throw up in the sky!

Ashtray Navigations is/are a project of one Phil Todd and his friends when he feels like incorporating them, playing with the likes of Alex Neilson, Neil Campbell, and Ben Reynolds. he crafts a style of drone music that stays very close to the grounds his contemporaries do, but it stays strictly unique and his own. coming from a noisier side of things (think west coast noise bands like Noggin or yellow swans (even though they aren't similar really)), but still sticking to the drone, he crafts lush fields of drone that are spacious and immense, with loads of little details that keep shifting in and out. very dynamic for drone, and usually the quality control is on "high."

this is his Qbico album "Throw Up In The Sky / With Fine Clinking Magnets." two shimmering pieces of processed guitar and tapes and other such jingle-jangle. i like this record a lot, it sounds awesome at 33 or 45.

just ripped at 33 though. sorry.

Ashtray Navigations - Throw Up In The Sky / With Fine Clinking Magnets
http://www.mediafire.com/?fiqzmdln4dr

from creek to creation, matt valentine is stoned.

you know, i love me some Tower Recordings. i love me some MV + EE. and i love me some MV solo shit. so it's natural that i would post this album since, you know, it's on Qbico.

this is Matt Valentine's "Creek to Creation" album put out on the good ole' Qbico way back in 2004. this album is full of stoned ass meanderings and stumblings, loads of appalachia styled fingerpicking, singing bowls, disembodied vocals, and fuzz. the album features 5 tracks, three under 2:30 and two going almost 15 minutes or longer. the influence of Dredd Foole is felt acutely here, with any vocals being warbly and weird, which is fine. someday i'll post that Dredd Foole album that's basically a Pelt album with guest stars.... we'll see.

all in all this is an interesting listen and way spaced out. for the more drugged of my readers for sure.

Matt Valentine - Creek To Creation
http://www.mediafire.com/?ztiy2eqeznn

p.s. oops! i had the link to the Kuupuu file here... i've fixed it now. srry flks. my bd.

no more crazy women, please.

you heard me.

Arthur Doyle would agree too, since he released a one-sided album on the mighty Qbico entitled "No More Crazy Women." it's full of his usual bombastic sax, a little muttering and wildness, and even a little elctronic manipulations. this is a short listen and an interesting one.

for fans of free-jazz, the qbico label, and crazy women.

sorry, no cover scans and qbico's website seems to be out of order.

Arthur Doyle - No More Crazy Women
http://www.mediafire.com/?auozkmddodj

knowing nothing ain't easy

Michael (Mick) Flower would know. or wouldn't. either way.

this is his Qbico album "Returning To Knowing Nothing" put out a year or so ago. on this release you find Mick noodling his guitar, fiddling and sawing away, humming and hawing, and totally blissing out with some raga-drone. a lot of this is close territory to his Vibracathedral Orchestra stuff, but way stripped down and less noisy. this is really good and very diverse. it sounds like there are at least 7 people on these tracks, but there aren't.

definitely recommended.

Michael Flower - Returning To Knowing Nothing
http://www.mediafire.com/?jxdwdhedm5d

oh, can there really be more Qbico? pt. 5

ok, the last qbico upload of the day belongs to none other than Neil Campbell and his Astral Social Club. for those who don't know nothing, ASC is Campbell's post-Vibracathedral project, usually finding him solo or with one or two friends helping. of course it's a drone based affair, with shimmering guitars and highly processed glitchy drum machines usually with the bpm being cranked all the way. it's like the drone music ravers would listen to.

this is a great record to come down off drugs to. opening very peacefully, Campbell lulls you in with shiny guitars and synth effects that are repeating and swelling until about minute 14 when the volume is so huge that your brain is only filled with it. if i close my eyes and listen to this i think of being in a blue room with little dots of bright light going ever faster until they explode everywhere and you just want to smile and embrace them. fantastic.

side b opens with a glitchy delay pattern that shifts and repeats over and over with sprawling guitars behind all the sounds, a wonderful and faded melody that sits in the back of your head while you focus on the clicks and tinkles of the processed electronics. then, almost out of nowhere the track changes completely, with the guitars coming forward and getting the processed treatment, sounding like lasers firing and a dj spinning acid house records at 16rpm. the two ideas come together and it is just fantastic, making you want more and more and you are only about halfway through the track. then, the drums fall out and you are left with a processed click and just the laser-like guitars humming and shimmering softly, rising and becoming louder and louder until it is just a beam of processed feedback and beautiful distortion, ending with more processed sounds and a strange ufo-like spinning sound that gives the whole thing an otherworldly feel.

this is an incredible record. Astral Social Club has been one of my favorite projects of any musician for a while now, any genre. it's just so pretty and sparkly and makes me wish everything was in a blacklit room.

drone music for the out there folks, or those wishing they could be even further out than they already are. lovely.

Astral Social Club - Star Guzzlers
http://www.mediafire.com/?rgyoy4wjguh

keeping the Qbico coming to the masses, pt. 4

ok, this next one will be a much easier to stomache release for most of you. Coffee's "Pissing Contest" sounds just like that: a free jazz ensemble who are trying to outdo each other in making a sonic bombardment that will destroy your sentiments of what you think traditional jazz should be. this is truly free music, with horns being echoed and overdubbed, and a drummer that sounds like he's playing two kits (though that could be the echo...).

the b-side, however, is a MUCH different affair, being mostly electronic. there are synthesizers here bleeping around and making a repetetive siren-esque moan that will fry your brains just enough to make you think the horns are synth as well, and then when you can't think anymore they fuck with your head EVEN MORE with scrapes and scratches and reversed recordings.

this is a truly strange record. it's pretty awesome though, and really pretty to look at (besides the black and white cover). for fans of noisy free jazz freakouts.

Coffee - Pissing Contest
http://www.mediafire.com/?itkdhzym3tw

more qbico for all!

most of you kraut-heads should be familiar with Conrad Schnitzler, what with his part in the first Tangerine Dream album and his involvement with Kluster (who became the seminal kraut electonic band Cluster after Schnitzler left the group) and Eruption. this is an archived recording that sat in the vaults for 30 years before it was issued by the great qbico.

this recording is a tough one to sit through, sort of like any early synth recordings, a veritable wankfest of synthesized bleeps and blurps. but don't let that fool you, this is way better than many other synthesizer albums of the period, having more of a range of sounds and feelings than most bands that did this sound, and for 1972 it's pretty impressive. still, sitting through 40+ minutes of just synth is tough for anyone but the true kraut enthusiast and avid schnitzler fans.

i like this record, it's intense and at times it can fool you into thinking there are sirens going off. it sounds like a crazy soundtrack to some 70's futuristic movie, but i can understand that this is definitely not for everyone.

Conrad Schnitzler - Con '72
http://www.mediafire.com/?igjtdyoym5g

Qbico appreesh pt. 2

the next round is done by a group many of you should be very familiar with by now: Double Leopards. featuring one of my personal favorites (marcia basset!) and the duo who went on to form Religious Knives, this brooklyn quartet craft a drone music that on this release was focussed and intense, starting with a plinking sort of electronic scrape sound and disembodied wordless singing building into less of a hum and more of a screech as the A-side continues, sounding like highly distorted whale noises at times. the B-side starts quietly with only and amplifier hum and some weird clicking, but you know it will build into something a lot more moaning than this. quickly the hum is joined by distant sounding metalic whirs and horn-ish sounds, with voices and echoes joining in. the whole mood of this record is eerie and sparse, being less about shredding eardrums and more about freaking you out.

the picture disk art is fantastically trippy, being done by one mr. greg lambkin (you know, the shadow ring?). this is an old qbico release and the only place your gonna find it is the bay.

oh, and turn this one up LOUD!

Double Leopards - Urban Concussion
http://www.mediafire.com/?gmjoy4mmitz

qbico records appreciation pt.1

today's round of posts centers around qbico records, an awesome european imprint focussing on releasing small, elaborately packaged, and beautifully crafted runs of vinyl releases ranging from free-jazz to noise. i've already posted the Family Underground picture disk (download it!), so if you were a fan of that then check these next posts out.

the first of today's posts is the Vibracathedral Orchestra (what a shock, right?) lp qbico put out a few years back. on it's bright green vinyl you find two long buzzing and droning pieces that will not be any kind of suprise to the fans of this band. there seems to be a lot more electronics on these tracks than on other vibra releases, with lots of chirps and electronic hums, but as you get deeper in the tracks the usual free-clattering circle of guitars, pipes, and strings come to the humming forefront. the flip side opens with a huge organ drone that sets the tone for a side full of ur-drone goodness that only this crew could bring.

this release marked a load of changes for the group, as there were a few line-up shifts coming right around this time (flower, campbell, and hayden all left the band for periods around this recording). it's good to hear that even if the band didn't have the same membership they weren't losing focus or straying from a path they laid out so well in the past. this lp is long gone, so good luck finding it out in the real world.

Vibracathedral Orchestra - The Sun Balance/The Open Knot
http://www.mediafire.com/?02mtjxebsyt

there's something droning in denmark...

Family Underground, a band of free-musicians hailing from denmark, are known for their releases being fairly hard to get. mostly putting out cd-rs or limited lp runs, this band is one that is tough to find, especially here in the u s of a. well, it's a good thing you got your old friend kills to help you out, eh?

this is their qbico lp entitled "Ancient Shadows." anyone familiar with the band will instantly recognize their clatter, a free noise drone scape that puts them into the same territory as bands GHQ, vibracathedral orchestra, the skaters, and double leopards. the drones scrape and blur, bend and shift, sounding cloudy and murky yet still fresh and exciting (well, as exciting as drone gets...). it's really no wonder that they mostly put out cd-rs, as this music tends towards that format, as i am certain that most of these "songs" are never performed again, each release is more of a time-period document than a set-list.

for fans of the aforementioned bands, the finnish free-folk scene, qbico records, my cat is an alien, and the noiseier moments of jackie-o motherfucker. definite good stuff, but not for everyone.

Family Underground: Ancient Shadows

http://www.mediafire.com/?imhmdmgzuoe