★Not Not Fun Records
On Patrol
THE WIRE'S BEST OF 2010! CD edition "If a tree falls in a forest and no one's around, shit still gets crushed. If Cameron Stallones holes up solo-style in a suburban cave and wah-riffs over canned bongos for five straight months, double LPs still get dropped. These are basic life laws. The latest from Mr. Araw is easily his least compromising audio self-portrait to date. Three minute rhythm sketches are stretched into ten minute loop pedal odysseys. Organ solos last for entire vinyl sides.…
The Crown Center
West coast ghost squad stalk back into the deadlights w/ a fresh vinyl single. Pure nightprowler music: quaking bass, grime-jazz keys, dusty drums, witch choirs floating through the smog & into sleeping homes w/ the power lines cut. The sound of crime to come. The dreamer's dream turned dark. Ltd to 345
Mummy Fingers
T TRANCE's latest acid circus. This sparkling C30 slipslides through all his manic dual-keys modes (one hand mans the organ, the other dances up & down a wah-fucked Casio), accented w/ the occasional mushroom starchild sing-songing vocals. Ltd to 120
Hyperion
Stuttery motorik drum machinations, Stereolab basslines, hypno keyboard spirals, melodic fogs that float up then dissipate, a pleasingly blurry production vibe.
Ascension
Following a slew of small-scale tape and CD-R releases, High Wolf release a five-track official debut album for Not Not Fun with mastering duties performed by Yellow Swan, Pete Swanson. Working with loops, trance-inducing effects fog and phantom rainforest percussion, this French artist spools out nagging swirls of colourful psychedelia and tribal drone fudge. 'Meeting Of The Three Seas' sounds like an alien campfire jam, summoning up tribal beats, head-spinning drone noise and a spindl…
Dream
This review for Wet Hair’s excellent debut full-length is dedicated to the late Barry Goldwater, five-term U.S. Senator. In 1984, Senator Goldwater wrote the Cable Franchise Policy and Communications Act, allowing local governments to require public, educational, and government access channels on television sets in their area. This act also wiped said local government’s hands clean of whatever content these channels would feature. Because of this act, because of Barry Goldwater, many a ni…
Platoon
Platoon marks the welcome return of Portland-dwelling psych explorers Magic Lantern, a band who count Sun Araw's Cameron Stallones amongst their number. Recorded and mixed by Best Coast member and Pocahaunted collaborator, Bobb Bruno, Platoon perfectly captures this band's distinctive approach to experimental, lo-fi rock, hurtling through exotic, dusty sounding organ passages and ravaged wah-wah sequences. The stoner-dub grooves of 'Moon Lagoon Platoon' provide an early highlight, whil…
Bringin\' The Heat
Companion cassingle to the Smokin' 7 inch (NNF177) finds Ettinger out on his own, sans The Heat, but even without back-up he still brings it. "Bringin' The Heat" is a killer coast guard coda, searchlights fanning out, SWAT Team guitar licks, hypnotized Kevlar keyboard prisms, delicate synth wah surf spray misting up your fuschia Oakleys. It's make-it-or-break-it time; be a pro. The other song on here is "Cancer," which washes over the closing credits as the cast and info scroll down and p…
Psychic
Like Yeah Yeah Yeahs undergoing a psychotic episode, or Pocahaunted possessed by the spirit of James Brown, Vibes present four tracks of discombobulated funk and wild, outsider punk on this four song long single. The early, chaotic free-associations of Magik Markers would be a good point of reference too, but these guys place more emphasis on low-down bass grooves wah-wah pedal mutations. The cover shots suggest the band are a bit of a spectacle in a live setting, and the rough, brain-a…
S/T
All things must come to pass, if you love something set it free, it’s better to burn out than fade away, blah blah blah. No platitude can mask the permanent bummer of a favorite band breaking up in their prime, and such is the case with Iowa City’s most untamed civic treasure, feral-psych foursome Raccoo-oo-oon, who decided to dissolve this year after nearly half a decade of radical and galvanizing activity (tapes, tours, t-shirts, etc). Fortunately they’re generous sorts, so their parting gift …
My Estrogeneration
Not Not Fun records are knocking out a vinyl compilation in celebration of the diversity of women artists currently working within the US underground. It's cleverly entitled 'My Estrogeneration' and features unreleased and/or rare tracks from Zola Jesus, Pocahaunted, Tickley Feather, Inca Ore, Valet, Talk Normal, Topaz Rags, Islaja and a bunch of others. The track listing is a little tricky to make out so I'm not entirely sure which track is which but certain things are obvious to me because I l…
Psychic Reality/ LA Vampires
Restocked, few available "The first side of this fun split LP is from San Francisco's Leyna Noel, aka Psychic Reality, whose grit-spewing no-fi electronics and spluttering drum machine ditties accompany weird and heavily distorted songs. Noel may be somewhat out of tune and fairly primitive with her arrangements (to say the least) but there's something massively enjoyable about her unusual brand of wailing pop psychosis. LA Vampires on the other hand, is a new project from Pocahaunted's Amanda B…
Jailhouse Rock
"It's been a while since Scorces sorceress, Jandek collaborator, and Volcanic Tongue branch manager Heather Leigh has ventured out on vinyl under her own name. And it may be a while longer, as Jailhouse Rock is in fact a wax reissue of a long OOP 2006 cassette classic on Michigan crud factory Fag Tapes. It was a fave of ours that year (and every year), so it feels extra celebratory to be able to offer up a freshly remastered (by Pete Swanson) LP edition of the album for global re-appreciation. S…
Capricorn Born Again
Amanda from Pocahaunted joins Robedoor for this first full-length as Topaz Rags, and the album's a real winner, kicking off with 'Darker Sooner' sounding like a Portishead album recorded over the phone. Elsewhere, twisted blues and moaning, haunted house vocals convene for 'Sightings', and 'Wear You Thin' is like a chill-wave night terror. An uneasy listen, but Capricorn Born Again is a druggy, beautiful raincloud of a record that's got appeal beyond the more conventional parameters of the Not N…
Labor Of Love
We're not complaining. Seems like a week can't go by without some new Not Not Fun opus dribbling out from the west coast label, aimed at bleeding our brains of logical thought processes and launching us into galaxies where laws are read backwards and progress is measured in long, untethering tracks of psychedelia muttered through interstellar Ham radios. This week it comes by way of slow-boiled loops and synth warbling that build towards wordless rantings best quantified as the dark prayers mean…
Deceiving Illusion
Great album by this Detroit group. The songs range from sticky amoeba-like free ooze to stuff of some international album Folkways suppressed because it was too fucked up for public consumption. Pretty fantastic sleeve. 500 made.
Scales
*Orange Vinyl* Like a would-be soundtrack to some forgotten Wagnerian saga, Mythical Beast's debut full-length unleashes sonic elements akin to trudging minions in an epic struggle for tonal supremacy. This bloodless battle is for hearts and minds though, and is shot through with majesty and pathos. It's no wonder that a trio commanding this type of simple yet nuanced compositional energy would risk life and limb crossing the New Orleans "security" perimeter one month post-Katrina to rescue thei…
Human Taste
Portland, OR-by-way-of-Michigan garage gang Little Claw first tripped our radar with their self-released Why Not 7 inch, which was/is raw and physical and swingin’ in all the ways you want a 7” to be. Their LA live shows proved even more ripping and charged; we were sold. So we sprung at the offer to enshrine their latest (and best) album, Human Taste, on vinyl for the world’s turntables to adore. Packed with classic, cracked anthems (“Frozen In The Future,” “Colors You Drown”), basement weirdo …
Silver Sea Surfer School
More out-there song sculptures from Oakland resident Eva Saelens, this time with a little added clarity and decipherability: tracks like 'Shine On' really underline the strong compositional instincts lurking beneath the cassette recorder fizz. 'Always Have You' opens the set in stripped down, phantasmagorical, lo-fi lullaby fashion, but the album soon accumulates grit with moments like 'Ruff Ridin' and the distorted, spiralling keys on 'Adventure Of Light', beckoning you down all manner of confu…
Ring Mining
Ring Mining unites a psychedelic dream team comprising Brooklynites Heavy Winged and Portland's Inca Ore. On the first side its down to the epic fudge-filled grooves of Heavy Winged to dominate the horizon, blistering through their hallmark freeform avant-metal with an extra fathom or two of depth supplied by the wandering ambience of Inca Ore's toils. Flipping over, Ms. Ore takes to the mic - and it's as if Heavy Winged suddenly turn into a fully fledged rock combo with an actual lead singer. I…