KAWABATA MAKOTO & ANLA COURTIS – ‘Live At Namba Bears’ LP £12
Acid Mothers leader and Reynols legend meet once again for a wild psych out explosion! Kawabata and Courtis previously worked together on 2006’s Kokura for Riot Season, here they return for a raging trip of psychedelic noise rock recorded in February 2011, in Osaka, Japan. Both Kawabata and Courtis are playing guitar, but with Anla bringing tapes and vocals to the mix and Makoto bow and effects. Namba Lightbeam, the first of two 20 minute pieces, opens with a eastern sounding drone sound, much like some of Kawabata’s solo work, it steadily builds into a torrent of slashing guitar riffs, eventually returning to a more minimal sound even with a more signature Acid Mothers guitar sound from Makoto at one point with zoned vocal drones from Anla. This continues onto side B with Inaudible Bears, with a distorted echoey haze of effects and riffs, layered over one another. This side continues to fluctuate between minimal riffs and blasts of noisier guitar destruction. Limited to 300 copies pressed on 180 gram heavyweight virgin vinyl, 100 copies of which are exclusive to direct mailorder customers pressed on Yellow splatter vinyl. Packaged in a very fitting insane sleeve featuring absolutely wild artwork, includes download coupon for the album as FLAC, MP3, WAV, or pretty much any other format you could desire.
BEN NASH – ‘The Mineral Victim’ LP £12
After a period of silence from Ben, he returned earlier this year with Oh Lordy Me (My Heart Is Wandering Again) for Blackest Rainbow, a record which saw him drop his guitar and create an entire LP using an iPad with the Tenori-on app. Perhaps an unexpected turn, but then this year has been a pretty interesting one for Ben, returning to playing live after a long hiatus, surprising people by playing live in Sheffield and London for separate sets with Mehdi and Solange from Natural Snow Buildings as a trio, and following that he has continued to record new material for a forthcoming new project with the french duo. The Mineral Victim, seems in many ways like a return to the more organic sound of Ben’s previous work, it’s not got the psych folk guitar sound of his debut The Seventh Goodbye LP, but it retains the more psychedelic drone aspects that some of the tracks had on that record. In many ways it pulls in aspects of all of Ben’s work, from his early more cosmic drone experiments and psychedelic excursions, to his recent collaborations with Ameziane and Gularte, which will hopefully see the light of day next year… Vinyl edition of only 250 copies pressed on 180 gram virgin vinyl, 100 copies of which are exclusive to direct mailorder customers pressed on clear blue vinyl with white and grey splatter. Sleeve designed by Rob Lye of Chora. Includes download coupon for the album as FLAC, MP3, WAV, or pretty much any other format you could desire.
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