Gig #166: Meth Math, Mark Van Hoen, Rip Van Winkle, Richie Culver, Carl 666 Gustaf, 7038634357, Les Sewing Sisters, The Melvins, Arnold Dreyblatt & The Orchestra of Excited Strings, Position Normal, Kavari, Thee Alcoholics, Univers Zéro

Meth Math
Mark Van Hoen
Rip Van Winkle
Richie Culver
Carl 666 Gustaf
7038634357
Les Sewing Sisters
The Melvins
Arnold Dreyblatt & The Orchestra of Excited Strings
Position Normal
Kavari
Thee Alcoholics
Univers Zéro

______________
Meth Math Cyberia
‘Formed in 2016, vocalist Ángel Ballesteros and producers Error.Error and Bonsai Babies, hailing from Hermosillo in northern Mexico, have forged their path in the umbral underground of Mexico City’s DIY scene after drip-feeding their internet fans sporadic tracks in their early days. They now cement themselves with their debut album Chupetones, mixed by experimentalist Nick León, a strangely compelling record, best enjoyed with your energy replenished and an inclination towards absorbing yourself in a sometimes infernal, sometimes angelically extraterrestrial realm.’ — The Quietus

______________
Mark Van Hoen This Is For Them
‘The Croydon-born Van Hoen started musical life in the early 1990s, signing for R&S records in 1993 but developing his own, myriad and distinctive style across a range of releases on Touch, Editions Mego and other labels, using a battery of instruments, including analogue synthesizers and taking a number of different approaches to recording, rather than ploughing a single sonic furrow. “This Is For Them”, feels like a ghostlike throwback to early drum & bass or electronica.’ — David Stubbs

_____________
Rip Van Winkle Prose Kaiser
‘Mysterious Robert Pollard project in limited edition of 1000/1000. It’s unclear who’s playing with Pollard on this one, but lead single “Prose Kaiser” nicely laces Uncle Bob’s usual style with a glowing neon post-punk vibe.’ — hav

_____________
Richie Culver Scream If You Don’t Exist
‘With Scream If You Don’t Exist, Richie Culver metamorphoses from outsider musician to underground fixture, feeling his way from the fringes towards a growing community of musicians that have gravitated towards his singular sound world. Building upon the stark catharsis of his previous dispatches, on his sophomore album the artist draws from grimdark drone, industrial noise, experimental hip-hop and UK rave to map out a space for himself, caught between genre and discipline.’ — Participant

_____________
Carl 666 Gustaf Norilsk Morning
‘Industrial music by two key figures of the Swedish scenes for metal, doom, prog rock, and experimental music: keyboardist Carl Westholm (Carptree, Avatarium, Krux, Candlemass) and bass player Gustaf Hielm (Pain of Salvation, Meshuggah, Mats/Morgan, Tiamat, and many more). For this album, instead of relying on their main instruments, they gathered a vast array of synthesizers, machines, and other unpredictable electronic devices and sound sources. Coincidences and pure chance, rather than traditional composing, led the way to the result — a highly unique and musically complex album.’ — thanatosis produktion

_____________
7038634357 Lemon Cake
‘Neo Gibson invented a world and proceeded to flood it. In their antediluvian phase—around 2015, when they swapped the early alias Neo Petal for 7038634357, their phone number—they infused techno and hardstyle with the breaking-glass samples and cinematic effects of the era’s experimental club music. Taken together, Gibson’s dozen or so releases form a continuum. Little by little, from record to record, their music’s structure has undergone a gradual process of dematerialization—beats dissolved, synths turned to liquid, edges melted into a muted ambient slurry. Across this long arc, Gibson has seemed to ask: How much pressure can you apply to a sound without rendering it unrecognizable? How much damage can you pile on without destroying the beauty of a thing?’ — Philip Sherburne

_____________
Les Sewing Sisters She Sews
‘There are no guitars, drums, synths – just voices and the beautiful sounds of the sewing machine fine-tuned via computer.’ — Lunna Menoh

_____________
The Melvins Lovely Butterfly (live)
‘In celebration of the pandemonium on America’s most chaotic shopping holiday, witness Melvins performing their electrifying FIVE LEGGED DOG TOUR set at the historic Irving Plaza Theater in New York City. See the whole show plus exclusive surprises!’ — Toilet ov Hell

_____________
Arnold Dreyblatt & The Orchestra of Excited Strings Untitled
‘After years of deconstructing and rebuilding string instruments, Dreyblatt made a name for himself with the Excited Strings Bass, an upright bass strung with piano wire from which performers can coax complex overtones by applying gentle pressure on the strings while striking with the bow. His Orchestra of Excited Strings combines this bass with other instruments modified to play in the Dreyblatt tuning system of 20 tones per octave. The Orchestra went through several iterations in New York before Dreyblatt reformed it in Berlin in the early ’80s, leaving the notorious downtown scene to peers like Rhys Chatham and Arthur Russell. But beginning in 1995, Jim O’Rourke led a revival of Dreyblatt’s work that resulted in a series of reissues on Drag City, Oren Ambarchi’s Black Truffle, and Konrad Sprenger’s Choose Records. Though his work as a composer with other groups has continued apace, Resolve features the first new music from the Orchestra itself in over 20 years. Unlike the New York and Berlin ensembles, the current lineup of the Orchestra consists of younger musicians—Ambarchi, Sprenger, and Joachim Schütz—whose sensibilities have been formed within Dreyblatt’s increasingly long shadow.’ — Matthew Blackwell

_____________
Position Normal Whistle Conversion 1
‘Position Normal are an English musical duo, formed in London in 1986, consisting of Chris Bailiff and John Cushway. Their music is sample-based, incorporating existing music and found sound from unusual vintage sources (purchased second hand or previously owned by Bailiff’s father) into collage-like tracks.’ — Wikipedia

_____________
Kavari Watch It Burn With Me
‘””Against The Wood, Opposed To Flesh” is an anomalous musical composition. Individuals who listen to the album undergo severe cognitive and emotional disturbances, inevitably leading to their indoctrination into a mysterious cult led by a figure known only through rumour as ‘KAVARI.’ All listeners consistently report nightmarish visions, rapidly deteriorating physical and mental health, and an irresistible compulsion to embrace the cult’s malevolent doctrine. The albums recurring manifestation every ten years is a perplexing and unsettling phenomenon that defies conventional logic. Each reappearance begins with the sudden and unexplained emergence of the album on obscure online platforms, often those with minimal traffic. While the precise cause of these manifestations is unclear, they seem to occur punctually with no identifiable external influence or instigation.’ — last.fm

_____________
Thee Alcoholics It’s So Easy
‘Like mysterious brown sediment lurking at the bottom of a bad pint, a full-length album from Thee Alcoholics suggests two things: intoxication and a thoroughly upset system. Feedback is no different. It follows a series of cassettes and EPs for the eminent Wrong Speed Records, along with a fractured live set released in collector scum quantities by Human Worth. Sharing stable space and DNA with some of the UK’s finest peddlers of weird, wrong rock music means even the unacquainted might expect some puzzlingly left-of-centre sounds, and such suspicions are well met.’ — Alex Deller

_____________
Univers Zéro Sfumato (part 2)
‘Univers Zéro is an instrumental progressive Belgian band formed in 1974 by drummer Daniel Denis. The band is known for playing dark music heavily influenced by 20th century chamber music. Even if the line-up changed a lot over the decades, the overall sound of U.Z. remained fairly consistent.’ — frederick marrs

*

p.s. Hey. ** Dominik, Hi!!! Well, as a person who doesn’t really know how to do nothing, it was more like doing somethings in a fairly relaxed manner, which is enough. I don’t even know who Shane Black is, I’m so out of it. Prayers re: the webinar. I should probably do that too. Hm, I think I would find to very hard to resist that chocolate bar bomb maybe, thanks love. Love making a Croque Monsieur not have ham in it because I’d really to eat something called a Croque Monsieur, G. ** _Black_Acrylic, It’s true: Brits kind of own the spy genre. That makes sense strangely, but I don’t think I could explain why, although I do think of Brits as being very good with poise. Btw, completely top notch Play Therapy session, you deranger, you. Thank you!!!! Oh, no, about the class cancellation! Why, do you know? But you have the exact right reaction/spirit, buddy. Work on that so lustrously named novella betwixt then and now. ** Larst, Hi, Larsty. Me too, on the kid wild about spy stuff front. Stuff by you to explore and imbibe, awesome! Everyone, the fine master of multi-forms Larst aka Laurence Lillvik has … and here he takes over … ‘ started a weekly newsletter (very much inspired by this place) where I talk about books and music etc. here and yesterday I started a Bandcamp for KalloHumina an umbrella name for collaborative projects I’m working on (means SkullHum in Finnish) … I put up one album here.’ My passionate recommendation in both cases, folks. Thanks, pal, you sound like you’re doing super great. ** Misanthrope, Yep. ‘Get Smart’, ‘The Man from U.N.C.L.E.’, ‘I Spy’, those were the days, TV-wise. Great about July and over here. Chances are the film will not become a 24/7 occupation, so theoretically I should be locally situated. Ah, ha, I saw that kiss  coming a mile away. So, what now? You ready to be committed carnal daddy? ** Sypha, I was completely obsessed with Mad Magazine as a kid. Spy Vs Spy, included. My parents thought it was too subversive and corrupting, and I had to hide the issues like they were porn. Good times. ** Bill, I never saw the ‘Kingsman’ movies, should I? Very nice about the screening. San Francisco Cinematheque is so great. I love that org. Steve Polta who runs it is a superhero. Yes, I ventured onto Pier 34 in the old days. Not to mess around, but a little to watch the messing around. Sex looks so much more exciting in porn. ** Steve Erickson, Hi. Oh, wow, the only Dennis Cooper character I knew of before was in ‘The Life of Brian.’ And a cop! Yesterday we watched the whole film in its current, semi-sound mixed stage and made copious notes. Today we start fixing and finessing the details scene by scene. It’s sounding really good. We still haven’t nailed the ghost completely. That’s still the biggest challenge. Thanks for asking, Steve. ** Justin, Very happy to put some fun into you and yours, dude. ** Uday, Ha ha, yes, indeed, on the dawning realisation re: spies upon growing up. I do miss the days when style meant everything. Mm, what do you mean by serious fluid? I’m blanking on what that means. There certainly have been a fair amount of fluids displayed in my stuff. Anyway, serious in what sense? Thanks! ** Okay. I made a new gig for you featuring some music I’ve been dwelling upon of late, and now I ask you to click through them and see if anything grabs you, I suppose. If you feel like it. See you tomorrow.