Everyone has a specific music they're especially fond of. And sure we're all pretty omnivorous when it comes to the music we love, but there's always that one sound or style you find yourself returning to again and again, that one thing on your iPod that gets played over and over like crazy, around here, folks tend to be partial to jangly pop, blackened metal, abstract noise, seventies proto metal, field recordings, sixties psych, Warped Tour emo metal, techno, or dubstep, among other things. But one thing everything here can agree on, is the importance of 'sleeping' music. Those blissed out sounds that are perfect for late nights, for that moment when your consciousness begins to drift, where for a moment, you get just a glimpse of the other side, before the curtain parts and your incorporeal self slips past, and doesn't return until the next morning. The soundtrack for that crossover is also very personal, some folks listen to buzzing black metal to drift off, others the mesmerizing thump of minimal techno, but there is a certain strain of ambient music that everyone here is equally enamored of. Minimal techno label Kompakt has coined the phrase Pop Ambient for this strain of electronic music, one that is not so much standard ambient music, or even new age, but more an electronica/techno with the beats removed, leaving just the ethereal ephemera, that at one time was a backdrop for the beats, but sans rhythms, those sounds become the focus, and are loosed from any sort of proper structure, allowed to flow and drift, to swirl and shimmer, this new music that is indeed ambient, and perhaps even a little new agey, but is ultimately something much more evocative and experimental, songs and sounds that acts as mysterious soundtracks for sleep, music that simultaneously serves as background ambience, but can also invoke active listening, allowing the listener to immerse themselves in the sound, to travel sonically to these otherworlds, to explore, and to get gloriously lost.
This double disc collects some of the current crop of ambient alchemists, a handful who are already aQ faves including Leyland Kirby, Klimek, Biosphere, Oneohtrix Point Never, Atlas Sound, Wolfgang Voigt, Markus Guentner, and Maps And Diagrams (whose cd on Time Released sound we reviewed recently), but even more that are brand new discoveries, all of whom are poised to become new favorites for sure, and pretty much instantly, this comp became out go-to late night listening collection.
The first disc is heavier on the new discoveries, opening up with a track by Orla Wren, who weaves a glitchy stretch of crystalline skitter, that reminds us a bit of Oval, all warm and liquid, hushed and delicate, but which soon blossoms into a lush thick swirl of layered buzz and softly swirling shimmer, laced with chiming melodies, and hazy bell like tones, one track in, and we already find ourselves wanting to hear more, which happens again minutes later when Rafael Anton Irisarri's track begins, a warm, swirling cinematic thrum, a very Caretaker-sounding sprawl of murky muddy strings, of looped string section shimmer, all blurred into something hazy and drifty, wreathed in soft hiss and warm record crackle, looped and lovely and hauntingly mesmerizing. The oddly named Let's Go Outside continue with their own brand of dreamy drift, a blissed out dreamdrone raga of metallic buzz and lush layered loveliness. Bvdub (aka Brock Van Wey, one of the curators of this collection) offers his own bit of looped and layered swirl, all effected steel strings, a sort of folky flutter smeared into lush string like swells, the lengthy track peppered with epic majestic bursts of heaving high end buzz, again all blurred into something more more ethereal, and so it goes, this is one of those rare comps, that not only plays like a proper album, but that doesn't slip up once, every single track here is gorgeous, and is woven deftly into the sonic fabric of the whole.
The second disc is where most of the more familiar names can be found, many of those Pop Ambient veterans, Klimek (who even released a record called Music To Fall Asleep), starts things off with a field recording flecked slow burn drone, very darkly dramatic and ethereal, which leads directly into a track by Andrew Thomas (the other curator of this collection), his number a moody chunk of shimmery slowcore, all twangy Earth-like guitars over a hushed hazy backdrop of warm strings and glistening analog crackle, sounding almost like a Pop Ambient Barn Owl. Oneohtrix delivers some very minimal and dreamy celestial kosmische, while Biosphere weaves a gorgeous bit of orchestral thrum, all deep swirling strings, pizzicato melodies and mysterious percussion, while Markus Guenter finally introduces a beat, a murky minimal pulse, beneath another gorgeous sprawl of glistening droned out shimmer, and again, so it goes for the rest of the second disc as well.
ANYone who loves the Pop Ambient series will flip for this, as will fans of all things darkly dreamy, be it minimal electronica, abstract krautdrone, cinematic ambience or anywhere in between.
We made the first Air Texture compilation our Record Of The Week, back in November of 2011, a fantastic, and fantastically blissed out collection of ambient soundscapery from some of our favorite audio alchemists, running the gamut from dreamy Pop Ambience to abstract ethereal drone music, from modern classical minimalism to hushed softly psychedelic shimmer, and the many many variations in between. This is the second volume in what now appears to be an ongoing series, and once again features a lineup that reads as if it was curated by someone at aQ, as well as featuring a number of artists who contributed to the first compilation. Most folks will probably just need a list of the folks involved: Brian McBride of Stars Of The Lid, Loscil, Pan American, Mitchell Akiyama, Bvdub, Kyle Bobby Dunn, Simon Scott, Lawrence English, Marcus Fjellstrom, Rafael Anton Irisarri and loads more. And like the best compilations, it doesn't feel like a compilation, it plays like an album proper, or perhaps the perfect mix tape for late night chill out / drift off.
Brian McBride starts things off with a track that does not sound that far removed from recent Stars Of The Lid, huge sweeping swells of lush chordal shimmer and swoonsome strings, orchestral and symphonic and achingly majestic, dappled with pointilist piano and soft focus swirls, that blossom into radiant expanses of prismatic gauzy drift. Marcus Fischer weaves muted rhythms into a swirling sea of guitar twang and distant melodies, the sound washed out and rainswept, Loscil unfurls billows of blurred electronics, darkly dynamic, sounding like a slightly more sinister Oval, while Chris Herbert lays out a super minimal sprawl of softly staticky hiss and ephemeral thrum.
We could go track by track, but the great thing is how all the songs share attributes that weave all of these disparate pieces together, while each track remaining wholly unique, the listener is carried along by this constantly subtly shifting collection of sounds, lost utterly within each, the songs bleeding into one another, offering a bit of sonic familiarity, before revealing something unique to that track, a constant voyage of sonic discovery, which rewards close listening, but is equally effective as background ambience. Music that conforms to its surroundings like some strange sonic fog, hovering and drifting weightlessly in the distance, becoming something else entirely as we draw closer, and lose ourselves within.
Gorgeous, gorgeous stuff. And most definitely the perfect soundtrack for late nights, lost afternoons, rainy days, deep black nights, and drifting into oblivion.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Another 'remix' album of the processed electromagnetic radio waves released by Disinformation (the first was the Antiphony 2cd). The central analogy of these 'remixes' by Evan Parker, Jim O'Rourke, Lawrence Casserley, Mechos, Tactile, Simon Fisher Turner, and T:unk Systems is of an underground publication by 9th Century mathmetician Abu Ja'Far Muhammad Ibn Musa, who proposed the ideas of mathematical fractions to the rest of the world. Conceptually the remixes stand as 'surgical reunifications' in which broadcast data noise are transformed into pulsing drones and electrical melodies. The stand out contribution is clearly the Evan Parker remix in which is staccato blurts of multi tracked saxophone work brilliantly next to the noxious hypnosis of Disinformation's original.
This long in the works collection finally sees the light of day. The long lost Haiti recordings, gathered by the legendary Alan Lomax, who made these recordings over the span of about a year, from 1936 until 1937, when he and his wife were documenting music and rituals for the Library Of Congress. Recorded direct to aluminum disc (a total of over 500 discs), these recordings had been unheard by the public, ever since. The original recordings have been painstakingly restored, and they sound fantastic, most of the noise stripped away, without losing any of the music, and if anything, according to the compilers, the music sounds even better now, and closer to the sounds Lomax was actually hearing when he originally recorded these.
It's a pretty overwhelming collection, that invites hours and hours of listening, which we think most folks will happily offer, once they get just a glimpse of the sounds within, from street musicians, to children's songs, far out jazz to dreamy vocal music, classical piano to angelic torch songs, voudou worship to big band, just check out the samples for a little taste, an incredible collection of sounds, which have gone almost completely unheard for the last 70 years!!
Anyone into field recordings, and world music, if you dig the Sublime Frequencies series, the Yaala Yaala series, the Ethiopiques series, this music is amazing, another long overdue glimpse of a people and place, and their music, and that music says so much about the time, the life in Haiti, the politics, and how the rest of the world felt about Haiti, you can hear the influences of various musics from all over the world, the music here is more than just music, it's a sonic exploration of a time and a place, and the sounds are so evocative, they almost transport the listener body and soul. Fantastic!!
The box is gorgeous too, a linen covered hard box, printed on the cover, with a faux Haitian stamp, as if Lomax had mailed this box to you personally for safekeeping. Inside the cover is a pocket containing a reproduction of Lomax's Haiti journal, filled with reproductions of his actual notes, observations, drawings, photos and diagrams. The liner notes are housed in a gorgeous hardcover book, all the songs and artists, photos, lyrics, everything. The cds themselves are housed in another little linen covered miniature hardcover book, with printed paper pockets inside, just like a miniature version of the sleeves that old 78s were stored in. Then there's a reproduction of Lomax's Haiti site map, complete with his scrawled notes, and finally, a few photos, as if whoever sent the box, decided to include some snapshots. And all the various books can be removed with the ribbons attached to the inside of the box. Stunning. There's also some film footage, and there's just so much more.
Needless to say, so so so recommended!!!
Now this is a freakin' treat for all Japanophile music fans like ourselves!! Osaka's Alchemy label, home to so much great Japanese noise, punk, and psychedelic music over the years, has gone and put out a DVD collection for your enjoyment. It's pretty much all live stuff (with the notable exception of a strange MTV-style music video clip for a track from label boss's Jojo Hiroshige's most recent solo album!!) recorded at gigs dating all the way back to the '80s, up to this past year, depending on the band in question. So this covers a pretty good selection from the Alchemy label roster, new and old. Here's the line-up, in part: Masonna, Doodles, Up-Tight, Christine 23 Onna, Ultra Bide, Omoide Hatoba, Sekiri, The Genbaku Onanies, Angel'In Heavy Syrup, Subvert Blaze, Hoburakin, Hijokaidan, S.O.B. Kaidan, Incapacitants, and more... Something for everyone.
Highlights for us include the intense fuzz guitar psych dealt out by Up-Tight, the hippy metal of Subvert Blaze, the absurd noise-fest of Hijokaidan's 25th anniversary performance, the wonderful delicate psych-pop of all-girl duo Doodles, and the guitar-smashing, cymbal-chucking noise trance tantrum of the infamous S.O.B Kaidan performance (noise mongers Hijokaidan joining forces with the ledgendary Japanese thrash-metal outfit S.O.B. in 1989). And special mention must be made of Christine 23 Onna's punked-out, super-distorted '60s psych groove assault, which culminates with Maso Yamazaki jumping on, and knocking over his synthesizer before taking a dive into the crowd!
Since we'd guess that only a few AQ-customers have been lucky enough to attend very many shows at clubs like Osaka's Eggplant or the Shinjuku Loft in Tokyo over the past two decades, this is even more essential if you're at all a fan of this scene... 117 minutes, NTSC, all regions. ----* ----* In Stock, Not Yet Reviewed : ----* If you want to order one of these, just cut and paste the info into the comments area on the order form, or just email mailorder@aquariusrecords.org. AESOP ROCK "Fast Cars, Danger, Fire And Knives" (Definitive Jax) cd 17.98 AKIYAMA, TETUZI "Route 13 To the Gates of Hell" (DAT-3 / Fader) cd 19.98 AKIYAMA, TETUZI / TOSHIMARU NAKAMURA / OTOMO YOSHIHIDE / TAKU UNAMI "Compositions for Guitar Vol. 2" (A Bruit Secret) cd 17.98 AKRON / FAMILY "s/t" (Young God) cd 13.98 ALIAS "All Things Fixable" (Goodwithmoney) cd 14.98 ANDEREGG, BRENDON "Falling Air" (Psych-O-Path) cd 13.98 ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO "Certain Blacks" (Free America) cd 17.98 ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO "Phase One" (Free America) cd 17.98 ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO "With Fontenella Bass" (Free America) cd 17.98 AUBE "Chain[Re]Action" (Blossoming Noise) cd 14.98 AXOLOTL / YELLOW SWANS / GERRITT "split" (Jyrk) cd 5.98 AYLER, ALBERT "Live On The Riviera" (ESP-Disk) cd 14.98 BEANIE SIGEL "The B. Coming" (Roc-A-Fella) cd 14.98 BECK "Guero" (Interscope) cd 15.98 BEYOND SENSORY EXPERIENCE "Korrelations" (Old Europa Cafe) cd 15.98 BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL / BRUCE RUSSELL "s/t" (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) cd 16.98 BLACK LEOTARD FRONT "Casual Friday" (DFA) 12" 6.98 BRAIN DONOR "s/t" (Mister E) cd 13.98 BRAXTON, ANTHONY "Saxphone Improvisation Series F" (Free America) 2cd 25.00 BUDD, HAROLD "Avalon Sutra" (Samadhisound) cd 17.98 BURTON, JAMES & RALPH MOONEY "Corn Pickin' & Slick Slidin'" (Sundazed) cd 13.98 BUSDRIVER "Fear of a Black Tangent" (Mush) cd 14.98 BY THE END OF TONIGHT "A Tribute To Tigers" (Temporary Res) cd 14.98 CALIBOS "Me And The Window" (Handheld) cd 11.98 CARIBOU "Yeti" (Domino) cd ep 6.98 CEPHALIC CARNAGE "Anomalies" (Relapse) cd 14.98 CHARALAMBIDES "Our Bed Is Green" (Kranky) 2cd 16.98 CHICKS ON SPEED AND THE NO HEADS "Press The Space Bar" (Chicks On Speed) cd 14.98 CLARINETTE "Transmuting Fall" (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) cd-r 14.98 COH "0397post-pop" (Mego) 2cd 24.00 COLD BLEAK HEAT "It's Magnificent, But It Isn't War" (Family Vineyard) cd 14.98 COMETS ON FIRE / BURNING STAR CORE (Yik Yak) lp 14.98 COPE, JULIAN "Citizen Cain'd" (Head Heritage) 2cd 24.00 COTTEN, ELIZABETH AND JESSE FULLER "Masters Of The Country Blues" (Yazoo) dvd 16.98 CRISTINA "Doll In The Box" (Ze Records) cd 16.98 CRISTINA "Sleep It Off" (Ze Records) cd 16.98 CURRAN, ALVIN "Canti Illuminati" (Fringes Archive) cd 21.00 DAEDELUS "Exquisite Corpse" (Mush) cd 14.98 DAFT PUNK "Human After All" (Virgin) cd 17.98 DALE, JON "Son D'Air" (Rhizome) cd-r DAREDIABLO "Twenty Paces" (Southern) cd 14.98 DARK TRANQUILITY "Character" (Century Media) cd 12.98 DAVENPORT "Marble Seed" (Jyrk Collective) cd-r 5.98 DILLOWAY, AARON "Boggs, Volume 2" (Hanson) cd 14.98 DJ QBERT "Demolition Pumpkin Squeeze Musik" (Gurakutiku Batto Heaa) cd 14.98 DROP THE LIME "This Means Forever" (Tigerbeat 6) cd 14.98 DUNGEN "s/t" (Subliminal Sounds) cd 16.98 EGLIN, FABRICE & JEROME NOETINGER "Psychotic Reactions & Lightnin' Rag" (A Bruit Secret) cd 17.98 ERICKSON, ROKY "I Have Always Been Here Before" (Shout! Factory) 2cd 31.00 EVOL "Magia Potagia" (Mego) cd 16.98 FOG "10th Anniversary Freakout" (Lex) cd 15.98 GANG GANG DANCE "God's Money" (Social Registry) cd 14.98 GHOST "Metamorphosis" (Drag City) cd + dvd 17.98 GRUBBS, DAVID & NIKOS VELIOTIS "The Harmless Dust" (Headz / Fader) cd 19.98 HAFLER TRIO "Being A Firefighter Isn't About Squirting Water" (Important) cd 10.98 HAINO, KEIJI "Uchu Ni Karamitsuiteru" (PSF) cd 19.98 HALF-HANDED CLOUD "Thy Is A Word + Feet Need Lamps" (Asthmatic Kitty) cd 14.98 HALL, ARCH JR "Wild Guitar!" (Norton Records) cd 14.98 HARMONIC 33 "Music For Film, Television & Radio Volume One" (Warp) cd 16.98 HELLA "Church Gone Wild / Chirpin Hard" (Suicide Squeeze) 2cd 15.98 HORTICULTURAL COMPASS "The Apparition Of Bees" (Jewelled Antler) cd-r 9.98 KAMMERFLIMMER KOLLEKTIEF "Absencen" (Staubgold) cd/lp 15.98/14.98 KARKOWSKI, ZBIGNIEW "One And Many" (Sub Rosa) cd 14.98 KASABIAN "s/t" (RCA) cd 12.98 KIRKEGAARD, JACOB "Eldfjall" (Touch) cd 15.98 KOICHI, MAKIGAMI "Koedarake" (Tzadik) cd 15.98 KUTI, FELA "The Best Of Fela Kuti: Music Is The Weapon" (Wrasse) 2cd + dvd 33.00 KYLESA "To Walk A Middle Course" (Prosthetic) cd 11.98 LACY, STEVE "The Gap" (America) cd 17.98 LAST OF THE JUANITAS "In The Dirt" (Wantage) cd 13.98 LAVAGNINO, ANGELO "Gamma 1 Quadrilogy" (Dagored) cd 16.98 LCD SOUNDSYSTEM "Yr City's A Sucker" (DFA) 12" 6.98 MACLEAN, JUAN "I Robot / Less Than Human" (DFA) 10" 6.98 MADLIB "Mind Fusion Vol. 1" (Madlib) cd 16.98 MADLIB "Mind Fusion Vol. 2" (Madlib) cd 16.98 MAEROR TRI "Hypnobasia / Ultimate Time" (Old Europa Cafe) cd-r 25.00 MAGICK MARKERS "I Trust My Guitar, etc." (Ecstatic Peace) lp 16.98 MARSUPILAMI "s/t" (Breathless) cd 15.98 MATHIEU, STEPHAN "The Sad Mac" (Headz / Fader) cd 19.98 MATTHEWS, ERIC "Six Kinds Of Passion Looking For An Exit" (451) cd 14.98 MENCHE, DANIEL "Sirocco" (Important) cd 14.98 MERZBOW "Bariken" (Blossoming Noise) cd 14.98 MF DOOM "Live From Planet X" (Nature Sounds) cd 12.98 MIKAMI, KAN "Bachi" (Abruit Secret) cd 17.98 MILTON, ANTONY "'Sirens' & 'And Where The Coloured Planes Are Rafts" (Last Visible Dog) cd 11.98 MOBY "Hotel" (V2) 2cd 16.98 MORRICONE, ENNIO "La Califfa (OST)" (Dagored) cd 15.98 MOUNTAIN GOATS "Nothing For Juice" (3 Beads of Sweat) cd 14.98 MOUNTAIN GOATS "Zopilote Machine" (3 Beads of Sweat) cd/lp 14.98/14.98 MOUNTAINS "s/t" (Staartje) cd 14.98 MOUTHUS "s/t" (Psych-O-Path) cd 13.98 MU "Out Of Breach (Manchester's Revenge)" (Output) cd 16.98 MULCAHY, MARK "In Pursuit Of Your Happiness" (Mezzotint) cd 15.98 NULL, KK "Prime Radiant" (Blossoming Noise) cd 12.98 OCS "3" (Yik Yak) lp 14.98 OKAY "High Road" (Absolutely Kosher) cd 14.98 OKAY "Low Road" (Absolutely Kosher) cd 14.98 OS MUTANTES "Everything Is Possible!: The Best Of Os Mutantes" (Luaka Bop) cd 12.98 OSBOURNE, OZZY "Prince Of Darkness" (Epic) 4cd boxset 42.00 OUT HUD "Let Us Never Speak Of It Again" (Kranky) cd 14.98 PATTON, CHARLIE "Primeval Blues, Rags, and Gospel Songs" (Yazoo) cd 16.98 PLAIN RIDE "On The Flow" (Ektro) cd 14.98 PREFUSE 73 "Surrounded By Silence" (Warp) cd 15.98 PRINCE PO & RAEKWON "Bump Bump" (Lex) 12" 5.98 QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE "Lullabies To Paralyze" (Interscope) cd 16.98 RAMONES "End Of The Century, The Story Of The Ramones" (Rhino) dvd 23.00 RODEN, STEVE "Ear(th)" (Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery) cd 13.98 RUDD, ROSWELL "Roswell Rudd" (Free America) cd 17.98 RUNEMAGICK "Envenom" (Aftermath) cd 14.98 SECTION 25 "So Far" (LTM) dvd 32.00 SEHT "The Voice Of The Taniwha" (Last Visible Dog) cd 11.98 SHEPP, ARCHIE "Black Gipsy" (Free America) cd 17.98 SHIFLET, MIKE "The City Is All In Your Head" (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) cd-r 14.98 SHINING IV "The Eerie Cold" (Avantgarde Music) cd 14.98 SHIPPING NEWS "Flies The Fields" (Quarterstick) cd/lp 14.98/14.98 SHORTER, ALAN "Tes Esat" (Free America) cd 17.98 SILVER MT. ZION MEMORIAL ORCHESTRA, A "Horse In The Sky" (Constellation) cd/2lp 14.98/19.98 SMEGMA "Rumblings" (Hanson) cd 14.98 SNOW PATROL "The Trip" (Fiction) 2cd 28.00 SPOONBENDER 1.1.1 "Stereo Telepathy Academy - Live In San Francisco 2004" (Seismic Seance Recordings) cd-r 11.98 TAAKE "Doedskvad" (Karisma) cd 14.98 TARWATER "The Needle Was Travelling" (Morr Music) cd 16.98 TERRESTRIAL TONES "Blasted" (Psych-o-path) cd 13.98 TETREAULT, MARTIN & OTOMO YOSHIHIDE "2.Tok" (Dame) cd 15.98 THE INCREDIBLE STRING BAND "Philadelphia Folk Festival 1969" (Tallulah) cd 13.98 THORNTON, CLIFFORD "The Panther And The Lash" (Free America) cd 17.98 THUNDERBIRDS ARE NOW! "Justamustache" (Frenchkiss) cd 14.98 TOMOKAWA, KAZUKI "Itsuka, Toky Mite Ita" (PSF) cd 21.00 TOMOKAWA, KAZUKI "Pistol - Shibuya Apia Live" (PSF) dvd 26.00 TWEET "It's Me Again" (Goldmind) cd 16.98 V/A "12" / 80s" (Family Recordings) 3cd 28.00 V/A "Cold Heat: Heavy Funk Rarities 1968-1974 Vol. 1" (Now-Again) cd/lp 14.98/16.98 V/A "Counter Culture 04: Best of 2004" (Rough Trade) 2cd 24.00 V/A "Definitive Jux Teaser 2005" (Definitive Jux) cd 5.98 V/A "Essential Afrobeat: The Very Best of Afrobeat" (Family Recordings) 3cd 28.00 V/A "Everything Comes & Goes - Black Sabbath Tribute" (Temporary Residence Ltd.) cd/lp 14.98/14.98 V/A "Rio Baile Funk: Favela Booty Beats" (Essay) cd/12" 16.98/9.98 V/A "The Joe South Tribute Record" (Jackpine) cd 14.98 V/A "World Psychedelic Classics 3: Love's A Real Thing" (Luaka Bop) cd 16.98 VANDER, CHRISTIAN "Un Homme... Une Batterie" (Seventh Records) dvd 27.00 VITAMINS FOR YOU "Desole... Monsieur Soleil, C'est Le Neige Qui Va Me Liberer" (Intr.Version) cd ep 10.98 VOLCANO THE BEAR "The Idea Of Wood" (Textile) cd 16.98 WALDRON, MAL & STEVE LACY "Mal Waldron With The Steve Lacy Quintet" (Free America) cd 17.98 WEST, SPEEDY "Steel Guitar" (Sundazed) cd 13.98 WICKHAM-SMITH, SIMON "Buckminsterfullerene / Pange Lingua Gloriosi" (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) 2 cd-r 16.98 WORKS, THE "s/t" (Subliminal Sounds) cd 16.98 WRIGHT, FRANK "Uhuru Na Umoja" (Free America) cd 17.98 ZORN, JOHN "Rituals" (Tzadik) cd 15.98 _______________________________________________________________________ ABOUT MAILORDER
A children's fantasy pop album produced by Richard Preston and Louis Phillipe, whose sophisticated production surrounds playful songs about bears, tigers, candy floss, orange marmalade, and sunshine... that at times sounds like the Raincoats, or possibly the Brady Bunch.
Curated by Tortoise & Foundation, All Tomorrow's Parties - a music and film happening - took place this year April 6th through 8th in East Sussex. This compilation documents the gathering of musical allsorts that included Yo La Tengo, Boards of Canada, Calexico, Black Heart Procession, Autechre, Broadcast, and Tortoise.
Audio document of the too frequent 'All Tomorrow's Parties' festival, a huge rock and roll gathering, curated by different indie rock royalty each time. This most recent compilation/festival (curated by Sonic Youth and scheduled to take place in March 2002)
Steve Albini/Shellac is the chosen artist to curate the next All Tomorrow's Parties festival in the U.K., and so here's the requisite compilation cd. Their bands of choice are Shellac (doh!), Mission of Burma, Bonnie Prince Billy, Nina Nastasia, Threnody
This comp bring together two discs worth of artists who appeared at the Autechre-curated All Tomorrow's Parties 3.0 festival in the UK earlier in April. Featuring unreleased tracks from Masters of Illusion, Push Button Objects, Jim O'Rourke, San Francisco's own O.S.T., Dr. Dooom, Anthony Shake Shakir, Mark Broom, Disjecta, Autechre, Earth (that's right, an unreleased Earth track!), Bola, Pita, Baby Ford and Hecker as well as tracks by Public Enemy, Gescom, Made, Stasis, and BFC.
MPEG Download: EARTH "Dissolution III" [/audio/earthdissolutionIII.mp3]
MPEG Stream: EARTH "Dissolution III" [/audio/earthdissolutionIII.m3u]
This volume of the All Tomorrow's Parties compilation series was curated by the gent behind the cartoon phenomenon for which many of us here at AQ have a particular soft spot! Yup, Matt Groening not only took the compiling reins for Version 3.1., but he also provided a fine illustration of Sonic Youth for the cover. We're sure you're also already well acquainted with his work as well as that of the musical folks he invited: the abovementioned Thurston & co. ("Simpson's Theme"), The Stooges ("Fun House"), The Magic Band ("Dropout Boogie"), Spoon ("The Two Sides Of Monsieur Valentine"), The Shins ("Young Pilgrims"), Modest Mouse ("Bukowski"), Elliott Smith ("Pictures Of Me"), Daniel Johnston ("Syrup Of Tears"), American Analog Set ("Come Home Baby Julie, Come Home"), Electrelane ("The Valleys"), and Jackie-O Motherfucker ("Drake Hotel"). Oh yeah, and they don't mention it on the digipak's track listing, but there's also a Deerhoof track too!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Three volumes of a locally produced single series. Each features four artists who contribute a song and describe their musical processes and interests in a cute little self-designed insert, so you get a nice feel for the musicians beyond the songs themselves. Vol. 1 features folks from Dumptruck, Caterwaul, Snowmen (Cole Marquis), and Bob Reed of Overwhelming Colorfast. Vol. 2's got people from Grandaddy, Morella's Forest, Dart, and Shove. Vol. 3: Gaze, Lunchbox, Sunset Valley, and Jenhitt.
Are you ready for some darkness? 'Cause here's a tribute to Norway's kings of darkness -- no we don't mean Emperor or Dimmu Borgir or any other black metallers, we mean those bastard spawn of the MC5 and the Village People, the one and only none-too-PC-punks
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Features solely American artists messing with your tired notions of what electronica can be. Ranges from murky and dark to threateningly heavy. With AQ-store favorites Matmos and Lesser, plus David Kristian, Chessie, Solvent, 8 Frozen Modules, and Space Wurm.
From mind-expanding psych drone to extended folk meditations to (opium-)poppy songcraft, "Amaterasu" is all you need for at least a few evenings, nights, and/or mornings of audio-induced bliss. Subtitled, somewhat misleadingly, "A Musical Panorama of Japan", this compilation is hardly an overview of everything from Taiko drumming to J-pop. Not at all. Rather, it's a collection of stuff from the psych-pop-folk-drone underground in Japan, in keeping with Fractal's previous releases of Japanese origin like Acid Mothers Temple -- and many AMT-types appear here as you might expect! It's a really fine collection indeed, well worth the 32 bucks to anyone enamored, as we are, of the retro-psych scene that's currently so vibrant in Japan, as previously documented by PSF's Tokyo Flashback compilation series for instance. There's sixteen tracks in total here, many of them pushing ten minutes in length, and thus spread over two discs. The fragile melodicism of Mineko Itakura, singing solo backed only by her own acoustic guitar, is for us the gorgeous highlight of disc 1, though there's plenty else on here quite worthy as well: Overhang Party, Mitsuru Tabata, Space Machine, Makoto Kawabata, Seiji Nagai (ex-Taj Mahal Travellers), and Kengo Iuchi. Disc two is also packed with cosmic-calibre talent, featuring Chie Mukai, Masayoshi Urabe, Kousokuya, Totsuzen Danball, Miminokoto, Jun Kuriyama, Naoaki Miyamoto, and more Mineko Itakura (yay!). Almost everything is exclusive to this compilation, which comes complete with English language liner notes by the knowledgable Alan Cummings, who explains the concept behind the compilation -- Amaterasu is the Shinto sun-goddess, and her mythology was the inspiration for these songs. Quite recommended.
US and Canadian electronica artists compiled, including a few of our favorites: Matmos, Lesser, Kit Clayton, Hrvatski, Sutekh, Jake Mandell, David Kristian, Blitter, Lexanculpt, Rook Vallade, Timeblind, and Kid 606 (of course!), to name a few. A primer.
A compilation of remixes of a compilation (American Breakbeat, duh) that was kind of a throwaway to begin with. Steer clear unless you absolutely must own everything by Kid 606, Lesser, Matmos, Hrvatski, Sutekh, Electric Birds, Cex and the like as remixed by Panacea, Pimmon, Rosy Parlane, Com.A, Sonic Dragoglo, Andreas Tilliander, Noize Creator, Slepcy, et al. Kinda uneventful overall, though the Hrvatski track on the original release was very pretty, and the remix here by New Zealander Rosy Parlane is quite nice as well.
For those of you out there who somehow "missed punk rock" the first time around (it was pretty cool sez the old guys...) here's a pretty decent companion / compilation / soundtrack to the Steven Blush book-turned film recently released by Sony Pictures. We've yet to see it, but it looks amazing. How could it not be? Interviews with tons of hardcore legends as well as tons of insane and rare live footage.
This is the perfect 'mix-tape' of classic tracks from movie and the golden age of punk rock: Black Flag, Flipper, Bad Brains, Negative Approach, Void, etc.
Makes a great gift for all those young-uns whose punk pedigree doesn't stretch much father back than Good Charlotte or My Chemical Romance. Wouldn't be a Warped tour without these guys and all their blood, sweat and beers...
Anyone for some "mosh" potatoes with your turkey while you skank around the 'ol X-mas tree anyone?
(All blame for that last line goes to mailorder-underling Jason. He has been punished.)
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
The one real drawback with the AQ list and the website and the reviews, is that there are so many new records, more and more every week, that it makes it quite difficult to go back and try to review releases that for one reason or another never got listed. In the case of the first volume of Revenant's amazing American Primitive series, a collection of rare and lost pre war gospel music, covering the years from 1926-1936, it was originally released in 1997, way back when the AQ list was still in it's infancy we weren't quite so thorough as we try to be now! Which is a shame as that was probably one of the most gorgeous documents of gospel and blues we had ever heard. We kept planning to review and list it, eventually it went out of print (fear not though, it's due to be reissued soon).
Here we are eight years later, and volume two is finally here, bigger and better then the first in almost every way. It's sadly one of the very last releases compiled and assembled by John Fahey right before his death. Volume two is a double disc, with a HUGE booklet, with extensive liner notes on each track and each artist. Most fascinatingly, this American Primitive installment takes us even farther back, all the way back to 1897 in the case of the comp's earliest track. The rest of the tracks were recorded between 1926 and 1939. And as you might imagine, this is absolutely stunning, haunting, beautiful stuff. Emotional and heartfelt, haunting and otherworldly, some tracks cloaked in record static and murky mystery, some joyful and jaunty and crystal clear. An amazing glimpse into our musical past.
The liner notes constantly refer to this collection being full of ghosts and spirits and phantoms, and it really is, literally, each song is the legacy of a life, their loves, their spirituality, their legacy, but sonically as well, the whole compilation is a ghostly, long faded musical photograph of a time that once was, washed out, sepia toned, faded and browned around the edges, each track viewed through a broken old screen door, or a yellowed window pane, all of their musical hope and despair, a hundred plus years of life and death, love and loss, heaven and hell, audible in the rough patina of hiss and static and fuzz and buzz that lovingly wraps each note, every voice raised in praise, in a warm fuzzy, hazy cloak. Gorgeous and timeless rhythm and blues, folk and gospel, rich with the sort of sonic imperfections and recording inconsistancies we love so much, the sounds and textures modern musicians toil endlessly to recreate (think Basinski, Jeck, Saule, Tim Hecker). Essential for fans of all things Smithsonian Folkways, Yazoo, and Arhoolie, but also in its own unique way, a gorgeous fuzzy soundscape of rhythm and blues, like sitting in a snowbound cabin, around a roaring fire, with Philip Jeck and Christian Marclay, spinning old '78's on a vintage victrola. So so perfect!
Finally, a song-poem collection that might have a chance of staying in print for more than a month. And finally, a collection that -- while by no means definitive -- collects the best of all those that came before it: Beat of The Traps, Makers of Smooth Music, Human Breakdown of Absurdity, I'm Just the Other Woman and I Died Today. For those who missed out on these wonderful and screwed up collections, song-poems were vanity recordings (from the sixties and seventies) where any schmo with the dough could send in their original poems/lyrics and have them made into SONGS! Small advertisements in the back of music and entertainment magazines urged would-be songwriters that the music industry was in dire need of their inspired lyrics. For anywhere between $75 and $400, one could have their words set to music (all genres were covered) by professional studio musicians. Meanwhile, back at the recording studio, said musicians had to busy themselves on an economy of scale in order to make the venture profitable. Lyrics were given a cursory look, and snap judgements were made concerning tempo, meter, key, chords and melody. Apparently the musicians had but one take to get the song, and if a mistake was made it was just as likely to be left in. Considering what these musicians were up against, it's really impressive what they came up with -- quickly fitting awkwardly (to put it nicely and terribly, to be more accurate) written lyrics into a reasonable meter and still come up with some cool arrangements to boot. Since the companies recording the songs of these terrible lyricists were only concerned with the bottom line (i.e. getting paid), anything could happen. John Trubee's legendary "Blind Man's Penis" is a case in point. And while his words of wisdom were penned in jest, the other 27 tracks included with it on this disc were not. Written in all earnestness, subjects ranging from Richard Nixon to Jimmy Carter, duck eggs to Argentinian cowboys to green fingernails, these tracks are weirder and even funnier than Trubee's track. These singles have been the dreams of collectors for years and until the difficult to track down MSR collections came out several years back, to the rest us they were the stuff of legend. For those of you who have already picked up those MSR collections this one may be a bit redundant, but for all the rest this is certainly the best collection of song-poems to come on one disc. Highly recommended, and sure to be a hit when the upcoming PBS documentary on the Song-Poem industry airs! One wonders what the original "poets" would think of the unexpected popularity of their songs? Probably the person who wrote "Jimmy Carter Says Yes" was sure it would be a hit all along...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
We're proud to be carrying the very hard to find German label Trikont, who have amassed an incredibly diverse selection of cds featuring music from all over the world. This EXCELLENT compilation is not at all campy; it's a seriously good collection of everyone from the Carter Family to Tampa Red, Roy Rogers, Bob Wills, Patsy Montana, Sons of the Pioneers, Bill Monroe, and Jimmie Rodgers.
True "Outsider Music" lovingly culled from the thousands upon thousands of bad records out there, and don't get us wrong, these are certainly very bad too, but bad in a good way. By Outsider Music we don't mean music made in the Great Outdoors, we mean music
Contained herein: solo warblings courtesy Howard Finster (better known for his fantastic outsider art sculptures), multi-track tape manipulations sounding like early cartoon music a la Raymond Scott, singer songwriter fare performed in a van to an audience of one dog, amateur poems set to music by seasoned "pros", vanity songs played by hired orchestras, Beat poetry performed over psychedelic squiggles, hotel-bar bands playing Smokey Robinson, kids tunes, retarded young adults performing "This Little Light of Mine", music performed on the 1973 Comet (an instrument that has 400 notes per octave!), even a bonus track from electronic children's music pioneer Bruce Haack, himself the object of several recent reissues. 25 tracks in all, 71 minutes of either great listening or aural torture (it's up to you to decide.)
Lots of liner notes and pictures, just be aware that this is a cd-R (and given that, we are sorry about the excessive price of this disc, but it's based on what the compiler is charging us). This recording is for those of us folks who think The Shaggs are all that.
This is really gorgeous and it's taking a lot of self control to keep us from all taking one of these home. And as Christmas draws near, self control seems to matter less and less. Whether it's a gift for some music freak you love, or a sneaky gift for yourself amidst the rest of your shopping, you couldn't do much better than this. A super fancy, slip cased box set documenting the 2000 Erstwhile festival in Tokyo, put on annually by the label of the same name. Seven discs of some of the best improv/abstract/free jazz/noise you'll ever hear. Most of the recordings are from the actual festival, but two discs are from club shows around the actual festival, while one disc is a performance by an all-star guitar septet made up of Keith Rowe, Tetuzi Akiyama, Oren Ambarchi, Toshimaru Nakamura, Otomo Yoshihide, Burkhard Stangl and Taku Sugimoto and another is a studio recording by the duo of Gánter Máller and Toshimaru Nakamura. Wow! There's also a DVD document of the festival by filmmaker Jonas Leddington and a huge booklet with photos and twenty essays! Ready to buy it now? Well here's the track listing:
CD 1 (outside festival shows): 1. Thomas Lehn/Toshimaru Nakamura, 2. Gánter Máller/Tetuzi Akiyama/Nakamura, 3. Christof Kurzmann/Nakamura, 4. Lehn/Nakamura/Taku Sugimoto. CD 2 (studio sessions): Gánter Máller/Toshimaru Nakamura-tint. CD 3 (festival): 1. Cosmos (Sachiko M/Ami Yoshida), 2. Keith Rowe/Lehn/Marcus Schmickler. CD 4 (festival): 1. Máller/Otomo Yoshihide, 2. Lehn/Schmickler. CD 5 (festival): 1. Burkhard Stangl/Kurzmann/Sugimoto, 2. Rowe/Nakamura. CD 6 (festival): 1. Stangl/Máller, 2. Nakamura/Sachiko. CD 7: (seven guitars): 1. seven guitarists: Rowe/Akiyama/Oren Ambarchi/Nakamura/Otomo/Stangl/Sugimoto (Cornelius Cardew-Treatise, pp. 82-84), 2. seven guitarists (improvisation).
Okay, how about now?!?!? C'mon...you know you want it. I sure do!! No sound samples cuz we're all still trying to fight the need to own this so we haven't even cracked one open yet!
We're always wary of electronic compilations, for some reason, not sure if it's just an oversight or if they are meant to be super academic, but there seems to be no attention to flow. No consideration of what it might be like as a listening experience. You'll have 3 or 4 super quiet drone tracks, then a screaming grinding wall of noise, then a whispery hushed drift. In some ways it makes it practically unlistenable. Not that those records aren't worth owning, but they require special listening, a track at a time, thus, the listener is not lulled into a droney hypnotic state before being blasted out of his or her headphones.
So we were even more wary of this massive FOUR disc collection of experimental music from China (as well as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia), we knew it would be amazing, and most definitely an incredible sampling of sounds, but the difference between that, and a well sequenced collection of songs is the difference between pulling a record out every once in a while, and listening to hours and hours of sounds and getting immersed and lost in the sounds. We're happy to report, that this collection, surprisingly, falls into the later category. The first disc alone is nearly perfect, an incredible collection of deep dronemusic, thick and textured and varied and mysterious, rich and layered and lush, dark and haunting, from thick rumbling buzz, to barely audible sine waves, muted thumps and abstract rhythms, post industrial soundscapes of tangled tones and warm washed out whirs, to glitchy skittery Raster-Noton style minimalism, to warm blissed out almost new age-y drift, to squiggly seas of shimmery tones and buried glitches, to super abstract, ultra spare electronic hum, to clouds of insectoid like buzz, to warm wall of sound thrum, there are moments where the sounds grow jagged and sharp, caustic and corrosive, but the whole disc flows like a composed, tripped out minimal glitch space drone record, and there are three more discs!
The other discs are similarly grouped so that the flow is as much a part of the sound as the individual songs, although the focus shifts, where the first disc was more droney, the second disc seems to be more songy. There's still plenty of glitch and hum, but there's lots of real instruments, some proper bands, lots of electronic skitter, some serious noise, and lost of sonic weirdness. And so it goes.
There's LOTS to get into here. We've listened to the first disc a whole bunch of times, the second one a handful, the 3rd and 4th once or twice, and we're still discovering and exploring, but we do find ourselves not just skipping song to song, but throwing this on, laying back, and listening to whole discs, which again is so rare for this sort of compilation. Really amazing stuff. Really recommended.
Packaged in a fancy full color fold out digipak, with a booklet and minimal liner notes.
Sub Rosa, in claiming to present this compilation within the context that "history needs constant re-evaluation because, like music, history cannot be read as a fixed entity" has unfortunately released an anthology that offers no new insights or previously unknown factors in the inception of noise and electronic musics. Rather, the artists featured are the often-name dropped art stars used within institutional texts for the Whitney Biennial or Documenta to legitimize sound art or some connection between institutional forces and underground activity. A good number of the artists - like Luigi Russolo, Pierre Schaefer, Sonic Youth, Xenakis, Pauline Oliveros, Edgard Varese, John Cage, Ryoji Ikeda, and Einsturzende Neubauten - are undoubtedly important; but is it really necessary to sing their praises yet again? While there's certainly something to be said for introducing new audiences to a lot of the amazing music on this compilation, Sub Rosa should call a spade a spade and fess up to curating a K-Tel compilation for the avant-garde.
The curators of the fourth volume of the seven part series of Anthologies of Noise & Electronic Music are correct when they point to the fact that the history of the avant-garde is a messy one with tangled connections between competing factions, ideologies, methods, and personalities. The Sub Rosa compilations are dotted with a who's who of the electro-acoustic avant-garde from the past century, tossed in with a smorgasborg of previously unknown (and often very interesting) artists as well as contemporary musicians who are well on their way to establishing themselves within the canons of the institutional avant-garde. Sub Rosa has gone out of its way to compile a collection to scramble one's notions of the taxonomic rhetoric that may influence the perception of any of the artists present; hence you'll find Les Rallizes Denudes (already you can tell this series is not very reverential of the academic definition of experimental electronics music, with the inclusion of this incendiary Japanese psych band) next to Vibracathedral Orchestra followed by one-time Blind Idiot God guitarist Andy Hawkins then Alvin Lucier. Sub Rosa boasts that more than 75 percent of the album is unreleased material, which is all the more impressive considering that the compilation features the likes of Gyorgy Ligetti, Oliver Messiaen, William S. Burroughs, Milan Knizak, Steve Reich, Halim el-Dabh, Jean-Claude Risset, Stephen Vitiello, Laurie Spiegel, and many others. To top it all off, it's surprisingly pleasing to listen to. What that says about the state of 'noise' music may be another question.
A lot of us here at AQ have a huge weakspot for the breezy sounds of late 60's psych-pop. Those four guys in The Beatles were also pretty fond of those same sounds and under the umbrella of their Apple publishing and recording label (which was originally set up mostly as a tax shelter) they enlisted a mainstay of great songwriters like Pete Ham and Ron Griffiths (who would go on to form Badfinger), as well as Graham Lyle and Benny Gallagher, who churned out some totally tasty pop gems during this golden era. This collection gives some of their never before released songs a chance to finally be heard. The standout track on this disc comes from Mortimer, "People Who Are Different" which is a perfect sixties feel-good-be-weird-be-proud pop gem, the sort of song that had Kerry, Christine, Irwin and Scott all but putting flowers in their hair and dancing throughout the store. We have a sneaking suspicion that there are more than a few of you out there who will dig these groovy sounds as much as we do!
The folks who run Soul Jazz Records must have made the best mixtapes. Heck, what are we talking about, they STILL make the best mixtapes. Their whole label is essentially based on their mixtape skills. Every release, an incredible collection of tracks, from super obscure rarities, to instantly recognizable favorites, managing over the course of a disc or two, to encapsulate and represent perfectly a sound or a scene. It's like a college course on music history condensed into a handful of songs. Whether it's Brazilian post punk, classic reggae, New York noise, Afro-Cuban music, Big Apple Rappin', modern dubstep, Tropicalia, Chicago Soul, Soul Jazz can present a super concise history of whatever sound it is. In fact, we're beginning to think, they could pick ANYTHING and we'd be willing to check it out. Easy listening, boy bands, Reggaeton, top 40, singers who used to be Mousketeers on the Mickey Mouse Club. If anyone could turn that shit into something compelling and listenable, Soul Jazz could.
Thankfully, this latest comp focuses on something much closer to our music obsessed hearts. A history of MC culture in the UK, including all the various roots and offshoots, dancehall, hip hop, jungle, garage, grime, dubstep. Anyone who dug past Soul Jazz releases like the two Box Of Dub discs, Rumble In The Jungle, any of the various dancehall comps, it almost goes without saying that this too will be some essential listening. While we recognize lots of the artists, we hadn't heard a single track here, but we've already begun compiling a list of records to track down just based on the brief samplings offered up here.
The discs aren't really chronological, or divided by genre, instead, they are deftly arranged to demonstrate the inherent similarities, to allow the listener to hear dancehall butted up against some dubstep, some UK hip hop cozied up to some jungle, the various track so different, but often incorporating similar elements and obviously drawn from the same musical history.
Some favorites: Doctor & Davinche's "Gotta Man", a loping stuttery grime jam, with a weird shuffling rhythm, a killer string stab loop, and of course some amazing tongue twisting flows. The Indian flecked hip hop groove of "So U Want Morre?" from Ty & Roots Manuva, peppered with some muted tablas, little flurries of string shimmer, a looped Eastern vocal refrain. The classic ska-infused dancehall of Tenor Fly's "Bump And Grind", soulful horns, a fluttering falsetto hook, and TF's agile gruff and raspy toasting. Riko's "Ice Rink Riddim", a convoluted grime stutter, with pizzicato guitar notes, beats made out of smeared FX and trash can lids, makes us wonder why this guy isn't as hyped as Dizzee Rascal or Wiley. "Deep" by Jakes & TC, some sort of two step garage, with some awesome fuzzed out Justice style synths, super growly vocals, and a super bouncy beat.
There are a couple weaker tracks near the end of disc two, but by then, it hardly matters, the rest of the collection is just so awesome. Funky, fucked up, groovy, big beats, killer hooks, amazing rapping and toasting, and like we already mentioned, just like the best mix tapes, An England Story leaves you wanting to hear more from pretty much every artist here!
Like all Soul Jazz releases, impeccably packaged, jewel case housed in a full color slip cover, a HUGE booklet, with liner notes, photos, interviews and more!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
The folks who run Soul Jazz Records must have made the best mixtapes. Heck, what are we talking about, they STILL make the best mixtapes. Their whole label is essnetially based on their mixtape skills. Every release, an incredible collection of tracks, from super obscure rarities, to instantly recognizable favorites, managing over the course of a disc or two, to encapsulate and represent perfectly a sound or a scene. It's like a college course on music history condensed into a handful of songs. Whether it's Brazilian post punk, classic reggae, New York noise, Afro-Cuban music, Big Apple Rappin', modern dubstep, Tropicalia, Chicago Soul, Soul Jazz can present a super concise history of whatever sound it is. In fact, we're beginning to think, they could pick ANYTHING and we'd be willing to check it out. Easy listening, boy bands, Reggaeton, top 40, singers who used to be Mousketeers on the Mickey Mouse Club. If anyone could turn that shit into something compelling and listenable, Soul Jazz could.
Thankfully, this latest comp focuses on something much closer to our music obsessed hearts. A history of MC culture in the UK, including all the various roots and offshoots, dancehall, hip hop, jungle, garage, grime, dubstep. Anyone who dug past Soul Jazz releases like the two Box Of Dub discs, Rumble In The Jungle, any of the various dancehall comps, it almost goes without saying that this too will be some essential listening. While we recognize lots of the artists, we hadn't heard a single track here, but we've already begun compiling a list of records to track down just based on the brief samplings offered up here.
The discs aren't really chronological, or divided by genre, instead, they are deftly arranged to demonstrate the inherent similarities, to allow the listener to hear dancehall butted up against some dubstep, some UK hip hop cozied up to some jungle, the various track so different, but often incorporating similar elements and obviously drawn from the same musical history.
Some favorites: Doctor & Davinche's "Gotta man", a loping stuttery grime jam, with a weird shuffling rhythm, a killer string stab loop, and of course some amazing tongue twisting flows. The Indian flecked hip hop groove of "So U Want Morre?" from Ty & Roots Manuva, peppered with some muted tablas, little flurries of string shimmer, a looped Eastern vocal refrain. The classic ska-infused dancehall of Tenor Fly's "Bump And Grind", soulful horns, a fluttering falsetto hook, and TF's agile gruff and raspy toasting. Riko's "Ice Rink Riddim", a convoluted grime stutter, with pizzicato guitar notes, beats made out of smeared FX and trash can lids, makes us wonder why this guy isn't as hyped as Dizzee Rascal or Wiley. "Deep" by Jakes & TC, some sort of two step garage, with some awesome fuzzed out Justice style synths, super growly vocals, and a super bouncy beat.
There are a couple weaker tracks near the end of disc two, but by then, it hardly matters, the rest of the collection is just so awesome. Funky, fucked up, groovy, big beats, killer hooks, amazing rapping and toasting, and like we already mentioned, just like the best mix tapes, An England Story leaves you wanting to hear more from pretty much every artist here!
Like all Soul Jazz releases, impeccably packaged, jewel case housed in a full color slip cover, a HUGE booklet, with liner notes, photos, interviews and more! Y'all went crazy for Sound Way's Nigeria Special compilation a few lists back, and we expect Nigeria Disco Funk Special -- the second installment in a 3-part series -- to be just as enticing a proposition. Whereas the first Nigeria Special was a sprawling collection of sounds and styles intended to show the sheer diversity of Nigeria's musical output in the early '70s, this volume is far more musically concise, consisting of mostly instrumental cuts that are heavily indebted to the American funk and disco being imported into Nigeria at the time.
This collection of deep funk, Afro-boogie and serious disco will transport you (and your booty) to the sweat-soaked discos of Lagos, where native sounds shimmy up next to imported grooves bringing the dancefloor to a fever pitch of go-go bells, funky drums, wah wah guitar, popping bass and blasting horns. This is tight, dirty funk being filtered through afrobeat and highlife.... the results are absolutely AMAZING!
Like all things from Sound Way, Nigeria Disco Funk Special comes with gorgeous packaging, extensive liner notes, archival photos and repros of original album artwork. Take your pick between a super slick digipak for the cd version and a gorgeous gatefold sleeve for the 2LP. This is heavy shit. Don't miss out!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
The folks who run Soul Jazz Records must have made the best mixtapes. Heck, what are we talking about, they STILL make the best mixtapes. Their whole label is essnetially based on their mixtape skills. Every release, an incredible collection of tracks, from super obscure rarities, to instantly recognizable favorites, managing over the course of a disc or two, to encapsulate and represent perfectly a sound or a scene. It's like a college course on music history condensed into a handful of songs. Whether it's Brazilian post punk, classic reggae, New York noise, Afro-Cuban music, Big Apple Rappin', modern dubstep, Tropicalia, Chicago Soul, Soul Jazz can present a super concise history of whatever sound it is. In fact, we're beginning to think, they could pick ANYTHING and we'd be willing to check it out. Easy listening, boy bands, Reggaeton, top 40, singers who used to be Mousketeers on the Mickey Mouse Club. If anyone could turn that shit into something compelling and listenable, Soul Jazz could.
Thankfully, this latest comp focuses on something much closer to our music obsessed hearts. A history of MC culture in the UK, including all the various roots and offshoots, dancehall, hip hop, jungle, garage, grime, dubstep. Anyone who dug past Soul Jazz releases like the two Box Of Dub discs, Rumble In The Jungle, any of the various dancehall comps, it almost goes without saying that this too will be some essential listening. While we recognize lots of the artists, we hadn't heard a single track here, but we've already begun compiling a list of records to track down just based on the brief samplings offered up here.
The discs aren't really chronological, or divided by genre, instead, they are deftly arranged to demonstrate the inherent similarities, to allow the listener to hear dancehall butted up against some dubstep, some UK hip hop cozied up to some jungle, the various track so different, but often incorporating similar elements and obviously drawn from the same musical history.
Some favorites: Doctor & Davinche's "Gotta man", a loping stuttery grime jam, with a weird shuffling rhythm, a killer string stab loop, and of course some amazing tongue twisting flows. The Indian flecked hip hop groove of "So U Want Morre?" from Ty & Roots Manuva, peppered with some muted tablas, little flurries of string shimmer, a looped Eastern vocal refrain. The classic ska-infused dancehall of Tenor Fly's "Bump And Grind", soulful horns, a fluttering falsetto hook, and TF's agile gruff and raspy toasting. Riko's "Ice Rink Riddim", a convoluted grime stutter, with pizzicato guitar notes, beats made out of smeared FX and trash can lids, makes us wonder why this guy isn't as hyped as Dizzee Rascal or Wiley. "Deep" by Jakes & TC, some sort of two step garage, with some awesome fuzzed out Justice style synths, super growly vocals, and a super bouncy beat.
There are a couple weaker tracks near the end of disc two, but by then, it hardly matters, the rest of the collection is just so awesome. Funky, fucked up, groovy, big beats, killer hooks, amazing rapping and toasting, and like we already mentioned, just like the best mix tapes, An England Story leaves you wanting to hear more from pretty much every artist here!
Like all Soul Jazz releases, impeccably packaged, jewel case housed in a full color slip cover, a HUGE booklet, with liner notes, photos, interviews and more! Or if you're of the vinyl persuasion, it's also available as two separate double lps, twice the price, but that's a lot of vinyl!
I'm no doctor, but I have heard of rockin' pneumonia and boogie woogie flu. But what if the symptoms are an outbreak of twangin'? Well if you've heard the popular Phantom Guitars comp, released last year on Psychic Circle, you'll know what to expect. This is in fact officially Phantom Guitars volume 2, another fab collection of early '60s electric guitar instrumentals in the style of The Shadows and The Ventures. 26 more tracks of vintage reverby twang n' strum n' stomp, compiled by Nick Saloman, of Bevis Frond (and now Psychic Circle) fame. So giddy up and get it, Phantom Guitars fans. The acts on here, mostly British, are as follows: Ahab & The Wailers, The Blackjacks, The Boys, Alan Caddy, The Cannons, The Cliffters, The Eagles (but not THE Eagles of course), Rob E.G., Gordon Franks Orchestra, Jim Gunner, Richard Harding, The Hearts, Peter Jay & The Jaywalkers, Les Champions, Mandrake, Nero & The Gladiators, Judd Proctor, The Rapiers, The Ramblers, The Runestones, The Saints, The Saxons, The Sunspots, Teddy Vento & Dietrich Pregl, The Volcanos, Bert Weedon. More evocative perhaps are some of the track titles: "Train To Moscow", "Ghost Train", "Just For Chicks", "Husky Team", "The Phantom Stage", "Django", "Jezebel", "Desperado"... 'twas a simpler time, the swingin' sixties... There's a surfy sound going on here (a couple tracks reminded us of the Hawaii Five-O theme) and quite obviously a spaghetti western vibe too (the wordless background vocals on The Boys' version of "Polaris" seem fairly Morricone-ish, ferinstance). Sometimes moodily suspenseful, at other times energetically exotic, always groovy, and just plain fun stuff. Like the original volume of Phantom Guitar twangin', definitely cool and recommended!!
The current glut of mediocre compilations from the computer glitch faction of experimental music demands that the compiler of any collection should hold greater standards than, "I'm selling yet another compilation featuring Kid 606. Please buy my product." Simple curatorial questions such as: why these artists? Why these tracks? What is the thematic connection? What is to be learned
Thus, Anomalous should be commended first for not recycling the mimetic electro-glitch roster on their "An Uncommon Nature" and second for putting some thought into the production of the compilation. This vinyl only album documents discrete physical actions which address the age old dichotomy between humanity and nature. Erik Lanzillota -- the curator of this album and founder of Anomalous -- has for the most part succeeded in creating a near seamless aural flow between the long thin wire striations of Jonathan Coleclough and the muffled thunderstorm field recordings of David Knott. The one snag is the annoying nasal blurt from Agog, but the wonderous drones from Mirror and the rich texural rubbings form Jeph Jerman keep this compilation from sinking like so many others.
Odd 3"cd-r compilation from Berlin-based misterministeck.com - a website run by artist Norbert Bayer, who makes pictures and objects using ministeck, a children's creativity game in which plastic pins are placed on a grid to create an image. Bayer
We haven't had a good Turkish psych compilation in some time and while this covers some pretty familiar ground, there's plenty of stuff new to us to recommend it. Don't let the time range of the music create any doubts, the bulk of this is from 1968-1976 with one song from 1977 (Edip Akbayram & Dostlar) and one from 1983 (Fikret Kizilok, doing a smoky ballad that sounds older than most material on here). Three of the tracks are reissued here for the first time. While there are key hits from Selda, Erkin Koray, Mustafa Ozkent and 3 Hur-el that have been on numerous other releases, the tracks by Baris Manco, Esin Afsar, Umit Tokcan, Nurcan Opel, Galatasaray Lisesi, and Cem Karaca Ve Apslar are all unfamiliar to us, mostly taken from rare 45's and soundtrack records. Lots of heavy rock groove, surfy lounge beat, and smoky soulfulness to make this a highly worthwhile collection for DJs and unusual psych connoisseurs. Just ignore the subpar cover art! On Red Vinyl!
(This was also released as an outrageously expensive cd-r, we passed on those, but figured it was worth it on vinyl.)
Scorn, Seefeel, DJ Cheb I Sabbah, even the Yanomami Shamans recorded by David Toop.
In celebration of their 11th year Amish records has released this comp filled with some names you know and some names you soon will from the murky wide world of the underground folk scene. A totally solid collection with not a loser in the bunch. From folks we've come to love like P.G. Six, Samara Lubelski, Dan Brown from Hall Of Fame, Helen Rush of Tower Recordings and totally stand out tracks from Oakley Hall and Bird Show. What's so nice about this comp is that while there is a connection in style and aesthetic between the artists they don't all sound alike and each brings their own slant to good old fashion american underground folk. Also nice to hear a collection like this that doesn't have some of the same names we're always used to hearing in this scene (Devendra, Sufjan, Joanna, etc) nothing against them, of course we love them but nice to remember there are many others doing wonderful things in that world.
Two words: Fuck Yeah!! Three more words: Fuzz fuzz fuzz. Another word: Word.
Oh okay, let's see, you probably want to know who's on this comp, like it matters, have you heard of any of these obscure bands? From A to X: Albert Band, All & Nothing, Ciclon, Expresion, Galaxia, Ibiza Sound, Madera De Cipres, The Matches, Modification, Pinonate, Shock, Skorpis (two cuts from them), Unidades, Rudy Ventura, and Xetxu. Fortunately, the 20-page cd booklet provides useful notes (in both English and Spanish) on all of 'em, plus full-color thumbnail repros of the original rare 45 rpm vinyl sleeve art. This is another excellent addition to the ongoing bounty of -sweet- Spanish psych/prog reissues we've seen lately, from Agamenon to Zarpa... "The Spanish Trip" (another cool comp) keeps on tripping! So what are -these- Andergraun Vibrations all about? Some of 'em groovy, some of 'em poppy, some of 'em melancholic, some of 'em heavy, some of 'em funky, some of 'em all of the above... there's disco horns and proto-metal both. Prog flutes and acid rock guitar. Dramatic vocals and garage scuzz. All sorts of retro coolness in other words. What Who Will Buy These Wonderful Evils vol. III was to Sweden, this is to Spain. Oh and despite the date range of '70 to '78, twelve of the sixteen tracks are from '73 or before, and most of 'em sound even earlier (more '60s than '70s).
FYI: 'twas originally released on expensive import vinyl (in two volumes, out of print) with this cd comprising all of the 1st and about half of the 2nd volume.
One of our favorite mix makers, DJ Andy Votel. One of the most sparkling genres of music ever, Tropicalia. Can't go wrong with this one! Andy Votel is responsible for such AQ fave discs as Prog Is Not A Four Letter Word, Folk Is Not A Four Letter Word, Vertigo Mixed, Welsh Rare Beat, and the recent Well Hung (that killer comp of Hungarian funky fuzz rock we highlighted last list), among many others. Tropicalia? Well that's the late '60 Brazilian musical movement (with political and artistic dimensions as well) that melded psychedelia with Latin rhythms like bossa nova... chances are most AQ customers have some passing familiarity with it, probably having an Os Mutantes, Gilberto Gil or Caetano Veloso reissue or two or more in your collection.
Of those three biggies, only Mutantes appear hear on Votel's Brazilika mix, which should appeal to both Tropicalia fans and the simply curious as well. And of course Votel digs fairly deep to bring some definite obscurities into play, all from the vaults of the Brazilian Som Livre and RGE record labels. Some names: Os Brazoes, Tim Maia, Novos Baianos, Sidney Miller, Trio Soneca, Azimuth... Those familiar with his penchant for heavy, "hairy funk" on his previous mixes won't be surprised that this rocks fairly hard (and also jazzily), full of organ jamming and wah wah fuzz guitar, giving less of a look in to the breezier, more delicate and folky aspects of the Tropicalia sound. So it's not exactly a primer, but if you can untangle which part of each track is by what artist (Votel mashing several into each cut), it should whet your appetite and give you some clues for further reissue exploration. And be a surefire hit at your next party, of course.
Drone space-rock collection, two previously vinyl-only releases on one handy cd, with: Flowchart, Azusa Plane, Windy & Carl, Amp, Magnog, Hood and more... Too bad there's no colored vinyl to look at, but the music is still gorgeous.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
First in a new series from the same label that brought us the Ethiopiques compilations. Influenced by such elements as Congolese highlife and music from Brazil & the Caribbean, some of the musicians here have even worked with such Pan-African stars as Rochereau, Sam Mangwana and Franco. The Zairian style is evident here: lots of lush hollow body electric guitar with tons of reverb. And yet both the Portuguese & Caribbean influences are equally apparent in the melodic lines, and the language - all in Portuguese.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Second in a new series from the same label that brought us the Ethiopiques compilations. Influenced by such elements as Congolese highlife and music from Brazil & the Caribbean, some of the musicians here have even worked with such Pan-African stars as Rochereau, Sam Mangwana and Franco. The Zairian style is also evident here: lots of lush hollow body electric guitar with tons of reverb.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Third in a new series from the same label that brought us the Ethiopiques compilations. So far, *this* installment might be the best of the bunch. Lovely, fun, '70s African pop.
Even if we hadn't already been familiar with the first volume in the Angola Soundtrack series, we would have been pretty curious about this new one. The cover art, to start with: a super psychedelic, color tinted image of four women with spiked out antenna-like hair, and in the foreground, a hulking figure, head shaved and shirtless, wreathed in shadow and smoking a cigar, his belly hanging over his belt, it almost looks like a still from some crazy psychedelic arthouse film, and then there's the compilation's subtitle: Hypnosis, Distortion & Other Sonic Innovations - all right! And while it's maybe not as freaky and far out as all that might lead one to believe, it's still pretty fantastic, and the perfect follow up to the first volume for sure.
The first track should have most folks totally smitten, an instrumental psychedelic groove, all spidery guitar melodies, some wah wah here and there, and a seriously Latin sounding rhythm, which is not all that surprising, considering that we discovered with the first volume, that Latin music was a huge influence on the Angola sound, and that's super obvious throughout volume two as well. As we mentioned in that original review, having no context, we really might have assumed that this music was in fact from Central or South America, but it's that fusion of Latin and African that makes the sound so unique, so vibrant, joyous and alive. A lot of the tracks have a big band Afro-Jazz vibe, but some sound like fuzzed out Afro-Latin garage rock, others more balladic and croony, and still others almost like they could be music from Italian Westerns, but all the tracks here are incredible, from energetic and joyously raucous to moody and melancholic, such fantastic stuff, and like the first volume, on heavy heavy rotation, which as always, is the best recommendation of all...
Like all Analog Africa releases, the packaging is fantastic, the aforementioned cover art, a heavy slipcover. Inside, the disc in a full color digipak, the accompanying book, massive, overflowing with extensive liner notes on the artists, the songs, the region, as well as the music and culture of the time, tons of rare photos too.
If no one told us this music was from Angola, we would have guessed it came from somewhere around Central or South America. A lot of this music reminds us of those great Panama compilations on Soundway, and as it turns out, Angola had the same cross-pollination of Latin-based musical influences from neighboring regions that Panama experienced with African-influenced music during the same time period. This compilation focuses on the electric bands, vanguard singers and the two significant recording companies that led to an explosive scene of musical forces in Angola during the late sixties and early seventies. Traditional African music from the Luanda Islands, psychedelic guitar-based music from neighboring Congo, Latin rhythms, the relentless beats of Carnival music and old school Caribbean Merengue, combine for some uplifting and uproariously joyous music. If you need some movement and heat to cure you of the winter blues, this set is for you!
