't wait to hear it on their best format.

CDs that came included the latest from Peru's La Ira de Dios, Elektrohasch's reissue of Josiah's self-titled album (with two bonus tracks) and Wall Of Sleep's Sun Faced Apostles (as the freebie).

A Pair Of New Releases

As part of the URSK series from Utech Records, Runhild Gammelsæter has released her first solo album. The former vocalist of Thorr's Hammer and contributor to Sunn O))) and Khlyst, Runhild shows off her vocal range throughout the album. Musically it's much mellower than her other work and she has a much different approach as the sole musician. There's a good variety of songs throughout which keeps the listener interested.

20 Buck Spin has released yet another album from Black Boned Angel, this time a hour plus single track that starts very minimal and builds and builds til the end. Campbell Kneale is apparently retiring the Birchville Cat Motel project so hopefully this will mean more BBA works for the future.

Trading In The Old For The New

Went down to Lou's Records to trade in some CDs that I'll never listen to again. With the credit for the CDs I was able to pick up some new releases. They had the latest releases from Jandek which I never ordered through Corwood for cheaper so I picked up the lastest live album CD and the double DVD release that includes rehearsal footage that sounds very interesting. The other new releases included a new one from the Melvins, their second with Big Business as the rhythm section. Kayo Dot, despite loosing most of their members have released a jazz-tinged modern prog-rock album - all the metal in their music is finally gone. The lone older release was Ghost's 2004 epic album that I've been meaning to pickup for awhile now.

Jandek - Ready For The House LP Reissue

Jackpot Records has licensed the first Jandek album, originally called The Units, for reissue on vinyl. The original goes for hundreds of dollars on eBay so the reissue is a huge welcome for someone who has never heard a Jandek album on vinyl. They've done a great job with the release - it sounds and looks great. Apparently on request of Corwood Industries, this is a different version than what was originally released and from the 2005 CD remaster. So the track lengths are different as a result.

I'm curious to see if more of the early Jandek material will get reissued on vinyl in the near future.