“Form of Luxury” by Drahla

Here’s PopLib’s 4th send as a gift tip for the month – the sonic blast of Drahla’s “Form of Luxury” from their just-out “Third Article” EP.

“Form of Luxury” is from a one-sided 4 track 12″ (a half-album?) and, as with all things Drahla, the music bristles with intelligent menace, partly from the discordant sheet-lighting of the opening guitar fury, but later through the withering dead-eyed delivery of the lyrics by Luciel Brown.

“Form of Luxury” rumbles through twists and turns, the Leeds trio’s exploration of underground noise pop ebbing into reflective oddness before ending with more destructive guitar. It’s exhilarating.

Drahla’s “Third Article” EP is recommended to send as a gift to the discerning post-punk guitar-noise art-rock fan in your life.  It’s also available in LP format.

“Experimental Theorem” by The Transcendents

Day 22 of our 31 Days of May New Zealand Music Month marathon heads 10 miles West of Weirdsville to catch up with the latest installment in the experimental journey beyond the fringes of rock and roll being undertaken by The Transcendents, an album called “Dirt Songs”. Here’s “Experimental Theorem” from that album:

“Experimental Theorem” and it’s refrain of “can’t find the answer/ I ain’t got a clue” is a perfect disorienting entry point into the fractured cut-up-re-assembled music on this second album from Christchurch anti-pop art project The Transcendents.

It’s as if individual instrument tracks of music from several different songs have been woven together into a repetitive pattern to resemble a song by someone visiting Earth from another planet. And yet it makes a kind of perfect un-sense, particularly if you’ve experienced some of the deconstructed anti-pop of early Pere Ubu, or other post-punk avant-garde provocateurs and sonic explorers like The Residents.

Each one of the Transcendents releases has been unconventional yet also alluringly accessible in their own peculiar way. They are also usually produced in high quality low volume runs on vinyl so if this kind of experimental music appeals check out the catalogue.

“Ed Ruscha” by The Transcendents

“Ed Ruscha” is from 10″ EP of dark & grainy spoken word plus post-punk goodness from Christchurch-based entity The Transcendents.

Ruscha (pronounced roo-shay FYI) is a US artist & this track (and cool video below) references the artist’s ‘Gas Station’/ ‘Burning gas Station’ works from the 1960s.

Hard to describe the sound here, but here goes… There’s elements of a weird kind of glitchy experimental soundscape combining alt-country, experimental music, twangy film-noire guitar, sand-blasted vocals and spoken word sampling. Oh & a cover (re-assembly?) of a Will Oldham song “A Sucker’s Evening” too.

If you need a music geography reference point, the music on “Lay Where You Collapse” sits somewhere between Ry Cooder’s atmospheric “Paris, Texas” soundtrack and UK post-punk song disassembly masters This Heat. These dislocated and fascinating anti-songs have an unsettling air. It’s easy to listen to but it’s the opposite of easy listening.

“Lay Where You Collapse” is available as a free download, or – the real treasure here – a very limited edition 10″ vinyl dub-plate lathe cut. Unlike acetate lathe cuts, these vinyl cuts, made done one-at-a-time in real time, are top quality for sound and durability.