[0] Round 2, Lee Jackson takes the lead

2008? Still haven't caught up; in fact I probably fell even further behind. 2007 was definitely a good year, with vets like San Francisco's Holy Mountain and North Carolinas's Three Lobed Recordings unleashing some of their most varied and unique slabs to date. And there were dozens of fine records on Not Not Fun, Important, Kranky, Digitalis, Soft Abuse, Locust, Drag City, Sublime Frequencies and on down the line that helped make '07 a little brighter. Speaking of Sublime Frequencies, must acknowledge the untimely passing of Charles Gocher due to complications from cancer in late February. Gocher played drums and sung some pretty messed up lounge songs for Sun City Girls, whose bassist Al Bishop co-owns and operates Sublime Frequencies. Needless to say, Sun City Girls as a live performance unit is no more, but as a cosmic musical entity like no other this pagan deity will never die. I was also sorry to see Cayce Lindner leave us last year. His Flying Canyon album was one of my favorites of '06.

On the Sublime Frequencies [1] tip, one of ‘07's most memorable releases would have to be the mysterious Group Doueh's Guitar Music From The Western Sahara LP. Who knows where this album really comes from? There's a fine write-up at the SF site that attempts to explain things, but it may as well be from another planet entirely. To these Western ears that's not such a stretch. This feral take on fuzz psych and power trio jamming throbs with an undeniable African pulse, but at the same time whoever these people are, they must have scored at least a couple Jimi Hendrix and/or Beatles albums on one of their weekly trips to market. This album sounds almost like the Sun City Girls themselves, but Group Doueh is weirder, more annoying at points, more cosmically trance inducing at others. Not necessarily the best thing that dropped in ‘07, but definitely one of the most implausibly rocking.

Another wonderful album that came down the pike from the SCG camp was Sir Richard Bishop's Polytheistic Fragments (Drag City [2]), a tantalizing example of ethnic/world guitar music. Bishop manages to easily rival big names in the field, but does so with his own mystical slant, combining the singular gypsy-jazz stylings of Django Reinhardt with the deepest, most backwoods blues licks, slides, pedal steel, fingerpicking, and this is all just Bishop - along with a few tasteful studio flourishes and boundless reserves of creative energy. The end results are as jubilant as they are eerie and bottomless.

Those reinventions of old are what I long for most these days. Two albums, one out of England and the other out of the US West Coast, do a great job in shining new lights on old shrines. With Wayward the Fourth (Secret Eye [3]), The One Ensemble twists jazz and Eastern European folk melodies into entirely new chamber music (de)constructions that might suggest Robert Wyatt on an extended sabbatical through old Europe, not just processing and absorbing the sights and sounds but also recasting them back into the wild with all the grace of a semi-drunken Klezmer band. Steven R. Smith's Hala Strana project also gets in on the ethnic drone with the fantastic Heave the Gambrel Roof (Music Fellowship [4]), but what he does is a good bit darker and more raga infused. Anyone who heard the fantastic Fielding 2CD on Last Visible Dog knows what kind of spell Smith is capable of weaving: a dark fog of rushing acoustic guitars, ethnic instruments and the occasional percussive elements, invoking old Europe and The Velvet Underground in the same harmonic breath.

[4] 2007 was also another fine year for female songwriters. Young bloomers continued to mature and evolve, notably Marissa Nadler with her Songs III: Bird on the Water (Peacefrog [5]), which has received accolades in other publications, so I'll just say here Nadler's reverb drenched mezzo-soprano and Greg Weeks' shimmering production (with help from other Espers) are a match made in Heaven. Speaking of Mr. Weeks and his Espers, band-mate Meg Baird made a sold entry into the singer/songwriter world with her gorgeous solo debut for Drag City, Dear Companion, leaving absolutely no doubt about her ample abilities with angelic voice and acoustic guitar across a solid selection of traditional numbers and originals. I was just as moved by the sophomore album by Panteleimon (Andria Degens, aka Mrs. David TIbet), Mercy Oceans (Jnana [6]), arriving only 9 years after the debut, and I do hope there's more where this came from. Over contributions from Hush Arbors' Keith Wood and a beautifully austere chamber folk backdrop, Degens recites her words as ethereal prayers for the soul of all who reside on the cosmic marble we call home.

Tokyo's Suishou No Fune has done its part in conjuring melodic/repetitious fuzz swells in recent times, which is probably the least one could expect from a band that calls itself the crystal ship. Building on the dark psych aesthetic of noted PSF ensembles like Fushitsusha and Kousokuya, while injecting a heavy dose of shoegaze distortion into the melancholy works, SNF finds itself in a surprisingly unique position. No less than three long players by the duo - augmented by different live and session drummers - dropped in 07, all worthy of your time, but I'm going to limit my selection here to just one: the languid dark moods and blistering fuzz washes of The Shining Star (Important [7]). Of everything I heard by the duo/trio in 07, The Shining Star most captures the dark wonder and dynamic power that Pirako Kurenai and Kageo make seem easy via their hypnotic twin guitar front. Suishou No Fune delivered what was easily my favorite live set of the year at a small club in Denton for about 15 transfixed, lucky souls. Do not miss them if the chance should arise.

[7] Always got time for some worthy Krautrock maneuvers, and there was no shortage of those in '07 either. White Rainbow's The Prism of Eternal Now (Kranky [8]) pulsates and shimmers with the transcendental hum of the cosmos. The solo guise of Adam Forkner (Yume Bitsu, Surface of Eceon), WR is all about translucent drones and pulsating sound-baths. Reference points could be made to early Tangerine Dream, Terry Riley (one track is entitled "For Terry") and Flying Saucer Attack. This one washes over the third eye like cool morning sun. Also must make mention here of the glorious electronic space grooves that Cloudland Canyon conjures on their Silver Tongued Sisyphus EP (also on Kranky), a sonically varied and impeccably produced two track opus that brings to mind vintage tracks by folks like Heldon and Ash Ra Tempel and more recently Jessamine and Spacemen 3, but with a completely modern, beautifully executed sound. Expect great things from these folks in the future, including a brand new collaboration with Lichens on Holy Mountain. That reminds me, Holy Mountain had a staggering release schedule in 07, including choice platters by Blues Control, Mammatus, The Shining Path and Wooden Shjips to name just a few, all fine discs, all highly recommended, but I only have so much space here, so I'm going to take a detour now through Not Not Fun [9]'s excellent Bored Fortress Series, and the split 7" between Heavy Winged and Blues Control, which showcases both of these underground rising stars at the height of their raw powers. In Blues Control's case we find a bubbling cauldron of thumping dub beats and low end fuzz that sounds like it could've been recorded on the oceanic floor. Heavy Winged unleashes a live track that combines Melvins heavy throb with Sonic Youth guitar squalls and outdoes both in terms of atonal thrashing catharsis. Surely one of the most Real Rock songs released in ‘07.

Much more real rock is found on Rainbow, the recent collaboration between Boris and Michio Kurihara (Drag City [10]), an album that sounds as glorious and spontaneous as the torrential Spring downpour that could precede its formation. Boris foregoes its typical doom fuzz attack in favor of a more paisley garage psych mode that's the perfect backbone for Kurihara's singular guitar acrobatics, and the results glow, be they dainty psych pop dreams or sky high supernova explosions. To see this get a wide release on a respected label like Drag City is a godsend for all lovers of blistering acid rock and ethereal space pop the world over.

[10]Mudboy's Hungry Ghosts! These Songs Are Doors (Digitalis [11] CD/Not Not Fun LP) is one of the most visually and aurally stimulating what-the-fuck sorts of long players I heard in 07. Up till now, I'd managed to only hear Mudboy in passing on compilations. The seasoned, and virtually unclassifiable, constructions that make up this album tell an bizarre story that may be not always be so easily understood, but its surging claustrophobic auras and hypnotic dimensional portals can be explored for hours on end in a work (un)resting somewhere between industrial, sound sculpture and minimal composition. This simply sounds like nothing else in the racks. The CD version comes with a short video about Mudboy, offering a tantalizing glimpse into the creative process of the man, the myth. Amazing packaging, too.

And let's not forget the self-titled release by Finland's Kemialliset Ystävät that arrived in the second half of last year. Jan Anderzen and his merry band of maniacs have actually been at this for over ten years now, covering immeasurable ground from ramshackle pop confections to the most haunted acoustic/electric instrumental floaters. More recently various members have gone off on some fascinating side tangents, notably Anderzen himself with Tomotonttu, and Merja Kokkonen and her Islaja project. Kemialliset Ystävät (Fonal [12]) captures all of these elements and more into an intricately layered panorama of vibrating sound, with swirling tonal colors dancing around one another in a carefully choreographed display that draws from a vast instrumental pallet where nothing is quite what it seems. These are songs that at lower volumes serve as more distraction than anything else, but at high volumes completely take over the room like some new encroaching life form. Definitely not aural wallpaper. More like aural cosmic reclamation.

[12] When it comes to dependable veterans of the underground, one need look no further than Michael Gira and his ever evolving Angels of Light. We Are Him (Young God [13]) is the ensemble's fifth long player to date, and in many ways it really is their best work: brooding, accessible, rootsy and occasionally even quite hard rocking. Gira and his band continue to reinvent the concept of barnyard stomp with a sound that's tight, propulsive and always just a bit off kilter. The Akrons are on board again (they released a very fine record for Young God last year called Love is Simple), with faces new - Larkin Grimm - and old - Bill Reiflin - and a wide assortment of other talented contributors. If you're a Swans fans and still haven't heard the Angels, imagine later Swans on a weekend getaway to Big Pink, gettin' drunk and rowdy down in the basement. The results make for raucous and soul-stirring songs that combine post-punk intensity with psychedelic pastoral dreaminess, weird harmonic eruptions and blaring post-industrial howls into one uniquely infectious ride. There's no finer example of the above than the title track with its ethnic drone collage intro giving way to strutting rhythms and trance-inducing harmonies backing Gira's gritty lyrics, climaxing in the exalted chorus belted with an almost religious fervor. All that being said Gira still manages to keep things vague enough so that one can pick and choose his own meaning based on his own personal belief system. I'd expect nothing less from this Gira. Perhaps an acquired taste but one well worth acquiring.

And there's plenty more stuff I'm still digging circa ‘07. Any of these titles could've easily been included with the above, in no particular order: Grails Burning Off Impurities (Temporary Residence); Andrew Chalk Time of Hayfield (Faraway Press); Tanakh Saunders Hollow (Camera Obscura); Softwar Softwar (Digitalis); Pumice Pebbles (Soft Abuse); Christian Kiefer Dogs and Donkeys; Akron/Family Love is Simple (Young God); The Giant Skyflower Band Blood of the Sunworm (Soft Abuse); Magik Markers Boss (Ecstatic Peace); Six Organs of Admittance Shelter From the Ash (Drag City); Circle Katapult (No Quarter); Valet Blood is Clean (Kranky); Phosphorescent Pride (Dead Oceans); Wolves in the Throne Room Two Hunters (Southern Lord); GHQ Crystal Healing (Three Lobed); Maher Shalal Hash Baz L'Autre Cap (K Records); The Terminals The Last Days of the Sun (Last Visible Dog); Diana Rogerson The Lights Are On But No-One's Home (United Jnana); Sic Alps Pleasures and Treasures (Animal Disguise); Sapat Mortise and Tenon (Siltbreeze).

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Into the home stretch with Mats Gustafsson

Personally, the year of 2007 was a strange one when it comes to music. It was a year when I never could escape the feeling that I was searching for something new without ever really finding it. But it was still a year overflowed with high-quality underground music. Here you'll find a quick rundown (in alphabetical order) of some of my top releases of 2007.

[13] Let's start with Susan Alcorn's And I Await...The Resurrection of the Pedal Steel Guitar (Olde English Spelling Bee [14]), an album that illustration-wise looks like a mixture of those early Charalambides albums we love so much and something Jan Anderzen (Kemialliset Ystävät etc.) probably could churn out on a daily basis. The whole thing looks amazing, which is great given that the sonic quality of the six floating instrumentals is just as high up there. The temporary sense of isolation in time and place helps these minimally structured and stretched out chords construct vast and spatial guitar landscapes. I remember once describing Alcorn's meditative music as something you can actually feel moving in a never-ending loop between your mind and your heart. That's still very much the case.

Australian Charles Curse's (Greg Charles to friends and family) music is one of the weirdest things I've come across all year and if that's not worth a few lines I am not sure what is. On Rain in Skull (MusicYourMindWillLoveYou [15]), fragments of disjointed folk melodies move across a plain of wheezing chords, tape hiss, children's voices, ambient washes, amp hum, electronic glitch and bits of buzz in general. The contrast between downcast guitar playing and the physical claustrophobia-inducing weight of sound is equally perplexing and intriguing. It's all presented in a decidedly lo-fi environment but the sound construction is anything but simple, this is a complex sonic stew, which sounds unique in the true sense of the word.

Danish Magnus Olsen Majmon's Elektronavn is one of this year's most impressive discoveries. Songs of Impermanence (Ikuisuus [16]) is a claustrophobic, almost physical experience with haunting drones constructed from clarinet, voice, guitar, organ, flute, gong, harp, field recordings and percussion. Abstract overtones are bent beyond the world of imagination to a sonic beast equally reminiscent of Sandoz Lab Technicians, Pelt and Vibracathedral Orchestra. That's all you need to know, folks.

Evening Fires self-titled debut album on Deep Water is a mostly instrumental forest exploration that offers up little snippets of some long lost forest folk album. Shimmery and pastoral, hypnotic and transcendent free folk that spins a repetitive sound web that seems to unite the MYMWLY collective and the Irish Deserted Village label with some of the finest things on Digitalis. Evening Fires, which includes members of the Clear Spots and Peacefeather, weave a delicate world of surprisingly structured folky clatter and Appalachian countryside, simply strummed guitars, lilting finger picked melodies, little bursts of primitive percussion, weary flute, bits of hazy drones and organ that wheeze out short mournful melodies that float just above the whirling background ambience.

[16]Eyes Like Saucers' Still Living in the Desert (But Mostly Inside My Head) (Last Visible Dog [17]) is the solo effort of a former urDog member, and one can definitely sense the relation, although this one turns inwards much more than any of the urDog albums ever did. What we get here is an essential piece of music constructed from bleak song fragments interspersed with shimmering waves of haunting Indian pedal harmonium bliss and electronic bedroom experimentation. It all sounds like some nearly lost memory that you wish you could get rid of, but no matter what you do will be with you in one way or the other for the rest of your life. These mostly instrumental tracks creep up on you like an unexpected madness, so reading that the whole thing was recorded when jeffrey k spent most of 2006 living within a Volkswagen van in the northern Arizona desert with nothing but his dog, harmonium and 4-track recorder doesn't really come as a surprise.

What Grails does so great on Burning Off Impurities (Temporary Residence [18]) is to create an instrumental rock album with shiploads of dynamics that rarely gets predictable. On the contrary this is a disc, or dbl LP, that continues to surprise all the way through its eights tracks. This might very well be one of those rare occasions when something truly great actually gets hyped. Just like with any Agitation Free album this is music that is ideal for long train rides or for lying down at the deserted beach staring at the ever-changing sky.

Group Doueh Guitar Music from the Western Sahara (Sublime Frequencies [19]) includes chosen tracks from guitarist Doueh's personal archives, a massive slab of home-brewed, hallucinogenic mantras of scorching guitars effortlessly meshing with trance mysticism to one of the most beautifully acid-fried rock records I've ever heard. It's all heavily distorted, intricately groovy, complex and deranged and the vocal delivery from Doueh's wife only adds yet another dimension to the already timeless and meditative effect. This is one of those rare moments when a recording manages to be gut punching and heart warming at the same time.

Roy Montgomery's Inroads (Rebis [20]) is a collection of singles and unreleased tracks that made me see two entirely different things; first of all the heart and soul of a friend that passed away all too early. He shared my love for Montgomery's music and to hear these classic singles played again is like walking on a vibrating guitar string straight to the place where he currently is. It's saddening but also powerful and intensely beautiful. On a happier note these sounds make me revisit the dramatic natural vistas that my wife and I explored in New Zealand in the late ‘90s. Until we find the time to go back to what simply has to be the most beautiful part of the world, I am happy to relive those scenes from the south island and memories from the rugged coastline through the eyes and ears of Mr. Montgomery.

I have been a supporter of idiosyncratic avant-garde singer/song-writer Marianne Nowottny ever since the late ‘90s when she at the age of sixteen released the indescribable Afraid of Me, but I still don't think I've enjoyed any of her previous outings as much as I dig What Is She Doing? (Abaton Book Company [21]). What we get is tasty chunk of beat-laced, dreamy electronic pop that is quite primitive but at the same time catchy to say the least. An arsenal of synthesizers and keyboards are employed to form the melodic water surface which Nowottny's inimitable vocals hover over, float on and dive deeply into. It's an intelligent and sophisticated, yet naivistic sound, which makes me genuinely happy.

[21] Ah, Ray Off. Ray Off. Say it again, with reverence, like you really mean it. I've praised these New Zealand cats before and judging by the sounds presented on Nothing like a Ribbon Round a Parcel (Black Petal [22]) that's not going to change anytime soon. Traditionally, the Ray Off approach has been one of damaged folk enlightenment, and that tradition is definitely honored here as well, but it does seem that the tracks might be more coherent and accessible than before, while still maintaining the most far-reaching meditative ambitions. "Nothing Like A Ribbon" sets the tone with melancholic melodica and subtle string patterns woven together into a stunning otherworldly intro. Then evocative female vocals make an impressive appearance on the minimal noise sculpture of "And You Take", before "Mouthful of Feathers" proceeds further into improv terrain with sawing violin, corrosive drones and cello. "Glisters" is silently haunting and repetitive, like a secret blend of Tower Recordings and Movietone. The epic "We Love To Laugh" is noisier and more collage-like before "Round A Parcel" close things with subtle disorientation, stylistically related to the opening piece. It's a perfect outro for an album that has just about everything I tend to want from music these days.

On Western Lands (Last Visible Dog [23]) we find NZ veterans Sandoz Lab Technicians create what very well might be their best record yet and that's definitely saying something. We're served a big portion of scraped violins and heavily masked guitars, which run through your brain like a beautiful but nonetheless chocking dream. But the dream would never be complete if it weren't for all the other overtones and sound effects at play that, despite their improvised nature, all seem to be placed at the exact right position. Tinkling piano flows in under a bubbling landscape of effects and bells while the relatively traditional saxophone does what it can to accompany field recordings of water, hypnotic percussion, hand drums, flute and harmonica. Within every single note there is a slice of well-hidden beauty that only will be reveled to those who takes the time to sit down and let the meditative ambitions from James Kirk, Nathan Thompson and Tim Cornelius escort your deepest nightmares about the supernatural and haunting things you've always wanted to know more about but been too afraid to confront. If I'd choose only one album of 2007 it would be this one.

It's been a while since we last heard from Chris Smith but when he gets back he does so in an absolutely remarkable way. Bad Orchestra (Death Valley [24]) is an album that adds a strong song-based element but without losing the sense of aural claustrophobia that comes wrapped around every dark ambient tone. Imagine a mix of Alastair Galbraith's abstract drone noise pieces and astral ghost fog, the Dead C's abstruse ambient noise and thick streaks of fluttering feedback, meandering Morricone-like sound sculptures recalling the open vistas of the never-ending outback, and soaring Neil Young-inspired country/blues jams and you're in the right confusing ballpark.

It pains me to only write a few lines about Stone Baby's Black Blossom Blues (House of Alchemy [25]) as it's such an impressive foray into the world of black drones garnished with shiploads of tape manipulation. Stone Baby creates a twisted noise sculpture, emitting at various times hum and drone-scapes, fractured string grinding, primitive oscillations, squashing guitars and so much more. The all-too-brief "Closed Door" offers a surprisingly straightforward close based around a simple melody embellished with a suggestive kind of brilliance and a great sense of melancholia.

Unconditional love is probably the choice of words that best describes my relationship to Seattle veterans Sun City Girls. It's not like everything they do is brilliant but there is something about their uncompromising attitude that makes them so irresistible. Earlier this year the band called it quits when Charles Gocher finally gave in after a long battle with cancer at the age of 54. The Bishop brothers said it would be impossible to continue without him and given his input to the band I can certainly see why. So it seems like the story is approaching its end, but luckily there is still a gigantic back catalogue to dive deep into, such as the long gone Dulce LP from 1998 which now sees the light of the day as a CD on their own Abduction [26] imprint. This is one of three reissues (Juggernaut is another stunner) that are soundtracks to real or fictional films. With the ‘Girls you just never really know what's true and what's a joke. What we get music-wise is another slab of charred splendor ranging from Eastern toned floating beauty, distorted improvisations, harsh noise workouts, improvised patterns of percussion, ethnic weirdness, meandering Spanish guitar, distant ghost whispers, shimmering urban psychedelia, alienating drones and slow-crawling guitar jamming. It might not be essential all the way through but the highlights are absolute top class so this is not only a keeper but also one of those SCG albums I'll return to on a regular basis.

[26] Most bands tend to come and go but then there are long-running combos that no matter what always end up doing the right thing. The key to the success of New Zealand super group the Terminals is probably that Last Days of the Sun (Last Visible Dog [27]) is only the band's fifth album in something like twenty years. It can hardly be called a comeback album since they never really went anywhere in the first place, but it sure feels like one. Given my long-lasting love for New Zealand rock, along a murky trail that begins somewhere around Pin Group and Scorched Earth Policy and leads up to the Renderers and the Terminals, it's somewhat difficult for me to stay objective but this sure is love at first glance. The Terminals crash and stumble through twelve tracks of darkly seducing beauty. Near the end there is a sort of resolution and if you listen closely you can actually hear that the earth begins to tremble. As with the rest of the content in this column it's a disc that comes highly recommended.

Just outside this selection: Marissa Nadler, Mike Tamburo, Six Organs of Admittance, Origami Arktika, Anvil Salute, Curia, Pulga, Charalambides, John White, Pelle Carlberg, Gianluca Becuzzi & Fabio Orsi, Electric Bird Noise, Marek Styczynski, Volcano the Bear, Christian Kiefer & Jefferson Pitcher, For Barry Ray, Linus Pauling Quartet, Steven R. Smith, Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words and Fit & Limo.