Take any preconceptions about Cuban music you might have and throw them out the window. This is simply one of the most exciting and awesome compilations we've heard in a while from a period that has never been fully explored before, the seventies and early eighties. We've heard rumors that the compiler, Dan Zacks, of Waxing Deep Radio, had to go to great lengths to obtain these recordings including risking his life sneaking into Cuba and bribing government officials, but it seems the efforts have paid off. This compilation offers an amazing glimpse into an extremely fertile period of socialism and artistic freedom, one rife with the same progressive musical styles (son, disco, fusion, soul and jazz) that were hitting the New York and LA Latin scenes around the same time, but with their own inventive use of production, unusual instrumentation, psychedelic influences, electronic experimentation, and as the title promises, funky beats. Each track is beautifully remastered from the original Cuban sessions. Who would have thought that Communist Funk would sound so liberating? Highly recommended!
Hiphop/electro breakbeat compilation introducing a slew of up and coming Japanese DJs (Dazzle-T, Indope Psychics, Koji Sekiguchi, DJ Beat, DJ Yoh, DJ Shun, and others) all looking to be the next DJ Krush. Scratch-happy heavy beat science for those into the turntablist thing. One track gets remixed by DJ Cam, who is French not Japanese, but we won't hold that against him ;) As comps
Elsewhere on this week's list you'll find a review of another Sublime Frequencies release, the Shadow Music Of Thailand, where we discuss how hard it is to pick a favorite release, cuz they're all so goddamn good.
And such is the case with this one too, a sequel of sorts to 2007's Thai Pop Spectacular 1960s-1980s, this one titled Siamese Soul, but the first one was pretty soulful as well, so we'll presume that it was just chosen as a catchy title, because this does play out like a continuation of the first part which is in no way a bad thing, in fact, we'd been hankering for more ever since that first volume.
As the loner notes discuss, Cambodian pop has gotten so much attention lately, that it seems almost criminal that Thai pop wasn't getting the same attention, which becomes even more apparent listening to Siamese Soul (as well as the first volume). In the review of the first volume we described Thai Pop as "an awesomely confusional mix of Molam, Bollywood, Ethiopian groove, funk, soul, American pop and surf rock, all tangled up into amazing shapes, and peppered with killer hooks, amazing vocalists, bizarre production techniques, but most of all amazing amazing songs." Which of course still absolutely applies. Heavy Western funk to Ethiopian sounding grooves, tripped out organ drenched fuzz rock, with creepy sexy female vox to Shadows / Ventures style surf rock, a bunch of the songs like many of the tracks on the two Molam: Thai Country Groove Sublime Frequencies comps, totally remind us of whatever Thai song the Butthole Surfers appropriated for their song "Kuntz", that distinctly Thai vocal melody is so unmistakable and unforgettable. The whole record is just so wild and fun and varied and out there, slipping easily from classic sounding pop, to mysterious folk music, to stomping funk, to twangy soundtrack sounds to smokey bar ballads, to slithery soul, to far out almost Bollywood sounding exotica, all with a distinctly Thai flavor. Funky, groovy, soulful, so so good. Check out the sound samples. Sometimes we feel words can't quite do sounds like these justice. And the more we listen to this, the more THIS one is becoming one of our favorites, and heck, we could very well have made this another Record Of The Week too!
Upon hearing a few tracks of this compilation, a collection of musical interpretations of the haikus of Greek poet George Sefaris, former AQ staffer Marc Kate astutely identified the voice on track 13 as that of Lee Ranaldo, and posed the question: why is it that whenever Ranaldo does spoken word he's always yelling? Good question.
Anyways, there's a lot that is highly pleasing on this 22-track collection, but there's also an almost equal amount of the... how shall we say... uh, less than good. Problem is you have to suffer through the stinky ones (or scramble madly for your cd player's 'next track' button) to get to the quality stuff.
But when it's good it's deeply moving, intriguing and really impressive. However, when it's bad, well, it's really bad. Just think overwrought, "jazz-hands" hollering and melodrama. Ugh. Features the voices of Robert Wyatt, Cat Power, Stereolab's Laetitia Sadier, Howe Gelb, Alejandro Escovedo, Edith Frost, Mark Eitzel, Simon Joyner, Lee Ranaldo, Steve Wynn, Czars' John Grant, James William Hindle and more.
"Tribute" compilations generally get a well-deserved bad rap, they're maybe a rung or two removed from string quartet versions and bluegrass covers on the ladder of uselessness, generally cheap cash-ins by a bunch of nobodies on some else's success. Or, for cult artists, not a cash-in, but a collection of fanboy loveletters also by a bunch of nobodies. But then there ARE always a few exceptions, we have a few faves in the category, some guilty pleasures perhaps but nonetheless faves: Darkthrone, Holy Darkthrone. Blue Explosion. Painted Black. The Great Koonaklaster Speaks. Powerslaves. Hmm, actually there's quite a lot of tribute comps we like. And you can add this to the pile, Silver Monk Time: A Tribute To The Monks. How can that not be cool? Especially when you eyeball the tracklist and see that the eclectic lineup ain't a bunch of nobodies, no sir. Try Mouse On Mars, Alec Empire (with original Monk Gary Burger), The Gossip, the Silver Apples w/ Alan Vega of Suicide, The Fall, Faust (also with Gary Burger), Barbara Manning, Psychic TV, Jason Forrest, The Raincoats, and and 19 others, filling up 2 cds. Sure there's some names on here we haven't heard of before (Doc Schoko, Fehlifarben, Floating Di Morel, and Singapore Sling, ferinstance) but then again, not everybody's heard of The Monks, either. We'll assume you have, and won't spend time explaining what an amazing, ahead of their time band they were: American GIs in '60s Germany, dressed up in monks robes with tonsures, playing the wildest punk rock ever recorded up 'til that point in history, and some years beyond...with banjo! The varied covers here have one thing in common, besides a reverence for the Monks. They all demonstrate that the songs of the Monks, as well as their style and delivery, were unique and insane, unhinged pop subversion still exciting and weird today. If this IS your introduction to the Monks, that's interesting for us to imagine... and please check out Black Monk Time if you haven't heard it!
Apparently this was put together in connection with an upcoming Monks documentary film, can't wait to see it!!
Originally reissued some years ago as a double cd, this killer collection of Indian psychedelic garage rock, has now been split into two different compilations, delineated by date, one disc for 1970, the other for 1971, but odds are you're probably gonna want both of them anyway. If not, either one is a great place to start. Some of you may remember the Psych Funk Sa-Re-Ga! Psychedelic Funk Music In India 1976-1983 compilation we made our Record of The Week a while back, a few of those tracks were taken from these comps, but for the most part, most of this stuff is exclusive.
While Simla Beat may sound like some cool record nerd classification for Indian psych from that era, Simla was in fact a cigarette company, who recognized that besides smoking, the kids also really dug rock and roll, specifically the sort of Western influenced sounds that were bringing surf and garage rock to India, so they founded a battle of the bands, complete with an awards show with the prizes presented by Bollywood stars, and the winning songs would get released, and hence we had these Simla Beat compilations. There were rumors, that since none of these tracks feature sitar or tabla or any distinct Indian instrumentation, that they were in fact hoaxes, and that none of these bands were in fact Indian, which was obviously proven to be false, and while there may not be sitar or tabla, there is a distinctly Eastern vibe to these tracks, and the sound, as well as the various productions, definitely takes the more Western version of surf rock and garage rock and makes it into something new and exciting.
Both discs contain some killer jams, and we could easily go through both track by track, but we'll just pick out a few highlights, and there are samples below too, which you should check out, pretty hard to resist we think. Simla Beat 70 starts off with "Voice From the Inner Soul" by the Confusions, which is so good, and catchy, it sounds like it must be a cover, but as far as we can tell it's an original, crunchy guitars, fuzzy organs, a groovy stomp with a KILLER chorus. Then there's the Dinosaurs, who offer up another original that sounds super familiar but is not a cover, the vocals raspy and scratchy, wound around some skittery drumming, and some fuzzy guitars, and another wicked hook. You probably remember X'lents' "Psychedelia" with its "Secret Agent Man" opening riff and some seriously kick ass psychedelic garage rock. The Dinosaurs also cover Creedence Clearwater Revivals's "Sinister Purpose" and make it their own, even more raw and fuzzed out than the original.
The 1971 installment is just as great, starting off with The Fentones' "Simla Beat Theme" which is total surf rock bliss, a littler off kilter, with some killer guitar playing, which gives way to the Nomads' "Nothing Is The Same" which begins with a dark swirling cloud of heavily effected guitar buzz, before slipping into a woozy surfy groove, then there's Hipnotic Eye's "Killing Floor, which is a dead ringer for the imaginary band the Sacred Cows from Get Smart (YouTube it!), and then there's Velvette Fogg's droned out organ heavy nearly 8 minute groover "I'm So Glad", and so it goes, like the 1970 volume, killer jam after killer jam!
Again, not sure why they split em up, cuz it's tough not to want both, but even if you choose just one, each has much to offer, although if you're music nerd obsessives like we are (and we're figuring you are), you might as well just grab 'em both...
Originally reissued some years ago as a double cd, this killer collection of Indian psychedelic garage rock, has now been split into two different compilations, delineated by date, one disc for 1970, the other for 1971, but odds are you're probably gonna want both of them anyway. If not, either one is a great place to start. Some of you may remember the Psych Funk Sa-Re-Ga! Psychedelic Funk Music In India 1976-1983 compilation we made our Record of The Week a while back, a few of those tracks were taken from these comps, but for the most part, most of this stuff is exclusive.
While Simla Beat may sound like some cool record nerd classification for Indian psych from that era, Simla was in fact a cigarette company, who recognized that besides smoking, the kids also really dug rock and roll, specifically the sort of Western influenced sounds that were bringing surf and garage rock to India, so they founded a battle of the bands, complete with an awards show with the prizes presented by Bollywood stars, and the winning songs would get released, and hence we had these Simla Beat compilations. There were rumors, that since none of these tracks feature sitar or tabla or any distinct Indian instrumentation, that they were in fact hoaxes, and that none of these bands were in fact Indian, which was obviously proven to be false, and while there may not be sitar or tabla, there is a distinctly Eastern vibe to these tracks, and the sound, as well as the various productions, definitely takes the more Western version of surf rock and garage rock and makes it into something new and exciting.
Both discs contain some killer jams, and we could easily go through both track by track, but we'll just pick out a few highlights, and there are samples below too, which you should check out, pretty hard to resist we think. Simla Beat 70 starts off with "Voice From the Inner Soul" by the Confusions, which is so good, and catchy, it sounds like it must be a cover, but as far as we can tell it's an original, crunchy guitars, fuzzy organs, a groovy stomp with a KILLER chorus. Then there's the Dinosaurs, who offer up another original that sounds super familiar but is not a cover, the vocals raspy and scratchy, wound around some skittery drumming, and some fuzzy guitars, and another wicked hook. You probably remember X'lents' "Psychedelia" with its "Secret Agent Man" opening riff and some seriously kick ass psychedelic garage rock. The Dinosaurs also cover Creedence Clearwater Revivals's "Sinister Purpose" and make it their own, even more raw and fuzzed out than the original.
The 1971 installment is just as great, starting off with The Fentones' "Simla Beat Theme" which is total surf rock bliss, a littler off kilter, with some killer guitar playing, which gives way to the Nomads' "Nothing Is The Same" which begins with a dark swirling cloud of heavily effected guitar buzz, before slipping into a woozy surfy groove, then there's Hipnotic Eye's "Killing Floor, which is a dead ringer for the imaginary band the Sacred Cows from Get Smart (YouTube it!), and then there's Velvette Fogg's droned out organ heavy nearly 8 minute groover "I'm So Glad", and so it goes, like the 1970 volume, killer jam after killer jam!
Again, not sure why they split em up, cuz it's tough not to want both, but even if you choose just one, each has much to offer, although if you're music nerd obsessives like we are (and we're figuring you are), you might as well just grab 'em both...
'70s folk legend Tim Buckley gets the tribute treatment at the hands of Mojave 3, Mark Lanegan, Tram, Dot Allison, Mike Johnson, Brendan Perry, Lilys, and a bunch of others, filling up two discs with their Buckley-love.
We've ALWAYS loved Guided By Voices. And say what you will about the hundreds, perhaps thousands of GBV songs, but on average, it's WAY more hit than miss, with many GBV records consisting of pretty much NOTHING BUT hits, like Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes. We'd actually been re-obsessing over GBV lately when whattayaknow, in honor of this year's Record Store Day came this GBV tribute compilation.
We've very skeptical of tributes, one famous band signs on and then the label fills out the record with a bunch of never-heard-of's most of which are never-really-wanted-to-hear's in the first place. And no band seems to have suffered that indignity more than GBV, with so many terrible terrible tributes. So hopes were not high for this one, until we saw some of the bands: Flaming Lips, Thurston Moore, Kelly Deal of the Breeders, Superdrag, Crooked Fingers, David Kilgour, Blitzen Trapper, Lou Barlow, Cymbals Eat Guitars, and more! And almost all of the tracks here are great, lots of them dramatically different reinterpretations, none more so that La Sera's divine version of "Watch me Jumpstart", which transforms the original into a hazy, washed out, organ drenched, half speed, girl group ballad, lush vocal harmonies, the whole thing driven by a warm whirring church organ, everything wreathed in soft focus reverb, the drums minimal but strangely powerful, the chorus a druggy crawl. So good. EASILY worth the price of admission for just that one track. But the Flaming Lips version o "Smothered In Hugs" is pretty great, as is Elf Power's "man Called Aerodynamics", and Thurston Moore's dirgey noise rock take on "Stabbing A Star", and Crooked Fingers' mostly true-to-the-original "Tractor Rape Chain", and even the uknown new-to-us outfits here step up and do GBV proud.
This was a super limited Record Store Day release, and we only have a handful left, so grab one fast before they're gone. (We also have ONE copy on vinyl, if you want it just ask, but be quick, and good luck!)
Sublime Frequencies seemingly can do no wrong. A keen ear and a deft curatorial skill means that every release is not just interesting sociologically, but is musically kick ass as well. Singapore A-Go-Go is a collection of singles recorded and released during a brief period in the sixties and seventies, when various Southeast Asian countries were bucking the stringent requirements of the Chinese state, embracing both Western pop and traditional Chinese music, which were essentially banned. Thanks to American G.I.s and Radio Free Asia, young people grew up listening to both Chinese music, and all manner of Western pop, the fact that the economy was booming, also meant that kids could afford records and record players, and musicians could afford instruments and studio time, which of course meant tons of records reflecting this classical Chinese / Western pop hybrid. The liner notes this time around are dense and fascinating, all about the time and the culture and the climate, the musicians and the proliferation of small labels, which is all just icing, on this amazing compilation of gorgeous garage-y girl group pop, the mix of cultures and sounds is definitely heady. Morricone-ish twang, soulful grooves, and sing songy traditional Chinese music will coexist peacefully and perfectly within the same song, pounding drums, whirring organs, Joe Meek style instrumental surf rock will wrap around jazzy vibraphones, and funky basslines, some songs sound like American TV show themes, others sound almost Bollywood, while still others sound like Perrey & Kingsley. Soft easy listening Lawrence Welkisms flow right into more rocking psychedelic rock, the Mission Impossible theme is reappropriated, with vocals added for a cool brooding surfy rock jam, Eastern style melodies are infused into classic sixties girl group sounds, and the vocals mostly female, are exuberant and girlish and wide eyed and playful, and make this whole collection so much fun. Like everything on Sublime Frequencies, way way way recommended!
A killer comp from the fairly new Singing Knives label, a who's who of underground cd-r artists, only a few of which we've actually heard, a bunch of which we will most definitely be trying to find more music by. Not sure exactly what the theme of this comp is, maybe all these folks have records coming out on SK, or maybe it's just a killer mix tape, either way, it's a beauty and flows really well. One of those comps that sounds like it could be the best record by the best (and obviously most eclectic) band ever....
From the super blown out ultra distorted Eastern buzz of Tirath Singh Nirmala to the haunting gypsy folk of The One Ensemble Of Daniel Padden to the murky string buzzing drone of Bridget Hayden to the burbling underwater drift of Ben Reynolds to the simple stripped down moody folk of the Feather Gatherers to the flute flecked spacey krautrocky drone (fuck yeah!!!) of the Michael Flower Band and every stop in between. Those and a handful of equally pretty and buzzy and droning tracks from Peril Hill, Chora, McWatt, Directing Hand, James Green, Inecto School, Nalle, Tau Emerald and the Big Eyes Family Players might not have you singing at the moon, but at the very least will have you in absolute headphone mixtape bliss!
This is one of those records that reminds us of how totally powerful and intense music can be, affecting people in such deep and meaningful ways. Faced with how the HIV/AIDS crisis has devastated so much of Africa, a movement in Uganda has arisen to use music, dance and performance as a means to address, educate, empower and raise awareness in the community about all aspects of the epidemic. While there are many records made for good causes, and plenty of projects with the best of intentions, this is one with music as raw, true and intense as the cause and the people it serves. The sound is mostly vocal driven a capella numbers accompanied only at times by hand claps, raw percussion, and sounds of nature. So cool. This is not some feel good watered down benefit record, the songs are powerful and have titles that translate to "Death Killed All The People", "The Graveyard Is Our Home", "AIDS Finished Us" and "Is Someone There?". The intensity and raw honesty is felt so directly in the tone and resonance of every one of these songs. Comes with a 36 page booklet filled with information and translation of all the songs, this whole collection is proof that music does have the ability to enlighten, educate and empower.
We all know that very often sequels pale in comparison to the originals. But leave it to the irresistible Sitar Beat series to throw that convention out the window. The first volume of Sitar Beat brought together their previously vinyl only releases on one cd and it became one of our most played and favorite cds of last year! Volume two keeps the fire going with 16 more totally perfect, sitar fueled, groovy 'n heavy Indian funk delights. Pulled mostly from obscure soundtracks, most of these tracks we had never heard before but we've already lost count of how many times we've listened to this since it arrived in the store a week ago and now most of them have become all time AQ faves just like that! All the obvious names are represented: R.D. Burman, Asha Bhosle, Lata Mangeshkar, Kalyanji Anandji, etc. While the tracks with vocals are all great (how could they not be with folks like Bhosle and Mangeshkar singing) but Sitar Beat is truly about the smokin' funk jam instrumentals. It just doesn't get more funky and fun than this! But it's not just kitschy fun, these are some seriously rocking jams, totally mind blowing music that reminds us once again that music can be strange and inventive yet immediate and exciting at the same time. AQ pal John Dwyer said it best when he came in while this was playing "Damn, this is hot!"
We were in absolute buzzing raga drone, funk soul heaven when we learned that those amazing and totally fun vinyl-only releases in the Sitar Beat series had now been compiled onto a cd. Most of us were never lucky enough to get the lps but now we can get our sitar funk on all the same! Chances are if you've been in the store in the last couple weeks you've heard us playing this, as this is one of those rare records that every single one of us can't help but be in love with. '60s, '70s and early '80s Bollywood jams and Indian-influenced psych-grooves HEAVY on the sitar. R.D. Burman, Ananada Shankar, Asha Bhosle, Serge Gainsbourg, Klaus Doldinger just to name a few of the responsible parties East and West who will henceforth be making your parties way more fun!!! But be prepared for tons of questions when all your friends start asking you what it is you're playing. We've been fielding those questions for weeks, but we're more then happy to answer with a simple reply: "It's Sitar Beat!..." and before we can even finish our sentence said questioner is on his or her way out the door with a copy. We rest much easier at night knowing that we're doing out small part to spread these amazing soul stirring buzzy freak funk grooves far and wide, filling ears and shaking souls!
From the label that brought us the amazing Unicorn cd-r we reviewed a while back and the WAY too limited Lhasa Shore Leave (don't ask, long gone!) comes this compilation of 'ambient music' or 'drone music', various artists exploring ambience in their own unique way, giving that glorious drift and drone we love so much subtly different spins. And the results are pretty darn amazing.
First up is Unicorn, who unleash a totally creepy and gorgeous funereal trudge through warms swells of sound and huge reverberating low end pulses, like standing on the side of a black river beneath a sky of ash, as a barge piled high with bodies drifts by. Tendrils of backward guitar drift by like smoke from funeral pyres, everything speckled with little glitchy sparkles like sun refelecting off the water.
Then comes Japanese sound technician Aube, whose modus operandi is the use of a single item or element for all the sounds on a track. This one is called "Shackle" but it's hard to imagine any sort of shackle or chain being used to produce these sounds, but Aube routinely baffles us with is deft sonic manipulation. "Shackle" is a long drawn out chorus of electronic cricket chirps floating above a dense tapestry of glistening dog whistle high end, all warped and warbly like listening through a cracked kaleidoscope.
Bastard Noise show their softer side, a surprisingly restrained (for these guys at least) rumbling swirl of hissing black metal voices, creaking, keening feedback, thick warm drones, and soft shimmering whir, definitely intense and threatening, but simultaneously gorgeous and dreamy.
Next up, Luasa Raelon, who we've never heard of, but we definitely need to hear more. A thick slab of slow swelling ambience, grand and ominous, soft distant distorted guitar shimmer drifts beside jagged slabs of muted white noise and smeared percussion. Lovely!
The next track features one man noise outift Guilty Connector teamed up with Zeni Geva guitarist Tabata for an intense and cinematic dronescape, guitars and synths and electronics, all tangled and twisted, into a long slow, low expanse of moody sonic exploration.
Finally, finishing things up is Oblong Box, who unfurl a soft subtle cavernous rumble, like feeling your way through the pitch black, whirls and whorls of dark sound and low end vibrations shimmer and spread out like ripples in a tarpit.
An essential batch of ambient drone for sure!
Compilations of vintage French pop have a way of blossoming up much to our delight, only to vanish without a trace just as quickly as they appeared. Well good news folks, we just got a bunch of new-to-us collections that have proven to have some serious staying power. Hurrah! Here is the first of five volumes of the Sixties Girls series from Magic Records, France. Cup played all five back to back, and had a full-on giddy Francophone afternoon. This fine label has been reissuing music from the '60s for years now, and they've consistently done it up right! Each comp contains at least twenty tracks digitally remastered from the original master tapes and comes packaged with cover reproductions and liner notes. This one features Christine Lebail, Agnes Loti, Christine Delaroche, Francoise Hardy and Les Petites Souris avec Pussy Cat. The ladies are dishing out the sounds of kicky Ye Ye, dreamy lounge, sultry cabaret, perky go-go and sugary girl group pop. Sure to tickle you pink!
Psst, we've also gotten in a few titles by single artists of the pop and psych varieties such as Brigitte Bardot, Triangle, Les Variations and Pussy Cat. Mon dieu, we can't get enough!
Compilations of vintage French pop have a way of blossoming up much to our delight, only to vanish without a trace just as quickly as they appeared. Well good news folks, we just got a bunch of new-to-us collections that have proven to have some serious staying power. Hurrah! Here is the second of five volumes of the Sixties Girls series from Magic Records, France. Cup played all five back to back, and had a full-on giddy Francophone afternoon. This fine label has been reissuing music from the '60s for years now, and they've consistently done it up right! Each comp contains at least twenty tracks digitally remastered from the original master tapes and comes packaged with cover reproductions and liner notes. This one features Les Roche Martin, Liz Brady, Audrey, Les Twins and Cris Carol. These ladies are dishing out the sounds of kicky Ye Ye, dreamy lounge, sultry cabaret, perky go-go and sugary girl group pop. Sure to tickle you pink!
Psst, we've also gotten in a few titles by single artists of the pop and psych varieties such as Brigitte Bardot, Triangle, Les Variations and Pussy Cat. Mon dieu, we can't get enough!
Compilations of vintage French pop have a way of blossoming up much to our delight, only to vanish without a trace just as quickly as they appeared. Well good news folks, we just got a bunch of new-to-us collections that have proven to have some serious staying power. Hurrah! Here is the third of five volumes of the Sixties Girls series from Magic Records, France. Cup played all five back to back, and had a full-on giddy Francophone afternoon. This fine label has been reissuing music from the '60s for years now, and they've consistently done it up right! Each comp contains at least twenty tracks digitally remastered from the original master tapes and comes packaged with cover reproductions and liner notes. This one features Les Roche Martin, Liz Brady, Christie Laume, Anne Kern and Ria Bartok. The ladies are dishing out the sounds of kicky Ye Ye, dreamy lounge, sultry cabaret, perky go-go and sugary girl group pop. Sure to tickle you pink!
Psst, we've also gotten in a few titles by single artists of the pop and psych varieties such as Brigitte Bardot, Triangle, Les Variations and Pussy Cat. Mon dieu, we can't get enough!
Compilations of vintage French pop have a way of blossoming up much to our delight, only to vanish without a trace just as quickly as they appeared. Well good news folks, we just got a bunch of new-to-us collections that have proven to have some serious staying power. Hurrah! Here is the fourth of five volumes of the Sixties Girls series from Magic Records, France. Cup played all five back to back, and had a full-on giddy Francophone afternoon. This fine label has been reissuing music from the '60s for years now, and they've consistently done it up right! Each comp contains at least twenty tracks digitally remastered from the original master tapes and comes packaged with cover reproductions and liner notes. This one features four single-named gals Clothilde, Cleo, Celine and ZouZou. They're dishing out the sounds of kicky Ye Ye, dreamy lounge, sultry cabaret, perky go-go and sugary girl group pop. Sure to tickle you pink!
Psst, we've also gotten in a few titles by single artists of the pop and psych varieties such as Brigitte Bardot, Triangle, Les Variations and Pussy Cat. Mon dieu, we can't get enough!
Compilations of vintage French pop have a way of blossoming up much to our delight, only to vanish without a trace just as quickly as they appeared. Well good news folks, we just got a bunch of new-to-us collections that have proven to have some serious staying power. Hurrah!
Here is the fifth of five volumes of the Sixties Girls series from Magic Records, France. Cup played all five back to back, and had a full-on giddy Francophone afternoon. This fine label has been reissuing music from the '60s for years now, and they've consistently done it up right! Each comp contains at least twenty tracks digitally remastered from the original master tapes and comes packaged with cover reproductions and liner notes. This one features Christine Pilzer, Elsa Leroy, Vetty and Elsa. The ladies are dishing out the sounds of kicky Ye Ye, dreamy lounge, sultry cabaret, perky go-go and sugary girl group pop. Sure to tickle you pink!
Psst, we've also gotten in a few titles by single artists of the pop and psych varieties such as Brigitte Bardot, Triangle, Les Variations and Pussy Cat. Mon dieu, we can't get enough!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
One-minute tunes by Don Caballero, Duotron, Zeena Parkins, Elliot Sharp, Chris Cochrane, etc.
The "Skampler" was originally curated by Skam and Linus Booth (now of Phonics Distribution) for Silent Records as a collection of the best tracks from the very hard to find early singles from Skam -- one of the UK's premiere IDM / electronica labels. With
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Skull Disco is dead. Hence this sonic gravestone, collecting a handful of the label's last few 12"s on one disc, and some remixes on the other. Definitely one of the most kick ass and ground breaking electronic labels of the last few years (certainly one of our favorites) Skull Disco took dubstep, minimal techno, and various other electronic offshoots and created their own incredibly distinct sound, murky and skittery, mysterious and otherworldly, with deep rumbling bass, skeletal rhythms, and the occasional vocal, usually some strange deep voice intoning rather than singing, making the sound even more ominous and harrowing. And while that sound is most definitely dubstep, as we mentioned in our review of the first collection, the sound is equally indebted to Muslimgauze, On-U-Sound and Spectre. Heck a few years ago, and Shackleton would probably have been putting out records on WordSound!
Shuffling abstract beats, rumbling bass, subtle shadings and effects, these are low slung late night grooves. More chillout than dancefloor, more dub really than dubstep. Some tracks get a little Kompakt, but even then, it's dialed WAY back, tinted windows, tinted shades, dark corner of the club, cruising moonlit streets, hanging out under bridges, gathered around flickering fires, this is brooding moody midnight shit. So good. Not sure what else to say, if you bought the other one (and if you didn't, why the heck not?!) you're need this one too, if you've been into all the dubstep we've been listing, you'll probably want this too, or if you're just looking for some killer dark anti-dance music, or some chill out bliss out drift off lullabies, then this will do the trick.
But wait! What about the second disc? All the remixes, some previously released, but others available for the first time. The Pole mix is a killer, and as unlikely as it may seem, it's LESS minimal than the original, the Rupture mix is cool too, but way too short at 2 minutes. Other remixers include T++. Geiomix, Brendan Moller, Bass Clef, Badawi and others, nothing too dramatic, just subtle variations on the original, the Badawi maybe being our favorite, looooong at 12+ minutes, and super spare, super dark, mostly drums, the sounds processed and effected, the whole thing even more dubbed out than the original!
Packaged in a super striking oversized mini gatefold lp style cd sleeve, with that immediately recognizable Skull Disco artwork.
Dub is all about the bass. The darker and more cavernous the better. The more you feel it, the more your fillings rattle, the better. So it makes sense that the same would hold true for dubstep, but maybe to an even greater degree, as the sound of dubstep is even more spare and skeletal than dub, leaving nearly nothing except for the rhythm and the bass.
Soundboy Punishments collects the first 5 vinyl releases from UK label Skull Disco on cd for the first time, and while ostensibly this stuff is dubstep, it almost sounds more like Muslimgauze or old On-U sound stuff or even Spectre at times, but way more stripped down, way heavier, and with the sort of massive undulating bass that washes over everything like a thick black wave.
The first 5 12"s on Skull Disco, split pretty evenly between the artists Shackleton and Appleblim (with one track from Gatekeeper) are all epic slabs of blown out bass heavy skitter, with blurry distant synth and little Eastern flourishes, as well as the occasional dubbed out vocal, smeared into blurred ripples of reverb. Super abstract and minimal, hypnotic and groovy, the beats and shuffling and subtle, not the huge pounding of 'traditional' dubstep, or the manic grind of jungle, instead, the sound is laid waaaaaaay back. A sort of more modern digi-dub, varied percussion, tablas, hand drums, all woven into simple rhythmic frameworks, always with a rumbling low end pulse lurking right beneath the surface, until part way in, the bass DROPS, and suddenly everything has changed, what was a lazy lope is transformed into a throbbing lurch, a wall of gut churning low end, fuzzy and distorted and blown out, sounding almost like the hardest jungle track ever, slooooooooowed way down. The first disc is pretty blissed out, hard to imagine these tracks filling dancefloors, although they have been, it sounds more like music to get wasted, and sort of just lounge about, head nodding, the vibrations washing over you. With all the hype about this disc and these tracks, initially we were a bit let down, but gradually, this has grown on us like crazy to the point where we pretty much don't ever want to listen to anything else.
The second disc is where it gets weirder, and a bit harder, featuring unreleased cuts as well as non-Skull Disco tracks, including the long anticipated nearly twenty minute mix of Shackleton's "Blood On My Hands" by Ricardo Villalobos. Anyone who dug that last Villalobos disc, Fizheuer Zieheuer will definitely dig this. Simple shuffling and ultra minimal pulses, stretched out endlessly, so dark and hypnotic, with slow shifting synths in the background. Our only complaint are the vocals, a slowed down mysterious voice intoning apocryphal lyrics over almost the whole song, a la Spectre or the last Plastikman record, it's a little distracting, and we have to say we probably would have liked it without, but even so, it's beginning to growing on us too. The rest of the second disc is like a supercharged version of disc one, more synths, thicker bass, stranger arrangements and creepier melodies, a lot more like slowed down jungle, with heavy beats and reverb and delay everywhere, the more laid back abstract cuts definitely remind us of the Bush Chemists, a totally druggy and dreamy outerspace dub. So good. And based solely on how much this gets played in the shop, this just might be a brand new unanimous AQ fave.
Packaged in a cool, creepy black and white cardboard sleeve that looks way more metal that electronica...
WAY recommended.
The home silkscreened sleeves make this 10" Siltbreeze sampler seem like it could have been just some old record discovered in a beat up cardboard box in the corner of some musty warehouse, the ink a little smeary, the sleeves a little rough around the edges, hand stamped, simple black on black skull cover, but have a peep at some of the names, Sic Alps, Kurt Vile, Dan Melchior... as well as some new to us outfits like Chickins, Tommy Jay Band and of course Puffy Areolas.
This is primo Siltbreeze lo-fi garage rock / sludge pop / whatever, from the super distorted garage murk of Dan Melchior, to the reverby stomp of Chickins, to the super distorted atonal stumbling groove of the Tommy Jay Band, to the surprisingly catchy lo-fi power pop of the Puffy Areolas, to the dreamy bedroom folk strum of Sic Alps, to the big classic rock via druggy garage pop blowout of Kurt Vile and his Violators, we're digging ALL of this. Big time.
What we're NOT digging though is the price, oof, but what can you do? It's probably crazy limited, 300 copies we think, we got all we could and that's not that many, plus they seem to have all been hand screened and stamped, and hell, the songs are pretty bad ass, and they're are all exclusive tracks as far as we can tell, so your call, for some folks, $25 won't be that steep a price to pay for these jams, and considering how fast these have been selling, you might not have to worry about that for long anyway...
Looks like, at least until folks run out of appropriate puns, we can count on more and more collections of skweee being released, thank god. We love the skeeee! It's a marvelous micro-genre that wouldn't exist without the '80s, video games, hip-hop, and the internet. Damaged, DIY retro-electro futurefunk that's spread from Scandinavia to a bevy of eccentric enthusiasts elsewhere across the globe, as this double lp Skweee Cruise proves. Released on the Poisonous Gases label from up in Portland, Oregon, who have previously brought us 7"s by such artists as skweee pro Daniel Savio and up-and-comer Lazercrotch.
We hope you're already as much into skweee as we are (a lot!). In which case, you will definitely want this exskweeellent comp. But it's not just for skweee obsessives like us, it'd be a good intro to skweee as well. From itchy, glitchy popping and locking grooves to moody synthscapes for sipping on gin and juice to some Middle Eastern exotica flavored cuts (a skweee sub-specialty), taking this cruise will help you get your "skweee-legs", that's for sure!
The eighteen new tracks spread across the four sides of this compilation include contributions from vets like Limonious, Daniel Savio, Joxaren, and Randy Barracuda (here under another moniker, The Golden Retrievers!). Plus there's plenty of funky folks fresh to us, including the first example of Japanese skweee of which we've heard (Shitaraba). The full line-up also includes: Coco Bryce, Easy & The Center Of The Universe, Razorsnatch, Boss Kite, Simple, Ben Butler & Mousepad, MO, Slow Hand Motem, mir, Michael Bruce, Wankers United, Hybakusha, and V.C. & Luc B.
Gatefold vinyl, LIMITED TO 300 COPIES ONLY!!!
Pretty soon it won't be so skweeeasy to come up with good skweee-puns... As you may know, we definitely do have a sweet tooth (or, rather, ear) for skweee and thus are super stoked about this new compilation, which is totally in the tradition of the Museum Of Future Sound Vol. 1 and 2 comps we freaked out about last year and the year before... in fact, this may as well be Museum Of Future Sound Volume 3 (Volume Skweee?), 'cause the same Skweeedish, we mean Swedish label that brought us those, Flogsta Danshall, teamed up with the UK's Ramp Recordings to release this new collection, featuring tracks selected by Flogsta boss and skweee artist Pavan.
The vitality and variety of the cheeky skweee scene is certainly on display here. Some tracks are more dancey, some more minimal, some more chaotic. But it's all within the skweee realm of (mostly) instrumental, wacked out, synth damaged, chiptune-y, sometimes silly, glitchy grooves inspired by '80s electro, hiphop and video games. There's 13 cuts of that special Scandinavian DIY retrofuturefunk here, quite a few by names we already knew (Mesak, Liminous, Daniel Savio, Rigas Den Andre, Joraxen, Spartan Lover, Wankers United, Mrs. Queda) plus a few others we didn't (Beatbully, V.C., Easy & Center Of The Universe, Melkevlen, Slow Hand Motem). These skweee-boys bring it. Squelchy sizzly synths, 8-bit action, plenty of distortion, and fractured funk beats. It's the playfulness and fuckedupedness of skweee that made us love it so (plus that fact that the shit's so darn catchy), and you get plenty of all that on Skweee Tooth.
The compilation gets off to a surefire start with Easy & Center Of The Universe's cleverly titled "Legend Of Selda". Geddit, computer game geeks? That's right, the track takes the melody from a song we know we've heard before by '70s Turkish folkpsych singer Selda, one of the AQ crew's faves, and turns into skweee! ALL the tracks here are cool, though, ranging from the shuffle of "Frisco Bum" by Liminous, to the very video-gamey "Liikutuksla" by Mrs.Queda, to "Distordelle", a thick, woozy one from Rigas Den Andre. One of the more manic, glitched out grooves is "Sex With A Woman" by Spartan Lover, with Joraxen's frantic "Fel I Facit" running a close second. Much moodier (skweee can be that too, actually) and more abstract is "Melkevlen" by Melkevlen Ft. Sagtann. And then at the very end of the disc, the crackly "Idea" by Slow Hand Motem surprises by including some mellow male vocals, alongside a synth lick that echoes the Middle Eastern psych element of Skweee Tooth's opening track. Heck we could go on about 'em all. There's never a dull moment, it's always wonderfully off-kilter, definitely fun stuff.
In a world where electronic music can sometimes take itself too seriously, all academic and IDM and Ars Electronica and everything, the unpretentious pun-loving skweee is a breath of fresh air, just what was skweeeded. More, please!
(And we promise, no puns next time, we couldn't possibly think of too many others anyway....ok one more: if one of these artists came over and did a tour of the States, we could say they were cross-country skweeeing!).
This is the first in a series of Bureau B releases, designed to shine a spotlight on the kinds of music the label specialize in, a sort of reissue sampler, highlighting tracks from various reissues on Bureau B. On each compilation, a modern musician curates a collection highlighting some of their favorites, and for the inaugural installment, the choice of Tim Gane from Stereolab seems like a no brainer, since Stereolab essentially trafficked in unabashed krautrock (especially Neu!) worship, thus, for Kollektion 1, Gane digs deep into the archives of legendary seventies krautrock label Sky Records, just check out the artists: Hans Joachim Roedelius, Moebius, Cluster, Gunter Schickert, Eno, Michael Rother, Beerbohm, Asmus Tietchens, Riechmann, it definitely has aQuarius written all over it. And the song selection is pretty ace too, there's the woozy, melancholic pulsating space music of Asmus Tietchens' opening track, the motorik guitar-groove of Michael Rother's "Feuerland", Eno's oozing psychedelic kraut-pop epic "The Belldog", Moebius' jaunty and playful "Conditionierer", the hushed kraut folk of Schickert's "In Der Zeit", a skeletal ballad wreathed in birdsong, Roedelius' swirling prismatic synths cape "Geradewohl", Riechmann's "Himmelblau" a soaring kosmische kraut symphony, and on and on and on. Every track here a gem, and in some ways, a pretty perfect krautrock primer. Can't wait for future installments, with the next few curated by Lloyd Cole, Richard Fearless from Death In Vegas and Holger Hiller. Includes notes on each artists, as well as liner notes by Asmus Tietchens.
On a single cd, or split between two volumes on vinyl.
This is the first in a series of Bureau B releases, designed to shine a spotlight on the kinds of music the label specialize in, a sort of reissue sampler, highlighting tracks from various reissues on Bureau B. On each compilation, a modern musician curates a collection highlighting some of their favorites, and for the inaugural installment, the choice of Tim Gane from Stereolab seems like a no brainer, since Stereolab essentially trafficked in unabashed krautrock (especially Neu!) worship, thus, for Kollektion 1, Gane digs deep into the archives of legendary seventies krautrock label Sky Records, just check out the artists: Hans Joachim Roedelius, Moebius, Cluster, Gunter Schickert, Eno, Michael Rother, Beerbohm, Asmus Tietchens, Riechmann, it definitely has aQuarius written all over it. And the song selection is pretty ace too, there's the woozy, melancholic pulsating space music of Asmus Tietchens' opening track, the motorik guitar-groove of Michael Rother's "Feuerland", Eno's oozing psychedelic kraut-pop epic "The Belldog", Moebius' jaunty and playful "Conditionierer", the hushed kraut folk of Schickert's "In Der Zeit", a skeletal ballad wreathed in birdsong, Roedelius' swirling prismatic synths cape "Geradewohl", Riechmann's "Himmelblau" a soaring kosmische kraut symphony, and on and on and on. Every track here a gem, and in some ways, a pretty perfect krautrock primer. Can't wait for future installments, with the next few curated by Lloyd Cole, Richard Fearless from Death In Vegas and Holger Hiller. Includes notes on each artists, as well as liner notes by Asmus Tietchens.
On a single cd, or split between two volumes on vinyl.
This is the first in a series of Bureau B releases, designed to shine a spotlight on the kinds of music the label specialize in, a sort of reissue sampler, highlighting tracks from various reissues on Bureau B. On each compilation, a modern musician curates a collection highlighting some of their favorites, and for the inaugural installment, the choice of Tim Gane from Stereolab seems like a no brainer, since Stereolab essentially trafficked in unabashed krautrock (especially Neu!) worship, thus, for Kollektion 1, Gane digs deep into the archives of legendary seventies krautrock label Sky Records, just check out the artists: Hans Joachim Roedelius, Moebius, Cluster, Gunter Schickert, Eno, Michael Rother, Beerbohm, Asmus Tietchens, Riechmann, it definitely has aQuarius written all over it. And the song selection is pretty ace too, there's the woozy, melancholic pulsating space music of Asmus Tietchens' opening track, the motorik guitar-groove of Michael Rother's "Feuerland", Eno's oozing psychedelic kraut-pop epic "The Belldog", Moebius' jaunty and playful "Conditionierer", the hushed kraut folk of Schickert's "In Der Zeit", a skeletal ballad wreathed in birdsong, Roedelius' swirling prismatic synths cape "Geradewohl", Riechmann's "Himmelblau" a soaring kosmische kraut symphony, and on and on and on. Every track here a gem, and in some ways, a pretty perfect krautrock primer. Can't wait for future installments, with the next few curated by Lloyd Cole, Richard Fearless from Death In Vegas and Holger Hiller. Includes notes on each artists, as well as liner notes by Asmus Tietchens.
On a single cd, or split between two volumes on vinyl.
Northern European tribute to Slayer, with ferocious covers by Dissection, At The Gates, Enslaved, Edge of Sanity and seven others.
Not one, but two cds of Iron Maiden covers! The 26 bands who took on the challenge of this tribute range from the well-known to the utterly obscure (well, ok, the most famous name on here is Sebastian Bach...you know, the former Skid Row singer, who belts out an admirable version of "Children of the Damned"). Many of the bands take a very straight approach to interpreting these metal classics but there are a few weirder ones, like the unknown (to us) Finnish band Hoyry-Kone doing "The Trooper" with trombone, cello, and saxophone; and Japanese doom metallers Eternal Elyisium's stoned, almost reggae-inflected but super heavy version of "Innocent Exile". Other participants: Solstice, Electric Frankenstein, Wardog, Crowbar, Iron Savior, Warhorse, The Quill, etc. A fun compilation that will soon have you dragging out the actual Maiden wax for sure.
We have so man fond indie rock memories from the '90s. So many labels that came to birth and put out the 7"s that got us through many a summer and school year. The Pacific Northwest in particular always had a crazy amount of indie labels taking their cues from Sub-Pop and forging ahead with a love of all things indie, putting so much love and care into their releases and sharing the sounds of some bands that would later become much more well known. Suicide Squeeze is one of these labels. Starting out primarily as a 7" label, they have expanded over the years and are now a pretty serious label. Celebrating their 10th birthday they've released a 2-disc collection of previously released songs as well as some unreleased tracks. Modest Mouse, Elliott Smith, Iron & Wine, Of Montreal, Hella, The Black Heart Procession, The Unicorns, 764-Hero, The Aislers Set, Black Mountain, Les Savy Fav, The Melvins, Red Stars Theory, and that's only like half the bands included. This is pretty much essential for those wanting a crash course in indie rock over the last ten years or those who might have taken a little break from indie rock. A pretty great way to relive a decade of indie rock's best and brightest.
Another new disc from Locust's Latitude imprint. This one, recorded by Yayehe Smon, documents a trip he and his brother took along with their father to Ethiopia. Being good documentarians they brought their recorders and started rolling tape (well, more likely they brought their mini-disc recorders and burned a lot of discs, but it doesn't slide off the tongue as well.) Five of the eight tracks here are from children and teens, some of them singing as they play in the streets, either spontaneously making up songs or singing a capella cover versions of local hits. The first track, sung by a nine year old girl, is reason enough to own the cd. She has to have the most insane vocal chords and singing technique in the world. We certainly haven't heard anything like it before. Imagine if Buffy Saint Marie (ie: super fast and intense vibrato) took up yodelling and you kind of get the idea. Except that she's singing this soulful Amharic tune with a melody that leaps all over the place. Never heard anything like it. The other songs by children, whether singing solo or in groups, are accompanied by fiddle. Of the non-children tracks, there's a nice solo flute piece performed by a blind beggar, a peasant singing as he threshes wheat, and one of a professional itinerant male/female duo with accordian accompaniment.
Interesting compilation of recordings from the 20's and 30's which have in common the Hawaiian steel guitar as their backbone. From as early as 1916 Hawaiian music had become an obsession not only in the U.S. but throughout the world, and by the 20's ukuleles and steel guitars were out-selling guitars for many manufacturers. What is documented here are recordings of Hawaiian influenced hokum blues, calypso, country, jazz, as well as straight up Hawaiian music, captured in France, Greece, China, Argentina and the U.S.
Sixteen of the incredibly rare 7" tracks used by DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist on their recent Brainfreeze performances. (It's just the tracks mind you, no mixing or scratching involved here.) This is a very strong collection. Incredible funk and raw soul and
If you wept when you missed out on the DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist "Brainfreeze" live 7" extravaganza cd last year, and then jumped for joy when "Slurped Vol. One" compiled a stack of those very 7"s, well, jump a little higher baby 'cause there's more where that
From the same label that brought us the latest from Tarentel mainman Jefre Cantu-Ledesma and the collected works of The Alps (both reviewed elsewhere on this list) comes this compilation called Small Melodies. And that is precisely what this is, each artist was asked to contribute a piece of music which represented their interpretation of small melodies, given simple guidelines such as "warm" and "calm" and the results are absolutely lovely. Exactly what you might imagine a record of warm, calm, small melodies might sound like. Each artist offers his own particular sound, but they all work surprisingly well together as a whole, a bit like a more varied Pop Ambient compilation, or how you might imagine a Morr Music Pop Ambient record would sound. Lots of familiar faces, Oren Ambarchi, Ultra Milkmaids, Stephan Mathieu, Taylor Deupree, Sogar, Tape, but even more unfamiliar ones: Naph, Aen, Mondii, RdL, Fenton...
Glistening expanses of digital glitch and sparkling drift, fuzzy muted melodies buried under thick swirls of dreamlike fuzz, blissed out post rock splintered into drifting shards of soft focus melody, ultra abstract field recordings wrapped in barely there drones, digital abstractions smeared into warm bleary blurs, thick swells of sound like distant bells wrapped in thick sheets of reverb, pretty pop pulled under a slowly spreading swirl of otherworldly thrum, wheezing accordions and intricate steel string fingerpicking tangled up in strange alien bleep and buzz, every track is the perfect soundtrack to a dream, the whole record an all night drift through a warm and calm world of small melodies.
Packaged in a cool, sleek oversized digipak style folder, with striking silver foil printing on white matte background.
Wow! Completely delightful soundtrack to the movie contains awesome reworkings of classic rock and roll: Edwin Starr's War performed by Bone Thugs'n'Harmony, Queen's Another One Bites the Dust remixed by Fugees' Wyclef Jean, Pat Benatar's Love is a Battlefield with additional vocals by Queen Latifah, The Pretenders' My City Was Gone with additional vocals by Kool Keith, Rush's Tom Sawyer remixed by AQ-fave Z-Trip, and more. It's really good!
Smalltown Supersound is a Norwegian label that defines itself by the artists on the label and not through a unifying aesthetic; yet, they've decided to release a sampler of all of their artists, from the minimalistic and pulsing sounds of Elektro Nova/Electro Nova, to the melancholic beauty of Continental Fruit, to the abstract electronics of Lasse Marhaug, to Jazzkammer's glitch electronica, to Kim Hiorthoy's wonderful and warm mixture of the organic and the electronic, and to the slow, beautiful and hypnotic sound of Monopot. ----* ----* Nonesuch Explorer Titles! : ----*
This long in the works comp features a bunch of underground outfits, some aQ faves, but way more unknown to us weirdos, all tackling their favorite top 40 jams, and we're not talking contemporary, we're talking top 40 as far back as anyone cared to go. Some of the names we know: Alvarius B, Amps For Christ, Carla Bozulich, Dennis Callaci from Refrigerator, R. Stevie Moore, Simon Joyner, Wckr Spgt, but there's THIRTY THREE MORE! Including: Marmits, Treasure Mammal, Key Losers, Captain Ahab, Nicole Kidman (not THAT one), Pregnant, The Receptionists, Knight Rider (not that one, at least we don't think so), Clark 8, Gulliver, Thundersnail and obviously loads more.
But the song choice is pretty crazy too, Bananarama's "Cruel Summer", Avril Lavigne's "Sk8er Boi", John Lennon's "Woman", the Beach Boys' "Kokomo", Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want To Have Fun", Yes' "Owner Of A Lonely Heart", Blondie's "Heart Of Glass", Dolly Parton's "9 To 5", Talking Heads' "Burning Down The House", R.E.M.'s "Everybody Hurts", Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up", Foo Fighter's "Everlong", and tons more, lots of songs we recognize but don't know who did them originally, and then plenty that we MIGHT have known, but here are so warped it's pretty much impossible to tell.
Some of our favorites? Amps For Christ covering John Lennon, which other than the warbly background buzz, is actually a pretty straight cover, Alvarius B does a seriously intense version of a song called "Prisoner", no idea whose song it is, but it sounds like it could be an Alvarius original! Someone called Whitman transforms the Foo Fighters' anthemic "Everlong", into a creepy, minor key lo-fi ballad, rife with moaning strings and warbly vocals, giving the song a whole different vibe. Simon Joyner does a darkly delicate version of Dream Academy's "Life In A Northern Time", which again, sounds like it could be his own song, creepy and dreamy. Pregnant Rick rolls us in the best possible way, with a super murky elecro-flecked slo-mo creep reimaging of "Never Gonna Give You Up". The best tracks here are the ones that DO sound like originals. Or sound JUST different enough from the original to make them new and exciting. There are plenty of goofball moments too, Wckr Spgt doing Yes, singing in falsettos is definitely one, and lots of damaged outsider freakiness, but for every WTF moment, there's a carefully crafted reinterpretation, and in many cases, hearing songs you may have grown to hate, recast as bizarre homebrewed sonic concoctions is all it takes to get you to fall in love with the song all over again (at least this new version). Cool, warped, fun and fucked up stuff.
Comes packaged in a super spiffy oversized plastic clamshell case, with full color artwork, and a download code!
What better way to celebrate the 20th anniversary of your record label? Well if you you're Shrimper, home to the Mountain Goats, Sentridoh, Amps For Christ, Dump, Herman Dune, Refrigerator, Woods and loads more, you get some of those bands, and about 35 more, and you have them all cover songs by arguably your least popular artist, WCKR SPGT! Make sense? Of course it doesn't, but that's not the point. The real point is that WCKR SPGT were, and are awesome, and have been Shrimper mainstays since day one, so they wrote 36 brand new songs, sent them to all their friends, and had said friends record them however they wanted, and this is the result, a gloriously sprawling tribute to the last 20 years of low fidelity sound making, late night tape dubbing, and the power of DIY.
Some of the names here will definitely be familiar, Sentridoh, The Mountain Goats, Refrigerator, Breathlizor, Primordial Undermind, The Ah Club, Amps For Christ, Simon Joyner, Jad Fair, Soul-Junk, and those songs are indeed awesome, but so are any and all of the other 27 jams. But yeah, the Sentridoh track, nicely titled "Smooth Sounds For Your Fucking Face", sounds like it could have been pulled off a cassette from the nineties, lyrics and all, Soul-Junk's WCKR SPGT is all chaotic noise rock, laced with clouds of electronic noise and crumbling distortion, super lo-fi (of course), completely ramshackle, and wicked catchy, the Mountain Goats track is all acoustic guitar and vocals (again of course), but here augmented by cool tremolo guitar, some lush harmonies, not at all the lo-fi boombox howling of old, Refrigerator sounds like Refrigerator, those sad man vocals over trash can drums, detuned guitars, all wrapped in a cloud of tape hiss, with what almost sounds like cello (!), Jad Fair offers some rambling wisdom, over chicken scratch guitars, and a thumping looped rhythm, Amps for Christ transforms WCKR SPGT into twisted and warped electro-Jesus-folk, Breathilizor are as dumb and genius as always, spewing ridiculous lyrics over classic metal riffage, and on and on and on and on...
Some of our new favorites are Peephole Circus, sound like an extra lo-fi take on nineties math/noise rock, their WCKR track crazy catchy, Alan Smithee's woozy jangly drone pop, which is slowly overtaken by strange pulsing electronics, and faux strings, a seriously twisted hybrid that sounds awesome, Golden Boots whose track sounds like it could be the intro music to Mystery Science Theater 3000, with it's strange processed vox, and sing songy melody, Kukunuku's warbly creepy garbled mumbledrone dreaminess, sounding a bit like Ween, the Uncalled For with their fuzzy garage rock stomp...
This all just reminds us that Shrimper, and all the bands that sail with her, still rule, as much as when we were ordering $2 tapes through the mail in the early nineties. The cd features funny liner notes from Shrimper rockstar Franklin Bruno, and a super swank textured paper insert, the tape offers an appropriately more lo-fi and liner noteless version, and if the above raving didn't already spell it out for you, SUPER RECOMMENDED.
An amazing and elaborately packaged vinyl compilation of tracks originally released on the infamous Snatch Tape Compilations, volumes one through three, which were first released way back in the late seventies / early eighties. Some familiar names: David Jackman of Organum, Storm Bugs, Philip Sanderson (who also put together this comp) as well as some names we've never heard or seen before: Alien Brains, The N4's, Orior and more. The interesting thing, is sonically, almost all of these tracks could be some strange cd-r micro release from two weeks ago. It's hard to believe these tracks are from more than 25 years ago. Not sure whether it speaks to the prescience of these artists, or the mighty debt today's crop of noisemakers owe to those that came before. Probably a little of both.
Needless to say, this will appeal to fans of the modern field of limited cd-r label free noise ambient sound makers, Celebrate Psi Phenomenon, PseudoArcana, Digitalis, if you've been loving all that stuff, this will absolutely hit the spot.
Jackman offers up "Blues", which is indeed some sort of blues, but dense with buzzing steel strings and distant clatter, The Storm Bugs unfurl huge slabs of cavernous rumble and whir, a little Dead C, a little Organum, some wailing crooned vocals drift in and out, everything doused in reverb, Sanderson unleashes some strange alien new wave, muted drum machine rhythms, bloopy synths buried under fog horn bass rumble, primitive FX swirl and swoop, everything wrapped in a crumbling lo-fi ambience. Other tracks explore damaged synths, garbled vocals, primitive Plunderphonic soundscapes, malfunctioning electronics, and all manner of abstract lo-fi buzz.
Pressed on outrageously thick vinyl, and packaged in a gorgeous sleeve, matte finished with subtle embossing. So nice. LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, each sleeve hand numbered.
An international electronic compilation from Canadian label Suction that features "Robot Music" by Lali Puna, Lowfish, Solvent, David Kristian, and Pest(e).
Volume Two of an international electronic compilation series from Canadian label Suction. This one features more "Robot Music" by isan, Pluxus, Lowfish, Solvent, G.D.Luxxe, D'Carangelo, Tinfoil Teakettle, Brioche Kretzaal, Pest(e), Perspects, and Skanfrom.
The latest compilation from Arthur Magazine's Bastet imprint wears that magazines politics on its sleeve on this collection of obvious and not so obvious protest songs. A lot of familiar names on this one -- Devendra Banhart, Feathers, Diane Cluck, Pajo, Josephine Foster and Matt Valentine. While the less obvious protest songs including Meg Baird's sublime "Western Red Lily" will probably resonate longer over time, there is something extremely exhilarating about the urgency of songs such as Charlie Nothing's "Fuck You and Your Stupid Wars", and Andrew Bar's "Don't Trust That Man". Play this often and loud!
