just for a day

our space is strictly limited!

2006-08-16T12:28:00.000-05:00

I really took a laugh the other day reading this fine spam email about a hot new website called onemillionbands. It is the next NY Times cover story, the next playground to network with "multi-platinum selling artists." Though "space is strictly limited!" And only costs $0.10 per pixel.

Anyhow, no real need to read further about it, thought the message is reprinted below. Instead, just take a view of this YouTube wonderful bop jam from Ornette Coleman Quartet in 1974, Roma, with James "Blood" Ulmer twisting his scales in a perfectly, chopped dimension. Fine. Fine. This is right before he formed Prime Time. Shame this quartet didn't cut an album, or a duet with Blood and Ornette on violin.

Ornette Coleman Quartet - Roma 1974 #1

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
From: James Napier [onemillionbands@hotmail.co.uk]
Mailed-By: hotmail.co.uk
Date: Aug 13, 2006 10:58 PM
Subject: Promotional opportunity from OMB - not spam

Hello all,

Here’s a unique opportunity to promote your artists and your label. One Million Bands is a brand new musical project aimed at creating extremely affordable advertising and maximum publicity.

Along with multi-platinum selling artists around the world, we’re also networking through the huge MySpace community, providing unsigned bands with an exciting place to promote themselves.

Unlike other advertising mediums (magazines, radio etc) which only host your information for a limited time, One Million Bands will be around as long as the Internet is, giving your bands and your label a permanent advert and a
permanent place in history.

We’re also negotiating advertising slots with major festivals around the world, including but not limited to: Leeds & Reading festivals, Download festival, V festival, Isle of White festival and T in the Park festival in the UK, Summerfest, Ozzfest, Chicago Blues Festival, Aspen Music Festival, CMA Music Festival to name but a few in the USA. Can you imagine the
publicity?

Many other festivals around the world will be subject to our attention for 2007/2008.

‘Our revenues have increased 40-50% since placing online adverts this way.’
- James Callaway, President, DS Laboratories, USA 2006

Sold a million records?

Haven’t sold any?

Doesn’t matter. Be a part of history at One Million Bands. Pop over to the site and have a look at our FAQ, or drop me a line at james@onemillionbands.co.uk for a chat.

Best Wishes,

James Napier
Founder & musician, OMB

P.S Our space is strictly limited!

www.onemillionbands.co.uk

hepyouth

2006-08-15T01:30:00.000-05:00

A traumatic Allan Kaprow astral projection would be tumbling out of oak trees and hurling folding chairs with Hepatitis (B) Youth. The loosely rooted Bloomington collective have issued Day Tour 2005 DVD, a complete 30-minute document of one day small town upheaval. Performances are spontaneous of the crew -- 3/8 or so being Justin Clifford Rhody, Carlos Gonzalez, and Bridget -- rolling outta small sedans and setting up jack-rabbit style at Kroger, rooftop car garages, Chocolate Mouse ice cream shoppe, TD’s tiny two aisle record store, and other spots. Gonzalez strong arms a snow shovel to dig loose the start of each blast of one-to-two minutes which flips from near-melodiously, restrained tinkerings and blunt gnarled hacking. Carries the same confusion as Hurray’s recent LP, which I need to write up here.

I’ve seen the Hep – B, C and D versions -- and always feared getting bashed up over a good listen. The DVD, filmed by Jeremy Hogan allows for safe, at home absorption and is framed with some great before/after locations shots. Hogan’s minimal movement/zoom approach evens out with HepC’s constant movement. I’ve boiled down two parts of the DVD down to audio spots. Check it.

Hepatitis (B) Youth - Live Kroger Loading Dock
Hepatitis (B) Youth - Live Atop Car Garage

color coded

2006-08-14T23:37:00.000-05:00

Been riding the third rail on Brooklyn’s, via SE Michigan, Awesome Color these past few weeks cause it offers up a conundrum I’m trying to shake: blitzing from the birth canal of The Ashton Bros. is noble, and yours truly is clearly guilty to a degree on it, but completely bellowing from their muscle-taught R&B/skronk just seems to damn green. Each time this CD spins I wanna stop it at the first bit “Grown.” And if so, tis a shame to miss out on “Free Man,” a fine jam for this quickly fading summer epoch that these three – Allison Busch, Derek Stanton, Michael Troutman -- are diggin in. But back to “Grown” – it just feels like the rabbit ear antenna’s to “TV Eye” – just a fub for first track. The southern’ harmonica drawl and full horn/synth on the rest wipes that away. The guest sax splatter from Wade Kergan and Busch’s minor drum fills throughout “Hat Energy” continual bang and propel forward and give hint to a surely doubly frantic stage set. Though AC’s high energy finds equilibrium in their slo-plow blues drawl that Stanton serves as if emptying a ginormous metal cotton-candy round. His continual spooling of notes (and shard coarse vox) fester into a circular whirl that shoots right down a day-glow drain. Think I’m set to dive with now...

Awesome Color - Grown
The Stooges - TV Eye (Take 5)

good touch

2006-08-04T22:32:00.000-05:00

Niblock. Pointing out that Phill Niblock was born in tiny-town-Anderson is held back in my catalogue of tempting Indiana facts until a last ditch effort is required to convince a non-Hoosier that the we got root for some fantasma. Yeah, yeah. John Glenn or MJackson maybe, but Niblock?! Fug, yeah...

“Valence,” the first piece of the third CD on Niblock’s new Touch Three set, fills up the house with its steely center and gauzy undertow. All I can do is listen and be swallowed and saturated until its end. What else to do? Built from Julia Eckhardt’s repetitive viola notes, Niblock sewed each together to remove breathing spaces, leaving the natural decay of the tone, and the attack of the subsequent iteration of the same tone. Each note was represented by several repetitions, perhaps ten for each tone, of about 15 seconds duration each. Each piece uses a few tones.. If Richard Serra were to construct a Tilted Arc II off a corn-filed state route east of Anderson or anywhere really, Niblock’s work could be the vibrating essence.

Ulrich Krieger and Franz Hautziner, two of my favorite Euro-apoco-jazz players are sourced for a few pieces here. Ulrich's "Parker's Altered Mood, aka Owed to Bird" slightly alters itself as if you were cupping hands over ears. It feels weightless, unlike the rest of the set, almost as if the sheets of sound are incessantly falling from above. The earthy reed seems wholly celestial here. “Not Yet Titled” with Hautziner carries the most significant changes throughout its 22-minutes. Easily mistaken for an organ piece, a roaring low end appears three-fourths through and counters the high octave tone. As Niblock writes in the notes, One only hears the sound of the instrument... The microtones do the work.

Phill Niblock - Not Yet Titled (excerpt)

bag o' kaiser

2006-08-03T18:59:00.000-05:00

Just got around to viewing Grizzly Man this past week and had forgotten, until the credits rolled by, Henry Kaiser wrote/organized the score along with Richard Thompson. The pieces projected an achingly bright North American outdoors vibe sorta absorbing the thematic gestures of National Geographic nature films with subdued backwoods country. Been awhile since I'd listened to any Kaiser at all. Despite years of blasting the John Oswald duo Improvised and With Friends Like These (a blue-print for six-string rethinking with Fred Frith). Surely it's just a tick in my head, but Kaiser continually falls to the back of the brain; he just never leaps forward. Clearly my issue. Though whenever I spin Outside Pleasure with its static waves and chordal obliteration, it feels right-on, especially the 4th side's precision group rock movements.

Immediately after this, I noticed that Bagatellen had Kaiser and bassist Damon Smith (also heard on the GM sndtk) posted for their monthly Listen feature. "Six Of Two" is wonderfully short vibration of strings and gnarled tree bark. All manners of slapping and flaking away.

Henry Kaiser & Damon Smith - Six Of Two

the nz backstroke

2006-08-02T11:35:00.000-05:00

Super find yesterday (in the $1.99 rack of the local record mart) of a favorite loaned out some time ago and never returned home: Peter Jefferies & Jono Lonie's At Swim 2 Birds. Recorded nearly 20 years ago overlooking the Otago Peninsula, Dunedin, NZ, I find this as Jefferies most deeply moving gestures alongside The Last Great Chance in A Dull World. Sharply stark and open to bouts of sun rays and deep thunk movements (earth or mind), the two pass through violin, piano, guitar, drums, and tape splicing. Each piece seems fragmented and adjoined with and translucent orbs hovering between the notes. The incompleteness of this album is what makes it such a soul heavy listen. Another instrument or melody would sink each piece. As in all of Jefferies work, except eh... Two Foot Flame, the role of absence leads over his instrument choice and even lyrics at times. This ability lets him create such staggering instrumental albums... Drunken Fish reissued this version CD proper back in '97 after two previous tiny pressings LPs by Flying Nun ('87) and Xpressway ('89). Well worth the $1.99, though if anyone wants to part with an LP, ring me.

Peter Jeffereies & Jono Lonie - At Swim 2 Birds
Peter Jeffereies & Jono Lonie - Piano (One)

from beirut

2006-07-18T21:04:00.000-05:00

Lebanese trumpet player Mazen Kerbaj had planned to spend most of July touring in the US but opted for staying in his home city, Beirut, with family during the Israeli bombings. His blog is a mind-deflating read for us sitting here watching this unfold via the daily paper and Drudgereport headlines. Out on his balcony, Kerbaj's has been dueting with the planes and bombs ("i recorded two hours of bombs + trumpet from my balcony yesterday night. some bombs were really close -- what kind of mouthpiece do the israeli pilots use to have this sound? the tension you get in your playing is incredible. Now i feel bad to draw or play music while people are burning"). He asks that we speak out:

to the question: "how can we help?"

the answer is: speak.

speak about the shit happening here. speak with your family. with your friends. with people you don't know. in a bar, a restaurant, at work. with the people in the streets. talk to everybody. talk to buildings. from here, it seems for us that no one in the whole world cares for those fucking burned children corpses.

And if you don't know what this is about, check the news.

Kerbaj is of the first wave of Middle East free improvisers. Staggering trumpet action, ice sheets and garbled syntax that surely will survive this war and blossom in the times to come.

Mazen Kerbaj & Franz Hautzinger - Sahel al Bekaa
Mazen Kerbaj & Franz Hautzinger - Abu Tarek
Mazen Kerbaj - Songs for Evan (part 3 & 5)

Also, here is a link of an improvisation recorded by Mazen Kerbaj on the balcony of his flat in Beirut, on the night of 15th to 16th of July 2006.
mazen kerbaj / trumpet
the israeli air force / bombs.

home unspeakable

2006-06-22T21:36:00.000-05:00

So where the hell has Heath been since I tried to kick the come back last month? I know where I've been: moving from the Carolinas back to Hooiserville, all the prep work, post work and procrastination takes a toll. And I'm here now, with most of the boxes emptied and sent out to the recycler. Don't call it a comeback, but lets hope it is. All of the records/CDrs that have been moved from state-to-state that have yet to get splayed out for you all is quite criminal. Time to let it all flow...

Right before I moved I cashed out my credit at the great CD Alley in Chapel Hill, and amongst the box sets I piled up, I found a fresh copy of Blowhole's 1995 LP, Gathering. Four bones, I think. It was packed up when I got it home, and have yet to listen. Nonetheless, right after the Internet went up at the new house, I heard that Jeph Jerman had posted a new MP3 at his web site -- for those scratching heads, he was in Blowhole. Entitled "Neighborhood and Porch Chimes," Jerman writes that it is "... a recording of my new neighborhood, filtered through a cheap mic, battery powered amp and baby monitors. enjoy."

For the past twenty years Jerman has not only created, but brought forth the idea of stoping, listening and letting yourself be overcome with what is happening around you. I first knowingly came upon his work, under the name Hands To, on the Egress which was "a song cycle comprising short songs played entirely on the remains of dead cactus found in the Sonoran desert outside Tucson, Arizona." I picked up the LP for the similarities of design (white sleeve, glued on photo) to Loren Mazzacane records. I haven't played it in years, but it is a favorite.

From his website, Jerman writes: the idea called music is not separate from "sound in general", yet we have made it so by devising rules by which music may be ascertained or known. music is in the listening, and this is what i am about.

all sound is the same, namely a vibration, and our minds have separated one set of vibrations from the general over-all vibration and labeled it. music is therefore, a judgement.

The piece below is about 36 minutes, and it is great breeze to drift off to. Shut things down and let it flow...

Jeph Jerman - Neighborhood and Porch Chimes (34.6 MB)

can i get some bohrium on my goat?

2006-05-29T22:18:00.000-05:00

Damn, Heath and I hit some harsh spring hibernation, so deep, we didn't even know where the other was buried. Thanks for the emails and comments as to our health and whereabouts. I'm gonna be movin back to Hoosier lands in the next week, so I'll keep a closer eye on the JFAD infrastructure. While we have been out about four weeks it's not the same spell as the Table of the Elements vacancy in their every-couple-a-year festival presentation. It has been ages since the Yttrium festival, and it looks like a multi-set CD and DVD will be out this year so most of y'all can get a heap and feel for what you missed in 1996.

So, Bohrium, the fourth TOTE festival, is set for August 31 - September 4, 2006, Labor Day Weekend for the 9-5ers, at Atlanta, GA's Eyedrum. The five days seem to be named after Angus MacLise's calendar system or at least a homage to (day 1 is Sea Changes and Coelacanths, day 4 is Propellers in Love). There is a lotta heavy action spread across the five days, from a John Fahey/Elizabeth Cotten video to our Louisville bud Keenan Lawler to Jack Smith and Tony Conrad films, Rhys Chatham's Guitar Army, Leif Inge's "9 Beet Stretch" for 24 hours, Loren Connors, San Agustin and a giant roasted goat(!!). And that is just part of what is being touted out now. The TOTE crew will likely be holding some major diamonds close to the chest until we all get down there.... Yeah, really great to see Mr. Lawler on this bill. If you haven't heard his two LPs with Pelt -- Keyhole I and II go dig through the back crates at your record stop, cause they are probably in there. Both were recorded in deep, vibrating chambers of grain silos and metal galleries and are near my tops for each of their respected discogs.

Keenan Lawler - Fork in GA
Rhys Chatham - Guitar Trio (edit)
Loren Connors - Departing of a Dream Vol. II, pt. 2
San Agustin - Fall Line Highway

uninvited, like the clouds

2006-04-18T11:41:00.000-05:00

Its been 25+ years, nearly 20 albums and dozens of side and solo projects that have brought the Church to where they are today. They have a more than impressive back catalog, and yet, they continue to have surprisingly strong releases year after year. How on earth do they do it?!

Today is the release of their latest, 'Uninvited, Like the Clouds' on Cooking Vinyl. And if you haven't heard them in a decade or more, not much has changed- and thats a good thing! The chiming Rickenbackers are present, the daydreamy lyricism, the soaring melodies. We are all truly lucky that there still exists a band doing this and doing it well.

While it seems ridiculous to compare a band thats been around for over two decades to anything else, its a necessary evil. The album opens with Block, a classic track that is part Floydian dream and part Spaceman hypnotic downhill acceleration to lift-off. Easy is MBV meets Maggie May. Song to Go is Tom Waits as covered by Air. Go visit a very wonderful Church fansite and learn more about all the time you've missed of this wonderful band that is still doing it.

the Church - Block
the Church - Song To Go

ghost volk

2006-04-14T15:15:00.000-05:00

Spectre Folk seemed a pretty overt name for Pete Nolan to moniker-up as for his solo side. A see-saw of truth in advertising or bullshit speculation. But fug it, Nolan knows how to make it work. Within the Magick Markers and Virgin Eye Blood Brothers, his two-of-many outfits I'm familiar with, he can transcend the nothing gulch (which can and does happen in those two groups) and shape it into an abstraction of you just wanna wrap your arms around. After some self-released editions and a moving blossom on Static Caravan, the pressing machines have been called up to punch out a buy-in-the-store album called Requiem for Ming Aralia on Three Lobbed. The push toward giving this a modern volk tint is present in the PR blurbs, but while driving home at 2 am a few nights ago, SF shown through as a great, hand-me-down sound transgression as laid by Trapdoor Fucking Exit. The repeated/flickering guitar strings Nolan plays out (and the backing murk) mirror Michael Morley in spades, especially in the opener "Tendrils Floating Fastly" and the closer "Bindi Clip." Both are drawn in and out of the lines and feel as if recorded in a Louisville cellar a few yeas back. The Turtle's "You Showed Me" is not quite huffed with new life here, instead Nolan has taken flecks of it, melody/lyrics, almost as if scraped them from an old cassette and used those bits as as a blueprint; deftly eerie and sounding about 25 years older than it is. C. Spencer Yeh appears on "Indianana" and keeps the Dead NZ aura up with mild shatters of electronics. What is left after these is Nolan and a guitar and the aforementioned cellar. The voice warbles, rough and broken. It all just sounds aged with despair. I was hoping for another cover in "Been Here and Gone," but it is an original of late night loss feed through burned amps and blown mics. This is a fine milky-skin from the underbelly of the Midwest -- even if Nolan is a Brooklyn dweller now.

Spectre Folk - Bindi Clip

villa claustrophobia

2006-04-12T16:03:00.000-05:00

Ardent Fevers is Jesse Poe's fourth release under the Tanakh moniker. It came out last week via Montreal's Alien8 Recordings. Recently transplanted away from Virginia, this is the fruit of his time spent living the past couple of years in Florence, Italy. A recent invitation to perform at the 6th Annual Terrastock Festival, this year in Providence, RI, brings he and a group back to my hemisphere for a two week tour, as well.

Fans of Leonard Cohen, Badly Drawn Boy, Calexico, David Sylvian, Elliott Smith, Tindersticks, Lambchop, the Church, Lee Hazelwood, Talk Talk... you get the idea. Spacious arrangements, rural roots, beautiful accents. Closing track "Take and Read" builds over 9+ minutes into a Crazy Horse jam. Understated, personal, serene.

US Dates
---------------

04/21/2006 - Terrastock 6 - Providence, RI
04/24/2006 - Cake Shop - NYC, NY
04/26/2006 - PA's Lounge - Sommerville, MA
04/27/2006 - Mezzanotte Lounge - Syracuse, NY
04/28/2006 - Mohawk Place - Buffalo, NY
04/29/2006 - Drake Hotel - Toronto Canada
04/30/2006 - Big Car - Indianapolis, IN
05/02/2006 - Lager House - Detroit, MI
05/03/2006 - Empty Bottle - Chicago, IL
05/04/2006 - Landlocked Music - Bloomington, IN
05/05/2006 - Huntington Youth Art & Music - Huntington, WV
05/06/2006 - The Velvet Lounge - Washington, DC
05/07/2006 - Knitting Factory - NYC, NY

Tanakh - Drink to Sher

lunar moos

2006-04-11T09:19:00.000-05:00

Past few weeks I've been locked up inside The Bummer Road, the new lunar jamboree band of MV & EE and etc. While I'm sure there are a few more titles out, We Offer You Guru and Suncatcher Mountain have been my two windows. With the mighty flux of Tower Recordings and the MV (solo) & EE (duo) missives, I wasn't expecting that much of a variation on their time-warp blues and always perfect sky-coloring use of autoharp. But after a few hundred digital rotations, those thoughts were like an elephant gun to the foot (or hoof in the mouth), cuz Bummer Road careens around some deftly, overgrown and enchanted forests that I've never been too. The road has forked again we're all on a new adventure here. With Mo’ Jiggs lathering up some south-field mouth harp, the rest of the crew (Samara Lubelski is on violin at times) somehow opens a few bottles of night-time/morning dew ooze and feeds it through some tube-amps and lets is simmer until all is burned off. That has got to be MV on the yayli tambur and dov bantar and EE on the swarsangam, voice and percussion.

In celebration of a the new Bummer 2LP Mother of Thousands on Time-Lag the 'Road and Jigs got together his past week at Mass' Montague Bookmill for a heavy leaf performance sponsored by he Autonomous Battleship Collective and Mandragora. Not only did they organized the show, but but they've set up streaming stereophonic MP3s of the entire night:

MV/EE & the Bummer Road - First Set (acoustic)
Willie Lane solo - Second Set
MV/EE & the Bummer Road - Third Set (electric)

photogenic, schizophrenic you

2006-04-10T15:50:00.000-05:00

There isn't much more to say that hasn't already been said about this track many times over from others over the years.

from Wikipedia: Napoleon XIV was the pseudonym of record producer Jerry Samuels (b 1938 New York City) who had moderate success with the song "They're Coming To Take Me Away Ha-Haaa!", released in 1966 (reaching #4 UK, #3 US). The song deals with mental illness brought about by the lover of the vocalist leaving him and was controversial at the time for its willingness to confront the subject directly—albeit humorously:

"Remember when you ran away and I got on my knees and begged you not to leave because I'd go berserk? Well, you left me anyhow, and then the days got worse and worse, and now you see I've gone completely out of my mind!"

Musically, the track is significant in that it does not actually feature any musical notes being played, although a melody was, quite naturally, planned for it. Instead, the backing is provided by a combination of drums and tambourines overlaid with a siren—presumably that of the authorities' vehicle "coming to take me away". The pitch of the vocals also raise and lower throughout the performance to signify the increasing insanity of the vocalist. The vocal effect was accomplished via a tape recorder modified by Samuels himself.

from AMG: Samuels went on to a career as unpredicable as his hit smash, making his living for a time selling marijuana roach clips to head shops. For the past couple of decades he's worked the piano bars of the Philadelphia area; on the recent Napoleon XIV reissue CD, he proudly notes that "I became probably the most popular entertainer at nursing homes and senior facilities in the Philadelphia and Delaware Valley area." (Presumably he didn't play his hit single for those audiences.) That reissue CD combined the 1966 Napoleon XIV album with some additional material from the '60s and some newly recorded tracks from 1995.

Here is WFMU's excellent post about the 21 Variations on the hit single. Included in this is Lard's version, which makes total sense to me since the vocals seem reminiscient of Jello Biafra in the first place.

Napoleon XIV - They're Coming to Take Me Away Ha-Haaa
Napoleon XIV - Doin' the Napoleon
Napolean XIV - The Place Where The Nuts Hunt The Squirrels

neck face

2006-04-07T07:31:00.000-05:00

Many stones have been unturned in the quest to throw somethin' nu on the No Neck Blues Band fire. Without much being really, truly known about these Harlem cats there's been a lotta speculation, waxing and anecdotal tribal bullshit out there -- though it all trickles down to that the clan is rarely off n' almost always right on. A few weeks ago I was beginning the early stages of packing up for our next move and pulled out NNCK's "Math of Crack" b/w "The Mouth of Gack" 7" (New World of Sound, 1995) along with some contemporary-from-the-era Shadow Ring and Tower Recordings disks. Been years since I spun any of them instead just repacking and moving from one house/state and back. The Crack and Gack were the drumless, machinery groan that the NNCK birthed from. I remember thinking of its warbled screech when reading Adam Lore's run-through of the discog in Ba Da Boom Gramaphone a few years later. Quite a deal of skin was stretched between there and the A Tabu Two 2 LP set and the double CD Letters From the Serth -- as someone said before, the NNCK locomotive was in full swing by then. It almost seems as its taken 10 years for them to warm up to their free swinging operandi of now. Catching them last summer in Chapel Hill they spent the first 20 minutes of small, inconsequential build up that seemed headed for the door. Before any crust gathered, clothes were shed, liquids poured and the finest, throbbing NNCK performance took place in front of me.

While I'm still sitting on last year's Qvaris 2LP, the brand new EmbryoNNCK collab with, you guessed it, Embryo has been knocking my knee socks right off. No simmer here, the two groups jack directly into waves of percussion fields -- alternating from gaterhing poppy dust and bass movements. While it has that near funky element of the Revenant disk, the abstraction is deeper though the groove (and smart editing) bring a focus that, really, hasn't been cut since "Math of Gack." Check it out.

Frank Cologne
Wieder das Erste Mal

letter from the past

2006-04-05T15:04:00.000-05:00

Its probably been enough time that "folktronica" can now officially be the new "post-rock". Except that term is already dead. Now the new rage is "ambient pop"? Whereas "post-rock" incorporated loosened "jazz" structures into "rock", kinda, the others bring acoustic instrumentation and "pop songs" into the "electronica" world. Whoopdeedoo!? The list of bands recording their acoustic guitars into their laptops and adding glitchy beats behind it is growing ever longer these days. Too long.

However, City Centre Offices in Germany is doing a great job about choosing tasty ones to release. And their fancy new website has transfixed me nearly as long as their recent releases. Warm and spacious. The result of hours of daydreams. Lovely. They are quickly becoming one of my favorite labels to watch.

I'm Not a Gun's new album, 'We Think As Instruments' is the third album for this duo. John Tejada is one of the most prolific DJs and producers in the Techno world. His remixes and DJ-sets are well sought after, his label ”Palette“ is pumping out 12“ after 12“ of quality electronic music. Takeshi Nishimoto, classically trained guitarist and sarod player has been a long-time member in the jazz/improv scene in Los Angeles. He recently re-located to Berlin.

Their Venn Diagram is the spot where these bands circles cross: Bark Psychosis, Album Leaf, Dntel, Lali Puna, Notwist, To Rococo Rot, Bows, Oval, Remote Viewer, Múm, Tarwater, Mountains, Pole. In 2004, Iʼm Not a Gun was nominated for Best Instrumental Band by L.A. Weekly Music Awards. While they are often classified as the next step past Chicago's post-past, they are more than just a German version of the Hefty roster. Out on April 17th via Forced Exposure.

I'm Not a Gun - Move

argyle cardigan

2006-03-31T13:15:00.000-06:00

When you open your album with a drum solo, the listener knows they are in for some fun. And Flin Flon have been having fun for a number of years now, releasing their long-awaited third album this year on Teenbeat.

Flin Flon started in 1997 with Teenbeat honcho Mark Robinson, whose name should be synonymous by now with smart, well-crafted American pop music. He has been releasing it since the mid-80s on his label under the names Unrest, Grenadine, Air Miami and beyond. Flin Flon's trio is filled out by True Love Always' Matt Datesman on drums and ex-Cold Cold Hearts bassist Nattles. Their new album, Dixie, has absolutely no southern feel to it whatsoever. It is precise Factory Records worship with Robinson's in your ear vocals and a locked-in rhythm secion.

The vinyl version of the new album will be released soon, with exclusive remixed versions, just as previously they did for their preceeding record, Boo Boo. Fill the dance floor.

Flin Flon - Cardigan

sykurmolarnir

2006-03-30T07:35:00.000-06:00

Never get tired of watching/hearing Einar Örn riff fluxus-like across the The Sugarcubes pop moments or Bjork obviously singing at an opposite spectrum. Seems odd to say, but a 1988 live video of the group was a crucial point in the ol' upbringing. Einar's grunt trumpet style and constant mash mouth observations seemed otherworldy.

Watching the 12 videos on The Sugarcubes' no-frills collection The DVD reminded me how uncomfortable they all seemed to be acting like a pop band -- which is what everyone wanted of them, probably, except them. From memory, it seemed hard to take anything past their '88 debut Life Is Good, let alone the videos that went along with "Planet" or "Eat the Menu." Though now, each video seems planted with some darkly hued Icelandic humor at the expense of everyone else, Americans and Brits, mostly. The absurdity of most shots -- the clothes, giant props, like in "Hit," feels like the group knew things weren't going to last forever. Óskar Jónasson's low-budget "Motorcrash" will always be a favorite, with the group watching the Reykjavik car wreck, staggering around with amnesia and Magga Ornolfsdottir looking totally dazed.

The one-off joint between Jesus & Mary Chain and Bjork would've made a great vid-single as a 'remix' for "Birthday," as it was a 7" B-side in '89. The Reid's Psycocandy-era videos shoulda been the direction 'Cubes went for....

The Sugarcubes with The Jesus & Mary Chain - Christmas Eve

back from the tomb

2006-03-29T14:15:00.000-06:00

While I was stumbling around Boomkat yesterday my eyes nearly popped out of their head when I saw that Egyptian Lover had a new album. I am always a little skeptical when new albums come out from older performers, especially when they take a ten year break in between. But this has really caught my ear.

Los Angeles-based producer Greg Broussard was the man behind pioneering hip-hop/electro fusion artist the Egyptian Lover. Comparable in influence to Soul Sonic Force's "Planet Rock", Man Parrish's "Hip-Hop Be Bop (Don't Stop)" and Pretty Tony's "Jam theBox", Egyptian Lover singles such as "Egypt, Egypt", "My Beat Goes Boom", "Dance" and "What is a DJ If He Can't Scratch?" combined the abstract electronics of Kraftwerk and the Art of Noise with the emerging beat-heavy sound of electro and the vocal approach of rap. - Global Darkness

The sound is not at all far away from his songs from 20 years ago. Strong, hard 808s, vocoders and a darker feel with sexy whispered vocals that make Ying Yang Twins sound like they need some Viagra to keep up with the grown-ups. Coming to you from Egyptian Empire Records.

the Egyptian Lover - Party
the Egyptian Lover - Sintropolis

porest truth

2006-03-28T09:17:00.000-06:00

Four years ago, I might've turned the shades a few notches and lowered the volume on Tourrorists instead of now wanting to slip it in the CD-juke at the local VFW. 'Cause even that cast is gonna laugh it up like this is Bob n' Tom AM or Sinatra. Scaly eyes are now open and from Sun City Girls' orbit of global truth-in-voodoo, comes the new Porest missive. Out on SCG's Abduction, Tourrorists is like the final exam, or post-study party, for those who've been mind banging on the Sublime Frequencies audio passports and Fox News. For those with keen sense, Mark Gergis (aka Porest) assembled SF's I Remember Syria and Choubi Choubi! Folk and Pop Sounds from Iraq. Prior to that he was in collage/cut-ups Mono Pause.

All the administration, flag-wavin', nation saving ideas that've been pumped across that states are crinkle like oven-baked cellophane. Gergis stitches field-recordings with skits, computer-voiced Jihad proclamations and a disruptive yet solidifying pop element. He'd could've just flipped that satellite TV dial like Russian roulette and recorded the chance-happenings, but opted for some right-on, subtle movements and juxtapose. Let's Roll!

Let's Roll
Pentagonal Parlor

stay bruised, stay forever beautiful

2006-03-27T14:12:00.000-06:00

We're incredibly sad to report that our friend NIKKI SUDDEN passed away Sunday, March 26, age 49, in New York City after performing the prior night at the Knitting Factory. He wrote hundreds of songs and made over 20 albums as a solo artist and with his bands SWELL MAPS, THE JACOBITES, THE LAST BANDITS and his band with ROWLAND S. HOWARD, among others. He was an inspiration to watch at work, working ceaselessly as a musician, writer and actor. Just prior to heading out for this last US tour, he completed his latest album "The Truth Doesn't Matter" and was putting the finishing touches on his autobiography.

It was a great honor to work with such a legendary figure, and his warmth and generosity of spirit will not be forgotten. He was a good man in endless pursuit of his artistic dreams. We extend our deepest sympathies to his friends and family, and rest easily knowing that he has joined his brother Epic Soundtracks, who passed away in 1997. We're seeking solace in Nikki's timeless records and we feel blessed to have known Nikki and to have his voice sing on. - Secretly Canadian

The one time I saw Nikki play, at the Cellar Lounge in Bloomington, it was a flashback to yesteryear. Scarves and paisley silk and leather boots. A true showman and character, I feel lucky to have experienced it. Enjoy over a dozen songs over at SC and at his official website. Read fan comments on his Myspace profile. NY Times obit.

the exchange session

2006-03-24T14:41:00.000-06:00

In early 2005 two guys from two generations and two different scenes came together and something magic happened. I would never expect a duo between a drummer and laptop to be so spiritual, but it is. Three long improvisations captured live in studio, uncut, one-take, start to finish. The document is in two parts, with Exchange Session - Volume 1 out now via the always tasty Domino.

Steve Reid is well heard but unknown by name. You've heard his drumming on everything from James Brown's Popcorn to Dancing in the Street by Martha and the Vandellas to Fela Kuti's Africa One to a long stint in the Sun Ra Arkestra and Miles Davis. His style is heavily influenced by African rhythms and modal harmonics of twelve tone explorations of John Coltrane. Kieran is better known under his current electronic moniker, Four Tet or previously with Fridge. Now together, they have a strikingly fresh sound that is equal parts Nonesuch Explorer and Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, all the while remaining modern and both jazzy and electronic at the same time. A tall order indeed. Volume 2 comes out later this year. Also be sure to check out the Steve Reid Ensemble's Spirit Walk which also features Kieren with a larger group and just as breathtaking results.

Kieran Hebden & Steve Reid - Morning Prayer

sniper at the gates of heaven

2006-03-23T17:05:00.000-06:00

the Black Angels conjure up the same ghost that many bands have, they're one of those thousands of bands influenced by the Velvet Underground (even named after their Black Angel's Death Song), or perhaps even moreso by the followers of the VU like Spacemen 3. Big hollow guitars, reverbed into the cosmos, organ droning on and on and on. Hit the distortion, lift off, starry eyed and stoned.

Seattle's Light in the Attic label, who is more well known for their amazing reissues of the Free Design, Last Poets, Deep Throat OST and more is moving into the modern band realm with this and the hip hop duo Blue Scholars.

The Black Angels' debut album Passover comes out on April 11th on CD & deluxe gatefold double-vinyl. And they bleed their Texas roots... with love for the 13th Floor Elevators, Bubble Puppy, and beyond. Dim the lights, light it up and zone out.

the Black Angels - Black Grease
the Black Angels - Bloodhounds on My Trail

bass is the place

2006-03-22T07:56:00.000-06:00

First time I saw Mike Bullock in dee flesh, there were about 9 of us crouching in a dripping-walled record store. There was a storage room in back where Bullock was getting ready, we thought, but he started to rattle his wooden haul behind the door. After a few minutes he spring out, poised the bass and struck and bent the strings into even/odd coaxing and banishing. There were implosions, lighting and mauled moans from the belly. Possibly his performance was a few hairs on either side of 8 minutes -- or so it seems years later.

At that time, Bullock had already issued Object (Tautology), a large-group recording under the name Fetish and a ghastly, meaty jewel which you oughta seek out; and The Idea of Northeast, a split LP with Howard Stelzer & Jason Talbot. As a "solo bass" recording Bullock broke it down to iced-feedback tones and starting mapping his way to Initial, a beautiful bastard of performance and his second solo CD. A constant favorite of mine, the recording is split between the bass and crowd noise bleeding Bullock until he nearly vanishes as musician/bassist, only to strike back. You'll find it to be a stunner, if you got patience, class and balls enough to take it on.

So anywhere, Mike is now offering his recent 3" CDR This Will Cheer You Up, orig. on Kissy Records, as a "reissue download" on his Chloe imprint -- what the hell does that really mean? It is free and a nice 101 to those without the 411 on out pal.

Here is the run down: Released last year on the Kissy Records imprint as a 3" CD-R. This will cheer you up finds its origins in live recordings made as part of a solos tour with trumpeter Greg Kelley. The venerable institution of the improvised bass solo gets pulled to pieces and rebuilt after being submerged in clouds. Jumps instantly between fragility and ferocity. Download it all here (with artwork and more) or dip in below...

Mike Bullock - Columbus Cheer

black satin amazon fire engine cry baby

2006-03-19T22:57:00.000-06:00

Found this CD reissue the other day at a local music store and dropped it into the system to check it out over the loudspeakers. While it was totally badass, I quickly felt like I got caught listening to Richard Pryor in church as Kain was dropping F-Bombs all over the place. Heads definitely turned.

One of the rawest, hardest-hitting albums of soul poetry of the 70s! Kain -- aka Gylan Kain -- was a member of the original Last Poets, a group who emerged in New York during the late 60s, but were eclipsed by the second (more famous) ensemble sharing the name who recorded for Douglas Records. Kain's anger and passion is incredible -- far stronger than anything you'd hear on any of the better-known Last Poets records of the early 70s -- and this solo record is completely over the top, both politically and performance-wise. The record has a hard hard hard sound -- with over-the-top spoken bits that almost make the other Last Poets seem like they're kind of mellow. Cuts include "Silly Shit", "Harlem Preacher", "I Ain't Black", and "Constipated Monkey". Juggy Murray produced -- and the album's a wild wild trip! - Dusty Groove

Gylan has the kind of natural flow that most MCs would kill for. Silky smooth delivery over a smoky hashish fog from the red-lit underground speakeasy. Recently, Kain has been performing with Electric Barbarian. At a recent show he "came out into the audience and recited in the face of an audience member who was moved to get up and leave, but not before Kain followed the poor man up the aisle. "Kicking Mickey Mouse in his house". Left End of the Dial has more to say.

This man makes the Last Poets he left behind sound like schoolboys trying to sound pissed off. Kain would make Gil Scott-Heron run away for fear of being exposed as the effete he became before he turned into an out-and-out drug addict. There aren't any other records like this; this is the sound of the apocalypse...

Kain - Harlem Preacher

on the crozz

2006-03-17T19:18:00.000-06:00

In the past month Inzane Podcast has been filling out my speakers at the homestead. Headed up by the Dead Machines themselves, Tovah O'Rourke and John Olson, it brings back those ear-to-the-radio late nights of early teen years listening to Sunday night's Gridlox on WOXY Oxford, Ohio. First episode has the two hitting a bottle of wine and running through a pile of private press Christian LPs they've been hoarding and a few picked up after breakfast and before this was taped. They spin songs by the likes of Rebirth (a 1970 recording from the Virgina group called "Into the Light"). Olson calls the IHS Band "pretty crude, junk style, Christian stoner type" music, and their track "Answer" (on Big Willie Music, Beaverton, MI) does seem steeped in the sunshine of Virgin Insanity or even the VU. Nice. Also here is The Shades of 70s ("totally echo hell"). Though I most dug the two Linda Rich tracks, "Sunlight Shadow" and "Fangs." The later having the great line, kids taking LSD to find reality, they never find, never find, nevermid. Broadcast ends with Las Vegas, NM's Guitar Ensemble, with is 12 members?!? Who the hell knows. Nice way to spend 27 minutes and ponder the great white light. The Manson Jams could've passed for some of these groops and vice-a-versa. Other 'casts are up, such as jaunts into the loner folk vibe or Olson and Aaron Dilloway playing synth records.

Inzane Podcast - Xtian Private Viny

singing with ghosts

2006-03-15T15:46:00.000-06:00

Sometimes you just meet the nicest people. And the other day was like that- two bands from opposite sides of the continent (Vancouver and Boston) came together in the middle to play a cozy in-store in my dead college town on the monday of spring break.

Ok, Tiger Saw aren't from Boston exactly but near enough that its the geographic landmark to be based upon. Newburyport Mass re-pruh-zent. Dylan Metrano has been the one constant in the band for years. Sometimes it is just he strolling through the audience singing with acoustic guitar in hand. Other times the group expands to as many as a dozen performers. For this touring version, they were guitar, bass, drums and a rotating guitar / accordion / flute player. Their songs and spirit were truly gentle and kind. Before they began they encouraged the crowd to take out their ear plugs, have a seat and get cozy. This campfire vibe is intentional and works well for them and grew out of a previous tour.

The tour, which crossed the United States and Great Britain, found the band performing at a myriad of unorthodox venues, from suburban basements and theaters to beaches, forests, and bonfires. These intimate settings led to impromptu singalongs with the audience, and night after night of unforgettable communal experiences.

By the end of the set, everyone was all smiles from their pure genuine-ness and charm. Sonically, one might file them near to Low or Yo La Tengo. Kimchee Records released their latest CD and catch them on tour now with the wonderful art and folk songs of Dan Blakeslee.

Tigersaw - Love Will Kill
Tigersaw - Are You Courageous

the midnight year

2006-03-13T11:15:00.000-06:00

this is the first post from our hopeful new crony, chris. show him some love.

Does the most potent release of 2005 keep its cool as the dawn of '06 sheds light on my record-strewn bedroom window? Indeed. I'd say Hudson Bell's "When the Sun Is the Moon" (Monitor Records) is only growing in potency as I hear it in more and different locales, taking it beyond my office boombox, out of my home stereo, and bigger than my Ipod universe. I reckon my favorite surprise encounter yet with this record was last week in the warehouse at my workplace. On a particularly stressful day, on my way to the Coke machine, preoccupied with carving out a little personal space so that I could get some much needed work done, I stumble upon the album as it filled the 8000-square foot aluminum room, just as its pinnacle track "Strange Lands" was starting to build. Wow. It was one of those magical moments when you realize that a song is only growing richer as you're hearing it for the 50th time. (For me, to maintain interest in a song after a dozen listens is a rarity, and this fella is turning on me like the Misfits or Dwight Yoakam.)

San Francisco -based, yet Southern bred, Hudson Bell occupies a musical world I've loved well - most immediately reminiscent of early '90s electric guitar-based indie rock, delivered with a poetic slacker's delivery a la Dinosaur Jr., Pavement, Screaming Trees and Teenage Fanclub. Like those bands, Hudson Bell makes his electric guitar heave with distorted bliss, while he sings plaintively along with it of getting stoned on a rooftop with friends and wondering where to go next with his life (as though he has a choice). There's a wonderful androgyny as the masculine guitar and the almost feminine voice form a unified whole. And it feels so fresh to rummage through this world again. Could this be the '90s resurgence begun? I don't want to make too much of the timeliness of this record, as it feels like one of those genuinely timeless ones.

Hudson Bell - Atlantis Nights
Hudson Bell - Slow Burn

who wears gloves?

2006-03-11T17:36:00.000-06:00

Julie Mittens is my favorite brain-bake, power surge band right now, at least for the rest of summer -- and the months have not even begun to sweat yet. Though it is 80 here in the Carolinas... Didn't know much about Mittens until hearing this new live document Recorded June 20 2005, their third self-released CD-R since 2002, and I've since been knocked down. Guitarist Apart-Jan Schakenbos, bassist Michel van Dam and drummer Leo Fabriek seem to be a burnt lightening aura coming from the combo-axis of Coltrane's fire and Fushitsusha's blatant fullness.

From what I wrote at Dusted:

Over six unnamed pieces Schakenbos alternates between jagged, sprawled out swaths of comet-tailed feedback and dissonant, yet sparsely articulate blues notes. While his tone cuts through Fabriek and van Dam’s syncopated rhythm/nonrhythm duality, his axe is not perched in the lead role. All three are prominent, core pieces to the vision, like the fist-pumping free jazz of Last Exit or Poly Breath Percussion Band. What take Julie Mittens even further out is their adaptation of the levitation, bliss qualities of Blue Humans or Dead C. Throughout the set, van Dam’s bass tugs at the ear to give full attention to his weave and bob low-end. On the third piece, he grooves relentlessly, almost in mode of Jimmy Garrison’s intro to “Crescent” from Coltrane’s Live in Japan, without care to the skree bubbling around him. It is an exhilarating center to the outer sheath of shattering feedback and drum rolls.

Julie Mittens - Untitled Pt. 4

birds of a feather

2006-03-02T21:16:00.000-06:00

Been sitting on the Feathers s/t LP for quite some time. Was a little hesitant at first but within a few dozen rotations, all was right. You can't go wrong with the Vermont tree folk. While not as out as MV or the Foole, Feathers craft a sound I plan to keep following. Here is a chunk of a review I wrote for this week's Dusted:

While the English folk tradition is surely at the root of Feathers they’ve only directly nurtured their fascination in the poetics, like the opener “Old Black Hat With A Dandelion Flower,” which begins ”Old black hat with a dandelion flower / White old rat raling seeds in my garden / Skin soaked in diamonds, necklaces of lemon,” sounding much like the String Band’s Robin Williamson. Onward from there, the group creates a lofting, camp-fire jamboree far from the castle gates of mere homage. There is no reedy, Shirley Collins vocal hanging atop or ringing steel of a Davy Graham guitar. Instead, they gently deliver a complex, almost robust, interplay of harpsichord, dulcimer, violin, acoustic guitars, bird calls and ascending mountain choirs. With such a laundry list of instruments, the risk of saturation is high, but each songwriter (all members compose) precisely places the instruments in its own role, whether lead or background accent, never clouding another yet seeming like a continuous, effortless flow.

Feathers - To Earth His Own

solo crash

2006-02-28T20:42:00.000-06:00

Sheeesh... We vanish again, but we bring it back with some hot layers. Who knew this was out there? Debut solo percussion album from Chris Corsano -- he dragged everything from workshop (yeah, that sink too) and straped it on his kit. Don't think anyone able to partake in the fullness of this UK-tour CDR goodie, The Young Cricketer, will be able to wrap their steam fully around. Prior JFAD posts have talked up Corsano -- partner to sax player Paul Flaherty and regular collaborator with Nels Cline, J/O'Rourke, Sunburned, Joe McPhee, etc. etc. -- cause his hand/arm, leg/knee beat patterns and abstracts, are so here and there.
Most of the pieces here sound like they been manipulated or are a duo (hell, maybe a trio) of violin (or sax) and drums. But it is all solo, no overdubs (except for the final 'bonus' track which seems to be a 'remix' or something). Corsano bows the drum heads, cymbals and who knows what else into multi-layered group sounds that stand next to Tony Conrad or barbed wire, mixed with deep gurgles, squeeking metal and jumping, funky beats.

Chris Corsano - How Should You Throw It On Other Occasions?
Chris Corsano - How Will You Learn More Successfully From Your Coach Than By Just Looking and Listening?

solo beats

2006-02-14T12:19:00.000-06:00

Thomas Strønen's debut solo album Pohlitz ( Rune Grammofon) is quite as dandy as I hoped it'd be. On the inner sleeve "recorded with no overdubs or pre-programming" is the first liner as to answer the question right off. Cause, Strønen ping/pongs from skeletal Reich percussive patterns to the more illuminated electro-acoustic mirages that Glenn Kotche's own solo albums hinted at, even Cage's prepared pianos seem to errupt throughtout. The tid-bit that this is all live, adds deeply to Strønen sense of composition and ability to keep these pieces evolving, almost unraveling at time, while adding a considerable melodic hue to all of the pieces. He clearly shaves his own path as you hear the reverberations from his other groups Food and Humcrush but comes off still as solo Strønen.

Thomas Strønen - Ingenious Pursuits

keep on doin' it

2006-02-13T14:57:00.000-06:00

Sorry for the week off folks, Eric and I each had birthdays and needed some R&R. Backatcha...

People constantly question the coolness of the Hoosier state that I reside in. What little they know. While we might not have the constant abundance of the huge cities on the coast or Chicago, we have our own thing going on. One man that has been helping document the goodness from the heartland for years is Jason over at Indiana 45s.

He has built the world's largest repository of information on Indiana recordings and it is growing bigger every day. Perhaps you've already dug some of our lost grooves on Stones Throw's excellent Funky 16 Corners comp, which is heavily-tipped with home cooked goodness. Jason was kind enough to recently forward me a mix of more hot IN cuts and allowed me to share with all. Dig in:

Hamilton Movement - She's Gone
Presidents - Shoe Shine
Mr Gee and the Fifth Generation - We've Got a Funky Feeling
Soul Authority Unlimited - Get Up Off it Baby
Little Murray and the Mantics - Goddess Above
Rhythm Machine - Freakish Love
Allison and Calvin Turner - Keep On Doing It
Black Conspirators - Got To Be Free
Hamilton Movement - Love Circuit
Amnesty - Oh Lord, Help Me

VA - Indiana Funk Mix

the devil lives in my husbands body

2006-02-03T16:01:00.000-06:00

Pulsallama was a short-lived, yet legendary, 12 piece all-girl percussion band who ruled Manhattan nightlife for a brief period in 1981 and 1982. Their sound has been described as "13 girls fighting over a cowbell."

In early 1982 they were asked by Elliot Sharpe to contribute a song for a flexidisc to be distributed in a magazine. Since it was a freebie, they decided to give him their most retarded song, May. With portable tape recorder in hand, he came to their rehearsal studio to record May for posterity, but as soon as he arrived, the gals started brawling. The fighting became so intense it disturbed the derelicts outside, who began screaming and pounding on the door. The band snapped out of it and settled down to do the song. During the song, the drunks started banging and screaming again, or so it sounds. It's hard to tell; it might just be Pulsallama.

In May 1982 the band went to Intergalactic Studios, where Planet Rock was recorded, to cut their first single. While they waited hours for the engineer to show up, they were treated to the Planet Rock show tape hundreds of times, which rattled the battle prone babes' nerves. The resulting brawl nearly got them thrown out of the studio. A couple days later they were off to Asbury Park to open for the Clash, where an adoring audience of 6000 showered them with coins and cups of beer. Pulsallama's single, Devil Lives in My Husband's Body (released on Y Records) became a minor college radio and cult hit.

Text taken from Dyxploitation's awesome Girls of the 80's East Village Sound Gallery.

Pulsallama - Ungawa pt. 2 from NY Noise 2
Pulsallama - Oui Oui
Pulsallama - Pulsallama on the Rag

ghosts alive

2006-02-02T10:22:00.000-06:00

Trumpet player Don Ayler’s discography as leader is a floating whisp of air compared the the still expanding cannon of older brother Albert. When Revenant issued the Holy Ghost box the first disk I put on was #7 for the two '69 live tunes by his sextet, "Prophet John" and "Judge Ye Not." The brass blare Don shot out, seemed to slide between galloping swing dissonance and an odd Spanish flare -- a sound that has erupted across Albert's albums with Don as sideman. Outside of those two treats, Don also recorded an album for Amiri Baraka's (aka Leroi Jones) Jihad label. It remains unissued.

In 1981 Don went to Florence, Italy, did some shows and the result was a triple LP set, Don Ayler In Florence 1981 on the local Frame label. The entire July 18 concert at Theatre Andromeda is included on the six-sides. Why these LPs have not been reissued -- who knows. Though for those expecting the squeal and squawk of Albert or that barely harnessed ecstatic pulse peeked at in the Holy Ghost be aware that those flares are sparse. Nonetheless, Donald sounds pretty damn strong at times. Possibly his last recorded date?

The line-up for the concert is: Don Ayler (trumpet); Abdul Rahim Mustafa (reeds); Frank Doblekar (tenor sax); Anthony “Tony” Smith (piano); John Davis (guitar); Richard “Radu” Williams (bass); Jerry Griffin (percussion).

From Gianfranco Cascella liner notes: When Albert died under mysterious circumstances Don was silent for many years, and only very recently his painful and emotional voice is heard again. This voice gives sound to the authentic and original music of Don Ayler, lyrical and with the full authority of a jazz-tradition, firmly anchored in the styles of a Roy Eldridge or a Frankie Newton, wedging itself into the bop and post-bop era of a Dizzie Gillespie or a Clifford Brown. In Don we can always feel the presence of the old traditions; whereas Albert expresses himself in an angry shout, Don turns towards a subtle, melancholy gasp, often motivated more by feeling than by formal technique. The drama lived by Don in his music has no longer the tragical connotation of the free jazz of the sixties. His approach is a more personal emotion whose drama results from bad experiences in life, without probing for the cosmic and omnipresent expansion that sought expression in his brother's music.

There has been multiple talk over the years about a Don Ayler book or documentary to answers many of the questions associated with the death of his brother -- when it happens, Patrick Regan's ayler.org will know it first.

Donald Ayler - The Bebop Tune

burnin a roach

2006-02-01T10:16:00.000-06:00

Why am I such a sucker for shoegazin'? Ever since I first set my ears upon the first wave of the wall of noise back in high school, I couldn't get enough. Maybe I just keep trying to recapture my youth again and again, which is weird cuz the teenage years weren't all that.

These very cosmic psych-waves hit North America around the same time and we got a scene all our own, as well. The fertile New England scene housed our own version of noise-pop: Mercury Rev, Yo La Tengo, Swirlies, Lilys... the stuff was everywhere. And now it seems I keep reading that people think that the ole shoegazin is going to be making a come back. I say its been here the whole time, its just been ignored.

And now the same Richmond, Virgina soil that birthed the reverb drenched and haze influenced "post-rock" of Labradford and minimalism of South and Patrick Phelan has now begat Gregor Samsa. Their new full length, 55:12 is set for release on March 6th from Kora Records. Boy/Girl vocals that are sometimes over stark arrangements a la Low and other times over the shimmering crescendos of GYBE or Explosions.

Gregor Samsa - Young and Old from forthcoming 55:12 LP
Gregor Samsa - Three from 27:36 EP
Gregor Samsa - Two from untitled EP

art is just fraud: rip nam june paik

2006-01-31T07:24:00.000-06:00

From Wikipedia: Nam June Paik (July 20, 1932 – January 29, 2006) was a South Korean-born American artist, particularly noted for his video art. Paik studied music history, art history, and philosophy at the University of Tokyo, where he graduated with a dissertation on Arnold Schoenberg. He went to Germany in 1956 to continue the study of music history at the University of Munich. In Germany he met composers Karlheinz Stockhausen and John Cage, who inspired Paik to go into electronic art. Paik worked with Stockhausen in a studio for Electronic Music. He also became involved with the post neo-Dada art movement Fluxus, founded by George Maciunas.

He began working with modified television sets in 1963 and bought his first video camera in 1965, returning to Japan to conduct experiments with electromagnets and color television alongside electronic engineer Shuya Abe. He was known for using rapid cuts and fast motion in his videos. He also claimed to have coined the term "information superhighway" in a paper written in 1974.

He will be remembered as a founding father of video art and will continue to influence the younger generation of artists.

"Art is just fraud. You just have to do something nobody else has done before", he famously declared during an interview with a Korean newspaper, and this has now become a popular quote.

He died on Sunday January 29, at his apartment in Miami, Florida, of natural causes.

Charlotte Moorman & Nam June Paik - TTV Cello Part 2
Nam June Paik - My Jubilee ist Unverhemmet

the family that sings together...

2006-01-27T11:27:00.000-06:00

Everyone is freakin' the folk out! Heath and I can't walk across our college towns without an itchy dog and scratchy owner strumming' away. There is some fine creeps out there, but still for my time, the sweet spot of psychedelic folk comes from, ironically, the true freaks of the flock, The Family. When Charlie Manson was on trial in 1970 his "family" recorded an album in hopes of selling it to fatten his defense fund, called The Family Jams. Steve "Clem" Grogan pictured here takes lead on the songs. Oddly, I feel that these carry the same distanced, decayed beauty of David Jackman's Organum or even some of the Pentangle flourish.

A review from AK Press says: In 1970, some close friends of Charles Manson recorded his collection of lost "desert music" as the ultimate statement of friendship and faith during his trial. The definitive release of this classic acid folk-rock session (with vastly improved sound over previous bootlegs) has Steve Grogan (Clem) on vocals and guitar and some ultra-ethereal female vocals. The two-CD set includes an hour of never heard songs and radical alternate takes. The 36-page full-color booklet contains rare psychedelic embroidery, unpublished photos, and texts by Manson, Lynette Fromme, and Sandra Good.

Best to be played when the sun is steaking through the windows and those pesky dust mites are floating free.

The Family Jams - First They Made Me Sleep In The Closet/I'm Scratchin' Peace Symbols On Your Tombstone
The Family Jams - I'll Never Say Never To Always
The Family Jams - The Fires Are Burning

ok, alright, fine

2006-01-26T15:21:00.000-06:00

The Beautiful New Born Children write short and frenetic songs. This is nothing new, people have been doing it for years, from the garages of british invasion straight through Supergrass and into the now. But TBNBC do it well and recklessly with the pedal to the metal. They're all in other bands and all play different instruments in those bands, so this is obviously their "sweet fuck all lets get ripped and make some fun songs and noise" project.

And apparently sending unsolicited demos really does sometimes pay off, because they sent one to Domino, obviously thinking that nothing would become of it because there was no contact information on it. Eventually they were found and we are all better for it. And for once, a description written by the label is surprisingly accurate: Imagine The Sonics recording Slanted And Enchanted in 1966 for In The Red Records and you're in the neighbourhood.

I'd also add that if you toss in some Unrest pop smarts and hyperactivity and you are downright locked in. This CD should come with a warning on the label if you are caffeinated, whoa man you'll hurt yourself flailing along!

the Beautiful New Born Children - Do the Do
the Beautiful New Born Children - Up And Down And Round And Round

back home in warn's head

2006-01-25T08:13:00.000-06:00

His Name is Alive is back, though of course, Warn Defever & co. were never gone. Since 2002's final album for 4AD, Last Night, HNIA have issued a few pounds of wares on Time Stereo and the art edition LP UFO Catcher. Fugg! Then there was that mountain/sunshine storm called The Cloud Box, 10 CDRs from free jazz jams to earth tone Blithe Sons-esque outdoor folk prayers. Currently Cloud Pop, a single disk summary of the box, is up for free download on the HNIA web home.

So today we are at Detrola the new mass-available CD on the just birthed label (Silver Mountain) and it is an almost non-stop beat-heavy burn with ultra-fine soul swagger from vocalist Andy FM. Though it touches on the vast stitch-work Defever has weaved throughout his past show, overall the album is quite synth-slick yet superimposed with torch folk and rambled pop outbreaks. He can't shake that Beach Boys-melody or the the grime of noise and static. Detrola is a day dream with oft nightmare visions. Overall, there is the feeling of sun staring, squinting enough to let the light bleed in but knowing when you open wide it will all be there or at least FM's voice calling from above.

HNIA - I Thought I Saw Detrola
HNIA - Brown Rice-II Cloud Pop
HNIA - Free Concert Cloud Pop

word in your belly

2006-01-24T14:41:00.000-06:00

Mira and Laurent met in Paris. She was a Finnish model and he was writing film music. They instantly fell in love and soon chose to move into a cabin together deep in the woods of Finland, completely isolated. Intent to learn about each other and make music. Together they make stark, spacious arrangements of acoustic guitar and vocals. Their debut CD (out now on Young God was recorded in Finland, and then back in New York, M. Gira, who co-produced the record brought in friends such as Akron/Family and Julia Kent of Antony & the Johnsons to occasionally enhance with strings and sounds. Mi's sound reminds me of Nico or the intimacy of Lisa Germano, who put out many amazing records for 4AD in the 90s and has also recently signed with Young God Records. L'au is more of a Nick Drake or Neil Halstead. A simple, plain and solid record that isn't trying to be weird or challenging. Check them on their current, incredibly long tour which has already started:

Tue 1/24 - Andy's Denton TX w/ Akron Family
Wed 1/25 - Emo's Austin TX w/ Akron Family
Thu 1/26 - Opolis - Norman OK
Fri 1/27 - The Pistol Gallery - Kansas City - MO
Sat 1/28 - The Mill Iowa City IA
Sun 1/29 - Iron Post - Urbana IL
Mon 1/30 - Boxcar Books - Bloomington - IN
Tue 1/31 - Viper Room - Cincinnati OH
Thu 2/2 - Mac's - Lansing MI
Fri 2/3 - Urban Institute for Contemporary Art Grand Rapids MI
Sat 2/4 - Empty Bottle - Chicago IL
Sun 2/5 - Cafe Montmartre - Madison WI
Tue 2/7 - Onopa Brewing Company - Milwaukee WI
Wed 2/8 - Turf Club St. Paul MN
Thu 2/9 - Triple Rock Social Club - Minneapolis - MN
Fri 2/10 - O'leavers - Omaha, NE
Sat 2/11 - Larimer Lounge Denver CO w/ Born Heller
Mon 2/13 - Urban Lounge Salt Lake City UT w/ Born Heller
Tue 2/14 - Neurolux Boise, ID w/ Born Heller
Wed 2/15 - Towne Lounge Portland OR w/ Born Heller
Thu 2/16 - Sunset Tavern Seattle WA w/ Born Heller
Fri 2/17 - 321 Kennewick WA w/ Born Heller
Sat 2/18 - Eagle's Hall Olympia WA w/ Born Heller
Mon 2/20 - Delta of Venus Davis - Ca w/ Born Heller
Tue 2/21 - Cafe Du Nord San Francisco - CA w/ Born Heller
Wed 2/22 - The Attic Santa Cruz Santa Cruz Ca w/ Born Heller
Thu 2/23 - The Mainzer Theater Merced CA w/ Born Heller
Fri 2/24 - The Monday Club San Luis Obispo CA w/ Born Heller
Sat 2/25 - Arthurball Los Angeles CA w/ Born Heller
Mon 2/27 - Casbah San Diego CA w/ Born Heller
Tue 2/28 - Plush Tucson AZ w/ Born Heller
Thu 3/2 - La Zona Rosa - Austin TX
Sat 3/4 - Jack Pot Saloon - Lawrence KS
Mon 3/6 - High Five - Columbus OH
Tue 3/7 - Beachland Ballroom - Cleveland OH
Wed 3/8 - Garfield Artworks - Pittsburgh PA
Thu 3/9 - Valentine's - Albany NY
Fri 3/10 - Tonic - New York NY

Hear some songs over at Songs:Illinois and Aquarium Drunkard and here:

Mi & L'au - A Word in Your Belly

anti-copyright

2006-01-23T07:33:00.000-06:00

For awhile now Mattin, the British computer maximist/minimalist improviser/sound stoker, has been claiming an "anti-copyright" on his music -- no ownership/free to all. He has now made his entire discography and all releases published by his label w.m.o. just that: free to all for download. Quite a statement and a coup for everyone else, cause there is some stunning works in there. Mattin's use of laptop and shareware software would seem to, on paper, jack him in a rut but instead he has become the most finely unpredictable, constantly evolving artist in the whole shabag of electro-acousitc-whatever.

Already, his bod of work has fanned out into some grand moments. My fav picks of his own would be the duo with Dion Workman, Via Vespucci; Agur 3" CDr, his first collab with Rosy Parlane; the solo Gora; hovering craft duo with percussionist Tim Barnes Live at Issue, NYC; and various recordings by Sakada, Mattin's group with Rosy Parlane, Eddie Prevost, and sometimes Mark Wastell, Margarida Garcia and others. For w.m.o, I'll hold that off for a future post.

And to get the 'free-for-all' point across more, these downloads are encoded in .ogg form, the open source code created by Vorbis: Ogg Vorbis is a new audio compression format. It is roughly comparable to other formats used to store and play digital music, such as MP3, VQF, AAC, and other digital audio formats. It is different from these other formats because it is completely free, open, and unpatented.

So you will need to dowload the app or get the iTunes to listen.

Tim Barnes & Mattin: Live at Issue, NYC
Sakada: Askatuta pt. 1
Mattin: Gora pt. 1
Mattin & Dion Workman: Via Vespucci

teenage freak girls

2006-01-20T14:33:00.000-06:00

Boston's The Mules blew through my little town the other week and caused my drunken feet to moooove. I had no idea what was going on- I was expecting some unexciting punk bands and what I got was a wild mix of the Contortions + Cramps + Os Mutantes and some serious Sonic Youth skreeech. Psychedelic experimental garage rock for the next generation.

Their Myspace page claims soft machine, the monks, the pretty things, the mothers of invention, the doors, james chance, glenn branca, red crayola, os mutantes, amon duul (I+II), goblin, b52s, sonic youth, minutemen as influences and for once its kind of right. It also promises the world's fastest freak out! (no hippys, no young vulgarians, the sound of a black leather glove) - and I think if the club had been as packed as it should have been it could have easily of happened.

They just finished up a tour w/ labelmates Wildlife, who both have newish releases on Bodies of Water Arts and Crafts. The Mules 7inch is so new, in fact, that the artwork wasn't even available yet, but I bought one anyway. Have your own freakout and check out the other track over at their webpage.

the Mules - Electrocution

minimalist jukebox

2006-01-19T09:18:00.000-06:00

Never before in my life have I wished I lived in Los Angeles until I read the information about the upcoming minimalism music festival set to happen in late March. Over the course of two weeks time, festival director and composer John Adams will touch on and perform works from just about every major figure in the movement. From African and Gamelan music to Glenn Branca's electric guitar orchestra to the Los Angeles Philharmonic performing pieces by Terry Riley, Steve Reich, John Cage, Arvo Pärt, Philip Glass, Michael Gordon's Decasia film score, and much much more. Sure, in order to go to all these performances you might break your own bank in the process, but it'd be worth it.

In a groundbreaking first by a major orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic presents a wide-ranging survey of Minimalism. Under the watchful ear of Festival Director John Adams, Minimalist Jukebox reflects on where we've been, the current state of the art, and things to come. Run Minimalism's musical gamut from African drums to Branca’s electric guitars, from Riley, Glass and Reich to Andriessen, Pärt and Adams himself. Open your ears and expand your mind.

Steve Reich - Nagoya Marimbas
Steve Reich - Music For 18 Musicians: Section VIII

wind in the branches

2006-01-18T07:25:00.000-06:00

The story behind Christopher Tree's solo percussion album, Spontaneous Sound: At the Cathedral of St. John the define, is that Glenn Kotche (in his pre-Wilco days) was looking through an old Paiste catalog and saw a spread on Tree with his hundreds of percussive instruments, jugs, flutes, bells and wild hair. He asked fellow drum buddy Tim Barnes if he knew about this guy. Turns out he played free concerts to NYC school kids in the early 70s as well as touring Europe and California (even playing prisons Sing Sing and San Quentin) -- long, improvised celebrations of sound. Outside of an appearance on an Aspen magazine split flexi-disc in 1971, nothing had ever been issued. So, Barnes found him, Tree sent a tape, and Barnes issued it on his Quakebasket label. Issued in 2002, it seems the album didn't quite reach as many ears as it could've.

The sole liner notes say: "There are no electronic sounds or overdubbing on this record." Those details are spelled out because Tree's thousand arms rustle up tonal clouds, percussive sheets and straight ambient lysergic visions. I'd love to see some footage of him packing up/transporting/setting up his instrument orchestra.

Spontaneous Sound from 1971 Aspen felxi-disc
At the Cathedral of St. John the Devine pt. 2

last ride together

2006-01-17T15:53:00.000-06:00

Austin's I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness has their bags packed and ticket stamped, ready to board the hype train. They have a hip underground sound of today (dark, indie & retro), they're on a hip, now label (Secretly Canadian) and they have a ridiculously long and silly name (like Crap Your Pants and Say Waaah! (thanks Brainwashed)). But don't let these things deter you. If you are a fan of the icy post-post-punk movement, the genre has not yet died a horrible death.

Fear Is On Our Side is set for release March 7th. Much darker than the previous EP, produced by Spoon's Britt Daniel, this was put down by Paul Barker (Blackouts, Ministry, Revolting Cocks). According to Plan is the obvious single, a warmer Colder, ripe for a strobostrophic remix. I eagerly await the 12" extended mix, thank you...

Elsewhere they channel Lonely Is An Eyesore outtake material into "the Owl". "Today" starts with an infinite guitar loop that slowly builds into the buoyant "We Choose Faces", crescendoing into some serious MBV swirlpool. "At Last Is All" is the inevitable collision of the Cure and early U2. "Long Walk" lopes along, a slow e-bowed train ride through tunnels. The untitled track probably had a name previously, but had to be ditched when they realised Thom Yorke had the same song title. (I mean this in a good way, I still like Radiohead, for now.)

I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness - According to Plan

other 2 mp3s removed at request of label, sorry folks.

club carioca

2006-01-13T15:22:00.000-06:00

With Diplo gaining more and more momentum in the undergroud, his live mixes are spreading throughout the internet fast and furious. And in many of his recent mixes you will find lots of Brazilian baile funk. Furthermore, with the widespread love of 2005's Arular by M.I.A. and its heavily influenced beats, its just a matter of time before more of this type of sound rises to the top.

Man Recordings in Germany is hoping to be a big part of that with their recent signing of Edu K. He has been releasing records in his native Brazil for some time now with De Falla, whose style ranges from punk to metal to rock and beyond over the course of seven albums. Its no surprise that none of us have heard his name, but maybe not for long.

In 2000, he cut the song "Popozuda Rock n Roll", a salute to the baile funk movement from the punks. The song took off and became a huge hit in Brazil, amongst both punks and the dance scene. In 2004, the song got included on Essay's Rio Baile Funk Favela Booty Beats compilation and soon thereafter got picked up by Coca-Cola for a commercial in Germany. Last year, Man put out a 12" with various remixes of the song including a crazy mash-mix by Diplo that somehow merged the Cure with the hard pounding booty bass.

The newest 12", Sex-O-Matic, features one of the hottest female MCs in Rio at the moment, Deize Tigrona. The single includes remixes by Solid Groove from London, a reggaeton remix by Edu K and a baile funk remix by DJs Sany and Mavi (which features a great GNR guitar stab, check it out!). Edu K is currently in the studio putting the finishing touches on his Man Recordings solo album "Frenétiko", which is scheduled for a release in March 2006.

De Falla - Popozuda Rock n Roll
Edu K (feat. Deize Tigrona) - Sex-O-Matic (original mix)
Edu K (feat. Deize Tigrona) - Sex-O-Matic (DJ Mavi + DJ Sany Funk Carioca Mix)

microfrippertronicsoft

2006-01-06T14:50:00.000-06:00

A post over at Channel 9 chronicles the visit from forward-thinking prog-guitar maestro Robert Fripp to Microsoft's campus to record the new sounds that are going to be used for the next version of Microsoft's operating system, Windows Vista.

Some of these sounds will replace the ubiquitous sounds that Brian Eno created years ago for Windows 95. Eno told XFM that he was paid $35k for the six second sound. He also somewhat explained these dealings in this interview, excerpted here:

The idea came up at the time when I was completely bereft of ideas. I'd been working on my own music for a while and was quite lost, actually. And I really appreciated someone coming along and saying, "Here's a specific problem -- solve it.''

The thing from the agency said, "We want a piece of music that is inspiring, universal, blah- blah, da-da-da, optimistic, futuristic, sentimental, emotional,'' this whole list of adjectives, and then at the bottom it said "and it must be 3 1/4 seconds long.''

I thought this was so funny and an amazing thought to actually try to make a little piece of music. It's like making a tiny little jewel.

In fact, I made 84 pieces. I got completely into this world of tiny, tiny little pieces of music. I was so sensitive to microseconds at the end of this that it really broke a logjam in my own work. Then when I'd finished that and I went back to working with pieces that were like three minutes long, it seemed like oceans of time.

Watch and listen... clear, confident and connected...

witchcraft breaker

2006-01-04T11:59:00.000-06:00

Psychic Ills is the latest, greatest post-Velvet Underground, post-Spacemen 3, stoned-to-the-bone, psych phenomena from The Social Registry. They finished a tour opening for labelmates Blood on the Wall last month, gearing up for the release of their debut full length, Dins on February 7th. Last year saw the release of their first 7" and a recent 12" featuring a remix by former Spaceman, Sonic Boom.

Recorded by Charles Burst, who has worked with bands such as Black Dice and Gang Gang Dance, the Ills alchemize wailing analogue drone, tight kraut rhythms, and zonked out of the atmosphere vocals to the max. Combining all the good shit into a murky brew that goes down easy for you syrup-heads. Lick my decals off, baby.

You can hear a couple other tracks from their upcoming LP over at the always wonderful 20 Jazz Funk Greats and Daughters of Invention.

Psychic Ills - January Rain

eleven finger saulte

2006-01-03T07:20:00.000-06:00

A few more glimpses into the work of Derek Bailey including a great interview with fellow guitarist Henry Kaiser from 1987. Here is a bit from the expanding Wikipedia entry on Bailey:

Eschewing labels such as 'jazz', Bailey prefered to describe his music as 'non-idiomatic'. To this end he collaborated with other players as diverse as Pat Metheny, John Zorn, Lee Konitz, David Sylvian, Cyro Baptista, Cecil Taylor, tap dancer Will Gaines, 'Drum 'n' Bass' DJ Ninj, Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth and the Japanese group Ruins. In fact despite often performing and recording in a solo context, he was far more interested in the dynamics and challenges of working with other musicians, especially those who did not necessarily share his own approach; "There has to be some degree, not just of unfamiliarity, but incompatibility [with a partner]. Otherwise, what are you improvising for? What are you improvising with or around? You've got to find somewhere where you can work. If there are no difficulties, it seems to me that there's pretty much no point in playing. I find that the things that excite me are trying to make something work. And when it does work, it's the most fantastic thing. Maybe the most obvious analogy would be the grit that produces the pearl in an oyster, or some shit like that."

Bailey was also known for his dry sense of humour. In 1977 Musics magazine sent the question "What happens to time-awareness during improvisation?" to about thirty musicians associated with the free improvisation scene. The answers received varied from highly theoretical page and a half essays to more direct comments. Typically pithy was Bailey's reply; "The ticks turn into tocks and the tocks turn into ticks."

Derek Bailey - Niigata Snow (1981)
Derek Bailey - Two 50 (1991)
Derek Bailey & Jamie Muir - Jara (1981)
Derek Bailey & Min Xiao-Fen - Bai Ha She (Viper) (1998)
Derek Bailey Interview by Henry Kaiser, KPFA (2/7/1987)

a vibrating world

2005-12-29T07:26:00.000-06:00

For the past two weeks I've been attempting to thaw out the new Alvin Lucier dbl album, which is performed by Anthony Burr and Charles Curtis. Half of the pieces are made up of strings and a wave oscillator and the finale is called Music for Cello with One or More Amplified Vases. This will get a proper jfad write up later, but wanted to mention it now as I've been having quite an easier time digesting Toshiya Tsunoda's Ridge Of Undulation (Hapna) despite it following in close casting. For ten years now, Tsunoda has been creating sublime field recordings that are focused on specific, granular pricks of sound, sorta like taking a foggy zoom lens and scoping out damp leaves that clog your gutters. I first heard him on RLW's massive 5CD Tulpas set on Selektion (when is this going to be reissued?) and sine then he has retained a personal/low-fi or just pure earth quality to his work. The three field recordings on Ridge are akin to his recent Scenery of Decalcomania (Nature Strip), despite being culled from 8 year old tapes. The introduction of sine waves and vibrating surfaces ads quite a hunk of depth to these mini-worlds. The only downfall is that they are not longer; each piece could unravel for another 20 or 30 minutes and still expose itself in new ways.

Toshiya Tsunoda - Sine Waves Mixed With The Sound Of A Vibrating Surface_1
Toshiya Tsunoda - Arrival, Kisarazu bay_11 Dec 97

rip derek bailey 1/29/30 - 12/25/05

2005-12-25T16:17:00.000-06:00

Derek Bailey is dead. Long live Derek Bailey.

~~Word hasn't gotten out about how, but Bailey passed away today in Barcelona, Spain, his adopted home during the past few years.~~ Bailey passed away in London this morning from his battle with motor neuron disease, according to an email from Martin Davidson. Quite hard to put into words short of a book about all he has done/meant/stood for, especially when Bailey didn't even speak the same language as any of us -- just created his own. Since the early 60s he nearly created a wholly singular take, and possibly the root, of improv music and thought. All the flows, ebbs, and electrifiers that keep the heart pumping/body breathing somehow was condensed in Bailey's fingers and let free to pour from his guitar. The one time I saw him, a few years ago in Chicago, he easily heaved gigantic sheets of beauty/noise through his amps, just mile lengths of glass panes shattering and being pieced together again with his every-other to every-thirtieth melodic notes. He looked at ease, smug, dead-on foucsed throughout the set. Once I return from a small holiday will do another post with some early Bailey material. Aida of course, being one all should hear.

Surely in the next day or so more information on Bailey's passing will be posted at his Incus Records, Emanem, or the European Free Improvisation Pages. Here is good bit from All Music Guide, in case you didn't know:

At first glance, Derek Bailey possesses almost none of the qualities one expects from a jazz musician -- his music does not swing in any appreciable way, it lacks a discernible sense of blues feeling -- yet there's a strong connection between his amelodic, arhythmic, atonal, uncategorizable free-improvisatory style, and much free jazz of the post-Coltrane era. His music draws upon a vast array of resources, including indeterminacy, rock & roll, and various world musics. Indeed, this catholic acceptance of any and all musical influences is arguably what sets Bailey's art outside the strict bounds of "jazz." The essential element of his work, however, is the type of spontaneous musical interrelation that evolved from the '60s jazz avant-garde. Sound, not ideology, is Bailey's medium. He differs in approach to almost any other guitarist who preceded him. Bailey uses the guitar as a sound-making, rather than a "music"-making, device. Meaning, he rarely plays melodies or harmonies in a conventional sense, but instead pulls out of his instrument every conceivable type of sound using every imaginable technique. His timbral range is quite broad. On electric guitar, Bailey is capable of the most gratingly harsh, distortion-laden heavy-metalisms; unamplified, he's as likely to mimic a set of windchimes. Bailey's guitar is much like John Cage's prepared piano; both innovations enhanced the respective instrument's percussive possibilities. As a group player, Bailey is an exquisitely sensitive respondent to what goes on around him. He has the sort of quick reflexes and complementary character that can meld random musical events into a unified whole. Read the full bio by Chris Kelsey here.

Derek Bailey - Carpal Tunnel After 3 Weeks (2005)
Derek Bailey - M5 (1975)
Derek Bailey & Ruins - Quinka Matta (1995)

siberian knights

2005-12-22T11:38:00.000-06:00

I swore that I wasnt going to post any holiday music this year after last year's overkill, but I already broke my promise a couple of weeks ago with my Loren Connors post. So I may as well drop some more on ya heads...

Twilight 22 was the brainchild of Gordon Bahary with some help from lead singer and co-songwriter Joseph Saulter (pictured). Gordon created the group initially through a love of computers and synthesizers. At the age of 16 he sat in with Stevie Wonder during the recording of Songs In The Key Of Life. Impressed by his suggestions, Stevie invited Gordon to produce and program synthesizers on his next album, Journey Through The Secret Of Plants. Gordon met Joseph Salter through Herbie Hancock (Gordon also worked on Herbie's Feets Don't Fail Me Now). Joseph had been the drummer with LA-based band "Rhythm Ignition". After the group just missed out on a recording deal with Motown, Joseph and Gordon hooked up to work as Twilight 22.

The year was 1983 and electro was probably as big as it would ever get. Twilight 22 had a monster of a breakdance jam with Electric Kingdom. However, where Vanguard Records got off letting them release a sentimental Christmas tune is beyond me. Poppin' and lockin' to sleigh bells? Check. Synth steel drums playing Jingle Bells? Check. Cheerful kids caroling? Check. Silent Night line played with crystalline "White Lines" fx over top? Check. Ridiculously bad guitar-synth? Check. Vocoder? Oh hells yea check. So many xmas ditties are weaved into this breakdance medley its a little disturbing. Insert your own joke about christmas wrapping. Christmas in Hollis has got nothin on this!

Twilight 22 - In the Spirit

der Zorn Gottes

2005-12-21T14:11:00.000-06:00

This is the account of how
all was in suspense,
all calm,
in silence;
all motionless,
still,
and the expanse of the sky was empty.

At the end of the 1960s, Florian Fricke formed Popol Vuh in Munich. Named after an ancient Mayan scripture tome, their music very much fit into the same realm as Tangerine Dream of the era. What seperated them, though, was their strong spirituality to their music. More trancey, and what I hesitate to say could be pre-worldly-new-age. And definitely one of the strongest arms of the krautrock movement.

By the late 60s, Werner Herzog had already been making films for nearly a decade when he first worked with Fricke. My favorite Herzog movie, and also a collaboration between the two is 1972's Aguirre: the Wrath of God. Starring the always unpredictable Klaus Kinski, its story is the chronicles of an ill-fated 16th century Spanish quest for El Dorado and the madness that the jungle drives them into.

The score is gorgeous. Fricke embraces a wide spectrum of music yet manages to easily make it all heartfelt and captivating. From the plaintive Spirit of Peace pieces (which I swear I hear the rumbling of Arvo Pärt's prepared piano Tabula Rasa piece, which came a few years later), to the swirling choirs of holy heatstroke and the dancing flute jig of a native mountain musician and Takoma-esque guitar figures.

Fricke was the first one to show to a whole musician's generation (electronics or not) how to transfer ancient sacrality into modern popular music using the rigour of classical music.

Popol Vuh - Aguirre I
Popol Vuh - Spirit of Peace (Part 2)

something in the hills

2005-12-20T11:19:00.000-06:00

Chances are you haven't ever heard of Sibylle Baier. Don't feel uncool though, most everyone has not. Her only recordings were made in the early 70s in Germany and have never seen the light of day. Sibylle was depressed, as young adults often are. Her friend Claudine took her on a perspective-changing road trip across the Alps. Upon arriving home Sibylle was refreshed and had her spirits lifted. She wrote her first song.

Baier's songs are gentle and intimate. A soft lullaby of simple guitar and soothing voice. Sibylle reclines under a willow tree in the summer, across the way a young couple rolls in the grass. Look the other direction and a rugged and drunk Leonard Cohen weeps. A voice so pure, songs so simple in their elegance, she could have brought loud bars to complete silence with just one of her fragile refrains.

If you are a true trainspotter maybe you will recognize her name or voice, as she did appear briefly in Wim Wenders' 1974 film Alice in den Städten. Thanks go to Orange Twin for resurrecting this new lost classic. Out in early 2006.

Colour Green is a gem of an album that will blow your mind. You will ask yourself how it is possible you have never heard this before? Sibylle is a star who chose to shine for her friends and family instead of the whole world. An un-crowned queen of the 70's underground folk scene - Nico meets a female Jim Croce.

Sibylle Baier - The End
Sibylle Baier - Forget About
Sibylle Baier - Colour Green

tea for two

2005-12-19T07:18:00.000-06:00

Since Charlambides parted ways from Texas, Tom Carter has let loose with a string o' fantasimo collbas with Marcia Bassett (in name and as Zaika), Shawn McMiller (whose Colors disk could stand a heap more exposure), Bardo Pond, Badgerlore, and now, with long-time San Francisco art abstractor Robert Horton. Their debut-as-duo Lunar Eclipse (Important Records) holds true to the title, but instead of eloquent, silk drones there are fantastic clangs, metallic barks, and crumbled electronic mash-ups. Sounds more like the moon dragging against the sun's underbelly with white flashes reconfiguring your eye/hear/head sight. The familiar sustained/tonal constant of Carter backdrops for Horton's self-made constructs that spit and rumble from deep in the solar core. Though Carter runs straight down with his lap steel, bits of his For Four Cs peek out as do new telescopic dimensions.

Label wordage on the disk: Lunar Eclipse was culled from over 30 hours of recordings taking place, inadvertently, on the equinox, lunar eclipse and winter solstice of 2004 .The duo of Carter and Horton sound as if they are channeling the natural power of these significant calender days into the music. They both noticed something special was happening during the initial recording session when they looked at a clock and realised that they'd been playing for over 5 hours.

Giving Horton a solo listen is a must. Washed Out Headspace on 267 Lattajjaa is a dense, confounding slab of molasses drone. With Wes McIntosh on sax, the two cast heavy lids, but underneath are millions of worker ants feeding those machines.

Tom Carter & Robert Horton Duo - Hunter's Moon
Tom Carter & Robert Horton Duo - Glimmers

free hemphill

2005-12-15T09:52:00.000-06:00

Grab this while you can. Give thanks to Tim Berne's Screwgun label for offering up a free download of Dogon A.D. the superb, 1972 debut album by the amazing Julius Hemphill. Out of print for many years, the LP was first issued on Hemphill's own St. Louis based Mbari imprint before it was reissued a few years later on Freedom – for some reason, it has yet to appear on CD. I belive Quakebasket is to issue some Black Artists' Group recordings sometime... so, more early Hemphill will be surfacing again.

From Screwgun: This historic album features four then-unknowns on three lengthy avant-garde explorations that were quite influential not only in St. Louis (where they were recorded) but eventually on such diverse players as altoists Tim Berne and David Sanborn. Julius Hemphill (on alto and flute), trumpeter Baikida Carroll, cellist Abdul Wadud, and drummer Philip Wilson are in superb form, both as soloists and in ensembles where they react instantly to each other. This important music is better to be heard than described.

Julius Hemphill - Rites
Julius Hemphill - Dogon A.D. complete LP .zip

low tides rolling in

2005-12-14T07:48:00.000-06:00

Here's a disk that's been collecting dust since it came in, Luigi Archetti & Bo Wiget's Low Tide Digitals II – one of the few non-Norwegian releases from Rune Grammofon. Guitarist Archetti is a new name to me. Outside of his group Tiere Der Nacht with Guru Guru percussionist Mani Neumeier, it seems he is now in the modern-day Guru Guru – fancy that. Now, cellist Wiget has been a peripheral favorite since hearing his Elk (Sadke) composition many years back ('98 maybe?) and the awesome Corpus Hermeticum CD Spazieren/Hokou/Periodic Drift with Taku Sugimoto and Tetuzi Akiyama. Twice this week we've bridged the Norway/NZ connections with the above mentioned labels – time seems ripe for a nice HCorp revue.

So, I didn't hear the first volume from these two but have a feeling that II flows in a similar, misty/ambient vibe. While Wiget's Elk had a leaning maximist approach, the methods used for its construction seem similar to what is happening here. Both employ electronics atop their chamber-esque dueling which is steeped in the ol' style of Euro blare though aware of the dividend payoffs in abstract/minute gesutres. Wiget's bow-birthed drones consistently match up with the blips and speaker cone tears amassed atop – when he is doing another solo album? The art/sound installation work of Archetti seems to play in heavily with the manipulations happening on each track; hearing this pipped down from a white wall gallery wouldn't seem out of palce. This is perfect at low, under the breath volume or cranked up to accentuate the digital dust that is kicked up along the way.

Luigi Archetti & Bo Wiget - stück 12
Luigi Archetti & Bo Wiget - stück 19

i'm drunk

2005-12-13T09:54:00.000-06:00

For a few months now I've been going back to Blaster Al Ackerman's I Am Drunk LP and each time the oxygen around gets thinner as the clouds thicken; ready to drop pants and spray sputum dead in my left eye. The Blaster is best known for his mail art -- spanning back to the early 70s 'n' jumping off from the early work of Ray Johnson -- and being the source of TG's "Hamburger Lady" text. Here, we got what surely comes off like pureed oral history of the world, like a blasted-drunk Bob Cobbing.

Released by Ehse Records on LP, though the label offers the entire album as a free download as well. Before you click over there for the gratis DL, JFAD sez drop the clams and pluck the LP instead, if not for Blaster's rosey faced/gnarled baby-look self-portrait on the cover, but for spinning this for friends as you burn a few during Yule-time. Guess, I'm feeling pretty lazy today, so here is the Ehse description, as it adds things up nicely...

This listener's prediction: the muffled voice of Blaster Al Ackerman reading his "Pepper Young" translations with a presumed bar of soap in his mouth followed by tree frog belches will replace the sound of a passing steam locomotive as the poetic sounds of indescribable mystery and high lonesomeness. This audio icon of the 21st Century can be found on Ehse Records' LP release of Blaster Al Ackerman's "I Am Drunk". And indeed at times he does sound drunk, but not just on booze, also on language and human absurdity. Featuring live as well as "studio" recordings, "I Am Drunk" also has two Blaster classics that raise the humdrum world of the workplace to the giddy heights of Philip K. Dick in Munchkinland - "The John Eaton Recommendations" and "The Crab". Another prediction: copies of this album with its linguistic hijinks and squat and thrusts will be played far more times and enjoyed much more than any mothball enshrined Caedmon LP of T.S. Eliot or Robert Frost intoning.

Blaster Al Ackerman - The Crab

an absolutely terrible disease

2005-12-12T07:34:00.000-06:00

Truth be, I picked up the first SPUNK album, Det Eneste Jeg Vet, Er at Det Ikke Er En Stovsuger (The Only Thing I Know, Is That It Isn't A Vacuum Cleaner), upon its release because Doramaar -- Kim Pieters' all lady free jazz group from New Zealand -- had pulled the shades down for good. Their fantastic CD Copula (Corpus Hermeticum) and the posthumous Fusteron LP Terra Incognita were a combined, thick mass of the finest snarled skree of their homeland and Europe's shattering take of free improv. Feel like they didn't get much of a shake here in the US, or, probably anywhere.

Now back to Norway. SPUNK members Maja Ratkje (voice, theremin, electronics) and Hild Sofie Tafjord (French horn, flute, electronics) would probably call me a pig for my thought process listed above -- check out their duo Fe-Mail's fabulous All Men are Pigs album -- but it is the truth. No matter, because since then Ratkje's work has been constantly floating atop all of the stacks around here. Along with Kristin Andersen (trumpet, violin, flute), Lene Grenager (cello), SPUNK follows in the acoustic glitch/insect buzz/ power blurt jazz style yet what truely makes it so brain-freezing fine is the surreal, almost fairy tale cloud cast over it -- like Spontaneous Music Ensemble conducted by Pippi Longstocking. Their new album En Aldeles Forferdelig Sykdom (Rune Grammofon) is minced and diced, like manic tape edits, of strings and skronks. Choir voices, digitally honed to seemed as if descending from Pippi's homeland, bounce from track to track giving the feel of an absolute celestial soundtrack as much as a firece, face-dagger, jazz platter. Their best yet.

SPUNK - Marbles
SPUNK - Dead Man Watching

MP3s removed at artist's request. SPUNK invites you to check out their sounds via MusicOnline.no.

i ain't dead yet, muther fucka!

2005-12-10T16:09:00.000-06:00

RIP Richard. It's difficult, but we are listening and laughin' right now.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Richard Pryor, the groundbreaking comedian whose profanely personal insights into race relations and modern life made him one of Hollywood's biggest black stars, died of a heart attack Saturday. He was 65.

Pryor died shortly before 8 a.m. after being taken to a hospital from his home in the San Fernando Valley, said his business manager, Karen Finch. He had been ill for years with multiple sclerosis, a degenerative disease of the nervous system.

Recognition came in 1998 from an unlikely source: The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington gave Pryor the first Mark Twain Prize for humor. He said in a statement that he was proud that, ''like Mark Twain, I have been able to use humor to lessen people's hatred.''

Check out the full NY Times biography.

Who wants just one routine? Here is our fav Pryor album, the 1974 Stax LP, recorded live at Don Cornelius' legendary Soul Train nightclub in San Francisco. "Black And White Lifestyles" still makes me laugh till tears...

Richard Pryor - That Nigger's Crazy

breathing and smothering

2005-12-09T07:17:00.000-06:00

Immolation/Immersion (Strange Attractors) is the debut album from molten improv trio Nels Cline (guitar), Wally Shoup (sax) and Chris Corsano (drums). Astute JFAD readers will remember my giddy roof-top praise of the Graduation LP -- inaugural meeting of Nels and Chris, along with Carlos Giffoni -- from one of my first postings here. That platter kept me up for nights in anticipation of the beaut we have here now. The energy between Nels and Chris can make most grown folk cry and with Shoup is the mix, they become a near-infallible splatter team that rarely gets out of the lines. Despite the room, they don't just blow/bang/strike without focus instead zeroing in with rapid patience and buckets of tact. Though this is still heavy as brick off an overpass and nastier. The opening piece "Lake Of Fire Memories" begins with Nels sculpting miniature peaks for Shoup to span top register bridges across -- by the time Chris drops in like a fuggin bombshell their tones have multiplied like the spiderweb nation. And at just two-and-half minutes, it is the perfect biscuit-sized cranium breaker to get on the airwaves and set the rest of the album off.

61-year old Shoup sounds as huge and multiphonic as Pharaoh Sanders ever did and dangerous as handling glass shards while feeding a baby on your knee. Up against the other two, he simultaneously melts into the spiked six-string ambiance and dances with / stomps all over Chris with his canyon-lung solos. Next to Rescue Mission, his duo with Jeph Jermam, and Confluxus (w/ Toshi Makihara n' Brent Arnol) this might be my dearest Shoup to date (through I haven't heard his 80s output). Nels Cline. Not much more to say than that. He and Chris in a steel-cage match with be a nice proposition. Or more trio -- please.

Nels Cline/Wally Shoup/Chris Corsano - Lake Of Fire Memories

instant sin sheds skin

2005-12-07T20:10:00.000-06:00

Neneh Cherry has a story far older than her recent collaboration on Gorillaz "Kids With Guns". It even goes back further than her huge late-80s single "Buffalo Stance". Perhaps it first began with the union of an artist and a musician in the 60s. Soon, her new step-father, Don Cherry, stepped in. Raised around a deluge of music definitely had its effects on a young Neneh, as the family would often tour with Don.

But all this didn't stop her from rebelling either. Neneh dropped out of school, moved to London and formed a punk band as a teenager. Eventually she ended up joining a new group with part of the Pop Group and naming themselves after a Roland Kirk LP.

Rip, Rig & Panic gets lumped in with the post-punk scene going on at the time - and they did have many similarities - but they were far beyond funky abrasive tunes for the new wave punks to dance to. Often mixing in jazz flourishes of piano, free-jazz horns and flat out weirdness. Existing from 81-83, they managed to put out 3 albums and a half-dozen singles over the time.

Listening again they might be the direct ancestor of Dutch kitchen sink punks like Dogfaced Hermans. Or maybe not. Regardless, the RRP stuff is quite hard to find but a couple of tracks are available on the new GRLZ compilation along with a dozen other great tracks of estrogen-laced post-punk. Including Maximum Joy who I mentioned a last week.

Rip, Rig & Panic - You're My Kind of Climate
Rip, Rig & Panic - Storm the Reality Asylum

78 and still going

2005-12-06T07:15:00.000-06:00

You know that saying wild hair? I always imagine a whole patch of 'em sprouting outta Joe Bussard's blood pumper. Half-heart-half-wild-hair drives him. He is The Record Collector of which all others are measured up to. With over 25,000 old-time records and nearly all of them are tagged with hunting stories and arcana. Check out this great article on Joe from the Washington Free Weekly (2/12/98) that details a buncha exploits and his discovery of that Black Patti. So last year Old Hat issued the double disk Down in the Basement Joe Bussard's Treasure Trove of Vintage 78s 1926-1937 and now Dust to Digital is bringing out a dusty monster that is the 5CD Fonotone boxset.

After spending his early years soaking up the sound of thousands of 78 rpm discs, record collector Joe Bussard decided in 1956 to make some recordings of a few guitar-picking pals in his local National Guard unit. Little did Bussard know that his hobby would turn into a 14 year odyssey which would result in hundreds of custom made 78 rpm records to be issued on his own Fonotone label out of his parents' basement in Frederick, Maryland.

Fonotone issued the first sides by John Fahey (as Blind Thomas) and as well as slabs from the likes of Mike Stewart (as B. Sam Firk), Mike Seeger (as Birmingham Bill) and dozens of others you and I have never heard of. Stewart and Fahey even got together as Mississippi Swampers for a session. All in all, this is quite a FonoDiscography at 131 tracks, all mastered from the original tapes.

Joe Bussard & Oscar Myers - Chinese Breakdown
Mississippi Swampers - Some Summer Day No. 2
Jolly Joe's Jug Band - Tear It Down
Birmingham Bill - Cumberland Gap

by any other name

2005-12-05T07:59:00.000-06:00

In a review of By The Fruits You Shall Know the Roots from earlier this year, I wrote of guitarist Jack Rose: Simply said, Jack Rose’s two solo 12-string guitar pieces destroy. The first, “Sundogs” is Rose’s steel slide reverberating steel string/fret into silver spiraled pulse. As offerings to the sun, he slowly casts off shavings that eventually collate your head into a plated cloud that floats off to melting elevations. Otherworldly and mind-gushing as any of the full-band throttles he’s induced with Pelt. “Now That I’m a Man Full Grown” is Rose at finger picking paramount, stretching melodics and harmony through sinuous exploration; the sounds spill out like nature’s call.

Kensington Blues (VHF), his new full-length, expands upon those two pieces into what is undoubtedly Rose's blinding apex into string music and jass. Not to say he won't lick n' leap-frog ahead in a year or so, but for now, frozen in time, this disk (or high-price, yet damn-right worth it LP on Tequila Sunrise) is worth its weight in Mexico's finest. The ragtime melodies Rose spirals out of his fingers would work marvels as an all day soundtrack to windmill watching, cause 20 minutes in you'd be seeing triple-time. As I'll jabber on later this week of the drop-drool goods in the Fonotone box set -- Rose is torn from the same burlap bags as those old-timers or the alley mass of garbled, brain birth sipped (and stirred) by the likes of Alan Bishop.

Lots o' info on Rose and his tone-dream group Pelt at Klang Industries. Should get writtin' on their new dbl album as well...

Jack Rose - Kensington Blues

selling me short while stringing me long

2005-12-02T16:59:00.000-06:00

With all the amazing reissues coming out these days, how is there time for the deluge of new music? Bobb Trimble is yet another in the seemingly neverending stock of psych-folk musicians from yesteryear. Whereas most of the jewels being unearthed are from the actual psychedelic era, Bobb is a musician out of his time and place. He did his recordings in the late 70s/early 80s near Worcester, MA.

Trimble echoes the ghosts of Bolan, Buckley, Rapp, Spence, and Wyatt. But instead of xeroxing the blueprint like many of today's bearded dudes, Bobb makes it his own. Freely incorporating a pastiche of phasing guitars, answering machine noise, spliced up tapes, and an heaping helping of god knows what. (False endings, candid studio out-take intakes, backwards loops). A staggering work of genius for a guy who obviously has only so much to work with.

When listening in, you assume he is some long-lost musician, only accidentally discovered and forever gone and untraceable. But apparently he still pops up around the Wormtown scene. His small issue records have demanded considerable sums of money online and now he is in talks to have his music legitimately re-released in 2006 on both CD and LP.

Bobb Trimble - If Words Were All I Had
Bobb Trimble - Armour of the Shroud

sails descending

2005-12-01T12:30:00.000-06:00

I first encountered Patrick Phelan back in the late 90s when a representative from Jagjaguwar handed me a CD by South because I was gushing about Labradford. Seems they shared an extra hand in the Richmond, VA scene.

South didn't sound like my boys over at Kranky, but I loved it anyway. They tied together my love for minimalist composers and late era Talk Talk and their followers, Bark Psychosis. They only put out their one album, but one-third of the group, Phelan, has been slowly releasing his own solo work ever since. His third solo record, Cost is out now.

Cost begins with the instrumental In Words (hah) - like Eno cut adrift, a perfect soundtrack for the grey skies and slow-mo snow outside. But the second track quickly proves this is not a recording of audio wallpaper and overt minimalism. A full arrangement propels as Phelan coos back and forth. The band keeps at it, even adding a distorted guitar solo, making for the most rock moment of his career. But worry not, the standard dreamy sad sound is still around and abound. Finger picked guitars, strings, lap steel- a beautiful collection of sounds sparse enough to not muddy up the sound whatsoever but full enough to keep you awake. A gorgeous album, worth the wait that has kept me hitting repeat for days now.

Patrick Phelan - Lesser Laws

dancing on my boomerang

2005-11-30T13:02:00.000-06:00

Crippled Dick Hot Wax has done us a great service by recently reissuing some great releases from the late 70s/early 80s post-punk scene that just keeps getting more and more attention of late. A number of months ago it was GRLZ: Women Ahead of Their Time, which featured a fantastic set of songs from the Slits, Rip Rig & Panic, Bow Wow Wow, Delta 5, and much much more. The leadoff track was from Bristol, UK's Maximum Joy- a Pop Group offshoot that was as funky, political, dubby and experimental as any of their peers from the era. Now, Crippled has decided to also give Maximum Joy the full reissue treatment with a wonderful collection of rare and hard to find 7", 12" and some album tracks too called Unlimited (1979-1983).

Fuelled by Thatcherism, inner city race riots and growing protest amongst young and old, Maximum Joy’s songs and melodies were about getting conscious and waking up to life, " …stay positive, stay plus, pulsate, pulsate no terminate, no end, it’s only just beginning…"

Sidenote: Their releases were found on the uber-hip Y Records and NYC's 99 Records (pronounced Nine Nine). The story goes that 99 was desperate to license Pigbag's 'Papa's Got A Brand New Pigbag' from Y Records. Y's owner was really trying to push Maximum Joy so said he would only license the Pigbag if 99 released a Maximum Joy record first. 99 agreed and put out an EP. Initially the plan was that 99 would release Y records in the States with Y releasing 99 records in the UK. This didn't work out and when it came to 99 releasing the Pigbag, 99 felt too many copies had been sold on import and decided to release Pigbag's next record instead. When he heard it he didn't like it, and decided not to release it and that was the end of any arrangement with Y.

While the boys often got the most attention from the recent rounds of revisiting, its great to see the girls getting their voices heard again as well. Some other blogs have already covered Maximum Joy recently so I will try to do some different tunes...

Maximum Joy - Building Bridges
Maximum Joy - Searching for a Feeling

possible dawn

2005-11-28T14:07:00.000-06:00

Loren Connors is a relatively unknown living legend of guitarists. Lots of critics love to elevate his name beside the likes of other masters such as John Fahey and Derek Bailey. With over 50 releases to his name on two dozen or so labels for over 25 years as a soloist or collaborator, you'd think even dad would have stumbled onto him by now. He has performed with Keiji Haino, Alan Licht, Jim O'Rourke, Chan Marshall, Darin Gray, Rafael Toral, John Fahey, Thurston Moore, Henry Kaiser, Dean Roberts, Jandek and the list goes on.

My favorite works of his are his slow-motion meditations. Sparse, empty spaces that wring emotion out of wood and steel. In a live setting, his fragile frame hunches over and gently reverberates out into the room just as delicately as the sound, leaving just enough pause to hear the chair underneath creak as weight shifts. Intaglio ambience.

Family Vineyard has been doing a great favor to us in recent years by releasing a half dozen recordings to the masses. Next year will see the completion of an amazing long term project for FV, Night Through: Singles & Collected Works, 1976-2004 triple CD boxed set. Painstakingly remastered by Jim O'Rourke from the original masters, this combines nearly all of Loren's scarce releases in one place and runs for 3.5 hrs and has an extended essay by William Ferris and even a song from Loren's mother. I can hardly wait.

In the meantime, to whet our appetites and minimize the holiday explosion of thanksgiving weekend, a couple of lo-fi tapes have been uncovered to help bring the merriment to a crashing halt. Silent Night has always been one of the prettier songs of the season and nothing warms a heart quite like a child singing along to dad's playing. Recorded at home in 1995, his son was around 8 at the time.

Music is silent when it's still inside you. When you let it out, it takes on a sound, just one hand held toward another. - Loren Connors

Loren Connors - Silent Night
Loren & Jamie Connors - Silent Night

Bonus tracks:
Loren Connors -The Departing of a Dream, Part 4
Loren Connors - Her Death
Loren Connors & Suzanne Langille - Why We Came Together

the rumble has ceased

2005-11-21T09:47:00.000-06:00

Saturday night I was out DJing a whole buncha 45s at a local club and didnt even realise that I played some of a legend that just passed on into the dark night. The man had a sound and look that were completely his own. Perhaps the first cool dude. Some say he invented the power chord!

R.I.P. LINK WRAY
May 2, 1929 - November 5, 2005

It is with great sadness that we inform you that Link Wray passed away from heart failure at his home in Denmark on November 5, 2005. He was buried after a private service at Christians Church in Copenhagen Denmark on November 18, 2005.

He was a Korean War veteran and proud of his service to his Mother Country.

Link Wray played music for over sixty years, always staying true to himself. Not settling for the "oldies circuit", Link continued to release new music throughout his career. He recently completed a three month tour of the USA just four short months before his death.

Link Wray laid the foundation of rock and roll guitar, influencing the likes of Pete Townshend, Bob Dylan and Neil Young, as well as hundreds of thousands of musicians and fans all over the world.

Punk rock, grunge, garage, rock guitar, surf, heavy metal and more...it all started with Link Wray. He shared the stage with everyone from Patsy Cline to Bruce Springsteen. He is truly an unsung hero of rock and roll.

Link's "Jesus God" has called him home and Heaven is rocking a whole lot harder tonight.

AP News Story

Link Wray - Rumble
Link Wray - Raw-Hide
Link Wray - Ain't That Lovin' You Babe

deep sea divers

2005-11-18T13:18:00.000-06:00

Grizzly Bear began as a home recording project of Ed Droste. But soon it took on a life of its own and has now blossomed to four. I could easily namedrop Animal Collective, Sufjan Stevens, Nick Drake, Earlies, Syd Barrett, Pet Sounds, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Jim O'Rourke, Unicorns, Super Furry Animals and the Castanets. Just don't call them another progression of the same tired Nu York formula of freakdom.

A recent live performance wheezed a warm breath into a cold room. Autoharp, handclaps, woodwinds, electronics, strings and more all mixed in perfectly with a more traditional set-up, leaving plenty of space for the sounds to have a shape of their own yet combining for something strangely magical. Songs shift, evaporate, coalesce. A hazy dreamlike state shrouds everything. The limitations of the recording become its intimacies and draw you into its world.

A recent remix CD of their recordings has appeared with the talents of Tim Sweeney of DFA, Castanets, Soft Pink Truth, Ariel Pink, The Double, Efterklang, Hisham Bharoocha, Simon Bookish, Solex, and more. Do yourself a favor and grab their album from Kanine.

Grizzly Bear - Don't Ask
Grizzly Bear - A Good Place
Grizzly Bear - Owner of a Lonely Heart

found elvis

2005-11-16T09:22:00.000-06:00

Taking a stroll at the Raleigh recycling center the other day I came across a Sony-Matic portable 1/4" reel-to-reel. Looks brand new. I dropped off my dead 40 GB hard drive and left with as much unneeded articles as I arrived. There was a reel already on the tape, already played and/or recorded half way through. Bets were on it being an interview or bull session between war vets, truck driving grandpas, or the verbal passing down of Hungarian cooking secrets. Nope. Instead, it was a slow-moving, blurry dub of, what sounds to me, an Elvis gospel album bouncing back from the other side.

Unknown - found recording

nowhere near

2005-11-15T10:39:00.000-06:00

Dawn Smithson might be a familiar name to a few. Perhaps if you are a Kranky nut like me. She played in and sang in the spacey Jessamine during the 90s and lately has made appearances with Sunn O))). These moves did little to reveal what would happen on her new solo release, Safer Here.

Eschewing the volume of her other projects, Dawn chooses an incredibly intimate environment of mostly acoustic guitar and her lovely voice. A few synth warblings and guitar washes run underneath. But the centerpiece is absolutely the isolation and woe of Smithson's story. The sound of someone locked up in their own home. To me, each song must be listened to in order as they seem to tell a story and the emotions that pour out over time. A great break-up record, if there is such a thing.

As she describes it, "I have been the most extreme hermit I could possibly be during the year plus it took me to make the record, having neither the time nor the desire for most human company. Because this album so personal and intimate, I think it is also best listened to alone - like a melancholy movie that might deeply affect you, but that you don't want anyone to see you being affected by."

Safer Here teaches the thought that you know the variables at home, you won't see anyone you don't want to. Nothing can affect you. Nowhere Near has a deep nearly Labradford guitar figure over the sad realization that the hurt you have is not nearly gone. it may be time to watch the waves crashing...

Dawn Smithson - Safer Here
Dawn Smithson - Nowhere Near

return to burma

2005-11-14T08:48:00.000-06:00

Thank your guru -- for on those evenings when your brain is frozen with TV-drool or wasting away weekends with the shades pulled -- that somewhere, some wide-eyed, deep-eared explorer is globe-trotting through the markets, ghettos and lost archives for music most of us never knew was there. Sublime Frequencies gathers it all up and hands it over. Yowza.

Guitars of the Golden Triangle: Folk and Pop Music of Myanmar Vol. 2 is like a mini-Nuggets or, better yet, a Bloodstains-styled gathering of day-glow Burma sounds filtered through a poppy-filled view. Compiled by Sun City Girl Alan Bishop, he writes in the liner notes that "this is a phenomenal 'lost scene' and we're thrilled to resurrect it for those interested in folk, rock, and pop styles from lesser-known regions of the globe". Lesser know locals is right. These songs are gathered from groups from the Shan State.

Shan State is Myanmar's largest province and larger than the entire State of New York. Most outside this Burmese region have never heard of Shan State, but this massive sub-tropic tableland has an average elevation of 3000 feet, perfect for the cultivation of poppies for which it is very well known (in fact and fiction) as the center of the "Golden Triangle."

There are quite a clutch of artists filling the 21 cuts here. Stands out are Saing Saing Maw, early 70's Burmese psyche rock pionneer and the Tex-style of Lashio Thein Aung (aka "Jimmy Jack," aka "Burmese Texan"). Each infuse more of their own personal touches and traditional flares than carboning western ways. Stellar chunks!

Saing Saing Maw - Than Shin Ley Ye Khan
Lashio Thein Aung - You Got What You Want

pretty shitface

2005-11-11T13:17:00.000-06:00

Musical Family Tree is a labor of love. Its a wonderful little website that documents and spreads the love of the Hoosier State's musical heritage. Countless mp3s from over a hundred bands from the 80s, 90s and more recent from Bloomington and Indianapolis are all available for free download. Each of these songs is linked from their site so please take some time to visit them and check out some other bands (and if you donated a few bucks that would be awesome, too).

This weekend sees the inaugural 2-day 2-city Musical Family Tree Festival here in Indiana. While most of the historical relics presented didn't make much news outside of their homestate, here they were revered and adored. One of groups that I am most looking forward to hitting the stage once again is Uvula, of which Chris Kupersmith, Tina Barbieri and Wade Parish were the core. Prior to Uvula Chris and Tina were 2/3 of Fabric, a sorta precurssor that was loaded heavily with drum machines and electronic noise. Fabric was a fringe favorite of the Bloomington scene -- actually, despised by most due to their often chaotic shows (aka, disfucntional equipment) and artistic vision no one could wrap that tiny minds around. Though by the time of their last performance, which was actually after the birth of Uvula, everyone was sucking from their teet. (Fabric's sole album Woolly Mammoth came out in '97 on Scrimshaw and only then did people feel like they should pay 'em more attention. Too bad they'd already broken up. This review from then shares the same sentiment.)

Yet once Uvula was their full concern, it always seemed to be on the verge of breakup. An upstart label called Down Right Records (which was co-ran by a guy who once wrote in the college rag that Chris' vocals sounded like a cat being drowned) issued their official album About What You'd Expect in October 2001 and then prompty shut down before the album had a chance to get out into the world. A total crime. An early version of the album, with a few extra songs, called Smarm is also on the MFT site.

All 15 songs on About What You'd Expect are gorgeous in their male/female harmonies and that you can find something that doesn't sound quite right and which makes it damn-right pop genuis. You'll see what I mean. Recorded by Vess Ruthenberg (The Pieces, United States Three), it also featured a nice swath of local all-star/legends like John Terrill (Dancing Cigarettes , The Walking Ruins, Tea Cup), and Lon Paul Ellrich (Winechuggers, Marmoset, Sardina). James Grillo too -- what happened to that guy? The album title is kinda a joke -- it took these folks 18 months to record this monster. Which could be why Chris is credited with "guilty" along with his vocal/guitar duties. Tina takes "sorry."

They didn't get nearly the consideration they deserved, with only a couple of reviews still existing online. Like this one over at the wonderful and soon to be departed Splendid. A snippet:

When records with this much wit and effortless, hyperactive sparkle emerge from the piles of easily written-about and easily categorized discs that accumulate in music mag offices across the country, critics foam at the mouth and then whimper helplessly at how great it all sounds with comparison-laden glaze, much like the last three paragraphs you've read. So, in summary: Uvula play acoustic guitars, write great songs, and About What You'd Expect is full of them. Anything else I might say pales in comparison.

In order to truly beat the point to death about how much we like Uvula's only official album, we now present to you a track-by-track dual review from your pals at JFAD.

01 - Uvula - Aloha

h: a great opening track cuz its a standard Uvula song. stripped down, wonderfully harmonized, perfectly askew

e: Chris' lyrics eschew the silver lining for more of a rotten outlook that initself holds the silver lining. Without a doubt one of the best Hoosier lyricists, knocking down folks like Jake Smith and Jason Molina with simple ease. I often never know what he is talking about but it feels right: "Your elbow vacation is on the arm of your chair / and you don't even care / you don't care about your hair / and the cost of a phony flower means aloha / aloha."

02 - Uvula - Kicking Heel

h: clap along now. these are the kinds of people you hope show up at your party with their guitars. and where on earth do they find so many melodies? and what better place for the first chorus than the last 30 seconds of a 3 minute song?

e: Love the opening, "Sucker punch for lunch / felt much better." Chris strikes back and wraps it up in this proto-T-Rex stomp. "Scott was my friend until I screwed him / pulled the rug from under him / he was drunk seething."

03 - Uvula - Turbulent

h: damn they sound kinda pissed off. I really need a lyric sheet after all these years. alternating between a bile crust and sugary sweet insides. and I love the lines that welcome the listener to scream along...

e: Yeah, Tina and Chris either sound like they are cuddling up together or getting ready to drag it out in the street. Pissed for sure. "You had me when I was healthy / you watched me / You got me filthy." Hell yeah! I used to dream that all of these songs were true-life tales, but whenever I'd ask Chris, he either lie to my face or be like, "you thought the song was about that? Nope." Swarm version is a tad bit grittier.

04 - Uvula - King of the Echo People

h: Tina has the lead vocal here and she sings right in your ear. this could very well be the theme song of MFT: "you are important, and under-rated / I will remember you when you're gone."

e: When I wrote a cover story on the band for the Bloomington Indepedent, those lyrics were used as the the last line. Somehow, the song seemed to cast a spell on them. While there is some frantic folk chopping in the Uvula catalog, this is most twang they go toward.

05 - Uvula - Pretty Shitface

h: classic. a gritty drum program and tambourine. late drunken bloomington summer nights. so weird with its bathroom lyrics.

e: This is song sums up the quintessential Bloomington experience. Wonderfully mangled in 4-track style, with odd hiss, bells, and ambience streaming below the song, with a few drums parts spliced together. I kinda dig the 'demo' version on Swarm more, as the rough edges seem to show more. The beauty of most Uvula songs is the multiple parts, whether in the chours/lyrics or just the total shift in music. A hot-ass tale about drinking, droppin acid and being out way too late.

06 - Uvula - D-E-M-O-N-S

h: ok for the longest time I never realised that they were spelling out DEMONS, I guess I dont know how to read. and I love the big guitars and bratty na-na-na. "neven been hurt by a man so evil / all his girlfriends are now lesbians." damn.

e: Tina takes no prisoners here.

07 - Uvula - My Car

h: a song about having a flat tire and not wanting to do anything about it. how very midwest. may as well be on blocks eh? love the big echo.

e: Used to think this was too silly, but then grew to think the song is more about Chris just not wanting to deal with the bullshit of life. "Is this just laziness? / Or some kind of premonition." Nice shakers!

08 - Uvula - Suspense

h: another Tina song. this one stomps along. a tune about not knowing what is going on with another. am I cooooold? certainly not.

e: They could have easily dipped all their songs in the battered three-dimensional view, but taking some as just simple guitar strum/gallop drum with minimal lead guitar overdub makes the album feel so much like a lovely pillow for a sleepy head.

09 - Uvula - Miseries of Neutrality

h: perhaps the most broken song. somehow it works. if you don't like this song wait til the ending for the big payoff. rock and roll's on fire! what possesses us to write these blogs?

e: Yeah, this is almost like a free verse jam on Chris' part. Wobbly as all get-out and brimmed with odes to Chris' faves (Mick Fleetwood, Lou Reed, J.Richmond) to which he asks the question: "I think all of the avenues are sunk / and rock n' roll is on fire / I am depressed/ What posses you to write those songs?" I also believe this song was the source for the MFT web site name.

10 - Uvula - Momcat

h: porch-swing cat song. a genre unto itself. everyone with a cat and an acoustic has one, admit it.

e: Gettin high in the Midwest sun and watchin the cats play like they do. Though that rotten lining does creep in: "What am I to you? / Just a subject of a sentence?"

11 - Uvula - Weekend Gone

h: weekends go by too quick. especially when your cutie is miles away and you only see each other then.

e: True that!

12 - Uvula - Vocal Style

h: I think this was a "single"? once you spend so much time with someone you start to pick up their little things. and you love every second of it.

e: Again, Chris really slays with the intricacies of relationships -- whether in sickness or in health. It is heart breaker, but I can't stop listening. "Yes we have problems / our heroes have got stuck." And there is the great mid point break: "But I love you and public TV / or the time we connected the dots and [insert guitar solo]."

13 - Uvula - Ostrich

h: I never understood why splendid used this song as the snippet. its a fine song but rather flat compared to the rest of the album. no hands, look ma!

e: Hate to say it, but if a track was to be left off, I wouldn't miss this one. Can't believe I said that, but the other songs outweigh it in heavy manner. "Eyeballs" from the Swarm session would be a fine replacement.

14- Uvula - Drunk and Naked

h: drunk and naked. once everyone sees you for what you really are. I imagine this as the first encore. everyone cries, everyone hugs. thank you, goodnight.

e: This really feels like 'end of album -- we made it!' type-song. And I bet that is how Uvula felt with this record -- it took them 18 months to record it! Everyone is tried and just know the world is gonna end -- bring it on! "Where were you on the night / of the collapse of the summer / how much did you buy / how much did you discover?"

15 - Uvula - Yawning Dog

h: but its not goodnight! its time to lift the spirits and get you to drunken dance again. when everything becomes too comfortable and calm and you realise that those imperfections are what make things perfect. the outro answering machine moodswing piece is a perfect representation of this sadly gone time and sadly gone band.

e: "Cause life is too peaceful here / and peacefulness is queer." Always seem to hit my long-distance drive destinations when this track comes on. Electronics bring back the Fabric vibe, which is always good in my book. Great vocal tag-team/combo by C & T. "Well it's a crippling feeling / cause life is too peaceful here / it is too close to sincere / and where is the blue horizon in a town without a sound? / sneakers to a pond / lasers on the lawn / well how in the world can we feel pain in utopia?" Why does it have to end? It doesn't! A few extra snippets of C & T on the answering machine and acoustic bit brings the disc to a close...

leaves + two

2005-11-09T11:51:00.000-06:00

A high of 83 is the blowing temp today in the Triangle, NC. Looks like fall; a ton of dying leaves covered my car since last night. So windows are open, cats are sunnin and I pulled out Live at Green Space LP, the 82 duo of Billy Bang (violin, etc.) and Charles Tyler (alto/bari sax, etc.) for a spin. Been heading back to a lot of violin music of late, Leory Jenkins, Ornette, and Michael Samson's live blasts from the Ayler box. And just came across the F'in dazzlin' CD collection Folks, He Sure Do Pull Some Bow!, vintage fiddle music 1927-1935 on Old Hat.

So, Bang/Tyler. Much different action from Tyler's 60s ecstatic thrusts (his '67 ESP Eastern Man Alone features an ol' one-time prof of mine, cellist David Baker) and Bang's late group The Jazz Doctors, a lot of space between the two -- just felt like today. While hitting the second side, I start to hear a underlying buzzin/rhythmic drone beneath the duo on "Viobari" -- what the hell? Fits perfect, ebbing with the final minute of somber tones. Inbetween cuts the buzz keeps on and I see my rowdy, old-time neighbor blowing the leaves from his yard into mine. Best trio work I've heard in the past few months.

Billy Bang & Charles Tyler - Viobari

gradual music and active listening

2005-11-08T09:23:00.000-06:00

Apestaartje has been slowly dispersing quiet pieces of exquisite beauty since 1998. Releases from Anderegg and Minamo have been filling in the "audio wallpaper" to my monotonous day job in a very calming manner. So when I learned that the latest project from the label, Mountains, wanted to come to my town to play a show, I was very excited. This new "group" combines the electronic with the acoustic, I guess making them electro-acoustic. Mixing in field recordings with their sparse live instrumentation and subtle digital tweaking, I can easily hear this album melting into the rising din of summertime crickets, locusts and other night-time critters as the sun goes down. A new classic of ambient minimalism.

They already have a wonderful review that nearly perfectly captures their sound:

Often sounding like classic Apollo era Brian Eno recorded during a tropical downpour, while at others bringing to mind the glorious sun-drenched layering of genre-master Fennesz, this album evokes the feeling you had as a child when opening boxed presents only to find another box inside and then another ... until you finally reach the gemstone kept heavily under wraps.

I wish I wrote that, but they did. Check them out now, live, through the end of November.

Mountains - Blown Glass Typewriter

rip china

2005-11-07T11:19:00.000-06:00

Mana "China" Nishiura rest in peace. Dynamo drummer for DMBQ, Shonen Knife, Jesus Fever and Rashiban, died after a three-vehicle accident on the New Jersey Turnpike Friday afternoon. Manager Michelle Cable's back was broken.

For more info and to help Lovepump United Records has info:

We mourn the loss of Mana "China" Nishiura; our hearts go out to DMBQ and their families. Booking agent and tour manager Michelle Cable suffered substantial head and neck injuries, and is expecting a recovery period of up to six months. Our best wishes go out to all of them.

Please forward and post this information as much as you can.

Donations towards medical, travel, and other expenses can be made to DMBQ and Michelle Cable by PayPaling dmbqpanache@lovepumpunited.com or by sending checks to

Lovepump United
PO BOX 3241
Poughkeepsie, NY 12603

Thank you

big fun

2005-11-07T08:33:00.000-06:00

Like most not living in the upper NY region, Steve Baczkowski was a fresh face when The Dim Bulb -- blast furnace trio disk with Corsano and Flaherty -- dropped unexpectedly earlier this year. In that date, Baczkowski is a fuggin' roar on the baritone sax, he nailed every register from the ships fog horn down to its trolling nets scraping the bedrock. Quite a show down. With that calling card in place, Baczko comes back with his working group Buffalo Suicide Prevention for self-titled debut disk. While fully improvised in the studio, they must have some hand signals going on here, as the group -- Baczkowski (tenor/baritone sax, bass clarinet, bugle), Mike Allard (alto sax), Michael Hermanson (trombone), Leif Ingvar Nicklas (contrabass) and Ravi Padmanabha (drums, percussion) -- switch from bleating skronk to swing in seconds flat on "Without Love We All Feel Sad" and at other points work at a razor edit pace. Allard's sweet tone is fine foil to the blurting bari and trombone. Though I find myself most listening to Nicklas' bowing which colors the pieces with dark turmoil of old Europe --dying villages and fruitless trees. "Sojourn non Troppo" slolwy grows from that vibe as Allard sprinkles some hope on top. Check in with "Revolting Phantoms" for the hyper-aktion the quintet spits out/horns tangled. Word is that Padmanabha and Baczkowski have a tabula/sax duo -- let's hope that will be out next.

Buffalo Suicide Prevention Unit - Revolting Phantoms
Buffalo Suicide Prevention Unit - Sojourn non Troppo

tears from space

2005-11-04T10:10:00.000-06:00

Out of a cracked cosmic belly comes bouncin Mike Anderson. What has he been up to since drumming on Lanquidity? Since leaving the Arkestra in the late 70s? No idea. But out now is Zalvi (Tears for Albert Ayler), a one-sided LP on the always fine New World of Sound label, from Alaphabet City - past sides by Fuzzhead, Plague Head and Haino/MazzaCane (despite the nasty mastering fub job) have always deemed for major hat tipping. Word is that Zalvi has been a long-rumored project, six years-plus. So not sure when it was recorded. Either way, glad it has landed. Anderson tears into a free blow out all by himself, all multi-tracked in an Eye and Ear Control sorta implosion. Though amongst the fire breathing horns, lo-fi electronic hums and rounding drum solos is a top-level dark cloud. This was to be the soundtrack to an apocalyptic film, by Anderson, and mid-way through the side he opens the cellar door and The End flys right out. Shit gets dark at the end. Whether it is locusts eating our souls or Ayler gasping for breath in the East River, I don't know.

Mike Anderson - Zalvi (6 min excerpt)

flags of the sacred harp

2005-11-03T14:34:00.000-06:00

Jackie-O Motherfucker have been flying their freak flag for a decade now from the evergreens of the pacific northwest to New Orleans to Baltimore and to NY. While their line-up both on album and live has been moving and constantly growing and shrinking for years, the constant that has remained has always been Tom Greenwood. The newest line-up has shaved the group down to a lean, mean four piece. But the sound is as full as ever, full of every bell, whistle, drone, and noise imaginable- so really not much has changed.

Their newest release, Flags of the Sacred Harp, there first new album in three years, is perhaps their most realised and accessible release yet. It is also the first new album for their newest label, ATP, which are also doing us the kind service of reissuing much of their hard to find back catalog from the likes of Road Cone and beyond. The new songs are still long and meandering, but now also have more of a melody than ever before. While deconstructing genres from song to song they still somehow maintain a coherence that makes perfect sense. JOMF have further proved their abilities to capture a mood to build on and slowly away from seamlessly.

The album starts with a psychedelic sound in the round, but about half way through falls apart into fragments that can never get put back together. Rockaway is a downright country song with guy/gal vox. Hey Mr. Sky is a Nyquilfolk Sweet Nothin'. Spirits builds to Dreamweapon 2: Another Evening of Contemporary Sitar Music. Good Morning Kaptain might be what J Spacemen has been trying to capture for years: alien-abducted Appalachian spirituality. The Louder Roared The Sea deconstructs and reconstructs. Slow-mo sunlight refractions off of a shimmering golden body of water. Classic JOMF.

Jackie-O Motherfucker - Hey Mr. Sky
Jackie-O Motherfucker - Good Morning Kaptain

what up brah?

2005-11-02T15:35:00.000-06:00

Brah Records is the name of the new imprint started by NYC freakprogthing's Oneida. And I gotsta say, I love the logo.

They have three releases so far, the first being their own split with Chicago's nu-psych legend Plastic Crimewave Sound. Each band fills a side and well, you won't get any songs from it here cuz they take up the whole side and I am feeling lazy today.

The second release is by NY's Company. They draw from a country-folk-fried sound that you might not expect from an Oneida sponsored joint.

The third release, from Pittsburgh's Dirty Faces is much more of what you might expect, Index calls it “classic Rust Belt punk, a frenzied take on drug use and crumbling relationships in a city where everybody knows everybody.”

Check em all out! Dirty Faces is on tour now in a town maybe near you... I know I will check em out this weekend when they roll into town.

Company - Red Army Blues
Company - In The Jaws Of The Lion

Dirty Faces - New Wicked Stepson
Dirty Faces - 1974

TerraNation

2005-10-27T09:27:00.000-05:00

Terrastock 6 will be taking place in Providence, Rhode Island USA on April 21st, 22nd and 23rd, 2006. $110 is the total price and we think that is a damn good deal. Save some clams by boycotting the barber or washin' your clothes, so buy come April you'll have the bang to pay the door man, pick up some CDRs and be lookin fine.
As of 10/25, here is the line-up which seems to be nearly, if not fully, booked:

Avarus (Finland) - Bardo Pond - Black Forest / Black Sea - Charalambides - College Girls Gone Wild - Damon and Naomi - Fursaxa- Ghost (Japan) - Glenn Jones & Cul de Sac - Kemialliset Ystävät (Finland) - Kinski - Sharron Kraus - Landing - Larkin Grimm - The Magic Carpathians Project (Poland) - Major Stars - Marissa Nadler - MV & EE Medicine Show (pictured above) - Paik - Jack Rose - Salamander - St Joan (UK) - Thought Forms (UK) - Spacious Mind (Sweden) - Spires that in the Sunset Rise - Tanakh (Italy) - Urdog - Windy & Carl.

A tasty hunk of JFAD favs are up in this web, so we hope to make it on out...

MV & EE Medicine Show - Rainy Day Cocola #1
Magic Carpathians - The Mountains Over Clouds
Charalambides - Rehearsal
Fursaxa - Poppy Opera
Avarus - Horuksen Oikean Silman Mysteerikoulu
College Girls Gone Wild - MPG MOVIE

clear as glass

2005-10-26T19:25:00.000-05:00

Last month's west coast tour brought a couple a good surprises, mainly a sweet time in LA. Outside of walking the avenue of stars and relaxing in La Brea Tar Pits our show was at the amazing and overly welcoming Il Corral, a multi-room warehouse/art venue in the Hollywood area that seems to present a non-stop wallop of ace performances. The place is run by Bob Bellerue, who I wasn't familiar with until setting up the show. After we played and were heading out he passed on his Threat Level Charlie CD to me, which is "music for glass, metal, space(s), programming, electronics, body and power."
Waverly and wasp-like, Bellerue's bowing of the elements is ambient as two-eyes full of sand yet holds an utterly elegant gaze during the four pieces, all recorded in Barcelona + California, 2002. Using a contact mic and microphones slipped inside PVC pipes, the waves shift from bassy, echo laden rumble to quivering sinewaves. Like the best Keith Rowe injections, Bellerue also plunges into the airwaves. As he explains: "Radio is tapped as a chthonic noise source, and as processing stage and path for feedback via transmitter. Broadband noise is generated from public and private ambient recordings, and speeches by George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden are shredded together."
A bunch of Bob's past work is detailed with streaming MP3s at his site: some recent power noise/feedback (OROBOROS) and mind-heavy n' amped gong works (Gong Listrik). Enough to keep you listening all weekend.

Threat Level Charlie - Part 1

earth sounds

2005-10-21T12:03:00.000-05:00

Again, ol' Heath holds down the fort as I go touring across the country and then come back and take a nice two-week readjustment phase.... Mucho gracias, Sirsanrio! Though, I've actually been so wrapped up in the newly updated Ubu Web I haven't been able to get any work done. One new addition on there is the Drums and Nature album by Walter de Maria, originator of earth works movement and one-time Velvet Underground drummer (seemingly around the time of Angus MacLise was in/out of the group). It is a fab, oozing of natural world mixed with the feverish, tribal racket of de Maria that slowly evolve over 40-or-so minutes. Much like his physical work, you need to truly absorb the elements, let it all seep in each pore. I'd picked a CD copy of this up at Fusetron awhile back and have been quite gelled out with it. Recorded in 1964 and 68, respectively, it seems this was mostly a gallery item.

For those out of the de Maria loop, Guggenheim sez: de Maria emerged as a leader of the earthworks movement in 1968 when he filled the Galerie Heiner Friedrich in Munich with dirt. This year, he also made his the mile long drawing in the desert in the Mojave Desert for Walls in the Desert, a project, originally conceived in 1962, which is to consist of two parallel mile-long walls. In 1968, he also participated in Documenta in Kassel. A major exhibition of de Maria's sculpture was held at the Kunstmuseum Basel in 1972. Earthworks and serial geometric sculpture continue to occupy de Maria in the 1970s: his three continent project was completed in 1972 and the Lightning Field in New Mexico was finished in 1977. That same year, de Maria recreated his Earth Room at the Heiner Friedrich Gallery in New York. The artist lives in New York.

Walter de Maria - Cricket Music (1964)
Walter de Maria - Ocean Music (1968)

ancient animals

2005-10-20T15:21:00.000-05:00

Its been a long road for Celebration. First it was the Birthday Party-esque Jaks, which has been lovingly repackaged over at 31G. Then came Love Life, which had releases on Jagjaguwar and Troubleman. A brief spell as Birdland. And now, Baltimore has birthed Celebration and they are signed onto legendary 4AD.

Their debut LP has cut many of the gothic roots of their past, but still maintains a dark shroud of sound. Like Siouxsie Sioux fronting Laika. A stripped down, nearly dubby feel has sunken around the disc and leaves lots of space for sounds to echo and exist on their own. Other places a post-punk no-wave feel bleeds in, with flavors of the best of the female fronted past of the genre: ESG, Bush Tetras, Au Pairs, Rip Rig & Panic, Slits. Elsewhere, a dark lounge Quintron blues fills a smoky batcave. An impressive debut. On tour right now with Calla.

October
20 - The Echo, Los Angeles, CA
21 - Mezzanine, San Francisco, CA
22 - Dour Fir Lounge, Portland, OR
23 - Media Club, Vancouver, BC
24 - Crocodile Cafe, Seattle, WA
27 - 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis, MN
28 - Gardner Main Hall @ Grinnell College, Grinnel, IA
29 - The Cactus Club, Milwaukee, WI
30 - Empty Bottle, Chicago, IL
31 - Grog Shop, Cleveland, OH

November
01 - Magic Stick, Detroit, MI
02 - Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto, ONT
03 - Main Hall, Montreal, QUE
04 - The Middle East (upstairs), Cambridge, MA
05 - Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY

Celebration - War
Celebration - New Skin

Jaks - Carnation

blues for one

2005-10-13T15:28:00.000-05:00

Hisato Higuchi’s late-2004 debut EP, She, and this year’s Tokyo Flashback 5 contribution, “Cluster of Lights,” were ripples of a distinguished guitarist and singer preparing to roll in. 2004 11 2005 4, Higuchi’s full-length, issued on his own Ghost Disc label is the clarion beacon of his arrival. The six pieces, clocking in at 35 minutes, flicker from vibrant and barbed lines to haunting verbal aches. Info wise, not much has filtered through on Higuchi, though without doubt Loren MazzaCane Connors’ ghostly blues distillation is a direct reference – from creaking chairs and rustling of feet to a wavering cassette haze book ending each piece. Though the limber, dancing notes of cloudy guitar Higuchi coaxes from six-strings pours from deep within its own core. A slow-dance pace carries each meditation on its hovering path of melodic allegory.

Higuchi’s partial English/Japanese croon nears a smoky, after-hours call of loss. The vocals and corresponding guitar on “Hate” is where his form of nocturnal blues vibrates in its own discrete method. Nearly cajoling the notes with each purr, Higuchi settles back with a lingering procession of lone notes cascading one after the other. Joined by Sadafumi Suga (sampler) and Yoshihisa Suzuki (drums), on alternating tracks, the two refrain from the band role instead opting for a transparent layer on Higuchi’s canvas that dissolves into muted sine waves and snare tapping. While the first five pieces echo a hard pinned transcendent and hushed blues the final “Manazashi” roars into an engulfing feedback finale of Haino-proportions, that surely points to a new beginning.

Hisato Higuchi - Borei

black sheep band

2005-10-11T10:35:00.000-05:00

The past week has wrought forth lots of sadness in my life and I found myself driving around in my car quite a bit. Driving home, going to a funeral, getting lost, finding myself. One of the soundtracks for my journey was Austin's Okkervil River and their brand new EP, the Black Sheep Boy Appendix.

Picking up on the imagery and sound of the critically acclaimed predecessor, this mini album weaves sad strings in and out of toybox odes and country-fried dirges. Frontman Will Sheff spits an honest tale that gets bigger and broader with every release.

No Key, No Plan is a drunken Pogues USA stomp of a houseparty with the Decemberists, Neutral Milk Hotel and the younger, cooler brother of Bono in attendence.

Another Radio Song builds and builds an intensity, from a conversation to an argument to a screaming match til all the possessions are cast about the room and the whole house is on fire, the protaganist left walking away once and for all down the highway.

Okkervil River - No Key, No Plan

secret handshake

2005-10-03T12:17:00.000-05:00

Chicago's Number None have a suggestion for a new national anthem, and it doesn't seem like they are pleased with the direction the nation is headed from the sounds of it.

Rebis recently issued the 4th 'annual retort' from these two gentlemen. A self-described exploration of american majesty and dread, taking the listener on a post-millenial roadtrip from sorrowful anthemics to unforgiving noise.

At a live performance in a friend's living room a few months ago, I was completely levitated and alien-probed by their dark cosmic drones. Stars of the Lid is an excellent point of reference, but quickly get wound under in an undertow from the mothership lifting out of years of the ocean floor's sludge. 'Teaching Children About Feelings' definitely teaches some new concepts for victims of No Child Left Behind. Harsh pit of despair medical experiments gone wrong. Indulge.

Number None - Suggestion for a New National Anthem
Number None - Teaching Children About Feelings

forever bad blues band

2005-09-29T13:51:00.000-05:00

What if the Velvet Underground were blues cowboys from hell? What if Stereolab drove motorcycles and pick-ups and played shady bars on the Texas border?

Each song on Jonathan Kane's debut CD sounds familiar. Bluesy guitar figures over locked drums and straight ahead bass, all played by Kane. Not unlike a multitude of "drone" albums, these fragments repeat to infinity, slowly changing over time with you hardly even realising. But Kane is working in a style that is far removed from the audio wallpaper of much drone. And while it also has much in common with lockgroove kraut like Neu, its far from that as well. Its sitting on the porch and strumming one chord on your acoustic to the point of the strings breaking, and thats when the change happens. Propulsive urban dirges for modern ghost towns.

Kane has been called "Virtuosic" (NY Times), "Tireless drumming phenomenon" (Village Voice), "Magnificent, Mighty" (NY Daily News), and "Volcanic" (Rolling Stone) from his fierce 3 hour long non-stop playing with La Monte Young's Forever Bad Blues Band and with Rhys Chatham's 100 electric guitar orchestra he is the only drummer and featured soloist. How did he get to this level of ferocity? Probably by being one of the founders of legendary brutalists SWANS. And Kane's debut, February, holds some of the same spirit as M Gira's past work, too. I can easily hear Gira moaning along and strumming the same chord, eyes closed, cowboy boots on, lighting the funeral pyre with sound.

Out on Table of the Elements very soon.

Jonathan Kane - Curl

when the going gets weird

2005-09-28T16:14:00.000-05:00

DMX Krew has been issuing sci-fi-electro in the vain of Moroder, Kraftwerk, Newcleus, Mantronix, Plaid, Bambaataa, et al since the mid 90s on RDJ's Rephlex imprint. The vocal tracks are Kraftwerk's robots covering the Sisters with Goblin's gear. Music for nightflights across the desertgrid in yr hovercraft. The concept behind his latest releases are too good to deny:

It's Music from the golden age of the future. This is an album based around the 'Copenhagen Interpretation' of quantum physics, which is to do with the dual wave/particle nature of reality. For instance electrons tend to act like waves and are 'smeared' out over all possible states until their location is measured. The act of making a measurement or 'observation' causes the wave function of the electron to decohere and it then occupies a particular point in spacetime. It isn't just that the electron could be in a number of places and you don't know until you look, experimental evidence has shown that, until you look, the electron really is every (possible) where. According to the Copenhagen Interpretation, any quantum system simultaneously occupies all possible states for that system until it is observed. Since we believe the quantum theory of matter to be true, and everything in the universe is made of matter (or antimatter) this holds for all systems on all scales, in fact the entire universe is a quantum system. Extrapolating from here, it is true to say that, until you remove it from its sleeve, place it on the platter and listen to it, the album you are holding in your hands contains every conceivable piece of music. Only the act of listening to the record causes the wave function of the music to collapse, allowing the listener to enjoy the mellifluous sounds therein. We believe we are the first to apply this principle to recorded sound and are therefore proud to be able to bring you an album of previously undreamed of uncertainty.

The WAVE CD contains the best tracks from the Wave Function vinyl releases volumes 3, 4 and 5, and also includes a free bonus CD "Our Most Requested Records" featuring 13 smash hits from the Rephlex vaults of the past nine years of DMX.

DMX Krew - Tonight
DMX Krew - the Fallen Kings
DMX Krew - the Pleasure Zone

slow man's dream

2005-09-26T10:06:00.000-05:00

This internet culture that is growing bigger and bigger with every passing month has helped deliver many new concepts to the world. It has also morphed many old ideas into newer and often better things. Now with message boards, myspace/friendster, online dating, and so much more it is really easy to find people with nearly exact same interests and likes as yourself.

Whereas before you had to settle for the metal drummer dude down the street from you because he was the only one with a kit, now you can find your dream bandmates online. And before where you had to mail cassettes back and forth, now you can simply email files. This seems to be happening more and more and often the results are really quite good. The latest results of this appear to be the western Texas/northern UK group the Earlies.

Since 2002 they had been passing songs back and forth to eachother. Last year, 679 released a compilation of their singles to great reviews in the UK. This year, Secretly Canadian sees over its release in the USA.

Their sound is reminiscent to updated psychy experiments of oldies like the Byrds, Beach Boys, Band, Beatles and probably other 'B' bands as well. A more modern list could also read like Grandaddy, Spiritualized, and many others from the new-found organic/electronic bend such as Manitoba. When NME says, "This music is the electronic, Warp-inspired answer to Brian Wilson's 'Smile.' - 10/10", you've gotta listen. Check out these as well as several others over at their official website until the album comes out stateside next month.

the Earlies - Morning Wonder
the Earlies - the Devil's Country

rhizomatic baby

2005-09-22T14:30:00.000-05:00

When digging around on my desk the other day I found a Printer CD. Not the kind from HP with all the drivers for your computer, rather the electronic band Printer, from Roskilde, Denmark. And thank goodness I did, ever since then this disc has been spinning non-stop and making my ears happy.

Not unlike the touches of bliss I got when first hearing Múm, Notwist, and the Junior Boys- Printer make electronic music, but not necc for the dance floor. They got their start as a traditional band line-up but quickly ditched their normal instruments and stuck to keys and laptop. Not to say the CD, Rhizomatic Baby, isn't dancy, cuz it has a handful of great catchy pop tracks as well, but there is so much more as well. And the dancy songs are not what will keep you coming back time and time again to this album.

Throwbacks to turn of the 80s analogue synth sounds and feel are present but this is not a nü-wave record or revisit. There are squishy glitch beats, sad electronic shoegazing (Champagne), and great arrangements everywhere. Its everything the Postal Service should be. Praise to Statler & Waldorf for putting this gem out. Get it from Forced Exposure and lay back and daydream.

Printer - Don't Expect
Printer - Erased by the Swans
Printer - Champagne

bosnian pillow jamz

2005-09-20T22:22:00.000-05:00

New York's Alex Delivery are part of the rapidly growing weird underground noise/groove scene that remains unnamed and mostly unknown. Consisting of a sound that is equal parts overdriven experimental electronics and lockgroove psych-jamz, this up and coming band promises to be the type of act whose future looks bright and who we will all be hearing more from in the near future.

Similar in scope to some of the roster of The Social Registry (Gang Gang Dance, Artanker Convoy), but yet unsigned so far, Komad mixes eastern synth lines with kraut rhythms and distorted electronic components. Other songs from their website link cd-skip glitch textures with downright heartfelt lyrics and broken percussion kit before exiting into a lurching throb of transistors on their last breath.

Alex Delivery - Komad

an argument between the brain and the feet

2005-09-19T14:50:00.000-05:00

When I first heard Hot IQs, I was surprised to read that they were from Colorado and not some indie mecca from yesteryear like Chapel Hill, NC or Washington, DC. However, I guess in this day and age geography really isn't that big of a deal, regardless of how PFM try to make it happen by talking about the red hot Brooklyn scene or the amazing Scandinavian underground-- or wait, was that last year, shit I can't keep up.

Now, the Hot IQs are quickly becoming indie darlings with their new album, An Argument Between the Brain and the Feet, on Morning After Records. College radio is loving it, they've opened for tons of the "hot indie underground" such as the Walkmen, Hot Hot Heat, Louis XIV, the Thermals, AC Newman, Rogue Wave, etc. And now they are going to be opening shows for Tegan and Sarah later this fall after they finish their current tour. Things are looking up!

Take a bite out of this catchy as all hell indie-pop-trio and I challenge you to not like it. Firecracker is Kinks meets Merge Recs. Getting Old somehow reminds me of the Dambuilders. Someone please tell me how that is. Pure fuzzy satisfaction, dig in.

Hot IQs - Firecracker
Hot IQs - Getting Old

jealous of the stars

2005-09-16T14:30:00.000-05:00

Dan Loves Patti is one of the best 1 cent CDs (lots of them on Amazon right now) you will never hear. The album is by Chris Holmes aka Yum Yum. I remember seeing his group open for Low in Chicago in what I think was 1996. Perhaps on Valentine's Day. I had no idea who they were but they had beautiful string arrangements along with sweet and gentle pop songs that pulled on heartstrings. Like bubblegum from yesteryear updated for the indie set.

The CD featured a photograph on the cover of an amazing guitar that was too good to be true. The previous owner supposedly being so in love with his lady to carve her name into his guitar. Then when love went sour carving the next lover's name into it. And then the next. And the next. And another. You get the idea. Marla, Judy, Heide, Susan, Kimme and finally Patti. Dan loved them all.

What came to light afterwards is a weird tale indeed. Supposedly Holmes didn't like pop music at all and made this whole album as an ironic gesture of how mindless pop could easily get exposure and sell units. Or maybe he really did like the pop music but didn't want people to really know this so he said it was ironic to save his scene cred as a guy who played space-rock with his friends. It's all so confusing and who really cares?! All that matters is that it really is a good album- and some people really do think so (myself included) and aren't ashamed to admit it.

Yum-Yum - Apiary
Yum-Yum - I'm Not Telling
Yum-Yum - Doot-Doot

killer eyes

2005-09-15T12:17:00.000-05:00

Being from Indiana, when I read the name Violet Indiana, I get a much different soundtrack in my mind than Robin Guthrie does, apparently. I really don't hear anything Indiana about them whatsoever, and I guess that's a good thing.

For the entirity of the 80s and early 90s Guthrie and his band mates reigned supreme over the ethereal music tag as the Cocteau Twins, nearly single-handedly defining the genre and helped put 4AD on the map. Echoed and blissed out guitar washes over underwater basslines, simple drum patterns and the glossolia of Liz Fraser.

The new band combines the previous guitar textures of Guthrie with the bluesy vocals of ex-Mono chanteuse Siobhan de Mare. Sounding a bit of Portishead and a bit like a dream from David Lynch. Bella Union, the label offshoot of the Twins, releases their albums overseas and Instinct released a couple in the states.

Violet Indiana - Sundance
Violet Indiana - Air Kissing
Violet Indiana - New Girl

everything, all at once forever

2005-09-14T16:15:00.000-05:00

Th' Faith Healers played regularly at a club called the Sausage Machine during the early 90s in their hometown of Hampstead, England. When the club's owners, Paul Cox and Richard Roberts, formed a new indie label, called Too Pure, Th' Faith Healers were their first signing. Their song "Jesus Freak" led off Too Pure's first release, the compilation "Now That's Digusting Music", in May of 1990.

"When Th Faith Healers came out with their first record, Lido, some of us thought we'd finally received this generation's answer to the Velvet Underground. They seemed to be taking rock back to its primal urge - to just pick up a Telecaster and strum the same chord forever. They played impossibly simple progressions that stuck in your head for days." (AP)

"While often lumped in with the concurrent shoegazer movement, the group's sound is far darker and grittier, their guitars churning instead of shimmering and their attitude menacing instead of blissful. Songs often spring from simple, hypnotic riffs and rhythms which inevitably swerve out of control, screeching with peals of feedback and shooting off sparks." (AMG)

Kinda like Brad Laner's pink noize pop act Medicine jamming with early Sonic Youth after several bong hits and Faust IV track 1 on repeat engrained into the cerebral cortex. That is not necc equal to Diamond Sea but maybe a manic Bardo Pond.

Th' Faith Healers - The People
Th' Faith Healers - Oh Baby
Th' Faith Healers - Delores

grow up or sleep in

2005-09-13T11:56:00.000-05:00

The big story behind Lawrence, Kansas born Ghosty is their hook-up with Flaming Lips mastermind Wayne Coyne. It all started because the band got bumped from Mike Mogis' studio in favor of platinum selling Saddle Creek acts. So the band packed up and moved their recording operation to Trent Bell's Oklahoma studio where the Lips frequently document their ideas. Unbeknownst to the band, Wayne was there laying down some tracks for the Lips' annual Xmas fanclub single and eavesdropped on their session. So impressed by what he heard from them, he asked them to help him on the single and then offered up his own help for their album. How could they possibly say no?

Now the album is out, thanks to Future Farmer Recordings. Big Surrender is a slice of pure indie pop perfection. An instantly catchy and slightly Mangumian vocal delivery (Neutral Milk Hotel) elevates this song to the next level. Hear what I mean:

Ghosty - Big Surrender

if your bed could cry

2005-09-12T13:52:00.000-05:00

Porn Sword Tobacco. Those words instantly draw three strong mental representations. Together you might imagine them to be a very badass sludge-metal band from Japan who don't quite understand the combining of the three words. But you couldn't be farther from the truth. How's about Swedish experimental electro-ambient?

Porn Sword Tobacco might be the modern version of Budd and Eno’s ”The Pearl“. It just draws you in, does not let go. Every track tells a very specific story, assembles sketches, drifts off, picks up again, re-adjusts itself all the time, levels noise, piano, guitar, organ, bass, thinks of new chords.

PST (aka Henrik Jonsson of Göteborg, Sweden) creates this music you hear stranded on a slowly sinking ship in the middle of the ocean with only a transistor radio. Every channel is different but all share the same static melancholy of radio noise and ambience of your dire surroundings. Every couple of minutes the signal fades and you scan to the next selection. Rain, wind, and insects blend into the mix. While soaking in a scandinavian hot spring at dusk, or is it dawn, listening to electronic re-interpretations of trois Gymnopedies and other schizophrenic ambient mix tapes through a Victrola.

City Centre Offices release this in late september.

mp3s removed at the request of CCO.