Free Liars 'Scissor' Download

The first signs of the new Liars album 'Sisterworld' are starting to leak onto the web and it surely won't be long before the album itself makes it out there so make the most of the increasing tension, excitement and old fashioned pre-release fervour while you can. It's due out in March and they are giving away the opening track Scissor free on their website.

DOWNLOAD HERE

After starting with some eeire, dreamy delayed vocals about transient distance and journeying it doesn't take long before it smashes the sound barrier with a pretty rugged, rocking almost Metal riff that wrestles itself like its strait-jacketed. The distant dreamy quietness comes in, get's blown out again and then it ends. As an album opener it sounds as potent as Plastercasts of Everything - though if we're dodging any exitable hysteria we'd more honestly say we prefer Plastercasts. You can decide for yourself.

As you can see from the traclisting, there'es soem pretty gnarly, canckerous 'They Were Wrong...' kind of track titles.

1. "Scissor"

2. "No Barrier Fun"

3. "Here Comes All The People"

4. "Drip"

5. "Scarecrows On A Killer Slant"

6. "I Still Can See An Outside World"

7. "Proud Evolution"

8. "Drop Dead"

9. "The Overachievers"

10. "Goodnight Everything"

11. "Too Much, Too Much"


Sounds pretty killer to us. Looking forward to it.


Sign up for more info, artwork and teasers at the website:

www.thesisterworld.com

R.I.P Jack Rose

It is with sincere grief that I am posting this, but here is the news that Jack Rose passed away yesterday 5th December from a heart attack, aged only 38. For me, this is a genuinely shocking event that has left me practically speechless. When I wrote a preview of the gig for the Source magazine I had a short but profoundly affecting email conversation with him about his work and modern American Roots music, then went on to see him play an incredibly meditative set of acoustic guitar ragas at the Prince Albert which was an almost spiritual experience. As you can tell, he left a lasting impression.

In the 90's he was a member of 3-piece electric noise band Pelt,whose fierce, squally efefcts heavy styles gradually quietened down in to more naked acoustic contemplations. In the 2000's Rose began experimenting with fingerpicking, drawing heavily on the American primitivism of John Fahey.

Enough words from me. The man will forever be a legendary musician of his time in my house.

I leave you with a peformance of Kensington Blues from a few years ago.

Gravsahl - ... A Part of Nothing

Gravsahl, a German one man black metal band releases his first demo '...A Part of Nothing' as a free download. This really is worth you picking it up. It's not that it's groundbreaking - there's whole essays to be written about the oversaturation of one man BM bands (OMBMB!) - and you never know, we might be just the people to espouse on the why, when, who and where's of it all one day. No, it sounds like you'd expect - drum machine keeping intense tempos, buzzsaw guitar throb up in the foreground - but what it does it excels at and all you need to know is that the black flame burns bright with this one, the long shadow of Burzum hangs over the ragged mantra icy trance - its captures the regal, arrogant poise and majestic elegance of the founding sounds of the genre (just look at that logo), adds enough influence from the intevening history and produces an absorbing energising record as a result.

So, here you go: DOWNLOAD


Lynx:

www.myspace.com/gravsahl

NFR End of Year Mayhem - Thursday 3rd December!!!

This is it. 2009 is nearly over, end of year polls are coming, we all have our opinions. I haven't seen one I like yet.....there's still time.

Come to the Penthouse on Thursday to hear NFR's End of Year Spectacular!

Me and Fokka Wolfe will be playing our highlights from our year of underground, independant, DIY labels, demos, and more from across all your favourite NFR genres >>>

avant pop / bliss drone / concrete bass / cosmic psych / feral noize / ghetto electro / glitter wave / gutter punk / kvlt bvzz / mutant indie / neon diskko / outsider grimness / primitive euphoria / skronk rock / wyrd folk.....and more...

My current favourite being New York Loft Core. I will buy two, yes TWO drinks for the person who can guess which band or artist insipred that phrase (Here's a clue: they're not actually from NY).

See you Thursday.


MxBx

DOWNLOAD: The Black Neck Band of the Common Loon

The Black Neck Band of the Common Loon rehearsal tapes from Warner studios

You may have read the review of this band in this month's Wire magazine. A glowing assessment of the duo of Andy Pyne and Blue Pin's crazy world of percussive battery and vocal illusions. It makes sense the deeper you go into it, like Captain Beefheart being given the keys to Alice's Wonderland. Think what the Don would do with that and you're half way there....whilst also being stranded in the middle of nowhere.....with no one to help you.

They just put up a pair of rehearsal jams for the world to plug it's ears in to and here they are for you. Free and wild with the wind in their hair.

Live at Warner Studios 19 9 09
Live at Warner Studios 26 9 09


Myspace: www.myspace.com/blackneckband

A day in the listening life

For one day only NFR was alone in the office so the whole day was spent listening and tweeting every albumas we went. Here's there whole day corralled into one bite sized blog post:

09:30 - So far:Slagmaur, Bong, Quttinirpaaq, and now Ous Mal - Finnish weirdity....
10:30...Gkfoes Vjgoaf - no spelling mistake. crazy weird dissonant folk..? LA loner is waaay out there lost in the woods:
11:30 - #musicmonday continues with Worriedaboutsatan - Arrivals. one of my albums of the year for sure..top10? 20?
12:30 - now we're on The Fresh & Onlys - super garagey modern throwback rock from John Dwyer's Castlefacelabel. (i should @ these, right?)
13:00 - now it's Wooden Veil - German avant-industrial-folk band signed to Dekorder records. video on our blog!
13:30 - Pissed Jeans - King of Jeans. if you don't already know this album or this band...well....shame on you...hang your head.
14:00 - out of the scuzzy filth into the slinky sex beat of Joy Orbison. Wet Look is one of the tracks of the year, dubstep/wonk or whatnot, right?
14:30 - Settling into Campfire's self titles two track cassette. Lush humming liquid reverie.
15:00 - Brighton's own cross-genre Baikonour - heavy on the kraut-drone and electronic atmospheres, totally kicking it in the groove stakes.
16:00 - Book of Shadows - Secret Garden. immersive tru-nu-psychedelia. Enjoy their white-on-white myspace page!
16:40 - #musicmonday is nearly over - here comes Om. Simple, effective, luminous, hypnotic, cosmic..... Thebes is building.....
17:30 - finishing the day - the working day - with The XX. It's a nice light bouncy end - that'll all change once I step outside into the darkness
18:00 - Teitanblood. None more dark, filthy, nasty, gory and satanic. E-fucking-vil. Morbid Devil of Pestilence is DISGUSTING!

Let's leave you with some of that shall we?

VIDEO: Wooden Veil - Red Sky

Here's the new video from Dekorder Records signees Wooden Veil. It's pretty trippy. The new album is all kinds if intense awesomeness - this track opens it, followed by some crazy clanging industrial kraut-rock of Shiverings then it all clams down....but carries on and then some. Wait til you get to the mind blowing Wooden People before you let your jaw drop too far. Go find it, you will like it.

For now, let this overwhelm your senses:

Ash Borer show you Black Metallers how it's done

Visually, if all you grim hordes want to keep it Trad but kick it up a bit, you've got Ash Borer to contend with:





We're willing to bet that musically they can show you a few new tricks too.

They just closed down their MySpace to move to Blogspot with this, there first post:

"We will begin recording by this month's end. 3 songs at roughly 40 minutes total. Tape on Dead Earth, CD on Flenser, possibly vinyl down the road sometime...."


If you know their last demo, you'll be finding this news as exciting as us.

REVIEW: Island of Raiell - Ab Initio

We’ve been tipped off about this band by good friend of NFR, Nick Keech from kraut - gaze - noise - drone outfit One Unique Signal - His sister Louise is half of the enigmatically named duo Island Of Raiell along with Angie Cheung. The pair have been in a multitude of London based post-punk, indie rock outfits (and Angie even helped pen a Brand New Heavies chart topper!) With indie credentials and bonus real life Success established, the duo are heading out into less predictable waters with their new audio-visual experimental project Island of Raiell. They have just released Ab Initio; their debut album through indie label/distributors Genepool Records as a 42 minute long single track available through iTunes for the bargain sum of £3.49.

The band insist that the album should be heard comfortably reclined, immersed in low mood lighting - but that's implicit from the opening hum; the eerie atmosphere this album exudes makes it sound like it was recorded in halflight and shadow. Anyone familiar with the kinds of resonance heavy ambient soundscapes that Deleted Scenes, Forgotten Dreams regularly throw out will find a lot to engage with during this album. Although it certainly begins with them, across it's nine individually titled movements the album quickly progresses beyond the murky abstract aquatics suggested by the cover into movements similar to the rhythmic chanting of Pocahaunted; spectral churn of Religious Knives and forlorn anthems of Kate Bush. Distant drums echo, voices surface and fade like the suggestions of ripples over heavy water. There's a dread sentiment to this story of a drowned sailor and it's sung by two sirens beckoning a wider audience toward their aquatic embrace.

We have the third section, Rock & Wave for you to download as a teaser. It features an unsettlingly slow and doomy piano lead that literally does come back later to haunt you.

DOWNLOAD: Rock & Wave

The most strikingly dramatic section to the piece arrives with Black Wave in the form of a blast of Middle Eastern horns, a crashing torrent of noise and a harsh shriek - it's a peak in violence that represents the last gasp of the central character before he slips under the waves; an event that leads towards the next highlight of the album - a choral passage titled Lie Beneath that rises from whispering ambience at around 30 minutes, then that slow, heavy-lidded grim-robed piano refrain comes back in accompanied by a backwards sounding buzzing and faint traces of reappearing choir.

It's a record designed to disturb and enchant all at once, and it succeeds with absorbingly fine attention to detail and involving yet unforced narrative structure.





Lynx:

DOWNLOAD: Ab Initio Part III: Rock & Wave

www.myspace.com/islandofraiell
www.last.fm/music/Island+of+Raiell
www.islandofraiell.co.uk

www.thegenepool.co.uk/genepoolrecords/

Projections Play Live!

The poster says it all. You've been waiting a long time to get to see Projections again, even if you didn't realise it. A much more exciting band that BRS....in our webworthless opinion.