"In the northern hemisphere from the southwest, a wind that blows steadily in the opposite direction to the trade-wind" reads the definition to the 'antitrade' on the disc itself. Aside from this oddly placed text, there are very little clues to the reading of this baffling pseudo-concept record from Ash International (R.I.P.). Collecting fragments of disembodied voices, VLF radio noise, and field recordings of fireworks for Guy Fawkes Day, the artists on this compilation manifest an aural purity of simple drones to assimilate the disparate noises in a surprisingly cohesive whole. It is a little hard to believe that this is a compilation as Bruce Gilbert (Wire), S.E.T.I. (aka Andrew Lagowski), Disinformation, Hazard (who I believe recorded as Morthound on Cold Meat Industries many moons ago), Lief Elggren (Ghost Orchid), Aer, and hhh contribute on this album. An excellent piece from the click and drone school.
Welcome to the Frans De Waard show starring Frans De Waard! 5 of the 7 tracks on this compilation feature Mr. De Waard in various guises as the "borrowed" project Freiband covering a King Crimson song, as the ambient drone guitar project Shifts, in the ultra-minimal techno / microsound project Goem, and in the musique concrete ensemble Kapotte Musiek. Roel Meelkop (who works with De Waard in Goem and Kapotte Muziek) contributes a solo track of minimalist scraping. The last track throws off the symmetry of the Frans De Waard connection with a duet between Boston's Jason Talbot and Howard Stelzer on turntables and tape constructions. Limited to 300 CD-Rs.
What, you don't remember when our store was located on Constant Spring Road in Kingston, Jamaica? Awww, there's just no pulling the wool over y'all's eyes. You do know that Allan's initials are JAH though don't you? It is kind of a eerie co-incidence that. Honestly, Aquarius -- the Jamaican variant -- was a record store, recording studio and record label founded and run by Herman Chin-Loy, a Jamaican of Chinese and African descent. Along with having one of the hottest record shops in Kingston (picking the right name is crucial of course) he holds the claim to fame of releasing the very first dub record, Aquarius Dub and of being the man to introduce the world to Augustus Pablo and his magical melodica. Included here are 24 classic tracks -- vocal and dubs -- from Herman's vaults such as Augustus Pablo's "Aquarius Rock" and "Iggy Iggy", and cuts from Dennis Brown, Alton Ellis, Dennis AlCapone and more. It's a nice collection, the only downside being that there's an awful lot of rhythm recycling throughout. Comes with a nice full color booklet with a bio on Chin-Loy and his Aquarius enterprise.
An impressive survey of the curatorial aesthetic from the Russian imprint Observatoire, which has grown in leaps and bounds over the past couple of years with some great releases of cracked dronology and mangled field recordings. The concepts on Archaic Variations slant toward crude electro-acoustics, psychogeography, obsolete technologies, and improbable strategies all mapping out tactile soundfields with variable degrees of manipulation and deconstruction. The first handful of tracks (Emmanuel Mieville, Richard Garet, and Takanobu Noshino) are relatively hushed compositions of shadowy drones, distant vocalizations, and raw field recordings lending an air of clinical detachment. Chris Whitehead's elegaic piano and field recording piece addresses a rural British ceremony that dates back to the 12th Century, recalling the piano laced impressionism of Andrew Chalk and Cindytalk. The latter half of the disc tends toward claustrophobia and decay, introduced by none other than our own Jim Haynes, whose chainsaw drones and swarming radio bursts transmit through thickets of scabrous noise dialing up comparisons to Kevin Drumm's more noxious facets. The Russian artist Radioson maintains the shortwave theme with an paranoiac set of hypnotic melodies revolving around repeating beacon tones and gray masses of static. Gonna have to dig into this project more for sure. The compilation concludes on a very bleak note with a track from Francisco Meirino, the brilliant, if under-recognized electro-acoustic tactician here jettisoning razor-sharp errata of EMF interference across pierced feedback shards, and the finale from another Russian artist Dasein, compacting distorted synths and tortured vocals into a more nuanced take on the early Whitehouse / Ramleh axis. 300 copies, only.
Embracing the decentralized nature of artists working in isolation outside of the club circuit and disconnected from the current rhetoric of Raster-Noton glitch worship or Mille Plateaux micro-house, the musicians on "Archipelago" have attempted to forge a community that exists out of the cooperative spirit, rather than by commodifying yet another posse of knob twiddlers. That said,
Rhomb's disc (disc one) opens the proceedings with subterranean drips, trippy electric tones, sparse rhythmic clicks, and lots of space to drive home a mysterious cosmology. Csero's (disc two) glitch-music with static irradiating the pointillist bleeps and blips sounds sort of like a composition made from a broken nintendo game-boy. Seofon (disc three) offers a dodgy amount of hippy space music laced with electronic tribal rhythms very much like the recent work from Brian Eno or Bill Laswell. Thermal's (disc four) ambient techno noodles around a very Pete Namlook analogue synth line and some downtempo rhythms. The biggest break from the San Francisco ambient sound comes from Dean Santomieri (disc five) who has produced a grizzled piece of spartan media cut-ups and industrially-minded musique concrete. eM (disc six) completes the series by mutating clipped speak-and-spell tones into erratically forming ambient passages. Nice.
Originally released as a bonus cd for subscribers to the Wire magazine, this sampler is a perfect introduction to the super clinical, ultra minimal Raster-Noton sound featuring a who's who of the avant / minimalist / techno / experimental world: William Basinski, Signal, Senking, Bytone, Komet Noto, M. Akiyama, Pixel and more. Also worth picking up if you're already into this stuff as some of the tracks here are out of print, rare or previously unreleased. A gorgeously bleak, sometimes lush world of clicks and beeps and whirs and drones and crackle and whir and hum and rumble. Awesome!
When our Andee was away on his vacation to Finland last year he got turned on to this compilation of early ('60s/'70s) Finnish experimental music. It also has been getting a good deal of airplay on our favorite radio station, New Jersey's wonderful WFMU (www.wfmu.org, tune in!). So, now we're real happy to have finally gotten this in stock, and felt it deserved Record Of The Week status for several reasons: it's Finnish, it's fucked, and it's also of historical import. Mainly, though, it's just fucked. In that fun way we at AQ totally dig. Sure, "Arktien Hysteria" (translation: Arctic Hysteria, if you couldn't guess) is all experimental and avantgarde but definitely not super serious -- heck, it starts out with a veritable symphony of burps, and one of the best artists on here is known as The Sperm. These tracks tend to feature (one or more of the following): early "sampling" cut-ups, druggy proto-punk psychedelic rock freedom, free jazz noise, groovy oddball electronics n' drone, conceptual flux, and vocal derangement. Arktien hysteria indeed! The freakouts on here should prove that none of the art-punk noiseniks of today can make a noise that hasn't been made already. Such as the turkey gobbling style sax and maniacal percussion of Jouni Kesti & Seppo I. Laine's "Analysis of Revolution".
Not that it's all zany hijinks, there's abstract soundscape stuff on here too, some of it really dark and weird. Quite a few home-built instruments/machines/synths feature here, along with tape loops galore. Thougth some folks make do though with just sheer frenzied performance gusto. All tracks were taken, we believe, from rare LPs originially released circa 1967-1970 by the legendary Finnish label Love Records. Actually, one cut even dates from as far back as 1961. The cd booklet's got photos and (thankfully) some liner notes in English, though there's more text in Finnish, oh well.
Pan sonic and Circle and Keuhkot and Kemialliset Ystavat and all the rest of Finland's current avant/underground scene start to make a lot more sense when you hear what their aunts and uncles were up to a few decades back, makin' noise at live happenings, or constructing tracks in primitive DIY studios built in their sauna huts. Damn, what a cool compilation. Insane, and arguably essential.
MPEG Download: BLUES SECTION "Shivers Of Pleasure" [/audio/arktinenblues.mp3]
MPEG Stream: BLUES SECTION "Shivers Of Pleasure" [/audio/arktinenblues.m3u]
MPEG Download: JUKKA RUOHOMAKI "Mika Aika On" [/audio/arktinenjukka.mp3]
MPEG Stream: JUKKA RUOHOMAKI "Mika Aika On" [/audio/arktinenjukka.m3u]
Dust To Digital is the new Smithsonian Folkways, every one of their releases fantastically complete, meticulously researched, gorgeously presented, often in a way that has you digging music you might have assumed you wouldn't otherwise.
In the past they've given us the Goodbye, Babylon collection of gospel music, packed in a silkscreened wooden box and snuggled up next to clumps of raw cotton, the Fonotone Records collection, old time bluegrass, blues and folk, housed in a cigar box, with a hardcover book and a bottle opener, the I Belong To This Band compilation of Sacred Harp Recordings, and now this, The Art Of Field Recordings, a 4 disc set, culled from 5 years of field recording, collected by archivists Art and Margo Rosenbaum, and collecting all manner of musical Americana, blues, rhythm and blues, gospel, country, gospel, spirituals, religious hymns, ballads and almost anything they stumbled across.
If you LOVE Harry Smith's Anthology Of American Folk Music set, and have been hankering for more, this will absolutely hit the spot. Or if you always think about buying the Harry Smith box for someone and wish they didn't already have it so you could, well here's the answer to your problem. The recordings are amazing, super intimate and personal, many of them a cappella, lots of them including the various bits of conversation that took place before and after, making it feel like you were sitting right there on the porch. The discs are separated onto four discs, each with a particular focus, instrumental and dance, blues, religious, and one disc that is a sort of sampling of all of the above and more, even including some Mexican folk, a German traditional, and other songs that maybe didn't fit perfectly into those genres.
Includes a massive book, with a huge essay and tons of notes on every song and each performer.
The packaging is a little strange, maybe not up to the D2D standards we're used to. A super nice thick box, housing a big perfect bound book, but the cds are in paper sleeves, and laid on corresponding colored squares, separated only by a weird little foam 't' adhered to the bottom of the box. But it hardly matters as the music inside is so completely fantastic. Recommended bug time. And pretty much the ideal gift for your blues/folk/country obsessed loved ones (especially the ones who own and love the Harry Smith anthology)!
What would you expect from a label called Aryan Asshole run by one of the guys from Wolf Eyes and a pal? Big loud ugly noise right? Well, that's exactly what you get on this compilation, Aryan Asshole Compilation Vol. 1. A collection of out of print tracks (previously released as super limited lathe cuts) from Wolf Eyes, Aaron Dilloway of Wolf Eyes, Dead Machines, Burning Star Core, Hive Mind, Religious Knives (half of Double Leopards), Damion Romero as well as Bloodyminded, Graveyards, The Moonlanding, Failing Lights, Charlie Draheim and Raven Strain.
The sound runs the noise rock gamut: primitive Whitehouse shriek with ear piercing sinewaves and squealing feedback with shouted megaphone vocals, clouds of high end skree, kitchen sink clatter and blown out electronic glitch and gzzzt, full on detuned distorted metal guitar riffage, tweaked and twisted, skipping and pitchshifted into some hiccupping plunderphonic metalstorm, super spare ambience, Jandek-ish guitar, random room clatter, footsteps, chairs sliding against the floor, plink plonk percussion all space-y and abstract, rumbling SUNNO)))-like dirges but way more malevolent and lo-fi, crumbling electronic buzz and splatter and... well, you get the idea.
A pretty killer comp of modern noise (rock) of the meaner and weirder and more fucked up persuasion. The cover art features reproductions of all the long out of print square shaped lathe cut picture discs gathered within! Cool. ----* ----* New DVD's : ----*
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Since 1991, Japanese label PSF has brought us six volumes in their essential underground psych-rock-noise-improv sampler series Tokyo Flashback. Now they've released a new compilation that's similarly cool, but broadens its geographic scope to include artists from Korea and China as well as Japan, most of whom we'd never been exposed to before. Some of the only familiar folks appear on the very first track, a live-in-Tokyo "improvised trio showdown" featuring Chinese guitarist Li Jianhong (of the noise band D!O!D!O!D! who have a disc out on PSF, and who also had his own awesome solo cd on aRCHIVE recently) teamed up with free jazz drummer Shoji Hano and High Rise guitarist Narita Munehiro, both from Japan. That's an amped-up freakout as you might expect. There's also a noisy D!O!D!O!D! track on here too, but beyond those, it's all new names to us. From Korea: Mustangs, Kim Young Jin, Amature Amplifier, and Soonie. From China: Mafeisan, Xiao He, Li Daiguo. From Japan: Kiyasu Orchestra, Sato Yukie, Yoshiteru Koga Jizo. Also there's a boy-girl Japanese-Korean project called 10, whose track "U-A-U" is a hissing, droning, throbbing backdrop to bizarre vocal expression.
All the tracks are interesting, it's an eclectic mix of experimental/underground styles, from full-on noise chaos to mellow, minimal acoustic guitar balladry, all sorts of stuff... ferinstance the energetic squawk of Kiyasu Orchestra's psychedelic free jazz exotica sits side-by-side here with the Mustangs' sixties style garage psych rock. And perhaps most surprisingly, there's even a dreamy, indie-folk cover of John Lennon's "Imagine" by Korean chanteuse Soonie at the very end of the disc.
The booklet boasts brief liner notes about each contributor, in four languages (English, Japanese, Korean, Chinese). Let's hope that this Asian Flashback is just the start of another series! PSF's antidote to all the mass market J-pop, K-pop, and HK-pop karaoke blandness out there.
Despite the excruciatingly stupid title (why oh why must the food metaphors constantly arise, as if white people are so ignorant of Asian culture that the only thing they know about it is egg foo young and sweet and sour sauce -- aaaaaaauuuugh), this is an enjoyable compilation of kitschy east-meets-west Asian pop tunes from the '60s and '70s. Most of the tracks feature female
"Asian Travels" documents current strains of optimistic globalism as musical hybrids of the West's downtempo electronica and the East's rich traditions of vocal melodies. Ambient trance, drum & bass, and trip hop all appear in their most basic club-friendly forms alongside Pakistani & Indian vocals, melodic lines, and sitar drones. Featuring Fila Brazillia, Nursrat Fateh Ali Khan & Michael Brook, Banco De Gaia, Shankar, Euphoria, Cheb i Sabbah, Fun Da Mental, and more. Ethno-music for the honky.
Compilation of modern compositions by Sundanese (Western Java) composers, and utilizing a wide variety of instrumentation: from gamelan, traditional Indonesian instruments, western instruments, electronics and tape. A South Eat Asian version of Ussachevsky. Excellent!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Previously lp-only Hawkwind tribute compilation! The songs of Dave Brock, Robert Calvert, Nik Turner and Ian "Lemmy" Kilminster ("Master of the Universe," "Orgone Accumulator," "Psychedelic Warlords," etc.) performed by todays top space/drug/BlackJack bands: Monoshock, F/i, Brainbombs, The Mike Gunn, Temple of Bon Matin, Liquorball, and many more.
*MISSISSIPPI ALERT*
Another awesome vinyl compilation of amazing sounds from the golden era of Ethiopian music, this time culled from Ethiopiques Vols. 24 and 25.
The second you put the needle on the record, you'll be transported, and in fact, the sounds you hear may sound strangely familiar, as legendary Ethiopian vocalist Seyfou Yohannes croons over a track we've definitely heard before, on Ethiopiques 2 we think, but it hardly matters, Yohannes' vocals transform the song completely, still smokey and sexy, but reimagined and reinterpreted. And fantastic!
The bulk of Ethiopian records were produced in a single 10 year period, 500 singles, 30 lps, all produced between 1969 and 1978, of those, the tiny Amha label released 103 two song 45's and a dozen lps, between '69 and '75, collecting various tracks that were attempts to modernize traditional Ethiopian music, without radically altering it. Folk music, wedding songs, nursery rhymes, traditional melodies, songs that have been passed down and passed on over generations, some musics and melodies so revered that they have been officially elevated to the status of "musical modes of reference" by official doctrine(!), all borrowed and reinterpreted by various singers and ensembles over the years.
The tracks here are almost all acoustic, utilizing traditional instruments, as well as piano, mandolin and accordion, but to these ears it sounds fantastic, as good as ever, that sound that is so immediately recognizable as Ethiopian, horns and drums and percussion and handclaps, and of course the voices, it's so much about the vocalists, especially here, soulful croons, female back up vox, lots of call and response, deep and rough, smooth and silky, but always so expressive and emotional and powerful,
But they are all incredible, of course, most of the names are new to us, no Mahmoud Ahmed, no Getatchew Mekurya, a track from Mulatu Astatke, but more folks like Seyfou Yohannes, Ayalew Mesfin, Getatchew Kassa, Tamrat Molla, the sound though is so distinctly Ethiopian, warm languid horns, moody minor key piano, simple shuffling rhythms. and of course the vocals, lush crooning, the perfect compliment to the music's dark sultry mystery. There seem to be two distinct styles represented, the soulful funky slow burning grooves, haunting, late night, sexy, and the more festive and funky, a sort of Ethiopian reinterpretation of American rhythm and blues, with soaring sunshiney melodies, acoustic guitars, and more horns, both are irresistible, and anyone who has even been dabbling in this series or the other Mississippi vinyl reissues, will dig this big time. Just perfect for the impending warm summer days, and lazy summer nights...
This nice comp of electronic tracks that feature the accordian and/or melodica turns out to be a good idea! Although the pieces have all been previously-released on the participating musicians' solo albums (except for the Dntel track), that fact has worked in the comp's favor, because it made it possible for the compilers to choose only tracks they love and which work with the other choices. (As opposed to too many comps that are spotty bad listening, their raison d'etre being to impress people with a hip roster of participants rather then come up with good listening, grrr.) As you would expect, the melodica and accordian are both very easy to play; beginners can elicit lovely sounds from them immediately, so it makes perfect sense that the laptop jockeys, who can't exactly play anything but their computers or samplers, would turn to these simple acoustic instruments. Many of the songs are ultra simple and yes, everyone could do it, but as the liner notes convey, the artists will be the first to admit it... There's dub lite, some Parisian-cafe-style downtempo, layers and layers of treated acoustic sounds -- very few heavy beats, high speed workouts, or showing off. While I could've used a few more challenging tracks (the most succesful ones here being pieces like Doctor Rockit's which is layered and cut up so much that it would be impossible to play live), the mood is consistent throughout and the sequencing is perfect. With Dntel, Doctor Rockit, Mum, Markus Nikolai, Gonzales, The Gotan Project, Burnt Friedman & Jaki Leibezeit, and a few more. A nice record that rewards careful listening while working quite well as easy listening (but not "easy listening"... er...)
Here's a bunch of really good music compiled for a really good cause by the really good-hearted folks at Three Ring Records! Ten dollars from the sale of each cd goes towards the Bay Area non-profit organization At The Crossroads which provides aid and care to homeless youths. This compilation cd featured twenty two tracks most of which are previously unreleased and/or rare including ones by Calexico, Rogue Wave, Creeper Lagoon, Bettie Serveert, Elephone, Rykarda Parasol, Scrabbel, Boyskout and Pink Mountaintops. Non-exclusives were contributed by The Faint, Minmae, Frankel, The Lonelyhearts, The Ebb And Flow, Ral Partha Vogelbacher, Two Seconds, D.W. Holiday, Thee More Shallows, Tom Thumb, The Harbours, The Scattered Pages and Scissors For Lefty.
Holy crap! This is just about the most amazing box set we've ever seen! The second we heard about it, we knew it was going to be good, but we weren't prepared for just HOW GOOD. Not sure how many of you are familiar with Bear Family Records, but they're a German label who specialize in super elaborate, incredibly detailed and well researched releases, especially box sets, running the gamut from the women of Sun Records to the Everly Brothers to Ernest Tubb to Perez Prado to Flatt And Scruggs and on and on. Always very expensive and often hard to get, but once you lay your eyes and ears on one of their releases you realize it was worth all the trouble and worth every penny. And never was it truer than with Atomic Platters. This years in the works set is a five cd, DVD, hardcover book, box set collecting "Cold War Music From The Golden Age Of Homeland Security", 5 plus hours of fifties and sixties, rock and roll, R&B and soul, either warning us of the dangers of Communism and the impending atomic war, or more playfully using the A bomb and Uranium and Communism as metaphors for love and romance and partying ("You Hit Me Baby Like An Atom Bomb", "Atomic Baby", "Fujiyama Mama", "Uranium Rock", etc.). Scattered throughout are loads of civl defense spots, most appallingly naive and utterly ridiculous, there's Groucho Marx explaining that we have a good chance of surviving an atomic war, Art Linkletter warning us to not use the phone in case of an atomic attack, and lots of other misguided warnings and advice from Bob Hope, Tony Bennett, Fred MacMurray, Tom Lehrer, Pat Boone, Connie Francis, Don Pardo, Johnny Cash, Boris Karloff and lots more, as well as tons of bizarre civil defense dramatizations and creepy little Leave It To Beaver style vignettes. Then there's the music, lots of favorites you've heard on other comps, but an amazing amount or material you've never heard (and probably never thought you'd hear) anywhere as well as totally obscure tracks from some not so obscure artists. Some of the more recognizable folks: Roy Acuff, The Sons Of The Pioneers, Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan, Bo Diddley, Dexter Gordon, The Louvin Brothers, Carl Perkins, Bing Crosby, Bill Haley, Doris Day, Hank Williams and more, but the lure is definitely the hundred or so other tracks, all catchy or bizarre or both, from a wild cast of one hit wonders.
As if that weren't enough, there is also a disc containing two full length spoken word records released in 1961, If The Bomb Falls and The Complacent Americans, both ridiculous and paranoid, laughable and goofy, but also sort of sad and creepy. Wow. Then there's the DVD which contains 9 short films, over two hours of educational films, teaching us about Communism, the impending Atomic War, and the infamous "Duck And Cover" method of surviving an atomic bomb attack (and we're fairly sure that the narrator of one of the films is none other than Thurl Ravenscroft, the voice of Disneyland's Haunted Mansion, and the singer of the "You're A Mean One Mr. Grinch"). Finally, there is the book, a massive 11" x 12" hard cover tome, chock full of illustrations, liner notes, photos, and a full page description with pictures and all sorts of extra info for every track in the box. Unbelievable. This is absolutely essential for all lovers of strange sounds and weird music as well as being perfect for history buffs too. And as it's that gift giving season, we can't possibly imagine a more perfect and amazing gift! WOW!
These are a bit too expensive to keeep a bunch in stock, but if you want one let us know and we'll be getting as many as we need next week!
A really nice collection of vintage roots, dub and reggae produced by the oh so smooth Bunny 'Striker' Lee. With his studio band, The Aggrovators at his beck and call, he recorded some of the best and brightest artists in the 70's reggae scene at King Tubby's legendary studio. With folks like Horace Andy, Linval Thompson, Cornell Campbell, Johnny Clarke, etc, you can be assured this is a really solid collection with a cohesive sound and mood thanks to Lee's stellar production. Most of these tracks had only ever been available on 10" vinyl before finally making it to cd (and lp!)...
Finally! The excellent, now out-of-print 3" cd gets the vinyl treatment it fully deserves. Fourteen artists pay "tribute" to the notorious gangsta crew from straight outta Compton. NWA get the Plunderphonics treatment from Kid 606, Lesser (with a ridiculous version of "Fat Girl on my Jock"!), Matmos, Hrvatski, Cex, Pimmon, Pisstank, Dat Politics, Christoph de Babalon, V/VM, Team
It's been a while, but finally, the return of Frequency Thirteen, and TRUE SHEFFIELD BLACK PSYCHEDELIA!! Yep, in the past we've championed killer discs from Black Vomit, Ice Bound Majesty, Trolskull, Dukkha and Rape Rack, all offering up a truly twisted take on blackened heaviness, and ever since we've been dying to hear more, so this pretty much hits the spot, a massive sprawling double disc compilation, featuring tracks from most of the Frequency Thirteen roster, and as far as we know, all the tracks here are EXCLUSIVE. So if you're already a fan, and snap up F13 cd-r's whenever you see them, then you obviously need this, exclusive new music from Skultroll, Dukkha and Ice Bound Majesty, as well as a whole mess of others.
But for those new to Frequency Thirteen, it's tough to imagine a better introduction to True Sheffield Black Psychedelia. Which is a bit of a misnomer, as much of this is not from Sheffield, much of this is not necessarily black, although it's ALL psychedelic, and it's all TROOOOOOO.
Beadle, who we had never heard of before, open up the first disc with a crushing chunk of looped riffage that reminds us of a more blackened Gore, a lurching, lumbering, hypnotic crush. Which perfectly gives way to a new Dukkha jam, that sounds like classic nineties style noise rock, heavy and crunchy and weirdly melodic, with some awesomely twisted melodies and arrangements, and some wild freaked out guitaring. Brobdingnagian who you might remember from their ep on Rusty Axe spews out some noise drenched black filth, like some sort of Ildjarn Merzbow mash up. And so it goes, the whole disc a twisted, convoluted, buzzy, blasting, psychedelic sonic travelogue, with some surprises along the way. Trolskull, slow things down with their murky heroin house minimalism, buried voices, a muted pulse, swirling swaths of synth. Ice Bound Majesty offer up their fiercest filthiest blow out yet, furious and frantic, doused in effects, with programmed drums so fast it almost sounds like a chest rattling drone. Charles Dexter Ward crafts a weird sort of Dan Higgs sounding bit of ritualistic sea shanty style guitar drone, albeit crunchy and distorted, and War Ethic does some weird super murky grindy thrash, but with some skittery almost jazzy sound blastbeats, and there's more more more more. And that's just the first disc!
The second disc starts out with some super minimal sinewave shimmer courtesy of a band called Syn, before Dukkha kick shit into gear with the most awesome hypnotic looped psych jam, that would make Circle or Cave proud. In fact, it sort of sounds like a mix of the two, but with a bit more metal drumming, and some convoluted tangled arrangements, but always slipping back into super mesmerizing hypno-rock. KPTMichigan unfurl some gorgeous hazy woozy Tim Hecker like gauzy dronemusic, while Scum Also Rises (awesome name) so some strange post industrial mathy groove rock, that sounds WAY better than that description makes it sound, fat fuzzy bass, weird skittery electronics, all fuzzy and blown out. Sluglord stir up some sort of unholy blackened orchestral doom, all dense tones and deep shimmers, and the Disobedients do a sort of super minimal bedroom doom pop, and Trolskull return with some murky abstract rhythmic weirdness, that sounds a bit like a less loose Avarus, a bit more sinister and haunting and a bit krautrock too. And of course again here, there's more more more!
Easily one of our favorite labels, with a roster that should make most other labels bow their heads in shame. And this is definitely one of the few comps where you literally want to hear more from every single band. Fancy packaging too, a fold out die cut full color sleeve, jam packed with about a million inserts, liner notes, an obi... hell, just buy it, you won't be sorry. And odds are, like us, soon you too will find yourself obsessed with TRUE SHEFFIELD BLACK PSYCHEDELIA!!
The "Audiolounge" was held in the foyer of the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts as a deliberate attempt to avoid a concert hall or club experience. Instead, this night-long event was a combination of a hands-on workshop and audio / visual installation. This double CD audio document features musical selections from Robert Lippok (from To Rococo Rot), Console & Andreas Ammer (regular
Heads up! Here's the first release from the new Bay Area based cooperative electronic music label Auralism! The 'therapy' in this compilation's title comes in the form of a kinetic mix of IDM, techno and experimental electronica from SF and beyond... it's almost like a little slice of Berlin right here in the Bay Area! Auralism Therapy 1.1 features fourteen tracks and remixes by the likes of Jason Short, Clint Stewart, Roman Stange, Le Chous Chous, Miguel Colmenares, Luther Mandross, Alland Byallo, Billy Dalessandro, Coalition Of The Killing, Kyaro, Dead Seal, and Kenneth Scott.
Tributors include Lucinda Williams, Bruce Cockburn, Steve Earle, Victoria Williams, John Hiatt, Gillian Welch, Peter Case (who produced this collection), and others...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Bill Laswell brings together the likes of Sly & Robbie, Material, Mad Professor, Dub Syndicate, New Kingdom, Techno Animal, DJ Spooky and a bunch of other dub/ambient innovators on these 2 discs.
Longtime supporter of the rights of Afghani women, AQ-customer Steven Tobin has produced benefit shows and now this double disc benefit cd -- and what a comp it is. The musical choices are all over the genre map yet it works nicely as a sit-down listen, and it will certainly introduce you to many groups you've never heard. Includes experimental indie rock (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Deerhoof, Zmrzlina, The Intima), ethnicky female vocal theatrics (D'yara, Charming Hostess, Jou Jou, Samsara), avant electronics (Blevin Blectum, Bran, Planetsize, Zeek Sheck), quirky weirdness as only East Bay bands can do it (Spezza Rotto, Charming Hostess, Faun Fables, Mono Pause), world-class improvisers (Dave Slusser, Saadet Turkoz, Miya Masaoka), underground hip hop (DeepDickCollective), and much more. All proceeds benefit RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, an organization founded in 1977. Pick this up, feel great about it, and get a genuinely good listen to boot.
MPEG Download: GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR "George Bush Cut Up While Talking" [/audio/azadigodspeed.mp3]
MPEG Stream: GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR "George Bush Cut Up While Talking" [/audio/azadigodspeed.m3u]
MPEG Download: THE INTIMA "The New Savage" [/audio/azadiintima.mp3]
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Nigerian dance band highlife with a wild edged jauntiness and a go-for-the-jugular instinct for mixing local rhythms and melodies with jazz tinged horn solos and Congo-influenced guitar work.
B9 Bis was a label compilation from Sandwich Records, a Brussels' based post-punk and new wave imprint that mirrored itself after the Rough Trade model of running an underground label through an underground record shop. This compilation originally came out in 1980, showcasing what Belgium had to offer the world in the way of melding oblique electronics and moody theatrics to the post-punk ethos, which had already been established by the likes of Joy Division, Devo, and Magazine. Unfortunately, export sales for the label were never terribly strong and the label folded, despite the fact that the Belgian scene later exploded out of the electronic body music spurned on by Antler Subway throughout the decade.
What's found on the compilation is a solid cross section of the contemporary sound of 1980: slashing punk guitars, lumbering basslines, angular art-rock tunes, and tinkering with new-fangled synthesizers and sequencers. The influences of the aforementioned bands are worn proudly on the sleeves of many of these bands with admirable results. The standouts from the original comp include the pre-Front 242 project Prosthese with a cold burst of Klaus Schulze electronics, the jangle power pop of Digital Dance, and the bleak Joy Divisionisms of Satin Wall.
LTM have flushed out a full cds worth of material with a bunch of ancillary projects also from Belgium at that time including an early Front 242 track, an early b-side from the overlooked Siglo XX, and the Factory Records endorsed The Names. A very good investigation into a forgotten chapter of post-punk.
Back in 2011, Dark Entries released a great comp, vinyl-only, called BART: Bay Area Retrograde. All Dark Entries style stuff - vintage minimal wave / new wave / punk electronics - from the SF Bay area. (For those who don't live around here, BART also stands for Bay Area Rapid Transit, the local commuter train system.) Just today, we just got a 2nd volume of Bay Area Retrograde, on vinyl, which we'll review as soon as we can, AND also this, a compact disc containing both volumes, yay!!
So, we're listing this cd now, though we can't say much yet about the stuff on here from Vol. 2, other than what we've heard spinning it so far has been great, and it seems maybe a bit more raw and punk and experimental, with tracks from the likes of Factrix, Chrome and Red Asphalt. So, more on that Vol. 2 when we get a chance to properly review it next time, but here's what we said before about Vol. 1, and by itself it means this cd is quite recommended:
A few years back, Minimal Wave offered some choice crate digging collections of nearly forgotten darkwave and post-punk electronics through their Lost Tapes and Found Tapes collections, highlighting the differences between the European and American models of underground new wave. Dark Entries produced this anthology in that same tradition, focusing even more tightly on the geography of the Bay Area. As Johnny Ray Huston so rightly points out in the liner notes, San Francisco in the '80s had its own unique crucible of local events that shaped the Bay Area's particular sound (e.g. the assassination of Harvey Milk, the growing AIDS epidemic and the fear surrounding the disease, etc.). While there's none of the art-damaged abstraction filtered from The Residents, Snakefinger, or Tuxedomoon in an obvious lineage to the artists featured here, BART (named after the subway that connects Oakland, Berkeley, and other parts of the East Bay to San Francisco) is a great collection of quirky minimal wave electronics, with a fair amount of unreleased material from obscurant Bay Area new wave bands.
Nomimal State opens the compilation and was from the suburban hamlet of Danville, recording this demo 1983 with a militantly uptempo drum machine and urgent synth lines. It's a track that easily fits next to the likes of The Units and Nervous Gender in terms of manic, punkish use of electronics. Speaking of The Units, they round out the compilation in contributing their sci-fi pop anthem "Mission," which is still bitchin' after all these years! Voice Farm is the other 'big name' to appear on this compilation, contributing a sinewy darkwave number from their 1982 album "The World We Live In." Batang State, Quiet Room, and Necropolis Of Love offer more Joy Division / Wire / Kraftwerk atmospheric post-punk number with considerable panache. The Wasp Women were a crossdressing trash-punk outfit, whose demo featured a wastoid lo-fi number and had appeared in the 1982 film "What Ever Happened To Susan Jane." Danny Boy & The Serious Party Gods offer a fabulously campy disco number with suitably over-the-top raunchy lyrics that ramble on and on against anthemic synths. If there's one track that you need to hear from this compilation it's this one! But the whole collection is very well done, and comes highly recommended as with everything that Dark Entries releases.
A few years back, Minimal Wave offered some choice crate digging collections of nearly forgotten darkwave and post-punk electronics through their Lost Tapes and Found Tapes collections, highlighting the differences between the European and American models of underground new wave. Dark Entries produced this anthology in that same tradition, focusing even more tightly on the geography of the Bay Area. As Johnny Ray Huston so rightly points out in the liner notes, San Francisco in the '80s had its own unique crucible of local events that shaped the Bay Area's particular sound (e.g. the assassination of Harvey Milk, the growing AIDS epidemic and the fear surrounding the disease, etc.). While there's none of the art-damaged abstraction filtered from The Residents, Snakefinger, or Tuxedomoon in an obvious lineage to the artists featured here, BART (named after the subway that connects Oakland, Berkeley, and other parts of the East Bay to San Francisco) is a great collection of quirky minimal wave electronics, with a fair amount of unreleased material from obscurant Bay Area new wave bands.
Nomimal State opens the compilation and was from the suburban hamlet of Danville, recording this demo 1983 with a militantly uptempo drum machine and urgent synth lines. It's a track that easily fits next to the likes of The Units and Nervous Gender in terms of manic, punkish use of electronics. Speaking of The Units, they round out the compilation in contributing their sci-fi pop anthem "Mission," which is still bitchin' after all these years! Voice Farm is the other 'big name' to appear on this compilation, contributing a sinewy darkwave number from their 1982 album "The World We Live In." Batang State, Quiet Room, and Necropolis Of Love offer more Joy Division / Wire / Kraftwerk atmospheric post-punk number with considerable panache. The Wasp Women were a crossdressing trash-punk outfit, whose demo featured a wastoid lo-fi number and had appeared in the 1982 film "What Ever Happened To Susan Jane." Danny Boy & The Serious Party Gods offer a fabulously campy disco number with suitably over-the-top raunchy lyrics that ramble on and on against anthemic synths. If there's one track that you need to hear from this compilation it's this one! But the whole collection is very well done, and comes highly recommended as with everything that Dark Entries releases.
Here's the vinyl of Volume Two from the BART: Bay Area Retrograde series, which was included with Volume One on a single cd we listed last time (and are relisting now, to add this info), also released on the inimitable Dark Entries. Like Volume One, this collects vintage minimal wave / new wave / punk electronics from the SF Bay Area. (For those who don't live around here, BART also stands for Bay Area Rapid Transit, the local commuter train system.) The line-up for the second installment includes some fantastic obscurities from Factrix, Chrome, Tuxedomoon, and Indoor Life; and there's plenty of great new discoveries of forgotten Bay Area outfits like Zru Vogue, Red Asphalt, Timmy Spence and more. The Factrix piece was taken from an old Subterranean compilation, with the trio entertaining more of a sprightly goth-synth vibe instead of their signature industrial murk through tinny drum machine patter and strangle-choked guitar riffs. Chrome's throbbing motorik synth-punk number "Meet You In The Subway" was taken from their 1979 album Subterranean Modern, released through the Residents' Ralph Records. Red Asphault is up next with a squalid torrent of No Wave inspired fire-alarm mania. Both Tuxedomoon and Indoor Life (the latter including Patrick Cowley on synths!) adopt a disjointed, art-damaged theatricality to their warped, all-thumbs tracks. Baby Buddha's "Little Things" proves to be one of the synth-wave gems on this comp, with its spiky electronic sequencing, haunted house chord progressions, and grimly monotone vocals, followed by the equally strong "Human Dub" by Human Being Men peddling streamlined electronic anxiety of minimal wave perfection. The dour "Nakweda Dream" with its chimingly Cure-ish guitars rounds out the comp, which is considerably darker than the first but is just as recommended!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Originally released in 1968, this disc brings together pieces composed during the first decade of the reknowned BBC Radiophonic Workshop, a groundbreaking sound laboratory that provided British radio listeners and TV viewers with avant-garde musique concrete interludes and wacky sound effects -- Dr. Who being their most well-known client. There's no Who here, but a broad range of other stuff, including music from a War of the Worlds dramatization, experimental radio plays, documentary soundtracks, and signature tunes for local radio stations. Back before computers and sampling, these recordings represent many hours of painstaking, clever work: 33 tracks composed by Workshop electronic music pioneers Delia Derbyshire, John Baker, and David Cain. Their heroic efforts are historically interesting, and a good listen to boot, which was always the intent. The cd booklet contains extensive liner notes and evocative photos of Workshop staffers amid their tape reels and sundry noise-making objects. The Workshop's second decade saw the introduction of synths, output explored on this disc's companion reissue, 1975's "The Radiophonic Workshop", reviewed elsewhere on this site/list.
Super limited quadruple 10" set that compiles tracks from both the BBC Radiophonic Workshop records, up until now only available on cd. All the artists get one side, except Delia Derbyshire who gets a whole record to herself. Here's what we had to say about the cd versions:
"BBC Radiophonic Music"
Originally released in 1968, this compilation brings together pieces composed during the first decade of the reknowned BBC Radiophonic Workshop, a groundbreaking sound laboratory that provided British radio listeners and TV viewers with avant-garde musique concrete interludes and wacky sound effects -- Dr. Who being their most well-known client. There's no Who here, but a broad range of other stuff, including music from a War of the Worlds dramatization, experimental radio plays, documentary soundtracks, and signature tunes for local radio stations. Back before computers and sampling, these recordings represent many hours of painstaking, clever work: 33 tracks composed by Workshop electronic music pioneers Delia Derbyshire, John Baker, and David Cain. Their heroic efforts are historically interesting, and a good listen to boot, which was always the intent.
"The Radiophonic Workshop"
The classic 1975 album reissued, chock full o' quirky and/or moody cutting-edge compositions from the the madmen (and women) who inhabited the legendary BBC Radio Radiophonic Workshop in its heyday -- you know, the folks responsible for all the electronic music on the Dr. Who TV show. So, you get all the mysterious whooshes and percolating scifi bleepage you'd expect. Sound effects and music converge here, utilizing the most advanced synth technology of the day (such as the EMS Synthi 100 'Delaware' machine, described as "massive"), and a lot of imagination. Combining electronically-generated sounds with tape loops and live instruments, tracks here range from spritely, happy video arcade pop toons to spooky, creepy soundcapes (or the disturbing gastrointestinal ambience of "Major Bloodnok's Stomach", track 8). Clever montage, music box melodies, and assorted mad-computer sounds abound. Pretty neat.
Another glorious glimpse back at the long lost art of the Funerary Violin. A genre all but forgotten and lost, some say quashed by the Catholic Church, a gorgeous mournful body of work, solo violin pieces to be performed at funerals, sad and sorrowful, minor key and miserable, dense with dark emotions, perfectly transporting the listener back to an nineteenth century funeral, the procession, the mourners clad in black... Very beautiful and evocative. But it's not just the music, it's the tangled history of the players and the personalities, the musicians and the composers and the patrons responsible for much of the music. Oh, and the fact that it's all made up.
That's right, these amazing scratchy wax cylinder recordings of simple melancholy violin pieces, and the text accompanying them have all been fabricated. Although sometimes it's tough to tell when hearing the genuinely creepy, crackly and realistically old timey sounding music, and reading the extensive tales of the composers and their tragic lives. Maybe it is all real? Who are we to say? Just because there is only one person in the entire world who knows everything, anything actually, about the mysterious Guild Of Funerary Violinists. And the fact that none of the performers or composers are mentioned anywhere, recorded, written, anecdotal, except within the pages of the book, the liner notes and the website of the genre's discoverer (perhaps creator).
But like we mentioned in a past review of another Funerary disc, who cares? The music is dark and mysterious, emotional and creepy, and the text is fascinating, impossibly well researched considering none of it is real, and totally fun to read.
This disc (supposedly) collects the work of three of the most important figures in the English School Of Funerary Violin. Babcotte, Sudbury and Eaton. All of these recording recovered from the extensive collection of Funerary relics kept by Gunter II, Prince of Schwatzburg-Sonderhausen, who in addition to the wax cylinders heard here, also counted among his prized possessions, the coffins of Goethe and Heine, as well as the death mask of Beethoven. The first Babcotte track here is thought to be performed by Gunter, himself an accomplished violinist, however the rest, the legendary "Funerary Suite # 4", due to their sound and performance are considered to be the work of Wilhelm Kleinbach (whose disc we reviewed a list or two back). The Eaton piece, a slow mournful, sometimes atonal dirge, is performed by the composer himself, captured on wax cylinder in 1913. And the final piece, "The Erroneous Dirge Of George Babcotte is performed and recorded by Maria Rotaru in 1975, a young Romanian violinist who tried to pass the work off as her own composition. When the truth came out, Rotaru disappeared mysteriously, and it was only after the collapse of the Soviet Union that this piece resurfaced. Or so we're told...
Even without the fantastical backstory, the music is worth the price of admission. Each piece is wonderfully crafted and beautifully performed, all solo violin, keening mournfully, minor key melodies drifting dreamily in some, the scrape and sawing of the bow constructing miserablist dirges in others, all except the more recent bathed in a thick cloak of crackle and static, giving it that Jeck / Hecker fuzzy-blurry-dreamy vibe we can never seem to get enough of. The fact that this music is set amidst such a dense and complex, passionate world of intrigue and mystery, love and death, only makes it that much more exciting. And the fact that every single bit of it is made up, well, as far as we're concerned that just seals the deal.
Recommended!
It may not be Spring, but love is in the air. Or if it's not in the air, it's most definitely sealed up in these three discs, collecting some of the all time classic love songs, from the golden age of the love song, the '20s and '30s.
A collection of blues, country, bluegrass, big band, jazz and old timey numbers, chronicling the eternal quest for love, and sex, and intimacy, as well as the sometimes equally neverending quest of avoiding parties which one perhaps does not wish to share any of those things. Cleverly separated into three volumes, love, lust and contempt. Very few names we recognize, but a selection of song titles might convince you what a great, fun, and funny collection this really is: "It's Shame To Whip Your Wife On Sunday", "Wimmin-Aaah!", "He Went In Like A Lion (But Came Out Like A Lamb)", "I'm Wearin' The Britches Now", "You Gonna Look Like A Monkey When You Get Old", "She Ain't Built That Way", "I'm Gonna Kill Myself", "The Gal That Got Stuck On Everything She Seen", "Minnie The Mermaid (A Love Song In Fish Time)", "Pussy", "Let Me Play With It" and on and on and on.
There are horns, banjos, yodeling, scatting, fiddles, barrelhouse piano, ukuleles, all manner of voices, rough and raw, sweet croons, male, female, and the lyrics... from honest and heartfelt, to saucy and bawdy, to downright nasty, another winner from Dust-To-Digital, definitely one of our new favorite old timey reissues, and as with all D2D releases, gorgeous packaging, a full color 8 panel digipak, with tons of photos and paintings, and really funny liner notes by Nick Tosches.
First it was O Brother Where Art Thou, and now it's Cold Mountain. Everyone's gone nuts for American roots music. Ever on the lookout to educate and titilate (and I'm sure capitilizing on the moment to make a little dough recycling their vast vault of recordings) when some blockbuster movie comes out and gets a hair in everyone's butt, Smithsonian Folkways has done their best to put out this collection of classic Appalachian music by the very folks who are descended from those that fought and died in the Civil War playing the very songs that have been passed down from generation to generation. And there's a few generations of music on here, the individual tracks coming from as far back as 1927 and as recently as 2002. There's a lot of familiar names on here like Roscoe Holcomb, the Sacred Harp Singers, Bill Monroe, The Stanley Brothers and Doc Watson as well as plenty of lesser known artists. There's a lot here: Hollers, fife & drum tunes, church choirs and gospels, old time tunes, bluegrass, blues and more. Along with five previously unreleased tracks (including a great holler from T.J. Chesser) Smithsonian Folkways has included the requisite fat book of liner notes and biographical information. Nice.
You may or may not have already been graced by Bruce Springsteen's "Nebraska" yet. If not, may we recommend you run out and buy it immediately (from AQ, even!) Tis a truly beautiful collection of songs penned and recorded by Springsteen in 1981, literally in his bedroom with an acoustic guitar and a four track. Replete with stark songs sketching out unforgettable characters filled with despair, loneliness, and an aching to do the right thing. It's fucking amazing, despite whether or not you like, say, all that "Born in the USA" business that came later, you simply cannot remain unmoved by "Nebraska". Utterly classic and essential.
Now, if I had never heard Nebraska before, I'da prob'ly regarded this here tribute record as a decent collection of impeccably-written songs performed by folks who obviously have total reverence for the material. But, since I've loved Springsteen's "Nebraska" for years, it's a little hard for any of these versions to live up to the originals. A couple of the renditions are even a bit horrifying, especially Hank Williams III's honky tonkin' take on "Atlantic City", a song Springsteen performed to perfection and which REALLY shouldn't be messed with. Nonetheless, most of the performances on Badlands are purty all right, including those by Ani diFranco, Aimee Mann, Son Volt, Dar Williams, Chrissie Hynde, Johnny Cash, and Damien Jurado.
This disc, originally released in 1989, is sort of a sequel to the "Golden Rain" title we listed last time. This one, also recorded by David Lewiston, was made on his first return to Bali in over 20 years. The changes that the island had undergone since his previous visit were somewhat of a shock (rampant tourism, noisy motorbikes everywhere, urban chaos) to Lewiston, who had previously been able to set up and record without so much as a thought to extraneous noise. This time round Lewiston rented out a local friend's art gallery and adjoining badminton court for most of these sessions in order to overcome the noise issue. And, for better or worse, he even went so far as to have the musicians rearrange their instruments in order to get a better stereo recording. What is really nice about this recording, hi-fidelity aside, is that it is a nice broad overview of some of the gamelan styles (and non-gamelan to boot) in Bali. The first track is a 12 minute recording of the opening parade of the Bali Arts Festival in 1987. Everyone loves a parade, and this one is no exception. You get to hear six different ensembles as they march past the recordist. This is followed by another recording of Gong Kebyar (that's the recording that required all the rearranging of the instruments), a recording of Balinese jew's-harp, and a really bizarre recording played on reedy instruments made from palm bark accompanied by percussion. Also included is a recording of gamelan salunding, which is an ancient Balinese gamelan made of iron. It sounds completely different than any other Balinese gamelan (almost like an ill-tuned gamelan), partly due to its being made of iron, but it's also a rather small ensemble with some of the most beautiful melodies in Balinese gamelan. The award for most eerie track has to go to Sadh Budaya Gamelan Gong Suling performing a piece for Semar Pegulingan entirely on flutes (with the addition of a few rhythmic instruments for structural purposes.) There's also an excerpt of Gender Wayang, which is the musical accompaniment to shadow play in Bali (see also the full disc also just reissued of this.) Plus another brief excerpt of Kecak and closed with one more Kebyar track. All on one disc!
Gamelan Semar Pegulingan is one of the many now rare gamelan of the island of Bali; displaced by the fall of the Balinese court and the subsequent explosion of gong kebyar. The repertoire of this gamelan, which is named after the god of love (Semar Pegulingan), was specific to two distinct occasions. The most common time in which Semar Pegulingan was used was outside the King's bed chamber in the evenings, but it also played the musical accompaniment for the Legong dance which was performed exclusively by pre-pubescent girls. The set on which the material on this CD was performed was one which had been spared the crucible through the efforts of the Canadian composer/ethnomusicologist Colin McPhee in the 1930's who commissioned a group of musicians to continue the gamelan's repertoire. These recordings were made in 1972 by Robert Brown after the gamelan had been carefully restored to its original condition (it had come into disarray after McPhee's departure from the island and had been decomposing for some 30 years.) It is a particularly beautiful gamelan and hearing it can give on a bit more perspective on the popular gong kebyar. Because of its relatively slower pace, it's much easier to grasp how the instruments interlock within the gamelan.
We just got the first batch of the Indonesia / South Pacific installment of Nonesuch's Explorer reissues, which total 12 in number. Ten of the discs are from either Java or Bali and just about each one features an entirely different form of gamelan. A Gamelan, as a cursory way of introduction, is an orchestra of primarily bronze (though bamboo gamelan are also common) percussion instruments -- metallophones, gongs, gong-chimes -- and drums. Quite often a gamelan will have a specific repertoire that it is exclusively built for the performance of, and certain ceremonial gamelan are limited to the performance of a single piece. On top of this, throughout Java and Bali there is an ever changing world of both village and court traditions which continue to defy definitions. These discs just in from Bali and Central & Western Java just scratch the surface of gamelan throughout Indonesia, but they're a fine introduction anyway.
Back in 1967 when this record hit the shelves it blew people's minds, and even today it remains one of the most unique and amazing things you're likely to hear. "Golden Rain" is the historic recording that started it all. Recorded by David Lewiston in 1966, Golden Rain was not only the first recording to be released in the Explorer series, but is touted as the first commercial release of "International" music (a claim that some might argue with.)
The first two tracks are recordings of Gamelan Gong Kebyar. The 20-minute third track is Lewiston's recording of kecak, the almost universally loved monkey chant. Kecak has an interesting history in that its creation in the 1930s is due at least in part to German artist Walter Spies, a cultural outsider. The performance is entirely a cappella, with a male chorus of 60+ men chanting in an interlocking fashion derived from gamelan composition. The origins of the chant come from a ritual exorcism dance that's centuries old. The thing about Balinese performance, at least up until later this century, is that it was all inseparably tied to ritual, be it a wedding ceremony, funerals, and other various life cycle ceremonies. Bali's increasing popularity as a tourist destination for middle class and wealthy Europeans in this century was coupled with these same tourists wanting to be entertained by their exotic hosts. Unfortunately for them, there was not only no concept of performance merely for entertainment's sake and not being Balinese, their presence at any such ritual event was violation of its sacrosanctity. Spies' work in encouraging his Balinese friends to create a completely new performance from older traditions, whatever his intentions may have been, allowed for the Balinese to keep the purity of their rituals intact and for the occidentals to get their kicks.
This recording, made by Robert E. Brown in 1970, is a condensed version of the music (gender wayang) that usually accompanies Balinese shadow play (wayang kulit) performances. Normally lasting four hours (instead of the Javanese marathon of nine) the music here is some of that which one would most commonly hear during the unfolding of a play. Aside from the time differences between Javanese and Balinese shadow play, the next most striking difference is that the Balinese variant uses only four instruments (a few gongs and drums, which accentuate fight scenes, etc. are not included on this recording) instead of the complement of a full gamelan. The instruments are two pairs of gender (pronounced with a hard, not a soft "g"), one pair tuned an octave higher than the other. The gender has ten thin bronze keys suspended by strings over bamboo resonating tubes. Additionally, each pair of gender is tuned a small interval apart such that the same note played on both instruments simultaneously will produce a shimmering tone much like in Balinese gamelan. Each musician uses two wooded mallets in playing the gender, the part played in the right hand usually being the kotekan (intricate interlocking melodic part) and the left hand generally playing a slower, supportive role. Gender wayang is generally recognized as Balinese music at its most advanced and refined. Pioneering ethnomusicologist and Balinese music enthusiast Colin McPhee referred to gender wayang as the "perfect expression" of Balinese music. Along with the difficult kotekan parts, the players must also manage to dampen the keys of the instrument with the pads of their hands as they play the following note so the notes don't blend into one another. The timbre of the instruments is a bit like an unholy tack piano. The polyphony is quite remarkable to behold, and on this recording is quite distinctly captured, with one pair of gender to your left and one pair to your right.
Like the "Gamelan & Kecak" and "Golden Rain" recordings in this series, the tracks on "Music From the Morning of the World" were recorded by David Lewiston. As with "Golden Rain" they were made during his first trip to Bali in 1966. And like the later recording, the tracks here are a broad collection of genres from the island which serve to demonstrate the variety of musical forms that exist there. Along with the requisite kebyar tracks (two here: one from the baris dance and the other from the Barong dance) is a medley of recordings of a genggong ensemble (small ensemble of jew's harp, flute, drums and cymbals) a recording of gambuh, an a cappella lullaby, gamelan anklung, another excerpt of both kecak and a gender wayang ensemble.
MPEG Download: SEKEHE GAMBUH "Sekar Leret" [/audio/sekehegambuhleret.mp3]
MPEG Stream: SEKEHE GAMBUH "Sekar Leret" [/audio/sekehegambuhleret.m3u]
MPEG Download: RANI "Lullaby" [/audio/ranilullaby.mp3]
Originally conceived in Paris in 1924, George Antheil's ideal instrumentation for Ballet Mechanique called for 16 synchronized player pianos, in addition to two human-played pianos, percussion, electric bells, a siren and three airplane propellers. Despite his close relationship with a Parisian manufacturer of player pianos who had in fact patented a way to synchorize the "pianolas," the piece has never been possible to fully realize and has been played only in scaled-back versions until last year when the piano parts were sequenced for MIDI. The result is a 30 minute rampage of frantic, beautiful, insane brilliance. Just fucking incredible. Seeing it at SF's Davies Hall a couple months ago, the cute little-old symphony-subscriber-lady next to me alternately had her hands over her ears, jerked back and forth to the rhythm and yelled at me over the cacophony, "Can you believe you're seeing this!?" It's that great! Oh yeah, there are also six other pieces on this disc by John Cage and Lou Harrison, Richard Grayson, Amadeo Roldan and Mendelssohn.
Analog Africa strikes gold once again! Just when we thought we might need a little break from '70s African psych/funk reissues, we're reminded again just how much amazing music was recorded without seeing wide release, sounds that so deserves to be heard and blasted loud and proud! This time out Analog Africa put their crate digging skills to work on the raw beginnings of the Burkina Faso sounds recorded between 1974-1979. With its geographical roots running through the Sahel, these sounds incorporate Afro-funk, Islamic rhythms, and Malian guitar sounds. It might sound cliche, but there is really no other way to describe the songs on this collection without using words like smoking, blazing, raw, and on fire. Not a record you want to listen to softly, these are songs you want to blast as even the slow burners on here cut right to the core. We had never heard any of these sixteen tracks before, and with the awesome 44 page booklet that accompanies this release we now get to not only listen but learn about amazing music we had very little knowledge of beforehand. Isn't that what being a music lover is all about, so damn rewarding!
