Category: track of the day

Sugar Candy Mountain – 666

666 is the title track off Sugar Candy Mountain’s third full length release from People in a Position to Know. Ash Reiter and Will Halsey are the core of the group, but they are often joined by Jason Quever and Matt Adams, among others. As if you couldn’t guess by the combination of sun-drenched guitar and occult fascination, they’re based out of California, Oakland to be specific. Before their release on PIAPTK, they put out two records on their own starting with a self-titled in 2011 followed by Mystic Hits, both released on cassette as well as digitally. For anybody who ever wondered what Camera Obscura would sound like if they came from somewhere that wasn’t notorious for dreary weather, it seems we finally have an answer. Or, as the band puts it:

If Brian Wilson had dropped acid on the beach in Brazil and decided to record an album with Os Mutantes and The Flaming Lips, it would sound like this- all psychedelic pop Wall-of Sound and beach balladry

Those interested in tracking down vinyl should head to the Discogs page for the release. While the pink vinyl is sold out, downloads, CDs, and black vinyl can still be had over at Bandcamp.

Phil Trainer – No No No

If I was writing this post based on what I’ve been listening to the most, I’d have to use Us and Them from Dark Side of the Moon, but as that is one of the most well known and re-issued releases of all time I don’t think I need to convince anybody to listen to it. The ancillary artists are perhaps less well-known, however, which is too bad because they provide some of the most memorable parts of the record (think Clare Torry’s vocal solo on Great Gig in the Sky). Another bit player on Dark Side of the Moon was saxophonist Dick Parry, who recorded the solos on Money and Us and Them as part of his long career as a session musician. One lesser known entry in his discography is this track from Phil Trainer’s debut Trainer, released in 1972. This certainly didn’t get the same exposure as some of his other appearances, which include Rory Gallagher and Marc Bolan. Another oddity about that release was it was put out by the German chemical conglomerate BASF, who began releasing classical music in the mid-1960s and put out records in a variety of genres for around a decade before ceasing operations in 1976.

Valley of the Giants – Westworld

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9waLFcHZ7dk

Since The Valley of Giants is such a fitting sonic tribute to the desolate grandeur of the American West, you would be forgiven for thinking it emerged from some Utah crossroads or West Texas county seat. In fact, Valley of the Giants is a Canadian group within the constellation of projects associated orbiting Broken Social Scene. The Valley of the Giants’ only release is a self-titled album in 2004 put out by Arts & Crafts. I typically try to find videos which show the album artwork, but made an exception for this both because it fits with the music and was unofficially sanctioned by one of the artists, Anthony Seck, in a comment on the video. He described the vision of the song thus:

The loneliness of our place in the cosmos, landscape as a metaphor for the soul, and a hope that even after the apocalypse, life can begin again.

You don’t have to be driving through red desert to empathize with that feeling. Liner notes point to another slightly menacing inspiration:

We sat back on the couch watching Yul Brynner all in black, with lifeless eyes and jingling spurs strutting across the mechanized psycho-desert landscape. Deirdre pulled out a pen and began to write lyrics based on the lonely murderous robot cowboy.

This may be the only release from Valley of the Giants, but its component parts remain active. The lyricists for this release, Deirdre Smith and Scott Garratt, were part of Strawberry, and Sophie Trudeau founded A Silver Mt Zion with Godspeed You Black Emperor!’s Efrim Menuck. This song reminds me a lot of William Tyler’s Impossible Truth release, which was inspired in part by the book Cadillac Desert about the development of water infrastructure in the American West. If I’m lucky enough to take another trip westward, I’ll be sure Westworld is on my road trip playlist.

Virna Lindt – Underwater Boy

Virna Lindt recorded her first single while working for “in an indirect way, the secret services of at least two nations,” according to her bio at LTM Recordings. That single was Attention Stockholm, which became an indie hit in Europe and Japan upon its release in 1981. This was the first record put out The Compact Organization and, lucky for us, it wasn’t the last. Underwater Boy comes off Lindt’s debut album Shiver from 1984, which tells a story of espionage and treachery that wasn’t at all informed by her biography. One more record, Play/Record, would follow before Lindt (presumably) returned to her humdrum life as occasional spy and translator for various media outlets.
Talk about selling out! Both of her records have since been reissued by LTM, which was founded in England in the early 1980s and, after a brief hiatus, resurfaced in 1997 and began reissuing many New Wave records as well as avant garde audio works by William S. Burroughs and Marcel Duchamp. Check out their full catalog here.

Mike Gangloff – Cat Mountain

Mike Gangloff has been camped out, fiddle in hand, at the intersection of drone/psychedelia and folk music since the mid-90s. He started his career as a founding member of Pelt along with Nathan Bowles, Patrick Best, and Jack Rose. Though Pelt has not released anything since 2012, Gangloff has released a number of stellar records, including Melodies for a Savage Fix in collaboration with Steve Gunn. I typically roll my eyes at colored vinyl because a)I’m a smug piece of shit and b) it kinda seems gimmicky, but I’ve gotta applaud the design of Poplar Hollow because it’s a treat for all senses (ed: I haven’t eaten it but I bet it’s delicious). It comes by way of Blackest Rainbow Records whom I had never heard of before looking at this release but, upon snooping their Discogs page, I learned they’ve put out a number of things by artists I really love, including Nadja’s Aidan Baker and the excellent Expo ’70 tape Beguiled Entropy. I may not have known about Mike Gangloff before I bought his record, but I’ve leapt into the deep end of the pool, and the water is just the way I like it. One other thing this record really reminded me of that comes by way of Japan is World Standard’s Country Gazette record, which I also recommend if you dig Cat Mountain.

Bitchin Bajas – Transcendence

It’s as if someone opened a time capsule and found a whole new Fripp/Eno record for me to put in my ear holes. Transcendence comes off the groups 2013 release Bitchitronics put out by Drag City. The group coalesced as a solo project of CAVE guitarist/organist Cooper Crain and primarily comprises Crain, Rob Frye, and Dan Quinlivan. All three are active in the psychedelic/experimental scene in Chicago, with Frye and Quinlivan contributing to releases for Chandeliers, who came to WNUR when I worked there and rocked it, as well as appearing on small-print releases for Circuit Des Yeux, who appears on Chicago label Thrill Jockey. Crain is also an active recording engineer, working on records for Heavy Times and Circuit Des Yeux. Given that the earth is rapidly heating, if you’re not gonna get out there and try and shut down Exxon Mobil then I’d recommend loading up on fuzzy guitar drones and blasting the hell off.

Mike Mandel – Elephant and Castle

I came upon this release by way of Gil Scott-Heron’s studio debut Pieces of a Man, which features guitarist Burt Jones backing Scott-Heron and the solo on Elephant and Castle. In addition to solo work, Mike Mandel was a keyboardist for the jazz fusion-type groups The Players Association and The Eleventh Hour. Elephant and Castle appears on a Sky Music from 1978 and features many of the same artists from both groups. Admittedly this sort of music is out of my wheelhouse and if you find yourself getting bored I just challenge you to listen until at least the 3 minute mark and if you’re not bobbing your head/tapping your feet/doing some other form of white guy dancing, I’ll owe you something. Not money, of course, but some sort of non-exchangeable favor maybe. If it happens, just talk to my team of high-priced lawyers and we can work something out.

Jon Gibson – Cycles

While the name Jon Gibson may not be the household name that Phillip Glass or Steve Reich has become since the 1970s, he was a vital part of the emergence of American minimalism. He was a founding member of the Phillip Glass Ensemble and performed many pieces by Reich, including “Reed Phase” which was written by Reich for him in particular. He began his career performing on flute and saxophone, though he has done some beautiful work with the pipe organ as well as evidenced by the piece above. This recording was done at Washington Square Church in New York in April of 1975 and was released two years later by Chatham Square Productions on an album titled Two Solo Pieces. He has dabbled in the visual arts as well, creating the cover art for Two Solo Pieces as well as others. The improvisational and highly collaborative nature of the New York scene at the time created fertile ground for composers interested in repetition, silence, and non-Western drone music. Though I like to think I’m fairly well-versed (for a layman) on this area, finding things like Cycles are what keeps me going back to this well.

Laraaji – Universe

Since I’ve alluded to him a couple times, the least I could do is devote a post to a New Age giant: Laraaji. Born Edward Larry Gordon in Philadelphia, PA, he was a student of violin, piano, trombone, and voice in his youth and originally pursued studies in music at Howard University. He moved to New York to become a stand-up comedian and it was while in the Big Apple that he began studying eastern Mysticism and the zither, which he found in a pawn shop. The term zither is derived from the Latin “cithara” (also the root word for guitar) is used to describe harp-like instruments consisting of many strings strung over a flat body with no neck, which separates it from more guitar-like string instruments. Though there are a few different varieties, it is unclear which type Laraaji found that fateful day in the pawn shop. Regardless, he took the instrument home and began experimenting with adding electronic amplification to the instrument. Legend has it that Brian Eno heard Laraaji busking in Washington Square Park and, recognizing a sonic comrade, insisted they work together. The result is the third installment of Eno’s Ambient series Ambient 3: Day of Radiance, which brought international attention to Laraaji’s unique instrument and sound. Thus began a long career of recording beautiful, contemplative music that continues to this day. Universe comes from a 1987 release on the great New Age label Audion Recordings.

In addition to his work as a musician, Laraaji began leading what he calls Laughter Meditation Workshops that tie together his stand-up roots with his music. In an interview over at Aquarium Drunkard he sums it up pretty nicely:

To laugh often is to keep the breath open and the energies of the body flowing. And then there’s communal laughter, the laughing of a community. Start with the family, the laughter of a family getting together for a meal or a holiday. There’s something about a giggling kind of joyous, smiling, lovableness that’s not necessarily fueled by jokes or humor, but just the joy of being in each other’s presence. Laughter is a sensation of communal bonding.

Yura Yura Teikoku – Nantonaku Yume O

Yura Yura Teikoku formed in the late-1980s in Tokyo and were very highly regarded in the Japanese underground music scene there, though there first performance outside Japan didn’t come until 2005. This track comes off their last commercial release, 2007’s Hollow Me. Though the group has had a number of drummers over the years, bassist Chiyo Kamekawa and singer/guitarist Shintaro Sakamoto anchored the group until they disbanded in 2010, citing a lack of enthusiasm. Both Kamekawa and Sakamoto have remained active with solo projects, and while I can’t say I’ve heard Kamekawa’s work I can vouch for Sakamoto’s two solo releases: How to Live with a Phantom and Let’s Dance Raw. What really hooks me about this group (and Sakamoto’s solo work) is the blend of folk rock and psychedelia, which is a combination many have attended but few have pulled off as well as these guys do. If you like this track just listen to the auto-generated playlist for this track. It has a couple tracks from Sakamoto’s solo albums as well as some live cuts and it’s had my foot a-tappin’ all day.