VIDEO: Twilight Owls - Wakonda Auga

Last and distinctly not least in my posts from the Lautreamont RA Studios video set, Twilight Owls is probably my favourite artist from the left-field psych/drone scene out of Russia that I covered, playing as TO, in Khumry and other soundscapist bands - his solo project as Twilight Owls has some of the most beautifully sculpted sounds and effective, euphorically subtle manipulations of themes of any drone artists to have caught my ears in the last twelve months.  This mirror rippled light trailing video enhances the disorienting effect of the music as each delayed chord hangs and rocks back and forth between the next, overlapping and shifting forwards with mental hazing effect that leaves you stoned.

Follow him on his Soundcloud too, for updats on all his projects.

LIVE VIDEO: Khmury @ Avant Club, Moscow

Here's some live action from Khmury playing at the Avant Club in Moscow, 24th November 2010.  The video was shot and edited by Evgeny Rodin and Vadim Crasnitsky who both deserve massive props for this, it looks beautiful and sounds great too - not your usual shaky hand cam disrto-sound you tube clip at all. Well, not accidentally distorted anyway, this set descends into hyperblast cosmic carnage, taking in some classic rock riffs, fills and some bad-ass basslines, all captured crystal clear off the desk and synched to perfection.

DOWNLOAD: Khmury - Live

More new Russian-based mayhem for you in the form of Khmury's new release; a two track, twenty minute live gig taped in nice and deep hi-fidelity.  The band includes Fedya, of Twilight Owls' fame, an artist who is getting some wider attention through his releases on Amdiscs, and deservedly so as I've said before. On his own he works in shades of drone, but this band is an entirely different beast and they start off this set with Youth Against Youth a song that stamps the rock throttle on full and drops some squealing leads closer to Guns N' Roses than Barn Owl. It's an awesome start to the instrumental set than soon yields to a decelerating passage than recalls the Twin Peaks theme, deliberately or not, lightly enough that it owns the musical passage but also with enough atmosphere to put you straight into the surreal headspace of Lynch's pine forests complete with a chilly tension.  From there the thirteen minutes swirl, pummel, soar and pound past in a pretty triumphant mix of post-rock and a range of harder stuff that feels good to bang your head into.   The second track, a brief four minute roar called Broken Bass Jam is the sound of an overdriven  amp and the most guttural Sabbath worshipping punishment capable of being dealt out by the band, with more of that savage lead guitar work crawling and scrawling across it's face.

Love this band, even more so for the fact thy keep giving it out for free:

Cut out and keep:  DOWNLOAD

Stream:

  Khmury - 01 - Youth Against Youth by twilightowls

Twilight Owls

 
Twilight Owls is one of my favourite artists on the awesome AMDISCS label, with a free download available from their page that I've had on repeat since they posted it up. He just made a new tumblr blog with nothign on it yet, but keep your eye on it and see what happens.

He's a solo dronesman mixing song styles with outward looking tones - think Sun Araw, Barn Owl, Pocahaunted, Ducktails rolled over and dragged across the Russian tundra - he can move from subtle to raw to roar with the flick of a switch and does so compellingly across the tracks strewn across MySpace and AmDiscs in the various bands he plays in. He drums in two bands that are on hold at present, Радиолюбитель and He Called Himself Jesus, but he also has an active and very very promising thing going on in the form of Khmury; a psych collaboration with Prea Hrada, in which they take a atmospheric setting, play with the nuances of it, flexing and tensing; building up to a full on galloping charge.

Here's a download and video of them in action.

DOWNLOAD: Khmury - Jam#1