Ste VohuManah 's Roaches #1

"we gonna keep on walkin' through the darkness carrying our torches. Underground will live forever baby; we just like roaches, never dying' always livin' and on that note lets get back to the programme..."
Guru, 1998

** Glenrock / Dwyte Olivers / Britney25 / Blood Quartet / Food People / Felinto / Hidden Horse **

Glenrock - Self Titled / Drongo Tapes USA

Is this the dream of a memory, or the memory of a dream? Sounds wash from the spekers bathing you in the music; it is bliss, a hazy reminiscence in sound; the instrumentation blurred, the vocals slightly out of reach. There are snatches of conversations leading into and out of the pieces like lapping waves, memory coming and going on te shore of yr mind. Here it creates a strong sense of times past, warmly distorted in recall and only questioned with the muttering that ends short track "wtf." The debut from this Los Angeles duo Helen Lahey & Lillian Doyle uses familiar forms - shoegazing guitars and synths, field recordings, spoken word samples - to create a real intriguing brew thats got me excited for what comes next.

Dwyte Olivers - The Known is known / long arms artifacts tapes UK

after his work with duo Coims these acoustic songs came as a real out of nowhere swerve. I used to get them sent to me via whatsapp and sit totally in a trance listening & wondering if they were coming through the ethers web convoluted and slowed down, twisted out of their original shape by their time in digital space. But this wasnt the case at all. Dwyte Olivers creates the most perplexing, beguiling acoustic songs ive ever heard, a deep treacle sound you float on then slowley sink into. They are in a world all of their own, outside the genre without a doubt yet utterly familiar. The guitar patterns deceptivley simple yet complex at the same time, the timings out like the tunings seem to be yet all perfect and in absolute concord, a maze of puzzles difficult to enter yet once in impossible to escape. This second tape, following on from his debut on my own Vohu Manah Music, feels a more fully realised collection, the sound fuller, the songs more assured. Its a bewitching release like no other.

Britney25 - Retour de boule / Britney25 Tapes France

this is some crazy shit. When the modern age crashes to its end and we emerge from our bunkers into the future, a dystopia wasteland of smashed technology, industrial deserts and rabid half human creatures fighting for the last morsels of civilization with faces dirty and eyes shy to the light this is what we'll listen to. It is the music of future destruction, technological decay, modernity eating itself. I love it. I have done scant research into the shadowy, tiny label behind this project which is a mistake i plan to rectify but what i think im seeing is a huge explosion of small batch cassettes fromone man alone, purging his mind onto tape through lo fi noise, primitive electro, and punishing garage. the vocals swing from post meltdown Mark E Smith to full blown screams from the abyss. Its music from the edge, for souls already there. The higest of recommendations indeed.

Blood Quartet - 7 arrels 9 ombres / Zona Watusa Spain

Jazz rock is a dirty term. Its been made that by the sucesses of the genres worst proponents, folk whose interminable music bores even the most committed of fans. But not these guys. Blood Quartets previous releases coming from labels like Feeding Tube filled me with hope for this as i waited on its arrival and landing here it didnt disappoint. The band has formed around Mars' Mark Cunningham, here playing familiar trumpet and also guitar, plus taking production duties, and the sound shows his influence all over. Angular, and honestly at times perhaps clinical for me but never predictable. Its a solid release in what is becoming an impressive discography for these guys. There were a few moments where it got a bit on the metal side for my tastes, the distortion on the guitars prodding my enjoyment in the face - im far more partial to scuzz than the clean aggression that happens a few times here. A solid release, perhaps not aways for my taste but why would you want to be satisfied all the time? wheres the challenge in that?

Food People / Human Heads split / Cardboard Club UK

Im gonna get it out here first just so you know, I think Food People are the fucking bomb. Seeing a new release on Cardboard Club from them was like getting given free cheese sandwiches for a week, I was buzzing. This isnt gonna be objective. Ill probably only give a cursary word to the flip from Human Heads too so i can get all hyperbolic about the other side - here goes, its cool, i dug it - cause the a-side here is just perfection folks. P E R F E C T I O N.
The riffs, monolithic, infinite, lo fi meditations that transport the wandering mind into paradise. Ive played it in the car, in the shower, to my partner, my baby boy, the cats, while i cook, while i walked,in the park, in the shops, pickig apples, taking a shit, theres no wrong time or place for this and all creatures great, small, and felines, adore it without equivocation, or so i tell myself. Its a perfect release. Long enough to satisfy the itch, but brief enough to leave you begging for more. Buy it now, its a purchase you cant possibly regret.

Felinto - NaoTem Volta / Lovers & Lollypops Portugal

A lament for the disapeering tribes of the Amazon as i heard it, this is a beautiful work that carries real weight and meaning in its 28 minute run time. Functioning as, and coming from, a dream study by a collective of artists it leaps from the waking to the dream world effortlessly, a subliminal transportation into the world of nature fast receeding. In the opening of this piece i hear voices, disembodied refrains in the trees, amongst the fauna, dancing in canopies for generations. Sonorous and free. Then there are vocals evoking the cries of the Guarani tribe being evicted and exterminated, their pains amplified as the electronics swell and and the sax scrawls their stories on the track. Ive played this over a few times and always leave it feeling changed, it is a tremendous work showing the transformative potential of collaboration; It makes me feel that we can oppose these monlithic corporate powers and fight back their machines to reclaim our heritage in nature if only we come together now in harmony. This music has real power, one of the years best.

Hidden Horse - Opala / Holuzam Portugal

The occult and music have always been close compatriots, their bonds in ritual and fire are undeniable, they have segued between dimensions and worlds with travelers in tow from times immemorial to the present day never ceasing in their explorations of the zones on the outermost peripheries of existence. The sounds they use here are deep; repetitive beats, resounding clangs, electronics swaying to and fro as the hypnosis takes hold. The music is a guide into foreign zones, territories best left unexplored for the uninitiated but a haven for those alredy familiar with the esoteric arts. The two producers have history in this sound, firstly with Hypnotica and more recently as Beautify Junkyards and the pedigree shows. A collection of tracks that function in their roles well, there is nothing here that breaks new ground but the footsteps it follows in are followed just fine. For fans of hauntological electronics this will be very saisfying.

**i'll be back next month with reviews of Welsh folk, Finnish drone, French electronica and so much more, thanks for yr time**

Ste