Occupied With An Unspoken Golden Retriever

Occupied With The Unspoken is the new record from Portland duo Jonathan Sielaff (of Au) and Matt Carlson (of Parenthetical Girls) AKA Golden Retriever, and their first through esteemed experimental label Thrill Jockey. The album is both a meditation on and a study of how music can be made, by focusing on the ways in which polyphonic music can be molded from monophonic instruments. The bass clarinet and the analog modular synthesizer are generally both capable of playing only one note at a time. By intertwining electronics into the mixing and layering the results, a tapestry of sonics emerges which feels organic in origin but is anything but. This is the kind of extrapolation of sound that the Inner Islands stable would find inimitably fascinating. Much like contemporaries in these exploratory realm, Golden Retriever wouldn't ever play these concise versions of songs, tended for a 25-to-30 minute interpretation which allows for pondering and feeling out, thus making Occupied With the Unspoken a unique experience all its own. I always surprise myself about which experimental sound installation I will connect with, and which to me doesn't lead anywhere - but Thrill Jockey is a pretty good indicator of where my cards normally fall. Golden Retriever, whilst not a safe bet for some, is a risk worth taking.


You can grab Occupied With The Unspoken here. Check out the song and video 'Canopy' below.

Golden Retriever - Canopy

Hearing A Hum Opens Up The World

So I'm in Byron Bay, a spiritual place home to great festivals and hippies, both real and imagined. I love it here, despite the commercialism riding much of its appeal into the ground, and I cannot think of a better soundtrack than Hear Hums' latest, Opens.

Last year I was enamoured by Psyche Cycles, the 2nd LP from Floridian duo Hear Hums. In February they brought out Opens, another heady slice of tribal percussive psychedelia that revels in chants, moans, clicks, drones, chimes, beats, and swirling repetition. This kind of organic guff is fair play over at the Inner Islands stable, yet Opens sees Hear Hums truly transcend to another celestial realm. There are some organic connections to Icelandic troupe múm's brilliant 2nd album Finally We Are No One - you can picture yourself running naked through a fern-laden forest with them, running through ice cold and crystal clear brooks, and embracing life in its entirety. Not much can make you feel such elemental, core emotions, to want to revert to the basest of Self, but Hear Hums nail it. I apologise wholeheartedly to Mitch and Kenzie - they sent this to me ages ago, and I only got to it last month. This out-early-Animal Collectives early Animal Collective. Amazing stuff. And check out the live shot above - that looks like the best live show EVER. Seriously, I want to go to there.


Opens is out now, this is life-affirming stuff, grab it this instant.

Hear Hums - Shrines
Hear Hums - Growing

Pastoral Pastiche Pop Amongst The Nomadic Firs

The solo warped outpourings of Tennessee's Ryan Boos, Nomadic Firs' self-titled record is something of a anomaly in that it had been gestating for six years, is a pastiche of colours and ideas that have coalesced into finite songs, and yet is cohesive much farther beyond what is thought possible from such an amalgam of sounds and grooves. Reminiscent of the breakout hazy debut album by Unknown Mortal Orchestra (especially on 'Vines'). There is a rustic underbelly to these jams that echoes from Boos' rustic life (he owns a petite farm with his wife), and it is these pastoral colourings that infuse Nomadic Firs with a sense of elegiac beauty. That sense of being at one with nature is akin to some of the randomness that comes of the Inner Islands label, except Boos is much more of a pop song traditionalist. The experimentalism even evokes Deerhunter ('In The Morning') or the Beta Band ('Cover Bombs') at times, but above all this is an album that rewards in myriad ways, often all at once.


You can grab Nomadic Firs in cassette form (with it's own knitted holder!) from Crash Symbols here. Well worth it my friends.

Nomadic Firs - Vines
Nomadic Firs - In The Morning
Nomadic Firs - Cover Bombs

Inner Islands Offers A Name To Return To With Acceptance

Braden over at spiritual exploration label Inner Islands has two new releases for you, and they are both game-changers for the artists involved.

Firstly we have To Return To, the debut album for Ashan (AKA Sean Conrad AKA gkfoes vjgoaf - foregoing that mouthful is a good idea...). To Return To is a peaceful blend of organics and subtle electronics, things that followers of Conrad would be aware and open to, yet it's the male/female choral vocal chants that lead us through the keyhole into a different world altogether.

Ashan - How Sweetly I Am Loved

Secondly we have Acceptance, the latest (and final) recording from Braden's own project WYLD WYZRDZ. The songs are a reflection on acceptance, built on a collection of soft drones, melodic hooks, vocal chants and moving percussion. It's easily the best thing that WW has put together, and furthermore highlights the hole left after such an artist bids us adieu.

WYLD WYZRDZ - The Road Of Acceptance

Go on, support this rad label by heading here and getting amongst these astral jams. Well worth all effort and time exerted.

Turning Circles In Inner Islands

Another two releases worth mentioning out of the Inner Islands stable - and as always, they are damn good. The circle turns once more...


The first is From a Stone by WYLD WYZRDZ. The album is a peaceful blend of electronics and organics combining simple steady rhythms, field recordings and vocal chants along with various melodic instruments (dulcimer, flute, strum stick, bass, guitar, keys). Exactly what you would expect from a WYLD WYZRDZ release, sure, but if it ain't broke...


The second is a re-release of Sandpaintings by Stag Hare. This album was originally released on Moon Dial last year, the album shows SH's more reserved, languid side. One track per side - perfect for drifting away.

Both albums are on sale on cassette and digital download via Inner Islands here.

Stag Hare - Holy Person

WYLD WYZRDZ - In Wonder