A night of local music coming up.
Stop in and grab a copy of Familiars!
..flyer by JM..
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
:: The Eremite's Dream ::
We're happy to announce that The Eremite's Dream by Sagas is available now from Digitalis in an edition of 50 cassettes with superb artwork by Brad Rose. Recorded in summer 2011, these six tracks are the last thing I recorded in Pittsburgh before relocating to the west coast... again. Here's what Digitalis had to say about it:
Matt McDowell is a conjurer. Wielding his guitar, he can make cobras dance and spirits rise toward the smoke-filled heavens. On The Eremite’s Dream, his latest manifesto, there’s an overwhelming grittiness that permeates everything. Inside the subtle grooves of “Fractal Dunes,” McDowell is at his peak. Eastern-tinged scales rise and fall in succession like the bones of a once great empire find its way to relevance once again. This is music that’s soaked in red dust.
But the thing that makes Sagas so potent and McDowell so damn good is not just his range, but his ability to put together a sequence that flows cohesively and finds narratives inside those disparate elements. “Parallels” mixes in keyboard elements (by his wife, Jackie) for something pastoral and saccharine. B-Side opener “Mammal Brain” is a fuzzed-out romp through dystopian wastelands, complete with buried, minimal rhythms and dueling solo action. It’s this mix of tones and themes that make The Eremite’s Dream so great.
Stream it here.
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Monday, November 5, 2012
:: Thursday Thursday Thursday ::
Hey folks, anyone in the Portland area is encouraged to come out to Little Axe Records this Thursday, the 8th to check out Lost Creek Ramblers (Dewey Mahood and myself) along with a rare Portland appearance of MV & EE! Five bones, starts at 7... Gonna be a good one!
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
:: Nice Sagas Review! ::
Brand new (and quite lovely) Gloomfolk gave the new Sagas tape Sojourner's Lament a listen and penned some really thoughtful words about it:
Staggering on the edge of indecency, these three uniform sound mantras slip in between plucked cacophonies of tunneling noise and beautiful, delicately sloshed fingerpicked lines.
Distortion plays a healthy role in this collection of sounds, riding a line between muffled feedback and defined wails of intricate strings. The first track (all are untitled*) bleeds into a screaming haze of harsh electronics and plastered frequencies, making the comedown all that much more unbearable.
It’s said that noise music is highly metaphysical, its practitioners never truly concerning themselves with direction or balance. This, however, is usually why the blend of guitar acoustics and deafening electronic soundscapes work so well in conjunction, lending the other a hand where its organic structures may not flow so evenly. Track two is a heavenly slip into unseen plains with uncaring eyes and a mind to fit. Lounging lap steel is reverberated and bled into the background, providing a comfortable blanket between the lands of mellow ambiance and demonic winds. The track, while always retaining its soft, Southern glow, does at times find itself wrenching through bitter fields of sound.
The final sidelong track on the flipside grandfathers in elements of the A side, kicking off with an Eastern twist to spacial dismissal. Whispers of stretched electronics slide effortlessly in & around a quiet, distant rhythm of call & return flutes and bowls. Voices appear to be calling out through an immensity of widening nothingness, and one couldn’t be faulted for falling under the hypnotic charm. Obscure references to Walter Carlos’ Clockwork Orange rear their wondrous heads, found inside the mouths of frequency-based beasts and animalistic cries from unknown sources. The searing, psychedelic electronic guitar found throughout the second half of track one reappears to impart some newfound knowledge, recalling a sense of favouritism due to Ross Major‘s early 2012 LP Horatio Hymns. The familiar fiend crawls up & down nostalgic scales, never quite delivering the final blow, carrying with it a sense of endearing & frustrating suspense. Finally finding its footing, the guitar ascends to an elevated plateau, replete with distorted swells and hymnal rhythms.
Packaged in a blue/green forest collage, this cassette features a nice, thick glossy front side and cardstock back with album text printed in black. Limited to 50 handnumbered copies.
Released Septembre 27th 2012 by Lighten Up Sounds
Purchase from the label: Lighten Up Sounds
Stream in full from the artist’s Bandcamp: Biological Radio (*with track titles!)
Staggering on the edge of indecency, these three uniform sound mantras slip in between plucked cacophonies of tunneling noise and beautiful, delicately sloshed fingerpicked lines.
Distortion plays a healthy role in this collection of sounds, riding a line between muffled feedback and defined wails of intricate strings. The first track (all are untitled*) bleeds into a screaming haze of harsh electronics and plastered frequencies, making the comedown all that much more unbearable.
It’s said that noise music is highly metaphysical, its practitioners never truly concerning themselves with direction or balance. This, however, is usually why the blend of guitar acoustics and deafening electronic soundscapes work so well in conjunction, lending the other a hand where its organic structures may not flow so evenly. Track two is a heavenly slip into unseen plains with uncaring eyes and a mind to fit. Lounging lap steel is reverberated and bled into the background, providing a comfortable blanket between the lands of mellow ambiance and demonic winds. The track, while always retaining its soft, Southern glow, does at times find itself wrenching through bitter fields of sound.
The final sidelong track on the flipside grandfathers in elements of the A side, kicking off with an Eastern twist to spacial dismissal. Whispers of stretched electronics slide effortlessly in & around a quiet, distant rhythm of call & return flutes and bowls. Voices appear to be calling out through an immensity of widening nothingness, and one couldn’t be faulted for falling under the hypnotic charm. Obscure references to Walter Carlos’ Clockwork Orange rear their wondrous heads, found inside the mouths of frequency-based beasts and animalistic cries from unknown sources. The searing, psychedelic electronic guitar found throughout the second half of track one reappears to impart some newfound knowledge, recalling a sense of favouritism due to Ross Major‘s early 2012 LP Horatio Hymns. The familiar fiend crawls up & down nostalgic scales, never quite delivering the final blow, carrying with it a sense of endearing & frustrating suspense. Finally finding its footing, the guitar ascends to an elevated plateau, replete with distorted swells and hymnal rhythms.
Packaged in a blue/green forest collage, this cassette features a nice, thick glossy front side and cardstock back with album text printed in black. Limited to 50 handnumbered copies.
Released Septembre 27th 2012 by Lighten Up Sounds
Purchase from the label: Lighten Up Sounds
Stream in full from the artist’s Bandcamp: Biological Radio (*with track titles!)
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