This is the debut release from a new Seattle label, specializing in their own murky darkly psychedelic brand of doom / folk / drone / noise, a sampler of various artists on the label as well as likeminded noisemakers from the area, with a few familiar names (Megabats, Demian Johnston and Inh Halentropy), but way more unfamiliar ones (Kristian Garrard, Karnak Temples, Josh Medina, Them,There, Nightjar, Sokai Stiljed, Thunder:Grey:Pilgrim), all of them contributing this sprawling chunk of droning blackness, strange industrial ambience and looped psychedelic mesmer, all the sonically disparate tracks woven into a collection that works almost as well as an album proper. The familiar names first: abstract avant atmospheric (sort of) black metal weirdo Inh Halentropy lays down some John Carpenter style seventies soundtrack wooziness, all muddy and murky, programmed beats and sci-fi swirl over brooding rumbles, and theremin-like high end melodies, a gorgeous creepily atmospheric chunk of lo-fi faux soundtrackery, while Megabats offer up dense swirls of kosmische synth drift, and glimmering ambient dreamdrug haze, all super blissed out and trippy, and noisenik Demian Johnston delivers some blunted blurred soft-noise, all cavernous and industrial, thick swaths of blurred crumble and greyed out crunch, all smeared into slowly undulating blackened dronemusic. The rest of the tape follows suit, super abstract creaking and crumbling mutates into gauzy almost Pop Ambient loopscaping, thick whirring melodies emerge from slow churning sheets of whirring synths and echoe-y shimmer, delicate acoustic guitars drift amidst sitar like buzz, plaintive vocal harmonies and warm lustrous chordal swells, bleak black rumbles roil ominously through clouds of ominous low end thrum, metallic ragas seem to slowly melt into oozing blackened dronefolk, and finally wild tangles of clipped vocals and shards of melody are stretched out, then layered and looped into a druggy dizzy psych-out. Killer stuff for sure, and odds are pretty dang limited as well...
The great Public Information label releases another incredible collection of archival Library tracks, this time from the British archives of The Standard Music Library, recorded between 1970 and 2010. While many famous people recorded for Standard Library, including Delia Derbyshire, Tony Visconti, Michael Chapman, Sven Libaek, as well as Brian Eno and Steven Stapleton (Nurse With Wound), this anthology focuses on the more obscure composers and electronic output released for industrial films, sci-fi television and commercials. You get the full range over 30 tracks from bloop-bleep abstractions, cosmic kosmiche and new age as well as eighties VCR funk and John Carpenter-like horror-synth jams. If you liked the last library survey Public Information offered, Tomorrow's Achievements - Parry Music Library 1976-86, then you'll certainly dig this. Top notch collection!!! Limited, import.
When we think of Bollywood, our minds instantly go to the golden era of Indian film music from the '60s and '70s, with classical sitars and tampuras set to thriller and noir themes and exotic pop, often forgetting that Bollywood has of course never stopped making films, and the film music has continually changed with the times. Even with the discovery of other flourishing filmmaking centers such as Lollywood in Pakistan and the Tamil-speaking Kollywood of South India bringing in the influences of synthesizers and eighties pop, we still weren't prepared for the amazing modern sounds of another fertile film and soundtrack music scene, this time located a continent away in Kano, the capital city of Nigeria - thus their thriving movie industry is called Kannywood. This compilation, brought to us by the folks at Sahel Sounds and Mississippi Records who have previously brought us those Music From Saharan Cellphone comps, is a great introduction to the sounds of popular film music made by the dominant Hausa culture of Nigeria from the past few years.
Bollywood music became more popular outside of India as the industry moved from films to television and the music began to be heard on the radio. While the Muslim culture of the Hausa people frowned on Hindi cinema, they began to see the advantages of taking the medium of music and film and crafting their own cultural take on the genre, often lifting the music and plotlines wholesale into their own language and cultural tropes. The music, in the beginning was played with traditional instruments, but the invention of the Yamaha PSR keyboard and the switch from video to digital has increased production into thousands of movies and songs of strangely charming and fluorescent dance pop.
For anyone who loved the strange hybrid of new wave dance pop of that Shangaan Shake compilation, or the Saharan Cellphone comps, this compilation carries the same global hybrid of tradition and new technology with most of the music utilizing digital synthesizers and auto-tuned vocals (mostly to imitate the high pitch of Indian Bollywood singers) that emphasizes the exotic side of global pop but yet remains so insanely catchy and infectious.
Who kicks ass? The true rockin' country maverick Wanda Jackson, that's who!!! And what could be a more fitting tribute than to assemble 21 covers of her songs performed by a crowd of fiery ladies (and some fellers too) cut from the same cloth? The compilation kicks off with a visit from Canada's country sweetheart Ms Carolyn Mark dishin' out a suitably rousing version of one of Jackson's trademark songs "Hot Dog, That Made Him Mad", and the good times just keep on rollin' from there. Also dropping by to tip their hat are many familiar faces from the past and present Bloodshot Records stable as well as some new faces: Neko Case (delivering a rollicking rendition of "Brown-Eyed Handsome Man" with Jon Rauhouse and Joey Burns), Robbie Fulks, Trailer Bride (who completely transform one of Jackson's other musical calling cards "Fujiyama Mama" into a druggy, delirious dirge), Kelly Hogan (aah, as dreamy as ever!), Rosie Flores, Wayne Hancock, Laura Cantrell, Bottle Rockets with Sheri Hurst, Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter, Nora O'Connor, Candye Kane, Anna Fermin & The Trigger Gospel, Kristi Rose, The Cornell Hurd Band, Jane Baxter Miller, Kim Lenz, Asylum Street Spankers, Gina Lee & The Brisket Boys, Jesse Dayton, and The Ranch Girls & The Ragtime Wranglers (from the Netherlands). Another fine compilation from the Bloodshot ranch.
By now maybe you have (or like some of us, maybe you haven't) had enough of the South East Asian pop, folk, field recordings from Sublime Frequencies. Courtesy of Robert Millis (Climax Golden Twins cohort and curator of the Leaf Music Drunks Distant Drums cd) Harmika Yab-Yum takes us on an audio journey through underserved territory. Nestled, nay sandwiched between the geographical and cultural giants of China and India, Nepal's greatest fame lies in its hosting the tallest mountain on our fair planet. It's also the only "official Hindu state in the world" according to the CIA Factbook. On Harmika Yab-Yum Millis elegantly weaves together recordings he made (apparently in 1996) of radio broadcasts, street musicians, religious cermonies, and sermons. About half of the tracks in fact are from radio, though no disc jockey banter is included, which -- whether intentional or not -- gives the recordings an even more of a feel of being totally detached from the influence of the occidental world. By and large the greatest influence on the music here is from India. Tabla percussion, flutes, pump organs, sitars, violins and drones, drones, drones make up the bulk of the instrumentation and to the untrained ear, certainly sound like the dulcet tones of Indian music. The disc starts off with a bang with a track taken from the radio which sounds like feral chanting by some crazed lunatic accompanied by drumming. This is followed by an abrupt segue into a street sermon broadcast over a distant sounding bullhorn, flutes and people talking can be heard over the sermon. For the larger part, such abrupt transitions are not the norm on Harmika Yab-Yum and the grainy, modulating songs recorded off of the airwaves blend nicely with the gritty sounds of daily life on the streets from the clanging bells of a pony train passing by to, chanting monks on Krishna day, to a snake charmer with double reed to the crashing of bands, miscellaneous percussion and other noises for a wedding procession. Very nice.
From Revolver Distribution's blurb: "Originally released by Drunken Fish in November of 1996 as a specially designed triple-LP boxset produced in an edition of 3,000 (which quickly sold out its one and only pressing and has remained unavailable since). Featured are six exclusive, extended tracks (none of which is less than eighteen minutes in length) from this generation's spacerock elite: Bardo Pond, Flying Saucer Attack, Jessamine, Roy Montgomery, Loren Mazzacane-Connors and the Charalambides. Includes a lovely eight-panel foldout booklet. Standup for spacerock, because artrock is dead."
Who doesn't get a wee bit wistful at the stringy, tinkly sound of the harpsichord? Well, here's 23 songs graced by the presence of the lovely harpsichord. The music of artists such as StereoTotal and Momus welcomes this instrument warmly into its fold. And yes, ever the fellow to throw in a witty bonus, Momus includes his ode to Jeff Koons. Other artists include The Make-Up, The Secret Goldfish, and Cinerama. Decidedly baroque, lounge-y, playful, and fun.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Revenant has once again done a swank job of a reissue. Originally only available on double CD, Revenant has now just reissued the collection in a tri-fold double LP set. Smithsonian Folkways' influential "Anthology of American Folk Music" was a massive three volume set compiled by the eccentric artist and archivist Harry Smith. Originally released in 1952 and reissued on CD in 1997, it stands as a pioneering look into the earliest recordings of awe-inspiring folk music of the '20s and '30s. This fourth volume of the series had been collected around the same time, but had never been released until 2000. Like the CD version, this double LP set is lavishly packaged. It includes a 20 page booklet, a poster and the LPs come pressed on clear vinyl. Like the original Folkways Anthology, this smaller collection features the work of some of our country's most important musical figures from the turn of the 20th century including Lead Belly, The Carter Family, Robert Johnson, The Monroe Brothers, Uncle Dave Macon, the Memphis Jug Band, and many more. It also features in depth narratives on Smith and his work from Greil Marcus, Ed Sanders, John Cohen, Dick Spottswood, and Fahey. Simply outstanding.
**MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT****MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT****MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT**
Ethiopiques alert, too! Have yourself a hot sultry soul dance party this weekend, with some of the best vintage Ethio soul from the Golden era of Ethiopian music! Largely culled from the great Ethiopiques series, this vinyl compilation features crucial '70s tracks by Mahmoud Ahmed, Lemma Demissew, Tlahoun Gessesse, Sefu Yohannes, Bahta Gebre Heywet, Teshome Meteku, and Alemeyahu Eshete, all never reissued on vinyl before. All killer, no filler! What more can we say, other than this rules!
Back in 2009 we reviewed a dvd called Palace Of The Winds, which documented Sublime Frequencies' Hisham Mayet as he returned to West Africa, to search for some unknown musicians he had heard on Moroccan radio, this new lp is sort of the audio companion to that, and is a stunner. Much like that dvd, the music on this lp, was captured mostly live, proper performances, intimate home recordings, many replete with the hubbub of daily life, voices and traffic and city noise, there are field recordings too, which capture vendors and stalls as they go about their daily (or actually, nightly) business, music blaring from boomboxes and speakers, it's a fantastic sonic journey.
Included are Mayet's first ever recordings of the aQ beloved Group Doueh (the band Mayet had returned in search of!), and their tracks here are wonderful, the first lo-fi and raw, swirls of intricately picked stringed instruments, wreathed in swirling organs, wild percussion, and some amazing vocals. The second sounding like an African Sunroof! All buzzing psychedelic shimmer, and softly tangled melodies, the sound blearily blown out and smeared into lush chordal clouds of raga-like thrum, beneath more soaring vox. A couple new discoveries that blew us away, were Abdul Rahman Al-Gheid", whose deep raspy voice sounds almost Tuvan, like he could burst into proper throat singing at any time, his Tom Waitsian growl rumbles and soars in equal measure, over a lush, slightly murky sonic swirl. And the Sadoum Ouled Aida track too, a bed of dense intricate melodies unfurling beneath another gorgeous vocal, also rough and raspy, but warm and velvety at the same time, the sound woozy and washed out, peppered with some passionate exaltations in background. Then there's the rollicking dessert blues of the Sadoum Group who wind buzzing strings around propulsive percussion, and some super intense call and response, male/female vocals. There's plenty more too, including the aforementioned field recordings, which are totally chaotic, sonically dense and dizzying, mysterious, noisy, and super exciting. As always, so good!!
And also as always, fantastic packaging, the lp pressed on heavy vinyl, housed in a full color old school tip-on style sleeve, and of course, it's VERY LIMITED!
Similar to the now-impossible-to-get, vinyl-only "Turkish Delights" compilation (but on cd and in stock!) is this great collection of vintage psychedelic rock music from Turkey. With 22 tracks, spanning the years 1966-1975, this collection is a great
I gave up on trying to come up with a more succinct description of these two new cds from Smithsonian Folkways of Cuban music when I discovered they have encapsulated the collections better than I ever could: "Recorded in Havana in 1957, the ritual rhythms and
This disc's compilers have enlisted five suitable bands to make sure this doom-core comp lives up to its subtitle: "74 Minutes Of Extreme Pain." Negative Reaction, Grief, Subsanity, Bongzilla, and Sour Vein all provide some lovely metallic downer dirge.
This just may be the best compilation ever. How's this for a concept? A bunch of electronic/noise bands make songs out of death metal drums. Just the drums. Brilliant. Maybe. Has the potential to be pretty amazing. So how does it actually fare? Pretty well surprisingly. Most of the bands don't fuck with the beats too much, just sort of do their thing around whatever their chosen blast beat happens to be. So what could have been a stupid mess becomes the weirdest, noisiest, most confounding death metal record ever. Light on the guitars, but heavy on the buzz and glitch and whir and skree and whatever chopped up, processed graaeeerrgggghhhh they could get out of their laptops. Think a death metal V/VM, or Dave Lombardo drumming for Wolf Eyes! AQ pal Lesser is on here, as is Bombadier and Panicsville, but the rest of the participants are new to us. It hardly matters though. The tracks all sort of fit together into a single, epic, demented "death metal" masterpiece.
"Heat & Birds" is the second 'friends and family' compilation to emerge from the Jewelled Antler collective, offering an overview not only of the numerous activities that are constantly evolving within the collective but also of like-minded artists from across the globe. Common to Jewelled Antler sound is a magical wistfulness, which seeps through every sound within the label and draws metaphors to half-dreamt memories, impossible lands that only exist in the imagination, or the simple awe of nature. While the core members (Glenn Donaldson, Loren Chasse, Rob Reger, and Steven R. Smith) are present, they've presented themselves in a variety of unique monikers and projects: such as Hala Strana (an uncredited pseudonym for Steven R. Smith, recreating a manic Hungarian folk instrumental with his trademarked production style of layered sounds building repeated riffs up to bittersweet crescendos), Of (an enigmatic project of evocative etherialism by Loren Chasse), and The Floating Birthday Children (the duo of Donaldson and Kerry McLaughlin offering pensive folk meanderings). Other, better-known Jewelled Antler projects, The Blithe Sons & Daughters, Thuja, and Franciscan Hobbies, also make appearances.
Of the non-JA projects, "Heat & Birds" also features the Finnish avant-improv-rock bands Kemialliset Ystavat, the medieval sounding Markus, and the elusive Avarus. Also, the San Francisco band Golden Hotel have produced another brilliant, drugged-out folk song, but do they remember recording it? And, there's some wonderful field recordings by AQ's own Byram Abbott of the birds in rehabilitation at Fort Cronkite just north of San Francisco. I could go on, but why spoil the mysteries? "Heat & Birds" is a great collection from a great organization. Recommended.
The Ethiopiques series, begun in 1997 and now running to 28 volumes, is one of the best things ever in the history of compact discs. So much amazing music, mostly from the golden years of the early '70s Ethiopian jazz/funk/groove scene, but also touching upon modern recordings and more traditional Ethiopian sounds too. Mississippi Records has been bringing some of the Ethiopiques material (back) to vinyl, having reissued a few records we first heard as part of these collections, and the Heavenly Sweetness label has done a few too.
But for folks who are new to the wonders of Ethiopian music, and perhaps are daunted by the size of the Ethiopiques series - or who maybe already have a bunch of the cds in the series but want some vinyl to spin too, how about a 'Best Of'? And this 180 gram vinyl double lp is indeed a best of, a best of the best of, really, expertly selected by the guy at France's Buda Musique who put together the series in the first place. It features tracks from such now familiar names (thanks to our exposure to the Ethiopiques series, that is) as Alemayehu Eshete, Mulatu Astatke, Getatchew Mekurya, Mahmoud Ahmed, Talahoun Gessesse, and more. 20 tracks in all, culled from the full wide range of the series pretty much. Volume 1 is heavily represented, as is vol. 24, but vols. 5, 8, 13, 14, and others have tracks on here too, all the way up to vol. 28, which we haven't even gotten in yet on cd!
Whether it's the sultry soulful crooning of Mahmoud Ahmed or the equally tight smoky grooves of Alemayehu Eshete or any of the others here who could lay claim to being 'Ethiopia's James Brown', or the ethnic-folk inflected saxophone instrumental from Getatchew Mekurya, or even the gorgeous piano piece by Ethiopian nun and composer Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou, this is all amazing stuff, such a nice package. But it's just the tip of the Ethiopiques iceberg. Clearly, a Best Of Volume 2 is in order, and then a Volume 3, and then...
Earache, as befits their name, has always been a label known for "extreme" music, whether it be grindcore, death metal, or even gabber. This compilation, though, highlights a different sort of extreme, new bands who are hard and heavy but also melodic, with lo and behold actual singing. These outfits ARE extreme - extremely retro that is. And (as far as we're concerned) extremely cool. Heavy Metal Killers, whose cover art seems to be a nod to that of Iron Maiden's Killers, collects tracks from Castle Donnington worthy youngsters who hark back to the glory days of the NWOBHM in the late '70s, early '80s. And thus it has more in common with classic NWOBHM era comps like Metal For Muthas than it does such previous Earache anthologies like Grindcrusher and Hellspawn. And despite the NWOBHMishness, these bands hail from all over the planet, from Finland to Mexico.
Between Allan and Andee at Aquarius, we possess albums by a goodly portion of this disc's lineup, but the rest are totally new to us too. (Which brings up another subject, perhaps to be addressed in a future AQ-blog post, about all the cool records Allan and Andee order for themselves that we somewhat inexplicably never review for our website or even stock in the store!). We already know and love Cast Iron, Cauldron (who should get an award for their track's title, "Chained Up In Chains"!), Portrait, and Enforcer (whose full-length from which their track here is taken is also reviewed this list, actually), but thanks to this comp are glad to be introduced to a slew of other denim-and-leather clad, true metal torchbearers.
As with all comps, some tracks we like better'n others, but actually these Heavy Metal Killers ARE all pretty killer. We'll just mention a couple highlights, like the opening salvo from Holland's Powervice, boasting perhaps the best dual guitar harmony motif on the whole disc, damn it's catchy. Then there's the Mercyful Fate-ish mastery of Sweden's Portrait, complete with King Diamond style falsetto. And we got a kick out of the unabashed Sunset Strip style pop panache of LA's White Wizzard. Other acts here include Ram, H.O.D., Celtic Legacy, Alltehniko, Voltax, In Solitude, and Crowning Glory. Only a few of the tracks are exclusives, most appearing also on these band's albums (upcoming or otherwise) but it's not like you probably have 'em do you??? Though hopefully we soon will, we know for sure we'll be looking out for more by a bunch of 'em.
Cool that this scene is getting big enough for Earache to jump on the bandwagon. Our only complaints? This comp shoulda had San Francisco's Space Vacation on it too! And Finland's Solitaire. And... well, hopefully there's a volume II in store!
Originally intended to be a Record Store Day release, this killer compilation from the Learning Curve label made it to aQ just under the wire, but seems to have maybe not made it anywhere else in time. So for those of you who couldn't make it to aQ on the big day, and love themselves some knuckle dragging, head banging, pig fuck noise rock crush, well then this here comp is for YOU. No doubt, a bunch of the names will be familiar to long time aQ-ers, Hex Machine (whose new record is reviewed on this week's list), Seawhores, Dead (whose new lp we reviewed here recently), Gay Witch Abortion (whose new record can also be found elsewhere on this week's list), but there's a bunch of new to us outfits, most with awesome names: Cars & Trucks, Decoupler, Bang The Favorite Raver and Spilling Fingernails And Blood Sap, and looks like there's even some sort of mega noise rock jam credited to Gay Whores Skoal Power, which we can only assume is a bunch of those bands crammed together.
Pretty much every track here rules, and anyone who dug the golden age of Amphetamine Reptile will be like a pig in musical shit, some highlights include the Seawhores track, which is SO goddamn good. Forgot how great these guys are/were, didn't even realize they were still a band, but hearing their track makes me pray to Satan they still are. A tangled churn of progged out noise rock heaviness, the sounds distorted and doused in FX, rhythmic and trippy, locking into almost looped sounding hypnorock jams, one second, sounding almost new wave the next, the sounds all blown out and in the red. There NEEDS to be a new record by these guys for sure.
Gay Witch Abortion never fail us, and their weird, distorto dirge here manages to fuse some obtuse poppiness to some crumbling dirginess, a weird little sludge pop doom nugget that will have you wanting to pick up their full length for sure. Cars & Trucks were an awesome surprise, total nineties heavy rock radness, REAL singing, hooks galore, melodies, harmonies, but plenty of tripped out weirdness. They're the kind of heavy that could actually be popular. Pushes all our heavy rock buttons, and makes us definitely want to hear more.
Decoupler are cool too, sounding like a super caffeinated, progged out Torche maybe, catchy, but frantic and frenetic. Spilling Fingernails And Blood Sap are the most metal here, channeling some Today Is The Day for sure. And Bang The Favorite Raver is some sort of pisstake, sounding like Missing Persons. And that final megajam, not the heaviness we were maybe expecting, instead some super noisy psychedelic collage, feedback, and grinding buzz, buried vocals, buried melodies, buried drums, warped samples, voices and screams, bits from the radio, all beneath a swirl of hazy druggy noisiness.
So cool. Such a killer collection, the rare compilation that actually leaves you wanting to hunt down more music from pretty much almost all the artists. Includes a download too!
Or rather, should the title should be "Here's To Old Edward!"? 'Cause this compilation celebrates the many musical faces of one Mr. Edward Ball which first surfaced back in the '70s and have frequently popped up through the past couple decades. Perhaps, you're familiar with his music on his own as a solo artist or in Teenage Filmstars (one of Andee's favorite bands of all time, rivalling My Bloody Valentine for sheer warped glorious guitar overload, there's even a quote on the front of the disc where MBV's Kevin Shields refers to Ball as "a modernist musical alcheemist"!), The Times, O Level, Boo Radleys and Television Personalities -- this comp draws from the first four. Lots of distinctly Brit references such as re-enactments of the intro dialogue to the wonderfully cryptic television series The Prisoner in the song "I Helped Patrick McGoohan Escape" or a rendition of New Order's "Blue Monday" sung in French ("Lundi Bleu") or nods to different cities such as "Manchester", "Cloud Over Liverpool" and "This Is London". Groovy and trippy and jangly, very Beatles-esque bright and sunny power pop with occasional hazy clouds of shoegazer-ness and trippy psychedelia. But it's the Teenage Filmstars tracks that will kick your ass. Unfortunately we've been unable to get any of ther albums for a while. So for now, this sampler will have to do. It's within the TF tracks that the strummy psychedelic Beatles-esque pop of Ball's other outfits gets cranked up a notch, doused in liquid LSD and set aflame. Backwards drums, funhouse mirror guitars, distorted vocals, all twisted and tangled into massive MBV meets Jesus And Mary Chain mayhemic pileup. Just give a listen to the sound sample for "Physical Graffiti". Woah. And while the rest of the tracks don't pack quite the same wallop, it's all really cool hazy Brit-psych-pop of the highest order.
BTW: Really funny quote on the sticker: Noel Gallagher from Oasis: "Edward Ball is the second best songwriter in Britain today." Ha ha.
There's always been some sort of bond between punk rock and reggae: The Clash, Bad Brains, Fugazi, At The Drive In...whether it be in sound or simply in spirit. So Victory (home to some of the most essential NY hardcore of the past 10 years) has put their money
We've said it before and we'll say it again. It never ceases to amaze us how there can be such an endless supply of killer '60s garage-psych songs to fill up compilation after compilation. Sure, once in a while there's some overlap, but really, it's incredible how many obscure bands managed to release a completely charming 7" single or two and then vanished - but their music lives on, thanks to comps like this one! The appropriately named High All The Time features a whole bunch of turned-on, drugged-out sounds circa 1966-69, all of it fuzzy and freaky and sometimes beautifully melodic.
14 tracks, 11 bands, mostly from the US of A, though two bands are Dutch and one Swedish (The Shakers, doing "Who Will Buy (These Wonderful Evils)", a classic acid-guitar drenched track we know from another comp that took that for its title. But that Shakers song is the only thing here we'd heard before.
Opening the proceedings, Mammoth takes a Kinks "You Really Got Me" type riff and fuzzes it up big time, hinting at Blue Cheer style heaviness. Then, getting even freakier, The Hobbit tosses some musique concrete sound FX into their exotic "Author's Message". Next up, Dragonfly's "Celestial Dream" is indeed pretty dreamy, coming from a band who wore wild dragonfly-wing facepaint.... so, we won't describe all the tracks, but suffice to say they're all quite groovy, and varied, and definitely high all the time, yeah! No bummers here. Bad trips, yes, well, there's The Darelyck's track "Bad Trip", a propulsive sorta-rockabilly garage beat number with the vocalist mainly chanting "It was a bad trip, it was a bad trip" over and over, way cool... From start to finish, this is comp is our idea of a good trip. And the finish is a strong one, tracks 13 and 14 being both sides of The Beautiful Daze's "City Jungle Parts 1 & 2", with Part 2 being a particularly dense, droning, throbbing piece of work.
This compact disc edition (the comp itself is a reissue, apparently originally released on LP back in the late '70s or '80s we'd guess) includes in its booklet what meager information they were able to dig up about each band, with discographical information and sometimes graphics from the original 45's.
Naturally, this is the sequel to the excellent '60 fuzz psych compilation High All The Time Vol. 1. We reviewed that last year, it was a pretty darn killer comp indeed, and so is this follow-up! There's 14 cuts from 14 bands, from garages all across the US of A, circa 1966-'74. Like Vol. 1, this is the place to go for savage fuzz romps -and- trippy psychedelic excursions. And as before, it's all obscure stuff. The only artist we'd heard of before is J.D. Blackfoot, one of the few acts here who managed to release a long-player, most of the rest of 'em having but one rare 7" single to their name. However, the A-side (or sometimes B-side, let's hear it for B-sides!) to that single was often enough of a recorded legacy to earn 'em a pool of drool from record collectors and garage psych connoisseurs for ever and ever. Listen in, you can hear why.
This starts off plenty fierce with the aforementioned J.D. Blackfoot's gruffly-sung "Epitaph For A Head". Classic & wild! That's followed by "Time Out To Fly" by Magical Mist, almost as fuzzy but a bit more dreamily moody as befits their name, reminding us of the Electric Prunes by the end of the tune. But even the most melancholic and melodic cuts here tend to erupt eventually into at least one white hot blast of acid guitar soloing excess, if not totally freaking out into full-on scuzz stomp. Other highlights include the lovely "Sad Now" by Solid Ground, and a not-so-folky rendition of "If I Were A Carpenter" by Grant's Blueboys, among others. Another cool cover here is Chesmann Square's "Circles", originally by The Who. The line up also includes: American ZOO, Thundering Heard, ESB, Thorinshield, Odyssey, Ocelot, Jordan, World Column, and Catfish Knight & The Blue Express.
The glossy cd booklet contains brief (sometimes very brief!) liner notes and discographical information for each act, with vintage photos and 45 labels in some cases too. Yep, just what we were hoping for when we realized that Volume 1 of course implied a Volume 2... By the way, we've reached the point in time where we're seeing reissues of reissues, apparently both volumes came out on vinyl in the early '90s but now's the first time they've appeared on cd.
The subtitle: "25 Artists, One Song". Yes, here's 27 versions of the theme song from the classic Gary Cooper western recorded in the '50s and '60s. Among them, versions by Tex Ritter (three of 'em, all different), Frankie Laine, Chet Atkins, Ferrante &
Aaaah, reunions are always a weird mish mash of emotions, the warm fuzzies and the uh-oh discomforts, aren't they? Lots of faces are fondly familiar while others don't register at all in your memory banks. Such is the totally case with High School Reunion -- A Tribute To Those Great 80's Films with both the selection of songs and the artists covering them. Some familiar notables are Matthew Sweet (American Girl"), Frank Black ("Repo Man"), Blake Babies' John Strohm ("Somebody's Baby"), Kristin Hersh ("Wave Of Mutilation"), and the odd fresh-faced presence of the Dresden Dolls ("Pretty In Pink"). Of course for whatever reason (a link to a warm memory, a personal turning point, a soft spot for the actual movie, or simply the fact that it was just a great song), so many of these songs are so near and dear to the teenage hearts in each of us... as are the '80s flicks from which they came. Fast Times At Ridgemont High, Pretty In Pink, The Breakfast Club, Some Kind Of Wonderful, Valley Girl, Repo Man, Sixteen Candles, Weird Science, Pump Up The Volume, Say Anything, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Ah yes, we remember them all so well. It's a pleasure when the cover kicks as much butt as (or betters) the original, but extra painful when some band does a so-so (or worse) version. Fortunately few if any of the twenty tracks fall into the latter category, and most offer at least a respectful if unchallenging take on the oldie. A nostalgia'n'irony super-size extra cheese full meal deal!
Not sure if this is exactly 'hilarious' as the title implies, but it sure is creepy, and unsettling, and at times very very annoying. But in that way we can never seem to get enough of. Hilarity & Despair is a collection of found, lost and purloined answering machine tapes, an uncomfortably voyeuristic glimpse into the private telephone lives of random strangers. Hints of unseemy behavior, small town scandal, infidelity and marital strife abound, often so extreme it's funny, but more often so intense it makes you feel kid of, well, dirty. Plenty of pissed off moms and girlfriends, many calling back over and over and over, increasingly upset with each call, some apologetic boyfriends, slurring drunks, lots of drama, but there are a handful of phone calls that are just plain FUCKED UP: unexplainable weirdness, strange voices, indecipherable messages, unexplained sounds, completely irrational rants, and those are the calls that make this an essential addition to the ever growing 'what the fuck' section of your collection.
"Hip City" is straight up funhouse funky black music from '67 to '77. Rare and previously underrecognized tracks from James Brown, Junior Walker and the All Stars, Hank Ballard, and the many lesser-knowns that the UK label Harmless is so good at finding. Dig it.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
We only have a limited quantity of these little gems, so be forewarned. Even before we started becoming inundated with "mash ups" and the compilations featuring them -- The Best Bootlegs In The World Ever, 2 Many DJ's, not to mention DJ Rupture's excellent mixes -- we were able to pick up, quite briefly, 7" releases which featured ragga dancehall a capellas remixed over the hot hip hop rhythms of the day. The labels printing these -- RMC, Special Remix & Killa -- printed short runs, and often the best mixes were long gone before we could even write about them. Those singles are long out of print and the labels that released them have all vaporized as well, but the folk(s) at Batty Bombaclaat have preserved some of the best for a brief second time around for the rest of us stuck in the digital realm. In all, nineteen tracks on this cd-r, each one amazing in its own way. For starters, the two genres -- hip hop and dancehall -- are taylor made for a good mash up. Hip hop's formation owes much to Jamaican DJ's and sound systems that supported them. In turn early Jamaican artists owe much of their inspiration to the early soul and R&B that was imported to the island at the early ages of the sound system. In recent years with the maturation of raggamuffin dancehall, and Jamaican artists cameoing on American hip hop artists' albums, the lines between hip hop and dancehall have been further blurred. Ward 21's first full length is a classic example of hip hop influenced dancehall, and Soul Jazz's excellent compilation Nice Up The Dance further illustrated the connections between the genres. The singles compiled on this anthology are more blunt than that, but the results are no less wonderful. Some, Like Lexxus' "Bounce A Gal" (which uses Missy Elliott's "Get Ur Freak On" as its rhythm) are great in their complete contrast to the original hit. When Missy's track came out it was impossible not to hear it 5 times a day; and of course, the rhythm was recycled many times by many artists from Timbaland himself to Kid 606. The great thing about the Lexxus mix is that Lexxus's voice is so anti-thetical to Missy's. He sounds like an insane person with a bad head cold who snuck into the studio. Other tracks, like Sizzla's "Never Want To Heard A Dem", best the originals. Mixed over M.O.P.'s "Ante Up", Sizzla's vocals turn an otherwise mediocre track into a fucking blood spittingly amazing one. The rhythm is so fucking great it would have been such a disappointment to let it get relegated to the dust bin of history with M.O.P.'s uninspired vocals on it. Along with the aforementioned Jamaican vocalists, included here are many of our favorites like Elephant Man, Capleton, Bounty Killer, Beenie Man, Merciless, Raegan, Danny English and more. Plus all the best hip hop rhythms of the cusp of the millennium are represented here: "Independent Women", "Ugly", Who's That Girl", "One Minute Man", "Can't Deny It", "I'm A Thug" and more. No rhythm tracks are repeated, for what it's worth, so there's no feeling of redundancy with this comp and it makes it a nice party mix to play. As an interesting twist, the disc closes with an inverted remix featuring Sensational's "Livin' It Up" over Beenie Man's "Who Am I". We're not sure where that one came from. As a final note, the original sources from which these tracks were culled, though most likely pressed in the U.S., were done in the Jamaican style: fast and dirty. In other words, there's lots of clicks and pops -- which the producers of this disc elected to preserve -- to increase that sense of authenticity while you listen. On cd-r, with covers nicely printed on vellum and card stock. Highly recommended!
Worst thing we've ever heard. Almost not even funny. Ok it's a little funny. But definitely not what we were hoping for. What were we hoping for? Good question...
New sampler from one of our favorite labels, Touch, this time round a sampler of wares previously released. This is the perfect chance for those who are unfamiliar with this truly great label's output to become acquainted. Among the cuts found here are tracks by Evan Parker vs Disinformation, an excerpt from the Santa Pod cd (recordings of the Santa Pod drag car raceway in England), another from the "Runaway Train" lp (radio transmissions between the operator of an out of control train and the home office), I Saw It All Happen... (recordings of a life support system), EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena) specialist Raymond Cass describing his contact with alien voices, Daren Seymour & Mark Van Hoen (of Scala and Locust), and much more.
This one is for the bigtime old school hip-hop enthusiasts. Without a doubt radio played a huge role in boosting the NY hip-hop scene since the early 80's. This collection of NY hip-hop radio clips will make you feel like you are back in the Bronx in '88 staying up late and listening to Special K and Teddy Tedd on the fm dial to get your latest fix of what's new and hot in the hip-hop world. There are 27 tracks on here ranging from 49 seconds to over 8 minutes that are all snippets from various broadcasts of legendary hip-hop radio in NY from '86-'91. A piece of hip-hop and radio history.
We can not tell you how psyched we are to have this back in stock. We've been listening to this like crazy. We had almost forgotten how totally far out and mind blowing this collection was. Since we first carried this years ago, there have been tons of diverse and eclectic collections of musics from all over the world, psych rock compilations (Love, Peace & Poetry, Thai Beat A Go Go, etc.), the Sublime Frequencies series, and loads more, but as good as those are, they can't hold a candle to Ho!: Roady Music From Vietnam! So completely fascinating and fun, wild and so so weird! Everytime this gets played in the store, customers and employees alike have to check to see what the heck it is we're listening to!
Ho! is an amazing collection of pieces from Vietnamese street musicians. The folks that travelled to Vietnam and recorded these pieces gave themselves the tongue-in-cheek name Nuoc Mam Dirndl'n, evidence of their humor in the light of collecting the sort of music they suspect the Vietnamese government would perhaps NOT appreciate as a representation of Vietnam. Ho! ranges from raucous, percussion-heavy funeral songs played at midnight by 'young people provided with drugs' to traditional material played on the one-stringed dan bau to melodramatic love songs favored by the son of the owner of the hotel the folks stayed at. There's even a 'tasteful schmaltzy song' which is what the Vietnamese record-store saleswoman played for them when they asked for some traditional Vietnamese music! Check out the following excerpt from the fascinating liner notes, and, like us, marvel at the freshness inherent in the refusal to adopt the omniscient voice-of-authority tone taken by so many ethno-compilers: "We are stunned by the Vietnamese 'Lebensgefuhl' actually corresponding to our western idea of 'subculture': lively, anarchic, loud, dense, hearty; the people are living working, eating, sleeping, and holding their funeral ceremonies between house and street. We don't know yet if there is any subculture in Vietnam; if there is e.g. (organized) political counterforces to the one-party regime -- nobody talks about politics (with us) -- maybe there is no need for it, because everybody can do whatever he/she wants: though street trading is prohibited everybody does it -- under the hardly vigilant eyes of the law -- raids are very rare, then the stands are carried away quickly and when the mischief is gone it goes on... What matters is that people LOVE TO SING which, like in our part of the world, hide in gloomy basements and play till the ears/souls are ringing: every band in Vietnam needs a license for its existence, for every gig, every song. And because there is no basements in Vietnam, people like to use the karaoke machines in their homes, bars and special karaoke houses. Saigon's street musicians are rather despised by the yuppies of Vietnam: 'shit music.' The yuppies prefer Sting and western style in general." Highly highly highly recommended!
Truly amazing and strange collection recorded in Spivey's Corner, North Carolina in 1975 & 1976 during the annual "Hollerin'" contest. Developed out of a need for communication over long distances long before walkie talkies were invented, Hollerers soon developed their own unique hollers for various emergency situations. This disk contains some of the most advanced developments in Hollerin' and as such has some of the most amazing sounds you'll ever hear coming out of a human throat at high volumes.
Comp of Little Richard soundalikes!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Krautrock legends get their props with this comp, featuring Michael Rother (ex-Neu!), James Plotkin, Autechre, Legendary Pink Dots, Dead Voices On Air, and others...but no Stereolab! What?
Oh man is this making us drool! Take two of the things we love most in the world: old school soul and little kids making their own music and bring them together and you have one of our new favorite compilations! The latest from the always righteous Numero Group is a collection of obscure kid groups from the early '70s who were whipping up some amazing soul and proving that there were way more new kids on the block belting out infectious songs then just the Jackson 5.
The Numero Group has done their homework with this one, digging through a forgotten history so rich and plentiful and just waiting for it's moment in the spotlight. Besides Jr & His Soulettes, the great Oklahoma brother and sister outfit we gushed about a few lists back, most of these kids of the '70s were completely unknown to us. Names like Patrizia & Jimmy, Otis The 3rd, or Cindy & The Playmates were never household names beyond their parents' house but damn did the kids on this compilation have some talent and crazy charm. The packaging and captivating liner notes accompany priceless photos of many of these kids in super soul action. Of course there is something novel, endearing and super cute about little kids making their own music but what makes this comp so great is that it all sounds so good! Vintage soul in lots of shapes and sizes from rambunctious stompers to silky serenades, these kids were dialed into the spirit of soul in a way that still sounds so pleasing to our ears.
Now on Vinyl!!!
Oh man is this making us drool! Take two of the things we love most in the world: old school soul and little kids making their own music and bring them together and you have one of our new favorite compilations! The latest from the always righteous Numero Group is a collection of obscure kid groups from the early '70s who were whipping up some amazing soul and proving that there were way more new kids on the block belting out infectious songs then just the Jackson 5.
The Numero Group has done their homework with this one, digging through a forgotten history so rich and plentiful and just waiting for it's moment in the spotlight. Besides Jr & His Soulettes, the great Oklahoma brother and sister outfit we gushed about a few lists back, most of these kids of the '70s were completely unknown to us. Names like Patrizia & Jimmy, Otis The 3rd, or Cindy & The Playmates were never household names beyond their parents' house but damn did the kids on this compilation have some talent and crazy charm. The packaging and captivating liner notes accompany priceless photos of many of these kids in super soul action. Of course there is something novel, endearing and super cute about little kids making their own music but what makes this comp so great is that it all sounds so good! Vintage soul in lots of shapes and sizes from rambunctious stompers to silky serenades, these kids were dialed into the spirit of soul in a way that still sounds so pleasing to our ears.
This one's for the lovers. DJ Cam compiles songs that reflect his vision of 'happines, love and harmony' (-gag-). Anyway, features Grover Washington, Phat Kat, Coldcut, DJ Matsuoko, Bahamadia, Mr. Scruff, Henry Mancini and more.
With the amazing resurgence and appreciation of the Disco era in the last several years this collection really serves as a kind of holy grail of the true sounds and soul of disco's heydey, as curated and mixed by one of the best disco minded DJ Collectives around, Horse Meat Disco out of the UK. They host legendary parties that channel that original free spirit of old school queer disco parties while manning the decks with some of the best and often most obscure disco gems from the golden era. Luckily Horse Meat Disco has made its way into the states and even to San Francisco, playing at parties with local kindred spirits Honey Sound System.
This two disc set is pretty much essential disco listening, having true disco diggers do the hard work for you and then you just get to sit back (or better yet shake your thang!) to the great jams they have unearthed. The first disc is a continuous mix which gives you a pretty good idea of what going to a Horse Meat Disco party would feel like, then the second disc gives you the songs in their original incarnation. There are some folks we know and love on here as well as many that are totally new to us. And even of the folks we DID know , most of the tracks aren't the total obvious ones we had heard before. Karen Young, Larry Levan, Tamiko Jones, Gino Soccio, Fern Kinney, etc. The impassioned liner notes (including a great piece written by Daniel Wang), give further proof to the lasting legacy and inspiration in these soulful disco sounds.
Horse Meat Disco have proven to be not only some of the best dance / disco DJ's on the planet but also such awesome ambassadors of preserving and celebrating the spirit and soul of classic disco for a whole new generation. Their compilation and mix from last year was one of our favorite collections of dance jams we'd heard in ages and with this second volume they continue to show that there is an endless vault of rare disco gems to be excavated and revisited, and we're so stoked they are putting their love and appreciation of that time, and sound, and making these awesome compilations.
This time out it's a collection of tracks by so many folks that have slipped under even the most disco loving of the AQ staff's radar as well as a few people we know and love (Stephanie Mills, Madleen Kane, Scherrie Payne). But damn what a rad schooling in so many unsung heroes of disco past as we've been moving with big wide smiles on our face to tracks by folks like First Love, Bravo, Electra, Nightfall, etc. If luck had been a little different for some of those artist's their names and songs would be as well known as folks like Gloria Gaynor, Thelma Houston, Gwen Guthrie, Donna Summer, Evelyn "Champagne" King, Labelle, Anita Ward, etc. Horse Meat Disco understands that true disco spirit is so much about the pure emotional energy that was bringing people together on dance floors in total bliss and unity, and it translates in the awesome parties they throw in the UK and with these compilations they have put together. Everytime we play this in the store it's awesome to see how everyone shopping immediately starts tapping their feet and getting in such a good mood. This is impossible music to feel dour while listening to, and as much as we love bleak and brooding sounds around here, we also know that it's important to also have the good stuff to go to when you want to get in a fun, physical dance state of mind, and when you do, it don't get much better then this. So awesome!
Now available on vinyl!
Horse Meat Disco have proven to be not only some of the best dance / disco DJ's on the planet but also such awesome ambassadors of preserving and celebrating the spirit and soul of classic disco for a whole new generation. Their compilation and mix from last year was one of our favorite collections of dance jams we'd heard in ages and with this second volume they continue to show that there is an endless vault of rare disco gems to be excavated and revisited, and we're so stoked they are putting their love and appreciation of that time, and sound, and making these awesome compilations.
This time out it's a collection of tracks by so many folks that have slipped under even the most disco loving of the AQ staff's radar as well as a few people we know and love (Stephanie Mills, Madleen Kane, Scherrie Payne). But damn what a rad schooling in so many unsung heroes of disco past as we've been moving with big wide smiles on our face to tracks by folks like First Love, Bravo, Electra, Nightfall, etc. If luck had been a little different for some of those artist's their names and songs would be as well known as folks like Gloria Gaynor, Thelma Houston, Gwen Guthrie, Donna Summer, Evelyn "Champagne" King, Labelle, Anita Ward, etc. Horse Meat Disco understands that true disco spirit is so much about the pure emotional energy that was bringing people together on dance floors in total bliss and unity, and it translates in the awesome parties they throw in the UK and with these compilations they have put together. Everytime we play this in the store it's awesome to see how everyone shopping immediately starts tapping their feet and getting in such a good mood. This is impossible music to feel dour while listening to, and as much as we love bleak and brooding sounds around here, we also know that it's important to also have the good stuff to go to when you want to get in a fun, physical dance state of mind, and when you do, it don't get much better then this. So awesome!
Third thrilling blast of disco/house greatness curated and mixed by the Horse Meat Disco crew out of the UK. These boys know their vintage disco and house, so we always look forward to their compilations to get turned on to so much obscure vintage gay discotheque glory, as well as getting to hear some of our favorites in a mix of dance floor bliss.
This time out the the Horse Meat crew tag team a mix on each of discs / records here. What makes this edition of this series unique is how they really span many generations of dance music with seamless ease. From Sylvester to Dimitri From Paris, Two Tons O' Fun to Todd Terje edits. And it's on this collection that the Horse Meat crew really show the transition from disco into the beginnings of house. These are the sounds blasting at the best San Francisco steamy, sketchy and sassy gay discos. Claudja Barry blasting at Tubesteak Connection at Aunt Charlies in the Tenderloin, Tambi moving all kinds of hot messes at a Honey Soundsystem party. As fun as those parties are, we still wish we could get to the UK sometime to experience one of the Horse Meat Disco parties in the flesh. We know their taste and brilliant mixing makes for an epic night of dancefloor bliss. It really is the kind of dance music that makes you throw out any negative or stale energy you might have, and allow yourself to get moved into a sweaty blissed out euphoria.
Cool sampler of noisy experimental skronky ultra-hip or soon-to-be-hip electro-punk-noise rock from all over the place. Most of this stuff is previously released, so this is definitely better as an intro for the uninitiated. But there is lots of new names and new noise to discover for thos in search of buried rock treasure. Erase Errata, The Yeay Yeah Yeahs, !!!, Radio 4, Pink Grease, Whitey, Chrome Hoof, Queens Of Noize, Ex-Models, Part Chimp, Bane Overlord, Disastronaut (best name ever?) and lots more!
Dust-To-Digital is quickly becoming one of the most important reissue labels going, and most definitely one of the most impressive, with every one of their releases, most extravagant box sets, a marvel not only of musical archaeology, but of ingenious design and impeccable selection.
How Low Can You Go is not actually brand new. It's a little over a year old, but it's one we've been meaning to list for ages, and are finally getting around to it. As the title alludes to, the focus of this three disc set, is the low end, the oft overlooked bass player, the band member who typically hangs in the back, but who holds everything together. For the purpose of this particular compilation, it's the string bass players, those who wielded the upright bass, an instrument that helped define the sound of jazz and dance bands in the early twentieth century.
Like all Dust-To-Digital releases, there's a huge book, with plenty of information, on the development of the string bass, its roots in 15th century Western European music, and how it supplanted the TUBA as low end provider of choice. It's a fascinating story, but it's the music that really tells the story. The focus is mostly on jazz, big band, ragtime, with brief forays into other sounds like gospel and bluegrass, but it's all fantastic, the hiss of old 78's wrapped lovingly around festive jazzy joints, folky funereal twang and soaring spirituals, smokey rhythm and blues and bustling big band jams.
Two discs packed with mostly recordings from New York City, while the third disc focuses almost exclusively on William Manuel Johnson, a ragtime and jazz pioneer, and master of the string bass. There's plenty of text on his life and musical exploits, which is great reading, but like the other two discs, the music speaks volumes, and will most likely have you wanting more.
Three discs in printed sleeves, a 100 page perfect bound book, with tons of essays and liner notes, notes on each track and every performer, a whole section just on William Johnson, tons of amazing photos, reproductions of old lp and 78 sleeves, newspaper ads and articles and lots more, all housed in a hardback book sized cardboard box.
