Schemawound - Hospital Songs

With the ever-increasing number of bedroom electronic music producers prodding their way through local scenes and beyond, the question inevitably becomes, what must one do to rise above the cult of mediocrity?  With his latest release entitled HospitalSongs, Naugatuck producer Jon Siemasko, known as Schemawound, has proven that the answer lies in constant experimentation.

Farewood: Wings of Gold

In the youtube generation, so many “artists” put little thought into their output. It's comforting that there are bands like Farewood, who not only lay down beautiful musical tracks, but do so in order to bring readers to a richly developed fictional world of struggles and progress through human, or human-like interactions. In these songs of love and pain, a listener meets speakers they can identify with on a human level, as well as a witch, a ghost, and an angel. 

Diogenes in Hell - Venus Dominating the World

Diogenes, greek philosopher, creator of the Cynic school of philosophy, I believe... Anyway one could probably write an entire article on the band name alone. So, rather than bore you with all that, lets talk about the music. Diogenes in Hell, from what I gather, consists of one fellow: Ariel is his name... I think... The sound of this mysterious project is minimalistic and utilizes sub-bass quite heavily. The soundscapes resemble something Robert Fripp might do if he was influenced by Apple Seed Cast. I can't help but think of Bedhead too when I listen to "Venus Dominating the World."

Diogenes in hell - we Are free by mexicanrobots

NEW MUSIC from Florida=Death "x_________________ "

Fever dream freakout masters Florida=Death have returned to tease us with 2 tracks from their upcoming full length.

Greyglitch - Texas vs. Texas

**Warning, not mastered very well. Listen at a reasonable volume**

GreyGlitch hales from the mean streets of Lebonon, Conn. The devistated landscape is reflected in their music. But seriouslly... Greyglitch's sophomore album "Texas vs. Texas," great name, is an neat peice of glitch-electronic. Disjointed and abrasive, one finds them selves enveloped in a sphere of schizophrenic-mania. Utilizing distortion, delay, and circuit-bent Goodwill toys the band demonstrates a artiful control over chaos, something many experimental/noise artists lack. My only problem is the bands name "Greyglitch..." come on guys... lets try harder :). Nevertheless, their music is great, if you are into noisy electronics. Check them out---they'll blow your speakers a new one.

Record Review: Ghost of Chance, A Simple Beast

A Simple Beast is the sophomore effort from Ghost of Chance, hailing from New Haven. GOC creates a minimalistic atmosphere from the start with the song Carthage.The mellow vocals deliver narrative-style lyrics, over electronic drums, acoustic guitar, and dreamy organs (sounds like a Mellotron throughout the record, I could be wrong). The record has a carefully crafted atmospheric layer of instruments with steady reverb. It seems like a lot of care went to producing here. All the guitar effects are tasteful and purposeful. The recording itself sounds great. The arrangement of tracks works, which can make or break a record of this melodic, poppy and experimental style.

GOC really harness a mix of sounds on this record.  Track three, Trident, has a feel of Sparkle Horse, but is followed by Lend Me a Dollar, giving an awesome Yo La Tengo feeling, without sounding derived. Every track is pretty unique. GOC gives the album a punch with the distorted chorus of Pilot. Again, the record surprises with Pipe, giving out an instrumental that is somewhere between the atmosphere of bands like Joan of Arc or Explosions in the Sky.

I can’t wait to see these guys live and see how they deal with the instrumental intricacies. I don’t know if they have any shows planned for the near future, as no shows are listed on their website. Check it out anyway. http://ghostofchance.com/

Ghost of Chance - New Carthage by CTINDIE

Bleak November - Dark Sounds Invade Redscroll This Friday (November 19)

The Bleak November Micro-Tour
Starts At Redscroll Records

November 19, 2010 @ 7PM
$6 (Suggested Donation)

Redscroll Records

24 N. Colony Road, Wallingford, CT 06492

Authur & Punisher
Batillus
Theologian
Cowards
Work/Death
Master of Pussy
||The facebook event for the CT tour stop can be found here.||

Here's my one sentence break down act by act (by all means click their individual links above to learn/experience more):

This Friday a small tour of generally dark sounding acts are stopping in CT. Author & Punisher is a one man doom ambient metal project. Batillus is a full out doom ensemble (band) that just got signed to Seventh Rule Recordings. Theologian is the latest project from Leech of Navicon Torture Technologies - purveyor of a brand of power electronics he coined as power romance. Cowards is a two man outfit rising that builds and destroys rich dark atmospheres with an array of devices. Work/Death is an all out assault armed with a table full (over-packed really) of noise. And Master of Pussy is members of more bands than there are members, but with a sound bigger than them all (that doesn't really mean anything, but I'm leaving it).

The Nothing Under The Sun tumblr has a downloadable broadcast featuring 4 of these acts, check out the full post here or just listen right now:


More information over at the Redscroll Records blog.
And just in case you didn't know, we're having a sale (4th Annual Blackout At Sunrise Sale).
(Rick)

Apse, Matt Wilga (of Stoned Ambassadors), Roman Wolfe @ Popeye's Garage, Oct. 2nd

This Saturday, October 2nd Popeye's Garage will be hosting Northampton's Apse as well as openers Matt Wilga (of Brooklyn's Stoned Ambassadors) and Roman Wolfe (New Haven) for the first of its final three shows.

Formed in Newtown, Connecticut over a decade ago, Apse has significantly expanded its reach, both sonically and musically since its early days on the local scene. At varying points referencing elements of post-punk, post-rock, krautrock, shoegaze, ambient, industrial, goth and metal, Apse's unique creative vision (led by the band's only constant member Rob Toher) can be technically hard to define. Percussion heavy rhythms, Toher's trademark vocal delivery, and liberal doses of reverb and delay are familiar elements; however, songs push and pull, morph into each other and generally don't stick to one thing for too long. The band's songs seem to be more about an exploration of ideas than two and a half minute pop perfection, though the hooks are there, scattered throughout. Despite limited stateside appeal, Apse has enjoyed significant success abroad, especially in Europe where the band has repeatedly toured to great response. They are also currently signed to ATP Recordings and have made repeat appearances at their label's namesake festival. The current incarnation of the band has been pared down to a relatively meager four-piece (including bassist John Mordecai who also performs in locals Shark and the Tyler Trudeau Attempt) although they surely can still carry a wallop live. This particular performance marks Apse's first Connecticut show in over a year and, based on our calculations, its first show in New Haven proper ever. Openers Matt Wilga (of Brooklyn's the Stoned Ambassadors) and Roman Wolfe (New Haven) bring a complementary mix of pop sensiblity (Wilga) and synth exploration (Roman Wolfe) that should go well with Apse's subtley melodic sonic stew while still retaining their own musical identity.



Shows like this don't come along very often folks (and pretty soon Popeye's Garage won't be either) so get yourselves downtown this Saturday!

APSE
MATT WILGA (of The Stoned Ambassadors)
ROMAN WOLFE

@ Popeye's Garage
50 Goffe Street / New Haven
All Ages / $5 / 6pm

Caspian, Fugue, Castles

Thursday, September 9, 2010, Manic Productions presents


Location:
Lilly's Pad (Toad's Place Upstairs)
300 York Street
New Haven, CT

7:00pm - All Ages - $8

Buy tickets now or pick them up at Redscroll Records or DETRITUS

Directions

Sonically Caspian draws from a broad scope of influences ranging from the ambient sophistication of Eluvium and Brian Eno to the crushing fury of art-metalists such as ISIS and Tool. Emotively, the music of Caspian shares common threads with Sigur Ros, M83 and The Appleseed Cast. From Boston.



Fugue:
"Adjectives are a neat grammatical function, but don't seem to adequately capture the musical product of Fugue. With the foundation of two guitars, one keyboard, drums and bass, Fugue manipulates basic musical functions of time signatures and scale to shape a finished product trumping any words. Maybe that's why they call it math rock." - Elise Granata (Inkwell Press)




Castles is an ambient indie rock band from New Haven.

Slow Hands

Sunday, August 15, 2010:

photo by michael persico
Location:
The Owl Shop
268 College Street
New Haven, CT


Slow Hands, aka Ryan Cavanagh, makes chilled out house music. His sets have made him a staple at Wolf + Lamb, the Brooklyn label that Resident Advisor ranked #3 of 2009. A handful of releases have also popped up on Moodgadget and Fade Records. Stop by this killer cigar lounge and bar for some fresh beats, and enjoy $6 Sea Hags and shot combos all night long, too!

Twin Sister, Memoryhouse, Ghost of Chance

Tuesday, August 10 2010 - Ampeater Music and Manic Productions Present:


Location:
Cafe Nine
250 State Street
New Haven CT

$8 - 9:00PM - 21+

Directions

Buy tickets now or pick them up at Redscroll Records

Twin Sister create the kind of buzzy hypnotic pop you’ve been dreaming about since Galaxie 500 fizzled, cut with Tusk-era Fleetwood Mac thump, and a shot of Lynchian weirdness for good measure. They’re slack yet focused, a spark in the dark distance on a desert highway where speed is relative. Formed in Long Island two years ago and since relocated to Brooklyn, the band has lately been wooing fans and critics alike, with glowing write ups in Chocolate Bobk, Pitchfork, Stereogum, Said the Gramophone, My Old Kentucky Blog, and dozens more, all on the strength of a free debut EP.

This is a fan vid, but whatever:


Memoryhouse:
Amidst a haze of sepia-tinged delirium, the swirling reverb-cloaked concoctions of Toronto, Canada’s Memoryhouse exist to soundtrack the indelible moments residing in the obscure backrooms of memory. Translating songwriter Evan Abeele’s experience with classical modes and modern ambient composition, Memoryhouse create vivid depictions of surrealist beauty, unfolding with crystalline clarity and with a gentle vulnerability both lush and subtle. Accompanied by singer Denise Nouvion’s tender, nostalgic vocal delivery, Memoryhouse renders the blending of the contemporary with the forgotten, the traditional and the technological, the visual and the aural, forged within the sonographic landscapes of ‘dream pop’. Arcade Sound Ltd.



Ghost of Chance are an experimental rock band based in New Haven, Connecticut. The group’s distinctive style is characterized by subtle time signature changes and sonically open experimentation set to surrealist lyrics. Ghost of Chance’s sound takes its influence from 1960s psychedelica, math rock and post punk while maintaining the shimmer of classic pop sensibilities. February Records.

Arborea and Alexander Turnquist at The Space

Thursday, March 4, 2010:


Location:
The Space
295 Treadwell Street
Hamden CT

$10 - 7:00PM - All Ages

Arborea: This near-psych not-quite-unconventional Maine based folk duo is peculiar. Film director David Lynch has dabbled in music a few times (most recently with Ariana Delawari), and when I first heard Arborea, I was reminded of a Lynch team-up with Jocelyn Montgomery called Lux Vivens. That record might as well be the score to an unmade medieval Lynch movie. A similar mood-directing soundscape, although maybe not as dark, is the foundation for many of Arborea's songs.

But there was one song that I wasn't sure of, called "Dance Sing Fight". It jumps into a coda that uses lyrics from the chorus of Midnight Oil's "Beds Are Burning". The thing is, the lyrics are altered slightly. Are they referring us to the original song's specific political point or are they putting these words into a new context to reshape their meaning? Whatever their intent, I can't decide if the nod works or not. I guess what makes it hard for me to pin down is that the first thing that pops into my mind when I hear those lyrics is Peter Garrett twitchily skanking in the desert. I mean, the guy seriously looked like a Conky 2000 run amok in the Australian outback. Sorry, where was I...

Arborea have been busy releasing since 2006. They've garnered praise from NPR and our BBC cousins across the pond. Their tour is taking them around the world, and includes SXSW dates.

--

Whether it is a finger plucked 12-string or an ambient drone, Alexander Turnquist's instrumentals open expanses both internal and external. His MySpace has several songs posted that cover territory between Peter Broderick and Max Richter. But his record As the Twilight Crane Dreams in Color makes me wonder what Jack Rose might have done if he had ever wanted to cover Jóhann Jóhannsson. No doubt seeing Turnquist live will be very interesting.

Pale White Moon - Call of the Wolf Peach

I'm a big fan of This American Life. When they started doing the television series, I was excited, and when I found out I could watch it on Netflix, even more so. So I've been pretty addicted to the show, and it was a big surprise to find out that a lot of the songs featured on the soundtrack come from a recording ensemble from New Haven named Pale White Moon. They're a large group that features lots of stringed instruments, looping pedals, and female vocals. Many of their songs are used on the show, and it's not hard to see why - they're exactly what you'd want for a soundtrack.

Their debut album is due out in March, and it's called “Call of the Wolf Peach.” The best moments of this album are the instrumentals, as they set a mood in just the right way. The music drifts in and out of an almost dreamlike state on tracks like "The Seven Year Cicadas" and "The Search for the Helium Three." Check out their myspace for more details.

Mount Eerie

Manic Productions Presents:

Mount Eerie
Tara Jane O'Neil
No Kids

Monday, October 26
@ The Space
Doors open at 7 PM
$10

I'm sure everyone's heard about this already, but just a reminder that Mount Eerie will be playing at The Space! I love anything Elverum, and I'm real excited that he'll be in CT. This will be a really great show.

Dead Meadow show

I went to see Dead Meadow at Daniel Street in Milford last night - it was a pretty good time. I've never seen them before, and I thought they were pretty decent. They were really raw and noisy, and played a ton of awesome riffs. I don't know how they manage to make their music feel so laid back while still thrashing it.


Mountains opened for them, and they were pretty excellent. I've never seen such a massive and expensive array of gear and pedals. They just pushed a bunch of walls of ambient sound at the crowd, and then expanded on those ideas until it was one explosive nightmare of delay and loops. Not bad, but it got a little repetitive.

Bottle Up & Go also played earlier in the night, but they looked drunk as hell and were having a lot of trouble keeping it together. They played real sloppy slide guitar with thundering drums, sax, and don't-give-a-shit signing. The drummer utterly destroyed his kit (literally) and I think he cracked a cymbal. He was definitely a one-trick pony though, and played everything with the same beat. I wasn't that into them but I guess they were having fun. The singer came around and drank people's beers at the end.

This photo sucks, but I forgot my camera and all I had was my phone with me. Not that I'm a good photographer to begin with. Anyway, good show - Daniel Street is a pretty awesome venue, so check it out.

Rock yer Socks Indie Night

Saturday, May 16, 2009 at 9:00pm

Location: Grady Tavern
622 East Middle Turnpike
Manchester, CT

$2 21 and up
cheep beer
good people
giant moths

Jae
http://www.myspace.com/o0lljaell0o

CJ Boyd
http://www.myspace.com/cjboyd

Jimmy Jude
no website - so get your ass to Grady's to hear this

Rum Glass Serenade
http://www.myspace.com/rumglassserenade

JD

Icelandic invaders tonight at the Space

Wednesday, December 3 2008 - The Space and Manic Productions Presents:

KIRA KIRA w/Dygn, Belly Boat, and The Files and Fires


LOCATION:
The Space
295 Treadwell Street
Hamden CT
$10.00 - 7:00PM - All Ages

DIRECTIONS:
Click here

BUY TICKETS NOW:
Click here


I'm incredibly bummed out to not be able to go to this show tonight. It turns out I've been a fan of Dygn for quite awhile now. If you're a fan of Sigur Ros, then you likely know about Riceboy Sleeps. If you've visited the Riceboy Sleeps MySpace page, then you've probably seen a project called Limbic Somnus, or nowadays, Slumber Party in their "top friends". This guy John down in Maryland is making some potently ambient sound sculptures under several different monikers, each distinguished by mode and mood. Dygn is one of them. Fresh from a gig down at Cake Shop in NYC, Dygn follows Kira Kira on up into New England, nicely stopping here, then playing Sierra Grille up in Northampton, MA Thursday night, along with a few other dates further north.

Kira Kira (from Iceland) is Kristín Björk Kristjánsdóttir on thumb piano, music boxes and all kinds of toys wired with contact mikes. She also plays guitar, glockenspiel and of course loud lady laptop. These kids have been playing with Kira Kira lately: Alex Somers on piano, glock and casio puppy. Eiríkur Orri Ólafsson on trumpet, flugelhorn and music box. Hilmar Jensson on guitar. Samuli Kosminen on percussion (dingalee dang). Pétur Hallgrímsson on lapsteel (skriðgítar). Magnús Helgason on super 8 projector. Guðlaug Dröfn on glock and piano. Kristinn Gunnar Blöndal on drums. For fans of CocoRosie, Mum, Sigur Ros, etc. on Smekkleysa.

Dygn are beautiful ambient drone music from Maryland. Among this guy John's other killer projects such as Slumber Party, which used to be called Limbic Somnus, also check out another of his called Mothersday.

Belly Boat: Cutesy, ramshackle folk from Zoe Latta and Silvie Deutsch in Santa Cruz, CA. Their voices clamor for attention like small children but then suddenly out of the dixie-cup folk they pull together into sweet earnest pop songs. Mostly comprised of the two voices, some dime store guitar, piano and the breathy squeeze of an accordion, Belly Boat is the sound of joyous inexperience; and where others drown themselves in layers of perfection, Zoe and Silvie let their rough edges charm you until you let them fall away and reveal the pop gems at their center.
Not Not Fun Records

The Files and Fires is the result of ongoing collaboration between multi-instrumentalists Tyler Smith and Ian Tait. For fans of Six Parts Seven, American Analog Set, etc.

JD