When music meets art meets literature meets a clip of a 1930s silent movie version of a 14th century poem, to be frank, I’d usually call the police or hide in a cupboard until the whole thing had gone away. But this time, after hearing the music part of this cultural convergence, I’m positively salivating for the rest.

So, Baptists & Bootleggers (FB page, Website) are a new not-for-profit label from Manchester who’ve asked a bunch of musicians, visual artists, and writers to give a soundtrack to and  interpretation of an eight minute clip of a 1930s film of Dante’s Inferno plus quotes from the original work itself. And the music, which we’ve been lucky enough to have sent us, is as dark, menacing and devilishly diabolic as you can imagine. The album (…Of the Wolves) is a lesson in how to imagine the sound of hell and all its torments.

Borland’s ‘Nightmares’ is menacing and colossal in its drone, and delivers beats that enslave you to the callings of unholy legions. Vei’s ‘Decaying Bodice’ take this eternal distress, colour it with the celestial tone of falling angels and continually remind you of your unending anguish with the sound of icy rattles. Daffyd Jones’ ‘When The Game Is Over, the King & the Pawn Go Back In The Same Box’ adds a reading of Dante’s work in a vocodered robotic voice transforming something old into something horrifically contemporary – the next time you hear “Cashier Number Two Please” in a bank or supermarket I would bet on visions of flames and demonic laughter filling your psyche after hearing this. By the point that the abstract lurching punk-prog-metal of Go Lebanon’s ‘Ishtar y Tammuz’ appears in your ears there’s almost a sense of relief…almost, as the outro (on the vinyl version) by Kyknos is designed as locked groove. You’re never to be set free.

It’s, in short, utterly brilliant and practically knocked me off my chair the first time I heard it.

Baptists & Bootleggers are launching this album on the 9th February at Islington Mill. You’ll get a free copy of the vinyl or CD which come with different bits of art and all sorts of lovely packaging and stuff. Plus Vei, Borland and Go Lebanon live sets.

And surprise surprise I can’t bloody go. So you should.

A video excerpt featuring Go Lebanon’s contribution:

Some tunes from Vei from whom you get a free bonus EP with the vinyl:

Is it cold out? Do the nights still feel long and dark? Are you troubled by a sense of foreboding?

I missed this very fine album when it was released last year, and only really decided to hunt it down after the Quietus made it their #4 record of 2011. Bobby Krlic’s extraordinarily atmospheric record weaves together droning, rumbling strings, rattling percussion and the occasional haunting piece of choral singing (‘The Fall’, for example). There’s also lots of silence, the space in which the sounds happen.

The name, and the general feel and look of the record, have occult resonances, and you might expect something a bit more metal from the label (Aurora Borealis) – the first track is called ‘Raven’s Lament’, and the third is ‘Burning Torches of Despair’. Whatever you call it, this is an experimental record that sounds cold, scary and bewitching.

This music is chilling. Ben Frost, without the growling. Play loud, and listen carefully.

‘An Archaic Device’ – The Haxan Cloak – The Haxan Cloak

Buy from the label here

Jkneale

AtletA, a duo from Barcelona, are witness to the fact that kraut-psyche is being reanimated worldwide. Ok, such grand statements make my skin itch and muscles twitch, but there’s definitely a network of sorts rediscovering and supplementing this sound. Perhaps we should settle on a kind of proto-movement and leave it there? Yes, I think that’s best.

Verdad is a relatively short, but being chocked full of loops, electronics and guitars modulated in a spaced out fashion it’s sweet and perfectly formed. Gilded and bejeweled synth harmonies greet us on opener ‘Eres el oceano’, and then we’re treated to guitars which alternate between the cascading, the woozy, and the all-out spanked on ‘Brazo Luminoso’. And on ‘Atenas’ the six strings are harmonised and given a wash of distance and momentum.

Throughout there’s a peculiar sense of euphoria to the album that aligns perfectly with the bandcamp tag line of AtletA’s record label Aloud Music Ltd: “Just an indie-rock record company, just that. Rock on, kids!”

Lovely. Buy it here. Minimum price is 3 of your finest Euros.

Snot, booze, PRESENTS, snot, booze, snot, booze, hacking cough, booze – pretty sums up Xmas for both of us. Still, happy new year to all and sundry. Here’s some tunes that might just lift that early January doom.

Mike Watt has joined up with Yuko Araki and Hirotaka Shimizu to put music to 63 Richard Meltzer spoken word pieces – or spiels, as Watt calls ‘em, making the project spielgusher. The album’s out 17th January from Clenched Wrench, you can read more about it here, and you should buy it because Watt is a genius and Mr Meltzer may well have invented the metal umlaut (for Blue Öyster Cult). This track is hilarious but NSFW!

This track by Bear Driver sounds like something you’ve heard before a thousand times, but the melody is so strong and the guitar line so damned earworm that it would take stronger men than us to resist its charms [website]

Boogie Monster are a noise-mongering duo from Vancouver possessing all the necessary skills to sear your face off with their torrent of fuzz and distortion. And they’d do so with a smile and grin what with their penchant for an uplifting melody here and there amongst the beautiful sludge.  This track ‘Bullfrog’ hints at this, but the album Zechimechi is a splendid mix of Lightning Bolt meets Fang Island:

Clearly, Chicago based Fotosputnik are cut from a similar cloth to Cave and Eat Lights, Become Lights with this slice of psyche-motorik. With a gratifying hesitancy to the guitar lead and a threatening undertow, ‘Turnpike (Death Valley Driver)’ tightens the haunches for much needed escape [website]:

And finally the seemingly apocalyptic and eschatological warnings of the voice on Another Neglected Hobby’s ‘Listen Up’ seem particularly apt given 2012 has just dawned. Marching beats and frosty sweeps of drone accompany to make something very special [Soundcloud]:

Until the (end or) next time(s)…

There’s an awful lot of Christmas tunes out there this year beyond the usual gubbins of Carey,  Como, et al. Some deserve to sit lonely and ignored in the further reaches of the interweb, like some cyber version of Eat Me dates, but some have piqued our Yuletide cravings and misgivings. Hence we’ve given over the second instalment of Sack of Streams to some big baubled tunes.

Santa’s perspective on the season he gives so much to is often ignored amongst the cacophony of pissed up jeers and board game family disputes. The Narrows have taken his viewpoint and filled it with yearning melancholia. The line “And in only a few years, you won’t love me. I won’t exist” can only bring a lump to the throat and a heaving of the chest [Bandcamp]:

Whilst we’re on the topic of work at Christmas we doubt you’ll hear a better lament to having to supply your labour on the day itself than this by The Wind-Up Birds. Although this seems to have been a voluntary move aimed at avoidance of all the people and pretence, the lyric “I forgot my packed lunch and all the shops are shut, but there are tins of chocolates provided by the bosses. So that’s my dinner right there” tickles the sentimental bone once again. Go buy it here – proceeds to charity.

Let us not forget that Christmas is also a time for the ghostly. Whether that be M. R. James’ supernatural orations or Andy Williams singing “There’ll be parties for hosting, Marshmallows for toasting, And caroling out in the snow, There’ll be scary ghost stories, And tales of the glories of  Christmases long, long ago”, the coincidence of  this jolly season and the spooky is one that we at BBO treasure. And somehow Tribal Fighters have tapped into or subconsciously channelled this tradition on their (as yet entitled) ‘Xmas Song’: a frisson of the night and a decking of the haunted halls fills this little apported gift [Bandcamp]:

Next up is BBO fave Benjamin Shaw, covering  ‘It’s Christmas Time For God’s Sake’ by original Audio Antihero heroes Nosferatu D2. Shaw has somehow managed to make Ben Parker’s sardonic lyrics about poundshop Santas even more xmassy; maybe it’s all the sleigh bells. “Call me sentimental, or maybe just mental, but I can’t get through this time of year without you.” Free download, on a free xmas album from the excellent HI54LOFI Records.

Finally we get to Paul Hawkins, another AAH recording artist, this time in the guise of Paul Hawkins & The Bleak Midwinters. ‘Tonight I Will Be Santa’ is a duet between a woman (Mary Boeker) who is woken in the small hours of Xmas Eve by a man who claims to be Santa, though she’s dubious: “You’re not a mythic figure, just a man who’s very drunk” Despite the ominous setup ‘Santa’ appears to be genuine about taking the big man’s place, rewarding good people, and cheering up his depressed hometown. From ‘Christmas in Haworth‘, a musical advent calendar from Darren Hayman, Fika Recordings and others with loads of free songs.

Paul Hawkins & The Bleak Midwinters: ‘Tonight I Will Be Santa’

Merry Xmas, and thanks to everyone who’s read stuff here or on our facebook page this year!

angrybonbon & jkneale

Enjoying Xmas too much already? Yeah right. What about the xmas we don’t get to hear about, the real xmas? The family arguments, devastating loneliness, and the sheer futility of it all? Thank the meaningless universe, then, for Gruff Rhys, who is clearly counting the days until Winterval is over. Gruff’s new EP rounds off a great year, and he’s clearly not fussed about missing out on a Both Bars On top ten slot for Hotel Shampoo.

‘Post Apocalypse Christmas’ is exactly the Cormac-McCarthy-sings-xmas song it sounds like, rhyming “concrete bunker, post apocalypse bunker” with “We lick our wounds to kill the hunger” (nice work sir). ‘At The End of the Line’ is Gruff talking to his Dad, and then we hit bottom with ‘Slashed Wrists This Christmas’, which really is a proper xmas song, naming the real cause of seasonal misery: “Light entertainment leads us to slashed wrists at Christmas”.

The easily offended have filled a small corner of the internet with despair and grumpiness, mainly at the combination of the words ‘atheist’ and ‘xmas’, but I think Gruff’s having his brandy-soaked cake and eating it. Xmas can be pretty miserable, he seems to be saying, but why not spread that message through the traditional xmas song format? Anyway. Merry xmas, but be careful out there. And buy the EP – digital only by now, I’m afraid, but for £1.99 it’s still a very good present for yourself.

Gruff Rhys – ‘Post Apocalypse Christmas’

jkneale

It seems that the real cool kids on the blog don’t do end of year lists. Well we like them and hope that those miserable sods slip in their paper shoes and find other people’s dirty hankies in their bobble hats.

Those artists who will be sobbing into their pillows tonight because they didn’t quite make it onto our list include blistering aural adventures by: Wooden Shjips, Cave, Dead Skeletons, Eat Lights Become Lights, The Field, Moon Duo, Blanck Mass, Hills, Benjamin Shaw (sorry, Jamie), Gruff Rhys, Dels, White Denim, King Creosote & John Hopkins (robbed!), and Mike Watt.

So let’s get down to it boppers. In now traditional reverse order:

10. The Indelicates: David Koresh Superstar

How do you follow two great albums of bile and wit and proper pop songs? You make a concept album about the Waco siege, that’s what. Thoughtful and occasionally laugh-out-loud funny, the scope of this record – the research and understanding – made most of the year’s records seem pretty unambitious. jkneale treasures his lyric booklet.

Indelicates – ‘I Am Koresh’:

9. Parts & Labor: Constant Future

By the time this list is published Parts & Labor will have done their penultimate show before going on an ‘extended hiatus’. On the strength of Constant Future this ‘break’ should and must be stupidly short. Rock n’ roll needs forward thinking bands like Parts & Labor. We will miss them.

Parts & Labor – ‘Echo Chamber’:

8. Jonny: Jonny

Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub joins forces with Gorky’s Euros Childs for thirteen songs of slightly off-kilter pop and gorgeous harmonies. “Could be in Mexico, could be Japan, could be in Fishguard with another man”. Sunshine on a rainy day, and jkneale’s most-listened to this year.

Jonny – ‘Circling The Sun’:

7. GNOD: INGNODWETRUST

Two songs equalling two assaults on all that is holy and sacred. A lesson in sonic desecration and sense fucking. GNOD can and will save us all.

GNOD – ‘Vatican’:

6. Pete and the Pirates: One Thousand Pictures

A dark horse this one. It’s here because of two killer singles heard on the radio and loved immediately – you know, like it’s still 1986 or something. Wriggling with earworms; jkneale has played this to death.

Pete and the Pirates – ‘Half Moon Street’:

5. The Advisory Circle: As The Crow Flies

The pinnacle of all that is deemed hauntological. Electronica that makes you misty eyed for all the things you thought you’d forgotten and thought that bored you in the first place. Remarkable.

The Advisory Circle – ‘Modern Through Movement’:

The Advisory Circle – ‘Learning Owl Reappears’:

4. EMA: Past Life Martyred Saints

This is on a lot of lists this year but that’s only right. BBO is old and grumpy enough to know hype when it sees it, and you could be forgiven for fearing a bit of that with EMA, but this is such a strong record. One of the live performances of the year, too (for both of us).

EMA – ‘Endless Nameless’:

EMA – ‘Angelo’:

3. Mogwai: Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will

Are you over post-rock (or ‘hipster jazz’ as Jamie Audio Antihero has it)? Don’t let any of that nonsense stop you from listening to one of Mogwai’s best albums for some time. One of us saw them twice this year and is still twitching.

Mogwai – ‘Music For A Forgotten Future’:

Mogwai – ‘Mexican Grand Prix’:

2. White Hills: H-P1

Guttural glitter soaked sleaze, experimental guitar spanking, wheeling circling solos and pummelling interference: White Hills took what can be nominally called space rock and made it as mesmerising, hypnotic and intergalactic as you’d always it hoped it could be.

White Hills – H-p1 (Live at SXSW 2011):

White Hills – ‘The Condition of Nothing’:

1. British Sea Power: Valhalla Dancehall

At #1, the band who are pretty much guaranteed a place in our end of year lists every time they issue an album (see the 2009 and 2008 lists). This came out so long ago that you might have forgotten what a blast it is and how much we need bands like British Sea Power right now. It’s them or the book burning rats.

British Sea Power – ‘Who’s In Control?’ live at Westminster Reference Library:

British Sea Power – ‘Mongk II’:

We hope you like our likes and thanks to anyone who has read our mutterings this year.

Jkneale and Angrybonbon

[All of these lovely records are available from shops - independent ones, big shiny ones, online ones, ones where there isn't really a shop but you have to email some bloke. We like buying records - actually, we really do. And we think you should too, so if you like any of this and haven't already bought them, go on! They'll be cheap by now]

In a vain, desperate and over-ambitious attempt to keep up with the oodles of music we get sent and peruse over various wires, we give you Sack of Streams.

The idea is four or five tracks with pithy and un-read descriptions for your aural please, whenever we get chance. Some of the first of these will be tunes from ancient times like October 2011, but if we catch up with our mail sack we might just hit that pop pulse…at which point we’ll give up.

Undoubtedly this will be a frustratingly irregular and quite possibly short-lived venture, but amongst the torrent of utter drivel we listen to or get thrown at us there are some gems. In no way does this constitute a change in our guiding philosophy; we just want to be a bit more respectful of the hard work others put in to create and promote music. And, of course, now that we’re über-taste-makers we thought we’d better make an effort.

Yeti Lane: Analog Wheel

So first up is this lovely swirling slice of  shoegazing action from Parisian duo Yeti Lane’s second album out March 5, 2012 on Sonic Cathedral Records:

Shadow Attack: After Dark

Next is Shadow Attack’s ‘After Dark’ on Deepblip Records which combines the sheen of something like Rustie and a whole host of other post-dubstep-future-bass malarky. Whole album Aqua Dipped available here.

Jaws that Bite: Everythingsick

And also on Deepblip is this manic glitch fest taken from Jaws That Bite’s brilliantly entitled album Meathooks & Food Porn (Purchase):

Beat Culture: Midori

Band Panda Records were almost the subject of a whole post here a while back, but sadly not. They release something free and downloadable every week and most are top quality. This from Beat Culture (aka Sunik Kim, a seventeen year-old Korean residing in Hong Kong) is absolutely stunning; a late night electronic soulful glistening beauty:

Blacklisters: I Can Confirm

And finally for a complete change of pace, we give you the post-hardcore lurching and utter fury of Leeds’ Blacklisters. With their full length debut album out in the new year (we’ve heard it; it’s great), this lot on Brew records spit bile like its fashionable or something:

Enjoy.

There’s probably nothing that divides and angers music lovers more than a list. So on the day the BBC announces the long list of its ‘Sounds of 2012’ it seems the music twitterati are already up in arms about who’s in and out. What better way then to quell the collective fever than to get a load of blogs to produce a list of what they consider should be ‘big’ in 2012?

It was nice to be asked, but given our USP and general tardiness we’re still slightly bemused why we were solicited to contribute to the ‘Blog Sound Of 2012’. And this is further reflected in that the long list decided upon included none of our shortlist of 5.

Anyway, here’s the blogger’s list:

1. Houdini Dax, 2. Lianne De Haves, 3. Theme Park, 4. French Wives, 5. The Good Natured, 6. Alt J, 7. The Jezabels, 8. Lucy Rose, 9. Bastille, 10. Washington, 11. Friends, 12. Meursault, 13. Daughter, 14. Beth Jeans Houghton, 15. Outfit.

[Lots of clips for these here]

Having randomly picked some of these to listen to – you won’t be surprised to hear we’ve never heard of half of them – we swiftly gave up. This doesn’t mean that there are some outfits in there that are worthy of praise, it’s just they’re not really our cup o’ cha. We are, after all, so bloody ALT…

The basic problem we have with this sort of thing is that none of the bands we think should be big are ever going to be big – not next year, not bloody ever. Sometimes that’s a shame; sometimes it’s a good thing. Still, here’s the five that we submitted because they’re fucking great and you should listen to them irrespective of their status and standing come the end of 2012. We’re all going to be DEAD come next December 12^th anyway…

Trojan Horse:

Plank!:

Ghost Outfit:

Wolf People:

Benjamin Shaw:

Watching Hammer House’s horror output now is not the same as it used to be. When I first encountered them back in the 70s they were genuinely scary. I distinctly remember watching one of the TV series and being shocked shitless by a werewolf behind some curtains. Today, viewing occurs with wry smile on your face (although Quatermass and the Pit still disturbs). And this sense of the sardonic is very much apparent with Dead Skeletons’s Dead Magick – death, horror and the supernatural are encountered with tongue firmly ensconced in cheek. At least that’s what I get from this album, irrespective of the band’s intention.

Given birth as some magickally induced hybrid of Suicide, The Cramps, the Mary Chain, Neu!, The Horrors (later incarnation) and a whole cacophony of rockabilly sutured with psyche, this Icelandic trio make a marvellously evocative and smile-inducing dirge. Listening to Dead Magick in one go, you can’t help but think that there’s a ritual being performed that seeks raise something grotesque yet uncannily life-affirming (and the ominous and colossal sounds emanating from the last track ‘Dead Magick II’ seem to affirm that this has been achieved).

Or, in simpler terms, the message seems to be  ‘don’t take life too bloody seriously’. Purchase.

Om Mani Peme Hung:

Dead Mantra:

Listen to the whole album stream here