The Sonic Cloth

TSC16: 90's Alt-Alternative Rock with Thom Wasluck (Planning for Burial)

I’m joined by fellow music hysteric, Thom Wasluck of Planning For Burial, Glowing Window Recordings, and posterboy for The Flenser. We talk growing up in the 90’s, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, and the vastness of excavating 90’s underground rock. We dug through our record shelves and desktop folders to arrive at eight songs for the episode’s tracklist and well, this thing came out sounding more 90’s than either of us would have thought. We even pulled it off without things getting grungy or slackery. Thom brought the deep cuts. I brought the basic bitch picks. 
Listen to Planning for BurialPick up PFB records & swag at The FlenserCheck out Thom’s label Glowing Window RecordingsFollow Thom @inmemoryofthom 
Planning for Burial tracks played:
Dull Knife Pt.I, Below the House (2017)
Where You Rest Your Head at Night, Desideratum (2014)
Follow @thesonicclothpodcast on Instagram to grab the tracklist
Hit a dude up @ thesoniccloth@gmail.com

TSC15: Dream Machines

We’re back from a brief hiatus and are shifting away from heavy and into the light. We are setting out in search of the dreamiest and most blissed out sounds by scouring the valleys of dream pop, shoegaze, ambient, folk, and the spaces in between. If it’s heavenly, floaty, or dreamy then we want it. Draw a hot bath, curl up into a ball, and prepare to re-enter the womb because we are doing our damnedest to lull you into an ethereal state of consciousness. #vibez
Follow @thesonicclothpodcast on Instagram to grab the tracklist
Hit a dude up @ thesoniccloth@gmail.com
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TSC14: The United States of Black Metal with Daniel Lake

USBM...no four letters are more reviled to the global cvlt black metal goon squad (and yes, we’re very aware of NSBM). Esteemed writer (Decibel Magazine) and fellow music obsessive, Dan Lake, joins me as we make a case for this maligned and miraculous rabbit hole of American Black Metal music. We discuss his excellent new book, “USBM: A Revolution of Identity in American Black Metal”, the roots and evolution of black metal in this here United States, and we manage to painstakingly pull together an indispensable track list of false black metal americano style.
Follow Dan’s writings @ Decibel 
Pick up a copy of USBM: A Revolution of Identity in American Black Metal
Follow USBM: The Book on Facebook & Instagram
Follow @thesonicclothpodcast on Instagram to grab the tracklist
Hit a dude up @ thesoniccloth@gmail.com
Donate to The Sonic Cloth's chip fund

TSC13: Synth Wizards (The Students: 1990's - 2020)

The second episode in a two-part series on the wizards of the synthesizer with a focus on those artists twisting knobs in the 1990’s - 2020. Analog gurus like John Carpenter, Eno, Tangerine Dream, Suzanne Ciani, and Vangelis produced plenty of copy-cat fetishists but only a few spiritual protegees. The 90’s brought with it the advent of hybrid rigs thanks to digital signal processing. But more tools in the toolbox ≠ synth slappers. And what monster would totally abandon the celestial warmth of analog gear? Here, we turn up our nose at the synthwave tag on bandcamp - opting to hear how synthesizer sounds have evolved into territories the original synth wizards may have never envisioned. 
Follow @thesonicclothpodcast on Instagram to grab the tracklist
Hit a dude up @ thesoniccloth@gmail.com
Donate to my chip fund @ https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/thesoniccloth

TSC12: Synth Wizards (The Teachers: 1970's - 1980's)

The first of a two-parter series on the wizards of the synthesizer. We hone in on the 70’s and 80’s and pluck out the troo nerds and flush them down the rabbit hole one by one. What are we after here? Easy. Just picture someone sitting down in front of a rack of analog synths and not emerging from that spot for three weeks. 
We get into everything from progressive electronic music to soundtrack composers to minimalists to krautrock to early breakbeat shit. All of these bleeps and bloops turned out to be insanely influential to the advent of electronic music, film scoring, cosmic jammy music, every genre that ends with the word “wave”, and much much more (maybe). 
Stay subscribed because Part II is forthcoming: Synth Wizards (The Students: 1990’s - Now). 
Donate to my chip fund @ https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/thesoniccloth
Follow @thesonicclothpodcast on Instagram to grab the tracklist
Hit a dude up @ thesoniccloth@gmail.com

TSC11: Goin' Down the Hole with Chandan Narayan (Carrom)

For this episode, we hand over the reigns to Toronto-based experimental guitarist, improvisational artist, and DIY label owner, Chandan Narayan, of the musical project, Carrom, who released two excellent tapes and a corresponding compilation of those two releases ("Alter​-​destinies​/​Prehistories"). We discuss Chandan’s musical lineage leading up to Carrom, weird Arizona musical connections, the relevancy of cultural heritage in music, and then jump into a track-by-track playlist of sounds that inspire him and Carrom. Everything from SST punk to South Indian classical sounds to weirdo avant-rock shows up here and it’s really fun to go back and listen to the Carrom material after taking in this wide-ranging playlist, which is why you should pick up the latest Carrom tape or the “Alter-Destinies/Prehistories” LP at carronboard.bandcamp.com 
Also check out the Radio Khiyaban label who jointly put out the “Alter-Destinies” cassette at radiokhiyaban.bandcamp.com/music
Follow Chandan on Twitter at twitter.com/GutStringMore of these handing the aux episodes to come. Hit me at @thesoniccloth@gmail.com if you wanna pitch me somethin shweet.
Follow @thesonicclothpodcast on Instagram to grab the tracklist

TSC10: The Psychedelic Metal of I, Voidhanger feat. Phil (Phil’s Breakfast Metal Podcast)

Free yourself up for the next three or so hours; for the time hath arrived to worship the riff. Special guest, Phil of Phil’s Breakfast Metal Podcast, joins me as we tunnel into the mind-bending vaults of the best weirdo extreme metal label in the game right now, the uncompromising I, Voidhanger Records. Together, Phil and I compiled eight tracks that should serve as a solid primer into the cult. Get all of your physical and digital swag at I, Voidhanger on bandcamp. 
Subscribe to one of the best metal podcasts out there: Phil’s Breakfast Metal Podcast.
Follow @thesonicclothpodcast on Instagram to grab the tracklist
TSC & PBM Honorable Mentions:
XYTHLIA - Immortality Through Quantum Suicide - Ablation of Subconscious
HOWLS OF EBB - Cursus Impasse: The Pendlomic Vows - The 6th Octopul'th Grin
YHDARL - Loss - Sources - Nihil
ÆVANGELIST - Matricide In The Temple Of Omega - Omen of the Barren Womb
ARS MAGNA UMBRAE - Apotheosis - She Who Splits the Earth
FLESHVESSEL - Bile of Man Reborn - Bile of Man Reborn
NEPTUNIAN MAXIMALISM - Éons - To The Earth : PTAH SOKAR OSIRIS - Rituel de l’Ouverture de la Bouche dans l’Éon Archéen
AT THE ALTAR OF THE HORNED GOD - Through Doors of Moonlight - Before the Flames of Undefiled Knowledge
COSMIC PUTREFACTION - The Horizons Towards Which Splendour Withers - The Glooming Murk of his Telluric Shrieks
MOSS UPON THE SKULL - In Vengeful Reverence - Reverse Celebration
TONGUES - Hreilia
SKAPHE - Skaphe
CHAOS MOON - Resurrection Extract
\m/

TSC09: The Quieter Side of Boom Bap

If beats that barely bump are what you’re looking for, I invite you to hop in the whip while we drive around the city and marinate in the quieter side of boom bap, rap, hip hop, whatever. In this rabbit hole, we’re tracking down rap music that is ignoring almost every trend in modern hip hop without devolving into pure abstraction. The early 90’s east coast influence is strong here but it’s treated as more of a launching off point than strict era worship. The most gorgeous beats are being made in this lane. The most vicious MC’s are rapping over said beats in this lane. And the freakiest freaks are exercising their funkiest selves in this lane. We are making a strong case for the quieter side of boom bap from the past 10 years. New rules are being written: it doesn’t have to bump to bump. 
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TSC08: Ecstatic Music (The Students)

Part deux of our expedition into ecstatic music. This episode will make a lot more sense if you’ve listened to the previous episode, TSC07: Ecstatic Music (The Teachers).  Just sayin. Here, we look to the students to see if they paid attention in class. Less of a thru-line between generations and more of a continuation of ecstatic sounds into the modern era where culture, tech, and globalization have run amok. Ultimately, we’re looking for the same things: free-form expression, incantations and exorcisms, mystic jams...basically any music that seizes your attention, commands it, and makes it known that you don’t control you. Follow @thesonicclothpodcast on Instagram to grab the tracklist

TSC07: Ecstatic Music (The Teachers)

This episode is the first of a two-parter where we jump down a rabbit hole that’ll have you surrendering your feeble mind, arrhythmic bodily function, and normie spirit to ecstatic music. You are the cobra that is being charmed. The palm bending in the hurricane. The Teachers and their Teachers have preserved these rituals. From Balinese gamelan to guitar armies to Jbala Sufi trance, ecstatic music is all about locking you in and rejecting the daily grind. Forthcoming in part two, we will see how far the Students have come. 
Cover art from Akuphone (2017). 
Follow @thesonicclothpodcast on Instagram to grab the tracklist