★Holy Mountain

2025 stock The long awaited follow-up to the awesome Variations On A Theme debut is comprised of two epic songs that build on om's use of cyclical rhythm, riff, and vocal incantation, the duo's new album Conference Of The Birds blends metal, chant, drone, dub, and psychedelia. The band's lyrics expound upon the structure of the universe, potentiality, and freedom from the physical body. Engineered by Billy Anderson and produced by the band, Conference Of The Birds progresses beyond their debut, …

Om reunites one of the most powerful rhythm sections in rock music: Al Cisneros [bass, vocals] and Chris Hakius [drums], both ex-members of the legendary Sleep. Variations on a Theme is comprised of three long songs employing a series of rhythmic chants whose cadence-like textural drive conveys flight. The album's numerous lyrics serve as symbolist vehicles to a state outside the field of time and space. Variations on a Theme is a series of vibrations and flow. The opening track,"On The Mountain…

The sky goes on forever in Barry Walker Jr.’s Shoulda Zenith, and it’s crackling with unexpected lightning. The Tennessee-bred, Portland-based pedal steel master subverts his instrument’s tradition for lachrymose, innocuous Rootzak™. Instead, he ventures to outward-bound strata more frequently traversed by Sonny Sharrock than Gram Parsons. “So often, the pedal steel is used as a textural flavor,” Walker says, “but it really can breathe fire itself.” Evidence for that claim abounds on Shoulda Zen…

Ben Chasny was on a holy roll when he laid down the eleven tracks on Dust and Chimes. It was 1998 and y'all were floating on that Bill Clinton peace-and-prosperity bubble. Meanwhile, Chasny had dropped his self-titled debut LP earlier that year, and the cognoscenti and illuminati were pricking up their ears. Dust and Chimes announced the arrival of a brow-furrowed troubadour whose complex, morosely beautiful guitar playing didn't Basho you over the head with Fahey-isms. The three solo guitar tra…

Further down the highway from last year's ace split with Roy Orb D.MT., Food Pyramid reach for lush neo Krautrock heights on 'Ecstasy & Refreshment'. They first break orbit with 'Dexedream''s stellar trajectory powered by twin-panned guitars and rocking rhythm machines to zones of swirling vocals, plateauing at the dreamy psych-house plains of 'Pacifier' and spinning dubwise with the corkscrewing, Ekoplekz-meets-Sun Araw-like scramble of Deep Fantasy'. Up there, the chiming African guitar chops …

Includes digital download voucher redeemable from the label** Judging from his prolific output, L.A. dude M. Geddes Gengras must have a heavy carbon footprint. But we'll let him off 'cause he makes exceedingly good music. After techno odysseys as Personable, psych-dub trips with Sun Araw and The Congos, and duties in Robedoor, Pocahaunted and LA Vampires, he flies under his birth name for 'Test Leads', perhaps his purest and most honest revelation to date; two sprawling sides of throbbin…

French drone deities High Wolf might be best known for their shimmering Not Not Fun efforts, but this latest full-length (emerging on the ever-reliable Holy Mountain imprint) is probably their best yet. Apparently it was inspired by a long trip to India and Nepal, and this Eastern promise is clearly reflected in the band's sound palette. Pulsing tablas sit beneath a dense, sludgy bed of droning guitars - but 'Atlas Nation' isn't a chore to listen to. While a great deal of drone music can …

Utterances into a dictophone from a backdoor man hiding in the closet as the husband arrives home. The tales plod along in whispers, accompanied by defined guitar interplay, punctuated piano and snappy drums. Nearly every accent of guitar seems present. Fragile flamenco plucks, fuzz-to-the-front fumblings onto smooth lyrics of a detective attempting to resolve his own crimes. Vocals and acoustic guitar were recorded by Greg Weeks. The arrangements, instrumentation and production were lovi…

Daniel Higgs has an unparalleled presence in both body and voice. This, combined with hypnotic repetition, gives the material on Ancestral Songs both a loose discipline and an immense yet serpentine power. Ancestral Songs is comprised of apocalyptic tunes, a banjo raag, mellifluous birdsong, and the sci-fi-sounding duet of a searing Jew's harp and toy piano. "Are You of the Body?" brings out the electric tamboura tone and an accompanying acoustic guitar to melt the spine. A distorted motorik gui…

Future Shuttle is a Greenpoint, NYC-based duo (sometimes trio) comprised of Jessa Farkas and Camilla Padgitt-Coles. Prior to the group’s early 2009 conception, the pair studied electronic music at Oberlin College alongside their friends in Blondes and Teengirl Fantasy. Blondes member Sam Haar also produced the Water’s Edge EP, the group’s first officially released recording. In Future Shuttle’s beautifully dense brew of psychedelic reprogramming, Tangerine Dream meets the KLF at the UFO Club, an…

Metallic Diseases is the most intense blast of guitar squalling heat to never find its proper audience when originally released 20 years ago. Truly unhinged at times ("Cans"), sublimely dreamlike and understated at others ("Shake Off"), Starfuckers's debut album fuses the best lineage of droning, hard rocking sounds ("USA" makes a perfect amalgam of Suicide's "Rocket USA" and the Stooges' "1969"), with a gestalt that pushes it over the cliff, as "Western Man" is the kind of prophetic call to arm…

We don’t write record reviews often these days thanks to the current paradigm of online music journalism.  Considering our hyperactivie information age zeitgeist, why do you need some blowhard like myself describing a record to you when you can just pipe in the preview on Last.fm or whatever? With that said, it takes a certain type of album to convince me that I have some serious science to impart on others, and spirit warriors Cloudland Canyon’s latest, Fin Eaves, is just that type of work. Thi…

Already drawing comparison to the heyday of '70s acid rock & the likes of Amon Duul II, Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, Japan's Flower Travelin' Band, early Pink Floyd, the Velvet Underground's drone jams, the electronic kosmische of Cluster & the unhinged organic grooves of International Harvester

New holiday themed single from Moon Duo. Erik and Sanae add more lilt to the season than any combination of egg nog and booze ever will. On the B side the duo wrap a coat around the classic "Goat Head Soup" deep cut "Winter."

International Hello is the perfection of California psychedelic rock in all its ecstatic glory. Grady Runyan's guitar playing is as fantastic, spacey and heavy as ever, as is Scott Derr's always-pertinent bass throb. Drummer and singer Rubin Fiberglass is just perfect as a screaming maniac who can actually keep time while Doug Pearson's electronics consistently enhance the dominant power-trio rock that swirls in the sky like some kind of creation myth. In case you don't recognize the names, thes…

A heady, sludge-rocking slab of prime Holy Mountain psychedelia from the fabulously monikered Lords Of Falconry, whose bird of prey-related band name may or may not be some kind of nod to Hawkwind - to whom these guys clearly owe a debt. With tracks like 'Doomsday Legislation' and the Acid Mothers Temple-esque 'Scottish Chords' you can expect thick, fudgey, mind-altering slabs of stoner riffage and fuzzy space-rock of the finest vintage, while some suitably wild soloing slices through the hammer…

Since 2003, La Otracina has been hell-bent on creating highly visionary music that melds sonic ideas from the outer reaches of heavy and weird. The Brooklyn group has released three full-length albums and twelve mini-albums, along with a slew of splits and compilation trackss on labels including Holy Mountain and band founder Adam Kriney's own Colour Sounds Recordings. They have completed eight US tours and one Italian tour, in addition to countless shows in their hometown. Their tireless work e…

Dispenses a sinister frailty of howling swells in hissing static that combusts into crawling shock heaps, to the effect of Mayhem performing Twin Peaks incidentals in a prairie recorded by The KLF. A brief description casts them as black metal's answer to Throbbing Gristle.

Doronco is a bass player who is most well known for his stints in Les Rallizes Dénudés, Suishou no Fune and with Keiji Haino. Here he is joined by members of Maher Shalal Hash Baz, a Frenchman and an additional female vocalist who have made an album of sophisticated 70s style downer pop. The band uses vocals, bassoon and trumpet over a see-sawing battle of piano / guitar shrill balanced against warm rhythms that sound suspiciously close to how you want them to. Translated as "Mud Cloud," t…

Clear and Discovery were originally released as two companion CDRs by James Ferraro (of the whole Skaters / Lamborghini Crystal / 90120 / Splash / Nirvana axis) and comprise the August 1974 (Taj-Mahal Travellers) of his discography. Both albums contain absolutely beautiful whirling hall-of-knives-style synth drone that makes one want to reference Klaus Schulze or Bobby Beausoleil. Clear bursts with flam beats and a cluster of melodies muffled like a calliope wrapped in a soggy tarp, while Discov…

Clear and Discovery were originally released as two companion CDRs by James Ferraro (of the whole Skaters / Lamborghini Crystal / 90120 / Splash / Nirvana axis) and comprise the August 1974 (Taj-Mahal Travellers) of his discography. Both albums contain absolutely beautiful whirling hall-of-knives-style synth drone that makes one want to reference Klaus Schulze or Bobby Beausoleil. Clear bursts with flam beats and a cluster of melodies muffled like a calliope wrapped in a soggy tarp, while Discov…

Recorded in Brooklyn, Germany, and Memphis, Silver Tongued Sisyphus followed Cloudland Canyon's well-received Requiems Der Natur 2002-2004. The album's secular calls to prayer with humming, looping, and loping ambient passages are interspersed with bursting rhythmic energy and agitated guitar lines. Pulling influences from the foggy ether of generations past, the band stakes their claim to the shadows of the cult musical culture of the late 1960s and early 1970s German underground scene. Live sh…

"Khora" is the fifth full-length by Aufgehoben. Since the release of their previous album, "Messidor", the group has somewhat relaxed their strict commitment to anonymity by allowing their names to be known and photos to be taken, and even playing a few well-received live shows. "Messidor" may have been mellower, but the progression displayed on "Khora" leads one to believe that full-on rock may be in the cards for this group, who have seemingly removed the elbow patches from their jackets and r…

Suishou no Fune originated in Tokyo's fertile psychedelic scene. After landing a spot on PSF's Tokyo Flashback 5 and releasing Where the Spirits Are in 2006, the group ventured out from Japan and took every opportunity to play across the United States and Europe. During one of these trips in the spring of 2007, the group-- down to the crucial duo of Pirako and Kurenai-- went into a recording studio for a few days and laid down these massive new tracks. Prayer for Chibi might be the ultimate Suis…

Touting the slogan 'Organic free metal from Malaysia' I have to say I was intrigued even before I popped this record on the deck - I mean how can you possibly dislike a record if it lives up to that slogan, and I'm happy to say that it really, truly does. While being more 'free' than 'metal', this Malaysian improvisational five-piece make quite a racket and armed with two saxophones, bass, guitar and drums they're not your traditional rock band. In fact the band have more in common with Kraut ro…

Ainotamenishis is a loud, heavy guitar group from Tokyo who were birthed from one oviduct marked "Velvet Underground" and a massive salpinx marked "Gaseneta." Their high-energy rock 'n' roll action was first captured on an extremely limited CDR release, now released for the first time on vinyl. Ainotamenishis's brand of controlled panic is sure to spike the tongues of all those who purport to talk about the rock. It is primal, punk, eerie, harsh, and utterly essential.

Daniel Higgs returns with his second full length recording for Holy Mountain after last year's critically acclaimed Ancestral Songs and his contribution. "Atomic Yggdrasil Tarot," to Thrill Jockey's series of books collecting art and music. Metempsychotic Melodies continues to document Higgs' rise as a solo performer. Raw picked banjo drones dominate Metempsychic Melodies as the instrumental "Universal Salutation" fades into the waking dream soliloquy of observation "Love Abides." "Leontocephali…

Raw picked acoustic guitar drones dominate here as the instrumental fades into the waking dream soliloquy of observation. A long waltzy drone w/ enough spooky atmosphere for one to think that it could have been recorded at Sunshine studios as there is a heavy Vogel vibe to the whole thing.

Messidor is the fourth album from the UK's Aufgehoben, who record unformed improvised sounds and then, over a period of time, mix and mutate them into a not immediately identifiable form of raw instrumental rock noise. It is the discordant and hostile sound of mechanical beasts locked in a cage against their will via incredible levels of distortion, clattering percussion and a wide spectrum of overtones produced by scraped and scratched guitar strings. In time a sense of structure is revealed an…

CD reissue of sold-out limited edition vinyl. Since the release of Six Organs of Admittance's self-titled debut in 1998, Ben Chasny has played pure guitar within individual songs, but For Octavio Paz is his first full record to explore the guitar inside and out, solo and over-dubbed, steel and nylon string (in fact, For Octavio Paz is the first Six Organs album to feature the reverberations of a nylon string guitar). What really sets Chasny apart from the other modern Fahey worshippers is that C…

Rare 1998 LP reissued on CD with two rarer bonus tracks, all on CD for the first time. In 1998 Ben Chasny self-released an LP of his 'acoustic based project[ions]' under the name Six Organs of Admittance. The resulting five-song LP is a masterpiece of diverse elements using acoustic and electric guitars, a detuned violin, organ, electronics and koto. The material covers a lot of ground: there's an acid folk duet, an epic, three-part space suite, and two short concrète-like pieces that entice hid…

While the "acoustic based project[ions]" of Six Organs of Admittance have been pigeonholed by some as a chance-operated celestial jam unit, the group has always been about songs, and nowhere is this more apparent than on their fourth full length album, an eight-song cycle that mixes the strengths of Ben Chasny's acoustic and electric guitar with his knack for placing this on top of disparate and subtle atmospheric backgrounds. The live favorite (and rare single) "Somewhere Between" has been redo…

Back in stock! Limited edition vinyl issue. The fourth album from Ben Chasny and one of his most complete, 'Dark Noontide' sees the guitarist exploring the Eastern themes approached in his earlier work and also delving further into the dark drone and unsettling ambience of his debut. Indeed, sidestepping some of the more upbeat solo-guitar moments of 'Dust & Chimes', Chasny manages to create an opium fuelled moonlit Middle Eastern haven in the comfort of your front room; you can almost smell the…

A limited edition reissue of Dust & Chimes by Six Organs of Admittance, Ben Chasny's second amazing, underground folk-psych project from behind California's Redwood curtain. Heavy, acoustic guitar and mumbled vocalizations merge with out-there jamming in a style that has been compared to guys with LPs on Takoma, though Dust & Chimes is actually closer than anyone else is ever going to come to pantsing the first two Tyrannosaurus Rex albums. The sun is tanging, people.

A limited, vinyl-only release (each containing a different baseball card from the 1972-1974 era), Famine of the Soul is a ready-made psych oddity destined to join the ranks of such mythologized artists as Maitreya Kali and Skip Spence. Like a Nam vet street-preacher having an acid flashback, the Baseball Astrologer's debut, Famine of the Soul, despite its outward absurdity (or maybe because of it), resists easy dismissal. Using baseball as a kind of metaphor for innocence lost, Douglas Berman (a…