HOTOTOGISU

Finally just started to get some homework done on this band. Most of my love of all things drone can be traced back to the Kranky label and in particular the dreamy atmospheres of Stars of the Lid, but once those VU meters start to hit red, I usually lump it into the noise pile. I guess you could call Hototogisu a concoction of amplified ambient drone, buzzed psychedelia, and doom-minded improv. If I were to belittle the music by breaking it down into film analogies (which happens a lot), it sounds like Ira Cohen directing a remake of some kind of Japanese cyber punk movie.

Hototogisu is a side project from Marcia Bassett of the Brooklyn-based outfit Double Leopards and the ever-prolific Matthew Bower. Named after a Japanese songbird that signals the approaching summer, it's not too hard to imagine the deep cuts from the group's first effort Floating Japanese Oof! Gardens of the 21st Century soundtracking the dog days of late August, reclining on sticky asphalt with sweaty eyebrows. Flousrishing in the deep blue end of the psych/drone pool, the first cut from side A offers gently-plucked tone guitar, distant radio transmissions creeping in and out, and chimming silver bells, all undercut by wandering feedback that threatens to takeover at a moment's notice.

Not that it's a bad thing, but Floating appears to be an anomaly when examining the entire Hototogisu discography. Albums like Prayer Rug Exorcism and Green are shrouded in heavy blankets of abstract guitar blasts, veering more into Sunn 0)))-type levels of low-end, gutteral noise, ultimately akin to turning a Double Leopards record up REALLY FUCKING LOUD.

Hototogisu's latest blast can be found on Important Records, a sizable East Coast label that will hopefully allow the group's notoriety to expand for those only moderately familiar with Bower and Bassett's day jobs.

Official Site

Hototogisu- Side A Track 1 (from Floating Gardens)

Hototogisu- Ascend on Blackened Wings (from Green)