A Storm Of Light: As the Valley of Death Becomes Us, Our Silver Memories Fade (Profound Lore, 5/17/11)

A Storm Of Light: "Destroyer"

Since its inception, Josh Graham’s A Storm Of Light has adopted a model that's based squarely on collective evolution, be it in something as complex as its musical aspirations or something as simple as its personnel. With its fourth release, As the Valley of Death Becomes Us, Our Silver Memories Fade, the group seemingly moves a little further from its loose "project" designation yet seemingly keeps the "band" label at arm’s length.

With its sound rooted firmly in no-frills rock, Valley’s style could best be described as “talk metal” or, barring that, "verbal doom." Graham’s vocals tend to avoid conventional melody, or at least anything too advanced, instead coming off more as pitched declarations of ideology over the anvil attack of bassist Dominic Seita and newcomer drummer B.J. Graves. Though the obvious comparisons to contemporaries Neurosis or Unsane will make sense, Valley really borrows more heavily from mid-1990s hard rock — the half-spoken, hard-truth heaviness of Rollins Band, or the sludgy Sabbath nods of Soundgarden (fittingly, guitarist Kim Thayil pops in for a pair of guest spots: “Missing” and “Black Wolves”). The chugging “Collapse” evokes a less tom-reliant form of Tool, and the environmentalist-turned-existentialist "Destroyer" finally explains what a Queensrÿche / Alice in Chains / Rage Against the Machine collaboration might have sounded like.

None of this, however, should suggest that A Storm Of Light has become some kind of throwback or revivalist group; if anything, the group’s embrace of sounds past and present allows it to go a third way, at once familiar and new. The buzzsaw-jam opening “Missing” and molasses sweep of “Death’s Head” complement the near-operatic, eleven-minute, sludge-prog closer “Wasteland” in a way that shows knowledge rather than emulation, and the death march of “Silver” creates a nice sense of continuity as it resurrects the early-album doom of “Black Wolves.”

Ultimately, though Valley’s tracks hit all of the right notes, the album as a whole still maintains the workmanlike feel of A Storm Of Light’s earlier works. Few would say that’s a bad thing in and of itself, but many had hoped that Valley would be the album where the band didn’t just hit its stride but reached new heights as well.

Bands and Artists You Should Know
by Justin Bartlett

Constructing a cohesive theme for my guest column at ALARM was not forming in my skull. Top Ten Album Releases for 2010? Top Ten Favorite Artists? Top Ten Fish Tacos? Hmm…nothing.

Perhaps this needs to be more KVLT and underground…Top 10 Cassette Releases? Nah, the tape thing has been played out enough. Bear with me….Top Six Uses of Upside-Down Crosses on Album Artwork? Ah, fuck it, here's a list of nine bands and visual artists that I enjoy, find inspirational, or simply think are interesting and who you should check out for yourself. All of the visual artists I've listed have created artwork for bands, but some of the musicians/bands do not necessarily have outstanding album aesthetics. Either visually or musically (and sometimes both), they weave together textures that are dark, grim, and, to a person with a penchant for the negative, often cathartic.
 

1. Blessure Grave

Blessure Grave was one of the best things to come out of San Diego's rather lackluster and safe indie music scene for years. Although its post-punk sound gives a nod to some of my favorites — Joy Division, Death In June, The Cure, and The Chameleons — the band played with enough conviction and creativity to avoid being too derivative. Structurally, the band has a very strong pop drive to its material with an underlying bedroom black-metal atmosphere. Blessure Grave released a ton of EPs on vinyl and cassette, and Judged by Twelve, Carried by Six was one of my favorite releases of 2010. Unfortunately, the band broke up recently, but luckily I was able to work on a cassette cover for When I Die before its demise. Blessure Grave's mastermind, Tobias [Grave], started a new band called Soft Kill.

2. Sindre Foss Skancke / Utarm

Not only a crafter of a black-ambient-holocaust-doom noise with his musical outlet Utarm, Sindre is one of my favorite visual warlocks as well. His work evokes a pre-Renaissance feeling with its line style, only with the Holy Trinity being replaced by goat spawn and unholy defilement. Imagine, if you will, the Unholy Bible for Children. His large-scale paintings showcase a world of occult chaos, where humanity suffers in a dark abyss. Utarm is the perfect musical soundtrack to his visual night terrors. Formless, bleak, terrifying, suicidal, and definitely Norwegian! Artsy, experimental, black-metal noise.
 

3. Unholy Crucifix

Hailing from Norway, but centering its black kingdom in Northern California, Unholy Crucifix is definitely my favorite black-metal band over the last few years. It hits on all points: dark riffs, thematic repetition, and unhallowed atmosphere. This is not to be over-intellectualized, or the subject matter of critical dissertations on the theory of black metal. Take it for what it is: simple, cavern born, raw, and impetuous. Imagine if Incantation, VON, Beherit had an unholy three-way…and that spawn wore a Brainbombs shirt…this is what you'd get. The band has released several very obscure cassettes and a few vinyl offerings. You can pick up a seven-inch from Seedstock Records.
 

4. Sutekh Hexen

A chaos in the black drift…skin-peeling sonic nightmare. Picking up on the more frenzied aspects of Gorgoroth's Destroyer (which is one of the most underrated TRVE NORWEGIAN BLACK-METAL albums), San Francisco's Sutekh Hexen up the noise quotient by six hundred and sixty-six. I can't say that I am hugely familiar with the whole black/noise scene. Most of what I heard was somewhat amateur and reeked of flavor of the month. This doesn't by a long shot. The duo released three cassettes in 2010. Very dense, oppressive, and well crafted from a solid monolith of blackened lead.
 

5. Sealings

Someone with a larger music vocabulary would be better suited to throw a label on this one. I've read them as described as "death wave," but come on now! We all know it's "black wave." I can't seem to find much information about this band besides that it's from the United Kingdom and has a few cassette releases (most of which are available online for free). A strange, black-ish, punk-goth hybrid with low-fi guitars, drum-machine-created-by-pop-music-induced-darkness-lurkers with monotone vocals. For fans of Cold Cave, My Bloody Valentine, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Joy Division, etc.
 

6. Denis Forkas Kostromitin

This Russian painter's work seems to come from another time of ages past. His distinct style is reminiscent of the old Renaissance masters. He employs a heavy use of chiaroscuro, texture, and has an obsession with the occult and gnostic aesthetics and symbology, which I believe he also studies. His work seems to be of a classically trained painter, but I honestly have no firm grasp on how much schooling he has undergone. Regardless, his work is timeless and hauntingly beautiful. I believe he will be working with Beherit in the near future, or has already done so.
 

7. Vasaeleth

By far one of the most truly pulverizing black/death-metal acts from the United States over the last few years. Vasaeleth plays obscure yet crushingly straightforward death metal…the way it was meant to be! Crypt Born and Tethered to Ruin: unpolished and driving metal of death that rots through your skin with an atmospheric occult stench. Channeling such KVLT acts as Incantation and Demoncy, its full-length is available on CD from Profound Lore and LP from Blood Harvest. I'd pick up the vinyl version because the artwork was painted by Antichrist Kramer from Satanic Skinhead Productions, and just looks better at a large size. Additionally, Vasaeleth put out a split with Vorum on Negative Existence, with awesome artwork by Alexander Brown.
 

8. Antichrist Kramer

Regardless of your feelings on the politics attached to his record label, the artwork that has emanated from his hands are some of my favorite album covers over the last few years. Dripping, textural, bold –  his distinctive paintings can be found on releases from Vasaeleth, Inquisition, Nyogthaeblisz, and Pseudogod. Creepy, beautiful use of color, mutoid skull artifacts, teeth, and stalagmites.
 

9. Altaar

Quite an eclectic mix of music from Altaar, who gives you a taste of what to expect on its forthcoming album, which should see the darkness of night in 2011. "Occult, funeral, ambient doom" is quite a good description. It's a blend of noise, plodding drums (real drums), samples, and atmospheric riffs, seasoned with a bit of black metal — which makes sense since the band members come from very different backgrounds. All of these elements could make for a very patchwork and inconsistent release, but in this case, the Gestalt theory holds true. The production is excellent, and the 25-minute length will definitely leave you craving more.
 

10. Timo Ketola

Infinitum Obscure, Dissection, SUNN O))), Watain, Teitanblood, Deathspell Omega, Katharsis…quite an impressive list of clients. Timo is a creative machine whose work just gets richer and fuller with every album layout. My personal favorite is his work on Teitanblood's magnum opus Seven Chalices. His occult script writing, ritualistic imagery that seems to be diagramming the audio evil of the band's sound and lyrics, and detailed black-blood ink work visually seal the listener into a wall of terror, decay, and blasphemy. The lyric book for the album is simply a kill-ustrative masterpiece that demands your attention…and the black/death noise contained on the vinyl is one of the highlights (lowlights?) from 2009.

Agalloch: Marrow of the Spirit (Profound Lore, 11/23/10)

Agalloch: "The Watcher's Monolith"

Although Agalloch dons its album covers with images of winter and writes songs featuring tremolo-picked minor chords and shrieked vocals, the Portland quartet is best understood as a heavy progressive-rock band rather than a black-metal band.

Since the late 1990s, the group has released purposefully genre-blending music with a somber, melodic bent.  Marrow of the Spirit, just the band's fourth full-length album, must be compared to the work of black-metal-gone-experimental artists like Ulver and Enslaved, but a better reference point is the work of '70s prog-rock bands like Comus. Songs are sprawling layers of riffs that meander between different themes and styles, touching on blast beats, acoustic breaks, and atmospheric post-rock passages.

Occasionally, these parts are quite catchy and melodic, while at other times they can be overblown and pretentious. Agalloch never comes across as "experimenting for experimentation's sake," though, which is refreshing. Although much of Marrow of the Spirit lacks a clear direction, the music always comes off as sincere.

The strong moments on Marrow of the Spirit are the mid-paced, arpeggiated breaks. These passages are instantly memorable and represent islands in a sea of tremolo picking and post-rock swells. Though a clearer focus might improve the listening experience, this type of diversified songwriting is intentional, as the band often wanders in a hazy snowstorm of riffs with gorgeous interludes.  On the 17-minute epic "Black Lake Nidstång," for example, a moving, delay-laden guitar break takes on the pulsing melodies of Neu! before slowing with the introduction of the full band.

With bands such as Agalloch, the question becomes whether the flecks of gold are worth the time spent panning the river.  Though Marrow of the Spirit is not a transcendent, focused album, large portions are significant and representative of great musical minds.

Download the podcast for This Week’s Best Albums: November 23, 2010 and subscribe to This Week’s Best Albums for free with iTunes.

Stream the podcast for This Week's Best Albums: November 23, 2010.

Killing Joke: Absolute Dissent (Universal)

Killing Joke: "In Excelsis"

Over the past 30 years, England's Killing Joke has helped shape the industrial-rock and post-punk landscapes.  The band's trademark sound was formed in no small part by keyboardist Jaz Coleman's raspy singing and massive growls — as well as his slight orchestral flourishes — and the muscular riffs of guitarist Geordie Walker.

Absolute Dissent is the band’s first new album in four years, but remarkably, it's Killing Joke's first with its original lineup since 1982.  The album is another great mix of heavy riffs, synth-rock influences, and epic choruses, and at least in terms of songwriting and production quality, it has to rank near the top of the band's catalog.

The music doesn’t incorporate some of the disparate elements of albums past, and it doesn’t have as many dance-rock moments or the unpolished charm that some of the older albums do.  But it’s a solid mix of rock aggression and sing-along accessibility – and more importantly, it’s more protest music, with themes about omnipresent surveillance, microchipped populations, shadowy international powerbrokers, and never-ending wars.  Like the band’s 2003 self-titled album, it’s another powerful return to form.

The deluxe edition includes a collection of Killing Joke songs previously covered by bands such as Metallica, Nine Inch Nails, Helmet, Fear Factory, and Foo Fighters.

Gangrene: Gutter Water (Decon)

Gangrene: "Chain Swinging"

Gangrene is the new hip-hop duo of The Alchemist and Oh No, each an esteemed producer-slash-rapper. The Alchemist has produced for Dilated Peoples, Nas, Eminem, and many other huge names, and Oh No, the younger brother of Madlib, has released a handful of great albums for Stones Throw.

Gutter Water is their first collaboration.  It calls upon a number of friends and guest MCs too, including Raekwon, Evidence, Planet Asia, and others, but the album is much more than a bunch of great guest spots.  The material has ample rawness, with hard-hitting beats and rhymes, but there’s an underlying sophistication, whether from string, piano, and flute samples or from quick references to conspiracy theories.

The album does suffer from a lot of self-aggrandizement and a little tough-guy syndrome, and a few lines are crass for the sake of being crass.  Overall, though, it’s not particularly offensive, and it’s an exciting new project.

Fred Frith: Eye to Ear 3 (Tzadik)

At first glance, the catalog of guitarist/composer Fred Frith is seemingly endless.  Many know the genre-hopping experimentalist from his collaborations with John Zorn, including the avant-jazz-punk Naked City outfit, but his recorded output goes back more than 35 years.

Eye to Ear III is Frith's third and newest collection of film music, and it’s nearly as eclectic as his regular catalog.  The music covers a lot of ground over what mainly are two- to four-minute rock instrumentals, with big roles played by the violins of Ada Gosling and Carla Kihlstedt.

Later on the disc, in the "Water Music" suite,  an Indian bansuri and a Chinese guzheng provide an Eastern inflection.  A few ambient tracks are built around distant guitar tones and simple keyboard lines, and others present a sort of quirky jazz rock.  There’s even a spell of Italian western in the song “Once Upon a Time in Anatolia,” a tribute to Ennio Morricone.

In all, it's another eclectic and beautiful album by one of music's most daring guitarists.

Agalloch: Marrow of the Spirit (Profound Lore)

Agalloch: "The Watcher's Monolith"

Portland's Agalloch has already spent 15 years as a band, drawing praise for its infusion of neofolk, post-rock, and dark atmospherics into its black-metal base.

Though the band's lengthy EPs make up for the gaps in long-playing releases, Marrow of the Spirit is only the band's fourth official full-length, and it presents the most epic song durations of the band’s career.

With the exception of the intro track, every song is more than nine-and-a-half minutes.  “Black Lake Nidstang” sprawls over 17 minutes, and it uses a slightly Spanish-sounding acoustic guitar line as well as glockenspiel, other atmospherics, and delayed/dueling clean-channel guitars.  There's a grand 10-minute outro track, with a slight classical influence and string backdrop, and it's proof of the band's continued maturation.

If you love moody black metal but tire of constant screams and blast beats, pick this up.

Brandt Brauer Frick: You Make Me Real (!K7)

Brandt Brauer Frick: "Bop"

Only using organic instruments, the members of Brandt Brauer Frick, a German avant-garde acoustic dance trio, create an incomparable take on techno that's filtered through a classical lens.  With any number of layers in a given song, the music is based on textures, as every instrument becomes part of the overlapping rhythms.

You Make Me Real, the trio's debut full-length, exudes the influence of minimalist composers like John Cage and Steve Reich – including a bit of “prepared piano,” which Cage made famous – but undoubtedly, it wants you to dance.  In addition to the piano, there is a small army of instruments making this happen, including pizzicato strings, bass clarinet, tuba, timpani, and other percussive objects, and each builds in a mess of polyrhythms that always keeps a steady dance beat.

The group’s video for “Bop” gives an interesting glimpse of the process, visualizing every looped layer as they’re introduced.  Going forward, the group will tour as a 10-piece ensemble to accurately replicate the album, and that figures to be just as engaging.

Honorable Mentions

Broughton's Rules: Bounty Hunter 1853 (Relapse)

Giant Sand: Blurry Blue Mountain (Fire)

Killing the Dream: Lucky Me (Deathwish)

Southern Culture on the Skids: The Kudzu Ranch

William Tyler: Behold the Spirit (Tomkins Square)

V/A: Revelation 150: Past Present, Breaking Out the Classics (Revelation) [50% of profits go to Human Rights Watch]

Fast-forward to present day Queens and one will find that not much has really changed. Yes, the shops and styles may be different. The roads are wider and the air is dirtier. The “cacophony of rebellion,” as it was described in the 1940s, still looms in the air, albeit often without brass and woodwinds.

“I am not so knowledgeable about the world of jazz,” admits Colin Marston, guitarist for the black-metal band Krallice. “I grew up listening to King Crimson a lot.” Despite the lack of fervor for the music of old Queens, Marston — along with bandmates Mick Barr (vocals/guitar), Nick McMaster (bass), and Lev Weinstein (drums) — has sure-footed knowledge about where the band’s singular sounds have originated.“Classical music, especially 20th Century, which is another influence on how I think about music," he says. "A lot of ambient music, especially ambient guitar music, has been important to me.”

Krallice’s self-titled debut album quickly shot the band to the apex of what has become the US black-metal sound, combining classic blast beats with ethereal atmospherics. This wildfire can be mostly attributed to word of mouth, a staple in the metal world via messages and music trading. For Krallice, this was especially important because the band rarely tours or plays shows outside the New York area.

“[We put] less of an emphasis on playing out and touring than most other bands," Marston says. "It is just not a priority for Krallice. We are playing a few shows for the record… five days or something, all around New York.”

But a question undoubtedly comes to the foreground. With the members’ roots and influences in non-black-metal bands (members are and have been in such acts as math-metal trio Dysrhythmia, punk-jazz act The Flying Luttenbachers, progressive death-metal band Astomatous, and melodic death-metal group Solecism), was the self-titled debut a one-off? Something to do for the hell of it? With the band’s second full-length, Dimensional Bleedthrough (Profound Lore, 2009), any and all doubts have been put to rest.

Dimensional Bleedthrough takes the power and atmosphere of Krallice’s debut and pushes it further, louder, and longer. The opening title track lays the foundation for this sprawling, violent collection with its unflinching power and sweeping crescendos from movement to movement. Barr’s vocals are at times in your face and other times seemingly part of the entire atmosphere.

The production, both a seamless blend of clarity and a blinding fog of rage, can be attributed to Marston’s other endeavor: he owns and operates the Thousand Caves recording studio in Queens. Along with Krallice, Marston has recorded electro-grind masters Genghis Tron, avant-garde artist Jarboe, and the scarier-than-hell, now-defunct Khanate.

Though New York City accepts all kinds of art, both outsider and mainstream, Marston feels that the city is not a metal town. “I’ve gone through periods where I think that New York has a decent metal community,” he says. “I go back and forth, though. I mean, there are some pretty influential death-metal bands like Suffocation and Immolation, but they’re really from Yonkers and Long Island, I believe. As far as from Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and so on, there aren’t that many that I can think of.

"There is a lot of experimental music here, which can be exciting even though it is not in the traditional sense [for] a metal band. But, really, I can’t think of a single American city where there are five awesome bands coming out at the same time. When I think of a scene, I always think of the [1980s] Bay Area thrash scene where a lot of bands came from this one area all at once.”

Even though the reemergence of black metal has generated a buzz, just as when any genre becomes more popular, an underground still lurks away from the Internet. Marston says, “I’m not sure I’m convinced of any more interest in extreme metal now than there has been in the past. It seems to me that that just happens every now and then [when] there’s a band from a more extreme-metal background that ends up on a major label. That’s fairly common.”

Safe in the spoken-word world of friends and critics alike, Krallice has achieved a notable following around the world based solely on its two-album catalog. Krallice may very well, and unintentionally, bring the American style of black metal to a wider audience and continue the legacy that the jazz greats of yesteryear did before them without big money or big business, and only with a big heart for what its members love to do: play music.

Sigh

No strangers to fusing other revered genres to a doomy combination of black metal and thrash, Japan's Sigh uses its eighth studio album to deliver symphonic, epic metal that calls upon classical instrumentation to top its rock foundation.

Brass, woodwind, and string instruments — as well as organ and piano — accent as well as lead sinister melodies that take surprising turns through fanciful themes. Raspy, menacing vocals coat each track, resulting in a dramatic presentation that isn't much at odds with its complex backdrop.

Fans of Estradasphere, Diablo Swing Orchestra, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Emperor, and Gonin-Ish would do well to check this out. With grade-A melodies that would sound at home with orchestras and chamber ensembles, Scenes From Hell is one of the first great albums of 2010.

Sigh: "The Summer Funeral"
Sigh: \"The Summer Funeral\"

Colorlist: A Square White Lie LP (482 Music)

A Square White Lie, released via heavyweight vinyl and MP3s, is the first album in two years from Colorlist, an ambient improvisational duo from Chicago that texturalizes sound by utilizing delayed, echoing loops, mounting tension, harmonic and dissonant layers, and germane percussion.

The four-tune album is a soothing, shifting sea of sound that finds Charles Gorczynski, with sax, harmonium, and electronics, building full melodies out of fragments, accompanied by the beats, brush strokes, and accents of drummer Charles Rumback.

Gorczynski and Rumback are staples in Chicago's younger circle of improvisers. With groups such as Silences (Sumire), Leaves, the Charles Rumback Quartet, and L'Altra already in their portfolios, the duo uses A Square White Lie to further supplement its distinguished body of work.

Colorlist: "The Lows"
Colorlist: \"The Lows\"

RJD2: The Colossus (RJ’s Electrical Connections)

Following a divisive album that saw the introduction of poppy, soulful vocals, producer RJD2 returns with something of a split release — an album that leaves no shortage of accessible, vocal-driven tunes but that emphasizes some inventive instrumentals.

Notably, one of those instrumentals, "Let There Be Horns," opens the disc. In addition to sporting a music video with a protagonist minotaur, "Let There Be Horns" is a grooving instrumental that, at times, sounds vaguely Indian while dousing the listener in synth horns, rock guitar, and squiggly keyboards.

"Games You Can Win," featured below, is a vocal jam that follows and glistens with an apparent glockenspiel or chimes. "Giant Squid" then returns the funky instrumentals, leaning on fuzzy bass, harpsichord, and spacey effects.

Fellow electro-crooner Kenna makes an appearance on The Colossus, and RJ gets more vocal assistance from Phonte Coleman, Aaron Livingston, and others. But whether or not you dig the soulful RJ, there's no doubt that the music on The Colossus is some of his best to date.

RJD2: "Games You Can Win"
RJD2: \"Games You Can Win\"

Honorable mentions

Good for Cows: Audumla (Mimicry)
Worm Ouroboros: s/t (Profound Lore)

In July, Kansas City math-groove merchants Coalesce completed an impeccable decade-long comeback. Known for combining big, killer riffs with punishing beats, vocal brutality, and tricky time signatures, the recently reunited band released its best creation, OX, while adding bits of acoustic melancholy, heavy blues, harmonized vocals, and Italian Western to its sound.

OXEP is the album's addendum, a series of seven tracks that further incorporates some of these new elements.

A simple, driving rhythm fuels "Ox to Ore" and "Ore to Earth," a two-part intro/outro that is split at the front and rear of the disc. "Joyless in Life" and "Absent in Death" are Western-driven concoctions, "To My Ruin" provides another dose of potent vocal harmonies, and "Through Sparrows I Rest" — in addition to being one of the band's best songs yet — features the shrill scream of vocalist Sean Ingram's young daughter.

If you own OX, this is a must-have accompaniment.

Omar Rodriguez Lopez: Xenophanes (Rodriguez Lopez Productions)

The creative output of Omar Rodriguez Lopez boggles minds, but more stunning than his half-dozen albums per year is his ability to make each stand out from one another. The musical mastermind now has released five solo albums this year, and though a few were laid to tape in 2006, that tally doesn't count releases with The Mars Volta or El Grupo Nuevo de Omar Rodriguez Lopez.

Xenophanes is another journey through Omar's progressive soundscape, this time leaning on the scurrying piano lines of Marcel Rodriguez Lopez and Mark Aanderud. Most notably, however, Omar takes full control of the vocals, singing entirely in Spanish and showcasing an ability that has been underutilized in his vast catalog.

Ultimately, Xenophanes is a highly accessible record that doesn't skimp on raw musicianship. Fans who were looking for more from The Mars Volta's Octahedron should check this out.

(MF) Doom: Unexpected Guests (Gold Dust)

Inimitable rapper/producer Doom (who has dropped the long-adjacent "MF") has a bevy of collaborations to his credit. Now, thankfully, many of his favorite guest spots and behind-the-boards efforts have been collected on one disc.

It may not seem possible for an album of guest work to resemble a greatest-hits album, but Unexpected Guests comes awfully close. Plenty of hip-hop heavy hitters play host throughout the disc, including J Dilla, Talib Kweli, Vast Aire, and much of the Wu-Tang Clan (GZA, Ghostface, Inspectah Deck, and Masta Killa).

The album even includes some previously unreleased cuts. Pick this up.

Honorable mentions:

DJ Rupture & Matt Shadetek: Solar Life Raft (The Agriculture)
Krallice: Dimensional Bleedthrough (Profound Lore)

Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation

This self-described "doom jazz" release isn't what one might imagine from the group's name — and, in fact, this Dutch septet is the improvisatory sonic alter-ego of The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble, a moody, jazzy, electro-acoustic group with an equally deceptive moniker.

But be it dark jazz, doom jazz, or un-jazz, the ensemble entangles typical jazz instrumentation with delectable atmospherics and percussive accents.  Spellbinding layers of horns — often distant and dissonant, indecipherable, or practically human — meld with über-reverberated drums, slide guitar, wordless falsettos, and assorted strings.

Succubus was recorded by the group as it watched the 1969 Jess Franco movie of the same name, and with the film's arty inspiration, this disc ended up being less heavy than its predecessor, Doomjazz Future Corpses! Either way, this is a must-own album for fans of improvised ambiance.

Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation: "Erotic Love Queen"
Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation: \"Erotic Love Queen\"

The New Christs: Gloria (Impedance)

Led by ex-Radio Birdman vocalist Rob Younger, Australian garage rockers The New Christs have experienced numerous lineup shifts since the band's formation in 1980.

Its first album in seven years, Gloria applies the group's long-form minimalism to a new batch of post-punk anthems, leaning on Younger's New Wave vocals and repetitious riffs that are perfect for zoning out.

Bloody Panda: Summon (Profound Lore)

After the substantial buzz that accompanied its Pheromone LP in 2007, NYC doom quintet Bloody Panda now issues its sophomore full-length disc, Summon, on the apt home of Profound Lore.

The group is led by Osaka visual artist Yoshiko Ohara, whose bewitching song echoes amidst tidal waves of distortion, dissonant ambiance, otherworldly organ, and wicked screams.  Haunting samples and tabla beats add to the aural melangé — one with enough power and diversity to attract like-minded collaborators such as Ocean, Jamie Saft, Mike Pride, and Toby Driver (Kayo Dot).

This special edition comes with a bonus DVD, featuring a 20-minute abstract video for "Miserere," of which a nine-minute excerpt can be heard below.

Bloody Panda: "Miserere"
Bloody Panda: \"Miserere\" (excerpt)

Moss

The album title says it all; if one were to awaken, alive but barely breathing, and imprisoned in a cold underground lair, Tombs of the Blind Drugged, the third and latest album by Southhampton, UK’s Moss, would be the most appropriate soundtrack.

Recorded at Wales’ Foel Studios (Blue Cheer, Electric Wizard), the songs on Tombs are sparse, crushingly heavy, and as anxiety provoking as a waterboarding.

Ty Segall: Lemons (Goner)

On his latest album, Ty Segall (former Epsilons) presents infectious, boogie-your-ass-off garage rock. Although Lemons’ lo-fi production may obscure Segall’s sweet croons (or wails, depending on what the song demands), the pop sensibility of this former one man band shines through the fuzz, and illustrates a unique sound in an often carbon-copy saturated genre.

Tribecastan: Strange Cousin (Evergreene Music)

The brainchild of accomplished New York based musicians John Kruth and Jeff Greene, Tribecastan synthesizes urban folk sounds from all over the world into a playful, eclectic mix. On Strange Cousin, the group is as likely to employ instrumentation and melodies from Scandinavia, as they are from Central Asia, or The Balkans.

Yob: The Great Cessation (Profound Lore)

Eugene, Oregon’s Yob has reunited after a brief hiatus, and from the sounds of their latest offering, The Great Cessation, the psychedelic doom trio is better than ever. We recommend rolling, epic second track,  "The Lie That Is Sin."

Debashish Bhattacharya

With his second album in 14 months, Indian slide-guitar master Debashish Bhattacharya issues his take on musical adaptations of the mythological Hindu figure Shakuntala.  Using one of his twangy, self-made creations, Bhattacharya mixes Hindustani and Karnatic music in a style that, at times, distantly resembles Western slide music.

Debashish Bhattacharya: "Chahat"

Debashish Bhattacharya: \"Chahat\"

Sleep: Hesitation Wounds (Strange Famous)

A co-founder of hip-hop collective Oldominion, emcee Sleep has made a name for himself in the Pacific Northwest with high-energy, quick-tongued rhymes, diverse samples, and an often-downbeat sound.  This follow-up to his 2005 LP Christopher is his debut on Sage Francis' Strange Famous label, and it features guest spots by Del tha Funky Homosapien and Grayskul.

Obvious disclaimer: this Sleep is unrelated to the über-heavy stoner-metal group of the same name.

Amber Asylum: Bitter River (Profound Lore)

This vocally driven neoclassical project is led by multi-instrumentalist Kris Force, a Gothically inspired songstress with no relation to ALARM head honcho Chris Force.

A pairing of cello and violin roots Bitter River in a brooding, eerie minimalism, which is completed with Force's powerful range.  Previous Amber Asylum contributors have included Steve Von Till (Neurosis) and Tim Green (The Fucking Champs); the group's current collaborators include Eric Wood (Bastard Noise / Man is the Bastard), Jackie Perez-Gratz (Giant Squid), Leila Abdul-Rauf (Saros), and more.

Amber Asylum: "Bitter River"

Amber Asylum: \"Bitter River\"