Itasca – Grace Riders on the Road

I hardly ever post something where the full tracklist isn’t available to listen, but the 6 tracks that are on this one are sooo good, particularly the experimental one at number 6 but I love whole caboodle. I’m even tempted to buy it on payday, despite the fact I hardly ever buy stuff where I haven’t heard the whole thing first but, as I say, these are just sooo good.

This is described on the page as the solo project of Kayla Cohen, so maybe she’s also involved in some other projects though a very lazy google search just now yielded no results (I’m an information professional, I am. Really).

So it’s largely a lady and acoustic guitar, really chilled, reminds me personally of Nick Drake in guitar style. I have heard music of some of the names mentioned on the review quoted on the page but I can’t actually bring them to mind so I don’t know whether they are also accurate descriptors, inasmuch as anything descriptive can do justice to the ineffable. I mean, how do you describe a language using a different language? But anywho, if chilled acoustic music with an experimental vibe sounds like your thing then give this a whirl. It is particularly appropriate for a Sunday, for it was last Sunday afternoon when I heard Milk Tea on a show on NTS.

As I type this, I’m listening to her first release and it is proper experimental, addled tape music, not at all like this. But I’m strongly liking that too.

Abronia – Map of Dawn

I only have three* words for this.

This is brilliant.

Actually, make that four.

This is fucking brilliant.

Vinyl is available here.

*(I realise there are actually more than four words above. Thank you. You can see yourself out).

Haress – Ghosts

Haress are a bit good. Their wonderful debut album has been a regular on the Soundbergs Stereo since I bought it at the beginning of the pandemic so I was very pleased when they decided to be one of those bands that do more than one album. Even better, it’s all paranormal and shit; at least, the stories they tell of its recording are. Not really listened to the lyrics that closely yet.

As someone who likes well written words and even tries to write them well at times, I oddly don’t pay much attention to lyrics. Not initially, anyway. It might be because my favourite music is all about transportation of the spirit, so I get lost in transporting my spirit with the music. Haress are really good at making music that aids that thing.

Here’s hoping they decide to be one of those bands that make a third album.

Sarah Louise – Deeper Woods

The universe is as big as the imagination that perceives it

The next horse you see will be dead
The next bones you see will be human
The next omen you see will be laughing

Have you considered a career in the protest business?

I gave up paranoia ages ago when I realised everybody was out to get me. Instead of being anxious about it, I decided to take it as a compliment.

Pain in the farce

Not a wolf in sheep’s clothing
but a wolf that’s eaten so many sheep
the wool is a permanent fixture

Seek and ye shall blind

I’ll happily wear a t-shirt that says “see you tomorrow”
shows off my optimist nature

Luna Abu Nassar – אספר לך أحكيلِك

Coherence is in the eye of the beholder

Assuming there is a beholder

Does a picture know it’s a picture?

Is it aware of observers?

If it isn’t, does this mean there cannot be any?

Just how big is the audience?

 

Alameda 3 – Późne królestwo

Most artists I make public my liking for have a way with a groove. Probably a well-functioning groove is amongst the most reliable ways of catching my attention. And yet – with the greatest respect due to Kuba Ziolek – this album is not going to catch you via groove. The same is true for one of his other projects that I listed in some year end list or other a while back, Stara Rzeka. This is a journey, instead, but not one including picnics.

It took me a little while to work out why he’s used two different names, but I think I sort of get it now in a way I cannot possibly put into words. Coincidentally, the stylistic sweep of this music is such that I cannot possibly put it into words either. That’s a bit of a common theme for me.

So, it’s heavy in a skull crushing heavy rock, post-rock, death metal, spazz rock, jazzy, acoustic lament, fusion, ambient, at times melodic and wistful way – on Tzimtzum I think he tries to capture every single style he’s ever attempted when laden with a guitar, and it most certainly would not be out of place on Ipecac records.  At all times the music is overlaid by guitars so thoroughly drowned in reverb that it’s as if he’s replaced the Baltic Sea with reverb and recorded them there. But it is intense, and if you don’t want intense today, go and listen to this instead. However, if I’ve piqued your interest and you do want intense, well, Kuba’s your man, and not for the first time.

 

Kiss the Anus of a Black Cat

No, it’s not an order; equally, I shan’t stop you.

My 8 year old son and I have quite different tastes in music for the most part, although he does like some songs that I like, and is in fact more likely to like songs that I like than I am that he likes (in my world, that makes him more open minded than me, regardless of the fact that his range is tiny and limited to chart pop music). However, we do both agree on one thing – Sevenfold by Kiss the Anus of a Black Cat is one of the most marvellous pieces of music in the world. I can’t give you a direct link, it seems, to that song, but I can give you a direct link to this one:

I was aware of the above song from around 2007/08 ish, though I can’t remember how – I think it was from one of those periodic swaps me and my mate did where one of us would take a hard disc round the others and say ‘what should I listen to?’ Doing mix tapes has certainly evolved, eh? Anyway, it was one of my favourite songs in the world, but the rest of the album didn’t much grab me at the time.

Then at the beginning of 2011, I was on the Cold Spring site and discovered they had a £5 meltdown section, to which I duly turned my attention. As most of the acts were completely unfamiliar to me, I was browsing for those that let you listen to a tune or two. I’d got 2 that I decided to buy and decided to allow myself one more when I noticed they had The Nebulous Dreams by this band, and as I really liked that one song, I figured it was worth a punt.

I listened to the album one memorable Monday evening, just after my aforementioned son had gone to bed and I had spent ten minutes enjoying some ‘fresh air.’ Although I had clocked that it appeared to only contain three tracks, I still wasn’t really expecting the epic 15-minute opener Between Skylla and Charybdis, from the screeching noises to the minimalist rhythm to the ecstatic climax. The 9 minute drone of Diptych defied expectations in a different way, and finally Miserere defied expectations even further by being… normal. Well, a very pleasant acoustic song with one of the best little riffs I know.

Their discography is actually all over the map. My personal favourites are the abovementioned, and their first album If the Sky Falls, We Shall Catch Larks which contains that song that me and my eldest are in such agreement about (and also the incredible 19-minute Sighing, Seething, Soothing). It also contains this:

 

Both albums favour the more long-form approach, with a minimalist, droning thing going on that’s right up my street. There are two slightly more traditional albums in An Interlude to the Outermost and Hewers of Wood and Drawers of Water, both of which contain some great songs but are probably best described as less consistent. Most of their Youtube content seems to focus on this stuff, so browse around if you feel the urge.

Their most recent release, Weltuntergangstimmung, is a complete change of style, kind of dark-wavey gothy with drum machines and things. It’s probably my favourite of their albums that features their shorter songs.

It properly divided their fanbase, though. Kudos to them for having the balls to do that. According to that Facebook page of theirs I linked to earlier (because their website is so annoyingly uninformative), they’re back in the studio, so it will be interesting to see what comes out…

Apparently the band name comes from a medieval witch ritual. I’d be interested to know what that ritual was and what it was supposed to achieve.