Thursday, April 17, 2014

A trio of 3 inchers!



Disaster Amnesiac bears the compact disc no ill will. I am often fond of declaring that I'd buy 8 track cassettes if they were still being produced (are they?), or any other format for musical sound delivery for that matter.
That said, the 3" CD just seems really strange to me. Is it an approximation of the 7" record? Is it meant to be a willfully obscure medium? What's the point of releasing a disc that won't fit into most current hard drives?  I have an older Sony portable disc player with which to play the ones that I own, and, after very recently buying Matt Davignon's Charcoal 3", I dug up a few others for the patented Disaster Amnesiac describing and enthusing.

The Big Drum in the Sky Religion-Qalander Girl; A Beard of Snails Records, 2012
It's really perplexing to me that Brown Hat the Espresso Shaman's Shenandoah Roots Psych movement is not more well regarded. His The Big Drum in the Sky Religion always provide nicely droned, ear cleaning blasts of Rural Psychedelia. Qalander Girl is no exception, its 20 minutes of incessant banjo riffing and hand percussion provides the listener with an aural magic carpet on which to mentally drift away. The drone arises from the simplicity of the strumming and percussion, their interaction becoming a forest of ritualized tone matrix. Vocals eventually come by way of a child's ABC's chant, a sweet, youthful refrain that gives a nice sense of whimsy. This 3" also has really nice cover art, and I lament the fact that mine is getting so worn out. It spent a ton of time in my work-related back pack last year, as it was a favorite lunch time escape jam during the week.

The Locust-s/t; Gold Standard Labs, 2004
This little guy will always remind Disaster Amnesiac of the Tower Records in Emeryville, CA, now long gone. Jam packed with eleven of the Locust's patented Grind, it also has these San Diego thrashers playing Space Rock, Synth Punk and Hardcore, all mashed up within their extremely concise aesthetic, and pushed with awesomely pounded drums and whirling vibrato. I always marvel at the whip smart tightness of groups like this, and wonder, "how much did they rehearse?" After which I wonder as to the sanity of the poor bastards. Seriously, the Locust music is f-in crazy. I guess that explains all of that screaming. Oh, yes, dig that Chic Comics worthy "monster" on the cover! Spooky!

Matt Davignon-Charcoal; Ribosome
Like I said, it was purchasing this disc from Matt the other day at the Berkeley Arts Festival Building that prompted this post. Stoked on the purchase, too, as it features the kind of inwardly focused mystery electronics that make for such nice headphone listening experiences. Charcoal's five tracks bounce and ping around your skull, electronic echoes of deep process complexity and atmosphere. Disaster Amnesiac would even go so far as to call this Industrial music, in line with that genre's originators, all of whom seem to have been inveterate electronics tinkerers and innovators. Davignon's sound on Charcoal is a dark, gloomy one, heavy in its blackened mood.

In closing, Disaster Amnesiac would like to let it be known that, should your band or project have a 3" or 8 track or any other odd type of release format, you can always send me a message as regards hooking up review material. And it ain't the object, it's the sound contained therein.





3 comments:

Pig State Recon said...

I agree about the CD format - it's always worked fine for me, just like LPs and cassettes before em. And as much as I appreciate these newer labels who've taken to reissuing great, forgotten stuff on LP/cassette, I still ask: isn't digital/CD the most convenient way to hear this damn stuff? Me, I live in England, space is at a premium here, and keeping a grip of vinyl at arm's length is not only impractical but EXPENSIVE. As a spacesaver, the 3" CD is AOK with me.

Mark Pino On Drums said...

I absolutely love the convenient portability of digital media.
Wait, you guys don't have Medieval castle yet? What gives?
:)

Pig State Recon said...

Haha - as our mid-terrace "castle" is measured in a couple/three dozen square feet, my vinyl must remain boxed up in deep storage