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Index of Labels
Browse by Label: SECRETLY CANADIAN
Artist:
LANGILLE W/ LOREN MAZZACANE CONNORS, SUZANNE
Title:
The Enchanted Forest
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
CD
Price:
$12.00
Catalog #:
SC 018CD
"After a decade of appearances on Loren Mazzacane's albums, Suzanne Langille releases a full length of her own songs.
The Enchanted Forest
combines Suzanne's celestial voice and lyrical talent with Loren's crystalline guitar work. Loosely based on John Lebar's 1945 film of the same name, Suzanne acts out the story of a lost child, a forest's impending end and those that try and save it, through the voices of six characters. As on previous MazzaCane albums, Suzanne's soulful and blues filled moans created burning holes in the hearts and ears of many during each song. Loren's guitar stays at a constant whisper pitch throughout the album, his minimal chords and lone notes have never been this fragile. Reminiscent of the St. Joan era collaborations between Suzanne and Loren, these two have never sounded so brilliant."
Artist:
LANGILLE W/ LOREN MAZZACANE CONNORS, SUZANNE
Title:
The Enchanted Forest
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
LP
Price:
$10.00
Catalog #:
SC 018LP
LP version.
Artist:
LANGILLE, SUZANNE
Title:
Let The Darkness Fall
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
CD
Price:
$12.00
Catalog #:
SC 026CD
"The return of singer/lyricist Suzanne Langille. She is once again joined by longtime collaborator and partner Loren MazzaCane Connors as well as Atlanta's Andrew Burnes and David Daniell of the group San Agustin. The result is an intensely bleak, yet satisfying, musical excursion. It showcases her lyrical intonation and her zesty, more sensual vocal style. The album is full of gently churning and ethereal moments which are steeped heavily in the musical and emotional concentration that only the wisdom afforded to veterans of this group's tenure can allow. Six of the seven songs are darkly textured by the bending tones of what is often a three-guitar chorus."
Artist:
LANGILLE/LOREN MAZZACANE CONNORS, SUZANNE
Title:
1987-1989
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
CD
Price:
$12.00
Catalog #:
SC 034CD
"In 1987, Loren Mazzacane Connors first played with his future wife, Suzzane Langille. Together they performed Langille-adapted traditional and gospel standards, slowing them 'down to a crawl'. Two albums were released on his own St. Joan label under the moniker Guitar Roberts with Suzanne Langille, entitled
Bluesmaster 1
and
Bluesmaster 2
. This album represents the best of their material as a duo from those two records, plus the one song they performed as a duo from Loren's 1989
In Pittsburgh
full-length ('Haunted House') and three previously unreleased recordings from the same period."
Artist:
DANIELSON FAMILE
Title:
A Prayer For Every Hour
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
2CD
Price:
$15.00
Catalog #:
SC 041CD
"This lost classic from '94 -- the world's first glimpse of the remarkable Smith family of New Jersey, best known as the Danielson Famile -- is being made available once again to the public. The group, led by eldest brother Daniel, initially had critics and audiences alike scratching their heads wondering if their collision of aesthetics and spirituality was, as some put it, 'an elaborate put-on.' In those days artists and rockers alike were dumbfounded by just how complicated a marriage the Famile's collision of aesthetics and faith seemed to them. In '94, there weren't many artists weened on Sonic Youth and the Pixies who were as serious about spirituality as the Danielson Famile. The independent rock underground, rather, was more comfortable leaving faith issues to be dealt with by folks such as Marvin Gaye and George Harrison. Daniel and Co., however, have helped contribute to a partial breaking down of that barrier of cool, and it all started with
A Prayer For Every Hour
, a 24-song cycle of tunes intended to be performed or experienced once an hour, on the hour, as a devotional gesture of faith."
Artist:
DANIELSON FAMILE
Title:
Tell Another Joke At The Ol' Choppin' Block
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
2LP
Price:
$17.00
Catalog #:
SC 042LP
"September marks the beginning of a season in which we look back upon and celebrate some of our favorite Danielson titles from a rich back catalog that has spanned over a decade. This epic journey of retrospection begins with the vinyl reissues of
Tell Another Joke At The Ol' Choppin' Block
and
Fetch The Compass Kids
(both being released on Secretly Canadian) and
Tri-Danielson!!! (Alpha/Omega)
(being released on Sounds Familyre). In addition to being back in print for the first time since 2001, these reissues have some unique attributes such as:
Tell Another Joke At The Ol' Choppin' Block
is now available as a 2LP format (as opposed to the 2x10" format in which it debuted) and includes 4 bonus songs from a live WFMU session from 1996.
Tri Danielson!!! (Alpha/Omega)
has been partially remixed and fully remastered and makes its vinyl return dressed up in a brilliant new gatefold jacket along with a very special bonus track. Remember this is just the kick off of a busy season for Danielson, so stay tuned."
Artist:
DANIELSON FAMILE
Title:
TriDanielson!!! (Alpha)
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
CD
Price:
$12.00
Catalog #:
SC 043CD
"Their next two full-lengths,
Tri-Danielson!!! (Alpha)
and
Tri-Danielson!!! (Omega)
were recorded together and released separately as sister albums. An experiment in album form, they attempted to push out in three opposite directions from one source without a unification attempt. They proved that the Famile was a band who could translate the intensity of their increasingly famous live performances -- in which the band dons nurses uniforms that act, according to Daniel, as 'visual reminders of the spiritual and emotional healing taking place' within audience members -- onto record. With these two records, the Famile's highly choreographed, yet still quite improvisational, songs showed a kinship with the bombastic theatricality of Queen and ABBA, the serrated and damaged edge of Captain Beefheart and early Talking Heads, the child-like perspective and uninhibited sense of adventure of Half Japanese and the Shaggs, and the deep spirituality of Washington Phillips and father Lenny Smith."
Artist:
DANIELSON FAMILE
Title:
Fetch The Compass Kids
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
LP
Price:
$14.00
Catalog #:
SC 045LP
2001 release, repressed.
Artist:
PANOPLY ACADEMY, THE
Title:
Everything Here Was Built to Break
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
CD
Price:
$13.00
Catalog #:
SC 058CD
"The Panoply Academy spent the better part of a decade as central Indiana's most challenging & compelling bands. Going through a handful of member -- and thus slight name -- changes, the Panoply Academy have infected basements across the country over and over again having begrudgingly drawn comparisons to Pere Ubu, Sonic Youth, U.S. Maple, Brainiac and from time to time even Wire with an attention span. The one thread running through all of the comparisons is that the band is difficult to pin down. The fact is -- like these other bands -- Panoply defies categorization."
Artist:
FISCHOFF, DAVE
Title:
The Crawl
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
CD
Price:
$13.50
Catalog #:
SC 064CD
"Dave Fischoff's
The Crawl
is the product of a single creative mind. Armed with a rather large arsenal of obscure samples culled from his life as well as the entire Chicago Public Library sound collection, Dave went to work. Alone in a near downtown basement apartment (sometimes in his bedroom closet), his mind took a very long trip, delving into the under-explored territory where electronic music, hip-hop, and orchestral pop meet. Taking cues from The Beach Boys and Burt Bacharach to The Postal Service and Public Enemy, Dave Fischoff has conceived, collected, cut and pasted, orchestrated and created a piece of work that is large and complex, yet utterly personal and easily accessible."
Artist:
BR. DANIELSON
Title:
Brother is to Son
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
CD
Price:
$13.50
Catalog #:
SC 066CD
"This sixth Danielson album has been a long time coming for Daniel Smith. All the special-ness that the full band brought to previous Danielson albums is fully intact. The earnest vocal chirp of head Danielson himself is still there, not to mention the impassioned and punk-inspired hard strum of his acoustic guitar. He still leads his folk jamboree through the familial boy-girl harmonies as the banjos, bells, piano keys and jaw harp all teem with kinetic energy, like a deconstructionalist jug band led by a man who follows in the bold footsteps of Sun Ra, Don Van Vliet and Johnny Lydon as a truly original art terrorist. What is unique about this new window into the Danielson brain-cage is its pervasive tenderness, most clearly manifested in the ever-broadening vocal range of Daniel. Taking a cue from Dylan's
Bringing it All Back Home
,
Brother is to Son
opens confidently and intensely while slowly turning in on itself by its second half, on which Smith brings a vulnerability unmatched on his previous five albums."
Artist:
BR. DANIELSON
Title:
Brother is to Son
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
2LP
Price:
$13.50
Catalog #:
SC 066LP
Double LP version.
Artist:
HAVERGAL
Title:
Elettricita
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
CD
Price:
$13.50
Catalog #:
SC 091CD
"The mark of minimalist composers Erik Satie, Steve Reich and Terry Riley have all been left on Havergal and can be traced throughout Havergal's second album
Elettricita
. The strength of the single note (versus the fat meaty chord) is something that Havergal has always embraced. And with unlimited tracking, the cactus needled single notes of Lungs for the Race have blossomed a bit on
Elettricita
, retaining that fragile sound while finding strength in numbers -- an army of individual notes so deep in number that the land they traverse becomes unrecognizable in their wake. The music meanders as the hypnotic rhythms build upon one another and change into slow beach breaks. In the studio, Havergal does not set out to record an event that occurs in a moment in time, but rather to create a sound collage that can only be created in his home studio. Havergal's commitment to make a modern music that is beyond his personal abilities -- relying on technology to multi-track very simple parts forty times over. Yet the music still retains a very humanistic quality, conveying moods of the most complicated sort. Yes, this highly processed music has a subtle pastoral quality to it that allows it to transcend the glitch pop soup of the day. Movietone, Califone, early Tangerine Dream and Eno's
Another Green World
are interesting touchstones for one looking for kindred spirits."
Artist:
HORNS OF HAPPINESS, THE
Title:
A Sea As A Shore
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
CD
Price:
$13.50
Catalog #:
SC 093CD
"Like a glorious pillow fight in the heavens between Paul & Linda McCartney and Grandaddy,
A Sea As A Shore
is full of fuzzed out psychedelic pop songs composed with acoustic & electric guitars, pumping organs and dreamy vocals. They are interspersed with instrumental interludes where pianos mingle, banjos bark and tape loops shuffle. Built upon simple, spontaneous parts, and sculpted onto the tape, the songs as a whole take the listener by the hand guiding him to the revelation that music can transport the listener to another place. Fans of Maher Shalal Hash Baz, the Microphones and the Olivia Tremor Control will find a good friend in
A Sea As A Shore
."
Artist:
NORMANOAK
Title:
Born a Black Diamond
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
CD
Price:
$13.50
Catalog #:
SC 094CD
"NormanOak is Chris Barth.
Born A Black Diamond
is NormanOak's debut -- a wind chipped, folk meditation on the universe's creation, mycology, the Tree of Life and a bit of Aleister Crowley mysticism. It was recorded over the 2002-2003 winter while NormanOak's band the Impossible Shapes (in which he is the songwriter, lead vocalist, and plays guitar) were sequestered in the forest outside of Bloomington, Indiana. Barth takes a similar free-spirited hippie wanderer approach on
Born a Black Diamond
that psychedelic forefathers like Donovan and Marc Bolan's Tyrannosaurus Rex took a few decades earlier, a time when NormanOak was pecking the trees. Though inside the strums and animal claws, there is a complexity, a sap that has flown from the leaves of Ya Ho Wa 13 and Robert Wyatt. He takes great pride in his use of the 4-track (which has been squashed over the past several years due to the ubiquity of digital recording), which may be enjoying a renaissance of sorts as like-minded artists like Iron & Wine, Devendra Banhart and The Blithe Sons have been making champions of albums with its use in the past two years."
Artist:
IMPOSSIBLE SHAPES, THE
Title:
Horus
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
CD
Price:
$13.50
Catalog #:
SC 097CD
"The Impossible Shapes is a quartet from the southern reaches of Indiana.
Horus
is the group's fifth proper full-length album since 2000 and the one that takes the clues and abstractions of all previous and encapsulates them as a monumental and subversive vessel. At point-A we have a classic album from a post-Aquarian world that would be on the electric side of Bert Jansch's
Pentangle
or Fotheringay. Then from point-B Barth takes a lyrical journey that saunters against the slim lines of magickal romance, demon chasing, Pan, and vile humanistic impulses that reads of equal parts Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Aleister Crowley. His litanies on discovery and shadowy desires of hedonism and courtly love line each song with a tint of naturalistic folk force and free will. A swell of grandeur appears across this song cycle, morphing out of the delicate hill-side inflected guitar melodies into miniature cathedral celebrations. An association of fellow travellers exists within the songs evoking the ancestral pull of early Pink Floyd and a non-acoustic Incredible String Band changing milk-into-gold with their dark brethren Comus."
Artist:
IMPOSSIBLE SHAPES, THE
Title:
Horus
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
LP
Price:
$12.00
Catalog #:
SC 097LP
LP version.
Artist:
DANIELSON
Title:
Ships
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
CD
Price:
$13.50
Catalog #:
SC 103CD
"In case you haven't heard, 2006 will be the year of Danielson. The mammoth new Secretly Canadian full-length by the Southern New Jersey enclave, entitled
Ships
(produced by Danielson chieftain Daniel Smith), is being released. In contrast to the Br. Danielson album
Brother Is to Son
from last year, the songs on
Ships
are not solo songs, nor are they recorded without the help of his Famile.
Ships
is pure Danielson, created with the help of no less than 34 of Smith's closest friends and family members."
Pitchfork
rating: 9.1!
Artist:
ANTONY & THE JOHNSONS
Title:
Antony & The Johnsons
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
CD
Price:
$13.50
Catalog #:
SC 104CD
"Antony and the Johnsons present chamber cabaret in darkest blue, creating music that is highly dramatic, emotional, and lyrical. Compared to everyone from Nina Simone to Lotte Lenya, Antony's voice is hauntingly evocative. The Johnsons, an ensemble featuring a string trio, piano, bass and drums, lay a foundation of lush yet minimal orchestral arrangements.
Antony & the Johnsons
is a reissue of the group's debut album, which was originally released in 1998 on the London-based label Durtro, which is run by David Tibet of Current 93. It was followed by the EP
I Fell in Love with a Dead Boy EP
, which includes a cover of David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti's 'Mysteries of Love.' Antony accompanied Lou Reed as a part of his band on his 2003 world tour, on which Antony sang lead vocals on the Velvet Underground classic 'Candy Says'. It, as well as several other songs on which Antony sings back-up vocals, was documented on Reed's latest double-live album
Animal Serenade
. Antony also contributed vocals for Reed's most recent album,
The Raven
."
Artist:
ANTONY & THE JOHNSONS
Title:
I Am A Bird Now
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
CD
Price:
$13.50
Catalog #:
SC 105CD
"There is a myth that great artists operate in seclusion. Hogwash. One need look no further than to the ten songs of Antony and the Johnsons' new album,
I Am A Bird Now
, to realize this is an utter fallacy. To be sure, with his androgynous features, the singularly named Antony is an original. Have you ever heard a voice like this, imbued with the transcendental emotion of the blues, yet deployed with an unadorned simplicity reminiscent of medieval music practice, and graced with a top note of childlike wonder? Or songs that blur distinctions of gender and identity, yet which still summon up such powerful feelings: longing, love, lust, loss? No. Because Antony is one-of-a-kind. But he is certainly not alone. We are proud to present you with a record filled with one of the most gifted voices heard in a long time. Antony's vocals are almost inhuman, coming together to compile a creature that's as beautiful and enigmatic as the Peter Hujar photo, 'Candy Darling on Her Deathbed', that graces its cover. The lead-off single to
I Am A Bird Now
, 'Fistful of Love' is perhaps Antony & the Johnsons' finest work to date. It features a scorching horn section and subcultural icon Lou Reed on vocals and searing lead guitar. In the tradition of subversive soul classics The Crystals' 'He Hit me (And It Felt Like a Kiss)' and Millie Jackson's 'Hurts So Good,' Antony sings this ode to getting the shit kicked out of you and learning to love every minute of it. The complex emotional undertow of this track reaches a cathartic roar by the song's finale. Antony shifts from a tremble to a wail -- a tempest of emotion.
I Am A Bird Now
also includes contributions from friends Boy George (duet with Antony on 'You Are My Sister'), Devendra Banhart (vocals on 'Spiralling'), and Rufus Wainwright (lead vocals on 'What Can I Do')."
Artist:
ANTONY & THE JOHNSONS
Title:
I Am A Bird Now
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
LP
Price:
$12.00
Catalog #:
SC 105LP
LP version.
Artist:
LEKMAN, JENS
Title:
You Are the Light
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
CD
Price:
$4.00
Catalog #:
SC 106CD
"Just as pop stars Serge Gainsbourg, Scott Walker and Prince segued from their early work into their more wildly iconoclastic periods,
You are the Light
signals not only a birthing for Jens, but also the end of an era for him. On this EP, we also find Jens at perhaps his most vulnerable, the spare 'A Man Walks Into A Bar', is essentially just Jens and a mic -- nada mas. This EP serves as a coda to his upcoming debut full-length
When I Said I Wanted To Be Your Dog
, having been recorded at the tail end of those album sessions, and, ultimately, it gives a small insight into where this burgeoning maestro is going. Lekman has been called
'the latest and possibly greatest Scandinavian export... A modest commercial success in his homeland and a genuinely compelling artist, as evinced on the
Maple Leaves
EP and
Rocky Dennis
EP. Perched at the center of an unbelievably lush swirl of strings and background cooing, Lekman comes very close to evoking the early solo work of John Cale'
."
Artist:
LEKMAN, JENS
Title:
When I Said I Wanted To Be Your Dog
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
CD
Price:
$13.50
Catalog #:
SC 107CD
"His songs are each so different stylistically, each a classic in its own way. He employs each of the following as central features in his songs: horn sections, string sections, a capella singing, steel drums, piano balladry, and mandolin. Lekman is a young pop crooner from Göteborg, Sweden. Eyes bright, heart wide open, he's become an overnight sensation with his home recorded magic and fantastic lyrics. It's hard to believe that he is only 23. He could as well be playing Las Vegas. His timeless elegance makes the big, beautiful suburban pop songs sound like they're already classics. With an angelic voice and golden ears he seems to be drinking from the same hard waters as the Carpenters, Harry Nilsson, the Magnetic Fields, Smog, the Modern Lovers and Belle & Sebastian."
Artist:
LEKMAN, JENS
Title:
When I Said I Wanted To Be Your Dog
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
LP
Price:
$12.00
Catalog #:
SC 107LP
LP version.
Artist:
SWELL MAPS
Title:
A Trip to Marineville
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
CD
Price:
$13.50
Catalog #:
SC 108CD
New reissue of this 1979 debut album, with 4 bonus tracks. "Noisy and experimental, Britain's Swell Maps experienced little commercial success during the course of their chaotic career, but in hindsight they stand as one of the pivotal acts of the new wave: not only was the group an acknowledged inspiration to the likes of Sonic Youth and Pavement, but their alumni -- most notably brothers Nikki Sudden and Epic Soundtracks -- continued on as key players in the underground music community. Although Sudden (vocals/guitar) and Soundtracks (piano/drums) formed the first incarnation of the Swell Maps (named after the charts used by surfers to gauge wave intensities) as far back as 1972, the group did not begin to truly take shape until 1976, when the siblings enlisted bassist Jowe Head and guitarist Richard Earl. In the spirit of punk's 'do-it-yourself' mentality, they formed their own label, Rather Records, and issued their debut single in the early weeks of 1978. Local media support soon won the group a distribution pact with Rough Trade, but they did not resurface until over a year later. In mid-1979, the Swell Maps released their full-length debut
A Trip to Marineville
, a crazy-quilt of punk energy and Krautrock-influenced clatter."
Artist:
SWELL MAPS
Title:
Jane from Occupied Europe
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
CD
Price:
$13.50
Catalog #:
SC 109CD
New reissue of the 2nd Swell Maps album, originally issued in 1980, with 2 bonus tracks. Previously available via Mute UK. "After the release of one more speaker-shredding single, the group recorded one final studio LP,
Jane from Occupied Europe
, before breaking up. Each of the members followed their own career paths, playing solo and forming bands: Sudden formed the Jacobites, Soundtracks joined Crime and the City Solution, and Head played with the Television Personalities. Each album has been remastered, includes liner notes and unreleased photos as well as bonus tracks not available on previous versions of these iconoclastic albums."
Artist:
WINDSOR FOR THE DERBY
Title:
We Fight Til Death
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
CD
Price:
$13.50
Catalog #:
SC 110CD
"This record was recorded and mixed over the last year at Burton's Grotto Home Studio with Burton and a few other locals sitting in. WFTD finds a way to take each release to a wholly different trajectory while at the same time creating a progressive connection to the last. The skewed pop sensibilities of
The Emotional Rescue
LP are hinted at on
We Fight Til Death
as well as the dark refrains of 1998's
Minnie Greutzfeldt
. By combining elements of previous releases and exploring new terrain,
We Fight Til Death
is Windsor For The Derby's most realized release to date."
Artist:
WINDSOR FOR THE DERBY
Title:
We Fight Til Death
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
2LP
Price:
$13.50
Catalog #:
SC 110LP
Double LP version.
Artist:
ANTONY & THE JOHNSONS
Title:
The Lake
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
CD
Price:
$7.50
Catalog #:
SC 113CD
"Conceived as an introduction to Antony & the Johnsons' new full-length
I Am A Bird Now
,
The Lake
consists of three songs, including the lead-off single to
I Am A Bird Now
. The song is 'Fistful of Love' and is Antony & the Johnsons' finest work to date. Featuring a scorching horn section and the legendary Lou Reed on vocals and lead guitar, the song's clear star is Antony. His lead vocal performance is bone-chilling. Reminiscent to that of the late Otis Redding, he shifts from a tremble to a wail -- a tempest of emotion.
The Lake
also features two previously unreleased songs."
Artist:
ANTONY & THE JOHNSONS
Title:
Hope There's Someone
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
CD
Price:
$7.50
Catalog #:
SC 114CD
"On the second single from Antony & The Johnson's
I Am A Bird Now
, Antony presents one of the strongest solo pieces in his staggeringly rich repertoire. The song 'Hope There's Someone' is a rush of pure emotion, a true performance with every bit of hope, supplication, distress, horror, lament, agony, sorrow and accession, spanning the entire life-death experience. Two of the three songs are previously unreleased outtakes from the
I Am A Bird Now
sessions. The single also contains a new video for 'Hope There's Someone' by the up-and-coming NYC director Glen Fogel. The video, and cover art, features a captivating portrait of the NYC legend Joey Gabriel."
Artist:
ANTONY & THE JOHNSONS
Title:
Hope There's Someone
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
12"
Price:
$7.50
Catalog #:
SC 114EP
Vinyl EP version.
Artist:
JURADO, DAMIEN
Title:
Just in Time for Something
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
CD
Price:
$8.50
Catalog #:
SC 115CD
"Self-recorded during a long weekend using a '67 tube-powered reel-to-reel which Damien picked up especially for this EP, these new tunes sound like Alan Lomax field recordings from the mid-60's. Listening to the EP, it feels as though Damien's just in the other room, on the other side of the door, playing new songs and hitting them spot on for the first time. You can hear him catch his stride and lose himself in these beautiful songs. His voice is that of an angel. Just as Nick Drake was able to convey that complicated sense of uplifting sorrow in his songs and in his voice, Jurado has both the songwriting and the performance gift."
Artist:
HORNS OF HAPPINESS, THE
Title:
What Spills Like Thread
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
12"
Price:
$8.50
Catalog #:
SC 122EP
"Horns of Happiness provide the two sides to the second half of their newnew sound with 'What Spills Like Thread.' With the follow-up 12" to last year's
Would I Find Your Psychic Guideline
, they're now navigating the waters of hypnotic, organ-driven thump rock. On this record, the HoH have expanded into a trio, with new member Elaina Morgan providing the bottom end to the disjointed fuzz of Aaron Deer and Shelly Harrison's organ/drum combo. Played out in two extended jams, side A evokes ESG on the dancefloor with Can at an absinthe-fueled afterparty, while side B is a woozy pop-drone undulation."
Artist:
NORMANOAK
Title:
A Double Gift Of Tongues
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
LP
Price:
$13.50
Catalog #:
SC 124LP
"Chris Barth re-emerges with
A Double Gift Of Tongues
to share once again Normanoak's mysterious fibrillation of heart and lung. Unbound from his share of duties with The Impossible Shapes, Barth chronicles a world of acorns, blood, and sacrifice; of the holy hexagram of intertwined triangles; of the holy books writ in the sands of madness; of the language behind language and the seeds of the unspeakable. Barth's ability to chew up, unbuckle, and alternate between sanguine sanctity and life's whimsical playfulness has never shown itself in a purer light than throughout the 14 song landscape of this limited vinyl release. Fans of the inwardly mobile mysticism of Donovan or the soul-damaged guitar skree of George Brigman's
Jungle Rot
in its most minimal state should book their ticket to
A Double Gift Of Tongues
immediately."
Artist:
WINDSOR FOR THE DERBY
Title:
Giving Up the Ghost
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
CD
Price:
$13.00
Catalog #:
SC 128CD
"Windsor for the Derby are a study in dualities. It is made of two primary band members preserving not only a musical identity but a friendship over many years and many miles. Creating music that is equal parts dance and folk, a truly disparate combination of styles that come out sounding completely organic. While listening to
Giving Up The Ghost
, you hear not only the beautiful stylistic tension of two styles at play, but also the room and atmosphere itself. Windsor's music has always been a play on modern pop, infused with giant amounts of space, a space which both reflects the physical distance between its members as well as providing an artistic counterpoint to the massive inundation of noise and data that our society is bombarded with daily."
Artist:
WINDSOR FOR THE DERBY
Title:
Giving Up the Ghost
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
LP
Price:
$12.00
Catalog #:
SC 128LP
LP version.
Artist:
ANTONY & THE JOHNSONS
Title:
You Are My Sister
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
12"
Price:
$8.50
Catalog #:
SC 130EP
"Antony & The Johnsons' breakthrough album
I Am A Bird Now
has certainly touched fans and critics alike. The album's latest single is the anthemic and heart-rending 'You Are My Sister,' presented as a duet between Antony and Boy George. Together these two vocalists climb to the highest peak of emotional vulnerability providing for the listener one of the most touching and uncanny duets of the past decade. It's heartbreaking when Antony sings,
'You are my sister / we were born / so innocent, so full of need / there were times we were friends / but times I was so cruel / at night I'd asked for to watch me as I sleep'
. With soaring and world-weary intensity, Boy George utterly commands the refrain:
'You are my sister / and I love you / may all of your dreams come true.'
In 'You Are My Sister,' the pair sing from the depths of their hearts for the world. This extended single also includes three new, unreleased songs recorded during the
I Am A Bird Now
sessions."
Artist:
IMPOSSIBLE SHAPES, THE
Title:
The Impossible Shapes
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
CD
Price:
$13.50
Catalog #:
SC 140CD
"The Impossible Shapes have been merrily musick making -- mostly under the radar -- for a decade now. With this release, the band has recorded songs which were flushed out over many live performances over many tours all across the globe. This album is their pinnacle song mound that could have been issued by Zapple, if times had been different. At the root these four long-hairs are a pop band -- kinda like how Byrds became a meta group -- who've been strained through British folk as well as the whole post/beat/mystic literate gob. Songwriter Chris Barth translates a cosmological view as psychedelic nursery rhymes or rock n' roll cracked into freeform strata."
Artist:
WINDSOR FOR THE DERBY
Title:
How We Lost
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
CD
Price:
$13.50
Catalog #:
SC 141CD
"Despite the connotation of its title,
How We Lost
is a celebratory album. It's a reflective record and, in its own way, celebrates the Windsor For The Derby continuum that's been created from their first release (
Calm Hades Float
, 1996) to their last (
Giving Up the Ghost
, 2005). Each of these recordings is a sequel to the next both in narrative and musically and as the band's first two records (
Calm Hades Float
and
Minnie Greutzfeldt
) were re-released last year they found themselves in constant dialogue about their body of work and the paths they'd chosen. Also a part of that ongoing dialogue were the records that the band finds itself consistently re-visiting (Swell Maps, Section 25, Psychic TV and much of the Factory Records catalog) and what makes those recordings timeless and resonate in a personal way with the band. The songs on
How We Lost
are reflections of those records and those conversations. It's about the band and the ways the band has changed over the years, the things they hold onto and what's been left behind."
Artist:
WINDSOR FOR THE DERBY
Title:
How We Lost
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
LP
Price:
$13.50
Catalog #:
SC 141LP
LP version.
Artist:
WINDSOR FOR THE DERBY
Title:
Calm Hades Float
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
CD
Price:
$13.50
Catalog #:
SC 142CD
WFTD's debut record with exclusive bonus tracks. "Originally released in 1996,
Calm Hades Float
is a timeless record that sounds like a dream collaboration of Martin Hannett and Brian Eno. Snaps of electronic drums collide with warm hum and reverb-drenched guitars on this ambitious release recorded by Adam Wiltzie of Stars Of the Lid. This re-release also contains the '+/-' flexi that came with the first 750 vinyl copies, along with 2 previously unreleased live tracks. Originally released on the legendary Austin label Trance Syndicate."
Artist:
WINDSOR FOR THE DERBY
Title:
Minnie Greutzfeldt
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
CD
Price:
$13.50
Catalog #:
SC 143CD
Reissue of the their 2nd album from 1996. "Veering from their debut,
Minnie Greutzfeldt
-- the band's sophomore album -- is a study in nothingness. Also engineered by Wiltzie -- Minnie came on the heels of a Kramer-induced world of rolling bass lines and oceanic reverb. The record is paired with the long lost
Metropolitan Then Poland
EP, a collection of home experiments with synths, scissors and drum machines. Originally released on the legendary Austin label, Trance Syndicate."
Artist:
HYVONEN, FRIDA
Title:
Until Death Comes
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
CD
Price:
$13.50
Catalog #:
SC 144CD
"Carving a path through the fertile land of Sweden, Frida Hyvönen is a talented piano-based songwriter in the vein of Laura Nyro with a passionate bite and a voice like an icicle that cuts deep. Recorded in the legendary Atlantis studio in Stockholm and co-produced with Jari Haapalainen, Frida's debut record,
Until Death Comes
features a raw home-recording feel not dissimilar to the Stones'
Beggar's Banquet
, Joni Mitchell's
Blue
or Carole King's
Tapestry
. Loved in her home country, she's just beginning to peek out into the rest of the world by touring in support of country-mates Jens Lekman, José Gonzalaz and The Concretes."
Artist:
HYVONEN, FRIDA
Title:
Until Death Comes
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
LP
Price:
$12.00
Catalog #:
SC 144LP
LP version.
Artist:
EARLIES, THE
Title:
The Enemy Chorus
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
CD
Price:
$14.00
Catalog #:
SC 146CD
"
The Enemy Chorus
is a hypnotic voyage through a largely aphotic locale with unpredictable bursts of light and sound -- perhaps amidst the heavens, or maybe under our own feet. While no less beautiful than their debut, this record carries a greater feeling of uncertainty, longing, anxiety, and sadness. The group's production skills have been greatly refined -- at times, reminiscent of Nigel Godrich's great layered atmospheres. Though, the approach to recording is essentially the same, and the distinct Earlies sound remains intact. Their listening habits changed considerably between the recording of the two albums -- exploring the depths of progressive and krautrock. Influences range from the essential work of Faust to prog greats Gentle Giant to the musique concrete madness of Jean-Claude Vannier."
Artist:
INSTRUMENTS OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Title:
Music From The Films of R/Swift
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
CD
Price:
$13.50
Catalog #:
SC 148CD
"For the critical listener, Instruments of Science & Technology sounds like Brian Eno and Wendy Carlos had a love child in the '70s and subsequently marooned him/her/it on an Oort Cloud. If they had, this might have been the recording their love child beamed back to Earth. This largely instrumental electronic project may seem out of character for Richard Swift, who has raised eyebrows and turned heads over the past few years for his unmistakably beautiful singing voice, melancholic lyrics and sophisticated songwriting. Taking into account all three releases, it appears that Swift considers the last 80 years of recorded music as his own personal spice rack of musical texture from which to draw and concoct new musical recipes. With Instruments of Science & Technology, Swift has resurrected the earliest forms of electronic music, thrown in a few dashes of dub, hip-hop, kraut-rock, and Motown, and created a new hybrid dish. So fire up the hooka coals, turn on that full screen iTunes visualizer, and pump these jams as loud as your speakers/neighbors will allow."
Artist:
INSTRUMENTS OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Title:
Music From The Films of R/Swift
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
LP
Price:
$13.50
Catalog #:
SC 148LP
LP version.
Artist:
LEKMAN, JENS
Title:
Night Falls Over Kortedala
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
CD
Price:
$13.50
Catalog #:
SC 160CD
"Jens arduously labored over the songs on
Night Falls Over Kortedala
over the last three years between relentless tours (which ranged from full blown 8-piece ensembles to just Jens alone with a ukulele at the mic). 'Kortedala' refers to a neighborhood in Jens' hometown of Gothenburg, Sweden, where his studio Koredala Beauty Center is located. It also refers to a vague musical pop sound with hints of tropicalia that has been coming out of Gothenburg's clubs over the last few years. Having more in common with Paul Simon's
Graceland
, Jens' latest is a response to more than an engagement in today's Kortedala music of his Swedish peers. An exercise in insularity,
Night Falls Over Kortedala
has achieved its specific sound not from going out but from Jens staying in and coming to grips with the sounds he had in his head, or as he said, 'from the sound of my own voice reverberating off my home's old '50s brick walls, from the ghosts of everyone who's lived here before me clapping along with their little ectoplasm hands. My record basically never leaves the 30 square meters that I live on until the very last song when I take a short bus ride to the countryside in "Friday Night at the Drive-in Bingo."'"
Artist:
LEKMAN, JENS
Title:
Night Falls Over Kortedala
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
LP
Price:
$12.00
Catalog #:
SC 160LP
LP version.
Artist:
TRIMBLE, BOBB
Title:
Iron Curtain Innocence
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
CD
Price:
$14.00
Catalog #:
SC 162CD
"Bobb Trimble and Secretly Canadian are proud to present you with
Iron Curtain Innocence
(1980) and
Harvest of Dreams
(1982), two releases that will now reach a genuine audience with full reissue treatment. This is great news for rare music lovers, since Bobb's original LPs are highly sought-after collectors' items fetching hundreds of dollars apiece! Each CD release contains never before seen photos of Bobb Trimble, the Wormtown scene, and restored and fully realized artwork. In addition, each CD will feature bonus tracks from their respective recording periods. Enjoy."
"A delicate, unsettling dip into a boiling pool of subconscious imagery and otherworldly pixie vocalism. The best tracks cause ripples in the space/time continuum. Bobb Trimble's first album appeared like a ghost that had slipped through reality's curtain. Impossible to place inside any rational context, the music and voices seem to have been created inside your head and indeed, maybe they were."
--Byron Coley.
Artist:
TRIMBLE, BOBB
Title:
Iron Curtain Innocence
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
LP
Price:
$14.00
Catalog #:
SC 162LP
Repressed! LP version.
Artist:
TRIMBLE, BOBB
Title:
Harvest of Dreams
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
CD
Price:
$14.00
Catalog #:
SC 163CD
"Bobb Trimble and Secretly Canadian are proud to present you with
Iron Curtain Innocence
(1980) and
Harvest of Dreams
(1982), two releases that will now reach a genuine audience with full reissue treatment. This is great news for rare music lovers, since Bobb's original LPs are highly sought-after collectors' items fetching hundreds of dollars apiece! Each CD release contains never before seen photos of Bobb Trimble, the Wormtown scene, and restored and fully realized artwork. In addition, each CD will feature bonus tracks from their respective recording periods."
"Incredible, multi-layered late night listening of the highest order. A cross between extreme gentility and musical savagery that will have you growing horns out of your own forehead, if not used carefully. Without its few contemporary style-nods, you would never guess the album was originally released in 1982. One of the decade's best albums, filled with a mysterious charm that grows with each listen."
--Byron Coley.
Artist:
TRIMBLE, BOBB
Title:
Harvest of Dreams
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
LP
Price:
$14.00
Catalog #:
SC 163LP
Repressed! LP version.
Artist:
WAR ON DRUGS, THE
Title:
Wagonwheel Blues
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
CD
Price:
$13.50
Catalog #:
SC 167CD
"The War On Drugs push the boundaries of a quintessentially American music. Guitars soar and colorful clouds roll past whatever sun or moon you are cruising under, through whatever old bar you are reveling within. The War On Drugs point toward a tireless horizon in the distance that you will never reach, but are compelled to chase. It's a tail you've chased your whole life and will continue chasing because your life is more poetic when you are moving toward it -- your cinematography is more rich.
Wagonwheel Blues
is one of those albums that each of us holds onto tightly. They get moved from apartment to apartment through the years; they are songs on the radio that follow us from town to town. They evoke waves of nostalgia and grow more poignant with each new bump along the road."
Artist:
WAR ON DRUGS, THE
Title:
Wagonwheel Blues
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
LP
Price:
$13.50
Catalog #:
SC 167LP
LP version.
Artist:
SWIFT, RICHARD
Title:
Richard Swift As Onasis I & II
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
2CD
Price:
$14.00
Catalog #:
SC 173CD
"The double-EP
Richard Swift as Onasis
is as creatively fortifying as it is unhinged and unpolished, a primal slab thrown into the fire for dancing and merriment during the chilly months while we await Richard Swift's second full-length. Once upon a time, the idea of a record was to capture a performance, to grab those undulating wavelengths from the air and stick them to this thing that went round and round, so later on that performance could be heard and felt and experienced again. Before the beloved studio trickery of our beloved Beatles or Beach Boys, cats gathered around a couple microphones, plugged into that thing that went round and round, and let at it. So it's no surprise Swift, a long-in-the-tooth impresario of all not-a-computer, would jangle and stomp out this tangent of jams that tape-echo a generation of pioneers who believed rock and roll and the blues a celestial calling and not a lifestyle choice. Now most listeners won't think about how Swift did this on a cheap four-track; they won't immediately see his nods to Link Wray and Howlin' Wolf; it doesn't matter. The songs stand up. The songs get in your belly and wiggle your hips and stomp your foot and bob your head. They got vibe and atmosphere. They act like great harmony, making whatever they're accompanying richer and wider and thicker."
Artist:
SWIFT, RICHARD
Title:
Richard Swift As Onasis I & II
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
LP
Price:
$14.00
Catalog #:
SC 173LP
LP version.
Artist:
BODIES OF WATER
Title:
A Certain Feeling
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
CD
Price:
$14.00
Catalog #:
SC 177CD
"One year after the self-release of the acclaimed
Ears Will Pop & Eyes Will Blink
, Bodies Of Water have created another full-length offering.
A Certain Feeling
, their first record for Secretly Canadian, was written, arranged and recorded in David & Meredith Metcalf's house in the Northeast L.A. neighborhood of Highland Park. The strains that one can hear running through all of Bodies of Water's music are fully exhibited here; instantly familiar melodies, rich harmonic color, expansively deft arrangements, and compositions that ebb, flow, and double back on themselves in cathartic synchronicity. Though no two songs sound entirely similar, it's a cohesion that comes out feeling like the anthemic prog/gospel/psychedelic/Kraut-tribal movie score that Ennio Morricone and Phil Spector never got around to collaborating on. The choral hugeness that typified 'Ears Will Pop' still rears its emphatic head, only here it is more often held in reserve while we marinate in each movement before being pulled along into the next passage of the narrative.
A Certain Feeling
is the sound of a group carving out an ever-evolving, but distinct aesthetic niche for themselves. The singing, playing, compositions, lyrical themes (obsessive meta-physicality/spiritual surrender/human frailty) are unmistakably theirs.
A Certain Feeling
is a step forward, but assuredly filled with the same beautiful urgency that we have come to expect from them."
Artist:
BODIES OF WATER
Title:
A Certain Feeling
Label:
SECRETLY CANADIAN
Format:
LP
Price:
$14.00
Catalog #:
SC 177LP
LP version.
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