Take A Trip (part 3)

Take A Trip

A whirlwind guide through the undefined world of American:

psychedelic, trip-rock, stoner, grunge, drone, shoegaze...

investigated by Alan Freeman

Not the usual Tom Carter...

I'd mentioned Tom Carter in the Bardo Pond section, he's a musician that seems to get all over the place: Abrasion Ensemble, Badgerlore, Eleven Twenty-Nine, Friday Group, Kyrgyz, Mudsuckers, Sarin Smoke, Spiderwebs, Turnstone, Zaika are all bands listed on Discogs that I've never heard of! I wonder if any are of interest?

The only solo Tom Carter I've encountered to date is his Train Kept, the B-side of the Barn Owl / Tom Carter split LP (Blackest Rainbow BRR 080) issued in 2008, which has him in totally abstract explorative mode reminding me more of the guitar experiments of Fred Frith, G.F. Fitzgerald or Keith Rowe (of AMM), and is amongst the better examples of this sort of thing.

Tom is best-known as half of the male/female duo Charalambides (who did expand to a trio) a typical band of the Kranky label, although they didn't get releases on Kranky until their later years. Think Windy & Carl, low-fi pop, Velvet Underground, some moments of noise and sludgy dirges, the average Charalambides was always unclassifiable. But, for my taste three albums stood out as different from the rest, these being largely improvised 2001 and later releases: BRANCHES (Eclipse), ROSE/THORN (Klang Industries) and UNKNOWN SPIN (Kranky KRANK 061) all so sublimely ethereal and twisted.

The free-rock of Eternal Tapestry...

These are a Portland-based psychedelic rock group, involving: Dewey Mahood (guitar), Jed Bindeman (drums), Nick Bindeman (guitar) and others. A lot of their releases don't document who is on them, so it's hard to establish a history. PALACE OF THE NIGHT SKIES (Three Lobed TLR-069) from 2009 was the first I heard, and I was hooked and had to seek-out more! Almost as though they were destined to fill the gap left by Escapade, these heady Hawkwind like trips only hinted at the variety of invention and other styles explored before and after.

The very first Eternal Tapestry release I've not found as yet, a cassette (yes, some bands in the USA still release cassettes for sale on tour) VIBRATIONS NEW DAWN I've only heard via a cruddy low-fi mono download, so it's not possible to comment on that, but everything else I've heard by them is excellent. I think a full article is needed to do them justice. Next Audion?
Web note: I've heard all Eternal Tapestry meanwhile.

Expo 70, who know no bounds...

Covering almost every genre I've discussed in this article so far is Expo 70, chiefly the project of guitarist Justin Wright, and whoever he's working with. Expo 70 can be just scuttling guitar noise and froth, they can on occasions be a tad boring too, and can also be pretty awesome inventing new cross genre hybrids.

One of the best live documents is JULY 18 2004 (Kill Shaman KS9) which is the closest to primordial Cluster, and in a similar field is ANIMISM (Kill Shaman KSR22) a 2007 outing of mostly guitar based fuzzes & distortions. In sharp contrast to those are: EXQUISITE LUST (Kill Shaman KSR15) from 2006, a much more varied outing with a more notable ambient edged Krautrocky feel. This one features one McKinley Jones (guitar, sitar, Moog), and because of that feels more like a band project. MYSTICAL AMPLIFICATION (Kill Shaman KSR18) is also a shade Krauty, but is more of the guitar noodling with echo/delay and electronics variety. WOOLGATHER VISIONS (Gold Soundz GS#89) a 2009 cassette, I noted as vaguely Heldon-esque froth, and there's some of that in what I'm listening to now: DEATH VOYAGE (Dead Pilot DPRCD03) which could often be the product of some obscure French indie guitar/electronics outfit of the late 1970's. Also here is one Matt Hill (bass, acoustic guitar, synthesizer) the second most regular Expo 70 member, on at least a dozen releases.

There are at least 42 Expo 70 album releases to date, and I guess everyone will have different favourites. Those above, and THE VANISHING WORLD WITHIN (Solid Melts SM-008) 2010 cassette, are amongst my favourites.

Starving Weirdos, what a band name!...

Quite by chance, in a batch of part exchange discs was a disc by this curiously named outfit: INTO AN ENERGY (Bo'weavil weavil38CD) from 2009, by the quartet of: Brian Pyle (guitar, vocals, flute, percussion, electronics, etc.), Gregg Devaney (horns, vocals, ocarina, bells), Merrick McKinlay (saxophone, violin, cello, percussion, keyboards, sampler), Steve Lazar (clarinet, violin, keyboards, etc.) playing a wondrous abstract music that was not too far removed from some of our own Endgame live recordings, with an edginess that also reminded me of Faust and This Heat in their early days.

But that was a mite misleading one to start with, as they started in 1989 and have something like 30 odd releases that I know of. They are more often a duo as well, just Brian Pyle and Merrick McKinlay - but on what instruments? Well, very few of their releases actually document who is on them, let alone what they play! Some albums to recommend? Well, certainly the cosmic sprawling THE PATH OF LIGHTNING (Weird Forest Weird 49) 2LP set from 2009, and okay I'll just list them: FIERCE ABILITY, LIVE AT THE ACCIDENT!, SEANCE AT LUFENHULZ, SELF-HYPNOSIS, SHRINE OF THE POST-HYPNOTIC, and many more. I don't think I've come across a duff one, although some are a bit too abstract and empty I guess.

Starving Weirdos are certainly one of the most creative and original of the bands discussed in this feature.

And there's more!...

Emeralds are another prolific outfit, although they most often fit more in the synth field. Main man is guitarist Mark McGuire, also a prolific soloist. I've had dozens by him, all good I guess though often a mite one-dimensional and noodly. His TIDINGS / AMETHYST WAVES (Weird Forest WEIRD-051) is amongst his finest. With Emeralds, I've also had lots of good ones, but by far the best are two live ones: LIVE CD-R (Gneiss Things 05) documenting bits of 2007-8 gigs in Cleveland, New Haven, and Amherst - a crammed 79 minute disc of excellent cosmic music, often in the realms of Fripp & Eno, early Ashra, et al., and THE OVERLOOK (Wagon) cassette from 2009 - sounding like some lost Ash Ra Tempel circa 1975, or maybe Spacecraft or Lard Free even. Wonderful!

There are dozens of other projects interlinked with Emeralds, various solo projects, collaborative works, etc., a lot of them on the Wagon label, like Outer Space (analogue electronics), Quiet Light Water Gap (melodic synth), Mist (space music), Imaginary Softwoods (minimal ambient), etc.
example

Maserati are another post-rock / space-rock outfit, who've apparently changed a lot over the years. The first one I got was the best, and quite obviously Ash Ra Tempel "Inventions" inspired, right down to the album title: INVENTIONS FOR THE NEW SEASON (Temporary Residence TRR 120) from 2007, which also has a Godspeed You Black Emperor edge and Porcupine Tree / Ozric Tentacles touches too. Others that I've encountered, whilst good, didn't really get to such highs. They've done at least 7 albums to date.

Plante is guitarist Andrew Plante, whose TEMPLES ON HIGH (Sweat Lodge Guru SLG004) cassette also features Expo 70's McKinley Jones on synthesizer. It's nice fuzzy drone stuff, obviously influenced by Robert Fripp and Richard Pinhas.

Atlantic Drone are one of the most obscure bands covered here, even though their eponymous ATLANTIC DRONE (Noiseville #65) from 2007 came out on a pretty well-known label! It's not really in character with much else on Noiseville. Except Chrome. And Atlantic Drone do have a Chrome edge to them at times, although they're mostly trippy jamming rock and freaky psych that's wide-ranging, riddled with lots surprises in 13 tracks. Great stuff. I'm after their 2nd! Web note:got it since!
example

Carlton Melton are another West Coast trip-rock outfit. I have two very good ones by them: PASS IT ON (Agitated Records AGIT002CD) from 2010 which is freaky trip-rock, with Pink Floyd like grooves, and Man like extended improvs, and COUNTRY WAYS (Mid-To-Late MTL-004 CD) from 2011 which is not country at all, but closer to Escapade and Cul De Sac territory. They have a few more obscure ones that I've not been able to find as yet. Web note: I've heard loads more Carlton Melton meanwhile.
example 

White Hills have to be one of the most schizophrenic of all the bands discussed here, as they can range from really dreadful thrash metal through to awesome acid Krautrock. - so tread carefully unless your taste is that wide! Amongst their finest are STOLEN STARS LEFT FOR NO ONE (Thrill Jockey 12.45) which although under 30 minutes is some of the finest stoner space-rock akin to some stuff by the Gibbons brothers & co. A LITTLE BLISS FOREVER (Drug Space Records Dosage 101) from 2008 sounds closer to Eternal Tapestry, with just two LP side long tracks. And best of their earlier ones is NO GAME TO PLAY (White Hills Music) containing 5 more varied trippy excursions.

from Audion #57, page 10 (Autumn 2012)

Take A Trip (part 2)

Take A Trip

A whirlwind guide through the undefined world of American:

psychedelic, trip-rock, stoner, grunge, drone, shoegaze...

investigated by Alan Freeman

Realms of the Barn Owl...

Barn Owl in concert

I first came across Barn Owl after a friend asked if I could find him the album DIGGING THE VOID by the reputedly excellent cosmic guitarist Evan Caminiti. Quite impressed by that when I got it I decided to check-out what else he'd done, only to learn that he is half of the prolific duo called Barn Owl.

Barn Owl? The only history I could find anywhere is this quote from their MySpace page "Guitarists Jon Porras and Evan Caminiti started playing music together soon after meeting in an American Indian science class at San Francisco State in 2005 and realizing they had similar backgrounds playing in metal bands and a shared interest in meditative, psychedelic music." From that you'd not realise that their roots were really in John Fahey styled experimental Americana roots music, so much so in fact that their debut could almost be a John Fahey album to my ears! That was the roots, the germ, but what followed was altogether different!

Okay, their next major release BRIDGE TO THE CLOUDS (Not Not Fun NNF104) from 2007 was like a mixture of John Fahey type stuff, hints of Neil Young soundtracks, but with a heady deepness recalling those multi-guitar textures in classic ethno-acoustic Popol Vuh, all given a big sound, and occasionally drifting off into a lovely cosmic ooze. Here you begin to appreciate that there are two very different guitarists involved, both adopting different roles depending on whether they are playing acoustic, electric, or totally over-treated guitars. FROM OUR MOUTHS A PERPETUAL LIGHT (Not Not Fun NNF123 ) seems to come next, released on LP in 2008 and CD in 2009, it again has that kind of Popol Vuh like spiritual aura about it, only more-so because of the addition of percussion from one Mike Bailey. After this they tended to get a lot more cosmic, with copious amounts of electronic effects often hiding that it was mostly created on guitars. Live they could be quite stunning, and based on the bootleg I have I really wish I'd seen them at the 2011 Supersonic Festival in Birmingham, where their 57 minute set swells from a shimmer through to crazed fury, Ash Ra Tempel onto Cluster, onto... The YouTube extracts of them live just don't do them justice. More in this vein can be found on TRANSFIGURATION (Electric Totem ET001) live in Vancouver, Canada in August 2008 and THE CONJURER (Root Strata RS44) where they get downright spooky.

There are lots of obscurities in their discography, as they tend to do special edition cassettes and CDR's that are sold only at gigs, but nearly all that I've found have been good. I don't think I have superlatives nor the time to review them all, but I will add one more. Credited to Barn Owl & The Infinite Strings Ensemble - THE HEADLANDS (Important Records imprec317) from 2010. This has Evan Caminiti (electric & acoustic guitars, vocals, gong bells) and Jon Porras (electric guitar, dulcimer, vocals, bells) joined by Ellen Fullman on her Long String Instrument (and "Ensemble" featuring Theresa Wong on cello, and mystery man "The Norman Conquest") all adding up to some superbly serene and deep cosmic droney stuff .

Evan Caminiti, as a soloist has also been quite prolific. My first encounter DIGGING THE VOID (Students Of Decay SOD-83) was an ear opener. Here we have a music that not only bridges the worlds of early Steve Tibbetts and Alain Markusfeld, but also melds lots of new ideas into the overall cosmic aura. And he keeps it all too edgy and spooky to fall into the "pretty" trap of most new-agers. All the others I've encountered by him are good, of course some are more striking and engaging than others, like PSYCHIC MUD SHRINE (Digitalis ACE029) also from 2009, it features just four tracks, each with a different focus, ranging from really sludgy drone/tonal guitar walls to celestial ambient trips, and more. And, let's not forget the bizarrely titled WHEN CALIFORNIA FALLS INTO THE SEA (Handmade Birds HB-006) a 2011 collection of shorter vignettes. He now also releases ambient music under the name Painted Caves.

Higuma is another Evan Caminiti project, together with one Lisa McGee. As most releases like this are devoid of information we have to seek out another project Lisa is involved in to find out what she does besides vocals. In Vestals, on their FOREVER FALLING TOWARD THE SKY she's credited with vocals, guitar, drumulator, so at least we know she's a multi-instrumentalist. That makes sense when you hear HAZE VALLEY (Root Strata RS41) which we are told is: improvisations recorded live in the valley, winter 07/08. For a duo live this is big sounding music, full of pensive tension, celestial drone, guitars, wordless voice, etc. that will inevitably remind one of Popol Vuh, although it couldn't possibly be, as the guitar style (whilst one could compare it to Conny Viet) is distinctly Americana, and we have a feel that definitely dates this as new 21st Century. DEN OF THE SPIRITS (Digitalis DIGIV019) from 2010 and 2011's PACIFIC FOG DREAMS (Root Strata RS 073) offer more such elated music, again in their now patent side-step from Popol Vuh vein, mixed with more oozy and droney cascades, and the occasional number that also recalls some Dead Can Dance.

Jon Porras, based on the evidence of his non Barn Owl work, would seem to be the least roots inspired of the two guitarists. Much of his earlier solo work is recorded under the project name Elm. WOVEN INTO LIGHT (Blackest Rainbow) from 2008 has Jon adopting the one-man band approach: guitar, vocals, harmonium, harmonica, flute and drums, amounting to an album of excellent cosmic guitar and electronics, with added ritualistic dynamics. The unpronounceable BXOGONOAS (Digitalis ltd#34) has a wider ranging collection of short tracks which I described in my notes as: with hints of Popol Vuh and Stephan Micus meeting early primordial Ash Ra Tempel drifts - kind of! Yes, that'll do! There's at least one other Elm release: NEMCATACOA (Digitalis ACE028) which is similarly exotic and full of little new surprises and diversions. Since then, however, Jon has worked solo under his own name, debuting as such with UNDERCURRENT (Root Strata RS83) a more restrained oozy sonics/guitars blend riding on the edge of the cosmos.

Gärden Söund involves both Evan and Jon from Barn Owl together with Dewey Mahood and Jed Bindeman of Eternal Tapestry (more on them later) doing a kind of retro psychedelic jam music that exactly what I expected based on the name. Note the spelling. There's definitely an air of Älgarnas Trädgård about BLACK SUMMIT (Digitalis Recordings digiv028) that same kind of Nordic flavour, with a dash of Balkan and Eastern textures, along with all sorts of influences. I guess they'd also been listening to Pärson Sound, International Harvester and other Swedish underground of the 1960's/70's. If not, I'd be surprised. Funny thing though, it's not quite what one would expect from either Barn Owl or Eternal Tapestry musicians, which goes to show how explorative, talented and original they are in both adapting their influences and coming up with original new ideas of their own.

There are a number of other such related projects: Hanging Thief being one. Why on earth anyone would want to call a band Hanging Thief I don't know! That involved Barn Owl in collaboration with members Altar Eagle, which I had but didn't keep. Don't know why! There's also a huge new super-group project called: Portraits (yet to hear), that features the Barn Owls with a cast of others largely unknown to me, namely: Jefre Cantu-Ledesma (Root Strata, Tarentel), Lisa McGee (Higuma), Gregg Kowalsky & Marielle Jakobsons (Date Palms), Maxwell Croy (Root Strata / EN) Steven Dye & Tony Cross (Tarentel) and Michael Elrod (Date Palms) - no doubt these are all other bands to investigate!

from  Audion #57, page 9 (Autumn 2012)

Take A Trip (part 1)

Take A Trip

A whirlwind guide through the undefined world of American:

psychedelic, trip-rock, stoner, grunge, drone, shoegaze...

investigated by Alan Freeman

There's a lot of it about these days. Whatever you call it. And in so many forms. From the totally crazed through to the ambient, and almost everywhere in between. Instrumental, or largely instrumental jam rock, free-form, cross-culture, new Americana. Some of it is Krautrock inspired, some of it rooted in the avant-garde, most of it seems to be improvised. The current USA explorers don't seem to conceptualise so much as their 1970s mentors, they just do it, and so the proliferation of prolific bands is quite staggering, and something you could never keep up on without the web. Of course, some such bands like Escapade, SubArachnoid Space, Melting Euphoria, et al., have been well-covered in Audion. So, here's a whirlwind tour of some of the most exciting other such stuff I've found over the past decade or so...

The Bardo Pond connection...

To me, Bardo Pond were deemed of little interest when I first encountered them based on some second-hand records and CD's bought into the Ultima Thule shop back in the early-mid 1990s. Basically a modern twist on the old Velvet Underground sound I thought, and the Velvet Underground were never amongst my favourites of the 1960s. At best, the Bardo Pond I'd heard was somewhere between Windy & Carl and Stereolab, okay but not my scene. So it was a surprise to learn that Bardo Pond had indeed made some excellent records, and of a couple of related projects that were pretty awesome and "out there"...

The 5 piece Hash Jar Tempo

Hash Jar Tempo involve Clint Takeda, Joe Culver, John Gibbons and Michael Gibbons (all of Bardo Pond) together with New Zealand guitarist Roy Montgomery. I was told at the time that this project came out of the desire to do something Krautrock like, something in the manner of Ash Ra Tempel or Guru Guru. In fact the name is both a play on the name Ash Ra Tempel and some Uli Trepte lyrics from a Guru Guru song (those in the know will know).

Even with knowing that I didn't quite expect what WELL OILED (Drunken Fish Records DFR-24) had to offer. Recorded in March 1995 and released two years later, it was an apt time to issue such music on the cusp of Krautrock interest due to Julian Cope's "Krautrocksampler" book and our own "The Crack In The Cosmic Egg" - it was now official, such music is classic, not self indulgent waffle. It was about time the world woke up to that! This was, I guess, the start of the opening floodgates, and what an album, what it lacked in track titles (none at all) it made up for with musical imagination and invention. Although an obvious dedication to the genre it wasn't at all derivative really, that was due to the odd man out here I guess: Roy Montgomery, a musician I've only recently checked-out (his 1995 album TEMPLE IV is rather good, all multi-guitar stuff with echo and reverb, with hints of Manuel Göttsching and Popol Vuh's Daniel Fichelscher). Five of the seven tracks are over 10 minutes, the 6th is 18 minutes, and there is a small breather/interlude in there and a wind-down coda. So, transport yourself back to 1969, but with the post-rock attitude of the 1990s, dual guitars, solid bass and excellent drums, all on the edge of fried - but cosmic too.

The sequel UNDER GLASS (Drunken Fish Records DFR 44) from 1999 also included Isobel Sollenberger from Bardo Pond! And this one had track titles, although Prälaudium Und Fuge. D-Moll or Hymenoptera In Amber Crybaby for instance, hardly made sense with such charged wigged-out on the edge music. A great sequel, if a bit schizophrenic. A third one never happened.

Bardo Pond now (keeping the chronology) started to mix such free-rocking trips into their own repertoire. Yet I've still not come across an entirely successful album. Well, that is excepting two co-releases. First is the split: SubArachnoid Space "Tigris" / Bardo Pond "Euphrates" (Camera Obscura CAM054LP) from 2002, sporting one side-long track by each band. Of course we know SubArachnoid Space well, but Bardo Pond's side is the better of the two, a strangely twisted opus that reminds me both of early Ash Ra Tempel and the trippy improv stuff that Throbbing Gristle also excelled at. The other one is a collaboration: Bardo Pond + Tom Carter - 4/23/03 (Three Lobed TLR 012) issued in 2004. Tom Carter is one of those prolific modern musicians that seems to work in a variety of fields, from pop through to pure avant-garde. We first encountered him in collaboration with Starving Weirdos (more about them later) but he's best-known for Charalambides (they're featured here too). So, give him the freedom to be as psychedelic as he wants against a backdrop of grooving Bardo Pond, and you have one of the best neo-Krautrock type classics around!

Alumbrados I thought would be an alumni of brothers, but a Google search reveals: Alumbrados was the name assumed by some false mystics who appeared in Spain in the sixteenth century and claimed to have direct intercourse with God. A strange name for a band then! But Alumbrados are a strange band! They made four albums, of which I have the second: A GENERATION OF VIPERS (Important Records 102) where they are a quartet of musicians all involved in Bardo Pond! The key difference here is John Gibbons playing a Cümbüş, that's a Turkish oud-like stringed instrument (invented by one Zeynelabidin Cümbüş in the early 20th century) which he plays in a totally decadent John Fahey or Sandy Bull like manner, adding a unique Middle-Eastern flavour to a psychedelic jam-rock that is most unusual. An odd one, it took a good few listens to really appreciate, but I'll have to check-out the others!

Alasehir is also an odd name for a band (and who knows how to pronounce it?) - either an ancient word meaning "Philadelphia" or "brotherly love" or a town the Aegean region of Turkey! Curious indeed! Formed as the trio of Michael Gibbons and John Gibbons together with much travelled drummer Michael Zanghi (otherwise Alumbrados above minus one). Their debut SHARING THE SACRED (Important Records imprec101) also sees the Gibbons adding sitar and tambura to their instrumentation, which in some places makes this sound like a perfect hybrid of Ash Ra Tempel, Agitation Free and Popol Vuh, as if musicians from those bands had got together in a jam session. Quite when that dates from we don't know, but it wasn't released until 2006, and already then Alasehir had become the Gibbons plus Jason Kourkounis on drums - that's

three-fifths of Bardo Pond! My notes for THE PHILOSOPHY OF LIVING FIRE (Siltbreeze SB86) say: kind of Ash Ra Tempel meets spacey Hillage in an early Djam Karet mode type of thing from Bardo Pond people, which certainly wraps up how excellent that is in a few words! THE STONE SENTINELS (Archive 33) from 2007 adds one Aaron Igler (the above mentioned "minus one" of Alumbrados) on keyboards and electronics. This is darker stuff, deep-space drives with sizzling dual guitars and drum driven treks, with electronics that tend to underpin and enhance more than the usual space twitters we hear in such music. Both low-fi and sharp as a bell, this contrast makes it sound both 1968 & 2022!! Seemingly their last outing: TORMENT OF THE METALS (Important Records IMPREC249) finds them back down to a basic trio, and in a far more freeform Guru Guru meets Hawkwind mode, but with the added post-rock power that steers close to Godspeed You Black Emperor on occasions, particularly with some real big soundwall dirges!



from Audion #57, page 8 (autumn 2012)

The Myrrors - out there ritualistic psychedelic rock

One of my favourite bands of the moment, The Myrrors are like a time-portal into the past, with elements of Swedish progg underground, Krautrock and a mystical air all of their own creation. The title of their new album BORDERLANDS says it all!

For releases in stock at Ultima Thule on Discogs, look here

The deep sonic/spacious world of early Michael Stearns

SUSTAINING CYLINDERS
(Continuum Montage CM 1002) MC

This also has one piece per side. The title track features an instrument called the Eikosany Vibes, which produces a hauntingly beautiful pattern of curious and melancholic bell-like sounds resulting in a very minimal, slowly moving and almost ambient soundscape. Sleeping Conches utilises mainly natural sounds. The washing of waves, conch shells and delicate bell notes interweave to form a relaxing, elemental and meditative carpet (or should I say ocean?) of sound.



JEWEL
(Sonic Atmospheres 208) MC

Another album of two tracks! In Morning Michael once again employs natural sounds:- bird song, children's voices, insect chirpings, etc. (recorded live at dawn in the Arizona desert and a Mexican jungle it seems) to evoke the arrival of dawn. These natural sounds then merge into a beautiful and uplifting symphony of acoustic, electronic and wordless vocal music glorifying the beauty and freshness of a new day. New Age music with a difference, instead of just relying on virtuosity and technique which produces a cold and clinical aspect, Michael imbues his music with a feeling of and for humanity. 'Organic' rather than 'inorganic' New Age music is how a chemist might describe it. This music lives! Jewel is a hypnotic ambient piece produced with the Eikosany Vibes and a female chorus. The music shimmers and glistens like some immense precious stone slowly revolving and reflecting a warmly glowing light. Absolutely spellbinding!

(reviews by Peter Harrison in Audion #2, September 1986)



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