Council Of Nine - Dakhma

Cryo Chamber: 2015

Council Of Nine has existed since the days of Greek Mythology, Olympian Gods who sought to punish Mankind after Prometheus had the audacity to give us Fire. These deities – Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, Hephaestus, Aphrodite (the cute one!), Apollo, Athena, Hermes, and Demeter (the serious one) – created the first woman, Pandora, and sent her as a gift to Prometheus’s dopey brother, Epimetheus. The Council Of Nine also sent with her a Box, with instruction it was never to be opened. They figured dumb ol’ Epi’ would accidentally knock it off a table or something, thus the Council Of Nine could unleash all the ills of Mankind upon the world, and blame it on the Titans! Little did they know their own creation would open the Box instead, Pandora’s curiosity getting the better of her, throwing a wrench into their blame game. Women, am I right, Zeus?

'kay, I’ve no citation that this is the ‘Council Of Nine’ Maximillion Olivier chose as an alias. Heck, it could be based off the South Park parody of the Council Of Nine, which included such luminaries as Aslan The Lion, Luke Skywalker, Gandalf, Jesus (the cute one!), Wonder Woman, Glinda The Good Witch, Popeye, Zeus, and Morpheus (the serious one). Seeing as how this is a dark ambient release though, I’m leaning more towards the governing body of the Church Of Satan as a source of inspiration than a relatively obscure part of Greek lore. I had to share some of these Wiki discoveries.

Mr. Olivier makes the sort of dark ambient most associate with the genre: creepy, foreboding, bleak stuff drawing upon images of black rituals and the occult. Can’t say it’s a sound I particularly gravitate towards – when I indulge in dark ambient, it’s mostly of the cosmic, isolated sort that leaves one alone with their thoughts. Mind bending abstract stuff’s kinda’ cool too. If I’m gonna’ splurge on Cryo Chambers’ catalog though, I may as well take in all the genre’s forms. Who knows, maybe I’ll stumble upon something just as dope as Sabled Sun!

Can’t say Dakhma is that release, though it certainly executes the ‘dark ambient by way of eerie ritual’ mold in fine fashion. The title is reference to an open structure where Zoroastrianists bring dead bodies for the purpose of excarnation, essentially letting carrion birds pick away at corpses before being taken away for burial. Though macabre, this does have practical value to it. Look it up, it’s fascinating.

Dakhma holds six tracks giving us a portrait of the ritual. Some, like Tower Of Silence and The Ossuary, have distant melancholic tones setting the mood of the passing of the dead. Others like The Magi and Nasu, focus more of the sounds and activities that may occur during such an event. The two longest though, Sacrifice and Circle Of The Sun, are some of the deepest, crushing drone I’ve ever heard. It’s like my soul’s being suffocated and squeezed out of my body. Well done.

ACE TRACKS: April 2016

How we handlin’ all these diversions, then? Not too painful I hope, getting some fresh perspectives and insights into artists and genres so seldom touched upon here. And hey, it helps with diversification, broadening the blog’s appeal beyond the familiar, perhaps even luring in a few new, unexpected eyes in the process. That’s a good thing, right? Judging by the numbers, reviewing other people’s former collections has paid off. Who knew folks would be more interested in Bob Dylan records than Yet Another Psy Dub CD? Still, this backtrack’s got some distance to go, only just wrapping up the ‘C’s. Those ‘Tr’s are far away yet, friends, so very very far away. Patience, my lovelies. Here, have some ACE TRACKS from this past month of April!



Full track list here.


MISSING ALBUMS:
Claude Young - Celestial Bodies
Various - Time Warp Compilation 07: Loco Dice
B.G. The Prince Of Rap - The Time Is Now

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 11%
Percentage of Rock: 32%
Most “WTF?” Track: Probably something from Alphaxone. Take your pick of mind-peeling creepiness digging its tendrils through your ear membranes.

This has to be the most diverse playlist I’ve put together yet. Well, not including The Ultimate Master List. Even doing a lazy alphabetical arrangement generated quite a few interesting contrasts throughout. Possibly the smallest percentage of electronic music too, in lieu of all that rock and folk material. And when I do get to the digital realms, it’s almost always ambient music. Even the techno guys (Claude Young) or ‘future garage’ guys (Synkro) go ambient here. Can’t say things are gonna’ be much different in the coming month either.

Pantera - Cowboys From Hell

ATCO Records: 1990

Many musicians reinvent themselves to keep pace with changing trends. Some even succeed in doing so, avoiding the ‘bandwagon jumper’ label while contributing something worthwhile to the new sound in the process. Incredibly rare, however, is the act that not only adapts, but forages a new path unheard of before, and thrives as a result, spurring their own legion of bandwagon jumpers. How many are there even? Radiohead’s Kid A was a fascinating exploration outside the band’s comfort zone, but it wasn’t a reinvention of the group. The Beatles were constantly evolving in their songwriting, but one can still trace it as a natural progression, not an abrupt change. Gary Grice, formerly The Genius, now more commonly known as GZA, made a remarkable turnaround from debut to sophomore album, but would it have happened had his cousin The RZA not created the Wu-Tang Clan for him to feed off?

I really can’t stress enough just how astounding it is that Pantera came from a cliché, unremarkable glam metal band in the ‘80s, and instantly wiped all that history away with Cowboys From Hell. It didn’t hurt that this was their first major label record, thus pretty much their first real exposure outside their local metal scene. And that’s how the boys from Texas wanted it too, completely abandoning everything about their look and sound of old in favor of getting down and dirty as all the biggest thrash bands were doing. The transformation was so radical, so thorough, so complete that many figured Cowbows From Hell was Pantera’s debut. Maybe a few super hardcore fans from the area knew otherwise, but even they had to be astounded by how effortlessly the band pulled this off. Makes me wonder if any of the authoritative metal rags of the time knew it. Like, is there a write-up in a classic Kerrang or Guitar World issue musing on the same thoughts as above?

Whether approached as a debut or reintroduction for the band, bottom line is Cowbows From Hell is one kick-ass album, with plenty to enjoy whatever your metal preference is. There’s heavy shredding action throughout (Primal Concrete Sledge, Heresy, Shattered, Medicine Man, The Art Of Shredding), complemented by Pantera’s new-fangled ‘groove metal’ approach (Psycho Holiday, titular cut, Clash With Reality, Message In Blood). This is essentially halving the speed of trash’s brisk pace, giving more prominence to the rhythmic potential of their guitar attack.

The best songs though, are where they combine both techniques, plus throw in some gloriously melodic falsetto and dark imagery. Cemetery Gates is probably the most famous of the bunch, and maybe the most famous Pantera song period. Hell, I’ve had those Dimebag Darrell’s riffs stuck in my head for a solid week now! Another winner in this mold is chugging The Sleep. While not as structurally ambitious as Cemetery Gates’ segments, it still features a fucking epic solo from Dimebag. Holy shit, how you can not be a fan of this band after hearing it!?

Ratatat - Classics

XL Recordings: 2006

The best part about taking on a friend’s music collection is how it forces you out of comfort zones. Yeah, there’ll be some overlap in taste – why would you be friends if there wasn’t some common bond in the soundtracks of our lives – but there can be remarkable differences too. I doubt folks I know have as much affinity for Neil Young as I do, to say nothing of this newfound interest in dark ambient I’m currently exploring. Likewise, my interest in indie music is passive to the extreme, with only a few items making their way to my shelves. But son, I’m getting learned on this stuff these months, exposed to names both familiar and super new to my eyes. Speaking of Ratatat…!

First, I must admit I wasn’t entirely sure what sort of music Ratatat made. I had a very good guess of course, but something about this cover had me thinking this might be trap. I mean, the roaring feline in a stark shade contrast isn’t out of place in trap logos and hype material. Plus a name that likens to the rapid-fire sounds of hi-hats and snares that trap’s made its namesake? Well damn, how are you not convinced then? How about the fact this is on CD, within a clear jewel case no less. I don’t think a single trap artist has released their music in such a manner. Hell, hardly anyone does jewel cases anymore – t’is all about that digipak action, yo’.

Ratatat are in fact a duo consisting of Evan Mast and Mike Stroud, and are also a much bigger deal than I anticipated. Right, clearly not so big that I’d heard of them before, but they’ve been going strong for over a decade now, five albums deep with last year’s offering of Magnifique. And yes, they are an indie leaning act with the guitars and such, but also injecting ample amounts of electro to their productions. This has led them to comparisons between Daft Punk, Hot Chip and LCD Soundsystem, somewhat blended with Radiohead, MGMT, and M83. Hoo, now is that ever one hip dump of a namedropping!

And that’s essentially what we get with Classics, their cheekily titled second LP. There’s a lot of cool guitar tones and strumming throughout, with equal amounts of tweakin’ synths and raw drum programming backing them up. Some of this sounds quite fun, especially so in the super-catchy funky licks of Wildcat, though I’m getting some serious Get Lucky feels from it, sans the vocals. And honestly, the lack of singing on everything left a number of these tracks kinda’ empty, like they needed some scratchy screaming-warbler overtop to elevate a few to higher heights. As they are, a number of cuts come off unfinished and under produced, rough for the sake of authenticity.

But whatever, Classics is apparently their most popular album, including getting the vinyl reissue treatment recently. Huh, how did I miss these guys again? Oh yeah, that ‘comfort zone’ thing.

Beastie Boys - Check Your Head

Capitol Records: 1992

Either the most important Beastie Boys album, or the most forgotten Beastie Boys album, depending on who you ask. Most folks fall into the latter category, and for good reason: Check Your Head generally lacks a variety of things that made their other LPs so memorable. There’s none of the instantly recognizable hits like Fight For Your Right from Licensed To Ill, Sabotage from Ill Communication, or Intergalactic from Hello Nasty. So What’cha Want was the only single that charted, and barely so at that. Hell, for the longest time, I didn’t even realize the track was from this album. For some reason I mistook it for a Paul’s Boutique or Ill Communication cut despite hard evidence to the contrary. Maybe the title’s just been so oft repeated and sampled, I never clued in it was an actual song itself.

Even the scant ’00 albums get more talking points than Check Your Head. Though folks were divided on the merits of To The 5 Boroughs’ throw-back hip-hop, the Beasties were at least praised for sticking to the concept in face of so many changes within their scene. And Hot Sauce Committee… well, that was gonna’ get talked about no matter what. For all intents, the history most know of the Beastie Boys goes like: “GROUNDBREAKING ‘80s! Something with live instruments. The SABOTAGE video! Moar awesome videos from Hello Nasty, with robots and ninjas! Content old geezers doing raps whenever between Buddhism. Aww, man, MCA died? That sucks.” Poor Check Your Head, barely a name check.

Still, this was the first album the Beasties produced themselves, which is note worthy for sure, but doesn’t illicit the same reverent discussion that Rick Rubin on Licensed To Ill or The Dust Brothers on Paul’s Boutique do. Nonetheless, Ad-Rock, MCA, and Mike D returned to playing their own instruments rather than pilfer coffers of records for samples. A good thing too when they did, legalities involving cribbing other people’s music turning incredibly costly in the courts. Time to start making your own beats and riffs, drawing influence of the multitude of funk, punk, jazz-unk, and turntable trickery they grew up around. They must have had these tunes building in their head for some time too, the music tight and fluid throughout. Shame they neglected including the rappity-raps half the time.

That’s the angle most approach Check Your Head from when claiming this their most important album. It marks an evolution of the Beasties from a three-piece white boy posse with witty, hilarious immature lyrics into Serious Musicians. They aren’t so concerned with wordplay as they are with musical interplay, and had yet to really branch out into experimentation as they would in Ill Communication. They still find time for a few back-n-forth cuts (Jimmy James, Pass The Mic, Finger Lickin’ Good, So What’cha Want, Professor Booty), but they’re outliers to all the funk jams throughout Check Your Head. It’s like the boys were all growed up now. Peace out in dub with Namaste.

Synkro - Changes

Apollo: 2015

Synkro’s a name I’ve had my eye on for a few years, initially for obvious stupid reasons. Seriously, take out that ‘r’, add in double ‘e’s, rearrange a couple letters, and oh my, aren’t you looking mighty familiar. Not that it’s anything but a huge coincidence, but the alias one Joe McBride chose for himself couldn’t help but draw my attention in such a manner. Once I got past that though, I noticed his name cropping up around the Autonomic guys, soon after associating with ASC and Auxillary. Hey, that’s cool, but still, isn’t he a dubstep guy? A brief poke through his Lord Discogs dossier confirms as much, his early material finding homes on labels like Smokin’ Sessions, Dubbed Out, Box Clever, and Dubstep For Deep Heads. Right, so these labels are of the ‘intelligent’ side of the genre, all that post-future garagestep stuff that’s actually not so bad. Not my thing such that I’d want to dig into his releases any time soon though, but maybe at some point I’d check back, should a tantalizing development reveal itself in the near present. Also, a proper album wouldn’t hurt either, none of these endless EPs, yo’.

Well hey, here’s a tantalizing development I never saw coming: Synkro’s found a home on Apollo. Yep, the label that got its start as an outlet for the first selection of ambient works from Aphex Twin, and went on as a pioneer, leader, and all-around swell ‘90s label for all things ambient techno and experimental chill. They also dabbled in other trendy genres of the time (trip-hop, atmospheric jungle), and it seems this decade is no different, getting in on some of that neo-folk action. Oh, and future garage too. And after a few more singles for the famed Belgium print, Synkro finally tackled the LP format this past year with Changes.

For a debut album on Mr. McBride’s part though, this is about as safe an effort as I’ve ever heard. He made a name for himself clearly inspired by the Burial template, and much of Changes’ first half deals with the sound. There’s the distant echoes of garage soul past, haunting melodies of melancholic memories (though the looping vocal in Holding On is rather corny), and sparse shuffly grooves dubbed out to the recesses of urban alleyways. It’s all sounds lovely, and Synkro crafts some remarkably expansive spaces with his strings and pads. Don’t feel bad if you’ve a serious sense of ‘been there, heard it’ with these tunes though. It’s like listening to trip-hop in the year 2003: yeah, it still sounds good, but nothing new’s being added.

The back-half of Changes is a bit more interesting, with two gorgeous ambient pieces in Empty Walls and closer Harbour, a slowed-down jazzsteppy cut in Body Close, and a dead-ringer of a Boards Of Canada ode in Midnight Sun. Hey, wait a minute, when did this album suddenly turn into a Psychonavigation Records release? Everywhere, they are I swear.

Claude Young - Celestial Bodies

Fountain Music: 2013

Most times when dealing with a DJ or producer for the first time, the additional information Lord Discogs provides doesn’t tempt me into much further digging. So I was figuring the case for Claude Young when initially tackling his DJ-Kicks CD. T’was cool and all learning about his history, his legacy, and who he’s worked with in the past, but he’s been all over the map with his releases too. And I mean that literally, his records scattered on labels from across the globe, and undoubtedly super obscure or wallet-scorching expensive to procure. Fair enough, thought I, figuring Mr. Young would be yet another class Detroit techno guy that I’d have to sacrifice my attention in favor of several other worthy acts. It’s just the nature of Detroit techno consumption, tons of mint material only cultivated and heralded by the truly hardcore connoisseur of the genre. They wouldn’t have it any other way.

And yet, what’s this in Claude’s albums cache? A recent album released on Fountain Music in Japan called Celestial Bodies. Ooh, pretty blue nebula on the cover. Kinda’ reminds me of Model 500’s Deep Space. Quite a few astronomical titles in the track list too. The sample track, Hawking Radiation has a bumpin’ groove going for it. Is this a ‘Detroit techno guy making funky space music’ then? Mang, this just might be the Model 500 album we were all hoping for last year, but didn’t get in lieu of the retro-leaning Digital Solutions instead. Oh man, screw the Pacific import fees, time to get on this one before all the CD copies are snatched up!

That Celestial Bodies is not, in fact, a ‘Detroit techno guy making funky space music’ may come as a shock then. Mr. Young doesn’t produce much at all anymore, and when he does, his muse seems more drawn to ambient techno’s more experimental pastures. Not such a bad thing either, but man, was I not counting on a nearly full-on space ambient excursion with Celestial Bodies. Has Claude been hanging around planetariums?

There isn’t a whiff of a techno beat until the sixth track, and Domain Wall doesn’t even hit the two-minute mark. Prior to that there’s soft, harmonic tones of Exodus Earth, space drone of Observing The Kuiper Belt (Namlook legacy in the house, yo’), looping sonic doodle of Delta Cephei, spritely melodic pulses of Signals From Amor, and string pads accompanying punches of dub in Nysa. Only Observing and Signals reach any significant length, though even when the tracks get extra meat on their bones in the second half, we’re still mostly dealing with excursions into ambient. Sedna 90377 has some Detroit shuffle going for it, but is more about Claude’s old-school synth jams. Meanwhile, Cyrosleep Dreams is a lovely lullaby for our ventures to the cosmos, while Messier 86 (NGC 4406) is all ominous and creepy. Damn right it should be, the blue-shifted Virgo Cluster resident heading right for us! Projections for collision in a quadrillion years.

Bob Dylan - Bringing It All Back Home

Columbia: 1965/2003

A much better introduction to Bob Dylan long-players. Hell, it just might be among his most iconic albums for a number of reasons. For one, there’s the big hullabaloo over his ventures into the realms of electric music. Hey, that means Bringing It All Back Home is actually relevant to this blog! Nah, not really, the ‘going electric’ part merely his embrace of rock music after an early career as a traditional acoustic folkie. This was seen as a Very Big Deal though, like a betrayal of sorts; musicians just didn’t cross genre and scene boundaries, yo’. You started as an acoustic folk singer, you stayed in your lane. You started as a country crooner, damn straight you weren’t offering those pipes to Motown soul. A rock band was a rock band, though maybe you might get in on that blues action too.

Point being Bobby Dylian proved one wasn’t so chained to their genre as record labels so often claimed. The Beatles could make more than simple ‘love me do’ jangles. Brian Wilson could pen tunes about things other than surfing. And most importantly, you could even meld genres together! Rock music was traditionally lyrically simple stuff, catchy little numbers intended for dancefloors and malt shops, with no time for anecdotes and storytelling. Dylan said nuts to that, retaining his wordsmith abilities without sacrificing the energetic rockabilly jaunts.

And while Subterranean Homesick Blues, Maggie’s Farm, Outlaw Blues, On The Road Again, and Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream enthusiastically rock with the best of that era’s tunes, Mr. Zimmerman doesn’t just dwell on a single genre either. There’s a touch of the country in She Belongs To Me and Love Minus Zero, plus a flurry of folk songs to finish the album out. These include some of his most endearing pieces like Mr. Tambourine Man, famously covered by The Byrds that same year, and maybe-sorta’ about LSD (and if so, a much better allegory than the ham-fisted weed puns of Rainy Day Women #12 & 35). Somber Gates Of Eden is also here, foretelling the inevitable hippie burnout of the ‘70s before there was even much of a hippie movement to begin with. And if you ever need a more perfect example of Dylan’s seemingly stream-of-conscious lyricism, have a gander at It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding).

I bitched some about Dylan’s singing on Blonde On Blonde, but he sounds perfectly fine here. It’s like the brisk rock tempos prevent him from oohver enuunsiating. 115th Dream hilariously starts with an aborted recording session, lending the whole album a playful vibe, and that ol’ Bob isn't always so serious about himself. Finally, Subterranean Homesick Blues is probably most famous for offering the closest thing to the first music video. True, the scene of Dylan holding up cue cards in an alleyway as the song plays was taken from a tour documentary, but it’s been so smoothly extracted from the film, it may as well be a music video made for MTV. Dudes!

Bob Dylan - Blonde On Blonde

Columbia: 1966/2004

The only Bob Dylan album you’re supposed to have, even if you’re not a Bob Dylan fan. That said, do not let this be your introduction to the guy’s work. Mind, I honestly don’t know how one’s supposed to properly take in Mr. Zimmerman’s work. Every Dylan disciple will claim all his ‘60s material is essential, while the ‘70s is good, except when it’s actually very bad, but he was being intentionally bad so it’s actually good. Not that ‘80s stuff though, that was just bad-bad. Dammit though, we only have time to listen to a couple albums in our super busy lives. What’s the absolute best-best album we’re supposed to have? Blonde On Blonde apparently, but that comes with a huge caveat as far as I’m concerned.

I’m by no means a Dylan expert – the fact I’m reviewing this album is by happenstance of a former owner’s contribution to my CD hoarding. I know the history though, the legacy, the influence he’s had on some of my favorite artists. I’ve heard the iconic songs and the loving tributes. But diving into all his music? Sorry, Neil Young’s filled my need for folkie-rocker protester musician. So take these thoughts with grainy sodium, because Blonde On Blonde strikes me as the sort of album one can only fully appreciate as someone thoroughly versed in Dylan’s discography, idiosyncrasies and all.

Many call this his opus, but I’m not hearing much more here that can’t be found on his other ‘electric’ records of the era. There’s definitely a lot more of it though, which is great if you can’t get enough of that clever lyricism and metaphorical storytelling his reputation’s made on. And boy, choosing those famous, unheralded Nashville session musicians when his New York recordings weren’t up to snuff was a brilliant move, the backing tracks fun and exuberant throughout. I just wish I could hear them better in the final mix.

Right, folks come to a Bob Dylan album to hear Bob Dylan doing Bob Dylan th’angs, but damn if his cadence doesn’t grate after a while. Yes, I know this iis just the waaay he sings some-times, which is fine in small doses. For the double-LP length of Blonde On Blonde though, I completely tune out in the back half, especially so for the eleven-minute closer Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands. There are some lovely words being sung, just not in the way they’re being sung, plus he recycles so many melodies from the first half, it’s like the album’s spinning wheels. And why on Earth is that harmonica so damn high and shrill, drowning out the awesome session musicians? It isn’t even all that good a’ blowin’.

By the end of it, Blonde On Blonde comes off like an endurance test for what you can get out of Dylan. If you’re totally down with ol’ Bob, every moment is mana. Methinks one need a little bracer of his other material before coming into this one though.

The Velvet Underground - The Best Of The Velvet Underground (Words And Music Of Lou Reed)

Verve Records: 1989

Nearly everything you may adore or abhor about the alternative and indie side of rock music can be traced to this band. Making music that bucks the prevailing trends? Velvet Underground. Cultivating an impossibly hip image? Velvet Underground. An essential name-dropped when discussing one’s influences? Velvet Underground. Pretentious rock band fan-cult origins, that’s existed ever since rock music’s existed? I dunno, maybe Grateful Dead, but hoo boy, does Velvet Underground ever have their doozies too. Tab Lou Reed’s original band as anything less than “revolutionary”, and you’ll be met with scorn only seen in Tool’s ranks, with essays and essays of just how wrong your opinion is. Not that you’d understand them of course, the VU simply much too forward-thinking for mere Beatles or Stooges fans to comprehend, even a half-decade now since debuting with that kinda’-sorta’-maybe mediocre singing model Nico. But that was the Point, see, that underneath her natural beauty was a flawed, beautiful artistic creature, and Andy Warhol was a genius for forcing her upon Lou Reed to expose these blemishes within…

Wow, see what I mean?

The thing is, compared to other seminal bands of the ‘60s, Velvet Underground don’t even have that large a fanbase. Their albums barely charted (even when they did), and it took Lou Reed’s 2013 death to give their debut with Nico a respectable bump up their all-time standing (though the 2003 Deluxe version did pretty good in the UK). Even this particular Best Of collection, released in 1989, when the indie scene was on the rise and even sporting a little cross-over action, failed to chart. Yeah, but this is still the indie scene we’re dealing with, consisting of a passionate but disproportionate fanbase compared to the radio consuming plebs of the world.

And the VU indoctrinated wouldn’t have it any other way. This band became the sleeper sensation they did because of how far under the radar they initially flew. They hailed from New York City, when all the action in the rock world was happening in California and the UK. They made noisy dirges for a burnout generation years before the comedown had begun in earnest. Their music took recognizable signifiers of blues rock, psychedelia, and folk, but never fully embraced them to be pigeon-holed into those scenes. At a time when studio albums with the latest in production trickery were becoming the norm, these guys were rough and hideously unpolished, almost sounding like a literal garage band with decent talent but no budget. Others were making allegories to acid and marijuana, Reed bluntly sung about heroin. Yeah, small wonder so many point to Velvet Underground as a proto-punk band, a group proving you could make a name for yourself despite little being in your favor.

So yes, listening to The Best Of Velvet Underground, I do get why they’ve earned the legend, the mythos, and the storied inspiration for so many others. Just, y’know, don’t be a twat when going on about them, ‘kay?