Our friends at Burger Records have released a ltd edition cassette version of MIEN's debut album and you can buy it direct from them here: Burger Records
You can still buy the album on ltd edition LP which comes on 5 different coloured vinyl versions and CD from your local record shop or direct from: Bandcamp
---
They say:
The guiding star, Thuban’s galactic trajectory once brought it forward as the brightest and most visible star viewed from the Earth’s North Pole. The Pole Star. It remained there for over 2,000 years before its position was assumed by an ascendant star, and now cannot be seen by the naked eye. its relevance and heavenly splendour are virtually lost until it re-emerges as the Pole Star again in 20,000 years time.
The pretence of the Lay Llamas album, Thuban is to tout itself as a guiding force for cosmic wonder. The music is rhythmically connected with Afrobeat and German rock traditions, and shares kin with many of the Rocket Recordings roster artists, in sound and a determination to push boundaries. The album is, to some extent, experimental, calling on actual collaborations with Clinic, Goat and The Pop Group’s Mark Stewart, as well as drawing upon foundation sources such as world music, psychedelia and avant-garde jazz improvisation. The latter comes courtesy of some disruptive gonzo sax which interposes itself, so as to subvert the late night mood of tracks ‘Cults and Rites from the Black Cliff’ and ‘Silver Song’ with a skittishness bordering on the neurotic. On ‘Fight Fire With Fire’. Mark Stewart's (Pop Group) narration of a futuristic world devoid of humanity is literally neurotic. Human freaks proliferate from the ashes of corporate greed, political malfeasance and biological manipulation. Like Trump's inner circle, or Italy's Lega Party. Sci-fi doesn't displace our contemporary world. It reflects on its more negative trends....
Read the full review here: Soundblab
---
MIEN are to follow their European tour with another Festival appearance, this time they will play the 4 day Night Owl Festival in Toronto on Sep 27 - 30th.
Tickets: Ticketfly
Follow: Facebook
---
Lay Llamas are celebrating the launch of their new album Thuban with a special launch show. And at the show there will be a very special ltd edition one sided 7" available of 'Silver Sun (Negra Branca's Red Sun Remix)'
Lay Llamas Release Party
@ Volume - discs and books / Santeria Paladini 8
Saturday 16 June
-
From the promoters Facebook:
Lay Llamas are one of the Italian exports of which we are more proud, and for which we support unconditional: their new album Thuban comes out on June 15 and we could not do a little party to listen to it ... but then we made take your hand a little.
Together with Rocket Recordings and the band, Santeria and Volume have created a special 7 "(transparent, square, one-sided, very cool) that you will only find here and only today: it contains the remix of the song Silver Sun created by Negra Branca side-project of the GNOD The 7 "can be purchased in bundle with the new album in both CD and LP.
Meanwhile, inside Volume, we have invited Nicola Giunta, mastermind of the Lay Llamas, to choose a little music, have a chat, and help us with fresh beers.
Everything starts around 5.00 pm, you can not book the 7 "but you have to go and get it: you will agree with us that it is so beautiful.
We go on until about 8.00 pm, and once finished, they are finished.
More info here: Santeria Paladini 8
---
They say:
Bonnacons of Doom: Bonnacons of Doom
It’s odd to finally have an album from Bonnacons of Doom. For years we have found them in the spaces where the fabric of reality is thin and warm Red Stripe is plentiful. Now we must confront them sans mirror masks and robes: in our homes and vehicles, on public transport, or even just on the street, where we must hope their ritualsitic invocations don’t cause that thin film to break and allow whatever’s behind to take us away.
The record starts with Solus, which sounds like a line of hooded figures (perhaps the Bonnacons themselves) marching towards total chaos and certain destruction, their orgiastic shrieks and calmly measured chanting belying the terrors about to confront them. When it does kick off, one guitar breaks free from the wall to twitch and dance like a snapped electricity cable, and it takes a couple of breakdowns to wrestle it to the ground.
Argenta, by contrast, is a swaying wash of clean, shimmering guitars and delayed vocals that builds and builds but favours poise and restraint at the precipice over more turmoil. Next is Industria, a droning soundscape of Eraserhead noise, punctuated by the subtle gonging of terracota pots, but it suffers from not being a prelude to full-band assault. It also illustrates that it’s the vocals that pushes this band through termination shock and into the heliosheath, setting them apart in a crowded post-rock marketplace even more so than the masks and robes.
Normal service is resumed on Rhizome, a noisy death samba that sounds like Mudhoney battling with those octopus monsters out of the Matrix and finally succumbing in a splintering hail of feedback. On Plantae the vocals return to the fore, and not before time. It’s the swaggering finale to a revenge story, with our bloodied and dirty hero dropping her lighter onto the trail of petrol that leads back to her overturned car and the villian trapped inside.
If there’s one critisism, it’s that the album isn’t long enough: at only five tracks, the malevolence doesn’t fully take hold, and only one song breaks the 10 minute mark. But that doesn’t mean you’re safe. The Bonnacons of Doom are still out there, their faces reflecting ours but seeing into our souls.
-
Mamuthones: Fear On The Corner
Italian outfit Mamuthones love a beat. And their album, Fear On The Corner is a riot.
Taking their name from the death-masked incarnations that have walked the processions and haunted the imaginations of the Sardinian locals in the traditions of their carnivals for centuries, the band live very much up to their namesake with a tribal monstrous concoction.
Melding post-punk, Afrobeat and voodoo-swamp boogie, there’s barely a pause for breath throughout the 45 minutes of this relentless record. Squalling guitar freakouts vie for position with wah-dissonance and frenetic tablas (The Wrong Side), verbose fuzz-drenched vocals collide with percussion which sounds like it is being pushed downstairs (Cars) and LCD Soundsystem jamming with Talking Heads (Show Me) are but a few of the sonic headfucks on offer on their ferocious rhythmic rollercoaster.
The eight minute Alone is a labyrinthine attack of distorted snaking guitars, bleached percussive drones and jazz time signatures almost so overwhelming you may need a lie down after it. And that’s just half the album covered. Fear On The Corner is a brutal listen – but one which demands repeated listen.
See the full piece here: GIT
---
It reads:
Throughout their existence, Gnod have continuously pushed at the boundaries of transcendental noise and chaos. As a live band, their relentless, brutal assault is capable of opening doors in the mind that hard drugs and meditation (combined) can only hope to emulate.
Capturing that unbridled energy on a recorded work can be something of a challenge. For example, the likes of Swans or Sunn O))) can never really capture the all encompassing oppression brought about by the sheer volume of their live shows. Gnod face similar issues, but somehow they’ve managed to distill what makes them tick in a live setting on much of their recorded work. Their previous album Just Say No To The Psycho Right-Wing Capitalist Fascist Industrial Death Machine was a crushing, exhilarating experience and, with Chapel Perilous, Gnod have managed once again to create something that is both liberating and, at times, terrifyingly oppressive...
Read the whole review here: MusicOMH
---
Some love for Housewives and Gnod in this great piece:
What Is New Weird Britain? A Guide To The UK Underground In 2018
As we get ready for this year's Supersonic Festival, Noel Gardner, John Doran and Luke Turner present their takes on what the underground we're calling New Weird Britain constitutes, from anti-corporate defiance, performance art, and a bold new exploration of landscape and place
Over the past year or so you might have noticed a new term cropping up on The Quietus: New Weird Britain. What is this, you might well ask? Here is an answer, of sorts. In truth, as John Doran says in his short essay below, the term is a slippery one. It was originally coined as the title for Noel Gardner's Noel's Foul House column back in 2017 but then, with apologies to Noel, John and I have run with the term to apply it to other aspects of what we consider to be the gloriously fertile underground scene in the UK
We don't need to tell you that in the decade since we launched The Quietus the way we discover and consume music has been changed beyond all recognition. If you look at how our editorial has changed since 2008 we've certainly headed in more esoteric directions as what was once the independent music that lurked on the edges of the mainstream became unsustainable. It was replaced by a new form of MOR characterised by the millennial whoop and soundtracking the sorrowful aftermath of chlamydia acquisition trips to Croatian beach festivals. In that dull climate an counter underground has emerged to create music against the odds and in defiance of the modern notion that art is only valid if it produces financial return, or has 'synergy' with some mundane brand. These three essays then are an attempt to capture what New Weird Britain is to Noel, John and I, focussing on artists playing this year's Supersonic Festival (they're also being published in the festival programme). Supersonic is without doubt one of the key incubators for so many of the artists of New Weird Britain, and a vital node of communication, sharing of ideas, and mutual support. The Quietus salutes the work of Lisa Meyer and her team at Capsule....
Read the full article here: The Quietus
---
Housewives have been announced to play Valkhoffest in Nijmegen 14th July
Get more info here: alkhoffest
---
