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LP
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VG+ 008LP
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"Neil Feather has spent decades creating a musical world of his own through dozens of one-of-a-kind instruments he invented and built himself. His work as an instrument inventor, improviser, musical iconoclast, and stalwart of the idiosyncratic Baltimore experimental scene culminated in the late 2010s when filmmaker Skizz Cyzyk shot hours of footage of Feather taking stock of his workshop and his collaborations with musicians from Baltimore and beyond as he prepared to relocate permanently to New Zealand. That period produced Sound Mechanic, Skizz's 2022 feature-length documentary about Feather's work and music. It also produced an album-length collection of recordings of Feather's music from the film that captures the spectrum of his unique sonic vision. Uninterested in the traditional rules and roles of music from his early years, Feather began constructing noisemakers out of what was around him -- pieces of metal, spare parts from bikes and other gadgets, discarded traditional instruments, various electronics, ball bearings, and so on. By the time he moved to Baltimore in 1985, his work had become more codified into a practice of instruments and families of instruments, such as the Nondo, the Vibrawheel, and the Former Guitars. At the same time, he became a mainstay of the burgeoning experimental/improvised music scene that erupted from the Red Room and the internationally renowned High Zero Festival. Sound Mechanic the album serves as an ideal audio entry point into Neil's music. Skizz, who recorded and co-produced, captured a variety of solo demonstrations and improvised performances with long-time collaborators including Kristin Toedtman, Rupert Wondolowski, and his now-spouse Rosie Langabeer. Tracks such as 'Untitled 1' and 'Untitled 3' find Neil performing solo on the Wiggler and the Vibrowheel, instruments whose agitated strings and spinning oscillators, respectively, mimic some of the timbres of more recognizable instruments but bend and distort them in alien ways. 'Unititled 4,' one of two duo improvisations with Langabeer under the banner Popular Organ Fun Party, channels a Venusian jazz combo in its wild exclamations and percolating rhythms. 'Personal Space,' from an impromptu trio with Zula Wildheart and Robert Beamer, puts Neil's attack in the context of contemporary hardcore. A special bundle offers a chance to capture both the music and the film in one package -- as close as you're going to get to the full Neil Feather experience outside of a live show."
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CD
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VG+ 007CD
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"CD format contains both volumes! In 1968, Bay Area native Doug McKechnie got hold of one the very first modular Moog synthesizers ever made and began finding his own way to play it. Soon, he was hauling the finicky instrument around to perform improvised concerts at colleges and psychedelic ballrooms, as well as an ill-fated appearance on the bill at Altamont. Some of the performances were recorded, and the surviving tapes -- never before released -- capture a free-flowing, transportive sound that fills in the gap between the austere mid-century academic avant-garde and the expansive cosmic suites of Tangerine Dream and the rest of the Berlin School in the '70s." "These pieces represent amazingly fully formed early approaches to the very idea of musical synthesis...arresting even to modern ears." --Goldmine "Presages both Tangerine Dream's soundtracks and, in its most grimy moments, Acid Tracks." --The Wire
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VG+ 006LP
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"The first volume of San Francisco Moog: 1968-72 introduced the world to a trove of recordings from a little-known hinge point in electronic-music history. Vol. 2 brings to light the rest of tapes -- and the rest of the story. In 1968, Bay Area native Doug McKechnie got hold of one the very first modular Moog synthesizers ever made and began finding his own way to play it. Soon, he was hauling the finicky instrument around to perform improvised concerts at colleges and psychedelic ballrooms, as well as an ill-fated appearance on the bill at Altamont. Some of the performances were recorded, and the surviving tapes -- never before released -- capture a free-flowing, transportive sound that fills in the gap between the austere mid-century academic avant-garde and the expansive cosmic suites of Tangerine Dream and the rest of the Berlin School in the '70s. Vol. 2 captures a wider range of sounds and moods, encompassing austere sonic experiments, early sequenced pulses, and melodic etudes." "These pieces represent amazingly fully formed early approaches to the very idea of musical synthesis...arresting even to modern ears." --Goldmine "Presages both Tangerine Dream's soundtracks and, in its most grimy moments, Acid Tracks." --The Wire
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VG+ 004LP
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2023 restock. "San Francisco Moog: 1968-72 documents a missing link in the history of electronic music, as well as the little-known moment when psychedelic music went electronic. In 1968, Bay Area native Doug McKechnie got hold of one the very first modular Moog synthesizers ever made and began finding his own way to play it. Soon, he was hauling the finicky instrument around to perform improvised concerts at colleges and ballrooms, as well as an ill-fated appearance on the bill at Altamont. Many of the performances were recorded, and the surviving tapes -- never before released -- capture a free-flowing, transportive sound that fills in the gap between the austere mid-century academic avant-garde and the expansive cosmic suites of Tangerine Dream and the rest of the Berlin School in the '70s. This is not another corny old Moog record. San Francisco Moog sounds as fresh as anything by today's analog-synth heads while bringing to life a lost moment in the development of the music." "Astonishing stuff, pure early Moog electronics . . . vibrating with the joy taken in the discovery of the new sounds this machine was capable of." --Electronic Sound "Presages both Tangerine Dream's soundtracks and, in its most grimy moments, 'Acid Tracks'." --The Wire
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