Unknown Mortal Orchestra

"Unknown Mortal Orchestra II" is one slippery record.  Sliding back and forth between the musical influence of the 60's, 90's Hip Hop, Soul music, and post punk energy.  The melodies have a sugary sweet feel but are contrasted with a melancholic mood.  The guitar tones stick to a classic fuzz tone but are matched by in the pocket drum and bass lines recalling the sampled beats of J Dilla or RZA.  While the influences and references are widespread and perhaps counter intuitive, it makes for a very original and very fresh take on Psychedelic songwriting.

The opening track "From the Sun" is a perfect example of the manner in which Ruban Nielson straddles the past and present.  The song's melody could have been lifted straight from John Lennon, but that is not to say that the song is straight mimicry.  If anything, the familiarity of the sound lures listeners in with a false sense of security, just to have the song taken in the opposite direction.  The intro is one of the many examples of Nielson's excellent guitar picking and knack for chord structure.  "From the Sun" starts sparse and light before switching to a tripped out pop melody.  His playing is simple but often unexpected, switching between agile picking patterns, chugging post- punk pop, and fuzzed out psychedelic wailing.  While "Swim and Sleep (Like a Shark)" finds Nielson picking his way around the fretboard in a downward spiral.

While maintaining a cohesive style, the album switches the flow constantly.  Swimming between the slow jam soul of "So Good at Being in Trouble", the offbeat groove of "Opposite of Afternoon", and the  thrash of "No Need for a Leader".  Nielson and the gang weave their way effortlessly from one idea to the next.  The album has a great pacing, a diverse range of ideas, and a complex melding of style and substance.            

        

High Rise

High Rise are a Japanese psychedelic trio that deliver heavy hitting blasts of noise and fury, along with blistering cyclical guitar solos.  These guys are the definition of Japanese hard psych but rather than follow in the tradition of Japanese bands such as Blues Creation or Flower Travelin' Band, they take a more experimental noise rock route.  They favor live performance over studio craftsmanship and take influence from free jazz soloing rather than Black Sabbath or more conventional 70s riffage.

Guitarist Munehiro Nirito has said that he wouldn't encourage anyone to drive while listening to High Rise (although I've done it myself) and I can understand why.  High Rise at their best are the electric personification of spinning out of control.  The chords set a chugging pace for the band to start their drive, but as every song progresses it inevitably explodes into a slashing spiral of noise.  The vocals are always drowned out by the lead guitar, which is really the focus of the songs.  The bass lines chug along while syncing with the drums pounding out a rhythm similar to an engine firing, until Nirito inevitably squeals in, riding on an out of control Wah- Wah solo.  When this happens the band explodes into a thrashing whirlwind of noise, together and unified, but lost in the chaos of their own sonic storm.  It is aggressive, loud, searing, and overwhelming.  It is not a style of music for everyone and it will most certainly put you on edge and perhaps make you uncomfortable, however the pure energy and musicianship of the band is undeniable.

The band is meant to be experienced live, and while this does not diminish their studio records it does clue you in to how they are meant to be heard.  So if you only listen to one High Rise record make it the live record.

      

Milk Music

Okay, I'll confess.  I wouldn't use the term psychedelic to describe Milk Music.  However, when I first heard the bands debut 12" ("Beyond Living") I listened to it for a week straight.  Nothing else.  I have not heard such an original rock band in a very, very long time. So for that I'm writing about this excellent group.

Milk Music have emerged from the new buds sprouting up in the wet and wooded corners of Olympia Washington (state that is).  The Olympia scene has a long history of grungy punk outsider music and in that sense not much has changed.  But what has is the scope of influence that has crept into this isolated community.  What was once home to bare bones punk rage is now stage for bands with a wider vocabulary of influence.   Don't get me wrong, the punk rage is still very much alive but elements of shoegaze, psychedelia, and classic rock are now mixing in.  Milk Music is an excellent example of this.  Still maintaining punk rock thrash but mixing in between incredibly melodic lead lines drenched in fuzz.  Singer Alex Coxen still howls out angsty yelps but instead of songs of rage, Coxen's lyrics  are focused on the cosmic and the unknowable and how to exist in a world that ignores these eternal struggles.  Instead of lamenting, Coxen and Milk Music have set out to claim ownership of their own path, musically and spiritually.

Their latest album "Cruise Your Illusion" is an example of a band coming into their own thematically and sonically.  The song writing has improved drastically and so has the playing.  Fully embracing their love of Neil Young and Meat Puppets, the band has slowly changed from outsiders to outlaws.  They may not be robbing banks but they are living life on their own terms, taking on a serious touring regiment over the last few years.  It is clear that life on the road and pursuing their own path is the core of the record with tracks like "Illegal and Free" and the heavy head banger "Cruising with God".

Stylistically the band has grown as well.  Tracks like "Caged Dog Runs Free" and "Runaway" adapt Crazy Horse style jams and fit them nicely into the Milk Music world.  Songs like "New Lease on Love" and "I've Got a Wild Feeling" take the uptempo thrash that Milk Music does so well and progress it to the next level.  While tunes like "Dogchild" and "the Final Scene" take a Post Punk stab at country rock and even a hints of Doo Wop.  If anything, the band is doing an excellent job of genre bending while maintaining the elements of their sound that are completely their own.

Despite all of the references and comparisons I've made, Milk Music are not imitators or montage artists.  The influence is there but it has been processed and assimilated into the sound of a band that continue to grow and push themselves.  Refusing to be pigeonholed or to confine to anyone's expectations Milk Music keep pumping out infectious riffage and solid songs.  "Cruise Your Illusion" does not rely on studio trickery in the slightest, it is just the sound of a tight and concise band performing their songs with energy and attack.  I for one look forward to what the band has to deliver next.

Check out some of the tunes below.

          



  

Spacin' - Deep Thuds

Rock and Roll has a long running history of imitation and appropriation.  Artist take elements from their  influences and mix them together until something new comes steaming out of the pot.  Spacin' are a prime example of a new group taking age old rock tricks and applying them to a new frame. Spacin' at it's core is a bare bones garage rock band, but instead of being content they take their power chord riffs and use them as a foundation for drawn out experimentation and psychedelic jam sessions.

Spacin' is a muddy home recording project from Philadelphia, featuring members of the group Birds of Maya.  They take the same approach to heavy guitar shredding sessions, but instead keep riding on a riff instead of exploding into a storm of electricity.  Spacin' take most of their cues from the Rolling Stones (obvious from the cover art) and the Stooges.  However, they take the solid riffage of these bands and use it as a backbone for more Krautrock experiments.  

The opener, "Empty Mind", sounds like the stoned boogie of a Stooges riff or possibly even the Velvet Underground, with the rhythm section hanging on the down beat, while the lead guitar spirals in and out.  The simplest of chord progressions becomes a droned out repetitious exploration.

Tracks like "Chest of Steel" and "Sunshine, No Shoes" could sit at home on either "Funhouse" or Iggy's "Lust for Life".  They both take a bright three to four chord riff and turn it into a gritty stomper with some swelling guitar melodies in between verses.

While tracks like "Oh, Man" and "Ego-Go" truly take after the space rock name.  The beauty of all these songs is the bands capacity to take a single progression or idea and stretch it out without it getting dull.  All the solos and riffs are  in exactly the right place.  It is experimental within the confines of a traditional rock and roll frame.  It isn't earth shattering or even genre defying, but it is new music made by a group who love rock and roll, and who love riffing into space.  If that's all you are looking for in contemporary music, look no further.

       

Easter Everywhere

I've been waiting to review this album for sometime.  Today seems as appropriate a day as any, so here it is...  

"Easter Everywhere" by the 13th Floor Elevators is an album which may very well be the band's masterpiece before their inevitable unraveling.  This album is cohesive and versatile, the songs sit comfortably with each other, combining the repetitious and cyclical Psychedelic jams they pioneered with R&B, as well as the more subdued yet beautiful acid folk songs like "Dust" and "I Had to Tell You" Roky brought to the table.  This record is a success on all fronts, in the instrumentation, the cryptic lyrics, and even in the production which is much cleaner and tighter than the first album.  

The album's opener, "Slip Inside This House", is an 8 minute epic, a hypnotic head banger, chronicling the path of self discovery and introspection brought on by the psychedelic experience.  This is one of Tommy Halls better lyrical pieces and Roky Erickson howls them out like a spoken word poem over top of the bands razor sharp cyclical rhythm.  The band effortlessly weaves in and out of phrases blurring the lines and sounds in a truly original fashion.  

Rock stompers like the ethereal "She Lives (In a Time of Her Own)" and "Levitation", as well as the thunderous "Earthquake" keep the record in the vein of their garage rock roots, taking feedback and manipulating it into a slithery sonic snake that continues to shift it's form, masking the structure of each song.  This is largely indebted to Stacy Sutherland's guitar lines which are incredibly melodic and bridge the gap between the rock tunes and the folk ballads.       

The Bob Dylan cover "Baby Blue" may be the best cover of the song I have heard.  The band takes it and makes it their own, turning it from a lovers goodbye into an LSD comedown.  Roky's voice is perfectly suited for the emotion of the song and subject matter.  While Sutherland's sliding guitar sneaks back into the arrangement and gives a new psychedelic poignancy to the lyrics "the carpet, too, is moving under you".  

"Easter Everywhere" is a perfect example of a band finally capturing the sounds they have been striving towards.  I have never heard a record anywhere close to sounding like this.  I can trace the roots, but the band blends southern folk, with R&B, and Blues based rock in a way that is all their own.    Listen to the record as a whole and let it sink in.  

  

Ty Segall and White Fence- "Hair"

                  

Just when it feels like psychedelic rock has been rehashed to the point of generic predictability, Ty Segall and White Fence take the past and hack it to bits, splicing together a new vision of a well worn piece of rock history.  You can call it psychedelic, you can call it garage, or lo-fi, you can call it whatever you want but I guarantee none of those terms accurately describe 2012s "Hair".  It is a scuzzy collage that embraces slithering psych harmony and punk rock thrash into a disjointed tape-warped frenzy.

Ty Segall and Tim (White Fence) Presley bring their respective influences and styles, fusing them in psych freak outs until they are indiscernible.  Imagine a band of punk rock kids taking acid in the garage and chronicling the trip with some battered mics and an old tape recorder... you'll have some idea of what this record is all about.  That is not to say that their isn't serious thought put into the production.  Tracks pan left and right as quickly as Ty and Tim jump from ideas.  Like both their solo works this record embraces the home recording aesthetic.  Beneath the crackling layers of fuzz there are some great songs with some jam on the side.  

The individual tracks flow together in a stream of conscience fashion.  The start of the trip "Time" finds them in a tug-a-war between floating along the acoustic chord progression and smashing their guitars into a wall of feedback.  It stops and starts, pulling back and forth between sleepy groove and wailing thrash.  The organ and two chord chop of "I Am Not A Game" feels like the anxious rise of a roller coaster about to drop.  When it does, it falls into a pool of blissful harmonies that swirl around your ears, before starting its rigid climb once again.  "Easy Ryder" and "Black Glove/Rag" relaxes a bit and starts to enjoy the less aggressive side of their sound at least for a moment before the wailing punk rock side pushes it's way back into the mix.  "Cry Baby" is a buzzed out boogie featuring Ty's sarcastic howls.  While "(I Can't) Get Around You" is a taste of Tim Presley's Anglo folk psychedelia.  The bipolar thrash returns one last time on "Scissor People"which is a defiant stomp that builds into an electric guitar cacophony as Ty and Tim trade solos.  As the band begins to finally comedown from their high, they ride it out on the sleepy groove of "Tongues", a fitting swan song for this particular go around.  

The record finds both artists in a areas that neither would have been before or are likely to go again.  I for one would welcome another collaboration, especially if it moves on to new territory in the way that "Hair" does.  Check the live jams below.   

    

               

   

  

                                      

Blues Creation

Back to it.

I've been neglecting this page, but the good news is I have a full catalog of (relative) obscurities to post about and share. So we're kicking it off with one of my favorite lesser known psych bands- Blues Creation! Not the Creation and not the blues explosion, we're talking Japanese Hard Psych!

When the fuzzed out tones of 60s psychedelic rock resonated in ears world wide, it did what all good music does, it inspired imitation. Musicians could appropriate the sounds they heard into a new mixture of ideas and sounds from their own culture and thank God. Hardcore fans of the genre will be no strangers to Blues Creation and for good reason. Inspired by the popular American Blues Rock as well as the sludgy riffs of Black Sabbath Blues Creation formed in the late 60s/early 70s. By 1971 they had recorded two albums, but it was their second album "Demon & Eleven Children" that would solidify them in Psychedelic Rock history and lead to an eventual collaboration with Felix Pappalardi (of Mountain). But that is another story.

"Demon & Eleven Children" opens with a sample of lightning and thunder, horses crying out in the storm, giving way to a spiraling electric guitar which swells until the band bursts out of the haze and into a tight and heavy blues rock groove. It is a great introduction to a band that seems to come out of the elements like the psychedelic Japanese priests they were. As soon as you get comfortable with a groove or the band starts to fall into comfortable territory they immediately turn the opposite direction jumping back and forth between styles and tempos alike.

The song "Mississippi Mountain Blues" the second track on the album turns from a traditional acoustic blues song, with harmonica and all the other trappings, and jumps into an electric, ascending run that goes off-kilter before going right back into a more comfortable blues progression. Other tracks like "Just I Was Born" and "Brain Buster" hint at proto punk power fused with the psychedelic guitar wankery that would become a tradition of Japanese Psych. They even mellow it out on the dreamy, slow tempo "One Summer Day". The album could be considered Prog it jumps around so much.

If you love guitar based music this band is a must.  If you are looking for something out of the ordinary this is it.  It may not seem out of this world anymore, but it must have in 1971.

Unfortunately it seems all of "Demon and Eleven Children" has been removed from youtube, otherwise I'd link it.  But here's this--

http://youtu.be/rh1DreByNFQ