Finally, the long-awaited sixth album from Ms Lisa Germano has revealed itself after a five year silence, and it's so well worth the wait! Is she the female equivalent of kindred spirit Howe Gelb? Or perhaps is it vice versa? Both artists pour themselves so completely into their music, and in doing so bring light to the most intimate, strange, and darkest corners of the heart and mind. Gloriously spooky, rich and eccentric. Each word she sings and each off-kilter dusty musicbox melody that echoes around her voice pull back the covers to reveal raw hurts, half-healed heartaches and the scars of the past. Ghostly images blurred by tears and sleeplessness fully materialize and dissipate. The personae who inhabit Germano's songs always seems either right at the brink of emotional collapse or perhaps resurfacing from just such an unravelling, but there remains an ever-present glimmer of hope. Hers are deeply moving songs that linger with you long after the curtains close. At once, it's somehow both immensely soothing and unsettling... and absolutely gorgeous. She's joined by a stellar group of musicians too including Johnny Marr, Wendy Melvoin, Joey Waronker, and Neil Finn. Very very recommended.
MPEG Download: "From A Shell" [/audio/germanofrom.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "From A Shell" [/audio/germanofrom.m3u]
MPEG Download: "Lullaby For Liquid Pig" [/audio/germanolullaby.mp3]
With Autechre's "Draft 7.30" being such a dodgy proposition, we've approached the concurrent single from their alter-ego Gescom with considerable trepidation. While it once appeared that Gescom was the more experimental venue for Sean Booth and Rob Brown, the roles may have reversed as "Draft 7.30" is clearly the more obtuse of the two constructions. "SS SA" isn't that far off from the IDM / electronica patterns of disjointed breakbeats and shimmering melodies found on Autechre's "AE5," and fortunately doesn't suffer from any of the problems that "Draft 7.30" did. Not their finest moment, but certainly worth checking into, if not for the music than for the crazy finish-fetish artwork within of spiralling chrome-plated exhaust pipes.
MPEG Download: "ISS SA" [/audio/gescomisssa.mp3]
Finally!!! More skull cracking, mind bending, feelings hurting, shin kicking, hair pulling, back stabbing, ass kicking, ribcage rattling, ear piercing, eye gouging, bowel loosening electronic mayhem from our favorite lovable miscreants FFlint Central! This time from the mysterious entity known as The Gideon Leeches. We heard a little bit from the Leeches on the amazing Unholy Trinity compilation reviewed a few lists back and could hardly wait for the full length. And we are not disappointed. In fact I might go so far as to proclaim this one of the best releases on Fflint so far. And that's saying a lot, knowing, as you do, how much we LOVE Berkowitz, Lake and Dahmer, Pendro, Cavendish Sanguine, and the whole lot. But the proof's in the pudding. And the pudding here is a thick, miasmic pool of shimmers and rumbles, buzzing and tinkling, howling and keening. We are suckers for this stuff, at least when it's done right. And believe me, this is done so right. Huge expanses of static sound, with swirling, ever-shifting layers of feedback, buzzing electronic drones, throbbing low end pulses, warbly melodies, creaking machinery and what sounds like swarms of sitars, careening madly above a warm and tranquil blanket of gauzy dreaminess. But with a dark and ominous edge. This has AQ favorite written all over it. Think Sunroof!, Skullflower, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Birchville Cat Motel, Pelt, Peter Wright, and all of those other folks who traffic in deep, dark, organic' free-drone. Fans of the above will definitely LOVE this! And again, our pals at Fflint continue to impress, and we're beginning to think that Fflint just may be one of the only labels we know of with a perfect record (except for tUMULt of course!! - Andee). Can't wait to hear what they come up with next. But in the meantime, BUY THIS!
MPEG Download: "The Freezing Point Of Sound" [/audio/gideonfreezing.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "The Freezing Point Of Sound" [/audio/gideonfreezing.m3u]
MPEG Download: "Scowring And Flux" [/audio/gideonscowring.mp3]
Smithsonian Folkways thankfully reissues a second collection of recordings of Roscoe Holcomb. Arguably the greatest performer of old-time country blues ever recorded, Roscoe Holcomb has been praised and emulated from such opposite ends of white American roots music as Ralph Stanley and Bob Dylan. Where the previous collection of Holcomb recordings, aptly titled "The High Lonesome Sound", were recorded in his Daisy, Kentucky home in 1959, the tracks collected on this disc were recorded later -- between 1961 and 1973 -- either in the studio or live. "Newer", in the relative sense that is implied between the previous disc and this one should not be misconstrued as being any less worthy of our attention, or less immediate in sound as those landmark recordings. No matter whether Roscoe is playing a banjo, guitar (picked with a buck knife), fiddle, harmonica or just plain singing a cappella, the songs he performs are imbued with the same unique Holcomb style. The old, hackneyed stereotypes of "primitive" down home music don't stand up against Holcomb's performances. Bob Dylan's quote describing Holcomb which serves as this collection's title sums it up best: "an untamed sense of control". Included with the 26 tracks on this disc are twenty something odd pages of liner notes and photos from producer ("There Is No Eye" photographer) John Cohen. Highly recommended.
MPEG Download: "Swanno Mountain" [/audio/holcombswannomtn.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Swanno Mountain" [/audio/holcombswannomtn.m3u]
Local dark scary prettiness and sneering trashiness. Truthfully, this San Francisco trio's debut album (named not after two people as you might assume, but after a street intersection) sounds completely like early Birthday Party and Nick Cave, which is not entirely a bad thing although that shadowy, angstful path has already been feverishly tread bare by innumerable young bands. The raw, unadorned basic rock line-up - vocals, guitar, bass and drums - is fleshed out well with some organ and piano. The latter is most notable on the final song, a short somber piano interlude that sounds like they're moving more in the dramatic direction of former San Franciscans now Portlanders Pleasure Forever. This is also not a bad thing, but hopefully future recordings will meld all of those influences that they wear so prominently into something distinctive and much more of their own. Eight songs in all.
MPEG Download: "The Exquisite Corpse Of One Mr. Lucius McBride " [/audio/holykissexquisite.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "The Exquisite Corpse Of One Mr. Lucius McBride " [/audio/holykissexquisite.m3u]
Hood's recent albums have been exploring electronic production more, collaborationg with the likes of the Anticon collective on albums like "Cold House."
The stuff compiled on these two collections traces their evolution from earlier, low-fi indie experimentation and much more intimate, pocket-sized sound through to their more recent melancholy post-rock and "indie-tronica." All in all, very pretty in a non-straightforward, fucked up way.
MPEG Download: "Finger In His Ear" [/audio/hoodfingerinhisear.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Finger In His Ear" [/audio/hoodfingerinhisear.m3u]
Hood's recent albums have been exploring electronic production more, collaborationg with the likes of the Anticon collective on albums like "Cold House."
The stuff compiled on these two collections traces their evolution from earlier, low-fi indie experimentation and much more intimate, pocket-sized sound through to their more recent melancholy post-rock and "indie-tronica." Lots of kinda poppy stuff on the first disc and lots of previously unreleased tracks on the second disc of this one.
MPEG Download: "Myself" [/audio/hoodmyself.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Myself" [/audio/hoodmyself.m3u]
MPEG Download: "England's Fine Fields" [/audio/hoodengland'sfine.mp3]
If you like your rock'n'roll on the sweaty, trashy and garage-y side, The Horrors may be just the thing for you. This Iowa trio kick up quite the howl'n'stomp storm on Vent, the follow-up to last year's self-titled debut. Searing abrasive retro blues raunch'n'roll!
MPEG Download: "Karen" [/audio/horrorskaren.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Karen" [/audio/horrorskaren.m3u]
This is the first of four 10"s to be released through Die Stadt within the next year. The A-side will certainly appeal to Organum fans, an impressive collage of acoustic drones from scraped metals. This is as good as any of the best Organum recordings, although only a mere 6 minutes long. The B-side is a straight field recording of birds and airplanes, also with a very brief program of 6 minutes or so. Limited to 500 copies.
Fans of current underground Japanese psych stuff (Acid Mothers Temple, Keiji Haino, Ghost, Nagisa Ni Te, etc.) who'd like to delve into the early psychedelic era precursors of those acts have been lucky lately, what with that Les Rallizes Denudes double cd finally having some availability, and the Flower Travellin' Band disc we recently recommended too. As we mentioned in our Rallizes review, The Jacks were the other crucial home-grown Japanese psych band, an admitted influence on Fushitsusha certainly, who once covered The Jacks' classic "Marianne". And we just managed to get a few imported copies of this 2-on-1 disc by 'em, released last year on the Japanese Shagadelic label. Not only does it have the ten tracks of their legendary "Vacant World" but also another 11 constituting their follow-up album "Super Session" (both 1968), plus three rare bonus tracks (two from singles, one live). The booklet provides discographical information and album/single art.
With stinging Quicksilver psych guitar leads and melancholy vocals, "Vacant World" is a truly gorgeous album of darkness and murk that words like delicate, dramatic, and timeless well describe. Its sparse, sad beauty makes it one of Allan's favorite '60s psych artifacts ever, though not everyone else here is so moved. Unlike other noted Japanese 'GS' bands like The Mops or The Challengers, these guys were not mainly, merely doing covers of the current rock hits of the day from San Francisco and London. While Western garage and blues and psychedelic rock certainly shaped their sound, The Jacks seem uniquely Japanese, uniquely Jacks as well.
Now for two warnings: The second album on here, Super Session, unfortunately does seem to delve into a more commerical, less special sound. It's as if some producer or record exec told 'em they had to be more like the competition. As a result, this does venture into a bar rock zone that's not at all on par with "Vacant World". And if you like saxophone, they get into that here too. A very different mood from the debut indeed. Oh well. But it's still cool to have, kitschy fun.
Ok, here's the second catch: we ONLY have 6 of these in stock right now, so if you need this, act fast...dunno when/if we can get more, unfortunately.
MPEG Download: "Marianne" [/audio/jacksmarianne.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Marianne" [/audio/jacksmarianne.m3u]
Jandek seems to be an unlikely source for nostalgia; however, "One Foot In The North" and the opening track 'Yellow Pages' in particular dot the soundtrack of my college days. While attending an unnamed midwestern college in the early '90s (I'll give you a hint, it was consistently voted America's Sassiest College by the now defunct Sassy magazine), I spent a number of hours at the college radio station, broadcasting a powerful 440 watts of raw radio fury to the cornfields and the few freshmen who hadn't figured out that my radio show was an unlistenable mess of post-punk obscurities, industrial noise, and grim dronings (no, not much has changed). True to our civic minded mission of being a community radio station, we produced a number of public service announcements on mind-bogglingly daft subjects. The ones that got the most airplay were of course, the incredibly bizarre ones, such as Rene Enriquez recounting the dangers of huffing glue, or the Clark Webber spots on leprosy. Also in heavy PSA rotation was a particularly haunting one on schizophrenia. Making the 30 second saga of this misunderstood teenager even creepier was the backing music which some smartass at the radio station had grafted onto the announcement. It was 'Yellow Pages' by Jandek. With its lazy electric guitar meandering through a series of painfully sad notes and the lyrics "You've got to help me dear / Because there's no release / From this tangled beast" which chimed in perfectly to the scripted dialogue, the pathos of abject failure and mental anguish was so perfectly realized, it was comical.
Thus, for me the reissue of "One Foot In The North" is like listening to Joy Division, The Pixies, or Big Black. It's so familiar that a critique is difficult because the music seems so self-evident. I really doubt that many other people would have the same reaction to Jandek's incredibly difficult signature sound of deconstructed blues and folk into an often pained expression. Nevertheless, I can attempt to step away from my memories for a brief moment and place "One Foot In The North" (the 20th Jandek album produced in 1991) alongside his previous albums "The Living End" and "Somebody In The Snow," with more restrained, potentially resigned arrangements for electric guitar and Jandek's strained falsetto warble. As with those two albums, "One Foot In The North" is quintessential downer listening.
MPEG Download: "Yellow Pages" [/audio/jandekyellowpages.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Yellow Pages" [/audio/jandekyellowpages.m3u]
Boy do we still love the Jayhawks. Although we still sometimes notice the loss of original singer Mark Olson and miss the sound of the old Jayhawks, they still manage to make amazingly beautiful and totally catchy records. Gary Louris, who now basically IS the Jayhawks made the most of a tough situation, replacing Olson, and manages to get better and better. The sound, while still lush, is not nearly as 'produced' as their last record Smile. Actually reminds me a lot of Hollywood Town Hall from years back. Lots of jangle and strum, hooks galore, a LOT of Byrds/Beatles worship, and some amazing players/vocalists (including guest vocals from Matthew Sweet and Jakob Dylan) make this a truly divine listen. And unlike a lot of Jayhawks records, this record isn't immediately catchy, which is actually a good thing. On first listen, I wasn't all that impressed, but now, the more I listen to it, the more and more I like it. And I have been playing it nonstop. Nothing avant or underground or genre-defying, just timeless, perfect pop.
Includes a 6 track bonus disc including a track from a Spanish magazine, 2 acoustic versions, 2 demos, and a live version of the Jayhawks classic 'Waiting For The Sun'.
MPEG Download: "Stumbling Through The Dark" [/audio/jayhawksstumbling.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Stumbling Through The Dark" [/audio/jayhawksstumbling.m3u]
MPEG Download: "Tailspin" [/audio/jayhawkstailspin.mp3]
This is an awesome document of early computer music from Finnish inventor/composer Erkki Kurenniemi, who is featured on the Arktinen Hysteria: Suomi-Avantgarden Esipuutarhureita compilation, one of this week's Records of the Week, which is a brief sonic overview of Finnish experimental/electronic/avant garde in the sixties. Kurenniemi's track on the comp is a sort of precursor to Pan Sonic, stiff robotic dance music made from blips and bleeps. This collection of his work from 1963-1973 shows multiple sides of Kurenniemi, the silly, playful side, like the comp track (which also appears here) and then a much darker, noiser side. Having spent time as an artist, a photographer, and a musician, Kurennemi was always an enthusiastic amateur, with most of his works remaining in a raw and unfinished state. Which in no way detracts from the power of these amazing pieces. In fact like lots of home-recorded/primitively recorded music, the quality of the recording is a huge part of the overall sound. A combination of computers, synthesizers and home made automated sound making devices, resulted in a broad range of sound, from grainy rough walls of sound to boinky primitive rhythm tracks to thick rumbling tones and ear piercing sine waves to dorky spastic freak outs to twinkly spacescapes. Really cool stuff.
MPEG Download: "Sahkosoittimen Aania #1" [/audio/kurenniemisahko1.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Sahkosoittimen Aania #1" [/audio/kurenniemisahko1.m3u]
Aha! Yet another installment in Robert Pollard's Fading Captain series. The mysteriously titled Mist King Urth is credited to the equally mysterious group known as Lifeguards. And just who do you think they might be? But of course, it's another Pollard collaborative effort. This time he's hooked back up with fellow GBVer Doug Gillard. Pollard sang and wrote the tunes while Gillard played the all instruments, and it's no surprise that the results are quite appealing. Ah yes, a rose by any other name.... Raw electric guitars crunch about while Pollard sings in a particularly strange, affected manner. Very fired up and rocked out.
MPEG Download: "Starts At The River" [/audio/lifeguardsstarts.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Starts At The River" [/audio/lifeguardsstarts.m3u]
This most recent collection of work by Angus Maclise is culled from a collection of over 50 tapes discovered over 20 years ago and rescued from probable destruction. Maclise was instrumental in the formation of LaMonte Young's Theatre of Eternal Music as well as the first incarnation of The Velvet Underground, and continued to explore drone music, Eastern music and electronic tape music until his death in 1979. This two disc set features early electronic experiments, some epic ambient/drone pieces including performances from John Cale and Tony Conrad, and 2 recordings of Maclise reading his poetry, of which there are apparently very few recordings. While we are not much for spoken word around these parts, the two pieces here are actually quite nice. Maclise's poetry is strange and pretty wonderful and is delivered over a background of drone and hum and buzz. The rest of this collection includes the above mentioned short pieces for electronics, a bunch of short instrumental explorations and three 30 minute pieces of ambient clatter and ur-drone. Gorgeous and spacious, free and transcendental. Think No Neck Blues Band meets the Dead C meets Stockhausen. Great stuff!
MPEG Download: "Trance #2" [/audio/maclisetrance2.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Trance #2" [/audio/maclisetrance2.m3u]
The return of black metal legends, Panzer Division Marduk and their one speed. VERY VERY FAST. Seems most metalheads who don't like Marduk, just get bored because with the exception of a record/song here and there, Marduk pick a tempo and stick to it. And that tempo is almost always faster than a speeding bullet. But if you're in the mood for some hyper fast, hyper produced, christ hating, poser smashing black metal, then this may just hit the spot. I personally LOVE Marduk and have been listening to this record a bunch.
MPEG Download: "With Satan And Victorious Weapons" [/audio/mardukvictorious.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "With Satan And Victorious Weapons" [/audio/mardukvictorious.m3u]
Monade started as a 1996 joint side project of Stereolab's Laetitia Sadier and Pram's Rosie Cuckston, with Sadier making the bulk of the tracks in more recent years. Here then is Monade's debut full length, licensed from Duophonic by Drag City here in the US, which includes the impossibly rare tracks and other out of print gems, along with new material. As expected, the music is akin to Stereolab's bubbly, melodic electronica albeit with a bit more of a lo-fi bedroom feel, with strummed guitars, a light touch on the synth effects, and Sadier's comforting French croon.
MPEG Download: "Enfin Seule" [/audio/monadeenfin.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Enfin Seule" [/audio/monadeenfin.m3u]
3rd and latest album from S. Kozak's Mystic Forest. If you liked their Green Hell album you'll like this. Mystic Forest is somewhat "happier" sounding than Kozak's Eikenskaden stuff, but really quite similar and thus totally wacked and excellent. See the review of Eikenskaden's The Last Danse (also on this list) for more about the Kozak sound. His classical influence is really pronounced here, not just an influence really as many of the songs are in fact "collaborations" between Kozak and Beethoven, Bach, Schubert, or Tchaikovsky! Dunno if those composers would have appreciated the violent drums and brutal distortion however. Or the gothy, fetishistic subject matter either, for that matter. But it works for us, along with the occasional French female vocals. Mystic Forest is a "Beauty and the Beast" kind of thing, and really really over the top with it too.
MPEG Download: "Tandis Que Les Arbres Regandent" [/audio/mystictandis.mp3]
I'm sure that, by now, we're way passed that point that divides the completists with those that are content with two or three volumes of this series. And yet, though speaking partially from a completist's viewpoint, volume 14 might be one that anyone who's enjoyed previous Ethiopiques releases to take note of. Volume 14 is a re-release of a 1970 Philips Ethiopia recording of G�tatch¿w M¿kurya. M¿kurya, a saxophonist, is apparently considered the Albert Ayler of Ethiopia. But before y'all non-free jazz aficionados get scared off by thoughts of atonal scree, you can rest assured that there's not a lick of that here. Probably what was most likely intended by such a comparison was either Ayler's propensity for using folk melodies in his works, or maybe even... marches. The cornerstone of M¿kurya's style is derived from a strictly vocal style associated with war known as "shellela". Apparently M¿kurya got the idea of transcribing this singing style to saxophone. Brash and insistent as it is, it's really nothing like even the tamest "sheets of sound" from Coltrane's pre-free jazz days. Entirely instrumental, the music of G�tatch¿w M¿kurya is, while familiar in the scope of Ethiopian music we've come to know and love, also much different than all that's preceded it. It probably most resembles Ethiopiques Volume Four in respect to their both lacking in vocals, but there the similarities stop. The band is stripped down to organ, guitar, bass and drums and accompaniment usually consists of a steady, uptempo ostinato over which M¿kurya then plays his rapid and rococo melodic improvisations (often alternating with the squealing farfisa-like organ). Also included as a bonus track for this CD issue is a late fifties rarity from M¿kurya. Yet again, we highly recommend this newest Ethiopiques release for both sometimes fans and -- it goes without saying I suppose -- completists as well.
MPEG Download: "Yegenet Muziqa" [/audio/getatchewmekuryayegen.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Yegenet Muziqa" [/audio/getatchewmekuryayegen.m3u]
The return of Romania's avant black metallers Negura Bunget, who were best known around these parts for their last record, which sounded remarkably like SF black metal legends Weakling. NB have progressed, or regressed, or at least moved on, so now they truly sound like nobody else. Four epic tracks clocking in at almost an hour, and sonically all over the place. Dark, ambient rumbles evoke the spirits of the forest before the first track kicks in sounding a bit like Don Cab, with spastic drums, way up in the mix while grainy guitars saw wildly away. Eventually BIGGER riffs come tumbling down like a black metal avalanche and the whole thing becomes a swirling, bloodied whirlpool of octopus-armed drumming, possessed keyboards and buzzing mosquito riffs. Occasionally the metallic fury abates allowing gently strummed acoustic guitars and field recordings to weave simple melodic soundscapes in the lulls. Really strange breakdowns are peppered throughout, like a drum/keyboards/clean-vocal part that sounds like an ultra raw Killing Joke or Sisters Of Mercy, ambient passages with howling wind and far away wails, a loping black metal waltz, buzzing and swaying drunkenly, and a closing drone that rumbles and whirs and sounds as good as any Jonathan Coleclough record. While there are moments of black metal familiarity here and there, there's just so much strangeness, even just in the way instruments sound or how they play certain parts. There's a definite post rock vibe in the song structures especially in a lot of the drum parts. Strange production with quiet guitars and LOUD guitars and occsionally LOUD drums. But it all makes for a really unique record. Some seriously twisted, rhythmically bizarre, completely damaged, grandiose and melancholy black metal supposedly inspired by "Romanian mysticism". And, it comes in a really beautiful oversized cardstock sleeve that unfolds sort of like a map and contains an actual twig from some Romanian tree!
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This is one of three separate shards of electronic music history (Ashley, Neuhaus, and Palestine) recently unearthed by Italian audio archaeologists Alga Marghen.
Max Neuhaus' "Fontana Mix-Feed" features six "realizations" of an indeterminate John Cage score, in Neuhaus' hands an electro-acoustic feedback concerto created with timpani, contact microphones, amplifiers, and a mixer. Shrill, high-end death drone, different at each performance. This is common stuff nowadays, but back in 1965 before such genres as "power violence" and "no-input mixing board" music, it must have fascinated and/or severely disturbed the listeners (generally in some posh academic setting -- the booklet is full of great photos and flyers for Neuhaus' performances). Like the Ashley's "Wolfman", this Neuhaus disc is cool when you consider that context: as depicted on the cover, a nerdish young Neuhaus in suit and tie, on stage at Carnegie Hall causing audience discomfort and pain with his knob twisting! Definitely of historic import, at the very least.
MPEG Download: "Chicago, April 1965" [/audio/neuhauschicago.mp3]
The LONG anticipated return of the undisputed gods of pop in the new millennium. Yes, it's here! The newest from the New Pornographers and, needless to say, it does not disappoint. From the very get go with the title track we have almost a reprise of "Letter From An Occupant" with its knee twitching, hip shaking energy and bouncing keyboard line. Carl Newman, Neko Case, et al continue to demonstrate not only superior song writing abilities but a sense of effortless and unpretentious musicianship which is perhaps most evident in their continued brilliant harmony vocals (to say nothing of the interplay between Neko and Carl's lead vocal lines throughout the album). And what's that? No, it may sound like "Year of the Cat" man Al Stewart, but it's actually Destroyer frontman Dan Bejar, returning to the group as a "secret member" on 3 tracks. There's something about the way that the New Pornographers are able to consistently tap into the seventies and early eighties radio popcontinuum of ELO, Sparks, Cheap Trick, fatten up the harmonies, and then filter it all through a Rainer Maria style emo ethic -- and make it kick ass! And while admittedly this album might take a little longer for it to seep in than did Mass Romantic, it's worth the repeated listens cuz if this is bubblegum pop, it's the kind that gets more flavor the more you chew. And those of us who had 'issues' with the sound (not the songs) on the first album, finding it to be a little brittle with a bit of a brutal high end, will be quite pleased with the much warmer, dreamier sound. Pop record of the year wethinks.
We were joking a couple days ago about Phill Niblock, or it could of been Tony Conrad (Or Angus Maclise or any of those folks) about how great it must be having over the course of your entire 30 or 40 year career to have played only 4 or 5 notes. Obviously it's not as simple as that. Niblock is one of the few modern composers that can hold your attention for an hour or more with the judicious use of a single note. Like Reich and Riley, Niblock harnesses the natural properties of sound letting the sound do much of the work, shifting slowly, beating intermittantly, always shimmering and occasionally throbbing as notes nestle close to each other, sometimes sliding into place perfectly, other times finding a strange resistance and audibly working to fit in, resulting in all these subtle shifts. This is glacial and static, warm and thick and totally mesmerising. Touch Food also seems, to me at least, to be Niblock's most melodically complex set of pieces. The melodies here manage to be fairly prominent, even though they are stretched to their limit and obfuscated by the thick wash of sound. This is heady, heavy stuff. Heavy enough in fact that all you dirge-istsâ who are into Earth and Sunn 0))) and stuff like that may find that Niblock is your gateway drug, opening up the door to Maclise, Flynt, Cale and beyond. And of course, fans of modern drone, Sunroof!, Birchville Cat Motel, Skullflower, Vibracathedral Orchestra should definitely pick this up! His best record since Four Full Flutes!
MPEG Download: "Sweet Potato" [/audio/niblocksweetpotato.mp3]
Numbers, all by themselves, have a firm handle on taking the tools of punk rock and using them as instruments of total dancefloor destruction, making them prime candidates for re-interprations of their songs that highlight, rather than obliterate, their inherent status as dance tunes. Some of the tracks on this new remix album do just that, some don't, and as is to be expected from a remix album I guess, some of these tracks work a whole lot better than others, although overall, "Death" is really pretty solid. Most of the mixes here are in the hands of the good-humored glitchmeisters of the Tigerbeat 6 roster, many of whose aims seem to be more idiosyncratic than the simple forging of club-friendly tunage from the Numbers raw material. The best tracks, like Dymaxion's mix of "What Is The Product?" and Caro's take on "Intercom," fracture and extrapolate cold neo-disco from the already thumpin' Numbers beat. Gold Chains inserts himself, friendly and joshing like, into the musical dialogue on his take on "Prison Life" through the additional vocals; the party jams are duly delivered by Kid 606; controversial faux-teutonic trio Zeigenbock Kopf turn "I Like Having These Things" into, uh, a Zeigenbock Kopf song. It's a tribute to all the mixers that it's not immediately noticable that a couple songs are tackled more than once (or twice). Other remixers include Electronicat, Stars As Eyes, Dwayne Sodhaberk, Original Hamster, Kit Clayton, GD Luxxe, Dat Politics and Uprock.
MPEG Download: KID 606 "We Like Having These Things (Williamsburg Rmx)" [/audio/numberskid606rmx.mp3]
MPEG Stream: KID 606 "We Like Having These Things (Williamsburg Rmx)" [/audio/numberskid606rmx.m3u]
Here it is, the "mellow" album from Swedish death/prog metal masters Opeth. Originally, this was to be the second disc in a heavy vs. light two disc set, but they chose to release 'em separately, with the heavy one, "Deliverance" coming out last year. "Deliverance" pretty much sounded like an ordinary Opeth record (that is, amazing) and had its share of acoustic bits like they all do, though it was darn heavy overall. But this one is ALL mellow, so it certainly stands out as an anomaly in the grand Opeth catalog. Basically, if you like those quiet, melodic, cleanly sung, pretty, psychedelic parts of Opeth's albums (always an important part of their unique formula) you'll undoubtedly enjoy this record, 'cause that's all it is. We thought maybe that they'd get all retro and folky and '70s on this (since we know that long-lost Scandiavian psych prog stuff is their inspiration), but despite the lack of "metal" here, this still has a modern, almost slick sound. We found ourselves digging it, but also unavoidably (and futilely) waiting for the heaviness to suddenly, satisfyingly kick in. You just expect it -- that's their schtick, those dynamics. One solution would be to put this in a multi-disc changer with four other Opeth albums, and play it on 'shuffle' mode!
We wonder what someone who's not already into Opeth (or metal!) would think of this. Maybe for a lot of prog heads this would be their favorite Opeth opus, for there rest of us it's an interesting addition to their canon but we do look forward to the next, light AND heavy Opeth album!!
MPEG Download: "Death Whispered A Lullaby" [/audio/opethdeath.mp3]
This is one of three separate shards of electronic music history (Ashley, Neuhaus, and Palestine) recently unearthed by Italian audio archaeologists Alga Marghen.
The disc of early Charlemagne Palestine electronic works ("late night recordings" at the NYU Intermedia center on the Buchla 100 and 200 analog synths, done between 1965 and 1970) is probably the most "listenable" of these three reissues. It's also volume 3 in Alga Marghen's "The Golden Research" Palestine archive series. Listenable, yet certainly scarily dark and droney and hissy, conjuring fear and sudden violence, far from the pretty, hypnotic bliss of some of the man's later work. Inspired by everyday refrigerator hum and race car motors, but way more "late night", this material must predate his obsession with cute stuffed animals!
MPEG Download: "Tymbral For Pran Nath" [/audio/palestinetymbral.mp3]
Second in a series of cd singles from Dave Pajo, who you know not only as Papa M but as founding member of Slint, collaborator with Will Oldham, and member of Billy Corgan's new group Zwan. As with most of Papa M's work, there's an evocative pastoral folk tone that runs throughout, very nice! Reminds me of Simon & Garfunkel. Fans should pick this up -- it's not throwaway material. Songs: the traditional "Black is the Color" and two Pajo originals, "Mary Was the Kind" and "World's Greatest Sin."
MPEG Download: "Black is the Color" [/audio/papamblackisthecolor.mp3]
What I (Jim) remember so strongly about my experience a few years back selling dance singles for one of San Francisco's now defunct distributors was the emphasis upon (nay, necessity of) newness, novelty, and freshness. Yet, with the basic structure of techno having remained the same for 15 years -- the steadfast whump of a basskick countered by the taut simplicity of a sampled hi-hat with some melody and / or atmosphere thrown in for variety -- I have to wonder if it would be possible to tell the difference (and I mean not just trainspot, but critically differentiate) between the relatively underground cuts of, say, Dan Bell back in 1992 or a really early Ian Pooley single with the polite post-Detroit trax from current artists like Akufen or Jetone. While it's probably not his intention to pose such questions, this debut mix disc from Philip Sherburne -- San Francisco's answer to Simon Reynolds in many ways, intelligently discussing the successes and failures of dance music through his essays and articles for various magazines -- has at least sparked those questions for me. Could those Baby Ford or Robert Hood tracks been produced in 1993 instead of 2003? Well, maybe.
Fortunately, for those who don't care for any such musicological investigations of electronica (which should be most of you!), Sherburne's Picadub mix project works very well as an example of an elegantly composed blend of minimal techno, with cuts from the aforementioned Baby Ford, Robert Hood, and Akufen, plus Thomas Brinkmann, Pantytec, DJ Abstract, Tipper, Seiji, Quizz, Pan/tone, Villalobos, Iz & Diz, Lucien N. Luciano, and Dinky. Nothing fancy, just a nice steady beat... and that's all you can ask for minimal techno.
MPEG Download: BABY FORD "Messenger" [/audio/picababyfordmessenger.mp3]
MPEG Stream: BABY FORD "Messenger" [/audio/picababyfordmessenger.m3u]
There it is again, Mac MacCaughan's unmistakable sweet boyish voice! His new Portastatic album is filled with the loveliest, breeziest pop warmth. One dozen super pretty and lovingly crafted tunes with slip-slidin' guitars, violin accents and female vocals courtesy of Ms Janet Weiss (Quasi, Sleater-Kinney) on the album's opening song and highlight "Oh Come Down". Aaaah, delightful! And to top it all off, there's a petal pink watercolor painting on the cover by Mac, as well as a little flower painting in the cd insert by Yo La Tengo's Georgia Hubley. Hurrah!
MPEG Download: "Oh Come Down" [/audio/portastaticohcomedown.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Oh Come Down" [/audio/portastaticohcomedown.m3u]
At first I was inclined to hate this band. I see 'em on MTV all the time (the video is actually pretty great), they're a two piece, as is the current fashion, boy and girl duo ala the White Stripes, and they have been saddled with that dreaded (and offensive) NEXT-BIG-THING tag. But I have to say, this record kicks serious ass! It's got some of that garage rock thing going on, which is obviously part of their next big thing mass appeal. Hives, Strokes, White Stripes and all that. But this record is so much weirder and cooler. Really gloomy sounding, kind of like a more punk Velvet Underground, with occasional squalls of white-noise guitar and super noisy freakouts. It's kind of hard to put my finger on just what makes this record so appealing. The songs are catchy, the spare instrumentation still manages to kick out the jams, and the overall sound has this weird horror movie / B-movie vibe. It's really exciting to see a band this grungy and muddy and gloomy and cool hit the big time. It may be a guilty pleasure, but at this point we have so many, why even keep track?
MPEG Download: "Attack Of The Ghost Riders" [/audio/raveonettesattackof.mp3]
In their "Met Life" series, Locust Records has commissioned experimental artists to produce a field recording of a dynamic aural evironment and then respond to that recording using any methods of their choosing. So, the Argentinian out-rock ensemble Reynols presents the sounds of city workers in Buenos Aires jackhammering a ditch in a busy city street. While Reynols could be implying that this field recording is an obtuse channelling from Minecxio -- that's the mythical alternate dimension that Reynols have cited as the source of their 'musical' ideas, which have included in the past a symphony for 10,000 chickens and an album comprised entirely of blank tape (which is anything but silent). However, Reynols' field recording of jackhammers seems pretty straight. Their "response" to this field recording is another matter altogether. With gritty guitar noise freakouts lurking in the distance, Reynols sets up a psych-fug throb of primal percussion, close-fisted organ arpeggiations, and bellowing trumpets, turning the pneumatic monotony of the jackhammer into an atypical, instrumental waltz of cosmic melodies and drunken rhythms.
MPEG Download: "Rampotanza Ronil Grodorempelente" [/audio/reynolsrampota.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Rampotanza Ronil Grodorempelente" [/audio/reynolsrampota.m3u]
One of the best hip hop records of last year had to be RJD2's Dead Ringer, a wicked mix of gritty beats, seamless sonic collages, and epic cinematic soundscapes. And the track 'The Horror' was the one that set the whole thing off, a dark and soulful, horrific musical trip through seedy streets and back alleys, a noirish epic that rivaled DJ Shadow at his best. So to hold us over until the next record comes this deluxe double cd compilation of different mixes and video footage. Disc one starts off with the original track, 'The Horror' and it just reaffirms what a fucking amazing track it is. Hasn't lost any of its impact. The rest of the disc expands the sonic pallete of RJD2's nightmarish funk / soul hiphopscapes, with some minimal female vocals and tense cinematic strings, serious soulful grit and fierce funk, and loose ramshackle rhythms and dark drony dreaminess. Even if you don't have the Dead Ringer album, this disc of mixes is good enough to function on its own, no throw away remix/filler crap here. Disc 2 is a cd rom that has two live performances (as well as some interviews), one from the Bowery Ballroom in New York, the other from our very own Beta Lounge here in SF. And proves beyond any sort of doubt that RJD2's got some serious skill on the decks as well as the sampler. Also included is a 'making of' documentary chronicling the filming of 'The Horror" video (which we unfortunately don't get to see) and an animated video for "The Horror" that is really amazing looking, a fuzzed out noirish nightmare, claustrophobic and grainy. Like a cartoon gone bad! Definitely recommended, as is of course the Dead Ringer full length.
MPEG Download: "Bus Stop Bitties" [/audio/rjd2busstopbitties.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Bus Stop Bitties" [/audio/rjd2busstopbitties.m3u]
The single's title comes from some actual ruins, one of them "stone ships" the Vikings built, so appopriately it's a Swedish 7" import release by AQ-fave Japanese prog-core duo Ruins. Six songs, recorded in '97 and '99 in Tokyo. These are studio recordings, not live. Here's the track listing: Snare, Laiptchig, Dagad, Korromda Deimm, Nivaftopoftz, Jallamjikko. It's all the sort of crazy stuff you'd expect from these guys. Further description is probably unnecessary as this is limited to just 300 copies -- we got a dozen, and that's probably it, so act fast, Ruins fans!
Secret Synthi are a trio of lo-fi synth'n'guitar pop gals from San Francisco named after an ultra rare, ultra cool synthesizer from the '70s - the Synthi AKS which came contained in its own briefcase-like carrying case. You might recognize its brethren's distinct sounds from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop or the band Yes (who purchased one of the Synthi prototypes back in the day). Anyways gear talk aside, this trio's music is super light and playful. Honey pie girl gang vocals with ample amounts of sass. Kicky, primitive rhythms. A party of keyboards, organs, electric guitar, effects pedals and vintage synths (accompanying the Synthi are a Moog Prodigy, a Sequential Circuits Multi-Trak, the amazing stylophone and of course the ever-present Roland Juno-60). Actually, I was just thinkin' that a picture perfect live extravaganza would be them along with Le Tigre, fellow SF duo the Capricorns and boyish counterparts Postal Service. An engaging album with a lot of fun song titles too... "Alright Mitten Fight"!
MPEG Download: "Kitty Fang" [/audio/secretsyntikitty.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Kitty Fang" [/audio/secretsyntikitty.m3u]
Cut from the same collectivist French-Canadian cloth as Godspeed You Black Emperor, the thirteen members of Set Fire To Flames take a slightly more experimental approach to creaTING INSTRUMENTALS THAT MAY at times approach the epic scale of GYBE in track length, but occupy a much less theatrical and grandiose territory in scope. "Telegraphs in Negative..." was recorded almost entirely in a collapsing barn, with instrumentation including cello, bass clarinet, guitar, saw, french horn, marimba, glockenspiel, music box, gutted two-track motors, tapes, contact mics and faulty electronics. The barn itself heavily inflects these recordings, as bits of field recordings as well as in the way the recording process capture not just the sounds of the instruments but their interaction with space and architecture. It makes for a record that's very intimate not neccesarily in an emotional sense, but in the way it involves the listener with a very specific mood, location and group process. Opting for tangents into extended drones, collages and improvisation rather than reaching for epic melodic climaxes, the sound is sparse, crumbling and dark, but not entirely melancholy. Spread over two discs (edited and reconstructed from hours of recordings), it's also a little long to be constantly engaging. But still pretty cool.
MPEG Download: "And The Birds Are About To Bust Their " [/audio/setfireandthebirds.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "And The Birds Are About To Bust Their " [/audio/setfireandthebirds.m3u]
MPEG Download: "Holy Throat Hiss Tracks To The Sedative Hypnotic" [/audio/setfireholythroat.mp3]
Man, have I been waiting for something like this for years. A massive mega mix of classic drum and bass / jungle / dancehall. Takes me back quite a few years when jungle was brand new (to us at least). When finding jungle 12"s was a challenge and even finding clubs that played jungle was practically impossible. A bunch of us (often with AQ pal Lesser in tow) would go to local bars and just sit in the corner, luxuriating in the stuttery staccato beats, waiting for the bass to drop and huge swells of thunderous sub-bass synths to wash over us. And for me, even though jungle is supposedly 'played out', it remains as fierce and heavy and raw as it ever was. This mega mix has all the great 12"s from the early days of jungle, tracks by Cobra, Remarc, Cutty Ranks, Krome & Time, Shy FX, Tek 9, DJ Hype, Barrington Levy, Squarepusher, Ninjaman, Decoder, Plug and tons more!. No diva vocals, no syrupy melodic dance crap, just monstrous Amen breaks (the drum loop dujour of jungle) everywhere, skittery and frenetic, pitched up and down and all around, stuttering and hiccupping and pounding, with throbbing basslines and rib cage rattling synth stabs. And as a bonus for all of you dancehall heads, there's plenty of toasting and junglized reggae tunes. I remember most of my friends at the time, ESPECIALLY my drummer friends, being totally skeptical and dismissive, saying stuff like "It's just a drum machine" and "the beats are so repetitive". But that's the point. The rhythms -are- repetitive, I mean, they were made to dance to right? But they are SO complex, inhumanly so, and the buzz and stutter of beats swirling wildly from speaker to speaker makes the repetitive nature of the music all the more hypnotic and trance-y. And how could anyone obsessed with rhythm, especially drummers, not be totally mesmerised by these hyperspeed/convoluted beats? I've found myself driving around in my housemate's truck (which has a booming system) just blasting this comp, trying to replicate the feeling of the big bass bins pounding me into the corner of that dingy club years ago, and at the same time, have lulled myself to sleep with this comp buzzing and skittering in my ears. Even if you were on the scene and have a lot of these 12"s, there may be a bunch you don't have, and it's nice to have all this stuff on one convenient disc, although the tracks are split into three 20+ minute megamixes which makes finding particular songs a bit of a chore. But odds are, you'll just listen to this whole thing over and over and over. Folks who picked up the Bug cd from the last list should really check this out as should anyone into crazy fucked up elctronica/dancehall/digital hardcore. Fucking great!
MPEG Download: "Track 01" [/audio/soundmurderer01.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Track 01" [/audio/soundmurderer01.m3u]
You've met John Fahey, Robbie Basho and Sandy Bull, now say hello to George Stavis. Originally issued in 1969 on Vanguard Records, "Labyrinths" was one man's bold attempt to bring the banjo out of the hills and hollers and into the urbane settings of the avant-garde coffeehouse. Subtitled "Occult Improvisational Compositions for 5-String Banjo and 'Percussion'" (the percussion is a rather innocuous beating on what sounds like a small coffee can), Stavis' sounds more akin to Pete Seeger and his "Goofing Off Suite" than Bull or Fahey. And while his occult pretensions may seem a bit silly, his 'improvisational compositions' are quite nice. Even his rendition of Rodgers & Hammerstein's old chesnut "My Favorite Things" (a song I could preferably live without hearing ever again) is so bastardized -- Snuffy Jenkins duelling with John Coltrane -- as to be truly rendered once again listenable. The remaining four tracks on the album are all credited to Stavis and, like Seeger, are performed with a picking style totally unique to Stavis -- a combination of rolls and strumming which allows the skillful Stavis to eke out both lead and accompaniment. Cultures collide, and wildly, on this disc of hippy raga banjo jazz. No wonder we had old-time George Stavis fans calling us up all excited when they heard that his long lost album was being reissued on cd.
MPEG Download: "Finland Station" [/audio/stavisfinlandstaion.mp3]
Comprising ten years of Radio 1 performances (mostly John Peel and Mark Radcliffe show appearances) from '91 to '01, this is a tasty collection of *thirty two* Stereolab hits. Yes, all your favorites are here, from "John Cage Bubblegum" to "Metronomic Underground." While you might expect that these versions might be like the more fired up renditions Stereolab routinely delivers in their live performances, most of them are more thoughtful, slightly slowed down, careful takes. This is excellent, and not only a handy colleciton for the Stereolab fans amongst us but also a fine place to start for the non-Stereolab-initiated. Recommended.
MPEG Download: "Tomorrow is Already Here" [/audio/stereolabtomorrow.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Tomorrow is Already Here" [/audio/stereolabtomorrow.m3u]
Released on Uwe "Atom Heart" Schmidt's Rather Interesting label, The Stereonerds are an Australian duo -- one guy programs, one guys sings -- making good ol' electro rather straightforwardly (vocoder, rubbery beats), which is interesting given that Rather Interesting releases are usually genre-fucking entities (Atom + Tea Time, Senor Coconut, Roger Tubesound, etc). It's jittery yet smooth.
Two of the tracks contain samples from Atom's Harddisk Rock 12". Also contains a cover of Joe Meek's "I Hear a New World" that gets them points for having great taste but then, oops, well, we're gonna have to wipe those points on account of the cold Teutonic pokerfaced vocals and a total erasing of the original melody. Still, a good listen, dare you to stay in your seat...
MPEG Download: "F.U.N.K. (Is What You Don't Play)" [/audio/stereonerdsfunk.mp3]
This SF band seems to have something of an identity crisis. It's sounds like they just can't seem to find one of their own. With each album, they sound like another band... who already exist. Last time it was Pavement (and a great version of Pavement it was too), and prior to that it was the Go-Betweens (and they managed that nicely as well). Actually on Love & Distortion they've reverted back to the latter again but perhaps with more soft Brit shoegazerness, Blur boyish peppiness and some Sonic Youth atonalisms too. Sounds like it could have been recorded in 85, or 89 or 92. While they do what they do quite well, it's just not all that original and sounds like a junior version of all of the bands mentioned above.
MPEG Download: "The Simple Things Are Taking Over" [/audio/stratford4simple.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "The Simple Things Are Taking Over" [/audio/stratford4simple.m3u]
Rumbing distortion. Doom. Drone. The vibrations have begun, another SUNNO))) disc is upon us!
As you probably know, the shorthand description for this band is that they're the SUNN that orbits Earth (the band). But actually this release from Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson's heavier-than-thou SUNNO))) proves that (as we knew all along) they exert their own gravity in the universe of dark heavy drone musicks. Previous efforts like "Flight Of The Behemoth" have been faves round here, and they also made a fan out of pagan psych-rock maven / monolith expert Julian Cope, who appears here on the 25 minute opening track "My Wall" reading an epic poem! It's a bit like Current 93 but of course waaaay heavier. SUNNO))) has some other heavy friends involved with this recording too, among them the mighty Joe Preston (Thrones, ex-Melvins, ex-Earth!) who brings in some of the fucked up programmed drumming that makes his Thrones project so special. Meanwhile, Jessamine/Fontanelle's Rex Ritter not only plays on the disc, but took care of the recording and mixing too. And the doom-folk direction that Cope's presence suggests is furthered by vocal contributions from Nordic ice witch doom vocalist Runhild Gammelsaeter (whom some will know from her band with Greg Anderson, Thor's Hammer). The final, spacey track with her and Preston dueting is a dronefolk dream. Holy Wotan! Space rockers, drone fiends, pagans, and doom heads alike all should worship this dark SUNN... And we're told the recording session apparently yielded enough material for more than one album, thus there should be a White2 to look forward to someday!
MPEG Download: "The Gates Of Ballard" [/audio/sunngates.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "The Gates Of Ballard" [/audio/sunngates.m3u]
If you were wandering around in the cold Norwegian wilderness and found a dark cave inhabited by a tribe of trollish troglodytes who just happened to have their own black metal band and were in the middle of a really good, raw and evil rehearsal session, with nasty distorted guitars (I guess they have a portable generator) and still-bloody animal bones and skulls for percussion, THAT's the Svartpest experience. Svartpest, a severely anti-Christian crew of two or three some of whom also play in bands like Gorelord and Wurdulak, says their music "is based upon the ancient hymns of the primitive cavemen that once lived on the mountains and fjords of Norway" and certainly the cavernous atmosphere and primal grunt of their third album "Ved Den Drabelige..." gives us no reason to disbelieve 'em. They really do use bones and blocks of wood for percussion, alongside more usual black/Viking metal components like rasping vocals, blasting drums, and buzzsaw guitar riffing. What makes this great is how the metal parts are made even more powerful and majestic by the band's forays into ritualistic creepiness of a more ambient, malevolent hippy nature -- it's like Mayhem crossed with that 60's ESP band Cromagnon at times. (Note to Baphomet label: next time, don't let the cavemen themselves master the cd, 'cause that's probably why there's careless little "digi-farts" left in between the tracks.)
MPEG Download: "I Skapelsen Av Det Kolde..." [/audio/svartpestiskapelsen.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "I Skapelsen Av Det Kolde..." [/audio/svartpestiskapelsen.m3u]
The first track on highly regarded Japanese electronicist Nobukazu Takemura's newest album harkens back to his first domestically-released record Scope. Its clicks and high end chatters are melodically arranged into an Oval-ish pleasant modern sound. The rest of the tracks on the record, however, are more difficult listening, consisting mostly of machine-generated atmospheric whooshes, seemingly-random (tho' I'm sure that to him they're logically ordered) digital squiggles and sonic exclamations that are about texture and nuance, not melody. Listen to both tracks before buying. Experimental yet accessible.
MPEG Download: "Conical Flask" [/audio/takemuraconical.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Conical Flask" [/audio/takemuraconical.m3u]
Nasty ugly feedback filled sludge metal in the tradition of Eyehategod and Grief (or more obscurely, Negative Reaction and Soul Preacher). Apparently this disc reissues vinyl-only tracks from back in 1994 and other rarities by this rather obscure doomcore band. We don't even know where they're from, but we're glad they're not our neighbors. The vocals might just be toooo anguished for some (I personally liked 'em -- until I realized the sound I was digging was supposed to be singing, not some sort of distorted horn). Anyway if you're into the ugly n' heavy then this Southern Lord release has yer number. Dark psychedelic thud from a black hole space, with weird touches like keyboards (I think, though maybe it's the vocals again??) and let's not forget their cover of "Also Sprach Zarathustra" sure to please everyone who loved Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.
MPEG Download: "Also Sprach Zarathustra" [/audio/toadliquoralsosprach.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Also Sprach Zarathustra" [/audio/toadliquoralsosprach.m3u]
With roots going all the way back to the Japanese Fluxus movement in the early '60s, Yasunao Tone remains one of Japan's more adventurous new music composers. Beginning in the early '80s when commercially available digital technology was hitting the market, Tone began experimenting with overriding the error-correction systems on consumer CD players in order to generate complex streams of digital errata. Tone furthers the process with a self-decribed method of 'wounding' the discs themselves with transparent tape, physical abrastions, and pinhole punctures. Despite his numerous grants, fellowships, installations, and awards, Tone has only a handful of recordings, including this new eponymous release through Asphodel. The resultant album of skipping CDs and noxious digital skittering certainly recalls the work of Oval, Disc, and most things on Mego.
MPEG Download: "Track 02" [/audio/yasunaotone02.mp3]
Tractor is the early '70s UK heavy-folk-rock duo of Jim Milne and Steve Clayton, who made two classic albums, one record under the name The Way We Live, and this one as Tractor, which was originally released in 1972 on John Peel's Dandelion label. Here it's reissued on cd as a '30th Anniversary Special Edition'. Probably the heavier of the two records, "Tractor" comes off like a combination of obscure UK folksters Tony, Caro & John (whose album reissue on Shadoks we recommended a few months ago) and heavy rock n' rollers Led Zeppelin or Budgie (or, to be obscure again, T2). Doomy fuzz guitars, conga drums, mystick lyrix, acoustic strum... This 'power duo' recorded in a bedroom studio but their sound is BIG. Anyone into either kick-ass '70s psychedelic guitar heroics or epic blissful folksy melancholia, or *both* especially, should investigate. There's one goofy blues number, but that's more than made up for by the epic, fierce "Little Girl In Yellow", a heavy rock classic if there ever was one.
Hisses and boos to the record label though, for crudding up this disc's front and back covers with little blurbs about the record (including the logos of the magazines from whence several of the blurbs were derived). What were they thinking? Save that stuff for a sticker on the shrink wrap! We're also not entirely sure that including two recordings (and photos) from the band's 2002 reunion as 'bonus' tracks was such a great idea, although the extra four demo tracks from Jim Milne, just acoustic guitar and voice, are quite nice, whenever they may be from (they don't tell us).
Unfortunately no '30th Anniversary Special Edition' of The Way We Live's "Candle For Judith" has come our way, but if it ever does we'll give you the heads up on that too.
MPEG Download: "All Ends Up" [/audio/tractorallendsup.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "All Ends Up" [/audio/tractorallendsup.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)'.
This comp bring together two discs worth of artists who appeared at the Autechre-curated All Tomorrow's Parties 3.0 festival in the UK earlier in April. Featuring unreleased tracks from Masters of Illusion, Push Button Objects, Jim O'Rourke, San Francisco's own O.S.T., Dr. Dooom, Anthony Shake Shakir, Mark Broom, Disjecta, Autechre, Earth (that's right, an unreleased Earth track!), Bola, Pita, Baby Ford and Hecker as well as tracks by Public Enemy, Gescom, Made, Stasis, and BFC.
MPEG Download: EARTH "Dissolution III" [/audio/earthdissolutionIII.mp3]
MPEG Stream: EARTH "Dissolution III" [/audio/earthdissolutionIII.m3u]
