Here's a crummy picture of it.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Locrian "The Crystal World" Back Patch
Utech Records will have these on sale in a few days. They look awesome!
Here's a crummy picture of it.
Here's a crummy picture of it.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Boomkat Album of the Week
Link here.
We'll have copies at our show on Monday.
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We'll have copies at our show on Monday.
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century plants / locrian - Dissolvers
Beautiful silver leaf screen-printed sleeves - a strictly limited vinyl run from Tape Drift* Tape Drifts impressively move into the vinyl realm with a sublime split LP of bleak drone treatments from Chicago's Locrian and the terrifically titled Century Plants of Albany, upstate New York. Firstly, the presentation is about pitch-perfect; black label vinyl housed in silver leaf ink screen-printed sleeve and a special double-sided colour insert - just to whet your appetite. Century Plants commandeer the A-side, stoking the very slow burn of 'Fading Out', evolving from near-inaudible, ominous, spectral figures, fleshed out with spidery webs of autonomic guitar picking and deeply unsettling psych-drone shapes looming from the aether. 'Delirium' is the after effect, eyes slowly rolling in the back of the head while sparse, wintry-tanged ambience gives way to O'Malley-esque feedback manipulation and harmonised subbass. Passing the tourniquet to Locrian, we're soon subsumed by the psychoactive 'On A Calcified Shore', glass-scraped feedback swirling into ghoulish apparitions and sustained underlying drones stretching out into an inky black void, while 'Omega Vapors' intoxicates the senses with billowing clouds of feedback noise and quietly agitated strings make the skin crawl and prickle. Gorgeous music - limited copies only.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Locrian Interview at Audiodrome (Italy)
You can read an interview (in Italian) with each of the three Locrian members here.
You can read Audiodrome.it's review of "The Crystal World" here.
You can read Audiodrome.it's review of "The Crystal World" here.
Locrian Release Show on Monday, November 29th, 2010 @ Empty Bottle Chicago
Monday November 29, 2010 The Empty Bottle
1035 N. Western Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60622
773.276.3600
http://www.emptybottle.com/
9:00 PM
FREE
21+
with:
Anatomy of Habit
http://www.myspace.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/
Helen Money
http://www.helenmoney.com/
http://www.myspace.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/
Locrian
http://www.facebook.com/pages/
+ Locrian's "The Crystal World" video presentation
Event links:
Vital Weekly on Locrian "Territories"
Link here.
LOCRIAN - TERRITORIES (CD by Bloodlust!)
Somewhere else we look into a solo CD of Andre Foisy but here is a CD by his band Locrian, a duo of himself and T. Hannum. They played guitars and electronics. Seeing this release on Bloodlust! its hardly a surprise that it contains noise. A slow menacing sound of pounding drums, piercing electronics (derived from guitar playing? I am not sure here) and more loud guitars. That is the opening track 'Inverted Ruins', which includes Mark Solotroff, head honcho of Bloodlust, on vocals but Locrian has more to offer than just that. Each track seems to be recorded with the help of other people, so that's why things are probably more varied, beyond the boundaries of pure noise. 'Between Barrows', the second piece on the CD, is a much more subdued piece of music, carefully improvised. Although Locrian don't return to the careful style in this album again, its not said that every piece is one of loud noise only. The closing statement, 'The Columnless Arcade' is a finely driven motor like rock song, bursting out half way through, full of energy. 'Ring Road' sees the burning of a guitar (metaphorically speaking of course), like a giant dark beast bursting out, while 'Antediluvian Territory' is an almost ambient like guitar tune. The epic 'Procession Of Ancestral Brutalism' is then the noise centre of this album. Locrian delivered a great album with this CD. Here too we are dealing with the notion of noise that is varied, like we have discussed more recently: not that endless walls of feedback and distortion, but a varied bunch of pieces, some of which happen to be very loud and some not. But Locrian does all of that outside the world of pure electronics and that is a great achievement. An excellent CD! (FdW)
Address: http://www.bloodlust.blogspot.com
VW also reviews the new André Foisy 3" CDR as well as the new releases from Small Doses. Nice!
André Foisy - THEORY OF PROGRESS (3"CDR on Small Doses)
Andre Foisy is one half of Locrian, a more noise oriented band, but here the true ambient music comes out. Foisy plays guitar and adds a bit of electronics. The music is very mellow and relaxed. Foisy uses e-bow or other bows to play his guitar, adds a substantial dose of reverb to create a great textured sound, but keeps the effects within a fair, controlled state. Over the course of the piece things are build up, but not extensively and never in a hurry. A delicate and refined release. (FdW)
Address: http://www.small-doses.com
LOCRIAN - TERRITORIES (CD by Bloodlust!)
Somewhere else we look into a solo CD of Andre Foisy but here is a CD by his band Locrian, a duo of himself and T. Hannum. They played guitars and electronics. Seeing this release on Bloodlust! its hardly a surprise that it contains noise. A slow menacing sound of pounding drums, piercing electronics (derived from guitar playing? I am not sure here) and more loud guitars. That is the opening track 'Inverted Ruins', which includes Mark Solotroff, head honcho of Bloodlust, on vocals but Locrian has more to offer than just that. Each track seems to be recorded with the help of other people, so that's why things are probably more varied, beyond the boundaries of pure noise. 'Between Barrows', the second piece on the CD, is a much more subdued piece of music, carefully improvised. Although Locrian don't return to the careful style in this album again, its not said that every piece is one of loud noise only. The closing statement, 'The Columnless Arcade' is a finely driven motor like rock song, bursting out half way through, full of energy. 'Ring Road' sees the burning of a guitar (metaphorically speaking of course), like a giant dark beast bursting out, while 'Antediluvian Territory' is an almost ambient like guitar tune. The epic 'Procession Of Ancestral Brutalism' is then the noise centre of this album. Locrian delivered a great album with this CD. Here too we are dealing with the notion of noise that is varied, like we have discussed more recently: not that endless walls of feedback and distortion, but a varied bunch of pieces, some of which happen to be very loud and some not. But Locrian does all of that outside the world of pure electronics and that is a great achievement. An excellent CD! (FdW)
Address: http://www.bloodlust.blogspot.com
VW also reviews the new André Foisy 3" CDR as well as the new releases from Small Doses. Nice!
André Foisy - THEORY OF PROGRESS (3"CDR on Small Doses)
Andre Foisy is one half of Locrian, a more noise oriented band, but here the true ambient music comes out. Foisy plays guitar and adds a bit of electronics. The music is very mellow and relaxed. Foisy uses e-bow or other bows to play his guitar, adds a substantial dose of reverb to create a great textured sound, but keeps the effects within a fair, controlled state. Over the course of the piece things are build up, but not extensively and never in a hurry. A delicate and refined release. (FdW)
Address: http://www.small-doses.com
Monday, November 22, 2010
Ear Bleed on "The Crystal World"
Link here.
I’ve been pretty jaded/burned out from new underground music lately, and it seems like pretty much everyone else is too. Been talking to people about the negative creativity spawned by fame, as it seems like any underground musician who gets recognized lately and is thrust into blogger superstardom immediately stops growing as an artist and just churns out more and more of the same half-assed tropical/beach-pop/hypnogogic pop/shit-wave/cold-wave/chill-wave/whatever other stupid ghettoized genre music. Never been too interested in genres myself, as I’ve always felt like genrefication takes away from the music; Once it’s been stuck in a niche you have things that are expected of you and expectations of what you should sound like. And unfortunately it seems like lots of folks these days are more than happy to please the expectations of bloggers and other folks that don’t know anything about music.
Luckily none of this has anything to do with the new Locrian album “The Crystal World” on Utech. Having already neatly smashed out the walls of death metal, noise & power electronics on their previous albums, they wisely decide to keep smashing outward and take over whatever spectrums of music they end up in. Now a three piece, Locrian branch out into heavy psychedelic stoner rock (“At Night’s End”), kosmische synth jams (the instrumental title track), and strange as it may seem, psychedelic folk (“Elevation and Depths” towards the end sounds disturbingly like one of Bröselmachine’s better songs), with all 6 feet still formly rooted in the darkness and anguished screaming we know so well. Locrian’s music always has an unsettling presence lurking in the background, slowly spreading post-industrial pagan gloom over everything they touch, much like the Ballard novel the album is named after, and “The Crystal World” shows them seeping into new avenues of music and making them their own.
This is definitely the most musical thing I’ve heard from them yet, a nice change of pace in an era that doesn’t place much value on well-crafted music. Each track is a carefully-sculpted journey through Locrian’s signature sound that slowly unfolds to find something completly new hiding inside. It took me forever to review their last album, mostly because every review of it I saw was gushing praise out of every pore, and this one will probably get the same; but since they seem pretty immune to it so far I’ll go ahead and say that Locrian has once again raised the bar for themselves and suceeded in creating another incredible album that stays true to their aesthetic while still challenging themselves to make something different.
I’ve been pretty jaded/burned out from new underground music lately, and it seems like pretty much everyone else is too. Been talking to people about the negative creativity spawned by fame, as it seems like any underground musician who gets recognized lately and is thrust into blogger superstardom immediately stops growing as an artist and just churns out more and more of the same half-assed tropical/beach-pop/hypnogogic pop/shit-wave/cold-wave/chill-wave/whatever other stupid ghettoized genre music. Never been too interested in genres myself, as I’ve always felt like genrefication takes away from the music; Once it’s been stuck in a niche you have things that are expected of you and expectations of what you should sound like. And unfortunately it seems like lots of folks these days are more than happy to please the expectations of bloggers and other folks that don’t know anything about music.
Luckily none of this has anything to do with the new Locrian album “The Crystal World” on Utech. Having already neatly smashed out the walls of death metal, noise & power electronics on their previous albums, they wisely decide to keep smashing outward and take over whatever spectrums of music they end up in. Now a three piece, Locrian branch out into heavy psychedelic stoner rock (“At Night’s End”), kosmische synth jams (the instrumental title track), and strange as it may seem, psychedelic folk (“Elevation and Depths” towards the end sounds disturbingly like one of Bröselmachine’s better songs), with all 6 feet still formly rooted in the darkness and anguished screaming we know so well. Locrian’s music always has an unsettling presence lurking in the background, slowly spreading post-industrial pagan gloom over everything they touch, much like the Ballard novel the album is named after, and “The Crystal World” shows them seeping into new avenues of music and making them their own.
This is definitely the most musical thing I’ve heard from them yet, a nice change of pace in an era that doesn’t place much value on well-crafted music. Each track is a carefully-sculpted journey through Locrian’s signature sound that slowly unfolds to find something completly new hiding inside. It took me forever to review their last album, mostly because every review of it I saw was gushing praise out of every pore, and this one will probably get the same; but since they seem pretty immune to it so far I’ll go ahead and say that Locrian has once again raised the bar for themselves and suceeded in creating another incredible album that stays true to their aesthetic while still challenging themselves to make something different.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Sunday, November 14, 2010
"How bleak is it? None more bleak, my friend...Essential listening.": The One True Dead Angel on "The Crystal World"
Link here.
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Locrian -- THE CRYSTAL WORLD [Utech Records]
Chicago's favorite audio-terror duo are back with an extra partner in sonic crime (Steven Hess of On, Pan American, and Ural Umbo, handling percussion and electronics) and a wildly ambitious double-album inspired by the 1964 J. G. Ballard classic of the same name. This time around their dense, dark, apocalyptic sound is informed as much by prog rock as black metal and noise, and their increasingly exacting approach to songwriting and the meticulous layering of sounds makes this album a significant step forward. The opening track, "Triumph of Elimination," is essentially a link back to their previous album, opening with an ominous synth drone and creeped-out electronic whining that spirals upwards in frequency until the hellish vocals arrive -- but there's a lot more happening in the background, including tinking bells and primitive rumbling sounds. along with nearly subliminal bursts of screechy electronics and more audible sounds of sonic distress before the track ends in a brief flurry of percussion. The considerably more spare "At Night's End" is dominated by spooky synth drones and wailing peals of feedback that rise and fall; as the track progresses, the synth drone grows even darker as processed sounds warble and bleat in cryptic fashion. Then slow-motion drums kick in and eerie, disembodied vocals take the track in another direction, one that's as hypnotic and strangely beautiful as it is ominous. Things take a turn for the unexpected in the title track, where a percolating synth line rises from the noise fog and is eventually joined by some extremely devolved percussion and gothic keyboard washes. The evil bass hum of "Pathogens" -- along with some extremely spaced-out cyclotron moves -- moves the sound back into more familiar territory, especially when the wind-tunnel noises appear, along with muted percussion akin to someone trying to break his way out of a buried coffin. Eventually the percussion turns into actual drumming, accompanied by morbid drone and noise, in which Hess plays one convoluted pattern with minimal changes for quite a while, in a cruel act of minimalist torture, one that continues long after the background sounds have faded out of existence. The next track, "Obsidian Facades," wastes no time getting underway, opening with bone-chilling shrieking and dissonant, crashing chords from a distorted keyboard before settling into a cold and frigid soundscape heavy on the reverb and swaddled in layers of fuzz and drone. As the track goes on, a gorgeous piano melody enters the equation; by the time the track finishes, it is the sole sound. It is followed immediately by baroque acoustic strumming as "Elevations and Depths" kicks off, a song also enriched by Gretchen Koehler's violin when the percussion and synth drones eventually arrive.
The second disc is one track, "Extinction," that lasts nearly an hour and encompasses a wide variety of sounds. Structurally speaking, it unfolds in movements dominated by different uses of sound and texture, and varying levels of intensity in both dynamics and the number of layered sounds. At times it's sparse and bleak, with just one drone or electronic sound happening; at other times it's a thick, soupy fog of harsh sounds and paralyzing drones. The movements flow from one to the next in seamless fashion, and while it definitely takes a certain level of patience to sit through a track this long, the steadily shifting dynamics and textures keep things moving in a brisk fashion. At times they revert back to thunderous walls of black, shrieking noise, with passages far harsher than anything on the first disc. There are also proggy moments, as with the first disc, but the vast bulk of what's here is more focused on grim electronic frippery, cold wailing feedback, and drones of the darkest kind. The sound itself is consistently dark and chilling, regardless of what's going on at any given moment; this is the sound of urban decay in a concrete jungle where the skyscrapers blot out the sun and the wretched refuse of humanity squats in abandoned buildings. How bleak is it? None more bleak, my friend. Bonus points for the packaging (a gatefold digipak resembling a miniature LP sleeve) and the grotesque artwork by Vberkvlt. Essential listening. Note that a vinyl edition is forthcoming sometime next year.
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Locrian -- THE CRYSTAL WORLD [Utech Records]
Chicago's favorite audio-terror duo are back with an extra partner in sonic crime (Steven Hess of On, Pan American, and Ural Umbo, handling percussion and electronics) and a wildly ambitious double-album inspired by the 1964 J. G. Ballard classic of the same name. This time around their dense, dark, apocalyptic sound is informed as much by prog rock as black metal and noise, and their increasingly exacting approach to songwriting and the meticulous layering of sounds makes this album a significant step forward. The opening track, "Triumph of Elimination," is essentially a link back to their previous album, opening with an ominous synth drone and creeped-out electronic whining that spirals upwards in frequency until the hellish vocals arrive -- but there's a lot more happening in the background, including tinking bells and primitive rumbling sounds. along with nearly subliminal bursts of screechy electronics and more audible sounds of sonic distress before the track ends in a brief flurry of percussion. The considerably more spare "At Night's End" is dominated by spooky synth drones and wailing peals of feedback that rise and fall; as the track progresses, the synth drone grows even darker as processed sounds warble and bleat in cryptic fashion. Then slow-motion drums kick in and eerie, disembodied vocals take the track in another direction, one that's as hypnotic and strangely beautiful as it is ominous. Things take a turn for the unexpected in the title track, where a percolating synth line rises from the noise fog and is eventually joined by some extremely devolved percussion and gothic keyboard washes. The evil bass hum of "Pathogens" -- along with some extremely spaced-out cyclotron moves -- moves the sound back into more familiar territory, especially when the wind-tunnel noises appear, along with muted percussion akin to someone trying to break his way out of a buried coffin. Eventually the percussion turns into actual drumming, accompanied by morbid drone and noise, in which Hess plays one convoluted pattern with minimal changes for quite a while, in a cruel act of minimalist torture, one that continues long after the background sounds have faded out of existence. The next track, "Obsidian Facades," wastes no time getting underway, opening with bone-chilling shrieking and dissonant, crashing chords from a distorted keyboard before settling into a cold and frigid soundscape heavy on the reverb and swaddled in layers of fuzz and drone. As the track goes on, a gorgeous piano melody enters the equation; by the time the track finishes, it is the sole sound. It is followed immediately by baroque acoustic strumming as "Elevations and Depths" kicks off, a song also enriched by Gretchen Koehler's violin when the percussion and synth drones eventually arrive.
The second disc is one track, "Extinction," that lasts nearly an hour and encompasses a wide variety of sounds. Structurally speaking, it unfolds in movements dominated by different uses of sound and texture, and varying levels of intensity in both dynamics and the number of layered sounds. At times it's sparse and bleak, with just one drone or electronic sound happening; at other times it's a thick, soupy fog of harsh sounds and paralyzing drones. The movements flow from one to the next in seamless fashion, and while it definitely takes a certain level of patience to sit through a track this long, the steadily shifting dynamics and textures keep things moving in a brisk fashion. At times they revert back to thunderous walls of black, shrieking noise, with passages far harsher than anything on the first disc. There are also proggy moments, as with the first disc, but the vast bulk of what's here is more focused on grim electronic frippery, cold wailing feedback, and drones of the darkest kind. The sound itself is consistently dark and chilling, regardless of what's going on at any given moment; this is the sound of urban decay in a concrete jungle where the skyscrapers blot out the sun and the wretched refuse of humanity squats in abandoned buildings. How bleak is it? None more bleak, my friend. Bonus points for the packaging (a gatefold digipak resembling a miniature LP sleeve) and the grotesque artwork by Vberkvlt. Essential listening. Note that a vinyl edition is forthcoming sometime next year.
Friday, November 12, 2010
"Territories" Reviewed by Collective Zine
Link here.
Locrian
Territories
Year Released: 2010
Format: LP
Label: Basses Frequences - At War With False Noise - Bloodlust! - Small Doses
Reviewed by Alex Deller
Locrian is a world of hate, hell and endless misery. Dark, forbidding dronescapes cloud the senses. Minor-key Pentastar descensions chart a course deep into the abyss. Gurgled oaths and directionless, mind-searing static interference ensure that paranoia becomes a customary state of being while occasional blasts of raw, blackened metal and blood-curdling shrieks are almost a relief when they arrive, providing cold, jagged firmament upon which to cling. As unsettling as it is engrossing, "Territories" is a chilling journey into the all-consuming void and one that fans of Nekrasov, The Human Quena Orchestra and Gnaw Their Tongues will doubtless be keen to immerse themselves in.
Recommended record by Collective Zine!
Locrian
Territories
Year Released: 2010
Format: LP
Label: Basses Frequences - At War With False Noise - Bloodlust! - Small Doses
Reviewed by Alex Deller
Locrian is a world of hate, hell and endless misery. Dark, forbidding dronescapes cloud the senses. Minor-key Pentastar descensions chart a course deep into the abyss. Gurgled oaths and directionless, mind-searing static interference ensure that paranoia becomes a customary state of being while occasional blasts of raw, blackened metal and blood-curdling shrieks are almost a relief when they arrive, providing cold, jagged firmament upon which to cling. As unsettling as it is engrossing, "Territories" is a chilling journey into the all-consuming void and one that fans of Nekrasov, The Human Quena Orchestra and Gnaw Their Tongues will doubtless be keen to immerse themselves in.
Recommended record by Collective Zine!
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Land of Decay Related: LEADLIGHT / Zine
The end of this project is nigh. For those of you who have so graciously supported the past publications, Locrian member Terence Hannum has not stopped creating publications in his monthly series for 2010. We have a limited quantity of his new zine LEADLIGHT, more info below:
Eleventh zine in this monthly series, printed specifically for Western Exhibitions / Western Xeditions booth at the Editions | Artists’ Book Fair ’10 in New York City in November 2010.
For the most part LEADLIGHT is a study of sacred windows, inverted, cut, chopped and reintegrated by ancient ritual instruments, X-acto, scissor, tape and Xerox. The spaces are transformed, profaned, desecrated, elevated and abolished. Forms repeat, echo and collide in the black & white Xeroxes. Framing this amalgamation are cropped Xeroxes on black paper pulled from Terence Hannum’s drawings. Normally these holy windows are above shrines of amplifiers or headbanging sentinels, yet here they are removed and presented away to enhance the solemnity of these decorations and portals.
Black & white Xerox on white paper w/ black trifold cover w/ black Xerox printing in vellum printed obi strip
30 pages, Edition of 40
8.5” x 5.5” with trifold cover at 8.5” x 17”
$10ppd (US) / Contact for rates outside US
PAYPAL: landofdecay (at) gmail.com
Eleventh zine in this monthly series, printed specifically for Western Exhibitions / Western Xeditions booth at the Editions | Artists’ Book Fair ’10 in New York City in November 2010.
For the most part LEADLIGHT is a study of sacred windows, inverted, cut, chopped and reintegrated by ancient ritual instruments, X-acto, scissor, tape and Xerox. The spaces are transformed, profaned, desecrated, elevated and abolished. Forms repeat, echo and collide in the black & white Xeroxes. Framing this amalgamation are cropped Xeroxes on black paper pulled from Terence Hannum’s drawings. Normally these holy windows are above shrines of amplifiers or headbanging sentinels, yet here they are removed and presented away to enhance the solemnity of these decorations and portals.
Black & white Xerox on white paper w/ black trifold cover w/ black Xerox printing in vellum printed obi strip
30 pages, Edition of 40
8.5” x 5.5” with trifold cover at 8.5” x 17”
$10ppd (US) / Contact for rates outside US
PAYPAL: landofdecay (at) gmail.com
New biography in allmusic.com written by Eduardo Rivadavia
Link here.
by Eduardo Rivadavia
Locrian is an experimental project founded in 2005 by Chicago, IL-based academics André Foisy (electric, 12-string, and acoustic guitars, bass, tape loops, plus a lot of effects pedals) and Terence Hannum (synthesizers, vocals, tape loops), who began collaborating in extremely piecemeal fashion -- almost song by song, at times -- so that their early discography grew to contain over a dozen official and unofficial bite-sized works, issued in limited numbers and multiple formats. Along the way, the pair was abruptly tasked with conjuring up a name after accepting an offer to perform their first live gig, so the self-confessed music theory nerd Foisy suggested Locrian, inspired by an exotic musical scale once banned by the Catholic church for being "evil" (as well as an even more obscure tribe of ancient Greeks). And, in due time, Locrian's rather scattered creative methods coalesced into more manageable album-sized portions -- namely 2009's Drenched Lands, 2010's Territories, and 2011's The Crystal World -- without relinquishing the right to mix and match musical styles (black metal, noise rock, industrial music, drone, etc.) as they pleased. As of the latter release, Locrian's lineup (always filled with guest musicians recruited from the Chicago area) was expanded with the confirmation of full-time percussionist Steven Hess.
by Eduardo Rivadavia
Locrian is an experimental project founded in 2005 by Chicago, IL-based academics André Foisy (electric, 12-string, and acoustic guitars, bass, tape loops, plus a lot of effects pedals) and Terence Hannum (synthesizers, vocals, tape loops), who began collaborating in extremely piecemeal fashion -- almost song by song, at times -- so that their early discography grew to contain over a dozen official and unofficial bite-sized works, issued in limited numbers and multiple formats. Along the way, the pair was abruptly tasked with conjuring up a name after accepting an offer to perform their first live gig, so the self-confessed music theory nerd Foisy suggested Locrian, inspired by an exotic musical scale once banned by the Catholic church for being "evil" (as well as an even more obscure tribe of ancient Greeks). And, in due time, Locrian's rather scattered creative methods coalesced into more manageable album-sized portions -- namely 2009's Drenched Lands, 2010's Territories, and 2011's The Crystal World -- without relinquishing the right to mix and match musical styles (black metal, noise rock, industrial music, drone, etc.) as they pleased. As of the latter release, Locrian's lineup (always filled with guest musicians recruited from the Chicago area) was expanded with the confirmation of full-time percussionist Steven Hess.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Cześć - A review from Metal Center for our Polish friends
Link here. Thanks to Patryk!
Muzyka: psychedelic/drone/noise/ambient
Strona: www.myspace.com/thelocrian
Kraj: USA
Czas: 00:47:43
Dobre tytuły: wszystkie
Amerykański duet z Chicago powraca. Po wydaniu wspaniałego albumu „Territories” zawierającego gwiazdy Chicagowskiej sceny, kiedyś duet (teraz trio) wydało album pod nazwą „The Crystal World”. Album jak zwykle szokujący klimatem i napawający dziwnymi uczuciami.
Nowa twarz w LOCRIAN, którą jest Steven Hess rozbudował muzykę do jeszcze bardziej niespokojnego brzmienia, tym razem jeszcze bardziej wzmocnionego poprzez perkusję i dodatkową elektronikę.
„The Crystal World” prezentuje nową jakość muzyki LOCRIAN. Całkowicie odświeżona z dodatkiem perkusji, tym razem dla większości sceptycznych słuchaczy melodia również jest bardziej słyszalna jeśliby to nazwać melodią, a nie mantrą... To można rozumieć już zależnie od punktu widzenia. Jendi mogą zrozumieć nową płytę LOCRIAN jako eksperyment instrumentalny, a inni jako podróż do ciemnej strony własnego umysłu akompaniowanej dźwiękami LOCRIAN.
Jak już wspomniałem nowością na tej płycie jest dodatek perkusji i dodatkowej elektroniki. Pojawiają się w kawałkach nikłe bito-podobne dźwięki, perkusja natomiast nadaje całej muzyce potężne i jeszcze bardziej mroczne niż dotychczas brzmienie. Być może dlatego też, że chłopaki z Chicago w każdym albumie wrzucają coś nowego, ani zespół ani płyta nie powodują nudy pomimo tego co grają. Dla porównania warto wspomnieć, że dużo bardziej „skocznych” zespołów ostatnimi czasy przyprawia mnie o ziewanie.
Nie ma sensu wymieniać i opisywać kawałek po kawałku. Po pierwsze dlatego, że każdy jest świetny i nie ma do nich żadnego porównania. Po drugie ich nie da się opisać, trzeba je po prostu przesłuchać. Za każdym razem słuchając tego samego utworu można zauważyć coś nowego oraz można mieć inne wzbudzenie emocji zależnie od tego w jakmi stanie się aktualnie znajdujemy słuchając. Muzyka ta pomimo tego, że jest mroczna, czasem senstymentalna, chora i psychodeliczna, wierzcie mi lub nie, pasuje do każdego nastroju. W ciągu dnia może uspokoić, odciągnąć od zgiełku. W nocy może wzbudzać strach, przywołać sentymentalne wspomnienia lub podświadomie zmusić do refleksji. Na tym albumie pojawiają się nawet wokale brzmiące jakby przepełnione bólem. Gościnnie znajdują tu się również partie na skrzypcach oraz kobiecy głos.
„The Crystal World” to koncept bazowany na powiści JG Ballard’a z 1964 roku opowiadająca o fizyku, który wyrusza wgłąb afrykańskiej dżungli odkryć jej zagadkę, według której dżungla ta powoli zaczyna się krystalizować. Album ma się oficjalnie ukazać 27 listopada w dwupłytowej postaci. Pierwsza płyta to sześć utworów, o której jest recenzja, natomiast druga, która jeszcze jest zagadką dla ucha ma zawierać jeden prawie godzinny utwór „Extinction”. Według LOCRIAN ten kawałek ma być podsumowaniem całego albumu. Nie wątpie, że taki będzie. „The Crystal World” jest wspaniała, lecz trudna do opisania w całości oraz detalami. Dlatego jak wspominałem, co również polecam – należy przesłuchać utwory z tego albumu, żeby zrozumieć o jakiej wspaniałości jest mowa.
Muzyka: psychedelic/drone/noise/ambient
Strona: www.myspace.com/thelocrian
Kraj: USA
Czas: 00:47:43
Dobre tytuły: wszystkie
Amerykański duet z Chicago powraca. Po wydaniu wspaniałego albumu „Territories” zawierającego gwiazdy Chicagowskiej sceny, kiedyś duet (teraz trio) wydało album pod nazwą „The Crystal World”. Album jak zwykle szokujący klimatem i napawający dziwnymi uczuciami.
Nowa twarz w LOCRIAN, którą jest Steven Hess rozbudował muzykę do jeszcze bardziej niespokojnego brzmienia, tym razem jeszcze bardziej wzmocnionego poprzez perkusję i dodatkową elektronikę.
„The Crystal World” prezentuje nową jakość muzyki LOCRIAN. Całkowicie odświeżona z dodatkiem perkusji, tym razem dla większości sceptycznych słuchaczy melodia również jest bardziej słyszalna jeśliby to nazwać melodią, a nie mantrą... To można rozumieć już zależnie od punktu widzenia. Jendi mogą zrozumieć nową płytę LOCRIAN jako eksperyment instrumentalny, a inni jako podróż do ciemnej strony własnego umysłu akompaniowanej dźwiękami LOCRIAN.
Jak już wspomniałem nowością na tej płycie jest dodatek perkusji i dodatkowej elektroniki. Pojawiają się w kawałkach nikłe bito-podobne dźwięki, perkusja natomiast nadaje całej muzyce potężne i jeszcze bardziej mroczne niż dotychczas brzmienie. Być może dlatego też, że chłopaki z Chicago w każdym albumie wrzucają coś nowego, ani zespół ani płyta nie powodują nudy pomimo tego co grają. Dla porównania warto wspomnieć, że dużo bardziej „skocznych” zespołów ostatnimi czasy przyprawia mnie o ziewanie.
Nie ma sensu wymieniać i opisywać kawałek po kawałku. Po pierwsze dlatego, że każdy jest świetny i nie ma do nich żadnego porównania. Po drugie ich nie da się opisać, trzeba je po prostu przesłuchać. Za każdym razem słuchając tego samego utworu można zauważyć coś nowego oraz można mieć inne wzbudzenie emocji zależnie od tego w jakmi stanie się aktualnie znajdujemy słuchając. Muzyka ta pomimo tego, że jest mroczna, czasem senstymentalna, chora i psychodeliczna, wierzcie mi lub nie, pasuje do każdego nastroju. W ciągu dnia może uspokoić, odciągnąć od zgiełku. W nocy może wzbudzać strach, przywołać sentymentalne wspomnienia lub podświadomie zmusić do refleksji. Na tym albumie pojawiają się nawet wokale brzmiące jakby przepełnione bólem. Gościnnie znajdują tu się również partie na skrzypcach oraz kobiecy głos.
„The Crystal World” to koncept bazowany na powiści JG Ballard’a z 1964 roku opowiadająca o fizyku, który wyrusza wgłąb afrykańskiej dżungli odkryć jej zagadkę, według której dżungla ta powoli zaczyna się krystalizować. Album ma się oficjalnie ukazać 27 listopada w dwupłytowej postaci. Pierwsza płyta to sześć utworów, o której jest recenzja, natomiast druga, która jeszcze jest zagadką dla ucha ma zawierać jeden prawie godzinny utwór „Extinction”. Według LOCRIAN ten kawałek ma być podsumowaniem całego albumu. Nie wątpie, że taki będzie. „The Crystal World” jest wspaniała, lecz trudna do opisania w całości oraz detalami. Dlatego jak wspominałem, co również polecam – należy przesłuchać utwory z tego albumu, żeby zrozumieć o jakiej wspaniałości jest mowa.
Infernal Masquerade Webzine Reviews "The Crystal World" and Interviews Locrian
Link here.
You can also listen an audio interview with Locrian here.
-----------------
Every once in a while we get a release that makes us listen to it more than normal since it’s so complex and different that we can’t really craft a solid opinion about it with only 3-4 spins. This month we have Locrian’s third full-length album “The Crystal World”, the band plays a very experimental mixture of ambient, drone, and some Black Metal and Post-Rock elements. This might sound like a handful, but it actually works very well for the flow of this release.
“The Crystal World” is a very powerful emotional ride that spreads through 6 tracks. With the first track “Triumph of Elimination”, the band immediately sets the stage for this dark and minimalistic journey. In the traditional fashion of creating expectation, this track starts building up with samples and drones that seem to be gaining momentum but they also seem to never culminate. The ‘culmination’ section for us that need it, comes in the next track “At Night’s End”.
In this second track the band halfway through the track reaches a more climactic point and you can actually hear some Post-Rock passages that greatly enhance the listening experience and add more ingredients to this very experimental (and effective) combination of elements of different genres.
The whole album pretty much follows the same ideas but Locrian actually manages to keep each ‘iteration’ fresh by adding different elements including: Black Metal shrieks, violins, female vocals, and countless samples that greatly enhance this great album. At some points the music gets somewhat Ethno and ritualistic (i.e. “Pathogens”) and could get a bit tiresome for some people, but ambient/drone freaks will surely rejoice in this interesting sections.
Overall, we think that Locrian has managed to release a very effective album. The band has managed to fuse many different elements and styles together in a very cohesive manner creating a truly haunting listening experience. Be warned that “The Crystal World” is a release that needs more than a few listens to be fully understood and enjoyed, but once you are over the ‘learning curve’ the ride is very enjoyable.
---------------------------------
You can also listen an audio interview with Locrian here.
-----------------
Every once in a while we get a release that makes us listen to it more than normal since it’s so complex and different that we can’t really craft a solid opinion about it with only 3-4 spins. This month we have Locrian’s third full-length album “The Crystal World”, the band plays a very experimental mixture of ambient, drone, and some Black Metal and Post-Rock elements. This might sound like a handful, but it actually works very well for the flow of this release.
“The Crystal World” is a very powerful emotional ride that spreads through 6 tracks. With the first track “Triumph of Elimination”, the band immediately sets the stage for this dark and minimalistic journey. In the traditional fashion of creating expectation, this track starts building up with samples and drones that seem to be gaining momentum but they also seem to never culminate. The ‘culmination’ section for us that need it, comes in the next track “At Night’s End”.
In this second track the band halfway through the track reaches a more climactic point and you can actually hear some Post-Rock passages that greatly enhance the listening experience and add more ingredients to this very experimental (and effective) combination of elements of different genres.
The whole album pretty much follows the same ideas but Locrian actually manages to keep each ‘iteration’ fresh by adding different elements including: Black Metal shrieks, violins, female vocals, and countless samples that greatly enhance this great album. At some points the music gets somewhat Ethno and ritualistic (i.e. “Pathogens”) and could get a bit tiresome for some people, but ambient/drone freaks will surely rejoice in this interesting sections.
Overall, we think that Locrian has managed to release a very effective album. The band has managed to fuse many different elements and styles together in a very cohesive manner creating a truly haunting listening experience. Be warned that “The Crystal World” is a release that needs more than a few listens to be fully understood and enjoyed, but once you are over the ‘learning curve’ the ride is very enjoyable.
---------------------------------
Monday, November 8, 2010
All Music Guide's Eduardo Rivadavia on Locrian "Territories"
Link here.
Chicago's Locrian spent the second half of the ‘00s making bite-sized sonic experiments (almost two-dozen mini releases) before committing their eclectic mixture of black metal, electronics, drone, and noise rock to a full-length format for 2009's Drenched Lands and the following year's eye-opening sophomore album, Territories. Opening statement "Inverted Ruins" sets the stage (or burns it to the ground, rather) with a snail-paced post-metal grind shrouded in decayed industrial textures à la Neurosis, and capped by eardrum-rupturing feedback screeches that may have some listeners convinced their CD is defective (the same is true for the epic dronefest "Ring Road"). But no, this is quite intentional on the band's part and but one jarring facet of their discomfiting musical strategy, which also entails a thrumming, Eno-esque meditation awash with cymbal crashes and processed saxophone waves ("Between Barrows"); a modern black metal showstopper of formidable violence and layered complexity ("Procession of Ancestral Brutality"); an Isis-like collection of improbably beautiful echoed melodies and swarming atmospherics ("Antediluvian Territory"); and a hypnotizing combination of densely interwoven evil drones reminiscent of Sunn 0)))'s Black One opus ("The Columnless Arcade"). It should also be noted that Locrian's central duo of André Foisy and Steven Hess invited numerous outsiders to guest on the album, including Nachtmystium's Blake Judd, Bloodyminded's Mark Solotroff, Yakuza's Bruce Lamont, and Velnias' Andrew Scherer, and its obvious that their pooled talents and distinct visions contributed significantly to Territories' oftentimes unique, if at times perplexingly diverse material. There's never a dull moment here, that's for sure.
Chicago's Locrian spent the second half of the ‘00s making bite-sized sonic experiments (almost two-dozen mini releases) before committing their eclectic mixture of black metal, electronics, drone, and noise rock to a full-length format for 2009's Drenched Lands and the following year's eye-opening sophomore album, Territories. Opening statement "Inverted Ruins" sets the stage (or burns it to the ground, rather) with a snail-paced post-metal grind shrouded in decayed industrial textures à la Neurosis, and capped by eardrum-rupturing feedback screeches that may have some listeners convinced their CD is defective (the same is true for the epic dronefest "Ring Road"). But no, this is quite intentional on the band's part and but one jarring facet of their discomfiting musical strategy, which also entails a thrumming, Eno-esque meditation awash with cymbal crashes and processed saxophone waves ("Between Barrows"); a modern black metal showstopper of formidable violence and layered complexity ("Procession of Ancestral Brutality"); an Isis-like collection of improbably beautiful echoed melodies and swarming atmospherics ("Antediluvian Territory"); and a hypnotizing combination of densely interwoven evil drones reminiscent of Sunn 0)))'s Black One opus ("The Columnless Arcade"). It should also be noted that Locrian's central duo of André Foisy and Steven Hess invited numerous outsiders to guest on the album, including Nachtmystium's Blake Judd, Bloodyminded's Mark Solotroff, Yakuza's Bruce Lamont, and Velnias' Andrew Scherer, and its obvious that their pooled talents and distinct visions contributed significantly to Territories' oftentimes unique, if at times perplexingly diverse material. There's never a dull moment here, that's for sure.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Montreal Mirror on "The Crystal World"
Link here.
LOCRIAN
The Crystal World
(Utech)
This newly expanded trio is utterly devastating over the 90 minutes of this two-CD set. Dark, ambient psych and harsh noise merge perfectly with black metal vocals on opening track “Triumph of Elimination,” before the barrage settles in. The six songs on the first CD would’ve been payoff enough but when the second CD opens with the throbbing drones of the monolithic, perfectly paced, hour-long “Extinction,” Locrian brazenly announce they are the new kings of heavy, heavy psych. This trip is for real. 9/10 Trial Track: “Extinction” (Johnson Cummins)
LOCRIAN
The Crystal World
(Utech)
This newly expanded trio is utterly devastating over the 90 minutes of this two-CD set. Dark, ambient psych and harsh noise merge perfectly with black metal vocals on opening track “Triumph of Elimination,” before the barrage settles in. The six songs on the first CD would’ve been payoff enough but when the second CD opens with the throbbing drones of the monolithic, perfectly paced, hour-long “Extinction,” Locrian brazenly announce they are the new kings of heavy, heavy psych. This trip is for real. 9/10 Trial Track: “Extinction” (Johnson Cummins)
Locrian "Territories" CD at Aquarius Records Now
Order here.
NOW ON CD!!
With every single release these guys get better and better, their sound, a constantly evolving, ultra dense blend of abstract black metal and deep ambient dronemusic, the early records were more about energy and vibe than execution, still eminently listenable, heavy and atmospheric, black and brutal, but their skills as composers and arranges have definitely made leaps and bounds, arriving finally at Territories, the latest sprawling epic from this Chicago duo, here, aided and abetted by a whole bunch of guests, including Blake Judd from Nachtmystium, Andrew Scherer, drummer for black metallers Velnias, and Mark Solotroff, power electronics maestro, and man behind Bloody Minded and the BloodLust! label.
And the guests make their presence felt right away, on opener inverted ruins, a smoldering doomic plod, more power electronics than black metal, with Solotroff ranting over a sea of swirling buzz and skree, glitched out electronics, and some simple stripped down drumming. Over the course of the track, it begins to coalesce into a more ominous creep, shedding noise as it goes, before finally slipping into a deep shimmering drone, which introduces the next track, a lush, slow building cinematic dronescape, constantly shifting layers, drifting through clouds of cymbal shimmer and blackened buzzing strings. It's not until nearly the end of side one that black metal rears its ugly head, a flurry of manic riffing, and they're off, a pounding midtempo blast of raw feral blackness, insane shrieked vocals, chaotic drums, muted riffs, all blurred into a blackened haze, lo-fi and muddy, but also epic and intense.
The flipside opens with another bout of power electronics, dueling synths unfurl undulating layers of wheeze and warble and buzz, laced with shimmering overtones and fragmented melodies, a churning black sonic sea, that eventually fades out leaving, a smoldering stretch of shadowy guitar, of blissed out ambience, a short stretch of crystalline chiming guitars laid over a warm whir, shoegazey and blissed out, which finally leads into the closing track, the weirdest of the bunch, with organ and saxophone, acoustic guitars, and pretty much all the gusts present and accounted for, a bleak buzzing driftscape, sort of post industrial, keening melodies over fractured buzz, and deep rumbles, creaks and skree and groaning low end, finally explode into full on melodic black metal, martial drumming, epic riffing, more tortured vokills, cool tangled woozy minor key melodies, a swirling druggy ambience, weirdly catchy and otherworldly, but still heavy and psychedelic, maybe our favorite track, and the perfect way to wind down this serpentine blackened outsider drone metal journey...
NOW ON CD!!
With every single release these guys get better and better, their sound, a constantly evolving, ultra dense blend of abstract black metal and deep ambient dronemusic, the early records were more about energy and vibe than execution, still eminently listenable, heavy and atmospheric, black and brutal, but their skills as composers and arranges have definitely made leaps and bounds, arriving finally at Territories, the latest sprawling epic from this Chicago duo, here, aided and abetted by a whole bunch of guests, including Blake Judd from Nachtmystium, Andrew Scherer, drummer for black metallers Velnias, and Mark Solotroff, power electronics maestro, and man behind Bloody Minded and the BloodLust! label.
And the guests make their presence felt right away, on opener inverted ruins, a smoldering doomic plod, more power electronics than black metal, with Solotroff ranting over a sea of swirling buzz and skree, glitched out electronics, and some simple stripped down drumming. Over the course of the track, it begins to coalesce into a more ominous creep, shedding noise as it goes, before finally slipping into a deep shimmering drone, which introduces the next track, a lush, slow building cinematic dronescape, constantly shifting layers, drifting through clouds of cymbal shimmer and blackened buzzing strings. It's not until nearly the end of side one that black metal rears its ugly head, a flurry of manic riffing, and they're off, a pounding midtempo blast of raw feral blackness, insane shrieked vocals, chaotic drums, muted riffs, all blurred into a blackened haze, lo-fi and muddy, but also epic and intense.
The flipside opens with another bout of power electronics, dueling synths unfurl undulating layers of wheeze and warble and buzz, laced with shimmering overtones and fragmented melodies, a churning black sonic sea, that eventually fades out leaving, a smoldering stretch of shadowy guitar, of blissed out ambience, a short stretch of crystalline chiming guitars laid over a warm whir, shoegazey and blissed out, which finally leads into the closing track, the weirdest of the bunch, with organ and saxophone, acoustic guitars, and pretty much all the gusts present and accounted for, a bleak buzzing driftscape, sort of post industrial, keening melodies over fractured buzz, and deep rumbles, creaks and skree and groaning low end, finally explode into full on melodic black metal, martial drumming, epic riffing, more tortured vokills, cool tangled woozy minor key melodies, a swirling druggy ambience, weirdly catchy and otherworldly, but still heavy and psychedelic, maybe our favorite track, and the perfect way to wind down this serpentine blackened outsider drone metal journey...
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Blow Up (Italy) Magazine Names "The Crystal World" Album of the Month
Thanks to Stefano and the rest of people at Blow Up for the support!
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Pre-Order "The Crystal World" Now (Pre-Order Included Professional Poster w/ Album Artwork)
You can pre-order "The Crystal World" at Utech Records now!
Pre-order here.
Available until NOVEMBER 23 at which time all pre-orders will ship.
A limited edition poster will be included with The Crystal World while supplies last.
Artist: Locrian
Title: The Crystal World
Price: $17
Format: 2XCDaaEdition: 1000
Length: 102'aaTrx: 7
Catalogue Number: URCD056/057
Released: November 27, 2010
Recorded: Recorded by Dave Whitcomb, Chicago IL, 2010.
André Foisy, Terence Hannum, Steven Hess.
Gretchen Roehler violin on 6. Erica Burgner vocals on 2 and 6.
Disk I
1.Triumph of Elimination Audio
2.At Night's End
3.The Crystal World
4.Pathogens
5.Obsidian Facades Audio
6.Elevations And Depths
Disk II
1.Extinction Audio I--Audio II
A marked change had come over the forest, as if dusk had begun to fall. Everywhere the glacé sheaths which enveloped the trees and vegetation had become duller and more opaque. The crystal floor underfoot was occluded and gray, turning the needles into spurs of basalt. The brilliant panoply of colored light had gone, and a dim amber glow moved across the trees, shadowing the sequined floor. At the same time it had become considerably colder.
The Crystal World, the third studio album from Locrian, is an epic journey. Titled after JG Ballard’s 1964 novel that tells the story of a physician who specializes in leprosy sent to a remote African outpost to discover a jungle that is slowly crystallizing and encroaching upon everything it touches. Disc one comprises six tracks while disc two consists of one extended piece, Extinction, that picks up on the intensity of disc one and sustains it for close to an hour. On The Crystal World, Terence Hannum, and André Foisy, are joined by Steven Hess (On, Pan American, Ural Umbo) on percussion and electronics. Hess’ contribution pushes Locrian deeper into the abyss of despair rendering a sound that is darker, bleaker, and engulfing than any of the group’s previous releases. Locrian continue the conceptual trajectory of blackened drone that the group initially embarked on during their first studio album Drenched Lands (2009). Masters of layering, The Crystal World finds the group manipulating tones and textures that transport the listener to an apocalyptic wasteland. At times, the layers are serene and somber, at other times they are chaotic.
The Crystal World is Locrian's essential release, finding the band creating a sound all of their own. A sound that evades simplistic analogies to black metal, power-electronics, noise, or other categories. This is the album that will stun fans of the bands previous works with how far the group has come from their early releases. Presented in a Stoughton gatefold sleeve with art by Vberkvlt.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Locrian "At Night's End" Video Premiere @ Stereogum (Video by Raymond Salvatore Harmon)
You can check out the premiere of two tracks from "The Crystal World" at Stereogum. Thanks again to Brandon for the support.
Thanks also to Raymond Salvatore Harmon for the amazing video. Put on your 3-D glasses for it though!
Stay tuned for more videos from "The Crystal World" being released really soon...
Thanks also to Raymond Salvatore Harmon for the amazing video. Put on your 3-D glasses for it though!
Locrian - "At Night's End" Video (Stereogum Premiere) from stereogum on Vimeo.
Stay tuned for more videos from "The Crystal World" being released really soon...
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