CDs:
Amenra – Mass V CD (Neurot)
Mixes surreal melodies and warped subtleties with churning rhythms, pummeling riffs and crushing dynamics. Their postmodern vision of music, consisting of droning, repetitive chords alternated by gut-wrenching howls, make experienced listeners renounce their definitions of music, perhaps even their whole belief systems. Guest vocals from Scott Kelly (Neurosis).
Asia – Resonance 2xCD+DVD (Frontiers)
Resonance was recorded in Basel, Switzerland during the reunited band’s 2010 tour for their album Omega.
Breathless – Green To Blue CD (Shellshock)
The godfathers of space rock melancholia return with eleven bittersweet songs of love and loss, including three songs mixed by Kramer, best known for his work with The Butthole Surfers, Galaxie 500 and Low. Vinyl version due December 4.
Peter Brotzmann/Chicago Tentet – Walk Love Sleep 2xCD (Smalltown Superjazz)
A virtuosic field day for free-jazz admirers, Brotzmann’s latest includes Ken Vandermark, Mats Gustafsson, Joe McPhee, Jeb Bishop, Per Ake Holmlander, Fred Lonberg Holm, Kent Kessler, Michael Zerrang, Paal Nilssen-Love, Johannes Bauer and Jeb Bishop. Recorded at Cafe Ada in Wuppertal, Germany in April 2011.
Harold Budd – Bandits Of Stature CD/LP (Darla)
14 compact Budd composed string quartets played by the Formalist Quartet. Elegantly simple, avant-garde string quartets, each with his own unique, subtle tension and pastoral abstraction.
Don Caballero – Gang Banged With A Headache And Live CD/LP (Joyful Noise)
First live album, the recently surfaced authorized bootleg. Includes a decade of quintessential music spanning 1993-2006.
Miguel Campbell – Back In Flight School CD/2xLP (Hot Creations)
Explores where the highs of electronic dance meets the depths of soulful funk and disco nostalgia.
Jerry Cole And His Spacemen – Surf Age [Reissue/1964] CD (Sundazed)
An endlessly inventive amalgam of surf and ‘60s pop.
Taylor Deupree – Faint CD (12k)
The tiny fraction of time between waking and sleep, with no distinct perception of reality is a moment to be held and absorbed for as long as possible. It is the ontologically fleeting moment of the present, as our heavy eyelids close and our pulse slows, that is the inspiration inside the music of Faint.
Finterforst – Rastlos CD (Napalm)
Finterforst combine melancholic folklore, untamed black metal fury with majestic soundscapes, thus giving the songs a hypnotic dynamic.
Freeway – Diamond In The Ruff CD/2xLP (Babygrande)
The Philly rapper returns to his roots on his first official full-length album since teaming up with Jake One for the critically acclaimed 2010 project, The Stimulus Package.
The Garlands – The Garlands CD (Shelflife)
Jangly guitar hooks, head bobbing rhythms, lovely vocal harmonies – a melting pot of late ‘80s UK female-fronted guitar pop.
Robin Guthrie – Fortune CD/LP (Soleil Apras Minuit)
The guitars are bright. The bass is deep. The drums are real. The melodies powerful. Guthrie (Cocteau Twins) quietly coaxes beauty and emotion from his guitar and seemingly invites us inside the dream where we are a blissful and integral part of the whole creation.
Hasidic New Wave – Complete Recordings 5xCD (Tzadik)
Five-disc set features complete recordings of one of the major ensembles in the renaissance of Jewish jazz. Fuses spiritual songs from Hasidic dynasties to funk and jazz, Arabic dances with avant-garde rock, and juxtaposes horas and freylekhs with intense improvisation.
Incantation – Vanquish In Vengeance CD (Listenable)
A blasphemous and bone-crushing doom-tinged brand of death.
Junkie XL – Synthesized CD (Nettwerk)
After four years, Dutch-born musician, remixer and producer Junkie XL (aka Tom Holkenborg) presents Synthesized, featuring Curt Smith (Tears For Fears), Rock Steady Freddie (Datarock), Tommie Sunshine and Isis Salam (Chinese Flash Mob).
Alicia Keyes – Girl On Fire CD (RCA)
Girl On Fire features powerful anthems and intimate ballads, led by Keys’ signature soulful voice and personable and relatable lyrics, and features collaborations with Gary Clarke Jr., Pop And Oak, Emeli Sande, and Jamie XX, among others. Vinyl version due December 11.
King Crimson – A Lark’s Tongue In Aspic [Reissue/1972] 2xCD/CD+DVD-A (Discipline US)
This digitally remastered and expanded 40th Anniversary edition of the prog/art-rock band’s classic 1972 album includes a new stereo mix by Robert Fripp and Steven Wilson plus bonus tracks.
Mammoth Mammoth – Vol. III: Hell’s Likely CD (Napalm)
This Australian band is influenced by the explosive sounds of Thin Lizzy, Kvelertak and Motörhead.
Noise For Pretend – Happy Near You CD (Hush)
10th Anniversary Edition of the first studio recordings of Esperanza Spalding’s original trio.
Offshore – Bakehaus CD/LP (Big Dada)
Bake Haus itself a kind of deconstructed slow-jam. In between you can find post-rock, static and malfunctioning computers.
Outasight – Nights Like These CD (WB)
This Yonkers, New York bred musician weaves together the cadenced sounds of popular hip-hop and indie rock with the poignant sensibility of classic pop and soul music.
Phantom Orchard Orchestra – Trouble In Paradise CD (Tzadik)
This duo project of Zeena Parkins and Ikue Mori has plenty of mystery with exotic beauty and an orchestral sweep.
Pluto – Future 3D (Epic)
New from the Atlanta rapper. Features guest appearances from Big Rube, Diddy, Ludacris, Kelly Rowland, Drake, T.I., Snoop Dogg, Juicy J, R. Kelly and Trae The Truth.
Rage Against The Machine – XX CD/2xCD+DVD/2xCD+2xDVD+LP/LP (Sony Legacy)
Remastered reissue of Rage Against The Machine’s 1992 debut is available in three configurations: the 20th Anniversary Edition Deluxe Box Set featuring two CDs, two DVDs, one HQ-180 vinyl LP, a 40-page booklet and two-sided poster; 20th Anniversary Special Edition featuring two CDs and a bonus DVD featuring six tracks in an oversized softpack; and 20th Anniversary Edition single compact disc (with three bonus tracks).
Scott & Charlene’s Wedding – Para Vista Social Club CD/LP (Critical Heights)
Aussie jangle pop that recalls The Twerps in a good way. Chiming guitars, the soft fizz of feedback and wistful vocal style bode well for a big future.
Soundtrack – Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 [The Score] CD (Atlantic)
Original score to the final film in the Twilight franchise, composed by Carter Burwell.
Theologian – Chasms Of My Heart CD (Crucial Blast)
There’s no shortage of Theologian’s trademark black ambience here. The frantic, clanking rhythms on “We Can’t All Be Victims” becomes a backdrop to a maelstrom of monochrome drone and howling demonic noise, obscuring the nightmarish cacophony of choral voices, screaming feedback and epic strings buried deep below.
Toy Love – Live At The Gluepot CD/2xLP (Goner)
Toy Love’s music was in a constant state of formation and reformation throughout the band’s existence—songs would warp and twist with every playing. This double-album captures the legendary band in September 1980 at The Gluepot in Ponsonby, Auckland—one of their final live performances.
Various Artists – Alive At The Deep Blues Fest CD/LP (Alive)
Alive At The Deep Blues Fest is an old school live album featuring performances by Buffalo Killers, Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires, Radio Moscow, Brian Olive, Left Lane Cruiser, Henry’s Funeral Shoe and John The Conqueror.
Various Artists – Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era (1965-1968) 2xCD (Rhino)
The quintessential collection of garage and psych rock from the big bang in the mid-to-late ‘60s.
Wu-Block – Wu-Block CD (E1)
Wu-Tang Clan and The Lox, have joined forces to create Wu-Block, which was helmed by Ghostface Killah and Sheek Louch.
John Zorn – Concealed CD (Tzadik)
Combining the sound of two of Zorn’s most popular and beloved groups, Bar Kokhba And The Dreamers, this is a sonic journey filled with surprise, elation and mystery.
Vinyl:
The Brian Jonestown Massacre – Spacegirl And Other Favorites [Reissue/1996] LP (A. Records)
Back-in-print on HQ-180 green vinyl.
Neneh Cherry & The Thing – Cherry Thing Remixes 2x (Smalltown Supersound)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Remixes by Jim O’Rourke, Lindstrom, Prins Thomas, Merzbow, Four Tet, Kim Hiorthoy, Hortlax Cobra, Carmen Villain, Poole Blount Legacy, Nymph & Kurzmann.
Brian Eno – Lux 2xLP (Warp)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Eno expands upon the types of themes and sonic textures that were present on such classic albums as Music For Films, Music For Airports, and Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks. Eno sees it as a continuation of his “Music For Thinking” project that includes Discreet Music (1975) and Neroli (1993).
M. Geddes Gengras – Test Leads LP (Holy Mountain)
Known for his recent collaborative record with Sun Araw and The Congos, not to mention as a member of Robedoor, Pocahaunted and a host of other bands, M. Geddes Gengras steps out on his own for a proper full-length, operating under his god-given name, letting loose with two sides of sprawling synthscapes.
German Shepherds – Music For Sic Queers LP+7”+MP3 (Superior Viaduct)
First time reissue of only LP, originally released in 1985. Bonus 7″ contains unreleased material. “A masterpiece of minimal synth combined w/ experimental & noisy synth punkish elements!” – Mutant Sounds.
Daniel Higgs – Say God [2010] 2xLP+MP3 (Thrill Jockey)
Say God is an album of gospel songs and poems as presently received by Daniel Higgs. Recorded with the help and enthusiasm of David Andrew Sitek, who graciously provided Daniel Higgs with an environment in which to prosper and enjoy the adventure of recording, or, if you will, the ensnaring of songs as they migrate through time and mind, that they might be heard many places at once, with the singer absent.
Joan Of Arc – Joan Of Arc LP+MP3 (Joyful Noise)
Tim Kinsella (Cap’n Jazz, Owls) fills Side A with some of the most stripped-down, soulful songwriting of his career. In all, Joan Of Arc sees the group boiling down 17 years of experimentalism into its most basic and honest form.
King Midas Sound – Without You [2011] LP (Hyperdub)
Made up of Kevin Martin (AKA The Bug), spoken word performer Roger Robinson and vocalist Hitomi, King Midas Sound are known for a dark, cinematic style of bass music that Pitchfork called “zero-gravity lovers’ rock.” Martin curated Without You himself, and in doing so reached well beyond the confines of the UK club circuit, tapping the likes of Flying Lotus, Gang Gang Dance and Green Gartside, singer of the post-punk outfit Scritti Politti.
MMOSS – Only Children LP (Trouble In Mind)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. From the damp and misty woods of New Hampshire emerges the second full-length from psych jam warriors MMOSS. The songs here are a decidedly heavier trip, boasting feats of krautrock, cascading vocal harmonies, and expanded blasts of psychedelic mayhem.
NRBQ – Interstellar 10” (Sundazed)
A slab of wax that finds the revered fivesome latching onto the out-there New Thing jazz pioneered by intergalactic heroes Sun Ra & His Arkestra — and riding the music to universes beyond and beyond. Cut live in 1970 at Cincinnati’s Ludlow Garage and Clinton Hollow in upstate New York, “these revolutionary sounds,” says NRBQ mainman Terry Adams “opened up new possibilities in rock & roll.”
Plateaus – Plateaus LP (Art Fag)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. San Diego four-piece Plateaus craft maddeningly catchy burnout pop gems.
Profligate – Videotape 12” (Not Not Fun)
Debut from the burned-mind industrial vehicle of Noah Anthony (Night Burger). Videotape retains the eerie bleakness and concrete atmospheres of his previous project but sculpts them into more maximal, dynamic constructions.
Roche – A Night At The Haç 12” (100% Silk)
On “A Night at the Haç,” Bay Area Balearic boy Ben Winans’ keys converse the epic dialogue of classic house thematics: high notes begging romantic love; low notes daring physical freedom. Acid alien gears turn “Insider Outsider” into pivotless progression, straight ahead until the record breaks.
Roll The Dice Meets Pole – In Dubs 12” (Leaf)
Pole’s dramatic and harmonious reworks on In Dubs are worthy of the adopted dub reggae nomenclature and exhibit a similar warmth and analog physicality to that of Roll The Dice, so it’s a marriage made in heaven.
Slaves – Ocean On Ocean 2xLP (Helen Scarsdale Agency)
Hovering above the weighted disposition of doom and below the consolation of shoegaze, Slaves transmit a burdened grace that unfolds like a radiant mammal writhing in black water, and have drawn favorable comparisons to the likes of Grouper, Slowdive, Earth, and Barn Owl.
Sleepers – Painless Nights LP+MP3 (Superior Viaduct)
San Francisco underground classic originally released in 1981. For fans of Flipper, Crime, Tuxedomoon, Toiling Midgets.
Trashmen – A Souvenir Of Their Visit To New York 7” (Sundazed)
Features “Goofy Foot,” “I Call Your Name,” “Yellow Jacket,” and “Wild Thing.”
Trash Talk – 119 LP+CD (Odd Future)
Recently released on CD – now available on color vinyl. New album from the Sacramento-based hardcore/punk band.
Woollen Kits – Four Girls LP (Trouble In Mind)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Australia’s Woollen Kits have the swagger and jangle of classic Flying Nun Records releases and the simplicity and directness of Beat Happening with a dash of late-‘80s underground rock.
Leave a Reply