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LP
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2MR 045LP
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New Cold Dream is a thoughtful yet heartfelt amalgamation of dark electro, synth pop, and industrial dance music. "Lie Awake", an irresistibly classic dark-electro song underpinned by an infectious dance beat, embodies this balance perfectly. Past influences abound -- from John Maus to Bauhaus, from Suicide to Depeche Mode -- but this record lives distinctly in the present. For all its themes of fear and uncertainty brought on by the times we live in, New Cold Dream isn't a pessimistic record -- Matt Weiner seeks to embrace the unforgiving nature of these realities. Balancing optimism with cynicism, oscillating between hot and cold. This duality can be heard throughout the record -- from the foreboding refrain of "Slow Decline" to the sublime choral tones of "Misuse". Ominous, industrial beats offset dreamy synth melodies, while Weiner's fervid vocals reconcile tensions throughout: hot vs. cold, fear vs. courage, light vs. dark. Twins finds the similarities in what appear to be opposites, and invites you to do the same. "I want people to feel moved; both moved to get up and move and also moved in a deeper sense of connecting with ideas that may not have made sense before," Weiner says of his project. It's music for contemplating while dancing, for letting go while you hold on tight. As we grow tired of a world that deals in extremes, we wake up to a new cold dream." Comes on pink and white color vinyl.
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2LP
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AU 1016LP
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2019 repress. "Remastered double LP with 12 page booklet including liner notes by Tim Lawrence, Ernie Brooks and Arthur Russell. All material previously released on the Audika CD compilation First Thought Best Thought (2006). Before disco, and before the transcendent echoes, Arthur wanted to be a composer. His journey began in 1972, leaving home in Oskaloosa, Iowa. Heading west to Northern California, Arthur studied Indian classical composition at the Ali Akbar Khan College of Music followed by western orchestral music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, before ending two years later in New York at the Manhattan School of Music. Traversing the popular and the serious, Arthur composed Instrumentals in 1974, inspired by the photography of his Buddhist teacher, Yuko Nonomura, as Arthur described, 'I was awakened, or re-awakened to the bright-sound and magical qualities of the bubblegum and easy-listening currents in American popular music.' Initially intended to be performed in one 48 hour cycle, Instrumentals was in fact only performed in excerpts a handful of times as a work in progress. The legendary performances captured live in New York at The Kitchen (1975 and 1978) and Franklin St. Arts Center (1977) feature the cream of that eras downtown new music scene including Ernie Brooks, Rhys Chatham, Julius Eastman, Jon Gibson, Peter Gordon, Garrett List, Andy Paley, Bill Ruyle, Dave Van Tieghem, and Peter Zummo. Pitchfork lauded Instrumentals Vol. 1 as a masterpiece and one of Arthur's 'greatest achievements'. Americana touching on Copeland, Ives, and maybe even Brian Wilson. Instrumentals Vol. 2 is a moving, deeply pastoral work performed by the CETA Orchestra and conducted by Julius Eastman. Also included are two of Arthur's most elusive compositions, 'Reach One', and 'Sketch For Face Of Helen'. Recorded live in 1975 at Phill Niblock's Experimental Intermedia Foundation, 'Reach One' is a minimal, hypnotic ambient soundscape written and performed for two Fender Rhodes pianos. 'Sketch For Face Of Helen' was inspired by Arthur's work with friend and composer Arnold Dreyblatt, recorded with an electronic tone generator, keyboard and ambient recordings of a rumbling tugboat from the Hudson River. For this remastered vinyl edition, a key part of Arthur's musical life has been restored. The sparkling, multidimensional results take the listener closer to Arthur's coast-to-coast journey: his iconoclastic determination to combine pop and art music; and his desire to make music that would resonate in the present and, ultimately, across time."
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2CD
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BAL 027CD
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In the space of just a few years since its inception, Nick Warren and his partner Petra's globetrotting concept The Soundgarden has grown to encompass a label, compilations, parties around the world, and a global radio show. From being one of the early defining pillars for progressive house in the mid-90s through to his beautiful work as one half of Way Out West, Warren is an electronic music mainstay. Bringing two discs of exclusive music, Warren explains: "On this album, I wanted to showcase some of my current favorite artists and reflect the more eclectic sound of The Soundgarden. I feel the secret with compilations is to try and choose music which has almost a timeless feel to it." On Rigooni's "Dreamed Numbers" gets the mix off to an early chug with its delicate plucked melodies and rolling groove, leading into the graceful strings of Bigasti & Balad's "With You". Aspen recalls Airdrawndagger-era Sasha as the mix find its feet unhurriedly. An exclusive Nick Warren & Nicolas Rada original "Balance" yields shimmering atmospheric touches and slivers of plucked guitar, with more musicality displayed through the melancholic piano chords of Draper's "Crystal Voyager". The mix continues to twist-and-turn through Emi Galvan's soaring "Embrace" and the arpeggiated groove of Baunder's "38 & 46" and Yoni Yarchi & Daniel Van Der Zwaag's "From Tel Aviv to Amsterdam" brings the mix to a blissed-out climax. The slo-mo graceful, slinky chug of Six's "Berlin" helps to get disc two going in more mellow tempo, with the chord stabs of Black 8's "Black Tiger" giving an almost Detroit feel to this early hypnotic section. The tempo builds as the haunting vocal of Dmitry Molosh's "Note" glides over percolating percussion. Another shimmering Nick Warren & Black 8 production "Dreamcatcher" arrives to give a contrast to the deep, introspective atmospheres that precede it. The languid funk of Eli Nissan's "Restricted Delusions" pushes the listener into a deeper state, before Audio Junkies & Hernan Cattaneo's remix of Stillhead's "Neu Kobenhaven" cuts through in stark fashion with its crystalline chime motif. Oliver & Tom's "Luly" makes for a perfect closer, its sweet xylophone and piano sounds making for a sublime moment.
Also features Aārp, Synkro & Arovane, Scippo, Kamilo Sanclemente, Ewan Rill & K Loveski, Ben Archbold, Nico Szabo, Lerr, Armen Miran, Nichols, and No-No & Nobilis.
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BNSD 040LP
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Randall Taylor joins the Beacon Sound roster and graces the label with his finest work yet, Between Distant And Remote. Taylor uses tape loops, guitar, field recordings, and electronic processing to pay homage to the paradox of memory and growth, creating a deeply immersive musical landscape in the process. The album is reflective of the artist's move from Austin, Texas to lush, green Portland in 2018, and also represents a more intentional and layered recording process. Exploring narratives of longing, dislocation, and rediscovery, Between Distant And Remote invites you to dive in and break down the boundaries between yourself and the world around you, reaching into the past to deconstruct the present.
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BNSD 041LP
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Beacon Sound presents Lower River, the debut solo album by Michael A. Muller. Conceptually, the album explores the place where time, space, and self are occluded -- a field of pure energy and creation similar to "the flow" or Zen state where ideas stream without impediment. Inspired by Muller's own remote travels throughout the US and Europe and the personal exploration of a meditative practice, it's a sonic exploration of what it means to deeply listen versus to merely hear, to immerse oneself in navigating the subconscious plane of pure energy and deep, immersive creativity. In 2006, multi-instrumentalist Muller co-founded the Austin-based ensemble Balmorhea; over 13 years he has co-led the group through six full-length records, numerous EPs, global tours, and original scores and worldwide track placements. Lower River began as a sound experiment in 2018 spanning from the isolated Oregon coast to rural Southern Italy and remote fishing villages in the South of France. With a tape recorder in hand, Muller chronicled his journeys through sound, contemplating along the way what it means to deeply listen amid a modern narrative underwritten by distraction. Merging his field recordings with original compositions recorded in his home studio in Austin, Lower River is a sonic venture into other worlds and into the depths of one's own mind; a study in engaging with sounds that don't easily slot into pre-existing notions of what an album "ought" to be. The final composition includes works by avant bass clarinetist Jonathan Siela (Golden Retriever), vocals by Heather Woods Broderick (known for work with Sharon Van Etten and Efterklang), and abstract double bass and cello by Balmorhea's Sam Pankey and Elan Green, respectively. The album cover art was made by renowned Dutch photographer Awoiska Van Der Molen. Includes download code and Riso print.
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BEAT 026LP
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2019 repress. Ratos De Porão's Crucificados Pelo Sistema (1984) contains all the fury, the frustration, the rage and the pain of four young ones against the system in a country that was in the midst of a change from Third World to trying to fitting into a new social order. The projected image of Brazil with its beautiful mulatas, exotic beaches and tropical fruit drinks filled them with disgust, living there in one of the most dangerous cities in Latin America. Their reality was brutal and they wanted to scream it at the entire world. Sixteen songs were formed on the same base as what would later be called "D-beat." The Finnish bands from the '80s were really important in the Brazilian punk scene, just as Discharge was. Simple, fast and straight to the point. Two classic songs have been added for this special occasion, recorded for the classic Ataque Sonoro compilation (which also contains Brazilian pioneers such as Virus 27, Colera, Armagedom or Lobotomia, amongst others). 180 gram vinyl. Housed in a gatefold with pics and musings by Gordo. Reissued by Beat Generation.
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CORMIX 060CD
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2019's highly anticipated Live at Cocoon Ibiza mix is helmed by techno legend Luke Slater under his Planetary Assault Systems guise. As Planetary Assault Systems, UK titan Luke Slater has constantly laid down a blueprint for the future of techno. As a live performer he is a visionary who fuses mind melting minimalism, catchy cyborg funk and cinematic soundscapes that really take you on a trip. He did that once again back in July as part of Cocoon's 20th anniversary season and now the results are laid down on CD for the label to relive the magic. Over the course of eighty spellbinding minutes, Slater truly captivates with evocative sci-fi imagery and high-class melodic minimalism, smoothly shifting from moments of high-pressure drum-funk intensity to uplifting and spiritual passages of cosmic sound and back again. Along the way, he digs deep into his back catalog to serve up plenty of golden oldies as well as more contemporary cuts, and the whole thing melts together into a timeless set that explores the outer edges of techno with huge amounts of both style and substance.
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CTI 001LP
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2019 repress on purple vinyl. Originally released to much acclaim in 1981 by Rough Trade, Heartbeat was the first in a long line of groundbreaking albums by Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti. This early example of Chris & Cosey features cut-up sampled voices, Cosey's disto-guitar, industrial sequences, melodious synths, and cinematic sweeps. Includes a 12" B/W double-sided insert of archive photos, clippings, and texts.
"There are moments of great beauty like 'Moorby' and, equally, many moments of sheer depravity all performed with Kraftwerk's cultured class and the hypnotic charm and deadly grace of a synthesised cobra." --Steve Sutherland (Melody Maker, 1982)
"All the world loves a love story... but Heartbeat still has an edge of evil among the extensions of the pair's established scenarios." --Sandy Robertson (Sounds, 1981)
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CTI 002LP
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2019 repress on gold vinyl. This seminal album and a long time favorites with DJs and fans alike. Trance is often cited by electronic musicians as being highly influential in contemporary electronic music. Primarily an instrumental album, Trance covers everything from minimal electro and polyrhythmic sequences to rhythm heavy industrial dance tracks. Includes a 12" B/W double-sided insert of archive photos, clippings and texts.
"High-tech sequencer dazzles mix with heavy stews of sound, teasing atmospheric pieces with abrasive disco forgeries." --John Gill (Time Out, 1982)
"No one else currently turning out commercial music has anywhere near Chris and Cosey's intuitive grasp of the stimulating possibilities of electronic rhythm. Trance is just what it claims to be: a mesmerising chance to reassess the suggestive potential of sound, which in turn, attempts to intoxicate the listener into a reinvestigation of surrounding environments." --Steve Sutherland (Melody Maker, 1982)
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CTI 009LP
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2019 repress on transparent turquoise vinyl. Songs Of Love & Lust was originally released by Rough Trade Records in 1984 and at the time was considered to be quite a departure for both Chris & Cosey and Rough Trade. The album contains Chris & Cosey's trademark infectious rhythms, melodic tunes, edgy guitar, wailing cornet and of course Cosey's unique vocals -- which give a dark and sensual edge to the production. Includes a glossy insert with historic photographs and press clippings.
"A vice-like turn of the screw that is at once dreamy, hard and compelling. A gathering of all those forces which give electronic music a heart of its own. This is seduction!" --Adrian Jones (City Limits, 1984)
"Chris & Cosey's alluring invitation is to try another world: their promise is that the possibilities should be endless." --Don Watson (NME, 1984)
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LP
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CTI 016LP
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2019 repress on transparent violet vinyl. This hugely popular mid-eighties Exotika album was originally released in 1987 by Play It Again Sam. It includes such Chris & Cosey classics as the crowd-pleasing "BeatBeatBeat", the haunting ballad "Dr. John (Sleeping Stephen)", and the original version of their seminal title track "Exotika", which was adopted as an electronica anthem, most notably on the GOA scene and in the US West and East Coast gay clubs of the later 1980s. Includes a glossy insert with historic photographs and press clippings.
"Chris & Cosey beat most of 87's mainstream dance-floor contenders on their own territory of sheer pleasure, urged joy. 'BeatBeatBeat' is extreme, a revelation." --Ian Gittins (Melody Maker, 1987)
"Chris & Cosey have made a great dance record, but it's their kind of dancing. No junk here. They're crazy enough to be sincere about their musical Pleasureland and they want to share their discovery. Come and feel the sound as though your life depends on it: if it were up to them, it would depend on it." --Rockpool, 1987
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2CD
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D 20021CD
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32-track double-CD with all big names of country, including Kenny Rogers, Willie Nelson, Johnny Paycheck, Freddy Fender, Faron Young, and the ladies of Kitty Wells, Crystal Gayle, Patsy Cline, Lynn Anderson, and more. Country music, also known as country and western (or simply country), and hillbilly music, is a genre of popular music that originated in the southern United States of America in the early 1920s. It takes its roots from genres such as American folk music (especially Appalachian folk and Western music) and blues. Country music often consists of ballads and dance tunes with generally simple forms, folk lyrics, and harmonies mostly accompanied by string instruments such as banjos, electric and acoustic guitars, steel guitars (such as pedal steels and dobros), and fiddles as well as harmonicas. Blues modes have been used extensively throughout its recorded history. According to Lindsey Starnes, the term country music gained popularity in the 1940s in preference to the earlier term hillbilly music; it came to encompass Western music, which evolved parallel to hillbilly music from similar roots, in the mid-20th century. In 2009 in the United States, country music was the most listened to rush hour radio genre during the evening commute, and second most popular in the morning commute. The term country music is used today to describe many styles and subgenres. The origins of country music are found in the folk music of working-class Americans, who blended popular songs, Irish and Celtic fiddle tunes, traditional English ballads, cowboy songs, and the musical traditions of various groups of European immigrants. Also features Moe Bandy, Exile, Johnny Lee, Pam Tillis, Donna Fargo, Janie Fricke, Juice Newton, Jack Greene, Billie Dean, Merle Haggard, Mark Wills, Doug Stone, T.G. Sheppard, Ferlin Husky, and Lacy J. Dalton.
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CD
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FARO 214CD
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From Far Out Recordings' in-house producer, Daniel Maunick's debut solo album Macumba Quebrada conjures scenes of collective hedonism from start to finish. Spanning Afro-Brazilian spiritual dance ceremonies, late-80s Detroit techno parties, and jungle and broken beat raves in '90s London, Maunick celebrates our instinctive, age-old desire to come together and lose our sense of self. Daniel Maunick practically grew up behind the mixing desk. As the son of Brit-funk legend Jean-Paul "Bluey" Maunick (of Incognito fame), he found himself immersed in music from an early age, and quickly became involved in London's drum n' bass, acid-jazz, house, broken beat, and soul scenes, releasing his first production at the age of sixteen on Gilles Peterson and Norman Jay's Talkin' Loud label. Since then, he has produced albums by the likes of Azymuth, Marcos Valle, Terry Callier, Incognito, Ivan "Mamao" Conti, and Sabrina Malheiros. Reflecting his dual residence between Rio de Janeiro and East London, Macumba Quebrada features deep house stompers and broken bangers littered with Brazilian rhythms -- in the form of both dusty percussion and Maunick's intricate drum programming. But the album sees Daniel draw inspiration from across the black music continuum, and the rich histories of communal celebration in Detroit techno, Chicago house, London D'n'B, and New York disco. Bringing all this together in explosive peak-time club tracks, moments of eerie ambience, South American swing and tribal earthiness, Macumba Quebrada expands on Maunick's recent vinyl-only EPs A Vicious Circle and Sombra Do Dragao. Taking its title from a syncretism of South American spiritual practices, the cover art is photograph taken by acclaimed French photographer and self-taught ethnographer Pierre Verger, who traveled the world documenting civilizations that would soon be effaced by progress. Settling for good in Salvador, Brazil, Verger became initiated into the Candomblé religion, eventually officiating rituals and ceremonies within the community. Without having become an ordained priest, Daniel Maunick shares both Verger and Far Out Recordings' love for Brazil: its people, its culture, and its music.
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LP
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FTR 503LP
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"Arrington de Dionyso first made his name with the crazed Olympia-based art rock unit, Old Time Relijun. And I guess they still technically exist, but he has lately been more involved with Indonesian musical investigations, and lots of overtly free jazz horn aktion. Shouting Over Deep Water Blues was recorded by Henrik Lofgren in July 2012, in a small boat floating off the coast of Sweden. It features five improvisations on the Bromiophone with occasional liquid accompaniment provided by nature. Asked to describe the Bromiophone, Arrington writes, 'After many years of intense focus on the resonances and multi-phonic potentials of the bass clarinet, I decided to experiment with an extended range PVC pipe instrument called the Bromiophone (after Bromios, the thunder-roaring aspect of Dionysos in Greek mythology). As a modular instrument using a bass clarinet neck and mouthpiece, the various tubes can be lengthened and shortened according to improvisatory whim and wonder. The palms of the hands cover two open air holes which can be modulated both with movement of the hands and variations in lung pressure and mouthpiece embouchure to control the production of pitch, volume, and most importantly variations in tone color.' We've heard lots of players from Chris Corsano to Borbetomagus to Hen Bennink and onward use strange tubes to blow through, but Arrington manages to play a wonderfully full recital here, combining the reed's intonations with vocals recalling some of Arthur Doyle's Voice-o-phone experiments, and small randomized percussion events. Some of the tone inventions initially have a feel one often associates with members of the Netherland's Instant Composers Pool, but Arrington has a stick-to-it-iveness that ultimately make the music seems as American as it is freaked. If this is the Now Sound, I'll take it." --Byron Coley, 2019 Edition of 300.
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CD
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GB 073CD
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A dark, thundering Kinshasa meets Paris soundworld. Ecstatic vocals, broken beats, subterranean bass and full-throttle energy. This four-piece group of sonic groundbreakers have delivered a scintillating debut album. Bantou Mentale was born in Chateau Rouge and born out of Matongé. Drummer and song-writer Cubain Kabeya -- originally from the DRC, now resident in Paris -- has been in or around every big thrill to come out of Kinshasa over the past decade: Staff Benda Bilili, Konono No.1, Jupiter & Okwess, Mbongwana Star. Guitarist Chicco Katembo was part of the Staff Benda Bilili story in the early days, before moving to Paris to live with his French mother. Singer Apocalypse is an ace face on the Parisian Congo scene, an alumnus of the orchestra of Koffi Olomide, emperor of contemporary Congolese soukous. Liam Farrell, aka Doctor L, born Irish, raised Parisian, is a musician, composer, and producer with an impressive score sheet that includes Assassin, FFF, Psycho on Da Bus, Tony Allen, Mbongwana Star, Babani Koné, Nneka, Les Amazones d'Afrique. The Bantou Mentale sound is neither traditional, nor slave to the all-encompassing tropes of Congolese rumba, nor slick and arty and self-consciously stylish. They're bringing something modern, raw, open to the world. Liam and Cubain have been distilling experimental mashes of electro African beats on-and-off for years, under names like Black Cowboys or Negro-P. The sound is a gleeful borderless up-cycling of all the urban styles that Paris, London, New York, Kinshasa have been doling out to the world these past two decades, combined into something new and purposeful. There are songs like "Zanzibar" and "Sango" that lament the clandestino stuck in the desert, penniless, screwed. And songs like "Chateau Rouge" that celebrate the wild uncertainty, the liberation, the fellowship of the migrant. "Boko Haram" bemoans the intellectual subservience and social servitude of many Africans, with music that's underpinned by the pulse of the forest and propelled by roughneck riffs and phasing guitars. "Papa Jo" pays homage to an old departed friend from Kinshasa who threw the best parties in his ramshackle house. The delicious grime of "Suabala" hides a story of love, with levels of passion and guitars frolicking in the red. "Boloko" is slower, more ethereal, with its subversion of the sound of those angelic choirs of "saved" little African kids that were the pride of the missionaries. "Syria" tells you that there's no future in petrol wars, with music that's strangled, painful, urgent, tragic, with plenty of glorious distortion.
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CD
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GY9 004CD
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"'Singer-songwriter' is a frustratingly confining term; to truly understand exactly just how confining, look no further than the recorded works of Simon Joyner, an artist whose work consistently transcends the narrow parameters of genre classifications and record shop bin cards. Though his music has always honored, reckoned with -- wrestled with -- the tradition set forth by his songwriting forebears (Cohen, Van Zandt, Ochs, Dylan, Reed to name a few), Joyner can always be counted on to defy expectations; as a lyricist, melodicist, and arranger, Joyner likes to keep us on our toes. For his new album Pocket Moon, Joyner opted to engage in a risky artistic challenge. Instead of leaning on his fertile pool of Omaha musicians (the amorphous Ghosts band), he asked friend and frequent collaborator Michael Krassner to assemble unknown players on his behalf specifically for this recording. He then traveled from his home base to Krassner's '7-Track Shack' studio in Phoenix to record the album, abandoning the literal and figurative comfort zone of old habits and home field advantage. Simultaneously sparser and more immediate than 2017's obliquely topical Step Into The Earthquake, Pocket Moon is instantly one of Joyner's finest albums since his redoubtable 2012 double album masterpiece, Ghosts, or to some ears the excellent, sonic 180 he managed with his follow-up, Grass, Branch & Bone. Krassner's wrecking crew is sturdy, versatile, and complementary. Utilizing a wide range of instruments and textures, the band contributes additional nuance to each of the ragged, sublime songs here. The result is another song cycle stylistically unified, dynamic and rich." --James Jackson Toth
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GY9 004LP
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LP version. "'Singer-songwriter' is a frustratingly confining term; to truly understand exactly just how confining, look no further than the recorded works of Simon Joyner, an artist whose work consistently transcends the narrow parameters of genre classifications and record shop bin cards. Though his music has always honored, reckoned with -- wrestled with -- the tradition set forth by his songwriting forebears (Cohen, Van Zandt, Ochs, Dylan, Reed to name a few), Joyner can always be counted on to defy expectations; as a lyricist, melodicist, and arranger, Joyner likes to keep us on our toes. For his new album Pocket Moon, Joyner opted to engage in a risky artistic challenge. Instead of leaning on his fertile pool of Omaha musicians (the amorphous Ghosts band), he asked friend and frequent collaborator Michael Krassner to assemble unknown players on his behalf specifically for this recording. He then traveled from his home base to Krassner's '7-Track Shack' studio in Phoenix to record the album, abandoning the literal and figurative comfort zone of old habits and home field advantage. Simultaneously sparser and more immediate than 2017's obliquely topical Step Into The Earthquake, Pocket Moon is instantly one of Joyner's finest albums since his redoubtable 2012 double album masterpiece, Ghosts, or to some ears the excellent, sonic 180 he managed with his follow-up, Grass, Branch & Bone. Krassner's wrecking crew is sturdy, versatile, and complementary. Utilizing a wide range of instruments and textures, the band contributes additional nuance to each of the ragged, sublime songs here. The result is another song cycle stylistically unified, dynamic and rich.' --James Jackson Toth"
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GBVI 095CD
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"Guided By Voices is now an unlikely candidate for the most perfect rock band of all time, while at the same time being a thoughtful reflection on what a rock band is, a fantasy that becomes a fact. Sweating The Plague, the band's 29th album and their third this year, spars playfully with stadium-sized fidelity and uncharacteristically impactful arrangements. Producer Travis Harrison's counterintuitive approach to Guided By Voices' historically lo-fi sound is that he doesn't want it to sound homemade, while the grinding tectonic plate guitars of Doug Gillard and Bobby Bare Jr. anchor the album. Play it loud! Being a fan of Guided By Voices can feel like standing in a ticker-tape parade and reaching out to grab at stray releases as the endless flurry of output from the Needmore Songs publishing house billows around -- but here's twelve compatible nuggets of Pollard content in one handy package, all boxed up and ready to go."
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GBVI 095LP
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LP version. "Guided By Voices is now an unlikely candidate for the most perfect rock band of all time, while at the same time being a thoughtful reflection on what a rock band is, a fantasy that becomes a fact. Sweating The Plague, the band's 29th album and their third this year, spars playfully with stadium-sized fidelity and uncharacteristically impactful arrangements. Producer Travis Harrison's counterintuitive approach to Guided By Voices' historically lo-fi sound is that he doesn't want it to sound homemade, while the grinding tectonic plate guitars of Doug Gillard and Bobby Bare Jr. anchor the album. Play it loud! Being a fan of Guided By Voices can feel like standing in a ticker-tape parade and reaching out to grab at stray releases as the endless flurry of output from the Needmore Songs publishing house billows around -- but here's twelve compatible nuggets of Pollard content in one handy package, all boxed up and ready to go."
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HPS 112CD
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On the back of last 2018's critically acclaimed Amber & Gold EP, Alunah return with Violet Hour, the new album and first for Heavy Psych Sounds. Violet Hour sees the energy of Alunah's dark, doom-tinged hard rock being cranked up with the arrival of guitarist Dean Ashton (bassist in Diamond Head) alongside the soaring vocals of Sian Greenaway and rhythmic foundation of Dan Burchmore and Jake Mason. Recorded at the historic Welsh Foel Studio and produced by Chris Fielding (Conan, Electric Wizard, Primordial) the eight tracks on display show the fruits of a productive early 2019 with a searing combination of melodies, riffs, and focused writing. From the opening combination of "Trapped & Bound" and "Dance Of Deceit", the album pulls the listener in to an ominous world brought to life by artist Felipe Froeder - Arcano XV and doesn't let go until the brooding finale "Lake Of Fire". With roots dating back to 2006 in "Sabbath City" UK and an evolution that has grown over four previous albums and numerous European tours/festival dates, the momentum now picks up the pace.
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ITR 318LP
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"Often obscured by the ascent of Flying Nun's legendary roster is New Zealand's late 1970s / early 1980s punk scene. Based in Auckland, a cadre of acts influenced by The Ramones and Stooges briefly thrived. The Dum Dum Boys -- the first NZ punk band to record and release a full-length in their native country -- were hooked on the Ann Arbor sounds of Iggy Pop. The Dum Dum Boys' Let There Be Noise (1981) is chock-full of James Williamson and Deniz Tek riffage; it also contains elements of Iggy Pop's nihilism. Take the lyrics to 'Something To Say' -- it's refrain repeatedly asking 'What am I living for?'-- and juxtapose them to the band's namesake track from Pop's The Idiot (1977): 'What happened to Zeke? He's dead on jones, man.' 'Stalking The Streets' taps into the meaninglessness of James Taylor and Dennis Wilson's Two-Lane Blacktop journey through the American Southwest. The Dum Dum Boys understood the proto-punk sounds of 1970s Ann Arbor and Cleveland. More importantly, they also got the vibe. Life stinks -- sometimes in the places (Auckland) you'd least expect it. As the title suggests, Let There Be Noise is anything but a record incessantly focused on introspective doom and gloom. 'Don't Be A Bitch' rivals Radio Birdman's 'I-94' for lyrical thick-headedness -- like sticking a hot 454 in a Ford Falcon gasser, the song's simultaneously awesome and dumb. That's a difficult balance to strike. Let There Be Noise (1981) was self-released and copies quickly became damn near unobtanium, even in New Zealand. (I should know: I lived there.) In The Red has performed a major service by reissuing this obscure and outstanding record. Independent New Zealand releases from the early 1980s didn't get their due; distribution out of the country was essentially non-existent. It's nice to see that finally getting corrected." --Ryan Leach, Terminal Boredom
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LP
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JPR 056LP
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"Wipers' hard to find and highly sought after 4th studio record. Originally released in 1986 on Restless Records. Featuring nine original tracks w/ locked groove. An underrated classic! Limited pressing on blue/gray vinyl."
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CD
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KTCD 005CD
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Bristol-based composer Ryan Teague presents his seventh studio album, Recursive Iterations, a suite of seven extended compositions that incorporate cinematic arrangements and cutting-edge sound design within an algorithmic framework to striking effect. The resulting pieces combine elements of neo-classical, post-rave, and soundtrack music, to create an utterly compelling contemporary soundscape balanced by a calculated, almost architectural use of space and restraint. The musical structure is derived from a custom-written algorithmic system that sequences harmonic and rhythmic events in ever-shifting patterns. Hyperreal electro-acoustic phrases and digitally synthesized fragments come and go in continual rotation, re-framed and re-contextualized by their proximity to other events in the sequence as the compositions evolve. The effect evokes a minimalist bricolage, hypnotic and kaleidoscopic in nature, and calls to mind artists such as Oneohtrix Point Never, The Haxan Cloak, and Ital Tek. At the same time, a core theme running throughout the record is a masterly use of absence and inertia influenced by the Japanese concepts of ma (間 - negative space) and the enso (円相 - circle), which serve to complement and counterbalance the diverse sound palette. By integrating these qualities, tension is built and resolved in equal measure, creating a dramatic sonic impression where fragmented rhythms, dynamic textures, subsonic basses, and delicate ambience all coexist. Recursive Iterations is a bold, powerful, and unique work that pushes sonic boundaries whilst revealing more with each listen.
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CD
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MORR 169CD
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Antony Ryan and Robin Saville return with their ninth studio album as ISAN, Lamenting Machine. Three years in the making, Lamenting Machine is the deepest and most satisfying chapter yet in the ongoing musical conversation between these brilliant musicians. Subtle yet mesmerizing melodies evoking long forgotten memories, calmly throbbing bass figurines pulsing gently along -- all paying tribute to free-floating rhythms and their eternal noises. ISAN has always been an intimate and personal take on electronic music. Produced both in Denmark and the UK in their respective studios, each of the eight tracks symbolize a sea of blossoms carefully crafted and tended to, bringing color and hope to today's fragile and volatile world. And while there is definitely a lot worth lamenting about, ISAN's machine of the same name is an explorational celebration of their own musical past, once more bringing to the surface the project's essence of aural delight. Listening to ISAN requires time, but it is time well invested. While sounding exquisitely lighthearted from the outside, a closer inspection reveals a richly orchestrated and multi-layered musical riddle, mimicking a hedge maze of gargantuan scale and complexity, with each tone and each rhythmic pattern to be dissected, analyzed and understood individually in order to find the way out. ISAN's music has always had this quality, yet reflecting on their own past more consciously, the music on the new album redefines this approach in a more precise and gratifying way than ever before. While wholeheartedly shimmering and drenched in beauty, in order to fully appreciate the whole scale of ISAN, it is key to bravely engage with the underlying vagueness and fuzziness lingering in the tracks. Letting each piece of gear be true to itself, accepting its flaws as part of its unique personality, and turning these frailties into a starting point of inter-circuitry communication, ISAN has been at the forefront of humanizing technology and eliminating the dystopian men machine debate, clearing the table for a better future. This approach actually requires time in the studio as well: circuits need time to warm up, get to know each other, understand the energy flowing through the cables connecting them, figuring out what to do and what they really want. This process is not so much about giving up control, but rather to moderate a constant exchange of ideas.
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LP
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MORR 169LP
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LP version. Antony Ryan and Robin Saville return with their ninth studio album as ISAN, Lamenting Machine. Three years in the making, Lamenting Machine is the deepest and most satisfying chapter yet in the ongoing musical conversation between these brilliant musicians. Subtle yet mesmerizing melodies evoking long forgotten memories, calmly throbbing bass figurines pulsing gently along -- all paying tribute to free-floating rhythms and their eternal noises. ISAN has always been an intimate and personal take on electronic music. Produced both in Denmark and the UK in their respective studios, each of the eight tracks symbolize a sea of blossoms carefully crafted and tended to, bringing color and hope to today's fragile and volatile world. And while there is definitely a lot worth lamenting about, ISAN's machine of the same name is an explorational celebration of their own musical past, once more bringing to the surface the project's essence of aural delight. Listening to ISAN requires time, but it is time well invested. While sounding exquisitely lighthearted from the outside, a closer inspection reveals a richly orchestrated and multi-layered musical riddle, mimicking a hedge maze of gargantuan scale and complexity, with each tone and each rhythmic pattern to be dissected, analyzed and understood individually in order to find the way out. ISAN's music has always had this quality, yet reflecting on their own past more consciously, the music on the new album redefines this approach in a more precise and gratifying way than ever before. While wholeheartedly shimmering and drenched in beauty, in order to fully appreciate the whole scale of ISAN, it is key to bravely engage with the underlying vagueness and fuzziness lingering in the tracks. Letting each piece of gear be true to itself, accepting its flaws as part of its unique personality, and turning these frailties into a starting point of inter-circuitry communication, ISAN has been at the forefront of humanizing technology and eliminating the dystopian men machine debate, clearing the table for a better future. This approach actually requires time in the studio as well: circuits need time to warm up, get to know each other, understand the energy flowing through the cables connecting them, figuring out what to do and what they really want. This process is not so much about giving up control, but rather to moderate a constant exchange of ideas.
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