Praise for Aelter‘s III from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: We just reviewed the double disc reissue of Aelter I and II, a double CD reissue of two lps from this Wolvserpent / Pussygutt offshoot. The sound a sort of shoegazey dreamfolk blackdrone drift (as we described it in that review), so really we were expecting more of the same on the latest Aelter, his first for boutique outsider metal label Handmade Birds. But we were pretty surprised by what it actually ended up sounding like, both sides, part one and two of one album long song, dramatically different, and neither like anything we’d heard from Aelter before.
The A side was maybe the biggest surprise, as it’s all synths, no drums, no guitars, just swirling dreamy synths. A sort of Tangerine Dream / Emeralds style drift, hushed and layered and new agey, dreamily droning, the layers softly pulsing, all hazy and washed out, minimal and mesmerizing, until the last minute or so, where things turn dark. And the sound gets low and distorted, sounding almost like throat singing, which is right where the B side takes up.
Those throat singing like drones, a backdrop for some dirgey woozy metal, definitely the most metal we’ve heard Aelter get. All low slung bass and dreamy almost shoegazey vox, peppered with almost atonal sounding crescendos, tense and haunting and quite dramatic, but that metal blossoms into something entirely different for the second half of the track. A gorgeous sprawl of hazy gloom pop, fuzzy bass, and swirling synths, and dreamy female vox, the shoegaze element in full effect, a gorgeous, surprisingly pop final movement!
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: Aelter, Aelter III, Album of the day, Aquarius Records, Handmade Birds, Wolvserpent
This entry was posted on Sunday, November 20th, 2011 at 5:41 pm and is filed under 2011, Album of the Day, Roadburn Recommended . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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