New Releases for May 2008

Index of New Releases for May 2008

GORILLA RECORDS (SPAIN)

Artist:	VA
Title:	Melenudos!
Label:	GORILLA RECORDS (SPAIN)
Format:	LP
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	GORILLA 001LP

Vinyl version. "15 floor-filler tracks taken from rare Spanish 45s and LPs, 1967-1974: a fantastic journey through Spanish freakbeat, soul, beat and garage-psych scene, featuring killer tracks from groups like Los Shakers, Los Ros, Shelly & Nueva Generación, Z 66, Los Archiduques, Los Roller... including Spanish-sung cover versions from artists like Blues Magoos, Spencer Davies Group, Jimmy Robins, etc. Superb full color cover, remastered sound, insert with liner notes in English/Spanish and pictures."

GREAT STUFF RECORDS (GERMANY)

GROOVIE (SPAIN)

Artist:	RHYTHM CHECKERS, THE
Title:	1966/67 Wild Raw Eurobeat
Label:	GROOVIE (SPAIN)
Format:	LP
Price:	$26.00
Catalog #:	GROO 010LP

"The Rhythm Checkers were an exceptional beat group playing a raw mixture of rhythm and blues and rock and roll with a wild garage attitude. Maybe we can call them the European Sonics. Formed by musicians native to France, Germany and Holland with Roland 'Bouboule' Bauer (vocal), the regretted Robby Sterheim (lead guitar), Eddy Van Nelfen (rhythm guitar), Kurth Horbach (bass), later replaced by Dany Gentner and Norbert Holweck (drums), they set the stage on fire during their shows in France between the years 1966 and 1967. It is in Strasbourg where The Rhythm Checkers release their first EP with their powerful composition 'Cause I Need You,' which is a real classic of European garage rock. Their second EP is a unique document of their stage savageness thanks to these recordings captured live when they opened for Chuck Berry in Paris on February 1967. It's amazing how these guys made it live... they make my wig jump listening on record. The eight mythical tracks of their two rare records are present on this LP, and as a bonus, both sides of their single recorded in 1972 during the reformation of the group under the name of Checkers in the prog-pop style of the time. The record comes with an insert with all the history and never-published photos of the band, both in English and French. Limited release of 500 copies only!"

HAPNA (SWEDEN)

Artist:	TAPE
Title:	Luminarium
Label:	HAPNA (SWEDEN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HAPNA 042CD

This is the eagerly-awaited fourth album from the Stockholm-based trio of Tape, comprised of Andreas and Johan Berthling and Tomas Hallonsten. Taking cues both from pop, experimentalism and minimalism, Tape's sound has become recognized internationally and is clearly unique. Their first album Opera was released on the Häpna imprint (Johan is a co-owner) in 2002. Working intuitively, all by themselves, they created mini-symphonies out of electronic sounds paired with a stunning melodic lyricism. With an array of electronic and acoustic instruments at hand, they recorded at a small stone barn on the island of Öland, east of Sweden. 2003 saw the release of Milieu, recorded at the very same barn. These recordings had a more arranged feeling and a clear pop sensibility in some parts. In 2005, they went to Cologne to have Marcus Schmickler produce and record their third album, Rideau. This was done in his Piethopraxis studio and his involvement left traces; an almost architectonical approach was taken and some of the intimacy that characterized the first two albums were replaced by a harder edge. This new album is a luminarium of sound where past and present merge at the speed of light. A world which lets itself be sensed, not known; the first light of your rosy-fingered youth; birches and concrete, touch and go.

HARTE RECORDINGS

Artist:	PHILLIPS, JOHN
Title:	John Phillips (John, the Wolf King of L.A.)
Label:	HARTE RECORDINGS
Format:	LP
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	HR 100LP

High quality official LP reissue of the 1st John Phillips album, originally released by Dunhill/Warlok in 1970 (recent CD is on Varese Sarabande). With extensive new liner notes by the LP reissue producers. "In 1969, John Phillips was moving past The Mamas and The Papas, and assembled a collection of songs at his home studio that would eventually become his first solo album, and the only one to be released during his lifetime. It is an album reflective of the changing era, and the ever-changing composer and arranger. The album was produced by Lou Adler, who produced all of the Mamas and the Papas recordings as well as Carol King's Tapestry and the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Playing on the album are many of the session musicians who contributed to the success of The Mamas and The Papas, Elvis Presley and Ricky Nelson, as well as countless other recordings in the '60s and '70s, and whom John dubbed the 'greatest players in the world' (including Hal Blaine, Larry Knechtel, Joe Osborn, James Burton, Buddy Emmons and Red Rhodes). Mastered from a new analog-to-digital transfer from the original Lou Adler mix tape. John Phillips has been called one of the greatest pop songwriters of the later 20th century."

HARTHOUSE (GERMANY)

Artist:	BRAINCELL
Title:	Absorb
Label:	HARTHOUSE (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	HHMA 019EP

"Braincell already set a high standard at the last Harthouse V.A. by 'pneumatic(s)' work and sound. The Swedish top producer and label owner presents another labor of love -- Absorb. This is the most emotional EP you have ever heard from Cari Lekebusch -- highly addictive stuff! A1. 'Absorb:' calm and gentle percussive structure and wide atmospheric effects mixed with tiny play-arounds attracts the listener's attention. Comfortable groove-friendly shaker which is built up to a melancholic and cinematic milestone of electronic music!"

HELLO? REPEAT RECORDS (GERMANY)

Artist:	PRONSATO, BRUNO
Title:	Why Can't We Be Like Us
Label:	HELLO? REPEAT RECORDS (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HELLO 010CD

This is the second full-length release by Seattle's Bruno Pronsato (Steven Ford). Why Can't We Be Like Us embodies his old passion for playing the drums as well as his addiction to ones and zeros. Instead of creating streamlined minimal, he has more of an abstract sound on his mind -- one that lives on a dark, organic and percussive note. He has always been unpredictable and funky with a twist between the beats, his tracks often relying on devious turns, flickering sounds, warm bass lines and some free-riding vocals. These tracks tell a story with long, grooving compositions that are full of rhythms that twist around bubbling sounds that seem to launch out of his very own inner space. Sometimes a piano melody dances around, then an undefinable vibrancy chirps out of the background, and in the next moment some unheard buzzing sighs apart from space and time. This album feels like a logical progression from his EPs for labels like Orac, Philpot, Hello? Repeat and his creative powers as one part of the duo Half Hawaii on Perlon. Musical suspense that processes feelings and soul through electronic vibrations. Everything sounds like Bruno Pronsato plays it himself and follows the "I am an instrument" dictum of the spacy free jazzer, Sun Ra. Bruno Pronsato lives in the space of the inner-sound.

HIGHGRADE (GERMANY)

Artist:	VA
Title:	Various Artists Vol. V
Label:	HIGHGRADE (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	HIGH 049EP

"After looking deeply into Berlin's minimal house scene and extended family in the previous releases, Highgrade features mainly international artists in this release. Three artists/projects from three different countries: Ung and Bastos from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil raise the bar 'high' in the first techno/house track remixed by label boss Tom Clark. Jackspot, a popular minimal project from Lisbon, Portugal, comes in with 'Brainstorm' -- after a soft start, the number grows more and more quirky with sick rhythms to end in euphoric house heaven. Finally, Homm und Popoviciu's 'Deaf Sniper' brings us back to Berlin. The German/Romanian project delivers a minimal and hypnotic house move to take you to the top."

HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)

Artist:	WHITE, SIMONE
Title:	I Am The Man
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 028CD

I Am The Man is California-based Simone White's debut full-length release for Honest Jon's. These 13 heart-stopping tracks of soulful folk loveliness were recorded in Nashville with the team behind numerous Lambchop/Calexico/Will Oldham/Silver Jews classics. White was born in Hawaii and raised in a commune where they listened only to classical music and didn't have a TV. She first started playing the guitar at 22, influenced by Sonic Youth and The Pixies. It took several years and multiple moves -- Seattle, Paris, London, New York -- before White began playing and singing in what she describes as her true voice, also inspired by Low and Bonnie Prince Billy's Master And Everyone, produced by Mark Nevers, who would go on to record her The American War EP for Honest Jon's. White is resistant to making comparisons to her sound: she's much happier talking about her influences, which have moved from Sonic Youth to Nina Simone, Cesaria Evora and Odetta. Leading off with Carole King's "I Didn't Have Any Summer Romance," I Am The Man takes in an enormously broad range of subjects and moods -- from a surrealist flight of fancy like "Why Is Your Raincoat Always Crying?" to the stricken intimacy of "Sweetest Love Song" to the clear-eyed and full-voiced protest of "The American War." Politics, humor, love, despair and good tunes, Simone White has it all.

Artist:	WHITE, SIMONE
Title:	I Am The Man
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 028LP

"Simone White makes a kind of soulful American folk music, a gorgeous, heart-stopping mixture of the bluesy longing you get in the music of saudade -- singers like Cesaria Evora and Joao Gilberto -- and political protest. Will Oldham's in there; but so is Dionne Warwick. Great songs -- mostly Simone's own -- and masterful production again by Mark Nevers, who did Candi Staton's album for Honest Jon's last year." LP version contains 3 bonus tracks.

Artist:	JUDD, ELMORE
Title:	Insect Funk
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 030CD

This is the second full-length release by North London's Jesse Hackett aka Elmore Judd. Weird, between-the-sheets soul from Tufnell Park. P-Funk running into art-school disco, rock avant-gardism, UK hip-hop, African roots music, a bit of rembetica from Greece, horror soundtracks and jazz. An ecstatic, danceable, menacing record populated by pirates, rats, Snakefinger, dead men and Tron. Drummer Tom Skinner, who played on Elmore Judd's first record Angel Sound, makes a re-appearance on Insect Funk, playing a kit, primitive drum machines, scaffolding poles and pots and pans. A dirty exploration of the scaly underbelly of soul as played by art hobos.

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Artist:	CAPPELLI, ALEX
Title:	Bloody Notes
Label:	GREAT STUFF RECORDS (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	GSR 063EP

Artist:	TRESHER, GREGOR
Title:	A Thousand Nights Part 3
Label:	GREAT STUFF RECORDS (GERMANY)
Format:	2x12"
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	GSR 064EP

Artist:	STEEL AN' SKIN
Title:	Afro Punk Reggae Dub
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	HJP 045EP