Mountain*7 - for the person with nothing better to do

Artist: Astrïd
Title: High Blues
Label: Rune Grammofon

High Blues is such an apposite title for this collection of Astrïd tracks, it feels like any commentary does little more than circle around it, pointing great hammy arrows towards it. It perfectly encapsulates the sense of space that pervades everything they do, and gets to the heart of their tonal explorations of light and weight. High Blues is music for canyons and high wide skies.

Read the rest over at the Liminal

Posted by poacher in music reviews at 10:48 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Because we had forgotten what it was like.

Posted by poacher in music at 09:00 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Live performance on pipe organ and synthesiser. Recorded at Cambridge Unitarian Church, Saturday 28 April 2012.

Posted by poacher in music downloads at 19:01 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

I first came across Red River Dialect pleutering the dark corners of the web one night. They sounded like wet Cornish stone and open moors. They released an excellent album, White Diamonds, around 18 months ago which was a quiet triumph. The band's figurehead David Morris has since moved to Brighton and the band have expanded, the sound expanding, too. They've recorded a new album awellupontheway the unmastered version of which sounds raw and bright. They have an indiegogo account started (with a perilous 67 hours left) trying to raise money to press and release the records and cds. It's going to be an increasingly common method for bands to release records in the future and when they're this good we need to support them.

Posted by poacher in music at 12:55 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

A great piece by Gay Talese on the Paris set in the '50s and the formation of the Paris Review. Impossibly Romantic, but there we are.

Early in the fifties another young generation of American expatriates in Paris became twenty-six years old, but they were not Sad Young Men, nor were they Lost; they were the witty, irreverent sons of a conquering nation and, though they came mostly from wealthy parents and had been graduated from Harvard or Yale, they seemed endlessly delighted in posing as paupers and dodging the bill collectors, possibly because it seemed challenging and distinguished them from American tourists, whom they despised, and also because it was another way of having fun with the French, who despised them. Nevertheless, they lived in happy squalor on the Left Bank for two or three years amid the whores, jazz musicians, and pederast poets, and became involved with people both tragic and mad, including a passionate Spanish painter who one day cut open a vein in his leg and finished his final portrait with his own blood. Read on...

Posted by poacher in books articles at 13:04 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Lots of good Minimal reviews this month, including Traxman, Hiss Golden Messenger and the latest sublime Ian Nagoski compilation. Just the one from me this month, but it's a good one - the mighty Pallbearer album.

Posted by poacher in music reviews at 17:21 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

I missed this album when it came out on Song, By Toad late last year, but it's been creeping up on me ever since. It's uplands Gothic, all looming horror and unspeakable yawning silences. 'Domino', possible the standout track, is biblically vast.

Posted by poacher in music videos at 12:52 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

There's also an mp3 download at Victory Rose music.

Posted by poacher in music downloads at 13:04 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Tracklisting in no particular order:

John Heckle - I & I -
San Laurentino - Just Like Heart
San Laurentino - Space Tourism
Marcello Napalentano Presents Ra Thout & The Brigante's Orchestra - Man From From Messapia
Marcello Napalentano Presents Ra Thout & THe Brigante's Orchestra- The MAn Who Can Do Everything
John Heckle - Healer's Charm
Vagon brei - Welcome to Zeta Puppis System
Simoncino - The China Syndrome
Simoncino - Into Outro Cosmo
Simoncino - Dark Devotional Energies

Posted by poacher in music at 09:23 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Missing Nothing is Bang the Bore’s first fundraiser compilation, a 6cdr behemoth featuring music donated by John Butcher, Alvin Lucier, Astral Social Club, Mark Sanders, The A Band, Ashtray Navigations, Bolide and many, many more.

We wanted to release something beautiful that people would want to keep; something that represents the musicians who have played for us during our first three years of events; and something that helps introduce some lesser known bands from our home town of Southampton, UK.

All music was donated by the artists with the intention of helping us raise money to fund our Southampton shows. Initially this will entail purchasing a PA. You can help us by spreading the word, whether that’s via forums, social networking, reviews or however else you see fit.

Missing Nothing will be burned to order, with packaging assembled by hand, in an initial run of 100.

And here's the monstrous tracklist:

Disc 1 (total duration 01:19:06)

1. After the Rain – Distance 3 (2.53)
2. Ignacio Agrimbau – Anatomy of the Self II (9.13)
3. Andrew Clare – Special Relationship (16.47)
4. Dsic – Gentle People/Extrajudicial Execution (5.05)
5. Quamvis Sum Parva – Skinning Gongheads (recorded live in the Castle Vault, Southampton) (14.40)
6. Annie Lewandowski, William Ryan Fritch & Jennifer Wilsey Trio – Light to Thin Lids (6.00)
7. Hákarl & Daniel Alexander Hignell – Some Members of Our Church Family (6.40)
8. After the Rain – The Walk (12.26)
9. Daniel Bennett – The Cherry Tree Carol (5.19)

Disc 2 (total duration 01:18:57)

1. Defibrillators – By Nature’s Hand, By Craft, By Art, What Once Was One Now Fly Apart (recorded live at the Hokaben Festival) (16.15) LISTEN HERE
2. Astral Social Club – Das Oort (15.53)
3. Deepkiss 720 – Recorded on Walkmans Reduced to Mp3 (11.07)
4. Deepkiss 720 – I Don’t Think You Need New Boobs, But If You Do You Should Get Black Ones (extract) (6.15)
5. Deepkiss 720 – Still No Apologies for the Lack of Fidelity (11.11)
6. Deepkiss 720 – The Lost Metal (18.16)

Disc 3 (total duration 01:17:26)

1. Andy Jarvis – Shooting Lasers (4.40)
2. Spoils & Relics – Mainmark (7.47)
3. Ni Dieux Ni Maitre – Mountain State (9.46)
4. Clive Henry – A Lone Sniper in a Liberated Village (9.58)
5. Petals – The Lives and Traditions of Convicts (15.04)
6. Simon Morris Dance Band – Maxime (30.11)

Disc 4 (total duration 01:13:35)

1. Rick Jensen Trio – And When I’m Finished, It’s Gonna be a Bloodbath (recorded live at Bang the Bore V) (29.28)
2. Mark Sanders – Bubbles (recorded live at Bang the Bore VIII) (28.41) LISTEN HERE
3. Hákarl36 (minus Barni Yianni, Huw Webb and Jamie Glew Osborn) – 127 64800ths + 151 25920ths + 401 129600ths (recorded live at the Supernormal Festival 2011, then overlaid) (15.26)

Disc 5 (total duration 01:16:06)

1. Ashtray Navigations – Bovril Bloody Mary (recorded live at Bang the Bore III) (26.07)
2. Bolide – A259 Miami Vice Piss Stop (recorded live at Bang the Bore VIII) (25.14)
3. The A Band – Abutter (recorded live at Bang the Bore VIII) (24.45)

Disc 6 (total duration 01:17:47)

1. Seth Cooke – The Tower (recorded live in a derelict cooling tower) (7.01)
2. John Butcher – High Salt (recorded in concert at Neue Musik in St. Ruprecht, Vienna) (14.12)
3. John Butcher – Low Salt (recorded in concert at Neue Musik in St. Ruprecht, Vienna) (11.46)
4. Team Sports – Team Sports vs Frederick J Fredericks (recorded in a cave on the Craig y Cilau nature reserve) (10.45)
5. Alvin Lucier (performed by Lucy & Stuart Bannister) – I am Sitting In a Room (recorded live at Bang the Bore IX in the Castle Vault, Southampton, by Simon Reynell) (34.03)

Get it at the Bang the Bore website.

Posted by poacher in music at 09:07 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)