Mirage
With Mirage on Important Records, Smegma again does the impossible. 38 years after reinventing the musical wheel, they have recorded a stunning masterpiece. With four of the original members working together again for the first time in many years, together with many new collaborators , they have kept alive their unique brand of old school primitive, Avant/Garage music. Running the gamut from the Musique Concrete inspired subtilely bombastic mood of the Title track to World of my Own's frenzied n…
Heavy Deeds
Sun Araw - and the Not Not Fun label in general for that matter - are becoming ever more essential with each release. Heavy Deeds is the latest dubbed-out, tropical psych missive from this far-out collective, featuring an increasingly mature approach to experimental queasiness, which on this occasion is reminiscent of fellow solar travellers Sunburned Hand Of The Man knocking heads together with Sun Ra. There's some incredible wah-wah funk to be found here, jostling amongst a barrage of synapse-…
World of Echo
At first listen, World of Echo sounds like meaningless dreck that barely wakes up to complete a melody or enunciate a single verse of poetry. And Arthur Russell's legacy has never been richer for it. This year's mass rediscovery and mythologization of the late Russell-- an Iowan who seemed to be swinging on a tire over the Mississippi, even when in downtown Manhattan-- was remarkable. Russell's various projects-- including Dinosaur L, Indian Ocean, and Loose Joints-- got fete…
First Thought Best
Before Disco, and before the transcendent echoes, Arthur Russell wanted to be a composer. His journey began in 1972, leaving Iowa to study Indian classical composition with Ali Akbar Khan in Northern California and ending two years later in New York at the Manhattan School of Music. In that brief period Arthur met and worked with several musicians and poets that would guide his work throughout the remainder of the decade: Allen Ginsburg, Christian Wolff, Jackson MacLow, Rhys Chatham, Ph…
Calling Out Of Context
Now I know what it's like to assume you know what Arthur Russell sounds like. Back in the day, those comfortable with his modern classical accomplishments were baffled by his acetates of loopy leftfield disco. Likewise, lovers of these dance tracks were confounded by their beatless, beatific recasting on World of Echo. And then there were listeners astounded by the intimacy of his voice and cello work, stymied by both the pop songs and the classical works, all spinnin…
Pacific Drift
Way too much is made these days of looking back, memory, social network fantasias. What a bummer, cause reality s a bad experience and 2012 is on deck; we deserve whatever we get. Evolve or erode, dudes. LA visigoths Robedoor slip into another sinkhole of voidist shadow-rock with Pacific Drift, three new tracks recorded across the last greylight winter. The A side stirs into a jazzy apocalypto depression with flute-keys and an overdriven OM groove that spirals in a web of distortion before drift…
Raymilland
Raymilland formed in the summer of 1978 in St. Louis and lasted until the fall of 1981. Although starting out playing standard punk covers by the Buzzcocks, Damned, and Ultravox, their original influences and ideas about music leaned more toward the no-wave bands of NY and the more experimental bands from the UK. Raymilland played live eight times; four in St. Louis and four in Chicago. A fifth Chicago date slotted to open for Joy Division never happened when the US tour was canceled due to the …
Public Service
“Almost Washed My Hair” erupts from the stereo like some bastard child from a universe where Iggy Pop fronted The Velvet Underground and the only song in their repertoire was “Sister Ray” but they could never remember how to play it. This ear-splitting and cacophonous rock sounds as raw and powerful as anything else in my record collection. The deafening guitars dominate everything; only ghosts of vocals and a hammering beat are perceptible under the overloaded amplifiers. However…
Lasted
Lasted is the third album by Thomas Meluch under the alias Benoit Pioulard. Thomas has toured throughout North America and Europe since his last record, the process of which has had a marked impact on the development of these songs as lyrics and structures have been scrapped, tweaked and reworked in the live setting. As with previous albums it was recorded and mixed in domestic isolation, this time throughout the rainy season in his current home of Portland, Oregon. While the extent of the…
Phantom Payn Daze
While in the widely neglected 39 Clocks, he made records that never sold and played gigs that few ever saw, Juergen Gleue has arguably been the most important exponent of electrified German sound since the late 1970s. Phantom Payn Daze was made in the mid to late 90s and has never been released. It's his final LP and is overflowing with all the elements that romanticized, loner / stoner music claims, an encoded expression of highly private feelings, an ambiguous, emotional quotient, and a dark…
Music From Italian TV
New LP - The Phantom Family Halo - Music From Italian TV - The label behind this release is using a very cryptic description for this record. One that, unfortunately, won't help sell many copies of a very enjoyable record. We won't be reprinting said description here, but what we will tell you what we know. Phantom Family Halo Band is from Louisville, Kentucky. At least one member of the band Sapat (remember their great LP on Siltbreeze from a couple years back?) is involved, but thi…
Foxy Baby
Surely this can only be the work of the ultra mysterious Sam Meringue (Matrix Metals, Flashback Repository, Explorers) etc. I believe at one point this guy was actually suspected to be James Ferraro which isn't difficult to believe as their work has very similar qualities. Anyway this is apparently an "esoteric glam-damaged concept record about Berlin nightclubs and foxy ladies" and listening to the tracks it makes sense. At times sounding like Ariel Pink being sucked into some phazer vort…
L'Orchestre National "A" De La Republique Du Mali
Beautiful Mali music from formation "A" of L'Orchestre National – one of a pair of groups organized as the National Orchestra for Mali in the wake of its independence – led by the great Keletigui Diabate. This set has some really wonderful guitars by Keletigui, excellent vocals and overall melodic sensibility. Titles include "Malamini", "Taara", "Jaanfa", "Son T'Aw La", "Duga", "Saakoba", "Nonsi Komotigi" and "Ciwaara". © 1996-2010, Dusty Groove America, Inc.
Rifts
'Rifts' is a double disc collection of three hugely essential albums of psycho-sythual experimentation produced by Daniel Lopatin aka Oneohtrix Point Never for the Arbor and No Fun imprints. Much like his contemporaries Emeralds, Lopatin is one of those enviably prolific underground figures, constantly committing his experiments to limited runs of sought-after CDRs and cassettes over the last two years. To shed a little light on his background, his father was a member of Russian psych out…
Live Conference
Recorded live last September in New York, this LP documents what might turn out to be Om's Don't Look Back concert, should they ever get the invite (actually, last May the band's Al Cisneros played one of those shows as part of his other band, Sleep). The stoner-doom classic Conference Of The Birds gets a full playthrough here, with Cisneros (on bass and vocals) partnered by drummer Emil Amos. Fans of the original will be pleased to find the recording fidelity and the…
The Effective Disconnect
From Brian McBride: When George and Myriam approached me to compose for their film they suggested I concentrate on four different themes: the gloriousness of the bees, the endurance and hardships of traditional beekeepers, pesticides and the holistic nature of non-industrial agriculture. I was especially intrigued with the idea of combining some of their mournful aspirations with something more serene. Composing began in May of 2009. I had decided to start fresh not using anything that I …
The Visible Sign Of The Invisible Order
RESTOCKED Deluxe double LP set pressed at RTI with heavy duty tip on jackets from Stoughton. B side includes two bonus tracks not found on the original CD. Featuring contributions from Alan Bishop and Charles Gocher of the Sun City Girls. Graphic design by Stephen O'Malley. At last the long awaited reissue of a west coast outsider death cult classic! From the forests of the Northwest an uncharted document of shamanistic psychedelia. Recorded mostly during rituals deep in Cascadia and filtered th…
Totem 2
'Totem 2' is the latest album from No-Age supergroup Master Musicians Of Bukkake. This lineup of the band features members of Earth, Asda, Burning Witch, The Diminished Men and guests from Secret Chiefs 3 and the thriving Istanbul music scene. Production is handled by Randall Dunn, who is responsible for amazing albums by Six Organs of Admittance, Sunn 0))) and Earth, and the record was pressed at RTI for highest possible fidelity. It looks stunning too. "MMOB has now …
Trance Resonance
All the reissue madness has inspired Mako to make new music. This is a live album, recorded in 1994. "...performance was mixture of music and dance by 'breathing' artist. 'Breathing' is an interesting method to open human's mind. Performer consciously makes heavy-breathing condition for doing fast, intense and deep breathing. Mako's music must be quiet to pull performer's mind into trance-vision. Not meditational music. This is real progressive style music." One 67-minute uninterrupted piece wit…
Lo Pop Diamonds
Reissue of this album of recordings from the 80s, first issued by Marquee in Japan. "Lo Pop is truly a radical departure from the main body of his ultra-galactic guitar works. Steeped in a homemade brew of off-kilter folk pop, Lo Pop is endearingly naive to the end. Featuring performances by underground 'stars' Reira & Asuka, plus strange takes on two traditional Japanese tunes, this will appeal to fans who succumbed to the charms of early Shonen Knife, the pop theatricality of the Red Krayola, …