New Arrivals
Horribles Parade
Gary War's thick synth-heavy psychedelia occupies a space between spacey bedroom experimentalists like R. Stevie Moore or the more contemporary Kurt Vile & the abrasive proto-punk of Chrome & Debris. This album expands on the more stripped down sounds of his "Zontag" single, plying layers of warm fuzz & feedback on top of psychedelic pop song structures.
The Effective Disconnect
From Brian McBride: When George and Myriam approached me to compose for their film they suggested I concentrate on four different themes: the gloriousness of the bees, the endurance and hardships of traditional beekeepers, pesticides and the holistic nature of non-industrial agriculture. I was especially intrigued with the idea of combining some of their mournful aspirations with something more serene. Composing began in May of 2009. I had decided to start fresh not using anything that I …
Midden
Suum Cuique (pronouned Soom Kwi-Kwe, Latin for "To Each His Own") follows the remit of Young Americans to explore uncharted, experimental, and personal synthscapes, guided by the hand of intuition with an entirely analogue array of machines. In 'Lithic Reduction' concrète textures grind like a millstone to release powdery clouds of analog dust, settling only to be dispersed by gusts of blackened distortion, whereas 'Red Binary' is distinctly electronic, revolving around muted radar bleeps…
III
Picking up the threads with ease, Espers III was intended to be an aural reversal of the layered sound of II. The goal was to record fewer tracks in order to achieve a stronger, more oxygenated sonic presence. Where II was almost claustrophobic in its density and darkness, III was envisaged as being somehow lighter, effervescent; perhaps even of a cheery disposition at times (whoa there! Don't go not breaking our heart, Espers). Under these auspices, recording started in late 2008 and spi…
Third Mouth
British avant pop artist Alexander Tucker releases his much anticipated new album, Third Mouth, on Thrill Jockey in 2012. This album builds on the strengths revealed by his landmark debut for the label, Dorwytch released in April 2011, culminating in his finest work to date. Using songs written over a 12 month period he achieves his own inimitable blend of psych rock and ambient pop using a variety of studio crafted effects, rudimentary beats, guitar and bass, as well as synth and cello drone…
No Earthly Man
Updating canonical Scottish folk tunes is a rather unfashionable niche, placing these songs within the context of modern/alternative rock is an even tougher chore, but it's one that Scottish neo-traditionalist Alasdair Roberts approaches with pluck and somber intensity. Previously with the band Appendix Out, No Earthly Man is Roberts' third album as a solo artist and it is undoubtedly his most difficult to approach. His previous album, Farewell Sorrow, was a collection of joyful, filigreed songs…
Chew Your Food
The performance on this LP was recorded live at Roulette in New York last year. I have appreciated Knuffke's playing and music before, and I will do it again here. His tone is always full and warm, and he's a master at taking tough bends easily. The music is jazz in its purest sense : improvisational joy and emotional expressivity in a compact form. There is nothing but pulse in the pieces they play, even if the rhythms are not always explicit or when there are no patterns, the three musici…
s\\t
Great & rough Split-LP with both sides recorded 1996. Beast People (Dilloway, Harper, Young ?) with tracks pulled off very rare tapes. Schimpfluch side features collage of (previously unreleased) R&G studio material and Schimpfluch Group-Actions performed live. Highly recommended! Edition of 300 copies with cover-art & photography by Rudolf Eb.er.
Patience
LP version with free downloadable MP3s. Patience is both appropriate and inappropriate as a title for the latest release by The Dead C. Inappropriate because its been only two years since the last album, which in Dead C Time is but the flicker of a candle; appropriate since the key to enjoying the Dead C is willingness to sit down, listen and let the music take over your mind. With an unforgiving and intense four tracks, Patience will not be confused with the work of any other band.' label info
Irregularity/Homogeneity: Emerging from the Perturbation Field
one-sided lp of recordings from the installation of the same name (from a series of works, started in 1991, using fluorescent lamps). Description: an irregular state, when it surrounds us, makes us unable to identify individual things, or to find any law of variations within it. We usually regard it as having no significant nature more than the specific nature from which emerges repetition. It seems homogeneous rather than heterogeneous because we feel it as a form of flatness without spec…
(Fake) The Facts
After the runaway success of the Akita/Gustafsson/O'Rourke LP One Bird Two Bird (DEMEGO 016LP), Swedish sax legend Mats Gustafsson returns to Editions Mego with another storming collaboration. Now a resident of Vienna, he teamed up with experimental artists dieb13 and Martin Siewert for a live and studio session. (Fake) The Facts is the result. A dense fog of sound comes from all directions, but whereas the general impetus is a full-on attack, the trio finds enough restraint to create a deepe…
Occupied With The Unspoke
Golden Retriever was started in 2008 by Jonathan Sielaff and Matt Carlson whose paths first crossed in the early 00’s when Sielaff and Carlson were in experimental pop bands that frequently worked together, Au and Parenthetical Girls respectively. Through collaboration, they developed a deep understanding of each other’s musical voice and sensibilities. After exchanging a few solo recordings, it became clear that they had remarkably similar aspirations for and theories on music, th…
Clear
Clear and Discovery were originally released as two companion CDRs by James Ferraro (of the whole Skaters / Lamborghini Crystal / 90120 / Splash / Nirvana axis) and comprise the August 1974 (Taj-Mahal Travellers) of his discography. Both albums contain absolutely beautiful whirling hall-of-knives-style synth drone that makes one want to reference Klaus Schulze or Bobby Beausoleil. Clear bursts with flam beats and a cluster of melodies muffled like a calliope wrapped in a soggy tarp, while Discov…
United World In Outer Space
Decades before his time, political and musical revolutionary, Sun Ra, developed a new plane of cultural existence where black people were all-powerful beings from outer space, sending their intergalactic message through jazz music. Recorded live in 1975 at Cleveland's legendary jazz club, the Smiling Dog Saloon, when Sun Ra and his Arkestra descended on the city for a week-long residency. You can imagine how the uninitiated's jaw must have dropped when Ra and his 15 musicians marched out onto th…
Versprochen
OUTSTANDING NEW ARRIVAL Vinyl Lp, edition of 300 copies. Three years after releasing his first solo record, 'Miniaturen' on his own label 'choose', Berlin-based Konrad Sprenger (aka Jörg Hiller) now releases 'Versprochen' on the Italian 'Schoolmap' label. As if coyly playing off the various connotations of the title, which could mean 'pledge', 'promise' or a 'slip of the tongue' in German, Sprenger delivers a more mature product. Rather than going for the short, abbrieviated, cut-off statements …
Human hips and saddle bags
'Human Skab was a 10-year old boy from Elma, Washington who played African music with buckets and spoons. Thunder Hips and Saddle Bags is a 1986 cassette recorded by young Travis Roberts with his neighborhood pals and siblings. It was injected into the underground network of tape traders, zine scribes, college DJs, and freak seekers who were universally bowled over by its bewildering and utterly poignant snapshot of the mid-1980s. Skab's music -- an orchestration of pots n' pans, three string gu…
The Inner Treaty
With the wake of his blessed collab with The Congos and his 'Ancient Romans' side still shimmering in our memory, Cameron Stallones returns from his mystic regressions to present a sixth solo LP as Sun Araw. With his return comes a startlingly fresh-faced clarity to his sound, as though millenia of metaphysical sonic travel have dislodged the overbuild of dusty amp wax and really let some cosmic sunshine thru. It's perhaps also down to some assistance in the final process from Pete Kember…
Bermuda Drain
This eagerly awaited new LP from Prurient begins with a blood-curdling scream - but thereafter all expectations are defied. If like us you've always been fascinated by the more reflective, electronic side of Dominick Fernow's catalogue - thus far restricted to the odd album track, his work with Cold Cave and a couple of choice side projects - then all your Christmases have come at once. Reportedly inspired by long drives around mainland Europe listening to minimal techno, Bermuda Drain pu…
Ask me no questions
"Her first classic album originally released in 1969 on John Peel's legendary Dandelion Records. A wholly acoustic, almost wholly solo folk affair like a female Nick Drake or Nico recording a folk album. A calm, beautiful and somewhat melancholic batch of songs sung in that sunny low register always associated with Bridget make up this beautiful but criminally forgotten debut album. John Martyn adds second guitar and backing vocals while John Peel serves as producer. A magnificent sound p…
Man Leaving Harbour On a Ship (In a Room)
** Private edition, only a handful available. ** Man Leaving Harbour On a Ship (In a Room) is the title of a sound installation (for record player, vinyl record, speakers, found photograph, steel wires) by Vittorio Santoro to be presented in June 2010 at La BF15 Contemporary Art Space in Lyon. For the art installation of this sound piece, side A of the LP record (titled 'Commencement') is played over and over for a whole day. The organizers will take care that the side B (titled 'Conclusion') is…