Phosphorescent Dreams
CD version. Available for the first time outside Japan, and on LP and CD, Phosphorescent Dreams is another epic album of symphonic schizophrenic avant-rock from Univers Zero, originally released in 2014 -- only on CD -- on the Japanese label Arcàngelo. Phosphorescent Dreams presents at the same time, in the same track, even on a single moment, the complex musical schemes and ways of Univers Zero, ranging from maximalism to minimalism, classical avant-garde with a 2020 vibe in a constant flux. In…
Live 80/81
In many ways, the nuanced sound worlds created in the studio by This Heat
are tailor made for sedentary headphone listening. But pulling off such
complicated, genre defying compositions live was surely something to
witness. Until now, there was no real official document of the group’s
live performances. Compiled by Charles Hayward and Charles Bullen from
rough cassette tape recordings of European gigs in Tilburg, Nijmegen,
Ärhus, Apeldoorn, Vienna and Rheims between April 1980 and June 198…
Repeat / Metal
Recorded from 1979 – 1980 Repeat / Metal is essentially This Heat’s third proper album, although it was released posthumously in 1993. Arguably their most radical work, Repeat / Metal features side-length tape experiments ranging from the dubby drum loops of “Repeat”, a 20 minute edit / reworking of their landmark piece “24 Track Loop”, to the gamelan-inspired sounds of “Metal”, an electro-acoustic work recorded outside of their studio, Cold Storage, and helmed by member Gareth Williams.Formed i…
Made Available
Formed in 1976 in Brixton, a multicultural, and – at the time – down-at-heel part of south London, This Heatwere born into a music scene in rapid flux, first thanks to the punk explosion and then via new wave and its myriad offshoots into pop, rock and art-rock. But while many sought to apply punk attitude to chart-friendly sounds, This Heat were concocting some of the most experimental ideas ever committed to tape, taking influence from musique concrète, krautrock, the burgeoning industrial sce…
The Ghost Trade + The EP Collection
** Limited Edition Color Wax ** Camberwell, in South London, pops up infrequently in pop culture. Perhaps you know it from the Camberwell Carrot, the heroically sized joint smoked in cult movie Withnail & I, or perhaps – if you’re attuned to experimental music – you know of Camberwell Now. The group formed from the ashes of This Heat, the art-noise group whose catalog was reissued on Modern Classics Recordings in early 2016.
Not so much a supersession as a continuation of that group, Camb…
Insignificance
Insignificance, Jim O'Rourke's third solo album for Drag City, reaffirms that he is not only a fine composer, arranger, and producer, but a gifted, creative songwriter as well. As with Eureka and the Halfway to a Threeway EP, O'Rourke continues to find as many possibilities in singing and songwriting as he does experimenting with pure sound. However, this time O'Rourke adds a few twists to the formula he pioneered on those two efforts.
He sings on each of Insignificance's tracks, his frail voice…
Advent
Jagjaguwar is now proud to reissue this very important work on vinyl as well. Advent became a true underground success story, a critical darling, with Alan Licht, for example, putting it on his 'minimal top ten list' in the publication Halana. 'It is a record by an intense young man,' writes Richard Youngs, in an essay packaged with the record." Kinda amazing to have this record back on vinyl, in the year 2006. Originally recorded in 1988, it features Richard on electric guitar, piano, oboes and…
Sarcelle Locheres
A mindblowing masterpiece, of course included in the NWW list: Red Noise's one and only album was originally released near the end of 1970 on the legendary Futura label. Red Noise was a radical, inventive avant rock band with some improvised jazz elements, as well as a heavy dose of Zappa-esque humor. The first side is a bunch of interconnected tracks, some of them much shorter than a minute, like the opening piece, "Cosmic Toilet Ditty," which consists of footsteps and a toilet flush. Quirky so…