Actually stumbled on upon this one by happy accident. We were trying desperately to figure out who did this one song that we kept hearing on the radio, but they never said who it was, since it was always in the middle of some sort of megamix. Finally figured it out, only to realize, that the same guy also did an even more amazing song that we had practically given up on finding. So, the guy is Ludacris, the sound is southern-fried gangster rap ala No Limit, but with way better / commercial radio production. and the song in question (that you've probably heard) is 'What's Your Fantasy', a nasty boy vs. girl duet with a catchy (and funny) stick in your head chorus: ' I wanna lick lick lick lick lick you from your head to your toes...'
Absolutely beautiful and highly unlikely collaboration between Alexander Balanescu, Isabella Bordoni, Rupert Huber, Sergio Ganhor and to rococo rot.
Austere sine-wave tones, clicks and silence from Japanese experimentalist Sachiko M, known for her work solo and in the avant-pop trio Hoahio as well as with collaborators like Otomo Yoshihide (in Ground Zero, ISO, Filament, etc.). This cdep (in the irresistable 3" format) fits firmly into her ouvre of barely-there, barren electronic soundscapes of blips and non-blips. Is it zen art? is it conceptual bullshit? Depends on your tastes, but it seems quite lovely for those whose ears are attuned to such efforts. On the new, potentially interesting Greek label Antifrost.
Latest (third, I think) release by this Swedish band who are heavily influenced by the dark, epic, doom metal of countrymen Candlemass, circa '88. The chugging riffs, melancholic lead guitar, and the lamentation of their singer (whose soaring and sad wails are not quite as over the top as those of former Candlemass vocalist Messiah Marcolin, but close) all fit that doom blueprint, and will meet acceptance from fans of Solitude Aeturnus, Memento Mori, and the like as well.
Acoustic and dark and really beautiful. Mendelson are like a French Nick Drake, or maybe more accurately, a French Belle And Sebastian (who are of course, obsessed with Nick Drake). Long stretches of gently plucked guitars, minor key strings, mumbled vocals, and sparse percussion. Absolutely stunning.
Robert Henke took his Monolake project away from the Chain Reaction label a few years ago, but his recordings still sound as if they would be right at home within the rigid structures of Chain Reaction's techno minimalism. "Gravity" is a sedate album of quick tempo techno beats and deep ambience that Henke unsettles with thunderous digital dub reverberations. Definitely reminiscent of Vladislav Delay and Pole. This album (which collects a handful of singles onto disc) is a solid if not entirely innovative entry into the realm of armchair techno.
Metabolics were the least crazy of all the WordSound artsists, being just a solid, old school rap group, albeit with some added darkness. But on what we assume is the Metabolics second album, Mr. Dead becomes the focus and things get a little weirder. But only a little. The cover is demented, and there are some weird intros, and the lyrical bent is a little more 'crazy', but overall, it remains just a solid, old school rap record.
Like the title says, this cd collects not only some of the late works of avant garde 20th century composer Conlon Nancarrow circa 1990-3 but also a variety of previously unpublished pieces from the '30s and '40s. There's music written for piano, tape, prepared player piano, string quartet, and more. Plus, there's a rare half hour interview with the man himself concluding the disc.
With the title nostalgically referencing the landscapes of a utopian future, there is an element of despair within Luigi Nono's composition, as the eccentric experimental composer prefers to look at the future through the "classical" lens of Jules Verne or even Terry Gilliam. Technology is a system of magnetic gears and whirring electrical devices which affect the environment around them to actualize the dreams of the alchemists searching not only for the catalyst which turns lead into gold but also the rifts leading toward instantaneous time / space travel. Composed in 1988 when information and cyberspace were becoming the technological tools of the neo-alchemist, Nono saw his vision collapsing and composed this piece as a document to a "future nostalgic landscape."
After many hours of recording violinist Gidon Kremer, Nono composed an 8 channel backing tape in which original violin tones were filtered and treated to create an arsenal of frequency shifted, dense harmonics. The piece had been composed as an interaction between a solo violin and the pre-recorded backing tape -- to the point where both the violinist and the backing tape can control each section of the work. For this recording, Irvine Arditti and Andre Richard leave plenty of room beteen all of the tones to exist as rich singularities much like Morton Feldman's application of tonal color.
Fflint Central is a U.K. label run by two extraordinarily nice guys and darn fine hosts (good enough to befriend a sick and bedraggled on-tour Andee and buy him Cokes). Fflint specializes in experimental electronics and harsh abstract noise. One would think that there's enough, or too much of both, but the men from Fflint have that something special (fuck-you attitude? undefinable sound? sense of humor?) that makes these records way better and way more interesting than the majority of the 'electronica' we hear these days. Fans of VV/M, Lesser and other 'troublesome' electonica will dig this stuff. Affordable CD-Rs. Go ahead and take a chance. You may regret it...
This is probably the most laid back record on FFlint, but that's not to say it isn't still intense and incessant. Tranquil soundscapes (processed field recordings made in Norht East Wales) are mixed with pulsing synths, bells and chimes, and warm drones, making for a soothing and dark and an amazingly beautiful record.
Back in 1995, Pan Sonic was known as Panasonic (before the hi-fi conglomerate felt threatened by a bunch of Finns' using their name), and was a trio comprised of Mika Vaino, Ilpo Vaisanen, and Sami Salo. These performances document the crystalline distillation of industrial-noise bruitism / hypnotic minimal techno that inspired Paul Smith of Blast First to sign Pan Sonic to his label (and thus lined them up to land on Mute here in the US). Some of the material from these performances ended up on their first album "Vakio" but also includes some of Mika Vainio's solo recordings as Ø, and thankfully some unreleased material (including one great track which sounds sort of like "Convincing People" by Throbbing Gristle - without Genesis' vocals, of course). You'll certainly have to watch the bass response from your speakers when you play this, as these recordings weigh a little too heavy on deep rumbling bass tones, which probably sounded awesome live, but will undoubtedly cause your neighbors some grief. This is packaged annoyingly in a die-cut oversized plastic card, which may be handy if you wanted to bind it in your day planner.
Distorted beats and random live samplings from our favorite techstep artist, the formerly chubby now hunky Panacea. Not one of his more focused efforts of hiphop infused techno chaos, maybe a bit too heavy on the chaos. Too much mix, not enough content I guess. Inside there are some photots of the new Panacea, all buffed out and trim. Methinks maybe he traded in his creativity and spunk with his love handles. Fans though will find stuff to like.
Fflint Central is a U.K. label run by two extraordinarily nice guys and darn fine hosts (good enough to befriend a sick and bedraggled on-tour Andee and buy him Cokes). Fflint specializes in experimental electronics and harsh abstract noise. One would think that there's enough, or too much of both, but the men from Fflint have that something special (fuck-you attitude? undefinable sound? sense of humor?) that makes these records way better and way more interesting than the majority of the 'electronica' we hear these days. Fans of VV/M, Lesser and other 'troublesome' electonica will dig this stuff. Affordable CD-Rs. Go ahead and take a chance. You may regret it...
Album number two from the one man Pendro. A demented odyssey of warped records, chiming atmospherics, and hiccupping robot armies. Squiggly atoms of sound careen wildly between waves of what sounds like groaning bowed metal. Nice.
Fflint Central is a U.K. label run by two extraordinarily nice guys and darn fine hosts (good enough to befriend a sick and bedraggled on-tour Andee and buy him Cokes). Fflint specializes in experimental electronics and harsh abstract noise. One would think that there's enough, or too much of both, but the men from Fflint have that something special (fuck-you attitude? undefinable sound? sense of humor?) that makes these records way better and way more interesting than the majority of the 'electronica' we hear these days. Fans of VV/M, Lesser and other 'troublesome' electonica will dig this stuff. Affordable CD-Rs. Go ahead and take a chance. You may regret it...
Pendro (aka Tim Jones, the second half of the FFlint dynamic duo) describe this record as 'psychedelic', but God knows what he must have taken to come up with this. Things start off with a cascade of blips and bleeps that seem quite menacing (that's quite a feat for blips and bleeps, mind you) and slowly evolve into a more psychotic Boards of Canada. The rest of the record is a crazy mix of chopped and mutilated classical samples, found sound, hyper-distorted melodies, malfunctioning cd-player rhythms and gurgling computer glitchery, all of which eventually coalesce into a droning, buzzing coda. Really great.
People Like Us is the work of UK plunderphonician Vicki Bennett, whose previous albums mined the UK radio talkshows to construct brutally hilarious collages loaded with sexual innuendo and scatalogical humor. "A Fistful Of Knuckles" is her Americana record, taking the dredges of thrift store vinyl to their most surreal end. Way out on the open range of After School Special soundtracks and cowboy adventure records, Bennett had compiled a wacky album of twangy looped samples, lone harmonicas, decontextualized spoken words elements which make us Americans sound down right stupid, and a very very naughty version of "She'll Be Comin' Round The Mountain." People Like Us have been joined in the 'Happy Valley Ranch' by Mr. Wobbly, The Jet Black Hair People (Peter of Negativland / Wetgate / Monopause), M.C. Schmerz (aka Martin from Matmos), etc... All in all, this may very well be her best record.
Decent collection of Prince Buster's recordings if you want to get a flavor for his style. Featuring his all time hit "Al Capone" plus many other great tracks, including the scandalously misogynist "Ten Commandments" off Wreck A Pum Pum and a couple of the best tracks off of the Judge Dread album.
Where in Prince Buster holds court as Judge Dread One Hundred Years. Great collection of rock-steady tracks with regular appearances by the judge as he sentences rude boys to 400 years in prison and as many lashes for murder, crying (rude boys are not supposed to cry) and interrupting. All done in Prince Buster's trademark spoken-singing.
Excellent collection of Prince Buster's ska, or blue beat tracks. Unfortunately, whoever was in charge of this re-issue compilation was not so savvy about visual aesthetics. Really bad layout, combined with the oh so irritating "juice bar" font that everyone hates, makes this album seem as though it's going to be a terrible '90s world beat experience. Includes such influential hits as "Madness" and "Enjoy Yourself".
A collection of some of Buster's ska tunes. No dates here, but this 3rd volume of Golden Oldies contains a lot of very righteous lyrics and some Maytals-esque gospel style back up vocals. Contains: Dog War, Pain In My Belly, Treating Me Bad, Bet You Lied, Judgement Day, Domino, Little Flea, He Is Real, Light Of The World, Good Idea & You Got Me Spinning.
Great record, with a cover that looks as though it was pulled out of a thrift store: a bikini clad female pistolero stands in front of a desert mountain, with three cowboys drawing up on horse back in the distance. The colors are all washed out like the album had been printed on newsprint and left in the sun for weeks on end. Musically this album is a keeper as well - tight ska with lots of Prince Buster's patented "hic-up" style vocal accompaniment when there's no singing. Includes his hit Al Capone and 11 other tracks.
Sorry, not available on cd.
If there were ever a hokum rocksteady or ska record, this would be it. 12 tracks about sex and sex. The album opens with the title track -- "Wreck A Pum Pum" -- which is fittingly built around the melody of the x-mas standard "Little Drummer Boy". In this track Prince Buster describes his desire to have a woman, regardles of her looks, to "wreck a pum pum tonight." I might add that this album is not for anyone who may be sensitive to some blatant misogynist songwriting. The second track -- maybe as a consolation to the fairer sex -- is the same song only now sung by two women and directed at the guys. The song itself is actually damn catchy, and the treatment by the women, sung in a shrill duet, is wonderful. The album is actually full of a lot of great songs if you can bear it (the most absurdly brutal tune being Prince Buster's "Ten Commandments" to his woman.)
Rainer Maria's earliest recordings expressed what could be so right about emo. What was lacking in musicianship could be more than made up with raw emotion. Gosh darn it, you could just tell that Rainer Maria really meant it! But with each technical improvement (like learning how to sing or how to properly tune a bass), the band lost an inkling of that original raw feeling which made what they were doing so vital. After three or four years of steady musical improvement only to sound something like Cat Power playing Sleater Kinney, it hard to say whether it was worth it. Maybe they're trying to distance themselves from the 'emo scene' but emo was the one thing they had in spades. Not bad, but like the last few recordings not great either.
Apparently, a concept record about the children of the future and the terrible legacy we are leaving to them on this planet, with children's voices, jazz guitar, electronics, gamelan, record crackle, field recordings, etc. Japanese musician Sawada is kind of a "kitchen sink" style composer, heavily utilizing the sampler and the studio, but all his sounds are quite beautiful and/or intriguing.
While this might MEAN more to those who speak either Japanese or French, Sawada's music has plenty of charm on its own, without the context the narration provides. Some may remember his excellent and mysterious Base of Fiction cd from 1994, which was similiar but more "rock" (with members of underground Japanese bands like the Ruins joining in).
Senking hails from Cologne, yet has developed an unusual electro-dub technique which is quite the detour from the usual Cologne fair of A-Musik's dadaist humor or Kompakt's techno minimalism. Starting off with rolling bass loops and sleek black ambience, Senking's dub goes so deep as to never really have a bottom, just an enveloping stroboscopic pulsation of bass tones. Jens Massel (aka Senking) has claimed his influences to be both the Aphex Twin's early work and 'Laughing Stock' by Talk Talk, and has left his sound with a spartan abstract way of constructing his pieces. This work culls two vinyl only EPs ("Ping" and "Thaw") on one CD, and predates his amazing "Trial" album for Raster-Noton.
The family that brought us Rodan, Rachel's and June of 44 returns after four years with a new album and the results are, well, not worth waiting four years for. Decidedly slower and moodier than their previous releases, Shipping News are unfortunately starting to fall into 'Anahata'-era June of 44 territory. With production that is only marginally better than their live recordings, this album is likely to frustrate fans that eagerly await a return to classic June of 44 rock-rage. Shipping News is going somewhere, but who knows if it's worth the wait.
Second, posthumous collection of stuff by the Bay Area's fastcore/powerviolence goofball legends.
State Of Bengal is a new "Tabla n' Bass" project by Talvin Singh co-conspirator Sam Zaman -- he worked with T. Singh on the Anokha project. For fans of DJ Cheb i Sabbah -- who appears on the same label -- or, of course, Talvin Singh.
Temple of Tiermes is a side project of the Finnish noise/drone ensemble Tiermes (whose Jussi Saivo figures on old Circle and recent Ovalki material, but is not featured on this album). Far from sounding like the arctic hypno-rock of Circle, Temple of Tiermes generates a haunted swarm of overdriven guitar feedback and blustery noise crescendos that are filtered into statospheric shimmers. In the realm of "ambient industrial", not nearly as death obsessed as Brighter Death Now, but more malevolent than Maeror Tri.
Stefan Knappe of Troum has started the Transgredient label as an outlet for CD releases, thus preserving the vinyl-only purity of his Drone Records label and its ongoing series of seven inch singles. Troum is the extention of the Maeror Tri project which was an incredibly prolific isolationist / post-industrial group throughout the '90s. Armed with a barrage of guitars, miasmic loops, and tricked out reverb / echo / delay effects, Maeror Tri undertook a bleak and at times nightmarish route in search of the drone supreme. While culling from Maeror Tri's extensive drone production techniques, Troum's sound is far lighter -- but still never sounds as gentle (or space-rock-y) as something like Windy & Carl or Roy Montgomery. Repetitive and subtly beautiful melodies rise out of the waters of Troum's cold swirling ambience, which grow in intensity throughout each of the seven lengthy pieces on this disc. While the members of Troum have been recording for well over a decade, it is still a wonder to hear new material as they continue to challenge themselves to improve on the what they seemingly have already perfected: the task of creating the ultimate drone.
We had no idea wehen we first heard this that it was a sort-of Posies side project. But it is indeed. Ken Stringfellow and friend have come up with a really peculiar, but pretty nice collection of lo-fi pop, from noisey unfinished sketches with ringing falsetto vocals to spacy un-produced drum 'n bass. Cool.
The third volume of unearthed African music treasures from the 1970s, tracks so rare that they originally only appeared in TV shows or in library archives. Yum! Of the three volumes of this stuff that Comet has reissued, this the jazziest of the lot, filled with boogieing organ and piano. This is true "rare groove" for people who get off on using phrases like that (you know who you are). Here we have music from Cameroon, Ghana, South Africa, Nigeria, etc, and includes a great track with the Art Ensemble of Chicago!!
From one of our favorite labels, France's Pandemonium (home of Hint, Guapo, and others) is born a new all electronic label called Bip Hop. Their first release (actually a series of releases) "The Bip Hop Generation" looks to be an interesting collection of experimental electronics, digital glitch worship, and IDM abstractions. The first in the series compiles tracks from Marumari, Schneider TM, Massimo, Goem, Phonem, and Ultra Milkmaids, and ranges from darkish, abstract, drum & bass to sinewave based techno minimalism to ticklish pop electronica. Really Nice.
"The Breaks", which is subtitled "Original B-Boy Street Funk and Block Party Classics," is, believe us, one of the best. The breakbeat era was filled with funky, complex beat-heavy black music that emerged as a direct response to the mindless obviousness of suburban white disco. The tracks here all hail from the '70s and most have been sampled by a few choice contemporary artists with the know-how to recognize a good break when they hear one (Dr Dre, Mantronix, Roxanne Shante, Geto Boys, Cypress Hill... even Deee-lite). There's the Jackson 5, Yellow Sunshine, King Errisson, and tons of other obscure geniuses. Also contains Windy's favorite singer Nina Simone with her funkiest song EVER (and a highly sought-after one at that).
UK import.
The Dusty Fingers comps, brought to you by the Strictly Break folks, are very strong, utterly delightful compilations of tracks from such a wide variety of genres that it brings a smile to my face just to see them in one place! And yes, the tracks totally work together as great compilation cds, and the welcome effect of the different tracks side by side is a fresh perspective on the music. Very spacy stuff, some easy listening psych material, with each track featuring killer rhythms that'll appeal to the DJ in you.
Vol. 1 features everyone from Ferrante & Teicher to Amon Duul, David Axelrod, Donovan, Les Baxter, Annette Peacock, and the Small Faces. No liner notes to speak of, just a copyright and year of original release (almost all '70s), plus an assurance that all tracks are legally licensed. Mastered from original tapes with very clean results. Highly recommended!
The Dusty Fingers comps, brought to you by the Strictly Break folks, are very strong, very delightful compilations of tracks from such a wide variety of genres that it brings a smile to my face just to see them in one place! And yes, the tracks totally work together as great compilation cds. Each track features killer rhythms that'll appeal to the DJ in you. (Speaking of which, the Harvey Averne track on this volume appealed to Terry Riley so much that he remixed it for his amazing "You're No Good" all-night performance in 1967--see elsewhere on this list.)
Vol. 2 is jazzier than the easy-listening first volume, with Bola Sete, Les McCann, and funky bits from the soundtrack to Gator! No liner notes to speak of, just a copyright and year of original release (almost all '70s), plus an assurance that all tracks are legally licensed. Mastered from original tapes with very clean results.
"Hip City" is straight up funhouse funky black music from '67 to '77. Rare and previously underrecognized tracks from James Brown, Junior Walker and the All Stars, Hank Ballard, and the many lesser-knowns that the UK label Harmless is so good at finding. Dig it.
Boogie global techno style along with Bebel Gilberto, Banco De Gaia, King Britt, Romanthony, DJ Cam, and others.
"Contemporary Electronic Music in the Context of Art" with Disinformation, Scanner, Thomas Brinkmann, Richie Hawtin, Kim Cascone, Goem, Ryoji Ikeda + Noto, Byetone, Pan Sonic, Signal, Coh, Pomassl, Marc Behrens, Francisco Lopez, General Magic, and a few others. In a cool, but ridiculously cumbersome folding package with the cd nipples attatched perilously to the paper.
The soundtrack to the Coen Brothers film "O Brother Where Art Thou" was recorded before even a single frame of film was shot, so it really is a film that exists as (as Joel Coen puts it), "a valentine to the music." The brothers enlisted the help of T Bone Burnett and Gillian Welch to compile old recordings and also lots of new material recorded specially for the film. Includes the talents of bluegrass sweetheart Alison Kraus, Emmylou Harris, the Stanley Bros, the Fairfield Four, the Cox Family, etc. Yes, the songs that the band in the film (George Clooney, etc) performs are also here, and they ain't half bad. If you want a fine collection of old timey, bluegrass, and country music, go for it. (Also do get this if, like me, you're an Alison Kraus fan, as her rendition of "Down to the River to Pray" is sublime.)
Another new collection of classic dub tracks - all of these from the Blood & Fire back catalog - remixed by electronica artists. There are tracks by Smith & Mighty, The Orb, Avatars of Dub, Stereo MC's, Groove Corporation, The Erb and more.
"Soul, funk, and jazz from a revolutionary era." '60s Black Power / freedom oriented tracks from the likes of The Watts Prophets, Nikki Giovanni, The Voices of East Harlem, James Brown and others.
Curiously tiltled collection of awesome emo from the Crank record label. Anyone who dug the old Rainer Maria records or the Get Up Kids will dig this collection. Minus a couple of weak whiney moments this is a fucking great collection. With: Vitreous Humor, Sunday's Best, Mineral, the Regrets, Boy's Life, Christie Front Drive, The Gloria Record, Far Apart (a band we hadn't heard of but probably the best cut on the record) and a bunch more.
This is an awesome collection of early and way out of print 7"s from San Diego's The Way Out Sound label. A glance at the artists is all it will take to convince you how essential this really is. All exclusive tracks from: Merzbow, Muslimgauze, Skullflower, Truman's Water, Pure, The Silver Wizard, and Holland Skin Tunnel. Essential.
Kill Rock Stars was so eloquent with the subtitle "A Kill Rock Stars Retrospective Sampler" that we needn't mention anything beyond the track listing: Sleater Kinney, Unwound, The Bangs, The Gossip, Holly Golightly, Cadallaca, Har Mar Superstar, Two Ton Boa, Jim Carroll, Kleenex, and many more!
Fflint Central is a U.K. label run by two extraordinarily nice guys and darn fine hosts (good enough to befriend a sick and bedraggled on-tour Andee and buy him Cokes). Fflint specializes in experimental electronics and harsh abstract noise. One would think that there's enough, or too much of both, but the men from Fflint have that something special (fuck-you attitude? undefinable sound? sense of humor?) that makes these records way better and way more interesting than the majority of the 'electronica' we hear these days. Fans of VV/M, Lesser and other 'troublesome' electonica will dig this stuff. Affordable CD-Rs. Go ahead and take a chance. You may regret it...
Here is the ubiquitous 'label sampler', but in this case, it's almost better to treat it like its own release, since there is so much overlap/incest among the Fflint stable of artists. All unreleased stuff form almost everyone on the label. From ear-splitting noise to soothing drones to pounding distorted beats to hypnotic pulses. From calculated compositions to all out mayhem. A good overview of an awesome new label.
The UK label Harmless collected a rowdy bunch of funkified covers here, from Dick Hyman doing "Give It Up or Turn it Loose" to a moaning diva version of "Light My Fire," the Staple Singers doing Stephen Stills, and of course one of the all time greatest covers ever -- Isaac Hayes' simmering twelve-minute rendition of Bacharach's "Walk On By" (which was recently sampled by Wu Tang Clan). Very extensive liner notes make reading and listening at the same time a great pleasure.
A refreshing surprise from the Geographic label out of Scotland (said label headed by Stephen of the Pastels), the Bill Wells Trio is an instrumental outfit composed primarily of piano, trumpet, and harmonica. While this is certainly not jazz, or even jazz lite, there's something in the delicate evocative quietness of this group that nonetheless reminds us of late '50s cool jazz -- unhurried, purposeful, swirling pastoral sketches that wouldn't be out of place in some arthouse film about a boy coming of age, or "Love Story", or a French new wave film set in a fishing village. Heartbreaking chord changes. Modest grandiosity. Stevie Jackson (Belle and Sebastian second guitarist) contributes just gorgeous, wistful, Morricone-worthy harmonica. It's lovely! Fans of the Rachels, Halifax Pier -- heads up! We can only hope for another album, and soon, 'cause our only complaint about this one is that it's way too short (20 minutes or so!)...
John Wiese (half of Bastard Noise) has collected a number of super limited seven inches and unreleased radio broadcasts on this CD of experimental noise tracks. Four of the tracks have been programmed for 'easy listening' - which sound like incredibly tense versions of Crawl Unit or John Duncan. While neither Crawl Unit or John Duncan make for particularly easy listening, in comparison to the ungodly noise assaults on the other four tracks, these tracks certainly make for a far a less stressful listening experience. Extreme to say the least.
