This Week’s Listening: RITUAL/HABIT/CEREMONY, Mint Field, BLACK TO COMM, Off World, SLIFT, Tashi Dorji
I wrote out some details about this project a few posts ago, but to recap: John Dwyer of OSEES has another improv-based ensemble project out called RITUAL/HABIT/CEREMONY and their newly released album has been made available to stream. I gave it a couple listens earlier this week.
Out of Dwyer’s rather abstract and eccentric extracurriculars that I’ve heard, this one is a tad uneven. Yoshimi-O’s (Boredoms, OOIOO) immediately recognizable vocal contributions are at the front of “What Do”, her distinct and idiosyncratic presence overtaking any instrumental application going on beneath. “Ruth’s Mouth” is rife with well-performed Eno worship and it’s difficult not to be enamored by the folk-laced and floating vocal harmonies in “For Those Who Didn’t Get Anything”.
Exploring textural possibilities through improvisation and spoken word, results do vary. By “Sound The Unknown” the album begins to wear out its welcome, the venial sin of autotune adding irritant to tedium.
Per Tell All Your Friends PR:
The band is John Dwyer (synths, vocals), Heather Lockie (viola), Thomas Dolas (synths), Andres Renteria (hand percussion), Brad Caulkins (tenor saxophone), Kyp Malone (synths), Ciriza (vocals and lyrics) and Archie Carey (bassoon)
The singers are YoshimiO (Boredoms, OOIOO), Albert Wolski (EXEK), Gracie Jackson (GracieHorse), Ciriza (Artist Extraordinaire), Kyp Malone (Bent Arcana, TVOTR, Rain Machine, etc.), Brigid Dawson (Thee Oh Sees, The Mothers Network), AZITA (Scissor Girls, Bride of NONO)
Mint Field’s “Nuevo Sol” is the latest single incentivizing attention for the band’s upcoming new album, Aprender a Ser, out 10/27 via felte. Delicateness with a tinge of psych-induced color, singer/guitarist Estrella del Sol christens the song’s lightly plucked bass rhythm with audible shine.
Links and music were provided by Stereo Sanctity PR.
BLACK TO COMM’s unsettling "Musik im Schatten" was taken from the recently issued At Zeenath Parallel Heavens, which is available from Thrill Jockey Records. The work of artist Marc Richter, "Musik im Schatten"‘s rather palpable tension is interestingly amplified by the sporadic piano strokes that step on top of the maelstrom of industrially-laden doomsday beneath, a musical intervention and situational appropriation of the environ’s constant drone and scrape.
Links and music were provided by Thrill Jockey.
Off World is a synth-based project led by producer Sandro Perri. The planned third (and final) installment of Off World’s recorded trilogy of avant-electronics, Off World 3 is out 11/3 via Constellation Records and “Impulse Controller” is its preview, a meditative loop with trumpeted embellishments that evokes the electronic era of Miles Davis (specifically any composition with percussive accompaniment from James Mtume) and the persistent motion of Neu!.
Per Constellation / Rarely Unable:
"Impulse Controller" showcases the exploratory trumpet excursions of Nicole Rampersaud (whose credits/collaborations include Anthony Braxton, Joseph Shabason, Marilyn Lerner) winding through a signature Off World landscape of languid squelching electronic rhumba, with drum machine by Susumu Mukai (Floating Points, Vanishing Twin, Zongamin), modular synth and samples by Matthew Cooper (Eluvium, Inventions) and Drew Brown (Motion Graphics, Blonde Redhead, Lower Dens) respectively, both co-engineers of Off World 3 along with project leader Sandro Perri, who contributes percussion and keyboards on this cut.
Links and music were provided by Constellation / Rarely Unable.
My initial exposure to SLIFT happened in 2020 via the album, UMMON, which boasted some glorious and serrated Hawkwind-styled psychedelia. Carrying on with their sonic forays into color-saturated weight, SLIFT has released the title track of their upcoming new LP ILION, which is slated for 1/2024 release via Sub Pop.
An 11-minute psych-rock tirade, torrents of heavy, frustrated prog-hammer battery rarely pausing for breath, “ILION” demos a tight performance overall with whiplash-level changes that’s given the necessary grandeur of music based in exploration.
Links and music were provided by Stereo Sanctity.
Drag City is reissuing two albums by improvisational guitarist Tashi Dorji, his eponymous album and Guitar Improvisations, both of which were originally released on cassette in 2012. Vinyl copies are available on 11/3.
The tracks “Iron Cloud” and “Improvisation I” offer two modes to Dorji’s playing: the first a near-violent and shaky array of delicately plucked strings or Brillo’d restlessness, while the second manages to instill a feeling of relative calm and allows some air to exist between notes.
Links and music were provided by Drag City.
Sincerely,
Letters From A Tapehead
