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FTR 542LP
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$22.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 4/2/2021
"We were introduced to the work of Brooklyn polymath Curtis Godino by Gary Panter. We asked Gary to recommend someone with light show expertise, and he said Curtis was the guy. That was true. We also learned that Curtis was an ace musician, which has resulted in two prior FTR releases. The first was The Cave LP (FTR 417LP, 2019) by Worthless. The second was the Corners and Their Places cassette by Nothing To Semble. Both of these releases were form-busting masterworks of outsider/prog crossover with hallucinogenic overtones. And even mightier is this new LP, Alien Nation, which sounds to us like a lost '67 Mothers album, recorded at Apostolic Studios while the band was in NYC for their six-month run at the Garrick Theater. Admittedly there's nowhere near as much guitar as you'd find on an actual Mothers record, so imagine what the band might have done on a session where Frank was sick and things were led being by Don Preston and Ian Underwood in full freak mode. The music is wonderfully cartoony electronic wheezing with all sorts of other instruments (and/or mock instruments) blended into the mix. And the vocals don't sound like Frank either, but just imagine if John Kilgore had left open microphones strewn all over the studio for various people to spoot into when they wanted. It's kinda like that. But even more fucked up. With hints of Bonzos-style pop-malfunction surfacing here and there like toy robot blimps. Really wonderful stuff. If I could be any recreational drug I could name, I'd like to think I'd sound just like this." --Byron Coley, 2021
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FTR 536LP
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$22.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 3/19/2021
"What's round on the ends and high in the middle? Why, the new LP by those proud Buckeyes, Sex Tide, of course. Ohio is the first album they've recorded with a full quartet line-up. Bassist Phillip Park and saxophonist Ryan Mcauley join the core duo (drummer/vocalist Aurelie Celine and guitarist Chris Corbin) to create a new fat-ass sound that continually conjures up visions of the 1970 Stooges. As with the previous Sex Tide LPs we've done -- Possession Sessions (FTR 325LP, 2017) and Flash Fuck / Vernacular Splatter (FTR 436LP, 2019) -- a lot of the vibes here are generated by Aurelie's relentless pounding and reckless vocals, along with Chris's truly unhinged guitar. With Park's bass holding things down in an entirely new way, and Mcauley's alto wailing for the ghost of Steve Mackay, Celine and Corbin are allowed the freedom to go even further out than usual. And this is a challenge neither of them can pass up. The new width of Sex Tide's sonic contextualism is evident from the start. 'Everything That Happens in the Dark' is outlined by blasted saxophone lines and riven down the middle by a bass line as thick as the trunk of a Buckeye (the state tree of Ohio.) And if the start of 'State Medical Board' doesn't make you think of a Funhouse-era remake of 'Real Cool Time,' you better sit down and have a cold compress. Once your bean is chill, you might well be able to appreciate the wildly crunching ebb and flow of the four tunes on side one. It's a massive event. And the flip is even more amazing, if you ask me. Over a bottom resembling the one created when the Cramps broke open the bones of Bo Diddley and Link Wray, things start with a freaked-out blues wail, before lurching into a something like a distended re-imagination of 8-Eyed Spy's version of Nancy Sinatra's 'Lightning's Girl.' The music just goes on riffing and wiggling from there, and the whole side flows together like a hot lava sundae from the volcano of your choice. And 'experts' may tell you the last volcanic activity in Ohio was back in the Devonian Period, but I suggest you fuck both them and the horse they rode in on. Ohio is nothing if not a large scale and very molten happening." --Byron Coley
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FTR 544LP
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"Fantastic new LP by this Brooklyn quintet, most of whom are deeply involved in the legendary Sunview Luncheonette scene. The roots of Jantar lie in a nameless experimental duo formed by Chad Laird and Tianna Kennedy in 2005 or so, but this duo has evolved into a working band with two distinct creative strategies. One of their aims in make 'experimental easy listening music,' which involves working angles that are similar to film music, although perhaps with a bit of Stereolab poured on top. Their other mode is more overtly rockoid, and that was the intent when they recorded Sempronia in the summer of 2017. While the sounds here do have moments of cinematic heft, the main thrust has a sheen that reminds me of updated examples of Canterbury classicism (specifically Soft Machine, Hatfield & Gong) as well a certain sophisticated element of the West Coast underground of the early '80s (Monitor, Romans, Fibinaccis, etc.) Without any kind of the nostalgic twaddle that haunts most contemporary stabs in the Canterbury direction, Jantar's music uses elements of the sound to create new kinds of rock. Meaning it's informed by such bands rather than indebted to their four-eyed legacy. Great keyboard tones, rhythm clumps, vocals and all else. The music on Sempronia is a wonderful convergence of a lot disparate threads that manage to meld together better than anyone could dream. As sweet and smart as any pie. Honest." --Byron Coley, 2021
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FTR 373CS
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"Feeding Tube is excited to announce the first new release in a good long while by Michael R. Bernstein, one of the central figures in the sub-underground scene of the late '90s onward. Back when he was still based in NYC, Bernstein played and recorded extensively with Double Leopards and Religious Knives, and also ran the important Heavy Tapes imprint. After that he relocated to the DC area, eventually opening the excellent HR Records (one greater DC's best stores). Sometime in the last year, Mike decided to start making some music and passed along a few files. This cassette, subtitled Meditations and Realizations for Five Voice, is a documentation of these new experiments. The structures of the five pieces are quite different, but they're all assembled in similar ways, using sequencers to create overlaid patterns of notes, riffing on the discoveries of the first generation of 'minimalist' (so-called) composers. In the course of my audio travels, I hear the work of many artists who are trying to create their own unique response to the music of Reich, Young et al., but Bernstein really fucking nails it. The subtleties of his temporal and melodic shifts are amazing and hypnotic. His attention to the pace at which these changes happen is also indicative of a different level of rhythmic sophistication than is displayed by most of his contemporaries. Slower Learn is a lesson in how much potential this sort of material still harbors. Nice to have you back, Bernstein!" --Byron Coley, 2021.
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FTR 539LP
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"Pleased as punch are we to be reissuing Michael Hurley's long-lost 1984 album, Blue Navigator. Admittedly, Secret Seven and Mississippi collaborated on a dandy 8-track version a decade ago, but the record has mostly been available as an obscure import CD -- if at all -- for many a year. The reason for this is that the Rooster Records HQ burned down in 1987, taking master tapes, extra covers and whatever else there was with it. This was a general bummer, but especially so for us Hurley fans, since his final LP with Rounder was Snockgrass in 1980, and he didn't hook up with Fundamental to do Watertower until 1987. The disappearance of Blue Navigator from this earth left a sizable hole. Which we'd now like to think has been plugged. Recorded with a cast of Northern Vermont hepcats including guitarist Jon Weber (of Dan Hicks' original Hot Licks), head Rooster William Wright on guitar and mandolin, Nancy Beavan on vocals, Gordon Stone on pedal steel and various other goners, all playing some sweet rural swing displaying exactly how Hurley became the toast of the snowmobile club circuit during his days in the North Country. A mix of old favorites -- 'Werewolf,' 'Open Up (Eternal Lips)' -- new favorites -- 'Code of the Mountains,' 'Ghost Woman Blues' -- and even a re-write -- 'Blue Navigator' -- it's a great, very casual sounding session, revealing more layers the more you listen. The instrumentation varies a lot between tunes, but the music always flows with Snocky grace and assurance. For this reissue, Michael has written a set of illustrated liner notes that scoot around just the way his conversation does on a long car ride. Which makes me miss the open road as much as anything else today. Just close your eyes, sink back into the music on Blue Navigator and pretend you're drifting through the hills and valleys of the Green Mountain State on your way to a cold growler of beer. You'll soon feel like a million bucks. Promise!" --Byron Coley, 2020
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FTR 569LP
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"Frank Hurricane's been chugging along at his own personal pace for a good while now, and the further he rambles, the further we roam with him. Here he's joined by Jake Merrick on bass, vocals, and keys and John Spiegel on drums and percussion. And it feels good. The group exquisitely compliments Frank's tales of travel and serenity and the embrace of uncertainty. There's a languid hallucinatory Meat Puppets vibe to 'Creekside Cooler,' 'Spivey,' and 'Wildorado,' a song with a killer Taco Bell shout-out. Elsewhere they lope through after-hours vibes that could be drawn from the Raccoon catalog or some Shangri-La Studio sessions. Some examples: 'Cold and Snow' gives a classic American trope the Hurricane psilocybin head nod treatment. Frank's always aware of spirits, and on 'I Know I'll See a Ghost' he casts himself as temporarily dead -- or halfway dead at least. It's the spiritual purgatory outlined by George Saunders in Lincoln in the Bardo funneled into a '90s flannel. 'Devil's Looking Glass' is almost bardic in scope and feel. 'Dandelions' renders the intoxication of amorous desire into a chug worthy of Crazy Horse. 'Luna Belle' starts as a lilting evening lament and gallops off to the moon before it gets started. 'Dreamed About You' could be a song about missing just about anything or anyone or any hope or any wish. And so Frank Hurricane yawps wide and loud, once again, without apology, from his jug of love. This record is an elegy to sadly departed friends (Danny Cruz, Terry Turtle, et al.), and a beautiful dream of a future none of us can quite imagine but should probably be working towards." --Matt Krefting, Holyoke, MA 2020
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FTR 577LP
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"Paradoxically, the second LP by Spiral Wave Nomads documents the first time Albany-based guitarist Eric Hardiman and New Haven-based drummer Michael Kiefer attempted to play as two humans inhabiting the same locus inside the time/space continuum. The pair had been trading files and music for a good while. Their eponymous debut LP (FTR 455) was produced remotely and released too much rapture in May 2019. But they had never actually played together until later in that summer. First Encounters is raw documentation of what happened when they walked into the studio at Eric's, house, set up and let the music flow. Very much in the same headspace as their debut, the improvisations here combine sinewy, SCG-informed guitar lines with cymbal-rich percussion that moves in laterally jazzoid patterns. But that's not all of it. Other parts make me think of a stripped-down version of Feelies (during their brief mostly-instrumental phase in the early '80s) jumping deep into psych improvisation. In other spots I'm put in mind of tapes I've been hearing of '60s Bay Area guitarists getting themselves into 'trouble' while playing on acid. There are these moments where the guitarist (Garcia, Cipollina, Kaukonen, etc.) realizes they've hit a wall, and they either back down or they decide to take the wall apart. In the latter instances the players become de facto avant-gardists, since the deconstruction process is so different from their standard practices. Anyway, there's some of that here as well. Although given Hardiman's deep experimental roots, his moves are presumably a more conscious decision to go 'out.' The upshot is that the four tracks on First Encounters are wonderfully explosive, difficult to predict and utterly mind-melting. Just the thing to soak in during what looks to be a hard-ass winter. Spiral Wave Nomads' music reminds us that spring will eventually blossom again." --Byron Coley, 2020
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FTR 369CS
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"FTR is excited and honored to be working with the Virginia-based guitarist, Jordan Perry, again on his new cassette. Our previous work with Jordan began with a reissue of his eponymous 2017 debut LP originally released by Good Cry Records, and was followed by vinylization of his self-released 2018 cassette, Witness Tree (FTR 465LP). Both of these albums are fantastic blends of folk technique and avant strategies, and the same can be said of this new cassette, Changing Always Who Is Waving to Us. Comprised of four pieces longer than the work on those earlier albums, the material was recorded earlier this year, originally just as a way to document some improvisations. Jordan returned to them when he was trying to write a new batch of tunes and, 'felt like they sat together nicely and were managing to do some of the stuff on their own that I was trying for with pen to paper.' Once he realized this, the project came together pretty quickly, and he decided to use a poem he'd been working on to name the tracks (and the tape itself). a cycle back not too fast with chilly eyes but two came by as our plastic horses rise and fall changing always who is waving to us. It's beautiful stuff. Like his other the music, quietly reflective in some spots and pungently intellectual in others. The length of the instrumentals also allows each to assume the feel of a mini-suite, and gives these alternating emotional approaches a chance to reconcile and create a new alloy. Perry has a way of approaching the guitar that is truly unique. And the closer you listen to it, the more surprises you'll discover in his music. Just amazing." --Byron Coley, 2020
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FTR 558LP
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"Having explored a lot of Southern Vermont-based artists over the past decade and a half, it now seems time to cast our gaze northward. From the cold shores of Champlain comes the music of Wren Kitz, a singer and guitarist from Burlington VT. Unlike much of his earlier work, which falls into what might be called a 'progressive/experimental folk bag,' Early Worm documents a harder sound. As Mr. Kitz says, 'It's my rock n roll album.' And he ain't kidding. While some of the tunes were initially developed in a solo setting, their final realization was accomplished by a four-piece band with cellist Lauren Costello, bassist Ross Doree, and drummer Rob Voland. The sound on Early Worm is a natural and louder progression from Wren's most recent album, the NNA cassette, Dancing on Soda Lake. One notable point of departure is Rob's drumming -- more formidably rockoid than his predecessor's. The wailingness-factor of Wren's guitar tone has also been upped by the gift of a new wah-wah pedal. His guitar now has a stuttering rawness that makes for a beautiful contrast with the sweetly flowing vocal melodies, which bear vestiges of Valentine, Vile, and Young. The sound of Early Worm careens around wildly. Parts of the songs are tightly controlled compositions with traces of folkier times, but these often dissolve (eventually) in an acid bath of wonderfully berserk guitar chaos. Trying to reconcile the pieces can make your brain overheat, so don't try. Just sit back and enjoy the rich madness of Early Worm. Its roll is not something you've heard before. Get used to it. Or get burned." --Byron Coley, 2020
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FTR 537LP
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In the 1930s, the Dust Bowl was the most devastating man-made ecological catastrophe in human history. In 2020, Dust World. After pioneering the now thriving form of underground-band-as-character-based-performance-art, and filling 2017-2019 with a staggering number of wigged-up Banny Grove shows in support of a self-released record and a 7" EP, Banny Grove leader Louise Chicoine decided to trade in the costume and the cartoonish-ness that were her signatures in order to break ground on a more profound and lasting body of work. Perhaps not coincidentally, this shift also saw the group relocating from the reputedly over-the-top and image-conscious metropolis of Los Angeles to a solar-powered shack and recording studio in the middle of the Mojave Desert. Here they set out to distill elements of pop and electronic music with a high level of compositional inventiveness and a touch of country-western flavor, and to sharpen Louise's lyrics to the unflinching edge demanded by our sick and confusing era. Dust World is the document of this transformation, the wet-eyed smile of a clown removing her makeup for possibly the last time. Album opener "Malibu" establishes the pattern: a splashy beachball tune with a chromatic hook, that suddenly breaks apart for a last full minute of drifting introspection. And then we get "Blue and Green," a naked and furious take on climate collapse that rises from a lament to a rallying anthem. "So Happy, So Good" offers a return to clowning, as Louise raps like Debbie Harry about the power of free and indestructible pleasures -- before the album's centerpiece "Piece of Mine" takes you on an immersive R&B-driven trip back to an old-west fireside. The same dialectic plays out on Side B, finding one of its strongest iterations in the slow burner "Goo-Goo's Melody," wherein Louise roasts the apathy of our oligarchs in what sounds like a series of nursery rhymes. And with "Covered in Love," the swinging chunk of electro-country that closes the album, the band manages to craft a heartfelt love song out of what's ostensibly a parody of an insurance commercial. Banny Grove is a singular voice in today's increasingly unsupervised art music world, forging a nexus of underground experimentalism and pop accessibility that was previously thought to be impossible. No wonder the band has become as beloved by the art school crowd as they are by more mainstream-leaning demographics.
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FTR 579CD
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"Divine Horsemen were a band formed & led by Chris D between the years 1983 and 1988, while he was on hiatus from the Flesh Eaters. Divine Horsemen (taking their name from one of the Flesh Eaters' most powerful stompers) emerged as a byproduct of Chris' gorgeous solo album, Time Stands Still. He met singer Julie Christensen a few months before the recording, and the mix of their voices was such a perfect pairing of honey and gravel, they knew they had to keep working together. Taking a more measured rock tone (as compared to the raging word-zonk of the Flesh Eaters), Divine Horsemen recorded three great LPs and one EP for SST. They were also an amazingly solid live band, combining Chris' gonzo pulp imagery with those incredible twinned vocals, massive guitar riffs and a truly locked-in rhythm section. The two shows from which this album is harvested were recorded just before the Devil's River album came out in '85, and close on the heels of '87's Middle of the Night. It seems wild to me, listening to this disk for the umpteenth time, how together these songs are as rock-qua-rock monsters. I realize I'm biased and all, but I'd say half of the tunes are nothing less than goddamn classics. I somewhat prefer the later version of the band with Peter Andrus on guitar (he replaced Wayne James, Cam King and Marshall Rohner), but that's just picking nits. The core of the line-up was stable -- Julie and Chris singing, the late Robyn Jameson (the sole holdover from the Flesh Eaters) on bass, Rex Roberts on drums -- and they always sounded real damn good. Sadly, the band didn't last as long as hoped. Chris and Julie got married, but that was a collaboration that burned too hot to last. The band split when the couple did, which ended a truly ecstatic vocal pair-up. Julie went on to work for almost a decade as Leonard Cohen's angelic foil, but I was more excited to hear she was guesting on 2019's boss Flesh Eaters' album, I Used to be Pretty. And her vocal spots at a few of their live shows were spine-tingling. But there's nothing quite like the sound of Divine Horsemen. From the hot rod thuggery of 'Mother's Worry' to the sweet massage of 'Middle of the Night,' their music will take you where you want to go. So, lay back and dig this disk, while you wait for their new studio LP, Hot Rise of an Ice Cream Phoenix, on In the Red. There is also talk of a live tour, which would be fan-fucking-tastic. More than that I cannot say. Selah." --Byron Coley, 2020
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FTR 371CS
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"Cassette reissue of a legendary LP, recorded live in Ottawa at the Dominion Tavern on March 23, 2012 during Damo's Canadian tour. Originally released in an edition of 100 on the band's own Birdman Sound label, this set finds the peripatetic Can singer (who, like Chuck Berry before him, tends to play with instrumental backing by local talent) in some of the best company he has yet found. TBWNIAS (in septet format this evening) lay down thick slabs of the distended heavy guitar psych with which they've made their rep. But they're always had underground Germanic influences that surface in their work, so when Damo switches into Tago Mago mode, they are on it, with exquisite Leibezeit drum patterns setting the stage for throbbing strings and a pulse Damo could follow in the dark. Totally improvised, the music and words move like a river flowing through your brain -- sometimes the slowly curling current floats you along like a dream, sometimes the foaming whitewater just about swamps you. But it's a thrilling ride, champ, and now you can have yourself a copy for just pennies a day. If this ain't your lucky say, what is?" --Byron Coley, 2020
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FTR 538LP
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"FTR is tickled pink to present the second album in the Drowned Land series, a group of recordings selected by Jason Meagher from recordings made at his Black Dirt Studio. Les Conversions are the trio of Dave Shuford, Pat Murano, and Jason himself, three musicians first recognized for their work with the legendary No Neck Blues Band. Their first two LPs, Les Conversions (KEL 015LP, 2013) and Snowwhite (Holidays Records, 2013) were recorded during a single 2011 session and both brim with long form no rules brain fucking that is damn hard to put your finger on. Suffice to say that of all the countless projects associated with NNCK, Les Conversions are in some ways the closest to tapping the same endlessly fluxible root. The session for Cassette went down in 2017. Pat mixed the album, and Jason released it on his Microdose tape label in an edition of 20 or so. Nice to know it will now get a few more ears stuck to its shimmering curves, because the music on Cassette is full flowing freakery. As Jason says, 'We consider this, not paisley swirly doo-dah, to be psychedelic music.' And it's hard to argue with that while the two sidelong tracks crawl under your skin and begin broadcasting weird signals to your brain. There are riffs and pulses present throughout the music, but there is also a sense of true freedom that is beholden to none of the usual form-anchors. Making this one of the nicest soundtracks for hallucinogenic shuffling I've heard in a dog's age. Just what the doctor ordered!" --Byron Coley, 2020 Co-released with Drowned Lands.
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FTR 257LP
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"Here is the first volume of protean solo improvisations recorded by Loren Connors in his artist's garret in New Haven, Connecticut. It was committed to tape on February 20, 1979 and pressed to vinyl soon after. As with the two earlier LPs on Loren's Daggett label, singer/recorder-player Kath Bloom also appears on this record, although only on the second side. Those prior LPs were both issued in 1978, The first was Acoustic Guitar/Gifts a split LP with Loren solo on one side and with Kath joining him on the flip. The second was Fields, which I have been assured uses the same split format. Although most people cannot help themselves from believing all nine volumes of this series (all of which we will be reissuing) are of a piece, the first volume represents a real declaration of identity for Loren. He was introducing himself publicly as a guitar player, although his approach was still very much dictated by the influence of the painter, Mark Rothko, who Loren once described as using a minimal palette to create vital art. The music on Unaccompanied Acoustic Guitar Vol. 1 is less violent than the solo side of the Acoustic Guitar/Gifts split. I've never been able to hear a copy of Fields, so I can't compare that one. But the feel to this session is bluesy, in as much as Loren's wordless vocals have a surface similarity to a hellhound's, and while he was not using a slide, most of the notes he plays are bent to the edges of their known range. Fahey always said blues was 'about' anger, however and there's not really any of that here. I am more reminded of this Rothko quote. 'You've got sadness in you, I've got sadness in me ... and my works of art are places where the two sadnesses can meet, and therefore both of us need to feel less sad.' The first side is solo. On the second Loren is joined for a bit by Kath on hums and recorder. The music brims with sorrow more than anything else. And while it's clear Loren was embracing an abstract avant garde aesthetic vis-a-vis his playing, the urge to communicate seems to lie at its roots. Whatever you choose to call it, this is the beginning of something quite beautiful." --Byron Coley, 2020
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FTR 514LP
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"Feeding Tube was chuffed to take Professor Steve Hesske's advice and make way for the fifth vinyl LP by Mordecai. I mean, when the Professor speaks even the cows take notice. And we are all descended from cows, right? So why not? Originally based around Butte Montana, formed by two brothers who claim to have been born (or conceived) (or some damn thing) on crappy Dead tours ('89 and '92, meaning the ones that resulted in 'Without a Net' and 'Althea' from 30 Trips Around the Sun), Mordecai took an unlikely backstory and spun it into solid gold dirt. The tunes on Library Music were recorded during 2015-2017 and represent another fine sideways style leap by this highly discordian trio. Musically the attack, as usual, makes me think of someone playing a bunch of Siltbreeze records on top of each other, and mixing in shards of the Dept Store Santas for good measure. People often mention the Stooges when talking about Mordecai's approach, but their sound is raw in a whole different sort of way. It demonstrates an actual ability to play coherent tunes in the manner of sub-underground South Island kiwis, but twists violently away from any sort of formal acknowledgement of 'song' as a necessity in performing music. Which makes me suspect the version of the Stooges Mordecai most closely resembles is the legendary vacuum-cleaner/golf-cleat iteration of the psychedelic Stooges no one ever bothered to record. What Mordecai does can sound pretty random, but because of the clues they occasionally cough up in the middle of their tunes, one suspects they are as well versed in the arcana of Columbus OH as they are in Dunedin's. And that the whiffs of late '70s freak bands (from Doors and Windows to Destry Hampton and the Lone Wolves from Hell) are not arbitrary or capricious. They're just tributes to all the wild mooks who preceded them into the tunnels of despond. Library Music. It's a great record." --Byron Coley, 2020
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FTR 522LP
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London's kings of noise Sly & The Family Drone follow up their 2019 Love Love LP Gentle Persuaders with Walk It Dry, an eight-track LP collaboratively released by Love Love Records in the UK and Feeding Tube Records in the USA. Walk It Dry utilizes the familiar sound palette of scronked electronics, bulging noise blasts, wailing sax, and Kalashnikov drums that was found on Gentle Persuaders but is a very a different beast. The tracks here are shorter and punchier as the band digs deeper than ever to find increasingly potent sonic pockets. Bolstered with a directional force rare in this strain of noise the album begins at the deep end with "A Black Uniformed Strutting Animal", a raucous cacophony backed by a thick groove, before the bleeps and bloops of "Dead Cat Chaos Magician" kick in, sounding like a haunting in the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. "Swearing On The Horns" is a folk-sludge ditty scraping through a psychic wormhole that exits at the feet of "Bulgarian Steel" -- a grimacing march punctuated with metallic screams where the sax becomes an overstressed alarm siren. "Shrieking Grief", with its rapid fire drum rolls and megaton payloads of pummeling noise, concludes the A side loudly. Side B opens with stretched-out droning layers and winding loops on "Sunken Disorderly", providing a gloomy refuge for some cosmic meditation. The album at this point converges into the morbidly fascinating black-and-white horror of "My Torso Is A Shotgun", perhaps the most widescreen and immediate example of the band's progression, before playing out with the deathly lament of "Tsukiji". A suitable soundtrack to the end-times.
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FTR 545LP
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Prana Crafter is William Sol, a musical mystic who blends the raw energies of nature with guitars, synthesizers, singing bowls, and a dose of flow-consciousness. The resulting sonic nectar flows out from the amplifier, cascading in the mind of the listener, splashing mantras against the listener's third ear. Some music is meant to entertain, to be consumed like flashing patterns on a TV screen. Not so with the music of Prana Crafter. This music is a sonic-tapestry of energies that are meant to envelop the listener and deliver a message that, as Sol puts it, cannot be known through symbol or through sign. Likened to artists across the psychedelic and folk spectrums -- Popul Vuh, Agitation Free, Six Organs/Ben Chasny -- Sol's self-professed mentors-in-spirit Jerry Garcia, Jimi Hendrix, and Manuel Göttsching are present as well in familiar and surprising ways. In review it has been said that Prana Crafter's music is "an example of psych-folk at its finest" (Raven Sings the Blues), "like a long lost pressing from the early '70s, it's a mist shrouded mysterious meditation" (Shindig Magazine), and even that, "few other musicians are making music as ambitious and genuine as Prana Crafter" (The Active Listener). Will has said he thinks of himself as a conduit when recording and with MysticMorpho Prana Crafter are creating truly cosmic music, a synthesized mediation -- think if you will of Terry Reilly and Sandy Bull blending their hypnotic energy flow together. MysticMorpho is a 35-minute kosmische inspired acid opus that lets your mind venture in the slipstream, between the viaducts of your dream before gently floating you back down to Earth. Presented in a lush gloss laminated outer sleeve with exquisite artwork design by John Nicol.
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FTR 532LP
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"Michael is the third LP we have done with Boston-based musician, Joseph Allred. The first, O Meadowlark (FTR 451LP, 2019) was a suite for guitar and banjo. For its follow-up, Traveler (FTR 491LP), Joseph added splendid vocals to the mix. With Michael, Mr. Allred gives airing to his fine harmonium playing, alongside string majesty and vocals. Maybe on the next one he'll teach us how to fly. Michael is an album with a dreamy narrative core. Its loose tale deals with the idea of the Archangel Michael appearing during a spirit ritual, performed by the character Faulkner (something like Allred's alter-ego) in hopes of remembering the contours of heaven. But this concept only emerged after the music was recorded. Allred compares the process of divining narrative content form musical improvisation to 'throwing an inkblot on paper.' I can dig it. All of the instruments as acoustic -- harmonium, autoharp, singing bowls, dulcimer, bowed guitar -- and the overtones and interplay on surfaces here is unbelievably rich. And even though they're connected, the individual tunes flow from different head spaces. 'Ascent + Return' is long-tone meditation, conceived for harmonium, singing bowls & autoharp soon after Allred performed a Tony Conrad piece as part of the big MIT Conrad exhibit. 'Every Thing in the Dim Night' (a random quote from Whitman's Blades of Grass) lies midway between that and a string improvisation with Indian tonalities. 'O Death' follows the original Lloyd Chandler lyrics (originally entitled, 'A Conversation with Death'), before evolving into swells of drone and strum. And so on. Each piece different, but expanding the boundaries of the drone-based universe has created for this album. Joseph Allred's music is an always evolving, constantly astounding wonderment. His live shows are quite otherworldly, but we're sure you'll find his records equally transportational." --Byron Coley, 2020
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FTR 541LP
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"Minneapolis guitarist, Matt Sowell, is another of the many great players we were first introduced to at the Thousand Incarnations of the Rose festival in Takoma Park, MD. Matt played a richly dark and brooding set at Rhizome, with a style deeply indebted to the American Primitive tradition. His set had the raw strength of Fred Gerlach, the precision of Peter Lang, showed a country/blues influence that seemed to reference Fahey, and possessed the raga-meets-ragtime eclecticism of Jack Rose. We were blown away. Later, talking to Matt while we watched Mark Fosson play in the bandshell, we talked about what he's up to. He's a family guy, a committed union member, and an all-around nice fellow besides being a killer guitarist. He said he'd get in touch when he had something together that might make a good LP, and we are proud to present the results. Organize or Die is both a call to collectivism as a way to fight crony capitalism, as well as a damn lovely record. Matt's technique and compositions continue to blend raw power, delicate note placement, and wild imagination into a unique alloy. While it's easy to close your eyes, lean back and know you are listening to a record in the great Takoma tradition, the borrowings here are solely of tone and mood. The specific approach is all Matt's. This allows his work to be familiar and all new at once. In this sense, he's akin to every new generation of finger picking guitarists who have found something special in the syncretic blend of traditional and modern that Fahey head-birthed. But Matt's playing is illuminated by a very special kind of light. And we think you are gonna dig it like crazy." --Byron Coley, 2020
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FTR 534LP
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"A single LP compiles another two installments in the Water & Rock Music series by Jon Collin, UK ex-pat guitarist currently based in Sweden. Once again, Collin has put together a riveting set of acoustic guitar pieces, these recorded around Stockholm between April and October, 2018. There is a wistful, bluesy quality to the playing and inventions here. John Fahey once told me that blues was 'about anger.' But this work seems suffused with delicately scrambling melancholia, like a tangle of vines trying to reach for a breath of sunlight. Sometimes this attempt is rewarded, other times it just turns back on itself for further rumination. Which I guess is really just another kind of reward. Interestingly, while the playing here is nothing like Loren Connors's, Collin begins to vocalize along with his guitar lines in places. He also employs a good bit of rough string sliding, both of which were features of Connors's very early work. This suggests they two share parallels in terms of thinking that are deeper than mere style. Jon's melodic inventions remain as open-ended as they have ever been, but he has begun to add an extra chiming element ay the end of some lines. It almost sounds like he's using a small harp, but I'm guessing it is not. Just another stone in the path Jon Collin is following, ever deeper into the forest of his imagination. His most gorgeous album yet." --Byron Coley, 2020
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FTR 406LP
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"Mind-blowing set of duo improvisations from a string player once known as the King of the Dobro, and the original drummer for Morphine. Long based in the Boston area, Lloyd Thayer is a master musician as well as a teacher, a street performer (retired, I think) and a collector of esoteric stringed instruments (many of which are played with a slide). We were introduced to his work by Glenn Jones, who more or less grabbed us by the collars and hauled us to see him down at the 1000 Incarnations of the Rose festival. Thayer's set of eastern-tinged material, played on instruments we could not easily name, was absolutely mesmerizing. Glenn made sure we kept in touch, and when Lloyd had some new material ready we got an early listen to it. So, after 30+ CDs and cassettes, Feeding Tube is proud to present the first full-length vinyl LP by the great Lloyd Thayer. Using a Weissenborn-style lap guitar (the same type favored by Fahey) and a gorgeous 22-stringed instrument called a Chaturangui, Lloyd unwinds four long improvs accompanied by the quietly flowing drum work of Jerome Deupree. And if this makes you imagine the incredible blends recorded by Sandy Bull and Billy Higgins back in '63 and '65, you are definitely in the right dreamscape. Deupree has been around for a long time, starting off in the legendary Bar-B-Q Records scene in Bloomington, then new-waving it up in Santa Cruz with the Humans, eventually co-founding Morphine in Boston, while simultaneously moving into jazz with Joe Morris and the Either/Orchestra. Jerome has played on a crazy assortment of records, but the subtle interplay he displays with Lloyd's strings here is a perfect match. The music is beautiful, shifting and abstract. And the song titles are equally interesting. One is a blues for Fahey cohort Al Wilson, another for dobro pioneer Melvyn Marshall. Those make sense. The other two are for hip-hop artist Rammellzee and the British house duo, PBR Street Gang. Lloyd, naturally, claims the PBR Street Gang ref has to do with Martin Sheen's patrol boat in Apocalypse Now. But after the Rammellzee shout-out, who could believe him? Ha. But ultimately, who gives a tinker's cuss? Duets is an album of dizzying accomplishment. Not exactly like anything you've heard before, but such a satisfying spin you'll wonder where it's been all your life." --Byron Coley, 2020 Edition of 200.
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FTR 530LP
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"First issue in the Drowned Lands series, assembled by Jason Meagher, is the debut duo recording by Wednesday Knudsen and Willie Lane. Long Time 'Til Tomorrow is a gorgeous instrumental collaboration by guitarist Lane and multi-instrumentalist Knudsen that will knock your Smartwool socks off. Recorded at Meagher's Black Dirt Studio, the album documents the first time the pair played together. They are, of course, well known to Feeding Tube fans. Willie's first three Cord Art LPs have been reissued over the last two years (FTR 413LP, FTR 437LP, FTR 438LP) and Wednesday's two albums with Weeping Bong Band (FTR 313LP, FTR 448LP) have slain stoned listeners across the globe. Wednesday is also one of the founding members of the great Pigeons, and if you don't know their music, you should correct that pronto. Anyway, Willie plays guitars, Wednesday plays electric guitar, alto saxophone, flute and even adds a little voice at one point if I'm not mistaken. And the blend is awesome. Gently improvised melodic nuggets that make me think of everyone from John Renbourn to Spires That in the Sunset Rise. The sounds flow so wonderfully it's hard to believe they haven't been playing together for a while. But hey, when a concept works. It just does. And this one works like a very strong pony! Long Time 'Til Tomorrow was originally released by Jason, in a digital format, on his Natch imprint. Now it's available to a wider audience. There will be more titles in the Drowned Land series coming soon. So keep your ears peeled." --Byron Coley, 2020
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FTR 494LP
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"An incredible, primitive and ecstatic teenage garage rock explosion from the suburbs of 1968 Orlando, Florida. With an instrumental line-up consisting of just guitar and drums, this is a version of rock & roll as raw and naked as only a duo can manage. Think Half Japanese, the Work Dogs, the Bassholes and so on -- Two Much are cut from the same wicked cloth. I remember a cassette of some of this material circulating around sub-underground Boston back in the 1980s. Might have been around the time Robin Amos's post-Girls band, Shut Up (with Glenn Jones), was finishing up their run. Robin was a well-known player on the scene both as a musician and a recordist, and people were jazzed to check out his teenaged roots. But the pummeling racket created by this two-man demolition squad -- with Robin on drums and his buddy, John Chadwick, on guitar and vocals -- was way too much for the squares to handle. None of the era's hep new wave labels knew what to do with the tapes either, so back into storage they went. But Robin was pleased with the results of the Girls' Punk-Dada-Pulchritude LP (FTR 220LP, 2012), and a year or so ago he asked if we'd be up for giving the tapes a listen. My faulty memory banks recalled a band that mostly did covers (their versions of 'Break on Through' and 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' are both stuck deep in my brain.) But Robin assured us that Two Much did mostly originals, and lo and behold -- when the files arrived they were rich with crazy tunes the pair had written themselves between the ages of 10-12 (Johnny) and 12-14 (Robin). Amazing! Many bands then only had one 'original,' and it was usually a dull blues readymade. Two Much had tons of short tracks that spoke directly to the heart of junior high desire, and also managed to create a distorted, 6+ minute, political opus called, 'State of the Union '68.' That track is so far from what you'd expect that it kinda DESTROYS in all imaginable ways. Plus, in 'Who Says,' you get to enjoy the immense pleasure of hearing a 12-year old sing, 'Most of my life I've been working/Slaving my life away/Working in the king's mine fields.' Insane! Two Much's one session was recorded by Robin's dad, in their living room, right before John Chadwick and his family moved from Florida to California. Sadly, John and Robin fell out of touch over the years, but the sound of Two Much is an eternal beacon of teenage truth & justice. Burning in the dark suburban night of pre-Disney Orlando. We should all have back pages like this!" --Byron Coley, 2020 Edition of 200.
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FTR 520LP
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"The fourth album that Samara Lubelski and Marcia Bassett have recorded as a duo -- the second for us, following 2017's Live NYC (FTR 302LP) -- is much less about drones than some of their previous work. Morning Flare Symmetries blares like a ram's horn blown as a call to angelic battle. Everyone has been unanimous in agreement that this improvising duo has achieved a new highpoint in the musical histories of both Samara and Marcia. They each have deep roots in the East Coast sub-underground, with a whole dang lot of band names between 'em, but in this configuration they just continue to get weirder and better on every outing. The string blend they manage to invent is a hugely psychedelic wave that washes over everything in its path. And when you're enveloped in its massive flow, you are hauled along by sonic forces that are way beyond your control. Some parts are soothing, others are eruptive, but they work a really amazing push-pull on your brain, so that the individual sections don't feel competitive so much as complimentary. Like thousands of tiny thumbs urging your spirit to free itself? Sure, why not? I absolutely encourage you to check out all of their albums. but this new one is a particular killer, so maybe you ought to start right here." --Byron Coley, 2020
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FTR 529LP
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"Over the many years we've known each other, Joe Carducci had several times mentioned his brother Mark had a cool band back in the pre-punk '70s. Then a couple of years ago, he added that tapes of this project were around, and asked if might we be interested in hearing them. Midknight 1975 is the result. Two different line-ups of the band are documented here -- a quintet studio session recorded on location at the Hippie House, and a live one with a different drummer and one less guitar -- and both are wailing, raw instrumental dives into what you'd have to call hard underground prog. There are some 'chops' displayed, but they're usually more in line with stuff like Hawkwind, the Pink Fairies, and Third World War than something more delicate. It's just great, driving, drug-fueled noise from the Chicago suburbs. Here's what Joe wrote, when I asked him for a few words on the band. 'When Jimi Hendrix died In 1970 the Tribune put him on the cover of the Sunday Arts section and my Grandma, who lived with us, asked me if Hendrix could possibly deserve such an honor -- she wrote Dick Locher a fan letter when he had Dick Tracy unmask hippies as criminal degenerates . . . Mark named his band after the greatest tune on any of those, the instrumental 'Midnight' from the War Heroes album. The 'K' got added to the name soon after, I suspect at my suggestion, but luckily nobody can remember. MidKnight mostly just practiced in our basement . . . If I was home when they played out at a school or church I would go to record them on Mark's 4-track reel-to-reel. I remember that certain passages in their music would inspire the girls in the audience to start dancing, but then the time signature would change and the girls would stop and try to get their bearings all over again. I quit college and moved to Hollywood in the fall of 1976 and though I wasn't connected to any scene there I tried to convince Mark to move his band out; rent was cheap and it seemed that something was bound to happen. But they'd all graduated from high school and gone separate ways." That said, this is the documentary evidence Midknight left behind. There were bands something like this all over the States in those days, but I can't think of any I ever saw in high school or college auditoriums back then who had the good sense to play without a lousy singer. Without some Robert Plant wannabe simpering over the top, you can get a real sense of how wild their sound was..." --Byron Coley, 2020 Edition of 200.
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