Recorded at the Church Of The Immaculate Conception in Budapest, this suite of pieces fuses circular breathing techniques, intense rhythmic attack and percussive textures into a whole that flickers across light and dark as if watching a projector film of seabirds at play.
album review
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...hiccuping hypnotics and slivering interchange shot through with darkened instabilities. A heady otherness The Stargazer’s Assistant have been worshipping from the get-go, imbued with ghostly burrs and vocalising vapour, spidering into a noisy abstractive rub.
lulling you into calmer waters after the frantic pace of the preceding tracks. Once again Let Spin show how much life there is in this post-jazz world, twisting the vaguely familiar into new and compelling shapes.
Between them they bring a wealth of experience in the free improv scene, but the first effort for this line-up is a forty-six minute journey through relationships that go beyond the professional and somehow manifest into something magical.
These pieces are meant for immersive listening rather than dancing; Saggar calls them prayers, tying their purpose into the meaning of "bhajan", the Sanskrit term for a devotional song. More spiritual practice than entertainment, it’s only right that the album is listened to and judged as such.
...an album that sees the light after thirty years and not before time, Kenny perhaps at the peak of his later and smoother era, playing with friends and concocting a session that is well remembered by all those involved.
Everything about this nineteen-minute selection is indeed just a joy — from the neat inviting 10” vinyl presentation right down to the deep hooks embedded in its actual grooves.
...like other ‘noise’ rock bands but also strangely unlike most of them in that, even at this early stage, it felt like every note was deliberate. If it sounded like an unGodly accident then that was exactly how it was supposed to sound. These freaks could play; there might even be some kind of score.
Whilst the somewhat murky mix and generally unhurried pacing dissuade instant gratification, the slow burn approach of Eternity Bores Me will reward those already in thrall to the consistently reliable micro-scene from which it comfortingly emanates.
It is this evocation of distance and stretching of time that Sol.Hz manages so well, pushing us out of a recognisable orbit; yet it engages and moves in equal measure.
As on 2023's Weejuns, six tracks are collated, but here things are a little more succinct although wildly diverse in approach and once again the three draw elusive patterns from one another.
It is a really human sound that they produce and an explosion of voices just adds to the joy. The flute is ragged and out of breath, as if being chased and is wildly skipping and scattering. The sax is more predatory, consuming the flute and turning the atmosphere; while the ascending organ and battering drums give an almost physical sense of being lifted.
...a pure delight and so wide-ranging, with Martin’s ability at arranging as well as writing for choir and group proven to be a natural progression; but with such adept musical assistance as given by the group, it fits like a hand in a glove.
I might be the only person that thinks the self-titled Smiths album is better than Hatful Of Hollow. I love that first LP.
...this recent 4AD culmination of their four Peel Sessions gives you an excellent band primer. The first four tracks airing months before their debut LP Fetisch was even released, barbed and gritty statements that thistle with a refreshing ferocity that guaranteed plenty of further investigation.
...breathes new life in to fifty-year-old material that, even if the three original members were performing it today, they would no doubt change and explore new ways of playing the tracks rather than keep them as museum pieces, and improvisation and expansion was always one of the most important parts of Tangerine Dream.
...an album of languorous drifting beauty that follows the folds of rivers and the pale glint of sunlight on sleepy backwaters in a series of ten surprisingly diverse and meditative musical mantras.
There's a bit of a cultish collectorism about a lot of Japanese psych (certainly the record prices bear that out) but, annoyingly, the records are often outstanding.