New Arrivals
Versprochen
OUTSTANDING NEW ARRIVAL Vinyl Lp, edition of 300 copies. Three years after releasing his first solo record, 'Miniaturen' on his own label 'choose', Berlin-based Konrad Sprenger (aka Jörg Hiller) now releases 'Versprochen' on the Italian 'Schoolmap' label. As if coyly playing off the various connotations of the title, which could mean 'pledge', 'promise' or a 'slip of the tongue' in German, Sprenger delivers a more mature product. Rather than going for the short, abbrieviated, cut-off statements …
beauty school
during my last visit to the states, about 2 years ago, one of the highlights was definatly a night long visit to SCOTT FOUST's house! john shaw took us there and explained from before what it was gonne be like, we would be seated down in a confortable couch while "the last great man" would stand up next to a pedastal with some quality whiskey, dope and cigarettes on it, sporting a mono coloured suit and sunglasses (day and night) while foust is telling stories about different art records, and ma…
Albeit Albeit / Sibelius Spiders
There's no shortage of electronic reissue imprints operating these days, especially ones concentrating on 'lost' synth-wave recordings from the late 70's - mid 80's - but few have access to the kind of material amassed over the years by Forced Nostalgia, a brand new label curated by one of Belgium's most knowledgeable and methodical sound archivists: Fré De Vos. The breadth and quality of the material already scheduled for release by Forced Nostalgia is just jaw-dropping - extending the r…
Live In Tokyo, August, 19th 1974, Part Two
Part two. This double album (divided into two LPs), recorded live at the Nippon Columbia Studio in Tokyo in 1974, was the group's final effort before disbanding. Here Kosugi and the Travellers blend Eastern and Western instrumentation, vocal chants and electronics to create free-form psych-laden drones. This historic album is an essential and influential piece of Japanese avant rock." Part One LP, clear vinyl in clear plastic sleeve with black lettering. Limited…
Dog. Tree. Satellite Seers...
Limited reissue of their 2nd LP from '87.
Primal waters
Fresh/new live studio rec. by one of the greatest jazz Ensemble around these days. (Label Press)
Englabörn
Upon setting out to score the music for the play Englaborn by Havar Sigurjonsson, Johann Johannsson, co-founder of the Icelandic arts organisation Kitchen Motors, came upon a text by the Latin poet Catullus which roughly translates as, I hate and I love. Why do I do it, you might ask? I dont know, but I feel it happening to me, and it's tearing me apart. This poem concisely bridges the emotional opposites which clashed within the play itself. As the play's content was extremely violent and distu…
Bengt
Bengt is the new solo recording by Mats Gustafsson and is dedicated to Bengt Nordström. Mats Gustafsson plays a plastic alto sax. A classic Grafton sax. The type of sax that was used by Charlie Parker, Ornette Coleman and Bengt Nordström. Nordström is best known having produced Albert Ayler´s first recording Something Different!!!!!! on his Bird Note imprint. It is in his own role as a sax player Bengt was truly inventive. Bengt was playing solo sax improvisation already in 1962 (!!!) Nor…
Warmth
Even though Warmth main man Steev Thompson still appears to be incommunicado, totally epic recordings continue to surface. Before Roxanne Jean Polise was officially over and Steev still lived in Chicago, he joined up with another then-Chicago resident Branden Diven of Quilts/American Grizzly Records. The jams that were created filled a couple of CD-Rs and the Warmth side of the split with Quintana Roo on Not Not Fun. This LP consists of a remixed and edited version of the original CD-R ru…
Bunny
Simon Scott produced one of the best records of 2009 with Navigare, an album whose shoegaze dronemusic was dotted with radioluminescent dream-pop numbers. It was hardly a surprise to us when we learned that he was the drummer of Slowdive way back when. Since then, Scott has produced a single for Immune and a collaboration with Jasper TX, both equally fantastic. For his second proper record, Scott makes a slight detour; but one that is well suited to everything else that's been released by…
Sufferers
Ohio-based noise upsetter Mike Shiflet has amassed an enviable amount of releases in the last decade. Tapes, vinyl, cdrs – you name it, he’s done it, but it’s taken until now for Shiflet to weld together what he regards as his defining work. The first in a series of two ‘proper’ albums, ‘Sufferers’ takes the listener to the very heart of Shiflet’s sound – through the abrasive noise heard on his early releases all the way to the shimmering ambience that made up his breakthrough album ‘Lla…
Assez de trop pas
Salmigondis is a collective (born in 2006) of musicians and graphist designers. Free rock, psychedelic, noise Ludovic Renaud (keyboard, turntables, electronics), Jean-Pierre Barja (bass, keyboard, electronics), Jérome Declercq (saxophones, keyboard, basse), Mathieu Renaud (guitar, electronics), Jean-Noël Cognard (drums,objects, voice). + some guests : Charlot (voice, percussion, flute), Philémon (sax, electronics), Eric Lewis (trumpet), David Khalifa (percussion), Etienne Foyer (drums). Recorded…
Megafauna
Understand this: Yoga dispenses a sinister frailty of howling swellsin hissing static that combusts into crawling shock heaps, to the effectof Mayhem performing Twin Peaks incidentals in a prairie recordedby The KLF. A brief description casts them as black metal's answer to Throbbing Gristle. The texture-based rendering of their compositionssails them on a strange sea between song and sound effect as itbobs along the waves like a dead man s bottled message. Aspects ofGoblin rehearsals in dead hi…
Capricorn Born Again
Amanda from Pocahaunted joins Robedoor for this first full-length as Topaz Rags, and the album's a real winner, kicking off with 'Darker Sooner' sounding like a Portishead album recorded over the phone. Elsewhere, twisted blues and moaning, haunted house vocals convene for 'Sightings', and 'Wear You Thin' is like a chill-wave night terror. An uneasy listen, but Capricorn Born Again is a druggy, beautiful raincloud of a record that's got appeal beyond the more conventional parameters of the Not N…
Oh Me Oh My... The Way The Day Goes By The Sun Is Setting Dogs A
To say Devendra Banhart is unique is an absurd understatement. When I first heard the voice of this completely unknown, precociously talented 21-year-old songwriter, I could not believe it. His occasionally warbling falsetto is alternately bizarre, comical, and often a little frightening. Coupled with his advanced finger-picking guitar style - which itself often veers schizophrenically from gentle grooves into jolting, non-rhythmic stabs and weird harmonic flights of chaos -- and the wildly surr…
G.R.
Deathpile's latest power noise excursion extrapolates the mind of the Green River killer; Washington State's most notorious - and at the time of writing - unsolved serial killer case. This is harsh power electronics with sadistic lyrics delivered in a frenzied manner. Deathpile is an outlet for the twisted mind of Jonathan Canady. On G.R. he is aided by the undisputed talent of twisted musical troubadour David E. Williams who provides the lashings of non-rhythmic noise. There's a defin…
Atlantis
One of the key but underappreciated episodes in avant-garde jazz, Sun Ra's Atlantis sounds far out even today. Rather than a full-on assault on the senses, Atlantis is an exercise in build-up, with long, almost forlorn passages of Ra on electric keyboards setting a vast echo chamber for his Arkestra to spring forth within. Captured during one of the most adventurous periods for Sun Ra, *Atlantis* features the orchestral perfection of the best big bands of the century-and then proceeds towards mu…
tonaki touge de hagureta kmr
another amazing japanese weirdo band with members of the great old punks of aburadako and the free birds of hasegawa shizuo, higher hair then benny b or the fresh prince of bell air, a mental harry pussy like guitar style, dead pan free drumming and a voice that could be recorded somewhere else or under a public shower! a lot of energy crammed on one records anyway, too much to dream of. kito-mizukumi rouber is formed at tokyo. we are dance bands. your ankle is be cramped with a rhythm! we are b…
The Soft Wave
Alexis Georgopoulos (ex-Tussle), who is one third of The Alps (released by Type and Root Strata), and half of Q&A (on DFA), has finished his second album as ARP. Recorded as Alexis Georgopoulos (the man behind the music of Arp), relocated from San Francisco to New York, "The Soft Wave" is expansive in scope, unfolding like a collection of short stories or filmic vignettes, each piece building upon the other. "The Soft Wave" incorporates guitars, piano, flute, & Ebows to create a dense bro…
Open Casket
romantic low-fi death rock creepers from prolific Providence showman/illustrator/film-maker Carlos Gonzalez. Some of his catchiest tunes yet. To be listened at night on headphones. Reminds me of morbid childhood, the thing in the mirror, the AM rock n roll station and it’s chintzy announcers, hair collectors and men in heels - - #1 pop hit of the year - - -