New Arrivals
Lifetime Of Romance
LP version. "Heartland synthesist Dylan Ettinger follows up 2010's widely lauded New Age Outlaws imaginary cyber-soundtrack with a stark, dark, and intensely different collection of misshapen new wave weirdnesses, Lifetime Of Romance. Recorded at a proper studio, and written over the course of a year, the seven songs of Romance reflect a heavy influence from the fringier strains of bummed out quasi-industrial synth-pop in the vein of Fad Gadget, certain Cabaret Voltaire, early Human League,…
Stone/Water
With any sizeable Brötzmann group, the temptation is always there to compare it to his classic Machine Gun unit. This new tentet doesn’t match up to the unbridled ferocity of that earlier grouping, but then what has? Perhaps the greatest sea change since the heavy-drinking glory days of 1968 is that ecstatic playing is now as much an idiom as an instinctive response. For all its supposed iconoclastic freedom, this idiom now has its own traditions, its own heroes, and its own stock cliches. Youth…
The outer darkness
"Our third volume of Sun Ra spoken word opens with a rare space story that I discovered on an unmarked five inch reel of tape. When I played the recording, I discovered an incredible story recited by an unknown artist, with Sun Ra going beyond the call of duty on keyboard. Included are two complete lengthy performances from this 1967 session.... The group recitation, 'The Outer Darkness,' is a reworking of the poem 'I Seek A Better World' originally recited by Ray Stubbs on the first volume.... …
Bunny
Simon Scott produced one of the best records of 2009 with Navigare, an album whose shoegaze dronemusic was dotted with radioluminescent dream-pop numbers. It was hardly a surprise to us when we learned that he was the drummer of Slowdive way back when. Since then, Scott has produced a single for Immune and a collaboration with Jasper TX, both equally fantastic. For his second proper record, Scott makes a slight detour; but one that is well suited to everything else that's been released by…
Plague Of Fantasies
Brand new solo material from Aidan Baker, one of the most prolific musicians recording at the moment, Aidan creates such a wide array of musical sound its hard to keep track, not only does he perform as part of the fantastic Nadja, as well as in projects such as ARC, and collaborating with other luminaries such as Tim Hecker, he releases a whole host of solo material. This new solo record is really something, pulling together all the genres he works in, fusing heavy drones, with broken drums bea…
When California Falls Into the Sea
The product of more than a year's work, finds Caminiti shifting away from the evocation of the land elements and towards the urban- the coarseness of blood on the streets and people living in squalor juxtaposed with beautiful, fleeting moments like sun reflecting off of glass buildings into dingy puddles- to produce a dialogue where guitars float through the air weightlessly, weaving around each other like butterflies and other moments that are more solitary, monolithic excursions into the night…
Inventions
Sandy Bull's 1965 LP Inventions remains one of those legendary albums that almost no one has heard. Its impact, however, can be scene in the title of this new compilation spotlighting a great unsung hero of "psychedelic folk." "Blend," the 22-minute opus from 1963 that opens this disc, surely fits that designation, perfectly blending folk, jazz, and Indian influences into what Bull called "new guitar raga." An eclectic virtuoso who switched from acoustic guitar to banjo to Stratocaster to oud (m…
Coil Sea
The idea for the Coil Sea record came about after Arbouretum had finished our Summer 2009 European tour. The band had some time off, and I thought it would be interesting to put a session together consisting of musicians that I knew and had played with, but hadn't all played with each other. The goal was to create improvised music without much in the way of set ideas or editorial input from my end, and to hope that we could, over the course of the session, become comfortable enough playing…
Barbecue Bob in Fishtown
Guitarist /composer Glenn Jones claims a lengthy and rich relationship to what his longtime friend John Fahey so famously dubbed "American Primitive Guitar". Aside from being seduced by punk in its latter-70's heyday and brandishing the electric for a large portion of his career (including 20 years as a founding member of post-rock instrumentalists Cul de Sac), it was the acoustic steel-string and the seemingly multi-directional genres born from Fahey's homespun Takoma imprint that informed much…
Le viandier de taillevent
for almost 10 years, the québécois collective napalm jazz gets its hands dirty with its unorthodox approaches to improv.' 'mostly activ as a duo with erick d'orion and philémon they like to get different guests like for example a_dontigny, arnaud rivière, erikm or erik minkkinen. limited to 181 copies and coproduced with notype from montréal." (label info)
Atlantis
One of the key but underappreciated episodes in avant-garde jazz, Sun Ra's Atlantis sounds far out even today. Rather than a full-on assault on the senses, Atlantis is an exercise in build-up, with long, almost forlorn passages of Ra on electric keyboards setting a vast echo chamber for his Arkestra to spring forth within. Captured during one of the most adventurous periods for Sun Ra, *Atlantis* features the orchestral perfection of the best big bands of the century-and then proceeds towards mu…
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…
Caesarean
As Concern, Gordon Ashworth has explored drone music through an inspection of the textural components of acoustic instruments and recording processes. On Cæsarean the palette presented is a singularly precise one. Using simple sources (piano, clarinet, banjo, shrutti box, and acoustic guitar), tape processing (1/4” and cassette), and reverberation, Ashworth crafts delicate tape music through transforming repetitions and obscured fidelity. The emotional and physical presence of Cæsarean is over…
Endless Falls
Endless Falls is the fifth full length release by Scott Morgan under the loscil moniker. The album begins and ends with the sound of rain recorded by Scott in his back yard, precipitation being a constant presence in his home city of Vancouver. Many of the other sounds on the album are derived from these same recordings, processed and combined with other harmonic sounds to create the textures and drones. Something completely new to this release would be vocals, of a sort, a first for any loscil …
Open Casket
romantic low-fi death rock creepers from prolific Providence showman/illustrator/film-maker Carlos Gonzalez. Some of his catchiest tunes yet. To be listened at night on headphones. Reminds me of morbid childhood, the thing in the mirror, the AM rock n roll station and it’s chintzy announcers, hair collectors and men in heels - - #1 pop hit of the year - - -
Outdoor Spell
Rhys Chatham has trail-blazed a course through late 20th century music, equally aplomb in post-minimalist composition as he is in punk. Not since Roebling laid his span across the East River has there been an artist who builds bridges in both how we hear music and how we can appreciate art. His latest album, Outdoor Spell, is a further document in that direction. Here has has eschewed 100 guitars, or even himself playing a single guitar, for the trumpet and voice, both electrified and dry. It is…
Picture Disc
What's been described as a trumpet player trapped in a two dimensional universe is in fact the unique work of Justice Yeldham (aka Lucas Abela), a maverick musician with an unhealthy obsession with sheets of broken glass. In his infamous show that has astonished and bemused countless people in over 40 countries, yeldham ecstatically purses his lips against sheets of amplified glass whilst deftly employing various vocal techniques ranging from throat singing to raspberries, turning discarde…
New Age Outlaws
New York City, 2069. A new form of crime has evolved. Only one hard-as-nails ex-cop has what it takes to get to the bottom of their plot and stop the new age outlaws from finding the alien artifact and destroying earth as we know it." Back in March this year, NNF released the original version of this album on cassette, but it's maker, Dylan Ettinger, has returned to the master tapes in order to "further articulate the new age sci-fi ambient drift jazz vision of those pieces into something…
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…
Pressure
just wild and free. virginia genta (golden jooklo age, etc.) on tenor saxophone and andrew barker exploding drums. paste-on cover art. edition of only 115 numbered copies.