New Releases for May 2008

Index of New Releases for May 2008

Artist:	O'ROURKE, JIM
Title:	Tamper
Label:	DRAG CITY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	DC 362.2CD

"Part two of the multi-part Jim O'Rourke 'Old Timing' reissue series is Tamper, from 1991. Tamper is a set of three acoustic instrumental compositions recorded on analog tape during the final days of the first digital wave (we're at the end of at least the third wave nowadays), when everyone but a certain young schoolboy in short pants were looking towards CDs and DATs as the things of the future. Fools! As both those purely transitory formats fade into obsolescence (what's DAT?), Tamper's analog sound rises again -- and even though it comes to you on the frighteningly emaciated CD format, it's still a reminder of the reward that pure sound before all definition has to offer us. The spaced-out minimalism of Tamper is as forward-looking today as it was 17 years ago -- and as such, it's a seminal work in Jim O'Rourke's catalog. That's what this reissue series is all about, bringing it all back home to some of the young master's lesser-known works -- all remastered and shit. And with Tamper, the goal is to get back to listening to the sound rather than what we expect of it -- the literal sound of a piano as opposed to us hearing our expectations regarding the playing of a piano. As sweet and virginal as all this sounds, we the listener find ourselves straining to hear unvarnished acoustical sound throughout the album -- there's some of that here, but there's definitely some pixie dust in Jim's methods. Tamper's three pieces move quite fluidly along -- so much so, that you might never consider that they're actually mapped out in a constant series of crossfades. No particular sound lasts more than 10 or 20 seconds, a process which interprets things in its own mind- (and ear-) bending manner -- and gives Tamper a blazed trail all of its own!"

Artist:	BONNIE 'PRINCE' BILLY
Title:	Lie Down In The Light
Label:	DRAG CITY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	DC 367CD

"Bonnie 'Prince' Billy is letting the sun shine in so you can Lie Down In The Light. Before you get undressed, we're talking about a brand-new 12 song album of excellent new songs and sounds, okay? Get that thong back up your crack and listen! Bristling with guitar strings and laced with harmonies, Lie Down In The Light is the brightest album to date from the Bonnie 'Prince.' Brisk tempos skip among his signature slower numbers and ballads. Bonnie's vocals are among his most expressive: carefully nuanced, singing all up and down his range, showing him at a judiciously dynamic and tuneful apex. Coloring the sound, is a subtle backdrop of percussive slaps and shakes (but nary a drumkit), touches of keys and steel, delicate harmony-vocal arrangements and other sweet surprises that might send some sad-sack fans back to their auto-erotic dungeons, fresh toys in hand. Lie Down In The Light features Bonnie repeat players Paul Oldham and Emmett Kelly and also benefits from the multi-instrumental presence of Shahzad Izmaily, who works percussion, piano, guitar, banjo and the mysterious, sensual 'row of wenches' -- I mean, mysterious, sensual 'row of wrenches.' New (duet) partner Ashley Webber forges her own presence next to Bonnie in a pair of fantastic turns. Additionally, some of Nashville's finest appear in between the band's strings and harrows, adding light (and yeah, we see a little darkness, too) wherever they appear."

DUMB-UNIT (CANADA)

Artist:	DONOR/TRUSS
Title:	Perception EP
Label:	DUMB-UNIT (CANADA)
Format:	12"
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	DU 041EP

Donor and Truss deliver some delightful late night extravaganzas with some fine French spice from the she-man Sarah Goldfarb. "Foreseen" creeps up from down below, evolving into a swirling stomper, "Forethought" starts with a dry groove and then throws a trippy ensemble of sounds and melody at you. "Unseen" is an atmospheric, ever-evolving soundscape twisting through space. Sarah Goldfarb's rework builds on the hypnotic potentials of the original. An extra treat is also available on the Dumb-Unit web site.

ECHOSPACE

Artist:	DEEPCHORD
Title:	Vantage Isle Sessions
Label:	ECHOSPACE
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	ECHOSPACE 001CD

"Echospace [Detroit] is the label launched by Rod Modell (Deepchord) and Soultek's Steven Hitchell, two leading lights of the minimal dub techno scene. And as with anything Deepchord, the entire release has an air of mystery to it. Previously, as a near-mythical vinyl pressing with minimal packaging and restricted pressings, everything about Vantage Isle was geared toward the underground, or 'those who know.' However, there's nothing but love of craft driving these grooves, and now a lot more people will finally be able to hear this absolutely brilliant collection of spacial dub wonder on CD. Vantage Isle Sessions consists of a whopping 13 takes of the title track, reworked by Modell and Hitchell in various guises (cv313, Deepchord, Echospace, Spacecho), as well as a guest spot (and first ever remix) from Gerard Hanson (Convextion). Across their 13 versions, Modell and Hitchell manage to take the Deepchord template (analog synths, deep bass, gently throbbing beats, bursts of static and noise, and deep, deep chords) into a surprising variety of directions, akin to looking at the same giant glacier from a helicopter from every angle possible: some are beatless and undulating, some are pulsing and dynamic, some are looking up from under the ice and some are towering overhead. The aforementioned Convextion version is revelatory. It's built on cascading and echoing pieces of the original that are layered like shifting sands, for a distinctly dark and shimmering journey to the bottom of the frozen ocean and back. It's remarkable enough to get all these takes on one basic template to sound somewhat different, given that the source material is really just a skeletal array of sound sheets. Vantage Isle Sessions is for anyone looking for the logical successors to the Basic Channel throne, or just looking for something mellow for those steamy late summer nights. A stone-cold classic of the genre. Don't miss it." --Todd Hutlock, Stylus Magazine/Beatz by the Pound

ECSTATIC PEACE

Artist:	NYOUKIS & JAAP BLONK, DYLAN
Title:	Dubbletwee
Label:	ECSTATIC PEACE
Format:	LP
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	E#13B

"Here is one of the most anticipated head-scratching meeting-of-the (insane) minds recordings ever rumored to have existed: the blabber-gunk vocalistix of Chocolate Monk honcho and musical zone/zap improv outsider and founder of Decaer Pinga (n�e Prick Decay) Dylan Nyoukis and the high-energy, consistently startled and startling voicebox-tongue shredder, Jaap Blonk. Nyoukis from the UK and Blonk from The Netherlands bash heads and gums together to splat out a relentless and rapacious slew of ululation and indescribable utterance. If vocal duo improv of the most bizarre order is yr meat, then pull a stool up to this table and get a snoot full o' what-the-fuck. Wicked weirdness." LP only -- full color jackets -- 400 copies.

Artist:	FREE KITTEN
Title:	Inherit
Label:	ECSTATIC PEACE
Format:	CD
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	E#22C

"What difference does a decade and a year make? We all live between then and now. Generally, most of us treat then as a movie we demand final cut over, a series of scenes we arrange and re-arrange according to the narrative we prefer to present to the world: I was happy. Cut to: My family was whole and happy. Fade to black. The status quo presumes a number of things, too, chief among them being the power of facade. The family home looks perfect, so -- perforce -- the family is perfect, and that separates us from 'them.' Take a picture. Better yet, make a movie of us in our pique perfection. Cut to The Wife. Cut to The Wife and the family dog. Fade to black. A decade and one year ago, Free Kitten released their third album, Sentimental Education. On it, one heard Kim Gordon's vocals and guitar. One also heard Pussy Galore's Julie Cafritz's vocals and guitar. Drums were played by the Boredom's Yoshimi; bass: Mark Ibold, formerly of Pavement. There were guest stars, too, but for the post-punk, indie, noise uninitiated, the draw of this album -- and 1994's UnBoxed, and Nice Ass after it -- was less its pedigree than the music's ability to challenge or even stop the movie lies that generally play in all our heads, such as: I am happy. Cut to: my family is whole and happy. Fade to black. Free Kitten's music suggested otherwise. Free Kitten liked fading to black -- and, in the process, drawing a curtain over the status quo. Free Kitten told stories about the family dog as well, less in their lyrics than in their sound, which brought Mom to mind, too, but Mom wielding a knife near the neck of the family dog that refuses to run away -- or shut up. But that was then. As to now: Free Kitten is releasing its fourth studio album. Titled Inherit, it reacquaints us with Gordon, Cafritz and Yoshimi. On the disc, then and now are collapsed into the present. And it is our present that is most effected by songs like 'Erected Girl,' which reminds one of bossa nova rhythms run through a Kosher meat grinder. And then there's 'Free Kitten on the Mountain,' which amounts to a travelogue of sorts -- but through a Lord Buckley-like subconscious mind. In short, the thematic eclecticism evinced in Free Kitten's present work is a movie that doesn't lie, because truth is its standard." --Hilton Als, March 2008

Artist:	LEE, OKKYUNG
Title:	I Saw The Ghost Of An Unknown Soul And It Said...
Label:	ECSTATIC PEACE
Format:	LP
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	E#92B

"Anyone who has seen and heard Korean improviser/composer Okkyung Lee blow collective minds with her supremely amazing cello noise, energy, vibration, friction and true sound feeling music knows that in a world of wild and mind-snapping improvisors, Okkyung is one of the most exciting players to arrive down the rocky road in some time. After being in music schools from the age of 3 to 25, Okkyung found her artistic freedom in NYC's Lower East Side, where she moved in 2000. Since then, she has performed and recorded with numerous artists such as Laurie Anderson, Derek Bailey, Steve Beresford, Nels Cline, Chris Corsano, Fred Frith, Shelley Hirsch, Susie Ibarra, Thurston Moore, 'Butch' Morris, Jim O'Rourke, Beth Orton, Christian Marclay, Ikue Mori, DJ Olive, Zeena Parkins, Marina Rosenfeld, and John Zorn. Okkyung released her debut CD, Nihm, on Tzadik; a duo recording with Christian Marclay on My Cat is an Alien label's split LP series called Rubbings, a CD of her own compositions in collaboration with artist Colin Stinson for his art book Dust to Dust, and now this solo cello vinyl-only LP I Saw The Ghost Of An Unknown Soul And It Said.... This LP contains some of her most deep and resonant, at once furious and hushed string, bow and wood music recorded to date. Beautiful and frightening, daring to be both." LP only -- 400 copies.

EDIT SELECT (UK)

EDITIONS MEGO (AUSTRIA)

Artist:	PITA
Title:	Get Out
Label:	EDITIONS MEGO (AUSTRIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	EMEGO 029CD

Get Out was originally released in 1999 on the Mego label and was Pita's (Peter Rehberg) second full-length release. Out-of-print for over half a decade, this new edition is remastered and packaged in a 6 panel digipack and includes three extra tracks which appeared on the split 12" with Kevin Drumm released by BOXmedia in 2000. Get Out was the follow-up to the award-winning Seven Tons For Free, and its harsh use of available computing devices made it popular both in and outside electronic music circles of the time, especially the 11-minute anthemic third track. David Keenan in his liner notes states that Get Out "...stands as the first major musical laptop statement in the same way that Jimi Hendrix's Are You Experienced? album spoke for the most extended instrument-specific modes of the electric guitar three decades earlier." Both restive and restless, orchestral and abrasive, Get Out is the high water mark of laptop noise experimentation and it will absolutely scramble your brain.

EINMALEINS (GERMANY)

Artist:	BLOODY MARY VS. SIERRA SAM
Title:	Spiel Bank EP
Label:	EINMALEINS (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	EINMAL 032EP

"Bloody Mary from Sender and Sierra Sam, boss of Toys for Boys are the new members of the Einmaleins family.The record is consisted by 2 tracks made by the Berlin-based producers straight from studio to hit the dancefloors! A side is a tight techno track with quirky sounds and atmospheric cuts. The B-side is a simple but effective track, slow and sexy, good for start of a set to warm up the dancefloor! This release is a secret weapon."

ELECTRIC MINDS (UK)

Artist:	KOTEY & MAX ESSA, STEVIE
Title:	Salon De L'Herbe EP: Part 1
Label:	ELECTRIC MINDS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	EMINDS 003EP

"Steve Kotey needs little introduction, head honcho of Bear Entertainment, an accomplished producer and a member of Chicken Lips. Stevie's schedule takes him to the hippest clubs around the world, be it Japan, Germany, Italy or London, as well as finding time to put out his own productions and compile compilations for the likes of !K7 & Strut. Kotey is joined on this record by Max Essa. Having previously released on Paper Recordings back in 2001, Max also played guitar with the infamous Long Distance Runners. This EP offers up everything good that is disco from the uptempo '1974' to the spaced-out vibes of '1988.' If that wasn't enough, this 12" release is finished off with a 3rd track '1981' on the cosmic/Balearic tip. The years may become confusing, but with live drums, guitars and slick arrangements, words can't do these productions justice."

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Artist:	ROSE & ULYSSE
Title:	Myosotis
Label:	EDIT SELECT (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.50
Catalog #:	EDIT 002.5EP