|
|
|
|
viewing 1 To 11 of 11 items
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
10"
|
|
CARE 007EP
|
The complex compositions of Mucky Sailor (Steve Nuttall, drums; composer Gus Bousfield, keyboards and vocals) are informed by progressive rock, the intensity of punk, and the hooks and melody of pop. In live performance, they achieve something of a Gesamtkunstwerk, as naval attire, frenetic performance style, and bespoke ship's wheel oscillator synth evoke a stormy sea. Here, the full brass-and-woodwind section of "Albatross, Silly Albatross" augments the avant-power-funk before a dialogue for woodwind mouthpiece echoes the existential breakdown in Sonny Rollins's East Broadway Run Down (1966). "Beefy Bells" opens with gentle Hammond before joyfully languishing in its doom-laden world.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
10"
|
|
CARE 008EP
|
Alien Whale is a Brooklyn-based three piece pooling together the talents of Mottel, Langenus and Lesley, who between daytime jobs in Talibam, USAISAMONSTER and Necking possess a collective resume that cites past involvement with such luminaries as Thurston Moore, the Boredoms, Rhys Chatham and the Fluxus movement. "Astral Projections and Suicidal Thoughts" is a head-locking hypnotic trip that admirers of everything from Blue Cheer to Neu! will dig. "Space Boots Foots to Foots" provides another formidable speaker-splintering slab of big-bearded, heads-down, primordial beatnik-blistered rock-a-hula. "Anointus Venomous Atlanticus" is a hulking cosmic magic carpet ride rippled in kaleidoscopic hazes and succulently awash in the transcendental calm of arabesque mirages.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
10"
|
|
CARE 006EP
|
Kurt Vile and Robert Robinson were introduced to each other back in 2001 by a mutual friend, and by the following year they had begun recording these recently-unearthed and previously-unreleased tracks. Robinson is a past member of The Violators, has toured in Ariel Pink's band, but is best known for his own outfit, Sore Eros. The EP's title-track takes its name from Boston, Massachusetts, where it was recorded. This unhurried and meandering track, that opens with its simple finger-picked melody on acoustic guitar, is a melancholic evocation of a pastoral idyll enhanced by the solely analog production and harmonious use of a drum machine and Korg synth. "Serum" features Robinson's naïve vocal style, which cuts through Vile's gloopy, laudanum-influenced remix treatment of the instrumentation. "Calling Out of Work" returns to the territory of "Jamaica Plain," albeit with a more abstract interior landscape.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
CARE 109LP
|
LP version. There can't be many who possess a back catalog containing more hidden gems and scarcely-touched-upon curios than R. Stevie Moore. Dubbed "The Grandfather of DIY" by some, it's the only tag that's ever stuck for this prolific, chameleonic artist, whose cult status has grown over nearly half a century of music-making, and whose back catalog -- which numbers in the hundreds of releases -- has influenced everyone from Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore to lo-fi pop king Ariel Pink. This wave of musical admiration from peers, both contemporary and new, has helped push this once most outsider of musicians towards the wider consciousness; the past two years have seen him appear on the cover of Wire, record a session for the BBC, tour Europe and tread festival stages -- the consequences of a most endearingly unfashionable artist suddenly finding himself in fashion. Personal Appeal both showcases why such acclaim is several decades overdue, but in its body of material it actually goes back to way before the magazine covers and rise to cult iconicity that Moore can now justly enjoy. These tracks have been taken from a period in between 1973 to 2001, an era during which he forged a deep connection -- for better or worse -- with New Jersey, after moving there from his native Nashville in 1978. The sheer volume of releases that have come out through Moore's career perhaps explain the wider overload of thought that occupies this most frenetic of minds. As he was releasing music on a number of labels, including his uncle's HP Music, he also put out swathes more on his own mail-order Cassette Club, which operated out of his NJ home. The cuts on Personal Appeal all derive from this vast, largely un-catalogued well of material that he was creating and self-producing alongside his more official output. The selection tells a story, not through comprehension, but through mood and representation. It veers through surf-rock, freak-folk, touches on bluegrass and country -- a nod to his formative years -- and sprawls outwards to include orchestral flourishes and broader rock sounds; Moore's writing has always mixed humor with melancholic sincerity, as indicated on track-titles like "Why Can't I Write a Hit?" and "Pretend for a Second That You Are Very Intelligent." Personal Appeal is a series of snapshots and insights into the mind of a man for whom the only editor he had or could answer to during his NJ years was himself. It's a narrative applied to a mass of frequently brilliant full recordings, half-ideas and experiments, and a reflection on the ups and downs of an artist who continued to strive for his music even when hope of any wider recognition seemed lost.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
CARE 109CD
|
There can't be many who possess a back catalog containing more hidden gems and scarcely-touched-upon curios than R. Stevie Moore. Dubbed "The Grandfather of DIY" by some, it's the only tag that's ever stuck for this prolific, chameleonic artist, whose cult status has grown over nearly half a century of music-making, and whose back catalog -- which numbers in the hundreds of releases -- has influenced everyone from Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore to lo-fi pop king Ariel Pink. This wave of musical admiration from peers, both contemporary and new, has helped push this once most outsider of musicians towards the wider consciousness; the past two years have seen him appear on the cover of Wire, record a session for the BBC, tour Europe and tread festival stages -- the consequences of a most endearingly unfashionable artist suddenly finding himself in fashion. Personal Appeal both showcases why such acclaim is several decades overdue, but in its body of material it actually goes back to way before the magazine covers and rise to cult iconicity that Moore can now justly enjoy. These tracks have been taken from a period in between 1973 to 2001, an era during which he forged a deep connection -- for better or worse -- with New Jersey, after moving there from his native Nashville in 1978. The sheer volume of releases that have come out through Moore's career perhaps explain the wider overload of thought that occupies this most frenetic of minds. As he was releasing music on a number of labels, including his uncle's HP Music, he also put out swathes more on his own mail-order Cassette Club, which operated out of his NJ home. The cuts on Personal Appeal all derive from this vast, largely un-catalogued well of material that he was creating and self-producing alongside his more official output. The selection tells a story, not through comprehension, but through mood and representation. It veers through surf-rock, freak-folk, touches on bluegrass and country -- a nod to his formative years -- and sprawls outwards to include orchestral flourishes and broader rock sounds; Moore's writing has always mixed humor with melancholic sincerity, as indicated on track-titles like "Why Can't I Write a Hit?" and "Pretend for a Second That You Are Very Intelligent." Personal Appeal is a series of snapshots and insights into the mind of a man for whom the only editor he had or could answer to during his NJ years was himself. It's a narrative applied to a mass of frequently brilliant full recordings, half-ideas and experiments, and a reflection on the ups and downs of an artist who continued to strive for his music even when hope of any wider recognition seemed lost.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
7"
|
|
CARE 715EP
|
After the critical success of I Don't Go (CARE 106LP), which saw Lark front man and songwriter Karl Bielik go solo for a creative regression into a more unhinged psychological sound space than his full band debut ,Goodbye Man sees Bielik return with a beautifully succinct work of minimal coldwave.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
7"
|
|
CARE 711EP
|
Gary War has produced a highly-considered body of work that's mostly been described as otherworldly, intergalactic, acid-drenched, warped, deranged, often apocalyptic but mostly dystopian, as music journalists try to decipher his original aesthetic. Arguably amongst his best work, this double A-side release of "Zontag" and "Don't Go Out" (Sacred Bones Records, 2009) demonstrates the continually-evolving and dense language of War's damaged viewpoint, developed since his debut album New Raytheonport (SHDWPLY Records, 2008, reissued by Care In The Community, 2013).
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
CARE 106LP
|
Larks' second album sees its founder, front man, and songwriter Karl Bielik present a purely solo project. The band's first album, Shop, backed by their tight live performances for the likes of Scritti Politti and Rob Da Bank has seen them gain plaudits from a growing fan base and musical luminaries. Their first single, The Animal's Claw was Rough Trade's Record of the Week and prominent producers Andrew Weatherall, Brendan Lynch, and Erol Alkan have all remixed Lark tracks. The working process of Lark has not changed and neither have they as a live force, though now I Don't Go sees the original solo versions of the songs deservedly make the final cut. There's continuity in Bielik's dominating vocal style ranging from the belligerent to the tender or unhinged falsetto but with more space given to developing his lyrical narratives. Less familiar is the broad, unfettered and at times unorthodox approach to instrumentation. It's an album of extremes with a satisfying unpredictability and invention that makes favorable comparisons to The Fall, Daniel Johnston, and Tom Waits.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
7"
|
|
CARE 712EP
|
Limited edition single-sided 7" in a heavyweight colored card sleeve with gold foil design on front and illustration on back. On the 25th anniversary of the Pet Shop Boys release of It's a Sin, Ergo Phizmiz releases his fantastic baroque-skronk version. Composer, multi-instrumentalist, writer and broadcaster Ergo Phizmiz was described by Mojo as "like Vivian Stanshall, Syd Barrett, and Dali making merry" while he can count amongst his fans Michael Nyman and The Simpsons creator Matt Groening.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
CARE 108CD
|
After the critical success of his 2010 debut album, Things to Do and Make, composer Ergo Phizmiz returned to a string of often award-winning commissions for radio (BBC 3 and 4 and German national radio) theater and opera before coming back full circle to the melodic three-minute popular song form. Earlier this year, over the space of a few weeks, and in typically prolific style, he refined and self-recorded a number of ideas that had been forming in his head while busy with other projects. Leaving behind the favorable comparisons to the 1960s Canterbury Sound or Vivian Stanshall of his debut and occupying less identifiable territory, the resulting Eleven Songs is a leaner, harder collection of songs that, as the title suggests, each stand in their own right. Although ostensibly the album consists of ten songs and an instrumental, Ergo considers "Space Dance," a Sun Ra tribute, in the manner of "Lieder ohne Worte," a song without words. With no default mode of music-making, but versed in so many, it would be fair to call Ergo a music conceptualist. But the purposeful construction of his writing and production methods are always in the service, rather than at the expense, of the pure joy of what makes a good song. Anyone who has seen Ergo perform will instantly recognize in these songs his natural theatricality, narrative drive, and a lack of pretension that allows music to be a shared experience. This is a highly addictive album that should echo the chorus of voices that acclaimed his first album with the lament that there aren't more pop musicians like this.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
CARE 108LP
|
|
|
|
|
|