Crows of the World
Volume 1
 

 

"Following on from the magnificent “Invisible Pyramid” compilation (2005), this set is the first in an on-going series chronicling the sonic adventures of the Last Visible Dog label. Featuring 11 acts including the previously unheard Oaxacan, the whole thing is a statement about the current state of drone/improv/free-noise, which seems to be very healthy if the tracks within are anything to go by.
    It is up to The Free Players to welcome us in with the creeping mist drone of “All Time Sunrise”, a subtle blend of delicate noise that lasts forever, but is over too quickly. Opening with some ritual drumming, The North Sea (Brad Rose), delight the senses with “Albino Deer Transmissions” a track dominated by stringed improvisations that slowly dissolve over eleven minutes, distorting into a wailing drone of primitive joy, the plucked string maintaining a sense of melody throughout. On  “The Burlap Tundra” all sense of melody is lost in a dense wall of drone, rattling and creaking sounds only heightening the sense of loss and disorientation that Western Automatic create. The fact that it is all produced by Matt Christensen on modified guitar and home-made spring percussion box only adds to the wonder.
    Featuring just two organs played by Ilya Monosov/Preston Swirnoff Duo, “The Sea Within” is pure drone, the beauty revealed in the sound between the sounds, a meditational deepness embedded in the work that demands concentration from the listener. In complete contrast Andrea Belfi uses a wide variety of sounds and textures, both electronic and acoustic, to paint the vivid soundscape of “RIB”, hints of melodies hidden under stuttering percussion and rising drones. Sounds like the Clangers enjoying some magic mushrooms on a full-moon night, and is all the better for it.
    Finally on disc one Paper Wings, featuring Anthony Guerra and Anthony Milton (the most prolific man in drone), leave us reeling with 24 minutes of improvised electric guitar, whispering and wailing. Here the music is intense and emotional, building into a typhoon of noise and chaos, before the storm slowly recedes ending with some brittle feedback. A masterclass in free improv that is even better at ear-splitting volume.
    So, halfway though and not a bad track in sight, lets hope side two continues to maintain the exceptional high standard.
    Again featuring two guitars, this time manipulated by Geoff Mullens and Kris Lapke under the name Northern Cross, the opening track on side two “Corvus Dei” is a rumbling piece of improvisation that sound like a slow train across a winters night, hypnotic and dreamlike. Continuing with this dream state “Snack Bars Near The Beach” has a surreal quality about it, the opening sounds and voices as random as a overheard conversation that is soon lost in a slow motion, melting drone, you can almost feel the tarmac sticking to your shoes. Played by Brasil and the gallowbrothers band, this is one of the most distinctive pieces on the compilation.
    Recorded live in 2005 “Twin Beaks”-Sunken is yet another long improvisation featuring Anthony Milton, this time partnered by Stefan Neville. Utilising reed organ, microphones, loops, effects and vocals, this is my favourite track on the album, the droning organ given a shimmering coat of sound, creating a magnificent swarm of notes and harmonies, which swirl and dart across the room like migrating starlings at eventide. As the piece progresses, vocal are added, recorded, played back, added again adding yet another layer of sound, the whole thing ending in a blissful drone of perfect beauty. With the traditional line-up of Guitar/vocals, bass and drums, Kawaguchi Masami’s New Rock Syndicate are an unexpected delight as they play some west coast tinged psychedelia on “From the Dream” with the dancing guitar held together by some excellent drum and bass interplay.
    Finally we come to the previously unreleased Oaxacan featuring Amy (vocals, electronics) Mike (Drums, percussion, melodica) and Derek (Guitar). On “Tulum” everything is slow and ethereal in the beginning, the piece slowly rising in intensity with the drums creating a thunderstorm of sound punctuated by vocal wails and distorted guitar. Recorded live, this an excellent track that has the beauty of a storm and ends this sublime compilation in a fitting way. Much kudos to Chris Moon for compiling the album and for being the driving force behind such an inventive and high quality label." --Simon Lewis, Terrascope

"The first in an apparent series of ten (!) compilations on the wonderfully eclectic Last Visible Dog labe,l this sees the musical behemoths of the free folk scene come together in delicious harmony to create music which forms (apparently) a study on the bird family Corvidae. Okay that could very easily be slightly untrue considering these tracks have about as much to do with birds as, well, I have to do with thug-life, but that doesn't change the fact that it's a stunning collection of tunes. The first disc (bear in mind both of these are jam packed with music) begins with an extended exploration into Finish free sound with the Free Players, a band led by the omnipresent Keijo Virtanen (who was recently featured in the Wire). This is the perfect way to begin the record, with submerged string-plucking and grimy atmospherics which set the pace for much of the rest of the album. Pretty soon we're launched into one of the disc's clear highlights, an epic eleven minute composition from the one and only Brad Rose, here operating under his North Sea moniker. Expanding on the skewed back-porch folk we heard on the killer 'Exquisite Idols' here we see rose on full-on raga mode, with eastern percussion and plucked bouzouki building into electrical noise and freakish experimentation. Continuing in the related line of outré oddness comes a track from Western Automatic, the solo project of Zelienople's Matt Christensen. Here we find the improvisational mad-scientist manipulating some kind of modified guitar and what he describes as a 'home made spring percussion box', but to the non-versed among us what it sounds like is lurching, blackened drone, the sort of music which should really be the soundtrack to a Belgian horror movie (the sort that they don't sell in HMV). Elsewhere on the second disc (which is so packed I'm pretty sure you don't get cds that hold more audio...) we're presented by some lesser known acts, but the tracks are frankly flawless from beginning to end, with a clear highlight from Brasil and the Gallowbrothers band, which somehow combines drone thing with shoegaze and comes out with something singular and really quite unusual. I don't even need to tell you about the many Anthony Milton drone projects and Geoff Mullen's turn as Northern Cross (with guitarist Kris Lapke) do I? Just buy it, you can't go wrong..." --Boomkat

"From the same folks who brought us that amazing Invisible Pyramid six-cd compilation of the free/drone/folk/cdr/etc. underground, comes another dose of the same, this time "just" a double cd (but apparently the first in a series?). The international array of artists include: The Free Players, The North Sea, Western Automatic, Ilya Monosov and Preston Swirnoff, Andrea Belfi, Paper Wings (Antony Milton and Anthony Guerra), Northern Cross (Geoff Mullens and Kris Lapke), Brasil & The Gallowbrothers Band, Sunken (Antony Milton again, and Stephen "Pumice" Neville), Kawaguchi Masami's New Rock Syndicate and Oaxacan. Everything from ritualistic rumbling drone ceremony from New Zealand to lumbering distorto Tokyo psych rock! It's all sorta dark and dreamy, there's plenty of instrumental mellow droning bliss and pensive folk guitar picking, mysterious field recordings and electronic shimmer.
You can pretty much trust that this would be gritty and gorgeous and evocative and everything you'd want a comp from these farflung, dusty corners of the "New Weird" to be. Immersion in the contents of these two discs ought to both relieve stress, and make you want to hear more from any and all of these folks... "--Aquarius Records