Hey Kidz,

Not as much going on as there might be this week because I've got a
cold.

Just heard from Mike VanPortfleet that the re-mastering of The
Burning Circle And Then Dust is nearing completion, so it should be
out early next year.

If Thousands is in the studio recording a free EP for you guys. We'll
let you know when it's available.

Kobi has a second free EP coming soon of out-takes from Dronesyndrome.

Remora just recorded a cover of the Attrition song "Fusillade" for an
Attrition tribute record; we'll let you know when it comes out.

Our good friends from Boston, Plumerai, are going on tour next week
playing in Cleveland, Washington, Fredericksburg (with Remora), &
Raleigh. They've got a new singer (again) & she's supposed to be
their best one yet.

We're working on the new QRD, we're going to be doing interviews with
Bill Horist (prepared guitar improviser), Tim Renner (Stonebreath),
The Torch Marauder (super-hero/musician), If Thousands (minimalist
ambient), Kobi (electro-acoustics), Plumerai (shoegazer), & Erin
O'Brien (author of Harvey & Eck); so if you have any questions for
any of these artists please email me off-list. There also will be a
couple of other things.

Below are some recent reviews.

hrt
Brian John Mitchell

Kobi – Dronesyndrome
Like Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music or Richard Young's Advent, this
album must be listened in total to get the full effect. As when
listening to the other records, patience is rewarded; one can achieve
an altered state through the music alone. Kobi is a Norwegian
collective run by Kai Mikalsen. The music is a combination of
electronically processed sounds of common objects and acoustic based
instruments such as cello, double bass, accordion & guitar.
The music itself is extremely subtle. It compares to listening to
ocean waves or the rumbling of an air conditioning unit. The sound
seems repetitive at first, but slowly becomes more and more
transfixing. The record itself was mastered at a low volume. I think
this record would greatly benefit from play on large speakers. I am
sure on a large sound system this disc could be utterly transportive.
The song titles read like they went through the translation tool on
AltaVista one too many times. The result is intentionally or
unintentionally funny song titles such as "Yellow Scales Slid Across
Oily Rolls of Flushed Skin" and "Faint Echoes Ran Round the Unseen
Hall (Part 1)". The song titles themselves are unimportant because
the whole disc acts as one sound piece. There is a constant subtle,
subterranean percussion that runs through all the songs. Sometimes, a
guitar feedback growls and bowed strings moan as electronics gurgle
and whir in the background. Sometimes the sounds build up to a would
be climax, but the music never quite reaches it.
The song "Anchored to a Central Core of Saturated Intensity" begins a
journey which employs disembodied voices that call out from the muddy
sonic soup. Fractured guitar notes repeat as a feedback-whirlwind
rushes over high-pitched squeals. A low rumble joins the mix. The
sound becomes more and more dense. It enters an almost Dadahmah like
territory before slowly fading out to a person reading a children's
story on the song "This Inclusion is not a simple Operation." If one
is not looking directly at the CD display it is hard to tell where
one song starts and another ends. As one listens, the divisions
between songs become less and less important. Kobi's music to be
fully satisfying requires ones full attention. Close, committed
listening is rewarded with quite a fascinating voyage.
~ Dan Cohoon, Amplitude Equals One Over Frequency Squared

Upon first inspection I thought Kobi to be a Japanese band, due to
the bands name meaning something like flattery in Japanese and the
Japanese character on the front cover certainly made me curious as
well. However as it turns out Kobi is a Norwegian band put together
by Kai Mikalsen and featuring several other musicians from bands like
Origami Arktika, Jazzkammer, Salvatore, and quite a few others.
As the title of the album might suggest, Kobi specializes in droning
experimental ambient music. At times Kobi reminds me of artists like
Aeoga or Halo Manash, but never comes close to sounding as dark as
those ambient creators. At other times I'm inclined to think that
perhaps Kai was influenced by older ambient artists like Steve Roach
or Vidma Obmana, but never does Kobi sound exactly like any other
ambient artists I've heard, and I certainly appreciate them a bit
more for that. The music as I've already stated is rather far from
being melodic and just slowly drones away using both synthesizers and
guitars. There is also some use of drums, cello, and even accordion
on this album.
The first four songs are fairly normal ambient tracks, but something
creepy happens by the fifth song. Suddenly the album takes on a much
more sinister mood with undistinguishable voices in the background
and what also might be sounds from a lake late at night. This carries
on through to the eighth song and then calms down for the final song.
It gives me the feeling of wandering through some fog covered forest
next to a large lake where only the sounds of nature can heard. Eerie
stuff indeed. If droning ambient like this interests you then I
invite you to take this journey with Kai and his collective of
musicians.
~ Joe Mlodik, Lunar Hypnosis

Of all the experimental electronic artists of the twenty-first
century, Norway's Kobi just may be the best. The only other modern
act that we can compare them to is Sigur Ros. Dronesyndrome features
nine compositions that are wonderfully rich with atmosphere. It may
be difficult to recognize any familiar instruments as the folks in
Kobi mutate and change sounds and instruments to suit their needs.
Recorded over a two year period, this album was created by Kai
Mikalsen, Fredrik Ness Sevendal, Per Gisle Galaen, Kjell Olav
Jorgensen, Petter Pogo, Bjarne Larsen, Jon Birger Wormdahl, Tore H.
Boe, and Michael Duch. To the untrained ear, these recordings may
sound like abstract noodling. But more astute listeners will notice
absorbing nuances and intriguing subtleties laced into these tracks.
True to the claim of the accompanying press release, this
album "sounds better the louder and longer you listen to it." Mind
blowing experiments...and they all work. Includes "Faint Echoes Ran
Round the Unseen Hall (Part 1)," "Anchored to a Central Core of
Saturated Intensity," "The Existence of Another Goal" and more.
Highly recommended.
~ Babysue


If Thousands: i have nothing
If Thousands - Aaron Molina and Christian McShane's ongoing
experiment in using instruments that they're not technically
proficient in - rolls beautifully onward and upward with their sixth
release I Have Nothing. Their approach has always been to try
everything and anything, in order to stumble across unique
atmospheres. They're always succeeded, at making music that wraps
itself around you and pulls you in, yet each album has its own
distinct aura. That's certainly true of I Have Nothing - if there
were an If Thousands formula, this album would be the sound of them
breaking free from it.
There really are no rules in If Thousands' creative world, yet here
they seem especially into pushing their sound in new directions. The
album opens with a distinctly Eastern-sounding elegy which also
features an accordion and sounds like the beginning of a day, like a
score for the sun slowly rising over a silent landscape. From there
the album glides through a consistently compelling array of drones
and moodscapes and gentle improvisation.
Sometimes there's a cloud of sound, ocassionally one instrument
crying on its lonesome. Silence never seems too far away. Often
they're in an Eno-esque ambient zone, though initial impressions of
homogenity will erode the closer you listen. And occasionally they'll
be an explicit change in tone, as with the delightfully odd "Crispin
Glover", sort of a warped carnival tune, or the banjo-led closing
number "Stella and Me". Even with the album's diverse textures,
though, what often stands out most isn't one instrument but an
overall feeling and sound. The overall aura is silently sad, perhaps,
or quietly filled with awe...or as if we're caught in the middle of a
contemplation, or the moment between thoughts. Winds howl, open
spaces beckon, our minds empty into a pure state of just being.
Of course the feeling the album exudes will no doubt be different for
each listener, or for the same listener in different frames of mind,
yet the music certainly will provoke an emotional reaction,
accompanied by a far-secondary intellectual one ( i.e. 'what
instruments are they playing now?'). For a rich work with so many
hidden corners, I Have Nothing also feels like one cohesive, even
compact work, not like a maze you might get lost in. It offers
expansive, involving atmosphere, but in a pointed, powerful way. It's
the most inspiring recording yet from If Thousands, a duo in the
midst of an exciting musical adventure.
~ Dave Heaton, Erasing Clouds


Remora – Enamored
Blurring the lines between a greatest hits record & a follow-up
album, Remora breaks a four-year period of silence with the release
of Enamored. Heavily chorused vocals & thick acoustic guitars form
the backbone of this album hiding in the space between shoegazer &,
believe it or not, folk. Lyrically, the album is thick with sci-fi
references, the failure of love, & the aftermath of war. I caught
strong alliterations to the early work of Jason Spaceman of
Spiritualized throughout the album, so the shoegazers out there
should be quite happy with this release.
~ Poseidon, Gothic Beauty


Jamie Barnes – Honey from the Ribcage
"I'll trade you my black lung for the blades of your shoulders that
carry the weight as we both are growing older." What a brilliant
line. This collection of eccentric acoustic pieces is very warm &
moving. Despite the dark tone of the songs, the album has an
almost "uplifting" feel to it. Jamie's voice is soothing & gentle, &
the production work is brilliant. I would love to hear him perform a
duet with fellow Silber vocalist Tara VanFlower someday. All that is
missing from this release is your ears.
~ Poseidon, Gothic Beauty


Tara VanFlower – my little fire-filled heart
Sophomore solo spin, from this lady of Lycia. Her heart pumps with
the same slow, dark (and echoplex'd) blood that flows through the
Ventricle label. But while Ventricle's trickle usually is icily
lacking in oxygen, TARA VanFLOWER's little fire-filled heart does
actually burn red with some hope and that sort of faith you catch
glimpses of in Jarboe and Steve von Till. The language of lyrics –
heaven, blessed, worship and on drives the point through the
symbolism like a rusted nail through the wrist. "Conversation with
Death" summons the goth/spiritual nicely. Most tracks are draped with
subdued industrial clang, and the vocals enveloped in effects. Rain
drops on an eerie ice cream truck during the lullabye "When" followed
by a snippet of "You Are My Sunshine" (a la an early Low album). You
could live in hope but you'll not stray from the darkness with this
night blooming Flower. "Ethernal" indeed.
~ Thurston Hunger, KFJC


Rollerball – Behind the Barber
Bubble-wrapped in dub textures, a dense sound that seems to exhale
and inhale in a variety of ways. In through the sitar, out through
the accordion…in through the electronic iron lung, out through the
trumpet. Time spent in mixing and maximimizing the inputs of the 16
listed contributors has muddied the tracks somewhat to a sonic
equivalent of brown, but brownian music may just be this year's
techno black. I actually dug the spikes and clashes of Real Hair
more, but this is a murky, surprisingly beaty album at times with a
lot of hues to it. At its best it approaches a sort of Art Ensemble
of Electronica. The abundance of synthesizers here is never smart-
bomb precise, never cold and calculated, but warm and more arbitrary.
The vocals are more confident and torchy when they appear, which is
not often enough! "Slits Arandas" is one hell of a journey with
prominent hornplay. "Autotelic" ends just as its seems ready to
launch into an interesting guitar-led phase. I'm unsure how many of
the sweet 16 still live in the same house in Portland, OR but it must
be a comfy place. The more you listen to this, the more you will feel
at home with it.
~ Thurston Hunger, KFJC