Dot Eyes: April 2008

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

James Chance & The Contortions- Buy

One of the more beat driven and song focused bands of the No Wave genre James Chance & the Contortion and a dream. With this in tow they were one of the more accessible bands in the No-Wave era. Like Beefheart, Chance expected his band members to be musically competent. This was disjointed jazz at its best, handled by people fucking it up out of choice rather than necessity.

Paraphrasing Lydia Lunch, No Wave was a marker of the time, an allergic reaction to the pain, poverty and deprivation of that time in NYC. Bands that cite No Wave as a reference and more so those that a copying it directly have no idea of the ingredients that went to create this music. No Wave was sonically can never be recreated but can be emotionally created from similar social situations.

Anyway, listen to this. It’s lovely…

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=XIDX0M7T

-Dot Eyes

Wolf Eyes- Human Animal

I don’t know much about Wolf Eyes but I do know one thing, they bloody dark. I bought this album a few weeks ago expecting ignorantly something more rocky and distorted and I realised that subconsciously I was linking this band to Wolf & Cub…Oh how I was mistaken.

Consisting of a mixture of foaming distortion, screams and shattered drum beats Wolf Eyes creates essentially a snuff film soundtrack. It is too beat driven to be ambient but too fucked to resemble any traditional song structure.

Essentially this is the bands fifth real album but each year brings on tens of releases. I’m not sure if all of the releases are similar to this album. The major fault for me with this album is that I’m not sure what this band is trying to achieve. I know its trying to be loud, and noisy, and abrasive but that’s it. The band might defend itself with titles such as Noise Not Music, but personally there must be something more for me. I can’t translate what else they mean, what is the need for all this feedback and massacred guitars? I get very little from the central tracks.

Though I have said that, ironically I do really enjoy the first and the last track on the album and more so the final track is Noise Not Music. The final track revolves around an oscillation of echoing drum beats. The initial track, A Million Years, is also enjoyable because it is one of the few tracks with direction.

I’m sure others will have opinions of their own. Give it a listen and tell me what you think. Intelligent discussion is welcome.

http://rapidshare.com/files/109417058/Human_Animal.rar.html

Back From The Grave- Vol 1

This is a fantastic compilation to introduce people into some of the less heralded garage bands of the early to mid 60’s. Thankfully bands such as The Rolling Stones, The Stooges and The Sonics have been overlooked here so to make way for little anomalies such as The Rats and The Banshees. Many of these songs are just what one would expect from 60’s garage, major chords, lyrics about girls and guys and break ups. It all sound a bit boring but its not. There is an eternal authenticity within these songs that is impossible to recreate today. Also, because of the comparably insular musical environment in those days artists that stood out as unique, really stood out. Unlike today where every band is borrowing from the past and each other via the extremely accessible internet, bands in the past did not have this pleasure. It is then understandable that bands that were forward thinking and experimental really were trying to create something new rather than just ripping of a source that most people had never heard.

A few of these song were surprisingly different to what I though was traditionally garage rock, and what perforates throughout most of the album. One track that stands out especially is The Novas track, The Crusher, which is a strange ode to the American pro wrestler Reginald Lisowski. The song is a strange mixture of early 60’s surfer guitar mixed with pre-Beefheart gravely vocals and lyrical obscurity akin to The Cramps, though they existed 20 years before the latter even began.

Give it a listen. And once you’ve chewed through this set. There are seven more Back from the Grave instalments to work through if you crave it enough. Please be patient and download both files from rapidshare. I know it takes ages. But it’s worth it.

Thankyou chocoreve for the post. Check out chocoreve.blogspot.com too it’s great.

Pw: posted_first_at_chocoreve

http://rapidshare.de/files/5917310/l._1.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.de/files/5917336/l._1.part2.rar

-Dot Eyes

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Baseball- Animal Kingdom

Another band from Melbourne. Lead by front man/violinist Deep Passage, Baseball leads the listener through middle eastern tinged, Melbourne underground rock barrage. In a way this is a Melbourne supergroup, Pikelet and Monika Fikerele from Love of Diagrams are also in the band.

This is a solid listen, takes a while to get used to though. It also helps to know the environment in which this band was formed. Contemporaries include Love of Diagrams and Dirty Three. If you give these two a listen, the latter I’m sure most have already, Baseball will make a lot more sense.

http://rapidshare.com/files/104738911/Animal_Kingdom.rar.html

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

By- Dot Eyes (Night Tuff)

These are a couple of photographs that I took last year in 2007. I have a few more and I'm thinking of printing them off soon. Tell me what you think.