Where many of the 'Readers Digest' collections of electronica are generic codifications of style (as is the case with so many of the Mille Plateaux compilations), "Open Source Code" works in concentrating less on the 'who's hot' model of curation and more on collecting tracks that are well grounded in the fundamentals of techno. Good, well crafted techno always gives the appearance of effortlessness, and the majority of the tracks here display that effortlessness by emphasizing the minimalist bent for techno with only a few hic-cups of the overwrought conceptualization that has plagued the current 'click-hop' strain of electronica. "Open Source Code" is a presentation from Source Records and Ableton Software (whose Live program was used to construct the recent Scion mix of the Basic Channel back catalogue); and features some very polite cuts of minimal club techno from Akufen, Jan Jelinek, S.E. Berlin (aka Sun Electric), Robert Lippok (from Tarwater and To Rococo Rot), Bton, Sutekh, Thomas Brinkmann, Smyglyssna, Move D, Alex Cortex, Monolake, and Studio Pankow.
Another amazing archival release from the seemingly infallible Honest Jon's, the fourth in their series of compilations collecting early 78s held in the EMI archives.
Open Strings, is as the title suggests, a collection of songs by virtuoso stringed instrument players, hailing from Iran, Iraq, Egypt and Turkey, all recorded in the 1920s, an incredible selection of tracks, almost entirely unheard since they were first released. And wow. Every single track here is fantastic. Folks who have been obsessing over the Sublime Frequencies series best start paying attention to Honest Jon's as well, absolutely riveting, emotional, idiosyncratic, passionate, from wild musical flights of fancy, flurries of notes, tangled melodies, to warm whirring droning ragas, to playful folky lullabies, to wild, almost psychedelic workouts, to frenzied freakouts, to dark contemplative ballads, all warm and crackly and gorgeously aged, but at the same time absolutely timeless, this is some seriously magical music, lost treasures for sure.
And although it's really unnecessary, considering how sublime the first disc is on its own, the bonus material, featuring contemporary raga / drone string players responding to the originals (without which there music would not exist, or if it did, it would be in an extremely different form) is also pretty fantastic. And no doubt, folks with very little interest in Middle Eastern string music from the 20s will probably pick this up anyway for the folks doing modern versions of said music, just check out the lineup: SIR RICHARD BISHOP, SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE, STEFFEN BASHO-JUGHANS, MICHAEL FLOWER, CHARLIE PARR, BRUCE LICHER, PAUL METZGER, RICK TOMLINSON, MV & EE AND MICAH BLUE SMALLDONE. Not bad. And their interpretations/versions are quite varied and all quite cool, from dark hushed whispers, to effects laden psychedelic blowouts to longform raga buzz to delicate folky flutter. Hopefully folks who pick this up for the modern stuff, will dig deeper and discover a whole new world of sound.
The cd comes in a gorgeous printed gatefold jacket, with thick printed inner sleeves, and the vinyl, WOW. Super extravagant printed box, 4 lps in printed inner sleeves, heavy and deluxe and thus, a bit expensive, but for vinyl obsessives, probably well worth it.
Tigerbeat6 offer up a stunningly eclectic compilation to make your head spin, and with a price tag that won't make your wallet whimper! Two dozen tracks ranging from the hi-tech to the lo-tech, the sophisticated to the positively nerdy. Starring DJ Rupture, Stars As Eyes, The Bug, Com.a, Numbers, Cex, Total Shutdown, Electric Company, The Rip-Off Artist, Crack We Are Rock, Knifehandchop, Nudge, Terminal 11, Nathan Michel, Caro, Dwayne Sodahberk, Max Tundra, Original Hamster, Zeigenbock Kopf and of course Kid 606.
We've raved about the amazing Dust-To-Digital label before, their releases are always incredible, from the recordings to the liner notes to the packaging, few can touch these guys when it comes to elaborate and over the top packaging. But let's take a second to gush again a bit about aQ pal Jonathan Ward, who besides having one of the most incredible collections of industrial music (not industrial as in Throbbing Gristle, but as in music created by and for corporations, commercials, etc), also runs the amazing Excavated Shellac blog, which is a treasure trove of lost recordings, and Ward writes beautifully about the records and their provenance. Ward curated the amazing Excavated Shellac: Strings lp on Parlortone a while back, which we can't recommend enough, but this long in the works boxset does that compilation one better. Or maybe four better. Four discs overflowing with incredible sounds, all gathered from 78rpm shellac phonograph records, most of which have never been heard outside of Africa, as these discs were not recorded for ethnomusicologists or as the liner notes suggest "curious Westerners", but for the local population, and thus were much more difficult to track down, but as we stated above, Ward's collection of 78s is stunning, and essentially, this boxset is like a physical version of his blog, with his extensive liner notes on each of the ONE HUNDRED (!) tracks here, totally fascinating and informative, not just discussing the song, but offering an overview of the time, the culture, and more extensively going into the hunt for, and discovery of these records, as well as the reasons behind their limited distribution and the difficulty of tacking down records from different regions. It's as good a read as it is a listen (like the blog!), but the music, so divine, so varied, from pretty much every region of Africa: Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Kenya, Congo, Cameroon, Malawi, Burundi, Seychelles, Namibia, Angola, Niger, Somalia, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt and beyond� The tracks range from celebratory, almost high life sounding folk music, all tribal drumming and call and response vocals, to hushed intimate solo performances of just voice and buzzing strings, some songs are wild and chaotic and full of joy, others are mournful and melancholy, we could go track by track, but pretty much everyone who's heard this has been immediately smitten, and if you're a fan of that Excavated Shellac lp (or the blog), any of the other Dust-To-Digital comps or anything on Sublime Frequencies, this is a must have.
And as mentioned above, the packaging is incredible, a book sized red and yellow cloth slipcover, inside the 4 cds housed in a fold out 8 panel full color dvd style gatefold sleeve, alongside a massive soft cover book, filled with tons of photos, as well as Ward's extensive liner notes. So totally recommended!!
Or Records' second compilation of computer music finds its definition of computer music in the late '60s and early '70s, when huge mainframe computers were neccessary to calculate not quite random but sequentially diffuse algorithms for the making of computer
One of the guys in the Jimmy Cake (see past lists for gushing reviews of both their full lengths) hooked us up with a few copies of this compilation that one of his bandmates released and it's really pretty great. Features a live track from the Jimmy Cake, a droning buzzing ambient minimalist epic, as well as a new Nurse With Wound track that is a gorgeous burbling, slowly modulating low end rumble. Also features the Tycho Brahe (Cocktails meets Arab Strap with female vocals), Daniel Figgis (glitchy Oval-esque soundscape), Artificial Memory Trace (barren and cinematic, minimal and haunting), King Camera Meets Volcano The Bear (quirky, rhythmic electronic weirdness, with horns!), Aranos (jaunty, creepy gypsy folk) and more!
Pipes You See Pipes You Don't, Great Lakes, Lovers, Good Ship, Instruments, Boom Box 2000, Major Organ, Jeff Mangum and Neutral Milk Hotel, amongst others. 16 tracks, since it's a sampler I guess all are previously released on other Orange Twin records.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
A follow-up to "Gravikords Whirligigs and Pyrophones", this book (written again by Bart Hopkin with an introduction by Robert Moog) and cd compilation (with Aphex Twin, Tom Waits, John Cage, Stomp, Lou Harrison...) is another celebration of the creative spirit of instrument invention.
It's always kind of exciting to tackle a compilation where you haven't heard of most of the bands. Could be awesome, could be terrible, one of the tracks might be from your new favorite band, one of the tracks might just be the worst song you've ever heard. You don't often get a chance to hear compilations like this (and there are millions of 'em) because why would anyone order a record filled with bands no one knew of or cared about? So we got sent this comp of underground outsider local bands from Oregon, and gave it a listen, and dang if it wasn't pretty great all the way through. The only band we had heard of was the Portland Bicycle Ensemble, who perform on contact miked bicycles, creating spacious and percussive soundscapes. Their track here is awesome, clattery and abstract, spare and spacey. But from then on out we were in unchartered territory...
Tonehenge open up the disc with a weird sound collage, beginning with a woman telling a story, she begins to sing, and suddenly, the track is a dense droning waltz, a swirl of strings and pianos, the main melody whistled, and beneath it all, crunchy looped and processed voices and glitching sound FX. Up next are Lindsay Kaplan and Andrew Wilshusen, whose track is delicate minor key piano, sweet female vocals, surrounded by all sorts of random percussive clatter and found sounds, another pretty and haunting number. JP Jenkins does some solo guitar, detuned and angular, with lots of shimmering overtones, string buzz and slippery slide, really nice, like Jack Rose meets Loren Connors. Another track from Tonehenge, a dizzying Tape Beatles like sonic collage rife with sixties horns, spoken word and lots and lots of record crackle. Next up, Doug Theriault, with a glitchy slab of freaked out, psychedelic music concrete. Followed by Shalloboi, who deliver a murky lo-fi dirge, with creepy piano (does every band in Portland have a piano player?) haunting monotone vocals, and lots of ambient grit and grime. We expected a lot from the band Metal, who were as we expected not metal at all, instead, their track is a drifting soundscape of distant melodies, soft shimmery drones, recordings of birds, and, you guessed it, piano! Next up, the strangely named Biathalon, who craft a sweet, melancholy dreamy abstract pop, soft focused and darkly dreamy, but with something ominous lurking just below the surface, a gurgling , glitchy rumbling drone. Owl Dudes give us a brief, burst of mumbly murk and stuttering electronic skitter, flecked with bits of crunch and sonic detritus. Cup Na Cup, who organized the comp, stretches bells and chimes and shimmering metallic reverberations, into a swoonsome high end drone, with subtle little skips and glitches adding some barely there rhythmic flutter. Every Drum A Star does their thing with swirling synth sounds, burbling water sound, and all sorts of squiggly whoomps and shhhhzts and bleeping bloops. Last but not least, Bryan Eubanks, with a lengthy drone piece, simple stretched out tones, slowly beating against each other, very reminiscent of Conrad, Cale Or Niblock.
So there you have it. Pretty dang nice. A brief glimpse into the underground experimental music scene in Portland. And what we learned was, we'd pretty much by a full length record from any of these bands, but more importantly, if you play the piano, get your ass to Portland, there are several bands who don't yet have a piano player!!!
Black cd-r, packaged with nice full color artwork in a slim, clear dvd case.
Waaaaay old skool stuff here on this compilation of funked up hip hop from the early days of the genre, dug up by some serious collectors/DJs. Featuring the raps of Pookey Blow, South Bronx Movement, Missy Dee & The Melody Crew, Outlaw Four, The Jackson Two, Nice & Nasty 3, Mike T, MC Rock Lovely, Eye Beta Rock, Denyce "Flip" Isaac, Keeling Bedford Connection and Mr. Sweety. Weird how this stuff can sound almost quaint, even though these ancient MCs are still obviously cooler than you, and be nostalgic even though we've never heard of most of these rappers? Definitely a fine party disc, with smooth grooves and hoary rhymes galore. Liner notes would have been nice, though.
Considering that the Darkthrone tribute from a few years back was one of the best black metal records ever (compilation or otherwise) we had high hopes for this Mayhem tribute. It features all the big boys: Immortal, Dark Funeral, Absu, Gorgoroth,
Also the first few (for those of you quick on the mailorder draw) are the special limited version that comes with a fold out poster in an ultra-cheesy black vinyl pouch, intended, we suppose, to look 'leather' and 'tough' and 'scary' but instead only manages to look like the sort of fanny pack you'd find on some fat European metalhead passed out in a puddle of beer and piss at Castle Donnington.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
A budget collection of Leaf's upcoming releases of mostly fourth world electronica with Hindi and Japanese percussive elements filtering into abstract beatz and straight up UK techno. With Richard Thomas, 310, Eardrum, Four Tet (1/3 of Fridge), Beige, A Small Good Thing (aka O Yuki Conjugate), Gripper, Sons of Silence, Gorodisch, and Susumo Yakata, whose hypercheesed send up of Fat Boy Slim (making his claim as the 'funk soul brother' sound even more Caucasian) was long over due.
While there has been no shortage of awesome collections of sounds from West Africa in the '70s, this collection somehow steps ahead of the crowd as it fantastically focuses on the much overlooked sounds coming from Burkina Faso, between the years 1974-1978. Combining heavy psych grooves, Afro-funk, rich orchestration and rock, into a sound that is warm, warbly and infectious. The recordings sound quite lo-fi, not an aesthetic decision as is the style these days, instead, a result of resources in the region during this era being extremely limited. But luckily it suits the music perfectly, as the songs jump out on their own without the need for fancy studio polish. And the echo, reverb and understated production really would make so many of today's lo-fi hipsters drool in envy. Another strength of the compilation is how well it works from start to finish, really feeling like a unified album and not just a random mix of songs from a singular time and place. Some tracks burn while others melt, some smolder, and others swing. With an overall vibe and sound that falls somewhere between The Psych-Funk 101 compilation we've been digging so much, and some of the recent comps from labels like Soundway and Honest Jons that have also done much to shed light on so many of the amazing sounds coming out of Africa in the '70s.
'Ouelele' is a wonderful collection of early 70s Afrobeat rarities (with the earliest track being from 1967) with with tracks by Letta M'Bulu, Philip Cohran & The Artistic Heritage Ensemble, J.M. Time & Foty, Manu Dibango, Smahila & the S.B.s, Marius Cultier, Ginger Johnson & His African Messengers, and more!
Out of all of Motown's small subsidiary labels, Mowest may have been the most stylistically diverse. Created as an outlet for Motown's West Coast based artists, its brief existence between 1971-1973 before Motown set up shop in Los Angeles full time, covered a fertile period of music-making that was freed from pre-defined genre constraints. Where else could the soulful exuberance of the Commodores, the slow proto-disco groove of Odyssey and The Sisters Love, the late-period vocal pop of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons and the stoner hippie vibes of Lodi commingle together? As usual, Light In The Attic does a stellar job of highlighting the amazing aspects of this brief label, re-introducing to the world some of its lesser known artists such as The Nu Page, Suzee Ikeda, and G.C. Cameron, while showing the early career promise of Syreeta and Thelma Houston. This is a side of Motown at its most adventurous yet relaxed, letting the sunny soulful vibes wash over us like warm ocean waves. Super Recommended!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Another collection of Jamaican artists doing funk, yes. But does it sound anything like predecesors Darker Than Blue and Studio One Funk? No. In fact, on many of these tracks you wouldn't even guess that they were recorded in Jamaica. To be sure some, like Tommy McCook's "Bubble Strut", have the underlying rhythmmic passport to prove their citizenship, and King Cole's "Knock Three Times" is about as soul as early Jimmy Cliff, but most are straight up 70's disco funk. Scratchy wah-wah guitars, horn sections, goofy moog keyboard solos... We keep looking over at the CD player here to be sure we're listening to the right album. All the tracks here, recorded between 1970 and 1975, were produced at Randy's legendary studio. Includes a nice, full-color booklet with liner notes by the ubiquitous David Katz.
It's hard to believe the British Asian dance label Outcaste has been around only five years. Their club nights in London are legendary, and they've translated that into half a dozen albums so far. Here's a compilation mixing previously available and unavailable tracks from such artists Nitin Sawhney, Up + Bustle and Out, Ananda Shankar, and Dave Pike (remixed by Badmarsh and Shri). Fans of Outcaste's "Untouchable Outcaste Beats", tabla 'n' beats, and Talvin Singh will appreciate.
Second vinyl accompaniment to the Output 64 remix compilation cd. Features tracks found on said disc by Raumagent Alpha (an extended version) and Computerjockeys as well as two unreleased cuts by The Bikini Machine and Cut Out (an excellent version of
As the title states, these are remixes of material from the Input 64 compilation. All utilize the sounds of the Commodore 64 computer game system. Some are fluffily entertaining, others considerably less so. Look closely and you just might spot a Chick on
Seventeen tracks including stuff by The Lookers, Cannanes, Some Velvet Sidewalk and others, notably the much-raved-about Japanese contingent of Kirohito, Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her and Loud Machine 0.5.
Two new compilations of gospel music from Trikont. Most of the tracks on these two discs are not the standard gospel quartets and choruses that are more likely to be what comes to mind when one thinks of gospel, but gospel music that comes out of popular
Two new compilations of gospel music from Trikont. Most of the tracks on these two discs are not the standard gospel quartets and choruses that are more likely to be what comes to mind when one thinks of gospel, but gospel music that comes out of popular
For a long time, this record was a Japanese psych holy grail, originally a super limited double lp, later a double cd, originally released to commemorate the closing of a club in Tokyo called Oz, where presumably all of these bands were recorded. The main reason this was such a sought after artifact is no doubt the presence of not one, but TWO all time Japanese psychedelic legends, Les Rallizes Denudes and Taj Mahal Travelers. In fact those of is who did manage to track down a copy, never even really listened to the first disc, since the second disc was so goddamn good. And odds are, most aQ Japanese psych obsessives stopped reading about two sentences ago and lunged for the 'add to cart' button. Cuz while this is/was quite a rarity, we just discovered a source for a bunch of copies, incredibly cheap too, and snapped 'em up, cuz we figured that there were enough folks out there like us, who would definitely be keen on more from either/both TMT and Les Rallizes.
Juts in case you actually need to know what it sounds like (as if you couldn't guess), Les Rallizes offer up their usual dose of super distorted psychedelic blues, opening with a droned out guitar thing, before slipping into a surprisingly pretty and folky, and distortion free bit of strum and croon, might be a big surprise for Les Rallizes fans out there, in fact it almost sounds like a Japanese Grateful Dead, until about the last minute, when the guitars come out, offering up a surprisingly, sweetly distorted lead. The second track too, opens up with a wild squall of distorted guitar, only to slip right back into mesmerizing bit of dirgey folky drone rock, this time sounding more like the Velvets, with some seriously emotional wailed vox and more sweet psychedelic leads. And then finally, the appropriately titled "The Last One", find the band returning to much noisier distorted realms, thick wandering basslines, super distorted guitar crunch, pounding drums, an explosive intro, and while the rest of the song dials it back again, it's awesomely dirgey and droney, laced with lots of tangled guitars and swaths of distortion.
Taj Mahal Travelers do what they do best, unfurling a long minimal dronescape, all sawed violin, distant chanted vocals, swirling muted melodies, wheezing harmonicas, all blurred into lush sonic swells, Kosugi's violin driving the sound here, but with all the other various instruments contributing their own more subtle elements, a hazy, drifty, tripped out bit of druggy psychedelic drift that is perfectly divine.
Like we said before, worth it just for the second disc, but heck, there's a whole other disc, which we actually never dug into until NOW. Up first is Miyako Ochi, who are a sort of Group Sounds, Beatles worshiping rock band, all British style rhythm and blues, the songs could very well be covers, one sounds exactly like "Twist And Shout", then there's Minami Masato, who are a lot like Miyako Ochi, at least with their Beatles-esque opener, but after that, the sound shifts to a more contemplative folk music, again looking to the UK and the US for inspiration, subtle simple strummed acoustic guitar and woozy croon, again quite cool, but a strange mix to be paired up with Les Rallizes and TMT. But then there's Acid Seven, who we were already hoping would be a bit more bad ass based on the name alone, and while they are ANOTHER band that is doing that Group Sounds sound, they manage to inject it with some grit and swagger, shouted gang vocals, super distorted production, wild psychedelic leads, and a vocalist who has a pretty bad ass raspy bellow. The following track is a strange sort of jaunty sing along, with some rad slippery slide guitar and there's even a KAZOO SOLO! Finally, they finish things up with a bit of brooding dark folk, urgently strummed acoustic guitar, and some heartfelt almost anguished sounding vocalizing, surprisingly pretty, especially considering the wild biker rock bellowing that preceded it.
All in all pretty great. Japanese psych obsessives NEED this, and heck for $12, dabblers can definitely afford to give it a chance. But don't dawdle, pretty sure we got every copy our distributor had, so not sure when/if we'll be able to get more. Packaged in a slim sleeve with brown paper wrapper, duplicating the presentation of the original lp.
No doubt about it, there is so much great music and art coming out of Portland lately. Not to sound bitter, but we here in San Francisco have lost some of our most talented folks in recent years to the cheaper rent and more laid back lifestyle up in Portland and some of them (Yellow Swans, SubArachnoid Space) pop up on this great two disc collection, which features a wide variety of PDX music including talented folks like Yacht, Valet, Au, New Bloods, Pink Martini, Panther and a bunch more. Forty songs in all and for sure something for everyone on here. Compiled by the folks at PDX Pop Now, a really cool nonprofit in Portland that helps provide resources, venues and facilitate a true sense of community amongst the musicians and audience members in the independent arts scene in Portland. So cool.
Pretty much our two favorite Japanese record labels are PSF and Alchemy. Responsible for documenting so much of the Japanese psych/improv/noise underground, Osaka's venerable Alchemy Records and Tokyo's equally long-running and crucial PSF label, have at last joined forces to celebrate their 20th anniversaries together. Two concerts were held last year and this disc is the resultant commemorative souvenir. It's packed with varied and exciting performances, some of 'em one-off collaborations between veterans of each label, for instance PSF's avant-folkster Kan Mikami dueting with Alchemy boss and noise/psych guitar maestro Jojo Hiroshige, or PSF experimental improv guitarist Kazuo Imai playing alongside Alchemy noiseniks Incapacitants. You'll also find PSF mascot Keiji Haino dueling for almost 15 minutes with fellow PSF guitarist Munehiro Narita (of High Rise). There's also tracks from Marble Sheep, L & friends, Go Hirano & Takashi Ueno, Exias-J, and Masayoshi Urabe and Junko (of Hijokaidan). Lots of dark, fucked up sounds without bounds for fans of both labels...
Oui, apparently French people pronounced the word punk like "paink" when it first erupted circa '77, and you can hear just what "paink" sounded like, on this tres killer comp, kind of a French Killed By Death. Who better than the Born Bad label to hip us to the who's who of the best '70s and early '80s French punk? It was a pretty darn underground scene, with some pretty crazy and hard-edged bands that seem somehow more dangerous and perhaps less potentially commercial than many of their contemporaries over in New York and London. We had only previously heard (or heard of) a handful of the bands on here, but the ones we recognized we knew as being really badass, especially the mindblowing Soggy, so we had high hopes for the rest, and they indeed deliver. Soggy's song here is their devastating, more-Stoogesy-than-thou, almost metallic "Waiting For The War" - so awesome to have that utterly heavy track on cd (and/or on vinyl, for those who missed out on the now out of print and expensive Soggy vinyl reissue some years back). It's not just Soggy, The Stooges (and the MC5) are definitely a big influence on a bunch of these Frenchies, most of whom traffic in totally revved up rocknroll, anarchic freak action, riffing and snarling. There's variety - some have female singers, some provide lashings of new wave synth, some are buzzier, some popper, but all definitely have an edge. You may never have heard any of these bands or songs before, but it's pretty clear with just one listen that this IS all classic punk material. Besides the mighty Soggy, the other bands found here are: Les Nouveaux Riches, Strychnine, Electrochoc, Gasoline, Sexe A Pile, Soggy, Marie France, Ruth Elyeri, Coronados, Dogs, Warm Gun, Gloires Locales, Guilty Razors, and Les Olivensteins (themselves the subject of a great Born Bad anthology a while back). Get this, crank it up, and paink out en Francais!!
FINALLY!!! Hard to believe this thing is actually done considering how long and how seemingly cursed this project has been. Started almost 5 years ago to be released on AQ staffer Jim's now defunct Petrol label, then bequeathed 3 years ago to AQ staffer Andee to release on his tUMULt label where the lineup and concept went through many changes (possibly because what was begun as an homage to a song Jim really liked, had become a deconstruction of a song Andee really hates) and then an endless procession of waits, mastering, pressing, re-recording, battles with other labels over 'rights', as well as 4 different cover concepts that all had to be scrapped because they were seemingly too difficult for any printers to confidently take on. -sigh-
So here we are. Was it worth the wait? Obviously we think so. Look at the lineup, a veritable who's who of AQ favorites: Acid Mothers Temple, Circle, Hrvatski, James Plotkin, Kit Clayton, Loren Chasse, Troum, the Tape-beatles, Mieskuoro Huutajaat, Fennesz, and Stilluppsteypa. And that's just the cream. Lots of tracks were left off, according to Andee in order to avoid the spotty/uneven flow of most compilation/tribute/cover records. He even opted to leave off the Melt Banana track, which was a tough, but important choice, since the spazzy grind of their track disrupted the droning meditative, hypnotic flow of what is now less just a compilation of random tracks, more an epic and gorgeous hour of dreamy droney creepy blackness.
So what does it sound like? Well, while it does flow, and could perhaps pass itself off as a record by a single (quite eclectic) group, each track offers something unique, while still culling the sinister spirit and nihilistic 'rock' from the original (the inspiration for this comp). Finnish shouting choir Mieskuoro Huutajaat start things off with a brief, and shouted, acapaella version, in Finnish, and delivered with gusto! James Plotkin's Joy Of Disease turns it into a burbling, stuttering, electronic soundscape with hiccupping beats and backwards vocals. Somewhere between Boards Of Canada and Coil. Stilluppsteyppa took back their original track, a wash of glitchy yet melodic, musique concrete, and re-recorded/re-mixed it, removing most of the melody and adding even more space, resulting in a dark abyss of gorgeously perplexing minimalism. The Kit Clayton track is an ultra catchy, beat heavy SF glitch core workout, that obliterates the original melody but manages to keep the minor key tension and dark ambience. Ultra prolific Japanese space rockers Acid Mothers Temple turn the original into a wild pagan ritual, starting out with several minutes of Tsuyama's throaty chants, skipping nervously around that oh-so-familiar melody before the band stumbles in to join him for the remaining 10 minutes, with splattery percussion, freaked out reverb/retard guitar and squealing feedback. Hrvatski (aka Keith Whitman) claims that this Painted Black contribution is his favorite track that he's ever recorded and it's easy to see why: he actually sings, plays guitar, and weaves a thick wash of warm, langorous tones before it all crumbles beneath a speaker shredding cascade of sputtering drill and bass. Iowa's masters of plunderphonia, the Tape-Beatles use found sounds and actual lawsuit-baiting chunks of the original to create a tense and unnerving, noirish dreamscape, with disebodied screams, curious snippets of overheard conversations, and the sliced and diced original which all end up adding to the creepy vibe. German drone-sters Troum incorporate 'that' melody into a totally overpowering and molasses-thick drone, assembled from multiple tracks of guitar and accordion. The Fennesz track was previously released on an ep via Jim O'Rourke's Moikai label, and to us seems like Fennesz at his very best. Melodies and textures are spit out, stuttering and hiccupping from the cold, digital craw of the laptop, but somehow come out all warm and thick and coil around you like stuffed snakes and deliciously fragrant pipesmoke. Amazing. AQ faves Circle, do what they do best, taking the skeletal remains of the original, holding on to the barebones melody, and constructing a motorik, unwavering rhythm, that sounds like Tony Conrad and Faust's Outside The Dream Syndicate with just a little more melody and umph. And the record is finished off perfectly, spiralling slowly into 'black'ness, by AQ pal Loren Chasse (who as you probably already know is a pillar of the Jewelled Antler Collective, as well as a member of Thuja, the Blithe Suns, etc). He uses snippets of the original, slowed down hundreds of times until it is a lugubrious almost-melody, and contact mic-ed strobe lights to create a static-y, humming, nighttime dronescape, like a otherworldy forest, complete with clattery insect buzz and moaning winds in the ancient trees. An almost perfect compilation and an amazing gathering of some of our favorite artists doing some of their best work. Essential.
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The New Rubble series hits volume six with this collection of rare '60s pop psych singles, entitled Painting The Time. We haven't reviewed all the volumes in the series so far but this one's worth a mention, with enjoyable tracks by twenty different artists (the few we've heard of before being Aphrodite's Child, The Velvet Opera, The Orange Bicycle, and The Nashville Teens).
The truth is, though, that we expected to sell a lot more copies of volume FIVE in this series than we did -- that was the girl-fronted freakbeat comp Scratch My Back we reviewed here last list. So go back and review that review, folks! It's a damn good comp.
Not that this isn't pretty cool too, but doesn't have quite the same level of thematic unity as Scratch My Back. The common denominator here is that these tracks, many but not all of 'em by bands from the UK, have for the most part never been compiled before. So says complier and liner notator Nick "Bevis Frond" Saloman, at any rate, and he's obviously knows more about this stuff than you or I! So even if you're a rabid '60s psych comp collector maybe you haven't yet heard the songs by The Twilights, Andy Ellison, Abel Fletcher, Chris Kerry, Cats Pyjamas, The Bystanders, Herbie's People, The Executives, The Shame, and all the others found here. And the good news is that though obscure, these songs are definitey better than mere barrel-scrapings, many of 'em excellent uptempo fuzzy finger-snappin' popsters. So '60s fans, check this out...and definitely think about picking up vol. 5 too while you're at it!
Here is a compilation of obscure British psych groups that, with the exception of a couple semi famous artists (the Flying Machine, the Status Quo), is comprised of a bunch of bands that never really were recognized here in the U.S.. There is quite a variety here, ranging from trancy, drugged out slow ones, to out and out goofiness with silly meaningless drabble, and then there's some great songs that illustrate what 60's psych / garage are all about. Some very Syd Barrettesqe moments. This is ideal for British psych fans that want to get their hands on some rare songs.
The latest from Sublime Frequencies comes in the form of this killer collection of Pakistani instrumentals, recorded between 1966 and 1976, the decade of music reflected by the decade spent putting this collection together, not just gathering the songs, but actually contacting all the various musicians, but the results speak for themselves, a wild assemblage of groovy, fuzzy garage and beat and surf music, all instrumental of course, with buzzing sitars, wheezing organs, distorted electric guitars, tangled melodies, all buzzy and psychedelic and so very good!
The history of the music, as always, is as interesting as the music itself. Pop music was banned for the most part, but in 1966 a nationwide movement was begun to overthrow the dictatorship, which did eventually happen, resulting in a surge in popularity of bands playing American style music, and of course along with the music came drugs and long hair and parties, and a huge flow of hippies from all over the world. Sadly most of those bands never recorded, as the industry was geared more toward film music, and the bands that did record, typically did traditionals or version of popular songs from films.
This mini musical revolution ended in 1977 when the Socialist party was overthrown, and the military chief took over, establishing a pure Islamic state governed by Sharia law, which meant alcohol and nightclubs were banned, films and TV were heavily censored, which resulted in most of the artists leaving Pakistan for Europe or the US.
But while it was going on, some amazing music was being made, as evidenced by these tracks, wild and funky and fuzzy and sweaty and groovy, playful percussion wrapped around garagey fuzz guitar, surfy riffs, spidery melodies, Ventures-y reverb, a definite Joe Meek vibe to lots of these songs, dreamily lo-fi, lots of organs and old synths, unfurling frantic flurries of notes, plenty of sitar buzz shimmering throughout, and the fact that these tracks are instrumental, definitely makes them way more accessible to the less adventurous listeners out there. We used to marvel at the fact that we sold so many copies of Ethiopiques volume 4, but realized that perhaps it was because it was instrumental too. Needless to say, the music here, even sans vocals, is plenty wild and wonderful enough to have even the most seasoned of world music explorers in utter bliss.
SUPER LIMITED as always, gorgeously packaged in a super heavy full color gatefold sleeve, with extensive liner notes, and lots of photos.
No, this is not a Van Halen tribute record, this is actually a great collection of the rhythms & sounds coming out of Panama from 1965-75. Upbeat jams that take on calypso, funk and jazz. This is the good raw stuff before things like "latin-jazz" got in the hands of cheesy producers and got watered down and coffee-houseified. We love the funk flavored tracks on here as they manage to perfectly merge the influence of US soul & funk with a calypso undertone that makes for such a tasty treat. For those of you who have been won over by some of Senor Coconut's tip of the hat to the sounds of South American charisma and flare, this is the real deal. One of those comps that you put on from start to finish and anyone in your company will be shaking their bodies and bouncing their heads. Comes with really thoughtful and insightful packaging, great photos and liner notes about the music scene in Panama.
All June long we've been having a "graycation" here in foggy San Francisco, but yesterday the clouds lifted and it finally feels like summer!! Just in time for weekend barbecues comes this sizzling hottie of a compilation of Cumbia, Salsa and Calypso Funk from the Southern most country of North America, Panama! This is the second volume of sixties and seventies jams from this tiny nation that sees plenty of cross-pollination from many musical forms to the North, South and East. Northern Soul and Salsa influences, Afro-Caribbean calypso, Cubano percussion, Columbian Cumbia and Panama's own Musica Tipica, a black and mestizo rural country form notable for its wide array of rustic percussion as well as its use of multiple violins and accordian-led arrangements. The beauty of these compilations is their flow; traditonal cumbia is followed by sweaty salsa into Latin funk and back like it was tailor made for dance party listening. There's some amazing psychedelic soul funk numbers in here too from The Duncan Brother's "Dreams", The Soul Fantastic's awesome version of Bill Wither's "Ain't No Sunshine", and Lord Cobra's "Love Letters". Summer starts right here!!!
Another round of great sounds out of Panama from the 60's & 70's from the always reliable Sound Way label. Great stuff!
Now available on vinyl!
All June long we've been having a "graycation" here in foggy San Francisco, but yesterday the clouds lifted and it finally feels like summer!! Just in time for weekend barbecues comes this sizzling hottie of a compilation of Cumbia, Salsa and Calypso Funk from the Southern most country of North America, Panama! This is the second volume of sixties and seventies jams from this tiny nation that sees plenty of cross-pollination from many musical forms to the North, South and East. Northern Soul and Salsa influences, Afro-Caribbean calypso, Cubano percussion, Columbian Cumbia and Panama's own Musica Tipica, a black and mestizo rural country form notable for its wide array of rustic percussion as well as its use of multiple violins and accordian-led arrangements. The beauty of these compilations is their flow; traditonal cumbia is followed by sweaty salsa into Latin funk and back like it was tailor made for dance party listening. There's some amazing psychedelic soul funk numbers in here too from The Duncan Brother's "Dreams", The Soul Fantastic's awesome version of Bill Wither's "Ain't No Sunshine", and Lord Cobra's "Love Letters". Summer starts right here!!!
This 2001 compilation is the impressive debut in the recorded realm of Bay Area clubland kingpin DJ Tom Thump. If you dig downtempo, soul and house sounds, you're probably already very familiar with Tom Thump. For those of you who aren't, rest assured he's a gent you can trust as a purveyor of the smooth funky, jazzy good times! This skillfully mixed compilation will carry you deep into the night in fab style.
Here's to persistence! Eric Blevins of Suitcase Records began curating Paper & Plastic, a compilation from the global experimental-noise-collage-drone-n-destroy underground back in 1991, and thought that he was coming to a conclusion by 1998 when he had organized an installation / happening / performance thing in Atlanta with Achim Wollscheid, Yeast Culture, TAC, and Blevins' own a4 project that was to coincide with the release of this 2cd set. Unfortunately, the mastering was done at the wrong speed (remember DATs?) and the project was shelved for well over a decade. Whatever the reason Blevins had for the long delay, it remains unstated. Surely the artwork that Abo of Yeast Culture provided must have caused some of that delay, which is pretty ridiculous / stupid / awesome with its numerous hand-painted, silkscreened, and hand-stamped inserts and envelopes stuffed in the oversized DVD clamshell (which is also screened and painted); but would it be realistic to say this would take a whole decade? Is this why Abo started up the Incubator press once again (remember those Yeast Culture and Small Cruel Party cassette reissues from early in 2010)? Who knows? Ultimately, this is just another long-winded introduction to inform you that the contents within are fucking great.
So, there's Small Cruel Party, Yeast Culture, Sudden Infant, Runzelstirn & Gurgelstock, Emil Beaulieau, Native X (supposedly featuring the Hafler Trio's Andrew McKenzie), Inzekt, TAC, a4, Kapotte Muziek, Chop Shop, Agog, Ios Smolders, and what noise compilation wouldn't be complete without Merzbow.
The material is split between the relatively droned-out, more spatialized Paper disc and the volatile, jump-cut frenzy of the Plastic disc. Los Angeles home-taper Agog offers a NWW-styled collage of cut-ups from found object manipulation that slides nicely into the damp field recording of subterranean drips from Ios Smolders. Blevins' a4 track is a minor-masterpiece with a sustained drone of hazardous environmental rumbling girding a patient scrabbling of various objects. Very simple, but very compelling. Such a strategy had been perfected by Small Cruel Party, who turns in a recording of crunched textures that sounds like a macro-recording of and army of ants crawling over a pile of safety glass, while deep echoing booms within some huge concrete structure resonate underneath. The Yeast Culture meditation on industrial wastelands settles upon crusty flutes occasionally popping above a mechanical grind and accreting dinscapes. Chop Shop's corroded drones of noxious low-end bursting into ferric noise completes the first disc in exemplary fashion.
On the Plastic disc, Achim Wollscheid offers 10 miniature "brakes" most being just a couple seconds long. These shortened bursts of rasping noises, serve to further slice and decentralize the listening experience of the already abraded, punctured, infernal noises that come by way of numerous tape-cut ups, turntable abuse, Dada sound poetry, vocal screaming, electrical ruptures, shortwave static, distortion pedals, and generalized noise-junk from Emil Beaulieu, Merzbow, the Schimpfluch members, Kapotte Muziek, and the like. Blevins should be commended for curating such a fine noise album out of so many different artists, as it's virtually impossible to discern when the tracks begin and end. Seamlessly cut-up noise is definitely a contradiction, but definitely a compliment!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Awesome collection of 40's and 50's big band novelty songs. The sound ranges from the torch song vocals of Dorothy Shay, to the cheesy big band Lawrence Welk Orchestra sound of the Four Lads to the twangy redneck hick humor of Arthur Godfrey. We just threw it on, but we (Allan and Andee) ended up listening to the whole thing and cracking up more than once. A great listen and a perfect party record. Some names you might recognize, Doris Day, Dinah Shore, The Hoosier Hotshots, but most of the artists are unknown (at least to us) especially Dorothy Shay, who seems to be the 'star' of this record, and who is responsible for the best song on this compilation, 'Feudin' And Fightin', a hilarious (and catchy) tale of feudin' neighbors, featuring lyrics like: "Grandma, poor old Grandma, why'd they have to shoot poor Grandma" and "Daughter, baby daughter, poisoned all the neighbors chickens, daughter shouldn't ought'er, at least til she can run like the dickens, they hit her with a shovel" and "Let's give our daughter a pistol, now that she's four." Weird and fun. (But be warned, some of the material is a bit rough and doesn't seem as funny as we're supposed to assume it was in the '40s; check out the sound sample for 'Slap 'Er Down Again, Paw').
An amazing archival collection focusing on the work of legendary Finnish alternative underground punk rock legend Laja Aijala, who was a crucial figure in the early days of Finland's thriving musical underground. This disc collects some of the best moments from all of his various musical pursuits. The Throbbing industrial clamor of Aavikon Kone Ja Moottori, Finland's FIRST industrial band, his damaged garage rockabilly combo the Billy Boys, the D-beat Discharge worship of Terveet Kadet, the punk rock doom splatter of Death Trip, the brilliantly demented Casio-tiki lounge music of the Leo Bugariloves, the primitive murky electronic krautrock synth experimentation of the Kolmas and much more.
It's easy to see how the rest of our Finnish faves were influenced by Aijala, and they all seem to have taken his omnivorous love of music and incorporated it into their own modus operandi, seemingly flitting from genre to genre, often in the same band, sometimes even in the same song. And pretty much every Finnish musician we know has multiple projects, from metal to drone to krautrock to new wave and on and on and on.
Some of the highlights here:
The Kolmas, who wove grinding murky lo fi synthscapes out of primitive keyboards, simple looped drum machine percussion, dense dark drones and thick washes of crumbling distorted synthesizers.
Death Trip: grimy grungy low slung filthy garagey punk rock, with scowled distorted vocals, simple riffing, pounding drums, fuzzed out guitars, sort of Motorhead meets Smack.
Aavikon Kone Ja Moottori: bleak, oppressive industrial soundscapes, hypnotic looped synths, primitive electronic experimentation, processed chanted vocals, all very dark and drearily ominous.
And actually it's all pretty damn good. The Leo Bugariloves will definitely appeal to the legion of Aavikko fanatics, the Billy Boys, Aijala's rockabilly combo, who we figured we wouldn't like at all, is recorded so hot and raw and in the red, that it almost sounds like Fushitsusha playing Hasil Adkins. Wild and unhinged and so good.
A completely fascinating glimpse into the history of the underground music scene that birthed so much of our favorite music. Essential!!!
The king of the Patty Duke fan club has just gotta be Mike Dereniewski of Detroit, MI. He's the man behind this musical mammoth ode to Ms Duke. His Patty Duke Fanzine has evolved over the last decade from a traditional cut'n'paste paper zine to one that included a 7" compilation with bands covering Patty songs to its current and final state, this double cd compilation. Talk about goin' out with a bang! Likewise, Mike D's musical periscope has stretched out beyond his early ultra pop focus, discovering and sharing sounds of all shapes and sizes from around the globe. Mind you, a big part of his record collection is still clearly reserved for the sweet sounds of girl groups.
These two cds collect together tunes from past Patty Duke Fanzine releases and a whole lot more. You get an astounding fifty four tracks of music and almost as many dialogue snippits of Patty Duke from her tv shows and movies! Allow us to give you a mere sampling of the artists included: Asobi Seksu, Gore Gore Girls, His Name Is Alive, Jessica Bailiff, Kevin Blechdom, Mark Robinson, Rose Melberg, Slumber Party, Stereo Total, V/VM, and Windy & Carl. Wow!
Ironic posturing. Dorky electronics. Sneering No Wave anti-grooves. Wack beats. Dumb raps. Cheap thrills. Yup, it's marketing genius from Tigerbeat 6 and they're commemorating the first full North American tour for Numbers, Cex, and Stars As Eyes with this label compilation. Along with the chopped art-rock angularity of the Numbers, Cex's perposterously juvenile hip-hop, and Stars As Eyes' majestic yet art-schooled IDM, "Paws Across America" features a smattering of DSP workouts, grimy disco, and abused Rotterdam 'ardcore from Original Hamster, Electric Company, Knifehandchop, Nudge, Nathan Michel, Uprock, and that enigmatic German duo Zeigenbock Kopf. Tigerbeat claims that this compilation is all new and exclusive; however, the Knifehandchop track did appear on "TKO From Tokyo" 12."
Whassamatter? Can't keep up with the ever-accelerating rate of releases on Kid606's Tigerbeat6 imprint? Well we've got just the thing for you, the latest sampler compilation from Tigerbeat6 that will let you get acquainted with the current/upcoming crowd of Tigerbeat6 trouble-, I mean, music-makers in one fell swoop. 22 tracks, almost 80 freaking minutes of noise and groove colliding in a hard drive somewhere and making something special. We won't generalize beyond that, curious folks should just pick this up and get caught up with the exciting goings on in the world of Kid606 and friends. Some names though: DJ/Rupture, Donna Summer, Stars As Eyes, Total Shutdown, 0=0, Titwrench, Puzzleweasel, Dwayne Sodahberk, Soundmurderer...
Great! In 1998, local hip hop music maker, record collector, and impresario Peanut Butter Wolf started a series of vinyl 7"s meant for one-off releases that didn't fit with his straight up hip hop label Stones Throw. (Hey, if you didn't know already, PB Wolf is da guy dat came up with the idea of the all-45s sets that brought Cut Chemist and DJ Shadow together for their now famous shows.) Featuring folks like Madlib, Breakestra, A-Trak (his sublime "Enter Ralph Wiggum" track), Lootpack, etc, and then later expanding to reissue funk/soul classics from the late '60s/early '70s, the 7"s were meant to be collectible, with exclusive tracks. (In fact, even though this disc compiles the 7"s, it takes only one track from each single so the 7"s are *still* collectible.) I didn't pay them enough attention when they were still singles, so this comp is welcome, and as a collected entity it only serves to show how rad PB Wolf's taste is. Man, some of the old funk tracks appearing here are *unbelievably weird*, and the contemporary tracks are sufficiently soul and funk-influenced that sometimes it's hard to tell if they're old or new. That's awesome! Hands down one of the very best soul / funk / hip hop comps we've heard in forever, and the fact that it covers old and modern stuff just puts it over the top. A great, exciting listen thru and thru. Highly recommended.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Here's something we thought we'd NEVER see - the 8 volume boxset of 3"cd-rs from Peasant Magik. Peasant Magik was one of the exemplary freakfolk / feral drone imprints during the aughts which has all but entirely disappeared over the past four or five years. The contributions include Natural Snow Buildings, Gregg Kowalsky, The North Sea, Valerio Cosi, Fabio Orsi, Andrew Paine, Super Minerals, Big Blood, and Pillars Of Heaven. This was limited to 200 copies; and we managed to get just THREE copies. THREE!!! As such, we won't be going into too much detail about the sounds of each of the recordings. Expect dreamy, narcoleptic, glistening, magical tracks of half-melodic psychedelic dronings.
