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Lost Orb Release New Single “Low Ebb’s Lament” with Mos Generator & Vodun Members

Posted in Whathaveyou on September 23rd, 2019 by JJ Koczan

lost orb

Yeah, I know these are hairs I split all the time around here, but if you’ve got a 17-minute long track, that’s an EP. I think I might’ve heard an early version of “Low Ebb’s Lament” years ago, but that certainly would’ve been before Chantal Brown of Vodun and Tony Reed of Mos Generator added vocals and drums, respectively, to the song. Multi-instrumentalist Christopher West — who’s amassed a significant pedigree over the last 10 years or so in Trippy WickedLandskap and Stubb, as well as founded two of his own labels in Superhot Records and the more recent Giganto Records — is at the helm of the project, but there’s no question the other involved parties make a mark on the track. As this piece took seven years to come together in its final form, I’m not holding my breath for a 40-minute single-song full-length anytime soon as a follow-up — though it’d certainly be welcome — but I think you can certainly hear here that such a scope would be well within West‘s reach.

The PR wire has info:

lost orb low ebbs lament

LOST ORB releases new single “Low Ebb’s Lament”

Lost Orb, the project of Christ West is now streaming his 17-minute odyssey entitled Low Ebb’s Lament. The song has been several years in the making and is a departure from the style of the bands he’s usually associated with (Stubb, Trippy Wicked & the Cosmic Children of the Knight, Landskap).

The track draws from a gamut of styles, ranging from Earth-esque graceful doom through stoner rock to folksy strumming. It doesn’t end there – guests come in to broaden the palette, such as the supremely talented Chantal Brown of Vodun, whose beautiful wordless vocalizations soar over the riffs, and Tony Reed (Mos Generator) puts in the right level of showmanship and class to round out the track.

“Working with Chan and Tony was a great experience. I had basic drum patterns written out for the demo but I let Tony do his thing and let’s just say the man delivered. With Chan’s vocal parts I had a few ideas written that I wanted to include but we spent a day getting those and a lot of other ideas down on the spot. I tend to obsess over perfecting ideas during the writing process with many revisions and iterations so it was good to contrast that with a more relaxed approach to the vocals.

I originally wrote Low Ebb’s Lament towards the end of 2012 and it was based on some themes and ideas I had been developing for a long while before then. I didn’t realise what was happening at the time but it was a last burst of creative energy as I embarked on a steady descent into some significant mental health issues. It took me until 2013 to record the music and while I eventually put it on Bandcamp the year after that, I had little energy to promote it.

A lot of personal work, some essential help and a little luck has led me to where I am now. It was hugely important at the time of writing to be able to present the ideas I had been working on in one cohesive movement and I’m grateful to be in a position to give the music a proper release now.”

Written, recorded, mixed and mastered by Chris West
Drums recorded and mixed by Tony Reed at HeavyHead Recording Co.

Artwork by Sagüi (www.instagram.com/saguidotart)
Lost Orb logo by Adam Burke

Lost Orb lineup for “Low Ebb’s Lament”:
Chris West – guitar, bass
Chantal Brown – vocals
Tony Reed – drums

https://www.gigantorecords.com
https://gigantorecords.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/gigantorecords

Lost Orb, Low Ebb’s Lament (2019)

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Crawling for Carrion Premiere Townes Van Zandt Cover “Rake”; Debut EP Rake and Roads out Nov. 9

Posted in audiObelisk, Whathaveyou on September 27th, 2018 by JJ Koczan

Crawling for Carrion

Go ahead and take the title of Crawling for Carrion‘s debut EP, Rake and Roads, literally. It’s comprised of two songs, one is “Rake” and the other is “Roads.” Both are covers — of Townes Van Zandt and Portishead, respectively — and both are given a heavy treatment intended to mirror the emotional and atmospheric weight already embedded in them. The rearrangement of “Rake” is premiering now at the bottom of this post, and preorders for the release are up through Giganto Records ahead of its Nov. 9 arrival.

I suppose when you feature in as many bands as Chris WestTrippy Wicked and the Cosmic Children of the Knight (who were way ahead of the UK underground’s silly-moniker arms race), Stubb, Landskap, Named by the Sun, Groan for a hot minute, Glanville, etc. — you make a few friends along the way, and as he handles guitar and bass and directs the arrangements, West is joined by members of Stubb, Wight and Vodun, as well as former(?) Trippy Wicked bandmate Peter Holland, now also of Elephant Tree. On “Rake,” it’s Grave Lines‘ Jake Harding on vocals and Thomas Kurek of Wight on drums, and the groove elicited from the Townes Van Zandt original — which should also be well familiar to Scott Kelly and/or Wino fans — gives a new angle from which to view its lyrical narrative.

Giganto Records is West‘s own label, and he by and large records his own work, so there’s really nothing stopping this new project from fleshing out in any number of directions. Blondie by way of doom? Could happen.

Art, info, links and audio follow:

Crawling for Carrion Rake and Roads

Rake and Roads is the first in a series of releases from Crawling for Carrion. The UK-based project is spearheaded by multi-instrumentalist Chris West (Landskap, Trippy Wicked, etc.), and reinterprets “Rake” by Townes Van Zandt and “Roads” by Portishead with an eye toward bringing out an inner heaviness that’s been there all along.

Releasing through his own Giganto Records and handling production, bass and guitar, West is joined by a rotating cast in Crawling for Carrion. Jake Harding (Grave Lines) handles vocals and Thomas Kurek (Wight) drums for “Rake,” while drums on “Roads” were played by Pete Holland (Elephant Tree), and vocals helmed by Chantal Brown (Vodun) and lead guitar by Tom Hobson (Stubb). Rake and Roads will be issued as individual lathe cut 10” records and only available on a preorder basis. The sleeves will be individually printed and numbered by artist Emmett Casley from a linocut.

Chris West launched Giganto Records in 2017 as a platform to release music that he writes and records himself under various names. Best known for playing in Stubb and Trippy Wicked & the Cosmic Children of the Knight, in recent years he has also played with Landskap, Glanville and Named by the Sun.

https://www.facebook.com/crawlingforcarrion/
https://twitter.com/christhewest
https://www.instagram.com/christhewest
https://show.co/3B0Clsk
https://www.gigantorecords.com
https://gigantorecords.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/gigantorecords

Crawling for Carrion, “Rake” official track premiere

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Giganto Records Launches with Scuzzball Debut EP

Posted in Whathaveyou on December 4th, 2017 by JJ Koczan

giganto records logo

The four-song Reality’s Flux EP by crusty noisemaking trio Scuzzball is the first release from the newly-launched UK imprint Giganto Records. Out now as a name-your-price download, it runs about as long as that sentence — each track is just on either side of a minute long — but gives a 7″-worthy sampling of the band’s viciousness in that time, with vocalist Jill Mikkelson growling in sludgy fashion atop sharp-edged progressions that, again, are over before they have time to do much more than jab at the frontal cortex of the listener. A blindside release, in other words. Cool by me for the weight established in so short a time.

Giganto is an outlet helmed by London-area multi-instrumentalist Chris West, who in recent years has drummed for Trippy Wicked and Stubb, played guitar in Groan and handled bass duties in Landskap, in addition to recording his own projects, like Scuzzball, whose EP he also mixed and mastered in an apparent effort to become the Tony Reed of St. Albans, UK. Noble endeavor if ever I heard of one, and of course I wish him nothing but the best in it.

The PR wire has the story like this:

scuzzball realitys flux-700

Chris West Announces Giganto Records.

Glanville rhythm guitar player Chris West announces Giganto Records, a new record label to serve as a platform for various and varied music projects written and recorded by himself. Releases will be less on the traditional side of 45 minute albums and will instead focus on letting each piece be what it needs to be. Whether it’s one minute songs or twenty minute jams the music will be in pursuit, as always, of heavy. Whatever that may be.

Straight out of the gate from Giganto Records comes the particularly short and intense Reality’s Flux, an EP under the name Scuzzball. Featuring Mithun Shah (Sedulus) on drums, Jill Mikkelson (Dysteria) on vocals and West on guitar and bass, Reality’s Flux consists of four small slices of sludge that waste no time in making their brief and fierce point. Mikkelson’s lyrical themes cover plate tectonics, the physics of consciousness and theories of the origins of life on Earth which provided the inspiration for West to draw an animation for the song Rudimentary Beasts.

Chris West commented on the making of the animation:

“As soon as I read the lyrics I knew I had to make a video. The style of the animation was inspired by my lack of ability to draw freehand and memories of my brother sketching out sprites on graph paper before programming them on our ZX Spectrum. I thought of it as a super low resolution screen and spent 3 months over the summer colouring in squares on graph paper with ballpoint pens. As laborious (and cramp-inducing) as it was at times, especially re-drawing the first third after realising I’d rushed it, I enjoyed the process and it became like a daily meditation. Hopefully the animation does justice to Jill’s lyrics.”

Reality’s Flux is available on all streaming services and is available on the Giganto Records Bandcamp here: https://gigantorecords.bandcamp.com/album/realitys-flux

https://gigantorecords.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/gigantorecords
https://www.instagram.com/christhewest
https://twitter.com/ChrisTheWest
https://open.spotify.com/artist/7LpVEIXYxXWJfn934iTRdP

Scuzzball, “Rudimentary Beasts” official video

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