Parastatic/Lost Highway

Parastatic have found a couple of exit ramps along Lost Highway that winds their neo-shoegaze and krautrock up into an alternate motorik route. Looking back, Parastatic set their compass on more than the usual coordinates. Lost Highway has a mildly aloof, cool detachment that steers clear of being crassly chic and goes for allure. There’s some strong synth pop and new wave layers added to the mix that shore up the hooks, making Lost Highway’s detours take on a different vibe. If this all sounds upbeat, it is. Lost Highway is an up record, driving along with hooks and a humming, springy engine. Bright production puts a sheen on that opens it up without neutering it; opener Like a Fraud and Minimum Change, Maximum Time are as accessible as they are accelerating. Throw in some spacey rest stops along the way, like the looming anything but Lost, and they stay tight, not rigid. Lyrics and delivery have a mild romantically mournful flavor that dovetails perfect with their electro-pulse, but like the rest of the record, sidesteps the lightweight pitfalls of the road looking back. Where’s Your Base does that perfectly, starting out starry-eyed and gradually working up into soaring pop flight. Stand out cut Darma has no problem getting ‘down in the filth’ if you read between the lines in the middle of the highway. Overall, there’s more going on under the surface and hood than their chrome plating might reveal. Darma sums up a lot of Lost Highway’s appeal, and apparent mission, in one track. Lost Highway is thoroughly modern in construct and delivery, with late ’70s/early ’80s time stamps giving it a hypnotic familiarity that comes over as refreshing rather than once again reheated.

Darma :: Parastatic :: Lost Highway (2012, 104 Records)

Eat Lights Become Lights/Heavy Electrics

Eat Lights Become Lights continue lighting it up with Heavy Electrics, a propulsive and pulsing extension of the earlier forays with their trademark frantic and fidgety energy level upped, expanded and slightly redirected. ELBL’s reimagined krautrock leanings are in full force, consuming that far-reaching continuum in all its forms. Just as the stellar Autopia took the wide range of that term and digested it whole rather than going for being just another reheated surrogate, Heavy Electrics does the same, making Heavy Electrics intertwine with that history rather being simply an addition to it. It’s an aggressive drive, packed full of compression and release in all forms, but there is also an underlying and crucial element of playfulness that flexes into exuberance, made manifest in the hyperdrive sonic playground of opener Bound for Magic Mountain. ‘Bound’ is a fitting word for track and album in that Heavy Electrics is a perfect ‘driving record.’ The energy level pushes it along its rhythmic chrome-plated tracks taking the transportation far beyond repaving the Autobahn. Like Autopia, we have something thoroughly modern in reinterpretation yet all-inclusive of what’s in the rearview mirror; taking history and tradition out of the backseat into the passenger seat, as well as relinquishing the wheel when needed. As relentless as it might sound, ELBL don’t have to push the pedal through the floorboards on every stretch to make their point. Syd Mead Cityscape, a telling reference for ELBL in general, tones the proceedings down but still sparkles and fluctuates as much as the harder charging trips… ‘reality ahead of schedule’ indeed…. Falling somewhere in the alley between Magic Mountain and Syd Mead walks the superb Terminus IV, whose name may be a winking misnomer since there is no hint of finality in the cut. Terminus IV functions as a meeting of what came before and what’s down the road. In some ways, you can see it as a corollary to All Aboard from Autopia, or possibly the place we actually get on board. The lengthiest cut by hair, it’s the arguable centerpiece of the record, layering and ramping up to create its own self-contained vista to cruise through. Next stop, of many, is Sunrise at Marwar Junction, a blissful sunrise-laden rest stop that highlights ELBL’s ability to take their vibrancy down in intensity without draining power from it, latent or up front. And up front is what La Kraut III is all about, with the fountainhead of influences front and center for an upbeat classicist history tour through the kosmische. Runners diverts the tour through a more blissed out neon tunnel of energy that deceptively ramps up in intensity to a rousing close that, like Autopia, promises more around the bend. Heavy on the electrics, the beats, and ringleader Neil Rudd’s driving guitar, Eat Lights Become Lights deliver another platter that doesn’t strive to one-up the previous, but rather build on it and make the future as rich with possibility as it is with history and ELBL’s unshakable place in the continuum of sounds, destinations and detours.

Lüger :: Concrete Light

Madrid’s Lüger follow-up their self-titled and hop over the sophomore slump with Concrete Light, another frenetic mix of krautrock and more progressive rock and psych leanings. Between the ‘concrete’ and ‘light’ ends of their spectrum, they have plenty of room to do the mixing, but hang more at the edges to push the dynamics and keep the energy level ramped. By no means a full-on assault, Lüger have a knack for keeping the tension high and tight, even in the quieter moments, and then knowing when to release it. It’s a thoroughly modern and stylish sounding outing (recorded live in 3 days) that drives home the focus and intent they made clear on Lüger; a fantastic successor and affirmation of the promise of that debut.

Dracula’s Chauffeur Wants More ::  Lüger :: Concrete Light (2011, Lüger)

Fotosputnik :: Idiolects

Chicago’s’ Fotosputnik release their second outing, Idiolects, after some gestation. And it’s well worth the time in the oven. Collapsing some drone and post-rock leanings with a thick throbbing psych/kraut pulse, Idiolects blends its tracks together into a palpitating hum that comes across as a whole as much as single cuts. After a squallish brief intro, Palos Lions Are Feeding kicks of the surge with a bulbous beat (a spirit conjured up throughout Idiolects courtesy of a propulsive rhythm section) that calls to mind a latter-day Flaming Lips/Embryonic vibe before dissipating into a languid spaced outro. Only Answer is Arson mines similar territory a touch more (passive) aggressively while the brief Spanish Inquisition Garage Sale revisits some quite space for a respite. Things get hotter and the Cave-ish kraut leanings come full frontal on Turnpike (Death Valley Driver), a great driving song if there ever was one (Walken extra). To avoid a tedious track by track litany, the rest builds up and circles around on what came before. There’s a repetitive nature that keeps a steady undulating vibe that doesn’t get tiresome; like a gentle sine wave that has more peaks and valleys than you might think. The throbbing heartbeat keeps it all grounded, and moving, while the spacier accents keep it nimble, fluid and able to branch out and up. There’s a lot stewing in the pot, all handled (here it comes) with a sense of moderation that turns any negative baggage that word might have into one of tastefulness, without diluting their mission or coming up short on the goal.

Fotosputnik also have their Cave Din Series of EPs available to ‘air out the vault’ with alternate mixes, live sessions and unreleased goods.

Idiolects is available via The Static Cult Label.

Land Observations :: Roman Roads E.P.

Rome (and by default their roads) wasn’t built in a day, and Land Observations (aka James Brooks of Appliance) takes that to heart on the ‘taster’ E.P. for an upcoming full-length on Enraptured Records. Channeled through an interest in historic roads, Roman Roads takes a slow build-up approach to its journey, real or imagined. Stripped down guitar and motorik rhythms fuel the engine as Brooks layers up a scenic road trip that is based on as much imagined history as it is in hard fact. Purposeful and laconic, Roman Roads unfolds its fragments in a warm rolling pulse that implies that the journey really is the destination. In an interview at The Stool Pigeon Brooks explains:

“They’re fascinating fragments,” James says. “I like the way that they exist, but then they kind of don’t exist. You suddenly realise you’re on one — this is a pin-straight kind of road here, this is a Roman road, and then it all changes again. I kind of like that; the way you get locked into something and then it dissolves in front of you as you travel around, driving or whatever.…It’s conceptually quite tight on purpose…”

Signposts reveal a love of works like Kraftwerk’s seminal Autobahn, and a keen focus that for as forward thinking as those pieces are, they are rooted in and built up from the past. It’s all cyclical, and no matter how many times you go around, you won’t see the same scenery twice, or likely end up at the same destination, past, present or future.

Octavian To Augustus :: Land Observations :: Roman Roads E.P. (Enraptured Records, 2011)

Electric Orange :: Netto

Up from Hell and into orbit, Electric Orange’s Netto takes their warm and smokey atmosphere and pushes it out into thinner air. 9 rolling cuts play out into one long trip with plenty of detours to keep the antennae alert. It’s all Electric Orange through and through, but there’s definitely a spacier vibe pushed to the front and allowed to ebb and flow at its own pace. Some cuts, like the first 3, all dovetail to make you lose focus and float, but then Perpetuum Mobiliar crashes right into Netto (a fantastic deep voyage) making you sit up and sharpen up a bit. But either tact keeps it all interconnected, more like a timeline than one piece. The whole thing is a smooth and fluid trip, but not without highs and lows. Fluff is a great relaxed mellow down, while title cut Netto packs enough range and girth to be a history lesson.

If Netto closes one chapter with more brawn, Supptruppen opens out with some familiar animal and breakfast sounds before washing into a chapter 2 that is more about what’s between the lines and the spaces there. Supptruppen flows in, and through, two more cuts collapsing into Raumschaf, a monster trip picking up the gauntlet that Netto threw out. Taking the vibe from Supptruppen, Raumschaf builds up the same head of steam and delivers the goods, but down a different road.

Always keeping their core intact, Electric Orange put another spin on their sound. If you’re new to Electric Orange, any point of entry is exceptional, and this one is no different. New or not, it’s a long trip full of as much drive as it is breathing space. Taken in shorter runs or one long campaign, Netto is well worth the trip and will get you where you need to be. So you can start it all over again.

Netto :: Electric Orange :: Netto (Sulatron, 2011)

Eat Lights Become Lights :: Autopia

Ever since I heard the cut Dark Matter/Light Hearts on Northern Star Records’ Psychedelica 4, I knew the full-length from Eat Lights Become Lights was going to be a smoking outing. Autopia {Enraptured Records, 2011} is so damn good and realized I’m not really sure what to say that isn’t said in the record itself.

Obvious ‘neo-krautrock’ pigeon-holing is bound to happen, but there is far more going on in Autopia to render it another revivalist eunuch. As far as that krautrock goes, Eat Lights Become Lights aren’t honing in on one specific period, or a handful of definitive trademarks. Where others might focus on a specific point to define themselves, or get so wrapped up in recreating a particular time, Eat Lights Become Lights puts Autopia out as part of an ongoing tradition, a continuing update and layering that takes that tradition and keeps it vital and alive. They not only take it all to heart, they may have digested the heart itself.

Hills :: Master Sleeps

It could be argued that a hill is, in one way, the foundation for a mountain. Hoary and trite? Probably, but like a lot of things hoary and trite, there’s something that rings true at the center. Swedish purveyors of things multi-psychedelic Hills understand these little kernels of truth and have a rock solid foundation to build a mountain of sonics. A mountain range is more apt, with their swirling mix of Krautrock, psych and space rock, heft and flourishes of post rock … all still shrouded in their stoney fog. For music so heady it remains earthy and rooted; you have to stand on something to reach up and out.

Hills follow-up their debut Hills with the outstanding Master Sleeps {Transubstans} picking up right where they left off and going exactly where you wanted them to. It’s a stellar follow-up that in no way diminishes the excitement of their first. Hills simply deliver again on the manifesto of foundation, showing what that foundation is made of and not getting showy or bloated. If anything, Hills knows how to use moderation like an instrument. Like a hill, or mountain, at their core, they simply are. And that’s more than enough.

Sunrise Ocean Bender :: Caterpillar Sheds His Skin :: 3/25 podcast

Caterpillar Sheds His Skin {podcast}

We’ll have a guest this morning … DJ Dizz from Soul Food, Thursdays 3-6 a.m. on WRIR, will be by to give us a status report and maybe a taster of of all the goodness they have have in store. We don’t get many visitors around here, but when we do … If the planets all align, DJ Dizz will be back next week to go beyond the appetizers …

Sit back, relax, and let the games begin … enjoy.

Good morning.

Cognac Smoke—Expo 70—Night Flights—Fedora Corpse—2009

Soy Dios II—Dead Sea Apes—Soy Dios—Self-released—2010

Processions of Golden Bones—Barn Owl—The Conjurer—Rootstrata—2009

The Only Light On—Ghost Box Orchestra—The Only Light On—self-released—2010

*_*

San Pedro—Mogwai—Hardcore Will Never Die But You Will—Sub Pop—2011

Oaxaca—Maserati—Pyramid of the Sun—Temporary Residence—2010

Test Drive—Eat Lights Become Lights—Autopia—Enraptured Records—2011

Dark Matter—Eat Lights Become Lights—Autopia—Enraptured Records—2011

*_*

DJ Dizz from Soul Food taster

A Day Late :: Perpetual Catch Up

Lüger :: Lüger

Quartet Lüger, hailing from Madrid, introduce themselves with their self-titled. Pushing their neo-krautrock to the more aggressive side and tempering it with some good ole space rock flourishes, Lüger is a frenetic high-energy spin that dabbles as much in heritage as much it does the modern. Beginning with the false-start thin air Spotted Introspective Female Firecracker (intro), Lüger quickly jumps into Swastika Sweetheart blasting off in a different trajectory. Die Sonne Muss Untergehen! slows the pulse down a touch showing their just as skilled at the more languid stretches as they are on the barn-burners. Why Should I Care? sticks its toe in more pop waters without sacrificing any of the krautrock and progressive elements of their sound. In another context the vocals might be sneering and nasally, but like kindred spirits Clinic, they wrap themselves tightly around the sonics making their calling card that much stronger.

It’s a potent spacious and spastic debut that fans of Clinic, Twinkranes and even whacked pop like Polysics should find up their alley.

La Fin Absolue Du Monde :: Lüger :: Lüger {BandCamp, 2010}

The Movements :: For Sardines Space Is No Problem

Another smoker from the house of Sulatron and an apparent concept album about Sweden’s “one and only kosmonaut Christer Fuglesang.”

That right there sold it. The catch? There is none. Chocked full of prime space-rock underscored with a wry sense of sonic humor shared by the likes of Hawkwind and Farflung, The Movements know just how seriously to take the proceedings and at the same time take it all very seriously. It walks a fine line, but never once becomes goofy or insincere. It floats, it smokes {check the Acid Mother/Hawkwind tinged Mother Some Day I’m Going To Be An Astronaut}, leaves a bit of an oily garage stain, and more importantly, it gets Christer where he needs to be {Go Now My Friend (Out Into Space)}.

It’s a sprawling slab of space that doesn’t veer out of control or lose focus; it’s not nearly as freewheeling and loose as an initial spin might make you think. Ole Christer may have gotten the wrong bolt, but The Movements hold their ship together tightly … and take it far up into the ether.

In The Footsteps of Gagarini :: The Movements :: For Sardines Space Is No Problem {Sulatron, 2009}

Uran :: Uran

Uran label home Sulatron says, “It sounds a bit like Hawkwind who do cover-versions of Motörhead-songs on Kraftwerk equipment, or so….”

That will work about as good as any smoke I can blow. Like Lüger above, Uran traffics in some of the same fevered product as like-mided players Clinic, Twinkranes, Trans Am, and even the sometimes dissonant sheen of Chrome … Treating the idea of the album as more of a salvo, Uran fires off terse blasts that leave you wishing they’d bump up their running times…but you know if they did, it just wouldn’t be the same. If it was simply a matter of not having the attention span or the chops to extend the songs, then you could write it off as a gimmick, or one-note exercise. But it’s not. Uran is cohesive from start to finish, opting to say more with less, or in less time. Just when you get a grip on where one track is going, it’s over and they’re off again. An exercise in the tease? Maybe, but it’s a full meal by the end. Not a road trip in the traditional sense, Uran is compact and aggressive with a near industrial punk attitude, mixing hefty doses of synths with guitar and the bottom end … a series of day trips then, going from 0 to 60 before you even get in the car.

Confused? Maybe this will help:

Mr. Piggy :: Uran :: Uran {Sulatron, 2009}

Lumerians :: Transmilinnia

Lumerians set the bar high in ’11 with Transmilinnia, a nut-busting psych-rock record that moves across all kinds of territory without ever devolving into a trite genre-excercise. From the album art to the outfits to the wholesome and nutritious psych goodness inside the grooves, Transmilinnia is going to top a lot lists at the end of 2011′s run. Bet on it.

A man far wiser than me described their sprawling trade as such: ‘Take a big helping of early Floyd, a dash of Tadpoles, a half-pound of primo bud and shake vigorously ….’

I think that should seal the deal. Say no more … Highly recommended.

Black Tusk :: Lumerians :: Transmilinnia {Knitting Factory, 2011}

Ocean Towers :: Chapter 1

Halifax’s Ocean Towers start writing their tome with their E.P. Chapter 1, 5 tracks of psychedelic stoner punch that stays on target start to finish. Packed full of riffs and injected with just the right amount of ether, Ocean Towers keeps the payload heavy and can still get it into orbit. Proceedings start with a slow burn crawl out of the gate into the hazy swirl of Echo before smacking you upside the head with the monolithic The Stand. Closer Lucid Journey heads up and out showing how they can get it off the ground; a languid groovy boil of psych and space rock that may be the period to Chapter 1, but definitely not the last word.

The Stand :: Ocean Towers :: Chapter 1 {BandCamp, 2011}

Eternal Tapestry :: Beyond the 4th Door

Eternal Tapestry makes their debut on Thrill Jockey with Beyond the 4th Door, an organic sprawling epic full of improvs and explorations that, despite the apparent wandering, never loses focus. Gentle, swirling and big, Eternal Tapestry moves effortlessly between old school touchstones and modern tangents, at ease with taking their time to get to where they’re headed, even if those destinations seem to change with repeated spins. Five tracks ranging from five to 12 minutes fill up the running time, each standing on its own, each well aware of how they function together as a whole. Beyond the 4th Door is a patient record that requires patience to get the most out of it. It floats easily and has no trouble taking flight, but is neither slight or lightweight.

Galactic Derelict :: Eternal Tapestry :: Beyond the 4th Door {Thrill Jockey, 2011}

Gruff Rhys :: Hotel Shampoo

Obviously Midas and his golden touch are back from the grave and going by the name of Gruff Rhys … and has been for quite some time. From beginnings and first stirrings of what was to come with wry pranksters Ffa Coffi Pawb through the staggering Super Furry Animals catalog to his side projects {Neon Neon, Tony da Gatorra} and solo records proper {Yr Atal Genhedlaeth, Candylion}, Gruff Rhys is, in my book, hands down one of the most deft, agile and comfortable purveyors out there. Hotel Shampoo has no signs of him stopping, or faltering. Where as Yr Atal Genhedlaeth reveled in a ramshackle charm, Hotel Shampoo takes the slight refinements and understated lushness of Candylion and brings those closer to the surface, without ever getting rigid or surrendering to overtly hoary slickness.

It’s virtually unarguable that Super Furry make some of the smartest, sharpest and flat out artiest pop loving records out there, and Hotel Shampoo does absolutely nothing to weaken that case, or Gruff’s contributions and tangents. Diving into the outstanding Shark Ridden Waters and moving fluidly through slightly glammy, but meaty and fully satisfying, pop and psych pop waters, Hotel Shampoo is exactly what you want from Rhys. And fully what you expect from him.

Christopher Columbus :: Gruff Rhys :: Hotel Shampoo {Turnstile, 2011}