STREAM: Mark McGuire & Charles Berlitz - MR
There's guitar dreamers, guitar shredders and guitar players. Rarely do all three fit into the same world, but Mark McGuire and Charles Berlitz go intergalactic yet stay a-rippin on this new one "MR" – a dedication to surfer Mark Richards. If you love those old Fripp & Eno albums, get on this.
PREMIERE: Kerretta - Sleepers
For those of you guilty of assuming all Kiwis are chummy sprites forever seeking the next hacky sack, meet Kerretta—a blistering New Zealand metal trio. They make explosive rock with heart, maneuvering their angst-ridden guitars into something sparse, melodic, and at times, even catchy. Think Mogwai or ISIS, but leaner and less grandiose. Kerretta is fresh off their SXSW dates and on to the rest of the country. Those stops can be found here, while their oft-lauded ‘silent to violent’ LP Vilayer is out through Midium Records now.
EXCLUSIVE NEW DOWNLOAD: Tangles - Tingaling + Momo
Some music is just so desperate to make an impression, battering you about the head with obnoxious noise, screaming at you in motto-punk couplets, blasting coruscating bass synths all over your sore, sorry face. But not Tangles. The impression Tangles make isn't immediately obvious. It sort of creeps on you and puts brains into drift. If you've clicked play you've not even reading this. I know you're not. But it's OK. You're entangled. Just let us know what you saw.
Sounds Like: Ducktails, Durutti Column, Emeralds
EXCLUSIVE NEW DOWNLOAD: Bombay Bicycle Club - Dust on the Ground (Banjo Or Freakout Remix)
Alessio Natalizia's world must be an endlessly rewarding place. His covers series eked new life from artists as diverse as Amy Winehouse and Burial and on the evidence of this the man seems able to listen to a fine but ultimately limited indie rock song and hear hidden galaxies, his take on Bombay Bicycle Club's "Dust on the Ground" exploding the Big Music ambition at the heart of the track into something satisfyingly vast. Shimmering with Katana guitar and evaporating horizons of fuzz, this Banjo Or Freakout version recalls a ton of bands and none all at once; too pop to be considered noise, really, but too noisy not to be compared to the sound of blowing brains.
Sounds Like: Aphex Twin, The Present, Phaseone
Bombay Bicycle Club - Dust on the Ground (Banjo Or Freakout Remix)
Bombay Bicycle Club's RCRD LBL Page
EXCLUSIVE NEW DOWNLOAD: The Warlocks - Red Camera
For a name that didn't fit early incarnations of both The Velvet Underground and The Grateful Dead, The Warlocks has done right by Bobby Hecksher, who adopted the name for his then eight-strong band of pranksters in 1998. Since their inception, Hecksher's Warlocks have released five albums of very strong, cataclysmic psych-rock, and "Red Camera," from their newest one, The Mirror Explodes, extends the trip further. After building on python-ish drones and tambourines hits for the better part of four minutes, the band really hit their stride in the closing moments, when what seems like the trillionth guitar covers everything in inches of beastly drone. MP3 premiere below; The Mirror Explodes is out May 19th through Tee Pee.
Sounds like: The Brian Jonestowne Massacre, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Black Mountain
DOWNLOAD: A Broken Consort - The Elder Lie
A Broken Consort is Richard Skelton, a multi-instrumentalist from the northwest UK region of Lancashire. Skelton's obligue, string-heavy excursions under the pseudonym (one of his many) are usually released on his own Sustain Release Private Press, which he started in tribute to his late wife Louise, releasing her artwork alongside his music. Box Of Birch is the second A Broken Consort album, though it's the first to get picked up by Tompkins Square Records (home of James Blackshaw and the excellent Imaginational Anthem compilations) for release in the U.S. "The Elder Lie" is the record's closer, a delicate eight minute passage of tempting, bow-stringed drones.
The Wire also has an exclusive video made by Skelton to accompany the record, you can view that right here.
Sounds like: John Cale, Psychic Ills, James Blackshaw
A Broken Consort - The Elder Lie
A Broken Consort's RCRD LBL Page
EXCLUSIVE NEW DOWNLOAD: Night Control - CS + Good Looks
The reclusive Christopher Curtis Smith is Night Control, who used to be Crystal Shards, who doesn't do interviews and doesn't play live. The man's putting out a message: he does not want to be found. He's just as slippery on record, his Death Control album - a collection of tracks recorded at home over the years and out now through Kill Shaman - harbouring eternal pop elixir behind a cross-hatch of noise and guitar shrapnel, found sound and the songs from the last 30 years that are still cool even though everyone knows the words. You can't hear any of the words on Death Control - that would be too vain, probably, for Smith to hack. Instead there's the general feeling, despite the dischord, that all is or will soon be well in the world. And who doesn't want that feeling? About as many of you who won't like "Good Looks" or non-album, totally exclusive, future 7" cut "CS". Both sound freshly relieved of some painful ordeal and they're beautiful for it, frankly.
Sounds Like: Ariel Pink, Velvet Underground, A Grave With No Name
DOWNLOAD: Blues Control - Tenku You
The act chosen to warm-up the crowd on Tuesday night at Animal Collective's much jabbered over show in New York, Queens pair Blues Control's jams tend to be shyer, happy to exist at the peripheries Panda Bear and co. stalk rather than burst into those moments of explicit, ecstatic pop limelight we're sure you're more than familiar with. A fragile, mysterious and red-eyed wander through lush ambient territories, "Tenku You" will appear on a forthcoming 2x4 12" issued by the From The Nursery label, while Lea Cho and Russ Waterhouse will release their third album on Siltbreeze later in 2009.
Sounds Like: Blancmange, Gentle Friendly, Attillio Mineo
