Nick Grey "The Candlelight Eyes" ep BARL2 CDr
Nick Grey and his Random Orchestra return with what, in recording terms, is the prequel to their critically acclaimed (and Julian Cope endorsed) "Thieves Among Thorns" album from 2006. Clocking-in at just over 40 minutes, the five-track "Candlelight Eyes EP" showcases the signature heartbreaking and brooding melancholy of its aforementioned sister-album, and at times incorporates intimate chamber folk arrangements, all of which draw more from the musical heritage of the mid-1970's German electronic underground, that inspired Bowie's Berlin trilogy, than the pastoral musings of 1970's psychedelic folk. "The Candlelight Eyes EP" is limited to 200 copies.
Nick Grey "Thieves Among Thorns" CD Hand/Eye H/E022
“Thieves Among Thorns” features Nick Grey, Jasmine Pinkerton & Nicholas Davis (from the semi-romantic act Nick Grey & The Random Orchestra). This new collection of songs, stripped bare of the Orchestra’s usual members, reveals a quieter, sadder aspect of their work, and was recorded after Nick dreamed of commiting suicide with a Bible in a Geneva first-class hotel.
As a result, Thieves Among Thorns is all about forlorn piano lullabies, insecure percussions and torpid classical arrangements, eerie ballads and numbing rythms, terminological inexactitudes and sleepy hyperboles. Ten desolate tracks where Nick’s laptop arrangements and quiet, inconsolable vocals interweave with pianist Jasmine Pinkerton’s eastern-Europe sensitivity and Nicholas Davis' precise guitar.
A sound shaped by various failures, breakups and periods of intense doubt : perfect for heartbreaks and codeine addicts.
Beautifully packaged in cardstock 'arigato pak.'
Track listing: 1• Tammuz 2• Hail Heart! Clouds Upon Clouds! 3• Failure (Is A Lonesome Bitch) 4• The Endless Pink 5• All Lives Revolve in Bright Circles of Quiet Light 6• Spa Diva 7• Montreal (Vue Arienne) 8• Devolun Inis 9• End of All 10• The World Mountain
A note from Timothy: "Thieves Among Thorns" is one of the best albums I have heard in years - one of my favorite albums Dark Holler • Hand/Eye has ever released (though, to be fair, I am rather biased to them all). Still, I find this work enchanting and haunting in all the right ways. My highest recommendation.
Grey Daturas "Dead in the Woods" CD cbr62
A re-issue of the out-of-print 2004 monsterpiece from the Melbourne, Australian trio Grey Daturas. Originally released through the band's own Crashing Jets imprint, Dead In The Woods is a massive exhortation of lumbering metallic sludge rock, freely improvised amplifier noise and crushing riff splatter, and massive, sky-streaking psychedelic corrosion. The Crucial Blast re-issue of Dead In The Woods features a full remastering by Scott Hull at Visceral Sound, and a new packaging design via a 4-panel case printed by Stumptown Printers.
Halo Manash "Par-Antra I: VIR" CD AH01
The first part of the Par-Antra trilogy consists of 9 original, intense, and multilayered tracks. The soundscape is based on various hypnotic e-bowed guitars, shamanic percussions, cymbals, wishbones, chanting, surreal samples, and analog synthesizers. Organic dark ambient to surreal electro-acoustics to sinister ritualistic atmospheres. Another great Aural Hypnox release, this CD comes in a nice booklet.
Halo Manash "SYoMA" CD AH01
"SYoMA" offers both minimalistic and complex material mainly created via acoustic instrumentation. A ritualistic electro-acoustic soundscape based on dark, hypnotic sample textures, evolving drones, dynamic percussion, chanting, windbones, experimental instruments and analog synthesizers. Another fine Aural Hypnox release.
Hedorah CDr bliss23
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Taking it's name from the aerial pollution god that faced off against Godzilla in the Japanese psychedelic kaiju classic Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971), Hedorah is fully documented on this sort-run disc that combines the track "From Beyond" from the split cassette with The Fortieth Day, "Planet Of Doom" from the Dr. Who Vs The Noise compilation, and five unreleased tracks. Hedorah proves to be a multi-tentacled beast: "Crystal Smoke" evokes a smog-ridden wasteland laced with acid-rock guitar soloing, pummeling industrial bass, and trance inducing beats, and ends up as some kind of grim krautrock jam. "Self Medicated" emits looping dialogue and whirring drones over monstrous throat chanting. "Hyperbolean" combines terrifying screams converted to echo-chamber hiss and overdriven, pummeling metal riffage thrust so far into the red that it sounds like there are flaps of speaker material smacking up against yer eardrums. The twenty-minute "Black Walls" is the apex of distortion though. That final track starts off as a sheet of obsidian ambience, a shimmering drone streaked by whirring noises, but then the riff appears, a massive three-chord doom dirge looming over the horizon, massively distorted and plodding, a hateful obelisk of fuzz lumbering through the increasingly violent blasts of feedback and distorted vocal noise that's shot across the soundfield. Ominous synth melodies and dank cave ambience appear later on, but become devoured by vicious feedback lashings a la Prurient and the return of that bottomless crushing doom dirge. Heavy is an understatement.
Packaged in the signature 3-panel Crucial Bliss glossy sleeve, which has been designed by Lord Keeler himself. The disc is attached to the inside of the jacket on a plastic hub, and there is also a small insert card included in the package. Released in an edition of 250 copies.
If Thousands "I Have Nothing" CD silber043
"I Have Nothing" is the fourth release by Duluth, Minnesota’s If Thousands. The duo of McShane & Molina returned to Crazy Beast Studio & Ben Durrant in Minneapolis where they recorded their first album Candice Recorder. Heading back to experiments in sound rather than formal songs, they were joined in the studio by the bands GST & 2i as well as Paul Metzger (TVBC) for a two-day improvisational recording session. The new album is the best results of this session. Sonic experiments that push from drone to ambient soundscapes to more bluegrass and Eastern influenced pieces.
Inside "Celestial Telepathy" 3" CDr BF015
Inside is the one man psychedelic drone outfit of Sandy Schaare who hails from New Zealand. "Celestial Telepathy" is Inside's debut release on 3"CDR, featuring a single 20 minute piece constructed entirely on electric guitar. To call "Celestial Telepathy" an electric guitar piece is probably a misnomer, as Schaare manages to mutate the sound of the instrument into something completely unrecognisable as guitar. Drifting waves and curling smoke trails float around as if propelled by Schaare's trademark guitar chime that appears to have more in common sonically speaking with singing bowls or bells. The disc is limited to 100 copies, packaged in PVC slipcases with an insert, features beautiful psychedelic cover-art by Schaare himself.
