[ aquarius records — Compilation Split ]

V/ASpace And Time(Hotflush)cd$ 21.00

Cool comp collecting the current crop of NY underground hipster nosieniks. Exclusive tracks from the No Neck Blues Band, Sightings, Terrestrial Tones (feturing Black Dice/Animal Collective folks), Enos Slaughter (NNCK/Sunburned Hand Of The Man folks), Breast Fed Yak and a bunch more.

MPEG stream: For Russia With Love
MPEG stream: Experimental Farm
MPEG stream: Born That Way

Everyone knows we at aQuarius love us some comps. That much should be clear on pretty much any list, and lately we've gotten some interesting compilations that place a new and different emphasis on things instead of merely throwing together a bunch of great tracks from whatever genre. The ones that stand out the clearest are the recent Dirty Water albums, which include artists who aren't necessarily "punk" in the '77 studded leather jacket way, but undoubtedly punk as fuck in their iconoclastic assault on the status quo. That's why you'll find Albert Ayler next to Captain Beefheart and Mott the Hoople, artists that inspired the great big giant fuck you to society that we all know and love. With Spacelines, we have a particularly intriguing batch of tunes put together by none other than Sonic Boom himself, and anyone in love with Spacemen 3, Spectrum, or Spiritualized (sorry Sonic!) will most likely dig this shit BIG TIME. It all makes perfect sense and while it's a bummer that there is no information about anybody here, they are for the most part familiar enough that you should already know what they're about or not have any trouble finding all the relevant info. Instead, this comp is a bit like hanging out and burning one down with your ol' buddy Sonic Boom. The album kicks off with the Staples Singers' "This May Be The Last Time", the obvious roots for the Stones song and a clear influence on the Spacemen 3, sounding a lot like their rendition of "May The Circle Be Unbroken". Bo Diddley is next with "You Don't Care", a classic albeit stripped to the bare bones example of the man's trademark rhythm, its minimal approach clearly a huge influence on a band like Spacemen 3. "Transparent Radiation", which we described as perhaps one of Spacemen 3's finest moments, is presented here by its authors the Red Crayola in a super bare demo form. It's funny hearing Mayo Thompson singing with a sort of fey vocal and laughing from time to time. There are also contributions from Washington Phillips and Jessie Mae Hemphill, who should be familiar to many of you from recent Mississippi Records titles. Other highlights include "Can't Let Go" by Evie Sands (the melody of which was utilized with completely stellar results in Spectrum's "How You Satisfy Me"), Juicy Lucy with their swampy original version of "Just One Time" covered by Spacemen 3 as "Mary Anne", Daniel Johnston, MC5, and northwest garage legends the Wailers. At 23 songs on a single cd, this one may be perfect for those who might have had difficulty gulping down the massive double disc Dirty Water sets. All in all, a seriously kick ass collection, one that proves how many of the greatest bands are perhaps, more than anything else, great interpreters.

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Here's a disc we'd definitely recommend to those of you who love exploring the realms of hitherto unknown (we'd assume, pretty much) '60s and early '70s garage/psych bands from overseas. In this case, from Spain, which seems to be the land of hot reissue action lately. 23 tracks in total taken from rare 45s, ranging from poppy psych to heavy-duty hard rockers. There's lots of wild, fuzzed-out groovers here! Including the stompin', super-distorted but also totally bubblegum rockin' of Cafe Con Leche, whose "Land of Light" sounds like the Jackson Five run through a giant fuzz pedal. Other faves include the off-the-rails Deep Purplish bludgeon of Storm, Los Roller's Creamier-than-thou Spanish-language "Camino Cortado", and the raucous psychedelic R&B belted out by Clock, among others. Si senor, plenty to dig on this comp for sure. The booklet includes band photos, sleeve shots, and liner notes in both English and Spanish.

MPEG stream: De La Ceca A La Meca
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Like prog? Like psych? Well hey, check it out, the bands on this comp are all what the compilers consider to be "prog/psych", a hybrid that flourished circa '69-'72 as the psychedelic sixties transitioned into the progressive rock era of the seventies. Give a listen and you'll see what they mean, even if such musical taxonomy is a generally vague pursuit. The deal there is that even though prog is known as an album-oriented genre, that didn't stop bands who hoped to make the Top of the Pops from cutting some killer singles, obscure though they may be (fortunately each track is annotated in the cd booklet with a few tidbits of information). The bands, all from the UK, include: The Rats, Rescue No.1, Triconderoga, Eire Apparent, Rumplestiltskin, The Imposters, Glass Managerie, The Open Mind, Nancy, The Montanas, Raw Material, Opus (who do a dead-on rip-off of Led Zep), Putney Bridge, The Fruit Machine, Andromeda, Rumble, Rare Bird, and Walrus. Many of 'em we've never heard of before, though we certainly do remember the Triconderoga track ("Speaking My Mind") from the excellent Cherrystones Rocks compilation Lo Recordings put out a while back. If you liked that comp, or the "hairy funk" of Andy Votel's Vertigo Mixed cd, this may also be up your alley. Lots of organ grooves, wailing vocals, fuzzed out guitars, and catchy beats make the scene here. Bombastic horn sections, sweet melodies, and heavy riffs all coexist in these tracks. Maybe the so-called "prog/psych" documented here truly is a long-lost hybrid genre of music, nobody does stuff like this anymore do they??

MPEG stream: Magic Potion
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This double disc compilation is a music geek time machine. For a handful of you, these collected singles will immediately tranport you right back to your bedroom, where you'll find yourself laying on your bed, headphones on, a messy pile of 7"s spread out on the bed in front of you, as you meticulously assemble the perfect mixtape. And for those of you who somehow missed out on this stuff, holy shit are you in for a treat! Some of the best singles ever released on the super cool No. 6 label, run by legendary A&R man Terry Tolkin. Highlights include the two Ornament tracks, which was a short lived group featuring the Afghan Whigs and Marcy Mays of Scrawl, doing a killer cover of "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow", appearing here on cd for the first time, the very first Dwarves single, a filthy, heavy drug fueled racket, the first two post Galaxie 500 songs from Dean Wareham, the very frist US Tindersticks release, two killer versions of Unrest's "Winona Ryder", the Cagney And Lacee single, which was Dean Wareham and his wife, some brooding noisy creep fron King Carcass, and Bewitched, Bob Bert of Sonic Youth's sort of solo project band thingie. All that and some lesser knowns who still kicked ass: Vegetarian Meat, Pork and Glue! This stuff is so good, and has definitely stood the test of time. Hate to sound like old fogies, but they sure don't make indie pop like this anymore...

MPEG stream: Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?
MPEG stream: Free Cocaine
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This little engine that could, really did! The Omaha, Nebraskan record label Saddle Creek started out humbly back in 1993 with a limited-to-100 cassette tape by a youngster called Conor. Now a dozen years later, Saddle Creek is still home to the now fully grown Mr. Oberst (aka Bright Eyes, duh!) as well as his diverse musical brethren The Faint, Azure Ray and Cursive, among others. This dvd features a documentary by filmmakers Jason Kulbel and Rob Walters about the label's first ten years of existence and the town's tight-knit music scene that they spearheaded. Filled with tons of rare footage, interviews, performances and some home movies too. Sure to make all the artists' fans positively giddily weak in the knees!

Gorgeous vinyl only double lp collection of various performances from various Spire events that occurred between 2005 and 2006. Five mostly sidelong tracks from the main Spire performers, three of whom should be well familiar to most aQ list readers by now: Philip Jeck, BJ Nilsen, Fennesz, and the lesser known but equally as sonically compelling Charles Matthews (who shared a Spire related 7" with both Jeck and Fennesz recently) and Marcus Davidson. Jeck's side is everything we could hope for, long lazy loops, slathered in record static, hiss, crack and pop, dreamy melodies skipped into haunting rhythms, everything washed out and blurred, a worn weary sonic drift, organs and voices, soaring and whirring, very mechanical and machinelike, but simultaneously, warm and emotional. Serene, hypnotic, mesmerizing, what else can we say about the magic of Jeck's music that we haven't said before?? Matthews' half of side two is super minimal and hushed, mostly organs, allowed to wheeze and whir, slightly dissonant, but dense and layered, the tones hovering in a suspension of rumbles and shimmers, very dramatic and cinematic, understated and reverent, almost like some strange religious musical ritual. The second half, ostensibly Davidson's, although he is credited with a locked groove, is a dark drone-y flow, keyboards blurred into warm streaks, also slightly atonal, ominous, intense, the muted rumble builds to an almost cacophonous organ-ic frenzy, that heard at full volume must have stirred the soul for sure. The second disc is split evenly between Nilsen and Fennesz. Nilsen's side, recorded in a church in Sweden, is a dark, harrowing, rumbling, post industrial dronescape, the tones rough around the edges, the melodies lugubrious and caustic, building up into a serious din, metallic washes of sound, thick shards of pulsing buzz, very brittle and sharp, before slipping into something a little more serene, but no less intense, more muted metallic tones, drifting in a churning sea of hissing static and electronic grit, a barely noticeable rhythm, more of a pulse or swell, finishing off in a deep grinding low end blur, like a much more minimal 20th century SUNNO))). The Fennesz track is all organ, the root of all of these pieces, but here, the organ is unaltered, barely unadulterated, allowed to warmly wheeze, strange tangled melodies, glistening and glimmering, the tones beginning to change shape, the melodies allowed to elongate and blur slightly until they're swallowed up by a warm cloud of static and hiss before fading out completely. The second half of Fennesz' side is a more murky underwater reading of the first half, not as much grit and gristle as we usually expect, instead, the sound is whirling and muted, reminding us of Oval, but with the glitching skips smoother out, leaving just warm shimmering sonic swells, sun dappled melodies, and rich layered high end drones, drifting serenely, pastorally. Gorgeously packaged, super thick full color gatefold sleeve, super striking Wozencroft photos, pressed on thick vinyl. And as if you even need to be told, quite limited indeed.

In 2004, Touch's Mike Harding co-curated an concert at the Saint Pierre Cathedral in Geneva, inviting three of Touch's most creative artists -- Fennesz, BJ Nilsen, and Philip Jeck -- to perform live pieces based on the pipe organ found within that church. This double cd documents the live performances from that series of concerts which also featured contributions from the far more academically minded composer/performers Marcus Davidson and Charles Matthews. Spire: Live is actually the second compilation released by Touch based on works that in some way, shape, or form relate the unmistakeable timbre of organs. While the first Spire compilation focused on a dynamic minimalism extended from the ideas of Charlemagne Palestine, LaMonte Young, and Tony Conrad, Spire: Live is much more a dichotomy between Touch's abstractionists and the structuralist principles adopted by Davidson and Matthews. Nilsen smears a single monotone chord through a series of pitchshifting and timestretching filters offering a cybernetic mimesis of the organ's intrinsic sound. Fennesz suspends millions of pixel points within a digital fog of sound, occasionally allowing the organ to speak but mostly returning to bleary washes found on his 2004 album Venice. Philip Jeck is far more caustic than he's ever been before, with a locomotive clattering of his turntables growing darker and more volatile amidst a judicious sampling of AC/DC. Matthews and Davidson, however, both offer very straight renditions of classically derived organ compositions from Gorecki, Liana Alexandra, Andre Jolivet, and Davidson himself. Despite the similarity in source material, these pieces from Matthews and Davidson couldn't be further from the staple of Touch musicians, focusing on a polyphony of dissonant clusters of notes and almost random dodecophonic passages.

MPEG stream: Opposites Attract
MPEG stream: La Petite Chapelle: Rues Basses
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Compilations can be dodgy affairs, often half-baked ideas from compilers who can only garner throw away tracks from previous recordings. Mike Harding and Jon Wozencroft of Touch Records have consistenty been the exception in their collections. The Touch Sampler series have long been outstanding compilations, and this new collection of work inspired by or directly influenced by church organs continues in this tradition. Harding lucidly explains in the liner notes that "the organ represents the marriage between acoustic complexity and ritualised space. It is impossible not to be drawn upward, towards the spire of the church or cathedral, or to the huge daunting forest of pipes themselves." On this compilation, the artists typically emphasize the transcendent expansiveness of sustained organ chords, in many ways emulating the polyphonic minimalism of Arvo Part's organ works. The track that best typifies the ideas behind Spire is that of BJ Nilsen, better known as Hazard. Having captured various recordings of Charles Matthews performing the psalms of Marcus Davidson on the organ at St. Mary's Church in Warwick, England, Nilsen processed these sounds with only multi-tracking, EQ, and volume at his disposal; thus, his track holds onto the rich tonalities of those church organs as he builds up to a majestic crescendo of overwhelming sound. Spire also features the first fruits of the collaboration between Sparklehorse and Fennesz (!), with Sparklehorse's drummer Scott Minor offering a smattering of mellotron and Wurlitzer samples for Fennesz to run through digital aesolization of bleary eyed distortion and fanciful detailing. Other contributors to Spire include Z'ev, Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson, Philip Jeck, Leif Elggren, Zephyr, Marcus Davidson, Finnbogi Petursson, Biosphere, Toshiya Tsunoda, Tom Recchion, Lary Seven / Jeff Peterson, Scott Taylor, Jacob Kirkegaard, Oren Ambarchi, and the ever amazing Chris Watson! Very highly recommended.

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THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. Totally cool remixes from the likes of Doctor Rockit, Dr. Israel, Alec Empire, Witchman, Two Lone Swordsmen, DJ Wally, Spectre, etc. Sideburn is a subsidiary of Crippled Dick Hot Wax, and boy do those guys have good taste in electronic music.

French import double cd of Indian music new and old. Disc one ("Traditional") features fifteen tracks from a bunch of doubtless well-known trad Indian artists. Of course Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan -- hey he's not Indian -- and Ravi Shankar are the only ones WE recognize. The selections are pretty cool with lots of wild vocal, tabla and sitar action. There's even some street sounds

As you've already figured out, this is the sequel to the Spirit of India 2cd comp reviewed above. Again we're presented with a disc of traditional material, and a second disc of "New Vibes" -- electronica takes on the sounds of India. Disc one's got Shankar and Khan again, and Trilok Gurtu and Shelia Chandra as well, plus also a bunch of other unknown-to-us artists, and is again pretty

Gaining independence from France in 1804, Haiti was the first black republic to claim such from a white colonial government. It's also the only nation in the Caribbean whose music is completely free from western influence. That music, the complex drumming and accompanying call & response singing, is inseparable from the Vodou rituals which themselves come directly from Africa by the slaves that brought them to Haiti over four hundred years ago. Despite attempts by the Catholic Church to convert Haitians to Christianity, over fifty percent of Haitians still practise Vodou, often subverting the Catholic rites into Vodou. Vodou has even played a big part in the government, with dictator "Papa Doc" Duvalier using the religian to instill fear into the hearts of Haiti's citizenry. He even dressed his private militia, the Tontons Macoutes, in uniforms resembling the Vodou spirit of peasant farmers and would often dress himself up in the likeness of Baron Samedi, the spirit of the dead. The singing and drumming on Spirits Of Life are a great document of a vital, flourishing and unique religion in this tiny, struggling and oft overlooked island nation. Comes with a nice 25 page booklet with liner notes and gorgeous photos.

MPEG stream: Agoue-Dambala (Yanvalou)
MPEG stream: Ogou (Nago-Zepol)

This isn't quite what we expected, but it is amazing and beautiful and we can't stop listening to it in the store. So what were we expecting? Well, from the title, we thought this would be a compilation of some Impulse, Actuel, ESP, and Black Jazz label style majestic free jazz, a la John and Alice Coltrane, Albert Ayler, Pharaoh Sanders, Sun Ra, Don Cherry, Philip Cohran etc. And to some extent it is, but looking at the track listings, we hardly recognized any of the people or groups on here, except perhaps for Ronnie Boykins and Salah Ragab & The Cairo Jazz Band. Other folks like Mor Thiam, The Frank Derrick Total Experience, The Lightmen Plus One and Ndikho Xaba & The Natives among many others were completely new to us. And while at times the music here is majestic, it focuses less on the cerebral, higher minded forms of free jazz, and more on the burgeoning post-Coltrane musical underground that fostered from the communal spirit, personal reform and the celebration of African heritage prevalent in the African-American community following the civil-rights era. Culled from rare 45's, private press lps and obscure studio albums, seriously, this is some groovy shit! Sengalese percussionist and bandleader Mor Thiam's infectious "Ayo Ayo Nene (Blessing For The New Born Baby)" is definitely one of our picks for jam of the year! Other highlights include Bay area based, P.E Hewitt Jazz Ensemble (featured on the Record Store Day Comp, This LP Crashes Hard Drives!) and the funk groove of the Ohio Penitentiary 511 Jazz Ensemble, a group comprised of prison inmates. There are a great selection of tracks using unusual Asian and African instrumentation such as Diembe, Santur (a 72 stringed Iranian dulcimer like instrument), something called a Seaweed Horn, and of course mbiras, flutes, congas, vibes and horns aplenty. We've been getting a lot of awesome spiritual free jazz in the store lately from the recently reissued Don Cherry / Latif Khan collaboration (reviewed on this list as well, Record Of The Week in fact) and The Pyramids reissues (two of which are also reviewed elsewhere on this list) and this fits in quite nicely. So good!

MPEG stream: Gol-E-Gandom
MPEG stream: Ayo Ayo Nene
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Another amazing installment of the Spiritual Jazz series, and after volumes focusing on America, and Europe, and Americans in Europe, this time the series broadens its focus to the rest of the world. No small feat there, since the idioms of how jazz became defined in America and in Europe developed from a multiplicity of cultural musical traditions around the globe. But this volume is not about the ethnic origins of jazz, but how the popularity of jazz reflectively spread its influences back into the ethnic communities from which they originated. Largely culled from major label recordings as well as obscure private releases, this volume travels from remote Africa to Great Britain, Argentina to the Caribbean, and across Russia through Asia to deliver an incredible account of how music gets transformed through regional influences and nuances. Includes tracks by: Charlie Munro Quartet, Paul Winter Sextet, Fitz Gore, Ahmadu Jarr, Eric Nomvete's Big Five, The Braz Gonsalves 7, Tete Mbambisa, Aquila, The London Experimental Jazz Quartet, Hideo Shiraki, Chivo Borraro, Jazz Semai, Jazz Work Shop, Virgilio Armas Y Su Cuarteto, Louiz Banks, Oladepo Ogomodede, and Jorge Lopez Ruiz. Every volume has been spectacularly great, and this one is a fine place to start if you haven't heard the others.

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MPEG stream: Gisela (Lion Rock)
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Now this is the kind of church we'd attend. Not so much ecstatic gospel choirs and salvation sermons, but rather a deep open meditative environment tapped into an intuitive kinetic and vibrating communal groove carrying angelic voices of universal uplift. Space, form and light. The sixth installment of Jazzman's great Spiritual Jazz series devotes itself entirely to the spiritual vocal, with excellent contributions from the sixties through the eighties from both obscure and famous jazz musicians around the world. Male and female voices in solo form or groups, these pieces are not necessarily religious, but whether slow and reverent, or kaleidoscopically propulsive, each song shares a gathering intention of cosmic unity, African awareness, and a long-suffering passion for justice and natural beauty. Featuring Max Roach, Charles Mingus, Sadaka, Norman Riley, E.W. Wainwright, Clifford Jordan, Pharoah Sanders, Dr. Haki R. Madhubuti, Eddie Gale, Gary Bartz, Byron Morris & Unity, Washington High School Band and Singers and The Vibration Society, this compilation also features great vocal contributions by Abbey Lincoln, Leon Thomas, Doug Hammond, Andy Bey, and Jane Sims. Fantastic!

MPEG stream: Prince of Peace
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We instantly fell in love with the first volume of this series which introduced us to many new-to-us obscure mystical jazz artists that have since become some of our all-time favorites: Lloyd Miller, P.E. Hewitt, and Mor Thiam to name a few. While that installment focussed on American based African Heritage communities that rose up after the civil rights era, this latest installment takes us to Europe and focuses on a more progressive form of deep jazz throughout Scandinavia, Spain, Germany, England, as well as Eastern European countries. This time around, we're a bit more familiar with some of the names, though there are plenty of folks new to us. Of course there is British jazzman Michael Garrick who recently passed away prior to this release. The reissue of Garrick's Moonscape on Trunk records from a few years back was one of our favorite jazz reissues, so it's nice there is an awesome previously unreleased track here. Finnish Jazz pianist Heikki Sarmonto who also had a reissue on Porter records offers up a deep tribute to Coltrane and Duke Ellington that is akin to going to church, albeit, a church in Finland. A lot of tracks including Raphael's "Archangelo" have a more reverent orchestral / choral vibe than the tracks on the first volume did, and most are not quite as overtly groovy either. Yet this fits in with the post-Coltrane developments in Jazz in Europe at the time, with artists mining new forms and directions and not merely trying to ape American jazz idioms. That's not to say there aren't any groovers here, Dutch group Hans Dulfer and Ritmo Natural bring the Latin-tinged hotness to the core with "Candy Clouds part 2". This is some seriously deep dope!

MPEG stream: Communion
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For the third installment of Jazzman's great Spiritual Jazz series, the hardworking diggers of underground jazz decided to stay on the European tip spearheaded on the second volume instead of venturing off to some other exotic location. And it's a good thing too, because how can you capture all the diverse iterations of communal jazz across so many various borders, ethnic heritages and regional communities in just one volume? What separates the two volumes thematically is that this third volume swings a lot more than the more reverent liturgical second volume, focusing on individual expression, private press visionaries and unique hybrids of Latin, Slavic and Asian influences. Obscurities abound, most tracks previously un-reissued in any form, really one of the only names we were familiar with is Jef Gilson, whom who Jazzman introduced us to on a great compilation aptly titled The Best of Jef Gilson! The suave cafe jazz sound of Gilson is a great introduction into what is an eclectic and diverse selection of hypnotic modal jazz that is uplifting, entertaining and refreshingly energetic! Along with Gilson and Mangesdorf there are great pieces by Hermann Gehlen, Palle Mikkelborg & Radiojazzgruppen, Michel Roques, Babs Robert, That's Why, Binder Quintet, The Crescendo Quintet, Dusko Goykovic, Albert Mangelsdorff Quintet, Yoki Freund Sextet, Jan Allan Quintet, Dennis Wiley, Full Moon Ensemble, Louis Xavier, and Antithesis. Yes!

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This would have easily been a contender for record of the week, if we got in enough in, so it will have to do as a highly recommended highlight. But let it be known that this latest volume of Spiritual Jazz is fast becoming our favorite of the series! We loved all the others of course and the first one was hard to beat, but they really brought out the big names and heavy hitters on this volume (Sun Ra, Eric Dolphy, Don Cherry & Krzysztof Penderecki, Bobby Hutcherson, Hampton Hawes and Albert Ayler) and it's on two discs so lots of long form modal cosmic expansion is at the ready. The theme this time around is Americans in Europe and it documents a fertile period in the sixties and seventies where many American jazz musicians fed up with racism and decaying socio-economic conditions in the US found solace working in Europe on festival circuits and collaborating with great European jazz groups abroad in Denmark, France, Italy, UK and Germany, exploring new directions in sound. Many of these tracks are from rare recordings (some of them live), not released in America and are reissued here for the first time. Besides the big names, there are plenty of lesser known players like Billy Gault, Sahib Shihab, Frank Wright, Clarence Peters, Lee Konitz, Noah Howard and Grachan Moncur III. Beautifully packaged with lots of liner notes and record covers, this is some real deep and mind-expanding stuff! Like we said above, Highly Recommended!!!!

MPEG stream: Jazz Rule
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You suckers without turntables are spared once again. The last eight split 12"s in Fat Cat's amazing series finally get digitized and compiled for convenient listening. Tracks from Dat Politics, Christoph De Babalon, Kid 606, Fennesz, Main, Avey Tare, Matmos, David Grubbs, Ultra-Red and loads more!

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Whether from Poland, American, Hungary, the UK, or France, there was a moment in time in the '60s and '70s when everyone making pop music was hoping to have a big hit in Germany. So even if they had NO idea what they were singing, they went into the studio hoping to tap into the lucrative German market and make it big auf Deutsch. Luckily so many of these tracks were also some of the most sophisticated, sassy and snappy pop songs being recorded in any language, or at least that's what this disc makes us think. This comp brings together some of the totally shining moments in German-language pop from across the globe like France Gall, Barbara, Sandie Shaw, Paul Anka, Antoine, Kati Kovacs, AQ Hungarian favorites Illes, and a bunch more, amazing examples of some of the most fun and infectious pop for which fans of ye-ye delights and those In-Kraut sound collections will fall hard, for sure. There's a similar compilation we received recently, called Parlez Vous Pop?, that's essentially the French equivalent of this collection. Unfortunately, other than a couple tracks, that comp was much more suited for coffee house background music, but THIS ONE we can enthusiastically recommend!!

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When we said in a recent review that Honest Jon's was giving Dust-to Digital a run for its reissue money, we weren't kidding. Here's yet another example... Utilizing the vast archive of 78's from the EMI vaults, Honest Jon's presents a collection of pre-global musical magic. Taking a much broader approach than Dust-to-Digital's Victrola Favorites and Black Mirror compilations which focussed on the randomness of one person's or one group's private collection, Sprigs of Time offers more nuanced cultural examples of regional sounds. Beginning with a recording of the English Sound Table, and ending with the sound of the "Gas All Clear" bell, this collection spans the years 1903 to 1957 and features thirty tracks ranging from Tamil laughing songs, early British Folk, American Tin Pan Alley, Lebanese Rumba, Georgian Piano Rolls, Gamelan music, Japanese Court Music, Chinese Opera and songs of Bengali beggars. An amazing mix of sounds and songs and easily the best collection in the Honest Jon's catalog so far. Awesome!

MPEG stream: Vome Kaba
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MPEG stream: Different Kinds of Motor Car Noises
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Documenting the latest in click / pop dub trickery, "Staedtizism" is a compilation assembled and released by Stefan Betke (aka Pole). Whereas the ping-pong production of Lee Scratch Perry's schizoid '70s dub was terminally stoned, the Pole school of digidubbery (currently enrolling new students) doesn't make smoking pot a prerequisite to knob twiddling. Rather the clean and sober approach after many moons of tweaker behavior may be a more appropriate context for this increasingly canonized style of electronica. As a whole, "Staedtizism" encapsulates this digidub sound with each artist embracing a tonal palette that remains fairly similar on all of these cuts (bright electron flashes digitally decomposed through delay into frigid ambience). With Pole's recently released third album being a tepid rehashing of his previous ideas, the variety of patterned abstractions and rhythmic inventions from this lineup makes for a much better listen. Contributers include Vladislav Delay, Pole (of course), Kit Clayton, Thomas Fehlmann (ex-Orb), Burnt Freidman, Gramm, Trash Aesthetic, The Modernist, and To Rococo Rot & I-Sound.

Stefan Betke (aka Pole) looks at his urban surroundings in Berlin with the same saddened gaze with which Carl Craig beholds his Detroit. Both of these electronica musicians bear witness to the dystopian elements of their hometowns, by creating different, but equally expressive musics which act as depressingly sympathetic soundtracks to the urban plight of their respective cities while While Carl Craig's techno fits perfectly in with the mythologies of the Motor City, Betke's work is better suited to the headphones of a walkman and the slower speed of the pedestrian. Betke himself describes his Scape label as presenting various neo-dub soundtracks for an urban state of mind. "Staedtizism 2" is certainly a perfect mix tape for Betke to enjoy on his way throughout Berlin. Yet only about half of this compilation falls close to Pole's personal brand of digital dub with contributions from System, Jan Jelenik, Nolte, and Bus. The non-digital dub contingent of this compilation revolves mostly around the way-out California electronica sounds of the Phthalo and Plug Research labels, with tracks from Low Res, Headset, John Tejada (whose contribution is a really nice downtempo house number woven together with post-rock guitar lines, sounding a lot like AQ-faves Fridge!), and Kit Clayton (offering a distinctly difficult track of Reichian piano arppegiations). In contrast to the majority of electronica collections, "Staeditizm 2" has a nice personal touch that keeps this from seeming like it's merely a compilation of the flavors of the month.

Stefan Betke (aka Pole) has centered the third in the "Staedtizism" series for his ~scape label on the dialogue between hip-hop and its constant appropriation of other artforms. Like the Mille Plateaux compilation "Electric Ladyland: Click-Hop Version 1.0," "Staedtizism 3" seeks to reverse that dialogue by applying the tropes of hip-hop to ~scape's highly specialized form of techno-dub-minimalism. Quite frankly, it doesn't work. The obvious reason for "Staedtizism 3"s failings is that hip-hop succeeds through its adaptability, something which the minimalism of Chain Reaction, Pole, and Monolake completely lacks due to its dedication to tight mathematical programming and structural integrity. Thus, the skeletal hip-hop productions of "Staedtizism 3" have all of the trappings of ProTools polish as each of these tracks are composed from very clean blocks with hammond organ samples, jazz-y basslines, and spartan breakbeats all scrubbed of their sensuality, physicality, and general funkiness. What little vocal acrobatics found on this record are merely in the form of digitally clipped samples. Groan. The case could be made that this is another post-ironic piece of electronica; but either way, this is hip-hop that you're supposed to think about. Who the hell needs that? Andrew Pekler, Bus, Jan Jelinek, Cappablack, Kit Clayton, John Tejada, Thomas Fehlmann, Deadbeat, Process, Gazoo, Antonelli Electr., and System are the suspects for this one.

RealAudio clip: Steady Bounce
RealAudio clip: Lindt

"Soul, funk, and jazz from a revolutionary era." '60s Black Power / freedom oriented tracks from the likes of The Watts Prophets, Nikki Giovanni, The Voices of East Harlem, James Brown and others.

"Star Switch On" is a collection of commisioned pieces which use Chris Watson's field recordings of wildlife from "Outside The Circle Of Fire" as their source materials. Watson's original has been one of the most celebrated field recording albums as an incredible anthology of cheetahs purring, tinkerbird songs, spider monkeys, deathwatch beetles, elephants, and many more. It's probably not wise to think of the recordings on "Star Switch On" as attempt to improve upon Watson's recordings, but perhaps as alternative viewpoints of the same material. Or maybe not. Regardless, this album does make for a nice introduction into the experimentalists and electron engineers who make their home at Touch Records. Mika Vainio (of Pan Sonic and many of the Sahko titles) opens the album with a transformation of a recording which initially appears as swarming bees into a very calm atomization of sound, with frigid gaspings and resonant sonar bleeps quietly moving across barren spaces. Hazard (a project that has used Chris Watson's recordings of weather phenomena on a number of occasions) offers a fractured drone of whirring vibrationa. Fennesz keeps the digital fuckery to a minimal with a sampled repetition of what could be the aforementiond tinkerbird song, quite subtle parametric filtering, and additional samples. AER (aka Jon Wozencroft), Biosphere, and Philip Jeck also offer their reinterpretations.

RealAudio clip: Outside The Circle Of Fire
RealAudio clip: Debugged
RealAudio clip: Night and Dawn

Originally released as part of a cd / dvd / book combo, this incredible musical document, compiled by photographer/filmmaker Olivia Wyatt on a recent trip to Ethiopia, is now available sans dvd and book, as a super deluxe (and yeah, of course very limited) double lp! Staring Into The Sun was planned to coincide with a music festival - which the government abruptly cancelled for fear of the musicians being exploited. So instead, Wyatt travelled into the bush, to compile a sonic/visual travelogue of the music and musicians, the people and places of the various tribes of Ethiopia, and it's of course breathtaking. The music, which is obviously the focus here, is heady and hypnotic, joyous and emotional, the sounds varying dramatically from tribe to tribe, but music being ubiquitous, weddings, ceremonies, rituals, drawing water from the well, on television, in living rooms, very rhythmic, mostly vocal driven, but with lots of hand clapping, wildly bowed stringed instruments, vocals chanted, shouted, call and response, super mesmerizing, many of the tribes utilize whistles and panpipes, and the music they make is incredible, otherworldly and impossibly lush, sounding like some modern 20th century classical composition in many cases, while actual bands do rock out occasionally, and get surprisingly soulful and funky. A compilation like this must have been so impossible to put together, how on earth to whittle down what must have been days of recordings to just an hour? But the tracks chosen are amazing, and make us want to hear so much more. Even minus the visuals, so incredible, and easily some of our favorite Sublime Frequencies sounds so far for sure. Housed in a super deluxe, ultra heavy full color gatefold sleeve, featuring reproductions of some of Wyatt's striking Polaroid photos...

MPEG stream: Konso Lyre Song
MPEG stream: Habesha Traditional Song
MPEG stream: Masinko Song
MPEG stream: Dirashe Syncopated Panpipes
MPEG stream: Gedeo Vocals

This is the third installment in an ongoing series of compilations of experimental and avant garde artists, with its profits directed toward the National Coalition Against Censorship. Compiled by Elliot Sharp, the general concept here is to compose a

From the formidable Bay Area music collective known as Entartete Kunst comes this potent compilation which in their words is "a radical assault on the mediocrity of our everyday lives, state government and corporate fascism". It features nineteen tracks by over a dozen outspoken underground artists from around the globe. Styles run the gamut including hip hop, grime and dub. Standouts include Monkeytribe and E.K. Collective. Note: If you've got the vinyl version, you should be alerted to the fact that this cd contains new mixes and other exclusive material not on the LP.

MPEG stream: Domino
MPEG stream: States Of Abuse

Electronic drone soundscape experimentation by Jim O'Rourke, Ryoji Ikeda, Alan Lamb, David Toop, Christophe Charles, Paul Schutze, Akira Yamamichi and others, collected by the Japanese label CCI.

Since 1991 In The Red Records has taken it upon themselves to kindly provide the world with the best "low-brow rock'n'roll" (their words) in all their sweaty, dirty, malodorous raunch-glory (our words), and we love 'em for it! This is a perfect trash rock compilation for those who aren't afraid to mess their 'do, break a fingernail, raise a stink or spill a drink... er, as long as it's someone else's! Check out their roster of rad rabblerousers: Andre Williams, Reigning Sound, Lost Sounds, Clone Defects, Dolt, Cheater Slicks, Blacktop, Speedball Baby, Country Teasers, Dan Melchior's Broke Revue, Knoxville Girls, The Dirtbombs, The Ponys, The Deadly Snakes, The Piranhas, The Horrors, The Intelligence, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, The Screws, The Lamps, The Hospitals, The Mystery Girls, The Hunches, The Necessary Evils, The Bassholes, The FUSE! and Japan's King Brothers (who rule!). If you find yourself shoutin' "Fuck yeah!!!", well then, what the hell are you waitin' for?!

MPEG stream: I Can't Stop Thinking About It
MPEG stream: Lulu

Curiously tiltled collection of awesome emo from the Crank record label. Anyone who dug the old Rainer Maria records or the Get Up Kids will dig this collection. Minus a couple of weak whiney moments this is a fucking great collection. With: Vitreous Humor, Sunday's Best, Mineral, the Regrets, Boy's Life, Christie Front Drive, The Gloria Record, Far Apart (a band we hadn't heard of but probably the best cut on the record) and a bunch more.

Subtitled "17 A-Go-Go Ultrarities From the 60's Singapore and South-East Asia Underground", this comp fairly smokes in a psychedelic pop haze. Covering standards like "Buttons and Bows", but mostly playing by-the-numbers originals, bands like October Cherries, Rosnah and the Siglap Five, Ronnie Ong, and Naomi & the Boys (playing a great Peter Thomas number) played a mixture of surf, soul, r&b, and plain ole psych pop. A couple of the groups here even went to #1 in their home countries. Fuzz guitar! The tracks featuring girl singers sound just like the Ultra Chicks French girl group comps, thus testifying to the universal appeal the rock music of the day held for young people the world over. On transparent blue vinyl. Dutch import. ----* ----* Also New In Stock, Reviews Coming Soon : ----* 400 BLOWS "Black Rainbow" (Tone Capsule) cd 11.98 ANZELLOTTI, TEODORO "Leos Janacek" (Winter & Winter) cd 16.98 AROVANE "Icol Diston" cd 16.98 ATMOSPHERE "God Loves Ugly" (Fat Beats) cd 16.98 BRAXTON, ANTHONY "Actuel Sessions" (Fuel 2000) cd 12.98 BREAD LOVE AND DREAMS "s/t" (Hugo-Montes) cd 17.98 CANDIRIA "The Coma Imprint" (Lakeshore Records) 2cd 17.98 CAPTAIN BEEFHEART AND HIS MAGIC BAND "Magnetic Hands" (Viper) cd 19.98 CARDIACS "A Little Man And A House And The Whole World Window" (Alphabet) cd 14.98 CARDIACS "Sing To God - Part Two" (Alphabet) cd 14.98 CARDIACS "Sing To God - Part One" (Alphabet) cd 14.98 CASSERLEY, LAWRENCE "The Edge Of Chaos" (Sargasso) cd 14.98 CERBERUS SHOAL / HERMAN DUNE "The Whys And Hows Of Herman Dune and Cerberus Shoal" (North East Indie) cd 9.98 CHERRY, DON "Blue Lake" (BYG / Toho / Get Back) 2lp 19.98 CHICAGO TRANSIT AUTHORITY "s/t" (Rhino) cd 16.98 COMETBUS "Despite Everything: A Cometbus Omnibus" (Last Gasp) book 14.95 FELDMAN, MORTON "Complete Works For Two Pianists" (Alice Musik Produktion) cd 14.98 FORBIDDEN PLANET "(OST)" (Moving Image Entertainment) lp 21.00 FUNGAL HEX "s/t" (Ministerstva Kultury Cr) cd 11.98 FURSAXA "s/t" (Ecstatic Peace) lp 13.98 GORILLAZ "Spacemonkeyz versus Gorillaz - Laika Come Home" (Astralwerks) cd 16.98 HEADLANDS BAND "California" (Headlands Band Music) cd 11.98 HERMANO "...Only A Suggestion" (Tee Pee) 2cd 14.98 HIDDEN "Spectral Magnitude" (Red Stream) cd 11.98 HURLEY, MICHAEL "Blueberry Wine" (Locust) cd 14.98 INVISIBL SKRATCH PIKLZ VS. DA KLAMZ UV DETH "Furious Ostrich Tracks" (Asphodel) lp 7.98 MISERY INDEX / COMMIT SUICIDE "Split CD" (Willowtip) cd 12.98 NARGAROTH "Black Metal Ist Krieg" (No Colours) cd 14.98 NARGAROTH "Hervstleyd" (No Colours) cd 14.98 OMIT "Rejector" (SySecular) cd-r 9.98 ON FILLMORE "On Fillmore" (Locust) cd 14.98 ORTHRELM / TOUCHDOWN "Split" (Troubleman) cd 12.98 PARTON, DOLLY "Halos & Horns" (Sugar Hill) cd 17.98 REINHARDT, DJANGO "Djangology" (RCA Victor) cd 16.98 RITUAL CARNAGE "The Birth Of Tragedy" (Osmose) cd 14.98 RJD2 "Deadringer" (Definitive Jux) cd/2lp 17.98/17.98 ROWE, KEITH & OREN AMBARCHI "Flypaper" (Staubgold) cd 14.98 SHIOMI, MIEKO "A Musical Dictionary of 80 People Around Fluxus" (? Records) cd 22.00 SPUNK "Den Overste Toppen Pa En Blamalt Flaggstang" (Rune Grammofon) cd 15.98 STARS AS EYES "Important Youth Movement / People Kill People" (Tigerbeat6) 7" 4.98 TABLA BEAT SCIENCE "Live In San Francisco At Stern Grove" (Axiom) 2cd 17.98 TATSUYA, YOSHIDA "Magaibutsu" reissue w/ bonus tracks (Review Records) cd 13.98 THORNSPAWN "Wrath Of War" (Osmose) cd 14.98 TROLLHEIM'S GROTT "Bizarre Troll Technology" (Woodcut) cd 14.98 V/A "Chocolate Soup For Diabetics 4" (PCP) cd 14.98 V/A "Chocolate Soup For Diabetics 5" (PCP) cd 14.98 VINTERSORG "Visions From The Spiral Generator" (Napalm) cd 14.98 WALDAMSEL / FOREST BLACKBIRD "s/t" (Natural Sound / Wergo) cd 18.98 WARLORD "Rising Out Of The Ashes" (Atrheia) cd 14.98 WOLF EYES "Fuck Pete Larsen" (Wolf Eyes) lp 14.98 ZORN, JOHN "Filmworks XI" (Tzadik) cd 15.98

Pretty soon we're gonna have to stop complaining about not getting enough dubstep. Elsewhere on this list you'll find the double cd collection from PDX label Lo Dubs, and now we've got this, another killer collection from Soul Jazz, a follow up to their Box Of Dub collection. But where Box Of Dub seemed to cover a wide sonic spectrum of dubstep and modern dub, Steppa's Delight is all the current hyped shit, dubplates, white labels, singles, lots of names we already know and love, Kode9, Benga, The Bug, Shackleton, but loads more we've never heard before. Right out of the gate, it's already a winner, with Kode9's "9 Samurai", a dubstep classic if there ever was, sounding like the RZA gone dubstep, ominous cinematic samples, a strange skittery beat, brief squalls of intense synth buzz, some creepy spoken word, this is like the dubstep version of that ubiquitous Massive Attack song, groove but so full of dread. Would be surprised if this didn't start showing up in soundtracks pretty soon (Guy Ritchie? You listening?). Next up is Benga, who while not as grim sounding, still offers up some intense minor key grooves, complex skitter, and some jagged buzzing synth melodies. Shackleton's "Blood On My Hands" we already loved from that Skull Disco comp a while back, and it still sounds amazing, murky and menacing, the drums muted and murky, except for the occasional gunshot-like snare blast, mumbled vocals, haunting swells and deep atmospherics. The Bug Teams up with Warrior Queen, for a dense slab of buzz, some super heavy low end, a slithery bass line, simple stripped down beats, and some crazy catchy sing songy toasting. There's even some grime here and there, with Skepta contributing a killer convoluted flow to Plastician's "Intensive Snare". Uncle Sam's dubstep is almost straight old school reggae, except for that little dubby shuffle. Goth-Trad offers up some seriously darkened dub, the neverending bassline buzz, the clattery percussion, the haunting sampled vocals, a horror movie melody straight out of Halloween. Shit, we could go on and on, track by track, but by now you probably realize this is a must have. Like we mentioned in the Lo Dubs review, the dubstep and grime obsessed absolutely need this, and if you dug Milanese, Kode9 and the Box Of Dub comps then this too is another must have.

MPEG stream: 9 Samurai
MPEG stream: Evolution
MPEG stream: Genesis

The first Steppa's Delight dubstep comp on Soul Jazz totally knocked our socks off. We're so desperate for new dubstep and grime all the time, and we have such limited access to limited 12"s and white label dubplates, that we anxiously await the release of comps, hoping they'll compile some of the best jams, and usually offer up a bunch of new tracks as well. Since the last Steppa's Delight comp though, a funny thing happened, dubstep continued to mutate and transform and is now something totally different than it was 18 months ago. The core sounds and structure remains the same, THAT beat, and THAT groove, the deep wobbly bass, but the sounds aren't so dark, or sinister, instead, the sound of dubstep has gotten a bit dancier, looking back to jungle and even house, incorporating more melody, more vocals, the sound almost more electro, with buzzy synths wrapped around that rumbling wobble. That said, there's still some darkness lurking in the grooves, and as much as we dig almost everything here, we can't help but lean toward those darker jams, Kutz's "Hardbody" is buzzy and bleak and ominous, "Purple City" by Joker & Ginz starts out all skittery and dancey, but then explodes with some of the fiercest most distorted bass on the comp. A bunch of the tracks are super stripped down and skeletal, reminding us of some of the Skull Disco 12"s, all barebones and minimal, and some of the tracks are super atmospheric and ethereal. Killer stuff for sure, but be warned, if you're looking for stuff like Kode9 or Burial, you won't find much of that here, but if you're looking for big stuttery beats, thick throbbing bass synth wobble and can't get enough of that dubstep 'step, then this should definitely hold you over until the next comp...

MPEG stream: Purple City
MPEG stream: Give Me Up (LD Remix)
MPEG stream: Hard Body

Finally got this on vinyl! This is part one... The first Steppa's Delight dubstep comp on Soul Jazz totally knocked our socks off. We're so desperate for new dubstep and grime all the time, and we have such limited access to limited 12"s and white label dubplates, that we anxiously await the release of comps, hoping they'll compile some of the best jams, and usually offer up a bunch of new tracks as well. Since the last Steppa's Delight comp though, a funny thing happened, dubstep continued to mutate and transform and is now something totally different than it was 18 months ago. The core sounds and structure remains the same, THAT beat, and THAT groove, the deep wobbly bass, but the sounds aren't so dark, or sinister, instead, the sound of dubstep has gotten a bit dancier, looking back to jungle and even house, incorporating more melody, more vocals, the sound almost more electro, with buzzy synths wrapped around that rumbling wobble. That said, there's still some darkness lurking in the grooves, and as much as we dig almost everything here, we can't help but lean toward those darker jams, Kutz's "Hardbody" is buzzy and bleak and ominous, "Purple City" by Joker & Ginz starts out all skittery and dancey, but then explodes with some of the fiercest most distorted bass on the comp. A bunch of the tracks are super stripped down and skeletal, reminding us of some of the Skull Disco 12"s, all barebones and minimal, and some of the tracks are super atmospheric and ethereal. Killer stuff for sure, but be warned, if you're looking for stuff like Kode9 or Burial, you won't find much of that here, but if you're looking for big stuttery beats, thick throbbing bass synth wobble and can't get enough of that dubstep 'step, then this should definitely hold you over until the next comp...

MPEG stream: Purple City
MPEG stream: Give Me Up (LD Remix)
MPEG stream: Hard Body

Finally got this on vinyl! This is part two... The first Steppa's Delight dubstep comp on Soul Jazz totally knocked our socks off. We're so desperate for new dubstep and grime all the time, and we have such limited access to limited 12"s and white label dubplates, that we anxiously await the release of comps, hoping they'll compile some of the best jams, and usually offer up a bunch of new tracks as well. Since the last Steppa's Delight comp though, a funny thing happened, dubstep continued to mutate and transform and is now something totally different than it was 18 months ago. The core sounds and structure remains the same, THAT beat, and THAT groove, the deep wobbly bass, but the sounds aren't so dark, or sinister, instead, the sound of dubstep has gotten a bit dancier, looking back to jungle and even house, incorporating more melody, more vocals, the sound almost more electro, with buzzy synths wrapped around that rumbling wobble. That said, there's still some darkness lurking in the grooves, and as much as we dig almost everything here, we can't help but lean toward those darker jams, Kutz's "Hardbody" is buzzy and bleak and ominous, "Purple City" by Joker & Ginz starts out all skittery and dancey, but then explodes with some of the fiercest most distorted bass on the comp. A bunch of the tracks are super stripped down and skeletal, reminding us of some of the Skull Disco 12"s, all barebones and minimal, and some of the tracks are super atmospheric and ethereal. Killer stuff for sure, but be warned, if you're looking for stuff like Kode9 or Burial, you won't find much of that here, but if you're looking for big stuttery beats, thick throbbing bass synth wobble and can't get enough of that dubstep 'step, then this should definitely hold you over until the next comp...

MPEG stream: Purple City
MPEG stream: Give Me Up (LD Remix)
MPEG stream: Hard Body

Pretty soon we're gonna have to stop complaining about not getting enough dubstep. Elsewhere on this list you'll find the double cd collection from PDX label Lo Dubs, and now we've got this, another killer collection from Soul Jazz, a follow up to their Box Of Dub collection. But where Box Of Dub seemed to cover a wide sonic spectrum of dubstep and modern dub, Steppa's Delight is all the current hyped shit, dubplates, white labels, singles, lots of names we already know and love, Kode9, Benga, The Bug, Shackleton, but loads more we've never heard before. Right out of the gate, it's already a winner, with Kode9's "9 Samurai", a dubstep classic if there ever was, sounding like the RZA gone dubstep, ominous cinematic samples, a strange skittery beat, brief squalls of intense synth buzz, some creepy spoken word, this is like the dubstep version of that ubiquitous Massive Attack song, groove but so full of dread. Would be surprised if this didn't start showing up in soundtracks pretty soon (Guy Ritchie? You listening?). Next up is Benga, who while not as grim sounding, still offers up some intense minor key grooves, complex skitter, and some jagged buzzing synth melodies. Shackleton's "Blood On My Hands" we already loved from that Skull Disco comp a while back, and it still sounds amazing, murky and menacing, the drums muted and murky, except for the occasional gunshot-like snare blast, mumbled vocals, haunting swells and deep atmospherics. The Bug Teams up with Warrior Queen, for a dense slab of buzz, some super heavy low end, a slithery bass line, simple stripped down beats, and some crazy catchy sing songy toasting. There's even some grime here and there, with Skepta contributing a killer convoluted flow to Plastician's "Intensive Snare". Uncle Sam's dubstep is almost straight old school reggae, except for that little dubby shuffle. Goth-Trad offers up some seriously darkened dub, the neverending bassline buzz, the clattery percussion, the haunting sampled vocals, a horror movie melody straight out of Halloween. Shit, we could go on and on, track by track, but by now you probably realize this is a must have. Like we mentioned in the Lo Dubs review, the dubstep and grime obsessed absolutely need this, and if you dug Milanese, Kode9 and the Box Of Dub comps then this too is another must have.

MPEG stream: 9 Samurai
MPEG stream: Evolution
MPEG stream: Genesis

Pretty soon we're gonna have to stop complaining about not getting enough dubstep. Elsewhere on this list you'll find the double cd collection from PDX label Lo Dubs, and now we've got this, another killer collection from Soul Jazz, a follow up to their Box Of Dub collection. But where Box Of Dub seemed to cover a wide sonic spectrum of dubstep and modern dub, Steppa's Delight is all the current hyped shit, dubplates, white labels, singles, lots of names we already know and love, Kode9, Benga, The Bug, Shackleton, but loads more we've never heard before. Right out of the gate, it's already a winner, with Kode9's "9 Samurai", a dubstep classic if there ever was, sounding like the RZA gone dubstep, ominous cinematic samples, a strange skittery beat, brief squalls of intense synth buzz, some creepy spoken word, this is like the dubstep version of that ubiquitous Massive Attack song, groove but so full of dread. Would be surprised if this didn't start showing up in soundtracks pretty soon (Guy Ritchie? You listening?). Next up is Benga, who while not as grim sounding, still offers up some intense minor key grooves, complex skitter, and some jagged buzzing synth melodies. Shackleton's "Blood On My Hands" we already loved from that Skull Disco comp a while back, and it still sounds amazing, murky and menacing, the drums muted and murky, except for the occasional gunshot-like snare blast, mumbled vocals, haunting swells and deep atmospherics. The Bug Teams up with Warrior Queen, for a dense slab of buzz, some super heavy low end, a slithery bass line, simple stripped down beats, and some crazy catchy sing songy toasting. There's even some grime here and there, with Skepta contributing a killer convoluted flow to Plastician's "Intensive Snare". Uncle Sam's dubstep is almost straight old school reggae, except for that little dubby shuffle. Goth-Trad offers up some seriously darkened dub, the neverending bassline buzz, the clattery percussion, the haunting sampled vocals, a horror movie melody straight out of Halloween. Shit, we could go on and on, track by track, but by now you probably realize this is a must have. Like we mentioned in the Lo Dubs review, the dubstep and grime obsessed absolutely need this, and if you dug Milanese, Kode9 and the Box Of Dub comps then this too is another must have.

MPEG stream: 9 Samurai
MPEG stream: Evolution
MPEG stream: Genesis

**MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** **MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** **MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** Nobody does comps like Mississippi, whether it's blues, gospel, Rembeteka, whatever, every Mississippi comp is like some amazing mixtape made for you by that one guy with the most amazing record collection ever. An older brother, an uncle, somebody's cool mom or dad. Every single one offers up a whole new world of music to explore, and this one is no different. A collection of Georgia bluesman, recordings gathered up in the late seventies by George Mitchell, who was doing field research for the Georgia Grassroots Music Festival, in an attempt to track down actively performing bluesmen, which apparently was no easy feat, but the six artists here all pretty amazing finds. There's John Lee Ziegler who strings his guitar with bass strings, has a gorgeous high clear voice, and who on one track is accompanied by a guy playing the spoons! There's also William Robertson, who has a cool, weird whiny nasal voice, but one that's perfectly suited to his slithery guitar style. Jim Bunkley has a super percussive strumming guitar style which is perfectly matched to his gruff belted vocals. There's also Jimmy Lee Williams who has a rich warm guitar sound, and another distinctive vocal style. And finally, there's James Davis, who plays fierce instrumental electric blues, always accompanied by a drummer, playing just a bass drum and a kettle drum, and folks around those parts still call Davis's music 'drum music'! So cool. Housed in nice thick old school style tip on jackets, the extensive liner notes printed on the back.

To commemorate twenty five years of existence, Rough Trade have released an action-packed compilation of sixteen 'old school' R.T. artists' songs performed by 'new school' R.T. artists. So, who is partaking in the festivities? Noneother than Belle & Sebastian, Alasdair Roberts, Elizabeth Fraser (well, they're not such new schoolers!), Oneida, The Detroit Cobras, The Fiery Furnaces, Delays, Royal City, Adam Green, The Tyde, Mystic Chords Of Memory, The Veils, Eastern Lane, The Hidden Cameras, Jeffrey Lewis, and current Cup favorite British Sea Power. And who is being covered? Lots of old faves... a couple by Young Marble Giants, The Clean, a couple by Galaxie 500, The Feelies, Aztec Camera, a couple by The Strokes (oops, *they're* not such old schoolers, are they?!), Ivor Cutler, Mazzy Star, James Blood Ulmer, Television Personalities, Scritti Politti, Robert Wyatt, and The Fall.

MPEG stream: Final Day
MPEG stream: At Last I Am Free