| FORCED EXPOSURE MAILORDER UPDATE NEW RELEASES FOR THE WEEK OF 05/09/2011 |
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order from our NEW! beta site and receive 10% off your first order: 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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| 100% SILK | |
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GILLETTE: Gillette 12″ (SILK 005EP) 10.50 “Utopian cities aren’t built in a day, but obelisk-o discos high-rise and fall during a Gillette night. Ladies and gentlemen, we’re not floating through space, we’re riding the Gillette monorail through a black-lit, airbrushed metropolis where ‘cussive keys are cold currency. Its Gattaca enacted, Tommorowland for the modest techno fan, lullabies for the liquid metalhead, a Blade runner for your money. Dualities are dueling for yr ear-space: melancholic yet uplifting, picturesque while bleak, indefinite but somehow fated. Remote with control. When Gillette plays you’re the ping pong, the dance floor’s yr game table, and those hand claps you hear are the sounds the fans make when you cross the line. Now dance humans, make your kraft work.” |
| 3LOBED | |
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MV & EE: Country Stash LP (3LOBED 076LP) 20.00 “Country Stash is from an edition of around 600 copies and is pressed on 140 gram Dutch vinyl. The album is housed within gorgeous multi-color silkscreened jackets bearing new original artwork by both Jenny McGee Dougherty and Lucy Isabel Graves. The album is accompanied by both a collage/text insert and a download coupon for DRM-free MP3s of the album. Country Stash is a joint release between Three Lobed Recordings and Blatant Obviousness.” |
| ABDUCTION | |
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ALVARIUS B.: Baroque Primitiva CD/BOOK (ABD 046CD) 16.50 “A much-needed CD issue of an LP, released this last February in microquantities. The dastardly minds behind this project, a first spurt from the reactivated Poon Village label, have collaborated on the new package as well. And it is a deluxe eye-swim through various forms of feminine beauty, its 32-page booklet displaying images that look as though they were found in a smoky catacomb carved into the hills of Charlestown. By my count, Baroque Primitiva is the sixth album by Alvarius B. and is, like its predecessors, a deep dive through mysterious waters. The 11 tracks here were recorded at various sessions over the course of several years and range from ‘Humor Police’ (a track imagining what Syd Barrett might have sounded like had he been a devotee of Rembetika) to a trippily Beatles-damaged version of ‘You Only Live Twice’ (the sole surviving shard of the aborted Alvarius B. Plays The Bond Songbook project). Baroque Primitiva is the first long-format telegram from Alvarius B. since he lost his mothership (the Sun City Girls, with whom he employed his slave name, Alan Bishop) and it also feels like his most consistently non-acerbic — perhaps even most beauty-oriented — work. The songs often have a meditative pace, filled with gorgeous lo-fi blends of vocals, guitar, bass and keys. Eyvind Kang guests on several tracks, but the bulk of the material was broadcast direct from the naked soul of Alvarius B., which turns out to be a warmer, sweeter place than you might imagine. And while this CD will be available for a tad longer than the 30 seconds the LP lasted, a set as thoroughly gorgeous as this will not linger. Take a deep breath of its magic and go for it. Why deny yourself such bountiful pleasures?” –Byron Coley |
| ACKER RECORDS (GERMANY) | |
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MOLLONO.BASS: My Hidden Playground CD (ACKER 002CD) 15.50 Germany’s Mollono.Bass reveals a very laid-back character but also a very independent and open-minded approach to electronic dance music on his debut album. The first track “In The Meadow” represents not only a humorous hint at the best possible place to listen to this work, but also creates a kind of atmospheric foundation for the entire album in its light and fluffy manner. The lively hustle and bustle on My Hidden Playground happens in many different ways: sometimes it’s the frisky bounce of hopping bass lines and stimulating house rhythms, sometimes it’s hypnotic sound structures that take the listener on an adult adventure. But above all, it’s the unmistakable sound of real instruments and their melodies which create the earthy, organic groove of Mollono.Bass, a groove that gives rise to mighty spring feelings. |
| ALIEN8 RECORDINGS (CANADA) | |
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UNICORNS, THE: Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone LP (ALIEN 041LP) 21.00 2011 repress, originally released in 2004. Gatefold sleeve, now on pink vinyl with a download code. “Indie breakout hit of ’04, color jacket & innersleeve, non-stop touring, if only Pavement were a trio, from Canada, wore pink on stage, and weren’t named Rush…they’d still have a hard time competing w/ The Unicorns.” |
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ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE & THE MELTING PARAISO U.F.O.: Pink Lady Lemonade – You’re From Inner Space 2LP (ALIEN 090LP) 25.00 Gatefold 2LP version, limited edition of 500 copies on pink/black vinyl with download code. “Anyone who has ever witnessed Acid Mothers Temple live has more than likely heard them perform ‘Pink Lady Lemonade.’ It’s a staple of their live sets and has been released in various forms over the years on of now out of print releases. While ‘Pink Lady Lemonade’ is a single piece of epic proportions, it comes off more like a very cohesive full-length recording, as the tune is broken down into four separate movements. The record’s first movement runs for about 30 minutes and introduces the album’s central motif, a mesmerizing and repetitive guitar riff. The track eventually dissolves into a particular jazzy section that has the band frantically freaking out somewhere between ragtime and Sun Ra. This jazz-inspired section ends rather abruptly after just under six minutes, yet it’s enough to radically alter the previous vibe and prepare oneself for the third movement. The third segment marks the return of main riff being played in a very gentle manner with slight processing on Kawabata Makoto’s guitar and additional synth action from Higashi Hiroshi being panned in and out of the mix. The results are very intriguing and verge into psychoacoustic territory. The effect of the layered sounds is reminiscent of that experienced when listening to the music of contemporary classical composer Luigi Nono, whose compositions created something entirely new out of manipulating taped recordings of vocalists and orchestras. Pink Lady Lemonade maintains the same heavy spiritual qualities that so much of the Acid Mothers output does, but the hippy elements are kept a little further at bay and instead replaced with an artier drone component. The effect of the cascading drone alongside the full band playing is both refreshing and strange, almost as if you were listening to two different pieces of music being performed simultaneously.” |
| APOSTROPHE RECORDS | |
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ROTHER, MICHAEL: Esperanza 2LP (AP 001LP) 20.00 1996 release. “So, what does Mr. Rother’s newest release sound like? Track One, Side One, ‘Silver Sands,’ pretty much gives a taste of the whole. The piece is squeaky clean with none of the annoying analog euphony, recording venue air, captured space or performance hall reverberation. Everything is created, manipulated, layered and sculpted. This is not to say it does not ‘sound good’ – it does. It has deep bass, complex personality and a huge soundstage. It just does not sound ‘real’ – and it shouldn’t. ‘Kristall’ is a perfect cut for a radio show like Hearts of Space. It is the sonic equivalent of computerized virtual reality. Rother builds a musical canvas of repetitive loop, and then splashes spacey synthesizer exclamations in the most carefully chosen places. With meticulous control, Rother plays every instrument and extracts precisely the colors he wants from within the machine’s dark soul of chips, capacitors and resistors It is important to mention that this vinyl release offers four hand-picked bonus tracks not available on CD.” Housed in a full-color gatefold sleeve. |
| ATLANTIC | |
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PICKETT, WILSON: The Wicked Pickett LP (SD 8138LP) 11.50 Wilson Pickett’s 1966 album is still wicked after all these years. A remarkable fusion of gospel, R&B and pop, featuring a cover of Bobby Womack’s “Nothing You Can Do.” Exact repro, manufactured by Rhino. |
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CARTER, CLARENCE: The Dynamic Clarence Carter LP (SD 8199LP) 11.50 The second album by Muscle Shoals, Alabama’s R&B musician and singer Clarence Carter, originally released in 1969. Features an understated version of The Doors’ “Light My Fire,” plus more big band songs like “Too Weak To Fight” and “I’d Rather Go Blind.” Exact repro, manufactured by Rhino. |
| BECAUSE MUSIC (FRANCE) | |
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CONNAN MOCKASIN: Forever Dolphin Love 2CD (BEC 5772802) 18.00 Re-release of Connan Mockasin’s debut album on Phantasy Sound Please Turn Me Into The Snat, including a bonus CD of live performances. Connan Mockasin has the kind of deliciously off-kilter and gloriously idiosyncratic worldview that rapidly proves addictive. Welcome, folks, to the delightful, slanted and enchanted world of Connan Mockasin. Like David Lynch’s willfully surrealist take on American suburbia, or Richard Prince’s paintings investigating modern cultural tropes, the New Zealand-born, current London resident Mockasin makes beautiful, off-kilter music which subverts as it compels, challenges as it mesmerizes, startles as it seduces, even drawing fans as diverse as Johnny Marr and Radiohead to Ed Banger chief and ex-Daft Punk manager Pedro Winter into its wide-eyed, childlike exploration into the final frontiers of pop music. It is all too rare, in this current climate of manufactured pop acts, grey, over-produced “alternative” guitar music and press-uelled mania for the next-big-thing, to hear something truly striking and original, but a strong case can most certainly be made for Connan to be a true pop auteur, taking his rightful place in a proud lineage which includes past mavericks such as Joe Meek and Brian Wilson, right through to current cult heroes like Ariel Pink, Sufjan Stevens and John Maus. Written from start to finish one hot summer, while camped outside his parent’s church-like house in a tent, Forever Dolphin Love is an LP which brims with the beauty and solitude of summer evenings, a miasma of psychedelic tangents, jazz interludes and echoing guitars which hum with a distant, haunting resonance. For apart from being one of the most singular musicians we currently have, he is also a brilliant and unusual painter, a gift which will be glimpsed for the first time with the upcoming album, which features a collection of wonderfully surreal paintings of dolphins, all bold and beautiful interpretations of the mammal, but evolved into human forms, smiling in gaggles, sometimes wearing clothes, sometimes swathed in pools of lush colors. Connan’s talents also include recording, producing and mixing the entire record. It was this brilliantly ingenious approach to invention, and his masterfully unique charm that caught the attention of Erol Alkan, who signed Connan to his label Phantasy and released his first output Please Turn Me Into The Snat. All the tracks from that album are included here in addition to a second CD of live performances. |
| BRUNSWICK | |
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ELIMINATORS, THE: Loving Explosion LP (BRC 77001LP) 11.50 If you want to get all anal about it, don’t file this record amongst your collection of high school funk and soul ensemble recordings, as this North Carolina band formed in high school but didn’t release this, their only record, until 12 years later. Regardless, this is a rare funk treasure, with soulful vocals and tight instrumentals on tracks like “Get Satisfied,” “Love Your Woman,” “Try, Try, Try” and “Rump Bump.” Exact repro, originally released in 1974. |
| BUREAU B (GERMANY) | |
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ROEDELIUS, HANS-JOACHIM: Momenti Felici CD (BB 068CD) 17.00 Bureau B reissues Momenti Felici by German keyboardist Hans-Joachim Roedelius, originally released in 1987 on the Virgin label Venture. Since the early ’80s, Roedelius had more or less dispensed with electronics, focusing increasingly on the grand piano. He also collaborated with various combinations of musicians to create a new kind of music, vastly different from Cluster and Harmonia aesthetics. For Roedelius, it was not only a period of reorientation in musical terms, but also geographically: Austria was now his home. “Tu Felix Austria” (trans. “Oh, Happy Austria”), a time-honored Austrian campaign slogan, became his very own motto in no time at all. The pleasure he derived from playing the piano and meeting musicians on the same wavelength did the rest: an enthusiastic Roedelius allowed new impressions and discoveries to flow virtually unfiltered into his music. Momenti Felici is one of the finest examples hereof. With characteristically exuberant inventiveness, Roedelius tickles the ivories lightheartedly, or, entering into a more pensive mood, seems to caress the keys. With saxophonist Alexander Czjzek dueting on some of the pieces, Roedelius shuffles a pack of disciplined compositions and carefree improvisations. In this respect, Momenti Felici most closely resembles Jardin Au Fou. On closer listening, however, the length of time between the two albums can be discerned. Roedelius honed both his compositional and, more than anything, his playing skills in the lengthy period in between. Naturally, Momenti Felici saw Roedelius distance himself further still from the electronic scene. The signs had been there on his preceding albums and this release simply removed any last vestige of doubt. Roedelius had, in any case, long since found a new audience, who continue to follow him avidly today. With the passage of time, many of his companions from earlier days have come to realize that a beautiful melody and a rich piano chord can be just as pleasing to the ear as pure tones and rhythm machines. Includes three CD-only previously-unreleased bonus tracks. Liner notes by Asmus Tietchens. |
| COLUMBIA | |
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BYRD/GIGI GRYCE, DON: Jazz Lab LP (CL 998HLP) 17.00 The Jazz Lab Quintet, formed by alto saxophonist Gigi Gryce and trumpeter Don Byrd, was active in 1957 and released music for Riverside, Verve, RCA/Victor and Jubilee. This release on Columbia is considered among the project’s most notable sessions. Appearances by Tommy Flanagan (piano), Wendell Marshall (bass) and Art Taylor (drums). Songs include Horace Silver’s “Speculation,” as well as Gryce’s originals “Nica’s Tempo” and “Blue Concept.” 180 gram exact repro reissue. |
| COMPOST (GERMANY) | |
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JOASH: Don’t Fear It, Fight It CD (COMP 371CD) 15.50 This is the debut full-length album by Joash, a London-based producer who started his musical career as a drummer. Long before, he developed a love for dance music, buying early records by Plastikman, Laurent Garnier and other techno pioneers. At the same time, having borrowed a Serge Gainsbourg album from a friend, Joash was blown away by the mixture of jazz and orchestral sounds that still sounded fresh. He started listening to many old maestros including Lalo Schifrin, Krzysztof Komeda and Ennio Morricone, as well as more recent acts such as 4Hero, The Cinematic Orchestra and Xploding Plastix. From jazz artists to techno producers, all have played their part to influence the music that he produces now. Since his debut track “Salome” was selected for Compost Record’s highly-acclaimed Future Sound Of Jazz compilation, (“Salome” was played by Gilles Peterson more than one time on his Worldwide show), Joash has been working hard to create Don’t Fear It, Fight It. Here comes some surprisingly silver, shimmering nu-electronica. If someone may know the Penguin Café Orchestra from their most successful period of the early ’80s, perhaps this music can be described as the repetitive 2011 modern electronic version of P.C.O. The album fuses dancefloor sounds and jazz rhythms with orchestral arrangements and the result is a deep and beautiful soundscape of strings, complex drum patterns and atmospheric electronics. Features guest contributions from Replife, Andy Herbertson and Aaron David Frith. Includes three orchestral version bonus tracks. |
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PHREEK PLUS ONE: Phreek Party CD (COMP 372CD) 15.50 This is the long-awaited debut full-length album from Phreek Plus One, Italy’s best-kept secret luminaries in the world of disco. They don’t play at Berlusconi’s secret VIP parties, but they like the Bunga Bunga funk, which is featured here. Well, they are also associated with jazz; in fact, they are jazz connoisseurs, rare record collectors, and as a matter of course, top Italian mix DJs. They are musicians, too, inspired by garage house, soulful ’70s and ’80s disco, cosmic-funk, soul and jazz. Their previously released four EPs on Compost Black gained cult status, while some tunes caused a fuss on the underground disco circuit. Their 12″s are still in demand, heavily played by Harvey, Gerd Janson, Pete Herbert, Tim Sweeney, Château Flight, Deetron, Tensnake, Holy Ghost, Sleazy McQueen, Anthony Mansfield, Permanent Vacation, Munk, Pete Tong, Ray Mang, Maurice Fulton, and many, many others. On Phreek Party you’ll find diced and spiced-up boogie, funk-house burners, pumping or slick groovin’ floorfillers and soulful, discofied music, some with blissful vocal contributions by Mr. White, Ovasoul7, Nasreen Shah or the legendary Antena. Phreek Plus One are: Ivan Savoldi, Alessandro Cattenati and Giovanni Guerretti from Brescia. You can look them up for a serious quality set of disco, deep garage house tunes, cosmic and freak party tunes. |
| COTILLION | |
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CRAWFORD, HANK: It’s A Funky Thing To Do LP (SD 18003LP) 11.50 Exact repro of this 1971 release by saxophonist Hank Crawford. The personnel also includes Eric Gale (guitar), Cornell Dupree (guitar), Richard Tee (piano), Chuck Rainey (electric bass), Ron Carter (electric bass) and Bernard Purdie (drums). |
| DE STIJL | |
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JERUSALEM AND THE STARBASKETS: DOST LP (DESTIJL 091LP) 17.00 “Jeremy Freeze is a Memphis born songwriter who has spent the last few years in Columbia, Missouri playing and recording with Kim Sherman as Jerusalem and the Starbaskets. Before your preconceived notions of Missouri make things cloudy, consider the Black Artist Group, Screamin’ Mee Mees, Drunks with Guns, Gene Clark and a whole lot of other shit that you don’t know about get in the way. Lest there be other confusion, my friend Oliver, this 65-year-old dude from Kashmir, told me ‘DOST’ means ‘brother man.’ So basically, DOST is ‘friend’ but a more familiar way of the word. Just so happens that it’s the phonetic same as ‘dosed.’ One crystalline thing herein is the jams. Freeze has reached that point where he’s saying more by saying less and that’s a level that many songwriters never reach. After a few years of playing gigs with Times New Viking, Wooden Wand and a short list of more or less limited releases, DOST is the band’s first readily available release.” Includes a full-color double-sided insert. |
| DERWIN (GERMANY) | |
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PROMMER & BARCK: Alex And The Grizzly CD (DERWIN 001CD) 15.50 Christian Prommer (Drumlessons, Trüby Trio, etc.) and Alex Barck (Jazzanova) launch their own label Derwin and their new musical project Prommer & Barck. These guys have had so many experiences and numerous discoveries — they’ve gone through: rave, jazz, Krautrock, garage, Detroit, house, hip-hop, disco, folk, dubstep, electronica, funk, punk, wave, Chicago house, handmade music and soul. If we generally agree with the thesis that 90% of these musical genres and subgenres are boring, mainly crap, commercial, rip-offs or trivial, then all that’s left is about 10% of really good music. These guys’ influences are so wide-ranged, that a young foolish nerd could never compete with them. The songs on Alex And The Grizzly embody their life-long and concentrated passion, their quest for finer music and the fantastic tiny details of deep tunes. Even if you could sort the tracks into different musical genre/style categories, the conclusion is: they are always made of those fine ingredients of the beloved 10% batch. Some of the songs on this album only conceal one or two elements, others include many different components, but you never know where they are coming from. This is a homogeneous, modern-sounding and timeless album, with its own perspective, which one could call “earthboogie dance” or “deep Kraut music.” Mature audio-engineering adds spontaneity, soul, technique, amazing guests and true vision. Analog and digital are not antagonistic here; on the contrary, it is an intended fusion. If you add up all of their music productions on CDs, vinyl, remixes, etc., they both have contributed to a minimum of one and a half million sold records. This is the pure culmination of all their gathered sonic experiences into a perfect package. Featured guests include: Dollkraut, Kim Sanders, James Teej, Eva Milner (Hundreds), Sascha Gottschalk (Thief), Uwe Karpa, Azar Kamal and Ann Lisa Nathan. Christian Prommer: drums, percussion, synth, vocals; Alex Barck: vocals, synth, computer. |
| DUST-TO-DIGITAL | |
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VA: Never A Pal Like Mother BOOK/2CD (DTD 019CD) 34.50 Subtitled: Vintage Songs & Photographs of the One Who’s Always True. The newest release from the Dust-to-Digital holiday series, Never A Pal Like Mother celebrates the maternal theme with a hardback book containing 65 antique photographs and 40 recordings from 1927-1956 on two CDs. Compiled from such esteemed collectors as Joe Bussard, the recordings include songs by Louvin Brothers, William McCoy, Washington Phillips, Carter Family and more. The songs on the first disc describe mother’s activities on earth: kindness, discipline, teaching and love. The second disc’s songs involve coping with a mother’s death and the emptiness it creates. The book features 65 antique photographs from such noted collectors as Sarah Bryan and Jim Linderman. Included is a foreward by Grammy-Award winning singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash and an essay by Sarah Bryan. “We can feel our American past here: how we lived, how hard we worked, how we were a nation of travelers and wanderers, how we held fast to our faith, how great our losses were, how quickly death came, and how often our mothers were the rock and the lighthouse, the home inside our hearts. These songs could never be written in the age of jet travel, therapy, delayed adolescence, the internet, nor could they survive current popular ideas of human psychology. They are pristine and deeply wrought sonic images, unfiltered through modern expectations, and are all the more refreshing and thrilling for being so. Those of us who treasure American roots music are listening to the very center of its essence in this anthology: a nearly century-old collection of songs about the most important person in the entire lexicon.” –Rosanne Cash, from the introduction. Never A Pal Like Mother is elegantly presented in a 96-page hardback book (5.75″x8.5″) with 2 CDs in front and back sleeves on the inside covers. |
| EDITIONS MEGO (AUSTRIA) | |
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GILBERT, BRUCE: The Shivering Man CD (EMEGO 108CD) 15.50 The Shivering Man, originally released in 1986 on Mute, was Bruce Gilbert’s second solo album. Following on from his 1984 masterpiece This Way (EMEGO 102CD), it further explores Gilbert’s investigations into the grey border where abstract noise and rhythm co-exist with obscure melodies and song structures. The sound is further expanded with guest vocal appearances by Angela Conway and fellow Wire traveller Graham Lewis. This is also the first time the complete album is available domestically on CD. Previous CD issues were This Way To The Shivering Man on Mute and the Japan-only 3CD box with This Way, Shivering Man and Insiding previously released by Alfa Recordings. This 25th anniversary reissue is remastered by Russell Haswell and contains a rework by Dave Coppenhall of Angela Conway’s original artwork. As a bonus, there is an Angela Conway video featuring Michael Clark, originally broadcast in 1987 on Channel 4. |
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MCGUIRE, MARK: A Young Person’s Guide To Mark McGuire 2CD (EMEGO 117CD) 21.00 A Young Person’s Guide To Mark McGuire collects together some of this Emeralds member’s best works, previously-released on a number of limited edition CD-Rs and tape releases over the last 4 years. Although only 24 years of age, McGuire has racked up an impressive canon which most artists twice his age would have problems delivering. With his expert use of loops and layers, as well a superb ear for killer melody hooks, makes AYPGTMM simply an essential collection. Electric and acoustic guitar, vocals, tapes, and guitar-synthesizer performed and recorded by Mark McGuire 2007-2010. |
| ESSAY RECORDINGS (GERMANY) | |
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SHANTEL & OZ ALMOG: Kosher Nostra: Jewish Gangsters Greatest Hits CD (AY 013CD) 20.00 Shantel presents Kosher Nostra, an unparalleled journey back in time to the music clubs, vaudeville theaters and gambling casinos in the U.S.A. The sound can be described as a wild mix of swing, jazz, twist, Charleston and the adorable charm of Yiddish songs and ballads. The idea of Jewish gangsters in America is not something that is deeply engrained in the popular imagination. Yet nobody who looks into the history of the American mafia can deny the extent to which such figures as Meyer Lansky, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, Dutch Schultz or Louis “Lepke” Buchalter shaped the machinations of the underworld, along with the classic Sicilian godfathers. The artist Oz Almog, who is also a curator at the Jewish Museum in Vienna, addressed the issue in a high-profile exhibition featuring his own paintings together with police photographs, crime-scene sketches, newspaper articles and the biographies of the gangsters themselves. Shantel, who actually wrote his undergraduate thesis at Frankfurt University on the topic of organized crime, has thoroughly researched the Kosher Nostra and its influence on American musical culture, going to great and sometimes quite adventurous lengths to put together this anthology charting the hidden history of organized crime in America. The myth of Kosher Nostra seems to be closely interwoven with the musical history of the USA in a rich and fascinating tapestry of diverse musical genres: in such hot-spots as New York, Chicago, Detroit and later Las Vegas, the music of Eastern European Jews fused with African-American jazz to create a new sound. The tracks on this anthology represent a parallel society made up of various ethnic scenes, all with their own media and an open-minded curiosity for new and exotic input from the WASP community on the one hand and the predominantly Catholic Irish and Italian communities on the other. This development of an aesthetic approach that crossed all ethnic boundaries spawned a music, film and musical industry in 1920s/1930s America that quickly spread, with an impact that was felt even in Europe. In the course of his research, Shantel unearthed some extremely rare gems: who knew, for instance, that Connie Francis had once recorded an entire album of Yiddish songs, or that Tom Jones had sung the praises of “his” Yiddish Mama? This unparalleled journey back in time to the music clubs, vaudeville theaters and gambling casinos of the 1920s to 1960s bears compelling witness to this enormously diverse and truly remarkable fusion of styles. The anthology is accompanied by an informative and detailed essay in a 60-page fully-illustrated booklet, giving an introduction to the theme of Kosher Nostra and introducing each of the artists featured. Other artists include: The Andrews Sisters, Chubby Checker, Solomon Schwartz Et Son Orchestra, The Bagelmann Sisters With Abe Ellstein Orchester, Leonid Utjossow, Al Jolson, Barry Sisters, Molly Picon, Aaron Lebedeff & Alexander Olshanetzky, Sophie Tucker, Yiddish Swing Orchestra, The Gilt Edged Four, Cleo Brown, Wilmoth Houdini and Roza Eskenazy. |
| FIRE (UK) | |
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GIANT SAND: Center Of The Universe CD (FIRE 173CD) 16.50 “Carrying on with the rolling reissues of Giant Sand/Howe Gelb which will see the re-release of roughly 30 albums. Center Of The Universe, originally released in 1992, is the eighth Giant Sand reissue in the series. Howe holds Center Of The Universe close to his heart, explaining the record ‘…could be my favorite record…written in a one room cabin at the end of the road in the high desert around Joshua tree where I lived for a few years…recorded back in Venice, California with the same slant as was in-stilled in the writing…adorned with the ‘psycho sisters’ who show where the melodies in these songs were hiding…now through the miracle of remastering, these tracks sound more vibrant and alluring.'” |
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GIANT SAND: Purge & Slouch CD (FIRE 174CD) 16.50 “Purge & Slouch was originally released in 1993. It is the ninth Giant Sand reissue in the series from Fire Records and a follow up to the successful Center Of The Universe.” |
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GIANT SAND: Ramp CD (FIRE 175CD) 16.50 “Ramp was originally released in 1991 and is the seventh Giant Sand reissue in the series from Fire Records. For Ramp, Giant Sand ushered in several new members to the fold, including young bassist Joey Burns, the stunning voice of 74-year-old Pappy Allen, and our sweet, sweet friend Victoria Williams. They had begun recording in Tucson and finished it back in Venice, CA at Mad Dog studio. The first track was produced by Dusty Wakeman and features the late great Duane Jarvis.” |
| FONAL (FINLAND) | |
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RISTO: 176-671 (Ensimmäiset Askeleet) CD (FR 075CD) 17.00 Finland’s Risto releases its long-awaited rip-off compilation! The group’s full-length albums have been a success with critics and audiences alike and this CD collects together all the songs that people have been whispering about for the past years. This compilation includes songs from the albums Risto (Fonal, 2004), Aurinko Aurinko Plaa Plaa Plaa (FR 047CD/LP) and Sähköhäiriöön (FR 063CD/LP), which reached #7 on the official Finnish sales chart. There has been a lot of praise from even Risto’s own idols: Tuomari Nurmio said that “Risto gives hope that the rock business can still come up with unusual, untrendy and totally fresh artists” and Kauko Röyhkä has noted that “Risto reminds me of myself when I was younger.” On this compilation you’ll also hear two new previously-unreleased songs, “Lyö” and “Seuraavan Sukupolven Psykopaatti.” The music video for “Lyö” was recently released and was written by Risto himself and directed by Sami Sänpäkkilä. |
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ELEANOORA ROSENHOLM: Hyväile Minua Pimeä Tähti CD (FR 076CD) 17.00 Fonal Records releases the third Eleanoora Rosenholm album Hyväile Minua Pimeä Tähti (trans. “Caress Me, Dark Star”). A project begun by Noora Tommila, Pasi Salmi and Mika Rättö, Eleanoora Rosenholm is ostensibly a persona created by the band, which narrates the dramatic and disturbed odyssey of a suburban housewife. The group, which has now evolved into a seven-piece band (with Mika typically fulfilling the role of writer and overseer), comprises the most exquisite music-makers from the Finnish harbor town of Pori. The third installment is an even gloomier prospect (if possible) than before: this time the protagonist, housewife serial killer Eleanoora escapes into the heart and the city of a Dark Star. Although musically in a similar vein to previous albums Vainajan Muotokuva (FR 054CD/LP) and Älä Kysy Kuolleilta, He Sanoivat (FR 060CD/LP), the sound of this record is even more dramatic, expansive and nuanced. Musically taking its cues from film soundtracks and disco, laced with echoes of Scandinavian and electronic pop, this apparent juxtaposition against the album’s subject matter frames a dislocated voice in everyday reality. Trumpets and clarinet lend an epic maturity to the modern atmosphere. The result is a landmark, down-to-earth-futurism, A Space Odyssey in Pori — something unexplainable that has to be experienced by oneself. These colorful stories are the brainchildren of Mika Rättö, one of the most creative forces in the Finnish contemporary rock scene, perhaps most familiar from acts such as Circle, Rättö Ja Lehtisalo and Kuusumun Profeetta. The role of Eleanoora is played by vocalist Noora Tommila who is a sensitive interpreter, relaying a vast emotional range, from quiet fragility to vociferous preaching. The album was composed by Rättö and analog synth wizard Pasi Salmi (Magyar Posse). Previously mainly masterminding in the background, the recording sessions inspired Rättö not only to grab the drumsticks but also to sing a whole song in his distinctive falsetto. Apart from this band, who else could turn Gregorian choir influences into a potential modern club-hit? |
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TV-RESISTORI: TV-Resistori CD (FR 077CD) 17.00 TV-Resistori, the flagship of Finnish indie-pop, finally present their third album, which has been under construction since 2007. The album fuses a broad array of influences into one seamless entity, appealing to aficionados of American roots music and modern indie kids digging Jenny Wilson or Belle And Sebastian. The beautiful vocal harmonies of Päivi and Ykä (the singer-songwriter of the group) flourish, while the cheap bubblegum keyboards have been mostly exchanged for warm, acoustic sounds from upright piano, to banjos or drums made out of suitcases. Although these mature, timeless songs lean towards Finnish schlager, Motown or even country music, it doesn’t mean things have gotten boring or middle-of-the-road — they’re just more confident. TV-Resistori can still shake, rattle and roll like young stallions let out to the fields for the first time after the winter. Nevertheless, to balance the upbeat dance numbers, their tape has also captured one of the most touching bluegrass ballads of this century, “E.S.O.P.M.J.M.V.M.P.S.O. (Pallo).” Don’t let the song title fool you. |
| GALAKTIKA RECORDS (SPAIN) | |
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MAETRIK & GARNICA: 5 Years Of Galaktika 2CD (GLK 003CD) 18.00 Galaktika Records — the Barcelona-based imprint with roots in Venezuela — celebrate their 5-year milestone at last with a fresh new compilation of classy and smooth party jams, expertly presented by DJs Maetrik & Garnica. Enlisted by label boss Maurice Aymard, the trio present many of their own productions across this double CD along with gems from the Galaktika back catalog and other selected favorites. On CD1, Maetrik leads listeners on a journey through the deeper realms of techno and house, kicking off slow and sexy with some disco-splashed deep house from Michael J. Collins. CD1 also features exquisite music from Pezzner, Dixie Yure, Himan, Cosmic Cowboys, Pablo Bolivar and Mikael Stavöstrand & Cesare vs. Disorder. Maetrik’s own aptly-named techno burner “Bottom Heavy” is another highlight of the mix, and exclusive to the CD is an absolutely blissful track from his Maceo Plex pseudonym, “Her Security.” On CD2, Garnica brings a slightly cosmic and definitely funky vibe to the celebration as he effortlessly blends together house and tech-house selections from Gui Boratto, Kruse & Nuernberg, Chopstick & Till Von Sein, Gorge and newcomers Iron Curtis and Paulo Olarte — full of groove to keep music lovers moving. Culled from five years of record releases amounting to over 100 tracks and 40 unique artist collaborations, Maurice Aymard, Garnica and Maetrik have created a genuinely warm, timeless and spirited vibe on this compilation that makes it an essential album for dance music fans. Other artists include: Mod. Civil, Daso, Youandme, Ahmet Sisman, Sabb, David Durango, Clement Meyer, Einmusik, Uner Meets Hitch and Hiro. |
| GECOPHONIC (UK) | |
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MOON WIRING CLUB: A Spare Tabby At The Cat’s Wedding CD (GEPH 004CD) 14.50 This is the fourth full-length album from the UK’s Moon Wiring Club. Despite reaching #4 on the UK charts and already having had Simon Reynolds sing his praises on Blissblog and in The Guardian, Ian Hodgson’s Moon Wiring Club has not made much of his music available for public consumption outside of his own web site, until now. Following on from an impressive amount of media attention and praise flowing from all the right places, A Spare Tabby At The Cat’s Wedding finally arrives and is no doubt destined to grace many a year-end chart. Tapping into the same hauntological conceit of making use of half-remembered childhood memories and rewiring them for subsequent use in music, British producers in particular have tended to focus on the Radiophonic era with impressively evocative results. Alongside better-known sci-fi fare such as Doctor Who and the Tomorrow People, public service broadcasts, children’s programming and all sorts of televisual oddities are where Hodgson takes his primary influence, building on the sounds he remembers growing up with and turning them into something almost contemporary. The fingerprints of the ’70s and ’80s are still present, but the smudged and sequenced beats are more reminiscent of early Boards Of Canada, or indeed the new wave of operators like D’eon. But where many producers mine funk, soul and psychedelic records for samples, Hodgson exclusively bases his productions around this specific period of British television history. Pieced together using a Playstation 2 program (itself now archaic technology), there is a beauty to the music’s almost naïve construction that lends itself perfectly to the end product. You can almost imagine this music being pieced together on old tape equipment, and through the limitations of the software, Hodgson has found his stride. The songs never get overly complex or tricky, instead relying on the heaps of well-mined samples to speak for themselves. Voices tumble over voices, creating a cloud of half-heard words, and VHS-tainted synths bubble up beneath them, dragging us right back into a world of thick-knit sweaters and Marathon bars. It’s a record that truly succeeds in bringing our ever-more-distant memories to some kind of focus without discoloring them a jot. Anyone out there who’s got even just a vague interest in the Ghost Box label, Broadcast or any of the ’80s-tinged landscapes of Olde English Spelling Bee should check Moon Wiring Club without delay. |
| GET PHYSICAL MUSIC (GERMANY) | |
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DJ T.: The Pleasure Principle CD (GPM 040CD) 15.50 Get Physical’s DJ T. unveils his third album which includes collaborations with Dave Aju, Jaw (dOP), James Teej, Khan, Nick Maurer and Cari Golden. The Pleasure Principle immerses itself, wholly and rapturously, into electronic music’s legacy of authentic soul, helping to usher in a new renaissance of groove-heavy deepness, at a time when clinical club sounds are at their least inspired. Traces of T.’s production finesse can be found in the most soothing washes of ambient tones, the soaring vocal treatments, the murkiest late-night moments, and at the center of The Pleasure Principle’s delicate melodies. “Same Plane,” featuring dOP prankster Jaw and his girlfriend Amandine (aka Ginger), is a flurry of offset beats and hand claps, a rhythmic hall of mirrors that finds his deep, soulful vocals nestled at the center of stuttering staccato rhythms, woven with whispers. Nick Maurer lights up “Burning” with a twist, as he is doubled, tripled, pitched-down and distorted. “Yesterday Tomorrow” features Dave Aju’s preacher man spoken-word duelling with piano stabs, combining the stomp and swagger of electro funk with an unmistakable early house framework, while “Citylife” recalls the early ’80s warehouse era, and finds American vocalist Cari Golden crooning, siren-like. Jaw’s second appearance “Remember The Future” is mottled with daybreak dew, and its morning rainforest sounds are illuminated by dappled shafts of sonic light, piping mid-tones and ambient, swirling organ chords. Khan adds his grizzled charm to “Leavin Me” coloring deep tech tones with a tale steeped in longing and regret, for a new take on dubby blues house. The Pleasure Principle is also interspersed with a number of instrumental productions. With its half-stepping beat and unique synth melody “Opera Buffa” evokes late nights and rain-slicked city streets, and shorter atmospheric instrumentals “Unconditional Love,” “Nothing Comes Even Close” and “Pattern Exit Drama” variously take on low-slung cosmic disco, nostalgic slow jams, and proto-dancefloor moments in time. Whether it’s experienced during one DJ T.’s many forthcoming live appearances, in a darkened club, in a quiet moment, at the beginning of the night, or the morning after it, The Pleasure Principle can be found at the very axis of mind and body, and musical soul. |
| HANDMADE BIRDS | |
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CELESTIIAL: Desolate North LP (HB 001LP) 16.00 “First time on vinyl, first and only repressing of this underground milestone since the original sold out nearly 4 years ago in 2007! In 2010, the Celestiial lineup expanded to include Agalloch’s Jason Walton on bass for the critically acclaimed Where Life Springs Eternal. Celestiial is known for making use of numerous instruments in its music, combining traditional folk instruments as well as more modern ones, as well as sampling the sounds of the natural world. The result emanates a telluric, droning pulse of rich textures and inescapable beauty…. There is something incredibly special about the music of Celestiial — something that can be appreciated equally by fans of Grouper and fans of Agalloch.” Gatefold sleeve; on clear vinyl. |
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HIS NAME IS ALIVE: King Of Sweet 2LP (HB 008LP) 26.00 “King of Sweet is a compilation album originally released in a limited run by the Perdition Plastics label in 1993. Most, if not all, of the songs had previously appeared on the band’s many self-released cassettes in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and some of them had appeared in different versions on the band’s 4AD releases. First time on vinyl, first repressing since the original run sold out. His Name Is Alive was signed to 4AD during its classic period alongside other icons Cocteau Twins and Red House Painters.” Housed in a full-color gatefold sleeve. |
| HARKIT RECORDS (UK) | |
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VA: Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls OST LP (HRK 8402LP) 21.50 The seminal sexploitation movie soundtrack composed by Stu Phillips, and also featuring The Strawberry Alarm Clock and The Sandpipers. This deluxe gatefold collector’s edition on clear vinyl features new artwork and a resequenced tracklist. Liner notes by Roger Ebert. |
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MONTENEGRO, HUGO: Lady In Cement OST LP (HRK 8404LP) 21.50 Reissue on clear vinyl of this soundtrack for the 1968 thriller starring Frank Sinatra. “The plot’s-not-a lot kind of movie is driven along by Hugo Montenegro’s lively score ? a perfect match for what’s happening up there on the screen. The main theme has often been sampled, and can also be heard on TV documentaries about Miami Beach today.” |
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BARRY, JOHN: Follow Me! OST LP (HRK 8405LP) 21.00 “Definitely one of John Barry’s most enchanting and romantic scores, with its quietly insistent theme this delightful story set in London’s ‘Swinging Sixties’ and based on a stage play by Peter Schaffer called The Public Eye. This album is a pure delight! Originally only ever issued as an LP in the UK and Japan, where the movie has a great following because of its quirky London street-name references, it has become something of a collector’s item.” On clear vinyl. |
| HARMONIA MUNDI (FRANCE) | |
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HILLIER, PAUL: Stories CD/SACD (HMU 807527) 21.00 “Paul Hillier leads Theatre of Voices in a fascinating program centered on the artistic milieu of the contemporary composer Luciano Berio. Hillier says, ‘Although not all these composers actually knew each other, I think of them as a group of mutual friends with shared interests and predilections. If there is a link between them it is perhaps the influence of John Cage, though it could almost equally have been the personality of Cathy Berberian.'” Featured works: Luciano Berio – A-Ronne; Cathy Berberian – Stripsody; Sheldon Frank – As I Was Saying; John Cage – Story; Roger Marsh – Not a Soul but Ourselves; Jackson Mac Low – The Turtle Asymmetries. Stereo/multichannel hybrid SACD that can be played on any CD player. |
| HYPERDUB (UK) | |
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KODE9 & THE SPACEAPE: Black Sun 2LP (HYP 002LP) 25.50 Gatefold 2LP version. “It’s been 5 years since South London-based duo Kode9 & the Spaceape’s debut album. On this new disc, named after Kode9’s influential 2009 single Black Sun, the intensity and themes of their debut Memories of the Future remain, but the delivery is clearer and more rapid, the beats more jagged and restless. Starting as a dense onslaught, Black Sun proceeds to expand and contract its galaxy, sucking you into its orbit, and daring you to come and bathe in the warmth of its toxic glow.” |
| IMMUNE | |
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SOUSA, TIAGO: Walden Pond’s Monk CD (IMMUNE 016CD) 14.00 “Walden Pond’s Monk is the brand new album from Portuguese musician and composer Tiago Sousa. Walden Pond’s Monk is a piece that was composed and heavily influenced by the idealism and revolutionary spirit of Henry David Thoreau. The album is a natural evolution of the aesthetics already present in the previous album Insónia, while at the same time it reveals the maturity of a composer who consistently challenges himself. On this album, Tiago Sousa maintains the same intuitive and spontaneous approach to the piano and remains convincingly impermeable to the normative formalisms of genre and academism. With Ricardo Ribeiro (clarinet) and Baltazar Molina (percussion), Sousa builds a piece in a continuous momentum, anchored on impressionist melodies of disarming simplicity and interrupted by a stormy improvisation. During the thirty two minutes of Walden Pond’s Monk, Tiago Sousa nourishes a romantic narrative based upon the essential ideas that Thoreau documented in works like Walden or Civil Disobedience: the profound respect for freedom and for the infinite expression of the possibilities of men.” |
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SOUSA, TIAGO: Walden Pond’s Monk LP (IMMUNE 016LP) 16.00 LP version. |
| INSTITUT DU MONDE ARABE (FRANCE) | |
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RAHAL, BEIHDJA: In the Mood for the Nouba 2CD (IDMA 321079) 40.00 “The performance of the M’djanba and Mazmum noubas presented here on this double CD requires warmth, both of soul and of feeling. The crystal-clear tones of Beihdja Rahal ring out in her radiant interpretation of these classical pieces from the Andalusian-Algerian repertoire. This genre is also accompanied by traditional instruments such as the tar (percussion), the darbuka or goblet drum, the lute, the violin, the kwitra (springed instrument) and the qanun (zither) and demands total respect of its rules, its harmony, rhythms and melody. The recording as a whole offers the listener an intense emotional experience.” |
| JAZZMAN RECORDS (UK) | |
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TEREA: Terea CD (JMAN 040CD) 17.00 In the olden days, the music business was a torrid set of affairs run by hustlers, sharks and gangsters. Broken promises, deceit and corruption was the order of the day, and to be thrown out of a window was seen as a rite of passage into the business. Amongst all this hustle and bustle was the murky world of the “tax scam” label. Set up for wealthy individuals to invest in as a means to take advantage of a tax loophole, labels such as Tiger Lilly, Guinness and Baby Grand (upon which Terea was released in 1977) released many hundreds of obscure titles. The records themselves never saw a proper release and were often dumped in cut-out bins or taken straight to the dump. As such, many of these LPs, including this album by Californian soul outfit Terea, remain extremely scarce and are now highly-prized collector’s items. In his liner notes to Jazzman’s reissue of the Terea album, producer Dennis Dreith lifts the lid off of the shady business of the tax scam labels. Not only that, but he tells us the story of Terea and the dedicated musicians who freely recorded the music they wanted to record without obligation to the record companies and A&R men. It was in these circumstances that the Terea LP was recorded, a work of art, if only for the utterly joyous “Pretty Bird.” Includes a 6-page booklet with liner notes written by Terea’s producer Dennis Dreith and previously-unpublished photographs. |
| JU-PAR | |
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JU-PAR UNIVERSAL ORCHESTRA: Moods & Grooves LP (JP 1001LP) 11.50 Exact repro of this 1976 rare and amazing instrumental funk album from Detroit’s Ju-Par Universal Orchestra. “It’s been a long while since I listened to funk, and this is the first funky LP I’ve come across in ages that I really dig baby. It’s late ’74 and comes from the Detroit 8 mile district. It grooves beautifully in a slightly kitsch pre-disco fashion which I do like, it has a BIG LOVE number, a heavy funk number and best of all a killer McNair style cut called ‘Flute Salad’ which I wish I’d thought of as a name for a track.” — Johnny Trunk |
| MESSTHETICS | |
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VA: Messthetics #108: South Coast D.I.Y. ’77-81 CD (MSS 108CD) 12.00 “‘D.I.Y.’ and (very) indie postpunk from the South Coast 1977-81 (vol. 1: Bournemouth-to-Brighton). Throughout the age of Punk and postpunk the English music press, the major labels, and the established indies ignored the South Coast with surprising thoroughness. Their neglect blurred lines between potential chart acts, Rough Trade prospects, and deliberate D.I.Y., so that the South Coast scenes (while still insular) remained highly varied, while ‘D.I.Y.’ became less a choice than a necessity. Except for the Mods, hardly anyone put out records on their own, so instead the best documents of South Coast postpunk were a handful of excellent local compilations and a raft of barely-circulated tapes — that account for a majority of the tracks here. Messthetics purists may note with alarm that almost every band on #108 had a proper drum-kit (sacrilege!) and also performed regularly in public. Still, there are Messthetics sounds of all species on #108 — and it’s our most generous selection yet! 24 songs on the CD plus 10 bonus MP3s and a video: 110 minutes of music; 28-page booklet, extensively documented with histories, photos and artifacts.” |
| MILLE PLATEAUX (GERMANY) | |
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MIYASHITA, YU: Noble Niche CD (MP 307CD) 17.00 Mille Plateaux presents an album by Japanese noise/glitch artist, Yu Miyashita. By definition, Noble Niche is a glitch album. So why doesn’t it sound like one? Well, this album is based on the most neglected type of glitch sound: noise. Naturally, noise is not exactly easy listening, and Noble Niche is no exception. However, it is not to be confused with rather provocative or even trashy (Japa)Noise. Instead, Yu Miyashita managed to apply the fine (glitch) aesthetics known from many classic Mille Plateaux releases to digital noise. The sounds suggest that Yu managed to make digital data audible that was never meant to be played back with an audio player. Ever listened to a CD-Rom? This music is highly abstract, with no more than traces of musical chords, not even enough to get any real world associations: a life support machine, perhaps, or a Japanese pachinko hall in hell. Often intense and powerful, sometimes delicate and fragile — food for audio junkies desperate for the next unheard sound. |
| MISSISSIPPI RECORDS | |
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KLEENEX/LiLiPUT: Kleenex/LiLiPUT 1977-1983 4LP BOX (MR 084LP) 50.00 2nd pressing. “One of the most unique punk bands of our time, hailed from Zurich, Switzerland. From 1978-80 Kleenex gigged around, recorded 2 7″‘s and toured the UK with such acts as Gang Of Four, Subway Sect, The Swell Maps and The Raincoats. In 1980, the group changed their name to LiLiPUT (due to pressures from the Kleenex tissue company) and continued under that moniker until their demise in 1983. As LiLiPUT, 3 more 7″‘s and 2 LP were released as the band evolved through numerous personnel changes. Finally the entire contents of the ever-popular Kill Rock Stars double CD is now available as a 4 LP set. Housed in a sturdy tip-on sleeve slipcase and includes a full-color 12-page booklet.” |
| NASHBORO RECORDS | |
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FELT: Felt LP (NASCO 9006HLP) 14.00 Classic Floydian psych record from Alabama, fronted by a 17-year-old composer, guitarist, lead singer and arranger. Side two’s “The Change” clocks in at just over 10 minutes, moving through blistering guitar workouts and prog moves. So worth it. 180 gram exact repro of this classic, originally released in 1971. |
| NORTON RECORDS | |
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ADKINS, HASIL: Out To Hunch LP (ED 201LP) 13.00 1986 release. “The coolest collection of all time ’50s/’60s hunchers by the legendary one man racket squad/rockabilly maniac, crudely recorded in his West Vee-Ay shack! This is the one that started the Big Ruckus! Unreal whompus!” |
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WRAY, LINK: Big City After Dark: Missing Links Volume 2 LP (ED 211LP) 13.00 1990 release. “More snarlin’ savagery from Link, with previously unished live stompers @ ’61 plus wild unished studio recordings! Ultimate crime inspiring whangery that spits, sweats and swaggers. Thee ultimate!” |
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WRAY, LINK: Some Kinda Nut: Missing Links Volume 3 LP (ED 212LP) 13.00 1990 release. “Link & the Raymen in their prime– early & mid sixties rarities!” |
| ORANGE MOUNTAIN | |
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GLASS, PHILIP: Brooklyn Rider Plays Philip Glass 2CD (OMM 074CD) 26.00 “On this new set from Orange Mountain, the fast-rising New York-based ensemble Brooklyn Rider performs the complete works for string quartet by Philip Glass. The set includes the world premiere recording of a suite from Glass’ score to Sean Mathias’ 1997 film Bent, which starred Mick Jagger, Clive Owen and Ian McKellen. Most of Glass’ string quartets are programmatic in nature. The second quartet was written for the Samuel Beckett play Company and the third accompanied Paul Schrader’s film on the life of Japanese writer Yukio Mishima. The fourth is an elegy in remembrance of artist Paul Buczak. Glass’ remarkable first quartet was an early work, written in 1966.” |
| OSTGUT TON (GERMANY) | |
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PROSUMER: Panorama Bar 03 CD (OSTGUT 017CD) 15.50 This is the third mix CD from Ostgut Ton commemorating Berlin’s legendary Panorama Bar. Prosumer is no unknown quantity anymore. In 2005, he donated Playhouse a veritable hit with “The Craze” which led to the recognition that lascivious house music with male vocals doesn’t necessarily have to come out of the holy trinity (Chicago, Detroit and New York). Prosumer’s music (be it as producer and remixer with Murat Tepeli, Tama Sumo or on his own) and his DJ-sets breathe autonomy and individuality and preserve the basic ethos of the founding fathers. He follows the primal credo of disco’s deified bastard: to jack the groove of all grooves. Here you have his first officially-available mix. Concurrently a document of Prosumer’s symbiotic relationship with the already legendary club, Panorama Bar 03 wraps all the things up that make Prosumer such an exceptional DJ. Seemingly without any effort, he connects songs and tracks from yesterday, today and tomorrow. Tracks that follow the textbook example of house (DJ Duke’s tribute to Larry Heard) and tracks that need Prosumer’s touch to be identified as such (Lil Silva). Exclusive dubplates from his Panorama Bar fellow Steffi and Berlin’s hotshot Hunee meet well-placed and unreleased skyrockets from Soundstore, T.S.O.S. and Soundso. Theo Parrish jacks with the young and wild Morgan Geist, while secret matters from the Romanthony vaults (“The House Of God”) swing with a fantastic Jeff Mills in disguise (Servo Unique). Other artists include: Circulation, J.T. Melody, Tina René, Fingers Inc, Oracy, i and QX-1. |
| PRESERVATION (AUSTRALIA) | |
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DEEP MAGIC: Lucid Thought CD (CIRCA 311CD) 14.50 The Preservation label presents Lucid Thought, the second full-length album from California’s Deep Magic. Deep Magic is the solo project of Alex Gray, who currently plays in tropical-psych jam team Sun Araw and has also contributed to works by Pocahaunted and Black Eagle Child. Since releasing his debut album Solar Meditations for cult label Not Not Fun, Alex has since gone on to record a number of longform pieces, mainly on small cassette releases including for his own Deep Tapes label in his creation of sonic states of heightened awareness. The panoramic, lyrical atmospheres on Lucid Thought shine in widescreen, filled with complex, cosmic tableaus cut by zones of ambience, dub filters and folk reverie. Evocative and sun-bleached instrumentation of finger-picked guitar, synth, percussion, various keyboards and vocal tones lift Lucid Thought into a euphoric state glowing with microtonal melodies and continually-shifting, shimmering waves of psychedelia. This is bliss in delirium, ecstatically executed with true focus and clarity of purpose. Lucid Thought was mastered by fellow celestial traveller, Sean McCann. Lucid Thought is the third work in a new limited edition CD series from Preservation called Circa. Only 300 copies of each release in the series will be available and will feature a design by Mark Gowing. Each design for 2011 will be realized using a specially-created abstract alphabet of shapes, determined by artist, title and catalog number for something both fixed and random. |
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QUIET EVENINGS: Transcending Spheres CD (CIRCA 411CD) 14.50 The Preservation label presents Transcending Spheres, the debut full-length album from Georgia’s Quiet Evenings. In a little over two years, the duo that comprise Quiet Evenings — Grant and Rachel Evans — have become two of the most prolific and active artists in the American underground. Each also has solo projects: Grant’s Nova Scotian Arms and Rachel’s Motion Sickness Of Time Travel. Between those as well as Quiet Evenings, they’ve amassed well over 50 releases for various labels in various editions. They also co-run the Hooker Vision label, clocking up a similar amount of releases for other kindred spirits. With minimal instrumentation of guitars and synthesizers as well as voice, the pieces on Transcending Spheres curl out to seize a moment, then carry it forward with beauty and grace. Far from the realm of pure ambient drift, subtle forces build within their disarming restraint to give the album a vital pulse and provide a stunning balance between light and shade. Quiet Evenings inhabit a ghostly space of unique elegance, and as this highly-spirited work’s title suggests, this is a duo that can carry their craft well beyond standard shapes. In a lovely twist of serendipity, Transcending Spheres was mastered by long-time friend and musical mentor Mitchell Turner, Music Professor at the college where Grant and Rachel first met and began making music together. Transcending Spheres is the fourth work in a new limited edition CD series from Preservation called Circa. Only 300 copies of each release in the series will be available and will feature a design by Mark Gowing. Each design for 2011 will be realized using a specially-created abstract alphabet of shapes, determined by artist, title and catalog number for something both fixed and random. |
| ROCKET RECORDINGS (UK) | |
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TEETH OF THE SEA: Orphaned By The Ocean CD (LAUNCH 031CD) 16.50 Originally released in 2009. In a time before Teeth Of The Sea, there was JAWS. A mythical beast that existed chiefly in its members’ imaginations, it was to be the ultimate incandescent and unsavory aural burnout; a bracing, no-rules tarpit of abjection and intrigue. Then they actually had a band practice, and found that instead it sounded like an inept, drumloop-driven racket. Only mildly disheartened, the band lay dormant until a decidedly blurry, in-the-red evening at a show in one of the murkier quarters of the metropolis, when its entourage were excited enough in their addled state to forge a master plan once again: Their mission: to stand atop the scrapheap of modern avant-rock like some wayward, drunken colossus. Armed with freedom of intent, irreverence and sheer hedonistic spirit, they would banish the legions of laptop-tapping timewasters and po-faced noisemongers that habitually blighted their evenings out, forever. Then they actually had some band practices, and were pleasantly surprised to find that what emerged from the new line-up was a turbulent, fiery and atmospheric instrumental brew that encompassed searing cosmic psychedelia, melodramatic giallo soundscapes, mariachi melancholia and Kraut-tinged droning occultism. This band hence metamorphosized into Teeth Of The Sea. Two years and more have now passed since that fateful night, and though their sound has blossomed into the expansive, evocative and electrifying elixir you’ll hear on their Rocket Recordings debut Orphaned By The Ocean, their modus operandi remains exactly the same: to forge onward irrespective of genre, fashion and occasionally common sense. To have no agenda save what thrills them at any given moment and to place reckless oblivion as the ideal destination for their quest. |
| RUNE GRAMMOFON (NORWAY) | |
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JONO EL GRANDE: Phantom Stimulance CD (RCD 2106CD) 17.00 This is the third full-length release by Jon Andreas Håtun aka Jono El Grande, a self-taught composer, musician, conductor and prankster who remains an outsider on the far margin of the Norwegian experimental music scene. He released his debut mini-album Utopian Dances in 1999, a collection of absurdist instrumentals recorded at home using not much more than a workstation synth. 2003 saw the release of Fevergreens (RCD 2031CD), an album that drew upon classic progressive rock, film music, easy listening and a variety of pop idioms and featured a 9-piece orchestra. 2009’s Neo Dada (RCD 2084CD/RLP 3084LP) was a masterstroke; brimming with creative ideas, odd turns, weird combinations of sounds and instruments, complex time signatures and a healthy dose of pure musical joy, all mysteriously sugared with melodic hooks that would stick to your brain like any annoying pop tune. As far as musical form and content goes, this can be said to continue with Phantom Stimulance. It’s put together to celebrate Jono’s 15 years as a composer and performer and 10 years as a band leader, but it’s not a mere compilation. Recorded in Athletic Studio, home to great analog recordings by Supersilent, Motorpsycho, Scorch Trio and countless others, it’s a collection of new versions of stage favorites and previously-unreleased songs as well as a brand-new song. Jono lists movements like Rock In Opposition and the Canterbury Scene and artists and composers like Frank Zappa, Stravinsky, Magma, Henry Cow and Gentle Giant as inspirational sources but has established his own signature with his latest releases and stage shows. Instrumentations and arrangements have become more adventurous, he has picked up the electric guitar again and successfully added a rougher edge to the ensemble sound. |
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PHAEDRA: The Sea CD (RCD 2107CD) 17.00 This is the truly excellent debut album from Phaedra, a new voice on the Norwegian music scene. Rune Grammofon has not been so taken by a debutante since the appearance of Susanna And Her Magical Orchestra back in 2004. Phaedra is Ingvild Langgård, singer, songwriter and painter. Educated at Oslo National Academy Of The Arts in 2006, she has also worked with film, photography, field recordings, installations and vocal-based performance, and her works have been shown in several Norwegian cities as well as in New York (Norwegian Art Now). Co-produced by Madrugada’s Frode Jacobsen, The Sea is the kind of classic, timeless music that doesn’t come often these days, a mix of folk and psychedelia with a dash of blues and soul; sacred death hymns and shimmering atmospheres hand-in-hand with enchanting melodies and crystalline vocals all shrouded in a dark veil of mystery. Maybe the sort of record Joe Boyd would have produced some forty years ago. The Sea is the first album in a trilogy that constitutes a lyrical and musical cycle, fragments of homegrown mythology, physical and spiritual metamorphosis, death, the other side and losing your soul. |
| SATURN | |
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SUN RA: The Soul Vibrations Of Man LP (SATURN 771HLP) 14.00 180 gram exact repro, originally released in 1976. Two flutes, cosmic ambience. “What is your soul number? Is your number up or down?” |
| SECRET STASH RECORDS | |
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VA: Persian Funk LP (SSR 279LP) 17.00 “It seems hard for most Westerners to imagine today, but in the middle part of last century, the Iranian government was very supportive of the Western way of life. In addition to pushing for women’s right to vote, the Shah and his organization encouraged art, music, and film in Iranian society. The Ministry of Culture founded Ahang Rooz, a record label featuring the biggest acts in the country. Over time, they launched additional imprints such as Caspian, Royal, Apollon, and Olympic. The music that came out of this renaissance (’53-’79) was an incredible mix of rock, jazz, soul, funk, and indigenous music. The influence of American and British music was extremely present. In fact, some artists even covered songs (in English) by the Beatles, John Lee Hooker, Aretha Franklin, and more. Successful Iranian musicians were treated like America treats Hollywood A-listers. In 1979 religious leaders throughout Iran grew angry with what they perceived to be the Shah’s attempt to wipe out Islam from their country. This sparked the Iranian revolution that put the anti-western Ayatollah Kohmeini in power. Once in power, Kohmeini eliminated the Iranian record business. He saw it as being riddled with western influence and a threat to his regime’s power. They burned most of the country’s recording studios and rid the country of its popular musicians. Most were exiled from Iran while others were put on house arrest. Finally, 40 years later, some of the long lost popular music of Iran is beginning to resurface. Secret Stash Records is extremely proud to announce this release that focuses exclusively on funk and soul tunes recorded in Iran during the 70s. These tracks have been hand selected after dozens of hours of digging and searching through almost forgotten archives. They are a mix of instrumental, Farsi vocal, and English cover songs. This record is packed full of deep grooves, killer breaks, and high energy, all with a healthy dose of Persian influence. Each LP comes with a free digital download of the entire album and is packaged in a re-sealable dust bag.” |
| SLOW TO SPEAK | |
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COLOURBLIND/NY’S FINEST: Core 1993 – Nothing Better/Do You Feel Me 12″ (CORE 093FG-EP) 11.00 Originally released in 1992 on Ore Music, the Victor Simonelli-produced “Nothing Better” is a classic house track from Tommy Musto’s Colourblind project, featuring the voice of Dina Roache. Also a Simonelli production, NY’s Finest’s “Do You Feel Me” was originally released in 1993 for Bass Line records. “The latest in the CORE series.” |
| SOUVENIR MUSIC (GERMANY) | |
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VA: In The City 2CD (SOUVENIR 003CD) 21.00 Souvenir showcases their newest and brightest with the In The City compilation. Each artist from the label roster has created their own new piece of aural bliss. The first disc starts off with Ruede Hagelstein and Naneci with a nice and moody piece that truly sets the tone. Next up is Santé featuring Meggy with “Rescue Me,” laying it down with a deep bass line and mesmerizing vocal. Nico’s “Wicked Games” brings deep, lightly touched bass lines with a ghost-like vocal. Re.You hands over a thick and chunky bass-driven number with a sick hook that will surely fire up the floor. &Me presents a deep and sultry tune with just a touch of soul. Tiefschwarz ties the release together nicely with “Stuck In My Head,” featuring Jaw and Adam Port delivers with an absolute banger, perfect for dancefloor action, underpinned with a touch of soul-stroked vocals. There is also a stand-out tune by Ahmet Sisman, “After Rain Comes Sun,” with a title that says it all and adds a dose of club warmth. Onno shakes it up with a rhythmic, pulsating, deep, dark jungle-tech-influenced number. The first disc also features the works of Rampa, Maher Daniel, Sebbo & Denis Goekdag and Amir, all beautifully twisted together with their own colorful hues. The second disc is a mix by Tiefschwarz, featuring hand-selected crème de la crème of past releases on the label. Sit back, and enjoy. Berlin, home of the Souvenir imprint, is a city that never sleeps. This release is a nice snapshot of the city, of the artists who live here and the driving force that keeps them bouncing. Artists in the mix include: Elle P. & Iftah, Tim Paris, Tiefschwarz (feat. Dave Aju), Penner & Muder, Psychonauts, Audiofly, Santé, Cassy, Guido Schneider, Onno, Thodoris Triantafillou + CJ Jeff, Ziggy Kinder, Emad Paradian, Fischer & Kleber, Prompt, Reboot, Phonique and Sleeper Thief. |
| STAUBGOLD (GERMANY) | |
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MAGIC I.D., THE: I’m So Awake/Sleepless I Feel CD (STAUBDIG 010CD) 17.00 This is the second release from The Magic I.D. — a Berlin-based quartet exploring the juncture of song forms with abstract music. The band, consisting of Margareth Kammerer (vocals & guitars), Christof Kurzmann (vocals, g3 & lloopp), Kai Fagaschinski and Michael Thieke (both clarinet), formed in the summer of 2005 after previously being connected via smaller groupings and projects. The musicians expand song forms through the prism of experimental sensibilities and mesh the two remarkably fluidly. I’m So Awake/Sleepless I Feel consists of 10 intricately-constructed gems, each with its own individual shape, painstakingly sequenced to form a record that becomes more than the sum of its parts. The combination of twin clarinets, guitar, subtle electronics and voices seems deceptively simple, but it makes a heady cocktail. The combined effect creates a unique soundscape; after hearing two seconds of this music, it could be mistaken for nothing else. |
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TORAL, RAFAEL: Space Elements Vol. III CD (STAUBDIG 012CD) 17.00 This is the third volume of Rafael Toral’s Space Program Space Elements series. In this series, each volume features guests and is focused on a compositional function. The Space Program is a long-term project launched in 2004 for performing music with a post-free jazz mind-set but using strange sounds from electronic instruments. Playing physically, the body is involved in making decisions. The Space Program is about articulating silence and sound, structuring musical flow on experimental instruments with a simple and clear sonic identity. “All these instruments are different but have a few things in common. The first is that they don’t have a conventional interface, which means that for all of them I have to find out what they do and develop technique to play them,” says Toral. “The second is that none of them respond accurately to performing action. So there’s always a live tension between an accurate decision and its somewhat unpredictable outcome. I meant to play music technically free from any school and teachings, but beyond that, I also wanted the music somehow to escape my own self, playing instruments with a sort of life of their own, never allowing complete control and making any repetition virtually impossible.” Dan Warburton’s write-up in The Wire about Space fits Space Elements Vol. III perfectly: “The melodic logic that drives certain instruments within ‘Space’ also recalls birdsong, with dense, convoluted runs of twittering melody ending in single piping notes, as spontaneous as Messiaen’s birdsong transcriptions were painstaking and meticulous.” Toral’s music is a jazz-inspired reevaluation of live electronics: “Despite working in a sound world that is cosmetically closer to R2D2’s vocabulary than Louis Armstrong’s or John Coltrane’s, Toral has claimed a kinship to jazz because it models instant music-making within a disciplined framework.” –Dusted Magazine; “Toral is looking for nothing less than a totally fresh language to work in” –The Wire. Mastered by James Plotkin. Featuring contributing musicians such as Afonso Simões (drums), Riccardo Dillon Wanke (Rhodes piano), César Burago (maracas, tamborim, shakers, cowbell, claves, kokiriko), Tatsuya Nakatani (percussion), Victor Gama (acrux), Marco Franco (drums), Toshio Kajiwara (lap steel guitar) and Toral (electrode oscillator, modified MS-2 pocket amplifier feedback, glove-controlled computer bass sinewaves, filtered feedback circuit, modified MT-10 portable amplifier, modulated noise, modulated synthesizer and tamtam). |
| SUB ROSA (BELGIUM) | |
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POUSSEUR, HENRI: Parabolique d’Enfer CD (SR 318CD) 15.50 This recording will be Sub Rosa’s first posthumous recording of Henri Pousseur. It is the sixth release (out of eight) in their catalog devoted to this composer’s experimental and electronic works. It also marks the end of the trilogy of the Parabolic works (following the 1972 unreleased recordings and the 2001 collective performance). This time around, we have a piece built through another major Pousseur work: Leçon d’Enfer (composed in 1990-1991 around Arthur Rimbaud). This previously-unreleased version was realized by Henri Pousseur in Cologne in 1992. This release was important to Henri Pousseur, as it concludes, in a sense, the Paraboles trilogy, after 1972’s 8 Etudes Paraboliques (released as a 4CD box set comprised of all the études to be used as the basis for all current and future mixes) and 4 Parabolic Mixes (2001), on which four composers — Robert Hampson, Philip Jeck, Markus Popp, and Pousseur himself — tackled those source tapes. This suite of works was gradually pushing composition further into the territory of destruction and abstraction. This final installment, a mix made from the 1972 Études, as it should be, integrates a major external element (something already planned in the initial design), another work by Pousseur, “Leçons d’Enfer,” a complex piece of musical theater dedicated to the memory of Arthur Rimbaud and composed in 1991 for the centennial of the poet’s death. This work, over 100 minutes long, was written for two actors, three singers, seven musicians (clarinet, alto saxophone, tuba, harp, piano, and two percussions), tapes (including traditional Ethiopian music and field recordings from that area), and electroacoustic devices. With this version, Henri Pousseur shows how the deep impression left by a work in constant mutation can take different guises. The Rimbaud pictured in this flux is neither the promising teenager, nor the striking genius, nor even the desperate man struggling in vain in an empty landscape; it is an appeased hybrid breathing the ebullient air of the final times. |
| SUBLIME FREQUENCIES | |
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GROUP DOUEH: Zayna Jumma CD (SF 066CD) 15.00 Group Doueh’s latest record is here and the plot continues to thicken! From the gorgeously cracked yet all-embracing opening drum roll of “Zayna Jumma” (the title track), it’s evident this band is hell-bent on redefining the sound of its influences and in turn, shape the future sound of its surroundings. It’s musical alchemy in its purest, most remarkable form, pushing at the boundaries of geographical divergence while simultaneously speaking to the shared resonances between Western rock rhythms and the pulse of the Saharan trance tradition. Since its inception, Group Doueh’s ability to craft pop hooks from a foundation of saharoui roots music has been a manifestation of sheer song craft and innovation. The tracks on Zayna Jumma are a deeper excavation of the group’s forged terrain: a collision of contemporary Afro-Saharan grooves balanced with the searing modalities of Doueh’s desert origins, finally nuanced by the transcendental pop/rock/desert blues elements honed from gestating in the fringes of the Sahara desert. For the latest installment of this Dakhla family’s musical dynasty, Doueh recruits his next eldest sons El Waar (synth) and Hamdan (drum kit), and wife Halima is augmented by three female back-up singers. The band keeps evolving and this album reveals its newest phase — that of a formidable ROCK unit. The songs on this record were recorded in 2010 — a busy year for Doueh, maintaining its day job as the go-to group of the Saharan wedding industry while still managing recording sessions and a tour with Tony Allen (Fela Kuti’s long-time drummer). On the heels of this momentum, Zanya Jumma is released to coincide with the group’s 2011 spring/summer tour of the UK, Europe and a first-ever U.S. tour. This band continues to redefine the musical landscape and keep listeners amazed and transfixed. It’s the perfect ecstatic music for the impending apocalypse, a rogue sound rooted in the past and yet boldly harnessing the aural possibilities of the landscape ahead… go ahead and jump aboard. Recorded on location in Dakhla, West Sahara in 2010 by Hisham Mayet. |
| SUNBEAM RECORDS (UK) | |
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FRESH MAGGOTS: Fresh Maggots… Hatched CD (SBR 5002CD) 15.50 2011 repress; newly repackaged 2006 edition, with 7 new bonus tracks. Long established as a cult classic and collector’s grail, Mick Burgoyne and Leigh Dolphin’s sole album is presented here with their full cooperation. Recorded in 1971 when they were just 19 years old and fresh to the studio, Fresh Maggots… Hatched is one of the best distillations of UK folk and psychedelia ever recorded. Combining gentle, pastoral songs with violent fuzz guitar, it’s a highly unusual and powerful record that enjoyed extravagant acclaim on release. Despite selling poorly, it has gone on to acquire a major reputation amongst acid folk fans, who will be especially eager to hear the seven bonus tracks included here (including the duo’s rare non-album single and a previously unheard live radio session from 1971). The package is rounded off with rare photographs and detailed sleevenotes, making this is the most comprehensive collection of their music ever assembled. |
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WHITREN, JAKI: Raw But Tender CD (SBR 5025CD) 15.50 2011 repress, originally released 2006. Possessor of one of the finest voices of her generation, Southampton, UK-based Jaki Whitren was just nineteen when she recorded her first release, Raw But Tender — a soulful collection of banjo-plucked, country-tinged folk-rock, in 1973. Featuring members of Matthews Southern Comfort and Fotheringay, as well as guitar legend Albert Lee, it has never previously been available on CD and comes complete with detailed notes by Jaki herself, making it an essential purchase for fans of classic singer-songwriting. |
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HUMAN BEAST, THE: Volume One CD (SBR 5044CD) 15.50 2011 repress, originally released 2007. The music of this young Edinburgh trio was described in 1969 as “electro-flagellation,” a phrase that aptly describes their vicious, Eastern-inflected guitar lines, pounding bass and frenetic percussion. Taped in a single twelve-hour stint in London that December and released in 1970 on Decca, their sole album stands as one of the most distinctive and unsettling pieces of rock music ever recorded. Issued here with their full participation, their story — an enigma for decades — is finally told for the first time in an accompanying 16-page booklet, packed with previously-unseen photographs, making it an essential purchase for all fans of heavy psychedelic rock and roll. |
| TAPETE (GERMANY) | |
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COLE, LLOYD: Broken Record CD (TR 186CD) 14.50 “About a year ago, after almost a decade in self-imposed exile as a would-be folksinger, I developed an itch I wasn’t expecting. It seemed that there were aspects to my old life in rock and roll that I missed. Tour buses and product managers, certainly not. But the interacting with musicians, the camaraderie and the joy of hearing one’s music enhanced, and elevated by the aesthetic of others, absolutely. Damn. I never wanted to make records alone, but somehow I ended up spending much of the 2000s in a studio with just a bunch of equipment and a computer, or touring with a suitcase and two guitars. Two things made me realize that I needed to rejoin the fray, at least for a little while — I had written some songs which demanded a beat, and I was having great fun with my new acoustic trio — The Small Ensemble. Why not make a rock(ing) record, or whatever it is that 49 year-olds make when they try to do that? I emailed my ideal band — I was making a record, in a studio, old school with tape. Interested? All said yes. I had a studio band: drums, percussion – Fred Maher (Scritti Politti, Lou Reed, Matthew Sweet, my first two solo records), bass, vocals – Rainy Orteca (Joan As Police Woman, Antony And The Johnsons, Brilliantine), guitars, mandolin, vocals – Mark Schwaber (The Small Ensemble, Spouse, Hospital), guitars, banjo – Matt Cullen (The Small Ensemble, The Sighs, Ware River Club), keyboards – Blair Cowan (The Commotions, Paul Quinn, Alisdair Robertson), pedal steel – Bob Hoffnar (Hem, Crash Test Dummies, my Bad Vibes album), piano, violin, guitar, vocals – Joan Wasser (Joan As Police Woman, Antony And The Johnsons, Dambuilders), vocals – Kendall Meade (Mascott, Grammercy Arms), production and vocals – Dave Derby (Dambuilders, The Negatives, Grammercy Arms, Brilliantine), mixing – Mick Glossop, Dave Bates, my man at Fontana way back when, kindly agreed to A&R the record. I played acoustic guitar, banjo and sang. The final lyric was written and then recorded at Mick Glossop’s Magazine Studio in West London on April 22nd, leaving us two days to mix the song and fine-tune the rest. The whole experience was, for me, rewarding, perplexing, fabulously enjoyable and heinously stressful. Singing with a rock and roll band in the studio, I felt exactly as I did in 1987, or 1995 and then I would see my reflection in the glass of the gobo and wonder who this old guy was? I’m happy we got these songs finished, because I’m not sure I’ll make another record like this again. Having said that, I’m never going back to that room with the computer…” –Lloyd Cole, June 2010, Massachusetts, USA |
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THE HORROR THE HORROR: Wilderness CD (TR 212CD) 17.00 Sometime in 2006, The Horror The Horror emerged from the Swedish club circuit, heavily deriving on influences from the late ’60s and early ’70s, ending up sounding like the bastard child of a one-night stand at CBGB’s. Their self-titled debut album (released 2006) was instantly dubbed “Record Of The Week” at prestigious Rough Trade Records and Piccadilly Records, UK. Euphoric press reviews were followed by ecstatic fans and touring in the UK, Germany, Spain, Austria and Sweden, showcasing the band’s explosive live sound. In 2011, the direction has changed, leaving the shabby clubs for yacht parties, showing more resemblance to David Gilmour than David Johansen. On their third album Wilderness, the sound of The Horror The Horror is evolving into something rather luxurious. It still has an indie rock thorn, but grit has given way to gravy. THTH is coming in from the wilderness. Lyrically, this album is less “me against the world” and more “where in the world am I?” In fact: closer to the Stockholm Archipelago than the Lower East Side. |
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BEAUREGARD, JACK: The Magazines You Read CD (TR 213CD) 17.00 “Jack Beauregard (pronounced: ‘Zjegg.Burre.Garr’) is Pär Lammers and Daniel Schaub from Berlin, Germany. They have been making music together since 2006. The Magazines You Read is their second album. In addition to Jack Beauregard, they sometimes write songs for other artists — some may know their compositions for the German pop starlet Lena Meyer-Landruth. They missed the award ceremony for Lena’s platinum album because they were stuck in traffic. Jack Beauregard have successfully toured in England and Sweden and in Germany they toured supporting Mika and Hurts. The Magazines You Read is all about the fantastic notion that you might one day understand who you really are. Ideally, it would happen through a soulmate who explains the world to you, brushes away all those nagging questions and makes you forget your doubt. But no one can do that: not the girl who finds all her answers in magazines (‘All These Tears’); not the person across from you, who can tell by looking into your eyes just how empty you feel (‘Gold Mine’); and not that wonderfully eccentric person beside you (‘Lullaby’). It’s an album about that moment just before sleep, when it seems as if everything is clear. And yet nothing is clear, because: this is also an album about love — an album about love that was made with love. Daniel and Pär produced it themselves and have ensured that it does everything to you that makes you come to life. You want to dance to ‘Hollywood’ until you don’t care if somebody is watching. The beginning of ‘You Or My Guitar’ finds you on the floor with a broken heart, but in the end you fly away. And the first single ‘You Drew A Line’ has you longing for nothing more than to be unhappily in love, because even that feels so nice with Jack Beauregard.” –Raffaela Jungbauer |
| THESE DAYS (UK) | |
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JUNE: Cytheria CD (TD 010CD) 17.00 This is the debut album by June. After the ingenious June white label came out, These Days Records’ office fell in love with it and without wasting any time rushed to contact the mysterious artist and propose an album. Although well-hidden in a secret back-alley of West London where June lives and dreams music, his unique approach on acid house, synth wave, Chicago house and ’80s nostalgia was too good to be left unnoticed and has been favored by people such as Panorama Bar’s Steffi, Mathematics’s owner Hieroglyphic Being, Terre Thaemlitz and the Clone record store, to name but a few. Almost half a year after his Alleviation EP, June’s debut album Cytheria has been realized. Includes 10 new songs and 4 from the artist’s back catalog, retaining a great balance between dancefloor-oriented tracks and synth-pop. |
| THRILL JOCKEY | |
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LITURGY: Aesthethica CD (THR 273CD) 15.00 “Brooklyn based Liturgy is Hunter Hunt Hendrix, Greg Fox, Tyler Dusenbury, and Bernard Gann. Aesthethica, their second album and third release, shows the band exploring, in greater depth, themes initially touched on by their critically acclaimed debut album, Renihilation. The band used every instrument, literal or figurative, to produce meaning and intensity, disregarding the genre boundaries of black metal, hardcore and experimental music. Highly technical musicianship, poetico-mystical gesturing, and a minimal directness; all singular elements, whose interactions and reactions are contained in and bursting from a black metal framework. Revelatory contrasts presented in an intensely physical performance whose energy is palpable and whose abatement is as illuminating as its arrival.” |
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LITURGY: Aesthethica 2LP (THR 273LP) 19.00 Gatefold 2LP version. “Brooklyn based Liturgy is Hunter Hunt Hendrix, Greg Fox, Tyler Dusenbury, and Bernard Gann. Aesthethica, their second album and third release, shows the band exploring, in greater depth, themes initially touched on by their critically acclaimed debut album, Renihilation. The band used every instrument, literal or figurative, to produce meaning and intensity, disregarding the genre boundaries of black metal, hardcore and experimental music. Highly technical musicianship, poetico-mystical gesturing, and a minimal directness; all singular elements, whose interactions and reactions are contained in and bursting from a black metal framework. Revelatory contrasts presented in an intensely physical performance whose energy is palpable and whose abatement is as illuminating as its arrival.” |
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MOUNTAINS: Air Museum CD (THR 274CD) 14.00 “Air Museum blurs the lines between acoustic and electronic music even more without sacrificing melody or the delicacy of their sound. It is an album of firsts. It was the first album that the acoustic instruments were not processed via a computer. Instead, the processing of the instrumentation (acoustic and electric guitar, cello, accordion, piano, bass etc.) was done using a variety of pedals, modular synths, and other analog techniques. While acoustic instruments were used extensively, the album manifests itself sonically as their most ‘electronic’ record yet. Air Museum is also their first record that was made in a studio. Working in the studio expanded their possibilities, giving more room for experimentation. While much of the album was recorded in real time with minor editing, the band took the opportunity to utilize the studio as an instrument of sorts, investing a great amount of time in customizing their approach to post-production.” |
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MOUNTAINS: Air Museum LP (THR 274LP) 15.00 LP version. |
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SEA AND CAKE, THE: The Moonlight Butterfly CD (THR 278CD) 14.00 “In January 2011 Sam Prekop, Archer Prewitt, John McEntire, and Eric Claridge reconvened at Chicago’s Soma Electronic Music Studios to record their latest release The Moonlight Butterfly. This thirty three minute mini-album finds the band delivering much more long form and cinematic pieces. The new songs lean upon the band’s more experimental tendencies, taking time to stretch the forms and in some ways the new material relates to the way the band re-interprets some of their songs live. With the band making a shorter than usual record they were allowed to take more chances and ended up with a release that leans a bit more towards the instrumental. Rather than having the vocals be the sole focal point the shifts in emphasis to other instruments facilitated a more open approach. The song ‘Weekend’ from Car Alarm was kind of an unwitting blueprint for some of the new material. Especially the new song ‘Inn Keeping’ where a synthesizer pattern became the armature for the song, a constant to play with and against. ‘Inn Keeping’ is also quite a breakthrough for the band, sounding unlike anything they have done before and breaking the 10 minute mark.” |
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SEA AND CAKE, THE: The Moonlight Butterfly LP (THR 278LP) 15.00 LP version. |
| TRAUM (GERMANY) | |
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EULBERG, DOMINIK: Diorama CD (TRAUM 024CD) 15.50 This is the fourth full-length release from Bonn-based DJ, producer and park ranger, Dominik Eulberg. After the Heimische Gefilde (TRAUM 019CD) album, which won the German critic award as the first techno album ever on which comments by the artist himself appear in spoken word, Eulberg has this time aimed at an album which embodies various facets of electronic music. Diorama therefore resembles something totally new and original and can be referred to as an affiliation towards the real “authentic” Eulberg sound cosmos. He has accomplished this with the highest possible standard and contemporary sound aesthetic. Eulberg has set the bar at an extreme height for himself and the result will pile-drive even the die-hard fans into solid, rocky soil. Eulberg has unbuttoned his “techno coat” and has come up with timeless electronica no one would have expected of him. It is his first album where he has rather played music instead of manipulating it and it holds up that skill from the very beginning to the very end, non-stop. For Diorama, Dominik Eulberg has selected, in cooperation with Germany’s nature magazine NABU, the 11 greatest wonders of domestic nature, because it is not only in exotic parts of the world that one can find incredible innovations of nature — they can also be found at your front door. Their existence is concealed from many of us and only by means of closer examination and a raised awareness for their secrets can we discover this world full of miracles. For this world of hidden wonders, a graphic diorama was specially designed, depicting a well-known world full of unknown phenomena. For each wonder, Dominik Eulberg has composed a piece of music which reflects in sound and dynamic the accounted wonder. |
| TRI ANGLE | |
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oOoOO: oOoOO CD (TRIANGLE 002CD) 10.00 Back in October 2010, the self-titled debut EP from rising San Francisco-based artist oOoOO (pronounced “oh”) was the second release for the Tri Angle label (following the release of Balam Acab’s See Birds). What followed was a wave of critical acclaim, prominent placings in summaries of the best releases of the year, and two sold-out pressings of the record on 12″. Due to popular demand, Tri Angle is now releasing the oOoOO EP for the first time on CD. oOoOO heralds a new era of shrouded pop music, approaching territories untraveled with an inimitable melodic touch. Includes a remix by Visions Of Trees. |
| TYPE (UK) | |
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RENE HELL: The Terminal Symphony CD (TYPE 085CD) 14.50 Since Porcelain Opera (TYPE 077CD), his debut for Type, U.S. noisenik Jeff Witscher aka Rene Hell has put out a whole series of collaborations, 7″s, tapes and splits. Looking to his love of classical minimalism, Jeff took it as the starting point for this new record. The result is a deeply electronic rendition of a classical electronic formula; the digital and analog synthesizer and drum machine sounds that brought Porcelain Opera to life are reframed and transferred into a very different compositional structure. The Terminal Symphony is Jeff’s attempt to write tighter, more composed pieces of music — something of a reaction against the glut of long, often-flabby drone compositions that have become a mainstay in the scene. The pieces here are short, concise, and packed full of ideas that can take multiple listens to unravel, and the album as a whole is almost obsessively structured and complex. Each side of the record is composed very specifically with a beginning, middle and an end, and when we begin with the familiar grunt and grind of “Chamber Forte,” it is only mere minutes before the track dissolves into the main theme of the album. An appropriate enough comparison might be arch-recluse Aphex Twin, but there is no pandering to dance music culture here. Rather, Jeff has used his enviable background in noise, punk and synthesizer music to come up with something totally removed from the current Kosmische revival. The album comes to a close with the hauntingly melancholy and purposefully referential “Adagio For String Portrait.” The dancing synthetic blips that pirouette across Witscher’s mournful electronic waves not only re-enforce the decades-long love affair between electronic and classical music, but help to define it in 2011. |
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HONIG, EZEKIEL: Folding In On Itself CD (TYPE 088CD) 14.50 Describing the music of Ezekiel Honig is never easy. It’s related to techno, but the pulsing 4/4 beats are pushed so far into the background that they simply become another texture in the sprawling ambience. And that doesn’t mean to say the music is “ambient” either — the structures are far deeper than the musical wallpaper that achieves that label right now. New York-based Honig’s Type debut Folding In On Itself doesn’t make his music any easier to describe but does a lot to clarify the mood. This is deeply melancholy music, and while it doesn’t revel in sadness, it conveys a sense that the things we grew up with and see disappear can never be recaptured. Memory and the corruption or distortion thereof is at the core the record, and like the cover which is made up of hazy family snaps of a changing Manhattan, Honig has tried to capture a sense of entropy in his quickly disintegrating city. Using a palette of locally-recorded environmental samples, decayed acoustic instruments and the unusual, clattering percussion that has become his signature, Folding In On Itself is probably Honig’s most measured and defining record. Elements of his previous work are still present, heard most obviously on the breakthrough Surfaces Of A Broken Marching Band (ANTICIP 006CD), but every tiny part has been trimmed and honed with a selfless attention to detail. From the lilting, processed horns and clipped percussion on “Subverting The Memory Of Your Surroundings” to the noisy, slowly decomposing piano of “Drafting Foresight,” there is a sense that Honig has a distinct story to tell, and that every track on the album is a unique part of the same object. Far from a random collection of tracks, “Folding In On Itself” is an introverted collection of musings on change and loss, and is as softly-spoken and moving as anything on Type to date. Handle with care. |
| UNITED ARTISTS RECORDS | |
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MANDRILL: Solid LP (UALA 408LP) 11.50 Exact repro of this 1975 LP from this Brooklyn psych funk band. Their seventh album and a bit mellowed out compared to the heady acid guitar days of their early ’70s recordings, this is still solid cosmic funk. |
| UNITED ONE/SOLYD (RUSSIAN FEDERATION) | |
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SHIPP & SABIR MATEEN, MATTHEW: SaMa Live in Moscow CD (UNITED 408CD) 19.00 “Artists: SAMA, Matthew Shipp, piano, Sabir Mateen, saxophone. Recorded live in Moscow 2009. Matthew Shipp (born in 1960) quickly became one of the leading lights in the New York jazz scene. Mr. Shipp has reached the holy grail of jazz in that he possesses a unique style on his instrument that is all his own — and he’s one of the few in jazz that can say so. Sabir Mateen (born in 1951) started out playing rhythm and blues in the early 70s, which led him to the tenor saxophone chair of the Horace Tapscott Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra. From there he was or is performing with Cecil Taylor, Sunny Murray, William Parker, Alan Silva, Butch & Wilber Morris, Raphe Malik, Steve Swell, Mark Whitecage, Roy Campbell, Matthew Shipp, Marc Edwards, Jemeel Moondoc, William Hooker, Henry Grimes, Rashid Bakr, Kali Fasteau and numerous others.” |
| VAMPISOUL (SPAIN) | |
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MARANATA: Maranata CD (VAMPI 056CD) 12.00 2005 release. Beware… this album is a true revelation! The only album recorded by this Uruguayan band, they were formed by Roberto Giordano, bass player of Totem , with the intention of making some extra money by playing contemporary hits or classics at weddings, private parties and TV shows. The record was recorded specifically to be sold at those events. Musically, there are echoes of Cal Tjader, Deodato, Henri Mancini, Billy Cobham… but with a Candombe Beat: utterly rhythmic and contagious! This is one of the most fabulous and rarest “rare grooves” ever released. The original copy of this album does not even appear on any website and we fear that, were a well preserved copy to surface, its price in euros could have 3 zeroes on it. |
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FREE POP ELECTRONIC CONCEPT, THE: A New Exciting Experience CD (VAMPI 089CD) 16.50 2007 release. First-time ever legit reissue of this lost gem from the late ’60s Euro psychedelic underground. Belgium-based Portuguese soul brothers Tony & Waldo Lam (better known as Jess & James) join forces with American jazzman Scott Bradford and Belgian mad scientist & electronics grand daddy Arsene Souffriau for a crazy trip into groovy free-rock and soul and electronics. This stands among the best, in the tradition of Pierre Henry’s Jerks Electroniques Pour La Messe Du Temps Present, Cecil Leuter’s Pop Electronique or JP Massiera’s Maledictus Sound. For some it may even be close to the craziness of Jimmy Haskell’s Count Down or The Love Machine’s Electronic Music To Blow Your Mind. Heavy riffing, screaming fuzz, mind-frying chirping electronics, tribal drumming mayhem, crazy studio effects, groovy go-go keyboard action, stomping beats all over. Insane stuff far ahead of its time. A must-have for psych fiends, Krautrock aficionados, beat diggers, library lunatics and all-around acid heads. A legendary record which is still riding high in many want lists. Grab it now or cry for ages. |
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QUINTEPLUS: Quinteplus CD (VAMPI 094CD) 12.00 2007 release. Founded after the “New Jazz Collective” movement in Argentina in the late ’60s, Quinteplus was a space for reflection and rehearsal to determine the paths that jazz should take. An experiment with folk genres in a jazz key, and the exploration of African rhythms, as a bridge between both musical worlds. This set contains the only studio album they ever released (in 1972) and a great bonus: a complete live recording of a gig from the same year, unreleased until now. The record is a sophisticated exhibition of the musical cocktail that characterized the band — tunes composed by its members, fluent jazz language, experimentation with folk rhythms, funky touches by the amplified upright bass and electric piano, compact sound and great solos by the group’s brass players. The music sounds fresh, attractive, unprejudiced and dexterously played. A work ahead of their time. Includes a complete band bio and liner notes. |
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LA NUEVA BANDA DE SANTISTEBAN: Sabor a Fresa CD (VAMPI 106CD) 16.50 2009 reissue of this 1971 classic from Alfonso Santisteban’s La Nueva Banda De Santisteban. An exotic cocktail of jazz, Brazilian music, flamenco influences and spaghetti-western soundtracks. Right from the start, the title theme represents the Santisteban canon: female “da-ba-das,” his jazz devotion and the fixation with Brazil. “Brincadeira”” directly takes us to the beaches of Ipanema with the unmistakable cadence of bossa nova. “Nuestro ayer” and its guitar à la “Concierto de Aranjuez” marries, almost in an obscene manner, Santisteban’s obsession and his reality: Copacabana and the river Manzanares, caipirinha and the San Francisco cocktail. “Limón y sal” and “Zorongo,” both released on 45, are two bombs that have nothing to envy any of the holy grails of Euro groove that mill around the web. The former is woven by an infectious electric guitar swung by a soulish vibe, the latter by a beat that still sounds new and surprising today. Both are embellished by Trío La La La’s trademark female choruses, led by Merche Valimaña. These tracks were official hymns of the Costa Fleming sound, epicenter of the club culture and ultimate place for encounters — social or of any other type — of early ’70s Madrid. |
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LA NUEVA BANDA DE SANTISTEBAN: Sabor a Fresa LP (VAMPI 106LP) 16.50 LP version. |
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ATALOBHOR AND HIS OGIZA DANCE BAND, FRED FISHER: African Carnival 2CD (VAMPI 109CD) 22.00 2009 release. The seventies was a vibrant musical period universally and the scene in Nigeria was no exception. Bands sprang up all over the country, free to fuse their traditional music with genres such as soul, funk and pop. In the midst of this creative turmoil, an effervescent style innovator called Fred Fisher — famed trombonist, vocalist, composer, songwriter — hit the world with his talent. Fred is known for high energy dance grooves and catchy melodies. This fabulous compilation, African Carnival, takes the best songs from Fred Fisher’s albums: Say The Truth (1979), No Way (1981), Wahala Dey For Town (1988) and Ogiza (1990), and comes with liner notes by Nigerian specialist Samuel Kayode. Since 1972 Fisher has recorded albums for EMI and Afrosia, creating and defining his so called “Asolo Rock” — a blend of Afro-funk-rock with soulful melodies. Fred also performed live all over the country with his own band. They opened for Fela Kuti, who noticed the talent of Bob Ohiri, who later joined Fela’s band as well as King Sunny Ade. This collection finally gives Fisher the recognition he deserves. |
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ATALOBHOR AND HIS OGIZA DANCE BAND, FRED FISHER: African Carnival 2LP (VAMPI 109LP) 25.50 2LP version. |
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ALCHOURRON, RODOLFO: Sanata y Clarificación Vol. I & II 2LP (VAMPI 112LP) 25.50 2LP version. |
| WARNER BROTHERS | |
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WHITE, TONY JOE: Tony Joe White LP (WS 1900LP) 11.50 Originally released in 1971, swamp rock icon Tony Joe White’s fourth record features such gems as “Black Panther Swamps,” “A Night In The Life Of A Swamp Fox” and “They Caught The Devil And Put Him In Jail In Eudora, Arkansas.” Exact repro, manufactured by Rhino. |
| WERGO (GERMANY) | |
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CZERNOWIN, CHAYA: Shifting Gravity CD (WER 6726) 24.00 “Wergo presents first recordings of chamber music works by the Israeli composer Chaya Czernowin. The eponymous series of works, Shifting Gravity, from 2008 connects the string quartets ‘Anea Christal’ with the compositions ‘Sheva’ and ‘Sahaf.’ The second part of the CD consists of the ‘Winter Songs III’ (2003). This Wergo production shows a different side of the artist who was born in Haifa in 1957 and who, up to now, has been appreciated mainly for her stage works, in particular for the much noticed music theatre play Pnima/Ins Innere or her adaptation of Mozart’s ‘Zaide/Adama.’ The instrumental works were all created after the music-theatre plays, associating notions like paralysis, adherence, proliferation.” |
| WORLD VILLAGE (GERMANY) | |
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KHAN, AMJAD ALI: Samaagam CD (WORLD 468102) 19.00 “In the Sanskrit language, the word samaagam translates as, ‘a confluence or flowing together.’ The Sikhi Wiki website describes Samaagam as, ‘an important gathering or meeting…to celebrate, announce or exchange ideas of great communal value.’ These definitions offer insight into the music on Samaagam, an exquisite new recording teaming Indian sarod virtuoso Amjad Ali Khan with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted by David Murphy. This stunning collaborative work suggests by its very nature a powerful and significant unification. While many musicians have attempted to forge East-meets-West connections, rarely have they been as successful in creating as seamless and exhilarating a bond. For Khan, this album is a dream fulfilled. An admirer of European classical music, Khan long harbored a desire to fuse the magnificence of the Western orchestra with the traditions of the raga.” |
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LE TRIO JOUBRAN: As Far CD (WORLD 479055) 19.00 “Le Trio Joubran are the worthy inheritors of a rich tradition. For the Joubrans, music is a family affair. The trio’s parents, Hatem Mbadda Joubran, stringed-instrument maker emeritus known throughout the Arab world, and Ibtisam Hanna Joubran, a singer, both come from families where music is transmitted from generation to generation. On this astonishing new studio album, the three brothers have created a unique blend of hypnotic grooves and tight interplay. As Far is a vibrant masterpiece of an album that will take you along on a fascinating Middle Eastern journey.” |
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