Rock /
Part One
To the Australian public at large, Spectrum will always be remembered for the 1971 #1 hit 'I'll Be Gone,' an enduring rock classic if ever there was one. As songwriter and Spectrum lynchpin Mike Rudd has put it: '''ll Be Gone' has had a marvelous life,' with indications that its potency will continue to rise. It still gets played on Australian 'Classic Hits' radio to this day. Spectrum still play the song at practically every gig with the enthusiastic, sing-a-long response of the audience inevit…
Nine For Victor
No-Neck Blues Band are one of those acts that if you like ‘em, you pretty much like everything they’re going to belch out. It’s free improv-pscyh-new-weird-America-jazz-whatever and like their brothers from another mother Sunburned Hand of the Man and Jackie O Motherf**ker they release way too much of it, but you can’t begrudge them that I suppose. I admit, I really have a soft spot for this kind of no-holds barred noisy abandon, and they do put in a sterling performance here; recorded for the ‘…
Scott 4
Despite being the first of his solo albums not to reach the British Top 10, Scott 4 was perhaps his best, and most ambitious album to date. Originally released in 1969, it is the first record to feature only Scott Walker originals. It is also the first to back off a bit from the heavily string laden production of past releases, allowing other sonic influences to shine through, from country to folk to soul. The lyrical content remains intense as Walker tackles everything from War to Stalinism to …
The Drift
The legendary singer-songwriter and one-time teen idol re-emerges with his first album in 11 years. Anyone expecting conventional rock or pop should look elsewhere, however, as it is even more challenging than previous release 'Tilt.'
Concerto delle menti
Pholas Dactylus have left, with Concerto delle Menti, a unique example of avantgarde prog containing only spoken lyrics that can be appealing to the most adventurous listeners even because the musical background is intense and mesmerising; the album contains a long suite divided onto the two sides of the record with no breaks, and even a rare single was released from it. The first representation of Concerto delle Menti came in the winter of 1972, in Cornate d'Adda. The group had a very good live…
Tre
Archimedes Badkar (Archimedes Bathtub) was a Swedish group formed by percussionist/pianist/composer Per Tjernberg that existed between 1972 -1980, recording four LPs (including a 2 LP set) that has since achieved cult status in several camps. World Music was not yet a household term, but for once that description seems perfect for what Archimedes Badkar must definitely be regarded as one of the pioneering bands. Several of the members had travelled and studied music in North and South India, Mor…
Glamour Girl 1941 + Pigface Chant
This CD collects the first Smegma long-player, Glamour Girl 1941, originally released on the LAFMS label in 1979, the Pigface Chant 7" released that same year and recorded five years earlier, and even adds in four bonus recordings from that same era. These early recordings of this long-running group of noise anarchists show an extremely primitive but non-conformist take on the musical world, even more so than, say, the Krautrock band Faust, as Smegma adds a messier element of chaos to its sound.…
Microcastle / Weird Era Cont.
LP version of Microcastle, with CD version of Weird Era Cont. included. Here it is, the highly anticipated follow-up to 2007's Cryptograms album, which launched the band into the stratosphere of hype. Whether or not that was or is deserved is entirely subjective. Microcastle was recorded over the course of a week at Rare Book Studios in Brooklyn, New York with Nicolas Verhes in April of this year. The album was recorded as a four-piece consisting of Bradford Cox, Lockett Pundt, Joshua Fauver, an…
The Spectrum Between
Six months in the making, The Spectrum Between reflects the changes brought on by David's relocation from Chicago, a home of ten years, to Crooklyn. No longer able to easily draw upon the musical associations built up over years spent in the midwest, David progressed slowly with the new material. Eventually, a worldwide pool of collaborators were drawn into the project -- including Noel Akchote, and others from the Rectangle records collective, Swedish reed sensation Mats Gustafsson, and the omn…
Rickets & Scurvy
Three albums into his solo adventure, David has clearly learned how to make records work as records, filling them start to finish with entertainment, moments, insight. Rickets & Scurvy is a very complete, start-to-finish kind of beast. The songs kick ass, rocking harder than David's songs have in ages. The process goes further as a result. Rickets & Scurvy's best moments are presented with disarming directness, an ability to plunge to great depth, with abandon.
Cryptograms / Fluorescent Grey
Deluxe gatefold vinyl version. This double album pairs the critically-acclaimed Cryptograms album with the all new Fluorescent Grey EP.
Smile
Upon reflection of the aftermath of releasing their most successful album to date, Pink, Boris has found the desire to create sounds that are a wider extension of just simply music. They are searching for sounds that are also an extension of life and the many experiences that they have had in the two years that have passed since the release of Pink. In their quest, Boris are drawing upon unconventional influences such as obscure hair metal, Japanese cartoon songs, and the '80s Japanese pop singe…
Reality
An acknowledged landmark of progressive acid rock, this 1968 classic combines top-notch songwriting with vicious guitar, swathes of mellotron and dense arrangements, to unique and unsettling effect. Sunbeam's long-awaited official reissue includes comprehensive liner notes, rare photographs and two bonus tracks, making it a must-have for lovers of true British psychedelia.
Dat Rosa Mel Apibus
White Magic is the songwriting and vocal lyricism of Mira Billotte engaged by the talented likes of 'Sleepy' Doug Shaw, Jim White (Dirty Three), Tim DeWit (Gang Gang Dance), Tim Barnes, Samara Lubelski, Shahzad Ismaily, Jesse Lee, Karen Leblanc and Brad Truax. White Magic's debut full length album Dat Rosa Mel Apibus is an elaborate evolution from the first release. It is a journey which sets forth into an untamed musical landscape, finding the familiar in unusual streams of new sound -- a new m…
Le Festival De Fleur Complet
Live at Le Festival De Fleur in Gotenba, Japan, April 8, 1975. ACTUAL CD - not a CDR. Semi-official release limited to 200 copies. Long out of print, only 1 copy available.
Are You Rallizesed?
New limited-edition double CD set from long-time archival Rallizes label Ignuitas. This one features a complete Rallizes show from Shizuoka Stupa in 1974 with Mizutani feeding his guitar to the fire with outrageous Star Spangled Banner-style leads while the rest of the group lay-down some of the most brain-freezing nod-out grooves of their entire career. There’s a great slack, elegaically-stoned feel to the playing and by the end of the show the whole group are obliviously destroyed. Recommended…
Letters From The Serth
This re-release of 1998's Letters From The Serth is a sequential follow-up to the monolithic double CD Letters From The Earth, as it was recorded exactly one year to the day later (Orthodox Easter, 1997), at the same location - on the roof of their building in Chinatown in the afternoon. It's only a single CD this time because as you'll hear at the end, it's starts raining. It features the regular No Neck Blues Band line-up, plus their newest member, the enigmatic Japanese dancer/icon, Michiko. …
Letters From The Earth
The No Neck Blues Band have been enjoying a surge in popularity of late, what with their incredible Qvaris album last year and now a collaboration with Embryo on the Staubgold label turning heads good and proper. This album was the band’s first foray into the digital realm and was released way back in 1998 on the influential Ser label. Unavailable for far too long, Very Friendly have seen sense in re-issuing it, and for many of us (me included) it is the first time we can get to hear it in un-ab…
Intonomancy
Yes, by God, here's another one. Rock root punch left in bloody piles of nutmeg dirt circus. Fuck the bleat. Fuck the beat. Fuck the entire fucking fleet. A return to the magnificence of spell-over-form. An end to spiel-necessity. Destructive formatting vanishes in a pfff of steam. Welcome to one future. For information on NNCK consult your local oracle.
Chemical Playschool
2xCD housed in a full color custom made book bound sleeve and printed inner sleeve. Chemical Playschool Volumes 8 and 9 documents the largely unseen universe of The Legendary Pink Dots between the years 1990 and 1995. History has been amended where necessary. The cast for this voyage: The Silverman, Niels Van Hoornblower, Edward Ka-Spel, Martijn de Kleer, Father Pastorius, Cevin Key, Elke Skelter, Raymond Steeg, Ryan Moore, Maria, a brass band and Calyxx.