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

Ghost bees :Tasseomancy

Ghost bees is a twosome from Halifax, nova scotia,
comprised of twins Romy and Sari Lightman,
they started as a bigger band back in 2005
with others accompanying them on drum bass and violin etc..

they left the bigger collective sound behind
for a more delicate and elementary style,
giving more room to exercise
there lyrical fortitude,

they have a formidable ability
to make your heart swoon and your stomach
churn all at the same time, the marriage
of there beautiful harmony's and the seriousness
of there gruesome tales of wedding vampires and
elf kings stealing peoples children, is like drinking
absinthe in pineapple juice,

they have released a beautiful debut on
youth club records filled with fairytale imagery
and simple and eloquent mandolin and guitar
melodies,

most of these songs where available
on a previously released 6 track demo,
Sinai and Tasseomancy where new to this edition
but one of the tracks i was hoping to hear
rerecorded "haunting intervals" was missing
but after listening to the whole album
i found it as a bonus track at the end
of goldfish and metermaids,which was a nice
surprise, this was probably documented
on the youth club website and every thing
but i was happy to be surprised,

i cant say that one track stands out from the others
it kind of all fits together as one mouthful,
like a book or a film, not that its a concept album
or anything like that but track to track it dose
flow like a family tree of story's, these two girls
deliver songs about other peoples history as if they
had lived it themselves, they do delve into
there own history in the song tasseomancy,
which tells the tale of there great great grandmother
who practiced the art of tea leaf reading ,

i have seen ghost bees compared to joanna newsom
so many times i have even made a poster for a
ghost bees show where i was told to write
"for fans of Joanna Newsome" on it,
if anyone wants to explain this to me id love it,
it seems people like to compare female vocalist
with any other women who are doing anything offbeat,
maybe i just don't hear it though who knows,


i cant say enough good thing about these
two, this cd is a must have for any fans
of the rising folkpunk/gothfolk genera that's building
with bands like timber timbre, Laura Barrett
and bruce-peninsula,



here is some video footage i captured last year, check it

Kevin Greenspon : Del Tecate

12 tracks of pure pop punk,
not your supermarket sk8ter pop,
but unadulterated angular influenced
pop melodys played in a sloppy analog
sound,

its a concept album about the
effects of alcohol on a group of young kids
in a small valley town in southern California,
which obviously leads to binge drinking
unprotected sex, crack babies, posting your one night stands
diary on the internet and all that fun stuff,


the album plays around with feelings
of isolation and going nowhere in life,
but still finding those moments when you
wouldn't want to be any where else than
where you are,

Greenspon released this album on his
own wierdpunk and popfolk label Bridgetown Records,
on cdr, it was also released on cassette limited to 20 on
scotch tapes, who put out all recycled material really limited
cool shit,

its a good release but i would like to
hear these songs with drum and bass added,
just to spread it out a bit



buy all the goodshit here
http://www.bridgetownrecords.tk/

Datashock : acidulle

datashock is a psychedelic noise folk
collective from Saarlouis, Germany,
they have a rotating group of performers
making up the group at any one time,
including Pascal Hector, marcel türkowsky, ulf schütte,
ronnie oliveras, jan werner, martina ripplinger
and ruth maria adam to name some,

here we have a nice little four song release
called Acidulle out on Chocolate Monk,

Track one "Fruhling im mumintal"
was recorded in fall of 2006, it begins quietly,
a small plucking is introduced and the sound
of wind or air escaping from some where is
slowly released, the sound of chimes
or some rustling noises culminate at the finish,


track two "orangina rouge and vodka" is very
camouflaged and open feeling, its bare and white washed,
docile tones and quiet flute sounds can be
made out from the melodically gaping canvas of sound,
it is a hushed but large and engaging song,
this one was recorded in the winter of 2007,

this is an enjoyable collection of recordings
all the tracks where recorded at different times
and seasons through out 2006-2007, but it
doesn't make it unorganized or jumbled,
it does kinda play like a teaser or sampler,
its short and not as expansive as
some of there other releases,


the drawings where created by musician/artist
and datashocker Ruth-Maria Adam,



You can download this album and others at
www.meudiademorte.de

Crest Fear Blur : Lutheran

track one Bouncy Tits stars us off with a
three second sample of what seems to be
a whimsical bluegrass bands plucking away,
it turns right into computer glitch noise,
that sounds like a busy office, like the
sound track too 9to5 if dolly parton was a robot,

the overall sound and direction of the album
has a focus on the harsh Merzbow influenced
music as terrorism ideal, at the same time
track two takes us in another direction and
has a much softer and engaging texture,
it features folk noise looping ambient
background sounds and more delicate layers,
track three takes us back into glitchy heaven,
but track four follows the softer theme and is a gentle
exploration of quiet blips and strings,

i find it hard to get fully involved with this release,
i just personally cant feel it as much as some other
computer noise outings, overall though its done well,
and i cant give any critical observations, nothing useful,
the art throws me off a bit though too, i got it as a zip file
and the art was a badly resized blurry picture of a trading card,
and the other insert was a traced computer drawing of shrek and donkey,
i feel uninspired and disconnected from the aesthetic,


this is out on a online label called proc records
www.proc-records.net


http://www.myspace.com/ontherimofthewheelanail