Yo La Tengo

Yo La Tengo is an American indie rock band based in Hoboken, New Jersey. With more than 15 albums released since 1984, they have demonstrated unusual longevity for the indie-rock scene. They are frequently regarded as one of the definitive indie rock groups of the 1990s. Though Yo La Tengo has achieved limited mainstream success, the band has become a critical favorite with a devoted fan base.

The band's name comes from a baseball anecdote.

During the 1962 season, New York Mets center fielder Richie Ashburn and Venezuelan shortstop Elio Chacón found themselves colliding in the outfield. When Ashburn went for a catch, he would scream, "I got it! I got it!" only to run into the 160-pound Chacón, who spoke only Spanish.

Ashburn learned to yell, "¡Yo la tengo! ¡Yo la tengo!" which is "I have it" in Spanish. In a later game, Ashburn happily saw Chacón backing off. He relaxed, positioned himself to catch the ball, and was instead run over by 200-pound (90.7 kilograms) left fielder Frank Thomas, who understood no Spanish and had missed a team meeting that proposed using the words "¡Yo la tengo! as a way to avoid outfield collisions.

After getting up, Thomas asked Ashburn, "What the heck is a Yellow Tango?".

The band wanted a name that sounded foreign in order to avoid any connotations in English. Kaplan is also a devoted baseball fan. However, it still irks the band when they are asked the origin of the name. The band once performed a cover of the Mets theme song "Meet the Mets" during a benefit appearance on radio station WFMU's pledge drive. A track on I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass is called "The Story of Yo La Tango" in apparent reference to an all-too-frequent misspelling of the band's name.

source

Album Dicography :

01 - Ride the Tiger [1986]
02 - President Yo La Tengo_New Wave Hot Dogs [1987_1989]
03 - Fakebook [1990]
04 - May I Sing With Me [1992] (part1/part2)
05 - Painful [1993]
06 - Electr-o-Pura [1995]
07 - I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One [1997]
08 - And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out [2000] (part1/part2)
09 - The Sounds of the Sounds of Science [2002] (part1/part2)
10 - Summer Sun [2003]
11 - Yo La Tengo Is Murdering the Classics [2006] (part1/part2)
12 - I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass [2006]
13 - They Shoot, We Score [2008] (part1/part2)

EPs :

01 - Here Comes My Baby [1990]
02 - That Is Yo La Tengo [1991]
03 - Upside-Down [1992]
04 - Camp Yo La Tengo [1995]
05 - Little Honda [1997]
06 - Some Other Dimensions in Yo La Tengo [2000]
07 - Danelectro [2000]
08 - Merry Christmas From Yo La Tengo [2002]
09 - Nuclear War [2002]
10 - Today Is the Day! [2003]
11 - Live Session EP [2007]

Splits / Collaboration :

01 - 1995 - Stereolab & Yo La Tengo - Genius + Love Split
02 - 1998 - Jad Fair & Yo La Tengo - Strange But True
03 - 2004 - Chris Stamey & Yo La Tengo - V.O.T.E.

--------------------------------------------------------


I Feel Like Going Home

F u r s a x a

Tara Burke of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania employs voice, guitar, organ, dulcimer, accordion, Casio and more to create her home-recorded acid folk as Fursaxa. Prior to her Fursaxa work she was an active ingredient in Clock Strikes Thirteen, Ted Casterline and his Perfectly Perfect Pieces of Fruit, UN, Her debut album Mandrake was produced, engineered, and released in Japan by none other than Kawabata Makoto of Acid Mothers Temple. She also self released the cd-r's Trobairitz Are Here From Venus, and The Cult From Moon Mountain. She has also contributed to these songs to the following compilations: Free My Mind (V/A Nice Pooper #23, zine 2001), Artemisia (V/A Sound Collector #7, zine 2001),
Kniphofia (V/A Surrounded By Sun, Fonal 2002), Porpoise Wings (V/A Hand/Eye, Hand/Eye 2002), Chartreuse My Green (V/A The Invisible Pyramid, Last Visible Dog 2003), and of course her piece for this issue’s cd as well. Her LP Madrigals in Duos on Time-Lag Records is due any time now, and presents Fursaxa at her finest musically with the gorgeous packaging we have come to expect from Time-Lag. She is also going to be part of the Jewelled Antler Library of 3" cd-r's, which makes perfect sense. Her sound combines folk, lo-fi, hashish smoke mixed with incense drifting out of a cathedral doorway, dreams that skirt the edges of nightmares, hallucinatory droning organic primitive sophistication.

www.simpletone.com/pacman/artists/tara_burke/
www.acidmothers.com/album/amt/amcd018/
www.fursaxa.net/


Album Discography :

1. Mandrake [2000]
2. Fursaxa [2002] (part1/part2)
   
3. Trobairitz Are Here From Venus [2002]
4. The Cult From Moon Mountain [2003]
5. Madrigals in Duos [2004]
6. Lepidoptera [2005]
7. Myriad of Satyrids [2006]
8. Alone in the Dark Wood [2007]
9. Kobold Moon [2008]

Eps :

1. Amulet EP [2004]
2. Harbinger of Spring EP [2004]
3. Maidenstone [2007]

FURSAXA : muscle beach 02/07/08

Mojave 3

Mojave 3 are a British band, consisting of Neil Halstead, Rachel Goswell, Simon Rowe, Alan Forrester, and Ian McCutcheon. Goswell, Halstead and McCutcheon previously played in Thames Valley shoegazer band Slowdive.

The band initially existed as a trio consisting of Halstead, Goswell, and McCutcheon. After Slowdive were dropped by Creation Records, the trio decided to change musical direction to a dream pop/country rock or folk music style, and were signed by 4AD Records. They took on the new name "Mojave", but upon the discovery of another band already using the name, the "3" was added due to the group's three members. Rowe (formerly of Chapterhouse) and Forrester joined shortly after the release of their first album.

Both Halstead (the main songwriter for the band) and Goswell have released solo albums, also for 4AD. McCutcheon founded and is currently playing with his band called The Loose SaluteHeavenly Records. who are signed to Heavenly Records.

wiki.

Album Discography :

1. Ask me tomorrow [1995]
2. Out of Tune [1998]
3. Excuses for travellers [2000]
4. Spoon and Rafter [2003]
5. Puzzles Like You [2006]

Eps :

1. Who Do You Love Ep [1998]
2. Some Kinda Angel Ep [1998]
3. In Love With a View Ep [2000]
4. Any Day Will Be Fine Ep [2000]
5. Return to sender Ep [2000]
6. Bluebird of Happiness Ep [2003]
7. Breaking the Ice Ep [2006]

Mojave 3 - Love Songs On The Radio

Fanfare Ciocărlia

Fanfare Ciocărlia es una orquesta gitana de metales provenientes de un pequeño pueblo en el noroeste de Rumania llamado Zece Prăjini. Sus inicios fueron como orquesta para bodas, funerales y bautizos. En octubre de 1996, el ingeniero de sonido y productor de discos alemán Henry Ernst visitó Zece Prajini y los convenció de montar una banda para hacer un tour mundial. Los músicos decidieron llamar a la banda Fanfare Ciocărlia. Fanfare es la palabra francesa para fanfarria, la cual pasó al rumano y se utiliza para denominar orquestas de metales; Ciocârlia es la palabra rumana para alondra. Desde su descubrimiento por Ernst, quien es su manager, han tocado más de mil conciertos en más de 50 países a través del mundo.

El origen de las orquestas de metales gitanas se remonta a las fanfarrias militares turcas que aparecieron al principio del siglo XIX. La ocupación otomana influenció durante largo tiempo en esta región del mundo que ahora conocemos como Bulgaria, Moldavia, Macedonia, Serbia o Rumania. Desde entonces la música se transmite de generación en generación sin interrupción ninguna. Todos los fines de semana los músicos salen de casa con sus instrumentos y acompañan bodas y otras ceremonias.

Formación :

Costicã Trifan (trompeza, voz) – Paul Marian Bulgaru (trompeta) – Radulescu Lazar (trompeta, voz) – Oprica Ivancea (clarinete soprano, saxofón alto) – Ioan Ivancea (clarinete soprano) – Dan Ionel Ivancea (saxofón alto) – Constantin Cantea (tuba) – Monel Trifan (tuba) – Constantin Calin (trompa tenor, voz, danza) – Laurentiu Ivancea (trompa barítono) Costel Ursu (tambores) – Nicolae Ionita (percusión).

Lastfm























Discografía :

01 - Radio Paşcani [1999]
02 - Baro Biao: World Wide Wedding [2000]
03 - Iag Bari [2001]
04 - Gili Garabdi [2005]
05 - Queens and Kings [2007]


"Manea Cu Voca"

B e i r u t

Beirut is the band of 22-year-old Santa Fe native Zach Condon. The band's first official release was assisted by Jeremy Barnes (Neutral Milk Hotel, A Hawk and a Hacksaw) and Heather Trost (A Hawk and a Hacksaw); it combines elements of Eastern European and folk sounds. Condon plays the trumpet and the ukulele as his main instruments, having been unable to play guitar because of a wrist injury that prevented his hand from reaching fully around the neck of a guitar.

Though young, Condon has already released a few albums. He recorded under the name The Real People when he was 15, making The Joys of Losing Weight, which is a lo-fi electronic record (ie, generally in the style of 'Scenic World' on Gulag Orkestar) fashioned consciously after The Magnetic Fields. At 16, he recorded an entire doo-wop album that was inspired by Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers. Zach also released a three-song EP titled "Small Time American Bats" under the name 1971. The album was recorded in 2001-2002 and has never been officially released. Condon attended Santa Fe High School, where he was a student until he dropped out at the age of 16 to travel Europe (with his brother Ryan Condon) where he was first exposed to Balkan gypsy music, notably including the Boban Marković Orchestra and Goran Bregović.

Live, Beirut's shifting roster generally consists of Condon accompanied by Perrin Cloutier (cello/accordion), Jason Poranski (guitar/mandolin/ukulele), Nick Petree (drums), Kristin Ferebee (violin), Paul Collins (organ/keys/tambourine/ukulele), Jon Natchez (baritone sax/mandolin/glockenspiel), and Kelly Pratt (trumpet/euphonium).

History

In 2006, Beirut released two Balkan-inspired recordings through Ba Da Bing, Gulag Orkestar and Lon Gisland, both also available as an expanded version of Gulag Orkestar LP through the UK label 4AD. Beirut has also released other individual songs, three available on Pompeii EP, and the one on a split with Calexico, and one on a compilation for The Believer magazine. While living in Brooklyn, Condon also shot a video for "Scenic World" at the Sweet'N Low factory, and performed several venues in New York and Europe.

Zach appeared in the June/July 2007 issue of The Believer, with a song entitled "Venice".

His first official music video was for the song "Elephant Gun". The video was directed by Alma Har'el. The second video, which was for the song "Postcards from Italy", was also directed by Alma Har'el, and was released later. Lauren Tafuri was the costume designer for both of these videos.

In June 2007 they played the Glastonbury Festival's Jazz World Stage. Later in 2007, Zach appeared as a guest trumpeter on the second album from Get Him Eat Him, titled Arms Down. He has also appeared as a guest trumpeter on A Hawk and a Hacksaw's album The Way the Wind Blows, a band founded by former Beirut members Jeremy Barnes and Heather Trost.

Beirut's second album, The Flying Club Cup, was leaked onto the Internet August 25, 2007 then subsequently released in shops and on Internet music sites on October 9, 2007.

On April 3rd, 2008, Beirut cancelled a previously announced summer European tour. Condon explained the cancellations in a post on the official Beirut website, stating that he wanted to put the effort into ensuring that any shows would be "as good as humanly possible". Soon after, The Stranger reported that Condon is working on a third album tentatively scheduled for a fall release.

wiki.

Eps :

01 - Lon Gisland [2007]
02 - The Flying Club Cup [2007]
03 - Elephant Gun [2007]

Album Discography :

The Flying Club Cup [2007]

Gulag Orkestar [2006]

Elephant Gun :

A Hawk & A Hacksaw + The Hun Hangár Ensemble

A Hawk and a Hacksaw is a band from Albuquerque, New Mexico. The band mainly consists of percussionist Jeremy Barnes (formerly of Neutral Milk Hotel) and violinist Heather Trost (formerly of Foma). The music is mostly instrumental, usually centred around Jeremy’s accordion. There are occasional unintelligible vocals, shouts and cheers, although the latest album, 2006’s The Way The Wind Blows, has more vocal pieces.

When playing live, Jeremy plays many of the instruments himself simultaneously; strapping bells and drumsticks to his body enables him to play percussion while playing accordion. He has recently been accompanied by Heather Trost, who joined him on his recent tour with The Olivia Tremor Control.

www.last.fm/music/A+Hawk+and+a+Hacksaw

The Way the Wind Blows [2006]

Darkness at Noon [2005]

A Hawk and a Hacksaw [2002]

A Hawk and a Hacksaw and the Hun Hangár Ensemble [2007]

A Hawk & A Hacksaw + The Hun Hangár Ensemble

S p i r i t u a l i z e d

Following a major breakdown in relations between Spacemen 3 co-frontmen Peter Kember and Jason Pierce, the group's bassist Will Carruthers, drummer Jonny Mattock, and guitarist Mark Refoy decided to form a splinter group, before persuading Pierce to join alongside local friend Steve Evans to create Spiritualized. The band took their name from an adaptation of the text on the back label of a bottle of Pernod. Due to formation from a majority of Spacemen 3 members, a technical clause meant that Spiritualized had to maintain the Spacemen 3 recording contract with Dedicated Records.

The first Spiritualized release, in 1990, was a cover of The Troggs' "Anyway That You Want Me"; the record heralded the official split of Spacemen 3 following contractual wrangles over the band's name and its use in Spiritualized-related promotional material (initial copies of "Anyway That You Want Me" came with a Spacemen 3 logo on the sleeve).

Evans was replaced on keyboards by Pierce's then-girlfriend Kate Radley for the follow-up single, "Run"/"I Want You". A number of singles followed, before the band, in early 1992, released their first LP Lazer Guided Melodies, which had been recorded in Rugby over the previous two years. A second album, Pure Phase, was released in 1995, and a third Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space emerged in 1997 to notable critical acclaim and commercial success.

The musical style of Spiritualized relies heavily on sustained 'pedal' notes and drones. Lazer Guided Melodies and Pure Phase incorporate elements of the shoegazing style, drones and tremolo. The landmark Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space saw the influence of African-American gospel and blues beginning to show, while "walls of sound" modelled after the production styles of Phil Spector and Brian Wilson also made their presence felt. Such influences dominated Spiritualized's next album, Let It Come Down which included over 120 musicians. Amazing Grace favoured a more stripped down sound with the gospel, blues, and soul influences even more dominant than before.

After several years of work and a serious illness on Pierce's part in July 2005, the latest Spiritualized album, Songs in A&E was released on May 26, 2008 in the UK, and on May 27, 2008 in the US. The first single from the 18-track album was "Soul On Fire". The release was backed by an Electric Mainlines UK tour which began in May.Pierce has also scored Harmony Korine's 2008 film Mister Lonely.

Pierce is quoted as saying in a 2008 interview that Spiritualized was scheduled to play the CERN collider. "They asked us to do it! We were gonna play in it before they’d thrown the switch. But it was a timing thing—their timings didn’t coincide with ours."

wiki.

Discography:

01 - Lazer Guided Melodies [1992]
02 - Fucked Up Inside [1993]
03 - Pure Phase [1995] (part1/part2)
04 - Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space [1997]
05 - Live From Royal Albert Hall [1998] (part1/part2)
06 - Let It Come Down [2001]
07 - Amazing Grace [2003]
08 - Songs in A&E [2008]

Compilation:

09 - The Complete Works Vol. I - II [2003 / 2004]
(part1/part2/part3/part4)



run

Psychedelic Horseshit

I never thought I would find the courage to disgrace a complete scene of music, but shitgaze really is abysmal. Another of these silhouettes of shite is ’Psychedelic Horseshit’, I mean seriously which member of the band was drunk when that name was conjured up. ’New Wave Hippies’ sounds like a toddler playing with something that has thousands of buttons. The guitars are scratchy, and deliberately out of tune. It’s almost as if this band has gone out of its way to completely undermine every musical convention every proposed. This band is either a load of idiots on speed who suddenly thought they could play music while tripping, and sounds like a very massive pile of utter drunken shit, or it’s just some very clever chimpanzee’s who’ve evolved and suddenly realise they ’might’ be able to play some music. In one song, ’Bad Vibrations’ the vocalist literally says over and over again ’ahhoooowaaaooo oooo oooo oooooooo’. I’ve actually given up on summing up this utterly pointless way of life. I would rather shave all of the hair off on my body and commit myself to a life of celibacy and become a neo-Nazi. My flat mate has put this review out of its misery and very kindly summed up this entire music scene in two words, ’utter bollocks’.

www.myspace.com/psychedelichorshit
www.myspace.com/blackoutfest

























Discography:

01 - Who Let the Dogs Out? 7" [2006]
02 - Summertime Suicide EP [2006]
03 - Magic Flowers Droned [2007]
04 - Blackout Fest Live - 4-19-07
05 - Appears on:Split EP [Times New Viking / Psychedelic Horseshit] (2007)



Psychedelic Horseshit - Live at Blackoutfest XII

L o w

Low is an American indie rock group from Duluth, Minnesota. The group was formed in 1993, by Alan Sparhawk (guitar and vocals), Mimi Parker (drums and vocals) and original bassist John Nichols (bass guitar). Zak Sally replaced Nichols after Low's first album and tour. In 2005, Sally quit the band; Matt Livingston replaced him shortly thereafter. Livingston has since left the band and has been replaced by Steve Garrington, creating the current lineup of Sparhawk, Parker and Garrington.

Their music is commonly described as "slowcore," a subgenre characterised by slow tempos and minimalist arrangements. They are one of the earlier bands to adopt and popularize the style, making them considerable contributors to the slowcore movement. (It is worth noting that the band dislikes this tag. In an interview, Alan Sparhawk says of descriptions of their music: "What's the cheesiest? Slow-core. I hate that word. The most appropriate is anything that uses the word minimal in it, but I don't think anybody's made one up for that." In another interview, Sparhawk claimed that a friend of his coined the term: "this friend of ours in a record store was always joking around...and he said, 'I got it! You should call it "slowcore"!'...It was a total joke, and I think I mentioned it at one of our interviews." ) Parker and Sparhawk's striking vocal harmonies represent perhaps the group's most distinctive element; critic Denise Sullivan writes that their shared vocals are "as chilling as anything Gram and Emmylou ever conspired on -- though that's not to say it's country-tinged, just straight from the heart."

wiki.

Album Discography:

01 - I Could Live in Hope [1994]
02 - Long Division [1995]
03 - The Curtain Hits the Cast [1996] (part1/part2)
04 - One More Reason to Forget [1998]
05 - Secret Name [1999]
06 - Things We Lost in the Fire [2001]
07 - Paris '99: "Anthony, Are You Around?" [2001]
08 - Trust [2002]
09 - The Great Destroyer [2005]
10 - Drums and Guns [2007]

Eps:

01 - EP 01 - 1995 Transmission
02 - EP 02 - 1997_1999 Songs for a Dead Pilot & Christmas
03 - Ep 03 - 2000 Travels in Constants Volume 9
04 - EP 04 - 2001 Appears on = Those Girls [K. Low]
05 - EP 05 - 2003 Murderer
06 - EP 06 - 2005 Tonight the Monkeys Die - Low Remixed

And Dirty Three:

01 - No Need / Obvious Is Obvious [1997]
02 - In the Fishtank 7 [2001]



low - dragonfly

T o r t o i s e

Throughout their 10-year history, Tortoise have been one of the most singularly dynamic bands in modern music. With each record they have not only redefined their own sound, but helped to nudge music itself in unique and exciting new directions. Their members are perpetually involved with multiple projects, thus it is quite noteworthy that It's All Around You, Tortoise's fifth full-length, is the first album that the band has ever made without a single lineup change. The results of this are a record that is the product of five distinctly visionary musicians who are able to synergistically unite like never before. This consistent lineup also allowed the band to move forward in directions that were previously unexplored, and It's All Around You contains a number of Tortoise firsts.

It's All Around You was written largely in the studio, in the midst of recording, over the course of a full year. This allowed Tortoise to use John McEntire's Soma Electronic Music Studios (whose clients include Wilco, Stereolab, and many others) not just as a state-of-the-art recording facility but as a compositional tool as well. It took months of continuous writing, recording, tinkering, mixing, and perfecting to bring It's All Around You to its finalized state. Tortoise are one of the only bands of their size and status who have always produced their own records, and it largely because of this that they are able to achieve and maintain such a distinct and precise sound. The band's extensive knowledge of the studio's equipment allows them to use it for composing, editing, and coloring their compositions. The band are very at home in this environment, and without a restrictive deadline (normally present with hired producers/studios), the band can explore a multitude of approaches. The results of this process are clear in the lush, orchestrated tones, intricate melodies, and densely elaborate rhythms that make It's All Around You Tortoise's most adventurous and thoughtful record to date. These songs build deliberately and consistently, amassing music of great detail; exploring their layers is both exciting and infinitely rewarding.

Over the past decade, Tortoise have produced some of the most innovative and influential albums in all of music. From the deep and understated rhythms and tones on their 1996 landmark, Millions Now Living Will Never Die, to the bombastic rock of 2001's Standards, Tortoise have always been ahead of their time. It's All Around You finds Tortoise doing what they do best; building and rebuilding upon melodies and rhythms with their own remarkable touch. A song like "On The Chin," born of a guitar line that Jeff Parker and Doug McCombs wrote, is transformed into a something delicately complex, fiercely catchy, and unmistakably Tortoise.

Contributing to and resulting from Tortoise's diverse musical talents are the multitude of other musical projects that each member pursues. In between the recording of Standards and It's All Around You Tortoise's members have kept extremely busy. John McEntire has recorded/mixed bands such as The Sea and Cake (of which he is also a member), US Maple, Beans, Radian, Chicago Underground, Neil Michael Hagerty, Savath & Savalas, and many others. Future projects include Tuxedomoon, Fred Anderson & Hamid Drake, and Teenage Fanclub. John Herndon made his first solo album as A Grape Dope (Missing Dragons, on Galaxia), recorded with Savath & Savalas, The Aluminum Group, The Eternals, and Beans. John also toured as A Grape Dope, opening for Prefuse73, and playing drums along side Scott and DJ Leb Laze in the P73 live band earlier this year. Doug McCombs released his third Brokeback album (Looks At The Bird, on Thrill Jockey), and played shows with Eleventh Dream Day (of which he is a founding member), and Abeliene. Jeff Parker has played in a large number of jazz and improvising ensembles (alongside players such as Josh Abrams, Guillermo Gregorio, Chad Taylor, Nori Tanaka, Michael Zerang, Kevin Drumm, and others. He released a solo album (Like Coping, on Delmark). He recently recorded with Joshua Redman and Azita, and is writing horn arrangements for the next Aluminum Group album. Dan Bitney has produced a number of "mutant home studio jams" for AV band Spectralina, in which Bitney provides digital musical manipulation and drumming for Selina Trepp's poetic, political, and abstract visuals. In addition to all of this, McEntire and Parker will be contributing short audio pieces to the "1%" project, a permanent sound installation which will be set up in the elevators of the new Paris Ministry for Culture and Communication. McEntire, Herndon and Bitney will be producing an album of original breakbeats, samples, and grooves this winter, intended for DJ and music production use. The group will also be contributing an original track to the upcoming feature film "Moog," a documentary about the life and times of electronic music pioneer Robert Moog.

Thrill Jockey Records

Discography:

01 - Lonesome Sound EP [1993]
02 - Mosquito EP [1993]
03 - Tortoise [1994]
04 - Rhythms, resolutions and clusters [1995]
05 - Gamera 12'' [1995]
06 - Millions Now Living Will Never Die [1996]
07 - Appears on = Yaus Speedy Car [Stereolab Tortoise] (1996)
08 - The Taut and the Tame - The Luke Vibert Mix Find the One
00 - [Wait, Abstraction No. 3] (1996)
09 - Remixed [1996]
10 - A Digest Compendium of the Tortoise's World [1996]
11 - TNT [1998] (part1/part2)
12 - Tortoise vs. Derrick Carter [1998]
13 - Tortoise vs. Autechre [1998]
14 - Standards [2001]
15 - It's All Around You [2004]
16 - Tortoise and Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - The Brave and the Bold [2006]
17 - A Lazarus Taxon [2006]


Tortoise - Live at Werchter [full set]

Charalambides

To say that the words "unique" and "singular" are over-used in describing music is to state the obvious. To apply these words to the sounds created by the various duo/trio configurations of the Texas group Charalambides over the last decade plus would be understatement. To be sure there are numerous antecedents to their music; to deny this of any artist's work would be akin to saying that they are deaf. But they have surely broken new ground in the primitive/folk/mystic/improv/psych valley in which they toil. As Marcus Boon wrote in The Wire; "...here is a truly 21st century experimental ethnic music that explores quietness and stasis... in the same way that musicians in the second half of the 20th century discovered amplification, noise and speed."

Originally a duo comprised of Tom Carter (who had been playing guitar in the Houston grunt-psych band The Mike Gunn) and Christina Carter, Charalambides released a cassette called Our Bed Is Green on their own Wholly Other label in 1992 (later reissued on CD and double LP). The two Carters showed a firm grasp on the haunting nature of American blues and country, as well as a mastery of tape manipulation, a disregard for genre boundaries, and a marked tendency towards vertically stacked guitar drone. A full length album called Union was released by the Siltbreeze label, and many other releases followed, both as a duo and trio (first with Jason Bill, and later with pedal steel player Heather Leigh Murray). Although better known as a trio through their various tours with both Heather and Jason, Tom and Christina have returned to concentrating on their duo work in more recent years, fusing introspective, open-ended, and often spacious song structures with blasts of feedback and explosive sound often startling to fans familiar only with the band's deceptively low-key reputation.

In 2005, Tom and Christina met in California to record the tracks for their new kranky CD, A Vintage Burden. Besides commemorating the return to the duo format, the album represents a culmination of the threads of repetition and psychedelic song that run through much of the duo's work Although partially an homage to the clarity and ambience of 60s and 70s production and songwriting, the album retains the spook, space and mystery of even their most extreme releases: "Tom and Christina Carter here again showcase their seemingly innate ability to lock into a shared orbit across the darkening sky, their luminous drift scaled down to its essential, irreducible core." (quote from Pitchfork).

Tom and Christina are planning several tours of varying durations through the rest of 2006 and the beginning of 2007 (and beyond). Despite being a duo, their live sound achieves an energy and ferocity not often glimpsed on their releases, while maintaining the hissing delicacy of their most haunting studio work.

Christina Carter: electric guitar, acoustic guitar, voice
Tom Carter: electric guitar, lap steel guitar, acoustic guitar

kranky


























Album Discography:


01 - Our Bed is Green [1992] (part1/part2)
02 - Union [1993]
03 - Market Square [1995] (part1/part2)
04 - Historic 6th Ward [1996] (part1/part2)
05 - Charalambides [1997] (part1/part2)
06 - Houston [1998]
07 - Internal Eternal [1999]
08 - Branches [2001]
09 - CHT [2002]
10 - In Cr Ea Se [2002] (part1/part2)
11 - Live Hand Held [2002]
12 - Unknown Spin [2003]
13 - Joy Shapes [2006] (part1/part2)
14 - Strangle the Wretched Heavens [2006]
15 - Dead/Live [2006]
16 - A Vintage Burden [2006]
17 - Emerald Message [2006]
18 - Electricity Ghost [2007]
19 - Likeness [2007]
20 - Rose Thron [2008]


Brainwashed.com: The Eye - Charalambides (1 of 3)

Gastr del Sol

A concrete sound playtime, fixings in the perfect harmony of chords that they dance on the cloudy sky, a day of cold suffocates the throats, it was for being looking at this picture for long moment, your they must connect, give compiled of images that to establish in abstract forms, as if a channel of the collective intelligent conscience returns to deliver senses to the life, regenerating everything what this one, without feedback is impossible ears(hearing).

Un recreo de sonidos, concretos, fijados en la armonía perfecta de acordes que danzan sobre el cielo nublado, un día de frío sofoca las gargantas, fue por estar mirando ese cuadro por largo rato, tus oídos se deben acoplar, dar un compilado de imágenes que establecer en formas abstractas, como si un canal de la conciencia colectiva inteligente vuelva a entregar sentidos a la vida, regenerando todo lo que esta, sin feedback es imposible.

At this point Gastr del Sol became mainly a collaboration between Grubbs and O'Rourke, joined by an ever-changing collection of guests. Though McEntire was no longer a full member, he continued contributing to many Gastr del Sol recordings and concerts.

Most releases by this lineup were on Chicago's Drag City Records, beginning with the acoustic guitar-based Crookt, Crackt, or Fly in 1994. "Work From Smoke", the centerpiece of this album, fused Grubbs and O'Rourke's penchant for atonal guitar interplay with bass clarinet and Grubbs's increasingly surreal lyrics.

A pair of releases followed quickly in 1995. The Mirror Repair EP added elements of electronic music. The Harp Factory on Lake Street, released on the Table of the Elements label, was their most experimental work, a piece for chamber orchestra with only occasional voice and piano from Grubbs.

1996's Upgrade & Afterlife included a would-be film score by O'Rourke, "Our Exquisite Replica of 'Eternity'", and an extended interpretation of the John Fahey piece "Dry Bones in the Valley" featuring guest Tony Conrad on violin.

With the release of Camoufleur in 1998, Gastr del Sol progressed further into the realm of conventional melodies and chamber pop, creating their most accessible and popular album. Its chord patterns, melodies, and flugelhorn and string-heavy arrangements prefigure O'Rourke's future pop releases. The album was co-written with Markus Popp, of the pioneering German glitch group Oval, who contributed to the electronic aspects of the album.

After Camoufleur the band split up. Grubbs and O'Rourke have both continued to release albums under their own names in the fields of rock, pop, and experimental music.

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Camoufleur [1998]

Upgrade & Afterlife [1996]

Mirror Repair [1995]

Crookt, Crackt, or Fly [1994]

20 Songs Less [1993]

The Serpentine Similar [1992]

seasons in play

Black Dice

Black Dice is an experimental electronica group currently based in Brooklyn, New York, USA.

They formed in spring 1997 soon after guitarist Bjorn Copeland met drummer Hisham Bharoocha at the Rhode Island School of Design. Joined by Bjorn's brother Eric Copeland on vocals and bassist Sebastian Blanck, their early sound has been described as thrash-influenced noise. They released several 7"s and embarked on a few brief tours before Blanck left the group and was replaced by Aaron Warren. In 1999 the band moved to New York City and began to experiment with their sound, with Warren and the brothers incorporating more pedals into their setup and slowly leaving their earlier hardcore-leaning style in favor of a more atmospheric. They are currently signed to Paw Tracks. The release of Broken Ear Record in 2005 and Manoman in 2006 saw the band innovating, incorporating elements of Afrobeat and breakbeat into their releases.

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*Lambs Like Fruit [1998]
*Untitled 7" (aka Printed Paper) [2000]
*Semen of the Sun [2000]
*Untitled 10'' [2000]
*Erase Errata / Black Dice Split
*Peace in the Valley / Ball [2001]
*Black Dice & Wolf Eyes - Chimes in Black Water vol. I [2001]
*Cold Hands [2001]
*Beaches And Canyons [2002]
*Black Dice & Wolf Eyes - Chimes in Black Water vol. II [2002]
*Lost Valley EP [2002]
*Black Dice & Wolf Eyes - Chimes in Black Water vol. III [2003]
*Cone Toaster [2003]
*Wastered Ep [2004]
*Creature Comforts [2004]
*Miles of Smiles EP [2004]
*Black Dice & Wolf Eyes - The Lord Helps You [2004]
*Broken Ear Record [2005]
*Smiling Off [2005]
*Manoman [2006]
*Load Blown [2007]
*Roll Up 12'' EP (Paw Tracks) [2007]


Black Dice - Kokomo, Live in Session for BBC Collective

Ulan Bator

Tal como se piensa al respecto del incremento en los sonidos Post Rock a visto un criterio procreado a la tenaz inversión de núcleos auditivos, que irrumpen sus estructuras suaves, con ruido y potencia, esto ve en una suerte de distancia extensa con que el tiempo compone como pequeños detalles mermados de tanto volumen sónico, y se conjugan para informar la nueva era dentro de un cuadro de agua, biología de las hondas, organismos en constante comunicación y los segundos, los instantes de un segundo en el que la sorpresa mueve entornos para tí, mi Paula.

As Post Rock thinks with regard to the increase about the sounds to seen a criterion procreated to the tenacious investment of auditory cores, which irrumpen his soft structures, with noise and power, this sees in a luck of extensive distance with which the time composes as small details reduced of so much sonic volume, and they conjugate to report the new age inside a water picture, biology of the slings, organisms in constant communication and the second ones, the instants of a second in which the surprise moves environments for you, my Paula.

[MICHAEL GIRA - YOUNG GOD RECORDS]
"ABOUT EGO:ECHO"
"Overall structures are fairly simple just a couple chords apiece.
Where it all happens is in the interaction of the instruments.
Their respective playing is loop-centric,
o narrative thrust proceeds from phase relations
shifting in the course of a given song."
One summer, in the midst of a debilitating heat-wave, Ulan Bator and I (complete strangers to each other at the time) locked ourselves up in a tiny recording studio in a village just north of Florence, Italy, for 18 hours a day for three weeks. We got to know each other pretty quickly! Of course I'd heard demos of the material that eventually became the songs on this recording, and I'd heard (and been a fan of) their earlier records, but as we started to work it became obvious to everyone that we had to be open to anything, to be willing to start from scratch in some cases - just throw everything out the window and make something happen right now if we were going to rise to the potential of the moment. So, much (though certainly not all) of this music was written and/or (re)arranged on the spot, as we worked, under increasingly intense pressure. Adrenaline, stress, heat, chaos, and panic, combined with the lanuage barrier (they're French, the engineer was Italian), forced us into places we never expected to end up in, which to me, was incredibly elating. In some cases the basis for the song started with just a groove, or an electronic sound, or a vocal idea, or an accidental noise, and was eventually wrestled into the final version you'll hear on this CD (though other songs are re-arranged versions of material they'd previously worked out). To watch them play, cramped up in the miniscule (about 8' x 12', as I recall) recording booth - bass, drums, guitar and amps included - strangling the groove out of their instruments with completely uncynical and unselfconscious commitment (and this from unrepentant, intellectual "art rockers" - a breed I usually find to be pretty anemic, at best, and merely clever, or "hip", at worst), was a joy I'll never forget. Their musicality and their dedication to making something powerful and clear out of whatever raw materials were at their disposal at the time ( sometimes a grand piano, for instance, or other times a piece of looped digital feedback), coupled with their immense knowledge and enthusiasm for the music they love that's gone before them - from the Beatles and Beach Boys to New York No Wave to Krautrock to experimental electronic music - combined to make this, I think, a great "experimental rock" record - or whatever genre you want to call it. To me personally, it's one of the most rewarding records in which I've ever been involved, and it's an honor to be able to release it on Young God Records. I think if you listen to it with even a fraction of the pure enthusiasm of its intent, you'll find much to enjoy here. As for the lyrics being sung in French: Tough luck, they are French.

Descarga:
-Ulan Bator [1995]
-Ego: Echo [2000]
-Nouvel air [2003] (part1/part2)
-Rodeo Massacre [2005]










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