Alphane Moon - The Echoing Grove

In their incarnation as their main project 'Our glassie Azoth', the Welsh duo of Dafydd and Ruth traverse the chaotic elemental heart of psychedelic music. Forgoing riffs for alchemy, OgA’s albums are nothing less than howling, hair-raising exorcisms of blinding white noise. When the squall of OgA’s feedback hurricanes subsides, Alphane Moon is revealed. As experienced in the opening swirl of “An Open Entrance,” these magic moments achieve a rare sense of consequence. We witness the total transfiguration of Dafydd and Ruth, their swaddling of Dionysian cacophony cast aside for the white robes of pastoral mysticism. The Echoing Grove was originally released in multiple cassette micro-runs. For most, however, this extraordinary CD will serve as a first exposure to Alphane Moon’s arcane workings. Prayer and incantation both figure within this duo's acid-gilded ceremonies, though not in any traditional sense. What few words are uttered owe everything to the tradition of British Isles folk-poetry. This is a ritual in sound, not text. Guitars coruscate and radiate, elevating tricky, Pink Floyd-ian noises to a state of luminescent drone/flux sublimity. From the glimmering “Circle Of Four” to the blazing psychedelirium of “Reap A Field Of Light,” the sound that floods The Echoing Grove is absolutely supernatural. This isn’t just music—it’s magic .

celestial influences

Snowman - Absence

Snowman are an Aussie band, originally from Perth but based in London, until they disbanded in February this year. Which is kind of really fucking unfortunate, because they are one of the finest bands Australia had seen until now. This is their swansong 'Absence', released earlier this year.

Ethereal rock music is the best way to put this. Brings in the best bits of Liars, This Heat and Radiohead (for lazy comparison's sake) to create something singular and seductive all at the same time. Most underrated record of this year? perhaps.

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Cranes - Loved

Cranes were a British band formed in 1986, whose style has ranged all over from dream pop, gothic minimalism, shoegaze, alt rock and trip hop. Alison Shaw's vocal delivery is the dealbreaker here, either you're going to fall helpless in love with these sounds or shun them altogether. Here's my favourite record of theirs, Loved.

James and Alison Shaw, the brother-sister songwriting team from Portsmouth, England that's best known as CRANES, are not without pretensions: They originally planned to make Loved a double album with half devoted to a musical interpretation of The Flies, the expressionist play by tortured French novelist Jean Paul Sartre. That plan was shelved (they had to settle for cover art by French painter Edgar Degas), and instead, their third album delivers 11 oddly seductive pop songs that mix brutally powerful drumming, a Cocteau Twins-like wall of shimmering guitars, and the lovable little-girl-on- helium vocals of Alison Shaw. Almost flawless. 


into the night

Michael Mayer - The Immer Series

 Michael Mayer is an iconic dj/producer and electronic musician that co-runs seminal electronic label Kompakt with Wolfgang Voigt (Gas). He is a god of sorts when it comes to making mixes within the minimal techno/microhouse scene, as evidenced by the Immer series.

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part 2

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part 2

immer 3

Tim Hecker - Harmony in Ultraviolet

Tim Hecker is an electronic musician and sound artist based in Montreal, Canada. He is by far one of the best ambient musicians working today, his use of texture in music is second to none, in my opinion. Here's my favourite of his works, Harmony in Ultraviolet. Sometimes I have trouble believing a living, breathing human made this, it's like a portal to another world.

Whatever became of the moment when one first knew about death? There must have been one. A moment. In childhood. When it first occured to you that you don't go on forever. Must have been shattering. Stamped into one's memory. And yet, I can't remember it. It never occured to me at all. We must be born with an intuition of mortality. Before we know the word for it. Before we know that there are words. Out we come, bloodied and squawling, with the knowledge that for all the points of the compass, theres only one direction. And time is its only measure.




 blood rainbow

Lula Cortes/Ze Ramalho - Paêbirú

An ultra obscure double LP, recorded by Brazilian musicians Lula Cortes and Ze Ramalho. It's divided into four parts, one for each element (water, earth,fire and air), mostly about the myth of Sumé, a character of Tupi and Guarani indian mythology. Legends tell that Sumé came to the indians, before the coming of portuguese and spanish settlers to South America, trasmitting them lots of knowledge (introducing for example the cultivation of mandioca, mate or sweet-potato). Paêbiru is a tupi-guarani word for "the road of the sun", and old indian road crossing several brazilian states, which was allegedly opened by the character. It is believed that Sumé left some of his teachings engraved in a mysterious stone called Pedra de Ingá, an archeological mysterious site in Paraíba. The album cover actually shows Lula Côrtes photographed against this stone. The myth was later christianized by the jesuit missionaries in the region, transforming Sumé into St. Thomas the Apostle. 

Besides this, there's also the legend of the album itself. The studio where this was recorded stood near to the river Capiberibe and all its content was destroyed by a flood in 1975 (little time after the recording process), in which 80% of the city was flooded. Only 300 copies of the album that were stored in Lula Côrtes house (in a distant suburb) survived this tragic flood. With the passing of the years, this (and, of course, its undoubtable quality) made Paêbiru the greatest rarity in brazilian music, with copies being sold online for thousands of dollars. It is said that Zé Ramalho doesn't allow the reissue because he wants the names of him and Lula Côrtes inverted and also the cover front photo, since his photo appears in the back side cover.


As for the music itself, take it from me, you've never heard anything like this ever before. An unparalleled marriage of distant music traditions like psychedelic folk, baiao and brazilian jazz music. Wonderfully rich and transporting - this one can take you very very far if you let it. 


Paebiru

Spacemen 3 - Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs to

Legendary fuzzy space rock/neo psych pioneers Spacemen 3 formed in Warwickshire in 1984. This is a bootleg compilation of their demos, featuring tracks that would end up on their first 2 records. Essential and raw document of one of Britain's finest acts. Also, best album title of all time?

come down easy