Outer Space

Outer Space - Outer Space (2010) on Arbor

A1. Quartz Synthesizer
A2. Scanlon
A3. Memory Bomb
B1. Removing A Hex
B2. Deathless
B3. The Planck Era




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This is one of the best albums of 2010. Outer Space's "debut" LP has been in the making for three years, and it definitely shows. Outer Space is one of the many solo projects of John Elliott, chief moog player for the band Emeralds. One solo project isn't enough to contain Elliott, different monikers are used for each facet of this ambitious & proficient synth player.

Outer Space is any synth enthusiast's wet dream, ARP, Moog, MS-20, it's all here. Elliott is also a virtuoso with digital sequencers. The songwriting on this album is impeccable. Emeralds, and each members various solo and side projects have been on fire in the past year or two, and with very good reason. These guys are musical geniuses.

The downside is that many, nay, practically all of their releases are limited. This is no different. This LP was pressed in an edition of 650 copies on clear vinyl (a larger edition than usual). Definitely worth picking up, especially before it's too late.

I've had enough of this heat shit

I love making mixes, I used to make mixtapes all the time for my car’s tape deck, before I had an iPod. Every now & then I get the urge to make a mix CD, even though I never listen to them. Therefore they instantly become relics immediately after I burn them. I stumbled across one of these relics the other day and gave it a listen, mostly because I had no recollection of what I had put on it. I was astounded at how terrible the audio quality was.

Turns out I had been lazy enough to make this particular CD in iTunes. Never again. I had been thinking about making a mix, and digging up this CD this only motivated me more, in order to do it right this time. Also there is currently a heat wave, and because I do my damnedest to avoid scrotum-melting heat, I’m essentially trapped inside:


Zach Hill – Hindsight is Nowhere
The Sound of Animals Fighting – The Ocean and the Sun
Emeralds – Genetic
Gil Mantera’s Party Dream – Dreamscape
Why? – The Vowels, Pt. 2
El-Creepo – Space Needle
Holy Fuck – Lucky
Mushroomhead – Treason
Tim Hecker – Blood Rainbow
Sun Araw – Deep Cover

53:58, 102 MB

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This time around I ripped each song from CD as an .aiff, mixed them togther, saved the mix out as an .aiff, then converted that to an .mp3. Except there’s one song on this mix that I don’t own on CD, so I used the mp3 I had, and the quality isn’t ideal. If you can tell which song it is (it should be clear as day to anyone with moderately discernible ears,) then you win a cookie.



i could appreciate 6 months ago

no future for magnetic tape

one of these holds 60 minutes of music, the other holds 57,450 minutes of music. They're pretty close to being the same exact size.

EST

Eastern Standard Time – Tempus Fugit (2004) on Grover Records

1. Segment
2. It's Alright
3. 1361
4. Agua y Cerveza
5. Eye of the Storm
6. When Will Your Love Be Mine?
7. Out of Time
8. Step Ready
9. Don't Go
10. The Watcher
11. Bésame
12. Can't Keep a Good Man Down
13. Skacapella




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This is ska. No relation to 90s third wave ska from Southern California. This is rooted in jazz & reggae, no rock, no punk. DC has quite the ska scene, and EST has always been one of its stalwarts. They’re not as active as they used to be, but they are still around. Unfortunately this is their most recent album.

“Can’t Keep a Good Man Down” features Dr. Ring Ding on vocals. I can’t claim to be very familiar with him, but I checked out one of his albums once upon a time, and he’s infinitely less obnoxious than his guest spot on this EST song would lead you to believe. Oh, and it turns out he’s some German cracker, which means his “style” is just an act, and has nothing to do with the West Indies. He probably isn’t even a doctor. Other than that, this is ska at it’s finest.

"I can be evil and darkness"

Mushroomhead – M3 (1999) self-released

1. Before I Die
2. Solitaire/Unraveling
3. The New Cult King
4. Inevitable
5. Xeroxed
6. The Final Act
7. Conflict- The Argument Goes On...
8. Exploiting Your Weakness
9. Beauteous
10. Born of Desire
99. Dark & Evil Joe




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Hear me out on this one. Mushroomhead used to be the Midwest's best kept secret. They released three studio albums (& a remix album) completely independently. They managed to sell 50,000 of their CDs by themselves, during the mid 90s, before the wide spread use of the internet. They were selling out shows throughout Ohio and the surrounding area. It was obvious that Mushroomhead was a success. The band was turning down record contracts, no one could offer them a deal that was better than the 100% control they had as an independent band. They turned down multiple offers from Roadrunner Records.

If Roadrunner couldn't be part of Mushroomhead's success, they would just have to go create their own. They signed a band from Des Moines, encouraged them to get a second singer, as well as a few more band members (their original singer promptly quit, leaving them with only one). They hooked the band up with a professional special effects makeup artist, to enhance their theatrics, and hired the most popular producer in the nu-metal scene. It was a home run.

A few years later Mushroomhead became a national act. People dismissed the eight guys in masks & jumpsuits as a Slipknot copycat. It didn't help that their major label albums were uninspired and somewhat derivative. Their three independent albums are all highly original gems however.

M3 was their last independent album. This is nu-metal at its finest. It's easy to scoff at the genre now, but when done right, you can see why it became so popular. This is so keyboard driven, it's very reminiscent of Faith No More. I've always been a sucker for Jason Popson's vocals, the guy sounds like a pit bull. Don't be confused by the guest singer who appears on two songs, who sounds almost identical to the band's other singer, Jeffrey Hatrix. Hatrix nearly left the band during the recording of M3, so the guest nearly ended up as his replacement.

This album was originally released on the bands own MRH Inc. Records (which this version is). Through some legal snafu they stopped using that name, and eventually reissued the album under their own Filthy Hands moniker. Half these songs appear on their "debut album," XX, which is a "best of" of their three independent albums. Anyone familiar with Mushroomhead's first three albums easily dismisses XX, since it was so horribly "remastered" it's almost unlistenable.

Ridiculous Album Packaging

The new Dillinger has me blown away. Both in terms of music & packaging.
This is the limited edition CD (how "limited," I don't know), where they went all out putting this together.











I really wish artists did shit like this more often

Vernal Equinox

Subtle – Spring (2003) self-released

1. Jr.’s Band
2. Wallet Falls
3. Untitled
4. Less Populated Earth
5. Skullz



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The conclusion of the four part series. This is the exact opposite of Winter, as this EP is the most structured and accessible in the series. These songs are so “song-like” in fact, that they are all featured on Earthsick, the single CD compilation of the Four Seasons. This is the only EP to be entirely included on Earthsick.

Being as straightforward as these songs are (at least for Subtle) this is also the shortest of the EPs. The first abstract song of the set is “Untitled,” a song that got half-erased during the recording process. Instead of fixing the error, Subtle left the song “as is” for the most part, creating an unrivaled sense of emptiness & desolation. “Less Populated Earth” is the other abstract song, enough so that it could belong on Summer or Autumn, yet its slam poetry quality makes it lyrical enough that it doesn’t sound out of place on this season. “Skullz” is fantastic song, and functions well as a closer for the EP, but for the series as a whole, doesn’t create much closure. Considering the cyclical nature of the change of seasons, it only adds to the resonance of the series.

I’ve pretty much said with each entry, that the Four Seasons project is a phenomenal piece of work. Subtle rather successfully explored their sound, ranging the gambit from free improv to pop song-structures, all the while organizing their experiments via thematic elements and creating quite listenable releases. Earthsick organizes these EPs into a simple, abbreviated album, but it lacks breadth or scope you would achieve by exploring each season independently.

Pharmaceutical Bandits

I don’t usually do this, but here’s a single song. The original version of the song is from Rx Bandits' debut, and simply titled "Band-Aid," but this is a rather killer dub version from a compilation CD. The comp is essentially a demo reel for Ikey Owens, the liner notes state, “everything on the album has been affected for better or worse by me.” The disc is from 1998, from a now defunct SoCal label, so as you can imagine, it’s strictly reggae, power pop, ska & dub. I’m not one for compilations, but I really dig this.

As old as this is, it says “Pharmaceutical Bandits” and not “Rx Bandits.” Because this was my introduction to the band, they’re forever the Pharmaceutical Bandits in my mind. Since this comp is such a forgotten artifact, I thought maybe Rx Bandits fans might not be aware of this song’s existence

The Pharmaceutical Bandits – "Band-Aid for My Soul (Radiolistener Dub Version)"
from The Radiolistener Remixes (1998) on Vegas Records

Heavy Deeds

Sun Araw - Heavy Deeds (2009) on Not Not Fun Records

1. Heavy Deeds
2. Hustle and Bustle
3. The Message
4. Get Low
5. All Night Long
[Bonus] Hey Mandala!




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Sun Araw is pretty hip right now, Heavy Deeds made it onto a surprising number of “Best of 2009” lists (mine included). Sun Araw is one of the most original/innovative artists I’ve heard as of late. I’m probably overstating things, as his music is arrestingly simple, but that’s the beauty of it.

Sun Araw is the solo project of Long Beach musician Cameron Stallones, who plays guitar for Magic Lantern. What draws me Sun Araw is this overwhelming sense of humidity to the music. I’m not one to use meteorological terms when it comes to describing music, but if you give it a listen I’m fairly certain that “humid” is as close to hitting the nail on the head as it comes. You can try to break the music down to its components: the gnarly guitars, the commanding, perpetual bass, the never-ending organs, the trippy vocals, but in actuality what you have is fairly simple; funk music.

This isn’t a modern update of the funk of the 70s. What Stallones has captured on Heavy Deeds is like a faded polaroid; a personal, nostalgic memory of an essence. Everything is oversaturated, and bleeds into everything else. The vocals are so drenched in effects, you’d be lucky to make out a single line of words per song. But that doesn’t matter in the least, as their emotion is clear as day.

A certain amount of patience is required with these songs, you have to let them consume you. It’s pretty easy to let that happen with the thick bass. This is my rip of the CD, which features a bonus track that was originally the Sun Araw side of a 12" split. It doesn't really fit with the album, it actually does a great job at disrupting the flow. I just couldn't exclude it however. The CD is limited to 500 copies, the LP to 600 copies.

Move over Sufjan Stevens

The Residents – Arkansas (2009) on Ralph America

1. Nobody is Listening
2. The Bunny Boy
3. Sad Saint John
4. The Butcher Shop
5. Memories For Sale
6. Two Clown Paintings
7. The Black Behind
8. My Brother’s Skin
9. Save the World
10. Circe

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Somehow this slipped through the cracks. 2009 was the year the Residents embraced the digital distribution model, where they quietly, yet eagerly released their back catalogue, archives, and unreleased material through their very own digital download store. Arkansas never surfaced on said store, but was made public in a meager edition of 500 CDs, that sold out during the pre-sale.

Arkansas is the third album that has surfaced as part of the Bunny Boy Project. The core of the project was an episodic web series, about a man of questionable mental health searching for his brother, who mysteriously disappeared. In response to the web series, the band crafted The Bunny Boy, an album that saw the band returning to their zenith of musical achievement, their disturbingly surreal albums of the late 70s and early 80s. The Bunny Boy fell short however, as it still latched onto the highly narrative story telling of 21st century Residents.

As the “b-side” album to The Bunny Boy, Arkansas succeeds where its predecessor fails. The songs on Arkansas where cut from the original album, are alternate recordings, or where written for the world tour of The Bunny Boy. In this context, they lack a strong narrative that would subvert the fantastic compositions (which was the case with the original album). The lyrical content truly feels dream like. The music is eerily synthetic, and uncomfortably open. Unlike The Bunny Boy, Arkansas actually approaches Duck Stab territory. Don’t get me wrong, the band isn’t trying to relive past success, the songs on Arkansas sound remarkably fresh, and manage to not sound like experimentation.

I don’t understand why this is so limited. Arkansas stands out as one of the stronger Residents albums, especially from those of the last decade. I’d love to see them continue in this direction, but I doubt they will, as they’re always reinventing themselves.