Where are you gonna find such an awesome deal like this? This compilation features seventeen challenging songs by some truly ass-kicking unconventional bands (many of them Mr. Bungle-related) such as Secret Chiefs 3, Dengue Fever, Faxed Head and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum... AND it's less than four dollars!!! Who's the generous man behind this Web Of Mimicry label? Why it's noneother than the astounding talented gent Mr. Trey Spruance of Secret Chiefs 3 and Mr. Bungle fame!
From the wonderful folks who brought us Turkish Delights comes a crazy-psychedelic picture disc of "Psychedelic Sitar Trash Go-Go". Though the name implies there will be a good deal of sitar to be had here, in actuality this isn't entirely the case. There is a bit of it here, but the collection seems to take a broader definition of "Psychedelic Sitar Trash Go-Go". Perhaps title implies more a general exotic nature of psychedelic sounds. The groups on this album hailed from Spain, France, U.K., Belgium, Germany, U.S.A., and Canada. While some of the cuts here could have easily been culled from Vampyros Lesbos, others are just straight up fuzzed out and fucked up garage punk instrumentals. Then there's Les Paul-meets-moog synth musings coupled with bizarre string and percussion sound effects. There's Los Diablos, basically a heavier version of Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass plus guitars. There's even a fuzzed out psychedelic version of "Baia" which sounds like a pissed off Martin Denny. This is definitely a must have for anyone who's interested in the off kilter history of psychedelia. Features rare gems by Los Diablos, The Jokers, The Jim Sullivan Sound, The Dave Myers Effect, Guy Pederson & Son Grand Orchestre, Blue Phantom, La Voix Psychedelique, Crazy Elephant, The Sound Of Lane, The Morgans, Horror Charly, Les Apollo & La Danse Cosmique, The Rowdies, Sun Rock Rodeo Round Up, Lord Sitar and Clubman.
Second volume of psychedelic, exotica, go-go, groovy tunes from the people who brought us the beloved Turkish Delights compilation. Much like the first, there's lots of strings, fuzzed out guitars, sexy eastern-esque tabla-clarinet duets, sitar, hammond organs and echoey everything. Cover tune award on this one goes to The Soulful Strings for their sitarred and feathered version of the Beatles "Within You Without You". This album is a must for fans of Vampyros Lesbos and sundry other exotic porn soundtracks. And like the last volume of Mind Expanders, this one comes on a beautiful picture disc and -- maybe more importantly -- is also a very limited pressing... ie: so don't hesitate. This one features tracks by such obscurities as: The Stradivarius, The Flying Guitars, Mr. Acker Bilk, Emery Deutsch & the Astro Sounds, The Scottmen, The Dynatones, Bauer Productions, Shell Steel Orchestra, Didier Vincent, The Renegades, Robert Gretch, Jaime Perez, Timezone, The Soulful Strings and Thomas Natschinski und Scine Gruppe.
MPEG Download: PEREZ, JAIME "Tema Arabe" [/audio/jaimepereztema.mp3]
MPEG Stream: PEREZ, JAIME "Tema Arabe" [/audio/jaimepereztema.m3u]
One of the latest (and the second to be reviewed by us) in the budget line of CD-Rs from the always wonderful Khmer Rocks label, all of them go-go tunes -- which means that all, but a few have the unifying element of the chorus "ah go go". One would think that would get a little monotonous, but the tracks are sufficiently different from one another that one hardly notices the redundancy of lyrics. The sprightly tempoed numbers on this collection begin with Sinn Sisamouth's "Navy". Over a backdrop of surfy, reverb-laden guitar, the Elvis of Cambodian rock -- Sinn Sisamouth -- croons a with a healthy dose of slapback echo that seems requisite in all the tracks of this era. There is at least one overlapping song here, "Monkey", which was also on the second volume of Cambodian Rocks. Lots of 60's garagey psych tracks make this collection resemble the Parallel World comp. more on the whole than the three Khmer Rocks versions. It's pretty much a stripped down rock setup on all the songs here, which means not so much keyboard on this one. The guitar's the thing here and each track seems graced with at least one guitar solo. As you might have guessed from the "name dropping" above, this collection does include the English translations of the artists' names and song titles (no lyrics though). About 75 percent of the 13 tracks are Sisamouth's, four are from Pan Ron and one is by Ros Sereysothea.
The third in a series to help acquaint the public with the many and differing artists on Kill Rock Stars. All 3 feature a dog belonging to an employee at krs. This hella cheap sampler illustrates how great the past year or two has been at this label. Lets see here, there's the dirty rad danciness of Gravy Train!!! and The Goxxip (you may know them as the Gossip). The vintage sweetness of Slumber Party, the flawlessness of Deerhoof, I could go on and on. The other highlights are the Bangs, Stereo Total, Quix*o*tic, Unwound and the Tight Bros From Way Back When. There are a few tracks on here that are just awful, but that's sort of inevitable with most comps, altho' we're happy to report that on this here comp they're few and far between. The Gravy Train!!!, Goxxip, Sport Murphy, and Men's Recovery Project tracks are previously unreleased!!
A 2014 Record Store Day collaboration between two amazing obscurity-obsessive labels, Finders Keepers and Dual Planet, Monster Skies features a dizzy collection of damaged library sounds, far-flung private press pop and early electronic strangeness. We've carried some of the Dual Planet releases, but have yet to review them, like the Australian electric weirdo space-funk-rock of Steve Maxwell Von Braund, who provides the titular song to this collection as well as the reclusive Italian guitarist and electronic composer, Teisco, who may be the most marginally strange of the Italian Library composers leaning more toward Bruce Haack than say, Egisto Macchi. Suzanne Cianni, Lucien Goethals and Val Stephen provide some scintillating musique concrete and electronic composition, while Don Harper, Philippe D'Aram, and Andrzej Korzynski bring some wonderfully brooding cinematic horror vibes to the table.
Finally, Emerald Web, X-ray Pop, Clone and The Ultra Sonic Perception, give us some wonderfully sublime pop moments that buffer the oddities with wistful charm and eccentric groove. A fantastic collection and excellent introduction into a staggering undiscovered world of sound. Get one while they last!
On April 16, 1999, Skip Spence, eccentric genius and former member of Moby Grape, passed away. To honor the late songwriter, the Birdman mega-conglomerate has put together this all-star tribute album of covers from Spence's inspired and cultishly-revered 1969 solo album "Oar", with such notables as Tom Waits, Robert Plant (sounding as if he's fronting Tortoise with all thoses vibes behind him), Beck, Robyn Hitchcock, Flying Saucer Attack, Alastair Galbraith, Mudhoney, The Minus 5, Alejandro Escovedo, and many more!
We can always enjoy a good compilation of "Obscure Psychedelic, Popsyke & Progressive Pop 45s 1968-1974". And that's what this disc's cover proclaims it to contain. 23 obscure singles cuts by artists most of whom we've never heard of before -- except for Chubby Checker! Who blows our minds (and will blow yours too) with a Hendrix influenced psych-funk-wah gem recorded in The Netherlands in 1971, whose refrain goes: "My mind comes from a high place!" That sure ain't "The Twist". The last ish of Ugly Things had an article about Chubby's rare psych sides and here you can hear one of 'em. But there's lots more cool stuff on this disc besides, from the dramatic garage-prog of Ekseption to the "kinderpop" psych of Cyan to the bubblegum novelty of Jumbo. Whether you like your psych twee or fuzz-ee, this has plenty of both. Another fave of ours on here is the cut by Kid Rock (nothing to do with the current-day white rapper dude of course). It's got James Brown beats, cheap and cheesy keyboards, and a singer who you could mistake for Jack White of the White Stripes. Hot.
The comp is pretty nicely put together: each track gets a brief bit of description/info, and the original singles sleeves are reproduced in thumbnail size on the tray card, always a nice to see. Now we've got to go back and check out the first volume of this series...if it's as good we'll let you know.
Compilation featuring mostly out-of-print 7" tracks from the likes of KARP, Lowercase, Thrones, New Bad Things, Mocket, Long Hind Legs, Unwound (that one previously unreleased I'm told) and others.
"Mood music in a jugular vein" was the only description accompanying a list of bands: Air Wave, Bear, Bola, Cavil, Dakota Suite, Dynamite Cigar Co, I'm Sore, Lazarus Clamp, Lazerboy, M-Tec, Mus, Muma Sounds, Oneironaut, and Quigley. Without much else to go
Like a Molotov cocktail for the spy-chase set, this compilation of sixties and seventies instrumental funk and soul from the De Wolfe Library and selected by Baltimore DJ and Library music geek, Jason Willet has all the stuff you need to get your feet and ass moving. Tense chase themes are intermixed with sexy bachelor-pad space grooves from one of the best library music houses in Britain, much of it on cd for the first time. So whether you are living out your Blaxploitation Spy fantasies or facing a daunting labor-intensive task (like we are creating this list for you), this set makes it all OK! Recommended!
Nice comp featuring Him, Mice Parade, Rex (two tracks from an out-of-print 7"!), and the fabulous Matmos, among others.
Most of the time, compilations are intended to bring you the "best" of something. This one, though, is different! The compilers have deliberately put together a compilation of the WORST. A collection of "the obscure, the peculiar, and in some cases the downright disturbing". And of course, we recommend it! Now, the Psychic Circle label is known for all their keen compilations of '60s psych pop, "instro-hipster" groove, glam rock, and other vintage obscurities. Many of their discs are compiled by Nick "Bevis Frond" Saloman, who here, along with colleague Mick Dillingham, delve into a very different, and certainly much less cool/good/valuable, section of what must be vast, vast record collections. The section labeled "incredibly strange (or daft) music"! Collectable perhaps, but definitely more as a compulsion than an investment. They're mostly flea market and junk shop finds, we imagine. Barmy commercial jingles. Novelty tunes. Celebrity cash-ins. Easy listening attempts to be hip. Embarrassing (though fairly witty) rapping by an old white Englishman promoting his darts themed TV quiz show. Disco-sploitation. Would-be exotica and/or erotica. Super sappy lovesongs. "Ethnic" oddities (including more rapping). Et cetera, et cetera. Like other Psychic Circle comps, it's stuff from from the '60s and '70s (though it's possible that the ones with the rapping could be from the early '80s), some tracks having an increased humor factor due to their datedness. The other humor factor: how terrible, terrible this music is. Quite painful some of it. But also really funny. And sometimes pretty darn catchy. Which actually is a dangerous thing - you might wind up with some really bizarre stuff stuck in your head as a result of listening to this. Don't say we didn't warn you. But who wouldn't want, ferinstance, "These Boots Are Made For Walking" as performed (for some reason) by an outfit appropriately called Balsara & His Singing Sitars stuck in their head? Certainly not you.
There's an overwhelming 33 tracks here (OMG!). And immediately you'll find confusional, cringeworthy fodder for your next voicemail greeting, or something to render the next mix tape (cd-r, playlist, whatever) you make just a little bit weirder! Most of the stuff here was previously quite unknown to us (though we venture to guess that if you grew up in the UK, there's a chance you might be more familiar with some of the entries). And even if we knew the artists, such as the celebrity contingent of David McCallum, David Carradine, and Xaviera "The Happy Hooker" Hollander (performing separately, not together, now that would be REALLY crazy), that didn't really prepare us for what their tracks were all about. Or maybe it did. Bizarre stuff in any case, as are all the rest of the tracks here, which include everything from Micky Katz's Yiddish version of "K'nock Around The Clock" to a silly shoe advert ("The Weakling In Thom McCann Shoes") to opera singer Cathy Berberian's faux-classical take on the Beatles' "I Want To Hold Your Hand" to a big band version of the Monkees theme to naive outsider homemade pop to discofied Pink Floyd. Just when you think it can't get any worse or weirder, it does!! And let's not forget, this starts off pretty insane, with track two being about the weirdest bit of civic boosterism ever, a song called "Energy In Northampton", commissioned by The Northampton Development Corporation and sung by one Linda Jardim, this song tells of aliens from outer space crash landing in the town of Northampton and finding it quite to their liking!
It's like Saloman and Dillingham took turns one-upping each other with the most absurd, atrocious recorded artifacts they (perversely) treasure... "Oh, you thought that was bad? Get a load of THIS!" and you get to hear it all, in its awesome/awful glory. The cd booklet provides some mercifully brief details about each track along with appropriate accompanying graphics in full color (and also reveals that most of the blame here goes to Mr. Dillingham, from whose crazy collection most if not all of these records were sourced). We're sorta surprised this is on Psychic Circle, and not, say, the Trunk label. This disc seems destined to become a beloved best seller... at least here at Aquarius!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Japanese artists cover their favorite Kraftwerk tunes. Participants include Melt Banana, Zeni Geva, Buffalo Daughter and a bunch of others we're not familiar with, but who seem to be part of the Japanese avant-pop electronica scene. The whole thing is great, absolutely recommended.
When you think weird '70s spacey synthesizer music, you might usually think of Germany and all the kosmic krautrockers over there. But as we've learned, France had their fair share of analog synth-psych pioneers too, experimenting with Moogs and ARPs and other machines... from academic electronics to proggy astral travel to noisier new wavey proto-industrial, this comp covers some fantastic stuff.
We got this in when we got the Pierre Bastien 1968-1988 collection we highlighted last time, it's on the same French prog label, Gazul. But we had to wait and order more of these before reviewing it, 'cause the copies we got the first time flew out of here without us even putting it on our list. We guess customers in the store just saw the cover and were taken in by the b&w image of a vintage EMS Synthi AKS, and a few words in French. But maybe it's not just the evocative graphics that got 'em, it's the lineup on this comp: Richard Pinhas/Heldon, Gilbert Artman/Lard Free, Verto, Camizole, Video-Adventures, and Pascale Comlade (collaborating with Victor Nubla and David Cunningham). Here's the deal: if you know those names, you probably already want this compilation. If you don't know 'em, and we'll admit we weren't familiar with a few, that's all the more reason to get this. 9 tracks, 70 minutes, much of it never-before-released material exclusive to this comp. However, the Pinhas, Heldon and Lard Free tracks we know are from albums that some folks might already have, all are amazing, though, and well worth hearing again in this context... Meanwhile, we'd never encountered the likes of Verto before, ferinstance. And their 15+ minute cut has to be one of this disc's highlights, an epic for Fender Stratocaster guitar and electronics ("Modules RSF"), that sounds something like a cross between Fripp & Eno and SUNNO)))... Fairly heavy stuff for '76, when it was recorded! There's lots of other treats here, from Pinhas's masterful minimalist Moog pulsations on "Variations VII" to the drifting droning synthscapes of Camizole's "Electronic Alarm" to the dense, dubby rhythmic swirl of Lard Free's supremely tripped out 17+ minute "Spiral Malax", the disc's most out-rock selection. Video-Adventures provides the more playful gurgling and burbling, blipping and bleeping sci-fi noises, while Comelade and Cunningham's collaborative 15:07 of blissful waves of grinding hypnosis seems a lot more serious... And there's more, all of it excellent.
The liner notes are all in French, unfortunately. But there is a selected discography that's not to hard to decipher, and photos of both musicians and their machines... Quite recommended!
In the wake of The Rapture's exquisite piece of revisionism in their single "House Of Jealous Lovers," Peter Shapiro wrote a piece in The Wire about something called Mutant Disco, a variation on the standards of early '80s disco injected with a smattering of punk, funk, New Yorican, and / or reggae. It should go without saying that The Rapture was on to something intense, entralling, and ecstatic with that single, and perhaps an archeological survey underneath the rubble of Studio 54 may reveal some true gems. The Mutant Disco term was in fact not a Simon Reynolsian pop aphorism to describe a new strain of music; it originated with a compilation that originally came out in 1981. While this compilation hasn't nearly the legendary status as the No New York compilation, the reissue of Mutant Disco is a timely one. However, we have the same problem with this compilation as with the Arthur Russell compilations released during the past few months: this is not nearly as interesting as any of the hype and fanfare which have led us to believe. To be fair to the compilation's intentions, Mutant Disco merely proclaims to be "A Subtle Dislocation Of The Norm," and never presents itself as anything as oblique as A Certain Ratio, and is a thousand miles away from the subversive grooves of 23 Skidoo or The Pop Group. Instead, Mutant Disco is pretty much just another disco compilation, with a bunch of tracks that very few people have heard since the early '80s. The highlights include Kid Creole's Latin party numbers, Lizzy Mercier Descloux's whimsical reconstitution of Blondie, and the always incredible song "Contort Yourself" slicked up by James White and the Blacks (his second incarnation after James Chance and the Contortions). Hedonistic? Yes! Artful? Perhaps not.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
The title and art give this record a kitschy, cheap look, which is unfortunate 'cuz it's actuallly really good. And whats with the title? My girlfriend... don't even get me started. The songs are stripped down and raw yet catchy. Perfect punk party music. A couple songs sound like direct covers with different lyrics. A totally fun record. Familiar punk riffs, but songs you've never heard.
Compilations are all about the concept. Come up with a good concept, and a good compilation is sure to follow. So how can you go wrong with a bunch of noisy bands, rock and otherwise, penning odes to their favorite sicknesses?! You can't. And if you make sure the list of contributors includes lots of AQ favorites, like Bomb 20, the Bran Flakes, the Evolution Control Committee, V/VM, and Deerhoof and maybe throw in some tUMULt bands like Burmese, Iran, 7000 Dying Rats and Berkowitz Lake And Dahmer and you've got it made. Songs about Gonorrhea, Gingivitis, Tinnitus, Priapism, Arthritis, Rickets, Gangrene, Alzheimers and more with sounds ranging from full on noise attacks, to silly cut up collages, to crushing ultrathick drones, to digital glitch-crunch, to dreamy lullabies. Sickness has never sounded so good.
We've given tribute albums a bit of stick in the past. After all, the things seem to be a dime a dozen, sometimes the result of genuine fannish enthusiasm but often just a commercially-motivated exploitative exercise. Yet, it's still hard not to be tempted by the concept, as long as the former rather than the latter motivation is in force. (In fact, our own Andee has plans for a tribute album of sorts on his tUMULt label: I'm Sorry And I Miss You, a black metal reimagining of Slint's Spiderland! So we can't bag on 'em all.) Hard to argue with a bunch of your favorite bands doing songs by another favorite, really. And those are obvious rules of what makes a good tribute: a worthy honoree (who has SONGS, not just a "sound"), and a roster of participants from whom you also want to hear. One good example, on this very list we highlight a highly enjoyable tribute to Syd Barrett that certainly obeyed all those rules.
The black metal realm has spawned a few tributes, the most worthwhile we can think of being the brilliant (and out of print) Darkthrone Holy Darkthrone. It certainly met those two basic tests of what would make a good tribute, featuring bands equally as famous and influential as Darkthrone themselves (which also made it that much more significant of a tribute, to see the likes of Emperor and Immortal bowing down to Darkthrone).
Likewise, in this case, Ulver is certainly a worthy subject. Early on, they were a true Norwegian black metal force to be reckoned with, whether in their acoustic folk mode or when doing their own tribute of sorts to Darkthrone, the brilliant Nattens Madrigal. Later, they morphed in many surprising ways, pretty much leaving the confines of black metal entirely but still somehow staying Ulver. In fact, if you put together an anthology of Ulver's "greatest hits" it would sound a bit like a various artists album itself, since their career has been so stylistically diverse, from grim black metal to experimental electronica... In some ways, it's cool to have this tribute just to provide a perspective on the wide range of Ulver's output. 'Cause one byproduct of a good tribute is to get you to go back and listen to the originals, maybe even giving some attention to songs you had previously overlooked. That said, we're also pleased to see that a chunk of the bands appearing on My Own Wolf chose to cover stuff from Nattens Madrigal...
The next question is, are the bands appearing here worthy? Well, we'll admit we haven't heard of rather many of them. It is a double cd, though, with a ton of tracks. And the ones we know, like Aidan Baker (Nadja) are all pretty interesting, kinda avant-garde metal bands that probably all really do look up to Ulver. Some play industrial-metal, others acoustic folk, everything in between and beyond, from trip-hop to psychedelia to dooooooooom, each finding at least one if not several aspects of Ulver's multifaceted career to worship, really. There's songs here from probably every Ulver release ever, including their demos! And these bands are from all over the place, a lot from Russia and France in particular, but also from Finland, Ukraine, Australia, Israel, Germany, Latvia, USA, Canada, Italy, Norway, Portugal, and Brazil!
Here's the lineup: Unfurl, Avathar, Mura Hachigu feat. Nokturnes, Smohalla, Asmodee, Selvmord, Sael, Otzephenevshiye, Wardaemonic, FB[Force], Karna, Fluoryne, Year Zero, Sinestesia, Pryapisme, Joey Hopkins Midget Factory, Aidan Baker, Panacea Enterpainment, project:a, Catapulus, Jaaportit, Wheel Of Knowledge, Zweizz, Bosque, Noises of Russia, and Ashtar.
While there's already one "official" tribute to Ulver of sorts (the remixes disc 1st Decade In The Machines) this one is perhaps more honest in its tributor-to-tributee relationships, i.e., no hipster cred required. It's certainly more "metal" but plenty of other things besides. Obviously, compared to some tributes, the lineup on My Own Wolf is drawn from far deeper underground. No A-list black metal acts here like on that Darkthrone tribute. But you have to imagine that any band interested in doing an Ulver cover is at the very least not an "ordinary" band. And, indeed, some of 'em here are pretty interesting, and we wouldn't have heard about 'em otherwise. You gotta hand it to Ulver: who else could inspire tribute from such a diverse selection of bands/genres?
Volume 2 in My Pal God's irreverent salute to the holidays (coinciding with My Pal God Kingpin Jon's anual 24 hour Christmas radio show (he's jewish) where he plays only songs with references to God or Jesus). This time, participants include: Oxes, Rebecca Gates (the Spinanes), Drums and Tuba, Neutrino, Emperor Penguin and more.
From the same with-it collector-folks who brought us those Gentle Sounds For Gentle People '60s soft-rock comps not so long ago, comes this new compilation unearthing the tunes of 23 "tripped-out troubadours from 1965-1970". These so-called "Mystic Males" are long-haired, bearded (or at least mustachioed) mellow crooners, hailing from places like LA's Sunset Strip and New York's Greenwich Village. Professional and otherwise singer/songwriters getting into (for real or for, they might be hoping, the bucks) the Hippy vibe. Mostly, they sing about Girls. And Nature. And Love. And Girls. (At least five of the song titles here are simply girls' names.) Suiting such subject matter, these tracks tend towards gentle vocals, gentle vocals, heartfelt lyrics, and drifting folky melodies -- often times backed by lush orchestration and groovy beats. Some are twee, some are swingin'. Hadn't heard of any of these dudes before, except Dino Valente, but maybe you have -- here's a few, with song titles too: Chip Taylor "You Should Be From Monterey", Tommy Roe "Paisley Dreams", Teddy Neeley "Autumn Afternoon", Kenny O'Dell "Flower Girl", Thomas Hill "Glider Pilot", Bill & Howdy "Misty Morning Confrontation"... no, don't know 'em? Well those song titles ought to give you some idea of what they sound like, and also the liner notes give plenty of obscure details about each obscure track. And some of 'em are gems. We like these Mystic Males.
As the title indicates, this is the 2nd installment in Pet's Mystic Males series of comps, itself a subset of their Soft Sounds For Gentle People series, devoted to mellow, mystical '60s men doing flower power pop psych and folk tunes.
Lovely stuff, all about girls and flowers and daydreaming and suchlike. Sample song titles: "Lady Of The Burning Green Jade", "I'm A Deeper Blue", and "Four Robins Singing". The songs live up to the titles!
13 tracks in all, circa 1966-69, featuring the following obscure "tripped-out troubadours" we hadn't heard of before: Tyree Forest, Darrius, John Dunn, Gerry Pond, Shalynn, Ed Power, Dick St. John, Paul Stoop, Richard Coronado, Stephen Hartley, Malcolm Mitchell, Art Gee, and Jeff Monn.
Let's face it. The seminal 1978 No New York compilation is never going to get reissued. Period. While all of the No New York tracks from Teenage Jesus & Jerks, Mars, and James Chance songs did get reissued on those band's respective anthologies, the lost No New York tracks are from Arto Lindsay's DNA. As those were some of the best tracks that Lindsay ever recorded, it's no wonder that people are still clamoring for the album. The iconic status of that album is found not only in its immense collectibility, but its status as the definitive statement about No Wave as a caustic antagonism of structural norms that pushed way beyond what punk was promoting. Yep, there's long been an interest in No Wave, always looking back to the No New York compilation as the canonical statement of No Wave. However, in recent years, a few compilations have been published and marketed themselves as being historical documents of the No Wave community. The first of which was the Soul Jazz compilation New York Noise; and now there is this compilation entitled N.Y. No Wave. There are immediate and obvious differences between the recent historical offerings and the original No New York compilation that raise some interesting questions. Taking a traditionalist point of view, these newer comps with their less confrontational / more groove oriented selections fail to hold up to the standards set by the No New York comp; and thus are fraudulent in their claims of being No Wave. This is a certainly a harsh verdict as all of the compilations have a lot of amazing selections, even if they don't really sound anything like Mars or Teenage Jesus. That said, could it be possible that No New York, as flawless as those individual selections are, encapsulated the most extreme elements from a much broader movement that resists easy definitions? Like the New York Noise compilation, N.Y. No Wave makes a pretty good argument for the broader definition including the eccentric disco diva Lizzy Mercier Descloux and Lydia Lunch in her Queen of Siam piano lounge mode alongside the more obvious No Wave artists such as Mars, Teenage Jesus, and Suicide. As a nice bonus, there some pretty obscure Arto Lindsay tracks recorded in the duo Arto / Neto.
"Naked In The Afternoon" is a collection of Jandek covers and tries to keep true to the Jandek aesthetic with lo-fi recordings, pseudo-improvisational warbles, and a purposeful dysfunctionality. Not to mention the faux-Jandek packaging. Each of the artists reinterprets their tracks within the vast Jandek back catalogue that spans two decades and more than two dozen records. The artists that succeed in translating the Jandek sound are the ones who already have established a well-defined songwriting ability that has been fractured into resembling Jandek. However, for every brilliant track by Low, Retsin, and Kid Icarus, there's some questionable 'avant garde' splutter from Gary Young, Monster Island, and The Storkettes who all smugly believe that they can be the next Mayo Thompson. A noble if flawed effort.
If this new compilation of post punk music from Brazil circa 1982 through 1988 is any indication, American and British post-punkers have got nothing on the Brazilian post-punkers in the eccentricities department. Some of the live wire tracks on Nao Wave are downright bizarre, and we love it! A hefty portion of it is pretty incomparable, but if we were to suggest a couple of reference points... the fourth song by Akira S & As Garotas Que Erraram brings to mind Talking Heads, while the ninth by Ira! is sorta Fishbone-y ska. But really, it can't be that easily nor narrowly pinned down. Maybe the current crop of new new wavers, nowavers and electroclashers can start drawing their retro '80s inspirations from these Brazilian sources? That'd be something to hear! Totally twisted and rad! However, if you're seeking some more, uhh, normal (?) post-punk from Brazil, we should let you know that there's another compilation that just came out on Soul Jazz that might tickle your fancy (we haven't had a chance to review it yet). Heck, check 'em both out!
The Icelandic art / music organization Kitchen Motors presents their third compilation of recordings from their series of monthly events. Apparat Organ Quartet opens the compilation with a faux-'70s horror music score much like the mellower, incidental music
Disc two opens with "Helvitis Symphony no. 1 for 13 electric guitars" -- kind of like an Icelandic version of a Glenn Branca symphony, based around the basic tonality of the guitar's E chord. Instead of this small army chugging away at a E-chord (like Branca does), this ensemble featuring Jon Por Birgisson (the cello-bowin' guitarist from Sigur Ros), the aforementioned Hilmar Jensson and 11 other Icelandic guitarists, gradually introduces each guitar beginning at first with lilting drones that intensify into simple melodies and dramatic crescendos. As you probably know, we're not big fans of Sigur Ros, BUT if Sigur Ros were an instrumental outfit, then perhaps they would sound like this and we'd probably love 'em. Jensson returns for the compilation's finale, in collaboration with electronica outfits Biogen and Plastik, for a fresh take on the Raster-Noton style of digital click and sine-wave hum, with nicely done Biosphere-like digital ambience.
Another great compilation of adventurous music from the finest that Iceland has to offer!
A long-in-the-works tribute to this short-lived, greatly deified, synthesizer-driven, no guitars, seminal punk band from Seattle / Los Angeles (whew!). Sad to say this was kind of a disappointment. Considering just how influential this group was/is and how wildly rabid their ever-growing following is, hopes were high, but unlike the fast and fierce originals, these covers are rather unelectrifying. Much as they try, they simply can't do the songs of the intense, volatile Tomata Du Plenty and company justice. Some of them are even downright bad, but you do get 29 tracks to choose from, so.... There are a couple of notable spots too though (for the guest participants): Spooky Pie with the Screamers' Paul Roessler and a thick and sludgey Rubber O Cement with Karla LaVey. There are double versions of certain songs: "The Beat Goes On", "I'm Going Steady With Twiggy", "I Wanna Hurt" and "Eva Braun". Actually, rumors had been buzzing around of a collaboration between I Am Spoonbender and Jello Biafra (unquestionably the Screamers' biggest fan) on a fiery cover of the latter song, but it's not present here. S'pose we'll just have to wait for that one to emerge elsewhere. This compilation was released by the two labels who also gave us the Screamers "In A Better World" double cd which was action-packed with live recordings and demos.
Were there any New Wave and/or Post-Punk bands from Liechtenstein? If there were, there will surely be a comp documenting the scene soon enough, as plenty of choice tracks have been unearthed from throughout Europe and North America care of numerous compilations that have been released in recent years - The Minimal Wave Tapes, So Young But So Cold, BIPPP, Cold Waves + Minimal Electronics, New Deutsch, and pretty much everything through Vinyl-On-Demand. So, here's Klanggalerie's anthology of the Austrian scene throughout the early to mid '80s (plus some current acts who are striking a retrogarde pose), proving that there's plenty of music between the era of Falco and the era of Christian Fennesz.
Admittedly, very few of the artists on this comp have crossed our paths, making this quite an excellent discovery. Of those, we do know, there's the masterful proto-techno artist Monoton making an appearance as does the cold wave outfit Zyx. Perhaps the most surprising find is the first band from Peter Rehberg, who fronted a sludgey, pig-fuck band with the brilliant / terrible name of Peterlicker. Over two discs, Neonbeats touches on anything and everything that tangentially came in contact with new wave and post-punk, making the comp more of an cross-section of the entire underground scene, but the selection is pretty great in spite of the diverse genre hopping of all the bands.
Much of the work here draws inspiration from the NDW sound, with darkened electronics over cheap drum machines topped with heavily theatrical vocals. Zyx's low slung bassline and monotone vocals provide an appropriately sinister mood to their skeletal, stalking electronics, with similar tracks produced in equal aplomb by Molin & Jox and Red.Chamber. Plastix and Squishy Squid add punchy punk backbeats to stripped down 3-chord tunes laced with minimal electronics. A band with a name taken from a Neubauten / Fad Gadget single - Collapsing New People - offer a charmingly spunky Trio / Young Marble Giants inspired number that belies the origins of their name. You'll also find a few No New York / 99 Records references as well, with the muscular funk-punk sax leads from Pas Paravant. And yes, Peterlicker. Rehberg's band existed for less than six months in 1989, and it seems that he's re-started the band, which is pretty fucking brutal with a Swans inspired heavy guitar plod and growling vokills. Admittedly, this sticks out quite a bit from the rest of the comp, but it's a pretty awesome track!
We're always amazed that there's so much great music made in the dim past (well, the '60s and '70s) that remains totally, utterly obscure, and ripe for reissue. The realm of rare pop-psych singles is certainly a good example, and here's yet another great compilation chock full of groovy gems from a international assortment of bands, twenty of 'em, that we've never ever ever ever heard of before (La Quinta Faccia? Carlos Bisso & Conexion 5? Les Problemes? Boneshaker? Procro Magnum? Hamilton Streetcar?). Thanks to the efforts and enthusiasms of today's crate-diggin' DJs (always on the lookout for some unknown tune to get the dancefloor movin') the flow of fab comps like this -- Cherrystone's Rocks, Nightmares at Toby's Shop, The Spanish Trip, Painting The Time, Psychedelic Minds -- is never ceasing, it seems. With bands from Argentina, USA, England, Spain, Germany, Italy, France, and Australia, Neurotic Reactions is a geographically and stylistically diverse collection. There's sunny pop, freakbeat, sitar psych, garage fuzz, hippy funk, all sorts of bright and colorful good time grooves here! Sure, it's true that a lot of crap gets reissued too (cf. ninety percent of the Radioactive roster), but this collection is quality psyke pstuff. The cd booklet includes brief notes on each track/artist and better yet, full-color thumbnail repros of the 45 sleeves, yay!
A meeting of the generations in Oxford, Mississippi. Young hip hop mcs meet up with a bunch of badass old bluesmen on this comp, something only possible on the Fat Possum label. Featuring (of course) R.L. Burnside, and others.
Another tribute to Tom Waits! ANd this one proves to be by far the stronger of the two cds that were released almost concurrently this year. The other collection was the less than spectacular 'Step Right up'. Some of the brazen artists contributing tracks to This compilation are the Knoxville Girls, Neko Case, Lydia Lunch and Nels CLine as well as the late Screamin' Jay Hawkins.
Artists such as Grandaddy, The Handsome Family, Sparklehorse, Evan Dando and Mark Eitzel doing some covers of classic country tunes by the likes of Hank Williams and Kris Kristofferson, along with some old 'n dusty sounding originals.
Two discs filled with 55 post-punk new wave songs from the original 45's by the likes of The Cure, Billy Bragg, The Creatures, Sham 69, Elvis Costello, The Ruts, Joe Jackson, The Damned, The Tubes and lots more. If you still have all of these singles on vinyl you probably got yourself a nice little eBay cash cow on your hands. But if not this is a nice way to hear lots from the '77-'83 era of underground (at the time) rock which soon found it's way very much into the mainstream. Some of the best moments on this comp come from the artists who never really made their millions but left a legacy that still stands the test of time. Folks like Lene Lovich (Adult and Numbers should be paying her royalties) and we dare you to find any punk anthem more catchy and fist in the air effective then Sham 69's "If The Kids Are United." And of course some of the big names remind us why they became famous in the first place. Sometimes nostalgia can feel oh so good.
The Soul Jazz label just keeps the cool comps comin', this one being another archival '80s collection that just happens to be perfectly in tune with today's trends. The dance music meets punk/new wave genre that all those currently hip NYC (and SF) scenesters are mining. This is the original scene for that kind of stuff, downtown NYC circa 1978-1983. It was a world where slap bass could coexist with machine-gun drumming, angular grooves and angsty vocals. Some are more on the No Wave side of things (Mars, DNA) and others more funk (ESG, Liquid Liquid, Defunkt, Material). This disc's lineup also includes: Konk, The Dance, Lizzy Mercier Descloux, Rahmelzee vs K. Rob (produced by Jean Michel Basquiat!), Bush Tetras, Glenn Branca, The Bloods, Arthur Russell's Dinosaur l, Theoretical Girls, and The Contortions. It's a good mix of total obscurities and can't-miss essentials, packaged with a 30 page booklet full of liner notes and photos. Before you buy another "Electroclash" record, why not spin back 20 years with this? Like those (now missing in action, unfortunately) "Disco Not Disco" comps, this will get you diggin' dancefloor stuff that you might not have otherwise, simply because of how these tracks have been contextualized here, with total boogie-down cuts abutting experiments in academic punk minimalism or deconstructed funk.
When Soul Jazz released the comp "New York Noise" a few years back it was not only an amazing collection of lost gems from NY circa '78-'82, it was also the perfect document showcasing the blueprints of sounds that were beginning to be echoed again all over the globe. Dance-Punk, electro-clash, no wave, dub infused funk..all sounds that were blossomed in the heyday of the NY Underground music scene, now were being mimicked everywhere you looked. With Volume 2 we weren't sure if they would be able to put together as cohesive and overall exciting package as they did with the first one, but low and behold they have. It starts off with pt.2 of "Ungawa" by the rhythmically chaotic all female outfit Pulsallama. Along the way we got hit so nice and hard by Rhys Chatham, the person who basically channeled his studies of minimalism with LaMonte Young into blissed out and blistering no wave. Y Pants demonstrate their everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach to pre-riot grrrl glory. Red Transistor show off no-wave at its rough and tumbling best. Glorious Strangers provide the best funk/dub leaning track on the record with instrumentation that you could mistake for a new Tussle single. Jill Kroesen melds pop and skronk like they've always meant to be together. Sonic Youth reminds us of their glory days (and makes us feel old). Damn, this is making us wish we were back in NYC during this era...such vibrant and distinct energy!
Frankly, we were very surprised that Soul Jazz was releasing a third volume in their New York Noise series. While the first volume was phenomenal and timely amongst the then current wave of new bands revitalizing the no wave disco sound of late seventies New York, the second volume, despite great moments, felt stretched out with lots of filler. So the real surprise is how good this third volume sounds! It's more thematically selected this time around by Stuart Argabright from Ike Yard with fewer bands represented mostly by two tracks each. Even though the focus here is on more electronic acts than previous volumes, there's kind of a Naked City retro-fifties noir feeling to the selection, whether it be from Ike Yard's own paranoid dub, the oppressive groove of Boris Policeband and Martin Rev from Suicide or the no wave rockabilly of James Blood Ulmer and Judy Nylon, whose blase cover of Elvis' "Jailhouse Rock" sounds like an outtake from Lydia Lunch's Queen of Siam.
Killer tracks from UT, Dominatrix, Implog, Dark Day and Snatch round out the collection.
Someone (I think it was Andee actually) commented that hearing this compilation just made him wanna listen to Scott Walker. And well, you can see his point because although this is a tribute to Jacques Brel, it was American singer Walker who spread the gospel of this Belgian singing great to the masses (as translated from French to English by Mort Shuman and Eric Blau). Perhaps one of the coolest things about this particular tribute is that unlike most others that just assemble a group of flavor of the day (and usually less than appropriate) artists to cover the songs, this one is compiled from original recordings from different decades gone by, and hence conveys much more of a sense of (both the artists' and the audience's) on-going love for this man's music.
What this compilation also does unfortunately though is bring to light the occasional near-nursery rhyming and awkward translations that befell some of the songs. Really, you've gotta be one helluva ballsy (male or female) performer to pull off some of those lyrics! Lesser artists simply end up sounding foolish! Case in point, The Divine Comedy's flamboyant crooning of the phrase "stupid ass way" on "Jackie" is one of those latter occasions. Ahem, step aside sir, and hear how the pros do it... David Bowie, Dusty Springfield, Jimmie Rodgers, Nina Simone, Marc Almond (who actually did his own Brel tribute album complete with his own translations), the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, French chanteuse Barbara and of course, the aforementioned Walker. Three of these twelve songs are his renditions -- two of them suitably opening and closing the compilation.
Legendary '70s New York nightclub, The Gallery, sported equally as legendary DJ Nicky Siano once upon a time. A time when Bianca Jagger greeted all from its front door perched atop a white horse. A time when people partied without shame. You'd be strapped to see SUCH flagrant decadence these more-earnest days in post-9/11 NYC, but the soul and funk hits from Siano's stay at The Gallery transcend the all-out-blow-out-disco-era to remain some of the best ever recorded. Two tracks (one from The Supremes -- giving a glimpse into Diana Ross' future disco direction) are more straightup disco and still a little hard to take even 30 years later... HOWEVER, all the other soul and funk songs kick major flashy ass-shakin sparkling gold hot pants. Highly recommended.
It's appropriate that Nigeria Rock Special kicks things off with a supremely heavy slab of organ/bass/drum groove by Ofege called "Adieu," as this is the third and allegedly final installment in Sound Way's incredible Nigeria Special series. We were skeptical that this volume would be able to live up to the high standards set by the first two, but honestly this is probably the best of the three. No joke, it's so effing good that when we put it on in the store all of us just look at each other and kind of do that squinty head bobbing groove thing where you're kind of like, "holy crap how good is this? SO GOOD!" In fact this is one of those rare compilations that manages to transcend its genre and appeal to people who may not normally be into African music -- it's not every day that you see some of the serious blackened noisemongering customers digging stuff from the "international" section!
First thing, the title might be a little misleading... if you're coming to this expecting to hear stoned out proto-metal clomp or extended blues riffage, you might be a bit disappointed. While there are fuzzed out guitar explorations aplenty on this disc, the overall feel definitely leans more towards the funky side of things. If you're a fan of the Boscoe lp we reviewed a few lists back, or the Skull Snaps record, or even Black Merda (or anything from the now sadly out of print Chains and Black Exhaust compilation) you are going to LOVE this record: imagine blown out, psychedelic instrumental passages layered over heavy, heavy, heavy bass and drums with no shortage of traditional highlife and afrobeat flourishes and you're in the ballpark. In fact, with the exception of a few tracks (most notably, Question Mark's "Freaking Out," which, believe it or not, sounds kind of like Can covering something from the Nuggets box), the western influence is actually less present in this collection than it was in the last volume.
There are too many standouts to list them all, but we would be remiss not to mention that Mono Mono's "Kenimania" comes on like Fela tackling a Booker T jam; or that Ofo The Black Company's "Enario" is a simmering pot of mid-tempo funk and call and response vocals that holds up as a worthy successor to their mighty "Allah Wakbarr" (a song you might remember from two other essential compilations: Nigeria 70, and World Psychedelic Classics Vol. 3); or that the treble-kicking guitars of Colomach's "Cotocun Gba Gounke" create a mind-blowing hybrid of Middle-Eastern-tinged desert blues and Hendrix-ian pyrotechnics; or that Joe King Kologbo & His Black Sounds' "Another Man's Thing" is a frenetic polemic that switches gears from hyperactive shuffle to deep funk throb-n-stab in the blink of an eye!
Look, we know we've been pushing these Nigeria Special comps hard for the last few months but it's for good reason: the three volumes together form a meticulously curated, beautifully packaged collection of songs that spans two decades and demonstrates the intense creativity and musical diversity in post-revolution Nigeria. Taken by itself, Nigeria Rock Special is a gripping, exuberant, and infectious listen from start to finish and definitely comes with as high a recommendation as we can dish out!
Along with Funky Frauleins and the French Sixties Girls compilations, how could we resist the allure of Nippon Girls, a swinging mod-tastic compilation of hip-swaying and frug-dancing femme-fronted big beat gems from sixties Japan? We couldn't, and you probably can't either. The cd came out a few years ago, but the vinyl version only just got released so we thought we should finally review this especially after the success of another Big Beat disc, Nippon Guitars, we reviewed a few lists ago. Feeling the influence of Western pop music in the sixties (including Bossa Nova from Brazil and Ye Ye from France), Japanese musicians capitalized on the new sound often by lifting popular songs wholesale and rewriting the lyrics. But the enthusiasm with which these sexy and soulful songs are performed and arranged make them pretty outstanding in their own right. Acid-y guitars, cinematic orchestral flourishes, and sharp and dynamic arrangements are just too infectious to be ignored, especially by beautiful women who look and sound this fantastically fierce. It's party time!
Note: the cd version contains the full 25 tracks while the lp version only covers the first 12 tracks from 1967-1969. We assume there will be a follow-up volume 2 vinyl comp with the other tracks.
Along with Funky Frauleins and the French Sixties Girls compilations, how could we resist the allure of Nippon Girls, a swinging mod-tastic compilation of hip-swaying and frug-dancing femme-fronted big beat gems from sixties Japan? We couldn't, and you probably can't either. The cd came out a few years ago, but the vinyl version only just got released so we thought we should finally review this especially after the success of another Big Beat disc, Nippon Guitars, we reviewed a few lists ago. Feeling the influence of Western pop music in the sixties (including Bossa Nova from Brazil and Ye Ye from France), Japanese musicians capitalized on the new sound often by lifting popular songs wholesale and rewriting the lyrics. But the enthusiasm with which these sexy and soulful songs are performed and arranged make them pretty outstanding in their own right. Acid-y guitars, cinematic orchestral flourishes, and sharp and dynamic arrangements are just too infectious to be ignored, especially by beautiful women who look and sound this fantastically fierce. It's party time!
Note: the cd version contains the full 25 tracks while the lp version only covers the first 12 tracks from 1967-1969. We assume there will be a follow-up volume 2 vinyl comp with the other tracks.
