Expo '70 is late night improvisations concieved by Justin Wright. He graces two sides of this 7" with his trademark dreamy kraut infused dronemusic - looped cyclical guitars, thick waves of smeared riffs and muted murky FX. A heavier, dronier take on Eno, Popol Vuh and Ash Ra Tempel.

'Sunglasses' traffics in glistening dreamlike kosmiche drift. A krautrock that is less about propulsion and rhythm and more about texture and ambience. The guitars are warm throbs, long strands of reverberating buzz unfurl and float into the hazy ether. They are underpinned by a thick wash of buzzing synth which unleash a similarly disembodied sonic vibe. Like floating in the vacuum of space, everything weightless, untethered and drifting lazily through the inky blackness. The light of stars and suns bends and twists, slowly cycling through the visible spectrum, disobeying all laws of physics, wrapping you in a thick swirl of sonic brilliance.

'Trancending energy from light' is as dark and dense as it is dreamy and effervescent. Crumbling chunks of distortion break off like chunks of ice and float weightless in a sea of deep corrosive buzz, pulsing and undulating, shot through with streaks of melody, layered and textured, looped and hypnotic and tranquil, a sea of glimmering harmonics and deep drifting tones draped in reverb and delay and allowed to unfurl into softly propulsive rhythms, and spider web-like textures infused with subtle melody and blurred burnished shadings.

Limited edition 7" in full colour picture sleeve.

Jan 2009, TR016.

Sunglasses
Trancending energy from light

Here's a brand new 7" on Trensmat by Expo 70, called 'Sunglasses'. Not heard of this chap before. I cracked the single on though and was knocked back by the dark psych fuzzy drones which blew into my ears. This is some well intense and spooky sounding noise music. It sounds like someone is sat on a keyboard while someone else is dropping weights on them (to make the noise more intense) and in between that there's plenty of pyschedelic Clanger whooshes and knob twiddling to keep even the most reformed drug user happy. Don't sit on your keyboards at home though folks. If you're tubby and and your keyboard is not well balanced bad things may happen. I don't want anyone whining to me they've knacked their Roland or anything like that. Also there's drawings of mystical skulls and a hairy bearded bloke on the cover which is really doing it for me right now. Excellent!
Norman Records


Much joyful celebration in our gaff at the arrival of the latest brace of releases from Ireland’s desirable boutique label of noise and strange sounds Trensmat. Fearing they were lost in the recent snow drifts said package was duly dropped off safe and sound wherein they were immediately dispatched with haste to the nearest sound emitting facility. Awash with the celebratory bunting we carefully prized open the package and put the first platter to hand on the stereophonic device.
Of course Expo 70 should be no stranger to regular observers of these pages, indeed we marvelled at his recent full length ‘black ohms’ for those purveyors of the perfect sound Beta Lactam Ring though we are suspecting that since then and now the bugger has probably released on parole a further legion of self released cd-r’s to an ever growing and dare we say much deserving underground cognoscenti. Essential the work of former Living Science Foundation guitarist Justin Wright who in recent times has seen fit to keep the Aquarius record outlet busily working overtime dispatching limited issue opus’ seemingly at the drop of a hat. Two cuts feature on this ultra limited and destined (as with all the previous releases from Trensmat) to clear itself from the shelves and into the domain of online auction sites - see Wright ever more advancing his exploration into the un-chartered voids of sound. As previously the textures are monolithic and chillingly majestic, utilising all manner of guitar based improvisations and manipulations, Wright sculptures a richly mind wiring drone canvas which sees lead out track ’sunglasses’ in comparable company with the likes of the Kranky old guard Stars of the Lid and Roy Montgomery (and come to think of it Bruce Russell), all at once bleak, barren and sparse though beautifully so, an underlying hazy transcendentalist quality is inscribed on the proceedings, the gentle flotilla of reverberating riffs pining into the hollow voids casts a melancholic almost introspective and longing personality that acts at odds to the under-pinned cavernous like sombre stillness which in the final analysis makes it something disquietingly soothing and serene.
Flip the disc for the far superior ’transcending energy from light’ - monochromatic sparsely whirring drone is the order of the day all interspersed by frequency loops and various sound modulations, not so dissimilar it has to be said to the kind of eerie pulsating hums that I’d imagine originating from the undercarriage of an extra terrestrial space crafts console unit but don’t quote me on that, and to all those UFO / conspiracy theorists around sh ould you happen across this - no I haven’t been onboard a flippin space craft and no neither do I want to be enrolled in some Goon-ish Area 51 fan club - frankly I have problems enough of my own. Anyhow deeply hypnotic and mesmerising, to many listens may warp your mind or at the very least fry your brain - in terms of reference markers think early career Pimmon shimmying up to EAR with the resulting inner space sonic stew being reheated and re-calibrated by John Carpenter.
Of course it goes without saying that you need this in your record collection.
Losing Today


Trensmat kick off 2009 with another two limited 7”s that encapsulate the ephemeral vigour of two fantastic artists. Expo 70 is Justin Wright, a practitioner of deepest kraut and droned landscapes.
The two tracks play at 45 yet feel like the disk is spinning in warped treacle-thick delay. Whirring drones build via a tanpura styled backdrop – electronic rather than eastern in its sound. Delayed guitar is played via high melodies via various whistles that feel like trapped minor birds in final exhalation. Jammed traffic impatience streams with headache bliss, in erotic tones as felt in Ballard’s “Crash”.
Kettle whistles and droning base move with electric formations like the Cosmic Inferno played at half-speed. Deep tonal hypnosis flies at you with fervent directness straight out of the speakers. The noise feels awesome and disconnected from reality, as if absent of musician or silicone intervention. This feels organic rather than a kosmische Tron-neon jump suit. Shards of light and dark pierce imagined horizons of refracted beams. It feels as if the sound has been played against a circus mirror and beamed back via mars. Jump on board and don’t get off. 8/10
Foxy Digitalis


The duo lays down a full, expansive bed of drone, allowing it to recede when necessary, and giving it enough time to grow and wither before adding simple, effective melodies on guitar, bass, synth, etc. The 7” tracks are insistent given the brief runtime of a 45 single. Very strong object value overall.
Dusted


This short 7" single finds Wright in a profoundly altered state as he brings us some of the most spaced-out drone compositions of his recent work. Sunglasses is basically Bobby Beausoleil's soundtrack to Kenneth Anger's Lucifer Rising in a drone setting. In fact, I'm certain this track would make a fabulous alternate soundtrack to the original film (Mr. Anger... If you ever read this!) Layers of fuzz upon layers of fuzz pile up as the song slowly progresses into an intense mystical head trip which just might let you see the shape of time. With Trancending Energy From Light, we suddenly lose all notions of physicality as our minds disintegrate into pure energy and we become witness to natural phenomena which science hasn't even explained yet. Trippy you say? Fuck yes! And I would even go so far as to say that this minor release needs to be heard by all those who are curious about the artist's work. If this one doesn't get you hooked, then nothing will!
My Record Collection


Last up is probably the least battering of the group, Expo ‘70’s “Sunglasses” b/w “Transcending Energy from Light” on the enigmatic Trensmat imprint. Compared to the previous piss storms, these two lengthy Kraut-inspired drone jams are pretty serene, though, don’t let that fool you, there’s plenty of hiss ‘n’ vinegar running through their veins. Kindred spirts of the material on Sunn O)))’s Black One, these two mini-opuses are haunting in their mercurial disambiguation of the form, with riffs ebbing and flowing in an the ether that hangs cumbrous over their barren landscapes. These are just now hitting the states though the label’s distros, so they should be fairly easy to find at your favorite purveyors of the phonographic arts, but don’t wait around too long, as Trensmat goods tend to dry up super quick.
The TripWire


Justin Wright takes an almighty sweep of the kosmische wand to construct a couple of monumental dreamscapes, all motorik removed to leave only the transcendental timeless drift of an undulating throbbing swirl. These are elemental Wild West space mission macrocosms (Sergio Leone shooting up in a Sputnik), condensed into 7” grooves; monolithic waves crested by whistling kraut-rocking Argonauts, serving up the music of the spheres with a side order of saccharine guitar. If you loved Emerald’s recent What Happened set on No Fun, you’d be wise to grab yourself a piece of this.
Record Collector


The only real downside to an Expo 70 single, is that it's ultimately frustrating in its brevity, as the music of Justin Wright, aka Expo 70 is far better served by longer formats, lps, cds, and while both of these songs are indeed fantastic, it's almost criminal to cut them off after only 4 or 5 minutes, these are the sorts of sounds meant to sprawl and ooze and spread and extend for ages and ages. But as far as complaints got, it's a minor (and not entirely negative one), you'll just have to stick close by the turntable so you can lift the needle and set it right back at the beginning again.
No great surprises or strange sonic twists, just more of that thick dark gloriously heavy space kraut drone we've come to expect. The A side is some seriously deep and drone-y outer space exploration, warm languorous tones over a softly grinding and pulsing buzz, sweeping and epic and darkly mysterious, glistening melodies shifting from speaker to speaker, very new age-y for sure, but a sort of dense and blackened new age.
The B side begins all growling buzzing low end thickness, laced with space-y squiggles, long high end streaks and glimmering tones, beneath the blissy drift is a warm whirring and a softly corrosive crumble, all wound up into epic slow building swells of deeeeep deeeeep buzz. So nice.
Gorgeous full color covers
Aquarius Records


Justin Wright is a Californian who packed up and moved to Kansas City. Why he did this I dunno, but he has been pumping out a steady stream of superb kosmische noise ever since, and this new single is a great way to hear it. Burbling guitars in the style of early Gottsching combine with deep space stasis aktion in a most compelling way. Kansas. Wow.
Wire


This short 7" single finds Wright in a profoundly altered state as he brings us some of the most spaced-out drone compositions of his recent work. Sunglasses is basically Bobby Beausoleil's soundtrack to Kenneth Anger's Lucifer Rising in a drone setting. In fact, I'm certain this track would make a fabulous alternate soundtrack to the original film (Mr. Anger... If you ever read this!) Layers of fuzz upon layers of fuzz pile up as the song slowly progresses into an intense mystical head trip which just might let you see the shape of time. With Trancending Energy From Light, we suddenly lose all notions of physicality as our minds disintegrate into pure energy and we become witness to natural phenomena which science hasn't even explained yet. Trippy you say? Fuck yes! And I would even go so far as to say that this minor release needs to be heard by all those who are curious about the artist's work. If this one doesn't get you hooked, then nothing will!
My Record Collection


Last up is probably the least battering of the group, Expo ’70‘s “Sunglasses” b/w “Transcending Energy from Light” on the enigmatic Trensmat imprint. Compared to the previous piss storms, these two lengthy Kraut-inspired drone jams are pretty serene, though, don’t let that fool you, there’s plenty of hiss ‘n’ vinegar running through their veins. Kindred spirts of the material on Sunn O)))‘s Black One, these two mini-opuses are haunting in their mercurial disambiguation of the form, with riffs ebbing and flowing in an the ether that hangs cumbrous over their barren landscapes. These are just now hitting the states though the label’s distros, so they should be fairly easy to find at your favorite purveyors of the phonographic arts, but don’t wait around too long, as Trensmat goods tend to dry up super quick.
The Fader