Rock /
Scott 2
2013 repress. "Originally released in 1968, Scott 2 made it all the way to number one on the UK pop charts, perhaps the strangest number one hit in pop history. Continuing with his orchestral obsession, Scott 2 features over-the-top string and horn arrangements, occasionally veering into dangerously schmaltzy territory. This production style is in drastic contrast to the lyrical content, songs of despair, prostitution, homosexuality, and brutal honesty, indicting the same glamorous and gli…
Freermasonry
Lyrically Freermasonry consists of a series of poems and discourses. Early on in Freermasonry during 'SOL,' the Mother allusion is referenced out of Faust Part Two. It's a small portion and short moment. Faust does an invocation to the Mothers, but the execution is as trickery through occult charlatanism and not truly believed ritual. Goethe found passages about dark goddess figures known as Mothers in the writings of Plutarch. The metaphor is ambiguous, generally associated with creative dar…
Fuzzweed
With each successive release, MV & EE strive to map new territory and to travel more distant orbits. It makes sense that this mission is their furthest reaching yet. While they've long been comfortable navigating the same planes as such cosmic explorers as Sun Ra and Alan Silva, Fuzzweed sees them planting their freak flag in the sorts of different galaxies where the atmospheres counterpoint the music of the spheres with the more earthbound plaints of the blues. Please remember that The …
live at Namba Bears
Acid Mothers leader and Reynols legend meet once again for a wild psych out explosion! Kawabata and Courtis previously worked together on 2006's Kokura for Riot Season, here they return for a raging trip of psychedelic noise rock recorded in February 2011, in Osaka, Japan. Both Kawabata and Courtis are playing guitar, but with Anla bringing tapes and vocals to the mix and Makoto bow and effects. Namba Lightbeam, the first of two 20 minute pieces, opens with a eastern sounding drone sound,…
Insect Dilemma/Disallowed
This is the brand new project of Alvarius B. (Alan Bishop of Sun City Girls). Recorded in Cairo in October 2012, both tracks on this 7 inch are not found on the new Invisible Hands self-titled album and exclusive to this 45 rpm. Side one is a fully orchestrated version of two Alvarius B tracks, one of those tracks, Insect Dilemma, was included on Sun City Girl's classic 330,003 Crossdressers from Beyond the Rig Veda album from 1996. Side B, Lili Twil, is a cover of a Moroccan folk song from…
2nd
Agitation Free's 2nd stands as one of Germany's finest instrumental rock albums of the 1970s and a classic for fans of progressive rock and Krautrock. Despite the fact that the group had problems keeping its cohesion at the time, these troubles never affect the music. 2nd presented a daring blend of Krautrock-type extended jams, laid-back attitude, and experimentation. The music remains very psychedelic in nature, more early Can than Faust. The presence of acoustic guitars and bouzouki emphasize…
Lux Aeterna
greay-area LP reissue, Lux Aeterna, was originally composed to celebrate a friend of William Sheller's wedding, thematically driven by concepts of union and togetherness, and ostensibly based on the Catholic mass, this is far from any sort of religious music you've ever heard. Following in the footsteps of other iconoclastic composers, like Serge Gainsbourg, Jean-Claude Vannier, Lee Hazlewood, David Axelrod, Scott Walker and of course Magma (more on that in a second), Sheller conjured up w…
The Dead C Vs Rangda
Two of the greatest bands of the present day, each composed of two guitarists and a drummer. Every member's name carries its own legendary status. Richard Bishop. Ben Chasny. Chris Corsano. Michael Morley. Bruce Russell. Robbie Yeats. Fabricated empires have risen and been destroyed by the vast output of any one of these guys. Finally, they come together on one release: a split LP between two supergroups. The Dead C's tracks are a gem of a find. The band uncovered recordings nestled in th…
Live at Aston University, Birmingham
Extremely rare recording of Can performing live at Aston University in Birmingham, on March 4, 1977 and featuring the new addition of Rebop Kwaku Baah (the Ghanian percussionist well-known for his work with Traffic, Steve Winwood, Eric Clapton, etc.) and Roscoe Gee (a Jamaican bassist who had also recorded with Traffic). Holger Czukay, now freed from bass duties, began experimenting with an array of electronic sounds, which he also began adding to the mix in part to counterbalance Can's …
A Double Promo Album By CAN
Vocalist Damo Suzuki’s departure from CAN in 1973 had forced the band to re-evaluate their sound. Now with Michael Karoli and Irmin Schmidt sharing vocal duties, the band had also begun drawing on influences from disco and glam. While still remaining staunchly outside the mainstream, they undoubtedly became more accessible to a wider audience, and soon had a huge fan base in the UK. In fact, just a few months after playing the live show found on this double LP (recorded in Lyon in January …
LiveGrodor
We had been talking about this tape for a couple years now: a buncha killer livejams by the great Swedish band Den Stora Vilan (which supposedly translates something as ‘The Great Rest’). Long mellow West Coast influenced psych jams (think ‘American Beauty’ era Gratefuld Dead) meets Neil Young with a bit of Trad Gras Och Stenar thrown in. 200
Catbirds & Cardinals
Catbirds & Cardinals is the latest psychedelic album lobbed into New World shores from Dan Melchior und das Menace. Coming down slow with a clear vision, it’s a sure hit. Since the late 90s, Shepperton, England native Dan Melchior has consistently delivered an avant-pop that is off-kilter and literate, with a sense of menace and a stronger sense of play. He’s a new Jesus of Cool, riding just about the underground like the antipodean Chris Knox. The sound of Catbirds & Cardinals is clean, lo-fi, …
Ocean Parkway
It is with the greatest excitement that three lobed recordings announces the release of ocean parkway, the second album from the gunn-truscinski duo. ocean parkway is a unique and masterful album, one that sees the duo building and expanding upon the already telepathic chemistry that they demonstrated on their debut, sand city. whereas their first album operated to help introduce listeners to what steve gunn and john truscinski had been working on in private for several years, ocean parkway demo…
Dopesmoker
The story behind Dopesmoker, the final LP in the life of pioneering stoner sludge trio Sleep, is one of perseverance not usually associated with such dedicated grass aficionados. Intended to be the Cali band’s third record and first for major label London, the album took shape as a single 63-minute track entitled “Dopesmoker,” an ode to the joys of getting baked. After nearly two months of work, the band (guitarist Matt Pike, bassist Al Cisneros and drummer Chris Hakius) pronounced the opus…
A I A : Dream Loss
Third pressing - strictly limited copies* Most artists would struggle to put one album of the quality Liz Harris exhibited on 'Alien Observer' (the first part of her A I A double-header, also out now) but somehow she's managed to churn out a full two forty minute albums each as breathtaking as the last. 'Dream Loss' is the murkier, more grimy counterpart to 'Alien Observer's distant pop and travels still further into Liz's astral tape haze and noisy, vocal ambience. While the record might begin …
A I A : Alien Observer
Third pressing - strictly limited copies* At this point you shouldn't need any introduction to Liz Harris, better known to most as Grouper. She's got a few albums and splits under her belt now, but chances are the first time you came across her music was the stunningy beautiful modern classic 'Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill', released back in 2008. It was the distinct and singular blend of shimmering dream-pop and tape-mangled noise that had just about anyone worth their salt in awe of h…
Kenzo Deluxe
Guitarist Chris Forsyth is a unique voice in the realm of American music, having emerged from the challenging free form expressionism of his old group Peeesseye with a lyrical command rare in any genre. His newest work brings his trademark lyricism to new heights in his most straightforward setting yet. Gone are the fleshed out rock band arrangements of last year’s Paranoid Cat LP, replaced on Kenzo Deluxe, by Forsyth shunning overdubs and playing his transcendent songs alone in a room on his el…
Dream Seeds
Extra Life’s first record for Northern Spy, Dream Seeds marks a dramatically new creative direction in the band’s still-young but prolific career. It is perhaps Extra Life’s most clearly-defined concept album : seven songs dealing entirely with the twin themes of dreams and children. In a lyrical left turn away from the morbid sexuality and black humor of Made Flesh, these songs look to the subconscious in search of innocence, morality and meaning. According to principal songwriter and e…
A World Out Of Time
Both words in Eternal Tapestry's name say something about their music, but it's the first that's key. This Portland band's expansive psych rock sounds like it could go on forever, and most of their releases have in fact been culled from longer, open-ended improvisations. The way they slowly build these jams-- adding parts, increasing volume, and cresting in unison-- you get the feeling they're always playing, and their records are just glimpses of an endless stream.For A World Out of Time, Etern…
Wild Songs
2012 release ** "Estasy is the project of Emiliano Maggi, an Italian singer/songwriter who has spent the last couple of years releasing low-key CD-Rs and collaborating with artists and filmmakers in Rome. A lot of the time his live performances with other artists, well-documented on YouTube, are set to spooky visuals, and in those that aren't Maggi wears quite frightening masks. Sure, quite a bit of that does sound like the sort of standard gimmickry rife in 2012, but there's something about Emi…