PIE split series on Out of Sound Records

Adam from Out of Sound Records let me know about a four way split they just put out. #2 in an ongoing split series showcasing some incredible talent from up north, a place very underrepresented on this site I have to say. No thanks to the US postal service...but Adam has put together a perfect reason for the split single, 4 bands I've never heard of, right up my alley of loud, post punk math with a duo or two thrown in for good measure.

Bleet kicks this off with "Feno Barbitol"... full of crazy bass lines, super dirty, recorded on another level... then this track gets chopped right into the food processor in a fit of ultra technical post rock on lots of speed. Racing through scales, perched together on the edge of a cliff ready to tumble over, a crazy burst of instrumental awesomeness.
Wild Domestic does "Old Water Sports"...a slow electric melody buildS alongside pounding drums and this is squarely post rock, heavier and spaced out a little more, taking the time to repeat and build on the last measure. Taking drastic turns but not the technical workout of those guys in Bleet but still all about the Chicago equations and this goes right along with Canyons of Static by the way, who I recommend to anyone into any one of these guys (I just talked to Ross for a future podcast). They really speed things up to get 4 tracks on this single but then again that makes sense in this Precise Math Age, why weren't there more of these bursts of complexity in the hey day of this avant rock stuff. Glad to hear it, I can go wayyyy down this road once I come across an inspiring impetus like this. They pack plenty of changes into this brief half a side but don't go over the top with distortion or droning sustain, it's tight with an almost surf reverb to this... Oh Don Cab I miss you too. I'm coming.

B-Side's WTCHS starts off with "Future Fires" and a thick live rehearsal room sound at least in the vocals and damaged drums. Super lo-fi with the instruments all recorded separately in this punk way that keeps things clean ...it's layers of hiss and junk, like the crashing cymbals (which could be machine they come off with such a pile of hiss) but it's carefully captured, not all blown out afer the fact. Hardcore sounding, yelling vocals in a dark way, getting great feedback squeals, a lot like Lync grew up but still has that slight experimental edge, a female vocal comes in like Divorce, a great combination of sounds and she's working in this far off distanced place, giving it all harmony. I love the mathy section at the end, guitar loops unwinding...just for a second though.
Next up, I Smell Blood "Nick Workman's 5 best features" which is a heavy scuzz guitar and bashing drums. Technical... almost fret tapping out the buzzy notes, there's a big effects chain wired up to this, a lot like Lightning Bolt or Japanther, change up the melodies in a classic heavy rock way and then go metal and post rock all over the place...this is a damn fine single with amazing examples of a whole fucking sound that I thought was being completely ignored. Bring it back.

Get it from Out if Sound Records. I hear they're running low.

Of course there's higher causes going on behind the scenes in association with this record including:

This record was silkscreened by the Arctic based, Inuit Silkscreen program run by the Out of Sound Rezonance Program. The Out of Sound Rezonance Program is an initiative to raise what all the hearts of aboriginal youth can imagine possible. We aim to provide hands-on professional development for artistically and business oriented youth. Through paid internships, guided by a knowledgeable professional, Out of Sound Rezonance hires and trains youth in culturally appropriate ways to develop their creative abilities and entrepreneurial skills through community outreach programs, while also focusing on the development of their capacity to work independently, organize, become leaders, improve self-esteem, and foster the love of art.

The Mack / The Party Girls split series on Louisville is for Lovers Records

This split came in from a label out of Kentucky, Louisville is for Lovers Records and I love the whole idea they put together for this 7" series. This summer they are putting on a series of shows where the bands featured will have a split single they'll give attendee's with the price of admission. 4 shows, 4 7"'s: in total, 8 bands. You can subscribe to all the shows beforehand and then pick up the single at the door...for less than $10 bucks a show. Genius way to get excited about the music and then walk away with a record from local bands. Lucky you there's a few left from these shows and they're selling them at the Louisville is for Lovers online store.... including this split from The Mack and The Party Girls.

The Mack Side is singer/songwriter Jeff Shelton who plays nearly everything who's joined by a rotating cast of musicians this time Pete Townsend (!) came over from England to play drums. This side is mastered by Paul Oldham, who I've noticed has been mastering a bunch of singles from all kinds of micro labels like LIFL, and subdued songwriting like this. Gold Robot, Empty Cellar I remember worked with artists mastered by Paul.

'Love Habit', the first one on the A-Side has a real quiet, low, restrained feel, which seems to be the standard for The Mack. He's a real storyteller, narrative driven artist. He seems to just need the most basic, hardly heard backup, loose jazz-rock behind him. Always lots of space around everything, huge pauses to breathe and get acquainted with the whole picture... it's the situation Jeff designs, a classic formula that's worked since the beginning of this sort of thing. Dateless and like Jason Molina, or Vic Chestnut, I can imagine an alien planet where they could take whatever was considered an instrument and write a song.

'Free No More' has Jeff continuing the bare bones instrumentation, hardly a guitar melody but massive bassline this time (that could just be the vinyl) with a slight warm organ, sort of a jazz feel to this one. Jeff has just a hint of nasal Dylan to the vocal but definitely the same dense imagery, and clever unexpected rhyme and the folk rock style of the master and captures that concise simple sentiment, proving you don't have to write anything more than exactly what you mean.
I don't wanna be free no more / I wanna belong to you
But to put it like that is the hard part, Jeff gets to the point of the track without an epic chorus or fancy finger picking. The sentiment drives the song, this kind of songwriting based around a strong vocal melody captured so clean, leaves you a little raw. He's got nothing to hide behind.
A slow whiskey sipping, porch and a rocking chair, sun going down music, which is how I imagine all the land of Kentucky to be.

Shelton is also a part of the B-Side's group, The Party Girls which features his brother on vocals and bass. I've since found out the band is no longer recording and playing around and these are two unreleased tracks from their '90s/00's output, 'In the White House' and 'Checks Cashed'.

'In the White house' has a free jazz, experimental feel with electric guitar muted notes with that harmonic 'twing' that rides the sound out into into feedback. It's all held together by a main groove bassline and brother John belts out his vocal, punctuating the stops and starts of this complex rhythm.

'Checks Cashed' looks to be a solo song from member Ben Herning, and gets way out there into the experimental zone, home recording style. Far off distorted sampled vocals that start overlapping over a barely audible guitar bassline, repeating 'Checks cashed' which works as a rhythm for the main vocal. The guitar screams into feedback for a second and it really gets quiet, maybe once the check is cashed, well, that's it, it's spent right on the rent. The guitar changes, and starts coming out of the background, completely free form vocals, layers of tracks changing speed, getting a little dark. The howling and bird screech starts, all far far off in the distance right up to the end.

It's great to hear the range of Jeff's work, and that those slow direct folksongs can be informed by these experiments, and freeform work. it only makes me like the A-Side more.

All on marble purple vinyl from Louisville is for Lovers Records.

Swill Children split series

I stumbled across this new label Swill Children Records, who, ambitiously is starting out with a split series... the more I see splits, the more I think they make the most sense for the format. If you go to the trouble of pressing a vinyl 7", the best you could hope for it to at least get rid of them all and press another one...that's the best case scenario to make the whole enterprise self sustaining. The best chance of doing that is one kick ass artist, and hope there's enough interest, or get two, bet on the spread...not that there's any chance with the artists represented here that there's going to be any trouble, but in the whole scheme of things, let's say.
There's always a huge art element that goes into any single, or music for that matter really, the look, the whole aesthetic is hugely important to provide clues to where the artist or label is coming from but when a label itself has a point of view and then combines it with great music under that umbrella....well it's a new era of labels with this definitive aesthetic...you can easily name a slew of them: Hozac, Columbus Discount, In the Red, Tic Tac Totally, hell even Sub Pop, or Merge who started it all. But when a single combines one of a kind at objects with the unique music artifact, it's elevating the entire work, and let's face it, just plain giving into the fetish of getting this limited object.
Swill Children, led by founder and showing artist in his own right Jesse Hlebo recently started this Sorrow/Jubilence split series:

Three splits curated by Jesse Hlebo addressing the themes of sorrow and jubilance.
Each record is in an edition of 333, are all cyan colored vinyl with custom printed covers (each will be different in some manner)

With music by:
Lucky Dragons/Weekend
Okie Dokie/Nu Sensae
Ty Segall/Mikal Cronin

The first single with Lucky Dragons and Weekend is an insanely reasonable $7, direct from the Swill. Impose Magazine has a sample of the Lucky Dragons track here. I'm only vaguely familiar with them from a couple other singles, and it fits in nicely with Ducktails kicks I get on every once in a while. This would even fit alongside Gary War, for that meditative mix of sound collage, questionable time period view. I like this direction that Lucky Dragons is going...it's subtle and smart, so many times you get hit over the head with piles of noise, that adds up to a confused nightmare. He's deftly wielding little melodies and loops in a real journey, you don't exactly remember how it started or where you're going, but it's great. Weekend, however I haven't been able to actually track down their sound very easily, but I'm guessing it's similar based on this description:

THIS RECORD:
Lucky Dragons' track 'We Lost' is a hauntingly meditative piece that is at once nostalgic and fearful.
Weekend's 'Squawk' juxtaposes field recordings of birds with sharp, hypnotic beat, culminating in a manner one could almost consider Caribbean.

SC001
Edition of 333 cyan colored vinyl
All covers unique risograph prints

////////////////

Looking forward to the third split with Ty Segall which should be available soon...