Panabrite “Citadel in the Sky”
Omni Center CD-R (
Sturmundrugs)
Banana Head “Open the Kimono”
The Phantom Payn split CS (
Goaty Tapes)
The Teleporters “Untitled”
Invite You To Come On A Pompous Journey CS (
Goaty Tapes)
Pumice “The Only Doosh Worth Giving”
Pebbles LP (
Soft Abuse)
Kluster “Part Two”
Klopfzeichen CD (
Hypnotic)
Red Horse “Untitled –Side A (excerpt)”
s/t LP (
Rel)
Horse Marriage “Lay Your Hands On Me”
b/w “Pee-Chee”/”I Need To Tell You” 7” (
Avant Archive)
Super Minerals “Earth Acropolis Welcomes . . . (excerpt)”
Contacteer CS (
Stunned)
First, I'd like to begin by acknowledging the passing of
Conrad Schnitzler this past week. While I'll openly admit to only scratching the surface of his vast discography, it goes without saying that his seminal work in
Kluster and
Tangerine Dream, along with his numerous solo and collaborative efforts, casts a fairly sizable shadow over several generations worth of experimental music, including the current wave of post-Noise/neo-Kosmische artists. Plenty has already been written
elsewhere about
Schnitzler, so I'll simply conclude with a statement he made about his work in a
David Keenan-penned feature in
The Wire from 2006 (which the above photo is taken from): "It is pure sound that I make. And I'm not expressing myself in any way when I'm making it. If anything, I express myself more when I listen back to it, when I go upstairs and listen to it and have one hour of joy." Thankfully,
Schnitzler left us with countless hours of joy to experience for ourselves.
Some highlights from this week's show include another brilliant track from
Panabrite.
Norm Chambers continues his winning streak of upward bound synth explorations on
Omni Center, his recent release on
Sturmundrugs, finding new and inventive ways to meld his electronic and organic sound creations.
Goaty Tapes and
Cabin Floor Esoterica also just dropped some impressive new sounds in their latest tape batches. Amongst the
Goaty heap, the
Banana Head / Phantom Payn split has been getting repeated spins here in the FFF bunker. I was a little surprised to see this pairing at first, but it makes perfect sense really. The
Phantom Payn material, which was recorded around the same time in the mid-Nineties as the excellent
Days/Daze release that
De Stijl put out last year, fits quite nicely alongside the contemporary loner psych pop moves of
Banana Head. I'm quite pleased, in fact, that
Goaty had the foresight to present the
Phantom Payn's work within the current DIY underground context where it rightly belongs. Along with being some of the most visually stunning tapes I've seen of late, the recent
Cabin Floor Esoterica batch also delivers the goods musically. The otherworldly wandering blues of
Keijo's Along the Stream hits just the right Jandekian sweet spot for me, albeit in a more tuneful way, and
Serfs' blown-out guitar playing on
Sha La La-La Later On is rather beautiful, turning a
Curtis Mayfield cover into something totally new and original. But, since I've mentioned originality, I must bring up the latest
Super Minerals tape as well. The duo of
Phil French and
William Giacchi continue to make some of the most mind-bendingly original sounds around and with
The Hoax, and now
Contacteer, they've released two of my favorite albums of the year thus far. Lastly, we spun the brand new
Horse Marriage single, which marks
Avant Archive's first foray into releasing vinyl. In the coming weeks, we will be joined by
Avant Archive owner/operator,
Michael Jantz, where we will be discussing the label and his own musical endeavors as
Black Eagle Child. Do check back.
