New Releases for January 2008

Index of New Releases for January 2008

LONG HAIR (GERMANY)

Artist:	JUD'S GALLERY
Title:	SWF Sessions Volume 1
Label:	LONG HAIR (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	LHC 061CD

New version of this archival CD, originally released as the first CD on Long Hair back in 2001. "Vol. 1 presents the band Jud's Gallery from Offenburg (Southwest Germany). In two sessions they recorded 9 songs 1972/74 in perfect studio quality. Intelligent Kraut-progressive-rock, self-composed long tracks with heavy-blues-rock and classical influence. A new chapter with unreleased original Krautrock. Continues the sound by those legendary labels as Brain, Pilz and Ohr."

MDG SCENE (GERMANY)

Artist:	NANCARROW, CONLON
Title:	Player Piano 5: Studies 33-41c Vol. 3
Label:	MDG SCENE (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.50
Catalog #:	MDG 6451405CD

"Canons were Conlon Nancarrow's thing, and the complex temporal courses plotted with the greatest precision in his Studies ('The Well-Tempered Clavier' of the twentieth century) were his trademark. When a second concert grand piano enters the sweepstakes, then we realize why Nancarrow himself was never able to perform the Studies recorded here. Take a four-part canon for two pianos and have the second instrument enter twenty seconds later and play faster than the first, so that the two come together for the shared final chord. The best pianist would be doomed to failure and even piano rolls cannot fulfill to the note the requirements of Nancarrow's Study No. 40. It is thus hardly surprising that 19 years went by between its composition and its premiere. It is only when modern computer technology lends its helping hand to two player pianos that we are able to experience Nancarrow's works exactly as this exceptional American composer imagined them during the mid-1970s. This new recording of the Studies for Player Piano owes its existence to Jürger Hocker. This fanatical Nancarrow fan repeatedly visited the American composer in Mexico and for many years searched for suitable player pianos, had them restored, and prepared copies of the original rolls -- with the result that Nancarrow's works can now be heard on his two Bösendorfer and Fischer grand pianos with especially prepared hammers. And it was also Hocker who tracked down the musical electronics expert Horst Mohr and the engineer Walter Tenten, without whose help the premiere of Nancarrow's Studies would have been unthinkable."

MELLOTRON (ITALY)

Artist:	GHOST, THE
Title:	When You're Dead -- One Second
Label:	MELLOTRON (ITALY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$20.00
Catalog #:	MR 1005/2CD

"The Ghost LP is one of the most fabulous UK psych/prog albums. This Birmingham band featured guitarist Paul Eastment, previously in The Velvett Fogg. The album, originally released back in 1970 on the Gemini label in the UK and in 1971 on Exit/Ekipo records in Spain, is one step ahead psychedelia entering the realm of prog music, yet retaining an atmospheric mind expanding feel through it all. Loads of Hammond organ swirls, pyrotechnical guitar licks, beautiful acoustic guitar parts, and above it all, killer vocal arrangements, with the special attraction of Shirley Kent's beautiful tone (Shirley would later move on to record the Fresh Out LP as Virginia Tree). Top quality remastered sound, an impressing addition to your psych prog collection! First ever official CD reissue, limited to 1000 digipack copies."

MESSTHETICS

Artist:	VA
Title:	Messthetics #104 D.I.Y. '77-81 South Wales I
Label:	MESSTHETICS
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	MSS 104CD

"D.I.Y. and (very) indie post-punk from South Wales and the Z-Block scene: '77-81 Messthetics' most obscure collection to date. By the end of 1977, years of music industry neglect (and the abrupt departure for London of the few feckless punks who'd landed record-deals) had left South Wales' fertile ground for D.I.Y. The most basic instrumentation, one-take recordings and black and white graphics ruled the day, so it's no surprise that not one of the records here sold more than 1200 copies. Mindful of these feeble sales, a dozen alumni of Cardiff's Z-Block label (and various mates) gave up releasing records altogether, and busied themselves in a frenzy of increasingly-sophisticated home recording. Here's just the tip of that iceberg -- 23 songs on the CD, plus six bonus MP3 tracks. 24-page booklet, lovingly documented with histories & photos galore, PLUS a 'reunion' appearance of the legendary Great Pop Things rock history comic. Messthetics #104 features (extreme) rarities by Reptile Ranch, Tax Exiles, Immortal Invisibles, Flying Brix, Decadent Few, Ralph & The Ponytails, Czechs, Current Obsessions, What To Wear, Spitfire Boys, Discount Chiefs, Puritan Guitars, Janet & Johns, Crash Action Winners, Addiction, Boywonders, and Hugh Volk. Unreleased recordings by Reptile Ranch [live], the Sane [ex-Dec. Few & Reptile Ranch], Table Table [ex-everyone, including YMG], John Marlon [pre-4AD, ex-Tax Exiles], The Filmstars, and the 12- and 13-year-old splendor of the Autonomes. Plus previously unpublished Moors Murderers tales and Great Pop Things featuring 'Chuck Death' (Jon Langford)."

MINUS (CANADA)

Artist:	BAREM
Title:	Never Better Than Late
Label:	MINUS (CANADA)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	MINUS 059EP

You may already know Barem (aka Mauricio Barembuem) from his releases on Unfoundsound, Pariter and Phonocult or from his remixes on Resopal, Mo's Ferry and Einmaleins. This new release starts off with a phat, marauding bass/kick combo on "Censored Elephant," "Then They..." is a tough drum groove punctuated with raw percussion fills, snare hits, warped, tubular bell efx and earthy grooves. "Ponymal Morning" concludes with melodies, reverbs and a synth line that will have you floating in space.

MODE

Artist:	SCELSI, GIACINTO
Title:	The Works For Double Bass
Label:	MODE
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	MODE 188CD

Performed by Robert Black. "This disc contains the first complete recordings of Scelsi's music for double bass. Volume 7 in Mode's acclaimed Scelsi Edition. Scelsi's infamous 'KO-THA I, II, Ill' -- for string instrument played lying on its back in a percussive manner -- is presented for the first time in an adaptation from the original for guitar by legendary bassist Fernando Grillo. Robert Black, internationally known as one of the leading bassists of our time, has also collaborated or performed with a diverse number of musicians from DJ Spooky to Meredith Monk to Cecil Taylor, and is a regular member of the Bang On A Can All-Stars."

MOLL (GERMANY)

Artist:	HOLLAND, MICHAEL
Title:	Simple Truths and Pleasures
Label:	MOLL (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	MOLL 025CD

This is the third solo release by Michael Holland, from Carrboro, North Carolina. Michael's own musical career started around 1990 when, after a near fatal car accident, he and his twin brother founded the rock band Jennyanykind, which released several critically-acclaimed albums on Elektra/Time Warner, Yep Roc and other labels between 1992-2003. Burned out by many tours through 48 states, label changes from minors to majors and back and in a state of complete emptiness and sadness, he received the Harry Smith Anthology as a gift and it completely changed his view towards music. More than on his first solo release, Bootleggers Dream (Big Johns, 2003), this awakening is evident on his second album Tomorrows American Treasures (Sit-n-Spin, 2005) -- a great and very relaxed songwriter/folk record widely based on joyful rags. The album spent several months in the Top 10 of the National Bluegrass Airplay charts. His new masterpiece, Simple Truths and Pleasures is once again performed with members of the Big Fat Gap Bluegrass Band from NC -- the vast majority of it recorded live in the studio. More traditional than the previous record, the earthly songs reflect influences by Earl Scruggs, Blind Boy Fuller, Mississippi John Hurt, The Carter Family, Doc Watson and especially Hank Williams. The music is a perfect and very melodic mixture of truly timeless Southern musical forms: acoustic country, folk, bluegrass, honky tonk, old time string band, blues and gospel, led by Michael Holland's warm and haunting voice. Many of the song topics are personal and impressionistic, but some are topical in nature and chronicle figures in North Carolina history. These are songs to grow old with.

MORR MUSIC (GERMANY)

Artist:	MUM
Title:	Yesterday Was Dramatic - Today is OK
Label:	MORR MUSIC (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	MORR 058CD

Classic debut Múm album, previously issued by Tugboat & Thule -- available again. Yesterday Was Dramatic -
       Today is OK was mostly recorded in a tiny, sweaty room in the summer of 1999 with carpenters banging nails around the
       band, but sometimes they put on headphones so they couldn't hear them. It was originally released on an Icelandic label
       called Thule, but early on a number of disputes came up, which ended up dragging on for many years. Part of the
       attraction of the album is its mixture of analog instruments such as harmonica, accordion and glockenspiel with digital
       clicks and cuts. But what makes it so beautiful is that at no point does this combination feel constructed or forced.
       While listening to Yesterday Was Dramatic - Today is OK, you don't care how it was made, you're just enjoying that
       it exists.

MOSZ RECORDS (AUSTRIA)

Artist:	KAPITAL BAND 1
Title:	Playing By Numbers
Label:	MOSZ RECORDS (AUSTRIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	MOSZ 017CD

"Kapital Band 1 is Nicholas Bussmann and Martin Brandlmayr. After their first release 2CD from 2004, there was a second album in the works already nearing completion, which the musicians decided to trash completely and go a step further. Playing By Numbers is the result, the third album. Now electronics have been set a bit aside; in the foreground are acoustic instruments: cello, guitar, vibraphone and marimba, voice, flute and of course, drums. The three parts of the composition play around with playing by numbers. All instruments are played by Martin Brandlmayr and Nicholas Bussmann, except the flute which Erik Drescher contributed."

MULE ELECTRONIC (GERMANY)

MVD AUDIO

Artist:	DESTROY ALL MONSTERS
Title:	Live In Tokyo + Osaka, 1996
Label:	MVD AUDIO
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	MVDA 4685CD

Reissue of this album, previously available on Compund Annex Records, originally released in 2004. "Live recordings of DAM performances in Tokyo and Osaka, Japan, from 1996. This 17 track, 72-minute CD contains early revamped DAM classics of 'You Can't Kill Kill' and 'Evil Works,' plus many newer exotic oddities like 'Indecipherable' and 'Show No Shame.' Included are cover versions of The Seeds' '900 Million People Daily All Making Love' and the most bizarre cover yet of Jon Anderson's Yes classic, 'Clear Day.' Stretching out into spacey sonic territory, DAM attacks live in Japan at their crusty best with original founding members Mike Kelley, Jim Shaw and Cary Loren supported by Art Byington and Dave Muller."

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Artist:	BASIC SOUL UNIT
Title:	Tunnels
Label:	MULE ELECTRONIC (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	MULE 040EP