New Releases for February 2008

Index of New Releases for February 2008

Artist:	LARD FREE
Title:	Lard Free
Label:	CAPTAIN TRIP (JAPAN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$26.00
Catalog #:	CT 610CD

"The first solo album in 1973. Avant-garde electric jazz rock!! The original LP was released on Vamp Records in 1973. Featuring: Gilbert Artman (drums, piano Steinway, vibes), Herve Eyhani (bass guitar, arp synthesizer), Philippe Bolliet (all saxes), Francois Mativet (guitars). Reissue with elaborate miniature paper sleeve of the original LP (full color + trait ink print, full coating gatefold sleeve). The CD sleeve is hand-made due to special format. 2007 digital remaster version, limited 1,000 copies."

Artist:	LARD FREE
Title:	I'm Around About Midnight
Label:	CAPTAIN TRIP (JAPAN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$26.00
Catalog #:	CT 611CD

"The second album in 1975. Featuring Richard Pinhas from Heldon! The original LP was released on Vamp Records in 1975. Featuring: Gilbert Artman (drums, percussions, vibes, Hammond organ, Steinway piano, tenor sax), Richard Pinhas (guitars, bass guitar, arp synthesizers, synthi vks 3), Alain Audat (synthi vks 3, tenor sax, clb), Antoine Duvernot (alto sax, flute). Reissue with elaborate miniature paper sleeve of the original LP (gatefold sleeve). The CD sleeve is hand-made due to special format. 2007 digital remaster version, limited 1,000 copies."

CARAVAN (UK)

CASPIAN (UK)

Artist:	WEXLER, MIKE
Title:	Axis, Road of Awe/Glyph
Label:	CASPIAN (UK)
Format:	7"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	SEA 002EP

"The Caspian label is proud to present Mike Wexler. A Brooklyn musician whose name will no doubt be revered and uttered in hushed tones by those lucky to hear Wexler's music, for years to come. A virtuoso of sorts, without a scene or history to explain or contextualize his talent, Wexler seems to have arrived from nowhere to hypnotize us with quietly exotic songs that caress and unsettle in equal measure. Wexler seeks and finds unusual spaces within his songs, creating moments of lyrical and sonic tension that evoke Scott Walker's late work, arrangements that now include drums, piano and keyboards, two and three part harmonies and long, linear, labyrinthine instrumental passages. Wexler's lyrics avoid the confessional and favor instead the deep image, the mythic talisman. His voice functions on an instrumental level in the tradition of Annette Peacock or Elizabeth Fraser, though employed to different, more understated ends. Exaggerating the spaces between notes and between words, Wexler keeps the listener engaged but always once removed. 'Axis, Road of Awe' plumbs Bert Jansch-territory; but where Jansch's vocals are fragile and delicate, Mike's remain enigmatic. 'Axis, Road of Awe' was recorded at Exile, along with the rest of the album from which it is taken (Sun Wheel -- out now in the US on Amish Records)."

CECILLE RECORDS (GERMANY)

Artist:	ANDOMAT 3000
Title:	Cognitive Dissonance
Label:	CECILLE RECORDS (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	CEC 003EP

"With Cecille003 we have an excellent three tracker from the well known artist Andomat 3000 (Cadenza / Platzhirsch). He keeps the perfect balance with adding the warm groovy house feelings and the freaky sounds he stands for! Kind of his typical dippy style flavour with a bit of that minimalism tech house sound. Wicked! 'Vertical Smile' is a percussive rhythmic and powerful minimal house tune grooving with a hypnotic voice that can be used as perfect warm tool for any dance floor. 'Cicl?' has an old school touch in a futuristic production and gives you real power and more than enough matters to shake and rock the dancefloor. 'Hominid' is an modern crazy effective techno track, nice percussion, small cuts and a deep base... frickl wickl"

CHERRY RED (UK)

Artist:	EYELESS IN GAZA
Title:	Drumming The Beating Heart/Pale Hands I Loved So Well
Label:	CHERRY RED (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	CDMRED 127CD

"Martyn Bates and Peter Becker had been recording together for two years when Pale Hands I Loved So Well and Drumming The Beating Heart, respectively the 3rd and 4th Eyeless in Gaza albums, were released. Both albums have a magic that has endured and Pale Hands is especially wondrous, witnessing the maturation of EIG's gift for evocative improvisational impressionism. Drumming opens with 'Transience Blues,' a definitive EIG track that summons April showers with throbbing bass, parched organ, and Bates' impassioned vocals. The organ defines the album, as Bates' singing compliments the instrument's alternately sinuous ('Ill Wind Blows'), sweet ('One By One'), and simmering ('Picture the Day') tone. Improvised settings invest the music with a refreshing openness, as though such songs as 'Veil Like Calm' and 'Lights of April' were sprung straight from the heart -- not from the studio. Drumming's lovely second half looks back at the gorgeous sketch-work of Pale Hands. The latter's scattered strokes of piano, guitar, organ, vocal sighs and chants, bells, sax, glockenspiel, and rough percussion achieve music of rare beauty, imagistic power, and genuine consequence. A masterpiece!"

Artist:	EYELESS IN GAZA
Title:	Caught In Flux/The Eyes Of Beautiful Losers
Label:	CHERRY RED (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	CDMRED 145CD

"Here's an original review back in 1981, for this their second album: 'With animated gestures of disdain Eyeless In Gaza can answer detractors who dismissed their debut LP, Photographs As Memories, as a precious exercise in the art of self-indulgence. Caught In Flux, the band's second offering of the year, is a measure of progress, and though there's still room for growth some mark of maturity has undoubtedly been forged. Caught In Flux a package which includes an additional 'free' 12" Eyeless sampler, The Eyes Of Beautiful Losers is a piercing, poison jab into the blood-stream of rock music's lazy limbs. Radical but clear, Eyeless set the examples for others to follow by eradicating standard rock structures and starting out from now tangents. Accessible experimentalists whose work roughly moulds fresh shapes of things to come, they don't seek to advance or change rock. They seek to destroy it completely. Their alternative is to present frail labyrinth of subtle sound, a strange menagerie of modern mood music that holds melody, has poise and a lot of style. All of which is enhanced by Martyn Bates' distinctive vocals which are as versatile as they are uniquely employed. Whether crooning along to some reflective ballad or spitting out some punchy polemic, Bates' alluring voice is an awesome focus of attention. But Caught In Flux is most specifically an introspective LP, a thoughtful compilation of new songs and sound patterns, skilfully patched together and performed. It's meditative music for active minds, an exciting vision of a brave new whirl. Eyeless... but not blind!'"

Artist:	EYELESS IN GAZA
Title:	Photographs As Memories
Label:	CHERRY RED (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	CDMRED 166CD

"Here's an original review back in 1981, for this their first album for Cherry Red: 'The days of the garage groups are gone. The bands of today are being born in bedrooms and the latest in the increasing line of DIY knob-doodling duos are Eyeless In Gaza from Leamington Spa. Much in the mood of Orchestral Manoeuvres, Martyn Bates and Pete Becker take more risks, talk more dirty and act more arty than the Liverboys but you shouldn't let that put you off. Although Photographs As Memories is an awkward album that initially sounds irritating and samey, like a rough assortment of improvisations over very similar backing tracks, further listening reaps rewards, revealing a record made up more of experimental fragments than actual bona-fide songs. Starting and finishing somewhat arbitrarily, each individual track attempts, with varying degrees of success, to define a different mood, ranging from the malice and menace of "Keepsake" and the boisterous bubblegum bop of "No Noise" to the weird and worrying "In Your Painting" -- a sort of "Weaver's Answer" for the Eighties. Predominantly featuring scratchy, freely-scuttling guitar over basic drumbeats, and atmospheric keyboards and occasionally augmented by unnecessary and incongruous Beefheartean sax, Eyeless's real strengths and weaknesses lie in their overblown vocals which, while inhibiting literal understanding, instill the proceedings with crucial emotion. A cross between unbridled passion and stylish effect, the voice is by turns crudely convincing and theatrically histrionic, resulting in an album that simultaneously soothes as it unnerves. Photographs constantly strives for something special, very seldom fully succeeds but even its many pitfalls and failures make for an interesting, invigorating listen.'"

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Artist:	MOEBIUS & ROEDELIUS
Title:	Apropos Cluster
Label:	CAPTAIN TRIP (JAPAN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$22.00
Catalog #:	CT 605CD

Artist:	CLUSTER
Title:	One Hour
Label:	CAPTAIN TRIP (JAPAN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$22.00
Catalog #:	CT 606CD

Artist:	MOEBIUS & PLANK
Title:	En Route
Label:	CAPTAIN TRIP (JAPAN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$22.00
Catalog #:	CT 607CD

Artist:	OCTOBER
Title:	Invitation EP
Label:	CARAVAN (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	CVAN 002EP