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I'm taking pictures in the passenger seat We pass a motel called the Desert Sand it looks like it was some place where people drove up in big old cadiallacs back in the 50's and everyone was in the swimming pool and the women had big white glasses and large sun hats and the men were in body building competitions by the beach but now it's the year 2008 and it's a run down place where there is no one staying there the pool is closed there are no cars there there are no people in site the windows are filled with random things that people have most likely left it's a quiet place this is a quiet place this is a peaceful place this is a dead place.

Armed with a triangle/thumb cymbals/egg shakers/goat nails, I made this album that infuses crunk music with hardcore rave, which equates into calm meditational vibrational insprirational meditationalizational healing music.

The desert kills, the sand buries you, the motel welcomes you back. War is black magic - satan go home.

When asked to describe this record, Dylan Ettinger responded with a blank silence - followed by the words "pure unadulterated eroticism", I'm paraphrasing here, as it was late - but that is not too far from the truth. Listening to this disk makes me feel that there needs to be more wah wah and the sounds of bare flesh, to carry that off well. But in a way, it isn't too far from the truth. These tribal (sexy) percussion driven noise doodles swirl into your sensory canals, the beats pumping through your stomach and lay to rest in your mouth. You can taste the energy involved in this disk, each sweat droplet formed on the live track, "The Road to Teotihuacan" is here, in digital format.

This is not pure unadulterated eroticism, but whatever it is will still leave you wanting to come back for more.

auger shells third Rack & Ruin offering, is a live EP, where all of the tracks were recorded live in and around Detroit between june 2007 and feb 2008. On the opening track, and alongside the swooping drones, and distant rumbles, you hear everyday chit chat - real people bustling along, adding to the abstract shimmering tones with a real force and prescence. The guitar will occasionally push it's way through the crowd, fighting to be the dominant feature - then a distant conversation will take your ear, as a person clatters past. It is moments like that, which really stand out - the accidental, working in unison with the creativity of auger shell.

Although this wasn't recorded in one take, having been recorded at numerous places in many months - the flow of the EP feels as though it isn't the case. Another true gem, and perfect headphones music.

When an artist writes a track-by-track account of each song on an album, then it sure makes my life a little easier! This is the album - in the words of the creator.

01. Bangs: This is just a stage-setter. Weird sounds guitar sounds.
02. The Estimation: Kind of sounds like "The Time You Were Lost" from the Indian Summer EP, mostly because I used the same mellotron emulator. But, it's different. Short and sweet, like a lot of songs on this record.
03. Letters From Athens: This is probably my favorite song on here. The bed of synths was pretty much an accident, but it sounds so sweet. I just threw some guitar strumming on top and there we go. No big leads or anything, I tried it and it kind of ruined the delicate feel this song's got going on
04. You're Getting Older: I love the big beat on the second half of this song. I tried to experiment with the different percussion sounds I could get on this record and this is the best result of such experimenting. The first part of the riff is stolen from a Spacemen 3 song, but it changes. The second part is a riff I've had for while but never worked into anything. So here it is.
05.Underwater: This is a song from the winter, or the Indian Summer sessions. It was originally like 5 minutes long and pretty boring because it didn't really deviate from what goes on during its now just-over-a-minute runtime. But it's cool now. Some backwards guitar, sounds slick.
06. The Thin Man: So, this song was a complete accident. Little did I know, my laptop has little a little microphone built into it, and I hit record thinking I was plugged in, but I wasn't...and I don't know exactly, but it turned out pretty nifty. I added the synth to flesh it out a bit more, and it still sounds pretty thin compared to the rest of the stuff here, but it's got a bouncy feel that I dig a whole lot.
07. Free Matches: Another one of the best songs here. I think this thing turned out awesome. More in the style than some of the louder tracks from the first record, but it's not as harsh and it's a bit more...uh, anthemic? Despite the lack of words. It's awesome though.
08. The End Of Something: The second half of this was originally another longer piece that I cut down, but I decided to add some quiet guitar noodling at the beginning. Really, the second half is one of my favorite things I've done. It's almost dance-y. Really cool track.
09. The King Of Trees And Birds: This was the first song I record for this record, and it feels more like something from the first record I think, but it's still awesome. This actually originated about 2 weeks ago when me and my buddies were tripping, jamming on our acoustics. One of them came up with the little riff that it's based around, and me and my other buddy just messed around over it. Hence, the triple writing credits.So, I tried to recreate that here, even though it sounds absolutely nothing like what was produced by the three of us a week or two ago.
10. They're Crashing: This was the product of almost pure improvisation.
Possibly the weakest track here, but it's still worthwhile, I think. It's got kind of a Galaxie 500 thing going during the beginning.
11. Song in The Room: The main guitar part was something I've had in my head for a long time, and tried to record numerous times. Finally think I got it right this time. I used the same microphone that "The Thin Man" was recorded on, so it sounds similar. Pretty cool track, I think I got the lead guitar to sound pretty nifty with some tinkering.
12. Day In Bed: Contended for my favorite track on the record. This was the last song I recorded, and it turned out marvelously. The climax is nasty, and it was pretty obvious when I finished it that it'd be the closer.

Dubbed "Body Language" because of it's lack of human-forged vocals, this new turn to more electronic music is the first of many turns to come in Elm's career. From the opening bars of the opener, "The Zen" it is clear to see that this is a true change from his previous effort - starting off with sounds that could well be heard in 80s video arcade games - Missile Command comes to mind.

Elm, even minus the vocals, does still retain elements from his previous effort. The electric piano still features a lot in this offering, and alongside the precision perfect drum beats, it gives off an air of cool chill out music.

Prepare for sugar-coated repetition and a well done steak.

Castro Arms was rehearsed over one greasy fortnight in April, 2008 after a particularly glutinous spring break which featured 3 highly disparate gigs , 4 different line-ups, and 5 separate incidents of anonymous sexual contact on the back row of a Greyhound Bus. John "Mulder" Morgan, Korey "Scully" Kassir and Jasper "Cigarette-Smoking Man" Leach joined Gregory "Mitch Pileggi" McGarry at Ex'pression Studios in godforsaken Emeryville to shit out this rough little gem of an EP like some strange flock of gem-shitting geese.

The songs were written by Herr McGarry primarily over the course of a tumultuous 2007, a year which saw the untimely dissolution of his band "the French Architect" and the spontaneous abortion of his fledgling French architecture business. "Black Mile" was composed at the home of one scraggly scoundrel, Mr. Saul Tiberias Wolentz, after a night of irresponsible extreme-Yugo street racing. "Money Down" also flowed out of this brief, tumultuous partnership. The chorus is believed to have been overheard by Mr. McGarry at a venue in downtown Portland, Oregon, as one Isaac Brock squatted, grunting in the next stall over. Lyrics were altered slightly to shield the innocent from the harsh realities of rock star defecation. "Stole My Skin" may prove the late-summer anthem despite the fact it is a snarky anti-drug polemic. "Submarine"
and "Pride of the Plain" were both written long ago and resuscitated for this project. Their current incarnations resemble their antecedents much as modern-day Liberia resembles its mother country, the United States. "Rafters" was the one awkwardly flying buttress salvaged from the abominable wreck that was the French Architect. It arose from a late night Panhandle jam sesh with one Aria C Jalali, a successful solo artist who labors under the moniker "railcars" and has an adorable Persian 'fro.

Nick Grovers, Gnouli Monsters, return to Rack & Ruin with this belated summertime release. This release was always intended to see the light in the late summer, it was always intended to be a season EP, focusing on summertime crushes, summertime blues, etc. - Nick was disappointed that a family holiday meant that he didn't have chance to submit this until after the sun had gone in, and the rainclouds started to form on the horizon. However, as shown with the glorious opener, "Around", the fact that the skies are a little greyer, the wind is a little stronger, and the sun is a little scarcer, it makes this work so well in this climate - afterall, what is worse than the "summertime blues", but the post-summertime blues, that make you realise that the previous summer was a lot more memorable than you first gave it credit for.

Gnouli Monsters have a retro feel to the music, almost like a throwback to the 50s, where every hair on the performers head was meticulously positioned in such a way, but within that there is also a fresher feel, and an almost alt-country twang involved in the guitar work.

I think this EP demonstrates that no matter what time of year, or what the weather is like outside - it is irrelevant, when the music on display is as wonderful as this.  

Artwork, by Rack & Ruin records friend, the very talented Kelly Filreis.

From the outset, you can tell that the guys involved here are keen to experiment with the twisted sounds of noise, and experimental electronica. Thestatic/metalic opener is almost "noise-lite" (c), the static background threatening to burst to the forefront, but never being allowed by the metalic blowing and swirling space sounds that dominate the front.

"Eaters" suits it's title more than any other. The sampled loops, distorted to the max, but still giving off an air of consumption. The EP ends with "Cannabis for Cannibals", a spaced out childlike burst of sounds, that could be an entire episode of The Moomins crammed into it's 1 minute 25 seconds timeframe.

This EP once again shows that The if people were paper, are bursting with non-comforming ideas, that will either get them a cult following, or a swarm of detractors. Something that they would probably be very happy with!

The debut release from Dean Angel finds him exploring haunting melodies through his almost counter-tenor voice, while the accompanying samples and instruments remain relatively redundant and static. 

You cannot write a Dean Angel review without drawing similarities to the work of Animal Collective, and perhaps narrow that down further to the solo efforts of Panda Bear. However, all in all, Dean Angels music is more subdued, and thoughtful.

That isn't to say that this release is simply plagiarizing what has come before it - it is riddled with gorgeous twists, and turns, delicately interweaved together in a resplendent fashion. This EP is one that moves effortlessly from idea to idea, from the careful strumming of Hola Jote, to the churchlike encapsulating repetition of Oheeoh. It is this kind of repetition that creates opportunity for transcendental experience.  This is Dean Angel’s religious music.

Before the music even starts, you know that you must be in for a treat. Afterall, surely "Dog Bite" is one of the best possible pseudonyms that you could come up with. I'm not sure if Phil Jones (aka Dog Bite) sat long and hard, pondering what to call his psychedelic pop outfit, or whether it came to him effortlessly, seemingly as the music on this beautiful EP.

Like our previous release, it would be hard not to namedrop Panda Bear once again, throw in a little Animal Collective, and a smattering of El Guincho, and this will give you a rough idea of what to expect from the 5 tracks contained within.

Mixing samples, with Dog Bite's otherworldly airy vocals often feel like they are summoning ghosts out of the reverb, whilst the tribal percussion, and earthy strings hold the tracks together in beautiful unison.

If this EP was released on Paw Tracks, then it would be all over the music press in no time. With them all singing the praises of Atlanta's, Phil Jones. Well, if this EP is anything to go by, then I'm sure it is jus a precursor for that, which will surely lie ahead.