10 Jul 2013

REVIEWS: THE JANITORS, MICHAEL WARREN, GRYZOR 87, HERBCRAFT


THE JANITORS "DRONE HEAD"
Swedish perpetrators of some of the darkest psychedelic shoegaze and drone you're likely to ever hear, the Janitors inhabit a world founded by the likes of the Spacemen 3 and Loop, but twist and turn their roots into something far more sinister. That they manage to do so while serving up songs with hooks like "Do It Again", a skeletal boogie that would appeal to fans of Queens of the Stone Age, is admirable.
Only those with an interest in the heaviest of heavy psych need apply - this is not music for the faint of heart, but those with a love of evil drone and heavy garage clamor will be totally in their element.
Cardinal Fuzz here combines their "Head Honcho" and "Worker Drone Queen" E.Ps onto a double (white) LP with bonus tracks.
Get it here.
Listen:


MICHAEL WARREN "BRUME & NELIPOT"
Sounding like the result of some unholy communion between Harvest Records and Flying Nun (appropriately enough as Warren claims to have been either born, or conceived in the Harvest Records carpark), Michael Warren is a madcap and melodically gifted songwriter with a very short attention span, and a knack for plundering everything from lo-fi to psychedelia to surf to Booker T & The M.Gs and beyond - Timeless D.I.Y music.
If you fancy the idea of the Clean fronted by Kevin Ayers you should check this out.
And every copy has a unique hand made cover made by Warren himself.
Get it here.
Listen :



GRYZOR 87 "CYBERPAST"
"I love music, videogames and synthesizers." begins Gryzor 87's accompanying press release, and "Cyberpast" makes no attempt to hide this obsession, openly claiming to be a tribute to his favorite electronic musicians of the classic synth era. This works far beyond pastiche though, and often betters the material it's based on. Very careful attention to detail is only part of the reason for this success with Vangelis and Kitaro often evoked. Most importantly though it's a case of style AND substance, with as much effort put into writing decent tunes, as capturing period detail, with "The Unknown Love" trumping everything else here, sounding as it does like an outtake from "Oxygene" - and one that Jean Michel would have been mad to leave on the cutting room floor.
Get it here.


HERBCRAFT "THE ASTRAL BODY ELECTRIC"
Definitely deserving of a longer review, but impossible to write one for as more than 2-3 minutes of listening will leave you with that painted onto the sofa feeling that only the best brownies offer. Signed to the wonderful Woodsist label ( home of Woods!), the Herbcraft people decamped to an 18th century New England barn with Mmoss's Doug Tuttle, where the distinctly trippy contents of this here LP were captured on vintage tape.
It's fabulous head music, with long, winding songs that start off with memorable eastern based riffs before heading off into the unknown in a fashion that evokes the most exploratory of Syd era Floyd at it's best.
Brilliant.
Get it here.
Listen :

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