Blank Dogs - On Two Sides [2008]

Blank Dogs Interview :

Flying under the radar for most of 2007, Blank Dogs went relatively unnoticed, even though Mr. Blank Dog was releasing material at an astoundingly rapid pace, which set the bar higher for what defines a prolific songwriter. But that period didn’t last for long as people began to detect the immense talent in the bedroom rock of Blank Dogs and embrace the mystery. Bloggers hurriedly slotted Blank Dogs into their year-end best of lists, while others are just starting to rave about the band now. The likeability of the band is immediate. Washes of synth fuzz, strident guitars, indifferent vocals and undeniably catchy bass lines, Mr. Blank Dog fuses these elements into haunting, atmospheric songs. He has an innate ability to write psych rock melodies with pop touches that fixate listeners for days. Though he is releasing material at a daring speed, he consistently delivers quality, perspective-changing songs. He shows no signs of stopping now as 12 releases are planned for this year alone.

You are extremely prolific with recording and releasing material. Would you tell me about your recording process, and how you choose which labels and forms to release your music through?

I record from home. I just write some melodies and record them. I get a bit perfectionist when it comes down to mixing and adding effects, but they tend to wash out into some blur. I guess that's a process? As far as labels, mainly I like to work with people whose prior output is stuff I like a lot, but I also like to help people starting up labels too. As far as format, I think vinyl is the best way to listen to music. CDs have no intrinsic value, it's just data. Also, it seems like they just fall out of magazines whenever you pick them up, these days. Giveaway junk. It cheapens the music, in my opinion. Besides, it all winds up on SoulSeek anyway, that's why I have everything that's already out downloadable from the website. Cassettes are cheap and easy for people who don't have enough money to start a label but love music, that's why I've agreed to do a bunch. They also require active listening instead of clicking on a link. Some people just prefer the analog format too.

source

On Two Sides [2008]

Blank Dogs - Scenes From A New Town

The Legendary Pink Dots - Plutonium Blonde [2008]

The Legendary Pink Dots formed in August 1980 in London. In 1984 the band transplanted itself to Amsterdam which led to a shift in the original lineup, the original bassist Roland Callaway leaving at this time.

The core members of the group are vocalist/songwriter/keyboardist Edward Ka-Spel and keyboardist Phil Knight. Many others have passed through the group over the years. As of 2007 the group is comprised of:

* Edward Ka-Spel - vocals, keyboards, songwriter
* Phil Knight (a.k.a. The Silverman) - keyboards, electronics
* Martijn de Kleer - guitars
* Niels van Hoorn (a.k.a. Niels Van Hoornblower) - saxophones, clarinets, flutes, MIDI wind controller
* Raymond Steeg - live sound engineer

The story behind the band's name is a source of speculation because Edward has given multiple explanations behind its origins. The most plausible and common explanation traces back to the mysterious pink dots on certain keys of the bands main recording studio piano named "Osbert", the dots that can be found at either end of the keys do not make any particular chord or scale pattern and the reason for them remains unknown to this day. The piano itself is still owned by one of the founding band members April White, and can be found at her home recording studio in Cambridgeshire.

Their music touches on elements of neo-psychedelia, ambient music, electronic music, tape music, industrial, psych folk, synth-pop and goth rock, with a distinctly experimental/avant-garde bent; their sound has evolved over time and remains distinctive, making it difficult to place the group into a concise style or genre. The groups overall sound combined with Ka-Spel's distinct lyrics and singing have earned comparisons to Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett; the group has also been compared to classics Seventies deranged bands as Can , Faust, Brainticket, Magma or Neu! (whose "Super" they covered on the 1999 tribute album "A Homage to NEU!").

wiki.

Plutonium Blonde [2008]

The Legendary Pink Dots - M'era Luna 2008

Ignatz - III [2008]

With his third full album ‘III’, Bram Devens alias Ignatz, has once again surpassed himself.

In his usual brain-melting futuristic blues folk psych, he’s calling the ghosts of Bukka White, Sleepy John Estes and Robert Pete Williams, as seen by a adolescent Lou Reed.

‘III’ suggests a fictional, unclear and vague story about the deaths of musical genres. It’s breath cold, raw made of carbon and gas. The smell of a wet dog or a badly dried towel. The musical assiociations are reduced to a minimum, unless they contribute to the fictional line, where the tragic is enclosed in the crackling, atonal and repetitive melodies.

This album breathes a more sentimental atmosphere than it’s predecessors by Ignatz’ wailing voice, not unlike Skip James. A tormented soul that after the last song is over; liberates the listener from a personal journey and leaves him dazzled. ‘III’ projects the times of the Alaskan Klondike gold rush and the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog to the modern times, dominatd by technology. So, this album bears testimony to a sincere melancholy that popmusic these days hasn’t know in a while.

Ignatz forces us to look at the pure essence of his music: to translate raw emotion into sound and to reach an essential beauty.

text by K. Berckmans

www.ignatz.be

III [2008]

Ignatz: The Water

Wondrous Horse - Cavallo Meraviglioso [2008]

Para distinguir la real naturaleza de los elementos que Wondrous Horse presenta en vías del trayecto recorrido dentro de las atmósferas llenas de implementos que se interponen en una danza sonora con la propiedad de traer consigo diversidad en los detalles impresos del unisono, folk de la tierra bajo el eclipse de sol, palabras de espíritu errante, ritmos y rituales minimalistas que evocan desafíos importantes de la conciencia sin prejuicios, y, paralelos los pies del usuario a los del congelador en torno al perfecto ciclo orgánico residido, se alejan por diferentes estados de vigilia bajo el efecto narcótico que representa la voz mágica invitándolo a frenar su galope y disfrutar del etéreo dilatado de imágenes de su bosque.

Welcome one and all to the world of Wondrous Horse! Cavallo Meraviglisio is the debut offering of the transatlantic (Italy/U.S.) duo of Vanessa Rossetto (Pulga, The Mighty Acts of God, etc.) and Salvatore Borrelli ((etre) & Harps of Fuchsia Kalmia). These two musicians continue to evolve in fascinating ways, and the sounds to be found on Cavallo Meravigliso may come as a surprise to some, which makes it all the more exciting to hear.

An avant folk tour de force combining elements of electroacoustic music, glitch and many other experimental forms, Cavallo Meraviglisio gallops upon the scene assured and ready. Performing with an arsenal of instrumentation at the ready (violin, viola, balalaika, theremin, guitar, dulcetina, concertina, autoharp, bells, xylophone, voice, baritone guitar, tablas, darbukas, turkish saz, xylophone, esraj, dulcimer, resonant ukulele, celtic "droned" harp, banjo, kalimba, shruti box, irish bouzouki, lap steel guitar, toys, & drum machine since you asked) the duo have crafted a recording that successfully combines the myriad of influences of its creators into an organic and unique whole.

It takes a wondrous horse such as this to take the intelligent listener on a trip through such a unique and appealing sonic journey, so hop on and ride away today!

Special Guest on “Questi Orizzonti Scomparsi”: Valerio Cosi

museumfire

Cavallo Meraviglioso [2008] (part1/part2)

E N J O Y !

Los Campesinos! - We Are Beautiful We Are Doomed [2008]

It's perhaps testament to the rich creative vein of form Los Campesinos! find themselves in. Bolstered by a growing army of devoted fans and a barrage of successful gigs, they're back - barely eight months since the release of the goosebump-donator of a debut, ...Hold On Now, Youngster.

For those yet unfamiliar with Los Campesinos!, the Cardiff-based seven-piece's cocktail of synths, violins and itchy guitars leap from the speakers to create indie jubilance, and near-perfect pop songs. No refined coyness here - these rascals are face-slappingly brazen.

Ways To Make It Through The Wall gets WAB, WAD out of the blocks with typical breakneck speed, with a tsunami of instruments, voices and melodies vying for position.

The opening plaudits however all belong to Miserabilia, which features beautiful, addictive guitar melodies, driven by an unrelenting, pounding synth line. The songs centrepiece is built around the most spine-tinglingly amazing violin outburst since before violins were even cool. Fact.

It's a fact almost upended by the arrival of the title track, where piercing, scything, racing strings punctuate gritty guitars and glittering glockenspiels. And while we're on the subject of violins, in a recent interview, Tom Campesinos! remarked "I think my favourite [song] is You'll Need Those Fingers For Crossing because it's got a great violin part" - he's not wrong; it's heart-warmingly beautiful.

source

We Are Beautiful We Are Doomed [2008]

'Knee Deep at ATP' by Los Campesinos! on QTV

Of Montreal - Skeletal Lamping + Id Engager EP [2008]

Kevin Barnes is a married white man whose alter ego is a black transsexual named Georgie Fruit. Transformations come easily to the Of Montreal frontman: Over the past 11 years, he's seamlessly morphed from low-fi indie rocker to quirky prog-pop star, and now on Skeletal Lamping he's a glam-funk warrior, drenched in the sounds and sexuality of Prince, Freddie Mercury and Ziggy Stardust-era David Bowie. ("We can do it soft-core if you want/But you should know that I go both ways," he trills on "For Our Elegant Caste.") A soulful romp through psychedelic melodies and sprawling noise-scapes, Skeletal is also a whimsical, Girl Talk-style pastiche, with 15 tracks that consist of a multitude of song fragments. The nine-part "Beware Our Nubile Miscreants" opens with peaceful strings before jolting into a tuneless vamp, then snapping into an echo-soaked wail. And Barnes' lyrics are just as seductively schizophrenic: "I want to ... make you paranoid and say the sweetest things," he sings on "Gallery Piece." And somewhere in the glorious friction between these contradictions, he's in ecstasy.

rollingstone

Skeletal Lamping [2008]

Id Engager EP [2008]

of Montreal - "Suffer for Fashion" Polyvinyl Records

Greg Weeks - The Hive [2008]

To purchase any past or present Greg Weeks or related titles please venture to Greg's Language of Stone label site: www.languageofstone.com


For European booking please contact: Isla at Toutpartout (isla@toutpartout.be)


Returning visitors may have noticed the profile makeover (har har). My new pic is the cover panel from my forthcoming record "The Hive." The record will find release in Europe on Wichita in late October (with a month long support tour in November) and will become available here in North America in February on Language of Stone.


Joining me on tour in November will be Festival, who, along with Wooly Mar, will make up my touring band. Excitement abounds!


Please take a moment to check out the online residence of the record label I run, Language of Stone. If you like my stuff there's a very strong chance you will like a lot of the artists I release. I should also mention that all items in my back catalog are available for purchase there: www.languageofstone.com


All prior band/artist information is now irrelevent. You need only know this:

1. Stones give and receive energy.
2. The great Giza pyramid was really a power plant.
3. Liver stones are occluding your bile ducts.
4. Greg Weeks is also an Esper, and a Grass, and a The Valerie Project, and a La Secta.

myspace

The Hive [2008]

Made - Greg Weeks

Castanets - City of Refuge [2008]

‘The result of three weeks alone in a Nevada desert motel room, City of Refuge, Castanets‘ fourth full-length for Asthmatic Kitty, blazed into the mind of Ray Raposa with the rising sun. The idea came the morning after an overnight drive with tour companions from Oakland, CA, to Las Vegas, NV; waking in the back seat to a Nevada gas station dawn, Raposa said “here,” and as the drive progressed, so did his conviction that this was where he would record the next Castanets album.


He sought and found solitude in a mom and pop motel in Overton, NV - unincorporated, two bars, no stoplight, home of The Lost City Museum - on the edge of Valley of Fire State Park (Moapa Valley to the indigenous peoples), an hour northeast of the surreal derangement of Vegas. Far from distractions and infused with the sense of isolation explored by the songs he’d written for the album, it proved the optimal backdrop.

source

City of Refuge [2008]

"A Song Is Not the Song of the World" from album "First Light's Freeze".

Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions - Bavarian Fruit Bread [2001]

Que la sangre purpura se derrame sobre la ciudad, es hora de caminar junto a los sentidos y luego:

Pasajes submarinos interactuando con la realidad de los vientos en la tormenta, sombrio sombrero de nubes que acompañan su voz triste, dilatandose sobre los campos verdes, el cuerpo caen sobre la tremenda sensación de libertad que lo acompaña en todo el recorrido, duración de este disco, hasta llegar a la cima nevada sobre la pura y basta planicie del cielo, acercate al vuelo, sigue comfrontando esperiencias gratas y camufla de plumas tu cuerpo, la conciencia se pasa al lado del cosmos como una inmensa tela del la cual solo un pequeño lugar a usted le pertenece, disfrutela.

Hope Sandoval (born 1966) is an American singer-songwriter who was lead singer for Mazzy Star and later Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions.

Hope formed The Warm Inventions and released their first (and thus far only album) called “Bavarian Fruit Bread”, in 2001. This album sounds, again, little different in terms of theme, voice, and instrumentation than that of her work with Mazzy Star. However, with a larger band behind her, and more time under her creative belt, Hope’s voice has matured on these songs.

Subsequently, The Warm Inventions released three EP’s but received very little commercial success, no video on MTV, and very little radio play. Nonetheless, the band’s efforts were appreciated by her solid fan base.

www.last.fm

Bavarian Fruit Bread [2001] (part1/part2)

Suzanne

Asyd Vinyl - A Tribute to Syd Barrett [2000]

T r a c k l i s t :

01. Greg Weeks - Baby Lemonade
02. Paloma - See Emily Play
03. Brother JT - Flaming
04. Stone Breath - Golden Hair
05. Electroscope - Rats
06. The Tables - Arnold Layne
07. The Iditarod - Long Gone
08. Simeon / Silver Apples - Scarecrow
09. Havanarama - Tia Gigolo
10. Black Bone Chapel - Swan Lee
11. Reynols - Interstellar Overdrive
12. Drunk - Golden Hair
13. The Spectral Light & Moonshine Firefly Snakeoil Jamboree - Dark Globe
14. Dipsomaniacs - If it's in You
15. Ring - Late Night
16. Tinsel - No Good Trying
17. Watersnake - Octopus
18. Drekka - It is Obvious
19. Skobot Bzzzz - Effervescing Elephant


Download : (part1/part2) N e w L i n k !


SYD BARRETT FIRST TRIP

Silver Apples - Silver Apples & Contact [1994]

Contrasting the flowery psychedelic rock music of the late-1960s, the new york city-based Silver Apples created an avant-garde sound based on little more than a homemade synthesizer (named the Simeon after their lead singer - Simeon) and an extensive drumkit, originally played by Dan Taylor. They reformed in the 1990s, making new records and playing live again.

Silver Apples were one of the first groups to employ electronic music techniques extensively within a rock idiom, and their minimalistic style, with its pulsing, driving beat and frequently discordant modality, anticipated not only the experimental electronic music and krautrock of the 1970s, but underground dance music and indie rock of the 1990s as well.

Grupo formado en Nueva York en 1967 y compuesto por el percusionista Danny Taylor y primera voz Simeón , una extraña figura que desempeñó también un instrumento denominado el Simeón, presente en su primer trabajo homónimo en el año 1968. Este instrumento consistió en «nueve osciladores de audio y ochenta y seis controles manuales… Los bajos y los ritmos osciladores se tocan con las manos, los codos y las rodillas y los osciladores están bajo tocado con los pies «. A pesar de ser un registro totalmente novedoso - un ingenioso cacofonía de pitidos, zumbidos y tiempos - no tiene buena crítica y con muy malas ventas.

http://www.lastfm.es/music/Silver+Apples

Silver Apples & Contact [1994] (part1/part2)

Silver Apples - Oscillations

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

Suki Ewers - Kind of Hazy [2008]

Suki Ewers has spent her career perfecting a glorious, countrified strand of dream-pop as part of bands Mazzy Star, Opal and Anemone, and this new Kramer-produced solo outing is comparable with the slowcore loveliness of Low, the stargazing Nashville sounds of Cortney Tidwell, and most obviously, the opiated balladry of former bandmate Hope Sandoval, particularly on the brilliant opener 'Time After Time'. The songwriting and production are in perfect harmony, sounding like a pedal steel-toting Velvet Underground on 'All Day Long', whilst spouting blasts of echoing guitar distortion and searing synthesizer on 'This Must Be Heaven'. Sidestepping the dream-pop pitfalls, Ewers never hides her songs - or for that matter her vocals - behind the array of studio techniques and effects that help shape this album, and Kind Of Hazy resounds far more clearly than its title might have you believe.

boomkat

Kind of Hazy [2008]

"Know What You're Saying" Suki Ewers

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

Arborea - Forewarned [2008]

This self titled collection is the second release for Arborea. Hailing from Maine, the duo of Buck and Shanti Curran (on vocals, guitars, banjos, percussion) are joined on two numbers by Helena Espvall of Espers on cello. Here they conjure up a musical offering that is equal parts Appalachian music, traditional English folk music, and contemporary psychedelic folk with experimental touches creating a sound that stands out as unique while touching upon something that feels as ancient as the urge to create music.

Rare is the record that takes the listener to fields both verdant and desolate in the same journey as this release does, and it does so in a way that makes both equally powerful and inviting. The duo possess an alchemy that makes their collaboration feel as natural as the trees from which their names comes from.

Following upon the success of their debut effort Wayfaring Summer, Arborea have outdone themselves with this release, a recording that establishes them as masters of their craft. This is a group you will be hearing from for years to come.

“Arborea creates timeless music, haunted by deep shadows. Their songs are bathed in shimmering harmonics, spectral slide, and positively spooky banjo. The songs also evoke a kind of mysterious quality, they seem to touch a place in your soul that instinctively understands.”


– Dirty Linen Magazine (from a review of Wayfaring Summer)



DISCOGRAPHY:

Wayfaring Summer (Summer Street Records 2006)

www.museumfire.com

Forewarned [2008]

wake up little sparrow - arborea (Devendra Banhart cover)

Helena Espvall - Nimis & Arx [2006]

A split release with Pax Recordings.

The debut solo release from Helena Espvall, cellist of Espers. Her past and present collaborators include such diverse figures as Fursaxa, Oluyemi Thomas, Sharron Kraus, From Quagmire, Lukas Ligeti, Samara Lubelski, Eugene Chadbourne, Pauline Oliveros, Scorces, Katt Hernandez and many others.

With production and electronics provided by sonic maverick
George Korein of Infidel?/Castro!, "Nimis & Arx" is a recording of translucid wonder. Utilizing cello, guitar, recorder, voice and electronics, Espvall has delivered a CD which touches on aspects of all the multi-faceted elements of her musical journey to date while creating a vocabulary in a voice which is uniquely hers.


BIO:

Having played guitar and cello in several rock bands (as well as performing in a silent movie orchestra, an Arabian Music ensemble and free improvised music), Swedish-born multi-instrumentalist Helena Espvall moved to Philadelphia in the year 2000. Besides performing with Espers, Helena performs with the Amnesiac Music & Dance ensemble and collaborates with many others in the psychedelic folk and free improvisation world.

Helena has performed several times at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, twice at the High Zero Festival of improvised music in Baltimore, at the Improvised and Otherwise Festival in Brooklyn, at the Big Sur experimental festival in California and at Terrastock 2006 in Providence, RI among others.



SELECT DISCOGRAPHY:

Espers II by Espers (drag city 310) 2006
Weed Tree by Espers (locust 73) 2005
Habitats In The Wound by From Quagmire (vhf 88) 2005
Before The Beginning by Oluyemi Thomas (recorded 011) 2003



“In the depth of a swelling seashell, hear the voice of ancient Rose Gala.
The current here is very numb, not calm but a very quiet subsequence.
We meet there again and again throughout this Espvall's kindle.
Far over sombrous Zoroastrian mount how you recognize your limen
to get back there?
Now listen.”

Masaki Batoh / Ghost 12 June 2006 Tokyo
www.museumfire.com

Nimis & Arx [2006]

Helena Espvall - Live @ Haunted Cream Egg I

Erik Amlee: Afternoon Dream [2006]

A split release with Mandragora Records.

Afternoon Dream is the debut solo CD release of Paradise Camp 23 director Erik Amlee. His previous solo sitar cd-r releases have garnered much acclaim in many quarters. Brad Rose of Foxy Digitalis declared “Amlee's skill is apparent. This piece delicately unfolds like a linear dream about the sun's daily movement in the sky.
With little more than a hint of delay to push the movement along, Amlee's playing is like a slow waltz at the moment the last rays of dusk are extinguished. It is simple, beautiful, and timeless.”

On this release Amlee adds acoustic guitar to the proceedings, to wonderful effect. Afternoon Dream is a masterful combination of trance inducing solo sitar work and pellucid acoustic guitar pieces, with a subversive loop or two thrown in to ensure that listeners don’t merely
drift away completely into a blissful sonic netherworld.


BIO:

A figure in the underground experimental psychedelic music scene since the Eighties, Erik Amlee has performed in a variety of groups and settings exploring the outer fringes of sonic possibilities. Last year the release of his two solo sitar cd-rs brought him to the attention of a whole new group
of listeners.

Besides running the Mandragora imprint, Amlee is also responsible for Weirdsville web radio – bringing ten channels of adventurous sounds for your listening pleasure.


PARTIAL DISCOGRAPHY:

Sitar Vol. 2 - Erik Amlee (2006)
Sitar - Erik Amlee (2005)
The Grassy Knoll - Paradise Camp 23 (2005)
Solitaire - Paradise Camp 23 (2002)
Chaotika - Voodoo Mechanics (1997)
The Acid King - Crackhouse (1990)

All Releases on Mandragora.

museumfire

Erik Amlee: Afternoon Dream [2006]

Erik Amlee: Afternoon Dream

Sam Shalabi: On Hashish / Osama / Eid [2001 - 2003 - 2008]

Sam Shalabi

Sam Shalabi is a central node in Montreal’s free improv scene. One cannot count the many projects he is a part of. He is best known as a founding member of Shalabi Effect, who have recorded three albums on Alien8 Recordings which have earned the band extremely good response from critics and music enthusiasts alike. Apart from Shalabi Effect, he is also part of a number of bands, among which Detention, Molasses, Po, ‘Gypt Gore, and a trio with David Kristian and Alexandre St-Onge. He is also known for three solo albums: “Luteness” (Squint Fucker Press, deleted), “On Hashish” (Alien8 Recordings), and of course “Osama”, his investigation of arabophobia in a ‘post-9-11 world’. His style ranges from freeform psychedelic rock to the most oddball abstract performance. Although mostly known as a guitarist, the highly versatile Shalabi also performs on oud and a variety of other instruments.

EID CD

Sam Shalabi’s third solo outing for Alien8, Eid, was written and conceived in Cairo, Egypt in 2006 while Shalabi was living there and further realized in Montreal and Vancouver during the first half of 2007. The album is a result of two separate ideas that slowly coalesced over a couple of years. The first was Shalabi’s idea of composing songs for singers he knew and enjoyed. The second idea was that of creating a ‘modern Arabic pop’ record.

It was during the time that Shalabi was living in Cairo he came to the realization that Arabic pop music was much more wild, wide and weird than he had imagined and this also had a huge influence on this recording. Over time Shalabi became less interested in trying to make pop songs and more interested in allowing the material to take it’s own shape.

Upon listening to Eid it becomes clear how Shalabi was influenced by the wide breadth of Arabic pop music: each piece is stylistically its own and allowed to take its own shape. The recording opens with a beautifully played piece of Shalabi’s solo oud playing, that gives one the impression they are in store for a gentle acoustic journey. Gears shift drastically with the follow up track, Jessica Simpson, which can also be considered one of the recordings most interesting and unusual selections. Guest vocalist Radwon Moumneh does an excellent job delivering his vocals over repetitious percussion; then a totally unexpected guitar hero style solo slips in out of nowhere. Sam Shalabi enlists the help of far too many guests to list here, although along the standout contributions is that of singer/songwriter Lhasa de Sela who has a thriving solo career and has collaborated with the likes of the Tindersticks and Nick Cave. Constellation Records recording artist Elizabeth Anka Vajajick sings on Billy the Kid and Katie Moore is absolutely stunning on Billy the Kid pt II.

This will mark our ninth release with Shalabi, not including his efforts in various projects as a guest or studio musician.

Release date: January 22, 2008

Label: Alien8 Recordings

Eid [2008]

Osama [2003]

On Hashish [2001]

dora bleu w/ sam shalabi & brooke crouser, brussels 2008

Shalabi Effect

If only they were detonating atmospheric walls that between cross his sound by means of two opposite poles protected by the history of the humanity, it is when the fingerprint of the time leaves brands where to advance and to continue, the tonality of the wood that with work appears with beauty emerges, if only you were finding the way of moving away to listen, the echo that supports the natural secrets of the universe returns to be authentic and democratic, is the shade in the roof, it is the flight again, but she undresses the woman at a height of the stellar hills captivates the sense as these auditory instants to remember, gives drafts for your home(fireplace) subjective construction and jumps in the pasture or mud for mutant your feet in wind, wind that escapes without address trying to be God, to have the value and the force of giving it what him belongs, absolutely everything what exists inside the small room of the life, now your she writes, now I am an entity that supports experiments, Shalabi sounds, for routes of the didactic light.

Si tan solo se detonaran paredes atmosféricas que entre cruzan su sonido por medio de dos polos opuestos resguardados por la historia de la humanidad, es cuando la huella del tiempo deja marcas por donde avanzar y seguir, la tonalidad de la madera que con trabajo se muestra con belleza emerge, si tan solo usted encontrara la manera de alejarse para escuchar, el eco que mantiene los secretos naturales del universo vuelve a ser autentico y democrático, es la sombra en el techo, es el vuelo otra vez, pero desnuda la mujer a la altura de los cerros estelares cautiva el sentido al igual que estos instantes auditivos para recordar, da giros por tu hogar construcción subjetiva y salta en el pasto o barro para trasformar tus pies en viento, viento que se escapa sin dirección pretendiendo ser Dios, para tener el valor y la fuerza de darle a ella lo que le pertenece, absolutamente todo lo que existe dentro de la pequeña habitación de la vida, ahora tu escribe, ahora soy un ente que mantiene experimentos, suena Shalabi, por vías de la luz didáctica.

Originally slated for release as the flip side of a split cd/lp with godspeed you black emperor! entitled Aural Florida, this release just kept growing and growing. Now finally finished and ready to go, the Shalabi Effect present their debut with a staggering 131 minute psychedelic blow out!

On this debut double CD somewhere in the vicinity of forty instruments have made their way onto the recordings. It is very difficult to describe Shalabi Effect, because the sound is varied and changing so frequently, but we can definitely trace influences of AMM, Organum, and Pink Floyd, and psychedelic music. In terms of Psych, we are talking about the brand perfected by the likes of Acid Mothers Temple, No Neck Blues Band and Ghost, as well as more pioneering projects such as Amon Duul, Popul Vuh and the Taj Mahal Travellers.

Anthony Seck, Sam Shalabi, Alexandre St-Onge and Will Eizlini are joined by various guests, including members of Godspeed You Black Emperor! and Strawberry, filling in on violin, vocals, Tibetan bowls and sax. Together they blend middle eastern influenced folk with spacey electronics and really beautiful trippy guitars. The overall experience is incredible; sounds and styles change drastically and seamlessly, bringing you to a new place with each new movement. Shalabi Effect went all out, spending nearly a month in the studio recordings and mastering on 1/2 tape to capture the warmth of the music. We thought they were kidding when they said they were setting out to create the ultimate drug record. Now we know that they were serious. The first of the two discs opens up with a beautiful display of early electronic drones, Muslimgauze styled tablas, Oud, guitar, scraped metal and bowed instruments. The sound is so incredibly rich and organic, you could swear this was recorded somewhere beautiful outdoors.

Aside from the Shalabi Effect, Sam Shalabi either anchors or at least plays in the following projects: a trio with David Kristian and Alexandre St-Onge, and more… Shalabi’s free jazz duo Detention performed at this years Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville and he immediately returned to Montreal the following day to perform with Kevin Drumm and Pillow, as member of Molasses. Anthony is the other driving force in the project and is a film maker and video producer.

Shalabi Effect are one of the most important projects in the Montreal underground for the sole reason that it is Sam Shalabi’s main project. During the last few years Alien8 Recordings have been setting up challenging evenings of live music at a loft space run by GYBE!, the Hotel 2 Tango, as well as at other spaces. During that time only David Kristian comes close to having played in as many live scenarios as Sam Shalabi. We have had Shalabi Effect perform with the likes of Aube, Kevin Drumm, Pillow, Fly Pan Am, Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Government Alpha, David Kristian, Sabir Mateen, Loren Mazzacane Connors, M.S.B.R., No Neck Blues Band, Pillow, Royal Trux and Martin Tétreault. Occasionally Shalabi will even book his own shows, including gigs with Tim Berne and Brandon Labelle. We are very happy to finally be able to share the music of the Shalabi Effect with people outside of the Montreal underground.

www.alien8recordings.com

Unfortunately [2005]

Pink Abyss [2004]

The Trial of St-Orange [2002]

Shalabi Effect [2000] (part1/part2)

Shalabi Effect - On the Bowery