Praise for People of the North‘s Steep Formations from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: Record number two from this Oneida offshoot, two long form pieces, both heavily drum driven, spaced out, psychedelic and very very rhythmic, beholden for sure to the many minimalist greats that came before, not to mention heavily indebted to krautrock classics, but for everything these guys borrow from the past, they manage to infuse it with its own unique modern psychedelic energy. So much so that it’s actually quite difficult to describe.
The 40+ minute, two part ‘Border Waves’ begins with a strange flurry of stuttering drumming, over heaving swells of whirring organ, and buried swirls of melody. It’s not until about 4 minutes in that the sound shifts, the drumming shifts from snare to toms, and gets all tribal. The sound mesmerizing and hypnotic. Folks who flipped for the Boredoms Boadrum performances (of which Kid from Onieda and POTN played a big part), will go nuts for this too. A similarly drums-as-portal-to-the-cosmos energy to the sound, that sound growing more and more chaotic, the swirling swooshing background sounds growing more and more active and noisy, but never losing that droned out psych-kraut mesmer.
The second movement is almost like the sonic flipside. The background sound, the tripped out synths and drones moving to the fore, squelches and swooshes drifting over a bed of grinding crumbling blacknoise. A similarly stuttery drum rhythm, albeit way more stripped down, enters the fray, but fades way after not too long, letting the various other sounds shift and sway. A dark ambient spaced out psychedelic drift, underpinned by that ever present distorted low end rumble.
The 30+ minute title track, might be the heaviest, darkest krautdrone jam yet, all rumbling whirring low end, pulsing synths and grinding buzzing thrum, laced with minimal spare drumming. A sense of propulsion infused into the sound, less rhythmic, but still weirdly motorik, the caustic crunch almost SUNNO))) like in its tarpit creep, but strap some headphones on and lose yourself in the undulating layers and the lush, blackened textures.
Comes with a download card too!
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, Bobby Matador, Brah Records, jagjaguwar, Kid Millions, Krautrock, Oneida, People of the North, Steep Formations
This entry was posted on Saturday, February 25th, 2012 at 2:41 pm and is filed under 2012, 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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