| FORCED EXPOSURE MAILORDER UPDATE NEW RELEASES FOR THE WEEK OF 04/16/2012 |
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order from our NEW! beta site: http://beta.forcedexposure.com you can also click on cover art or album info to order online a secure order form is available for credit card purchases. and via mail: for more information about shipping or ordering direct any questions to mailorder@forcedexposure.com |
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| 12K | |
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DEUPREE & MARCUS FISCHER, TAYLOR: In A Place Of Such Graceful Shapes (Edition) 7″ (12K 2023EP) 14.00 “In A Place of Such Graceful Shapes (Edition) comes packaged in a heavyweight folded package housing the white 7″ and a download coupon for the full-length project that existed on the original CD. Limited to only 250 hand-numbered copies, this is a beautiful object for the first-time listener or for the collector fortunate enough to have a copy of the original box.” |
| 3000 GRAD RECORDS (GERMANY) | |
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FUNKWERKSTATT: Der Kleine Moritz 12″ (3000GRAD 008EP) 12.00 Slamming jack tech-house from Germany’s Funkwerkstatt, with mixes from artists such as Mollono.Bass and Spirit Catcher. |
| APPAREL MUSIC (UK) | |
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YAPACC: Rhythm To Dakar EP 12″ (APL 006EP) 12.00 Yapacc’s trademark sound mixes techno in a deep, unique masterful way. An orchestra in “Earth Race” shows us new, magical worlds within the groove. “Rhythm To Dakar” is a flight for the dancefloor. Funky bass takes us back in time, but without losing the essential direction of the grooves, which are fresh and spreadable. Alejandro Mosso breaks it all down in his remix, reassembling and creating a whole new world — parallel to but different from the original mix. |
| ARTIFIX | |
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BAG, ALICE: Violence Girl 7″ (SPR 033EP) 6.00 “Five song 7″ EP of songs spanning from her illustrious career in punk. Four of these tracks are appearing legitimately for the first time including the Castration Squad track which was fully endorsed by all living members. Limited to 1,000 copies on red vinyl with a painted full-color pocket sleeve.” Tracklist: The Bags – ‘We Will Bury You’ (alternate Dangerhouse 1978 track); Castration Squad – ‘Date with Jack’ (live on KPFK 1980)l Stay At Home Bomb – ‘Missed Your Mark’ (unreleased studio demo circa early 2000s). Goddess 13 – ‘Happy Accident’ (unreleased studio demo circa early 1990; !Cholita! – ‘Chinga Tu Madre’ (unreleased studio demo circa late 1980s). |
| ATAVISME (FRANCE) | |
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BRADOCK, PEPE: Imbroglios Part 1/4 12″ (ATA 012EP) 14.00 Pepe Bradock adds another 4-tracker to his unparalleled run of marvelous releases on his Atavisme imprint. A glorious synopsis of his unmistakable style fusing snippets of jazz, film soundtrack and eccentric humor and a huge atmospheric range from spooky to buoyant, often changing in seconds but always keeping that instantly-recognizable, quirky swing. This is the first part out of four. |
| AWESOME TAPES FROM AFRICA | |
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BOLA: Volume 7 CD (ATFA 002CD) 13.50 “Bola’s music aggressively melds sheer force of spirit with a sound not often heard by ears outside the remote Upper East Region of Ghana. His bold fury stems from the kologo–a two-stringed lute with a calabash gourd resonator–and Frafra-language vocals, emitted in raspy bursts. This is some of the most distinct and dynamic music to come out of Ghana since the emergence of hiplife music in the mid-90s. Volume 7, which came out in 2008, is just one entry in a brilliant series of recordings Bola has released on CD and cassette. Although he employs a traditional instrument and the age-old mode of griot story-telling, Bola embraces elements of modern mainstream Ghanaian music–drum machines, synths, bone-shaking bass. Inspired by pioneering kologo greats like King Ayisoba, Bola has taken a dynamic instrument used by traditional healers and herbalists to sing to god in search of advice and taken it to futuristic heights.” |
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BOLA: Volume 7 2LP (ATFA 002LP) 20.00 2LP version with mp3 download. |
| BECAUSE MUSIC (FRANCE) | |
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JUSTICE: Audio, Video, Disco 2LP+CD (BEC 5161064) 26.50 2012 repress. Because Music presents a brand-new album from Justice, the French duo formed by Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay — the band of a whole generation. When the two friends were still bright students in graphic design, in 2003 they made Justice a place to experiment a hybrid genre between music and image, which blends pop and electronic borders, and showcases the talents of two fascinating, passionate pop culture craftsmen, bored with hierarchy. They met Pedro Winter, who had just founded his label Ed Banger Records — he immediately signs them after listening to “We Are Your Friends,” which, with its joyful and vitamin-enriched electro beats combined with exhilarating voices, became the hymn of a whole generation and one of the most important tracks of the year 2000, celebrating a reconciliation of pop music and the dancefloor. It was awarded an MTV Video Award in 2007, bringing about the famous live TV appearance with Kanye West outraged that his million-dollar clip was outclassed by a home-made bomb. (Once the misunderstanding was cleared up, Justice, Ed Banger and So_Me became a constant source of inspiration for Kanye and his superstar rapper colleagues. Kanye even employed So-Me as director for the video for his hit song “Good Life”), Jay Z will use “D.A.N.C.E” for his next album. From now on, the duo’s ascent was constant and then lightning struck: remixes for N.E.R.D., Britney Spears, Franz Ferdinand, U2, Daft Punk, Lenny Kravitz and an EP in 2006 (Waters Of Nazareth) defining the “Justice sound,” this famous ultra-powerful compression of pop and baroque melodies, both dark and threatening; lightning and animative; and above all, the famous Justice image, the cross from which an earlier version figures on the first EP. 2007 was the explosion that would turn the duo into the emblem of a whole generation: their first album, anticipated like the Messiah, swept everything away as an epic soundtrack and was more than a magnificent synthesis of our time. 800,000 sales worldwide and 4 years later, the album is considered a mainstay of the 2000s — one of the few who bridged the gap from the Pitchfork world to MTV without losing its credibility. Housed in a mindfuckingly deluxe gatefold sleeve. |
| BINEMUSIC (GERMANY) | |
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LEONHARD, LARS: No Comment 12″ (BINE 027EP) 14.00 Lars Leonhard releases No Comment, a six-track 12″ EP including bonus remixes by renowned label colleagues. The dynamically-dense title track features pumping beats layered with soft pads and has been further edited by the artist into two additional versions. “No Comment – Before Sunset” is Leonhard’s decelerated take and the outer space sound of “No Comment – Anywhere” invites the listener to drift into another world. His chilled versions are followed by dancefloor remixes from Thomas Touzimsky, Sven Schienhammer and Scanner. |
| BLACK SAINT/SOUL NOTE (ITALY) | |
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WORLD SAXOPHONE QUARTET: The Complete Remastered Recordings 6CD BOX (BXS 1015CD) 36.00 “The World Saxophone Quartet set includes the albums Steppin’ With The World Saxophone Quartet, W.S.Q., Revue, Live in Zurich, Live at the Brooklyn Academy and Moving Right Along.” |
| BO WEAVIL RECORDINGS (UK) | |
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JOYNES & THE RESTLESS DEAD, CWK: 8 Selections And Premonitions From The Tower, Vol. III 7″ (BW 003EP) 9.50 The 3rd installment in this series of C Joynes 45s, featuring collaborative pieces with a disparate group of fellow travelers. This time around, contributions come from ethno-noise heroes Harappian Nights Recordings, Fredericksburg VA’s Sacred Harp, and Gavin Prior of United Bible Studies. Edition of 300 copies. |
| BOO-HOORAY GALLERY | |
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ENDLESS BOOGIE: Tour 7″ (BH 010EP) 18.00 “Edition of 300, mostly sold on a recent Endless Boogie tour of Australian/New Zealand.” On clear vinyl, housed in a hand-assembled cover with “googly-eyes” sleeve. One per customer. |
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MACLISE/HETTY MACLISE, ANGUS: Dreamweapon II LP (SMRGS 003LP) 30.00 2012 limited repress. “Boo-Hooray is pleased to announce the release of a new LP of Angus MacLise recordings: Dreamweapon II. Previously available an extremely limited run as a giveaway CD-R available exclusively at the opening of the Dreamweapon exhibit in May, this new LP release features previously-unreleased material from the Angus MacLise audio archive. This LP release features extended and remastered versions of four of the tracks from the giveaway CD-R. The LP comes in a screen-printed sleeve and includes a risograph-printed insert featuring a miniature facsimile of year, a broadside poster by Angus MacLise originally issued in 1965.” |
| BORN BAD RECORDS (FRANCE) | |
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VA: Des Jeunes Gens Mödernes LP (BORNBAD 012LP) 19.50 Subtitled: Post Punk, Cold Wave And Culture Növö En France, 1978-1983. This compilation, originally released in 2008, explores the French vaults of French post-punk, electro-pop and French no wave. Between the late ’70s and mid-’80s, in the wake of the punk wave and in parallel to other types of music like disco, funk, ska and reggae, a prolific and chaotic music scene began to develop in France, combining the energy of rock and the nihilism of punk with electronic experimentation. The period was not, on the whole, one of optimism and joy, played out as it was against a background of economic crisis and the Cold War. The tendency was rather towards disillusion, accompanied by a clear-sighted recognition that a stalemate between the generations would be unavoidable in the short term. Paradoxically, as it would appear, a kind of hope and frenzied vitality could also be detected during these years. Both were fed by a sort of modernist utopia, which was sometimes willfully ironic. This was largely based on a certain fascination with technical progress and, by extension, on a belief, tinged with mistrust, in the infinite perspectives that the new technologies now seemed to offer. A whole section of France’s youth found itself confronted by the contradictions of the times it was living in: young people were torn between the sensation of living on the edge of an abyss and hope for the dawning of a new world; they were deprived of tangible ideological landmarks but resistant to the post-hippy utopias of the previous generation. In search of an identity, they recognized themselves in the dark lyrics, the cold synthetic music and the laid-back attitude of the new groups bursting up all over the country, as much in the provinces as in Paris. Artists include: Tokow Boys, Guerre Froide, Lizzy Mercier Descloux, Ruth, Kas Product, Henriette Coulouvrat, Ice, Mathématiques Modernes, Metal Boys, Visible, Mécanique Rythmique and Charles De Goal. |
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LES OLIVENSTEINS: Les Olivensteins LP (BORNBAD 031LP) 19.50 LP version. The best-ever French ’77 punk band, next to Metal Urbain. Killer and cult and a true must-have. This is an official reissue, with a lot of unissued tracks. “In a particularly raw moment captured on the disk you are holding, the singer (whose name escapes me) shouts derisively at the audience, ‘Vivement que je sois vieux, tout sec et tout rugueux?” (trans. ‘I can’t wait to be old, dried out and bumpy’). And indeed, it required not only the passage of three decades, with their corresponding toll on these two-bit heroes, but also the benevolent determination of JB Wizzz and the utilization of space-age technology to transform crusty cassettes, forgotten in a dusty corner, into something vaguely listenable that resembles an album of the Olivensteins. Obviously, this is not precisely the record that we dreamed of making in 1979. It certainly would not have contained bits of concerts. (But finally, who knows?) However, the sonic dabbling that you will discover on the demo of ‘Euthanasie’ and some rather strange tracks like ‘Le Spécialiste’ are surely examples of what we wanted people to hear at the time. All this will astonish you, proving that (yes, yes!) the Olivensteins possessed unsuspected abilities, had a taste for originality and could occasionally transcend being simple morons. Naturally, certain compulsive freaks, itching for their nerdy thrills, will complain that we have not unearthed other morsels from our repertoire for this album. But even if certain ‘songs’ like ‘Le Doryphore,’ ‘Né Pour Dormir’ or ‘Pétain Darlan C’était Le Bon Temps’ (which takes direct aim at the stupid ‘Nazi Chic’ that was trendy at the end of the ’70s) are not found on this somewhat incoherent compilation, it is only because no version exists that is even close to listenable. If you don’t manage to understand all the words, or if the wretched singing bothers you, don’t worry about it: fortunately, this is not an album of syrupy French ‘chansons!'” –Eric Tandy (singer) |
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VA: WIZZZ! French Psychedelic 1966-1969 Volume 1 LP (BORNBAD 037LP) 19.50 Best-ever French ’60s compilation, originally released in 2001 and finally reissued. All the tracks here have become classic. This compilation LP deals with the groovy side of French pop from the mid-’60s to the early ’70s. Crazy lyrics about sex, drugs and other typical topics. Sung and performed by obscure artists such as Charlotte Leslie, Christie Laume, Les Fleurs De Pavot, Danyel Gerard, Richard De Bordeaux, Christine Pilzer, William Sheller, Les Papyvores, L’oeil and others. |
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BEBEY, FRANCIS: African Electronic Music 1975-1982 2LP (BORNBAD 039LP) 26.50 Double LP version. Cameroonian musician Francis Bebey is truly one of a kind. He entered the music scene with his African compositions for classical guitar. He gave recitals while pursuing a career in journalism and then as an international civil servant. The same creative impulse also led him to write pop songs, some of which (based on novels he had written) became big hits in Africa and in the French-speaking world. But few people know that in the ’70s, Francis Bebey delved into electronic music. The first electronic keyboards, organs and drum machines offered him new possibilities of totally controlling his compositions. He embraced the technique of “sound on sound” recording (recording several tracks, sequentially juxtaposed on the same tape). This new stage in his musical career included the production of several records (Savannah Georgia, New Track, Haiti), rarities both for their creative explorations as well as their manifestations on vinyl. This was a particularly rich period for him, as he tested the limitless possibilities of the medium, and made use of surprising and novel instruments. Incredible sounds — in the literal sense of the word — would soon appear on the planet Bebey. Full-color printed innersleeves with notes in English and French. |
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JACK OF HEART: In Yer Mouth LP (BORNBAD 040LP) 19.50 LP version. Influenced by Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett, the heritage of The Velvet Underground and the songwriting of Lee Hazlewood, Jack Of Heart transcends these influences into twisted and perverse psychedelic garage-punk pieces. For fans of Black Lips, Magnetix, BBQ and King Khan & His Shrines. A handful of 45s on labels such as Rob’s House and Slovenly Recording as well as extensive world touring has ensured that France’s Jack Of Heart is one of those groups ensconced in the true ghetto of rock’n’roll. |
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VIOLENCE CONJUGALE: Violence Conjugale LP (BORNBAD 042LP) 19.50 LP version. This is the debut release on Born Bad Records from Belgian synth wave act Violence Conjugale. Hans and André met early in highschool. Their mutual love for Bowie and Kenneth Anger pushed them to flunk school and smoke in their tiny school movie room. There they dream of an ideal future, made of space travel and industrial music. Feeling the pressure from this private institution, they eventually decide to go to Berlin and see what taste has decadence there. They meet Marianne Katza, an eccentric woman who tells them to come to an artist squat in the Mitte district. Just like Warhol’s Factory, the place is an indistinct magma of ideas, music and drugs. Here, as André begins to fiddle with a Korg MS20 synth and dreams of exquisite performances, in another room, Hans tries to write his wildest nightmares to exorcise them. Marianne decides to introduce the future band to one of her lovers: Marc Berron, a young, arrogant and rich kid blessed with a perfect ear. He helps them to slow down their drug issues and take a new direction: to play a cold and personal music in pop format but with a feeling of urgency which characterized young Berliners. So, he kidnaps them in his own studio for several weeks to experiment, eventually finding Violence Conjugale’s definitive sound: ’80s minimal synth-wave — the frostiest ever. |
| BOYSNOIZE RECORDS (GERMANY) | |
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ALKAN & BOYS NOIZE, EROL: Roland Rat/Brain Storm 12″ (BNR 075EP) 12.50 Erol Alkan and Boys Noize team up again, using their sound forces to produce two new tracks “Roland Rat” and “Brain Storm.” These two tracks are fun, unexpected and 100% analog. |
| BREAK NEW SOIL (GERMANY) | |
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SKILS, BART: All About The Music EP 12″ (BNS 030EP) 12.00 Break New Soil welcomes another great Dutch talent to their roster, a well-respected DJ and one of the main players on Amsterdam’s world renowned scene: Bart Skils. On his double-A side for BNS, he pushes his signature percussive techno-house sound to a new height. |
| CATUNE (JAPAN) | |
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BORIS: Looprider (Remix) 12″ (CATUNE 044EP) 15.00 “The second 12″ remix single from Boris, ‘Looprider’ includes remixes from CRUE-L boss Kenji Takimi, Hachback, 9dW & West Japan based DJ/artist ALTZ.” |
| CITY CENTRE OFFICES (GERMANY) | |
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GIARDINI DI MIRO: Good Luck LP (CCO 051LP) 18.00 LP version. Giardini Di Mirò hails from Cavriago, Italy — a small town near Reggio Emilia. The band released its first EP in 1998 and not only put out a ton of records ever since, but has been touring both Italy and the rest of Europe like crazy. So far, the band has released four full-length albums, but the discography also includes a multitude of EPs, remixes and exclusive tracks for compilations. While not working with the band, GDM’s members engage in solo projects, tapping into sounds and genres one would not necessarily expect from a band deeply routed in guitar music. The band has also collaborated with and commissioned remixes from artists like Cyne, Dntl, Hood, Alias, Apparat, Piano Magic, Opiate, Isan and Herrmann & Kleine. In 2010, City Centre Offices finally started to work with GDM, releasing the critically-accaimed Il Fuoco, the band’s soundtrack for Giovanni Pastrone’s silent movie from 1915. As a first release in 2012, City Centre Offices now releases Good Luck, the band’s first proper studio album since 2007. Explained in the band’s own words: “There is something spiritual in the Emilian countryside, made of minimalism, simplicity, geometry, natural lines guiding the eyes. Our album was recorded and mixed in San Prospero — Correggio, near Reggio Emilia (Italy), not far from where CCCP recorded their masterpiece Epica Etica Etnica Pathos, an album which has been considered to be a milestone in Italian alternative culture for the last 25 years. Good Luck is a surprising little box: details, places, people, expressions, long sequences, intrusive strangers, familiar faces. Every musician knows how much time is spent in the van and how many things go through one’s head travelling from one gig to the next, putting the foot down on the motorway, trying to make it on time. Some songs on this album were written, refined and tested while we were on tour, but the record got its special flavor when we went into the studio — the flavor of our homeland, the scent of its earth, visions of its open spaces, straight lines, huge landscapes, unconscious or intentional parallelism between modern life and a farm, a dairy, a piggery. The fifth album in our discography has been recorded like it was homemade, in a private place among close friends. Sara Lov (Devics) sings on ‘There Is A Place,’ Stefano Pilia plays guitar on ‘Spurious Love,’ Angela Baraldi sings on both ‘Spurious Love’ and ‘Rome.'” Includes mp3 download. |
| COMEME (ARGENTINA) | |
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VA: The Power Of Now 12″ (COMEME 013EP) 12.00 Tracks by Barnt, Dany F, Christian S and Philipp Gorbachev & Hugo Capablanca. This EP brings together artists from Moscow, Medellin and Cologne, as well as guests from Spain. It’s a collection of tracks that translate Cómeme’s ever-quintessential voltage into different musical temperaments, drawing the bow from infectious, semi-electronic body music and cumbia-inspired rhythm affairs to detached, pitch-frenzied sequence-disco and a sphinx creature with fanfares and whiplashes. |
| COMPOST BLACK LABEL (GERMANY) | |
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SEIDEL/DEO & Z-MAN/PHILIPP STOYA, EMIL: Compost Black Label 83 12″ (COMP 391EP) 12.00 Superb four track EP showcasing three of the hottest up-and-coming producers from Germany. Discovered by Move D, Emil Seidel is a young talent showcasing two killer tunes. Deo & Z-Man have established a name for themselves with releases on Varianz and Pan Ton Records. Last is Philipp Stoya, who extends his deep house horizon. |
| CONSTELLATION (CANADA) | |
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LES MOMIES DE PALERME: Brulez Ce Coeur CD (CST 070CD) 15.00 “Les Momies De Palerme is the Montreal-based duo of Marie Davidson (violin, synths, vocals) and Xarah Dion (synths, vocals). Brulez ce coeur is the first official full-length from the group, who create an uncategorisable sound built up from a core of keyboards, processed violin and voices: slow-paced without being ponderous; synthetic without being retro; methodically restrained and strangely devotional without being easily tagged as ethereal or gothic. Brulez ce coeur is often like an ersatz sacred music: canticles on acid, full of strange quirks and avant sounds while remaining soothing, meditative and incantatory.” |
| CURLE RECORDINGS (BELGIUM) | |
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RESOE: Untold Secrets EP 12″ (CURLE 038EP) 12.50 Here we are with the first Curle of 2012, after a lengthy but refreshing hibernation. To wake up slowly but surely, the label picked out these two fine, dubby techno tunes. The A-side is kinda housey, even. Featured here is Resoe from Copenhagen, a fixture on the Danish Echocord label. He is also a part of Pattern Repeat and runs his own Baum imprint. Released on limited transparent green vinyl. |
| CYLINDRICAL HABITAT MODULES | |
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SPINE SCAVENGER: Weighted Ghost LP (CHM 043LP) 17.00 “It’s no secret that Dilloway is one of the best around. Opening with some seriously demented synth growl, Weighted Ghost gets down to business in no time at all. Stoically repetitive sequences build and build until the pressure in your skull reaches the breaking point. Dilloway pushes past the point of no return, scowling all the way until each layer is sufficiently soaked in dirt and brine. This isn’t pretty and it isn’t meant to be. The flipside fakes you out in the beginning, but there is no breather; there is no let up. Each successive runthrough gets higher and higher – the saw-waves colliding with each other until there’s nothing left but ugly, jagged edges. It’s almost too much. Almost. And then, when you least expect it, the whole excursion gets buried underground by heavy, static bass filth. This is oppressive nature. The jig is up at the end, though, as the death-spiral sequences return and everything is turned to sonic black. Spine Scavenger is no laughing matter. This is the stuff of legend, the best kind of nightmares around.” – Brad Rose, for Experimedia. |
| DE STIJL | |
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WADA, TASHI: Gradient 7″ (DESTIJL 099EP) 7.00 “Tashi Wada is a San Francisco-based composer and performer whose recent work focuses on sound perception as a basis for direct modes of listening. His work has been performed throughout the United States and Europe, and for several years now he has performed alongside his father, Yoshi Wada. Gradient is two sustained tones, a fourth apart, positioned along a wall, one at each end. The string player produces a very slow glissando from one pitch to the other while physically moving from one pitch to the other — in other words, the string player moves so that pitch distance coincides with spatial distance. The two possible directions form a sculpture-like presence shifting through all of the blue notes. Harry Partch often worked with this type of harmony, so Tashi and Marc Sabat used one of his adapted violas for the recording.” |
| DIRTY (FRANCE) | |
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TRISTESSE CONTEMPORAINE: Tristesse Contemporaine LP+CD (DL 017LP) 20.00 Highly anticipated since their first EP, 51 Ways To Leave Your Lover, which broke its way into the hearts of all who heard it, Tristesse Contemporaine have perfected this magic by taking it all the way to the Parisian and French stages. Crystalline arpeggios, dreamy loops and whispered vocals create a world of destabilizing and refined emotions which carry a thrilling light to the darkened dancefloors. The trio of enigmatic donkey-masked singer, Maik, Leo on guitars and Narumi on synthesizers, trusted their minimalist melodies to the expert hands of DJ/producer, Pilooski. Romantic and flamboyant, arrogant and haunting, this first album imagines a world in chiaroscuro, where the electrical illuminations of shoegazing merge with electronic beats, with a heightened new wave sensitivity. Climb to the dark side of modern pop as you enter the fractured, hypnotic dance of Tristesse Contemporaine. |
| DRAG CITY | |
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BISHOP, SIR RICHARD: The Freak Of Araby LP (DC 398LP) 15.00 2012 repress, LP version. |
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BATOH, MASAKI: Brain Pulse Music CD (DC 471CD) 13.50 “Brain Pulse Music is the result of years of research into the bioelectric functions of the human brain combined with the traumatic aftermath of Japan’s Great East Earthquake. All seven Brain Pulse Music tracks are a prayer/requiem. They are a ‘tamashizume’ (a requiescat) and ‘tamafuri’ (reinvigoration of the withered soul) to the victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake. Two pieces are composed of BPM machine recordings; the remaining five are rhythms and melodies commonly heard in religious rituals and provincial festivals using traditional Japanese instruments. This seems to have been a natural reaction for Batoh, considering these rituals were quite often carried out to appease gods thought to cause epidemics and disasters–for instance, the famous Gion and Aoi festivals held in Kyoto both originated as a purification ritual addressing the gods that bring about calamity upon the people. The BPM recordings are the furthest incursion Batoh has made into the deep space and mystery of the human condition. The acoustic recordings are the purest expressions of his traditional folk influence that he has released in over twenty years of music-making, a deep and soulful expression intended to calm and aid in the healing of all around him. And so from the rubble of Japan’s damaged bodies and minds, the power of Brain Pulse Music has emerged.” |
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BATOH, MASAKI: Brain Pulse Music LP (DC 471LP) 20.00 LP version. |
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KNAPP, SOPHIA: Into The Waves CD (DC 484CD) 13.50 “Sophia Knapp’s Into the Waves is unlike any record you have heard in the past or will hear in the future. Upon listening, much like Alice in Wonderland, you are transported to a new sonic realm–dazzling and uniquely pop but with its own set of rules. Some elements of the landscape are warmly familiar: Sophia’s voice appears first and foremost–sensual, emotive, relaxed, and loaded with personality. Baroquely fingerpicked guitar, smooth piano, crystalline synths, and a down and dirty rhythm section complete the picture. Aspects of this place bring to mind melodic psych pop of the ’60s, Tropicalia ballads, chilly New York dance records of the ’80s, the seduction of Stevie Nicks or Francoise Hardy–but make no mistake, Into the Waves is a pop vocal record of our time.” |
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KNAPP, SOPHIA: Into The Waves LP (DC 484LP) 17.00 LP version. |
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DIRTY THREE: Toward The Low Sun CD (DC 511CD) 13.50 “Dirty what then? Ohh…Dirty Three. Right! Jesus fucking God–it’s been seven years since the last Dirty Three album. It’s like, to paraphrase one of their new songs, sometimes we forgot they were gone. And not just because they were never really gone, if you were a card-carrying underground-rock type of the gay ’90s, you know it’s because the Dirty Three are always inside us…eeyuuucchhh. Bad image, sorry. We mean that the tones and tunes of these guys are always floating around in our head and our soul: Warren’s always sawing away at something that kind of tightens our chest and gives us that ol’ thousand-yard stare; Mick wanders hollow-bodied from abstract and dreamy to punishing hard chord rock in the space of a breath, never sacrificing a sense of the awesome along the path; Jim–don’t get us started! There’s drummers and time, and then there’s Jim White. He’s doing something that no one else does back there. Plus, he’s drumming! Returning to the basic formula for the band, the labor and decision-making is divided evenly and democratically as they improvise themselves into the heart of the moment. The sounds of traditional music are glimpsed in Warren’s violin while Mick and Jim blow clouds that envelop the picture. Each takes the lead as the untidy trio trip lightly and jazzily from etude to still life to exploding the air into flames around us with just a violin, electric guitar and trap kit. Don’t shade your eyes! Look Toward the Low Sun and you will know once again the burn of the Dirty Three. The crusty troika are back, for the first time ever on Drag City Records.” |
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DIRTY THREE: Toward The Low Sun LP (DC 511LP) 17.00 LP version. |
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BONNIE ‘PRINCE’ BILLY: The B-Sides For Time To Be Clear 7″ (DC 515EP) 5.50 “Ever the trailblazer, Bonny hops into something funny here: a three-song 7″ single with its head chopped off! Rather than try something silly like put the songs on a larger format (because who in their right mind would…um, that is–), the b-sides are accorded the space they need to rock and groove while the A-side exists in our head (but also online, where space and sound ain’t an option, is they? hur!), an echo of the epic, endless album that was (and still is, kids!) Wolfroy Goes to Town. Starting with a familiar weary tone and limping gait-lessness, ‘Whipped,’ quickly ascends to heights of emoting vocals not encountered throughout the entire album that preceded it. The comfy bob-and-strut of 21st century honky-tonk gives ‘Out of Mind’ a sweet jukebox feeling, again creating a safe place for naked expression to occur in short order. Yes, the pleasures are fairly immense here, in the way that only two songs can provide.” |
| DRUMPOET COMMUNITY (SWITZERLAND) | |
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DALY, JOHN: Sunburst 2LP+CD (DPC 040LP) 23.00 Fourth album from Ireland’s John Daly. This double vinyl comes with a CD version of the entire album. Hailing from Cork, Ireland, Daly first surfaced in 2005 on his then newly-founded label, Feel Music. Since then, he has recorded and remixed for numerous labels, including Plak Records, Drumpoet Community, IRR, Mule Musiq, and François K’s Wave Music, on which he released the acclaimed album Sea & Sky in 2009. His music sits somewhere between house music, techno, disco and dub, electronic but still very organic, and extra-deep. Starting out playing in bands, he moved quickly on to his natural environment, the recording studio, and to working with machines, a love of which he retains to this day, still preferring to work with real instruments as opposed to virtual ones. Sunburst has been carefully honed on the dancefloors of the world over and presents ongoing explorations of new sounds, tempos and styles. |
| ECHOCORD (GERMANY) | |
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FLUXION: Traces EP 2/3 12″ (ECHO 055EP) 12.00 This is the second EP from Fluxion’s Traces album (ECHO 011CD) on Echocord. This work is about his travels in music. The sounds, influences and aesthetic of his actual travels, expectation-journey-destination, alongside the musical influences deriving from them. “Eruption” is maybe the most powerful, deep, dubby track from the album, perfect for the dancefloor. “Motion 3” and “Motion 2” are also beautiful, floating dubby tracks. Finally, Morphosis did a remix of “Eruption” — pure killer madness for the dancefloor. |
| FEEDING TUBE RECORDS | |
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AMBERGRIS: Anti-Matter Alma Mater LP (FTR 058LP) 18.50 Vinylization of the superb oddball cassette originally issued by the Potlatch, I Gather tape label in 2008. Ambergris is more or less the solo project of visual artist Matthew Thurber (1-800 MICE, etc.), although he is aided in this instance by Rebecca Bird. The suite of songs presented here is something like a theatrical recreation of one of Thurber’s bizarre-world comics. Using voices, Casio, various Garage Band inventions and his own surreal imagination, Thurber takes us to a 10,000 year class reunion of the students of a space/art/science academy, from which our hero may have been physically expelled some millennia earlier. The first side focuses on the storyline, with music taking an incidental role. Something like the radio plays of Firesign Theater, it gets more brilliant as your high intensifies. The flip contains songs which have a vague similarity to some of the antic bands of the SF underground of the mid-1980s, if they had recorded themselves in SF’s legendary Musee Mecanique. Housed in a lovely silkscreened cover of Thurberian design, Anti-Matter Alma Mater is the best of comics-based music to have traveled your way since Gary Panter’s last LP. Truly whipped. Buy or, uh, die. |
| FIRE (UK) | |
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CONN, BOBBY: Macaroni CD (FIRE 182CD) 18.50 “Fire Records are delighted to announce that they will be releasing the new album from Bobby Conn entitled Macaroni. Recorded with his new band the Burglars, this album is the first since 2007’s King for a Day, and his first new release on Fire Records.” |
| FLIPPED OUT RECORDS | |
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BURNT HILLS: Live At The Elevens LP (FOR 029LP) 21.00 “Since October 2003, Burnt Hills has met up each and every Monday night in their Helderberg House basement for a one hour long improvisation. Since June 2006, they have hosted 32 shows at the Helderberg House with like minded musicians from all over the world. The ten heads of Burnt Hills rarely venture out of the basement, but on October 6th 2011 they emptied out their headquarters and brought five guitarists, two drummers, one bassist, one xylophonist and one vocalist/electronicist to the Elevens in Northampton, Massachusetts. This is what went down that night. Edition of 99 copies.” |
| FUTURE NOISE MUSIC (UK) | |
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NOTHING BUT NOISE: Not Bleeding Red 2LP (FNM 003LP) 28.50 2LP version. Twenty years in the making, Nothing But Noise, the trio led by Front 242 mastermind Daniel B and featuring original Front 242 member Dirk Bergen and Erwin Jadot, finally release their debut album Not Bleeding Red on Future Noise Music. Borne from a deep love of analog synthesizers and inspired by the likes of Manuel Göttsching, Tangerine Dream’s early albums and Bowie’s Berlin period, Not Bleeding Red is an album that fully deserves its place in the long and distinguished history of European synth acts. Created in Daniel B’s studio, the album features an array of rare and vintage analog synthesizers such as the Moog Voyager, Prophet8, Juno 106 and Arp Odyssey. No nostalgia-fest though, the album also explores the possibilities afforded by today’s new breed of analog synthesizers. Its lineage might be clear, but this is an album that looks forward, respectful of the past, but not in its thrall. Not Bleeding Red is an expansive affair, an album in love with sound itself and tracks such as the elegiac nearly 19-minute long “CK” are given time to evolve and develop in stately fashion, unfolding like some grand cosmic ballet. Uncompromising and haunting, this is an album that conjures up vast vistas of space, both cold and beautiful at the same time. On tracks like “Puzzle Cosmique” and “Second Seven,” Nothing But Noise join the dots between the likes of electronic pioneers such as the Radiophonic Workshop through to present-day acts such as Sunn O))). Having honed the Nothing But Noise sound over the course of two decades and a series of critically-acclaimed live performances, Not Bleeding Red is the culmination of a lifetime’s obsession with synthesized sound and a timeless example of how raw circuit boards can produce something stunningly beautiful. Includes free download card for the full digital album. |
| GET ON DOWN | |
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HOWLIN WOLF: Message To The Young LP (GET 54046LP) 21.00 “1971 marked a tumultuous yet historic year for Chicago blues legend Howlin’ Wolf. His health failing after suffering a second heart attack, doctors discovered his kidneys were also shutting down and he was ordered on dialysis to save his life. Wolf’s doctors demanded that the legend quit performing at all costs, but the legendary blues musician did not have any quit in him. Three months after being ordered never to perform again he was headlining opening night at the Ann Arbor Blues Festival. 1971 also marked the release of Howlin’ Wolf’s second experimental offering, Message to the Young. Oft-considered his second attempt (after the Howlin’ Wolf Album he famously shunned) at offering the masses a ‘psychedelic’ record, the sound on the record ranges from acid-rock, to blues, to funk, and back again.” |
| GUERILLA REISSUES | |
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VA: Sitar Beat!: Indian Style Heavy Funk Vol. II 2LP (SBR 202LP) 19.00 2012 repress, originally released 2007. “Sixteen tracks of rare and funky Indian flavor, blending heavy beats with the sounds of the sitar and the inimitable vocal sounds of beloved Indian singers such as the ubiquitous Asha Bhosle and producers/songwriters like Kalyanji Ananji and R. D. Burman. Most of the tracks are culled from Bollywood sound tracks from the 70s and early 80s. Enormously popular, often wild and packed with action and romance, these films put the intense music of star composers like Burman and Kalyanji & Anandji at the forefront. The strange, psychedelic sounds possess their own cultural mish-mash of flavors — combining traditional Indian instrumentation and melodies with film music’s intensity, and incorporating styles from American/Western music from about 5 years or so behind the trend. All this to say — expect funk, psychedelic rock, disco and proto-electro to jump out from the grooves of Sitar Beat Volume 2 and hit you harder than a mouth full of spicy masala. This is soul from the Sub-continent at its best!” |
| HEY! RECORDS (NETHERLANDS) | |
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DE HEY, MICHEL: Combinations Make Great Creations 12″ (HEY 018EP) 12.50 Michel De Hey takes a few new skool kids under his wings for Hey! Records. Klankarbeit are a duo from Rotterdam with a magic touch for remixing. For Michel, they reworked “Come 2 Me.” Also from Rotterdam are Jeff Moore and Jamie Lie A Kwie, winners of the “Carl Cox Revolution @ Space” remix contest. More than 150 remixers entered this competition, but their version of “Curly Wurly” was by far the best. Also featured is Floris Regoort, who is 50% of Rauwkost. |
| HUBRO (NORWAY) | |
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CAKEWALK: Wired LP (HUBRO 3514LP) 22.00 LP version. Hubro is proud to present the recording debut of the rocking improvisational trio Cakewalk, a relatively new band whose members hail from the groups Sacred Harp, Highasakite, The Sweetest Thrill and the Hedvig Mollestad Trio. With synths, cymbals, strings and effect boxes, the members of Cakewalk improvise intense and captivating drones and riffs. The musicians have an impressive, nearly telepathic form of interplay as well as a strong sense of structure in their improvisations. Their music spans a wide range of styles, and gives the listener associations to motorik Krautrock, industrial electronic music, noise-rock rock and the Bowie/Eno Berlin Trilogy. It is hectic and energetic, and the three musicians push each idea and every riff to the boiling point, and then cool our ears off with more introspective sound improvisation. Recorded and mixed by Juhani Silvola and mastered by Jørgen Træen at Duper Studio. |
| IDEOLOGIC ORGAN (FRANCE) | |
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ROZMANN, AKOS: 12 Stationer VI 2LP (SOMA 007LP) 29.00 “Ákos Rózmann (1939-2005) studied at the Bártók conservatory in Budapest and took diplomas in both composition and organ playing at the Liszt Academy. In 1971, he was given a scholarship to study electronic music in Stockholm. His encounter with the electronic tools was a revolutionary experience for him and was to give a whole new direction to his work. Soon he abandoned composition for acoustic instruments and was later to claim that instrumental music ‘had no future.’ For several years, he earned his living as an organist at St. Eric’s Catholic Cathedral in Stockholm, often using recordings of organ sounds made in the dead of the night as a source for his electronic works. Rózmann often preferred monumental forms and several of his most prominent works, such as ’12 Stationer’ (trans. ’12 Stations’) and ‘Mässa’ (trans. ‘Mass’), grew side-by-side over a long period of time. With a few rare exceptions, the conflict between good and evil was the basic theme in his works. The fight went on continuously in arenas and within power relations that would suddenly change. In Rózmann’s imagined world, no room was given to chance. Big powers, luminous or dark, would lie behind the most trivial everyday events. A large portion of Tibetan Buddhism gradually infiltrated his Catholic Weltanschauung, and ’12 Stationer,’ composed between 1978 and 2001, is a musical interpretation of the Tibetan Wheel of Life. The last part of the 12 stations, ‘old age and death,’ is called ‘the celebrators’ in Rózmann’s version (completed in 2001). When asked what sort of celebration he meant he replied: ‘the merriment you hear is false, it is not genuine, it is empty.’ ‘Dörr Med Tårar’ (trans. ‘Door With Tears’) from 1988-1989 is unmistakeably an homage to Pierre Henry and the title alludes to ‘Variations For A Door And A Sigh.’ During one of my last encounters with Rózmann, he told me in depth about how Henry’s influence was significant in leading him to choose electronic music. He regarded ‘Le Voyage’ from the Tibetan Book of the Dead to be the most important pioneering piece in the history of electronic music. Ákos Rózmann showed particular devotion to his work during more than thirty active years. During his lifetime he never sought, nor did he win any mentionable recognition. As a true modernist, he didn’t compose with an audience or the critics in mind. His mission was to compose for the future. It was his conviction that the mystical energy for compositional work should derive straight from God. It is a truly great thing to witness the publication of this album.” –Mats Lindström, Stockholm, February 2012; lona Maros (soprano), Miklós Maros, Viveca Servatius (voices), Ákos Rózmann (piano and voice). Composed at EMS elektronmusikstudion, Stockholm, by Ákos Rózmann. Vinyl cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin May 2011. Ideologic Organ curation and art direction by Stephen O’Malley. |
| IMPORTANT RECORDS | |
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PITRE, DUANE: Feel Free CD (IMPREC 349CD) 13.50 “The two major focal points in the creation of composer Duane Pitre’s Feel Free, his new work for a unique sextet combination, were rhythm and melody. An open yet orderly system intended to produce potentially infinite variations of self-generating rhythm and melody was carefully created for this piece, allowing the sextet musicians to approach these factors in a freer manner. This ‘musical system,’ combined with the fixed elements of the composition, in turn, spawned a rich foundation of harmony & rhythm that sounds and feels exotic and new. The title, Feel Free, derives in part from one of the composition’s instructions to its performers. It suggests that they should feel free to interact with (or ignore) one another, as well as with the random, real-time, computer generated patterns of guitar harmonics (the pillar of the work); therefore making intuitive yet rule-based decisions, in that moment of the piece, instead of relying on standard notation to dictate their every move. This approach creates a performance that is unique upon each occasion that it is performed; it is free from its own restraints. Pitre set out to compose a piece as a musical lattice-work that was rich with layers and interweaving rhythmic patterns, superimposing themselves upon each another in ways that would at times synchronize with and without intention. It is a system rooted in chaos that finds alignment in a myriad of ways.” |
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PITRE, DUANE: Feel Free LP (IMPREC 349LP) 18.00 LP version. |
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ANOICE: The Black Rain CD (IMPREC 351CD) 13.50 “The structure of The Black Rain flows as an album full of preludes working up to the gigantic full band composition titled ‘Finale.’ As this finale comes to a close the attentive listener is rewarded with a soft landing called ‘Fall Asleep’ which brings the album to a close. Most of the arrangements for The Black Rain are comprised of strings, piano and organ. Pianos were recorded at various locations including a hotel ruined by the earthquake. Pieces from The Black Rain are included on a charity compilation titled More Hope For Japan and a Louis Vuitton iPhone application. The Black Rain was originally intended to be released in spring of 2011, but was withheld due to the title of the album and the provocative sadness, rage and hatred against apathy expressed in the compositions. The distribution of music throughout many districts of Japan was halted giving Anoice more time work on the record. Although the group did not originally set out to make a record which dealt with the theme of nuclear disaster everything changed after the tragic events of March 11th.” |
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ELEH: Radiant Intervals CD (IMPREC 353CD) 13.50 “CD reissue of the most recent Eleh full length LP. Remastered for the digital domain. Heavy duty letterpressed gatefold jackets. Edition of 1000. Eleh was formed in 1999 as an exploration of analog synthesis. Eleh create highly minimal and deeply personal/spiritual pure analog electroacoustic music with emphasis on tonal juxtapositions, harmonic intervals, bass tones and various acoustic phenomenon. Eleh’s work emphasizes the physical presence of sound as it has been inspired by the physical world.” |
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HENNIX, CATHERINE CHRISTER: Live At The Grimm Museum Vol. 1 CD (IMPREC 354CD) 17.00 “Blues Dhikr Al-Salam (Blues Al Maqam) for voice, brass, computer and live electronics in the mixed-media environment Nur/Soliton(E) Star. The world premiere of the infinitary computer animation NUR and the accompanying infinitary computer sound composition Soliton(E) Star were given at Diapason Gallery (NYC) for the celebration of La Monte Young’s 70th birthday in 2005. Catherine Christer Hennix has now extended this installation in the venerable tradition of the pentatonic blues for a live-electronic ensemble. Recorded live on Sunday August 14, 2011 at the Grimm Museum, Berlin.” |
| KISMET (UK) | |
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STONEWALL: Stonewall LP (KIS 4004LP) 22.00 LP version. Recorded by a Long Island-based quartet in the late 1960s, but only issued without their knowledge in 1974, this awesome LP is regarded by hard rock connoisseurs as one of the finest albums ever recorded in the genre. Only a handful of original copies have ever surfaced, meaning that its frantic blend of riff-laden songs, tough organ and relentless drumming has only been heard by a few until now. This is the first 180 gram vinyl reissue. |
| KOMPAKT (GERMANY) | |
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MOHN: Mohn 2LP+CD (KOM 258LP) 26.50 Gatefold double LP version with a free CD version of the album, plus a poster. It’s no secret that Kompakt pioneers Wolfgang Voigt and Jörg Burger have maintained a long and steady friendship outside the studio. There’s Wolfgang Voigt, a confirmed radical, a stalwart, analytical, mind-bombing sensualist who famously transformed techno into a state of matter and lifted the Art Brut club canvas. His material spans from Mike Ink and Gas to Protest or Kafkatrax, and within this contrast-rich portfolio, each new oeuvre transports the serial anarchy which is the artist’s trademark. And then there’s Jörg Burger aka The Modernist — a highly-focused music-smith, galvanizing each bassline to a regal shine and buttoning-up dancefloors with his maximally minimalistic precision funk. As Burger/Ink and later Burger/Voigt, this is a fruitful collaboration which produced among others the 1996 album Las Vegas. Mohn is a new trip through the Burger/Voigt multiverse. Pendulating between analog mysticism and digital hieroglyphics, Mohn makes a composition of the continental drift, creating an electrically-charged atmosphere of tension and post-human textures staged as roadkill on the information highway, never forgetting the need for harmony in the chaos of the unheard. Call it wallpaper music for Petri dishes or call it goth-ambient, but the most prominent feature of the music of Mohn is also the most obvious: the close integration of mutually-exclusive elements. The opposition of hot and cold, of soft and hard, of abstract and concrete, all dissolve in favor of an acoustic funhouse mirror in which one’s stylistic past is never directly quoted, but is always present. Mohn infiltrates foreign sound spaces, flatters motifs into pieces, and leaves broad strokes in a barren landscape recoded into monolithic anagrams, a frozen idol of procedural thinking. Mohn is likely producing the best music that Vangelis never wrote, the lost soundtrack to a Kölsch version of Blade Runner, a space opera in slow-motion conducted by a hypnotized Caspar David Friedrich in orbital transit. As music it gets extremely close, obscuring the sun, whispering loudly, slowly, and furiously, both a fascinating trip into the interior of an inverted electron-scanning microscope and the meticulous recreation of a Mandelbrot fractal, all in album format. Whether synthesizers dream of electric sheep, Wolfgang Voigt and Jörg Burger may not be able to say for certain, but as Mohn, they seem to have a fairly accurate idea of how it might sound. |
| KRANKY | |
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GROUPER: A I A 2CD (KRANK 168CD) 15.00 “This is the first CD issue of Grouper’s 2011 self released two part album subtitled ‘Dream Loss’ and ‘Alien Observer,’ comprised of songs written and recorded over the last four years. A chronological order informs the thematic trajectory of the dual release. ‘Dream Loss’ is the first album and is a collection of older songs, while ‘Alien Observer’ is mostly made of newer songs. Each is meant to stand solidly on its own, and also as a satellite in the other’s system, subjects on either side of the water’s surface, on either side of a trick mirror; at times reflecting one back to the other, at times looking straight through to the other. Enough has been written about Grouper in the past few years that there is no need to wax poetic here. Suffice it to say that Liz Harris has created an exquisite sonic universe where she is the sole inhabitant, and we should consider it a privilege to listen in.” |
| KYE | |
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CHRISTIANSEN, HENNING: Kreuzmusik FLUXID BEHANDLUNG Op 189 LP (KYE 018LP) 18.00 “Kye is proud to present in association with Penultimate Press the fully authorized reissue of Henning Christiansen’s Kreuzmusik FLUXID BEHANDLUNG Op 189. Kreuzmusik FLUXID BEHANDLUNG Op 189 was commissioned by the Bonner Kunstverein Gallery, Kunstfond, Germany in August 1989, for inclusion in their Taking Fluxus Around for a Drive happening, (also featuring performances by Dieter Daniels, George Maciunas, Allan Kaprow, Al Hansen, Joe Jones and others) and originally issued on cassette in 1990 by Neue Bildende Kunst in an edition of 100 copies. Kreuzmusik FLUXID BEHANDLUNG Op189 arrives in a full color high gloss sleeve, with original score reproduction insert, mastered from the original tapes by Jason Lescalleet at Glistening Labs, in an edition of 500 copies.” |
| LEKTROLUV (BELGIUM) | |
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MUMBAI SCIENCE: Unified Theory 12″/PIC DISC (LL 064EP) 15.50 It’s true that Mumbai Science have always been marketing geniuses, but this time they might have hit the jackpot. Their masterplan: “Over the coming months, we’ll release three EPs. One release a month.. With this trilogy, we feel like we experimented with genres like new beat, future techno, acid and electro.” This limited picture disc release showcases the best track of all three releases. |
| LIGHT IN THE ATTIC | |
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RODRIGUEZ: Cold Fact LP (LITA 036LP) 19.00 LP version, 2012 repress. Deluxe 180 gram pressing, heavy jacket. “It’s one of the lost classics of the ’60s, a psychedelic masterpiece drenched in color and inspired by life, love, poverty, rebellion, and, of course, ‘jumpers, coke, sweet mary jane.’ The album is Cold Fact, and what’s more intriguing is that its maker — a shadowy figure known as Rodriguez — was, for many years, lost too. He recorded Cold Fact — his debut album — in 1969, and released it in March 1970. It’s crushingly good stuff, filled with tales of bad drugs, lost love, and itchy-footed songs about life in late ’60s inner-city America.” |
| LINE | |
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JOBIN, FRANCE: Valence CD (LINE 054CD) 13.00 “LINE is proud to present a new work by Montreal sound artist France Jobin. Having released under her moniker i8u, Valence is her first release under her own name. Created entirely from transformed field recordings, this collection of three compositions has an elegant flowing simplicity. Slow harmonic modulations of a similar essence to the works of Eliane Radigue and Celer.” |
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MATHIEU & CARO MIKALEF, STEPHAN: Radioland (Panoramica) CD (LINE 055CD) 13.00 “After 2011’s quickly sold-out edition Remain (LINE 047CD), Stephan Mathieu returns to LINE with a majestic new collaborative live work with Argentine artist Caro Mikalef. Radioland (Panoramica) is originally audiovisual piece commissioned by Wili Peloche and Martín Borini for Panoramica, performed live on March 11, 2011 at Espacio Fundacion Telefonica Buenos Aires with a setup comprising two Fender Twin amps, an Ampeg SVT-810 and a 21x4m video projection.” |
| LIVE AT ROBERT JOHNSON (GERMANY) | |
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CITIZEN’S BAND, THE: Broken Rome 12″ (PLAYRJC 019EP) 12.50 The Citizen’s Band’s second installment for Ramona’s favorite label cements their long-lasting love affair. “Broken Rome” is a codeine trip through early nu groove rave tracks as well as an ode to Junior Vasquez at the helm of the Sound Factory seen and heard through frosted glass. “Densed” dips its toes into the current deep house stream with an Arto Mwambe-like hook and a thumping bass line. The spaces in-between those rudiments are taken up by the IDM finger exercise that is “Into.” |
| MEXICAN SUMMER | |
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ALPS, THE: Easy Action LP (MEX 115LP) 16.50 “Following the limited edition pressing of Pop-Up Pyramid LP — designed by acclaimed visual artist Tauba Auerbach & Alps member Alexis Georgopoulos aka ARP (RVNG Intl/Smalltown Supersound), Mexican Summer is happy to present a special second edition of the group’s Easy Action LP. Easy Action is the group’s third studio album, following III and Le Voyage– both released by Type (UK). Though, in fact, Easy Action stands apart from those two albums in that the group combined studio recordings with home recordings and further processing to put together the album. Taking a cue from Faust’s legendary Faust Tapes sessions, which combined jams in a rather obtuse, sometimes jarring way, the group wanted to showcase a different side of things.” Housed in a gatefold sleeve; includes download card. |
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ALPS, THE: III LP (MEX 116LP) 16.50 “Mexican Summer presents a reissue of the out-of-print album III by The Alps. Originally released in 2008 by Type (UK), III was, in fact, The Alps’ third release – the first two being CDR releases for the Root Strata and Digitalis labels – but represented the group’s first proper studio recording. At turns luminous, at others cavernous, III is a beatific collision of sounds and influences that show the group, like castaways on some hazy archipelago, weaving a musical brocade that is richly evocative, deeply imagistic and from another place. III is psychedelic mind music as suited to contemplating the void as it is for dreaming up distant, otherworldly journeys. It is music with far-off places in mind, suggestive of a transnational Paul Bowles epic.” Numbered edition of 1000 copies; includes download code. |
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BI: Surf’n’Turf 7″ (MEX 117EP) 5.00 “The debut release from an aptly named bi-coastal duo. Bi is the amalgamation of New York experimental fixture Eric Copeland of Black Dice, and Los Angeles based alternative psych-pop musician Jimi Hey (All Night Radio, Beachwood Sparks). In Surf’n’Turf the pair use humid sunset production to bent pop songwriting, to give us their take on bubblegum. Think Tall Dwarfs meets ELO. 7″ limited to 300.” |
| MORR MUSIC (GERMANY) | |
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ORCAS: Orcas LP (MORR 111LP) 17.00 LP version. The courtship of ambient music and traditional songform has been a long and tenuous one, almost to the point that their differences seem irreconcilable. Spanning decades with only a few points of obscure intersections, the occasions on which the two styles have met and crossed into the pop culture lexicon have often yielded a contrary, oil-and-water form. The abstract nature of the “ambient” genre and instant gratification of the “pop” song require deft hands for successful cohabitation, thus it is little wonder that there are so few practitioners of its delicate equilibrium. Orcas — comprised of haze-pop auteur Benoît Pioulard and post-minimalist composer Rafael Anton Irisarri — is an imaginative return to that narrative. Theirs is a style deeply rooted in personal variations on songform and ambient craft, and as a duo they bridge the furthest outlying aspects of their previous solo work published on Kranky, Touch, Miasmah, Room40, and Ghostly International. Here, song and abstraction become one entity, condensing the spaces between to generate an arching trajectory. This co-mingling of contrasts is even coded into their moniker; Pioulard and Irisarri have chosen an iconic symbol of the American Pacific Northwest, a methodical sea hunter that is also a totem of the open oceans’ expanse. The so-called “wolf of the seas” that evokes a quiet, stately, yet powerful nature. Appropriately, their music is a careful balance of chiaroscuro elements, where pop hook and spatial ambience converge. In its environs, lyricism flows as a time-distended dynamic, rising and falling, proceeding almost antithetically to pop’s typical gratification ethos. Orcas has taken an immersive, fluid vector for their passions; a resonant call, like sonar from the depths. Includes a free mp3 download, including two previously-unreleased bonus tracks. |
| MOTE EVOLVER (UK) | |
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SHIFTED: Crossed Paths 2LP (MOTE 001LP) 23.50 2LP version. Shifted’s Crossed Paths is a record which pushes the formal possibilities of techno. This is the first full length work to be released on Mote-Evolver and the scope of the album format takes Shifted’s vision to the next level. Shifted furthers his exploration into ominous resonances, which he began in 2011 on Mote-Evolver with the Control EP, a vinyl that seamlessly housed the unabashed peak-time “Control” and the spatial “Structure.” On Crossed Paths, the breadth of Shifted’s ideas is both subtle and devastating. As a producer, Shifted’s methodology is like that of a sculptor — he works principally with textures knowing precisely when to leave edges raw and fault lines exposed. Crossed Paths is constructed of 11 ominous cuts carved with precision and poise. The identity of the man behind the Shifted moniker is shrouded in question marks and his album opens just as mysteriously with the fearlessly oblique “Yearning.” Setting out an ambitious internal architecture, the track expands and contracts, creating a sense of euphoric menace. This atmosphere pervades, crystallizing in the strange, swelling loops on “Coax” and the stunning pads of “Colour Of The Fall.” Shifted creates hypnotic and persistent music that’s perfect for the confusion of the afterhours. He refuses to stick to polarized ideas of tracks falling neatly into the categories “dancefloor” or “ambient.” “Bleeding Through” is a case in point: it imperceptibly veers from one territory to another with far-off ringing and torn wooden fragments invading an almost industrial landscape. Equally, “Lexis” is flooded with urgency as sharp, angular corners are created by bleeps which cut into the track’s icy exterior. However, Crossed Paths has no shortage of ideas to devastate big club rigs. “Leather” is fully-loaded techno with a disorienting top line spurting and sparking over grinding bass. On “Suffocate,” the deviant tones persist, constructed out of the friction between a swung undercarriage and rock-hard beats. “More Static” pushes deep, only to be fractured by clanging metal and sinister wisps of conversation. The record closes with the glacial “Disconnected,” a track that is perfectly in harmony with the album’s haunting, grey-scale artwork. Having travelled the length and breadth of techno’s possibilities, the final track brings unity to the release, suspending the listener once again in the abstract dimension where Crossed Paths began. |
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SHIFTED/SAMULI KEMPPI: Parallel Series 2 12″ (MOTE 028EP) 12.00 The second installment of Mote Evolver’s Parallel Series presents more forward-thinking sets, this time from Shifted and Samuli Kemppi. Shifted’s tracks surge over a sunken heartbeat, but where searing hats steer “Gates” into an entrancing floor workout, “Spire” knits industrial resonances into a penetrating aural apocalypse. |
| MOVING VIBRATIONS (NETHERLANDS) | |
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EVGENIY, NECHAYKIN: Marine Shade EP 12″ (MOVIB 001EP) 14.00 Moving Vibrations kicks off their first release with the debut EP from Nechaykin Evgeniy, born in a small town in the Urals, Russia. “Marine Shade” is a precious deep house after-hour groover. Sound elements float through marine atmospheres. Bouncy rhythms, funky high-hats and cracking dub sounds create this organic ambient music sensation. “Moon Maidens” features deep dub with an ethnic off-beat groove that guides you towards a stringed instrumental flow in a Balkan atmosphere. |
| MUSIC MAN (BELGIUM) | |
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DUNDOV, PETAR: Ideas From The Pond 3LP+CD (MM 037LP) 34.50 3LP version pressed on 180 gram heavy weight vinyl with beautiful full-color innersleeves; includes a CD version of the album. Petar Dundov runs his own Neumatik studio in Zagreb where he works as a sound engineer as well as producing his own take on techno, house and electronica. The album Ideas From The Pond is his most accomplished work to date and features beautifully layered techno, hypnotic rhythms and shimmering melodies that make this a real landmark release for the Croatian DJ/producer. To Dundov, “techno is music that precedes movement. It is dance music, solid enough to carry emotions through the dancefloor and abstract enough to be a template forever.” And indeed, his breathtaking productions embody this ethos, serving the inherent function of making your body pulse spontaneously while also challenging your brain with its complex melodies and slow-burning, hypnotic progressions. Although maybe the word “techno” doesn’t give enough detail about his style, it’s probably the nearest ballpark to whose principles his music adheres — and he is keen to expand the horizons of what people know and expect of the genre. But it’s that sense of his tracks being alive, forever evolving and expanding and increasing in intensity, which gives his music its unique sound and has seen his work crossover into a myriad of different areas of the global electronic music scene. Taking the listener from the club to a tripped-out dreamscape, Ideas From The Pond brings musicality back to techno and shows that minimal doesn’t need to be one-dimensional. Driving, thrilling and emotionally-charged, Ideas From The Pond is set to cross the techno/house/trance divide and become one of the essential electronic albums of 2012. |
| NO QUARTER | |
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PAISLEY, DOUG: Golden Embers CD (NOQ 030CD) 6.00 “Five new songs recorded in Toronto and intended to hold fans over until September, when Doug Paisley will release the follow-up to 2010’s critically acclaimed Constant Companion. If you slept on that album, then we’re sorry, but use this affordably priced EP as an excuse to acquaint yourself with one of the finest working songwriters, who Time Out NY called ‘the purest voice to come down the pike in ages.'” |
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PAISLEY, DOUG: Golden Embers 10″ (NOQ 030LP) 7.50 10″ version. |
| NOT NOT FUN | |
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ETTINGER, DYLAN: Lifetime Of Romance LP (NNF 250LP) 14.00 LP version. “Heartland synthesist Dylan Ettinger follows up 2010’s widely lauded New Age Outlaws imaginary cyber-soundtrack with a stark, dark, and intensely different collection of misshapen new wave weirdnesses, Lifetime Of Romance. Recorded at a proper studio, and written over the course of a year, the seven songs of Romance reflect a heavy influence from the fringier strains of bummed out quasi-industrial synth-pop in the vein of Fad Gadget, certain Cabaret Voltaire, early Human League, etc, but dragged through his own warped, wonky filter. The approaches vary radically, from abandoned factory dirges (‘Sport And Superstion,’ ‘Maude’) to dubbed-out man-machine paranoia (‘Disparager’) to bouncy sine-wave robot radio singles (‘Arco Iris,’ ‘Blue and Blue’) and general electronic workshop exploration (‘18.0’). It’s always to be heralded when an artist braves terrain they haven’t traversed yet, so it’s a kick to hear Ettinger’s secret circuitry language channeled into the pop architectures of twisted synth-wave melancholia for the first time. Another engaging step by an always intriguing American original.” |
| NOW-AGAIN | |
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VA: Black Man’s Cry: The Inspiration Of Fela Kuti 4×10″/BOX (NA 5056LP) 48.00 2012 repress. 4×10″ box version. Packaged in a hard-bound slip case, including 24-page color booklet with extensive liner notes, photos and annotation. |
| OSTGUT TON (GERMANY) | |
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TRAVELLER, THE: A 100 12″ (OSTGUT 055EP) 12.00 René Pawlowitz aka Shed returns to Ostgut Ton under the new moniker The Traveller. Under his new guise, Pawlowitz picks up at his roots and delivers a deep techno record made for the floor. The beats on “A 100” are fierce and the melodic synth-line lifts you up while everything else burns down. “BER” meanders without beats around that moment of ecstasy without ever reaching a break. On “Bypass,” René rolls out a red carpet for his techno heroes. |
| PHILPOT (GERMANY) | |
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MANMADE SCIENCE: The Blues 1997 12″ (PHP 060EP) 14.00 Roots tracks from the beginning of Manmade Science. |
| POST PRESENT MEDIUM | |
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COPELAND, ERIC: Get Along 7″ (PPM 056EP) 6.00 “On his 5th 7″ for PPM Eric commits to a gentle onslaught of traditional sounding rhythms, ran through the busted copy machine of sound that defines his work. Get Along gets you going immediately with an infectious beat and a new wave-ish, almost Nigerian pop, scrambled, lost Prince demo vibe.” |
| PROLOGUE MUSIC (GERMANY) | |
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VOICES FROM THE LAKE (FEAT. DONATO DOZZY AND NEEL): Voices From The Lake CD (PRG 001CD) 17.00 Repressed. Voices From The Lake is an intensely personal project borne out of the long-standing friendship between two Italian DJ/producers, Donato Dozzy and Neel. The project extends and deepens their explorations of ambient techno, with an emphasis firmly placed on the “techno” component. Listening to Voices From The Lake is an immersive experience, as the textured beats and carefully-crafted rhythms have a deeply hypnotic effect. The open, fluid structure of the music gives it an organic, natural feel, transporting you to more peaceful surroundings. With the music of Voices From The Lake there is a completely natural progression and flow, nothing is forced or hurried. The sounds develop and unfold at their own pace, creating a powerful sense of tranquility. The genesis of the Voices From The Lake album can be found in the mountains of Japan, where the duo made their live debut at The Labyrinth festival in 2011. This album recreates and refines that performance. |
| RUNE GRAMMOFON (NORWAY) | |
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VOLCANO THE BEAR: Golden Rhythm/Ink Music LP (RLP 3127LP) 22.00 LP version. Rune Grammofon presents the brand-new studio album from Volcano The Bear, a calculated, hysterical melting-pot of This Heat, Robert Wyatt, Faust and The Residents, of musique concrète and ethno-folk, all seen through a prism of theatrical improvisations and unhinged set pieces. Formed in 1995, and after several self-released tapes and CD-Rs, VTB so excited Nurse With Wound’s Steven Stapleton, that he brought his United Dairies label out of cold storage to release their first album proper, The Inhazer Decline, in 2000. Since then they’ve released music on such labels as Misra, Beta Lactam Ring, Textile, Digitalis, Pickled Egg, Alt Vinyl as well as their own imprints Volucan and Volfurten with the exceptional Classic Erasmus Fusion from 2006 being a possible highlight. On record, VTB offer stark and stunning absurdities in the most bizarrely beautiful way. Recycling and re-contextualizing their material is an innate habit, and the variety of recording options they might choose (be it a highly-equipped professional studio or a second-hand dictaphone) allows their craft to be formed in a myriad of different ways. VTB have toured extensively throughout Europe and North America and in concert they are the duo of Daniel Padden and Aaron Moore. Absurd humor and eclectic ways of producing sounds are characteristic of their live performances and their extensive knowledge of the traditions of experimental and folk music makes the band difficult to categorize. The band record everything they play and will often use these recordings as raw material for their albums. VTB have released a number of records since the start, often mixing studio, live and home recordings. Golden Rhythm/Ink Music is their first more or less “proper” studio album since Amidst The Noise And Twigs back in 2007. Largely based on the sonic fault-line between Aaron Moore and Daniel Padden, it’s also the most focused and driven of VTB’s prolific output so far, showcasing the duo’s unique musicality and interplay, while retaining their trademark eccentricity and humor throughout. It presents “rock music” as seen through VTB’s skewed eye, featuring more of Padden and Moore’s drum/guitar combination than on previous albums. Taking the bizarre energy of their live duo performances into a studio environment, and combining it with VTB’s eclectic instrumentation and Clarence Manuelo’s singular audio-work, GR/IM shows VTB making their most vital work to date. Includes mp3 download code. |
| SACRED BONES | |
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UV POP: No Songs Tomorrow CD (SBR 3009CD) 13.50 “UV PØP were an early ’80s post-punk group from the South Yorkshire region of England. Their sound was regionally bleak and they used staccato, angular guitars lines, with vocals ranged from spoken repeated mantras to whispered and shouted political poetics. The Rough Trade charts for one week in 1982 tell a very interesting story. Alongside acts of the caliber of Sisters of Mercy, Robert Wyatt, Sex Gang Children and Virgin Prunes are UV PØP, their place well-earned.” |
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UV POP: No Songs Tomorrow LP (SBR 3009LP) 16.00 LP version. |
| SECOND BATTLE (GERMANY) | |
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TOMORROW’S GIFT: Tomorrow’s Gift 2LP (SB 017LP) 42.00 “Tomorrow’s Gift rare and sought after debut double-LP. The female singer reminds sometimes of early Frumpy works. Great progressive item from Germany. Coming with the original foldopen-cover on 180 gram vinyl. Laminated high glossy cover. Limited edition 1000 copies.” |
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NIGHT SUN: Mournin’ CD (SB 041CD) 22.00 “A great heavy-progressive Krautrock band in the vein of Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin with twin guitars, organ, bass and drums. Mournin’ was produced by Conny Plank in 1972 at the Windrose Studio, Hamburg.” |
| SMALLTOWN SUPERSOUND (NORWAY) | |
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IDJUT BOYS: One For Kenny 12″ (STS 22612EP) 11.00 “Limited edition one-sided vinyl 12″ of 500 worldwide. This is how Dan Idjut describes the track: ‘This has had a few guises, but it’s got the marvelous Bugge Wesseltoft playing his rather fine Steinway on it. Our friend Malcolm, who now plays bass in the Grace Jones band, played bass on it. It’s named for our friend, the late Kenny Hawkes.'” |
| STUDENTS OF DECAY | |
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EN: Already Gone CD (SOD 096CD) 11.00 “Already Gone is the second full length album from West Coast dream-drone unit En, the duo of Maxwell August Croy and James Devane, following their well-received debut album The Absent Coast (released in 2010 on Root Strata, which Croy runs alongside Jefre Cantu-Ledesma). For their sophomore release, the pair has opened up their tonal palette considerably. While the comparisons that critics made of their first album to the work of Tim Hecker and Stars of the Lid still hold true, Already Gone finds Croy and Devane mining even richer sonic climes. Here, the duo pull back the curtain on some of their source material, a move that allows the diversity of their instrumentation to resonate. On The Sea Saw Swell, Croy’s acoustic koto pings across the stereo spectrum as a looping guitar figure from Devane evaporates from the haze of a beautiful, slowly shifting drone. The side-long closer Elysia is likely the duo’s defining recording to date, an epic slow-burner that reaches heights both angelic and cacophonous. Ultimately, it is the harmonious marriage of the organic and the obscured that recurs throughout the album that proves its defining trait, and it is precisely what makes En stand out in the ever-growing field of contemporary drone/ambient music.” |
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EN: Already Gone LP (SOD 096LP) 15.00 LP version with download code. |
| SUB ROSA (BELGIUM) | |
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PRESTON, DON: Filters, Oscillators & Envelopes 1967-75 LP (SR 334LP) 15.50 LP version. Previously-unreleased electronic music from original The Mothers Of Invention keyboardist, Don Preston. “We’re coming to the beginning of a new era wherein the development of the inner-self is the most important thing. We have to train ourselves so that we can improvise on anything: a bird, a sock, a fuming beaker. This, too, can be music. Anything can be music.” –Don Preston, extracts from Uncle Meat, 1969, The Mothers Of InventionOne could hardly not see in Don Preston a key musician within Frank Zappa’s oeuvre. He is not only that, but his presence has marked The Mothers’ major records from 1966 to 1974. His touch was already there before the arrival of Ian Underwood, and it continued after Ian left. You all remember “King Kong” (its magnificence as interpreted by Dom DeWild) from the second Uncle Meat suite. A certain form of jubilation emanates from this track, thanks to Preston’s fluid style and lightly astringent tone on the Moog synthesizer — that instrument never sounded quite like that before or after. This might have to do with his double training, his twin interests, since he had been simultaneously working with Gil Evans and listening intensely to Luciano Berio, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Tod Dockstader. Immersed in jazz music, he was imagining secret ties with the nascent electronic music. In the mid-’60s, Preston started developing an electronic instrument, using a home-made synthesizer and a series of oscillators and filters. Out of this instrument came “Electronic Music” (1967), his first piece. Two years later, he became a close friend of Robert Moog, and their discussions gave birth to a number of applications in relation with the flexibility of the instrument. Nowadays, you can’t mention the Mini-Moog without thinking of Preston. Bob Moog himself said about his solo in “Waka/Jawaka”: “That’s impossible. You can’t do that on a Moog.” Filters, Oscillators & Envelopes features the other side, the hidden side of Don Preston: the composer of purely electronic music. |
| TEMPORARY RESIDENCE LIMITED | |
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ZAMMUTO: Zammuto CD (TRR 209CD) 13.50 “Sprouting from the same mind that created the Books–one of the most acclaimed and innovative groups of the past decade– Zammuto marks a deep reinvention of the highly detailed, genre-defying spirit that made seminal albums such as The Lemon of Pink and The Way Out possible. Given the Books’ success as an experimental collage-pop project, founder and namesake Nick Zammuto could have comfortably extended that thread. Instead he has given us a record that is progressive and forward-looking, intense and driven, with hugely varied rhythms and melodies. The whispered, folksy vocals that became a trademark of the Books are for the most part shed in favor of an uncharacteristically confident, soaring delivery, often fueled by a wide array of vocal effects. The result is a man-machine sensitivity that ultimately enhances the songs’ emotional intensity. With dense and beautiful string arrangements by Gene Back (the Books) and brain-warping drum performances by Sean Dixon, the radical and varied sound of Zammuto leaps out of speakers with a searing directness.” |
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ZAMMUTO: Zammuto LP (TRR 209LP) 17.00 LP version with mp3 download code. |
| THESE DAYS (UK) | |
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MOONY ME: Konfused 12″ (TD 012EP) 12.00 These Days announces the signing of the mysterious Venezuela-born artist, Moony. His disco-influenced pop-house track filled the label’s office with so much love that they couldn’t resist giving it a proper release. On the remix duties, label owner and house music protagonist Argy crafted a much heavier and UK rave-inspired dancefloor destroyer that is applicable to almost every moment of the night. Quell’s remix is for those who are into more new-school Balearic atmospheres combined with old school New York-style bass-lines. |
| TOMLAB (GERMANY) | |
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NIOBE: The Cclose Calll CD (TOM 140CD) 15.00 “With highly regarded drummer Christian Thome and Feinmotorik’s Marc Matter, who both have contributed to the present album recording, Yvonne Cornelius (Niobe) has once more performed magic, enveloping little stories in multi-facetted songs. As always the exotic atmosphere that is lost in reverie is maintained. A near escape from the ‘other’ life. Twelve pieces about the question, how one’s life might possibly have turned out. Yvonne Cornelius, composer of colorful and complex arrangements, and extraordinary vocal virtuoso, narrates in rich, imaginative ways from different characters who picture — within a song — how their actual life would turn out if it was not beautiful but horrorible.” |
| TOMPKINS SQUARE | |
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HISS GOLDEN MESSENGER: Poor Moon CD (TSQ 2660CD) 15.00 “Hiss Golden Messenger is Durham, North Carolina-based songwriter M.C. Taylor, in partnership with multi-instrumentalist and recordist Scott Hirsch, who lives in Brooklyn, New York. The pair have been playing music together for nearly two decades. Poor Moon, featuring members of Black Twig Pickers, D. Charles Speer & Helix, and Brightblack Morning Light, is the fourth proper Hiss Golden Messenger release, and serves as the best summation thus far of Taylor’s lone journeys through the dark of the soul.” |
| TOUCH (UK) | |
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MENCHE, DANIEL: Quanta Of Light 12″ (TONE 045.5EP) 14.50 In a genre known for its randomness and chaotic structure, Daniel Menche has established himself as a musician with an uncharacteristic sense of focus and determination. Rather than creating “noise,” he strives for order and cohesiveness. His work originates from the idea that there is no restriction to potential sound sources, especially in terms of a sound’s potential sonic energy. Subtle and patient compositions rely on long, dense layers of droning sounds, while abrasive pieces rely on sounds amplified and processed to extreme levels, pushing the full spectrum of frequencies to the threshold. Intense, percussive sound works resonate a primal chaos while gracefully reaching towards something beyond “noise.” Through this intensity, Menche bridges the gap between sound and listener, a one-on-one, personal impact with pure sound. The greater the intent, the greater the intensity, and intensity is based upon the blood rising in speed and heat through our bodies. This is dedicated music that expresses the undisciplined purity of emotion and intensity. |
| TURBO RECORDINGS (CANADA) | |
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RENAISSANCE MAN: Remix Project 12″ (TURBO 121EP) 12.50 Turbo celebrates Renaissance Man’s lauded debut LP (TURBO 032CD) with a massive 12″ remix pack featuring Joakim, Dexter, Jori Hulkkonen and Call Super. This remix 12″ draws upon artists with distinct voices who refract the spirit of the originals in unpredictable ways. |
| TYPE (UK) | |
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SHIFLET, MIKE: Merciless LP (TYPE 098LP) 18.00 Type follow up Mike Shiflet’s Sufferers with a further exposition of his individual and far-reaching sound palette. A member of C Spencer Yeh’s revolving Burning Star Core unit, and a prolific collaborator with the likes of Daniel Menche, Chris Corsano, Pete Swanson and many others, Shiflet has honed an intensely visceral feel for tone and texture which makes his records so intriguing to lovers of experimental composition and music-making. With some production/audio mastering assists from fellow Columbus, Ohio-based musician Joe Panzner, on Merciless Shiflet engages with corrosive textures from the off, enticing us in with fractured small sounds on “Feeble Breaths” before weaving a lattice of quick-drying fiberglass strands over your cochlea, which become infested with scuttling, insipid rhythms and abstract noise abrasions designed by Panzner on the lloopp software for max/msp. This induction, by contrast, makes the second half piece of evolving horror drones in “Exodus And Exile” that much more affective, while the second side plays through as one longer, queasy composition veering from cacophonous noise to wheezing drone and chilly isolation with the contribution of cassette manipulation by Jason Zeh, cello by Marina Peterson and violin from C Spencer Yeh. Cut at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin. Limited vinyl pressing of 500 copies only. |
| W+L BLACK | |
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PILLOWTALK: Soul Edits 12″ (WLB 013EP) 14.00 Pillow Talk debut on Wolf + Lamb’s vinyl-only offshoot with three reworks: Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell’s “Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing,” Marvin Gaye’s “Sunny” and Mayer Hawthorne’s cover of the Festivals’ “You’ve Got The Makings Of A Lover.” |
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Thursday, April 18, 2024