A couple of clips from Major Stars at the Windmill on the 6th of December 2006. Unfortunately, neither are complete songs, due to a combination of my drunk/stoned state of mind at the time and technical difficulties with my dumb little camera whose built-in microphone is obviously way out of its depth to deal with the volume. Anyway, despite all this, perhaps a some small enjoyment can be derived from these?

...is this:

The Golden Earrings - Magnificent Magistral

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California is the latest full-length from Residual Echoes. Four monolithic tracks that compose an homage to their native state. Chock full of the kind of high-quality songcraft exploding into molten psychedelic jams we've come to expect of late from one of the best rock labels around at the moment, Holy Mountain, the record's references apparently span from railroad-building and gold mining to SST Records (some of this does remind me of the freakier side of said label) and earthquakes. I might have to listen to it a few more times to catch all that.

Residual Echoes - White Cloud

Finally, finally managed to get hold of the Flibbertigibbet album, a side project David and Alison Williams of Mellow Candle. turns out I was spelling it with 3 instead of 4 b's... honestly.



The Black Cap

I've been softening the blow of coming back to work by listening to the gentle Indonesian prog-psych stylings of The Ariesta Birawa Group. The album sleeve below proves that they are pretty much the coolest looking band of all time...



Ariesta Birawa Group - Mingu Paggi

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Another beautiful, thorough and fascinating aural document from Dust To Digital. Field recordings of traditional American folk music from the past 50 years documented in sound by Alex Rosenbaum and in photographs by his wife Margo. There's a sampler CD out now, with a box set to follow this year.

Bert Hare - I'm Dying, Mother

The latest collaboration from Boris, this time with the guitarist from Ghost. Came out during the end of December on Pedal Records in Japan and I had my copy waiting for me on my desk when I got back to work this week. This is nothing like you've heard from Boris before, much more restrained and I guess a lot more like Ghost. The tracks on Rainbow feature Wata a lot more than anything prior to this and her vocals lead a lot more to the psyche-pop on here.

Boris w/ Michio Kurihara - 不透明度

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Yet another installment in the amazing Ethiopiques series. Born in 1923 into a learned Ethiopian family, Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou was educated in Switzerland (where she first learned piano) and Cairo as well as in her native country. At the age of 24, having been denied the opportunity to study piano in England, she became a nun. Even after leaving the monastery and taking up teaching, she devoted her life to religion and helping the poor. Four solo piano albums, from which are drawn the contents of this disc, date from 1963 (two), 1970, and 1996. Her compositions are sometimes modal or pentatonic, sometimes redolent of the romantic harmonies of salon music, but always gently meditative, exuding an undulating calm that sometimes suggests Impressionism with its feverish purple patches replaced by a quietly mournful resignation or a patiently peaceful religious acceptance.

The Homeless Wanderer

Norwegian electronic composer better known as Biosphere climbed Cho Oyu, the 8th higest mountain in the world, and made this series of field recordings from his trek. The track below is the first on the album, with subsequent tracks documenting the entire journey from village to base camp to summit. Not dissimilar to some of the field recordings put out by Sun City Girls on their Sublime Frequencies label (eg Leaf Music, Distant Drums) but with a definite trajectory.

Zhangmu - Crossing a Landslide Area

MV & EE with the bummer road green blues... not sure what to make of it just yet. J Mascis plays mellotron.

East Mountain Joint

No nonsense, just great videos from some Swedish cat. An amazing one on there for me is Husker Du on Late Night with Joan Rivers, who surprisingly seems to have some awareness of independent music.

Mr Dante Fontana's Visual Guidance LTD

Steve Kille's new artwork project..



http://www.rumpleville.com/
http://www.myspace.com/rumpleville

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indeed i'm really mouthing words like "frick!" and "you!" and shaking fingers..
oh, and sometimes just to pick bogies.. so make sure you check the sleeves for cling ons..
(trivia: thanks to a six year old friend of mine, i was informed that bogies in fact taste like chicken..)
anyway,
listens of the day:



(((~~Sinoia Caves 'the enchanter persuaded'

thanks, jarin for reccomending this to me!.. BALDY'S FRESHNESS!
ambient psych solo debut full-length analog synth wizardry from jeremy schmidt of Black Mountain.
think it is officially released in three days (only compact disc format:((baa! ) watch out for the bogies..!




(((~~Death-Spell Omega "Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice"

Some of the grimmest, most hateful Satanic black metal ive ever heard. from france, this record on Norma Evangelium Diaboli label
Initially producing raw, traditional black metal ala Darkthrone, this album is their turn to more a more droney, unique and progressive avant-garde sound inspired by Gregorian Chant and choral music. massive and well-crafted.. will slowwly tear you apart..if you like this also check out Xasthur. perfect for the khyst-mass spirit.

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