Lighten Up Sounds is serious with a capital S when it comes to
releasing damn good "difficult" music. The experimental/noise nature of
the releases will not be for everyone, but if you're reading this blog I
bet I'm preaching to the converted anyway when it comes to adventurous
listening. The two releases I have atop my "TO LISTEN TO SOON OR ELSE!"
pile are Pro thru & thru. Lord Bird and Myrrh are two very odd
listening experiences. Two very DIFFERENT experiences too. Myrrh is
maybe the most interesting and unique tape I've heard this year. At
least the trio are TRYING to find new sounds in a world where - yeah,
its pretty much been done before. Viola, drums, and lap steel!!! HELL.
YEAH. The music on Hymns comes out of a doom tradition
maybe...maybe not...I've never heard lap steel played like this before.
It's huge and detuned and freaky as shit. Actually, fans of Earth
(Sabbath psychedelia too) will LOVE this tape. The riffs and rhythms remind me of
that band soooo much. I wonder if Myrrh even care about that slow, heavy
sludge? Meh, the group is great in and of itself so I shouldn't worry
about it. The voila playing is pizzicato mainly which moves nicely
around the drums in a sort of dialog. The real highlight for me is the
lap steel playing of Jason Millard. It's refreshing to
hear this kind of playing on an instrument (which is still basically
just a guitar) not normally associated with heavy music. There are
screaming highs and droney lows. BUY this sucka!
Lord Bird's 2012 is Real is noise...NOISE.
Good ol' fashioned "this is what I think of when I think of cassettes"
noise. Honestly, it is better and more skillfully crafted than a lot of
distorted hiss screed flying around today. The idea of "2012" doesn't
endear me to this release as a concept, but at least the art/design is
cool. I like the music overall, but lost my stuff over the Myrrh tape so
I'm all wiped. The structure of the dense and amorphous noise allows
the listener to journey along with the composer. Pretty far out.
Buy and Listen HERE.
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