New Releases for May 2008

Index of New Releases for May 2008

Artist:	VA
Title:	Living Is Hard: West African Music in Britain, 1927-1929
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 033CD

Honest Jon's has prepared a series drawing on some of the earliest recordings in the EMI Hayes Archive -- recovered from more than 150,000 78s -- staggering music from Iraq, Turkey, Caucasia, Lebanon, Iran (including sides made in Old Street, London, in 1909), Egypt and the Belgian Congo. This series opener presents the music of the West African underground of 1920s Britain, recorded at Hayes and released on the Zonophone label (which exported nearly all the records to West Africa). You can hear Caribbean influences here, the promise of highlife there, but Living Is Hard mostly disavows fusion and assimilation. And by contrast with antecedents in the history of black music in Britain -- minstrelsy and spirituals, for example, ragtime and jazz -- these recordings are unhitched from the protocols of a white listenership. These are startling, trenchant, elemental roots -- carrying troubled news home, along with signs of the new African nationalism -- and an enthralling glimpse of other lives, other times. Artists include: Oni Johnson, Isaac Jackson, Ben Simmons, Harry E. Quashie, Douglas Papafio, Prince Zulamkah, The West African Instrumental Quintet, The Ga Quartet, Domingo Justus, James Tucker, John Mugat, Kumasi Trio, James Thomas, Nicholas De Heer, George Williams Aingo and James Brown.

Artist:	ALLEN, TONY
Title:	Lagos Shake: A Tony Allen Chop Up
Label:	HONEST JON'S RECORDS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HJR 034CD

Two years ago, Honest Jon's travelled to Lagos with the great drummer Tony Allen, to make his first recordings there since his time with Fela Kuti -- an album entitled Lagos No Shaking, a classic of contemporary Afrobeat. Since then, the label has widely commissioned numerous responses to those new sides: from legends of dance music culture like Basic Channel in Berlin, for example, and founding father of Detroit techno, Carl Craig; and young tigers like Dizzee Rascal's Newham Generals, MIA producer Diplo in Baltimore, and carioca sensations Bonde Do Role from Rio De Janeiro. There are also new recordings from Cairo, Saturn, Bogota and Kingston, Jamaica -- fresh interpretations or complete reworkings by the space jazz pioneer Salah Ragab, a street brass band descended from Sun Ra's Arkestra, highlife-inspired Afro-Colombian drummers from the village of San Palenque De Basilio, and a veteran of Count Ossie's Mystic Revelation Of Rastafari. Afrobeat, dub, jazz, chalupa, electro, highlife, techno, grime, carioca, champeta and funk from all corners, fizzing away together here... it could only be from Honest Jon's. Vinyl version includes 2 bonus tracks.

HOSPITAL PRODUCTIONS

Artist:	DRUMM, KEVIN
Title:	Imperial Distortion
Label:	HOSPITAL PRODUCTIONS
Format:	2CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HOS 134CD

"What does a person do when faced with a work like Imperial Distortion? There are rare moments in an artist's work where they reveal a greater truth. Kevin Drumm has already made such a statement with his last major solo work, 2002's Sheer Hellish Miasma. Where that record took noise music to a new level of near-impenetrable exactitude, Imperial Distortion is an altogether different beast. Beauty as an aesthetic can be as terrifying as horror, desire unfulfilled, romance that lingers and never goes away, no matter how disappointing. A preoccupation with death can be the only result. On this extended long-form release, Kevin Drumm comes face to face with minimal drone music and confronts the genre by providing one of its absolute pinnacles at the forefront; movement. Drone music at its most concentrated and ably performed has build and depth in its tones. Although there might be the illusion of stasis, the opposite is true. From the opening 20-minute track 'Guillain-Barre,' the mood of the album is laid clear. The arrangements are shadowy layers of soundtrack-like tones not entirely unlike the work that Popul Vuh provided for Herzog's films. By track two, 'More Blood and Guts,' with its ominous bell tones, it becomes apparent that there is a true nothing that's associated with these sounds, other than the mood-inducing hypnosis and the feeling of drowning, yet having no ability to fight the slow pull. The middle portion of the record is 'Snow,' which was released as a limited cassette last year on Hospital Productions. This material was a teaser for the full album Imperial Distortion. The tracks have an almost ballad-esque sense of elegance, using tone and frequency as melodic portals to nowhere. The sustain in the piece suggests a weight while remaining alarmingly pleasant to the ears. The tension suggests an anxiety that never truly dies. The alarm comes from the juxtaposition of tones and mood. While the tones may sound gorgeous in their purity, the mood implies a profound sense of unease and perhaps an acceptance of the inevitability of existential dilemma. This point is most thoroughly evidenced by the albums closer, 'We All Get It In the End.' While the piece starts out with lullaby ease, a few minutes in, an equally severe dark drone eclipses the light and the night takes over. Here in the enveloped sounds, the clouds pass over the moonlight creating a spectral dark that is unforgettable in its intensity. To answer the initial question of Imperial Distortion, this is a work that commands intellectual and emotional commitment on the levels of the greatest works to come from this genre. Kevin Drumm has accomplished that rare balance to create a masterwork that no one has yet to come close to in this era. Your best bet is to surrender."

Artist:	SUTCLIFFE JUGEND
Title:	The Fall of Nature
Label:	HOSPITAL PRODUCTIONS
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	HOS 213CD

"As far as the history of power electronics goes, few acts have maintained as much interest and activity as Sutcliffe J�gend. The duo of Paul Taylor and Kevin Tompkins has released crucial early recordings on labels as revered as Come Organization and Broken Flag. The group has resumed actions under the Sutcliffe J�gend banner with a return album, This is the Truth last year also on Hospital Productions. While that record pleased fans old and new with the power electronics style SJ helped pioneer, the release of The Fall of Nature brings us a new level destruction using sounds almost unthinkably ambient yet no less disturbing. The Fall of Nature is a epic, grandiose drone piece -- almost one hour of pure electronics that echoes the masters of the form. The album grows in intensity throughout the recording, making for an unexpected release. There are many sides of darkness and many ways to express it. The Fall of Nature is the balance of sound, in a listenable format. The initial feeling is that of an almost holy, heavenly sound, the skies opening in tribute to the nature which is falling. Yet fans of classic SJ will be plenty pleased at the psychotically manic conclusion that will not disappoint any fans of PE terror. This music takes aim at several nerve centers at once. This is not just noise, drone or PE but something new that mixes various elements of each together for the first time." Co-release with Groundfault Recordings.

Artist:	CRUMER, JASON
Title:	Ottoman Black
Label:	HOSPITAL PRODUCTIONS
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	HOS 215CD

"Fresh off his solo breakthrough LP Future Without A Chance on the legendary RRR label, Jason Crumer returns with Ottoman Black, an album of midnight drones and true noise. Using powerfully clear electronics as a base for declarative noise bursts, Crumer manipulates the sounds with a resounding animosity. In the vein of past Hospital releases from Pedestrian Deposit and Air Conditioning, Crumer yields a mean streak and an array of silences over the course of the album. The theme here is personal relations with tracks like 'Betrayal After Betrayal' which has an almost conversational quality, both the screams and the muffles, the physicality. 'Pissed Off Response' is an actionist-influenced piece of torture. There's nothing not painful here, especially the quiet -- the peaks are almost a relief. Ottoman Black is a stern and unforgiving universe."

Artist:	BURNING STAR CORE
Title:	Challenger
Label:	HOSPITAL PRODUCTIONS
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	HOS 216CD

"Burning Star Core began in 1993 in Cincinnati, OH where it currently resides with primary member C. Spencer Yeh. It is considered a project and not a pseudonym. While the Burning Star Core project has included much wider ensembles, Challenger is a direct solo composition of C. Spencer Yeh. This recording is perhaps Yeh's most revealing, unguarded work. Challenger is a composed work, not an improvisation, with each piece revolving around a central melodic theme, featuring field recordings, which serve as an audio diary. The sounds range from pure tonal mood to huge electronic crescendos. But what's most remarkable is the use of space, where parts come in then drop out to build up the emotion. When the piano sound crashes in 'Mysteries of the Organ,' it reflects a frustration with paradise, a rejection of perfection, a jolt of inexplicable throes of life. In contrast is the quiet, haunting 'Hopelessly Devoted,' which sounds like a love letter written to outer space. These make for an album that is both dynamic yet consistent as a full statement."

HUUME RECORDINGS (GERMANY)

Artist:	DELAY, VLADISLAV
Title:	Anima
Label:	HUUME RECORDINGS (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	HUUME 015CD

Huume Recordings re-release of Vladislav Delay's (Luomo) classic Mille Plateaux album, originally released in 2001, including a previously-unreleased alternate version. Anima is an opus of over 60 minutes, a continuous mix that reveals itself beyond audio design. Delay succeeds in developing his new, atypical methods of production: rather than familiar electronic traits of looping sounds, Anima continually develops in an organic flow, thus giving the interpretation that perhaps the music is less a digital excursion and more an instrumental development. Vladislav Delay is setting on potentials, effects and impulses of the never-heard: a new world of audio. Furthermore: the word "anima" is a psychological term meaning "an inner feminine part of the male personality." Both the artwork and the music, demure and beautiful, perfectly reflect these qualities. The original song is indexed as a single 62-minute track, a continuous flow that constantly, unpredictably shifts gears while retaining recurrent themes and coherence. The sound set is a vast, atmospheric sonic sandbox of Arctic synth pads, low-end blips and throbs, fragments and smears of fractured audio and an expansive selection of percussive minutiae. Melody and rhythm are sometimes more implied than expressed, allowing your brain to fill in the blanks, and at other times they coalesce effortlessly, flawlessly and gracefully all on their own. The recording marked a decisive change and break in Delay's production style from programming/sequencing to playing live; the whole album was played from beginning to finish in full takes, instrument by instrument and sound by sound with only a minimum of editing or post-production. The original recording is joined by the author's previously-unreleased favorite version of Anima at a slower speed. Edited and produced in 2008, it's a collage/remix of the original, offering a different view of this important piece of electronic music.

HUX (UK)

Artist:	IVERS BAND, PETER
Title:	Knight of the Blue Communion
Label:	HUX (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$18.00
Catalog #:	HUX 088CD

2007 reissue. "Many music fans will know Peter Ivers as the writer of 'In Heaven (Lady in the Radiator Song)', which he originally composed for David Lynch's classic film, Eraserhead. The song was later immortalized, of course, by fellow Bostonians, The Pixies. Ivers may not be a household name, but during his short life, he made an impact on many fronts. He was a musician, arranger, composer, screenwriter, catalyst, TV presenter, spotter of new talent, a black belt in karate and a yoga master. Talking to people who knew and worked with him even 24 years after his untimely death, the superlatives still come gushing forth: such epithets as 'perfect'; 'a totally unique and refreshing individual'; 'a legend in the making'; 'a genius in many fields' freely trip off the tongue about him. Peter's first big music industry break came in 1969, when Epic Records signed him to record his debut solo LP, Knight of the Blue Communion, the first ever legitimate CD reissue, released on Hux Records. In addition to playing harmonica and providing backing vocals, Peter acted as arranger and composer, while his friend Tim Mayer provided all the lyrics. Ivers assembled a fascinating group of musicians to play on his record. On drums was Cleve Frank Pozar, with Richard Youngstein on contrabass, and Tony Ackerman on guitar. The horn section featured Steve Kowarsky on bassoon, Henry Schuman on oboe and Paul Balmuth on sax. However, the icing on the cake was chanteuse Yolande Bavan, and the way in which Peter used her as lead vocalist on the album. Bavan was a singer and actress who was born in Sri Lanka and had started her professional career working as a vocalist with renowned pianist Graeme Bell. Later, she met and was befriended by the legendary singer Billie Holiday. Holiday took the young Bavan under her wing and in addition to mentoring Yolande, developed a close friendship with her. Subsequently, Yolande found her way to America where she replaced Annie Ross in the renowned jazz vocal trio, Lambert, Hendricks and Ross. On its original release in 1969, Knight of the Blue Communion drew comparisons with Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa, with Yolanda appearing to be the conventional vocalist cast in what was often a sea of avant-garde madness, the music a blend of blues, rock & jazz. The LP was produced by the veteran US pop producer Sandy Linzer, who had written and produced the hit 'Let's Hang On To What We Got.' Yolande left the band the following year and was replaced by Asha Puthli, a forward thinking, boundary breaking vocalist who'd trained in Indian classical singing and was a natural jazz improviser, whom the New York Times described as 'a sound like raga meeting Aretha Franklin.' With Asha now on vocals, the Peter Ivers Band released their debut single in 1971, a cover of the Marvin Gaye number, 'Ain't That Peculiar,' backed by the Ivers' original, 'Clarence O'Day.' Both titles, previously unavailable on CD, are included here as bonus tracks. As Puthli recalls, the single 'received glowing reviews from all three major industry magazines, Billboard, Cashbox & Record World and briefly entered the Top 100 Singles Billboard charts.' Asha Puthli went on to sing on Ornette Coleman's Science Fiction album and won Downbeat poll award for best female jazz vocalist for her sterling contribution to that classic album. This special 'digi-pack' format features a reproduction of the original LP sleeve. The accompanying 20 page CD booklet features extensive liner notes, including interviews with the featured singers and musicians, along with the original LP liner note by Peter Ivers, full lyrics to every track and rare photos."

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