Month: February 2016

Yes – a new Black Cobra album! And it’s out on Season Of Mist, which is the force behind so many important heavy music releases, I don’t even know where to begin. If you’re into this stuff, you’ve probably been at the last couple Black Cobra shows at Gramps and know that these guys rip equally hard live as on record.  A perfect mix of sludge and thrash, with excellent lineage (and ties to Miami’s heavy scene), Black Cobra achieve more as a duo than most bands can do as a 5-piece. Furthermore, their style is accessible enough that even metal naysayers could get into it, well, at least I hope so. But hey – just check out a track below and hear for yourself. If you like what you hear, Black Cobra play Churchill’s on March 24th with Bongzilla and Lo Pan. -MLE

Black Cobra – Imperium Simulacra 2LP
Listen – “Challenger Deep”
“Listening to Imperium Simulacra is like watching an experienced chef at work. His shimmering knives are honed to perfection. First a chunk of flesh is hacked with precision into just the right size. With a sharp blade all the excess fat and gristle are trimmed away in quick strokes until only the lean meat remains. The bloody piece is fried in a hot pan to keep it juicy. Each morsel will be succulent and tasty.

The frying guitars, burning rhythms and rugged vocals on each of the nine new songs by BLACK COBRA are about as delicious. The band was formed in 2001 by guitarist and vocalist Jason Landrian (ex-CAVITY), who was joined by Rafael Martinez (ex-ACID KING, -16, GAMMERA). The duo exploded from the underground with their scathing take on hardcore-fueled sludge metal.

After the release of 4 well-received full lengths, BLACK COBRA have leveled venues first across the United States and increasingly on international stages alongside such cult acts as HIGH ON FIRE, WEEDEATER, PELICAN, THE SWORD, YOB, SLEEP, TORCHE, KYUSS, LIVES and many more.

Now BLACK COBRA are more than ready to take several big steps up the ladder of success and take the world by storm with Imperium Simulacra. Crank up the volume, bang your head, and let this album shred!” -Season Of Mist

Sound wave simulacra – new releases, reissues & restocks…

Read moreThis Just In: Imperium Simulacra

This week FACT Magazine posted a bomb-ass “Complete Guide To Stereolab.” All of Team Sweat are really into Stereolab, so not only are we excited about the guide, but we’re also stoked on the new release from Stereolab members Tim Gane & Joe Dilworth’s project Cavern Of Anti-Matter, entitled void beats / invocation trex. This is 100% for fans of Stereolab (which if you’re not, check out the complete guide above and get hooked), but also for fans of any kosmische, kraut, electro, techno or sci-fi jams. The entire album feels like an adaptive video game soundtrack of the highest quality, complete with pop hooks and textures. Excellent for long road trips, or spacing out with headphones. Check out a track below along with a fun album description from the fine folks at Bleep. And don’t miss the in-stock list below that – it’s insane!!! -MLE

Cavern Of Anti-Matter – void beats/invocation trex 2LP
Watch: Liquid Gate (ft. Bradford Cox)
“Killer album of far flung library rooted machine-led psychedelia from Cavern Of Anti-Matter, new on Duophonic. You may well know Tim Gane and Joe Dilworth from shoegaze indie group Stereolab, so for fans lookin’ for a bit of that magic we are pleased to say have come to the right place, but! by enlisting the talents of Holger Zapf they have moved further afield into new avenues with the vintage library styled sci-fi sounds of void beats/invocation trex. With an all star line up of guest spots including Bradford Cox (Deerhunter) Sonic Boom (Spacemen 3) and Jan St. Werner (Mouse on Mars) they have crafted a modern classic of indie-electronica that’s sure to stay close to many turntables for years to come. The tracks flit between analogue kosmiche, post-punk electro and hi-tech jazz techno with ease whilst all the while being held together by a penchant for spectrum spooling sounds and rhythm that give nod to fellow soundtrack travelers such as Jonny Trunk and The Advisory Circle. The narrative is one of up lifting waves of tightly played, experiments of fruitful pop which even at points glances back to the sounds explored within one of Gane’s earliest incarnations as part of legendary noise group Uncommunity. Cavern of Anti-Matter are a group who have been built upon years of experience and whilst not afraid to look back on the shared history of its members for influence void beats/invocation trex acts as a perfectly placed reminder that the road they are currently traveling down is one untrodden by few and sure to lay forth possibly the most unique chapter in each members discography yet.” -Bleep

various beats/invocation tracks – new releases, reissues and restocks…

Read moreThis Just In: Cavern Of Anti-Matter

It’s been a minute since we’ve featured something REALLY out there. Luckily, RVNG Intl. just dropped another incredible avant-new age/conceptual collection to take us all out of our sonic and linguistic comfort zones. Anna Homler and Steve Moshier’s Breadwoman & Other Tales trips on language, abstract storytelling, melodic cut-ups, and esoteric performance art. Not only is this stuff weird in the best possible way, it’s from 1982, when it was waaaaaaaay harder to create compositions in this manner (no computers!), let alone get it out to the masses. Good thing RVNG is on point, as usual, and made it available to us now. Highly recommended for fans of Laurie Anderson, Elodie Lauten, Holly Herndon, and post-Never For Ever Kate Bush. Check out a track and a short documentary below, and this week’s in-stock list below the album description. -MLE

Anna Homler and Steve Moshier – Breadwoman & Other Tales LP
Listen: “Ee Chê”
Watch: Breadwoman Tails & Trails (Documentary)
“Breadwoman & Other Tales are the collected recordings of a language arising. It is the sound and document of Anna Homler divining speech, lyrical fragments, and melody for music composed, mixed, and engineered by Steve Moshier.

It’s 1982 and Anna is driving an ocean blue classic Cadillac to meet renowned poet and playwright Deena Metzger in Topanga Canyon, Los Angeles. Passing a non-descript desert patch where tall wheat and mustard flowers grow, Anna opens her mouth and sings in a salient stream of rhythmic, melodic sound.

Breadwoman is born, but not by immaculate conception. For Homler, performance art had recently become “a form big enough to contain everything happening” during her studies with Rachel Rosenthal at Otis College of Art and Design. As this performative freedom fed into the enchanted vocalese, the character of Breadwoman emerged.

Homler tread the same multi-disciplinary waters where Steve Moshier and the Cartesian Reunion Memorial Orchestra (CRMO), a communal avant-garde urban chamber music ensemble formed in LA in 1979, floated. When their currents connected, it was clear Homler and Moshier were kin, crossing genres through intensely physical de-significations of music: quasi-theatrical, fully mythic, ritualistic performances.

Instead of confining Anna as “a vocalist,” Moshier recognized Anna’s voice as a sonic element. To accomplish the recordings of this collection, Moshier chose the least song-like material from Homler’s handheld cassette transcriptions and composed music considerately. Anna would then record chants and song variations which Steve would tweak for final touches through his arsenal of analog equipment.

Although Breadwoman stands outside of time, she is is rich in the ingredients of 1980s Los Angeles performance art, renegade DIY punk, gallery culture, galvanized jazz, underground cassette-trading culture, drag extravaganzas, and esoteric meaning-making mysticism.

Breadwoman is a storyteller — she’s so very old she’s turned into bread. Breadwoman says: If you don’t try to understand, you will. She is the voice, and the voice is cosmic reality’s musicality. Through Breadwoman & Other Tales, we hear material meet mythos.” -RVNG Intl.

Vinyl Records & Other Formats – new releases, reissues and restocks…

Read moreThis Just In: Breadwoman & Other Tales

OK – this one was technically reissued a couple weeks ago, but we’ve been OBSESSED with it at the shop, so now you get to hear about it. Miljard was the 23rd release from Finnish metal band Circle. “Oh wow – a Finnish metal record, great…” you sarcastically say. But wait – while Miljard might be a record from a Finnish metal band, it’s not a metal record! It’s actually a collection of beautiful ambient pieces and piano nocturnes that the band describes as “a different kind of heavy.” They also describe it as “career suicide,” but that’s just if listeners have certain expectations and/or are closed minded. These keyboard-led, improvised, longform pieces fit perfectly alongside works from Max Richter, Harold Budd, Goldmund, Michael Cashmore, Sylvain Chauveau, etc., etc. Take a listen to the breathtaking track “Sophie” and read more about the album below. As usual, the weekly in-stock list is below the feature. Hope to see some of you out at International Noise Conference and J Dilla Weekend!!! -MLE

Circle – Miljard 3LP
Listen: “Sophie”
“Like with any group of tireless, fearless, infinitely creative artists, to discuss one album by Circle is to discuss a snapshot. In the course of over 20 years, and over 30 albums, the Finnish band has explored more genres than most people can name. They have been savage metalheads, trippy prog disciples, deftly accurate Krautrockers and purveyors of otherworldy folk.

In other words, to hear one record is to hear a moment static in time that may possibly never be revisited again. The moment here is Miljard, a 2006 instrumental album where the band chose to push themselves further than usual by assuming the form of ascetics working in the sparse realms of ambient music.

There is no form here, at least none that can be picked up casually. The opening melancholy keyboard line of ‘Parmalee’ illustrates the heart of the record: simple webs of melody used to stitch together brooding, fractured, disparate sounds that meander, skitter, rumble and squeal through all ten tracks.

Each one has been recorded to impart a sense of mood and theme. The slow builds and recessions; the moments of mania that disappear like delusions; the depth of field between the instrumentation; they create a fully realized atmosphere whether a song is only few minutes or runs to over twenty.

No single photo can define someone, and each Circle record only grazes their sweeping, stunning career. But as a stand- alone piece, Miljard fascinates, challenges and confounds every time you revisit it.” -Hydra Head

In a circle – new releases, reissues & restocks…

Read moreThis Just In: Circle