February 2012
18 posts
7 tags
Review: Nathan McLaughlin - Echolocation #1...
Minnesota resident Nathan McLaughlin has been building a name for himself in the drone scene with his ambitious, multi-part Echolocation series. Released non-chronologically through different cassette labels, McLaughlin connects all the tapes in the series with general overarching ideas and work methods. As it’s explained in the liner notes on the j-card, despite the fact the tracks are...
9 tags
Mythomaniacs Are Right - There Is No Such Thing As...
The ridiculously long album title and the cover might suggest some inspiration by the LA post-rock dudes from Red Sparowes, but in fact there is no connection at all - because there is no rock at all. There Is No Such Thing… is a sparse, absolutely minimal album inspired (among others) by German electronic music, both old new and new: on one side, there are obsessive tape loops and musique...
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Camel Heads - Camel Heads
From Sao Paulo, Brazil comes a spaciously delicious, ambient-tinged psychedelic guitar badassery of Camel Heads, which offers us a healthy dose of dead man’s desert blues filtered through the prism early Sun Araw-like tropical psychedelia, back when Cameron Stallones was pumping out rolling-fog, drumless lysergic gems. Camel Heads sounds like a series of slow buildups for epic stoner jams....
6 tags
The Sufis - The Sufis
I’d like to say “blast from the past”, but this band is a very much modern affair, so I should rather say “blast into the past”. The Sufis are a Nashville, United States based psychedelic trio which looks back to the roots of the genre: wonderful vocal harmonies, keeping their songs (yes, songs instead of tracks) short & concise, ornamenting their music with basic...
10 tags
Review: The Shining Path - The Shining Path (Holy...
I already got used to the fact that when I want some seriously off-the-hook, brain-frying psychedelic music, Holy Mountain Records will never fail to cater to my needs. Be it Mammatus, OM, Lichens, Residual Echoes, Wooden Shjips or James Ferraro, this label are the ones who really know their shit. And they can really keep it trippy - like hardcore trippy. The duo of Ilya Monosov and Preston...
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Lee Noble - Persona & Horrorism
What a sweet deal!!! LA-based drone wizard Lee Noble put his two great releases from 2011, namely Persona, a cassette released on Bridgetown Records and Horrorism, his debut vinyl LP released last year on Bathetic Records, for download on Bandcamp. Both albums are available through the “name your price” option, so they can either be downloaded for free, or you can pay anything you want...
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Kaseciarz - Surfin' Małopolska
Mystery Polish duo Kaseciarz seem to be riding high on the wave of hype that surrounded them nearly instantly after releasing their debut digital album on Bandcamp. As the album’s title and the cover suggests, the album contains some infectiously catchy lo-fi surf/garage rock in the 60’s style, but with a slightly more chaotic, noise rock-ish bend of the modern times. Put on yr...
11 tags
Review: Cream Juice - Cream Juice (Orange Milk,...
Cream Juice is the synth-bending duo of Keith Rankin (who already made some ripples in the underground with his lighthearted solo project Giant Claw) and Seth Graham (also known under the moniker Henry Dawson). Their Cream Juice project is still a tongue-in-cheek, whimsical take on electronic music, but here the quasi-prog melodies and analogue baroque stylings are dropped in favor of of a...
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Interview: Norm Chambers {a.k.a. Panabrite}
Hello! I am proud to present the first Weed Temple interview in EONS - this one is a brief, yet informative interview with Seattle’s slowly-rising-to-the-stardom synth wizard Norm Chambers, better known under the moniker Panabrite.
Jakub Adamek: At the age of 40, you are older than most people in the scene, who are in their 20’s. You started being quite famous in the scene at around...
8 tags
Virgin Blood - Dreamt My Lover
Ethereal, droning and industrial soundscapes from Felisha Ledesma (I wonder if there’s any connection to Jefre Cantu-Ledesma here…). The sound of minimal and somewhat influenced by noise (check out the bleak and desolate “Hazy”), but can also be droningly beautiful (like the delicate silk jam of opening “Wilt”), bringing Virgin Blood to almost MSoTT levels of...
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Review: Echthros - Iyov (Assonance Records, 2012)
Echthros is the cinematic, atmospheric project of Bartosz Frąckowiak. Released in a beautiful, high-quality artwork on the up-and-coming Polish label for dark and experimental sounds, Assonance Records, Echthros explores the themes of despair and loss in six monumental, powerful tracks. These themes are no accident here, because, as the author explains on his Bandcamp page: “Iyov (…)...
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Review: Mass at Dawn - Pyramid Nipple (Native...
Photo of cassette coming soon
The information about the Mass at Dawn project are extremely sparse and foggy, from what I’ve managed to collect from the cassette’s j-card (pretty much the only source of info everywhere, yes, Internet included) it turns out that Mass at Dawn is a semi-duo, which is: Dylan Simon on electronics (including Oberheim EML, ARP Teac and Farfisa) and a...
7 tags
Review: Niao - Prayer (Sailing Records, 2012)
The music of the NYC duo of George Glikerdas and Gordon Spencer Blaetz might remind some of the trance-inducing minimalist folk of Stag Hare, except here it is more concise and less of a “lock in the groove” quality. The tracks are significantly shorter and therefore more “concentrated” into a more handy format. It seems like Niao have found a way to adjust the...
8 tags
Drainbow - Drainbow
Fuzzy and angry, these three guys play acerbic, propelling drone-tinged, sludge-infested psych rock. Fierce, yet strangely melodic, wailing feedbacks and guitar damage punctured by catchy hooks. This is what punks sound like when they drop acid and smoke DMT. Probably.
Drainbow - Drainbow
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Parched Earth - Mansfield Weather Sickness
Raw & unsettling industrial-ish sound collages made from old tapes treated with simple, basic effects - the effect is similar to the sound of Preslav Literary School, except less smeared & blurry and more oriented into the dark ambient and early industrial territories. The first track sounds like an amplified frying pan. By the way, the girl on the photo has a really nice outfit. Gotta...
6 tags
Review: Clade - If Brightness Outshine Heavens So...
The latest wave of arctic cold (up to 20 degrees below zero in Celsius!) in Poland creates the perfect mood for some atmospheric ambient music. The fact that I’ve managed to amass quite a collection of beautifully packaged, sprawling drone-ambient soundscapes threw me into a background music binge, when I would just lie on my back, on the bed or simply on the floor and look at the frosty...
9 tags
DD 2-14 - Defeated Selves
New year, new album from DD 2-14, an ambient hero gradually progressing from the endless ocean drone of his earlier albums to the more beat-based and song-oriented tracks hinting a bit of shoegaze and New Age fascination behind the change. It’s still hazy and still dreamy, but this time it’s not an endless non-melodic stupor; the tracks are mostly more compact and more catchy. This...
January 2012
26 posts
4 tags
Review: Expo '70 - Hovering Resonance (Sound of...
We begin 2012 with a carefully balanced one-sided 12” vinyl from Justin Wright, originally Los Angeles, later Kansas City based guitar-wielding cosmic courier, who plays an updated, expanded take on Kosmische Musik, where six strings and analog synthesizers go hand in hand with a mission to create vast, psychedelic mindscapes. Why balanced? Because of its one side, on which there are two...
7 tags
Cedar Skies - Torrid Break, Tepid Skies
Delicate and round-edged, very summer-influenced and recorded during a heatwave (yet released during winter) organic ambient pop beauty from John Zahorian a.k.a. Cedar Skies. Simple, even minimalist beats go so very well with the sunlit melodies and silky vocals. Get some warmth (by the way, the temperatures are hitting a new low here in Poland lately, and apparently it’ll be even colder)...
7 tags
Snowmine - Laminate Pet Animal
Not the usual Weed Temple stuff, but it doesn’t make it any worse, does it? Catchy, stamp-yr-foot tunes from a Brooklyn based quintet who make vaguely tribal, lush, somewhat ambient influenced psychedelic indie pop. A bit like Animal Collective, except less chaotically ecstatic and more carefully arranged. Check it out!
Snowmine - Laminate Pet Animal
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Review: Smyth - Senescence (Sunshine Ltd, 2011)
Floridian label Sunshine Ltd. specialize in all-natural, smeared ambient music which appears to be directly influenced by the philosophy of Brian Eno regarding music making and life itself. Smyth, the one-man project of sound explorist Jared Smyth, is no exception, with his Senescence offering a stripped-down, simple, almost minimalistic approach known from Eno’s Music for Airports.
The...
4 tags
Carey - Empty Boxes
Bucolic psychedelic folk filtered through the prism of sound collage, ambient and urban aesthetics, because it’s probably what most modern psych folk is about: evocating a pastoral, rural atmosphere in the middle of man-made chaos of glass and concrete. Acoustic guitar plays the main role, but it’s a type of acoustic guitar that loves experimentation and all sorts of sonic...
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Review: Piotr Kurek - Heat (Digitalis Ltd, 2011)
The newest tape by Warsaw’s sample wizard Piotr Kurek brings the whimsical, folktronic compositions of Dalia (released under the moniker Piętnastka) to the next, more intricate and psychedelic level. The music here is slower and more “adult”, the childish playfulness of the Sangoplasmo cassette is gone. The sounds on Heat bring the memories of Amon Tobin’s samplescapes,...
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Review: Hunted Creatures - Summer Tour 2011...
Pittsburghian collective Hunted Creatures (including the mastermind behind Dynamo Sound Collective, Ryan Emmett) specialize in creating impossible to pigeonhole psychedelic collages that appear to be equally inspired by krautrockers like Amon Duul II and industrial pioneers like Throbbing Gristle. Their Summer Tour 2011 Cassette is a short, yet healthy dose of tripped out sounds to lose oneself...
9 tags
Bukit Timah - Bukit Timah
A hypnotizing and enveloping urban collage featuring collected lo-fi beats, lots of samples/found sounds. Plunderphonic hip-hop bliss, quoting the best - surely there is a lot of DJ Shadow influence taken here and the general feel is clearly influenced with Madlib, although with more focus on creating lengthy sonic textured based on bassy, heavy beats. Recommended.
Bukit Timah - Bukit Timah
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Branches - Primeira Vez
Wonderful new cassette from Portugal’s Pedro Rios, a.k.a. Branches. Seven intensely droning, layered and psychedelic compositions which sound like an amplified, more tectonic Sean McCann at times. Hanging somewhere between solid drone monoliths and oriental psych-folk explorations, Branches sculpts the soundtracks for lazy, stoned afternoons. Take a toke and let the light in.
Branches -...
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Review: lunchforyou / Trupp zur Sonne / Jewels –...
A blurry image of a ragged wasteland wanderer perfectly embodies the bleak, stripped down sound of this three-way split between three different artists, who share the same vision through various means. The tape opens with two lengthy jams from lunchforyou, an ultra-slow dead man’s blues which sounds like a burned-out, declawed version of Fushitsusha or Religious Knives at their most...
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Review: M. Geddes Gengras - A Kiss of Life (SicSic...
The newest tape offering from the LA knob twiddler M. Geddes Gengras is the Kiss of Life, released by the German imprint SicSic Tapes in their probably best batch to date (including, beside MGG, Panabrite and Innercity). The Kiss of Life is a burning, zonked out tapestry of fried electronics trying to submit to an ever-present pulsing rhythm. The fierce sound of the first piece, taking up entire...
9 tags
Various Artists - Tu nadaje anatomia rekina
Ass kicking compilation of Polish noise rock, math rock and post-rock bands (with serious focus on the noise rock end of the spectrum). The name of this comp (which can be translated to “this is shark anatomy broadcasting”) is a reference to June of 44’s The Anatomy of Sharks, so it gives you an idea what to expect. Raw guitar mutilation, maniacal drumming, some electroacoustic...
troubledsigh asked: do you accept physical submissions only?
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Hydromedusa - Hydromedusa
Lenghty & doomy stoner jams from the fresh Adelaide-based heavinauts. Crushing riffs, varying tempos, some electronic experimentation and, most importantly, badass guitar soloing. And it’s all kept oldschool, like in the 70’s. Oh, and cool points for an awesome range of vokills: ranging from harsh, aggressive sludge manner to superloud and ultra-nervous almost-screamo manner....
8 tags
Verma - Verma II
Back on ye old Weed Temple blog I’ve written about a psych rock unit from Chicago named Verma. Here’s their third album containing three stonerisms recorded in their practice space. Two of the tracks on this album also appeared on the FAR OUT Verma/Soundings/Shapers split cassette released on Paramita Recordings (the review of which I’m gonna probably post soon!). In the...
6 tags
Review: A.M. Shiner - Bad Cop (Stunned Records,...
West Coast based sonic outsider Andrew Michael Shiner has been long connected to the obscurist cassette label Stunned Records, and his Bad Cop is apparently the last cassette released before his retirement. Similarly to his buddy M. Geddes Gengras, AMS has been crafting post-musique concrete soundscapes on his releases, blending the cold electronic avant-garde synthesis of Karlheinz Stockhausen...
enumclaw asked: Been a fan of the temple for quite some time! Nice to see ya on the tumblr!!
rhizophilia asked: Hi Jakub : ) Here's Gabriele from Monstres par Excès. Did you receive the last Caligine tape I released? I'd love to see it shared on WT, if you like it.
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Aster - False Bay
Delicate, crumbling ambient soundscapes from Memphis resident Dominic Van Horn. A reflection of falling into slumber by open windows, heavy clouds rolling across the steely sky and watching buildings and ships reflect in the water. Soothing stuff. Make sure to check out the rest of his Bandcamp, False Bay isn’t the only one of his great releases.
Aster - False Bay
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Luperci - Jahator
Walk the dead earth: Joseph Angelo prepares you for a cleansing journey through the windswept wasteland with a series of brooding, post-apocalyptic soundscapes. But even though the overall sound of the album is bleak and somewhat depressive, there are moments of certain beauty hidden among the jagged, scorched rocks. Worth listening for the first track alone. Originally released on cassette on...
7 tags
Wavepool Abortion - Wavepool Abortion
Wavepool Abortion is a team of two friends from Moscow, Russia who decided to create a massively catchy collection of lo-fi garage punk anthems, much in the vein of their infamous imperialist predecessor Wavves (might explain the band name). The songs here are short, to the point and make your feet stomp even without you knowing. I’m glad to mention I have this on cassette and while this...
7 tags
Voyageurs - Nude Vegas
Burning, ultra-stoned red hot psych jamzzzz from Fayetteville, Arkansas. Influences include Blue CHILL and HawkWEED. In all seriousness though, this band is a nice treat to all fans of heavy guitar jamming. In some tracks they really sound like Wildildlife circa Six, the same sort of groovy lysergic sludge. Check it!
Voyageurs - Nude Vegas
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Orca Life - Shapeshifter
First of all, I cannot stress enough how much I love the artworks on most releases from the Holy Page label. Their complexity and nature remind me the extensive collage work of the people behind Stunned Records, but moved into more digital, Megazord-ian areas. Second, I just fell in love with the term “drone slams” - this is how Holy Page describes the sounds of Shapeshifter by Orca...
8 tags
Saåad - Delayed Summer
The mysteriously and somewhat ominously named Delayed Summer is the newest offering from Toulouse’s Roman Barbot. His dark and massive, loud post-rock influenced music can be best by the “term” invented by my friend: sunless ambient. A reverbed and distorted wall of sounds, relentlessly pulsing their way into the night; this is no beach party music. Perfect soundtrack for the...
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Panabrite - Frequency Bath I & II
Two previously unreleased archival compilations by Seattle-based synth wizard Norm Chambers. Norm has become quite a big name in the kosmische zone revival scene in the last two-three years and these tracks document his development as a composer and musician. I also hope you’re saving your money for Panabrite’s debut LP, Soft Terminal, coming out soon from Digitalis.
Panabrite -...
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Bastian Void - Horicon Sketches
A brand new album from Bastian Void’s Joseph Bastardo (I keep wondering whether that’s a real name or just a pseudonym) and a follow-up to this year’s Ported. Dusted and fragile semi-rhythmic transmission from the computer/World Wide Web netherworld. A step up since his previous cassette.
Bastian Void - Horicon Sketches