blues control - local flavor – siltbreeze - lp – 14$
***A few years back, former Quiet Sun / Roxy Music / 801 behind-the-scenes mastermind Gill Manzanera-- no relation to guitarist Phil Manzanera (whose real name is Philip Targett-Adams)--offered up a beguiling reminiscence of those heady days to the Swiss fanzine Sombre Reptiles:
"What we were trying to do, you see, was harness the future into the present. However, we were severely at odds with technology, a ring modulator on a Fender Rhodes and a bit of funny business through an analog synth being about as far as one could go then. The work with Quiet Sun was the foundation, then later Phil and Eno built upon that within Roxy and if only Ferry had acquiesced to Brian having a go at 'Bogus Man,' I think the results would have been stunning (as well as longer-lasting). But alas, so then for 801, the decision was to incorporate the progressive and avant garde through a chamber of fusion (so to speak), the results of which are undeniable. Mind you, this was all during the burgeoning punk era, so it took a bit of time for some to settle in with what was happening. But isn't that the future, really; someone has to be the first out the door to know if the rest of us will need a jumper or not. It was all quite brilliant in that way, absolutely so, I should think."
Hmm, well, that all sounds... quite English. Oddly enough, that sliver of quinine-sotted nostalgia could be used as a swab of historical DNA pap to describe the fantastic newest shimmer from Blues Control. While past releases have been beauteous extrapolations into the miasmic core of psychedelia and billowing fog of ambient space, Local Flavor is the one where all the chickens have come home to roost.
The opening track "Good Morning" is practically a sideways step into boogie rock (horn accompaniment provided by none other than Jesse Trbovich and Kurt Vile); with the proper seismic shift, it could almost be heard as an alternate reality take on "Re-make/Re-model." It's easily the band's longest stomp in the forest of rock since their debut cassette, and, man, them boots leave a bruise!
The remaining three tracks morph and ebb harmoniously-- in true Blues Control fashion-- the timbre occasionally elegiac, yet more often riffing on a plane that has yet to be transcribed. Local Flavor is 801 plus an extra one (8101, if you will), providing an unimaginable future that will take your breath away. So make sure you've paid your oxygen bill, because there are no free rides in the 82nd Century.
tyvek - s/t – siltbreeze - lp – 12$
***Following a gaggle of seven-inches for goose-y labels such as X!, What's Your Rupture?, S-S, and M'Lady's Records, Tyvek delivers a long-player that couldn't make Siltbreeze happier were the colonel slathered in foie gras and seared to a crisp.
A few tracks on this effort are familiar to any who saw the band live in 2008; the rest, well, it's as fresh as new fallen snow when you get right down to it. Combining an uncanny channeling of The Urinals and early Mekons, Tyvek drops jaws to floors with solid acorns of repetitive punk/pop numbers that became oaks almost instantaneously. The inclusion of Damon (a.k.a. Teets of Puffy Areolas) brings in another sonic dimension and suddenly the band's set veers into a Velvet Underground-by-way-of-The Feelies stratosphere. Here yuo'll find a mixture of both, the blend of two perfect worlds. Practically a year in the making, this baby is worth every second of the wait.
u.s. girls -introducing... – siltbreeze - lp – 14$
***If the alluring moniker used by Megan Uremovich conjures images of volleyball teams or cheerleading squads, forget it. Not that there's any doubt that Uremovich--sorry, U.S. Girls-- couldn't rise and conquer either challenge.
Like fellow DIY ingenues Sally Strobelight and Inca Ore, U.S. Girls' approach is deceptively ethereal and delightfully haunting; lithe, lysergic gamma rays of keyboard murk beamed over percussive bonk sort of resemble Diamanda Galas reinterpreting Suicide's Red Star. And dig that cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Prove It All Night," done in such an effortless, barbital lush you'd swear the air was filled with mescaline. Guess what? It's not.
sapat - mortise and tenon – siltbreeze - lp – 14$
...for this self-titled full-length release, Sapat has opted for a different, more organic sonic waft. Acoustically packed to the gills, the octet effortlessly strums and blows breezy vibes, emitting kosmisch melodies and Teutonic ambience that channel -- Julian Cope-like -- past giants such as Limbus 4, Siloah and Lord Krishna Von Goloka (you know, the A-team of Krautrock). Once you launch into the group's spacey and entrancing, yet calming and soothing asteroid belt, you might mistake the Ozarks for the Alps if you're not careful. And who could blame you? You're way up there and the air's thin; hallucinating's a must.
- siltbreeze
ex-cocaine - esta guerra - siltbreeze - lp - 14$ sold out
alasehir - philosophy of living fire – siltbreeze - lp –14$ sold out
Alasehir is the trio of Michael Gibbons, John Gibbons, and Jason Kourkounis, otherwise known as three-fifths of Bardo Pond. Their third release, following a CD apiece for the Important and aRCHIVE labels, Philosophy of Living Fire continues their sonic exploration of dense, languorous, free expansion.
Billowing and exploding like a cluster of hashish stars, the three instrumental tracks produce a cosmic energy akin to a quasar in the heavens far left of Coltrane's OM and just right of the galaxy known as Dead C's Harsh '70s Reality. Released in a one-time edition of 1000 LPs, this is the rocket ride into the outer stratum at which their previous CDs only hinted. So climb aboard and let Alasehir's Philosophy Of Living Fire be your 2007: A Space Odyssey.
- siltbreeze