Compared with the likes of Michael Nyman, Max Richter, Dustin O'Halloran, and Nils Frahm, Sophie Hutchings has garnered much critical praise worldwide, including MOJO Magazine declaring her work as "stirring, vigorous, [and] grandly melodic." Sophie's compositions move from the disarmingly spare and elegant to the romantic and epic, managing to be both unfussed and exquisite and in a constant state of creative evolution. Sophie has released four albums, with 2016's Wide Asleep (PRE 039CD/LP) being listed in the top 30 for The Australian Music Prize. She was also nominated in the top five live instrumentalists of the year for the National Live Music Awards. Hutchings has proven a striking live presence in Australia and Japan either solo or accompanied. With her streaming audience stealthily growing and her work gaining attention at a rapid pace, she is finding new fans - most notably in the neo-classical and ambient genre abroad. Her popularity is growing exponentially in the UK and Europe, allowing Hutchings's music to reach further than ever before.
Angus MacRae is a British composer and musician. Drawing on a broad range of influences, Angus write scores and releases records as a solo artist and in collaboration with other musicians. His music has accompanied award-winning films and animations, internationally touring dance shows, and global advertising campaigns. Always seeking to blur the lines between classical and electronic music, he was originally trained as a pianist and now lives and works in London.
PALESTINE, CHARLEMAGNE: Strumming Music LP (SSH 003LP)
Repressed. The classic minimal music album, available again on vinyl for the first time since the '70s. Primed with a glass of cognac, Charlemagne Palestine sits at the keyboard of a Bösendorfer Imperial grand piano. One foot firmly holds down the sustain pedal while both hands perform an insistent strum-like alternation on the keys. Soon Palestine and his Bösendorfer are enveloped in sound and bathed in a shimmering haze of multi-colored overtones. For 45 minutes, this rich pulsating music swells and intensifies, filling the air. When Strumming Music first appeared on the adventurous French label Shandar during the mid-1970s, it seemed a straightforward matter to place Charlemagne Palestine in the so-called minimalist company of La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass, whose work also featured in the Shandar catalog. Palestine too used a deliberately restricted range of materials and a repetitive technique, but as he has often pointed out in more recent times, the opulent fullness of his music would more accurately be described as maximalist. Strumming Music, recorded in Palestine's own loft in Manhattan, has no written score. In an age of recorded sound he still feels no need for traditional notation. The surging energy of this particular recording stands comparison with the improvising of jazz visionaries who impressed and inspired him while living in New York as a young man. But, as Palestine himself has made clear, primarily he brings to music-making the sensibility of an artist rather than a musician. Although the technique of the piece has roots in Palestine's daily practice, when a teenager, of playing the carillon at a church, hammering sonorous chimes from a rack of tuned bells, it also draws on his later work as a body artist, staging vigorously muscular, physically demanding and often reckless performances. In addition, Strumming Music can be heard as a sculptural tour de force, while its textures connect with the color moods, plastic rhythms, and tactile space of Mark Rothko's abstract expressionist canvases. Strumming Music remains the essential index of Palestine's singular creative vision. Fundamentally this fascinating piece is a collaboration between an artist and an instrument. Palestine had first encountered the Bösendorfer Imperial back in 1969. "The Bösendorfer at its best is a very noisy, thick molasses piano," he has remarked. Charlemagne Palestine embraced its clinging sonorousness, its clangorous resonance and out of that embrace came the voluptuous sonic fabric of Strumming Music.
LP version. Printed inner sleeve. Includes download code. "... A listener's first impression may suggest the enchanted soundscape of a fatigued electronic soloist, but 1115 are a duo: Fehler Kuti and Grey provide us with a sonic vision that can only emerge from the synthesis of two radical minds. Think of the meetings of Suicide, Yello, or The KLF: A pop big bang of conceptual art and bodily music. The fusion of Fehler's onomatopoeic vocal tracks and Grey's bass/organ/808-drum machine elements create a unique and original work; an Afrofuturistic musique concrete, which could not be heavier in its psychedelic might. Totally hypnotised, we hear old instruments, lost along an ocean passage. . . . The plot of this supposed instrumental music is, in short, a story of 'invisibility' -- and of how this invisibility, experienced as negation and extinction, is given a 'visually audible' expression through the invention of a new language. . . . If we follow 1115 down their Underground Railroad, a mythology that becomes more vivid with each station emerges, and takes on a cartographic form. A spatial sculpture made of music! Fehler Kuti performs the role of the Invisible Stranger -- without any use of language in the semantic sense -- not in a dissimilar way to Caetano Veloso on Araçá Azul or Miles Davis, though different and novel. Once you understand that Miles Davis did nothing else but tell stories of racism and alienation throughout his career, will you then understand Post-Europe. Post-Europe is therefore not only music, just as an opera is not only music. Drawn into the deep, through subtext and shiftwork, 1115 dive through a stream of electronic music alongside colleagues like Arca and Dean Blunt, Drexicya and Dopplereffekt, as well as Juan Atkins and Moritz von Oswald, Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Sun Ra. But the voices of the libretto belong to the non-musicians and non-artists, the erased and forgotten. The invisibles. If we listen to the phonograph patiently while playing this music, unheard sounds surface. In time, voices tear off, and become distinct. They say what they need to say. They let others speak. And suddenly there is a space... that unfolds, that speaks. Deep inside it, an ancient lament emerges, wrapped within the invisible words: What did I do to be so black and blue? ..." --Pico Be
Artful Rifle is a new record label dedicated to "non-serious techno music", founded by Berlin based producer Pablo Mateo. The first release Tentlover EP comes up with four atmospherical, psychedelic techno trips, paying an homage to Octavia E. Butler's Xenogenesis trilogy.
In 2000, The Wire wrote of Richard Chartier's work: "it's worth stretching the ears in search of Chartier's sequences of exquisitely sculpted sonic events, as gorgeous detail bodies forth out of the shadows," the same holds true today. Formed over the course of five years, Removed was a process of removal/erasure. Only trace elements appear from what was. Their interactions merely a ghost of a composition -- subtle echoes across the sound spectrum. A glacially paced progression of discreet relational sonic events and flows. Inspired in part by the rigorous line drawings of American visual artist Linn Meyers, whose 2011 untitled drawing graces the cover, Removed draws the listener in to follow patterns. Meyers often creates large scale on-site works that transform a space into durational installations of seemingly endless lines. Seen from a distance these lines appear as almost natural ripples in a wall surface, but deeper, upon closer inspection, the delicate echoes and fluctuations of the artist's hand arise from the density of details. Chartier's precise sound compositions work in a similar manner. Austere and shimmering, the two compositions on Removed beg for careful listening on headphones. Or let these two compositions play quietly amplified across your space. Either way, a physically captivating dimensional experience. Removed is a continuing reflection on major aesthetic elements of Chartier's artistic language as it has evolved through the years. This is Chartier's first new solo studio album since 2013's field recording exploration, Interior Field, and 2012's purely digital Recurrence, both released on Line. Richard Chartier is a Los Angeles based artist and is considered one of the key figures in the current of reductionist sound known as both "microsound" and Neo-Modernist.
Move D, Jonah Sharp, and Juju & Jordash build the new super-group The Mulholland Free Clinic. Their self-titled debut LP release is a recording of their second ever improvised, all hardware live set which emphasizes the ongoing paradigm shift in live electronic music. Even though they've only played together on three occasions since 2013, The Mulholland Free Clinic has already been praised as one of the ultimate collaborations when it comes to underground and improvised electronic live music. Move D, Jonah Sharp, and Juju & Jordash build this so-called super-group by combining their individual and mutual projects, rEAGENZ and Magic Mountain High. Using an armada of analog hardware, The Mulholland Free Clinic's self-titled debut album is the product of a live set recorded at Berlin's party series AWAY at ://about blank in August 2016. Consequently, the connected vinyl label Away Music is set to release its first long player following four 12-inches with appearances by Joe Claussell, Mr. Ties, Move D, Discrete Circuit, and its very own AWAY Soundsystem. Their three-hour long, totally improvised jam session was edited down to a little over 80 minutes, with seven tracks internalizing the motto that you won't benefit from diverse perspectives if you aren't open to utilizing differences. Like a well-coordinated ensemble, The Mulholland Free Clinic develops a common language by acknowledging their multi-variant range of influences and dynamics while constantly shifting, rearranging, and communicating ideas, without being held to any genre. Whether it's the rich and beat-less ambiance or the synth-dominated excursions, the cosmic futurism or the overall melodic playfulness, the quartet knows its crafts, mastering the off-the-cuff approach to illuminate all corners, on and off the dancefloor. Using an impressive hardware-only setup (including Korg Minilogue, Roland SH-101, Roland TR 909, Roland TR 606, Yamaha DX-7, electric guitars, FX units, Akai MPC 1000, an analog mixer, and much more), the live performance isn't just another declaration of love for classic synthesizers. By creating an environment that promotes communication, learning, and innovation, the quartet also underpins the ongoing paradigm shift in live electronic music. The Mulholland Free Clinic is the artistic synthesis of improvisation and togetherness, risk and trust, consciousness and abandon. Their teamwork is an inside-out mindset. And with all collaborations, it has to start on the inside, with the heart.
The Dutch label Balans Records returns with its 21st installment. Having previously released on Z.I.P.P.O's Fides imprint, 3KZ, a collaboration between Z.I.P.P.O and Kalean, now bring their powerful four-tracker Not From Here to Darko Esser's imprint. "Not From Here" opens the EP with its flowing grooves and eerie pads to create a beautiful techno track followed by "Nature Of Motion" that offers an astral like immersion to the listener with its haunting melodic rhythms. "Circles" and "Times" switches up the vibe in a more intense and playful mood, resulting in a finely balanced EP of atmospheric driving techno.
Wild jams on the classic LinnDrum, a driving bassline, and a gated, almost out of control, North African sounding lead synth form the basic ingredients of this exceptional new record by Thee J Johanz. The "Fire In The Disco" version adds more spices, like moody FM pads and an infectious disco vibe, ready to put many floors on fire. The record is garnished by the "Market Version" of "Bafrique", which is more like a dub/ambient excursion with environmental samples taken on the Vagator market in India. Artwork by Afrobot.
A fusion of tantric sexual spirituality and speech with the energy of pounding beats and a functional driving acid baseline. According to Thee J Johanz it's inspired by an incidental visit at Love Temple (Arambol, India). "Tantric Temple" stirs and elevates the floor, making all "feel as one" through a unifying vocal climax. The "Tantric Bricastic" version channels basic raw and dance energy, stripped down and nice in the mix. Last track, "Once Upon A Time", a co-production with Nathan Homan, explores the outer zone with some dubby acid disco tech with a tasty spaghetti western touch. Sleeve art by David Homan.
Repressed. Beacon Sound present a reissue of Terry Riley's Descending Moonshine Dervishes, originally released in 1982. Recorded live in Berlin in 1975, and largely improvised, Riley plays a modified Yamaha organ with variable resistors to facilitate tuning in just intonation. This is a 50+ minute recording divided into two halves for vinyl. Terry Riley turned the music world upside down with his 1964 work In C, a revolutionary concept based on 53 modules that can be improvised upon by any number of musicians for an indeterminate amount of time over a pulsing C note typically played on piano or mallet. Performed live for the first time by Steve Reich, Pauline Oliveros, Morton Subotnik, and Jon Gibson, it has since been performed by everyone from the Shanghai Film Orchestra, Adrian Utley of Portishead, and the Malian musicians of Africa Express (featuring contributions by Brian Eno and Damon Albarn). Though referred to as the "father of minimalism", the 81-year-old Riley has ranged widely in the intervening decades, deeply influenced by jazz, North Indian classical music, and a distinctly West Coast strain of radical spirituality - and in turn influencing practically everyone: The Who ("Baba O'Riley"), The Velvet Underground, collaborators The Kronos Quartet, as well as the legions of cutting-edge electronic musicians and contemporary composers making genre-defying music today. A resident of Grass Valley, CA, Riley is still touring the world. "Great for meditating to the cosmos" --Thurston Moore. Remastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri. .
RILEY, TERRY: Songs For The Ten Voices Of The Two Prophets LP (BNSD 018LP)
Repressed. Beacon Sound present a reissue of Terry Riley's Songs For The Ten Voices Of The Two Prophets, originally released in 1983. Recorded live in Munich in 1982 using two Prophet synthesizers and voice, this album is a reflection of Riley's ongoing interest in melding improvisation, electronic music, and the raga vocal stylings of his mentor, Pandit Pran Nath. Terry Riley turned the music world upside down with his 1964 work In C, a revolutionary concept based on 53 modules that can be improvised upon by any number of musicians for an indeterminate amount of time over a pulsing C note typically played on piano or mallet. Performed live for the first time by Steve Reich, Pauline Oliveros, Morton Subotnik, and Jon Gibson, it has since been performed by everyone from the Shanghai Film Orchestra, Adrian Utley of Portishead, and the Malian musicians of Africa Express (featuring contributions by Brian Eno and Damon Albarn). Though referred to as the "father of minimalism", the 81-year-old Riley has ranged widely in the intervening decades, deeply influenced by jazz, North Indian classical music, and a distinctly West Coast strain of radical spirituality - and in turn influencing practically everyone: The Who ("Baba O'Riley"), The Velvet Underground, collaborators The Kronos Quartet, as well as the legions of cutting-edge electronic musicians and contemporary composers making genre-defying music today. A resident of Grass Valley, CA, Riley is still touring the world. Remastered by Raphael Anton Irisarri. Includes original insert; Edition of 300. "His voice twists and curves in complicated arabesques, recalling Indian music, and especially the singing of Mr. Riley's colleague and teacher, Pandit Pran Nath, who is also associated with Mr. Riley's long-time friend LaMonte Young. The synthesizers create a hushed, meditative counterpoint of slowly unwinding melodies and cross-rhythms... the Prophet 5, a polyphonic synthesizer that is capable of rich viola-like sounds, is a winning instrument for Mr. Riley's improvisations. After years of playing a Yamaha electric organ, he has turned to the synthesizer, which theoretically offers an infinite assortment of sounds. Rather than take advantage of the instrument's ability to mimic vocal sounds and timbres, as composers like Jon Hassel and Brian Eno have done, Mr. Riley plays the synthesizer as a keyboard instrument, with a luminous sound and the ability to bend or inflect notes." --New York Times, Feb 1984
$16.39 UPC: 769791965102 ELECTRONIC
A1. Embroidery
B1. Eastern Man
B2. Chorale Of The Blessed Day
SUMS is the collaborative project of French electronic producer Kangding Ray and Mogwai multi-instrumentalist Barry Burns. The project was first conceived by Berlin Atonal, who gave the musicians carte blanche to develop a new group. Adding drumming savant Merlin Ettore, the pair devised a musical world that crafts post-rock soundscapes and structures using the sound-language of contemporary techno and experimental electronic music. After a grand debut performance in 2013, the group decided to take the project into the studio. Over a two-year period, SUMS began to produce tracks that achieved an organic fusion of spatial electronics and rousing post-rock sounds.
Biosphere is the main recording name of Geir Jenssen -- a Norwegian musician who has released a notable catalogue of ambient electronic music. He is well known for his works on ambient techno and arctic themed pieces, his use of music loops, and peculiar samples from sci-fi sources. His 1997 album Substrata (BIO 028CD/005LP) was voted by the users of the Hyperreal website in 2001 as the best all-time classic ambient album. The Petrified Forest is inspired by the movie of the same name, released in 1936 and directed by Archie Mayo. IMDB description of the film: "Alan Squier, a failed, world-weary British writer, hikes into an isolated, weather-beaten desert diner in Arizona owned by Jason Marple. Jason's daughter, Gabrielle is immediately taken with the disillusioned intellectual, since they share idealistic dreams of escaping the stark reality of their lives." Features: Joan Lorring, Leslie Howard, and Bette Davis. Mastered by Stefan Betke; Designed by Joanna John.
LP version. Biosphere is the main recording name of Geir Jenssen -- a Norwegian musician who has released a notable catalogue of ambient electronic music. He is well known for his works on ambient techno and arctic themed pieces, his use of music loops, and peculiar samples from sci-fi sources. His 1997 album Substrata (BIO 028CD/005LP) was voted by the users of the Hyperreal website in 2001 as the best all-time classic ambient album. The Petrified Forest is inspired by the movie of the same name, released in 1936 and directed by Archie Mayo. IMDB description of the film: "Alan Squier, a failed, world-weary British writer, hikes into an isolated, weather-beaten desert diner in Arizona owned by Jason Marple. Jason's daughter, Gabrielle is immediately taken with the disillusioned intellectual, since they share idealistic dreams of escaping the stark reality of their lives." Features: Joan Lorring, Leslie Howard, and Bette Davis. Mastered by Stefan Betke; Designed by Joanna John.
UNCONSCIOUS: La Caduta Di Lucifero 12" (BWL 014EP)
The first vinyl of 2017 is the first step towards knowledge, after the last step Blackwater Label had moved into the darkness. They've fallen many times and they reacted, they moved forward. For this reason the forthcoming release is called La Caduta Di Lucifero ("The Fall of Lucifer") as homage to the white energy to come and the end of all evils. Produced by the acclaimed Codex Empire and the young, talented artist Unconscious. A dark and obscure texture with melodies to touch the inner places of the soul. Comes with a Codex Empire remix.
A sublime and quietly hypnotic work belied by steadfast conceptual rigor, Grafts is the most ambitious and involving work yet from Kara-Lis Coverdale, her first since 2015. In three parts of cascading yet plaintive multi-instrumental gestures, Grafts expands on the processing and self-temperament techniques explored on 2014's A 480 into a more encompassing palette. Uncompromisingly distinct while redolent of modal minimalism, '70s new age, and folk music, Grafts effectively blurs distinctions between traditional composition and more open, overlapping genres that hover in the half-light between acoustic and electronic refinement. Rather than anything grandiose or explicitly seductive, the effect of Grafts is best compared with the subtle intoxication of micro-dosing on LSD or the clarity afforded by quiet meditation, in a sense dilating the listener's focus to a heightened awareness of the piece's intricate peripheral tones as much as its melodic center ground, with a beautifully understated, surreal resolution. The piece flickers with gentle optimism, never at random, illuminating unseen spaces that quickly gradient into nothingness. Frames of reference are numerous and on the face of it largely disconnected; the deviant pop instinct of Arthur Russell, the organic/synthetic love songs of Art Of Noise, the meditative, almost hallucinogenic spiraling compositions of Philip Glass and Terry Riley, the intoxicated minimal romance of Erik Satie, Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto's austere, beautiful sound sculpting... all, and none of the above. In both concept and execution, Grafts firmly resonates with Kara-Lis Coverdale's deeply established roots as an improvisational virtuoso and accomplished pianist as much as her academically informed approach to electroacoustic composition that showcases a distinct omnivorous appetite for the digital. But it's an emotional generosity that proves to be its defining, most intangible characteristic. Never fully coming to a resolution, lingering on like a slowly dispersing plume of smoke. Kara-Lis has previously contributed to records by Tim Hecker, Lee Bannon, and How To Dress Well. One-sided vinyl, mastered and cut by Matt Colton at Alchemy.
London's Casual Nun present Psychometric Testing By...."Akin to blending the sonic freak outs of legendary krautrock pioneers Ash Ra Tempel with '90s Japanese noise mongers Up-Tight or Ohkami No Jikan, London's Casual Nun deliver some downright heavy psych -- a blown out slab of distorted, hypnotic guitar buzz, heady, effect-laden vocals, and plodding drums, everything bleary eyed, garage-y, intense and drugged out! Anyone who has been diggin' the aforementioned greats, GNOD, The Heads or Loop will definitely fall in love with Casual Nun."--Roadburn Festival
"That is what good music is supposed to do though, remove you from your everyday existence and move you in some way. Casual Nun use a hypnotic style of psychedelia which plays off both its pure noise and little moments of experimental bliss. It's unforgiving yet still approachable and that is what makes it all the more dangerous. This is the sound of the true under-ground of London at the moment." --Echoes & Dust
The two authorized recordings presented on Konzerte 1972/1977 vividly conjure up the atmosphere, perhaps even the magic, of a Cluster performance back in the day. One took place in 1977 during a science fiction festival in Metz (France). The other dates back to an earlier show in Hamburg's Fabrik venue. Cluster played three gigs in the city in 1971/1972, including the one partially included on 1972's Cluster II (LR 335LP). Cluster shows routinely lasted six hours or more, luring both the band and the audience into a state of intoxication, no doubt acutely enhanced by the intake of certain substances. The buzzwords of the moment were: psychedelic, magical, ritualistic, corresponding more or less to the Dionysian hedonism which pervades certain styles of contemporary music culture today. It is worth noting this context as useful background when listening to the live recordings presented here. In the beginning, Cluster's music was rough, brutal, and spontaneous, created with the most rudimentary tools. Unlike many of their colleagues in this pioneering age, Cluster did not use any synthesizers, sequencers, or high-end amps. But this proved to be their strength, rather than a disadvantage. Roedelius and Moebius played in the truest sense of the word, untroubled by mechanical processes. They used their machines but were not dependent on them. Intuition was the dominant force, the risk of potential failure was readily understood to be as much a part of their vibrant art as success. Perfection had become a concept associated with convention. Indeed, anyone who was lucky enough to witness Cluster play in the 1970s will testify that things sometimes went badly wrong. But mostly they did not, and then the real magic was tangible. A utopian, previously undiscovered world of sound was created in the presence of the beholder. The sound quality of these two documents is average. A successful performance was considered more important than a perfect recording thereof. As listeners, this should be accepted today. Konzerte 1972/1977 provides a short journey into the nascent heart of Cluster's creative universe, just after the big bang.
Swiss purveyor Sam Geiser, aka Deetron, delivers his first double pack EP on his label Character: DoubleSix Takes Vol. 1. The five-tracker across two slabs of vinyl is the producer's round-up take on house music as it stands today, from the hands and ears of a well-medaled and highly fielded DJ. Having carved a long-standing reputation in both the techno and house worlds, Deetron exposes another slice of his soul here. Utilizing soul, funk, and hip-hop production techniques, the tracks are built on sampled material, much in the vein of his earlier and heavily charted tracks "Orange", "Sing" and "Silence". Derived from recordings and other noises, voices and sound sources, the samples are then craftily manipulated, processed and layered to piece different parts -- bass, percussion and so on into one original sonic universe. The opener "I Got To Have You" features a loopy vocal sample that builds towards a delicious moment of disco in the breakdown -- a throwback for the dancefloor -- but not too long. "Take Me Higher" takes things up a notch, contrasting a clean bass signal with a distorted lead while an infectious female vocal lifts up the curve. Wrapping up the first package is "The Grand Cruiser": its sluggy almost sleazy, low-end and sideways groove over a steady beat makes it an off-kilter and memorable character indeed. "Supper In Casa Blanca" immediately paints an exotic scene with shakers and a tinkling can dancing to a chance encounter with expressive synth work and a beating heart. Signing the EP off is "Blues", a hyper-smooth, jazzy galaxy ride filled with vintage suave -- don't let nobody take the blues away. Edition of 300.
2017 digipak edition. "A reissue of two excellent and long-unavailable Lee 'Scratch' Perry LPs, The Upsetters: Chapter 1 (1981) and Blackboard Jungle Dub (1981). The material is weirdly wonderful and represents some of Perry's earliest and most unrestrained efforts at dub madness. Issued on one disc, they ebb and flow seamlessly (set your CD player or playlist on 'shuffle' for proof), with tracks like 'Scratch The Dub Organizer' and 'Dub From Africa' especially delicious. This is a great way to dig deep into Perry's unique mindset without spending a ton of money." --John Dougan, AllMusic
Forever returns to Coyote Records for his first full EP, Hymn EP, which explores the myriad sounds, layers, and textures that have come to define his music. The delicate, slow-burning cinema of widescreen opener "Gweilo", the shadowy eeriness of "Hymn", and the crunchy, industrial club heat of "Swamped", each point to different reference points, but all feel interlinked by Forever's grip on atmosphere and tone. Chemist (Silk Road Assassins) turns in a booming edit of "Hymn", complete with re-booted, icy melodies that fire off like shards of glass and rude 808 patterns that nod to his work with SRA.
Black Cube Marriage is an ensemble consisting of legendary Chicago-based cornetist and sound manipulator Rob Mazurek (Tortoise, Exploding Star Orchestra, Isotope 217), members of his Brazilian connection São Paulo Underground, Austin-based freeform unit Marriage, and special guests Jonathan Horne (guitar, saxophone) and Steve Jansen (tapes, guitar). Formed after shows in late 2015, this 11-person ensemble creates waves of sound that can best be described as cathartic. Astral Cube draws from multiple styles and traditions, and the result is a sonic eruption where past, present, north, east, south, organic, and electronic collide and is poured into the unknown. Traces of cosmic jazz -- think Don Cherry, Pharoah Sanders, Sun Ra -- appear alongside abstract electronics and heavily manipulated instruments -- not unlike Autechre or Matmos. Occasionally the sounds this group creates conjures mental imagery of flourishing nature, colorful wildlife, flowing mountain streams, and ancient rituals -- other times the glistening sonic textures evoke images of buzzing urban power lines or technology gone haywire. It's ceremonial, yet deeply futuristic music. Powerful, unknown, surreal. A sonic outpouring of light an energy. This is post-everything psychedelia at the outer limits of musical possibilities.
LP version. Includes download code. Edition of 500. Black Cube Marriage is an ensemble consisting of legendary Chicago-based cornetist and sound manipulator Rob Mazurek (Tortoise, Exploding Star Orchestra, Isotope 217), members of his Brazilian connection São Paulo Underground, Austin-based freeform unit Marriage, and special guests Jonathan Horne (guitar, saxophone) and Steve Jansen (tapes, guitar). Formed after shows in late 2015, this 11-person ensemble creates waves of sound that can best be described as cathartic. Astral Cube draws from multiple styles and traditions, and the result is a sonic eruption where past, present, north, east, south, organic, and electronic collide and is poured into the unknown. Traces of cosmic jazz -- think Don Cherry, Pharoah Sanders, Sun Ra -- appear alongside abstract electronics and heavily manipulated instruments -- not unlike Autechre or Matmos. Occasionally the sounds this group creates conjures mental imagery of flourishing nature, colorful wildlife, flowing mountain streams, and ancient rituals -- other times the glistening sonic textures evoke images of buzzing urban power lines or technology gone haywire. It's ceremonial, yet deeply futuristic music. Powerful, unknown, surreal. A sonic outpouring of light an energy. This is post-everything psychedelia at the outer limits of musical possibilities.
CLOUDS: HTID: Heaven-Sent Tekno Impakting Dancefloors, Or Hardcore Till I Die 2x12" (EDLX 053EP)
HTID: Heaven-Sent Tekno Impakting Dancefloors, Or Hardcore Till I Die is Calum Macleod and Liam Robertson's third Electric Deluxe record. As was the case with Timeslip Roadmender (EDLX 046EP, 2016) and follow-up An Outrageous Fate Type (2016), HTID is a chomping, foaming, kinda nutty set of industrial techno-jungle half-breeds. They were happy party things once, a long time ago, but after decades festering in a petri dish, they turned mutant and multitudinous -- which is why there are twice as many of them this time. If a pummeling 4/4 is your thing, "Dinner At Skinja's" has you covered. "Quest Posse Wanted" meanwhile is bullet-riddled breakbeat, and "Fallout" is the sound of rave resurrected, rewound, and rolled back out again. "Rush In 2 Orbit (Skinnergate)" shows off the pair's abstract side, which a track like "Panosonics" lashes things down into something more club friendly. Stick "Knuckles' Heavy Vanguard" on to get the masses motivated, then drop "Base Damage" to show 'em you mean business. Once everyone's knees are good and swollen, float "Floatation Advice" as a peace offering, which actually is anything but. No fireworks, no dazzle, just techno at its finest.
Elektron Grammofon is the record imprint of Swedish music instrument manufacturer Elektron. EGR releases artists who push the boundaries of music of all kinds. All proceeds from the limited vinyl pressings go to charity. Swedish producer Varg has cooked up four tracks using Elektron gear. The first track is a probing, ambient and serendipitous take on soundscaping. The second is a hard-kicking, massive, and gently authoritative dance beat. Third, you have something out of a spacious mechanical workshop. The final track is an exquisitely mystical, moody, Twin Peaks-y closure.
$14.39 EAN: 7350049241241 ELECTRONIC
A1. No Borders (5:56)
A2. No Laws (Skorpion vz. 61) (6:50)
B1. Anti Government (5:42)
B2. Anti Everything (10:27)
Elektron Grammofon is the record imprint of Swedish music instrument manufacturer Elektron. EGR releases artists who push the boundaries of music of all kinds. All proceeds from the limited vinyl pressings go to charity. The dark knight of eerily appealing techno -- Headless Horseman -- is back with a vengeance. This time, he has chosen to recruit the Elektron Octatrack, Analog Rytm, Overbridge, and Machinedrum UW in order to pursue his modern-day arcane craft. His three tracks on this Elektron Grammofon release will have you dancing headless into the heady future.
Double LP version. Lotos Land, the third solo album from German producer Sascha Funke, on Tokyo's Endless Flight. Funke embraces fresh sound territories without forgetting his past. With two solo albums on Ellen Alien's BPitch Control label under his wings, Funke knows what it means to write and dramatize an album. All tracks on Lotos Land are well selected. Together they built a bewitching story arc. With some singing help from the Scottish crooner David Wilson, voice of the Glasgow based melancholic dance sensation Junto Club and the Tel Aviv born musician Autarkic, exotic but yet perfect sing-along melodies partly enthrall the listeners, too. And even if Sascha Funke has been a part of the club culture since the nineties, his musical memory and sensibility goes way back before the early techno and house eruptions. For his new works, which were all produced in Berlin during 2016, he removed the dogma of functionality and shifted into a riskier, more open terrain, which does not offer mainly club sensations. Funke explains: "I think I would not have made such a diverse album without the time with Saschienne. Before Saschienne, I mainly worked sample-based and produced exclusively at the computer. By working with Julienne as Saschienne, I discovered my love for the instrument. 'Playing' with the different synths is for me the greatest progress and ultimately also the best possible form of expression for my music." For his new tracks he used several kinds of gear; from a Korg ARP Odyssey to a Dave Smith Prophet 8, Moog Voyager, Solina String keyboard, or a Yamaha Pacifica guitar, stylistically his new orchestra leads him to a mesmerizing meltdown of trance, techno, synth-wave, post-punk, and ambient particles. Funke points his finger to the emotional landscape of Lotos Land, which delivers enchanted atmospheres, sensible stomping grounds, funky twisted spheres, and tragically hip psychedelic zones. At large there is an unmistakable strong UK influence -- be it new wave, pop, or early dance and techno stuff. Sometimes the bass rolls like in a Cure song, then dreamy synth sceneries arise to stick in the mind. Also features Emily Evans. Cover art by Mule Musiq and Endless Flight Hamburg-based home illustrator Stefan Marx. It features a Marx-styled interpretation of a 1901 illustration by the British painter William Edward Frank Britten, that was made to the poem The Lotos-eaters, written by the poet Alfred Tennyson.
2007 release. Meu Samba Torto features a stellar line-up of Brazilian musicians including Clara Moreno's mother, the legendary Brazilian singer-songwriter Joyce, and the celebrated songwriter and guitarist Celso Fonseca. Meu Samba Torto features two new compositions written especially for Clara, by Joyce ("Sabe Quem"), and Celso Fonseca ("Litorânea"). There are also interpretations of classic bossa nova tracks such as "Moça Flor", originally recorded by the Tamba Trio, "Vem Morena Vem", from Jorge Ben's debut album, and "Morena Boca de Ouro", made famous by João Gilberto. Meu Samba Torto also features a version of "Mon Manege a Moi", originally recorded by the French singer Edith Piaf, and a beautiful cover of the American jazz standard "Tenderly". Clara Moreno on the album: "In Brazil, we call a person from Rio de Janeiro a 'Carioca', and on this album I have tried to share this feeling of what it is like to be a 'Carioca' with the listener. I took inspiration from '60s bossa nova - the cornerstone of modern Brazilian music - and created a contemporary view of Brazilian music that fans all over the world can enjoy. I wanted to create a warm, intimate vibe the listener can connect with, so they can get a sense of what it is like to be a 'Carioca'."
$9.79 EAN: 5060088041017 WORLD
01. Litorânea
02. Sabe Quem?'
03. Sei Lá
04. Moça Flor
05. Bahia Com H
06. Morena Boca De Ouro
07. Mon Manege A Moi
08. Rosa De Ouro
09. Copacabana
10. Se Acaso Você Chegasse
11. Meu Samba Torto
12. Vem Morena Vem
13. Ela Vai Pro Mar
14. Tenderly
2009 release. Conceived in Rio de Janeiro, samba has provided the rhythm to Brazilian life for almost 100 years. Now revered across the planet Brazil's national obsession is literally religion. Bringing together the finest sambistas, Strictly Samba puts exceptional talents Seu Jorge, Roge and Teresa Cristina, who have revitalized the genre, alongside legendary artists Elza Soares, Trio Mocoto, The Ipanemas and Azymuth, who embody the timeless music. Strictly Samba is the second in Far Out Recording's genre series, following 2008's hugely successful Far Out Bossa Nova, and gives a real insight to a vast field. Samba is the synthesis of Brazilian and African culture telling the stories of the working class since the late days of slavery; playing samba allowed African slaves to worship without anyone realizing it. Samba is a myriad of sub-genres and Strictly Samba covers its styles, from jongo to pagode, from batucada to samba soul. Carnival and radio made samba Brazil's national music before Brazil's most famous Hollywood export - Carmen Miranda - defined it globally. Following a brief decline in samba's popularity bossa nova's success created a backlash, which brought samba back in the 1960s. Strictly Samba brings some of the greatest Brazilian samba musicians to the party. Seu Jorge is the modern, international face of samba. Having lived on the streets as a teenager he turned his life around and has starred in acting roles including Knockout Ned in City Of God (2002). "Carolina" typifies his ability to write great contemporary samba tracks. Roge is a true carioca, a son of Rio, and one to watch. Strictly Samba kicks off with his "Suingue do Samba" ("Samba Swing"), a catchy homage to the force of samba. Arthur Verocai is a multi-talented guitar player, composer and arranger. The track "Tudo De Bom" is another swinging samba rock track taken from his most recent album. "Depois De Carnival" from Azymuth, is an infectious samba, which pays tribute to Rio's king of swing Ed Lincoln. "Samba Da Silva" is a classy duet inspired by the gafieiras (ballroom) dances of '40s/'50s Brazil. The Ipanemas track "Era Bom" is reminiscent of the old style of samba known as samba-cancao with Wilson das Neves on lead vocals. Also features: Teresa Cristina E Grupo Semente, Nereu Mocotó & Swing, Zaira, Aparecindinha, Grupo Batuque, Dom Um And Jadir De Castro, Joyce, Elza Soares and Armando Marçal.
$9.79 EAN: 5060006357022 WORLD
01. Roge - Swingue Do Samba
02. Seu Jorge - Carolina
03. Teresa Cristina E Grupo Semente - Foi Um Rio Que Passou Em Minha Vida
04. Nereu Mocotó & Swing - Maria José
05. Azymuth - Depois Do Carnaval
06. Zaira - Casamento Na Favela
07. Aparecindinha with Grupo Batuque - Jongo Jade
08. Dom Um And Jadir De Castro - Kaxcatribalim
09. The Ipanemas - Era Bom
10. Trio Mocotó - Beleza, Beleza, Beleza
11. Arthur Verocai - Tudo De Bom
12. Joyce - Samba Da Silvia (feat. Elza Soares)
13. Teresa Cristina E Grupo Semente - No Pagode Do Vavá
14. Grupo Batuque - Na Cadência Do Samba
15. Roge - Brasil Em Brasa
16. Armando Marçal - Sorri Pra Nós
BASSINI Y LOS LATINOS, RUBENS: Latino Fantastico CD (FARO 154CD)
2010 release. Far Out Recordings present a reissue of Rubens Bassini Y Los Latinos's Latino Fantastico, originally released in 1963. Rubens Bassini was one of Brazil's finest and most respected percussionists and a vital component of the original Os Ipanemas and Sergio Mendes & Brazil 66, plus later '77 and '88 incarnations. This 1963 solo outing, originally released as a limited vinyl LP, is full of deep traditional African, Brazilian, Cuban and South American rhythms and moments of unexpected blissful folk and hypnotic psychedelia. Wind and strings provide unusual arrangements for Bassini's pulsating bongos and endless exotic percussion to explode through. Featuring an all-star team of '60s Rio players this vivid percussion dream can finally be heard in all its mythical glory. Rubens Bassini is the forgotten percussion master of Brazilian music. While those he played with - including Wilson Das Neves and Sergio Mendes - rose to huge international fame Bassini's solo recordings became rare mythical collector's items. Rubens Bassini E Os 11 Magníficos's 1964 Ritmo Fantastico was reissued back in 2002; however it's this 1963 Latino Fantastico project with Los Latinos that is his true solo masterpiece. And that's where Rubens Bassini's link with Far Out Recordings lies. One of label boss Joe Davis's favorite bands, obsessed with his original copy of their '64 LP, he brought the last two surviving members - Das Neves and Neco - of the original Os Ipanemas back together in 1999 to record The Return Of The Ipanemas (2001) 35 years after their debut. With 2010's, Que Beleza (2010), Far Out Recordings has now released five internationally acclaimed Ipanemas albums and Davis's attention was instantly caught by the opportunity to reissue Latino Fantastico from the Ipanemas incomparable percussionist Bassini (who sadly passed away in 1985). Far Out Recordings stay true to the original release with beautifully recreated artwork. All 19 tracks re-mastered from original tapes for a high definition sound. Rubens Bassini's original track-by-track sleeve notes describing the traditional rhythms and instruments are presented here, translated from Portuguese.
$9.79 EAN: 5060211500398 WORLD
01. Cha-Cha-Cha (Europeu Comercial)
02. Afro-Cubano (Canto Karabali)
03. Mambo
04. Son-Cubano Amparo
05. Maracas (Surda)
06. Candombe Uruguaio (Bailando El Candombe)
07. Maracas (Brilhante)
08. Merengue
09. Guiro
10. Bongo
11. Festival Para Trés Bongos
12. Afro-Cubano (Tabu)
13. Tumbadoras
14. Cha-Cha-Cha (Auténtico Cubano)
15. Timbales
16. Guaguanco
17. Bembe
18. Quinto
19. Samba - Samba No Congo
2012 release. Saxophonist Leo Gandelman is a celebrated Brazilian musician in both MPB and classical music. Gandelman returns with his unique take on jazz music on Vip Vop, a studio album full of remarkable Brazilian samba-jazz compositions. This is a high-quality sax-led jazz record full of invention and intrigue. Saxophonist, arranger and producer Leo Gandelman is the son of a classical pianist who, by the age of 15, was a soloist for the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra. Combined with a solid classical foundation, Gandelman studied at Berklee College of Music, in the USA, returning to Brazil in 1979 to begin his professional career, which has seen him participate in over 800 recordings to date. He launched his solo career in 1987 taking inspiration from Brazilian music and Jazz, but always with a clear creative versatility. Gandelman's relationship with Far Out Recordings began in 2009 when the label released his North American and Brazilian cross over jazz record Anatomy Of Groove (FARO 144CD, 2009) under the Brazilian Groove Band moniker and with guest appearances from the likes of Grant Green Jr. and Reuben Wilson. This was followed in 2010 by the release of the Leo's original score for Garrincha - Estrela Solitaria ("The Lonely Star") (FARO 147CD), the evocative old school samba soundtrack to the acclaimed film biopic of maverick Brazilian football genius Garrincha. Recorded in Rio de Janeiro, 2011, Vip Vop is a career high, Led by Gandelman's compositions and distinctive saxophone this is pure jazz with a strong Brazilian heart. This deluxe package features the full high-definition CD album and a bonus DVD featuring the record played live in its entirety plus a documentary shot during the making of Vip Vop.
$10.99 EAN: 5060211500749 WORLD
01. Sinal Vermelho (Red Sign) (4:46)
02. Nego Tá Sabendo (They Know) (4:41)
03. Vip Vop (Very Important People / Very Ordinary People) (5:52)
04. Luz Azul (Blue Light) (6:46)
05. Lançamento (Release) (4:44)
06. Numa Boa (Feeling Good) (6:02)
07. Neshama (To My Father) (5:01)
08. Camisa 7 (Jersey #7) (5:19)
09. Reza (Pray) (5:30)
10. Alam Cubana (Cuban Soul) (4:47)
2012 release. The third remix single taken from Azymuth's acclaimed 2011 studio album Aurora (FARO 157CD) features "Ta Nessa Ainda Bicho". Side A brings two classic Maddslinky remixes. The "Heavy Up Remix" is a heavy, chopped up 140 bpm version that manages to keep the beautiful jazzy elements of the original. The "Slow Down Remix" brings a more reflective atmosphere to the piece with a lovely percussive build up leading to a huge slow-house tempo mix. Zed Bias's B-side adds a classic "4x4" beat to the tune to end the release with a real Latin, broken beat bang.
$8.39 UPC: N/A WORLD
A1. Ta Nessa Ainda Bicho (Maddslinky Heavy Up Remix)
A2. Ta Nessa Ainda Bicho (Maddslinky Slow Down Remix)
B1. Ta Nessa Ainda Bicho (Zed Bias '4x4' Remix)
MAURICE, CHARLES: AOR Global Sounds 1976-1985 Volume 3 CD (FVR 130CD)
Favorite Recordings and Charles Maurice proudly present the third edition of their acclaimed AOR Global Sounds compilations series. Another brilliant selection of 14 rare and hidden tracks, produced between 1976 and 1985 in various parts of the world. On AOR Global Sounds Volume 3, DJ and producer Charles Maurice delivers, again, a fine overview of the AOR and West Coast influences for many artists in the late '70s and early '80s. Even more than on previous volumes, he selected highly forgotten productions, deeply infused with disco and soul flavors. Many of these great gems were naturally produced through all the USA, often made by artists with a very short career and as private press. For example, Jeff Silna only recorded the amazing "It's Always Something With You" after winning the competition of a long gone Miami radio station. The Stratus project started around 1974 in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, and was in a band led by Bob Ackley, who only released this 7" single in 1976 after recording a full album and doing a few gigs around Michigan. John Kontol (Jon Konteau), having credits for a few productions and appearances and still acts as a musician, never released another LP after his heartbreaking experience with Erect Records who never rewarded him for his work and even change his name against his consent. As for "Dirt (In The Sky)", by 7 Days Unlimited whose members were both from Pittsburgh area where a lot of dirt was literally flying in the air, the song was released in 1980 on a very limited 500 copies 7" single. But these kind of stories and waste of talent is not solely an American privilege, from Willy Santana (member of Placa Luminosa) in Brazil, and Funky Team in Sweden, to Stacey and Out Of The Fog in Canada, this third edition proves again the international scope and fervor of this music scene, and the surprising amount of great music that go unnoticed at that time. Fully remastered from originals, with great attention to sound quality as always. Also features: James D. Hall, George Nasif, Omega Sunrise, Steve Turner, Billy Always, and Archie James Cavanaugh.
Double LP version. Gatefold sleeve. Favorite Recordings and Charles Maurice proudly present the third edition of their acclaimed AOR Global Sounds compilations series. Another brilliant selection of 14 rare and hidden tracks, produced between 1976 and 1985 in various parts of the world. On AOR Global Sounds Volume 3, DJ and producer Charles Maurice delivers, again, a fine overview of the AOR and West Coast influences for many artists in the late '70s and early '80s. Even more than on previous volumes, he selected highly forgotten productions, deeply infused with disco and soul flavors. Many of these great gems were naturally produced through all the USA, often made by artists with a very short career and as private press. For example, Jeff Silna only recorded the amazing "It's Always Something With You" after winning the competition of a long gone Miami radio station. The Stratus project started around 1974 in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, and was in a band led by Bob Ackley, who only released this 7" single in 1976 after recording a full album and doing a few gigs around Michigan. John Kontol (Jon Konteau), having credits for a few productions and appearances and still acts as a musician, never released another LP after his heartbreaking experience with Erect Records who never rewarded him for his work and even change his name against his consent. As for "Dirt (In The Sky)", by 7 Days Unlimited whose members were both from Pittsburgh area where a lot of dirt was literally flying in the air, the song was released in 1980 on a very limited 500 copies 7" single. But these kind of stories and waste of talent is not solely an American privilege, from Willy Santana (member of Placa Luminosa) in Brazil, and Funky Team in Sweden, to Stacey and Out Of The Fog in Canada, this third edition proves again the international scope and fervor of this music scene, and the surprising amount of great music that go unnoticed at that time. Fully remastered from originals, with great attention to sound quality as always. Also features: James D. Hall, George Nasif, Omega Sunrise, Steve Turner, Billy Always, and Archie James Cavanaugh.
Favorite Recordings present Natureza, the first album by Joao Selva. The story of Natureza starts with the meeting between two passionate artists, Jonathan "Matuto" Da Silva and Bruno "Patchworks" Hovart. Born and raised in Ipanema and son of a pastor, Jonathan Da Silva grew up in a community of ex-prisoners and converted artists. He made his first guitar notes before his tenth birthday, under the watchful eye of Wanda Sa, and influenced by a father, who was a true music lover with a collection where black music, rock, and classical met. From the age of 18, Jonathan began a life of entertaining, traveling the world to offer shows for disadvantaged children and intensively practicing the Brazilian traditional music and arts. It was later in France and in Lyon that he put down his instruments. There he formed the trio Forro De Rebeca in 2008, touring the country to high praise. The trio joined forces with American producer Maga Bo on the project Sociedade Recreativa, who released an album in 2016. Bruno Hovart is a recognized producer, multi-instrumentalist, and remixer. After passing through Angers, Birmingham, and London, he has been based in Lyon since 2001. Bassist and guitarist for various bands, he switched to production in the mid-90s. Passionate about music and tireless creator, Bruno has practiced in almost every imaginable style, when it comes to groove music, collecting many aliases and projects for more than ten years: Patchworks, Voilaaa, Uptown Funk Empire, Mr President, Taggy Matcher, Mr. Day, Hawa, John Milk, Lightnin 3, The Dynamics or Metropolitan Jazz Affair. When he discovered Jonathan and his music, Bruno saw an immediate opportunity to broaden the spectrum of his discography a little more, by looking at Brazil. Beyond its traditional heritage, Brazil has always been a land of extremely varied music, influenced by the international scene. Soul, jazz, and American pop inspired many local stars such as Chico Buarque, Carlos Jobim, Gilberto Gil, Tom Zé, or Erasmo Carlos. Both fervent lovers of this movement and these names, it's with the idea to pay them a faithful tribute, that Jonathan and Bruno began the Joao Selva adventure. Together they gave birth to Natureza embarking on a trip into the heart of the tropicalist pop influences of Jorge Ben and Caetano Veloso, the intoxicating funk of Tim Maia, and the social poetry of Vinicius De Moraes.
"Although me, you and the guy-next-door all tend to think of Alvaro (The Chilean with the Singing Nose) as an avant-garde artist by one measure or another, it is also true that he has a cunning way with pop melodicism and delivery. This has never been clearer than one the Live In Brussels LP. Recorded in October 2015 at Les Ateliers Claus, Alvaro is at peak form here. Playing piano (and a little nose flute), he sings through a great program of faves ('Valaparaiso,' 'Mum's Milk,' 'She's So Pretty,' etc.) like the Bizzaro World cabaret star he has been since Drinkin My Own Sperm (FTR 174LP) was released back in '77. Playing in front of roomful of blasted Belgian artists (you can easily hear Dennis Tyfus singing and choking along to the proceedings) Alvaro sounds relaxed, assured and brilliant. For all of its inherent strangeness, this is music you could play for your mom without scaring the curlers out of her wig. The tunes are humane and funny and beautiful. His between-songs raps are revelatory. Just pour yourself a cocktail, sit back in a comfortable chair, and be prepared to have a beautiful goddamn day." --Byron Coley, 2017 Silk-screened covers; Edition of 200 (numbered).
$16.99 UPC: 752830262911 ROCK
A1. Birds Are Flying Home
A2. Valparaiso
A3. Mariposa
A4. Mums Milk Not Powder
A5. I'm Not So Young Anymore
B1. My Home Town
B2. SSI Vu Play
B3. She's So Happy
B4. The Squeak
B5. Watching The Fridge Defrost
B6. Watching The Fridge Defrost (Encore)
"The third, perhaps ultimate, album by Jee Jee Band is now in our possession. And even more than its predecessors, Holy Yolk is a unique balancing act between aesthetic poles. On one hand, there is the somewhat unhinged K-Pop snack-attack that marked the duo's earliest recordings. On the other, there are the tracks that offer something more like a twisted take on Pioneer Valley bedroom creationism. Jee Jee Band has always consisted -- in its most protean form -- as Jee Eun Lim and Matt Jones. From different sides of the world, they met while Matt was teaching English in South Korea. Various peregrinations followed, and the pair found themselves in Western Mass, San Francisco and various other places over the past years. Matt is originally from Ware, MA and has roots and branches entangled with several of the oddball musicians who inhabit the area. This is why people like Bob Fay (Sebadoh, Deluxx), John Moloney (Sunburned, Caught On Tape) and Tim Sheldon (Fat Worm Of Error) seem to pop up whenever he turns on a tape recorder. Earlier albums have usually leaned one way or another in terms of what musical direction they favor, but Holy Yolk has a fully syncretic heft. While the organized lightness of K-Pop remains a core belief, the anarcho tendencies of the Valley weasel their fingers deep into the music's guts. This allows the songs to exist as pop musings about long distance loss, while also being larded with a sort of noise-froth that is antithetical to the actual genre. No yin without yang, right? Holy Yolk is a weird and lovely masterpiece of longing, obsession, air travel and delicious food. Exactly what it celebrates is never abundantly clear, but it really does feel like a hosanna. And these days, we can surely use all of those we can get." --Byron Coley, 2017 Silk-screened covers; Edition of 300 (numbered).
$16.99 UPC: 752830262812 ROCK
A1. Jack London Station, Oakland
A2. You've Been Changing (Time Zones)
A3. Jalopi!
A4. Archaeologist's Delight
A5. The Weatherman Is A Liar
A6. Mekong Mermaids
A7. Bus Driver
A8. A.I. The Morning Commute
B1. Wasting Time
B2. Red Bean Patbingsu
B3. Unpaid Internship
B4. Going To Buy a Gravestone Today
B5. Jet Lag Euphoria
B6. JERKS
B7. We Fly Econo Jet Set
B8. Heartbreaks, Etc.
"From the timbers of Fennario, which are located on some low ground near the Presidio, come Dire Wolves. The two members of this Bay Area sextet with whom I'm most familiar are guitarist, etceteraist, Jeffrey Alexander, a tireless exponent of sub-underground psychedelia when he was based in Providence. Mr. Alexander was previously involved with such protean volk-psych ensembles at the Iditarod and Black Forest/Black Sea, and was an early proponent of the deep Finnish underground, releasing several Avarus albums on his Secret Eye label, and touring with the band in the States. The other familiar name is Lau Nau, a Finnish vocalist/composer whose discography is as long as it is weird. Dire Wolves' sound is a wailing alloy merging a sort of Neu American psych-folk formalism with Finnish-style free-form space and an open process improv pulse that feels utterly original. Small flurries of notes might resemble several models (not least of whom is the '68 Constanten-era Dead). And certainly, the floatational vocals of Lau Nau provide a deeply forested continuum, but the rest of the band seem more interested in connecting with a slowly-evolving vibe that actually makes me think more of the high desert and its vistas. The music on Ocean Of Green is full of pointillistic stonerist movement, but the individual elements hold together well enough that anyone who enjoys a single moment will soon find themselves pulled into the music's midst. There are no sharp edges here. The Dire Wolves' sound is as welcoming as any band that has ever been heard. But it will slide through your portals like honey through a warm coil. Breathe deep. Breathe often. Soak this one in before your brain even knows it's under attack. Nice..." --Byron Coley, 2017
"Rusalnaia is an incredible duo, formed early in the century by England's Sharron Kraus and Philadelphia's Gillian Chadwick. Their exquisite eponymous debut album was issued as a CD by Tony Dale's Camera Obscura label back in 2007, and we did it on vinyl last year (FTR 235LP, 2016). People pretty much swooned when they heard it. So when we learned the pair was recording a new album, our ears were immediately alert. Time Takes Away shares elements with its predecessor in terms of song construction, vocal overlay and general mystery action, but certain tunes manifest a bit more of psychedelic rock aspect, bespeaking antecedents such as the Trees. All of the wild electric string presence is provided by Sharron and Gillian, although Mark Wilden (who has previously backed Sharron) shows up as a steady percussive element. But, for all the band-like elements, this is primarily a vocal album as strong as their debut. None of the instrumental works flashes more prominently than the voices, and Sharron's decision to employ more of her Denny-register than she has in the past definitely colors the proceedings. Time Takes Away is a classic slab of UK folk invention. Like all of the best examples of the genre, it's impossible to tag the music to a year or even decade. It just sounds great and timeless. As though it has existed for aeons before you'd ever heard it. Even though the Cambrian CD only came out last year. At a rate, we suggest you relax and enjoy. Full lyric insert and printed inner sleeve provided for your additional pleasure." --Byron Coley, 2017
CIANI, SUZANNE: Lixiviation - Ciani/Musica Inc. 1969-1985 LP (FKR 053LP)
LP version. 2017 repress. The American Delia Derbyshire of the Atari generation. With a sonic portfolio that boasts commissions for the Xenon classic pinball machine, the sounds for the Meco Star Wars theme, the Atari TV commercials, and the electronic sound effects in the original Stepford Wives film (1975), amongst many others, the mutant electronic music CV of Suzanne Ciani is proof that in a 1970s commercial world of boys toys, monopolized by a male dominated media industry, a woman's touch was the essential secret ingredient to successful sonic seduction. A classically trained musician, with an MA in music composition, this American-Italian pianist was first introduced to the synthesizer via her connections in the art world when abstract sculptor and collaborator Harold Paris introduced Suzanne to synthesizer designer Don Buchla who created the Buchla Synthesizer, the instrument that would come to define Ciani's synthetic sound. Cutting her teeth providing self-initiated electronic music projects for art galleries, experimental film directors, pop record producers, and proto-video nasties, Suzanne soon located to New York where she quickly became the first point of call for electronic music services in both the underground experimental fields and the commercial advertising worlds alike. Counting names like Vangelis and Harald Bode amongst her close friends, Suzanne and her Ciani Musica company became the testing ground for virtually any type of new developments in electronic and computerized music amassing an expansive vault of commercially unexposed electronic experiments which have remained untouched for over 30 years... until now. Finders Keepers Records present a new creative archive based relationship with Suzanne Ciani, who, as one of the very few female composers in the field (save Chicago's Laurie Spiegel, Italy's Doris Norton, and a post-op Walter Wendy Carlos) turned a hugely significant wheel behind-the-screens of many early computerized music modules throughout the 1980s, dating back to her formative years studying at Stanford's Artificial Intelligence Labs in the early '70s. Suzanne Ciani's detailed and academic approach to music and electronics coupled with an impeccable sense of timing and melody (and a good sense of humor) shines throughout this new collection of previously unreleased recordings. Lixiviation complies and re-contextualizes both secret music and commercial experiments of Suzanne Ciani made for microcosmic time slots and never previously documented on vinyl or CD.
TOP, EMMANUEL: Circle Around The Phase 2x12" (FK 003EP)
Born on a far out Milky Way galaxy, thousands of northern stars away from the so-called inner shuttle space planet, Emmanuel Top was concurring the Wasbi creatures. The never-ending battle between a Techstar and inbreathe opposite electronic acid insects were the talk of the town. Explosions so loud, not possible to hear with the ear, were sent to futuristic allies and came to the rescue with the primitive enemy of Drakija. In between this unforgiving telepathic chess game forbidden by the wise elderly, a new sound was rising. Due to all of this dramatic pleasure, Emmanuel Top decided to compose this unbeatable five track package for a new planet called Earth, three tri poles beyond the roxy route stationary. It was ruled by the so-called humans and their massive emperor music. All in flavor of the French cult label "faux calme", phonetically pronounced Fokalm.
Sascha Ciminiera is a familiar face from Footjob, member of the label's own super group Pallaspeople and also famous for his tasty Bolognese sauce. With "Lights", he created a dreamy Balearic tune that found its way into Gerd Janson's Groove Podcast. As a consequence, Janson and his partner in crime Phillip Lauer, AKA Tuff City Kids, played around with the 808 and turned it to a great dancefloor version. Phonk D completed the jubilee release with a classic house rework and on top. A dub version of the Tuff City Kids remix is also added.
NEW TWEEDY BROTHERS, THE: The New Tweedy Bros! LP (GUESS 148LP)
Guerssen Records present a reissue of The New Tweedy Bros!, originally released in 1968. Originally from Portland, the New Tweedy Brothers were formed by brothers Fred and Danny Lackaff, plus Dennis Fagaly and Steve Ekman. In 1966, they relocated to San Francisco, where they were part of the exploding, nascent psychedelic ballroom scene, influencing none other than Jerry Garcia, and sharing the stage with bands like The Warlocks (pre-Grateful Dead), Quicksilver, and Big Brother, among others. Upon returning to Oregon, they self-released their only album in 1968, housed in a striking hexagonal, over-sized silver foil cover, now a holy grail between psychedelic collectors. Innocent vocal harmonies, fuzzy bass, jangly guitars, raga sounds -- 100% uncut psychedelia and garage-y, jangly folk-rock from 1968. RIYL: The Byrds, Moby Grape, Jefferson Airplane, The Charlatans, Buffalo Springfield. "Many punters feel that this LP epitomizes the innocent first wave of 'the West Coast Sound' before it was quickly corrupted." --John T. Berg Master tape sound; Includes insert with rare photos, memorabilia, and an interview with original band member Fred Lackaff; Original hexagonal silver foil artwork adapted to a standard cover.
Sex, drugs, the occult, and buckets of blood. Austin, Texas tripped-out heavies Duel release their second album Witchbanger. Eight hard hitting new tracks of deep grooves and blistering riffs paying tribute to the darker breed of early '70s proto-metal and classic, old school, early '80s heavy metal pioneers. Growling desperate vocals and angry fuzzed-out guitars, telling tales of horror and hallucination. Hard rock as it should be, totally pure and unpretentious. Produced and engineered by lead guitarist Jeff Henson at his new studio Red Nova Ranch in the wastelands of Texas, not far from the historic Texas Chainsaw Massacre house. Prepare for Hell or Valhalla, from start to finish, this carefully crafted album will kill you!
SONIC DAWN, THE: Into The Long Night CD (HPS 053CD)
Into The Long Night is the second album by The Sonic Dawn, one of the most remarkable bands to come out of the new psychedelic wave in Denmark. Just a few seconds into this album, you will realize that you are in for a mind altering experience. "It's a trip! By taking the listeners to places they didn't expect to go, we hope to make them aware -- that they'll stop up and think about life for a minute. Awareness is the first step to change in the world," says guitarist and vocalist Emil Bureau. To achieve the dramatic changes of mood and feeling that The Sonic Dawn excel at, they mix a wide range of styles, from jazzy sitar pop to heavy acid rock. A pleasant-sounding, analog production makes the album easy to approach, not to water it down, but rather to pull the unsuspecting listener into the deep. The songs were written by day and recorded at night, during a month of complete isolation in a remote house by The North Sea. The track list can be interpreted as a trip through the night, into a new dawn. Close your eyes and see it: Go through the hill country with its long yellow grass, to the beach where the setting sun dances on the cold waves. Slide into the darkest hours, alone with your thoughts and doubts. Suddenly come the first blue rays, separating past from present, before a golden dawn is born and everything takes its right shape, perhaps for the very first time. Into The Long Night was made in collaboration with some of Scandinavia's most regarded personnel. It features Swedish Hammond legend Erik "Errka" Petersson on keys and Morten Grønvad on vibraphone and percussion, which adds to its soundtrack-like qualities. Mixed in The Village Recording with jazz producer Thomas Vang (Oscar Peterson, Randy Brecker, etc.). Mastered in Svenska Grammofonstudion with Hans Olsson Brookes (Graveyard, Blues Pills, José González, etc.). Fans of psychedelic rock, neo-psych, freak beat, and classic rock will surely enjoy this record.
VA: Heavy Psych Sounds Sampler Volume II CD (HPS 054CD)
Here's the second chapter of the mighty Heavy Psych Sounds Sampler. This time you'll see songs taken from releases of the last part of 2016 and some unreleased gems from albums set to be released in 2017. The sampler also feature two brand new unreleased tracks, from Black Rainbows and Killer Boogie, recorded specifically for the compilation. Also features: Cachemira, Dead Witches, Doctor Cyclops, Duel, Farflung, Fatso Jetson, Giöbia, Glitter Wizard, Mothership, Nick Oliveri, The Clamps, The Golden Grass, The Freeks, and The Sonic Dawn.
Alma Negra, four guys with roots in Portugal, Cabo Verde, Italy, and Spain, hailing from Switzerland, present an African influenced EP. "Afrorleans" is a track with Fela's footprint all over it -- a lovely Rhodes jam over a classic Afrobeat, subtly supported by sparse electronic percussion. "Luanda Dub" is a modern reinterpretation of the traditional lamento style from Luanda -- it's a gloomy techno workout with killer bottom end, trippy guitars, spacey vocals, and tribal percussion. "Endless Summer" leans heavy on Rhodes keys, filtered wah-wahs, and African chants. Soulphiction's adds some serious grunts with percussion and a killer bassline.
SUPERPITCHER: The Golden Ravedays 5 LP (TGR 005LP)
Musically and emotionally, Superpitcher's third full-length studio album, The Golden Ravedays, is a one sound autobiography that exhibits the skill, feeling, and style that the artist has honed over a period of twenty years, musically, and forty-plus-years, emotionally. And full-length it is: The Golden Ravedays is an epic album of 24 tracks stretching over 12 respective chapter albums, released on Hippie Dance sequentially during a one-year period. The fifth piece of The Golden Ravedays introduces two further tracks of the sound adventure that Superpitcher is taking his fans on this year. The djembe drum on the cover and the two titles of the tracks hint that this edition could potentially include stuff that was inspired by the rhythms and melodies of Africa -- a sound legacy that is of great importance to Superpitcher. Side A features "Bluesin". Rumor has it that Superpitcher visited South Africa and adventurously traveled into the deep bush-bush where he met new friends with captivating voices who speak in enchanting tongues. Initially, "Bluesin" is bursting with aching, longing, and the oldest story of sorrow, but there is also comic relief and pride in this story; a typical emotional signature of the sound of Africa and the blues that it gave birth to later on. Side B features "Burkina". It all starts rather innocently with "Burkina". One gets carried away by the funky, ethnic drumming thinking yummy yes, this is going to be a virtual trip to the Brazilian Amazon, or maybe a corner of the Congo, Cameroon perhaps, and one is not even side-tracked by the arrival of birdsong and something that hypnotizes, like beautiful sirens because it is all too groovy for any dictionary, and then Mother Superior arrives and all hell breaks loose: Frogs, kudu horns, rattlesnakes, things that hiss and croak and the haunting voice of Her. As if that is not enough to make you believe you have been propelled to a new continent, wait until the ending of Burkina. It will transport you to another universe altogether. Includes download code.
Intensely disturbed, dirty, smut peddling, Swedish slime hard rock-psych-madness from the deepest cesspool of humanity. Fucked up sub-human fuzz guitars; Depraved, screaming vocals; Gut rumbling bass and caveman drums; A nightmare of revolting sounds. Ball is hard rock from hell. This is the much-anticipated follow up to the bands acclaimed Fyre/Fyre Balls single (2015). Ball's debut album is a deranged hard rock tour-de-force that will have you gasping and gagging. Ball was formed by the mysterious S. Yrék Ball, previously known as a strong force in the occult underground of Northern Europe's secret societies. He has now decided to dedicate his will to music and the good life outside of the covens and black magic orders. Backed by his two older brothers, they form a fierce and fearsome power trio. These guys aren't very talkative but say their main interests are - apart from banging on their instruments - booze, girls, horror comics, and monster model kits. The guys have finally been released from probation, so hopefully they will be able to do some live shows. Anyways, it's a good thing they are still together and have recorded this - nothing short of a miracle considering the circumstances.
LP version. Intensely disturbed, dirty, smut peddling, Swedish slime hard rock-psych-madness from the deepest cesspool of humanity. Fucked up sub-human fuzz guitars; Depraved, screaming vocals; Gut rumbling bass and caveman drums; A nightmare of revolting sounds. Ball is hard rock from hell. This is the much-anticipated follow up to the bands acclaimed Fyre/Fyre Balls single (2015). Ball's debut album is a deranged hard rock tour-de-force that will have you gasping and gagging. Ball was formed by the mysterious S. Yrék Ball, previously known as a strong force in the occult underground of Northern Europe's secret societies. He has now decided to dedicate his will to music and the good life outside of the covens and black magic orders. Backed by his two older brothers, they form a fierce and fearsome power trio. These guys aren't very talkative but say their main interests are - apart from banging on their instruments - booze, girls, horror comics, and monster model kits. The guys have finally been released from probation, so hopefully they will be able to do some live shows. Anyways, it's a good thing they are still together and have recorded this - nothing short of a miracle considering the circumstances.
PALESTINE & GRUMBLING FUR TIME MACHINE ORCHESTRA, CHARLEMAGNE: Omminggg And Schlomminggg 2LP (IMPREC 448LP)
Important Records present Omminggg and Schlomminggg, the second release by continuous music pioneer Charlemagne Palestine and Grumbling Fur, consisting of London based multi-disciplinary artists Daniel O'Sullivan and Alexander Tucker; the Time Machine Orchestra being the extended drone arm of Tucker and O'Sullivan's experimental avant-pop conception. This double LP captures a performance of the trio at Copenhagen's illustrious Jazzhouse on November 28th, 2016. The pin-drop acoustic clarity of the venue providing an ideal setting for this mesmeric recital of eternal music. A Grumbling Fur redux/remodel constitutes side four. The signature strumming of Palestine's piano augmented by Tucker and O'Sullivan's earthware electronics and processed strings create seamless sonic ripples in a constant state of unfolding. This is perhaps the most demonstrative document of Palestine's powerful vocal delivery - an alien hybrid of sacred music drawing deep from the well of the cantorial synagogue and Hindustani classical styles in a bid to channel inter-dimensional beings from ancient cultures. In some respects, this could be thought of as Charlemagne in dub as Grumbling Fur carefully twist and mangle their palette of electrified harp, viola, bowed mandolin, percussion, tapes, and voice transformers through chains of loopers, resulting in a slowly dilating vapor. A unique document of portal opening music that defies time and space. Gatefold sleeve art by Alexander Tucker; Inside art by Daniel O'Sullivan. Assembled and mixed by Grumbling Fur; Mixed at O'Sullivan's Dream Lion Studio; Cut by Matt Colton, Alchemy Mastering.
SPATIAL: A Music Of Sound Systems 2x12" (INFRA 24001EP)
A Music Of Sound Systems is UK artist Spatial's debut album. Framed by the abstract art movement "Suprematism" and Russian artist Lissitzky in particular, A Music Of Sound Systems is an audio exploration of space, volume, mass, and rhythm, as well as an homage to both Caribbean and UK soundsystem culture. With musique concrète and the Darmstadt School both cited as inspirations, Spatial takes ideas of obscuring and manipulating, but instead interprets them into more club-aligned compositions. Combining these concepts, album opener "Doping Conductor" mixes tense soundscapes with crackling synths and a void like sinking bass. "Proun", a direct reference to Lissitsky, builds with escalating ominous intent whilst "Quiddity Dub" draws heavily on Spatial's dub roots. "Walking Off" is a turning point on the album as a vast and deserted ambient landscape materializes before "Routine Conflict" combines distorted noise with echoing and apprehensive synths. "System I" quickens with visceral scratches over a brooding siren like call before "A Music Of Sound Systems" closes out the LP with an eerie and staggered melody, rumbling outwards.
TALAMANCA SYSTEM: My Past Is Your Future 12" (IFEEL 062EP)
Talamanca System are the unlikely trio of Gerd Janson and Phillip Lauer of Tuff City Kids, and Mark Barrott. My Past Is Your Future brings them back together, for the first time since their sole release in 2014 (IFEEL 034EP), and winks at a forthcoming album. "My Past Is Your Future" uses of delicate chords, cascading keys, and an effortless groove and it's paired with a "Beatless Stars Is Space" mix that strips it back to its core and the "Chukka Chukka Dance" mix which squares up to the dancefloor with an end-of-night classic.
TALAMANCA SYSTEM: Talamanca System CD (IFEEL 063CD)
On the white island, between Ibiza Town and the infamous fish shack high up on a rock next to a bird sanctuary, you will find the beach of Talamanca. Plagued by too much seaweed, anchored middle-class yachts, and joggers, it is also surprisingly the spiritual home of a correspondent post-Balearic group. As luck would have it, a remix request by Mark Barrott bedded the International Feel boss in a trio with Philipp Lauer and Gerd Janson, alias Tuff City Kids. A highly sought-after 12-inch later -- Balanzat (IFEEL 034EP, 2014) -- as well as fantasies of getting together to work on more material, led to a fruitful and effortless studio session on the non-Balearic outskirts of Frankfurt am Main. The outcome of that meeting forms the homonymous debut album of Talamanca System. A documented vision, or a sunburned imagination of a day and night spent on said island, during a moment in time that probably never was or will be. Still summed up best by dungarees, long hair, yellow sunglasses, espadrilles, or that famous picture of people grouped around roofless Amnesia's pyramid well, it is the food of the Balearic gods. But, dear nostalgia, stop right here! Even though Talamanca's debut flies the Balearic flag, it is not about turning back the clock, but rather about a past that could be the future. Dusted, danceable, driving, dreamy, and dapper at the same time, this is an album for the club, the car, the beach, the (coke) float, and the fountain. Coined by the colorful and respective talents of the three individuals behind Talamanca, you will hear nine tracks ranging from up- to down-tempo, piano house smashers that would have deserved the prefix Italo-, percussion rituals captured by a group of zoo animals on the loose, soundtracks for dusk and dawn, hushed vocals, rites of ambient passages, powerful synth ballads, and vamp choirs. If this album were a car, it would be a Citroen 2CV remade by Tesla. Their past is your future! CD version comes in four-panel digipak.
PISETZKY: Tears Of A Rough Machine 2x12" (JT 014LP)
Pisetzky's full-length debut album on Just This, Tears Of A Rough Machine, is an exploration in contemporary techno music, fine ambient works, and unique broken pieces. An intense mixture of warmth, weird fluffiness, mystic trumpets, and high uplifts, the album is interspersed with short ambient and fragmented interludes, each just a few minutes long. "State Of Consciousness" and "Tears Of A Rough Machine" are serene and reflective tracks that give the listener time to breathe, bringing him/her back to more dancefloor-focused tracks of the LP, like "Viridis", "Bakwas", and "Wand". The result is a magic story, a history in eleven chapters that the listener is guided through, like the landscapes of a mystic journey, with a twist on the melodies and hidden effects behind every deep bass sound. Mixed and mastered by Neel at Enisslab Studio, Rome.
TOMAGA: Greetings From The Bitter End 12" (KAYAKAYA 009EP)
Following their second album The Shape Of The Dance (2016), Tomaga present the four track EP Greetings From The Bitter End which features two new songs and reworkings from Shit & Shine and Cavern Of Anti-Matter. The impetus for the new EP came when the pair returned from recording the last album in Tuscany and acquired a marimba on arrival back in London, this unleashed a "tuned percussion journey" resulting in the mantra-like "Liberating Mania". The title track is a more ambient and atmospheric affair -- a textured build-up of percussive parts and features Rick Tomlinson on hornet.
BEESMUNT SOUNDSYSTEM: Aqua Como 12" (KITJEN 006EP)
Aqua Como is the tropical cruise ship experience of summer -- brought to you by Amsterdam duo Beesmunt Soundsystem. Watch an umbrella appear in your glass as you play these four superbly crafted house cuts. Start sending automated out of office replies by simply scanning the cover with your mobile device. This record's official dress code is "cannabis farmer at court hearing".
John Hartford, live in Cincinnati on WABN-FM, November 9th, 1971. After success as a country-pop songwriter in the late 1960s, John Hartford applied his compositional wit to purer bluegrass in the early 1970s. Broadcast on WABN-FM in Cincinnati, these recordings from a November 9th, 1971 performance features musicians from his acclaimed album of the same year, Aereo-Plain. Several songs from that record are performed on this 70-minute disc, along with some traditional folk tunes and a couple songs from Hartford's late-'60s LPs. The entire WABN-FM broadcast is included here, digitally remastered, and includes background liners.
2017 repress; Double LP version with download code. 180-gram vinyl. When Kompakt came across Amsterdam-based Harm Coolen and Merijn Scholte Albers aka Weval in 2014, the label was blown away by the duo's slow-burning, darkly emotive tracks. Following two widely acclaimed EPs for Kompakt and numerous festival appearances, the pair now present their self-titled full-length debut. This is no mere collection of tracks, but a complete listening experience with organic flow, emotional heft, and a narrative thread. While the duo's previous Kompakt releases -- their acclaimed 2014 Easier EP (KOMPAKT 318) and 2015's bold and beautiful It'll Be Just Fine/Grow Up (KOM 344EP), which saw the two soundsmiths digging deeper into the granularities of electronic funk than ever before -- were astonishingly fully-formed, the pair's music always seemed destined for more space to explore the nooks and crannies of this rapidly evolving sound cosmos. Simply put, they needed to think about an album, and their beloved living room studio wasn't cutting it anymore. An old school building, repurposed to house small creative businesses, became Weval's new home, but in the summer of 2015, it was abandoned most of the time, with everybody out in the sun while the duo turned the building's attic into a sweet spot to make some noise, have 24-hour access, and lose track of time. Weval draw their inspirations from no single genre of music, but an accumulation of music that inspires them. The results present an astonishingly coherent vision -- cuts like the dramatic "The Battle," bass growler "I Don't Need It," and the trippy epic "Madness" share the same DNA of zestful nostalgia, a knack for immersive sound-sculpting, and that certain kink in the groove. They also feed on deeply personal experiences and moods, as exemplified by the haunting electronic ballad "You're Mine," the carefully layered, polaroid-tinted "Just In Case," and the beautifully voiced closer "Years To Build." And sometimes, it's just an old, out-of-tune piano that stands in the hallway -- "Whenever I'd pass by it, I couldn't resist playing it," says Albers, "so Harm decided to start recording and it became an integral part of 'You Made It (Part I).'" No doubt about it: this is Weval's most powerful and organic material yet -- which means a lot, considering the amount of skill already on display in their small but weighty portfolio.
Kölsch returns to Kompakt following the tremendous success of 2016's Grey (KOM EX093EP). For Speicher 97, Rune revisits the bold, catchy minimalism of his earlier days: think of his Ink And Needle alias or Kölsch's first Speicher/Kompakt Extra release (KOM EX068EP, 2010) and you're not too far off the mark. "Push" is a raucous, sawtooth-y banger that quickly evolves into a high-flying space ride, thanks to its bursts of melody and a deep string break. On the flipside, "Goodbye" creates a delightfully melancholic mood enhanced (and transcended) with organ-like synth textures, retro-futuristic bleeps and fragmented alien voices.
Berlin's own Marco Haas, aka T.Raumschmiere, made an irreparable impression globally in the '00s as a saw-toothed, anti-rave radical, thanks to his immense stage antics and larger-than-life releases on Novamute. Since then, Haas has established himself as a contemporary with emotive, dark ambient tales on his own imprints Shitkatapult and AlbumLabel. Kompakt's love affair with Haas goes back to their earliest days. Some of his first tracks were released on Kompakt in the form of two raw EPs entitled Bolzplatz (KOM 021EP, 2000) and Musick (KOM 037EP, 2001). These two formative releases elevated the "Schaffel" sound to raw and shameless places never before imagined. The results set a tidal wave in motion that to this day remains one of Kompakt's most infamous legacies. In an off-chance reunion with Haas in his studio, Kompakt learnt about what he'd been doing since the "Monstertruckdriver" days. It turned out he's been ever so busy outside of the mainstream working with the likes of Dieter Meier of Yello, Caspar Brötzmann, Andreas Dorau, Fraktus, Ofrin, or Barbara Morgenstern, and his recent work with Ulli Bomans, aka Schieres, as SHRUBBN!!. Kompakt present T.Raumschmiere's new, epic solo full-length Heimat. It presents another side of his work which was always there, but never got that much airtime: the artist, the author, the composer with the crystal-clear sound. Heimat is a stunning techno album that neither excludes ambient, nor gets reduced to constant ass kicking. It's perhaps the best recording so far from this man who asks so deeply, so extensively, so much. And at some point even answers.
For the first time ever, the entire catalog of Christian Morgenstern was released digitally, accompanied by a limited and remastered series of eight 12" records that included remixes by artists such as Distant Echoes, Jeroen Search, Staffan Linzatti, Stanislav Tolkachev, Mistake Made, Alexander Kowalski, Psyk, d_func, Fanon Flowers, Ben Kaczor, Henning Baer, Christian Wünsch, Jonas Kopp, Efdemin, TWR72, Jeff Rushin, Mørbeck, Oscar Mulero, CTRLS, and Maral Salmassi. KSQ Bundle 2 compiles Remixes 6/8, Remixes 7/8, and Remixes 8/8 from the 12" series and features remixes by Alexander Kowalski, Trolley Route, Jeff Rushin, Dr. Shingo, Staffan Linzatti, Stanislav Tolkachev, Christian Wunsch, Mørbeck, and Jonas Kopp. After 12 years, these releases also mark the return of Konsequent. Founded in 1997 by Maral Salmassi, Konsequent was home to some of the earliest releases by Morgenstern and also represented the deep creative and personal relationship that the two shared until Christian's death in 2003.
CONRAD, PATRICK: Gelukkig Als In Het Bijzijn Van Een Vrouw LP (K 077LP)
2012 release. Kraak present a reissue of Patrick Conrad's Gelukkig Als In Het Bijzijn Van Een Vrouw, originally published by Pink Editions & Productions in 1973. In 1972, Belgian poets Nic van Bruggen and Patrick Conrad founded Pink Poets, a group of mainly artists from Antwerp that shared a love for quality restaurants and alcohol. In 1973 Conrad recorded Gelukkig Als In Het Bijzijn Van Een Vrouw with roots man Roland van Campenhout and two session musicians. The record is one of the very few psychedelic treasures in Belgium. Originally pressed in an edition of 300 copies, most of them have vanished, becoming a true collector's item for psych heads and poetry lovers. Not only does it represent a crucial period in Conrad's oeuvre, it is also a truly unique cross media collaboration of its time. Conrad reads his poems through an echo chamber, backed up and interspersed with improvised hippy-esque folk and effect experiments. On the cover, Conrad the dandy poses next to a sculpture by Charles Albert Szukalski. The inside of the gatefold sports the poems against a background of opium smokers. This reissue comes with an elaborate essay on the work and a reproduction of the poster of the live presentation at gallery De Zwarte Panter in Antwerp in the same year. Gatefold sleeve; Includes an eight-page booklet (29x29 cm) on pink paper. All copies are signed by Patrick Conrad; Edition of 300 (hand-numbered).
2013 release. Lieven Martens Moana's first album under his birth name marks an important shift in his oeuvre. While still indebted to the universe created under his moniker Dolphins Into The Future, Music From The Guardhouse shows the artist reaching the shores of his mental island, fully matured. This is where a new journey begins, a musical research program within the "composer genre". Through literature and landscape painting, Martens develops a language that is as close to the personal-spiritual documentary as to contemporary classical music. Quoting Percy Bysshe Shelley in its opening piece, the tone of "Aria, The Cloud" is set for an intimate but extroverted modernist take on neo-romanticism. The album is conceived as a play for magnetic tape recorder, using field recordings and midi devices as its round characters. Rich musical intertextuality, ranging from Baudelaire to Toru Takemitsu and Messiaen, cleverly chaperones the theater of sound, emphasizing every shift and every detail while still allowing time and space for reflection between the acts. More than ever, Martens's work is the result of a deep process of enlightening. It shows the becoming of a mediating poet who summons the spirits of Nature, of the Sensual, of the Unspoken. A quatrain of Emerson is whispered in a ghost appearance: "All day the waves assailed the rock, / I heard no church bell chime; / The sea-beat scorns the minster clock / And breaks the glass of Time." All along the deliberately chosen archaisms are beautifully transcended, making these compositions a constant game of question and answer between past and present, between man and art. This album lays bare modern man's need of myth, of classic beauty. Music From The Guardhouse could be regarded a corner stone, a blue print for the future of composition to come, a lecture in honesty and depth.
Life And Death welcome Italian synth wizard Lucy for the label's first release of 2017. Luca Mortellaro's cavernous techno offering comes equipped with a DJ Sotofett version and a rendition by Planetary Assault Systems, further cementing the diversity of the label's scope. DJ Sotofett recalls fine nineties loop techno, while Luke Slater once again confirms his pioneer status.
Some try it with mouth-to-mouth insufflation and cardiac massage. Others with psycho-pharmaceuticals or group therapy. Still others with divorce. By going cold turkey. With a new profile pic and a matching hairstyle. Seen it all at Robert Johnson, already endorsed everything -- at least as long as it helps: as a lifesaving measure. But since the year dot, the Offenbach-based club with its affiliated label recommends to all which are undecided or have doubts particularly one thing: Music. And dance. Every two years, when life newly blossoms during spring, Live At Robert Johnson opens its windows widely, lets new music out and fresh air into the house. The beguiling scent of nature and aviation fuel blends with the scent of sweat and dry ice fog -- and causes sundry healing confusion. As soon as the first tone of the Lifesaver Compilation 3 is heard, the swelling grunt of Vincent Feit's "X04", the scenery of the dancefloor right at the Main river appears before one's eyes. On Saint Monday, iconoclasts rebel against the age of self-optimization. A crack goes through the parquet of the dancefloor (or the dancing party itself). The post-unambiguities era is beginning. The images become blurred. Bass case. Alternative facts. Resonance hole. No reception. And then it's only the queue answering the club emergency hotline. Finally there is a buzz on the line. "Just drop the images!," it says. "It's all not that tragic." This helps. The Lifesaver Compilation 3, the yet most comprehensive package of the Lifesaver history, sounds like electro, sharp-edged like the vault in a Hague bunker (Lauer), provides data pop with piano crescendo (Fort Romeau), brings the style characteristics of German schlager music to the breakdance mat (Rolande Garros), lets the bulky lily-of-the-valley bells clang and sends the reverb tails away with the wind (Benedikt Frey). There are several new names to discover: Felix Strahd, Benjamin Milz, Vincent Feit; and of course there a many old acquaintances: Massimiliano Pagliara, Orson Wells, TCB, and Chinaski. Roman Flügel offers "Good News", however: "From Another Planet". And Fort Romeau feels "Lost, Again", but in such somnambulistically beautiful manner that you want to get lost with him instantly and jointly find the great joy. Again and again there are mysterious chants. It's not required to decipher the specific words in order to get the message: Salvation is near. Salvation is here: the Lifesaver Compilation 3.
Dona Onete, "the grande dame of Amazonian song", returns with further tales from the river Amazon on her sophomore album Banzeiro. Whether she's championing gay rights, singing about the delights of indecent proposals, or praising a former lover for his "crazy ways of making love", Banzeiro is defined by Onete's honest reflections on life, love, sex as well as her delight in the everyday pleasures of life in the Amazon, whether that's spicy seasoning, salty kisses, or fishy-smelling water. "Banzeiro" is the wave that's created as boats pass through the water and with its pulsating saxophone riff, insistent guitar line, thundering percussion and Onete's charged lyrics the album title track, a banguê - raucous high-octane "Amazonian ska" - is a musical tsunami. Onete is at her most potent on "Na Linha Do Arco Iris" ("The Line Of The Rainbow"), a rallying cry of support for her LGBT fans. "Faceira" and "No Meio Do Pitiú" are joyous carimbós with the latter surely the only song to recount the charms of Pitiú - the fishy-smelling water that floods Belém's legendary fish-market Ver-o-Peso as the ice defrosts. "No Sabor Do Beijo" ("The Taste Of A Kiss") delights in recounting the different flavors a kiss can have: "hot, frozen, sweet, salty, bold . . . abusive", whilst "Lua Jaci" ("Jaci Moon") recounts a journey to a local island for a concert: "When I arrived they didn't have a soundsystem - they were very poor people. All they had was this huge, beautiful moon . . . Lua Jaci." The cumbia-influenced "Quiemoso E Tremoso" is about seasoning Onete invented that reflects the mix of people from Pará. The boleros Onete offers provide respite from the heat of the tropical night and a welcome chance to drop the tempo. On "Coracao Brecho Onete" sings of how her heart has become a second-hand store (brecho) full of happy and sad memories whilst "Quando Eu Te Conheci" ("When I Met You") is a song even she was unsure of recording because of its risqué lyric "Eu adorei teu jeito louco, Muito louco, Muito louco, De fazer amor" - "I adore your crazy way, Very crazy, Very crazy, Of making love." Comes with Portuguese lyrics and English translations.
The second release on Berlin based label Man Band is a beautifully crafted cosmic gem by Strip Steve. With sounds ranging from ambient to raw, galactic workouts, this five-tracker is a must have for listening just as much as dancing. "Scattered" features DJ Storch and "Spheres" features Eddie Laddoire.
VON LOWTZOW, DIRK: I Want A Dog 12" (12BACH 005EP)
When Martin Hossbach asked Dirk von Lowtzow whether he was interested in covering a song of Hossbach's favorite English pop group, Pet Shop Boys, he immediately said yes. Von Lowtzow chose "I Want A Dog", the B-side of Rent (1987). "And what about Neil Young?" "Sure, Martin! But you choose!" Hossbach decided that it would also have to be a song about animals. He went for "Beautiful Bluebird" from Chrome Dreams II (2007). Both songs were recorded and produced by Moses Schneider. The dog on the cover is drawn by von Lowtzow himself, the artwork is by Will Bankhead.
AMBIENT NOISE LEVEL & DOT: Challenger Deep 12" (MARY 005EP)
This is the first time both Sanchez brothers can be found on one record. Having Daniel Sanchez as Ambient Noise Level was a personal goal for Mary Go Wild, but who could've imagined his one and only brother Juan Sanchez would join in for a massive remix. Let this one take you deep, and discover places you've never been before.
Mental Experience present a reissue of Golem's Orion Awakes. Orion Awakes was recorded and produced circa 1976 by Toby Robinson, aka Genius P. Orridge, while he worked as second engineer at the famous Dierks Studio in Cologne. Memories from those hazy times are sketchy, but all evidence leads you to believe that the musicians featured here were well-known names from the kraut scene working under pseudonyms, recording 100% underground, non-commercial music under Toby's guidance, just for fun. Apparently, Orion Awakes was released as a very limited hand-made pressing housed in a silver foil sleeve on the Pyramid label, which was run by Toby and his friend Robin Page, the Fluxus artist. No original copies have ever been found. The fascinating liner notes by kraut expert Alan Freeman talk about seeing an original copy of Golem at a record shop in Germany many years ago and he also sheds some light on who could be the real musicians involved, as well as discussing the controversial story of the Pyramid label and the accusations of Golem being a manufactured '90s "fake" instead of a real vintage '70s recording. A glorious blend of space-rock, kraut, and psychedelia, courtesy of the mysterious Golem -- Plenty of Hammond organ, analog synths, ripping guitar, effects, trippy jams. RIYL: Gila, Mythos, Guru Guru, Cosmic Jokers, Novalis, Neu!, Hawkwind, Brainticket, My Solid Ground, Pink Floyd. "Legitimately tripped out, fans of the Cosmic Jokers could certainly get behind this one." --Angela Sawyer (Weirdo Records) Includes download coupon; 24-bit domain remaster from the original tapes; Housed in a silver foil sleeve; Insert with liner notes by Alan Freeman (Ultima Thule/The Crack In The Cosmic Egg (1996)).
LP version. 180 gram, blue vinyl. Scarlett's Fall is a duo formed in 2014 by Ruth Childs (British-American performance artist and singer based in Geneva) and Stéphane Vecchione (Swiss performance artist and musician based in Lausanne). They define themselves as dirty-girlie-kitchen-pop, mixing catchy melodies and repetitive looping with fragile vocals and provocative texts. Out of their playfully ironic and poetic universe you can hear shades of Can, Broadcast, and Young Marble Giants. Scarlett's Scared is Scarlett's Fall's ironically seductive second album. It all started with a (blue) demonstration vinyl entitled The Incredible Sounds Of Synclavier II, released by New England Digital Corp in 1981, to promote the first digital sampling system. Its content gave the basic atmosphere for the whole album: each of the ten tracks samples a specific Synclavier sound. Add haunting melodies, mysterious vocals, and fun beats and you get Scarlett's Scared complete. As the title suggests, Scarlett's Scared is about being scared and takes its roots from vintage movies, such as Klute (1971) and Metti, Una Sera A Cena (1969), that deal with phone stalkers, insomnia, sexual tension, vampires, ghosts, and explosive watermelon attacks.
VA: Rocksteady: The Roots Of Reggae CD (MOLL 016CD)
Originally released on CD in 2009. Now available on vinyl for the first time. The sixteenth release on the Moll-Selekta label shares its title with a wonderful film, a heartwarming homage to the golden age of rocksteady. Rocksteady: The Roots Of Reggae documents the recordings being made for this very album at the Tuff Gong studios, Kingston, Jamaica in April 2008, telling the story of the original vocalists and musicians involved. Included are excerpts from an all-star reunion concert staged in Kingston alongside older archive material. Never before in the history of Jamaica, which already occupies a unique place on the world map of song, has such an illustrious collection of singers and players been assembled. The album showcases 15 rocksteady classics in sparkling, deeply inspired new versions, recorded in the studio which also played host to album sessions of a certain Bob Marley. Under the musical direction of Ernest Ranglin, a guitarist of considerable renown not only on the reggae circuit, and mixed by legendary engineer Errol Brown -- employ at Duke Reid's Treasure Isle studio in the sixties -- and freshly arranged by Lynn Taitt, each of the new versions was recorded using authentic instruments to capture the true rocksteady style. In the context of Jamaican musical history, rocksteady enjoyed a relatively brief, two to three year spell in the limelight, taking over from the faster-paced, predominantly instrumental ska sound of the early part of the decade and laying the foundation for reggae to come with an emphasis on bass, more intricate melodies, and bringing singers and vocal trios to the fore. Between 1966-1968, an unprecedented, and unrepeated, proliferation of marvelous songs moved many fans to call this the golden age. Hopeton Lewis, one of the creators of rocksteady, the great DJ U-Roy, an international pioneer of toasting, Stranger Cole, Derrick Morgan, and Leroy Sibbles are just a few of the legendary figures taking part, some having met to play together for the first time in forty years. This wonderful musical style from Jamaica and the great personalities behind it would certainly be deserving of similar belated recognition. A historical work in every respect. Features: Leroy Sibbles, Hopeton Lewis, Judy Mowatt, U-Roy, Ken Boothe, Derrick Morgan, Dawn Penn, Stranger Cole, Gladstone Anderson, Marcia Griffith, and Lynn Taitt. Includes a 16-page booklet containing extensive liner notes by the American music journalist Chuck Foster. CD version comes in a digipack.
Chapter 5 and 6 mark the end of the Cosmic Temple project by Daniele Baldelli. Six 12" releases containing a total of 18 unreleased tracks inspired by the sounds of cosmic disco of Lazise (Verona, Italy), where Daniele Baldelli was resident from 1979 until the end of 1984. Chapter 5: Space music atmosphere in "Kata Sandi", a fusion of Italo disco electronics and Moroder influences with a vocoder to interpret the melody. After a grand opening, "Esaendro" starts to fly in space in Tangerine Dream atmosphere. "Dioxide" is an electro funk with psychotic and tribal influences.
Chapter 5 and 6 mark the end of the Cosmic Temple project by Daniele Baldelli. Six 12" releases containing a total of 18 unreleased tracks inspired by the sounds of cosmic disco of Lazise (Verona, Italy), where Daniele Baldelli was resident from 1979 until the end of 1984. Chapter 6: In "Taxon", he intertwined saxophone, free voices, funk, jazz, and electronics. "Kevlar" is headed by a strident and wandering guitar on a carpet of percussion. "33vs45" is a piece composed to be played at 33rpm but also lends itself to be proposed in 45rpm in Daniele Baldelli's style.
Restocked. Monster Melodies present the original soundtrack of Amore (1973), a film by Henry Chapier, composed and performed by Vangelis Papathanassiou. An unreleased recording dating from July 1973. Vangelis Papathanassiou was the composer of the group Aphrodite's Child, he composed the band's music and the songs of Demis Roussos. Later Vangelis became famous for the soundtrack of the film Chariots of Fire (1981). In 1974, Henry Chapier after several atypical movie, An American Summer (1968), Sex-Power (1970) and Hi, Jerusalem (1972), directed the fiction film Amore. Here is an extract from the Divan d'Henry Chapier interview with Papathanassiou directed by Jean Claude Longin 2011: "This is happening in a city constantly threatened with death. At the time, I thought, there were a lot of documentaries and that I would do it differently. I imagined Venice in the guise of a heroine, a very beautiful woman, Sonia Petrovna, a girl of the Venetian aristocracy ailing, representing a page of history that has passed. But the fact remains that in the frame, in the subject, there was a little journalistic approach. Also because one of the actors, Daniel Quenaud, was presumed to be a reporter, sent to consider the merits of an architectural plan which would save Venice. So in the agreement, there is a slight journalist contamination. Otherwise there was also a love story... I think it's more of a fiction film than a documentary nonetheless." Chapier had this to say about going about the score: "The first time, it was at the Olympia, at the band's concert. I found the music to be trippy and wonderful, I, who above all, loved the Pink Floyd. I thought the Pink Floyd, I could never get them for my films. So I stormed in backstage at the Olympia, I said to Vangelis, 'Listen you are made to be an independent composer.' Things clicked between us instantly and so I asked if he wanted the script. He told me, 'no, we will see, me, I improvise from images.' This is a technique that is practiced today, but back then, it was unheard of. We did not have people like him, who recorded the sound on sixteen tracks, playing all the instruments themselves and who already had in mind how they would edit the soundtrack." Colored vinyl. Includes unpublished photos, the film poster and a postcard.
$23.79 UPC: 769791962309 SOUNDTRACK
A1. Venezia
A2. Ruga Do Pozlic
A3. Giudecca
A4. Campo San Polo
B1. Ma Dove Sei'
B2. La Contessina
B3. Marina
B4. Amore
At the end of the sixties, Jean Pierre Weiller, a young Parisian and amateur bassist, was an assistant at a Soft Machine concert, and befriended Hugh Hopper who introduced him to Robert Wyatt. He was invited to the Abbey Road studios to attend the recording of Kevin Ayers's 1969 album Joy Of A Toy (MRSSS 513LP). Back in Paris, in October 1970, he decided to add a saxophonist to the band Brave New World, a band he set up at the age of seventeen with two other high school students of Paris's thirteenth arrondissement. Having become a quartet, the group took the name Contrepoint. Contrepoint, first formed by bassist Jean Pierre Weiller, organist Jean Pierre Carolfi, percussionist Mike Freitag, and saxophonist Robert Taylor, started to explore instrumental avant-garde music between rock and free jazz. Like so many bands at the time, Counterpoint performs in the circuit of the MJC and for various events. The members gained a certain notoriety, allowing them to be invited to the Pop Club of "France Inter" where they performed three singles: "Facelift", "Golden Section", and "Lily Kong" in the company of English musicians Elton Dean, Lol Coxhill, Hugh Hopper, and Laurie Allen. The group had a growing reputation and were in talks with CBS to release an album, but it was not like England. In France, the market for innovative music was not in line with the expectations from the French majors requesting maximum profitability. Contrepoint never recorded a studio album. Contrepoint did end up recording a live single, "Unfathomable Of The Seventh Time", on the initiative of Laurent Thibault, for Puissance 13 + 2 (1972), a compilation with other bands such as Catherine Ribeiro and Magma. In 1974, it was a new beginning. Counterpoint played in the first part of the new group by Hugh Hopper, which included Jean Pierre Weiller, Jean Pierre Carolfi, Elton Dean, and Mike Travis. A record from the band Hugh Hopper Monster immortalized on its second face the performance recorded in Bordeaux on March 20, 1974. But despite the recognition, after more than 200 concerts throughout France, Contrepoint separated in 1976. The unpublished record of Contrepoint, directed by Jean Yves Tonello in 1971, was originally engraved on acetate at the time and it remains one of the few existing testimonies of the work of these excellent musicians. Includes two inserts; Transparent vinyl; Edition of 1000 (numbered).
$23.79 UPC: 769791966420 ROCK
A1. Buttes Aux Cailles (6:50)
A2. Interlude Free 1 (7:16)
A3. Unfathomable Of The Seventh Time, Part 1 (3:50)
A4. Unfathomable Of The Seventh Time, Part 2 (3:21)
A5. Si Seulement (5:28)
B1. Interlude Free 2 (2:50)
B2. Unfathomable Of The Seventh Time, Part 3 (8:50)
B3. Unfathomable Of The Seventh Time, Part 4 (10:46)
LP version. Includes inner sleeve and download code. Sóley is back with her third solo album, Endless Summer. Written over the period of one year together with her long-time friend and collaborator Albert Finnbogason, the new full-length sees the acclaimed musician from Iceland explore the more optimistic, sun-drenched corners of her songwriting. Sóley's latest offering is the warmth beneath the snow at the end of winter, the seeds waiting to grow as spring whispers to us. From the heavy organs, synths, and minor keys of her last album Ask the Deep (MORR 138CD/LP, 2015), Endless Summer emerges with a kind of hopeful sweetness, and feels even more vulnerable. "The idea for the album came pretty randomly one night in beginning of January 2016 when I woke up in the middle of the night and wrote a note to myself: 'Write about hope and spring'," she says about the album's general direction. "So I painted my studio in yellow and purple, bought a grand piano, sat down and started playing, singing and writing." And Endless Summer delivers just that, opening with the song "Úa" (named after her young daughter) that washes over the listener like a hopeful dream. It's based on an adventurous acoustic arrangement reminiscent of Joanna Newsom or Agnes Obel, which sets the tone for what is to follow in its wake. Throughout the new album, Sóley's arrangements for a small orchestra give Endless Summer a colorful touch: Take, for example, the track "Never Cry Moon", in which the sound of clarinet, trombone, and cello beautifully engulf Sóley's repetitive piano playing. Comprised of eight songs, Endless Summer is an album that's grounded in fertile wisdom. Not just an ethereal dream of love and light, but a subtle, accumulative wisdom. One might say that one of Sóley's signature is the childlike wonder in her lyrics, and Endless Summer delivers the same wonder, but with a kind of reverence for it, for she's no longer a wanderer in a nightmare, but an enchanted lover of mystery. Endless Summer is like the Icelandic summer, a liminal, endless turning, a shift of consciousness, an endless awakening of continual brightness not without the acknowledgement of winter; it is the eruption from which the rebirth of light emerges.
NYC producer Marcos Cabral, often releasing certain DJ weapons from the labels as L.I.E.S and The Trilogy Tapes, gave birth to three tracks of punchy, energetic machine-ism. His addictive polyrhythms and lo-fi hardware pulses always set some hooks -- which can be found in boosted drum lines and sometimes industrial noises as "Pest Control" and "In The Red" (which features Entro Senestre). Set up with "Standing On The Corner", which is also nicely balanced deep house tune, the EP captures the aesthetics of roughness and fineness.
CHILTON, ALEX: Take Me Home And Make Me Like It LP (MR 372LP)
Take Me Home And Make Me Like It comprises unrehearsed, first-take recordings by Alex Chilton, recorded in 1975. Notes by Alex Chilton and producer Jon Tiven; 180 gram vinyl.
"This is music performed with some of the most callous abandon ever to have been allowed in a recording studio. Many of these tracks have a raw cinéma vérité atmosphere applied to recorded rock and roll. My own performances seem to be either obnoxious or attempting an insufferable cuteness, but often they achieve a compelling electricity in their spontaneous excitement. We recorded over a few days in the fall of 1975. I was very into a loose, unrehearsed first take sort of approach to recording music. I learned from producer Jim Dickinson the method of throwing a very impromptu rendering of a song onto tape. . . . This method gives a fresh, sometimes anarchistic quality to the performances. The first day of the sessions was approached in this way. The second day went according to the producer's more conservative method of planning and rehearsal. All in all there is some hot, untamed rock and roll on this disc." --Alex Chilton, 1992.
"This record is meant as an addendum to Singer Not The Song (1977) / Bach's Bottom (1981) and not a substitution. The idea that somebody would be interested in anything beyond what had already been released is lunacy considering the underwhelming reaction the record industry had to it at the time. When Munster asked if I'd like to take a look at releasing anything that wasn't out previously, I had to say yes. Now you have it, all the contents of the first crazy night of recording, plus some new ways to look at some of the other material. . . . It's sort of similar (not musically, but in terms of the producer/artist relationship) to the Blowin' Your Mind! album by Van Morrison (1967) -- you can sense the underlying tension, and not every track is a 'success', but it is mighty powerful. . . . Alex was not about melody at the time, he wanted to repudiate his Big Star work and make a sinister record that threatened people. Without half trying, Singer Not The Song did accomplish that. It became one of the first punk rock/new wave records, the very first EP for the genre." --Jon Tiven, Jan 2017
VA: Outro Tempo: Electronic And Contemporary Music From Brazil, 1978-1992 2LP (MFM 016LP)
For their first multi-artist compilation, Music From Memory take a trip to the heart of the Amazon rainforest. Outro Tempo: Electronic And Contemporary Music From Brazil, 1978-1992 is a double LP that explores the outer reaches of Brazilian music, where indigenous rhythms mix with synthesizers and where MPB mingles with drum computers. As Brazil faced the last years of its military dictatorship and transition to democracy, a generation of forward-thinking musicians developed an alternative vision of Brazilian music and culture. They embraced traditionally shunned electronic production methods and infused their music with elements of ambient, jazz-fusion, and minimalism. At the same time they referenced the musical forms and spirituality of indigenous tribes from the Amazon. The music they produced was a complex and mesmerizing tapestry that vividly evoked Brazilian landscapes and simultaneously reached out to the world beyond its borders. The product of extensive research, this compilation is a unique introduction to this visionary music and features many fresh discoveries in a country well-trodden by record diggers. It gathers tracks from obscure albums that have for too long been neglected by even the most avid collectors of Brazilian music. It includes now highly sought after music by Andréa Daltro, Maria Rita, and Fernando Falcão, as well as unknown gems like those of Cinema, Carlinhos Santos, and Anno Luz. This is an essential release that reveals a broader spectrum of Brazilian music, striking a unique sonic signature that is full of innovation, experimentation, and beauty. Compiled by John Gómez and featuring extensive liner notes, Outro Tempo showcases this overlooked corner in Brazil's rich music history for the first time. Also features: Piry Reis, Nando Carneiro, Os Mulheres Negras, Bené Fonteles, Priscilla Ermel, Carioca, Marco Bosco, and Luhli E Lucina.
The second release on Obas Nenor's label Nenorion Music is a gathering of friends and like-minded musicians from the Tel Aviv underground. "Emotions" is a collaboration between Nenor and Omri Smadar, a classically trained jazz pianist with a diverse musical background. "Diminished State" from Kali Boog, aka Kalimist, is a kaleidoscope of colossal analog techno grooves with a funky, gritty vibe. On "You'll Never Find Love", veteran producer Kalbata provides razor sharp, analog rhythms and moody, soulful vocal samples. "Afternoon Walk" came into existence when Obas Nenor casually experimented with the rewiring and routing of analog gear and effects.
GLOBOKAR, VINKO: Musica Viva 27 CD/SACD (NEOS 11627CD)
Vinko Globokar talks about the development of Exil 3 (Das Leben des Emigranten Edvard): "Four years ago a group of musicians from the former Yugoslavia requested a short composition from me. At that time I was reading a book of poems about exile. I selected several texts from it and wrote a piece for five instrumentalists and a soprano. That was Exile No. 1. As for No. 2, it remained an attempt. Then came the commission from Munich, and for that, taking Exile No. 1 as the point of departure, I have now written a large work of about fifty minutes. The orchestra consists of 32 solo instruments, with the four strings amplified. Then there are 48 choral singers and four soloists: a high soprano, a narrator, a contrabass clarinetist and an anonymous improviser who remains unseen by the audience."
Personnel: Piia Komsi - soprano; Bruno Ganz - narrator; Michael Riessler - double bass clarinet; Vinko Globokar - improviser; Zoro Babel - sound director; Chor und Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, conducted by Peter Eötvös.
OEHRING, HELMUT: Angelus Novus II CD (NEOS 11700CD)
Helmut Oehring was born in East Berlin in 1961. A self-taught guitarist and composer, he was a master student of Georg Katzer at the Berlin Academy of Arts between 1992 and 1994. The recipient of a scholarship at the Villa Massimo in Rome in 1994/95, he has since garnered many awards such as the Hindemith Prize (1997) and the Arnold Schönberg Prize (2008) for his oeuvre as a whole, which today comprises more than 350 works across virtually all genres. His autobiography entitled Mit anderen Augen. Vom Kind gehörloser Eltern zum Komponisten (With different eyes. From child of deaf parents to composer) was published in 2011 and, under his direction, it was produced as an audio play on SWR in 2015. Helmut Oehring's oeuvre focuses on composition and music theater staging of instrumental-vocal and audio-visual works that blend poetic and documentary content and form, orientated around topical reality.
Angelus Novus II, Collage instrumental-vocal mis-en-scène (2014) was recorded live at Dampfzentrale Bern, January 24 and 25, 2015. Performed by Vertigo Ensemble Hochschule der Künste Bern. Personnel: Helmut Oehring - composition; Stefanie Wördemann - concept & libretto; Lennart Dohms - conductor; Benoît Piccand, Beat Müller, Samuel Gfeller - live audio; Mirella Weingarten - staging; Angela Koerfer-Bürger - stage direction; Benoît Piccand - recording engineer.
Ruben Seroussi, composer and guitarist, born in Montevideo, Uruguay January 1st, 1959, settled in Israel in 1974. He finished "magna cum laude" his composition studies at Tel Aviv University's Academy of Music under the guidance of Leon Schidlowsky. His works, for various musical formations, have been performed in Israel by the best performers and orchestras, and are frequently performed abroad by well-known ensembles, such as Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Oriol, New Juilliard Ensemble, Cuarteto Latinoamericano, Continuum New York, Moscow's Studio for New Music, Ensemble Mosaik, and others, in Chicago, Köln, Berlin, Dresden, Thessalonika, New York, Luxemburg, Bern, Budapest, Helsinki, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Rome, London, Moscow, Ljubljana, Madrid, Victoria, and Belgrad. In addition, Seroussi is an active concert guitarist, who plays as recitalist, in chamber formations and as soloist in Israel and abroad. He has also recorded for such labels as Nuova Era and Meridian Records. Ruben Seroussi has been the Head of Composition Studies at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music, Tel Aviv University since 2004, where he has taught since 1994.
Works featured on Chamber Music are performed by the Meitar Ensemble, conducted by Daniel Cohen (The Yearnings of the Duck, In Memoriam Dudu Geva) and Guy Feder (Oppositive is Positive). Personnel: Daniel Seroussi - solo piano ('...through the keyboard'); Ruben Seroussi - guitar (Oppositive is Positive).
The four musicians of the Aleph Guitar Quartet are enthusiastically committed to the music of modern times. Since the Quartet was founded in 1994, through intensive collaboration with composers, sound engineers and acousticians, their work has been to present, promote, and make headway with the musical language and playing techniques of the 20th and 21st centuries. In the meantime, they have helped create a new, extensive and future-orientated repertoire for the classical guitar which is being constantly expanded by a large number of both renowned and younger composers. Andrés Hernández Alba, Tillmann Reinbeck, Wolfgang Sehringer, and Christian Wernicke perform regularly at such international music festivals as MaerzMusik (Berlin), Guitar Foundation of America (USA), Eclat (Stuttgart), Styrian Autumn (Graz), Warsaw Autumn, Archipel (Geneva), MusicadHoy (Madrid), Pan Music (Seoul), Klangspuren Schwaz (Austria) and Time of Music (Viitasaari). Works performed on Vol. 2 were written by Nicolaus A. Huber, Alberto Hortigüela, Irene Galindo Quero, and Mathias Spahlinger.
Andreas Grau and Götz Schumacher, with their talent for putting together clever and innovative programs, have established themselves as one of the world's top piano duos. Like no other piano duo, their repertoire ranges from Bach to contemporary music in all its facets. Their collaboration at the piano is evidence that the two expert pianists are nothing short of musical soul mates. The vast breadth of the duo's expressiveness has garnered it invitations to various festivals and concert halls such as the Cologne Philharmonie, Berlin Philharmonie, Vienna Konzerthaus, Cité de la Musique Paris, Salzburg Festival, Lucerne Festival and Wigmore Hall London and has resulted in partnerships with renowned conductors such as Emanuel Krivine, Kent Nagano, Andrej Boreyko, Peter Eötvös, and Zubin Mehta. Their orchestra projects include concerts with the SWR Symphonieorchester, DSO Berlin, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, RSO Wien, and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. Their keen ability to conceive carefully considered programs is also evident in their numerous recordings which appear, among others, in their own series on Neos. On Fantasias, they perform compositions written by Henry Purcell (arranged by György Kurtág), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (arranged by Ferruccio Busoni), Franz Schubert, Alexander Scriabin, and Sergei Rachmaninoff.
REVOLUTIONARY ARMY OF THE INFANT JESUS: Mirror CD (LOGOS7E1 052CD)
Occultation present a reissue of Revolutionary Army Of The Infant Jesus's second album Mirror, originally released in 1991. Mirror was originally a CD-only release on Probe Plus. Mirror is possibly RAIJ's most diverse and eclectic collection. In addition to their signature blend of ethereal beauty and stark brutalism, the album burrows deep into the European psyche with multiple musical, literary, and spiritual allusions. The samples and field recordings on the album include dialogue from classic experimental cinema, medieval Spanish poets, and the dying strains of Albanian and East German propaganda broadcasts. Occultation's decision to re-release Mirror comes after the commercial and critical success of Beauty Will Save the World (LOGOS7DF 042CD/LP, 2015) and a resurgence of interest in the work of the Liverpool-based collective who continue to defy musical categorization. New artwork featuring a painting by Liverpool-based artist, filmmaker, and photographer Paul Mellor. It depicts the opening frame of the film Mirror, by RAIJ's longstanding muse Andrei Tarkovsky. Leslie Hampson on the reissue: "To come back to Mirror after so long, it almost feels like a new release. We are also delighted that through our collaboration with Occultation we are in dialogue with a different and more diverse audience." CD version includes two bonus tracks from their 1992 EP Liturgie Pour La Fin Du Temps.
Élan Vital -- comprising Renee Barrance (keyboards, vocals), Danny Brady (synths, drum machines, live mixing) and Nikolai Sim (bass) -- formed in 2015 in Dunedin's None Gallery, an undefined artist-run creative community which is also the home of Death And The Maiden. The expression Élan Vital describes the vital force. The music on Shadow Self seems to symbolize that life impulse in an ambiguous zone between machine and human worlds. Their sound blends keyboards, evoking psychedelic organ sounds of 1960s garage rock, together with contemporary European synth-pop dance music, layered on analog drum machines. Distorted, overdriven bass guitar adds a further element of chaos into the mix. Feedback-strafed soundtrack instrumentals for imaginary dystopian sci-fi films bloom into uplifting and gloomy melodic dream-pop catharsis about memory, longing, and obsession.
DISTRACTIONS, THE: Kindly Leave The Stage CD (YMIR7E1 050CD)
After achieving some sort of world record by leaving a 32-year gap between the release of their first and second albums -- 1980's Nobody's Perfect and 2012's The End Of The Pier -- The Distractions have sped things up, and now after a gap of less than five years, they present their third (and final) album, Kindly Leave The Stage. The story of The Distractions -- from Manchester punk era legends to critically-rated pop geniuses to a quarter century of silence, and then a more-than-slight return with a 21st century album of grown-up, wise, elegiac guitar music -- is also the story of Mike Finney, one of the great blue-eyed soul voices, and Steve Perrin, a guitarist whose sense of melody and lightness is the perfect counterfoil to Finney's emotional grit. Mike and Steve have been the core of The Distractions for 40 years -- it's been a long, strange trip.
The Stone Circle EP is Aggborough's fourth installment on OTB Records and it is a continued exploration of his signature style, full of field recordings, to add atmospheric and percussive sounds. "Not Tripping" is a deeply driving track, using hypnotizing chord stabs as its backbone. "Stone Circle" is built around a contact microphone recording of a flagpole blowing in a gale in Iceland. Organic techno. "Saving Bacon" is a stomping house-y techno groove, with a melody that brings lightness to the pulsating beat. "Talos Principle" is a staggering groove with quirky sounds with fills popping up unexpectedly. 88888 designed art stamp.
LARRY DE KAT: I Know You Can Hear Me EP 12" (PETS 077EP)
Utrechtian feral feline Larry De Kat prowls his way onto Pets Recordings. "I Know You Can Hear Me" leads with big pumps wrapped in a fine vibe balance of Detroit and Parisian house textures, but done with Larry's signature dubby, jacking style. "Naakte Groove" delivers a lean-but-warm bass riff that purrs with finesse around a straight-up strutting drum arrangement. "Amlou" rolls and scratching like it was 20 years younger, with an innate physicality in the drums and a big disco hook. "She Doesn't" is the dubbiest groove of the set, with rippling synths and precision tuned snare shot.
Repressed; LP version. Pharaway Sounds present a reissue of Moğollar's self-titled album, originally released in 1976. Makam madness gives way to instrumental prog on this burned-out last album from Moğollar, Turkey's Anadolu pop heroes. Moğollar was the band that never had a singer attached for long, and yet even more than Baris Manco or Erkin Koray, they consciously highlighted what was different about the new sounds of the era. Incredible fusion of ancient Anatolian melodies and instruments with prog/psych with occasional, piercing fuzz guitar. RIYL: John Berberian, Devil's Anvil, and vintage Turkish psych. Remastered sound; Includes liner notes by Angela Sawyer.
LP version. Includes download coupon. Pharaway Sounds present a reissue of Airto Fogo's self-titled album, originally released in 1976. Featuring superb drummer Sylvain Krief, Airto Fogo's sole album from 1976 is one of the best instrumental jazz-funk/rare-groove albums ever recorded in France. Heavy drums, Rhodes, analog keyboards, deep bass, hot horns, with Blaxploitation and Latin touches -- A Euro funk holy grail. RIYL: Placebo, CCPP, The J.B's, Eumir Deodato, Ben & The Platano Group, Godchild.
After a hiatus, Philpot are back with the follow up to SoulPhiction's Live Jamz 1 EP (PHP 068EP, 2013), three tracks straight from his set and tested over the last months. Covering the whole range with an intro-like track, some slow simmering blues meditation, and a funky gem Live Jamz 2 is the perfect new arrival in your vinyl-crate. Comes on colored vinyl.
PMG present a reissue of Mansion's Devil Woman, originally released in 1976. "The eastern Nigerian city of Calabar in Cross River State was colloquially known as Canaan City -- a place of lush landscapes, alluring women and delicious cooking. When the Biafra War ended it became a land of milk and honey for bands as well, with jumping venues like the Taj Mahal and Luna Nite Club and a label called Clover, set up local entrepreneur Ben Okonkwo, releasing albums by bands like The Doves, The Visitors, Aktion and The Apostles. The youngest band on the Clover roster was Mansion, a teenage highlife group, led by singer and bassist John 'Holy Mountain' Ebiong. Okonkwo decked them out in flares, repackaged them as a funk band and put them in the studio with EMI super-producer, Kayode Salami. The result was Devil Woman, an astoundingly assured funk/rock album. The title track revels in a '60s psychedelic vibe. 'The Love Song' is a direct appeal to teenage hearts. 'Heaven Is Here On Earth' has an irresistible shuffling groove while 'You Can't Stop Us' is what James Brown would have sounded like if he'd been born in the Cross River State. Devil Woman is an album designed to set young hearts aflutter and draw approving nods from seasoned musicians. It succeeds in both." --Peter Moore
PMG present a reissue of Adolf Ahanotu's Sensation, originally released in 1986. "At a time when bandleaders in Nigeria used titles as an affectation, Dr. Adolf Ahanotu was the real deal. He had a PhD in music compilation and Master's degrees in education and communication. He also played a mean tenor sax, an instrument he mastered touring Owerri with the Mirabels. Ahanotu's scholarly background is apparent in the impeccable arrangements and the way each track is labelled with its musical type. The banging opening track, 'Sensation' is disco, notes the helpful doctor. The legendary 'Ijere' is to be considered Remire or Afro Jazz. 'Litany Of Freedom' is reggae, 'Cupid' is rock and 'Tropical Moonlight' classified as the blues. The mandatory ode to the nation, 'Happy Nigeria', is labelled as calypso. But these are not dry, scholarly pieces. 'Sensation' reeks of dance floor freakiness not the hallowed halls of academia. And listen to the pitch bend craziness on 'Injere'. Sure, Dr. Ahanotu had studied the rules. But he wasn't afraid to break them. From the freaked-out opening seconds of the title track you are left in no doubt: The doctor is in the house. Mastered and produced by Goddy Oku." --Peter Moore
OFO THE ROCK COMPANY: Live In Europe - Fonk Afrika CD (PMG 065CD)
PMG present a reissue of OFO The Rock Company's Live In Europe - Fonk Afrika, originally released in 1978. "OFO The Rock Company (originally known as OFO The Back Company) were Nigeria's first acid-rock band. Blending Hendrix and Deep Purple with shamanism and a pro-black philosophy, they cut their teeth at Fela Kuti's Afrika Shrine, developing a fearsome live reputation that intimidated every other band in Lagos. No one wanted to follow the guys from OFO, not even Fela himself. Led by the charismatic Larry Ifedioranma, OFO The Rock Company considered themselves a musical cult. Their live shows were a heady mix of mind-melting musicianship, mysticism and theatre. In 1973 the band tour Europe and Fonk Afrika gathers together the best of those performances. The moments captured range from small intimate gigs in London, where you can hear the conversation amongst the crowd, to an astonishing gig in East Germany where they played before 900,000 people. The undoubted highlight is the extended prog-rock wig out of 'Ayaya,' recorded at the Berlin gig, before an obviously delighted crowd. See if you can pick out the moment where the band were joined on stage by a long-haired hippy who insisted on playing guitar. They didn't realize it at the time but it was Carlos Santana. It was in Europe that the band fell apart, riven in two by Ifedioranma's increasingly autocratic rule. Fonk Africa remains as a precious testament to what the band did best -- playing loud and proud and putting on a show you would never forget." --Peter Moore
PMG present a reissue of Heads Funk's (Heads Funk Band) Cold Fire, originally released in 1976. "The self-proclaimed funkiest band on the west coast of Africa, the Heads Funk Band, could arguably make that claim for the whole continent. Featuring the slick guitar of Felix 'Feladey' Odey, the slinky drumming of Eddie Offeyi and the swirling keyboard chops of Kevin 'Fortune' Coburn, nobody was funkier. And that's not even taking into account the dance floor monsters they were releasing at the same time as Akwassa. Cold Fire was their second album as the Heads Funk Band. Where their first album, Hard World (PMG 013CD/LP), was in a hurry to get you on the dance floor, on Cold Fire the funk is given room to breathe. The title track has a dark ghetto groove, straight from the mean streets of New York. 'Got To Know' has a loose, feel good vibe. 'Put On Your Funky Shoes' and the instrumental, 'Funky Port Harcourt' live up to their names. With Feladey laying down a hybrid chicken scratch/wah-wah sound over Eddie Offeyi's assured drumming, and 'Fortune' Coburn supplying the free-range keyboards, this is a band at the height of their powers. Cold Fire is killer stuff and proof that in the mid-seventies Nigeria was producing the funkiest bands in the world." --Peter Moore
PMG present a reissue of Masisi Mass Funk's I Want You Girl, originally released in 1979. "In mid-seventies, Nigerian bands came and went with alarming regularity, rising meteorically from the slums to stardom and falling back again just as quickly. Masisi Mass Funk from Anamara State was one such band. But during their brief moment in the stratosphere, they produced a funk gem in I Want You Girl. The band was championed by Ebere Ikoro from the Hygrades. He took them under his wing after an ill-advised collaboration with Soly Dibong. They were originators not imitators, he said. He produced I Want You Girl and played on it as well. It's easy to see what appealed to Ebere Ikoro. The title track has a Manfred Mann sixties vibe. 'Care To Love Me' is a wonky, off-kilter reggae calypso number. And 'Ungrateful People' bounces along with a Sly And The Family Stone chirpiness. However, it's the gospel numbers that really stand out. 'Heavenly Father' rocks out with strident keyboards and plaintive vocals. And the relentless 'He Is To Be Praised' is an Afro-funk-rock-gospel monster, guaranteed to raise your eyes to heaven while keeping your feet firmly planted on the dance floor. Sadly, Masisi Mass Funk only released one album, their star burning as quickly as it did brightly. They went on to form First Planet, an Afro boogie band that tore up Lagos dancefloors in the '80s. But that's another story for another day." --Peter Moore
TURMAN, ROBERT: Veiling Reflections Cassette (PE 008CS)
Präsens Editionen present the ambient soundscapes by industrial-pioneer Robert Turman. Veiling Reflections is a one-hour dark ambient-jam that is to equal parts narcotic and haunting. The brand new piece by Robert Turman is an outgrowth of zweikommasieben's Surreal Sleep - an event series featuring audio and visual material by different artists exploring the realm of sleep. Veiling Reflections was composed for an edition of Surreal Sleep during the RBMA Weekender Zurich in late 2016. Robert Turman is an American experimental and noise musician based in Oberlin, Ohio. In the seventies, he rose to prominence as part of NON, collaborating with Boyd Rice, before leaving to pursue his own more expansive solo vision during the eighties. After years of silence, Robert started to release music again in 2008 - together with noise artist Aaron Dilloway and on his own. Professionally dubbed cassette tapes; Edition of 100.
Hybrid club music for big soundsystems -- that's the essence of Schlachthofbronx. On their fourth studio album Haul & Pull Up, the DJ and producer duo from Munich demonstrate how versatile a sound can be that is nonetheless deeply rooted in soundsystem culture and their various local offsprings. With the album name inspired by the seminal 1984 "Haul And Pull Up" tune by Neville Brown, Jakob and Benedikt pay their respects to the originators, all the while clearly formulating a futuristic sound of their own. Schlachthofbronx effortlessly float through conventional style classifications and tempi in their tracks. In the same spirit, they take their vocal contributors and embed them into a genre they might not be associated with. Dancehall artist Warrior Queen delivers high-energy clash lyrics on the 808 hip hop drum workout "Killer" to a quite stunning effect. Riko Dan, the grime MC of Roll Deep fame, finds himself spitting his "Copper And Lead" lyrics on a dancehall riddim from outer space while San Diego rapper Gonjasufi sings and screams his "Goodbye" on a beat that is reminiscent of drone metal -- if it wasn't for that acid line. And even though this album is 100% club and soundsystem ready, this record goes way beyond that context. The dance imperatives from tunes like "Pump Drop Wine" with its disgustingly good sounding bassline, or from "U Mad" and its high-fueled footwork-meets-arpeggio madness. All that gets easily balanced by versatile productions like the dubby "Blurred Vision" or the floating "Take It Low" with Doubla J from Costa Rica on vocals. Some songs even have the potential to work as leftfield pop songs as well: On "Bitch Better Have My Money", the guys have Miami's Otto Von Schirach indulge in their joint passion for all things booty bass, resulting in a catchy (yet obviously X-rated) song. But maybe the highlight in this regard is "Electone", an instrumental beauty of a song on which Jakob and Benedikt combine multiple layers of melodies with a propulsive beat, evoking feelings of melancholy, happiness, and wanderlust, until collapsing in a sweet conversation of steeldrum-not-steeldrums with the eponymous Electone organ from Yamaha. The Haul & Pull Up album marks the final release in the Haul & Pull Up series, which contained three EPs leading up to the album: EP 1 (RAR 001EP, 2016), EP 2 (RAR 002EP, 2017), and EP 3 (RAR 003EP, 2017).
Felix Fleer starts of the A-side by exploring his roots in classical music through implementing a grand piano into a rhythmically challenging, yet hypnotic techno weapon. Jonas Landwehr continues, diving deeper into his fascination for airy pad sounds and unique percussion styles that are silky yet warm and powerful. Rythen closes the A-side with an electrifying and stomping floor-killer. Under their Environ. moniker Rythen and Felix Fleer revisit the previously encountered piano theme in a more club-oriented way. Alderaan, a promising newcomer of Buenos Aires's flourishing techno scene, offers "Clarity", a tooly, yet psychedelic techno trip.
Scotland's favorite space-psych-rock-gods The Cosmic Dead return with a new album Psych Is Dead. Formed in 2010, The Cosmic Dead are a quartet from Glasgow, Scotland who share their music through good vibes and better vibrations. Known for their improv, chaos strewn, Buckfast smashed-against-the-wall take on space music, they have roamed from Roadburn to Las Vegas, Dundee to Bangalore, with each album offering a meditative window into a certain time and space. Psych Is Dead is the sixth full-length album from the band, the glowing embers of a few days spent recording in a sweaty Sardinian kitchen overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Psych Is Dead is an aural exploration of their tumultuous universe. CD version comes in a digipack; Edition of 500.
A somnambulant journey through psychedelic bedroom fantasy-scapes, Glare is Roe Enney's first proper LP after only a few under-the-radar cassette releases on Phaserprone, Discriminate, and Piero since 2011. Recorded over the last couple years in the late evening at the cusp of the witching hour, Glare unfolds like a manifesto on the devolution of communication. An experiment of thresholds: electronic, political, poetical, Roe Enney touches on the likes of Tara Cross or Anne Clark, but only briefly before hurtling into a subterranean world of closed-off obsessions. Enney on the release: "The electronic artist is always enmeshed in a battle of thresholds. What does one do? This is because she, the electronic spirit, is always in the process of change. This spirit is never stable, it is tenuous. It is a moving hierarchy, a royal island with a v. real topography, with its own guard, observation deck, casino. The music on this record firmly pledges allegiance to this island, and yet it is out somewhere on the shore, perhaps 'dreaming of elsewhere.' Yet one cannot help what one is. Perhaps the record is cast-off." Mastered by Sean McCann; Cut at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin. Includes download code.
The foundation of this dub album was created by some of the finest session musicians ever to grace the studios of 1960s and '70s Jamaica. Their instruments were the cornerstone to countless dub LPs that began to surface in the early '70s and continued on into the '80s, creating a whole new genre of music. As they did back in the early days of dub, the Kingston All-Stars gathered together in Kingston, Jamaica at Mixing Lab Studios and laid down a series of riddims that would lay the groundwork for what comes next: the singers. Both Greenwich Farm rasta, Prince Alla, and falsetto, Cedric Myton of the The Congos, contribute vocals to the album, but half of the riddims on this LP are, to date, unreleased and have yet to be voiced. The style of riddims that were created during these sessions range from the Cumbia influenced "Reyes Dub" to the Ethiopian jazz flavored "Kebra Dub" that pays tribute to the African sound system, Kebra Ethiopia sound, and shows the wide variety of influences that fuel these musicians. Tracks like "Dub Ova" combine Ansel Collins's keyboard work with Hux Brown's infectious grooves to create a funky rhythm that you have not heard the last of. "Clappers" features Sly Dunbar's big drums and another Hux groove, creating a classic skanking dub reminiscent of rhythms by The Revolutionaries band. As with all good dub albums, the tension and release as instruments are brought in and out of the mix, and are felt as they much as they are heard. The negative space left by dropping the bass is then filled with a horn line or guitar lick soaked in echo or reverb giving tracks a second life. Dubwise was mixed in Montreal by producer and engineer Mossman. The Kingston All-Stars are: Sly Dunbar, Ansel Collins, Mikey "Mao" Chung, Linford "Hux" Brown, Jackie Jackson, Robbie Lyn, Everton and Everald Gayle. In various incarnations, members of the group have been part of or recorded with Bob Marley's Wailers band, Studio One's Sound Dimension and Soul Vendors band, Lee "Scratch" Perry's Upsetters, Peter Tosh's Word Sound and Power band, Toots and the Maytals, Now Generation, and many more.
Colored vinyl version. The foundation of this dub album was created by some of the finest session musicians ever to grace the studios of 1960s and '70s Jamaica. Their instruments were the cornerstone to countless dub LPs that began to surface in the early '70s and continued on into the '80s, creating a whole new genre of music. As they did back in the early days of dub, the Kingston All-Stars gathered together in Kingston, Jamaica at Mixing Lab Studios and laid down a series of riddims that would lay the groundwork for what comes next: the singers. Both Greenwich Farm rasta, Prince Alla, and falsetto, Cedric Myton of the The Congos, contribute vocals to the album, but half of the riddims on this LP are, to date, unreleased and have yet to be voiced. The style of riddims that were created during these sessions range from the Cumbia influenced "Reyes Dub" to the Ethiopian jazz flavored "Kebra Dub" that pays tribute to the African sound system, Kebra Ethiopia sound, and shows the wide variety of influences that fuel these musicians. Tracks like "Dub Ova" combine Ansel Collins's keyboard work with Hux Brown's infectious grooves to create a funky rhythm that you have not heard the last of. "Clappers" features Sly Dunbar's big drums and another Hux groove, creating a classic skanking dub reminiscent of rhythms by The Revolutionaries band. As with all good dub albums, the tension and release as instruments are brought in and out of the mix, and are felt as they much as they are heard. The negative space left by dropping the bass is then filled with a horn line or guitar lick soaked in echo or reverb giving tracks a second life. Dubwise was mixed in Montreal by producer and engineer Mossman. The Kingston All-Stars are: Sly Dunbar, Ansel Collins, Mikey "Mao" Chung, Linford "Hux" Brown, Jackie Jackson, Robbie Lyn, Everton and Everald Gayle. In various incarnations, members of the group have been part of or recorded with Bob Marley's Wailers band, Studio One's Sound Dimension and Soul Vendors band, Lee "Scratch" Perry's Upsetters, Peter Tosh's Word Sound and Power band, Toots and the Maytals, Now Generation, and many more.
BERRY, CHUCK: Live... The Palladium New York '88 CD (RV 2106CD)
Chuck Berry, live at the Palladium, New York on New Year's Eve 1988. By 1988, the late, great Chuck Berry was still keeping to a punishing live schedule, singing and playing magnificently with an ever-changing cast of backing musicians. The superb performance captured on this set took place in New York on New Year's Eve 1988 at the Palladium Theater, broadcast on WNEW-FM, and includes many of his best-loved classics, as well as vocals from his daughter Ingrid on "Key To The Highway" and "Mojo Hand". The entire WNEW-FM broadcast is presented here together with background notes and images. Includes two bonus tracks from an early '90s broadcast on Boulder Colorado's KBCO-FM.
DRECKER, ANNELI: Revelation For Personal Use LP (RLP 3191LP)
LP version. Anneli Drecker's Revelation For Personal Use is very much a follow-up to the huge artistic success of Rocks & Straws (RCD 2169CD/RLP 3169LP, 2015), an ode to her native town and region, and again consists of songs based on lyrics by Norwegian cult poet Arvid Hanssen and translated to English by artist and writer Roy-Frode Løvland. Anneli has written the album's eight lovely songs, plays piano and keyboards, and has produced the album. It largely moves in the same musical landscape as the previous album, with the Arctic Philharmonic present on six tracks, and string arranger Sindre Hotvedt, guitarist Eivind Aarset, and drummer Rune Arnesen on board again. If anything, a couple of the tracks show a slightly sharper rock edge than its predecessor.
Unit 2, the classic Mad Mike production for the seminal Detroit house label Happy Records (a subdivision to Underground Resistance) remixed some decades later. Approved and sanctioned by the copyright holder himself, here it comes. Begotten during a KiNK live set, successfully identified by the Running Back CEO, extracted, and road tested as a phantasmal endorphin-producing staple in his DJ sets, later released as a limited, stamped white label and now properly issued here. A tamer, but nonetheless heartfelt remix by Rome's dynamic duo Tiger & Woods is on the flip.
TRENT, RON: Prescription: Word, Sound & Power 6LP BOX (RH RSS20-LP)
Six LP box set version. Prescription: Word, Sound & Power presents the groundbreaking Chicago based house label's anthology, holding milestone songs. The legendary Prescription Records defined the 1990s deep house sound. This anthology holds numerous classics that have been out of press for years, along with previously unreleased tracks. Chez Damier and Ron Trent started the label in 1993, releasing some two-dozen singles in a four-year span, many of which attained legendary status on the underground scene. Ron Trent talks about the starting Prescription Records: "Chez Damier and I started the label, because we had the idea to take a certain level of fidelity and bring that fidelity to what people call tracks. Tracks being drum orientated Chicago rhythm tracks with a minimalistic melody. We were playing with that idea, expounding a point of that minimalistic aspect and making it more complex." Ron Trent was born in Massachusetts but raised in Chicago, listening to jazz and learning percussion. He began DJing in 1982, playing at area high schools. His first EP, containing the epic instrumental "Altered States", was released on Armando Gallop's Warehouse Records in 1990. Chez Damier (Anthony Pearson) grew up in Chicago, where he danced at the Warehouse as a youth. He left for Detroit in the 1980s, helping to open the Music Institute and working A&R for Kevin Saunderson's label, KMS. Damier and Trent met while Damier was visiting Chicago and immediately hit it off. Today, Prescription Records is cited by countless producers as a major influence. "It's a very dub experimental label... sound bites, samples, rhythms, and a lot of ethereal stuff, too," Trent expounds. "Not to mention. Prescription's embrace of heavy sub-bass," concludes Trent, "It was ahead of its time, definitely." In addition to Damier and Trent, Precription also features: Angora (Peven Everett, Roy Davis Jr.), Anthony Nicholson, USG (Anthony Nicholson, Ron Trent), Monica Elam, Konfusion Kidzz (Anthony Nicholson, Ron Trent), Ani, World, Sky & Universes (Trent), Harry Dennis, Noni (Anthony Pearson). Includes a download code with four more exclusive tracks.
Double LP version. Gatefold sleeve. What started as an idea in 2012 now becomes reality with the release of Saigon Supersound Vol. 1, compiled by Jan Hagenkötter. A compilation about the story of a musical era in Vietnam that was almost lost, made of tracks from 1965 to 1975, the so-called "Golden Music" period in the south of Vietnam, where -- under difficult circumstances -- a lively pop culture had developed. This period is characterized by the fusion of Vietnamese music with western pop music. The compilation includes some tunes reissued for the very first time since their original release. Jan Hagenkötter, a music-lover and DJ who is also the mind behind the renowned music publishing company and record label INFRACom!, relocated to Saigon in 2012. In co-operation with the Vietnam based dOSe crew, Jan organized parties and shows, inviting guest and friends like DJ Spinna, Jazzanova, Alice Russell, and many other artists. In 2012, as he was spinning tunes in Saigon and other parts of South East Asia, the idea for this project was born. In 2013, Jan returned to Germany, but he has been swinging back and forth between Saigon and Frankfurt ever since. In the following years, he began to research and collect more seriously. He bought vinyl singles from around the world, often several copies of the same release, just to restore or rather "rebuild" one good recording from several sources. With the help of friends based in Saigon, he was able to navigate an almost impenetrable jungle of music websites and come into contact with several collectors. The best recordings from this treasure hunt were then retouched, refined, and remastered in the studio for this release. Besides this amazing project, Vietnamese producers like Maqman from Saigon, DJ Yellow from Paris, and others who also share roots in Vietnam, have already started to work on edits and re-works of songs featured on Saigon Supersound Vol. 1. Features: Carol Kim, Hùng Cường & Mai Lệ Huyền, Duy Quang & Thái Hiền, Thanh Vũ, Connie Kim, Hòa Tấu, Phượng Mai, Khánh Ly, Kim Loan, Thanh Thuý & Văn Thanh & Hoàng Liêm & Thanh Mai, Kiều Oanh, Thanh Lan, Châu Hà & Thanh Mai, Mai Lệ Huyền, Vân Sơn & Thùy Dung, Hoàng Oanh, Phương Dung, and Ngọc Giàu.
DE BRUYNE, KOEN: Piano Improvisations 10" (SDBAN 1001EP)
Belgian composer Koen De Bruyne (1946-1977), brother of celebrated songwriter Kris De Bruyne, had his own stint in the field of pop, jazz, fusion, and funk in the '70s. In 1974, Koen released the Belgian gem, Here Comes The Crazy Man! (SDBAN 003CD/LP). During the reissue of HCTCM! in 2015, Sdban got in touch with Kris who dug up unreleased treasures from the family vaults. One tape included four solo piano improvisations. One of the tracks was posthumously included on Kris's album Ballerina's (1977). First time vinyl release; Remastered audio; Tip-on sleeve; Edition of 300 (numbered).
STUFF. is a five-headed instrumental cyclops that takes you through a journey of mashed up grooves and eclectic sounds. The band's highly anticipated new album Old Dreams New Planets is a cross genre groove, spanning broken hip-hop, electronica, and jazz-influenced future funk, bringing forth a completely different and exciting sound. With fans that include Plaid, Kev Beadle, Kutmah, Lefto, and Gilles Peterson, STUFF. began life in 2012 when drummer Lander Gyselinck was asked to play live music in-between DJ sets. Collecting together like-minded musician friends, they would keep the vibe of the room bubbling, with spaced-out jams and improvisation, taking elements of funk, RNB, electronica, jazz and hip-hop, forming their own compositions as a result. Hotly tipped in Belgium as one of the country's brightest new hopes, they released their first EP the same year, which included the track "D.O.G.G." and it caught the attention of bloggers, 22tracks, and DJs across Paris and Brussels. Supports slots with D'Angelo and Robert Glasper soon followed and the band would go on to share the stage at the Dour Festival with Hiatus Koyote, Flying Lotus, and Lefto. In 2014, STUFF. were invited to perform a Boiler Room session for the prestigious global, online music broadcasting platform, the first European live band to do so. The band's self-titled debut album, released in 2015 (BUTBUT 030CD/LP), received critical acclaim, with the Belgian press citing the release as the "record of the year" and "the best thing that happened musically in Belgium since the last 25 years." Mastered by Daddy Kev (Flying Lotus, Thundercat, Jon Wayne), several tracks from the album received airplay on leading dance and electronica radio stations across Europe. STUFF. have performed sold out shows across Europe and have gained a growing reputation for their explosive eclectic live sets, playing over 150 shows on diverse stages. The band were also personally invited by Gilles Peterson to perform at On Blackheath, London. Accolades in Belgium include two MIA's (Belgian Music Industry Awards) for "Best Musician" (Lander Gyselinck) and "Best Artwork" (Rinus Van de Velde). STUFF. are: Andrew Claes - ewi, sax; Lander Gyselinck - drums; Joris Caluwaerts - keyboards; Dries Laheye - bass; Mixmonster Menno - turntables. "These guys are brilliant - wide open ideas ..." --BBC Radio 6 Music (Gilles Peterson) "This is what I imagine Flying Lotus' band to be like." --BBC Radio 1 (Phil Taggart)
LP version. Includes printed innersleeve and download code. STUFF. is a five-headed instrumental cyclops that takes you through a journey of mashed up grooves and eclectic sounds. The band's highly anticipated new album Old Dreams New Planets is a cross genre groove, spanning broken hip-hop, electronica, and jazz-influenced future funk, bringing forth a completely different and exciting sound. With fans that include Plaid, Kev Beadle, Kutmah, Lefto, and Gilles Peterson, STUFF. began life in 2012 when drummer Lander Gyselinck was asked to play live music in-between DJ sets. Collecting together like-minded musician friends, they would keep the vibe of the room bubbling, with spaced-out jams and improvisation, taking elements of funk, RNB, electronica, jazz and hip-hop, forming their own compositions as a result. Hotly tipped in Belgium as one of the country's brightest new hopes, they released their first EP the same year, which included the track "D.O.G.G." and it caught the attention of bloggers, 22tracks, and DJs across Paris and Brussels. Supports slots with D'Angelo and Robert Glasper soon followed and the band would go on to share the stage at the Dour Festival with Hiatus Koyote, Flying Lotus, and Lefto. In 2014, STUFF. were invited to perform a Boiler Room session for the prestigious global, online music broadcasting platform, the first European live band to do so. The band's self-titled debut album, released in 2015 (BUTBUT 030CD/LP), received critical acclaim, with the Belgian press citing the release as the "record of the year" and "the best thing that happened musically in Belgium since the last 25 years." Mastered by Daddy Kev (Flying Lotus, Thundercat, Jon Wayne), several tracks from the album received airplay on leading dance and electronica radio stations across Europe. STUFF. have performed sold out shows across Europe and have gained a growing reputation for their explosive eclectic live sets, playing over 150 shows on diverse stages. The band were also personally invited by Gilles Peterson to perform at On Blackheath, London. Accolades in Belgium include two MIA's (Belgian Music Industry Awards) for "Best Musician" (Lander Gyselinck) and "Best Artwork" (Rinus Van de Velde). STUFF. are: Andrew Claes - ewi, sax; Lander Gyselinck - drums; Joris Caluwaerts - keyboards; Dries Laheye - bass; Mixmonster Menno - turntables. "These guys are brilliant - wide open ideas ..." --BBC Radio 6 Music (Gilles Peterson) "This is what I imagine Flying Lotus' band to be like." --BBC Radio 1 (Phil Taggart)
TV EYE: The Lost Studio Recordings 1977-1978 CD (SEVCD 001CD)
2017 is going to see many bands celebrating the 40th anniversary of their 1977 debut records. There won't be nearly so many from 1977 making their debut 40 years later in 2017. Here is one of those cases: TV Eye. Five 17-18 year olds - Andy Wickett, Dave Kusworth, Eamon Duffy, Paul Adams and Dave Twist - who channeled "Stooge-punk classicism, via brute-naivety and a great pair of leather trousers into... something else." These are the lost studio recordings and no-fi relics of Birmingham's first garage-punk band, TV Eye. 1977-1978 comprises five studio tracks and six tracks from a raw rehearsal session (preserved by Stephen Duffy). Includes a four-page photo insert and essay. CD version includes two bonus tracks.
LP version. Includes download code. Pioneering music producer Si Begg presents his sixth studio album Blueprints on Berlin's legendary label Shitkatapult. His first album in four years, Blueprints is a celebration of raw electronics welded to the "romance of engineering". The project was inspired by the discovery of an old diagrammatic notebook that belonged to Begg's grandfather, George, in his lifetime a cutting-edge engineer. Dubbed "visionary" by The Who's Pete Townsend and widely considered a producer's producer, Begg has been making genre-defying electronic music for more than two decades. He has carved a reputation as a recording artist, DJ, and sound designer, and in more recent years, as an award-winning composer for television and film. Blueprints sees Begg's passion for contemporary score collide with his love of electronic music. Since the release of his last album, 2013's Permission To Explode, Begg has written scores for four feature films as well as for the Netflix original series, Lovesick, and a battle rap documentary, War of Words (2016). The concept for the album sprang fully formed when Begg came across the notebook, a beautifully preserved leather-bound volume, annotated in his grandfather's precise hand. The book was filled with meticulous diagrams of compressors and parallel air ducts, graphs recording comparative noise levels at different factories, statistical information detailing the thermal efficiency of power stations, alongside blueprints for futuristic machines yet to be built. At the same time, Begg was reconnecting with his own back-to-basics studio machinery, the voltage-powered hardware instead of slick high-end software. The parallel discoveries felt like synchronicity and Begg began producing tracks using analog synthesizers recorded live in one take, augmented by circuit bending effects units and the electro-magnetic field noise created by mobile phones and hard drives. Begg decided to champion these idiosyncratic machines, putting them center stage with the aim to demonstrate that not only were these unique tools to create art, they were simultaneously works of art in their own right. The pieces on Blueprints evoke the beauty and romance of great engineering, often overlooked in a landscape of post-industrial gloom. From the hums and sparking pops of "Heat Resistant Alloys" to the relentless subsonic sine waves underpinning "Resistance Is Expensive", raw electrical signals pulse through the heart of the music. This is a work of complex, evolving mathematical patterns, circuitry bent out of shape. It is a hymn to the voltage-controlled oscillator.
KIANI & HIS LEGION: Lima Oscar Victor Echo EP 12" (SOHASO 012EP)
Kiani & His Legion returns with the next chapter in his sonic explorations. The opener introduces the listener to sturdy drum patterns and eerie string pads, main ingredients in Kiani's sound world. "Eindeloos" takes an irresistible groove, with a walking bass winding up between endless flanging spirals. "Oval Flight" starts out with the cheeky sound of an electric harp, but it sprouts to enormous proportions. "If You Remember Me" uses haunting atmospheres reminiscent of '80s sci-fi or the eerie vibes of Twin Peaks. "L.O.V.E." reflects with a melancholic chord progression, soul healing choirs, and repeating phonetic symbols.
RUPTURE: Israel Suite / Dominante En Bleu LP (SOMM 035LP)
Gatefold LP version. Includes download coupon. Sommor Records present a reissue of Rupture's Israel Suite / Dominante En Bleu, originally released in 1973. Rupture was born when famous French songwriter Boris Bergman (France Gall, Dalida, etc.) decided to record a conceptual album about the history of Israel. He approached ace drummer and singer Sylvain Krief (Airto Fogo, Michel Fugain, Aznavour, Clark Terry, Bud Powell, etc.) and soon, other musicians joined: Jean-François Jenny-Clark (Don Cherry, Steve Lacy, etc.) on bass, Georges Locatelli (Total Issue) on guitar, and Jean-Pierre Mas on piano, organ, guitar, and vocals. In resume, Rupture was a kind of super-group featuring some of the best musicians from the Euro jazz/progressive/fusion scene. It also included collaborations by Michel Fugain and Nicole Croisille. The album was recorded over a period of three months and the result was released as a very limited private pressing with help from the Futura label. Arranged by Sylvain Krief and Jean-Pierre Mas, Israel Suite included a side-long suite on side A and shorter songs on Side B. An incredible mix of vocal/spiritual jazz, funk, progressive, jazz-pop, psych -- An impossible to find rarity from France. RIYL: Cortex, Les Masques, George Arvanitas, Herbie Hancock, Full Moon Ensemble. Original artwork.
Since his emergence in the experimental music scene, about 20 years ago now, Kevin Drumm has perpetually shaken up conventions of various sub-genres with his major albums, for example, shifting from the tabletop/prepared guitar with his first self-titled album (1997), to noise with Sheer Hell Miasma (EMEGO 053LP, 2002), to ambient/drone with Imperial Distortion (HOS 134LP, 2008). He has been notably prolific recently, with numerous self-released CDR and digital releases. Elapsed Time is a collection of some of these recent works, dating from 2012 to 2016: desolate ambient drone (Middle Of Nothing (2016), February (2016)), "cassette tape music" or raw musique concrete, (Earrach (2013), The Whole House (2012)), computer assisted live electronics and rough spectral music (Crooked Abode (2015), Bolero Muter (2015)), with additional tracks from Tannenbaum (2013) and Shut-In (2014). Elapsed Time documents one of the key figures in American avant-garde at his peak of creativity. Remastered by Giuseppe Ielasi; Hi-fi system recommended.
"'Elapsed Time' is undoubtedly destined to be a classic, and one of the finest experimental tomes to emerge over the last years. . . . despite his noisy reputation, KD music can be overwhelmingly sensual even at its loudest, providing a form of minimalism replete with a delicate, melancholic motion. How wildly divergent emotions rise, hover, and fall using so little is a mystery that only Kevin Drumm can provide. While you may not find an answer, you can certainly get lost in the question." --Fabio Carboni (SoundOhm/Die Schachtel)
LP version. Includes CD. After their first raw blues album One Batch Of Blues (STAGO 090CD/LP, 2016), Automatic City are making a bold step towards some bongo percussion, voodoo, and Caribbean rhythms, space-echoed jumpin' blues, tremolo, and slide guitar vibrations, while still keeping the sound rough and gritty. That is one of the ingredients of their trademark, as is the use of instruments more unusual to the blues music genre, like sanza, miscellaneous percussions, and some primitive electronic instruments like stylophone, theremin, or the rhythm ace drum machine. Captured live in a session that lasted only a couple of days, the same quartet led by Eric Duperray on vocals, Emmanuel Mercier on guitars and production, with Raphael Vallade on double bass and Zaza Desiderio on percussions, is creating it's very own versions of gems from the songbooks of Willie Dixon, Billy Boy Arnold, Billy Emerson, plus "Havana Moon" by Chuck Berry and a hypnotic version of R.L. Burnside's "Goin' Down South". Last but not least, a cover of "Crawfish", which was Joe Strummer's favorite Elvis song from the Kid Creole movie (1958). For the first time, Bongoes & Tremoloes also features some original material like "Resolution Blues", a one-man foot-stomping soulful blues recalling the style of some John Lee Hooker recordings. Or "Evil Eyes On Me", partly inspired by Fred McDowell's slide guitar works, as well as original instrumentals that create a unique sound and feel. As initially said, this is a bold step forward in the career of this unique blues outfit.
Eighteen months on from the release of their debut album Everything Forever (VAN 291LP, 2015), Birmingham's Victories At Sea follow up with A Place To Stay, inspired by a world battling with anxiety and uncertainty. Moving away from the familiarity of the live room to exchanging ideas through their respective home studio set ups saw the band naturally pick up from where the ambient electronics of the album closer for Everything Forever "Sirens", left off. With freedom to experiment with no constraints or time limits, the songs were allowed space to develop at a gradual pace. Sonically inspired as much by film and literature as the records from the band's growing love for the back catalogs of Chemikal Underground and 4AD, the result sees the band embracing more atmospheric sounds, alternative tunings, and rhythm structures to produce their most compelling and ambitious body of work to date.
KOLETZKI, OLIVER: The Arc Of Tension CD (SVT 193CD)
On his sixth album, The Arc Of Tension, the Berlin based DJ, label owner, and producer Oliver Koletzki yet again presents his remarkable vision of contemporary electronic music, while also assuming the role of a storyteller. The Arc Of Tension speaks to its listener as a singular, self-contained work, which communicates by way of its natural flow and arc of suspense. The latter is mirrored not only in the multifarious narrative of the actual album, but can also be understood as evidence for its creator's long musical history. While Koletzki focused on a diverse range of vocal collaborations on his previous long players, he now moves on to a different form of storytelling, rooted in the quiet confidence of a veteran musician, as well as the hectic lifestyle of a globally in demand DJ. The Arc Of Tension is a psychonautic journey through the various continents of Oliver's consciousness. The quiet chirps and warbles, which initially unfold on the opener "A Tribe Called Kotori", thus act as a loose associative bridge to Der Mückenschwarm, Oliver's big breakthrough hit of 2005. The first minutes of the album leave no room for doubt -- the listener is immediately locked into and captivated by an autobiographical world of sound. The dreamy, exotic timbres of the downbeat tracks "By My Side", "Tankwa Town", and "Byron Bay" are penetrating, but in a subtle yet purposeful manner. But soon the tension tightens and organic sounds, one-by-one, evolve towards a sterner, electronic cadence. The bittersweet neon synths of "Spiritual But Not Religious" pave the way for the complex rhythm of "A Star Called Akasha", an early highlight carried by melancholic cellos and contemplative piano chords. The ultimate turning point follows with "Through The Darkness". Here, at the album's center, Koletzki starts continuously upping the tempo and leads the way with his very own, melodic interpretation of today's techno Zeitgeist, exemplifying that a fusion of delicate musicality and sheer force leads to impressively ecstatic results. You fully take off into space, weightlessly propelled by the ambient drones of "The Day We Leave Earth". Ultimately, what lingers is the feeling that The Arc Of Tension is a deep glance into the innermost being of an outstanding artist.
Lady Starlight's expert control of sound extremes colors each of the EP's four hard-hitting and authoritative techno tracks. It begins with the relentless cycling beat and echoing synth stabs of "E12", the energy of a peak rave hour never far away. "E3.2" is another take on similar themes but with progressively more hypnotic simplicity and beneficial pressure. "E2.2" is built on a less rough-edged, shinier set of bouncing and panning synth hits. Lady Starlight unleashes full-spectrum audio warfare with "F8", a seamless interlocking of industrial clang and 16th-note percussion hits with the basic elements used for the previous three tracks.
TRAD, GRAS OCH STENAR: Tack For Kaffet (So Long) CD (SUBL 119CD)
The long-awaited new album from the legendary pioneers of transcendental psychedelic rock music and DIY culture in general. Tack För Kaffet (So Long) is a tribute to the deceased band members and dearest friends Torbjörn Abelli and Thomas Mera Gartz. It becomes something of a farewell show for the old Träd, Gräs Och Stenar because all the old and new members, including founder Bo Anders, Torbjörn and Mera, and Reine Fiske (Dungen, The Amazing), are all contributing to this album. The sounds were captured on tape in their music workshop in the countryside and consists mainly of improvised moments where the sounds travels beyond time and space, something that has been TGS hallmark over the years. Perhaps there's a form of melancholy over some of the album, much depending on how cruelly and suddenly Mera and Torbjörn passed away, but also on a little lighter and crazier whim. Everything is recorded live so there are no euphemistic circumstances, rather everything is pared down, bared bone drones, sounds traveling in the magical improvised unknown with no makeup, just as life can be when the feeling has control. A manifestation of improvised timelessly organic music and free creation. Real life!
Subtext presents Clear Stones, the first meeting between two distinct voices from New Zealand. In a unique collaboration, sound artist working with Māori instruments Rob Thorne (Ngāti Tumutumu) and Berlin-based electronic composer Fis dismantle boundaries in space, time, and genre, juxtaposing Thorne's living, breathing practice with the weight of modern sound systems. Recording sessions at Berlin's Red Bull Studios were the starting point, committing Thorne's traditional Māori instrumentation to tape. Made of wood, stone, bone and shell, the instruments of taonga pūoro ("singing treasures") include various oblique-style flutes, horns, percussion, and objects spun above the player's head during performance. Amongst the instrumentation deployed by Thorne on Clear Stones is the Pūtātara (conch horn), Pūrerehua (bullroarer), and Tumutumu Kōhatu (stone percussion). However it's the Pūtōrino that features most regularly throughout; an instrument that is both flute and horn, both voices captured in one single take by Thorne on mid-album epic "Glurn Herrin". Thorne has been performing in New Zealand for some 25 years, and the release of his debut solo album Whāia te Māramatanga on Rattle Records in 2014 garnered wide critical acclaim, including a nomination for "Best Maori Traditional Album" at the 2014 Waiata Māori Music Awards. Since his debut on Tri Angle Records in 2013, Fis has released a string of acclaimed albums, including his Subtext debut From Patterns To Details in 2016 (SUB 008CD/018LP), ending up in end-of-year lists at both FACT magazine and The Quietus. Starting with Thorne's taonga pūoro recordings, Fis sculpts bold new settings for the music, mired in deep bass and vast synthetic tones, at times pushing Thorne's wood, stone, and bone into total transformative saturation. The conversation that emerges between these two artists encompasses technology and nature, computers and physical instruments, historical narrative and the present, perceived secularity and sacredness, framing them all as aspects of one single, conscious whole.
LP version. Subtext presents Clear Stones, the first meeting between two distinct voices from New Zealand. In a unique collaboration, sound artist working with Māori instruments Rob Thorne (Ngāti Tumutumu) and Berlin-based electronic composer Fis dismantle boundaries in space, time, and genre, juxtaposing Thorne's living, breathing practice with the weight of modern sound systems. Recording sessions at Berlin's Red Bull Studios were the starting point, committing Thorne's traditional Māori instrumentation to tape. Made of wood, stone, bone and shell, the instruments of taonga pūoro ("singing treasures") include various oblique-style flutes, horns, percussion, and objects spun above the player's head during performance. Amongst the instrumentation deployed by Thorne on Clear Stones is the Pūtātara (conch horn), Pūrerehua (bullroarer), and Tumutumu Kōhatu (stone percussion). However it's the Pūtōrino that features most regularly throughout; an instrument that is both flute and horn, both voices captured in one single take by Thorne on mid-album epic "Glurn Herrin". Thorne has been performing in New Zealand for some 25 years, and the release of his debut solo album Whāia te Māramatanga on Rattle Records in 2014 garnered wide critical acclaim, including a nomination for "Best Maori Traditional Album" at the 2014 Waiata Māori Music Awards. Since his debut on Tri Angle Records in 2013, Fis has released a string of acclaimed albums, including his Subtext debut From Patterns To Details in 2016 (SUB 008CD/018LP), ending up in end-of-year lists at both FACT magazine and The Quietus. Starting with Thorne's taonga pūoro recordings, Fis sculpts bold new settings for the music, mired in deep bass and vast synthetic tones, at times pushing Thorne's wood, stone, and bone into total transformative saturation. The conversation that emerges between these two artists encompasses technology and nature, computers and physical instruments, historical narrative and the present, perceived secularity and sacredness, framing them all as aspects of one single, conscious whole.
2016's SVS residency took place in Budapest at 4DSOUND's Spatial Sound Institute, where SVS artists from LA, NY, Osaka, Seoul, Berlin, London, Tel Aviv, and Munich worked for ten days preparing a showcase on the 4DSOUND system. During rehearsals for the showcase, Bartellow alias Beni Brachtel met Grun alias Daichi Furukawa. During three long nightshifts, the tracks emerged out of a continuous great vibe. Always joined by several artists from the SVS family, it became the soundtrack for a very special event. First pressing comes with limited 24"x36" sized hand-folded poster and silver sticker.
After kicking off 2017 with Body Reflections Pt.1 on Tresor (TRESOR 290EP), Berlin-based, Bournemouth-born Ben Thomas, aka BNJMN, is back on the new label Tiercel. As an outlet for floor focused tracks, he kicks off the imprint with Paean - two slabs of atmospheric, hypnotic, sci-fi techno, plus an ambient excursion. "Mass Conductor" sees BNJMN create layer upon layer of dense sonics which build to a pulverizing climax. "The Greater Void" is a jarring beatless soundscape and the title track is a song of worship - smooth, yet hard, manic, yet playful; a journey of paradoxes and sonic mysteries.
Johannes Volk goes above and beyond with his first Token offering, the four-track EP Designing Evolution. The title track rushes in with meandering, staccato synth-work while the gradually opening hi-hat and subsequent ride advance frenetically overhead. "Escapism" is sparse and roomy. With more melodic wandering, grand swells accompany a pleasant, digressive bell, forced ahead with functional percussion. The subdued lead of "Cosmic Clockwork" takes you straight to 1995 Detroit and expands as the track shuffles onto full power. "Sleeping On A Razor Blade" is a bouncy, unconventional contribution with an off-kilter kick pattern and jazzy accents.
Robert Crouch is an artist and curator whose work encompasses sound, performance, and technology. As an artist, he locates his work with the intersection of post-phenomenological listening practices, conceptual sound art, and contemporary electronic music. At its core, his work can be understood as a conversation between tonality, context, history, and subjectivities. Similarly, Crouch's curatorial work focuses on the overlapping disciplines of sound, technology, movement, and performance. Sublunar continues Crouch's inquiry into the complex relationships between sound, context, and meaning, first proposed in his 2016 release, A Gradual Accumulation Of Ideas Becomes Truth. The four tracks which comprise Sublunar were composed using field recordings from and audio files originally created for mas gestos y mas caras, a collaborative performance with artists Rafa Esparza and Yann Novak. mas gestos y mas caras was a durational performance incorporating sound, breathing, and a series of repetitive actions and gestures, choreographed within an architectural installation of adobe bricks fabricated and designed by Esparza. Sonically, Sublunar is a radical departure from the originating performance, yet these tracks remain tethered, literally and aesthetically, to the processes and context of their construction: Esparza's labored breathing, cautious footsteps, a soft cascade of water, dust, soil. The title itself, Sublunar, reinforces an attachment to the Earth and the physical world, and intentionally resists metaphysical interpretation or decontextualization. It is precisely through this tethering that Crouch seeks to open up a diversity of possible approaches to the work, rather than confine our reading to a primarily or exclusively musical text. The first track, "Descension", opens with sounds of breathing, muted movements, and environmental noises, and serves as an acknowledgement of our collective understanding of sound, of these specific sounds, as physical phenomenon. By extension the listener is allowed to consider this particular organization of sound itself as a kind of sculpture, architecture, and choreography. The body becomes the primary oscillator and architect, delineating boundaries and defining the work as a space within which the listener might inhabit. Presented live in Los Angeles. Source material originally developed as part of mas gestos y mas caras, a collaborative performance with Rafa Esparza and Yann Novak, presented at the Hammer Museum on July 8, 2016.
Jonas Kopp and Tresor have shared a bright and prosperous musical relationship for some years now, propelled further forward with Photon Belt. Following Jonas's debut album Beyond the Hypnosis in 2014 (TRESOR 273D/LP), accompanied by the Red Plented EP (TRESOR 272EP, 2014) and the HHH EP (TRESOR 279EP, 2015), the Argentinian artist delivers a new full-length to the Berlin's legendary imprint. This new opus is dedicated to a cosmic phenomenon our solar system experiences every 11,000 years. The photon belt is a band of intense light energy into which our star and its planets moves into for a duration of about 2,000 years. As part of the Pledian star group, our sun circles around the star named Alcyon, itself located at all times in the photon belt. Other stars, including ours, move in-and-out of it for varying periods of time, depending on their orbit. Our way into the belt has already begun and will continue over the next five years. The result? Mankind in its darkest hour paralleled with consciousness rising to further dimensions. Expect a thoughtful and mature labor from Jonas Kopp's mesmerizing ten-track journey, on which the Argentine's contemporary methods in production meet traditional techno constituents. Throughout the album, different sidereal interludes arch over to his Telluric Lines side project, which he presented at the 2016 edition of the Berlin Atonal festival. Crucial titles such as "Galactic Core", "Aile", the eponymous "Photon Belt" and "5D World" are set to leave a large footprint in the continuous sequence of electronic music.
Number six of eight in the Trigram series. Raw, unadulterated tribal bass music, with a deep roots foundation. Side A is from Musai Soundworks and Side B is from Alpha Steppa. This is the sound of Trigram. Super limited edition of 400, housed in the reverse-board Trigram house bag.
Camping is the third studio album from the German band Candelilla. Candelilla were founded back in 2001 in Munich and, according to their website, were reborn when new drummer Sandra Hilpold joined the band in 2007. Since then the line-up of the quartet has remained intact with Mira Mann, Lina Seybold, Rita Argauer, and Sandra Hilpold. Candelilla has always been a more interdisciplinary collective than a mere rock band. Candelilla is known for their willingness to live above the so-called standards of German indie pop music, to push the boundaries and to survive the process. For their last album, Heart Mutter (TR 20752CD, 2013), the group traveled to Chicago to record the complete album live in the studio with Steve Albini. Heart Mutter is an intense piece of music that manages to showcase the energy and the spirit of the quartet in all its beautiful rawness. Like a riot squad that allows no doubt that Candelilla are absolutely serious with every sound the play. Camping, their first album released on the Trocadero label, was recorded with legendary German producer Tobias Levin. The ten songs, in glittering and furious beauty, explore the possibilities of pop within the cosmos of Candelilla. They reach boundaries, detach, and observe them, but never exceed them. Camping shows a band that is so self-assured that it can reinvent itself without leaving a trace of the old. To quote Zick Zack founder Alfred Hilsberg: "Camping breaks through the Albini-developed sound cocoon and offers a dazzling look into the diversity of four individuals who confront the listener in a self-confident and brave way with their own experiences and observations. Supported by Tobias Levin, Candelilla have released a visionary and headstrong statement that evokes the discourses in the German underground scene of the eighties and nineties. Camping is a forward-looking invitation towards a new, open dimension of pop music." CD version comes in a digipak and includes a booklet.
Originally released in 2013. Candelilla were founded back in 2001 in Munich and, according to their website, were reborn when new drummer Sandra Hilpold joined the band in 2007. Since then the line-up of the quartet has remained intact with Mira Mann, Lina Seybold, Rita Argauer, and Sandra Hilpold. Candelilla has always been a more interdisciplinary collective than a mere rock band. Candelilla is known for their willingness to live above the so-called standards of German indie pop music, to push the boundaries and to survive the process. For their second album Heart Mutter, the Munich-based all-girl-band traveled to Chicago to record the complete album live in the studio with Steve Albini. Heart Mutter is made of twelve songs, which together form a 46-minute set of noisy fireworks: Sonic Youth in the ear, an explosive mixture of German and English phrases in the head, and a quantity of anger in the belly. Heart Mutter is an intense piece of music that manages to showcase the energy and the spirit of the quartet in all its beautiful rawness.
KURZMANN/MATS GUSTAFSSON, CHRISTOF: Falling And Five Other Failings LP (TROST 154LP)
LP version. Mats Gustafsson plays slide, tenor, baritone, bass saxophones. Christof Kurzmann uses special ppooll software and voice, live processing. Recorded, mixed & mastered at Garnison 7, Vienna by Martin Siewert. Artwork by Jimmy Draht. Liner notes by Ken Vandermark. Limited vinyl edition of 300 with screen-printed covers. Ken Vandermark, from the liner notes: "On the surface, its fundamental components seem to come from the 20th century: the saxophone (invented in 1846, but not coming to the fore until jazz and Coleman Hawkins took a hold of it), the laptop computer (initially developed around 1980), and tape music (first started around 1950). But when examining the materials it becomes quickly apparent that, though the 'machines' may belong to the previous century, the methodologies applied to them do not. The six pieces on this album began as open improvisations digitally recorded at Martin Siewert's studio in Vienna, Austria. A section of each improvisation that was considered most successful from a musical standpoint was 'spliced out' and kept as a composition - the studio was used as a means to produce a performance rather than to strictly document, not usually the case when recording improvised music. Mats Gustafsson (who also plays keyboard here) has added to the range of extended techniques for saxophones instigated in the 1970s, by musicians like Anthony Braxton, Evan Parker, Roscoe Mitchell, Trevor Watts, Steve Lacy, and Peter Brötzmann. He's developed these through his unique approach to the instruments, which is often built upon phrasing power that can stand up to rhythmic frameworks and volume that frequently have little to do with the origins of improvised music. In many cases, the grooves explored on this collection of recordings are about pulse, but not the rhythmic feel of jazz, nor the timing of late 20th century free improvisation. And as Christof Kurzmann (who also sings here) explained to me, the instrument he plays is not the laptop, but the software that he runs on it, called ppooll and refined by Klaus Filip and Arnold Habirl in [2015??]... ppooll gives Christof nearly infinite manufacturing possibilities for sound - from creating new material that's used later in performance, to processing sonic events in real time. The elements of construction used to make this album and the resulting music all belong to this century, to this period."
BERTHLING/MARTIN KUCHEN/STEVE NOBLE, JOHAN: Threnody, At The Gates LP (TROST 156LP)
LP version. Johan Berthling: double bass; Martin Küchen: tenor and soprano saxophones, retardophone, flute; Steve Noble: drums and percussion. Recorded by David Carlsson at Gula Studion, Malmö, Sweden, November 1, 2015. Mixed by David Carlsson. Mastered by Martin Siewert. Cover photo by Donald Boström.
BROTZMANN/HEATHER LEIGH, PETER: Sex Tape CD (TROST 163CD)
Recording of Heather Leigh and Peter Brötzmann's great set at Unlimited Festival, Wels, 2016. Personnel: Heather Leigh - pedal steel guitar; Peter Brötzmann - tenor saxophone.
Nightclub EP marks the third release from techno truth-tellers Tiga Vs. Audion. This EP finds two top techno producers in the mood for "balls"-iness, reflecting the times with a harder-edged sound, harder-edged artwork, and harder-edged calls for our leaders to remember that the dancefloor was built on unity, plurality, and unshakable animality. Instrumental techno with enough of a hook and enough of a funk to stand out. A set of Bryan Adams Studio Flash Cards instructed the two to make the kind of hyper-utilitarian dance tracks played in their own DJ sets.
Double LP version. Gatefold sleeve with insert. Includes CD. Over the last 15 years, Tim Vanhamel has been working on several musical projects. After two seminal, critically acclaimed Millionaire albums and years of intensive touring, he wrote a successful solo album Welcome To The Blue House (2008), before taking on other projects such as Broken Glass Heroes, Eat Lions, Disko Drunkards, Magnus, and The Hickey Underworld. But the time has come for Vanhamel to finally bring his legendary band Millionaire back together. The long-awaited third Millionaire album Sciencing comes sixteen years after their debut album Outside The Simian Flock (2001) and twelve years after Paradisiac (2005). For the recordings, Vanhamel and drummer Damien Vanderhasselt (Eat Lions) went to elStudio, a brand new recording space in the Costa Rican village of Santa Teresa. The studio is run by compatriot Jeff Claeys (ex-Admiral Freebee, Jon Spencer & The Blues Explosion) who assisted Vanhamel as sound engineer. "Never before has a recording process felt so pleasant and free. It was like playing in a sandbox" said Vanhamel about his time in Costa Rica. He stayed in Costa Rica for two months, and returned to Belgium with an all-new Millionaire record under his belt. The album, produced by Vanhamel himself, was subsequently mixed by Greg Gordon (Oasis, Wolfmother, Triggerfinger) and mastered by Howie Weinberg (Nirvana, The White Stripes, Beastie Boys). The first single "I'm Not Who You Think You Are" sounds as nasty and edgy as ever, while "Wastelands" is Millionaire at its funkiest. "L'Homme Sans Corps" shows off Vanhamel's French and the ballad "Silent River", a duet with Canadian singer Clara Klein, would not look out of place on the soundtrack of Twin Peaks. "Now that I'm a bit older, I feel the need more and more to make something that can also be beautiful," said 39-year-old Vanhamel who calls Sciencing a surprising and, above all, a mature album. "The groove is more important than ever, and this album is made in accordance with the less-is-more principle. I've omitted more guitar riffs than I've added. We don't feel the need to hit the listener over the head anymore."
Underdog Records present a reissue of Janko Nilovic's Funky Tramway, originally released in 1975. Rare, remastered edition. Following the recent reissues of 1972's Pop Impressions (UR 651LP), 1976's Super America (UR 641LP), 1975's Soul Impressions (UR 161LP), and 1974's Chorus (UR 215LP), Underdog Records continue the series with another brilliant album by the underrated French composer and producer, Janko Nilovic. Janko Nilovic certainly was one of the greatest studio talents of Europe in the '70s. Devoted to music, Nilovic's output resulted in a great number of published works, but most of them were made for library music labels and therefore not available for sale. His oeuvre stretches from classical, jazz, and funk to pop, psych, and easy listening. Nilovic has been sampled many times by hip-hop artists such as Jay-Z, Dre, Dafuniks, or Guts.
Berlin-based New Yorker Phase Fatale debuts on Unterton with Anubis. "Hollow Flesh" starts with an oppressive, regimented beat sequence reminiscent of angst-ridden, sci-fi scenarios. "Anubis" opens with an atmospheric intro until a kick sets the tone for a more straightforward, hypnotic, and cold techno cut -- heady and gloomy. "Wound" ignites some harassing fire: what abruptly starts off like a classic techno-meets-sizzling-noise track soon alters to a more tribal, snare-led industrial cut. "The Size Of God" stands out with a more introverted, slow, broken rhythm structure, looped drones, opaque-distorted voice transmissions, and swelling synth melodies.
After the success of their critically-acclaimed third album Sharpener (HCB 001CD/002LP, 2016), London's brass juggernauts Hackney Colliery Band return with their first live album. With BBC Radio 2 describing them as "one of the best live bands we have in this country", their live shows have become legendary, selling out venues across the UK and Europe. Recorded over three shows in 2016 and early 2017, the recording captures the band in peak form. Playing largely original material from Sharpener and their second album Common Decency (2013), they also dust off some crowd favorites including their unique mash up of Prodigy covers, rousing versions of Blackstreet's "No Diggity" and Nirvana's "Heart-Shaped Box", and concluding with an acoustic version of Toto's "Africa" as they parade through the crowd at the end of the set. Hearing the band playing live is a very different experience from listening to their three studio albums; it becomes immediately obvious that, far from locked-down studio heads, these are some serious jazz improvisers, here stretching out on extended solos, and with a restless energy to push the groove and to form in new directions. But this consummate musicianship and skill is always worn very lightly: the band have always managed to present complex music in an extremely playful, fun way, and to a very broad demographic. Front man Steve Pretty's interactions with the crowd, raise the energy levels still further, and those with a good ear can listen out for some heart-warming moments from the audience, like the somewhat slurry man a little bit too close to the sound desk microphone singing along to "Heart-Shaped Box". It's the quirks and little imperfections make this album special. Rather than going through the recordings with a fine-tooth comb removing the trumpet cracks, sax squeaks, or drum mishits, which are inevitable in a 90-minute power set with seven brass musicians and two drummers, the production is minimal. With the brass band revival in full swing, Hackney Colliery Band manage to occupy their own very distinctive space. Washes of Scandinavian-influenced electronica collide with extended contemporary jazz improvisation, dancefloor-friendly beats contrast with pounding rock rhythms, and Balkanesque melodies nestle up against soul and hip hop grooves. This set owes as much to modern European jazz and American alternative rock as it does to New Orleans second lines or the traditional British brass bands to which their name pays tribute.
For the first release on the Wysing Polyphonic label, three-piece Ectopia have created a suite of seven new works in which intricate cello and screeching and spoken-word vocals are carried along on a wave of dark electronica, taking the listener on a journey into sad acid house, scratched DVDs, lipstick clogged with rolling tobacco, and hangovers with absent lovers. Ectopia is Adam Christensen, Jack Brennan, and Viki Steiri. Previous works have included sound-tracking Jack Smith's experimental film Normal Love (1963) and Carl Theodor Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928). Wysing Polyphonic has emerged from the Wysing Polyphonic music festival, now in its eighth year, which has programmed the likes of Beatrice Dillon, Elaine Mitchener, Hannah Sawtell, Helena Hauff, Holly Herndon, James Holden, Karen Gwyer, Klara Lewis, Nik Colk Void, and Russell Haswell, amongst many others, play at the Cambridgeshire Centre. Cover by Ksenia Pedan; Design by Rory Gleeson. Mixed and mastered by Rupert Clervaux.
$17.79 UPC: N/A ELECTRONIC
A1. Office Self Harm
A2. Engrenages
A3. Sustainability
B1. Mutual Grief
B2. Head For Business
B3. Bermondsey Lagoon
B4. Sauna
MOORE, RUDY RAY: The Rudy Ray Moore Zodiac Album CD (DOL 104CD)
"Rudy Ray Moore was a lot of things. In his Dolemite persona, he was a Kung Fu master. In a smoky club late at night, a comedy master. And his comedy was known to be of the sort that would make Red Foxx blush. The Rudy Ray Moore Zodiac Album is just that sort of record -- and then some. Risqué from its cover art, right through the A-side and right through the B-side. When released in the early 70s, this was the sort of record kept under the counter or sold in a brown paper bag. On Zodiac, Rudy Ray is joined by The Madam -- as they talk the listener through some solid sexual advice for men and women based on the signs of the zodiac. The illustrations on the cover art give you an idea as to the sort of advice they're offering up... and from the sound of it perhaps demonstrating. This one is among Rudy Ray Moore's filthy best!"
"From Asmara, Eritrea (formerly Ethiopia) Tewolde Redda revolutionized the sounds of traditional Eritrean music by amplifying his kirar, playing his Eko electric guitar, and recording six singles in the first part of the 1970's. Including the first Eritrean songs to use a horn section, traditional songs reworked into his new sound, and originals influenced by radio broadcasts from the United States military base in Asmara, Kagnew Station, these ten songs originally released on the Philips, Amha, and Yared labels show off his talents with stringed instruments, a talented back-up band, and often the hand clapped beat shifting into double time near the song's end. Tewolde's thick, deep voice sings songs of love over somber and joyous tunes. Comes in a 'tip-on' sleeve with extensive liner notes, lyrical translations, and unpublished photos. A co-release with Mitmitta Musika of Addis Abeba, Ethiopia."
2017 repress. "Big Pun remains on the best rappers ever list to this day. Reasons for this weigh largely on his debut Capital Punishment. His commanding voice and rapid fire delivery make it clear there will never be another Big Pun. Pun was New York. His confidence on the mic made him stand out among his contemporaries. Similarly, the production -- by a cast of many -- remains ever so New York loyal. The close cousins 'I'm Not a Player' and 'Still Not a Player,' may have been the hits off this album but it is packed with so many more that show Pun's true abilities. 'Beware' and 'Dream Shatterer' are great examples of Big Pun at his best, dark cinematic production with just enough room to let him breathe fire. On 'Twinz (Deep Cover)' Big Pun is trading bars with his mentor Fat Joe over a remake of Dr. Dre's classic beat. Here Pun delivers one of his most quoted verses that contains among others 'Dead in the middle of Little Italy little did we know that we riddled some middlemen who didn't do diddly.' There are numerous guest appearances, the best of which include afore mentioned Fat Joe (on several tracks), the Roots' Black Thought on the MC showcase 'Super Lyrical,' Prodigy and Inspectah Deck on 'Tres Leches (Triboro Trilogy),' and an extra-insane Busta Rhymes on 'Parental Discretion.'"
JUNGLE BROTHERS: Done By The Forces Of Nature 2LP (GET 52720LP)
2017 repress. "The Jungle Brothers's 1988 debut, Straight Out The Jungle, was important for many reasons. It was sloppy and goofy but had moments of real focus and social consciousness. It was a true 'kitchen sink' record, that caught a rap fan base enraptured by Eric B. & Rakim, Public Enemy and Boogie Down Productions a bit off-guard. Also of note, beyond the excellence of the album itself, the Jungle Brothers were the fulcrum for what would become the Native Tongues movement -- they came first, De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest followed, under their guidance. By 1989, the group had even more confidence, plus a Warner Bros. contract and advance in their back pocket. They used it to great advantage on the self-produced and criminally underrated Done By The Forces Of Nature, expanding their sonic palette and continuing their Afrocentric approach to music and life. Singles like 'What 'U' Waitin' 4' and 'Doin' Our Own Dang' (with De La and Q-Tip, alongside Monie Love) showed the group's fun side, which has also lead the way in the 'hip-house' movement. But things weren't all fun and games, as deeper, more pensive album tracks like 'Black Woman,' 'Beeds On A String,' and 'Acknowledge Your Own History' show. It was another accomplished mix of fun, frolic and knowledge-of-self, proving that you could be serious in the rap game but still let off steam and fill the dancefloor. Done By The Forces Of Nature stands as one of the most cherished hip-hop documents of the late '80s among true-school heads, and this edition is the perfect way to revisit this classic thinking-man's (and woman's) rap platter. Issued for the first time ever on 2-LP with the original picture sleeve artwork, it also comes with a reproduction of the original insert, with credits and lyrics."
WU-TANG CLAN: Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) 6x7" BOX (GET 56033-7)
"Get On Down Presents : Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) complete album on 7 inch for the first time ever housed in a deluxe casebook created in full collaboration with The RZA. This absolutely unique, deluxe edition of this classic album -- which has been created in full collaboration with The RZA --- is presented as a 'Casebook' hardcover book, which houses the album's 12 full songs that are divided into six 7-Inches. And beyond the 56-page liner notes, six additional pages have a Wu-Tang logo picture sleeve in which to put the vinyl. Besides the vinyl, the centerpiece of the Casebook is a 56-page Shaolinology book, featuring input by RZA, written by journalist Chris Faraone. Beyond many never-before-discussed Wu-Tang nuggets, the book also includes rare photos of the group, lyrics for all album songs, as well as other images and advertisements from the Enter The Wu-Tang era. For the Wu-Tang Clan fan -- this is a trophy to be proudly displayed to celebrate the influence of one of music's most influential groups."
"Al Massrieen: Disco, funk and modernized Arabic pop from Egypt. In the beginning of Habibi Funk, our search was focused on vinyl records. Around a year ago though, we got to the point where we realized that it became substantially harder to discover music that we enjoyed and hadn't heard before. It became apparent that it was time to start looking for other formats. Cassette tapes were the obvious alternative. These were introduced in the Arabic world around the late 1970s. In some countries they took over a bit earlier, in others a bit later, but eventually they pushed the vinyl format out of the market in the 1980s. In Egypt this trend already even started in the late 1970s. Al Massrieen was one of the first bands I learned about once I discovered the tape format for myself. They were really popular in Egypt in the 1970s and the more of their music I found on either tapes or Arabic pirate mp3 sites, the more I was becoming a fan. Only very few bands from the region can match the band's versatility as well as their strive for innovation. Hany Shenoda is the man behind the Al Massrieen band. He is a renowned figure of the Egyptian music scene and has worked with everyone from Abdel Halim Hafez to Mohamed Mounir. Al Massrieen was his attempt to introduce his ideas of modernizing Egyptian music, heavily encouraged by Naguib Mahfouz (Egypt's only winner of the Nobel Prize for literature) after discussing his ideas with him. Al Massrieen's sound goes from lush disco like 'Sah' to psych rock like 'Horreya' or incredible jazz fused pop on songs such as 'Edba Mn Gded'. I was shocked to realize the band seemed to be hardly known outside Egypt, even though I feel they're at least on the same level as Ahmed Fakroun. A relative obscurity which I largely attribute to the fact that their releases never have been pressed on vinyl (apart from a Greece best of LP which wasn't a strong compilation of the group's songs). One way or another it felt like this band and especially their composer, band leader and overall brain Hany Shenoda was in need to get some recognition outside of Egypt. The release is fully licensed from the band and comes with an extensive booklet with liner notes, interviews and unseen photos."
LP version. "Al Massrieen: Disco, funk and modernized Arabic pop from Egypt. In the beginning of Habibi Funk, our search was focused on vinyl records. Around a year ago though, we got to the point where we realized that it became substantially harder to discover music that we enjoyed and hadn't heard before. It became apparent that it was time to start looking for other formats. Cassette tapes were the obvious alternative. These were introduced in the Arabic world around the late 1970s. In some countries they took over a bit earlier, in others a bit later, but eventually they pushed the vinyl format out of the market in the 1980s. In Egypt this trend already even started in the late 1970s. Al Massrieen was one of the first bands I learned about once I discovered the tape format for myself. They were really popular in Egypt in the 1970s and the more of their music I found on either tapes or Arabic pirate mp3 sites, the more I was becoming a fan. Only very few bands from the region can match the band's versatility as well as their strive for innovation. Hany Shenoda is the man behind the Al Massrieen band. He is a renowned figure of the Egyptian music scene and has worked with everyone from Abdel Halim Hafez to Mohamed Mounir. Al Massrieen was his attempt to introduce his ideas of modernizing Egyptian music, heavily encouraged by Naguib Mahfouz (Egypt's only winner of the Nobel Prize for literature) after discussing his ideas with him. Al Massrieen's sound goes from lush disco like 'Sah' to psych rock like 'Horreya' or incredible jazz fused pop on songs such as 'Edba Mn Gded'. I was shocked to realize the band seemed to be hardly known outside Egypt, even though I feel they're at least on the same level as Ahmed Fakroun. A relative obscurity which I largely attribute to the fact that their releases never have been pressed on vinyl (apart from a Greece best of LP which wasn't a strong compilation of the group's songs). One way or another it felt like this band and especially their composer, band leader and overall brain Hany Shenoda was in need to get some recognition outside of Egypt. The release is fully licensed from the band and comes with an extensive booklet with liner notes, interviews and unseen photos."
2017 repress. "A compilation of Georgia bluesmen who play all in a style of their own. Truly great recordings made by George Mitchell between 1979-1981. Features the hypnotic sounds of John Lee Ziegler, the incredibly rockin' drum and guitar music of James Davis, the hair-stands-up-on-the-back-of-your-neck voice and guitar of William Robertson (also known as Cecil Barfield!), the unique Doaist playing of Jimmy Lee Williams and the ragged and beautiful music of Jim Bunkley. Really just the best blues music you could ever hope to hear. Another testament to the brilliant ear of George Mitchell, who traveled the south in search of the real stuff and found it. Old school 'tip on' cover."
SCOTT, RAYMOND: The Portofino Variations 2LP (MOV 1861LP)
"1962 was the year Raymond Scott composed and recorded 'Portofino' in many different arrangements. However, no recordings were released until Basta did include two versions on Manhattan Research, Inc.. The track became one of Scott's most popular electronic compositions. 180 gram audiophile vinyl; Gatefold sleeve; Free Download; Jim Flora artwork; Contains unreleased versions by Raymond Scott; Raymond Scott's 'Portofino' as performed by Fay Lovsky, Jacco Gardner, JB Meijers (Common Linnets), Aim, Metropole Orchestra, Davide Rossi (Goldfrapp, Coldplay, The Verve) and many more; Limited Edition of 1,000 individually numbered copies on gold vinyl."
J DILLA: Jay Dee A.K.A. King Dilla LP (NMG 35773LP)
"The mark that the late producer J Dilla left upon hip-hop during the 90s and early-to-mid 00s is undeniable. His work with De La Soul, Busta Rhymes, The Pharcyde, and of course Slum Village long been cemented his prominence in the annals of hip-hop history. Of the many words one can use to describe J Dilla's legacy, one that's not used enough is prolific. Dilla made beats constantly. So new Dilla compositions are still being discovered. One of the places where those works are still being unearthed is the archives of the Ne'Astra Music Group, who proudly present here 8 Dilla tracks previously unissued on vinyl. Dilla's legacy continues to be shared and celebrated by today's hip-hop audience -- with help from the tireless efforts of Ne'Astra."
VA: Function Underground: The Black & Brown American Rock Sound 1969-1974 LP (NA 5149LP)
Now fully available, previously RSD 2017 release. "14 tracks by Jimi Macon, Black Maffia, Blacklites and more, many reissued for the first time. Includes a 16 page booklet with extensive notes on an overlooked and important portion of rock n' roll's history & a download card to WAV files of the full album. Nearly everyone in the world can rattle off the great African-American musical forms. Jazz, blues, R&B, soul, hip-hop, house, gospel. One influential genre is always left off of the list: a folk music known as rock n' roll. Rock n' roll was a term originally coined to market the white-friendly version of a genre that already existed; prior to 1965, the line between rock n' roll and R&B was thin: Ike Turner recorded and released 'Rocket '88' ' in 1951 and, while its Chess Records release reached number one on the Billboard R&B chart, it is regarded by many as the first rock n' roll record. The Great Divide between R&B and rock n' roll came after the Beatles and the British Invasion decimated the Top 40 chart in 1964. Simultaneously, R&B entered a new phase, soon to be labeled 'soul,' which upped the music's gospel quotient and turned its frantic twang. So somewhere in the mid to late-1960s, rock n' roll became perceived as something for the Caucasian kids. When Jimi Hendrix and Arthur Lee made the scene, they were said to be black musicians entering into a white world. While that couldn't be farther from the truth, that false dichotomy has existed in America's popular conscious ever since, to the point where the idea of a black rock musician is on the level with the idea of a black cowboy. In the mid-1960s, funk replaced soul as the rhythm that was going to move the world. We know all its progenitor - James Brown, The Meters, Kool & The Gang - and their innovations: the syncopated, 4/4 dance between the bass and drums, horns repurposed as percussion, chicken-scratch and wah-wah guitar. We can trace where they came from. But there is one crucial funk influence that no one seems to want to acknowledge -- a devil-may-care attitude we can attribute to rock n' roll. It's not a stretch to say that funk is the African-American answer to psychedelia and hard rock rolled into one. The idea of 'progressivism' that took over rock music after psychedelia's heyday in the late 1960s belatedly spilled over to funk. In the early 1970s, as the underground/psychedelic fire burnt out in the white rock world, it roared to a blaze in the black musical community. Nearly every American city with a large black population boasted self-contained funk bands that didn't consider themselves simply revues or backup groups, but rather fully-operational ensembles in these bands, everything from composing, arranging, record production and distribution, was handled in house by band members. These are the bands whose music comprises this anthology, and while they're all different, they're unique in one way: they kept their ears open for new developments in funk and rock music. This anthology presents earnest questions as to why we know so little about these bands and the movement of which they were a part. While we don't anticipate that we'll ever find a definitive answer as to what these ensembles' true goals were, then, we do know that they took their charges seriously. And they knew they were onto something different, something that, though only they and their immediate kin might recognize it, was more interesting than the status quo. Function Underground shines light on an important and overlooked part of rock n' roll's history and talented ensembles that toiled in the shadows, derided by their peers 'Do you realize that Hendrix was dead before most black people in America knew he was a black man?' Ebony Rhythm Band drummer Matthew Watson questions rhetorically. 'We was scorned. In that era, everybody else in the black community was wearing three-piece suits, processes and Afro wigs and that shit. We was the first guys to wear bell bottoms. The first guys to wear big hats. We were off into a whole other thing.' "
ELECTRIC SEWER AGE: Moon's Milk In Final Phase CD (SOL 185CD)
"Electric Sewer Age was conceived in 2006, a glowing spark in the imagination of John Deek of Divine Frequency. A brief, cryptic announcement in 2009, followed by a few rough tracks released online, heralded its birth. Announced with nothing more than the tagline 'an Infinity of Sewers thrown open beneath the Threshold House', little was known about this upcoming project other than it likely featured some involvement of former Coil legends Peter 'Sleazy' Christopherson and Danny Hyde, and perhaps, it was rumored, with the posthumous contributions of John Balance. Because Electric Sewer Age was intended to be an anonymous aural experiment meant to free the listeners mind of any preconceptions about who or what created it, little more was ever planned to be publicly revealed about the project, even after the first release. However, following the unexpected and untimely passing in 2010 of Christopherson, the first Electric Sewer Age EP became an epitaph to the loss of this peerless musician, for these were the last tracks he and his decades-long collaborator and friend Danny Hyde ever completed together. The music, originally intended to conclude Coil's 'Moon's Milk' series, was released on CD by Divine Frequency in 2012, and then on vinyl the next year by Danny Hyde. Both editions sold out quickly and have been unavailable until now. Moon's Milk In Final Phase consists of four ambient-electronic instrumentals, reissued by Soleilmoon Recordings."
ELECTRIC SEWER AGE: Moon's Milk In Final Phase LP (SOL 185LP)
LP version. Celestial black vinyl. Includes download code. Edition of 250. "Electric Sewer Age was conceived in 2006, a glowing spark in the imagination of John Deek of Divine Frequency. A brief, cryptic announcement in 2009, followed by a few rough tracks released online, heralded its birth. Announced with nothing more than the tagline 'an Infinity of Sewers thrown open beneath the Threshold House', little was known about this upcoming project other than it likely featured some involvement of former Coil legends Peter 'Sleazy' Christopherson and Danny Hyde, and perhaps, it was rumored, with the posthumous contributions of John Balance. Because Electric Sewer Age was intended to be an anonymous aural experiment meant to free the listeners mind of any preconceptions about who or what created it, little more was ever planned to be publicly revealed about the project, even after the first release. However, following the unexpected and untimely passing in 2010 of Christopherson, the first Electric Sewer Age EP became an epitaph to the loss of this peerless musician, for these were the last tracks he and his decades-long collaborator and friend Danny Hyde ever completed together. The music, originally intended to conclude Coil's 'Moon's Milk' series, was released on CD by Divine Frequency in 2012, and then on vinyl the next year by Danny Hyde. Both editions sold out quickly and have been unavailable until now. Moon's Milk In Final Phase consists of four ambient-electronic instrumentals, reissued by Soleilmoon Recordings."
ELECTRIC SEWER AGE: Moon's Milk In Final Phase (Green Vinyl) LP (SOL 185LTD-LP)
LP version. Moon green vinyl. Includes download code. Edition of 250. "Electric Sewer Age was conceived in 2006, a glowing spark in the imagination of John Deek of Divine Frequency. A brief, cryptic announcement in 2009, followed by a few rough tracks released online, heralded its birth. Announced with nothing more than the tagline 'an Infinity of Sewers thrown open beneath the Threshold House', little was known about this upcoming project other than it likely featured some involvement of former Coil legends Peter 'Sleazy' Christopherson and Danny Hyde, and perhaps, it was rumored, with the posthumous contributions of John Balance. Because Electric Sewer Age was intended to be an anonymous aural experiment meant to free the listeners mind of any preconceptions about who or what created it, little more was ever planned to be publicly revealed about the project, even after the first release. However, following the unexpected and untimely passing in 2010 of Christopherson, the first Electric Sewer Age EP became an epitaph to the loss of this peerless musician, for these were the last tracks he and his decades-long collaborator and friend Danny Hyde ever completed together. The music, originally intended to conclude Coil's 'Moon's Milk' series, was released on CD by Divine Frequency in 2012, and then on vinyl the next year by Danny Hyde. Both editions sold out quickly and have been unavailable until now. Moon's Milk In Final Phase consists of four ambient-electronic instrumentals, reissued by Soleilmoon Recordings."
KA-SPEL, EDWARD: High On Station Yellow Moon CD (SOL 194CD)
"There is a station where the train never arrives, where the Waiting Room is always occupied, where the conversation is inevitably awkward and where you're never quite alone, but perpetually almost alone. Ladies & Gentlemen, welcome to Station Yellow Moon, the final bastion of humanity, the last stuttering blip on the life support system, the domain where Access Is Denied perpetually - but who the Hell would want to go there anyhow? Well, some pay handsomely for the Great Escape, despite the risks... High On Station Yellow Moon is a new solo album by Edward Ka-spel of The Legendary Pink Dots, and marks the beginning of his collaboration with longtime friend and fellow traveller Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls. It doesn't get more conceptual than this."
KA-SPEL, EDWARD: High On Station Yellow Moon LP (SOL 194LP)
LP version. "There is a station where the train never arrives, where the Waiting Room is always occupied, where the conversation is inevitably awkward and where you're never quite alone, but perpetually almost alone. Ladies & Gentlemen, welcome to Station Yellow Moon, the final bastion of humanity, the last stuttering blip on the life support system, the domain where Access Is Denied perpetually - but who the Hell would want to go there anyhow? Well, some pay handsomely for the Great Escape, despite the risks... High On Station Yellow Moon is a new solo album by Edward Ka-spel of The Legendary Pink Dots, and marks the beginning of his collaboration with longtime friend and fellow traveller Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls. It doesn't get more conceptual than this."
CONRAD, TONY: Ten Years Alive On The Infinite Plain 2CD (SV 049CD)
"Ten Years Alive On The Infinite Plain is the quintessential work of artist/filmmaker/composer Tony Conrad. Comprised of both film installation and minimalist score for amplified strings, Ten Years leaps across genre and medium to connect his revolutionary structural filmmaking with the experiments in long-duration sound that Conrad had begun in the 1960s as part of the Theatre of Eternal Music. 'Ten Years began with image before sound,' writes Andrew Lampert, 'a row of quadruple projections arranged side-by-side, all the shuffling stripes cascading into each other. Over the next two hours the music throbbed and the projectors incrementally shifted inwards, their beams gradually uniting to form one pulsating, overlapping picture.' For its 1972 premiere at New York's The Kitchen, Ten Years included Conrad on violin as well as Rhys Chatham and Laurie Spiegel performing on instruments of the composer's own making. Chatham played the Long String Drone -- a 6-foot long strip of wood with bass strings, electric pickup, tuning keys, tape, rubber band and metal hardware -- while Spiegel carried out an arrhythmic bass pulse throughout. Superior Viaduct is honored to present this previously unreleased recording of Ten Years Alive On The Infinite Plain's breathtaking premier performance. As Chatham recounts in the liner notes, 'When I first listened to this recording after not hearing it for over 40 years, it transported me back to the early Kitchen and the heyday of early minimalism, played outside the Dream Syndicate.' "
COLTRANE/ALICE COLTRANE, JOHN: Cosmic Music LP (SV 120LP)
"John Coltrane transformed the inner architecture of jazz, throughout the mid-1950s and 1960s and long after his premature death at age 40 in 1967. No other American musician could be said to be at the spiritual center of the '60s musical universe as Trane influenced Albert Ayler, La Monte Young, Jimi Hendrix and everybody in between. Cosmic Music, originally self-released by Alice Coltrane in 1968 and later issued by Impulse!, features two tracks ('Manifestation' and 'Rev. King') by John Coltrane's legendary final quintet that were recorded in San Francisco on February 2nd, 1966 and two more ('Lord Help Me To Be' and 'The Sun') from Alice Coltrane's very first session as a bandleader, recorded six months after her husband's passing. 'Manifestation' opens with the group already in mid-flight: Trane's fierce tenor leads the way with Pharoah Sanders' blistering sax and Alice's powerful chords hearing his call. On 'Rev. King,' Trane introduces a lyrical theme and then the composition erupts into fiery incantations, while Jimmy Garrison's bass throbs alongside the propulsive, gravity-defying drumming of Rashied Ali. Foreshadowing her majestic debut, A Monastic Trio, 'Lord Help Me To Be' brings Alice's celestial piano playing and inspired improvisations to the foreground with Sanders, Garrison and drummer Ben Riley rumbling in tow. 'The Sun,' a meditative ballad with subtle urgency, perfectly closes the album's contemplative circle. As John Coltrane recites on the final track, 'May there be peace and love and perfection throughout all creation.' "
"New Zealand's Pin Group emerged out of the early '80s Christchurch scene and, with just two stunning singles and one brilliant five-song EP, have become an archetype for nearly all indie bands ever since. Ambivalence was not only The Pin Group's hypnotic debut, but also the very first release on Flying Nun. While guitarist Roy Montgomery, bassist Ross Humphries and drummer Peter Stapleton build off each other's jittery riffs, Montgomery's uncanny baritone pierces the torrential clangor. Conjuring both Wire's Chairs Missing and VU's White Light/White Heat, the band captures a truly unique sound -- evocative, yet austere. Wasting little time, The Pin Group released Coat in November 1981, merely two months after their first single. On the title track, Humphries' distant vocals call out as tense rhythms gradually push listeners over the edge. B-side track 'Jim' could easily have been recorded in Manchester circa 1979, but remains a master class in NZ post-punk atmospherics, menacing from start to finish. The Pin Group went back into the studio in January 1982 to record their third and final classic release. Featuring an expanded five-piece lineup with Mary Heney on guitar/vocals and Peter Fryer on viola, Go To Town is a work of taut perfection. Showcasing the band's dramatic chiaroscuro textures and arresting lyrics, 'Long Night' and 'When I Tell You' make staggeringly clear how much sonic ground The Pin Group covered in their unfortunately short tenure. These first-time standalone reissues, featuring Ronnie van Hout's original sleeve designs, are pressed on limited edition color vinyl. Now is the time to discover again the monochrome magnetism of this unparalleled and legendary band." Liner notes by Liz Harris. First-time reissue from legendary New Zealand band; Limited edition color vinyl.
2017 repress. "Bruce Haack's 1970 electronic acid rock masterpiece is back into production! The Electric Lucifer is the third album in the ongoing Telephone Explosion X Bruce Haack series (previous releases include Haackula & The Electric Lucifer Book II)."
Repress. Originally released in August 2011. Resident Advisor on the 12", giving it a 4/5: "Djrum displays his dexterity via the EP's three-part title track, which crafts the same palette of samples, strings and gentle timbers into very different sonic terrains. 'Pt. 1' undulates along a steady 4/4 heartbeat that becomes slowly choked with chimes."
Repress. Originally released in August 2011. Resident Advisor on the 12", giving it a 4/5: "Djrum displays his dexterity via the EP's three-part title track, which crafts the same palette of samples, strings and gentle timbers into very different sonic terrains. . . . "Pt. 2 & 3" is flexed over fluctuating tempos before lapsing into an aching reprise. Yet it's the floor-tapered "Turiya" that is the standout here, transforming all of Mountains' subtleties and dub techno cool into a warm and dusty swinger."
If there's a single guiding motif to this debut recording from Love Theme, it's the melancholic throb of love learnt and love lost, a descent that tumbles and slips through the overall feeling of looking back. As intimately and carefully as its parts cohesively lament a narrative, it's the after-image that catches your breath, like a memory morphing as it is observed. Comprised of Alex Zhang Hungtai, of the now defunct project Dirty Beaches, along with Austin Milne, and Simon Frank, Love Theme is arranged from an improvised session with twin saxophones, synthesizer, percussion, drum machine, and voice. The aching wane of the saxophone arrangements frisk the propulsive aggro of the mixed percussion, forcing a melancholic halo upon the queasy stupor of the synthetic swing that closes each side of the record. It's a bizarre lust for life that's being divined from equal parts dislocation and invigoration, a potent remedy which perhaps Love Theme can call their own. Percolating and finding form over time, the record instinctively follows a travel narrative, moving across a series of landscapes, reflecting the innate experiences of the expressions and voices that were first collected in South London back in February 2015.
$13.79 UPC: 724190342077 ELECTRONIC
01. Desert Exile
02. Late Crossing
03. Docklands - Yaumatei - Plum Garden
04. She's Here
05. All Sky, Love's End
12" with printed deluxe sleeve; 180 gram vinyl only. Features Aprapta, DJ Slowhand, Marcelo Cura, Gorbani, SED Trax (aka Sascha Kaline), Eddie Krilov, and Denis Kaznacheev.
Orphan Swords see the reissue of their License To Desire LP, originally released in 2015. The Belgian duo, formed in 2013, bring a heady, fog-shrouded sonic maelstrom to Aurora Borealis, perfect for the post-truth era. What sort of music is this? What genre do you file it under? Hard to say. There's chaos, there's unhallowed chanting, there's some fierce rhythm and there's undeniably some abuse of electronic equipment. It's best to leave the definitions up to the listener, but with titles referencing demons of Goetia and the world's oldest profession, you should let the good times roll. Their music, described as "a brutal hypnosis" by Ransom Note, has been released on Desire Records, Clan Destine and Idiosyncratics. Idiosyncratic is indeed a description that perfectly fits both their releases and live performances. Recently back from the US, they have shared bills with acts as diverse as Oathbreaker, Andy Stott, and Vatican Shadow. Their new collaborative side project Black Swords, with Stuart Argabright of Black Rain, was released on Vienna's Noiztank label (2017). Black/white label; Comes in full color folder sleeve, in heavy PVC outer sleeve; Includes download code; Edition of 200 (hand-numbered).
Resident Advisor's review of License To Desire: "The ten-minute 'Marchosias' . . . builds into a droning blur with surging drums, echoed, incomprehensible vocals and all sorts of sharp edges. 'Asmoday' conjures its own mass of screeching, cackling distortion, but adds an icy sense of melody through a few sustained synth riffs, and fixes everything to a rolling kick. 'Hooker' is the most subdued thing yet from Orphan Swords, but it's no less potent. Its steady bass thrums and light, hazy swirls of harmonized noise make for a supremely soothing comedown."
ORPHAN SWORDS: License To Desire Remixes LP (ABX 067LP)
Aurora Borealis unleash Orphan Swords' License To Desire Remixes LP. The sonic tangle and entheogenic orgy of the demonically inspired "Asmoday" and the tranced-out "Hooker", are given workovers by Helm, Icon Template, Black Rain, Prostitutes, and Svengalisghost. This is remix as rite of destruction, the tracks being disfigured rather than beautified for commodification. Awkward, uncomfortable listening rubs shoulders with pounding bass, post-techno hiss squall prevails. And then there's the superbly dirty fever-dream lope of the Black Rain remix. Formed in 2013, Orphan Swords is a Belgian electronic duo. Their music, described as "a brutal hypnosis" by Ransom Note. Their work has been released on Desire Records, Clan Destine, and Idiosyncratics. Idiosyncratic is indeed a description that perfectly fits both their releases and live performances. Artwork by Lara Gasparotto. Black/white label; Comes in full color folder sleeve, in heavy PVC outer sleeve; Includes download code; Edition of 200 (hand-numbered).
Resident Advisor's review of License To Desire (2015): "The ten-minute 'Marchosias' . . . builds into a droning blur with surging drums, echoed, incomprehensible vocals and all sorts of sharp edges. 'Asmoday' conjures its own mass of screeching, cackling distortion, but adds an icy sense of melody through a few sustained synth riffs, and fixes everything to a rolling kick. 'Hooker' is the most subdued thing yet from Orphan Swords, but it's no less potent. Its steady bass thrums and light, hazy swirls of harmonized noise make for a supremely soothing comedown."
HAWKES, MARQUIS: The Basement Is Burning 12" (AUS 115EP)
Marquis Hawkes makes his return to Aus Music in the form of a blazing, floor-focused two-track EP. The Basement Is Burning takes its name from a near-fateful experience stemming from an electrical fire in Hawkes's home which culminated in him and his family being evacuated from a fifth floor balcony. The title track kicks off with splashy, live drum samples that are armored with electronic layers before a feel-good piano lick glides into the mix. "Tower Block Boogie" then tumbles short funk samples through bold drums as a fervid sense of tension burns throughout.
Camille presents Ouï, her fifth studio album. Recorded over a year in La Chartreuse, a 14th century monastery-turned-artist's residence in Avignon, France, Ouï is a cornucopia thrumming with folk, hymns, ballads, pop, lullabies, and breathtaking a cappella. "The story of the album is like this, moving from the arcane drums" -- percussion is used throughout as the bedrock -- "to the treble and harmonics and light in my voice." An instrument of exhilarating range and phenomenal power, Camille's voice provides all the vocal parts on Ouï. Co-produced by Camille with two of her longtime collaborators, composer and multi-instrumentalist Clement Ducol and sound and mixing engineer Maxime Leguil, and featuring the Moog analog synthesizer, Ouï is a work with a pulse. "It really resonates," says Camille, "On some songs there are no drums, just this sub-bass like a kick drum, which leads the way and gives it a beat." While she sets out to write politically charged songs inspired by drum-driven French traditional dances, reflecting upon the country's recent, tragic events, she was equally led to something peaceful, vowel-oriented, and vibrational in her exploration of sound. The latter explains the album's title. Becoming a mother for the second time also had a bearing -- "Having my children made me want to dive again into the spring of life, of love, of sound. All this mothering has led me to an approach of fluidity." "Fontaine Du Lait", the album's first single, with its flute sounds and arrangements that overlap, evokes this concept of fluidity. Two traditional French music pieces play their part in "Je Ne Mâche Pas Mes Mots" and "Twix", whilst "Seeds", the album's only English language song, is about reaping what we sow. "Lasso", with its uneven rhythms and lyrics about throwing, spinning but never quite catching, and "Sous Le Sable" is an ode to a mysterious woman who lives below the sand. The French language and the magic of sound dominate Ouï. It also pays tribute to Camille's father -- "My father was a singer and whilst he didn't do music for a living he definitely showed me the way. This is the first time he won't hear a new album of mine, which is maybe why I called it Oui - Ouï - like 'heard'. I wanted to make something so vibrational, so beautiful, that he can hear it where he is." Blue, fabric-covered, gatefold sleeve; Printed paper inner-sleeve; Includes CD.
$22.99 EAN: 5060421568966 ROCK
A1. Sous Le Sable
A2. Lasso
A3. Fontaine De Lait
A4. Seeds
A5. Les Loups
A6. Je Ne Mâche Pas Mes Mots
B1. Twix
B2. Nuit Debout
B3. Piscine
B4. Fille À Papa
B5. Langue
Japan's Jun Kamoda has produced under his Illreme moniker for over 15 years and he is also as member of Baleine 3000. Infectious licks and raw drums come together to form "Blind Disco", an animated production that blends a cacophony of samples into a raucous party jam. "Ramen Funk" is a moodier cut by comparison, featuring a medley of percussive elements, vibrant guitar melodies, and a seedy bassline, until "Savanna On The Palm" chops up and loops a wailing vocal sample before leading into echoing chords and a twisted groove in a mesmerizing conclusion.
$9.79 UPC: N/A ELECTRONIC
A1. Blind Disco
A2. Ramen Funk
B1. Savanna On The Palm
Blanksheet is the Berlin-based techno label founded by Hedrome. Following May released November of 2016, Bottom Line is Hedrome's first physical EP. This four-tracker takes you through different facets of techno. It's optimized stomping to atmospheric, dreamy techno deepness. 180 gram vinyl.
VA: Bingo! French Punk Exploitation 1978-1981 CD (BORNBAD 095CD)
The real, great rock'n'roll swindle? You'd better search Belgium, and more specifically somewhere near Lou Deprijck and Yvan Lacomblez, two born-and-bred "Brusselians". If their names don't ring a bell at first glance, you've most likely already wiggled to their interplanetary hit "Ça Plane Pour Moi": A moronic song by a crappy singer... The prank swept through the world and within a few months, no less than one million 45s were sold just in France. It spawned mass-produced cover versions, becoming a universal punk anthem. Of course, such a cash cow would arouse envy and create quite a few vocations among our fellow countrymen. The song's trademark derision was about to bridge the missing link between original punk -- too violent, too dirty -- and the general public eager to enjoy a little Saturday-night pogo. Humor became the magic bullet to conquer a frightened audience. The formula had already proved successful. Remember the arrival of rock'n'roll in France (1957) through Boris Vian, Henri Salvador, and Michel Legrand. Their famous, jokey "Rock and Roll-Mops" already laid the foundations for the same equation: joke + rock'n'roll + derision = success. The big labels tried to produce punk bands in France -- Polydor signed the Stinky Toys and the Guilty Razors -- but only to result in huge commercial failures. But in the face of Mr. Bertrand's huge success, those big labels thought they understood how it worked. Music publishers and majors all wanted a punk hit. A&R executives brought all of their seasoned producers, composers, and lyricists into the stampede: eccentric arrangements, daft and stereotyped lyrics -- one-upmanship was the rule. An unprecedented bunch of punk-novelty records followed. Even André Verchuren had his own unbridled accordion cover version of "Ça Plane Pour Moi". Sure, most of these punk hoaxes are real lousy, real shitty but one must admit that some numbers stand out of the crowd. While they didn't reach the success of "Ça Plane Pour Moi", some, here and there, were really inspired and even more creative than the songs they hijacked and mimicked. Features: Piero, Soda Fraise, Stéfan, Geiger, Too Much, Gérard Bôle Du Chaumont, Sublime Deluxe, Bulldozer, Les Marylènes, Gisor, Anatole Frantz, Fatsy Wataire, and Plastichke. CD version comes with a 24-page booklet.
$9.79 EAN: 3521383437933 ROCK
01. Piero - Quelle Époque Épique Et Punk (1979) (3:03)
02. Soda Fraise - Ca Baigne Dans L'huile (1980) (3:12)
03. Stéfan - J'suis Pas Méchant (1978) (2:11)
04. Geiger - J'suis Punky ! (1978) (3:04)
05. Too Much - Silex Pistols (1978) (3:07)
06. Gérard Bôle Du Chaumont - C'est La Défonce (1980) (3:16)
07. Sublime Deluxe - Chose Molle (1979) (4:06)
08. Bulldozer - J'suis Punk (1978) (2:55)
09. Sublime Deluxe - Donne Moi Ton Corps Juste Pour Le Sport (1979) (3:13)
10. Les Marylènes - Le Beau Tétard Sur Son Cigare (1978) (3:16)
11. Gisor - C'est Le Plan (1981) (3:13)
12. Anatole Frantz - Le Monde Est Fou (1978) (2:58)
13. Fatsy Wataire - Chimène Hovelicot (1978) (3:39)
14. Plastichke - Ca Gaze Pour Moi (1978) (3:14)
Since forming four years ago, Italian based trio Agents Of Time have already released on both Maceo Plex's Ellum and Jennifer Cardini's Correspondant imprints. On top of crafting remixes for artists including Sailor & I and WhoMadeWho, 2017 saw the launch of their own label Obscura, named after the parties they have been running since 2014. Xylo is their debut EP for Curle Recordings, offering both atmospheric but firm techno, complemented by a healthy dose of floating melodies. Be sure to check out their analog live act when you can, they made Resident Advisor's live Top 20.
ATOBE, SHINICHI: From The Heart, It's A Start, A Work Of Art 2LP (DDS 023LP)
From The Heart, It's A Start, A Work Of Art has its origins in early 2000, before Chain Reaction released the legendary Ship-Scope 12" (later released by Demdike Stare in 2015, DDS 014EP). Three of the tracks here are taken from an acetate cut at Dubplates & Mastering at that time, but which wouldn't see the light of day until now, including another batch of tracks taken from original masters. Only five copies of that acetate were ever made, so this is the first time any of these tracks are available for public consumption, and they rank among the finest and most distinctive in either the Chain Reaction or Shinichi Atobe's vaults. The material is effectively some of the Japanese producer's earliest work, showcasing the sort of tender, feminine pressure that would bubble up on the Ship-Scope EP and later be revealed in his new productions, Butterfly Effect (DDS 010CD) and World yet, for many reasons, they would lay sunk in his archive for the next 17 years. The tracks taken from that acetate are labeled "First Plate 1-3" and really are quite remarkable, having taken on so much character and added weight over the years that the incidental crackle of surface noise imbues proceedings with an added dimension that's hard to fathom. It basically sounds like a lost transmission making its way from Paul-Lincke-Ufer at the turn of the millennium to a new, completely changed world all these years later. The patina of crackle lends a mist-on-bare skin feeling akin to summer garden parties at Berghain in the stepping "First Plate 1", and gives a foggier sort of depth perception to the hydraulic, Maurizian heft of "First Plate 2", but it's the submerged euphoria of "First Plate 3" that hits the hardest; a heady, bittersweet reminder of days gone by. The other four tracks are crisply transferred from master tapes, relinquishing a sublime, impossible to categorize house variant that recalls everything from DJ Sprinkles to Ron Trent, yet with that weird, timeless production tick that by now has become something of a signature for this most distinctive and hard to categorize producer. Buoyant dub house and techno with lush, gaseous synths and keys. Remastered by Matt Colton from original tapes and worn actetates -- grit included; Limited copies.
LA-based producer/composer Robot Koch presents Fluid. "Fluid" is a delicately melancholic electronic ballad featuring French multi-instrumentalist Julien Marchal. Koch turns Marchal's piano improvisation parts into distilled loops, creating a distant hopefulness that drives through this track's core. "Reach" is a feature with singer Delhia de France, remixed by Berlin-based producer Chi Thanh. The elegance of Delhia's vocals combined with the driving remixing skills of Chi Thanh amplifies the essence of Koch's uplifting dancefloor hymn. "Nebula" is a collaboration with Chi Thanh that arose from his remix of "Reach". It's a gloomy upbeat composition that unifies the signatures of both auteurs.
Tom Diccico makes his debut with Dred Records. Offering a feast of thunderous, dubbed-out, machine funk cuts aimed at the higher planes of dance music, Sudden Move EP includes a raw rattling remix by John Osborn of Tom's unreleased track "Particle Fever". Mastered at Man Made Mastering in Berlin, 2017. Hand-stamped; 140 gram vinyl.
Having made her mark on Brazil's rich musical legacy with three best-selling albums to date, Rio's original nu-bossa queen returns with a tour de force of golden-era Brazilian soul music. From the spiritual swing of the early pioneers of modern samba, to the dizzying hedonism of Brazil's eighties disco/boogie craze, Clareia is a life-affirming journey through the rich and varied sounds of Sabrina Malheiros. For her most up-lifting and danceable album to date, Sabrina has (as always) enlisted her father Alex Malheiros -- bassist of samba jazz-funk legends Azymuth -- and visionary London based producer Daniel Maunick (aka Dokta Venom), son of Incognito's Bluey. With her debut album Equilibria (2005), Sabrina arrived on a wave of instant acclaim. Sabrina's innovative nu-bossa sound would continue on her sophomore album 2008's New Morning (FARO 131CD), declared the "best album of summer 2008" by Evening Standard, before 2011's Dreaming (FARO 161CD/LP). Six years on, Sabrina returns with Clareia. "It means to clear, light, brighten or illuminate, which, after seeing Brazil and the rest of the world go through some very difficult times, is exactly what the writing of this album brought to my life." Packed out with high-octane swinging samba-soul, like the title-track and "Salve O Mar", the album also features some bottom-heavy Brazilian boogie cuts, like rejoicing album opener "Celebrar" which harks back to some of Marcos Valle's cult '80s disco output, and "Sol Ceu E Mar", a Tania Maria-esque future classic of scorching Latin-funk. Mellower moments are found in "Em Paz", on which Sabrina's beguiling harmonies find an anchor in the rhythmic acoustic guitar of Ze Carlos', who Sabrina heralds as being "the best guitarist I have ever worked with". Azymuth's keyboardist Kiko Continentino's deft Rhodes, piano, organ, and synth playing, add ever more textures of distinctly Brazilian brilliance throughout, while tropical brass and flute arrangements on cool bossa-jazz movers "Vai Maria" and "Sandore", come from Brazilian saxophone legend Leo Gandleman, a man who has worked with everyone from Gal Costa to Gilberto Gil. The rhythm section combines Daniel Maunick's seamless drum programming and the organic polyrhythms of Brazilian percussion legend Jakare, all punctuated by Alex Malheiros's inimitable (occasionally slapped) jazz-funk bass, giving the album its irresistibly danceable pulse. Clareia is an inter-generational masterclass of Brazil's soulful spectrum, led by a pioneering voice of today's scene on the very top of her game.
$9.79 EAN: 5060211503498 WORLD
CD:
01. Celebrar
02. Clareia
03. Em Paz
04. Porto Do Sol
05. Salve O Mar
06. Sol, Ceu E Mar
07. Vam Bora
08. Vai, Maria
09. Renascera
10. Sandore
11. Ultraleve
LP:
A1. Celebrar
A2. Clareia
A3. Em Paz
A4. Salve O Mar
B1. Sol, Ceu e Mar
B2. Vam Bora
B3. Renascera
B4. Vai, Maria
Lucas Arruda presents a single announcing his forthcoming third full-length effort. This new opus is pursuing the music direction set with SOLAR (FVR 100CD/LP, 2015), mixing touch of blue-eyed-soul, pop, soul, and Brazilian styles together, and influenced by the legendary Brazilian producer Lincoln Olivetti. In Lucas's words: "In this record I really wanted to honor Robson Jorge and Lincoln Olivetti. . . . We recorded the basic tracks for the album in the same studio that Lincoln Olivetti did his last works. So, this was very important to capture the true essence of Brazilian Funk/AOR tradition."
WILSON & THE BLIND DATES, GARY: Live At CBGB LP (FTR 318LP)
"Recorded on a trip to the East Coast in August 1979, this album documents Gary Wilson's semi-triumphant return to his home base. Raised in Endicott NY, Gary moved out to San Diego after recording a series of records that would eventually create his legend. We have been fortunate enough to reissue three of these albums: 1974's Another Galaxy by the Gary Wilson Trio (FTR 232LP); 1977's You Think You Really Know Me (FTR 236LP); and the 2003 comp Forgotten Lovers (FTR 065LP); as well as adding a newly discovered abstraction to the early Wilson canon: Music for Piano (FTR 192LP). In August 1979, You Think... was the primary record for which Gary was known, and about half the material here is drawn from that masterpiece. The rest of the songs are in a similar mode -- prog-damaged lounge music powered by deep obsessions and ass-wide hooks, presented amidst truly bizarre stage elements. What's extra weird about this set is how rockin' the Blind Dates make the stuff sound. The band, although San Diego-based, was actually a bunch of NY State-expats Gary had played with before, whose westward drift has proceeded his own. And CBGB was one of the few clubs at which Wilson's music had been welcome from '77 on, so it really was a homecoming. Recorded through the board, the sonics are great, the music is mesmerizing . . . At the end of side two, someone intones, 'Blind Dates rule.' And if you don't agree by that point, you are a goddamn square. Be gone." --Byron Coley, 2017
"Third record, following a pair of amazing 12" near-LPs, by this Columbus howitzer. On their debut, Flash Fuck (A Wicked Company, 2013), they were a trio, but they subsequently dropped a guitarist. By the time they cut Vernacular Splatter (Superdreamer, 2015), they has found their true shape as a duo. With Aurelie on drums and vox, and Chris Corbin on guitar, they had pared their shit down to a tight-packed near-perfect two-person howl. For Possession Sessions they have retained that format, although legendary producer Mike Rep can't keep from making his guitar a deep deep part of the mix. And by hooking their braying sonic mule to Rep's stark, chopped production aesthetics, Sex Tide've created a sound that is naught but balling. All the shards that were present in their work earlier -- Gibson Bros., Cramps, Dead Moon, Pussy Galore, Churchmice, etc. -- have been compacted into a rough spew of concrete garbage rock that will have your ass spinning in its own special grave. Only quibble is that I'm not sure how much I've managed to wallow in the specifics of each song yet, since the whole thing flows wobbling and seamless, like a lost record by a band you wished had existed. Grubbiness of this particular style always initially seems like it should be roll-off-a-log easy. The chords are so basic, the thumping so primitive, the voices so devoted to unknown tongues, you'd imagine any monkey could do something similar. But man, it ain't easy. You can listen to a couple hundred records in this vein and maybe they'll all sound pretty good ('cause the style is so perfectly suited to R&R barbarians), but it's rare to hear anyone do it as well as this. Sex Tide's first couple of records are dazzlers, but this one goes way beyond that. And I'm betting it will stand up as an unparalleled booze party soundtrack for many years to come. So buy two. You're definitely gonna fuck up your first copy." --Byron Coley, 2017 Edition of 300.
$13.79 UPC: 752830272217 ROCK
A1. Great Black Swamp
A2. I Was So Wrong
A3. Orange Peels
A4. C.T.B.B.
B1. Come-Hither
B2. Flintcomb-Asb
B3. I'm Alright
B4. Right Time
B5. Possession Sessions
MATRIXXMAN X SETAOC MASS: Pitch Black EP 12" (FIGURE 087EP)
Figure presents the first outing of what might be one of techno's most promising collaborations, Seatoc Mass and Matrixxman. Drawing upon common thoughts on futuristic themes and their respective strengths as producers from different continents, their joint effort clearly conveys one distinct approach, yet unites the seemingly opposite. Regardless of being no-nonsense dancefloor-weapons, the four tracks still brim with detail, their vibrant elements communicating playfully. On their shared EP these artists have struck a rare balance. They delicately hover between the spacious and the claustrophobic, the modern and the classic, the stern and the elated.
Denial.of.Service returns to FILM for an extended EP of wrought iron electronics, channeling the spirit of classic electro, industrial, and noise. If 2015's Sensou EP (FILM 003EP) communicated a more brooding, emotive side to Denial.of.Service -- then Contour & Shape works in stark contrast. The palette remains relatively unchanged, with the 808 providing the back-bone for most of the compositions -- but this time around the production aesthetic is harsh and abrasive and there's a powerful, burning immediacy to the work. Contour & Shape is a thunderous, high-energy salvo from a true creative with a rich electronic music heritage.
GRATEFUL DEAD: It Crawled Out Of The Vaults Of KSAN 1966-1968 - Volume 1: Live At The Fillmore Auditorium 11/19/66 LP (GBKS 1005LP)
A recording of a cult event: The Grateful Dead, live at the Fillmore Auditorium on November 19th, 1966. Recorded before their first album came out (1967), this record features three primeval versions of tunes from their debut record and eight goodies, standards and originals, that were not featured on any official studio and live recording up to 1970's Workingman's Dead. This recording brings you right there, on a magic night in November 1966, when psychedelic rock was still something fresh and exciting and the emerging hippie movement had not exploded yet. That came half a year later with the invasion of Haight-Ashbury. But these recordings are not only of historical importance, their musical value is amazing. The band smokes on stage throughout the performance. The sound is muggy for sure, but each instrument comes through as it should and the simmering duels of guitar and organ make your head swirl. This album will certainly make the young generation of '60s music aficionados go crazy. A new beautiful cover artwork and great overall sound quality restoration make this album a joyful experience. And be sure that something like this 17+ minute version of "In The Midnight Hour" will have rarely hit your turntable. The overall atmosphere is just haunting. Even their official Live/Dead album (1969) doesn't reach this intensity. The release is reminiscent of early Doors or Iron Butterfly live recordings. A band at it's prime with the world to gain and nothing to lose.
$16.99 EAN: 3891121306075 ROCK
A1. Bill Graham Introduction (0:34)
A2. Hi Heeled Sneakers (4:18)
A3. Pain In My Heart (3:02)
A4. Cream Puff War (7:37)
A5. The Same Thing (9:34)
B1. Beat It On Down The Line (2:34)
B2. He Was A Friend Of Mine (4:35)
B3. King Bee (5:31)
B4. In The Midnight Hour (17:44)
SAKAMOTO, KYU: Sukiyaki And Other Japanese Hits LP (GOBOP 004LP)
Go! Bop! present a reissue of Kyu Sakamoto's Sukiyaki And Other Japanese Hits, originally released in 1962. If you are curious how Japanese pop music sounded in the early '60s, here is one of the most popular examples. This reissue will hopefully intrigue fans of abundantly orchestrated '60s pop to listen to Kyu Sakamoto, who sadly perished in an aircraft accident in 1985, one of the biggest events of its kind in flight history. What do you hear from this very young but already experienced man? Mysterious, soulful songs with big orchestral arrangements, tunes that show elements of Latin music, such as bossa nova, typically elegant doo wop, and pop ballads of the day with heartwarming melodies, some exotic tunes that draw influence from what western people might consider Japanese music, real or fictional. The most popular tune that became a worldwide hit is "Sukiyaki", which later received great success with the German language version by The Blue Diamonds, a Dutch band of Indonesian origin. Sakamoto did not spare any style popular in the '50s up to the early '60s. You'll hear elements of chanson among many others. The whole album is relaxed and beautiful, and is executed with a friendly expression. The orchestra, the big band, whoever accompanies Kyu Sakamoto, dresses all the compositions with passionate and pliable garment of absolute elegance. This album definitely is certainly joyous. The use of Japanese language, which might appeal to native speakers and those with a fondness for exotic aspects, makes this record even more outstanding. It's a colorful and memorable effort.
$16.99 EAN: 3891121306051 ROCK
01. Sukiyaki (3:05)
02. Tsun Tsun Bushi (The Tsun Tsun Song) (3:35)
03. Hitoribocchi No Futari (The Lonesome Two) (3:32)
04. Kyu-Chan Ondo (The Kyu-Chan Folk Song March) (2:16)
05. Mo Hitori No Boku (It's Just Not The Real Me) (2:27)
06. Good Timing (2:11)
07. Boku No Hoshi (My Star) (2:36)
08. Kiminanka Kiminanka (I Couldn't Care For You, Not You, Not You!) (2:38)
09. Kyu-Chan No Zuntatatta (The Zuntatatta Song) (2:58)
10. Hige No Uta (My First Whisker) (2:23)
11. Goodbye, Joe (2:37)
12. Anoko No Namaewa Nantenkana (I Wonder What Her Name Is) (2:53)
WOLFF, CHRISTIAN: Berlin Exercises LP (GODREC 041LP)
Christian Wolff on Berlin Exercises: "'Exercise' indicates relatively shorter pieces in which the process of work, of practicing and of trying things out within specified limits, in short a kind of discipline in process, are being attempted. I regard them as both exercises in composing and for performers, especially as the performers function as members of an ensemble."
Kauders on In Another Land Pt. 1 "In Another Land Pt. I is the first part of a planned trilogy. It is more or less electronic music, generated through long processes of editing and sampling. It's experimental in terms of that its shape and its meaning were not planned, were unclear during its creation and still now are not evident, but somehow hard to reveal. It is based on a strict concept, which could be very well explained, but the composer decided not to do. Instead of that, it is full of hints. It's not a riddle, it's just an invitation to listen closely and carefully. And an invitation to think, to reflect, or to imagine if you might hear something which is worth doing so. Probably this music heralds nothing." One-sided LP.
"As the Sun, we raise up, we shed our skin for a new one. We want to ride the snake of our soul and in doing so reaching peace." Directly from the in-house Blackwater Label crew is the second vinyl for its sub label division, the result of the shared efforts between the people whom run Blackwater Label: Phorm, D/N, Devianza, and Stefano Rocchi. Experimental and dark techno on side A, dance and hypnotic atmospheres on the other side.
In 2013, Andres Zacco's imprint Greener presented three terrific records by J.C., Psynote (aka Franco Cinelli) and Zacco himself. The label then made a pause, until now. Greener Records returns with a new string of records, starting with a fully-blown EP from Argentinean national and Berlin-based Nico Purman. Exploring dimensions in sound familiar to the forms of deep-techno and dub nuances developed on Greener.
2017 repress forthcoming; June. Double LP version. If you are looking for raw, psychedelic hard-rock, look no further -- Guerssen presents the complete recordings (1968-1972) from Wicked Lady, the legendary UK underground power trio led by ace guitarist Martin Weaver, later a member of Dark on their Round The Edges album. The music here was originally recorded in 1968/1969 and features new artwork and an insert with notes by Weaver, who tells the real (and bizarre!) story behind Wicked Lady for the first time. The stuff of legend, this is a real fest of fuzz, wah-wah and heavy riffs that will blow the mind of any hard-psych collector.
2017 repress forthcoming; June. Double LP version. Second volume to complete the anthology of Wicked Lady recordings, their final tracks recorded in 1972, just before the band split up and guitarist Martin Weaver left for Dark (of Round The Edges fame). Another batch of excessive, over-the-top, doom-y psychedelic hard-rock including underground classics like "I'm A Freak" and the 21-minute epic "Ship Of Ghosts." Maximum sound quality, new artwork and an insert with liner notes by psychedelic guitar god, Martin Weaver, telling the real story behind Wicked Lady for the first time.
SUPERPITCHER: The Golden Ravedays 6 LP (TGR 006LP)
Musically and emotionally, Superpitcher's third full-length studio album, The Golden Ravedays, is a one sound autobiography that exhibits the skill, feeling, and style that the artist has honed over a period of twenty years, musically, and forty-plus-years, emotionally. And full-length it is: The Golden Ravedays is an epic album of 24 tracks stretching over 12 respective chapter albums, released on Hippie Dance sequentially during a one-year period. The sixth piece of The Golden Ravedays puzzle introduces two further tracks of the sound adventure that Superpitcher is taking his listeners on. Side A features "Protest Song". If music is a way of transporting us to other places, "Protest Song" takes its listeners to a desolate, scary, and loveless environment, a burnt-down, burnt-out place where the flesh of its former inhabitants is smoldering, void of goodwill and kindness, in a cloud of toxic and greedy smoke. It's all Kafka and Orwell and suffering -- the most twisted and eerie track so far in The Golden Ravedays saga. What is undeniably clear is an acute sense of regret and loss -- a warning that it could have been avoided, had we only listened to our hearts and protested. In the same vein, on Side B is "Resistance". Produced after the Paris attacks of 2015, Superpitcher outdid himself with this strong message of resistance. Where "Protest Song" paints a picture of under-worldly doom, the techno beat and insistent refrain of "Resistance" sweeps the listener to the surface of the muck of hatred and intolerance we've politically been dumped in. A voice that seems like a trapped animal is calling out. What is it trying to say? Is it crying out for help? Is that animal all of us? "Resistance" represents hope and encouragement and could be the perfect marching track to any demonstration against negative forces. Much needed in this age of bigotry where it seems like time has leaped backwards to a darker side of history. As for the dancefloor -- "Resistance" is irresistible!
KIRBY, LEYLAND: Sadly, The Future Is No Longer What It Was 2LP (HAFTW 006LP)
Originally released in 2009. The second part of Leyland Kirby's uniquely prescient dark ambient masterstroke, Sadly, The Future Is No Longer What It Was (2009) finds the listener returning to Kirby's draughty corridors of processed 78s and midnight keyboard meditations is a sublime, haunting experience like no other. The listener can read his melancholic diagnosis of capitalist malaise, deferred futurism and thwarted social utopianism as a genuinely uncanny foresight of what has played out in contemporary society, in an age when Facebook and Twitter have become an all-encompassing filter for daily life and effectively assuaged the rich analog ambiguity of collectivism in favor of cold, hard, binary politics and reflexive, unthinking emotional responses. Especially in the wake of Mark Fisher's tragic passing earlier in 2017, Kirby's hauntological sentiments, embedded quite literally in titles such as "When Did Our Dreams And Futures Drift So Far Apart", and figuratively perfused through its stark negative space, now feel to resonate stronger than ever; using shared echoes of the hive mind such as classic film scores from Vangelis and Lynch/Badalmenti -- both quite literally omnipresent in imminent sequels right now -- as cues for sorrowful elegies and meditations which aesthetically resonate as much with Deathprod's liminal scapes, as a sort of mildewed modern classical flocking to Satie's tasteful ambient wallpaper. Yet it's not all doom and gloom. There's a sense of underlying sense of resilience, of resistance to Kirby's hushed, ribboning expressions which flows with a considerate pathos and open-ended emotional curiosity which belies the narcissistic reaffirmations of social media's echo chambers and dialectic cul-de-sacs, quietly striving to wrench something beautiful and affective from the clutches of a manipulative mainstream.
$19.79 UPC: N/A ELECTRONIC
01. When Did Our Dreams And Futures Drift So Far Apart
02. Not Even Nostalgia Is As Good As It Used To Be
03. Sadly The Future Is No Longer What It Was
04. Stay Light There Is A Rainbow A Coming
05. And Nothing Comes Between The Sadness And The Scream
06. I've Hummed This Tune To All The Girls I've Known
07. Not As She Is Now But As She Appears In My Dreams
Andreas Tilliander (Mokira, TM404) returns with a plunging set of skewed techno dubs for the mightily on-form iDEAL Recordings label, his first new release for the label since the Bias Line 7" in 2010, and the Hateless album released in 2010, both released under his Mokira moniker. Andreas Tilliander has gone some way to making his studio a bastion of dub music within his home city, Stockholm ever since emerging with the Cliphop for Raster-Noton in 2000 and subsequently releasing a whole slew of influential releases for labels including Mille Plateaux, Type, Kontra, and Skudge. With the heady churn of Compuriddim dispensed under his own name, Tilliander returns to the site of some of his earliest outings, Joachim Nordwall's iDEAL Recordings, with a clutch of warped and murky dub ecologies, firming up as some of the most absorbing iterations of his adroitly smoked-out sound. iDEAL Recordings were first turned on to Tilliander's music via his Ljud LP for Mille Plateaux (2001), and have established an occasional yet crucial relationship ever since, resulting in highlights such as the Dutty & Digital 12" (2004) and the Bias Line 7". The Compuriddim set is the newest and most intoxicatingly textured addition to that collection; six tracks strong in pursuit of an elusive electro-acoustic Geist that lives between the wires of his classic hardware, in the late night air of his studio. In keeping with the classic tenets of dub production -- less-is-more efficiency, constant movement within space -- he executes a sort of psychoacoustic telekinesis with the six parts of Compuriddim, skanking from the spiraling loops of drip bass and drums overlaid with windswept melodica in "Twilight Circuit", to a grumbling but charming dub techno stepper on "Mokirian Tekno", then letting it all go loose and floppy with the sloshing Afracid deviation of "FR777 Skank". "Open Up The CV/Gate" meanwhile kicks off the B-side at a bendy slow/fast bent lodged somewhere between Tin Man and Aphex Twin's slow mo Analord (2005) or Cheetah EP (2016) tracks, followed up by the ragged dub chord stagger of "Return Of The Super Tape", and the sweetest number, "Syncussion Discussion", a bottom-heavy but dainty whorl of 303 dialog seemingly detained for the most squashed and strange corners of the night or morning after. RIYL: Peder Mannerfelt, Frak, Tapes, Pole.
Oslo DJ Marius Circus releases on his own In The Garden label. The title track "Veggepysj" is a chugging midnight affair, with swirling arps, a driving bassline, and dreamy pads. "Mellow Johnny's", is a somewhat more Balearic affair. Yet, it still has Marius Circus's undeniable personal twist, with off-kilter percussion and weird textures. The flip sees long-time friend, Full Pupp kingpin, and one of the world's finest DJs, Prins Thomas, turn the title track into a nine-minute dance floor monster. Thomas manages to take it up several notches, while still keeping the original's charm present.
$8.99 UPC: N/A ELECTRONIC
A1. Veggepysj
A2. Mellow Johnny's
B1. Veggepysj (Prins Thomas Remix)
LTO is a member of mysterious electronic collective Old Apparatus. Their music -- anonymous, dark, ghostly, subterranean -- was reminiscent of garage and grime scenes, but sheened with a nocturnal miasma and a fierce intellect. Acclaim for Old Apparatus is widespread, with very positive reviews coming from The Wire, Dummy Mag, The Quietus, Gilles Peterson, among plenty more. Storybook combines gentle, dulcet synthesis with deep percussive lines, piano dexterity, and alien-landscape sound-design, softly echoing in-and-out of the space, like Katie Gately remixed into Brian Eno's ambient records, or the poise of Max Richter filtered through Chris Clark's production lens. It has fluidity and elasticity, a human-ness that enwraps the mechanical parts. A highly accomplished pianist (indeed, a piano teacher in his civilian life), LTO's astute musicality is the foundation stone beneath the magic and abstractions of Storybook. 180 gram vinyl.
$16.99 EAN: 5070000100326 ELECTRONIC
A1. Change
A2. Tape Loops
A3. Enchantment
A4. Rise
B1. Storybook
B2. When
B3. Partners
B4. Moment
B5. Careful
SUN RA: Just Outta This World: Rare Tracks 1955-1961 LP (JAM 13018LP)
Herman Poole Blount, better known to the world as Sun Ra, lived more musical lives in his 79 years on this planet (and others) than seems possible. In the '30s, he was the most rigorous bandleader in Birmingham, heading the Sonny Blount Orchestra and filling every waking moment with music or philosophical discussions. By the '40s, he had moved to Chicago and performed with luminaries such as Wynonie Harris, Fletcher Henderson, and Coleman Hawkins. By the '50s, he had changed his name to Sun Ra and began performing with longtime Arkestra bandmates John Gilmore and Marshall Allen. Ra started his own label, El Saturn (or Saturn), to release his own recordings as well as those featuring the Arkestra backing local R&B and doo-wop groups. Ra also worked with other local labels, playing on and producing singles throughout the Chicago area. Though the genres showcased here are more pop than the world has come to expect from Sun Ra, the vibe and feel is purely cosmic, producing some of the wildest, strangest R&B ever created on this side of the sun. This collection compiles singles of rare, hard-to-find, early Sun Ra productions and performances from Juanita Rogers, Yochanan, Little Mack, and Sun Ra and his Myth-Science Arkestra, all dating from 1955-1961. An impressive retrospective on the early days of this legendary music guru -- A must have for all true Sun Ra collectors.
$14.39 EAN: 8592735006638 JAZZ
01. Juanita Rogers - I'm So Glad You Love Me
02. Yochanan / Sun Ra And The Arkestra - The Sun One
03. Yochanan / Sun Ra And The Arkestra - The Sun Man Speaks
04. Yochanan / Sun Ra And The Arkestra - The Sun Man Speaks (Alternate Version)
05. Sun Ra And His Astro Infinity Arkestra - October
06. Sun Ra And His Astro Infinity Arkestra - Adventure In Space
07. Yochanan / Sun Ra And The Arkestra - Message To Earthman
08. Yochanan / Sun Ra And The Arkestra - Message To Earthman (Alternate Version)
09. Sun Ra And The Arkestra - State Street
10. Sun Ra & His Myth-Science Arkestra - The Blue Set
11. Sun Ra & His Myth-Science Arkestra - Big City Blues
12. Little Mack - Tell Her To Come On Home
13. Little Mack - I'm Making Believe
WAITS, TOM: Nighthawks on the Radio: KNEW-FM Broadcast, 8 December 1976 2LP (KL 5005LP)
California's own celebrated blues troubadour, Tom Waits, rolled into Mediasound Studios on a cold December night for a radio interview with host Vin Scelsa, accompanied only by Elektra records' rep Ralph Ebler. What transpired was an intimate session boasting material from Tom Waits's already burgeoning repertoire. Waits's noteworthy recordings made at Mediasound on December 14th, 1976 were aired on the 18th by KNEW-FM on Scelsa's show, "Idiot's Delight". Waits's trademark "growl" was very much in evidence in the charged and more cynical atmosphere of his album Small Change, released just prior to this session (1976). Klondike marks this landmark point in Waits's career with the KHEW-FM broadcast presented here in its entirety. Digitally remastered for enhanced sound quality. Includes insert with background liner notes.
$22.39 EAN: 5291012500526 ROCK
A1. Emotional Weather Report
A2. A Sight For Sore Eyes
A3. Step Right Up
B1. Eggs And Sausage/Invitation To The Blues
B2. Jitterbug Boys
B3. Diamonds On My Windshield
C1. San Diego Serenade
C2. Tom Traubert's Blues
D1. New Coat Of Paint
D2. The Piano Has Been Drinking
D3. I Can't Wait To Get Off Work
Merlins Nose Records present a reissue of Ant Trip Ceremony's 24 Hours, originally released in 1968. Some albums exist with the knowledge that the band is about to break up, and with that in mind, the members attempt to capture at least a tiny bit of the magic they once created at rehearsals and concerts. These kinds of albums are way more personal, like a picture book of memories, than albums made for the commercial market. 24 Hours by Ant Trip Ceremony is one of those albums, recorded by a bunch of high school students soon to part ways after their exams. It is nearly impossible to get a hold of an original since it was pressed in an edition of 300. Fans of late 1960s jammy, psychedelic rock and dreamy folk tunes will go crazy for this collection of songs. Among them you'll find cover versions of Eric Andersen, a well-known singer/songwriter of the day, Allen Toussaint, a famous songwriter, producer, and soul musician, Billy Roberts, who wrote the ultimate rock classic "Hey Joe", as well as a couple of contributions of people close to the band, next to a handful of originals. The band had a quite unique expression while their overall style fitted well into their era. Some more or less intense but never really heavy rock songs, some mellow tunes that make your spirit drift away into gardens of delight painted in surrealistic colors. Fans of Jefferson Airplane, The Byrds, The Grateful Dead, The Charlatans, and other similar heroes and legends of the late '60s west coast scene will dig this primitive version of the super stars. The songs here are all incredible and definitely made to last a lifetime. A lost crown jewel of '60s music.
$16.99 UPC: 710473604284 ROCK
01. Locomotive Lamp (3:38)
02. What's The Matter Now (2:42)
03. Violets Of Dawn (4:31)
04. Riverdawn (3:33)
05. Hey Joe (4:14)
06. Outskirts (1:38)
07. Little Baby (3:00)
08. Get Out Of My Life (3:05)
09. Four In The Morning (4:32)
10. Sometimes I Wonder (3:47)
11. Pale Shades Of Gray (4:31)
12. Elaborations (7:13)
OCTAD & PHIORIO: Ten Years In The Wild 12" (MLTD 050EP)
A collaborative release between the two men behind the label: Andrea and Gianpiero, aka Octad and Phiorio. "Missing Bits" has Octad's trademark minimal groove with hissing hats and a huge sub bass. "Synopsis Of 8" keeps the A side's atmosphere dark with a solid machine funk and spooky techno number. Phiorio takes control of B side with the opening track "Icarus", bizarre and experimental techno with an intricate groove, shuffled-up hats, an ever-flowing modular bass, and a cut-up vocal. "Organs" is more of a straight-up modern deep house number with a killer groove, big bass, and interesting pads.
The Cologne resident and music producer Desmond Denker presents ten pieces on his current release on a tightrope between electronica and grime. Through the absence of vocals and beats, he's created an engaging atmosphere through pure synthesizer melodies on analog and virtual instruments. The result goes far beyond ambient and proves that the essence of his electronic music is fresh and vivid. MDF03 continues the research project "Cologne Electronic School in an UK Sound". The established Cologne label "Modularfield" concludes with the release of a trilogy of white 10" records. Cover design by Ann Pajuvali. White vinyl.
DARK SKY: The Passenger/The Walker (Roman Flugel Remix) 12" (MONKEY 075EP)
Matt Benyayer and Tom Edwards, aka Dark Sky, follow up the release of their second album Othona (MONKEY 074CD/LP) with a new single. "The Passenger" beautifully encapsulates the vibe of Othona, creating a deep and emotive atmosphere while maintaining a pounding techno undercurrent. It is accompanied by Roman Flügel's remix of album track "The Walker". Flügel pushes the track just a little bit more to the front, gently adding some extra bliss to an absolutely vibrant effect. A dreamy yet high-energy live version of "Angels" shows what these guys are capable of in their live sets.
In February 2015, Japanese producer and sound designer Kuniyuki Takahashi, sometimes known as Koss, released the EP Newwave Project #2 (MUSIQ 183EP), a record that tapped some roots of his musical education: new wave, German electro punk from bands like Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft, EBM from acts like Front 242, as well as industrial music, all styles Kuniyuki claims are his "favorite music". Nearly two years after his first Newwave Project EP, he drops an album that is leaning towards his musical love from the past. Compared to his former work, which was rooted in worlds of classic, jazz, house, ambient, and electronic song-writing, his new tunes are full of melodic drifts and rhythmical shifts. As usual, all is loaded with tones and rhythms straight from the heart that filter and modulate human emotions without losing their natural source. To get a sound that is fresh but still leaning to the '80s, he used some old synthesizers, like Roland Jupiter 8, Juno 60, Korg MS 20, and an old tape echo machine, but he also used newer instruments, like the Roland AIRA. His modular synthesizers talk too. Sampled voices, and other alienated sound sources of unknown origin, inject otherworldly atmospheres into his new tunes. It is also evident that he is a fine instrumentalist, as Kuniyuki also plays piano, percussion, and flute on the album, if he felt their warm sound was needed for his freely grooving tracks. Some dance in house or techno outfits; other slam like a mix of funk and EBM. Tunes like "Puzzle" or "Body Signal" are twisted treasures that bemuse deeply. In-between, you hear the echoes of cosmic spheres, the darkness of the Cold War days, and some bewitching tribal jungle vibes; A new, moving, unorthodox, yet catchy side of Kuniyuki Takahashi. It is not totally novel to him, as he already released some industrial, EBM, and electronic with the project DRP. But for his listeners that know him for detailed house, jazz, and classic, or even his collaborations, the Newwave Project sheds a light on a different artistic side of Takahashi. It is diversified, with many rhythmical and atmospheric turns, but stays stirring and compelling throughout. A true new wave, formed, played in, and envisioned, with a view on the past that was filtered through the now while feeling the future. Cover art by Swiss artist Augustin Rebetez.
TADEO: Chronicles of the Future Remixes 12" (NONSERIES 024EP)
After Tadeo's last album (NONSERIES 021LP, 2016), Non Series presents Chronicles of the Future Remixes, explored by a fine selection of artists: Abdulla Rashim, Silent Servant, Efdemin, Function, and Pris. The A side is brightly remixed by the Swedish Abdulla Rashim who delivers a progressive and hypnotizing machinery techno on "The Net". LA-based producer Silent Servant adds an industrial aspect to his version of "The Need Of Development". On the flip side, Berlin's interdisciplinary artist Efdemin reincarnates "The Motivation" by adding introspective textures, which is followed by Function's powerful version that enhances the angular orchestral beats of "The Big Steps".
MEDIUM MEDIUM: The Glitterhouse 2LP + 12" (OPT4 021LP)
Expanded reissue of Medium Medium's debut album, The Glitterhouse, was originally released on Cherry Red in October 1981. Formed at the end of 1978, Medium Medium's self-described "extreme dance music" had reviewers scrambling to draw comparisons with the band's contemporaries and find a label for its post punk sound. Medium Medium's solid dance rhythms and chaotic, chiming guitar were superficially reminiscent of the Gang Of Four and Talking Heads, but Rees's tangential sax playing and Graham's tape and keyboard interjections from the front-of-house mixing desk, took Medium Medium in another direction. "Free-blown dubbed-up white funk" was how Max Bell described the sound in England's New Musical Express (NME). "At the forefront of the post punk funk movement," raved Cashbox. In the U.S. Billboard magazine opined that this was "post punk and post disco dance music." After the initial release of The Glitterhouse, In Sound International magazine Dave Henderson wrote prophetically, "It could be one of the most important records of the type to emerge this year and will doubtlessly be revered as a classic after the group have long since departed." This reissue also features the "Hungry, So Angry" single version which was produced by Adrian Sherwood at Berry Street Studio in London. Also included is a selection of tracks from Cherry Red's 2001 Hungry, So Angry retrospective compilation album, the B-side of the band's debut single on Apt (1979), and a previously unreleased demo version of a song from the 1982 Sound-Products EP, Splendid Isolation. It includes a bonus EP featuring previously unreleased tracks from the 2008 Village recording session. All of the various lineups of Medium Medium are represented. Comes on color vinyl; Comes in a gatefold sleeve with printed inner sleeves.
$24.99 UPC: 700461602514 ROCK
A1. Hungry So Angry
A2. Serbian Village
A3. The Glitterhouse
A4. Guru Maharaj Ji
B1. Further Than Funk Dream
B2. Mice Or Monsters
B3. That Haiku
C1. Nadsat Dream
C2. Them Or Me
C3. Freeze
C4. Splendid Isolation
C5. 7th Floor
C6. If You Touched Her She'd Smear
D1.Hungry So Angry (Single Version)
D2. Frightened Child
D3. Full Of Secrecy
D4. Praying
D5. Hidden Fears
12":
E1. OK We Go
F1. Let Me Breathe (You're) Obsessed
WOLFHOUNDS, THE: Untied Kingdom (... Or How To Come To Terms With Your Culture) CD (OPT4 032CD)
A CD issue of The Wolfhounds' modern underground classic, Untied Kingdom (... Or How To Come To Terms With Your Culture), originally released on vinyl in 2016. This consolidates a few years of intense activity which has included the singles compilation CD Middle-Aged Freaks in 2015 and the almost simultaneous reissue of their 1986 debut Unseen Ripples From A Pebble. Untied Kingdom is the band's first standalone album since Attitude (1990). It is The Wolfhounds' most far-reaching release yet, from the opening acapella iPhone-manipulated folk resurrection of "Apparition", to the apocalyptic repetition of the electric violin and detuned guitar-driven "Across The River Of Death". Incorporating sample-mangled dub, freakbeat protest punk, and late-night unplugged lo-fi along its 50-minute plus wayward journey, Untied Kingdom goes musically and lyrically everywhere other bands can't or won't go. The album summons dystopic dysfunctional hallucinations of desperate working life and insecurity, while at the same time being as raw and hardcore celebratory as danceable blues. It's as modern as any young band could hope to be, but as wise and disturbed as any alert adult has to be. It conjures up demons of the fiercest rock along with the unfettered experimentation of singer Callahan's previous band, Moonshake, plus massive riffs and neat pop hooks, to form an expansive whole with surprises around every spin of the turntable. Originally formed as teenagers in 1984, the band appeared on the legendary and influential C86 cassette (1986), and released four critically acclaimed LPs and many singles, while touring extensively before breaking up in 1990. The band reformed in 2006 to celebrate 20 years since the release of C86, and inflicted a severe guitar noise-fest on an unsuspecting indie pop crowd at London's ICA. The last LP Middle Aged Freaks and reissued debut Unseen Ripples From A Pebble both received further critical plaudits and numerous plays on BBC 6Music, and even more for the initial release of Untied Kingdom. Despite being past their 30th anniversary, Untied Kingdom now shows they can blow any act half their age offstage, while outclassing them creatively in every way. The Wolfhounds are back and better than ever. Guests include: Terry Edwards (Gallon Drunk, PJ Harvey) - saxophone, trumpet; Rhodri Marsden (Scritti Politti) - keyboards; Katherine Mountain Whitaker (Evans The Death) - vocals; Astrud Steehouder (Paper Dollhouse) - vocals; Elin Grimstad (Je Suis Animal) - vocals.
$10.39 UPC: 700461804079 ROCK
01. Apparition
02. Now I'm A Killer
03. My Legendary Childhood
04. Everyday Monsters
05. Thanks
06. The Stupid Poor
07. Lucky Heather
08. Oppositeland
09. Fire In The Home
10. The Comedians
11. Across The River Death
Merchant, known as Dennis Franklyn Williams, was born in 1943 on the Caribbean island of Trinidad where he lived all of his life and became one of the most brilliant calypso/soca artists ever. Östra Discos present Tumble Down taken from the album Ah Coming Too originally released in 1987. This one comes with three new versions to put fire on dancefloors around the world.
When Perlon started releasing their Superlongevity compilation series in 1999, it was not evident that the name, which had initially been chosen just for pun, would become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Now in 2017, Perlon is in its 20th year, to celebrate this anniversary, the label invites its listeners to enter the sixth round of illuminating expression, once more driven by playfulness and fluffy swing-time. This time, the journey has no guidepost, except maybe the order to set the controls for the heart of the potoo. 18 tracks unfold their magic formulas to release a cascade of funky blobs. The collection reflects the label's unique interpretation of sound and vision, of caring and sharing, of "glitches and itches" -- by forward and froward thinking, artists who set landmarks and break standards for the sake of the sound of the extraordinary. Here's what you will find in this brand-new Perlon toy box that adds one more shade to the corporate color scheme: House bubbles that sound like they come straight from a "Bällchenparadies". A motor drive with a sexy beat. Tribal dances, warped ballads, romantic fantasies. Heavy bass fundaments with aerial notes that hover above like helium balloons. A meditation machine, chilly chimes and future clockworks. Speaking things with nonsense as a foreign language. Rumoring moods and sparkling modes. Crime jazz with a glitch. Bouncers, growlers, wobblers, and cuddly shuffles. Space invaders. Sunshine! Features: The Stowaway, International Anything, Bodycode, Kalabrese, Pile, Dimbiman, Margaret Dygas, Fumiya Tanaka, Baby Ford, Narcotic Syntax, Ricardo Villalobos, Binh, Darren, Spacetravel, Soul Capsule, Sammy Dee, Maayan Nidam, and Melchior Productions Ltd.
$12.99 EAN: 4260038318461 ELECTRONIC
01. The Stowaway - A Suspicious Passenger
02. International Anything - When It's Dark (Moonlight Medley)
03. Bodycode - Synchronized Sleep
04. Kalabrese - Düdingen
05. Pile - Noshow
06. Dimbiman - Turtle Gone
07. Margaret Dygas - Saasafras
08. Fumiya Tanaka - Standing North 6
09. Baby Ford - Dognosematic
10. Narcotic Syntax - Agents With Fatty Acids
11. Ricardo Villalobos - Gono Fuznk
12. Binh - Wochenbett
13. Darren - 1999 / 2017 (Extended Version)
14. Spacetravel - No More
15. Soul Capsule - Them Yeah
16. Sammy Dee - Marvin Goes Savage Deep
17. Maayan Nidam - Trail Of Glitter
18. Melchior Productions Ltd - The Hope
Australian super group GlamouRatz's first full EP comes exclusively via Public Possession. Includes the cheeky "Misogyny" remix by Andras Fox. Hung up on tee vee? Come cross dress for me. Correctly dressed. Looking your best. XXX -- Rated -- XXX.
Island People is a new band project consisting of mastering engineer Conor Dalton, Grammy award winning producer David Donaldson, musician and DJ Graeme Reedie, and guitarist Ian "Chippy" Maciennan. On their first self-titled record, they present their collaborative work that evolved over the past three years. Being based in different cities, namely Berlin and Glasgow, files had to be exchanged back and forth between the band members in order to create tracks. Their delicate sound structures, field recordings, and other sound sources were heavily processed and rendered unrecognizable. Layer after layer, the tracks came into being quite naturally, not only reflecting their continuous way of working, but also incorporating their different and individual backgrounds: "During the whole creation of the album, we never realized our actions were quickly leading us into forming Island People, we were too busy having fun, making music and sharing ideas." The result of their collaboration is a timeless music that is as open as a natural phenomenon, developing a certain feeling of euphoria over time. All in all, Island People is a pure listening record in the best tradition of ambient.
GIBSON BROTHERS: Ooh What A Life! (Gerd Janson & Shan Edit) 12" (RBSSS 001EP)
The first one in a hopefully long-lived series of disco and pop influenced Super Sound Singles on Running Back comes courtesy of the Gibson Brothers. Leaving their biggest wedding hits "Cuba" and "Que Sera Mi Vida" aside, the philanthropic and smile-forcing "Ooh, What A Life" gets an extended edit service by Shan and Gerd Janson, who cut away some of the fat and make it fit for fun on contemporary dancefloors. The flip side sees them remixing and sandpapering "Heaven" into a disco-house interbred (filters and looping mandatory). To quote John Lyndon: "Disco sucks? You never heard that from me."
TRILION: Ain't No Future With No Past LP (SCOB 008LP)
At the borders of rub-a-dub dancehall and experimental electronica you'll find the music of Trilion. This ram-shackle raggamuffin Israeli collective mutated from a collaboration between acid rock band 3421, the Easy Rider emcees, and Ranking Levy from My Lord sound system. Their debut album Ain't No Future With No Past is a seamless fusion of sparse dubscapes, saw-toothed psychedelia, and raw dancehall vibes. Trilion productions bubble through a myriad of unusual moods from blissful to threatening. By contrast the lyrics courtesy of Levy, General G, Yuta B, Mentor Irie, Guma Ranks, and the exquisitely exuberant Miss Red, are feisty and down to earth. Describing themselves as a "musical Caesar salad", Trilion's music, like their line-up, is in a constant state of flux. Splicing the strut-and-thrust of a sound system party with disruptive digital dystopia, Ain't No Future With No Past is reminder that everything is connected -- and music opens the mind...
There's nothing more Scotch Bonnet Records than a time-traveling global link-up. "Raggamuffin Soldier" enlists ageless Jamaican dancehall singer Robert Lee for a silky statement of his longevity. The riddim is a crisp lick of haunting Brit-digital collectors' grail "Aggro" -- built by uncompromising New Zealand producer Naram. It's a JA, NZ, and UK alliance sure to conquer dances around the world.
Skudge is back with infectious grooves and stabs. "Circles" is reminiscent of their first three releases, but in an updated shape -- the beats are as tight as ever, with the accompanying melodies fitting right into their place. The A-side track has that special Skudge vibe. "Tundra" resembles the calmer and on the edge of careful sound that Skudge has been running in parallel of their club-oriented material. Sure, this one works well in that environment too, but it's more minded approach might require some extra attention on the floor.
Optimo Music presents a new offshoot label, So Low, named after the night of the same name in Glasgow, run by Becky Marshall, Iona McHale, JD Twitch, and Katie Shambles. The label's inaugural release is from Glasgow's much-loved Happy Meals, a duo comprised of Suzanne Rodden and Lewis Cook. Full Ashram Devotional Ceremony Volumes IV-VI is the duo's second album release, following 2014's acclaimed Apero on Glasgow's Night School label. Full Ashram is the name of Happy Meals' recording studio. The Devotional Ceremony is Happy Meals connecting with their cosmic inner selves. They realize their Full Ashram Devotional Ceremony as banishing demons, devils, and ill will. Devote your soul to the positive forces before the misguided, suffering spirits pull you down and wipe you out. While the album is comprised of individual tracks segueing into each other, for full salvation, it is recommended to be listened to as one continuous piece.
DE MASI, FRANCESCO: 7 Hyden Park - La Casa Maledetta LP (SUBOST 005LP)
The disturbing soundtrack of 7 Hyden Park - La Casa Maledetta, directed by Alberto De Martino in 1985 and composed by Francesco De Masi, author and Roman arranger already famous for classic B-movie soundtracks such as 1982's Lo Squartatore Di New York (The New York Ripper) and 1983's Fuga Dal Bronx (Escape From The Bronx). For a long time associated with "genre cinema", De Masi had an innate passion for primitive electronics. A long suite divided into 14 movements that best describe the climate of tension and the upcoming deadlines of the featured film, a Gothic thriller in the orbit of meta-horror. The music -- sometimes a bit of a timbral, but often deliberately descriptive and overwhelming -- pin of synths and analog machines, capable of defining the desperate plot of the film. A classic, fully restored and presented here for the first time on vinyl. Also available on limited edition red vinyl.
$19.79 UPC: 753610898924 SOUNDTRACK
A1. House In The Park
A2. Dreadful Cellar
A3. Twisted Mind
A4. So Many Corpses
A5. Girl And Violence
A6. House In The Park
A7. Fear And Blood
B1. House In The Park
B2. Dreadful Cellar
B3. In The Past
B4. Cursed House
B5. Falling
B6. Handicapped Girl
B7. Young Nightmare
DJ OLIVE/JP DESSY/DAVID NUNEZ/MUSIQUES NOUVELLES: DJ Olive/JP Dessy/David Nunez/Musiques Nouvelles 2CD (SR 417CD)
Luminous electro-contemporary collaboration between New York master DJ Gregor Asch (aka DJ Olive) and Jean-Paul Dessy (and his Musiques Nouvelles Ensemble), with David Nunez on violin. A new musical travelogue mixing sensitive strings with the records and sounds subtly sculptured by Gregor Asch taking the audience into their whirling love. Some magical moments vanish after the fact, but the thrill of listening to this untouched recording a few years later confirms that its delights are constantly renewed. DJ Olive is an American disc jockey and turntablist. He is known for producing music generally in the electronic genre, with strong influences of dub and free improvisation styles. He is widely credited with coining of the term "Illbient" in 1994. He was a founding member of the immersionist group Lalalandia Entertainment Research Corporation in 1991. DJ Olive was a member of We, Lunchbox, and Liminal. He has also collaborated with Kim Gordon, Ikue Mori, William Hooker, Zeena Parkins, Uri Caine, Medeski Martin & Wood, Dave Douglas, and various others.
Ahead of his representing Turkey at 2017's Venice Biennale, Subtext presents Istanbul-based Cevdet Erek's first full-length album Davul. The title refers to the instrument performed by Erek, a large drum with many names, common from Eastern Europe to the Middle East, known variably as a daouli (Greek), tapan (Macedonian), dahol (Kurdish), or tabl (Arabic), to cite a few. Erek plays the drum with his own unusual method, utilizing a large soft mallet alongside various smaller implements to beat and distort the skin of the drum, tuned lower than normal, taking advantage of being able to walk around the studio or installation spaces with the instrument. Erek acquired the drum from a Roma musician, and proceeded to play it in private for years where he developed this new textural approach, integrating the instrument into his A Room of Rhythms installation piece at Istanbul Biennial in 2015. Comprising extracts culled from hours of solo drum improvisations recorded over two days in Berlin, Davul features no editing or overdubbing. At times Erek describes "playing to get the negative and aggressive away from inside of me, hoping that I could do the same for the other people surrounding me." He refers to a shamanic history of healing rituals -- although the davul is most commonly used for weddings, dances, and celebrations. "Of course the aesthetics of dark electronics and noise that I've been exposed to for decades informs the overall feel as well," adds Erek. Over seven improvised pieces, Erek conjures a massive variety of uncharacteristic sounds and colors from the drum, from deep scrapes and grinds to heavy rubs and drones, creating complex rhythms. Experimentation with rhythm, meter, and silence has always been at the core of what Erek does -- from his work as a conceptual artist, presenting work at the likes of dOCUMENTA, to decades as the drummer in Turkish experimental rock band Nekropsi -- but Davul is his purest statement-of-intent to date; a raw and hypnotic exploration of flow and dynamics. Cevdet Erek was born in Istanbul in 1974, where he would initially study Architecture. Originally formed in 1989, Erek has also been the longtime drummer with Turkish experimental music stalwarts, Nekropsi. Erek has also worked on sound and music for film, most recently contributing original music and sound design to Emin Alper's 2015 film Frenzy (SUB 017LP, 2016).
Roll The Dice are back with their fourth full-length album, Born To Ruin. The Swedish duo, consists of Malcolm Pardon and Peder Mannerfelt, both established musicians in their own right. Pardon's background producing scores for film and television is reflected in Roll The Dice's cinematic aesthetic, while Mannerfelt's acclaimed third solo album Controlling Body landed in 2016 and follows on from his acclaimed work as producer for Fever Ray. In 2013, the pair contributed to the Blanck Mass-curated score for the Belgian horror movie The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears, while in 2016 they composed part of the score and end credit theme for the drama series The Last Panthers. The duo have performed live at Sonar, Unsound, Primavera, ATP, Mutek, Norberg, Roskilde, and Semibreve festivals as well as alongside an exclusive orchestral setting at Norrlands Opera. Compared to the epic, sweeping compositions of the duo's earlier records, Born To Ruin is stripped to the bone -- a collection of concise, sharply evocative, jazz-infused music that's more smoky basement than orchestral hall. Following the stately orchestral explorations of 2014's Until Silence, the music here is lithe, hollow and furious, evoking a fractured world of economic and political instability. Ten tracks exploring burningly intense, psychedelic and romantic krautrock, ambient, and rhythmic noise themes -- A moving, widescreen electro-acoustic sound design. RIYL: Colin Stetson, The Haxan Cloak, John Carpenter, Deathprod, Willie Burns. Mastered and cut to vinyl by Pole at Scape Mastering.
KONER & JANA WINDEREN, THOMAS: Cloitre CD (TONE 051CD)
Issued on compact disc for the first time. Originally released digitally in 2014. Thomas Köner and Jana Winderen, recorded live from the cloisters at Evreux Cathedral, Normandy, France by Franck Dubois on June 14th, 2014, as part of L'Ateliers. With thanks to Denis Boyer. Limited edition CD in slip case; Remastered by Thomas Köner; Photography by Jon Wozencroft.
To feel the future is to feel the fall into time. For the fourth instalment in Tresor's Kern mix series, DJ Stingray (Urban Tribe/Drexciya) presents a device for decoding time in all directions, a sonic prism that refracts our senses into auxiliary components of a total future-rush. With a far-reaching selection that has been worked into his own unique form, DJ Stingray wraps the listener's vertigo around a gritty pneumatic bump with high-velocity swing. His mixing style, prepared for hostile engagements as it is, throttles techno into counter-gravity forces. Wading through a specialized cross-section of Detroit's own dancefloor contagions as well as the contaminated feedback signals from across the global aqua plains, the mix can be summed up in just one word: hectic. Raw, caustic, synthetic rhythm-code pumps frenzy itself through a cascading geothermal fog. Never giving away the cryptographic keys, DJ Stingray works you harder than your heart, adapting your biology to a fractal timeline of viscous systems. Discovery, or uncovering, has to do with what already exists actually or virtually; it is therefore certain to happen sooner or later with enough sweat in the club. And as Kern Vol. 4 attests to, DJ Stingray has the access codes and the stealth sense to make a place of a space, and to let it fall into time. Seven more key titles of the covert assault make up this vinyl edition. CD version comes in a digipak sleeve and features: NRSB-11, Dynarec, Professor X, Herva, A-F-X, Gesloten Cirkel, Anna Meredith, LoneLady, Syncom Data, Dopplereffekt, Alex Cortex, Kris Wadsworth, Christopher Joseph, Silent Servant, Adam Jay, Luke Eargoggle, Drexciya, Creepy Autograph, Faceless Mind, Vcs2600, DJ Di'jital, Illektrolab, Morphology, and Kan3da.
$9.79 UPC: 666017318028 ELECTRONIC
CD:
01. Dopplereffekt - Scientist
02. Alex Cortex - We Run Your Life
03. Kris Wadsworth - Infiltrator
04. Christopher Joseph - Mind At Sea
05. Silent Servant - Dissociation
06. Adam Jay - Lexic
07. Herva - Slam The Laptop
08. Gesloten Cirkel - Submit X
09. Professor X - Professor X (Saga)
10. NRSB-11 - Nationalised
11. Luke Eargoggle - I Belong To The Past
12. Drexciya - Lost Vessel
13. Dynarec - Moving Corridors
14. Syncom Data - Musik Politik
15. Creepy Autograph - Night Stalker
16. Drexciya - Aquabahn
17. Faceless Mind - Ocean Movers (Vcs2600 Science Remix)
18. DJ Di'jital - Bang
19. Drexciya - Running Out Of Space
20. Illektrolab - Overdrive
21. Anna Meredith - VapourIsED (LoneLady Remix)
22. Drexciya - Dr. Blowfins' Black Storm Stabilizing Spheres
23. DJ Di'jital - Mind of the Master
24. Morphology - Vector Plant
25. Luke Eargoggle & Kan3da - Night Smoker
26. A-F-X - Serge Fenix Rendered 2
27. Drexciya - Cascading Celestial Giants
2LP:
A1. NRSB-11 - Nationalised
A2. Dynarec - Moving Corridors
B1. Professor X - Professor X (Saga)
B2. Herva - Slam The Laptop - Slam The Laptop
C1. A-F-X - Serge Fenix Rendered 2
C2. Gesloten Cirkel - Submit X
D1. Anna Meredith - VapourIsED (LoneLady Remix)
D2. Syncom Data - Musik Politik
The five track debut EP for Tamino-Amir Moharam Fouad, Tamino in short. The grandson of Egyptian actor/musician Moharam Fouad won Studio Brussel's "De Nieuwe Lichting" and impresses with the brilliant single "Habibi", a song that envelops itself in a mist of melancholy and gloom. Tamino's phenomenal voice, ranging from a deep croon to a towering falsetto, goes right to the bone. He combines the tradition of the greatest singer songwriters with his own Arabic roots. Watch out: new Belpop history in the making. Clear vinyl.
Bamboo, the ongoing project from Nick Carlisle (Peepholes, Don't Argue) and Rachel Horwood (Trash Kit, Halo Halo) present their second studio album, The Dragon Flies Away. Far from being a side-project, Bamboo is very much a fully realized pursuit, with the band working on multiple records simultaneously from their Brighton and London base camps. Initially released on Crumb Cabin in a limited run of 50 cassettes in the winter 2016, with an accompanying zine designed by Horwood, The Dragon Flies Away tells a story loosely associated with the Hannya demon mask of Noh theatre plays such as Dojoji, and reflects the range of emotion the Hannya mask is capable of displaying: obsession, jealousy, sorrow, and rage. The Dragon Flies Away presents its story in two acts. Vivid and deeply poignant, Bamboo's music locks into a magnetic attraction between Horwood's flawlessly resonant folk cadence and Carlisle's pristine synth production. "Hannya" opens the album in a reflective mood with Rachel's mournful vocal and echoing banjo that gets swept up by flourishes of percussion and synth-flute vistas. "Always Running" follows, living up to its name with its propulsive beat and plucked rhythm, building to a chase for Rachel's dramatic vocal turn. "Like A Sparrow" is a beautifully realized track sounding as vulnerable and vociferous as a Kate Bush song. "Wake Up Your Heart" delights in pools of pitch-shifted melody and primal vision. Whilst the final two tracks on the album embrace Carlisle's cascading synth lines as pure as ice flows, augmented gong passages and fragile yet impassioned vocalizations. Overall the album feels film-like, with an ability to hold the listeners hand and lead them through another world. It's ambitious and heavy on concept without ever becoming overwrought, preserving its delicate personal tone and lush, spacious sound throughout. During the writing and subsequent release of their debut album, Prince Pansori Priestess, (UTR 075CD/LP, 2015), The Dragon Flies Away was recorded between Spring 2015 and Summer 2016. CD version comes in an edition of 300.
Terry is also a band from Melbourne, Australia: Amy Hill (Constant Mongrel, School Of Radiant Living), Xanthe Waite (Mick Harvey Band, Primo), Zephyr Pavey (Eastlink, Total Control, Russell St Bombings), and Al Montfort (UV Race, Dick Diver, Total Control). Guitars, bass, drums, all four sing. Terry is a particularly active, having released two EPs and a full-length album Terry HQ (UTR 084CD/LP) in 2016 on Upset The Rhythm. After returning from summer 2016's European tour, Terry set about writing a new album of songs. These are now grouped together as Remember Terry, an album full of wish fulfilment, critiqued characters, memorial muscle, and historical hustle. "Start The Tape" is a not quite two-minute careen through what Terry are best known for; gang vocals, chased-down melodies and acerbic commentary. Terry draw on their everyday realities to make personal conclusions; "I can't live here, I can't leave here" they collectively sing through the strummed guitars and skittling synths of "Heavin Heavies". Somehow the serious nature of the themes handled in their songs are only further emphasized by the tuneful, arguably "sing-along" treatment Terry usually employ. "Give Up The Crown", "The Colonel", and "Gun" are other prime examples of this, packed full of assembled vocal harmonies, contagious riffs, and rhetoric. With tracks like "Glory" and "Homage", Terry allow their fans to see a more laid-back side of their personality. Supplemented with fluorescing synth lines and adopting an unhurried pace, both songs lull you into a false sense of pleasantry, only to pack a greater punch when lyrics like "Off his bloody head goes", or, "No head, no choice, no land, no time, no crime, no good" surface. "Take Me To The City" is a similarly evocative stroll through the "bright night city lights", with Amy and Xanthe listing their nightlife observations over languorous guitar lines and programmed drums. Terry prefer to make a profound point in a quiet way, hectoring bypassed for self-revelation. The truth is in there, just skating below the surface of their glammy, country-stepping punk/pop odysseys, you only have to listen carefully. Remember Terry is a fitting follow-up to last year's celebrated debut album. Throughout an expansion of sound and subject-matter though, Terry remain committed to telling it straight, reporting from the frontline of the political made personal. Digitized by Nick Kuceli. Mixed and Mastered by Mikey Young.
$10.39 UPC: 828887009721 ROCK
01. Rio
02. Start The Tape
03. Take Me To The City
04. Risk
05. Give Up The Crown
06. Heavin' Heavies
07. Glory
08. Gun
09. The Colonel
10. Homage
A 7" by the NYC Latin-funk-soul-boogaloo outfit Fulaso. With hefty brass and raucous rhythms rooted in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Colombia, the bilingual, multicultural ten-piece band Fulaso knows how to keep the dancefloor jumping with its signature brand of Funky Latin soul. These folks are unstoppable with the magnetic energy of one of the most captivating front-women on the mic, the soulful songstress Erica Ramos. Fulaso's music and vibe emanate New York City, anchored in the classic boogaloo and Latin soul of El Barrio in the '60s and '70s, infused with a jolt of millennial funk and bumpin' neo-soul.
Da Chick come from Lisbon (Portugal). These European monsters of disco boogie funk provide a fresh and groovy sound. The frontwoman Teresa de Sousa is pure provocation, with a cool and modern presence on stage, backed by the productions of Moulinex, Xinobi, Cut Snack, or Isac Ace. Their new limited edition 7" is equipped with two tracks that are instant dancefloor hits: "Call Me Foxy" and "Hot Sauce". Da Chick are a 21st century funk bomb with old-school flavor heading for outer space!
$6.39 EAN: 8435008886172 ROCK
A1. Call Me Foxy
B1. Hot Sauce
WE RELEASE WHATEVER THE FUCK WE WANT RECORDS (SWITZERLAND):
Green-inferno vinyl version. Special DJ Blue Heart version, with included skits/interludes from the movie. Heavy cardboard Stoughton Tip-On jacket; Green Japanese Sanguelia 2 VHS obi; 180 gram vinyl.
We Release Whatever The Fuck We Want Records unleash the complete uncut soundtrack for Lucio Fulci and Bruno Mattei's 1988 cult zombie-ploitation gem Zombi 3 (aka Zombie Flesh Eaters 2, aka Sanguelia 2) for the first time ever on vinyl, available on two different collector's edition vinyl, the "Classic Version" and the "Special Version". This future deluxe edition OOP classic is packed with menacing synths, ghoulish melodies, and contaminated anthems, remastered directly from the rare original reels of maestro Stefano Mainetti. Zombi 3 is the (unrelated) sequel to Zombi 2 (1979), itself an unofficial sequel to George Romero's Dawn Of The Dead (1978). This marvel of the VHS-era finds a group of super scientists working on a very secret biological weapon called Death One which mutates and kills living humans... and re-animates the dead. Feared by critics and beloved by vintage exploitation fanatics, Zombi 3 has all the charms of the glory days of Italian B-horror, including a fantastic soundtrack. Underrated composer and conductor Stefano Mainetti has done soundtracks for Italian sleaze masters Joe D'Amato and Bruno Mattei, but also for Weekend at Bernie's (1989) and First Blood (1982) director Ted Kotcheff, and Russell Mulcahy of Razorback (1984) and Highlander (1986) fame. His resume includes 1988's badass actioner Strike Commando 2 (aka Trappola Diabolica), exploitation horror flick from 1988 Ratman (aka Quella Villa In Fondo Al Parco), and 1995's The Shooter (aka Hidden Assassin) with the manly superstar Dolph Lundgren. Much like his Italian peers Fabio Frizzi, Claudio Simonetti, or Stelvio Cipriani, Stefano Mainetti can do it all: haunting synths à la John Carpenter, jazzy atmospheres, classical orchestrations, erotic funk, decadent FM rock, and the list goes on. His eclectic abilities and flair for '80s cinematic moods are well represented in Zombi 3: The Soundtrack.
The "Classic Version" comes on red-is-dead colored vinyl with a red Japanese Sanguelia 2 VHS obi; a helicopter is pictured on the back cover. The "Special Version" features the same songs as the "Classic Version", but it also includes bonus skits/interludes with DJ Blue Heart (taken from the movie) on the B side; Comes on green-inferno colored vinyl with a green Japanese Sanguelia 2 VHS obi; DJ Blue Heart is pictured on the back cover. Both are housed in a Stoughton Tip-On jacket; Both come on 180 gram vinyl and are in an edition of 400.
OISTER: 1973-74 Pre-Dwight Twilley Band 2LP (HZR 190LP)
"The legendary 1973-74 'Teac Tapes' from deep inside the Dwight Twilley Band vault have been unleashed, never before available in any format, Oister was the primary name of the Dwight Twilley and Phil Seymour duo from the time they met in 1967 until the release of their Top 20 debut 'hit' single 'I'm On Fire' in 1975. The two 'halves' of the Oister formed a whole, and a tight friendship and performing partnership took flight, and with Dwight's incredible songs in hand, the two were off and running. Recording at home with one of the first (commercially-available to the public) multi-track Teac home tape machines, the Oister DIY ethic was locked in early, and just exploded with an endless stream of ethereal pop magic, most of which has never been re-recorded by the Dwight Twilley Band, remaining frozen in time. The pair were cranking out an impressive amount of original material and pressing small batches of their own acetate LPs locally in Tulsa to sell to their friends at school, of which, this 2LP collection rounds up 20 of their finest tracks, finally available to the public after over 40 years. The early, primal years of the Twilley/Seymour Oister-era are sadly undocumented until now, with this 20-track collection, freshly remastered from the original tape for vinyl for the first time anywhere, now on HoZac Archival. These songs seamlessly bridge those heavenly Everly Brothers harmonies with their beloved Anglo Pop bravado, yet keeping the sound undeniably definitive of early American Power Pop. Ghostly echoes slip through some of the delicate tracks like spirits in the night, while others crank up the juice and just ooze out that real, uncut rock'n roll, framing up their successful next incarnation as the Dwight Twilley Band. Featuring liner notes from their friend and original session engineer, Kent Benjamin, and a crisp mastering job, the Oister collection is the impossible missing link between the Sun Records snarl and the melodic prowess of the British Invasion's finest songsmiths, and now it can finally be yours. Recommended If You Like: Everly Brothers, Tom Petty, Big Star, Hollies, Badfinger, Raspberries, Emmit Rhodes, Todd Rundgren, T. Rex. 1st edition of 500 copies. Comes with free download."
$22.50 UPC: N/A ROCK
RUBS, THE: Impossible Dream LP (HZR 191LP)
"Joey Rubbish must be stopped, but it's too late for that. As the architect of every note on this immaculate new LP, he joins the ranks of other groundbreaking modern home-recording luminaries such as Jay Reatard, Nobunny, Mikey Hyde of Medication, and Rick Crook of Lost Sounds/Lover!, all able to cover every instrumental note recorded, as well as the vocals & recording. Not a small feat and worth noting since it's such a rare thing to pull off, especially when it's this nuanced and complex, even by power pop standards. And with that, The Rubs second offering is finally here with Impossible Dream, a full spectrum of songs so tightly-knit, so cleverly-written, and so impossibly dreamy, you won't be able to pull them out of your skull for eternity. Agonizingly articulate pop that can barely contain its own excitement, these songs just keep hitting you, one after another, each better than the last, just continuously pounding their unwavering contagiousness into your brazen heart. It's not like The Rubs are reinventing the guitar with Impossible Dream, but this LP has something brilliant humming at its core, something stark, genuine, and extremely vulnerable. And yet so charming and confident, it's almost dizzying in its bravado. From the instant 'Wrong Right Girl' kicks off, it's a tense and tender tear through the highs and lows of girls, summer, breakups, and tight jeans, drizzled with a reduction of those irresistible vocal hooks. With a run through a series of songs all named after individual heart-breakers (Judy, Amy, Ruby, & Emily), from slow-burners to hyper-charged rockers, there's such a great variety of styles and deliveries you just don't see very often in modern power pop. And let's not forget, the attention to detail, as well as the overall production control, is top-notch, which really adds depth to these incredible songs. Timeless stuff that avoids any & all modern pitfalls, Impossible Dream is a new high watermark in Chicago pop lineage you really need in your life. Recommended If You Like: The Nerves, The Jeanies, Plimsouls, Nick Lowe, Real Kids, Dutchess & Duke, Rockpile, Wreckless Eric. 1st press Black vinyl edition of 300 copies. Comes with free download."
$10.75 UPC: N/A ROCK
JACKPOT RECORDS (UNITED STATES):
SATAN'S PILGRIMS: Creature Feature LP (JPR 047LP)
"Originally released in 1998 in a limited run on Estrus Records. Satan's Pilgrims' Creature Feature expertly distills the essence of West Coast 60's surf instrumentals. Eastern scales dive-bomb with full bodied tremolo and glide across seas of reverb. Infused with classic Monster Sounds, Satan's Pilgrims brings the boneyard to the beach. Limited to 500 copies; Green Ooze colored vinyl; Original design by Art Chantry."
$16.50 UPC: 751937439318 ROCK
MANUFACTURED RECORDINGS (UNITED STATES):
KG: Come Closer, We're Cool CD (MFG 050CD)
"Manufactured Recordings' Shoegaze Archive presents Come Closer, We're Cool, a collection of early 90's fuzzy noise pop by KG, the longtime project of Mulhouse, France's Rémy Bux. Started in 1988 as a solo bedroom project named after the German word Kriegsgefangener (prisoner of war), Bux's early experiments involved a two-track recorder, a rigged synthesizer, and a great deal of ingenuity. Eventually procuring a four-track recorder, Bux began recording more seriously. Following a move to Strasbourg near France's German border to study musicology in 1991, Bux began playing in local bands and sending his KG demos around, which eventually brought him in contact with Lo-Fi Recordings in Paris. It wasn't until 1993 that Bux went into Strasbourg's Downtown Studio to record the first KG 7". A second single co-released by Lo-Fi and Orgasm Records featuring the same line-up was released in 1996. Come Closer, We're Cool compiles these early singles as well as tracks from a shelved release on Slumberland Records and other unreleased tracks. While similarities to Isn't Anything-era My Bloody Valentine and the Jesus & Mary Chain's Psychocandy abound, KG's approach is markedly different by blending the swirling textures of shoegaze and dream pop with the immediacy and minimalism of punk. Though KG never took off as a rock band -- Bux has turned his efforts towards making electronic music under the KG moniker at the beginning of the century, and is nowadays producing a mix of both styles -- Come Closer, We're Cool showcases one of the underrated greats of the 2nd wave of shoegaze."
$8.75 UPC: 813195022111 ROCK
KG: Come Closer, We're Cool LP (MFG 050LP)
LP version.
$14.50 UPC: 813195022104 ROCK
BETHANY CURVE: Mee-Eaux CD (MFG 053CD)
"Mee-Eaux was the debut release from 90's second wave shoegaze band Bethany Curve. The band takes their name from a street sign near the cliffs of the Monterey Bay in Santa Cruz where they formed in 1994, just as the first generation British shoegaze bands like Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine, and Lush began to dissolve. Mee-Eaux, originally self-released on cassette only, was a 45 minute, 10 track introduction to Bethany Curve's dark space-rock approach to the droning, melancholic, distorted, and ethereal tones that had come to be associated with the shoegaze sound. The band's motto, Atmosphere | Arrangement | Sound | Layering | Noise, is a perfect reflection of Bethany Curve's compositional and performative approach to their debut effort, and remained so through the release of three more LPs: Skies a Crossed Sky (1996), Gold (1998), and You Brought Us Here (2001) on Unit Circle, and their final release, the Flaxen EP (2003), released on Kitchen Whore Records."
$8.75 UPC: 813195022265 ROCK
BETHANY CURVE: Mee-Eaux Cassette (MFG 053CS)
Cassette version.
$6.25 UPC: 813195022289 ROCK
ALISON'S HALO: Eyedazler CD (MFG 054CD)
"Manufactured Recordings presents its latest Shoegaze Archive installment: an expanded reissue of Alison's Halo's Eyedazzler -- a retrospective of the band's recordings originally compiled in 1998. Available for the first time on vinyl, this criminally overlooked Tempe, AZ outfit is one of the premiere American shoegaze bands. Find the full story of Alison's Halo below, written by Jack Rabid, editor/publisher of The Big Takeover: 'They came out of Phoenix two decades ago, when Americans beyond Anglophilic centers finally noticed an incredible, dreamy 'shoegaze' explosion bubbling in Britain. Led by spouses Adam and Catherine Cooper, Alison's Halo trafficked in similarly spectacular, effects-laden, ethereal guitar majesties, but were distinguished by Catherine's lovely vocals (like Cocteau Twins' Liz Fraser, Slowdive's Rachel Goswell, and Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval), as shimmering as their six-string mélanges. Sadly, the foursome only released one 7" single in 1995, on Bruce Licher's hallowed Independent Project Records, and a 1998 retrospective. But thanks to starring appearances in two legendary Phoenix Beautiful Noise festivals, 1995 and 1996 (flying in from New York, I loved Alison's, IPR's Half String, For Against, and Licher's Scenic, Apples in Stereo, etc.), Internet buzz, and now this timely Manufactured Recordings reissue, they're not forgotten -- unlike many hyped groups.'--Jack Rabid"
