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BING 151LP
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"While recording a group of songs that would end up being part of This World Just Eats Me Up Alive, Brian Crook took a break outside with his bandmates. A small girl nearby ran up to a woman saying 'Mommy, mommy! There's a vampire here!' The mother asked how the girl knew it was a vampire, and the girl said, 'He talks like this,' and proceeded to do a growling impression of a New Zealand accent. At the time, Brian was in a dark suit and had super long hair, and was playing badminton... Crook's new solo album comprises eight years of recording, so perhaps his undead appearance is not surprising; it comprises a span of inspiration that seems almost vampiric, with themes suggested by Greek mythology, a favorite 1960s author, to the abstract electronics of Aphex Twin and Arca as influences. The album came together in parts, slowly assembled with various contributors and recording locations, the earliest trace having lyrical origins from 1991, and was done during sessions for The Terminals, Crook's other band (you can also add NZ legends Scorched Earth Policy and Flies Inside The Sun to that list). A near decade provides a lot of material for reflective songwriting. In Crook's revelations about life in New Zealand and his tenebrous lyrical style there is more than a touch of comedy, albeit of a blackly humorous, 'South Island New Zealand' nature. The lyrics and music come from a similar place as New Zealand painters Bill Hammond and Tony de Latour, evoking a kind of ceremonial primitivism."
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BING 148CD
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"A meditative and endlessly turning clutch of songs, She Keeps Bees' Kinship reasserts the band's elegant power in a stream of loss and regeneration. Death, birth, both personal and in reflection of Earth itself emerge through Jessica Larrabee's focused, empowered voice. With Larrabee and Andy LaPlant's first album in four years, She Keeps Bees peels away their distorted guitars and fills the void with hypnotic organ, keyboards, strings, a tight bed of drum grooves, and a direct lyricism full of with wisdom and intention. This is an album that radiates its messages with deft knowledge and immeasurable strength. Since 2014's acclaimed Eight Houses, Larrabee cared for and lost her father before moving upstate with LaPlant to a New York cottage with a plan to start their own family. In this new, solitary and natural environment, they wrote and recorded this album over five months, joined by friends Kevin Sullivan (Last Good Tooth) on bass, Penn Sultan (Last Good Tooth) for guitar, and Eric Maltz, who lent strings, synthesizers and piano. Kinship addresses chaos by pointing beyond it, to the order that exists outside one's reach. As the duo settle upstate and begin planting roots for their future life together, She Keeps Bees have taken the long view and written odes to the irrevocable primacy of Nature."
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BING 148LP
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LP version. "A meditative and endlessly turning clutch of songs, She Keeps Bees' Kinship reasserts the band's elegant power in a stream of loss and regeneration. Death, birth, both personal and in reflection of Earth itself emerge through Jessica Larrabee's focused, empowered voice. With Larrabee and Andy LaPlant's first album in four years, She Keeps Bees peels away their distorted guitars and fills the void with hypnotic organ, keyboards, strings, a tight bed of drum grooves, and a direct lyricism full of with wisdom and intention. This is an album that radiates its messages with deft knowledge and immeasurable strength. Since 2014's acclaimed Eight Houses, Larrabee cared for and lost her father before moving upstate with LaPlant to a New York cottage with a plan to start their own family. In this new, solitary and natural environment, they wrote and recorded this album over five months, joined by friends Kevin Sullivan (Last Good Tooth) on bass, Penn Sultan (Last Good Tooth) for guitar, and Eric Maltz, who lent strings, synthesizers and piano. Kinship addresses chaos by pointing beyond it, to the order that exists outside one's reach. As the duo settle upstate and begin planting roots for their future life together, She Keeps Bees have taken the long view and written odes to the irrevocable primacy of Nature."
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BING 145-1LP
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"The Finklestein Universe expands! Upon releasing Finklestein last year, a theme album about a fictitious kingdom, Hamish Kilgour simultaneously put out Funklestein which saw two side-long tracks that delved deeper into Kilgour's fairytale world. Now, the fairytale grows even more nuanced, as Ba Da Bing presents Franklestein -- a series of radical remixes which use the Finklestein sessions as a starting point but, being 'frank,' are new compositions. Each track is an orchestra in a teacup, sounding like the best Velvet Underground boots suffused with dance beats, allowing unexpected room for autoharp, vibraphone and glockenspiel."
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BING 145-2LP
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"A companion release to Franklestein, Hamish Kilgour's ten-inch single is ready to bust onto damaged dance floors around the world! Two tracks originally conceived during the Finklestein sessions get their full due, with vibraphone, wistful saxophone and a driving beat that colors the fairytale setting Kilgour originally conceived for his 2018 release, Finklestein. 'M'Open' sets a groove and rides it like an evening on the town, while 'M'Close' reveals the dark underbellies said evening on the town could reveal."
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BING 149CD
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"Even in the Tremor marks Aly Spaltro aka Lady Lamb's latest full-length album following 2015's After and it's a remarkable achievement because, among other things, it's the first time in her career that Spaltro is singing explicitly about herself. 'I've never let myself be this exposed before,' she says, 'but this whole album is about facing who you are and fighting your way toward self-acceptance.' Between confessing a tantrum in a batting cage ('Little Flaws'), telling the story of her parent's kiddie-pool baptism ('Young Disciple') and singing openly about untangling her girlfriend's wet hair ('Deep Love'), this album is deeply rooted in the people and places, extraordinary and mundane, that have shaped Spaltro into the self-determining artist she is today. It took Spaltro almost a year to find the right co-producer. She initially attempted to make the record with an esteemed producer as she'd been advised but after being told that her arrangements needed rewriting by various veterans in the industry, Spaltro bravely changed direction and found a champion of her vision in Erin Tonkon, a less established producer whose six years working with Tony Visconti and later, David Bowie on his Grammy-winning Blackstar, made her more than qualified for the role. Benjamin Lazar Davis (Cuddle Magic, Kimbra, Okkervil River) played bass and piano and synthesizer. Jeremy Gustin (David Byrne, Albert Hammond Jr., Rubble Bucket) played drums. The group recorded at Figure 8 Studios in Brooklyn, New York. 'It's taken me years to get here,' she says, 'but I'm sort of done with hiding myself. I want to be as honest as I can because that's why people turn to art. Anybody can tell the difference between bullshit and real vulnerability.' This commitment to creating only what is necessary and urgently felt is the key to appreciating Spaltro's fearless songwriting, as emotional as it is philosophical. Even in the Tremor signifies the arrival of her most sonically soaring and brutally honest album to date."
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BING 149LP
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LP version. "Even in the Tremor marks Aly Spaltro aka Lady Lamb's latest full-length album following 2015's After and it's a remarkable achievement because, among other things, it's the first time in her career that Spaltro is singing explicitly about herself. 'I've never let myself be this exposed before,' she says, 'but this whole album is about facing who you are and fighting your way toward self-acceptance.' Between confessing a tantrum in a batting cage ('Little Flaws'), telling the story of her parent's kiddie-pool baptism ('Young Disciple') and singing openly about untangling her girlfriend's wet hair ('Deep Love'), this album is deeply rooted in the people and places, extraordinary and mundane, that have shaped Spaltro into the self-determining artist she is today. It took Spaltro almost a year to find the right co-producer. She initially attempted to make the record with an esteemed producer as she'd been advised but after being told that her arrangements needed rewriting by various veterans in the industry, Spaltro bravely changed direction and found a champion of her vision in Erin Tonkon, a less established producer whose six years working with Tony Visconti and later, David Bowie on his Grammy-winning Blackstar, made her more than qualified for the role. Benjamin Lazar Davis (Cuddle Magic, Kimbra, Okkervil River) played bass and piano and synthesizer. Jeremy Gustin (David Byrne, Albert Hammond Jr., Rubble Bucket) played drums. The group recorded at Figure 8 Studios in Brooklyn, New York. 'It's taken me years to get here,' she says, 'but I'm sort of done with hiding myself. I want to be as honest as I can because that's why people turn to art. Anybody can tell the difference between bullshit and real vulnerability.' This commitment to creating only what is necessary and urgently felt is the key to appreciating Spaltro's fearless songwriting, as emotional as it is philosophical. Even in the Tremor signifies the arrival of her most sonically soaring and brutally honest album to date."
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BING 147CD
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"A rare blend of eloquent lyrical craft and explorative musicianship, the songs of Tiny Ruins are etched into the memories of crowds and critics worldwide. Traversing influences that cross genre and era, the artistry of Hollie Fullbrook and her band spans delicate folk, lustrous dream pop and ebullient psychedelia. Building on the sparse arrangements and 'a novelist's eye for detail' (Uncut) cultivated over the past several years, the group's greatly anticipated third album Olympic Girls is replete with vital lyricism and galvanizing rhythms. Sparkling electric guitar jangles pull against the unique thrum of Fullbrook's acoustic as the cryptic poetry she is known for rings out. Hollie Fullbrook is no stranger to acclaim. Debut album Some Were Meant For Sea (2011) saw her name on billboards, playlists and blogs worldwide. The album's clutch of 'gorgeous vignettes' (BBC) put the artist on the map. Second album Brightly Painted One earned more accolades, championed by The New York Times, NPR and David Lynch, and winning Best Alternative Album at the New Zealand Music Awards in 2014. 'An album of quiet, devastating beauty', wrote Pop Matters. The album saw Fullbrook join forces with producer Tom Healy, whom, alongside long-time tour-mate bassist Cass Basil and drummer Alex Freer, Fullbrook has worked and toured with ever since. While spanning continents, the band won fans in critics, crowds and became a sought-after collaborator. A New York recording session culminated in the EP Hurtling Through (2015) with indie-rock legend Hamish Kilgour (The Clean), while 2016 single 'Dream Wave' was recorded and produced by award-winning cult filmmaker and musician David Lynch. Headhunted by Lorde for the Hunger Games soundtrack blueprint she curated, Fullbrook teamed up with legendary filmmaker Lynch for the collaboration. This album was made over a drawn out period of spontaneity and experimentation, stridently reaching beyond Fullbrook's formerly minimalist domain. Production from Tom Healy and Fullbrook is exercised with muscular aplomb; marrying the intricately woven poetics of Leonard Cohen, the shimmering dream-pop landscapes of Beach House or Mazzy Star, and the off-kilter experimental pop of Broadcast or John Cale."
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BING 147LP
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LP version. "A rare blend of eloquent lyrical craft and explorative musicianship, the songs of Tiny Ruins are etched into the memories of crowds and critics worldwide. Traversing influences that cross genre and era, the artistry of Hollie Fullbrook and her band spans delicate folk, lustrous dream pop and ebullient psychedelia. Building on the sparse arrangements and 'a novelist's eye for detail' (Uncut) cultivated over the past several years, the group's greatly anticipated third album Olympic Girls is replete with vital lyricism and galvanizing rhythms. Sparkling electric guitar jangles pull against the unique thrum of Fullbrook's acoustic as the cryptic poetry she is known for rings out. Hollie Fullbrook is no stranger to acclaim. Debut album Some Were Meant For Sea (2011) saw her name on billboards, playlists and blogs worldwide. The album's clutch of 'gorgeous vignettes' (BBC) put the artist on the map. Second album Brightly Painted One earned more accolades, championed by The New York Times, NPR and David Lynch, and winning Best Alternative Album at the New Zealand Music Awards in 2014. 'An album of quiet, devastating beauty', wrote Pop Matters. The album saw Fullbrook join forces with producer Tom Healy, whom, alongside long-time tour-mate bassist Cass Basil and drummer Alex Freer, Fullbrook has worked and toured with ever since. While spanning continents, the band won fans in critics, crowds and became a sought-after collaborator. A New York recording session culminated in the EP Hurtling Through (2015) with indie-rock legend Hamish Kilgour (The Clean), while 2016 single 'Dream Wave' was recorded and produced by award-winning cult filmmaker and musician David Lynch. Headhunted by Lorde for the Hunger Games soundtrack blueprint she curated, Fullbrook teamed up with legendary filmmaker Lynch for the collaboration. This album was made over a drawn out period of spontaneity and experimentation, stridently reaching beyond Fullbrook's formerly minimalist domain. Production from Tom Healy and Fullbrook is exercised with muscular aplomb; marrying the intricately woven poetics of Leonard Cohen, the shimmering dream-pop landscapes of Beach House or Mazzy Star, and the off-kilter experimental pop of Broadcast or John Cale."
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BING 139CD
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"Disguised as the meandering outpourings of vacant thought and activity dialed simultaneously from zero and ten. Formed in the cauldron of a fevered mistake resolute. Surrounded by ignorance, dis-interest, and the attention of the carefully self-selected. Recorded and burned through a thousand galaxies of dust and doubt and endless infinite wonder, transforming both time and space. Forever exiled to the very bottom of the world to reflect on the struggling desperate pile above. Recognizing any contribution as miniscule and insignificant when placed within the greatness of the other, the dominant insolent preening satisfied, continually shouting the pre-eminence of the first world order. The latest by The Dead C -- Rare Ravers: it's a long player."
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BING 139LP
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2019 repress; LP version. "Disguised as the meandering outpourings of vacant thought and activity dialed simultaneously from zero and ten. Formed in the cauldron of a fevered mistake resolute. Surrounded by ignorance, dis-interest, and the attention of the carefully self-selected. Recorded and burned through a thousand galaxies of dust and doubt and endless infinite wonder, transforming both time and space. Forever exiled to the very bottom of the world to reflect on the struggling desperate pile above. Recognizing any contribution as miniscule and insignificant when placed within the greatness of the other, the dominant insolent preening satisfied, continually shouting the pre-eminence of the first world order. The latest by The Dead C -- Rare Ravers: it's a long player."
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BING 137CD
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"Sarah Davachi has quickly risen in prominence since her first release five years ago, and Gave In Rest represents her highest artistic achievement. By infusing her compositional style within a predilection for medieval and Renaissance music, Davachi unearths a new realm of musical reverence, creating works both contemplative and beatific, eerie yet essentially human. Gave In Rest is a modern reading of early music, reforming sacred and secular sentiments to fit her purview and provide an exciting new way to hear the sounds that exist around us. Between January and September of 2017, Sarah Davachi lived in flux; storing her belongings in Vancouver, she spent the summer in Europe, occasionally performing in churches and lapidariums and seeking respite from her transitional state while surrounded by such storied history. This latest album echoes that emotional state of solitude and ephemerality, reaching towards familiar musical landscapes but from oblique perspectives. 'I named each track after a particular time of day as a way of expressing my experiencing different moments of quietude, how morning and night are both independent and interconnected entities in this regard,' she says. Her titles evoke canonical phrases referring to morning or evening prayers, as well as Latin and German phrasings for metaphors about the time of day. 'From my perspective, there is a lot of loneliness on this record, and I think it is as much about beginnings as endings,' she continues. 'In a way, it's about the prospect of the unknown as it manifests alongside a very inward form of grieving - really the essence of what constitutes a period of transition.' Davachi has mined a bottomless landscape where listeners can witness music's participation in their solitudes. Gave In Rest lends a voice to her personal exploration with a firm, intuitive stance."
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BING 137LP
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LP version. "Sarah Davachi has quickly risen in prominence since her first release five years ago, and Gave In Rest represents her highest artistic achievement. By infusing her compositional style within a predilection for medieval and Renaissance music, Davachi unearths a new realm of musical reverence, creating works both contemplative and beatific, eerie yet essentially human. Gave In Rest is a modern reading of early music, reforming sacred and secular sentiments to fit her purview and provide an exciting new way to hear the sounds that exist around us. Between January and September of 2017, Sarah Davachi lived in flux; storing her belongings in Vancouver, she spent the summer in Europe, occasionally performing in churches and lapidariums and seeking respite from her transitional state while surrounded by such storied history. This latest album echoes that emotional state of solitude and ephemerality, reaching towards familiar musical landscapes but from oblique perspectives. 'I named each track after a particular time of day as a way of expressing my experiencing different moments of quietude, how morning and night are both independent and interconnected entities in this regard,' she says. Her titles evoke canonical phrases referring to morning or evening prayers, as well as Latin and German phrasings for metaphors about the time of day. 'From my perspective, there is a lot of loneliness on this record, and I think it is as much about beginnings as endings,' she continues. 'In a way, it's about the prospect of the unknown as it manifests alongside a very inward form of grieving - really the essence of what constitutes a period of transition.' Davachi has mined a bottomless landscape where listeners can witness music's participation in their solitudes. Gave In Rest lends a voice to her personal exploration with a firm, intuitive stance."
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BING 141CD
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"Nobody is more surprised about having created a full ANMLPLNET album than the group itself: Slothrust leader Leah Wellbaum and drummer / singer Mickey Vershbow. The two met while they were both immersed in the Boston music scene, and then went on to pursue separate musical careers on opposite coasts. Their debut album Fall Asleep truly displays their magnetic musical bond, even while withstanding physical distance and hectic schedules. The band was formed originally on a number of rules, including writing lyrics that are antonymic translations (meaning nouns, adjectives and verbs were replaced with their antonyms) and playing songs straight through as one giant piece, no breaks. The band seeks to create dream-like soundscapes, both epochal in scope and melodic. Their goal is to explore the space between songwriting and improvisation, and the result is an uncontrived melding of their personal styles and technical mastery of their instruments. Wellbaum and Vershbow basically plan, dig, then embark on a fresh road towards rock brilliance."
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BING 141LP
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LP version. "Nobody is more surprised about having created a full ANMLPLNET album than the group itself: Slothrust leader Leah Wellbaum and drummer / singer Mickey Vershbow. The two met while they were both immersed in the Boston music scene, and then went on to pursue separate musical careers on opposite coasts. Their debut album Fall Asleep truly displays their magnetic musical bond, even while withstanding physical distance and hectic schedules. The band was formed originally on a number of rules, including writing lyrics that are antonymic translations (meaning nouns, adjectives and verbs were replaced with their antonyms) and playing songs straight through as one giant piece, no breaks. The band seeks to create dream-like soundscapes, both epochal in scope and melodic. Their goal is to explore the space between songwriting and improvisation, and the result is an uncontrived melding of their personal styles and technical mastery of their instruments. Wellbaum and Vershbow basically plan, dig, then embark on a fresh road towards rock brilliance."
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7"
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BING 138EP
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"Fresh NYC trio Wooing present their debut EP, Daydream Time Machine. Fronted by multi-instrumentalist Rachel Trachtenburg -- a performer in the New York music scene since she was nine years old -- Wooing offer hauntingly beautiful vocals backed by echoing guitars. The lead single, 'In Colour', displays the vintage influences that come into play: the urgency of underground 90s rock (i.e. Sonic Youth, Helium, Breeders) meets the psychedelic Syd Barrett sounds of the 60s."
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BING 116CD
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"With a musical timeline dating back to her early childhood, Laura Baird is an exceptionally talented multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter, best known for her projects with her sister, Meg, as The Baird Sisters, and guitarist Glenn Jones. Baird's own sound stems from the Appalachian folk tradition, and she connects to it via family lineage -- her great-great uncle I.G. Greer's folk recordings for the Library of Congress are a large influence. Also woven in are classical composers like Bach and Satie, and modern day musicians such as Opal and Yo La Tengo. With this debut solo album, I Wish I Were A Sparrow, Baird plays odes to the traditions from which she learned, combining Appalachian balladry and the roughness of old field recordings, but there is also a dose of dreaminess and solitude that captures sleepy central New Jersey. This is where she departs from tradition, leaving the communal origins of folk music to capture the singular self. The lyrics also present an amalgam of old and new, with half of the songs, including 'Dreadful Wind and Rain' and 'Pretty Polly,' being passed down from the folk tradition, and the other half, including 'Wind Wind' and 'Love Song From The Earth To The Moon,' coming from Baird's own hand. While the most salient part of her previous Baird Sisters project was the melding of familial voices and various instruments, Baird's solo effort is centered around the combination of her virtuosic banjo playing and prominent but airy vocals."
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BING 116LP
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LP version. "With a musical timeline dating back to her early childhood, Laura Baird is an exceptionally talented multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter, best known for her projects with her sister, Meg, as The Baird Sisters, and guitarist Glenn Jones. Baird's own sound stems from the Appalachian folk tradition, and she connects to it via family lineage -- her great-great uncle I.G. Greer's folk recordings for the Library of Congress are a large influence. Also woven in are classical composers like Bach and Satie, and modern day musicians such as Opal and Yo La Tengo. With this debut solo album, I Wish I Were A Sparrow, Baird plays odes to the traditions from which she learned, combining Appalachian balladry and the roughness of old field recordings, but there is also a dose of dreaminess and solitude that captures sleepy central New Jersey. This is where she departs from tradition, leaving the communal origins of folk music to capture the singular self. The lyrics also present an amalgam of old and new, with half of the songs, including 'Dreadful Wind and Rain' and 'Pretty Polly,' being passed down from the folk tradition, and the other half, including 'Wind Wind' and 'Love Song From The Earth To The Moon,' coming from Baird's own hand. While the most salient part of her previous Baird Sisters project was the melding of familial voices and various instruments, Baird's solo effort is centered around the combination of her virtuosic banjo playing and prominent but airy vocals."
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BING 119LP
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"While they've released records on their own, and even collaborated in the past (Orcas), Rafael Anton Irisarri and Benoit Pioulard have never made music quite like they do with Gailes. This is a pure winter doldrums soundtrack, when the stillness after a snowstorm ends elongates into deep contemplation. It's not surprising that Seventeen Words was conceived, composed and recorded as the duo weathered a brutal winter squall, the remains of which can be viewed on the album's artwork. This is bottomless music, minimal in sound yet majestic in presentation. Snow slows, time freezes. This is the world of Gailes, just a fragment of our own writ large for eternity."
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BING 126CD
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"Greyland, Tiny Hazard's debut, is a raw, jagged treasure -- a testament to the group's masterful intuition for pop songs in chaos. This jagged, unpredictable, celestial music is filled with terrestrial pain. The Brooklyn-based five piece, who formed when the group met at The New School, is anchored by the vocals of songwriter Alena Spanger. She recorded the vocals in the solitude of her bedroom, carving out a space that allowed her to explore the nuances of her voice. Her songwriting process began with gibberish and stream-of-consciousness style thoughts sung over melodies, eschewing the clumsiness of real words in favor of tone or timbre. Then she focused on the language, a slow process, to 'try and get it just right.' Trained in opera, Spanger prefers 'voices that are not perfect,' and was moved to explore vocal possibilities when she heard Meredith Monk."
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BING 126LP
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LP version. "Greyland, Tiny Hazard's debut, is a raw, jagged treasure -- a testament to the group's masterful intuition for pop songs in chaos. This jagged, unpredictable, celestial music is filled with terrestrial pain. The Brooklyn-based five piece, who formed when the group met at The New School, is anchored by the vocals of songwriter Alena Spanger. She recorded the vocals in the solitude of her bedroom, carving out a space that allowed her to explore the nuances of her voice. Her songwriting process began with gibberish and stream-of-consciousness style thoughts sung over melodies, eschewing the clumsiness of real words in favor of tone or timbre. Then she focused on the language, a slow process, to 'try and get it just right.' Trained in opera, Spanger prefers 'voices that are not perfect,' and was moved to explore vocal possibilities when she heard Meredith Monk."
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BING 130CD
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"Sometimes it can take years to find your calling. Not so for Julie Byrne, whose power of lyrical expression and musical nous seems inborn. Her second album, Not Even Happiness, has evolved at its own pace. It spans recollections of bustling roadside diners, the stars over the high desert, the aching weariness of change, the wildflowers of the California coast, and the irresolvable mysteries of love. Teaching herself guitar, having picked it up when her father became ill and could no longer play, Byrne also admits she can't read music and doesn't even listen to it all that much -- her own vinyl was the first in her possession. 'Without possessing the right words, I'd describe to [producer] Eric Littman (Phantom Posse) and Jake Falby (who contributed strings) the feeling I wanted a song to evoke, or I would take a shot at singing what was in my head. Though over all, their contributions to the record are entirely their own vision and their own power.' The follow-up to 2014's critically lauded Rooms With Walls And Windows, this latest offers a bigger picture through a wider exploration of instruments and atmospherics, revealing an artist who has grown in confidence over time. Whether witnessing the Pacific Northwest for the first time ('Melting Grid'), the morning sky in the mountains of Boulder ('Natural Blue'), or a journey fragrant with rose water or reading Frank O'Hara aloud from the passenger seat during a drive through the Utah desert into the rainforest of Washington State ('The Sea As It Glides'), Not Even Happiness is Byrne's beguiling ode to the fringes of life."
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BING 130LP
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LP version. "Sometimes it can take years to find your calling. Not so for Julie Byrne, whose power of lyrical expression and musical nous seems inborn. Her second album, Not Even Happiness, has evolved at its own pace. It spans recollections of bustling roadside diners, the stars over the high desert, the aching weariness of change, the wildflowers of the California coast, and the irresolvable mysteries of love. Teaching herself guitar, having picked it up when her father became ill and could no longer play, Byrne also admits she can't read music and doesn't even listen to it all that much -- her own vinyl was the first in her possession. 'Without possessing the right words, I'd describe to [producer] Eric Littman (Phantom Posse) and Jake Falby (who contributed strings) the feeling I wanted a song to evoke, or I would take a shot at singing what was in my head. Though over all, their contributions to the record are entirely their own vision and their own power.' The follow-up to 2014's critically lauded Rooms With Walls And Windows, this latest offers a bigger picture through a wider exploration of instruments and atmospherics, revealing an artist who has grown in confidence over time. Whether witnessing the Pacific Northwest for the first time ('Melting Grid'), the morning sky in the mountains of Boulder ('Natural Blue'), or a journey fragrant with rose water or reading Frank O'Hara aloud from the passenger seat during a drive through the Utah desert into the rainforest of Washington State ('The Sea As It Glides'), Not Even Happiness is Byrne's beguiling ode to the fringes of life."
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BING 072LP
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2016 repress. Originally released in 2010. "Epic, Van Etten's second album, lays a romantic melancholy lining over the gravel and dirt of heartbreak, without one honest thought or feeling spared. She sings of betrayal, obsession, egotism and all the other emotions we hate in others and recognize in ourselves. Van Etten's grounded and clenched vocals convey the sense of hope -- the notion that beauty can come out of the worst of circumstances. Epic is indeed that beauty. The album was recorded at Miner Street Studios in Philadelphia with Brian McTear. Where Van Etten's first record, Because I Was In Love, explored her thoughts on love through minimalism and sparseness, Epic embellishes her music to grandiose luminosity. She supplements guitar and vocals with drums, piano, lap steel and a trio of backing vocalists -- Meg Baird (Espers), Cat Martino and Jessica Larrabee (She Keeps Bees) -- for a fully realized album that astounds as it elucidates, disturbs as it soothes. The final track, 'Love More,' has already been covered live in a collaborative effort by Bon Iver and The National. "
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LP
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BING 117LP
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LP version. "Considering they've collaborated ever since they were kids living under the same roof, The Baird Sisters arguably could have made an album like Until You Find Your Green years ago. They've released two live recordings (the first recorded by their dad) and made plenty of demos, but this marks the first time Laura and Meg Baird decided to write and record a full-length on their own terms. The songs, recorded in Laura's house, have a familial intimacy joined by skillful depth, the ideal blend for a folk record, an equal mix of comfort and talent. These recordings capture the complexity of seventies progressive folk rock, emphasizing acoustic instrumentation with a lack of self-consciousness that can only come from a private domestic environment. Meg plays guitar, Laura banjo, singing in harmony, and ornamenting their songs with flute, cello, fiddle, mandolin, upright bass, percussion and a cricket chorus. Until You Find Your Green's songs seem traditional, but that's deceptive, and they unfold in greater depths the deeper attention paid to them."
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