Xoxo
Extended Organ is a 'supergroup' of experimental sound artists whose members are culled from the ranks of that seminal West Coast 'slacker' noise cult the Los Angeles Free Music Society. The four members of Extended Organ have been improvising with sound for over two decades and although they have played together in various configurations in the past, this is the first time the quartet has ever played together as a total entity. The foursome each have active and well established careers on their…
C\'est Com... Com... Compliqué
The Bureau B label breaks into new territory and presents a newly-recorded album by Krautrock legends, Faust. "There is no group more mythical than Faust." Thus wrote English musician and eccentric Julian Cope in his classic of the genre, Krautrocksampler. Which says it all really -- neither the habitus nor the music of the six-piece Hamburg group is easy to grasp. Formed in Hamburg in 1970, some lauded Faust as the best thing that ever happened to rock, others dismissed them as shameless dilett…
Schiphorst 2008
This release documents Krautrock legends Faust live before an audience of friends, fellow artists and fans from all over Europe at 2008's Avant Garde Festival -- held quite literally in co-founder Jean-Hervé Peron's back yard in Schiphorst, Germany. A friendly audience yes, but one not easily impressed. Faust did not disappoint... from the spontaneous vocal improvisation during the soundcheck (preserved here as track 1), through the walk-about serenading of Peron's beloved pig with a firework ba…
(un)sentimental
Though each member of the 13th Assembly is acclaimed in their own right this group is very much a singular musical experience. A planned NPR piece should help raise exposure for this sublime recording.
The Thirteenth Assembly began as a touring collective made up of four musicians and four musically distinct small ensembles: Tomas and Taylor's duo; Mary and Jessica's duo; Taylor's trio with Mary and Tomas; and the collaborative quartet featured on this recording. The group is a microcosm of an e…
A Grand Tour Of Tunisia
During a late 2007 trip to the united kingdom the sunburned lineup of paul labrecque, john moloney, sarah o'shea, robert thomas and ron schneiderman trekked into the studio along with john "herb diamante" godbert and michael flower. a grand tour of tunisia is a massive double LP providing a glimpse into those sessions. tunisia touches on all of the best facets of the sunburned oeuvre - dope rhythmic workouts, freeform bombast and experimental exorcisms with a taste of character-driven roleplay t…
(another) stunt
(another) Stunt is the second part of a trilogy started in 2008 with the ‘Stunt’ EP on Schoolmap: the series is based on the use of one turntable and a large selection of vinyl records as sources for raw material, and pulses/rhythm as main organisational principle. The focus on the physical gesture of playing the records – fully recognisable after the editing and the assemblage – is probably more related to the kind of “turntablism” familiar to hip-hop musicians, than to other plunderphonic-rela…
The First Basket
Charming and imaginative music for a controversial film that follows the Jewish basketball experience from ash cans placed on the stoops of brownstones to the bright lights of Madison Square Garden. Composed by Roberto Juan Rodriguez, whose CDs of modern Cuban-Jewish fusion have become Tzadik best sellers, the score jumps from klezmer to classical, dixieland, pop, rock and back again. Featuring an astounding array of downtown musicians, The First Basket establishes Roberto as a versatile compose…
Artificial Midnight
New York synth duo Infinity Window have been crafting their game for well over a year without much documentation. Comprised of Dan Lopatin (Oneohtrix Point Never) and Taylor Richardson (Prehistoric Blackout), this LP shows them at the pinnacle of self-realization. Equally influenced by John Carpenter and the Taj Mahal Travellers, they create traveling music; music that has the power to transport and overwhelm the listener with vibes outside of those presently available to them. The A-side consis…
The Storyteller
The Storyteller is another exciting release out of the New Israeli Jazz scene, this time featuring alto saxophonist Uri Gurvich. Born and raised in Israel, Uri moved to Boston in 2003. He has studied at Berklee with Joe Lovano and Herb Pomeroy and now lives in New York, where he appears regularly with his own ensembles. His work places Israeli, Yemenite, East European and North African music into a progressive jazz context. Passionate and virtuosic, The Storyteller is a fabulous debut CD by this…
Charmed Birds Against Sorcery
The third full-length CD by AREA C, released this time by Students of Decay: "Glacial harmonics drift in and out of each channel, skittering, modulated notes pulse and surge, sputtering suddenly to luminescent manifestation before disappearing just as quickly." Quite a departure. Listen to MP3 excerpts below.
Conference Of The Birds
LP version. Blends metal, chant, drone, dub, and psychedelia. The band's lyrics expound upon the structure of the universe, potentiality, and freedom from the physical body.
1970 - 1973
The first album and previously unreleased recordings from the world's first all-synthesizer ensemble. They were also one of the very first [possibly the first] performing synthesizer ensembles, working closely with Robert Moog, whose first factory was nearby. This material pre-dates or is contemporary with the first work of Kraftwerk & Tangerine Dream. A uniquely American slant on synthesizer music by a band whose pioneering contributions to the genre had been forgotten until now. Some excellent…
Stand By
This is a reissue of the seventh and final album by this quintessential progressive French electronic rock band. Originally released on Egg in 1979, this features the classic Heldon line-up of Richard Pinhas-guitar and electronics, Patric Gauthier-Moog synthesizer and electronics, Didier Batard-bass, François Auger-drums and guests, including Klaus Blasquiz of Magma. This was one of Heldon's heaviest rock albums.
The Films of Kenneth Anger Volume Two
RESTOCKED! Cinematic magician, legendary provocateur, author of the infamous HOLLYWOOD BABYLON books and creator of some of the most striking and beautiful works in the history of film, Kenneth Anger is a singular figure in post-war American culture. A major influence on everything from the films of Martin Scorsese, Rainer Werner Fassbinder and David Lynch to the pop art of Andy Warhol to MTV, Anger's work serves as a talisman of universal symbols and personal obsessions, combining myth, artific…
New Raytheonport
New to Forte, SHDWPLY records has struck a rich vein of killer new US artists: limited and vinyl only for now, this is the Debut from Gary War, from Brooklyn NY. A one-man phantasmagoria of swooshing spectral pop. Somewhere over the Black Moth Super Rainbow, he spins gaseous cobwebs of eldritch bubblegum. While the hauntology's ghost hunters in the U.K. look to library music and vintage soundtracks, he pinches from the "dense, ponderous soporific mass" of '70s FM sound, to borrow Howard Hampton'…
Sauna: Um, Dois, Tres
Sao Paulo Underground: Rob Mazurek (cornet, electronics); Mauricio Takara (percussion, electronics). The title track is a cacophonous affair with Takara's rolling drums zigzagging through a dense undergrowth of sound, with electronics, gritty laptop interjections and guitar all meshing together.
Open Score
First volume in this electrifying avant-garde DVD series, documenting this 9 Evenings series in NYC from 1966. In 1966, 10 New York artists and 30 engineers and scientists from Bell Telephone Laboratories collaborated on a series of innovative dance, music and theater performances, 9 Evenings: Theatre & Engineering, held at the 69th Regiment Armory, New York City, in October 1966. The artists included are: John Cage, Lucinda Childs, Öyvind Fahlström, Alex Hay, Deborah Hay, Steve Paxton, Yvonne R…
I Grew From A Stone To A Statue
The blurb from the label doesn't seem very keen on branding Black Flowers as a 'supergroup', but that's exactly what they are. Glaswegian singer/songwriter Alasdair Roberts joins Mick Flower (of Vibracathedral Orchestra and Flower-Corasno Duo), drummer extraordinaire Alex Neilson and his partner in Directing Hand Lavinia Blackwall who takes lead vocals. It's pretty rare to encounter a British folk record that packs so much of a punch. There's a real sense of power behind songs like opener 'Calva…
Meta-Inorganicmatter Meta-Newlon
Volume 2 in the ongoing Japanese Avant-Garde Cassette Reissue Series. The 80s and early 90s saw a great deal of fascinating material released on cassette in the Tokyo underground. While some of the more noise-orientated stuff enjoyed a modicum of international distribution, the avant-garde material generally did not. This series, whose first release was Iro / Tamafuri (PSFD-180), aims to rescue the best of this music from historical oblivion. Toukaseibunshi (Permeable Molecule) was an ultra-myst…
Memory
Animal Hospital is Kevin Micka's one-man musical recording and performance entity. Burying himself in a pile of electronics -- shelves of effects, mixing consoles, amps and delay units -- Memory is Kevin's latest venture into layered, processed guitar composition. Although composed in this experimental fashion, Memory is a completely realized recording -- a beautiful scape of shiny guitar tones, vocal washes, and dramatic build-ups, all of which cohere into a single musical vision. Memory is abo…