In this ever-expanding musical world, there’s a wealth of 7-inches, cassettes, CD-Rs, and objet d’art being released that, due to their limited quantities and adventurous sonics, go unnoticed by the public at large. TMT Cerberus seeks to document the aesthetic of these home recorders and backyard labels. Email us here.
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Grouper/Roy Montgomery
Split [12-inch]
[Self-Released; 2010]
http://www.myspace.com/grouperrepuorg
by Jspicer
A highly coveted piece of immediate musical history, Liz Harris self-released this hunk of prestigious music and quickly discovered there was not enough to go around. Not only is Harris picking up fans with each passing release (it also doesn’t hurt that her music has been featured on the ultra-hip BBC show, Skins), but the presence of New Zealand’s guitar hero Roy Montgomery (who covers Hunter Thompson’s favorite musician Sandy Bull no less) will pique eager connoisseurs of ‘guitar’ music. Roy Montgomery’s take on Sandy Bull’s “Fantasia on a Theme” is just what you expect from an elusive artist like Montgomery; the track retains that same distance in his playing and production, and we are all the better for it. Montgomery has maintained the edge of 80s Liverpool without diluting it in the bells and whistles of modern raga and folk. There’s something mystical in his rough approach that only validates his mythical status. While Montgomery is happy to swat at his steely strings for one 18-minute track, Harris delivers four separate pieces of music verité to chew on. Much like Montgomery, she keeps her distance, and despite four seemingly separate tracks, Harris’ material bleeds seamlessly. Each track is ethereal, heavy with misty plucks and morning dew — a chilly wind battling the thawing chimes of Montgomery. It’s the end of autumn succumbing to the icy grasp of winter.
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Pax Titania
Pax Titania [CS]
[Catholic Tapes; 2009]
http://www.myspace.com/195832087
by Jspicer
To grab shit this hot, you’ve got to have connections. It’s big time mafia warfare in the limited-edition markets, and if you don’t think I won’t weigh this shit, you’re wrong. A score as heady as Christopher Cprek’s alter ego Pax Titania can’t go unmentioned, no matter how hush-hush the deal may be. Formerly Warmer Milks and half of Darker Florida with Irene Moon, Cprek has emerged with powering, muted synth drone. His self-titled cassette for equally emergent Catholic Tapes finds Cprek unraveling time and space with his celestial jams. It’s a tired cliché for a genre that has reinvented the synthesizer, but it’s a cliché for a reason. The synth and space imagery will always be a match made in heaven, and under the Pax Titania moniker, Cprek does his earthly duty to be as godlike and pacified as possible. The barely audible radar blips and robotic nature noises are buried underneath an equally subdued layer of misty synth, rolling low and slow like a fog blanketing wintry foothills. Surrounded by a thick coating of white clouds and smoke, all there is to do is to submit to your newly crowned god. Kneel before Pax Titania and pray that the synthesizer is never co-opted by big haired aliens from the 1980s ever again.
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Bathing Druid
Beltane Loofah [7-inch]
[Weird Forest; 2009]
http://www.weirdforest.com
by Jspicer
As is often the case with scenes as rich and gorged as those this little column devours, often an intensely flavorful sound comes from nowhere. It breaks the dam, sweeping into your once docile valley with the intent of causing massive destruction to your quaint hovel. So goes the accidental creation and likely immediate deconstruction of Bathing Druid. There is nothing quaint about their one and only 7-inch besides the cutesy chipmunk voices and childlike freedom involved in its blend of the freakiest folk and animalistic collectives. A batch of four repetitive guitar and toy instrument anthems flanks both sides of Beltane Loofah, lending the Madlib-inspired name an equally madcapped slant. In a world where those of new weird are slowly tightening up ranks and creating succinct anthems for floppy-haireds to prance to in musical sweat lodges, Bathing Druid’s happy accident is as sloppy as a Charles Bukowski drunk with the sense of humor of a Tom Green. The joke is clearly on someone — and if it’s me, I’m happy to be on that ride.
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Keith Fullerton Whitman / Oneohtrix Point Never / Prehistoric Blackout / Carlos Giffoni
Synth Night [2xCS]
[Protracted View; 2009]
by Jspicer
Documenting—appropriately enough—a night of synth from the one-man bands listed before you, this double-cassette release from mysterious Canadian label Protracted View delves into the true essence of synthesizer as virtuosic instrument and not the plaything of should-have-been astronauts. Though the release omits a set from Thurston Moore and Bill Nace, you won’t miss it. KFW engulfs Side A with an assault of high-range synth that recreates a tremolo effect. It is the sound of an army of 1950s robots booting up to play a warehouse of stemware before the foreman discovers this curiosity and powers them down. Daniel Lopatin, the new poster boy for dreamy synth, engulfs the first cassette’s B-side in a cascade of silky sheets and cloudy pillows. The beauty of OPN is that the music is soothing without an ounce of boredom or restlessness allowed to creep in. Whitman is the combustible climax, and Lopatin is the ethereal comedown. Yet the most jarring experience to be found is Carlos Giffoni, who after years of teasing it, unveils an acid-drenched version of synth techno for an audience long entranced by the less labored synth sounds. The pulsating rhythm and hyperspeed melody is reminiscent of the Bionic Commando Rearmed soundtrack from Simon Viklund, with all the chaotic energy and high-tension found in an action-packed video game. How it affects the scene’s views of synth moving forward will provide the greater excitement; could Giffoni tap into the dance machines in all of us?
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Hans Chew “New Cypress Grove Boogie” b/w “Forever Again” [7-inch]
[Three Lobed; 2010]
http://threelobed.com
by Jspicer
Three Lobed has been quietly pumping out professionally produced releases from some of the heaviest and craziest of every niche scene covering the North American continent. The latest artsy creation happens to be the first two solo songs from Hans Chew (who collaborated with the late Jack Rose as well as the alive and kickin’ D. Charles Speer), whose piano chops have as much flash and sleekness as the picture disc that houses Chew’s Jerry Lee Lewis revival. Side A belongs to the aptly named “New Cypress Grove Boogie.” The track has a puffed out chest of Lewis with a slice of the distorted blues that big-label publicity reps would have you believe Jack White has cornered. This sort of blues/country/rock hybrid is becoming a lost art within its own ranks, and it’s nice to find a young talent such as Chew preserving it with the vigor and soulful expression it deserves. “Forever Again” gets the B-side and once again delves deep into the pockets of the 1950s South with a ballad as sad as it is jubilant. The celebration of death and disease birthed from the backwoods of the Ozarks and the Mississippi Delta are alive and well in the hands of Hans Chew.
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Topping Bottoms
Towers of Spines [CS]
[Not Not Fun; 2010]
http://notnotfun.com
by Jspicer
The notation ‘jam band’ has been soured over the past 25 years, and with good reason. No one’s attacking the workman quality of the Grateful offspring, but as far as innovation is concerned, the scene that birthed Bonnaroo and summer solstices at Red Rocks has been hurting for new blood. Far be it to suggest that Tokyo’s Topping Bottoms are the saviors, but it would be ignorant to ignore the steady stream of unheralded garage, psych, and acid rock that has been flowing into America lately. Topping Bottoms are the embodiment of trip, from the existential name to the electric kool-aid aura that surrounds much of this reissue from TB’s own label (who doesn’t have a label right now?). The A-side is as liberating as it gets; it’s thick with the day-glow tribal residue that was the foundation of early Not Not Fun groups. The B-side is a bit more ground-and-pound in its approach, providing the tooth-loosening DMZ line between Topping Bottoms and any further mention of the term ‘jam band.’ No matter which side of the argument you reside, there’s no denying that Towers of Spines will do much to shake and shatter your spine while you fade into the tie-dyed morass.
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Stefano Pilia
Last Days Vol. II [7-inch]
[Presto!; 2009]
http://prestorecords.com
by Jspicer
Italy has proven itself a formidable world power as it concerns underground sounds. In the last 18-24 months, the nation has produced a bevy of talked-about and respected acts ranging from jazz, experimental, and synthesized musics. Allow Stephano Pilia to carry the vertical red, white, and green for the guitar connoisseurs. Following in the trenches of Loren Connors and Alan Licht, Pilia carves out two distinctively dark treks in three-minute bursts. “Midnight” smothers the A-side in lonely wolf slides and dots of block chords articulating the witching hour. “Endnight” is equally entrancing and just as slow as its A-side counterpart. Pilia’s talents lay not only in his seductive approach, but also in his use of the natural sounds of recording, those sparse bits between thoughts that illuminate each resonating note with a dim spotlight. This fearlessness of silence is what separates the good ones from the great ones, and Pilia’s latest provides evidence of his proclivity toward the latter.
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Cruudeuces
Strange Magic [3-inch CDR]
[Kimberly Dawn; 2009]
http://www.kimdawn.blogspot.com
by Jspicer
There are moments in slasher films when the dissonant music mimics the irregular heart beat of the crowd before it. The collective gasp for air, the simultaneous rubbing of sweaty palms, and the buried faces of those in attendance are captured in a soundtrack like a rabid animal clawing its way out from its prison. The three highlights that merge into Strange Music are such a breed — 20 minutes of unheeded screams and interrupted lives. Cruudeuces create a soundscape that transcends the eerie aura by which it is surrounded. Like the works of George Romero, Strange Music is more than the sum of its parts, telling a story layered in histrionics beyond what its ghastly covering reveals. Delving much deeper into its sonic scare tactics may dig too deeply into its plot, but it’s refreshing to find that the nuance of horror soundtracks can be separated from bloody action and placed into the arena of the modern chills of a bad economy, worldwide strife, and a bleak future.
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Jerusalem and the Starbaskets “Room 8” b/w “Swingin’ Vine” [7-inch]
[De Stijl; 2010]
http://destijlrecs.com
by Jspicer
The abuse of terminology such as ‘lo-fi’ and ‘unpretentious’ has been an ongoing occurrence by a steady stream of individuals just like myself, but to rely on one more restless cliché, the music of Columbia, Missouri’s Jeremy and Kim, a.k.a. Jerusalem and the Starbaskets, is the sort of unadulterated unpretentious lo-fi that breed future generations of musicians. The comparisons to VU have come hot and heavy now that the duo are beginning to slowly emerge from the refuge of their college hamlet. But with the pinpoint assault of guitar and drums of “Room 8” and “Swingin’ Vine,” Jerusalem and the Starbaskets will meet those lofty expectations. This is the sort of jangled rock and pop that has long been neglected by over-ambitious indie outfits and synth-obsessed cassette labels. Kim and Jeremy do nothing but put fingers to wood and steel and bang out three-minute anthems that are just as hip as and as unabashedly American as Springsteen. These two gems are your 2010 summer jams, rushing the winter thaw along so we can all open the windows, put the top down, and get on with life.
