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Jimbo and I plan to add the Finnish Circle sometime in the near future. THeir inclusion demands time, which both of us don't have much. (The Circle mainman was very generous in his help with providing us information since their discogrpahy is quite complex).

Ah, I really liked the last three tracks on the new Agalloch album.  The second track is a real disappoint though I feel.  It's my desired style.  I still cannot get my head around the vocals either.  Apparently their earlier albums are not only more progressive, but also less metal and vocal based?

I would be glad to help too, but I don't know enough about the genre yet to be of much help!

It's just the growling really... I'm not sure if I like it.  I like Opeth, but their growling is completely different.

I hear such wonderful folky-metal moments that are quiet melancholic and then the growls start and I think maybe it doesn't fit the wonderful music so well.  I am having the same issue with an unsigned banned I've heard calle Gwynbleidd, who are kind of similar.

Thanks for that... I think I will definately be tracking down some Circle (FIN)

Another thing I love about Cerberus Shoal is their quirky sense of humour. I don't know if you have experienced it in any of the track you have listened to, but it is definately present. You will find this more apparent the further you listen to them.

BTW the other album I have is: Chaiming the Knoblessone.
    
    

Edited by Black Velvet - June 25 2006 at 03:03

Assaf, are you aware of a band called Charming Hostess?  They're on ReR and Tzadik I believe.  Not sure what exactly they're like, but they seem to be Avant Garde.  Led by female vocalists, they don't sound all that bad. 

Half of Charming Hostess Big Band were also in Sleepytime Gorilla Museum and Idiot Flesh.

Here is their discography:

As Charming Hostess Big Band

"Eat" (Vaccination, 1998)
"Punch" (ReR, 2005)

Charming Hostess Big Band were:

Jewlia Eisenberg (voice, direction), Carla Kihlstedt (voice, fiddle), Nina Rolle (voice, accordion), Wes Anderson (drums), Nils Frykdahl (guitar, flute, saxophone, percussion), and Dan Rathbun (bass).

As Charming Hostess

"Trilectic" (Tzadik Records, 2002)
"Sarajevo Blues" (Tzadik, 2004)

Charming Hostess are:

Jewlia Eisenberg, Marika Hughes, Cynthia Taylor and often Ganda Suthivarakom and Pameliya Kursten (all vocals).

They've been described as a "Klezmer-Punk/Balkan-Funk" band.

Is anyone familiar with them and how Avant Garde are they?


Edited by Geck0 - June 25 2006 at 05:04

I think their first incarnation as Charming Hostess Big Band is likely to be the more appreciable of the two.  I heard a 30 second sample of something earlier and it certainly sounded klezmer!

Here is their biography:

Everybody's favorite Nerdy-Sexy-Commie-Girly band.

As Wikipedia says:

"Current Work
Today, the music primarily springs from three women with an emphasis in the body--voices and vocal percussion, handclaps and heartbeats, sex-breath and silence. The work grows from diaspora conciousness: both Jewish and African. Sylistically, Charming Hostess incorporats doo-wop, Pygmy counterpoint, Balkan harmony and Andalusian melody. Contemporary influences on the band include Meredith Monk and Reinette l'Oranaise. The music often explores existing text and overlays the composer's (Jewlia Eisenberg) own questions of authenticity, montage, and the effect of music on non-verbal languages.
The 2002 CD (Trilectic, Tzadik Records) explored the political/erotic nexus of Walter Benjamin and his Marxist muse, Asja Lacis. The 2004 CD (Sarajevo Blues, Tzadik) sets Bosnian poetry by Semezdin Mehmedinović as a form of love and resistance to the brutalization of war.
Their self-described genre is "Nerdy-Sexy-Commie-Girly". Charming Hostess is Jewlia Eisenberg, Marika Hughes, Cynthia Taylor and often Ganda Suthivarakom and Pameliya Kursten (all vocals).

Early Work
The pre-2002 Charming Hostess (also known as Charming Hostess Big Band) was a rock band that embraced a genderf**k sensibility (the women often wore mustaches while the men wore dresses). Early Charming Hostess music drew on women's vocal traditions (primarily from Eastern Europe and North Africa), and integrated them with American folk forms both white and black. Charming Hostess was founded in the fertile anarchy of Barrington Co-op (aka Barrington Hall), and nurtured by the West Oakland arts community, along with other coeval bands such as Fibulator and Eskimo. Half of Charming Hostess was also in Idiot Flesh/Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. The final effect was of a hoedown where bodacious babes belted the blues in Bulgarian while a punk-klezmer band rocked out in accompaniment.

The genre of this incarnation of ChoHo is described by the band as "Klezmer-Punk/Balkan-Funk". Recordings of Charming Hostess Big Band include "Eat" (Vaccination, 1998) and the new "Punch" (ReR, 2005) Charming Hostess Big Band was: Jewlia Eisenberg (voice, direction), Carla Kihlstedt (voice, fiddle), Nina Rolle (voice, accordion), Wes Anderson (drums), Nils Frykdahl (guitar, flute, saxophone, percussion), and Dan Rathbun (bass)."

I'm not sure, but Carla Kihlstedt has a solo album out as well, I gather.  I'm not sure if this is just a jazz violin album, or whether she also covers avant garde aspects within her music.

Have you heard their earler Band orientated music, Black Velvet?  I'm just curious, as I believe that maybe the better of the two styles.

I believe it is, as it incorporates a band (I believe the latter is just three (occasionally 4 or 5) female singers?).

Unfortunately I do not have any tracks to hear.  There are some 30 second samples on last.fm, but I don't think they tell me what I want to hear.

Geck0 wrote:   blah blah Charming Hostess blah... Is anyone familiar with them and how Avant Garde are they?