howdy all,
the good news is, if you aren’t down in calgary for sled island this weekend, then we’ve got a nice slew of new stuff in for your weekend listening pleasure. the bad news is that, we’ve got a new slew of new stuff for you to blow your pay cheque on this weekend if you aren’t in calgary for sled island….
…..pick of the week…..
peter zummo – zummo with an x – opitmo – lp
– cooooooool, nice to see a vinyl reissue of this arthur russell related project…. “originally released in 1985 in an edition of 500 copies, this is the first time this album has been available on vinyl for nearly 30 years. peter zummo (born 1948) is an american composer and musician. he plays the trombone, valve trombone, euphonium, synthesizer, other electronic instruments, and also sings. he is associated with the post-minimalist and downtown aesthetics, and he describes his music as “minimalism plus a whole lot more.” “i first discovered peter zummo when i first discovered arthur russell. i kept hearing that trombone sound throughout arthur’s music and through scanning through various label credits made the connection that this peter zummo character was a constant collaborator with arthur. zummo’s trombone sound is one of those things that if i am feeling anxious or pissed off will instantly soothe me and make everything feel alright. so, as well as wanting to hear everything arthur had touched, i now also wanted to hear everything mr. zummo had created too. it’s worth bearing in mind that at this point, in the mid- to late ’90s, there was almost zero information online about arthur or his music or his collaborators. the upside of this was that all his records weren’t too hard to track down and weren’t going for crazy money. i randomly found zummo with An x in new york around 1999 and wasn’t sure what to expect. i instantly liked the first side, ‘lateral pass’ but side 2’s ‘song iv’ took my breath away and remains to this day one of my most listened-to records. despite the minimal elements, i hear more in it every time i listen to it, and sometimes the perfect interaction between cello, trombone and percussion sounds like the voice of arthur being beamed in from the aether. it is 20 minutes of sheer bliss that feels as if it could go on for twice as long. unavailable on vinyl since 1985, it’s a great honor to be making this record available again and i can’t imagine anyone with even a passing interest in peter zummo or arthur russell’s music failing to be beguiled by this.” –twitch”
…..new arrivals…..
a place to bury strangers – worship – dead oceans – lp
– “guitars as jet engines; guitars as haunted electronics; guitars as filling-melting white heat: worship is explosive, visceral, and dark. they interweave threads of krautrock, dream-pop, and 80s goth without ever losing the edge that is quintessentially strangers. unhinged dissonance is artfully framed within a fiercely dynamic and assured melodic sensibility.”
amon guru – space explosion – lilith – lp+cd
– a krautrock supergroup featuring dieter moebius of cluster, mani neumeier of guru guru, jurgen engler of die krupps, chris karrer of amon duul, and zappi dietmeier & jean-herve peron of faust. this recording was made at atom h studios in dsseldorf in 1998 and originally released under the group name space explosion. The bonus cd features four bonus tracks also recorded at atom h in dsseldorf in 1996 by the cosmic couriers 1, consisting of moebius, neumeier and engler, and originally released on their album other places.
blues control – valley – drag city – lp
– “there’s a new muse at the house of blues control. yes, mother nature! as with each of their earlier efforts, valley tangents is a full (r)evolution ahead of what came before, at times an unrecognizable new blend of sounds to call blues control. closer listens will bring into focus the continuities that make the band who they are and have been. it ultimately doesn’t matter where on earth this was conceived and laid down and mixed, it came from two minds alone, and nobody else but blues control are in control of doing it quite like this.”
can – the lost tapes – spoon – 3cd box
– “the long awaited box set of unreleased studio, soundtrack and live material. the lost tapes was curated by irmin schmidt and daniel miller, compiled by irmin schmidt and jono podmore, and edited by jono podmore. when the legendary can studio in weilerswist was sold to the german rock n pop museum, they bought everything, including the army mattresses that covered the walls for sound protection, and relocated it to gronau. whilst dismantling the studio, master tapes were found and stored in the spoon archive. with barely legible labeling, no one was sure what was on these until irmin schmidt and long time collaborator jono podmore started to go through over 30 hours of music. what they found was years of archived material, not outtakes, but rather tracks which had been shelved for a variety of reasons. this set includes material never released anywhere.” housed in a 10×10″ square box in the style of an old tape reel container; includes 24-page booklet with sleeve notes from irmin schmidt and ian harrison.
nenah cherry & the thing – the cherry thing – smalltown supersound – lp
– “the thing took their name from a piece by don cherry: when they first got together it was to play his music. so it does make sense that they should eventually team up with don cherry’s daughter, neneh cherry. meeting in london in the fall of 2010 to record, it clicked right away as they all shared an open, free approach to the music. the high energy of the thing’s playing found a fitting counterpart in neneh’s intense style. includes covers of songs from suicide, stooges, ornette coleman, don cherry martina topley-bird & mf doom.”
chromatics – kill for love – italians do it better – cd
– the chromatics return with the soundtrack to a film of their own imagination. seventeen tracks. received an 8.7 best new music rating from pitchfork.
domingo cura – tiempo de percusion: an anthology, 1971-77 – em – lp
– despite tremendous political upheaval, argentina in the 1960s and 1970s witnessed a remarkable musical flowering in which traditional “folklore” styles were embraced and updated by a new generation of musicians who fused traditional argentinian rhythms and musical forms with elements of rock, soul, funk and jazz. percussionist domingo cura was at the center of these exciting musical developments. this release is a compilation of the finest moments from domingo cura’s four solo albums released during the period 1971 to 1977, featuring cura’s propulsive mastery of the traditional bombo drum as well as other percussion instruments.
cvlts – realiser – aguirre – lp
– the kansas post-hypnagogia psych enigma cvlts create a strange distillation of improvisation, keyboards, loops and field recordings. song length carpets of sound with the occasional attempt at dream pop. cvlts are the kings of haze and they will make all your dreams come true.
el-p – cancer for cure – fat possum – lp/cd
– cancer for cure takes another huge leap forward from the production work of his 2010 instrumental album weareallgoingtoburninhellmeggamixxx with a bombastic collision of synths, bottomless bass tones, live instrumentation, ear-worming melody, and tightly coiled drum patterns, setting the standard for hip hop production higher than ever. the obvious diversion from the previous album is the presence of el-p’s ever-developing vocal style, continuing to raise the bar on his already highly verbose flow that swiftly and muscularly navigates a rapidfire explosion of syllabic conundrums and quick-witted elocutions full of heart, purpose, style and grit.
eternal tapestry – dawn in 2 dimensions – thrill jockey – lp
– “after the dark conceptual ambience of beyond the 4th door, the members of eternal tapestry decided the time was right to do an album embracing their live show – blistering psych rock filled with lyrical guitar soloing and a caveman approach to rhythm, an oddly euphoric state where melancholia is blasted by ecstatic noise. compiled from a variety of sessions at tapestry space throughout the spring of 2011.”
*expo 70/altair temple – split – radar swarm – lp
– expo 70 gives you “land of the midnight sun” and this side to me sounds like the feeling of “suspension” you get while driving in a blinding snow-storm. this is just about 20 minutes of really stunning work. altair temple is a duo i’ve never encountered before and their side on this “white-out” of a disc doesn’t swing you more into the loop of any other reality than it’s very own ….so, don’t think your drift will be broken by flipping this thing over! ….a pleasant dream drone for winter nights…. at the start of summer?
*galactic zoo dossier #9 – book+cd
– “yes, after 3 years, the ‘hand-drawn psychedelic bible’ is back, leaving no stone unturned in the quest for mind-blowing illumination. over 100 pages on overlooked freak-rock bands, heady comics and populist pop-psych by creator plastic crimewave (of many bands, posters, striped pants, etc.). interview with: arthur brown, black widow, poppy family, rodriguez, mark fry. features on: ‘prog freaks’ like egg & east of eden; ‘psychedelicanada’ like collectors & folklords, curtis knight, john berberian, psyched archie & mad, kirby, texas psyche scene, kak, moody blues, white witch, etc. cd compilation of unreleased & mind-frying sounds by mainliner, secret side, ultima thule, mark fry, daze of night, the light company, etc.”
*gate – dew line – mie – lp
– in tomorrow. a reissue of the 1993 the dew line album from new zealand guitar patriarch michael morley (dead c), and the first part of his “rock trilogy” that includes 1996’s monolake and 1999’s the wisher table. typical gate/dead c no-fi guitar subduction and locked-in-the-car-trunk vocals are prominent, but there’s also a hefty amount of scraping synthesizer menace and paleozoic riffage. the crust of noise is there, but crack open the sonic geode and you’ll discover some nifty song styling as well. an anti-rock classic. edition of 500 copies.
guided by voices – class clown spots a ufo – gbv – lp
– in tomorrow. the new gbv album is the best thing the band has recorded since the last album by the legendary dayton, ohio, rockers. that’s not meant facetiously: the last thing gbv did was the rapturously received let’s go eat the factory, and class clown spots a ufo ups the ante raised by that stellar effort, both in terms of recording fidelity (boring!) and songcraft (not boring!) one could argue there’s more depth and variety here than on alien lanes, that there are better songs here than on bee thousand, but that’s an argument no one’s ever going to win, at least definitively.
hollins & starr – sidewalks talking – lion – lp
– “sidewalks talking: it has a trace or two of arthur lee and love at their best, with dashes of maybe terry callier in some of the jazzier tunes. i also like that they wrote a gentle tribute to one of my favorite old-time bluesmen, mississippi john hurt. at times this album is a gorgeous, ethereal blend of psychedelic folk and offbeat pop; but there are some funk and avant-garde moves too, all supported by an odd assortment of instruments, including flute, bells and a generous helping of fuzz guitar.” limited to 750 copies.
ilaiyaraaja – fire star – bombay connection – lp
intellegence – everybody’s got it easy – in the red – lp
– in tomorrow. they continue to jettison their deliberately blown-out, lo-fi recording approach for a much clearer sound. not that there’s any loss of intensity. their scrambling post-punk guitars, dry-as-a-bone drums and laconically abstract verses are all here, viewed through an unusually clear lens, highlighting their knack for catchy songs that incorporate pop hooks, metronomically repetitive guitar riffs, and new wavey synth moves.
je suis le petit chevalier – an age of wonder – shelter press – lp
– from the time when the sun and the moon didn’t have a name, hidden in a garden with statues talking in silence, telling a secret path that leads to the bravest love… inspired by the amish community, the northern wisconsin sunsets and the indian summer in belgium, je suis le petit chevalier recorded an age of wonder between belgium and ohio between july and august 2011, filled with golden summer hazes, voluptuous thoughts, and august storms.
kylesa – time will fuse it’s worth – alternative tentacles – lp
– in tomorrow… back on vinyl, for their 2006 album, kylesa expanded their line-up to include two drummers, taking a harder approach than on their previous record. with a thicker, punchier, heavier rhythm section, the band forged a sound that is uniquely theirs. this record pummels and slays! first 1000 on red vinyl
kylesa – to walk a middle course – alternative tentacles – lp
– in tomorrow… the vinyl reissue of kylesa’s sophomore full-length. newly remastered by the band, this metal classic helped forge the path for kylesa’s overthrow of the metal underground. first 1000 on clear vinyl.
las malas amistades – maleza – honest jon’s – lp
– “the bad influences” — are from bogota, in colombia. lovingly assembled, it presents 28 exquisite variations of saudade (a portuguese term associated with poetic notions of love and nostalgia), in an acoustic, post‐punk take on tropicalismo — knockabout, impromptu, snapshot and sublime. vice magazine describes their music as “kind of like if the young marble giants sang in spanish and didn’t fully know how to play.”
perry leopold – experiment – guerssen – lp
– first-ever official vinyl reissue. the absolute cornerstone of acid folk and psychedelic folk, 1970’s perry leopold masterpiece still remains today as the one to compare with when new psych-folk vintage records are discovered. still no one beats him, and they probably never will. pressed on 180 gram vinyl with newly-remastered sound. includes a repro of a 1973 promotional flyer and an insert with liner notes by patrick lundborg.
mind over mirrors – high & upon – aguirre – lp
– re-issue of this long sold out cassette on gift tapes. mind over mirrors is Jaime Fennely harmonium player and electronica builder. before he started his solo-project he was a member of junkfolkband peeesseye and psychedelic freejazztrio acid birds. mind over mirrors’ music is all about saturated sound. fennelly plays his pump organ through a battery of oscillators and effects that extend and distort its tones to obtain in-the-red highs, chest-rattling mids, and low notes as bulbous and squeezable as a slightly underinflated inner tube. the end results are slow constructive growing, repetitive melodies, warming wilderness of vivid harmonic depth.
mpala garoo – ou du monde – aguirre – lp
– upgrade of the original cassette release on sweat lodge guru. moscow multi-instrumentalist ivan karib makes wondrous spaced-out and multi-layered electronics that float somewhere between ducktails and sean mccann. the tropics invade russia and clatter to the floor. ghost guitars ring hollow, looping around endlessly searching for synthetic embrace. “music crafted for the sunny and tropical paradises of our minds. seasonal temperament is shared via magnetic vibes; we can all exist in the same balmy and tropical headstate no matter what our physical locale may be. pure vibrations that ebb and flow on the appeal of tidal moons.”
charlemagne palestine – two electronic sonorities – alga marghen – lp
– “two seminal electronic music radical realizations by charlemagne palestine. these previously unpublished pieces confirm once more how advanced his golden research already was in the 1960s, a very personal approach to sound which would have later become so influential for future generations. edition limited to 380 copies, with an institutional portrait of the composer on front and back sleeve for you consumers to enjoy.”
*part wild horses mane on both sides – poisson – mie – lp
– in tomorrow… originally released by rayon recs in a run of 50 cassettes in 2009, hardly seeing the light of day before it sold out. droning and looping flute, scattering drums, cyclical patterns and inaudible mutterings. “percussionist pascal nichols and flautist kelly jones have minted a profound new form of improvisation that carves spectral shapes from silence and creates free music with a spare orchestral beauty and deep psychedelic atmosphere.”-david keenan, the wire.
*conrad schnitzler – rot – bureau b – lp
– there was a particular type of artist who could only have emerged in the legendary early 1970s. few musicians fit the bill better than conrad schnitzler (tangerine dream, kluster). revolution, pop art and fluxus created a climate which engendered unbridled artistic and social development. radical utopias, excessive experimentation with drugs, ruthless (in a positive way) transgression of aesthetic frontiers were characteristic of the period. bureau b presents rot (the “red” album) from 1973, schnitzler’s first solo lp.
*conrad schnitzler – blau – bureau b – lp
– his second solo, the blue album blau, originally released in 1974, offered confirmation of his intent. maybe the “red” and “blue” tracks were recorded in the same session. the structure, sound and timbre of both lps are so similar as to suggest that this was the case (an unverified assumption nevertheless!). far more important than this historical pedantry is the fact that schnitzler included two brand-new compositions on blau which followed on seamlessly from the previous album. quite simply, he had found his way, a course from which he would not stray as long as he lived.
*ty segall band – slaughterhouse – in the red – 2×10″/cd
– in tomorrow… the ty segall band is ty segall (obviously), mikal cronin, charlie moonheart and emily rose epstein. while segall has released many incredible solo releases, slaughterhouse marks the first that he recorded with his touring band. for this mini-album (it’s only ten inches, but you get two!) the band turned their amps all the way up, set their fuzz pedals on obliterate and commenced to kick ass and take names. seriously, this record will melt your face. all of segall’s usual psych-pop sensibilities are present but slaughterhouse adds the full-throttle, go-for-the-throat bombast that the band delivers in the live setting.
silver jews – early times – drag city – lp
– in tomorrow… “flow on, silver juice, flow on… into the vein-streams of the nu generation via 90s classics like american water and starlite walker and thence to the new century. they say time has no meaning, but we know otherwise. the pages of history condense eons and epochs into the stuff of mere chapters — sometimes as little as paragraphs — but how many lifetimes have we lived since the salad days and nightz of the original silver jews, when they walked the back-alleys of the earth just a scant couple decades ago… ”
stereolab – mars audiac quintet – 1972 – lp
– in tomorrow… mars audiac quintet saw stereolab beginning to shed their experimental tendencies in favor of a post-modern space-age pop. the album exudes a sophisticated cool and catchiness that helped them gain new fans while straddling the line between their experimental-rock brethren and the ascending class of pre-millennial british pop. It’s also the album that put them on the a-list of underground rock bands. arguably the band’s most accessible album.
stereolab – transient random-noise bursts with announcements – 1972 – lp
– in tomorrow… transient random-noise bursts with announcements is stereolab’s breakthrough album, their major label debut, and one of the most innovative releases of the 1990s, a musical decade signified by breaking down artistic barriers. originally released in august 1993, transient random-noise bursts builds on the promise of the band’s early releases switched on and peng! by expanding the scope of their highly distinctive mix of one-chord krautrock grooves, distorted vintage keyboard noise and euro-pop.
*cedric stevens – the syncopated elevators legacy – discrepant – 2lp
– cedric stevens career began in 1993 as a dj and techno producer under the pseudonym “acid kirk”. he quickly established himself as a pivotal figure in the belgian underground, producing over a dozen 12” and eps. in 1997, driven by his growing interest in experimental music, he launched his side project: “the syncopated elevators legacy” this anthology compiles some of cedric’s best pieces released between 1997 & 2005 under the s.e.l. moniker. with previously unreleased material and with remixes from fennesz, leyland kirby, my cat is an alien, burning star core, sylvain chauveau & motion sickness of time travel.
*tidal & rambutan – split – aguirre – lp
– two wonderful long straight running drone pieces by underground artists tidal & rambutan. both have released numerous tapes on labels such as stunned, no kings, digitalis, hobo cult, hooker vision. tidal blesses us with a popol vuh-esque ride to the future and rambutan contributes a beautiful accompanying magical piece to the b-side.
*umberto – welcome to the chillzone – great pop supplement – lp
– “umberto” is the killer solo project from matt hill. previously released as a 150 copy cassette only release on solid melts last summer, the gps gives it the supersound 45 treatment on 12″ wax and dresses it up in a sweet new fright night sleeve, creating a debut full uk release in the process… the 12 moves away slightly from matt’s previously lauded full lengths, “chillzone” as it’s title would imply, is a more stripped down, eerily ambient, totally icy late night listen.stunningly chilling synth work recalling in equal measure john carpenter vhs horror, klaus schulze and in places, popol vuh.
damian valles – nonparallel (in four movements) – experimedia – lp
– “nonparallel (in four movements), is composed and arranged entirely from samples from the recordings of avant-garde western classical composers and computer music released by the nonesuch label in the 60s and 70s. in working with the material, valles wanted to enter into its very lineage, to forge a dialogue with it, to both extrapolate something essential from it and contribute to its legacy by using it to create an original work some three decades later. divided into four movements, it is a nuanced album of subtle complexities that took roughly three years to complete.”
moritz von oswald trio – fetch – honest jon’s – lp
– after two previous studio albums and one live album through moritz von oswald trio — returns with fetch, their most fully-realized voyage yet. the trio operates at the bleeding edges where musical lineages collide. feeling for the shared heartbeat that pulses through dub, techno and jazz, it seeks out points of contact before exploding them outward into hypnotic explorations of rhythm, texture and tone. fetch further cements the moritz von oswald trio’s status as a unique voice in modern electronic music — as supple, intuitive and alive as the most exploratory of jazz.
various – breakin’ ost – get on down – lp
– “inspired by a german documentary about the emerging breakdance phenomenon in los angeles, the 1984 film breakin’ is for many a reference point for the explosion of hip-hop in the united states and across the world. with it’s colorful cast of characters and dazzling array of dance moves, the movie became an international hit and the soundtrack captures the sounds that inspired a entire generation of breakers and b-boys to push their craft to new heights.”
…..7″ singles…..
crash kills five – what do you do at night – ugly pop – 7″
hot nasties – invasion of the tribbles – ugly pop – 7″
rock’n’roll bitches – wild west – ugly pop – 7″
spys – underground – ugly pop – 7″
…..restocks…..
*kevin ayers – joy of a toy – vinilisssmo – lp
beirut – march of the zapotec – pompeii – 2lp
black keys – rubber factory – fat possum – lp
chromatics – night drive – italians do it better – cd
*chrome – alien soundtracks – lilith – lp
drainolith – fighting – spectrum spools – lp
*franco falsini – cold nose – spectrum spools – lp
tim hecker – harmony in ultraviolet – kranky – lp
earl hooker – 2 bugs and a roach – arhoolie – lp
elmore james – best of – great american music co – lp
*omar khorshid – guitar el chark – sublime frequencies – 2cd
lcd soundsystem – s/t – dfa – lp
mance lipscomb – texas sharecropper… – arhoolie – lp
joanna newsom – milk-eyed mender – drag city – lp
joanna newsom – ys – drag city – lp
joanna newsom – have one on me – drag city – 3lp
*annette peacock – i’m the one – future days – lp
residents – third reich n roll – mvd – lp
ty segall & white fence – hair – drag city – lp
*sonic youth – daydream nation – goofin – lp box
sonic youth – sonic nurse – goofin – lp
swans – we rose from your bed – young god – 2cd
*talk talk – laughing stock – ba da bing – lp
upsetters – return of django – sunspot – lp
townes van zandt – our mother the mountain – fat possum – lp
*gary wilson – forgotten lovers – feeding tube – lp
thanks for listening….
listen records
10443a – 124 street
edmonton, ab
t5n 1r7
780.732.1132