If you are unaware, Record Store Day is just a couple days more than 2 weeks away! Orders have been placed, some stuff has even started to arrive already and we are working away to make this year’s RSD the best one yet. And to make it awesome we’ve drummed up something extra special this year… while we are still working out the final details of the draw, I can tell you that on RSD, April 19th, someone will be going home with a FREE REGA RP1! That’s right, come down, buy some swag and have a chance to win a $500 turntable. Not a bad deal right?
…..pick of the week…..
Eric Holm: Andøya (Subtext) LP
Subtext presents the debut album from the London-based American electronic musician Eric Holm. The release brings together a collection of recordings produced on the Arctic island of Andøya, an outpost 300 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle. Developed entirely from a single contact mic recording from a remote telegraph pole that connects the island’s array of military listening stations, Holm crafts a detailed expansion of this solitary sonic moment, shaping the sound into an immersive meditation on man, nature and isolation. The telegraph pole connected to a seemingly endless network of traversing lines harnesses the dense ambiance of the landscape, both absorbing and distilling the essence of Andøya’s harsh beatific character, and considers the position of microphone as witness within a vast cycle of physical transition and terrestrial flux. The release sonically frames Holm’s adept technical crafting of his source material, bringing to mind both the glacial recordings of Chris Watson and the expansive mechanized textures of classic Chain Reaction.
File Under: Ambient, Electronic, Field Recordings, Chain Reaction
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…..new arrivals…..
Avey Tare’s Slasher Flicks: Enter the Slasher House (Domino) LP
Slasher Flicks by name alone is not what it appears to be. Scrambled horror film soundtracks? Not even remotely. A bunch of East Coasters making their quintessential LA album? No, more like escape from LA, say guitar-wielding lead singer Avey Tare (of Animal Collective), keyboard player and singer Angel Deradoorian (of Dirty Projectors, Deradoorian), and drummer Jeremy Hyman (of Ponytail, Dan Deacon). If LA is an environment to get lost in, as they claim, this group sewing roots in SoCal have become lost in the best way: relocating and reinventing sounds they’re already skilled in making, sounds that as Avey Tare says, are not only regionally unrestricted but that “come from a place that’s not human.” Having composed the bones of these eight songs on acoustic guitar, Avey Tare invited Deradoorian to create melodic lines to flesh them out. Then, enter Hyman, whose backgrounds in painting and music proved his rare combo of flexibility and acuity, “free but structured.” Uniquely its own “jazz power trio,” Slasher Flicks produced and recorded the songs live at the Lair studio using only minimal overdubs; the live sound being key to Enter The Slasher Flicks’ spooky dynamism.
File Under: Indie, Animal Collective
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Brothers & Sisters: Dylan’s Gospel (Light in the Attic) LP
Of all the great back catalogs in the history of rock, Bob Dylan’s is among the most covered, his acolytes ranging from The Byrds to Adele via Manfred Mann and Guns N’ Roses. But something tells us you haven’t heard anything quite like Dylan’s Gospel by The Brothers and Sisters, a choir of Los Angeles session singers brought gloriously to the fore for a very special, one-off record. Originally released in 1969 on Ode Records, this rare and sought-after album finds the California collective covering a clutch of Dylan classics in the era’s revolutionary gospel style. Produced by Lou Adler, soon to work his magic on Carole King’s mega-successful Tapestry, and arranged by Gene Page, noted for his work for Motown, the performers were largely unknown, but many went on to find great acclaim. Merry Clayton, the powerhouse singer best known for sparring with Mick Jagger on Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter” (and star of the recent documentary 20 Feet from Stardom), appears here, as does Edna Wright of The Honeycones and Gloria Jones who recorded the original version of “Tainted Love” in 1965. The cast of 27 singers also includes Ruby Johnson, Shirley Matthews, Clydie King, Patrice Holloway, Julia Tillman and more. The tracklist includes some of the best-loved Dylan songs from the singer songwriter’s most productive decade, including “Lay Lady Lay”, “All Along The Watchtower”, “My Back Pages” and “Just Like A Woman”. The genesis of the project was Lou Adler, the music business visionary who staged the legendary Monterey International Pop Festival. He imagined a project that combined the songs of Dylan with L.A.‘s most sought after session singers, most of which began their singing in the Baptist churches of South Los Angeles. “Listening to Dylan’s songs, I felt there was a gospel-like feel to them, both spiritually and lyrically,” Adler says in the liner notes. “So those two ideas, to work with these singers and to explore that side of Dylan – came together.” Recording sessions at Sound Recorders Studios in Hollywood were a four-day party, with food, drink and far more musicians than were ordered, many of the singers bringing along cousins, mothers, partners and more. Carole King came to hear, as did Peggy Lipton and Papa John Phillips. It was a rock ‘n’ roll version of a gospel church. “Lou just put on a big, crazy party,” remembers Edna Wright. “He had all these people together, all this raw talent. And we were there for nothing but the love of singing.” Presented in this long-overdue reissue is an often-overlooked album and a must for Dylan fans. The word of Dylan has rarely sounded so stirring.
File Under: Folk, Gospel, Dylan
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Peter Brotzmann: For Adolphe Sax (Cien Fuegos) LP
“This is the one that started it all — German tenor saxophonist Peter Brötzmann’s first album in a long career that would spawn many, many more recordings in the years to come. Recorded with the rhythm section of bassist Peter Kowald and drummer Sven-Åke Johansson, this is intense, unrelenting free-jazz with little in the way of clear structure or melody… this is music that gets by on force and pure energy, rather than polite tunes or other musical decorum. Apart from a few brief moments of quiet during ‘Sanity,’ the second track, this stuff just doesn’t quit, with Brötzmann’s consistently abrasive, high-pitched wailing leading the charge and the other two members stirring up a pretty good ruckus themselves (Kowald, especially, gets in a good sting-sawing bass solo on ‘Morning Glory’).” –All Music Guide; pressed on 180 gram vinyl. Recorded by Günter Schütte, 1967, in Wuppertal. Peter Brötzmann (tenor & baritone saxophone); Peter Kowald (double bass); Sven-Åke Johansson (drums).
File Under: Free Jazz
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John Cage: Early Electronic and Tape Music (Sub Rosa) LP
“I believe the use of noise to make music will continue and increase until we reach a music produced through the aid of electrical instruments which will make available for musical purposes any and all sounds that can be heard.” –John Cage, 1937. “Although John Cage occasionally worked in large, sophisticated studios — for example, when he composed ‘Fontana Mix’ in 1958 — his approach to electronic and tape music was often uncomplicated, makeshift, and pragmatic, employing simple tabletop devices: tape machines, phonograph cartridges, contact microphones, record players, portable radios, etc. He developed a soundworld that was utterly new, radical and demanding. It heralded the age of the loudspeaker, mass communication and Marshall McLuhan’s ‘global village.’ The hiss, crackle and hum of electronic circuits, and the disembodied sounds, snatched by radio from the ether, spoke of the 20th century. Langham Research Centre works within the tradition firmly established by Cage, using resources that would have been available to him. For the realization of Cartridge Music, moving iron phonograph pickups were sourced and restored. These have a knurled screw designed to hold a steel phonograph needle and, in the piece, other objects are inserted and amplified: pieces of wire, toothpicks, paperclips, etc. The realization of ‘Fontana Mix’ includes the individual mono tracks from Cage’s original tapes created in 1958. These are played using open-reel tape machines. These practices ensure we work within the limitations that Cage experienced and enable us to get close to the soundworld he inhabited.” –Robert Worby, Langham Research Centre
File Under: Early Electronic, Avant Garde
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Cloud Nothings: Here & Nowhere Else (Carpark) LP/CD
On their third full-length, Cleveland-bred outfit Cloud Nothings give joy a hard, sharp edge. “I was feeling pretty good about everything so I just made stuff that made me happy,” says founding member and mild-mannered chief songwriter Dylan Baldi of Here and Nowhere Else. “I had nothing to be angry about really so the approach was more positive and less ‘fuck everything.’ I just sat down and played until I found something that I like, because I was finally in a position to do that.”Utilizing every possible opportunity to write while on the road for 18 consecutive months following the release of 2012’s Attack on Memory, Baldi presented an album’s worth of new material to his bandmates with just days before they’d enter the studio with esteemed producer John Congleton. “I’m pretty sure every song was written in a different country,” he says. “It’s the product of only having a couple of minutes here and there.” But Cloud Nothings would enjoy a full week with Congleton at Water Music in Hoboken, New Jersey, followed by three days of mixing at his own studio in Dallas shortly thereafter. The result is Cloud Nothings, refined: impossibly melodic, white-knuckle noise-rock that shimmers with sumptuous detail, from Baldi’s lone, corkscrewing guitar to his dramatically improved singing to bassist TJ Duke’s piledriving bass lines and drummer Jayson Gerycz’s volcanic fills.
File Under: Indie Rock
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Charles Cohen: A Retrospective (Morphine) 2CD
Double CD compilation of those enchanting Charles Cohen vinyl releases + two unreleased recordings. Packaged in a rigid double CD box with booklet. Philadelphia’s Charles Cohen, free-jazz improviser and synth composer, has managed to remain almost unknown outside of his local improv scene for decades. This retrospective of his early works, all recorded between 1976-1989, testify to the understated genius of his work. Fleeting between polyrhythmic cosmic patterns, gravity-tarred bleeps and noise, outer-worldly melodies, all executed with unfathomable astuteness and grace, this collection showcases the breadth of this idiosyncratic electronic musician. One of the few people to master the rare Buchla Music Easel, his work since the 1970s has focused almost exclusively on this instrument. With his first solo European tour hypnotizing audiences in early 2014, his work is finally reaching a wider audience, enchanted by his mesmerizing yet deeply focused approach. His roaming, raw synths, rhythmic intensity and immersive drones have resonated with uncanny familiarity for a younger generation of electronic experimentalists. This double CD release combines all three LPs released on Morphosis’ Morphine Records in 2013, excavated from Cohen’s archives; “The Middle Distance” featuring his early works from the Philadelphia’s “No Man’s Land” art installment, the University Of Texas in El Paso and The Painted Bride Art Center performances as well as “Dance of the Spiritcatchers,” originally issued in 1980 on Zero Records; “Group Motion,” a live recording from a dance theater piece in Philadelphia of the same name and “Generator,” a live recording from Generator Sound Art Gallery in NYC (featuring the Music Easel and the even rarer Buchla 700 series, apparently the only two known recordings of this instrument ever formally released); and Music for Dance and Theater, a further collection containing some of Cohen’s collaborations and performances in theater pieces and art installations by Jeff Cain and Tonio Guerra, amongst others. This selection includes two previously-unreleased tracks “Conundrums” and “Slow Blue and Horizontal.” Each track has Cohen’s immediately captivating hallmark, equal parts playful and mysterious. A stunning retrospective, unearthing a wealth of truly beautiful material.
File Under: Early Electronic, “Dance” Music
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Dead Fader: Blood Forest (Robotic Elephant) LP
Heavyweight pressing with digital download code. Limited to 300 copies. In the wake of 2012’s Work It, No, Dead Fader returns with not one, but two full-length releases. The dual release format celebrates the two distinct strains of Cohen’s output. Most recognized for his sonic extremity, previous Dead Fader work has focused on heavy distortion, melding noise with infectious dancefloor sensibility. Blood Forest redresses the balance, introducing bittersweet textures and lush, detuned synth melodies. Neoclassical influences are fragmented and reinvented, sprinkled with elements of electronic classics such as Boards Of Canada. Cohen’s masterful battle between chaos and control, tension and release provokes all the right emotional responses, without giving it away too easily.
File Under: Electronic, Techno
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Drones: Miller’s Daughter (Bang) LP
The Drones’ The Miller’s Daughter original vinyl edition, released in 2005, reached insane prices on the internet due to the existence of only 500 hand-numbered copies. In order to celebrate the 10th anniversary of this record release, and since this was originally released in a very limited edition on vinyl back in the day, Bang! Records are more than happy to announce the reissue of this Drones gem which included a cover of John Lennon’s “Well Well Well,” which was only available on the original vinyl pressing. Previously-unseen pics and revised artwork make it a dream-come-true for fans of The Drones. Make sure you don’t miss it this time. Housed in a gatefold sleeve.
File Under: Indie Rock, Killer Jamz
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Geinoh Yamashirogumi: Ecophony Rinne (Victor) LP
“Published in 1986, Ecophony Rinne is the band’s ninth album and the first work in a mysterious trilogy. Split into four parts dealing with the different life cycles, this masterpiece will take you on a journey through space and time. The sound, unique and timeless, depicts the band itself.”
File Under: Prog, Neoclassical, Percussion
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Philip Glass: Solo Piano (Music on Vinyl) LP
180 Gram audiophile vinyl. With Solo Piano, Glass presents himself ‘unplugged’ – no electronic keyboards or synthesizers, and no overdubs, either – just solo piano. ‘Metamorphosis’ was written in 1988 and takes its name from a play based on Kafka’s short story. Its second track, ‘Metamorphosis Two’, formed the basis of one of the main musical themes in the film ‘The Hours’. It is also the song that the American rock band Pearl Jam uses as their introduction music to concerts. ‘Mad Rush’ was written for the occasion of the Dalai Lama’s first visit in New York City. ‘Wichita Vortex Sutra’ is the result of a chance meeting between two long-time friends, Glass and poet Allen Ginsberg, in a bookstore in the East Village. ‘We decided on the spot to do something together, reached for one of Allen’s books, and chose the poem ‘Wichita Vortex Sutra’.
File Under: Classical, Minimalism, Piano
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Jerry Goldsmith: The Omen OST (Mondo) LP
Mondo Records is pleased to present Jerry Goldsmith’s Oscar award winning original motion picture soundtrack to the 1976 Richard Donner horror film The Omen. Remastered by James Plotkin, this one time vinyl pressing features the most comprehensive version of the soundtrack ever released on the format with all new artwork by Phantom City Creative focusing on the cemetery sequence and the reveal of the contents of the two graves. Limited edition 180g LP in deluxe gatefold jacket.
File Under: OST, Horror OST
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Horseback: Piedmont Apocrypha (3 Lobed) LP
“I was born to lose; I won’t have this form forever.” so begins Horseback’s fifth full-length studio record, with an incantation that could very well serve as the shapeshifting band’s raison d’être. Since before 2007, Horseback has served as a musical vehicle for multi-instrumentalist Jenks Miller (also of Mount Moriah and various solo outfits), chronicling his prolific, exuberant, and at times altogether whimsical investigation of heavy music(s) and their relationship with western mysticism. Thus far, horseback has embodied (and shed) many forms, from the serene, fuzzed-out, near neo-classical bliss of Impale Golden Horn, to the caustic, poisoned noisescapes of Forbidden Planet, to the crushing psych-rock (black metal? you tell us!) found on the Invisible Mountain and Half Blood. While genre tags are difficult with shape-shifting bands like Horseback, some common threads are readily apparent across each of these records: regardless of the style, there’s some otherworldly, hypnotic quality in the music, conjured by ritualistic repetition and a layered depth in the instrumental arrangements. And each record demonstrates an unmistakable internal logic, its own a self-contained universe of sound. Some have referred to horseback records as riddles to be solved: once you crack the code, that sonic universe is yours to explore. Musically, Piedmont Apocrypha gestures to the pastoral hues of Impale Golden Horn, but there’s a structured quality to the tracks here that fits in line with Horseback’s “rock” records. Make no mistake: this is a heavy record, but in the way Comus’ First Utterance is heavy, or in the way Amon Düül’s Phallus Dei is heavy. It is that patient, smoke-clogged, ritualistic vibe, solemn with the noticeable presence of layered organ and harmonium tones (perhaps a subtle nod to Terry Riley or even Olivier Messiaen). Indeed, for all its far-reaching strangeness, Piedmont Apocrypha may be the most approachable Horseback record yet: harsh vocals are used sparingly, sung (and otherwise intelligible) vocals are relatively prominent, and paint-peeling, high-frequency noise is almost entirely absent. As one might expect from its title, this record is also heavy with a sense of place. Thematically, it takes on the skin-shedding revisionist history of North Carolina’s Piedmont region, a place of conflict, proud culture(s), and intertwined mythologies. The fact that both Three Lobed (Jamestown, NC) and Phil Blank (Chapel Hill, NC) are involved further emphasizes this record’s ties to the tar heel state.
File Under: Metal, Drone, Doom
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Icecross: s/t (Lion) LP
Rippers Alert: Legendary and essential shreddage on board! Seriously great raw proto-metal with a punk spirit – this is a MUST GRIP. Icecross possess a unique and dark sound, which reveals influences ranging from Black Sabbath to King Crimson to Blue Oyster Cult, all melded together to form a distinct style. Considered proto-metal by many, though they don’t achieve this with a typical smash your face approach. Icecross unleash some killer inventive guitar sounds by way of Leslie speakers combined with wild ominous bass lines, frantic drumming, spooky effects on vocals and splendid use of bow to create a perfect dark heavy guitar album. Carefully re-mastered for pristine sound that lays waste to all the bootlegs that have come before. Includes insert with liner notes, clippings and photographs and a poster featuring cover art and band photos celebrating the 40th anniversary of this classic heavy rock cult favorite. For fans of Leaf Hound, Blue Cheer, Elias Hulk, Jerusalem, Necronomicon, Incredible Hog, Dust, Pentagram, Uriah Heep, Flower Travellin’ Band and the like.
File Under: Rock, Hard Rock, Metal, Awesome
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Leaders of the New School: A Future Without a Past (Traffic) LP
“Leaders of the New School began recording their debut album late in 1989 under the watchful eye of Chuck D and the Bomb Squad. The end result was their masterful 1991 release A Future without a Past. The group’s members, Charlie Brown, Dinco D, Cut Monitor Milo, and Busta Rhymes each complement one another, mixing classic Cold Crush Brothers style routines with a ‘new school’ edge. Leaders of the New School made an impact that had them literally living up to their name. Often slept on, A Future without a Past stands as a trail blazing release due to its mix of jazz samples with fun creative story telling on top of pounding hip hop drums. The first thing that grabs you while listening to A Future without a Past is the unique delivery of the three rappers (Dinco D, Charlie Brown, and Busta Rhymes) in both lyrical content and flow. Stand out tracks such as ‘Transformers,’ ‘Sound of the Zeekers,’ ‘International Zone Coaster,’ ‘Sobb Story’ and the lead single ‘Case of the P.T.A’ all display the multi-talents of each MC and how they bounced off each other’s style. ‘Feminine Fatt’ and ‘My Ding a Ling’ showed the groups more playful edge, while ‘Show Me a Hero’ and ‘Teachers Don’t Teach Us Nonsense’ had the group trading rhymes in their rapid fire deliveries. With a sound so fresh and new, the production on the album rivaled what Public Enemy started and the Native Tongues finished. Often underappreciated, A Future without a Past is ’90s rap at its best and a must for any Busta Rhymes fan.”
File Under: Rap, Hip Hop
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Andrew Liles: Fast Forward Through Time (United Dairies) LP
This is the first vinyl release on Steven Stapleton’s legendary label, United Dairies, in over 20 years! Andrew Liles’ “Through Time” series is based on ideas around the concept of time, the passage of time, time-travel and also in part on the writings of John von Neumann, specifically his ideas on the self-reproducing universal constructor and his lecture “The General and Logical Theory of Automata.” This is the fourth and final part of the “Through Time” series. This LP is strictly limited to 500 copies and no Nurse With Wound/United Dairies collection is complete without it. The record is pressed on audiophile virgin 180 gram vinyl and the sleeve features beautiful front cover art by Babs Santini (aka Steven Stapleton).
File Under: Experimental, Nurse With Wound
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Millie & Andrea: Drop the Vowels (Modern Love) CD
Millie & Andrea are Miles Whittaker and Andy Stott, fellow label-mates at Modern Love who collaborated on an occasional series of 12″ releases between 2008 and 2010. They now return with Drop the Vowels, their debut album. Produced fast and loose through late 2013/early 2014, it’s an album that recalls the strict and stripped funk of Anthony Shakir as much as it does Leila’s incredible debut Like Weather, eschewing the dark aesthetic both producers are best known for in favor of something much more visceral. It’s an album borne from a love of both pop and club music, made to evoke an adrenalized, hedonistic, as well as an emotional response. Opener “GIF RIFF” brings to life a gamelan edit stripped bare before the over-compressed “Stay Ugly” breaks out with a tumbling, broken arrangement situated somewhere between Richard D. James and Jai Paul. “Temper Tantrum” and “Spectral Source” follow, versions of tracks originally released on the second and third Daphne EPs respectively, the former a rugged rave anthem tempered by blue strings, the latter a proper dancefloor destroyer recalling Shake’s mighty “Madmen.” “Corrosive” flits between a fibrillating, arpeggiated steppers’ rhythm and a brutal jungle breakdown, while “Drop the Vowels” further explores and strips bare bass & drums before the slow but jacking warehouse killer “Back Down” provides pure percussive abandon. “Quay” ends the set with something quieter, a sublime coda made entirely from field recordings. Mastered and cut by Matt Colton. CD edition housed in a deluxe oversized 6-panel digifile. Vinyl soon!
File Under: Electronic, Jungle, Dance, Andy Stott, Demdike Stare
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Mount Carmel: Get Pure (Alive) LP
Amid the current industry of cool, Mount Carmel’s lack of gimmick is a welcome anachronism. Described once as “thee only non-bullshit hard rock band in goddamn America,” Mount Carmel was formed in 2010 by brothers Matthew Reed (vocals/guitar) and Patrick Reed (bass), with James McCain (drums), and hails from Columbus, OH. The power-trio already has two albums and a lot of road under its belt, and has earned a reputation as a stellar live act. Get Pure, their new album for Alive Naturalsound, is a new beast. It was recorded in Cleveland at Suma Recordings by Paul Hamann, where albums by Pere Ubu and the Black Keys were made, and mixed in Detroit at Ghetto Recorders by Jim Diamond, and captures the power and intensity of the band’s straight-up and sans revisionist blues rock sound. Full of swagger, packed with great songs and inspired performances, Mount Carmel’s Get Pure is true rock music like you haven’t heard in years. Crank it up!
File Under: Rock, Blues Rock, Garage
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Nurse With Wound: Bar Maldoror (Jnana) 2CD
Disc one is a remastered version of Live At Bar Maldoror 1984-86 (Mastered by Andrew Liles). Disc two is a previously unreleased live show from Ghent in 2007. “In our very short spell as a ‘live band’ Nurse With Wound performed 8 times, 5 in public, between the years of 1984-86. These events were shambolic, chaotic and uneven affairs, sometimes as boring for the performers as the non-plussed audiences but at other times reaching an amazing intensity. Some were quite amusing – I remember one in particular, a christmas event in Amsterdam. We had decided no electric lights, just hundreds of candles arund the stage and, in amongst the audience (whe were busy arranging them in circles) we began. I had a vast array of little noise making objects – toys and things – and I started inviting members of the audience to help us wind the clockwork stuff when suddenly about fifty people descended upon us, all very eager to help. Soon there was no room and we discreetly left the stage to watch the show from the comfort of the bar. Nobody seemed to notice. The audience played well and some of that gig made it onto this CD, which contains the hight points of our Bar Maldoror happenings (sic).” – Steven Stapleton Feb 3rd 1994.
File Under: NWW, Experimental, Industrial
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Prurient: Cocaine Death (Hospital) LP
Cocaine Death is a compilation of three of Prurient’s most sought-after cassette releases: 2007’s’ Cocaine Death, Caribbean Overdose and Tylenol Murders, eventually compiled as Cocaine Death for a CD release in 2008. This is the first time this collection has ever been available on vinyl, now fully remastered for the format. Cocaine Death brings together several strands and signifiers from the Prurient catalog, containing some of its most visceral and experimental works, alongside some of its most evocative. From the arpeggiated/submerged noise of opener “Pretext (Bahamian Burial)” to the padded, pulsating closer “Postscript (Coke Cunts)” the material here explores the relationship between futile pleasure, substance and escape; escape being a myth. Cocaine Death (originally C-10 packaged in an envelope, limited to 46 copies) is one of the most sought-after Prurient cassettes. The content is based on the glamour and destruction of toxic nightlife. Caribbean Overdose (originally a C-10, packaged in a standard shell package and limited to 100 copies) explores a different but strangely direct topic of the sexual reproductive life of plants. Further examination into the life of scientific advancement and education. Tylenol Murders (originally a C-10, packaged in an oversized envelope and limited to 10 copies) takes the sounds and concepts of the aforementioned releases and expands the sounds to further limits of cracked static, strained vocals and strange melodic loops.
File Under: Electronic, Experimental, Noise
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Rob: Maniac OST (Death Waltz) LP
Repressed! Death Waltz give the deluxe treatment for Rob’s future-classic soundtrack to a 2013 remake of ‘Maniac’ starring Elijah Wood. The mono-monikered French composer, Rob closely follows the film’s psychopathic themes by turns with a terrifying, mournful and poignant score heavily reminiscent of Cliff Martinez’s synth-heavy ‘Drive’ soundtrack and almost certainly inspired by total classics from Tangerine Dream, John Carpenter or Wendy Carlos. It’s a real peach, quite unmissable for fan of synthesised horror soundtracks and, obviously, exquisite packaging.
File Under: OST, Horror, Carpenter, Synths
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Spike: Orange Cloud Nine (Gold Channel) LP
Long awaited retrospective “Best Of” the enigmatic Dutch musician Spike, whose four privately pressed LPs from the 80s are the stuff of legend. Officially certified by the Dutch government as a “fool”, and a conscientious objector to nearly everything, Spike Wolters refused to work, and after a few court cases, won the right to be able to claim unemployment benefit for life. Fiercely political, he dropped out of society and during the 80s and produced a string of LPs which he pressed and sold himself. These sank without trace but were happened upon a few years ago by an ardent digger. Orange Cloud Nine presents 16 amazing tracks from the 4 LPs – shimmering, lo-fi oddball stoner pop played with a deft musicality. Clean concise pop songs, filtered through a heavy haze of marijuana, produced on cheap equipment, and almost entirely in isolation that have finally come of age. It’s meditative music that will uplift and mesmerize the listener. Sequenced to perfection, it has been lovingly remastered so well from the original tapes that it sounds better than the originals – and that’s according to Spike himself.
File Under: Lo-fi, Stoner Pop, Psychedelic
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Morton Subotnick: Silver Apples of the Moon (Karlrecords) LP
As composer, musician and initiator of the San Francisco Tape Music Center which he cofounded with Pauline Oliveros and Ramon Sender in 1961, Morton Subotnick (born 1933) has propelled the progress of electronic music in several significant ways. From 1963 on he worked with Don Buchla on the development of the early synthesizer Buchla Series 100 before moving to New York where the artist-in-residence at the newly established Tisch School of the Arts of New York University was enabled to set up his own studio. That’s where Subotnick’s most popular work Silver Apples of the Moon was commissioned by DECCA as the first electronic composition ever that was especially conceived for a vinyl release (in opposition to the common practice of performing live). Until the current day, this seminal album has not lost its visionary power and has long been considered one of the essential milestones in electronic music with a great impact on later generations of artists, starting from the cult formation Silver Apples to Laika, who titled their debut Silver Apples of the Moon, too. Now for the first time since its original 1967 release, Subotnick’s masterpiece (which was selected for the Library of Congress in 2009) has finally been made available on vinyl at last: a new audiophile 180 gram LP that was carefully remastered for vinyl. Limited to 500 copies worldwide.
File Under: Early Electronic, Buchla
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Ken Vandermark/Nilssen-Love Duo: Lightning Over Water (Laurence Family) LP+7″
This double LP + 7″ is a result of two nights of live performance at the Dragon Club in Poznań, Poland in October 2011. The recording captures the duo at the peak of their tour and the result is mindblowing. Ninety-five minutes of playing-time spread out onto 2 LPs and a 7″ single. Total running time of the concerts was 200 minutes, so this is only a snippet of the two evenings. The LPs and 7″ come in a specially-designed cardboard box. Paal Nilssen-Love (drums) and Ken Vandermark (reeds) started their collaboration in 2000 when the group School Days was formed. Since that time, they have worked together in many other groups, including FME, the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet, Lean Left (with Terrie Ex and Andy Moor), iTi (with Thomas Lehn and Johannes Bauer), Fire Room (with Lasse Marhaug) and with Vandermark as a guest in The Thing (which includes Mats Gustafsson and Ingebrigt Håker Flaten). Despite all of this activity, from early on it seemed like a natural idea for them to also pursue a duo format as a vehicle for performance. This work began during the summer of 2002, when they recorded the album, Dual Pleasure for the label Smalltown Supersound. Since then, the duo has toured the USA, Canada, Europe and Japan several times. Their musical approach to playing in the duo context is ferocious in its intensity, a stylistic maelstrom that combines extreme rhythmic velocity with formal deconstruction and re-assembly. In many ways, Nilssen-Love and Vandermark are more unleashed in this setting than any of their other playing situations, creating an environment for improvised music that is riveting for both its ideas and execution.
File Under: Free Jazz
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Various: Anthology of American Folk Music Vol 1-4 (Mississippi) 4x 2LP
Mississippi Records have truly outdone themselves this time! They’ve managed to pull off EXACT reproductions of the original pressings of Harry Smith’s alchemical and endlessly wonderful Anthology of American Folk Music. Each volume is 2 LPs – all 8 LPs sleeved in beautiful cloth-bound volumes with exact reproductions of the original booklets! Unavailable on vinyl for years, and never reissued in this painstaking way, this is a rare chance to get up close and personal with the REAL Old Weird America. An essential purchase for every home. Seriously.
File Under: Folk, Blues, Essential
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Various: Kontroversial Kovers (Reprieve) LP
Kontroversial Kovers Kollekts for the first time in one place, 32 tracks from around the world, recorded during the golden era of garage between the years of 1964-1969. All tracks were written by Ray Davies and released by the Kinks, but here they are recorded by bands who at the time had varying levels of success. These often fuzzed out, sometimes quirky, and always inspired, rarely heard takes on Kinks Klassiks, when put together in this collection, demand a second look and in many cases a first. This record is a Kinks or Garage Konnoiseur’s dream come true. The track list speaks for itself!
File Under: Mod, Garage, Kinks
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Various: The Walking Dead (Spacelab 9) LP
The Walking Dead is an American television drama series developed by Frank Darabont and is based on the comic book series of the same name. The series stars Andrew Lincoln as sheriff’s deputy Rick Grimes who awakens from a coma to end the world dominated by flesh-eating ‘walkers’ resembling the zombies of George A. Romeroís horror movies. The story unfolds as he sets out to find his family and encounters many other survivors along the way. The Walking Dead premiered in October of 2010 in the United States and based on the immediate strong response from viewers, AMC quickly renewed the series for a second season of 13 episodes. Two episodes into the second season, AMC announced that the show would return for a third and fourth season. The series has been very well received by both fans and critics, having been nominated for countless awards including a Writers Guild of America Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series Drama. The series has also attained strong Nielsen ratings, beating various records for a cable series, including receiving 10.9 million viewers for it’s season three premiere to become the most watched basic cable telecast in history.
File Under: OST, Horror
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