One of the valuable results of the recent embrace of psychedelic culture in independent music is the residual focus on 1980s and 1990s trends in psychedelic music. Behind the outbreak of punk and alternative recording and songwriting trends in those decades, psychedelic influences were played down somewhat; perhaps they were hiding in plain sight at the time, but the development of heavier aesthetics in recording and songwriting kept whimsical, wet, and repetitive sounds to a minimum. Those sources of psychedelic sounds in the 1980s and 1990s are receiving their due during the last few years, providing listeners with a library of sounds to dive into, in order that listeners might understand the skeleton of contemporary psychedelic music somewhat better.
***
I have absolutely no idea how I missed White Noise Sound when their debut record was released in the United States last September, but I am making up for that now by wearing down the wax of their United Kingdom release in 2011. Hailing from the U.K. themselves, this group combines heavy and driving sounds from the Jesus and Mary Chain revival with symphonic or progressive elements from Echo and the Bunnymen (at their most symphonic). That heavy revivalist sound results in exceptional industrial distortion tones, completely distinct from the usual germanium fuzz attacks of psychedelic acts. Resulting from this sound, along with heavy dancey beats is a group attack that is not unlike the Welcome to the Monkey House Dandy Warhols, with the teeth of A Place to Bury Strangers.
On each side, the band starts with a fast and heavy rocker, retreating to introspective songs immediately thereafter. Here the listener has the privilege of diverse instrumentation that is executed in a sufficiently dark and reflective manner; from here the songs meander to their eventual conclusion, and the album itself is completed with one of the best symphonic psychedelic passages of recent years. Not unlike the swells that accompany Darker My Love's "All the Hurry and Wait" suite on their second album, White Noise Sound execute their symphonic passages with more dissonance and less logical conclusions, allowing for heavily emotional involvement in the closing moments.
This is obviously a record that I love because I enjoy the repetition of the Jesus and Mary Chain's fuzz cycles, and their logical conclusion in The Raveonettes and A Place to Bury Strangers, and I have a soft spot for bombastic progressive psychedelic sounds to boot. Needless to say, this disc executes progressive sounds with a succinct vision, and even though I feel like this disc could be twice as long, I appreciate that it is a release that leaves me wanting more. Overall, this is one of the best contemporary releases I have heard that includes psychedelic and progressive elements.
***
Not too long ago, I sent PayPal to a nice man in Belgium who happens to run a cassette label. Yesterday I received my copy of Great Society Mind Destroyers Spirit Smoke in the mail, and was immediately driven to a land of blistering fuzztones, stomping rhythms, and ethereal vocals. Having my mind sufficiently blown the first time I watched these guys play live over a year ago, and following the progression of their live demos and Dark Fog split 7", my mind was yet unprepared for the comprehensive attack of this new cassette.
In complete contrast to the White Noise Sound review above, this release accentuates certain aspects 1990s psychedelic production (some of the moments remind me of the heaviest and most psychedelic elements of the Smashing Pumpkins when they are at their very best), but the group itself sits more firmly in the traditional stream of psychedelic music originating from the 1960s (especially San Francisco's acid rock). This traditional slant includes organization of events that promote psychedelic culture in Chicago, promote independent psychedelic bands in the city, and also embraces the spiritual possibilities latent in psychedelia (not unlike The Pyschedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators).
When Great Society Mind Destroyers are at their best, they remind me of the complex instrumental arrangements of the original Big Brother and the Holding Company, and the disgusting, saturated tones of that classic acid blues (think "Ball and Chain"). Riffs are at the center of most songs on this release, rather than repetitive, meandering passages, and the execution of these hooks is perfect, bathed in effects, with varied rhythmic approaches from the bass and drums. Typically, the rhythmic section drives the songs in a rather subtle manner, clearing the way for the up-front guitar sound and dreamlike vocal sound. At various points the songs are raving-up or completely controlled, providing the release with diverse sounds and approaches.
One of my favorite things about psychedelic music is the basic template that allows groups to work within familiar conventions while presenting their own unique vision and their own attempt at providing spaces for the mind to reflect and explore. In this regard, Great Society Mind Destroyers pay homage to tradition while commenting on it with relentless, saturated passages.
Even if you're not into psychedelic tomes, this tape straight up rocks. Part of me wondered how this new release would relate to the development of the Chicago sound, and the group turned in a striking statement.
Showing posts with label Chicago Experimental Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chicago Experimental Music. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Sunday, February 28, 2010
'Spective Audio Release Day!
Hey y'all,
The cassettes are ready! I should have an update on the arrangement with Reckless Records tomorrow, from what they've told me in the past, we shouldn't have any issue with getting the tapes into all three stores, but I need to speak with them all individually.
If you would like to arrange an order, please email spectiveaudio (at) gmail.com. Cassettes will be $6 USA, $7 Canada, $10 international.
The Cinchel releases, including handmade art by Cinchel himself, are going quickly. Get one while we have 'em!
The cassettes are ready! I should have an update on the arrangement with Reckless Records tomorrow, from what they've told me in the past, we shouldn't have any issue with getting the tapes into all three stores, but I need to speak with them all individually.
If you would like to arrange an order, please email spectiveaudio (at) gmail.com. Cassettes will be $6 USA, $7 Canada, $10 international.
The Cinchel releases, including handmade art by Cinchel himself, are going quickly. Get one while we have 'em!
Friday, January 29, 2010
Miracle Condition
I was home sick one fateful day, towards the end of 2009, and my credit card and myself embarked on a spiritual journey. After hearing from my close friend / bandmate / spiritual adviser that Chicago rockers U.S. Maple purportedly met at Grand and Western (merely blocks away from our own rehearsal space), I decided that I needed to introduce my eardrums to our chronologically-distant-yet-geographically-near forefather of Chicago rock.
After hours of Amazon searching, weeks of lost packages, and one fateful encounter at Permanent Records, I had 4/5 of the U.S. Maple catalog in my possession (I suppose it'd sound much cooler if I landed an amazing mint copy of their out of print sophomore release from someone who didn't know what they were selling, but unfortunately, everyone knows what they are selling). Each listen destroyed my comfortable disposition towards punk, the relationship between punk and songwriting convention, and challenged my pop sensibilities -- rather, my experimental pop sensibilities.
If you read some online biographies of the band, the term everyone seems to throw around is, U.S. Maple "deconstructed" rock'n'roll. I don't think people know just how significant that phrase is, or, how apt a description it provides for U.S. Maple's music. A deconstruction, in so many words, suggests that someone tears down some convention, dismantling it piece-by-piece, and then placing new elements in the place of those old conventions that somehow create something that looks vaguely familiar, yet challenges the old guard in a very meaningful or important way. (I suppose "meaningful" isn't the best word there, because of course a deconstruction makes some statement about meaning, given that one often sets out to challenge the course of meaning, or challenge an interpretation of meaning when one deconstructs a cultural phenomenon, which in itself is a theory of meaning or statement of meaning. Even a negation or nihilism require some semblance or structure of meaning to foil. But I definitely mean important).
From every direction. The assaults converged on my senses one after another, some in completely surprising ways, others in ways that I expected but found shocking, nonetheless. I wondered what I had been doing in the 1990s; I'll never be one of those aging hipster Lit teachers that is able to brag to his class that he owned first pressings of each of the U.S. Maple records when he was an enterprising teenager. I had only gone as far as the KIDS Soundtrack by age 15, and was fully submerged in the atmospheres of Slint and the blissfully melodramatic world of Lou Barlow. But, somehow, that didn't seem important anymore; I catch the bus at Grand and Western, in different directions on different days, but invariably from the same place; after I blast my ears with my bandmates or pedal-stomping solitaire, I buy myself beer from that seemingly nameless liquor store.
Somehow I feel that the world of U.S. Maple is my own, 15 years later.
This contexts makes the release by Miracle Condition that much more meaningful to my ears, as I have traveled 15 years in the matter of months, gained immeasurable insight on crossing the terrain of the Western Express or the pop song structure, or the lead guitar line, or the true definition of "percussive guitar approach." I understand more about how vocals can be used, how far drums can move in outlining patterns and mapping a song, as well as the radical clean guitar tone.
Each of these elements are advanced in Miracle Condition, not as a continuation of U.S. Maple, not as a clone, or a dismissal, or an interpretation of U.S. Maple, but as something strangely familiar that is nevertheless constructed out of different, new elements. Through time the band traveled, perhaps away from that fateful geographical locale, and it shouldn't be surprising that the sounds of Miracle Condition offer more space, more breathing, more reflection.
With the old catalog fresh in mind, it reminds me of the feeling of recalling an aged memory through the guise of a completely different disposition in life, recalling a memory from a completely different situation, reliving an experience in a completely different position. Finding an intersection on the map in the context of the entire city, and experiencing the immediate and limited view from the ground; meaning is bounded by both, perspective guides the senses in different directions in each situation.
Really, Miracle Condition preempted me. I was planning to write a retrospective on Long Hair in Three Stages, asking one of those grand questions, such as, "Has Independent Music Progressed Since U.S. Maple?" Instead, I get to write about Miracle Condition, and now I am thrilled that I do not need to simply purchase their back catalog and explore their old geographical locale; this time, I get to be right there with them.
After hours of Amazon searching, weeks of lost packages, and one fateful encounter at Permanent Records, I had 4/5 of the U.S. Maple catalog in my possession (I suppose it'd sound much cooler if I landed an amazing mint copy of their out of print sophomore release from someone who didn't know what they were selling, but unfortunately, everyone knows what they are selling). Each listen destroyed my comfortable disposition towards punk, the relationship between punk and songwriting convention, and challenged my pop sensibilities -- rather, my experimental pop sensibilities.
If you read some online biographies of the band, the term everyone seems to throw around is, U.S. Maple "deconstructed" rock'n'roll. I don't think people know just how significant that phrase is, or, how apt a description it provides for U.S. Maple's music. A deconstruction, in so many words, suggests that someone tears down some convention, dismantling it piece-by-piece, and then placing new elements in the place of those old conventions that somehow create something that looks vaguely familiar, yet challenges the old guard in a very meaningful or important way. (I suppose "meaningful" isn't the best word there, because of course a deconstruction makes some statement about meaning, given that one often sets out to challenge the course of meaning, or challenge an interpretation of meaning when one deconstructs a cultural phenomenon, which in itself is a theory of meaning or statement of meaning. Even a negation or nihilism require some semblance or structure of meaning to foil. But I definitely mean important).
From every direction. The assaults converged on my senses one after another, some in completely surprising ways, others in ways that I expected but found shocking, nonetheless. I wondered what I had been doing in the 1990s; I'll never be one of those aging hipster Lit teachers that is able to brag to his class that he owned first pressings of each of the U.S. Maple records when he was an enterprising teenager. I had only gone as far as the KIDS Soundtrack by age 15, and was fully submerged in the atmospheres of Slint and the blissfully melodramatic world of Lou Barlow. But, somehow, that didn't seem important anymore; I catch the bus at Grand and Western, in different directions on different days, but invariably from the same place; after I blast my ears with my bandmates or pedal-stomping solitaire, I buy myself beer from that seemingly nameless liquor store.
Somehow I feel that the world of U.S. Maple is my own, 15 years later.
This contexts makes the release by Miracle Condition that much more meaningful to my ears, as I have traveled 15 years in the matter of months, gained immeasurable insight on crossing the terrain of the Western Express or the pop song structure, or the lead guitar line, or the true definition of "percussive guitar approach." I understand more about how vocals can be used, how far drums can move in outlining patterns and mapping a song, as well as the radical clean guitar tone.
Each of these elements are advanced in Miracle Condition, not as a continuation of U.S. Maple, not as a clone, or a dismissal, or an interpretation of U.S. Maple, but as something strangely familiar that is nevertheless constructed out of different, new elements. Through time the band traveled, perhaps away from that fateful geographical locale, and it shouldn't be surprising that the sounds of Miracle Condition offer more space, more breathing, more reflection.
With the old catalog fresh in mind, it reminds me of the feeling of recalling an aged memory through the guise of a completely different disposition in life, recalling a memory from a completely different situation, reliving an experience in a completely different position. Finding an intersection on the map in the context of the entire city, and experiencing the immediate and limited view from the ground; meaning is bounded by both, perspective guides the senses in different directions in each situation.
Really, Miracle Condition preempted me. I was planning to write a retrospective on Long Hair in Three Stages, asking one of those grand questions, such as, "Has Independent Music Progressed Since U.S. Maple?" Instead, I get to write about Miracle Condition, and now I am thrilled that I do not need to simply purchase their back catalog and explore their old geographical locale; this time, I get to be right there with them.
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