Monthly Archives: February 2014

…..news letter #628 – colder…..

Well, not a whole lot in this week, but I did just acquire a nice stack of used doom LPs. Someone decided that they just weren’t that angry anymore and wanted to pass that darkness on to you! Some pretty great LPs in this stack, check the list below….

…..pick of the week…..

bo anders

Bo Anders Persson: Love Is Here to Stay (Subliminal Sounds) LP
This came in a couple weeks ago, but this week I’m really in love with it and you could be too! 2LP version housed in a gatefold sleeve including booklet with in-depth informative liner notes and pictures. The early works by Bo Anders Persson presented on this record were written between 1965 and 1967, before he started the experimental rock band Pärson Sound. All but one track is previously-unreleased. What is the origin of this strange, un-place-able music? What is its place in history, in the unfolding of important conceptual ideas, turning musical modernism into something wider, more mysterious and blurred? From where comes the lightness of touch, and how does the transient nature of the sounds correspond to the sense of mourning hidden within the music? What makes the music so exciting and loaded is the feeling of change, both in the actual performances and in the atmosphere of the rooms where the pieces are played. The sounds move freely within the minimal, repetitive structures. There are spaces for breathing and dreaming, turning inside and outside, and a sense of being in between positions. Suddenly, the doors are wide open and radical experiments can take place.

File Under: Drone, Psych, Prog, Avant-Garde
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…..new arrivals…..

tonyallenTony Allen: N.E.P.A. (Kindred Spirits) LP
Huge Tony Allen album originally released in 1984! This officially licensed reissue boasts an extra track previously unreleased on vinyl, called “Olokun”! Never Expect Power Always (aka N.E.P.A.) is largely a biting criticism and mocking of the Nigerian Electrical Power Authority, rife with corruption and poor service. It starts out with the title track, with a definite Afro-beat punch and a tighter arrangement than would normally be expected from Fela. Electro-claps stand as part of the percussion line, adding a more modern look at what Afro-beat was becoming. This is followed by an even further modernized piece, as the title track is given a dub mix. “When One Road Close” has a similar pace, and is similarly followed by a dub remix, complete with the necessary space-effects reverb. This is the peak of electronic Afro-beat!

File Under: Afrobeat, Dub
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beck

Beck: Morning Phase (Capitol) LP/CD
Morning Phase is the highly anticipated twelfth studio album by musical chameleon Beck and the long awaited follow-up to 2008’s Modern Guilt. Described as a companion piece of sorts to his benchmark, largely-acoustic 2002 album Sea Change, the Capitol Records release is true to its title and stands as the beginning of yet another amazing chapter in Beck’s peerless career and catalog. Featuring musicians who have backed him on many of his most acclaimed albums including Sea Change, as well as the current live shows widely hailed as the best of his career (Justin Meldal-Johnsen, Joey Waronker, Smokey Hormel, Roger Joseph Manning Jr., and Jason Falkner), Morning Phase harkens back to the stunning harmonies, song craft and staggering emotional impact of Beck’s most classic ballads, all the while surging forward with undeniable optimism. The sonically lush 13-song set is preceded by the impassioned lead single “Blue Moon,” which serves as a fine introduction and embodiment of the album’s many influences which range from Scott Walker and Love to The Byrds, Crosby Stills & Nash, Gram Parsons and Neil Young.  

 File Under: Rock, Pop, Folk
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forbiddenForbidden World OST (Death Waltz) LP
Death Waltz Recording Company are proud to be unleashing one of the great unheralded electronic scores. Unavailable since the film’s release in 1982, Susan Justin’s music for Forbidden World – produced by the legendary Roger Corman – mixes the electronic influences of the time with splashes of new wave, creating a score that fuses the eerie tonalities and avant-garde sensibility of Alien with the straight-up funk of Assault On Precinct 13. Birthed from this is a cult classic score that deserves to be held up alongside the works of Richard Band and Alan Howarth. What immediately stands out from the score is the amazing main theme, a melodic groove firmly embedded in the 80s synth movement, complete with creepy vocal effects overlaying its driving keyboard line. Originally a parody that Corman turned into a straight horror, the score is used typically to create tension with isolated piano and harsh electronic tones, acting as a stereotypical precursor to the horror moments. Amidst all this is also the “Blaster Beam,” a unique instrument famous for its use in Jerry Goldsmith’s Star Trek – The Motion Picture. A fantastic voyage amongst the stars full of offbeat melodies and alien tones, this is a musical world that demands multiple visits.

File Under: Electronic, OST, Horror, Death Waltz
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BobFrank_OutsideBob Frank: s/t (Light in the Attic) CD
LP in soon. Light In The Attic and legendary folk/blues/roots label Vanguard Records are proud to begin a series of collaborations under the umbrella Vanguard Vault. The series will explore the vaults of Vanguard and see the reissuing of obscure nuggets, psychedelic weirdness and just some good old-fashioned seminal music. Originally released in 1972 on Vanguard Records, Bob Frank’s self titled debut album took elements of Dylan, Johnny Cash, and Ian Tyson and filtered it through a pot-smoked haze infused with Frank’s long-time friend, Memphis guru Jim Dickinson. Dickinson and Frank shared a mutual admiration that ran so deep that on Dickinson’s own 1972 debut album Dixie Fried he recorded one of Bob’s songs, “Wild Bill Jones.” Despite the Dickinson/Memphis connection, Frank’s only LP for Vanguard has remained a forgotten, hard to find vinyl relic. Until now. As Dickinson once deadpanned, “Bob went to Vietnam and Nashville. I don’t know which was worse.” It was also an itinerant period, when Frank spent many a stoned evening staggering alone through the mid-south urban gothic landscape of church steps and sleaze bars, with his guitar glued to his arm, if not an actual extension of it. Songs would emerge from dreams or drunken visions. But this was not artless acid folk, but a series of picaresque, well-sketched vignettes delivered in a clearly-enunciated vernacular, and all very much in Frank’s own style.

File Under: Folk
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khanateKhanate: Capture & Release (Hydrahead) LP
Back on vinyl again eight years after its original release, Khanate’s Capture & Release is hereby presented for mass consumption once again. After introductory releases on Southern Lord and Load, Khanate delivered this sprawling two track, 40 minute monster as their debut for Hydra Head Records.

File Under: Metal, Doom
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Lasry-Baschet: Instruments Non-Electronique (Cacophonic) LP
A collection of the earliest recordings of the French sound sculpture musicians and Cristalists known as Structures Sonores Lasry-Baschet. Featuring the first fruits of one of the greatest unisons in experimental French music combining the beguiling haunting sounds of Jacques and Yvonne Lasry and the development of the musical inventions of Bemard and Francois Baschet. Exploring a similar route to that of early Michel Magne recordings (and often likened to “a French Harry Partch”) the emotive music made with these organic, municipal, revolutionary instruments between 1957 and 1962 rode a narrow path between post-Second World War experimental music and anti-electronica before providing the world with the sound of the Granada Television Picture Box theme and one of Magma’s deepest foundations. The instruments known as Structures Sonores were designed and made in the late 1940s by Paris born engineer and sculptor siblings Bemard and Francois Baschet with the original aim to create portable, collapsible and municipal instruments based on inflatable components. Eventually incorporating metal bars, steel rods, air-filled plastic spheres (balloons), crystal stems and steel bars the instruments were totally independent of electrical or electronic components or equipment sidestepping the celebrated trends in tape manipulation and musique concrete, standing at the journalistic forefront of French experimental music in the 1950s. Played using horsehair bows and wet glass rods which resonated the tubes and metal surfaces the amplification was produced by the movement of vibrating rods embedded in fixed plates and the timbre could be modified by altering the sizes of the resonators. By the early fifties the brothers had invented a series of large visually striking sculpture-like instruments that could be used by participants of any age regardless of any formal musical training mainly combining crystal, water and steel to create a specific delicate and very unique haunting sound. A chance meeting with two enthusiastic piano based musicians called Jacques and Yvonne Lasry in 1954 lead to the formation of the Structures Sonores Lasry-Baschet (Lasry-Baschet Sound Structures) ensemble who spent the next decade touring the world while performing and composing for film, exhibitions and ballet performances. This compilation highlights the very earliest vinyl appearances of the collective that would become known as the Lasry-Baschet Sound Structures. Vive les Cristalists!

File Under: Avant-Garde, Experimental, French
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Otto Luenig & Vladimir Ussachevsky: Tape Recorder Music (Cacophonic) LP
One of the very earliest and most important examples of electronic tape music to be pressed on to vinyl (alongside the Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française musique concrète compilations in France and Jim Fassett’s comedic Strange To Your Ears novelty record) this privately pressed 1955 LP was released on a one-off label owned by businessman Gene Bruck to document a custom made performance at the New York Museum Of Modern Art back in 1952.  This facsimile edition of this important LP archives remastered versions of the first recorded unison of Otto Luening and Vladimir Ussachevsky and a partnership that founded the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center at Columbia University in 1959, which would later count Ilhan Mimaroglu, Wendy Carlos, Dariush Dolat Shahi and Alice Shields as its graduates. The October 28th 1952 performance showcased the debut of the seminal Fantasy In Space based on resampled flute recordings which were manipulated on magnetic tape to create an otherworldly melodic composition, stylistically begging comparison with the early recording of Kraftwerk (made some twenty years later) and bringing a palatable and tuneful alternative to the stark avant garde experiments of their French counterparts.  The mechanical construction of the track was even “performed” on prime time American television to celebrate this groundbreaking approach to modern music.  Alongside four other tracks the full programme comprises further experiments with manipulated recordings of bells and woodwind instruments subjected to mechanical “augmentation, diminution and retrograding” to create pieces that “cannot be played with conventional instruments.”  In the following years labels like Folkways and Desto would also plunder this important session as a milestone in electronic music. For the purpose of this release Cacophonic have also included the seldom heard 14 minute track A Poem In Cycles And Bells For Tape Recorder And Orchestra which was recorded using the same techniques with the Royal Danish Radio Orchestra in 1956 and released via the Composers Recordings Inc. label founded by Otto himself in 1954 (employing Vladimir in an advisory capacity) and operated for forty-nine years – releasing records by Harry Partch, Alwin Nikolais, John Cage and Alice Shields.  Also included on this edition is an expansion of the rare 10″ original artwork by legendary graphic designer Ronald Clyne, an early example of his work made before he became in-house designer for Folkways Records rivaling the likes of Blue Note’s Reid Miles for some of America’s most iconic record sleeves.

 File Under: Avante Garde, Early Electronic 
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men

The Men: Tomorrow’s Hits (Sacred Bones) LP
After spending much of 2011 and 2012 on the road, including a trip upstate to write and record New Moon, their fourth full-length in as many years, The Men needed a break. They decided to take the winter of 2012 off to work on new material in Brooklyn. All that time spent on tour meant the band had no practice space, so founding member Mark Perro offered to turn his bedroom into one. All the furniture except the bed was moved out, and the band’s gear was moved in — drums, pianos, a dozen or so guitars, and amplifiers. They practiced in that bedroom in Bushwick nearly every day for three months, writing new songs and cutting more than 40 demos. By the end of that winter, the Men had pared that crop of songs down to 13. With their plans to take a break foiled by their own work ethic, they decided to record those songs before New Moon came out. They booked two days at Brooklyn’s Strange Weather studios, clocked in, and tracked all 13 songs entirely live. A horn section stopped by as well, contributing to two songs and playing live right along with the band. Eight songs from those sessions made the final cut for The Men’s new LP for Sacred Bones, the tongue-in-cheek-but-still-auspiciously-titled Tomorrow’s Hits. This is their first album recorded in a high-end studio and, appropriately, the result is their highest fidelity album to date. That being said, it is still an incredibly straightforward and concise record that nonetheless is full of genre-bending risks. The end result reinforces the overarching theme that has come to define its makers: The Men are a great rock band plain and simple.

File Under: Rock, Post-Punk
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ms 45Ms. 45 OST (Death Waltz) LP
Like Abel Ferrara, Death Waltz Recording Company are not prone to shying away from the more extreme corners of culture, and are delighted to be presenting a true underground classic for the first time ever. Ferrara’s pictures often tread the line between grindhouse trash and art films with insightful social commentary – and unflinching realism – and Ms. 45 is his most notorious film, with much of its power coming from Joe Delia’s grimy yet haunting music. A sparse piano motif initially creates a lonely voice for the (mute) heroine but it’s overshadowed by wailing trumpet, electric guitar, and menacing synths that paint a disturbing musical picture of the world she inhabits. Delia’s music is so great at creating a vivid image in your head and you begin to imagine the grubby streets, the sleazy sex shops, the leering onlookers, with it building and building until it reaches sensory assault. The instruments sound as violent as the acts on screen, as loud synth stings ring out like gunshots, edgy jazz beats unnerve you, and a repeating brass motif becomes a theme for violence and vengeance – even during the awesome “Dance Party”. You may need a shower after listening, but you’ll be right back to play it again and again. Incredibly this soundtrack has NEVER been released in any format. We went back to the original master tapes and worked with composer Joe Delia to clean up the original elements.

File Under: OST, Crime, Drama
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notwist

The Notwist: Close to the Glass (Sub Pop) LP
The Notwist’s Close to the Glass, their eighth album, is a catchy and unpredictable marriage of playing your heart out on an instrument and the magnetic pulse of precise programming. We now find The Notwist defining their edges with no shortage of bravery or beat. As romantic as it is robotic, Close to the Glass is a bottomless collage: part pop song, part science, part band, part storytelling and all Notwist. Brothers Markus and Micha Archer, alongside Martin Gretchmann, Max Punktezahl and Andi Haberl, have finally found their human form and, at last, become The Notwist. The Notwist began as a metallic hardcore band in 1989. Markus and Micha have always been at the core of the band; Gretchman joined in 1997, and the band has been through countless collaborations and side projects (Lali Puna, Console, Ms. John Soda, to name a few), constantly pushing themselves both in those projects and as The Notwist. Their sound has transformed hugely over the years, becoming progressively catchier and incorporating the members’ love of folk, classical, rap, rock and electronic music. Now, in 2014, we find The Notwist following up 2007’s The Devil, You + Me with their most adventurous record yet. The strong connection and trust between band members allowed them to blur the lines between their roles more than ever. With everyone playing anything, the band could take their music anywhere, from sheer noise to kraut-rock beat pocket to arena rock ride out. Close to the Glass is also full of vocal leaps for Markus Acher, experimenting not only with effects but also with his range, leaving the comforts of his signature style to take the music somewhere new. Close to the Glass reflects and reveals the truth about The Notwist more than ever, in its collage nature, pop-music moments and unpredictable structures. It feels as good in expensive headphones as it does in the trunk, a seamless soundtrack for that movie always going on inside you.

File Under: Indie Rock, Electronic, Pop
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perhacs

Linda Perhacs: The Soul of All Natural Things (Asthmatic Kitty) LP
Linda Perhacs’ Parallelograms was created in the heart of hippy country, LA’s Topanga Canyon, by a dental hygienist who was inspired by nature and by the cultural revolution going on around her. When Parallelogramswas finished, it sounded like a masterpiece, but the label had pressed it so poorly, sales were non-existent. Obscurity beckoned. But in the internet age obscurity can be discreetly transformed into a kind of niche immortality. By 2003, Parallelograms had become a cult album. Slowly, Perhacs began making music again. In 2010, she connected with a new generation of LA musicians attuned to her vision, including Fernando Perdomo and Chris Price, both accomplished musicians and producers in their own right. The trio began recording the eclipse song, “River Of God”, and what became a new album’s title track, The Soul Of All Natural Things. The Soul Of All Natural Things, for all its apparent serenity, is also a subtly polemical album, full of exhortations to take a step out of our frantic everyday lives. “We get too far out of balance and we must find a way to get back to our polestar,” Perhacs says. “I have a deeper purpose. My soul is giving itself to the people; I want them to be helped, I want them to be lifted.”

File Under: Folk
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realestate

Real Estate: Atlas (Domino) LP/CD
Let’s get down to brass tacks: Ridgewood, NJ’s Real Estate took a mighty leap forward on their last go-around…more record sales…bigger shows…and, more importantly, a timeless classic of an album, Days. It’s been two years since the release of Days, and it’s an album that still sounds as fresh today as it did on its release date.  Atlas, the new album from Real Estate, was recorded over the summer and fall of 2013 with producer Tom Schick (Rufus Wainwright, Mavis Staples, Low), and the ten-song album will be preceded by the release of the single “Talking Backwards.” To commence the follow-up to their sophomore breakout, founding members Martin Courtney (guitar/vocals), Matt Mondanile (guitar) and Alex Bleeker (bass/vocals) were joined by new full-time members, Jackson Pollis (drums) and Matt Kallman (keyboard) and producer Schick this past summer at Wilco’s Chicago studio, The Loft. 19-songs were recorded in all over a two-week period and the result is the band’s most collaborative, richly detailed album to date. The cover art of Atlas features a detail taken from Alexander’s Mural, an iconic North Jersey landmark created by artist Stefan Knapp that once hung on the side of Alexander¹s department store for over twenty years, not far from the band’s hometown of Ridgewood, NJ.

File Under: Indie Rock
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djatablue

Super Djata de Bamako: Volume 2 (Kindred Spirits) LP
Super Djata may be indeed one of the boldest and most exciting orchestras in the history of African modern music, if not one of Africa’s greatest and most unsung ensembles. This album was released circa 1982 on the Musique Mondiale label in Abidjan. Opening the record, “Yacouba” is a tribute to a great bambara dancer from Ballet National du Mali who was murdered in Dakar in 1973. Sober and heartfelt, Zani’s guitar playing is hypnotic while Flani mourns their late friend, enhanced by eerie background vocals. Other names such as Sory Kandia Kouyate or Bembeya Jazz’s singer Demba Cambara who happened to die in Dakar the same year as Yacouba passed away are featured in the second part of the song, names which are quoted with great emotion. On stage, the whole band would kneel down at a point when playing this tribute song to the great ones who had passed away.

File Under: Ethnic, Afro-Cuban, Funk
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superdj_thumb_325

Super Djata Band: Volume 2 (Yellow) (Kindred Spirits) LP
Super Djata is one of boldest and most exciting orchestras in the history of African modern music, if not one of Africa’s greatest and most unsung ensembles. Led by the late great Zani Diabate, Super Djata Band de Bamako stands proud as one of West Africa’s fiercest orchestras, with only a handful of releases and many tremendous gigs given over the last forty years. Thanks to their leader’s experience, the Djata Band quickly rose to fame within the Bamako region. Despite the lack of official support, Djata Band started to record their compositions under the aegis of expert engineer Boubacar Traore at Radio Mali’s tiny recording studio. By the end of the 1970s, the band’s repertoire was already very large and diverse. Their first album was released through the Discorama record label in Abidjan. Like several other Malian artists of the early 1980s, Super Djata’s only outlet for their material lay in some Ivorian record company. Bringing together bambara traditions, Wasulu hunter music, Kenedugu’s balafon music and bozo fishermen dances, mandingo chants and fula repertoire, mixed with a spicy, and at times even psychedelic guitar, Zani Diabate’s Super Djata Band came to the forefront of the emerging world music scene in the early 1980s as one of Mali’s strongest bands.

File Under: Ethnic, Afro-Cuban, Funk
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pwalker

Peter Walker: Second Poem to Karmela or Gypsies Are Important (Light in the Attic) CD
LP in real soon. Originally released in 1968 on Vanguard Records, Peter Walker’s album “Second Poem To Karmela” Or Gypsies Are Important was a ground breaking blend of folk, raga, psychedelia, Eastern and Modal sounds that has remained unsung for decades. While his debut album for Vanguard, Rainy Day Raga, has been reissued several times on LP and CD, this album (his sophomore effort), has remained an obscure and hard to find vinyl relic. Carefully re-mastered from the original tapes, guitar scholar Glenn Jones recently interviewed Peter Walker for hours and has written a book-deep essay for the CD and LP liner notes that detail Walker’s association with an incredible cross-section of 1960’s counter-culture icons including LSD guru Timothy Leary (Walker personally provided “the soundtrack” to many a trip), he studied raga music with Ali Akbar Khan, and like his close friend Sandy Bull, Walker worked on a fusion of Western and Eastern sounds. Jim Pepper plays flute on Second Poem (he also recorded with The Fugs and Don Cherry), other accompaniment to Walker’s guitar, Sarod and Sitar playing includes violin, organ, tablas, and tamboura. This is true “acid folk” as interesting, progressive, and memorable as fellow 1960’s world travelers Robbie Basho, Davy Graham, and the Incredible String Band.

File Under: Psych, Folk, Guitar, Raga
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Various: Danse Sacrale (Cacophonic) LP/CD
The roots of Electronic Dance Music (EDM) by definition. An unlikely combination of early recordings by international electronic and avant-garde composers as well as infrequent collaborators retrospectively unified by their commitment to the musical enhancement of 20th Century ballet and the evolution of modern dance. Presenting key exponents of the musique concrete and tape music movements alongside masters of the early electric sound synthesisers, as well as pre/anti-electronic instrument designers with non-conformist and microtonal composers, Danse Sacrale reveals a broad range of truly revolutionary musical and academic advancements which found an improbable, sporadic and vibrant creative outlet via one of Europe’s proudest and sacred cultural institutions. Featuring composers names such as Pierre Henry, Lasry-Baschet, Igor Wakhevitch, Henk Badings, Jean-Claude Vannier and Remi Gassman alongside choreographers like Béjart, Ballancine and Yvonne Georgi, Danse Sacrale unites the unanimously lauded and the relatively unknown with some of their earliest and underexposed inhibited achievements. These rare and remastered compositions provide a concise retrospective of a previously undocumented global phenomena and an unconferred global synergy that formed the true foundations of electronic dance music and changed the perceptions of modern music and dance culture in the stern face of adversity and tradition.

File Under: Electronic, Avant-Garde, Modern Dance
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…..used goodies…..

Aethenor: Faking Gold & Murder (VHF) LP
Aethenor: Betimes Black Cloudmass (VHF) LP
Aethenor: En Form For Bla (VHF) LP
Aethenor: Deep in Ocean Sunk The Lamp of Light (VHF) LP
Boris: Amplifier Worship (Southern Lord) LP
Boris: Pink (Southern Lord) LP
Boris: Rainbow (Inoxia) LP
Boris w/ Merzbow: Rock Dream (Southern Lord) LP
Boris w/ Sunn o))): Altar (Southern Lord) LP
Burial Chamber Trio: WVRM (Southern Lord) 10″
Burial Chamber Trio: s/t (Southern Lord) LP
Circle: Katapult (No Quarter) LP
Earth: Angels of Darkness… (Southern Lord) LP
Jesu/Eluvium: split (Hydrahead) LP
KTL: i (Aurora Borealis) LP
KTL: II (Thrill Jockey) LP
KTL: III (Editions Mego) LP
KTL: V (Editions Mego) LP
KTL: Live in Krems (Editions Mego) LP
Murcof: Cosmos (Leaf) LP
Murcof: Versailles Sessions (Leaf) LP
Om: Pilgrimage (Southern Lord) LP
Om: Conference of Birds (Holy Mountain) LP
Om: Variations on a Theme (Holy Mountain) LP
Om: Live at Jerusalem (Southern Lord) LP
Om: Conference Live (Important) LP
Om: God is Good (Drag City) LP
Sunn o))): Domkirke (Southern Lord) LP
Sunn o))): Monoliths & Dimensions (Southern Lord) LP
Sunn o))): Oracle (Southern Lord) LP
Z’ev: As/If/When (Sub Rosa) LP
Z’ev: Outer Bounds of Sound (Noiseville) LP

…..restocks…..

13th Floor Elevators: Psychedelic Sounds of (Internation Artists) LP
13th Floor Elevators: Easter Everywhere (Charly) LP
Arcade Fire: Funeral (Merge) LP
Bill Callahan: Dream River (Drag City) LP
Nick Cave: Push The Sky Away (Bad Seeds) LP
Bobby Charles: s/t (Light in the Attic) LP
Converge: Jane Doe (Deathwish) LP
D’Angelo: Voodoo (Modern Classics) LP
Dark: Round the Edges (Machu Picchu) LP
Darkthrone: Hate Them (Peaceville) LP
Darkthrone: Soulside Journey (Peaceville) LP
Darkthrone: Transilvanian Hunger (Peaceville) LP
Darkthrone: Under a Funeral Moon (Peaceville) LP
Miles Davis: Bitches Brew (Music on Vinyl) LP
Death Cab For Cutie: Transatlanticism (Barsuk) LP
Digable Planets: Blowout Comb (Modern Classics) LP
DJ Shadow: Endtroducing (Mo Wax) LP
Grizzly Bear: Shields (Warp) LP
Guru Guru: s/t (Ohr) LP
Hawkwind: In Search of Space (Rock Classics) LP
Etta James: At Last (Wax Time) LP
Jerusalem In My Heart: Mo7it Al-Mo7it (Constellation) LP
Jurassic 5: Quality Control (Universal) LP
The Knife: Silent Shout (Mute) LP
Lemonheads: It’s a Shame About Ray (Plain) LP
Mastodon: Call of the Mastodon (Relapse) LP
Ministry: The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste (Music on Vinyl) LP
Modest Mouse: Moon & Antarctica (Epic) LP
Modest Mouse: Good News… (Epic) LP
Angel Olsen: Burn Your Fire For No Witness (Jagjaguwar) LP
Queens of the Stone Age: Era Vulgaris (Ipecac) 3×10″
Queens of the Stones Age: Lullabies to Paralyze (Music on Vinyl) LP
Refused: Shape of Punk to Come (Epitaph) LP
Replacements: All Shook Down (ORG) LP
Rodriguez: Cold Fact (Light in the Attic) LP
Sunn o))): Black One (Southern Lord) LP
Tinariwen: Emmaar (Anti) LP
Weed: Deserve (Couple Skate) LP
Yamantaka // Sonic Titan: Uzu (Paper Bag) LP
Yamantaka // Sonic Titan: s/t (Paper Bag) LP

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…..news letter #627 – older…..

As usual, loads last week, so not so much this week, but some killer jamz anyway. Besides, it lets you catch up on all the stuff you still didn’t buy from last week anyway. And oh so much killer wax last week!!!

Thanks to all who came out for the Wyrd Distro launch on Saturday. Good times were hopefully had by all. I know we had a blast.

…..pick of the week…..

sunn ulver

Sunn o))) & Ulver: Terrestrials (Southern Lord) LP/CD
Now in on vinyl! “The recent news that Sunn O))) and Ulver, the, respectively, US and Norwegian pioneers of experimental metal, had collaborated on a new album has augured extremely well for the beginning of 2014. Terrestrials is the result of a nocturnal recording session, following Sunn O)))’s set at the 2008 Øya festival, at Ulver’s Crystal Canyon studio. The bands recorded three “live in improvisation” pieces, which were then worked on by Ulver, with the occasional help of Sunn O))) man Stephen O’Malley, who says: “I remember the vibe in the room back then was more raga than it was rock. And despite the fact that the walls were literally shaking from volume, it was actually quite a blissed out, psychedelic session. I wanted to preserve that vibe in the final mix.” Daniel O’Sullivan, prolific collaborator, one half of Grumbling Fur and current Ulver member, adds: “You know that opening sequence of Koyaanisqatsi, where the desolate desert landscapes, waves and cloud formations roll over the screen accompanied by deep male chanting and organ ostinatos. That’s where we were.””

File Under: Doom, Metal, Drone
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…..new arrivals…..

halloweenJohn Carpenter: Halloween OST (Mondo) LP
Back in stock! In celebration of its 35th anniversary, Mondo Records is pleased to present the soundtrack to John Carpenter’s Halloween, one of the most influential and beloved film soundtracks of all time. This release features the most comprehensive version of the soundtrack, never before released on vinyl, cut at 45RPM for the best possible sound quality. Limited edition 180g 2LP-sethoused in deluxe gatefold jacket with artwork by Phantom City Creative. “I had composed and performed the musical scores for my first two features, Dark Star and Assault on Precinct 13, as well as many student films. I was the fastest and cheapest I could get. My major influences as a composer were Bernard Herrmann and Ennio Morricone (who I had the opportunity to work with on The Thing). Hermann’s ability to create an imposing, powerful score with limited orchestra means, using the basic sound of a particular instrument, high strings or low bass, was impressive. His score for Psycho, the film that inspired Halloween, was primarily all string instruments. “With Herrmann and Morricone in mind, the scoring for Halloween began in late June at Sound Arts Studios, then a small brick building in an alley in central Los Angeles. Dan Wyman was my creative consultant. I had worked with him in 1976 on the music for Assault. He programmed the synthesizers, oversaw the recording of my frequently imperfect performances, and often joined me to perform a difficult line or speed-up the seemingly never ending process of overdubbing one instrument at a time. I have to credit Dan as Halloween’s musical co-producer. His fine taste and musicianship polished up the edges of an already minimalistic, rhythm-inspired score. We were working in what I call the “double-blind” mode in 1978, which simply means that the music was composed and performed in the studio, on the spot, without reference or synchronization to the actual picture. recently, my association with Alan Howarth has led me to a synchronized video-tape system, a sort of “play it to the TV” approach. There is a point in making a movie when you experience the final result. For me, it’s always when I see an interlock screening of the picture with the music. All of a sudden a new voice is added to the raw, naked-without-effects-or-music footage. The movie takes on it’s final style, and it is on this that the emotional total should be judged. Someone once told me that music, or the lack of it, can make you see better. I believe it.” – John Carpenter

File Under: OST, Horror, Mondo
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bobbycharles

Bobby Charles: s/t (Light in the Attic) LP
Bobby Charles pioneered the musical genre known as “swamp rock” – he wrote the early rock n roll classic “See You Later, Alligator” (popularized by Bill Haley & the Comets). But the main reason that musicians far and wide sing his praises (and cover his songs) is for Bobby’s 1972 self-titled album released on Bearsville. Despite numerous CD reissues through the years, this is the first time in decades that the seminal album has appeared in its original vinyl LP format. A virtual who’s who of classic “roots” rock, the album features 10 Bobby Charles classics supported by the likes of Rick Danko, Levon Helm, Garth Hudson, and Richard Manuel of The Band, long time Neil Young sidekick Ben Keith, Bob Dylan’s former running mate Bob Neuwirth, session maverick Amos Garrett, the esteemed Dr. John, Geoff Muldaur and several others. But this is far from an all-star jam session – this is an ensemble record in the truest sense of the word – with each musician simply supporting the Louisiana vibe that flows thru the 10 song collection of country, blues, R&B, and folk that all have that distinctive Bobby Charles signature sound. Album also includes the slow burner “Street People” as featured on Country Funk 1969-1975, Volume 1. Perhaps Dr. John said it best “I think all of Bobby’s songs have something to offer at all times, for all people.”

 File Under: Swamp Rock, Roots Rock
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darksideDarkside: s/t ep (Wordsandsound) 10”
Super limited golden picture disc version with handstickered slightly oversized matte labels and 25×25 cm poster inlay of the CS008 original EP. Super rare one time reprint of the deleted CS008 from 2011/2012 which was Darkside´s  first ever release from the same year. An extremely rare piece with 3 songs NOT on the album that we found now. The EP begins innocently enough. But as you progress into the tracks, entitled “A1,” “A2,” and “A3,” it feels like searching for pleasure where you know you shouldn’t. The beat in this clandestine affair has just enough restraint. By the time Darkside concludes, you know the catharsis is worth the sin.

File Under: Electronic, Nicolas Jaar
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dm1Dead Moon: In The Graveyard (M’Lady) CD
Available worldwide for the first time ever on compact disc, M’lady’s Records is extremely excited to announce the reissue of Dead Moon’s debut album classic, In the Graveyard. Highly sought by rock ‘n’ roll maniacs around the globe for its breathtaking songwriting and attitude, it’s also the first release in M’lady’s 2014 reissue series documenting many different timeless albums issued by Fred & Toody Cole (also of the Rats and Pierced Arrows). This record will NOT let you go once it’s made its way into your mind: every song is a classic, almost intimidating in its poise and strength. For the uninitiated, Dead Moon come on almost like a hybrid of the most exciting elements of Love, AC/DC, the Weeds, and the Elevators. No joke. The group are also famous for operating extremely DIY, down to the recording and mastering of their albums (famously cut on the very same lathe that cut “Louie Louie” by the Kingsmen!). Highly recommended for everyone with a beating heart and two ears.

File Under: Punk, Rats, Pierced Arrows
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dm2Dead Moon: Unknown Passage (M’Lady) CD
This is the album that’s got “Dead Moon Night”, “54//40 or Fight”, and another half-dozen classics beloved by Dead Moon enthusiasts. Unknown Passage was reissued on LP by our comrades at the estimable Mississippi Records in 2011, and M’Lady’s teamed up with them to get this compact disc edition out to you, the bedroom rebel, the night time revolutionary, the romantic with a wake of destruction in your path.

File Under: Punk, Rats, Pierced Arrows
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dm3Dead Moon: Defiance (M’Lady) CD
This is the album that’s got “Johnny’s Got a Gun”, “Dagger Moon”, “Walking On My Grave”, “Dagger Moon”, and another half-dozen classics beloved by Dead Moon enthusiasts. Defiance was reissued on LP by our comrades at the estimable Mississippi Records in 2011, and M’Lady’s teamed up with them to get this compact disc edition out to you, the bedroom rebel,the night time revolutionary, the romantic with a wake of destruction in your path. Also highly recommended for everyone with a beating heart and two ears.

File Under: Punk, Rats, Pierced Arrows

ironclaw

Iron Claw: s/t (Lion) LP
“Sixteen pulverizingly heavy early masterpieces of dirty doom metal, this is a can’t miss package for all fans of heavy psych, proto-metal and the early days of doom rock. The whole album is just breathtaking.” – The Ripple Effect. Official heavy duty double album of early 70s Scottish underground heavy rock from Iron Claw, a band who were stomping around the UK with the likes of Black Sabbath, Hackensack, Pink Fairies, Juicy Lucy and others, but who never released a proper album. Iron Claw started their career in 1970 as (more or less) the world’s first Black Sabbath tribute band: they incorporated the entire first Black Sabbath LP and single into their live set! And as it happens, it was Iron Claw bassist Alex Wilson who unearthed the oldest known concert recording of Black Sabbath, a 1969 gig recorded by Wilson in Dumfries, Scotland! As time progressed, Iron Claw’s live sets started to include many originals, as well as the customary Sabbath covers. This collection of sixteen original studio tracks documents Iron Claw’s existence from 1970 thru 1974 and includes extensive liner notes, lyrics and photos. For fans of Tear Gas, Leaf Hound, Jerusalem, Ancient Grease, Toad, Incredible Hog, Elias Hulk!

File Under: Metal, Heavy Psych, Doom
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johannsson

Johan Johannsson: McCannick (Milan) LP
McCanick is a 2013 American crime-drama mystery film directed by Josh C. Waller. It stars David Morse, Mike Vogel, Trevor Morgan, Ciarán Hinds, and Cory Monteith. This was Cory Monteith’s last role before his sudden death in July 2013. The film tells the story of Eugene “Mack” McCanick (David Morse), a detective who, along with his partner Floyd Intrator (Mike Vogel), hunts down a young criminal named Simon Weeks (Cory Monteith) who was just released from prison. The beautiful, dark and evocative score was written by acclaimed composer and artist Jóhann Jóhannsson. The music enhances the suspense and tension present throughout this exciting thriller. McCanick marks the first collaboration between Milan Records and Jóhann Jóhannsson.

 File Under: OST, Ambient, Drone
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madmen

Mad Men on the Rocks OST (Music on Vinyl) LP
Mad Men, based around the trials and tribulations of a New York ad agency in the ’60s, is considered one of the greatest TV shows of all time. The drama series stands as a colossus of contemporary television with two BAFTAS, three Golden Globes and no less than fifteen Emmys to its name. David Carbonara’s winning mix of contemporary score and period jazz delivers a distinctive sound that has become a part of the series as much as the timeless visuals and characters. Mad Men On The Rocks is anchored by “A Beautiful Mine,” RJD2’s original theme to go along with 22 further musical moments from the acclaimed series. Limited edition gatefold 180g vinyl with poster. First pressing comes on red colored vinyl and is limited to 1500 copies.

File Under: OST
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olsen

Angel Olsen: Burn Your Fire For No Witness (Jagjaguwar) LP
Many of the superlatives describing Angel Olsen refer to how seemingly little it takes for her to leave an audience speechless, even spellbound. But Olsen has never been as timid as those descriptors imply, and the noisy, fiery hints in her earlier work find a fuller expression on her newest LP, Burn Your Fire for No Witness. Here, Olsen sings with full-throated exultation, admonition, and bold, expressive melody. Also, with the help of producer John Congleton, her music now crackles with a churning, rumbling low end and a brighter energy. Angel Olsen began singing as a young girl in St. Louis, where she explored the remarkable range of her voice and the places it could take her songwriting. This act of meaning-making recurs as a theme throughout the album, as the sublimating response to the power of negativity. In the song, “Stars,” for example, Olsen wishes to “have the voice of everything” and in a moment of hatefulness and hurt realizes that the strength of fury results in the power she had been seeking all along. Thankfully for us, Olsen has decided to channel a lot of this newfound power into the ethereal, hypnotic performances of her new and revealing songs, sharing with us the full grace and beauty of her transformative moments.

File Under: Rock, Folk, Indie
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puscifer

Puscifer: What is? (Puscifer) LP
Puscifer answers the enduring question of what exactly Puscifer is with a new DVD release titled “What Is…”, which is set for release via Puscifer Entertainment. This is the accompanying LP soundtrack. The two-hour sketch comedy show-meets-concert film builds upon and punctuates the multimedia format of the band’s live performances with skits from the stable of Puscifer characters such as Billy D, Hildy and Major Douche woven into the performance footage of the Maynard James Keenan led quintet. “Being surrounded by so many talented and creative people is an endless source of inspiration. This film only scratches the surface of how deep our proverbial rabbit hole goes. ‘What Is…’ Puscifer is meant to conjure as many questions as it answers,” explained Maynard James Keenan. Puscifer’s concerts have been praised for their out-of-the-box take on what a live performance can be, with the Orange County Register saying “the production matters as much as the music” and describing the event as “a thought-provoking, senses-jabbing statement on a variety of topics.” The Dallas Morning News called the evening “an idiosyncratic experience” while the Austin Chronicle referred to the concert as a “multimedia prop dramed”.

 File Under: Rock, Industrial, Tool, Live
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selda

Selda: s/t (Pharaway Sounds) LP/CD
Imagine if Julia Child had marched against Vietnam, stood on the steps of the Pentagon, and placed a flower in a gun barrel. Selda Bağcan’s later records have that same cross of easygoing motherly warmth and righteous anger. This 1979 album (technically her fourth, although six of these songs were also released on her third), was recorded when Turkey was at its most politically polarized. Selda was sentenced to a total of over 500 years in prison right about the time it came out. A pile of acoustic guitars and bağlamas all going off at once under a blanket of reverb, with lyrics about blood, wood, mountains, families, and desperate troubles, so it’s a thick squirt for a folk album. Selda’s voice can either be sultry or really surge with emotion, and when she does belt one, it’s oddly high and completely unique. Her reward was the love of Turkey’s people, but also nine trials and three prison terms from the right wing military government of the ’80s. Remastered sound, insert/booklet with liner notes.

File Under: Psych, Turkish, Anatolian
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seldaa

Selda: Vurulduk Ey Halkim Unutma Bizi (Pharaway Sounds) LP/CD
There were female Turkish folk singers before Selda Bağcan, but none whose hot-blooded voice carried such righteously angry words and none who also accompanied themselves on guitar. She began her career singing at her brothers’ Beethoven nightclub in Ankara while she went to school for physics during the day. Her first album had help from the cream of the crazy Istanbul pop scene, and cuts from the same sessions were also released on this second one in 1976. While the direction is folky overall, there’s fuzz, zooming synthesizers, and heavy flute to be found. When Selda performed the title-track in 1977 in a coastal town not far from Istanbul, her protest lyrics, though taken from an old poem, got her heckled by audience members who screamed that she should go back to Moscow. Find out why this brawny mama couldn’t be stopped by a military government that put her on trial nine times, and could call herself the bitter voice of the Turkish people. Remastered sound, insert/booklet with liner notes. 

File Under: Psych, Turkish, Anatolian
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speer

D. Charles Speer & The Helix: Double Exposure (Thrill Jockey) LP
Dave Charles Shuford (aka D. Charles Speer) grew up in Georgia, absorbing the culture and history of the American South before moving to New York in the early 90s. He quickly fell in with the experimental rock underground that has long been an undercurrent of that city’s defining spirit, most notably as a member of the long-running No Neck Blues Band. The loose and free country rock boogie of Speer’s work with the Helix derives power from the tension between these two aspects of his personality, the traditional and the exploratory. With Speer joined once again by Hans Chew (keys), Marc Orleans (pedal steel), Ted Robinson (bass), and Steve McGuirl (drums), Doubled Exposure, is their most stylistically varied yet consistent work to date, offering a full mélange of what Speer and his band have to offer. Doubled Exposure touches on many aspects of Speer’s musical menagerie, enhancing his ramblin’ tunes with the blistering psych he has explored with Rhyton to the traditional Greek melodies he delved into on Arghiledes. In the propulsive “Cretan Lords,” Speer enhances a sweeping modal blues with the bouzouki and baglamas, lending a distinctively Mediterranean flavor to rich, tremoloed stew. The ten-minute epic “Mandorla at Dawn,” achieves an incredibly dense psychedelic swirl using a stereo amp rig and live looping, a first for Speer’s studio work. The album culminates with the exuberant “Tough Soup,” with chants echoing along to the rough and tumble boogie. Speer augments the expert, eclectic musicianship of his band with a remarkable lyrical prowess, which he delivers in his trademark deadpan drawl. His rich imagistic tales take three forms throughout the album: heart songs, which are based on personal experience and emotion; visionary songs, which incorporate surrealist language and beat poetics; and research songs, which see Shuford reimagining and incorporating historical events. Doubled Exposure was immaculately recorded by Jason Meagher at the increasingly legendary Black Dirt Studios in upstate New York. D. Charles Speer and the Helix will tour throughout 2014.

File Under: Alt. Country, Country Rock, Rock
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survival

Survival: Simmer Down (Strawberry Rain) LP
While bands like Ofege and BLO have slowly becomes household names for collectors, there are still many Nigerian bands and albums that have remained unknown in most circles. Survival’s lone effort Simmer Down is one of those albums. Primarily an Afro Rock album, it contains psychedelic, soul, afrobeat, funky and progressive moments, all done in a raw nature with unpolished mixes and an underlying consistency that doesn’t lose the listener. Songs are filled with fuzz guitar solos, flute solos, and organ solos. Recorded by a group of talented High School students at the legendary ARC studio owned by ex-CREAM drummer Ginger Baker, this album seems to have remained under the radar until now. Filled with complete notes by the band with photos and history, including a story detailing a battle against OFEGE at the infamous “Space Funk” competition. A true gem from Nigeria, and one you won’t find an original of anytime soon.

File Under: Psych, AfroRock, Soul
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vanay

Laurence Vanay: Evening Colours (Lion) LP
Laurence Vanay is the pseudonym for Jacqueline Thibault, wife of music producer and musician Laurent Thibault of Magma. This marks the first ever reissue of her second album, originally released twice in 1975 – first as a version on Galloway credited to fictitious English band Gateway, and once as a CAM label library LP – and incredibly rare in both incarnations. Evening Colors is a singular and nearly peerless record – completely out of time, and completely unlike anything else to this day. The record is largely all instrumental, with gorgeous keyboards of many types (Hammond, Fender Rhodes, etc.), acoustic and electric guitar, even a little Zeuhl bass. Shimmering, dewy, mysterious, deeply emotional examples of melancholic musical beguilement; anyone with an affinity for golden age 4AD bands like the Cocteau Twins or Dead Can Dance will find much to love here. A devastating high-fashion follow-up to the legendary Galaxies.

File Under: Prog, Magma
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…..restocks…..

Andrew Bird: I Want To See Pulaski At Night (Grimsey) LP
Blue Phantom: Distortions (AMS) LP
Deafheaven: Sunbather (Deathwish) LP
Fruit Bats: Mouthfuls (Jealous Butcher) LP
Peter Gutteridge: Pure (540) LP
Haxan Cloak: s/t (Aurora Borealis) LP
Thee Headcoats: Headcoatitude (Gear Fab) LP
Nicolas Jaar: Space is Only Noise (Circus Company) LP
Mark Lanegan: Has God Seen My Shadow? (Light in the Attic) Box
Cliff Martinez: Only God Forgives (Milan) LP
Wim Mertens: Maximizing the Audience (Music on Vinyl) LP
Moon Duo: Circles (Sacred Bones) LP
Vampire Weekend: Modern Vampires of the City (XL) LP
Vangelis: Blade Runner OST (Audio Fidelity) LP
Kurt Vile: Wakin’ On A Pretty Daze (Matador) LP
Various: Cosmic Machine (Because) LP
Various: Eccentric Soul: Twinight’s Lunar Rotation (Numero) LP

 

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