Saturday, August 30, 2008

Mind Left Body Jams

Sorry for the slackness in posting. Summer is fizzling out and I've been chasing the sun. As the cooler weather comes I hope to be more diligent in posting. That being said, I have three amazing tapes to share with you good people...



I.Morning

As one third of Emeralds, Mark McGuire is at the forefront of the New New Age. Somehow Mark has found time to record some solo jams in the face of his unit's highly prolific release schedule. "Light Movement" consists of four pieces of solo guitar paintings that drip with exquisite beauty. Perfect for a late night session or the stillness of a newborn day.


Mark McGuire "Light Movement" Self Released 2xCassette 2008

1.the path lined with colorful stones
2.under new-age skies
3.dividing lines
4.the turtle and the lizards and the snake and the dragon flies and the field mouse all sat on the riverbank


Vibrate On


II. Day


My friend Russ Waterhouse(Blues Control,Watersports,WhiteTapes) turned me on to this Florida fuzz crew. These boys make swampy garage murk stretched into oblivion. Every sound is burnt to hell yet the licks remain tasty beneath the heavy coating of sonic ash. Think of Tangerine Dream's first record getting ass raped by the American "Nuggets" box while the "Lysol" era Melvins rub one out in the corner. A must have.

NASA "Bummer Daze" Not Not Fun CS 2008

1.(no song titles, I recorded the whole cassette as one 40 min piece)

Journey Through a Burning Brain


III.Night

A bit of serendipity surrounds this next piece. I was hanging at a friend's pad, perusing his roommates awesome record collection when the title of this tape caught my eye. "Sounds of the Mothership" I grabbed the tape to discover a beautiful cover depicting a sunset/beach scene complete with three hovering craft above the horizon.The music contained within this nearly thirty year old tape is a gorgeous droney mix of space synths, sitars and various echoed out percussion. The man responsible for this "music for meditation" is a New Zealander named David Parsons. Mr.Parsons has gone on to achieve moderate fame with more subdued sounds but it is "Sounds of the Mothership" that will appeal most to us acid casualties. It turns out this tape was left behind by James from The Skaters and its not too hard to see why he keeps calling my friend to get his tape back. Don't worry brother,yr in safe hands.

David Parsons "Sounds of the Mothership" Sun Energy Communications CS 1980*


1.Meditation on a Lonely Pool
2.Devaloka
3.Awakening
4.Seperation
5.Tree Spirits
6.Durga
7.Spheres

*note-this tape has seen many miles and dusty smoked out tape players,while most of the tape is pristine there are some rough patches; which in my opinion, add to the charm.

Sleep Sound

Sunday, August 10, 2008

RACCOO-OO-OON "Mythos Folkways Vol.3: Divination Night"


I have to thank my good friend Casey for dropping this bomb on me. Casey runs EAT Records in Brooklyn and is always turning me on to incredible jams. People know when they have great music they want to be disseminated to worthy ears, they go to Casey and he will help out. Such is the case with Racco-oo-oon. Casey had picked up some copies of this record to sell at his shop and informed me I needed to check it out. I must admit the band name threw me off as I was thinking it was RATAAATTTbullshit. Upon dropping the needle however, I knew this was no post modern pastiche of pop garbage. Drawing equally from rock, free jazz, and some kind of pagan folk music that may never have existed in the first place, Raccoo-oo-oon deliver one of the most amazing pieces of tribal scuzz fusion these ears have ever heard. Anchored by incredibly nimble yet savage drumming and floated by a spaced out array of piano, guitar, spooked vocals and God knows what else, this record singlehandedly reaffirmed my belief in free music. Released in an obscenely limited run by the venerable Woodsist last year this is a record whose power cannot be observed with a cursory listen. It's a record full of warmth, wide eyed optimism and gentle revelation. I've taken to calling it by a new name "Torch of the Trout Mask at the Gates of Dawn"...Enjoy and find some of their available releases and buy some shit.

A special thanks goes out to Joe the Engineer who has lovingly ripped these high quality files from the vinyl.

Raccoo-oo-oon "Mythos Folkways Vol.3: Divination Night"
Woodsist rcords 2007

1.Witches' Hair
2.Painted Silver
3.Delta Wastes
4.The Dying Shrine/Shrine for the Dying


Sun Zoom Spark

Friday, August 01, 2008

Dark Yoga



The mere mention of yoga brings to my mind the sight of beautiful yuppie broads who would never give a troll like me the time of day traipsing through NYC in their "my workout clothes cost more than your rent" getups with the ubiquitous foam mat peeking from their designer messenger bags. Of course I've come to realize there are physical,emotional,and mental benefits to yoga and you do not have to be trust fund scum to practice it. That being said, I benefit far more from the sound of deep psych improv jams from the pacific northwest. Dark Yoga is the all improvising project of third eye burners Adam Forkner, Honey Owens, Dan Barone, Matt McDowell, and Brian Thackeray. When not jamming with their other equally impressive units(White Rainbow, Jackie-O Motherfucker,Brave Priest, Valet and countless other configurations) these folks get together and lay down some killer blissed out grooves in a secret cave in Portland. Occasionally they venture out into the light to lay waste to hungry freaks with sporadic gigs. Thankfully, the good folks at listener supported KBOO invited Dark Yoga to lay down some jams and the results were released in extremely limited quantities by Yarnlazer. I was lucky enough to get a copy(Thanks Dan) and can not in good conscience not share them with other heads. Enjoy!

Dark Yoga "Live at KBOO"

1.Improv 1
2.Improv 2
3.Improv 3
4.Improv 4
5.Improv 5

Cosmic Burn