New Arrivals
Red Planet
Red Planet establishes Arborea's complex synthesis of acoustic folk and minimalist drone right out of the gate. From the opening motif of the acoustic guitar lament "The Fossil Sea", Red Planet conjures a panoramic aura, like a lost outtake from Ry Cooder's Paris, Texas soundtrack. As that echoes its way into "Black is the Colour", an eerie and utterly transcendent take on the traditional tune, it becomes mesmerizingly clear how the soft confluence of texture, sound and style meld to create the …
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…
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…
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…
BloodLinks + SacredPlaces
Poet Laureate of East St. Louis+founder/editor of internationally acclaimed journal "Drum Voices Revue". Principal architect of black cultural arts movement of the 60s, teacher & acclaimed writer of countless volumes of poetry, Redmond has been called "the preacher of poetic rhythm" by Maya Angelou, "a carver of high song magic" by Quincy Troupe & "a worker & healer" by Ishmael Reed. On this spirited, funky, streetwise collection of 12 vintage cuts recorded live in the studio in Sacramento in 19…
Other Planes of There
Other Planes of There (1964) presents Sun Ra (piano) and his Solar Arkestra once again pushing the boundaries on five Ra originals. The exceedingly experimental works are marked by the performers as much as they are by the compositions. The opening title track is an expansive suite of sounds adhering only to the boundless limits of the combo's sonic canvas. Each soloist is given ample room to propel the piece between the inspired Arkestra interjections, which in turn clears the way for the next …
Hustler Power Electronics Convention
You must live in tokyo to be able to follow the immense output of the soundburrier that is Masaya Nakahara, aka Violent Onsen Geisha, most of his work doesn't make it out of Satou Dan's Tatsunoya bar in Shinjuku, not because no one wants it, just because the tokyo noise scene seems to gather there late at night to forefil their pork anus - chicken paw needs, and Nakahara's last 40 cdr's were the ideal soundtracks for this ritual. the old skool dead pan electronics, plunderphonics, parodies, nois…
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.
Transmuteo
Transmuteo is the multimedia project of a mysterious New Orleans-based Atlantean being named Jonathan Dean. Transmuteo encompasses audio, video, digital art, site-specific installation art, radio broadcast, live performance, and experimental social networking.This is the debut full-length vinyl release by Transmuteo. The album takes the listener on an esoteric journey into holographic dimensions populated by ghostly signifiers of self-actualization and corporate success. Across two sidelong suit…
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 - - -
Against the Day
Since Sam Shalabi enjoyed his mini-breakout in 2004 with the Shalabi Effect's The Trial of St. Orange, the Montreal composer has explored the overlap between popular Western music and traditional Middle Eastern musics, particularly those from Egypt, the country from which Shalabi's parents hailed. These projects tend to be diffuse and ambitious: Shalabi works with dozens of musicians on long, brash drones, or plays meditative oud pieces in comfy theaters. Land of Kush, …
Lauschen
"Kluster (1969) metamorphosed into Cluster (1971) and Cluster became Qluster (2011). In a period spanning over 40 years, Hans-Joachim Roedelius was a driving force behind this unique transformation. Now, as Qluster, he has recorded together with Onnen Bock in the latest incarnation. Three albums already released document the current status of their musical journey to pastures new. Lauschen is not a studio album, but a live recording of a performance for which Roedelius and Bock invited world mus…
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
Concerning The Entrance Into Eternity
Beautiful new collaborative work from Jozef Van Wissem & Jim Jarmusch between Dutch lutenist Jozef Van Wissem and American filmmaker & guitarist Jim Jarmusch. Jarmusch's previous collaborations with Wissem have not prepared the eager listener for the expressivity and emotional depth of his playing on these duets. Respectful of one another's space the pair weave layers of melody and waves of feedback while acoustic guitar and lute wrap together with a subtle depth expemplifying an austere u…
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…
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…
Kiri No Oto
Lawrence English's epic masterpiece - finally available on vinyl for the first time. Strictly limited edition - Initial copies come on white vinyl* One of the most memorable and absorbing albums released by the wonderful Touch label in recent years, "Kiri No Oto" was first released by them on CD in 2008 and has spent much of the intervening time lodged in our minds as one of the finer drone/field recording albums to have been made this century. Kiri No Oto (a Japanese phrase meaning 'sound…
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, …
Ende Neu
Reissue of the 1996 album, originally released on Mute. The quintessential scientists of the post-avant-garde abstain from focusing on listener disintegration tactics as they did on prior albums, but opt instead to hone their craftmanship in new compositional areas. Dark, focused explosions, w/ theatrical strings & tightly-wound vocal structures.
Under Stellar Stream
For his latest album, UK avant-folk maverick Richard Youngs seems to be converging on some of the most assured and firm-footed vocal work of his career to date, fashioning rock-solid songs from typically leftfield instrumental tactics. On 'Broke Up By Night', Youngs sounds like a gnarled old folkie of almost Ewan MacColl proportions, albeit accompanied by organ drone and wispy electronics. It's a rather magical, mantra-like cadence he elicits, and the album springboards nicely from this point. S…