Five More Randoms

Enumclaw Opening of the Dawn (Honeymoon Music) LP/Digital Download - Enumclaw is the minimal trance drone project of Norman Fetter from Philadelphia's Niagara Falls, operating in tranquil meditative mode across these six tracks of minimal electro-acoustic tones that gather inspiration from the elements, inner space, early minimal composers and Popol Vuh.  Florian Fricke is a glowing light source when it comes to merging modern electronic composition with the sacred, and in Fetter's hands, it's s a sound that goes beyond words to another plane of cosmic awareness.  There are some earthier moments -- tribal hand drums and shaking percussive passages -- but mostly Fetter stays head deep in the thick cozmik soup with cycling synth mantras from the Terry Riley school of drone gracefully gliding over a panorama of shifting melodies.  Highly recommended for fans of early ambient Eno, Harmonia and newer synth-psych head-trippers like Oneohtrix Point Never and Emeralds.    

La Otracina Blood Moon Riders (Holy Mountain) CD - Been meaning for a while to scribble a few words about this biker metal heavy prog syke opus.  These Brooklyn cats continue their natural evolution from amorphous prog psych fusion to some of the most head-smashing, mind-expanding space metal I've blinded my third eye with in recent moons. Blood Moon Riders fuses the best of both sides of the Brooklyn trio's sonic personality while setting the controls for the heart of the nearest supernova.  Followup imminent, but this is still highly recommend for heavy psychonauts the world over.  

Clair Cassis - Clair Cassis (Startlight Temple Society) Former members of Velvet Cacoon, the Portland, OR pagan metal band it's okay to smoke pot to, recently called it a day only to reconvene under the name Clair Cassis, a self described "pop answer to Velvet Cacoon," which is an amusing thought, as this sounds pretty dang doom 'n' gloom, even when compared to the spacier metalgaze atmospheres of VC.  Still, there is a certain self contained charm to some of these blackened morsels, along with necro-fixated witch-hag vocals and lulling prog ambient interludes that meld into a highly recommendable late night excursion through the swirling dark smoke of your mind.  Let there be starlight.
 
The Ritualistic School Of Errors Sweat Stained Fancy Heaps For First-Rate Ladies (Resipiscent) CD - Now this one is difficult with a capital D, but then there is no progress without struggle.  The Ritualistic School of Errors understands this undeniable axiom better than most.  The cut-up weird noise collages found inside Sweat Stained Fancy Heaps for First-Rate Ladies assume many guises and offer no easy path to illumination.  Instead we get jarring pastiches to the absurd and cartoon dementia with juxtapositions of every kind of twisted sample, honk and weird sound under the plunderphonic sun dropped in a blender with cracked accordion, piano, pipe organ, flamenco guitar, screwball operatic vocals, insanity chorales and much more.  It's complicated to say the least, assembled with meticulous mixing precision and actually quite recommended for those who like their tonal insanity multiplied to the nth degree.  File somewhere between The Sylvie and Babes Hi-Fi Companion, irr. app. (ext.) and early cracked Sun City Girls.   

Cadaver in Drag Raw Child Animal Disguise LP - Lord have mercy!  This is the meanest, grimiest, most fucked up slab of doom I've rattled my cage with in years.  Where to start?  Take the Melvins and cover them in shit, set them ablaze and roll them into the nearest tar pit.  Sidelong opener "Walking Through the Gates of Hell" sounds like the resulting explosion stuck in a relentless soul-crushing lockgroove of ugliness and despair.  Screaming gut wrenching howls and shrieks are the order of the day over massive lumbering sludgeoid grunge riffs.   For fans of early Unsane, Black Flag and doom of every kind.  I'm totally serious.  The last track sounds like Skepticism!  This has been out a couple years, but its primal rage demands attention like it dropped yesterday.  No shock to see this was one of Julian Cope's Albums of the Month at Head Heritage.