New Arrivals
Throat
In view of the band's assertion that this is a program designed to be listened to in one sitting, it seems a little impertinent to discuss highlights. The seven tracks that make up "Throat" seem a little arbitrary in view of the overall discontinuity of the release, but in as much as this is music which has no time for a lot of preconceptions, that might be an inherent part of the band's intentions. The opening is where the Brotzmann reference comes into its own, but before the piece is o…
Live in Vilnius at Piano. lt
Recorded live in June of this year at PIANO.LT in Vilnius, Lithuania, this new limited edition LP on the NoBusiness label will surely please the fans of Charles Gayle, who has now completely switched to alto. Dominic Duval plays bass and Arkadijus Gotesmanas drums, the latter one having taken the initiative for this session that is dedicated to the late Rashied Ali with whom Gayle performed a lot."Hearts Cry", the long first piece has Gayle on alto, playing quite intensely around a limited tonal…
Live At The Accident!
"Crazy 3-way collaboration from some of America's best underground musicians. Charalambides' Tom Carter is joined by Shawn McMillen, sometime member of Warmer Milks and Ash Castles On The Ghost Coast, with the added power of Starving Weirdos. This two track collaboration has been around since 2007 and it landed in my mailbox a few months back, and man, it's a real beauty. Side A is a total hypnotic slice of ravaged drone, the four musicians seamlessly blend their own styles of underground bliss …
Four Spells
The debut LP from eccentric ambient-psych pair Sherri West and Taylor Clark was recorded at a self-described "mountain fortress" in California, despite the couple generally residing in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And like their disparate locations, the duo dabbles in varying forms of weirdness, from the amateurish, Deerhoof-esque racket of opener "I Am A Pony" to the dreamier blips and bleeps of songs like "Particles," which evoke a Hawaiian vacation as narrated by Rod Serling. LAVA CHILDREN strikes a uniq…
Decaying ships
The road is long, sweaty and tense when your shoes are made of metal and you have to walk through a labyrinth with a magnetic floor to reach a brown sea full of hungry lobsters. The ship is waiting though, and the tension is building up heavily with every spin of this record, heavy meditative aircraft static blurr slowing down your usual codeine rhythm! modular synth carpets at its nastiest! you'll be purring when you're on the actual boat.. thick like your mommy's wallet, yet sparse droning tha…
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…
Confrontations
Vinyl Edition of 750. Another crucial keystone in the occult arc de triomphe of Kansas City composer’s deepening discography! X-filed highway cover artwork designed by Dionysian visualist Tim Goodwillie.Kansas City’s Goblin king of neo-Giallo, brood-blooded dark fantasy soundtracking returns with his third official full-length, two years after the badass psychodrama of Prophecy of the Black Widow. The time betwixt was well spent, on tours (Europe twice, including the Mogwai-curated All To…
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…
Triangles
There's something almost religious about this Charlatan (Brad Rose) LP, its narrative arc swinging from light to dark and back again. From the opening chords of "Lime Beauty," we're awash in polarized-lens glinting twilight, fluorescent skies over the water. "Trace Blue Outlines" is trance-like and reflective, with long, arpeggiated figures chasing each other skyward in a fugue. Darkness creeps in around the edges of "Vodka Rocks," with almost post-rock moodiness bringing the side to a cl…
Direct Current
Again, ultralimet release on qbico, the original music was rec. @ the qbico u-nite XIII which took place @ Issue Project Room in NYC back in Feb. 2009. for sure the opening set by Atiba & Dave Nuss was one of the most original live set i had the pleasure to... see i remember talking with Dave, trying to set up this gig... he came out with this duo, saying that Atiba is the best well kept secret in the NYC... he spotted him playing in Harlem Clubs... nobody knows him, Andrew Barker or Steve... no…
Vadelma/Hawaii
Surprisingly good free jazz from this Finnish combo. Very organic sound, there's something unique about them. "One of the hottest shows of recent memory was seeing this burning-free ecstatic force in TAMPERE back in 2008. One of those nights where you just feel that you are beyond this planet's laws of nature and in a world you did not know existed. Now the other foot has dropped, and what seemed impossible now can be held on this beautiful LP. Side Vadelma recorded January 26 in Helsinki. Side…
Beyond Civilized and Primitive
he new solo album by American maverick trumpeter Peter Evans, titled after a thought provoking essay by philosopher Ran Prieur, NY trumpeter Peter Evans uses the studio as a compositional tool via overdubbing and looping to create epic virtual duos that push the trumpeter to the extreme. "Titled after a thought provoking essay by philosopher Ran Prieur, it is a heavyweight pressing and comes housed in hand screenprinted wrap around sleeves featuring the forceful brushwork of 15 year old artist O…
Warmth
Even though Warmth main man Steev Thompson still appears to be incommunicado, totally epic recordings continue to surface. Before Roxanne Jean Polise was officially over and Steev still lived in Chicago, he joined up with another then-Chicago resident Branden Diven of Quilts/American Grizzly Records. The jams that were created filled a couple of CD-Rs and the Warmth side of the split with Quintana Roo on Not Not Fun. This LP consists of a remixed and edited version of the original CD-R ru…
Music From The Impossible Salon
"For the past 25 years, New England's Idea Fire Company (IFCO) has positioned themselves at the frontline in the ageless battle for aesthetic purity. Founded by the enigmatic duo of Scott Foust (aka The Commander, aka The Last Great Man) and Karla Borecky, IFCO have built up a bulletproof discography, with each release refining the sound of its predecessor. They have been well served at home through their own Swill Radio imprint, and internationally, by Rund Um Den Watzmann, Entr'acte and…
Sete
First release for the italian duo (Alessandro De Zan, Riccardo Mazza), recorded and assembled during one year, giving as result the deepest sound ever. Beautiful and fresh vibes coming out from acoustic guitars, percussions, flutes, voices and birds' field recordings, in five fine composed tunes spacing between Amazzonia and Africa, flying on the wings of perfect bliss. This is going to be particularly appreciated from those who love '70s brazilian psych such as Lula Cortez, Zè Ramalho, Stenio M…
Piano Piano
Bureau B reissues Piano Piano by German keyboardist Hans-Joachim Roedelius, originally released in 1991 on the Italian label Materiali Sonori. In classical music, "pp" (piano piano = pianissimo) is a dynamic indication of particularly soft music. And Piano Piano is a very soft, quiet album. Roedelius assumes the role of a fairytale character with his piano music, transported to a strange, fantastical landscape where, filled with awe and amazement, he tries to get his bearings. What he see…
Built For Nothing
"Suburban Michigan is a breeding ground where every weirdo has a label, a band, and a handful of secret/under the radar collaborative projects. Here Graveyard's Ben Hall and Lambsbread's Zac Davis create a monolithic one-sider influenced by too many private press jazz records and abstract instrumentalism. Davis turns in his effect pedals for nothing; pure clean tones plucked up and down scales and bridges so uniquely that it is easy to confuse the guitar for a sax. Ben Hall drums like a man with…
Basement Recordings 1978-1982
A while ago one of the members of the youngest antwerp based free jazz band SHELDON SIEGEL (all 16 year olds..) visited me, I had just met them and he wanted to come by to get some records. We spoke about free jazz for a while, then he said the magical words "My dad use to play free jazz in the 70's as well".. I was like "ow, and if that was in antwerp, was it with WIM?", he said "Yes yes, he's on one of their tapes with Fred Van Hove, Ivo Van Der Borght etc". My heartbeat went a little faster, …
The Unrock Tapes
Repressed. After having released records on labels such as Locust, Drag City and John Fahey's Revenant, Richard Bishop's The Unrock Tapes contains eight complete tracks, six of which are highlights taken from earlier tour CD-Rs that were released on micro-editions years ago. They have never been available on vinyl. Two completely new and unreleased songs make this album even more special. Bishop's guitar-playing skills contain a variety of influences. They could arouse the absurd impression…
Of Mythic Worlds
Exact repro of this 1980 album, the second Sun Ra album to be released on Philly Jazz following Lanquidity. Undated live recording, not previously reissued on either LP or CD! "Sun Ra's music is equational. It is based on a system and philosophy as old as the most ancient of civilizations, and it points the way of the future as well. Music is not seen as merely entertainment. Ra has oftentimes mentioned the potentials of music to change the social order. In fact, the highlight of many of his per…