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

New Guardian Alien Via Thrill Jockey!!!

I really enjoyed Brooklyn psych droners Guardian Alien's self-titled LP on Swill Children Records (check out what I thought here). So it was very exciting news to hear that one of my fave all time labels Thrill Jockey had taken on these space cowboys who include Greg Fox (ex-Liturgy, one of the best drummers alive). Appears we don't have long to wait for a new release either. July 24 will see the launch of See The World Given To A One Love Entity, a 37 minute track that swirls in and around the most mainstream elements of the psych rock jam and stretches its contours until it is entirely unrecognisable yet inexplicably accessible as a result. It's these kind of experimental endeavours - wild and weird yet strangely listenable at an enjoyable level - that slay me, and this looks to be up there as one of the best warped rides of the year.


Pre-order now and you can get your vinyl in clear gold - I kid you not. Do it, now.

Guardian Alien - See The World Given To A One Love Entity (Part 1)

Nothing Clear About The Breaking Day

Now here is ANOTHER album that was floating in the inbox in the aftermath of Christmas where I stockpiled nigh on 700 emails. There are probably heaps more that have slipped through, but I'm glad that Chicago duo Cleared's second LP Breaking Day managed to float to the surface like a bloated corpse - well, not that luridly morbid, but its a dark listen. Maybe it's serendipity - one of the duo Michael Vallera has collaborated with David Daniell in the past, whose current collab with Douglas McCombs I raved about only hours previous! Wow, right? Ahem.

So, the album is an intense ride of noise, that ebbs and flows like lunar tides. Opener 'Rogues' is probably the hardest to digest, utilising a lot of feedback, white noise and cymbals to create a relentless surge of confronting sound that nonetheless is alluring due to its hypnotic aural pendulum. 'Sighted' is an undulating schism of droning nothingness, the perfect purgatory for the release of the psych dirge of the title track. 'No Path To Claim' echoes like a beleaguered broadcast from a discarded and forgotten space probe, whilst the mono synthesia of 'Quartz' gives way to the heaving closer 'The Harvest', all skittering menace without release. These recordings are eerie and otherworldly, but most of all they refuse to give easy answers, instead offering for ambient distance and abrasive obtuseness - things that tend to alienate even ardent drone fans. The dark jewels are in there - are you brave enough to venture in?


Breaking Day is out now through Immune Recordings - grab it here.

Cleared - Rogues
Cleared - Breaking Day

Thrill Jockey Avalanche #2 - David Daniell & Douglas McCombs, Kandodo,

It has been an excellent year once more for that inimitable label Thrill Jockey (Pontiak, Man Forever, Eternal Tapestry, Plankton Wat, White Hills, Jon Porras), and they ain't finished yet. Here's a couple more recent Thrill Jockey releases that I thought you deserved to hear.


The duo of David Daniell and Douglas McCombs (he of Tortoise fame, amongst a gazillion other ventures) put out their second collaboration in the form of Versions. Essentially six sprawling guitar duets (four studio improvs and two live performances), the album is breathtaking in its audacity and surprising breadth, especially seeing as these tracks are made from the same seven hour improvisational session that made up their first album together, Sycamore. For me this easily trumps their first dig, and this is most likely down to Ken Brown (Tortoise) being given the mixing duties, thus cutting together what he felt were their brightest moments. He's bang on the money there, especially on the roiling classic 'Burn After Reading'. Great stuff.

David Daniell/Douglas McCombs - 30265


Kandodo also whips out an album and it is the most eloquent that Simon Price (lead of The Heads) has put out to date. Price describes them as "fuzzy lullabies", and there really is something warm yet verbose in these guitar-driven woozy interludes. Perfect headspace music (the crackly field recordings that drift in and out of the mix crackle and fizz on the headphones).

kandodo - Laud The Hyena

Both records can be grabbed here and here respectively - I strongly urge that you do so.

More Works By Dewey Mahood (Plankton Wat/Eternal Tapestry)

Last year I came across two great albums that both made it into my best of list for 2011 - Eternal Tapestry's Beyond The 4th Door, and Plankton Wat's In Magical Light (read what I thought about both here and here respectively). Funnily enough, both bands include Dewey Mahood, the six-string extraordinaire. And as luck would have it, both his band and his solo venture have releases sorted for release at almost the same time, both through Thrill Jockey!


I'll focus on Plankton Wat's Spirits first. Mahood is a very organic musician, with an excellent ear for melody outside the drone and spiralling guitar frenzies, and this LP is further proof that there are many avenues for growth in this ambient sonisphere. The layers he develops around his excellent guitar improvisations. Definitely one that I'm gonna come back to over the course of the year I think.

Plankton Wat - Fabric Of Life


Whilst not out for a little while, Eternal Tapestry's 4th LP (I think, they have a lot of cassettes out too) Dawn In 2 Dimensions is pure, unadulterated psych rock. The band are a force of nature, all working as one mind in feeling out a sound together. Very rarely does any of their tracks sound premeditated - they exist through playing, finding the groove and expanding as a communal unit. I'm not sure if I like it as much as Beyond The 4th Door yet, it hasn't grabbed me as quickly as that one did, but time will tell. It is a grand release regardless, and potentially could be a real grower of a masterpiece. This opening track is a magnified example of what they do - with a delightful hint of Comets On Fire for added firepower, nothing to sneeze at there at all!

Eternal Tapestry - Wholeodome

Both albums can be pre-ordered here - well worth it.

Thrill Jockey Avalanche #1 - Jon Porras (of Barn Owl), Luke Roberts, Man Forever

My inbox is overflowing - I have no idea how I'm going to get all this 2012 good music to your delectable ears! So I'm doing a whole bunch of multiple artist posts (see Tenzenmen post here as an example of what I mean). I could just list releases, post a song, move on. So much easier too! But that is NOT how I do things here at Sonic Masala. So this week I aim to catch up on all the recent and upcoming releases from label favourite Thrill Jockey, starting with these three lovelies.


Jon Porras is more famous as one half of brilliant drone duo Barn Owl. However, just like other half Evan Caminiti, they have individual projects going on too. Black Mesa is Porras' solo venture, and it's a excellent excursion into guitar experimentation, taking elements of Japanese psych, West Coast amble and Southern twang, having his collages percolate through the prisms of elongation, tremolo and twang, deconstructs and reconstructs over a ten month period, and then offers it up as an album. 'Into Midnight' has some Neil Young Dead Man era darkness pulsing through its veins, alongside warblings that the Black Angels' Christian Bland would find wholly appealing. Yet there is something overtly immersive about Black Mesa that makes this more than a vanity project or an attempt at creating an artistic gesture. Many of these songs feel fully formed - the longer tracks are justified at their extrapolated timeframes, the shorter tracks evoke the right mood without feeling half baked. Like the outpourings of Mark McGuire, Black Mesa is a sublime album from a continually exciting performer.

Jon Porras - Into Midnight


It seemed only yesterday that Luke Roberts released Big Bells And Dime Songs (when he didn't even own his own guitar!), yet last month he was back releasing The Iron Gates At Throop And Newport. He wrote this sophomore release on his own guitar, and on tracks such as 'His Song' and 'I Don't Want You Anymore' Roberts seems to have grown in confidence and scope also. The arrangements have been noticeably beefed up, so that his plaintive vocals are embedded amongst complementary orchestration rather than plastered on a blank canvas, pulling all the weight. Yet it would be easy to drown out these emotional odes with bombast and flair, but every arrangement is specifically chosen. It's a beautiful album, one that stands on its own pedestal yet promises so much more.

Luke Roberts - I Don't Want You Any More
Luke Roberts - His Song


Finally today we are looking at Pansophical Cataract, the stunning album from percussive magnets Man Forever (AKA John Colpitts AKA Oneida's drumming maestro Kid Millions). The two track release was always going to be an exercise in drumming exploration, the tub-thumping counterpoint to Porras' offering, yet the boisterousness inherent in the cyclical suites he constructs here are a little more out there - and all the more enjoyable for it. The album is relentlessly driven by Colpitts' endless quest to find pattern in percussion. It's a rhythmic roar that is as calming as it is unsettling, a paradox that aptly showcases the possibilities within this musical framework. And although Side A 'Surface Patterns' delves into the pulses of electrical instruments rather than the skin variety, it is no less hypnotic and captivating. Colpitts, like many of the artists he works with that live on the periphery of what we know as 'pop music', is an exciting presence and a godsend.

Man Forever - Surface Patterns

Grab all of these from Thrill Jockey here.

A Decade On, Mi Ami's Not Always For Me

For me, Mi Ami will always evoke the memory of their show at Barden's Boudoir back in 2010 for two reasons - firstly, because support act Islet were a shambolic blast to the adrenal gland, and secondly because Mi Ami did exactly as they said they would with then current album and stole my face. It was an incredibly acerbic and lacerating show whereby frontman Daniel Martin-McCormick overcame the hypertensive wails that litter the record and put them into the real world - seeing him actually emit those sounds somehow put everything into sharper focus. Steal Your Face was one of Paul's favourite albums of that year, and rightly so.

However, since then Martin-McCormick and Mi Ami compatriot Damon Palermo have stepped away from the post-punk annihilation that marked their earlier incarnations and, through a variety of outside projects (Sex Worker, Magic Touch and most tellingly Ital) they have embraced their visions of house music. House music, to me at the very least, is music's version of the Dark Side. Very few "indie" artists make it in both worlds, and invariably never return the same person. We are getting very Heart Of Darkness/Apocalypse Now here folks...


And so it is with Mi Ami. After their Thrill Jockey-sanctioned Dolphins EP last year, they have launched their new album Decade (on Not Not Fun offshoot 100% Silk), which helps to explain the progress since their inception ten years ago, and the influences the duo clearly now hold. And whilst I get the tracks (I'm privy to a little Ital), this isn't what I want from Mi Ami. Call it something else, but this is the kind of about-turn that hurts a fanbase. Well, it's hurt me at the very least.

That said, I still like previous works Steal Your Face and Watersports, so who knows. Give it a go, you may love it more than me.

Mi Ami - Bells

Skewed Wooden Shjips? Well I Never...

San Francisco psych juggernauts Wooden Shjips has a remixes 12" out through Thrill Jockey, featuring remixes by Andrew Weatherall and Sonic Boom, and a collaborative track with kandodo (aka Simon Price of The Heads). The 12" was originally available on crystal clear vinyl with black streaks, yet those sexy pieces have been snavvled so you will have to be content with just plain ol black wax.

As for the remixes... Andrew Weatherall (Primal Scream, New Order, My Bloody Valentine, Bjork) remixed "Crossing". Pete Kember, also known as Sonic Boom of Spacemen 3/Spectrum fame mastered Wooden Shjip's most recent (and fucking excellent) West album, and contributed "Wiking Stew (aka Red Krayola-ing)".
Finally there's the track "Ursus Maritimus (Last Bear's Lament)", a long distance collaboration with Simon Price aka kanodo. Ripley Johnson, the wired lead of Wooden Shjips created the bed of the track in Colorado in between tours and sent if off to Simon, in London. Simon added all the additional instrumentation at his home studio.

These three tracks are incredibly special. Grab the 12" here.

Wooden Shjips - Crossing (Andrew Weatherall remix)

Finally, Wooden Shjips sails into Brisbane for a show at the Zoo Sunday March 25. Supported by Secret Birds and Nite Fields, this is going to be such a great show! Pity I have to teach kids in the morning...I guess it's never stopped me before though...

Getting Fried On The Rocks Of White Hills

Next month LA psych space rock behemoth White Hills unleashes another album on us in the form of Frying On This Rock. Holy shit its good. Then again, I always love what they offer. It opens up with the thundering motorik swirl and bluster of 'Pads Of Light', before 'Robot Stomp' takes us on a repetitive droning journey into the inner echelons of the psyche, its incremental ratcheting of the noise an otherworldly aural orgasm of unearthly delights. 'You Dream You See' feels like an amalgam of the first two tracks, but 'Song Of Everything' is an altogether different beast, delving into the heavy White Hills psych noise before stopping halfway through for silence, samples and general malaise, before kicking back in in the final sixty seconds. Finally we have 'I Write A Thousand Letters (Pulp On Bone)', a fucktastic orgy of brutal swirling psychedelia that eats the paint of the walls and the tar off the lungs. Its less atmospheric than 2011's H-p1, infused with an addled urgency that, like a meth addict, makes it hard to trust or predict, therefore you daren't take your eyes off it. That's a twisted seal of approval, right there.



Frying On The Rocks is out March 20 via Thrill Jockey. There were some half pink/half white vinyl versions available for pre-order, but they sold out in less than 24 hours. Nevertheless it is still available in the two colours above. How about that pink??? Sexy times. Pre-order your copy here.

White Hills - Pads Of Light

Dustin Wong's Album Of Verbs

Ponytail may be on hiatus, but the musical magpies are anything if not prolific. Guitarist Dustin Wong has been putting out a plethora of wild and wonderful releases, and is now priming a new album - Dreams Say, View, Create, Shadow Leads - coming out on Thrill Jockey tomorrow. Unsurprisingly, it takes listeners on another trip through the intricately colourful wonderland that he creates with only his guitar and a bank of effects pedals. I've only listened to the album once all the way through (this morning whilst driving to work with hot coffee in between my legs), and whilst it cements Wong's overall fingerprints in the Ponytail aesthetic, it also highlights the Baltimore artist's penchant for pushing the envelope into technicolour realms, something that other artists from the region (eg Dan Deacon, Future Islands) have undertaken for the past decade now. I think this will help to cement Wong's capabilities firmly in a positive, rather than a throwaway, light.


Furthermore, Wong has set up something interesting that YOU can be a part of! Fans and friends can tell him about a dream that was significant or surreal, recurring or unusual, by recording a description of the dream to his Soundcloud page (or describing it in a written message sent to his page). He will then create an original piece of music inspired by each of these dreams. specifically incorporating their description, and post a selection of these recordings to his Soundcloud page during the week of the release of Dreams Say, View, Create, Shadow Leads, beginning on Monday, February 20 (TODAY). He says about the project, "I thought it would be a really neat idea to be able to contribute some of my music to people's dreams, not only would it be a good challenge but it would also be a very loose non-verbal way of interpreting a dream. By reflecting the mood of what the dream is it could bring something out of the dream that the dreamer never noticed, like a glaze that brings out the colors of a painting." Head here to check it all out.

Dustin Wong - Pink Diamond
Dustin Wong - Ice Sheets On Feet Prints

Dustin Wong - Pink Diamond from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.

Imbogodom Weaves Another Beguiling Web

Imbogodom has a new album out - that's the project of Alexander Tucker and Daniel Beban. I saw Tucker play solo as support of A Silver Mt Zion back in 2010 - it was pretty sweet. These tracks off And They Turned Not When They Went (fresh off Thrill Jockey's shelves) are as eclectic and intricate as always. Following last year's Imbogodom debut The Metallic Year and Tucker's 2011 solo album Dorwytch, the duo clearly have upped the ante in their aims to compose, dismantle, and expand their songwriting. It isn't an easy listen, but that is part of Imbogodom's point. Unpacking the music is as much the listener's job as it is the musicians', and on this LP there is some fun to be had.

Field recordings such as the utilisation of live feeds from the Houses of Parliament's bell Big Ben intermingle with pastoral dirges, ghostly tape manipulations and skewed sonics, coalescing in an experience that may be trying for those looking for a semblance of conventional structure. Even expressionistic acts like Explosions In The Sky have a clear, definable M.O. - Tucker and Beban work hard to abolish these notions. It's foreboding and even deliberately confrontational - an experiment that teeters on the knife's edge of unmitigated disaster.

In my opinion, And They Turned Not When They Went has its merits. 'Rubbings' is a piano collage that battles valiantly with synthetic brushstrokes, whilst 'Heir Looms' and closer 'Pillars Of Ash' are the closest that we get to actual songs, with the duo bringing their voices to the mix for good measure. It doesn't always work - it can be incredibly cold in between the corrupted soundscapes - but, again, that seems to be part of the point. Isolate yourself from all amenities and warm bodies, and let Imbogodom take you to a parallel, inverted universe along a path less travelled.


And They Turned Not When They Went is out now on Thrill Jockey.

Imbogodom - Heir Looms
Imbogodom - Rubbings

Ono, Pontiak!

Sonic Masala has always been a fan of the Carney brothers. Otherwise known as Pontiak, the trio put out the EP Comecrudos last year on Thrill Jockey, and it seriously killed. As Jennings stated, it was a departure, an experiment, and new album Echo Ono cuts back to the sun-bleached psychedelic rock they are renowned for. In fact the album is leaner and meaner than previous releases, with the focus being on creating an album of songs as opposed to segueing space jams that hinge together through mood and atmosphere. 'Lions Of Least' is let off the leash first, and the rabid hunger of it all is a shock that takes a little to recover from. Are we listening to a revitalised Black Keys? Is that an insulting shot at Pontiak? It's proper rock that we are hearing here, the fat (however colourful and tasty) flayed from the bone. It's not until third track 'Left With Lights' that everything comes together - this is Pontiak distilled into tear-shaped dots, taken on the tongue for instant rush and gratification. It's an album that is just as addictive too - you will be rotating this one ad nauseum. And don't get me started on the closing motorik monster 'Panoptica'...

It's an altogether different sound to all their previous output, yet is still indelibly Pontiak. Which means...if you like balls to the wall blues rock that has been lost in the Texan desert and is suffering from hallucinations, dehydration and snakebites, you'll be queuing up to let this record salve the wounds.


Pre-order Echo Ono now and you can get one of 500 copies in translucent teal vinyl.

Pontiak - Lions Of Least

Video Vacuum - Dan Melchior, Rhyton, Jason Urick, Sennen

Who needs a break? I can hear your shouts from here! I do too, although people may not guess it - my increasingly accurate physical resemblance to an elegant hobo is raising eyebrows and rashes both. So here are some choice cuts from Thrill Jockey, who look to have us covered once more in 2012...

But before we get there, if you remember, I really enjoyed Dan Melchior's Assemblage Blues record last year. The man is nothing if not prolific, and he has some good stuff coming out soon. This vid has been available for a little while, but its a fair summation of how Melchior does his shtick (it's also on a 7" put out by SDZ Records). Love him or hate him, he is true to his idiosyncrasies... (NB - I love him).

Dan Melchior "Red Nylon Valance" from max dembo on Vimeo.

Here is one band I had never heard of until TR sent me this clip. Rhyton are aiming to liquify your bones inside you so you become quivering bags of mush. Their bass played is from Psychic Ills for Chrissakes! Their self-titled debut sounds pretty killer, by the way - grab it here. And while I'm at it, here is a track you can have on top of the vid - happy Friday yo!

Rhyton - Shank Raids

Rhyton - Stone Colored from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.

Jason Urick has melded dub and drone into a delectable tapestry on his latest, I Love You. Here he has pared the static noise to create something otherworldly, something akin to High Wolf in some respects, which is always welcomed, but there is something...warm about this record that is great. Anyway, here is the clip. Bliss out folks...

Jason Urick - Ageless Isms from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.

To finish off today, let's veer out of the Thrill Jockey stables, but not too far. Sennen sound like they would fit right at home, so I'm placing them in the meadow adjacent. The UK band are releasing their Vultures 7" in March, which will be on heavenly white vinyl - pre-order here. Their upcoming album Lost Harmony looks to be a sweaty palms kinda release - I'm itching for it already.



NOW GET BACK TO WORK!!

Roberts Sings Songs With A Dime Of Milk

I only just spoke about the surprise belter that is Luke Roberts' Big Bells & Dime Songs the other week - it's a really good album! Now here is a bonus track that didn't make the album (which is strange, seeing as it bears half of the LP title), 'Dime Song'. Even more surprising is how good it is - although this isn't really a surprise when you find out that the backing band Roberts has used features members of the cult noise merchants Harvey Milk (or maybe it still is - such subtlety isn't really their forte...) Really nice stuff, and the best way to help string out the last Friday of Spring...

Grab Big Bells & Dime Songs now, it's a slow burner that could force its way to the top of the pops come December 31st...


Luke Roberts - Dime Song (full band)

Luke Roberts Drifts Out With The Thrills

Thrill Jockey really hit the stellar releases into hyperdrive this year, and with Luke Roberts' Big Bells And Dime Songs, an understated gem that in its poetic lyricism evokes hope and frivolity, the label's sublime record remains indelibly intact. The label itself says the record is about "running, stumbling, falling, crashing, crying, spitting, fighting, sleeping, dancing, healing, bruising, the butterfly, crawling, creeping, building, flying, fording, gargling, just starting out, homecoming, claiming, calling, bridges, tunnels, planets, and the sun and money." Exhaustive. Like life flashing before one's eyes - yet it's a epiphanous experience without the sense of losing out or regretting anything. Mr Roberts, you have tapped into something that is subliminal, primal, and oh so beautiful - thank you.


Big Bells And Dime Songs is available now - grab it from the source.

Luke Roberts - Unspotted Clothes
Luke Roberts - Just Do It Blues

Double Baltimore Magic

It was sad news indeed that two Baltimore acts, Double Dagger and Ponytail, have hung up their chaps in 2011. Both bands were up in my top ten live acts of all time (as witnessed by me - that's how these things work, right?). But two other B-more acts continue to ply their trade with excellent results.


First up we have the electro-shock artist and dance-party authority Dan Deacon, renowned as one of the world’s funnest and most epic live performers. I saw him play at London's ULU in 2009 - such an amazing show, it had all the funky white kids shuffling (they are too hip to dance). The Dr Marvin Monroe maniacal yet lovable alchemist, is equal parts crazy and inspirational, participatory and energetic, and his intense live show breaks down audience inhibitions to enable mass mayhem and fun. He has just signed onto Domino Records, and is making his way to Australia in January 2012! What's more he is bringing his ensemble - sop full band awesomeness! AND one such member is Denny from Double Dagger! Wow.

But the excellent times do not halt there, as he will be supported by one of 2011's most lauded artists in John Maus. His groundbreaking new album We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves (released on one of our fave labels ever, Upset The Rhythm (as if you didn't already know!!!), distributed locally through Inertia) has been one of the iconic records of 2011. The confrontation of punk, the fleeting poignancy of 80s movie soundtracks, the insistent pulse of Moroder and the spirituality of Medieval and Baroque music all find salvation in John Maus.

The show is rounded out by locals Toy Balloon, whose sound is a collision of shambolic noise, plump dance grooves, brother / sister vocal harmonies and rigid polyrhythms. The result is a brilliant and confounding bastardisation of pop music that few people can resist. With one foot in a world occupied by new wave, cosmic disco, early hip hop and acid house, and the other foot firmly planted in the introspective, experimental indie rock world, the four piece has built a scene-busting following through their dynamic and diverse live shows. It all happens at Woodland on Thursday January 12 - grab your tickets here. AND A NEW ALBUM IS ON ITS WAY!!!

Dan Deacon - Red F


Then we have Future Islands, who also played that titular ULU show. Their new album, On The Water, is every bit as great as was hoped, and whilst they aren't known to be touring Australia soon, this album is more than enough to keep you afloat! Grab it here.

Future Islands - Give Us The Wind
Future Islands - Before The Bridge

With these two acts in business, the world is not a cold, dead place...