Tag Archive: Kranky records


CHARALAMBIDES EXILE

Filed under: Music — Leave a comment
October 2, 2011

I have never used the word in a real life conversation, but I can honestly say I am ‘stoked’ to hear that my all time favourite New Weird Americans, Charalambides are set to release a new album tomorrow on Kranky Records.

Exile comes four years since their last (Likeness) and marks twenty years of Tom and Christina Carter’s musical collaboration which has survived longer than their marriage.

Such is my enthusiasm that I’m even thnking of taking the unprecedented step of buying the 2LP vinyl version which contains two extra tracks.

According to Fluid Radio the album “drips authentically” and the Kranky blurb, promises “a tapestry of suppliant invocations directed at the heart of the unseen spiritual forces surrounding us”.

I’m not sure if I’ve ever experienced a ‘suppliant invocation’ when listening to their music but I am a huge fan of everything the Carters have put out either under the group name, as solo artists or in the numerous albums they have collaborated on.

I even set up a Last:fm group to see how many felt the same way. The answer is not many, judging by the low membership of, as I write  56,  but this is in keeping with their cult status.

Related links:
Exile reviewed at ‘Wears The Trousers
Exile album info on Brainwashed

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GY!BE : HOPE IN A DARKENING WORLD

Filed under: Italy, Music, Politics — 2 Comments
January 29, 2011

gybe3Godspeed You ! Black Emperor (GY!BE) specialise in extended quiet-loud  instrumentals, classical in scope but punk in attitude .

They are proof positive that, musically speaking, there are more effective ways to subvert the system other than the clichéd rebellion of mainstream rock.

The Kranky record label once called their apocalyptic soundtracks “Hopeful and harrowing narratives for our darkening world”. If you are looking for  further illumination of the band’s philosophy or political standpoint, you are in for a disappointment.

GY!BE’s own grammatically challenged and wilfully obscure album sleeve notes and minimal online communications read like frenzied missives from the front line of an unspecified global war. They are random stream of consciousness rants tapped out on cheap typewriters. Their opposition to corporate culture is plain but they resist setting this down in any coherent manifesto. Continue reading →

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The ghostly bliss of Charalambides

Filed under: Music — 3 Comments
October 29, 2007


Charalambides to me symbolise everything that is positive and innovative about the broad church of maverick outsiders, artists, musicians and hangers on grouped together under the New Weird America banner.

Originally from Houston, Texas they take their name form the surname of a Greek cusomer of the Record Exchange store where Tom & Christina Carter met. Although the Carter duo are no longer married (geographically seperated on the East & West coasts respectively) their close musical bond thankfully continues to flourish.

They are rightly heralded as one of the key bands of the Free-Folk movement even though they were in existence long before that label was coined by Matt Valentine in 2003.
Over the course of more than 20 releases, Charalambides have honed their sound into an openly expressionistic style that packs an emotional punch without resorting to clichéd rock riffs or false histrionics. In fact many of their tracks are barely identifiable as songs at all but instead have a blissful abstract quality which creates a mood of meditative calm. Set you controls for the heart of the soul if you will.
Their ‘official’ new release is on the ever reliable home of the drone label Kranky and a worthy follow up to the majestic ‘Vintage Burden’ of a couple of years back. This is certainly more accessible than Electricity Ghost – there even words you can hear particularly on the tracks ‘Good Life’ and Hitch Up My Pony’. The latter is their most lyrically expansive track to date with a kind of motorik beat tailored for horseriding rather that cruisng down the Autobahn. Needless to say, the lyrics are not of the “do it to me baby all night long” variety as we’re still very much out exploring on a higher plain.

 

 

 

 

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