Brad Kunkle

Lawrence English - The Peregrine

(Experimedia, 2011)

The Peregrine is a concept album, an audio homage to the J.A. Baker book of the same name, but I haven't read that book and you don't need to read that book to appreciate and utterly sink into English's work here.  Why?  This may be Mr. English's quintessential composition.  And for those well ingrained in the history of Lawrence English, in the wide ranging discography and collaborations, to make a quintessential claim at this point in the game is saying a lot.  Without saying much (I never do), I am trying to say a lot.  This is an album that pulls and meditates, storms and swells, literally takes heart, talons and wings--and despite having never heard of or read Baker's book before English's album, the album falcons about, dominating the landscape like a peregrine peering down over its domain.  English's drones have never been so rich, his composition never so evocative.  I did a brief interview with English about using the book as a catalyst.  He obviously loves the namesake of his album and I couldn't think of a more wonderful way to recommend a literary world than something as thoughtfully and impressively artful as this album is.  Looks like I'll be heading to the bookstore shortly as well.

Lawrence English - The Peregrine (album preview) by experimedia

Katsuhiro Otomo

Remembering how much I love the art of Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira, Steamboy).

Pete Swanson - I Don't Rock At All

(Three Lobed Recordings, 2011)

Pete Swanson is no stranger around these parts.  His work as half of Yellow Swans--particularly with their last few albums--is among the most convincing evidence that gritty, mottled darkness can simultaneously breathe blurred light and strangely shadowy beauty.  I Don't Rock At All is similarly amazing--blurry light flashing throughout--and similarly dense--evoking many shades of beauty settling in among multitudinous nooks and crannies--but I don't think I would describe it as dark.  Architecting I Don't Rock At All, Swanson has taken it up himself to knock out a few exterior walls and broom-hole some additional sky lights into the ceiling.  And the results are electric: guitar scraps stacking and swirling together like sediment: Swanson's mode finds a chaotic kinship with sometimes collaborator, Karl Bauer, and his work as Axolotl, not that they hadn't shared an audience before, but in the way that I Don't Rock At All digs into a quasi-spiritualism that feels ancient and bizarre but also filled with a wonderfully skewed sense of deliverance.  Suffice it to say that it is essential.  Believe it.

pete swanson - i don’t rock at all (album preview) by experimedia

Dead Luke - Meanwhile...In The Midwest

 (Moon Glyph, 2011)

Dead Luke: dead blues, corpsing psychedelia, fractal guitar licks, corruption.  Meanwhile...In The Midwest, Dead Luke is resurrecting, amassing muscle, sinew, tendons: illuminating.  Whereas before Dead Luke was the walking dead: limbs falling off, corrosive flesh-eating layers; now: a heart beating in the chest, even if irregularly, words speaking/singing--because of a mouth without holes in the cheeks.  All said, Dead Luke is a more handsome dinner companion now.  For whatever type guest you're interested in, Dead Luke seems to be spanning the full register of available deadness, this time leg-wobbling on the livelier end of things.  Real American music, for those interested in the current state of America.

Dead Luke - "God Of Nothing by Moon Glyph

Sam Vanallemeersch

Katie Bell

So smitten.

Hubble - Hubble Drums

(Northern Spy, 2011)

Ben Greenberg, guitar-man for the mighty Zs (also Pygmy Shrews), is Hubble.  And Hubble, ridiculously (ridiculously awesomely), is Greenberg's solo guitar project that is officially sanctioned by NASA as the soundtrack to a video of Hubble Telescope-captured space imagery.  I find that hilarious, and, since listening to the album, appropriate, and the elementary student in me that used to love (still does?) Bill Nye the Science Guy is ecstatic about that world colliding with my love of experimental music.  And Hubble Drums delivers: cosmic guitar swirls patiently creating, expanding and charting distant galaxies of its own.  Hubble's work is patient work, and I imagine it works even better in conjunction with the video, but is still a compelling listen for those with a persistent ear.  mangling its minimalist template over the course of three long-form tracks with only a guitar, Hubble Drums is stark, painting an electric wasteland, yet as its revolutions evolve and push, that wasteland proves considerably lush.  A unsurprisingly successful outing for Mr. Greenberg.  Looking forward to future iterations of the Hubble sound (in addition, obviously, to ZS).  

Nude Ghost by hubbletrouble

Roman Muradov's "Psychic Detective"

Selections (buy here, view here):

Spomeniks, Photographed by Jan Kempenaers

For some reason, these feel appropriate to post alongside Grooms' Prom--heaven knows why.  Incredible, socialist-era Yugoslavian monuments photographed by Jan Kempenaers.  Simply amazing.

Grooms - Prom

(Kanine, 2011)

Grooms' debut, Rejoicer, was my favorite album of 2009.  I have a fondness for and often slip back into the gritty guitars and general dissonance of 90's indie rock and Rejoicer struck so hard on that aesthetic, those hooks and the general feeling of rawness that I was immediately smitten.  It's a difficult thing, becoming so brazenly attached to an album, and then not feel some sense of disappointment when the follow-up isn't quite as awesome.  That's how I felt about this year's Gang Gang Dance album, Eye Contact, the follow-up to another year-end favorite: Saint Dymphna.  However, this is not how I feel about Prom.  Released in the summertime months, I have been digesting this album for a little bit and I have come to the conclusion that Prom demands a gestation period.  Rocking a little less urgently, a bit more casually, with the same sense of 90's-era shabbiness but not quite as loudly as on Rejoicer, Prom is calmed and, for lack of a better word, mature; but mature, as Dismemberment Plan taught me (among so many other things), is not so bad a word, and Prom is an absolute stunner.  I am smitten again and surprised, really, to not be at all disappointed.  Such an amazing album.  Don't sleep on Grooms. Prom is amazing.

Julia Holter - Tragedy

(Leaving Records, 2011)

The vinyl pressing of Tragedy disappeared in like ten seconds because those in the know knew Julia Holter is the for-real real deal and that her album--her debut full length--was/is pure awesomeness and so snatched that up like mad gold, because it's worth its weight, and me, I'm sitting here and I just stumble upon Tragedy and am like, "This is mad gold!" and swing over to Leaving Records and their like, "Nopes: all gone. But digital..." and I'm like, "Fer realz?" and they're like: "Yeah." and I'm adding my name to the long, hopefully growing longer list of peoples begging--on our knees begging--for a repress, because Tragedy has more depth, more sheer-blow-you-out-yr-chair wow-factor, more dynamic victories, more clairvoyant knowingness about what it really is that I have really been waiting to hear all year long, and then is all those things, forever; sign me up: Tragedy is kaleidoscope hymnals that needs to be had, held and heard by any and everyone with a discerning ear (I think that's more than 300--I could be wrong).

(Update: As of Halloween, the day this was originally posted, Leaving Records announced a repressing of Tragedy.  Pre-order here.)

Julia Holter - Try to Make Yourself a Work of Art
Julia Holter - Goddess Eyes