Release of the Day: Crown Larks - Blood Dancer

Crown Larks, Chicago four-piece freak outfit par excellence, manages to weave together the skronkiest free jazz, the deepest krautrock grooves, the most expansive psychedelia, and an ethically sound DIY backbone to create a work of startling beauty and intrigue on Blood Dancer, their debut LP. While a less-maniacally-driven-to-tour band would most likely sound sloppier crafting such a diverse sound, Crown Larks manage to impart wonder in their compositions. As such, the surprises are near constant, which, once again, could easily allow for slip ups, but the band is as tight in its performance as it is ambitious.

The songs that fill Blood Dancer are big - I mean really big - but it's also an album that should be viewed through a Gestalt lens: the whole is actually bigger than the sum of its parts. That said, there's a clear moment when everything reaches this sublime watermark. On the closer "Overgrown," about two-thirds of the way through the meandering pilgrimage, a massive noise section interjects itself, all of the song's parts gyrate in an imploring miasma, and the vocals take on a desperate note, like David Bowie shouting "Give Me Your Hands!" at the peak of "Rock n' Roll Suicide." This is the most powerful point in the record, a reflection on what has gone before, and showcases every strength in the band's exciting repertoire. It's magical and elusive - a moment most bands never get to write or experience, but one that Crown Larks fucking nail and we're all artistically richer for it.

Release of the Day: Mind! - Stunde Null

"Stunde Null" is the German equivalent of the "Zero Hour," and specifically means the time when the Nazis capitulated on May 8, 1945. I don't know where the name as album name came from, but there are definite kosmische vibes here, especially on the album opener "Sundrun Hreyfingarlaus," with a wah-pedal used to gently wash interstellar jams and drop little cosmic rose petals over an unbeatable bassline. In the background is an echoing ambulance siren. What's coming? What needs to be rescued? Who knows, but this record will save whatever humdrum party you're at from falling into the abyss by dropping a bridge of solid light over the precipice. Now you guys can cross over safely into the land of mind-melting psychedelic jammery.

Here's the score. These dudes are from Spain and have had members in bands like Zoom, Viaje a 800, and Buenamuerte Trio. I'm not totally well-versed in what's going on in Spain at the moment, but somehow I doubt that there is much music like this coming from over there. There were only 500 copies of this record pressed, but I saw one at Permanent in Chicago if you get the itch. I actually originally bought this there because I heard the first track, was totally blown away, and picked it up on the spot. There are copies you can still purchase from the band on their Bandcamp Page where you can also stream the album in full, which I completely recommend cause this record is through the R-O-O-F and that spells Moooooon!

Release of the Day: Walter Wegmüller - Tarot

This is as cosmic (kosmische) as music gets. I found out about this record from reading Julian Cope's opus Krautrocksampler. I've read the book twice in the last couple of days and I'm still learning a lot from the book. Though I had a working knowledge of important bands like Can, Kraftwerk, Neu!, Amon Duul II, and Popol Vuh, I didn't really understand how all the bands were interwoven, how members changed and affected other bands and how much acid people were doing to make krautrock.

In addition to the brief history of krautrock, which begins in the book with stirrings from the American GI band the Monks and ends with the Cosmic Jokers, the book features a top 50 krautrock albums list, which is helpful to any beginning head, as I am. It's an easy to find list even if you just google "Julian Cope Top 50 Krautrock."

The story behind the Walter Wegmüller record Tarot is that each song was inspired and written about one of the major arcana of a tarot deck, and made with the assistance of Klaus Schultze. As there are 22 major arcana, there are 22 songs. But that's not all, ladies and germs. Walter also hand-painted a custom semi-deck of the 22 major arcana that came with OG pressings of the record.

This music is in a zone of its own with all sorts of heady, psychedelic influence. OG copies go for up to nearly $1000 and the reissues from the 90s with copies of the original Walter Wegmüller tarot deck were originally sold at 50 British Pounds! So it's an expensive album, but the good news is that you can listen to the album for free! Just follow the links below!

CD 1
CD 2