Iran on Saturday, June 20th
June 20, 2009
Advance Press 2009
June 19, 2009
The following article is from Scan, the Independent Weekly’s music blog.
Horseback’s back: two releases, approaches, premieres
Bryan Reed · 9 Apr 2009, 5:36 PM
Never content to stick to any one sound for too long, Jenks Miller—returning to his Horseback alias—has announced two new releases.
Horseback takes a darker approach, both sonically and visually.Neither sound at all like his masterful debut, Impale Golden Horn. Yes, for all you keeping track at home on your handy little conflict-of-interest scorecards, that was released by Miller’s Holidays For Quince label and Burly Time Records, the label formerly run in part by Indy music editor Grayson Currin. Nor do these two releases find their soul in the meandering guitar approach that was last year’s Approaching The Invisible Mountain, released under the name Jenks Miller. But, as has become custom for Miller, the slow pacing, thoughtful construction and sonic weight remain.
The first of the two, a 7-inch vinyl platter called MILH IHVH, will be released by Turgid Animal this Spring. The label features catalog releases from noise luminaries including Skullflower and Prurient.
Miller announced the release on Facebook yesterday, calling MILH IHVH a “7″ record comprised of two blackened noise mantras, themselves based on the Notaricon MI IOLH LNV HShMILH.” The song’s steady, percussive bludgeon is buried beneath churning, near-static guitars. The piece moves like a glacier, devastatingly slow as it traverses the harsh landscape. It’s a far cry from the dense but soothing atmospherics of Horseback’s debut, but it still seems to reside within the same spectrum. Miller’s voice, distorted to a fuzzy, inhuman wail, becomes a prominent textural element, coaxing the piece along its six-and-a-half minute duration. As the dense guitar fuzz begins to lift, tremulous melodic passages emerge, Miller’s voice drawing them forth as if by incantation.
Jenks Miller gets ready for two new Horseback records.Miller’s second release of 2009 will be his second Horseback LP, The Invisible Mountain (finally reaching the one he was still approaching last year, one assumes … or is it a different invisible mountain? Can you know a mountain is a certain invisible mountain if you cannot see it?). Horseback’s The Invisible Mountain evokes Earth’s dirt-encrusted sludge, droning and trudging through muck-thick riffs and eventually reaching glorious crescendos. The new full-length is slated for a Summer release via Utech Records (Skullflower, Nadja).
And again, we find Miller using his voice as a textural element—a similar croaking, sinister timbre to the one introduced on MILH IHVH. But to compare early demos of The Invisible Mountain to its predecessors (the forthcoming seven-inch and last year’s solo record), it bears none of the stark brittleness of MILH IHVH, nor the spare, solitary, serpentine nature of Approaching. Here, Miller enlists the aid of Scott Endres (*SONS, Suntan), John Crouch (Caltrop) and Jon Mackey (Sweater Weather, Bells) to supplement the sound.
And full it is: The Invisible Mountain is a daunting, epic monument in the making, as evidenced by two early mixes of “Invokation” and “Tyrant Symmetry.” Keys chime and guitars chug. Drums tumble and cymbals clatter. But the tumult feels grounded and internalized. This quest, after all, is one of self-discovery, something Miller has noted in interviews.
Miller’s a master of the cathartic crescendo, ever able to build and recede and build again to new heights. The promise of these early cuts is that The Invisible Mountain is likely to be fantastic.
Horseback’s The Invisible Mountain CD
June 19, 2009
This summer, Utech Records will release Horseback’s next full-length, The Invisible Mountain. This record features performances from recent Horseback collaborator Jon Mackey, Caltrop’s John Crouch, and Suntan’s Scott Endres, as well as fantastic cover artwork by Russian artist Denis Kostromitin. Recorded in a barnstorming session at Nick Petersen’s Track and Field Studios and at The Chateau in Carrboro. Mastered by James Plotkin. Anticipated release date is July 30th.
Utech has a phenomenal back-catalog, including records from Nadja, Skullflower, Final, Daniel Menche, Marcia Bassett’s Zaimph, Runhild Gammelsæter, James Plotkin, Klangmutationen, Sum of R, and many more. I’ve been seriously impressed with the art and design work that Keith Utech affords his releases.
Horseback’s MILH IHVH 7″
June 19, 2009
Horseback’s MILH IHVH is now available for pre-order from Turgid Animal UK. MILH IHVH is a 7″ record comprised of two blackened noise mantras, themselves based on the Notaricon MI IOLH LNV HShMILH.
Turgid Animal has an expansive back catalog that includes PE and harsh noise heavyweights like Skullflower, Prurient, Mutant Ape, R.Y.N., Justice Yeldham, Panicsville, and Richard Ramirez.
Christian Fundamentalist Terrorism
June 19, 2009
Are we surprised when these people bomb our health care facilities and murder practitioners? They desire the end.
Iran
June 19, 2009
High-quality images of protests in Iran (some are graphic):
Plus:
Info on how to participate effectively in the Iranian Revolution’s cyberwar.
Info on how to set up proxy servers for citizens of Iran (windows version).
An article on the ways in which New Media confounds attempted “information blackouts.”
Another article on the same topic.
On the EU’s Recent Elections
June 19, 2009
A BBC interview with Peter Davies, one of the far-right political candidates who won a seat (in this case, mayor of Doncaster) in recent European elections. He seems a bit unprepared, I think, for the interview if not for an actual leadership position.
“Am I Evil?”
June 19, 2009
Manheim (of Mayhem) discusses the secular humanist aims of early black metal on his blog (linked here). Manheim’s experience directly challenges attempts by scene creamers on the right to re-write the history and political agenda of this fascinating sub-genre (for example, NSBM-fetishists at Anus and the DLA).
