The Pistil Cosmos- A Long Figure in a Dreamlike Place CDr

Slow, ephemeral saturation. High-pitched sonics over a pulsating void, tinnitus in space. It’s like discovering alien ancestors, and now that you’ve met them, you recognize them from the deepest aching parts of your spiritual DNA; your distant past and theirs, your hopeful future; how did you ever survive without this knowledge? (Read the full review.) (Purchase.)

Gay Africa- Pizzaze! CDr

…an awesome twenty minutes of acid psychedelia full of ragas, trumpet, flute, guitar, manic percussion and distant sounds of the zoned-out crowd… As summer sets in I feel this little CD becoming a regular spin. (Read the full review.) (Purchase.)

New distro junk from Stunned, all sold out from the source. Don’t sleep on it! Especially the Essential Elements 2xCS!

Bjerga / Iversen- Magnetic Colours of the Electric Rainbow CDr
Rambutan- Broken Infinity CDr
Black Eagle Child- Seeds That Sprout In Summer c50
ALTAR EAGLE / Pillars of Heaven / Caligine / High Wolf- Essential Elements c35 + c52
Vakhchav- In Embers CDr
Silver Bullets- Free Radical c48

CHECK THE DISTRO

[NOTE: Transferring the one significant post from the Total Vibration blog that (surprise!) I abandoned. (Too many projects, so little time.) That blog will be deleted in time. Back to regular Thor’s Rubber Hammer news next week; hopefully, with a distro update.]

I feel like I listened to more music than ever this year. Despite my intentions to scale back and invest more time with music, I’m thwarted by my day job as a music Web site producer, the nerdy impulse to collect limited edition vinyl that sells out way before anyone gets to actually hear it and the amount of demos and whatnot received for Thor’s Rubber Hammer. I’m not complaining… I feel like the little of what I did spend more than a couple hours with were all very good. In any case, here’s the best music I heard this year. [Read more →]

Chris Schlarb is an insanely busy dude. When he’s not melting faces with I Heart Lung or composing soundtracks to video games, he’s apparently trying his hand at documentary film making. And he needs your help! Click below to see what it’s all about, and while you’re at it, check out I Heart Lung contribution to the Ecstatic Jazz Duos LP series, maybe?

The latest reviews from Vital Weekly #680.

I Heart Lung / DWMTG- Ecstatic Jazz Duos LP

[On DWMTG] Nervous playing, small, quick movements make some delicious music.

Bright Duplex- Strawberry Trust CDr

At times chaotic and dense and then beautifully sparse, such as in ‘The Lady Is Waiting’. Lots of scraping, bowing, blowing, plucking and some nice drones lurking underneath. A fine work, which reminded me of some of the more adventurous players on this scene from New Zealand.

The Pistil Cosmos- A Long Figure in a Dreamlike Place CDr

Caylet surely knows how to create a nice set of disturbing ambient noise.

Ever since Blastitude’s Larry Dolman started tweeting (seriously, follow him), we’ve been getting 140-character bursts of his daily listening. Thusly, he’s the first to review the new I Heart Lung/DWMTG LP.

I HEART LUNG b/w DWMTG: Ecstatic Jazz Duos LP (THOR’S RUBBER HAMMER) IHL=gtr/drums prog vibes, DWMTG=bass/drums low-key insectoid burrowing

He also gave a little shout-out to the first in series.

TALIBAM! b/w WASTELAND JAZZ UNIT: Ecstatic Jazz Duos LP (THOR’S RUBBER HAMMER) Talibam’s tantrum-clatter sounds not-ecstatic; WJU=scorching

You can pick up the Ecstatic Jazz Duos LPs here.

The latest batch from Stunned is the label’s absolute best, yet… and there hasn’t been a bad Stunned… ever. In fact, we’re pretty sure “bad Stunned release” is an oxymoron. All of them are great, but the M. Geddes Gengras c44 hasn’t left the cassette deck — don’t miss out because these are all sold out at the source. (Oh, and Thor’s Rubber Hammer will be putting out the third part in throuRoof’s Sacred Alchemy of Art series sometime this summer.)

Stunned Records

M. Geddes Gengras- Smoke Blower c44
Nodolby- c32
Sean McCann- Frame of Mind c38
Kabyzdoh Obtruhamchi- Estcho 2xCDr
throuRoof- Through the Book of Lambspring 3″ CDr

And don’t miss this surprising ambient/drone CD from M. Kourie, who used to play in the arty metal-core band Creation is Crucifixion.

Chrome Peeler

M. Kourie- The Dreams Of… CD

CHECK OUT THE DISTRO

Apologies for the crazy state of the store/distro. We’re currently looking into a different e-commerce software (along with a possible site re-design). Right now, you’ll currently find all the newest items at the bottoms of their respective pages.

I Heart Lung “Axes Only”

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DWMTG “Untitled, No. 9″

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When the Ecstatic Jazz Duos LP series was first conceived in late 2007, I Heart Lung was the absolute first duo that came to mind. Both musicians are solid in their own right with projects that further their crafts — Chris Schlarb (guitar, electronics) writes video game soundtracks and performs live interpretations of his stunning solo effort, Twilight & Ghost Stories, with some of the most talented improvisers in the country, and Tom Steck (drums) is an accomplished painter. Last year, I Heart Lung released the critically-acclaimed Interoceans on Asthmatic Kitty (vinyl forthcoming on Thor’s Rubber Hammer), a meditative rumble based on lush drones and rounded out with contributions from guitarist Nels Cline, trumpeter Kris Tiner, pedal steel guitarist Dave Easley and many others. By comparison, I Heart Lung’s contributions to the Ecstatic Jazz Duos series sound downright stripped down. These are three symphonies for riots, swords drawn at the hall of the mountain king with the spirits of Yes and Sonny Sharrock leading the way.

Named Thurston Moore’s favorite bass/drums duo a few years back, DWMTG is the collaboration between percussionist Dale W. Miller and electric bassist Tony Gordon. The two met in a studio and before long Gordon was giving the young indie-pop drummer free-improv lessons. DWMTG’s side features ten miniatures that scramble through the quieter side of improv. The percussion is fiercely restrained — Miller mostly focuses on one thing at a time, be it a cymbal, an electric toothbruth, even a rubber ducky. Gordon is intensely intimate with his instrument — scratching and splintering his bass with a tension that at times gives the illusion of multiple dubs.

Artwork and series design by Cristopher Cichocki.

This is the second installment in the Ecstatic Jazz Duos LP series.
Previously: Talibam! / Wasteland Jazz Unit
Next: Valerio Cosi & Enzo Franchini / Jeremiah Cymerman & Matthew Welch

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Vanessa Rossetto first knocked us out with a trio of CDrs on her own Music Appreciation label. Her violin/viola improvisations and compositions saw through drones in the way Tony Conrad conjures multiple waves of sound just from one instrument. And when accompanied by electronics, Rossetto uses feedback as a terrifying weapon. Her duo with fellow Austinite Matthew Armistead (drums, percussion, clarinet) is an exercise in taut communication. Bright Duplex delights in little percussion clatters, hiccuping gongs, snares rubbed raw, wild reed melodies and strings bowed hard against the wood. When the duo reaches a climactic paramount, the drones thunder from temples like Taj Mahal Travellers. Pro-printed CDr comes in a mylar sleeve with artwork by Matthew Armistead printed on heavy cardstock and a vellum wrap-around. Edition of 100.

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With releases on Blackest Rainbow, Peasant Magik, Stunned and others, Vincent Caylet sculpts shamanistic psychedelic-drones. He records with the acid-folk-drone duo Monks of the Balhill and solo as “V,” but under this concurrent solo project, the Frenchman reflects a roughly hewn ambience as The Pistil Cosmos. The six untitled tracks that make up A Long Figure in a Dreamlike Place do just that: It’s a vision of a spindly creature on a hill, walking into the fog. Screeching feedback permeates with harsh beauty, raindrop loops develop like flowers blooming and wilting all at once, synths worship at a hidden sun, and Caylet emits wordless chants, summoning more clouds. Pro-printed CDr comes in a mylar sleeve with an all-vellum insert. Edition of 100.