Deerhoof release free live album 99% Upset Feeling, hope you’re hanging in there

By Mike Reid on Sep 12 2011

Given the title of Hive Mind’s latest LP, along with its associated cover art, you might be able to discern just where Greh Holger plans to take his synthesizer-based drone/noise project — I’ll give you a hint: think of the most blissful, uplifting, and awe-inspiring music you’ve ever heard. Think of church music. Think of major scales. All signs point to Elemental Disgrace, set for release on October 25, being the complete opposite of all these things.

Spectrum Spools, a division of Editions Mego run by Emeralds’ John Elliott, has this to say on the subject: “No blisscapes to be found here. No soaring latched arpeggios, no cosmic vistas. Not a single melody. This is two sides of ancestral ruin in its clearest presentation. The brutality of the Earth and the harsh reality of all that it holds. Unknowable sounds — that of the dawn of Earth, or perhaps its demise. A swamp of chemicals and creatures left behind long after man has wiped himself away for good.” Well, Jesus. With a description like that, who needs Sylvia Plath poems?

Hyperbolic characterizations aside, Hive Mind occupies a place on the musical landscape for which I personally have a growing appreciation. For me, some of the most memorable albums of the last few years have ironically been ones for which there’s very little going on at the surface level. They’re devotions to subtlety in a world filled with obnoxiousness. They’re the fallen leaves of a maple tree being trampled by unconcerned passers-by. “My seventy trees/ Holding their gold-ruddy balls/ In a thick gray death-soup,/ Their million/ Gold leaves metal and breathless.” Oh, Sylvia!

• Greh Holger: http://soldiersdisease.com
• Spectrum Spools: http://editionsmego.com/spectrum-spools

By Kid Midnight on Sep 12 2011

The Fall, who many believe are just now reaching their peak, have announced (via their label, Cherry Red Records) that they will be releasing their 29th studio album on November 14, and, with my mom’s birthday just a couple days later, I think I’ve found the perfect gift!

The new album, titled Ersatz G.B., is described as “retain[ing] many of [The Fall’s] most distinctive elements whilst offering a fresh take on Mark E Smith’s familiar style and subject matter.” However, if you’re like me (and no one else is because my mom says that I’m sooo unique), then you’ve probably heard countless albums described in the exact same way; but please, don’t make mistake my sarcasm as malicious, because a new Fall album is always an event. To mark their momentous follow-up to last year’s warmly received Your Future Our Clutter (TMT Review), The Fall will also be releasing a special 7-inch single with a yet-to-be-announced A-side, but they did mention that it will contain an exclusive B-side that you’ll totally NOT be allowed to download and own without buying the single.

The Fall also announced that they will be heading out on a nine-date tour of the UK so that all the Fall-natics can get a chance to see Mark E., as if they haven’t already had a few chances.

Ersatz G.B. tracklisting:

01. Cosmos 7
02. Taking Off
03. Kennedy
04. Mask Search
05. Greenway
06. Happy Song
07. Monocard
08. Laptop
09. I’ve Seen Them
10. Change

UK tourdates:

09.11.11 - Glasgow, UK - The Electric Frog
09.18.11 - Tillburg, The Netherlands - Incubate Festival
10.22.11 - Cardiff, UK - SWN Festival, Cardiff University, Great Hall
11.02.11 - Leeds, UK - Stylus
11.03.11 - Edinburgh, UK - HMV Picture House
11.04.11 - Newcastle, UK - Riverside
11.05.11 - York, UK - Fibbers
11.15.11 - Cambridge, UK - The Junction
11.17.11 - Brighton, UK - Concorde 2
11.18.11 - Leicester, UK - The Auditorium
11.24.11 - London, UK - indigO2
11.26.11 - Poole, UK - Mr. Kyps
12.02.11 - Minehead, UK - All Tomorrow’s Parties

• The Fall: http://www.visi.com/fall
• Cherry Red: http://www.cherryred.co.uk