WIkipedia.org: "Monotheist is a comeback album by Swiss metal band Celtic Frost, released in 2006. It is the first new recording released by the band in 14 years after a series of re-releases. Monotheist is available in a Digipak version with a bonus track, namely "Temple Of Depression". Both the vinyl LP version and the Japanese CD release of Monotheist feature the bonus track "Incantation Against You".
Compared to Celtic Frost's previous works, Monotheist possesses a heavier, much darker atmosphere reminiscent of doom metal/gothic metal, and eschews much of the black/death sound of their early work. According to the band's bassist, Martin Eric Ain, some of the lyrics are partially influenced by the writings of the English occultist Aleister Crowley. This influence manifests itself in tracks such as "Os Abysmi Vel Daath", which is partially a name of one of Crowley's books." More
Watch the video of "A Dying God Coming Into Human Flesh" from the CD Monotheist at YouTube.
aquariusrecords.org: "Two discs, jam packed with dreamy druggy OUT THERE free folk psychedelia. Slippery spacey squiggles float like motes of dust over a warm whirling landscape of mumbled atonal guitar, stuttering alternate tuning strum, super-processed electric guitar whir, wheezing harmonica, lilting falsetto vocals, washed out distorted whirls of crumbling amp buzz, a gorgeously laid back, blissed out afternoon sunlight back porch drug drenched slow motion moonlight abstract folk jam." Listen to some excerpts
dotshop.se: "Directly inspired by leftfield electronic, noise, and techno artists such as Pan Sonic, Force Field, and Mouse on Mars, but most closely resembling the first of these, Reanimator were experts at improvising heavy, synthetic, syncopated, and dubbed-out minimal beat music using the barest machinery." Read on
boomkat.com: "So what happens when you take one free jazz pioneer, one band of noise-metal experimentalists and stick them on a stage together?" Listen to some excerpts
wikipedia.org: "Grizzly Bear is a Brooklyn-based indie rock band on Warp Records. The original members, Edward Droste and Christopher Bear, met in New York City. After the addition of clarinetist/bassist Chris Taylor and guitarist/songwriter Daniel Rossen they began touring the country. The group employs traditional and electronic instruments, ranging from a recorder to a laptop, and all four members contribute vocals. Rossen is also a member of the duo Department of Eagles.
Their first record as a quartet, Yellow House, was released on Warp Records in September 2006. It was named for Droste's mother's house where it was produced and ranked as one of the top 2006 albums by the New York Times and Pitchfork Media." Read on
Grizzly Bear performs live music from their latest album, "Yellow House", at radio WNYC:
tomlab.de: "With White Hats Niobe has recorded her most accessible album since "Tse Tse" and Voodooluba". White Hats projects memories from a vacation of skiing in the Swiss Alps sometime in the 50ies, it bears the easiness, the miracles and mysteries of the nature in the mountains and carries as much romanticism as todays modern world can allow.
On White Hats Niobes passionate voice is wandering between many worlds, marching through pittoresque landscapes, and releasing its amazing powers over cristalline guitars. She uses the feelings from the sight of the red and blue skies of a day in the mountains as determinating colors in her music." Read on
warprecords.com: "Since the release of Accidentals in 1996, Broadcast have released four full length albums plus numerous EPs and singles. The Future Crayon illustrates the scope of the band's vision over the last 10 years, from the fringes of 60s Psych to the playful world of European Library Music.
Including classic tracks from Pendulum EP, Extended Play (one and two), We Are Reasonable People, ATP 01, Echo’s Answer and Come On Let’s Go."
audikarecords.com: "Before Disco, and before the transcendent echoes, Arthur Russell wanted to be a composer. His journey began in 1972, leaving Iowa to study Indian classical composition with Ali Akbar Khan in Northern California and ending two years later in New York at the Manhattan School of Music. In that brief period Arthur met and worked with several musicians and poets that would guide his work throughout the remainder of the decade: Allen Ginsburg, Christian Wolff, Jackson MacLow, Rhys Chatham, Philip Glass, Elodie Lauten, and Ernie Brooks.
FIRST THOUGHT BEST THOUGHT collects Arthur Russell's out of print instrumental and orchestral compositions along with over 45 minutes of previously unreleased material on 2 CD's."
allmusic.com: "Arthur Russell was a formally trained cellist and composer with a background in Indian classical music, and a résumé highlighted by collaborations with Allen Ginsberg and Philip Glass. The same Arthur Russell was also a quirky songwriter, a producer of one-shot disco singles, a founding partner of seminal hip-hop/dance label Sleeping Bag, and a principle designer of the dubby, underground club sound." More
pitchforkmedia.com: "The word "Hypnotic"'s overused, but the band's spatial know-how and rigorously muted flourishes are more than deserving of the accolade. It's well-deep, blossoming ambiance." Read on
Not my cup of tea, but this record is in The WIRE's best of 2006 list.
amazon.com: "While the rest of the Wu-Tang Clan now seems a faint memory from hip-hop's '90s era, Ghostface has become a one-man force in maintaining the vitality of the Clan. The way he opens Fishscale with the frantic, hyperactive "Shakey Dog," is all the evidence you'd need to see how Ghost is that rare MC who's gotten better with age. His jumble of colorful wordplay is now honed into a sharp edge of drug-game narratives ("R.A.G.U."), neighborhood stories ("Barbershop"), honeyed pimp talk ("Big Girl") and braggadocio raw enough to melt minds ("Be Easy")." More
wikipedia.org: "Christian Wolff (born March 8, 1934) is an American composer of experimental classical music. At the age of sixteen Wolff was sent by his piano teacher Grete Sultan for lessons in composition with the composer John Cage and quickly became a close associate of Cage and his artistic circle which included composers Earle Brown and Morton Feldman, pianist David Tudor, and dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham. During the 1960s he developed associations with the composers Frederic Rzewski and Cornelius Cardew who spurred each other on in their respective explorations of experimental composition techniques and musical improvisation, and then from the early 1970s in their respective attempts to engage with political matters in their music." More
The WIRE:" The first thing you hear is a laser blast: a fat, toothsome laser blast, which could have been fired into Space from any number of sci-fi B movies from the last 40 years.The next thing you hear is silence, and the rest of RafaelToraI's latest sound essay unfolds almost entirely from these two elements. Beyond the title, space has a double significance within the work. It's selfconsciously futurist and extraterrestrial, greedily absorbing acoustic vocabularies from the sci-fi section of library music sound design. Toral himseif namechecks the Forbidden Planet soundtrack and Star Wars." More
John Zorn: "Il Gruppo was a brilliant and prolific composer's collective exploring extended techniques and new sound sources through the medium of improvisation. Although very much a product of its time, their music remains timeless. They were instrumental in founding a radical tradition of western musical improvisation that owed little or nothing to anybody and created some of the strangest music ever made. They were utterly unique." Read on
brainwashed.com: "Current 93 has not released an album of this magnitude, with all new material, in 10 years. Like All the Pretty Little Horses, Black Ships Ate the Sky resembles a theatrical production. It is well-calculated and sequenced and has a dream team crew: a core featuring stellar musicians" Read on
#17 in the 50 Records of the year list from The WIRE
brainwashed.com "This double live album is another impressive release from Keiji Haino. For this concert he was joined by Sitaar Tah! (a twenty strong sitar orchestra) and a throat singer by the name of Fuyuki Yamakawa." Read the whole review and listen to 3 excerpts at brainwashed.com
tomlab.de: "With White Hats Niobe has recorded her most accessible album since "Tse Tse" and Voodooluba". White Hats projects memories from a vacation of skiing in the Swiss Alps sometime in the 50ies, it bears the easiness, the miracles and mysteries of the nature in the mountains and carries as much romanticism as todays modern world can allow.
warprecords.com: "Since the release of Accidentals in 1996, Broadcast have released four full length albums plus numerous EPs and singles. The Future Crayon illustrates the scope of the band's vision over the last 10 years, from the fringes of 60s Psych to the playful world of European Library Music.
