Boar : year of the bison

Dubuque Iowa's Boar aka alex nowacki's
third release on felt cat records,
the biggest longest and most concise release to date,
alex added a second member earlier this year
patirck G, the new two man noise spazzout sounds
bigger than ever,

the album has a more industrial feel then
the older lo fi efforts from mr nowacki,
there are still blankets of harsh static
feedback, but underneath is a repeating
hum of melody, a spooky synthesizer pulse
below the first level of noise,
a melodic cacophony,

track three has some nice mixer feedback and
screamed vocal mash ups, plus lots of that
heavy static and more melodic
backdrops from outer space,

track four is a electronic nervous wreck
almost danceable in its lo fi stress loop,
it repeats for a while and leads into
more mixer squeals,

track five takes a more peaceful turn
with an echoing keyboard resonance,
and more feed back,

the album ends with more bison noises
and the sounds of water or rain sloshing around
under the bison's feet maybe,

this seems to be a bit of a differant
direction for the Iowa wonder,
i have enjoyed all his other releases
and i enjoy this one as well,
weather or not this direction is
better that the last, it does sound bigger and clearer
than ever before, and that can only bring more attention
to an already great project,

ReiRea : mallow dents

mallow dents by ReiRea starts off with "hume soup"
it sounds like a busy and bustling subway station,
with lots of humans milling around, but in an abstract
way it doesn't sound like a field recording, it could also
remind one of water and the ocean especially when the
moaning delay whales sounds come in,

track two goes in a whole different direction
beginning with a screeching feedback yelp,
that sounds human, like a screaming witch,
it continues on with one note amplified and
distorted sailing over a underlying bass pulse,

track three is more of the same one sustained note,
think E-bow and delay,
track four "Impale" is quieter and has a nice repeating
loop that keeps skipping back abruptly & keeping your attention,

the album is docile and maybe simplistic,
and im not sure how many times i will
end up spinning it after this review,
but its a solid release, it has a passive and
industrial vibe like falling asleep out side a factory,

the art and liner are gorgeous aswell,

Tien seward : Stars On Browser

I got this tape a half a year ago, and never got the chance
to review it for many a splendid reason, but i constantly listened
to it, it quickly became one of my favorite tapes,

the most basic why i would define this work,
would be as a audio collage, which is simple the
same way you would explain any field recording
tape, or any broader explanation of the genre itself,
but this is one of the first to have resonated
with me this strongly,

its a mix of telephones, answering machine
messages, supermarket banter, and poems
read through a text to speech maker,
plus a beautiful guitar loop that makes an
appearance on both sides of the tape,

the tape he mailed me
was accompanied by a zine put out
by die kung fu hund i believe tien is invloved
with the zine but not sure ?
www.myspace.com/diekungfuhund
the blog is down so not sure how active the zine is anymore?


get in touch send him trades send him money
www.myspace.com/stopsilentradio

Fair Conditioner :Meth

i received this project from Jonathan loja when it was entitled
Faith/lightspeed, he is now known as Fair Conditioner,

when i popped the cdr release into my
computer i first noticed it had seventeen tracks,
but only 7 where listed, the first track started out sounding
kind of jazzy with a repeating bassline and tambourine loop,
it gets noisier as it progresses with a mumble shouting vocal track,

track two starts out as a folk noise piece,
with arrhythmic drumming and a mellow
acoustic guitar riff, transitioning
to loops and hip hop samples and random noises,

track 7 (noons,newns,nooeunes,nunes)
sounds like a silent horror film
played in a suburban basement while
someone is cleaning up,


the whole album was created on a laptop
as an experiment and learning curve,
it is sporadic and laid out in bits
and fragments, leaving not much distinction
between tracks, but creating a greater whole,
than its individual parts and scraps,


the album feels like playing craps
while taking acid, just throwing the
dice and seeing what happens,
parts of it are great other parts I've heard
done better,



hit him up for a copy here >>>>
www.myspace.com/faithlightspeed
virb.com/fairconditioner

Abstract Distractions : Bipolar bear &Talbot Tagora 10"

bipolar bear and Talbot Tagora serve
up a nine track pop rock split vinyl 10" Abstract Distractions,
on Los Angeles noisepop label olFactory Records.
the first side features LA's own Bipolar Bear,
a boisterous noisey rock outfit equipped with
fuzzy guitar riffs, prominent 80s influenced bass
lines and rambunctious megaphone vocals,

acording to there myspace

"Paul Knee sings and plays guitar.
Thadius plays guitar too, but not as good. Birk plays bass.
Kirchhammer beats the drums into a sleeperhold.
Marc sleepers into a drumhold. Nat sings some backs"

they exude the same sensibilities as a band
like times new viking, its happy music but with
no apparent reason why, its not sappy or drawn out,

the first and second songs both start with a
strong catchy bass line, Algiers the second track,
opens with a riff copped right from the band interpol,
although most likely totally unintentional,
its a dirty anthem with undecipherable lyrical content,
something about "gather up the masses, make another species"

another track Library starts with a fast heavy
guitar riff that you could hear in a motorhead song,
it also has a lovely chorus/refrain "all is bearing down on me"
sung in a falsetto gang vocal,


talbot tagora started out with Ani Ricci and Mark Greshowak,
they added Chris Ando, both Mark and Chris play guitar
usually neither of them playing bass,

they create a abe vigoda style four piece rock attack
equal parts pop melody's, and harsh distortion,
although Talbots a little more noisy akin to bands like wavves,

the stand out track on talbots side is the weather man,
its an energetic snappy angular dance song complete with full stops,
imagine a lot of jumping when this song is played live,
black diamond is probably my personal favorite, once again
i think of times new viking, with the clamorous building
male/female vocal and simple guitar progression,


both sides are a delight to listen to,
you couldn't have asked for two more cohesive
bands to make a great release showcasing
the LA noisepop scene, which is currently
exploding with long standing los angeles venue The Smell,
and groups like no age signing to sup pop,
no telling where these dudes will be in no time,




support both bands by buying shit
here >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

talbot myspace
http://www.myspace.com/talbottagora

bipolar myspace
http://www.myspace.com/bipolarbear

olFactory records
http://www.thesmell.org/olfactory.html

Monks of the balhill/ a man and a guitar :beyond the map

the second release from french
psych-folk duo of Vincents,
(Vincent Caylet and Vincent Fribault)
gives an overwhelming focus to the guitar,
with little noticeable looping or sampling
that appears in there later work,

its out on Denmark experimental folk
label a beard of snails, who release
a fare amount of easily digestible
psych-noise, some of it fairly disposable
monks on the other hand are far from disposable
all though this is not there best effort
its a good place to start, it lays the ground
work for there melodic cathedral sized sound,

to illustrate my point about the focus on guitar
listen to track 4 skouo, its a simple four chord Melodie
played over again for two and a half minuets,
there is nothing spectacular about it and i miss
any point it has to the rest of the album,
it seems out of place and transparent,

track two is probably the most in depth
of every thing the release has to offer,
its a layered melodic seven and a half long
musing of repeating guitar gentle wind instruments,
and bells, the one track on the album that makes
the most sense taking its time to round out,


track three is also a nice blending of sporadic
ambiance and mild and nostalgic repeating guitar,


the release has an untouchable familiarity,
maybe its intentional, the album is dedicated
to old movies and directors of classic films,
its a good effort and it works on different levels
its meant to stir up old memories, i cant quite
get into it though maybe the memories aren't from my past,

check out there new stuff here >>
http://www.myspace.com/monksofthebalhill

their housecraft release is beautiful grab a copy,

Boar : seeing and loving what you are seeing

IS THERE SOMEONE ALIVE IN THERE...
..ARE YOU OK..ARE YOU OK......
IM GONNA GET YOU OUT OF THERE....
says the panicked female voice in distress,
its a sample from some movie,
no googling brought up the right
script so i don't know what its from,
but its how the first felt cat records
released Boar album starts,

track two is a two and a half minuet
static hysteria jam, with a whooping
siren and microphone feedback,
i don't know if he actually used a
microphone but its that kind of sharp
and swooning feedback you get from a speaker,


track three slows things down considerably
with stars of the lid or Windy and Carl
type vibes, soft and floaty, a constant
and repeating melody washed out and bassy
with cymbals,

track four is like a battleship game in a bathtub
its bubbly and splashing attack noise,
it turns into squealing screams like that thing
you can do with a balloon by stretching
the neck and making it wail and squawk,

boar is alex nowacki from Dubuque Iowa,
i have reviewed his work before and he
always produces something different and exciting
ranging from harsh attack noise too soft ambient
guitar and drum musings,

this album is no exception,
its a mix of plunderphonics and original
noise destruction and drum punkouts,

it comes in a folded brown paper bag
sealed with wax with a piece of label
runner devin darts jeans on the front
with boar written in marker, its a charming
DIY aesthetic of recycled materials and homemade
love,

felt cat 08
http://www.myspace.com/feltcat
http://www.myspace.com/boarnoise