In this
month’s round up of Bandcamp freebies we have unearthed another batch of
goodies you might dig……….it’s the usual mix of fantastic new bands, bedroom
psychonauts armed with a guitar, FX pedals, a drum machine and a ton of great
ideas that are still getting their sound together and weirdos doing a load of
drugs, pressing the record button and seeing what happens. We think they are
all worth a listen………download the tunes and make your own mind up, it won’t
cost you anything.
The Virgance
is the recorded work of Nathan Smith, a UK-based artist and another emerging
talent that has been taken under the wing of renowned Canadian/Ukrainian
Dreampop duo Ummagma. Following hot on the heels of the critically acclaimed
second album Hiko Shrine, The Virgance returns with a third album of instrumental
Shoegaze, Dreampop and Noise Rock on El Vals del Conejo titled Paradigm 3.
Building on
the momentum gained from the first two releases, Smith demonstrates the
strength of the album format as an art form and reminds us of the rewards of
patient listening in this modern, digital age of instant gratification and
short attention spans. This is perhaps the most balanced Virgance release so
far, embracing the more emotional aspects of Shoegaze while retaining some experimental
rock attributes, as well as the aesthetics of both beautiful noise and ambient
music. As with his two previous albums, Smith’s distinctive, swirling guitar
sound is at the forefront, in harmony with synthesized, ethereal female vocal
sounds and he has successfully managed to avoid most of the Shoegaze ‘clichés’
that are evident in less accomplished hands…………however you can’t help feeling
that one or two of the tracks really could do with a “real” singer and not just
ambient vocal washes as they do sound somewhat unfinished (the stand-out track here
and no doubt the most complete is ‘Down The River’ features vocals by Ummagma’s
Shauna McLarnon). Nit picking aside, this is an excellent record which fans of
Slowdive and newer bands like Stargazer Lilies will love.
Coming to
you from Finland via the furthest reaches of the known galaxy is Warp Transmission, a six piece heavy Psych/Stoner/Space Rock caravan of cosmic
travellers. For this band it's about riding blind the primal urge, living the
archetype, and always rocking out with an excess of noise, burning some bridges
and crossing a couple abysses along the way………..Fuck Yeah.
Originally
released as a 7” single on the very tiny Finnish label Mikrofoni in 2014,
Accidents And Madness is now available on the Warp Transmission Bandcamp page.
This is two tracks of heavy Psychedelic Space Rock that sound like the Stooges
and early Hawkwind fighting in a sack………it’s great stuff……..heavy riffing,
skull pounding, mind melting Psychedelic Rock n Roll. ‘Freak Accident’ and
‘Confusion’ rock like absolute bastards……….a must listen if you like your Psychedelia as
heavy as a supermassive black hole. Also available on the Warp Transmission
Bandcamp page is Tamám Shud which is due for release on Heavy Meditation Tapes
very soon. This is a demo/rehearsal/jam compilation tape of random material
spanning the existence of Warp Transmission and is more of the same heavy
Psych/Space Rock as before. It’s a bit lo-fi in parts but if you dig the
Accidents And Madness download you also need to check this out.
We stumbled
across Under The Swell by Moonparade more or less by accident……we liked the
album artwork (which is always a good place to start)…….and we think we have
made a real discovery here. We know very little about who Moonparade are/is
(there are no links for this to Facebook/Twitter which is a major quirk in the
age of super connectivity) but after some serious Googling we have deduced that
this is the work of Australian artist/musician Tim Goschnick. It’s kinda
difficult to describe this album but we are going to go with “Electro-Acoustic
Ambient Shoegaze” (if that’s a thing) as it is a gorgeous blend of drifting
guitars, electronics and field recordings mixed with a minimal use of more
traditional instrumentation such as piano, harmonium, violin and kalimba,
having the feel of the post Eno/Cluster ambient soundscape explorations from
the late 80s/early 90s.
Under The
Swell is full of lush, predominantly beat free, sweeping soundscapes that
combine shimmering guitars and electronica with an organic mix of found sounds
and sparse instrumentation creating a vast ocean of sound. There are some
really beautifully constructed tracks on this record………..the opening track ‘Skyscrapers
In Earthquakes’ fuses drones with lush, swelling .guitars, the title track has
the dynamics of ambient Shoegaze and is a swirl of spiralling guitars while ‘Spidersilk
Flying Machine’ is full of swooping electronica. The rest of the record is
fantastic with a vibe that spans right through from early German
electronica/soundscaping by the likes of
Popol Vuh, the “Fourth World” music of Eno and Jon Hassell, early 90s
chill-out music all the way to current Electro-Acoustic sonic experimentation.
We think you should give this a listen.
Next up on
our trawl though Bandcamp is May I Come In by Hot
Glew, the solo project by Nashville musician Brett Keller. May I Come
In is the archetypal product of the bedroom psychonaut, full of lo-fi charm and
great ideas but still in the process of getting a sound together on hardly no
budget whatsoever. There are some very cool tunes here, however it sounds like
a very well made demo tape……….it would be really interesting to hear the
results of these songs after getting some serious studio time and being played
by a full band. Nevertheless, there are enough great songs here to make this is
well worth a listen and we think Hot Glew will be one to watch in the future.
And finally,
some seriously wtf, lo-fi psychedelic jams from sonic adventurers Black PandaBeach. Based in France (?) ……the spiritual home of Gong and Soft Machine……..Black
Panda Beach cook up loose Psych/Post Rock Improvised jams with a dash of Krautrock
thrown into their sonic stew. It’s not going to be to everybody’s taste but for
enthusiastic listeners of warped modern psychedelic music/ Post Punk
experimental soundscapes this may be your thing. Psychedelia is a broad church…………it
embraces everything from Circus Maximus to Cabaret Voltaire.
You can
download §#&*µ from the Black Panda Beach Bandcamp page where it is a “name
you price” freebie and make your own mind up.
