Flameout
[ GIGA023 2010 ]

1. Flameout
2. A Wash
3. Illuminated Blue Balls
4. Bridges
5. Dynacord
6. Velvet Horns
7. Zither Starr
8. Baby Be KooL
9. Jenny
10. The Return of Ranphoryncus

CD EUROPE [ a-musik ]
DIGITAL [ bandcamp ]

 Inspired by the 1984 romantic sci- fi classic Starman and it's accompanied soundtrack by Jack Nitzsche, comes a new collaboration between the Bay Area slow -vinylist composer Beaks Plinth (Jared Blum, Blanketship, Vulcanus 68) and San Diego synthesist Scott Caligure. The meeting began when Blum begged Caligure to give up some of his treasured Korg MS 20 four -track tapes for use on a new project. Before long, Blum created a headyblend of slow drifting drones, tape music, electronic interferences and dark vinyl passages with the bubbling, velvety grace and warm subs of Caligure's analogue movements. What Flameout became can be only described as ambient dreamscapes of melodic foundry steeped in the memory of Jeff Bridges' descent on planet earth in 1984. A dark mountainous terrain with a burst of energy from the skies of the unknown.

Flameout is heavily inspired by the classic works of Tangerine Dreams' Zeit and Phaedra, Popul Vuh's Affenstunde, Terry Reily and electronic library music of the 70’s mixed gorgeously with the sonic palette of today's electro-drone contemporaries.


Scott Caligure- Korg MS-20, Electronics

Originally hailing from the fertile soils off the banks of Lake Ontario, Caligure now lives, records and DJs in sunny San Diego, CA. He is a touring member of the Oakland dark ambient, metal- noise project Galena (Sanitymuffin.com) and founding member of Ranphorynchus (BubbleCore Records). Upcoming releases as Masterdome on imputer? Records will be released later this year.



Organo Saturado
[ GIGA020 2010 ]

1. fantasma
2. A Valley high
3. hey la
4. alabama st. hymn
5. Broken fantasy
6. slyfus
7. jimmy
8. ralentizado eco
9. mystic morning
10. cerca del borde
11. i'll never fall in love again
12. louis and arthur's theme
13. el castro
14. fantasma reprise

CD [ squidCo ] * EUROPE [ a-musik ]
DIGITAL [ bandcamp ]
 
"Only the best sample art/music manipulation comes from our local friends from the Gigante Sound label (associated with former kzsu dj, The Bawd, if I might add). Another great release by this really intense incredible outfit, here they twist familiar 60’s pop sentiments into a folded spindled and manipulated vestige of the era. For fans of their Motown Meltdown, Tipsy, with regards to musical sample art, then People Like Us, Negativeland etc for sheer mastery of manipulative weirdness. Heavy sample manipulation but the moral of the story lies in good guitar playing, bass, drums, keys, noise, etc., and top notch mixing/production/mastering. If vocals appear they are only as additional instrumental weirdness. Check this out, as well as anything else on this local label that is doing The Bay Area justice, picking up the torch where Ralph Records left off."
-Your Imaginary Friend KSZU 90.1FM

 
1)
brief, slow minimal tribal plod, cool 60’s organ, low fi swirling instruments to it, fits in a bridge somehow, spooky but bright, a very nice intro to next track which it blends into
2) off time weirdness, “normal” music bent all over the place
3) super drugged out slowed down with loopy swirling big organ, weird shit that hits the fan just right
4) sick slowed mournful
5) big heavy tribal with ethereal clouds above, little vocals interludes that are buried
6) loopy vocs in intro, then it falls to a strange slow thing that feels like it will become dub at any second but thank god doesn’t
7) brief, fucked up noisey disasters
8) slowed weirdness, pink floyd? Man is this hitting the spot and I am about to OD on vicodin, yay!!
9) a slow organ centered sadness, sick chordal things fill the void with a really cool out-tro
10) weirdness that midway feels about to implode but fires the crew, brings back that disturbing dub feeling I mentioned, weird
11) man, this shit is sick, downtempo with the melody hook intact somehow, old school synth, nuff sed, just play (brief)
12) very chill, pretty, like Eno strapped to a the death chair at San Quentin giving Music For Airports as his last confession
13) brief, chill soundtrack to a meaningless dream
14) starts with more ambient mess, but about 2/3 way through a really cool nice beat arises, then it dies and the track/CD ends, fantastic!!!



Kai Kohola Leo
[ GIGA015 2008 ]

1. Port of call
2. Forbidden waters
3. The lookout
4. Voices of the lagoon
5. mudskipper
6. slumbering trees
7. moon of domakuri
8. heeee
9. the stringer bell
10. wind speak
11. the wandering tide
12. dollenique

CD EUROPE [ a-musik ]
DIGITAL [ bandcamp ]

Huge barrel percussion, hollow flutes, great chimes, klings and klangs and the haunted voices of many howl throughout, leaving you slightly terrified yet at ease with your surroundings. The wet wood groans and splits into fragments of a melody; volcanoes and mud collapse in on themselves as the rumble echoes through the subterranean caverns that shift beneath your feet. It could be called “Doom Exotica,” the last puff of air from the lungs of Les Baxter as he drifts away in an opium coma.


"It's like a tropical fever dream in which the shadows of giant tiki figures loom and ominous giant birds of prey menace and peck at you from above...we might suggest that the dozen foreboding soundscapes on Kai Kohola Leo meld quite nicely in between aQ faves Nurse With Wound's Salt Marie Celeste and Coelacanth's Glass Sponge. Recommended. "
-Aquarius Records





 




ARTISTS
about
Jared Blüm, (Blanketship, Vulcanus 68) brings you one of his darkest visions with, Beaks Plinth. Blüm continues his exploration of twisting vinyl to meet his aural demands but brings an unrelenting consistency that is unlike his other projects.

Take the spookier elements of both Blanketship and Vulcanus 68 and strip away any light and you have the evocative shadow world of Beaks Plinth!

video

live at The Uptown, Oakland, CA
February 2, 2011