Browse by Label: THRILL JOCKEY

Artist:	ETERNALS, THE
Title:	Chapter And Verse
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	12"
Price:	$6.50
Catalog #:	THR 012.16EP

"A three piece hailing from the city of Chicago. Their music pulls from a variety of sources, foremost amongst them reggae, jazz and soul. These influences all play a large role in the rhythms utilized by the group, creating music which is sometimes rolling, sometimes sparse, with staccato melodies provided courtesy of bass, organ, synthesizer and drums. The band also makes use of melodica, a tape machine and a sound effects generator. The roots of The Eternals can be found in the percussive and melodic sounds of great artists like Augustus Pablo and The Headhunters."

Artist:	COLEMAN, ANDREW
Title:	Blame It On Adam
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	12"
Price:	$6.50
Catalog #:	THR 012.17EP

"Andy Coleman lives on a boat. Andy Coleman records his music in his studio on his boat. Andy Coleman describes the title track to his EP on Thrill Jockey by saying, 'Orange music. Broken fridge doors and unsent records. The acoustic guitars are illegal by the way. Modelled wind instruments do their thing. Blow when they want. Miles would have hated it.' So begins the latest release from one of the founders of England's Bovinyl label and Ninja Tune artist Animals on Wheels. A departure from the Animals on Wheels material, it is an avant-electro, plickity-plunk piano release in the vain of recent Richard James or Global Goon."

Artist:	LITHOPS
Title:	Sequenced Twinset/Fi
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	12"
Price:	$6.50
Catalog #:	THR 012.19EP

"Lithops is Jan from Mouse on Mars. 'Sequenced Twinset' and "Fi" are two remastered tracks from the early Lithops period in 1995. Beautifully flowing, they leave behind the boundaries between classical music writing, sound programming, and spontaneous music improvisation. Microtonal buzzes, strained melodies, feedback hiss, digital noise events, tape tricks, and dub perversions fuse to become a hybrid lecture of freaked out subtleness. This limited 12" is filled with poetic surgery dissecting, traces of structural complexity, and compositional skill on the surface of pure music." Limited stock.

Artist:	TAKEMURA, NOBUKAZU
Title:	Sign
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	THR 012.20CD

"A digital companion to the limited edition 12" released in late 2000, this CD features different versions of tracks on the 12" as well as a separate long version of 'Meteor'. In addition to that, 'Sign' features a CD-ROM cartoon by the man responsible for it's cover art, Katsura Moshino of Girlstudio fame. 'Sign' overflows with warm production and Nobukazu's ever present unique, charming playfulness and melodically effected, robotic vocals. These are unbearably delightful sounds that will have you unconsciously humming for days! 'Sign' brings to mind the electronic wizardry of some Mouse on Mars releases or Takemura's recordings under the Child's View alias."

Artist:	MOUSE ON MARS
Title:	Actionist Respoke
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$7.00
Catalog #:	THR 012.21CD

"The first tasty treat to be unleashed from Mouse on Mars' forthcoming 7th album, Idiology (due April 17th from Thrill Jockey), 'Actionist Respoke' marks yet another leap forward for Mouse on Mars. A head on collision of frenetic scratching, deconstructed house vocals and pulsating beats that represent MoM's darkest grooves yet. 'Actionist' is presented here in two forms. The first will also be found on Idiology and is a concise statement of purpose, letting all in earshot know that these sonic terrorists are for real; the second finds the Dusseldorf duo giving the song room to breathe, as the rhythm takes on a life of it's own. To bring it all together MoM find themselves in the studio with Herbert (aka Doctor Rockit) in a more relaxed, yet still devious mood, giving the EP a fine sense of closure. This single will be strictly limited to 2500 copies on CD only."

Artist:	CONN, BOBBY
Title:	Winners
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$7.50
Catalog #:	THR 012.23CD

"In a move designed to further Bobby's recent success, Thrill Jockey presents 5 interpretations of the global hit song 'Winners'. In addition to the album version, Tortoise's John McEntire turns this pop gem into a rumbling no-wave engine. Hot Detroit electro duo Adult. get the kids on the dancefloor with their 'losers mix', Mr. Pot Bear emphasizes the tune's magnificent horn arrangement and upstart Chicago techno-maven Magas strips the tune down to its raw essence. There are winners and losers, and Mr. Conn certainly falls into the former category."

Artist:	MOUSE ON MARS
Title:	Agit Itter It It
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$9.00
Catalog #:	THR 012.24CD

Domestic CD version of what was once "a MP3 vinyl set, complete with impregnated live-section. The hard disk-to-record-transfer is the first artefact of its kind! Includes tracks for downloading and 2 tracks, genuinely alive: 'actionist respoke' and 'introduce' (from the album Idiology). An agenda of breakdown and absurdity. Total ambiguity prevails in exploding sounds often less than milliseconds in length. Nothing is decided in the music itself but its construction as a statement: even intervals and rigid power chords arrayed in dualistic structures, keyed in through blasting tirades of resistance, display a world of madness and diversity."

Artist:	FIERY FURNACES, THE
Title:	The End Is Near
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	12"
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	THR 012.32EP

"The End Is Near is a limited edition 12" EP. Fans and critics alike have long been waiting for the Friedbergers to make their 'simple' record, as it's always been clear they had a knack for the infectious melodies and great arrangements that classic pop requires. The title track, a catchy, melancholic pop song, kicks off the single, instantly giving tantalizing affirmation that the new album I'm Going Away is set to be the most exciting, accomplished and consequently accessible album The Fiery Furnaces have ever made. A radio edit of 'Lost At Sea' and a slower version of 'Charmaine Champagne' (both album tracks in their original forms) underline the masterful melodic work of the album's new songs to breathtaking effect. 'Teddy's on Kent' is an otherwise unavailable new recording."

Artist:	FREAKWATER
Title:	Old Paint
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 022CD

"Freakwater's Old Paint was originally released on October 10, 1995 and marked their fourth record and second for Thrill Jockey. The band at the time, much in the same way it is today, revolved around Catherine Irwin, Janet Beveridge Bean and David Gay. Along with their fifth release Springtime, Old Paint is considered by many Freakwater's finest moment. Catherine's originals on Old Paint elevated her stature as a songwriter to another level with tracks like 'Gravity' and 'Gone to Stay'."

Artist:	MICROSTORIA
Title:	Init Ding
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	THR 031CD

Domestic issue of the first Microstoria album, as originally issued on the Mille Plateaux label in Germany. "Microstoria is a collaboration between Markus Popp (Oval) and Jan St. Werner (Mouse On Mars). The resulting music is an electronic soundtrack, not without structure, not without melody. 'The instruments' used are what could be seen as their successors -- machines and digital technology. Where Oval excludes authorship of music, Microstoria explores authorship, especially in relation to improvisation. The tones used in composition are mechanized, yet paradoxically rich. The resulting pieces are organic in feel, a striking result when viewed in context with their origins. Once, instruments were physical entities, connecting the creative individual through tuition and technical skill to the almost metaphysical world of music. The distinction between computing device and 'musical instrument' was increasingly blurred since the 1950s; however, it left the composer in charge of his/her machinery. More recently in the 1990s things have merged into one. Computer-based (formerly 'programmable' or 'computer controlled') authoring environment -- still fully capable of hosting the residual 'old' music media as well as its terminology. The transition from the 50's perspective to the 90's put an already well introduced component of music production newly into focus: software rendering the composer the designer. Atavistic concepts like an instrument end up as a tutorial vocabulary, or in other words a helpful software metaphor. Microstoria has goals and tasks for the near future: music as organized acoustics and music as software."

Artist:	OVAL
Title:	Systemisch
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	THR 032CD

Reissue of 2nd Oval album (first to fully explore their current sound, as originally issued by Mille Plateaux). Beautiful digital abstractions, created by CD manipulation (painting on discs, etc.). Some of the most hypnotic & vital music of the era. Their masterpiece, the 3rd album Diskont 94, will be reissued later in '96. "Oval create warm melodies and rich textures out of electronic tones and loops. Oval loops sounds created out of manipulated discs. The repetition indigent in a sound loop serves a rhythm, over which layered loops of warm tones provide the melodic, organic element."

Artist:	BROWN/JAMES WARDEN/DOUG SCHARIN, BUNDY K.
Title:	Directions in Music
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	THR 033CD

Post-Tortoise sounding trio, utilizing acoustic/electric guitars, electric piano, bass, accordion, drums, dumbek, hand percussion & marimba, "Bundy is a former bassist with Gastr Del Sol and Tortoise. James currently plays guitar with 40k and Doug records and performs with Rex, June of '44 and his own project Him. The album consists of 8 instrumental songs recorded in the spring of '96 at Idful music in Chicago...the songs were composed in the studio, or significantly realized through the recording process. [They] began the recording with several musical elements as the 'root' of the songs. The 'roots' were then taken and collectively developed into the versions presented on the record. the development was a natural result of the group's improvisation stemming from the 'root' and their exploration of texture, rhythm, color and harmonic interplay, as central elements to that improvisation." Limited stock.

Artist:	MICROSTORIA
Title:	snd
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	THR 035CD

Second album by this German duo of Markus Popp (Oval) and Jan St. Werner (Mouse On Mars), issued domestically in collaboration with Mille Plateaux. "The 'instruments' used are what could be seen as their successors -- machines and digital technology. Where Oval excludes authorship of music, Microstoria explores authorship, especially in relation to improvisation. The tones used in composition are mechanized, yet paradoxically rich. The resulting pieces are organic in feel, a striking result when viewed in context with their origins. snd was recorded partly in Berlin and partly in Cologne. Markus and Jan used classical improvisation techniques to create source material for mixing. This recording was done on high end digital equipment utilizing cutting edge digital sound editing as well as instruments and their digitally implemented equivalents. Microstoria concentrates on minute musical details, in order to end up with a smooth succession of carefully sampled soundframes, replayed in 'slow motion'. Microstoria challenges the conventional concept of music. They remove many compositional boundaries. Freed from traditional concepts of time, verse, even structure, Microstoria explores tone and texture, creating depth and form out of abstractions. Subtle tonal changes trigger major alterations in form and 'depth' when juxtaposed. The nature of improvisation is altered by the clear and precise editing decisions. It is this paradoxical arrangement that mirrors the aforementioned paradox of the organic sound/feel of the music and the mechanical origins. Microstoria's music, like many forms of abstraction, reveals its complexion upon close inspection."

Artist:	OVAL
Title:	Diskont
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	THR 036CD

Reissue of the 2nd Oval album for Mille Plateau (3rd overall); aka oval94diskont. Both the CD & LP have two bonus tracks not included on the Mille Plateaux version. More advanced in its transportational properties than its predecessor Systemisch, this album is one of the dominating, defining audio documents of its era. "Oval are Markus Popp and Sebastian Oschatz. The paramount aim of Oval is to vigorously comment on the transitions in media, as well as digital technology. Oval music is about media, aesthetic presence, organized sound, composed out of the remnants of both music and musicality. They are interested in providing insight into the contemporary digital audio workspace components. Whilst originating as more of a by product of theory and theoretical demonstration, Oval's music is a rich textural and often melodic soundtrack created out of cold electronic tones. In commenting on digital technology, Ovals uses their own digital programs as well as physical manipulations of disc to expose the process and the equipment: for example creating a rhythm track out of a looped skip in a CD. As with Microstoria, Oval music, whilst a by product of their comment on and exposing of digital technology, is enjoyable without the knowledge of it's origins because it is a rich melodic soundtrack.

Artist:	SEA AND CAKE, THE
Title:	The Fawn
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	THR 039CD

"Formed in the fall of 1993, The Sea and Cake remain Sam Prekop, Archer Prewitt, Eric Claridge and John McEntire. The essential difference between The Fawn and the three previous records lies in the approach to song writing mechanics. This was not a conscious effort to shift styles but an effort to incorporate new tools (computers, sequencers, drum machines, etc.). The 'new tools' are an essential aspect of a decidedly different approach to writing material, with the realization of ideas beyond the guitar, drums and bass format."

Artist:	MICROSTORIA
Title:	Reprovisers
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	THR 042CD

"Microstoria sent tracks to the following artists (C. Schultz & Hajsch, Ui, Violent Onsen Geisha, Mouse On Mars, FX Randomiz, Oval, Stereolab, Jim O'Rourke, Christoph Heemann, Christophe Charles & Nicolas Collins) for a collaborative track. The idea of the project was an extension of the improvisations of Microstoria. A collaboration between two improvisers as opposed to a remix. Bands were to augment the tracks they were sent by playing off of, or with the tracks. Microstoria improvise with machines and then edit to complete a track. They create a variety of tones and then compose in the editing process. They wanted to extend this notion by having their edits further reprised by an additional improvisation and edit. They selected many of the musicians with the thoughts that their music would be different enough to make a significant change to the tone and timbre of Microstoria's music. The results are not only a very interesting listen but exciting in the merging of technical and human elements."

Artist:	OVAL
Title:	Dok
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	THR 046CD

"This record is part one of a counter-remix-project embarked upon by Berlin-based sound innovators Oval and Tokyo-based installation artist/sound designer Christophe Charles. The record is primarily an Oval record accessing the soundfile archive of travel and field recordings by Charles. On this new LP, Dok, the preparation of the recording process itself was a challenge in its own right. the challenge centers around the widely static and very delicate environmental recordings of Charles and the difficulty in creating music out of sound with no sustain, no rhythm, and in no linear structure or relationship to each other."

Artist:	ISOTOPE 217
Title:	The Unstable Molecule
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	THR 049CD

Debut release by a new Chicago sextet including 3 Tortoise members (John Herndon, Dan Bitney & Jeff Parker). "It's hard to state exactly what Isotope 217 is because of the diverse influences of the participants. One might say an eclectic avant funk ensemble dedicated to the Phonometric system of universal thought (Phonometrics are, as described by Satie, the science of measuring sound). One might also say a freewheeling trans-molecular unit dedicated to the betterment of all worlds."

Artist:	TORTOISE
Title:	TNT
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	THR 050CD

"Tortoise's 3rd full length release, TNT, was written and recorded during a 10-month interval in 1997. This longer-than-usual production schedule was purposefully undertaken by the group in the hopes of crafting an expansive, diverse, yet thematically coherent offering. Clocking in at 65 minutes, it is certainly the most substantial Tortoise release to date. TNT builds upon the spare, instrumental framework of the group's first, self-titled album and the extended edits, melodic adventures, and klangfarben of the subsequent full length release, Millions Now Living Never Die. Further to this, Tortoise's interest in the possibilities offered by the remixing of tracks was realized within the actual production of TNT; individual elements, sections, or sometimes whole compositions mutate within the album's shifting framework. These techniques were suitably realized thanks in part to the use of non-linear digital recording and editing techniques, the first example of such work for the group. In addition, many of the arrangements push the group's standard instrumentation into new territories with the inclusion of strings, woodwinds, and brass."

Artist:	TRANS AM
Title:	The Surveillance
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	THR 054CD

"Trans Am's third and most controversial album, The Surveillance, marks a new direction for them as it is the first that they recorded and mixed entirely by themselves. Like their two previous full length releases, this record is a mixture of rock and electronic sounds. However, it features less lush production than Surrender to the Night, instead moving from sparse and paranoid electronic jams to balls-to-the-walls rockers. To create the eerie mechanical grooves, several drum machines, keyboards, and effects processors were added to their tremendously outdated arsenal."

Artist:	PULLMAN
Title:	Turnstyles And Junkpiles
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 055CD

"Pullman is an acoustic quartet featuring Bundy K. Brown of Directions in Music, Curtis Harvey of Rex, Chris Brokaw of Come and Douglas McCombs of Tortoise and Eleventh Dream Day. While it's impossible to ignore the influence of John Fahey on their music, Pullman draw upon the influence of a variety of performers, fingerstyle and otherwise: Nick Drake, Leo Kottke, Ry Cooder, Bhrij Khabra, VM Bhatt, Bola Sete, King S. Ade, Wes Montgomery, Jim Hall, Steve Tibbetts, Robbie Basho, Peter Laing, Duane Allman, Dickie Betts, Doc Watson, Richard Thompson and even Jimmy Page."

Artist:	CHICAGO UNDERGROUND DUO
Title:	12 Degrees of Freedom
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 060CD

Taylor (drums, vibes), Mazurek (cornet, piano, bamboo flute). Recorded, mixed and edited by Casey Rice (Designer). Mazurek and guest guitarist Jeff Parker are members of Isotope 217. "Ah, the cry of jazz... Canned press: 'Rob Mazurek and Chad Taylor are stalwarts on the Chicago Jazz front and have played with myriad artists. On Duo the two meld their various influences and talents to form a free-flowing, moon-scaped recording.' Chad & Rob are members of the Chicago Underground Orchestra (one record: Playground on Delmark) and are augmented here by Tortoise/Isotope 217 member Jeff Parker (catch) on a few of the tracks. Recorded alternatingly at the Lunar Cabaret, the James Bond Loft, and WNUR studio during the calendar year 1997." -- Hrvatski.

Artist:	PREKOP, SAM
Title:
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 061CD

"Sam Prekop's eponymously titled LP is a study in pop nuances. Simultaneously transporting the listener from mild climes and swinging palms to darkened skies and wind blown steppes, the record will be easily recognized by fans of The Sea and Cake. Known to many as the singer and main songwriter for said group, Mr. Prekop is assisted on this release by Chad Taylor (Chicago Underground Due), Josh Abrams (ex-Roots, Town and Country), Jim O'Rourke and Archer Prewitt (The Sea and Cake). Those expecting to find more of the computer beats and trickery found on The Fawn and Two Gentlemen are in for a surprise. Whilst prevalent, the computer takes a back seat to real strings, drums, piano, electric piano and organ as well as electric and acoustic bass. The subtle grooves, a trademark of The Sea and Cake records, are still present here as Sam and his band blend West African rhythms with a bit of soul, jazz and pop."

Artist:	ISOTOPE 217
Title:	Utonian Automatic
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 063CD

"Second full length from Chicago's Isotope 217...came to fruition via an increased focus on composition. Many of the songs had their inception as rough sketches that slowly took form during Isotope 217's various life performances. The absence of Sara P. Smith, the trombone player on The Unstable Molecule, also had a direct effect on the way Utonian Automatic was created. The band was forced to look deeper for new tones and sonorities to continue to develop their sound with the new lineup."

Artist:	OVAL
Title:	Szenariodisk
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$8.00
Catalog #:	THR 064CD

"The digital terrorist attacks with a CDEP comprised of new material and six songs which graced his previous 12" releases, Aero Deko and Szenario. Szenariodisk continues his exploration and manipulation of digital technology. This CDEP is the final installment in his three part series. This series of Oval Process Software takes a leap from the platform of Dok. While Dok employed the sound files of Christof Charles, the new EPs are made from the rich and round tones of the Oval sound files. The tones and melodies are a ghost, or a faint reminder of the melodies on the Oval debut Systemisch. There is considerable depth and a deep groove." [Content clarification: there are actually 11 tracks on this release, including 5 new, very short tracks that are apparently exclusive to this issue; total time: 25 minutes]

Artist:	GARNER, SUE AND RICK BROWN
Title:	Still
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 065CD

"The material ranges from songs fully written by Sue to tracks based on rhythm loops to a little appropriation of the music of the Equals. The dissolution of Run On allowed for reflection that reminded them of the fruitful period before the inception of that band and after Fish & Roses ended. In that transition, Sue and Rick had worked on tunes and recorded them at home to help with the composition process. The resulting demos, many of which later became Run On songs, still sound good and have the freedom and intimacy peculiar to home recording. Later, Sue recorded To Run More Smoothly, her solo debut, in her New York apartment. In their 15 year musical partnership, Sue and Rick have always tried to make music that is both complex, challenging and tuneful. They are interested in the exploration of group dynamics as well as recording techniques. Still is a beautiful testament to years together and lessons learned along the way."

Artist:	LONESOME ORGANIST, THE
Title:	Cavalcade
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 067CD

"The Lonesome Organist recorded the majority of Cavalcade himself in an attempt to reproduce in its most primitive and true state, the experience of seeing The Lonesome Organist in a live setting. Jeremy spent the better part of the year on the road and expanded his one-man act to include steel drum, saw and tape delay in an effort to round out his preferred arsenal of drums, guitar, keyboards, harmonica and vocals. Cavalcade was done live and straight to two-track. Jeremy played all the instruments simultaneously. The result is music with a swirling metamorphasis of style and sound. Yes, The Lonesome Organist has the rarely seen and miraculous ability to move effortlessly from reckless organ bashings to carnival steel pans with tape manipulated speed-ups to hillbilly guitars to techno beat box yodeling."

Artist:	TAKEMURA, NOBUKAZU
Title:	Scope
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 068CD

"Creatively, Nobukzu Takemura is inspired by both the 'impressionist and objective conception' of John Cage, Brian Eno and Afrika Bambaata, and the free form creativity of John Coltrane and Robert Wyatt. These influences are evident in his debut solo release, 1994's eponymous Child's View. 1997 saw the release of two records from Takemura: the 2nd Child's View record, Child And Magic and Changing Hands, a collaboration with Steve Jansen and Richard Barbierie. Scope is Nobukazu's debut Thrill Jockey full length. The five tracks all vary widely in style. Some focus on repetitive grooves that gradually transform into symphonies of delicately layered waves of sound while others offer organ-based melodies and alluringly stretched vocals. Also evident are intricate conversations between blips and bleeps that have more personality than half the humans you know. Put away your BPM counters, this is modern technology morphing. Musique concrete."

Artist:	BROKEBACK
Title:	Field Records From The Cook Country Water Table
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 070CD

"Brokeback is Douglas McCombs (Tortoise, 11th Dream Day, Pullman). Through Brokeback, Douglas has sought to explore something not as densely structured as his other musical outings with a focus on rhythm and texture. The idea with Brokeback is to keep things simple and let the melodies hang in the air. By the nature of this decision the music is sparse, but not without sounding full and realized." Features contributions from Noel Kuppersmith & Rob Mazurek (Chicago Underground), Josh Abrams (Sam Prekop, Town & Country), John Herndon & John McEntire (Tortoise).

Artist:	8 BOLD SOULS
Title:	Last Option
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 071CD

"The group features the unusual instrumentation of two woodwinds, trumpet, trombone, cello, tuba, bass, and trap drums, and is led by composer Edward Wilkerson. In order to have a good understanding of 8 Bold Souls, it is important to understand a bit more about the ensemble's leader. Musically, Wilkerson finds inspiration from those he has studied or worked with such as Muhal Richard Abrams, Henry Threadgill, Lester Bowie, Fred Anderson, Von Freeman, Johnny Britt, as well as many other fellow members of the AACM. In addition, Wilkerson cites many non-musical inspirations like family, education, and readings. Fostered by the AACM, Wilkerson learned to think about music in an encouraging environment that prompted musical education in equal doses with experimentation. 8 Bold Souls' music is both melodic (reminiscent of small groups led by Duke Ellington and Jimmy Lunceford) and challenging (featuring complex arrangements for innovative instrumentation)."

Artist:	RIZZO, RICK AND TARA KEY
Title:	Dark Edson Tiger
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 072CD

"Logistically, this was mostly a tape-trading affair. Rizzo's parts were done at Chicago's Truckstop by Braden King (Dutch Harbor). Tara recorded her portions at Chessie studios with long time musical partner Tim Harris. Tara describes the process: 'one of us would send a piece on tape. Depending on the tune it would be a query or a statement or a rant. Round two respondent gave it a new twist or a birthing or stood back and interjected an Amen or two. We talked about Pollock and Winslow Homer and JMW Turner more than we ever talked about the tunes. Tapes traveled back and forth for almost nine months. The feel always was one of call and response, feint, connect; if you're walking the point I have your back.' This largely instrumental record (there are two with words) is a long distance phone call with two friends reflecting on and responding to each other's remarks. The surprise of Dark Edson Tiger comes not in the depth and quality of those remarks, but in the pastoral beauty with which they are delivered. Two Les Paul ravers jumping in with no idea of the outcome."

Artist:	BOYKIN OUTET, DAVID
Title:	Evidence of Life Other Planets Vol. 1
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	LP
Price:	$9.00
Catalog #:	THR 073LP

LP-only release. "Composer and saxophonist David Boykin leads the Outet, a jazz quintet consisting of vocalist Glenda Baker, flutist Nicole Mitchell (Samana), bassist Josh Abrasm (Sam Prekop Band, Town & Country), and drummer Chad Taylor (Sam Prekop Band, Chicago Underground Trio). The group is inspired by the tradition of Chicago musicians such as Run Ra, Gene Ammons, Johnny Griffin and Sonny Stitt, and used these local influences to help powerfully express the voice of the next generation of creative music. Boykin's bold sound, complex rhythmic phrasing, and fearlessly aggressive approach to improvisation lead the Outet with a forcefulness that touches the listener intimately."

Artist:	CONN, BOBBY
Title:	Llovessonngs EP
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$8.00
Catalog #:	THR 075CD

"Bobby has been forced to provide the public with a tonic, a pacifier, to ensure stability and safety within the rock community. Llovessonngs, a 4 song ep, features Conn interpretations of the Ham/Evans track, 'Without You', and the Caetano Veloso composition, 'Marie B.' For, 'Without You', Conn began where Nilsson Schmilsson left off -- right in the heart of the FM dial. Joined for the recording by well known percussionist Michael Zerang, Conn's performance of 'Marie B.' sounds like an out take from his recent residency at Caesars Palace. Inspired by French socialite Virginia, Conn composed a song that may only the familiar to those that joined him at his snow bunny bash in San Moritz. Ending at the beginning, 'Free Love', works itself up into a deep groove that has been rated NC-17 by our friends at the RIAA. All songs feature the sultry French violinist Monica Boubou, and there are guest appearances from the cr�me of Chicago's Classical and Jazz community."

Artist:	MOUSE ON MARS
Title:	Niun Niggung
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 076CD

"Niun Niggung nonchalantly jumps over all sound construction sites in modern music history. Between the first lunar landing and the day after tomorrow's pop music, post-organics and new avant garde have rarely enjoyed such a good time together. Sounds without bounds. Battered evergreens to fall in love with. Details without regrets. As with its predecessor, Autoditacker, this terrifyingly progressive innovation centrifuge grown on you every time you hear it. 'Diskdusk', with its elegant futurism, the wuppingly superflupping 'Gogonal', and of course the special edition of 'Distroia', the wildest hit ever to emerge from the soundmines of the St. Martin studios are all the result of mercilessly erected findings of the past few years' sound research. An outrageously mature performance that always sounds different, yet always like Mouse On Mars. Forget about your pigeonholes. To think that all this is possible without glue or a false bottom. One thing is for certain: Mouse On Mars have paved the way for a continuously growing gang of German and international sound villains to weave analog and digital, electronic and non-electronic sounds into a totally new, organic fabric. Not without reason have great swarms of independent and other tinkerers, post-, kraut-, and general rockers, poppers, techno types, and avant garde scoundrels included this darned modern stuff in their daily menu. The Thrill Jockey version of Niun Niggung contains five tracks not available on the import version (Domino, Our Choice/Zomba)."

Artist:	ISOTOPE 217
Title:	Who Stole The I Walkman?
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 080CD

"Who Stole The I Walkman? is the culmination of Isotope 217's last year of performing and rehearsing, and it offers their unusually familiar blend of collective improvisation, songwriting, and electronic manipulation. Who Stole The I Walkman? is the most accurate representation to date of the balance Isotope 217 seeks to achieve between live performance and the recording process. That is, some songs such as "The Harmolodge" or "Sint_D" are well crafted compositions, while others, such as "Input" are live improvisations. The balance between the two is evident in a tune such as "Metabass", which was composed in the recording studio from a series of improvised tracks and compositional bits -- and illustrates Isotope 217's ability to create atmospheric electronica on a jazz foundation. Dan Bitney (percussion), John Herndon (percussion), Matthew Lux (bass), Rob Mazurek (cornet), Jeff Parker (guitar)."

Artist:	OVAL
Title:	Ovalprocess
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 081CD

"Markus Popp, a.k.a. Oval, is a mastermind of digital technology. Ovalprocess continues his elaborate manifesto of electronic music coupled with multimedia wizardry. This new release from Oval is a flowing, textured manuscript that utilizes sublime low end rhythm and directive pulsation in a manner that eases the listener into a soft and pillowy world dominated by electronic bleeps, glitches and moans. Ovalprocess equally represents an innovative music software application, designed by Popp, as much as it serves as the core engine to an innovative Oval sound installation. The installation is centered around one or several publicly accessible sound terminals running the Ovalprocess application, rendering the exhibit a customizable, collaborative workspace. Making the installation accessible in a public space is the ideal aesthetic that Popp craves-he feels it is far more effective than offering a CDRom or another option that would make the application available on a more individual basis. The Ovalprocess installation allows the public to use sounds that are found on the album to produce their own Oval-like music. His latest release displays Popp's talent at developing a deep and complex groove with seemingly difficult tools. Ovalprocess is best enjoyed at a loud volume. Oval's rich and round tones provide a Siren-like lure that is irresistible."

Artist:	TOWN AND COUNTRY
Title:	Decoration Day
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$8.00
Catalog #:	THR 083CD

"Town and Country's second release and their first on Thrill Jockey. It expands their all-acoustic instrumentation from the guitar, harmonium and 2 string basses of the first release to Josh Abrams on contrabass, piano and kalimba, Liz Payne on piano, snare drum and guitar, Jim Dorling on harmonium and celeste and Ben Vida on guitar and accordian. Seems they've coaxed their back-porch minimalism out into the caf�. The layered, unhurried drones developed on the first release now function to resolve through-composed pointillist melodies. Inspired by the music of Morton Feldman and Franco Batiato, Town and Country continues to present music in which the slightest changes are stongly felt, favoring timbral revelation over technical virtuosity."

Artist:	CONN, BOBBY
Title:	The Golden Age
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 084CD

"The Golden Age continues the Conn/Thrill Jockey union in fine fashion as Bobby picks up where Llovesongs left off, inviting the listener to indulge in a world of leisure. It's a world that celebrates the salad days of FM radio in the 1970's, exploring the glam, disco, pop, rock and soul that decade of decadence is known for. Always a perfectionist Bobby spent a year & a half making The Golden Age, recording in studios with Jim O'Rourke, John McEntire and others."

Artist:	SEA AND CAKE, THE
Title:	Oui
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	THR 086CD

"Oui marks the triumphant return of The Sea and Cake after a three-year absence which saw the members of the band pursue a variety of interests; musical, professional and personal. The line up of the band remains Sam Prekop, Archer Prewitt, Eric Claridge and John McEntire. Oui is a pop album. From the opening measures of 'Afternoon Speaker' to the serendipitous nature of 'Everyday,' Oui is a graceful recording of elegance, revealing its charms quietly and continually upon each listen."

Artist:	TOWN AND COUNTRY
Title:	It All Has To Do With It
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 088CD

"With two string basses, acoustic guitar, and portable acoustic keyboards (harmonium, celeste, accordion) as its basic instrumentation, Town and Country don't just strip down to the drum/bass/guitar logic of rock, they totally sidestep it. In the studio the standard rock method of recording basic rhythm tracks followed by adding overdubs does not work as well for a band without a rhythm section. Accordingly, the group took a year to compose and arrange the songs on this record and three days to record and mix. The finger-picked-guitar-with-drones approach of the first CD has evolved into a more dynamic, group-composed ensemble playing where no particular instrument carries the water and parts are through-composed rather than looped. Influences are Morton Feldman, John Fahey, Don Cherry, Franco Batiato, Gavia Bryars and Sonny Sharrock."

Artist:	TORTOISE
Title:	Standards
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 089CD

"Standards, the fourth full-length recording from Chicago's Tortoise, boldly announces their return following 1998's TNT. Musically, Standards is perhaps their most concise statement of purpose thus far. The tunes are direct and immediate, yet they maintain the exploratory edge that has always characterized the group's output. The fusion of instrumental sounds (electric, acoustic, and synthesized) is subtle and subversive. Similarly, the group's fluency within the studio environment gives the finished work a quality that alternates between artifice and reality."

Artist:	PULLMAN
Title:	Viewfinder
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 090CD

"Pullman formed several years ago as a result of a common interest in acoustic music by Chris Brokaw (Come), Curtis Harvey (Rex, The Letter E), Ken Brown (Directions) and Doug McCombs (Tortoise, Brokeback, Eleventh Dream Day). On Viewfinder, Pullman have broadened their sonic palette by adding drummer Tim Barnes (Jim O'Rourke) and incorporating electric instruments for the first time. This is shown to great affect on 'Wire and One Good Shoe' where the electric and acoustic guitars weave a brilliant tapestry of melody that does not betray Pullman's affinity for rustic soundscapes."

Artist:	BROKEBACK
Title:	Morse Code In The Modern Age: Across The Americas
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 091CD

"What originally began as a solo project for Doug McCombs (Eleventh Dream Day, Tortoise, Pullman), has increasingly become more and more of a collaborative effort, now officially a duo with the addition of bassist Noel Kupersmith (Chicago Underground Quartet). The new EP explores further collaborative territory, as Brokeback are joined by friends such as James McNew (Yo La Tengo), Mary Hansen (Stereolab), Alan Licht (Run On, Love Child, solo), Tim Folijahn (Two Dollar Guitar, Cat Power) and the Calexico duo of Joey Burns and John Convertino."

Artist:	MICROSTORIA
Title:	Model 3, Step 2
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	THR 092CD

"Model 3, Step 2 is a new studio album from digital specialists Microstoria, Markus Popp (Oval-innovator of augmented digital audio realities) and Jan St Werner (Mouse on Mars --the world's leading electronic structuralist pop group, and Lithops --the silent power plant of hybrid music arts). Model 3, Step 2 is their most accessible collaboration so far. Still it is utterly impossible to trace their extremely manipulated sounds and compare them to anything else. Did anyone hear the guitar? Considerable time has passed since their critically acclaimed initial releases Init Ding (1995), Snd (1996) and their collaborative CD Reprovisors, in which tracks were rearranged and appropriated by a diverse group of musicians (Stereolab, FX Randomiz, Jim O'Rourke, C-Schulz & Hajsch and others). Popp has been busy writing new Oval music and working with Oval Process software and installations such as Skotodesk and Public Beta. Werner has toured extensively with Mouse on Mars and released several records on his Sonig label. The time apart has allowed them to diversify the source material and compose tracks individually in a much more deliberate way than previously. Model 3, Step 2 consists of nine excursions into the world of downtempo speedcore. On all tracks source material was selected and created by Popp and Werner together. The duo gives to these abstract but always physical bodies of sound by shaping them into a song structure. It is an entirely individual way of understanding and presenting music. Even though their songs are precisely edited and arranged, Microstoria finds empathy among musicians whom play free music or jazz because of the broad tonal range and the shared desire to explore and exploit possibilities."

Artist:	CHICAGO UNDERGROUND QUARTET
Title:	Chicago Underground Quartet
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 093CD

"This self titled release is the debut as a Quartet for the Chicago Underground collective. In addition to the already established Chicago Underground Duo of Rob Mazurek (cornet, electronics) and Chad Taylor (percussion), the quartet model features Jeff Parker (Tortoise, Isotope 217) on guitar and Noel Kupersmith (Brokeback) on upright bass. For those familiar with the Chicago Underground Duo's recordings, Parker and Kupersmith add a lush, organic tone to the proceedings: abstract sonics meet gorgeous melody in this extraordinary sound collage. The Chicago Underground Quartet merges sound from disparate worlds that collide and caress in unexpected ways."

Artist:	TAKEMURA/CHILD'S VIEW, NOBUKAZU
Title:	Hoshi No Koe
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 094CD

"Hoshi No Koe is released under Takemura's Child's View alias. The first Child's View release since 1997's Child and Magic, Hoshi No Koe sees Takemura exploring a number of different sounds that have captured his fancy throughout his career. From the baroque innocence of 'White Sheep and Small Light' to the digital deconstructionism of 'Honey Comb' Takemura draws inspiration from the legends of free jazz, hip-hop and contemporary musique concrete. Takemura's blips and bleeps bubble with exuberant personality. Few electronic composers should ever hope to create music so brimming with playful humanity."

Artist:	MOUSE ON MARS
Title:	Instrumentals
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	THR 095CD

"Shortly after the release of the dance/ pop/ electronic juggernaut Autoditacker, Mouse on Mars issued a sixty-minute album called Instrumentals. Composed between 1995 and 1997 and released exclusively on vinyl, the limited pressing of 1300 copies flew off the shelves and three years after the fact, Instrumentals remains out of print. Thrill Jockey is taking steps in the national relief effort with the re-release of the sought-after Instrumentals album on CD. Instrumentals is assorted sonic and psychic electronic particles bursting and inflating, overlapping and elevating. Each composition is deceptively complicated, consistently engaging and irrefutably danceable. The thralls and trills of Instrumentals are both a direct and indirect nod to the flavor of Peter Thomas compositions ('Rompatroullie'), and the album itself remains an important chapter in the quest to create an organic electronica. Sound without bounds, details without regrets! Mouse on Mars has been called the Parliament/Funkadelic of the new millennium, and who are we to argue?"

Artist:	MOUSE ON MARS
Title:	Idiology
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 098CD

"From their beginnings in 1992, Cologne native Jan St Werner and Dusseldorfer Andi Toma have consistently challenged electronic music's paradigm in often surprising and always intriguing ways. Idiology is the duo's seventh album and is no exception to this rule, as MoM surround themselves with strings, woodwinds, brass and the band's own heavily modified fleet of machines in the St. Martin's Tonstudio. Fans should once again brace themselves for the inevitable shock of the new as Germany's most irreverent audio renegades have created the perfect soundtrack for a highly sinister dance party. Kicking off with 'Actionist Respoke', the album's first single, MoM officially declare their independence from glitchtronica's shoegazing legions. Longtime collaborator Dodo Nkishi lends a uniquely warped vocal sensibility to the track which already features MoM's darkest grooves to date. The rest of the album continues to thicken the group's sonic stew. Tracks such as 'Presence' and 'Catching Butterflies With Hands' have their populist intentions undermined by Werner and Toma's meddling hands, while the duo reprise their flirtation with the orchestral as heard on the opening tracks from 2000's Niun Niggung. At the other end of the spectrum, 'Introduce' is a truly evil slice of twisted lympho-zoid hip-hop. Idiology takes no prisoners in its dual-pronged assault on the conventions of modern music. Only with the loungy closing number, 'Fantastic Analysis' (a term Werner and Toma invented to describe their working process), do Mouse on Mars let the arrangements breathe a long sigh of relief, the calm after the storm. To enable these stylistic achievements MoM enlist the help of partners in crime such as: Nkishi, the multi-talented Harald 'Sack' Ziegler, house icon Matthew Herbert on piano, violinist Matty Arouse, in addition to fellow programming wizards Adam 'Vert' Butler and F.X. Randomiz."

Artist:	ALL NATURAL
Title:	Second Nature
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	THR 099CD

"All Natural puts the basic principals of hip-hop to practice with each beat made, rhyme written and scratch laid. Second Nature is the essence of hip-hop past, present and future. Conceptually, the album goes beyond the usual underground topics of freestyling and battling, Capital D and Tone lead by example as the source of excellence that embodies The Family Tree. True to the spirit of all great hip-hop, All Natural invite the talents of The Family Tree and other likeminded Midwestern hip-hop pioneers: The Molemen, Dug Infinite & No I.D., Atmosphere, Lone Catalysts, Mr. Greenweedz, DJ 3rd Rail, and J.U.I.C.E. all make appearances on Second Nature."

Artist:	VA
Title:	Looking for a Thrill: An Anthology of Inspiration
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	DVD
Price:	$18.00
Catalog #:	THR 100DVD

"The idea for Looking for a Thrill came when label owner Bettina Richards was preparing for the tenth anniversary of Thrill Jockey. Rather than putting together a retrospective on the label, a larger question arose: why do people start labels, and what keeps them going though all the distribution and financial challenges? What got the musicians we work with and admire into music, and what in addition to the joys inherent in the creative process keeps them going? Can you pinpoint the source of someone's passion for music? It seemed so simple and so universal and so rarely addressed by a media focused on commercial success -- the immeasurable energy and motivation derived from an inspiring musical moment. It is that blast of energy, the thrill of discovery that opens a door to many entire personal musical adventures. What if we were able to collect the people who had given us such moments and find out what those moments were for them? We approached filmmaker Braden King in the hopes he might find such an endeavor interesting and worth pursuing. His reaction was immediate and positive. The next step was to approach the musicians and people that we admire who work in music. Participants were given a simple task -- to talk about a musical moment that inspired them. This simple request yielded a wealth of responses. Some chose to talk about a record or a show that was the catalyst for them pursue a career in the arts. Others chose a moment that re-solidified their commitment to music when that commitment was in question. Some chose not a performance or a record but a fellow musician whose life and music are consistent sources of inspiration. Collectively, the stories provide a window of understanding to the energy behind inspiration and creativity. Features in total 112 intensely personal interviews with many of independent music's biggest stars. Those featured include: Ian MacKay, Steve Albini, Mike Watt, Bjork, Yo La Tengo, Vic Chesnutt, Brian Mahan (Slint), Jon Langford, Thurston Moore, Jon Spencer, David Yow (The Jesus Lizard)."

Artist:	ANDERSON & ROBERT BARRY, FRED
Title:	Duets 2001
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	THR 101CD

"Born 1929 in Monroe, Louisiana, tenor saxophonist Fred Anderson came to Chicago in the late 1930s where he would leave an indelible mark on the city's jazz scene of the last 40 years. Drummer Robert Barry is one of Chicago's best known freelance drummers. Perhaps he is best known for his work with Sun Ra, having been a founding member of the Arkestra and playing with him off and on from 1950 to 1978. After having performed together only once before, this historic performance was recorded at Chicago's Empty Bottle in May of 1999. Anderson described the night as 'one of those rare moments when everything comes together.' This is truly evident on the album, as Barry notes the tunes' 'great momentum' as the set wears on. Anderson and Barry found a musical language of uncommon understanding that night."

Artist:	OVAL
Title:	Ovalcommers
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	THR 103CD

"The 6th full length release from Markus Popp (aka Oval) finds this world renowned digital mastermind extending the concept & musical platform of last year's acclaimed Ovalprocess in every way. Exploring a spectrum of sounds between the abrasive sandblast of neo desktop rock (tracks 1-3) and the alienating, timeless splendor of DSP chamber music. In between there are unique excursions in folk electronica (track 4) and pop inflected wall-of-sound tunes that could only come from the mind of Oval. Popp describes Ovalcommers as a 3D musical obstacle course, a friendly and accessible invitation to complexity. Ovalcommers surprises with poetic and playful elements (organs and layers of guitar feedback), making room for understatement, sophistication and a new, almost absentmindedly casual atmosphere. Haunting emulations of processed brass, string and woodwind sections are carefully added to the otherwise still angular desktop rock. Listeners will leave Ovalcommers with a new perspective on Oval in general, as Popp's strategy becomes clearly visible: A friendly, yet relentless fanaticism to experiment and innovate musically."

Artist:	CHICAGO UNDERGROUND DUO
Title:	Axis & Alignment
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 106CD

"Axis & Alignment represents the 7th release by the Chicago Underground collective, and 3rd for the duo of Rob Mazurek (cornet, electronics) and Chad Taylor (percussion). The Duo's last album, 2000's Synesthesia, found Mazurek and Taylor fully integrating elements of electronica and studio manipulation with great success. Axis & Alignment was recorded after a year of extensive touring with Isotope 217 and the recording and release of the Chicago Underground Quartet's debut album. These influences inform the melodic, lively compositions found on Axis & Alignment. Those who have seen the Duo live have borne witness to Chad Taylor's astounding performance on drum kit and vibraphone, which he often plays simultaneously. 'Microexit' leads the album off with one of Taylor's most haunting vibraphone melodies and perfectly segues into the shapeshifting techno-influenced polyrhythms of 'Lifelines', where Mazurek's cornet melody wraps around the percussion. Axis & Alignment is one of the most listenable, yet avant-garde recordings to come from Chicago's fertile Underground."

Artist:	PREWITT, ARCHER
Title:	Three
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 108CD

"Prewitt is an accomplished illustrator, comic artist (Sof' Boy is published by Drawn and Quarterly.), guitarist for the Coctails and The Sea & Cake. Inspired by Emmett Rhodes, Roy Harper, Beatles, Impressions, and the Bee Gees, Prewitt writes classic pop tunes. Three is Archer's most refined effort to date. The romantic sentiments and lean arrangements of his classic pop tunes should not be mistaken for simplicity. Such assumptions would ignore the serious craftsmanship of his songwriting and performance. It is a credit to the considerable talents of Prewitt (producing, performing and writing) that Three bounces along effortlessly."

Artist:	TRANS AM
Title:	TA
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 109CD

"On TA, Trans Am's 6th album, the Washington DC based trio take a trip back to the future. It was a time when the Soviet Union was the greatest threat to national security; Don Johnson valiantly fought the war on drugs every week during prime-time in a pastel colored wardrobe; and the year 2002 still seemed like a far-off land of flying cars, holographs and vacations on the Moon. That is if we weren't blown to bits in a nuclear holocaust first. Opening cuts 'Cold War' and 'Molecules' reveal influences like New Order, The Cars, Midnight Star, Funk Carioca and George McRae pushed to the breaking point by abusive studio wizardry and aggressive mixes."

Artist:	PARISH, JOHN
Title:	How Animals Love
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 110CD

"In nearly two decades of impeccable work, Parish has always done jobs where proficiency is tantamount to anonymity. Parish produced and contributed to the critically acclaimed albums It's A Wonderful Life by Sparklehorse, Goldfrapp's Felt Mountain and Giant Sand's Chore Of Enchantment. He is perhaps known best for his collaborations with PJ Harvey, which span nearly two decades. His involvement and influence on her records is multifaceted: co-producer, featured musician, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, touring band mainstay."

Artist:	THE NATIONAL TRUST
Title:	Dekkagar
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 111CD

"Delivering on its promise of lush vocal harmonies, pillowy percussion and imagery with the saturation of a sunset over the ocean. The listener inhales the world of Dekkagar, from the first steamy keyboard/bongo interweavings of 'Making Love in the Natural Light' to the sweeping orchestrations and Buffalo Springfield aura of 'First Time That.' The National Trust formulated as complete and multifaceted a musical universe as you will hear this year."

Artist:	RADIAN
Title:	Rec. Extern
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	THR 113CD

"John Norman: bass, Stefan Nemeth: synthesizer, computer, Martin Brandlmayr: drums, vibraphone, computer. The Vienna trio Radian formed in 1996. For its full length debut TG11 the band choose to issue the record as a joint release on both Rhiz and Pita's Mego labels. In the beginning of 2002 Radian traveled to Chicago to record their second full length, Rec.Extern with friend and fan John McEntire. Before even heading into the studio the band had conscientiously made the decision to make a record that was more 'organic' than previous efforts. Rec.Extern began with 'real' atmosphere samples like an old elevator, the sound of train station, and in the event you can smell the sweat, their rehearsal room. Rec.Extern finds the band in a crisp, compelling rhythmic space, crackling and bouncing."

Artist:	TOWN AND COUNTRY
Title:	C'mon
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 114CD

"C'mon is Town and Country's 2nd full length for Thrill Jockey, and 3rd album overall. This album picks up where 2000's It All Has To Do With It left off finding the group fine-tuning and expanding the timbre of their all-acoustic/no electronic line up. For C'mon their string-bass/acoustic guitar core is augmented by Jim Dorling's move from harmonium to bass clarinet which he often plays in tandem with Ben Vida's cornet. In addition Liz Payne's adept handling of the hand chimes gives the record an other-worldly feel in conjunction with Josh Abrams' work on the celeste. Compositionally, Town and Country have shifted as well. Their songs were often noted for their length as much as their beauty, but for C'mon the quartet has constructed 7 songs in 40 minutes time. C'mon is the result of an entire year's labor of love. The album also begins to reveal some heretofore unmentioned influences as well: the work of Arthur Russell, Jimmy Giuffre, and Eno's recordings in the 1970's for the Obscure label mesh with Town and Country's already original and minimally lush sound."

Artist:	TORTOISE
Title:	It's All Around You
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 115CD

"It's All Around You finds Tortoise doing what they do best; building and rebuilding upon melodies and rhythms with their own remarkable touch. Written largely in the studio, It's All Around You was crafted over the course of a full year, and allowed Tortoise the use of John McEntire's Soma Electronic Music Studios (whose clients have included Wilco, Stereolab among others) in serving not just as a state-of-the-art recording facility, but as a compositional tool as well. It took months of continuous writing, recording, tinkering, mixing, and perfecting to bring It's All Around You to it's finalized state. The results of this process are clear in the lush, orchestrated tones, intricate melodies, and densely elaborate rhythms that make It's All Around You Tortoise's most adventurous and thoughtful record to date. These songs build deliberately and consistently, amassing music of great detail; exploring their layers is both exciting and infinitely rewarding."

Artist:	TORTOISE
Title:	It's All Around You
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	LP
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 115LP

LP version repressed, originally released 2004. "It's All Around You finds Tortoise doing what they do best; building and rebuilding upon melodies and rhythms with their own remarkable touch. Written largely in the studio, It's All Around You was crafted over the course of a full year, and allowed Tortoise the use of John McEntire's Soma Electronic Music Studios (whose clients have included Wilco, Stereolab among others) in serving not just as a state-of-the-art recording facility, but as a compositional tool as well. It took months of continuous writing, recording, tinkering, mixing, and perfecting to bring It's All Around You to it's finalized state. The results of this process are clear in the lush, orchestrated tones, intricate melodies, and densely elaborate rhythms that make It's All Around You Tortoise's most adventurous and thoughtful record to date."

Artist:	SEA AND CAKE, THE
Title:	One Bedroom
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 116CD

"One Bedroom sounds refreshingly new for a band's sixth record, yet it is not without moments of familiarity. The record feels like a stroll down the finest moments of the band's career, though it is still another step forward into the evolving 'sound' one has come to associate with the band. The cuffing guitar notes simply woven together, the melodic, propulsive and rhythmic drumming, the swirling sound of synthesizers and the distinct vocals that float in and out fluctuating between lazy delivery and full on falsetto-drawing you in on the records first track, only to have you completely hooked by it's second."

Artist:	OOIOO
Title:	Kila Kila Kila
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 117CD

"The newest release from Japan's category splitting OOIOO (pronounced oh-oh-eye-oh-oh) and their first for Thrill Jockey. OOIOO features Yoshimi, one of the most interesting avant-rock artists making music today. OOIOO has always been the best outlet from Yoshimi to articulate her unique talents, and the swirling, dreamy tunes of Kila Kila Kila are the most skilled showcase of her vision as an artists to date. Kila Kila Kila is a perfect combination of the chaotic poppy grooves for which Yoshimi is known, and the psychedelic freak-outs of the Boredoms. Kila Kila Kila is the perfect antidote to the legions of watered-down drone pop, and a natural heater for an otherwise cold winter."

Artist:	TAKEMURA, NOBUKAZU
Title:	10th
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 118CD

"10th begins where Takemura's more recent work --Sing and Hoshi No Koe -- left off, more playful than abstract. The most striking element of 10th is the presence of vocals. The vocals are created using the technology speech-synth. This is a technology created for the physically handicapped making it easier for them to communicate. And in Takemura's hands the technology sings, yet you're never sure if it is processed or it he is singing. Whatever the case, this free-spirited interaction is the essence of 10th. Inspired by the nature of Takemura's surroundings, Kyoto, Japan the record flows like a stream, twisting and turning in unexpected ways, ending peacefully in Lake Yoga. So grab a copy and prepare to be transported to a magical world that could only exist in your mind."

Artist:	IRWIN, CATHERINE
Title:	Cut Yourself A Switch
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 119CD

"Cut Yourself A Switch marks the first solo album by Catherine Irwin, perhaps best known for her work in Freakwater. Cut Yourself a Switch owes more in tone and timbre to the high lonesome sound of folks like the Carter Family, Hazel Dickens and Roscoe Holcomb then to any contemporary country movement. Catherine's vocals have been compared to Sarah Carter, Hazel Dickens, and Melba Montgomery, and her songwriting has been praised for it's mixture of dark humor and dark humorlessness moving between 'word-play' style and straight forward storytelling."

Artist:	BROKEBACK
Title:	Looks At The Bird
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 120CD

"Brokeback began when Douglas McCombs set out to create music in a less dense and structured environment then that of his other musical outfits at the time, Tortoise and Eleventh Dream Day. Yet contradictory to the 'loose' structure of Morse, the focus of Looks at The Bird was for more traditional arrangements, All the songs maintain a verse-chorus-verse progression along with a strong metered underpinning. The arrangements are layered with strings and keyboard elements, as well as vocals, drums and rhythm programming. Brokeback's Looks at the Bird should nestle comfortably into your record collection between those Air and Coltrane records."

Artist:	BEAN, JANET
Title:	Dragging Wonder Lake
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 121CD

Performed with the Concertina Wire. "Janet Bean has a gift for penning melodic and distinctive music. Born in Florida and coming of age in Kentucky, Ms. Bean was influenced by the regional American music she heard there, as well as the punk music of the time. A multi-instrumentalist, Janet sings as well as plays drums in Eleventh Dream Day. With Dragging Wonder Lake, Ms. Bean has created a record that speaks in an entirely new voice. This voice is more assured and open than the voices she conjured on any previous work. The album is comprised of songs that chronicle personal and allegorical elements from Bean's life. The Concertina Wire is an outstanding group of Chicago musicians. These range from well-known free improvisers Fred Lonberg-Holm and Jim Baker to veteran accompanists John Abbey, Jon Speigel and Dan Leali."

Artist:	CALIFONE
Title:	Quicksand/Cradlesnakes
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 122CD

"Perhaps it was a year of touring, most recently with Wilco, or perhaps it is this combination of players, but the album brims with confidence. These songs are remindful of those written in the 70's, when blues and country blues were more prevalent influences on groups, like Fleetwood Mac or the Stones. The creative percussive touches, guitar treatments, and technical glitchery give the album it's distinct sound. The highly imaginative lyrical imagery is multi-leveled, open to more than one interpretation, Califone finds absurdity and liberation in the dark side of life, Quicksand/Cradlesnakes is rugged and elegant, dark and optimistic, familiar end entirely new. In a word it is beautiful."

Artist:	TAKEMURA, NOBUKAZU
Title:	Assembler/Assembler 2
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 123CD

"Assembler is the second part of a three record explosion Nobukazu Takemura is unleashing in 2003. All three records mark two years of recording at Takemura's home studio in Kyoto, Japan and are certain to put him ahead of the pack in the electronic field. For fans of Takemura's Scope, Assembler will be a welcome release, as it moves back towards his more minimal pieces. Journalists have had a hard time hanging a specific tag onto Takemura's releases, having settled mostly on defining them as 'playful' and 'accessible' or 'challenging' and 'seminal' depending on the incarnation."

Artist:	GELB, HOWE
Title:	The Listener
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 124CD

"The Listener focuses on Howe's recent sojourn to Denmark where he lived for half of 2002 with his wife as she prepared to give birth to their second child. Being away from Tucson offered Howe an opportunity to create away from his usual supporting cast and the results are invigorating. The comfort therein of The Listener is that as the title implies it was crafted by Howe with you in mind. Instead of of getting the feeling you're outside listening in, Howe brings you into the songs with him for what is easily one of his most personal records yet."

Artist:	SEA AND CAKE, THE
Title:	Glass
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 125CD

"Recorded shortly after completing their acclaimed One Bedroom, Glass is worlds apart. A tasty surprise for those who think they know The Sea and Cake. The final three tracks and video on Glass are songs from One Bedroom reinterpreted by Stereolab, Broadcast, Carl Craig and illustrator Richard McGuire. While the first three names will sound instantly recognizable to music fans, the last may not. Richard is the former bassist in the band, Liquid Liquid."

Artist:	LONESOME ORGANIST, THE
Title:	Forms and Follies
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 126CD

"Welcome to the wonderful world of Jeremy Jacobsen. Forms and Follies the third album by the musical phenom otherwise known as The Lonesome Organist. These songs feature The Lonesome Organist playing drums, guitar, singing, and playing keys all at once. What a feat! It was antics such as these that drew attentions of fans such as Tom Waits and David Bowie. Forms and Follies will be accompanied by a flip book so the listener at home can wallow in the splendor. A truly singular artist with a taste for the vaudevillian, The Lonesome Organist manages to reinvent himself with every release-expanding his musical forms far beyond the novelty of their delivery."

Artist:	MOUSE ON MARS
Title:	Glam
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 127CD

"Glam features fifteen densely atmospheric tracks which were initially composed as a film score for a Hollywood love and drug movie of the same name starring Tony Danza and Ali MacGraw. The music was built around the director's cut and in a parallel chain of events the music was rejected by the director and the movie was rejected by the studio, sending it straight to video. However, Glam works as an album of its own, presenting the band's most intricate and subtle compositions. The CD version of Glam comes with three bonus tracks not on the vinyl version."

Artist:	TOWN AND COUNTRY
Title:	5
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 128CD

"Like many of the innovators who have carved out sub genre's in music over the last few years (IDM and Post-Rock quickly spring to mind), Town and Country along with bands like Threnody Ensemble and The Rachel's have carved out a niche based around classical and modern classical composition. All of the pieces on 5 were composed prior to recording, though some entered the studio in a more complete form than others. All selections are entirely acoustic, and experimentation continues to be employed in most Town and Country compositions. There are two types of songs on 5. The first being the concise simple chamber pieces and the second being more sprawling trance pieces. The recording process is simply tour people in a room with acoustic instruments -- no studio tricks, gimmicks, computers or samples -- in fact no amplification at all. The band pride themselves in the ideas put forth creating music of this nature."

Artist:	PARKER, JEFF
Title:	The Relatives
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 129CD

"Jeff Parker is a member of the genre-splitting outfit Tortoise and has also played in the Chicago Underground Quartet/Trio, as well as the fusion leaning Isotope 217. Parker is one independent jazz's most in-demand guitarists He is widely considered it's most versatile guitarist and is gigging constantly throughout the world. The Relatives is Jeff Parker's first solo record on Thrill Jockey, but his second solo record to date. The first was released on legendary blues and jazz label, Delmark."

Artist:	SO
Title:	So
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 130CD

"So began in 2002 with the pair of Eri and Markus Popp (Oval, Microstoria) working together as a true symmetrical duo with both members equally contributing to the songwriting and electronic processing. An absolute departure from Oval, So's debut CD is a melodic, at times soothing technological demonstration. The album began as a reworking of a song cycle from Eri's archives. These archives are comprised of a vast collection of diverse materials she recorded in her parents' house in Mito-City, Japan. The sounds represent a significant departure from the dense, abrasion of Oval's ground-breaking Commers series, and instead moves towards more airy and organic tones. The inclusion of vocals and live instrumentation allow for So's music to expand far beyond the constraints of the purely digital. So derives its momentum from an almost constant confrontation with Markus and Eri's conceptualizations and implementations of music. The actual collaborative process is more a resemblance of an 18th century naval battle than a convenient exercise in file sharing. It is fundamentally different to Oval recordings which are linear and strategic on the planning board, while So lost the compass from the beginning and is more a free project."

Artist:	ELEVENTH DREAM DAY
Title:	Prairie School Freakout
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD/CD-ROM
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 131CD

"2003 marks the 20th Anniversary of Eleventh Dream Day (EDD) and the 15th Anniversary of this ground breaking album. Prarie School Freakout is considered by many their landmark album, and one of the great rock records to come out of the Chicagoland and Midwest music scene. Doug McCombs is now a member of Tortoise and is one-half of the duo Brokeback. Included is the hard to find Wayne EP, extensive liner notes by Byron Coley, deluxe fold out booklet and a bonus CDROM with live footage."

Artist:	LITHOPS
Title:	Scrypt
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 132CD

"Lithops is the solo outlet of Jan St. Werner from the Cologne based Mouse on Mars. Scrypt begins by extending its relentless sound to more consistent -- yet bizarre -- sound configurations and even greater compositional extremity. Scrypt creates a roadmap along which the music evolves towards structured examples of a multi-linear paradigm. The route itself runs in parallel within the music; every scriptable motion is matched by a layered countermotion across the duration of the pieces. Minute edits of off-time slamming grain sounds, feedback tips, guitar bursts and bass flange accelerations conspire with harmonic distortions, burbling forth melodic eccentricities and sudden harmonic changes, occasionally introducing brass arrangements. Blast-punctured streams of organ chord changes spell out melodies, while sub-style attacking bass concludes and infects the structure of the tracks. Drums are intercut to create shuddering explosions of precise deconstruction. Each piece has its own circuit board floor plan, allowing a high degree of listenability. Lithops' lowed down grind core improv derivatives spit out non linear rhythm ms, immediately unravelling the predictability of the usual speed metal and free jazz exercises with which they might be compared."

Artist:	BYRNE, DAVID
Title:	Lead Us Not Into Temptation
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	THR 133CD

"Lead Us Not Into Temptation is the soundtrack to the film Young Adam, and features original compositions by David Bryne. David was contacted by the team of Hercules and Jeremy (Recorded Picture Company) about scoring the soundtrack to their adaptation of the 1954 novel by Scottish beat writer Alex Trocchi. Instead of using NY or London players, David decided to travel to Scotland to record, assembling a group of musicians from Glasgow in particular. His hope was that the score might then capture the weird tentative vibe that seemed to he emanating from a town that was simultaneously in the midst of a cultural revival and 'drinking to throw up' imbibing. In mixing came the realization that the background sounds of the film were in many cases, an extension of the ambient sounds the band were trying replicate. A seamless interpretation of music and film. In many ways the perfect soundtrack. As so often is the case, much of the music is not actually heard on the film, so this record represents another film, one with even less dialogue and a lot more music."

Artist:	MOUSE ON MARS
Title:	Radical Connector
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 134CD

"Mouse On Mars' unique way of creating music demonstrates that intelligence and playfulness are not mutually exclusive terms. Their music is both challenging and funny -- complexly layered yet with a simple driving beat. Mouse On Mars has a unique vision and a unique way of expressing this vision, resulting in an unmistakable sound which functions on a universal level and makes people move their minds and their bodies. In a musical genre not noted for longevity, Mouse On Mars has not only found their own distinctive voice, but have remained a farce of imaginative innovations for a decade. The new album Radical Connector includes nine new tracks which took Jan and Andi three years to write and produce in their famous St. Martin studio In D�sseldorf. Long-time musical collaborator Dada Nkishi was part of the recording team once again, and the album features both his drumming and his strangely recorded vocals."

Artist:	CALIFONE
Title:	Heron King Blues
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 135CD

"For this recording the band set out to make a record like Captain Beefheart's Mirror Man, entering the studio with a blank canvas and laying things down quickly. The resulting songs combine the bands more pop-oriented qualities alongside their more spaced out ethereal thoughts; these most often found on their Deceleration releases available on the bands own label, Perishable. The resulting sessions led to songs that were improvised or written immediately before recording, and within days a series of raw, live recordings had been completed. From there the initial recordings were chopped up, mixed around, and reassembled into the final product: a beautifully lush and patient masterpiece."

Artist:	BAND OF BLACKY RANCHETTE, THE
Title:	Still Lookin Good To Me
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 138CD

"The first Band of Blacky Ranchette album was released back in 1983, and was a product of Howe Gelb (Giant Sand) and Rainer Ptacek. Like the X offshoot, The Knitters, BBR began as an outgrowth of Howe and Rainer wanting to explore and play music of a country and western vibe. By christening themselves BBR, they gave themselves a forum to try new ideas, embrace other styles of music and invite other folks to join in and collaborate. While the memories of BBR seemed distant to Howe, it was never far from his mind. Recently he found himself collaborating with a number of various musicians, so late last year he began sowing the seeds for a new BBR record. Wrangling together a host of A list collaborators Howe recorded whenever and wherever possible: Kurt from Lambchop, Neko Case, M Ward, and Chan Marshall."

Artist:	ANDERSON & HAMID DRAKE, FRED
Title:	Back Together Again
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	2CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 139CD

"Sometimes the most obvious projects -- the ones that are sure to work -- are the ones that keep getting put off. Worst case scenario: they never happen. The notion of recording tenor saxophonist Fred Anderson and drummer Hamid Drake as a duo is something that has been kicked around for years, simply because they play so beautifully together. And of course they've recorded together many times, particularly in recent years, releasing CDs on Okka Disk, Eremite, Delmark, and elsewhere. But always in the company of others. The Anderson-Drake relationship always provides a nucleus for those ensembles. Here, then, for the first time, are Fred Anderson and Hamid Drake: pure, unadulterated nucleus."

Artist:	STICKS AND STONES
Title:	Shed Grace
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 140CD

"Jazz trio Sticks and Stones formed years ago when drummer Chad Taylor, bassist Josh Abrams and alto saxophonist Matana Roberts met each other at a performance space in Chicago. Their second and newest release, Shed Grace, is their first on Thrill Jockey. It was recorded at Semaphore Studios with Ken B. Brown (Directions in Music, Tortoise, Pullman). Shed Grace is largely original compositions (songwriting split equally among the three). The eclectic selection of covers includes songs by Fela Kuti, Thelonious Monk, and Billy Strayhorn."

Artist:	TRAPIST
Title:	Ballroom
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 141CD

"Trapist is the Vienna based trio comprised of Joe Williamson on bass, Martin Siewart on guitar and Martin Brandlmayr on drums. The band recorded the basic tracks for Ballroom in one day, once again relying on improvisation for the direction of the songs. Trapist then brought the recording into their home studio where they overdubbed and drastically edited the resulting record. Using a variety of instruments including the vibraphone, a collection of synthesizers and modulators, as well as a few software-based treatments, the band gave even more life to their improvised recordings. Together the members of Trapist are a group of experienced improvisors who collectively like to explore and question familiar surroundings and contexts for both art and music. Thinking not only of melody and emotional elements in music, Trapist look additionally at structures and forms."

Artist:	GIANT SAND
Title:	Is All Over The Map
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 142CD

"Is All Over... The Map is Giant Sand's umpteenth record and perhaps their most focused work to date. Who says getting old is all bad? Working with John Parish again, whom helped make the brilliant Chore of Enchantment, ring leader Howe Gelb leads a new cast of Sandmen and woman through the proverbial song desert. The revolving door continues to revolve, but what never leaves is the great spirit and songwriting one has come to expect from Giant Sand/Howe Gelb recordings."

Artist:	THE NATIONAL TRUST
Title:	Kings and Queens
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 143CD

"Kings and Queens is a freaky conflation of dance music, like a 31-flavor ice cream social on a hot summer's day where bongos and subs keep time for a gaggle of face-painters, genies and roller-queens, but it's more about lifestyle than any generic allegiance or retro revivalism. The National Trust calls it 'body music.' Kings and Queens makes plenty of nods to disco, house, and pop. Equally present on Kings and Queens are Chicago-style horns, R&B falsetto, Latino percussion and bass lines with more soul than a gospel choir; and the presence of these styles on Kings and Queens is more than just imitation, but rather the contributions of practiced players from each of many genres."

Artist:	TRANS AM
Title:	Liberation
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 144CD

"Liberation is their new record (7th overall) and the first album on which politics have crept into their music. Their position is unambiguous. Recorded in summer and fall of 2003 at the band's own National Recording Studio, Liberation reflects the tension coursing through the city. While New York's skyline is the most radically altered in the past three years, life in Washington is palpably different as well since 9/11. The hum of swirling helicopters, the din of police sirens, and a culture of fear have become omnipresent in Washington DC. Musically Liberation is classic Trans Am. Styles continue to shift from track to track, culling from vocabulary familiar to fans of their previous 6th records."

Artist:	MARTIN, JIMMY
Title:	Don't Cry To Me
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 145CD

"Don't Cry to Me is the companion release to the film The King of Bluegrass, both of which chronicle the life and times of Bluegrass pioneer Jimmy Martin. The film tells the story of Jimmy's lifelong quest to reach his dream in becoming a member of the Grand Ole Opry. Known for his flamboyant dress, crazed hunting trips, and brash behavior, Martin is the rebel figure of bluegrass music. Culled from a variety of sources, both old and new, these recordings showcase the amazing talents of a man who once served as lead singer and guitarist for Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys, and helped in developing the 'High Lonesome Sound' that is so widely regarded today."

Artist:	PREKOP, SAM
Title:	Who's Your New Professor
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 146CD

"Five years after Sam Prekop stepped out of the tall shadow of The Sea and Cake to drop his debut record, he returns with another masterpiece of breezy, crisp offbeat pop perfection with his second release. For Who's Your New Professor Prekop set out to make a record that was completely different than anything he had done before. To achieve this Sam used a variety of unconventional guitar tunings and actively stepped away from familiar vocal and rhythmic patterns. He consciously tried to get away from the Brazilian influence, though he admits 'it did seep in occasionally'. The other major thing was that instead of thinking about the vocals as the last step in the creative process, he thought about them first."

Artist:	RADIAN
Title:	Juxtaposition
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 147CD

"The bulk of preparation for both the electronica and standard instrumentation on Juxtaposition took place in Radian's Vienna studio. The band first collected and created sounds of different sources -- mostly instruments like drums, bass, guitar vibraphone, and marimbaphone. They then recorded these instruments in unusual ways, like 'microrecording' the sound sources through synthesizer patches. Next Radian carefully arranged these electronics to work within their performances on live instruments of drums, bass and synthesizers. Finally Radian brought their complete electronic arrangement to Chicago's Soma studios where John McEntire recorded the drums and bass. These parts were added to the electronics according to Radian's arrangements. A painstaking and time consuming process, but one that offers the listener many rewards."

Artist:	ZEDEK, THALIA
Title:	Trust Not Those in Whom Without Some Touch of Madness
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 148CD

"The band is made up of Daniel Coughlin (drums) and Dave Curry (viola), both of whom play with an assurance and familiarity which add mournful viola and driving drums to the hypnotic rhythms of Zedek's guitar and deliberate vocals. Her songs, like the blues, speak not about the struggle to survive, but to the struggle of surviving. This is not a surprise coming from Thalia Zedek, an artist of enduring quality, who is one of the most compelling and strong performers wielding a guitar today."

Artist:	PREWITT, ARCHER
Title:	Wilderness
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 149CD

"Prewitt's guitar work is integral to the sound of his other band, The Sea and Cake, as it is for his solo work. However, here on his own, Prewitt manages to find an entirely different tone and timbre. Compared to his previous releases, the songs on Wilderness are primarily spare with more focused and refined arrangements. These leaner settings highlight Archer's vocals and more personal lyrics. 'O, KY' addresses the loss of Prewitt's father, 'No More' and 'Way of the Sun' reveal bleak post-9/11 melancholy, 'Go Away' seems like a swan song, and a number of the others continue with Prewitt's love affair with love affairs -- the good and the bad."

Artist:	FREAKWATER
Title:	Thinking of You
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 150CD

"Using their own uniquely askew take on honky-tonk, bluegrass, and country-politan, Freakwater invariably make records easily distinguishable from one another while maintaining their signature sound. On Thinking of You they join together with Thrill Jockey label mates Califone, creating an album both modern and timeless in its instrumentation and sentiment. Lyrically, Freakwater continue to write about heartache and sadness, yet also touch on subjects not often broached in traditional country music. Thinking Of You, a phrase not usually weighted with menace, takes on an increasingly ominous, compelling tone with each new listen."

Artist:	ZINCS, THE
Title:	Dimmer
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 151CD

"Lead by expatriate Jim Elkington (of the British-based bands Sophia and Elevate), The Zincs play brooding pop music rooted in the mysterious sounds of America and Britain to which the band grew up listening. In 2000, Elkington was lured from England by Chicago's lush music scene and began to experiment with the songwriting style that would lead to his forming The Zincs. Dimmer also showcases a wide range of songwriting styles. The songs 'Bad Shepherds' and 'Passengers' are influenced by '60s English and American folk music, from Pentangle to Michael Hurley, while 'Beautiful Lawyers' marks a transition from older, more familiar acoustic material towards a more layered blend of guitars and electronics. Yet at the core of Dimmer lie Elkington's soothing vocals which land somewhere between Leonard Cohen and a hangover-ridden David Bowie. His vibrato-tinged, baritone voice floats effortlessly over Spanish style guitars and melodic keyboard bleeps and drones, setting the tone of the intimate and heart-felt album."

Artist:	EXTRA GOLDEN
Title:	Ok-Oyot System
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 153CD

"Extra Golden is an international collaboration between members of two bands: Otieno Jagwasi and Onyango Wuod Omari of the Nairobi, Kenya based benga band Orchestra Extra Solar Africa, and Ian Eagleson and Alex Minoff of the Washington D.C. based rock bands Weird War and Golden. The musicians met as a result of Ian's doctoral research on Kenyan music. The result is a unique sounding record that arose from the cooperation between musicians that come from different circumstances, but who, at the same time, have something in common: they play in electric guitar bands and perform in bars and nightclubs. Extra Golden is not a high-profile international collaboration of the sort that would be featured at Starbucks checkout counters. Rather, it is based on a deep connection between the musicians, and, as a result, has a very honest sound reflecting this experience."

Artist:	PIT ER PAT
Title:	Shakey
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 154CD

"Pit er Pat is Rob Doran (bass, vocals), Fay Davis-Jeffers (keyboards, vocals) and Butchy Fuego (drums, vocals). There was something striking about the dynamic of the sound the three of them made, something unusually compelling about this rhythm section. Without the singer/guitarist, this sound allowed the space to be heard. The end result is a constant propelling of rhythm and melody steeped in innumerable influences and emotions. Like the Hairy Who movement the band so admires, Pit er Pat can be described as an expressive work of fantastic adventure; compelling, arousing and mysterious. Recommended to fans of The Raincoats, early Soft Machine, New Age Steppers, Slap Happy and Blonde Redhead."

Artist:	CONN & THE GLASS GYPSIES, BOBBY
Title:	Live Classics Vol.1
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 155CD

"We've [Bobby Conn & the Glass Gypsies] played over 250 gigs in the past few years with the same line-up, and our live set has chrome-plated pointy metal spikes that you don't hear on the records. In the studio, I do lots of arranging with overdubs, editing and mixing, usually ending up with a super detailed sonic universe that's almost impossible to duplicate live. Once a record is finished, it's 'How the hell are we going to do that live?' because we don't tour with horn sections, modular synths, string ensembles, etc. But the Glass Gypsies can concentrate even the most complicated songs into rock and roll plutonium. And plutonium remains deadly power poison for 100,000 years. This is the true classic rock, like a radioactive pyramid in an endless desert of molten glass."

Artist:	ADULT.
Title:	D.U.M.E.
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$9.00
Catalog #:	THR 156CD

"Adult. is Adam Lee Miller and Nicola Kuperus. D.U.M.E. was recorded in November 2004 in a studio built by Adult. in Detroit. This marks their second release recorded entirely to tape. Also marking a change from previous releases, many of the songs on D.U.M.E. had been played live thus allowing each to evolve a great deal before they were recorded. Aside from 'Don't Talk' all of the songs on this release are new and exclusive to D.U.M.E. 'Don't Talk' was previously released in an entirely different form on the Dutch label, Clone Records. 'Hold Your Breath' marks a distinctive new music approach for the band with the addition of the guitar and two different choruses. This best exemplifies the direction Adult. will be taking with their upcoming album."

Artist:	PARISH, JOHN
Title:	Once Upon a Little Time
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 157CD

"John Parish's first record with vocals in fifteen years. Once Upon A Little Time is really a band record. The core group of John Parish, Marta Collica, Giorgia Poli and Jean-Marc Butty developed a musical vocabulary and conversational tone that only a band can have. Most of the tracks were cut live in the studio and you can hear the trust the four have in each other as they waver between intense emotional fragility with 'Choice,' and recklessness with 'Even Redder Than That'. Some friends including Adrian Utley (Portishead), Jeremy Hogg (PJ Harvey), and Hugo Race (Bad Seeds, Sepiatone), dropped in to add their own personal touch."

Artist:	TSUYUKO, AKI
Title:	Hokane
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD/BOOK
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 158CD

"Hokane is a collection of musical and visual short stories, written, performed, and drawn by Aki Tsuyuko. This is the first in a series of books that Thrill Jockey will be releasing, with upcoming artists in the series including Daniel Higgs and Thomas Campbell. In her late teens, Tsuyuko discovered and was influenced by Eric Satie's piano pieces. She began to play these pieces on electronic organ, interpreting them in her own way. It was through this process that Tsuyuko got into her own music and composition. In the mid 90's, she sent her music to Nobukazu Takemura, which lead to release of her music and years of collaboration between the two musicians. Tsuyuko has performed around the world singing and playing keyboards, and also creating video art and clay animation for their performances. Aki Tsuyuko has performed with Tortoise, Sonic Youth, Jim O'Rourke, Brokeback, Yo La Tengo, and Arto Lindsay." Packaged in a 48-page hardcover book.

Artist:	OOIOO
Title:	Gold and Green
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 160CD

"OOIOO's Gold and Green reveals the group's hard-to-categorize and refreshing avant-garde rock music, which adeptly incorporates elements of punk and more traditional tribal music. Their rhythms are unique and the organic interplay with the vocals is compelling. The music is complex and challenging and playful and childlike. Previously released only in Japan, Gold and Green includes guest appearances including Seiichi Yamamoto (Boredoms), Yuka Honda (Cibo Matto), and Sean Lennon. The album packaging, designed by Yoshimi, is a beautiful miniature gatefold album jacked filled with drawings and photographs by Yoshimi and other artists."

Artist:	OOIOO
Title:	Taiga
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 161CD

"OOIOO's earliest music was minimal and digital, just as their binary name may suggest. But as the band's lineup evolved over four previous albums, so did its sound. New-wave poppy grooves gave way to chaotic plateaus and psychedelic freakouts on albums like Kila Kila Kila and Gold & Green. OOIOO's current manifestation has derived a rhythm-based soundscape, spacious, spiritual and elevatory, intended as communication with the Earth and motivated by nature Taiga shows OOIOO displaying a wide array of instrumental sounds and textures. Focused on accentuating the rhythm, the band adds layers as seamlessly as they take them away. Rhythmic patterns ebb and flow naturally like the tide; all the while a fragile melody interweaves them in waves. To a similar effect, Yoshimi and her bandmates' vocals range from tribal and meditative chants to bird calls and free-folk screaming. Taiga sounds like the deep forest from the bank of a big river, the sounds of animals and trees, life and death. This is a call to nature as only Yoshimi could muster."

Artist:	VERLAINE, TOM
Title:	Warm and Cool
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 162CD

"Warm and Cool was recorded with the help of Television band-mates Fred Smith and Billy Ficca (also of Verlaine's earlier band, Neon Boys), as well as Jay Dee Daugherty (The Church) and Patrick A. Derivaz, who helped engineer Television's 1992 self-titled album. Verlaine and his collaborators created the album mostly by improvisation and recorded the tracks with a minimum of rehearsal. Unlike most of Verlaine's work, Warm and Cool is entirely instrumental, with guitars often filling the traditional role of a voice in the melody. The album was initially released in 1992 in the wake of a short-lived Television reunion and the rise of Nirvana into a musical environment that clearly favored loud guitars and walls of sound. Warm and Cool's sparse sound scapes represent a clear rebellion from that. Now in 2005, Warm and Cool is being reissued in the midst of another Television reunion."

Artist:	CALIFONE
Title:	Roots & Crowns
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 163CD

"Califone started recording Roots & Crowns in October 2005 and worked on it in chunks at 4Deuces Studio in Chicago with Brian Deck, in Long Beach and Phoenix with Michael Krassner, and at home in Los Angeles and Chicago until May 2006. 'Some of these songs started as hummed melodies into my cell phone recorder while I was driving. Others were triggered by overheard conversations, loops brought in from home, field recordings or sounds we made in the studio before the tape was rolling,' says Rutili. The time away and each member's individual work naturally brought new elements into the sound of Califone's music. Both Rutili's and Becker's soundtrack work are more atmospheric, however, the challenge of enhancing a scene of film without cluttering it or overwhelming it informed their approach to the new recording. The burglary of Califone's equipment during the band's last tour, including guitars, banjo, a 1917 violin, bells and more, altered the sound. The band had to find new gear on a tight budget. The instruments are new partners, new sounds that forced them to stretch in new directions."

Artist:	FREQUENCY
Title:	Frequency
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 164CD

"Frequency is a new quartet showcasing the improvisational talents of four longtime members of Chicago's storied underground jazz scene Ed Wilkerson is the founder and lead composer of 8 Bold Souls. Nicole Mitchell is the first female co-president of the AACM. Harrison Bankhead is currently Hamid Drake's main partner on bass and cello." Featuring: Edward Wilkerson - tenor sax (8 Bold Souls, Shadow Vignettes), Nicole Mitchell - flute (Black Earth Ensemble, AACM), Harrison Bankhead - bass (8 Bold Souls, Hamid Drake), Avreeayl Ra - percussion (AACM, Fred Anderson, Sun Ra).

Artist:	TOWN AND COUNTRY
Title:	Up Above
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 165CD

"Up Above may tend to make you woozy. It's a sleepy, trance-inducing affair, an effort to engross the black bee of our minds on the blue lotus feet of our divine mother. This is a first for cover tunes and a first for singing. 'Blue Lotus Feet' is a yoga tune -- apparently there is a Will Oldham version of this tune floating around as well. 'King of Portugal' is based on Cancao dos Reis from an old Folkways 10" of Portuguese Christmas carols. Up Above refers to the Paul Bowles novel Up Above the World. Psych folk drone may be the flavor of the month but Town and Country been doing this for eight years."

Artist:	CHICAGO UNDERGROUND DUO
Title:	In Praise of Shadows
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 168CD

"The 9th Chicago Underground release and the fourth as a Duo, In Praise of Shadows finds cornetist Rob Mazurek and drummer Chad Taylor returning the focus to improvisation. While In Praise of Shadows is similar to Twelve Degrees of Freedom in concept the record deals with dyad relationships such as tension and release, space and density, sound and silence. It also plays with sonic contrasts, low tone and high tones as well as contrasting approaches juxtaposing free jazz with modern composition."

Artist:	CALIFONE
Title:	Roomsound
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 170CD

"The debut full length from Califone. Originally released in April of 2001, Roomsound covers the same rustic, slightly ramshackle back forty that Tim Rutili has been ploughing since at least as far back as his previous band Red Red Meat. Only this time the tilled bedrock unveils the most vividly colored, luring crop of songs Rutili has ever harvested. The sleepy, country-blues picking and autumnal backwoods melodies are accented with striking splashes of electronic tone color, obsolete keyboards and off-kilter percussion. Lyrically, Roomsound penetrates the breath of pirates, poison apples at a tango contest and the waiting room between death and canonization where missionaries have quit and 19th-century whores have been rescued for all the wrong reasons. Masterfully engineered by Brian Deck, the album is vaulted far beyond the sum of its parts. Roomsound is a hauntingly unique and distinctive record of crafted and sculpted beauty."

Artist:	OOIOO
Title:	Eye Remix
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$5.00
Catalog #:	THR 171CD

"Hot on the heels of their latest record of hard-hitting polyrhythmic skree, OOIOO have unleashed fellow sonic cohort EYE from Boredoms to dismember and reassemble two of their songs. UMO and UMA get the remix treatment here, resulting in two long tracks that reinvent Yoshimi's jet-propelled psychedelic pep rallies as bass-driven dancefloor slammers. As Eye has shown us on recent Boredoms records, he has an uncanny knack for harnessing a groove and blowing it up to a previously unknown scale, and that's exactly what he does here. Available on CD EP and 12" vinyl single, both formats feature artwork by EYE. The CD EP comes in a full color digipak with deluxe spot-matte finishing and obi strip."

Artist:	ELEVENTH DREAM DAY
Title:	Zeroes and Ones
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	THR 172CD

"The band's tenth album. The album presents a contrast between the personal and reflective lyrics and the catharsis of playing really loud. For this new set of songs, Rick Rizzo spent the summer of 2005 vowing to write a new song each day (he jokingly admits that about fifty days somehow slipped by), many on themes of identity and existence, 'mixed with whatever flew by the window.' Zeroes and Ones is about 'the difference between gravity and floating away, reality or dream, looking for something to grasp or simply letting go.'"

Artist:	VERLAINE, TOM
Title:	Songs and Other Things
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 173CD

"Thrill Jockey's simultaneous release of Around and Songs and Other Things will be the first new releases by Tom Verlaine since Warm and Cool in 1992. Songs and Other Things is Tom Verlaine's first vocal release since The Wonder in 1990. The return of his cool vibrato weaving in and out of his guitar lines is exciting. For this new vocal release, Verlaine recorded with a variety of friends including Television bassist Fred Smith. He wrote all the songs, played all the guitars and even spent some time on bass."

Artist:	VERLAINE, TOM
Title:	Around
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	THR 174CD

"Around continues where Warm and Cool left off, using many of the same musicians. Former Neon Boy Billy Ficca's drumming shares the spotlight with Verlaine's guitar, whose varied tones move effortlessly from melody to rhythm and are at once panoramic, pastoral and atmospheric. The influence of Verlaine's love of jazz saxophone is manifested in sustained single-note melodies and his expert finesse is rousing. Around is a largely improvised record. 'The recording style is: get the mics set and start recording,' Verlaine says, 'edit the mistakes and erase the stuff you don't like.' This freewheeling style allows the raw talents of Verlaine, Ficca and Derivaz to shine through, while showcasing the cohesion of a trio that's been playing together for years. Verlaine calls them 'intuitive musicians.'"

Artist:	DESVEAUX, ANGELA
Title:	Wandering Eyes
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	THR 175CD

"If Angela Desveaux could have three pictures in her wallet, she says they would be of Gillian Welch, Lucinda Williams, and her grandmother. These are the figures she holds dear and suggest the influences that have shaped her musical identity. Wandering Eyes is a sparkling country debut that highlights both Desveaux's brilliant voice and her poignant song writing, inspired by those heroes with an alt.country twist. Band includes Mike Feuerstack (Wooden Stars, Kepler), Howard Bilerman (Arcade Fire), Harris Newman (Strange Attractors), Mike Moya (GYBE), and Gen Heistek (Hangedup)."

Artist:	PIT ER PAT
Title:	Pyramids
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	THR 176CD

"Pit er Pat is the Chicago-based trio of keyboardist Fay Davis-Jeffers, drummer Butchy Fuego and bassist Rob Doran. When approaching a title for the new album, the follow up to 2005's Shakey, each member of Pit er Pat remembers coming across pyramids in various forms: in random images they encountered, in the course of personal reading, and even in their own drawings. Pyramids were everywhere it seemed, and the strength and symbolism of that shape clicked for the band with the themes of the new album and their nature as a three-piece. Powerful rhythms provide the solid floor for ethereal melodies and layers of textural samples on Pyramids. Contemporaries describe Pit er Pat's sound as distinctively modern and fresh."

Artist:	ZINCS, THE
Title:	Black Pompadour
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	THR 178CD

"As the acoustic and spare sound of Dimmer began to evaporate, the electric shine of the group's dormant influences began to come through, from the Postcard and Rough Trade bands of 1980s Britain to the minimal, organ-driven drones of 1960s New York. All of this contributed to the album you see before you, Black Pompadour. The Zincs have succeeded in marrying their classic song-forms with a brighter electric sound to make a vital album for the times. What makes them such a singular band is how they weave such dark prose into their beautiful melodies, a reward that the casual listener could miss on first hearing."

Artist:	LITHOPS
Title:	Mound Magnet
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 179CD

"It's all in there, somewhere. Or at least I've fooled myself into thinking that it is. 'All,' referring to the accumulated chops and gestures and signeage and grooves and grooves denied that have accrued over the course of Jan St. Werner's tenure in Mouse on Mars, Microstoria, and as Lithops. (The name of Jan's solo work has always struck me as deceptively gentle. Lithops are plants from Namibia and South Africa also known as 'living stones' for their--ding!--deceptive appearance.) It's all in there, or much of it, on Mound Magnet. More so than on the other Lithops releases, each of which could be said to comprise a narrower set of oft-ludic investigations. If I think I hear it all in there, what else am I hearing? Uni Umit, the first Lithops record on Moikai; Mouse on Mars' Idiology; the rubber-bandish electric guitar that leads off MoM's Niun Niggung; much besides. Hearing it all in there...somewhere...is less a matter of being fooled than of trusting...in...accumulated...wisdom. Non-renunciation. That's something that has kept me coming back to each new record of MoM/Microstoria/Lithops. Jan St. Werner is less the perpetual refugee from and much more perpetually astride these multiple musical worlds." --David Grubbs

Artist:	ARBOURETUM
Title:	Rites of Uncovering
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 180CD

"An album of broad scope, musically, lyrically and texturally. The name alludes to a process of constant questing that is part of Arbouretum's raison d'etre, what Heumann describes as 'a sense of religiosity that is not tied down to a particular moral or ecclesiastical approach, but rather proto-religious feelings such as awe in the face of something greater.' In this case, that 'something greater' is the music itself and/or the source thereof. Rites... was influenced either obtusely or more directly (as in the song 'Mohammed's Hex and Bounty,' based on 'Love with a Few Hairs' by Mohamed Mrabet) by the writer Paul Bowles. Band is led by Dave Heumann (Anomoanon); musicians on the album include Mitchell Feldstein (Lungfish) and David Bergander (Celebration)."

Artist:	EXPLODING STAR ORCHESTRA
Title:	We Are All From Somewhere Else
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 181CD

"We Are All From Somewhere Else is comprised of 3 distinct sections, and corresponds to a story involving an exploding star, cosmic transformation, a sting ray, the travels of the sting ray, intelligent conversations with electric eels, the destructive power of humans, the death and ascension of the sting ray, the transformation of sting ray ghost to flying bird, and the transformation of bird to phoenix to rocket to flying burning matter to a new-born star. The overall organic approach included actual organic sounds -- for example, the sounds of electric eels recorded by Mazurek at INPA research laboratory in Manaus. The juxtaposition of two drums, two basses, two mallets, multiple flutes, two coronets, bass clarinet, ARP synthesizer, guitar, trombone, voices and flugelhorn all played important roles in the development of the final sound. Group is led by Rob Mazurek (Chicago Underground, Isotope 217), and includes Nicole Mitchell (Frequency, Black Earth Ensemble), John, Johnny and Jeff from Tortoise, and a number of other prominent Chicago improvisers."

Artist:	TRANS AM
Title:	Sex Change
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 182CD

"After Trans Am's last album, Liberation -- a bleak portrayal of life in a security-obsessed imperial capital -- the band exploded and abandoned Washington, D.C. for three different continents. The following period of programmed isolation found Nathan Means in Auckland, Phil Manley in San Francisco and Sebastian Thomson splitting time between London and New York. The band began in June 2006 on a program of sporadic rendezvous, reconvening briefly on several continents to work on what would become the most joyous and upbeat rock album of Trans Am's chronicle. In June of 2006, Trans Am reunited at MAINZ, a recording school in Auckland, New Zealand, with a few songs and almost no musical equipment. Recording moved forward with a wide range of borrowed instruments, keyboards and other gear, including a 1960's Mellotron and remarkable vintage amps loaned by iconic New Zealand musician Chris Knox (Tall Dwarfs)."

Artist:	ANDERSON & HAMID DRAKE, FRED
Title:	From The River To The Ocean
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	THR 183CD

"Following up on their acclaimed Thrill Jockey 2004 CD Back Together Again, Drake and Anderson set out to show just how much they'd grown, how beautifully their work together has evolved. Drafting an all-star band consisting of fellow-Chicagoans, the twosome entered John McEntire's Soma Studios and proceeded to record their most relaxed, perfectly balanced date yet. In a discography that has gone from a handful of rare LPs fifteen years ago to a staggering number of discs on various labels today, it may seem hyperbolic to call From The River To The Ocean Fred Anderson's greatest album yet, but the empathy and cohesiveness of the ensemble, coupled with the saxophonist's brilliant, searching improvisations, makes it a ringer."

Artist:	HIGGS, DANIEL A.I.U.
Title:	Atomic Yggdrasil Tarot
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	BOOK/CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	THR 184BK

"Daniel is best known for his work as the lyricist and frontman of Lungfish, whose work on Dischord Records spans 3 decades. This release is a limited edition full color 6x8" hardcover book + CD. This is the 2nd release in the series (the 1st being Hokane by Aki Tsuyuko), and contains 48 pages of Daniel's paintings and writings of guitar and piano drones, Jew's harp, and banjo recorded by Daniel in his home is inserted in the front cover of the book."

Artist:	ADULT.
Title:	Why Bother?
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 185CD

"Mindless packs, erroneous folklore, misguided shepherds, aggressive incompetence, and real life horrors blend together into this, our fourth album. Why Bother? Some will read this title, sigh and agree, while others will read the title and react with reactionary resentment and countless reasons why one should bother. A test? Why Bother? Well, if you've got a minute to spare, we'll tell you exactly why you should care. Uneasy listening music for uneasy times. A time to contextualize 'folk' for our intent and advocate the importance of being folk. Folklore defines a distinctive culture, the common people, real people. Folk suggests a culture content to operate 'outside'; the place where we are most at ease. With that explanation, this must be a folk record, but realistically it would probably be that kind of 'folk' that conjures up images of Deliverance, 'Motel Hell's' Farmer Vincent or Leatherface's family life. Uncomfortable, restless, disturbed, perturbed, awkward and anxious. Why Bother? hopes to spread the word of weird... abnormal motivations, ready and willing. Trying to tilt the balance of over-stimulation. What is the next step if VIDEODROME is not the endgame itself? Cataloging, categorizing, sterilizing, co-opting and over-hype marketing have created a social smothering and mass indolence. If you aren't inclined to vomit, than you will probably feel worse when exposed to our brand of folk."

Artist:	SEA AND CAKE, THE
Title:	Everybody
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 186CD

"The Sea and Cake are back with Everybody, the band's first full length in just over four years. The record finds the band continuing to perfect their singular brand of dreamlike, hot-buttered pop music that sounds delicately handcrafted, yet effortless all the same. Sheets of glowing guitar tones skip along propulsive percussion underscored by gently funky, introspective bass lines, all adorned by breathlessly delivered lines of lyrical poetry. As always, the band is made up of Sam Prekop (guitar and vocals), Archer Prewitt (guitar), John McEntire (drums) and Erik Claridge (bass)."

Artist:	FIERY FURNACES, THE
Title:	Widow City
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 189CD

"There are few things in life as exhilarating as a new album by The Fiery Furnaces. Establishing themselves as one of rock music's most consistently engaging, exciting and thought-provoking bands, The Fiery Furnaces -- made up of core brother/sister duo Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger -- are well-versed in creating an album that manages to balance melody, originality, and a seemingly endless arsenal of instrumental ideas. Since their debut, Gallowbird's Bark, was released in 2003, The Fiery Furnaces have challenged the notion of what makes a song, weaving aural fragments into ten-minute-long opuses that take any number of melodic turns. Their songs often transcend categories redefining the pop song through their rapidly changing tempos and inventive sound selections -- almost as quickly as Eleanor can spit out proper noun-laced lyrical gems, often so otherworldly, that they border on magical realism. While the band's sixth LP, Widow City, is rooted in the Furnaces' aesthetic of challenging conventional notions of timing and song structure, the record is absolutely unlike any other LP in their expansive and brilliant repertoire. In fact, Widow City, their first for Chicago's renowned Thrill Jockey Records, features some of the finest, catchiest Furnaces compositions to date."

Artist:	TUNNG
Title:	Good Arrows
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 190CD

"Good Arrows is the third album from Tunng, the pastoral pop band behind the acclaimed Mother's Daughter and Other Songs and Comments Of The Inner Chorus. Taking its title from a favorite phrase of co-founder Sam Gender's brother, Good Arrows is a totally immersive record, enveloping the listener in Tunng's wyrd world. Their first album to be recorded in its entirety with the full, six-piece band (core duo Sam and Mike Lindsay handled the majority of the first two), there's a new depth of sound and power here, and a clutch of songs that'll get right under your skin. Taking influences from Icelandic prog rock, choral music and film soundtracks, Good Arrows marks a significant development for Tunng -- they've expanded beyond the awkwardly-applied folktronica label to become a fully fledged (if experimentally-skewed) pop band."

Artist:	HUMAN BELL
Title:	Human Bell
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 191CD

"The Aramaic language had an expression: Ephphatha, to be opened, as a portal. That ability to be open, to listen completely and communicate purely is at the heart of Human Bell. David Heumann and Nathan Bell's gorgeous guitar duets form an instrumental canvas painted in the warm colored hues of folk and rock music, and simultaneously a blank canvas for the listeners themselves to paint. Their songs are delicately crafted with an immaculate clarity, expressiveness, and most of all, openness. Human Bell features David Heumann (Arbouretum, Cass McCombs, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy) and Nathan Bell (Lungfish, P.W. Long, Mighty Flashlight, and Television Hill)."

Artist:	DIXON WITH EXPLODING STAR ORCHESTRA, BILL
Title:	Bill Dixon with Exploding Star Orchestra
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	THR 192CD

"This is the second album from Exploding Star Orchestra and the first to feature free jazz legend Bill Dixon. Bill Dixon (trumpet) is a seminal free jazz figure whose career has spanned over 40 years. He organized the influential October Revolution in Jazz in 1964, co-founded the Jazz Composers Guild, and has played with the likes of Archie Shepp, Cecil Taylor, and William Parker. His playing has had huge influence on many free jazz trumpeters. Rob Mazurek (cornet) is a prime figure in the vibrant Chicago sound scene, having lead and performed in Chicago Underground, Isotope 217, and Mandarin Movie. Exploding Star Orchestra is his latest project which he began in 2005. Also featured on the album are John Herndon and Jeff Parker (Tortoise), Nicole Mitchell (Frequency), Matthew Lux (Isotope 217), Damon Locks (The Eternals), in addition to many of Chicago's most exciting improvisers."

Artist:	SCHOOL OF LANGUAGE
Title:	Sea From Shore
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 193CD

"Primarily recorded by David Brewis alone and consciously susceptible to the cut-and-paste, multi-tasking tangents induced by laptop recording, these constructions are resolutely un-band-like, veering between the intricate and unplayable and the solitary and unadorned, their cohesion stemming from an embrace of all that is most obtuse and personal. The album is bookended by the quartet of 'Rockist' tracks, a series of daydreams on words, their meanings and the decisions which follow from them, all underpinned by a collection of incessant looped voices. School of Language is a new project from David Brewis of the band Field Music. The album features contributions from Barry Hyde and David Craig of The Futureheads."

Artist:	NEMETH
Title:	Film
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	THR 194CD

"Film is the first solo album by Stefan N�meth, member of Radian and Lokai and the co-founder of Mosz Records. The album developed out of his years of work creating soundscapes for experimental filmmakers and installation artists. It was only after years of creating these works that he had the idea to re-purpose it for an album under his own name. When these pieces were created, N�meth was working on a variety of projects, each of them with its own life and intent, always with the music being created to serve the movie, as opposed to creating a single album where his process could have been more linear. His idea for Film was to take this material and re-structure and develop these soundtracks into autonomous pieces of music, while keeping the cinematic spirit alive. Technically, Film is a blend of electronic sounds and acoustic instruments where it is often difficult to distinguish between real and generated sounds, and similarly combines free and conventional forms. The electronics function just as any other instrument, and are almost solely analog synths. There are digitally generated sounds, but only from genuinely digital processes, and not replicas or recreations of the analog world."

Artist:	LOWE & ROSE LAZAR, ROBERT A.A.
Title:	Gyromancy
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	Book w/CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 195BK

"The latest in our series of limited edition book + CD packages. Following the release of Daniel A.I.U. Higgs Atomic Yggdrasil Tarot and Aki Tsuyuko's Hokane, we have a new pocket-sized addition to the series. Gyromancy is a 4" x 6" soft cover perfect-bound book featuring artwork from Robert A.A. Lowe and Rose Lazar. Included with the book is a special 3" CD featuring the music of Robert A.A. Lowe. Robert Lowe was a member of the band 90 Day Men and currently plays music under the name Lichens. He is an absolute fixture in the Chicago music and arts community. Rose Lazar runs her own hand-printed goods company called The Great Lakes Goods. Gyromancy looks at future past, neo-antiquity, ritual magic, and patterning. The book represents a dream walk through nature and all of its influences. Repetition of imagery keeps you aware of the cyclical patterns that nature presents us with. We get caught up in these patterns without noticing them, to the point that you have to stop and take a harder look. Gyromancy is an attempt at taking a harder look. The music composed to accompany the images in the book is there to do just that. To add yet another dimension to the world that inhabits its pages." 70 pages.

Artist:	ZEDEK BAND, THALIA
Title:	Liars and Prayers
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 196CD

"Thalia Zedek started her career as a musician in the group Dangerous Birds whose 1982 single 'Alpha Romeo' is a rare find these days, but it was really with her 1986 Homestead release with UZI that she began to make her mark not only on the Boston region but on the underground in general. It rightfully put Thalia in the company of other challenging female pioneers such as Kim Gordon. The record was re-issued by Matador in the mid-1990s to much acclaim. It was a only two years later that Thalia again broke new ground with her group Live Skull, whose three releases stand more than the test of time and laid the groundwork for artists such as PJ Harvey to follow. It was with the dense rock of her group Come, which featured guitar interplay between her and Chris Brokaw (Codeine), that Thalia rose with the swell of popularity of so-called indie rock. Throughout her career, Thalia's voice has been a singular calling card. Her songwriting has great depth and a pervading melancholic tone. Much like the work of Nick Cave, Thalia's vocals and song arrangements have a pervasive bittersweet tone. She has chosen unusual instrumentation such as viola to compliment her guitar work and like a great full-bodied burgundy, her songs are rich in texture and reveal with each listen their delicately crafted layers."

Artist:	BOREDOMS
Title:	Super Roots 9
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	THR 197CD

"Long regarded as musical pioneers, Boredoms have continually pushed sonic boundaries and inspired musicians for over 20 years. Their albums and performances defy categorization, each one a completely unique event. The one commonality is that the members of Boredoms have amazing technical skills as musicians, limitless imagination and the ability to combine the two -- as no others have. Finally, the first new edition in eight years to the Super Roots series, Super Roots 9, gets a worldwide release. Super Roots 9 is a recording of a live show on Christmas Eve in 2004, in Japan. The performance featured a 24-person choir alongside the group. Super Roots 9 is the first live recording of the band ever released. The CD, packaged in a special custom-made mini gatefold LP style jacket, features artwork by Eye and a 40-page perfect bound booklet with music scores and notations."

Artist:	THANK YOU
Title:	Terrible Two
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	THR 198CD

"Thank You is an athletic rhythm/action unit, made up of Jeffrey McGrath, Michael Bouyoucas, and Elke Wardlaw. They are three free individuals, subsumed into a collective form that spits out dank, skittering tracks filled with light and dark. Musical ideas are introduced and have conversations with one another, each track filled with new articulation and insight. The basics of drums, organ, and guitar build the foundation, but are augmented by whistles, cowbell, hobo harmonica, snappy loops, car horns, and whatever else might be at hand."

Artist:	THANK YOU
Title:	Terrible Two
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	LP
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	THR 198LP

"The brand new album from Baltimore's Thank You. The album recording was engineered by Baltimore's beloved J. Robbins (Yeasayer, Mary Timony, Jets to Brazil) at his studio and was produced and mixed by Chris Coady (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Celebration, TV on the Radio) at his studio in New York City. Thank You is an athletic rhythm/action unit, made up of Jeffrey McGrath, Michael Bouyoucas, and Elke Wardlaw. They are three free individuals, subsumed into a collective form that spits out dank, skittering tracks filled with light and dark."

Artist:	ACCIDENTAL, THE
Title:	There Were Wolves
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	THR 199CD

"Take the man behind The Memory Band (Stephen Cracknell), the twisted songwriter from Tunng main man (Sam Genders), one half of Fence Collective duo The Bicycle Thieves (Hannah Caughlin) and singer-songwriter Liam Bailey. Put them in front of a PC and add occasional input from guests including harpist Serafina Steer and Rob, Jenny & Nancy from the Memory Band. The outcome is new collective The Accidental and their beguiling debut album There Were Wolves. Given the circumstances of its recording, the finished record is fittingly warm, personal and intimate, and less disguised in its folkiness than either Cracknell or Genders' main projects. Within this, new influences have crept in, such as Liam's soul and reggae edge and Hannah's jazz-influenced vocals. The album also gave Cracknell (who handled the programming) a chance to experiment with vocal and instrumental loops and layers, inspired, in part, by Panda Bear and Animal Collective."

Artist:	ARBOURETUM/PONTIAK
Title:	Kale
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	LP
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	THR 201LP

"Kale is a special LP-only split release by Arbouretum and their Baltimore friends Pontiak, Thrill Jockey's new signees making their label debut. The split features new songs from each band as well as a handful of John Cale covers, with Arbouretum offering their rendition of 'Buffalo Ballet,' and Pontiak delivering a potent 'The Endless Plain of Fortune,' and a great new interpretation of 'Mr. Wilson.' The album was recorded at Pontiak's home studio in Warrenton, VA."

Artist:	FIERY FURNACES, THE
Title:	Remember
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	2CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	THR 202CD

"The Fiery Furnaces are one of the most unique experiences in live music. Remember captures the high energy, intricate complexity, amazing vocal acrobatics of Eleanor and the technical musicianship that defines a Fiery Furnaces performance. Collecting songs from their entire catalog and performances across the globe starting in 2005, Remember is a unique document. The Fiery Furnaces reconstruct and re-arrange their songs for each tour. They go to great lengths to create versions that vary greatly from the recorded versions in tempo, instrumentation and arrangements. The band go through this process for each tour, never repeating themselves, and often combining songs in a musical collage that creates a new song made up of several -- or even of bits of an entire album! These are not your mother's medleys. We know of no other band that goes to such great lengths to reinvent and re-imagine for every tour. As a result, Remember is unique as a live record. More than two hours of music appears on Remember as it appears no place else. Featuring 51 tracks, Remember is issued as a double CD in a deluxe 6-panel digipack and includes a coupon to download a bonus song." This CD is limited to 9,000 copies (perhaps the world's first with such a designation) and contain the warning "please do not attempt to listen to all at once".

Artist:	DESVEAUX, ANGELA
Title:	The Mighty Ship
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 203CD

"While on Wandering Eyes, Desveaux claimed the influence of great women of country music like Gillian Welch and Lucinda Williams, she now points to Chrissy Hynde, Wayne Coyne and Neil Young as sources of inspiration. These bolder rock influences are apparent on The Mighty Ship in her lead vocal choices and her guitar playing, as well as her arrangements. These influences compliment Angela Desveaux's strong sense of melody, her incredible voice and her abilities as a storyteller. The Mighty Ship is the follow-up release to 2006's Wandering Eyes and features Angela's road-tested band The Mighty Ship. Over the past two years, Angela has toured with Bruce Cockburn, Archer Prewitt, Howe Gelb, and Califone."

Artist:	HIGH PLACES
Title:	03/07-09/07
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	THR 204CD

"High Places began as an experiment in collaboration: two people with diverse artistic backgrounds coming together to merge their skills, aesthetic tastes, and music-making approaches. Robert Barber grew up listening to punk and hardcore, and Mary Pearson studied bassoon performance. Both gravitated toward a DIY compositional style and shared a love of layers. It is the affinity for layering that has thus far defined the duo, both in ideas and instrumentation. High Places songs contain a fascinating range of aural layers: bells and bird calls over a wash of ocean waves; mallets hitting mixing bowls over treated guitar and glockenspiel; Mary's reflective vocals over Rob's inventive and infectious beats. The result is an imaginative and spacious amalgamation of sounds with a unique almost Caribbean undertone that is as immediate as it is refreshing."

Artist:	SEA AND CAKE, THE
Title:	Car Alarm
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 205CD

"The exciting sound of a well-oiled band. Car Alarm is The Sea and Cake's eighth full-length record. It is bracing, like the surge of wasabi on sweet sushi, like the slap of cool water on a diving body, like the head-rush of a rollercoaster just leaving summit. Bracing music is most often encountered in concert. Only the heaviest hitters have translated the live thrill into the recording studio. Think of the great working bands, the Charles Mingus Quintet, the John Coltrane Quartet, the Meters or the Minutemen. For them, there was no gaping chasm between the studio and the road; the studio was just another stop, a gig, a continuous part of the flow of playing and working and creating together. The aim with Car Alarm was to follow-up quickly on its precursor, the somewhat stripped-down Everybody. Prekop says the band wanted to make a record that felt like they had never stopped playing, a continuously limbered up ensemble that parlayed its last tour into new material. They started working on it right after an Australian tour in March, and finished it after a miraculous three-month gestation. If the usual process in pop music is to make a record and then breathe life into it on the road, this flips that presumption on its head, starting with a vital, pulsing set-list on disc; what heights they'll take the new songs to in concert only remains to be seen."

Artist:	PONTIAK
Title:	Sun On Sun
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	THR 206CD

"Pontiak is made up of three brothers from the Blue Ridge farm country of Virginia, Van (guitar, lead vocals), Lain (drums, vocals) and Jennings Carney (bass, organ, vocals). Their music is swaggering guitar rock that straddles the line between a power trio and something far more expansive in sound and scope. Their broad song structures allow ample room for three-part vocals, drums, organ and stellar slide and lead guitar to stretch and captivate. Songs roll along with an effortless synchronicity despite their extremely varied textures. Julian Cope described them as 'straddling a wide sonic rift valley, with references that stretch from the southern latitudes of Spain's Viaje A800 to the northern majesty of Black Sabbath and Harvey Milk via The Doors.'"

Artist:	HIGH PLACES
Title:	High Places
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 207CD

"Since its inception, High Places has created a signature sound out of using bass-heavy, yet crisp beats, lilting vocal melodies, syncopated rhythmic lines performed on folk percussion instruments, guitar duets turned into treated samples, and percussive lines created from the manipulation of household objects. The songwriting is expansive and fluid, all the while managing to be concise. Overall, the compositions are settled and assured. High Places gravitates toward the organic over the electronic, and that natural aesthetic adds warmth and intimacy to the recordings."

Artist:	PIT ER PAT
Title:	High Time
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	THR 208CD

"Pit Er Pat is Fay Davis-Jeffers (vocals, piano, guitar, kalimba), Rob Doran (bass, vocals, guitar, electronics) and Butchy Fuego (drums, vocals, percussion, electronics/programming). High Time was recorded at the band's own studio, 'Top Cat,' by Butchy Fuego, who has also recently recorded Soft Circle and Matteah Baim. From Shakey to Pyramids, from '3D Message' to 'Feel No Pain,' Pit Er Pat's recorded output has no easily-definable style. It instead represents their evolution as modern musicians, whose affinity for pop and melody is filtered though their desire to have a truly singular voice. Modern music, if you will. The band are clearly comfortable with the fact that this music acknowledges several, yet exists outside of any one, genres. There is a consistency in all of the recordings in that they are all unmistakably Pit Er Pat. Their musical focus remains firmly grounded in rhythm, while incorporating a strong sense of melody and harmony to dance above the complex rhythms and to stretch the layers to lofty heights."

Artist:	LITHOPS
Title:	Ye Viols!
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	THR 209CD

"Lithops is the solo disguise of Jan St. Werner known for his work in Mouse On Mars, Microstoria and his most recent collaboration with Mark E Smith and Andi Toma as Von Sudenfed. With Ye Viols!, Lithops presents a selection of installation soundtracks assembled from several recent exhibitions. Ye Viols! can be seen as background noise for a visual utopia: a recombined industrial iconography of spatial adventures, futuristic collages and phantasmagoric scenes. 'Graf' accompanied a slide show of architectural sketches about neo-modernist city scapes that was shown in Amsterdam. The masking of identities and deconstruction of the ego was the theme of 'Bacchus,' a series of drawings and photo collages by Illui Nonobac. The cover artwork and enclosed poster supplement of Ye Viols! are taken from that series. Nonobac's images are collages of hybrid creatures: animals, plants, and humans that have been further modified by additional drawings. A three-channel version of 'Bacchus' was continuously played during the show. 'Handed' premiered in the sound bowl of the Project Arts Centre in Dublin as an accompaniment to an exhibition by Rosa Barba and David Maljkovic. 'Decay objects. Incredibly fast moving objects. Invisible objects.' is a speaker installation for which parts of the track 'In Nitro' were used. 'Apps 1 & 2' is derived from another soundtrack for a 35mm film installation by Rosa Barba. Lastly, 'Inductech' was used for a dance performance by young Korean choreographer Lee Yaung. Although the works were created for these installations, their dense and layered sounds and creative structures manifested by Werner allows the pieces to stand alone as musical works whose details continue to reveal themselves with each listen. The album is released in a limited edition CD with hand printed cover using recycled paper and vegetable inks."

Artist:	TORTOISE
Title:	Beacons Of Ancestorship
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 210CD

" Beacons Of Ancestorship is Tortoise's sixth full-length album, and their first release of new material in five years, since 2004's It's All Around You. A characteristic Tortoise album is one that traverses an encyclopedia of styles and reference points, a document of where musical intersections and dialogue are occurring at a given moment in time. Beacons Of Ancestorship is no different, with nods to techno, punk, electro, lo-fi noise, cut-up beats, heavily processed synths and mournful, elegiac dirges. We see these ideas working out in compositions like 'High Class Slim Came Floatin' In,' an eight-minute track which playfully references the world of ecstatic rave and dance culture with a curiously ambivalent, multi-part suite overlaid with robotic, machine-sounding melodies that stop and start in several different time signatures before the song's ultimate resolution; and again in 'Yinxianghechengqi,' which begins as a straightforward uptempo math-rocker before steadily accelerating into a wall of fuzzy atonal sqwonk. There are many moods, styles, and modes in the Tortoise songbook, of course -- often, in the course of a single composition. Consistent throughout, however, is what might be called a pervasive element of group play, or ensemble-mindedness, as opposed to emphasis on a virtuoso soloist or frontman. (Think Robert Altman versus Robert Plant.) In the same sense that the string quartet and all small-ensemble chamber music can be thought of as an intelligent conversation among equals -- violins, viola, and cello taking turns, expressing opinions, joining voices and then coming apart, as also occurs in elevated discourse -- so, too, the calling card of a Tortoise song is the experience of a sound being worked out as a conversation among the individual and interrelated parts -- of an ensemble thinking collectively and in group dynamics through the expression of a multi-layered musical thought."

Artist:	MOUNTAINS
Title:	Choral
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	THR 211CD

"Mountains is Brendon Anderegg and Koen Holtkamp, friends since their middle school days. The duo were brought together by mutual artistic and musical interests, and both ended up at the school of the Art Institute of Chicago. It was during this time that they began exchanging musical ideas and compositions which led to them founding the Apestaartje label in 1999. As their collaborations and individual projects blossomed, they decided to create Mountains as a vehicle for live performance. A love of sculpting sound in front of an audience is at the heart of Mountains. The group's third album, Choral, (their first self-titled release and second album Sewn were both on Apestaartje), is the culmination of their work to date and a balanced mix of the first two efforts. Mountains is often compared to artists such as Brian Eno and Fennesz citing their extended melodies and their unique broad guitar work. Mountains seamlessly blend pastoral electronic sounds with both field recordings and a plethora of acoustic instruments. The resulting soundscapes are broad in scope and rich in detail. The effect is incredibly sublime and hypnotic as the sounds slowly wrap themselves around each other and alter themselves in the mind of the listener. Choral is a uniquely soothing and addicting listening experience and an aural crazy quilt: warm and inviting with many details to discover and explore."

Artist:	ARBOURETUM
Title:	Song Of The Pearl
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	THR 212CD

"Recorded at Lord Baltimore Recordings by Rob Girardi over two months in the fall of 2008, Song Of The Pearl is Arbouretum's third full-length and the first to feature the same core band on every song. With Dave Heumann on guitar and vocals, Corey Allender on bass, Daniel Franz (also sometimes seen with Beach House) on drums, and Steve Strohmeier on guitar, Song Of The Pearl is more earthy and direct than the band's previous efforts. While Rites Of Uncovering seemed to peer down from a vantage point far above, Song Of The Pearl reaches out from within the mire itself. The songs seem to have more immediacy and urgency than that of its predecessor. Paradoxically, the album exudes hopefulness, even though the songs' protagonists are often ultimately and intrinsically doomed."

Artist:	PONTIAK
Title:	Maker
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	THR 213CD

"Pontiak's studio in rural Virginia is about 12'x12' and largely responsible for the saturated sound on their new album Maker. The band recorded the album in the same way as their previous efforts, themselves in a studio of their own making. Preferring the energy of a mostly live recording and understanding how to capture their sound, Pontiak recorded with lightning speed, generally keeping the first take as the final take. A lifetime of shared experiences certainly informs the three Carney brothers playing as a band. Jennings' bass or Lain's drums often finish the thoughts of Van's guitar. This is a level of musical communication that most bands are only able to achieve after years of touring and recording. It also may account for their staggering productivity, this being their third Thrill Jockey release, in just over a calendar year."

Artist:	EXTRA GOLDEN
Title:	Thank You Very Quickly
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	THR 214CD

"While Extra Golden's first two albums served as thesis and antithesis, Thank You Very Quickly showcases a new level of artistry that could only be referred to as synthesis. That is to say that Extra Golden is no longer an experiment or 'collaborative encounter', but (wait for it!) a band. For evidence of this evolution, one need look no further than the album's fierce opener, 'Gimakiny Akia,' a dance-floor choogler for high altitudes. 'Fantasies Of The Orient' has a spring in its step while reminding the listener that one doesn't have to live as a monkey to find happiness. Kenyan schoolchildren sing songs like 'Piny Yore Yore,' minus the shimmering guitars and explosive tom-tom rolls. The lysergic blues/disco groove of 'Anyango' is sure to be a huge hit -- with a psychedelic surprise for the heads. Drummer Onyango Wuod Omari steps out front on 'Ukimwi,' a passionate plea to destroy AIDS. Finally, the album's title track and closer extends a humble thanks to all of the group's fans who donated money to keep Extra Golden's families alive and safe amidst Kenya's post-election violence of early 2008. Though musically quite progressive, Thank You Very Quickly also consciously recalls many elements of the pre-digital age -- from the album's overall look and length, to its 'live' drum sound and organic guitar tones."

Artist:	DOUBLE DAGGER
Title:	More
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	THR 215CD

"Utilizing deceptively simple instrumentation, Denny Bowen (drums), Nolen Strals (vocals) and Bruce Willen (bass) create a cacophonous wall of sound as the Baltimore trio Double Dagger. Occasionally described as 'very loud pop' or 'angry pop,' Double Dagger creates music that is both visceral and melodic. Double Dagger's live energy is intense -- they prefer to be close to the audience be it in a club or a basement -- an energy that is the essence of the band. This dynamic combination of energy, melody, angst and playfulness is captured so exquisitely on their debut for Thrill Jockey."

Artist:	WHITE HILLS
Title:	Heads On Fire
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	LP
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	THR 217LP

"With just the right blend of psychedelia and hypnotic grooves, White Hills weaves in and out of anthemic chants, deep space bleeps and other worldly madness for a mix that proves to be intoxicating. Since the release of the band's debut album, listeners have been praising their originality and unique brand of heavy space rock. White Hills formed out of the need to forge space rock into the 21st century. Ever changing and always striving to push the envelope, Heads On Fire finds the band playing a heavier style of space rock as compared to their previous releases. Relentless and punishing, the album kicks off with the spacey swirl of the song 'Radiate' and ends with the speedladen blast of the track 'Eternity.' Along the way, a mesmerizing blend of fuzz/wah guitar growl, pounding bass, sprawling synth and chaotic drumming doses one's head three sheets to the wind. Whether it be the mere one minute track 'Return Of Speed Toilet' or the 26 plus minute 'Don't Be Afraid,' the listener will be taken on a ride through a world that is all encompassing from beginning to end." Includes photocopied insert and MP3 download code.

Artist:	DESVEAUX, ANGELA
Title:	If Ever I Loved
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	7"
Price:	$6.00
Catalog #:	THR 218EP

Two song release, with download code for three additional songs. "If Ever I Loved is a limited edition 7" release of new material from Montreal-born chanteuse Angela Desveaux. Three of the tracks on the release see Desveaux once again utilizing the drumming and fine production skills of Howard Bilerman, the former drummer with The Arcade Fire. Opener 'If Ever I Loved' is a beautiful lament on the familiar country theme of lost love. On 'Wedding Song,' Desveaux draws influence from her roots and the traditional Irish folk ballads that were a key part of her musical heritage when growing up in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. The lullaby feel of the song hides a darker lyrical theme of marrying too young. Having seen a lot of young women getting married around her, Desveaux couldn't understand their confidence and ability to commit so young. She sees a certain sadness in a marriage not entirely based on love."

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Artist:	MICROSTRORIA/STEREOLAB/OVAL
Title:
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	12"
Price:	$6.00
Catalog #:	THR 012.06EP

Artist:	VERT
Title:	Mewantemooseic
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	12"
Price:	$6.50
Catalog #:	THR 012.15EP

Artist:	A MINOR FOREST
Title:	Inindependence
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	2LP
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 056LP

Artist:	NERVES
Title:	New Animal
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	LP
Price:	$9.00
Catalog #:	THR 069LP

Artist:	TRANS CHAMPS
Title:	Double Exposure
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$9.00
Catalog #:	THR 107CD

Artist:	GARNER, SUE
Title:	Shadyside
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 112CD

Artist:	CHICAGO UNDERGROUND TRIO
Title:	Slon
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	THR 136CD

Artist:	ARIZONA AMP AND ALTERNATOR
Title:	Arizona Amp and Alternator
Label:	THRILL JOCKEY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	THR 166CD