Holy moly! That was just plain crazy! I hope everyone had as much fun on Saturday as we did! Big thanks to everyone who patiently stood in line to score some cool wax, and then in line again to pay! Big thanks to James & Nora for kicking butt on the till all day and Mike for being our doorman again this year. Congrats to all our winners of our draw, I’m sure Chad is already in heaven playing his RSD scores on his new RP1. But fortunately, RSD doesn’t entirely screw up the system, loads of new stuff in last week and this week. So on to the goods……
…..picks of the week…..
Don McGreevy: Aichmophobia (Self Released) LP
As one of the founding members of Seattle’s Master Musicians of Bukkake, and bassist for Drone-Doom pioneers Earth, multi-intrumentalist and chord-smith Don McGreevy forces us to abscond into a dimension of pastoral pastiche ala instrumental mayhem. Picture this: If John Fahey or Robbie Basho listened to too much early Genesis or Yes, and had serious leanings toward Popol Vuh, Brian Eno, Henryk Gorecki and Giacinto Scelsi. Even modern totalist school minimalists like Glenn Branca rear their ugly heads periodically on Aichmophobia. Its a record written and recorded with acoustic 6 and 12 string guitars as the primary instruments. Slung with badoliers of synths, bolstered by mellotrons and fuzzy electric guitars, we’re definitely in the seat of a soothing, yet relatively unexpected sojourn of chords, textures and finger-picked Appalachian goodness. There’s even a glockenspiel in there somewheres, too. Its a nice, heady listen. It whisks the listener away into the the high, icy clouds allowing the observer to behold the earth in all its glorious, dark and melancholic spleandor; It’s modalities move and shake slowly below. Sure to lull one past the confines of ordinary listening pleasures, strap on your best headphones, let go, and enjoy the journey.
File Under: Kosmische, Guitar Soli, Krautrock
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Suuns + Jerusalem In My Heart: s/t (Secret City) LP
Beginning in November 2012, Suuns (Ben Shemie, Liam O’Neill, Max Henry and Joseph Yarmush) and long time friend, Radwan Ghazi Moumneh, rented a studio in Montreal for seven days. The idea was to collaborate on rough sketches of song ideas and to complete as much recording as possible without discrimination. The session was successful, yielding many vibe-laden songs featuring heavy analog synths, Arabic influences and electronic sensibilities. After the session, the recordings layed dormant. Both bands were releasing individual albums; touring was to ensue shortly. Some editing time was squeezed in between tour dates but a full year passed before the songs were heard by an audience. The collaborative band did a live show at Pop Montreal 2013 and then another the following March. At that point, the project was kickstarted into gear. The band over dubbed and re-worked the songs in the summer of 2014 and finally, whilst on tour in October, finished the vocal overdubs and mixing. Radwan Ghazi Moumneh of Jerusalem In My Heart did the tracking and most of the mixing while Max Henry of Suuns handled some mixing as well. The live show is very much a performance with less emphasis on replaying the recordings note for note, but more about recreating the excitement of the initial recording sessions
File Under: Electronic, Krautrock, CanCon
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…..new arrivals…..
Acid Mother’s Temple: High on New Heaven (Safety Meeting) LP
Acid Mother’s Temple & The Melting Parasio U.F.O. celebrates it’s 20th year as Japan’s premiere psychedelic freak-out collective with the release of this intimate live 4/20/2013 recording. Recorded on site at Cafe Nine in downtown New Haven, CT, Kawabata and crew delivered a solid live show totally deserving of the holiday it was conceived on. Sometimes heavy, sometimes slow and quiet, the set endlessly climbed through the frequencies delivering the fuzzy and hypnotic to a sweaty, gleeful, bleary-eyed room of psychedelic enthusiasts. Tiple LP packaged in wide spine jackets with download. Limited edition of 400 copies. “Today is 420, so please, High On!”
File Under: Psych, Japanese, 420
Ambiq: s/t (Arjunamusic) LP
German pianist Max Loderbauer, in continuing his work with the Buchla 200e synthesizer system, joins two Swiss musicians and veterans of ECM Records, clarinetist Claudio Puntin on clarinets, mini mallets, and electronics; and percussionist Samuel Rohrer on drums, Kaoss Pad, and electronics to form ambiq, a group dedicated to the exploration of remote musical universes. Their debut self-titled album, released on Rohrer’s label arjunamusic records, aims to open doors of perception to the electronic scene by means of enhanced possibilities of instrumental interaction. Rohrer, as an improvisatory sound pilot, is able to elegantly navigate beats and anti-beats. He expands the world of rhythmic functions with his artistic, cross-style overall concept to include striking emotional components. His percussion style flows with an implicit quality into his electronic arrangements, returns enriched with seductive energy, and presents itself as the crucible for the contributions of his fellow passengers. Claudio Puntin’s unmistakably smooth sound as he plays on all members of the clarinet family, with the support of mallets and electronics, is familiar from numerous CDs and performances, as well as from film, audio-drama, and theater productions. His live concept of floating electronic spaces and layers of overtones and loops, which he customizes for his clarinet sounds, opens up divine dimensions while creating the harmonic, melodic, and tonal orbit for the satellites of his fellow musicians. With its unique blend of modular synthesizer, drums, electronic rhythms, clarinet, and electronics, ambiq develops mysterious electro-acoustic soundscapes, somewhere between the outer reaches of techno, electronica, and jazz.
File Under: Electronic
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Bad Guys: Bad Guynaecology (Riot Season) LP
Recorded in a snake pit, in a quarry, on top of a mountain, in the desert, at night, during a thunderstorm, Bad Guynaecology is the second album from Hackney’s Bad Guys. Full of heavy riffs, pounding drums, and wild vocals laid down on seven-foot-wide steel tape, then smelted into WAVs by an irritable dwarf in an ancient forge, in space, Bad Guynaecology truly is the soundtrack to your generation. Whoever you are. Production duties on this album fell to esteemed metal producer Jaime Gomez Arellano (Ghost, Cathedral, Angel Witch). For fans of Motörhead, Harvey Milk, Melvins, Thin Lizzy, The Jesus Lizard, Torche, MC5, Killdozer, Black Sabbath. Bad Guys are a southerner, a midlander, a Canadian, and a Hungarian. They have played at several ATP festivals without ever being asked, razed a chalet to the ground on one occasion and got heavily fined, then next time played directly outside the security guards’ accommodation and got shut down. Learning from experience, they opted to play inside the main building next time and were shut down due to being a fire hazard. They’ve played on the fourth plinth in Trafalger Square as part of Antony Gormley’s One and Other art installation, where they were told to shut down as well even though you were supposed to be able to do whatever you like. They’ve played in a theater, as part of a poorly judged bit of experimentalism by a director. They weren’t shut down but it was clear everyone wanted them to leave. Then they played in the life-drawing room in the Royal Academy (the oldest life-drawing room in the country), where they performed naked and people drew them, with varying degrees of success. They weren’t shut down and lots of intellectuals said it was interesting. As well as all this stuff they’ve played in countless pubs and clubs and parties up and down the country and around Europe and have been generally very well received. Apart from in Glasgow, where the promoter didn’t bother turning up, the DJ played techno to warm up, and one drunk woman kept shouting at them to shut up.
File Under: Rawk, Metal, Stoner
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Les Baxter: African Jazz (So Far Out) LP
Composer, conductor, arranger, and musician Les Baxter is fondly remembered as one of the forefathers of the 1950s exotica sound, alongside other luminaries such as Arthur Lyman, Martin Denny, and Juan Garcia Esquivel. 1959’s African Jazz is one of his most renowned and sought-after titles, at times moody and dark, at others light and whimsical, sometimes within the same song. Quintessential mood music from the master himself. Pressed on 180-gram vinyl.
File Under: Exotica, Jazz
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Braids: Deep In The Iris (Flemish Eye) LP
To record their third album, Deep In The Iris, Braids decamped to a series of retreats in the mountains of Arizona, Vermont, and upstate New York. Surrounded by nature in all its warm vitality, the longtime bandmates strove to shed the fabric of their day to day relationships, being bare and vulnerable before one another. What resulted is Deep In The Iris, their strongest record to date – powerful, yet fragile; immaculately sculpted, but deeply human. Driven by roomy acoustic instrumentation and tasteful electronics, Deep In The Iris is easily Braids’ sunniest and most immediate record. While the icy, airless production of their second album Flourish // Perish suited the songs’ inward gaze, the widescreen warmth and full-bodied punch of Deep In The Iris is the perfect complement to its unflinching lyricism. Raphaelle Standell has always had a formidable voice but rarely has it sounded as vital, focused, and powerful as it does here. True to the process that birthed it, the record explores a number of heavy subjects, including pornography, abuse, and slutshaming. Standell’s emotional vulnerability becomes a triumphant weapon in its own right: scything through wrongdoing and shame with equal aplomb, and clearing the way for the many others who will find resonance in the bravery of these lyrics. Written from a place of inspiring strength and unblinking lucidity, the lyricism of this record is a cathartic gift.
File Under: Indie Rock, CanCon
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Beatriz Ferreyra: GRM Works (ReGRM) LP
Argentine electroacoustic composer Beatriz Ferreyra describes each of the pieces included on GRM Works: Demeures aquatiques (1967): “This electroacoustic piece, articulated into two clearly distinct parts, draws its sound source from the classical and unorthodox instruments — metal sheets, glass rods, etc. — invented by the Baschet brothers. I wanted to show the contrast between the rhythmic repetition of a sounding object, which gives out a feeling of fixity, an electroacoustic flavour and the continuous re-creation of the same sensation through similar yet not identical sounds.” Un fil invisible (2009) For Christine Groult: “This piece was inspired by the various stages of Medieval Alchemy. The alchemical process is one of transformation, whose actual subject is the alchemist himself. Here, the process is inextricably tangled with the transformation of sounds and the very structure of the piece.” Médisances (1968/69): “This electroacoustic piece for 4 channels was produced by manipulating such items as orchestral instruments, a mouth bow, breath and some unexpected technical defects.” Les Larmes de l’inconnu (2011): “This is the first part of a work inspired by the Qabalists Carlos Suares (consciousness-energy), Rivka Cremici (charm of the mystic energy) and Shinta Zenke (dazzling Hebrew calligraphy) to whom I dedicate this music. Through its letters-numbers, the Qabalah expresses three different levels of ‘primordial equation of the universe’: the level of the archetype, that of the event and the incarnation, and the universal and cosmic level… I would like to thank the wonderful flutist Hernan Gomez for his kindness and his musicality during the recording.” “The music of Beatriz Ferreyra bears a magnetic force, which generates a truly recognisable style that could be defined as a unique sense and intuition for sound. Whether in her early works (‘Médisances,’ ‘Demeures aquatiques’) or in the more recent ones featured here, one can easily perceive a freedom-loving musical personality. A pioneer alongside Pierre Schaeffer, in the ’50s and ’60s, she worked on the development of the famous Solfège de l’Objet Sonore (Music Theory of the Sounding Object) before freeing herself from the institution to focus on creating a challenging and independent music.” –Christian Zanési and François Bonnet, Paris, 2015. Digital transfer by Jonathan Fitoussi; layout by Stephen O’Malley; photos by Laszlo Ruszka (1983/87) © Ina, Bernard Perrine (1969); translations by Valérie Vivancos. Coordination GRM: Christian Zanési & François Bonnet. Executive production: Peter Rehberg. Cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin, November 2014.
File Under: Early Electronic, Experimental
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Julian Casablancas & The Voidz: Tyranny (Cult Records) LP
Tyranny is Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas’ sophomore solo album following 2009’s Phrazes for the Young. Credited to Julian Casablancas + The Voidz, the group is rounded out by Jeramy “Beardo” Gritter (guitar), Amir Yaghmai (guitar), Jacob “Jake” Bercovici (bass/synthesizers), Alex Carapetis (drums/percussion) and Jeff Kite (keyboards). Produced by Shawn Everett, the wide-ranging 12-song set is preceded by the singles “Human Sadness” and “Where No Eagles Fly.” Casablancas explains the album’s title: “Tyranny has come in many forms throughout history. Now, the good of business is to put above anything else, as corporations have become the new ruling body. Most decisions seem to be made like ones of a medieval king: whatever makes profit while ignoring and repressing the truth about whatever suffering it may cause (like pop music, for that matter).” “A far cry from the bite-size chronicles of effortless New York cool that Casablancas made his name on, the Strokes frontman’s latest collection of songs finds him grappling with big, serious, universal subjects such as morality, selfishness, public ignorance, and the myriad ways twenty-first century democracy is broken. The real departure, though, is the sound of the thing: Casablancas and his band chose to address those topics in the context of the most abstract, experimental music of his career.” – Chris DeVille, Stereogum
File Under: Indie Rock, Strokes
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Devo: Miracle Witness Hour (Futurismo) LP
Spuds rejoice, for the Miracle Witness Hour is at hand! In 1977 Devo played an intimate show to an eager handful at biker bar turned total dive The Eagle Street Saloon in Cleveland, Ohio. Unbeknown to those canny onlookers, they were to testify to the healing power of Devo! But what of us now? Beautiful mutants fear not, Futurismo are here to rectify your late party syndrome. Televised through the antennas of time we give you Devo’s most intimate unreleased live record ever – Miracle Witness Hour! Released for the first time on any format, this remastered document of de-evolution is finally given the attention it truly deserves. A rare glimpse into the embryonic stages of the groundbreaking band way before the masses knew how to ‘whip-it good’, the Miracle Witness Hour boasts primal versions of the bands most recalled avant-pop songs, juxtaposed against some of their rarer experimental gems. Seemingly fitting for the kind of off the wall experience that would have Devo’s dehumanised art house sci-fi set against the backdrop of Eagle Streets dingy and ruptured old world interior, it’s the playful live imperfections in this recording that genuinely make the Miracle Witness Hour an original and intimate experience. This Futurismo release revitalises this event with exciting artwork and packaging that represents the bands forward thinking approach to the aesthetics that shaped the following decade. The outer sleeve comes die-cut revealing the box-fold reversible cover inner sleeve, itself containing a second sleeve, and housing rare images as well as brand new liner notes by Devo founding member Gerald Casale. It also comes on heavyweight 180g coloured vinyl with Free download. Also available on CD. Praise the lord! We must repeat D-E-V-O.
File Under: Rock, Punk
Bill Fay: Who Is The Sender? (Dead Oceans) LP
Ask Bill Fay about his relationship with his instrument and he says something revealing, not “Ever since I learnt to play the piano,” but “Ever since the piano taught me.” What the piano taught him was how to connect to one of the great joys of his life. “Music gives,” he says. And he is a grateful receiver. But, it makes him wonder, “Who is the sender?” Fay – who after more than five decades writing songs is finally being appreciated as one of our finest living practitioners of the art asserts that songs aren’t actually written but found. Shown a simple piano piece by his sister-in-law when he was around 15, Fay began exploring how it worked and opened up a whole new world, the realm of chords. Once he’d discovered their emotional power, and how finding the right blend of chords and harmony made him want to sing melodies and conjure words, he became immersed in that world, and has been ever since. He recorded two phenomenal and completely different sounding albums, Bill Fay and Time Of The Last Persecution for Decca offshoot Nova in 1970 and 1971, which were largely overlooked at the time, but whose undoubted power sent out enough ripples to find important admirers many years later. Among them was label owner Colin Miles who reissued them on CD in 1998 and thereby alerted a new generation to Bill’s work. After 27 years of neglect, people like Nick Cave, Jim O’ Rourke and Jeff Tweedy were praising those records in glowing terms. Tweedy even began covering Fay’s “Be Not So Fearful” at Wilco shows. Another original fan of those early albums was James Henry, a Californian Vietnam veteran who somehow came across them and found something in the spiritual ruminations of a young man from North London that resonated with him. He passed his enthusiasm on to his son Joshua who grew up to be a producer and who, in 2010, contacted the elusive, almost reclusive Fay and asked if they might make some new recordings. Touched by the unexpected connection his music had made with this young man in Nevada City, Fay agreed. Henry recruited world-renowned engineer Guy Massey and a crack squad of musicians, including current, in-demand players Tim Weller, Matt Deighton and Mikey Rowe, and Bill’s cohorts from the Decca days, Alan Rushton and Ray Russell. This pan-generational team proved a perfect conduit for Bill’s work and the results, released as Life Is People in 2012 were breathtaking and lauded around the globe. Now that team, with some new additions, has convened for a second album. Cut in just 13 days in Ray Davies’ Konk Studios, North London, Who Is The Sender? sees Bill expanding upon themes he has touched on from the beginning, spiritual and philosophical questions, observations about the natural world and the people in the city he has lived in all his life. You can hear them in “Garden Song,” the first song on his debut album in 1970 and in “Underneath The Sun” and “How Little” on this album, with its refrain “It’s all so deep.” The joy and sadness are indeed deep in this material, which Bill describes as “alternative gospel.” Though it clearly stems from his belief, he doesn’t seek to proselytise or convert anybody, but just hopes to share the concerns he puts into the words and the feelings that he receives from the music: “Goodness, beauty, comfort. If something gives in the world, that’s a good thing, isn’t it? Maybe that’s what music wants to do.” “Bill Fay is one the greats!” – Nick Cave
File Under: SSW, Folk
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Nils Frahm: Solo (Erased Tapes) LP/CD
Berlin-based composer and pianist Nils Frahm celebrates the first annual Piano Day (March 29, 2015, the 88th day of the year) with the release of Solo. The group behind Piano Day, made up of Frahm and his closest friends, plans to support various exciting, piano-related projects; the first of these is the building of the world’s tallest piano, the Klavins 450. As the life-long dream of David Klavins, it will exceed the current record-holder, the Klavins M370. Located in Tübingen, Germany, the M370 weighs 1.8 tons, stands 12.14 feet tall, and boasts strings up to about 10 feet in length. It was on this piano, in one sitting, that Frahm recorded the eight improvised piano motifs that form Solo. Once recorded, Frahm began to think of ways to release the album as a gift to his fans, and came up with Piano Day. Solo was made available as a free download on Piano Day 2015, as a way of easing Frahm’s fans into sharing their money for the Klavins 450 project. All direct donations and a portion of all record sales will go to the Klavins 450 project until the target has been hit. In his liner notes for the album, Frahm writes, “David got to work in 1985 and finished his instrument two years later. Back then I was five years old, with no idea of how much I would fall in love with it. When I finally met David Klavins and his enormous piano 27 years later, in the very beginning of 2014, I arrived with empty hands. I didn’t know what music, what songs I was about to record in the next three days… The eight pieces featured on this album were selected out of hours of improvising, happy hours… The joy of playing and listening to the sound of the instrument made me play slower and slower, softer and softer, as if almost every new note was destroying the immense beauty and sustain of the previous note. I was preparing the instrument with parts of my felt collection, carefully tuning mic positions with the help of my dear friend and recording gear wizard Matthias Hahn, and simply playing whatever came to my mind. In conversations about this I am still struggling for words in order to praise David’s instrument. Words simply don’t do it justice, so listen for yourself. With lots of love, Nils Frahm.”
File Under: Ambient, Neo-Classical, Piano
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Hiiragi Fukuda: Seacide (Trouble In Mind) LP
Hiiragi Fukuda turned a lot of “heads” with his 2013 album My Turntable Is Slow—released on NY label Selection Records. TiM hopes to carry his name into 2015 with the release of Seacide—Fukuda’s first foray into synthesizer music. Originally released as a criminally limited cassette on Sloow Tapes, Seacide is entirely instrumental & improvised, with it’s hypnotic drones & pulses echoing out of his practice amplifier and carving out sonic territory akin to NY pioneers Suicide as well as UK Industrial godfathers Throbbing Gristle.
File Under: Psych, Synth, Drone
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Grateful Dead: Three From The Vault (Future Days) 4LP
Following on the heels of Light In The Attic’s vinyl LP release of One and Two From The Vault comes the final release in the trilogy of From The Vault releases by the Grateful Dead. These releases are distinguished from the more abundant Dick’s Picks series in that Dick’s Picks are “direct from the soundboard” recordings, while the From The Vault series were professionally recorded on multi-track tape and then mixed down (decades) later for release. Recorded live at the Capitol Theatre (Port Chester, NY) in 1971, this is the worldwide vinyl debut release of this seminal show featuring the 5 piece line-up of Pigpen, Garcia, Weir, Lesh, and Kruetzmann (Mickey Hart had temporarily left the band at that point), freshly remastered in 2014 by Joe Gastwirt for your pleasure. 20 classic songs on 8 sides of wax, this show has previously only been available on CD; this is the first ever vinyl LP release! The band played six shows over the course of seven nights at the Capitol Theatre in February of 1971, and this was the second of that run, recorded on the 19th. Their previous two studio albums had been their landmark recordings of Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty, and while songs from those albums were certainly featured, the Dead debuted seven brand new songs on this night–all of which went on to become Dead “standards” including “Playing in the Band,” “Greatest Story Ever Told,” and two absolute classics: “Bird Song” and “Deal.” Essential Dead.
File Under: Dead
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Ariel Kalma: Open Like A Flute (Black Sweat) 2LP
Originally composed between 1981 and 1984 and initially appeared only on tape in two different editions, the proposed material from Ariel Kalma for this work confirms his pantheistic vision of the ethnic sound that had already emerged in 1978 with the masterpiece Osmose. The deep consciousness of the compositional techniques of Indian ragas is mixed here with embroidered electronic textures on which flute and sax explore the most secret archetypal elements of nature. In this way Kalma offers to the listener a personal idea of sacred music with luminous and oneiric tones but always dialoguing with a higher cosmic conception of things. With a clever use of effects, harmonium, delays and exotic percussions, Kalma becomes the creator of soundscapes from the endless myriad shades. Such a fusion of Western avant-garde and eastern tradition approaches other big names of the international panorama such as Popol Vuh, Angus MacLise or László Hortobágyi. The master comes from the original 1/4” analog tape from the ’80s. Limited edition of 300 copies in a gatefold cover with info.
File Under: New Age, Ambient
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David Kauffman & Eric Caboor: Songs From Suicide Bridge (Modern Classics) LP
You’ll find a Suicide Bridge in almost any big city you care to visit, but few are more impressive than the Colorado Street Bridge connecting Pasadena to Los Angeles, which earned its nickname by being the scene of suicides in triple figures. It’s also the scene of a photo shoot in which singer-songwriters Eric Caboor and David Kauffman posed on the deserted structure, capturing an image that would eventually inform the spare, detached mood–and title–of their majestic debut album, 1984’s Songs From Suicide Bridge. Indeed, there’s a fatalistic quality to this LP that has much to do with its origins. Kauffman, from Madison, New Jersey, and Caboor, from Burbank, California, met in 1982 playing the coffee houses of Los Angeles. Each was painfully used to playing to half-empty venues, which is a situation only half of the partnership would have been at peace with. “Dave had come to California to have a career in music,” Caboor says. “I don’t think it was quite the same for me. I was always kind of reluctant to go all out.” Every week, the pair met in a converted utility shed in the backyard of Caboor’s childhood home in Burbank to play each other the songs they wrote. They were never a duo in the conventional sense–rather, as Kauffman put it, “two loners who happened to join forces.” After two frustrating years of trying and failing to catch a break in a music industry that was focused on new wave, pop, AOR–anything but the folk-rock the duo were offering–the pair conceded defeat. One of them suggested, half joking, that they should put all their darkest and least viable works together on one record, if only to spite the industry that had rejected them. The more they thought about it, the better an idea it seemed, and when they started to plot out a tracklist from their vast catalog of songs, something unique and special begun taking shape. The opening track, “Kiss Another Day Goodbye,” in particular, set out the stall: “I don’t know how much longer/ I can feel the way I feel/ And never cry/ I don’t know how much longer/ I can kiss another day goodbye,” it says. Home-recorded on a four-track, Songs From Suicide Bridge was released on the pair’s own Donkey Soul Music in 1984. If this were a movie, the album would have been a huge success. Instead, the 500 copies pressed found their way to few willing ears. Though real life encroached, Caboor and Kaufmann continued to work together, releasing albums as The Drovers in 1989 and 1992. Now, their debut is to be released by Light In The Attic Records with brand new liner notes by Sam Sweet. Hopefully, it will finally find its audience–a listener who can see hope in the darkness. “People would tell us those songs were depressing,” Caboor says in his interview with Sweet, “but it wasn’t depressing to us. In a lot of cases, playing those songs in that little room was one of the only things that made us feel better.”
File Under: Folk, Drifter, Private Press
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Kenney/Kang/Park: At Temple Gate (Weyrd Son) LP
At Temple Gate immerses you in a kind of shamanism of which the echo has long since been lost. It is an interstitial album which marries a modal ancestrality with the power of electronic soundscapes, revealing a duality, an incantation at the threshold of death. The Sound is what immediately strikes the listener, even before the Logos, the word, the music itself; At Temple Gate is a kind of sonic ritual. It is not the dead, these deities, who are terrifying, but the living and their ever more ardent desires to communicate with those whose bodies have spread throughout the cosmos into a billion particles of stardust; where we come from and where we end up, ashes to dust. At Temple Gate is evocative of all of this: the bait of Time, Cruelty, the bite of Sound. Jessika Kenney: voice, electronics; Eyvind Kang: viola, electronics; Hyeonhee Park: percussion, electronics; with Timm Mason: modular synth. Numbered edition of 300 copies.
File Under: Electronic, World, Experimental
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Jim Linderman: Birth of Rock & Roll (Dust to Digital) Book
“Collector and Americana yay-sayer Jim Linderman is an archivist of the obscure. His collections tell vast stories in sotto voce, allowing curios and objects shadowed by mainstream culture and ideology to converse and be heard. What we hear is an enormous American sub-culture speaking in forbidden, marginalized languages: stuff discovered boxed in the attic out of embarrassment or zealotry, smutty ash trays crowing next to religious pamphlets, each claiming a part of the complex, sometimes contradictory, always conflicted American imagination, a chaos of memories that will one day vanish. In The Birth of Rock and Roll, Linderman’s arranged a storyboard of sorts that dramatizes the spirit, if not the chronology of rock and roll. Poetically, the photos evoke without naming, and have little to do with conventional iconography of the birth of rock and roll — i.e., young white men in Memphis, poodle skirts, Alan Freed, Bill Haley’s Brylcreem, etc. Instead they document, and celebrate, the pure but indefinable essence of rocking. Ordinary, nameless men, women, and children, some white, some black, are holding guitars and strumming while looking relaxed or frantic, but nearly always blissful. Some of the action takes place in rural fields, some in dance halls, some at civic events, some in living rooms and basements. Wherever there is an urge to make acoustic or electric music — whether to help at a rent party, busk in front of a crowd, or testify in the name of Jesus — there’s an uncredited photographer there to snap an image” –Joe Bonomo. “I wanted them all to be anonymous, but several were identified, and the Carter Family was included because it is such a lovely snapshot [and it has never been published before now]. I like to think rock and roll emerged from a large collective of unknown folk ‘down there’ rather than from some stars ‘up there'” –Jim Linderman. Includes an introduction by Jim Linderman and an interview with Jim Linderman by Joe Bonomo. Jim Linderman is a writer, art historian, collector, and publisher. He maintains a network of websites on art, photography, and culture. Joe Bonomo is an essayist and music writer. His books include Sweat: The Story of The Fleshtones, America’s Garage Band; Jerry Lee Lewis: Lost and Found; and Conversations With Greil Marcus. Book designer: Martin Venezky. 160 pages; 12 x 9.75 inches; 134 images reproduced in full color.
File Under: Books
Male Gaze: Gale Maze (Castle Face) LP
Blow-out enthusiasts, make ready to scarf this down without chewing: “How many licks does it take to get to the spider egg in the center of this sugar bomb? “You got the jitters, and dude, there’s blood on your shirt. “I like gore with my goth. “Hey, you got your pop sensibilities on my explosion!” Strong vocals à la Modern English, back-beat complete and foamy bass bleached onto half-inch tape specially for Castle Face. Seven headstrong tunes to clatter your phonograph needle. I’ve always loved Matt Jones’s (ex-Blasted Canyons) vocal stylings, rich with tenor muscle flexes. Over the top in its endeavors and reaching, always reaching. Primal gas-guzzler drumming, center speaker from Adam Cimino sets the ear up for a beating. And hell, it’s got the old (and I mean old) bass player, Mark Kaiser, from Mayyors; solid-state aggression at its mid-low, knuckle-dragging finest. A slap in the brain done up nicely here on wax. Enjoy. —John Dwyer
File Under: Punk
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Mirage: Blood For The Return (Old English Spelling Bee) LP
“Most people just start a band, reiterate what they like, get a buzz, and when it slows down they start a new band — but it’s like a new name with mysterious photos. But it’s all the same people. You see the stuff over and over again.” – Johnny Jewel of Italians Do It Better in a Pitchfork interview from 2012. The above quote contains an extra layer of meaning considering that Johnny Jewel himself has an occasional solo recording project that also uses the name “Mirage”. This Mirage is not him. Nor is this Mirage who it was pretending to be. But, of course, what better name to use than Mirage when attempting to pass off a false persona to the world? Earlier this year I was contacted by Robin Nydal, aka Mirage, a 19-year old musician from Los Angeles who had just put his debut album titled “Blood For The Return” on Bandcamp. His initial email solicitation was bizarrely unconventional — instead of asking me to listen to his songs he only wanted me to listen to very brief sections of his songs — to quote his first email in full: “listen to the outro of Anne @ 1:06 and the harmonies @ 40 seconds on Blood For The Return” So I took the bait on the novelty of a hopeful musician asking me to listen to only the “good parts” of their songs — the problem was that I didn’t hear why the prescribed sections were any more remarkable than the entirety of the album. It was a stunning listen from start to finish and I was quickly on board to help him release it, not fully realizing what I was getting myself into. I was soon reminded of that saying: “fools rush in where angels fear to tread”. In the following months, while the brief 6-song album metamorphosized into a full-length 11-track monster, the myth behind Mirage underwent a complete deconstruction as well. I’m accustomed to working with some very eccentric artists but nothing could have prepared me for the Twilight Zone that is Mirage. Dozens upon dozens of insane, demanding, and non-sequitur emails – every single day. Ranging from hilarious to bratty to downright menacing — it was like being in a movie — my very own “psychological thriller” — heavy emphasis on “psycho”. First he asked if he could transfer his Bandcamp account over to OESB because the income he was making off sales was jeopardizing his family’s status as welfare recipients (?!?!). His story didn’t completely make sense and his home address pointed to a nice neighborhood in a Los Angeles suburb — so the request was a head-scratcher — but sure, done. In the meantime I had sent his music to a couple of writers which resulted in some enthusiastic coverage on both Pitchfork and Fader. About a week after the articles appeared I received a cryptic email from Jack Shankly of Weird World/Domino requesting a phone call. Since OESB had been more or less dormant I assumed that he wanted to speak with me about Mirage. When I mentioned Jack’s request to Robin he said “well, I’m in neck-deep with you but I am already in knee-deep with Jack” !?!? “What does that mean exactly?” I replied and then Robin explained that he was already under contract to Weird World/Domino for all of his music but “don’t worry about it — what are they gonna do, spank us?” !?!? So this kid was frustrated that Domino was in no rush to release his music so he came up with a new project name and started shopping it around in hopes that Domino wouldn’t notice — and of course made no mention of any of this to me until Domino came calling. Oops, looks like your cover is blown kid!! I knew that Robin Nydal was a clever but fairly obvious pseudonym: Robin = BOB & Nydal = DYLAN. But “Robin” certainly acted like a bratty 19-year old who was still living with his parents. So how did boy genius already have this secret record deal with Domino? A few minutes of Google-searching shed plenty of light on the poorly constructed mystery. The Blood For The Return cover image had been used way back in 2010 for a write-up on one of his previous projects — and his list of guest musicians on BFTR led to articles on several other past bands he’d been in with the same guys. Robin used a different pseudo-name as the bandleader for each, but there was nothing for him to be ashamed of — all of the previous bands made extremely well-crafted experimental pop that had generated some healthy blog buzz yet failed to break into the indie mainstream. Curiously in nearly every write-up between 2009 and 2012 the music for these different projects was credited to a “19-year old from Los Angeles”. Guess he’s got one of those “fountains of eternal youth” in his backyard!! “And so I wake in the morning, And I step outside, And I take a deep breath and I get real high.. And I scream at the top of my lungs What’s going on? And I say, hey hey hey hey… I said hey, WHAT’S GOING ON?!?!”. BUT IT GETS EVEN STRANGER FROM THERE — his Wolfmother-esque high-school rock band was somehow able to secure a slot as the opening act for The Who’s Roger Daltrey on his North American tour in 2009. WTF!?!? Turns out that Linda Perry from 4 Non-Blondes had discovered a 13-year old Mirage at a Guitar Center (of course!!), bought him a guitar as a gift that very same day, and took him and his friends under her wing as their “manager/band mom” for six years. But after getting thrown into the deep end of the pool on the Daltrey tour their debut release flopped and they disbanded to pursue a series of re-inventions that leaned more towards proggy art-rock. Each project sounding more haunted and lo-fi until crystallizing into the funhouse-mirror mindfuck that is Mirage. So that helps explain some things — Mirage is suffering severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from his teenage music-biz experiences and close calls with rock stardom. Too much, too soon. The big dream was within reach yet slipped his grasp. Now he’s a lunatic making recordings far more hermetic in nature — while playing twisted mind-games with record labels and the world at large. But, ultimately — none of this failed mythology matters. Because the music is coming from a very real and unique place. The intricately convoluted fantasy realm that he exists in reveals itself in vivid colors upon listening to these songs. That’s why Mirage has been compared to pop-experimentalists from the 70?s like Robert Wyatt, Van Dyke Parks, and Peter Gabriel — all of whom were known for going “beyond the song” and creating their own idiosyncratic sound-worlds. For a more contemporary point of reference Pitchfork’s Jayson Greene said that Mirage “recalls what a Grizzly Bear demo might sound like that had spent the last ten years buried in someone’s vegetable garden.” Hey everyone — grab a shovel — let’s go dig!! – Todd Ledford, Olde English Spelling Bee
File Under: Dream Pop
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Modernettes: Teen City (Sudden Death) LP
Modernettes were pop / punk phenoms from Vancouver, Canada—a city Jack Rabid of The Big Takeover magazine claims had the greatest undiscovered punk / new wave scene of the late ’70s and early ’80s. This is the first time the group’s debut release has been reissued in its original format since 1979. Produced by the legendary Bob Rock in his seminal days, Teen City delivers six classic anthems ranging from the über-catchy “Barbra” (chorus: “B-A-R-B-R-A, Barbra”) to the teen-angst-tinged “Confidential” to the cool of “Celebrity Crackup.”
File Under: Pop, Punk, CanCon
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Bobby Moore & The Rhythm Aces: Dedication of Love (Jazzman) LP
Limited numbered edition of 1000. Much is said in the mainstream media about million-selling records, yet the opposite is true of the no-hitters — the obscurities that sold badly and sank without a trace. Represented here is the bittersweet experience of a hard-working soul band that experienced the elation of a million-selling chart-topper (1965’s “Searching for My Love”), but also the dejection of a self-released flop that sold so few copies that barely a handful can still be found. The 1976 album Dedication of Love by Bobby Moore & the Rhythm Aces is that flop, and it exists in 2015 as only a handful of copies, selling for up to $2000 on the highly competitive rare soul market. This is its first ever reissue. From Jazzman’s exclusive interviews with long-standing band member Bobby Moore Jr., this reissue’s detailed liner notes tell the story of Bobby Moore & the Rhythm Aces from inception through 2015, including all the highs and lows that membership of a touring soul band can bring, as well as some spectacular, previously unseen vintage photos. The notes dig deep to find out just why this record was made, and why, despite such a wonderful array of heartfelt soul, street funk, and downhome funky blues, it became such a rarity. Part of the Jazzman Holy Grail Series.
File Under: Soul, Funk, Private Press
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Janko Nilovic: Soul Impressions (Underdog) LP
Following Underdog Records’ 2014 reissues of brilliant and underrated Montenegrin-French multi-instrumentalist and composer Janko Nilovic’s ’70s albums Pop Impressions and Super America, the label now presents a remastered reissue of Nilovic’s 1975 album Soul Impressions. Nilovic was certainly one of the great studio talents of 1970s Europe, but his prolific output was mostly released on library music labels and largely not available for sale. His compositional wizardry encompassed the styles of jazz, funk, Latin, psychedelic, easy listening, classical, and pop; these genre-blending arrangements have since become a rich source of samples for contemporary hip-hop artists, including Jay-Z, Dafuniks, and Guts.
File Under: Funk, Soul, Library
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Old Man Gloom: Meditations in B (Hydra Head) LP
Meditations in B. A simpler time. Like Pepperidge Farms, and Little House on the Prairie. Two beautiful young men (Aaron Turner and Santos Montano) set off on their own, in the peak of their sexual virility, to forge a new path in brutally sludgy, crushing, apocalyptic, post-metal, post-hardcore, pre-Y2K, post-math, pre-friendster, post-rock riffs. It was a magical time, before they added a few “session players.” Still regarded by some (mostly the guys who played on it) as Old Man Gloom’s finest hour, 2000’s Meditations in B was written in one afternoon, then recorded and mixed in just 12 hours. They also had the privilege of recording it in their home town of Santa Fe, New Mexico at Stepbridge Studios. Within months of this, they used this monumental piece of music to convince Nate Newton (Converge) to join, and once they had him, it was a little easier to convince Caleb Scofield (Cave In) to come aboard.
File Under: Metal, Cave In, Converge
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OST: Nekromantik (One Way Static) LP
One Way Static Records is proud to be bring you their latest release, a release where we had the chance to work with German visionary Jörg Buttgereit and his trio of go-to composers : Daktari Lorenz, Hermann Kopp & John Boy Walton. Nekromantik is known to be frequently controversial, banned in a number of countries, and has become an international cult film over the years due to its transgressive subject matter (including necrophilia) and audacious imagery. Daktari Lorenz, Hermann Kopp & John Boy Walton make up the holy trio of composers called upon by film maker Jörg Buttgereit. Between the three of them they produced some of the most haunting and beautiful tracks to be paired up with Buttgereit’s controversial on-screen works of art. The Nekromantik score displays the dynamic ability and range of the composers. It strikes a perfect balance of beauty, horror, joy and dissonance. The score is both minimalistic and hauntingly atmospheric at the core, and yet remarkably complex at the same time. A wide variety of instruments and sound effects are utilized throughout it’s making. Kopp wastes no time displaying his mastery of the violin, which takes center stage, captivating the listener with his powerful, rhythmic, and beautiful solos. He also uses the violin to create some of the strangest tracks on the album, significantly slowing down the rhythm, creating an ominous, off-key droning sound. Kopp is no slouch on the piano either, with a number of beautiful piano interludes that appear throughout the score. In sharp contrast are the tracks which sound as if they are from an old school industrial album. Harsh noise, clanging metal, pounding drums, synthesizers, and various sound effects come together to create a truly dark and desolate picture. The moog synthesizer, also makes a few appearances. This is an amazing collection of music that appeals to a wide variety of people. Today we bring you for the first time on vinyl and cassette the EXPANDED original 1987 motion picture soundtrack from Nekromantik.
File Under: OST, Horror
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OST: The Visitor (Mondo) LP
More Mondo! Original music composed, arranged and conducted by Franco Micalizzi.
File Under: OST, Mondo
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Pow!: Fight Fire (Castle Face) LP
POW! is re-chromed and ready to soundtrack your dystopian near future. Harsh neon synths battle with zipline guitars for space above a dark and teeming cityscape. Your guide is always in the shadows, you can’t make out his face but you hear his crazed diatribe as he wards off all affronts. Razor-sharp punk at its core, Fight Fire is fleshed out with inventive and catchy synth work—and the floating bits of atmospheric expansion between tracks only heighten the paranoid atmosphere. These tunes have a sci-fi depth, a moody bite, and a startling clarity sharpened to a point by the wizard hand of Chris Woodhouse, who helmed the magnetization. Recommended listening for future-punk teens and grown adults alike.
File Under: Punk, Garage, Electro
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Michel Redolfi: Pacific Tubular Waves/Immersion (ReGRM) LP
Packaged with 3D cover art; includes Anaglyphic 3D glasses. “Pacific Tubular Waves” (1979): Electronic music for Synclavier digital synthesizer. “The first four movements frame different visions of the energy delivered by the rolling waves as a kind of auditory surfing on the crest and into the trough of the wave (movements 1-3), followed by a high speed crossing within the tubular cyclone (4). The piece ends with easing waves at dusk… In terms of the making, ‘Pacific Tubular Waves’ is a purely electronic music, a solo performance on the first digital Synclavier synthesizer. The flexibility of its touch keys enabled me to intuitively program a sonic organic life quality with a concrete quality. Here the computer was used to magnify the texture and behavior of the oceanic material though never mimicking it.” “Immersion” (1980): Electroacoustic music for Synclavier synthesizer and underwater recordings. “Composing ‘Immersion’ started with underwater recordings using a hydrophone. After recording the shifting sands and the rolling pebbles under the breakers, I came up with the idea of dipping a sonar loudspeaker underwater to diffuse my ‘Pacific Tubular Waves’ piece (made the previous year) below the surface. The music was thus shuffled by the waves and unexpected filtering effects resulted from its passing through clouds of foam. Its dispersion at sea by currents would send back incredibly smooth harmonic echoes… The recording of this natural remixing process is the guiding thread of the piece. It is interspersed with sequences composed in the studio with the Synclavier. Alternating dry/wet, for a gradual immersion through increasingly calm and dense increments… Three-dimensional Visible Images through the glasses attached hereto. Analogous to stereo, the anaglyph graphic process consists of two left and right points view of the same object… The feeling of space is expanding proportionally to the distance of observation, from 80 cm to several meters” –Michel Redolfi. A singular figure of the electroacoustic landscape, Redolfi debuted in 1980 with Pacific Tubular Waves/Immersion on INA-GRM. Recollection GRM presents the first reissue of this record. Digital transfer by Diego Losa. Cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin, July 2014. Original 3D artwork and inner sleeve wave photo by Michel Redolfi. All other photos and portrait by Donna Cline. Sleeve and new Anaglyph 3D design by Stephen O’Malley. Anaglyphic 3D supervision by Guy Ventouillac. Coordination GRM: Christian Zanési and François Bonnet. Executive Production: Peter Rehberg.
File Under: Early Electronic, Experimental
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Charlie Rich: So Lonesome I Could Cry (Fat Possum) LP
The Hi recordings of Charlie Rich are in many ways the most reckless and adventurous of his career. In 1966 and 1967, Hi, a small Memphis label that hosted acts such as Willie Mitchell (and later Al Green) and the Bill Black Combo believed, like Sun, RCA , and Mercury before them, in Rich’s prodigious talent but had no idea where to put him categorically. Mostly here are the songs associated with Hank Williams. They are revelatory in that they reveal just how wide-ranging Rich’s vision was. Beginning with Williams’ own “My Heart Would Know,” Rich takes the songs deep into his own musical soul and, like Ray Charles before him with Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, makes them his own, turning them into timeless pop classics. Among Rich’s recordings, these 12 songs are some of the most enduring. This collection is essential for Rich fans, and something to consider for any fan of timeless, restless country-soul from the 1960s.
File Under: Country, Soul
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Run The Jewels: 2 (Mass Appeal) LP
BACK IN STOCK! Run The Jewels, the super dynamic duo of El-P and Killer Mike, two of the most distinctive and celebrated names in rap, are set to release their sophomore album, Run The Jewels 2, on Mass Appeal Records. The immensely anticipated album includes guests ranging from Zack de la Rocha to Travis Barker amongst others, but the duo maintains that the album is first and foremost about the creative partnership between the MCs themselves. As Rolling Stone notes, Run The Jewels is “two masters whose kinship clearly elevates each other’s game, in, what from the outside, looks like the platonic ideal of reverent collaboration.” Lead single “Blockbuster Night Part 1” was named “Best New Track” by Pitchfork. “We can make no promises about the safety of any animals involved in the creation of this record. It is the best rap group album since RTJ1!” – Killer Mike “We are very excited to bring you the next chapter of Run The Jewels via the good folks at Mass Appeal.” – El-P
File Under: Hip Hop
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Shlohmo: Dark Red (True Panther) LP
Dark Red is the second full-length album from Shlohmo, aka 25 year-old Los Angeles native Henry Laufer. The album is an uncanny marriage of his ever-evolving, richly textured sound with shades of 90s IDM, R&B, cassette-tape Jungle, and, in an unexpected turn, sludge metal. “It sounds like if Electric Wizard tried to make an R&B record,” he says, “or Boards of Canada meets Burzum by the River Styx.” Shlohmo’s music thus far exists in the poles between the subtle textured tracks of 2011’s Bad Vibes and the booming sinister synths and hi-hats s of his production work and remixes (split EP with Jeremih, Banks’ “Brain”, remixes for Drake + The Weeknd). Dark Red utilizes Shlohmo’s existing palate but also mines the noises and imperfections inherent in analog production and naturally damaged sounds. Side-stepping current trends that lean towards pristine, computer-generated production, Dark Red explores natural distortion, fuzz and noise as compositional tools, intentionally distressing sounds to echo the feeling of the icy menace and emotional charge found on early black metal tapes. The result is a deeply personal listen, Shlohmo’s boldest statement yet. “If Shlohmo weren’t a producer, he’d be a pyromaniac. His music, a sludgy mix of techno and electro-soul, burns slowly until it crumbles to a foggy, smoldering heap.” – Pitchfork
File Under: Electronic
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Sonic Youth: Bad Moon Rising (Goofin) LP
Sonic Youth’s second full-length LP Bad Moon Rising was originally released on Homestead and Blast First in 1985. The album is a fascinating examination of “the junction where hippie idealism [meets] the cold hard world,” says guitarist Lee Ranaldo, “where Woodstock [meets] Altamont—Death Valley, Charles Manson, Brian Wilson, musicians, murderers, heroes and villains.” Its original eight-song tapestry of droning guitar feedback, distant clattering percussion, and sullen vocals, all held together with interstitial noise loops and shadowy haze, ambles through a long, dark night before the feverish “Death Valley ’69,” driven by runaway guitar riffs and a frantic Thurston Moore / Lydia Lunch vocal duet, pounds the capstone into place. Sonic Youth’s big leap forward from Confusion Is Sex and Kill Yr Idols “reflects the spirit of the time,” to quote All Music Guide. Bad Moon Rising views “American gothic through the glassy eyes of willful moonlit paranoia.” Back in print on Goofin’ Records, this reissue includes bonus tracks “Flower” and “Halloween,” both from a 12- inch single of the same era. The sound collage morsels “Sa- tan Is Boring” and “Echo Canyon” are your cue to begin moving toward the exit and get out while you can.
File Under: Indie Rock, Post Punk, Classics
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Toro y Moi: What For? (Carpark) LP
Deluxe limited gatefold edition of 2000 on blue and white starburst vinyl with exclusive poster and sticker. Incl. Download. Opening to the scream of F1’s speeding around a racetrack, and maintaining that intensity with booming guitar riffs and psychedelic effects throughout, the forthcoming album from Toro Y Moi is definitely making a statement. Or maybe a few statements. But Chaz Bundick, the frontman and songwriter, is leaving it up to you to figure out what they are. While it is obvious that each song is crafted around a personally meaningful experience, Chaz seems to purposefully leave the lyrics just vague enough to let each listener mold it into something unique. Chaz presents you with a few themes: love, beauty, nature; and gently lets go of your hand so you can wander off on your own. A feeling of searching for something threads its way through every song on the album, which is aptly named What For? It feels contradictory in a very human way, like Chaz is swinging between waiting for something and not being able to wait anymore. But the swinging isn’t panicked or frustrated, it’s just a situation that he’s reflecting on. The songs are heavy with nostalgia, too, for simpler times, better music, more fulfilling relationships. Chaz references Weezer to warn you that “there is no one to destroy your sweater” and, in another song, recalls Big Star to declare that “rock and roll is here to stay.” It feels like he misses everything (even things he wasn’t around for yet), but is somehow excited for what comes next. What For? is a glimpse into the life of a guy trying to figure out what it all means. The music is influenced by bands like Big Star, Talking Heads, Tim Maia, Todd Rundgren, but it doesn’t quite sound like any of them in particular. And it isn’t trying to. It has that special something that Chaz imbues in every Toro Y Moi album, his personal filter on the world he experiences. So whatever message you take from the album, don’t forget that it’s good. As Chaz himself so candidly believes, “Good is good. Good finds its own audience.”
File Under: Indie Rock
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Waxahatchee: Ivy Tripp (Merge) LP
Waxahatchee, the solo musical project of Katie Crutchfield, is named after a creek not far from her childhood home in Alabama and seems to represent both where she came from and where she’s going. Ivy Tripp drifts confidently from its predecessors and brings forth a more informed and powerful recognition of where Crutchfield has currently found herself. The lament and grieving for her youth seem to have been replaced with control and sheer self-honesty. “On her group’s third and most structured album, Ivy Tripp, [Waxahatchee’s] Katie Crutchfield takes stock of circumstances, possibilities, and worries from close-up perspectives informed by first-hand experience and imagined scenarios.” —Bob Gendron, TONEAudio, April 2015 “My life has changed a lot in the last two years, and it’s been hard for me to process my feelings other than by writing songs,” says Crutchfield. “I think a running theme [of Ivy Tripp] is steadying yourself on shaky ground and reminding yourself that you have control in situations that seem overwhelming, or just being cognizant in moments of deep confusion or sadness, and learning to really feel emotions and to grow from that.” Recorded and engineered by Kyle Gilbride of Wherever Audio at Crutchfield’s home on New York’s Long Island – with drums recorded in the gym of a local elementary school – Ivy Tripp presents a more developed and aged version of Waxahatchee. “The title Ivy Tripp is really just a term I made up for directionless-ness, specifically of the 20-something, 30-something, 40-something of today, lacking regard for the complaisant life path of our parents and grandparents. I have thought of it like this: [Waxahatchee’s last album] Cerulean Salt is a solid and Ivy Tripp is a gas.”
File Under: Folk, Pop
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Various: Chicas Vol 2 (Vampisoul) LP
“Much of the music made by Spanish women in past decades didn’t reach its potential audience. Too much. For varied reasons, the more personal and daring work couldn’t break the barriers imposed by a society with a narrow and prudish view of what a woman’s role should be. This second volume of ¡Chicas! must disprove again the lie that says that in the ’60s and first half of the ’70s, Spanish female artists hardly sang anything but ye-yé, singer-songwriter, copla, or romantic songs. Despite all the social determinants and repressive archetypes which stigmatized anyone who left the queue, the most courageous women began their paths in new music roles which they immediately considered their own… Whether it was as solo artists or as part of a band, along with men or other women, the real turning point for our more groundbreaking pop female singers at the time was their ability to associate. Suddenly, breaking the isolation that until then considered them mere instruments in the hands of men, those daring girls got involved in ambitious projects and tried to do it by themselves, obtaining a normality denied until then. Exquisite experiences of select avant-garde, brave examples of groove and funk or adventures in ’70s rock; of course, there were also incursions in twist, bossa, ska, soul, or the emerging gipsy rock trend… The tracks featured here are the proofs of this wonder, and the line-up of female artists that make this record possible — many of them sadly unknown or forgotten until now — are the wonderful and still relevant cast of this story” –Vicente Fabuel. Many of these tracks, originally released between 1963 and 1978, are reissued here for the first time, including very hard-to-find records. CD and double LP include extensive liner notes by Vincente Fabuel featuring all of the original record sleeves and artist photos. Includes tracks by Claudya Con Ramón y Sus Showmen, Donna Hightower, Claudine Coppin, Blanca Aurora, Ana Kiro, Marina, Elsa Baeza, Antón García Abril, Edda Dell’Orso, La Nueva Generación, Elia y Elizabeth, Satin Bells, Karina Con los Jaguars, Rocío Durcal, Sola, Las Trillizas de Oro, Bárbara, Los Quandos, Los Jolly’s, Anabella y los Platinos, The Zara’s, La Llave 3, Paloma San Basilio, Morena y Clara, Alicia Granados, Los Cenits, Las Chic, Los Unísonos, and Elia Fleta.
File Under: Spanish, Vocalists
Various: French Disco Boogie Sounds 1975-1984 (Favorite) LP
French label Favorite Recordings follows up with focus a on its native language. With assistance from a close connoisseur friend, DJ and collector Charles Maurice presents a fine selection of tracks that, in his estimation, best represent the amazing energy of a specific French movement from 1975 to 1984. With ten rare titles, he paints a perfect picture of what one could find in French record stores at that time. On one hand, tracks by Over Drive, Marché Noir, Didier Makaga, and France Lise were produced by underground artists and labels from the French Caribbean and African community and filled with a raw, tropical spirit. On the other hand, tracks by Beckie Bell, Kelly, Le Club, and Bernard Guyvan were released by major labels such as Trema, Carrere, Disques Vogue, and Pathé Marconi, thanks to confirmed independent producers working not only in France, but also in Canada and the US. Today, Favorite Recordings and Charles Maurice are very proud to shed some light on these gems, and offer them a new life on your turntable. Also includes tracks by Contessa and Toulouse.
File Under: Disco, Boogie
…..Record Store Day Late Arrivals & Restocks…..
Death Cab For Cutie: Kintsugi (Atlantic) CS
Koes Barat: s/t (Sub Pop) LP
Heartbreakers: Live At Max’s (Universal) LP
Hollerado: 111 Songs (Universal) 7″
Joan Jett: Flashback (Universal) LP
Arto Lindsay: Encyclopedia of (Northern Spy) LP
Placebo: s/t (Universal) LP
Residents: Intermission (Music on Vinyl) LP
Tough Age: Plays Cub (Mint) 7″
TV On The Radio: Trouble Double (Universal) LP
In Next week….
Black Star: Fix Up 7″
Neko Case: Fox Confessor.. (Anti) LP
Dead Milkmen: Beelzebubba (Asbestos) LP
Immortal Technique: Revolutionary Vol 1 LP
Sharon Jones: Little Boys With Shiny Toys (Daptone) 7″
Mighty Mighty Bosstones: Question The Answers (Asbestos) LP
Elvis Presley: My Happiness (Third Man) 10″
Sun Ra: Planets of Life & Death (Strut) LP
Various: Creation Artifacts (Creation) 10×7″ Box
Various: Truth & Soul 2015 Forecast (Truth & Soul) 10″
…..Restocks…..
A Tribe Called Quest: Beats, Rhymes & Life (Jive) LP
Alessandro Alessandroni: Industrial (Dead Cert) LP
Arcade Fire: Reflektor (Sonovox) LP
Black Keys: Turn Blue (Nonesuch) LP
Black Keys: Brothers (Nonesuch) LP
Black Keys: El Camino (Nonesuch) LP
Black Keys: Magic Potion (Nonesuch) LP
Black Keys: Attack & Release (Nonesuch) LP
Charles Bradley: Victim of Love (Daptone) LP
Can: Ege Bamyasi (Mute) LP
John Coltrane: Blue Train (Blue Note) LP
Cure: Disintegration (Elektra) LP
D’angelo: Black Messiah (RCA) LP
Daft Punk: Homework (EMI) LP
Daft Punk: Discovery (EMI) LP
Daft Punk: Human After All (EMI) LP
Karen Dalton: In My Own Time (Light in the Attic) LP
Miles Davis: Kind of Blue (Columbia) LP
Miles Davis: Bitches Brew (Music on Vinyl) LP
Gong: Camemebert Electrique (Snapper) LP
Guided By Voices: Bee Thousand (Scat) LP
Led Zeppelin: Houses of the Holy (Warner) LP
Led Zeppelin: II (Warner) LP
Led Zeppelin: III (Warner) LP
Led Zeppelin: Physical Graffiti (Warner) DLX LP
Modest Moust: Lonesome Crowded West (Glacial Pace) LP
Mos Def: Black on Both Sides LP
OST: Under The Skin (Milan) LP
Popol Vuh: Kailash (Soul Jazz) 2LP+DVD
Portishead: Dummy (Island) LP
Radiohead: Kid A (Parlophone) 2×10″
Radiohead: Ok Computer (Parlophone) LP
Radiohead: Hail to the Thief (Parlophone) LP
Radiohead: Pablo Honey (Parlophone) LP
Sleep: Dopesmoker (Southern Lord) LP
Squadra Omega: Il Serpente (Holidays) LP
Taylor Swift: 1989 (Big Machine) LP