Notes From The Record Room: Kraftwerk, Cloakroom, Apparitions, Lookers, David Grubbs, Orchid
Record Room: Friday, 2/28
To whom it may interest,
Kraftwerk’s Multimedia tour series is commencing at Philly’s Franklin Music Hall (formerly The Electric Factory) with the opening date of March 6th. This tour is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the band’s fourth album and milestone electro-ode-to-the-road, Autobahn, which was released November of 1974.
As ideas pertaining to an optimistic future now seem naive in the face of humanity’s want of societal and intellectual decline, Autobahn’s wondrous travelogue still sounds utopian, as if Germany’s superhighways of navigable pavement connected to destinations that were refreshingly rife with erected monuments to the limitlessness of human potential and achievement. I’m old enough to remember when science fiction was geared more toward invention than destruction, and how amazing that future looked and seemed. Autobahn putters along over 50 years later, advancing toward perceived excellence.
I’m still working through a stack of music bios and memoirs, and opted to finally read Kraftwerk: Future Music from Germany by author Uwe Schütte. This was originally published in 2020.
As a fan of kosmische musik (and not a fan of the “krautrock” label, though I understand how well it encapsulates the visionary sounds of the German bands it’s tied to) and the music of Kraftwerk, the development of this scene and how determined its denizens were to create something new and disconnected from Western musical ideas fascinates me.
When Cluster’s 1971-1981 boxset was issued by Bureau B, I had the privilege of reviewing it and found myself overwhelmed by the history of this scene and the wellspring of incredible and seminal music it spawned.
Schütte’s account is a good read so far.
Cloakroom
Last Leg of the Human Table
Closed Casket Activities
Released: 2/28/25
A new album from Cloakroom was announced in early January called Last Leg of the Human Table, which is scheduled to release 2/28/25 via the Closed Casket Activities label. An urgent and gaze-evocative single called “Story Of The Egg” caught my attention, a gentle rush of tonal specters filling space as the snare cuts through the mire.
“Lemonheads are playing down the street
I don’t have the wherewithal for Godspeed But they’re still near and dear to me…”
This is a telling opening line, since bits of both bands can be found in this track.
Just before the 2-minute mark, the band launches into a series of staccato-laden interactions, both synthesized and picked, that chop up the song’s haunting mire. Fans of bdrmm should be pleased.
Links:
Cloakroom — Instagram / Bandcamp
Closed Casket Activities — Official / Bandcamp
Links, knowledge, and sounds were handed over courtesy of another/side:
The Indiana three return next month with their next studio album, Last Leg of the Human Table – the follow up to 2022’s post-apocalyptic space western Dissolution Wave, and label debut for Closed Casket Activities. Each song showcases Cloakroom’s genre-bending capabilities and seemingly vast array of influences; whether it be the sampling of the post-disco Detroit group Was (Not Was) or the lifted NASA recording of the humming of Saturn’s rings. Recorded in December of 2023 at Electrical Audio in Chicago and Rec Room Recording in Des Plaines, Illinois, engineer Zac Montez (Whirr, Turnover) aided in smoothing out the rough and turning up the quiet.
For Cloakroom the world of modernity is in polycrisis and America has lost its soul. Narrative fetishism is all too usual of a literary mechanism for Cloakroom. If you listen closely you can hear the concern; not just for the teetering social structure but for what it means to be human and the high cost of the human experience.
Pop, shoegaze, doom, post-punk, folk only scratch the surface on Cloakroom’s shortest yet most essential release to date. Its title Last Leg of the Human Table may sound sardonic in its nature, but this group has always found some wonder in the scurrying chaos of modern life. In 37 minutes, the album imbues a sense of responsibility to the listener as if one leg were to falter, the whole table will fall.
Apparitions
Volcanic Reality
Deathbomb Arc
Scheduled to release: 3/28/25
Radiating dread, “Convulsing Earth” is the first single from the upcoming new album by drone metal band Apparitions titled, Volcanic Reality. Trails of distortion are sustained for lengthy periods as improvised drumming rattles through the sludge, the percussive and slow-burn mutations evocative of the excellent Sunn O))) / Boris pairing that gifted us the Altar LP back in 2006.
I pulled the trigger on a CD copy of this album. The Deathbomb Arc label has earned my loyalty over the years, platforming a diverse and distinct array of talent across many musically experimental sub-genres.
Links:
Apparitions — Instagram / Bandcamp
Deathbomb Arc — Official / Bandcamp
Links, knowledge, and sounds were handed over courtesy of Clandestine Label Services:
Experimental drone metal group Apparitions created their 2022 debut, Eyes Like Predatory Wealth by unorthodox means, designing and following outlines for general concepts and duration, then recording each of their parts solo, without the benefit of hearing the others. In this way, each piece on that record was a collage of drums, guitar, and modular synth. This was an avowed exploration of Lutosławski’s compositional technique of limited indeterminacy. The results were sonically colossal and beautiful.
On 2025’s follow-up, Volcanic Reality, the band may have taken a more direct approach –– performing and recording all together at the same time in one studio –– but they have not cast off their penchant for the conceptually meticulous, nor the growling drones, howling feedback, maximal drums, and sirenic modular synth formations. While Eyes Like Predatory Wealth was incontrovertibly massive, Volcanic Reality is somehow more crushing. Fans of SUMAC and SUNN O))) will undoubtedly find this music compelling.
There is something profoundly close and almost claustrophobic about Volcanic Reality which somehow simulates a devastating encounter. “This is an album concerned with excess,” the trio says. Referencing both Georges Bataille and Black Sabbath, the album title is an apt signal of the record’s concerns and aesthetic universe. As Apparitions explains — or perhaps, understands it — “We, as human beings, are unified in volatile (often violent) cosmic flows, not only with our Sun, but also our very own planet, in our shared need to squander, lose ourselves, without gain. To make music or art, in our case, is not metaphor or tied to any idealism, but sacred phenomena within the general economies of matter and energy in the universe.”
The trio recorded Volcanic Reality at Machines With Magnets in one day and largely on first takes, with engineer Seth Manchester who, according to Apparitions, “piled on gain throughout various stages of the signal path to simulate the perceived biological distortion of the human ear when listening to amplified guitars live.” The sense of physicality is masterful. As with all things Apparitions, the rather swift nature of the recording process was deliberate, part and parcel of an attempt to blur the distinction between composition and improvisation, both of which are significantly present on Volcanic Reality.
Writing for, somewhat improbably, All About Jazz, Mark Corroto called Apparitions’ debut “the quietest loud music out there,” finding an incredibly detailed universe in the nuances of the trio’s sonic conversation. This quality persists on Volcanic Reality. It is a study in the relationship between consonance and dissonance, between composition and improvisation, between peace and unrest, between extreme horror and divine ecstasy. On Volcanic Reality, Apparitions, at least in part, proceeds from and reflects on these words from Bataille: “You will not cease before you recognize yourself as a man who carries within him a hope great enough to demand all sacrifices. This memento will remind you that from this moment you can no longer expect any peace from yourself."
Lookers
Deeper
Almost Ready Records
Scheduled to release: 4/25/25
Abrasive synth-psychedelia with a reggae-techno-shake, “Bury You Under” is the first single from Lookers’ upcoming debut, Deeper. With wiry distortion, persistent electro-hum, and a slow echoing snare beat, “Bury You Under”’s success is owed to its commanding lead vocal, whose presence is strong enough to carry the track till its outro, wherein the percussion splinters into a hastened stride and a rush of synthesized elements add volume for the finale. The pulse rises to a club-friendly rhythm.
“Bury You Under” was premiered at Paste.
Links:
Lookers — Instagram / Bandcamp
Almost Ready Records — Official / Instagram / Bandcamp
Links, knowledge, and sounds were handed over courtesy of Tell All Your Friends:
The genesis of Lookers began when vocalist and poet Muggs Fogarty and guitarist/frontman Rafay Rashid sparked as a songwriting duo in the 2010’s. They recruited notables from the Providence, RI music scene, including bassist/violinist Florence Wallis, guitarist Nick Politelli, and drummer Bryan Fielding.
Today, they are announcing their debut album, Deeper, due for release April 25th via Almost Ready Records. With songs that tease and thrash, Lookers’ forthcoming record, will leave you spent and wanting more. Recorded and produced by Bradford Krieger at Big Nice Studio, Deeper speaks to the complexity of desire, its erotic absences and desperations, its thrills. With songs originating deep in the shuddering heart of the band, most tracks pull from Muggs Fogarty’s language and Rafay Rashid’s musical instincts.
Our first taste of Deeper comes in the form of lead single “Bury You Under," a gritty, synth track. Picture banging out this war cry on an oil drum in an abandoned city, singing out a vengeful fantasy. Pure catharsis that melts into beautiful chaos. “They didn’t stop you then / They won’t stop me now” A promise against oppressors, a seed to plant or bury."
David Grubbs
Whistle From Above
Drag City
Released: 2/28/25
Gastr de Sol’s David Grubbs has a new solo album entitled, Whistle From Above. With the single “Queen’s Side Eye,” there’s a cool collision of chilly folk meditations, free-form jazz screed, and gravelly indie-blessed riffing that I quite enjoy.
To my ear, Miles Davis’s In A Silent Way came to mind, some of the random instrumental placement that interacts with the track’s anchoring key melody and the horn play evoked “In A Silent Way / It’s About That Time.” I sincerely doubt that that’s what Grubbs had in mind, but some of the phrasing in “Queen’s Side Eye” connected those dots.
Links:
David Grubbs — Instagram / Bandcamp
Drag City — Official / Instagram / Bandcamp
Links, knowledge, and sounds were handed over courtesy of Drag City:
Hear that sound? It's a Whistle from Above, David Grubbs' new album coming out on Drag City next month! Yes! After sharing the lead single/video for “The Snake on Its Tail” this past December, Grubbs has a new song for us today: “Queen’s Side Eye”.
Opening with warm, folky arpeggiation, David swiftly introduces edits and variations into “Queen’s Side Eye” — he’s hardly done pursuing them down each path before turning and chasing after another set. It’s a taut, intensively scaled guitar piece with Grubbsian, serpentine changes unfurled in a measured, lucid abstraction. As open spaces are found, they're soon filled with judicious ambiance from Cleek Schrey’s ten-string fiddle and Nate Wooley’s trumpet.
After a deep dive into Gastr del Sol’s duo magic that facilitated last year’s compilation box, David opened his deeply personal solo pieces for engaging conversational gambits with some modern masters — Rhodri Davies, Andrea Belfi, Nikos Veliotis, Nate Wooley, and Cleek Schrey — to create Whistle from Above. Hear David’s marvellous, ever-shifting sonic still life on February 28th.
Orchid
The Skull Sessions
Deathwish Inc.
Released: 2/21/25
“The Action Index” is the first single to surface from Orchid’s new Skull Sessions comp, which is a collection of remastered demo recordings from the late 90s / early 2000s. A limited run of vinyl copies are being made available for purchase via a series of West Coast gigs. This track was recorded in 1998 at Hampshire College and would eventually be featured in the band’s 1999 release, Chaos Is Me.
Links:
Orchid — Instagram / Bandcamp
Deathwish Inc. — Official / Bandcamp
Links, knowledge, and sounds were handed over courtesy of another/side:
As we collectively gasp at the cascading horrors of 2025, Amherst’s favorite sons are unleashing their first crop of unreleased music in 20 years in the form of The Skull Sessions. A far cry from your standard collection of lo-fi demos, The Skull Sessions is an aural catalog of the revered hardcore band at their sonic and creative apex.
While these songs might be over two decades old, the stunning quality and urgency present in these recordings serve as the perfect fighting music for a new age.
Tracks 1 - 6: Following the success of their groundbreaking debut album, Orchid were looking to go in a more experimental direction with their follow-up. Craving a new degree of creative freedom, the band began to entertain serious thoughts about making their second LP themselves. These six songs were the first tracks ever recorded at guitarist Will Killingsworth’s now legendary Dead Air Studio. Serving as proof of concept as well as a venue to explore new sonic terrain, this document was never released or shared outside of the group. Orchid would later go on to record and produce their self-titled album themselves.
Tracks 7 - 13: Following a string of well received singles and split 7”s on various underground imprints, Orchid discussed the possibility of releasing their first proper studio album with Kent McClard of Ebullition Records. As McClard seemed passively interested but not entirely certain that he wanted to put out their record, the band endeavored to convince him the only way they knew how.
Recorded live in one take on a Fostex 16 track reel to reel in the Hampshire College after hours classroom that doubled as their practice space, Orchid played through a blistering set that included two tracks from the then-unreleased split with Combat Wounded Veteran as well as five songs intended for the forthcoming LP. Needless to say, Ebullition relented after hearing the tape and agreed to release their debut full-length, the now-iconic Chaos Is Me.
For The Skull Sessions' vinyl release, Orchid obtained the very tape that they had mailed to Kent over 25 years ago. Now freshly digitized and remastered, this recording has never been shared beyond Ebullition and the band until now.
Two tracks from The Skull Sessions are available to hear now via Orchid’s Bandcamp page, with the full album set for digital release on March 7th. An extremely limited edition of skull-shaped physical copies (in variants of black, red, and violet) can be purchased exclusively in person during Orchid’s current West Coast tour which is now underway.
Following a string of sold out East Coast dates which reunited Orchid live for the first time in 22 years, The Doom Loop Tour continues on the West Side. Kicking off in Seattle last night, the run will continue through Portland, San Francisco and the Los Angeles area. Each night includes a special handpicked lineup including support from Iron Lung, Great Falls, Physique, Bastard Noise, Regional Justice System, Agriculture and more. For more info and tickets go here.
Sincerely,
Letters From A Tapehead
