the submersible dirigible

Following the good example of his bandmate Daniel Higgs, Lungfish guitarist Asa Osbourne recently released his first solo album with the psych stalwarts at Holy Mountain.  Departing from the long, epic prog-scale psych behemoths so common in Holy Mountain’s catalog (namely, Wooden Shjips, La Otracina, The Shining Path, etc.), Zomes‘ sixteen tracks are each deletable snack-sized Fig Newtons of grainy krautrock, together sounding like a collection of lo-fidelity psychedelic sonnets.  At forty minutes, the album is brief, and its short, digestible tracks leave the album feeling even shorter.  With one or two exceptions, each track builds upon a single delectable electric guitar, drum or effects loop left on repeat. Zomes‘ looping, repetitive quality gives the album the endearing feel of a handcrafted, late-night attic composition.

‘Membranous Plane’ best exemplifies Osbourne’s reliance on simple looping melodies.  The track’s rubbery electric guitar melody pairs with a handful of lonely snare cracks, cycling together over and over again.  Slight changes in inflection liven up the loop, but these changes are nearly imperceptible.  At long last, as the body’s neurons begin to short-circuit in response to incessant repetition, an abrupt static interruption upsets the loop, and evolves into a brief decayed reprisal of the familiar arrangement.

‘Membranous Plane‘

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While imparting some urgency and a film-cut quality, Zomes‘ repetition does leave the album without any recognizable dramatic arc; the album’s sixteen tracks sound isolated from each other, each its own independent patchwork of colorful, snackpack loops.  Without cohesion, or long, focal tracks to establish theme, the album could pass for a compilation of film compositions.  Oddly enough, this kraut/psych hodgepodge not only works, it astounds.  The album’s layered attention-deficit disorder — each track isolated from the others, each track itself spun from tight internal loops –is it’s most endearing feature.  These soundtrack cuts evoke scenes ranging from the sideburns and tire smoke of Steve McQueen’s Bullitt (‘Crowning Orbs’) to the slow-motion contemplation of Jean Painleve’s underwater exploration films (‘Clear Shapes’, ‘Petroglyphs’) and the barren, post-apocalyptic tarmac of Mel Gibson’s Mad Max (‘Black Magic Band’).

‘Crowning Orbs‘

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‘Petroglyphs‘

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In the end, Osbourne’s Zomes amounts to a sort of cross between a Radiophonic Workshop collection and krautrock in the vein of Amon Duul II or Can.  The unique blend of the familiar Holy Mountain psych/kraut fare with the soundtrack aesthetic amounts to essential listening, an album begging for repeat listens.

HARMAA LAGUUNI is psych free-folk composed inside an iron-lung OR scandinavian bare-bones communal folk enhanced with exoskeleton.

Even before the release of their untitled late-2007 comeback spectacular, Kemialliset Ystävät had secured a place in outsider music history, recognized as one of the Finnish folk invasion’s most creative and prolific pioneers.  Jan Anderzén’s characteristic shambolic free-folk helped define the genre, and served as inspiration for countless artists within the larger (commercially at least) freak-folk movement.  Despite a dependable musical formula, last year’s untitled release — KY’s first in years — was a surprising departure from their established sound, the new album sounding like a seamless blend of the group’s familiar communal acoustics with experimental electronics in the spirit of early-electronic and musique concrète composers like Pierre Henry or Tod Dockstader.  Harmaa Laguuni — originally released as supplemental tour material –  continues Kemialliset Ystävät’s ambitious fusion with electronics.

‘Tervehdys Roskasakki‘ — Harmaa Laguuni’s opener — epitomizes this renewed focus on electronics;the track opens with wispy oscillator vocal-warmups, sounding like rubbery vocoder do-re-mee-fah-soh-lah-tee-’dohs.  Discernable vocoder vocalizations and a soft-focus synth organ build naturally from the opener’s breezy introduction, joining Kemialliset’s familiar hardly-tuned stringed instruments in short order, developing into an otherwordly, 21st century free-folk.  ‘Menneisyyden Tulvaisuudessa‘ provides another stunning example of the album’s abundant electric-tribalism, a simple pairing of a solitary oscillator and an acoustic ewe-style drum rhythm, like an aural précis of the group’s new approach.  As expected from Kemialliset Ystävät, experimentation and improvisation abounds here, only enhanced by the deeper lineup of noise makers.  ‘Synti Muissa Maailmoissa’ and ‘Synti Muissa Maailmoissa’ bear some resemblance to the self-titled’s edgier offerings — ‘Älyvaahtoa’ (youtube) for example, or the catchy ‘Superhimmeli’ (mp3).

New KYY featuring performances from quite a few of our favorite Finnish noisemakers, including members of Avarus, Kiila and Es. Also – Tom + Christina of Charlambidies guest! All exclusive tracks, this was released for Kemialliset Ystävät’s 2008 USA tour. LIMITED tour-only release…and NOT available in stores! Eat up. Fast. — Secret Eye

Harmaa Laguuni is simply extraordinary.  Considering the cd is still available for order at Secret Eye for only $12 (I think that’s around 43 pence in the UK, at the going conversion rate), I’d consider this release nearly essential listening.

Kemialliset Ystävät shreds (Sami Sänpäkkilä on Vimeo).

also: still working on some coherent, identifiable, and useful review format, so things will likely continue to change here.  I do like to provide a quick summary take on the album up top, a reaction to my own tendency to quickly skim through my rss subscriptions, looking for items of interest.  I find targeted summaries can be useful way of introducing content, and hope others will as well.