:Episode One Hundred Seventeen: 08.24.2018
| Artist | Title | Album |
|---|---|---|
| RMFTM & 10,000 Russos | A Song To Get Rid Of Crooked Crosses | RMFTM & 10,000 Russos |
| Träden | Det Finns Blått | Träden |
| Causa Sui | El Fuego | Vibraciones Doradas |
| The Hallmarks | Soul Shakin' Psychedelic Sally | V/A: Teen Expo: The Cleopatra Label |
| The Inmates | Crystal Ball | V/A: Teen Expo: The Cleopatra Label |
| The Centuries | Outer Limits | V/A: Teen Expo: The Cleopatra Label |
| Eazyhead | Love Of My Life | Mind Fuck EP |
| Alexander Tucker | Gloops Void (Give It Up) | Don't Look Away |
| Black Spirituals | Inference | Black Access/Black Axes |
| Glenn Jones | The Last Passenger Pigeon | The Giant Who Ate Himself and Other New Works For 6 and 12 String Guitar |
| Bardo Todol | Caravania Maegenta | V/A: Adzer |
| Úgjü Sectas | El Gran Vultan | V/A: Adzer |
| M.M. Peres | Semen de Pájaro | V/A: Adzer |
| Sungod | Hypnotism | Wave Refraction |
| Beast | Today | Volume 1 |
Description
[Note: due to technical difficulties (specifically, someone at the studio having fiddled about with knobs they shouldn't have touched) the first set this week sounds a little overdriven. If you're a fan of the Iggy Pop-remastered version of Raw Power that came out in the late 90s, which sounded like the original album played on a cheap boombox with blown-out speakers, then you'll love it. Otherwise, you might want to skip ahead to roughly the 35-minute mark.]
The opening set begins with some Astral Social Club-ish blown-out, pulsating noise-drone from RMFTM (née Rocket Men From The Moon) and 10,000 Russos, from their new EP, the creatively titled RMFTM & 10,000 Russos (you couldn't even pull a Trans Am/Fucking Champs name mash-up and call yourselves 10,000 Russo Men From The Moon?). After this, we hear from Träden, consisting of the one surviving core member of the Pärson Sound/(International) Harvester/Träd, Gräs Och Stenar musical continuum, as well as several younger members of the present Swedish psychedelic scene. The set then wraps up with a track from a Causa Sui EP, Vibraciones Doradas, that came out last summer but that I didn't hear until this one.
The middle set leads off with a trio of songs from a recent Numero Group compilation that collects some of the more memorable singles released by Cleopatra Records, a homespun studio/label run from a basement in northern New Jersey during the 1960s. In particular, we hear some Nuggets-esque psychedelic pop from The Hallmarks and The Inmates, as well as some Ventures-inspired instrumental surf-rock from The Centuries. This is followed by some lo-fi strangeness from Eazyhead and Alexander Tucker, as well as some Ruins-esque (but not as frenetic) avant-garde guitar and drum improv by Black Spirituals (and lest any wokelords out there are getting het up to yell at me about "cultural appropriation," yes, the members of the band are in fact black). The set finishes with a guitar raga from Glenn Jones, who I lightly chide during the break for his somewhat whimsical, Raffi-esque album titles and artwork.
The final set also begins with several songs from a compilation, but one... uh... slightly different from the Numero record, to put it mildly. Sucata Tapes is a label dedicated to chronicling "New Weird South America", and the split EP Adzer brings to us the sounds of Argentines Bardo Todol, Úgjü Sectas, and M.M. Peres, all of whom remind me of Avarus, Kemialliset Ystävät, and other members of the Finnish free-folk scene. The set, and show then ends with some neo-Kosmische from Austin, Texas's Sungod, and Brooklyn, New York's (via the Netherlands) Beast.