Jarboe presents The Sweet Meat Love And Holy Cult - "Mystagogue" 2xCD

Though it's semi-billed as a Jarboe album, this double-set is actually a selection of 28 psychedelic and freak-folk songs that only sometimes include the participation of the legendary chanteuse herself. "Mystagogue" features, for the most part, a revolving door of artists and personalities, Jarboe being just one of many.

Opening with a re-recording of Jarboe's own "Ode To V", there's also a curiously straight-forward cover of Donovan's "Wear Your Love Like Heaven" (also sung by J. herself). "First Utterance" is a realistic audio portrait of a smoky opium den, both intoxicating and mysterious. Other standouts include Antic Clay's lovely and anthemic "Take This Tongue", which in my world would be a radio "hit". Henry Derek's "The Big Mouth" is cool and charismatic haunted blues. Derek's "Ballad For Blind Joe Death" refers to, and is most certainly an homage to, legendary guitar master John Fahey, and it all closes out with the voodoo blues-folk of "The Clasping Of Hands". A solid and trippy set of tunes for end times and new world awakenings alike.

(Atavistic)

Jarboe's personal website

Jastreb - "Jastreb" CD

Yikes! This new project debuts with a searing 38-minute, single-track attack. Billed on their website as "New Kraut Occult", the sound here is more of a heavy-handed psychedelic doom rock vibe, with repetitive Krautrock elements. The track, titled "Yggdrasil" (after the Norse tree that joins Earth, Heaven, and Hell), is a scalding guitar-and-drums based mantra that will simultaneously appeal to fans of drone-rock like Spacemen 3 or doom-metallers alike. 

There's not a lot more to say about this, but the track opens up a bit halfway in, allowing some breathing room before it launches into a seething, fiery finale of raved-up astral entropy. Brilliant, transformational, and physically potent work here.

(Hau Ruck!)

Jastreb site

"Sex Psychedelia Collection" 2xDVD

This 2-disc, 4-movie set compiles some of the freakiest, most far-out post-60s/early 70's-era porn I've ever seen. Let's begin the rundown, shall we?

"Ramage (Mobility Cathexis)" is an odd and disjointed art film that somehow attempts to be hardcore, as well. Or is it a porno that aspires to be an art film? I dunno, but it fails, regardless. Dreamlike and surreal imagery and narcotic narration are interspersed with seemingly nonsensical sex acts. The straightjacket scene is fascinating and odd. Dig the Carl Stalling meets Beefheart meets Les Baxter soundtrack.

"The Last Bath" is a tale of a young photographer who hitch-hikes a ride with a pair of lesbians, who treat him very well. But all may not be as it seems. Could this be a suicidal fantasy, or real life?

"The Bat" takes the cheesecake prize. A caped vampire figure (a large and hairy man who calls himself "The Bat") stalks the San Francisco streets for strange. He seduces them into compromising situations, and they unwittingly become his hoes. All the while, a girl in a bee costume is trying to undo his evil ways. She gets caught at a wrong address with a pair of horribly stereotyped Native Americans, who engage "Queen Bee" in their own threesome. Sound campy and cheesy? It is. Amusing, if embarrassing, really.

Finally, "It Came From Love" isn't far behind in the cheesecake contest. A poorly-lacquered frog/fish-head alien travels to Earth to capture breeding human couples to repopulate it's own failing planet. Absolutely campy Z-grade cheese here, though some of the copulation scenes (thankfully NOT employing masks) are well-done and enjoyable.

Truly, this is a set for collectors of low-budget grindhouse/porn film oddities. Entertaining, overall, but not easily recommendable. (After Hours Cinema)

Grails - "Deep Politics" album

Portland, Oregon's Grails are a veteran instrumental outfit who specialize in spacious, moody psychedelic rock. "Deep Politics" is their sixth full-lengther, and it opens with "Future Primitive"-- a moody and textural guitar-scape that brings to mind a dusky Western expanse. It's all very dramatic and cinematic, to be certain. The title track is piano-led chamber pop meets post-rock, full of mystery and tension. "Almost Grew My Hair" is a trippy and evolving psychedelic space monster, dynamically moving from David Gilmour-style rock solos to darker opium den haziness. This is some potent stuff, with the perfect balance of clarity and foggy abandon.

Taken as a whole, "Deep Politics" takes the listener on a journey through foreign lands, natural landscapes, and mind-bending narcotic excursions, all safely and within a relatively concise 47 minutes. Superb work, and all worth exploring. (Temporary Residence Limited)

Grailspace

Grails site

White Rainbow - "New Clouds" CD

Portlander Adam Forkner's second release on Kranky shows an even more spacious, cosmic predilection than his excellent Krautrock-inspired debut of 2007. Beginning with the expansive 18-minute magickal-stoner ambience of "Tuesday Rollers And Strollers", White Rainbow produce a myriad of lush, even melodic sound-journeys that are hopeful, gauzy, and somehow primal and shamanic. I am reminded a bit of Popol Vuh's wonderful soundtracks to Werner Herzog's films, which isn't a bad thing at all. Forkner's vaporous, rapturous soundscapes are at once psychedelic, ambient, and trance-inducing, with each of the four extended pieces here gelling well together into 67 minutes of blissed-out, tripped-out space synaesthesia. Superb. (Kranky)

White Rainbowspace

White Rainbow tumblr

John Frusciante - "The Empyrian" CD

Frusciante's day job as guitarist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers may be his best-known gig, but it's far from his finest work. When he's not touring or recording with mates Anthony, Flea, and Chad, John rounds up a few (other) friends and releases often wildly-disparate solo recordings. His latest, recorded from 2006 to 2008, combines his ever-growing sense of melody and pop songwriting finesse with his predilections for out-there sonic explorations. 'The Empyrian' is a modern-day psychedelic masterpiece, with narcotic, drifty textures and woozy, mellow arrangements. His lulling and starry cover of Tim Buckley's transcendent 'Song To The Siren' is apt and well-done, and 'Unreachable' is a trippy and floaty rock song packed with space and depth. 'Dark Light' begins introspective and ambient before transforming into an inspirational pop song (perhaps the closest to the RHCP he gets on this fine album). Other tunes are tuneful and flighty ('Heaven' is sweet and nicely orchestrated).
Frusciante's become a wholly confident and infinitely stronger songwriter since his rather embarrassing early albums (the result of a very horrific drug habit long since banished). 'The Empyrian' is the culmination of years of experience, and this is the sound of a man who's seen life from higher highs (and lower lows) than most of us rightfully should. He's a worldly-wise head with a need to move beyond mind and body, and this album is perfect for such space travels. (Record Collection)

John's personal site

Yahowa 13 - "Sonic Portation" CD

Born of a sixties-era religious group called the Source Family, and led by the enigmatic Father Yod, the Ya Ho Wa 13 collective produced a series of privately-released vinyl LPs of wild psychedelic improvisational music from 1973 to 1975. Through the years, these records became highly sought-after collectibles, and their influence has gone on the breed some of the wilder out-there psyche/noise/freak folk sounds of today.
Reforming with all 3 of the former members (sadly, Father Yod passed away in 1975), and joined by Smashing Pumpkins associate Kerry Brown (who mixed this), Yahowa 13 return after a many-year absence with this 35-minute set of freeform space jams. This is tribal/raga/mantric music for those seeking higher planes of consciousness. Yahowa 13's uninhibited blending of guitars, bass, drums, and chant isn't unique, but it recalls everything from Eastern meditational sound to the tribal rock of Amon Duul. It's a joyous noise, and a lovely din to lose yourself inside of. I say turn it up loud, close your eyes, and feel the divinity of sound itself. (Prophase Music)

info on the Source family

info on the Father Yod LPs

Brainticket - "Cottonwood Hill" LP

Gaining prominence in psychedelic/krautrock circles, perhaps partially due to the endorsement of one Steven Stapleton of Nurse With Wound (who all but covered parts of this with his 'Brained By Falling Masonry' track in 1984), this wild acid-freakout release from 1970 still sounds foreign and outlandish, and may well frighten even fans of 'darker' musical strains. This is definitely not a record for children, either, as it's pretty well intense, even nearly 40 years later!

The opener, 'Black Sand' is a wild freeform rock track, while 'Places Of Light' is a slinky, funky little number with a flute solo. All very bohemian and 70's porno-like, actually, until it erupts into a heavier guitar-oriented flight, with spacy drug-trippy narration by Dawn Muir. This is definitely intended for chemical accompaniment!

The final 3 tracks are all part of the 'Brainticket' suite, and are undoubtably the centerpieces of the LP. Here, the record goes off the rails completely, with assorted (pre-sampling) tape effects and a skittering, jumbled, rhythmic assortment of motor vehicle engines, crowd cheers, school bells, sinister whispers, organ/guitar metronomes, breaking glass, teeth being brushed, water gargling, alarms, orgasmic female exclamations, train crossing bells, feedback noise, chimp screams, Beethoven, This is one series of tracks that you will never forget.

And so 'Cottonwood Hill' stands, an obscure yet legendary piece of hallucinogenic avante-rock, using surreal juxtapositions of sound effects to create an otherworldly 'trip' of an experience. It pre-dates the whole 'industrial' scene, which surely owes it a debt, and the out-there nature of it places it in some rather distinguished company. A landmark LP, and one that you really should hear.

Black Angels - "Directions To See A Ghost" CD

Taking from the more noise-drenched psychedelic aspects of the Velvet Underground and Spacemen 3, this Texan group's second full-lengther is a dark and deep acid-drenched collection of songs that evoke a stoned-out ritual. There's the tremolo drones and space-freakouts of guitarist Christian Bland (imagine if early Spacemen 3 met Helios Creed), and the powerful tribal drums of Stephanie Bailey, and the distant, reverbed vocals of Alex Maas, all escorted to other planets alongside bandmates Nathan Ryan (bass) and Jennifer Raines (organ). The album culminates in the 16 minute closer, 'Snake In The Grass', which almost approaches a kind of motorik kraut mantra. Beautiful! These guys aren't heading towards any pop-radio play at all, this is heady stuff for phasing/blissing out to. More, please! (Light In The Attic)

Valet - "Naked Acid" CD

The second solo album from Portland guitarist/vocalist/inner space traveler Honey Owens, 'Naked Acid' is a brilliant piece of twilight psychedelia with some nicely out-there touches. But unlike others (not naming names), she wisely never fully loses sight of the songs themselves - pulling them back in when they wander off too far. Owens' drifty, distant vocals are seemingly pulled from another ghostly dimension, and her guitar is both melodic and ferocious, often at the same time. Pieces like the unforgettably-titled 'Fuck It' are wispy slices of proto-ambient blues, if that makes any sense, with only a spartan drum amidst the layers of guitar noise and lysergically-driven effects. 'Fire' almost returns to Earth (hah) and is as close to a pop-song as Owens is likely to pen, while the closer, 'Streets', boasts some surprisingly jacked-up some drum programming alongside the jagged drones. Astoundingly beautiful and individual work here. (Kranky)