howdy all,
you know, every week make this news letter, and it takes me a varying amount of time depending on how much is in (or coming in), how busy i am in the store that day, and how motivated i am to get to it. and nearly every week i wonder, ‘does anyone even read this damned thing’. and then i put out a list like last week full of some nice used goodies, and a week later most of it is all gone, so i guess it does get read after all. this week finds not a huge amount in, but some real top notch stuff not to be missed. we are slowly sorting out the void left by the loss of one of our suppliers and hope that some of the new sources we’ve drummed up will work out even better going forward.. only time shall tell though. in the meantime, here’s what did come in this week that you should buy…
…..pick of the week…..
*neung phak – 2 – abduction – lp
– yes!!!!! “in the pantheon of western-tilted south east asian tribute groups, oakland, california’s neung phak (pronounced: “noong pahk”) have carved out a decade’s worth of inspired and unique recordings and performance since their 2001 debut, (birthed as a spin-off from legendary bay area group mono pause). galvanized by exposure to thousands of south east asian cassette tapes, lps and radio broadcasts harvested during years of travels (co-founder mark gergis is a key conspirator with international record label sublime frequencies), the 7-piece group play folk and pop sounds from thailand, cambodia, laos, indonesia, vietnam and elsewhere, using a variety of western and non-western instruments. neung phak delivers international sounds that trade the gloss and sheen of so-called “world music” for the energy and unpredictability you can find when you’re somewhere else. after two releases on abduction and several performances and tours, neung phak have returned with their second full-length studio lp. 2 showcases molam-folk pop and acid-rock hauntings from thailand’s yesterday and today, javanese dancefloor dangdut, and cambodian instrumental dramas — all retold in inimitable neung phak parlance. the stunning indonesian pop gem, “bang toyib,” features guest alan bishop (sun city girls) on bahasa vocals. thai dance-pop cuts “poot” and “poo jud” feature veteran singer diana hayes. the damning “fucking usa” was purportedly recorded in a north korean studio — and the epic retelling of the classic southern thai-styled “sat chatri,” closes down the lp in sprawling, psychedelic form. limited edition one-time pressing of 500 copies with download card.” super rad.
…..new arrivals…..
birthday party – peel sessions – strange fruit – 2lp
– the john peel bbc sessions march on with this stellar 19 track collection from nick cave’s legendary band. 16 peel session tracks including ‘cry’, ‘yard’, ‘release the bats’, ‘big jesus trash can’ and more. plus unreleased versions of ‘fear of gun 4’, ‘hamlet’ and ‘junkyard’.
boys next door – door, door – mushroom – lp
– reissue of nick cave’s boys next door studio album from 1979, 10 tracks in picture sleeve from mushroom records. garage punk at it’s finest, including the moody and morbid ballad “shivers”. very limited stock.
thomas brinkmann & oren ambarchi – the mortimer trap – black truffle – cd
– an epic, 77-minute “variation” of morton feldman’s for bunita marcus, pulsating waves of claustrophobic ambience generated from who-knows-what patiently builds into a throbbing, rhythmic pulse of gorgeous sonic density.
*caretaker – patience – history always favors the winner – cd
– now available on cd… kirby returns in 2012 with his long-in-the-making soundtrack to grant gee’s film about w.g. sebald. patience (after sebald) is a multi-layered film essay on landscape, art, history, life and loss by the acclaimed documentary film-maker grant gee. grant approached the caretaker to work on a soundtrack for this work and he sourced out-of-copyright franz schubert works from 1927 including the famous work “winterreise.” the soundtrack has been pieced together using snippets and fragments of this source material.
*demdike stare – elemental 4 – modern love – 12″
– the fourth and final installment of this sprawling collection of deep, dark ambient, ethno, dub, library, horror duo’s latest offering. the whole set is now instock… limited of course.
demdike stare/hype williams – meet shangaan electro – honest jon’s – 12″
– essential installment in the shangaan remix series, with futuristic pop duo hype williams turning out a mesmerizing tribute, lagging somewhere ages behind the party people, achingly soulful and lost. if you have to ask what the demdike stare side is like, then you don’t deserve it.
*flower travellin’ band – anywhere – lp
– first album from the legendary japanese rockers fronted by yuya uchida. although an album consisting mainly of cover versions, 1970’s anywhere still exhibited many of the musical traits that were to come to the fore on the band’s next release, the classic satori, an album of original material delivered with panache by the increasingly confident uchida. an album made memorable by its risqué cover as well as its ground-breaking approach to western rock music.
fucked up – year of the tiger – matador – 12″
– you know it’s the new year when these polaris prize winners’ annual ep is released. i’m sure there will be at least 3 more versions on various formats for the collectors to frenzy over.
fela kuti vs de la soul – fela soul – lp
– you got it… de la soul mash ups with fela kuti…. pot holes in nigeria…
mark lanegan band – blues funeral – 4ad – lp/cd
– after spending some time with greg dulli in the gutter twins, lanegan is back with a new solo album. colored vinyl, for now….
*kim jung mi – now – lion – lp
– “in 1973, god-like guitar wizard, songwriter, producer, and arranger shin joong hyun took a young girl named kim jung mi, and transformed her from a wallflower student into a folk-psych chanteuse in record time (if francoise hardy is the marianne faithful of france, then kim jung mi is, i suppose, the francoise hardy of korea). on each number, hyun and his backing group laid down pure emotion on tape. this raw feeling, combined with mi’s seductive, expressive vocals and empathetic string orchestration, resulted in an album that is nothing short of awe-inspiring. without a doubt, one of the best psychedelic albums ever created.”
nirvana – live melbourne 1.2.1992 – live wire – 2lp
– great sounding live recording of these guys just before they really broke. aneurysm, drain you, school, sliver, about a girl, come as you are, lithium, breed, polly, lounge act, in bloom, love buzz, smells like teen spirit, druid’s jam, negative creep, on a plain, & blew.
*jim o’rourke – old news # 7 – old news – lp
– more archival works from o’rourke see the light of day. “welcome to the django” is a 2-sided mid-’90s excursion of o’rouke’s first experiments with a serge modular system. “natural born killers” is a recent live jam recorded in nagoya. “tacere fas” is legendary early ’90s piece, finally available again, originally appearing on the compilation unentitled, released by these records in 1994. available only in this format.
porter ricks – biokinetics – type – lp/cd
– now in on cd…. techno isn’t a genre that has birthed many classic albums, and the dub techno subgenre even less so, but one indisputable classic is porter ricks’ debut biokinetics. originally issued on the legendary basic channel sub-label chain reaction in 1996, it was the first of the label’s album releases, and still stands as its crowning achievement. the duo was made up of dark ambient pioneer thomas köner and sound engineer andy mellwig. simply put, biokinetics is one of the most important records in the genre.
ulrich schnauss/mark peters – underrated silence – bureau b – lp/cd
– underrated silence is a quiet album, for the most part. its multi-layered fabric reveals something new every time one listens to it — a wealth of fresh discoveries, new rhythms emerging from the sound cloud, hitherto unnoticed melodies illuminating the background. schnauss and peters have crafted music which is enchanting in the truest sense of the word — shimmering sounds, floating echoes, rhythmically reverberant chords which wrap themselves around the listener, lifting you into a state of suspension and carrying you gently away.
john talabot – fin – permanent vacation – lp+cd
– 11 tracks dominated by dark ambiances, gaseous textures and bittersweet moods that, above all, reveal a kind of vivacity that’s really hard to find in contemporary electronics. fin is far from being a track collection.
tandy love – turk jerk – fat city – lp
– tandy love’s anagram jam sequel “turk jerk” aka anatolian anagrams. features 13 tracks of “marmalised and de-pipped” obscure-as-hell turk-ish psych funk disco punk and cosmic floor fillers and mind benders.
robert turman – flux – spectrum spools – lp
– until recently, turman was perhaps best known for his contributions to the ballistic non project with boyd rice, as well as other obscured U.S. industrial acts such as z.o. voider. flux was originally self-released in 1981, in extremely limited numbers. a curious, dusty fidelity carries these classic tracks across four sides of vinyl, including all of the original flux content. these compositions glow with a sprawling, slow-motion haze that’s light years ahead of its time. flux reveals wide spectrums of sound from melancholic kalimba and percussion patterns to slowed-down, syrupy exotica. turman had complex ideas in his mind, yet only the simple technologies of the day were at hand.
*various – istanbul 70 – nublu – lp
– “compiled by renowned dj baris k, this is a 14-track compilation featuring turkish classics from the ’70s — from rock stalwarts erkin koray and cem karaca, to disco folksters baris manco, nazan soray, and psy-funkers mogollar and kamuran akkor.”
…..restocks…..
adele – 21 – xl – lp
aphex twin – selected ambient works 85-92 – fanclub – lp
*john bender – pop surgery – record sluts – lp
*john bender – plaster falling – record sluts – lp
*john fahey – america – 4 men with beards – lp
*can – ege bamyasi – united artists – lp
*can – tago mago – united artists – lp
the fall – this nation’s saving grace – beggars – lp
girls – father, son, holy ghost – true panther – lp
*harald grosskopf – synthesist – rerving – lp
kenneth higney – attic demonstration – one kind favor – lp
*erkin koray – mechul – sublime frequencies – lp
*takahasi kosugi – catch wave – phoenix – lp
louvin brothers – satan is real – light in the attic – lp
john maus – we must become… – ribbon – lp
mount kimbie – crooks & lovers – hot flush – lp
new order – movement – rhino – lp
new order – power, corruption, lies – rhino – lp
*la planete sauvage OST – pathe – lp
pinch/shackleton – s/t – honest jons – lp
pixies – doolittle – 4ad – lp
slowdive – pygmalion – creation – lp
*taj mahal travellers – 15 july, 1972 – klimt – lp
talk talk – spirit of eden – parlophone – lp
*robert wyatt – dondestan – domino – lp
xx – s/t – xl – lp
thanks for listening…..
listen records
10443a – 124 street
edmonton, ab
t5n 1r7
780-732-1132