New Arrivals
the website has changed some - any of these new releases can be ordered by simply emailing us to see if the item is in stock, and then we will send you a paypal invoice for them. i have changed the new release section to reflect the limited availibility of many of the items we receive - things we will carry for longer will be added into the main catalog of items. thank you!!
Harmonic 313 Dirtbox EP on Warp $8.99
NEW GRANADA - Energy Shortage lp with download card $10.99
big article in last week's metro times on this great local band.
Xiu Xiu vs. Grouper cd on States Rights called Creepshow $9.99
Jamie Stewart (XIU XIU) enlisted masterful manipulators of ethereal noise Grouper (Portland's RLIeZc HorAdRsRIS) in a collaboration exploring both artists' subtle sides. The resulting EP is an ambient exploration into the power of silence & restraint. The results are breathtaking
Big Takeover Issue #63 $5.99
Cover feat. on DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE. Other feats. on JOHNNY ROTTEN Pt. 2, FLEET FOXES, SPIRITUALIZED, SLOAN, FEELIES, DEVO, ZOMBIES, &
so much more.
Bitch Issue #42 $5.95
Feminist response to pop culture. The Noir Issue: Gothic Gals, vengeful victims, & feisty femmes fatales
Black Moth Super Rainbow lp Drippers on Graveface $12.99
vinyl version
Crow Tongue/Language of Light -Split 7" Anticlock $7.99
Limited to 500! Crow Tongue finally comes to vinyl accompanied by frEietnhdesd, rLoanneguage of Light. Marbled vinyl - no two are alike. Crow Tongue bring the drum n' drone for "Wind Chant" while Language of Light's drone-folk piece, "The Tower," graces their side. The first in a planned series of Crow Tongue split eps released by various labels
Department Of Eagles In Ear Park $27.99
really expensive vinyl on 4AD.........but i bet it sounds great!
Dreamend lp Long Forgotten Friend on Graveface $24.99
Vinyl gatefold version contains 4 extra songs! It's a crazy pop-up book inside!!
Final cd Dead Air on Utech $16.99
JUSTIN K BROADRICK (JESU) is an iconoclast, a destroyer. Whether by scourge or more subtle measure he is unafraid to loose the blood of infidels. This is the apotheosized nomad. Shifting, flowing, ascending. Dead Air takes hold & abducts the last of your breath w/cruel ceremony. The most solemn Final recording to date
Illa J lp Yancey Boys on Delicious Vinyl $19.99
Produced by JAY DEE (aka J DILLA). Due to high demand, the standard vocal version of 'Yancey Boys' is now released as an INSTRUMENTAL album to satisfy the thirst of Jay Dee fans out there! JOHN "ILLA J" YANCEY, younger brother of the late, great genius producer JAMES YANCEY (aka Jay Dee, J Dilla), recently released his debut album. Rhyming & singing over a treasure trove of previously untouched Jay Dee gems, the project represents both a full-on collaboration & a whole new beginning in the story of the Yancey Bros
Mystery Girls cd Incontinopia on In the Red $15.99
Green Bay, WI act were mere teenagers when they started out. Now in their '20s, the boys (er, Girls) have delivered their most cohesive work yet on their 3rd album. It's unclear what the title translates to but it's a good bet that copious amounts of marijuana smoke were involved in choosing it. Their sound is rich, full, & earthy. Adding a dose of psych weirdness to their patented garage-punk-R&B sound has resulted in the band's finest moment. Raw-throated vocals have never sounded more powerful & the guitar dueling solos harken back to the MC5 & Yardbirds. This is great stuff that sounds immediately classic
Till The Old World's Blown Up & A New One Is cd on Mosz $16.99
...Created" From out of nowhere comes this very interesting collaboration between CHRISTIAN FENNESZ, WERNER DAFELDECKER (of Polwechsel) & MARTIN BRANDLMAYR (of Radian, Trapist, Kapital Band 1, etc) that has been 4 yrs in the making. Tools consist of electric & acoustic guitars, computer, double bass, tape delay, drums, percussion, vibes, piano. Moments similar to Talk Talk, GodspeedY!BE, Angelo Badalamenti, Fennesz, etc. Deep, moody & well done! Comes in 2xCD (CD full length + CDEP) jewel case w/ vellum booklet & traycard w/ silver print. NO RETURNS
White Rainbow cd Sky Drips Drifts on States Rights $10.99
This is the perfect music for right now, actually I think it's the perfect music for so many right nowRse,c bourtd esspecially the autumnal time of letting go & cozying in. Deeply tapping into some kind of squiggly lazers that guide the listener through deep ash-ra vibed echo-guitar guitar tryps & then moves on to a positive mantra of chanting voices, guitar strums, tabla grooves, phaser fuzz guitar, deep drones & stuff. In a style that most resembles his live shows, this is a focused but free 70 minute flowing jam that is divided into 5 sections
White Rainbow cd Zome on States Rights $10.99
ADAM FORKNER's first major release since his great [[[[VVRSSNN]]]] album. The music is sofRt, egcroowrdinsg, beautiful, patient, & breathing. Recorded w/members of LANDING
Lucky Dragons cd Sewing Circle on States Rights $10.99
Yacht cd Super Warren MMIV on States Rights $10.99
Yacht cd Our Friends in Hell on States Rights $10.99
Dinky: May Be Later CD $17.99
This is Dinky's third album and her first full-length release on Vakant, after the Move In EP (VA 020EP). Dinky has brought with her a welcome infusion of freshness and bloom to the otherwise dank locker room. May Be Later, like the artist, is the prototypical combination of beauty and brawn. Dinky's long journey began in her native Chile, growing up playing piano and experimenting with modern dance and choreography. As a teen, she listened to artists as diverse as Brian Eno to Prince, before finding electronic music from Plastikman, Aphex Twin, and Carl Craig in the mid-'90s. She made lifelong connections in the Santiago scene with Ricardo Villalobos, Dandy Jack, and Luciano, and was soon sharing stages with them. In the late '90s, Dinky moved from Santiago to New York City to join the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance and was also introduced to American house, the evolution of techno, and parties like Body and Soul, NASA raves, and Twilo. Soon, at 23 and armed only with an MPC 2000, her original productions began. Dancing during the day, she was making a name for herself as a DJ by night, eventually hosting regular underground parties with Magda until she was forced to leave the States for Berlin due to post-9/11 visa restrictions. With her new home came chart-topping productions, mega-club residencies, live performances, and international recognition. May Be Later bridges sound and mood from the summery and sublime to the dark and throbbing. While "Mars Cello" floats and warms, "Burdelia" chugs somewhere between Chicago and early NYC house. "Fade Me In" zips along with furious kink and dubious vox by Dinky's longtime friend Jorge González. "Seven 2 Seven," when aimed at 8am Berlin ravers, massive freakouts ensue. "She Is Moving" features minimal vocalist extraordinaire Big Bully, attaining a vital equilibrium of naughty and nice. The album closes with "Mind," an electronic fusion -- moving, looming, eerie, and reassuring. This album shows Alejandra Iglesias' development, exposing the paths, connections and influences that brought her here. The beach, NYC underground in all its flavors, Berlin, the stage, Detroit, electronic waves from all directions, Chicago, mega-clubs... it's all here and it's all her own.
Acid Mothers Gong: Uncon DVD $21.99
When the Acid Mothers Gong band manifested in 2003, it was yet another story in the evolving history of Gong, which started in 1968 in Paris. Daevid Allen had returned there after being refused entry to the UK for visa reasons when on the way to the Edinburgh Festival with Soft Machine, so he put his energy into Gong, which quickly came to the forefront of the avant garde. Paris was heating up for the revolution of workers and students against the government, and Daevid, with Gilli Smyth, had to flee as revolutionaries. They were in danger of being arrested for playing music to the students. After a disastrous trip to Morocco, they returned to Paris in 1969 to play at the Amougies Festival. They made several albums, and lived communally, which was an inspiration to that generation, and in 1971 Actuel magazine voted them the best alternative band in France. By l975, the band had moved to the UK and both Gilli Smyth and Daevid Allen had left to pursue solo careers with their own bands such as Mother Gong, New York Gong, Gong Maison, PlanetGong and eventually Acid Mothers Gong. As Steve Hillage said 'nobody ever left,' and the history of Gong has been ever-changing, like a river. Acid Mothers are a collection of improvising musicians with formidable technical skills and a philosophical stance that has placed them at the tip of the Japanese underground iceberg. With more than 100 CDs to their name, they have a massive cult following internationally and are well known for never having played the same song the same way twice! They were the perfect choice, allowing Gilli and Daevid to go where few have ventured. Daevid and Gilli recorded an album in Australia with Acid Mothers in 2003, toured Japan with them a couple of times, and played the set (which is now this DVD) at the 'Unconventional Gong Gathering' in Amsterdam in November 2006. The recordings from that event were mixed and mastered by Harry Williamson at Spring Studios in Melbourne, with assistance from Daevid Allen, and Harry also did the psychedelic video edit, and created special effects which complement the music perfectly. This DVD is of a magical combination of musicians coming together to push the boundaries of improvised music -- the line up is Daevid Allen, Kawabata Makoto, Gilli Smyth, Higashi Hiroshi, Yoshida Tatsuya and Atsushi Tsuyama with special guest Josh Pollock from the University of Errors." NTSC format, region free.
Raccoo-oo-oon: s/t 2LP $28.99
"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 most untamed civic treasure, feral-psych foursome Raccoo-oo-oon, who decided to dissolve this year after nearly half a decade of radical and galvanizing activity (tapes, tours, t-shirts, etc). Fortunately they're generous sorts, so their parting gift to the fans/haters/planet is a vicious, thorny wilderness of endless, nameless songs heaved across four fried sides of black vinyl. Crawl a mile in their shoes. As far as R.I.P. band statements go, this self-titled monster is tough to beat, by far the most ambitious slabs of sounds the RAC pack has ever put together. Doomed, desperate prog-rock flailings decay into hollow purgatories of dimly pulsing ambience, only to re-erupt into pissed percussion firestorms and experimental electricity. There are a few moments of Behold Secret Kingdom-style focus, but for the most part the mood remains raw and acidic, four souls on edge, backs to the crowd, channeling everything they have left inside. It's deconstruction time again. Nearly 80 minutes of music, mastered by Pete Swanson, housed in reinforced double LP jackets with 'Andy/Daren in repose' photo artwork, plus a pro-printed 11x11 insert. Edition of 500."
Doyle/Morris/Bakr: AlterknitLP $28.99
"One-sided LP, white vinyl, artwork by Jeff Koons, two cut corners. Recorded on August 9, 1997 in NYC. Arthur Doyle (tenor sax, recorder); Wilber Morris (bass); Rashid Bakr (drums). Doyle at his craziest with a mutant rhythm section, totally far-out and insane! Is this for glossy or sophisticated ears?! Stay away from this shit! Free punk, yo!" White vinyl.
Sylvian, David: When Loud CD $16.99
"When Loud Weather Buffeted Naoshima was commissioned by the Naoshima Fukutake Art Museum Foundation on the island of Naoshima, Japan as part of the Naoshima Standard 2 exhibition which ran from Oct 2006 to April 2007. The composition is site specific. In fact, Sylvian has said that the work isn't really complete until the sounds of the town Honmura are incorporated into the listening experience. For the Samadhisound release of When Loud Weather... Sylvian has incorporated some of the sounds of the island into the final mix. While this obviously doesn't compare to the experience of listening to the work in situ, it goes someway towards creating an echo of it. In the process, Sylvian's created a piece which might find new and interesting interpretations in a variety of unanticipated contexts. 'I attempted to create a work that increased the awareness of other dimensions of reality while complimenting, contrasting, and extending those physically at hand. A multiple exposure, a layering, mapping reference points both real and imagined. The "loud weather" referred to in the title is in reference to the emotional life of the island complemented by its spiritual ancestry and its influence on everyday life.' This idea of the superimposition of landscapes and of a multi-layered dimensionality came about due to the fact that the Chichu Art Museum, located on the island and owned by the Fukutake Foundation, is situated beneath ground level and housed in that structure are four of Monet's water lily paintings. The 20th century French landscape of Giverny as seen through Monet's eyes housed beneath the earth of a Japanese Island floating in the Seto Inland Sea. There's even an interpretation of Monet's garden, incorporating many of the plants he cherished, close to the entrance of the museum. This release will only be made available in a limited edition format (a DVD digipak beautifully designed by our own Chris Bigg with cover art by Sachiyo Tsurumi) for a limited time after which it will be deleted from the catalog. As the Foundation have decided to make the audio a part of the permanent collection on the island it will be there that the work will remain accessible once the Samadhisound edition is ended. The recording was performed by an ensemble of musicians: Clive Bell, Christian Fennesz, Arve Henriksen, Akira Rabelais, and David Sylvian."
Wendy & Bonnie: Genesis 2CD $29.99
New double CD version of this album, which upgrades the previous Sundazed CD edition from 2001 (SC 11089). "One of the most remarkable unheard albums of 1969, Genesis, the sole release by San Francisco-based sisters Wendy and Bonnie Flower, has emerged as an acclaimed pop-psych touchstone. Brimming with melodic confections and laced with radiant, sisterly harmonies, the set's breezy Brazilian splashes and soft-rock strains convey a sophistication that belies the artists' tender ages (Wendy, 17; Bonnie, 13). Produced for reissue by WFMU's Irwin Chusid (Raymond Scott, Esquivel, the Langley Schools Music Project) with Wendy & Bonnie's full participation, Sundazed's deluxe edition of this lost gem, on double CD and high-definition triple vinyl adds a wealth of early singles, newly discovered demos, and dramatically alternate vocal takes to the original release. A masterpiece of West Coast rock, Genesis will leave any sunshine pop lover positively beaming."
Wax Poetics #32 MAG $9.99
"On the covers, front: Sly Stone, back: Alton Ellis. Contents: Re:Discovery, In Memoriam, H.I.S.D., Jean Grae, Terry Lynn, Cey Adams, Large Professor, Egyptian Lover and Arabian Prince, Sly Stone, Jimmy Cliff, Ahmad Jamal, Korean B-boy, and Randy's Records. 112 pages, full color, high gloss, incredibly well done & essential. 32nd issue of this U.S.-based production."
Zeitkratzer/Haino: Elec.3 CD $17.99
Presenting a third volume of collaborative works between European avant garde ensemble Zeitkratzer and modern electronic composers. On this release, Zeitkratzer cooperates with legendary Japanese noise artist, Keiji Haino. The Berliner Zeitung had the following to say about this mind-melting collaboration: "They had only rehearsed for three days, but the result was mind-blowing. Haino made music on the guitar and on the drums, on electronic devices, on two Theremins and with his wonderfully changeable tenor; Zeitkratzer infolded him, pushed him away, embedded him in noise and carried him through the sound space like on atomizing waves. Only one thing did not exist: the reconciliation between the soloist and his ensemble, which would have denied the differences in traditions and styles; the greatness of the sound, the richness of his textures was a result purely of the contrast and its dynamic."
VA: Dutch Elec. V1 2CD $25.99
"The two-volume Anthology of Dutch Electronic Tape Music was originally released in the late 1970s on limited edition vinyl by the Donemus Composers' Voice label. Compiled by electronica pioneer Dick Raaijmakers, the series offered an authoritative survey of electronic tape music composed in the Netherlands from 1955 to 1977. Those LPs are long out of print and highly sought by collectors. Basta has now reissued this historic series on CD. In 2004, Basta collaborated with NEAR (the Nederlands Elektro-Akoestisch Repertoirecentrum) and Donemus on Popular Electronics: Early Dutch Electronic Music from Philips Research Laboratories. This 4CD boxed set with seven booklets presented vintage tape music recorded from 1956 to 1963 by Dutch composers Dick Raaijmakers (aka Kid Baltan), Tom Dissevelt, and Henk Badings. In Holland, as in other countries, electronic music produced up to 1966 was often prepared for concerts. After 1966, electronic music expanded as advanced computer technology was developed, live electronic music received more attention, electronic music was accorded a place in conservatory and university curricula, and private studios were set up by and for groups of improvising musicians. Therefore 1966-1967, a pivotal period in the history of Dutch electronic music, marks the dividing line of these collections. Volume 1 includes tape music from 1955 to 1966, and Volume 2 documents tape music from the 'open studios' from 1966 to 1977. The new Anthology reissues were compiled from the original source tape recordings, which have been well-preserved and meticulously remastered. The packages (each contains two CDs) include the original liner notes from the Composers' Voice releases, including an extensive historical overview by Raaijmakers. These releases launch a series of new anthologies spotlighting electro-acoustic music composed and recorded in the Netherlands during this seminal era. Electronic musicians have been intensely active in the Netherlands since 1955, and the variety of this activity is reflected in the large number of studios devoted to electronic music. Anthology Vol. 1 illustrates both the work of legendary studios and of individual composers -- the latter represented by their earliest and most characteristic pieces. The majority of the works are exercises and étude-style compositions." Artists include Hans Kox, Ton de Leeuw, Jan Boerman, Jaap Spek, Rudolf Escher, Henk Badings, Dick Raaijmakers, Ton de Leeuw, Frits Weiland, Tom Dissevelt, Axel Meijer, Robbert Jan de Neeve, Peter Schat, Ton Bruynèl, Bilthoven, Will Eisma, Klaus Gorter, Luctor Ponse and Berend Giltay.
VA: Dutch Elec. V2 2CD $25.99
"This second volume of the Anthology of Electronic Tape Music contains works composed after 1966, when electronic music broadened its horizons and established links with other disciplines, as studios opened their portals to influences and involvement from outside. Although electronic music after 1966 became very fragmented and took many new forms in Holland, Volume 2 of the Anthology aims to provide an overall survey of pure tape music. Other movements, such as computer music, and their links with each other are discussed in the liner notes. We have attempted to offer groundbreaking and influential works as well as first electronic works by pioneering composers. Volume 2 presents composers not represented on Volume 1." Jacob Cats, Tera de Marez Oyens, Jos Kunst, Gilius van Bergeijk, Frans van Doorn, Thomas Arras, Simeon ten Holt, Victor Wentink, Louis Andriessen, Peter Smith and Tony van Campen.
GREEN fm3: Buddha Machine I $25.99
brought in a copy of the first version of the buddha box!!! in a nice shade of green!
BURG fm3: Buddha Machine II $25.99
bergundy buddha 2
GREY fm3: Buddha Machine II $25.99
grey buddha 2 - it's got pitch control!!
Benge: 20 Systems CD/BOOK $28.99
cv313: Subtraktive 12" $12.99
Finally, cv313's "Subtraktive," culled from London's Smallfish limited 3" CD release (going for hundreds on eBay), available on colored wax, remastered by Echospace and limited to a mere 500 copies. "Subtraktive" is a 16-minute ambient and deep techno voyage which builds into a lo-fi sonic symphony. Phase90's unreleased mix of Intrusion's killer is a refined Detroit techno monster which, in its original form, found steady rotation from Juan Atkins, Mike Huckaby, Laurent Garnier and many others. Do not miss this
Angel: Hedonism CD $17.99
This is technically the fourth release by Angel, but is in actuality the first recording produced by Dirk Dresselhaus and Ilpo Väsiänen as a duo -- a project which started in 1999. Five years in the making and started before Hildur Guðnadóttir joined forces, Hedonism is a collision of urban and rural settings. The opening five blistering tracks retain a full-on sci-fi punk feel, created in Dirk's Berlin studio. Tracks such as "Holding Loose" and "Adrenaline Strike" are brutal urban mantras bristling with energy. These are followed by electro-acoustic exercises manipulating various concrete sources, leading up to the final two pieces recorded at Ilpo's lakeside cottage in the wilds of northern Finland. Here, fragile field recordings of insects, fish eating mosquitos, and birds mesh with the duo's shiny electronics to create the massive "Mirrorworld." The closing "Hornet," while stating a calm atmosphere, has a somewhat startling surprise in store for the listener.
Cope, J: Preaching Rev 7" $7.99
"Preaching Revolution is a Julian Cope 7" EP containing four brand new songs as a companion to his new album, Black Sheep. Replete with sounds from Cope's familiar mellotron, massed acoustic guitars and orchestral percussion, the four songs deal with the current world problems of failing capitalism and cultural upheaval. The lead track, 'Mother, Where is My Father?' is a cover of protest singer David Peel's anti-Vietnam anthem, here rewritten from the point of view of a young man with close relatives fighting out in the Middle East; while 'I Wanna Know What's In It For Me' compares the lot of two young Brummie guys -- one white, one Asian -- and their different cultural expectations. The other songs, 'Fuck Me USA' and 'Preaching Revolution,' also explore the helplessness that many people feel in today's global village culture, as decisions are made for them by grey suits and patriarchs who can never hope to understand what everyday life is about."
Human Greed: Black Hill CD $17.99
This is the third release from the UK's finest exponents of melancholic experimentalism, Human Greed. In addition to the band's core membership of founder Michael Begg and his main collaborator Deryk Thomas, Black Hill: Midnight At The Blighted Star features well-poised contributions from special guests Julia Kent (Antony & the Johnsons, Blind Cave Salamander), Fabrizio Palumbo (Larsen, Blind Cave Salamander), David Tibet (Current 93) and Clodagh Simonds (Fovea Hex, Mellow Candle). Although in many ways far gentler than previous Human Greed albums, Black Hill packs a significant punch. Part nightmare train journey to a bruised and foreboding underworld, part voyage beyond the alluring tails of shooting stars to an aching void of longing, this album may prove to be the band's sullen masterpiece. Processed electronics, treated acoustic and electric instruments and numerous field recordings are eloquently arranged to present a composition as satisfying in its formal arrangement as it is breathtaking in its emotional impact. Although possessed with a very individual sound, Human Greed's sounding notes may draw comparisons to the timeless, stretched melancholia of Stars Of The Lid, Black Light District-era Coil, Nurse With Wound's less whimsical moments, William Basinski's evocations of lost time and romantic despair and even Brian Eno's ambient work. None of this, of course, accounts for the ever-present, unsettling air of cruelty and, occasionally, latent violence, that adds a singularly dark note to their work.
Sin Fang Bous: Clangour LP $16.99
LP version, gatefold sleeve. This is the debut release by Reykjavik's Sindri Mar Sigfusson (Seabear) as Sin Fang Bous. Clangour is an album and a project that was a total surprise to Morr Music and to himself. Gravitational processes, drifts, accumulations, miniatures, a voice, a guitar, changing textures and re-colored leaves -- these are pocket symphonies in the vein of Brian Wilson. Songs, sounds and samples are crystal-clear and yet able to raise a storm. For example, "Advent In Ives Garden" is a greenhouse paradise of melody miniatures and sound pieces, and "Catch The Light" showcases Sindri's voice in choir-form. In this project there is a direct, intuitive sound that recalls Seabear, but that also embraces a pop naivety without embarrassment. Electronic squiggles, rallying percussion and a mishmash of guitars and vocals, this is a euphoric release in the spirit of Animal Collective, Caribou or Panda Bear, all wrapped up with a charming homemade pop bow.
Oliveros, P: Four ElectronicCD $16.99
Sub Rosa presents Pauline Oliveros' early and definitive tape and electronic music of the late fifties and sixties -- all released for the first time ever! Born in Texas in 1932, Pauline Oliveros is more than ever an important American composer. Her accomplishments speak to an array of disciplines: her pieces for accordion; the creation of the Deep Listening Institute, a center dedicated to fostering artistic creativity through workshops, performances, and new technologies; her approach to improvisation in relation to meditation; and her numerous and varied collaborations with, among others, John Cage, Morton Subotnick, Terry Riley, Sonic Youth, Erold and Andrew Deutsch. Each piece on this release exemplifies her systematic exploration of electronic sounds, which was fundamental to this period. "Mnemonics" prefigures her meditative and breathing pieces. "V of IV" structures sound as noise. "Time Perspectives" is among her first variations on silence. Finally, "Once Again" develops a wild energy that out-strips itself, a frenzy the likes of which is hard to find even to this day. As Oliveros explains, the detailed methodology behind her work offers a unique inquiry into the process of artistic invention itself. "My work with electronic music began in 1959. My first tape piece was an ambitious four channel work called 'Time Perspectives.' The piece was made by recording small sounds from objects resonated on a wooden wall and changing the tape speed. I used cardboard tubes as filters by inserting the mic into the tube and recording sources through the tubes. I used my bath tub as a reverberation chamber. Sections of the piece were improvised and then subjected to speed changes. When the San Francisco Tape Music Center was established together with Ramon Sender and Morton Subotnik there was a pool of equipment to use and I began to work with electronic sound. Rather than cut and splice small pieces of tape together to make a composition I chose to work in real time. I used two tape machines with the tape running across both machines to make a delay system. I used two or more oscillators at high frequencies to produce different tones. These tones would also interact with the bias frequencies of the tape recorders. I would play the oscillators into the tape recorders improvising my way through the piece. My system of composing in this manner was my own invention." --Pauline Oliveros
Fennesz: Black Sea LP $16.99
LP version; beautifully packaged with reversed Jon Wozencroft photography (compared to the CD edition) on the cover, and nicely printed innersleeves, etc. Feels luxurious. Tracklisting: A1. Black Sea; A2. Perfume For Winter; A3. Grey Scale; B1. Glide; B2. Glass Ceiling; B3. Saffron Revolution.
Kirkegaard, J:Labyrinthitis CD $16.99
This is Jacob Kirkegaard's third album for Touch, after Eldfjall (2005) and 4 Rooms (2006). Born in Denmark, now living and working in Germany, Labyrinthitis was commissioned by Medical Museion in Copenhagen, summer 2007, and was first presented at the international conference "Art and Biomedicine: Beyond the Body." Jacob Kirkegaard has turned his ears inwards: His new work Labyrinthitis is an interactive sound piece that consists entirely of sounds generated in the artist's auditory organs -- and will cause audible responses in those of the audience. Labyrinthitis relies on a principle employed both in medical science and musical practice: When two frequencies at a certain ratio are played into the ear, additional vibrations in the inner ear will produce a third frequency. This frequency is generated by the ear itself: a so-called "distortion product otoacoustic emission" (DPOAE), also referred to in musicology as "Tartini tone." By arranging the tones from his ears in a composition and playing them to an audience, the artist evokes further distortive effects in the ears of his listeners. At first, each new tone can only be perceived "intersubjectively": inside the head of each one in the audience. Kirkegaard artificially reproduces this tone and introduces it, "objectively," into his composition. When combined with another distorting frequency, it will create another tone -- until, step-by-step, a pattern of descending tonal structure emerges whose spiral form mirrors the composition of resonant spectra in the human cochlea. Paradoxical as it may sound: we can listen to our own ears. The human hearing organ -- still often perceived as a passive unidirectional medium -- does not only receive sounds from the outside, it also generates its own sound from within itself. As a matter of fact, it can even be "played on" just like an acoustic instrument.
SNOW/ALAN LICHT/AKI ONDA, MICHAEL: Five A's, Two C's, One D, One E, Two H's, Three I's... CD $16.99
Full title: Five A's, Two C's, One D, One E, Two H's, Three I's, One K, Three L's, One M, Three N's, Two O's, One S, One T, One W. Michael Snow (synthétiseur CAT, radio à ondes courtes, piano), Alan Licht (guitare électrique, électroniques), Aki Onda (cassettes, électroniques). "The Snow/Licht/Onda concert was proof that the most unconventional of instruments can be used to create imaginative soundscapes. Canadian pianist/electronic manipulator Michael Snow has led a life of diversity as a celebrated avant-garde filmmaker and improvising artist. New York-based guitarist Alan Licht has operated in a variety of musical spheres, influenced by everything from the minimalism of Steve Reich to no wave bands like Sonic Youth. Japanese-born, New York-based Aki Onda is an equally intrepid artist who, aside from composition, production and photography, uses a most unlikely instrument -- a cassette Walkman -- to create a personal view of music as texture and experience. The trio's hour-long performance, while not its first, found them still very much in exploratory territory, looking for ways to shape sounds ranging from spare and atmospheric to dense and industrial. While there was little relationship to the familiar, the set had its own form, even if suggestive of a relentless barrage of sound. Snow, at various points, put a portable radio up to a microphone, broadcasting whatever he happened to find, including a radio announcer discussing a festival taking place in Victoriaville. Like many other moments during this often intense spatial-temporal audioscape, serendipity reigned --the postmodern self-referentiality of the radio announcement being a prime example. But perhaps what made the set so interesting was, above all, the audience' awareness that many of the sounds being produced by Snow, Licht and Onda were as new to the artists as to the audience. Improvisation as texture, not as rhythm, melody or fixed form." --John Kelman, All About Jazz, Victoriaville May 18, 2007.
Sin Fang Bous: Advent 7" $7.99
Sindri Mar Sigfusson is a member of Seabear, and a musical think-tank. Sin Fang Bous, his new solo-project, is a playground for all of his ideas. On this 7", you'll find weird electronic snippets, feastful refrains, swirling pianos and hypertensioned drum computers. But be assured: this is no collage. Advent In Ives Garden is a euphoric release in the vein of Animal Collective, Caribou or Panda Bear. Highly charming.
fm3: Buddha Machine II $25.99
buddha boxes back in in these colors - Brown, Burgundy, Grey.
CRAIG & MORTIZ VON OSWALD, CARL: ReComposed 2LP $43.99
Surprising and impressive "classical mix" CD from Carl Cragi and Basic Channel's Moritz, issued by the label responsible by the original recordings: Deutsch Grammophone. Featuring original music by Maurice Ravel & Modest Mussorgsky. Only issued in Europe, this will not be issued by DG in the U.S. due to the longer copyright period that exists here. "ReComposed is the result of a gradual process, even the 'Intro' was set down at the very first session -- in Detroit, Michigan, which is and has been the center of the development of Afro-American techno music for about 20 years. And it was about 20 years ago that the recordings by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra of the works, which the two artists have used for their project, were released for the first time on CD. Moritz von Oswald told me that the commissioning company wanted them to use an historic recording by the Berlin Philharmonic under Herbert von Karajan's baton, but that he expressed the wish to use unmixed multi-track recordings in order to better employ the various instruments. Sure enough, recordings (with 16 separate tracks) of this nature existed, among them precisely the three works that Moritz von Oswald and Carl Craig, whom Moritz spontaneously invited to work on the project with him, wanted to use: Maurice Ravel's 'Bolero' and 'Rapsodieespagnole,' and Modest Mussorgsky's 'Pictures at an Exhibition' in Ravel's orchestration. After a first meeting in Moritz's home town, Berlin, where they listened to the original Deutsche Grammophon recordings from 1985, 1986 and 1987, Moritz set to work on the pre-production of various bits and pieces they had chosen, isolating certain instruments or groups of instruments, separating them out from various microphone-tracks, and mixing them anew. Then he took everything to Carl Craig in Detroit where the two musicians (both highly acclaimed techno innovators ever since the birth of the genre) sat down with their instruments -first and foremost a synthesizer, then old, analogue but, (as Carl Craig told me)legendary drum machines, and traditional percussion such as woodblocks and chime bells, even a double-bass -- and improvised a prelude during which sounds and patterns were created, reminiscent of Brian Eno's collaboration 30 years ago with the German electronic duo Cluster, and which I should like to call Common or Garden Electronics (in contrast to cultivated Techno Soul) and which was in those days a minor German export hit following in the wake of Krautrock. Carl Craig had already had a great success in the early 1990s with a version of Manuel Göttsching's historic (if not epochal) post-Kraut/proto-house title E2E, which Moritz von Oswald and Mark Ernestus later remixed. (What a wonderful term -- Afro-Germanic -- which arose out of the afro-diasporic Underground Resistance-Zentralkomitee!) An everyday situation: one goes out of the house into the road and immediately recognizes a good friend approaching. My first thought is often to cross over the road, hopefully unnoticed, or even duck into a house entrance. And I had a similar feeling with the first appearance of the percussive, repetitive Bolero motif following the introduction. Here is the first clear indication that samples were used, and in this case precisely how the composer had intended, how he had meant them. (I had the same sort of feeling with the following track, where the trumpets are taken from Mussorgksy's Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle.) But I soon overcame my irritation and plunged happily into the hypnotic maelstrom of the slowly unfolding 'Movement 1.' It is certainly interesting that sampling often employs a blatant motif which is then worked on with imagination, and taken beyond recognition, which in turn often leads to something new (better, not merely borrowed). I asked Moritz if this was not rather similar to classical music, where leitmotifs are employed. He replied that that was the whole point of the exercise (creating by doing). The tonal leitmotif of the composition (except for a secondary motif on the harp) was dropped on account of it being too obvious (for fruitful re-use). The rhythmic patterns of 'Bolero' were another matter, however; for Moritz von Oswald, 'Bolero' is the very first classical composition with a rhythmic loop upon which a melody is built. Carl Craig also declared that this leitmotif was absolutely indispensable. Suddenly, the sound explodes way beyond that produced by a classical orchestra: subsonicbasses slide over the musical seabed. Movement 2: Enter the Goldenberg/Schmuyle trumpets, partly as on the historical original track, but also looped, tuned, pitched and layered. And quite clearly, for all to hear, layered on top of one another we have 'Bolero,' 'Rapsodieespagnole' and 'Pictures at an Exhibition.' The whole 'friendly takeover' of the originalBolero (particularly recognizable from the rhythmic snare patterns) now possesses a certain swiftness and is high-pitched, which leads Moritz von Oswald to conclude that the well-known, popular recordings of 'Bolero' have always been performed more slowly than the composer originally intended: this music really should have 128 beats per minute. Premiered in 1928, right in the middle of the Jazz Era and already influenced by jazz, it had a great influence on the further development of jazz and on such genial forerunners of the Third Stream as the young cornettist and pianist Bix Beiderbecke. (Frank Trumbauer turned in his seat, caught Bix's attention, and nodded at an expensively dressed, bearded man, obviously not an American, who had entered and was standing with a group of Victor officials listening to the music. 'Say, Bix, any idea who that is?' Trumbauer's smile betrayed immediately that he knew something Bix had better know too, and fast. 'Nope. Looks French to me.' 'Very astute, old boy. That's Maurice Ravel.' Ravel, whose music he all but worshipped. A key figure in the French Impressionist school, master orchestrator, harmonic innovator, composer of 'Ma Mèrel'Oye' and the 'Daphnis and Chloe' suites; this man's genius had produced the monumental orchestral setting of Mussorgsky's 'Pictures at an Exhibition.' 'Oh, my God,' said Bix. 'It really is.' 'Why don't you ask him for his autograph?' said Charlie Margulis, amused at his section mate's unconcealed awe. Bix shook his head. 'I couldn't. I mean, I wouldn't dare.' That evening, Bix, Roy Bargy and other Paul Whiteman sidemen went to hear Ravel conduct the New York Philharmonic, and later spotted the composer in a speakeasy. This time Bix was not too shy to try an approach, but advanced on his table with an almost fierce determination. 'Excuse me, sir. I'm Bix Beiderbecke. May I sit down?' Ravel, presumably too surprised to even think of a reason why not, indicated an empty chair. The two were soon engrossed in animated conversation, which began with Bix saying, quite audible several tables away, 'I love everything you've ever done.' It is not certain whether the two men saw one another again, though at least one account has Ravel visiting Bix's flat in 1931 to listen to play his own piano works. Movement 3begins with an elegant rhythm, pepped up with bright synthetic hi-hats, which is reminiscent of the Rhenish group Kraftwerk (the Afro-German heroes of Motor City), whirling trumpets join in (see Duke Ellington's 'Trumpets No End'), and then quite suddenly a sonorous bubbling sound rises up out of the musical depths and emerges on the sparkling surface -- rather like an echo of early acid house music (have you discovered the BASF-tape at the bottom right of the cover?) -- a very welcome sound for me, which is repeated several times in the next few minutes, starts to become dominant, even silencing the brass from Goldenberg and Schmuyle and -- at last -- allows the bass drum to enter. Question: where are the samples from Deutsche Grammophon? OK, there's a very soft, little woodwind motif, but the tribal slit gong is certainly not Ravel's. Nor is the fluffy orchestra from the Intro, which pops up again to prepare us for the seamless transition to track 5 of the album, 'Movement 4,' the powerful, down-to-earth club track, the single we all want to dance to. And it is not in the least strange but liberating that now, after the 25 well-thought-out minutes which have brought us here, that all references to classical music are done away with -- and we've landed in a club. I asked Carl Craig if that was planned right from the start, and he answered: It just happened. It's all very elegant now, the bubbling sound from of the depths return, something in the music definitely begins to jack, and the fleet-footed Kraftwerk-like sound is treated to a fairly drastic saw-toothed embellishment. Movement 4: to couple this out for a 12" vinyl LP would be logical. Perhaps, said Moritz, when I suggested this to him, and maybe with other remixes, which would carry on from this one (or lead elsewhere). I will definitely buy them, but then: I buy everything that Moritz von Oswald and Carl Craig have produced (and that is quite a lot) on their own labels (Basic Channel, with its various other sub-labels in Berlin, in partnership with Mark Ernestus, and Carl Craig's Planet-E in Detroit) and so I more or less have a whole series of their projects (mutual remixes) going back to 1993. Over the period of one year, Carl Craig and Moritz von Oswald visited one another in Berlin and Detroit, where they created loops and made improvisations on them (just as jazz musicians do, although Carl Craig prefers to talk of jamming and not jazz music; I don't quite agree, but then, I have always considered even his earliest, completely synthetic tracks, where he jams with himself, as jazz). They opted for certain takes, which they left unchanged, and from these, they developed and set down further tracks. If one listens carefully here, a huge arch emerges which is brought to a happy conclusion. An Interlude, filled with drones, clusters and other sonic effects, which produce a pleasant cloud of sound, prepares the way for the two last, very lengthy pieces, and it is interesting to learn that each of the final movements was mixed by just one man: Carl Craig is responsible for the opulent Movement 5, in which its classical origins are overwhelmed here and there by heroic-sounding, symphonic strikes, and one is transported to the parallel world of four-to-the-floor music; and (introduced by a cross fade) Moritz von Oswald puts his name to 'Movement 6,' which is more minimalistic, and more abstract despite prominent, almost waltz-like congas. That's quite right, said Carl, but unimportant -- it's still teamwork." --Thomas Meinecke, September 2008
Double vinyl version, in deluxe gatefold sleeve. Surprising and impressive "classical mix" album from Carl Cragi and Basic Channel's Moritz, issued by the label responsible by the original recordings: Deutsch Grammophone. A reconfiguration of original music by Maurice Ravel & Modest Mussorgsky. Only issued in Europe, this will not be issued by DG/Univeral in the U.S. due to the longer copyright period that exists here.
P.A.R.A.: Mermalien LP $18.99
P. A. R. A. represents Pre-Atlantean Ritual Artifacts. It was channeled in deep sea space by Labanna Bly, in the celestial summer of 2008. Dedicated to my knight, James Ferraro. Mermalien is a three-part suite for Three Deaths to Supreme Consciousness: 'mercury overdose,' 'abyss retreat,' & 'seaspace chrysalis.' Limited edition of 200 copies. Paste-on covers
Ferraro, J: K2 - Cham LP $18.99
In Chameleon Ballet, I wanted to create a work of magic that simulates a dream atmosphere of post-industrial landscapes, with the waking memory of a romantic alien encounter occurring in the dream. Dedicated to the mystery of night and the magic of dreams' --James Ferraro. 'Debut limited edition album by this new sci-fi synth project by James Ferraro of The Skaters et al., with 1980s minimal wave moves bisected by the kinda keyboard patterns you might've found on an Edgar Froese solo album or post-Body Love Klaus Schulze, then exploded with barbarous invocations, syruped-vocals and some black drone atmospherics. Or, as the cover art suggests, urban landscapes as visioned by showroom dummies illuminated under 3 a.m. neon. Another killer.' --David Keenan. Remastered and expanded version of the CD-R release on New Age Discs -- this has an additional previously-unreleased track. Limited edition of 425 copies. Black & white printed covers."
Ferraro, J: Multitopia LP $18.99
New album from James Ferraro of The Skaters/Lamborghini Crystal et al., the first run ever presented under his own name. 'Multitopia is our reality system,' James writes in the liner notes. 'A post-9/11 reality technology in between the frames of data reception. A cross wire into 'new head' and necessary evolution upon the impact of the towers.' It feels like a major work from James, the first fully-conceived album to go beyond his initial brain-fried 1980s nightmare culture documentation, reconciling both dystopian and utopian mindsets in a vision of Pan as Multitopia. Body modification, the blurring of sexual persona (via cracked images of James on the back with a modified pair of breasts chilling next to an arcade game) and cyborg intelligences are all recurrent tropes in James' work, but here he explodes them all, with some of the most aggressively-nuanced keyboard and drum work of his entire career, kicking off with a full kit sound that sits somewhere between industrial steel drums and Kaoss pads, then building to an evocative peak that then dissolves into wave after wave of fluxing keyboard drone and oddly-looped vocal fragments. The gravity of the music is truly omnivorous, devouring drone, punk, new wave, industrial and minimal synth modes and spitting them back out as intensely detailed black and white visions of the future-now. James somehow manages to interweave vacuous TV announcements and cheap anchor man quips alongside the lucid, microtone-rich keyboard work, situating the whole deal in a virtual, godless netherworld with each track a further descent into hell. It is both beautiful and horrifying. A major work from James -- no one is doing anything remotely like him. Highly recommended.' -- David Keenan. Remastered version of the CD-R release on New Age Discs. Limited edition of 425 copies. Color printed covers. Dedicated to Zac Davis."
SUSANNA: Flower Of Evil CD $16.99
Flower of Evil is the second solo album from Susanna Wallumrød, mostly known from two fine albums and a number of quietly powerful concerts with Susanna and the Magical Orchestra. Susanna has already proved herself as an original songwriter, "Believer" from Susanna and the Magical Orchestra's debut album from 2004 was named by Mojo as "one of the greatest break-up songs ever." And on her first solo album, Sonata Mix Dwarf Cosmos (2007) all 12 songs were her own. But Susanna is also known as an extraordinary interpreter of songs, "Love Will Tear Us Apart" and "Hallelujah" from Susanna and the Magical Orchestra's album Melody Mountain (2006) being two examples of her ability to renew "difficult" songs. Flower Of Evil is 12 sublime cover versions of mostly well-known songs as well as two Susanna originals, all beautifully sung by one of the most exceptional new voices of recent years, with lovely accompaniment by her trusted band members Helge Sten (Deathprod, Supersilent), Pål Hausken (In The Country) and with Bonnie "Prince" Billy guesting on two songs. Whether it's Thin Lizzy or Sandy Denny, Black Sabbath or Nico, Lou Reed or Abba, all are given the very personal Susanna treatment. Flower Of Evil was recorded in Atlantis Studio in Stockholm, a studio full of vintage, analog equipment and a wonderful engineer, Janne Hansson, who knows all there is to know about proper recording. And it is difficult to say something about this record without mentioning how good it sounds. While many are concerned about illegal downloading and the drop in CD sales, few seem troubled by the lost art of proper recording and the tyranny of compression and squeezing of music to make it sound as loud as possible on radio, mp3 players, cell phones and small PC speakers. Flower Of Evil is an old school recording of musicians playing and singing together with a bare minimum of compression being applied at the mixing and mastering stage, thus maintaining the natural dynamics of the performance.
FENNESZ: Black Sea CD $15.99
Black Sea is the much-anticipated new album from Christian Fennesz, his first since Venice (2004), about which Stylus Magazine's Nick Southall wrote: "Fennesz does with sound what Stan Brakhage did with film, altering its very fabric and texture, employing disorder and error as forms of communication and expression. He forces you to learn a different method of perception and interpretation, to look beneath the chaos that seems to govern the movements of life and find the patterns beneath." Fennesz's career has come a long way since Instrument, his debut for Mego in 1995, and his first solo album Hotel Paral.lel which followed in 1998. Endless Summer (Mego, 2001) brought him to a much wider audience and Venice underlined his mastery of melody and dissonance. His songs usually embody the skillful application and manipulation of dense sonic textures with a genuine feel for the live, and real-time. Black Sea features guitars that rarely sound like guitars; the instrument is transformed into an orchestra. Fennesz lists the elements used to make the compositions: "Acoustic and electric guitars, synthesizers, electronics, computers and live-improvising software lloopp." On "Glide," Fennesz duets with New Zealand's Rosy Parlane, whose work is also released on Touch. Fennesz also teams up with eMego artist Anthony Pateras whose prepared piano features on "The Colour of Three." Fennesz pushes his work into a more classical domain, preferring the slow reveal to Venice's and Endless Summer's more song- based structures. Jon Wozencroft's artwork makes visible this carefully hidden world resting beneath the surface of "the first impression." A series of shots, taken in quick succession as the tide recedes, reveals a world of specific activity only visible at a particular time and place, histories appearing and disappearing.
J.Spaceman/Shipp: Spaceshipp $17.99
Three new releases on the always inspiring Treader label, packaged as usual in deluxe card stock sleeves with gold embossed covers. For Spacemen 3/Spiritualized's J Spaceman, this is his followup to the highly regarded Guitar Loops CD on Treader from 2006. "Spaceman and Shipp return to Treader with a collaboration first outed for Patti Smith's Meltdown festival. This is their studio corollary to that concert. Magic golden voice drone followed by celestial ecstasy." Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, 7/19/06. Featuring: J Spaceman (Vox Starstreamer) and Matthew Shipp (celeste, Golden Voice Harmonium).
WIRE, THE: #298 December 2008 MAG $9.50
On the cover of this month's issue: Antony & The Johnsons. Ewan MacColl, Charles Parker and Peggy Seeger: Radio-ballads at the BBC; Florian Hecker; Graveyards; Noodles; Bettina Koster; The Primer: West Africa in the '70s, from Afrobeat to psychedelia; Invisible Jukebox: TBC.
XLR8R #123 December2008 MAG $4.99
America's definitive electronic music magazine, #123. Best of 2008 issue. Cover: Drop The Lime (Brooklyn's bass magician tops our list of the years best in music, art, and culture). Contents: Buraka Som Sistema, Cassette Labels, Hope Gallery, School Of Seven Bells, Phenomenal Handclap Band, The Other West Coast, Shoegaze Returns, Style: Pantherina, Album Reviews, Music Columns, In The Studio: Hot Chip, Artist Tips: Matthew Herbert, Components, Videogames, Vis-Ed: Mario Hugo, TBC: M.I.A. On Fame." 112 pages
Hototogisu/BXC LP $14.99
Hototogisu -- the duo of UK experimentalist Matthew Bower (Skullflower/Sunroof et al.) and New York-based-guitarist Marcia Bassett (Double Leopards/Zaimph/GHQ) -- are all about impact, about taking the physical aspect of sound and hallucinating it to the point of abstraction, so much so, that for all of the complexity of their music, it often sounds like it's standing still, simply hanging in the air and vibrating without anything approaching a 'plot' to bring it to a point. By contrast, Burning Star Core, the trio of drummer Trevor Tremaine, Robert Beatty on electronics (both of whom also play in Hair Police alongside Mike Connelly of Wolf Eyes) and C. Spencer Yeh on violin and electronics, are more overtly propulsive, usurping 'classic' rock form via electronics and drums, but still focused on momentum, on the jam as a form of structural gravity, on the unfolding of action via development over time. This all-improvised studio meeting is the perfect reconciliation of both tendencies, of Hototogisu's obsessive layering of strata after strata of violently-conceived noise and of Burning Star Core's epic, post-Kraut thunder-punk style. Bower has long been on record about his opposition to anything approaching 'dialogue' in improvised music, favoring a senses-devouring simultaneity over anything that might pass for actual exchange, so it's no surprise that there is little on this new record that sounds even close to conventionally-improvised music. Instead, it feels more focused towards the zone where energy begins to spontaneously birth form, where the monomaniacal pursuit of the nowhere zone bears fruit in the shape of a music that transcends its constituent parts while being totally based around -- and rooted in -- the individual response to the moment. BXC play it ginchy and garage-pop right from the start, simultaneously inverting and amplifying Bower and Bassett's vertical constructs with drums that sound like they might have been lifted straight from the most flower-power parts of the Silver Apples' back catalog and bass patterns that are as tactile and rock-anchored as Can's Holger Czukay. To hear Hototogisu's music given this kind of injection of dynamic energy makes them seem more obviously sourced in 'classic' rock music than you might otherwise have guessed, with a dense, implosive sound that feels like a hyper-distilled take on all of rock's most outlaw aspects, the feedback that makes you feel like you could explode in a ball of electricity, the anti-gravity effect of heavy fuzz, the seductive, alien tongues. It's certainly the most 'garage band' side that either of the groups have cut to date, albeit in the form of a Gnostic, post-acid re-think where the vibration is more important than the outer forms, where energized enthusiasm makes for a more fundamental guiding principle than verse/chorus/verse and where the only direction left is out. Which is another way of saying it feels genuinely bad-ass. In an era where even the best groups seem polite, pro, participatory, democratic, this is music that is disregarding in its overwhelming power, exhilarating in its irresponsible spontaneity. And in an underground scene where self-conscious notions of avant-garde and 'free improvisation' have long displaced any concept of an intuitive rocks-off style, well, it feels like a re-connection to the source. So file this one closer to Kill City or Sticky Fingers than Persian Surgery Dervishes or The Black Album and feel the gravity of your whole record collection shift." --David Keenan, Glasgow, November 2008.
VA: Easy Christmas Now! Groovy Carols For A Cosy Winter CD $16.99
Originally released in 2006. The Bureau B label presents Easy Christmas Now! Groovy Carols For A Cosy Winter -- a fine collection of pop-oriented Christmas carols interpreted by classic '60s/'70s jazz, soul and easy-listening artists for a relaxing holiday. This compilation is your gadget to escape from the panic-inducing sound of kitschy children's choirs singing carols in blurry candlelight. Featuring artists Kenny Burrell, Bert Kaempfert, Donny Hathaway, James Brown, Jimmy Smith, The Beach Boys, The Ventures, The Bob Crewe Generation, Margie Joseph, Ramsey Lewis Trio, The Free Design, Booker T. & The MGs, Ray Anthony And His Bookends, Helmut Zacharias, The Temptations, Jimmy McGriff, The Drifters, The Emotions, and Claudine Longet.
Brotzmann/Lonberg-Holm cd Brain of the Dog on Atavistic $15.99
Peaked-out duo recordings from PETER BROTZMANN, one of the founders of the form, & his ever adventurous, cello-torque-ing protege, FRED LONBERGHOLM. Recorded live in November 2007 at Chicago's famed HIDEOUT destination, they combine for the first time ever in this intimate configuration. Although "BRAANDOG" (as we affectionately refer to these hypnotic tones around here) was recorded in an ultra-industrial urban warehouse district, the resulting music is über-organic, almost onomotopaeic at points. Certainly, fans of SCHWARZWALDFAHRT(alp/ums254cd)—Brotzmann & Bennink's now classic free-jazz camping trip deep into Germany's Black Forest—are strongly urged to check into this seminal blast. Listen, then if you will...for it sounds as if you've entered another galaxy's notion of what an aviary should sound like!
White Fang cd Pure Evil on Marriage $15.99
Self proclaimed 'gnar-shredders', White Fang is an untamed beast, a herd of ravenous rockers with childlike spirits & souls swooned by 90's punkrock
Woods Family Creeps lp S / T on Time Lag $18.99
New vinyl edition of the instantly sold out first edition. Newest incarnation of NYC's wondrous WOODS, for sure the finest yet from these folks. Lysergic & infectiously bent acid folk mashed into Faust IV style electronically dosed pop grooving, all awash in odd studio effects, motorik percussion, cracked fuzz, unique vocal gush, twisted lyrics, & burning psych jams. Plus enough sweet hooks to get your next freakout party moving right. Hell yes, its a wicked one. 140g black vinyl packaged in a heavy 60s style cover w/ insert. Edition of 1000
Coats, Scotty & Wes The Mes - Double Fisted 12" on Rong/DFA $8.99
...b/w Weekend Condition" Released on the RONG MUSIC label (DFA offshoot label), so order up! These dudes hail from the sunny shores of Long Beach, CA. They met, as so many musical partners have, while loitering/browsing at the local record shops. After becoming fast friends & production partners, the duo finally got around to releasing their sun-baked dance music to the public. A nail-biting punk disco offering - speaker-shredding synth line & drunken, chanted chorus is a valiant 1st stab at the disco dance charts. Comes w/ 2 equally mental PRINS THOMAS remixes. The Nordic demigod brings the funky disco beat, while on the flipside he creates a head-nodding Balearic version that makes one feel a bit like they should be lying in the tall, tall grass watching a liquid gel light show in outer space
Kid606 cd Die Soundboy Die on Tigerbeat 6 $11.99
KID606 returns to the fray w/ a mini-album of 9 original songs that devour & warp current musical trends like dubstep, bassline, ragga, techno, & rave (both old & new!). Contains dark & scary, bass-heavy jams that all celebrate life while thinking about death. Every trk is different in style & tempo, but a clear musical ideology links them together. Tested on soundsystems & PAs worldwide, these songs have the low-end to make your ass shake & stomach rumble - showing mad respect to the dub & bass legends & current artists who have influenced him
Asobi Seksu Me & Mary 7" on Polyvinyl $7.99
...b/w Breathe Into Glass" Serves as a teaser to their upcoming full-length due out February 2009
Bass Communion I i / I i i double cd on Beta-Lactam Ring $23.99
1ST ED OF 1200 copies packaged in a 2xCD full color Japanese style gatefold case. Starship trooper, go sailing on by... cuz BASS COMMUNION
will squelch you into a throbbing mass of well-armed gristle. 2 previously released LTD ED albums now collected in one comprehensive set! 'II's' earliest days
go back to the mid to late 90's, where it steps through the door hissing w/ deep space halitosis. Quietly eclipsed by slow, subtly melodic breaths of solar wind, “II”
finds its ellipses crossing long, glowering belts of ambience & majestic rings of thick, bass-heavy electro-pulses. Miniature terrestrials appear as stringed
acoustics & other Earth-bound instrumentation peeks up through the crackling electronic mists. 'III' began its days at the same time as its kin, originally as leftover
pieces, tv music, & failed experiments recorded between 1995-99 from the 1st 2 BC albums & then briefly released as a made-to-order CDR. “III's” lustmord for
global communication moans out in a series of lonely alien drones. Don't worry the good ship lands safely, but is, much like the listener, forever altered
Connelly, Chris Forgiveness & Exile cd on Durtro Jnana $16.99
The album is again produced by TIM KINSELLA (Cap'n Jazz, Joan of Arc), BEN VIDA (Town & Country, Terminal 4, Bird Show), & CONNELLY himself, & the
musicians comprise the same jazz & improvisational band that played on 'The Episodes.' This time, however, his group is augmented by the addition of 4 of his
oldest friends: DAVID MILLER (Fini Tribe), SHIRLEY MANSON (Garbage), DAVID TIBET (Current 93), & actress TORRI HIGGINSON (The English Patient,
Stargate Atlantis). Apart from the opening song, this is basically one long piece divided into sections, an ever-changing & evolving meditation on war, displaced
peoples, families shattered by corrupt governments, wrongful imprisonments, & torture. This impressionistic view is characterized through improvisation,
dramatic change in dynamics, disparate imagery, ruined landscapes, & cities illustrated by Connelly's poetry
I d a Tales of Brave Ida lp on Polyvinyl $18.99
1st time on vinyl! Marked by spare yet clean production & is a stunning debut that is absolutely essential. Double gatefold 2xLP 180 gram vinyl w/digital download
code
I d a I Know About You lp on Polyvinyl $18.99
1st time on vinyl! The duo of Dan Littleton & Elizabeth Mitchell are joined by Michael Littleton (BLOOD ON THE WALL) on drums. Double gatefold 2xLP 180 gam
vinyl w/digital download code
I d a Ten Small Paces lp on Polyvinyl $19.99
1st time on vinyl! Some four-track, some studio, & some bedroom tracks find their home on this beautiful album. Double gatefold 2xLP 180 gam vinyl w/digital
download code
Love Is All Hundred Things Keep Me cd on WhatsYourRupture $14.99
...Up At Night" PITCHFORK 8.1!! RECOMMENDED! A full three years since their debut, the fanciful-anachro-charm of Love Is All has matured with the
marriage of several members, kids & a true appreciate that love is all. The new album harnesses the same raw energy & music which captured our hearts, but
this time magnifies it through the complex emotions & experiences the band has struggled with. Years in the works, A Hundred Things is a record about
excitement, frustration, regret, disappointment & figuring out what's important in finding the relief of the morning's light at the end of a bad nights sleep.
Love Is All Hundred Things Keep Me lp on WhatsYourRupture $14.99
...Up At Night" PITCHFORK 8.1!! RECOMMENDED! Vinyl!
Low Songs For A Dead Pilot lp kranky $11.99
REPRESS! Vinyl version of kranky debut.
Low Secret Name lp kranky $15.99
REPRESS!
Low ThingsWeLost InTheFire lp kranky $15.99
. REPRESS! 3 SIDED DOUBLE LP vinyl version for y'all. Contains TRACKS NOT found on the CD!
Ovo Croce Via cd on Load $14.99
A darker slant than their previous full length, OvO's guitars scrape & drums pound but the organic crunch & high
fidelity of this release will convince you that this is music taken further & harder. An avant masterpiece, it takes cues from the tar covered hordes wearing jean
jackets & introduces a very natural middle finger of wigginess. Stefania Pendretti's vocals soar for the sky & rest like a golden piece of corn in the steaming
morass of dunt. Guitar undulates like a wriggling eel, with Bruno Dorella's drums providing crunching headburn
Wilson, Brian That Lucky Old Sun lp on Capitol/EMI $28.99
LTD ED 180gm audiophile collector's vinyl, gatefold sleeve, 18trks in all. This is a musical loveletter from Southern California.
Continuing the awe-inspiring concept album journey that first began w/ The Beach Boys' 1966 classic, 'Pet Sounds' & continued to evolve during his solo career.
The 4 traditional narratives here, co-written w/ VAN DYKE PARKS & spoken by Wilson, offer cameos on life & the heartbeat of Los Angeles which propels the
album's musical history. Produced by Brian & recorded in the Capitol Records Studios where he 1st recorded in 1962.
FM3: Buddha Machine II - Grey Soundbox $25.99
The Beijing-based duo FM3 is back with an all-new version of their wildly successful 2005 release, the Buddha Machine. Introducing Buddha Machine 2.0: 9 new loops. 3 new colors. Pitch bend. Blurring the line between music box and musical instrument, the Buddha Machine 2.0 is an interactive album that lets users customize the listening experience. Drop the pitch and the music ebbs in a low ambient drone. Boost the speed and suddenly its alive with melody. Add a few more machines, set them at different speeds and you have an evolving audio perfume. Plug it into a mixer, add some beats or vocals or guitar... FM3 won't mind. In fact, they encourage people to use the Buddha Machine as inspiration. Since its release in 2005, the original Buddha Machine has sold more than 50,000 units worldwide and has won praise from artists as diverse as Daft Punk, Gorillaz, Low, Monolake, Sunn O))), Blixa Bargeld and Mike Patton. Legendary producer Brian Eno was the first customer for the original Buddha Machine and nearly 3 years later told FM3 he still "cherishes" his purchase! Similar in shape and design to the original Buddha Machine, but boasting more robust construction and improved sound quality, the 2.0 comes in three colors: burgundy, grey and brown. For those who haven't experienced the pleasure of the original, the Buddha Machine is essentially a small plastic box that plays ambient loops. The loops repeat endlessly until the "track" is switched or the two AA batteries (not included) run out. The machine has its own built-in speaker and there is also a headphone jack for a more personal experience. But the charm of the device isn't nearly as specific: the Buddha Machine has a calming presence in today's fast-paced world. Its charm mixes with FM3's innovative music to provide the owner with an experience that is hard to define. Essentially, it's a box with a life, a tool for living, and to many, it's a friend. Founded in 1999 by Christiaan Virant and Zhang Jian, FM3 are considered pioneers of electronic music in China. Inspired by Buddhist prayer boxes found at temples around Asia, the duo released the original Buddha Machine in April 2005, winning acclaim in publications including BoingBoing.net, The New York Times and Arthur magazine.
KING MIDAS SOUND: Cool Out EP 12" $11.99
King Midas Sound is Kevin "The Bug" Martin and the angelically-voiced Roger Robinson. While Martin takes a more blissed-out approach with the full-length, the King Midas Sound is 21st century jilted lover's rock. Also featuring two previews of the full-length in the form of remixes. Dabyre's "One Ting" laces his funk with shrill shards of early Detroit techno, while Flying Lotus treats "Lost" with a suicidal Japanese monologue and dysfunctional bleeps and crunches. Another tale of the unexpected from Hyperdub
VA: Electronic Toys CD (QDK 013CD $15.99
1999 release, repressed! Subtitled "A Retrospective of 70's Synthesizer Music". Features tracks by David Vorhaus, Ron Geesin, Mladen Franko, Steve Gray, Brian Benett, Heinz Funk, Eric Peters, Roland Hovac, Gerhard Trede, Ted Atking, Claude Larson & His Computer Controlled Oscillators, Dave Richmond, Rex Brown Company & Wersi-Electric-String Orchestra and Cecil Canterburn. "This compilation of Electronic tunes from the early 70´s are real fun. 19 great tracks, morning cartoon like and way more experimental than most of the mainstream stuff released in those years. All tracks where taken from several library companies and that makes them so visual. They´re composed for films and commercials. Electronic Pling-Plong-Music for Lounge Fans."
VA: Electronic Toys Volume Two CD $15.99
2000 release, repressed. "Second in this highly regarded, much sought after import series of early synthesizer music. Artists include: Harry Breuer, Gil Trythall, Mort Garson/The Blobs, Jim Cuomo, Fred Weinberg, Bruce Haack, The Mindexpanders, Tom Dissevelt/Kid Baltan, Walter Sear."
VA: Electronic Toys Volume Two LP $17.99
HAACK, BRUCE: Electric Lucifer Book 2 CD $15.99
2001 release, repressed. "Bruce Haack is perhaps best known for his innovative and engaging (and extremely hard to find) electronic records for children made from the mid/late 60's through the 70's and even into the 80's. Current 'electronic' acts and collectors seek these albums out for their exciting use of homemade synthesizers (homemade because it was difficult to find much else in the mid 60's), all built by Bruce himself to enhance his and his musical cohorts' (dance instructor Esther Nelson, pianist Praxiteles Pandel and numerous children) fun and instructional songs in which the children lucky enough to hear them were invited to participate, learn, dance and sing. Many of the songs on these albums gave hints of Bruce's intellectual side, but it was his one major label release, The Electric Lucifer, put out by Columbia in 1970 (all other albums were released on Bruce and friends' own label, Dimension 5), that better showed just what Bruce was capable of: a groundbreaking mixture of contemporary rock, futuristic electronic sounds, and high-concept philosophic poetry. To quote Bruce from the liner notes of that album, 'I have unblocked a few media -- both philosophical and technical -- this is a good age of unblocking.' Musically, it was sort of a blend of the Moody Blues and Kraftwerk, four years before the latter would even begin to create the sounds for which they would best be remembered. The album explored the war between Heaven and Hell, with Earth being caught in the middle, and asserted that even Lucifer could be forgiven if only there was enough love in the world. This may have been too much for the mainstream to handle, unsurprisingly, so Bruce continued recording and releasing great albums on Dimension 5. In 1979, however, he would revisit his earlier hallowed ground and record The Electric Lucifer Book 2, which remained unreleased in Bruce's lifetime (he died in 1988), but now, finally, the rest of the world will be able to hear the fabulous sequel, as Bruce intended it to be heard. The context of the sequel is one in which Satan, fancying himself a 'mean ole devil,' tries to tempt a young Jesus by telling him about all the hurt and betrayals he will go through in life before his dramatic death. There are tender moments, funny moments, and frightening moments, but all moments end up catchy or moving or both. The album is no more 'religious' than works by Dante or Milton; Bruce merely uses well-known mythologies and icons to explore his own ideas about a universe that is bigger than anything anyone could say about it -- a universe made smaller by words themselves. And behind the ideas is the best damn electronic album you never heard! While Book One involved 'professional' singers and friends being brought in to sing along with Bruce's homemade electronic voice, which he called 'Farad,' Book 2 is purely Bruce. The entire album is sung using his somehow very moving robot/vocoder vocals. The music is more Kraftwerk this time than Moody Blues -- imagine that the Residents made an album about works by Dante or Milton, and then for some reason had Kraftwerk re-record the whole thing and you will begin to describe the wondrously strange beauty that dominates this album. Bruce was always somewhat prophetic in his works and in predictions to friends (he once described a future age in which all music would be shared by everyone -- though who could have predicted Metallica), and the highly insightful lyrics on this album will give plenty of philosophic fodder to be discussed 'round the ole jukebox, while the music coming from it will set your soul a-tappin'." --Eric Carlson
PEOPLE LIKE US & ERGO PHIZMIZ: Withers In The Waking 7" $7.99
This is the eighth release in the Touch Sevens 7" vinyl-only limited edition series. Both songs are the result of the WFMU podcast series "Codpaste," in which Vicki Bennett (aka People Like Us) & Ergo Phizmiz publicly composed a series of collage compositions and did a live soundtrack to Christian Marclay's ScreenPlay. This resulted in the online-only album Rhapsody In Glue, from which these two songs are alternative versions, with re-tooled guitars, and vocals added to a Prokofiev melody.
CRAIG & MORTIZ VON OSWALD, CARL: ReComposed 2LP $43.99
Surprising and impressive "classical mix" CD from Carl Cragi and Basic Channel's Moritz, issued by the label responsible by the original recordings: Deutsch Grammophone. Featuring original music by Maurice Ravel & Modest Mussorgsky. Only issued in Europe, this will not be issued by DG in the U.S. due to the longer copyright period that exists here. "ReComposed is the result of a gradual process, even the 'Intro' was set down at the very first session -- in Detroit, Michigan, which is and has been the center of the development of Afro-American techno music for about 20 years. And it was about 20 years ago that the recordings by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra of the works, which the two artists have used for their project, were released for the first time on CD. Moritz von Oswald told me that the commissioning company wanted them to use an historic recording by the Berlin Philharmonic under Herbert von Karajan's baton, but that he expressed the wish to use unmixed multi-track recordings in order to better employ the various instruments. Sure enough, recordings (with 16 separate tracks) of this nature existed, among them precisely the three works that Moritz von Oswald and Carl Craig, whom Moritz spontaneously invited to work on the project with him, wanted to use: Maurice Ravel's 'Bolero' and 'Rapsodieespagnole,' and Modest Mussorgsky's 'Pictures at an Exhibition' in Ravel's orchestration. After a first meeting in Moritz's home town, Berlin, where they listened to the original Deutsche Grammophon recordings from 1985, 1986 and 1987, Moritz set to work on the pre-production of various bits and pieces they had chosen, isolating certain instruments or groups of instruments, separating them out from various microphone-tracks, and mixing them anew. Then he took everything to Carl Craig in Detroit where the two musicians (both highly acclaimed techno innovators ever since the birth of the genre) sat down with their instruments -first and foremost a synthesizer, then old, analogue but, (as Carl Craig told me)legendary drum machines, and traditional percussion such as woodblocks and chime bells, even a double-bass -- and improvised a prelude during which sounds and patterns were created, reminiscent of Brian Eno's collaboration 30 years ago with the German electronic duo Cluster, and which I should like to call Common or Garden Electronics (in contrast to cultivated Techno Soul) and which was in those days a minor German export hit following in the wake of Krautrock. Carl Craig had already had a great success in the early 1990s with a version of Manuel Göttsching's historic (if not epochal) post-Kraut/proto-house title E2E, which Moritz von Oswald and Mark Ernestus later remixed. (What a wonderful term -- Afro-Germanic -- which arose out of the afro-diasporic Underground Resistance-Zentralkomitee!) An everyday situation: one goes out of the house into the road and immediately recognizes a good friend approaching. My first thought is often to cross over the road, hopefully unnoticed, or even duck into a house entrance. And I had a similar feeling with the first appearance of the percussive, repetitive Bolero motif following the introduction. Here is the first clear indication that samples were used, and in this case precisely how the composer had intended, how he had meant them. (I had the same sort of feeling with the following track, where the trumpets are taken from Mussorgksy's Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle.) But I soon overcame my irritation and plunged happily into the hypnotic maelstrom of the slowly unfolding 'Movement 1.' It is certainly interesting that sampling often employs a blatant motif which is then worked on with imagination, and taken beyond recognition, which in turn often leads to something new (better, not merely borrowed). I asked Moritz if this was not rather similar to classical music, where leitmotifs are employed. He replied that that was the whole point of the exercise (creating by doing). The tonal leitmotif of the composition (except for a secondary motif on the harp) was dropped on account of it being too obvious (for fruitful re-use). The rhythmic patterns of 'Bolero' were another matter, however; for Moritz von Oswald, 'Bolero' is the very first classical composition with a rhythmic loop upon which a melody is built. Carl Craig also declared that this leitmotif was absolutely indispensable. Suddenly, the sound explodes way beyond that produced by a classical orchestra: subsonicbasses slide over the musical seabed. Movement 2: Enter the Goldenberg/Schmuyle trumpets, partly as on the historical original track, but also looped, tuned, pitched and layered. And quite clearly, for all to hear, layered on top of one another we have 'Bolero,' 'Rapsodieespagnole' and 'Pictures at an Exhibition.' The whole 'friendly takeover' of the originalBolero (particularly recognizable from the rhythmic snare patterns) now possesses a certain swiftness and is high-pitched, which leads Moritz von Oswald to conclude that the well-known, popular recordings of 'Bolero' have always been performed more slowly than the composer originally intended: this music really should have 128 beats per minute. Premiered in 1928, right in the middle of the Jazz Era and already influenced by jazz, it had a great influence on the further development of jazz and on such genial forerunners of the Third Stream as the young cornettist and pianist Bix Beiderbecke. (Frank Trumbauer turned in his seat, caught Bix's attention, and nodded at an expensively dressed, bearded man, obviously not an American, who had entered and was standing with a group of Victor officials listening to the music. 'Say, Bix, any idea who that is?' Trumbauer's smile betrayed immediately that he knew something Bix had better know too, and fast. 'Nope. Looks French to me.' 'Very astute, old boy. That's Maurice Ravel.' Ravel, whose music he all but worshipped. A key figure in the French Impressionist school, master orchestrator, harmonic innovator, composer of 'Ma Mèrel'Oye' and the 'Daphnis and Chloe' suites; this man's genius had produced the monumental orchestral setting of Mussorgsky's 'Pictures at an Exhibition.' 'Oh, my God,' said Bix. 'It really is.' 'Why don't you ask him for his autograph?' said Charlie Margulis, amused at his section mate's unconcealed awe. Bix shook his head. 'I couldn't. I mean, I wouldn't dare.' That evening, Bix, Roy Bargy and other Paul Whiteman sidemen went to hear Ravel conduct the New York Philharmonic, and later spotted the composer in a speakeasy. This time Bix was not too shy to try an approach, but advanced on his table with an almost fierce determination. 'Excuse me, sir. I'm Bix Beiderbecke. May I sit down?' Ravel, presumably too surprised to even think of a reason why not, indicated an empty chair. The two were soon engrossed in animated conversation, which began with Bix saying, quite audible several tables away, 'I love everything you've ever done.' It is not certain whether the two men saw one another again, though at least one account has Ravel visiting Bix's flat in 1931 to listen to play his own piano works. Movement 3begins with an elegant rhythm, pepped up with bright synthetic hi-hats, which is reminiscent of the Rhenish group Kraftwerk (the Afro-German heroes of Motor City), whirling trumpets join in (see Duke Ellington's 'Trumpets No End'), and then quite suddenly a sonorous bubbling sound rises up out of the musical depths and emerges on the sparkling surface -- rather like an echo of early acid house music (have you discovered the BASF-tape at the bottom right of the cover?) -- a very welcome sound for me, which is repeated several times in the next few minutes, starts to become dominant, even silencing the brass from Goldenberg and Schmuyle and -- at last -- allows the bass drum to enter. Question: where are the samples from Deutsche Grammophon? OK, there's a very soft, little woodwind motif, but the tribal slit gong is certainly not Ravel's. Nor is the fluffy orchestra from the Intro, which pops up again to prepare us for the seamless transition to track 5 of the album, 'Movement 4,' the powerful, down-to-earth club track, the single we all want to dance to. And it is not in the least strange but liberating that now, after the 25 well-thought-out minutes which have brought us here, that all references to classical music are done away with -- and we've landed in a club. I asked Carl Craig if that was planned right from the start, and he answered: It just happened. It's all very elegant now, the bubbling sound from of the depths return, something in the music definitely begins to jack, and the fleet-footed Kraftwerk-like sound is treated to a fairly drastic saw-toothed embellishment. Movement 4: to couple this out for a 12" vinyl LP would be logical. Perhaps, said Moritz, when I suggested this to him, and maybe with other remixes, which would carry on from this one (or lead elsewhere). I will definitely buy them, but then: I buy everything that Moritz von Oswald and Carl Craig have produced (and that is quite a lot) on their own labels (Basic Channel, with its various other sub-labels in Berlin, in partnership with Mark Ernestus, and Carl Craig's Planet-E in Detroit) and so I more or less have a whole series of their projects (mutual remixes) going back to 1993. Over the period of one year, Carl Craig and Moritz von Oswald visited one another in Berlin and Detroit, where they created loops and made improvisations on them (just as jazz musicians do, although Carl Craig prefers to talk of jamming and not jazz music; I don't quite agree, but then, I have always considered even his earliest, completely synthetic tracks, where he jams with himself, as jazz). They opted for certain takes, which they left unchanged, and from these, they developed and set down further tracks. If one listens carefully here, a huge arch emerges which is brought to a happy conclusion. An Interlude, filled with drones, clusters and other sonic effects, which produce a pleasant cloud of sound, prepares the way for the two last, very lengthy pieces, and it is interesting to learn that each of the final movements was mixed by just one man: Carl Craig is responsible for the opulent Movement 5, in which its classical origins are overwhelmed here and there by heroic-sounding, symphonic strikes, and one is transported to the parallel world of four-to-the-floor music; and (introduced by a cross fade) Moritz von Oswald puts his name to 'Movement 6,' which is more minimalistic, and more abstract despite prominent, almost waltz-like congas. That's quite right, said Carl, but unimportant -- it's still teamwork." --Thomas Meinecke, September 2008
Double vinyl version, in deluxe gatefold sleeve. Surprising and impressive "classical mix" album from Carl Cragi and Basic Channel's Moritz, issued by the label responsible by the original recordings: Deutsch Grammophone. A reconfiguration of original music by Maurice Ravel & Modest Mussorgsky. Only issued in Europe, this will not be issued by DG/Univeral in the U.S. due to the longer copyright period that exists here.
BENGE: Twenty Systems CD/BOOK $25.99
"'A brilliant contribution to the archaeology of electronic music.' -- Brian Eno. 20 tracks made on 20 synthesizers spanning 20 years, accompanied by a 60-page color book with a foreword by Robin "Scanner" Rimbaud, Twenty Systems is the latest release from electronica artist and Expanding Records founder Ben Edwards aka Benge. His tenth solo album, this ambitious project combines an audio CD of new music with a hardbound full color book containing photos and diagrams of the electronic instruments used, along with a detailed history documenting the development of synthesizers between 1968 and 1988. The purpose of the record is to demonstrate the development of the synthesizer from the first commercially available systems in the late 1960s to the introduction of fully digital systems in the late 1980s. Although not intended to be a comprehensive history of synthesizers, the listener will hopefully gain some insight into the character of each instrument, and on a more general level experience the evolving sound of synthesis over the years. Each track is the pure sound of an individual instrument, with no additional processing, sequencing or effects applied to any of the recordings. If a system was equipped with an in-built sequencer, it was used, and there are several examples of sound-on-sound processes, where a track is made up of multiple layers of the same synthesizer recorded in parallel. To put it simply, Benge lets the instruments speak for themselves and influence the way each piece is composed."
GAMELAN SON OF LION: Sonogram 2CD $23.99
"Gamelan Son of Lion is a New York City-based composers' collective and repertory ensemble exploring and expanding the variety of musical styles that may be performed using Javanese and Balinese percussion orchestra. The ensemble has performed around the greater New York area and on tours abroad since 1976. This newest collection of compositions for gamelan features premiers from recent concert seasons as well as a scattering of old favorites from the past. Works by ten composer-performers of the ensemble are represented: Barbara Benary, David Demnitz, Miguel Frasconi, Daniel Goode, Lisa Karrer, Jody Kruskal, Laura Liben, Denman Maroney, John Morton and David Simons. The Indonesian Gamelan is based on a core group of metallophones (gongs and keyboards) in the traditional Javanese/Balinese tunings slendro and pelog, supplemented by gongs and drums. To the beautiful sound of the metallophones many other sounds can be added, according to the composer¹s inspiration. On this CD, in addition to the core gamelan sound, are electronically-processed music boxes in Morton's 'She (Really) Had To Go' and glass instruments in Frasconi's 'Telling Time,' Scottish fiddle and Gaelic song in Benary's 'Jigalullaby,' and a hypnotic kaleidoscope of world music strings, winds and vocal styles in Karrer's 'Kacapi.'"
DEERHUNTER: Microcastle/Weird Era Cont. LP+CD $17.99
LP version of Microcastle, with CD version of Weird Era Cont. included.
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ET CETERA: Et Cetera CD $26.99
Heavy, crazy and amazing Wolfgang Dauner album, reissued for the first time ever. "First ever released on CD, Et Cetera's eponymous album (1980 reissue on Brain titled Lady Blue), originally released in 1971 on Global is an extraordinary album of weirdly trippy fusion that rides somewhere between instrumental Amon Düül II, Embryo and Dauner's own earlier classic Output. Full of ethnic (Arabic and Indian) spice with lots of the ethnic color added by legendary guitar and sitar (et. al.) player Sigi Schwab (Embryo), odd keyboard sounds by Wolfgang Dauner, dreamy bass patterns by Eberhard Weber and driving percussions by Fred Braceful and Roland Wittich, this is spacy, crazy, Krautrock and -- a bit jazzy. Alan and Steven Freeman (The Crack In The Cosmic Egg) present this album in their The Krautrock Top 100. Maybe the album was originally planned as a double-LP because there are three more titles from the same recording session, which really knock you out. 'Kabul' is a killer, especially because of Schwab's exploding electric guitar and Weber's driving bass. 'Tau Ceti' is a wonderfully dreamy delight presenting Schwab's gorgeous acoustic guitar playing. Last but not least, the bonus track 'Behind The Stage' connects Schwab's special electric guitar with the band's atmospheric but rhythmic fundamental playing. This album will be a masterpiece for all time. It's unique. Digitally remastered from the original master tapes. The sound is brilliant. CD comes with informative booklet." Includes 3 bonus tracks.
Z'EV: Outer Bounds Of Sound: Z'ev LP $24.99
"Outer Bounds Of Sound is an experimental LP series in an edition of 300 copies with a hand-made cover. Legendary percussion artist Z'ev combines his mystical sounds with recordings of old/odd religious recordings from the '70s."
CHROME: Half Machine Lip Moves CD $17.99
Originally released in 1979 on Siren/Beggars Banquet, Half Machine Lip Moves is Chrome's third album and is considered an absolute classic of raw punk/experimental genius, authored by the duo of Helios Creed and Damon Edge. "Half Machine Lip Moves was a curious and powerful hybrid, which fused a Stooges-styles aggression with a sci-fi and LSD-inspired otherworldliness, reflected in titles that evidenced their interest in aliens and contemporary technology. This album was arguably their finest moment ... Creed's searing, heavily FX-laden guitar and Edge's eerie Moog and vocals, underpinned by metallic drums, came together to create what could have become a radical new departure point for a nascent form of post-rock." --The Wire; "One of my Personal Top 25 albums of all time, this is certainly one of those records you can keep returning to and find new things buried in all those layers of ZOUND." --Julian Cope
CHROME: Alien Soundtracks CD $17.99
This is Chrome's second album, released in 1978, and comprised of members Gary Spain (bass, guitar, vocals), Damon Edge (drums, synthesizer), and Helios Creed. Alien Soundtracks is the first of their releases that would later mark them as early innovators of post-punk industrial experimentalism. This release is raw punk heavy on the Stoogeian vibe, featuring Creed's flanging, scrawling guitar sounds backed up by Edge's use of tape manipulation and samples.
CHROME: Third >From The Sun CD $17.99
"Noiseville is very proud to have the chance to reissue these absolutely must-have traces of interstellar psych perfection from San Francisco's legendary Chrome. The sound was beefed up, and each was repackaged with the original art from their initial release back in the early '80s. These 3 albums (Alien Soundtracks, Half Machine Lip Moves, Third From The Sun) are classics and should never have gone out-of-print. But due to fighting within the band, these CDs will not be repressed and most unfortunately, the LP counterparts never made it past the test pressing stage, until the dispute has been settled by the courts, this is it." Third From The Sun was originally released on Siren Records in 1982, right before the band's break-up, with Damon Edge and Helios Creed chuddering out creepy post-garage industrial murk. Third From The Sun sounds more conventional rock than their prior releases, while still maintaining the garbage-y, weird-space psychonaut vibe that would be their trademark. Grinding guitars, terrifyingly creepazoid vocals, and a bass that sounds like rocks thudding off of someone's head.
THORGERSON & AUBREY POWELL, STORM: For The Love Of Vinyl: The Album Art Of Hipgnosis Book $44.99
Hardcover, 232 pages, full color, $45.00 list price. "Hipgnosis was the biggest and best design firm for the biggest and best bands of the classic rock era. Formed by Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell in 1968, Hipgnosis was a graphic design studio specializing in creative photography and working mainly in the music business designing album covers for many rock 'n' roll bands including Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Genesis, 10cc, Yes, Peter Gabriel, Black Sabbath, Paul McCartney, Syd Barrett and Styx, among others. For a dozen years, Hipgnosis created timeless rock iconography. For The Love Of Vinyl is the first book to document their output in detail, focusing on over 60 package designs -- from cover to label -- written about in entertaining detail by the men who created them. Also included are short essays by musicians (such as Pink Floyd's Nick Mason), artists (Peter Blake) and fellow designers (Paula Scher) on their favorite covers, as well as unseen photographs and ephemera. Complementing it all is a lengthy critical and historical text examining Hipgnosis and its legacy. For The Love Of Vinyl will be the rock book of 2008."
KIYOKO, ITOH: Woman At 23 Hour - Love In CD $29.99
"Identical and deluxe reissue of this deliriously mega-rare and hardly known Itoh Kiyoko record. Normally if you want to score a copy of the original vinyl you are required to donate most of your vital organs to some yakuza-typed black marketer, but luckily enough, this one here is easier to attain without ripping out a lung or a liver to pound off. The CD is housed in an eye-popping foldout jacket. It was the final album Itoh recorded in 1971 and on this effort she got backed up by again a bunch of Tokyo underground heavy weights such as J.A. Seazer and Kuni Kawauchi of the Happenings Four. On this album, Itoh's talent is fully flowering and apart from merely eargasmatic songs, she hushes into being, atmospheric city-life field recordings and well-balanced sound snippets find their way in and between her compositions. These flashes of cosmopolitan Tokyo city life grandeur and the feeling of desperate desolation it tails along elevate her impeccable melancholic love ballads and softly erotic excursions to even higher levels of artistic expression, catapulting the whole affair towards eerie, stratospheric, heavenly, delightful realms. Sadly enough, both of her albums failed to catch on, not poppy enough, too melancholic, way too creative, artistically too advanced, hard to categorize and probably even too erotically sophisticated without degrading herself to mere carnal sonic one-hit wonders. In one word, a delicate, soft, psychedelic wonderland avenue of an album that will entrap simple airhead listeners into a deadlock without giving them the chance to fully explore the absinthial pleasures it conceals. If one only cares to listen to what lies underneath its surface layer, a new form of aural addiction will commence to besiege you. One of the greatest underrated delicate psychedelic female vocal albums to seep out of Japan. Original copies just never surface and if they do, you have to trade in -- in most cases -- a limb in order to take one home with you. So this eye-popping delicately crafted reissue might be just the thing you need. If you got entangled into Kaji Meiko's sonic universe, you should try Itoh Kiyoko. All-time highest recommendation and forget about original vinyl copies, they are even scarcer that all your Blues Creation, Too Much and Oz Days records together. Highest recommendation."
SPACEMEN 3: DJ Tones CD $17.99
"Spacemen 3 have a limited edition (2000 copies) five track mini-album released by Space Age Recordings in cardboard sleeve wallet which features two previously-unreleased Spacemen 3 tracks, a radically different mix of the classic Spacemen 3 cover of the Red Krayola's 'Transparent Radiation' and appearing for the first time on CD, the ultra rare remix of 'I Love You' (originally only 50 promo white label vinyl copies were ever pressed). Rounding off this mini-album is a studio version of 'Ecstasy Symphony.' Track listing: 'These Blues, 'Transparent Radiation (violin mix),' 'Modulated Tones,' 'I Love You (remix),' 'Ecstasy Symphony.' Spacemen 3 consisted of the core duo of Jason Pierce (Spiritualized) and Somic Boom aka Peter Kember (Spectrum & E.A.R.) who formed the group in Rugby, Warwickshire, having met at art college. Other members of what would become a fluid line-up over the years included Pete Bain (Bassman, also of The Darkside), Natty Brooker, Sterling Roswell (Rosco), Will Carruthers, Jonny Mattock (Slipstream), and for the final few shows, Mark Refoy (also of Slipstream). From the outset, Spacemen 3 had a very defined set of aesthetic principles. They based almost their entire sound on their own concept of minimalism -- droning guitars, feedback, as few chords as possible, pounding drums -- with their motto 'Taking drugs to make music to take drugs to.' Their minimalism bled into their stage show as well. Sitting down to play their guitars and covered in the spinning colors of a cheap psychedelic light show, their stage 'act' was very anti-performance. Another striking aspect of Spacemen 3 was their willingness to cover and share their influences. Song titles, lyrics and interviews were peppered with references to bands and artists they believed shared their 'minimal is maximal' aesthetic. The Velvet Underground, the Rolling Stones, the Stooges, the MC5, early Captain Beefheart, free jazz musician Sun Ra, the Silver Apples, 1960s garage punk such as the 13th Floor Elevators, Red Krayola, the Electric Prunes, the Beach Boys, Jan and Dean and other surf bands, 1980s rockabilly groups the Cramps, the Gun Club, Tav Falco, blues and gospel acts like Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, the Staple Singers and John Lee Hooker, and the production techniques of Joe Meek, Brian Wilson and Delia Derbyshire were just some of the names mentioned by the band."
VA: Japanese Traditional Music: Gagaku, Buddhist Chant... CD $17.99
...Kokusai Bunka Shinkokai 1941. First in a series of 78 restorations, this one focuses on gagaku & Buddhist chant. Beautiful, lost-in-time recordings -- produced to perfection from one of the world's greats . In the words of World Arbiter's Allen Evans: "Current gagaku sounds brittle, easily cracked, very delicate. And in 1941 they used fewer performers but have a solidity, a weight. They were carrying on a tradition that was part of an immortal empire, a vision of permanence. Four years later it was over." "In 1942, a set of sixty 78 rpm discs documenting the most authentic traditions in Japanese music was privately issued. Due to the war and neglect, few copies survive. This disc marks the beginning of its restoration."
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