Brokebox juke
Aaron Moore is best known as part of Volcano The Bear, described by The Wire as producing some of the finest, wildest British music of the last 10 years on record and on stage', and revered for their peerless releases on labels such as Beta-Lactam Ring and Nurse With Wound's United Dairies. He's also one third of Amolvacy (along with Dave Nuss of No Neck Blues Band), and the Paris-based Textile Orchestra. Alan Courtis was of course an integral part of the infamous Reynols, and has been involved …
Touching down lightly
This is Sylvain Chauveau record #8. Sylvain Chauveau, piano. Recorded in 2008 by John McEntire in Chicago. 'Touching down lightly is a new full-length (surprise) album out on the Creative Sources imprint. Performed by Sylvain Chauveau (piano), recorded and mixed by John McEntire in Chicago. This is not the song-based album started early 2007 (still unfinished for now). Touching down lightly is the result of one day of improvisation at Soma Electronic Music Studio late November 2008: a way to cre…
Terrain
Graham HALLIWELL, software based saxophone feedback and electronics. Lee PATTERSON, amplified objects. 'Terrain', comprises of multi-layered saxophone, amplified objects and field recordings. The four pieces are the result of a week long field and studio recording session in North Norfolk, Summer 2006. With reference to the title, each piece occupies a no man's land between composition and improvisation.
New York Nuts & Boston Baked Beans
Violinist/vocalist C Spencer Yeh & unrivaled saxophone elder-titan Paul Flaherty team up without the assistance of acclaimed drummer Chris Corsano for the first time.Along for the jamz is bonkers Boston trumpeteer Greg Kelley. After performing numerous times and honing a distinct group dynamic as a trio over many years with celebrated percussionist Chris Corsano, Yeh and Flaherty decided to try it out one-on-one. The record comprises of the best from two live sets from a short duo tour in the No…
Induced Musical Spasticity: B.C. Free Music Society (1984-2009)
Major archival unearthing that makes available for the first time the bulk of the 'official' releases - plus a ton of unreleased material - from the mythic Butte County Free Music Society, a collective of musical oddballs, 'noise' musicians, art pranksters, record collectors and rock/roll fans who modeled themselves on the Los Angeles Free Music Society in order to create an umbrella organization that would shelter 'out' musicians during times of musical drought, this one taking place in the ear…
Xoxo
Extended Organ is a 'supergroup' of experimental sound artists whose members are culled from the ranks of that seminal West Coast 'slacker' noise cult the Los Angeles Free Music Society. The four members of Extended Organ have been improvising with sound for over two decades and although they have played together in various configurations in the past, this is the first time the quartet has ever played together as a total entity. The foursome each have active and well established careers on their…
C\'est Com... Com... Compliqué
The Bureau B label breaks into new territory and presents a newly-recorded album by Krautrock legends, Faust. "There is no group more mythical than Faust." Thus wrote English musician and eccentric Julian Cope in his classic of the genre, Krautrocksampler. Which says it all really -- neither the habitus nor the music of the six-piece Hamburg group is easy to grasp. Formed in Hamburg in 1970, some lauded Faust as the best thing that ever happened to rock, others dismissed them as shameless dilett…
Schiphorst 2008
This release documents Krautrock legends Faust live before an audience of friends, fellow artists and fans from all over Europe at 2008's Avant Garde Festival -- held quite literally in co-founder Jean-Hervé Peron's back yard in Schiphorst, Germany. A friendly audience yes, but one not easily impressed. Faust did not disappoint... from the spontaneous vocal improvisation during the soundcheck (preserved here as track 1), through the walk-about serenading of Peron's beloved pig with a firework ba…
(un)sentimental
Though each member of the 13th Assembly is acclaimed in their own right this group is very much a singular musical experience. A planned NPR piece should help raise exposure for this sublime recording.
The Thirteenth Assembly began as a touring collective made up of four musicians and four musically distinct small ensembles: Tomas and Taylor's duo; Mary and Jessica's duo; Taylor's trio with Mary and Tomas; and the collaborative quartet featured on this recording. The group is a microcosm of an e…
A Grand Tour Of Tunisia
During a late 2007 trip to the united kingdom the sunburned lineup of paul labrecque, john moloney, sarah o'shea, robert thomas and ron schneiderman trekked into the studio along with john "herb diamante" godbert and michael flower. a grand tour of tunisia is a massive double LP providing a glimpse into those sessions. tunisia touches on all of the best facets of the sunburned oeuvre - dope rhythmic workouts, freeform bombast and experimental exorcisms with a taste of character-driven roleplay t…
(another) stunt
(another) Stunt is the second part of a trilogy started in 2008 with the ‘Stunt’ EP on Schoolmap: the series is based on the use of one turntable and a large selection of vinyl records as sources for raw material, and pulses/rhythm as main organisational principle. The focus on the physical gesture of playing the records – fully recognisable after the editing and the assemblage – is probably more related to the kind of “turntablism” familiar to hip-hop musicians, than to other plunderphonic-rela…
The First Basket
Charming and imaginative music for a controversial film that follows the Jewish basketball experience from ash cans placed on the stoops of brownstones to the bright lights of Madison Square Garden. Composed by Roberto Juan Rodriguez, whose CDs of modern Cuban-Jewish fusion have become Tzadik best sellers, the score jumps from klezmer to classical, dixieland, pop, rock and back again. Featuring an astounding array of downtown musicians, The First Basket establishes Roberto as a versatile compose…
Artificial Midnight
New York synth duo Infinity Window have been crafting their game for well over a year without much documentation. Comprised of Dan Lopatin (Oneohtrix Point Never) and Taylor Richardson (Prehistoric Blackout), this LP shows them at the pinnacle of self-realization. Equally influenced by John Carpenter and the Taj Mahal Travellers, they create traveling music; music that has the power to transport and overwhelm the listener with vibes outside of those presently available to them. The A-side consis…
The Storyteller
The Storyteller is another exciting release out of the New Israeli Jazz scene, this time featuring alto saxophonist Uri Gurvich. Born and raised in Israel, Uri moved to Boston in 2003. He has studied at Berklee with Joe Lovano and Herb Pomeroy and now lives in New York, where he appears regularly with his own ensembles. His work places Israeli, Yemenite, East European and North African music into a progressive jazz context. Passionate and virtuosic, The Storyteller is a fabulous debut CD by this…
Charmed Birds Against Sorcery
2009 release ** The third full-length CD by AREA C, released this time by Students of Decay: "Glacial harmonics drift in and out of each channel, skittering, modulated notes pulse and surge, sputtering suddenly to luminescent manifestation before disappearing just as quickly."
Conference Of The Birds
LP version. Blends metal, chant, drone, dub, and psychedelia. The band's lyrics expound upon the structure of the universe, potentiality, and freedom from the physical body.
Stand By
This is a reissue of the seventh and final album by this quintessential progressive French electronic rock band. Originally released on Egg in 1979, this features the classic Heldon line-up of Richard Pinhas-guitar and electronics, Patric Gauthier-Moog synthesizer and electronics, Didier Batard-bass, François Auger-drums and guests, including Klaus Blasquiz of Magma. This was one of Heldon's heaviest rock albums.
The Films of Kenneth Anger Volume Two
RESTOCKED! Cinematic magician, legendary provocateur, author of the infamous HOLLYWOOD BABYLON books and creator of some of the most striking and beautiful works in the history of film, Kenneth Anger is a singular figure in post-war American culture. A major influence on everything from the films of Martin Scorsese, Rainer Werner Fassbinder and David Lynch to the pop art of Andy Warhol to MTV, Anger's work serves as a talisman of universal symbols and personal obsessions, combining myth, artific…
New Raytheonport
New to Forte, SHDWPLY records has struck a rich vein of killer new US artists: limited and vinyl only for now, this is the Debut from Gary War, from Brooklyn NY. A one-man phantasmagoria of swooshing spectral pop. Somewhere over the Black Moth Super Rainbow, he spins gaseous cobwebs of eldritch bubblegum. While the hauntology's ghost hunters in the U.K. look to library music and vintage soundtracks, he pinches from the "dense, ponderous soporific mass" of '70s FM sound, to borrow Howard Hampton'…
Sauna: Um, Dois, Tres
Sao Paulo Underground: Rob Mazurek (cornet, electronics); Mauricio Takara (percussion, electronics). The title track is a cacophonous affair with Takara's rolling drums zigzagging through a dense undergrowth of sound, with electronics, gritty laptop interjections and guitar all meshing together.