★Not Not Fun Records
On Patrol
THE WIRE'S BEST OF 2010! CD edition "If a tree falls in a forest and no one's around, shit still gets crushed. If Cameron Stallones holes up solo-style in a suburban cave and wah-riffs over canned bongos for five straight months, double LPs still …
The Crown Center
West coast ghost squad stalk back into the deadlights w/ a fresh vinyl single. Pure nightprowler music: quaking bass, grime-jazz keys, dusty drums, witch choirs floating through the smog & into sleeping homes w/ the power lines cut. The sound of c…
Mummy Fingers
T TRANCE's latest acid circus. This sparkling C30 slipslides through all his manic dual-keys modes (one hand mans the organ, the other dances up & down a wah-fucked Casio), accented w/ the occasional mushroom starchild sing-songing vocals. Ltd to …
Hyperion
Stuttery motorik drum machinations, Stereolab basslines, hypno keyboard spirals, melodic fogs that float up then dissipate, a pleasingly blurry production vibe.
Ascension
Following a slew of small-scale tape and CD-R releases, High Wolf release a five-track official debut album for Not Not Fun with mastering duties performed by Yellow Swan, Pete Swanson. Working with loops, trance-inducing effects fog and phantom …
Dream
This review for Wet Hair’s excellent debut full-length is dedicated to the late Barry Goldwater, five-term U.S. Senator. In 1984, Senator Goldwater wrote the Cable Franchise Policy and Communications Act, allowing local governments to require publ…
Platoon
Platoon marks the welcome return of Portland-dwelling psych explorers Magic Lantern, a band who count Sun Araw's Cameron Stallones amongst their number. Recorded and mixed by Best Coast member and Pocahaunted collaborator, Bobb Bruno, Platoon pe…
Bringin\' The Heat
Companion cassingle to the Smokin' 7 inch (NNF177) finds Ettinger out on his own, sans The Heat, but even without back-up he still brings it. "Bringin' The Heat" is a killer coast guard coda, searchlights fanning out, SWAT Team guitar licks, hypno…
Psychic
Like Yeah Yeah Yeahs undergoing a psychotic episode, or Pocahaunted possessed by the spirit of James Brown, Vibes present four tracks of discombobulated funk and wild, outsider punk on this four song long single. The early, chaotic free-associati…
S/T
All things must come to pass, if you love something set it free, it’s better to burn out than fade away, blah blah blah. No platitude can mask the permanent bummer of a favorite band breaking up in their prime, and such is the case with Iowa City’s m…
My Estrogeneration
Not Not Fun records are knocking out a vinyl compilation in celebration of the diversity of women artists currently working within the US underground. It's cleverly entitled 'My Estrogeneration' and features unreleased and/or rare tracks from Zola Je…
Psychic Reality/ LA Vampires
Restocked, few available "The first side of this fun split LP is from San Francisco's Leyna Noel, aka Psychic Reality, whose grit-spewing no-fi electronics and spluttering drum machine ditties accompany weird and heavily distorted songs. Noel may be …
Jailhouse Rock
"It's been a while since Scorces sorceress, Jandek collaborator, and Volcanic Tongue branch manager Heather Leigh has ventured out on vinyl under her own name. And it may be a while longer, as Jailhouse Rock is in fact a wax reissue of a long OOP 200…
Capricorn Born Again
Amanda from Pocahaunted joins Robedoor for this first full-length as Topaz Rags, and the album's a real winner, kicking off with 'Darker Sooner' sounding like a Portishead album recorded over the phone. Elsewhere, twisted blues and moaning, haunted h…
Labor Of Love
We're not complaining. Seems like a week can't go by without some new Not Not Fun opus dribbling out from the west coast label, aimed at bleeding our brains of logical thought processes and launching us into galaxies where laws are read backwards and…
Deceiving Illusion
Great album by this Detroit group. The songs range from sticky amoeba-like free ooze to stuff of some international album Folkways suppressed because it was too fucked up for public consumption. Pretty fantastic sleeve. 500 made.
Scales
*Orange Vinyl* Like a would-be soundtrack to some forgotten Wagnerian saga, Mythical Beast's debut full-length unleashes sonic elements akin to trudging minions in an epic struggle for tonal supremacy. This bloodless battle is for hearts and minds th…
Human Taste
Portland, OR-by-way-of-Michigan garage gang Little Claw first tripped our radar with their self-released Why Not 7 inch, which was/is raw and physical and swingin’ in all the ways you want a 7” to be. Their LA live shows proved even more ripping and …
Silver Sea Surfer School
More out-there song sculptures from Oakland resident Eva Saelens, this time with a little added clarity and decipherability: tracks like 'Shine On' really underline the strong compositional instincts lurking beneath the cassette recorder fizz. 'Alway…
Ring Mining
Ring Mining unites a psychedelic dream team comprising Brooklynites Heavy Winged and Portland's Inca Ore. On the first side its down to the epic fudge-filled grooves of Heavy Winged to dominate the horizon, blistering through their hallmark freeform …