As I will be back in Beijing in a few weeks from now, I thought I’d spend Western Easter introducing my friends here to Dolphy Kick Bebop, a band out of Hangzhou, China. The label, Space Fruity Records, is connected with Beijing’s coolest record shop, Fruity Space, and the music is heavy-duty psychedelic rock. Brilliant, and I’m looking forward to catching up with the local scene on my return.
Two of the greatest legends in free jazz and psychedelic rock, Keiji Haino and Peter Brötzmann, join forces after a long while in this four-album noise-fest. My understanding that the vinyl pressing on Black Editions, which includes a 3-inch CD, is long sold out, which is unfortunate, but a standard edition is available for $100, a bit high, but for these two, and for a four-LP set, it just might be worth the price.
There aren’t too many releases that seamlessly blend electroacoustic music, post-Industrial and noise-rock, but to their credit, EYRYX seem to have straddled this very thin line perfectly. The release features friend of our blog, Philippe Gerber, who not only performs on the album, but who released it on his Alreon Musique.
N.R. Safi is the leader of the band psychedelic rock/drone band The Myrrors, yet this side project goes off on into a rather personal trajectory for him. This particular release combines the drone and rock he’s mastered, but it’s also layered with tapes from Afghanistan, where his roots are. Imagine Throbbing Gristle and Amon Düül II jamming in the outskirts of Kabul with local musicians, and maybe you’d get close to the vibe this album is giving.
I think it’s impossible to overestimate the important place Roy Montgomery has in the annals of New Zealand’s experimental rock scene. Thanks to his work on labels such as Kranky Records and Drunken Fish, he has quite a high international profile, and it helps that the music he’s produced for so many decades is nearly impossible to pigeonhole.
This latest project will be four CDs or LPs released in stages throughout 2021 and 2022:
February 5, 2021 – Island of Lost Souls
July 30, 2021 – That Best Forgotten Work
October 22, 2021 – Rhymes of Chance
January 14 2022- Audiotherapy
The tracks currently available are some of his best instrumental work in some time, and some of these tunes border on spacious prog-rock or psych. Everything sounds full and rich, rather than stripped down and lo-fi. It’s Roy all by himself, at his best. This project is ambitious, but judging by the quality of the first series of tracks, this set will be a worth addition to his incredible audio output.
Wow! Imagine a mangling together of Gang Of Four, early Wire, an angry Birthday Party and all that is good in post-punk, and you would have the bones to make Trigger Cut.
The tracks are minimal, punchy, and full of distorted angst. I’ll have to hear the rest of this album, but you can indulge in four tracks of brutal music right now.
I point you to my favorite track, Solid State. Enjoy!