7 INCHES PODCAST - #16

Darren's back on the scene to discuss underwater record players, The new Natural Child full length on Burger records, a couple of new Ketamines singles to complete their singles series, the Liars string edition, The Accidental Parade on Harding Street Assembly Labs, The La Luz suicide Squueze single is back up (hopefully paying hospital bills) and a crazy Gospel Dylan record from Light in the Attic.



Jason's pick is the shannon / grass widow cover single

Darren picks Kelly Stoltz's single on Stroll on Records.

YOUR SOUNDS RECORDED ON VINYL!

PODCAST Here.

asentimentalsong / Guilty Ghosts split on Harding St. Assembly Labs

I’ve been listening to another 10” in The Harding St. Assembly Labs series, documenting the best underground music in Lynchburg, Virginia. This ambitious 10” vinyl series of ambient, atmospheric artists has been incredible, including this release from asentimentalsong and Guilty Ghosts. Two sides with a similar approach to sound but entirely individual takes on the swing of emotion that can be made with contemporary instrumental guitar based music.

Joe Morgan is the solo artist behind the A-Side track from his project, asentimentalsong. You might know him already from his project with friend and long time collaborator Nathan McGothlin with The Late Virginia Summers who also are featured on a side of another record in this series. There’s a lot of similarities in the shoegaze layered dynamics of TLVS but in his solo effort it sounds like Joe is taking those ideas even further into really epic reaches of what is possible with heavy manipulation of amplified strings under a wash of effects.
“A Midsummer Night’s Gleam” is Joe's sprawling fifteen minute track that, thanks to being on this longer format than we’re used to, takes it’s time building incredible highs and lows out of little more than a guitar and an array of chained together blinking boxes. It’s the kind of sound that sneaks up on you, like the slowly degrading tapes of William Basinski’s The Disintegration Loops. It seems like there aren’t any clearly audible changes, somehow you end up in a completely different place than where you started and it's a mystery everytime.
A shimmering, distant guitar slowly repeats over swelling low end rumblings. It’s an incredibly restrained piece considering the energy that is trapped here, never allowed to rise much beyond this distant space just over the horizon. It’s reminding me of Stars of the Lid or even Music for Airports; an epic piece of the landscape, not just a tiny square polaroid snapshot. There’s such a sense of space, at times leaving the earth completely. Possibly he’s attacking and clawing at this guitar but under the layers of effects and delay it’s massively strangled, barely coming up for air and somehow still coming off as feeling completely free. This single phrase could have started long before they hit record and this is merely the long sad decay of a sound captured on that crumbling magnetic tape. That’s just when a distant acoustic strumming fades in out of the rumbling tones, the aftershocks of that big bang. It’s so expansive you literally have trouble with the persistence of memory, a melody can only exist if your brain can still remember that last note. asentimentalsong seems to be testing those limits in an exercise of subtle shifts in tone and again that’s the great thing about being on the vinyl format, the interaction it takes to physically start the piece and actively listen to the spiral move ever closer towards the center of the disc. It’s easy to get carried away philosophically when listening to this emptiness. The strings slowly begin peaking out, as if the guitar is bowed but at the same time the actual devices used in this performance are so completely foreign and otherworldly sounding, it's impossible to imagine. Incredibly long, it’s doing something the best seven inch singles can do...give you just enough to leave you wanting more, ending as far from the opening tones as possible. The last section of the piece hints at a peek of chaos, piecing itself together into an immense wall of sound with a thick, rumbling foundation under overdriven brittle highs that can’t possibly sustain as long as they do, but how you always end up here is a never-ending mystery.

Tristan O’Donnell on the other side is from Brooklyn and his solo effort Guilty Ghosts is working in slightly shorter form throughout his three tracks but climbing to epic heights in a massive sonic landcape.
“Stampede” begins with tapping notes rising in, the slight striking of guitar strings with a wooden stick or delayed piano strikes...but that's me trying to uselessly dissect the thing. A deeper register rattling bass note hits with a big time delay guitar and a literal lightning strike loud as hell, it scares me everytime. A rhythm starts to appear, with higher tone guitar and the loop pedals are on everdrive. Another lightning strike and I’m looking out the window for heat lightning. Reminding me of a quieter, rolling Locrian "Lowe" starts to fade into the sun coming out from behind those dark clouds, the high, epicly delayed melodies soaring around pure optimism. It’s going to be alright somehow thanks to this completely uplifting melody as the layers keep piling on, blowing in from down in the valley. He's really playing on an emotional level here, the high trebling quiver of Explosions in the Sky, a dense heavy hand manipulating this rhythm into the top of the plateau...but it’s over as soon as it began.
There's still room for "Locusts" to hum in with slowed delayed electric not as exuberant this time. It’s insane to get this kind of range and feeling without any obvious sense of rhythm guiding this... just atmosphere and hints of tune. Feedback from just barely touching the strings becomes a ringing out, long distortion ride. Doubled up metal string scratching, like insects, far off dangerous, ominous and infinite... it’s getting louder, more desperate, hardly human. A depressing chiming low melody starts in behind this wall of a single repeated note which might have been the impetus for the entire track. The time Guilty Ghosts take to slowly develop these tracks is impressive and like the rest of the 10”'s in this series it’s an exhausting ride of guitar exploration.

Super limited pressing on marble vinyl, housed in a blank white sleeve with a handprinted printed mythical scene from Harding St. Assembly Labs.
Listen below:

Harding St. Assembly Lab Comp

I've been checking out the 10" split series Harding St. and every one so far has blown my mind with incredible new instrumental bands, like the TVLS and long division and asentimentalsong...amazing they ended up in such a great package, the marbled vinyl, the hand stamped sleeve. What are we calling that these days? Artisinal craft records? I like it.
I also like that the vinyl version of the comp is cut to have the tracks run together in one gigantic mix tape....really cool idea to separate it from the digital version on top of highlighting all these great local musicians.

Now for a few quick completely unscientific recaps of selected bands on the comp:

Matt Northrup - weird cycling shimmery electronics
Nelly Kate - finger snapping joanna newsome
Maxfield Alan Háag - tribal acoustic slide
The Snowy Owls - cool reverb beach fossils
Goodwill Falcon - cheapo casio shoegaze etheria
Rugby - operatic glitch
Top Girls - big drone dance
White Laces - live echo tom heavy psych
The Diamond Center - acoustic layered dreamy

It's an eclectic mix, it's up to you to figure out how Virginia has affected the sound. All of these guys in one place... on one album, the only time ever!

HSAL #21: various artists, HSAL compilation #3 12″ LP $8 (+ shpng)


this is HSAL’s third mid-atlantic based compilation & our first one to take shape in a physical form. the goal of these compilations (HSAL #08, #12, & now #21) is to pair our stable of artists with great sounds from regional based like-minded acts. our reasoning behind a physical release on this comp is simple – we wanted to help good bands fill merch tables with great sounds. while we can’t sign every great band we hear, we can offer this small token of our appreciation for their work.


brand new jams from oulipo, the snowy owls, goodwill falcon, TLVS, & white laces…great sounds from the diamond center, borrowed beams of light, top girls, rugby, matt northrup, maxfield alan háag, & nelly kate!

Get this full length sampler from the Harding St Assembly Labs.

The Late Virginia Summers / Long Division split 10" on Harding St. Assembly Lab

I've been meaning to talk about this crazy split 10" series from guys over at The Harding Street Assembly Lab, they were nice enough to send over the entire series (so far?) and I just started making my way through them and his one is already my favorite...I know I have to hear the other two but honestly this is an incredible document, musically and the package is a real fitting memorial to what's inside.

The A-side is from The Late Virginia Summers and I think I forgot just how great these guys have been in the past and need to be included in that instrumental section. The perfect thing for writing or even reading, it just works on that jazz listening level, you can be completely compelled to take in every note, without the narrative context of a lyric, or let it exist as this kind of environmental soundtrack working subconsciously. Like this first track, “Heather Majestic Purple” slowly fading in long drone tones, warbling waves of sound that repeatedly fade through each other.... pulsating tones that start moving cones, a far off chime. These are layers to slowly absorb, the kind of composition that’s slowly changing. The twinkles of a slowed down Explosions in the Sky track off in the distance. It's making you question all the sounds around you. Is that a screeching bus brake off in the distance? Or a glass ringing imperceptably for minutes on end? Tilt your head, it’s getting louder. The chimes and creaking gates.
I love a piece that can create this mood, the details get filled in later. That vibration on the wood floor...that’s the low end synth. Sometimes you don’t even hear driums and there’s no reason to miss them, it would be too much of an interruption. The calming right before that storm is coming. The black clouds are gathering, but there’s time... nothing is happening right away, I’m not even worried about thunder there’s enough time to gather all the things in the yard and bring them in the wind is picking up.
A hundred layers of soft ringing and a ghostly kind of un-harmonic sound, everything else is gathering itself together in one layered wave that's working parallel to the next octave up... but that ugly off minor key that repeatedly bends is leading towards this bigger ominous sound... and wouldn’t you know it, that whole previous composition that made you wish you were safe inside is just about on top of you now.
“Chime Ray Du Peter Kent” samples a french broadcast and leads into a slow sampled pattern without the bit decay... might even be played live here. The broadcast isn’t near anything and becomes just voices since you can’t understand... even if you knew the language. It’s not related to dance or even electronic, the chime repetition is back getting louder and this beat falls away. The chime turns into a moogy ocillation, rising and falling with the emotion of a computer.
"Matisse (Final Vision)" brings things back to feeling more hopeful, those drone sounds have been spreading themselves across this entire side, never really going away, just turning into an environment for the rest of the instrumentation to develop. Growing at a snails pace, this final track gives way to guitars and drums, mic'd oh so softly out in the distance and completely beautiful, I already know what’s left on the side is going to be over way too soon for this kind of Tortoise rhythm jazz informed perfection. Big drums catching all the sublte intonations of hits, a vibratto guitar slowly picking up and lifting our skinny tunrtables to heaven. The slow epic grow that needs to be seriously listened to all night. With this broad palette on one side of a record leaves you really empty because it’s over.
Written, performed, tracked and mixed at Joe’s house in Jan 11.

Then it's on to the Long Division side which is a five piece instrumental band out of Norfolk, VA and are a perfect match to A-Side's TLVS, in fact Joe and Nathan both tracked, mixed and edited this a month after their A-Side. “Transmogrifier” sounds to be working with the more traditional elements of instrumental rock, subtly weaving in the weird,, disparate complex beat then kicking right into one of those grooves. They’re managing to stay far away from EITS or the more metal sounding stuff and keep it really light and airy, with nontraditional effects for this style of melancholia. It's going deep and really full, but that guitar keeps a rock edge and doesn’t go so dramatic right for the heartache. I think there’s a group of strings but it’s so layered in, it could very well be some kind of synth sound, but as it slowly starts playing against the strong distortion and breaking free with weird Modest Mouse sounding string bends, it’s a groove that keeps changing with all the headbobbing.
“Tragic colors of anna maria” the ringing now comes from the frantic back and forth of a metal string played with animal hair, really distant in the mix here, incredibly quiet, like listening from the other room. The guitar playing against this free form bassline turning the see saw motion into a groove, which is in a different rhythm entirely with picking high melodic strings under far off reverb. This one has been trying to warn you it’s going to take off with a stronger beat, still working through multiple quicknesses and repeated off kilter melodies and it all drops out for a while to let another set take it’s turn. This constant musical chairs of instrumentation never actually finds the time to build any kind of long term castle, all the pieces keep getting swept back into the ocean. They have the delay do all the work, reverse decay and chance. That’s how it’s all going to end. All of it.

These bands are a perfect match and with Joe and Nathan a part of both visions they end up in the same place prodiuction wise with this smart package with handstamped plain white jackets, I’m more eager than ever to get the next volume in the series. On splatter swirl vinyl, an every-color-at-the-plant mix, color insert, hand printed sleeves with mythological battle scenes. Knowing the lab, these refer to specific stories that the songs directly refer to. They're working on that level.

The late virginia summers (TLVS) present one of their most impressive (as well one of their oldest) moments with the drone of "heather majestic purple", then finish the offering with a recent creation ("matisse") penned specifically for this EP. norfolk’s long division hand in a couple of pieces written during the creation of their self-released "calm before". "transmogrifier" is loaded with memorable hooks & passages, while "tragic colors" is a darker trail, replete with perfectly placed layers of feedback & wash. this b side also features the final sessions of long division in their "classic" lineup.


AVAILABILITY: marbled teal vinyl + digital download, limited run of 100
ARTWORK: jacket & insert courtesy of HSAL


*this is the first of our split 10? series. the idea is to feature one of our own on the A side, with a friend of the label holding down the B side.*

Check out the tracks below and pick this up over at the Harding St. Lab, highly recommended, 100 pressed!!

Interview with Harding Street Assembly Lab pt 2

It's been another one of those weeks and I was a little late getting part two of the interview with the Lab assembled. It didn't help I ended up at Death By Audio with the brothers Condon from Herizon at a German Measles show Thursday night after hearing about an amazing documentary on underground music they've been shooting for the past year. More on the single from German Measles later, so grateful to those guys for suggesting that show. The Nymphettes were insane too...
So here's the wrap up of my conversation with Joanna and Nathan from Harding Street. At the beginning is an excerpt from the Herizon/Virgineola split, first "Home Again' from Herizon and then 'Boyd's Fe' from Virgineola which was the first release from HSAL. Nathan talks about the importance of local record stores supporting artists, the seven inch is the bands handshake and putting together shows. Get their latest releases from The Lab's site or emailing direct hardingstreet(at)gmail.com

Here is is part 2 of The Harding Street Assembly Lab. (11min) Download here, or listen below.

EP76HSALpt2 by 7inches

Interview with The Harding Street Assembly Lab

"Why don't we just be the record label?"

I talked to Joanna and Nathan from the Harding Street Assembly Lab a couple weeks back now and tried to get a sense of the amazing sounding community of artists and musicians they're bringing together under the umbrella of THSAL. We talked about the origins of the Lab, the singles they've released so far, Joanna's art for The Late Virginia Summers single, what relationship central Virginia has to this collection of musicians and the various connections of all the bands involved. It's a utopian collective, like the Endless Nest on the west coast.

Herizon kicks the interview off with 'All Gone' and at the end you'll hear Pebble Azalea Starfish from 'The Late Virginia Summers' both available from the Lab contact them direct (hardingstreet(at)gmail.com) to pick up these singles, they're an idiosyncratic piece of central virginia.

Episode 75 (!) is part one of the interview with The Harding Street Assembly Lab, download it here (18min).

They also just released this compilation to sample for free the other day....the Lab is working overtime.

it's here! it's here!

our first compilation, available as a track by track digital download, is up & ready for consumption over at www.hardingstreet.org.

we are super excited to be sharing the work of these artists & friends with you!

let us know what you think, be it a 350 word write up on the entire comp for your blog, or a simple reaction to one of the songs.

a HUGE thanks to all the artists that have contributed to making HSAL #08 something special:

- andrew weathers

- white laces

- CAVE DRUMS

- moruza

- brian hall

- goodwill falcon

- starmount

- saskatoon

- herizon

- asentimentalsong

nathan . the harding street assembly lab

www.hardingstreet.org

Herizon / Virgineola split on Harding Street Assembly Lab Records

The sleeve on this one is setting the tone in the right direction, like something from Not Not Fun...crazy tripped out collage...cross legged hippy toking up, while god holds his head up... the rainbow fence is just getting started. The the back really brings you down man, black and white hard edged mechanics, cars, the crap of daily life rearing it's ugly boring head.

Nathan from the Labs is involved in both sides on this very first single from the label split between a band he produced 'Herizon' (which I just realized is spelled wrong) and another project he plays in, along with Joanna, and others called Virgineola on the B-Side. All of this 7" nepotism is just adding to my picturesque lens of Virginia, everyone is getting together to play music on the front porch and pressing records.

The A-Side from Herizon is a slow tempo, slow picked close mic'd piece complete with acoustic strings vibrating against the fretboard, the moments that mean this is a happy accident...accident is even the wrong word. The way this came out is the way it's meant to be. Guy/girl vocals barely sung, almost whispered on top of each other remind me of that Wai Notes Will Oldham album, all sorts of nice bird samples all over it. A giant rumbling sound at the end breaks the quiet moment, like the close up of a campfire...or a microphone being set on fire.
The second track 'All Gone', speeds things up just slightly and goes more instrumental with picked acoustic guitar and tin can vocals. The electronic cicada sounds are a nice touch, again it's working with my utopian Virginia view...it's all filed sort of country, in the way Will Oldham could be...reflective, working with time honored instrumentation, classic, but contemporary.

The B-Side from Virgineola starts with the first track 'Lorraine', which is all about the human voice...and proving you don't need anything else sometimes, challenging the usual arrangements of harmonies. It's like Laurie Anderson, there's no church influence, the clear vocals are separate on top of each other, struggling between melody and storytelling, and trying every variation of unusual vocal variations as song structure...who thought to attempt this? It's a noble effort.
The second one 'Boyd's Ferry' has a vocalist delivering lines from a CB radio out in a boat, making his rounds, it's not an emergency...more like a report on sea conditions while an acoustic melody and quiet electronics build on top of each other in disparate pieces...it couldn't be planned to work, there's no obvious direction...like the collage on the front sleeve, it's a little nostalgic, subversive and just weird. Take a chance and pile it on.

All on mixed olive green swirl vinyl from Harding Street Assembly Lab...for a pittance. The lab will stop all experiments immediately to email you back at hardingstreet(at)gmail.com

Having been friends for nearly a decade (they played together in a rowdy, dark country band at the beginning of the decade), Tim Condon (Herizon) & Nathan McGlothlin (Virgineola) have brought their respective projects together for our 1st release! Herizon’s A side features Condon’s first available songs. “Home Again” & “All Gone” are haunting, somber pieces that travel to the mind’s darker recesses. The B side showcases a never before heard instrument for Virgineola. “Lorraine” is nearly a cappella, with a toy accordion providing the only accompaniment. The split ends with a previously recorded version of “Boyd’s Ferry” which has been a staple of the group’s live set all year.

The Late Virginia Summers on Harding Street Assembly Lab Records

Every time I even think this band name in my head 'The Late Virginia Summers' I can't help but think it's memorializing some deceased celebrity (seems I'm not the only one), and then realize it has to be just the right description for their somber, instrumental style. I almost wouldn't put this in a post-rock place as much as I would something more delicately rocking akin to Jack Rose or James Blackshaw. It has a sort of meandering folk direction at first, but it's all building towards an epic climax that sounds like Explosions unplugged. The high trembling melodies, with a quick start and stop. They're pushing the math equations of the classical composition just slightly with a nod to all things Chicago circa late 90's. It's avant garde without needing a decryption.

This single came in from the brand spanking new Harding Street Assembly Lab of which husband and wife team Nathan and Joanna are curating the new sound of central Virginia. Nathan is one half of TLVS with Joe Morgan, and Joanna, who is a showing artist in the VA area is behind the sleeve art of this single. Cue Sly & the Family Stone: It's a handmade affair, the kind of thing that makes 7"'s so great. They're assembling them on the kitchen table, hanging with clothespins across the livingroom, moving piles around to find a place to sit down and have coffee. It's commitment, not to mention at $5 postage included, it's not a part of their retirement plan. They love music, period.

The xerox insert says these two sides were recorded almost exactly in opposite seasons, this one on the A-Side, 'Pebble Azalea Starfish' was committed January 1st, and both sides could be a commissioned study in seasonal disorder. Pebble is looking towards the coming spring, dramatically building layers of guitar, acoustic and electric while the percussion works it's way in there to abruptly come to a screeching halt. I'm going to think that's not the end but the beginning.

The B-Side, 'Golden Cypress', has a bass melody, that could possibly be electronic. There's a lot of delayed electric atmospherics amidst a decidedly more subtle experimental feel here. Low end hum builds. This being recorded in the summer, it's that blinding oppressive heat...you can barely move. Sweat everywhere, set up the loop and carefully reverse it. I bet now you're wishing it was winter again, but that's the curse of the seasons, just when you think you can't wait for summer, you're dying for snow again. When are we going to just sit back and appreciate the season we're in?

A full length should be out sometime later this year, and I hope it makes it to a long playing LP, and I will put it right in between Pullman and Ativin on the shelf.

HSAL 02: TLVS, “Pebble Azalea Starfish” b/w “Golden Cypress” $5 PPD
This single marks the first recordings of The Late Virginia Summers (TLVS) in their current two piece incarnation. “Pebble” features a trademark Joe Morgan rift pushing through cascading layers of electric guitars & phased out organs. The flow of “Golden Cypress” resembles a hazy west coast sunset, with a low end groove dissolving into an ocean of guitar washes. Both sides were tracked & mixed at the Harding Street Assembly Lab by the band.

Get it direct from Harding Street Assembly Lab by emailing the Laboratory at hardingstreet(at)gmail.com