CAT DISCO

MARTIN REV/ TO LIVE/ BUREAU B/ 2003 (REISSUE 2022) The Martin Rev Bureau B reissue program, which includes this CD, and also the Les Nymphes reissue from around the same time, has been a revelation since I was made aware of it a couple years back. Originally released on File 13 in 2003, the samples and drum machines recall the Suicide album American Supreme released around the same time. It's very harsh and industrial in tone and imbued with an ever present noir-ish menace. Rev's muffled and distorted vocals are dreamy/ nightmarish, depending on your mood. The track Gutter Rock has a strange ooze to it, drifting on a nice melody while you watch a building slowly being devoured by flames. There's a certain distance to this album, on offhand feel that is fun and without the kind of pretentious vibe that mars a lot of electronic/ industrial stuff from this era (and now, to be honest). The wacked out samples, be they guitar or beats, just seem to wander into frame and hover, ac...

Feeling gentle in the summer heat on this day (July 8 2024 to be exact), the mind wanders back on the records (pick your format, I ain't no snob) one has grown up with. Y'know, the ones that still mean a lot and get headspace and interrogations on a somewhat decent regular basis. For me, it's maybe a matter of reaching a point in your life where there's more road behind than ahead, and you just get nostalgic, maybe even just plain wistful. I mean, for me it's such a private thing and alternately very universal, the feeling you get from songs or albums that for whatever reason, have managed to stand the test of time (for me). The reasons are myriad and draped in memories, but also can erase the passage of time and space. It's conflicting and hard to explain, as is plainly obvious by this wandering paragraph. Time and place effect my take on all this, and let me say that most music I used to listen to has not stood the test of time that well. That's no slur on...

  SUNWATCHERS MUSIC IS VICTORY OVER TIME TROUBLE IN MIND RECORDINGS/ 2023 My first exposure to this crew comes via their most recent effort, the aptly titled MUSIC IS VICTORY OVER TIME, a collection of flowing instrumental jams that hit ecstatic and majestic heights from the word go. I've heard their name about and I love a lot of the stuff that Trouble In Mind releases but I just never got around to checking them out 'til recently. This one is really doing it for me, its rock solid rhythms and expansive sax/guitar workouts run the gamut from stormy and heady freaks to some more contemplative wanders. The presence of the sax doesn't limit them to a reductive "jazz rock" tag nor is their music constructed that way (to these ears anyway). Tracks like the shuddering TUMULUS and TOO GARY hit big grooves and swaggers whilst never going on for too long and wearing out their welcome. Call it soundtrack/ cinematic/ improv-ish/ full on rawkin whatever you will, it's a ...

  ACID ROOSTER/ IRRLICHTER 2021 CARDINAL FUZZ/ LITTLE CLOUD/ SUNHAIR My lord, this one is a winner. Cut from the same cloth of groups like Wooden Shjips/ Spacemen 3/ HILLS, et al, Leipzig's Acid Rooster go for the gold on this collection of Floydian rippers, great energetic jams and star weirding guitar workouts. Definitely a notch above most of the current crop of sike/space crews going (is fashion-psych a real thing now?), this now sold out album is worth tracking down and blaring out. This one is gonna stick around, and be (re) discovered for quite some time, methinks. Yeah its from 2021, but I only recently really listened hard. TOP!  https://acidrooster.bandcamp.com/album/irrlichter   ELEVATOR/ VAGUE PREMONITION 1999/ REISSUE 2022 BLUE FOG RECORDINGS Going back lots to this one as of late. I got to open for them on this tour (I think??) with a band I was in back in 2000, my memory is hazy, as the say. They killed it infinite and were the nicest people you'd ever want...

 RECENTLY...FEB 2023 Here we go with a plethora of sounds from near and far, recent and from years past that have been blowing up the spot here at the 5th Ave Cat Sanctuary here in (currently balmy, relatively speaking) Saskatoon SK. JAIRUS SHARIF/ WATER AND TOOLS 2022 Telephone Explosion Records LP Unmoored and leaning into forever far out sounds from Calgary and released on the venerable Telephone Explosion label outta Toronto. Jairus weaves organs, guitars, horns, sounds, whatever he has at hand  it seems, into widescreen tapestries of blare and reverie that can recall Pharaoh Sanders in a top down jeep, a darkened sky threatening rain, quiet moments of bliss and dense soundtrack music of the highest order. Assisted by label-mate and Badge Epoque Enemble chief head Max Turnbull on some of these jams, this collection of recordings are a stone cold wonder and deffo this LP is one of the best to come out of our little vast corner of existence in quite some time. The near 12 mi...

  ALAN VEGA live March 16/1986 Clarendon Hotel London In a big Alan Vega/ SUICIDE seam right now. This burner of a show from 1986 is one of the best shows you will find on the Yub, hands down. Alan on vox, one Mark Kuch on guitar and machines on loops, drum machines (Alan hammers on a keyboard at some points). The setlist features songs from Saturn Strip heavily, plus a Springsteen song and some Suicide bangers. A heavy,  towering live sound here, subtlety jettisoned in favor of impact. Kuch's no-nonsense/ no-frills wall of sound finds the middle ground between James Burton's Ricky Nelson riffs and Faust's high wire air raid siren squalls. As evidenced here, Alan is one of THE great rock showstoppers. Hypnotic. The high priest raining sweaty truths down on his congregation, lost in the noise. Turn it up and flashdance in front of your mirror, smoke a cigarette and have a holler. Fun, fun, fun indeed.  Thanks to ScottishTeeVee on YT for this. Also, check out Sacred Bones o...