contributors

If there's a drawback to the ongoing deluge of musical riches in this microlabel networked post-whatever age, it would have to be the sheer difficulty of keeping up with all the wondrous and varied sounds emerging from all corners of the geo-musical spectrum. It's just too damn easy for quality to fall through the cracks, especially if it's not aligned with a currently "hip" label or scene (and yes, scene-herd thinking is as alive and well on the undergrounds as anywhere else). Take, for instance, Norman, OK's Anvil Salute, whose stellar second CDR release New Crusaders of the 11^th Commandment sat in a pile beside my stereo for nearly five months before I finally got around to hearing it - at which point it immediately shouldered its way into a spot on my best-of-2006 favorites list - and

Among a whole weekend of high musical points, one of our favorite experiences at last April's Terrastock 6 in Providence, RI was the festival's opening set by Tanakh. Their recently-released CD Ardent Fevers had really spun our heads, & it ended up being one of the real recorded highlights of 06. Tony Dale summed up our feelings in his 06-roundup rave, calling it "a sensory overload of songwriting classicism and rock dynamics, tightly controlled pop-songs and explosive guitar freak-outs ... Shattering the paradigm of the psychedelic underground, Ardent Fevers is a release that deserved to be heard by millions." So we were especially interested to see how they would work this stuff live, and fought our way through various (mostly self-created) potholes to be sure we were at the AS220 club in time for them to take the stage.

KM up first

The practice of looking back on a previous year's cultural output seems to be almost a necessary ritual among those who pay attention to such things, but 2006 highlighted a whole range of developments that make such attempts harder and harder to countenance and conceptualize. In music especially, most of my serious-listening friends and acquaintances seem to agree that this past year was one real damn doozy, and even kind of dizzying in some regards. The sheer abundance of music (available via microlabels, self-releases, downloads in addition to the usual channels) made it nearly impossible for any individual to keep up with new developments in any but the smallest corner of the world of sound. Plus, I mean, the whole concept of time as a linear count-up and count-down thing is starting to get pretty fuzzy in our

Back for more, with Tony Dale (Lee follows below)

This is the time of year I like to call "nailing smoke to a wall time". With the proliferation of releases on CD and LP on major and minor labels, and the explosion of artifacts issued by the handmade CD-R underground, chances of actually hearing more than an infinitesimal sample of what's going on are slim, and add to that the increasing impact of download only releases and you've got an exercise on par with sorting out the shenanigans of quantum particles. Nonetheless, here is a selection of ten releases that stayed with me more than briefly - works that in effect became invisible co-travelers in the hurtling rail cart that was my passage through 2006.

Irishman Dave Colohan is a central figure in the United Bible Student movement, his voice unmistakable, his presence always felt. When you get your hands on an Agitated Radio Pilot release (they can be elusive) and wrap your ears around its melancholy pleasures, it's clear that the music of ARP is a conduit for Colohan's most personal thoughts and feelings, which are presented unfiltered (mostly) by the collaborative imperatives of other familial projects like United Bible Studies and Magickal Folk of the Faraway Tree. When seven ARP releases came across my desk in a quite short space of time, the opportunity to round 'em up and make some kind of sense of the project's progress seemed too good to pass up. For the sake of completeness Your Turn to Go It Alone, which was received somewhat earlier (though still in 2006), is included.

As you may have noticed, we've been away from the Garden on an extended sabbatical over the last few months, and we emerge from our voyage fully charged and ready to shine more light on the precious substrate of the weird music underground. All in all 2006 has simply provided the mother load in terms of far-reaching, strange, unique, mind-bending, soul-cleansing sound. It's a great time to be alive if you have the ears for this stuff and the time to sift through it all. Enter your ever diligent gardener.

First off: a few words about the highly influential VHF Records. For over 10 years now owner Bill Kellum (who also played with Kranky prog-droners Doldrums) has served as a dependable bridge between the psychedelic underground and the avid sound art consumer. Certainly one of the most influential and dependable bands on the roster - it gave us Jack Rose for Chrisssakes! - is Pelt, the improvised brainchild of Patrick Best, Rose, Mike Gangloff and Mikel Dimmick. The story of how Pelt went from a primitive anti rock unit to one of the most fluid cosmic noise raga bands on the planet probably deserves a book, but in the meantime Skullfuck / Bestio Tergum Degero, a recording of a recent live set captured in NYC at the Knitting Factory, not only shows how far these lads have come compositionally, but also just how much their musicianship has improved, from Rose's fluid open-tuned fingerpicking to the other players' command of the deep drone (comprised of harmonium, srutis, fiddle, singing bowls, gongs, portacello and flute). It can all be glimpsed magnificently on their epic, mind-blowing rendition of Rose's "Calais to Dover." Perhaps even more fascinating are the brooding gongs and percussive drones of the three part title track, which grows from a cold whisper to a cloud-breaking sunburst before it's through.

Y'know, it's kinda surprising that a publication located as far off the main highways as Deep Water Acres still receives a significant amount of music sent our way for possible review. We're mighty grateful for it though, yes we are. There's just such an explosion in creative independent music-making nowadays, and thanks to technological advances so much more of it is available/findable than ever before, that it can be a real bear to keep up with it all. We do try to stay on top of things, but making time even for the music we've spent our hard-earned money on (or traded a chicken for, or whatever) can be a big enough challenge, let alone sorting through all the surprises that arrive in the mail. Now, it's only fair to note that some of those items don't necessarily fit within our particular purview, though we're still thankful for the chance to hear ‘em. But at least a few do hit us right where we live (here, that would be), and so we'd like to take this opportunity to spill a few words in their honor.