Matana Roberts: Coin Coin chapter one (Constellation)

Beautifully packaged double 10" on Constellation scared the living shit outta me when i got it a few months ago, and each time i play it, it has the same effect. Much of it is a mix of wonderfully played free sax playing interspersed with  story telling spoken parts, and backed by a whole gang of musicians (playing piano, cello, trumpet, tenor/baritone sax, doudouk, guitar, violin, saw, bass & drums), and creating a spellbinding melange of sounds and emotions that draw you in.
And then it happens.
She fucking screams.
Like a wailing freejazz motherfucking banshee.
Or Yoko One being punched my Mike Tyson.
And i hate it, i really bloody hate it - so much that i cannot bear to listen to it and i have to take it off and put some Merzbow on for light relief. I completely understand her desire to show raw emotion (job absolutely done) but i just can't bear to listen to those parts - maybe this is all down to my white male liberal middle class ideals, but i can't cope with it. I will keep coming back to it and trying it again -  this i am sure, because i appreciate that it is a work of great depth and construction and (more importantly) i hate to be beaten.

This is, apparently, chapter one of a twelve part series.
Shit.

Expo 70: Inaudible Bicoastal Trajectory (Aguirre)

Couldn't resist this bugger - 2 side long tracks entitled 'Hypnotic brain cloud float' and ' Mystical bamboo garden cultivation' promised to be trippy and droney and to spirit me off into a netherworld not seen since i last dropped a few microdots all those years ago. Well, obviously, it didn't disappoint and this solo album by Justin Wright (who both is and is part of Expo 70) playing looped electric guitar, moog and a lovely old analog drum machine meanders its' way across 30+ minutes of psych-drone the manner (and quality) of which rarely heard since halfway through a Pink Floyd gig at UFO in about '67. In truth, not a lot of obvious stuff happens during 'Hypnotic......' - it just locks into a drone and hums along nicely whilst the eventually throbbing tone catches your brain and sinks in. 'Mystical....' locks in nicely as well but, about halfway through, Justin starts to play his guitar almost traditionally and this solo opens up the whole track beautifully and transports you into another realm of stoned meditation until the moog overplays it and it all comes crashing down. Makes me want to take drugs again, before climbing back into the wonderful world of Expo.

Roll The Dice: In Dust (Leaf)

This is one of those albums that, two minutes into the first track, i knew i was onto something special. It begins with a low creaking noise interspersed with occasional industrial gongs,   then moves into a synth drone before slowly twisting into a throbbing  beating  heart and then.....it switches to an amazingly focussed piece of angular electronic beauty that proceeds to move between techno, dub and ambience. And that's just the first track. The album moves through an increasingly eclectic range of styles and moods - but is always utterly spot on in judging the correct twists and turns required next. A piano reoccurs time and again and this lends the whole thing a classical edge that takes it far above the kraut-synth-kosmiche-new disco netherworld inhabited by a lot of similar artists. I've played this album  more often than any other in the last month and it still surprises me each time i give it a spin. The lushness of the production enhances every sound and each note is completely necessary. I have no idea how long this took to put together but it sounds like a life's work. I recommend this album to all and sundry, you will not be disappointed. I promise. 

Bee Mask: Elegy for beach Friday (Spectrum Spools)

Another fine release on extremely interesting Spectrum Spools label, and a compilation of sorts, most of these tracks having been previously release on limited cassettes and cdr's, although said tracks have been toyed with and changed. Chris Madak is Bee Mask and he has produced a beguiling suite of electronic drone symphonies, overlayed with occasional guitar noise and tape loops of miscellaneous noise and atonal soundscapes. Interesting throughout but only periodically enjoyable, this works best in short bursts as the noisier parts can really grate after a while. When he takes his foot off the pedal marked 'atonal substrata' the washes and waves of synths are an outstanding contribution to the world of cosmic synth music and it's a shame that these pieces are often pushed under by noise.

Mark Kozelek: Live at Union Chapel & Sodra Teatern (Caldo Verde)

Another day another hideously limited slab of Koz vinyl. There's 200 of these clear vinyl  buggers and  all were sold on prerelease so good hunting on ebay if you really want one. But do you need one? Hmmmm, well it's a beautiful package in a letterpressed sleeve and hand numbered by the Koz, and the choice of songs are good, but do we really need another slice of solo Koz? Fucked if i know - i've never bought a record based on 'need' in my life but this is an album that holds no surprises (and it never promised to surprise either), is played impeccably, is recorded brilliantly, is sung in fine muttering style and is a great addition to your Koz collection - as was 'lost verses', the previous solo live release. Can we have a live full band album please Mr K? Just for a change.

Final: Reading all the right signals wrong (No Quarter)

Justin Broadrick has been a major part of my life since i saw Godflesh a few times  alongside Loop circa 'streetcleaner' and i have bought a great deal of his records in the last 20+ years since. Final is his exercise in ambient sound and has also been his longest running project - predating godflesh by a good few years, and this album is in a similar vein to his other Final recordings - guitar based drones flicker in and out of synth/found sounds and proceed very slowly towards a nothingness. Similar to some of Robert Hampson's 'Main' records in mood and construction, these four pieces fail to excite or to trouble the listener much. Which is precisely the point.

Subtle: Exiting Arm (Lex)

Subtle are a weird band/collective - too rocky to fit in with the hip hop heads , too beat-y for the rock fans, too impenetrable for pop fans and too musical for the avant-gardeners. Coming firmly out of the leftfield hiphop world of Clouddead, Doseone and friends have constructed this weird world where only they could fit in - a sort of little big planet with grooves. Colourfully packaged with a myriad of posters and paintings, this album is enjoyable on a very basic level but hugely cerebral once you delve a bit deeper and/or read the lyrics - which are as deliberately surreal as can be. At times the words follow a linear pattern but then they go off on a tangent that confuses all. Intentionally so i presume, but the tunes stand up so well on their own that you can't really get pissed off at the obtuseness of it all. Fun and fu(n)cking head-scratchingly odd.