THE LIST:
1. Ty Segall 'Manipulator'
2. Thurston Moore 'The Best Day'
3. Cave 'Release'
4. Tonstartssbandht 'Overseas'
5. Temples 'Sun Structures'
6. Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra 'Fuck Off, Get Free, We Pour Light On Everything'.
7. Les Big Byrd 'They Worshipped Cats'
8. Wand 'Ganglion Reef'
9. Meatbodies s/t
10. Dagha Bloom 'No Curtains'
BAKER'S DOZEN (HONORABLE MENTION):
The War On Drugs 'Lost In The Dream'
Watter 'This World'
Sleepy Sun 'Maui Tears'
Purling Hiss 'Weirdon'
Blank Realm 'Grassed In'
Opeth 'Pale Communion'
The Pink Mountaintops 'Get Back'
Kikagaku Moyo 'Forest Of Lost Children'
Dream Police 'Hypnotized'
Quilt 'Held In Splendor'
The Holy Mountain 'Ancient Astronauts'
Daydream Machine 'Twin Idols'
Pontiak 'Innocence'
Pontiak 'Innocence'
What a year for space rock! As such I've had to limit my Best Of 2014 playlists to a mere FOUR AND A HALF HOURS! Call it holiday indulgence. Here's PART ONE:
Starting off with some trippy guitar mantras from William Tyler and Steve Gunn, a departure from my more noise-loving inclinations, just because, you know, they're great! Also great was The War On Drugs' new release, their best to date, one that made many a writer's top ten (although not mine... quite), and one of few bands that can pull off a perfect meld of space rock and americana. Stephen McBean took time off from his main band Black Mountain to bring back his solo/collaborative side project, the mostly acoustic Pink Mountaintops, but this time with material aggressive enough to make it onto his other band's albums.
The young Brits also had a banner year, especially The Horrors, who have streamlined their shimmering goth-gaze into something wholly their own, and newbies Temples, who arrived seemingly fully-formed with their take on classic British psychedelia (the track on this playlist also brings to mind their Aussie counterparts Tame Impala).
Bell Gardens is an offshoot of Stars Of The Lid who bring that band's quiet cinematic ambience to a psychedelic country/western setting, sounding quite unlike anybody else out there. And speaking of British new-gaze, The Raveonettes have distinguished themselves beyond their Jesus and Mary Chain-esque dream pop with their heaviest and best release to date. Philly-based Bleeding Rainbow are ostensibly a post punk band, in that they wear their Nirvana/Dinosaur Jr. hearts on their sleeves, but boy, when they take off on a tangent, it's most always psychedelic (or downright shoegaze as on the track on this playlist)!
Speaking of psychedelic, the young upstarts have been popping up like magic mushrooms after an acid rain, with relatively new artists like Quilt (jangles and harmonies conjuring Haight-Ashbury in the 60s), The Allah-Las (Donovan visits Laurel Canyon), White Fence (prince of lo-fi Syd Barrett-isms), King Tuff (stoner-garage-psych with a dose of dark magick), and the man who rocked the shit out of The Desert Stars Fest, Primal Scream guitarist and auteur in his own right, Little Barrie (British mod meets American surf rock rave-ups).
Les Big Byrd are enigmatic Swedes who like block rockin' beats in their swirling psychedelia, not unlike vintage Primal Scream, bringin' back the Madchester riddims! And while we're shakin' it, let's have a listen to the collaboration that HAD to happen: electro-pioneer Brian Eno meets Karl Hyde of techno-experimentalists Underworld... it just makes sense. Eno and Hyde, two great tastes that go great together! Riding out the danceable spacerock theme, Brian Jonestown Massacre have gotten decidedly more dancefloor-friendly since relocating to Berlin. Must be the motorik connection. And while we're on a Teutonic groove, actual Germans The Notwist have always been a bit more subdued in their glitch-tronica pop but the track included here shows they're heading for more aggressive territory of late.
Switching gears from Germany to Japan now: Kikagaku Moyo borrow from krautrock's finest like the acid jamming collective Amon Duul, while Bo Ningen take us into the stratosphere with their manic flailing and wailing. And Goat take the freneticism of Jap-psych and layer it over African polyrhythms, belying the fact that they're actually Swedish.
LA garage-psych rockers Wand know how to bring the trance to the heavy. Portlanders Daydream Machine also indulge in hypnotic trance Love (And perhaps some Rockets, eh?). Mississippians Bass Drum of Death, despite the name, bring life affirming bliss from heavy guitar groove. And the Virginian monster rock trio of brothers known as Pontiak continue to exist out of time and place, somewhere primitive, primal and existential.
And now things get weird(er): what can you say about a band like Tonstartssbandht? How do you even pronounce their name (tone-starts-bandit). Who the heck are they? Two Floridian brothers, guitar and drums, borrowing from Black Sabbathy riffage and Animal Collectivist tribalism and everything in-between, mostly lo-fo live and bedroom recordings, LONG jams and little ditties, and one of the most astounding finds I've made in recent years. The track included on this playlist only scratches the surface - expect a lot more from them in the future Continuum. Keeping it heavy, Glaswegians The Holy Mountain... um, yeah... keep it heavy... heavy and hard like dolomite.
San Francisco's Sleepy Sun goes without saying - they've been a staple here. Their take on classic PSYCH RAWK is uniquely there own, and they just keep getting better and better. And the ongoing Silver Mt. Zion saga keeps growing, and this year's Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra installment is every bit as good as past efforts. And epic way to end this set... but it doesn't end here. Once you digest this 2-1/2 hour series of appetizers, next come a 2-hour main course to complete your meal (don't ask for dessert - it's all gravy). Indulge yourself, cuz you can't get fat off SPACE ROCK.
For you traditionalists who don't mind streaming from this site, the following tracks should appear in the player below:
The Spacerock Continuum Theme - bRambles
Whole New Dude - William Tyler - Lost Colony
Tommy's Congo - Steve Gunn - Way Out Weather
Burning - The War On Drugs - Lost In The Dream
Ambulance City - Pink Mountaintops - Get Back
Jealous Sun - The Horrors - Luminous
Mesmerize - Temples - Sun Structures
She Does - Bell Gardens - Slow Dawns For Lost Conclusions
Kill! - The Raveonettes - Pe'ahi
Phase - Bleeding Rainbow - Interrupt
Saturday Bride - Quilt - Held In Splendor
Nothing To Hide - Allah-Las - Worship The Sun
Afraid Of What It's Worth - White Fence - For The Recently Found Innocent
Black Moon Spell - King Tuff - Black Moon Spell
Realise - Little Barrie - Shadow
Indus Waves - Les Big Bird - They Worshipped Cats
Witness - Eno And Hyde - Someday World
Vad Hande Med Dem? - The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Revelation
7-Hour Drive - The Notwist - Close To The Glass
Smoke And Mirrors - Kikagaku Moyo - Forest Of Lost Children
Psychedelic Misemono Goya (Reprise) - Bo Ningen - III
Goatslaves - Goat - Commune
Clearer - Wand - Ganglion Reef
Spacement - Daydream Machine - Twin Idols
Sin Is In 10 - Bass Drum Of Death - Rip This
Beings Of The Rarest - Pontiak - Innocence
Electric Dragon Sword/Speculatin' - Tonstartssbandht - Overseas
Star Kings - The Holy Mountain - Ancient Astronauts
Everywhere Waltz - Sleepy Sun - Maui Tears
Take Away These Early Grave Blues - Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra - Fuck Off, Get Free, We Pour Light On Everything
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.
And I must reiterate, this is the way to take your spacerock mix to go! You can DOWNLOAD it! It's YOURS now! It's an mp3 mix that pops right into your iTunes - it couldn't be simpler.
Or could it? Some people prefer Soundcloud:
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Ready for PART TWO?!?!?
First off, since this album, another great release from 2014, has no pauses between songs, and thus I can't separate a track for these playlists, I suppose it's meant to be heard in its entirety, so here ya go:
Starting this set off with a little psychtronica... Liars... what to say? Experimental to the core, starting off as an old school NYC no-wave outfit with traditional rock 4-piece instruments, they transitioned to electronics and unconventional instrumentation, writing songs about characters like "Drum" and "Mt. Heart Attack" and concept albums entirely about the Salem Witch Trials. Their 2014 release was no less compelling. Quirky Brits Shit and Shine dwelled in lo-fi obscurity for quite some time, favoring 30-minute blown speaker percussion and fuzz guitar workouts with macabre themes, but this recent release shows maturity, not only in regards to recording but with modern sampling techniques, to great effect. You can hardly tell they're the same band. Tobacco is the leader of Black Moth Super Rainbow, and they both feature kitschy analog synths and drum machines distorted beyond all recognition, yet still manage to groove in a black light day-glo bad acid trip sorta way. And Damaged Bug is the electronic side project of Thee Oh Sees' John Dwyer, and it sounds like his instrumentation was picked up cheap and slightly damaged at Bay Area flea markets, which of course fits his ethos perfectly.
Speaking of Thee Oh Sees, yet another instant classic from this prolific band this year. As always, they bring the manic motorik. Garage rock brethren, Dwyer's equally prolific peer Ty Segall has gone and done it: the album of the year, my criteria being its length, diversity and maturity, and also coming from a younger, lower-profile artist than the close second, Thurston Moore (we'll come to him soon). Segall manages to explore and encompass every aspect of garage/psych/space rock that has come before and has yet to be invented on one long album which is amazingly cohesive as a whole. While we're banging our heads, Dagha Bloom, coming from behind the stigmatic "orange curtain" of suburban Southern California, and consisting of three bassists, some keys, a drummer and a frenetic frontman, are requisite in this mind-expanding explosion of rockingness. Meatbodies fit quite well here too, based around the monstrous riffage and face-melting soloing of one Chad Ubovich, who has played with or been associated with the usual suspects, from the aforementioned John Dwyer and Ty Segall, to lesser known garage rockers Fuzz and psych-folk troubadour Mikal Cronin. Here on his debut he gets the chance to shine with his own material. Equally manic are the Brits known as Hookworms, whose unrelenting motorik rave-ups on their sophomore release seem about to burst then implode like a supernova into a black hole.
Speaking of dying stars, Stardeath And White Dwarfs (sic) also put out their second full-length, a psychedelic sludgefest that hearkens back to bandleader Dennis Coyne's uncle Wayne's band The Flaming Lips' earlier material, which makes us early-Lips-favoring fans happy (whither Wayne now? his current efforts are sadly overindulgent and underwhelming). The word motorik comes up here a lot, and if you don't know what it means by now you're probably beyond hope, but Cave embody its propulsive rhythm, taking it from its humble origins in the Krautrock canon of Neu! and Kraftwerk and infusing it with punk energy and lysergic trance. Another stellar release from this Chicagoan juggernaut.
Heading into a melodic singer/songwriterly direction with a basis in americana, Purling Hiss is one Mike Polizze, who shows an equal adeptness at Springsteen meets the War On Drugs atmospheric folk and feedback laden Crazyhorse rockers. Thurston Moore's solo work has been in a singer/songwriter vein, and largely acoustic until he assembled a supergroup for this album, a real stunner that's even greater than the sum of its parts (former Sonic Youth co-hort Steve Shelley on drums, My Bloody Valentine bassist Deb Googe, and somewhat more obscure yet no less prolific English guitarist James Sedward). This outfit has as much or more chemistry than Moore's previous outfits Sonic Youth or Chelsea Light Moving, and the stunning diversity and maturity, a streamlining of his more chaotic tendencies, is promising for the future. A close second place for album of the year. Also quite chaotic and quixotic, brother-and-sister-led Aussie noise rockers Blank Realm released a somewhat more accessible album in 2014 that hints at the melody existing below the mess. Expect great stuff from them in the future.
A pleasant discovery at the Desert Stars Festival this year was Drinking Flowers, who embody the term spacerock, as in forbears like Spacemen 3, et al. Not far off from similar territory, Dream Police summon the same trance-inducing head nodders, but forget the Cheap Trick reference, this is a spinoff of psychopunks The Men, who actually quote the Spacemen 3 epic "Revolution" in one of their songs. So there's that - fun stuff, and keeping it fresh, since The Men seem to have gone almost alt-country on their latest. As evidenced in various spots in recent playlists, shoegaze (or "new-gaze") was quite prevalent in 2014, and Cheatahs are heads above the rest. Forming in London, but with international origins, which may explain their unique take on the genre, with a Canadian singer/guitarist, a Californian bassist, and a German drummer. Another animal-pun monickered retro-styled British band Eagulls melds classic shoegaze with anthemic political sloganeering a la Killing Joke.
Previously straddling the line between shoegaze and experimental metal, French guitar texturalist Neige, under the ensemble name Alcest, has/have gone full-on dream pop on his/their latest album, which seems to suit him/them just fine. Also metal-derived, Seattlites Helms Alee have always incorporated disparate elements seeming incongruous to the genre, resulting in a sound forged from a different element, a heavy metal that's also as ethereal as the cosmos. Taking a turn for the HEAVY, the slow-core metallics of Earth, the most aptly-named band one can imagine, as their sound is that of the revolving of this slowly revolving sphere of rock that sustains life in the cold blackness of space. Their modus has evolved to incorporate elements of country twang and even vocals (!) on some tracks.
And now, adventures in prog rock! Opeth, those enigmatic Swedes, once practitioners of black metal (complete with "cookie monster" vocals), stunned their old fans and made new converts with an album of metallic prog and actual melodic singing on Heritage, the best album of 2011. Three years later they've gone even deeper into classic and complex prog, all but abandoning the blackened sound of old. Let's hope they keep it up. And let's wrap it up with a lengthy epic from the debut album by Watter, a supergroup featuring Britt Walford of Louisville post rockers Slint and Zak Riles of Portland psychedelicists Grails, with guest contributors ranging from Rachel's pianist Rachel Grimes, and The For Carnation's bassist Todd Cook, to King Crimson's legendary Tony Levin. The result is atmospheric, panoramic and captivating, as it should be, considering its contributors. And a great way to wrap up this overload of 2014's bestest musix, in reality a mere overview. Now it's time for you to EXPLORE!
For you traditionalists who don't mind streaming from this site, the following tracks should appear in the player below:
The Spacerock Continuum Theme - bRambles
Mess On A Mission - Liars - Mess
Blowhannon - Shit And Shine - Powder Horn
Father Sister Berzerker - Tobacco - Ultima II Massage
Gloves For Garbage - Damaged Bug - Hubba Bubba
Penetrating Eye - Thee Oh Sees - Drop
Manipulator - Ty Segall - Manipulator
Supa - Dagha Bloom - No Curtains
Tremmors - Meat Bodies - s/t
Birds Of War - Stardeath And White Dwarfs - Wastoid
Bobby's Hash - Cave - Release
Forcefield Of Solitude - Purling Hiss - Weirdon
The Best Day - Thurston Moore - The Best Day
Bulldozer Love - Blank Realm - Grassed In
Your Head Is Reeling - Drinking Flowers - Shadow Show
Hypnotized - The Dream Police - Hypnotized
Geographic - Cheatahs - s/t
Possessed - Eagulls - s/t
Opale - Alcest - Shelter
Pinneped - Helms Alee - Sleepwalking Sailors
Torn By The Fox Of The Crescent Moon - Earth - Primitive And Deadly
Moon Above, Sun Below - Opeth - Pale Communion
Small Business - Watter - This World
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.
And I must reiterate, this is the way to take your spacerock mix to go! You can DOWNLOAD it! It's YOURS now! It's an mp3 mix that pops right into your iTunes - it couldn't be simpler.
Or could it? Some people prefer Soundcloud:
