Archive for the ‘Sleep’ Category

Noiseweek: Weedians, List-o-mania, Sunn O))), Oneohtrix Point Never + More

Sunday, December 13th, 2015

The sights, sounds and words of the week in noise.

Wondering what to get for the Sleep fan who has everything this Christ-myth? How about one of these incredibly detailed Weedian figurines? Dopesmoker cover artist Arik Roper worked with Unbox Industries to get every last detail right, down to the vape tanks. They might not ship until January, but who actually cares about christmas anyway? Meanwhile, Sleep keep adding dates to a Summer 2016 Europe tour which now includes Roskilde, ATP Iceland and Les Eurockeennes Festival in Paris in July.

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Speaking of the European Summer (almost), the mind-boggling Roadburn line-up just got a little more insane with the announcement that Converge will perform their 2001 masterwork Jane Doe in full at the 2016 festival, “for the first and last time”, as well as a special collaborative set Blood Moon “focusing on the band’s slower, more ambitious work”. They join Neurosis, Paradise Lost, Cult of Luna, Black Mountain, G.I.S.M., Full of Hell and a ton more at the festival in April.

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It’s that time of year – the lists keep coming. Spoiler alert: Windhand taking top spot on Consequence of Sound’s Top 25 Metal Albums of 2015 list; LA’s Volahn getting top spot on LA Weekly’s Top Ten and you should probably just read The Quietus’ 100-strong best of 2015 list. We’ll be rolling out our own lists from Thursday.

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READ

Enduring Love: Why Swans Are More Vital Now Than Ever | The Guardian
“Speaking as a journalist, it is difficult to ignore the amazing stories that have built up round the band over the years. Once, for example, an unfortunate sound guy made the mistake of asking the singer what he wanted the band to sound like. He replied: “Like this” and punched the hapless engineer in the chest.”

Phil Anselmo And The Business Of Heavy Metal Horror | Forbes
“A revered figure in metal who continues to draw live audiences, Anselmo gladly leverages his own brand to promote his Housecore artists by having them open for headlining tours with his own bands like Down and The Illegals. Fully aware of the effect his name has on his business, he actively strategizes how to use it to serve the label’s agenda.”

A Crushing Embrace With The Earth: Ecological Sound In 2015 | The Quietus
Sound and music also have key roles to play in this process, through highlighting the complexity, intimacy and emotional texture of the relations between ourselves and the rest of nature. In her 2015 paper Geopolitics And The Anthropocene: Five Propositions For Sound, political geographer Anja Kanngieser argues that sound makes visceral, even comprehensible, aspects of the world that normally lie beyond our perception.

LISTEN

Sunn O))) – Kannon
It’s here. And it’s immense, as you’d expect.

Extreme Misanthropy Crew – Revelations One
Featuring members of Sydney’s Making and Tanned Christ – nasty, noisy improvised post-drone.

Florian Schneider – ‘Stop Plastic Pollution’
The Kraftwerk co-founder samples a dripping tap as part of his bit to stop the Great Pacific garbage patch as part of the Parley for the Oceans campaign.


WATCH

Dinosaur Jr. – ‘Forget the Swan’
As part of a seven-night stand at NYC’s Bowery Ballroom to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their debut LP Dinosaur. Guests each night have included Kevin Shields, Jeff Tweedy, Mike Watt, Kim Gordon, Lee Ranaldo and Kurt Vile among others. Can we have a Deep Wound reunion next please?

Oneohtrix Point Never – ‘Sticky Drama’
All the end-of-year lists can be overwhelming, then you catch something you somehow slept on. Daniel Lopatin’s ‘Come to Daddy’ comes with its own prologue video.

Prologue

Video

Sleep announce Australian tour

Monday, August 25th, 2014

sleep1Stoner doom legends Sleep have just announced their return to Australian shores following their stint at last year’s All Tomorrow’s Parties. This time they’ll be doing a full six-date national tour, including a slot at Meredith Music Festival in December. […]

Anger Management: Sleep

Wednesday, August 6th, 2014

Every fortnight, we check in with all things heavy on RTRFM’s Critical Mass show.

In hindsight, splitting up in 1998 was arguably the best thing for the members of Sleep. The legal dramas and subsequent urban legends that surrounded the release of the mammoth Jerusalem/Dopesmoker album were the proverbial straws that broke the camel’s back and spawned High On Fire and Om.

Both bands blazed (pun fully intended) slightly different paths: Om had the pounding drums, repetitive Middle Eastern-influenced bass riffing and Al Cisneros’ Tibetan Book of the Dead chanting, monotone vocals. High On Fire had the steamroller riffage and Matt Pike’s “I wanna be Lemmy and Iommi” style. Both were fantastic live and on record and both could be very easily traced back to the mothership that is Sleep.

Although Sleep’s influence on other bands and fan interest never waned, a new interest came globally following a 2009 reunion to play the ATP festival and a fancy “this is how we wanted the original version to sound” remaster/re-release of Dopesmoker via Southern Lord Recordings. Various tours and live albums in 2012/13 piqued the interest in new material, and with Jason Roeder replacing the retiring Chris Hakius (off to raise a family away from the touring life), we now have the first taste of new Sleep in the form of ‘The Clarity’.

Although through some interviews one could see this as an older track that never got recorded, it’s apparently a brand new song created and recorded over a few days. You wouldn’t think so as it sounds like the younger, trimmer brother of Dopesmoker, its 9 minute duration flying by. An Iommi worshipping solo punctuates the first five minutes and you can “follow the smoke to the riff-filled land”.

Welcome back, we missed you.

Critical Mass airs every Wednesday from 9PM on RTR FM 92.1.