Archive for June, 2011

Album of the day: Prizehog – Thought Nest (LP)

Posted on Saturday, June 18th, 2011

Praise for Prizehog‘s Thought Nest from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: After a tiny handful of way too limited CD-r releases, and an endless series of devastating live aktions (including a show stealing opening slot at our 2009 South By Southwest showcase), comes the long awaited full length from this SF boy-girl-boy doom-crush psych-sludge power trio. A sprawling five, track, 40 minute epic, that will definitely hit the spot for all of you hard and heavies that like it slow and low, and dig the likes of the Melvins, Harvey Milk, Boris and other slo-mo dirge merchants.

But Prizehog infuse their low end assault with all manner of druggy psychedelia, warped doom pop and blurred blissed out slow-core, conjuring up a sound that pounds and pummels, drift and shimmers, grinds and churns, slipping effortlessly from bombastic Melvinsy howl and chug, to a super hooky heaviness, that reminds us of the warped Buttholes beholden noisepop of Prizehog pals Wildildlife, from a sort of bluesy, blissed out tarpit ZZ Top swing and swagger, to a dark and dolorous black hole heavy slowcore a la Codeine or True Widow, often all wound up into a single song.

Thought Nest begins with ‘Swayback’, opening with a little bit of harmonica flecked blues fakeout, that quickly transforms into some seriously downtuned heavy doompsychblues churn, lurching and mathy and metallic, but laced with some subtle groove. The vocals a sort of worldless croon, the song pounding away before slipping into a woozy, washed ouy lysergic haze. A blurred starfield of chiming guitars and whirling layered melodies, before returning to a more swaggery, slithery lumbering crunch, only to finally blossom into a skull caving, knuckle dragging bit of slo-mo dirgery. All bellowed howls and keening high end tones, wrapped around a pummeling, drum heavy dirge-metal doom-pop workout, grinding its way through clouds of tripped out FX, and finishing off like it began with a bit of harmonica-y blissed out blues, before one final blast of churn and chug.

‘Dunner’ is up next, unfurling a stretch of tripped out shimmer, draped over garbled soft focus white noise, all hovering beneath clouds of cymbal sizzle, spidery guitar melodies, a druggy bit of drift, before a flurry of monstrous drumming drags with it a glorious psychedelic metallic cacophony, wild squalls of tangled guitars over intense double kick drumming, only to slip right back into something way more abstract, moody and murky. A sort of blackened slo-mo ballad, some simmering slowcore shimmer, bleary and blurred, almost like a more metallic, more drugged out True Widow, the sound dense, and layered, alternatingly smeared and shimmery, soaring and pop flecked, crusty and crunchy…

The oddly titled ‘Aykranoid’ explodes with a chugging almost Eighties style metal riffing wrapped around some pounding black hole drum pummel, wild swooping and swirling effects, and some seriously twisted vox, the aforementioned vocal bellow, but here even MORE bellowy, drenched in effects and way up in the mix, spitting out mush mouthed stream of consciousness vokills, that add a weird psychedelic avant pop vibe to the otherwise more metallic backdrop, before again shifting into a slow slithery crawl, the sound epic and majestic, but still muddy and murky, warped and woozy.

’1865′ is a bit more introspective, a slowly materializing smoldering bit of chordal guitardrone buzz, spread out into a gauzy hypnotic hypno-dirge, the beats spread way out, each chord allowed to ring out, and fade into something softer and more shadowy and nebulous, a contorted bit of dark dirge droniness. The sound shifting from crash and crunch, to muted thrum, all very trancelike and ritualistic, especially when the ghostly washed out vocals drift in. The sound transforming into a sort of crumbling, super distorted dream pop, again sounding more like a bastardized True Widow or Codeine, although here the sound grows ever more caustic and corrosive. But never without losing that moody pop vibe, just getting louder, and more dense, eventually locking into a more metallic bit of contorted churn, only to bliss out a bit, before a final stretch of lurching, pounding pop flecked pummel.

Finally, the record finishes off with ‘Ramsong’, which begins in a cloud of grinding guitar noise, and swirls of chaotic buzz, a wild bit of droned out static psych, out of which emerges yet another gorgeous bit of low slung slowcore shimmer, dreamy and druggy and drifty, before exploding in a blast of seriously cruching metallic riffery.
The drums a wild octopoidal pound. The vocals that weird Tom Waits / Buzz Osborne bellow. The sound nearly schizophrenic, flitting from pretty drift, to damaged dirge, rife with cool little gnarled guitar licks, streaks of feedback, layers of buried melody, a stuttering sprawl of strangely melodic heaviness, an expansive epic chugscape, that seems to grow more poppy as the song unwinds, and weirdly enough getting darker and more dense, while simultaneously seeming to space out, drifting into something more psychedelic abstract.
The song finally begins to dissipate, the various elements loosed from structured song and allowed to float weightless, a darkly delirious night sky of loosely tangled melodies, of overlapping spectral voices, of washed out guitar buzz and deep low end rumbles, soft focus effects and dreamy druggy blissed out ambience.

Fucking SO RULING, gorgeous stuff for sure, crushing, hypnotic, heavy and heady, poppy and spacey, the sort of thing that should appeal to folks who dig the dooooom, or the druggy psychedelia, or the dirgey slowcore, or the warped pop, or the sludgey metal, and just might be your favorite new record if you dig ALL of those. Which we absolutely DO!!

At 40 years old, Aquarius is the oldest independent record store in San Francisco. We try to only carry music we love, and we’re always searching for more new, cool, weird and wonderful music. All of which we then share with you, our loyal customers.

Tags: Album of the day, Aquarius Records, Prizehog, Saint Rose Records, Thought Nest
Posted in 2011, Album of the Day, Roadburn Recommended | 1 Comment »

Milwaukee’s Utech Fest: In Pics/Video (by Stefan Raduta)

Posted on Saturday, June 18th, 2011

Last weekend (6/11) I attended the first edition of Utech Festival in Milwaukee. Having been bewildered by Mamiffer at this year’s Roadburn, as soon as I saw their name on the bill I bought my plane ticket… they were joined on stage by two other phenomenal acts, Locrian and Horseback, ...read more

Album of the day: Morne – Asylum

Posted on Friday, June 17th, 2011

Lovingly pinched from The Sleeping Shaman: Many, many times we hear the old cliché about a bands difficult second album. Let’s put that old adage to bed right now. After 2009′s master class in dark brooding metallic hardcore, namely Feral Ward’s Untold Wait we have here the follow up record. ...read more

Øresund Space Collective: Live at Roadburn 2010 Double LP Released

Posted on Friday, June 17th, 2011

Øresund Space Collective have just released a new live-album, Live at Roadburn 2010, via their own label, Space Rock Productions. “Øresund Space Collective was very honoured to get to open the Roadburn Festival on April 15th 2010, with the first set in the Bat Cave”, says OSC’s Scott Heller aka ...read more

Album Of The Day: Ramesses – Possessed By The Rise of Magik (2011)

Posted on Thursday, June 16th, 2011

Lovingly pinched from Don’t Count On It Reviews: It was three years between Ramesses‘ debut full-length, Misanthropic Alchemy, and their second album Take This Curse, now we have a third full-length, just over a year later. I was actually quite surprised when I found out about Possessed By The Rise ...read more

Kink X-Rated Roadburn Radio: 8pm to 11pm CET (Get Ready For The Premiere Broadcast of Voivod’s Kaleidoscopic Midi Theatre Performance at Roadburn 2011)

Posted on Thursday, June 16th, 2011

Here is our playlist for this week’s Roadburn Radio on Kink X-Rated. Tune in from 8pm to 11pm CET (2pm EST / 11am PST) and listen to the latest sounds from the underground and the bands that inspire us as we work on next year’s Roadburn festival. And get ready ...read more

The Bone Reader – Post-Monolithic: An Interview With Greg Anderson of Sunn O)))

Posted on Wednesday, June 15th, 2011

The Bone Reader recently conducted an interview with Greg Anderson of Sunn O))) and Goatsnake-fame, and it features in-depth questions focusing on side projects, skeletons in the closet, the inspiration of jazz music, the influence of Earth and Dylan Carlson, Southern Lord, Sunn O))) and much more. TBR: Are you ...read more

Yob: New Track Streaming at Stereogum

Posted on Wednesday, June 15th, 2011

Stereogum / Haunting The Chapel has the premiere of Yob‘s Prepare The Ground off the upcoming full-length, which is called Atma. Listen HERE. (Or click here to download). “There’s a reason the NY Times suggested Yob “may very well be one of the best bands in America…” Might was well replace ...read more

Album of the day: Black Oath – The Third Aeon

Posted on Wednesday, June 15th, 2011

Praise for Black Oath’s The Third Aeon from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: Doom metal bands aren’t exactly uncommon these days – which is a good thing, as we can remember when there were only like five or six of them, really! – but we know that I Hate Records can be ...read more

Hexvessel: Helsinki Concert Footage Available

Posted on Wednesday, June 15th, 2011

Fan-filmed video footage of Hexvessel performing I’m The Ritual at Korjaamo, Helsinki 2011 can be viewed below.