Release of the Day: Bitchin' Bajas - Krausened EP

Aside from boasting one of the greatest band names around, Bitchin' Bajas make post-krautrock ambient-like music a la Zeit-era Tangerine Dream, albeit with a bit of flourish and fanfare, utilizing rise-above-the-miasma flute, synths, and percussion to sound more like textiles from dreams than monotonous drone. The band, a partnership of Cooper Crain, Rob Frye, both of pointedly kosmische band Cave, and Dan Quinlivan.

Their EP from 2013 Krausened has recently been repressed by Permanent Records in support of an upcoming tour with Circuit Des Yeux through bits of the South and Midwest. I am also a big proponent of this tour, as these are a couple of my favorite acts from experimental Chicago, so I figured I'd do a write up on the excellent EP.

The record is titled Krausened, properly pronounced "Croy-send," which Urban Dictionary tells me to mean being pretty much tanked from drinking beer, though it has an appropriately scientific definition in the brewing process. I had to look that shit up though. My immediate reaction was just seeing the "Krau," which makes me think of Germany, and (duh) Krautrock. And this specific record is definitely more in a classic electronic Krautock than Berlin-school drone and ambient music like some of their full LPs of recent. The record itself is made of two side-long compositions driven by percussion and synthesizers, rather than focus predominantly on mood, and is totally recommended.

And just a quick editor's note about the tour: these two acts WILL NOT disappoint. In my opinion, Bitchin' Bajas are one of the premiere improvised electronic groups in the U.S. right now and Circuit Des Yeux pretty much makes me cry each time I see her, so DO NOT miss this tour!!