New Arrivals
Shot
ultralimited lavishly packaged LP (100 handnumbered copies only!), this ground-breaking electro-acoustic trio made my day. The album is largely improvised, with extracts of Charles Bukowski’s poetic works overlapping on the interweavings and multiple stratiï¬Âed references in the trio’s music. It features a faceted palette of acoustic, analogue and digital colours: drums, metallic objects, ethnical instruments, samples, sequences, filtered voice, pedal effects, vinyls, digital electronic…
Live at the Storyville, NYC - 29 October, 1977
Day two of this rare live concert at the Storyville finds Ra and a 19-piece Arkestra again giving the audience a lesson in jazz with tracks like Rodgers and Hammerstein's 'My Favorite Things', Tadd Dameron's 'Lady Bird' and Miles Davis' 'Half Nelson', as well as a taste of his own classics ('Englight(en)Ment' and 'The Satellites')." Clear red vinyl in clear plastic sleeve with blue lettering (limited edition 500 copies).
La Strega And The Cunning Man In The Smoke
Doom rock pioneer, influential drone-master, occultist and professed anglophile, Dylan Carlson ov Earth comissioned by the Southern studios on 16th April, 2012 to record six covers and one original song, found on his latest Drcarlsonalbion issue. Accompanied by Teresa Colamonaco on vocals and Jodie Cox on guitar, 'La Strega and The Cunning Man In The Smoke' continues a progression from his ace instrumental recordings for The Tapeworm to the more recent, collaboration-oriented work 'Modern…
Generator breaker
A new Astral Social Club album is always a highlight of the year and Generator Breaker is no exception. Neil Campbell is one of the veterans of the British DIY/Drone/Noise scene and with ASC he has slowly formulated his very own and unique musical universe, akin to the psychedelic visions of his contemporaries and sometimes collaborators Sunroof! and Vibracathedral Orchestra but with a more electronic, less rock-influenced approach, instead aiming towards a heavily layered techno-infused …
Echohaus
LP version. “This latest project by the Hamburg-based musician, composer, and futurist, Felix Kubin, (his second release on Dekorder) is a collaboration with the contemporary music chamber group, ensemble Intégrales, and the reknowned German underground pop producer and sound engineer, Tobias Levin. Echohaus was recorded in and around Levin’s Electric Avenue studio in the basement of Westwerk, a former squat and cultural centre for non-commercial art and music in Hamburg. A special recording tec…
Le viandier de taillevent
for almost 10 years, the québécois collective napalm jazz gets its hands dirty with its unorthodox approaches to improv.' 'mostly activ as a duo with erick d'orion and philémon they like to get different guests like for example a_dontigny, arnaud rivière, erikm or erik minkkinen. limited to 181 copies and coproduced with notype from montréal." (label info)
Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh
This is an identical 180-gram vinyl reissue of the 1973 Vertigo release, wich is possibly Magma's great opus. Whether one prefers one of their other studio or live releases to it, there is no doubt that Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh is the most original, definitive Magma album around (although this reviewer personally prefers the Mekanik Kommandoh version!).Featuring a cast of thousands including a choir, brass section, flute and tuned percussion, Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh marries the stripped…
Friday Group
From out of the Great Republic of Texas, and a new side project from Tom Carter (Charalambides) and Brian Smith (Iron Kite) rises a lone star called Friday Group. In a seemingly appropriate gesture, the opening scherzo of droney solo guitar twang blows dusty debris across the speakers, as if a small sand storm in a remote part of Amarillo. With wind wrestling loose gutters and flat chimes, the first movement is almost a weird paean to Ry Cooder's desolate Paris Texas score. Axe attacks ho…
Caesarean
As Concern, Gordon Ashworth has explored drone music through an inspection of the textural components of acoustic instruments and recording processes. On Cæsarean the palette presented is a singularly precise one. Using simple sources (piano, clarinet, banjo, shrutti box, and acoustic guitar), tape processing (1/4” and cassette), and reverberation, Ashworth crafts delicate tape music through transforming repetitions and obscured fidelity. The emotional and physical presence of Cæsarean is over…
The Shepherdess and the Bone-White Bird
Stone Breath returns with their first new album in over 5 years. A visionary creation of Eastern-influenced rural acid folk. From fingerpicked acoustics; to clawhammer banjo excursions; to the side-long exaltation that is “The Shepherdess of the Fiery Wheels,” Stone Breath manifest their best work to date; an entire set of originals with the strange and beautiful harmonies and instrumentation which graced their past work. They are clear in sight, united in purpose, and shining in the darkness. C…
No Pressure
Pete um, a breeder of horses and creator of quirky tape loops, had already created a proud number of tracks scattered over a series of cd-rs, a 7" and a split lp, when he happened to run into the talent scouts of gagarin records in a small pub of his hometown cambridge. the fateful encounter set the clock ticking for a release but it would be five years before the essence of um's vast output was distilled into a flock of 18 tracks that now dazzle silvery on this very record. meanwhile, his music…
God Is Saying This To You...
More than a mere odds-n-ends collection, Kurt Vile’s latest LP is a compilation of tracks from Overnite KV, a tour-only CDR, along with a handful of extra tracks recorded specifically for this release. Here we find Kurt solo, four-trackin’ as usual, and blowing minds with his mix of bluegrass guitar, blazed singer-songwriterisms, and the knowledge of how to balance these contexts out with laidback precision. Psychedelic to its core, these twelve tracks speak to the will of the casual perf…
Here's Sunshine
This is another lost private-press gem, from a Texas singer/songwriter who is remembered for “looping, melodically through often surrealist lyrics with a strong Tim Buckley influence.” Another description drops the always-intriguing “downer” folk tag on this record, calling it “stark, edgy real-people loner vibe, reverb, acoustic instrumentation, occasional hand percussion, piano, harmonica, as that off-the-chain Texas feel that approaches solo Roky Erickson territory.” The record label, Backbea…
Cult Cargo: Grand Bahama Goombay
The second in our series of exploration of the panAmerican funk experience, Cult Cargo: Grand Bahama Goombay is a deep overview of Funky Nassau’s redheaded sister city, Freeport, GBI. From 1969-1976 Frank Penn’s GBI studio and label cranked out a dozen LPs and twice as many singles infected with the Miami sounds drifting in over the 100 mile strait. The catalog is a fruity blend of rake and scrape, bush, junkanoo, calypso, reggae, and of course, goombay, wi…
Black Summit
Strictly limited to 400 copies only, already sold out at source* Garden Söund is the rewarding collaboration of two hugely respected outfits: Barn Owl and Eternal Tapestry. Word of the album has spread like wildfire on a vast midwest plain, hence all 400 copies are sold out at source. 'Black Summit' finds the commonalities in Barn Owl's epic desert scapes and the crushingly potent psychedelia of Jed Bindeman's Eternal Tapestry with immeasurable success. The two characters stalk moonlit ca…
Space Programs
When the shoe drops on the first bars of the USA is the Monster's new full length, it becomes clear some changes have occured since the last record, Sunset at the End of the Industrial Age. Buttery synth and elaborate vocal harmonies combine to levitate hairpieces at least a wee bit. This is the perfect synthesis of the pastoral wanderings circa thier second full length record, Wohaw, and the punk spunk junk of their first and third full lengths. The band is still a New York two-piece tribe of N…
Lunes
Second album by Texas psych duo CALEB COY (guitar) & ETHAN COOK (organ), written in the desert, yet recorded during an endless NYC winter. A cold, expansive sound made ripe for these turbulent times: it's drone rooted deep in the American tradition. RIYL: Earth, Growing, Brightblack Morning Light.
And In The Endless Pause There Came The Sound Of Bees
A flop-eared rodent frolics in a lush field. In from the horizon sweeps a black cloud, kicked up by an army of similar-looking rodents. That's the basic set-up of Varmints, a 24-minute film by Studio AKA animator Marc Craste, based on a book written by Helen Ward and illustrated by Craste. Jóhann Jóhannsson draws the title of his latest album from the book, and this is the music he composed for the film's soundtrack. There's quite a bit of extra material-- the album is a full 1…
Primal waters
Fresh/new live studio rec. by one of the greatest jazz Ensemble around these days. (Label Press)
The Crystal World
LP version. A marked change had come over the forest, as if dusk had begun to fall. Everywhere the glacé sheaths which enveloped the trees and vegetation had become duller and more opaque. The crystal floor underfoot was occluded and gray, turning the needles into spurs of basalt. The brilliant panoply of colored light had gone, and a dim amber glow moved across the trees, shadowing the sequined floor. At the same time it had become considerably colder.The Crystal World, the third studio album f…