Om are Chris Haikus and Al Cisneros from San Francisco, and formerly from the heavy stoner rock riff merchants Sleep, who made the genre classic Jerusalem, an epic album length track of sludgy Sabbath bong worship.
When the duo resurfaced as Om they ditched the lead guitar entirely, and replaced the noise with a concentrated meditative skyward groove of just bass, drums and monotone chant like vocal.
The aim in all of this seems to be quasi religious transcendental experience akin to Gregorian chant, Alice Coltrane or Nyah-Bingi Rasta drum circles.
This is Om's sophomore release, just two lengthy tracks of maximum meditational usefulness. The lyrics seem to follow some oblique logic, maybe some ancient Haiku or the encrypted instructions for a psychedelic shamanic ritual. Or perhaps just a heavily tripping Jerry Horne like individual describing the flight of a swan. Slow paced hypnotic words in changing patterns; sample: 'The orphic glow seen - as arwal sounds rise - cumbent to the throne - within on spine's attained plow'.
Om's music then is psychedelic in the original sense of 'mind expanding' or 'mind altering', certainly for the duration, and more effective as loud as possible. Mighty bass grooves and eastern drone scales weave patterns around the ride cymbals, burrowing as deep as Sabbath or Melvins but without guitar.
Following this there would be one further studio album 'Pilgrimage' which is also great. They would also reform Sleep to perform Jerusalem live on several dates. More recently Al Cisneros, the Bass and vocal part of the duo would put out a few singles of dub reggae influenced music, which were great, and made perfect sense in the context of the deep grooves of the best doom/stoner rock. In actual fact a dub remix of all the Om stuff could work well. Looking forward to seeing the next guise they will appear under.
Richard D. James had an unbeatable 90's, producing albums and singles which remain among the greatest of that decade and ending with the one-two sucker punch of the chart busting 'Come to Daddy' and 'Windowlicker', both signaling the future more than anything since. Perhaps they were the end of the future? The 90's would see him hailed as the new Mozart among the serious composition world, and have heavyweights like Bowie falling over themselves to get a remix. RDJ ever the prankster would openly admit taking these remix commissions for the cash, whilst often producing something that bore little or no resemblance to the original, even suggesting that he had no interest in listening to the original (or his remix!).
In the ensuing decade RDJ would play it much more low-key, slowing his (visible) work rate, but still producing some great music when he chose to make it public. I saw him play an epic drill 'n' bass set at the Autechre curated ATP in 2003, with seemingly everyone at the festival present to see the rare appearance in support of his less well received 'Drukqs' album. It remains one of the most exiting shows I have seen, despite being essentially, a bloke behind a bank of machinery.
What makes RDJ different to other techno artists is TUNES. Image and hardware is only part of it. Having such a distinctive sound is rare in electronica, and only the best can do it. Whether making ambient techno, crazy breakbeats or Roland 606 acid tracks, RDJ has such a distinctive way of writing melodies, that even when he's seemingly taking the piss, the tunes are deeply human and connect with the emotions.
In fact RDJ's melodies are so specifically his style, that any attempt others make to sound a bit Aphex, come off like pastiche, a cheap copy. He is similar in this way to Paul McCartney as you can also spot a McCartney melody a mile off, and his tunes have an emotional resonance, even if he's singing about fish and chips or something.
The other artist I'm (perhaps strangely) reminded of is Ghostface Killer, who can tug at the heart strings simply with his rap flow, even when he can be rapping nonsensically. It makes you wonder whether any of this is by design even by the artist themselves.
After a few quiet years RDJ in his AFX guise went back to his rave and acid roots for the Analord project. This came as 3.5hrs and 42 tracks released on 11 EP's released throughout 2005. The following year, the best of these tracks were compiled onto a CD as 'Chosen Lords'.
Analords for the heads, Chosen Lords for the rest. All recognizably Aphex; with an emphasis on analogue acid squelch bangers.
There are many choice tracks among the set, but among the best are:
Where's Your Girlfriend? on Analord 1.
Analord 2 has 'Pissed up in SE1', mid-paced techno with gradually builds in intensity whilst the ever changing percussion effects hold your attention. 'Laricheard' is a tribute to the pioneering Chicago house musician.
Analord 3: 'Klopjob' warm pads and a nostalgic childlike essence, one of the best AFX tracks.
Analord 4 has the syncopated tick-tock 2-step bass rumble and orchestral synth that is 'Crying in Your Face'.
Analord 5 is a particularly good two track 12", that has 'Reunion 2' and 'Cilonen', there's a similarity across both tracks melodies. The label of this 12" is a photograph of the gravestone of a Miss Anna Lord, adding to the title confusion, which can be taken as meaning, analogue or anal or lord of the analogue, but is probably all three.
Worth mentioning on Analord 6 is the spooky themed 'Batine Acid', a complex rhythmic pattern you can't quite groove to, and 'Analoggins', a low frequency bowel mover credited to 'Captain Voafose & Smojphace'
Analord 7 has a great electro and trance influenced tune called 'Pitcard', with unexpected stop/starts.
'PWSteal.Ldpinch.D' is one of the best Analord tunes, deeply emotional, with a soulful house feel.
Analord 8's 'PWSteal.Bancos.Q' is a total acid banger of headfuck trance psyche, taking you down all sorts of wormholes. This is the most bonkers of the 12"s.
Analord 10 which non numerically was the first Analord release and came with a binder for all the other 12"s. Another two track release of similarly themed tunes of constantly inventive drum programming and 8-bit metallic crashes.
Analord 11, the last in the series (until 2009) when RDJ put a load of unreleased Analord tunes online to go alongside each individual EP, making each 12" the length of an album in itself! There is variety in this last 12", going from epic 8min fast paced drum workouts to ambient tracks. 'VBS.Redlof.B' is demented but never annoying.
The whole set with binder might currently set you back around £500, so perhaps the Chosen Lords and YouTube is the way to go with this.
Aphex Twin would end the noughties as quietly as he started, but this decade has seen more activity with the well received 'Spyro' album, the mechanized electronic instruments EP's and a huge dump of unreleased old and new tracks on soundcloud to keep even the most obsessive Aphex fans occupied for years to come. I can't wait to see what comes next.
Scottish musician Alasdair Roberts could first be heard in his band Appendix Out, a fine late 90's indie act, much loved by John Peel. Roberts first came out as a solo act with his debut in 2003, signed by Domino records, after impressing Bonnie 'Prince' Billy with a cassette handed over when his tour touched down in Glasgow.
An updating of British folk forms was overdue. During the 90's all the interest lay in American folk forms. Alt-Country, Gillian Welsh, Oh Brother where art thou, lavish reissues of Harry Smiths anthology all came at the end of the 90's. British innovations in folk lay very far underground, in the freak forms of Current 93 and Eyeless in Gaza. It was nice then that new voices began to emerge from the British Isles, taking the lead from their US counterparts and the subterranean hidden reverse. It may not have surprised us late 90's Peel listeners who heard (especially Scottish) indie groups like Appendix Out and Delgados gradually incorporating twisting folk melodies, narratives and instrumentation.
What Alasdair Roberts brought to the hoedown, was collaboration with others, namely Alex Neilson a superb drummer who could also play jazz and improv and developed a light, ever changing percussion which followed the song instead of simply provided a backbeat. This was the biggest innovation in folk rhythm since Dave Mattacks practically invented the folk rock drum style for Fairport Convention. Roberts can also spin tales in an Incredible String Band like journey both winding, direct and sometimes abstract.
The Album opens with Grief and Joy, a consonant heavy pilgrimage, wrangling words with an 'Eternally returning' theme like Incredible String Bands Cellular Song. Finding similarities in all human life however wretched 'for all the penitents in hell and all the celebrants in heaven'. You Muses Assist has an upbeat flute and finger picking jig, with an unlikely chant of 'sterile rams & simulacrum' against a distorted guitar and Neilson sublime fluid drumming. So Bored Was I is a post punk Trees or early Steeleye Span, ending with a great folk rock breakdown.
Unyoked Oxen Turn is surrealist in the tradition of nonsense British verse, and ends up jangling away like a Ukrainian era Wedding Present feast. The Book of Doves has loose stringed bass sound and percussive finger picking, maybe inspired by African music with thumb piano. Ned Ludd's Rant (For World Remembered) is a identification with 17th century English rebel who angrily snapped his weaving loom, thereby giving the luddites their name. The aforementioned rant includes the tasty 'you poters, you haters, you whores and fornicators'. Hazel Forks is like a merry band of fools, getting lost in the country. It reminds me of Ben Wheatley great movie 'A Field in England' with it's civil war yokel psychedelia; 'dowry of the leper, a walnut shell and a peck of pepper'.
The album ends with Under No Enchantment (But My Own) suitably titled as Roberts follows his dreams.
Alasdair Roberts would continue to release many great records, but none as yet have come close to this very special collection.
This might not be the greatest Smog album, that's probably 'Knock Knock' from 1999, or 'The Doctor Came at Dawn' from '96. It might not even be the greatest Smog album of the '00's; the follow up 'A River Ain't To Much Too Love' is certainly more popular and immediate.
However, 'Supper' holds a special place in my heart and it will always be a personal favorite of mine, let me explain why...
Bill Callahan's journey began in the lo-fi underground scene with home recorded tales of introspection, longing and asocial misanthropy, and developed into slightly more accomplished tales of outsiderism and weirdness, but always kept a blackened heart of humor.
These tales followed me through the latter 90's, and I was happy to submit to their negative energy.
When Callahan released 'Supper', (billed as (smog), the brackets perhaps a sign that Callahan no longer felt the Smog persona fitted like it use to) there was a clear change in the air. Suddenly Callahan's twangy country flecked baritone finished lines on the up-note, he sang of stability, happiness, even marriage. He became more accessible, touring the UK, and instead of the previous rare and shy appearances, he even made eye contact with the audience, including my future wife.
It seemed that Callahan's journey into stability, love and new found happiness had mapped my own. In 2003 I had moved in with my fiance, was deeply in love (still am) had a job and was fully prepared to embrace Callahan's new world. Michelle and I listened to this all through 2003, went to the show, and it remains a special album for us.
If you have a working knowledge of the old Smog stuff, it is remarkable what a change in mood this album was. Without losing the essential Smog soundworld of Cohen like poetry, with minimalist country refracted through the Velvets and punk.
The album opens with 'Feather by Feather', describing his relationship as Ali Vs Clay, still, any relationship with an actual living human is progress from '96's 'All Your Woman Things' where he strikes up a relationship with a doll, made from an ex-partners deserted items.
'Butterflies Drowned in Wine' boasts a Lou Reed alike riff, plus a lovely slowed down and speed up bit. No longer wishing he lived in a bathysphere, he sings "Move the tables & the chairs aside and give me some room', Callahan staking his place in the world.
'Ambition' is a rocker, and delights in a success unimaginable in Smog's old world, 'I'm in your bedroom, just off the highway'.
'Vessel in Vain' finds Callahan able to face and compartmentalize past traumas, 'I cant be held responsible for what I've seen, my ideas have me on the run, my connection with everyone'.
Callahan always strikes me perhaps as a son of disciplinarian parents, they were language analysts for National Security. The early Smog records came at the same time as films like American Beauty and similar themes do emerge. Callahan always displays a strain of righteous deviance fed through his punk background, fueled maybe as a result of childhood hypocrisy. Speculation of course. But all the more impressive to see this positivity emerge.
'Truth Serum' feature lush pattering brushes, and suggests that real truth can only be found between two people.
'Our Anniversary' is a floaty jig, where everything is infected by love. It is refreshing to hear an underground artist doing something this honest and heartfelt, there is no edge at all.
'Driving' evokes a hazy summer drive through the rain, with a drunken woozy instrumental.
Finally 'A Guiding Light' provides the saddest song on the album, and the only one where he appears alone, reminding us we are all alone, but finally opens up to love as a deliverance from pain,
Callahan would become doubtful and make sad music again, later. But for this one glorious moment, everything was right with his world. I'm thankful that he chose to share this moment with us.
El-P chose this to be the first release on his newly minted underground indie hip-hop label Def-Jux. It was also the final release from his rap crew Company Flow, who had done so much to bring back the punk spirit of 'two turntables and a mic' era hip-hop. In the era of major pop breakthroughs, the likes of Puff Daddy and G-Funk ruled with a smoothed out sound, soul singers, and interpolated chunks of old music, as opposed to more clunky samples. Company Flow were a deliberate rebuke to this trend; using the harsh cuts, strained vocals, sirens, bells, bone crunching beats and bursts of distorted synth noise of the old cut 'n' paste era, Run DMC style.
With added punk attitude, lo-fi production values and a angry political edge; they look forward to groups like Moor Mother, Death Grips and Sleaford Mods, not to mention El-P's current and highly successful duo with Killer Mike as Run the Jewels.
Co-Flow first impacted with the double album 'Funcrusher Plus' in '97, which stands as a high watermark of indie rap music of the era. They would be a center point throughout the Rawkus label and Soundbombing comps. 'Patriotism' from Soundbombing 2 is a particular anti-political masterpiece. Following the fizzling out of Rawkus, Def-Jux would be the go-to label for underground hip-hop for a good few years.
This release came as a double 12", twinned three new Co-Flow pieces with two cuts from Cannibal Ox's forthcoming debut (see entry 34). Down to a duo of El-P (production and rapping) and Mr. Len (rapping), with guest vocals from the sick and demented Ill Bill, on day release from Non-Phixion.
DPA (stands for drum pattern analyser) is an epic track with three distinct parts, hard to pick out reverbed NY drawl and insane 'say what the fuck we want' rapping.
Simian Drugs follows, with record scratches, monkey noises, bursts of Biz Markie, and a debauched effort where Ill Bill confesses 'I'm friends with God and I'm friends with Satan, It all depends upon the situation'. All recorded presumably on the aforementioned monkey drugs.
The last track before Cannibal Ox blow our heads off is 'Simple', which is anything but. Drunken beats try to catch up with a sampled guitar lick, what sounds like a live recorded bass, and bridges which consist of loads of overlapped voices, like it was recorded a a party and just chunked into the track. Mind-melding and psychedelic in a very down to earth NY street way.
El-P's rapping has certainly sharpened up since then and his beats are more funky and laid-back now than this industrial cacophony. Still this is essential stuff for those who want to go deeper.
This list includes albums, singles, joint entries, and basically anything i feel like doing in the interests of storytelling or representing my taste and the decade.I intend to post each entry one at a time in reverse order, whenever i can. This may well take us into next decade.Enjoy!
