Browse by Label: HOLY MOUNTAIN

Artist:	LA OTRACINA
Title:	Tonal Ellipse of the One
Label:	HOLY MOUNTAIN
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	HOLY 181106CD

"La Otracina was formed in Brooklyn, NY, in the summer of 2003 by drummer Adam Kriney and guitarist Joshua Anzano (now of Tee Pee Records' Titan) to penetrate the deepest and most surreal realms of psychedelia, prog, and Krautrock, with an emphasis on exploration. Taking heavy nods from psychedelic forefathers (Flower Travelin' Band, Guru Guru, King Crimson, Neu!, Yes, Agitation Free, Blue Cheer, Amon Duul, etc.), their music is also rooted in a deep understanding and appreciation of free jazz/improvisation and the wizardry of minimalism -- not to mention the extreme sounds of the Japanese underground. La Otracina's brew of cosmic music is a ride across the galaxy, a slice of magical lemon wedges, a rainbow of crystallized comet dust. La Otracina is Adam Kriney on drums, Ninni Morgia on electric guitar, and Jordon Schranz on electric bass. KindaMusik listed La Otracina's Love Love Love 2 CD as one of the top 20 best psychedelic albums of the new millennium, along with releases by Six Organs of Admittance, Bardo Pond, Ghost, and Tower Recordings."

Artist:	CRAZY DREAMS BAND
Title:	War Dream
Label:	HOLY MOUNTAIN
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	HOLY 1978CD

"War Dream, the second album from Baltimore's Crazy Dreams Band, is saturated with heaviness, psychedelia, pomp and grit, and noticeably lacking any nostalgia hangups. This rock music is refractory and satisfyingly off; put on a slide, manipulated and projected on a screen, or felt through a chain-link fence. Lost love, genocide and forgotten histories collide with raw-dog vocal thundering, slippe ry bass frequencies, adventurous percussion and seductive guitar ripples. Opener 'Feels So Good' is a swirling dirge that could be a half-figured-out version of 'Carouselambra'; 'Awkward for Everyone' showcases recent addition Jorge Martins of Lisbon duo Fish & Sheep playing what sounds like a deflating blow-up Les Paul copy that actually has strings -- you've got to hear the killer solo! The sidelong 'Life Is the Knife' is like a secret ritual from an unreleased Billy Jack sequel where he went back to Vietnam and built a temple that bled the purest opium. Here, Jake Freeman's adventurous sub-frequencies and Nick Becker's saucy space wanderings shine on to break the dawn in half."

Artist:	DORONCO GUMO
Title:	Old Punks
Label:	HOLY MOUNTAIN
Format:	LP
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	HOLY 738109LP

"Doronco Gumo is led by Doronco, a bass player most well known for his stints with Les Rallizes Dénudés, Suishou no Fune, and Keiji Haino. Translated as 'Mud Cloud,' the name is actually poetic in a Zen beggar / wandering monk kind of way. On Old Punks, Doronco is joined by members of Maher Shalal Hash Baz, a Frenchman, and an additional female vocalist. The band uses vocals, bassoon, and trumpet over a seesawing battle of piano / guitar shrill balanced against warm rhythms. Their avant bar-rock style is not unlike Cinderella's Revenge recorded in the same studio as Vintage Violence with the conscious heartbreak of something like Even Serpents Shine. A bright-to-bummer-and-back-to-bright narrative flows throughout the album's nine songs. Resequenced to include an additional track not on the Japanese CD version, Old Punks nails down something you didn't know needed to be nailed down."

Artist:	OM
Title:	Variations on a Theme
Label:	HOLY MOUNTAIN
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	HOLY 77525CD

"OM reunites one of the most powerful rhythm sections in rock music: Al Cisneros [bass, vocals] and Chris Hakius [drums], both ex-members of the legendary Sleep. Variations on a Theme is comprised of three long songs employing a series of rhythmic chants whose cadence-like textural drive conveys flight. The album's numerous lyrics serve as symbolist vehicles to a state outside the field of time and space. Variations on a Theme is a series of vibrations and flow. The opening track,'On The Mountain at Dawn' is the thematic blueprint of the entire album; a transportive series of differentiated verse with sets of solid groove. 'Kapil's Theme' furthers the motif while the closer 'Annapurna' breaks the spell, where the final wash of sound reflects the infinite."

Artist:	LOBDELL, STEVEN WRAY
Title:	Automatic Writing by the Moon
Label:	HOLY MOUNTAIN
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	HOLY 777

"The first true solo recordings by Steve Lobdell (Baseball Astrologer collaborator, leader of both Davis Redford Triad and Sufi Mind Game, Faust guitarist). His whispery, fluffy-cloud dynamism will appeal to your desire for a little subtlety. Automatic Writing by the Moon's 13 tracks are a mixture of massive overdubbing, wondrous cinematic composition, folksy improvisation and studio experimentation. The backwards feedback of "Astral Projection" is vibrantly illuminating, while the instrumental arrangement of Chilean folksinger Victor Jara's "The Departure" evokes a cosmic Western scene. So, yes, this record is psychedelic- if it really must be dumbed down- but not in the burnt-tar hooliganism sense; despite healthy studio trickery, Mr. Lobdell still insists on playing the guitar with his fingers."

Artist:	BIGOT, FRED
Title:	Mono/Stereo
Label:	HOLY MOUNTAIN
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	HOLY 83268CD

"On Mono/Stereo, Fred Bigot's early 'Panasonic meets rockabilly' sides are compiled and sequenced such that you can't help but mistake it for a 21st century version of KLF's Chill Out -- except the country and Elvis references have been replaced by things like the sounds of attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion and C-beams that glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. You know, shit you'd read about in a Samuel Delany book or something. Culled from two 12-inches of murky, minimalist proto- Schaeffel-beat, this CD also features rare outtakes from the full spectrum of heaviness. T-Rex-like rock-groove head-nod decadence expands the notion of stereo separation so far that the Memorex dude on the couch would be reduced to a puddle of flesh. How do you explain this stuff? You can't -- it was from the future."

Artist:	MAMMATUS
Title:	The Coast Explodes
Label:	HOLY MOUNTAIN
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	HOLY 8516CD

"Mammatus' second album The Coast Explodes straddles the line between psychedelia and hard rock while introducing more progressive aspects. The music is heavily influenced by both the power and complexity of the natural world and the ongoing battles of light and darkness. 'Excellent Swordfight' is a continuation of the same story told in the debut's 'Dragon of the Deep.' 'Pierce The Darkness' explores being a light in a dark world. 'The Changing Wind' is a pipe-led psychedelic folk tune that could have been cited by Ghost's Second Time Around and the shanga vibes of the forest in the autumn. It unfurls into the title track which encapsulates the massive fury of the ocean."

Artist:	RESIDUAL ECHOES
Title:	Phoenician Flu and Ancient Ocean
Label:	HOLY MOUNTAIN
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	HOLY 90156CD

"Phoenician Flu And Ancient Ocean is another seething mishmash of psychedelia, Krautrock and free-noise -- the perfect follow-up to last year's highly regarded self-titled debut LP. A combination of self-recordings and studio numbers, Phoenician Flu and Ancient Ocean is full of absolutely staggering material. The endless riff-sanity of 'Death Comes for the Archbishop' is followed by billowing smoke, and a fuzzy pop number that shoots itself when the smell of smoke turns out to be a smoldering amp that has been on too long too loud. That piece of reverbed noise might've been all were it not for the depraved psychedelic dub and Monoshock tribute that follows. Odes to the acoustic guitar and former gods of the six-string close the album."

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