Thug Entrancer - Mystic Minds Vol. 3

Some jams for the blossoming spring, for the inevitable BBQs and late-night drives.


Ryan McRyhew is a co-founder of the Laser Palace label and member of Hideous Men and Bdrmppl, He started the Thug Entrancer project to deal with the dislocation of moving from Denver to Chicago, reviving the ageless art of transforming dark times into positive vibes. He does this by finessing a battery of analog electronics to make hand-made techno, folk music for replicants.

On the third volume of Tropics Mind, a whole slew of electronic visionaries, mostly from the Denver Arthouse rave axis, re-interpret Thug Entrancer tracks. 'Tight Lean,' from the first Tropics Mind, shows up twice, with Iuengliss taking the fluttering beat of the original and shoving it into a bucket of water, before atomizing the whole thing into a particle swarm of glitchy breakbeats. Mystic Bummer leaves the ghetto fabulousness intact, funking it up with some 808 cowbell and enormous hand claps that would have Grandmaster Flash grinning, finally tearing it up into a barrage of breakbeats. Low-slung and super cool, this track is my fave, gonna be buzzing in my ear drums until the next Equinox.

"They Live" also shows up twice, once by Popdrone, once by Alphabets, the first sounding like an after party in The Dark Backward, and the latter's Dawn Mall Remix sounds like some cognitive disorder where unrelated memories collide into one another, creating a bizarro slipstream of alternate time, space, and identity.

The last track to get the double-feature treatment is "Spiritual Growth", also from the first Tropics Mind. The Gathering The Light remix turns the electro-minimalism of the original into a chrome-polished night drive down a slick highway at night, open fires reflecting on the asphalt, while Jedediah Logsdon's takes the electro-minimalism of the source material and turns it into a plasticine byte of mnml tech-house.

"Head Computer" from Vol. 2 gets the treatment from Greencarpetedstairs, who takes the burbling bassline and b-boy electro-funk and drops it down a well. Its like listening to a rave going on in the basement of the hotel where yr trying to sleep, with the occasional punctuation of blood-curdling screams making you wish you had shelled out the extra six dollars for the HoJo by the airport. Venacavaca's version of "New Violence" sounds like a vengeful spirit hanging in the air around the midnight ninja strike of the original's bassline.  A bad omen. "Dark Days (drift station remix)" takes "Dark Ages" chopped-and-slurred soul vox and taut, wiry beats and reconfigures it into a lo-fi girl group sing-a-long, finalizing the record with some glammy disco, before trailing off into the sunrise.

Its cool to hear how the various remixers work with the source material, revealing their personalities along the way, as well as the adaptability of McRyhew's song-writing. With the homespun feeling of the hand-made electronica, there is a spark of humanity in this bent and broken circuit boards and chip tune vocals. There is no trace of irony here. With crisp, warm beats and solid musicality, this is bound to sound great through systems and headphones alike, so DJs take note and listeners beware. The fact that this is a free download from Thug Entrancer's bandcamp means that there is literally no excuse for not checking out. Unless you just don't like good music.

Thug Entracer Vol. 3

In case this is not enough analog wizardry for you, you can hear some of Ryan's modular synth experiments over here:

Wonderful Wizzard

Black Sleep of Kali - Our Slow Decay

Hey. I tried writing some cerebral fucking analysis of this sweet stoner metal band from Denver, Co, and it was giving me a fucking headache. This is not cerebral music, although it is intelligent and thought-provoking. They sing about reality and lions and snakes. The guitars churn and chug in all the right ways. The drumming is top-notch, and takes this band a cut above the legions of tepid imitators. With layers of harmony vocals, searing lead guitar, build-ups, breakdowns, and growling, Our Slow Decay never drags its heels, pushing you onward, compelling you further into the inky black night.

Metal has come a long ways from its tall boys, denim patches, and inverted pentagrams. These guys sound like 4 dudes trying to wake the fuck up, not content to swallow the bullshit pill of mediocrity of white-washed society. We're being sold a lie, and i am surprised that wakefulness and spiritual warfare is not embraced more of the metal cognoscenti. It takes some fucking guts to go against what all yr bosses, yr parents, yr teachers, yr roommates, the newspapers, the advertising are telling you. Some of us are fucking pissed (although in our better moments, we are peaceful about that fact.)

The real reason for this post, is to tell y'all that this band is pretty sweet, and if you happen to live in the greater Boulder/Denver metropolitan area, they're playing a pretty sweet show with some band called Orm and somebody else, at Astroland tomorrow. And if you are unfortunate enough to not be able to attend this event, slam on some headphones, and bang yr head against the walls of infinity.



Our Slow Decay

And They Lynched Him To A Tree

"It is night. In a clearing by the roadside among the turpentine pines, lit by the headlights from parked cars, a Negro has just been lynched."

A woman in a white Victorian wedding dress, pulling yards and yards of red satin ribbon from her breast, as if disemboweling herself. A butoh dancer in a cage, painted like a zebra, jumping rope. Two young children, listening to a story, uncomprehending. A black man in tattered clothes, trembling and afraid.

This is the world of And They Lynched Him To A Tree, a collaborative multi-media theater piece, between the University of Colorado's College of Music and Department of Theater and Dance. Based upon a piece by William Grant Still, written in 1939, who was the first African
American to conduct a major Symphony Orchestra, and had over 150 compositions to his name, and was masterminded by Fred Peterband (choir direction) and Onye Ozuzu (choreography). Four installations, spread about the ATLAS theater building, create an immersive experience, where observers may wander about, to lose themselves in this world, like Billie Holiday's Strange Fruit brought to life. The audience is shoulder to shoulder with the performers, breaking down the traditional spectator mentality of stage and seats. Standing next to a black man, huddled and shaking on a freight elevator, with the narration of his brutal beating and narrow escape with the lynching rope, the luxury of the stoic observer was abandoned. I wanted to put my arms around the man. The audience filed, silently, from the elevator, after the piece. This was beyond traditional White Guilt, the piece asks only that we look, that we bear witness, that these things HAPPENED.

A strong stylistic consistency in design (a preponderance of red and white), the slow, languid movements of the dancers, as if watching something underwater, and the hushed atmosphere of the Theater provoked a strong, dreamlike ambience. Like watching a bad dream, that is heartbreaking but beautiful. The ATLAS Theater transforms, this weekend, into something otherworldly. Utterly professional performances, from all involved, remind us how lucky we are to live in a cultural vortex, where interest art and dialogue can occur. That these wounds of the past can be pulled out of the heirloom drawer, and witness paid, that maybe these wounds may eventually salve.

This is going on tonight and tomorrow, (fri and sat, feb 11 and 12) and may be attended for free, although it is recommended that you rsvp for tickets to the big finale, a half-hour multimedia performance in the theater proper. I strongly advise checking this out. It is truly special, and i am very grateful that i got to attend.

ps... the rsvp for the main performance has ended, but the website claims that it is worth trying to see the show, if you are interested, as many ticket holders don't show up.

info

Review: LaserPalace2011

About a year ago, i had my 30th birthday. I inaugurated the occasion by attending an album release party from local stalwarts Laser Palace, a Denver based cassette label and visual arts organ, centered around husband and wife dynamic duo Ryan McRyhew and Kristi Schaefer, then settled down to a year of getting focused, hunkering down and working on my craft. The fact that i am finally getting around to putting the spotlight on the Laser Palace just goes to show how far i have yet to go along this path. But it is this care, the craftmanship and attention to detail, that really shines forth from the Palace. Stunning packaging, bordering on neurotic (such as the Hideous Men/Via split that came with hand-knitted cassette doily for only $8. Sorry 'bout yr luck if you missed out on that one!)
LP is a collective of Denver-based freaks and spazzes. This is a collection of their best and brightest, their newest and shiniest. Predominately electronic, apart from the bong-rip garage punk of Night of Joy, these 14 tracks show the diversity in the electronic underground, a million different ways to manipulate a 4/4 beat. From the atmospheric vocal washes of VIA, to the glitch krunk of Mystic Bummer, to the corroded filter fuck of Jedediah Lodgson or Candescent, there's probably something here for any fans of synths or beats or cassette weirdness. There's even a Suicide cover (phonebooks cover Cheree). Strong on melodicism, these people know how to write a SONG, making the weirdest shit listenable and catchy. You may have never heard of many of these artists before, but they stack up against the likes of Emeralds, Oneohtrix Point Never, Ghostly International, a slew of chillwave holograms. Just goes to show that Denver has shit going on, and there's a collective of talented individuals who are hanging out together, trading ideas, doing splits, making art work, and essentially, cultivating a scene, which is what this whole thing has always been about.
I was at a show a while back, and a scary noise lady told me the internet was dying, people were getting bored, and they'd rather go to a show. The line noise is getting extreme, so to find such lovingly packaged artifacts, funky and handmade, is refreshing and probably essential. Most can be had for a song, and can be had via Itunes once they're all gone.
Download this, find out what its all about, then buy all their tapes!

Laser Palace 11
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review: Laura Goldhamer, Larians, & Princess Music @ Astroland

Somewhat sorry to say, but this was only my second time visiting Astroland, Boulder's premier DIY funky arthouse venue. Nestled snugly in a pitch black auto repair plaza on the North Side of town, it has the vibe of a well kept secret, that maybe perhaps you are fortunate enough to be in on, which is probably for the best, as it is rather small, probably holding 75 people, max. Tonight's line-up, Laura Goldhamer and the Silver Nails, Larians, & Princess Music proved to be a warm oasis for a chilly week in Colorado, with inspired performances and friendly concert-goers giving that late night, living room ambience.

First to play was Laura Goldhamer and the Silver Nails, whom i had seen before at a stellar show, opening for Faun Fables and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. Quirky is the first adjective which springs to mind, regarding Ms. Goldhamer's music, but fun, inspired, detailed, and sincere are soon behind. Playing a kind of avant folk, principally on banjo, with a standard rock back-up of drums, bass, and electric guitar, with a cello as a nice lagniappe. First thing to set her apart from the ilk is she frequently performs against a back-drop of stop-motion animation, that she makes herself, picturing a woman righting the lyrics to a song on a blackboard, or paper-mache birds and eggs. It is whimsical, and she has described her music as 'Edgy Children's Music', but it comes off as heartfelt and personal, rather than an ecstacy hangover. The next defining characteristic of her music is the tight arrangements, odd time signatures on the banjo smoothly segueing, a central pulse, never faltering, never dropping the beat, and perfectly accompanied by her voice and sensitive playing of her backing band. Tight, sharp, focused, yet odd and singular. The world needs more songwriting like this. And last but not least, a new addition to her set this evening, was a drum installation, where a laptop triggered speakers around the room, set-up to various snare-drums, doorbells, and floortoms, and triggered by loops from the machine. At one point, she handed out drum sticks to audience members, and made live loops that then triggered different devices in different parts of the room. It was a little ramshackle, but utterly fucking brilliant, and also got the audience involved, a common cure for the notorious indie wallflower syndrome, which thankfully didn't seem to come out and brave the cold, tonight. Her set was like a birthday party, a gallery opening, a rock n roll show, and a mad scientist's experiment, all wrapped up in one brilliant package, with a shiny bow of charisma, good humour, and great ideas, to top it all off. You should check out her music, her albums and dvds are cool, but really, her live shows are not to be missed. For anything.
Larians, the following act, was a bit of a yawn. Time to sit down on the fuzzy shag carpet in the middle of the floor and hope it was not to sullied. Doing a bit of a shoegazey, trancey electronic thing, somewhat reminiscent of Ulrich Schnauss, perhaps M83, without the arena rock, with droney, reverbed vocals. Performing on a variety of synthesizers and rhythm machines, with a battery of guitar stomp boxes, the sounds were cool, and the ideas were there, but somewhat washed out, unclear and unfocused. At times i was lost in the heart of the music, which struck me as melancholy and romantic, but it went on for too long, with no break in between songs. All in all, an electronic splatter fest, although i got to watch a knob twiddler at work (i think i own some of the same pedals), and had some rather cool thoughts, for the duration. The ideas and the potential are there, but need to be refined.
Princess Music brought the evening to a close, which turned out to be most of the members of the silver nails, rearranged and reconfigured. They also turned out to be a delight, a pleasant surprise, a real treat. Laura Goldhamer on Banjo, Tyler Ludwick on Telecaster and lead vocals, Jeremy Averitt on prog bass (i think he was playing left handed), Robin Chestnut on drums (i think... i guess) and the lovely finesse of Psyche Dunkhase and Rachel Sliker on cello and violin, they made a glorious, sprawling technicolor sound; a mishmosh of math rock, folk and bluegrass, with a splash of afro caribbean sunshine brought on by furious funky polyrhythm, a la Paul Simon's Graceland. But mishmosh suggests something sloppy and shambolic, and haphazard these folks most assuredly were NOT. Almost frighteningly sharp, verging on hive mindmeld, but at the same time, dripping with exuberance and passion and pathos and play. Tyler Ludwick's voice reminds me the most of local troubadour Gregory Alan Isakov, but for the rest of you, think maybe perhaps M Ward, maybe a cousin of Jim James. Warm and Faded, like loved denim, he tied the songs together (which i gather he wrote himself, for the most part) with emotion and wit, defying the clinical pitfalls of their proggy, mathy brethren, but the spiky arrangements and odd cadences and dissonances prevented it from becoming a total hippy orgy, either. And, like a warehouse version of the standing ovation, the room, it did begin to move. The audience, they did start to sway. Like a breeze blowing over still water, the people got down, and the whole night gelled, into a moment of friendship, ideas and inspiration, joking and confessional, quiet and extremely LOUD. In essence, it all came together beautifully.
Places like Astroland can give you the feeling of being in the right place, at the right time. They can remind us that not all history was created in dusty New York lofts in the 1960s, that these are our lives and we are giving it all we got. That we are doing the best we can. And Boulder's contribution to the DIY infrastructure is almost eerily devoid of pretension, with people smiling, talking to one another, dancing. I saw a lot of hugging. It is my knee-jerk reaction to shy away from such affection, from such sincerity, to retreat into a spiky punk-rock pretense, to remain guarded. But, i was won over, as i usually am, and reminded that i am happiest when i am lost in the crowd, dancing my skinny white ass off.

Check 'em out... show yr love... show yr support!

Laura Goldhamer & The Silvernail: http://www.myspace.com/lauragoldhamer
Princess Music: http://princessmusic.bandcamp.com/
Astroland:
Myspace
Facebook
.org

Denver After Dark

Denver After Dark is a compilation of underground sounds from the Mile High City, burgeoning artists, who will probably be household names in the next two years, or at least deserve to be. It is a decent encapsulation of sounds that drift from doorways of clubs like the Hi-Dive, Rhinoceropolis, the Larimer Lounge, long into the night, drifting on fumes of PBR and American Spirits. The sounds are as diverse as the many different types of people you'll find here, but still manage to flow together to be a pretty listenable compilation. You'll find Chillwave/Witch House/whatever represented here by the sounds of Modern Witch, with their retro-drum machine fetishism and indistinct goth murmurings, but the synth bass is sweet, catches in yr craw, draws you in. You'll find distorted club Pop, destined to be mangled by 12" subwoofers from those that know, from the husband and wife duo of Hideous Men, who are wonderfully gifted at writing skewed but expert pop beats, and are wonderfully nice people, to boot. They gave me a ride to the bus station, once, so make sure you check their tunes.

You'll find electronica, in its various mutant striations, brought to you by Hollagramz, c.db.sn., Flashlights, and Peddahblak. The c.db.sn track, Airport, is detailed and polished, a minimal trancey dubscape with a light-touch that still moves. This dude, one Chase Dobson, obviously knows what the fuck he's doing, and i look forward to showcasing him more, here in the future.

Rock makes a brief cameo here with the final trinity of artists, Woodsman, Gauntlet Hair, and St. Elias. Woodsman are a n instrumental rock trio who absolutely tear the roof off live! Their track, Balance, is a more subdued affair; a pulsing, tribal locked groove affair, that sounds like a Sonic Youth jam, picked up somewhere in the middle, or some lost Kraut nugget. Gauntlet Hair bring it with garage pop, as in yr neighbor's garage, if he lived two blocks away. Like, distant. Good songwriting sensibility, though, nice splashy 70s reverbed guitar, and pounding 4 to the floor backbeats. Solid, yet airy, simultaneously, with an emotional undercurrent to the vocals. They have already been noticed by the p4k, so are probably already familiar to many of you, but i seriously dig what i have heard from these kids. These guys, as well as Woodsman, will be on tour of the West Coast for the rest of the month, so check 'em out live, if you get a chance.

The final track comes courtesy of St. Elias, titled Welcome to your Doom, which is not nearly as metal as it might seem, more like a 90s guitar indie math rock band. Hints of Don Caballero, pummeling menace of Shellac or Polvo. Didn't even know these guys existed. Sure am glad i thought to find this for y'all. Don't even know what's right under my nose.

TRACKLIST

1.) Brittany Gould & Cory Brown: “Nite Chimes For Lucid Lovers”

2.) Modern Witch: “Running”
3.) Hideous Men: “Fantasy Cloak”
4.) Hollagramz: “Magnet Flow”
5.) c.db.sn: “Airport”
6.) FLASHLIGHTS: “Apple Trees”
7.) PeddahBlak: “Make It Funky” (curator of compilation)
8.) Woodsman: “Balance”
9.) Gauntlet Hair: “All Eyes”
10.) St. Elias: “Welcome To Your Doom

This can be had, straight from the horses' mouth, here

Hideous Men-Fantasy Cloak [mp3]

I hope to cover more local culture here, in the near future. There's some neat shit, going on in the mountains, and by focusing on the talented artists and quality people i occasionally meet, it will help me forget how i'd rather be living in Olympia.

The Widow's Bane

The Widow's Bane are a refreshing blast of sepulchral air in the Boulder soonshine. Made up of lost souls Dead-Eyed Daryl, Bat Catacombs, Rutherford Belleview, and Mortimer Leech, who perform live in full zombie regalia with a full battery of roots instruments including fiddle, banjo, accordion, double bass, and 6 string, they could be the house band for The Haunted Mansion, or the sounds of a cursed saloon after dark, batwing doors flapping in the dusty breeze.
Reminescent of the gothic country music that emanates out of Denver, Munley and the Smooch Records crew (more about that later), but tinged with more of a gypsy/eastern european flair, and laced with some circus surrealism; its spooky but romantic, and mean-spirited as a whiskey bender. The vocals remind me at times of Tom Waits' rasp and Colin Meloy's reedy baritone, and fans of the Decemberists' story songs will find much to drink down here.
If you like Beirut, or you've ever heard any of the bewitching sounds coming out of New Orleans underground these days, Why are they building such a big ship? et al, you will love this. It will move yr body and break yr heart, and then drown yr sorrows. They are a ferocious live act, and should be seen at any costs. There are no bad songs on here, just one dusty jewel after another. You might start with 'Wormwood Waltz in C minor', 'Rusty Road', or 'The Devil's Son' to see what its all about. These guys are young and unsigned and very cool, so you might drop by their website and say hello, buy an album or see them live. But do yrself a favor and give a listen!

The Widow's Bane
Myspace

ps.. this is not the album art, which i couldn't find.

Gregory Alan Isakov

It is my great pleasure to introduce Gregory Alan Isakov, Colorado's favorite son and one of my personal favorites. This is the first post in a series of some of the local talent around where i am living currently. There are some remarkable things going on, and i don't know if anybody knows about any of it, outside of the front range.
Gregory Alan Isakov has got it. He deserves to go all the way to the stars he loves to talk about so much, and he is taking steps to get there, touring with Brandi Carlisle and the Indigo Girls this summer. Even as his audience and band get bigger and bigger, his music maintains its sense of hushed intimacy, like he's whispering secrets to you by candlelight. While quite and intimate, his music is also rich and full, fleshed out by his backing band The Freight which features cello, drums, pedal steel, keyboards, and 'God Noises'; quite the departure from 2007's That Sea, The Gambler, which is also mighty fine. Also, he has left behind a rather large debt to M. Ward on that album to inherit his own voice that fans of indie-folk will freak over. The fact that he closes the album by 'One of us Can't be Wrong' by Leonard Cohen, and speaks of Bruce Springsteen and Paul Simon in interviews shows that he is not afraid to write classic songs, to inherit the mantle of the brilliant singer/songwriter. Not that you'd ever know it, from speaking to him; he is approachable, soft-spoken, and humble, with kind eyes and a great hat.
So, this is This Empty Northern Hemisphere by Gregory Alan Isakov. There is not a bad song on here, and i do not say that lightly, with the first three songs, 'Dandelion Wine' (which features another local gem Julie Davis of Bela Karoli on stand-up bass), 'Light Year', and 'That Moon Song' being a particularly powerful trio. 'That Moon Song' joins the ranks of 'The Stable Song' from That Sea, The Gambler as an instant favorite and guaranteed crowd pleaser.
Most of the album maintains the late-night star-gazing vibe, with occasional uptempo forays like 'Evelyn', a story about a down-n-out barmaid, to add some variety. 'This Empty Northern Hemisphere', the title track is epic as hell, and doubly so live. Personal favorites are 'Dandelion Wine', 'Master & a Hound' with its nifty finger-picking, and 'If I go, I'm Going' with its house on fire imagery. There are numerous lyrical references to ghosts, empty houses, night sky, church steeples, that fits this album nicely and immediately in my mythos.
I cannot recommend this highly enough, this is truly special music, i believe that he deserves to be known world-wide and probably will. I just happen to have the good fortune to live in the same town, see him at little clubs, and buy his albums from him personally.