Gig #76: Of late 20: Obnox, Oil Thief, Prurient, Brood Ma, James Blackshaw, Inga Copeland, Felicia Atkinson, Afuken, Holly Herndon, Lotic, Elvis Depressedly, Raketkanon, Blanck Mass, Palace of Swords

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Obnox Carmen, I Love You
‘It’s hard to not read too much into Obnox’s upcoming LP, Know America. A concept record that has Obnox and crew highjacking the feed of Radio 420 AM WEDE in order to see their records finally spun, it’s clear that the record is about the current state of music, about race, about the integrity of musicians and the businessmen that make music their racket. Tired of being pigeonholed, ripped off, cheated, exploited, or — worst of all — neglected, Obnox is taking matters into his own hands, forcing his brand of punk on America. The great irony of it all is that Obnox’s Lamont Thomas chooses to place this within the confines of a radio station. Surely, Thomas understands the diminishing place that radio — even more humorous that he chooses an AM station — plays in the most of our lives, so doesn’t this give the record a sort of antiquated nostalgia? I’d argue against this. Much like radio, the musical landscape has changed. For all of the advantages that digital platforms and social media have brought to music, I think that Thomas has highlighted an important idea: that with the so-called death of the radio did the social role of music in our lives diminish as well? One thing is for sure, if only half the artists out there had even a fraction of the talent and drive of Thomas, music would be better for it.’ — Noisey

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Oil Thief Under The Sand
‘Even if you’ve never heard of a band before, if they’re on Chondritic Sound, you know what you’re getting…sort of. Truth be told the label trades in just about all manifestations and sub-genres of electronic noise, making Oil Thief, the new project from LA’s Lee Landley, a perfect fit. Power electronics, death industrial, classic Gristle noise, and a hint of the hypnotic proto techno that’s been worming its way into noise in recent years all slowly cycle through Obsolescence & Monality. Landley’s screeched vocals, which sound like they’re coming from the bottom of a well, act more as a secondary rhythmic device than anything, adding nuance to long and incessant deathmarches. “Under The Sand” is as emblematic as anything on the LP, with repetitive pressure valve clanging and wheezing juxtaposed against more organic and loping textures. For something with an ostensibly dirge-like mood, it’s a remarkably busy and dynamic track (and record on the whole), with plenty of elements oozing in and out of focus. Things close strongly with “Homesickness”, in which a driving beat and harmonic pads seem to be at war with high pitched static and sine waves, almost determined to push through the chaos and impose order.’ — I Die You Die

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Prurient Dragonflies To Sew You Up
‘After over 15 years of releasing material as Prurient and ventures into experimental dance music as Vatican Shadow (not to mention Exploring Jezebel, Fernow’s implied involvement in Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement, and outings with JK Flesh, Cold Cave etc.), Frozen Niagara Falls feels like a reflection not only on past experience, but also on the styles of music that helped to create them. The album is dripping in homage to power electronics, harsh noise, and ambient synth music; it’s a combination of influences that have been explored to varying extents throughout his back catalogue, and it’s been done here to impeccable effect. The resulting tracks make for a celebration of the most diverse city (the atmospheric synths on “Every Relationship Earthrise”) and a lamentation of its curse (the bludgeoning dirge of “Cocaine Daughter”). The album plays on the unknowable possibilities that one might encounter in a metropolis — it fucks with any expectations by combining unexpected instrumental techniques (“Wildflowers (Long Hair With Stocking Cap)”) with the crushing dominance that was ramified with harsh noise on And Still, Wanting. These subtle contrasts are brought to the fore from the opening track onward, where cool synths and building percussion allude to a precious state.’ — Tiny Mix Tapes

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Blood Ma Monaco
‘James B Stringer took the name Brood Ma from his favourite China Miéville novel, Perdido Street Station. A classic of New Weird fiction, it paints a Tolkienian fantasy grown urban, strange and sprawling. “There’s a plasticity to the world, a civilisation that’s gone mouldy and organically adapted”… For the past few years, Stringer has been running his own free digital-only online label, or collective, or “whatever Quantum Natives is”, together with Awe IX, who provided its first release as Yearning Kru. The pair met at a London art school in the mid-2000s, where they became frustrated with the art world and academia. They were interested – especially after Stringer’s “crap” paintings were all stolen – in digital image-making, then peripheral and derided but now fashionable. But Stringer and Awe IX were (and are) not interested in the clean, cold aesthetics of so much contemporary net art. They also turned to music, especially the messy power of noise and grime. “Grime made garage seem dangerous. You go from gloss to realism. It was created in a very functional way, quite immediate in its expression, and it was the same with noise.’ — The Wire

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James Blackshaw Summoning Suns
‘A decade ago, James Blackshaw emerged as a leading young stylist for instrumental acoustic guitar music. He’d started as many of his peers have, offering knotty revisions of songs with “blues” or “rag” appended to the title. But he soon assimilated new influences (Van Dyke Parks, Bert Jansch, Sandy Denny, Joanna Newsom, Harry Nilsson, Elliott Smith) into his six- and 12-string songs, from a classical grandeur borrowed from romantic composers to immersive atmospheres that seemed to reflect an interest in mysticism. Between 2006 and 2010, he issued a string of impossibly beautiful records in that vein, epitomized by his cascading Tompkins Square debut, The Cloud of Unknowing. Droning chords provided ballast beneath fluid fingerpicking, gilded sometimes by coruscating piano and strings. Blackshaw had transcended those formative blues to reposition existential sadness and spiritual wonder as self-made sanctuaries of sound.’ — Grayson Haver Currin

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Inga Copeland Miss Understood
‘Inga Copeland flexes a new moniker and altered palette in the surreal chamber pops of RELAXIN’ with Lolina. At an avant intersection of R&B;, dancehall minimalism and electro-pop, Lolina creates her own world of sonic oddity and nursery rhyme delivery. The self-titled opener sounds like Autechre’s ‘Piezo’ given a lo-fi baroque pop make-over, while the MIDI keys and grubby bounce of ‘Miss Understood’ warp like a funfair mirror version of a Palmistry riddim. Most unsettling of all, ‘Relaxx’ hits stranger pleasure centres with deliciously discordant piano and disconcerting vocal reminding us of Carole Caroompas. It’s really kinda genius.’ — Boomkat

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Félicia Atkinson Against Archives
‘The strangest and strongest album we’ve heard yet from avant-garde traveller, Felicia Atkinson. Arriving from Oregon, USA, via the French Alps base of Shelter Press – the publishing platform she runs with Bartolomé Sanson – it unfolds a highly visual sonic topography built upon collaged and randomly selected texts taken from her 2014 publication, Improvising Sculpture as Delayed Fictions, plus Rechereche de la Base et du Sommet (René Char, 1955), and Madame Edwarda (Georges Bataille, 1937). We’re informed that the production is DIY, recorded with super basic software on a laptop, yet we wouldn’t describe it as lo-fi in the usual, gritty sense; it’s more a surreal and poetic arrangement of jarring elements – pulsing ambient techno noise and drowsy vocals in ‘Against Archives’; crisply roiling doom scapes at whsipered erotic texts in ‘LOeil’; tactile bass tones and Lynchian chamber space in ‘Carve The Concept And The Artichoke’. Colour us enchanted.’ — Boomkat

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Akufen 1 1 (Thomas Brinkmann Remix)
‘Marc Leclair, better known by his stage name Akufen, is a Canadian electronic musician. His music is electronic music that is often described as minimal house, minimal techno, glitch, or micro house. His 2002 release entitled My Way introduced his concept of “microsampling”, which was essentially a way of using extremely small and short clips of samples he had randomly recorded off of FM radio broadcasts as a key musical element. Leclair’s pseudonym comes from the French word for tinnitus (ringing of the ears), acouphène, and he has also gone under the pseudonyms Horror Inc., David Scott, Nefuka, and Anna Kaufen.’ — collaged

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Holly Herndon Interference
‘Holly Herndon works in a post-human mode that’s become customary in electronic music, yet remains abstract in realms beyond. Voices figure heavily in Platform, her follow-up to a breakthrough album in 2012, but they’re spliced, diced, dissected — too processed, in any case, to suggest origins in a fleshy human being with dynamic feelings and moods. That doesn’t mean dynamism is absent, though. From the start, Platform draws drama out of changes in speed and texture and many little parts that work together to make a sort of musical machine. Not music by a machine or for a machine ­— it’s music as a machine itself, with working orders and operating procedures that make for different kinds of effects. Some of those effects prove surprisingly human in the end. “Interference” opens with a stuttering, strobing display of many of the techno-minded sounds enlisted throughout; the track has a gentle sense of propulsion suited less for a dance club than a movie scene in which a forlorn protagonist drives down a highway at night.’ — Andy Battaglia

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Lotic Slay
‘There are familiar ideas in J’Kerian Morgan’s music, but they’re rarely left undamaged. Rather than working within existing genres, Morgan takes templates and smashes them against the wall, letting the resulting splatter form a sort of musical Rorschach pattern. As Lotic, he shares a penchant for destruction with his fellow residents from Janus, a roving Berlin party that emphasizes weirdness and otherness. Initially known for his love of R&B; and pop, Lotic’s music took a darker turn around the time Janus’s monthly event ended, resulting in the tortured 27-minute collage Damsel In Distress. Morgan described the free release as a “cry for help” and a “clean slate,” and his debut for Tri Angle follows in its footsteps. Heterocetera is a confrontational EP. Opener “Suspension” is laced with antagonistic tones, as if in listening to it you’ve triggered an intruder alarm. The title track turns the infamous Masters At Work “ha!” (a ballroom staple) into a cloud that hovers over hissing gaskets and turning gears, while the rat-at-at attack of “Phlegm” is just as erratic. “Slay” and “Underneath,” both of which bring to mind fellow Tri Angle newbie Rabit in their use of blank space and reverb, offer a zero-gravity respite, though they’re still crunchy and foreboding.’ — Resident Advisor

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Elvis Depressedly N.M.S.S.
‘Elvis Depressedly’s New Alhambra is a dark horse contender for the best album of the year. It’s a record full of lush, sedate, synth-heavy pop music that weaves in samples of televangelists and professional wrestlers, each side essentially functioning as its own extended, multi-part song. The songs conflate worship and entertainment,fire and brimstone and hell in a cell, a choir in a cathedral and entrance music over a tinny PA. It’s an engrossing listen, by turns tranquil, terrifying, heart-rending and inspiring. The specter of Chris Benoit — the pro wrestler who, suffering from brain damage brought on by repeated chair hits directly to the head, killed his wife, son, and himself — hangs over the album. The lyrics seem concerned with the point where ring violence becomes real violence, where biblical wrath becomes personal tragedy.’ — Flavorwire

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Raketkanon Herman
‘Raketkanon blaast, spuwt en knalt alles en iedereen op zijn doortocht aan flarden. Met een bezetting bestaande uit een handvol gevestigde muzikanten Pieter-Paul Devos, (Kapitan Korsakov) en met vertakkingen naar Waldorf en Tomàn. Voor de opnames van hun tweede langspeler RKTKN #2 wist de groep niemand minder dan Steve Albini te strikken. Deze legendarische producer was in het verleden verantwoordelijk voor onder andere albums van Nirvana, PJ Harvey, The Jesus Lizard en The Pixies. De bedoeling was om de plaat zo live mogelijk te laten klinken, en dat is blijkbaar gelukt. DaMusic heeft het zelfs over een “hyperkinetische concertervaring”. Ook elders niets dan lof: “Als we het onszelf makkelijk willen maken, dan zouden we er de recensie van 2012 bijhalen en er nog wat superlatieven aan toevoegen, want nummer 2 overtreft nummer 1 toch wel.” – Enola. “En Raketkanon smaakt zo explosief lekker, dat je daar sowieso vrolijk van wordt!” – Cortonville.’ — DEMO

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Blanck Mass Detritus
‘Benjamin John Power’s first official recorded venture away from his fellow Fuck Button Andrew Hung, under the name Blanck Mass, felt instantly familiar, but a particular absence nagged in places. On Dumb Flesh, containment is a central theme. The title alludes to how humans are limited by the imperfections of their bodies. For all the supposed evolutionary advancements and achievements of the human mind over civilization’s lifespan, there are more ways to get cancer than ever before, and death still awaits us all – at least until Google figures out how to upload our consciousness to the cloud. Powers puts the body at the forefront of his audience’s mind is by suggesting that they move it. In a U-turn from the cerebral escape of Blanck Mass, Dumb Flesh stretches tautly over gnarled techno bones. Like a shiny new penny left submerged long enough in Coca-Cola, the elements of dance music corrode here in Power’s hands. Like Fuck Buttons, Dumb Flesh doesn’t deconstruct electronica, but it does repurpose it, skeptically questioning its motives. Unlike Fuck Buttons, Power isn’t interested in creating immovable monoliths on Dumb Flesh. The cyborg groan of the opening “Loam” is about as close to Blanck Mass as the album gets, though its surface is craggier. From there, first single “Dead Format” erupts without notice, throbbing fully formed and foreboding, as if the second half of all those tracks from the debut had been found after all. “No Lite” makes a similar first impression, throwing the listener into a cacophonous whirl. Instead of raging on, it simmers down to a few remaining wisps, then finds its slalom and builds back up in a completely different form.’ — Pop Matters

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Palace of Swords Ringstone Round
‘Palace of Swords are an experimental /garage/ visual band based in Aberdeen, Scotland. Formed in July 2010, the band consists of a shifting line-up overseen and orchestrated by multi-instrumentalist Peter Lyon. Palace of Swords’ music has been variously described as ‘medieval dirge’, ‘pop art gothic’ and ‘space-minimalism’. Their cited influences include Erik Satie, Kenneth Anger soundtracks, The Fall, Felt, Neu! and Nico.’ — collaged

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p.s. Hey. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi. Mm … I don’t think I know it. I should, post-haste, I gather? And will do. Well, your Sacks piece was superb, if I didn’t so say so before, so a ton and half just sounds like justice to me. ** David S. Estornell, Thanks, David! ** Tosh Berman, Hi, Tosh. Thank you. That sounds familiar about Louis the 16th. I’m going to hunt that down. ** Bill, The gun key was sweet, right? I don’t know ‘Locke and Key’. I wondered where that came from. Super good book haul there. ** Sypha, Hi, James. Oh, okay. Yeah, I’ve never investigated Ligotti other than reading one book of his fiction whose title escapes me but which I thought was quite good. I’m with you on ‘Hospice’. If you knew how much work it takes to keep Harry Styles away from this blog as much as I have thus far. ** Cal Graves, Top of my morning and maybe even yours (?) to you, sir! Insanely high is good. No apologies necessary. I even like insanely high commentary. No, I mean … I think there are a fair amount of tourists who don’t realize that the infamous Bastille prison, which is what the place was originally named after, burned down centuries ago, so you do see a bunch of foreigners standing around there wondering what the big fuss is all about. I can’t wait for our film to be out too! I hope you fixed the writing thing, as planned. Oh, wow, your blog is full of heavenly looking stuff by you. Awesome! Should I read it from the beginning, or should I read it backwards, blog-style? Everyone, Cal Graves, d.l. and, much more significantly, writer supreme, has finished a writing project called ‘The Daily Assignation’ whose location is his blog, and I highly, oh so very highly, urge you to go here, which is where it is, and then either start devouring it right now or else bookmark the thing pronto for imminently future reading. Do that, okay? Trust me. Yum! Err, pristinely, Dennis. ** Brendan, Ha ha ha! Yay, Brendan! ** Steevee, Hi. Well, I still haven’t seen ‘Mad Max’, but if all it takes to be important and genius is making wise character and casting decisions, that seems kind of crazy. It seems like a ‘whoo-hoo’ might suffice? ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. I agree. Well, I’ve never made a DJ mix, so I can’t agree authoritatively, but that seems very right. Everyone, before we consign the keys thing yesterday to history, how about adding some sound courtesy of _B_A, and, more rootily, Klaus Nomi’s ‘Keys of Life’. ** Kier, Hi, Kierageous! Cool, I’m glad you liked it. It was fun to make. It was National Day of Norway? I think Zac and I were there on that day a couple of years ago. Is it the day when people dress up in ancient Norwegian garb and walk around all day. In Oslo, at least? Two new lambs, awww. I wish I could see a video of your deftly walking feet surrounded by hungry, excited chickens. Wtf about your farmer boss! He’s just a sour dope. Fuck him! With the Eiffel Tower! I hope your psych things do everything you want them to. Yesterday I think I mostly — yeah, I did — worked on the script of Zac’s and my new film. It’s getting really close to being a finished first draft. I kind of really like it. I’m going to talk to Zac about my latest adds and revisions and ideas today and see if I’m on the right track or not. So that wouldn’t have been too exciting to watch, and it isn’t colorful enough to talk much about, but it was really good. Otherwise, mm, more film stuff. We were told we have to get a bunch of stuff together for ‘LCTG’ right away. Like, in addition to finishing the special effects and doing the last color correcting, French subtitles and also English subtitles for this short part in the film that’s in French, and other stuff. We’ll be planning all of that today. Not much else. Tell me how today treated you, okay? ** Etc etc etc, Hi, Casey. It’s semi-uber touristy. But I’ll get accustomed to that, I guess. There are a fair amount of artists making very good noise stuff nowadays, in no small part due to Merzbow’s pioneering. But I am kind of easy with noise. It’s rare that I hear noise music that I don’t find a lot to like about. Sort of like I am with horror movies or disaster movies. Yeah, yeah, ‘The Infernal’ is incredible. It seems like it has been received well, but it deserves to be hailed and dissected a lot more than it has been, so I’m excited for your in-depth look. I wasn’t very into ‘House of Leaves’. I liked the concept a lot, but not the thing itself so much. Yeah, I exchanged some emails with Ira just the other day. He seems like he’s doing well. He’s restless, but he has always been restless, and that’s part of why he’s great. Bon day! ** Chilly Jay Chill, Thanks, man. It is completely mindboggling how much extremely good fiction is being published with amazing speed right now. Like I’ve said a bunch of times, I’ve never seen anything like this before. A total, maybe unprecedented American fiction renaissance. We take it for granted, but, man, this is an important and amazing time. I’m glad you’re at least getting hiccups of work in on your novel. Mine remains in waiting for me. Hopefully soon. I’m really fired up about the new film that Zac and I want to make, so I’m concentrating on that right now. The new Gisele piece is, I think, written and all but finished, writing-wise, apart from toying and a bit of fiddling, so it’s not so consuming anymore. That’s weird: yesterday I came across an article claiming that Dal Solstag is Norway’s greatest living writer, and I bookmarked it to read, hopefully today. Handke and Davis being fans is obviously a big lure. Exciting possibility, it seems. Thanks, Jeff. ** Misanthrope, Oh, my charm, that old thing? Glad to hear it’s still humming. Ha ha. Jesus Christ, now she’s in jail?! Dude, it sure doesn’t seem like it’s going to be all that hard to emancipate LPS. Not that even an easy emancipation isn’t a massive headache, I’m sure. That’s nuts. I’m so far out of it on WWE these days. I don’t even know 80% of the names you mentioned. I only know Orton, Kane, and Cena. The next Undertaker? Wow. Bray Wyatt, you say? Okay, I’ll get all over that/him. Gracias. ** Michael_karo, Thank you kindly, Mr. Karo. I do remember when you showed me yours in SF. Wow, memory is so interesting. I remember that distinctly in all of those details. Dude, you have so many photos. It’s nuts. Very good nuts. ** Okay. So, today I give you the latest gig made out of some of the latest music I’ve been into in a positive fashion recently bordering on now, and now you will do what you will do with it. Listening/watching at least some of it would be a very good way to deal, for instance. But, yeah. See you tomorrow.