Bitchin Bajas – Water Rackets (Film Score) 7.5

                Bitchin Bajas makes patience an ally with this comfortable cloud of sound. I listened to it once. Then I listened to it again. Cooper Crane (the man behind this project) does an amazing thing with only a few sounds. You could call it drone, kosmic music, or baroque. All of those descriptions would be correct but would miss the enigmatic nature of the music. 

                This recording was created as a score to the remake of “Water Wrackets” a 1975 film. It starts off slowly, with a building drone. Cooper adds tiny details occurring right within the window of perception. “Water 2” starts off in roughly the same way but ends off with flourishes of baroque. A celebratory, quiet beat comes in and turns the entire thing into a cheerful, happy piece. Listen to “Water 2” with headphones as the panning becomes extremely enjoyable in this context (with regular speakers this effect would be somewhat lost).

                “Water 4” is the largest track on here in terms of sound. I’m reminded of some of Leyland Kirby’s approach to synthesizers. The sound is blown up to an epic scale. Again, the approach feels almost classical. For those who wonder where the Kosmic Music/Krautrock approach takes place (think Emeralds), that is the “Water 3” which contains a galloping bongo beat. On a personal note, my intense dislike of the bongo ended with this track.

                I think this album grows on you. After a few listens it really revels all the many secrets and influences. Give it a few listens. Listen to it before you go to bed. It is that kind of calming, meditative music.

Mist – House 7.9

                Mist starts out in the best way possible. You’re immediately treated to a spastic, electronic version of ‘the rubber band’ from early Bugs Bunny cartoons. Then you hear the giant swells you’d expect from a member of Emeralds (John Elliot) and fellow komische revivalist Sam Goldberg. Despite this being meditative music, it moves quickly, never lingering too long. 

                A rhythm, however slight, moves all six of these tracks forward. They work on a large scale and often repeat central themes. Slowly they expand the template and size of each song. Eventually you get to the excellent one-two punch of the finale pieces. “Dead Occasion/Ovary Stunts” works cyclically with the beginning of the album. You’re re-introduced to near-percussion just as things begin to feel unreasonably loud. “P.m.”, works with deeper sounds.  Here they work to create a sense of wonder before introducing the rhythm of the piece.

                Spectrum Spools has proven itself to be fairly reliable in their releases. Thankfully their North American counterpart has proven itself worthy of Editions Mego’s considerable help. Mist more than exceeds my expectations. Perhaps even more than the previous releases, this is an extremely easy release to enjoy. If you want to ease someone away from krautrock into ambient, this would be an ideal starting point.

Flaming Lips and Neon Indian – The Flaming Lips with Neon Indian 5.8

                  Upon looking at this collaboration, I could not have been more excited. Neon Indian does a trippy take on pop music; The Flaming Lips does a trippy take on pop music. Both of them worked with similar, though not identical, sounds. I thought it might be an interesting mix.

                These four songs have interesting moments, but they seem really indulgent. Neon Indian pretty much bends to Wayne’s own personal preferences. In some instances I feel a certain nostalgia Wayne has for when the Flaming Lips were a more lo-fi and noisy band, particularly the early 90s. Only in “Alan’s Theremin” do you get the sense that Neon Indian added much. Even then, it appears to be a decent attempt at kosmic music, nothing up to the level of say Emeralds or Oneohtrix Point Never.

                In fact, the only point which is truly interesting is “Is David Bowie Dying”. Here we get the sense of the fried-out weirdness they failed to capture in the other tracks. On this one, you get some sense of the bizarre drama they could have explored more fully on the rest of the EP.

                Basically, there are decent stabs and some clever ideas on here. It ends up being a lot of false starts and screeching noise. While I’m a fan of such things, I feel if the EP got a little more focused; it would ultimately be more interesting. Rather than being released, this might have used some editing to avoid the often tossed-off nature of the music itself.

Colored Mushroom and the Medicine Rocks – Sea Channels 7.0

                Another Emeralds-side project comes to me. I’m glad they have so many, since they literally create a whole new movement of this kind of kosmische music. Sometimes when I think I’ve discovered a new band in this field, it is just another Emeralds side project. 

               Sea Channels really does it well, probably better than a lot of their other projects. Everything’s kept perfectly focused on movement. Yes, it does move, not just in traditional evolutionary forms, but from left to right. There is a lot of panning done on this EP, so if you’re not a fan of such kinds of gracious sweeps of sound, you might not enjoy this that much.

                It is book-ended by two of the longest tracks. “Sea Channels” includes the actual sound of flowing water before breaking into glorious light at the end. The two middle tracks even include a light drum machine; something generally frowned upon around these ambient parts. A slight beat only adds to the rhythm of the sounds rather than turning it into lame ambient with a beat. 

                “When We’re Both Gone” is the saddest piece on here. It has the slowest evolution out of all of the tracks, and for a while you might think it is just repeating endlessly. There’s more going on than what first meets the eye, which makes it a great closer.

                Hopefully John Elliot releases more stuff in this vein. I’d like that a lot.

Ducktails – Killin’ the Vibe 12 Inch

             As a member of Matt Mondanile’s generation (80s born and raised), I can’t help but to relate to what he does. Hypnagogic pop speaks to me, and Matt’s approach happens to be one of the more accessible ones in the field. Ducktails is a fun project, and his own evolution from living in his parents’ basement (he moved out this December to Greenpoint, Brooklyn) is an experience countless millions can relate to. 

                He’s now trying to earn money to release a 12 Inch version of his song “Killin’ the Vibe” to the suspecting masses. Besides just asking people for money on “Kickstarter” the largest funding platform for creative projects in the world, he offers goodies. People can opt to get a 30 minute cassette of unreleased songs (known as B-sides or sketches), the vinyl itself with a handwritten note and new songs, or with a Zine (so retro) of his photographs, and finally guaranteed shows of him playing in the Northeast. Apparently his fan base is rabid enough to take up all of this, even the last one with the $500 contribution. In fact, the only one not taken is having him perform in your living room for $1000, which is something I hope gets amended. 

                Now he’s even exceeded his goal of fundraising: he has exceeded his goal of $3500 by about $1940. I guess his chops are complete; he tends to avoid the prolific releases of his friends James Ferraro and Spencer Clark (of The Skaters fame). That’s a good thing; it has allowed me to keep track of his various projects, including his most famous one “Real Estate”. Seeing how he literally lived with those two Skaters in Berlin during a study abroad trip gives me hope for when I’ll be doing that. I always thought study abroad sessions were supposed to be stuffy; his experience proves my theory dead-wrong.

                I’m hoping he succeeds in getting this 12 out. He exists as sort of an in-between point between various different genres: rock, hypnagogic pop, cassette culture, lo-fi recordings, etc. Considering he’s only in his twenties, he’s been lucky enough to tour with some wonderful people (like Emeralds and Deerhunter) has an excellent grasp of aesthetics (Lauren Pakradooni will do the 12 artwork). Plus, and this is huge, he’s managed to show New Jersey as a place where interesting things are going on, where actual art is created. Instead of feeling like they need a crutch of New York City, they show exactly why New York needs more people like him to move here. 

                With that, I’d like to say if you feel like contributing to this guy, or want him to perform in your living room; you might want to go here:

Imaginary Softwoods – Imaginary Softwoods 5.6

                 This will be poorly received in some circles but it needs to be said: not every side project of Emeralds is a good one. I know that their fan base verges on obsessive, fanatical even. Some of those projects are pretty amazing as well (Mark McGuire’s stuff in particular). However, recordings like this convince me that perhaps some things are better kept unreleased.

                Attempting to create a zen-like approach to ambient can result in one of two actions: either the artist stumbles upon something truly brilliant (like Eliane Radigue) or as glorified waiting room music. Sadly, I’m here to report that the vast majority of this music falls into the latter category. I’d like to say that this music transports you to another dimension where things are wonderful, but that’s simply not true. Instead, it meditates far too long on a single theme while lacking that subtle hook that brings it into transcending its humble roots.

                Instead, it is stuck music. This is music that reminds you you’re stuck somewhere. It aggravates with its bland scenarios. Focusing harder on the music won’t help; it isn’t interesting enough most of the time to let that be of benefit. 

                Most of the time, it is drab music. A few moments exist on here to help it from being a complete wash, but otherwise it’s a wash. Sorry but music like this gives ambient music in general a bad name as being a bunch of navel-gazing overly sensitive types.

Emeralds – Does it Look like I’m Here? 7.3

Emeralds specialize in a certain type of progressive rock gone amok. Think of endless synthesizers blazing a trail straight into the sky, and you’re halfway there. Obviously this works well as background music for whatever you might be doing, but there’s certain moments that remind you human hands are behind this.

Those bits are like the halfway mark at “Candy Shoppe”, the last fourth of “Genetic” and so on. Pieces of genuine emotion are thrown in there to bring you back from space, down to reality once again. Most of these songs are relatively short, and the mixing between each track is really enjoyable.

Mego continues down a different path this year. So far, there’s been considerably mellower stuff from Peter Rehberg’s label. Even the new Hecker material gives me the sense that perhaps this cosmic sound might be making a comeback. Hopefully Emeralds and their side projects continue to deluge us with material, though I still happen to enjoy Mark McGuire’s solo stuff over this.