Our regular round up of singles, tracks and miscellaneous oddities features the following mixed bag of trick noise makers: Fractions, Opal Oynx, The Green Seed, Olde Worlde, Papernut Cambridge, Kormac, The Garden, Black Strobe and Fofoulah.
Opal Onyx ‘Black & Crimson’ (Tin Angel Records) Taken from their debut LP, Delta Sands, released 25th August 2014.
Lurking in a basement somewhere in Bushwick, Brooklyn, the ominous bewitching Opal Onyx duo have conjured up a musical murky dense – thicker than milk – fog, from which dusty old chopped up record soundscapes serve as a constantly vaporous thread for the most esoteric of female vocals.
Constantly churning in a gracefully tripped-out Portishead-esque manner, ‘Black & Crimson’, amorphously slips in and out of consciousness in a hallucinatory cycle of languid indulgence and horror.
If that drags you under the ebbing tide, then you can find more ‘fragile’ experimental sampled, cello and guitar multilayered dream/nightmare states on their upcoming debut LP, Delta Sands.
Papernut Cambridge ‘The Ghost Of Something Small’ (Gare Du Nord) Taken from the There’s No Underground LP, released 13th October 2014.
Already attracting our ear with his recent spilt single back in May – sharing the billing with the similarly kaleidoscope viewed bedfellow Picturebox – former Death In Vegas guitarist Ian Button returns with another album as the quintessential English garden psych outfit, Papernut Cambridge. Revealing a glimpse into the follow up to last years Ogden era Small Faces alluding Cambridge Nutflake, our exclusive(ish) teaser ‘The Ghost Of Something Small’ is a cracking example of what you can expect to find on his October released songbook, There’s No Underground: perfectly encapsulated power-pop nuggets, from the edge of London town; literally at the end of the tube line. With a bit of Cockney Rebel here, some Edison Lighthouse there and still sounding like The Las tearing the free Circus Days compilations and 7” records of the front of the Strange Days magazine, Button’s oscillating arches and bending illuminating sounds create a haunted, tambourine shimmering, foot-stomping lament to the broody inner thoughts.
Despite moonlighting as a producer for Darren Hayman (who also appears on this album; a regular contributor to the Button cause) and Go Kart Mozart, and drumming for Wreckless Eric, Button’s own band could be hardly considered a side project. Recorded back in the spring, There’s No Underground features the collaborative talents of Robert Rotifer, Robert Halcrow (from Gard Du Nord label mates Picturebox), Ralegh Long, ex-Hefner pedal steel guru (apparently!) Jack Hayter, Button’s former Death In Vegas band mate Mat Flint, three quarters of the Mary Epworth band and Ruari Meehan (son of producer and Shadows drummer, Tony, and were informed, formerly of Belakiss).
The upcoming album is itself a paean of sorts to Button’s spiritual home in the outskirts of London – as Button himself puts it, ‘where the postcodes turn Kentish and the M25 lurks behind the next row of hills, almost within earshot’ -, a statement on the areas outside the epicentre, left out of the bubble but more and more where most of us have to live as we’re priced out. Promising a certain estuary angst and melting pot of influences, as obscure as The Rotary Connection and familiar as Ray Davis, There’s No Underground is set to be an odds on garage-rocking Stiff Records power pill popping triumph from a middle aged mind of experience.
Olde Worlde ‘Stuck In Hibernation’ (Groundhog Records) Taken from the forthcoming The Blue Musk-Oxen LP, released 1st September 2014.
Honed on the power pop and indie rock drifting from the American Forces Radio, Japanese multi-instrumentalist Sohhei Numata embraced the jangly and angulated hooks and melodies emanating from across the Pacific and merged them with his own native kooky jauntiness. Adopting the Olde Worlde moniker, Numata has set out to craft some light but just so, awkward indie pop on his September scheduled album, The Blue Musk-Oxen.
As a precursor, a tempting morsel if you will, the Nirvana on their uppers, Elastica and Subcircus bent ‘Stuck In Hibernation’ is a cleverly composed charming mix of Britpop and friendly grunge. Adding weight and experience to the Tokyo – drummer/bass-player/singer/piano/Guitarist/Moog and not forgetting ukulele playing – polymath’s LP, the American producer Brad Wood, whose whooping roll call of credits include The Smashing Pumpkins, Tortise, Placebo and Ben Wood, sits in the driving seat, transforming Numata’s ditties into sun-lit crafted nuggets.
Fractions ‘Breathe’ (Edlis Records) Taken from the forthcoming Fractions EP, released 8th September 2014.
Searching for more ethereal plateaus and crossing over into sophisticated electronic pop, both current and ex members of the north east England hardcore rabble Lavotchkin, have surprisingly taken to their dramatic musical style change with adroit aplomb.
Cradled with a certain Twin Peaks lilting sadness and classy sweet but achingly pained female vocal, the leading track from their upcoming self-titled debut EP (released in September) ‘Breathe’, is a sizzling magnetic-charged synth lament, so slick it hurts and with a melody that just won’t quit: fading out a number of times and then appearing once more from the ether like a rousing banner for the pure of heart.
The rest f the EP is similarly oozing with slick neon lit charm and tubular shaped synthesised patterns. They sound like CHVRCHES covering The Horrors covering A Flock Of Seagulls. And that is a compliment. Promising, very promising indeed.
The Green Seed ‘Jude Law’ (Communicating Vessels) Taken from the Drapetomania LP, released 15th July 2014.
We use the ‘conscious’ word as a compliment I gather, but it shows just how fucked-up Hip Hop has become, that anything with a message or considered articulate enough must get its own sub-genre. Hell, what happened to the golden era, where clever, experimental, political and street level philosophical epistles were rife, even dominant for a good many years? Forgive the gripe, but groups like our featured The Green Seed here, hailing from the deep south of Alabama, shouldn’t need the tag. View it as just a damn fine 70s jazz funking show tune trumpeting, Wu-Tang meets Jurassic 5, fronted by Daddy-O, lost Lex Records maverick.
Hardly an ode to the one-time leading English actor, ‘Jude Law’, their latest track and accompanying video, uses the title as a bounce and rub, as they spit a mix of kung-fu-action-B-movie-flick lyrical dexterous brinkmanship and goading; taking a few broadside swipes at the current scene’s litany of pranksters and commercial darlings.
Adding balance to the force, The Green Seed craft a mean and sophisticated update of the much beloved golden age of the late 80s and early 90s.
Kormac feat. Bajka ‘Wake Up’ (Bodytonic Records) Taken from the Doorsteps LP, released 20th October 2014.
https://soundcloud.com/bodytonicmusic/kormac-featbajka-wake-up
Dublin-based dust junky and crate digger Kormac has made the leap from sampling a wealth of obscure, archaic and odd finds to producing original beats on his upcoming opus, Doorsteps.
Fashioning material from some surprising sources and featuring not just guest musicians but a particular Scottish author of repute too, Kormac with his portable recording studio set up visited the homes of Irvine Walsh, Micah P. Hinson, Speech Debelle, Vyvienne Long and a host of rappers, soloists and even opera singers to compose an ambitious cinematic, trip hop extravaganza.
Taken from that album, ‘Wake Up’ features Bonobo vocalist and spoken-word artist Bajka, who, in a Beth Gibbons coquettish style, swoons over a moody soulful hotbed of gramophone crackling 70s horns and steady urban breakbeats.
There’s much more where that came from in October, so keep those ears peeled, as we’re bound to review it in the future.
Check below for full track listing details.
Track Listing:
1. Wake Up (ft. Bajka)
2. Superhero (ft. MC Little Tree)
3. White Noise (ft. Speech Debelle)
4. Reprise
5. Another Screen (ft Irvine Welsh)
6. Drown Me (ft Vyvienne Long)
7. Cloning (ft Koaste)
8. Everything Around Me
9. Connect
10. Get Up, Go Away (ft. Micah P Hinson)
Time Bankrupt selection:
Before I bemoan our plight, it’s a good sign and proves we’re reaching more and more people all the time, but our inbox and delivery of new releases is reaching a hyperbolic state of exhaustion – though that doesn’t mean stop sending in and isn’t meant as a gentle fuck off to bands/artists/labels/promoters; by all means keep on keeping on. With all that in mind, here are just a few tracks that also tickled our fancy but we just haven’t had time to dig deeper on.
The Garden ‘Cloak’ – Ahead of their European tour, a brand new track.
Black Strobe ‘Folsom Prison Blues (Precise Master)’ (Blackstrobe Records) – Taken from the upcoming, and future Monolith Cocktail review, Godforsaken Roads, released October 2014.
Fofoulah ‘Make Good’ (Glitterbeat Records) – Taken from the upcoming Fofolah LP, another future review on the Monolith Cocktail. Released 19th September 2014.
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