Author: earthless

Erna Schmidt – Live 69–71 (2000)

“Erna Schmidt were living near the village of Wintrup in a country house even before it also became the home of Kraan. They were a very popular live band, well-known for their incredibly long improvisations in the Cream and Hendrix vein. Some tracks would last up to three quarters of an hour, for on stage they were usually stoned, jamming away in a frenzy, often together with guest musicians. Some good-quality recordings of these gigs survived and were used for putting together Live ‘69-71.”

Psycho – Live at Viljandi (1976)

“Psycho plays an important role in Estonian prog, and was one of the most aggressive and innovative bands of the day. During its heyday of 1976-77, the band played an aggressive form of instrumental prog with a lot of improvisation, much like the Wetton-era of King Crimson. Many of the tracks were as ambitious as the aforementioned prog kings, such as the ethnically-influenced odd-time wonder “Raja 21/8” and many others. No other Estonian band matched these guys in their improv prowess; rather, not many bands around Europe during those days managed that feat either.”

People of the North – Deep Tissue (2010)

“Started by Kid Millions and Bobby Matador of Oneida, People of the North is an ongoing but sporadic outgrowth of that restlessly experimental Brooklyn assemblage. While there are no clearly defined boundaries separating POTn from Oneida, it might be fair to say that the music tends to be more staunchly devoted to minimalism, repetition, improvisation, and sternness than the wide-ranging efforts of the big brother band. They packaged and unleashed a noisy krautrock behemoth of a jam session in the form of Deep Tissue. Recorded in 2009, it consists of four plodding, hypnotic psychedelic tracks clocking in at around 37 minutes – making it quite the heart-pounding journey. With an obvious penchant for improvisation and the immediate mood, People of the North not only revels in the static charge found in heavy guitar and feedback drenched freak-out moments, but can also be heard mining more pulsing, minimalist territory here. They’re pulling big influence from krautrock innovators Can and Neu! , but there is also a deeper, darker Japanese psych influence here, new and old – Les Rallizes Denudes & Acid Mothers Temple to name a couple. If you’re a fan of any psych, space rock or krautrock, you need to hear this record.”

Koolaid (Global Tyranny) – Koolaid (Global Tyranny) (2011)

“The weirdest of the bunch, groovy, and almost funky, thick steel string strum, all wreathed in psychedelic guitar noise, laced with some weird samples, drug related of course. All wound into a sound noisy and weirdly tripped out. Totally drugged out hypnotic space rock . The band set up a groove, usually super simple and minimal, spaced out and krautrocky, and then over the top, they basically let loose, a barrage of samples, all twisted up and layered and doused in effects, some looped rhythmically, others slowed down and sped up, and on top of that sheets of strange drones and whirs, clouds of swooping echo and delay, all manner of backwards melodies. The musical part slipping easily from minimal hushed lope, to pounding wah wah guitar drenched Stooges-y psychedelic stomp, to buzzy raga, to dirgey almost Butthole Surfers sounding drug rock, but again, it’s what’s going on all around it, which is like a symphony of malfunctioning samplers gone haywire.”

Sadistic Candle – Live Improvisation (2011)

“Sadistic Candle (Barrett Avner) is some demonic sourcing, kick-out-the-fuzz-and-beam-into-the-internal/eternal-zone jams. Sadistic Candle is straight from the heart of a man, broadcast from an expanse of quilted bedroom somewhere deep in Los Angeles, fueled with the dust hanging motionless in window-light over a stack of Hawkwind LPs, made crooked by the pure-hearted trickster, sighing with troubadour spirit, revealed with a 4-track. A statement of purpose.”

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