CDs + Vinyl:

Bastard Noise – Live At Babycastles CD (Small Doses)

The very first performance of the Anthony Saunders/Eric Wood iteration of Bastard Noise, whose approach this time is fully electronic, devoid of any vocals or more traditional instrumentation. The near 40-minute performance starts at a slow, quiet boil, and builds progressively into an intense onslaught of oscillators, noise, and ambience.

The Czars – Best Of CD/LP (Bella Union)

This is a best-of collection of songs from singer-songwriter John Grant’s former alternative rock band, The Czars. “While nothing on this best-of collection quite matches the exquisiteness of Grant’s solo work, you can still hear him testing the waters and laying the groundwork for what was to come.” – Uncut 

HIM – Greatest Love Songs Vol. 666 [Reissue/1997] 2xCD (The End)

HIM – Razor Blade Romance [Reissue/1999] 2xCD (The End)

HIM – Shadows And Brilliant Highlights [Reissue/2001] 2xCD (The End)

HIM – Love Metal [Reissue/2003] 2xCD (The End)

Remastered and expanded editions of the Finnish alternative rock/dark rock and metal band’s first four albums. Vinyl versions due February 10.

Laube – Laube 2xCD (Small Doses)

Pulling from jazz, ambient noise and drone, this German trio slows it all down and allows dark, downtempo, slow-swinging compositions creep out of the speakers. You could imagine them playing in a dark corner of the Black Lodge in Twin Peaks.

Somos – Temple Of Plenty CD (Tiny Engines)

Released earlier this year on vinyl – now available on CD. Displaying an incredible maturity for such a young outfit, Somos has tightened and streamlined their songwriting. The band showcases an immediate chemistry, sucker punching you with dynamic songs that weave and unravel in short melodic bursts of energy.

[Read more…] about New Releases for December 23, 2014

CDs + Vinyl:

5 Seconds Of Summer – Live SOS CD (Capitol)

Live release from the Australian pop band.

Charlie XCX – Sucker CD (Atlantic)

The new pop queen’s sophomore album features the badass floor-filler “Break The Rules.” “After years of being a critical darling Charli XCX assisted Iggy Azalea on the song of the summer and landed her own ‘Boom Clap’ on the soundtrack for The Fault In Our Stars. Sucker is her second studio album, and it’s a record that seeks to bend the mainstream to its will rather than conform to its reigning trends.” [7.6] — Pitchfork

Corrections House – Writing History In Advance CD (War Crime)

Corrections House (Mike IX Williams of Eyehategod, Scott Kelly of Neurosis, Bruce Lamont of Bloodiest/Yakuza and Sanford Parker of Minsk) is a mysterious collective of lost souls that embrace the unkind, the diseased, the forgotten, the morose and their much anti-soundscapes and shadowy verses – both at once hideously beautiful, graceful and terrifying creeps forth from this, their first live recording.

Gov’t Mule – Darkside Of The Mule CD/3xCD+DVD (Evil Teen)

This archival live release features a full set of Pink Floyd covers the band recorded on Halloween 2008 at the Orpheum Theatre in Boston, MA. Available in Regular and Deluxe editions. Deluxe features three CDs of the entire performance (three hours of music), plus a DVD of the entire show mixed for stereo and 5.1 surround. Vinyl version due January 13. “These new archival live releases just further [the concept of 2013’s Shout!, which sounds like Gov’t Mule but doesn’t sound like anything we had ever done],” guitarist Warren Haynes told Classic Rock, “and allow us to highlight some of our influences as well as how far we’ve come since the first album.”

Gravenhurst – Flashlight Seasons/Black Holes In The Sand [Reissue/2003/2004] 2xCD/LP/LP (Warp Records)

This year Gravenhurst celebrates a decade of work on Warp Records with the reissue of two classic albums, Flashlight Seasons and Black Holes In the Sand. 2004’s Flashlight Seasons quickly earned Gravenhurst a devoted fan base, consistently strong support from the music press, and cemented Nick Talbot’s reputation as a unique talent, and one of the most original British singer-songwriter and producers of his generation. Black Holes In The Sand, a noisier and more overtly lo-fi record of dark pastoral psychedelia firmly established an enduring Gravenhurst aesthetic: enigmatic lyrics, ghostly and virtuoso finger-picked guitars against a backdrop of cinematic, shape-shifting, semi conscious sonic textures; subliminal transmissions from the surrounding landscape. (Sadly, Nick Talbot passed away recently, so these reissues are oddly timed.) Each reissue also available separately on vinyl.

Jonny Greenwood – Inherent Vice [OST/Score] CD (Nonesuch)

Original score to Paul Thomas Anderson’s new film by Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood.

Peter Hammill – All That Might Have Been CD/LP (Fie)

This is not a disc of conventional songs, though the fragments from which its formed originally came from discrete examples of the standard form. Written and recorded over an 18 month period – the longest ever for a PH solo work – the album has gone through many transformations before arriving in this final form. It’s not a concept album as such but its use of jagged soundscapes and elusive plotlines place it closer to a cinematic world than a narrative song one. The sound palate consists of guitars, synths, crushed beats and, of course, insistent vocals. This is unlike Peter has attempted before. The music is continuous, cross-fading from one piece to another.

[Read more…] about New Releases for December 16, 2014

CDs + Vinyl:

Albatwitch – If Corporations are People, Why Won’t They Die? CD/LP (Hand/Eye)

Albatwitch’s second full-length is an angrier, yet more refined take on the anarcho-experimentalism of their debut. Politically charged bursts of grind, dark drones, and blackened crust weave together with acoustic folk and harsh noise.

Bhleg – Draumr Ast CD (Nordvis)

Debut album by Swedish metal band Bhleg delivering bleak, melancholic black metal comparable to early material by Ulver and Burzum.

Blind Mr. Jones – Tatooine: 20th Anniversary Edition CD/LP (Sainte Marie)

Digitally remastered edition of the British shoegaze band’s second album, originally released in 1994. Blind Mr. Jones’ earlier recordings featured musical assistance from Slowdive’s Neil Halstead and Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood.

Blut Aus Nord – Memoria Vetusta III: Saturnian Poetry CD (Debemur Morti Productions)

“Blut Aus Nord and its mastermind Vindsval are primarily associated with boundary shifting experimentation within the musical realm of black metal. The ultra-prolific unit has been pushing beyond the Satanic and misanthropic trappings of the style since the band’s 2003 release The Work Which Transforms God. The Work is one of BAN’s most highly regarded albums, and it’s the entry point to the band’s catalog for a lot of people. But, before BAN started incorporating avant-garde elements and industrial noise into their songs, it started life as a fairly orthodox black metal band. Memoria Vetusta III: Saturnian Poetry is a return to that early sound.” – Metal Injection

The Brokedowns – Life Is A Breeze CD/LP (Red Scare Industries)

Take growly Midwest punk (à la D4, Lawrence Arms) and make it heavier, angular, and a little Hot Snakes-y. The Brokedowns know how to have a good time and they know how to write punchy punk jams, but what they do best is smack you on the ass with their words.

William S. Burroughs – Häxan: Witchcraft Through The Ages CD (Sotpackan)

Soundtrack to Anthony Balch’s abbreviated 1968 version of Benjamin Christensen’s 1922 silent film Häxan. Narrated by William S. Burroughs, delivered as an incantation in droning monotone. Daniel Humair’s chaotic jazz score was played by a quintet that included Jean-Luc Ponty on violin and Humair on percussion.

[Read more…] about New Releases for December 9, 2014