Rangda + Carlton Melton + Gala Drop

RANGDA

Rangda the band threatens to usurp Rangda the Balinese demon for search-engine supremacy, thanks to the magnificent firepower of three vastly respected, veteran underground musicians: Sir Richard Bishop, Ben “Six Organs of Admittance” Chasny, and Chris Corsano. A power-trio-supergroup of sorts (though they strenuously deny it), Rangda arose from Chasny’s desire to start a band with two of his favorite musicians (Corsano guested on Six Organs’ 2005 album School of the Flower).

While perhaps not as fearsome as their evil, child-chomping witch namesake, Rangda rustle up some wickedly extreme sounds on the six improv-noise blowouts and psychedelic reveries woven into False Flag, their debut LP and we can expect more of the same on their latest release on Drag City, Previously Extinct, out on Sep 12th.

Rangda’s elder statesman, Bishop accrued fame and something less than fortune as the polymathematical guitarist with Seattle underground-music subversives Sun City Girls. Reams of hyperbolic prose exist online and in moldering fanzines about the baffling wonders and cryptic high jinks of that defunct trio (RIP, Charles Gocher); some of it’s even coherent and accurate. Over the last 30 years in SCG and as a solo artist, Bishop has established himself as one of the world’s foremost guitarists in numerous idioms, including psych rock, post-John Fahey folk, raga, Gypsy, traditional Middle Eastern, surf rock, kitsch chart fodder, and the soundtrack styles of Ennio Morricone and Alejandro Jodorowsky. Bishop’s lightning-quick dexterity, stylistic diversity, and soulfulness imbue his every release, but with Rangda he unveils a more explosive side to his playing. Just try not to throw devil horns during False Flag’s most heated passages.

The prime mover of Six Organs of Admittance and Ethan Miller’s right-hand axeman in Comets on Fire, the Seattle-based Chasny has carved out a beautifully curvaceous oeuvre of pastoral folk and stormy psychedelia over the past 14 years. Playing yin to Bishop’s yang in Rangda, Chasny mostly provides a verdant foundation over which his fellow six-stringer can mystically torch the sky; at times, though, he matches Sir Rick, strafing riff for strafing riff. Chasny is the calm amid the storm, the eye of the hurricane, the teeth of the hydra.

Chris Corsano is the final third of the trio. This Massachusetts-based percussionist has become the Bernard Purdie of avant-garde/ improv/experimental music (i.e., Corsano is the dude all the top cats call first when they need the most inventive stickwork done). Known for his versatility and predilection for unconventional methods and tonalities, Corsano recently tasted the big time by touring with Björk and contributing to her Volta album. However, he’s much more at home with musicians who make less money in their lifetimes than the Icelandic singer earns in a month. Corsano’s list of cohorts is long and legendary; he’s slapped skins and bowed cymbals- and has done other things they don’t teach you at Juilliard-for Paul Flaherty, Wally Shoup, Jandek, Mick Flower, Nels Cline, Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Jim O’Rourke, and others.

CARLTON MELTON

The band CARLTON MELTON formed along the Mendocino County coastline in Northern California on the weekend of July 17th, 2008. The idea to play live, loud, improvised, experimental, instrumental, psychedelic music in a geodesic dome had been discussed for many years prior to this date. The opportunity came to fruition after the dome was completely rebuilt and the acoustic sounds inside were fully realized.

The music is recorded live inside the dome to analog and digital sources using omni-directional microphones. All music is improvised in the sense that no one really knows who or what is going to be played at any given time. There are no rehearsals, practices, demonstration tapes, second takes… what you hear is the first take… ” Hit It And Quit It ” as Funkadelic would prescribe. There are no studios. “We record in Brian’s house and Brian happens to live in a geodesic dome.”

It is understood this music is not for everyone. If you prefer top-notch, modern day production and crafty songwriting you may want to stop here. If you prefer old SST label cassette tapes or an early Spaceman 3 cassette you recently found wedged in the back seat of your car you may dig some of this… or perhaps you like to listen and gaze at an old David Crosby LP now and then.

Stay tuned… Long Live Dome Rock…

GALA DROP

Gala Drop are a four-piece from Lisbon, Portugal; after their self-titled, double-vinyl debut in 2009, they made their first appearance on New York’s Golf Channel Recordings. Panda Bear recently invited them to open for him there, which isn’t surprising; their music is imbued with the same psychedelic sensibility that you might find in Animal Collective, El Guincho, Delorean, John Talabot, Four Tet, or even James Holden. Gala Drop may explore similar ideas of rhythm and tone color, but they have their own sound, vibe and sensibility. Over the course of their songs, and sometimes within a single one, they run the gamut from Krautrock psyche-out to lysergic Detroit techno.