crypt thing

...meanwhile, somewhere in the UK, Crypt Thing is making instrumental magic that harkens back to Hounds of Hate, amongst others, mixing melancholy wit with genuine rhythmic and harmonic innovation.

One of the nicest things about the short, pithy sketches in the Crypt Thing melange is their titles. They are brilliant. 'Ladies Mountain Bike', for example, paints a brave picture of the aliens-eye-view world the songs sadly ponder. Just vulnerable, vibrant and curt enough, the titles scratch a rough arc in graphite across the instumentals' green graph paper, allowing for play between a single phrase and a musical gesture. In other words, 'Ugly Men' is ugly - a pockmarked, embarassed track; and 'Michael' oddly tender and awkward - it's for someone, as strange and shy as its message might be.

Crypt Thing - Acid Blob
Crypt Thing - Michael

mater suspiria vision - ritualz of the crack witches

Gorgeously schlocky video by Cosmotropia de Xam for Mater Suspiria Vision's Ritualz of the Crack Witches.
(via 6 in the Morning)

pink priest - endless luv (GR†LLGR†LL Dr3AmS mix)

Track II of Hexes Vol. 1 (remixes, re-imaginings and rapings of various Pink Priest tracks [that you should download now]) is a good example of the work of Denmark's GR†LLGR†LL.
Imagine a humid swamp, or the beginning of Return to Oz, then hover (witch-like, let's be honest) across the sump oil water to a small, dark field of pale, facially wrong couples having nihilistic sex in the murk. It's a really successfully dark track that just crawls centipede-like through its peaty textures up to its cruel orgasm, yet still sounds fresh as fuck.

If you're new to the seductive Witch House baby-genre, Lital at Keyboards is Drunk has a great introductory post here.

Pink Priest - Endless Luv (GR†LLGR†LL Dr3AmS mix)

lashes - never was

A new track from Lashes (a.k.a. tara from Pink Playground). It's effortlessly moody pink gold. It's the sound of opening up to something.

I got a vision of a girl I knew and loved at primary school changing her mind, standing by the grassy alleyway outside her house. That guitar drop tugs us somewhere else.

Lashes - Never Was

james ferraro - demon channels

Unbelievably sexy new video from James Ferraro.
(via OESB)

taterbug

Listening to Charles Free’s music as Taterbug makes me think of that scene from Mister Lonely where, after performing a hammy, warm musical, the cast run through corn fields holding up gaslamps, laughing and singing into the night, to find their friend, Marilyn Monroe, hanging by the neck from a tree. This is where the music of Taterbug takes place – it is the sound of the weathered, faded machinery you find out in woods: rained on, rusty, but still working. It is Ariel Pink squared – not in terms of fidelity, but in terms of sheer emotional murk.

Charles sings over manipulated found tapes, or tapes he’s recorded himself, often with a trying amount of repetition (à la Liars’ ‘This Dust Makes that Mud’), but there is always an instant emotional connection with the snippets he chooses to loop, and with each cycle comes abstract, slight difference, like imagery working itself out in a lucid dream. Charles has “only loose connections” to the Night People label, yet his singular nature makes him even more interesting – like a kid you meet on holiday that does everything differently.

Taterbug - Raw Flower

phédre

Daniel Woodhead of Snakes + Ladders just sent me Phédre's debut EP - free download here. Phédre are estranged cousins that make charming, wooden pop with memorable lines, weirdo vox and clapping, cluttering sounds dug out of a dusty, suspicious chest of a dead relative's attic. Occasionally spacey, mostly grainy, each song displays its fundementals through the red gaze of a botched disposable snap. There's a pleasant whiff of Graffiti Island in places - it's witty without commiting itself.

'Glitter on her Face' is a standout for me, with its Mayfair Set vocal playoff of sweet and creep and its mixture of stodgy, grotty textures.

Phédre - Glitter on her Face

new crystal castles

Not sure how long these'll be up for - but here's a taste of two of the best new tracks leaked from the new Crystal Castles album. There seem to be two different strains of song - 'Empathy' being of the modernised, melodic kind and 'Doe Deer' being of the more scuzzy persuasion. I've banned myself from listening to the lot, although there's shit-loads out there. It's exciting. UPDATE: NEVERMIND

virgo rising

Sydney's Virgo Rising are the first band I've heard in a while that have that sense of temperature that MBV has - kind of, walking into the shade after a long while and realising your skin, your hair, and your head are really hot. That kind of holiday heat that zones you out blissfully yet is also uncomfortable, has a sense of the deadly, of sunstroke in the air.

'Sugar' is a great, diving track that washes through its colours with a similar sense of caramalised, burning heat. The guitars are so well controlled and flickering that they demand a backseat for the vocals, but instead of just making things plainly 'textural' it almost forces a sadomasochistic drunkness onto the two. Quality shoegaze from a criminally underrepresented band.

Virgo Rising - Sugar

all saints day

Some people have bashed Gregg Foreman and Kickball Katy's new project on the head with slightly negative criticism, but I'm a bit in love with it TBH.

What is strange is the amount of times new music of this kind that has clearly learnt from shoegaze but isn't actually it, gets blamed for being a 'Swirlies/MBV/whatever you like rip-off'. It's as if certain melodies aren't allowed.

I'm really excited by this track. Katy's vocals are like lovely, sanded, chamfered pinewood - perfectly unlike Cassie's - it's like when you heard the Breeders for the first time and began to understand Kim Deal's musical logic in a private sense - it's a spatial shift.


All Saints Day - It'll Come Around