Drag City Us 黑胶唱片和CD

Review: Sunn O)))'s drone overlord Stephen O'Malley first teamed up with Francois J. Bonnet in 2019 for the first volume of Cylene - a formidable exploration of sustained frequencies from a multitude of sources released on Editions Mego. Since then the pair have embarked on numerous concerts, installations and recordings, finally resulting in this sublime sequel. This is music to zoom in on, where the slow shifts in tone are sometimes imperceptible, but profound to those that hear them. Shot through with a certain longing, it's charged ambience for those who don't need the emotional content to be presented in obvious terms.

Review: Ghost are sadly an easily confused band - doubly so, for the fact that there is now a wildly popular masked metal troupe of the same name, *and* because there is, uncannily, a 1984 film named Ghost, also rather well known. This confounding is apparently so prevalent that the obligatory Wikipedia entry on *this* Ghost is titled
'Ghost (1984 band)'. We wouldn't usually mention it, save for the fact that this perhaps not so wilful obscurantism actually works in their favour. With Drag City's reissue of Ghost's first album on griseous vinyl here, it's safe to say that this Japanese experimental psych/acid record's aura as a hidden gem feels rare to come by. It's almost as if Ghost (1984) is 'haunting' the other aforementioned cultural touchstones of the same name. Don't get it twisted, though: Ghost formed in the early 80s, but this debut recording didn't make it to the pressing plant until 1990. What explains the gap in their CV, you ask? Legend has it that the band led a truly nomadic existence - as a "band" should, in all senses of the word - roving, drifting from ruined ancient temples to disused subway stations near Tokyo. With that all checked, the album itself is truly free-spirited and eerie, and not what you'd expect from contemporary notions of space rock, with prepared tinkerings and strange readymade detritus seeming to fill each piece at every twist and turn.

Review: Following 2022's acoustic opus - Hello, Hi - Ty Segall returns with Three Bells, his most ambitious, elastic set of songs to date. A 15-song cycle that takes the listener on a journey to the center of the self (whether that be Segall's or a projection of the listener's own self), Three Bells' arc is rainbow-like, promising a prosperious fulfilment of desire, but ever extending outwards from our reach, keeping the listener in a state of suspense. Though Ty's is a daimonic journey, it's still brimming with alternating perspectives, never once settling onto any lyrical platitude and keeping its sense of resolve open-ended.