HYPER GAL
SUNN O)))
The Black Warhols
Tyler Friedman
My New Band Believe
Asteroid Ekosystem
MEMORIALS
Vic Bang
ezcodylee
Gong Slayer
Annie Hogan
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HYPER GAL [Mere Wisp]
‘Springing from Osaka, Japan’s cultural center and historical heart, comes HYPER GAL, a two-piece band consisting of visual artist Koharu Ishida on vocals and noise artist Kurumi Kadoya on drums. The minimalist duo make maximum impact – stripping music down beyond the bare essentials, to create shimmering, no wave pop from blastbeat drums, glittery keyboard loops and ethereal bubblegum vocals – laced with velvet and firecrackers.’ — botanique
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sunn O))) Butch’s Guns
‘“Sunn O))),” the eponymous, twenty-somethingth album from the long-running Seattlian duo Greg Anderson and Stephen O’Malley, could be categorized as jazz or classical or avant-garde much more readily than rock, even though its only instrument is that most rock of objects: electric guitars — Gibsons, no less. There’s no percussion, vocals or seemingly any single notes; there’s song structure (or at least compositions) but you’d be hard pressed to identify it. It’s just massive power chords and feedback, droning and shifting into different shapes in a way that recalls a randomly generating video image, or Mark Rothko paintings like one on this album’s cover. When you sit and stare at one of Rothko’s massive paintings in a museum for several minutes, it feels and seems like it’s moving, although that’s impossible. While that’s not a direct analogy, it’s what this album feels like.’ — Jem Aswad
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The Black Warhols Choke
‘THE BLACK WARHOLS is the long-awaited project from Detroit-born, Berlin-based creative polymath, former Underground Resistance member, and Spirit of Detroit Award recipient for exceptional artistic achievement Alan Oldham aka DJ T-1000. But this isn’t techno. At all. Inspired by Oldham’s longtime immersion into Berlin’s legendary art and music scenes, THE BLACK WARHOLS is a weird mix of dubbed-out, trip-hop beats, shoegaze textures, a bit of industrial, and a smattering of Suicide/DAF-style electro-punk. A slowed-down, trip-hop cover version of “Rock On,” a glam rock anthem originally released by David Essex in 1975, is even on the sonic menu.’ — traxsource
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Tyler Friedman Štoniljid
‘Drawing on the legacies of downtown minimalism, METLASR connects avant-garde composition, aspects of global traditional musics and advanced synthesizer technique into an ambitious and singular hybrid. Animated by generative modular sequencing and grounded by undulating bass, the album focuses on an endless cascade of pirouetting geometric melodics, which are spread across a spectrally fused ensemble of crystalline FM and sampled pitched percussion – specifically gamelan orchestra, marimba, mbira, vibraphone and tingklik. The assemblage of voices interlace in fractal mirrors, aggregating into pointillist harmonizations heightened by multiple layers of dub processing. The use of alternative tunings — primarily 24-note per octave just intonation — infuses the poly-modal progressions with lush radiance, staging tension between the strange and the beautiful through neon inflections of subtle dissonance.’ — Days of Disorder
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My New Band Believe Kick Me
‘Careening and hallucinatory, it is fitting that My New Band Believe – the shapeshifting collective led by former Black Midi bassist and occasional frontman Cameron Picton – originated in a fever dream. The band’s name was one that lodged in his mind as he battled serious food poisoning while touring China with his former band in August 2023.’ — Patrick Clarke
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Asteroid Ekosystem Off Axis
‘The brainchild of avant composer, pianist, and ARIA Award winner Alister Spence, Asteroid Ekosystem brings together an extraordinary ensemble: guitarist and musical pioneer Ed Kuepper, improvisational upright bassist Lloyd Swanton (The Necks), and drummer Toby Hall (The Catholics / Mike Nock). Together, they create a hypnotic, genre-defying sound world where jazz, rock, psychedelia, and improvisation collide.’ –– Alister Spence
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MEMORIALS Dropped Down The Well
‘All Clouds Bring Not Rain is the second album from Memorials, the duo born out of two of the more quietly canonical acts in British underground music: Electrelane and Wire. The territory they cover is vast, traversed with the ease of people who have earned their passport stamps. It sits downstream of the Canterbury continuum; Kosmische drift bleeds into Stockhausen abstraction; Tangerine Dream sequencers into Radiophonic static, bleeps and bloops that feel lifted from a forgotten BBC education programme.’ — Hayley Scott
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Vic Bang Synthesise
‘Composer and sound designer Victoria Barca combines bleeps, crunchy percussion and chirping electronics on her albums to create music that blurs the line between acoustic and synthetic, laboratory-created and field-recorded. Her fourth album, released by Mondoj, has the power to create musical worlds. It combines electronic, electroacoustic and acoustic sounds, juxtaposing exotica-style sounds, quasi-folk forms, vocalisations and snippets of recordings. It also shows the potential and possibilities that sound offers. This album was created almost entirely without leaving home. Imaginary folk, futuristic folk, freak folk, weird folk – these labels evoke specific connotations, and I mention them to show how vast a conceptual and associative resource music can have when it is not assigned to a specific place or tradition.’ — Jakub Knera
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ezcodylee DON’T BE SCARED!
‘STUNT 4 LIFE is the clearest distillation of rapper ezcodylee’s punk-inspired ethos to date, neatly buffing out intergenre seams in pursuit of cathartic clarity.’ — Vivian Medithi
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Gong Slayer @ Bingo Art Gallery & Studios ABQ
‘Low end and midrange drones sure to vibrate the walls of your skull 💀🔥 48″ WIND GONG, 32″ WIND GONG, 18″ SOLAR GONG.’ — iron gnome
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Annie Hogan Death Rituals
‘Annie Hogan is something of a quiet icon of goth and post-punk. A longtime friend of Marc Almond, she put on early Soft Cell shows and played with his dark cabaret side-project Marc and the Mambas. She appears on Barry Adamson’s seminal Moss Side Story and has worked with Lydia Lunch, Nick Cave, and several members of Einstürzende Neubauten. She’s also been releasing evocative solo music since the late 1980s, the latest of which, the six track album Tongues In My Head, strikes an elegant balance of light and shade.’ — Claire Biddles
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p.s. Hey. ** jay, Hi. I probably mentioned this before, but when I was a kid I was so obsessed with magic tricks that I subscribed to four Magic Trick of the Month Clubs, which were these ‘clubs’ where they’d send you a magic trick every month in the mail. Bliss has maybe never again come to me so easily. There’s an actual real stately home where the manga is set? Maybe bring a taser? I do very much want to go to the ABBA holographic concert. I was thinking I’d go when we went to London to screen ‘RT’ but it looks like that’s not going to happen. So I need to find a good excuse to take the Eurostar, and I probably need to be reasonably quick about it. ** Laura, Yes, that Imaad Wassif. Obviously he had to be on set when we were working with his son, and he’s super nice. He even agreed to be an extra. You’ll never remember this, but in the scene where the haunted house is open, three boys dressed as werewolves escort the first person in line to the entrance, and that’s Imaad. Lyricism can be a magic trick. I use it that way all the time. Magic tricks were like owning an amusement park. I had no problem explaining the tricks’ tricks. I’ve never been protectionist when it comes to suspense. I’m actually on my toes today. ** Dominik, Hi!!! Your test comment worked, did you see? I’m so sorry. I hope the blog is fully absorbent again today. Grr. ** Adem Berbic, Drat. Surely there’s some magic shoppe still extent somewhere in London of all places. But, yeah, probably in the boonies at this point. I’d be in the army of the magic people. Just tell the venue it’s going to be immersive and then do whatever the fuck you want. What are they going to do, sue you? My week looks reasonably okay if my instincts are operating properly. Yours? ** _Black_Acrylic, I don’t know Mr. Benn, of course, but that is a lovely title sequence. AI couldn’t make that if it tried. Thanks, pal. ** Carsten, Haha. Disneyland used to have this really great magic shop in Fantasyland, and when I went to Disneyland, which was many multiple times each year, I’d end up spending half my visit in the shop looking around in awe, and there was one guy/employee who did tricks for the customers who was really good, and it was only years later that I realised he was Steve Martin who worked there before his career took off. I don’t buy my Christian friends’ beliefs either, but, at least in their cases, the belief does something to their thinking that I find very interesting at least in short bursts. Yes, I went to that concert. Well, it was in 1968, so I would have been 15. My mind was seriously blown, mostly, in retrospect, by Nina Simone, who was at her most intense and angry at that time. ** Bill, The Paris Magic Museum! Located in the Marquis de Sade’s former basement! Love that place. Cool, Zac and I are going to Berlin soon to show ‘RT’. I’ll check that shop out. No, wait, both of those shops. Thanks, scout! ** Malik, Hi, Malik! Happy … what is it … Tuesday! Believe it or not, Criss Angel actually commented on this blog once years and years ago. I used a vidclip of him in some post, and he swooped in. He seemed friendly. Awesome about the congenial Furry Convention. They hold one here, but I’ve never gone. I think I will next time. I’ll look up those movies, especially ‘American Stream’. It sounds intriguing. Fond memories are overwhelming me about the New/Next Festival, which must be coming up soon. How are you? I think the last time we spoke you were preparing for a theater project, no? How did that go, if I’m not wrong? Best week to you, my friend. ** Steeqhen, Hi! Well, I’m very glad your colon is still in there doing its job. The human body is so packed they should call in the fire marshals. Promising sounding job prospects/hunting. Being a cultural critic isn’t bad — I did it — but I don’t think that job will pay your bills these days, but I could be wrong. Don’t let that stop you. Thanks about ‘God Jr.’. As I’ve said, the last section of that novel is my favorite thing I’ve ever written. ** Charalampos, Hi. ‘Arcana’ it is then. I know the new Dumont is premiering at Cannes, but I don’t know anything about it. Hi back from pleasant seeming central Paris. ** Steve, Hi. No, the gig was just a one-time gig. I assume it happened because all of the artists involved must have been excited to share a gig with each other. They were all at absolute peaks of their work at that point. Pretty mindblowing. Wow, that was a particularly awful scam festival that guy blew the whistle on. ** HaRpEr //, Yeah, I loved gag gifts as much as I loved magic tricks. Sigh. ‘Worsted’ is crazy good. Christine Schutt is very good. Her writing isn’t daring or innovative on the level of Lutz, but her sentences are excitingly worked and nailed. I should put a book of hers in the blog’s spotlight. I will. Thanks, I’ll try the Friko album. Cool. ** ⋆˚꩜｡darbbzz⋆˚꩜｡, Exactly. I’m like a curse on the people standing behind me. The best part of growing so quickly was being able to buy alcohol and cigarettes and porn and impress my childish looking peers. Wow, I just peeked at the first bit of your mix video, and what a thrilling beginning. I could stare at that giffy image forever, and I will. Everyone, The mighty and unimpeachable ꩜｡darbbzz⋆˚꩜｡ has made a music playlist with Jen from the Dark Crystal as the background and involving enchanted sorta songs from the 60s-70s, and I just tested it, and its promise is highly notable. Go be amongst it here. Amazing! Have a gooder than good one. Make that many. ** Sofeea, Hi, Sofeea. Thank you very much, and it’s lovely to have you here. Unfortunately, no, I don’t remember who wrote that essay or what it was called, I’m sorry. I wish I did. How are you? Who are you? ** Right. Today I made another one of my gigs featuring stuff I’ve been listening to and interested by of late. Perhaps something or other up there will find favor with you. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
Criss Angel is definitely a character. My mom saw his show in Vegas for her 50th and loved it, even if it was basically more of a variety show than magic. I do credit him with the magic tricks that I do know, as he would give up some little tricks you could try at home. They still surprise people today, so mission accomplished.
Neat about a convention being over there! I assume it’s Furry BlackLight in Tremblay-en-France, since that’s right in Paris and the biggest in the country. An attendance of 756 last year which is nothing to sniff at. Fur the ‘More had come back to Baltimore after being in Crystal City for years, and it brought everyone out with a count of 1,917, which believe it or not is still considered small. To its credit, the best thing about this region of furries is that it’s less cliquey than bigger ones. Even the more popular figures are just happy to talk and hang out with new people.
As for the theater project, it was a repeat of last year. My play didn’t get selected for the Variations Project, however I got an offer for a role in another staged reading of six plays that came close to making the cut. This time, it’ll be three performances to run concurrently with the VP in July. Plus with an actual director, so I’ll be stepping my game up.
A little intimidating, but I’m excited! Thanks for remembering!
Hey Dennis! Yeah, the exterior of the manga’s stately home is a real place, amazingly, it’s a very famous house in Gloucestershire that’s near one of my friend’s houses, so I’ll be able to stay at hers overnight. I think the interior is different, the inside of the house in the manga is a bit insane – it’s sort of an Art Nouveau base with what looks like authentic Georgian renovation (which is obviously impossible, but cool looking). It contrasts really well with the urban flat living in the second half of the manga, which is pretty much just nicely-drawn appliances and flat walls with functional furniture.
Haha, sorry, I’ve rambled on about this manga for a while, I think it’s just maybe the most interesting thing I’ve read for a year or two. It’s a combination of being nice looking, having a cool story AND a cool meta-story, which is always rare. I think the whole “romantic partner who wants you to get better” being presented as a negative or destructive force was something I’ve never really seen discussed before, it’s kind of just amazing how well it articulates certain things I’ve always tried to express or understand but never been able to. I think it’s probably enough to permanently change anyone’s mind on the whole “straight women writing about gay men” moral panic, for whatever reason I find I’m always more represented by that demographic of writer. Anyway, ramble over, haha. Hope you’re well, see you!
i need to ask what the manga is, if you see this. I’m very interested. I’ve been meaning to do a thing on doujins as art…
Hi sal! It’s called Cruel God Reigns, or After Us, the Savage God. I think it’s relatively easy to find on MangaDex. I haven’t really looked into doujins but the concept is interesting, I’d be curious to see your doujins as art project!
Very interesting & diverse line-up, as always. Some cool stuff there.
As for me, I already talked about The Last Poets being on heavy rotation lately, but I want to give a special shout-out to “Tribute to Obabi (Ogun)”, which is a very uncharacteristic song of theirs. It’s here: https://youtu.be/rdn9jsijaQ8?is=2g9JypTtRwx0ZmBa
Also explored Lhasa de Sela a bit, whose “El Desierto” is quite striking: https://youtu.be/bygJ05Jr1CU?is=I34aEIk8YcQxE9qA
And then these Afro-Rock compilations, which I can’t get enough of:
African Scream Contest https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lfyfEHjkDj0ISVbYAZxCRbhMrf1NSuGdY&si=z4C46Jp_fmndPnWM
Nigeria 70 – Funky Lagos https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nQZBBWRCVB4V8IH9wF6GZ4p4kmn0mEcok&si=28nmm_Ey6QHFUwLG
Nigeria 70 – Lagos Jump https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lSFZj9_JYsXHR62qEohaRpzIVg9Sbct8w&si=sbtS-RuV3FpKMhnI
Afro-Rock Vol. 1 https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kpO1l6HJy5M5KGquQoKk6GfGqfXXOWq5c&si=etuF1NoSWQaWS2b0
Wow, you were 15 at that concert. Lucky man! I bet Nina Simone was a powerhouse. Do you remember anything about Miles’s performance? 1968 is interesting, because this must’ve been right before he went electric, which is my favorite period of his work.
I saw that my comment was pending approval there for a minute, probably because of the YouTube links. Did you have to approve it or the host server?
One more thing re. The Last Poets: I’ve long had this desire to do something musical with my poems. Not turn them into music per se, because that tends to drown out the words. Also, I’m not interested in singing, but rather a kind of rhythmic spoken word delivery with very sparse instrumental accompaniment. Ideally drums, but not in that cheesy drum circle way. Closer to the very intense kind of Yoruba drumming. The Last Poets get pretty close to how I imagine this.
I could do a magic snoop and report back, but no places are coming to mind off jump. A friend of mine has actually already offered to construct a fake immersive shibari act for the night, and then when it’s showtime she’d just stand in the corner and glare at the venue guys, so maybe I need to take her up on that.
My week would have been looking passable if I hadn’t woken up feeling like ass this morning. I think my game plan right now is to run a bath and hope that the above playlist has restorative properties.
Hi,
I tried to find Worsted by Garielle Lutz because I am obsessed with the cover of the girl on the couch so I want this edition specifically but I couldn’t find and decided because I am new to her writing to find The Collected Gary Lutz first so I did and I have that to read now.
I remember clearly that you did a Christine Schutt day a few years ago because I wrote the name of her novel A day, a night, another day, summer (novel spotlighted) on one of my variety notebooks because I liked the title
I just saw your Amsterdam screening news. I really wish I knew this like one year ago so I could plan to come but this is my favourite place so I am definitely going there as soon as possible
Love the flyer’s look of the double exposure image I just saw
Are you going to have time to walk around Amsterdam and prob visit familiar places?
If I was there right now I would go to my fave ever park right outside Stedelijk museum, I would go to this hidden arcade bookstore I found amazing books in such low price (would find it with luck just like before) and I would go to The Book Exchange bookstore for sure, and way more
The Black Warhols sure do have an impressive CV and their output turns out to be a whole lot of fun. Kind of a bit Electroclash sounding, which I genuinely mean as a compliment.
As for me, I did get this Nico live LP the other week which is on green vinyl as part of some Record Store Day thing. Self-indulgent maybe, but I feel you cannot go too far wrong with her in this era.
Huh, that fact about social misfits being into magic is interesting. I wonder what that’s about. I think lots of children who are social misfits have an obsession with sources of power, and magic is one of the ones most likely to be exposed and accessible to a child. I remember there being a time as an older child when I started really wanting to do card tricks, but I didn’t stick with it long enough to learn any. I wonder how much of it also is the type of adults who remain into magic as adults, which is sort of fascinating to me, adults who understand that their audience is primarily children and do things which appear “cool” basically only to children.
Just in time for Bandcamp Friday! I enjoyed Tyler Friedman, Gong Slayer, Black Warhols and Asteroid Ekosystem. Vic Bang’s sound design is genius.
Where did the GIF at the top come from? The middle-aged man in the suit looks like Michael Shannon.
A big element of magic feels like an attempt to create a new persona when you don’t really have much power.
After my eye exam today, the doctor gave me a clear bill of health.
Nice gig today, Dennis. That Black Warhols song sounds like Joy Division! And Memorials have a Wire-like tint. Gong Slayer is obviously better in-person than on a youtube video.
Just saw the Slava Mogutin photo exhibit at the Bob Mizer foundation. Good fun, a mix of old favorites and more recent pieces, but nothing surprising. His bio says he collaborated with you, but I can’t think of the project?
Bill
Hi Dennis
Speaking of bands, I saw that Whitehouse has reunited for a gig over in Japan. Dunno if they will have the same energy for it, but I will be watching with some curiosity.
Btw, asking for a friend, but how would you feel if we added you to a tomodachi life island?
Cool, always love the gigs! I think the Vic Bang is really calling to me.
I still haven’t heard the new Sunn O))). They’re the sort of band that I go through phases of intense listening and then don’t return to for a while, so maybe I’ll wait until I get the urge.
I’ve been curious about a lot of the writers who studied under Gordon Lish lately. I admire and am interested in some of Lish’s ideas, but there’s a way he goes about things which I find a bit suspect that’s difficult to explain. Even if he’s a bit of an anomaly in the culture of American writing workshops, he still has a wholly American-lit attitude to a lot of things. That’s how I’d put it, maybe.
Ultimately, what’s interesting me at the moment is a certain quality of a lot of writers I love, which includes Joy Williams and Lutz, but extends to Denton Welch, Jane Bowles, Robert Walser, and other writers I’m always thinking about. I’m interested in words as abject things, to over-simplify. I’m going to read Kristeva’s ‘Power of Horror’ soon because I’ve heard she touches on this.
I’m editing so so slowly at the moment, but I’m really happy with the work I’m doing. I’m taking it one sentence at a time, moving things around, cutting things, re-wording things. If I’m lucky I’ll get through two or three pages of edits in a day. This might be the most important stage of the whole process. I’m pretty slow at writing, even in the first drafts, but I spend a lot of time doing it so I’m sort of fast in a way. Most of the time I spend writing is staring into space, trying to formulate sentences, trying hard not to forget something so fragile that I could easily lose it.
it’s funny, i imagine a jock scoffing, saying “as far as i can see, ALL poetry is gay poetry”, socking me in the gut so i fall to my knees in front of him while he chugs the rest of his beer…
there’s definitely still gay (or Queer, I guess) poetry which you can see proudly in bookstores that sell new books… i can’t imagine any of it is like this, though. i am slowly reading it and in his Ezra Pound tribute he has a verse about how the government creates usury by outlawing boylove, which made me laugh. i can’t fathom how Pound would react.
hi Dennis!
bunch of new music, thank you! ^_^
i love Hyper Gal’s previous album, this one i’m probably halfway through but i think i’m already more into it. this specific song drives me nuts until it gets going lol but then it’s such a banger. the other day i realised you can sing most of IC3PEAK’s Smerty Bol’she Nyet over it too lol, so for me it’s basically a mash up of whatever the song is actually saying and ‘i pour kerosene into my eyes, let it all burn’.
i hadn’t got around to the latest Sunn O))) yet but now i have and i’m p happy about that lol. uh this song is basically a symphony w/o arias, which is interesting bc the transitional movements in symphonies have always been avant garde in a way. here there’s def connection and movement but no linear direction and that’s p fun, not unlike the Rothko they picked? also, duh, Gibsons. weird shit is just bound to echo classic rock, which is a trip and ultimately why i like them i think.
The Black Warhols is great! feel like calling stuff indietronica can be a bit gimmicky but the shoe fits so i’ll call it that lol ♥
i like Wire a lot so i was curious about MNBB, didn’t really know anything about them but i’m in. sort of make me think of that White Stripes first (?) album which was like a rock&roll history panorama, but way better imo.
Annie Hogan is Annie Hogan, obvi. weird that her older stuff isn’t more readily available. but she always seems younger than she is as per the stuff she makes.
i won’t forget Imaad Wasif in your film! i’ll look for him in fact ^_^
so chuffed you weren’t a gatekeepy magician kid! like i’ve got some ambition lol but i’m not competitive at all. and i love a secret, so i think you and i would have hit it off in the playground =D
are you still on your toes today? hope not, bc my toes are hurting. today was sort of weirdly paced, i wrote a song about this girl’s pussy i’ve not seen in a fuckload of years, not sure why she and it came back to mind so hardcore this morning but i found like some v delayed pathos.
wanna hear something? i think a lot, tho not everything, that you write around your lyricism is the trick, and the lyrical stuff is, idk, the truth, maybe. i don’t side-eye it like i do my own, in fact i love it v much. it’s hard-earnt & deserves to exist.
…huh Dennis, this is just dawning on me… if you didn’t mind eviscerating your own tricks a little back when, does that mean you’ll one day tell me whether i’m warm warmish cold re: my Marbled Swarm theories? 😀 i’ve not given up yet, mind you, but by now i reaaally want to know if i’m even thinking in the right direction =))
love!