Velvet Elvis - Favorite Horses (Cae-sur-a, 2012)

Velvet Elvis – Favorite Horses
Cae-sur-a 2012

Velvet Elvis consists of Brandon Henahan on guitar, Luke Crozier on bass and vocals, Randall Coon on guitar and vocals, Karrah Teague on vocals, keyboards, and percussion, and Ryan T-bo on drums. "Solid Gold" features some heavy stoner rock song structures that we were introduced to a few posts back with their No Rules In the Wasteland tape. In comparison, I would say that this first track is a bit more on the lighter side because the guitars aren’t so sludgy and the pace is a little more upbeat. However, they are still busting out the blues guitar solos so no letdown there. "Mystical Creature" opens with some signature, low, distorted guitar or bass. A bluesy guitar riff or melody repeats creating quite a hypnotic and psychedelic aesthetic. Some pretty demonic vocals chime in screaming, “Well oh yeah!!!” The rest of lyrics are sung in a rather beautiful, bluesy, stoner rock kind of way. The pairing of male/female vocals singing in a call and response style and also in unison really highlight the track. "Space Cadet" features another slow, heavy jam filled with more bluesy crooning and guitar solos. "Coke Smoker" picks up the pace a bit in one jam getting pretty psyched out I feel like I’m riding out into the cosmos. "Nobody’s Fool" is the most uncharacteristic song on the tape. It consists of an acoustic guitar strumming in a kind of gentle, old, country folk style. The vocals enter in male/female duo fashion singing harmonies, and call and response. They also have this country style inflection in their singing voices, sounding somewhat different than that blues aesthetic heard earlier. Quite a beautiful and heartfelt way to end the tape.



Cassette for purchase: http://www.cae-sur-a.com/006-velvet-elvis-favorite-horses/

Mold Omen - Blacktop (Cae-sur-a, 2011)

Mold Omen – Blacktop
Cae-sur-a 2011

Mold Omen is a Baltimore based duo comprising of Mike Pursley and Andy Livingston. "The Driver/The Mechanic" begins with some electronic synth pulses and minimalist rhythms and a low feedbacking, bass drone with it. The pulses are distorted and become progressively more indecipherable and hard to hear as more lo-fi electronic wash overtakes it. Cae-sur-a aptly describes it as a “battle between a heavy, droning maelstrom of noise and the electro-melodies desperately trying to free themselves.” The foreground/background relationship between the rhythm and the drone is constantly shifting throughout the piece, creating a beautiful kind of sonic tension. As a result, what I think happens is a meshing of the two, producing a dynamic, textural, electronic noisescape. All the sounds are essentially made of distorted wash, yet there are different varieties, different frequencies that enter the mix. Side B begins mildly with a few texturally different, droning noises. The sounds don’t seem particularly electronic, but they sound like they could be coming from a warehouse or a factory. Another words, the source of these sounds is difficult to place, and I say a job well done. One piece on Side B is a bit softer than Side A, with a slow, electronic beat and some high-pitched, whirling synth noise. The aesthetic theme of this whole tape (and especially Side B) makes me feel like I’m listening to some old 20th century musique concrete and that these electronic textures were sampled or are found sound, because they have such an aged quality. Though that’s probably not the case if I were to venture a guess.



Cassette for purchase: http://www.cae-sur-a.com/010-mold-omen-blacktop/

Velvet Elvis - No Rules In the Wasteland (Cae-sur-a, 2012)

Velvet Elvis – No Rules In the Wasteland
Cae-sur-a 2012

Velvet Elvis is a Rochester, NY based group consisting of guitar, bass, vocals and drums. This tape was recorded in 2011. Side A is a 15 minute long track, the title track. Things start off pretty heavy and sludgy on the guitars, but the pace in the riffs and the drums is pretty middle of the road. The recording is of a rather lo-fi quality, adding to the sludge. The guitars lighten up their sound a little as the lyrics/vocals enter. The music is quite structured in a rock mentality, i.e. chorus-verse-chorus-verse, etc. It isn’t really metal, because it isn’t that intimidating, but it definitely has the sludge and grit. I would call it sludgy psych rock. The next part of the piece goes into some really slow, heavy, stoner rock jams. The lo-fidelity, distortion, and grit coupled with the super slow pace of the song are all significant, contributing factors to making this kind of music really powerful. The riffing is quite simple technically, but with such weight and grandeur, it’s much better staying simple. The rock song structures fade out and the guitars enter some feedback-y, phased out guitar noise wash ending the piece.

"Pretty Girls In Lace" starts off wailing on the guitar, riding a bluesy, swinging, rock beat. Similar stoner rock song structure with really distorted guitars. "Stop and Think" doesn’t stray too far away stylistically from the rest of the tape. The only thing really noticeably different is that at times it is slightly more rhythmic and upbeat than the other songs. "Where’s Your Marlboro Man Now?" begins with some found sound/spoken word of a man talking about the Marlboro Man over some droning, feedback-y guitar wash (no drums), creating quite an eerie aesthetic. It’s the shortest song on the tape.



Cassette for purchase: http://www.cae-sur-a.com/ve-no-rules/

Novoe Tsarstvo - Voda Naidet Teply Dym (Cae-sur-a, 2011)

Novoe Tsartsvo – Voda Naidet Teply Dym
Cae-sur-a 2011

Novoe Tsartsvo is a fluctuating group of musicians from Russia that has also collaborated with Finnish musicians as well. On the j-card, Belorukov, Zherbin, Kretova, Aarni, Loparev, Kuts, and Afanasyev are credited. This tape documents a live recording done in Konala, Helsinki on January 2nd, 2011.

"Voda Naidet" the sounds begin with some droning acoustic vibrations, wailing. Maybe strings, maybe a saxophone. It sounds quite improvised, evident from their free form approach. The drones are high-pitched and light, yet layered, making for a very ephemeral aesthetic. What I would call the “first movement” of Side A, sounds like the group is trying to reach some sonic apex, meaning, it has a very exploratory nature. However, it is subtle and gentle and not aggressive in any way, which makes it all the more effective. This first movement then transitions beautifully into a slightly more harmonious and languid progression, filled with swooning, bowed strings weaving in and out of each other. SO beautiful!! Then, the droning strings fade out and some rhythmic percussion and free jazz saxophone enter the foreground, fluttering and squeaking away. For some reason the drums and the sax have more of a lo-fi sound to them, slightly more distorted. In general their (drums/sax) playing is also a bit more rambunctious than the rest of the music up to now, which goes nicely with the distortion. There is a nice rhythmic and improvisatory unity between the percussionist and the sax player throughout the piece.

"Teply Dym" begins with some droning strings and electronics and drums playing in a really heavy, yet slow, manner. A bit more of a dark and gloomy sound here. The drums and also the electronics are pretty lo-fi and distorted, contributing to this darker atmosphere. The drums and electronics fade out for some solo keyboard or organ chords droning and wavering. Some feedbacking ambience joins the organ, maybe originating from some delayed vocal chanting. It also sounds like there are some amplified strings, and perhaps some bowing on a cymbal. The sounds get a bit noisier and aggressive with some low, rumbling walls of electronic wash blossoming, but quickly settles down. At this point the ambience is very slow, gradual, and textural, making it pretty difficult to identify each sound.



Cassette for purchase: http://www.cae-sur-a.com/012-novoe-tsarstvo-voda-naidet-teply-dim/

Giant Claw / The Cats’ Orchestra split (Cae-sur-a, 2012)

Giant Claw / The Cats’ Orchestra split
Cae-sur-a

Split tape here featuring Giant Claw, consisting of Keith Rankin and Chris Mengerink from Ohio, and The Cats’ Orchestra, made up of Nicholay Syrov from Russia.

The A Side features Giant Claw, titled "Righteous-Injustice-Hellearth", and was recorded in 2011. Things start off with some initially crackling, rising and falling/enveloped synths droning, arpeggiating, oscillating. The arpeggiating begins to get more serious as the other noises simmer down a bit, meaning more hypnotic, psychedelic and focused. Other synth noises enter the mix in a more free-form manner, and are somewhat chaotic. Some blown out, distorted, bass synth drones enter underneath the arpeggios, which at this point have also gotten a great deal louder and distorted. The distortion and crackling become almost as loud as the arpeggiating melody, which eventually succumbs to the crackle, pop, and oscillating synth.

Side B by The Cats’ Orchestra, titled "Tail Tale", features some minimalist organ melodies and shimmering/wavering drones that sound like they are in a middle eastern mode or scale. There is also a lo-fi drum machine playing a very slow rhythm. The harmonies between the melody and the drones or washes of electronics are somewhat dissonant, and the rhythm between the melody and drum machine are bit off-kilter. The dissonance, free rhythm, and electronic washes of sound all contribute to a suspenseful and sinister aesthetic.




Cassette for purchase: http://www.cae-sur-a.com/giantclaw/

[n.] – Ein Klagelied für 3f (Cae-sur-a, 2011)

[n.] – Ein Klagelied für 3f
Cae-sur-a 2011

[n.] consists of Jennifer Marquart and this tape was recorded in Köln, Germany between 2009 and 2010. "[]" begins with some gentle, quiet, high-pitched acoustic sounding drones with a low rumbling getting progressively louder and gently blown out. The low, distorted rumbling comes in and out like waves, out of sync with the higher-pitched drones. The high-pitches are quite harmonious and beautiful, yet juxtaposed with this rumbling the musical sound as a whole is very dark and spooky. "[[]]" starts off with a quiet, indecipherable found sound recording of a man speaking in English. Underneath this voice is some electronic hisses, bubbling, and faint drones. As the recording of the man’s voice comes to a close, the music gets louder, especially these haunting, eerie drones or harmonics. The sound is quite textural and free-form, gradually shifting sounds. In "[[[]]]" the music quiets down as a very legato singing voice of a man enters, unsure of the language (doesn’t sound English). Underneath this there is a woman whispering, also in a foreign language, or maybe neither of them are singing in a language at all. Hard to tell. With these voices there is also some walls of rumbling noise in the mix and some quiet high pitched, light drones. The sounds slowly fade in and out, creating a nice overlapping effect. "[[[[]]]]" features some loud, oscillating and droning sounds with some distant, muddled vocals. It is very short and feels like it is cut off, like it is about to build to something.

"Le Brouillard" has some acoustic string instrument being plucked very slowly and freely, in quite a melancholic way. More rumbling, distorted textures enter the mix, fading in and out in volume. On "Costae Spruriae" the string instrument stops and some more hissing type walls of sound enter. The hissing gets louder and sounds like it could be coming from the depths of someone’s vocal cords. It’s loud and scary. The songs transition smoothly into the next, and "Costae Verae" features some low, oscillating, synth drone with high pitched harmonics entering. Some female vocals fade in and out, but only very briefly. Another short song to end the side.



Cassette for purchase: http://www.cae-sur-a.com/007-n-ein-klagelied-fur-3f/