Spacerock with ME!

"Bliss" and "noise" are the same thing - a disruption in the signifying system that holds a culture together... The pleasure of noise lies in the fact that the obliteration of meaning and identity is ecstasy - literally, being out-of-oneself." - Simon Reynolds

This month's installment is a bit of overflow tracks from the Best of 2011 contenders mixed with a grab bag of random assorted entries tagging along according to my stream of consciousness. So dive in!

I'm not sure why Russian Circles didn't make it into my Top Ten, possibly because they were less surprising than those who did, but they're nonetheless consistently mindblowing, and last year's release is their strongest effort yet, as this face-melting lead-off track proves. Next another submission from Opeth's #1 position in the Best Of, this one a shorter, more concise variation on what makes the album so great, a return to classic 70s prog filtered through their previous incarnation as black metal practitioners. The butoh-prog chicks in Yamantaka/Sonic Titan were a left field entry, but tracks like this diptych show why they made it. The similarly monickered Titan take prog to epic proportions managing to conjure bellbottom jeans and blacklights but without being lost in the quagmire of retro. And Pontiak, who had no output in 2011 but are releasing another full-length as I write this, are just perfect made-for-the-cinema desert (or "stoner") rock, supposedly improvised (or perhaps extemporaneous) in the studio. Can't wait to hear more from them.

Some listeners may be surprised to see my inclusion of a fairly mainstream "alt" rock band from the 90s, but Smashing Pumpkins had their moments of pure sonic bliss, especially on their debut album from which I culled this slow-burning scorcher. The relatively low-fidelity from the old school CD mastering on this track requires you to TURN IT UP LOUD! So do it! And now that we're back to the rawkin', make sure you got your rock pants on cuz Turing Machine is a freaking rock juggernaut in the Maserati/Trans Am vein, only named after a meta-computer instead of sports cars (although their blinding motorik does conjure speedy travel).

Taking a turn for the weird/whimsical with this aptly-named track from psychedelic cult/collective Akron/Family's second self-titled (but 5th overall) album, an ongoing cosmic journey. Continuing the whimsy are Sacramento basement-dwelling spaz-psych-proggers Pterodactyl who turned out one of the sleepers of the year last year. Suuns put the weird in whimsy, straddling the line between Velvet Underground hipster drone and woozy damaged electronica. If you're not convinced in their relevance to this set give them until 1:23. Woah, right? The dreamy AM-radio-hidden-away-in-a-flashlight-lit-closet-in-the-wee-hours-of-the-morning sounds of The Rangers exudes a wistful whimsy, a travelogue through nostalgia. And those far away nostalgic rumblings are echoed in this Grails track, Grails being a band who have always trafficked in such time travels and explorations of dream space.

Mogwai actually had two releases in 2011, but the brief EP of kosmiche mostly-electronic excursions Earth Division was less typical of their modus operandi and more subtle than their usual bombast as exhibited on Hardcore Will Never Die. An interesting departure, nonetheless. The somnolent psych of Jackie-O Motherfucker can be equal parts shambling and shimmering, but this track from 2009 will send you skyward. Speaking of shimmering, that seems to be the best word to describe Woodsman's tribal rhythms and fractal guitars - their latest release made the Top Ten of 2011, and this older track is no slouch either. The oblique sample-heavy meanderings of more recent Disco Inferno was preceded by a shimmering sheen indebted to early Factory or 4AD Records bands (A Certain Ratio, Durutti Column, et al.) as shown on this track. And the experimental post punk guitar mangling of Sonic Youth maestro Thurston Moore could be described as alternately shimmering and discordant, abstruse, atonal... and transcendent. It's astounding that he can translate the mayhem and majesty of his electric guitar work to an acoustic setting, with the help of string arrangements by Beck (!). The title of this track says it all, simply. Another one of 2011's very best.

How about another clatter-psych workout from the enigmatic, can't-get-enough-of-'em Woods? Not a non sequitur, this track, which was culled from a pre-first album demo, but instead an introduction to yet another segment showcasing experiMENTAL americana. Following in that vein: U.S. Maple, a loose and ramshackle outfit that colors outside the lines like an even more unhinged Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band; the sinister, psychedelic sprawl and soaring guitars of rural Davis, CA's sadly defunct Thin White Rope; the precursor to the Chicago post rock scene's pseudo-traditionalist entry Califone back when they were developing their sound as Red Red Meat; and, per last month's installment, three more tracks from the bands who bring German motorik to the American road: the always playfully experimental Wilco, the oddly Eno-esque drivin' and cryin' of The War On Drugs, and their former guitarist/cohort Kurt Vile with a fitting tribute to his comrades and contingency amongst us space rockers, the FREAK TRAIN... ALL ABOARD!!!

For you traditionalists who don't mind streaming from this site, the following tracks should appear in the first player below:

The Spacerock Continuum Theme - bRambles
309 - Russian Circles - Empros
Slither - Opeth - Heritage
Reverse Crystal // Murder of a Spider - Yamantaka//Sonic Titan - Yt//St
Wooded Altar Beyond The Wander - Titan - Sweet Dreams
Sun On Sun - Pontiak - Sun On Sun
Rhinoceros - Smashing Pumpkins - Gish
(Got My) Rock Pants On - Turing Machine - A New Machine For Living
Silly Bears - Akron/Family - S/T II: The Cosmic Birth And Journey Of Shinju TNT
Aphasia - Pterodactyl - Spills Out
Armed For Peace - Suuns - Zeroes
Khyber Pass - The Rangers - Pan Am Stories
I Led Three Lives - Grails - Deep Politics
Drunk & Crazy - Mogwai - Earth Division
Skylight - Jackie-O Motherfucker - Ballads Of The Revolution
Insects - Woodsman - Rare Forms
Entertainment - Disco Inferno - In Debt
Space - Thurston Moore - Demolished Thoughts
The Creeps - Woods - Woods Family Creeps
My Lil' Shocker - U.S. Maple - Purple On Time
Take It Home - Thin White Rope - Moonhead
Sulfur - Red Red Meat - There's A Star Above The Manger Tonight
Speak Into The Rose - Wilco - The Whole Love
Come To The City - The War On Drugs - Slave Ambient
Freak Train - Kurt Vile - Childish Prodigy




But don't forget, you also have the option of spacerock to go:



1. Click on the Divshare logo instead of pushing the play button in the player above.

2. Click "download" when redirected to the Divshare site (put it on your desktop for easy access).

3. Once downloaded, drag it to yer iTunes and sync it with yer pod - simple!

The Best of 2011 List! Finally!

Here it is, spacerockers! My Top Ten Albums of 2011 list, along with the runners-up:

1. Opeth - Heritage
2. Megafaun s/t
3. Jesse Sykes And The Sweet Hereafter - Marble Son
4. Thurston Moore - Demolished Thoughts
5. Pterodactyl - Spills Out
6. Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die But You Will
7. Grails - Deep Politics
8. Woodsman - Rare Forms
9. White Hills - HP-1
10. Unknown Mortal Orchestra s/t

Reissues:
Supreme Dicks - Breathing And Not Breathing
Disco Inferno - The 5 EPs

Honorable mention:
Zs - Arms
The Psychic Paramount - II
Chris Forsyth - Paranoid Cat
Russian Circles - Empros
Battles - Gloss Drop
The Oscillation - Veils
Yuck s/t
The Rangers - Pan Am Stories
Woods - Sun & Shade
The War On Drugs - Slave Ambient
Quilt s/t
Paul Weller - Wake Up The Nation





Opeth are the surprise sleeper of the year: a band who in the past were known for full-on BLACK METAL, replete with the growled Cookie Monster vocals and manic downtuned fretboard shredding. But apparently a deep appreciation for classic prog rock was lying under their dark veneer and on this album, my favorite of the year, it has been exposed, shined up for all to witness, and it WORKS! Brilliantly. Also residing in the near-metal realm are instrumental post-rockers Russian Circles, who leap so far out in front of the post-metal genre they helped create with this new album they're impossible to pigeonhole - another totally surprising album. Helms Alee continue their metal-gaze explorations on their sophomore effort, every bit as uncompromisingly heavy yet melodic as their first. Speaking of surprises, Yamantaka/Sonic Titan are a complete left field head scratcher: a female Japanese-Canadian face-melting prog metal duo, or as they cheekily dub it "noh-wave," referencing no wave and noh, the classical form of Japanese musical drama. Woah. Dig it.

Not surprisingly, White Hills return with a new collection of lengthy acid/prog/krautrock epics, all designed to fry your mind. Wooden Shjips also return and make no new leaps forward, not that any are necessary - their heavy trance guitar workouts reside firmly in the "if it ain't broke" camp. The Drift, who in the past trafficked in fairly lightweight instrumental post rock, have beefed up their sound on this recent release, much to our benefit. Cave continue to put the motor in motorik, zooming down the autobahn and off into outer space. And The Psychic Paramount slams the motorik throttle wide open, and careens wildly all over the spaceways, injecting high-octane free jazz flailing to the mix.

Now, Boris... what can be said about a band like Boris? Devilish Japanese sludge-metal monsters, this trio has always enjoyed confusing their audience, constantly reinventing themselves and expanding on older efforts, recombining, repackaging and remixing, as well as collaborating with the likes of SunnO)))), Merzbow, Ghost's Michio Kurihara and The Cult's Ian Astbury. And this year they've gone even farther than diehard fans may have ever anticipated, releasing not one, not two, but three new albums in one year. And by "new" I mean mostly new. Heavy Rocks shares the name of an obscure out of print Japanese release they put out early in their career, but none of the same material - the title succinctly describes the colossal sonics contained within. Attention Please shifts attention to female singer Wata and a lighter, dreamier poppier sound, if you can believe that, expanding on the quasi-shoegaze direction they've been dabbling with here and there. And a third release, simply (and bafflingly) titled New Album, takes material from both those albums along with a handful of other tracks and experiments by reworking them with a mainstream dance/pop producer to a fine-glossed crispy crunchy sheen, to mixed yet interesting results. I mean, Boris will never be a mainstream band... or will they? What's next for these illusive yet prolific tricksters? Seemingly anything's possible.

The mighty Mogwai return with yet another departure/deviation on their theme of crushing instruMENTAL musix. Dropping a bit of the head-exploding dynamcis for more subtle shifts and ethereal textures, this album is their most expansive yet. It's nice to see they can continue to reinvent themselves without losing integrity or intensity. And yes, there ARE vocals, but in their more recently tried-and-true vocoder style... just another instrument. Woodsman never disappoint with their continued exploration of Reichian guitars, chanted mantras and transcendent polyrhythms, as illustrated by this track from their fourth album. Esoteric postrockers Collections Of Colonies Of Bees popped out a stop-gap EP in 2011, but the four similarly-titled instrumentals (this from a band whose Fa.ce (a album included seven instrumental tracks and an eighth called "Mu_rder", and their Customer release contained nine tracks all called "Fun" and a tenth titled "Funeral") are more than just something to tide us over until the next full-length. In fact this collection may their most cohesive set yet, as they explore a lighter more exultant style, uplifting more than confounding. Brooklyn warehouse collective free-jazzbo-hippies Zs are a wondrous discovery for me; often erroneously filed under noise, they're anything but (if that makes you think of Black Dice or Wolf Eyes or the like). More like latter day Coltrane attending the Branca/Chatham/Riley/Reich school and jamming at recess with Fela Kuti and a mega-tight drum circle. Whew! And Battles seems like they're having more fun than ever with their herky-jerky math rock, full of bizarre time signatures and unsettling rhythmic riffs, despite retaining its complexity coming off totally light-hearted and playful. Losing their arguably most experimental member, Tyondai Braxton, has allowed the now-trio to collaborate with a host of vocalists to mix things up a bit (witness last month's installment featuring their track with Gary Numan!).

The Modfather Paul Weller put out his most expansive release yet with a sublime potpourri of slippery Northern Soul, barnburning calls-to-arms, prog mini-suites and not a little bit of psychedelia, as evidenced by this track. Very impressive, especially at this point in his long and illustrious career. Pterodactyl were previously a spazzy postpunk/mathrock unit with psychedelic tendencies but have recently been indulging a proclivity for classic prog (and not a little Beach Boys and Elephant 6 bands, especially The Olivia Tremor Control) on this new album, to monumental effect. The album's a real grower (and way underappreciated in the press), as the longest-lasting ones usually are.

A little bit softer now... Quilt conjure the Haight-Ashbury of Slicks and Garcias, tie-dyes and moonbeams, but manage to make the old new again with faithful reinventions of a bygone era, with angelic harmonies to boot. Speaking of era-specific, Grails have lately mined a wealth of a few years later and an ocean away, with raw material culled from vintage krautrock and Turkish psych, and finally melded a composite entirely their own, but with obvious touchpoints. The always patient low-and-slow Barn Owl anchor their minimal repetitive mantras with a bit more solid rhythmic ground with their latest, yet somehow still achieve completely airborne transcendency.

Plaid, normally a free-flowing and upbeat 'n' groovy psych-tronica duo, have a track here that fits right in with the current theme of gauzy fever dreams. Dark. And so krautronic that one would never know it's not Cluster. And 15 years after their last album, Seefeel make a majestic comeback with their oddest set yet, further stripping all analog instruments beyond recognition (except for their trademark dub bass in places), distorting guitars and feedback loops into electronica-sounding washes of sound augmented by fractured drum programs. This song is aptly titled, with a nudge and a wink. Welcome back!

The Horrors, as mentioned in previous installments, have morphed from gothy-glamsters worshiping at the altar of Nick Cave and Robert Smith to post-shoegazers who remember the early works of Ride, Chapterhouse, Slowdive et al., despite probably being toddlers when that music was prevalent. Panda Bear (aka Noah Lennox) has moved even farther away from his Animal Collective toward the simultaneously sunny and shadowy beachscapes of Brian Wilson. If he's not careful he'll drown in a sea of reverb. Ganglians hail from Sacramento, yet come off like the elfen brethren that inhabit Syd Barrett's Cambridge garden, equal parts mischievous and mystical. Gauntlet Hair seem to come from similar climes as Animal Collective and the current crop of echo-tastic warehouse culture indie freakshows. The album is uneven but has hints at future brilliance. Another hair band (no, not hair metal), Wet Hair also borrow from the mystick origins of 60s schlockadelica, yet make it compelling and, dare I say it, fun? Groovy, baby.

Yuck's debut was a real sleeper, coming from seemingly nowhere but as immediately familiar as classic 90s American indie rock - it's an album chock full of spot-the-influence, from Archers Of Loaf's pristine noise pop to Yo La Tengo's blazing guitar rave-ups to walls of shoegazing guitars almost as monstrous as Dinosaur Jr.'s. Dang kids - they do it perfectly. Les Savy Fav came back with another post-punk ripper, perfectly melding the aforementioned 90s indie with herky-jerky Fugazi post-hardcore (but with a better sense of humor) and full-on psychedelic anthems. And the supreme sleeper of the year Unknown Mortal Orchestra aren't nearly space rock, but their lo-fi psychedelic soul and mutant R&B is so left field and exciting they fit into my top ten releases this year, despite averaging three minutes a song instead of thirteen. Psychotically catchy.

Possibly more than ANY band I've ever heard (and that's saying a lot), Supreme Dicks must be the most enigmatic and puzzlingly captivating thing I've stumbled across. Maybe because I came to them after the fact (with the help of this recently-released 4-disc compilation of pretty much their entire output), or maybe because of their amalgam of obtuse, seemingly extemporaneously-composed, guitar work a la Jandek (the mysterious yet prolific loner who has self-released dozens of albums - feeding a select and rabid underground fan base - featuring a guitar he either could not tune, refused to tune, or following an idiot-savant doctrine only he could fathom he may have intentionally de-tuned to challenge yet embrace the dedicated listener), addled vocal mumblings a la David Baker from early Mercury Rev, fractured, disjointed and nonlinear arrangements that make "bands" like U.S. Maple, Sunburned Hand Of The Man, Tower Recordings, or No-Neck Blues Band sound tight and controlled, and with meandering instrumentals reminiscent of early Hood or a more restrained Swell Maps, and spoken-sung impressionistic storytelling of a totally unique bent. This track is especially fun in how it morphs from quietly amorphous falling-apart freakout to Stonesy blooz jam (is it "Gimme Shelter"?) at the end. And this is just one example of how this band exemplifies the WTF? genre of spacey musix. Epic yet understated, and an important part of the lexicon of outsider art.

Speaking of confounding, the ironically-named Disco Inferno is a band that started life as a Factory Records style post punk unit in the early 90s, then brought in a sampler to augment their already abstruse guitar work and rambling understated speak/sing lyricism and based every song around unusual Midi-triggered samples of everything from obscure artists' songs to found-sound musique concrete. This track is from a recent compilation of obscure EPs to flesh out their catalog on one easy disc (albeit admittedly uneasy listening). Woods have always known how to strip things down without lessening their impact, as this micro-jam illustrates perfectly, acoustic improv and pocket symphony all rolled into one, on this their fifth release. Their subtle lo-fi pastorals just never get old. So... if you're the godfather of dissonant post punk experimentation with decades of band releases behind you, where do you go next? To the acoustic realm of course, as Thurston Moore has done on his finest yet solo release, augmented by swirling discordant string arrangements from Beck, of all people. Truly inspired in his stripped-down re-imagining of the style of his electric work with Sonic Youth. Ace, from top to bottom. Another one of my top albums of 2011 finds Jesse Sykes taking it up a notch or three, with her Sweet Hereafter playing a more prominent role in extended instrumental workouts evoking the Laurel Canyon of old, and instead of their previous uber-quiet slow jams focusing on her whiskey-stained velvet voice they indulge in cathartic dynamics that transport the listener. Their best release yet.

Ms. Sykes hasn't completely jettisoned her Americana/alt-country roots but she has evolved beyond them. On the other hand, many modern artists have managed to seemlessly incorporate space rock and psychedelia into true American roots music. The underground cult of personality known as Bonnie Prince Billy (aka Will Oldham, aka Palace and its various offshoots) has pretty much always done folk music, although it has varied from somnambulant minimalism to clanking clamorous newgrass. His latest in a long line a variously-ascribed releases finds him adding spacey atmospherics to the mix. The cleverly monikered Kurt Vile got his start as a guitarist for sundry alt-country outfits (see The War On Drugs a couple songs later) but his solo work showcases layered yet non-showy guitar virtuosity, a knack for the near-hook of classic folk-pop, as well as an obvious appreciation for kraut/motorik and psych. Chris Forsyth's guitar extravaganza ranged from meditative Faheyesque pickin' 'n' drones to all-out Velvet Underground-in-a-juke-joint blowouts. Though this track is more fitting with the alt-country section of this set, seek his songs out on two other previous installments. Wilco started as a fairly straight-forward alt-country unit, but maestro Jeff Tweedy's love of Beatles-esque arrangements, experimental dissonance (thanks in part to the addition of freak-jazz guitarist Nels Cline - check the guitar break around 4:30) and, again, some motorik rhythmic devices, has taken his accomplished band into diverse realms of musical genre, defying facile categorization. The War On Drugs are a more refined version of the formula we're examining here, with a sound that evokes wild vistas - the expansiveness of open space - and the sensation of movement via textbook motorik rhythms that conjure freight trains screaming through wide open spans of the American West and guitar treatments not unlike the ones Brian Eno designed for U2. Megafaun reside at the crossroads of American roots traditionalism and Chicago-school post rock (Tortoise, Gastr Del Sol), an intersection that many people would be surprised to find exists. Love the use of backwards guitars and feedback on this track - and so uplifting - my fave song of 2011. And if they come across as an Americana band trapped on a slightly sinister HAL-helmed Battlestar Galactica, searching for an ideal world to re-inhabit, they make it seem like a trip we all should be on. And aren't we, indeed, after all? And speaking of trippy, we close with a lengthy suite from the enigmatically-named Rangers, a ramshackle lo-fi contingent exploring Americana/roots and well as stuttering psychedelic soul and mangled Motown mayhem, a heady brew for the new year to come.

This here's a nearly FOUR HOUR SET, in two parts, so make some time, set the mood, relax, listen and enjoy.

The following tracks should appear in the first player below:

The Spacerock Continuum Theme - bRambles
The Devil's Orchard - Opeth - Heritage
Mlàdek - Russian Circles - Empros
Speed Sk8ter - Helms Alee - Weatherhead
A Star Over Pureland - Yamantaka // Sonic Titan - Yt // St
Upon Arrival - White Hills - H-P1
Lazy Bones - Wooden Shjips - West
Horizon - The Drift - Blue Hour
WUJ - Cave - Neverendless
Sp - The Psychic Paramount- II
Spoon- Boris - Attention Please
George Square Thatcher Death Party - Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will
Tone Cloak - Woodsman - Mystic Places
Lawn - Collections Of Colonies Of Bees - Giving
Ice Cream - Battles - Gloss Drop
Nobody Wants To Be Had - Zs - Arms
Whatever Next/7 & 3 Is The Striker's Name - Paul Weller - Wake Up The Nation
Allergy Shots - Pterodactyl - Spills Out
Milo - Quilt - s/t
Future Primitive - Grails - Deep Politics
Turiya - Barn Owl - Lost In The Glare
Eye Robot - Plaid - Scintilli
Dead Guitars - Seefeel - s/t



The following tracks should appear in the next player below:

Moving Further Away - The Horrors - Skying
After Burner- Panda Bear - Tomboy
Sleep - Ganglians - Still Living
Overkill - Gauntlet Hair - s/t
Radiant Lines - Wet Hair - Radiant Lines
Ffunny Ffriends - Unknown Mortal Orchestra - s/t
Holing Out - Yuck - s/t
Clear Spirits - Les Savy Fav - Root For Ruin
Ffunny Ffriends - Unknown Mortal Orchestra- s/t
Columnated Ruins/Seeing Distant Chimneys - Supreme Dicks - Breathing And Not Breathing (The Emotional Plague)
Second Language - Disco Inferno - The 5 EPs
White Out - Woods - Sun And Shade
Circulation - Thurston Moore - Demolished Thoughts
Your Own Kind - Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter - Marble Son
New Whaling - Bonnie "Prince" Billy - Wolfroy Goes To Town
Baby's Arms - Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring For My Halo
Anniversary Day - Chris Forsyth - Paranoid Cat
Art Of Almost - Wilco - The Whole Love
Best Night - The War On Drugs - Slave Ambient
Get Right - Megafaun - s/t
Zeke's Dream - The Rangers - Pan Am Stories

Testing... testing...

So sorry. If you've been looking for the long-awaited Best of 2011 list, you'd have noticed that I've been having problems uploading the player. But I think I have it fixed! Here, try the player below. If I've been successful you'll have a mix (chronological to boot!) of the spacier side of the Indian-British dance rock hybrid known as Cornershop, led by the inimitable proud "wog" himself, Tjinder Sing. If all you've heard from them is the "Brimfull of Asha" stuff (which is great, actually) this should surprise you. It takes more than sitars and tablas to make it psychedelic - check those spacerock guitars!



You Always Said My Language Would Get Me Into Trouble - from Hold On It Hurts (1994)
7:20am Jullander Shere - from Woman's Gotta Have It (1995)
It's Indian Tobacco My Friend - from When I Was Born The 7th Time (1997)
Spectral Mornings - from Handcream For A Generation (2002)
The Turned On Truth - from Judy Sucks A Lemon For Breakfast (2009)

Come On A Trip With Us!

We begin with a trio of bands representing swinging sixties London and the psychedelic "happenings" at the U.F.O. Club and other venues, pre-dating raves by more than a generation. The most important band, or at least the one with the most longevity, to arise from this loosely-connected scene was, of course, Pink Floyd (or THE Pink Floyd as they were known then, under Syd Barrett's leadership). This track, improvised live nightly for the heads to trip and somehow dance to, needs no introduction. Supposedly this version, appearing on their debut album, was edited together from multiple studio takes as Syd was falling aprt mentally by the time of the recording sessions. A mostly overlooked peer of theirs, except in underground circles, was The Soft Machine. Though they could hardly be called "rock" - and indeed they took their cues from jazz, and featured keys, bass, drums, sometimes horns, and the rare electric guitar - they were truly psychedelic, as illustrated by the triptych featured here. Another band from the U.F.O. scene was Tomorrow, featuring future Yes guitarist Steve Howe and future Pretty Things/Pink Fairies drummer Twink. Their kaleidoscopic pop was less experimental than the others featured here, but typified a lot of the more "above ground" psychedelia of the time. The song featured here supposedly refers to the apocryphal tale of Dr. Albert Hoffman's famous bicycle ride, tripping his balls off upon ingesting his first dose of his new invention: LSD.

The Bicycle Ride

David Normal | Myspace Video

Fitting soundtrack to the above video, eh? Yes, that's The Floyd's "Atom Heart Mother"! Very apropo.

Moving right along we encounter a conundrum: a young British band, on their first album aping the dark, swampy, spastic mannerisms of the Birthday Party and the Cramps, who then morph into a neo-shoegazer outfit, with stunning results. This track is from The Horrors recent third album and they seem to be sticking with the latter formula - a wise choice. Seemingly unprecedented? Untrue - My Bloody Valentine started their existence as a similarly-styled psychobilly band, albeit with a different lineup than the one that produced their trendsetting output in the form of Isn't Anything and Loveless. Ganglians are all over the place, with ramshackle psych, freaky folk and a sometimes shoegazey sound as on this track. Collections Of Colonies Of Bees bring a smooth melodicism and precision to the Tortoise school of post rock. Tammar meld the best aspects of both proto-shoegaze and post rock tendencies. And, as the godfathers of quiet-loud-louder-LOUDEST post rock, Mogwai need no introduction. But this is absolutely the greatest version of "Helicon" I've heard, captured live in all its grandeur.

Opeth are a band that missed my radar in the past since their previous incarnation could be defined as black metal, but they ditched the cookie monster vocals and have taken their cues from classic prog rock, and it suits them completely. Their recent album, from which I culled this track, features some of the most inventive heavy prog I've ever encountered - a contender for album of the year, I dare say. Another track from vintage metal-worshipers W.I.T.C.H., where indie-sludge guitar god J Mascis (Dinosaur Jr.) takes a back seat on the drums... and thoroughly rocks 'em. Continuing their oeuvre of exultant post metal, Helms Alee wowed on their sophomore release this year, and I'll get to that on the Best Of 2011 installment next month. This track's another great one from their first album.

And now another segment dedicated to heavy motorik and trancey, fuzzy grooves, starting with San Francisco's illustrious one-chord wonders Wooden Shjips with a track off their latest, with yet another variation on the same theme. Hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it! Then an extended journey with motorik mantra masters Cave, from their masterful 2011 release. Time to drone out on this one - the title of this track says it all. Shifting gears after that lengthy journey, Wet Hair put on the cruise control through undulating countryside and altered states. We arrive just in time to meet solo psych experiMENTAList Sun Araw for some groovy inner space astral traveling, then it's up into the stratosphere with the mighty White Hills, from their stellar recent release, destination: nirvana. Bon voyage!

For you traditionalists who don't mind streaming from this site, the following tracks should appear in the first player below:

The Spacerock Continuum Theme - bRambles
Astronomy Domine - Pink Floyd - The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn
Hope For Happiness/Joy Of A Toy - The Soft Machine - Volume 1
My White Bicycle - Tomorrow - s/t
Dive In - The Horrors - Skying
The Toad - Ganglians - Still Living
Vorm - Collections Of Colonies Of Bees - Giving
Deep Witness - Tammar - Visits
New Paths To Helicon Part 1 - Mogwai - Special Moves
I Feel The Dark - Opeth - Heritage
Rip Van Winkle - W.I.T.C.H. - Witch
A Weirding Away - Helms Alee - Night Terror
Black Smoke Rise - Wooden Shjips - West
This Is The Best - Cave - Neverendless
Liquid Jesus - Wet Hair - In Vogue Spirit
Impluvium - Sun Araw - Ancient Romans
HP-1 - White Hills - HP-1



But don't forget, you also have the option of spacerock to go:



1. Click on the Kadoo logo instead of pushing the play button in the player below.

2. Click "download" when redirected to the Divshare site.

3. Once downloaded drag it to yer iTunes and sync it with yer pod - simple!

Cabbage rock!

Ever wonder? The debate continues. There's some good discussion in the comment section of that article, as well as a link to a BBC documentary on kraut rock ya'll should check out.

Moving on... This month's installment is another round up of the musix I've been trippin' on all year, not just the best (the very best of the year installment comes in January, of course) but the most heavy rotation, to use an antiquated expression, and some of the acts that have been getting the most exposure right here on the SRC of late. Funny, but they mostly seem to be of the swoony, woozy, drifty, dreamy, hazy, spacey variety, as opposed to, say, more formalist structures like prog rock or post rock. Maybe this stuff is a surrogate for the hallucinogens I don't indulge in (anymore)...? This is music that takes you to a higher plane. Well, I guess that's what all spacerock is about, innit? This set also features a couple-few collaborations made in heaven for the discerning spacerocker - read on!

Barn Owl is a San Francisco "drone duo" that specializes in minimalist meditations via guitar and harmonium that manage to sound maximal, a real wall-of-sound for just two instrumentalists. The late, great Magnog took the soft-focus psych explorations of bands like Flying Saucer Attack and applied them to improvs, most of them many times more lengthy than the brief sample included here. The appropriately oblique moniker Implodes pretty well sums up their sound, all blurred lines and disorienting fuzz like a vaguely menacing acid experience.

The set takes a turn for the more linear with a couple of my recent fave neo-shoegazers, the dream-pop inflected MBV worshipers The Black Ryder, and the Madchester-ish space grooves (think mid-period Primal Scream) of The Oscillation. An obvious direction to continue in here would be some of the motorik-influenced artists I've come across recently (kosmiche is making a komeback!). Lo-fi traditionalists Wet Hair cruise down the well-traveled autobahn that defines the genre (but less robotic and more shamanic, in a Jim Morrison vein). As I've mentioned in past installments, Woods has a penchant for the random instrumental jam that nods to kraut rock and might seem incongruous with their usual oeuvre of fey freak-folk... but these jams rock! Mysterious instruMENTALists Gnod and monsters of psych White Hills both dabble in the motorik realm, and they derive an entire album's worth on this perfectly matched collaboration, apparently not their first either (although I have been unable to verify the existence of the first one). All Tiny Creatures inhabit some of the same terrain as the previous acts but they are both more experimental and texturally complex while simultaneously bringing a pop-orientation similar to their sometime compatriot, Bon Iver's Justin Vernon. Even psychedelic troubadour Kelley Stoltz seems to be enamored of the genre, at least in the case of this example of what could be called garage motorik.

And now for something completely different... I had to transition somehow, and what better than a Crazyhorse-sized psychedelic power ballad from freaky sometimes-folkies MV & EE (also technically a collaboration, between Matt Valentine and Erika Elder, but they pretty much always record as a duo)? An epic guitar barnburner works pretty much anywhere. Psychedelic in name only, but still off-kilter enough to be included here, Psychedelic Horseshit traffics in self-described "shitgaze", a spoof on the term shoegaze but obviously quite apt as well. Since we seem to be headed toward a rocktronica segment (even though the Horseshit dude is usually much more primitive garage rock than on this track), how about some 70s-soundtrack analog-synthrawk (think Moroder or latter day Tangerine Dream) from retrofuturists Zombi? Or the robot rhythms (can they possibly be human?) of avant art/spazzrockers Battles, and who better to take a turn on vocals with them than the cyborg godfather Gary Numan? Talk about an apropo collab.

Speaking of dream collaborations, look no further than ballistic Portland psych-proggers (did I say no prog in this set?) Eternal Tapestry and cosmic Long Beach guitar noodler Sun Araw. And did I say no post rock? Okay, I lied: Parlour harken back to the era of Louisville (yes, Kentucky - think Slint or Rodan) math/post rock and actually feature lesser known players from that scene. Despite what I wrote earlier, there has been some great post rock recently and I've included a couple examples of it here. Explosions In The Sky, some of the founding fathers (along with Mogwai and Mono) of the quiet-loud-LOUDER-LOUDER STILL-IMPOSSIBLY LOUD dynamics exploiters, and their kissin' cousin (they're not related but they sound a lot alike) Caspian.

Shifting gears, yet again, for the end of the set. Bark Psychosis are the band being referred to when the rock writer coined the term post rock, but I don't think it really describes them, at least not in context with the other bands within the genre. To me they come closer to Portishead's dour/noir trip hop or enigmatic undefinables like Hood. Whatever it is, it's beyond rock, so maybe they do fit. Thurston Moore (do I really have to tell you he's one quarter of the guitar mangling glory that is Sonic Youth?) has done solo albums before, but they're usually far from the utterly unique interplay the postpunkers invented 30+ years ago. But this one manages to frame the style he developed in SY within the folk-ish acoustic arrangements of his other solo work. A perfect album from start to finish. And what more can be said about O.G. psychedelphians (they're from Philly) Bardo Pond? I mean, they still have a ton to tell, but their most recent album is so rewardingly prototypical of them they named it eponymously after all these years!

For you traditionalists who don't mind streaming from this site, the following tracks should appear in the first player below:

The Spacerock Continuum Theme - bRambles
Awakening - Barn Owl - Ancestral Star
Ghost Squid - Magnog - More Weather
Marker - Implodes - Black Earth
To Never Know You - The Black Ryder - Buy The Ticket, Take The Ride
Gamelan Mindscape - The Oscillation - Out Of Phase
Echo Lady - Wet Hair - In Vogue Spirit
Out Of The Eye - Woods - Sun And Shade
Run-Around - Gnod & White Hills - Gnod Drop Out With White Hills II
Plankton March - All Tiny Creatures - Harbors
Mt. Fuji - Kelley Stoltz - Antique Glow
Wandering Nomad - MV & EE - Barn Nova
Revolution Wavers - Psychedelic Horseshit - Laced
Escape Velocity - Zombi - Escape Velocity
My Machines - Battles (w/Gary Numan) - Gloss Drop
Night Gallery II - Eternal Tapestry & Sun Araw - Night Gallery
Distractor - Parlour - Googler
Trembling Hands - Explosions In The Sky - Take Care, Take Care, Take Care
Malacoda - Caspian - Tertia
Shapeshifting - Bark Psychosis - Codename: Dustsucker
Orchard Street - Thurston Moore - Demolished Thoughts
The Stars Behind - Bardo Pond - s/t



But don't forget, you now have the option of spacerock to go:

1. Click on the Kadoo logo instead of pushing the play button in the player below.

2. Click "download" when redirected to the Divshare site.

3. Once downloaded drag it to yer iTunes and sync it with yer pod - simple!

Spacerocktober!

Who's that above? Why, YES! It's the triumphant return of The Olivia Tremor Control, the planet's finest Athens, GA, psych-poppers and co-founders of the Elephant 6 collective! Both they and Seattle psych-Americana chanteuse Jesse Sykes (she of the whiskey-stained velvet voice) and her extra-rocking Sweet Hereafter put on incredible better-than-merely-return-to-form shows as they passed through my neck of the woods (when I'm not satellite-bound) last month, so I'm starting off this set in honor of the two of them.

Electronic dream-pop newcomers La Big Vic capture the essence of lysergic dance music, whether 60s "happenings" or 90s raves, updated through various analog instruments and some 21st century digital. It may seem like I can't get enough Bailterspace lately, and this, since only discovering them this year, would probably be true, especially since I'm realizing how truly diverse their back catalog is - from minimal post-punk to angular agit-prop to swirling shoegaze, and beyond - as this foray into motorik rhythms illustrates. Another recent fave of mine, Woodsman also capture a bit of that kosmische forward-momentum and combine it with somewhat more rockist tendencies.

Speaking of the RAWK, let's bring this up a notch or hundred with a new ballistic assault from White Hills, from their Thrill Jockey debut, this track validating their rightful place as leading modern psych monsters. Even acid- rock is making a comeback these days as stoner sludge power trio W.I.T.C.H. aptly demonstrate (some of that inspiration may come from their drummer, one J Mascis, moonlighting from his day job as iconic 90s-era slacker rock guitar mangler and laconically tortured vocalist/songwriter with Dinosaur Jr.). Austin alt-metallers Helms Alee's second album is an even more exploratory affair, as they push all the boundaries of the genre. Long Beach psych-balladeers Crystal Antlers tone down the histrionics just a tad on their latest release, as this ode to SoCal summers tinted through psilocybin sunglasses shows. And speaking of psychedelic ballads (a theme revisited for the last song of this set), MV & EE borrow a heaping spoonful of grinding guitar pathos from their spiritual godfather Neil Young on this epic track.

The next segment of songs is thematic in that it's informed by the tendency among some facets of spacerock to wander aimlessly to a psychedelic mantra only these jammers can feel. Woods (not to be confused with Woodsman, above) trade mostly in fey fragile folk-psych, but at least once per album they include a lengthy excursion into improvisation like the one included here. More than a little Syd Barrett informs Woods' trajectory as this meandering instruMENTAL jam from his post-Pink Floyd daze confirms. The realm of improvi-psych would not be complete without O.G. krautrockers Can, so I've chosen one of their mid-period classics which melds disorienting dub groove to acidic guitar stabs. Related to the Barrett-era Floyd, I've included some material from their contemporaries (and fellow swinging London U.F.O. Club regulars), the jazz-inflected spacerockers Soft Machine, who were somehow left off my previous space jazz installment. Pan-European (Spain, Austria, Germany) "intergalactic psychedelic space jam band" Interkosmos fit right in with this theme, although I don't know much about them really except they must have extensive krautrock collections. And back to the psych ballad concept, Japan's Boris - who released two simultaneous albums this year, one refining their "heavy rocks" side and one exhibiting a hybrid breed of post-shoegaze metal) - bring us a crashing crescendo finale with this recent magnum opus. Whew! This set packs a lot into two hours!

For you traditionalists who don't mind streaming from this site, the following tracks should appear in the first player below:

The Spacerock Continuum Theme - bRambles
Hushed By Devotion - Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter - Marble Son
Holiday Surprise Parts 1, 2 & 3 - The Olivia Tremor Control - Music From The Unrealized Film Script 'Dusk At Cubist Castle'
Mr. Broken Bird - La Big Vic - Actually
D Thing - Bailterspace - Wammo
Insects - Woodsman - Rare Forms
The Condition Of Nothing - White Hills - H-P1
Seer - W.I.T.C.H. - Witch
Epic Adventure Through The Woods (Sucker Punch) - Helms Alee - Weatherhead
Dog Days - Crystal Antlers - Two-Way Mirror
Bedroom Eyes - MV & EE - Barn Nova
Sol Y Sombra - Woods - Sun And Shade
Lanky (Part 1) - Syd Barrett - Octopus
Flow Motion - Can - Flow Motion
A Door Opens And Closes/10:30 Returns To The Bedroom - Soft Machine - Volume Two
Hypnotizer - Interkosmos - s/t
Aileron - Boris - Heavy Rocks



But don't forget, you have the option of spacerock to go:

1. Click on the Kadoo logo instead of pushing the play button in the player below.

2. Click "download" when redirected to the Divshare site.

3. Once downloaded drag it to yer iTunes and sync it with yer pod - simple!

Back To School (Again)

Okay class, listen up! This month's lesson is on Progressive Rock, or as afficionados affectionately call it, "prog". This term can also be used in the derogative by its detractors. I fall squarely with one foot in each camp: while prog is definitively a subcategory of space rock, it can also be overly intellectual, cold, dry, convoluted and wanky. Therefore I have culled a set to illustrate what good prog can be, even if many of these bands would never categorize themselves as such. It is by no means meant to be comprehensive because, a) these sets almost always adhere to my self-imposed two-hour limit rule (makes for a more digestible podcast), and, b) I've left off the wanky bits, so you won't see any Yes, Rush, ELP, Moody Blues, Jethro Tull or Genesis. Besides, those acts are way too commercial/accessible for my fringe tastes.

An overview, taken with a grain of salt for a few inaccuracies, can be found here.

We begin with Akron/Family, who, in seeming tribute to krautrock collective Amon Duul II (arguably one of Germany's finest prog bands), apparently live in true hippie/rocker communal style. They're practically a cult. They combine elements of Americana, psychedelia and freak folk with their prog, not to mention some serious guitar prodigiousness. But since I've included many of their best tracks in previous sets, I let them open this set with a short burst of Eastern-tinged guitar mantra of a teasing brevity, the better to get you to explore their other work (use the search bar on the top left).

Next up I break one of my own rules again (for maybe the third time) by including a live track, Queen's epic "Brighton Rock". This is one of the rare occurrences where the live version, if not improves, greatly expands on the studio version, in this case via Brian May's guitar explorations which are not only extended, but enhanced by a triple delay effect, going one better than the double delay on the original recording, not to mention Roger Taylor's timpani section (not quite a drum solo - we wouldn't want anything that wanky).

Then we have a truly obscure piece, all but unknown except to the most dedicated Floydophiles. On the second half of Pink Floyd's 1969 double album Umma Gumma, each bandmember contributed one composition of supposedly entirely their own creation. Amid absolute stinkers by his bandmates (save only Roger Waters' pastoral soliloquy "Grantchester Meadows"), it is David Gilmour (of course) who stands heads above the rest with his triptych "The Narrow Way", a piece illustrating the genre's penchant for songs constructed of suites, or multiple parts of developing themes. Have you heard this track before? Aren't you glad you now have?

One of the bands most historians credit with leading the development of space and prog rock was Hawkwind. Despite a touch of wankiness in the guitar work and an overall comic book sci fi silliness to a lot of their material, they definitely had their moments, as this track illustrates. And of course some of the most beloved progsters spent time in King Crimson, from guitar virtuoso Robert Fripp who developed a unique fretboard style enhanced by his self-designed effects known as Frippertronics, to bassist/vocalist Greg Lake (later of ELP), to latter-day heroes drummer Bill Bruford, bassist Tony Levin, and guitarist/vocalist Adrian Belew. Instead of the obvious choice of "In The Court Of The Crimson King" I went with the title track of the more obscure, and arguably superior, Lark's Tongues In Aspic album.

Then back to relatively recent times with an coincidentally named (wink wink) track from Sleeping People, an offshoot of the equally abstruse SF indie math rockers Rumah Sakit, both bands sharing a penchant for confounding time signatures and intricate guitar/rhythm section interplay. Continuing in that vein, Battles presents a point of access to such sometimes impenetrable complexity of said genre with an exuberance and zeal that are infectious. And straddling the line between "college rock" (as they once called angular and angsty indie rock artists in the 90s such as Pavement and Archers Of Loaf) and proggy guitar excursions lies Joan Of Arc, and this track (with a title riffing on Ginsberg's Howl) from their most recent release is some of the finest work they've done over their long and prolific career.

Underground circuit guitar collaborator Chris Forsyth put out an eponymous solo release which bristles with improvisational creativity, incorporating Fahey-esque finger picking, avant garde atonalism, psychedelic drone and old-timey back pork porch boogie. Phenomenal album. Portland instrumentalists Grails have dabbled in all aspects of the blanket term space rock including modern post rock and old school prog, with a soundtrack-y quality to most of their work. This track from their latest release conjures grainy 70s avant garde films and smokey vintage psych and krautrock, and amply demonstrates how far they've come over the course of their substantial output. Ostinato (named for the musical term meaning "a continually repeated musical phrase or rhythm") also harken back to prog's inception with a timeless sound equal parts 60s British baroque, 70s German motorik and modern American postrock.

And I leave you with a multi-part barnburner from the latest album by the undisputed masters of prog-PUNK, And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead. Smashed instruments, glam and postpunk leanings, and epic ambition make this Austin Texas group the future of prog.

For you traditionalists who don't mind streaming from this site, the following tracks should appear in the first player below:

The Spacerock Continuum Theme - bRambles
Fuji I (Global Dub) - Akron/Family - s/t II: The Cosmic Birth And Journey Of Shinju TNT
Brighton Rock - Queen - Live Killers
The Narrow Way Parts 1-3 - Pink Floyd - Umma Gumma
You Know You're Only Dreaming - Hawkwind - In Search Of Space
Larks' Tongues In Aspic Part 2 - King Crimson - Larks' Tongues In Aspic
Fripp For Girls - Sleeping People - s/t
White Electric - Battles - Gloss Drop
I Saw the Messed Blinds of My Generation - Joan Of Arc - Life Like
Paranoid Cat Parts 1-3 - Chris Forsyth - Paranoid Cat
Almost Grew My Hair - Grails - Deep Politics
Goal Of All Believers - Ostinato - Chasing The Form
Strange News From Another Planet - ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - Tao Of The Dead



But don't forget, you now have the option of spacerock to go:

1. Click on the Kadoo logo instead of pushing the play button in the player below.

2. Click "download" when redirected to the Divshare site.

3. Once downloaded drag it to yer iTunes and sync it with yer pod - simple!