New Releases for January 2008

Index of New Releases for January 2008

PSYCHIC CIRCLE (UK)

Artist:	VA
Title:	Get Ready - UK Floor Fillers Vol. 3
Label:	PSYCHIC CIRCLE (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	PC 7017CD

...20 Blue-Eyed Soul Gems 1966-1971. The Psychic Circle label presents a third volume of British blue-eyed soul, specially compiled by legendary psych musician and Psychic Circle label-head, Nick Saloman (The Bevis Frond) to move feet and minds. Above the distant thrum of a swarm of idling Vespas, the strains of soulful young folk armed with Hammond organs, brass sections and Italian threads can be distinguished. Let us enter the Stygian basement of the past where home-grown vocalists and bands, inspired by the transatlantic groove, attempt to emulate their mentors. Here come 20 great tracks previously uncomped on CD. Rugs are prepared to be cut, do not await the arrival of carpet scissors: use your feet and minds, children, and have yourselves a real good time. Artists include: Graham Bonney, Lee Drummond, Barry St. John, House Of Lords, Herbie Goins & The Night-Timers, Swinging Soul Machine, The Warren Davis Monday Band, Mighty Dodos, Los Bravos, Dave Walton, Frankie & Johnny, The Treetops, Harlem Jonns Reshuffle, Tony Rich, Sarolta, Ian & The Zodiacs, P.P. Arnold, Lee Tomlin, Ray Gates and Bobby Sansom.

RE/SEARCH

Artist:	RE/SEARCH
Title:	#4/5: W.S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin, Throbbing Gristle
Label:	RE/SEARCH
Format:	Book
Price:	$37.00
Catalog #:	RE/S 004/5

New and expanded hardcover edition; limited to only 500 made and not available through traditional book distribution venues. Originally published in 1982. 8 1/2 x 11", 108 pp. "V. Vale's last interview with W.S. Burroughs recorded April, 1997 (Burroughs died Aug 2, 1997). Plus more photos. Limited edition of only 500 beautiful hardbacks, printed on glossy art paper. William Burroughs, Brion Gysin & Throbbing Gristle talk about advanced ideas involving the social control process, creativity and the future. Interviews, scarce fiction, essays: this is a manual of ideas and insights. Strikingly designed, with rare photos, bibliographies, discographies, chronologies & illustrations."

RECOMMENDED (UK)

Artist:	BIOTA
Title:	Half A True Day
Label:	RECOMMENDED (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	RER BCD6

"Six years in the making, this is the sixth CD released by ReR from the visual/sonic art group Biota. Unique in their history and method, Biota painstakingly construct complex, organic structures that mix extensive studio processing and musique concrète techniques, with a highly eclectic orchestra of acoustic and electronic resources: from kit drums, through medieval winds, strings and barrel organs, to early experimental electronic instruments. Their works are always performance driven and interleaved with successive stages of lamination, imbrication of parts, and radical pre- and post-processing. 'As the title suggests, in this new work a portion of a cycle -- a repeating segment of time -- is explored. We employed repeating and overlapping motifs of different lengths, allowing their staggered interaction to produce varying degrees of harmonization, dissonance, masking and reinforcement. Unpredictability of outcome was furthered by electronic processing -- both manual and automated, random and predetermined -- and by the appearance, taken out of context, of unrelated passages taken from earlier projects. Real-time performers had to interact with this instability as they constructed their contributions, and later as they gave form to the final composition. Although there are elements of chance at work in the process, the eventual architecture is intentional, and carefully worked. Mixing was done by hand and without the aid of computers, then the composition was assembled and integrated digitally.' --William Sharp, Biota. The interaction of staggered, overlapping elements reveals a changeable truth about the whole as the parts variously harmonize or dissent; reinforce or cloak one another in their unfolding. The project is, at heart, about uncertainty. Players encounter the shifting interplay between previously recorded parts juxtaposed with instrumental snippets -- out of context -- introduced from the group's archives. Electronic processing programs are employed to apply semi-random and semi-intentional alterations to the proceedings."

Artist:	NECKS, THE
Title:	Townsville
Label:	RECOMMENDED (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	RER NECKS8

"For over two decades, The Necks have been stepping onto stages with absolutely nothing in mind, waiting for the first sound to happen and then following it through -- with glacial inevitability, and never any sudden shift of gear or introduction of new material -- for an hour or so. Never mechanical minimalism -- since each moment is invested with an intense presence. This is more a dense liquefaction of time; a form unique to The Necks; no one else has even tried to do it. It's a musical form the band evolved over more than 20 years of performing, and no two concerts are ever the same. Though many of their pieces open with, or eventually arrive at, some discernable groove, Townsville just floats in a state of suspension from beginning to end. It's like watching the ocean as wave follows wave: each the same; each different: asymmetric. Bassist Lloyd Swanton who, on this occasion, provided the motif that set Townsville in motion had no idea where it would lead: 'One of the deep joys for me' he said, 'after twenty years of making music with this group, is that we're still completely unable to predict where our pieces will go.' It's a paradox that makes the band addictive and keeps its music fresh. While there's an apparent inevitability that should shut the music down, somehow it seems always to remain open. It's never clear exactly how it's going to unfold."

Artist:	MACLEAN, STEVE
Title:	Bridges
Label:	RECOMMENDED (UK)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$19.00
Catalog #:	RER SM2

"Steve MacLean began playing drums and guitar at the age of seven and composing at twelve. Completing high school early, he met Roswell Rudd and began playing concerts with him in New York. He moved to the city and took a job in a busy recording studio, working with cutting edge artists of every genre and spending his free time moving around the NYC 'downtown' free improvisation scene. He soon joined Nick Didkovsky's Dr. Nerve and made a slew of records. By 1980 he was scoring for dance, performing his own compositions on PBS's New Music Directions series, and setting up his own studio, which over the next two decades produced award-winning scores and sound design for hundreds of TV and radio commercials, films and disparate multi-media projects. Between times he co-founded the Portland Experimental Music Collective, established his own permanent ensemble and had compositions performed at numerous festivals. He moved to Boston in 2000 to take up a professorship in the Synthesis and Ensemble Departments at Berklee College of Music. He continues regularly to perform composed and improvised music -- alone, with a student ensemble and in numerous projects with Birdsongs of the Mesozoic, Nick Didkovsky, Ken Field, Chris Cutler, Jonathan LaMaster, Eric Rosenthal, and others. The recordings on this double CD collect together works spanning two decades of composition and experimentation. They balance traditional musical resources (the band, compositional skills, instrumental techniques, acoustic and amplified instruments) with the new technologies (computers, signal processing, sampling and recording software). The first showcases the kind of signature polyrhythmic, precise, instrumental compositions familiar from his last ReR CD, Opposite Of War, while the second is more meditative, abstract and electronic, moving from acoustic koto through electric and acoustic guitars -- with and without radical effects processing -- to piano and virtual orchestra."

RECORD MAKERS (UK)

RESOPAL SCHALLWARE (GERMANY)

Artist:	HEDLUND, RASMUS
Title:	Hidden Structure
Label:	RESOPAL SCHALLWARE (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.50
Catalog #:	RSP 050EP

"Hi folks, just noticed that this is our 50th release. Rasmus Hedlund's first release on Resopal demonstrates his profound grasp of reduced groove with four powerful cuts. 'Hidden Structure' is a classic tribal minimal growler that builds slowly into an outstanding tinged bounce. 'Bentseeni' is a pumping slice of urgent but lush techno-toms, with counterpoint bleeps while 'Betoni' is welcome up-beat techno with quite effective breaks and riffs.The full EP will work on the way up, in peaktime, and on the way down, and it's all-in-all tracky enough and tuneful enough to be a great mixing tool anywhere in the set. Powerful reduced techno for the peaktime."

ROCKADROME

Artist:	HUMAN INSTINCT
Title:	Stoned Guitar
Label:	ROCKADROME
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	ROCK 012CD

"Brand new official reissue of this legendary 1970 heavy psych acid guitar rock album from one of New Zealand's most infamous bands. Newly remastered and includes 4 bonus tracks and full color booklet with photos, extensive liner notes, and lyrics! Full tilt wah-wah fuzz guitar in all its glory! 'Aborigine guitarist Billy TK was the Jimi Hendrix of the Southern Hemisphere. He obviously took the lessons of the Master to heart and, on his albums with Human Instinct, took Hendrix's psychedelic approach to absurd new extremes. Not necessarily the greatest listening experience, but definitely the farthest "out" of any guitar psych you're likely to ever hear. This album is one of the most important chapters of rock from that era.'"

RUNE GRAMMOFON (NORWAY)

Artist:	FOOD
Title:	Molecular Gastronomy
Label:	RUNE GRAMMOFON (NORWAY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	RCD 2069CD

This is the fifth full-length release for Norway's Food, now down to the duo of Iain Ballamy (saxophones, alto flute) and Thomas Strønen (drums, electronics). Molecular Gastronomy was recorded by Jeremy Cox over a period of two years. Food was formed at the 1998 Molde International Jazz Festival when Iain Ballamy was invited to perform with three exceptional young Norwegian musicians. It soon became clear that the blend of Iain's distinctive saxophone and Arve Henriksen's breathy trumpet textures was the perfect foil for the entrancing bass and drum trips created by Mats Eilertsen and Thomas Strønen. It's fair to say that a good amount of Food's earlier output was written as opposed to improvised -- however, this duo-version is mostly improvised, much in the same way as the music of Strønen's other duo, Humcrush. Considered to be one of the most inventive Norwegian drummers, he has always been an important writer in Food. Ballamy's role is also expanded, giving more room to this quite excellent player. Ashley Slater -- who played with Ballamy in Loose Tubes in the late '80s and went on to form Freakpower with Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim) -- mixed this record and also contributes on three tracks. Maria Kannegaard plays Fender Rhodes on five tracks and is also a superb pianist with three trio-recordings to her name, including a number of Norwegian jazz recordings.

Artist:	BOX
Title:	Studio 1
Label:	RUNE GRAMMOFON (NORWAY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	RCD 2070CD

This is the debut release by Box: Raoul Björkenheim (guitars, viola da gamba), Trevor Dunn (bass), Ståle Storløkken (keyboards, electronics), Morgan Ågren (drums). Something of an international supergroup, the founding of this excellent ensemble is a touch of genius that remains something of a mystery. Hand-picked by writer and film-maker Philip Mullarkey to record and play live as part of the art/film project Box, the four musicians met for the first time in Atlantis Studio in Stockholm for two short days of recording without having planned, scored or prepared any music in advance. It quickly became apparent that this avant-garde juggernaut was heading in the right direction -- the musical interplay making it hard to believe that these complex pieces were actually improvised on the spot -- again, a testament to instant music-making at the highest level. The music was recorded directly to analog tape and has an organic and rough quality to it. All tracks were mixed from analog tape and there is no digital editing nor Pro-Tooling involved, and no overdubs. Raoul Björkenheim has worked in a wide spectrum of styles, from free jazz improvisations with Edvard Vesala to the Finnish Radio Symphony and UMO orchestras, collaborations with Paul Schütze, Bill Laswell, William Parker/Hamid Drake and Jah Wobble, not to mention his present group, Scorch Trio. Trevor Dunn is a member of Fantômas, John Zorn's Electric Masada, Trio Convulsant and Moonchild. He is one of the most in-demand bass players on the downtown jazz scene in New York and has an eclectic repertoire, having played with artists ranging from Marc Ribot to Melt Banana, Secret Chiefs 3 to Kronos Quartet. Ståle Storløkken is a founder of Supersilent and Humcrush. Morgan is a Grammy-winning musician on both sides of the Atlantic, perhaps best known for his work with the Mats/Morgan Band, as well as with diverse artists such as The Flesh Quartet, Kaipa and Zappa's Universe.

Previous Page Index of New Releases for January Next Page

Artist:	TELLIER, SEBASTIEN
Title:	Sexual Sportswear
Label:	RECORD MAKERS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	REC 044EP

Artist:	TRUTH AND JANEY
Title:	No Rest for the Wicked
Label:	ROCKADROME
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	ROCK 006CD