Last edition of our IHN Fest for 2020 – annotated! Check our archives for even more awesomeness.
Tracklist
Skyjelly + Solilians – The Sisko – from our Skyjelly/Solilians Split
The Earthly Frames – Entrance (Pulsar Palace / Self Released)
Gabriel Walsh plays experimental rock music as The Earthly Frames. Walsh’s earlier recording project was called Your Team Ring and he released music under this moniker from 1995-2005.
With the Earthly Frames, the high-concept, psychedelia has carried over from Your Team Ring but the lo-fi, whimsical folk have given way to synths and loops.
AGED – trying to relax (sponsored wellness seminar)
Solo project of Nate Holdren
Albert DeMuth – Finally Found a Job
A quietly bleak electric guitar hums, with brief dramatic flourishes, while DeMuth’s monotone monologue sarcastically, begrudgingly describes the entry into the all-important workplace, and the newfound sense of purpose that comes with it. The video is black and white, filmed under a single swaying lightbulb, as dimly lit as the subject matter and attitude of the song. Brief flashes of deathly imagery—a bovine skull, a ripple pool of silty black water, walking through an empty cemetery—recur to remind us of the end result of “working overtime all the time.” – Impose Magazine
Cpektir + Survey Channel – Lone Cedars (Myriagon Atlas / Music is the Devil)
Myriagon Atlas was recorded during June and July of 2020 with Edmonton’s Cpektir and Buffalo’s SURVEY CHANNEL collaborating remotely, sending their contributions back and forth throughout the summer. The imagery they hope to evoke and which they themselves used to inspire the mood of the album is a boat ride to Mansel Island, an uninhabited island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Consider Myriagon Atlas a mental map of the imaginative thought process, but in this case it’s ok to get lost.
Further Reading: On the Fringes of Sound
Eavesdrop Cosmic – The World Opens (Signals / Zenith to an Ear)
Brannon Hungness is a musician, composer, filmmaker, author and artist currently residing in Western New York. He started his experimental rock project, Eavesdrop Cosmic, in 2016 but has a very rich history with notable legends.
He grew up in North Dakota where he first got interested in music and recording but it wasn’t till he moved to New York in 1994 where he got involved with a number of exceptional musicians. Glenn Branca, Elliott Sharp, Virgil Moorefield and many others were his musical peers. His most recent project is called Eavesdrop Cosmic and he released three albums which are accompanied by books and even a feature film. The trilogy consists of The Ecstasy of Agony/Hit/Closed Eyes Open. – Divide and Conquer
GarageDogs – Television (Self Released)
This song finds the GarageDogs going back to their earliest punk influences like Patti Smith Group and the Velvet Underground in the way those bands create a mysterious groove beneath a vocal that starts calmly but grows increasingly intense. – Ava Live Radio
North Carolina-based Geezer Lake straddled several genres, eschewed traditional song arrangements, and melded together elements of pop, rock, jazz, post-hardcore, metal, film scores, avant-garde, noise, sound-collage, and structured improvisation. Perhaps one of the most striking differences between Geezer Lake and other indie-rock acts was their use of reverb-drenched horns, played through amplifiers, adding an etherial aura to the typical guitar/bass/drum configuration. Geezer Lake was active from the late 80s through the late 90s, reforming briefly for a short tour in 2000.
Crooks on Tape – Wandered Again (Fingerprint / Misra Records)
Crooks On Tape is an indie rock band founded by John Schmersal (Braniac, Enon), Rick Lee (Skeleton Key), and drummer Joey Galvan. Schmersal and Lee played together in Enon and began recording improvisational music with Galvan in 2010. Dayton, Ohio indie label Misra Records released the band’s debut album “Fingerprint” in 2013. Edited into a tight 35 minutes from “hundreds of hours of material,” the band’s official bio likens the band’s electro-punk sound to “tiny snapshots of an altered crime scene.”
Further Reading: The Fire Note
Happy Dagger – 10000 Miles (Nowhere / Day to Day Records)
Happy Dagger is the moniker of Portland musician Jesse Robertson, who crafts a wondrous, dreamy blend of post-psych and soft-rock. – Impose Magazine
Harisson & Dunkley – New Commercial Parameters, Pt. 1
Minimalist-influenced. Instrumental. Neo-classical, post-punk fops. We don’t know!! Listen?
Further Reading: Doubtful Sounds
Jesu – Alone (Terminus / Avalanche Recordings)
Sonically, the sombre, slow repetitious instrumentation builds and churns, forming an atmospheric sprawl which largely dominates Terminus. Mechanical slow-core dirges akin to the Red House Painters, the blustery drones of Sunn O))) and searing shoegaze of My Bloody Valentine. All artists dotted throughout different worlds, but with Jesu, Broadrick has always reached far and wide for his influences in order to maximise the results and it’s no different with Terminus. – Sun-13
See also – review of Terminus via Steve Belcher / Serpentine Skies
Kids Techno – Bless Us, Holy Tetractys (The Harmony of Spheres / Cherub Records)
Dear Listener,
You’re about to partake in the frequency journey called “The Harmony of Spheres”, by the mysterious and reclusive KT, otherwise known as Kids Techno. Please discard all modern distraction devices and prepare yourself to be immersed in this digital tone poem.
Cheers.
Further Reading: Episode 383: The Story of Cherub Records with PJ Sykes (via ChunkyGlasses)
Leaving Richmond – Temporality (Visions / Self Released)
I’ve listened to a lot of electronic instrumental albums over the years, and Visions stands among the very best. leaving richmond’s skill for writing beautiful and compelling melodies is impressive, and his guitar work and keyboards are truly breathtaking. – Eclectic Music Lover
See also – review of Visions via Soulscorch
Mount Mole – Light Fudge (Flee Marker / Self Released)
Alter ego of Sinkcharmer aka Paul Coleman (Beaked Whale, The Operators, Haley Moley)
Read two takes on the album via Neuro No Neuro and Frogkingart
Pylon – Volume (Live, 1980) (Box / New West Records)
The B-52s and R.E.M. were instrumental in putting Athens, Georgia, on the musical map a few decades ago.
But it was another band who just may have been everyone’s favorite in that southern city. They called themselves Pylon. – WBUR
Old Man Mike – Railing Stationed (Borealis Amanita / CerePop Records)
Dive deep into the pool of Old Man Mike, here with his debut album Mike sets out his stall for future releases. Borealis Amanita, named so after the Aurora Borealis and Amanita Muscaria fungus. Featuring the previously unreleased acoustic guitar cover of Aphex Twin’s timeless standard “Come To Daddy”.
Old Man Mike is a British born, Puerto Rico based multi-genre musician who channels his artistic vision through albums that serve as sonic chapters in a continuing journey through time.
Suko Pyramid – A Lousy Life (Human Calzones / Self Released)
Max Devereaux is a Milwaukee songwriter who makes audaciously arranged, partially campy, partially sincere songs with zero regard for traditional genre boundaries. Suko Pyramid’s Adrián Suchowolski is a Spanish songwriter who… does more or less that, too. – Shepherd Express
The Academy of Sun – Rose Devoid of Form (The Quiet Earth / Self Released)
Formed nine years ago, The Academy of Sun is a psychedelic post-punk outfit led by Nick Hudson (piano, synths, hammon organ, harmonium, vocals, percussion, synths) and joined byKianna Blue (bass, synths), Guy Brice (guitars) and Ash Babb(drums). Together, TAOS presents dystopian fantastic creations that combine the deeply personal and the poetically arcane. Dark yet buoyant, this is a controlled explosion of psychedelic and dark power pop with atmospheres couched in vast and expansive landscapes and cinematic arrangements. – God is in the TV
The Night Monitor – The Silver Giant (Spacemen Mystery of the Terror Triangle / Fonolith)
Scrivin’s very first release as The Night Monitor was This House Is Haunted, based on the 1977 Enfield Poltergeist case, followed by Perception Report 1, which ventured in more of a ufological direction, as well as still linking to the paranormal. The Night Monitor is Scrivin’s hauntological creative outlet, and in Spacemen Mystery Of The Terror Triangle, Scrivin uses the ‘Dyfed Enigma’ incident as the basis for some 17 tracks, employing suitably authentically retro-sounding synths to take the listener on a voyage to both inner and outer space. – Set the Tape
Shane Parish – covering Alice Coltrane
Shane Parish is a guitarist residing in Athens, Georgia, who devotes much of his time to developing his singular and expressive voice on the instrument. A self-taught musician, his teenage years were spent improvising and writing original music with friends. Later he taught himself to read music, studied theory, and learned classical guitar, jazz and folk styles. His sound simultaneously draws from the guitar’s rich history and aims for its future. He communicates through emotion, unexpected melodicism, technical whimsy, a nuanced sense of form, and rich timbral variety.
Wendy Eisenberg – Futures (Auto / Ba Da Bing Records)
Drawing the connections between Wendy Eisenberg’s releases feels like undertaking a wide-ranging investigation. Albums of wildly inventive guitar, tempo-shifting avant rock and curiously leftfield pop fit together as offerings of Eisenberg’s curious mind. On Auto, their most innovative and inner-reaching album yet, Eisenberg explores emotional, subjective truth, and how it interacts with an objectivity no person alone can grasp. Inspired by the solo work of Mark Hollis (Talk Talk) and David Sylvian’s Blemish, with playing skills that have already seen them climbing Best Guitarist lists and an unvarnished vocal immediacy, Wendy Eisenberg has created an album of subtle display that resonates with maximal impact.
Further Reading: Various Small Flames
Tapes and Tubes – Ghost
Nth Degree Elvis – Fight Club
Live Set by Wifehood
Tara Clerkin Trio – I Know He Will
Melted Bodies – Acid Drop Halloween
