Mirza doesn't seem capable of repeating their debut's miracle.
Iron Compass Flux (Darla, 1998) doubles the doses of
transcendental, spiritual attitude, but lowers the action to the point
where it loses its identity.
The band dissolved and
Last Clouds (Ba Da Bing, 2002) collected rare, live and unreleased
material.
In the meantime, Steven Smith had released several collections of
surreal instrumentals, starting with the ten short pieces of
Gehenna Belvedere (Autopia, 1996).
Besides a number of transcendental shamanic trance,
and notably the gentle, sparse In Held Ambit,
Autumn Is The End (Darla, 1998) also contains the
the nine-minute acid-rock jam To This Nothing Already Then
and the free-form percussive experiment Ohne/ Long Long Hence.
The pieces on From Ashes Come (3 Acre Floor, 1999) were more
conventional "ambient guitar music", notably Dusking.
The vignettes of Slate Branches (3 Acre Floor, 2000)
borrowed ideas from disparate sources to weave eerie atmospheres.
The collage Casting Locusts ranges from Japanese folk
to electronic drones.
The EP The Death Of Last Year's Man (Emperor Jones, 2001) contains four
covers.
Up to this point
the concepts and the performances of his albums were still naive and
amateurish, basically a poor man's Robbie Basho.
The centerpiece of Smith's mini-album Tableland (Emperor Jones, 2000)
is the trancey, 16-minute title-track, a zen-like flow of harmonica, guitar
and piano tones.
Glade, Blood Partridges and A Celebration are
avant-psychedelic distortions
a` la Roy Montgomery.
Caprock and Shelf displays one of his specialties, a demented tribute to
Ennio Morricone's soundtracks.
Smith's next solo, Lineaments (Emperor Jones, 2002), released after his
relocation to Los Angeles, continued to explore the same techniques.
Oriel mixes a stark, fragmented guitar raga and snapshots of chamber
music.
A quasi-mystical experience is evoked by the quivering viola and
majestic guitar strum of Dust on Coils.
The process of gradual composition is tested in the
heavily distorted texture of The Morning Cart, in the
ghostly echoes of Artesia, in the dramatic
overtones of Petersson Alms, etc.
The last two tracks are sort of antithetic:
a busier, thicker, louder dynamic impinges on the tidal waves of
On Paving Stones; whereas Crown Upon These Lines weaves languid
static drones like a transcendent "om" to the universe.
A sense of apocalyptic calm exudes from the alien notes of these trancey pieces.
Smith and Donaldson also play in the improvisational group Thuja,
with percussionist Loren Chasse (formerly of Id Battery) and pianist Rob Reger,
an outfit that has released
the all-instrumental albums The Deer Lay Down Their Bones (Tumult, 2000),
an ethereal symphony of guitar, piano and percussion sounds,
and
Ghost Plants (Emperor Jones, 2002).
The quintet on Ghost Plants pens brief vignettes of
resonating chords (10), grotesque ethnic music (5, 11),
obsessive grooves (3),
alien noises (7), distorted chamber music (9), etc.
If Brian Eno and Faust got together and did a lot of drugs, the result would
sound like this.
Thuja's Museum (Jewelled Antler, 2002) are limited-edition CDROM's
that include art by the members.
Thuja's Suns (Emperor Jones, 2002), which contains 10 untitled tracks,
presents the group improvisation of Smith, Rob Reger, Loren Chasse and Glenn
Donaldson at their best. Not only
intense and inspired, but also meticulously enhanced with cacophonous
techniques of the avantgarde. The quartet reinvents
musique concrete (1),
populates sonic wastelands of ghostly noises (2),
surveys the squalor of abandoned ambients (5),
drills into neurotic and paranoid psyches (8).
The eeriest moments occur when someone
plays nuclear lullabies on guitar (3) or sitar (6)
in a world that is being engulfed by lethal miasmas.
Mirza's guitarist Glenn Donaldson is also Birdtree, a project that
bridges psychedelic pop, field recordings, droning minimalism, as on
Orchards And Caravans (Jewelled Antler, 2002),
and as Ivytree, whose Winged Leaves (Catsup Plate, 2004), is a
religious concept that relies heavily on field recordings and ethnic
instruments (a Syd Barrett for the post-industrial age).
Donaldson is also half of Skygreen Leopards
(the other half being multi-instrumentalist Donovan Quinn), a project documented
on
collections of fragile, lovingly-arranged, lazy/hazy, psychedelic folk-pop songs
that rarely last more than two minutes. The project started
with the mini-album She Rode On A Pink Gazelle & Other Dreams (Jewelled Antler, 2001),
which quickly reveals their inspirations via the
jangling Byrds-ian The Stars Go To Sleep, a style that
almost disintegrates in Wild Bird Songs,
and via reconstructions of the vintage sound of West Coast's acid-rock of the 1960s like I Dreamt She Rode On A Pink Gazelle.
There are also nods to more deviant acid-folk, like in
the surreal bluegrass instrumental Leopard Wings
and especially Peppermint Annie, which sounds like
out-of-tune Simon & Garfunkel.
The breezy singalong I Fell Asleep In The Sunbleached Grass (I'll Just Pass Away) is the concession to the Mamas & Papas strand of hippie music.
Some of that smiling and celestial experience is gone in the slightly darker and
noisier
The Story of the Green Lamb & the Jerusalem Priestess of Leaves (2002),
that often sounds like a collection of leftovers due to inferior melodies
(Soft Dark Birds is the highlight, and
I've Seen the Sea in Your Eyes Josephine is a close second).
The first two mini-albums were collected on The Jingling World of The Skygreen Leopards.
The slightly longer songs on One Thousand Bird Ceremony (Soft Abuse, 2004) are generally more spaced-out
(Morning Of Gulls, Walk With The Golden Cross)
all the way
to the barely whined and ethereal All Our Plagues Were Rainbows,
Hello To All Your Rain
and Seaflowers, the songs where the transcendental element prevails.
Musically, this is a mixed bag, sometimes irritating, sometimes hypnotizing,
but atmospherically the effect is certainly mesmerizing, especially in
A Breeze Of Pine Blows Through Me.
The nine-song mini-album Child God In The Garden Of Idols (Jagjaguwar, 2005) was a folkish affair, peaking with
acid-folk distortions of country dances (Butterfly Dance) and Dylan-esque litanies (Hobo Sparrow's Dream).
After the six-song EP Jehovah Surrender (Jagjaguwar, 2005), they released
the album Life & Love In Sparrow's Meadow (Jagjaguwar, 2005), on which
they favor the austere mode (for example the
heartfelt laments Mother The Sun Makes Me Cry and
The Supplication Of Fireflies as well as
the poignant invocation
Come Down Off Your Mountain Moses)
over the "acid" mode (which nonetheless sneaks in via the
chaotic medley Careless Gardeners Of Eden/ Sparrows Of Eden Eden Fading/ Drunken Gardeners Dance Paradise Lost Sweetly).
They became more conventional singer-songwriters, although always gifted with melodic and relaxed genius, on
Disciples of California (Jagjaguwar, 2006),
Gorgeous Johnny (Jagjaguwar, 2009),
and
Family Crimes (Woodsist, 2014).
All Strange Beasts Of The Past (Emperor Jones, 2003) is Thuja's
most gentle and earthly work yet, one in which the superhuman drones and
noises are replaced by acoustic touches, zen-like acoustics
(1, 5),
regular and folk-ish rhythm (3)
and even a vestige of counterpoint (2).
The quartet is even more convincing when it weds that newfound passion for
music composition and the techniques of musique concrete (7).
The main drawback is that these sound more like fragments or ideas than
accomplished pieces.
Smith's next project, Hala Strana (Emperor Jones, 2003), is inspired by
the folk music of Eastern Europe, albeit mentally and physically processed
through his aesthetic filters. The results are often quite estranged from
the sources. After a brief introduction of droning instruments and voices
(Cinnamon Shops), Smith weaves the solemn tapestry of Stria,
a series of melodic variations for transcendental guitar a` la
John Fahey that slowly decays into dissonant
and chaotic tones.
Quarter Mesto, that relies on loud echoes of percussion and guitar tones,
has a Tibetan quality, and Alate exudes a monumental gothic feeling
more akin to Lycia,
and Millstones summons a ghostly wind of organ drones over a
lullaby-like strumming of guitars.
But other tracks take on the ethnic program in a more faithful fashion:
the mournful Streets of Raised Platforms,
the martial crescendo of Spiring Plume,
the triumphal collective dance of A Second Fall.
The program includes parts for flowerpots and bottles.
Hala Strana's double-disc Fielding (Last Visible Dog, 2003) employs a huge arsenal of instruments, both classical, ethnic and found ones. The music is basically a set of psychedelic variations on popular folk tunes of the Balkans.
The nine short free-form improvisations of
Kohl (Jewelled Antler, 2002 - Emperor Jones, 2005), packaged with a handmade book, woodcut insert and silkscreened covers, began a new phase in Smith's
prolific production.
His Antimony (Digitalis Industries, 2004) contains six untitled
ambient folk instrumental dirges that can be as
pensive and convoluted like the third one.
Hala Strana's These Villages (Soft Abuse, 2004) is another journey
into the underbelly of Eastern European folk music, scored for harmonium, strings, accordion, ethnic instruments and field recordings.
Thuja's double-disc Pine Cone Temples (Strange Attractors, 2005), recorded between 1999 and 2004, is
another collective improvisation by
Loren Chasse, Steven Smith, Glenn Donaldson and Rob Reger, and
another study on the psychological properties of natural sounds,
exorcizing urban life and trying to recapture the essence of the human condition on Planet Earth while retaining the high-tech world that humans have built.
The first CD contains two tracks. The 13-minute long I/1 grows from a
soundscape of sparse percussion to a subdued dialogue of stringed instruments
only to fade into a black hole of shapeless sounds.
The 26-minute long I/2 spends an eternity toying with subsonic noises
(like of little rodents corroding a surface) over
a distant drone, until bells and a high-pitched accordion-like drone bring a
bit of life to it. But most of the first 21 minutes are a quiet fresco of
minimal sounds. A sudden eruption of white noise causes a bit of commotion,
but it lasts only a few seconds. Then the little rodents can continue their
lunch undisturbed.
The second disc contains six tracks.
The ten minutes II/2 is highlighted by ghostly echoes and metallic overtones.
The 18-minute II/4 builds up a much denser and most threatening mass of sounds, which, after about four minutes, begins decaying into the usual shapeless organic matter against the usual droning background. Loud gong-like bangs lead to another intense concentration of sound for the last three minutes.
The ten-minute II/6 focuses on pastoral strumming of the stringed instruments, on their interaction rather than on environmental sounds. As usual, their improvisation is subdued, anemic, distorted, primitive, blurred.
Ultimately, all Thuja albums (and the solo projects of its members) are duets
between the human brain and the human environment, duets that are meant to
reinvigorate the human heart. This music is a feedback from the brain back to
the brain via the environment, except that first the rational brain interacts
with the environment and then the output of the interaction is sent to the
irrational brain, the primitive, reptile core of human cognition.
Hala Strana's Heave The Gambrel Roof (Three Lobed, 2007) continued
Smith's exploration and reinvention of Eastern European folk music.
Glenn Donaldson also plays on Flying Canyon (2006), the brainchild of
folk-rock vocalist and guitarist Cayce Linder.
Steven Smith's Crown of Marches (Catsup Plate, 2005) contains one long
track that seems to hark back to his psychedelic roots.
A bedrock of creckling guitar distortion is shaken by
foghorn-like drones that intone a slow, jazzy motif.
Disjointed guitar chords get louder and louder and swallow the remaining drones
that have turned towards the sound of Scottish hornpipes.
The violent guitar riffs pile up on top of each other like surfs during a storm
and eventually concoct a sort of frenzied flameno-raga.
Within 20 minutes the music has settled into an ambient lysergic space,
populated with laconic guitar licks and discreet metallic percussion,
and for a while the piece becomes a concerto of abstract dissonant music.
Slowly but steadily the mayhem begins to coalesce and to rise stately into
a geometric crescendo.
Smith's The Anchorite (Important, 2006 - Root Strata, 2008),
recorded live with no overdubbing,
is instead fragmented into ten short chamber droning pieces that seems to experiment
with different states of trance.
Its dense and meticulous blend of fiddle, hurdy gurdy, cello, xaphoon, bombard, ney, bouzouki, glockenspiel, organ, melodica, guitar and percussions reenacted Smith's private ghosts, the primordial spleen that is the undercurrent of so many of his works.
All of Smith's album boasted elegant and elaborate packaging.
Yet another Steven Smith alter-ego, Ulaan Khol, was conceived for a trilogy titled "Ceremony" of untitled albums containing untitled instrumentals,
whose first installments I (Soft Abuse, 2008) and II (2008)
were devoted to
loud cosmic-psychedelic pieces for guitar and organ.
Compared with the droning ambience for which the project had become famous,
most of III (Soft Abuse, 2010) was a frenzied freak-out.
Thuja (Important, 2008) documents various live performances by the
core group of
Loren Chasse, Glenn Donaldson, Steven Smith and Rob Reger augmented with
Greg Bianchini, Keith Evans, Bryan DeRoo and Christine Boepple.
Steven Smith's Owl (Digitalis, 2008)
was his first album with vocals.
The pieces are mostly duets for vocals and guitar.
The Skygreen Leopards'
Gorgeous Johnny (Jagjaguwar, 2009),
featuring the Papercuts' Jason Quever, was a humble collection of
hummable folk-rock ditties.
Teenage Panzerkorps was the quartet of Glenn Donaldson (disguised as Edmund Xavier),
German vocalist Bunker Wolf
veteran bassist Jason Honea of Social Unrest (here nicknamed Boy True)
and a drummer code-named "Catholic Pat Toves". Their
Nations Are Insane (Pink Skulls, 2004), the EP Gleich Heilt Gleich (Skulltones, 2006), Games For Slaves (Siltbreeze, 2008),
Kauf Nicht Von TPK (Holidays, 2011) and
German Reggae (Holidays, 2011).
harked back to the expressionist new wave of the 1980s
(Einsturzende Neubauten,
Art Bears).
Westering (Important, 2009) and
The Line Across (Alt.Vinyl, 2010)
were collaborations between Smith and
and clarinetist Gareth Davis.
Smith's Cities (Immune, 2009) actually sounds very pastoral and meditational.
Glenn Donaldson and German vocalist Bunker Wolf also formed
Horrid Red, whose
Empty Lungs (Holidays, 2010),
Celestial Joy (Terrible Records, 2011)
and the
EPs Pink Flowers (Soft Abuse, 2011) and Silent Party (Soft Abuse, 2011)
offered gloomier litanies akin to dark-punk (to use another metaphor of the
1980s).
Ulaan Khol mutated into Ulaan Markhor (Soft Abuse, 2012), a much more
rocking affair than anything Smith had ever done.
Smith's 11 solo sheletal electric guitar meditations of
Old Skete (Worstward Recordings, 2012) were
recorded live with no overdubs.
Ending/Returning (Immune Recordings, 2013), technically a split album
between Steven Smith and his alter ego
Ulaan Khol, sounded like a collection of leftovers.
Hala Strana's mission was summarized on
Compendium (Worstward Recordings, 2011) and
five-cd box-set Discography (Cabin Floor Esoterica, 2014)
Ulaan Khol's mission was summarized on three-cd box-set Ceremony (Soft Abuse, 2010) before La Catacomb (Soft Abuse, 2011) and Salt (Soft Abuse, 2015) changed that mission again.
