Tag Archives: drone metal

THE HAPPY FAMILY – Rodrigo: TRACK OF THE MONTH

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SEPTEMBER REWIND: PROG CHAOS, SUBLIME BRISTOL BEATS, GOTH/POST PUNK COLLABORATIONS AND A DRONE METAL ANNIVERSARY

THE HAPPY FAMILY ‒ Rodrigo

Zeuhl music? That’s a new one on me – blame it on the lack of Magma in my life.

But if zeuhl translates to a heavy, scrambled splatter of maniac prog like this awesome blowout from The Happy Family, sign us up. Rodrigo isn’t new – it came out in 2014 ‒ but the impact on virgin ears is immense. Chunky metallic riffs, quintessentially 70s keys, blazing short solos, awkwardly-crammed-in time sig changes and chaotic, almost disco-driven beats make for a deliciously demented instrumental. And the unbelievable crunch on the riffs serves the Metal Realm very well, even though jazz un-sensibility and genre-chopping hyper prog are the bigger drivers. NoMeansNo come to mind in the harder bits, as do Faith No More in places (you could definitely imagine Mike Patton losing his shit all over this). 

GET THE BLESSING – Oscillation Ochre

Sticking with the instrumentals for a minute, this is another brand new exposure to a band who’ve been around a bit. Less crazoid than The Happy Family but absolutely no less inventive with the beats, it’s the stripped bass and deft, light-touch skitter that pulls you in. How so magnetic? Well, Clive Deamer’s behind the kit and those Bristolian waters run deep. You can hear where Radiohead/The Smile like to splash around. Great track for the headphones, every instrument slides in and out just when it needs to. Taken from upcoming album Pallett. 

BRIAN ENO – Cutting Room I

If Eno did blues jazz film noir … hang on, stop right there. What are we thinking, trying to put Brian Eno’s music into words? How very dare we. There’ll be a depth of engineering, detail, creativity and process that’s beyond the oafish scope of the barely literate scribe. And, being the thoughtful, precise writer that Eno is, you can bet he’s already crafted an exemplary few words that render your own effort to be as eloquent as battered sausage leftovers. From last week. 

So, back to (BATTERED SAUSAGE ALERT) ‘blues jazz film noir’ … Cutting Room I, a soundtrack to Top Boy, grinds mild menace from a low bass that moves with the slightest of struts down underlit back streets. Piano suspense too. Could definitely hear a big band ensemble pulling this off. 

Overwritten embarrassment over. Just have a listen.  

LOL TOLHURST x BUDGIE x JACKNIFE LEE – Ghosted at Home

How many legends can you cram in a project title? Here’s another one: Bobby Gillespie, because he’s the voice of Ghosted and maybe that’s why it circles back to Primal Scream’s more inventive soundscapes – a loping, looping Vanishing Point pulse is the centrepoint to this kaleidoscopic inner-city trip. Get up and dance to it. No, scratch that. Groove to it. These beats are introspective.

EARTH – Angels

Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version – the seminal Earth 2, as many write-ups will no doubt repeat – gets a 30th anniversary reissue next month. Cannot argue against its landmark status as a monolithic statement, but whether you find it listenable let alone enjoyable is a different question – am much more in the Hex camp meself. Anyway, the Earth 2.23 Special Lower Frequency Mix EP that’s out with the reissue gives us a different way into the source, starting with Angels getting grimy via The Bug and Flowdan. Check it here.       

‘til next time!

Northern Quarter, Manchester
Manchester, Northern Quarter

BORIS & UNIFORM – You Are the Beginning: TRACK OF THE MONTH

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MAY REWIND: GODSPEED MAKES LIGHT, BORIS CUTS LOOSE AND TAMAR APHEK ROCKS HARD

Queens of the Stone Age have been on the playlist a fair bit these past few weeks. Must be the time of year. Or the appearance of new single Emotion Sickness and their fresh announcement as Glastonbury headliners. Or the Homme-sized wormhole started by a couple of top-drawer Kyuss reactions (NASTY!!! FLY!!!) from the groove-loving Lost in Vegas fellas Ryan and George. Or all of the above. Anyway, if Glastonbury is anything like their 2018 Finsbury Park show, QOTSA will surely win over the world.

Let’s start with a couple of typographic opposites. Just because, for one month only, we can.

First is the upper-case underscoring of ALL HANDS_MAKE LIGHT, aka Efrim Manuel Menucke and Ariel Engle, whose Waiting for the Light to Quit‘s drones-and-violin (is it?) shimmer teases a huge motorik explosion that never arrives, leaving you suspended in rays instead. Beautifully orchestrated, as you’d expect from a GY!BE/Silver Mt Zion spirit.

Second in this desperate, horribly contrived typo pairing is the lower-case/no-spaces charm of West Yorkshire favourites worriedaboutsatan. New album The Pivot takes a more varied detour from the consistently ambient/twilight electronica routes sometimes followed, and that’s mykindaworriedabouts – see the icy, metronomic pulse of Stop the Car for evidence. Go check The Pivot right here.

OK, a couple more awesome discoveries before we shut this dribbling tap of words OFF.

BORIS & UNIFORM – You Are The Beginning

Confession: after following them pretty devoutly for a few years in the noughties, I’ve dropped all Boris balls. Haven’t bought a new album of theirs since D.E.A.R. because that album continued a sequence that just didn’t quite land in the way that Feedbacker, Akuma No Uta, Altar, Smile and the like did. But this is part of the Boris trip because, as we know, there are very many Borises. It all depends which version(s) push your buttons.

Given all that, You Are The Beginning may well be the sound of a door re-opening – and if so, it’s a noisy, ripped-off-its-hinges door because this track starts like an uptempo kicker with harsh vocals and then loses its shit, winding up to a pummelling, chaotic clatter. Carnage from the neck up.

TAMAR APHEK – Crossbow

Primitive, repetitive bass and ultra-taut drums build the hyperactive motor behind Crossbow’s urgent, twitchy rhythm – until, that is, Tamar Aphek’s guitar howls voodoo across the joint. On this track she channels the free-thinking spirit of Savages and Fugazi, meaning space is the place – and it’s between the instruments. Not quite new, this tune and album came out in 2021 but it’s easily the most arresting new encounter from last week. And that’s why we’re talking about Crossbow.

’til next time!

Northern Quarter, Manchester
Manchester, Northern Quarter