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LP
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ACOLOUR 013LP
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Repressed. If Wishes Were Horses, Blueboy's first and now legendary album is finally reissued by Australian label A Colourful Storm. Presented for the first time on vinyl since its release in 1992, the recording by Keith Girdler, Gemma Townley, Paul Stewart, Lloyd Armstrong, and Mark Andes is immortalized in Sarah Records' history as an evergreen of indie-pop and modern DIY. "...the sort of feelings that rarely escape from the Sarah daydream factory" wrote NME at the time. This long-overdue reissue is presented with the original artwork faithfully restored by Sarah Records' own Matt Haynes. Full-color reverse-card sleeve with printed insert and lyrics sheet.
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AR 131CD
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Gyedu-Blay Ambolley was born on the 11th Street in Sekondi, Ghana 72 years ago. On the cover photo, on the right side, is the house of his birth, which was also his parental home. The Ghanaian legend's latest release 11th Street, Sekondi shows off a pride in his heritage, and his honed talent for mixing highlife with other genres like rap, Afro-funk and disco Ghanaian highlife. 11th Street, Sekondi is his 31st album since his debut in 1973. The charismatic stage personality, no stranger to mixing humor into his music and who has performed alongside Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti and highlife bandleader Ebo Taylor, has been a record collector's staple since his appearance on the seminal Ghana Soundz (SNDW 001LP, 2002), which re-introduced the world to his trademark Simigwa style. Highlife, which started in Sierra Leone and Liberia, took hold in Ghana in the 1940s as a coming together of the musicians fed up with the foxtrot and quickstep parties originally hosted by English colonists. It began with big band horns and happy lyrics, popularized by artists such as E.T. Mensah, before opening up in the '50s and '60s with a wave of guitar-driven, socially conscious and more danceable Afro-funk hits -- a product of the easy movement of people between Nigeria and Ghana. It was then that Ambolley's trademark baritone vocals burst onto the scene, under the tutelage of close personal friend Taylor. Ambolley's latest album, named after the area of West Ghana in which he grew up, is a look back at the area and musical styles that shaped the musician's life. "Black Woman" is a funky number that opens the album with Ambolley on a tenor sax solo, while tracks like "Little Small Girl" showcase his renowned James Brown-influenced vocal flourishes. Soul, jazz, blues, and comedy are present -- in keeping with his fervent belief that music must always be entertaining for the listener. The album is the second of his to be released German label Agogo records, after the acclaimed Ketan (2017). It also stays true to highlife's social ambitions, with reflections on the misguided pursuit of European ideals ahead of African values. Ambolley's career has been filled with accolades, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Charles R Drew University in Los Angeles, and formal recognition from the Ghanaian Embassy in Washington DC for producing the first ever commercially recorded rap album.
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2LP
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AR 131LP
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2LP version. Gyedu-Blay Ambolley was born on the 11th Street in Sekondi, Ghana 72 years ago. On the cover photo, on the right side, is the house of his birth, which was also his parental home. The Ghanaian legend's latest release 11th Street, Sekondi shows off a pride in his heritage, and his honed talent for mixing highlife with other genres like rap, Afro-funk and disco Ghanaian highlife. 11th Street, Sekondi is his 31st album since his debut in 1973. The charismatic stage personality, no stranger to mixing humor into his music and who has performed alongside Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti and highlife bandleader Ebo Taylor, has been a record collector's staple since his appearance on the seminal Ghana Soundz (SNDW 001LP, 2002), which re-introduced the world to his trademark Simigwa style. Highlife, which started in Sierra Leone and Liberia, took hold in Ghana in the 1940s as a coming together of the musicians fed up with the foxtrot and quickstep parties originally hosted by English colonists. It began with big band horns and happy lyrics, popularized by artists such as E.T. Mensah, before opening up in the '50s and '60s with a wave of guitar-driven, socially conscious and more danceable Afro-funk hits -- a product of the easy movement of people between Nigeria and Ghana. It was then that Ambolley's trademark baritone vocals burst onto the scene, under the tutelage of close personal friend Taylor. Ambolley's latest album, named after the area of West Ghana in which he grew up, is a look back at the area and musical styles that shaped the musician's life. "Black Woman" is a funky number that opens the album with Ambolley on a tenor sax solo, while tracks like "Little Small Girl" showcase his renowned James Brown-influenced vocal flourishes. Soul, jazz, blues, and comedy are present -- in keeping with his fervent belief that music must always be entertaining for the listener. The album is the second of his to be released German label Agogo records, after the acclaimed Ketan (2017). It also stays true to highlife's social ambitions, with reflections on the misguided pursuit of European ideals ahead of African values. Ambolley's career has been filled with accolades, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Charles R Drew University in Los Angeles, and formal recognition from the Ghanaian Embassy in Washington DC for producing the first ever commercially recorded rap album.
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FOX 015LP
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Alternative Fox present a reissue of Roky Erickson's Clear Night For Love, originally released in 1985. Dallas-born Roger Kynard Erickson, better known as Roky Erickson, is a legend of psychedelic music and culture. Playing piano at five years old and guitar at ten, he dropped out of high school in Austin shortly before graduating, since the school dress code demanded short hair. In 1965, his group, The Spades, made an impact with "We Sell Soul" and the following year, The 13th Floor Elevators burst onto the scene with debut album The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators (1966), but the band's non-conformist attitude and open endorsement of drugs, such as marijuana and LSD, put them in repeated conflict with the authorities. Then, in 1968, during a performance at the San Antonio edition of the World's Fair, known as HemisFare, Erickson began speaking incomprehensible nonsense on stage, leading to a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia and confinement in a Houston psychiatric hospital, where he was forcibly given electroshock therapy. The following year, after being busted with a single joint, Erickson pleaded not guilty by means of insanity, leading to a three-year stay in Rusk State Hospital, with further electroshock and Thorazine treatments. Following his release Erickson formed a group initially called Bleib Alien, which evidenced a more hard-rock orientation, later renamed The Aliens, though Erickson was also working with Austin's The Explosives in the same era. Alien's material produced by Stu Cook of Creedence Clearwater Rival was issued by CBS and an independent, 415 Records. Then, in the early 1980s, Erickson became fixated with junk mail and unsolicited letters, writing to lawyers and celebrity figures on a regular basis; in 1985, solo mini-LP Clear Night For Love was produced at Music Tracks in Austin by bassist/guitarist Speedy Sparks, with former Joe "King" Carrasco and Delbert McClinton drummer, Ernie Durawa, plus Supernatural Family Band alumnus John Reed on guitar. Released by France's New Rose label in small numbers, the release found Erickson back in semi-psychedelic/country rock mode on opening track "You Don't Love Me Yet", the plaintive "Starry Eyes", and the anthem-like title track, while "The Haunt" is more in swamp/horror rock vein and "Don't Slander Me" has heavy blues leanings.
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FOX 020LP
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Alternative Fox present a reissue of Pete Brown & Piblokto!'s Thousands On A Raft, originally released in 1970. London-based poet Pete Brown made a name for himself after joining Mike Horovitz's New Departures art group in the early 1960s, leading to a residency at The Marquee and a 1965 appearance at the Royal Albert Hall. Brown began co-writing lyrics for Cream the following year after a request from drummer Ginger Baker, yielding tremendous hits such as "Sunshine of Your Love", "White Room", and "I Feel Free". Following encouragement from keyboardist Graham Bond (in whose band Baker had been before Cream), Brown began fielding demo recordings, leading to a contact with EMI's progressive imprint, Harvest, fronting the band Pete Brown And His Battered Ornaments with guitarist Chris Spedding. When internal tensions saw Brown ejected by the group, he formed Piblokto! with Scottish guitarist Jim Mullen, future Vinegar Joe and Gong drummer, Rob Tait, bassist Steve Glover, and keyboardist/saxophonist Dave Thompson, who would also later join Vinegar Joe. Thousands On A Raft, the group's debut album for Harvest, clocks in at the hard-rock and experimental jazz edge of prog, as heard on the extended instrumental interludes of "Highland Song" and "If They Could Only See Me Now"; in contrast, Brown's poetic sensibilities drive esoteric numbers such as "Got A Letter From A Computer" and the closing title track.
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FOX 021LP
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Alternative Fox present a reissue of Steve Lacy, Alvin Curran, and Frederic Rzewki's Threads, originally released in 1977. Playing in Dixieland jazz bands during his teens and then passing through some Kansas City jazz acts, New York-born alto saxophonist Steve Lacy became associated with the avant-garde jazz movement from the mid-1950s, playing on free jazz pianist Cecil Taylor's influential debut LP and early work by the Canadian pianist Gil Evans, before serving a long tenure with the idiosyncratic improv pianist Theolonius Monk, whose work he would continue to reference throughout his career. Visiting Europe from the md-1960s, starting with a trip to Copenhagen with pianist Kenny Drew (who made the Danish city his home thereafter), Lacy later travelled to Italy to form a quartet with Italian trumpeter Enrico Rava (who had earlier played in Argentinian sax player, Gato Barbieri's group), plus South African exiles and former Blue Notes members Johnny Dyani on double bass and Louis Moholo on drums. Lacy subsequently moved to Paris, which became his permanent base from 1970, leading a sextet there whilst also exploring the limits of the alto saxophone as a solo instrument. The disparate and often discordant album Threads was recorded in Rome at Mama Dog studio in 1977 for filmmaker-turned-record producer Aldo Sinesio's Horo Records label; comprised of six of Lacy's own compositions, the album saw Lacy supported by Alvin Curran on piano and Frederic Rzewski on flugelhorn, synthesizer, and percussion, the pair both longstanding members of the experimental group, Musica Elettronica Viva.
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FOX 024LP
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Alternative Fox presents a reissue of Sam Cooke's My Kind Of Blues, originally released in 1961. Sam Cooke was such an important pioneer of soul music that he was commonly known as the king of the genre. His distinctive emotive voice is one of the most easily recognizable of all in popular music and his work paved the way for countless other giants, including Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, and Al Green, among many others. A native of Clarksdale in northwest Mississippi that was raised in Chicago, he was the fifth of eight children born to a Pentecostal minister. Beginning his career with his siblings as The Singing Children, he led gospel group The Highway QCs in his teens and then joined The Soul Stirrers, reaching greater glory upon going solo in the mid-1950s, when he scored the first of many number-one hits for the short-lived Keen label, and then reached a wider audience upon switching to RCA in 1960. My Kind Of Blues was recorded for the label in 1961 (just as Cooke was launching his own SAR Records imprint), being a collection of show tunes and jazz standards, delivered in a soulful blues style by Cooke atop lush orchestration, arranged and conducted by trumpeter and bandleader, Sammy Lowe. Highlights include a soave version of Duke Ellingston's "I'm Just A Lucky So And So". a cool cut of "Nobody Loves You When You're Down And Out", a stirring take of George Gershwin's "But Not For Me", and a lovely rendition of Irving Berlin's "The Song Is Ended."
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LP
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BSLP 001LP
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2019 repress; LP version. In the beginning of the '80s, reggae music became increasingly in tune with what was happening in Kingston's dancehalls -- probably more so than at any time since the sound system operators had started to make their own shuffle and boogie in the late '50s. The international audience and the critics were too busy looking for a new Bob Marley to appreciate what was happening downtown and failed to acknowledge that this was a return to the real, raw roots of the music -- brash, confident, young record producers who were totally in tune with the youth audience stepped forward and seized the moment. Oswald "Ossie" Thomas began his apprenticeship in the music business at the age of 14 and served his time as a record salesman for Bunny "Striker" Lee and Winston "Niney The Observer" Holness before moving on to Miss Sonia Pottinger's Tip Top Records. As Thomas said: "I ended up working in three record stores on Orange Street from 1976 to 1981...Yeah man, Me deh 'pon me bicycle till I buy my motorcycle. Them days records were coming out left, right, and center, everyday." It was during his time with Miss Pottinger that Ossie began to produce records for himself, and in 1979, Ossie and Phillip Morgan began The Black Solidarity label, based deep in the Kingston ghetto on Delamere Avenue. And so, the man who had made his name in the business selling other people's records, now became one of the most important and influential record producers of the era. Artists include: Triston Palma, Tony Tuff, Robert Ffrench, Michael Palmer, Puddy Roots, Ashanti Waugh, Phillip Frazer, Bill Blast, Cutty Ranks, Michael Forbes, Tony Carver, Eddie Constantine, Rod Taylor, The Bibles, and Frankie Paul.
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BLACKEST 077LP
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New vinyl-only compilation from Blackest Ever Black, consisting of all-new recordings unavailable elsewhere, plus a pair of tracks -- Carla dal Forno's much-loved cover of The Kiwi Animal's "Blue Morning", and Scythe's zero gravity blues "Flower, Drop" -- appearing on this format for the first time. Jonas Tiljander (Brainbombs, Bremen) dons his solo Brainman guise for the corrosive synth-scaping of "Kilonova"; Ian Martin, whose SEER radio broadcasts were a significant early influence on the label, manifests the pure astral melancholia of "Missing Realism"; Hypnotic Sleep and associated band The Fulmars offer two iterations of bittersweet Low-German DIY pop, and Unchained a gorgeous, evergreen-dazed guitar instrumental in "Gray d'Aboukir". "Dawn Swoop", a suspenseful miniature from Jam Money (Spillage Fete), might just be one the most perfect two minutes in the label's catalog. There are contributions too from two superheroes in the BEB universe: Bobby Wratten (The Field Mice), with the gorgeous, tremulous "The Munich Post" from his current project Lightning In A Twilight Hour, and Bridget Hayden, who offer the heart-stopping, elegiac drowned-folk of "Solace".
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CLE 027CD
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In the early 1970s, a devastating drought brought famine to the West African Sahel. This environmental disaster destroyed the region's agricultural and livestock economy. Millions of people were affected. International relief efforts tried to send emergency aid. "Les Bateaux", the title track of this album, recalls those hard years. It paints a scene of Malian villagers standing on the banks of the Niger River anxiously awaiting the boats carrying food. Mamadou Kelly remembers those years as he calls out the name of each boat's longed for appearance over the horizon. Kelly sings about life. He praises and thanks those who do admirable things. He evokes the spirits of collective memory. Seemingly simple, upon listening, his songs reveal multi-layered complexity. He is a master of the desert blues. His group on this album includes longtime colleague Aly Magassa (electric guitar), Kande Sissoko (ngoni), and Hamadoun "Afo" Guindo (percussion). They are joined on tracks by Malian musicians Adama Sidibe (balafon(, Madou Diabate (violin), and Hama Sangho (backup vocal), as well as American friends Jacob Silver (bass), Cindy Cashdollar (lap steel guitar), and David Rothenberg (clarinets). Les Bateaux was recorded live in Bamako and New York. The tracks were mixed in New York and Los Angeles, and mastered in New York. CD version contains four bonus tracks including a techno remix by David Harrow as well as Dave Cook's remix of two tracks from Kelly's recent EP, Ni Allah.
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CD
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CORE 009CD
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Compositions and arrangements for piano by Chris Burn. Performed by Philip Thomas. Recorded University of Huddersfield, September 16th-17th, 2009.
"The music on this disc is vivid and colorful, vivacious and brilliant, but it also rewards close and attentive listening, not just for the subtleties of the harmonics which are revealed after attacks, but also for the silences, the anticipations, and the overriding attention to sonority. Chris is a musician of extraordinary range and curiosity. As well as one of the most brilliant improvising pianists working today, he is an insightful interpreter of music by, amongst others, Henry Cowell (whose music he performed superbly and recorded in 1993 for the Acta label) and John Cage, and is a fine performer on trumpet and electronics. I am so thrilled that this recording enables a further glimpse into the work of Chris Burn, composer." --Philip Thomas, February 2018
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3CD BOX
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DLS 004CD
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Repressed. A collection of three extended compositions by Thurston Moore recorded between 2018-19. This collection represents a period of reflection on spiritual matters, collective musical friendships, and a time and space universally, without words or languages to distract from meditation. "Alice Moki Jayne" is a new composition from noise guitar explorations honoring Alice Coltrane, Moki Cherry, and Jayne Cortez. These female partners of jazz musicians brought spirituality into the lives and music that has most inspired Thurston Moore. Recorded in Brussels in 2019; Personnel: Thurston Moore, James Sedwards, Jen Chochinov - 12-string electric guitar army; Deb Googe - Baritone bass, truth, and soul; Jem Doulton - Magick drums; Jon Leidecker - Electronic Wobbly love; Christophe Albertijn - Engineer. "8 Spring Street" is a personal homage to Glenn Branca, the title an address is in New York City, the apartment where Thurston first visited his mentor to rehearse. Recorded in London, UK in 2019; Personnel: Thurston Moore - Electric guitar; Syd Kemp - Engineer. "Galaxies" is an orchestral piece of music, with Moore as conductor and composer. Twelve guitarists are arranged as if one instrument, exploring the vast emotional depths present in twelve strings. Taking inspiration from a poem by Sun Ra, "Galaxies" ponders our place in the universe as we stare into imagery offered by satellites via space agencies. Recorded in London, UK in 2018; Personnel: Thurston Moore, David Toop, Susan Stenger, James Sedwards, Deb Googe, Alex Ward, Jen Chochinov, Jonah Falco, Rachel Aggs, Joseph Coward, Eugene Coyne, James McCartney - Guitar Army; Beetmol Troy and Matt Tag - Guitar technicians. Includes an artist book edited by Thurston Moore with photographs compiled during the process of creating the accompanying musical works and is available exclusively within this boxset; 20 pages.
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DECISIONS 010LP
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Rugged and lustrous, Nacre is Air Max '97's first full-length release. Written between Melbourne and Berlin and mixed in Mexico City, the album bears traces of fleeting yet profound geographic and emotional immersions. Air Max '97's signature baroque momentum is suffused anew with pungent and labile tonal atmospheres, through which organic sonic events and incomprehensibly abstracted vocals wreathe. The record's disposition spans the darkly playful arpeggios of "Veneer" to the dirge-like "Kermes" and paranoiac "Karyon". Fiendishly twisting tracks are interspersed with more tender moments such as "Queriensteiger", "Nacre", and "Gousse" (formerly released on Stoscha's 2017 Klink compilation). The totality is uncompromising and affective, yielding a broader spectrum of Air Max '97 sonics than ever before.
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DECISIONS 017EP
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Minimal, elegant and supercharged three tracks written over the course of two Melbourne summer nights. Luscious drums, sparse melodic elements, and midnight-hued atmospheric flourishes are masterfully sequenced for maximum DJ enthrallment and dancefloor enjoyment. The release exudes depth and a natural balance of both artists' respective styles that belies their long-standing friendship Rounding off a year that saw well-received solo EPs from both Cop Envy and DJ Plead (on Hypercolour and Nervous Horizon, respectively).
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12"
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DICA 012EP
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Moscow trio Champion Sound debuts on Defrostatica Records with dancehall legend Hawkeye from Kingston for "Ghetto Youth", a hard-hitting 85 bpm declaration to own the weekend with a little less conversation. The Russian jungle soundsystem crew vibes more casually on "Talk" but the tune can't shake the warning undertone. The B-side features two international remixes: the US vaporwave king Nmesh channels his inner crowd control abilities on "Ghetto Youth" whereas Sun People from Austria rebuilds "Talk" perfectly for an all-out 160 bpm breakbeat twist. Champion Sound is a producer trio who played together in a reggae band and then decided to form their dub and jungle love into modern club tracks. Neekeetone, Distant Roots, and General Koondoongoo are pushing a sound within the Moscow bass scene that is tearing down the city's techno barriers for a diverse vibe of dubstep, jungle, and footwork. With a recently released 12" on Berlin-based label, Through These Eyes Records. 140 gram vinyl.
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2LP
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DDS 031LP
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Still Strange reaches back into the prized loft tapes of Jeff Sharp, aka Orior, following the revelatory discovery of his overlooked early '80s gems on 2016's Strange Beauty collection, as coaxed out by DDS dons Miles Whittaker and Sean Canty. Huddling another sublime, dusty set of analogue tapes freshly baked and remarkably well-restored by Andy Popplewell, Still Strange contains four gorgeous flashbacks to the era 1979-1983 surrounding and even pre-dating Strange Beauty, and then shifts focus to recordings that Orior made around the early '90s. As with its predecessor, Orior is not alone on the material in Still Strange. From those feted early tapes, you'll find Phil Hollis returning to lend jagged guitar on the drum machine sizzle of "Feels Like Summer", while the mysterious synth player New Cross John makes vital contribution to "Invium". Along with the aching synth sigh of "To Return", which pre-dated all of these recordings, and the nine minutes of haunting bedsit strums in "Larbico Alt Mix" which came from the first batch, the early material is all arguably worth the price of admission alone for seekers of lost synth treasures -- really this stuff is just so good. However, the album's other six tracks expand knowledge of Orior's work into the '90s and also contain some extraordinary material. Salvaged from further loft tapes found in various states of degradation, and subsequently mixed down between London's Goldsmiths College and Miles Whittaker's Whalley Range attic (and elsewhere), they are decidedly more blunt and gloaming, especially in the Deathprod-like "Under Shadow" and the near static witching hour ambience of "Endless", while shorter vignettes such as "Unknown Future", "Gothic", and "Another" point to pre-echoes of Board of Canada's crepuscular scapes and even Bladerunner-esque sci-fi noir soundscapes. RIYL: Deathprod, John Bender, Boards of Canada, Vangelis. Restored from original 1/4" analog tapes; Mixed by Miles Whittaker and Ian Gilbert; Mastered at Dubplates & Mastering.
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DRUNKEN 111LP
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Debut LP from this Chicago band that is a new iteration of Broken Prayer. If you were a fan of Broken Prayer, it's hard to imagine how you wouldn't be on board with Droids Blood since they rely on a similar combination of noisy hardcore and whirring synth topped with Scott Plant's trademark topical lyrics and distinctive vocals. Since 2016, Plant has been fronting Droids Blood, whose lineup also includes Broken Prayer drummer Nick Donahue. On Be Free, they vary the tempos more and even add some borderline poppy hooks, but there's also lots of grimy, slightly industrial synth gunk, and bass murk -- "Unreality" sounds deranged in the best possible way.
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ESPDISK 5035LP
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LP version. This album was recorded during Thollem McDonas's 2017 residency at Brooklyn-based multi-discipline mecca Pioneer Works. It's the second by Radical Empathy, which combines three uncategorizable improvisors. Michael Wimberly has been astonishing folks since his days in Charles Gayle bands and Steve Coleman & Five Elements in the early '90s, and has gone on become a composer and educator of note. Nels Cline has spent decades changing people's ideas about the role of the electric guitar in multiple contexts, ranging from Wilco to Anthony Braxton (think about that!) as well as many projects as a leader; this is his fourth album in trio with Thollem, and a fifth will follow in 2020, also on ESP-Disk. Some people have given ESP-Disk' flak (and "flak" was not the first word choice here) about putting out Thollem McDonas albums. "He's not in the jazz tradition," they say, and even though their idea of the jazz tradition includes Albert Ayler; ESP-Disk' think that this album will make their little, closed minds explode. The heavy electronic sound of the first track, with its swathes of distortion, put it very much in noise territory, with Wimberly contributing coloristic accents and heavier flurries of rhythmic activity. After the twenty uncompromising minutes of "Collective Tunnels", for "Conscious Tunnels" Cline switches to a guitar tone John Abercrombie wouldn't shy away from and Thollem sits down at an acoustic piano (for a while) -- though their free improvisation is just as uncompromising. The timbres cease pacifying jazzers when blippy 1950s electronic sounds slinkily slither from the speakers. Then the piano comes back, but the guitar's tone gets dirty. Genre boundaries are crushed underfoot as the moods continue to vary wildly as "Conscious Tunnels" covers an amazing breadth of timbres and textures. Personnel: Thollem McDonas - keyboards; Nels Cline - electric guitars; Michael Wimberly - drums. Recorded by Justin Frye at Pioneer Works, Brooklyn, NY Sept. 13, 2017.
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FP 1723LP
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"Carroll expressed the Bomb-fear anticipation, the optimistic nihilism and glittering darkness of the 1980s that we who were there felt even if we couldn't communicate it ourselves. When John Lennon was assassinated in front of the Dakota in December 1980, 'People Who Died' was one of the most-requested songs on FM radio, just after Lennon's own 'Imagine.' Steven Spielberg chose 'People Who Died' to play during the opening scene of E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. 'People Who Died' tapped a mainline. It was a hit even before it was released, and, as Newsweek's Barbara Graustark noted, it 'propelled [Carroll] from underground status... to national attention as a contender for the title of rock's new poet laureate.' 'People Who Died' wasn't the only thing that sustained Carroll's reputation. The first full-length article about him appeared in 1969, when Jim was 19, and he was featured in Rolling Stone as early as 1973 -- the same year, it was rumored, that he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize at age 22. The 1980 release of Catholic Boy, along with the re-publication of his cult-classic book The Basketball Diaries, shot Jim and his band into the international spotlight. Catholic Boy, named the second-most-popular album of 1980 by BAM, is now considered one of the last great punk albums. Jim appeared with his band on the variety program Fridays, he was interviewed by Tom Snyder, and he was featured on the MTV series The Roots of Rock, hosted by Lou Reed. Cover stories appeared in Newsweek, New York, Creem, Interview, Melody Maker, Stereo Review, Rolling Stone, Variety, and Penthouse. Playboy even printed a cartoon in which the punchline was, 'Ever since the advent of Jim Carroll, 'I'm a Catholic junkie poet' seems hipper than 'What's your sign.'' The Jim Carroll Band's success can be attributed to the powerful combination of pure rock 'n' roll with Carroll's poetic sensibility and ability to write from his own experience, forging a style that articulates the relevance of the individual to the particular, the past to the present. Carroll once said, 'There ain't much time left, you're born out of this insane abyss and you're going to fall back into it, so while you're alive you might as well show your bare ass,' and that's exactly what he does. Musician, Player and Listener described Carroll as 'a transformer, chanting and moaning his litany into something infinitely more palpable than symbols made of sounds.' When reporters began lining up in droves, wondering, 'What's a Pulitzer Prize nominee doing fronting a rock band?' Carroll was already well-known in underground circles for having lived a life of mythic proportions. One writer observed, 'Carroll has his own voice and sound and he earned it the hard way.'" --Cassie Carter
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FTR 466LP
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Repressed on teal transparent vinyl "The aural pleasure created by this somewhat mysterious trio of London musicians continues to accrue. After two fine self-released records (one a 7", th' other a 12"), and the superb Drip Water Hollow Out Stone on the great Ever/Never label, Feeding Tube is honored to present the Mosquitoes' latest assault on the temples of beauty. The music on Vortex is of a piece with earlier recordings. By this, I mean there is a wonderfully 'out' approach to basic rock instrumentation and vocals, which détourns the basic assumptions listeners have about what rock instruments sound like. A good number of bands have done this in the modern era, from This Heat to U.S. Maple, but the only band the Mosquitoes continually call to my mind is late period Mars. That NYC unit had pretty much destroyed conventions of song and structure by the time they called it a day, and the instrumental/vocal mangling these guys do is equally brilliant. They really take every piece of sound apart and put it back together in a weird way. There are passages on Vortex that actually make me think of early Suicide as well (I think they use amp-noise-loops to approximate Rev's keyboards), but none of the music here has the aggression of Suicide. Instead, it projects a transcendent sense of confusion that is as head-scratching as it is appealing. If you like your music to be equal parts brains and power, you won't find many things more satisfying than the music of the Mosquitoes. Every one of their records is great. And they just keep getting better. How lucky for you." --Byron Coley, 2019
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LP
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FTR 472LP
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"This first vinyl offering by a sporadically 20-something years unit, still extant, originally assembled under the name Cinema Soloriens by filmmaker/musician James Harrar in 1993, to play accompaniment to his films. The line-up usually includes legendary Sun Ra alto master (and current Arkestra leader) Marshall Allen with Harrar (who is also known for his work with Arthur Doyle and Daevid Allen), plus whoever else is tapped. For this date, recorded in Nashville back in 2016, the quartet was completed by a pair of under-documented musicians from the Atlanta underground -- jazz percussionist, Kenito Murray, and new music-oriented bassist, Maxwell Boecker. Together, the quartet unspools out two side long gushes of splotchy pan-generic FLOW. The music this stuff most resembles (if you really need a genre peg to hang it on) is probably jazz. The blend of electronics and reeds certainly brings to mind warped passages of many private press early '70s improv LPs, although most of those ended up devolving into funky traffic jams. Anywhere on Aerials and Antennas, the music starts to do something that might be described as 'simmering,' things quickly get weird. A horn takes off for Saturn, a voice starts mumbling as though spare change was just one prayer away, or the electronics emerge from wherever they were hiding to begin alien discussions. Not sure if there was a film shown with this or not, but the effect is cinematic. There's a great and blobby light show going on in my head the whole time it plays, never quite deciding which direction its audacious motion is headed, but always looking for an exit door otherwise hidden by the dull planes of reality. Nice work. Aerial and Antennas makes for a gloriously stoned listen, as mysterious in its motives as that second Charlie Nothing LP. And what the fuck was that one about?" --Byron Coley, 2019 Edition of 500.
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LP
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FTR 498LP
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"Massively ripped sophomore LP by this Portland OR psych sextet. Half of the line-up has shifted in the two years since their great debut album, but the same berserk stack of musical elements remains on the table. A lot of bands who fly the psych banner these days have a minimalist view of the music, and choose a sort of post-shoegaze lassitude to present their 'vision.' This can be astoundingly great, of course, but it also fails to address the central gobble-crazed nature of true psychedelia. Many of history's greatest psych outfits were hewn from bizarre hybrids of disparate parts. Frankenstein monsters in search of sacred ecstasy. One gets the same vibe off of Abronia. Totally unexpected bits pop up amidst their rhapsodic jamming, conjuring shards of memory as disparate as Relf-era Renaissance, Joseph Byrd's United States of America, and even (at least in spots) real early Siouxsee. These are just a few examples of how wide Abronia cast their net. Their instrumental brunt moves from neo-prog to folk rock to thunderheads cast in the same mold as the Sensational Alex Harvey Band's (I shit you not!). Taken together, these freakishly disparate elements mange to create a gorgeous and simmering whole. If you aren't tripping to Abronia now, I suggest a change of lifestyle." --Byron Coley, 2019
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Cassette
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FANDF 057CS
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Drawing parallels between present day Britain and that of the turn of the '80s, Ekoplekz looks back to that era's industrial and post-punk soundtrack for inspiration. In a land increasingly brutalized by austerity and divided by nationalism, the tensions that informed some of the post-punk era's most important works -- Red Mecca (1981), Unknown Pleasures (1979), Metal Box (1979) -- haunt this collection of bleak postcards from the present. Recorded quickly on cassette tape recorders, combining live instrumentation (guitar, bass, keyboards) with programmed drum machine and sequencer, the album has a raw, spontaneous edge, drawing on elements of dub, funk, and primitive electronics for musical direction. The album is dedicated to the late Mark Fisher, who's brilliantly insightful writing is sorely missed while trying to make sense of these insane times.
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12"
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FP 067EP
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It's been a busy 2019 so far for Ivaylo. Not content with cranking out yet another heavy four-tracker -- there's rumors of a full album in 2020.
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2LP
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HOS 607LP
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Hospital Productions present a reissue of Slogun's The Pleasures of Death, originally released in 1997. From the austere and frightening cover with the name of forgotten killers to the monolithic washes of analog synthesized grit and dust cloud vocals of the id, this legendary album first released as a limited cassette of 100 on the cult Labyrinth Recordings from NYC (one of the all-time great NYC cassette imprints) and then famously reissued to wide distribution via cold meat industry sublabel Death Factory, The Pleasures of Death came to prominence in the minds of the same era of release entertainment and descent magazine and Alchemy Records and Bloodlust. Never has there been such an in-depth, caustic, intelligent and evil exploration of true crime violence. Slogun has managed to take familiar stories, untangle them and create deep profiles that leave the listener with unsettling conclusions that do not provide the answers we are commonly forced to accept. Set against the decline of America, the abstraction of the victim landscape is shattered with the brutal and disturbing lyrics faithfully reprinted. A classic of NYC radical art and true crime electronics. Wide spine sleeve; includes large-format booklet and poster taken from the original cassette version.
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