Rodion GA : 'Behind The Curtain - The Lost Album'

In 1975 Rodion GA pioneered a new approach to electronic music from his Romanian home.  Known locally as record hoarder extraordinaire, collating music ranging from a variety of regions played a core part in how his sound evolved.  In the original line up Rodion GA was joined by Gicu Farcas and Adrian Caparu and from the outset Rodion made use of the wide-ranging equipment he’d been amassing.  Incorporating Tesia tape records, drum machines, phasers, flangers, fuzz pedals, a toy Casio VL Tone and Soviet manufactured Faemi organ, the trio forged a radical interstellar style mixing progressive rock, psychedelic and synthesized sound centred by their electronic approach.  Rodion became renowned his DIY approach by employing reel-to-reel tape recorders along with various tape machines and multi-tracks to document work.

The death of Rodion’s mother in 1987 called an unfortunate end to his musical career, and for 25 years he faded into obscurity.  That is until blogger & film maker Luca Sorin focused a piece on Rodion, the exposure opened up possibilities to revive unfinished business 25 years earlier… and it worked.  In 2012 Rodion GA returned with ‘The Lost Tapes’ (Strut Records) plus a RSD 2014 release, and he’s been going strong ever since.   Which brings us to ‘Behind the Curtain – The Lost Album’, 24 recordings spanning highpoints of his career.  The compilation gathers material from ‘The Lost Tapes’ (Strut) and 12 other albums from the late 70s and early 80s that are otherwise nigh-on-impossible to track down.  What makes this fascinating is ‘Behind the Curtain - The Lost Album’ (BBE) was recorded when Romania was still a Communist country, so artists were under heavy censorship rules.  Rodion made these songs whilst constantly worrying about being caught by authorities and had to play a ‘cat and mouse’ game to preserver with his project.  This is a great snapshot of Rodion when he was ON FIRE in the early stages of his song-writing and exhibits his far reaching influence. This resurgence of interest in his work has even seen him deliver a lecture at Bucharest’s Red Bull Academy.  Rodion GA has been recording new music so can’t wait to hear what other leaps forward he’s going to make. Lastly, and most crucially, Rodion is touring Europe and well worth your time for an evening, he’ll be right here in London at Café Oto on November 5^th (that's tonight, like in a few hours...!).  Get your tickets HERE 

Ooga Boogas : Ooga Boogas

Ooga Boogas follow up their fantastic debut 'Romance and Adventure' with a self titled album that came out at the beginning of summer or there-abouts.   The Melbourne four piece are: Mikey Young, Per Bystrom (whose Aunt also did the stunning artwork), Leon Stackpole and Richard Stanley  - who has released the album on his own Aarght! Records label.  'Romance and Adventure' saw Ooga Boogas put their own stamp on garage rock in 2008, and these ten new songs take a look at rock through different lenses utilizing electronics, so don't be surprised to hear a few changes in their approach.  Opener "Circle of  Trust" features strutting bass & beats alongside guitars building and releasing tension with choppy sections intermittently smoothed over with fuzzed out riffage.  My personal highlights: straight up chugging rock 'n' roll song "Ooga Boogas II", the incredible guitar solo at the end of "Mind Reader" AND "It's a Sign".  "It's a sign that we're making it baby, it's sign that we're doing things right, when I'm looking at you and you're looking at me, when I'm smiling at you and you're laughing at me...", Stackpole sings in a heartfelt holler apace with saccharine guitars, low gulping bass and palpitating beats - he continues "Well it seems we've got something going on, when you take your panties off and don't put 'em back on,".  'Ooga Boogas' has been one of my records of the summer and I'm sure if you get a chance to pick up a copy it'll be yours too!   

Best press release for an album ever:

IIth Zongz : The Demolition of a Ghost

IIth Zongz is a project by Chicago analogue manipulator Chris IIth (Daily Void, Functional Blackouts).  'The Demolition of a Ghost' is a new release from Crudites Tapes comprised of nine brooding instrumentals delivering cold static you might expect from an Industrial band touched by electronic experimentalism.  This recording is super minimal so the smallest of shifts feel all the more gnarly for it, stark digital tones tweak and twitch whilst coalescing together with undercurrents of murky fuzz.  The spooked collage of noises 'The Demolition of a Ghost' offers up is a great addition to the Crudites Tapes cannon and I'm really excited to see what else this label has in store for 2013.

You can get copies from Bandcamp

The Spectrometers : Off

The always great SDZ Records/Crudite Tapes have been pretty busy lately with a slew of new releases.  First up is a tape by The Spectrometers called 'Off', a chilling post-punk piece utilizing drum machines and archaic analogue sounds.  I didn't come up with much after researching The Spectrometers except their bandcamp which cited, "French minimal electronics / old school industrial band".  The fact it's hard to discern whether this is a new tape influenced by said genres or unearthed recordings speak volumes about the authentic sound on 'Off'.  Title track and opener "Off" sets an isolating tone with raspy tape hissing.  "Fallacy" follows with looped beats, sharp synthesizers and a low repetitive bass line.  It's a sense of paranoia that threads through the tracks, made all the more tense by the tracks never quite resolve themselves - aptly displayed on one of my faves "Orgone".  Locked into one arcing arrangement "Orgone" intensifies and as it reaches a point of climax plaintively ends, then repeated.  'Off' is a great listen as there's no release from the fraught atmosphere propelling a state of anxiety throughout.  Available now as a download or tape here.

The Rebel/Year of Birds 'Pre-Pub/Blocker For Coinslot EP'

Ack! Ack! Ack! Records is a new label based in Middlesborough UK offering up a 12" adding to their growing roster and it's a doozy. Teaming up on this 12" is The Rebel and Year of Birds who flirt with electronics, kraut, lo-fi and punk in experimental home-recordings.

ASide 'Pre-Pub' from The Rebel features five songs about eating, fucking and death played out mainly with synthesizers, guitars and drums. Opener 'Pubgrub' sets the tone with angular-cyber-pop allowing Ben Wallers and Sophie Politowicz to robotize the world around them. Digitizing commonplace subjects explored with a sense of black humour sums up a little bit of what I take away from The Rebel's work. Shown further on 'It's a 10'; "I'll fuck anything that isn't nailed down", sings Wallers alongside minimal beats and dissonant melody. Another highlight on this side is 'Hard Times of Old England' that has the spirit of one of those football sing-a-long anthems, seeing The Rebel doing what they do best, morphing everyday life into bursts of off kilter electronic rock told from a tragicomic perspective.

Flipping over are Year of Birds a band grounded in Middlesborough featuring; Paul Coates, guitar, Michael Gillham, drums, Oli Heffernan, guitar & vocals and Danielle Velterelle, bass. Together the four piece deliver ramshackle garage punk in the Black Time and The Intelligence vein. Eleven short, gritty and dense sounding numbers flesh out this side of the record. 'Jabs At The Brow' kicks things off with urgent guitars, pummeling rhythms and unmannered vocals, qualities that are consistent throughout and become even more frenzied - like on head-spinning track 'To The Left'. If I didn't know any better I would say this band were from the states, so I was more than excited to find out they're on home turf. From what I can tell these guys have only been around for a year with a handful of releases to date NOT including an album yet, for me, one to watch...

Great, great piece from both bands and stellar way to kick off a label - erm, more please!

Year of Birds Bandcamp
Ack! Ack! Ack! Records Facebook Bandcamp

Excepter 'Presidence'

A seven piece at the time of recording, New York's ever enigmatic Excepter made 'Presidence' in 2010. Their 13th full length recording poignantly is the last before a shift in line up and sadly, the loss of percussionist Clare Amory to cancer. Excepter seem like they find the part between notes and beats and play inside them, revealing a thrumming synthesized vortex morphing from one unsettling place to another. These guys are brain-twisters/mind-sleazers/riddle-makers/crypt-o-teasers, don't be afraid to step into the void, with Excepter as your guide you're in safe hands.

Terror Visions 'World of Shit' (Reissue)

What can be said that hasn't already about Jay Reatard? I'm going to resist gushing, although as an avid lover his records to be honest, it's kinda hard. FDH Records have given Jay's abrasive electronic record 'World of Shit' the reissue treatment. Released in 2007 this is the only album Terror Visions released, made just before Jay started to turn heads with his solo material. FDH dates the recordings between 2002 and 2006, not finding a suitable home in other projects Angry Angels, Lost Sounds et al it seems only fitting they were given their own identity with a new band. Boasting 4 new tracks, 2 which were previously only available on CD and two unreleased pieces including a cover of Brian Eno's "Baby's On Fire", FDH have certainly made sure you get your money's worth. Thoughtfully, they've repressed this on 180 gram vinyl, as the first edition was a picture disc the label have gone to the lengths of improving the sound on the LP, which sits in a gatefold sleeve featuring new artwork and rare pictures of Jay. Terror Visions allowed Jay to let loose unlike anything else he did, the only thing that is on par with the high levels of jittery turmoil is his earliest work in The Reatards. 'World of Shit', and his work in Angry Angels for that matter, pre-dates so much electronic-punk we hear today and attests to the fact Jay was not only prolific but one step ahead. This record best expresses the fearless person Jay came across to be.

You can find copies at FDH's store

Grouper A I A 'Alien Observer/Dream Loss'

From the outside looking in is Grouper's isolated viewpoint, delving in the abyss and teetering on the brink of this world and the next. Liz Harris was encouraged to perform and learn instruments as a child whilst being raised in a sect named The Group, living in the Sonora Mountains in North California. "We were isolated from the rest of the world, in that we only hung out with each other. I didn't meet anyone from outside the commune until I was 11 when I first went to public school...We were taught that our world was separate." (The Wire, 334). Children were moved in between families within The Group rarely spending time with their genetic relatives, but also had free reign in the countryside near the sea. It's clear to see how these early experiences impacted Harris' approach to art and is able to summon an unparalleled sense of disconnect in otherworldly voids she creates. 'Alien Observer' and 'Dream Loss' similarly to earlier work, embody the sense of being disengaged. Songs creep in and wash over you like an ethereal breeze or wave with the help of her set-to-whisper singing. Electronic effects react to and echo ambient natural surroundings creating a plain allowing Harris to venture inwards and externalize the limbo she exists in. One of the most captivating female artists around today and worth every bit of your time, Mississippi Records is said to have some.

Grouper Facebook

John Maus 'We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves'

In 2006 John Maus started to fly solo after working alongside Ariel Pink and Gary War. Maus composes music in his hometown of Austin, Minnesota while studying towards a PhD in Political Science. Last summer I was introduced to John Maus's music at an unforgettable show at the Serpentine Pavillion space designed by Jean Nouvel. He'd been invited to play by Wolfgang Tillmans to coincide with the photographer's exhibition which featured shots of Maus. The backdrop of a vibrant red space was an apt setting for the show where Maus's charged performance instantly made a believer out of me.

'We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves' is John Maus' third full length album released on Upset the Rhythm in the UK and Domino in the US. John Maus thrives when working within self imposed limitations, utilizing simply drum machines and samples as tools to channel his voice during his explosive performances and recordings. The minimal set up anchors the work as its acts as taste of reality balancing out the world of fantasy he creates. Themes in Maus's work are instantly identifiable, songs about; TV Shows, weather and the solar system, sees John plucking ideas from our everyday life, flipping them on their head and finding harmony between life and magic.

Illuminating opener "Streetlight" sets the tone for the album with ethereal echo laden vocals and soaring angelic synths. The melody has an 80s quality to it like an old school video game -- reminds me of wondering what it'd be like to climb inside the TV screen and start shooting lazer beams (is it just me that wanted to do that as a kid?). Stand out track "Cop Killer" has an anthem feel to it much like 2006's "Rights For Gays" on LP 'Songs'. Elevating closer "Believer" rounds off the album on a high note as Maus adds some humor singing, "/Baby, you and me all across the world/Jackie Chan flashing all across the world/Hulk Hogan flashing all across the world/Baby lets go fly all across the world!". This song best displays how Maus works best with pushing boundaries through restrictions he sets himself. Using speakers, gadgets and microphones the synth pop troubadour falls into the rabbit hole whilst making the listener feel free to dive right in after him. It's strongly encouraged for anyone who gets the opportunity to, go and see him play. This is John Maus's finest album to date and is truly a joy to behold.

JOHN MAUS - Believer (free mp3) by Upset the Rhythm

Currently playing in the US DATES
The entire album is streaming for free here
Copies of the album can be found here