WRIGHT, BETTY Hard To Stop (Runt) cd 14.98
Betty Wright's classic album Hard To Stop, a 1973 follow-up album to her hit song "Clean Up Woman", remastered in all its glory. Features "I Am Woman", "The Babysitter", "If You Think You've Got Soul" and "It's Hard To Stop (Doing Something When It's Good To You)". If anyone has '70s SOUL POWER, it is Betty Wright. Well aaaaaallllriiightahh!
MPEG Stream: "Sweet Wonder"
MPEG Stream: "The Babysitter"

WRIGHT, BETTY & THE ROOTS Betty Wright: The Movie (OST) (S-Curve) cd 16.98
Similar to how Jack White of the White Stripes helped introduce the amazing voice of Loretta Lynn to a new generation with her album Van Lear Rose, The Roots have given legendary soul vocalist Betty Wright a much deserved late career moment in the spotlight with this new collaboration.
Wright started cutting records as a teen in the late '60s, and in fact one of her earliest recordings, as a pre-teen, was found a few years ago by the Numero Group, and was included on the Eccentric Soul: The Deep City Label collection. Her best known albums and period are from the early '70s, I Love The Way You Love, and Hard To Stop are bona fide soul/funk classics. She's kept pretty active throughout her long career, showing up on records by Angie Scott and Erykah Badu in recent years, but not releasing a solo album in over a decade. The pairing of Wright and The Roots could not have been more perfect. While later albums by many great soul singers tend toward the overproduced, glossy, and generic, The Roots lay down a foundation on all the tracks here that are rooted in a warm, organic deep soul vibe. Allowing Wright's voice to sound as powerful and as soulfully wise as ever. Guest spots by Snoop Dogg and Lil Wayne, serve not as a lame attempt to seem hip or relevant, but instead you can tell those guys have mad respect for her, in fact Lil Wayne had her on one of HIS tracks a couple years ago.
The songs here travel from impassioned burners to slow jams, and with The Roots in the driver's seat they always make the smoothest of transitions, and they have definitely helped Wright find her voice in a way that hasn't been displayed in way too long.
MPEG Stream: "Old Songs"
MPEG Stream: "Real Woman (Feat. Snoop Dogg)"
MPEG Stream: "So Long, So Wrong"

WRIGHT, CORBI Bang Bang Bang - Songs From Corbi (self-released) cd-r 8.98
Despite the jarring loudness suggested by this release's title, Corbi Wright's music is utterly hushed and contemplative. Her voice swoops from a withery whisper to a raw PJ Harvey-esque emotiveness. The loose weave of her barebones, unstructured folk sits well alongside the recent likes of Wooden Wand & The Vanishing Voice or The Alps. We know this to be true 'cause we've played them back to back a few times, and it made for a very enjoyable listen that flowed exceptionally well. So there. And to tie things neatly together, AQ pal Mr. Jefre Cantu (member of The Alps, Tarentel among many others) assisted Ms Wright in the recording of these songs. Very nice.
MPEG Stream: "Last Night We Walked Past Small Lights"
MPEG Stream: "Come And Lay Your Body Down"

WRIGHT, FRANK The Complete ESP-Disk' Recordings (ESP-Disk') 2cd 24.00

MPEG Stream: "The Earth"
MPEG Stream: "Jerry"
MPEG Stream: "Bernard Stollman Meets Frank Wright"
MPEG Stream: "Recording"

WRIGHT, FRANK Uhuru Na Umoja (America Records / Verve) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
WOW. And do we mean WOW!! Fifteen classic free jazz records from the late sixties / early seventies, long out of print, finally getting the ULTRA deluxe reissue treatment. For some reason these are incredibly limited, so these have been a bit tough to get, so we're going to list a few at a time as we can get them. Frank Wright's Uhuru Na Umoja, originally released in 1970, is a two headed jazz beast, one head a moody and smokey slab of dark and slithery moonlit jazz, all sexy horns, dark complex piano, sizzling cymbals, mumbled voalisations, even some harmonica, the other a skronky, wild and wooly post bop workout of crashing drums and interwoven sax melodies. On Uhuru Na Umoja, tenor saxophonist Wright is joined by Noah Howard on alto sax, Bobby Few on piano and Arthur Taylor on drums and the results are divine! The first half of the record is a smoldering late night jazz record, lugubrious and haunting, minor key and romantically melancholy. The second half of the record is rambunctious and playful, a bit chaotic, but never two far out, each sax grounded by the melody of the other, the solid drumming holding both to the ground, while the piano offers wild scattered runs and dark rumblings beneath. So great!
Comes in a gorgeous diecut fullcover three panel sleeve, with new artwork, as well as a huge booklet of liner notes with the original album liner notes, new liner notes in French and English as well as a bunch of cool photos.
MPEG Stream: "Oriental Mood"
MPEG Stream: "Aurora Borealis"

WRIGHT, FRANK Unity (ESP) cd 14.98
The current incarnation of sixties-spawned free jazz & acid folk label ESP has been doing more than just reissuing their old n' obscure classics. They've also been signing up some new bands from the NYC jazz underground (which we have yet to really check out), and, perhaps better yet, have also dug up some hitherto *unreleased* vintage recordings from artists in the ESP orbit. Such as the music on this disc, which barely contains the energetic maelstrom stirred up by tenor saxophonist "the Reverend" Frank Wright and his band, live at Germany's Moers Jazz Festival in 1974. There's two long (almost half-hour tracks) here, full of frenzied blowing from Wright, who after all was inspired by Albert Ayler to take up the sax in the first place, and was discovered by ESP boss Bernard Stollman while sitting in with John Coltrane's band in '64! The other cats on here are certainly up to the challenge of expressing themselves alongside Wright -- you've got Alan Silva on bass, Bobby Few on piano, and Rashied Ali's brother Muhammad on drums! Together they made some truly vital, exciting music that night, and you can hear the crowd at Moers really getting into it!
MPEG Stream: "Unity Part I"
MPEG Stream: "Unity Part II"

WRIGHT, MILTON Spaced (Jazzman) cd 17.98

MPEG Stream: "Be With Me"
MPEG Stream: "You Don't Even Know Me"
MPEG Stream: "She Can Have Everything She Wants"

WRIGHT, MILTON Spaced (Jazzman) cd 17.98

MPEG Stream: "Be With Me"
MPEG Stream: "You Don't Even Know Me"
MPEG Stream: "She Can Have Everything She Wants"

WRIGHT, NIGEL Alleluya (Diagnosis...Don't!) 3"cd-r 10.98
Another triple shot of sonic weirdness from Diagnosis... Don't!, the label run by AQ faves the Grey Daturas, this one comes courtesy of NZ guitarist Nigel Wright, whose two previous cd-r's were huge hits around here (and are gone gone gone so don't ask).
With a delicate combination of minimal guitar drones and subtle laptop manipulation, Wright weaves dark rhythmic soundworlds of creaking cricket like chitter, thick syrupy swells, ominous shimmer and rumbling guitar groan. Spare and desolate, with an underlying loveliness, but so very grim and austere. It's a lot like a Wolf Eyes record, with its suffocating oppressive atmosphere and dark dark ambience, but with all the clang and clatter and roar removed, leaving a more skeletal, mysterious and muted drift, all wrapped up in a strange otherworldly warmth. So nice.
Packaged in thick textured black paper mini 3" sleeves, with a printed (band name, label info, liner notes) Japanese style obi. Nice.
And as always, these are SUPER LIMITED, and odds are we won't be able to get more...
MPEG Stream: "Alleluya (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "Alleluya (excerpt 2)"

WRIGHT, NIGEL Flotter (Gest) cd-r 9.98
There are so many tiny cd-r labels, and so many releases, it's basically impossible to keep up. We do what we can, sort of pick and choose the best we can find, and one of our favorites is NZ guitarist Nigel Wright. Unlike the legions of overproducers out there, we've only managed three Wright releases in 3 years. This one makes it four, and it's absolutely gorgeous. Gauzy and hazy, woozy and washed out, dense and dreamlike. Fennesz, Jeck, Tim Hecker, Wright travels a similar sonic path, creating gorgeous sun dappled soundscapes of softly blurred melodies, of buried notes, his guitar not so much expelling notes and chords, as much as unfurling lush sonic tapestries, soft focus, bleary eyed beauty, peppered with clouds of crumbling distortion, shards of delay, streaks of muted whir, but all deftly incorporated into Wright's constantly shifting soundworld.
Somehow the world at large needs to discover what Wright is capable of. C'mon Touch, swoop in and snatch this man up and give him some resources to make the record we know he's capable of. If he can make records this pretty with a guitar and a 4-track, the mind boggles...
MPEG Stream: "Widths"
MPEG Stream: "Killing Time"

WRIGHT, NIGEL Mossopolis (The High Seas) 7" 7.98
Brand new record from NZ guitarist/dronescaper Nigel Wright, who at this point definitely has to be one of our favorite sonic conjurers of minimal drones and gorgeous abstract soundscapes, and the two tracks here do nothing to convince us otherwise.
The A side is a hushed meditative drift, warm layered whorls, slow motion melancholy melodies, all draped over a strange haunting urgent tension, the imbues the whole track with a fantastic dark drama, very minimal, and slow moving, it's almost the darker, more shadowy side of Pop Ambience, ominous and haunting but so lovely.
The B side plays like a more washed out dreamlike version of the the A side, hazy, gauzy, a bleary blurred shimmer rich with buried melodies and slow shifting layers, reminding us of The Caretaker without all that crackle and hum, the same sort of faded memory timeless melancholia. So nice.
Includes a download coupon as well!
MPEG Stream: "Mossopolis"

WRIGHT, NIGEL s/t (CMR) cd-r 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Fuck, first there was Celebrate Psi Phenemona, and then Pseudoarcana jumped into the fray, and now CMR is the latest label to start releasing super limited edition cd-r's from the New Zealand underground of improv free-noise, lo-fi drone scraping, and damaged sound art. Not to be confused with the Andrew Lloyd Webber associate of the same name, the Auckland based Nigel Wright focuses on loop-based systems which he transforms into miasmic drones. It's hard to say if those looping systems refer to feedbacking loops (which is possible as there is a cyclical sine-wave feel to many of Wright's sounds) or to a Terry Riley time-lag accumulation (which is also possible with all of the crystaline percolations that ripple through the dronescaping); regardless of the process, Wright's eponymous debut recording alternates between deadened electrical atmospherics and beautifully blissed out driftscapes. Fans of BJ Nilsen, Oren Ambarchi, and Jonathan Coleclough should take note! Limited to 100 copies only!
MPEG Stream: "01"
MPEG Stream: "13:40 (live at Canary Gallery 05/04/05)"

WRIGHT, NIGEL Tapir (self-released) 3" cd-r 4.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We were first introduced to Mr. Nigel Wright (not to be confused with fellow dronester Peter Wright) via a super limited cd-r on the CMR label. A gorgeous assemblage of mysterious loop based systems. Totally hit the spot for fans of Coleclough, Ambarchi, Nilsen, Chalk and the like (like us!). Well, recently Wright got in touch with us to see if we wanted to carry his latest release, another super limited cd-r, this time a 15 minute 3" in crafty hand made packaging. Well, the answer was obviously "Hell yeah!" and thus we have this, another completely mesmerizing slab of warm fuzzy looped and drone drenched goodness. The first track comes on like some My Bloody Valentine William Basinski mash up. Thick gauzy waves of distortion wrapped around delicate glistening melodies, layered and looped into a haunting ebb and flow of pulsing drone and slow shifting buzz. The sound is very organic, rich and thick and multi-hued, almost like a warmer fuzzier SUNNO))). The second track pushes even further out in the same fuzzed out blown out ambient direction, the guitars (?) are even more corrosive, channeling the wall of skree sound of bands like Sunroof! but filtered through the doe-eyed innocence and romantic moodiness of bands like M83 or any of their like minded Gooom labelmates. Dreamy and ambient enough to be perfect for the drone obsessed, but enough like some avant rockdrone outfit to appeal to folks who have been digging Nadja, The Angelic Process, Hjarnidaudi, Jesu and the like. Awesome!
Not sure how limited these are but we're guessing VERY, so act fast. Packaged in tiny little plastic sleeves with colored paper covers and simple typed insert.
MPEG Stream: "All Talk"
MPEG Stream: "Cardboard"

WRIGHT, O.V. Memphis Unlimited (Reel Music) cd 14.98
The ultimate in deep Memphis soul, O.V. Wright possessed a voice as smooth as it was strong. Memphis Unlimited featured a legendary band backing him up, including the likes of Leroy, Charles and Teenie Hodges, Howard Grimes, James Mitchell, as well as The Memphis Strings, and immaculate production by the legendary Willie Mitchell. Originally released in 1973, Memphis Unlimited is a truly immaculate deep hitting soul album that slow burns and hits every mark from start to finish. While he never reached the same kind of mainstream fame, his records and voice really do remind us of the great Al Green. No doubt, Cat Power has listened to this record MANY times as she recruited many of the same players to join her all star back up band to record The Greatest. This has become a permanent Sunday afternoon record for us with its perfect mix of Southern breeze and deep soul stirring conviction.
MPEG Stream: "You Must Believe In Yourself"
MPEG Stream: "Are You Going Where I'm Coming From"
MPEG Stream: "I've Been Searching"

WRIGHT, PETER A Tiny Camp In The Wilderness (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) cd-r 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We at AQ have long been fans of Campbell Kneale and his project Birchville Cat Motel who along with the Dead C, Omit, Gate and a handful of others have helped to define one of the richest free-rock-noise-drone scenes in the world. For years Kneale has been releasing cds, lps and cassettes (most of them quite limited) of noisy electronic soundscapes and gorgeous organic drones. So when we discovered Kneale also ran a label, we figured it was definitely worth checking out. And how right we were. Not only is all of the music on Celebrate Psi Phenomena amazing, but the packaging is perfectly and stunningly designed as well (quite nice considering this is a cd-r label. See our crappy cd-r packaging rants in the last three or four lists) with each cd in a plastic sleeve nestled between two sheets of old fashioned textured wallpaper, printed, and sealed with a gold star.
This is a gorgeously sublime drone record reminiscent of Maeror Tri/Troum or Organum at times. Lots of bowed guitars, bowed cymbals, random found sounds (markets, rain, church), and guitars all looped into thick velvety drones, with clanging percussion and singing cymbals. Rumbling, wheezing, whirring.
RealAudio clip: "5 Minutes 17 Seconds"
RealAudio clip: "7 Minutes 20 Seconds"

WRIGHT, PETER Air Guitar (Drone Records) 7" 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The amazing Drone Records label, run by Stefan Knappe of Maeror Tri / Troum, has been quietly releasing super limited, hand made slabs of gorgeous drone music for years now. Mostly 7", always vinyl, some of which were recently collected and released as a 2cd on Andee's tUMULt label), each record an ultra personal exploration of the drone, sometimes soft and dreamlike, sometimes harsh and noisy, but always beautiful. The most recent 7" in the ongoing series is Air Guitar, a three song single from New Zealander Peter Wright, an absolutely gorgeous collision of field recordings and guitar exploration. It also just might be the loudest and most active of the Drone singles so far!
The record starts with subtle bits of clatter, like someone in the kitchen or the practice space, just sort of moving stuff about. Those random ambient sounds are soon swallowed up by dense moody mesmerizing guitarscapes, gentle sweet insistent melodies over a slow building drone. Like a heavier dronier Roy Montgomery maybe...
The second track is a lush tapestry of tangled melody woven from sheets of super distorted guitar and streaks of incandescent feedback, that Wright deftly controls and harnesses into something more moody and lovely than freaked out and ferocious. The final track takes up all of the B side and is a single sonorous side-long drone, humming low end slowly and languorously drifts beneath a night sky lit by glistening streaks of high end glimmer. So nice.
Packaged in cool, hand painted orange sleeves, pressed on swirled orange vinyl, with a printed orange insert.
This is the first pressing and is limited to 300 copies!

WRIGHT, PETER At Last A New Dawn (Students Of Decay) 2cd 23.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
WAREHOUSE FIND! Just discovered a little stash of these, 6 or 7, not sure how they slipped through the cracks, but this came out a few years back, is as far as we can tell now out of print, but this way at least a handful of folks out there can nab one of these, an incredible double disc of dark shimmery dronemusic and mysterious processed field recordings. We've raved on and on about New Zealand soundscaper Wright on past lists, so long time aQ folks are probably already quite familiar, but for those who aren't, this is a great introduction. Two whole discs, lengthy sprawling minimal epics, warm washed out whirs drifting into clouds of bird song, seagulls float above burnished streaks of coppery sun dappled blurs, delicate bell like tones are smeared into gauzy impressionistic soundscapes of muted melody and hushed slow motion hum, heaving crumbling distorted crunch blown out into blistering shards of ur-drone, traffic noise fades into hazy fields of delicately reverbed guitar, which fades into the sounds of a forest stream, dreamy druggy shoegazey guitardrones rumble and build before dissipating into clouds of indistinct otherworldly barely there grey gauzey ambience. So so so good. Last copies ever, essential listening for drone obsessives, and anyone into Jasper TX, Machinefabriek, Svarte Greiner, Aidan Baker, the Fun Years, Xela, and other crafters of dark dronelike mystery...
MPEG Stream: "Urban Wolves"
MPEG Stream: "The Big Fight"
MPEG Stream: "The Whole Facade Will Come Crumbling Down"

WRIGHT, PETER Bright Falling Star (Release The Bats) lp 16.98

WRIGHT, PETER Catch A Spear As It Flies (Celebrate Psi Pheomenon) cd-r 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another batch of super limited and beautifully packaged cd-r's from Campbell Kneale's (Birchville Cat Motel) Celebrate Psi Phenomenon label. The finest in underground free noise / drone, culled mostly from New Zealand but all around the world as well. For those of you new to the CpsiP label, imagine classic Siltbreeze (Dead C, etc.) mixed with Jewelled Antler (Thuja, Blithe Sons etc.), dark and deep listening that sometimes verges on all out noise, but more often than not remains subtle experiments in avant drone and abstract sound. And when we say limited we mean LIMITED. These babies come in pressings of 30-80, out of which we get a whopping 10 copies!!
Peter Wright returns with what may be his most fully realised release yet. A lush soundscape of barely-there field recordings, subtle shadings of grey rumbles and black ambience, keening chimes smeared into lengthened sonic shadows, shifting overtones and subtle shimmers, all very melancholy and emotional, dreamy and otherworldly.
MPEG Stream: "1"
MPEG Stream: "2"

WRIGHT, PETER Clavius (20 City) 7" 4.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

WRIGHT, PETER Desolation Beauty Violence (Ikuisuus) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We've said it before, over and over and over, but we don't mind saying it again, in fact we'll shout it from the rooftops, and print up t-shirts or even write it in review after review until everyone listens and understands. Peter Wright is one of the most compelling soundmakers we have ever heard. And his lustrous soundscapes and dark dreamlike drones are every bit as lovely and mysterious, and as carefully crafted and breathtaking as any of the work from bigger names like Chalk, Colelcough, Mirror, Maeror Tri, Organum, Basinski or any of the flavor of the month limited cd-r drone rockers.
Record after record of completely mesmerizing sound. Gorgeous gauzy smears of fuzzy guitar, lilting ghostlike melodies, soft focus ethereal drifts and dense swirls of abstract melancholia.
This cd, originally released as a super limited cd-r on Foxglove, is no different. The title Desolation Beauty Violence describes the music more succinctly than we ever could.
A gauzy glimpse into a microscopic alternate universe, where everything is broken into their base elements, the sky is a woven tapestry of smoky languid guitar lines, tiny glistening sonic molecules drift like snowflakes against a fuzzy slate grey sky, while in the distance, shimmering molecules reverberate, sending deep cavernous whirs drifting skyward. Melodies are tiny bits of sound, stretched out into minute long smears. Bits of percussion offer up some muted underwater click and clack like stones in a mountain stream, everything spread out into dreamy slabs of trembling sonic gauze.
So goddamn lovely. If asked, we'd probably insist that you buy EVERY SINGLE PETER WRIGHT RECORD you can get your hands on, but for now, start with Desolation Beauty Violence, and be prepared to fall hopelessly under his dreamdrone spell...
MPEG Stream: "Above Lewis Pass"
MPEG Stream: "Adrift At 30,000 Ft."

WRIGHT, PETER Distant Bombs (Last Visible Dog) cd 12.98
Originally released on Wright's own Apoplexy label, Distant Bombs is a timeless, gorgeous slab of melodic drone resurrected by our pals at Last Visible Dog. Unlike the static, barely shifting tectonic rumbles of many of our drone favorites, this is drone at its most airy and melodic. As if actual pop songs were smashed into pieces, then melted down into a dizzying swirl of lush gasoline rainbow swoon, smeared in a thick paste on a pane of glass and held up to the full moon, letting muted blues and greens, and subtle bursts of prismatic sound drift through. Really nice.
MPEG Stream: "Deflection"
MPEG Stream: "Sumner Wives Wheeling Prams On The Esplanade"

WRIGHT, PETER Pariahs Sing Om (Last Visible Dog) 3cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Subtitled "Collected Drone-Poems 2000-2003", this collection gathers up many long out of print and now impossible to find drift/drone/free/noise gems from NZ expat Peter Wright. Collected here are the cd-r's Duna (Last Visible Dog), A Tiny Camp In The Wilderness (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon), Catch A Spear As It Flies (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon), Pariahs Sing Om (Apoplexy) as well as a few pieces from compilations and a couple previousy unreleased tracks. And as you might expect it's all totally captivating and dreamy and lovely. All three discs here are overflowing with warm drones, subtle shifting soundscapes, vast expanses of creaking, groaning, drifting sound, soft and shimmery, sweet and slow moving, guitars hover weightless in dense clouds of chordal warmth, single notes float and flutter, while clusters of notes get smeared into still more layers of drone and rumble. Gorgeously subtle, every track deep and dense, sparkling and crystalline, lustrous and so lovely, resplendent with muted colors, like watching clouds float across the sky, or watching leaves drift down stream, this is deeply personal, totally captivating ambience that is most certainly the equal of his more well known peers. Fans of the drone cd-r underground (CPSIP, Digitalis, PseudoArcana, atc.), as well as the more academic side of minimal dronology (Chalk, Coleclough, Niblock, Berry) should most definitely make it a point to further explore Wright's constantly evolving, gorgeous and mysterious soundworld.Ê
Packaged again in one of those strange triple fold plastic sleeves that is unfortunately not ideal for keeping cds from gettin' scratched...Ê
MPEG Stream: "Porous"
MPEG Stream: "Lakeside"
MPEG Stream: "Flypast Of Angels"
MPEG Stream: "Low Ground"

WRIGHT, PETER Pretty Mushroom Clouds (aRCHIVE) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We've raved about New Zealander Peter Wright in the past, numerous times, we've even now that we check back at past reviews, raved ABOUT raving about Peter Wright, but we really have no choice now but to do it again. For someone as prolific, and as talented as Wright, he seems to continually to fly well beneath the hipster radar.
Which is maybe good for us, but at the same time, it's hard not to root for someone who seems to effortlessly conjure up such beautiful sounds. But the thing is, we KNOW it's not effortless. The world is filled with folks who have a microphone and some effects, and think they can be soundscapers, field recordists, ARTISTS. And while that sort of spirit is to be applauded, the truth of the matter is, just like with anything, flying a jet, swimming the English Channel, playing the trumpet, racing Formula 1's, some people are just more talented than others. And Wright is just about as talented as they come.
Weaving field recordings into longform drones, creating soundscapes from found sounds and processed guitars, Wright manages to create dreamlike expanses of sonic wonder.
Take the first track here, the title track, it's hard not to imagine Pretty Little Mushroom Clouds. The sounds of birds, and wind, maybe branches rubbing against each other in the distance, while all around these sounds of nature, deep buzzing swells ebb and flow, dark, slightly ominous melodies, swell and recede, a super minimal pulse, a gorgeous cloud of shimmer drifting across verdant hills and blue blue sky. You can almost imagine, lush rolling hills, dotted with wildflowers, cute little houses, scattered copses of trees, birds soaring in the sky, while way off in the distance, huge black mushroom clouds blossom in the sky, but from here, they just look beautiful, the music capturing that moment before everything is turned to ash, a brief vacuum, where even the vilest of objects is transformed into a vivid picturesque sonic snapshot.
Over the rest of the record, the field recordings are much more subtle, relying more on the processed instrumentation, guitars are ground into muted walls reverberating buzz, rife with disembodied melodies, streaks of high end and bits of rumbling drone, some tracks are massive and pitched down, the sound of drifting beneath miles of ice in the Arctic Circle, everything glowing some unearthly blue, all the sounds muted and warbled, others are nearly ebullient, like the perfectly titled "The Devil Wears Sunroof", which from the sound of it we can only assume is a nod to Matthew Bower and his Ur-drone unit, all glistening high end shimmer, and long stretches of buzzing upper register guitar. The final track finds Wright taking all of his various sounds and assembling them into a super hypnotic, strangely heavy looped take on, well, Loop actually, a repeated riff, a static groove, totally mesmerizing and space-y, eventually building to a full on blast of almost Japanoise, before petering out, leaving just the sound of an airport terminal or a train station, or a huge sparsely filled performance space as it's revealed to be, when the crowd finally offers up some applause, for what may have been a live performance, or may have been just a random bit of live crowd sound sampled and woven into Wright's mysterious sonic sprawl.
As always, amazing packaging from aRCHIVE. Six panel full color glossy gatefold, the cd affixed to a nub on the middle panel, while around the jacket, an outer sleeve of printed vellum. Super nice.
Limited to 500 copies, single one time pressing.
MPEG Stream: "Pretty Mushroom Clouds"
MPEG Stream: "The Devil Wears Sunroof"

WRIGHT, PETER Red Lion (Digitalis) cd 12.98

MPEG Stream: "Sunrise In The Turbine Hall"
MPEG Stream: "Approaching Low From The West"

WRIGHT, PETER Snow Blind (Install) 2cd 21.00
We haven't heard from New Zealand dronescaper Peter Wright in about a year. Well, it's been at least that long since we've reviewed one of his discs. Somehow two other Wright discs slipped through the cracks in that time though, which is a shame, since pretty much everything we've heard from Wright is fantastic. This latest double disc is no different.
Nine looooooong tracks spread out over two discs, most in the 15-20 minute range, which is ideal for Wright's slow building, slow burning drone-epics, allowing for plenty of time to drift and shimmer and buzz and whir and rumble.
The first disc opens as disembodied voices float above and within thick swells of grinding melodic buzz, smoothed out into undulating sonic sheets, feedback is dulled and blunted and transformed into warm ambience, the raga-like buzz sprawls out seemingly endlessly, this is Wright at his heaviest and most aggressive, the tones taking on a timbre not that far removed from Nadja's doomic crush, but Wright approaches that sound from another direction entirely.
The rest of disc one is much more serene, minimal and hushed, a slow swirling ambient shimmer, delicate and crystalline, which over the course of two tracks and nearly 40 minutes manages to slip from hushed whisper to smoldering whir, glowing hotter and hotter but never letting loose, until the 6 minute closer gets all riffy, the guitars blindingly distorted, but remaining soft and warm and hauntingly melancholic.
The second disc is the perfect second movement, shifting from warm effects drenched drifts to deep subterranean rumbles, from sun dappled cinematic ambience to reverbed minimal mood music and finally to full on crumbling corrosive blown out crunch, with weirdly decaying distortion, strange strangled guitars, thick swaths of blurred buzz, and gorgeous chiming tones ringing out in the background.
Yet another collection of divine drones and sublime minimal soundscaping from the inimitable Peter Wright. Needless to say, absolutely gorgeous, and for the droneminded among you, most likely essential.
MPEG Stream: "The Drunken Master In His Crumbling Citadel"
MPEG Stream: "Apakura"

WRIGHT, PETER The Broken Kawai (Pseudo Arcana) cd-r 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
After some initial clang and crash and general futzing about and plugging in, Peter Wright gives the drone-heads everything they've been jonesing for. Rich deep drones with drifting, wailing feedback offering up minimal melody, shimmery industrial soundscapes, and noisy expanses of raw sound that alternately wrap your ears in sandpaper of velvet. Instrumentation includes guitar, clarinet, percussion, bicycle (!), and of course the broken Kawai.
MPEG Stream: "The Broken Kawai"
MPEG Stream: "Sugar Train"

WRIGHT, PETER Transfusion (Last Visible Dog) cd-r 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
New Zealand comes to Rhode Island. Peter Wright, whose records on Celebrate Psi Phenomena we have dug in the past, gives our pals at Last Visible Dog one 70+ minute track recorded for a gallery in New Zealand, and it's pretty darn lovely. It starts off with a lush soundscape of chimes and bells and electronic buzz before it dissipates into a vast expanse of hum and skronk and reverb and lots and lots of S P A C E. Very musique concrete. Drones swarm out of inky blackness, only to diappear as suddenly as they appeared, leaving us to once again carefully feel our way through this cavernous piece.
RealAudio clip: "Transmission"

WRIGHT, PETER Yellow Horizon (Pseudo Arcana) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally, this killer slab of dreamy drone is back in stock again!
If there were any justice in the world we'd be speaking of Peter Wright in the same hushed, reverential tones reserved for the more well known minimalists and dronologists. Chalk, Coleclough, Berry, Kneale, Milton, all fantastic, but they have nothing on Wright. In fact, if anything, Wright takes the subtle drones and the amorphous soundscaping of his brethren and uses those concepts and sounds to make actual songs. Like on the opening track "The Chain Bridge", Wright lays out a thick wash of warm cathedral guitar, slow moving and stately, so thick with reverb and delay that the melody sounds submerged in some warm viscous sound, the overtones so rich and thick they seem to overwhelm the notes that produced them. But that doesn't keep Wright from unfurling the mightiest of drones. Take the 13+ minute "Offa's Dyke" a chiming reverberating slow moving mass, glistening black, shot through with all the colors of the rainbow, but so subtle as to only be barely glimpsed through the whir and rumble of the mighty drone. But even in full drone mode, there are layers of melody, subtle shadings, even little song fragments and sonic swirl. Then there's tracks like "Bannockburn", one of the most gorgeous, and eminently listenable pieces of modern minimalism we've heard in ages, a circular series of repeated motifs, slowly shifting and gently overlapping, the best Steve Reich piece that never was. A 21st century new-weird-underground cd-r Terry Riley even. Wow.
Yellow Horizon is that rich in sound, heavy in emotion, just beautiful to listen to, all the way through, alternately droning and lilting, slow and smoldering, shimmery and effervescent.
Easily one of the most gorgeous records of the year so far!
MPEG Stream: "The Chain Bridge"
MPEG Stream: "Hover"
MPEG Stream: "Pendulum"

WRIGHT, SHANNON Dyed In The Wool (Quarterstick) cd 14.98
Shannon Wright returns with a dozen new songs of dark, winding torment. Filled with deeply emotive and visual lyrics - poetic and bittersweet. Envision her wringing her hands, walking the floor - a dusty threadbare path the proof of her paces - as the lovely, shadowy instrumentation slowly echoes her solemn mood. Sort of brought to mind a less trilling Tori Amos with the Dirty Three in tow. Quite nice.
RealAudio clip: "Method of Sleeping"

WRIGHT, SHANNON Let In The Light (Quarterstick) cd 14.98
Shannon Wright and her trusty piano (and guitar) are back. Oddly enough on this, her sixth album, she could easily be mistaken for a more melancholic Mary Timony. Considerably more stark and less tormented than her last album Over The Sun, Let In The Light is nonetheless still very heavy in mood and emotion. Her lyrics continue to be rife with puzzles of troubled relationships and despairing betrayal. Each of her songs puts forth a brave face, but when you glimpse away, it allows an aching sigh as it brushes aside a stubborn tear. A richly poetic rural cabaret.
MPEG Stream: "Defy This Love"
MPEG Stream: "You Baffle Me"

WRIGHT, SHANNON Maps of Tacit (Quarterstick) cd 14.98
One customer described this as "vaguely like Liz Phair on lithium." It's not nearly that bad! Shannon Wright plays acoustic guitar, harmonium, hammond and wurlitzer organs -- basically almost everything on this quiet yet urgent album full of amazingly literate lyrics that work as poetry even without the music, for instance: "this background is so vague / this falter much too strong / a slew of reluctance / makes the focus warble on / for every laden vein / is a grim pail of prey / the true are open / they wrestle with this state"

WRIGHT, SHANNON Over The Sun (Quarterstick) cd 14.98
We weren't too sure what to expect from this record. One thing we do know, is we didn't expect to dig it as much as we do! Not sure why, but we always just glanced Wright's past efforts, but we're beginning to think we best go back and reinvestigate. Over The Sun starts off with hiccupping, stuttering almost-funky (but not) basslines with simple pounding drums and brittle scrabbly guitar. The verses are hypnotic and looping, with crashing bombastic choruses and Wright's powerful throaty wail sounding not at all unlike PJ Harvey. The weird bass heavy loopedness of it all reminds us a bit of Pinback, albeit a much more murky and melancholy Pinback. The sound is actually more sort of nineties college rock a la Codeine or Scrawl (it is on Touch And Go sublabel Quarterstick after all) with its minor key miserablism and dour melodies, wrapped in thick propulsive aggresive indie rockisms. Outside of the first two tracks which are pretty rocking and intense, and a track or two later on, the bulk of the record is actually a creepy crawly collection of slow and moody, ultra personal torch songs, again painting Wright with serious shades of PJ Harvey. Augmented by weirdly fingerpicked electric guitar melodies, dark and rumbling cellos, empty bar piano, Wright's vocals take center stage, whispering one moment, erupting in an anguished wail the next. So intensely dark, and personal and really really good.
MPEG Stream: "With Closed Eyes"
MPEG Stream: "Portray"

WRIGHT, WILLIE Telling The Truth (Numero Group) cd 16.98

WRIGHT, WILLIE Telling The Truth (Numero Group) lp 22.00

WRITING ON THE WALL The Power Of The Picts (Ork ) 2cd 17.98

WRK s/t (V2 Archief) cd 15.98
A collaborative effort between likeminded Japanese hyperminimalists Toshiya Tsunoda, Hiroyuki Iida, Jiro Shimizu, and m/s is an exercise in persistance, as pure tone sine-waves extend unwaveringly, high-speed digital glitch manipulation tumbles slowly into low-end rumbles, and speak-n-spell collages prove to be quite unnerving.

WRNLRD Cperadt (Small Sacrifice / Order Of The Cloven Eye) cd-r 8.98
The Midwest is beginning to feel like the new Norway. So is the South. Tons of fucked up grim blackness seems to be constantly seeping outward from the blackened heartland. We're gonna have to come up with some new sobriquets for these apparent movements, MWBM is now a new, more region specific USBM, or maybe ECBM, for those in the South, but the sudden onslaught from middle and Eastern America is threatening to overtake the much lauded West Coast scene, which while still represented by the few elite metal warriors (Leviathan, Xasthur, etc.), hasn't really produced the same number of outrageously creative black metal outfits lately. Much of could well have much to do with the places these guys call home. Black metal is all about isolation, looking inward, darkness and depression, and while those emotions and ideals are indeed universal, it sometimes seems more difficult to be miserable and suicidal and full of grim energy when you're wandering through green trees beneath a sunshiney Spring California day.
But whatever. All you need to know for now, is that the strangely monickered Wrnlrd (thanks to aQ pal Will for the recommendation) is from Virginia, (hail VABM!) And offers up a dense twisted blown out frenzy of utter blackness.
And it's hard to think of a better word to describe it than frenzied. The sound is so thick and gnarled, the riffs so distorted they seem to exist in a churning sonic morass, the guitars and vocals constantly on the verge of crumbling to pieces, the sound so blown out, the drums are barely audible, a flurry of beats buried way in the mix, but that drumless feel only adds to the organic sound of Wrnlrd, this epic heaving cloud of black swirling sonic mayhem, slowly and systematically engulfing everything in its path. But that's not so say the riffs here aren't amazing, they are, and the tracks are surprisingly catchy, and the overall sound is very textural, almost like someone like Christian Fennesz or Tim Hecker recorded it, and occasionally things slow down and the band lurches onto some staggering buzzy dirge, here and there the tracks spread out into near ambient drifts, the guitars ghostly and haunting, but it's all about the gorgeous wall of sound this guy can produce, managing to sound utterly frosty and grim, but also epic and majestic, woozy, drone-y, druggy and utterly and terrifyingly black.
MPEG Stream: "1590"
MPEG Stream: "Mnemonomagia"
MPEG Stream: "Blood"
MPEG Stream: "Flower"

WRNLRD Death Drive Ep (Flingco Sound) 10" 15.98
It's been a while since we've heard from avant black metal weirdo Wrnlrd, and it seems a few things have changed since the last record. The band, formerly a mostly one man project, has expanded to include a handful of other players, contributing a strange selection of instruments (strange for black metal, but not necessarily for Wrnlrd, whose bluegrass roots managed to shine through no matter how buzzy and black proceeding got in the past), including accordion, piano, pedal steel, female vocals, and Dwid from legendary hardcore heavies Integrity even makes a guest appearance. And as we mentioned in the past, the Wrnlrd website offers very little in the way of proper info, but does feature a strange series of numerological sigils and strange diagrams, which would seem to indicate, that this just may be the second to last Wrnlrd record EVER. Which would be a shame, cuz this is definitely the most gloriously fucked up Wrnlrd yet.
Sonically, it's not all that far removed from the last few records, but it's somehow, just MORE. The guitars are filthier and crunchier and more distorted, the arrangements are more bizarre, stumbling and abstract and confusional, the instrumentation, as mentioned above, elevates this WAY beyond black metal, into some sort of tripped out blackened avant noise rock, or something.
Beginning with some gnarled detuned riffage, lumbering bass blur, and some monstrous gurgling vox, the record doesn't explode from the speakers so much as ooze, sounding like a death metal 45 at 16rpm, a furiously ominous creep, before slipping into more 'typical' Wrnlrd territory, which means gloomy low slung bass, big pounding drums, swirling electronics, super distorted buzz and chug, and of course super dramatic almost operatic female vocals, balancing more of those gurgling death metal grunts, the result is impossibly both beautiful and haunting, fucked up and grim, underpinned by super cinematic synths.
"Midnight Ride" is about as traditional as it gets, with some killer distorto riffing, pounding drums, keening guitar melodies, and those immediately recognizable Integrity style bellowed vox, it's doomy and dirgey knuckle dragging heaviness, that seems to mutate and morph growing more and more tripped out and psychedelic as it goes, finishing off in a cloud of lap steel shimmer.
After a stretched out bit of twisted piano ambience, the final track unfurls, a wheezing accordion sounding sinister and grim, soon swallowed up by a squall of atonal buzz and twisted guitar squiggle, finally coalescing into a woozy seasick bit of blackened lurch and stumble, the buzz caked on, the sound filthy and in the red, laced over super haunting blown out melodies, again managing to (im)perfectly merge melody and murk, until the track finally collapses into a chaos of colliding chugs over some darkly delicate fingerpicked guitar.
Incredible, and incredibly twisted stuff. Probably WAY too far out for the grim black hordes, but for everyone else, this is some beautiful and brilliantly baffling heaviness.
Housed in a cool diecut sleeve, comes with a poster and a patch and a digital download of the record.
MPEG Stream: "Precursor"
MPEG Stream: "Grave Dowser"
MPEG Stream: "Midnight Ride (w/ Dwid Hellion)"

WRNLRD In From The Night Herd (Small Sacrifice / Order Of The Cloven Eye) cd-r 8.98
aQ pal Will turned us on to the amazing Wrnlrd (not really sure how you pronounce that), a Virginia based one man black metal band whose most recent disc, reviewed here a few lists back, totally hit the spot, with its furious fuzzed out and frenzied twisted blissy blackness. There is definitely a tendency these days for black metal bands to get all shoegaze-y and we're not complaining, we totally love that stuff, but a handful of bands are doing more than that, taking that sort of spaced out blissiness and twisting it all around into something more unique, and darker and noisier. Which is precisely what Wrnlrd's Cperadt was all about. A nearly drumless wall of buzzing blackness that reminded us as much of Tim Hecker or Christian Fennesz as much as Xasthur or Paysage D'Hiver.
So we were super psyched to explore the rest of Wrnlrd's catalog, starting with this one, In From The Night Herd, also from last year. The disc begins with some seriously creepy and harrowing black ambience, all haunting windswept whirs and distant moaning rumbles, ghostlike melodies drifting throughout, wraithlike and shimmery, the opening track, obviously the intro, so as track two begins, a twelve minute epic, the record shifts gears, and offers up still more thick cavernous drone. Weird, we were thinking, to have an intro after another intro, but then Wrnlrd is nothing if not weird. Then some gauzy skeletal guitars surface, offering up fragmented bits of melancholy melody, soon swallowed up by the roiling low end whirl below, haunting and creaking, almost industrial sounding. As the second track ends and the third begins, it suddenly dawns on us that this in fact an ambient disc, perhaps, since it was released around the same time, a companion to Cperadt. Which makes a whole lot more sense, and allows us to stop waiting for the inevitable black buzzing onslaught, and to enjoy the murky mysterious atmospheres on offer.
The third track, another long one, begins with chiming guitars, looped and minor key, eventually being joined by some deep glimmering reverberations in the background, the guitars gradually growing more and more distorted. Suddenly we're thinking maybe we were wrong, that in fact there is some black metal buzz here, but instead, the guitars continue to ring out, cycling through their melancholy mantra, very soothing and hypnotic, mesmerizing and trancelike, the background whirring and rumbling and eventually overtaking the forlorn guitar melody, leaving just deep smears of blurred blackness.
That blurred blackness bleeds into the brief final track, offering up a muted coda, the slow drifting sonic clouds barely obscuring tolling bells, and shards of mournful melody, soft smeared layers of disembodied guitars woven into a strangely beautiful black lullaby.
Maybe too abstract and dreamlike for the true grim throng, but perfect for anyone else into droning dark mystery and haunting otherworldy black ambience.
MPEG Stream: "Pain Planet"
MPEG Stream: "Specimen / Satellite"

WRNLRD Mldthr (Small Sacrifice / Order Of The Cloven Eye) cd-r 8.98
When we first discovered the mysterious and impossible to pronounce Wrnlrd, on the tip from an aQ customer, this one man band was way underground, with nothing but a clutch of cd-r releases, but since then, word has spread, and besides getting written up in all sorts of magazines and blogs, he's also released a critically lauded lp on Flingco Sound System, a label run by on of the guys who used to run Kranky.
And that record is fantastic, distinctly black metal, but with Wrnlrd's country and bluegrass roots showing through, and banjo on a black metal record is not something you hear every day! But in the beginning, the sound of Wrnlrd was a furious raw black blast of programmed drums and superdistorted riffage, garbled hellish vokills and snarling, swirling blackened psychedelic metal blowouts.
Mldthr is "record number 2 (Flower of 1, Cause of 4 and 7)" in the confusingly numbered discography, see the Wrnlrd website for more on that, a strange bit of numerology that is as confounding as Wrnlrd's music, and Mldthr sounds quite a bit like In From The Night Herd and Cperadt, which makes sense as those are the two numbers that follow Mldthr. That chart actually extends into the future including albums named, but yet to be recorded.
Anyway, like Wrnlrd discs 3 and 4, Mldthr is a swirling black vortex of shimmery black ambience, mechanical blasts, grinding black crunch, creepy stretches of murky black ambience, processed gurgles and almost industrial rhythms, everything raw and gritty and lo fi, blown out and super distorted and in the red, moody and muddy, with bits of found sounds, strange samples, all sorts of weird shit lurking below the surface, but to get below the surface, you have to plow through a torrent of frenzied black industrial buzz, the sound mechanical and machinelike, but imbued with asort of dizzying swirl that mkes it all feel warped and off kilter, twisted and a bit damaged. Which, if you're anything like us, is exactly how you like your black metal.
MPEG Stream: "Order Of The Cloven"
MPEG Stream: "Waerleogan"
MPEG Stream: "Rite Of Cares Cremation"

WRNLRD Myrmidon (Flingco) lp 18.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
There's weird black metal, and then there's WEIRD black metal. Generally the weird stuff tends toward either the stumbling and inept, or the super avant and ridiculously proficient, but the strangeness of Wrnlrd seems so much more organic, as if the sound of Wrnlrd was not in fact strange, but more that all the other sounds around it were way too normal. Nothing sounds forced, or ridiculous, but it all sounds twisted and freaky, and most definitely unlike any other black metal you've ever heard. Could be because the man behind Wrnlrd grew up playing bluegrass, could be these are just the sounds he hears in his head, whatever it is, we're grateful, cuz every Wrnlrd record seems to blow our mind more than the last.
Just check out the opener here, the guitars -almost- out of tune, the melody strangely atonal, the drums buried in the mix, the bass warbly and warped, and what sounds like some sort of bleating tuba supplying the low end, chugging riffage over strange snippets of found sound, tangled saxophones (?), bellowed vocals, all the sounds relentless and all tangled up in a swirling blackened mass, harmonized guitars, weird jagged shards of metallic crunch, and then the song suddenly shifts, the key changes to something slightly more melodic and major, and female vocals, soulful and almost operatic wail over the top. What? Really? How does it work? And why does it sound so goddamn amazing? You'll probably be asking yourself that over and over as you dig into Myrmidon, that is if you can stop yourself from headbanging or pry the headphones off your ears. That first track is a sort-of-template for the whole record, the soaring female vocals, the gnarled crunchy riffage, the lurching start stop arrangements, everything murky and downtuned, a bit noisy, blurred and buzzy, dense and so chaotic, but somehow it all works, and the result is some seriously transcendent black art.
Super thick vinyl, 180 gram, comes with a digital download too!!
MPEG Stream: "Girl"
MPEG Stream: "Queen / Bridal"
MPEG Stream: "Moaner / Revelator"

WRNLRD Oneiromantical War (FSS) lp 26.00
BACK IN STOCK!!
Record number six from this far out fractured one man black metal horde hailing from Virginia. There's some serious significance to the numbers in the world of Wrnlrd. Check out his website for some truly mind bending numerology, and maybe you will understand the non musical significance of the unveiling of Oneiromancer, the first vinyl release, and sixth overall in a proposed nine part cycle. We've raved about the music of Wrnlrd on past lists, and judging by how difficult it is to keep in stock, you all feel the same. We'd been hearing about Oneiromancer for a while now, rumored to be the best and most fully realized Wrnlrd disc yet, and we're inclined to agree.
Much of Wrnlrd's sound is improvised, in the spirit of automatic writing, and most of the vocals are spontaneous wordless vocalizations, with the lyrics incorporated later, which definitely adds to the mystery and goes some way to helping explain how unlike most black metal Wrnlrd's black metal really is.
The record opens with what we can only describe as high end doom, upper register chords allowed to ring out, left hanging, abstract with tons of space, a slow churning soundscape of chiming chordal shimmer. Which quickly gives way to some old school metallic chug, peppered with ultra lo-fi buzz, the skree of feedback and simple pounding drumming. The next track explodes in a frenzied blast, machine like rhythms beneath riffs so distorted and blurred they sound like static drones, occasionally interrupted by stretches of black ambient shimmer and whirring minimal drones. There are some dark haunting doomy bluegrass hybrids too, steel string twang drifting over deep resonant rumbles and throbbing black murk.
All of side two is taken up by the epic "War", with distinct multiple movements, woven into one organic shapeshifting whole. Beginning with acoustic guitar, melancholy and slightly atonal, stumbling tribal drumming and soft static guitar buzz, interwoven with subtle backwards loops, which gives way to a dirgey blast of primitive and raw blackness, which is quickly pulled under a tripped out FX laden drift. After that it's a loooong stretch of muted buzz, all murky and muddy, buried drums, like suddenly the speakers blew, until the track shifts once again into a super distorted in-the-red blowout, finally fading out, leaving a minute or so of swirling warped backwards warble to lead us out. Schizophrenic and deliriously damaged, some of the most far out "black metal" we've heard. We can only imagine what record 7,8, and 9 hold in store!
LIMITED ONE TIME PRESSING OF 500 COPIES. Pressed on 180 gram vinyl. Housed in a super swank gatefold sleeve, printed in metallic ink, and includes a download code to get you the whole record digitally for your iPod.

WRNLRD Pentagon (Small Sacrifice / Order Of The Cloven Eye) cd-r 8.98
When we first discovered Wrnlrd, a mysterious one man black metal band from Virginia, we were happy enough to discover a new weird band to dig. The usual buzz and howl augmented by lots of strange ambience, plenty of noise and murk, all wrapped up in some truly unique packaging. We had no idea how weird it would, or could get.
This latest disc, at least visually is the best of the bunch, a silvery splattery logo painted right on the jewelcase, the booklet filled with strange text, images of maps and graveyards, hidden behind a gauzy vellum sheet, featuring a barely detectable image. More weirdness on the disc, and peaking out beneath the tray.
But all of that barely prepares you for the music. The fist disc we reviewed, the 4th in Wrnlrd's in-the-works 9 part series, was a dense tangle of blackened buzz and furious riffing, the next, #3 in the series, was all washed out ambience, this latest, being number 5, is in fact nothing like either. Sure it incorporates bits of buzzy blackness, and lots of strange atmospherics, but it's way more abstract, woozy, tripped out, blurry and mysterious.
21 short tracks (there's some serious number obsession going on here, check the Wrnlrd website for more) the first handful very spare, each made up of just a handful of chords, big warbly downtuned chords that strike, and then fade out sloooooooowly, leaving tons of space for stray voices, bits of country music (Wrnlrd, pre-black metal, was a serious bluegrass player), intercepted transmissions, there seem to be some drums, and even some vocals, but they're definitely indistinct, the drums a plod here, a skitter there, the vocals a buried croak, it's not really until the 6th track, that the band locks into something even remotely resembling black metal, and even then, the guitars are brittle, and seem to bend and twist like viewed through a funhouse mirror, the drums a machinelike blur buried in the mix, all beneath the same moaning doomy guitar that oozed across the first handful of tracks.
The rest of the disc staggers dizzily through all these disparate sounds, the black buzz, is peppered with Jandekian detuned guitar warble, acoustic guitars and banjos offer up little steel string tangles, beneath detuned guitar riffage, all very angular and chaotic, huge sheets of distant thunder like rumble, skittery percussion, more voices and mysterious sounds, samples, super atonal guitar weirdness, lurching deconstructed doom, thick walls of guitar buzz wreathed in tripped out FX, the whole record seemingly sounding like some black metal record left in the sun to warp and melt just a bit, and then played back on a dusty old Victrola. Like nothing we've ever heard (even on other Wrnlrd discs) but whatever it is we are digging it big time.
MPEG Stream: "Susurration Of Cairn"
MPEG Stream: "Agalma Manteia"
MPEG Stream: "Veil & Rope"
MPEG Stream: "Apparition"

WS50: THE VIDEO ALBUM 10th Anniversary Edition (Wordsound) dvd 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

WU TANG CLAN & FRIENDS Unreleased (Nature Sounds) cd 14.98

MPEG Stream: M-SPEED "Street Kronicles"
MPEG Stream: RAEKWON & INSPECTAH DECK "Rap Burglers"
MPEG Stream: GHSTFACE KILLAH & RAEKWON "Maxine (RMX)"

WU-TANG Legendary Weapons (Entertainment One) cd 16.98

WU-TANG Renuited - the Remixes (Loud) cd 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The only relic of the original song that links all of these remixes together is the repetitive chorus of "Wu Motherfucker... Wu-Tang Motherfucker". Remixes include the ridiculously catchy Parisian house remix from WestBam, the noxious dub of Zulutronic (aka Kerosene & Jammin' Unit), the slow jam 'radio edit' by Hithunter which does not do away with any of the profanities, and the stellar Autechre-influenced remix by Funkstorung (who recently did wonders with Bjork's "All Is Full of Love")

WU-TANG Think Differently Music: Wu-Tang Meets The Indie Culture (Babygrande) cd 16.98

WU-TANG CLAN 8 Diagrams (Universal) cd 15.98
We've been torn over hip hop jam of the year. It's either gotta be Birdman's "100 Million", from the new Five Star Stunna record, with its "Stuntin' Like My Daddy" verse and crazy soul harmony "Gangster's Paradise" chorus, or "Wolves", from the long awaited Wu-Tang Clan disc 8 Diagrams, with its classic Wu verses (including a killer from Method Man), and a rambling sort-of-sung chorus with George Clinton channeling Old Dirty Bastard, and well, the more we listen to it, the more the Wu-Tang seems to have the edge...
But before we get to the jam of the year discussion, holy shit is 8 Diagrams a killer comeback! And comeback it is. The last few discs, were admittedly weak, but always had at least a few stone cold classics on each, but not nearly enough to make any of those records worth more than a cursory listen or two, on 8 Diagrams though, they're almost all killers, a few missteps here and there, but even those tracks have some amazing part, or some crazy chunk of lyricology. Everyone's been talking about "The Heart Gently Weeps", the first legally sampled Beatles track, but it's kinda weak, a schmaltzy slow jam, with a bland Eryka Badu chorus. They could have transformed the original into something hard and fierce, but instead it turned out a limp ballad, -except- for the warbly refrain, a falsetto vocal singing "that bitch is crazyÉ", never fails to crack us up, but not enough to save the song.
But elsewhereÉ where to start? Howabout "Rushing Elephants"? The best Wu track since "Uzi (Pinky Ring)", but the same sort of vibe, with each Wu-Tang-er offering up an awesome verse, the loop playful and dramatic, then there's "Unpredictable", with it's Bernard Hermann like orchestral stabs, and the throbbing Prince like squalls of guitar feedback, the shuffling rhythm, all over long slow building swells of dissonant melody, the flows rapid fire and super aggressive. And so it goes throughout 8 Diagrams, RZA's beats bad ass, all the various Wu-Tang-ers are on fire, Method Man sounds better than ever, had us hankering for a new solo record, even the second stringers shine.
But as far as we're concerned it's all about the aforementioned "Wolves". The main loop is fucking perfect, twangy strum, a drone of low harmony vocals, some Morricone-ish whistling, mariachi horns, the drums simple and stripped down, but funky as shit, and then the flows over the top. Method Man's in particular. When his verse starts, he sings "Defecating on the map...", and it makes you laugh at first, but the way he spits it makes it sounds like some timeless Buddhist koan, a pearl of obtuse wisdom, and soon, that and a handful of other perfect turns of phrase are lodged in your cranium. And then there's the refrain. A raspy George Clinton, singing about the wolf that killed grandma, and about how he's your St. Bernard in a snowstorm, all delivered in a wavery old man croon, like some funky elder ODB, again, so goofy and funny and fucked, that it sort of makes you giggle, until it reveals itself as THE perfect hook, and suddenly, you realize, without a doubt, that this is in fact, the hip hop JAM OF THE YEAR! And the more we listen to this whole disc the more we can't seem to stop, which is leading us to believe that 8 Diagrams might just find its way onto plenty of 2007 top ten lists, ours included...
MPEG Stream: "Wolves"
MPEG Stream: "Rushing Elephants"
MPEG Stream: "Unpredictable"