Beach Sloth

Various Artists

              Fall is here. It is official. Expect goblins, ghouls, and taxidermists this time of year. Guess there will be candy. I’m excited to eat my children’s candy. I worry about my kids eating too much candy. I worry about not having any candy at home. That’s why I really need to help them realize how much money the candy can go for on EBAY. Then I can buy some sweet tunes for them and we can be one big alt lit family. We can listen to various artists and be happy again. 

                EPs exist in AAAAAa’s world. Here the sick, twisted bastards present a full workweek’s worth of sexuality. With each new song comes a new level of weird. If weird did not exist there would be no way that this EP could exist. It approximates a series of extraordinarily strange noisy events. 

                Singles are something Cascine is pretty good with, they know how to tease. In Rush Midnight’s case they offer a nice take on some seriously 80s stuff. ‘The Night Was Young Enough’ is completely 80s, down to the ridiculous name. Actually is it pretty fun, right down to the bass at the very end. 

                ‘Live Fast Die Whenever’ has a nice cynical ring to it. Unfortunately the song is an instrumental. It would be nice to have lyrics reflecting the apathetic attitude of the title. That’s fine though. The song is relatively bouncy. There’s a little of the bachelor pad vibe going on in it. Overall it is a nice little ditty. 

                Christian Filardo is one of the weirdest members of the Holy Page Records. Think he is the only member. For this particular piece he plays a detuned guitar rather violently. While this is different from the more mellow approach he usually employs it is a lot of fun. Hope that more art galleries accept Christian as one of their own. I love it. 

                Bing and Ruth present ‘And Then it Rained’. This is a sad sort of song. It hovers around. Clear classical influences can be felt. A few moments the beauty of merged instruments becomes apparent. Hearing this small piece gives me hope that they can replicate the same mood on a grand (EP or album) scale. 

                Young Montana creates a song of great chill-worthiness. Here the sounds positively sparkle and shine. In a way they sound like Broadcast if it ever got a proper change to evolve rather than simply having melted away into nothingness. 

                I’m a sucker for compilations however. Felt Sampler has that spaced-out sound I particularly appreciate. Headphones make it sound better. This is one of those ‘wow, I can’t believe the hi-fi.’ While I do mostly listen to lo-fi, there is a particularly smooth quality to these sounds, a delicate feeling that makes it rather enjoyable. 

                What else can beat a good compilation besides a wonderful mix? Here Shelter Press releases a nice well thought out mix. Many of these artists work quite well together. They mine a similar sound that is becoming ever more popular. In fact the demand is so great Editions Mego came out with ‘Spectrum Spools’ only a year or so ago yet it is releasing records at a rapid fire rate. Indeed a few Spectrum Spools residents are on here such as Bee Mask. The inclusion of the underrated Ben Vida is a particularly nice touch. 

                As this is Halloween I thought I’d end it with a random YouTube video of skeletons dancing. If Danse Macabre Camille Saint-Saëns isn’t GOTH enough I don’t know what is. I remember listening to this a huge amount when I was a child. Most of my childhood was spent listening to vast amount of morbid, depressed, lonely classical music. 

                To completely close this I present a piece near and dear to my heart. Yeah the Widor Toccata is extremely well known. There are a few reasons this is my favorite classical piece. One it incorporates my favorite instrument of all time, the pipe organ. As a child I wanted to learn how to play the pipe organ. Buildings shook thanks to the power of the pipe organ. Yeah other instruments could do that but they needed great amounts of help whereas pipe organs felt like part of the building’s structure. Finally there is the middle section of the toccata where the piece drifts further and further away from comprehension. Widor adds a great deal of distance and allows the ending to completely wallop the listener. 

                Love Halloween! Also check out a particularly excellent piece based off of my contribution to Meat Confetti. It is amazing. Love it!

Various Artists

                I feel there aren’t enough Compilations anymore. Today I am going to change that. Hopefully this is a beautiful beginning to my ‘Various Artists’ section here. Oftentimes I see so many wonderful songs, compilations, and albums; I do not know where to begin. As a way of bringing together all these wonderful odds and ends, I present the first (of perhaps many) Various Artists. Enjoy!

                Jensen Sportag did a lot this year on Cascine, a new jet-set label. Mostly they were absolutely plush sounding remixes, the kinds of remixes that you cherish. Memorable remixes are a rare breed indeed, but somehow Jensen managed to pull it off in 2011. Actually next year there will be a new album out for them. Listen to the teaser here. Or just listen to one of their smooth (I mean a sort of smooth beyond all human comprehension) remixes. I’m a sloth. I comprehend it. 

                Psychic Occupations is a compilation of shoegaze and psych songs. All proceeds help out the Occupy Wall Street movement. They are relatively cheap. Even as the Occupy movement is physically removed, from occupying actual land, I feel they shall continue to spread the good word of reducing income inequality, etc. Normally I do not talk about politics on here, it is rather rare. Yet the bands on this shindig are worth the $5, and the movement is still strong. Help out some good bands with good hearts. 

                Breaking out of the Christmas spirit is Vacation. I’ve heard Vacation before, doing their creepy folk thing, generally writing some beautifully bleak songs. Now they’ve decided to take a grimier, more electronic approach to their sound for ‘Broken Bones’. Their odd voices are still there. Instead of guitars they have electrical static. It is not Christmas-friendly unless you happen to have extremely disturbing Christmases. Man, it is a seriously creepy, creepy song, meant for nightmares. Glad this came out around Christmas, right when I needed it. 

                 Do not fret. This will not be the last Various Artists collection. I shall have more. Since many of these are seasonally based, I’d feel bad to let them linger. Besides, shortly I will have extremely limited (read: no) internet access, and to let these simply go ignored would be unfair. Hope you enjoy all these wonderful tunes!