#the electric guitar is simply the coolest instrument you see

[starrysharks]

electric guitar... electric guitar save me.......

[dustedmagazine]

Dust, Volume 7, Number 7

What are Grandbrothers doing to that piano?

Greetings from under the heat dome, where shipments of vinyl are melting mid-journey and even the coolest of cool jazz sounds a little wilted by the time it reaches your ear. We are sitting in the shade. We are drinking lemonade and iced tea. We are looking for the window fans and lugging old air condition units up from the basement. We are, perhaps, headed to the community pool for the first time since our kids were young, though also, perhaps not. In any case, we are still getting through piles of recorded music, even in this heat, and finding some gems. Here are dispatches from the furthest reaches of Japanese psych, European free jazz, self-released indie folk, Irish lockdown angst, Moroccan raging punk and lots of other stuff. Contributors included Mason Jones, Jennifer Kelly, Bill Meyer, Tim Clarke, Bryon Hayes, Jonathan Shaw, Arthur Krumins and Chris Liberato. Stay cool.

Yuko Araki — End of Trilogy (Room40)

End Of Trilogy by Yuko Araki

These 16 tracks whoosh past in just 35 minutes, with most of them clocking in around two minutes in length. Many don't reach a conclusion: they simply end abruptly, and the next one starts. Araki manipulates electronics to create whirling, sizzling atmospheres of confusion, sometimes fast-moving burbles of percussion and synths, at other moments pushing distorted hissing and confrontational tones to the front. The aptly-named "Dazed" begins with a cinematic feel, then its galactic drones give way to static and metallic scrapes. "Positron in Bloom" is like a chorus of machine voices shouting angry curses into space, and "Dreaming Insects" sounds as if the titular creatures are being pulled downstream in fast-moving rapids. Oscillating between menacing and humorous, End of Trilogy's bite-sized pieces of surrealist electronics are never boring.

Mason Jones

 Alexander Biggs — Hit or Miss (Native Tongue Music Publishing)

Hit or Miss by Alexander Biggs

Alexander Biggs blunts sharp, stinging lyrics in the sweetest sort of strummy indie-pop, working very much in the Elliott Smith style of sincerity edged with lacerating irony. “All I Can Do Is Hate You” finds a queasy intersection between soft pop and tamped down rage, Biggs murmuring phrases like “I want you to fuck me til I can’t say your name,” but melodically, over cascades of acoustic guitar. “Madeline” is the pick of the litter here, a dawdling jangle of guitar framing knife-sharp lyrics about romantic disillusionment. “Miserable,” sports a bit of lap steel for emotional resonance, demonstrating once more, if you had any doubt, that very sad songs can make you feel better somehow. Biggs is good at both the softness and the sting, and for guy-with-a-guitar albums, that’s what you need.

Jennifer Kelly

 Christer Bothén 3 — Omen (Bocian)

Omen by Christer Bothén 3

Dusted’s collective consciousness has spent a lot of time considering Blank Forms’ recent publication, Organic Music Societies, which considers Don and Moki Cherry’s convergence of artistic and familial efforts during the 1960s and 1970s, as well as the two archival recordings by Don and associates, which shed light upon his Scandinavian musical activities. All three are worth your attention, but their liveliness is shaded by the awareness that almost every hopeful soul involved is no longer with us. But Christer Bothén, who introduced Don to the donso ngoni and subsequently played in his bands for many years, is not only among the living, he’s got breath to spare. This trio recording doesn’t delve into the African sounds that bonded Bothén and Don. Rather, the Swede’s bass clarinet draws bold and emphatically punctuated melodic lines, driven by a steaming rhythm section that takes its cues from Ornette Coleman’s mid-1960s trio recordings. This music may not sound new, but it’s full of lived-in knowledge and vigor.

Bill Meyer

Briars of North America — Supermoon (Brassland)

Supermoon by Briars of North America

New York-based trio Briars of North America take patient, painterly, occasionally cosmic approach to folk music. With “Sala,” Supermoon sounds like a backwoods Sigur Ros. A falsetto voice intoning a made-up language arcs elegantly over sustained waves of electric piano. Soon after, the album touches down into more grounded guitar-and-cello territory on pieces such as “Island” and “Chirping Birds,” which bring to mind Nick Drake, albeit less contrary or withdrawn. At the album’s midway point, the listener is carried into the aether with the eerie sustained brass and wordless vocals of the eight-minute “The Albatross of Infinite Regress.” A similar space is explored at the album’s end with the 12-minute “Sleepy Not Sleepy,” as strings and warbling synthesizer tones intermingle with the return of the made-up language. Though the band’s more conventional vocal-led songs, such as “Spring Moon,” are decent enough, Briars of North America touch upon something expansive and ineffable when they explore their more experimental side.

Tim Clarke

 Bryan Away — Canyons to Sawdust (self-released)

Chicago-based actor, composer and multi-instrumentalist Elliot Korte releases music under the moniker Bryan Away. His new album, Canyons to Sawdust, begins with what feels like two introductions. “Well Alright Then” is a Grizzly Bear-style scene-setter for wordless voices, strings and woodwinds, while “Within Reach” sounds like a tentative cover of Radiohead’s “Pyramid Song” that runs out of steam before it had the chance to build momentum. The first full song, single “The Lake,” gets the album up and running in earnest with its melancholy piano and string arrangement spiked with pizzicato plucks and bright acoustic guitar figures. Half Waif lends her vocal talents to “Dreams and Circumstance,” another highlight featuring some lovely interplay between guitar arpeggios and drum machine. One pitfall of exploring romantic musical territory is the risk of sounding a tad saccharine, and the weakest links in the album, companion tracks “Scenes From a Marriage” and “Scenes From a Wedding,” have the kind of performative tone you’d expect to find on the soundtrack of a mainstream romantic comedy. Elsewhere, though, Korte’s judgment is sound, and there’s plenty of elegant music to be found. Fans of Sufjan Stevens will no doubt find a lot to like, and it’ll be interesting to see where Bryan Away ventures next.

Tim Clarke

 Jonas Cambien Trio — Nature Hath Painted Painted The Body (Clean Feed)

Nature Hath Painted the Body by Jonas Cambien Trio

On its third album, the Jonas Cambien Trio has attained such confidence that it’s willing to mess with its signature sound. The Oslo-based combo’s fundamental approach is to stuff the expressive energy and textural adventure of free jazz into compositions that are by turns intricate and rhythmically insistent but always pithy. This time, the Belgian-born pianist Cambien also plays soprano sax and organ. The former, stirred into André Roligheten’s bundle of reed instruments, brings airy respite from the music’s tight structures; the latter, dubbed into locked formation with the piano and jostled by Andreas Wildhagen’s restlessly perambulating percussion, expands the music’s tonal colors. The tunes themselves have grown more catchy, so much so that their twists and turns only become apparent with time and repeat listening.

Bill Meyer

Ferran Fages / Lluïsa Espigolé — From Grey To Blue (Inexhaustible Editions)

From Grey To Blue by Ferran Fages

When discussion turns to a pianist’s touch, it’s tempting to think mainly of what they do with their fingers. But it must be said that Lluïsa Espigolé exhibits some next-level footwork on this realization of Ferran Fages’ From Grey To Blue. Fages is a multi-instrumentalist who functions equally persuasively within the realms of electroacoustic improvisation and heavy jazz-rock, but for this piece, which was devised specifically for Espigolé, he uses written music and an instrument he doesn’t play, the piano, to engage with resonance and melody. The three-part composition advances with extreme deliberation, often one note at a time, turning the tune into a ghostly presence and foregrounding the details of the decay of each sound. This music is so sparse that the shift to chords in the third section feels dramatically dense after a half hour of single sounds and corresponding silences. The elements of this music have been sculpted with such exquisite control that one wonders if Catalonia has looked into insuring Espigolé’s feet; her way with the piano’s pedals is a cultural resource.

Bill Meyer   

 Grandbrothers — All the Unknown (City Slang)

All the Unknown by Grandbrothers

The duo known as Grandbrothers hooks a grand piano up to an array of electronic interfaces, deriving not just the clear, gorgeous notes you expect, but also a variety of percussive and sustained sounds from the classic keyboard. In this third album from the two—that’s pianist Erol Sarp and electronic engineer Lukas Vogel—construct intricate, joyful collages, working clarion melodies into sharp, pointillist backgrounds. The obvious reference is Hauscka, who also works with prepared piano and electronics, but rather than his moody beauties, these compositions pulse with rave-y, trance-y exhilaration. If you ever wondered what it would sound like if the Fuck Buttons decided to cover Steve Reich, well, maybe like this, precise and complex and shimmering, but also huge and triumphant. Good stuff.

Jennifer Kelly

 id m theft able — Well I Fell in Love with the Eye at the Bottom of the Well (Pogus Productions)

Well I Fell in Love With the Eye at the Bottom of the Well by id m theft able

Al Margolis’ Pogus Productions imprint has cast its gaze toward the strange happenings in Maine, netting a mutant form of electroacoustic wizardry in the process. Scott Spear is the one-man maelstrom known as id m theft able, an incredibly prolific and confounding presence in the American northeast. He draws influence from musique concrète and sound poetry, but adds a whimsical spirit, a tinker’s ingenuity and the comedic timing of a master prankster to his compositions. Sometimes this leads to the bemusement of his audience, but he tempers any surface madness with an endless curiosity and a playful sense of the meaning of the word music. Well I Fell in Love with the Eye at the Bottom of the Well ostensibly came to be via Spear’s desire to create a doo-wop tune. Only Spear himself knows whether this is fact or fiction, because it is clear from the opening moments of “Shun, Unshun and Shun” that this disc is full of sonic non-sequiturs, amplified clatter and delightful mouth happenings that are as far removed from doo-wop as possible. The madness is frequently tempered with beautiful moments: a broken music box serenades a flock of chirping birds in the middle of a mall, Spear hypnotically chants at a landscape of crickets, flutes pipe along to the patter of rain on a window. As one gets deeper into the record, the sound poetry aspects become more and more pronounced, such as on “The Curve of the Earth” and the closing piece, “Purple Rain.” Those seeking a humor-filled gateway drug into that somewhat perilous corner of the sonic spectrum would be wise to pop an ear in the direction of this frenetic assemblage of sound.

Bryon Hayes

Mia Joy — Spirit Tamer (Fire Talk)

Spirit Tamer by Mia Joy

Mia Joy turns the temperature way down on gauzy Spirit Tamer, constructing translucent castles in the air out of musical elements that you can see and hear right through. The artist, known in real life as Mia Rocha, opens with a brief statement of intent in a one-minute title track that wraps wisps of vocal melody with indistinct but lovely sustained tones. The whole track feels like looking at clouds. Other cuts are more substantial, with muted rock band instruments like acoustic and electric guitars and drum machines, but even indie-leaning “Freak” and "Ye Old Man,” are quiet epiphanies. Rocha sounds like she is singing to herself softly, inwardly, without any thought of an audience, but also so close that it tickles the hair in your ears. Rocha closes with a cover of Arthur Russell’s “Our Last Night Together,” letting rich swells of piano stand in for cello, but tracing the subtle, undulating lines of his melody in an airy register, an octave or two higher. Like Russell, Rocha sets up an interesting interplay between deep introversion and presentation for the public eye; she’s not doing it for us, but we’re listening anyway.

Jennifer Kelly  

 Know//Suffer — The Great Dying (Silent Pendulum Records)

The Great Dying by KNOW//SUFFER

It’s not inaccurate to describe The Great Dying as a hardcore record. You’ll hear all the burly breakdowns; buzzing, overdriven guitars; and grimly declaimed vocals that characterize the genre, which since the mid-1990s has moved ever closer to metal. But Know//Suffer have consistently infused their music with sonic elements associated with other genres of heavy music. Most of the El Paso band’s 2019 EP bashed and crashed along with grindcore’s psychotic, sprinting energy. The Great Dying is a longer record, and it slows down the proceedings considerably. There are flirtations with sludge, and even with noise rock’s ambivalent gestures toward melody: imagine Tad throwing down with a mostly-sober version of Eyehategod, and you’re more than halfway there. As ever, Toast Williams emotes forcefully, giving word to a very contemporary version existential dread. But there’s frequently a political edge to the lyrics on this new record. On “Thumbnail,” he sings, “I swallow what must be hidden / Hoping assimilation makes me whole / The whole that everyone thinks I am / Smiling under this mask knowing / I’m not hiding my face in public.” “Assimilation” is a loaded word, especially on the Southern Border, and it’s no joke walking around in public as a proud black man anywhere in Texas. Wearing a mask as you walk into Target? P.O.C. stand a chance of getting shot. Know//Suffer still sound really pissed off, but the objects of their anger seem increasing outside of their tortured psyches, located in the lifeworld’s social planes of struggle. That gives their grim music an even harder charge, and makes Williams’s performances of rage even more powerful.  

Jonathan Shaw  

 Heimito Künst — Heimito Künst (Dissipatio)

HEIMITO KÜNST by Heimito Künst

The debut album from Italian experimental instrumentalist Heimito Künst, recorded over several years in his home studio, uses an array of electronic and primitive instrumentation to create an overall woozy, dark atmosphere. From groaning, atonal slabs of organ, like a detuned church service, to murmuring field recordings and scrapings, these seven tracks are less like songs and more like unsettling journeys through sound. Pieces like "Talking to Ulises" blend quiet Farfisa tones and a wordlessly singing voice in the distance. Ironically, although the final track is titled "Smoldering Life", it's unexpectedly brighter, with major-key synth notes over the cloudy sound of a drum being bashed to pieces before ending with an almost gentle, summertime feel.

Mason Jones

Jeanne Lee — Conspiracy (moved-by-sound)

Conspiracy by JEANNE LEE

Lots of 1960s and 1970s jazz reissues offer beautiful music, but few redefine how liberating improvised music can be. Conspiracy, originally recorded in 1974 by Lee on vocals with an ensemble that includes Sam Rivers and Gunter Hampel, falls into the latter category without feeling forced. It combines sound poetry, the conversation of spontaneity, and grooves that don’t stay on repetition but still get ingrained into your brain somehow. Best digested in a contemplative sitting, the album demands you give your whole attention to the direction of the music and words mixed with extended vocal techniques. The sound shifts from a full-on medley of flutes, drums, bass and horns with voice, to more minimal experiments. The recording is clean and uncluttered, even at its busiest. A lushly enjoyable listen.

Arthur Krumins   

 Sarah Neufeld — Detritus (Paper Bag)

Detritus by Sarah Neufeld

Sarah Neufeld’s third solo album grew out of a collaboration with the Toronto choreographer Peggy Baker, begun before the pandemic but dealing anyway with loss, intimacy and grief. The violinist and composer works, as a consequence with a strong sense of movement, underlining rhythms with repeated, slashing motifs in her own instrument and pounding drums (that’s Jeremy Gara, who, like Neufeld, plays in Arcade Fire). You can imagine movement to nearly all these songs. “With Love and Blindness” rushes forward in a wild swirl of strings, given weight by the buzz of low-toned synthesizer and airiness in the layer of denatured vocals; you see whirling, bending, graceful gestures. “The Top” proceeds in quicker, more playful patterns; agile kicks and jumps and shimmies are implied in its contours. “Tumble Down the Undecided” has a raw, passionate undertow, its play of octave-separated notes frantic and agitated and the drumming, when it comes, fairly gallops. This latter track is perhaps the most enveloping, the notes caroming wildly in all directions, in the thick of the struggle but full of joy.

Jennifer Kelly

Aaron Novik — Grounded (Astral Editions)

Grounded by Aaron Novik

Aaron Novik is a clarinetist with an extensive background in jazz, klezmer, rock and in-between stuff, but you wouldn’t know any of that from listening to this tape. Its ten numbered instrumentals sound more derived from the sound worlds of 1970s PBS documentaries, Residents records of similar vintage, and Pop Corn’s fluke hit, “Pop Corn.” Recorded during the spring of 2020, when Novik’s new neighborhood, Queens, became NYC’s COVID central, it manifests coping strategy that many people learned well last year; when the outside world is fucked and scary, retreat to a room and then head down a rabbit hole. In this case, that meant sampling Novik’s clarinets and arranging them into perky, bobbing instrumentals. The sounds themselves aren’t processed, but it turns out that when recontextualized, long, blown tones and keypad clatter sound a lot like synths and mechanized beats. There’s a hint of subconscious longing in this music. While it was made in a time and place when many people didn’t leave the house, it sounds like just the thing for outdoor constitutionals with a Walkman.

Bill Meyer  

 Off Peak Arson — S-T (Self-released)

Self Titled by Off Peak Arson

Presumably named after the Truman's Water song — a fairly obscure name check, indeed — Off Peak Arson hail from Memphis, TN. Their debut EP's five songs are less reminiscent of their namesakes than of heavier, noisier bands like Zedek-era Live Skull, Dustdevils and Sonic Youth. Which is not a bad thing at all. The four-piece leverage the dual guitars to nicely intense effect, and with all four members contributing vocals there's a lot going on, at times blending an interesting sing-song pop feel with the twisty-noisy guitar. The band have a way of finding memorable hooks amidst sufficient cacophony to keep things challenging while also somehow catchy. Keep your ears open for more from this quartet.

Mason Jones

 Barre Phillips / John Butcher / Ståle Liavik Solberg — We Met – And Then (Relative Pitch)

We met - and then by Phillips, Butcher, Solberg

In 2018, ECM Records issued End To End, a CD by double bassist Barre Phillips which capped a half-century of solo recording. You might expect this act to signal the winding down of the California-born, France-based improviser’s career; after all, he was born in 1934. And yet, in 2018 he played the first, but not the last, concert by this remarkable trio, which is completed by British soprano/tenor saxophonist John Butcher and Norwegian percussionist Ståle Liavik Solberg. Recorded in Germany and Norway during 2018 and 2019, this CD presents an ensemble whose members are strong in their individual concepts, but are also committed to making music that is completed by acts of collective imagination. The music is in constant flux, but purposeful. This intentionality is expressed not only through action, but through the conscious yielding of space, as though each player knows what openings will be best occupied by one of their comrades.

Bill Meyer

Round Eye — Culture Shock Treatment (Paper +Plastick)

“Culture Shock Treatment,” the lead-off track from this unhinged and ecletic album, swings like 1950s rock and roll, a sax frolicking in the spaces between sing-along choruses. And yet, the gleeful skronk goes a little past freewheeling, spinning off into chaos and wheeling back in again. Picture Mark Sultan trying to ride out the existential disorder of early Pere Ubu, add a horn line and step way back, because this is extremely unruly stuff. Round Eye, a band of expatriates now living in Shanghai, slings American heartlands oddball post-punk into unlikely corners. Frantic jackhammer hardcore beats (think Black Flag) assault free-from experimental calls and responses (maybe Curlew?) in “5000 Miles, “ and as a kicker, it’s a commentary on ethno-nationalist repression (“Thank…the country. Thank…the culture”). “I Am the Foreigner” hums and buzzes with exuberance, like a hard-edged B-52s, but it’s about the alienation that these Westerners most likely experience, every day in the Middle Kingdom. This is one busy album, exhausting really, a whac-a-mole entertainment where things keep popping out of holes and getting hammered back, but it is never, ever dull.

Jennifer Kelly

 So Cow — Bisignis (Dandy Boy)

Bisignis by So Cow

This new So Cow record is a mood. Specifically, that mood during the third and “least fun” of Ireland’s lockdowns, when you head to your shed and bash out an album about everything that’s been lodged in your craw during a year of isolation — including, of all things, the crowd at a Martha Wainwright show (on “Requests”). And while sole Cow member Brian Kelly might have dubbed the record Bisignis, the Old English word for anxiety, it’s his discontent that takes center stage. “Talking politics with friends/Jesus Christ it never ends” Kelly sings on early highlight “Leave Group” before employing a guitar solo that could pass for some seriously fried bagpipes to help clear the room. This album takes the opposite approach of The Long Con, the project’s 2014 Goner Records one-off where So Cow made more complex moves towards XTC and Futureheads territory but obscured its greatest weapon: Kelly’s deadpan wit. And while a couple of these songs overstay their welcome with their sheer garage punk simplicity, others like “Somewhere Fast” work in the opposite way and win your ears over with repeat listens. “You are the reason I’m getting out of my own way,” Kelly sings, and in doing so has produced the project’s best full-length in a decade. So what? So Cow!

Chris Liberato 

 Taqbir — Victory Belongs to Those Who Fight for a Right Cause (La Vida Es Un Mus)

Victory Belongs To Those Who Fight For A Right Cause by Taqbir

In our super-saturated musical environment, another eight-minute, 7” record of scorching punk burners isn’t much of an event. But the appearance of Taqbir’s Victory Belongs to Those Who Fight for a Right Cause (the title is almost longer than the record itself) is at the very least a significant occurrence. The band comes from Morocco and features a woman out front, declaiming any number of contemporary socio-political ills. So there’s little wonder that the Internet isn’t bursting with info about Taqbir; you can find a Maximumrocknroll interview, some chatter about the record here and there, and not much else. It must take enormous courage to make music like this in Morocco, and even more to be a woman making music like this. The long reign of King Mohammed IV has edged the country toward marginal increments of cultural openness — if not thoroughgoing political reform — but conservative Islam and economic struggle are still dominant forces, combining to keep women relegated to submissive social roles. And the band is not fucking around: their name is a Moroccan battle cry, synonymous with “Alu Akbar!” Their repurposing of that slogan in support of their anti-traditionalist, anti-religious, anti-capitalist positions likely makes life in a place like Tangier or Casablanca pretty hard. The songs? They’re really good. Check out “Aisha Qandisha” (named for a folkloric phantasm that ambiguously mobilizes the feminine as murderous and rapacious monster): the music slashes and burns with just the right dash of melody, the vocals go from a simmer to a full-on rolling boil. Taqbir! y’all. Stay safe, stay strong and make some more records.

Jonathan Shaw

 TOMÁ — Atom (Self-Release)

Atom by TOMÁ

Tomá Ivanov operates in interstices between smooth jazz and soul-infused electronics, splicing bits of torchy world traditions in through the addition of singers. You could certainly draw connections to the funk-leaning IDM of artists like Flying Lotus and Dam-Funk, where pristine instrumental sounds—strings, piano, percussion—meet the pop and glitch of cyber-soul. Guest artists flavor about half the tracks, pushing the music slightly off its center towards rap (“A Different You featuring I Am Tim”), quiet storm soul (“Outsight featuring Vivian Toebich”), falsetto’d art pop (“Catharsis featuring Lou Asril”) or dreaming soul-jazz experiments (“Blind War featuring Ben LaMar Gay”). Thoughout, the Bulgarian composer and guitarist paces expansive ambiences with shuffling, staggering beats, roughing up slick surfaces with just enough friction to keep things interesting.

Jennifer Kelly  

 The Tubs — Names EP (Trouble In Mind)

Names EP by The Tubs

“I don’t know how it works” declared The Tubs on their debut single, but they’re diving right in anyways on its follow-up, Names, with four songs that explore the self and self-other relationship. Their cover of Felt’s “Crystal Ball” tightens the musical tension of the original in places but still allows enough slack for singer Owen Williams to stretch the lyrical refrain — about the ability of another to see us better than we see ourselves — into a more melancholy shape than Lawrence. Of the EP’s three originals, Felt’s influence is most obvious in George Nicholls’ guitar work on “Illusion,” especially when the change comes and his lead spirals off Deebank-style behind Williams while he questions his connection to his own reflection. “Is it just an illusion staring back at me?” “The Name Song” is the longest one here at over three minutes, and in a similar way to The Feelies, it feels like it could go on forever, which might prove useful if Williams adds more names to his don’t-care-about list. “Two Person Love” is the best track of the bunch, though, with its classic sounding riff that swoops in and out allowing room for the chiming and chugging rhythm section to do the hard work. The relationship in the song might have been “pissed up the wall,” as Williams in his Richard Thompson-esque drawl puts it, but The Tubs certainly seem to have figured out how this music thing works.

Chris Liberato

 Venus Furs — S-T (Silk Screaming)

Venus Furs by Venus Furs

Venus Furs sounds like band, but in fact, it’s one guy, Paul Krasner, somehow amassing the squalling roar of psychedelic guitar rock a la Brian Jonestown Massacre or Royal Baths all by himself. These songs have a large-scale swagger and layers and layers of effected guitars, as on the careening “Friendly Fire,” or hailstorm assault of “Paranoia.” A ponderous, swaying bass riff girds “Living in Constant.” Its nodding repetition grounds radiating sprays of surf guitar. You have to wonder how all this would play out in concert, with Krasner running from front mic to bass amp to drum kit as the songs unfold, but on record it sounds pretty good. Long live self-sufficiency.

Jennifer Kelly

 Witch Vomit — Abhorrent Rapture (20 Buck Spin)

Abhorrent Rapture by Witch Vomit

Witch Vomit has one of the best names in contemporary death metal (along with Casket Huffer, Wharflurch and Snorlax — perversely inspired handles, all), and the Portland-based band has been earning increasing accolades for its records, as well. They are deserved. Witch Vomit plays fast, dense and dissonant songs, bearing the impress of Incantation’s groundbreaking (gravedigging?) records. Does that mean it’s “old school”? Song titles from the band’s previous LP Buried Deep in a Bottomless Grave (2019) certainly played to traditionalists’ tastes: “From Rotten Guts,” “Dripping Tombs,” “Fumes of Dying Bodies.” And so on. This new EP doesn’t indicate any significant changes in trajectory or tone, but the songwriting makes the occasional move toward melody. See especially the second half of “Necrometamorphosis,” which has a riff or two that one could almost call “pleasant.” If that seems paradoxical, check out the EP’s title. Is that an event, a gruesome skewing of Christianity’s big prize for the faithful? Or is it an affective state, in which abject disgust somehow builds to ecstatic transport? Who knows. For the band’s part, Witch Vomit keeps chugging, thumping and squelching along, doling out doleful songs like “Purulent Burial Mound.” Yuck. Sounds about right, dudes.

Jonathan Shaw

 yes/and — s-t (Driftless Recordings)

yes/and by yes/and

This collaboration between guitarist Meg Duffy (Hand Habits) and producer Joel Ford (Oneohtrix Point Never) is an elusive collection of shape-shifting instrumentals. Each piece is built around Duffy’s guitar, yet the timbre and mood tends to switch dramatically between tracks. The album’s run-time is fairly evenly split between dark, atmospheric pieces, such as “More Than Love” and “Making A Monument,” and hopeful, glimmering miniatures, such as “Centered Shell” and the wonderfully titled “In My Heaven All Faucets Are Fountains.” “Learning About Who You Are” looms large at the album’s heart, as nearly eight minutes of hazy, wind-tunnel drone pulses and reverberates across the stereo space. Despite the variation in tone, each track stakes out its own territory in the tracklist, and it’s only “Tumble” that comes across as an unrealized idea. While it’s only half an hour, yes/and feels longer, its circuitous routes opening up all kinds of possibilities.

Tim Clarke

[fuckyeahscandalband]

SCANDAL's RINA; "It's me RINA" Style Book Translations Part 1 of 5 - MUSIC

"Everyone who has gotten this book, thank you so much. I am SCANDAL's drummer, RINA. The theme of this book is vintage. From music to movies to fashion etc., things that are important to RINA have all been packed within it. It's a book that's made from the heart, so I'll be happy if you all could enjoy it. - Rina"

About SCANDAL

'Youth' might be a word that's mostly used when you're a teenager, but I think that as long I am in this band, my youth will always been continuing. The fact that I can feel this way is probably largely due to the members. For 4 girls to come gathered together, and to always spend our time on such good terms is amazing, and I unintentionally think about it from an audience point of view at times.

About Member

The eldest, HARUNA always takes in everyone's opinions calmly, and is a leader that judges only at the very end. To have HARUNA in the way that she is rely on me at certain times makes me extremely happy, and I think it's nice if I could bring some relief to HARUNA. TOMOMI is a person that brings about relaxation and creates breathing space. In midst of a generally straightforward bunch of people, she also tends to throw out the odd curveball once in a while. MAMI is the band's melody maker. She's the most important support in terms of our music, and is the person whom widens our possibilities. The members aren't family or friends, but they are definitely partners for whatever happens. I will support these members for who they are.

About Indies

There are probably endless memories of Osaka, I reckon. When I was a middle school student, and the other members were high school students, the 4 of us gathered together for a camp at a mansion in Osaka during our Summer holidays. We'll practice in the studio every single day, everyone doing their own thing, then head to baths once practice is finished. We really didn't have money, so in order to save, we'll buy from the supermarket, and sometimes wash our clothes all at a go at the coin laundromat. It's a Summer where be it doing the laundry, eating and living together, we were together. At that time, it was hard but we also enjoyed it. And during our indies period, we then performed street lives at Osaka-jo Park's Ten-jo street, in front of an empty crowd that we really can't possibly smile at (laughs). We made hand-written flyers ourselves, and tried performing and singing while dancing. We cracked our brains, wondering what we can do to make people pause in their footsteps, to be able to stand out. I think I'll never be able to forget those times for as long as I live.

About Major Debut

I was in my 2nd year of high school when we had our major debut, "DOLL". I was really happy to see that the dream I'd aimed for had come true. It moved me, going to the CD shop and seeing our CDs lined up there. I was so happy I nearly wanted to cry when I saw a plate that said 'SCANDAL' hung up on the pillar. And right after our debut, we got to appear on music programmes and had many chances to widen our name, which I felt happy about, despite being busy. I can still recall clearly, the days that followed after our debut.

About Girl's Band

I think that girl bands are the absolute best, and I'm so in love with being a part of it. 'Girls rock' stands right next to the genre that is 'Rock', and I think that the time that it can be naturally recognised for itself alone is coming; When it does, it'll definitely be fun.

About Live

Lives are places where you're able to see the band's spirit and true abilities. I think that bands are the coolest when they're giving lives, and if one doesn't perform lives, there will surely be parts about them that you can't understand. From the choice of the venue, to the components that make the live, to being able to convey themselves through MCs, all those make up the band's spirit. It is lastly also a place where you can display your powers, when you use words and convey what you wish to say to your audience. From now on, I suppose my stance about making lives central of our activities will never change.

About Listeners

They seem different from the members or family, but they also hold a special spot. A relationship between the listener and a band can't be placed specifically. Whenever I'm writing songs or answering at interviews, the listeners would pop up in my head often. That's why, I'm always thinking of everyone. From honestly having zero in the audience during our street lives, to tens of thousands of people today, everyone's presence brings us confidence and praise. For myself, I think I'm probably the type that won't continue on with the band if we had no listeners. All of our fans are our power.

About Drums

As I thought of 'Wanting to continue on in the band as this member', it's been 10 years by the time I realised. I don't think just by drumming is all of it, and I did it in my own way to a satisfactory point, coupled with fashion and hair and make-up. In response to that, I bet there are those who come for our lives and got to know me (because of everything). I'm glad that I became a drummer on my own terms. The drums aren't just an instrument that is cool. Not only is it a instrument that girls can play, but there are also all kinds of drummers, and I'll be glad to be able to know more.

About 10 Years

When the band was made, we were so hell-bent on making it work every single day, that we never had the time to imagine what it'll be like 10 years later. After our debut, we'd been touring every year, and I always thought how much I'll like for this to keep continuing on for a long time. In the band's 10th year since formation, it felt like we've hit our very first point. Not only are we feeling the weight of the number "10", but it also seems that we'll be doing this for a long time to come.

About Composition

When I am making songs, it's often that I start from writing the lyrics. When both the lyrics and melody come up in my head at the same time, I'll make the demo using my synthesizer and electric drums. I'll connect my electric drums to the synthesizer, and the synthesizer will add on to what I play on the drums, producing data. Afterwards, I'll add in chords via the keyboard for the guitar and bass, then send my complete song demo to the members. When the melody doesn't come, I'll send my lyrics to MAMI. We'll talk about it, and I'll then leave the melody in her hands. Often, when it hits, I'll make a memo of it to go back to later, and when I think 'Seems like it'll come to me tonight', I'll write a song. When it feels like I can do it, I'll gradually be able to. How many times that has happened...is a secret (laughs).

About Overseas

Whenever we go overseas to all sorts of countries, I am both shocked and happy, to know that we have this many people asking for us. In the 10 years that the band was formed, I'm able to feel the huge possibilities of every generation and will come to think, we can still do this, there are still things we want to accomplish, and things we can do. That's because there are people who want to see us live. That's why, it's not so much about something special, such as 'Let's advance into the world!" No matter which country they're from, our fans are all our friends. To be able to go to where there are people waiting for us, to do lives, that's all there is to it.

About Now

Music has became the core to my being after all. Even when I'm having fun, and even when it looks like it's unrelated to music at first look, it's always connected. Even when I'm watching variety programme, for example, I'll think about thing like how great that talk atmosphere was, or I'll like to create such an atmosphere for our lives. After watching movies, it also evokes me to write music. Everything is related to music. Of course, I also enjoy listening to music in my private time. I often check out new songs on the radio, and recently, I think the Spanish girl band, HiNDS is pretty cool! From now onwards, I'll simply like us 4 to use good songs to create good lives, and it'll be nice if we can always keep going on like this. Also, as a band, I'll like for us to be more exposed, and to take in all kinds of interesting things. We also have our own original shop called 'Feedback!' in Shibuya, and we'll also like to continue thinking of new ways where we can bring enjoyment to everyone.

Translations & photos by fyscandalband. To purchase, click HERE. For my "It's me RINA" tag, click HERE. As I’ll only translate what piques my interest, this is only most of the interview and not a full translation. More to come.

[rbbbgd]

How To Play Guitar: A Beginner’s Guide

Guitar Lesson One: Just Beginning

So you want to learn how to play guitar? Well join the club, because people from all over the world want to do exactly what you want to as well. What separates you from the rest? It all comes down to whether you’ve got motivation and that little word called patience. Being good at guitar takes time, and I have seen people try to rush learning an instrument. I won’t lie, some people are naturally good at playing guitar, and can fingerpick and do barre chords like no one else. But for the most part, being good at anything takes time and effort. The difference with guitar? You’ll have a hell of a lot of fun doing it. Not only is guitar the coolest instrument to play (unlike that trombone your mom told you was cool back in sixth grade), it is also one of the instruments that allows you to be expressive and your creativity really will come to life on a guitar. You don’t need to know how to read music or even understand what the difference is between a bass and treble clef. All you need is a few minutes a day to build up those calluses on your fingertips and give the world a song or two.

Part One: Getting Yourself A Guitar

If you’ve already got a guitar, you can go ahead and skip this part. But if you’re in desperate need of a six string, I would recommend places like Guitar Center and even your local pawn shop. Pawn shops are a paradise for the beginning guitarist; you wouldn’t believe how many beautiful guitars there are to be found, and at such a cheap price! But if you don’t want your guitar secondhand, then go ahead and search online or even at some local guitar shops. Also, if you are a straight up beginner, I suggest you get an acoustic guitar to start. Acoustic guitars have a wider neck, and will give your fingers a better range of motion. If you can get your hands used to an acoustic guitar, then trust me, when you switch over to an electric guitar, it will be so easy.Electric guitars have thin necks, and thus your fingers will have a much easier time finding strings and whatnot. So in my opinion, acoustic is the best way to go, plus electric guitars are pretty much useless without amps anyway, so put some faith in me and look for an acoustic. Or if you want the best of both worlds, you can look for acoustic-electrics, although they do tend to be a bit pricey. Whatever you do, just get your hands on a guitar and give it a whirl.

Part Two: Getting Familiar With Playing

Ok let’s face it. Once you get that guitar of yours, there’s a good chance if you’re a beginner that you will have no idea what to do with the thing, let alone pluck a few strings and strum a made up chord or two. That is just fine. In fact, many guitar teachers don’t suggest you play with your guitar, they try to lead you straight into learning string letters and teaching you the simple chords like A, B, and C. For me, I believe that familiarity is everything. You have to crawl before you walk, and the same goes with guitar. Don’t worry about getting advanced just yet. Instead focus on tinkering with your guitar, placing your fingers on random strings and playing whatever your heart desires. Getting familiar with your guitar is the first step towards getting better. Spend an hour or two a day just hitting notes, sliding your fingers down the strings, or strumming with a guitar pick. After a few days of this, you’re ready for the next step.

Part Three: Learning the Strings

Nobody likes reading instructions for physical actions. But it is possible to pick up a few lessons if you pay attention just right. The next step in your guitar adventure begins with the part everyone hates: memorization. When it comes to playing an instrument repetition is key. Nobody likes it, and after a while it can get pretty tedious. But just like you did in first grade, when they had you write the letters of the alphabet a million times over until your fingers bled, you have to do a little memorization when it comes to guitar and do some good old fashioned repetition. Below is a diagram of the guitar strings and their specific letters.

The guitar strings and their letters

Ok so there you go. The string letters are E, A, D, G, B and E. A good way to remember these string letters is by this neat acronym: Eddie Athe Dynamite, GoodBye Eddie. Also, something that you should note is that the first and sixth strings are both E. This means that when you play these strings separately, they will have the exact same sound, but the first string will be an octave higher. This comes in handy when you start learning your major and minor scales, but that is a different lesson for a different day. Practice playing these strings and saying aloud the letters of that particular string. Believe me, after enough repetition it might just get to the point where you can play any string and know the letter of it just by sound. Also, a good technique to get used to is pressing down on the strings with enough force to get a good, clean sound. Do not press on the metal bars running across the neck, called the frets. Doing so will create a very muffled, choppy sound. A good rule to follow is to always put your fingers in the spaces between the frets, and make sure your fingers are just above the frets for a better, pure sounding note. Be warned though, if you are a first time guitar player, and especially if you’re starting with an acoustic guitar with metal strings, your fingertips will hurt.This is one of the downsides to beginner’s guitar, and until you build those things called calluses on your fingertips, you’ll be feeling some pain when you play. But don’t worry, your fingers will get used to it, but just try to moderate your playing to maybe an hour a day or so, and if your fingers start hurting bad, just stop.

Part Four: Starting Some Chords

Alright, so you’ve gotten this far, which means you’ve got some serious interest in guitar. If you’ve been practicing everyday and playing until your fingertips are numb, then I praise you and give you an A+. However, this next lesson will test your abilities, especially if you’re a beginner. If you already know and practice chords, you can skip this part or stay, if you want a refresher course. I’m going to give you the lowdown on what chords are and how to play them for some maximum sound. Piece of cake, right?

A chord is basically three or more notes played together to make a sound. That’s the basic definition, but it can be misleading. There’s a lot more to it than simply three notes played together. It’s all about notes and what sounds good and what doesn’t. You could play a G note, an A flat, and a B sharp note, and technically call this a chord. Does it mean that this particular note will sound good? No. Actually I’ve never actually tried that combination, but I’m sure the moment I did, my ears would start to bleed. To say it simply, you need to know your scales. However, I can still show you some basic chords to play in the meantime, so that you can practice and know the notes you are playing, and their letters as well.

Remember the letters of the strings? Well guess what, each space between the frets has its own special musical note, and a letter to go along with it. What do I mean? Well just look at the image below and you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Source

See what I mean? Playing a string alone will give you a note. It depends on which string you pluck. Will it be the E string? Cool, then now you just played an E note. But if you press your index finger down on the string right on the first fret (check the picture if you’re still hazy on what a fret is: it’s the space where the F is) then voila! you just played an F note. Go down one fret and press on there and what do you know? You just played F sharp (note: F# and G♭ are the exact same note. I’ll get into this in a different hub, but for now, just understand that pressing down on a string on a certain fret will produce a sound). Also note that pressing various strings at different fret locations and strumming them will produce a brand new sound! For example, look at the picture above and then look at this picture of the C chord.

Making sense now? When you press your three fingers down like displayed in the picture, you get a C Major chord! Also, you will notice that each black circle has a number on it? Each one of your fingers is designated a number, and using certain fingers when playing chords is much easier. Your index finger is 1, your middle finger is 2, your ring finger is 3, and your pinkie is 4. Your thumb is not designated a number, because you will not be using your thumb to press down on the strings (most of the time, there are some exceptions but we’ll get into that later). So now look at the C major chord above and try to play it. Do your best to place all your fingers down at the same time. This is crucial if you want to play chords correctly.You need to train your fingers to press down on the strings all at once. Having your fingers press down on the strings at different times will surely mess up your songs in the future when you practice, and I assure you that you’ll be frustrated. So just practice placing your fingers down simultaneously, no matter how long it takes you to do so. Then once you’ve placed your fingers down, gently strum all your strings together. Try to strum all the strings except the low E string, for this specific chord does not need the sixth string to be played. Also notice the letters above in the picture. Do you see how the letters are E, C, E, G, C, E? This means that all those strings, when strummed, will produce these notes. The main notes for a C chord are C, E, and G. The other notes help produce a more solid sound, and your C chord will shine bright. For some more chords to practice, here is a diagram of some of the most common chords and their corresponding notes. Practice these daily, and remember to place all your fingers down at the same time! I can’t stress that enough.

Note: the X’s on the top of the strings mean that you DO NOT strum those strings when you play the chord. They will surely and definitely mess up your sound without fail

Well there you have it. A few lessons for the avid guitar beginner. Look for my future hubs, where I’ll take these lessons even further. For now, just practice these chords and notes and remember that repetition is key to good guitar playing. Get yourself familiar with playing, and try to immerse yourself in your lessons. Get a teacher or even a friend who knows how to play so that you can get better, and make sure you check out my future lessons, because I’ll show you some neat tricks and tips that will surely boost your playing.

Article Source : https://spinditty.com/learning/Guitar-Lesson-One-For-Beginners

Music

[gamerguideclub]

Guitar Guide! Phred Instrument’s Founder Freddy Rose Interview!

Tell the readers who you are and how you got into the guitar business.

I’m Freddy Rose and I got into the guitar business in 2010. Before getting into the guitar business, I had co-founded a business named PCAudioLabs, and we built high-performance Windows based computers for musicians to record and produce music. This business brought me around many performing musicians and creative and talented individuals working in all parts of the music industry. As a guitar player, I was simply looking around for an affordable hollow body electric guitar with a 25.5” scale length, however, most of the hollow body guitars had a 24¾” scale or 25” scale. I did some searching around and discovered a few boutique luthiers whowere making hollow body electric guitars, and then happened to be introduced to someone who managed a guitar factory overseas who was also interested in building this style of guitar. The idea to start another business was really just an idea that slowly grew into something that also became like a business.

What was your musical background?  

I took piano lessons every week when I was 5 years old. I was learning classical pieces of music, mainly Mozart and Beethoven. I never learned how to read and play music at the same time, but I could read music at a basic level and mostly played by ear. When I was 11 years old, I stopped taking lessons because my piano teacher retired and stopped teaching, and so I sort of retired from the piano at the same time. It wasn’t until I was about 17 years old that I wanted to play electric guitar with the goal of learning how to play like Jimi Hendrix. I took lessons for a couple years from an incredible guitar player, instructor, and Berkelee graduate, John Mizenko, and learned to play Little Wing and Hey Joe.

At the end of high school, I started listening to the Grateful Dead more regularly and got into Jerry Garcia’s guitar playing. I saw my first JGB show the summer after graduating high school, and after that I was fortunate to see some Dead shows. I played in a rock band for about 5 years and we performed at coffee, houses, house parties, and various clubs along the Sunset strip, in Santa Monica and in the San Fernando Valley. In college, I minored in music technology and majored in psychology. One of my favorite classes was the psychology of sound and music perception taught by Diana Deutsch, a prominent researcher on the psychology of music.

What made the proclivity towards jam band tributes your thing with your business?

It just developed along with the music that I listen to.

Who do you like better?  The Dead or Phish?

When I think about the answer to this question, I imagine a scenario where both bands are playing on the same day at the same time. I would have the biggest dilemma of having to make a choice of which one to go see. At home and in the car, I have a Pandora station that plays both bands and other similar styles of music. I have many live soundboard recordings of both bands that I listen to as well. I can’t really say which I like better. I like them both.

Where do you see Phred Instruments in the next five years? Are you going to keep coming up with new designs or just try and evolve the current models into more and more refined pieces?  

There will hopefully, and probably, be a little bit of both. Also, there is another goal that within the next 5 years we can reach a point where we have more guitars in stock that are ready to ship within 1-2 weeks. Perhaps there will be more made in the USA models if the logistics for that work their way into the 5-year plan.

With the addition of a CNC machine into your wheelhouse, is there any chance you'd go the EGC (Kevin Burkett's Electrical Guitar Company) route and perhaps do a aluminum neck tribute to Jerry's Travis Bean guitar at some point?

The CNC will mostly be utilized for making the small parts, such as brass pickup mounting plates. There are no plans to make aluminum neck guitars.

What do you think the coolest/most interesting thing is that Phred brings to the guitar world that makes them worth someone taking a look at?

Our Ernesto VH3 model is perhaps our most interesting design. It’s a hollow body guitar, but it doesn’t necessarily have a traditional hollow body tone. When people play the Ernesto VH3, they comment on how bright it sounds, which is traditionally not a description of a hollow body electric guitar. The Ernesto VH3 also features an on board effects loop (OBEL), similar to what Jerry Garcia had in his guitars, allowing the full signal from the pickups to go to the effects and back into the guitar for post-effect volume adjustment. When guitar players try this out for the first time, they comment on how their effects sound more alive and active. These features aren’t necessarily unique, but we’re perhaps the first to implement them into a guitar with a price tag that’s under $1,000.

Where does Phred go next?

We’re working on a couple of things that will be released later in the year that aren’t actually guitars. One of them is a stopbar tailpiece design that can be a drop-in replacement for a standard stopbar tailpiece. The other is a junction box made specifically for our OBEL equipped guitars. In addition to that, we’ve got a couple of new guitar models also in the works that will become available sometime in 2017.

I wanna thank Freddy again for hooking us up with this interview AND the guitar that is so awesome that there’s been a few times I open the door to the guitar room and just sorta look longingly at it.  *sigh* For info on Freddy’s designs go to Phred Instruments DOT COM!