New:
English Heretic – A Study of Lunar Research Flights. Mr Heretic has done it again. It’s not as major a piece of work as The Underworld Service, but very fine nevertheless, and its inspiration from a secret US project to detonate a nuke on the moon is fascinating/terrifying. Fittingly, it’s got a slightly more trippy feel to it, like brutalist kosmiche: https://soundcloud.com/english-heretic/diagrams-of-sacrifice
Public Service Broadcasting – The Race for Space. I guess the EH album kind of acts as a bleak corrective to the Utopian space age impulses of this one. I have some sympathy with the hipster naysayer viewpoint that regards PSB as the modern day equivalent of Paul Hardcastle, but dammit, there’s some tuneful, inventive stuff here, even if it’s not as immediately engaging as their debut. Interestingly, a few of the tracks approximate Floyd if they’d been an ambient house band (but not been The Orb): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRBJEhKHUIc
GNOD – Infinity Machines. Haven’t really got this lot in the past, but from what I’ve listened to of this so far (it’s around 2 hours long!), that might change. Very much a Bohren & der Club of Gore-in-an-industrial-warehouse vibe: http://www.thewire.co.uk/audio/tracks/listen_title-track-from-new-gnod-album
Blanck Mass – Dumb Flesh. Really liked his debut (bloke from Fuck Buttons), but this is quite an advance sonically speaking. Closer in sound to his main group, particularly rhythmically, but still with lots of synapse-cleansing manipulated sounds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2Zyd7oWoJk
Papir/Electric Moon – The Papermoon Sessions (Live at Roadburn 2014). More premium psych from Sulatron. Not as immediate as the Sula Bassana album from the same festival, but quality stuff nonetheless.
Less new:
Anywhere – s/t
Cave – Threace. Another one I gave short shrift to initially that I’ve enjoyed a lot more on returning. There’s a west coast krautrock vibe that turns jazzier as it progresses. Reminds me a lot of Tortoise in places.
ANTA – Centurionaut / Live. Really liked their sludge prog debut, The Tree That Bears The Equine Fruit, but when its more technical and twiddly follow-up was just released on vinyl and download, I only dipped into it on Bandcamp, so never got into it. Thought I’d listen again before seeing them live (see below), and it’s rather good, if slightly lacking in any real stand-out moments. Live is a, err, live version of the album, and better for being grungier.
Guapo – Five Suns. Still the gold standard for modern avant prog, absolutely blistering in places.
Sinoia Caves – Beyond the Black Rainbow
Golden Void – ‘Rise to the Out of Reach’. Been meaning to check this lot for a while due to the name. And blimey, this is a prime slice of west coast neo-psych: http://goldenvoidtj.bandcamp.com/album/rise-to-the-out-of-reach-b-w-smiling-raven New album out this year, could be a corker if in a similar league.
Live:
Seven That Spells/ANTA, The Shacklewell Arms, London. Yes, the gig I’ve been shamelessly bigging up ;-) ANTA were great live, and STS didn’t disappoint – awesome heavy psych progness, albeit in front of 25 people in Dalston…
Listen With Father:
So, we stayed with friends over New Year, whose daughter introduced our two to the joys of some Wii dance-off game. One of the tracks was ‘Rock Lobster’, which I humiliated myself to, but most of the music was modern pop. The girls have since been demanding to hear various tracks, which I have graciously tried (and for the most part mercifully failed) to find on Spotify, but Nelly Furtado’s ‘Maneater’ is one I remembered… and secretly really liked. Check out the head-cracking drums and evil synth line: https://vimeo.com/36822719 (the song proper starts at 1:30!)
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