Ste VohuManah 's Roaches #2

Roaches #2 ... a trip into the recent world of the outsider leftfield underground / cassette reviews by Ste VohuManah...

** Aux Meadows / Field Serenade / Tony Roberts & Milkweed / Ak'chamel / Z.E.I.T / Fajardo / Jimmy W / Saturnin Sektor **

Aux Meadows - self titled / shed records USA

Im pretty confident im gonna like the music when i get into liner notes and see "recorded in living rooms and barns..." & then hearing the instruments being guitars, lapsteel and synths? Its a match made in rural heaven. Im a simple man, and this is the music for my being if ever there was such a thing. These tunes, rustic, lilting psych tinged instrumental americana, are a musical snapshot of a time and place most probably thought lost. Yeah theres still the primitive guitarists out there on the fringes in Faheys long, long shadow picking away but theres not too many of these countrified zoners out there that hit it so pure like these 3 dudes outta northern California have here. But dont get me wrong, even though they harken to a time long gone these dudes arent anachronistic stooges trying to claw back the past and creating weak pastiche, far from it in fact as these pieces are still utterly modern and have an immediacy and experimentation with the genre that roots them firmly in the now. After a deceptive opening on "Big Rig Slowdown" the pacey bluegrass twang slows and the smoke hits. Theres a dose of meloncholy (i mean when is country free of it?) on tracks like Locals and New Daylight - whos opening took me straight into a Phil Pearlman paradise - beautiful abstraction on the two shortest tracks, and just the right ammount of whistfulness on others to keep me smiling and playing the tape over and over and over. Very excited for these fellas next foray out indeed.

Field Serenade - upon the walLs of silence / magma tones FINLAND

"far away from where people roar is the nature in all its glory" and this is that roar, the roar of a paradise despoiled, reeling under our yoke, aching in bondage, screaming to break free. Marc Heron & Michael Rigaut have created a seriously epic, expansive work here; a monolithic wave of bowed statics and cosmic drones that wraps the listeners mind tight before tossing it up and under and along onto relentless waves of sound. Darkness here is not run from, rather it is embraced as a howl from nature which, frightening as it may be, is listened to, absorbed and transformed into a music utterly compelling and impossible to turn away from. This was originally released in 2012 by Blauer Abend but this recent issue via Finnish experimental label Magma Tones is much welcomed as i missed it its first time around. The packaging of the first tiny run of 20 copies is wraped lovingly in a bucolic green cloth, a labour the music so obviously deserves. I would love so much to hear this outside, surrounded by towering trees, covered in the night. Nature too deserves to be heard before it is too late. We mst be more grateful of the gifts provided us by the universe. A stunning release, on of the years reissue highlights.

Tony Roberts & Milkweed - myths & legends of Wales / devil town tapes UK

Folk music is the music of all people, songs of love & death, life, happiness, struggle & woe, it has existed as long as humankind has wandered the earth yearning to express themselves. It has served to transmit lessons of history, tales of epic war, intimate moments and all inbetween and for me it will always be a huge part of my musical dna having listened to so much in my almost 40 years here. So to find new folk music in the age of digitised, shallow culture is a real happy thing. There are many proponants dont get me wrong, its not a dying form in any way I just mean hearing something that strikes me deeply as this has become rare. I know nothing about Milkweed other than they describe themselves as "slacker trad" which is pretty amusing. Its simple music, the tones thick and wooden, the timbre earthy and palpable, but what it does with the few moves made is so damn perfect i cannot stop listening. The singers voice, i just cannot describe and do her justice, i get goosebumps. Its the voice of wild woods, of magic & ritual, of a world still suffused with mysteries in the glittering twilight; but there is also here a deep connection to the quotidian and intimate, of people and their lives. It has everything folk should is what im trying to say. Dont miss this gem of a debut.

Ak'chamel - Ibex Entrails String Band / la republique des granges FRANCE

I recently read the first part of George Alec Effingers Marid Audran trilogy and honestly couldnt have found a more fitting musc to acompany his future crime saga litterered with murder, drugs, Islam, gender fluid prostitution and brain augmenting nihilism than this. Were the Budayeen to spring from the pages of his novel When Gravity Fails ive no doubt these blown out, degraded eastern waltzes would provide a fitting companion. Ak'chamels music first came on my radar with the release of "the totemist" in 2020 and since then ive strived to track down what little i could of their murky, lo-fi releases. This via Frances La Republique des Granges does not disappoint and builds on the already substantial mythology their catalogue has conjured so far. For me the highlight here is the third long track, the meditative "one must lay upon the alter and breathe in the lust of the jaguar" which has a strong sense of place and the confidence to ride the tracks main motif through hypnotic repetition into smokey oblivion. As i said last time out the occult and music are long time partners and here is yet another fine example of that tradition extending. I suppose its become typical for a westerner to see mystery and intrigue in music so heavily accented with the East, possibly to the pont of offence in cases, but here its an inevitable conclusion as the pieces captured are long meditations, undenaibly ritualistic in their repetitions and dirgey grooves. A stellar release from an incredible artist.

Fajardo - A6A / mascarpone tapes SPAIN

How do you keep the acoustic guitar interesting? Its been strummed, picked, tapped on & hammered more in modern popular music than any other thing yet year on year it still comes back, sounding fresh, ready to enthrall new listeners with its beautiful earthen sound. Fajardo isnt doing anything too original, at this point its not easy to do, but his music is serene and his technical proficiency easy to discerne. I'd recently found through Tompkins Squares awesome archival digging work the guitarist Rick Deitrick and i can hear some parallels here with his sundrenched cosmic 70s guitar soli style. Theres an agrarian sound to some guitar instrumentals and that is indeed true here - I suppose the folk roots of these pieces make that inevitable - and it brings with it a real sense of peace and relaxation amongst the plants and singing birds. You can hear the timeless undulations of natures breath, the swaying of the trees, fingers scratching on strings - Fajardo could be sitting in the field next to you playing. Its a simple set of tunes but its undeniably a fine listen and addition to his discography. Ill return to whatever this man puts out next.

Z.E.I.T - Fleur 2036 / mondes sonores FRANCE

This right here is where its at. Space music. Cosmic music. Its a soundtrack to the future, a future of soaring through the galaxy, skating past stars drenched in neon readouts, battling with robots & chasing god damn aliens into the expanse. I love it so much. I came across the label by chance cruising the internet late at night illuminated by technology as is so often the case, and listened to only a few tunes before being quickly dragged in by their irresistable gravity. The kraut influenced grooves are there, the sci-fi synths, the robotic drums, its everthing that is great about modern rock. The parallels to groups like Korb can be easily drawn and fans of that project will find something to love here i have no doubt.

Jimmy W - midi canoe / moonside UK

A quality soundtrack makes or breaks a production. The music helps generate or affirm an atmosphere or underscore a dramatic shift. A refrain can be deployed once, then redeployed recontextualised by the unfolding story arc to twist its impact and transform it into another componant to add shade and colour to the overall canvas. This work here, comprised of short, atmospheric vignettes and foggy, emotive loops is a perfect soundtrack to a non existant production. Its narrative told through sound is of a raint cityscape, noirish and technological, populated with charahters of questionable morality, damaged psychology and nefarious intention. Or so i hear it. Its a remarkabe, brief work released in miniscue quantities that will instantly evaporae into the musical ether just like the million untold stories from a million unknown characheters... I digress, and ramble losng the train of thought as the languid sounds come to an end, a musical mandala spinning and looping back into iself into an unknowable oblivion.

Saturnin Sektor - split (with Danza Delle Meridiane) / diazepam ITALY

A fitting conclusion to this months column is this massive piece of foreboding synth from Italy. As before im only reviewing one side of this split as the Danza Della Meridiane side is a gratifying piece of droning electronics but nothing in comparison with what transpires on the flip. Expansive, astronomical berlin school movements with spine rattling bass parts come pouring out the speakers. It is a monster, a leviathan of electronic sound consuming the listeners mind forcing it down into the analog guts of the musical beast to be churned and regurgitated, spat into the stratosphere and splattered across the shimmering sky. This is Saturnin Sektors second release via Diazepam and both have featured kosmische synths heavily indebted to the works of 70s titans like Tangerine Dream e al. Its another work that has flowered from the seeds planted in 70s Germany that have emerged in the last few years like the most beautiful, complex fruits. The tastes developed then have matured with our ages technological blooms to become the prefect sondtrack to this age, the information age.

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