It's no secret that we have a soft spot for uncommon Christian music especially when it dwells on the fringe such as the "white metal" of the E.E.E. recordings label or the earnest out-pop of groups like The Shaggs and New Creation. Another fringe arena is in liturgical hippie folk with bands like Simaril, Parchment, and this beautiful reissue of the Trees Community first album, The Christ Tree. We had this previously only as a box set, which grouped their first album with 3 other cds of later live material. Not the most ideal way to ease yourself into their uniquely arcane and highly reverential sound. So it's nice to have this single disc reissue that adds several bonus tracks to the original album. If you are fans of wyrd minstrely acid-folk groups like Comus, Ougenwiede, Springuns, and Extradition, you will definitely dig this, a collective of male and female musical performers from New York who played traditional acoustic and eastern instruments such as sitar, folk harp, pump organ, flute, koto, tamboura and Chinese gong in long raga-like hymns with pretty male and female vocal harmonies and strangely mystical and spacious passages. Christ Tree was the their first album and it's a live recording of a performance at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in 1975. Oddly beautiful!
Bloom, Red & The Ordinary Girl is the second album by Tres Chicas, and we have to say, it sounds a lot like those gorgeous singalongs that take place when Neko Case, Kelly Hogan and Carolyn Mark get together. Of course, they by no means invented the old country female trio, but they've certainly brought it back into the spotlight in recent years. Anyways, no, that trio of chicas are not these Tres Chicas. These three chanteuses are themselves well-respected musical vets Caitlin Cary (formerly of Whiskeytown), Tonya Lamm (ex-Hazeldine) and Lynn Blakey (of Glory Fountain). This is a warm, earthy, passionate follow-up to their 2004 debut which was titled Sweetwater and it features a guest appearance by Nick Lowe! An absolute pleasure! Now, just imagine if these three ladies got together with the three abovementioned ladies... now that would be seis senoras fabulosas!
By their very nature, Moog records are inherently goofy. And to a certain degree, to modern ears, the Moog keyboard too just sounds kind of silly. There's probably not a Moog record, commercial or otherwise, that would convince the Moog haters out there otherwise. You either love that instantly recognizable sound or you don't. The other possibility is that somehow, you've never heard a Moog (or at least didn't realize you had since, those pesky Moogs pop up all over the place!) and in that case, it's a record like this that might just open your eyes and blow your mind.
That's the other thing with Moogs, it's what you do with them and how you use them. Plenty of modern outfits use Moogs, and in those groups the sounds they conjure up are more textural, thick undulating slabs of analog buzz and bleep, space rock is and has always been all over the Moog, but when it was first introduced, as a modern sound making synthesizer, people's first response was of course to try all sorts of applications, one was bound to strike a chord with the record buying public. So thus there was a glut of 'popular music played on the Moog' records, everything from top 40 to soul to rock and roll, and yes country.
Which brings us to Gil Trythall, an academic who ended up achieving a modest bit of fame (or infamy) for his renditions of classic country tunes, performed on the Moog, and collected on two volumes: Country Moog: Switched On Nashville, and Nashville Gold: Switched On Moog, both released in the first few years of the seventies.
Before these records, Trythall was a musical academic, creating experimental sound and performance pieces, music concrete, using light shows and tape manipulation, film projections, and all manner of sounds. He was convinced to try his hand at a record of country Moog renditions, and thus spent months buying 45s and painstakingly creating new sounds and his own version of classic country jams, and these are the results. And they are pretty fantastic, lots of faves, here transformed into something much more futuristic, at least seventies futuristic, anyone into Perrey & Kingsley know exactly what we mean. The rhythms and the tones of the Moog are so immediately recognizable, the sound warm and warbly, but also mysterious and magical, and just a little bit robotic, this disc opens with the Moog-ified "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" and it's a rapid fire totally silly, Moog jam, you can almost picture this as the soundtrack to some wacky montage where everyone's moving in fast forward (in fact elsewhere on this disc, Trythall tackles "Yakety Sax", better known as the Benny Hill theme, here transformed into "Yakety Moog"). The tones are clipped and relentless, woven into an alien robotic hoedown. Right after that there's Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues", with vocodered / Moog-ed vocals, and some buzzy crunchy Moog leads. "Harper Valley P.T.A." gets a woozy warbly makeover, "Orange Blossom Special" sound almost like a countrified ELP jam, and Trythall's version of "Wichita Lineman" is surprisingly sweet and easy listening-ish, the Moog muted and subtle, not difficult to imagine this as the music for some love scene in a Spike Jonez movie or something.
And so it goes. Moog obsessives, fans of exotica and incredibly strange music freaks have probably been after these discs for ages, for everyone else, this is some wild wonderful, fun and funny stuff. And as with everything Omni puts out (like recent record of the week Plantation Gold, which this fits right in with as a weird country record), beautifully packaged with extensive liner notes and rare photos and artwork.
By now, most AQ customers are probably well familiar with Mr. Scott Tuma, who we of course first discovered playing guitar for legendary stoner slow-mo-country geniuses Souled American, in some ways, his underwater woozy guitar haze helped define that group's sound, and after striking out on his own, that sound became more and more distinctive, and we of course became more and more obsessed with Tuma's incredible abstract Appalachian soundscapes, equal part ambient drone music and haunting minimal guitar music.
Dandelion might just be Tuma's darkest and most abstract outing to date, after several brief tracks of music box ambience, delicate chimes, hazy melodies, wheezing smoldering rumbles, disembodied shimmer and rickety barely there rhythms, the record unfolds into it's first longform piece, an absolutely gorgeous driftscape, clouds of hiss and blur swirl softly and in slow motion, before a skeletal banjo, picks out a mournful melody, one note at a time, letting each note drift into the ether, before sending the next to follow. Around this haunting bit of abstract drift all manner of field recordings, sirens in the distance, chirping birds, whipping winds, tinkling chimes, rustling branches, a riveting stretch of folkdrone ambience for sure.
A brief bit of tangled glistening guitar melody leads into the second epic, this one ominous and foreboding, slivers of guitar buzz and shards of feedback draped over a softly swirling morass of muted buzz and smeared psychedelic swirls, clouds of cymbal shimmer hover in the background, as do tinkling chimes and flurries of abstract percussion, before fading out into a hushed bit of skeletal Appalachia.
The flipside is three loooooong tracks, the first taking up almost half of the side, beginning with dense swells of low end, a blackened dronescape that almost sounds Wolf Eyes worthy, abject and bleak, grim rumbles beneath ashen layers of whir and hiss, those sounds seem to gradually coalesce into melodies, and what sounds like strings, the mood shifting dramatically, more cinematic, and epic, still haunting and dour, but infused with a warm glow, laced with still more random free drum skitter and glimmering cymbal shimmer, the gradually evolving sound stately, and elegiac, darkly and mysteriously lovely.
The record finishes off with two more tracks, more like the older Tuma recordings, less dark, with that woozy Souled American vibe, delicate crystalline guitars set over reverbed landscapes of amorphous sway and drift, the two tracks forming the perfect sun dappled cloud covered coda to a fantastic, and fantastically enigmatic songsuite, from one of our favorite sonic alchemists...
You know how you can go on at length about this and that, but when you prepare to talk about that one thing you totally love, you find yourself completely tongue tied. I, Andee, kind of feel like that about this record. The minute we put this on, I knew this
Scott Tuma is probably not a household name to most of you, except those of you, who like me, were obsessed with Souled American, since that's where he spent most of the eighties, helping create those molasses slow, rickety bluegrass song-skeletons that we here at AQ love so much. And his time spent in Souled American shows here, on his first 'solo' record. But unlike the stoned and unsteady lurch of SA, 'Hard Again' is all crystalline shimmer, with Tuma's guitar, guiding us unsteadily through soundscapes of tape hiss and skittering snares, moaning chords and weeping melodies.
Take a little John Fahey, Jim O'Rourke's Bad Timing, Souled American, maybe some spacy Brian Eno, play it back on a ancient tape machine, and listen to these understated and completely gorgeous guitarscapes, warbling notes, shimmering harmonics and tape hiss and ambient noise all over. Some of the tracks take the Souled American sound and stretch it to its breaking point. Notes versus space, and the space always wins. But the space is never complete, each note rings out, reverberating into the next, creating a delicate latticework of notes and overtones. On one of the tracks a drummer chimes in, but takes a completely new direction with his kit, sounding as if pebbles and sand were being scattered on the snare, with rattles and sizzles scattered between the notes of the lush guitar. Probably the closest 'Hard Again' gets to an actual song is song 5. Wintery and glistening, with carnival melodies played unsteadily and gently, evoking late afternoon strolls through abandoned carnival midways, light blanket of snow on the ground, while the entire scene is hazy seen through the veil of snowflakes filling the sky. This record is just one long lush walk through a cloudy landscape of foggy daydreams and wistful memories. Similar to the way Philip Jeck takes turntables and crafts old fashioned film strip flashbacks of days gone by, Tuma, takes the guitar, and paints vivid images, faded by the passing of time, the snow on the ground, the water in the basement and the rays of the sun, and evidence by clicks and whirrs and hum, which only add another layer to this already rich document. SO so beautiful.
The first two solo albums from Scott Tuma of Souled American, previously cd-only and long out of print, now released for the first time on vinyl together as a gatefold double lp! Hard Again (2001) was a Record Of The Week here when it first came out, here's the big raving rave review Andee wrote:
You know how you can go on at length about this and that, but when you prepare to talk about that one thing you totally love, you find yourself completely tongue tied. I kind of feel like that about this record. The minute we put this on, I knew this was it. One of my favorite records of the year, easy. Maybe one of my favorite records period.
Scott Tuma is probably not a household name to most of you, except those of you, who like me, were obsessed with Souled American, since that's where he spent most of the eighties, helping create those molasses slow, rickety bluegrass song-skeletons that we here at AQ love so much. And his time spent in Souled American shows here, on his first 'solo' record. But unlike the stoned and unsteady lurch of SA, 'Hard Again' is all crystalline shimmer, with Tuma's guitar, guiding us unsteadily through soundscapes of tape hiss and skittering snares, moaning chords and weeping melodies.
Take a little John Fahey, Jim O'Rourke's Bad Timing, Souled American, maybe some spacey Brian Eno, play it back on a ancient tape machine, and listen to these understated and completely gorgeous guitarscapes, warbling notes, shimmering harmonics and tape hiss and ambient noise all over. Some of the tracks take the Souled American sound and stretch it to its breaking point. Notes versus space, and the space always wins. But the space is never complete, each note rings out, reverberating into the next, creating a delicate latticework of notes and overtones. On one of the tracks a drummer chimes in, but takes a completely new direction with his kit, sounding as if pebbles and sand were being scattered on the snare, with rattles and sizzles scattered between the notes of the lush guitar. Probably the closest 'Hard Again' gets to an actual song is song 5. Wintery and glistening, with carnival melodies played unsteadily and gently, evoking late afternoon strolls through abandoned carnival midways, light blanket of snow on the ground, while the entire scene is hazy seen through the veil of snowflakes filling the sky. This record is just one long lush walk through a cloudy landscape of foggy daydreams and wistful memories. Similar to the way Philip Jeck takes turntables and crafts old fashioned film strip flashbacks of days gone by, Tuma, takes the guitar, and paints vivid images, faded by the passing of time, the snow on the ground, the water in the basement and the rays of the sun, and evidence by clicks and whirrs and hum, which only add another layer to this already rich document.
So so beautiful.
And then Tuma's follow-up to that, The River 1 2 3 4 (2003) got a bit of a rave here too, as you might expect, we'll just recap a bit of it:
Wheezing chords underpin purposeful notes gently plucked and left to hang momentarily in the warm air, before drifting gently out of earshot. Melodies slowly reveal themselves from a smattering of notes introduced slowly and sporadically somehow knowing that they will all eventually fall snugly into place. Lush, slowly shifting drones with barely-there melodies suspended within like insects in amber. Warm blankets of sound, woven simply, but perfect in their simplicity. Completely mesmerizing and so soothing. Like Phill Niblock composing for Palace, or Godspeed backing up John Fahey, or Philip Jeck and a handful of country 78's. Simply amazing.
The first time we heard Scott Tuma play guitar, was with skeletal slowcore country legends Souled American. His washed out dreamlike atmospheric guitar parts helped define their sound, but more importantly, introduced Tuma as a truly idiosyncratic guitar player, with a haunting and mysteriously unique sound. Tuma's music was like an acoustic version of Tim Hecker or Fennesz, but whereas those guys use electronics and computers and effects to transform their guitars into blurred dronescapes, Tuma's approach is much more organic, unfurling skeletal guitar lines, a slowed down Appalachia deftly woven into a sprawl of slow motion, washed out, sepia toned countrified ambience. Tuma's two proper solo records, Hard Again and The River 1 2 3 4, are both HUGE all time aQ favorites, so we were pretty excited to hear about a brand new release, especially since we've been waiting patiently for almost 5 years!
Not For Nobody begins quite strangely, a super spare, lo-fi recording of barely there guitar, stretched out beneath reverb drenched childlike vocals, cooing and purring, a bit like a countrified Bjork, the sibilance stretched out into glistening shimmers, the melody, mournful and dreamy, bits of tinkling chimes, and muted ambient clatter, the whole thing sun dappled and soft focus, so strange and haunting, but so lovely and sublime.
The next track finds us on much more familiar ground, a loose tangle of steel string guitar, sounding like it could have come off one of the later Souled American records, but sans vocals, the melodies lyrical and lilting, couched in a thick layered backdrop of warm whir, sprinkled with tinkling bells and chimes, laced with bits of piano, somehow sparse and skeletal, but impossibly lush. Which is sort of Tuma's specialty, turning minimalism into maximalism, but without losing any of the former's hushed urgency or whispered intimacy.
The whole record is quite varied, but each track manages to sound like it couldn't be anywhere else, every one seamlessly leading into the next, a song suite, an album of cohesive musical pieces, not just a collection of songs. The third track, "Eloper", introduces what sounds like horns, for a haunting funereal march, a woozy fanfare that seems to slowly spread out, a simple pulse like rhythm beneath hazy streaks and deliberate minor key strum. The next track begins as a jaunty upper register steel string lullaby, giving way, part way through, to a languorous late afternoon sun dappled sprawl, slightly atonal, gorgeous and bleary eared. "New Joy" buries the guitar in a haze of whirring buzz and warm swirls of lush chords and muted feedback, very liturgical sounding, a dark ambient drift through some ancient crumbling cathedral, while "Rakes" begins as a simple stripped down halfspeed Appalachian hoedown, before transforming into a sea of sawing strings, of layered buzz and extended steel string drones.
The record finishes the way it began, with that ghostly childlike voice, the bits of spare guitar, the massive clouds of delay and reverb, that voice a wraith hovering above the web of subtle minor key guitar, the floorboards creaking, motes of dust tinkling like chimes in a soft evening breeze, creepy, sorrowful, and so completely gorgeous.
Tuma conjures a timeless magical mystery with his guitar. He plays the mysterious traveler, a wandering audio alchemist, turning notes and chords into gold, or rather, golden streaks of dusty memory and soft golden glimpses of some hidden and blurred otherworld. His are sounds to get lost in, to wrap around yourself like some cloak spun from gold thread, to hide under with a flashlight like a child, creating worlds of light and shadow, a sound at once mystical and enigmatic, warm and familiar, and truly truly sublime.
ATTENTION!! The first 100 copies come packaged in a gold on black, cardstock gatefold sleeve, housed in a special oversized handscreened 7" style outersleeve, black ink on metallic gold paper, each one hand numbered. We managed to get nearly 3/4 of that first 100, but the way things have been going these will probably not last long, so once we run out, you'll get the normal, slightly cheaper version (the innersleeve white on brown instead of gold and black, and without the oversized hand numbered outer sleeve).
We first discovered Scott Tuma when he was playing guitar for stoned Chicago slowcore country cosmonauts Souled American, his distinctive sound helping to shape SA's totally idiosyncratic music. And after Tuma parted ways with Souled American, he seemed to mark the event by jettisoning traditional songs completely, instead crafting a series of gorgeously gauzy country dronescapes, like an organic folk version of Tim Hecker, his lush landscapes, blurred and gauzy, washed out smears of impressionistic country music, evoking lost loves and bygone eras, his music utterly timeless and totally unlike anything we'd heard.
So every new Tuma releases is definitely worth celebrating, and Peeper is no different. A five song suite that captures everything we love about Tuma's music. The opener is a barely there stretch of gauzy sun dappled shimmer, which gives way to a stretch of slow motion Appalachia, the notes left to float weightless in wide open stretches of warm whirring ambience, a creaky, glacial bit of old timey drift, like a broadcast from some other time, playing through a busted old radio on a rickety old porch, the sunlight glimmering through the branches of the trees, the summer fading ever so slowly. Like on past records, Tuma is joined by members of Zelienople, and as the record progresses, the trio begin to unfurl fuzzy stretches of soft noise, of industrial creak, and layered grey drones, peppered with bits of percussion, clatter and whir, growing noisier and more propulsive, more like some murky psychedelic outfit, a haunting melody laced noise drenched creep, that's both caustic and lovely, eventually dissipating and leaving more hazy hushed dreaminess, what sounds like harmonium, piano, lazy and warm and languid and so sweetly beautiful.
The flipside of the tape, as far as we can tell, features a reinterpretation of Tuma's music, or maybe Tuma's sounds are sampled, or perhaps it's simply an homage, but the oddly named Brothers Pus (aka Johnny Kember & James Provencher), weave a thick sea of layered bass rumbles, of keening distant high end streaks, of tolling bells, a dark industrial dronescape, infused with bits of melody, that gradually fades out and gives way to something more folky, the industrial whir dialed back, while guitars pluck out melancholy melodies over the top, a dark droning country drift, that had we not known better, would have assumed it was Tuma himself.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES! Already sold out, we have less than 20 copies and that's IT.
This is record number two from AQ fave Scott Tuma and it's just as beautiful as last year's Hard Again album that we couldn't stop raving about. For those who don't know, Tuma spent the majority of his career as the guitar player for stoned country deconstructionists Souled American. And Tuma has continued to deconstruct that sound even further. Taking the glacial slow motion country of Souled American as a jumping off point, Tuma manages to remove most of the distinctly 'song' elements and focus more on sound, and the impression of that sound. Slow and dreamy, full of space and even more purposeless in terms of song structure than ever, but consequently more effective at creating moods, evocative and stunning, epic and totally timeless. The instrumentation is simple, acoustic guitars, banjos, harmonica, organ, with plenty of ambient clatter, instrument buzz, foot steps, chairs creaking, breathing and shuffling all add to the spare beauty. Wheezing chords underpin purposeful notes gently plucked and left to hang momentarily in the warm air, before drifting gently out of earshot. Melodies slowly reveal themselves from a smattering of notes introduced slowly and sporadically somehow knowing that they will all eventually fall snugly into place. Lush, slowly shifting drones with barely-there melodies suspended within like insects in amber. Warm blankets of sound, woven simply, but perfect in their simplicity. Completely mesmerising and so soothing. Like Phill Niblock composing for Palace, or Godspeed backing up John Fahey, or Philip Jeck and a handful of country 78's. Simply amazing.
MPEG Download: "The River 1" [/audio/tumariver1.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "The River 1" [/audio/tumariver1.m3u]
Scott Tuma is easily one of our favorite guitarists, from his stint creating warped and warbly underwater twangscapes in legendary downer country legends Souled American, to his gorgeous solo records of warm hazy Appalachia, so it's nice that Tuma seems to be back on track, after a seemingly long stretch of inactivity. The recent Not For Nobody, which was of course an aQ Record of The Week, and now this, a brand new collaboration with Zelienople's Mike Weis, which manages to take that Tuma sound we love and transform it into something new and different.
Weis is the drummer in Zelienople, and since Zelienople never had much cause for a proper drummer, Weis manages to be super creative behind the kit, or maybe more accurately, with an arsenal of cymbals and gongs and chimes, creating textures and layers more than rhythms. Which is precisely what he brings to this collaboration. Tuma is of course doing what he does best, weaving lush landscapes of sound, his guitar keening and moaning, drifting and twanging, sounding underwater one minute, weightless and spacey the next, those sounds are given a whole new context when paired with Weis's unique percussion. The drums here seem to consist mostly of a sort of soft cacophony, manic skitter, clouds of tinkling chimes, bowed cymbals, the deep tones of BIG cymbals or gongs, plenty of clatter and clang, but all sort of smeared into a living backdrop, reacting and interacting with Tuma's guitar, the result is often like a strange Souled American free jazz mashup, which might not sound good, but actually is, although elsewhere the results are a bit more subtle than that.
The guitars slip from hazy and underwater sounding, to gently shimmering, acoustic guitars unfurl woozy Appalachia, bits of twang, soft strums, all gently laid over a sea of skitter and thump, the deep shimmer of reverberating metals, the result is gorgeously murky and indistinct, less like two players playing off of each other, and more like two people contributing to the same sprawling sound. The first side plays out like the two getting acquainted, a delicate dance, their unique sounds quickly finding common ground and melting seamlessly into each other, culminating in a gorgeous track of hushed minimalism, introducing piano, Weis's percussion kept to a whispered thrum, everything wreathed in lush reverb and delay, so lovely.
The second side, features several longish tracks, where Tuma gets to try something a little more distorted and aggressive, the duo creating extended bouts of deep ominous dronemusic and thick caustic buzz, each player's contributions still distinct, at least with close listening, but step back, and the various parts take on surprising shapes, long stretches of heaving, droning, mesmerizingly meditative and surprisingly fluid drones, that manage to be warm and melodic as well as darkly mysterious.
Packaged in beautiful fold out silk screened sleeves, and LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!! ALREADY SOLD OUT!! THESE ARE THE ONLY COPIES WE'LL HAVE, EVER.
Guys (girls?) here's your fantasy '70s Swedish hippy folksinging girlfriend! The I Retur cd collects the best, we presume, of Turid Lundqvist's three elpees: Vittras Visor from 1971, Bilder from '73, and 1975's Tredje Dagen. Singing mostly in Swedish, sometimes in English, her sweet, high voice graces 21 tracks in total here, which feature a variety of instrumental backing from acoustic guitar, mandolin, tabla, contrabass, trumpet, and more, played by Turid and fellow musicians who I think were members of the psych-rock-folk band Kebnekajse, with whom she also sang. But it's really her voice that's the drawing card here, infusing these dreamy compositions with the beauty of birdsong. There's no freaky electronics like on that Linda Perhacs record, or super old-timey stuff like Shirley Collins. Just straight up singer-songwriter folk music with that mystical '70s vibe.
Have you perchance seen the quite excellent Swedish film Together, the one from a few years back that was set in a '70s commune? Well there's a lot of great music on the soundtrack, and in one scene the characters listen to a Turid LP. We've got friends who've been looking for her stuff ever since! Also on the soundtrack was some International Harvester (same band as Trad Gras Och Stenar), and a while ago I asked one of the Trad Gras Och Stenar guys if he'd seen the film and what he thought of it. He said he liked it, but said that for him those days were (even) more experimental and radical, that the film didn't capture all the "dangerous and dark things going on" at the time. Certainly there's not much dangerous and dark (though sometimes extremely emotional) about Turid's beautiful music! It's the flowers and sunshine of the era you'll hear here.
'Mystical goat dancer' is an apt describer of Otha Turner, an ageless creation of the Mississippi earth whose musical mastery is over a simple fife carved out of a bamboo cane fishing pole. Together with his Rising Star Fife & Drum band, Turner has for years fashioned shrill whistles around the militant snare march of the drum core, reconstituting the rhythmic hypnotism of lost slave songs. This album is a much more sedate outing for Turner as he has been joined by a handful of Senegalese musicians, beautifully linking the two divergant African sounds. Turner's domineering presence is neccessary for the success of these fusions, but at times, he seems to wander off (to feed the chickens? after all this was recorded at his farm) on two tracks which snap back to traditional Senegalese rhythms. Regardless, an excellent document.
Here's some more "outsider art" sounds...ancient trance music outta Tate County, Mississippi. Marches and blues and lotsa feeling. Wonderful.
What would happen if you took the songwriting talents of Townes Van Sandt and Terry Allen, fed them a bag of dried hallucinagenic mushrooms, brought in the recording talents of Bjorn Olsson with his recycled cassettes mastered onto a dying tape deck and ran the whole thing through the Jewelled Antler's nature recordings filter? Charlie Tweddle's Fantastic Greatest Hits, that's what. Recorded in 1971 in San Rafael, California, with a backup band of either friends who shared his vision or hired guns, Charlie released the album himself in 1974 under the name of Eilrahc Elddewt in a pressing of 500 copies. Needless to say the record was a flop and -- due to the inclusion of extended periods of silence between tracks -- many were returned as defective. It didn't help that there were no track names and that all of side b was a field recording of frogs and crickets. Charlie Tweddle was quite possibly way ahead of his time. All of his songs are mixed with field recordings and random sounds and most of them have a tendancy to end abruptly. In one song, folky acoustic guitar ballads are mixed in with squawking seagulls, ocean sounds and overdubbed spoken word. The second track, an off-kilter mariachi imitation with acoustic guitar and vocals uses an am radio accompaniment (supplying the mariachi band). This reissue includes the original album in its entirety (recorded directly from an existing copy of the LP) plus six never before released tracks. A definite must for fans of the Jewelled Antler releases, Jandek, or outsider country artists in general.
Jeff Tweedy of Wilco and Uncle Tupelo wrote and performed this soundtrack to an Ethan Hawke-directed film about the Chelsea Hotel in NYC. It's mostly echoey, moody soundtrack fare, peppered with twangy numbers performed with some of the members of Wilco and/or
There seems to be a pattern these days with new bands, specifically the bands who exist in the cd-r underground. The scene is so small and the various labels and groups so closely linked, that it doesn't take much for a new group to blow up, a single well received cd-r on one label, often results in short order in releases on some or all of the various other cd-r labels of note. Sometimes it's frustrating, discovering a band, and then a month or two later discovering that they now have 5, or 10 or even 20 releases. But on the other hand, if it's a band you dig, why the hell not, we would never be ones to balk at more records by a band we love.
Anyway, such was the case with a band called Natural Snow Buildings, who released an insanely limited cd-r, in ridiculously fancy packaging. Practically no one got one, but those who did, raved like crazy, and thus, there are a whole mess of NSB releases about to drop (one elsewhere on this list actually). Not long after that release, half of that duo released his first record under the name Twinsistermoon, and pretty much the same thing happened. Insanely limited, only a few people got it, and word spread, and now TSM are also poised to release a handful of new records. Thankfully, Digitalis stepped in and snapped up that Twinsistermoon recording, and decided to reissue it, so more than a handful of people could hear it, and voila, here it is! Still probably too limited (only 500 copies), but at least briefly, we all have a chance to hear the gorgeous sounds of Twinsistermoon.
Mehdi Amaziane is one half of Natural Snow Buildings, and records on his own as Twinsistermoon. This disc was originally released as a limited run of 36 copies, which says something that it could still create such a stir. But it all makes sense when you finally hear it. This will be like manna from heaven for the dream-drone free noise cd-r set, the perfect mix of abstract folky songsmithery, and abstract raga like buzz, intense minimal tribalism, and shimmering soft focus strum. Even from the first track, imagine the cosmic Ur-drone of a group like Sunroof! intertwined with the fluttery forest folk of a group like Avarus, but then introduce soaring impossible high male vocals, often mistaken for a female, all woven into a buzzing brilliant sprawl. Peppered with bits of percussion, tinkling chimes, backwards guitars, almost Renn Faire like folk, those soaring vocals, hand drums, huge washes of vocal harmonies. Totally epic and expansive, cinematic and grand. And that's just the first track!
The record drifts dreamily from soft folky shimmer, to thick raga rituals. The vocal based songs are uncanny, Amaziane's voice is so high and clear, like Vashti Bunyan crossed with Cat power, the vocals rich and lustrous, emotional and intense, draped over fragments of strummed guitar, and muted percussion. Breathless and intimate, one moment, lush and epic the next, Amaziane could easily have made a record with just an acoustic guitar and his voice, instead, he chose to incorporate a much wider palette, creating gorgeous sweeping soundscapes, washed out drones, thick walls of crumbling distorted sound, steel string buzz would into long stretches of reverberation and shimmer, often erupting into dense tangles of buzz and pound, some tracks sound like a more lo-fi Loop, a sort of rambling forest-ified space rock, others are near static, channeling Sunroof! again as well as folks like Phill Niblock, but as much as we love dronemusic, and abstract buzzing ambience, it's Amaziane's voice that makes this disc so compelling. Anyone can whip up a good drone-y skree, although Twinsistermoon do it much better than most, keeping it musical rather than drone for drone's sake, but very few have a voice like that, and if they do, even fewer know how to use it. In Twinsistermoon, Amaziane transcends the idea of singer/songwriter, creating a gorgeously expansive and organic soundworld, equal parts free folk, abstract noise, minimal drone and hushed intimate songsmithery.
Packaged in a full color, matte finished 6 panel cardstock jacket, with super striking Aztec influence artwork by Amaziane. And again, LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
The eighth in the series of tour support singles from MP3 conglomerate Insound is from Two Dollar Guitar. Tim Foljahn's country fried indie-isms are paired with Gram Parson's orchestrations for a beautiful ep. Highlight of this record: a gospel choir reciting Tim's crude request, "Please, don't shit on me" on the final track.
There's probably a perfectly good reason for this band being named "U.S. Christmas". We hope there is anyway. Regardless, that this disc (apparently the third so far, from this North Carolina based outfit) was released on Neurosis' label Neurot is of course a good sign, and indeed, Eat The Low Dogs is proving to be one of our favorite Neurot releases of the last little while, fitting in nicely with the likes of Guapo and Grey Daturas in the recent Neurot roster. Yep, this is good stuff! What sort of good stuff you ask? Heavy, dark, synth-swirling, psychedelic good stuff!
Turns out, U.S. Christmas play moody, echoey space rock. That's right, kinda like '70s Hawkwind. But with both more of an aggro metallic edge (though still slowed down and sleepy), and also more of a countryish one too (slide guitar evoking wide open spaces). You can imagine 'em out in the desert someplace, campfire burning, generator running, giant amps tilted upwards at a 45 degree angle to point at the starry sky, playing this stuff all night long 'til dawn comes or the drugs run out... the last track here is called "Pray To The Sky", actually.
The spaced-out sounds of synthesizers and Theremin abound, the whirring electronic FX here reminding us a bit of the whup whup whup of the jug on those old 13th Floor Elevators albums... a constant presence, but just another texture amidst real songwriting. Loping, heavy head nodding riffage and ragged, punk-angsty vocals are also part of the U.S. Christmas equation. Speaking of equations, how 'bout this one: Neurosis + Hawkwind + some twang + more space rock = U.S. Christmas. Or, if the Red Sparowes teamed up with Tarantula Hawk, or if Deadboy And The Elephantmen were channelling The Heads, or if the Galloping Coroners came from Texas instead of Hungary, those things too might sound something like this band. Quite recommended.
And who knows, maybe the -next- awesome heavy synthy space rock combo to come along will be inexplicably called Canadian Thanksgiving.
We've been slowly working our way through the catalog of this unsung SF outsider slo-mo avant country outfit, having already reviewed their 1993 debut, My Company Is Misery, and the maybe even better follow up 1994's Tender Places Come From Nothing. Hell, Yes! was the group's swansong, released in 1997, and is another gorgeous sprawl of detuned guitars, and woozy warped vocal harmonies. If you thought Souled American were druggy and drowsy, they didn't have anything on these guys. In a way. U.S. Saucer were almost like a country Residents if that makes any sense. Their sound definitely beholden to classic country, but filtered through a serious skewed outsider/underground music filter, resulting in a sound that literally sounds like nothing and no one else. Imagine some old country record melting as it spins on the turntable, or some classic country tune playing on a tape machine with dying batteries. The guitars are reminiscent of Marc Ribot in Tom Waits' band, atonal and detuned, the songs marked by strange tangled harmonies, the arrangements super economical, the instruments just two guitars, bass and viola, ultra stripped down, slipping from hushed and dreamy, to dense and angular. But even the prettiest most traditional sounding songs here can't help but end up sounding warped and weird once mainman David Tholfsen begins to deliver his twisted lyrics in that distinctively warbly dramatic croon. And when Margaret Murray chimes in, the harmonies, while strange, are utterly divine. And the songs that she sings lead on are hushed haunting gems.
Like the other two records, Hell, Yes! is a gorgeous collection of haunting outsider minimal country loveliness, that is definitely some sort of strange beautiful musical mystery, and comes extremely and highly recommended.
These two long out of print early nineties gems back in stock, but who knows for how long. As far as we know, these in fact remain out of print, but one of the band members bequeathed us a tiny handful, so we figured some of you more adventurous folks out there, might appreciate an earful of these SF avant slo-mo country weirdos, who over these two records (and a few more after), created a warped, dark, idiosyncratic drummerless country music, that drifts and creeps, moodily and murkily, the music, hushed and spidery, mostly just guitar and viola (provided by Brian Hageman of Thinking Fellers Union Local 282), the vocals super melodramatic and definitely an acquired taste, backed by Margaret Murray's more hushed, almost whispered croon, the songs loose and ramshackle, drowsy and druggy, but ultimately strangely lovely.
The second record is even weirder, noiser, the guitars buzzing more wildly, Murray's vocals more present, sometimes a wild caterwaul, other times locked into dreamy harmonies with USS main man David Tholfsen, the music, slipping easily from hushed moody brood, to angular Jandekian blooze, both of these records, had they been instrumental, would sound that far removed from the stoner country sprawl of aQ faves Souled American, but the vocals definitely transform this into an even wilder strain of outsider lo-fi country, one that sounds just as good today as when we first heard theses records two decades ago.
Fans of Songs:Ohia, Palace Brothers, and other country outliers should easily fall under U.S. Saucer's dark hypnotic spell.
On the last list, we reviewed the lp version of this long out of print early nineties slowcore outsider country masterpiece, having gotten copies directly from the band. We also managed to get an handful of cd copies as well, which includes three bonus tracks NOT on the lp version!
Tender Place Come From Nothing was the 1994 sophomore release from these SF avant slo-mo country weirdos, who over the course of four years/records, conjured up a warped, dark, idiosyncratic drummerless country music, that drifts and creeps, moodily and murkily, the music, hushed and spidery, mostly just guitar and viola (provided by Brian Hageman of Thinking Fellers Union Local 282), the vocals super melodramatic and definitely an acquired taste, backed by Margaret Murray's more hushed, almost whispered croon, the songs loose and ramshackle, drowsy and druggy, but ultimately strangely lovely.
Unlike their comparatively more mellow debut, this record is even weirder and noisier, the guitars buzzing more wildly, Murray's vocals more present, sometimes a wild caterwaul, other times locked into dreamy harmonies with USS main man David Tholfsen, the music, slipping easily from hushed moody brood, to angular Jandekian blooze, and had it been instrumental, the sound here wouldn't be that far removed from the stoner country sprawl of aQ faves Souled American, but the vocals definitely transform this into an even wilder strain of outsider lo-fi country, one that sounds just as good today as when we first heard theses records two decades ago.
Fans of Songs:Ohia, Palace Brothers, and other country outliers should easily fall under U.S. Saucer's dark hypnotic spell.
Two new releases this week from aQ pal, and longtime favorite Steven R. Smith, in his latest Ulaan guise, the other is a reissue of a long out of print double cassette originally released on Brave Mysteries, and this one, which is a brand new recording, two sprawling, nearly twenty minute tracks. The first opens with a soft cacophony of bells, before some mournful fiddle, wreathed in reverb, and set atop soft billows of low end thrum, a gorgeous, haunting threnody, which gradually blossoms into a sort of swampy folky dirge, immediately reminiscent of Woven Hand / Sixteen Horsepower. But soon, the strum dissipates, leaving, long tones, lushly layered atmospheres, abstract percussion, and soft shimmers, the vibe dusky and windblown, a little bit twangy, easy to imagine, a landscape painted in reds and oranges from the setting sun, and the slowly encroaching shadows. Soon the strings sweep back in, and the sound is transformed into an almost baroque sounding darkfolk drift, underpinned by swoonsome chordal swells, and sitar like drones, giving the sound an almost raga like vibe. After a bit of distorted psychedelia, the sound settles into a strummy, drifty finale, again, lots of twang, and some crackling electric guitar buzz. Moody and mesmeric. The second track starts off all campfire Appalachian folk, before quickly mutating into a droned out tribal drift, muted pulsing rhythms, beneath soft swirls and layered drones, another sort-of-raga, but with some psych-kraut like propulsion, which gives way to some broody gypsy folk, still wreathed in drones, washed out and woozy, a hazy sprawl of dark dream-drone psych folk ambience, that gradually becomes more and more Appalachian again, lots of buzzy twang, long tones, and lush overtones, all over a bed of softly roiling rumbles, and a hushed, distant, slow fading soft psych finale, before those opening bells return...
Housed in super swank, silkscreened Stumptown cardstock sleeves. LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!! Each one hand numbered.
Originally released as an ultra limited (just 100 copies) double cassette on Brave Mysteries in 2013, this sprawling songsuite from longtime fave and aQ pal Steven R. Smith, gets new life in the form of this not so limited cd, and finds Smith, slightly altering his constantly in flux Ulaan monicker, conjuring up 4 side long (at least on the original tape) sprawls of haunting, contemplative, abstract, psychedelic drift. Fans of Smith's other recordings will immediately feel right at home, plaintive piano, soft shimmering swells, chiming bells, softly moaning strings, the sound slowly unfurling and blossoming, moving from a freeform psychedelic dronescape, to a brooding dark folk balladry, to a murky minimal softnoise drift, to hushed droned wreathed steel string strum, a sort of droned out Appalachia, to lush string swaddled epic psych folk majesty and finally to a lush, layered raga-like ambience, that gradually fades into silence. And that's just the first side/track! The other three tracks are equally epic and mesmerizing, darkly melodic, hauntingly psychedelic, lush and lovely, the sort of endless epic psychedelia that is so easy to get swept away by, a few minutes into any of the tracks here, you'll find yourself gloriously lost in Smith's mysterious soundworld, drifting weightlessly above fields of Appalachia flecked droned, or softly submerged beneath dreamlike billows of serene psychedelia, or propelled by heady sprawls of minimal psych-kraut mesmer. As always, FANTASTIC!
Housed in super swank, silkscreened Stumptown cardstock sleeves. LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!! Each one hand numbered.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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Yes, the harmolodic electric guitar of Ulmer combined with the violins, violas and cellos of the Quartette Indigo. Quite lovely. Includes a version of Ulmer's "Theme From Captain Black". On the Japanese jazz label DIW.
The late great Uncle Tupelo's fourth album is my (Windy, and Andee's too!) favorite. It's SO AMAZING, the perfect marriage between country and rock. Dare I say that even Gram Parsons would agree!
Despite the fact that Anodyne, originally released in 1993, was Tupelo's major label debut and everyone was nervous that it would suck, somehow everything came together and they recorded their most mature and perfect album (and that's sayin' a lot since their first three records are also stellar). Artistic differences eventually broke up the band, with Jeff Tweedy going on to form WILCO and Jay Farrar forming SON VOLT. But listen, if you're a fan of either of those two groups but *haven't* heard Uncle Tupelo yet, do yourself a favor. Ditto if you're a fan of "no depression" style Americana -- most of today's bands will point to Uncle Tupelo as main inspirations.
This record is absolutely classic in flavor, staying power, talent and songwriting. Farrar's downtrodden and minor key heartstring-tuggers alternate with Tweedy's lighter ditties; upbeat fiddle-led numbers are nestled amongst slower tunes. And everywhere is the undeniable tug of the bittersweet to give it incredible depth. I have been listening to this album probably every week for the last ten years and have never gotten tired of it.
Lyrics! Five extra tracks: a Farrar tune, a Tweedy song from 2003(?), and a Waylon Jennings cover; plus live renditions of "Truck Drivin' Man" and "Suzy Q."
MPEG Download: "Slate" [/audio/tupeloslate.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Slate" [/audio/tupeloslate.m3u]
Finally after years of waiting, the Uncle Tupelo back catalog gets the deluxe reissue treatment it so deserves. Belleville, Illinois' favorite sons almost single handedly made it okay for indie rockers to don sparkly jean jackets and publicly profess their love of all things Byrds and Gram Parsons, creating in the process a genre that would carry on their proud tradition to this day. From the gorgeously-twangy-country-intertwined-with-raucous-punk-rock of their early days to the lush-and -perfect-Nashville-via-Midwestern-backwater -country/bluegrass of their final years, no one can hold a candle to Farrar and Tweedy, the dynamic duo whose different (but equally compelling) songwriting styles and dramatically disparate voices helped form the foundation for one of the greatest rock bands (or country rock bands) of the last decade.
Record number three was the record where it all changed. Where Uncle Tupelo became first and foremost, a country outfit. Many thought this was a one off experiment, but as their next and final record Anodyne would prove beyond any shadow of a doubt, they were country through and through. Produced by R.E.M.'s Peter Buck March 16-20 was all acoustic and sounded like a record of traditionals, which it sort of was, even though only five tracks were -actually- traditionals. The originals here are so perfect, timeless and...well.. traditional sounding, with Farrar and Tweedy spinning tales of coal mines, railroads, Satan, murders, and that new fangled atomic power. Mandolin, banjo, pedal steel, slide guitar, violin, accordion and even bouzouki all added to the gorgeous stripped down sound of a band not only at their peak, but so obviously having fun, playing songs, and the kind of songs, they truly loved. Lots of photos and liner notes.
Bonus tracks: 'Take My Word' from a 1992 7", 'Moonshiner (Live 1/24/93)' from a 1994 compilation, and 4 unreleased tracks from 1991 demo recorded in a kitchen: "Grindstone (1991 Longview Farm Acoustic Demo)', 'Atomic Power (1991 Longview Farm Acoustic Demo)', the Stooges' 'I Wanna Be Your Dog (1991 Longview Farm Acoustic Demo)' and 'The Walton's (Theme) (1991 Longview Farm Acoustic Demo)'.
Finally after years of waiting, the Uncle Tupelo back catalog gets the deluxe reissue treatment it so deserves.Belleville, Illinois' favorite sons almost single handedly made it okay for indie rockers to don sparkly jean jackets and publicly profess their love of all things Byrds and Gram Parsons, creating in the process a genre that would carry on their proud tradition to this day. From the gorgeously-twangy-country-intertwined-with-raucous-punk-rock of their early days to the lush-and -perfect-Nashville-via-Midwestern-backwater -country/bluegrass of their final years, no one can hold a candle to Farrar and Tweedy, the dynamic duo whose different (but equally compelling) songwriting styles and dramatically disparate voices helped form the foundation for one of the greatest rock bands (or country rock bands) of the last decade.
This is the record that started it all. Alt-country, No Depression or whatever it's called these days. Named for a Carter Family song and influenced as much by punk rock as folk and bluegrass, No Depression is a wild, rollicking, twangy, thrashy record full of amazing hooks, mournful melodies, and kick ass rock and roll. Never had a rock band managed to make country so cool (the Byrds came close, but I mean a ROCK band, a PUNK ROCK band!), opening up the ears of indie rockers everywhere. Perfectly captures the teen angst and dreary hopelessness of rural midwestern farm life, that no-way-out resignation mixed with just a dash of maybe-I-won't-end-up-like-my-folks-poor-and-miserable. It also introduced us to the amazing songsmithery of Farrar and Tweedy, whose tunultuous partnership would only last a few more years, but who would separately continue on (Wilco, Son Volt) to define the genre they practically invented. Tons of photos and liner notes.
Bonus tracks: The vinyl only bonus track 'Left In The Dark' from the Anthology 2lp, 'Won't Forget' from the A Matter Of Degrees soundtrack (terrible movie, great soundtrack!), a kick ass cover of the Byrds' 'Sin City' from an old 7", a live acoustic version of 'Whiskey Bottle', a 1988 demo of 'No Depression', and 'Blues Die Hard' from the Colorblind And Rhymeless 1987 demo.
Finally after years of waiting, the Uncle Tupelo back catalog gets the deluxe reissue treatment it so deserves. Belleville, Illinois' favorite sons almost single handedly made it okay for indie rockers to don sparkly jean jackets and publicly profess their love of all things Byrds and Gram Parsons, creating in the process a genre that would carry on their proud tradition to this day. From the gorgeously-twangy-country-intertwined-with-raucous-punk-rock of their early days to the lush-and -perfect-Nashville-via-Midwestern-backwater -country/bluegrass of their final years, no one can hold a candle to Farrar and Tweedy, the dynamic duo whose different (but equally compelling) songwriting styles and dramatically disparate voices helped form the foundation for one of the greatest rock bands (or country rock bands) of the last decade.
This is record number two and for a lot of folks was sort of a let down. Seems to be the fans' least favorite, but with lots of records like that, being the least listened to, it can offer all sorts of treasures when re-assessed. This was definitely a transition record, moving away from their punk rock roots and towards the traditional country they so obviously loved. Consequently, it sort of hovers right in the middle, feeling a little lost. Blunting the thrashy twangy punk they had perfected on their debut and kind of muddying the country/bluegrass trail they were preparing to blaze. My biggest problem was that Jeff Tweedy seemed to step up and take on a lot of the lead vocals. And at that point, Tweedy's whine-y, reedy vocals were only present to be a counterpoint to Jay Farrar's gorgeous whiskey soaked drawl. Since then, I've grown to appreciate Tweedy's vocals a lot more and can appreciate the dual vocalists and how they perfectly complemented each other. But the songs are still here in spades. Catchy and miserably defiant and hopelessly hopeful and just totally great. The fuzzy grungy opener 'Gun' is still one of my favorites. Again lots of photos and liner notes.
Bonus tracks: 'Sauget Wind' from an 1992 7", a fierce cover of The Soft Boys' 'I Wanna Destroy You', and three unreleased demos: 'Watch Me Fall', 'Looking For A Way Out (fast version), and 'If That's Alright (fast acoustic version)'.
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Inspired by past compilations of avant-garde guitar explorations assembled by John Fahey and Fred Frith, the Bay Area's own well-known guitar experimentalist Henry Kaiser has put together this collection of acoustic solos by many of today's most amazing guitar innovators, 19 of 'em in fact: Duck Baker, Stefan Basho-Junghans, Raoul Bjorkenheim, Jean-Paul Bourelly, Nels "AQ Loves Me" Cline, Janet Feder, Fred Frith, Michael Gulezian, Richard Leo Johnson, Mike Keneally, Peter Lang, Scott McGill, Shawn Persinger is Prester John, Rod Poole, Gyan Riley, Miroslav Tadic, Richard Thompson, U Tin, and Kaiser himself (hey, why no Eugene Chadbourne?). These guys (yeah, they're all guys except for Ms. Feder, but what can you do?) hail from around the world and have unique, personal approaches to playing.
Moods here range from the pastoral idyll of Brit folkie Thompson to the minimalist soundscaping of Frith, from the faux-raga like slide work of Bjorkenheim to the authentically Robbie Basho-like exotica of U Tin, from the country pickin' of Lang to the percussive melodicism of Bourelly, from the scraping drone-folk of Feder (we want to hear more!) to the repetitive trance-induction of Rod Poole, from the sprightly, jazzish jingle of Persinger to the melancholic classical playing of Gyan Riley. The disc ends with Steffen Basho-Junghan's epic, experimental, fucked up but lovely sounding "Part 1 from the Virgin Orchestra No.1", a piece that Kaiser cites as the cornerstone of this comp. And it's the pretty great finale to this gorgeous, fascinating album.
Kaiser intends "156 Strings" to highlight those carrying on the work of iconoclastic instrumental steel-string guitar pioneers like Fahey, Basho and Kottke, a tradition driven underground by the more commerical, less challenging New Age guitar genre those same folks helped create.
Also, funnily enough, a portion of the proceeds from the sales of this comp go to benefit H.E.A.R. (Hearing Education and Awareness for Rockers). Don't worry, there's no need for earplugs with this one!
The mighty Sublime Frequencies label keeps the impossibly cool comps coming, this their second collection of music from Algeria. The first focused on a very specific musical form from the region called Rai, whereas this new one is all about folk and pop music from the same era, and while on the surface it may seem more 'mainstream', it's still fantastically quirky, funky, groovy, and exotic, and all over the sonic map.
The seventies were a surprisingly good time for music in Algeria, 45's in particular, which was remarkable considering the socialist government at the time, and the legions of cops, and bureaucrats, and censors no doubt hell bent on suppressing any sort of social movement, and yet, music flourished, certainly a response to 'the man', who perhaps let these hippies have their music, assuming it might relieve some of the social tension of the time. Regardless, the 'hairies' embraced this sound, and were digging these very American influenced sounds, fuzzed out garage rock, groovy exotica, plenty of buzzing sitars, warbly organs, twangy surf guitar, wild percussion, male and female vox, some tracks sound literally straight out of the USA, others are fantastic hybrids of Western music and more traditional local sounds, but all the music included here is lively and powerful and personal and imbued with an energy that went well beyond just music and sound. And sure some of the jams are schmaltzy, almost easy listening, but even then, listening to those tracks, dressing wild and growing your hair our, was still extremely subversive and a serious rebellion, especially considering most of this music was officially suppressed. Like all Sublime Frequencies comps, so fantastic, and leaves us hankering for more more more!
And packaged as always, sublimely (ahem), in a heavy full color gatefold sleeve, with a super striking black and white portrait of an Algerian couple in their best rock and roll finery on the front, and inside, plenty of rare photos, liner notes and notes on each song and performer.
Yay! Peter Walker, one of the sixties best acoustic guitar players, comes out of hiding to bring us four new songs plus six new takes on his original compositions from current stars of the acoustic guitar scene including James Blackshaw, Steffan Basho-Junghans, and even Thurston Moore. While we would have much preferred a whole new album by Walker or better yet a reissue of his two seminal albums, including the all time classic "Rainy Day Ragas" released in 1966 on Vanguard, the performances by everyone involved, especially Walker's, are inspired and beautiful. For those who haven't heard of Peter Walker, he was the musical director for Timothy Leary's "Celebrations" gatherings at Harvard, and he brings that lysergic quality to his guitar playing fusing folk, flamenco, jazz, eastern and classical music into spiraling raga meditations. Walker hasn't enjoyed the same sort of revival as his contemporaries, Robbie Basho, Sandy Bull and John Fahey, but has clearly displayed his influence amongst the current "glitterati" of the acoustic guitar scene, as evidenced here. Hopefully we'll be hearing more of him real soon.
For those of you who've been keepin' track of the Ace Of Spades limited edition cd-r series of monthly live acoustic performances at Oakland's Mama Buzz Cafe by various Bay Area rootsy folksy musicians, here's the final release! It's a limited edition 'best of' compilation cd (not a cd-r), and it features a single track each from seventeen different artists including Rogue Wave, The Moore Brothers, Sean Hayes, Black Bear, Dave Gleason's Wasted Days, Alela Menig, The Lonely Hearts, Jason Webley, Paul Panamarenko, Mandrake, Black Bird Stitches, Laura Weinbach, Audio Out Send, Etienne De Rocher, Brian Glaze, Bart Davenport, and Paula Frazer.
And for extra warm fuzzies, it's a benefit cd with for the Little Kids Rock Foundation supporting children's music education.
It takes a lot more than just a killer collection of songs to make an amazing compilation, and leave it to Tompkins Square, generally no slouches in the comp curating department, to come up with this curiously themed focus on affairs of the heart, in particular, the strange corner of human nature the impels and compels us to pursue romance, and love, even when the relationship seems doomed from the outset. A base human instinct not to just to find love, but to often look for it in all the wrong places. And to commemorate those lost loves and tragic encounters in song.
These prewar tunes, include music from the Cajun bayous, the mountains of Eastern Europe, and rural America, focusing on various nationalities who emigrated to America, only to form super strong enclaves, with a mind to preserve their cultural heritage, one part of which was various traditions of courtship and marriage, traditions that were quite different from one nationality to the next. But as different as those traditions were, the emotions, the feelings of love and longing, of sorrow and hopefulness, are of course universal, and were again, immortalized in music, a music that is at once festive and celebratory, but often with a subtle underpinning of sadness, the sounds are a mix of European folk, country music, bluegrass and gypsy music, lots of fiddles and strings, emotive vocals, wild melodies, there's plenty of blues too, cuz if one thing we all know, love can give a person the blues something bad, so Dock Boggs and his banjo spin a tale of "False Hearted Lover Blues", the Stoneman Family mix some gospel vocals and some wheezing accordion into their sweet country twang, Emry Arthur laments the fact that "She Lied To me", and in between the blues are endless variations on string music, polkas, hoedowns, wedding dances, it's a heady mix, that's fun to listen to, even when the subject matter is heartbreak and misery.
There's no shortage of old timey comps, but this one is most definitely a gem, musically AND thematically.
Gorgeously packaged in an oversized soft cover book style sleeve, with a massive 60 page booklet, filled with rare photos, extensive liner notes, lyrical translation, and gorgeous original illustrations by Robert Crumb.
MPEG Stream: DOUGLAS BELLARD & KIRBY RILEY "Aimer Et Perdre (To Love And To Lose)" [/audio/vaaimeretperd1.m3u]
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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The one real drawback with the AQ list and the website and the reviews, is that there are so many new records, more and more every week, that it makes it quite difficult to go back and try to review releases that for one reason or another never got listed. In the case of the first volume of Revenant's amazing American Primitive series, a collection of rare and lost pre war gospel music, covering the years from 1926-1936, it was originally released in 1997, way back when the AQ list was still in it's infancy we weren't quite so thorough as we try to be now! Which is a shame as that was probably one of the most gorgeous documents of gospel and blues we had ever heard. We kept planning to review and list it, eventually it went out of print (fear not though, it's due to be reissued soon).
Here we are eight years later, and volume two is finally here, bigger and better then the first in almost every way. It's sadly one of the very last releases compiled and assembled by John Fahey right before his death. Volume two is a double disc, with a HUGE booklet, with extensive liner notes on each track and each artist. Most fascinatingly, this American Primitive installment takes us even farther back, all the way back to 1897 in the case of the comp's earliest track. The rest of the tracks were recorded between 1926 and 1939. And as you might imagine, this is absolutely stunning, haunting, beautiful stuff. Emotional and heartfelt, haunting and otherworldly, some tracks cloaked in record static and murky mystery, some joyful and jaunty and crystal clear. An amazing glimpse into our musical past.
The liner notes constantly refer to this collection being full of ghosts and spirits and phantoms, and it really is, literally, each song is the legacy of a life, their loves, their spirituality, their legacy, but sonically as well, the whole compilation is a ghostly, long faded musical photograph of a time that once was, washed out, sepia toned, faded and browned around the edges, each track viewed through a broken old screen door, or a yellowed window pane, all of their musical hope and despair, a hundred plus years of life and death, love and loss, heaven and hell, audible in the rough patina of hiss and static and fuzz and buzz that lovingly wraps each note, every voice raised in praise, in a warm fuzzy, hazy cloak. Gorgeous and timeless rhythm and blues, folk and gospel, rich with the sort of sonic imperfections and recording inconsistancies we love so much, the sounds and textures modern musicians toil endlessly to recreate (think Basinski, Jeck, Saule, Tim Hecker). Essential for fans of all things Smithsonian Folkways, Yazoo, and Arhoolie, but also in its own unique way, a gorgeous fuzzy soundscape of rhythm and blues, like sitting in a snowbound cabin, around a roaring fire, with Philip Jeck and Christian Marclay, spinning old '78's on a vintage victrola. So so perfect!
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SORRY.
We're proud to be carrying the very hard to find German label Trikont, who have amassed an incredibly diverse selection of cds featuring music from all over the world. This EXCELLENT compilation is not at all campy; it's a seriously good collection of everyone from the Carter Family to Tampa Red, Roy Rogers, Bob Wills, Patsy Montana, Sons of the Pioneers, Bill Monroe, and Jimmie Rodgers.
Hard to believe we never reviewed this massively influential set of archival recordings of American folk music when it was first reissued as a 6cd box set back in the late nineties. Perhaps they preceded our list, or we simply just relied on the fact that these sets so easily sold themselves at the time. Compiled by the one and only Harry Smith, a famously eccentric figure of American bohemia both as an experimental filmmaker, and collector and archivist. this set released by Smithsonian Folkways in 1952 in 3 volumes (the 4th volume was planned but never released until the early 2000's) reintroduced to the world some of the brightest stars of early folk and country music recordings of the twenties and thirties and lending significant influence to the folk music revival of the fifties and sixties. We're even quite positive that the cd reissues in the nineties influenced the next wave of folk music in the early 2000's. The Carter Family, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Dock Boggs, Blind Willie Johnson, Furry Lewis, Charlie Poole, The Alabama Sacred Harp Singers, and many more lesser known musical figures are to be found in these collections, exploring the full range of regional American musical forms from Hawaiian guitar to Cajun music, blues, reels and gospel. Mississippi Records has gone to great lengths to reproduce the original albums all on 200 gram vinyl. Each volume is a double lp, housed in a cloth bound super thick cardboard gatefold sleeve with a tip on print on the front.
Volume 4 was planned and collected at the same time as the first 3 volumes but not released. This shorter volume focused on rhythmic changes in folk, blues and country music that occurred from the late twenties to the early forties. John Fahey's Revenant label had released this volume in the late nineties, but it has long been out of print ever since. This is the only volume without liner notes as Smith didn't prepare any for this release. It includes Lead Belly, The Carter Family, Robert Johnson, The Monroe Brothers, Uncle Dave Macon, the Memphis Jug Band, and many more.
Sure they are pricey, but you won't see these around for long, such an amazing mind-boggling collection and all so worth it!
Hard to believe we never reviewed this massively influential set of archival recordings of American folk music when it was first reissued as a 6cd box set back in the late nineties. Perhaps they preceded our list, or we simply just relied on the fact that these sets so easily sold themselves at the time. Compiled by the one and only Harry Smith, a famously eccentric figure of American bohemia both as an experimental filmmaker, and collector and archivist. this set released by Smithsonian Folkways in 1952 in 3 volumes (the 4th volume was planned but never released until the early 2000's) reintroduced to the world some of the brightest stars of early folk and country music recordings of the twenties and thirties and lending significant influence to the folk music revival of the fifties and sixties. We're even quite positive that the cd reissues in the nineties influenced the next wave of folk music in the early 2000's. The Carter Family, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Dock Boggs, Blind Willie Johnson, Furry Lewis, Charlie Poole, The Alabama Sacred Harp Singers, and many more lesser known musical figures are to be found in these collections, exploring the full range of regional American musical forms from Hawaiian guitar to Cajun music, blues, reels and gospel. Mississippi Records has gone to great lengths to reproduce the original albums all on 200 gram vinyl. Each volume is a double lp, housed in a cloth bound super thick cardboard gatefold sleeve with a tip on print on the front. In the gatefold there is a pouch with a reproduction of the original liner notes (at least in the first three volumes).
Volume One is Ballads with focus on traditional songs handed down from generations that often originated from British and Scottish Folk balladry, but also includes murder ballads, songs of love and death and great tragedy. An Essential Collection!
Sure they are pricey, but you won't see these around for long. Such an amazing mind-boggling collection and all so worth it!
Hard to believe we never reviewed this massively influential set of archival recordings of American folk music when it was first reissued as a 6cd box set back in the late nineties. Perhaps they preceded our list, or we simply just relied on the fact that these sets so easily sold themselves at the time. Compiled by the one and only Harry Smith, a famously eccentric figure of American bohemia both as an experimental filmmaker, and collector and archivist. this set released by Smithsonian Folkways in 1952 in 3 volumes (the 4th volume was planned but never released until the early 2000's) reintroduced to the world some of the brightest stars of early folk and country music recordings of the twenties and thirties and lending significant influence to the folk music revival of the fifties and sixties. We're even quite positive that the cd reissues in the nineties influenced the next wave of folk music in the early 2000's. The Carter Family, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Dock Boggs, Blind Willie Johnson, Furry Lewis, Charlie Poole, The Alabama Sacred Harp Singers, and many more lesser known musical figures are to be found in these collections, exploring the full range of regional American musical forms from Hawaiian guitar to Cajun music, blues, reels and gospel. Mississippi Records has gone to great lengths to reproduce the original albums all on 200 gram vinyl. Each volume is a double lp, housed in a cloth bound super thick cardboard gatefold sleeve with a tip on print on the front. In the gatefold there is a pouch with a reproduction of the original liner notes (at least in the first three volumes).
Volume Three is Songs and focuses on the individual expression of various artists as well as beautifully intense and personal songwriting. This includes Blind Lemon Jefferson's "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" and other classics of early blues and country. Incredible!
Sure they are pricey, but you won't see these around for long. Such an amazing mind-boggling collection and all so worth it!
Hard to believe we never reviewed this massively influential set of archival recordings of American folk music when it was first reissued as a 6cd box set back in the late nineties. Perhaps they preceded our list, or we simply just relied on the fact that these sets so easily sold themselves at the time. Compiled by the one and only Harry Smith, a famously eccentric figure of American bohemia both as an experimental filmmaker, and collector and archivist. this set released by Smithsonian Folkways in 1952 in 3 volumes (the 4th volume was planned but never released until the early 2000's) reintroduced to the world some of the brightest stars of early folk and country music recordings of the twenties and thirties and lending significant influence to the folk music revival of the fifties and sixties. We're even quite positive that the cd reissues in the nineties influenced the next wave of folk music in the early 2000's. The Carter Family, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Dock Boggs, Blind Willie Johnson, Furry Lewis, Charlie Poole, The Alabama Sacred Harp Singers, and many more lesser known musical figures are to be found in these collections, exploring the full range of regional American musical forms from Hawaiian guitar to Cajun music, blues, reels and gospel. Mississippi Records has gone to great lengths to reproduce the original albums all on 200 gram vinyl. Each volume is a double lp, housed in a cloth bound super thick cardboard gatefold sleeve with a tip on print on the front. In the gatefold there is a pouch with a reproduction of the original liner notes (at least in the first three volumes).
Volume Two is Social Music and focuses on music from both sacred and secular social gatherings. Dance songs, bluegrass fiddle tunes, gospel, and cajun songs, sacred harp singing and street preaching. This has some of our favorite folk songs ever including Delma Lachney's and Blind Uncle Gaspard melancholic cajun fiddle tune "La Danseuse" and Blind Willie Johnson's "John The Revelator". So great!
Sure they are pricey, but you won't see these around for long. Such an amazing mind-boggling collection and all so worth it!
Holy crap! This is just about the most amazing box set we've ever seen! The second we heard about it, we knew it was going to be good, but we weren't prepared for just HOW GOOD. Not sure how many of you are familiar with Bear Family Records, but they're a German label who specialize in super elaborate, incredibly detailed and well researched releases, especially box sets, running the gamut from the women of Sun Records to the Everly Brothers to Ernest Tubb to Perez Prado to Flatt And Scruggs and on and on. Always very expensive and often hard to get, but once you lay your eyes and ears on one of their releases you realize it was worth all the trouble and worth every penny. And never was it truer than with Atomic Platters. This years in the works set is a five cd, DVD, hardcover book, box set collecting "Cold War Music From The Golden Age Of Homeland Security", 5 plus hours of fifties and sixties, rock and roll, R&B and soul, either warning us of the dangers of Communism and the impending atomic war, or more playfully using the A bomb and Uranium and Communism as metaphors for love and romance and partying ("You Hit Me Baby Like An Atom Bomb", "Atomic Baby", "Fujiyama Mama", "Uranium Rock", etc.). Scattered throughout are loads of civl defense spots, most appallingly naive and utterly ridiculous, there's Groucho Marx explaining that we have a good chance of surviving an atomic war, Art Linkletter warning us to not use the phone in case of an atomic attack, and lots of other misguided warnings and advice from Bob Hope, Tony Bennett, Fred MacMurray, Tom Lehrer, Pat Boone, Connie Francis, Don Pardo, Johnny Cash, Boris Karloff and lots more, as well as tons of bizarre civil defense dramatizations and creepy little Leave It To Beaver style vignettes. Then there's the music, lots of favorites you've heard on other comps, but an amazing amount or material you've never heard (and probably never thought you'd hear) anywhere as well as totally obscure tracks from some not so obscure artists. Some of the more recognizable folks: Roy Acuff, The Sons Of The Pioneers, Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan, Bo Diddley, Dexter Gordon, The Louvin Brothers, Carl Perkins, Bing Crosby, Bill Haley, Doris Day, Hank Williams and more, but the lure is definitely the hundred or so other tracks, all catchy or bizarre or both, from a wild cast of one hit wonders.
As if that weren't enough, there is also a disc containing two full length spoken word records released in 1961, If The Bomb Falls and The Complacent Americans, both ridiculous and paranoid, laughable and goofy, but also sort of sad and creepy. Wow. Then there's the DVD which contains 9 short films, over two hours of educational films, teaching us about Communism, the impending Atomic War, and the infamous "Duck And Cover" method of surviving an atomic bomb attack (and we're fairly sure that the narrator of one of the films is none other than Thurl Ravenscroft, the voice of Disneyland's Haunted Mansion, and the singer of the "You're A Mean One Mr. Grinch"). Finally, there is the book, a massive 11" x 12" hard cover tome, chock full of illustrations, liner notes, photos, and a full page description with pictures and all sorts of extra info for every track in the box. Unbelievable. This is absolutely essential for all lovers of strange sounds and weird music as well as being perfect for history buffs too. And as it's that gift giving season, we can't possibly imagine a more perfect and amazing gift! WOW!
These are a bit too expensive to keeep a bunch in stock, but if you want one let us know and we'll be getting as many as we need next week!
