KILLED in CARS: Caldera Lakes – Can’t See the Forest for the Trees (Blackest Rainbow, 2008

Probably the best album I heard on my trip today, no album adorns the urban decay of Newark like these screams and blasts of noise. There are several abandoned buildings along the water, and the train, which is mostly silent, traces them quite slowly. It is quite strange to think about these enormous, once beautiful (perhaps still) buildings on the first day people entered them. Most are build brick by brick, and most of the damage has been done to the windows and with spraypaint. I’m sure most of what is left is the brick, although that will go someday. Obviously people think of big storms, earthquakes and the like as the big things with weather, yet it is countless little shifts and forces that destroy mans simple projects. This record, this morning, gave aural illustration to these forces, a way to put into context how young and fragile these towering piles of bricks are. If you have a chance, drive through Newark, St. Louis, and so on. Think about every little brick being stacked by a person, and the lifespan of it if left to the elements. Somehow, this album made me ponderous, and that puts it above most everything else I’ve listened to this week.

Auxiliary Out: Caldera Lakes – Caldera Lakes [Sentient Recognition Archive]

AUXILIARY OUT

Caldera Lakes is a recently formed duo of Eva Aguila and Brittany Gould. And it actually sounds pretty close to what you would imagine their collaboration would sound like based on their solo projects. It’s similar to a softer version of Kevin Shields or akin to a harsher version of Married in Berdichev. That’s definitely an oversimplification though, because their collaboration effortlessly produces some of the most sublime sounds I’ve ever heard.
The first of the album’s four tracks, “Snowstorm”, begins with an eerie though calming female coo. Before too long, electronic scrapes puncture the entrancing spell being cast, spiking at equal intervals. It’s almost invisible but there is a higher register vocal counter melody that is married beautifully with the main vocal loop. A number of delayed sounds float in and out before a tempered eruption of distorted vocals and noise. The effect evoked with the pairing of Gould’s peaceful vocal loops and the agitated harshness of Aguila’s noise manipulation is incredibly beautiful and even makes me a little emotional somehow. The harshness ceases and more barely audible sounds are layered and cycled as the piece drifts to a close. This piece is profoundly expressive; it takes a sampling of the entire spectrum of sound and births an entirely coherent work of art that creates so many sensations and feelings in me that I don’t know where to begin. They’re probably private anyway, so maybe it’s for the best.
Sorry to get all sentimental on you there for a second, the next track, “Shotgun #2”, at 11.5 minutes is the longest track on the album. Commencing with a bassy synth pulse and a percussive rubbing sound, Gould sings about chiming birds and going to the forest with a shotgun. A few plinking tones are chopped and repeated against a vague electronic swelling. The duo do an amazing job keeping you suspended in anticipation. The track feels like it’s on the verge of an upsurge for the majority of its length. I was guessing there would be a point where the track explodes out of nowhere, but they fooled me. Instead a robust flurry of noise is gradually built in the track’s tail end before dropping out leaving a short loop of vocals and chimes.
The instant-classic “Tornado” is next. Unlike the previous two tracks it begins in jarring nature with a mechanical throb which Gould sings over as Aguila whips up all sorts of gliding tones and feedback freakouts. Over a glorious vocal loop and noisy squall, Gould really exhibits her vocal abilities. I’m no vocal coach or anything but she has exceptional range and control. Her voice, to me, is roughly a midpoint between Björk and Liz Harris—and it’s as beautiful as that sounds, maybe more so. The interplay between Gould’s voice and Aguila’s machinery is phenomenal, the intensity of the piece moves through peaks and valleys. The smoothness of Gould’s vocal and the jagged crash and squelch of Aguila’s efforts seem like utter opposites (and maybe they are) but this song is evidence they were destined to be together. This piece is so tightly paced and constructed (a signature of Aguila’s solo work) that at eight minutes it flies by. There’s a lot more dimensions to the track than I’ve covered here, but I’m not really sure how to capture them.
“We Never Talked About it”, the shortest track, closes the album. In atypical fashion for this record, heavy static noise is applied thickly at the front of track and is slowly stripped away. Gould’s soft vocal competes with Aguila’s noisy tantrums against a minimal bed of tones. Just when it appears the noise has won, a lullaby emerges and is sung until the record’s end.
This is one of those releases where words fail or at least my words fail. I feel all I can really do is talk highly of the album because everything else I’ve written is woefully ineffective at communicating the beauty of this record. Though, that was never really the point. Eva and Brittany have already communicated it to you; I’m just the unnecessary middleman. Anyhow, you must hear this. If it’s not a masterpiece, it’s pretty goddam close. And to hear records this incredible coming from them so early in their formation makes me giddy for the future. Fuck the financial crisis and all that, everything will be fine as long as Caldera Lakes keep putting out records.
Caldera Lakes is available now on Sentient Recognition Archive. It comes in a cardboard slipcase with semi-appropriate/semi-misleading soothing artwork. The CD looks professionally printed with a cute/creepy scan of a young paper doll and accessories. And if you’re living in Europe right now go have, what is sure to be, a life-affirming experience at one of the shows on the Caldera Lakes/Kevin Shields/Married in Berdichev tour, lucky bastards.

Brainwashed – Caldera Lakes

Written by Anthony D’Amico

Sunday, 12 April 2009

Two artists that I am largely unfamiliar with (Brittany Gould of Married in Berdichev! and Eva Aguilera of Kevin Shields) have formed a band together and unexpectedly floored me with an EP of fractured, otherworldly beauty.  I wish surprises like this occurred more often in my life. Caldera Lakes was an extremely good idea: Eva’s harsh power electronics are the perfect foil for Brittany’s woozy and spooky acappella excursions. The sum here is greater than the individual parts, as Eva’s talents are much easier to appreciate in a more melodic environment, while Brittany’s narcotized beauty is enhanced by the visceral heft of Aguilera’s violent bursts of dissonance. “Snowstorm” begins with a simple and eerie looped vocal melody.  It is gradually augmented by subtle shimmering and scratchy ambiance, while rhythmic stabs of harsh white noise regularly disrupt the alien and womblike bliss.  The noise becomes increasingly invasive as the track progresses and eventually takes over completely before vanishing and leaving only the floating, melancholy vocal loop.  The effect is not unlike flipping through radio stations late at night and finding an unfamiliar, heart-stopping, and totally unexpected song, then having it be mutilated by fading reception, but desperately hoping for a few more fragments to pierce through the static squall.  This is exactly what I want from noise music. Eva and Brittany misstep a bit with the stuttering, glitchy “Shotgun #2,” although it eventually coheres into a fairly impressive and pummeling white noise assault near the end.  Fortunately, “Tornado” is a welcome (and possibly even superior) return to the brilliant aesthetic of the opening track.  A machine-like rhythm, howling storms of white noise, and feedback all fight to drown out Brittany’s sleepy mangled vocals, lo-fi Bjork-isms, and wavering mutant nocturnal forest sounds.  The closing track, “We Never Talked About It,” doesn’t play to the band’s strengths, as it errs a bit too much on the side of harshness and Brittany’s vocals are a bit too goth-y and plaintive, but it still ends strongly on a haunting and lovelorn-sounding vocal loop. I suppose I cannot enthusiastically proclaim this to be a masterpiece, as I only loved half of the songs.  However, the tough part is out of the way for Caldera Lakes: they already have a stunning, unique, and recognizable aesthetic.  Hopefully, they will continue to get better and better at consistently finding the perfect balance between beauty and chaos, but it doesn’t matter if they do. Even one song as good as “Tornado” or “Snowstorm” per album is enough to maintain my enthusiasm.

foxy digitalis : reviews

Caldera Lakes sound can roughly be described as an unlikely combination of two very different elements. One half of their aesthetic is rooted in airy, ethereal sounds not unlike Grouper. This is tempered by the darker half, as it were, consisting of harsh static-heavy blasts (think Merzbow) and electronic pings, pops, and clicks. Mind you, both halves share nearly equal space within each of the four lengthy tracks on this CD-R, with one or the other moving to the forefront. The group consists of Eva Aguila (Gang Wizard, Kevin Shields, and Winners) and Brittany Gould (Married in Berdichev!). Like two sides of a coin they combine, with Brittany bringing the hazy folk elements while Eva supplies the noise assault. As odd a pairing as this may seem, Caldera Lakes pulls it off fantastically.

Opening the album is the song “Snowstorm.” There is a repeating, lightly sung, and almost choral background to the piece which is interrupted by short, rhythmic stabs of electronic static. As the song winds to the end, the static rises to become more forceful and pervasive, nearly covering the more delicate half of the piece, but never doing so entirely. Second is “Shotgun #2,” which sets deep bass drones and electronic scratches against sing-song, nearly jazz-like vocals. Later, what sounds like plucked, high-pitched guitar notes join the mix as electronic pulses and screeches take a more prominent place until the track rises to a close drenched in cacophonous noise. Next comes “Tornado.” It’s mechanical rhythmic clatter lays a foundation for layers of beautiful, looped vocal trills and a new round of electronic assault. At a few points, the wall of noise drops out for a nearly unadorned peek at the vocals, before both elements blast forth again. “We Never Talked About It,” the closer, starts right off with sheet of static-laced noise before giving way to more delicate vocals. Singing and extreme sounds vie for space until the songs closes on a repeated vocal trill.

The more I listened to it, the more I found myself liking this. This album is all about juxtapositions, but after a while it’s hard to imagine that one half of each extreme could exist without the other. Eva and Brittany make these contrasts work together. Really, the only drawback is that on the one hand, I really wanted to hunker down with my headphones for the quiet parts, but sometimes the electronics sent me scrambling for the volume switch to preserve what is left of my hearing. Still, to the credit of the band, I never wanted to stop listening, so Caldera Lakes is clearly doing something very right. Trust me, this is definitely worth hearing. 9/10 – Matt Blackall (3 March, 2009)

Rottenmeats: Caldera Lakes – S/T

Like this duos namesake, a serene lake that belies it’s toxicity; the haunting vocals of one siren lures you in, while the other takes your ears hostage in barb wire sonics… a sumptuous sabotage you’d expect from Eva of Kevin Shields fame. The combinations here though definitely entertain, pushing the song form even further out there, surfing a sado-erotic vibe that has plenty of textural highpoints and cross pollinations.

If you’re not familiar with the work of Eva Aguila, the sheer evilness of her sounds may have you reaching for the off button. Her physical attacks are usually pure ‘fuck you’, but coupled with fellow noise-kitten Brittany Gould, she’s reined in some of that harsh-end ferocity, balancing it out with quieter reflections and opening up plenty of opportunity for both to dip their tongues into each other’s slaughter … the resulting four tracks being a satisfying circus of devastation.

The album begins with an unfolding chant that somebody maliciously spills streaks of acid over, scars of electroplated cackle literally rip out the underlying harmonics with glee. A slow gouge, then the carnage blasts a lung full; a larynx shred vox pokes its head timidly through, hopelessly struggling against the grain… the edges of the wound are a tingle with broken shells and bent nails… the aftermath an arena of tattered skin, bleached bone…

Shotgun #2 is a psychopathic lullaby (almost absent-minded so) encased in a hop-scotch of digital cross-hatch and dirty nails through varnish… loose keycuts falling in opposites… promising to freak-out, teasing you with murmurs of all out destruction. The lullaby creeps back over, this time falling through a looped music box refrain …then the goods arrive in full-on ear quakes that force soil into every orifice… in its wake, a smear of lobotomised machine left gasping for air.

Tornado, my favourite, begins with a jewelled horizon of hard edged prisms. Vocals mull over a motorized thump, slowly gathering until the operatics are force fed into sonic whips and brutal Kolllappppse… becoming an Icelandic pixie bake, buried in the machines clammer. Full of hiccupping slivers and peppered kick starts, it slips round in greasy smears, all the ingredients just falling magically into place.

The last track - We never talked about it, starts with a solid wall of harsh noise that peels away to reveal a vocal loop, wavering on fish hooks, accompanied by tarnished spurs scrubbed over with wire wool… ending all too soon with filtered out vocals crackling on the embers…

cdr on Sentient Recognition Archive (SRA)

“Two artists that I am largely unfamiliar with (Brittany Gould of
Married in Berdichev! and Eva Aguilera of Kevin Shields) have formed a
band together and unexpectedly floored me with an EP of fractured,
otherworldly beauty.  I wish surprises like this occurred more often in
my life.”

brainwashed

Foxy Digitalis

Auxiliary Out

Rotten Meats

Still available on the SRA website here