PREVIEW FROM BLASTITUDE #27

Here's a heavy preview from The Oud and the Ney: A Morocco Diary by Derek Monypeny, coming up in a couple weeks when Blastitude #27 goes up...



And, related:



Stay tuned!

CIRITH UNGOL
King of the Dead (Enigma, 1984)
If you're reading this you've probably heard of them, and have assumed correctly that they are a metal band, but have you actually heard them yet? Apparently the band was formed in 1972, but existed somewhat nebulously and without discography until 1979, when they self-released a demo tape and then an LP called Frost & Fire. Finally in 1981 they scored a deal with independent metal/punk/new wave powerhouse Enigma Records (Poison, 45 Grave, Agent Orange, DEVO, Don Dixon, Bill Nelson, Peter Hammill, Al Stewart, Barren Cross, Berlin, Channel 3, Lääz Rockit, Chris Poland, XYZ, The Dead Milkmen, Death Angel, Obsession, Stryper, Great White, Hurricane, Green on Red, Lizzy Borden, Mötley Crüe, Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper, Ratt, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Slayer, The Smithereens, Steve Kilbey, Guardian, TSOL, The Untouchables, Wednesday Week, Ike Willis, The Leaving Trains, Plasticland, The Terminator OST, River's Edge OST, Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation...), who re-released Frost & Fire and then three more albums that, though highly identifiable due to the sword-and-sorcery cover paintings by Michael Whelan, were completely ignored by almost everyone, to this very day.

I think people were/are simply put off by the name, one of the weirdest in heavy metal history, an unknown phrase that may be the name of a person, place, or thing, or perhaps some strange state of being, but in any case strikes a perfect pitch between fantasy, horror, and total arcane obscurity. What it really means is "spider's cleft," at least in the Elvish language Sindarin, and it is the name of a fantastically extreme mountain pass in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth (check The Return Of The King). This is all very heavy, but then you finally hear the band, as I finally have via a digital copy of their second album King of the Dead (generally considered their best), and the whole story takes another left turn, because they don't come on as ultra-heavy. Even though they were SoCal peers with Metallica, having appeared on the same 1982 Metal Massacre comp that James and Lars and company debuted on, their grooves are slower, bluesier, stonery-er, very 1970s hard rock, a sound that competely ignores punk and its speed-metal stepchildren. (Says drummer Robert Garvin in an interview with Sleazegrinder.com: "I like a lot of punk and that’s why I guess we were so turned off by speed metal, because it seemed as if it was an unholy cross of punk and metal, I still don’t like speed metal or rap rock for that matter.") They are also more midrangy than you might expect -- even the bassist Michael "Flint" Vujea has a trebly tone, plays loose with the riffs, and sprinkles in plucky fills that are sometimes even borderline jazzy. Another left turn comes in the form of occasional crude classical filigree (the penultimate track on King of the Dead is a shred-metal version of Bach's "Tocatta in D" -- after all, another peer was Yngwie Malmsteen himself, who also made his vinyl debut on that first Metal Massacre comp, in the band Steeler) that furthers the twisted 'garage occult' flavor of the band name, and can blossom into moments of heavy-duty epic-ness, such as the twin guitar solo on "Finger of Scorn."

But nothing about the band is as twisted as the singer. He is the amazing and terrible leather-and-headband-wearing long-hair named Tim Baker, and he sings in some sort of constant screeching hiss. I'm sure mileage will vary on this guy, but he had me by the second song, especially because said song is called "Black Machine" and has a chorus that carries on the same biker dirge riff as the verse as Baker hisses one of the ultimate metal phrases: "Get on and RIIIIDE!!!" followed by "The Black MaCHIIIIIIIIIIINNNE!" Not to mention verses like "Pearly whites behind back drawn lips/Ride with the Masters of the Pit/Snapping jaws of the dogs of doom/Kick your way from this stagnant tomb." The lyrics throughout the whole album are prime sword-and-sorcery/horror/comic book stuff, with nothing about babes, partying, or anything from the entire modern world mentioned ever. (This is not the case with their debut album Frost & Fire, which is still a pretty interesting listen, but with a bit more of a party-metal thing going on, and I haven't been able to get into it after King of the Dead. Still haven't gotten to their later albums.)



The correct way is to pronounce it like a “K”; this is from the “Lord of the Rings”. However we always pronounce it with a soft “C” like an “S” like Searith, which is of course wrong, but hey, we all read the books. We should have read all the appendixes too, I guess!



No one could really dance to our music. I remember once even yelling in the microphone for people to sit down and that we did not want "Any dancing fools." I think we were so into our music we took it as an insult and expected our listeners to sit down as if they were at a classical concert.



I am not completely happy with the legacy we have left behind but I am proud of “Frost & Fire” & “King of the Dead” as they are the albums that we had complete control over, and if we could have remained in control of our music the rest would have been as good!

When I look into the mirror and deep in my heart, possibly I am the one to blame for Cirith Ungol’s failure. This is the burden that I must carry the rest of my life, and is my greatest sorrow. All I ever wanted to do is play drums and I still dream at night about getting a new set, or the band getting back together. I am haunted and tortured by the ghost of Cirith Ungol, and I am not sure that I will ever find peace.

(Images from The Official Cirith Ungol Website)
(Quotes by Cirith Ungol drummer Robert Garvin, interviewed by Sleazegrinder.com)

TODAY'S MINDBLOWERS

As tipped and ripped for listening pleasure over at the To Live And Shave In L.A. blog (check out the great performance photo and Tom's on-point caption), this 1977 LP is a masterpiece. Goofy cover (that Carly Ptak may or may not have been thinking about in this photo shoot) but the music within is dead serious (well, it can be pretty playful too). Vocal and electronic techniques somewhere between contemporary classical melisma, pre-punk Yoko Ono avant/jazz freakout, and outright dolphin-speak... Side Two is an extremely heavy jammed-out composition called "Thunder" in which La Barbara is joined by two timpanis... legions of young noisers today need to recognize this predecessor, still at it today...



Ah, the Tuvan throat singing of Huun-Huur-Tu.... this one could also go into the 'extended vocal technique' pile but really it's just some glorious heavy ecstatic high-steppes ancient animal/wind/etc-communion drone folk. I bought their classic CD 60 Horses In My Herd back in like 1993 or something, and then in the summer of 2002 I actually got to see them live at the Chicago Folk & Roots Festival in Welles Park. It was one of the most amazing shows I've ever seen. They played at about 2 or 3 in the afternoon with a particularly blazing July sun positioned directly behind and just above the stage. It was impossible to look directly at the band, so I just stood there and closed my eyes as this otherworldy droning gentle and soulful music seemed to emanate from directly inside the sun. Occasionally I would dare to look upon the stage, just long enough to see the stoic silhouettes of one or two of the band members as they sat and sang and/or strummed*. And today, in the very beginning of 2009, I'm listening to a 2008 release by them called Mother Earth! Father Sky! and it is so good, as sundazed as ever, better than 60 Horses, with what seems to be plenty of their own songs, and a real contempo and genuinely psychedelic ballad feel, especially when the band is joined by one Sainkho Namtchylak, a wonderful and heavy Tuvan female singer apparently of some reknown....

*Holy shit, I was just now at the Wikipedia page for Huun-Huur-Tu and here's what it says: "Not long afterwards, the group changed its name to Huun-Huur-Tu, meaning "sunbeams" (literally "sun propeller")."

RON ASHETON 1948-2009

Man . . . 60 is too young. Gonna listen to The Stooges and Funhouse to pay tribute. Especially "Dirt". Truly gut-wrenching and explosive guitar playing.

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION: CLEAN UP STACKS AND STACKS OF RECORDS

I hate to just make a list like this but I'm cleaning out a cabinet stuffed with well over 200 official CD releases (well, a lot of them are official CDR releases) that all came out in the last two or three years. This is where I put stuff that I listened to at least once and found intriguing, or outright excellent, but had yet to do enough research or be hit by the right inspiration to write up an actual review. However, I'm listing them here because they are all good enough to have a copy registered, for posterity, in the Library of Blastitude, as of today. (In other words, I'm not going to try to trade them in at Reckless.) I know that to you, the reader, it may just be another list you'll skim over, big deal, but I thought these records should at least get some props -- you should see how many more went in the 'sell or throw away' pile. I won't name those.

So, before these all get filed and dispersed into the impersonality of the collection-at-large, here's what was stuffed in that cabinet, in the order they were stacked after approximately 3 years of on-and-mostly-off use:

BASS TONE TRAP: Trapping (MUSIC A LA COQUE)
BILL BROVOLD AND LARVAL: Surviving Death/Alive Why? (CUNEIFORM)
JEREMIAH CYMERMAN: Big Exploitation (SOLPONTICELLO)
KING DARVES: Linkling Piratical (?) (SELF-RELEASED)
MIGHTY VITAMINS: Take-Out (PUBLIC EYESORE)
PRURIENT: Black Vase (LOAD)
JACK WRIGHT: As Is (SPRING GARDEN MUSIC maybe)
YUMA NORA: 2003-2004 Best of Portland Live + Still (SELF-RELEASED)
THE NEW FLESH: Filth & Degradation Volume One (IMVATED/MT6)
SHELF LIFE: Ductworks (PUBLIC EYESORE)
UNIVERSITY OF ERRORS: Jet Propelled Photographs (CUNEIFORM)
RODENT SQUEALS: High Pitch Distress Cries (APOP)
JAZZFINGER: Listen And Vanish (CUT HANDS)
VARIOUS ARTISTS: Deeded To Itself: Athens Southernoise (THOR'S RUBBER HAMMER)
LAKE OF DRACULA: Skeletal Remains (SAVAGE LAND)
CHRIS FORSYTH & NATE WOOLEY: The Duchess of Oysterville (CREATIVE SOURCES)
VARIOUS ARTISTS: Singing At The Moon (SINGING KNIVES)
CLOCKCLEAN ER: Babylon Rules (LOAD)
MAGICAL, BEAUTIFUL: Obscure Love (I HEAR A NEW WORLD)
COUGHS: Secret Passage CD (LOAD)
THE JAGUAR: Bag of Jag (WILD TANGENT)
DEAD MACHINES/SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION OF DESPAIR split (KITTY PLAY)
VENISON WHIRLED: Venison World (SISTER SKULL)
KATHLEEN BAIRD: Lullaby For Strangers (SECRET EYE)
PETER WRIGHT: Pariahs Sing Om (LAST VISIBLE DOG)
CABINET OF NATURAL CURIOSITIES: Glass Vs. Grass (SELF-RELEASED)
CABINET OF NATURAL CURIOSITIES: Vineland (SELF-RELEASED)
TO LIVE AND SHAVE IN L.A. 2: The 300 Dollar Silk Shirt CD (X+Z=0/UGEXPLODE)
HAT CITY INTUITIVE/LA OTRACINA/BIG NURSE: The World Will End Yesterday (COLOUR SOUNDS)
KING DARVES: Do Don't (SELF-RELEASED)
PHANTOM LIMB & BISON s/t (EXPLODING EAR)
MATTIN: Proletarian Of Noise (HIBARI)
CARDBOARD: Live At Jimmy's Chicken Shack (CARSONA)
VOLE: Vole Radio 1 (SELF-RELEASED)
RADIO SHOCK: Burn Down Radio EP (ROGER)
ALEC K. REDFEARN AND THE EYESORES: The Blind Spot (CUNEIFORM)
WEASEL WALTER: Early Recordings 1988-1991 (SAVAGE LAND)
MISS ALEX WHITE & THE RED ORCHESTRA: Space & Time (IN THE RED)
SLOW SIX: Nor'easter CD (NEW ALBION)
THE FLAT CAN CO. s/t (STAB)
ROSS HAMMOND TRIO: Gauche (PRESCOTT)
JOHN HEGRE: Colors Don't Clash (DEKORDER)
NO-NECK BLUES BAND: Live At Ken's Electric Lake reissue (LOCUST)
VARIOUS ARTISTS: Flat Gettin' It (SCENERY AUDIO ARCHIVE)
DAVID KHAN: Music For Piano & Voice (kRkRkRk)
WOODEN SHJIPS s/t (HOLY MOUNTAIN)
ARGUMENTIX & GHOST TO FALCO: Widow Masters (BELOW PDX)
KEVIN FRENETTE 4: Connections (FULLER STREET MUSIC)
ZELIENOPLE: His/Hers (TYPE)
HAUNTED GEORGE: Pile O' Meat (HOOK OR CROOK)
WHITE MICE: Blassstphlegmeice (LOAD)
FRIDAY GROUP: Crystal Eunuch Reversal (SELF-RELEASED)
VIKI s/t (ANIMAL DISGUISE)
MY CAT IS AN ALIEN: The Cosmological Eye Trilogy (LAST VISIBLE DOG)
VARIOUS ARTISTS: Zum Audio Volume 3 (ZUM)
MEN'S RECOVERY PROJECT: The Very Best Of... (5 RUE CHRISTINE)
MATHS BALANCE VOLUMES: Cattle Skulls And Railroad Tracks (CHOCOLATE MONK)
MATHS BALANCE VOLUMES: I Tried To Make Heaven My Home (MISCEGENY)
NAI HTAW PAING ENSEMBLE: Mon Music Of Burma (FIRE MUSEUM)
COMET III: Astral Voyager (FIRE MUSEUM)
KRAKEN FURY: Burn In Earth (RAMPART)
ANLA COURTIS: Fractal Albur Solenoide 3" (23 PRODUCTIONS)
R.O.T. 3" CDR (VEGLIA)
GOAT/SIXES/XOME: Deluxe Incinerator 3x3" (C.I.P.)
FESTERING FAWN: Belgium Demo 3" (BREAKING WORLD)
THREE LEGGED RACE/CABOLADIES split (MOUNTAAIN)
BJERGA/IVERSEN: Shortest Way To The Moon (HARHA-ASKEL)
MICHAEL HENRITZI: Keith Rowe Serves Imperialism (W.M.O/R)
WOMEN IN TRAGEDY: Constellations (CUT HANDS)
HENRY JAMES GLOVER: Queen Freq (SELF-RELEASED)
CRAPPY NIGHTMAREVILLE: Shadow Garden (SELF-RELEASED)
NEON TEMPAL s/t (RAYON)
CARS s/t (RAYON)
REALICIDE: Narcissism Is The Enemy (OUTFALL CHANNEL)
THE MAGICKAL FOLK OF THE FARAWAY TREE: The Mildew Leaf (DESERTED VILLAGE)
BRIMSTONE HOWL: Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! (SPEED NEBRASKA)

If anyone wants to give, or ask for, any more information on any of these records, or just say "hey I like that one too," you are welcome to leave a comment. Thanks and a sincere Happy Blastitew Year to all readers!

Actual "2008 in review" list and actual new issue coming before January is over, I swear....