Weirdo Rippers #15

Earlier this week, Amish Records reissued the Primitive Art Group’s works spanning from 1981 to 1986, which includes the band’s only two albums – the never-before-released live recording from Thistle Hall (1984) and Future Jaw-Clap (1985).

The New Zealand act, featuring Anthony Donaldson (drums), David Donaldson (bass), Neil Duncan (saxophone), Stuart Porter (saxophone), David Watson (guitar), and originally with cellist Pam Grey, were peerless. Dispensers of skronking jazz-inspired noise, the music of the Primitive Art Group echoed a community spirit that got me thinking about the free music that is the foundation of this very feature.

While reissues aren’t something this space often affords, it felt necessary to include the New Zealand outliers in this capacity. Their influence, whilst perhaps indirect (or direct where one particular release in this latest addition is concerned), the Primitive Art Group’s untethered nature made their music travel beyond the borders. There were political undercurrents to their remit, not least kicking against nuclear testing in the Pacific and the apartheid in South Africa by brandishing their own form of message music; but also their music possessed the kind of freedom that can only be reached through the portal of experimentalism and improvisation.

It’s an important reference point during an period where improvisation was nowhere near as prevalent as it is today, and both in their political activism and freedom through sound, one could argue that a straight line can be drawn from the Primitive Art Group to modern day experimentalism.

For those yet to delve into the world of the Primitive Art Group, you can find more information, including details of the above-noted reissue, 1981-9186, via the Amish Records Bandcamp page.

Elsewhere, and it’s been another busy couple of months for all things Weirdo Rippers. Releases coming thick and fast from all corners of the world, as the task becomes harder with each edition to whittle down a list of acts that feels like the final cut.

Alongside some familiar faces, there are some new ones, too, which is always the most important facet to this feature. With regards to the former, the greyscale odyssey that is Deep Fade return with their latest and second in 2024, Further. Exclusively to Sun 13,can watch the video to their new track, Fixed and Faded, below.

As we start what is the final two months of 2024, there’s lots more to come around these parts, so stay tuned. For now, though…

The Necks: Bleed

Alaskan Tapes: Something Ephemeral
Nettwerk Music Group

Under his Alaskan Tapes moniker, Toronto-based composer, Bradley Kendall, returns in 2024 for another series of beautiful collages with Something Ephemeral.

With winter almost here, this latest Alaskan Tapes cut is a worthy companion. You can almost hear the wind and the sound of rain dripping on the windowpane throughout these lush, iron-grey compositions that feel like the comfort blanket one needs at this time of year.

Not a world away from the underrated Australian ensemble, Blue Divers, and even the latest works from Stars of the Lid’s Adam Wiltzie, Something Ephemeral is noodling of the upper echelon. Heavy, thought-provoking soundscapes for equally heavy times.

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Benjamin Louis Brody & Eliot Krimsky: Shared Spaces
Bathysphere Records

Composers, Los Angeles-based Benjamin Louis Brody and Brooklyn-based Eliot Krimsky, are the latest to explore new ground across the Bathysphere Records sound world.

With his compositions having featured on television and film, Brody forms a beautiful alliance with Krimsky (formerly of Glass Ghost) on Shared Spaces – a series of sonic requiems that reached the depths of your soul in what is the richest offerings under the Los Angeles’ label so far. 

Whilst immersive, there’s a sullen thread that holds these six pieces together on Shared Spaces. Brody and Krimsky cover a wide area across the experimental landscape, and here’s hoping there’s more of it from the duo in the future.

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Charlie Butler: Stress Fracture
Bladud Flies!

Experimental guitar maestro, Charlie Butler, is never far away from the new music sphere and on his latest release, Stress Fracture, he continues to go from strength-to-strength.

Said to have mutated over years from various live recordings, these four compositions are hellish sketches that flirt close to the same void Sunn O))) have been barking instructions from over the last three decades.

Recently, Butler has been utilising darker shades of tone, and Stress Fracture may just be the darkest yet. It’s where the guitarist is finding his best results with yet another release that occupies the top end of his ever-growing discography.

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Permanent Embrace: In Conversation with Uniform’s Michael Berdan

Loren Connors & David Grubbs: Evening Air
Room40

The experimental touchstone and Gastr Del Sol mastermind link up for a creative unison that surpasses the majesty it suggests on paper.

Whilst at times occupying different parts of the experimental sound world, Loren Connors and David Grubbs were bound to make music together. Connors, a key influential figures in guitar experimentalism from the underground, while Grubbs, always an outlier in the ’90s post-rock circles in his bid for something a more left of centre. Together, on Evening Air, they create a beautiful series of compositions that wander deep into the night.

Evening Air possesses an emotional intensity that neither have explored before. It’s not accessible, per se, but these pieces strike a magic frequency, and with repeated listens, these compositions become etched to the corners of the mind.

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Nicolas Chkifi: Motian Love Dance
Ramble Records

On Motian Love Dance, Belgium drummer, Nicolas Chkifi, returns with something to keep jazz lovers sated. 

Alongside tenor saxophonists, Erwin Vann and Nicolas Kummert, and guitarists Vitja Pauwels and Artan Buleshkaj, Chikifi explores the sounds worlds of drummer Paul Motian, saxophonist Joe Lovano, and jazz guitarist Bill Frisell. Through more atmospheric wanderings, the ensemble creates something that sinks deep into the bones.

The space and texture throughout Motian Love Dance is something that almost takes your breath away. Everything just lines up, purifying everything around you. It’s all encompassing emotion through sound. A timeless record that hits the same during any hour of the day.

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Deep Fade: Further
Cruel Nature Records

Following the release of their debut LP, Line of Flight, shape-shifters, Deep Fade return with their second in this trilogy of albums, Further.

Led by Amanda Votta alongside Grey Malkin (synths, ambiance) and her The Spectral Light bandmate, Neddal Ayad (synths, samples, guitar), the three-piece move away from the grey-scale void-like sonics of Line of Flight for something even more brooding. Votta takes the vocal reins like never before, as Deep Fade produce a brand of neo-folk doomgaze tailor-made for a Jim Jarmusch film.

In fact, it’s exactly the kind of portals Earth should be going through, but on Further, as Votta leads from the front, Deep Fade explore it first, and to wonderful effect.

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Joachim Spieth Interview: “Different environments play a big role in my work”

Dialect: Atlas of Green
RVNG Intl.

It’s been quite the year for Andrew PM Hunt. Firstly, with Ex-Easter Island Head who released their acclaimed long-player, Norther, and with the band touring up and down the country, Hunt’s Dialect project has gone slightly under the radar in comparison.

Atlas of Green follows 2022’s Advanced Myth, and here Hunt covers new ground in the world of electro-acoustic composition. His approach, elusive, skewed and collage-based with earthy sounds of the past merged with something you’d expect to hear in the future.

It’s these futuristic wanderings that have been a focal point of Ex-Easter Island Head’s recent works, but on Atlas Green, Hunt continues to explore even beyond that, finding previously untrodden recesses.

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Duo Falak: Tira-Tira
Tonot

Duo Falak is the collaboration between guitarist Denis Sorokin and percussionist Shonin Qurbon, and on Tira Tira, the duo conjures up their own improvised interpretations on Falak music.

The six movements on Tira Tira echo a harmonic language that recalls their native Tajikistan, as Sorkin’s acoustic plinking opens up a world inspired by the wandering freedom of jazz and primitive guitar.

The stringed dexterity and nimble percussion from Qurbon on offer makes for truly ceremonial. There’s a locality on Tira Tira that boast the same distinctiveness as, say, field recordings. Bottle it up and preserve it, because every record collection needs albums like Tira Tira. Something off the beaten track, but it’s these paths where the treasure is often found.

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Chihei Hatakeyama & Shun Ishiwaka: Magnificent Little Dudes Vol.2
Gearbox Records

Their first release may have evaded us, but thankfully Chihei Hatakeyama & Shun Ishiwaka’s second instalment of Magnificent Little Dudes… hasn’t suffered the same fate.

The Japanese experimentalists deliver something that’s as pure as spring water on …Vol. 2. Hatakeyama’s soft brushes across the keys and Ishiwaka’s distinct percussion shifts making for something truly immersive throughout these four long-form compositions.

Magnificent Little Dudes Vol.2 is something that swallows up time. So rich in texture and subtle in arrangement, it’s yet another beautifully crafted experimental release in a year that has provided many. What Chihei Hatakeyama & Shun Ishiwaka have produced here, though, well… it’s something best endured on a loop.

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Worriedaboutsatan Interview: “More people should be bass players!”

A Large Sheet of Muscle: Dracula Completo
The Trilogy Tapes

A Large Sheet of Muscle is the brainchild of Louis Johnstone – a London brawler concocting poetry with noise-inspired field recordings.

Whilst similar to the world seen through the foggy prism of Poppy H (more of them in a bit), what Johnstone does on his latest cut, Dracula Completo, is add a little bit more dust and grime, and it makes for a unique chaos explosions, not least giving things a deeper sense of locality.

It’s an avenue Liverpool’s Hell on Hearth has explored to great effect over the past several years, and now he has a trusted ally in A Large Sheet of Muscle. Dracula Completo, 26 snapshots that break the boundaries of noise and class as we know it.

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Matchess: Stena
Drag City

Continuing her excellent year in the new music stratosphere, Whitney Johnson returns with her latest Matchess LP and second for Drag City, Stena.

Having already bowled us over as leader of the excellent proto kraut-rock collective, Winged Wheel and their stunning second album, Big Hotel, Johnson retreats into the shadows of minimalism with Stena: the finest Matchess record yet.

There are many layers to this. Grainy muffled field recordings, with wispy static and soft laser beam drone, forming a dreamscape of emotional vistas. Stena is a cerebral journey, pulling from worlds created by the likes of LaMonte Young but with an elusive psychedelic twist. It’s the quintessential headphones listen.

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The Modern Folk: Crater Family
Echodelick Records/Ramble Records

Portland-based The Modern Folk return with their second album, Crater Family, as band architect, J. Moss (guitar, synthesizer, field recordings), is joined by newcomers Austin Richards (guitar, piano, Optigan)and Zach Barbery (bass).

With subtle drones, a plethora of plinks and rustic grooves, this is electric folk cultivated up in the hills. Blissed out soundscapes that tap into a mysterious energy that sparks an intrigue that keeps you going back for more.

In many ways, Crater Family frames the story of Ramble Records itself. A soundtrack to the label’s esoteric nature where primitive guitar, long-form wanderings and an electric haze reaches beautiful heights. Everything is here and The Modern Folk are worthy providers.

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Chris Corsano Interview: “Collaboration is essential for me.”

Iván Muela: Ether
Self-released

London-based producer, Iván Muela creates a series of stirring compositions that are like the backdrop to seasons changing.

On his latest release, Ether, there’s so much to unpack as the composer draws from far places. Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at his Black Knoll Studio, Muela pulls from the fringes of sound worlds from the likes of Max Richter, Brian Eno and Nils Frahm, adding his own embellishments that build with elusive emotion power.

With twists and turns through the roller coast of life, it’s composition for cinema, and Ether is a beautiful account of it. Just listen for yourself.

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The New Human: Proximity Mantra
Bricolage

Bricolage are first of two new label finds in this latest edition of WR. The Glasgow label guides its listeners to the unflustered enclaves located within rave euphoria, and their first dose is The New Human who brings us their latest cut, Proximity Mantra.

The producer explores the inner grains of Aphex Twin’s discography with plenty of breakbeat and downtempo ambience displayed throughout these eight pieces. (Not including the additional three remixes.)

Proximity Mantra sees The New Human delivering rave culture in slow motion, almost through the lens of a murky dream that keeps the lights flickering from one’s glory days. It’s nostalgic, but somehow The New Human manages to make it relevant now, too.

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OdNu: Time is a Place
Whitelabrecs

Deep in the trove of DIY culture, Lincolnshire-based label Whitelabrecs have been another great find, and OdNu is one of the many fine artists who has released music via the label this year.

The project of Michael Mazza, OdNu’s Time is a Place is a series of plucky electro-acoustic offerings that slowly drift to the corners of your mind. It’s not immediate, and while you need to be in a certain headspace for it to reveal its true self, when you are the results are grand.

For these ears at least, Time is a Place is for those quieter moments of the day. Get up early, put the kettle on and let the sound of OdNu occupy the space. It’ll make your day a better one.

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Label Watch: Katuktu Collective

Old Saw: Dissection Maps
Worried Songs

Vermont’s Old Saw were one of the great finds during the first lockdown with their excellent LP, Country Tropics. It was an album that pulled you into the band’s world during a time when you needed it most.

Following the ensemble’s 2023 release, Sewn the Name, Dissection Maps is yet another boon and a record to be quickly allocated in the ‘must listen’ pile. Taking the ideas of post-country, Old Saw imbue their own locality with the use of banjo and fiddle bubbling under a wonderful series of drones that free the mind.

While Country Tropics was an album to let wash over you, Dissection Maps is one for a closer listen to achieve the best results. And the more time spent in its company, the more it unfurls into something equally delicate and immersive.

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Dean Spunt: Basic Editions
Drag City

With a track title like Critic in a Coma, it says a lot about how Dean Spunt views those of us who choose to write about the music he makes.

Ironically, Spunt’s latest effort, Basic Editions, feels like the something one might be met within in the coma state – the abrasive nature of the No Age drummer’s past recordings, making way for something a little easier on the ear. Yes, through this labyrinth of fractured loops and skewed strings, these compositions have an off-kilter, soothing effect.

Basic Editions isn’t something you’re going to reach for every day, but when the mood persists, Spunt’s latest recording really do catch the right spark.

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Zed Paysanne: A Joy As Deep As Terror
PX4M

Perhaps taking inspiration from the Primitive Art Group from across the ditch in an earlier life, Glasgow-based antipode, Matthew Winter, returns under the guise Zed Paysanne with A Joy As Deep As Terror.

The former Zed Penguin mastermind returns under a new guise and lease of life with an album full of fractured jazz-inspired no-wave freakouts that fry whatever braincells one has left.

Joined by PX4M labelmate The Cowboy Builder himself, A Joy As Deep As Terror was recorded in Winter’s kitchen. Or what’s left of it now, because the noise here would even make an insurance loss adjustor cower at the wreckage this has caused.

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Poppy H: Wadham Lodge
Self-released

The journey of Poppy H has been one of the key talking points from the U.K. experimental scene this year.

With a slew of releases already under their belt in 2024, the producer brings us the latest mind map, Wadham Lodge. Here we see the producer delving into the realm ghostly psychedelia, tapping into the essence of civic vitality through a sonic haze.

The recordings on Wadham Lodge are yet another marker the producer has set down. No one is doing anything remotely the same out there in what is a beautiful sound collage stitched together to form the patchwork of, well… life!

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Previous Weirdo Rippers features:

#14
#13
#12
#11
#10
#9
#8
#7
#6
#5
#4
#3
#2
#1