| Anthroprophh |
| Outside the Circle |
Φ→ Dost bláznivá, abych ji pochopil. Šílená, vrstvená horská dráha psychedelic, garáže, drone a old school prog rocku, tady není místečka pro slabochy.
Φ→ Jsou tu zvraty, ale bez trvalého útoku na ušní bubínky. Deska se povedla, udržím ji v těžké rotaci.
Location: Bristol, Britain, UK
Album release: 15th September 2014
Record Label: Rocket
Duration: 45:00
Tracks:
01. Returning 6:28
02. Dead Man On The Scene 2:44
03. 2013 And She told Me I Was Die 2:48
04. Albrechtdron 1:06
05. Gottmelt 1:36
06. Detached and in its Own Mind Riding a Ghost Train Through a Fairground it had Built Itself 5:52
07. The Ruins Of St. Luckwell 0:59
08. Crow With Sore Throat 2:51
09. Space Box Zonk Machine 2:45
10. Dog 1:45
11. Outside The Circle 9:10
12. See 5:53
13. New Impossibilites Part 3 1:12
Description/Credits:
Φ→ Here’s a warning for those of a nervous disposition, never go and see Anthroprophh live! This assault, there’s no other word for it, was as loud and intense as anything I’ve witnessed. It was thrilling, visceral, mind blowing; and yet also had nuance to it. Playing mainly tracks from the brilliant new album ‘Outside The Circle‘ the trio, comprising former ‘Head’ Paul Allen and fellow Bristolian duo The Big Naturals (Gareth Turner, bass/ electronics and Jesse Webb, drums), invaded our very souls with a performance which was both raw and complex. There was no escape from this sonic attack which was relentless and utterly invigorating and by the end I felt exhausted and yet strangely cleansed. If you like your music loud, heavy and intelligent go and check Anthroprophh out, you won’t be dissappointed.
REVIEW
By Simon Delic | September 18, 2014
Φ→ This Autumn is turning out to be a pretty exciting time for psych fans with a whole slew of new albums coming out. Of these one of my more anticipated releases is the second album from Anthroprophh, the project from Paul Allen of brilliant Bristol psych noise band The Heads. I have been looking forward to hearing it because, while the first eponymously titled album was very good I had heard an even more promising direction from the recent Cardinal Fuzz 12” release, ‘Precession’/ ‘Ebbe’, which showcased Allen’s collaboration with fellow Bristolians Big Naturals. For me these tracks were fuller and more interesting than the originals and suggested that something quite inspired might emerge through this meeting of these massive sound minds.
Φ→ It has.
Φ→ Outside The Circle is a monumental album: monumental because of the massive ritualistic sounds that pervade it, such as on ‘Albrechtdron’ and ‘See’. If it was a structure it would be a dark monolith which at first sight seems impenetrable but, as the layers are excavated, huge tracts of meaning are revealed.
Φ→ Beginning with ‘Returning’ you get slapped in the face with a huge riff and a vocal that sounds reminiscent of Ozzy Osborne on ‘Planet Caravan’. The scale continues with ‘Dead Man On The Scene’ which sounds like the product of Jello Biafra singing with Ty Segall’s Fuzz (the Sabbath connection again seemingly present). This starts really intense and becomes more and more feverish until it is almost mind numbing (but not in an X–Factor sort of way).
Φ→ From this description you could be forgiven for thinking that his album is somehow derivative.
Φ→ It isn’t.
Φ→ It is more that Anthroprophh has produced something that it so different, so…well…important, that I am really struggling to place it somewhere where readers can appreciate where it is coming from. It has at times elements of Stooges/ 70s punk leading into more mellow psych codas (‘Detached and in its own mind riding a ghost train through a fairground it had built itself ‘), at other times it has that electronic eclecticity of Rocket label–mates Teeth of the Sea (‘Gottmelt’). But nowhere on this album can you say that you’ve heard this before.
Φ→ You haven’t.
It is heavy, dark and intense, and yet is strangely infused with light — which I guess is where I was going with the transformative monolith analogy. With the exception on the marvellous ‘Crow With Sore Throat’ this is not an album that is repeatedly hitting you over the head. Rather it is inviting you to commune with it. It does not drag you along, but brings you with it. It is, it has to be said, pretty insistent; but we have freedom of though? Right?
Φ→ This is an album that is pretty hard to love in the sense that we often ‘love’ music, but it is an album that deserves to be listened to again…and again…and again. It is an album that will keep on giving and it is an album that is potentially quite transformative.
Φ→ It is also an album that I cannot wait to hear live because I think this experience will add yet another dimension to the music. An absolute priority for the Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia. Fortaken: http://backseatmafia.com/
REVIEW
By Dylan Kilby | posted on 15 Sep 2014 | Score: ****
Φ→ Ready for brain–melting? Anthroprophh’s got the goods to break your mind in all the right ways. Born from the degenerate psyche of Paul Allen (of The Heads: http://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-heads-mn0000081574), Anthroprophh deliver a three–quarter–hour of power on the band’s second full-length release Outside the Circle. It’s an insane, layered roller coaster of garage, drone and old school progressive rock, and boy is it hot.
Φ→ Outside the Circle opens with a manic frenzy on the six minute–plus Returning, a track that features Allen’s krautrock–esque vocals that harken back to his previous output and channels the affected delivery of Can’s Damo Suzuki, especially on Tago Mago. It’s followed by Dead Man On the Scene, where Allen amps up the stoner vibe and puts some sound bites in the mix. The vocoder is a nice touch — a weird one, but come on, was anything less expected?
Φ→ The bass–heavy Space Box Zonk Machine (a title fit for Frank Zappa’s next posthumous release) is no place for the faint-hearted. It lapses into a sludgy Melvins riff and some carefully applied post-punk electronic effects from early Killing Joke or The Fall. It bleeds into the next track Dog, which was an unnecessary separation as Dog pretty much carries on the same melodies and vibe as its predecessor with no changes.
Φ→ Allen sounds like a British Captain Beefheart on 2013 And She Told Me I Was Die (yes, you read that correctly) as he spouts off deranged–steam–of–consciousness lyrics juxtaposed with guitar pedal abuse so bad that shoegazers overdose. Two ambient minute-long drone interludes, and we’re back with more drudgery in Detached And In Its Own Mind, whose second half is a curious mix of tape feedback and acoustic guitar that collapses into another guitar freak out. There’s no use trying to figure anything out: Anthroprophh delivers primetime bombastic fuckery, and you’re just along for the ride.
Φ→ But that’s not to imply in the slightest that there’s no structure or actual form. Φ→ Allen knows exactly what he’s doing. Outside The Circle is a structured disaster comparable to designing rides on Roller Coaster Tycoon so they fly off the end of the track or setting one’s Sims on fire. The title track aptly demonstrates Allen’s meticulous craftsmanship: it slowly builds from a rolling tribal drum line into an effects–laden collage of guitar noise that lays bare Allen’s krautrock influence. Every bit is perfectly placed, and the track climaxes against an oscillating bass until it dives right back into a reprise of every previously explored idea.
Φ→ Earlier this year, Anthroprophh released the 12–inch Precession on Cardinal Fuzz Records, which combined Om–esque ritualism and drone with progressive rock. These meanderings aren’t to be found on Outside The Circle with the exception of the two short interludes Albrechtdron and Gottmelt, the latter for which Anthroprophh made a short, surreal music video. Both tracks deserve to be much, much longer; Precession was a great foray into the subtler side of experimental music, and Anthroprophh would have done well to expand the concepts of Albrechtdron and Gottmelt into full–length tracks instead of the itty–bitty ditties they currently are. Instead, Outside The Circle is a lot closer to Cardinal Fuzz colleagues Black Bombaim and The Cult Of Dom Keller, which are must–listens for fans of this release.
Φ→ Outside The Circle is the album to show that friend who says there’s nothing going on in rock music anymore. It’s got twists and turns, but without any persistent assault to the eardrums that makes some experimental the synonym of unlistenable. Φ→ Anthroprophh wear their drugs on their sleeve, and Outside The Circle is an album that’s certainly worth a hit.
Fortaken: http://www.musicomh.com/
Bandcamp: http://rocketrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/outside-the-circle
Also:
http://backseatmafia.com/tag/liverpool-international-festival-of-psychedelia/
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Φ→ Agitation Free///Pekka Airaksinen///Airway///Albrecht/d///Alcatraz
Φ→ Times have changed since the days when arcane aural wisdom was passed down from disciple to disciple by word of mouth, in dusty record stores littered with inexpensive stacks of second–hand wax and via late–night post–pub sessions in which eager obscurists would brandish their latest esoteric discoveries through a booze and smoke-addled haze. The 'Nurse With Wound list' may have been replaced in popular consciousness by a binary blizzard of Spotify playlists and MP3 files. Yet the idealistic vision of the true psychedelic obsessive still stands proud, a monolith impervious to all adversity and compromise.
Φ→ The Deep Freeze Mice////Dharma Quintet///Dies Irae///Dome///Doo–Dooettes
Moreover, in an era where the word 'psych' itself is fast being overused to the point of meaninglessness, there are certain seers who can always be relied upon to brandish an artistic insight into third–eye salvation that departs from its obsessive origins to offer trashed transcendence above and beyond the physical form. One such is Paul 'Prof' Allen, the mastermind of Anthroprophh, whose second album 'Outside The Circle' is a dizzying psychic voyage that exists in, around and at all points of the eternal amplified axe-worship continuum.
Φ→ Heratius///Hero///Juan Hidalgo///Hugh Hopper///Horde Catalytique Pour La Fin///Horrific Child
Φ→ Anthroprophh began in earnest after 'Prof's departure from Bristolian cult The Heads, in whose auspices he had made a number of head-spinning records that surfed a haphazard psychic spiral from an overflowing ashtray to the stars. Yet 'Outside The Circle', the second album from the trio he formed with the Big Naturals duo of Gareth Turner and Jesse Webb, sees him steadfastly affirming his own wayward path through a vivid aural terrain of garage-birthed gnarl, FX pedal euphoria and inhospitable drone-vortexes. At times startling, at others darkly comic, and at all times assaulting the unsuspecting freak unawares, it's a treasure trove of titanic wig–outs and blissful trance states.
Φ→ Maschine Nr. 9///Mate and Vallancien///Costin Miereanu///Min Bul///Mnemonists
Whilst 'Outside The Circle' bears a plentiful amount of stylistic hallmarks gleaned from 'Prof's years inhabiting the record–racks and small–hours listening sessions of yore himself, its inherent beauty centres on the fact that this is no slavish retrogressive pastiche, and no tribute to glories past, rather the sound of an irreverent master bearing down on enlightenment anew. From the sci–fi doom–out of the appropriately–titled 'Space Box Zonk Machine' to the unnerving primitive electronica of 'Gottmelt', and from the kraut-fried whirl–y–gig of the title track via the deadpan Deviants-style 'Dead Man On The Scene' to the early–Monster Magnet–damaged finale 'See', no sacred stone is left unturned here. Yet at all times 'Prof''s guitar rages through the ether, all banshee howls and fiery tumult; a kaleidoscopic union between Helios Creed and the Velvet Underground of 'I Heard Her Call My Name'.
Φ→ Secret Oyster///Seeselberg///Selten Gehörte Musik///Semool///Sonny Sharrock
'Outside The Circle' resides at a moment whereby fifty years of psychedelic culture and esoteric art messily collide and morph into an ornery and intimidating new elixir. Φ→ Moreover, with 'Prof's credentials bolstered by the force of his band, and the sheer wealth of imagination he deploys in unassuming fashion readily apparent, this latest missive is manna for freaks of every stripe. From Terry–Nutkins–alikes to fresh–faced ingenues, few can remain impervious to this peerless display of frontier–destroying, mind–melting malevolence.
Φ→ Ladies and gentlemen, witness a new monolith.
Φ→ Ya Ho Wha 13///La Monte Young///Frank Zappa///ZNR///Zweistein
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| Anthroprophh |
| Outside the Circle |