Well, thanks again UPS for delivering half a shipment today. At least it’s only Thursday, so we should see the rest of it tomorrow. Anyway, LOTS of great stuff this week. Already out of our meager supply of the new Sleep, hopefully we’ll get more very soon. Arctic Monkeys is in, but Beach House is likely going to be late. Lots of neat little piles of used stuff coming in lately too. We’re pricing up as quickly as we can. Come, dig, buy. And thanks to everyone who came out to the show last week. A good time was had by all!
….picks of the week…..
Sarah Davachi: Let Night Come On Bells End The Day (Recital) LP
In tomorrow… Recital present the newest record by Canadian composer Sarah Davachi. Currently working on her PhD in Musicology at UCLA, her trajectory has been unorthodox. Hailing from Calgary, Alberta, which, if you’ve never been there, doesn’t really scream “avant-garde” (Calgary is the rodeo capital of the world). It is important and interesting that she chose to study esoteric music; as Sarah could have easily been a cowgirl or a concert pianist had her ingrained love of synthesis and sonic phenomenology not taken the wheel. There are few people that have the diligence and resolve to take their time with music… especially in a live context. Recital label head Sean McCann: “The first time I saw Sarah perform, I presumptuously told her that her music reminded me of my favorite Mirror albums (the exceptional project of Andrew Chalk and Christoph Heemann). Sarah was not familiar with Mirror, so the compliment was initially lost on her. Years back I was in the same situation when a review compared my music to Andrew Chalk, who was unknown to me at the time. So I felt a kinship in our magnetic drift towards unspoken and clustered beauty.” Let Night Come On Bells End The Day follows the release of her “sound-wheel” LP All My Circles Run, which examines the isolation of different instruments. Let Night Come On, recorded mainly with a Mellotron and electronic organ, feels like a return to the nest. Burrowed in the studio, Davachi was the only performer on this album. She both splays her compositional architecture and re-contextualizes the essence of her early output. She chiseled careful and shadowed hymns; anchors of emotion. Two pillars of this album are “Mordents”, which may hints of her love for progressive rock music — and “Buhrstone”, comparable to a somber funeral march of piano and flutes. These two examine punctuations of early music, gently plucking melodies and movements. The three other compositions are tonal works, blowing slow jets of lapping harmonics. Includes three 9″x9″photo-prints by Davachi; Includes CD; First edition of 600.
File Under: Ambient, Drone
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Roberto Musci/Giovanni Venosta: Urban & Tribal Portraits (Soave) LP
Peter Sarram on the release: “While a number of the recordings that comprise this particular work have been (relatively) available — through a ReR anthology that also included tracks from the other Musci/Venosta collaboration, Water Messages On Desert Sand (1987) as well as some integrated in the Music From Memory compilation, Tower Of Silence (MFM 014LP, 2016), released under Musci’s name only this is indeed the first time one can listen to this fundamental work as it was meant to be heard. . . . Urban And Tribal Portraits reaffirms the idea of postmodern pastiche as a multimedia multisensory experience and sound as an ecosystem that is both aleatory and concrete, ephemeral and durable. In these binary paradoxes, a radical notion of the nature of collaboration, that is both chance induced and conversely conceptually worked out, is also established. . . . Urban And Tribal Portraits re-politicizes the notion of pastiche, engaging as it does in a kind of eco-practice, turning the process rather than the musical object into the poetic focus of the work. . . . Like much Italian experimental music from that magical decade of the ’80s this is not your dad’s fourth world music, with all of its ambiguous aestheticism of ‘unifying’ some not so well-defined primitivism of ‘world ethnic styles’ with the futuristic sounds of whatever ‘advanced electronic techniques’ were the platter du jour. In this sound the 8-bits of the E-Mu Emax is as primitive as the Jews Harp while the electronically treated Pygmy chants turn out to be as futuristic as the multi-timbral capacities of the OB-8. From the funk ostinatos of ‘El Lamento De Los Ayatollah’ where Venosta showcases his straight piano playing to the rarefied queer guitar arpeggios in ‘Tamatave’, the peaceful ripples in ‘Dialogue Between A Dreamer And Others’, the playfulness of ‘Starfish & Kangaroos’ or the post-punkish This Heat/Cabaret Voltaire aggression in ‘The Fear Of A Soldier’ this is destabilization as praxis, a shifting of the ground. . . . A DIY bricolage: a de-structuring of everyday sound objects towards new uses fed by local eco-situated experiences, transformative of performance and listening. Surrealist ‘musicking’ indeed.”
File Under: World, Electronic, Ambient, Experimental
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…..new arrivals…..
Maurizio Abate: Standing Waters (Black Sweat) LP
In tomorrow… With Standing Waters Maurizio Abate recovers the discourse started with Loneliness Desire And Revenge but with a different narrative sensitivity. The symbolic air that you breathe suggests a personal and universal experience in which thoughts and perceptions remain as enveloped in an eternal cosmic wheel. It’s a condition that flows sincerely into an emphatic introspection and identification between the stasis of an inner soul and the flowing vitality of stagnant aquatic landscapes. In this direction the music of Abate always condenses multiple ranges of different emotional spectra evoked by profound naturalistic references. The airy openings of the strings, the distant whispers of the harmonica, cascades of phrasings calmer or more torrential can lead into the magnificent climax of nostalgia. The string arrangement for violin and cello by Lucia Gasti introduces in a dimension of idyll, in elegiac passages of touching poetry almost of chamber music but at the same time wet by the pastoral and bucolic moods of autumn landscapes; they are paintings imbued with different flavors and colors that recall the light and the candor of the Venetian tones or the moving paintings full of meaning. In the darkest and saddest moments, the open chords are like suspensions of unresolved questions and torments, but the cathartic finale with a free and minimalist piano prelude to possible future glares, almost alludes to the idea that even where there’s stasis the sun can still shine the hope for the new on the clearing of the pond. There remains the feeling with that stylistic “freedom of expression”, dear to the visionaries Fahey and Basho, but there is also a clear interpretation of the expressive possibility of the lead guitar, absolutely lyrical and contemporary for refinement of the crystalline sound, which places this work in parallel with the basic acoustic tests of others great like Jim O’Rourke, Jack Rose, or James Blackshaw.
File Under: Guitar, Psych, Folk
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Arctic Monkeys: Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino (Domino) LP
Arctic Monkeys return with their sixth album, entitled Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino. Produced by longtime collaborator James Ford and frontman Alex Turner, the highly anticipated 11-track effort was recorded in Los Angeles, Paris and London. Their first release since 2013’s massively successful AM finds the band intent on continuing to explore new musical terrain with each album. Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino ups the ante in a big way; it is a bold and brilliant album reflecting Turner’s ever more comprehensive creative vision. LP includes the album on 180 gram heavyweight vinyl housed in a gatefold sleeve; a 16 page booklet; and a download card.
File Under: Indie Rock
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Jorge Ben: Tropical (Oficial Arquivos) LP
In tomorrow… “One of Brazil’s greatest songwriters, Jorge Ben rarely dwelled on any particular musical style, even the ones he helped create. By the mid 1970s, Ben had already innovated several groundbreaking new twists on the classic samba sound, in the process creating many tunes that became epoch-defining hits for South America’s biggest country — not to mention the world at large. For 1977’s Tropical, he made the controversial decision to rework an album’s worth of his most beloved songs in the new, disco and funk influenced Afro-Samba style he was exploring at the time. As a result, classics like ‘Chove Chuva,’ ‘Taj Mahal,’ and ‘Mas Que Nada’ get polished updates, alongside deeper rarities like ‘Georgia’and ‘Jesus de Praga,’ making Tropical a sensual, sultry counterpoint to other Jorge Ben collections.”
File Under: Brasil, Samba
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The Body: I Have Fought Against It… (Thrill Jockey) LP
With each release, the duo of Lee Buford and Chip King continue to defy the constraints of what it means to be a “heavy” band, seamlessly combining composition or production approaches from hip hop, pop, classical, as well as rock and electronica resulting in a rich and utterly singular sound. On I Have Fought Against It, But I Can’t Any Longer The Body challenged themselves again by turning their compositional approach on its head, choosing to build the record on their own samples rather than recording the basic tracks of drums and guitars and processing those. The results carry the listener towards the brink of emotional and musical extremes. I Have Fought Against It… conjures the sublime from an unexpected and incomparable variety of sounds. The Body are known for their intense, abrasive live shows, whose waves of dissonance create an abiding dread or an overwhelming sense of terror. They create a volume of sound almost unfathomable from a duo and are unaffected by instrument choice: guitar and drums, or keyboard and synthesizers. Inventive producers, the duo expand their recorded sound palate with regular contributions from the likes of Chrissy Wolpert (Assembly of Light Choir), and Ben Eberle (Sandworm), arranged with help of longtime engineers Seth Manchester and Keith Souza (Machines With Magnets). Wolpert’s ethereal calls and Eberle’s vicious growl are augmented by Lingua Ignota’s Kristin Hayter, whose impassioned voice features on the viscerally emotional “Nothing Stirs.” On “Sickly Heart Of Sand,” vocal trade-offs between King and Hayter’s are punctuated with the howls of Uniform’s Michael Berdan. With The Body’s keen sense of balance, the ferociousness of these extreme performances are underpinned by the elegance of string swells and pensive, even melodies from a lone piano. For The Body, any source of inspiration is fair game to achieve their distinct atmosphere of unbearable dread, pain, and sadness. “Partly Alive” places rolling drum figures, commonly found in pop, and transforms them with a backdrop of horns, skittering synthetic hi hats, and pitched feedback. The oppressive groove of “An Urn” pulls beat arrangement and melodic ideas from disparate electronic influences. Their eclectic sampling choices are both musical and literary from singjay star Eek-A-Mouse to a reading of Bohumil Hrabal to the Clarice Lispector quote on the album’s artwork and beyond. The album title, an excerpt of Virginia Woolf’s suicide letter, is an apt moniker for the pervasive themes of loss, desperation and loneliness throughout. Carefully selected samples and literary references bolster the album’s emotional heft. I Have Fought Against It, But I Can’t Any Longer proves how truly adventurous and diverse a creative force The Body has become. The Body continue to push the boundaries and definition of what is heavy music, their ingenuity unparalleled.
File Under: Metal
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Boli Group: NPDS (Posh Isolation) LP
Boli Group is a new ensemble spearheaded by Copenhagen-based composer and producer Asger Hartvig. Responsible for some of the most fearless and intriguing works to come from the city in recent years, Hartvig is as imposing as he is mysterious, and his debut release for Posh Isolation makes no concessions. Hartvig is perhaps best known for his work with the group Synd Og Skam. And though less known, Brynje 1&2 is just as exceptional. Taking both technology and classicism as allegories, each group charts routes in and out of pop music, somehow arriving at an observer’s distance to the distinct stylistic choices in the process. The label Visage has published the best of this, and the logic has certainly been carried into Boli Group LP, the latest offering from Hartvig and his distinguished ensemble of Nina Cristante, Holger Hartvig, Thea Thorborg, and Cæcilie Trier. N.P.D.S. is willingly dramatic, though it never plateaus into melancholia. Hartvig pirouettes at the edge with the sorrowful string arrangements and the pristine timbre of the piano, the immediacy of the acoustics always binding the listener tightly to the risk. Pastoral and meditative, the electronics don’t tamper with the delicate fabric being woven. They always register as supportive and understated. The synthetic hum, occasionally yielding a doleful melody as it does, manages to imbue a naiveté to this contemporary and subtly idiosyncratic chamber music. The album’s secret, barely kept through the minimalism, is its distinct folk noir quality in holding it.
File Under: Experimental, Chamber
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Juri Camisasca: Evoluzione Interiore (Black Sweat) LP
Four long and vaporous unreleased tracks that document the Juri Camisasca’s first mystical afflatus, bringing to light the moments of “collective meditation” of some events in 1978, including the recordings drawn from the exhibition “L’evoluzione interiore dell’Uomo”, which took place at the Villa Reale in Monza. After his participation in the Telaio Magnetico project in 1975, and in parallel to his contribution in works like Franco Battiato’s Juke Box (1978) and Lino Capra Vaccina’s Antico Adagio (1978), and in Raul Lovisoni and Francesco Messina’s Prati Bagnati Del Monte Analogo (1979), a more general syntony of Camisasca for different aspects of Eastern philosophies seemed to conceive his first personal form of music as a “celestial ocean” in which to break the eternal divine love. The mantra nature of deep drones of a natural reverberated harmonium literally introduce you to another level of consciousness; harmonic chants of dhrupad inspiration expanding the ethereal voice in the transcendental plot of all, while Roberto Mazza’s oboe intervenes to paint this perfect osmotic sound echoing motifs of ancient medieval saltarello. For Camisasca, “the vibration of sound is something primordial which contains the mystery of creation”; and in this sense “the musician is a medium through which the Nature is expressed”. This makes Evoluzione Interiore an intense minimalist work where singing generates a universal and archetypical spiral of purity and candor that suggests the Pandit Pran Nath’s lesson as well as dialogues in concept with the mutability flux of seminal works as Terry Riley’s Persian Surgery Dervishes (1972), Peter Michael Hamel’s The Voice of Silence (1973) and Nada (1977), or with research on the overtones as that of Roberto Laneri’s Prima Materia. Includes liner notes with archival photos.
File Under: Experimental, Drone
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The Caretaker: Everywhere at the End of Time Stage 4 (History Always Favours the Winners) LP
In tomorrow… The Caretaker slips beyond recognition in the first “post awareness” stage of Everywhere At The End Of Time. The ability to recall singular memories gives way to confusions and horror. It’s the beginning of an eventual process where all memories begin to become more fluid through entanglements, repetition, and rupture. Though the metaphoric device of worn-down ballroom 78s and Jack Nicholson’s descent into madness in The Shining (1980), The Caretaker connotes the transitory cognitive breakdown of moderate into severe late stage dementia. Memories of the good times are recollected in glitching pyknoleptic flashes as the music struggles to follow consistent lines of thought, instead fluctuating between a fractured mosaic of ideas and elusive emotive gestures, but still occasionally able to gather coherent thoughts. In aesthetic, the sieve-like mind state of Stage 4 vacillates a serene sort of psychedelia with utterly paranoid and petrifying mental subsidence. Smudged traces of sublimated musical hall memories give way to shocking tracts of atonality and discord with runaway rhythmic logic, perpetually tumbling farther into states of mind perhaps best compared with K-Hole-like dimensions or the babble of after-hours psychonautic journeys. The concision of previous stages is here replaced with wandering, side-long tracts. Three of those are titled “Post Awareness Confusions” and correspondingly explore and reflect agitated, irritable mindsets as they navigate an ephemeral, confusing complexity of structures. The other piece is called “Temporary Bliss State” and starkly contrasts the other parts in a coherently lush traverse of ambient crackle and glittering melody… Artwork by Ivan Seal. Mastered and cut by Lupo. Double-LP comes in gatefold sleeve.
File Under: Ambient, Ballroom
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Chaines: The King (Slip) LP
The King is a remarkably absorbing collection of abstract torch songs by Cee Haines, aka Chaines, a Manchester-based artist in possession of a starkly singular sonic language, who has collaborated extensively with the London Contemporary Orchestra and had their work performed at The Roundhouse, Union Chapel, Printworks, and Tate Modern. Leading a thematic expansion of Chaines’s OST (2015), their second solo release yields a phantasmic and richly evocative soundtrack-esque series of works written over the past three years, including exclusive versions of their commissions by the London Contemporary Orchestra and Union Chapel, all serving to frame an intimate yet beautifully elusive portrait of a unique artist coming into their own. In eight parts, Chaines draws a mercurial line that connects the almost bestial intimacy of purring strings and whispered vocals in “For Your Own Good” to something like Scott Walker-invoking-Fantasia in “Eraserhead”, conjuring a mutably surreal and mystic atmosphere that keeps listeners teetering between knife-edge suspense and sublime relief as they scale from delectably detailed avant-garde psychedelia in “Knockturning” to a bout of Grouper-as-spectral-jazz diva styles of Population 5120, and all in a way that makes the exploded hyaline castles in the sky dimensions of Airship seem totally feasible next to the cavernous avant-techno impulses of Carpathia. Never following a linear path, Chaines is as likely to incorporate doom-laced chamber motifs and asymmetric techno rhythms as operatic vocals and microscopic sounds, always with a sensitivity to the metaphysics of space and spirit which coolly sets their work apart. Held up beside Slip’s celebrated recent releases, Chaines find themselves amid exemplary, boundary-morphing company, whose diversity finds a common strength in the will to express something of a pathos beyond easy comprehension, yet which can be felt and understood immediately and instinctively by anyone with an open mind and a thirst for the new. Artwork by Chaines. Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi.
File Under: Electronic, Experimental
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Deuter: Princess of Dawn (Black Sweat) LP
Private press library recordings of the early ’70s. Together with Florian Fricke and Peter Michael Hamel, Deuter is certainly mainly responsible for the fruitful encounters between European sensibility and Eastern aesthetics in the German music of the 1970s. Soundtrack was originally produced by Kuckuck in 1973 not for an official and public release, but as a “library” recording to be used for films, TV, and radio. As a library recording. it respects the canonical and typological structure of the genre with 26 short sonic fragments, sequences imagined and conceived like fulminating illuminations. There’s still a solid electronic vocation that, however, has put aside the most disruptive effluvia of D (1971) of pure “kraut” ancestry. In fact, the album is more like an ideal passing bridge between some ritual instances of the previous Aum (1972) and the following successful phase of Deuter during the period when he stays in the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh’s ashram in Poona realizing, in parallel to a renewed inner life, masterpieces like Celebration (1976), Haleakala (1978), Ecstasy (1979), and Silence Is The Answer (1981). Musically speaking, Soundtrack presents itself as a heterogeneous work with nocturnal, cinematic, galactic and atmospheric-environmental implications. Electronics remains the predominant factor but can vary from mantra drones of more ceremonial and meditative “space-relax” tones of some tracks (“Triad”, “Deep Sea”, “Gothic Velvet”, or “Evening”) to the most amused formulations of pulsating analog synths that in the hands of Deuter become “toy-equipment” to modulate and explore (“Desert Rock”, “Synth Effect”, “Flea Dance”, or “Laser”). There is no lack of acoustic moments more ethnically inspired with Arabian and Indian (“Reed”, “Arabia”) or devotionally solar themes (“Tom Bombaddils Dance”), evoking an air of diffuse peace then completely conquered in the beloved India.
File Under: Ambient, New Age, Library
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Distant Animals: Lines (Hallow Ground) LP
Distant Animals is the artistic output of Daniel Alexander Hignell, a researcher and sound, video, and performance artist from England. He has recorded, written, performed, and researched numerous socially-oriented sound works across Europe, often choosing to work with a diverse range of collaborators, including visual artists, choreographers, theologians, lawyers, and political activists. Drawing upon the works of La Monte Young, Morton Feldman, Eleh, and Mauricio Kagel, Lines employs a highly conceptual approach to its genre, incorporating the notion of the drone as both a compositional method, a spiritual approach, and a participatory tool for engaging its audience. The album contains a pack of four postcards, documenting a land-art intervention undertaken during the creation of the score. Included in each pack is an individually hand-stamped and numbered print, created by artist Layla Tully. 180 gram vinyl.
File Under: Ambient, Drone, Minimalism
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Dwarfs of East Agouza: Rats Don’t Eat Synthesizers (Akuphone) LP
Akuphone in collaboration with Annihaya present Rats Don’t Eat Synthesizers, the long-awaited second album by The Dwarfs Of East Agouza. Hailing from the Agouza district of Cairo, Egypt, this brilliant trio consists of Alan Bishop (acoustic bass, alto sax), Maurice Louca (keyboards, drum machine), and Sam Shalabi (electric guitar). Following their acclaimed first album Bes, this new full-length is composed of two hypnotic journeys: “Rats Don’t Eat Synthesizers” and “Ringa Mask Koshary” which were recorded in Cairo in September of 2015. Mesmerizing electric guitar parts, frenetic beats, both supported by the deep sound of Alan’s acoustic bass create a new magical Egyptian soundscape. LP comes in a beautiful hot-foil stamped sleeve that magnifies the red metallic rats and a wonderful printed inner sleeve; Includes download code. 33 RPM. Edition of 1000.
File Under: Jazz, Egypt, Sun City Girls
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Electronic Modular Orchestra: s/t (Soave) LP
Electronic Modular Orchestra: from Neil Young to Stravinsky. Curiosity is the element that allowed the birth of this project. Gabriele Bombardini, Nicola Peruch, Matteo Scaioli, and Max Vicinelli are musicians who have decades of experience in all fields of music. The desire to combine seemingly distant sounds such as the use of old analog synthesizers, a pedal steel that recalls the American folk tradition, and the modular synthesis that leads back to the so-called concrete musical research, was the challenge to face. Freedom of expression, contemporary quotations, improvisation, Stravinsky, Bartok, Reich, psychedelic rock, jazz, all that is musical emotion is taken as a stimulus for this research.
File Under: Electronic, Experimental
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Miguel Flores: Primitivo (Buh) LP
In tomorrow… Miguel Flores is, alongside musicians such as Arturo Ruiz Del Pozo, Luis David Aguilar, or Manongo Mujica, one of the most important representatives of that period that spans from mid-70s to mid-80s, when experimenting musically in Peru united modern composing techniques of avant-garde music and the search of the sounds of mother land. A drummer turned into a multi instrument player, who began by playing rock from mid ’60s on, with groups such as The Loop’s, Thee Image, and most pointedly with PAX, iconic hard rock band of the ’70s, Miguel Flores tackled Peruvian folk music by 1974 with his group Ave Acustica, which included non-conventional musical techniques into their performances. Those were times when folk music was widely promoted, as a consequence of the policies of Juan Velasco Alvarado’s nationalistic policies. The appearance of the Talleres de la Canción Popular, headed by Celso Garrido Lecca, in 1974, was decisive to brood a new generation of folk and new song groups. In this environment, and after leaving PAX, Miguel Flores goes deep into his interests in folk and sound experiments as well as free jazz, his attempts to fuse what was considered could not be fused, being rejected by all sides equally. Upon his return to Lima, after an intense tour to Japan in 1980, Miguel Flores was commissioned by choreographer Luciana Proaño to write the score for her new contemporary performance Mitos Y Mujeres. Miguel Flores called Corina Bartra, Arturo De La Cruz, Manuel Miranda, and Aberlardo Oquendo to play the music which brought together folklore and psychedelia, free jazz, electronics, tribal music and ashaninka chants. A hypnotic sound stretches a bridge between ancient and avant-garde, the spirit of psychedelic rock, free jazz and pure sound experimentation. The studio recording of what was the score for Mitos Y Mujeres was kept away for more than 30 years. Now finally has its first edition on LP. This LP is part of Buh Records’ Sounds Essentials Collection, curated by Luis Alvarado.
File Under: Experimental, World, Improv
Jan Jelinek & Computer Soup: Improvisations & Edits (Faitiche) LP
Faitiche present the first vinyl issue of Improvisations And Edits, Tokyo 26.09.2001, originally released on CD in 2002 on Soup-Disk. Jan Jelinek and the Japanese trio Computer Soup (Satoru Hori – trumpet; Osamu Okubo – toys and electronics; Kei Ikeda – toys and electronics) present eight tracks, all recorded one afternoon in the trio’s living room in Tokyo. They are excerpts from a joint group improvisation that subsequently underwent rudimentary editing, on which Jelinek and Computer Soup worked separately. Jelinek met the three musicians at his first concert in Japan in 2001, at Tokyo’s Yellow club, where Computer Soup performed as the support act. Delighted by their free improvisation on pocket-sized electronic toys, trumpet, and oscillators, he arranged to meet Hori, Okubo, and Ikeda a few days later for a session at their apartment. The resulting three-hour recording formed the basis for Improvisations And Edits. A few days later, Jelinek returned to Berlin. Over the following months, they separately chose passages from the recording that were then edited and assembled into an album. Formed in Tokyo in 1996 as a quintet (including Shusaku Hariya and Daisuke Oishi), Computer Soup began by performing with acoustic instruments on the streets of Shibuya. Ikeda und Okubo soon switched instruments, and from then on, the group’s minimalistic but densely woven sound was defined by electronic toys, oscillators and Satoru Hori’s trumpet. Includes download code; Edition of 500.
File Under: Electronic
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Jan Jelinek: Zwischen (Faitiche) LP
Faitiche release a short version of the radio play Zwischen (German for “between”). Devised and produced by Jan Jelinek for German public broadcaster SWR2, Zwischen brings together twelve sound poetry collages using interview answers by public figures. Each collage consists of the brief moments between the spoken words: silences, pauses for breath, and hesitations in which the interviewees utter non-semantic sound particles. These voice collages also control a synthesizer, creating electronic sounds that overlay and merge with the voices to make twelve acoustic structures. We all know the speaker’s fate: you falter, you mispronounce, there are breaks, silences, and false starts. This results in delays, a language noise compared by Roland Barthes to the knocks made by a malfunctioning motor. Such gaps can be disconcerting, standing as they do for a failure of the speaker’s rhetorical skills. But what happens when they become a constitutive, poetic factor? Zwischen consists of twelve answers to twelve questions. The answers were all recorded in interview situations. From the speech of the interviewees — all eloquent public figures — the pauses are extracted and edited together. The result is a series of sound collages of silence. But this silence is deceptive, as it is only meaning that falls silent. What remains audible is an archaic body language: modes of breathing, planning phases, seething word particles in search of sense that can break out into onomatopoeic tumult or drift off into sonorous noise. In a further step, each of the twelve collages controls a modular synthesizer via its amplitude and frequency. Supposedly defective speech acts conduct synthetic sounds and the speakers regain their composure — not via the spoken word, but through sound. The opening questions in the various interviews are answered by: Alice Schwarzer, John Cage, Hubert Fichte, Slavoj Zizek, Joseph Beuys, Lady Gaga, Ernst Jandl, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Marcel Duchamp, Friederike Mayröcker, Yoko Ono, and Max Ernst. Jelinek extends his thanks to Frank Halbig and SWR2. Includes download code; Edition of 500.
File Under: Electronic
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Ragnar Johnson: Crying Bamboos (Idealogic Organ) LP
In tomorrow… Crying Bamboos is a translation of the pidgin description of the sound of sacred flutes: “Mambu i cry, i cry, i cry”. Sacred flutes are blown to make the cries of spirits by adult men in the Madang region of Papua New Guinea. Pairs of long bamboo male and female flutes are played for ceremonies in the coastal villages near the Ramu River. There are seven male initiation flute cries from Bosmun, four flute cries from Bak: Borai with occasional single garamut percussion and two flute cries from Kaean, one with vocals and hand drums. The flute players were of the last generation to have learned this skill during a complete cycle of male initiation. These previously unreleased recordings were made by Ragnar Johnson in 1979. Notes by Ragnar Johnson and Jessica Mayer; Photographs by Ragnar Johnson. Tape to digital transfer and mastering by Dave Hunt at Dave Hunt Audio, London; Cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates and Mastering, Berlin.
File Under: World, Field Recordings
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Sugai Ken: Tele-n-Tech-Da (Discrepant) LP
Japanese artist Sugai Ken presents a kaleidoscopic radio play inspired by the traditional Japanese art of Mingei. In Sugai Ken’s own words: “In recent years I have been researching old Japanese culture and customs in order to deepen my musical production. I am still excited to find that there are many untouched roots yet to be discovered which only motivates me to pursuit my research further. As I dig deeper, I’m always struck with the general idea that ‘everything has its own ground’, otherwise known as rigid ideas and concepts. Indeed, it is important to have a clear ground to explore things from. Especially as our times are overloaded with too much information, things which are spoon fed to us will always be short lived, so for me it becomes a case of those rigid ideas becoming less flexible. One of the many benefits of computer music is being able to separate it from history/traditions and allowing you to simply enjoy mixing sounds and concepts, regardless of its original meaning. By being free from ‘having to’ make sense we can make creation much more enjoyable. When I made this album I put my priority in freedom, rather than being stuck with those rigid ideas and concepts. This way I could really enjoy and get deep into the ‘mixology’ of it all. Like my other works, Japanese is always a fundamental motif and I envision it like an imaginary radio drama by adding spontaneous dialogs throughout. I will be happy if listeners pay attention to these (and other) details and enjoy listening to my work.” Artwork by Evan Crankshaw. Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker. Edition of 500.
File Under: Electronic
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Will Long/DJ Sprinkles: Purple/Blue (Comatonse) 2LP
We live in an era when “change” is a soundbite to sell more of the same old ideas, and “revolution” has more to do with social trends than social change. Will Long’s deep house debut on Terre Thaemlitz’s Comatonse Recordings examines that pack of lies dubbed “change” from the sweaty dancefloor, sounding the aftermath of failure around attempts at equality in “progressive” societies. Made with a simple setup of rhythm composer percussion, polyphonic synth chords, and rack sampler vocals, these tracks have a minimal rawness that contends we’ve been wrong the whole time about how far the US — and the world — has come. Although they are sonically unlike anything Long has produced as Celer or his other aliases for minimal and ambient experimental audio, they share a stripped-yet-full sound that reacts against overproduction — within the dance music industry, and societies at large. DJ Sprinkles’ overdubbed contributions quite literally and psycho-acoustically resonate that intention, tactfully rending a farther, lush physicality and soulfulness through deftly applied daubs of glutinous sub-bass pressure, airy strings, and subtly shimmering FX, really bringing Long’s tracks to life in a whole other dimension; and via disciplined, stripped-down, full-bodied production values that rank as perhaps the deepest productions yet in the Sprinkles’ canon. They could be taken as a call for humbleness and meditative efficiency over cliched buildups and preening vanities, perhaps a comment on “deep” house as the equivalent of a fresh tattoo or sweatshop t-shirt slogan. Because, you know, it really does stand for a lot more. Tsuji Aiko has provided illustrations of the activists sampled featured on the front and back covers. Mastered by Terre Thaemlitz, cut by Dubplates & Mastering.
File Under: House, Electronic
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Will Long/DJ Sprinkles: Mint/Clay (Comatonse) LP
You may still be dazed from the first volume (C 026-1EP), but Will Long and DJ Sprinkles have already cued up their second session, with Mint / Clay landing on Terre Thaemlitz’s Comatonse Recordings. The format and aesthetic remains the same as Purple / Blue, namely two raw pieces by Will Long, backed with overdubs by Sprinkles, amounting to the deepest house this side of Larry Heard’s nuclear love bunker, all subtly executed and held up as a comparison to the aesthetics and intentions (or, ironically, the excess and lack of) of that sound in relief of current, conceptually-detached takes on the original, queer NYC deep house sound which Sprinkles was instrumental in shaping as a downtown DJ during that formative era. Again, Will Long, who’s best known for his experimental ambient work as Celer, proves that it ain’t what you’ve got but what you know and can do with it that matters. “Under-Currents” places sparing samples of T.R.M. Howard — a mentor of Jesse Jackson and founder of Mississippi’s Regional Council of Negro Leadership — amidst a dream sequence of carbonated hi-hats and lingering chords urged by a plump bass drum, whilst “Get In & Stay In” nods to civil right activist and current Georgia congressional representative John Lewis in a lush haze of crepuscular chromatics and loping swing. DJ Sprinkles goes on to contribute another pair of incredible overdubs, lending Long’s minimal elements a richer, fleshlier feel, whether with additional breakbeats, or nimbly lowering the bass and layering up spirited flutes and Rhodes. Quite crucially, the concept never gets in the way of the music, perfectly demonstrating the symbiotic nature of the music and politics in the way they most likely intended, especially for the DJs, dancers, and promoters who act as gatekeepers for this music. Tsuji Aiko has provided illustrations of the activists sampled featured on the front and back covers. Mastered by Terre Thaemlitz, cut by Dubplates & Mastering.
File Under: House, Electronic
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Will Long/DJ Sprinkles: Yellow/ Ivory/ Rust (Comatonse) 3LP
Will Long X DJ Sprinkles’ journey to the heart of deep house culminates in the third and final volume in a series of three, offering the broadest yet most subtle, spine-tingling session of the lot, presenting the former’s raw and ‘floor-ready originals backed by the latter’s inimitably sumptuous overdubs. Conceptually rooted in the queer, black politics of NYC’s late ’80s and early ’90s house scene — where Terre Thaemlitz cut her teeth as DJ Sprinkles — the series can be viewed as a vital reminder of that scene’s original values and sense of social democracy, especially when contrasted with the glut of contemporary, commodified representations of that music which sorely miss the mark, or weren’t even aware of the scene’s provenance to begin with. Make no mistake, though; this is no lecture or snub at younger producers making deep house. Rather, it is evidence of the original form’s latent potential to still generate rare, precious feelings which have been lost or glossed over with subsequent, detached and over-produced translations of its original syntax and intent. “Deep” is the key word here on many levels, from their poignant use of historical samples by civil rights pioneers Bayard Rustin, Jesse Jackson, and Kathleen Cleaver, to the unfiltered innocence of Will Long’s productions and Sprinkles’ corresponding, pensile overdubs, which make utterly incredible use of the frequency spectrum to reveal acres of space in the upper registers and, on the other hand, an honestly breathtaking application of layered sub-bass tones that are just impossible to describe. This one’s a little bit special… Mastered by Terre Thaemlitz, cut by Dubplates & Mastering.
File Under: House, Electronic
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Kali Malone: Cast of Mind (Hallow Ground) LP
Kali Malone’s sophomore LP Cast of Mind investigates the use of harmony as a force of psychological impact through the exclusive use of the Buchla 200 synthesizer in combination with acoustic woodwind and brass instruments. The record begins as a cascade of battle calls from the wind instruments that shift between triumphant and anguished howls. While the other pieces pull from the septimal harmonic framework of the title track, they extract a more confined palette to depict their sonic identities indicated by the song titles. “Bondage To Formula” weaves synthesis, trombone, and bass clarinet in a delicate pattern, conjuring an ambiguous assimilation of the acoustic and synthetic. Dominated by columns of sawtooth waveforms, “Arched In Hysteria” unravels as a sharp and sober harmony perched on the border of violence, ringing in paranoia amongst a foundation of low beating oscillators. The record concludes in the rapture of “Empty The Belief”, swollen with undulating bassoon striving to intonate to the towering stability of machine-generated harmony. 180 gram vinyl.
File Under: Ambient, Drone
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OST: Black Panther (Interscope) LP
In tomorrow… Marvel Studios’ Black Panther follows T’Challa who, after the death of his father, the King of Wakanda, returns home to the isolated, technologically advanced African nation to succeed to the throne and take his rightful place as king. But when a powerful old enemy reappears, T’Challa’s mettle as king – and Black Panther – is tested when he is drawn into a formidable conflict that puts the fate of Wakanda and the entire world at risk. Faced with treachery and danger, the young king must rally his allies and release the full power of Black Panther to defeat his foes and secure the safety of his people and their way of life. Kendrick Lamar curated and produced the soundtrack album to Black Panther along with Anthony ‘Top Dawg’ Tiffith. In addition to the previously released “All the Stars” and “King’s Dead,” Black Panther The Album: Music From and Inspired By includes three more new songs with Lamar’s involvement: “Black Panther,” “Big Shot” (with Travis Scott), and “Pray For Me” (with The Weeknd). Other notable contributors include SZA, James Blake, Ab-Soul, Anderson .Paak, Vince Staples, Swae Lee, Schoolboy Q, 2 Chainz, Khalid, Future, Zacari and Mozzy among others. “Marvel Studios’ Black Panther is amazing, from its cast to its director,” Kendrick Lamar said. “The magnitude of this film showcases a great marriage of art and culture. I’m truly honored to contribute my knowledge of producing sound and writing music alongside [director] Ryan [Coogler] and Marvel’s vision.”
File Under: Hip Hop, OST
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Palm Unit: Hommage a Jef Gilson (Super Sonic Jazz) LP
Back in the day, French pianist, composer and all-round jazz superstar Jean-François Quiévreux, aka Jef Gilson, was up there alongside the likes of peers John Coltrane, Oscar Peterson, and Sun Ra. In a fitting homage to the decades-worth of sublime music, and his sad passing away in 2012, French quarter Palm Unit present a lively, honest tribute, upbeat, and contemporary re-interpretative vision of his legacy. Gilson has been noted for changing the face of bebop with free-jazz and Afro. Along the way, his big band featured the likes of Lloyd Miler, Bill Coleman, Michel Portal, and others. With his own recording studio and label Palm Records, Gilson released music from greats including Byard Lancaster, David S. Ware, François Jeanneau, and more. He also helped embed a more ethno style to the world of jazz, inspired by his visits to Madagascar, which resulted in the famous Malagasy jazz albums. Palm Unit, a wildly eclectic super-group of jazz greats, includes uKanDanZ’s saxophonist Lionel Martin, keyboardist Fred Escoffier from Le Sacre du Tympan, drummer Philippe ‘Pipon’ Garcia whose mostly known from his worth with the Erik Truffaz Quartet, and special guest Del Rabenja — who played alongside Gilson in Malagasy — on the Madagascar valiha harp. Palm Unit plays Gilson’s repertoire without any a priori, in a totally complex-free manner, reinventing it whilst preserving its original essence. The keyboards sound almost psychedelic (and often not that far from the style of Eddy Louiss on Jef Gilson’s ’60s albums), the sax scratches, mews, and wails, whilst the drums make the whole thing swing. Even Del Rabenja was surprised to rediscover the songs still sounding so modern, decades after they were created.
File Under: Jazz
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Reuben & The Dark: Arms of a Dream (Arts & Crafts) LP
In tomorrow… Reuben and the Dark’s sophomore album, Arms of a Dream, features the spirited folk outfit’s most vivid and enveloping music to date. Led by songwriter and vocalist Reuben Bullock, the album’s eleven songs explore the inversion of imagination and reality in the light of dreams. This is Reuben and the Dark at its most empowered, both heartened and broken-hearted, tracking a sound as momentous as the determination within. Produced by Stephen “Koz” Kozmeniuk, Adrianne “AG” Gonzalez and Graham Lessard, and mixed by Matty Green, Arms of a Dream pushes powerful imagery and lush sonic detail to the forefront. Where Funeral Sky, their stunning 2014 debut, lavished in low fidelity, the new album is a high definition dream.
File Under: Indie Rock
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Arturo Ruiz Del Pozo: Native Compositions (Buh) LP
In tomorrow… By the end of the 1970s, a new generation of musicians who brought together ancestral and forefront, became visible in Lima as they searched for native sounds and the new tools of technology. Amongst them, we find Arturo Ruiz Del Pozo, composer who studied with Edgar Valcárcel. After studying at the National Conservatory in Lima he traveled to London in 1976 to register himself at the Royal College of Music where he took a master’s degree in electronic composition. Ruiz Del Pozo had left Lima with a bag full of Peruvian native instruments with the idea of utilizing them in his future compositions. In London he was taught by Lawrence Casserly, one the prominent figures of Britain’s electro acoustic composition; a musician who was fascinated by the interaction of instruments and electronic media way back from the times of his fundamental audiovisual experimentation group Hydra. Ruiz del Pozo utilized a series of concrete music resources learnt from Casserly. Based on sounds that came from native instruments and diverse manipulations to which these sounds were subject of, he obtained textures and sonorities, which, at the same time they invoked rituals, they opened a new field of experimentation; a collage of sounds of Andean reminiscence, echoes and abstractions, which will entrance you an unprecedented sound universe. These recordings were named Native Compositions (Composiciones Nativas) and they were released in a cassette tape format in 1984 by the author himself. More than 30 years later Buh Records rescued these recordings to inaugurate its Essential Sounds (Sonidos Esenciales) collection, dedicated to publishing strange and fascinating artifacts of Peruvian experimental music of this period, in a CD edition (2015), which was quickly sold out. Now the label presents its first release on vinyl.
File Under: Electronic, Musique Concrete
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Sea & Cake: Any Day (Thrill Jockey) LP
The Sea And Cake deliver a refreshingly intimate collection of elegantly arranged, singular pop songs. For over two decades and 11 albums, The Sea And Cake have honed a sound all their own, comprised of delicate, intertwining guitar patterns, syncopated rhythms, and airy melodies. Masters of subtlety, their compositions have continually evolved – through minute alterations in texture, unusual approaches to lyrics, and creative production choices. Any Day is testament to The Sea And Cake’s artistry, song craft, and utterly unique sound. The results are intimate songs that speak to the searcher in all of us. Through shifting instrumentation and sonic exploration, the band invites you into a world that is both familiar and unexpected. Written and recorded following the departure of bassist Eric Claridge, Any Day is The Sea And Cake’s first album recorded as the trio of Sam Prekop, Archer Prewitt, and John McEntire. The compositions throughout Any Day, while intricate as ever, rarely employ synthesizers; opting instead for the more organic sounds of stacked guitars and organs. The band were joined on the title track by Paul Von Mertens (a frequent collaborator with Brian Wilson) on flute and clarinet; and Nick Macri on double bass. Prekop delivers some of the most vocal-centric songs in the band’s catalog. His words are chosen and placed for their sound and cumulative meaning. This poetic, painterly approach invites a myriad of lyrical interpretations. One can derive varied personal meanings from each song. The heart of the album’s instrumentation is Prewitt’s intriguing choice of guitar effects, sparingly used to enhance his counter melodies. The combinations create a wealth of textures from surprisingly few instruments. From the distant coos of “Starling” to string like swells of “Into Rain,” Prewitt’s contributions are potent. McEntire’s deft hands behind the drums, bass, and mixing board enliven the album’s minimal approach with a nimble shimmer just as exquisite as the more densely layered earlier albums. Any Day captures The Sea And Cake’s distinctive aural alchemy, melding longing melancholy with hopeful excitement. In other hands the combination seems impossible, but for The Sea And Cake, it’s effortless.
File Under: Indie Rock
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Hal Singer/Jef Gilson: Soul of Africa (Super Sonic Jazz) LP
Super-Sonic Jazz present a reissue of Hal Singer and Jef Gilson’s Soul Of Africa, originally released in 1974. Considered one of the most important Afro-Parisian jazz records of the ’70s, Soul Of Africa sees Texas tenor sax giant Hal Singer team up with French pianist Jef Gilson, and his Afrocentric, big jazz band. Originally released in 1974 on legendary French imprint French Le Chant Du Monde, and reissued in 2008 on Dutch imprint Kindred Spirits, Super-Sonic Jazz Records provides yet another opportunity to get ahold of this driving, testament to spiritual, ethno-jazz. Full of rhythmic modal jazz, Soul Of Africa plays off the talents of Singer and Gilson with great panache, all the while supported by the sublime percussive talents of Gilson’s finely directed band. During the ’60s, Gilson was equal to the likes of Miles Davis, and was responsible for unearthing the talent Henri Texier, one of jazz’s unrivaled, brilliant bass players. His music spanned various modes of jazz, and was recognized primarily for his Malagasy works, inspired by his trips to Madagascar. Contemporary music fans will be familiar with his work, after a recent Four Tet project sampled, remixed, and compiled a selection of his work. Hal “Cornbread” Singer who, in his long career, played alongside Duke Ellington, Roy Eldridge, Billie Holiday, and far more, was a Mercury Records’ legend whose work with rhythm and blues, and jazz is unparalleled. Originally reissued by Dutchman Kees Heus, aka KC The Funkaholic, on his soulful, and eclectic imprint Kindred Spirits, this is another chance to get ahold of the classic release through his latest adventure, Super-Sonic Jazz. Running a parallel event at Amsterdam’s Paradiso club, Super-Sonic Jazz sets out to push the boundaries of music, through bringing together eclectic, and global rhythmic luminaries, with more contemporary, genre-agnostic musical forms. Comes in a heavyweight tip-on sleeve.
File Under: Jazz
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Tasos Stamou: Musique Con Crete (Discrepant) LP
Starting with an artist residency Tasos Stamou visited the Greek island over the course of three summers, collecting field recordings, performing with local musicians, producing electronic compositions and gathering old records and tapes of traditional music of the region. The project resulted in the assembling of a unique sound collage which reflects his personal experience as a music visitor to this part of the Mediterranean. Tasos Stamou is an electroacoustic music composer, performer, alternative music technologist, and tutor. During a decade of sound performances and recordings Tasos Stamou developed a unique style of live electroacoustic composition. Long and continuous pieces are created live using a “portable electroacoustic music studio”. His gear consists of acoustic (prepared strings, reeds, objects) and electronic instruments (handmade electronics, modular synthesizer systems soft synths). Based on sustained tonal textures and free improvised instrumental solos, his live compositions create a particular and unique atmosphere of ritual noise. Artwork by Tasos Stamou. Mastered by Rashad Becker. Edition of 300.
File Under: Electronic, Folk
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Vince Staples: Big Fish Theory (Def Jam) LP
In tomorrow… Vince Staples’ second studio album Big Fish Theory limited to 1,000 2-disc printed vinyl copies. With bass-heavy, Detroit techno-inspired production from Sophie, Justin Vernon, Flume, GTA + more and guest vocals from Kilo Kish, Kendrick Lamar, Juicy J, Ty Dolla Sign, Damon Albarn, Ray J + ASAP Rocky, Big Fish Theory features the singles BagBak, Big Fish + Rain Come Down. 2017, Def Jam.
File Under: Hip Hop
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Sterile Hand: s/t (Ecstatic) LP
Juan Mendez, aka Silent Servant, finds his ideal EBM vocal foil in Ori Ofir under their Sterile Hand moniker. The duo’s first vinyl round for Not Waving’s Ecstatic label is a dark and sleazy run of deviant industrial techno and pugilistic EBM cuts made over the last year. Following Silent Servant’s killer split 12″ with Not Waving and Pye Corner Audio in 2017, and two fierce 12″s with Marcel Dettmann and Phase Fatale in 2018, the L.A.-based artist behind Sandwell District and Jealous God is at the apex of his game right now, combining EBM and techno in faithful but inventive new ways. If there was anything previously missing from Silent Servant’s music, it’s only become apparent through the seamless and natural incorporation of Ori Ofir’s classic-styled but unique vocals. The two L.A.-based artists push each other down tightening alleys of EBM and industrial techno, with Ofir’s stark, blunted declamations haunting and highlighting the most fetid corners of Mendez’s rolled-steel productions. It’s a style that works to cryptic, head-turning effect in the Voigt Kampff-like probe of “Personality Test”, then with increasing dancefloor force in the Nitzer Ebb-esquer flow of “The Hunter” and the punishing, gnashing bite of “Security”, whereas “Listen For Water” and the creeping figures of “Untitled” explore the esoteric powers and parameters of Sterile Hand in mesmerising psychoactive detail.
File Under: Electronic
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Chrissy Zebby Tembo & Ngozi Family: My Ancestors (Mississippi) LP
In tomorrow… “It could be argued that this is one of the greatest rock n’ roll records of all time! Straight from Zambia, we have My Ancestors. A tough rock and roll masterpiece like no other. Over-ridden fuzz guitars, pop melodies and even a Black Sabbathesque sounding song. Comes in an old school ‘tip on’ cover. Must be heard to be believed.”
File Under: Zamrock, Psych
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Young Echo: s/t (Young Echo) LP
“Spread across two 180g discs, spanning 24 cuts and served in a gatefold sleeve designed by members and affiliates, the Young Echo LP is a capsule intended for cementation through time. It’s been almost five years since their last album. As a group, extended radio submissions, prolonged studio sessions and notorious club nights make up the cogs of time. Over the course of these years, the network has grown continually, both as one, and with singular, multi-directional paths from each of the 11 artists that make up the Young Echo collective, counting Jabu, Vessel, Kahn, Neek, Ishan Sound, Ossia, Manonmars, Bogues, Rider Shafique, Chester Giles and Jasmine towards the crew, with projects such as Bandulu, FuckPunk, O$VMV$M, Gorgon Sound and ASDA adding to the table in their individual ways. However, this record aims not to be judged on any single producer or vocalist. It is most effective as a whole, simply titled Young Echo. Of course each of the artists has an important part to play, but it is very much about the act of balance, accepting individualism to form a greater whole. A good example is the welcome addition of new energy coming from Jasmine (1/3 of Jabu) who injects endless space with her vocals, perfectly answered by the cool-killin’ wordplay of Manonmars — who makes his long awaited debut here — sharing stage with the immediate poetry of ASDA’s very own Chester Giles, along the mighty sound of Rider Shafique, and Bogues’ versatile style that can flit between rap & song within seconds. Five very different vocalists that could’ve tried to find a compromise, but instead choose to connect in different ways, finding their niche in the equal range of rhythms and sounds that sprawl in this shared space, the juxtaposition. Detuned soundsystem stylings, love songs swaying in hacked up ambience, skeletal dancehall, microphone technique, dread electronics, outsider pop, this record manifests the outcome of the shapeshifting anarchy which rears its head when no one idea can rule, embracing the diversities when one path must be made up of many.”
File Under: Electronic, Outsider, Experimental
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Various: Dutch Wave (Onderstroom) LP
The first chapter of Onderstroom digging into the history of Dutch minimal synth and wave. Who needs a big, expensive recording studio with all those fancy high-tech machines that only make your weary head spin when you can do it all by yourself at home in your (teenage) bedroom? Way back in the early eighties all you really needed was an idea, quite a bit of guts and some rudimentary equipment. You could basically do whatever you wanted. The means were limited, yet the sky was unbounded. It was the time of the Cold War nuclear threat, social unrest and mass unemployment but at the same time it was an era of infinite possibilities. The future was just around the corner. A lot of music that was being produced sounded just like that: a brave new world of sound and rhythm. Music was simply put on cheap cassettes, easily duplicated, and swiftly distributed in limited quantities into the big world outside. Tracks recorded in Amsterdam, Arnhem of Heiloo ended up in unimaginable destinations such as Brisbane or Buenos Aires. Prolific international underground scenes were informed of this new wave of Dutch electronic artists by means of word of mouth, fanzines, devoted underground tape traders, and sometimes that tiny bit of luck. As their predecessors of the (in)famous Dutch East-India Company (now cult) acts such as The Actor, Ende Shneafliet, Das Ding, Störung, S.M. Nurse, Nine Circles, Beatnik Love Affair, and Van Kaye + Ignit all explored their own paths. Some went straight into oblivion, others had a brief taste of modest upper-ground success. Mind: the names presented here are but the proverbial tip of the iceberg. Some of these early tapes became much sought-after collectors’ items; others gathered dust. The rest, well, is history. Now, decades upon decades later, Onderstroom digs again in history and surfaces with a selection of tracks that illustrate the rich past of electronic Holland. Call it minimal wave, synth-pop, or experimental electronics. Onderstroom call it the real Dutch treat. Features Nine Circles, Beatnik Love Affair, The Actor, Störung, Van Kaye + Ignit, S.M. Nurse, Ende Shneafliet, and Das Ding. Comes in a gatefold sleeve with metallic finishing; 180 gram vinyl.
File Under: Electronic, Minimal
Various: Too Slow to Disco Brasil (How Do You Are) LP
In tomorrow… Too Slow to Disco take a dive into an often-overlooked side of Brazilian music: Brazilian soul, funk and AOR. The compiler of this Too Slow to Disco release, a giant of musical endeavor, is the young nephew of Brazil’s legendary soul icon Tim Maia, the “Colossus of Rio”, as he’s known: Ed Motta. At the end of the 1980s, Ed Motta burst upon the music scene as a major singer and one of the writers and producers in the band Conexão Japeri. He’s now fifteen albums into a career that hops from genre to genre, perhaps one of the savviest music makers and curators out there. He is a refined practitioner of jazz, funk, soul, AOR, and much else besides, having worked with everyone from Gilles Peterson to Roy Ayers, 4Hero, Seu Jorge, Patrice Rushen, Greg Phillinganes, Bo Diddley, Incognito, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and many other insanely talented musos. In this collector’s compilation, you’re coming on a kind of expert guided time travel mission — just picture yourself following Ed’s fingers as they trace along the sleeves in his massive library-sized vinyl vault. You’ll dart back through over two decades of music making, dancing in one style then the next from soul to funk to AOR, you’ll feel the air coming out of the horn section right the way through, and a mixologist’s golden touch tying everything together. The artists Ed has play-listed for you include über-obscure figures like Carlos Bivar or Gelson Oliveira & Luiz Ewerling — both of whose songs here derive from privately pressed albums — so rare they’re not even listed on Discogs! He’s also gathered together a real pantheon of Brazilian musical heroes like Rita Lee (who was part of Os Mutantes), Cassiano (one of the founders of Bossa Trio and Os Diagonais), and million sellers like Roupa Nova, lovingly referred to as “the Brazilian Toto”. And as ever with the Too Slow to Disco series, the artists might be new to you, but they’re always bringing a killer tune. Also features Filó Machado, Sandra De Sá, Altay Veloso, Junior Mendes, Don Beto, Lucia Turnbull, Guilherme Arantes, Biafra, Santa Cruz, Jane Duboc, Carlinhos e Soninha Queiroz, Zeca Do Trombone, Kiko Zambianchi, and Brylho.
File Under: Disco, Brasil, Slow Jamz
…..Restocks…..
Black Keys: El Camino (Nonesuch) LP
Black Keys: Attack & Release (Nonesuch) LP
Can: Tago Mago (Spoon) LP
Can: Soundtracks (Spoon) LP
Don Cherry: Complete Communion (Blue Note) LP
Elg: Vu Du Dome (Gravitas) LP
Brian Eno: Another Green World (Universal) LP
Grant Green: Idle Moments (Blue Note) LP
Johann Johannsson: Orphee (Deutsch Grammophon) LP
Kendrick Lamar: Damn (Aftermath) LP
Laraaji: Ambient 3 (Glitterbeat) LP
R.E.M.: Automatic For the People (Universal) LP
Andy Shauf: The Party (Arts & Crafts) LP
Horace Silver: Song For My Father (Blue Note) LP
Horace Silver: Cape Verdean Blues (Blue Note) LP
Soundgarden: Badmotorfinger (Universal) LP
Midori Takada: Through the Looking Glass (WRWTFWW) LP
Temple of the Dog: s/t (Universal) LP
Neil Young: Harvest (Reprise) LP
Various: Shaolin Soul 1 (Because) LP