★Drag City
Overloaded Ark
A sequel to last year's eponymous debut as a duo, this new Drag City LP from Espers cellist Helena Espvall and Ghost's Masaki Batoh delves even deeper into traditional and ancient musics, making use of an armoury of instruments that extends beyond 'mildly obscure' (renaissance harp, sho, hurdy gurdy, etc) and enters into the realm of 'are you sure you haven't just made that up?' (auschpfeife, crumhorn, cornamuse, rig and darbuka). On hand to assist in this piece of instrumental archeology is anc…
Luminous Night
CD edition: Luminous Night is the first set of new Six Organs Of Admittance material to leap forth from Ben Chasnys' cerebral cortex in 18 months, and what a joy it is. With the release of odds-and-sods collection RTZ earlier in the year there to bridge the gap between 2007s Shelter From The Ash it doesn't seem like he's been away for long per se but for serious Chasny-heads a new album is something to get pretty excited about and with his other musical outlet Comets On Fire either on extended h…
A Long Way Around To A Shortcut
Ever shrouded, serpentine by design, the legend of the Sic Alps has at last made its way to the gates of Drag City. The new, first-time-ever-on-vinyl 2xLP reissue of A Long Way Around To A Shortcut is somehow a 'greatest hits' of the golden not-quite-decade of Sic Alps. Well, not quite golden, either. Can gold be tarnished? Can it be done on purpose? If so, Sic Alps are artisans of the highest order -- for their music is the bright, surging sound of ye olde rock and roll radio (and the garages t…
How Bluegrass Music Destroyed My Life
2009 reprint, originally published in 2000. John Fahey is feared and revered around the world as a guitar player and composer. His inventions for acoustic and electric strings are the stuff of legend. Since he began recording in Maryland in the late 1950s, Mr. Fahey's access to the unknown tongue has been made manifest on over 30 albums, and his presence has unsettled audiences from here to Tasmania. He has served as a spiritual model for guitarists as disparate as Leo Kottke and Thurston Moore.…
School Of The Flower
Ben Chasny (COMETS ON FIRE) might beat you if you call his solo work folk music. Hypnotic, mesmerizing, full of rough edges & elliptical turns round & round. First studio record from the highly prolific Chasny, joined by free-jazz sensation CHRIS CORSANO on drums & absolutely no computers. Chasny says "I see my music as being much more from the underground class of '92 than this folk scene...it has the same rock to folk quotient as Zep 3...Rock is the new folk & folk fucked rock without the reac…
Shelter From The Ash
This feat. a most fluid combination of electric & acoustic styles. Feat. Elisa Ambrogio (MAGIK MARKERS), Tim Green (FUCKING CHAMPS) & Noel Harmonson (COMETS ON FIRE) & Matt Sweeney. Seeking change & a fresh killing field at all costs, this fords fronts both dark & blustery, lucent & lithe, mining electricity, hydrogen & other elemental forces within.
The Visitor
Breathing in, breathing out. Tide comes in, tide goes out. The sun rises and it also sets: beginnings and endings. These are the first impressions given by The Visitor: a build-up and break-down. One seamless, 38-minute piece of music that completely engages its listeners. An extremely thoughtful piece that even a year later, still retains all of the qualities it had upon first listen. This record made me realize the full potential music can have when someone who actually gives a damn does somet…
Fingerpainting
Released 1999 from Mayo Thompson & crew, this recording feat. unreleased songs from the distant days of 1966. The 90s RED KRAYOLA group then shuffles these ancient pre-Parable Red Crayola songs w/ the sounds of neo-freakouts, live on the world's stage - free, familiar & ugly, for new generations to come. Feat. both the latter day Krayola & the original Red Crayola, from 30 yrs back, bringing it all full circle & thus allowing another circle to be formed as soon as possible.
God Is Good
ground-breaking CD edition: God is Good is Om’s fourth studio album, and the first with new drummer Emil Amos (Amos made his first official recording with Om in the single “Gebel Barkal/Version” on Sub Pop last summer). It’s a big change, obviously, for a two-piece, and a fairly unqualified success. Amos, who also records with Grails, Holy Sons and Shrinebuilder, is far more flamboyant than Chris Hakius, less tethered to the steady chink of cymbals, more apt to range free-form over toms, rims an…
The Freak Of Araby
Strictly limited edition on vinyl: Listen through Sir Richard Bishop’s six readily available solo albums, and you get the picture that the worldview of the former Sun City Girls’ guitarist is not only complex, but also more than a little ambiguous. What exactly is Richard Bishop? A dealer in the exotic? A dabbler in esoteric mysticism? A “traveling salesman”? The Freak of Araby doesn’t make Bishop’s worldview any simpler for us, but it does clarify it some. He is, first and foremost, a traveler,…
Magnificence In The Memory
Early archival recordings: brand new release of never-before-heard material from the heyday of Ya Ho Wha 13, featuring the legendary Father Yod and his sons playing improvisational, psychedelic spirit music recorded in the wee hours of morning meditation. Father was a wealthy man, with a rich inner life, a family of disciples that loved him, many, many women and seemingly unlimited power. So why at the height of his success, did he choose to spend his time playing rock and roll? Having a band in…
Balf Quarry
LP version; printed innersleeve with lyrics. Before Balf Quarry landed on my desk, I figured the dirtiest thing in Connecticut was Chris Dodd's browser history. Not so. Among other things — like guitar tones that buzz around like contact-high June bugs, Elisa Ambrogio's slack vocals wavering between coy calls and willfully distant snarls, and a production value so low and dense you feel you're listening to them from the dining room above their rehearsal space — Hartford natives the Magik Markers…
Crookt, Crackt Or Fly
Crookt Crackt Or Fly is a 1994 album by Gastr del Sol released on Drag City. The album was written and performed by David Grubbs and Jim O'Rourke, with John McEntire (percussion), Steve Butters (percussion) and Gene Coleman (Bass Clarinet) also contributing. All tracks were recorded by Brian Paulson in October 1993 at King Size studios.
Camoufleur
This is the latest upgrade of the thing known as Gastr del Sol. And it's also their most musical album. Sometimes it's like an overstuffed musical armchair -- quite comfy, even when lumpy. The contribution of Markus Popp, whose style of digital scratching has made Oval an experimental household name, adds to the density and often provides an echo of Gastr past while the rest of Camoufleur paints the future.
For The Whole World To See
Classic proto-punk from 1970s Detroit. Raw with little polish, the record showcases the organic power relationships within the trio of brothers. The Hackneys were first influenced by soul & funk music but it all changed when they saw Iggy and the Stooges. Inspired by The Who, Alice Cooper & Led Zeppelin; the brothers finally see their first full length release, remastered & ready for the world to hear.
RTZ
Triple LP gatefold of long out of print and limited 4-track bedroom psych from the early years of Six Organs Of Admittance.
Hoffman Estates
A large ensemble improv album, featuring Ken Vandermark, Rob Mazurek, Kevin Drumm, Rick Rizzo, Darin Gray, etc. O'Rourke decided to pair up Loren with Alan Licht. A full day of improvising was recorded, selected, and then arrangements were later added by O'Rourke in a sort of Gil Evans/Miles Davis move, or more appropriately Teo Maceo meets Mazza-Licht. Organized like a continuum of music that brings new meaning to 'suite' (or at the very least, a flexible new spelling), the record is at once a …
The Thicket
David Grubbs' first pop proper solo LP. There's a proud equilibrium to The Thicket. The arrangements are consistent (and consistently colorful) throughout the record. When you first hear a banjo or a trumpet or a Tony Conrad, you can bet your bottom dollar that you'll hear it again. Thus, the record is purged of exoticisms. The Thicket is many things, and elusive is not among them. It's a straight-40-to-the-head album of pop sonic lucidity.
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.