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Siinai Shopping Trance
‘Siinai are progressive kraut-rockers from Finland, and their new album Supermarket is due out June 17 via Splendour. As you may have surmised from both the album title, and the title of their new track “Shopping Trance,” the project is an attempt to make “a soundtrack for the supermarket nations. “Shopping Trance” most certainly fits the bill: an 8-minute churning swath of groove that plods along like one might plod along through aisles of frozen french fries and Frosted Mini Wheats. Also, just like your average trip to the grocery store, it starts out determined and on a mission, mathematical in precision and execution — but eventually gets distracted, slowing after about six-and-a-half minutes when our focused eyes glaze into supermarket eyes, lost in the aisles.’ — Stereogum
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The Bug Save Me
‘The latest offering from the The Bug, Angels & Devils, escapes the London cage, drawing on it for influence yet blowing it up into a world-view now seen from Kevin Martin’s new Berlin home. A record that simultaneously draws on London Zoo, completes a triptych cycle which started with his Bug debut Pressure, and fills the spaces between and inserts what was missing previously. Both a year zero re-set and a continuation of what has been. Like the Bowie/Eno classic Low, or Can’s Tago Mago, the album is split into two distinct themes and explorations of light & dark. Bringing the angel & devil voices together under a single common banner. Antagonist at times, but not solely for the sake of being antagonistic, there’s a beauty and lush sparseness to be found within, even when at its most chaotic.’ — ninjatune.net
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The Austerity Program Song 30
‘A grim smile flickers out from behind many of the songs on Beyond Calculation, the second full-length album from NYC duo The Austerity Program. In the grand tradition of post-punk’s noisier offspring, The Austerity Program approach some of the darkest corners of the human experience with their teeth bared like grinning apes circled by predators they can’t fend off. Tales of mundane cruelty, of neighborhood assholes and cyberbullies, are elevated to mythic stature and set beside images of genuine horror and hardship. The album is littered with the debris of those who have shattered themselves against the malevolent or just plain indifferent forces encroaching upon their world.’ — Tiny Mix Tapes
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Shabazz Palaces #CAKE
‘Herein bumps and soars Lese Majesty, the new sonic action of Shabazz Palaces. Honed and primal, chromed and primo. A unique and glorified offering into our ever-uniforming musical soundscape. Lese Majesty is a beatific war cry, born of a spell, acknowledging that sophistication and the instinctual are not at odds; Indeed an undoing of the lie of their disparate natures. Lese Majesty is not a launching pad for the group’s fan base increasing propaganda. It is a series of astral suites, recorded happenings, shared. A dare to dive deep into Shabazz Palaces sounds, vibrations unfettered. A dope-hex thrown from the compartments that have artificially contained us all and hindered our sublime collusion.’ — Sub Pop
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Owen Pallett Song for Five & Six
‘Unlike fellow Toronto-raised musician Drake, interviews are not like confessions for Oscar-nominated arranger/composer/conductor/songwriter/compulsive violin looper Owen Pallett. Instead, they are spirited debates with lofty goals in mind: The 34-year-old is adamant that he’ll “do anything within my power as a gay, white, Canadian male to assist in improving the relationship between creatives and consumers.” This diplomacy appears to have carried over to his latest baroque art-pop album, In Conflict, which replaces the sci-fi and RPG-based subject matter of his previous work with what sounds like more autobiographical themes. But when I ask him if he has role models in terms of confessional songwriting, he snaps back: “I have a problem with your choice of the word ‘confessional.’ I hate the word ‘confessional’ or ‘cathartic.’ I think those terms are vaguely misogynistic and always applied to female songwriters. And it’s like, ‘Well, what do men do? Do they have something they need to get off their chest?’”’ — Ian Cohen
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Eleh Observation Wheel
‘The stuff that Eleh sets in motion from whatever electronic sound generators he/she deploys represents a measured and methodical paring away of all that might appear superfluous, baroque and rococo. Each of the tracks here consists of just a handful and discrete (and discreet) but highly charged sound events that emerge, overlap, recede and reverberate at critical frequencies over extended durations. At certain crucial points this approach serves as a formula for opening a portal what David Toop has referred to as the dark void, that spectral realm magicked into being (or exposed by) the drone, in which audio apparitions and chimeras dance through smoke and mirrors, suggesting the existence of occult planes and dimensions, multiple other realities, worlds within worlds.’ — Tony Herrington, The Wire
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Asian Women on the Telephone live
‘In a basement club near the Kremlin, a recording of howling wolves moaned through thick fog. A boy beside me said something in broken English; I asked him to repeat it and he said “The music — it’s mostly about wolves.” Asian Women on the Telephone are a startling phenomenon to behold live. Their homemade costumes are always changing and evolving, and their sound lies somewhere between experimental punk and junkyard machinery. For the trio of drummer Nikita, synth player Max and vocalist/bass player Nastya, it’s the sound of their inner beasts. Born in 2007 from the ashes of three underground stations – Lubyanka, Park Kulturi and Domodedovo – a Moscow experimental outfit ASIAN WOMEN ON THE TELEPHONE is one of the new Russian avant-garde movement’s most innovative and successful hands.’ — Electronic Beats
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Electric Funeral Order from Disorder
‘Swedish harsh noise punk act Electric Funeral is not for people who value conventional structures, ample production, clarity of lyrics, joyous attitudes, or any combination thereof. Total Funeral, which will come out via Southern Lord on July 22, collects the entire discography from the solo project of Jocke D-Takt, and it’s highly recommended if you are into Disclose and D-Clone. Like those bands, Electric Funeral takes the static tone of Discharge’s Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing and magnifies it to the point where it becomes power electronics with live drums. Admittedly, this collection is a LOT to take in at once, but it’s all the Electric Funeral you’ll ever need. The only reason to listen to this is to torture yourself.’ — Andy O’Connor
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Sue Tompkins Grow Fins
‘Working with fragments of language gathered from everyday encounters and experiences, Tompkins’ practice incorporates text, sound, installation and performance. She is best known as vocalist for the now defunct indie rock band Life Without Buildings. Made up of text that is original, altered or borrowed, the strength of Tompkins’ work is in its disruption of verbal communication. Through complex yet eloquent layerings of repetition, non-sequential juxtaposition and re-contextualisation, Tompkins reinvigorates and gives new meaning to language.’ — collaged
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NGLY Speechless Tape
‘The occult project (a revitalization of lost/forgotten knowledges) has largely fallen by the wayside in the light of rationalistic, humanistic models, but NGLY hearkens them back, locating powers that might rightly be called inhuman. The key comes with “Speechless Tape,” the asymptotic anti-climax of their new EP. An obviously ironical contradiction between title and content reveals itself not with a smirk, but with a distant stare fixated somewhere beneath long, greasy hair. It’s truly a successful occult project, as “Speechless Tape” doesn’t work from a paradigm of desire-enhancement, but from precisely the opposite: it stays calm in the face of unendurable entropies. No synthesis, no assimilation, no recuperation, but an immense power made manageable only through a vital act of disengagement.’ — Tiny Mix Tapes
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Lee Gamble Plos 97s
‘With albums that explore sonic abstraction and decomposition in deliberately warped and murky ways, forward-looking British producer Lee Gamble operates on the cerebral fringes of modern electronic music. A founding member of the austere Cyrk collective, Gamble and his heavily processed computer music recently joined the ranks of experimental label PAN. His two exquisite 2012 releases deconstruct visceral body music with academic rigueur, as ghostly sounds are processed beyond recognition. Whether it be his sublime jungle/d’n’b deconstructions of mid-1990s mixtapes onDiversions 1994–1996 or his adventurous techno disfigurement on Dutch Tvashar Plumes, Gamble crafts complex atmospheres and twisted arrangements. When performing live, he imbues his compositions with a playfulness that doesn’t compromise his experimental roots – the very framework for his densely layered sonic palette.’ — mutek
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Oren Ambarchi Rhubarb
‘From modest beginnings, in the last two decades Oren Ambarchi has risen to become one of the world’s best-known experimental musicians, whose work crosses genres and boundaries with ease. His initial fame arose from a series of solo records released by Touch that brought him recognition more in electronic circles than in the improvised music world where much of his work now resides, but Ambarchi has never been one to stand still for long. Initially inspired by Japanese noise hero Keiji Haino to find his own approach to the guitar, the Australian went from admirer of the Japanese legend to a friend and performing partner in barely a decade, and they now regularly record and play together in various formations. At this point, Ambarchi’s list of collaborators on record is as impressive for its length as for the names it contains – as well as Haino, it includes Sunn O)))’s Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson, Jim O’Rourke, Fire!, Z’EV, Fennesz and Robin Fox – many of whom have made important contributions to 20th and 21st century experimental music.’ — The Quietus
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p.s. Hey. ** Bill, Greetings to Linz. I’ve never been there, but, for some reason, based on the name, I have a picture in my head of a quite pretty, scenic place. Off or on? Are you playing in Ars Electronica? I was just reading about it somewhere, I think in The Wire. Very cool in any case. What’s happening? Yeah, ‘Honored Guest’ rules. She is so good. I’ve always really want to meet her. Her PR interview is terrific, no surprise. Enjoy your day and tell me what you did and saw, please. ** Adrienne White, Howdy, Adrienne! How was Nick Cave? Nice about the New Jersey trip. Where in New Jersey? Oh, I think that’s plenty exciting, and my life is very excitement-impaired these days, so I’m even envious. ** Scunnard, Yeah, nice quotes, right? She’s a great sentence maker/nailer. I don’t know if Metzger is big in France, but the name totally escaped me until you clued me in. Anyway, it’s not just you. There were/are at least two of us. Only one of us now. I feel so alone. I guess stress is part and parcel re: a project like this. I’m trying to turn it into fuel. Environmentally friendly fuel. Solar power, I guess. Wow, it doesn’t feel like solar power. Solar power seems like it must be so zen. ** David Ehrenstein, Indeed! … All the boys and girls! I’ll try ‘Igby’ again one of these days. I only remember that I found it too cutesy and clever-clever, but I don’t remember why. I know that Christophe’s film is finished. He might still be toying with it a bit in post. I don’t know a huge amount about it. I’m sure it’s going to be great. Have you seen the trailer? If not, it’s here. ** MyNeighbourJohnTurtorro, Hi, Johnny! If I may call you Johnny. Tricks are tricky in the not so good way, but what the heck, right? I’m surprised I haven’t heard the new Swans either. It’s rather inexplicable. I’ll put that absence in the past asap. Well, I’ve been having to keep my mouth shut about the Scott0))) project for quite a while, me being buds with Stephen and all. I haven’t actually heard it yet, but the word among the listener cognoscenti is that it’s amazing, no surprise. But, yeah it’s a crazy thing. And there’s even more on that front that remains inside my forcibly closed mouth for now. We’ll be filming through the first week of September, and then it moves into the editing phase. When it’s finished, which is supposed to be by the end of the year, and then when it’s through post, which should be by early next year, the producers will submit it to festivals. It already has a distribution deal and DVD release guarantee in the US because the US distribution company put money into the project. I think there is some European distribution in place, but I don’t know what. All of that is vague at the moment, but I assume the film will at least start being seen by early/mid next year. My Monday wasn’t so hot, but I’m hoping for better for today. How was your Tuesday? What happened? ** Kier, Hi, K! Wow, really, you bought ‘HG’. She’s so great! I hope you like it. Blue film! Ooh. Wow, you really scored with all that stuff yesterday. Oh, Kate Bush … you know, I don’t really know all that much of her stuff, strangely. I mostly only know the 80s stuff, ‘Running Up that Hill’ and that era. But hardly anything since, for no good reason. So I think she seems pretty great, but I’m kind of a Kate Bush innocent. What do you recommend I get? I’ll get whatever you tell me that I should get. Oh, crap, I see that the rash on your arms has turned into boils! I’m so sorry. Shouldn’t they have made you wear long sleeves or long gloves or something? Shit. Did the doctor give you something to start getting that fixed? Major hugs, my friend! ** Steevee, Hi. From my limited investigation, it does seem like Strypes have a least a bunch of young fans. Oh, the ‘authentic’ thing, right. That’s so uninteresting. That ‘the stuff I grew up listening to is authentic because I personally have an emotional attachment to the style of music made when I was young’ argument is so gross. As is the guitars = authenticity argument. Oh, well, I guess it’s all very harmless. ** Etc etc etc, Hi, man. She’s great! Ugh, hustling. Oh, I just saw yesterday on Facebook that Lazy Fascist Press is currently reading submissions, if you want to try them. They’re a terrific press. Here’s a link to their FB page. Sure, send me a chunk or a few pages, cool. It’ll take me a while to read them because I’m completely overwhelmed with film project stuff for at least the next two weeks, but I would be very interested to read that. That ‘much bigger thing’ you’re working on sounds kind of really mouthwatering. Yeah, my novel. The aforementioned film thing has really cut into my work on it of late, but I’m angling to get back to it asap, and I’m very excited about it. Take care, Casey. ** Sypha, Hi. Yeah, ha ha, I figured you’d be into Jake Bugg. Well, like I said, I sort of find it hard to believe that they won’t want your/Oscar’s book, but, yeah, no harm in widening your fishing grounds. ** Keaton, I’ve never heard of an Italian soda. Maybe France erased my memory. I did meet them both. Nah, I would just watch them skeptically but politely. Wife of Rob Zombie, gotcha. Wow, I really should have been able to guess that one. Gif stacks are really tough and interesting. Obviously, I’m kind of addicted to making them. I think gif stacks are a important new form, and I fully intend to go down in history as one of the forms early serious attempters. Yeah, I do. Have you actually read Joy Williams? Based on what I’ve read of your writing, I would have thought you’d be into her prose. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, B. How was the Franz West show? That sounds promising. I guess I think he’s kind of uneven, but I think some of his work is really something. ** Chilly Jay Chill, Hi, Jeff. Hm, a favorite Joy Williams. That’s hard. I honestly really love everything I’ve read by her, which is almost all of her books, I think. Yeah, I can’t come up with just one. Do you have a fave of hers? I think Zac has that new French ‘Providence’ DVD. We’ve been planning to watch it for weeks. It’s a must have for absolutely sure, as is that R-G box obviously. ** Misanthrope, Oh, you have, have you? Or if you’re a younger top guy into older bottoms. Obviously, that’s a thing too. Everything’s a thing. There are things for everyone out there. Things so thingy that I often sit back and fold my arms and say, ‘Huh’. ** Rewritedept, Hey. Oh, your excerpt will appear in a workshop for sure a week from this coming Saturday. It’s all set. Yesterday was not an improvement, and I’ll leave it at that, ha ha. No, I haven’t read the sample other than kind of skimming it when I was setting up the post. I’ll read it carefully between now and the workshop day. I really just do not have any brain power at the moment that isn’t taxed out and maxed out by this film stuff, and I’m sorry for the delay. I hear you about life stress at the moment big time. High five. ** Okay. Up there is one of those gig posts I do showcasing music I’ve been listening to lately and liking enough to suggest that you discover it yourselves. Enjoy. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
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The traler for the new Honore is fantastic — and is apparently quite different from anything he's done before. It's an adaptation of Ovid.
Love the lions at the end.
I love the idea, any coffee syrup you like and soda. There was a French saying for it I learned in high school but I don't remember it. Haha, so that's mistrust and reverence? Gifs are way hard. You're way good at them. No, just that excerpt, the sentences kept collapsing, it felt sloppy and trite. I imagined like Mario Bros. or something. I'm all about the story. If it's ghosts, monsters, blood, guts, sex, gay boys, etc. I usually like it. Literary theory is the pits. I think it's all got to go. I think writing should be good story telling. I'm off to do some "writing". My writing, what writing? Haha. My writing is uncrafted shit. I am so unhappy with it. Come to think of it, I'm very unhappy with writing in general since reading AR-G. K out, love
The artists today are a good example of what middle-aged people who get excited by the Strypes ought to be checking out instead.
A very thoughtful piece about Robbe-Grillet
Sue Tompkins, so cool. She had a performance in the recent Glasgow International art fest called Orange Brainwash Tribute. It's on the BBC website and most probably unviewable in Paris, bah, but if anyone UK-based would like to watch, then it's
here. Her twin sister Hayley is another essential artist, making abstract paintings. Hayley taught me briefly at art school in Dundee. Ah, good times.
I saw the Franz West show today and it's excellent. Very restless kind of creativity there. Also a bonus display of work by his friends including Kippenberger, Ray Pettibon and Fischli & Weiss. The Hepworth is a great art space and it's a delight to see art like that in Wakefield.
That'll be me back in Dundee tomorrow, and Friday's Studio Jamming presentation is starting to take shape via email and Skype.
hi d, as you saw i woke up today with blisters all over my arms, they hurt so bad. went to the doctor, got some stuff for it. just have to stay away from work and most things for some days and wait for it to calm down. so today all i've done is watch films, i rewatched 'my neighbour totoro' which put me in a better mood, then i watched '964 pinocchio' which was awesome. i also slept some and had a bad dream where i couldn't move and couldn't wake up. i used to suffer from sleep paralysis, which is all kinds of terrible. i never saw aliens or anything like some people say they do, but i did see black creatures coming towards me and stuff (turned out to be a jacket hanging on the wall). kate bush, hm, what should you get… well, she hasn't released much since the 80s so it's no wonder you haven't really heard anything since then. if i was going to pick a favourite album it would be 'the dreaming.' i read your casting call and that scene sounds so exciting and stuff. i hope you get exactly who you need for it. let me know if you do. gonna give today's day a whirl tomorrow! how was your actual day? thanks for the hugs, here's one back.
the one thing i particularly remember from meeting you is that you were a god hugger.
@Kier–I've had sleep paralysis 4 or 5 times, usually when taking naps. I never saw aliens or even any kind of concerete menacing presence, but I had the feeling that I must get up or something awful would happen to me. It took several minutes of effort before the paralysis lifted and I could so so. Nasty shit – I'm glad it's been several years.
My Richard Linkater interview went OK. The most surprising thing was that he's really libertarian about guns. He was very defensive about the scene in BOYHOOD where a 15-year-old boy's grandfather gives him a gun as a birthday gift.
DC DC DC, sorry i disappeared. i have been lurking though, escorts, honored guest, etc. how's your film coming?
ours is fine except casting the one male role is pretty hard. we need a tall tattooed dude, which shouldn't really be so difficult, but it's proving weirdly tricky. i saw white lung last night – do you know them? lead singer is amazing.
xo
torn
Hey Dennis – Great round up on new music. Really excited to check out the new Bug and Shabazz Palaces in particular. Have you heard the entire new Owen Pallett yet? I've been meaning to investigate and I like the song you posted here.
I'm heading tomorrow to catch two of Merge's 25th anniversary concerts at the Cat's Cradle. Ridiculous line-ups of Destroyer, Superchunk, Mountain Goats, David Kilgour, Clientele, Imperial Teens, Eleanor Friedberger, RockaTeens, etc. Then I'm off to Baltimore to read with Lucy Corin. An action-packed few days ahead.
Not sure I've read enough Joy Williams to have a favorite – really liked Quick & The Dead and enjoying Breaking & Entering just as much. Haven't gotten to the other two novels yet. Read many short stories across various collections over the years, but know them more as individual tales than as books.
Let me know how the Providence dvd is — it's something like 60 euros with shipping right now which is just too much. Hopefully the overseas price will go down. I saw a new Werner Schroeter dvd just came out as well. Need to save up my coins.
Hi Dennis, a fine gig as alway.
Eleh is my favorite here but I will dig more into the newish stuff.
Does someone like Peter Rehberg or Stephen O`Malley know Eleh personally?!
I saw the casting call and I cross fingers that it will be a success.
I will travel to Amsterdam for the weekend. First time for me in Amsterdam, just for the weekend but perhaps a nice primer.
Dennis, I knew I missed an angle re: that inter-gen vid. For some reason, younger top into older bottom didn't spring first to my mind, hehehe.
Which, joking aside, does kind of surprise me because if you ever take a gander at craigslist, then you'll see a lot of younger for older on there, tops, bottoms, versatiles, what have you.
And yeah, I think I've actually read all of Joy Williams' stuff. I like it. I like here.
Dennis, well, yesterday I found out that Tartarus Press was accepting submissions for short story collections, so I sent them a synopsis and the 1st 3 stories. I don't know if you've ever heard of them, but they're one of THE most prestigious and well-respected publishers of weird fiction and supernatural horror today, perhaps best known for reprinting older works by such luminaries of the form like Arthur Machen and Robert Aickman while at the same time publishing modern day talents such as Quentin S. Crisp and Reggie Oliver. Man, if I could get published through them, I'd be ecstatic, but I know it's a long shot. I have many of their books, and they're all beautiful collector's items.
Got Kyler's book in the mail today. On around page 30. Really enjoying it so far.
d-
no worries. so far, i think you're the only one i've sent it to who even skimmed it, but who knows? the email i sent to everyone else ended with 'if you want to give me notes, i would love it. be brutal, honest, unflinching. tell me what you hated. you can tell me what you liked, too. just don't tell me it's fucked up, because, obviously, i already know that.' other than michael, who is also being gracious enough to give it his time, most of my friends aren't well versed in writers like you, burroughs, ellis, welsh, et al. so they'll probably be a little perturbed by the content. such is life, though. i'm just so excited to finally be working on a writing project i care about deeply. it's kind of a first for me, excepting, of course, my guest days here, but those aren't large scale like this is.
cool gig day, though i didn't get the chance to give it the thorough going-over it deserves. but, i'll be the office all day tomorrow, so i can do it then.
was yesterday an improvement over the last few? mine wasn't. this weekend should be ok. i'm kinda losing my mind, truth be told. all the usual shit.
oh! i get to hang a couple pieces at my friend's gallery for first friday next week. dunno if i'll sell anything, because all i have are originals, but maybe i'll make prints if demand calls for it? i'm probably definitely going to hang the 'all the way alive' drawing i did a couple months back. the pettibon-esque one. if i finish the triptych i started while i was tripping last week, probably hang that one too.
ok. well i hope yesterday was lovely and that today is just peachy. love from across the pond and all that. talk soon.
-c.
Dennis!
Thanks so much for the Lazy Fascist heads-up! — so weird I missed that call, I was just checking out their stuff the other day. W/ blake butler & sam pink & mclanahan they really are the incubator for bigger and weirder things beyond. Just submitted my synopsis for the older novella, now called "Vape," so fingers are crossed.
Here's a two quick excerpts (3 pages total) from "Vape" via dropbox.
And here's actually a very very rough but emblematic, i think, cut from the 'longer thing'. the stand-alone piece is called 'Hood by Air," and yeah, was definitely thinking also of what a death grips-like aesthetic might look like in prose. Hope you dig…
I think i also missed the explanation — what's the film deal that you're currently immersed in? the long awaited porno? or something parallel / separate?
Also, completely slipped from my mind, but meant to tell ya that I'll actually be cruising through paris with my gf round late august (16-27); would be great to meet up if only for a latte or whatever people are drinking over there.
hope everything's well in whatever timezone paris is in, & i'll now have to intercut your The Bug recommendation into my current weird al rotation,
x
c.
ps. dunno if you would dig it, but i'm quite smitten with the newish album by the both. it's ted leo and aimee mann's new project. nothing groundbreaking, but pretty beautifully exectued power-pop style tunes. really great, if you happen to be into either of them (which i happen to be a whole lot).