Posts Tagged ‘heavy psych’

Album of the day: Rhyton – Rhyton

Posted on Saturday, January 28th, 2012

Praise for Rhython‘s S/T from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: So, sure, “experimental / improv / psych” bands based outta Brooklyn are probably a dime a dozen these days, so what makes the debut from this new Thrill Jockey signing worthy of glorious Record Of The Week status here at aQ?

Well, for one thing, Thrill Jockey have had a pretty good track record in that area lately, with aQ fave bands like White Hills and Barn Owl, and fans of either ought to check out Rhyton. At least, we had to give it a listen, and when we did, WOW! Totally tripped out and hypnotic, stonery psych explorations embraced our ears – and we think gently tingled any mystic sixth or seventh senses we may possess. Their jamming has a fuzzed-out edge, and a definite exotic, Eastern vibe, buzzing with electric saz for one thing… as if they’re not from Brooklyn, they’re from Brooklynistan!

The mesmeric music of Rhyton is a mind-melting mind-meld involving three well-matched musicians, a supergroop of sorts, the trio consisting of D. Charles Speer from the No Neck Blues Band, Jimmy SeiTang of Psychic Ills, and Spencer Herbst from some bands we confess we’ve not heard of before. Speer is on the strings, playing electric saz, electric mandolin, and baritone guitar. SeiTang is on bass and tape delay. Herbst is on drums and percussion (and videocassettes, we read somewhere?). A good set up for playing something that’s rock, but not.

Over the course of the five, mostly long, mainly instrumental tracks here, Rhyton easily convinced us to make this Record Of The Week, or maybe hypnotized us into doing so! We just couldn’t say no to their repetitive, reverby bath of shuddering soundwaves, sub-bass pulsations, meandering raga-like “split stereo, dual amped” leads, and loads of oscillators, loops, n’ effects.

Relatively mellow opening track ‘Stone Colored’ eases us in, giving us a sense of, if not where Rhyton is going, at least how they’re gonna get there. And, as the cliche says, the journey is the destination. That’s before the 12+ minute ‘Pontian Grave’ heavies things up even more, and the raw side of Rhyton’s experimentation is revealed. And so it goes, Rhyton getting into outre modes of instrumental psychedelic possession, centerpiece ‘Teke’ being the perhaps the most druggily dubbed-out of the album’s varied transmissions… and then, on the fantastic final cut, ‘Shank Raids’, we REALLY hear the Middle Eastern influence come to the fore.

It’s not just the electric saz they’ve been making use of, on this one the rhythms n’ melodies sound straight out of the Turkish psych songbook, stately and spacey, but also gnarly, warped and distortion-damaged, almost what it would be like to Greg Ginn’s Gone, or Black Flag circa The Process Of Weeding Out, attempting a Mogollar or 3 Hur-el cover, yeah! There’s a whiff of Sun City Girls to this as well.

Eastern aspects aside (or not), Rhyton’s unique vibrations are on roughly the same wavelength as those of such outfits as Carlton Melton, Davis Redford Triad, White Hills, Titan, Bardo Pond, etc., and thus this should appeal to quite a few of you. So we say, get it!

And get it quick, as the compact disc edition, packaged in a slim handmade sleeve (abstract art glued on front, hand-stamped text on back), is ultra limited to only 200 hand-numbered copies!! We got a bunch, but that bunch is probably all we’ll get. Meanwhile, the similarly-appointed vinyl version is just a bit less limited, 500 copies made, and it comes with a postcard insert and free download code.

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.

Rhyton – Stone Colored from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.

Tags: Aquarius Records, D. Charles Speer, heavy psych, Jimmy SeiTang, No Neck Blues Band, psychedelica, Psychic Ills, Rhyton, Spencer Herbst, Thrill Jockey
Posted in 2012, Album of the Day, Roadburn Recommended | No Comments »

Album of the day: Les Goths – Reve De Silence

Posted on Friday, January 27th, 2012

Praise for Les Goths ‘Reve De Silence from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: We have to say, that lots of the time, when a band is touted as being some lost heavy psych or proto-metal classic, it often eventually turns out to sound sonically more like blues rock or bar rock, ...read more

We need more records: The best of US heavy psychedelica

Posted on Saturday, August 15th, 2009

Are you as obsessed with the heavy Seventies as we are? You have to check out Dyvelsten’s Youtube channel. This guy has posted some very cool and obscure underground rock and psychedelica from the late Sixties /early Seventies. Warning: it’s enough to induce a serious case of record collection envy! ...read more