New Releases for January 2008

Index of New Releases for January 2008

KOMPAKT (GERMANY)

Artist:	KÖHNCKE, JUSTUS
Title:	Safe and Sound Vinyl Volume One
Label:	KOMPAKT (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	KOM 169EP

12" vinyl EP -- the vinyl version of the new Justus Köhncke album will be broken up into two parts. Part 1 features 2 tracks, "Yacht" & "Molybdän". The tracks on Safe and Sound resonate with the screams of today's dancefloor, while also featuring Justus' long history of enigmatic dancefloor wisdom. "Yacht" -- Justus' trademark disco universe rips wide open, thanks to its brilliant "Slave To The Rhythm" references. Another pure disco banger on side 2 with "Molybdän,"

Artist:	PARTIAL ARTS
Title:	Telescope
Label:	KOMPAKT (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	KOM 171EP

Partial Arts (Ewan Pearson, Alastair Usher) present Telescope, which could easily be tagged as Krautdisco. It's hymnal, epic, slightly psychedelic, bacchanal and hovers gently over the dancefloor. The notorious thump comes via the deft hands of Vito Roccoforte who normally works in The Rapture's shooting gallery. Pearson says of Radioslave's remix: "..it's hands down the darkest, scariest, most out, avant, abstract, least commercial thing he's done in years." 13 minutes of drums, fx and weirdness.

KUCKUCK (GERMANY)

Artist:	MURPHY BLEND
Title:	First Loss
Label:	KUCKUCK (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	KUCK 11005CD

New version of the reissue of this 1971 Krautrock album. "Strangely named after a pipe tobacco, the Berlin group Murphy Blend were always quite a mystery. They were also a rarity in early German rock, as they combined the psychedelic Krautrock sound with heavy rock, blues and classical musics. Their music had hints of early Jane and Pell Mell, but apart from that they had a unique style, with a strongly accented vocalist, topical lyrics and heady instrumentals, heavily featuring chunky Hammond organ. Singer/organist Wolf-Rüdiger Uhlig went on to Hanuman. Andreas Scholz went to Blackwater Park."

Artist:	VA
Title:	Der Klang der Fruhen Jahre: The Singles 1970-1974
Label:	KUCKUCK (GERMANY)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$25.00
Catalog #:	KUCK 12107CD

"A sampler of all the Kuckuck Schallplatten Singles (both a & B-sides) released between 1970 & 1974. A double CD, it is presented in a tin box with a round clear window in the front showing the front cover of the booklet." Artists include: Johnny Tame, Archaeopterix, Sam Spence, Jack Grunsky, Bernadette, Ihre Kinder, Repairs, CWT, Tony Kelly, Bunter, Keith West, & The Scratch Band.

       "In the summer of 1969, in the midst of the upheaval of the '60s, a young man in Germany, then 25 years of age, started a record label in Munich -- his only choice in the absence of suitable employment: Kuckuck Schallplatten (Cuckoo Records). The young man was founder Eckart Rahn.
       The first releases appeared in January of 1970, the fledgling new operation partly funded by the market leader at the time, Deutsche Grammophon, whose A&R director Oscar Drechsler said to Rahn 'I don't know what it is that you know but you know something, and i want you to do it for us.' Originally, the label started up on two parallel tracks: German-style pop singles echoed by LP recordings of advanced German-language rock, later often referred to as 'Krautrock', for better or worse. During those early years, 20 7-inch singles were issued through Deutsche Grammophon; they are now -- for the first time in over 30 years -- made available again on a double CD in a tin box, remastered and transferred to the digital medium using the original reel-to-reel master recordings. The release arrives in time for the 40th anniversary of Rahn's music company, which presumably makes his the oldest surviving independent label that has continually been in operation for four decades. In translation entitled The Sound of the Early Years/The Best of Kuckuck Schallplatten, the release goes from Deutschrock pioneers Ihre Kinder to Canadian folkie Jack Grunsky by way of the Connecticut-based band Repairs and a few truly authentic Krautpop items, such as the tracks sung in German and English by Johnny Tame and his producer Mal Sondock, a Texas expatriate who understood German pop sometimes better than the Germans themselves did. some 'covers' of anglo hits, some TV tracks by Sam Spence (the first totally electronic recordings issued in Germany), a gem by Keith West of 'excerpt from a teenage opera'-fame, silly British pop by bunter and a breath-taking bonus track by Connecticut's the Scratch Band with Dusty Springfield's 'I Only Want To Be With You' in an unexpectedly introspective reading. A wild and completely incoherent mix, typical of the times and thus a mirror of what was going on in Germany and where it was headed."

LANGUAGE OF STONE

Artist:	MONOSOV, ILYA E.
Title:	Seven Lucky Plays, Or How To Fix Songs For A Broken Heart
Label:	LANGUAGE OF STONE
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	LOS 003CD

"Ilya E. Monosov's Seven Lucky Plays, Or How To Fix Songs For A Broken Heart is Monosov's private celebration of the human experience and are based on his poems and stories written from 1996-2007. His early exposure to Russian dissident culture greatly affected his life and art. Influenced from a young age by his parents' passion for literature, art, and poetry; as well as by the music of Vladimir Vysotsky, Alexander Galich, Leonard Cohen, Coltrane, Miles Davis, and African American folk music traditions (blues and gospel), Monosov's picked acoustic guitar and voice arrangements were recorded at Hexham Head by Greg Weeks (of Espers), and feature strings by Margaret Weink (Fern Knight), mandolin and harp by Jesse Sparhawk, and electric guitar by Weeks."

Artist:	EX REVERIE
Title:	The Door Into Summer
Label:	LANGUAGE OF STONE
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	LOS 004CD

"When teenage imaginings transcend childhood's end and lodge with concrete ferocity within the sound world of adult reality, one can find a unique realm wherein dulcimers and glam-rock guitar frenzies manifest with uniform importance. The trick is knowing not to discern a difference. Gillian Chadwick understands this more than most Visconti acolytes. Her employment of the fantastic within Ex Reverie's epic confines heralds a return to a reality deeper than most modern folksinger neo-realists can manage to muster. In a post-'70s realm, the struggle is to circumnavigate irony without succumbing to blandness or facile dictations of woe. Ex Reverie's The Door Into Summer maps that route with crystalline authority."

LAST VISIBLE DOG RECORDS

Artist:	VAPAA
Title:	Hum Hum Hum
Label:	LAST VISIBLE DOG RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	LVD 115CD

"Vapaa is a loose collective of musicians but this recording represents the basic 'core' group; Joel Kivela, Tiitus Petajaniemi, Keijo Virtanen and Jari-Pekka Koho. We met in Jyvaskyla, Finland in year 2003-2004 and after that we have made many records to different labels and played live shows around Finland and one tour in Europe as Keijo and the Free Players. Organic, drifting psychedelic improv without much in the way of modern equivalents. Easily compared to a few Krautrock favorites (early Amon Duul 2 and a very quiet Ash Ra Tempel) -- but in general a bit more relaxed (perhaps a little International Harvester?) For those well versed in the LVD sound, this is fairly definitive."

Artist:	WHITE, JOHN
Title:	Mogwash
Label:	LAST VISIBLE DOG RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	LVD 118CD

"Originally from Dunedin, New Zealand, John White plays in Mëstar, The Zoo Polluters and Sunsets On Acid. In the last few years John has been involved in several cultural exchanges, including an extensive European tour with avant noise pop Cloudboy, providing live soundtracks to archival New Zealand footage. Last year John traveled to South Korea with Wellington noise band Amalgam to perform a special performance in a Buddhist monastery. The new LVD release of Mogwash is a compilation of the two dream-pop folk albums Balloon Adventure (2000), a one-day spark in reaction to months of arduous Mëstar recording, and Mogwash (2003) which was recorded in Berlin with fellow members of Cloudboy."

Artist:	BECUZZI & FABIO ORSI, GIANLUCA
Title:	Wildflowers Under The Sofa
Label:	LAST VISIBLE DOG RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	LVD 120CD

"Wild Flowers Under The Sofa is the third and new album by the Italian duo project formed by Gianluca Becuzzi and Fabio Orsi. Gianluca Becuzzi is an electronic/electroacoustic composer and sound artist active since the '80s. He released many albums and performed live around Europe during the last decades under various names. Fabio Orsi is a young talent recently come out thanks to a series of excellent releases welcomed by international critics and audiences. Wild Flowers Under The Sofa is an intense and fascinating album made of guitars, old keyboards, field recordings and sound objects. Three long compositions between avant-garde and folk traditions where everything plays with big emotion: visionary soundscapes, deep drones and sudden noises. This work is particular for its sound sources extracted from previous duo productions with brand new sounds and structures making in this way an unreleased brilliant mix. This CD is a must-have for avant-folk lovers and Gianluca and Fabio represent the best of this scene."

LO-FI STEREO (GERMANY)

Artist:	SCARY GRANT
Title:	Strawberries
Label:	LO-FI STEREO (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	LOFI 043EP

"After his Lo-Fi Stereo debut, Scary Grant got feedback from names like Ricardo Villalobos, Sven Väth, Loco Dice and even house heroes like George Morell played his release Crash/Almost Crash and set floors on fire with it. All in the same year, Lo-Fi Stereo released the still striking Housemusic/State Of Mind by Motorcitysoul and the Sinistra/Destra Detroit-homage by Paulussen & Cali. A good year that was unexpectedly interrupted by cutting problems with Scary Grant's follow-up 12" and a serious computer-crash in the Lo-Fi Stereo studios (by the way: thanks to Apple!). We are back to business now with this long overdue Scary Grant release that features an amazing Alfa Romero remix (by Eclat & Prudo) and a house remix by Scary Grant himself. This will continue where Crash/Almost Crash ended and burned floors with its minimal house vibe. Insane 'Strawberry' vocal samples, a driving ping-pong beat and an acid bass line makes this release a sure shot alongside house and minimal house DJs. A designated follow-up and a winner and last but not least a complete minimal house package by the current football World Cup winners nation: Italy! Mile grazie amici!"

LOCUST

Artist:	GAZHEART (RITA ACKERMAN/DAVE NUSS)
Title:	GazHeart
Label:	LOCUST
Format:	LP
Price:	$21.00
Catalog #:	LOCUST 094LP

"With GazHeart, celebrated visual artist Rita Ackermann (voice) & the No Neck Blues Band's Dave Nuss (found percussion) created a playful spontaneous sound that seemingly bridged the gap between the broken pop sounds of certain strains of the no wave movement, sound poetry and catchy, otherworldly art folk using the barest of resources available to them. One time pressing of this special edition one-sided LP features an original etching by visual artist Rita Ackermann on the flip side. GazHeart is housed in a plain jacket with two opposing drawings for front & back by Ackermann reproduced on high quality archival paper stock.""The GazHeart recordings were made in August of 2004 after the disintegration of Angelblood at ATP in April. Rita and I traveled every August to Budapest to be with her family, who live in the hills outside the city in a small German village called Budaörs, created after WWII. The mise-en-scene of our life there was total village simplicity -- grandma's cooking, dogs running the streets, babies with leaky diapers on big wheels, and gypsies hanging out in bars. We would go every Sunday morning to the gypsy market where the vendors would spread out a bunch of garbage on blankets in a parking lot, all the proprietors drunk by 10am on wine consumed from coke bottles. At the time of recording, Rita had adopted the surrealist idea of automatic, unmediated writing direct from the unconscious, using spontaneous text to create song-like atmospheres, in the spirit of Tristan Tzara. For the percussion, I wound up keeping it simple and true to the environs: a bucket, a glass jar, a coffee can & a straw broom. All recordings were made to magnetic tape in the back yard late at night after the village was sleeping." --Dave Nuss.

Artist:	HELLO, BLUE ROSES
Title:	The Portrait Is Finished and I Have Failed...
Label:	LOCUST
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	LOCUST 106CD

...To Capture Your Beauty. "The sweetheart duo of Dan Bejar (Destroyer, Swan Lake, New Pornographers) & Sydney Vermont (visual artist, former Toronto Children's Choir kid singer) have tied the knot around an infectious readymade classic with their 14-track self-titled debut. The Portrait Is Finished folds the last few decades of pop music together, drawing on everything from an unabashed love of '80s AOR (Prefab Sprout & Kate Bush) to the cheery mysticism of young Scotland (Orange Juice & Felt) to prime Aquarian age femme folk of the '60s & '70s. The Portrait Is Finished was written and recorded over a period when Dan & Sydney took time out of regular life to hang out together, write and read and think about life differently... and be in Spain. From Málaga, Spain's balmy Mediterranean winter -- where the songs first started getting demoed -- to the rainy Vancouver climes where the album was recorded at Bejar fave JC/DC studios, the 14 songs -- all penned by Sydney (except Kevin Ayer's 'Hymn') and arranged by Dan, maintain the unencumbered, free and easy spirit in which they first took root resulting in a sparsely populated, timeless pop sound."

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