These freaky funny ala 'Supermarket in California' flowers look brutal at the second glance, ha? And I do understand the disgust one can feel to this tape though I do understand how one can like this disgust. Wow! Stop rising, flower! Emerging electronics raisin is yet wet and full of juicy moonlight. The rebelling spirit of 60s and then 80s with all those post-s and neo-s and then Ed Wood's movies and Italian zombies.. whahh.. all these pictures and smells... aren't they freaky funny? Aren't they freaky fast-minded and dramatic? Aren't they worth contemplating suicide i. e. leaving this pink planet and approaching the red east hiding in all those black holes which really start their lives under your own nails. Check you hands.
Buy this phantasmal dystopia created by amazing Keith Rankin from Digitalis.
Innercity – Boy In Forest Trying To Hotwire The Earth cassette
I have already told about my love to Innercity several times. Now I have one more big reason for my big love. This great tape was recently released by one the best-known US label Not Not Fun. Two long tracks of shimmering synth topping flavored with perfectly quiet and calm tropical beats gently throw you faceup and fondle with balky sunny paws. Each sound hurts. Each sound tells you that you are not in a right place. Each sound tell you that you are happy in a wrong place.
released y Not Not Fun.
I don't know why but this record is totally romantic for me, though certain tacks and titles try to put another feeling into my mind I can't stop perceiving it as a simple beautiful and very powerful romantic story. Yes, surely it deals with somehow (oddly!!!...) all aspects of one's life the main oscillating line still points the heart. I am not going to flatter but this LP, this romantic fountain of discreet emotions is now the top-1 this year for me. Ten tracks (last track is fucking best music piece for the last decade!...) open up as a sick-hearted flower-bud. Well. I also can't get rid of one allusion. Have you read 'Sometimes a Great Notion'? Pretty much the same feelings. Genius!
Very highly recommended.
Released by Bathetic records.
Here we have another music gift from one of the best contemporary synth masters - James . Moore. Two long pieces cover the analogue tape packed and released by J. Wright's Sonic Meditations. The fist track begins as a soundtrack to a bit scary drama or psychological crime story. This music forces one to keep an eye on details and wait for unsuspected turnovers (mind takeovers though..). Starting from the middle sound scenes start to remind Clint Mansell's works and one inevitably moves to the chess desk - time to take responsibility for moving the figures of subconsciousness. Side A is more unstable. This is the music of the path-breakers from the medieval times. Cold, dissonant, mint. Look forward, pals...
Buy the cassette from Sonic Meditations.
I want to thank and hug awesome guys from the WARM Karelia, Ivan and Anya for their help, patience and time!
1.
You have such a pejorative name for a label! Why so? When did you start the project?
Ivan: This one is a mighty and glorious name for a label, I think. "It's true because it can't be". Full of Nothing does not mean absence. It suggests an enormous amount of something. Mystical and sacred micro-world. My mind and my heart belong to that world. The world of 'maybe'.
Then there's the abbreviation "fon" which we use for our catalog numbers, it means both "feedback" and "background" in Russian. And another short name "fono" which connects with "phono" jacks and the general sound term... Isn't that just lovely? Also, there's this kind of music that says million things without a single clear phrase. Sometimes a tape loop awakens more emotions in me that a thousand well-composed symphonies.
The label was launched in January 2010. The name had come to me 5 years before that.
2.
On the contrary, the name of your music project is really positive. Tell about the history of Love Cult.
Me & Anya both participated in Kawrelia Soul Collective, then joined MAAAA for their "Burning Kukkovka's Cock". But we really wanted to try to make something together, just the two of us. Thatwasinmid-2009.
3.
How often do you quarrel speaking about music stuff?
Anya: We never argue. On the contrary - when we jam we come up with many new ideas. And we always try them out. Usually it leads to moving furniture, opening up the piano and looking for weird sound sources... I always feel this childish longing for adventures! Like building a treehouse or making hiding places.
4.
Why cassettes?
Ivan: We are so tactile, we just need something to touch and feel. Vinyl and tapes have this different aesthetic and exceptional design capacity. One can't put a tape into iPod so there's intimacy to music. Tapes sell well and CDs don't sell at all here.
5.
You guys are doing so many things: Love Cult, Full of Nothing, Novoe Tsarstvo, design, organization of tours and local gigs etc. Where do you find time for all of this?
Anya: There are never too many favourite activities if you are able to organize them in a harmonic way. I've been working with kids in a museum for the past year. Good half of my free time was dedicated to it. It's totally opposite to what we do with Ivan. One needs a recharge. And the resting turns into another activity. That's how we both stay interested and dedicated, whatever that is we're doing.
6.
One could have stumbled across Love Cult show at so many places already in Russia and Europe. Can you tell a bit about some special impressions?
Anya: There are special places. There are warm and giving places and there are those which smell of rot. The last tour with Woodpecker Wooliams and Golden Cup was amazing (the Russian part)! I can't thank Ivan enough for putting it together. That trip changed me a lot. I'm not sure whether it was Luca who said that "you're going somewhere to simply play a few shows but you find yourself coming back with new friends and unbelievable experience which turns you inside out".
Ivan: I was very inspired by Istanbul. Turkish culture, music, language - all was a huge revelation to me. We watched Chris Corsano play in a stellar club called "Bedroom", got a chance to chat, too. What a moment! The show we played was after a few months of hibernation. Semi-improvised, very powerful. I sang and cried.
One-of-a-kind Creepy Teepee festival in Czech!
Gigs in Vinius and Saransk were great, we're happy there are recordings of those on the web. Deep vibes, recpectful audience. And of course, the last tour. The Russian gigs were so inspiring! Woodpecker Wooliams and Golden Cup are outstanding musicians and people. Everything we do is for such people and such moments.
7.
Tell which part of label work is:
The hardest?
Most joyful?
Most boring?
Anya: Ivan takes care of the hard work. He's the manager. He makes stuff happen, handles all relations with musicians etc. I'm not of much use in organization. The rest of the work varies... The most boring part is dubbing tapes. It's funny that we can't listen to the releases after hearing them 50 times. It's always different with artwork. One day the design idea comes in a moment, the other time it takes ages. But all these little things bring me so much joy and inspiration! It's not just about spreading the music - it's an endless chain of relationships with amazing people. The only downside is Russian Post, ha ha.
Ivan: The coolest part of running a label is listening to cool music. The shittiest - listening to shitty music.
8.
Next question I will ask to every person in DDb interview series.
What have changed in independent music world with the developing and spreading of the Web? Any positive improvements? Any negative repercussions?
Ivan: Every music era is unique. I just can't understand all the whining and internet cries about the music industry and all. Anyone can make whatever they want nowadays! We're living in a truly great time!
9.
What music did you like or were intrigued by lately? What would you recommend?
Ivan: Lots of hours worth of listening to my first free psych love - Vibracathedral Orchestra. Also insane amounts of Sunroof! and Hototogisu, and Excepter. The latest Current 93, previously unheard "Jaybird" from Sunburned. Tapes from Stunned. Pretty great noise-rock from Scarcity of Tanks and Sea Scouts. Steve Gunn and Gunn-Truscinski Duo, Suishou No Fune, Velvet Underground, The Beatles. Folk compilations: "Give Me Love: Songs Of The Brokenhearted - Baghdad, 1925-1929" & "To Scratch Your Heart: Early Recordings from Istanbul". Woodsist catalog: Woods, Spectre Folk, White Fence... Many albums from my friends, mainly Woodpecker Wooliams and Ous Mal. Hip-hop and dub. Constantly all Full of Nothing releases.
Anya: Lately I find it hard to listen to music that demands lots of attention, that doesn't have enough images and mood inside. I've been leaning towards more straightforward and accessible music: Rachael Dadd, Woods, Woodpecker Wooliams, Ducktails, Matrix Metals, Egyptrixx, Niggas With Guitars, Big Boi, Games, Grimes...
10.
What should we expect from Love Cult and Full of Nothing in the future?
6 new tapes are coming up on Full of Nothing: M. Geddes Gengras, prayer / Nathan McLaughlin, PreslavLiterarySchool, Polypus Acephalous, Banana Pill, Suburban Howl. There are already some clips at Soundcloud!
Just finished a new tape with Love Cult, called "Averter". Lots of chanting on that one, like we did on the last tour. Slowed down piano loops, kantele. It'll be out in Autumn! Can't name the label at the moment. ;)
Sacred Phrases are going to release our collab with Turkish drone cutie Berk (I Create Soundscapes). The project is called Teenage Magic. The material is similar to Love Cult but with synth, ghostly flute and a pop 'song'.
Working on tracks for several compilations, split 7" with MAAAA and next tape (for Digitalis Ltd.)
Here comes a new jewel produced by always amazing Not Not Fun label. This time we have an opportunity to believe in futuristic fairy-tales artfully and nattily told by a San-Franciscan musician Peter Berend. Two long tracks, each side long, present a cadre of small music adventures full of anarchic lo-fi side-walks, alcoholic races, soap-box grotesque and romantic guitar/synth tremolos. Uniquely fresh and uniquely diverse album. Highly recommended.
Buy this record from Not Not Fun.
I am really sorry but I am not gonna add anything to this:
'The multi-billions trasinternational concerns think we want more and more cars, computers and mobile phones. For offering all these crap to us for cheap, they need more and more cheap energy. They want nuclear power plants which are powerful and good in making money, but this technology is extremely dangerous for the people and for our planet. To get a cheap plastic junk today, we are agree to kill our child's future today. We have already had two colossal nuclear disasters in only last 25 years: Chernobyl (Ukraine) in 1986 and Fukushima (Japan) in 2011. There are lots of information everywhere about the sas consequences of both and do we really need more proofs?'
Buy from Quasi Pop.
Ho-ho, this record by Croatian psycho-kraut rock band became my favorite in their catalogue. Five really long sound pieces couldn't be named as tracks or songs. They can be more referred as endless wastelands that are getting discovered by a group of happenstance enthusiasts.Truly improvisational mood delivered by fluctuating guitar stretches and low but rigid synth stabs is accompanied by the righteous guitar of Makoto Kawabata (Acid Mother Temple) who had a hand in this record. This music reminded me of the Van Sant's film 'Gerry'. No conversation, the whole world empty.
Buy the record from Beta-lactam Ring.
