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.

Power Ambient LOL

I couldn't help but have a little chuckle to myself when I read an article at FACT on "Power Ambient". This is some kind of re-branding so the writers don't seem recalcitrant. Terms like New Kosmische, Nu New Age, Hypnagogia,Vapour Wave and even good ole Ambient have obviously become embarrassing and passe for these writers. So Motion Sickness Of Time Travel get a second bite of the cherry under a new genre pseudonym "Power Ambient". Hey I've always liked em no matter what category they've been put in. What about one of my other ambient favourites Panabrite, do they get to be rehabilitated? They released another excellent LP this year Pavilion, or do they remain in the backwaters of passe pigeon holes?

This is taken from Panabrite's 2014 album Pavilion.

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.

 

Peaking Lights New LP

Peaking Lights-Lucifer

Into my 8th listen already and yeah man I am diggin' this vibe. Some of the hypnogogic fog has burnt off  but they still have a hazy psych dub vibe like no other. Break out the painkillers.

Motion Sickness of Time Travel-s/t

Also been diggin this a lot. Dripping cosmic ambience for the new warbling age.....er that was meant as a compliment but I dunno if I'd wanna listen to a record that was described like that.

* These are not reissues!
** These are not archival releases!
*** Both of these are releases from 2012!
**** I do like new stuff. See!

Panabrite

So I was looking for where that Electric Rain Mix by Motion Sickness of Time Travel came from and the MMNL SSGS blog is from whence it came. Anyhoo I noticed in their list of 2012 mixes, Panabrite. I got a little excitement. Then I couldn't really tell if Panabrite did the mix or someone else made a mix of tracks from Panabrite's blog. It doesn't really matter though because it's the goods! The mix was perfect for the darkest, coldest and most wet early morning train ride through Melbourne this year. It would probably also suit your one man/woman journey into outerspace to flea the impending Apocalypse. Panabrite's blog, lunar atrium, I've been a fan of for a while as well as Panabrite's very own excellent output. I would consider myself a fan of electronic, kosmiche, library, ambient & some new age music but fuck me I don't know anyone in this mix except for two artists. This makes me happy because it's all good. More music to discover! So the artists cover the aforementioned musical territory, with a time span from mid 70s to 1984 as well as 2 tracks from 2011. This mix made my day!, twice.

Mixtapes: The Best Part II

Mark Van Hoen earlier this year did one of the best mixes for Pontone ever. Pontone Mixtape 87 might seem like a history lesson on paper but that makes it the best history lesson ever in electronic music. It.s so good I could listen over and over again despite being familiar with at least 2 3rds of the material here. Ligeti, Oneothrix, Japan, Oram, Derbyshire, Eno, Cluster, LFO and the list goes on. Somehow he makes it all gel and sound fresh. Another bewdy at Pontone is tape 77 Psychological Strategy Board Presents: Industry, What Industry? This is up there with the previously mentioned Moon Wiring Club tapes as well as being in similar territory. Actually I don't think I got this originally from Pontone, it may have been posted in several places anyway......

Rachel Evans of Motion Sickness of Time Travel did a cool mix a year or 2 back. The Electric Rain Mix was top shelf modern electronics that included Emeralds, Panabrite, Hobo Cubes etc.....dunno where this was from though.....It says on the track 'ssg special', which I'm guessing is some kind of blog........??

Electric Rain Mix
Rachel Evans

Now this one is an old skool classic-Sleaz & Cheez mix by DJ Soap from 2008. This is a fantastic sexadelic mix of French and Italian grooves. This'll get your spa party started for sure. Over 70 minutes of sonically sexual mischief including the likes of Mr Gainbourg, Morricone, Piero's Umiliani & Piccioni, Frances Lai, Nic Fidenco etc....anyway this came from The Sleazy Listening Blog which is fantastic for those sexotic sounds from 60s and 70s Euro soundtracks.



Sleaz & Cheez
Mix by Soap
2008
Sexadelic Baby!

  

A Bit Late, Whatevs....

2011

11 Records of 2011

936-Peaking Lights
Most played album of 2011. Some vague-hypno-lovers-dub. As good as Melbourne's very own Fabulous Diamonds. Get off yer head and dig on the grooves man.

Night Dolls With Hairspray-James Ferraro
Sounds like The Residents grand kids demented account of American High School life.  Killer nerds, perverted teachers and TV watching roaches. Better than a John Waters film.

Pan Am Stories-Rangers
The most underrated group in the world. Did they end up in any end of year lists. Their 5th classic in a row. Epic.

Ancient Romans-Sun Araw
More trippy grooves for another wasted generation. Big hit round here.

Far Side Virtual-James Ferraro
Apart from sounding like an 80s Italian synth library LP this sounded like the music to the bits in an 80’s teen flick where they start to get their shit together and have a glimmer of hope, not all the future/technology bullshit theory every critic espoused. Up cheese.

Cabaret Cixous-Maria Minerva
Top woozy tunes from the Estonian songstress. If it was the 80’s it would have been on 4AD.

The English Riviera-Metronomy
How the fuck did they do this? Deceptive and unique pop. Familiar and alien at the same time. Name an influence, it won’t stick.

Glass Swords-Rustie
Originally this was to be in a category of its own, Best/Worst record I’ve ever heard.  Due to closer inspection I now believe it to contain much awesomeness. It makes me wanna wear something shite, score some Es, put on $1 sun glasses and get some glow sticks.

As The Crow Flies-The Advisory Circle
I thought Hauntology was over but hold your horses. This is a cracker of melancholy electronic music. The sound of brown.

Nordsee/Contemplating The Observatory-Panabrite
A little bit new age, a little bit kosmiche and a tiny bit John Carpenter. This is the biz at 3am when you can’t sleep or don’t want to.

Luminaries & Synastry-Motion Sickness of Time Travel
All the Vs: Vaporous, vague, vacuous and very ..... 

Other Bewdies

Tallinn At Dawn-Maria Minerva

A Young Person’s Guide To-Mark McGuire

KWJAZ cassette-KWJAZ

Urban Gothic-Xander Harris

Underneath The Pine-Toro Y Moi

Midnite Crimes-Sand Circles
Memowrekz-Ekoplekz
Tapeswap-Ekoclef

Clutch It Like A Gonk-Moon Wiring Club

Replica-Oneohtrix Point Never

Music for Thomas Carnacki-Jon Brooks (er...forgot about this one. Should have been in the top 5 really.  Spooky sounds for weird scientists and satanic magicians.)

Who cares?

John Maus (he is Chapterhouse to Ariel Pink’s MBV)

England blah blah-pj Harvey (not listened don’t care)

Tom Waits (see above)

Amerifuckn’cana! (when will it end?)

Australians doing Amerifuckn’cana! (worse than above)*

Good Tunes

This would be usually full of top 40 tunes but Video Hits went away. However I do spend time in my wife’s car.

The Look - Metronomy

Ruff Trade – Maria Minerva

Zeke’s Dream – Rangers

Fanta – Psychic Reality

Someone Like You – Adele (sorry/up yours hipsters)

Guilty – Kasey Chambers (just up yours hipsters)**

Reissues/Archives/Compilations

Those Shocking Shaking Days: Indonesian Hard, Psychedelic, Progressive Rock & Funk 1970-78 - Various.

Thai Dai: The Heavier Side Of Luk Thung Underground - Various.

Flipper Psych Out: Original Italian Library Music From The Vaults Of Flipper - Various.

Mellow Mellow: Original Smooth Grooves & Chilled Beats - Various.

Psych Funk Sa-Re-Ga!: Seminal Aesthetic Expressions Of Psychedelic Funk Music In India 1970 - 1983 - Various.