★Not Not Fun Records
Smokin\'
We had heard a couple cassette outings by this Bloomington young-bloomer over the last 4-6 months and each one hit us better than the last but nothing had prepped us for Ettinger’s most recent evolution into neon skyline chase scene soundtracker and that’s part of what makes it so amazing. For Smokin’ he wrangled together a small posse of close comrades (enter The Heat) and tracked a sick session of smoky synth themes, Corvette noir moods, echo dystopia, faded voices, and sleazy Miami sax. The A…
Invisible Landscape
Kraut-driven psyche-rock heaviness from Portland's Eternal Tapestry delivering their second album for Not Not Fun after 2007's 'Vibrations New Dawn'. These guys sound like an amalgam of Parson Sound, Can, Neu and Wooden Shjips, but you could imagine that they're not even aware of it, as they sound so damn into their groove that's it's just what they do naturally do, like they just picked up instruments, started hitting/strumming/picking at them and this is what came out. Of course, that's not th…
Raiders
Robedoor have acquired a "drummer/modular synth dealer" since last we heard from them, and with this new LP - their first since last year's Endlessly Blazing - they let fly with their newly enhanced line-up, stirring up smudged-out psych nightmares that sound like they're being performed from somewhere deep within a cave system. In fact, if the blind flesh-eating monsters from The Descent had a house band, 'Indo Shadow' might be the outcome. The album's second half is especially good, with the f…
Glass Fountain
The duo mainly sticks to their guns, mining the same post-Suicide art-trance vein they perfected on Dream, but here there's an added emphasis on the disembodied, oscillator pop mode that they often toy with. Mesmerizing organ melodies over plink-plonky vintage drum machines with weirdo soulful singing & outer space electronics, like an outsider-punk Silver Apples or something. Edition of 600
Live On
Follow-up to last year's well-received full-length of collaged live performances released on SHDWPLY. This is another half hour-plus of the Baltimore drum/drone collective at their most zoned and loose-limbed.