Quiet Evenings - Transcending Spheres

After that previous post about Not Not Fun I had a chuckle to myself and thought 'What am I going to do next check out the new releases on Digitalis or Hooker Vision?' These labels covered the scene(s) of many names hypnagogia, glow fi, tropical, neo-kosmiche, altered zones, nu age noise etc. I had a little look on the intewebs only to find Hooker Vision ceased operations in 2014 and Digitalis seems to have perhaps closed its doors around the same time. So I won't be doing a post featuring 2017 releases from those labels. Maybe I need to check out Gift Tapes, Pizza Night, Taped Sounds, Olde English Spelling Bee or Catholic Tapes. Those labels probably don't exist either. I reckon 6 years is the perfect amount of time for a label to exist anyway. Don't hang around too long to become boring. Imagine if Flying Nun or Ghostbox halted after that amount of time, they would have been perfect.

From the ye olde Hooker Vision blog

Anyway I did discover an old album by Quiet Evenings from 2011. Quiet Evenings contain the husband and wife team, Grant and Rachael Evans, who also ran the Hooker Vision label. Rachael's other musical project is the fab Motion Sickness Of Time Travel and her husband was in Nova Scotian Arms, Crippling and a whole bunch of others. Transcending Spheres turns out to be a lost classic that funnily wasn't released on any of the aforementioned labels. It's here at bandcamp though. Synths drift and hover, beats remain discreet and guitars even appear amongst the narcotic glaze. It's dark, it's haunting and it's sublime.

Motion Sickness of Time Travel (part II)

I did such a bad attempt at a review of their latest self-titled double LP on Spectrum Spools I thought they deserved another try. For me it all started with the tape Seeping Through The Veil of Unconsciousness on Digitalis. This came out of the blue for me and was a cut above the rest of the field with their unique pretty haunting echoes and immersive electronic drift. In my top 5 for 2010. I thought they were going to struggle to top this but they have at least twice.

An auspicious introduction.

Then there was Awakening a 3 track tape which may have been recorded earlier than the previous tape I'm not sure. More vague allusive bubbling drones, haunting ebbs and flows with waves of of wordless vocals. Side B gains an atmospheric intensity.

Released on Dial Square Tapes

I think I have missed a few in between(try a gazillion, check bandcamp) but my next one was the 2011 classic Luminaries & Synastry. This release containing shorter tracks. Is this their attempt at a pop album? Dunno about that. Electronic pulses, synth ambience and even some textural guitar. There may have even been words hidden in the swarms of buried of vocals. I described it in my top 11 LPs of 2011 as all the Vs - vaporous, vague and vacuous. All meant as compliments. Lovely.



Did you read your Stars today?



Now for my 2nd attempt to make this album sound as appealing as it is. Motion Sickness of Time Travel's self titled 2012 epic double LP. They really stretch out here with side long tracks and it suits them. They voyage out into the the cosmos in a holy manner with heavenly pulsating tones Tripping through intergalactic aquatic landscapes and then into ominous black holes and back again. Nobody has come up with a true Kosmische masterpiece such as this since the 1970s.



Rating - A Galaxy.