Holo-Hagiography, April 2011

Hail Voyagers! Back again for a long-overdue (!) installment of 'Holo-Hagiography,' wherein we divulge and point the way to several items of interest in this our favorite genre of sound. So, away with it...

First up, and hopefully not too late, is the latest from those wacky Wizards -Keith & Andy, at Fruits de Mer Records: Roqueting Through Space! (As our somewhat-prog-addled pal at Headfull of Snow says:

" Through a fuzz of galactic debris, Roqueting Through Space soars across the celestial plains, harvesting tracks originally recorded by the likes of Neu!, Pink Floyd, Can and Brainticket. Liberties have been taken with the “traditional” definition of what constitutes space rock, with the inclusion of versions of The Tornados’ ‘Telstar’ and Julian Cope’s ‘I Come From Another Planet, Baby’. Neither artist immediately lends themselves to the image of excessively hairy, chemically enhanced voyagers, embarking on a psychedelic trip to the furthest reaches of their mind, but as the FdM press release says, “… it [space rock] means different things to different people – spacey, spaced-out, sci-fi, electronic rock … We decided to drop the pretence of defining the genre, and instead allowed our chosen bands to decide for themselves what ‘space rock’ meant …”


...and, back to our man at HFoS:
"
With the coordinates set to veer slightly in favour of 70s Krautrock (Brainticket, Can and two Neu! tracks), which in turn lends itself perfectly to the out-of-this-world atmosphere the FdM scientific team set out to explore, the answer to the question you were earlier left to ponder can only be a resounding “Yes”. Cranium Pie’s version of Brainticket’s ‘Blacksand’ is a galaxy-busting treat, swimming in phased vocals, the fuzziest of guitar noise and intergalactic whalesong. Frobisher Neck and The Grand Astoria tackle ‘Isi’ by Neu! and ‘Oh Yeah’ by Can respectively, with riveting results, but it’s Helicon’s 10 minute crack at ‘Hallogallo’, also originally by Neu!, that impresses the most, fuelled as it is by a decidedly hypnotic Hawkwind vibe." (* emphasis added.)



Read more: http://headfullofsnow.com/roqueting-space-fdm-vol-18/#ixzz1IwvxjKg5




Printed on colored vinyl in a one-time pressing of 500, my understanding is there's now less than 100 left. Get it, NOW!

Next up, good friend with great taste and a knack for assembling some of the best sounds around: Pierre Priot, of Toulouse, France, and his Dead Bees label's tenth sampler!



As his website states: "Originally due on 10/10/10, our tenth sampler got a bit delayed. We are sorry about that. This new compilation tracks were gathered last summer for an early batch, and some others were recently added over the past weeks. This very long process got us more tracks than we could include on a single CD, so we had to put some of them aside. This means we already have material ready for sampler #11!

This music is to be shared under the terms of a Creative Commons license. Spread this record, make copies of it, and give them away.We will also post it onto various websites, file sharing portals, and non-profit free music, such as Archive.org or FreeMusicArchive.org and more...

Our new track providers include: FEDERALE (Collin Hegna, from THE BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE, Portland, Or), THE RUSTY BELLS (Toulouse, Fr), OSTRICH TUNING (Toronto, On), PETE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT (Peter Holmström from THE DANDY WARHOLS, Portland, Or), THE COBBLESTONES (Paris, Fr), GEORGE (Paris, Fr), TREASURE MAPS (New York, NY), THE DEAD MANTRA (Le Mans, Fr).

Get it, here or here! Thanks Pierre, for all you do.

Next..? How about the Deep Heaven Festival's compilation? Taking place next weekend, April 15 & 16th in Somerville, MA, the band roster looks a stormer! Asteroid #4, Sky Drops, Ghost Box Orchestra, and on and on and on! Get the compilation and pretend you're there!

This just in, from Lars K., of Denmark's (mighty) Bad Afro label:
" Telstar Sound Drone formed in 2007 when Hans Beck convinced Mads Saaby to join him in a project called Les Aprés L’amour Sonnes, an artist collective working with media such as sound and video. The first project was to add sound to old educational movies, playing along with the projections. With the addition of Sean Jardenbæk and Mads Løwe the project turned into a band and settled with the name Telstar Sound Drone.

The band recorded a self-titled EP that led to a show at Roskilde Festival in 2009. After that Telstar Sound Drone took a break while internal problems almost destroyed the band. At one point Hans Beck was the only member of the band playing all the instruments. The problems were solved and in February 2011 they recorded two brand new songs at the Black Tornado studio in Copenhagen with this single in mind.

Telstar Sound Drone cleverly blend shoegazer, drone and psychedelic rock and even though the noise breaks are quite breathtaking the music is always melodic making this release one of the most promising singles on Bad Afro for a long time.

The Telstar Sound Drone line-up is: Sean Jardenbæk (Vocals, Guitar), Mads Løwe (Bass), Mads Saaby (Guitar) and Hans Beck (Drums). The two last mentioned also play in Baby Woodrose. "

Listen to "Mirror Pieces" here.

I'm also hoping you're paying some attention to the "-valis Pick of the Week" post each Tuesday, after the radio show has aired. Often times the band picked has offered free downloads. (Not always, but that's not a prerequisite either.)

And, finally, if you're lucky enough to be in Sweden next weekend, (lotta' great stuff happening world-wide next weekend, eh?), then get out and see the crazed mayhem that is The Crimson Shadows led by Jens Lindberg and Mans Mansson where they'll be setting the 99th Floor club afire!




Got a tip for next month's H-H post..? Post it as a comment and we'll do our best.

Enjoy the music everyone, and have a great weekend! Tripping, Inside THIS House, I am... -valis