The Obelisk Radio Adds: The Golden Grass, Leeches of Lore, Olson/Shively/Barry, Lotus Ash, Slow Order
Posted in Radio on November 7th, 2014 by JJ Koczan
My measure these days for how quickly time goes is how annoyingly long it gets to be between bunches of albums being added to the playlist for The Obelisk Radio. Maybe that’s not true — I still use a clock — but you get the idea. This week, a healthy dose of 15 records have joined the stream, and the only reason it’s not more is because there are others I want to write about next time, whenever that might be. If you get the chance, the full list is up now on the The Obelisk Radio Playlist and Updates Page.
If you listened over the course of the last two weeks, you might’ve noticed the running playlist was down. Well, Slevin fixed it the other day so we’re back up and running. I know you were worried. I was worried too. The important thing is nobody panicked and we all got through it. Let’s talk about some records. Please note, I was all set to include the new Old Man Gloom in this list but then I heard some nonsense about their new album actually being two albums with the same name and their having sent a fake version of the thing to the press with the explanation, “We will always trick you.” Whatever. Pass. I’d just as soon not spend my time getting fucked with in a weird, smug, high-school-level douchery “watch us pull the rug that we made out from under you” kind of way that makes me like the band a whole lot less. Way to take the media that’s spent the last decade sucking you off down a peg. Utterly necessary. I’m sure they’ll be really hurt by the lack of coverage.
The Obelisk Radio adds for Nov. 7, 2014:
The Golden Grass, Realisations
A digital-only release (at least for now) put out in order to help fund their inaugural European tour this month, Realisations is a considerably rawer affair than was The Golden Grass‘ earlier-2014 self-titled debut full-length (review here), but the good-vibe Brooklynlite heavy psych rock trio still manage to get pretty lush on “The Robin Song,” which leads off the four-track collection of home recordings. Trippy ’70s prog and bright melodies ensue, a demo version of “Wheels” from the album moving into a tom-led jam much like its final counterpart, drummer Adam Kriney sharing vocal duties with guitarist Michael Rafalowich while bassist Joe Noval provides groovy foundation. “A Curious Case” is a track they’re using for a tour-exclusive 7″, and it appears here in a demo from this past Spring offering the sage advice to “Let it ride and take it easy.” Closer “Down the Line” is a more psyched-out vibe, jammy with Rafalowich‘s perfectly airy tone and the room-mic sound of the recording, loose but aware of where it’s headed in a blissfully exploratory kind of way. Feels redundant at this point to keep singing The Golden Grass‘ praises, but what the hell. These guys are legit and deserve more attention than they’ve gotten. Dig in and dig. The Golden Grass on Thee Facebooks, on Bandcamp.
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Leeches of Lore, Live on KUNM 89.9
Last month, New Mexican weirdo rockers/charm specialists Leeches of Lore hit the airwaves on 89.9 KUNM to play a live set. The purpose, aside from its own excuse for being, seemed to be to plug a Halloween gig at which they covered the entirety of Alice Cooper‘s 1971 Love it to Death album, and indeed, they round out this set with “Second Coming/The Ballad of Dwight Fry,” after running through a set of originals including “White Debbie/Don’t Open Till Doomsday,” “The Sixth Finger” and “The Sleeping God,” a gleeful, complicated track cut through black metal, heavy rock, Western stylizations and periodic bouts of Melvins rush. Part of the joy of listening to Leeches of Lore is having them speed past you like a cartoon bird and leave you in a cloud of their multi-genre dust, grasping for air as you try to catch up. After being fortunate enough to see them live earlier this year on their home turf, Live at KUNM 89.9 is like a clear-recorded testament of what the phenomenon was live. Like non-blurred footage of some elusive desert bigfoot gone out to buy eggs, milk and other breakfast essentials. These guys are about due for a new full-length, but I’ll happily take this in the meantime. Leeches of Lore on Thee Facebooks, on Bandcamp.
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Olson/Shively/Barry, Tierra del Fuego Blues
Spaciousness abounds on Tierra del Fuego Blues, the independently-released collaboration between Tanner Olson of Across Tundras, Matt “Big Jim” Shively and Walter Barry, each of whom handle a variety of instruments from acoustic guitar to zhonghu and drones. There’s a sense of root tracks being fleshed out, but the whole across the five included instrumentals is lush and engrossing. They tell you up front that “Patience yields best results,” and that’s fair, but don’t take it to mean there’s nothing happening on a song like “The Needles,” or that the layers throughout don’t provide plenty of evocative fodder to parse through, calling to mind everything from coyote yips on that song to howling winds on the 12-minute “Jagged Cliffs,” a sun-down guitar drama that would make Morricone proud. Experimentalism pervades, as one would have to imagine, but Olson/Shively/Barry keep the sonics tied to the land somehow, whether it’s the Dylan Carlson-style guitar of “No Blood” or the percussion underneath “Shaky Steps on Solid Ground,” and that goes a long way toward approachability for what might otherwise be too far out for many listeners, though frankly I doubt mass appeal is high on the list of goals here anyway. Hopefully it’s not the last time these three get together, since even in piled on parts there’s obvious chemistry at work that’s worth developing. Big Jim Shively on Thee Facebooks, Across Tundras on Thee Facebooks, on Bandcamp.
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Slow Order, Hidden Voices
Don’t expect to be overwhelmed by the originality of Slow Order‘s Hidden Voices, since what they do it pretty straightforward instrumental heavy, but the Italian trio manage to find a niche somewhere between Karma to Burn-style rock and a more metallic impulse, some of the basslines calling to mind a much-less-mathematically-complex Meshuggah in their punch. The entirety of the record is instrumental, but in bits and pieces the layering of lead and rhythm guitar on “Drunk” or the pacing shifts in “Pazuzu Master” make for a decent listen. There are light touches of classic heavy throughout and samples in “Garage Anthem” and elsewhere to provide a human touch, but by and large the focus is on forward-moving rhythmic drive and riff-led heavy rock grooving. Their second release behind 2011’s Pyramid Toward Oblivion, Hidden Voices doesn’t try to be anything it isn’t, and the fuzz and ambience at the end of “In the Centre of the Sun” speak to a budding interest in atmosphere that can only make their sound richer as they go forward. Slow Order on Thee Facebooks, on Bandcamp.
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Lotus Ash, The Word of God
Post-metal’s tricky these days. As a subgenre, it seems to be waiting for someone to come along and add elements to the mix outside of the sphere of Neurosis/Isis crush/drone tradeoffs, tribal drums and Godfleshy atmospheric foreboding. Milwaukee’s Lotus Ash, with members in tow from Northless, Ellis and Maidens, have a better grasp of melody than most in the style, and put it to good use in cuts like “Soul of Man,” creating a contrast between weighted tones and clean vocals that sounds progressive and creates a lasting impression as the song continues to build to its noise-soaked apex. Standalone vocalist Brandon Bocian, guitarist Nick Willkomm, synth-specialist Nick Elert, bassist Kyle O’Donnell and drummer Brian Brown are a relatively new act, having gotten together last year, but their debut showcases a firm grasp on churning riffs and tidal sway — the centerpiece title-track is a highlight — and sounds full in a way that speaks to a confidence of approach and patience in composition, the molten flow from track to track serving as evidence of both. It’s early to call them the group that will reinvigorate the style, but much like Brooklyn’s Hull or Belgium’s Amenra, Lotus Ash seem primed to find their place within post-metal and develop an individualized approach from there. As first impressions go, that’s not a bad one to get from a debut recording. Lotus Ash on Thee Facebooks, on Bandcamp.
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Also added to the Radio playlist today were new ones from Stubb, No Way, Werwulf, Geezer, Rhin, Sky Children and more. If you get the chance, the full list is up on the Playlist and Updates page. Your continued support of this silly project is appreciated.
Thank you for reading and listening.
