Jon Gibson - Two Solo Pieces

Keyboard drone.

In Zaire - Visions Of The Age To Come

In Zaire are an Italian group based in Berlin. They play dub and funk influenced psychedelic rock. There's a clarity and precision to their sound that helps makes it almost hypnotic.

 

Learn more

• In Zaire bandcamp
• In Zaire Discogs

Justin Walter - Unseen Forces

Justin Walter creates beautiful, gentle waves of organic sound by modulating his breath through an analog synth.



Discover

• Justin Walter bandcamp

Group Home - Livin' Proof

Group Home were a short-lived hip-hop duo that were associated with Gang Starr. Both members of the act appeared on Gang Starr's Daily Operation LP, and Livin' Proof was produced by DJ Premier.

 

Desmadrados Soldado De Ventura

Desmadrados Soldado De Ventura are a British psychedelic rock band specialising in noisy extended freak-outs.


Find out more

• Desmadrados Soldado De Ventura bandcamp
• Desmadrados Soldado De Ventura on Discogs

Masayoshi Fujita & Jan Jelinek - Bird, Lake, Objects

We've already highlighted the work of the electronic musician Jan Jelinek. But he's recorded a lot of great releases so we feel no shame in bringing another to your attention.

On Bird, Lake, Objects he collaborates with vibraphone player Masayoshi Fujita. Like Jelinek, Fujita's music shares an interest in exploring gentle texture and layers.

The product of their partnership is this hypnotic, immersive album.

Eduard Artemyev - Stalker

You may not like or understand Andrei Tarkovsky's impenetrable Stalker, but a huge part of its haunting atmosphere can be attributed to Eduard Artemyev's incredible score.

Kikagaku Moyo - House In The Tall Grass

Kikagaku Moyo are psychedelic explores who switch between extended acid-fried wig-outs and gossamer smooth folk sweetness.



Want more?

• Kikagaku Moyo on Discogs
• Kikagaku Moyo on Bandcamp

Chico Hamilton - Peregrinations

Chico Hamilton was a jazz drummer and bandleader who came to prominence in the 1950s. Initially he played West Coast jazz, but throughout the Sixties and Seventies his music continued to evolve and move with times. In the 1970s he came to embrace the fusion sound that had emerged at the beginning of the decade.

That's where we find Chico Hamilton on 1975s Peregrinations.

 

• Chico Hamilton's discography
• Chico Hamilton obituary

Herbie Mann - Stone Flute

Jazz flutist Herbie Mann had a lot of pop hits over his career. But on Stone Flute there's more of a progressive vibe like he's playing the quieter moments of Miles' Bitches Brew.

Don Cherry - Organic Music Society

Don Cherry was always one of the most adventurous musicians throughout his career. During the 1970s he started to explore African, Middle Eastern and Asian music. And one of the best examples of this genre fusion can be heard on Organic Music Society.

Aural Holograms

Finnish ambient droners specialising in highly atmospheric soundscapes.

Listening to them is like eavesdropping on an ancient ritual.




More

• Aural Holograms website
• Aural Holograms - Before the great stone

Black Bombaim

Black Bombaim are a Portugese heavy psych rock power trio. Driving hard rhythms, and sex-faced squalling guitar solos. They rock with some serious heavy-osity, tree chopping rhythms and kaleidoscope guitaring. Good beer chugging music.

Graham Lambkin | Call Back The Giants | Helm - Cafe Oto, London 6 August 2010

There are a small number of artists who are very special to me. And when I go to their gigs, the performance is almost an irrelevance. It is enough simply to know that I am in the same room with them.

This performance is one of those opportunities. And in the case of Graham Lambkin a rare one. I have followed his singular body of work for a long time. Tonight he will be reading from his recent poetry collection. But first there are other artists performing on who it’s interesting to report.

Helm is a very neatly dressed young man. He starts his set with a lovely long open drone. Like the sound of electricity pylons nicely amplified. Resting on a small snare drum is an upturned cymbal. A small metal object rests on it. Possibly a contact microphone. Harsher metallic drilling noises are added. Presumably from the vibration of the cymbal. Then again, that stuff might just have been left there and is playing no part in the set. There is a claustrophobic feel to the sound. As if a submarine is crushed whilst an alarm clock rings unendingly. Or if a rusty door hinge screams as it is slowly tortured.

As if the presence of Graham Lambkin were not enough, the late addition of Call Back The Giants is an exciting bonus. They are the new project of Tim Goss who, like Lambkin, is an alumni of The Shadow Ring. The spectre of that band looms over his set. The distinctive primitivism keyboard sound harks back to their classic albums. Surreal dark tales are narrated in a blank deadpan. Goss is joined for the first half of his set by, I am guessing, his daughter. She helps weird out his keyboard sounds and her young voice counterpoints Goss’s bleak intonations. Like the greatest Shadow Ring moments it is uncomfortable, unsettling, unique.

Whilst Goss carries the Shadow Ring torch Graham Lambkin’s career has continued to move in the directions heralded by their later records. In Transmission and then in his own solo work he explored tonal soundscapes and musique concrete.

This evening though he is here to promote the publication of 'Dripping Junk' a book of his drawings. That’s not going to make a performance so he reads from his poetry collection ‘Dumb answer to miracles’, published in a tiny run last year.

The poems are very short. Providing Polaroids of Lambkin’s mind which seems phase shifted to a reality slightly out of sync with our own. The ordinary is made odd, the familiar, peculiar. Several poems cause the audience to laugh but never confidently. There is always a flicker of doubt. Is this a serious or humorous observation? Does my laughter betray a failure to engage intellectually? I embrace the ambiguity.

Lambkin downs four large whiskies during his set, observing: “It’s thirsty work.” The readings are punctuated with what sounds like a child’s recorder being played. The poor acoustics of the recordings distort the sound, adding to a uneasy, haunting, melancholy. As I make my way home through the night one line echoes in my mind: “We are all complex piss.” I do not understand it. But the pleasure of Lambkin’s work is in the attempt to decipher it.