Rene Hell

Jeff Witscher has inhabited many names over the last few years, Rainbow Blanket, Deep Jew and more recently Marble Sky and Rene Hell. While some early monikers skewed to the power electronics side of the spectrum his later alter egos play more to an envelopment in analog tranquility and nowhere is this more prevalent than under the guise of Rene Hell. Ghostly voices rise and fall, trapped beneath the glass panes of synth structures built from a not too distant past that was once inhabited by Cluster and kings of 70's Komische. Bubbling streams of re-sampled noise ebb against the fried circuitry of dub plates caked with the dust of decades. Porcelain Opera has a sense of wandering through relics and discovering that the ghosts of past uses still burn bright inside them and in his rediscovery of analog ephemera we're taken along for the ride of Witscher's sense of wonder and nostalgia.

Download:
[MP3] Rene Hell - C.G. Mask

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Adding to Mexican Summer's already pristine stable are two RSTB favorites, Jacuzzi Boys and Eddy Current Suppression Ring. As usual both bands come through swinging and knock us immediately on our asses. Just two more small reasons to keep your eyes poised on the label's constantly updating roster.

	Jacuzzi Boys – Bricks or Coconuts 7" Three hot burning jams from our favorite Floridians as fierce and as fun as anything they've put out so far. Not to overstate the situation, but it really seems that the band cannot be stopped. The title track's got a bit of strum and swagger, complete with
breezy tambourine to keep your knees knocking and the heads shaking, followed quickly by a short burner of a song that finds the Boys keeping their garage stride furious and burning hot. They cap it off with one more slice of heavy fuzzed and sickly strummed goodness that's pure Jacuzzi. The word hardly need escape our lips but just in case its not immediately obvious... this one's essential. Download: [MP3] Jacuzzi Boys - Bricks or Coconuts Support the artist. Buy it HERE
	Eddy Current Suppression Ring – Wet Cement 7" The Aussie crew steamrolls into the Mex Summer catalog hot off their recent Rush to Relax album and the momentum carries over easily into this single. The title track is taught, filled with rubbery bass and typical
ECSR bombast. They follow it up with a touchingly sweet ode to Mom before ending on another driving slab of proto punk that smashes its way through the decades only to feel fresh, like something that could only be Eddy Current. What can we say, everybody should be cranking these guys on their system. So if you aren't already down with one of Australia's best exports, get involved quick. Download: [MP3] Eddy Current Suppression Ring - Wet Cement Support the artist. Buy it HERE

Grails

Grails return to their Black Tar series and its just as if they never left off. The 4th installment continues to experiment with the darker side of their sound. Gone are the cohesive transitions and eastern influenced string work and in their place is something more sinister, more insidious, more in line with the molten namesake the album bears. There is still a cinematic quality to the works on Volume IV but its a stark and lonely stretch of road that the band is soundtracking. Combined with bits of obscured tape collage the album lurks in a sense of dread and occult, taking a page out of Italian horror soundtracks poised on edge of tension. At any moment it seems that the score might peak and the blood might boil. But there's a forlorn beauty that balances this tension. The tracks are dark, sad and terse but they also sparkle with perfectly nuanced piano and subtle touches of guitar making this much more than a throwaway experiment between albums. It's a vital part of the Grails catalog and a welcome installment in their growing series.

Download:
[MP3] Grails - Up All Night

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Nerve City

So far I've encountered Nerve City over a few recordings, cropping up on RSTB loved labels like HoZac, Kill Shaman and Sweet Rot and up to this point the music has evoked little beyond ambivalence. However, maybe I just wasn't listening with the right set of ears because his latest release, the fifth in Sacred Bones' EP series, seems to be going down quite smooth indeed. Perhaps it's the slight (and I do mean slight) fidelity bump or maybe this lazy tinge of humidity in the air just lends itself to Sleepwalker's faded melodies and casual country delivery. Whatever the reason, it's caused me to stop and reassess, to go back and revisit some of those earlier releases and above all else to embrace this one in all its tattered warmth.

Download:
[MP3] Nerve City - Sleepwalker

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Ty Segall

Well its been no long stretch since Monsieur Segall has appeared in these pages but since the classic cuts keep coming there seems no need to shy away on the advent of another album. A few familiar singles ("Caesar", "My Sunshine") make their way onto Melted and they're in welcome company alongside nine other deliciously fuzzy cuts of fuzzed pop goodness. In the vein of the aforementioned singles the album tracks in a bit more diversity than the past few Segall outings, offering up bits of acoustic strum and a few filled out arrangements to the usual barrage of guitar grit. There's very little praise we can heap on here that we haven't heaped in the past. If you're in the mood for in the red garage jams that make you sweat, shimmy and shake then this is the perfect partner. Though there are a few slower movers here too and perhaps the slower pace plus those acoustic strums we mentioned earlier are just a few hints of the purported Ty Segall folk album to come on Social Music.

Download:
[MP3] Ty Segall - Caesar
[MP3] Ty Segall - Girlfriend

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

	Los Bravos – Los Bravos Los Bravos originate from Spain but one listen to their S/T album and you'd be forgiven for not thinking they were a U.S./UK beat group. They split the line between soulful pop and an early Beatles rock sound. "Black is Black" was an international
hit, probably the most successful Spanish record of the day, though the Spanish influence is a bit hard to pin down since the track was recorded in a London studio using British session musicians. This latter fact has let to an unsubstantiated rumor that Jimmy Page played on the track since his timing as a session man would fit into the same time period. It seems the record company was more interested in singer Mike Kennedy's voice than the use of the band, but the record doesn't seem to suffer from it with the exception of a certain studio sheen being felt in the tracks. The album bounces around a host of Brit and American influences with a good mix of melody and showmanship and some record company ordered horn arrangements that ad a bit of splash. The record has now been put back onto the vinyl shelves with in all its former glory and is well worth picking up. Download: [MP3] Los Bravos - Bring a Little Lovin' [MP3] Los Bravos - Black is Black Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

The Alps

The Alps return to Type records for an expansive follow-up to their previous album III. The horizons stretch further as the band take the album title Le Voyage literally, winding between dewy touches of folk and scorched dry psychedelia with the deft hands of masters. Broken into sweeping sections by wistful interludes, the album feels sealed in a time of grander experimentation, a time when progressive impulses tied albums together into sprawling tapestries and ornate narratives. Though here the absence of vocals might seem like a hindrance to that narrative quality, in fact all the songs feel plucked from the same cinematic score. More than just a sum of their respective bands (Tarentel, ARP, Troll) the band continues to eke out a corner of the musical landscape for themselves and scratch the name Alps further and further into the weathered pavement.

Download:
[MP3] The Alps - Crossing The Sands
[MP3] The Alps - Drop In

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Vacation

Sorry that its been a bit sparse this week. Its been a fairly busy time around RSTB. I'm off for a short vacation (the first in about 3 years) but Raven will resume posting on Monday, May 24th when I return.

Dylan Ettinger

In short order Dylan Ettinger appears in these pages again. This time he's boasting a full length for Digitalis that further expands upon his loose take on the slippery reigns of deconstructed pop. Gently buoyed by a loose clip of beats and slowly evolving melodies that appear and disappear at whim, the album builds its four longform pieces out of scraps of echo and the debris of childhood days. Consciousness seems to slip in an out of view but with the way Ettinger strings the accompanying images together that seems to be the last of your worries as you float on a Dramamine cloud of digital construction. Nice to see Digitalis jumping in and heralding the new class of somnambulant noise artisans and Cutters is certainly an asset to their longstanding catalog of RSTB favorites.

Download:
[MP3] Dylan Ettinger - Ridin' Dirty

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

	Various Artists – Absolute Belter Finders Keepers has been key in digging up some great gems from all over the European psych scene in the last few years and after unearthing some Hungairian Funk and French Prog they've taken to shedding a bit of light on Spanish
label Belter with its mix of psych and 60's standard covers and Spanish rock originals. By far the best of the bunch recontextualize British and American classics in a new rhythmic light, adding a touch of the Spanish heritage to their well-worn choruses. More than just a few nuggets, this collections is a panoramic view of the Belter era in Spanish pop music and judging from the pieces represented here it was an explosive time. Add another Finders Keepers release to your list of essentials and stack your next mixtape with a few of these gems. Download: [MP3] Sonya - En Mi Nube (Get Off My Cloud) [MP3] Huracanes - Cambio Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Oneohtrix Point Never

Daniel Lopatin returns to the ethereal plane with another OPN release, this time for the ever intriguing Editions Mego imprint that just recently brought us a few delightful gems from Emeralds last week. An unusually harsh blast opens Returnal before its dives into Lopatin's usual depths of analog bliss and subliminal seduction. The album acts as a plunge into oceanic slumber, letting the green light slowly change to bluish black. It's got a touch of the NOVA exploration but without ever becoming too heavy on the scientific vibe, more a sense of suspended wonder. At this point we've presented enough of OPN's works that if you like the style then you'll love this one all the more and if you're not a fan this won't bring you around. However we're entranced as usual and ready for the plunge that Oneohtrix provides. Beautiful packaging only makes this all the more enticing so grab one while you can.

Download:
[MP3] Oneohtrix Point Never - Describing Bodies
[MP3] Oneohtrix Point Never - Returnal

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

As we stand on the eve of the next HoZac singles club, the first finally draws to a close with the last installment hitting homes recently. The entries equal the quality of the rest of the series with great singles from Box Elders and Teeth

	Box Elders – Tiny Sioux 7" Typically jangly and delivered with just enough of a nod and a wink that you know its bonafide Box Elders. An inexplicable song that celebrates a tiny tribe member but no matter how perplexing the content the skitter of percussion and shuffle of guitar
make it all the more fun. The flip kicks the tempo but keeps things breezy as ever driving this single heavily towards the band's pop side of their catalog. Here's to hoping that next year's crop is just as much fun as this one was. Download: [MP3] Box Elders - Plenty of Room at the Bottom Support the artist. Buy it HERE(Sold Out)
	Teeth – A is for Asshole 7" From the opening guitar line the Blank Dogs connection becomes immediately felt, its an 80's informed bass line that sticks to the darker side of the Factory catalog. The band is side project of the aforementioned Blank Dogs and Spider who have also
released singles on HoZac in the past. The A-side is dark but with a nice Brian Eno vocal that feels completely lost in time. The flip gets noisier, lost in a sea of voices on the chorus but still burning down the same dark alleyways that the A-side touches on. An interesting first entry and I'd be intrigued to see what might come out of further collaboration between these two deft fellows. Download: [MP3] Teeth - A is For Asshole Support the artist. Buy it HERE(Sold Out)

Indian Jewelry

One of the earlier bands that appeared in these pages and still running; Indian Jewelry continues to reshape pop and noise with each new release. Totaled the band's second for We Are Free, is as dark as they've ever been but with a cobalt sheen buffed over the top of its rough exterior. The highs and lows aren't as extreme on this album but the eerie calm that swirls overhead leaves the listener as unsettled as any wild chain swinging or noise explosions might. Switching between breathy beauty and dusty calm the album trips along on corroded drum beats and narcotic synth curls. A soundtrack to the weary end of a night that won't end, stuck between a false third wind and a hangover. Totaled makes all its promises in the title, sounds that feel like the throb of alcohol leaving the veins, hot August sweat and bile. A glorious darkness indeed.

Download:
[MP3] Indian Jewelry - Oceans
[MP3] Indian Jewelry - Tono Bungay

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Wild Nothing

Along with Beach Fossils, Wild Nothing comes as a huge asset to the Captured Tracks roster. Following fast on the heels of two great 7"s comes Jack Tatum's full length, Gemini, and it more than delivers on the early promises laid by singles. Taking a stroll through an 80's wonderland of nostalgia, the opening strains of "Live In Dreams" seem custom cut from the excess spools of John Hughes films; filled with that perfect mix of youthful longing and premature ennui. From there Tatum wanders easily through bits of synth pop, sweeping bittersweet flourishes and the tattered pages of drum machine diaries. He occasionally slips into the same tip-of-the-tongue quality that The Pains of Being Pure at Heart inhabit; familiar but just out of reach songwriting. And similar to The Pains' Kip Berman, Tatum has the ability to synthesize his influences without ever actually replicating them. A true gem that will be on repeat well throughout 2010.

Download:
[MP3] Wild Nothing - Summer Holiday
[MP3] Wild Nothing - Chinatown

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Emeralds

Emeralds return (as if they ever really left) with a new album for the esteemed overseas imprint Editions Meego. Eschewing a bit of their longform analog soundscapes, they instead offer up some more concise excursions on the mysteriously named Does It Look Like I'm Here?. Still mining a pure analog/emotive sound that's a darkened swirl of synth pulsating atop delicate washes of guitar but this time the restraint makes each tiny piece a bit of its own journey. The group has always wavered between unsettling calm and the brink of anxiety and this album brings those very same vibes bubbling through your cerebellum in all their unnerving bliss. Sure its a bit more to spring for the import but the packaging (and what it contains) is well worth the effort and cash.

Download:
[MP3] Emeralds - Double Helix
[MP3] Emeralds - Shade

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE