Tag: rock

DECAYCAST Reviews: Gil Sansón “Dunning-Kruger Effect” (Full Spectrum, 2024)

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DECAYCAST Reviews: Gil Sansón – Dunning-Kruger Effect

Gil Sansón’s latest release, Dunning-Kruger Effect, is a adventerous and intellectually provocative venture into the realms of contemporary minimal guitar/voice music. With this album, Sansón not only showcases their impressive versatility of collating minimal sounds together, but the record keeps us listening and engaged for the next sonic event no matter now tiny or hidden.

From the moment the first track, “Illusions of Grandeur,” kicks in, it’s clear that Sansón is not afraid to challenge conventional musical boundaries. The album’s production is marked by a bold and experimental approach, blending elements of electronic, indie rock, and classical influences with a “small but powerful” approach to birthing sounds. The result is a sonic landscape that feels both fresh and familiar, a testament to Sansón’s innovative experimental spirit.

The title track, “Dunning-Kruger Effect,” is a standout piece that encapsulates the album’s thematic core. It’s a complex composition, weaving intricate melodies with dissonant harmonies, plucks ad scrapes to lead the listener astray, but in the best way, reflecting the dissonance between self-perception and reality. T

Another highlight is “Echo Chamber,” where Sansón experiments with layered textures and rhythmic shifts that create a sense of disorientation and introspection. The song’s arrangement mirrors the concept of an echo chamber, with repetitive motifs that build in complexity, symbolizing the entrapment within one’s own echoing thoughts and beliefs.

The album’s production is notable for its meticulous attention to detail. Sansón has crafted a sound that’s rich and immersive, which small and investagative, utilizing a variety of instrumental techniques and effects to create a multidimensional listening experience. The blending of traditional and modern elements results in a sound that is both innovative and accessible, appealing to a broad spectrum of listeners.

With its blend of intricate compositions, thematic depth, and innovative production, it offers a rewarding experience for those willing to engage with its complexity. Sansón’s ability to intertwine profound psychological themes with his music marks him as an artist of considerable talent and vision, and this album stands as a testament to his creative prowess.

-Dr. Decaycast

DECAYCAST Reviews: Sour Spirit – Mince Suite III (2024)

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Sour Spirit – Mince Suite III 

Sour Spirit, a band between frontman Rodnie King and drummer Riot Dent, is the sound of walking into a scream room, preparing to scream and only ever screaming inside their head. It’s a cathartic noise punk project in which the focus is on the hell of black trauma and anger. You can say that the appeal of Sour Spirit is that their brand of noise and experimental isn’t too far from free jazz, where melody, rhythm and all aren’t as important as the emotional catharsis, however explosive it may be. 

You can certainly say that MSIII has cleaner vocals and a lyric sheet this time. Still raucus as ever, “Ground Teeth” showcases structure in the songwriting mirroring a math element to hardcore punk. But don’t let the classiness fool you. Mince Suite III moves towards a sludgy, dirty end of punk. The common theme of the album is suffering, whether it be suffering apathy towards an inevitable death as a black person in America or even praising the “end” of a prejudiced person’s “suffering”. The album even tackles the effort to end suffering of other people and build something beautiful in the wake (the closer “Big House”). 

Their Mince Suite series further prove this with blown out aggressive grindcore that is only ever made to be a blip of aggression. Those keeping up with the series noticed that the music just happens to be longer with every entry. The first Mince Suite entry is a literal minute long with each track hardly crossing over fifteen seconds. Mince Suite II doesn’t let up on the mayhem, but extends it past that miniature 15-second blast sometimes into making sure no song is longer than 32 seconds. Only two songs are that long.) So, after hearing the series, Mince Suite III should follow the pattern of being more “filled out”, right?

Mince Suite III still covers the frustration of living in a dying universe that wants them to die faster but this time makes clear the act of changing course, even if it has to be through aggressive means. There are only so many words to say, and Mince Suite III said only what was necessary.

-mynameisblueskye

DECAYCAST {Track} Reviews – FOURTH WIFE “Attic” (Culture Vacuum Recordings 2021)

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Cincinnati Ohio’s Fourth Wife has released an electric high energy mixed genre album on the newly formed Culture Vacuum Recordings, titled “Head Fell Between Two Horses” and for our Decaycast {Track} Reviews section we’re focusing on the second track from the album “Attic”. The track is a high energy, high anxiety explosion of indie rock prowess oscillating between early Radiohead, Drive Like Jehu and Elvis Costello although it doesn’t 100% totally resonate in any of those reference points and carves out it’s own clanky, spastic, and energetic path. The mix is boisterous in a rewarding and almost noise rock way; egging on and amplifying the intensity of the clanging of guitars, synths?, percussion and vocals in a layered and enjoyably chaotic way. Frantic percussion, fuzzed screeching guitars, and layers of shouted vocals provide the backbone of Fourth Wife’s sound, and “Attic” is a great representation of the album overall. Fun and chaotic, and for all of the layers the mix is surprisingly very well executed, tune in and listen today.

DECAYCAST Announces Preorder For HAURAS 4/9/21  “Chant For A Broken Chalice” OUT 5/7/21

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DECAYCAST Announces Preorder For HAURAS 4/9/21  “Chant For A Broken Chalice” OUT  5/7/21

HAURAS has crafted a lush and foreboding sonic landscape with “Chant For A Broken Chalice”, their first release for Oakland based imprint DECAYCAST. On “Chant For A Broken Chalice” intentional and otherworldly sounds envelop into a whirlwind of a slow churning concoction of beauty and anxiety. Dense choral envocations pulse over a sea of strings, keys, percussion and voice. HAURAS crafts tense and delicate music concerned with the rapid decline of empathy as intensified through the violent throes of capitalism. Both meditative and a warning, like a distant pulse of a lighthouse gently peaking over the fog as a distant warning of impending doom and collapse, scary and at this point completely unavoidable, but wow the beauty and elegance of the message is not something to soon be forgotten. 

“My work is concerned with the psychology of society at the end of Civilization.” – HAURAS

 The first single “Hold My Hand” takes a psychedelic dubbed out industrial approach to transport the mood and psyche of the listener to a blissful yet slightly unnerving underworld. The vocals glide through the mix like a robotic worm infecting an unknown host. Like most of Hauras’s work; “Chant For A Broken Chalice” holds the listener in an hourglass where time is rapidly and chaotically slipping away.  Intentional, heartfelt, and intense. 

“You’ve heard of the Music of Tomorrow? This is the Music of the Day After

Tomorrow.” – Chris Ryan (Composer, Cerddorion Ensemble,, Tzadik)

“The sonic equivalent of expired film in my Holga.” – Richard Youngs

RIYL: COIL, Psychic TV, The Residents, Snickers 

“Hold My Hand” Public Stream

Tracklisting:

1.  Somnia

2.  On The Morning

3.  Rotagivan

4.  Hold My Hand

5,   Chant For A Broken Chalice

6.   Standing At The Entrance

HAURAS has shared bills with:

Sarah Davachi, Laaraji, Father Murphy, Low, Tom Carter, Common Eider King Eider, Mary Lattimore, Tom Weeks, Lee Noble, Louise Bock, Clarice Jensen, Jonas Reinhardt, Carl Hultgren, John King, Lea Bertucci,

Saariselka, Nels Cline, Jessica Moss

ARTIST PHOTO:

More info / questions / press requests: decaycast@gmail.com

http://decaycastoakland.bandcamp.com

DECAYCAST Premieres: Watergate Sandals Releases “Presidential Bootleg” via Under The Counter Tapes. Listen to “Ukranian March” Below!

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DECAYCAST Premieres: Watergate Sandals’ Releases “Presidential Bootleg” via Under The Counter Tapes

 

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Here we have a genre we haven’t really covered before on Decaycast and what better way to bridge this gap then with a fantastic new release from underground mainstays Under The Counter Tapes. For their newest release, they present “Presidential Bootleg”  from Watergate Sandals. W/S excavate their twanged, fuzzed out, up beat, four to the floor garage rock sound to it’s fullest extend on “Ukrainian March” which you can listen to for the first time below. The track combines thick distorted guitars, driving basses, and cavernous drums accented with vocals oscillating between a fed up, accentuated yell and blown out howls which perfectly complement the sound and vibe of this upbeat, but heavy  track, perhaps the standout on the album.  Ukrainian March is like an old beat up machine inching down the road  toward  uncertainty , exhaling billows of smoke behind it’s rusty, decaying exterior, but it keeps going and going and going until the job is done. in a  seemingly oversaturated genre, Watergate Sandals offers a unique and refreshing take on garage rock / power pop, not something we have covered much here in the  past, although this offering is  both uniquely refreshing and captures a sound well those  familiar with the genre can appreciate and understand.

“Light” offers a more upbeat, slower and more controlled take on expanded garage rock / blues  with more out front vocal harmonies gelling with the guitars and drums perfectly. Light still has a garage rock feel but  defiantly oscillates into some straight classic rock territories as well. The cassette ends with “Chilly” the perfect combination of up beat guitars and vocals while acting as a crescendo for the album. This was  explained to us more as a compilation, but the flow to beginning to end and  consistent recording style lends itself as more of a complete album, energetic and fun listen, also check out the beautiful J card art below. Order this today!

 

Presidential Bootleg pulls together all 20 of Watergate Sandals’ recorded songs, from the 8 featured on Pick Apart the Jewels and Gems, the 5 featured on their final digital-only EP, 4 newly mastered former demo recordings, and 3 never before heard recordings to form the ultimate document of the Santa Cruz band’s history. Watergate Sandals notably went through a few distinct shifts during their run, starting as a noisy punk blues band, then moving towards more power pop oriented garage rock and then finally landing on psych rock influenced by the Paisley Underground. As such, none of their previous works quite captured a true picture of the band in isolation. Presidential Bootleg is arranged not as a chronological compilation, but its own album released (and not released) in bits and pieces over the years, flashing back and forth between the eras in a way that feels as though it were always meant to be and lending immense range and dynamism to the 70 minute runtime. Shockingly seamless transitions from the destructive force of the newly mastered “Landlord” into the soft, floating “Ways Away” paint a perfect picture of the band’s uncommon deftness and versatility.

Thanks to the efforts of Jesse Nestler (Watergate Sandals bassist) and Kevin Percy Linn (owner of Paisley Shirt Records and genius behind Sad Eyed Beatniks), we’ve been able to put together an incredible package honoring the band in celebration of the 4th anniversary of their previously only physical release, Pick Apart the Jewels and Gems. Featuring a stunning double-sided 7-panel j-card collage including archival photography, old gig flyers, and satirical American and presidential iconography, Presidential Bootleg is not only musically comprehensive, but visually as well.

UTC is absolutely thrilled to bring this incredible band’s catalog to true fruition in the form of Presidential Bootleg.

Presidential Bootleg releases April 26 digitally and on limited edition cassette bundle. Bundles are limited to 50 worldwide and include a chrome cassette tape with a double-sided 7-panel j-card, and 3 release specific collector’s pins. A portion of sales through UTC will go to Planned Parenthood.

DECAYCAST Premieres: Peaer ” left​/​felt pt. 2″ (Citrus City, 2019)

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DECAYCAST Premieres: Peaer ” left​/​felt pt. 2″ (Citrus City, 2019)

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Taking a stroll outside of our normal “experimental” zone a bit to share a premiere from Citrus City Records artist Peaer ahead of a reissue due for release March 18th of this year. Citrus City hosts a diverse myraid of artists and has been popping up in all corners of the internet for some time, and taking a look at their eclectig bandcamp page linked below offers a diverse sonic array. Here we have Peaer’s  track “left/felt pt 2.” , which opens with a slow twanged guitar pluck with a minimalist beat and softly spoken words, however things don’t remain the same for too long as things begin to open up and expand and voice articulates fuller and louder presentations each phrase. The track slowly and steadily becomes a  much heavier, fuller, yet dissonant  form of itself blending thick drums, as the break drops we’re thrusted into a full on post rock composition, strummed waves of  chord distortions,  decaying riffs and arching waves of tone poem high register guitar work, dynamic and interesting throughout.  Take  a listen below and preorder the cassette today!

 

Peaer states, “‘the eyes sink into the skull’ was a phrase I lifted from a random webpage when I was reading about the stages of decomposition of a human body. The image conjured, although gruesome, captured the introspective nature of the album. This version has been slightly remixed and completely remastered by our beloved Jeremy Kinney. “the hands and feet turn blue” is another line from that same writing found here. This recording includes a re-recorded version of the song “left/felt” that includes a brand new portion of music, one that was written virtually one year after the original song was written and recorded. Released for the first time here. Also on the collection are two live tracks, from our first official tour as a band in 2016. The two remixes are included as well, a remix of the song “mouther” made by our friend Andrew Schuyler (aka morningstar), and a remix of the song “the dark spot” made by good friend Jacob Sachs-Mishalanie, both originally made in 2015 and have been patiently awaiting release. Finally on the new recordings are two previously unreleased demos that I have made since. Those two songs “happy birthday to me” and “the entire day feels like morning” were recorded on Ableton before being fed into a handheld tape recorder to characterize and color the recording.

Peaer reissues their debut album, the eyes sink into the skull, now remastered & reissued on tape for the first time alongside special remix & live sessions album, the hands and feet turn blue, via Virginia/Brooklyn based label Citrus City Records. Available digitally and physically March 18, 2019.

DEAYCAST Reviews : MONOCHROMACY “Living Posture” CD (Stay Strange SD. 2018)

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DEAYCAST Reviews : MONOCHROMACY “Living Posture” CD (Stay Strange SD. 2018)

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Stay Strange SD Collective artist Esteban Issac Flores brings eight heavy, dissonant and atmospheric guitar based worlds oscillating between drone , noise, metal and industrial under tbe MONOCHROMACY moniker . Flores elegantly creates haunting and dissonant cinematic spaces for a wall of destructed waves of swelling chaos, choked screams decay into walls of thick oppressive fog of tone, climax and eventually swell back down into dreary, pulsating tones. Sine waves shifting into the horizon encapsulate a distant haze of confusion and dread.

On “Living Posture” , Flores creates a deep and complex tension between the various sonic elements, which really doesn’t ever falter throughout the eight tracks of dreary doom. Some of these atmospheres could call back to Times Of Grace era Neurosis (my favorite period of one of my favorite bands ) , SUNN O)))) , Earth etc but that would be sort of a lazy comparison as Flores has clearly refined his sound to something not heard before in the tropes of heavy music.

 

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Monochromacy “Living Posture” CD (photo from artist)

Monochromacy leaves the “tough guy” bullshit of extreme music far away in the trash for a delicate and intelligent experimental offering. Flores has clearly honed a unique philosophy and approach to present the listener with a tense, yet refreshingly present decaying burning structure of mammoth and intimidating take on noise-influenced, drone-metal. The plethora of unique territories covered on this record while maintaining an overall dark and dreary cinematic vibe is rather impressive to say the least.We are never left without a tight sonic line pulled taught across our reality/neck wth ever shifting tone, pulse and intention. what is going on? Where did he leave us atop this  fog  ridden, dank mountain of dissonance and confusion? What is GOING ON! Wow and just like that it’s over, what a listen.Absolutely essential ride for all fans of the heavier side of noisy guitar works and heavier dissonant, cinematic music in general.

DECAYCAST MIXES : Farm To Tape : Episode 5

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DECAYCAST MIXES : Farm To Tape : Episode 5

Next mix from the Farm To Tape series combining experimental, jazz, metal, noise, avant garde, neo-soul, hip hop and other interpretations  of experimental sonic musings.

 

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1. John Coltrane – Untitled Original 11383
2. Wizard Apprentice – I Am Invisible
3. The Fathers – B1 (Sound Advice)
4. Willie Dunn – Son of the Sun
5. Jess Sa Bi & Peter One – Apartheid
6. Sinkane – U’Huh
7. Maya Songbird – Merry Me
8. Signor Benedick the Moor – Belladonna
9. Spellling – Place Without a Form
10. Gnawed – In Ill Wake
11. Developer – Live @ Smiles for Miles in Dayton, OH 7/25/13
12. Beauty School – A1 (Crust Immersed)
13. Okkyung Lee – Hollow Water
14. Ilsa – Nasty, Brutish
15. Thou – The Changeling Prince
16. Drakkar – Crazy Loving You
17. Gita Pon Yeik – Ah Chit Yae
18. Zoe Keating – Hello Night

 

mixed by: Diego Aguilar-Canabal

DECAYCAST Reviews: THE FATHERS “Sound Advice” Cassette / Digital (T/ECA, 2018)

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DECAYCAST Reviews: THE FATHERS “Sound Advice” Cassette / Digital (T/ECA, 2018)

The Fathers is Nathan Bowers of Tusco Embassy, Coagulator, Sun Poisoning, Sexorcyst and many  many others, and Derek Gedalecia of  Headboggle / Hillbogglle, Headlights et al taking a fresh and free sonic approach to  avant gardism through minimal, stringed  psychedelia. On “Sound Advice”, Bowers and  Gedalecia seamlessly concoct  a sonic stew of a tonal stringed rhythms through oceans of various tunings and strategies. Synthesizers, tapes, and guitars bend, flex, bow, and squeal through a distorted and plucked array of sonic excitement.  Big chords, dizzying chords , buzzing chords are  accented by splattering drum machines, long synthesized echoes, minimalist plucks, scrapes, taps, pings, rings, and reverberations  melt into distant walls of unknown feedback.  Eerily scraped axes, densely weighted keys, arpeggio stringed madness is the twisted spine of these dense  arrangements.

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Click tape to order from T/ECA Store

The Fathers cover a wide  range of  sonic territory on “Sound Advice” effortlessly oscillating between musique concrete, new music,  avant grade classical  and  even some  straight up  noise  to boot. The Fathers  don’t stay in one place for  very long, but  long enough to give these  pieces life beyond  just improvisational experimentations, these are complex, complete  sonic works into themselves, but they also tell a longer, deeper story to the listener who is willing to make the connections or  break the connection.   The  A side offers one long twenty minute track which begins with subtle synth blips, churning and chirping morse code to a dead  radio who’s operator has long abandoned ship,  backed by low and slow droning pulses, fluttering distant ringing warning bells of a barge slowly approaching the shore. The A  side  builds on ominous waves of  tension,  sounds elasticizing into each other in a sort of  Rude Goldberg style of call and response, but  it never sounds contrived or  “jammy” all of the  sonic events seem intentional  and as if they have a place in the overall crescendo and decrescendo of a  complex and damp mix. The sound never drops off, it only drops into the smallest part of  the listeners  ear to create a micro symphony of contorting notes and densely weighted rhythms.  The blending of the  guitars, synthesizers,  tapes and other instrumentation gel into a warm, atonal stew of  deep, soupy events.  Texture and thickness of  sounds  expand and  contract as the push and pull stylings of The Fathers operates like an elastic band of  tension, composition, and  duality, springing into a new  space to once again fold  back on itself.  The Fathers  create new  guitar music  quite unlike anything else, this tape is a must and it’s  exciting to see the  possible  return of T/ECA, who offer some of the most  unique and honest hand  silk screened layouts to date, a must own.  Grip it now.

 

 

 

DECAYCAST Reviews: ZSA ZSA GABOR “Left Skull Bank” Cassette (Stay Strange, 2017)

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DECAYCAST Reviews: ZSA ZSA GABOR “Left Skull Bank” Cassette (Stay Strange, 2017)

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“ZSA ZSA GABOR is dead” but the  sounds, voice, and pulses in a ritual are anything and everything but that. ZSA ZSA GABOR is one of the artists and founders of the Stay Strange SD Crew who boast a new label imprint, show collective and all creative force led by San Diego stalwart Sam Lopez aided in sound and  words from Ariel Irbe, Esteban Flores and Micheal Zimmerman, allwith their  own projects to boot under the  collective umbrella. Irbe performs and records  under the  S O L V  moniker, while Flores work as  Monochromacy represents  powerful, thick, radicalized  guitar  forward drone/noise works.  

“Left Skull Bank I” opens up the cassette after a brief intro with a dark, smudged, thick drone which slowly encapsulates the listener and then drops them in a voice cell of terror, confusion, disorientation, The time to talk isn’t now or maybe again for an hour  or even a year. Seal your lips shut for it’s  time for the  hymn of ZSA ZSA GABOR. This release is relentlessly and refreshingly diverse in its sonic character and nuance of sound and style; oscillation between spoken texts , drone, ambient, field recordings, distant screams that  ring like a hammer  smashing an ancient bell,  and  string based  swells ZZG has something for everyone , but at the sane time NOTHING FOR YOU. They owe you nothing and owe  everything to the void. Full tilt  sonic mayhem engulfs your  last thought and hope as your skull is  cast aside like an extra, misshaped, unneeded brick into the  ever-growing pile of death.

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“Left Skull Bank 2” picks up close to  where part 1 left off, with a thick, buzzing,  shaking vibrato of  stringed chaos while a monotone, anxious, realistic voice reads and  breathes upon every swelling  stringed drone of death, and after a “brief  demonic interlude” the listener is  cast once again into the  chaotic experiments of death with Part three, twisting and  tangling the  false hope that we once had  with harsh stabs, angry, dissonant, atonal swells through a purgatory nobody wants to  even pass by for a minute. This  cassette runs the  full scope of experimental sounds but in a a unique and refreshing way, no rehashing, no redux, this is simply top notch experimental music,  get about it, be about it. .ZSA ZSA  GABOR  is a thick, swollen, controlled  anger, which is more or less the  sound of  a  decaying  future; you’re dead long after you  found out when you’re  going  to die, and if you’re worthy this  might make an appearance at the funeral to help shovel your lifeless  corpse to  rest eternally and be consumed by the  wormed earth. Follow  ZSA ZSA GABOR HERE and HERE.