Gig #104: Of late 38: Moor Mother, Laura Cannell, The Hecks, Boobs of Doom, Carla dal Forno, Norin, Helen Money, Yves Tumor, Grumbling Fur, 0comeups, Thomas Brinkmann, shittyflute, Amoral Avatar, Macula Dog

Moor Mother
Laura Cannell
The Hecks
Boobs of Doom
Carla dal Forno
Norin
Helen Money
Yves Tumor
Grumbling Fur
0comeups
Thomas Brinkmann
shittyflute
Amoral Avatar
Macula Dog

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Moor Mother By The Light
‘Ayewa is a Philadelphia-based artist and community activist who has been a fixture in the city for over a decade. Moor Mother began in 2012 as a solo project, and under the moniker she’s released dozens of EPs on Bandcamp, recasting the protest song as a moving electronic collage. According to her own description of the music, it falls within “blk girl blues” and “project housing bop” to “slaveship punk.” These self-made categories allow Ayewa’s music to be fluid in terms of expression, yet consistently grounded in a sense of history. It is very much influenced by the idiosyncrasies and formal experimentation of Sun Ra, but also aligned with the chaotic joy of Shabazz Palaces.’ — Kevin Lozano

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Laura Cannell Winter Saltings
‘Laura Cannell’s new album Simultaneous Flight Movement is a record of space, lightness, and place. Its 14 tracks were all recorded in one take inside Southwold Lighthouse in Suffolk, and throughout the air and stones of the structure around Cannell’s twin recorders and violin becomes extra instruments. Despite the inherent claustrophobia of the lighthouse structure, Cannell’s music rolls forward both with high emotion and a terrific sense of space, an evocative portrait of souls within a landscape that exists beyond specific place and time.’ — Luke Turner

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The Hecks live at Township
‘The Hecks are adept at not just giving you good vibes, but a lot of flowering character. The songs grow inside you like weeds, sturdy and imperceptible. You’re not grooving on the rhythms so much as on the group’s expert command of drift, repetition, and brevity. The vocals are somewhat nondescript, but imminently seviceable to the music. The intensity is compact, as is the mood, as is the song structure: It’s a car ride to nowhere kind of album. A make weird dances in the abandoned industrial park kind of album. An album burnt out but keenly focused. A good place to be before you’ve obliterated it with infinite context.’ — Willcoma, Tiny Mix Tapes

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Boobs of Doom Liquid Dinosaurs
‘“Liquid Dinosaurs” lumbers on a fabulous hollowed out thrum of slo-mo trap-funk, piles on the doom riffs and makes no attempt to make the two elements fit together, rather the effect is like hearing a battle between soundscapes that only gets resolved by your brain accepting that the oddity WORKS and being able to accept the battle itself as an entirely new genre (let’s call it DANK).’ — Neil Kulkarni, The Wire

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Carla dal Forno What You Gonna Do Now?
‘Carla dal Forno’s breathtaking psych-folk dirge “What You Gonna Do Now?” was one of the highlights and focal points of our recent Halloween mix, its murky melancholy and deeply unsettling spectral beauty perfectly encapsulating in under 4 minutes the vibe we were attempting to convey throughout the mix. But in truth, any song from dal Forno’s stunning debut LP You Know What It’s Like would have done the trick: the record is an intimately enveloping and beautifully dark creeper, eliciting an eerie aching and a sense of general unease that gets under your skin with repeat listens.’ — gorillavsbear.net

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Norin Plötsligt Och Självklart
‘Hannes Norrvide has had a busy year, it has been only six months since the latest album from Lust For Youth was released and since then he has released the debut album of Norin in the shape of February’s “Bakom Planteringen”, he has released his collaborative work with Frederik Valentin under the name Kyo with June’s “Aktuel Musik” LP and the earlier “Potentiel Musik” cassette album. “Reflektera” sees Hannes Norrvide further explore the textures of hazed out underwater acid that he instigated on his debut. On “Reflektera” it is paired with a more aggressive DNA coding, especially the track “Nästan” that closes the B-side, on which washes of static bleed into alarm like synth pulses and the nearly broken beats. Bridging the industrial patterns of his recent tape “Skisser och Idéer Från Frankrigshusene” with the Nautical pulse of his debut.’ — Posh Isolation

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Yves Tumor Broke In
‘Yves Tumor’s debut for the PAN label offers a perfect distillation of everything the label stands for, filling another as-yet-unnamed niche between the eyes of hypermodern styles. It’s an album that takes you from the most beautifully produced earworm one moment, to the depths of sonic experimentation the next – making for easily one of the most impressive and memorable albums of the year. Alongside the likes of Dean Blunt or Klein, Yves Tumor is patently rewiring the conventions of soul music and psychedelia according to his own, twisted schematic and modernist insight, making this album feel vital at a point where conservative sensibilities seem to have permeated the spirit of so many “independently” minded creators.’ — wu uk

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Helen Money Become Zero
‘Helen Money’s Become Zero continues cellist Alison Chesley’s exploration of emotive and intense music. Written after the death of both of her parents, Become Zero amplifies Chesley’s musical ferocity with palpable sadness and striking beauty. Using her extensively manipulated cello, Chesley joins forces once more with drummer Jason Roeder (Sleep, Neurosis), Rachel Grimes (Rachel’s) and collaborator and co-producer Will Thomas (who provides sound effects and samples) on an album that is incredibly personal and visceral.’ — Thrill Jockey

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Grumbling Fur Strange the Friends
‘Grumbling Fur’s talent for stuffing their music with layer upon layer of invention makes not only for difficult generic categorisation, but also calls into question the listener’s perception of every track upon each repeated listen. The qualities which present themselves upon the first few listens to a GF track are often near-entirely obscured after multiple revisits, as the audience’s attention is diverted by any of the countless other constituents of these sensual, tactile instrumentals and explorative lyrical musings.’ — THE LINE OF BEST FIT

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0comeups Go Plug
‘London-based “non music” producer 0comeups’s One Deep, released via New York City’s increasingly abstracting PTP imprint, is an ontology of planes and spheres collapsing into a single point suspended in blind constellation. Atomization means that what one point shares with all other points in a system is also what separates it from them. As One Deep has thoroughly internalized, once we ascend to the next platform, we are merely “On The Roof Texting,” entering our next illusion in transcending the one prior.’ — Nick Henderson, Tiny Mix Tapes

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Thomas Brinkmann PSA
‘Thomas Brinkmann takes his seductive reductionism to the next level. »A 1000 KEYS« is a harsh meditation on the expressive qualities of digital sound production. In translating the timbre of a grande piano into binary codes, thus rebuilding its corpus with 0 and 1s, Brinkmann subverts the sensual qualities of this proto-romantic instrument in a sardonic way. Replacing the musician with a mathematically precise series of frenetic repetition and intriguingly dissonant difference, the result sounds at times like a violent ride through the brains of Schönberg or Webern, drained in amphetamines, at others like Feldman’s ephemeral sketches or Russolo’s futurist outburst.’ — Editions Mego

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shittyflute Katy Perry’s Firework
‘Hello i am Shittyflute, in my channel you will find the shittiest flute covers and some kazoo aswell, i am happy to make your day happier and your ears hurt.’ — shittyflute

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Amoral Avatar AA5
‘Collaborators Leo Abrahams and Chris Vatalaro take guitar tones into new space, music concrete influences worked in as a kind of rhythmic accompaniment to more familiar guitar-focused melodies. Interspersing his drum accents with those made by found objects, Chris Vatalaro has chosen to use these influences for the purposes of combining rhythms and juddering accents with novel textures. Vatalaro has used his time as a session percussionist with other experimental artists like Eno & Hyde and Steve Reich, to work as a useful point of reference on his own work in Amoral Avatar; for Leo Abrahams, this project is a diversion from his last album in 2013, Zero Sum, oriented towards more New Age guitar melodies. The pieces on this new collaborative work sound less finalised, with many of them ending abruptly – lacking the sentimentality of a cadence-based conclusion. Time and effort is instead spent on creating direction and a pointer towards an overall mood through heavily developed introductions.’ — Lottie Brazier

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Macula Dog Smokestack
‘Macula Dog’s most notable precursor is not Devo or The Residents or Pee-wee Herman, even though sonically and/or conceptually they are all closely aligned. Rather, the true progenitor, Typhon to a great cast of monsters, may in fact be the 17th-century Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher. Renowned as a polymath, he also maintained a museum within the Roman College. On display were all manner of curiosities — marine creatures, ancient manuscripts, experimental devices — but perhaps most notable were his catoptric machines, inventions that could create monsters out of men. Relying on mirrors and projections, these devices could superimpose the head of an ass or deform the shape of the face like modeling clay. Kircher writes of “this machine which has rapt everyone in great admiration when they see instead of their natural face, the face of a wolf or a dog or another animal.” That is the experience of Why Do You Look like Your Dog: displacement, deformation, degeneration, devolution.’ — Cynochephalus

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p.s. Hey. ** New Juche, Hi, man. I look forward to the day when the composer/musician is revealable too. I’m chomping at that bit. Yeah, I skipped Halloween ales, but I stocked up on chocolates the day after. Didn’t even watch a horror film. It was a strangely common day. Hooray about the Rangoon book’s completion! That’s excellent news! All the best to you. ** Jamie McMorrow, Uh, yeah, when was that? Hold on. It was March 24 – 26, 2007 to be precise. You’re right by there. I kind of vaguely remember what that hood looked like. I’d like to get back to Glasgow. I liked it a lot, but I had just barely over zero time to explore it while I was there, and I’ll gladly take you up on the dinner when/if. Maybe I’ll try the the doc about ‘The Innocents’ first since it’s easy, and because I kind of like watching ‘about’ docs before I watch the films themselves, nerdily. The Salon was mega-fun and sensory overloaded and stuffed. I’ll try to take a pic of my loot. I came home with a shitload of chocolates that I’ll never be able to get around to eating. A teeny bit of last minute fine-tuning has lead to the video’s launch towards Xiu Xiu’s hopeful approval having been delayed until today. But today’s the day. So sorry about the sleeplessness. Did last make up for it? Are you sparkling inside? Love right back at ya. ** Tosh Berman, Thank you, and I second Thomas’s awesome, Tosh! ** Tomk, Hi, Tom. Thanks for the good words to your namesake. ** Montse, Hi, Montse! Yeah, I have to celebrate Halloween by proxy and via internet these days, but I’m peculiarly satisfied with that. Warmest of hugs to you! ** DC, I second your apology. ** Sypha, Hi. I agree that Lady Gaga has fallen into the common trap of thinking respectability equals a step up. The danger with her was always that she slammed through the self-image remaking thing so thoroughly so fast that there would be soon nowhere left for her to go vis-a-vis her rampant attention-seeking-as-art thing. It was interesting when she was making occasionally awesome pop trash while referring to herself as a serious artist. That was kooky, but, in retrospect, I guess it portended her recent misdirection. I don’t know what would have been the most interesting next move for her, but sidling up with much attached publicity to a snore like Tony Bennett and a snore/pretentious banality like Abramovich kind of cooked the fun and mystery out of her goose. I would be hugely surprised if she can recover any quantifiable amount of her mojo after that. And thank you for the good words about TM’s book and for reposting your review, which I hadn’t read. ** Dóra Grőber, Howdy, Dóra! Yes, as I mentioned up above, we didn’t end up getting the video off to Xiu Xiu yesterday, but it’s happening today, and, what with the vast 9 hour time difference between us here  and him in Los Angeles, I guess we probably won’t get a reaction until tomorrow at the earliest. Fingers crossed. I’ll see if I can find a video or something from Bohemian Betyars. I’m glad the party was a lot of fun, although being squashed and gasping for air sounds like there was a price to pay. Still, all in all, very cool. Well, finally sending the video will take a bit of today. I’m kind of excited because Wired Magazine Japan is interviewing me this afternoon about my animated gif fiction, which is awesome because of my Japanophilia and because I feel like the animated gif fiction could be really interestingly liked and received in Japan. So, I’m very curious to see what that interview will be like. Uh, and some work, and I need to get on planning out my longish upcoming US trip because Zac and I are thinking we’ll take a road trip between the two NYC events on the 7th and the 16th, and that needs figuring out re: renting a car and where to drive and so on. So, all of that will be my day, I think. And yours? What did Wednesday offer you, and what did you accept from its offerings? ** Thomas Moronic, Hey! The tonnage of thanks is entirely exiting me and hopefully worming into you. Which is a weird way to put it, I guess, sorry. Oh, cool, awesome that the EIF project found usage in your novel. You think you’ll ever do another one, or are you at the exit of that interest? Oh, thank you a lot for offering to send me a copy of the novel. I’m very excited to read it! ** Steevee, Hi. The Rock n Roll Hall of Fame is so confusedly and messily self-defined that it’s just kind of a joke house. It’s long past the time when it could claim to be some kind of purist rock shrine. Just the idea that a mildly clever, unimaginative riff-recirculator like Dave Grohl is in its echelon and influential there says a bunch. I mean, it’s patently absurd that Kraftwerk is only now even being nominated and that their nomination is controversial. And yet I haven’t seen anyone saying, Wait, all it takes to be nominated for the Hall of Fame is having recorded one song that’s been the soundtrack to hundreds of TV ads (aka Steppenwolf)? The ‘Keep popular music guitar-based’ movement is like a ‘Keep America white’ movement for wusses. I’m not interested in Kanye West either, although I think he’s a very savvy producer, but that particular attack on his work is nonsense. All of which is saying I agree with you, or I think so. Look forward to reading your reviews. Everyone, please go read Steevee’s always thoughtful thoughts on two new films: ‘Loving’, and The Prison In Twelve Landscapes. ** B, Hi, sir. Ha, trust your instincts, for sure. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hey, Ben. What a forgetful system. I thought that systems were supposed to eliminate the forgetful tendencies of the human mind. Great, thank you ever so much about the CFTD post! Fine day to you, sir. ** MANCY, Hi, Steven. Aw, thank you so much about the gif work, man. How’s stuff? ** H, Hi. I remember the amazingness of New York falls, and I hope I’ll get to luxuriate a bit in this one soon. ** Jeff Jackson, Hi, Jeff. Yes, I finally have a copy of ‘Novi Sad’, and I’m am anxiously awaiting the moment when I can dig in fully. This week, I think. Weird, no, I did not know that ‘A Regicide’ has been translated into English or published. How could I have missed that?! Yes, me too, I will order myself a copy within minutes. Wow. Thanks so much for the alert. ** Okay. Now, let’s see, oh, I made a gig for you today. New and newish music that I obviously got something out of and think you might be impacted by as well should you have the opportunity today and take it. See you tomorrow.