More albums, more cherry picking through the mountain of albums that land here, more picking of the cherries, picking off the cherries, the never ending pile of demanding cherries that find their way here on a daily basis. You surely know the policy by now? We do, on the whole, only feature the albums and things we feel positive about. We really don’t have time to clutter up these already overloaded pages with negative coverage of things that do nothing much for us, there isn’t the time or space, there isn’t any need, although some times there probably is. Here’s another three or so as we hopefully start to ease through towards something that starts to look like Spring and…
Bone Folder – Bone Folder (GND/LFT) – Oh the robust sound of Microwaves, they sound tough, muscular, solid, solidly clever, the bold sound of Microwaves… hang on… Yet another ambient drone thing, yet another ambient drone duo, yet another couple of people making very (very) slow moving almost stagnant rather atmospheric rather rich, rather dark, slow moving instrumental improvised minimal music/sound/soundart and then going off to stand on a hill so someone can take a photo of them looking like they’re thinking in a very seriously moody kind of way about the depth of it all (that and to then go send repeated e.mails wanting to know why it hasn’t been reviewed yet!) Oh what to do with all this stuff that somehow finds a way to us? This body of work isn’t out for another month yet, they first sent it in a couple of months ago, they just sent yet another e.mail today wanting to know why it hasn’t been covered yet, like I have nothing else to do all day other than listen to the endless parade of slow moving ambient drone projects that land here on an almost daily basis from all over the globe. Off with the Microwaves album and on with this even though it isn;t out for a month yet…
I made an ambient drone album once, made it while drunk late at night when Robert John bloody Godfrey dumped a giant keyboard in our front room after an Enid gig, bloody massive thing it was, looked like it was out of the cockpit of a 50s jet airliner, I should release it (along with a deep and meaningful press release) just so I can fire e.mails at people and clog up their day with demands to know why it hasn’t been covered yet. Actually is wasn’t that ambient, it was a full on bloody noise, glorious stuff, well in my head it was glorious, you probably wouldn’t think so, which is kind of the problem with most of this kind of stuff, most of it, like most of the paintings we painters make, really isn’t as good as we, the people who have make these things, like to think they are.
What is there to say about this very very (very) slow moving improvised ambient music that this London-based improvisational duo Bone Folder have made? I guess it does stand out a little from the very big worldwide ambient drone crowd of music makers (a crowd who all seem to have our e.mail list), truth be told most of this stuff just makes me want to go put on a Mötley Crüe album and shout at the bleedin’ devil! What do these people think I do all day? What gives them the idea we want to drop everything amd spend hour after hour listening to and writing about things like this? That we have nothing better t odo than fit in with their marketing plans and release dates…
“Emerging from the cracks between drone, ambient and noise, the music created by London-based improvisational duo, Bone Folder, combines raw emotion with sonic intensity. Music instilling both a sense of stasis and an uncanny transcendence; a tensile surface beneath which the indistinct shadows of melody slowly drift, dissolve and re-bloom”
I guess it is what they say it is, I guess they do do it rather well, I guess they want me to mirror that statement of theirs and say something along the same lines but then it is all so so subjective, so depending on where you head might be and if the truth be told (again), how many thankless hours of free time you might have on your hands to just step aside and spend it writing about the indulgence of things like this. Not that I have a problem with self indulgent art but then I don’t send off pictures of my latest paintings demanding reviews like musicians tend to do with their latest music (hey, there are some painters who are good at demanding you come write about their exhibitions and get rather ratty when you don’t drop everything and do just that).
This is essentially some rather strong rather slow moving string-flavoured (cello maybe? Something like that anyway) very organic sounding warm-hearted ambient drone music. These three pieces don’t really change gear or mood or emotion at any point during the half hour it takes to listen to it all, it doesn’t really take a corner or go down a different path, it pretty much stays on the one it started on, it is all of the same rather small palate, it is mostly the same small handful of colours. it just kind of hangs there inviting you to go with it if you wish to. I mean it is pleasant, it is enjoyable, there’s nothing wrong with what they doing, it might be a little one dimensional, it is rather fine though. Bone Folder are using restraint rather than power, they’re not taking the Sunn O))) route here, they do have some of that feel (if not the power). Yes, this is kind of dark (not too dark), it is warm, positively minimal, kind of inviting, relaxing, it probably is all rather self indulgent and rather like abstract painting, something that might just be massively rewarding to make or do rather than to be asked view or listen to. They have a couple of quotes of their Bandcamp page;
No familiar shapes
Remained, no pleasant images of trees,
Of sea or sky, no colours of green fields;
But huge and mighty forms, that do not live
Like living men, moved slowly through the mind
By day, and were a trouble to my dreams.
– William Wordsworth, Extract from the Prelude
Every something is an echo of nothing.
– John Cage
But then, as Lemmy once shouted at a gig at the Roundhouse back when the Roundhouse was a beautiful place and you could still trip over the train tracks, what’s words worth? I could, for what any of this is worth, add more words and get all flowery about the music the duo have presented here, I guess I could quote some poetry in response, I could maybe say something about a wolf screaming lonely in the night or a blood stain on the stage or I could prehaps write some of my own poetry in response (no not really, if I ever write a poem you have permission to come around here and shoot me). I guess I could paint a response? Sometimes music does really make me wait to paint, hell, I’ve got an invite here to go paint with EarthBall at Cafe Oto next month after I said their music made me want to paint.
There’s only one track up on Bone Folder’s Bandcamp page right now (we are still just over a month away from the release date), just one track as a taste of this soon to be released body of work, the four minute middle piece of three. Just a four minute taste of three pieces that add up to about half an hour of music that really is pretty much on the same level all the way through, three pieces that pretty much stay in the same place. That one track will pretty much tell you where Bone Folder and this release are at, the three pieces are pretty much the same and nothing wrong with that in this case, but it does leave you with very little to say about it other than to say here, here it is, go listen for yourself. make your own damn mind up, stop asking me, stop asking me to spend hours writing about what you’re doing rather doing the doing myself. What I’m essentially saying here is, I kind of like it but there’s not really a lot that can be said about it.
Hey, look, I was trying to listen to the new Microwaves album and sort out an art show, and deal with a curator and a dozen other things I need to get done today when the latest e.mail from Bone Folder landed (a Microwaves album that someone has sent me three or four e.mails about not reviewing yet, at least that one is actually out this week and not for another month yet), And so I’ve turned off Microwaves (an album we’ve been looking forward to) and I’ve had this Bone Folder album on repeat since the lunch time landing of their latest e.mail now (the five o’clock news will be on in a moment, what the flip has Trump done now?) they’ve taken up most of my afternoon.
The two bone folders do their thing rather well, it is all rather pleasant, kind of nice to have it quietly droning as the sun shines in today, you might say they sound beautifully harmless and that should be enough, that that should be a positive and that’s where we should leave it, but there is a but. But they don’t have the intensity that I really need, they don’t have the power of say Sunn 0))) or the depth of that brilliant closing piece of music on the new Neurosis album or the craft of Dead Can Dance or… Bone Folder just kind of nicely drone on and drift by and it is all very nice and if that’s what you want then they’re pretty damn good at it, but I kind of want more. I want something that’s a bit more that just more rather nice organic ambient music that in reality I’m never going to listen to again one this piece is written and this is all done and dusted. Hey, who cares what I want or think, go make up your own damn mind up, the Bandcamp is just down there and you know the policy around here is to only cover things we feel positive about, I feel poistive enough without wanting to jump through hoops about it. You go have a listen, you’ll probably enjoy it.
The limited edition physical release comes with a piece of visual art so the Bandcamp page says – Each of the 100 copies is hand-stamped on the sleeve and hand-numbered on the obi strip by the duo. Each includes a 120x120mm print of the cover portrait by Chloe Rosser – we can’t see that piece of art though, so we can’t really comment of Chloe’s contibution. Our work is done here, bands, labels, PR people, stop treating us like were part of your marketing plan, feel free to send us your music, but don’t be badgering us, it isn’t whay we do this thing we do…
By the way, a bone folder is apprently “a smooth, hand-held tool used in bookbinding, origami, and paper crafts to create crisp, sharp creases and folds without damaging paper. Traditionally made from polished cattle bone, it is also used for burnishing (smoothing) paper, scoring, and folding materials like fabric or leather…”, I was curious as well.
And oh and look, here’s an e.mail from another record label wanting to know why we haven’t downloaded the files of the album we never asked for that they only sent yesterday! Twenty Four hours later and they’re on our backs, what is it with you people!? Right, let’s get to Microwaves…
Microwaves – Temporal Shifter (Decoherence Records) – Now where were we? Oh the robust sound of Microwaves, they’re sounding tough, muscular, solid, solidly clever, lean, and more importantly, even more relevant then ever. That bold forthright sound of Microwaves. Says here that “the Pittsburgh-based experimental band is happy to present their new album” – I still say it should read “are happy” and not “is happy”, they are a band after all, a group and not a thing, an “are” not an “is”, hey standards are dropping everywhere. Standards aren’t dropping in terms of Microwaves themselves though, the highly respected band (highly respected around here anyway) are sounding as vital as ever. We did mention this album already on these rather fractured pages about a month ago, and this new album has featured on the Other Rock Show airwaves a number of times in recent weeks, guess we better (kind of) properly write something about it now the release date is actually here…
Built around a core of David Kuzy (guitar, vocals), Zach Moore (bass, vocals), and John Roman (drums), Microwaves have developed a sound that does indeed refuse easy categorisation, that healthy mix of no-wave tension, the naturally flowing prog rock complexity of it all, that bit of math-rock precision and all served with that informed by punk energy and attitude thing they clearly know and get. Does some of this sound like a (very) slightly less metallic Voivod this time around? Has it always? If it is that is meant as compliment. Does it feel bigger this time? Fuller? Does feel like a little bit more? A touch more dense? Bigger? –
“This is the album where we let go a little bit of the identity either we had created over the past 25 years or the one that occurred due to circumstances”. John adds: “I guess there was a bit of both that led to the creation of the sound of the band. We were less precious about following our own rulebook and let things develop a little more naturally”.
– Do Microwaves sound a little less constricted now? This does feel like the rewarding work of a band and who just don’t need to weigh themselves down with who they’re meant to be any more. There’s some mean riffing going on here, dramatically so, there’s a seriously good metallic bite here this time, are they almost sounding like an experimental metal band this time around? Whatever it is they’re doing, this is damn good and of course attention properly paid reveals more than a couple of unexpected twists, just as you’d expect with Microwaves – their devils are (and were) always in their details. Their devils are always good ones, so deliciously absurd, is that an electric eye up the sky, a tearless retina taking pictures that can more? Judas Priest this is good, none stop direct hits. If you like brutal no wave flavoured dissonant thrash, if you like the idea of Sci-fi driven intense heavy noise rock and musical things you need to unravel then look no further than these excellent Microwaves that are coming at you. Accept no others, this is the one, this is Microwaves and everything about this album is good good good. Microwaves are sound good.
Dead Finks – New Plastik Abyss (Bretford Records) – That first rather ear-catching song had a touch of poppy new-waveish Cardiacs pointedness about it, the second one kind of sounds like a breezy Cure; “Berlin-based New Zealand post-punks Dead Finks return with their fourth record, New Plastik Abyss. The album preserves the band’s trademark blend of hysterical cynicism and strident earnestness, while standing as their most accessible work to date” – I don’t know their previous work, he does kind of sound a little bit like a strident Tim Smith through, like he might have a tantrum and go off and things. Dead Finks sound nervy, colourful, full of purpose, to the point in a wiry skinny slightly urgent kind of way. This does sound classic art-rock flavoured pop song songwriting, these are songs that come at you with a touch of conviction, with a sense of the immediate. We’re told they’re a band “evolving beyond their roots”, without going back to find out, I can’t really comment on that observation. Do like their bite, their contempt, really do like their contempt, that really is a great song, they’ve got quite a few great songs. I like their (never throwaway) pop and the directness of it, the depth of it, the obvious craft of it all. I suspect it would be kind of hard for anyone to not to like this album? Innocence is an excellent opener, a real ear-grabber that you surely won’t be able to keep to yourself. These are songs that do indeed want to drag you through the twisted corridors of something or other, they’re songs that are kind of like getting on the wrong bus and finding it was the right one after all, that you probably always wanted to go the way the bus was going, that you always wanted to see around that corner you’ve never been around before. Good new wave flavoured spiky post punk pop songs that kind of go off and things in the right kind of way.
THE ORGAN 