Thai Elephant Orchestra
"Teak Forest Mist"
Check the track out. Those are Elephants playing. Humanities experimental noise community just got fuckin’ uppercutted by these Elephants.
From the press release:
Water Music is the third and last recording of the grand Thai Elephant Orchestra, and features fourteen elephants improvising on giant instruments in the Thai jungle. This is the “purist” CD, with no human participation (except for a traditional Buddhist prayer for the elephant spirit by a monk on one track), editing or overdubs. Experimental composer Dave Soldier and elephant conservationist Richard Lair built giant instruments for the Thai Elephant Conservation Center. The elephants improvise long pieces with them with the only human instructions being to start and stop. heir music have been widely televised and filmed, including several of the pieces on this CD, for a new documentary.
I heard Radiohead were already in negotiations to record with the Atlantic Dolphin Symphonic Laser Orchestra on their new series of online only EPs that are comprised entirely of frequencies only audible underwater or in extreme mist environs. I’m sorry for making that joke.
• Mulatta: http://mulatta.org/watermusic.html
QTM
“Wooden Jetty”
I heard this track at the Get Off the Coast blog, but can’t really find any more info on who QTM is. I’m assuming it was a random-dude submission (QTM = Cutie Man? Think about it). The beauty of the internet. Amazing track though, could have been something off the last Javelin album with lots of nasally synths and a very laid back, breezy backbeat. Infectious. Hopefully we hear more in the future.
• QTM: http://soundcloud.com/qtm-1
Soothsayer
“V”
I haven’t even listened to this track. Fuck it. LOOK AT THAT COOL COVER!
JK, I have listened to it. Wonderful ambiance in the vein of Eno’s Apollo album, which is right up our alley at TMT.
See?
• Moon Glyph: http://www.moonglyph.com/
Ga'an
“Chasmaeon”
Since I don’t do ‘original,’ read what I wrote about Ga’an during our 09 year-end fest:
Don’t you love how we canonize older bands? Looks like far-out 70s shit like Cluster, Neu!, Magma, and Amon Düül II are finally being stocked at Best Buy, if you get what I’m saying. Suffice to say, if Ga’an had dropped in 75, it would be right there with the best of them.
Wisdom.
Now listen to the beautiful opening track from the vinyl edition of their self-titled album, which you can grab over at Captcha Records.
• Ga’an: http://www.myspace.com/gaan
• Captcha: http://hbsp-2x.com
Algodón Egipcio
“El Ingenio Humano”
Here’s a rule of thumb for you: the harder it is to pronounce an artist’s name, the better the music. Like Kemialliset Ystävät, Oneohtrix Point Never, and Candlebox before him, Venezuela’s Algodón Egipcio is sure to make quite the critical splash based on his name alone. His debut album, La Lucha Constante, is due March 22 via Lefse.
• Algodón Egipcio: http://www.myspace.com/algodonegipcio
• Lefse: http://www.lefserecords.com
Capillary Action
“Feeding Frenzy”
Capillary Action, led by the beautiful ex-TMTer Jonathan Pfeffer (who was fired after getting into fisticuffs with our news editor over the usage of the word “whom”), are finally releasing their follow-up to 2008’s So Embarrassing. The album’s titled Capsized, and according to a press release, it absorbs “Ives and Bartók, Brazilian work songs and Bulgarian choral music, UK grime and Philly soul.” (What, no Franz Ferdinand or Pains of Being Pure at Heart influence?) Look for the album in April on Natural Selection.
• Capillary Action: http://www.facebook.com/capillaryaction
• Natural Selection: http://www.naturalselectionrecords.com
