Check out Other Music's eBay auction this week! We have put a slew of hard-to-find items up for auction, including records by Glaxo Babies, Dead C, Double Leopards, Durutti Column, High Rise, Zoviet France, and a rare David Tibet/Steve Stapleton title. Click here to bid.

FEATURED NEW RELEASES
Joanna Newsom
White Magic
Peter & the Wolf
Serious Times (Reggae Compilation)
Terry Manning
Petite M'amie
Tumba Francesa (Soul Jazz Comp.)
Pavement (Wowee Zowee 2-CD Edition)
KTL (Stephen O'Malley & Peter Rehberg)
Robert Henke
Mighty Baby
Cherrystones (Mix)
Skull Snaps
Cluster
Nic Jones

BACK IN PRINT
International Harvester
Harvester
Trad Gras och Stenar

ALSO AVAILABLE
More G.D.M. 12" (My Bloody Valentine Remix by Andrew Weatherall)
Revolving Paint Dream
Ladybug Transistor
In-Kraut 2 (Various)
Radio Slave (Mix CD)
Pixel
Richard Chartier
Gescom
My Latest Novel


COMPLETE LIST OF THIS WEEK'S NEW ARRIVALS

JOANNA NEWSOM
Ys
(Drag City)

"Sawdust and Diamonds"

"Emily"

Just by gazing at the ridiculous Renaissance-style oil painting of Ms. Newsom that graces the cover of Ys, you can tell that she is light years beyond the hand-stitched intimacy of her beloved debut, The Milk-Eyed Mender. By now, you've probably read the tale of the tape: 5 songs, 55 minutes, each suite between 7 and 17 minutes, as well as the A-list of folks involved: Jim O'Rourke, Steve Albini, Van Dyke Parks. Even such names and numbers though can't prepare you for the truly unique listening experience that is Ys. It's just beyond what most everyday indie-pop music listening entails and it's far beyond anyone's expectations. Sure, there may be slight similarities in scale with other albums like Blueberry Boat or Sufjan's Illinoise, but even these start to dwarf when set against Ys. Of course, Newsom's harp remains at the center, with Parks swirling orchestration and dashes of Americana around her, but the songs themselves are immense in range and scope. No cursory listen will even begin to unlock its manifold nuances and tics. Mere reviews and capsule reviews cannot hope to contain it, so why not just plunge into this like you would into the ocean herself, and let its bold and immense sound overwhelm you? [AB]

WHITE MAGIC
Dat Rosa Mel Apibus
(Drag City)

"The Light"

"Childhood Song"

Ever since the Brooklyn trio White Magic hit us with their first EP, Through the Sun Door, we've been waiting and anticipating a full-length. And waiting, and anticipating, and waiting…and after a few band hardships and whatnot, a new version of White Magic finally appears on record. Now an expanded duo, though still centered around singer Mira Billotte's haunting, spectral voice, the debut is everything we could want from the group. Their sound is fleshed-out here by players such as Gang Gang Dance's Tim DeWit, Samara Lubelski, and the Dirty Three's Jim White, and the sonic palette is expanded in ways we never even dreamed of previously for the band. Exotic percussion, stand-up bass, and sitar meld with Mira's piano playing, submerging the listener into a weird, suspended state. At times, the album trances out like an old Alice Coltrane record, while elsewhere the group delves into sea chanties and even a touch of reggae. The Nina Simone comparisons remain, and with the group now covering Karen Dalton's reading of the folk standard "Katie Cruel," Mira is set to enter the pantheon of powerful female singers. A momentous debut. [AB]

PETER & THE WOLF
Lightness
(Worker's Institute)

"The Owl"

"Silent Movies"

They had me at hello. Not only did Peter and the Wolf's Red Hunter, name his band…um…Peter and the Wolf(!?!), but he also had to go and title his group's debut Lightness, an homage of sorts to one of my favorite novels of all time, Kundera's Unbearable Lightness of Being. There was no way I was not gonna like this record, and there's really not much not to like. Lightness essentially plays like a Hunter solo album -- a sparse, smokey collection of twilight tales. Songs about girls gone by that only exist in our lives in tattered boxes full of tattered photographs, or in our heads on nights when we just can't get to sleep and instead of drunk dialing, we write a collection of beautiful, acoustic guitar driven songs about the whole experience.

And to some this all might sound insufferable. And I get that. And Hunter gets that too. The arrangements save Lightness from its own clichéd, wistful self. Frequently the record plays like a sublime brew of Little Wings' patchwork kookiness, Stephen Merritt's barbed, sentimental lyricism, and M. Ward's earthy reverb-soaked sonic adventurousness. For a debut, everything is disarmingly just right here; at precisely the moment when you need to hear a female voice, one enters, and a few minutes later when things have gotten a little too heavy, Hunter gives us a charming minute of lo-finess -- sounds of children playing (?), going to school (?), or a dour, shaker-driven ukulele lullaby -- either way, you are reminded about why you gave your heart so unflinchingly, stupidly falling in love, and out of love, and finding yourself back in your room at 2 A.M. writing a beautiful album of songs about girls you used to know, and that used to know you. And that old irony, that old semantic trickery that Kundera concluded, you can bet Hunter concludes here too: there is nothing more heavy than living your life so lightly, and so alone. Lightness catches this modest bittersweet truth surprisingly better than any other tape-hiss filled collection this year. [HG]

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Serious Times
(XL / Ghetto Arc)

"Notorious" Turbulence

"Marijuana" Richie Spice

Unlike many of the reggae compilations being released, Serious Times is undeniably the current sound of the dance hall scene. With selections gathered by Max Glazer and his Federation Sound System, the music presented is a ripe representation of the cutting edge. The styling of this double-CD comp places you into the heart of a sound system in action, with crowd noises, sirens and gun shot drops. Disc-one has the 20 tracks sequenced tightly together in a thick nonstop assault, while disc-two goes deeper into the smoke and heat of the party with a full-on dub plate mix from Federation Sound. Familiar and noteworthy names including Sizzla, Morgan Heritage, and Richie Spice are showcased alongside hot newcomers like Turbulence, Gyptian, I Wayne, the 10-year-old QQ, and many more. Like the sleeve suggests, from Portmore to Flatbush, Jamaica to Brooklyn, this one bridges the gap between the islands and the borough with ease. Released by XL in collaboration with Ghetto Arc (an imprint set up by former Fader editor, Knox Robinson), with excellent liner notes from Robinson and photography by Andrew Dosunmu, this is definitely one of the most enthusiastic and energetic reggae comps around. Serious stuff for sure. [DG]

TERRY MANNING
Home Sweet Home
(Sunbeam)

"Savoy Truffle"

"Talk Talk"

Every once in a while, one of these reissues shakes itself out of a pile of many that rises so far beyond what anyone could expect, that it becomes Essential Listening. Terry Manning's Home Sweet Home is just such a record, its heavy, stewy rock & roll gumbo predating both glam and punk in one fell swoop. Manning, who'd later co-found the Ardent label, was an engineer barely out of his teens and a friend of Alex Chilton's. The album stemmed from a recording session with the Box Tops, in which he meant to hassle Chilton and songwriter Eddie Hinton with a psychedelicized wild-man "joke" version of Hinton's "Choo Choo Train." To his surprise, the track was received warmly, enough so that Al Bell asked Manning to cut a whole album in that style. He went along with it, and out came this intense, fun, free-wheeling collection of covers and tributes, originally released in 1970 on the Stax imprint Enterprise (and making Manning the labelmate of Isaac Hayes). As if this wasn't already dumbfounding enough, Home Sweet Home marks the recording debut of the late Chris Bell, and features Richard Rosebrough on drums, making this album somewhat of a precursor to Big Star (and in that sense, if you like their tougher songs like "She's a Mover" or Bell's "Make a Scene," you should love this), as well as a cover of the Beatles' "One After 909," constructed from demos Manning had reinterpreted, and recorded before the Beatles had even completed their own version! Paying nods to Johnny Cash, the Yardbirds, the Music Machine, Booker T. and the MG's, Jerry Lee Lewis and the Fab Four (including a massive, 10-minute version of "Savoy Truffle," featuring synth played by Bob Moog himself), everything about Home Sweet Home wallops on you like a sack of doorknobs, from Manning's whiskey-marinated growl to the hard stereo panning that graces every song here. Reissue of the year? If not, it's pretty damn close. [DM]

PETITE M'AMIE
Girlfriend Baby Doll
(Tiliqua)

"Baby Doll"

"Splendor"

If you enjoyed the recent Japanese sexpop reissues listed a few newsletters back, here's another one to notch into your bedpost -- Mari Keiko (a/k/a Petite M'amie) cooing, wriggling, and biting her lip for you over top arrangements mixing horns, harpsichords, and strings with pop-combo beats. This one's a bit more strangely ethereal at times, though it's obvious from the packaging that they were going for a deliberate Francophile/ye-ye approach here. Despite the feeling that Keiko's enjoying herself in the vocal booth, the music's Vaseline-smeared soft focus makes the whole thing seem just a bit too improper for anyone under 15's good -- more Emmanuelle than Salut de Copains, if you will. You know what you're getting yourself into here, so I'll leave you to your business. Enjoy! [IQ]

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Tumba Francesa: Afro-Cuban Music from the Roots
(Soul Jazz)

"Camaguey"

"Muerive yo dila"

PAVEMENT
Wowee Zowee: Sordid Sentinels Edition
(Matador)

"Fight This Generation"

"Rattled by the Rush"

Wowee Zowee may have seemed like a tossed-off title at the time this record was first released back in April 1995, and many of the listeners that Pavement had won over with the masterful Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain might have taken the record that way. In some respects, the album feels as though the chef surfaced from the kitchen after the main course had been gobbled up only to drop a sampler plate on the table. But if Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain and Slanted & Enchanted are held up as Pavement's masterpieces, then Wowee Zowee, which now joins that esteemed pair with a deluxe reissue of its own, is Pavement boiled down to their very essence. The new liner notes by Stephen Malkmus bubble with words like "variety," "stretched out," "chances" and "surprise," and that cuts to the spirit of the proceedings.

The differences with other Pavement records are textural, too: where Crooked Rain rattled the floor boards with its brassy low end, Wowee Zowee confronts you with bright midrange. Songs like "Black Out" and "Pueblo" twist along on the lapidary guitar lines that later populated so much of Pavement and Malkmus's work and made his and their sounds instantly identifiable. Wowee Zowee also finds the band experimenting with language and the sound of words -- bringing down on themselves thousands of reviews that in some way reference John Ashbery. The two-CD set offers a huge collection of alternate takes on album tracks, along with contributions to long-forgotten compilations and soundtracks last seen littering the desks of mid-90s college radio program directors. For Pavement fans, it's an embarrassment of riches. [TA]

KTL
KTL
(Mego)

"Forest Floor 4"

"Estranged"

Missing Stephen O'Malley's recent live collaboration with David Grubbs at a hole-in-the-wall bar shaded by the Williamsburg Bridge a couple weeks ago piqued my interest in this project. Both artists have worked with film soundscapes and installations, but what would the live pairing of O'Malley's doom metal and Grubbs' recent multifaceted guitar intricacies sound like, if they decided to go their usual routes at all? Now here is another, at first, eyebrow-raising collaboration. Both Pita's (a/k/a Peter Rehberg) experimental electronics and Stephen O'Malley's (Sunn0))), Khanate) sparse epic guitar sounds tend to operate extreme sides. Both weave in and out of their landscapes adeptly and complimentary on this album. It starts out with a low, atmospheric hum and after several minutes, spectral feedback punctuated by hollow whistles and swirls emerge. Electronic glitch and distortion whiz by and, much like with Sunn0))), subtle shifts happen in slow motion, mostly buoyed by guitar notes and string manipulations. Most of the first track stays like this until the end, where the guitar intersects the landscape more frequently, fading back into the background hum. This murky, frightful tone is really only a warm-up for the next song, "Forest Floor 1." Fans of doom metal will dig the thicker noise; clangy looped feedback, layered with low frequency strums, sludges through dark glitchy ooze. Apocalyptic electronics sounding like a heart-stopping metallic scrape will make you think your stereo is possessed.

Thick in the forest of "Forest Floor 3," my extremely loud radiator clicked on somewhere in the middle. Like a child trying to sing along to a recognizable tune, the extra hissing sound wasn't obvious until another ebbing of light and dark assonances traveled through the speakers. Drones, digital crashes and the collisions of abundant and scattered noise like this are delightfully evident and weighty, despite the subtle changes in texture and tone through the whole album. On the last track, "Snow," feedback with occasional guitar string manipulations suggests a lone squeaky swing on a playground. Barely audible tribal rhythmic sweeps signal the start of creeping precipitous frequencies, and you can almost imagine a dark figure trudging through a bleak white landscape, wind whistling and aching the ears, accelerated heartbeat keeping in the warmth. The rhythm drops out and leaves the metallic plucks and electronic crunches to fade out almost unnoticeably. KTL seems the perfect soundtrack to the fall turning into winter season -- radiators, precipitation, changing colors and cotton to wool fabrics. The enjoyment lies in the attention to the shifts. [LG]

ROBERT HENKE
Layering Buddha
(I/CM)

"Layer 001"

"Layer 006"

Henke is better known for his work as Monolake, that epochal moniker from the Chain Reaction/ Basic Channel axis of minimal German techno that redefined the sound in the '90s. There's little doubt that the man's ear is attuned, so to hear that he was taking samples from fm3's Buddha Machine (the perfect stocking stuffer for noise nerds) and layering them, we knew that it would be a heavy release. And so it is, with Henke swooping in for extreme close-ups of that plastic box's original noise loops and finding whole new topographies to its low-bit sound. The scale of these new compositions is immense, at once weightless and like the heaviest sort of gravity imaginable, both drift-worthy and pulverizing. It makes us view that little plastic box in a whole new way. [AB]

MIGHTY BABY
A Jug of Love
(Sunbeam)

"Keep on Jugging"

"A Jug of Love"

To start on the story of Mighty Baby we gotta go back to the '60s, when a young mod band called the Action was poised to take over the world, with help from George Martin and Parlophone. Though their material was high-energy and sophisticated, the band stalled out on the charts, having released a handful of singles and nothing more. It would be 30 years before their unreleased album Rolled Gold, a truly beautiful, modern-sounding psychedelic pop masterpiece, would officially hit shelves. Down and out with no future in sight, the group fractured, with many of its members reconvening under the name Mighty Baby. They signed to the ill-fated Head label at the decade's end, releasing one self-titled album of adventurous and rowdy, yet balanced and masterful beardo-psych, close in spirit and deed to the Grateful Dead. A Jug of Love was the group's second and final effort, released in 1971 on Blue Horizon and reissued here with a long-lost single and two unreleased tracks. By this point, the group was beginning to find its (bare) footing by twisting up British folk, blues revivalism, and American country-rock with post-psychedelic flourishes. There's still a lot of Dead in here (as well as touches of similarly-lost band of the time, Help Yourself), largely in the vocal harmonies and oft-dizzying musicianship, and it's somewhat fair to say that it's twice the album of their debut: roving, marvelously complex arrangements, produced by the skilled hand of Mike Vernon. To be fair, there's one track of ceaseless wanking within, but the remainder of the album tracks, the gorgeous single "Devil's Whisper," and two airy, unreleased recordings from the band's earlier days more than make up for it. If you're the type looking for the kind of record that will take your unfulfilled '70s jam dreams steps further into reality, this is the album for you. [DM]

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Cherrystones Word
(Poptones)

"You've Been Duplicated"

"I Can't Control Myself"

What is so great about Cherrystones' mixes is first, you are drawn into his cavernous resource of rarely tread upon jams by a harmless little break and suddenly you are plunging into the depths of full-on psych funk, world funk, freak funk, funk prog and whatever else lurks beneath the musty lands known as "crate-digging-ton." Word reeks of just-dislodged tasty morsels and also some near and dear choice bits of dirty jams. What a berserk and beautiful comp! Fellow spelunkers of sound will be delighted to hear tracks by Chrome, the Deviants, Pan & Regaliz and Lard Free among such surprises as Roger C. Reale & Rue Morgan's glammed-out cover of the Troggs "I Can't Control Myself" and the driving yet jerky, synth-art-rock dancer "Do the Residue" by Kontakt Mikrofoon Orkest. There is such a melee of sound within and Mr. Goddard includes tenderly written liner notes for each track, explaining away any lack of cohesion with the intensity of a fanboy supreme. Listening, it's hard to imagine such a cerebral mix packing the dancefloor. But, as relayed to me by many at Rubulad last December, people were in fact all over dancing, all crushed up on each other and then bang! In "Dead Moon Night," Fred screams out, "It's way across the room!" That must've been a mindbender! Yeah, there are gems all over this thing and those who follow Gareth Goddard are accustomed to nothing less. You won't be disappointed. [NL]

LADY SOVEREIGN
Public Warning
(Def Jam)

"My England"

"Love Me or Hate Me"

Straight up, I can't remember smiling so much while listening to a record as I did during my first listen-through of this, Lady Sovereign's long-awaited, much-bloggyhooed debut full-length. I was a bit disconcerted at first whilst looking at the track list, as a good 75% of this album has been making the rounds on the Internet and via numerous EPs and singles for a year or more in assorted states of (re)mix and finality. I'm rather surprised that Public Warning is actually rather listenable as an album, but thinking about why that's so brings up what makes Sov actually work as a performer. It's the carefree personality, the self-deprecating nature of her personality as an entertainer that makes her more likely to be the recent MTV TRL Countdown Queen as opposed to someone like M.I.A, whose debut album also displayed similar efforts of pop/cred balance with MC deliveries rooted more in Jamaican dancehall stylings than anything traced back to the Bronx. Many of the album's songs are equal parts unabashed pop fun and MC swagger, which maintain a sort of checks-and-balances with one another -- some of the album's few missteps are when Sov gets more self-conscious and serious in tone, or when the often ska-like bounce of the beats gets trampled on by clumsy rockish guitar riffs which just don't fall into place with the rest of the track. Overall, the pluses outweigh the minuses, though one of her catchiest, best tunes ("Cha-Ching") is disappointingly absent, and two versions of the current hit single "Love Me or Hate Me" are included -- the second of which features a guest verse by Missy Elliott and makes the previous version a bit superfluous. If you're new to Sov, this is a pretty great entry point, and if you've been following her for a bit, nearly all of the good stuff is here in one nice convenient little package. I can't remember the last time I came across a record that my 14-year-old sister and I could both unabashedly enjoy... in fact, this may be the first. Cheers to that! [IQ]

SKULL SNAPS
Skull Snaps
(Aztec Music)

"It's a New Day"

"Trespassin'"

A welcome reissue of a deep funk classic. The Skull Snaps came out of the demise of the classy doo-wop and early R&B vocal group, the Diplomats. After half the band quit in 1968, remaining members Ervan Waters and Sam Culley sensed the changing tide in music and picked up the bass and guitar, and started reworking their sound to fit the burgeoning psychedelic funk sound. When George Bragg backed them up on drums on the final Diplomats single, they immediately clicked and started playing as the Soul 3. Once Lloyd Price heard them, he immediately signed the trio and rechristened them Skull Snaps -- because their music "cracked people's skull" -- and they set out to work on this, their one and only album. The record is a glorious banger from start to finish and effortlessly glides through all of the popular styles of R&B of the time. The album begins with the elegant proto-disco drive of "My Hang Up Is You" and follows up the song with the ballad "Having You Around," which showcased their vocal group prowess. But it's "It's a New Day" that makes the album a classic. Opening with a drum break that was every bit as hard as this band's name would suggest, the song is a slow-burning piece of protest soul that has lived on in countless numbers of classic hip-hop tracks. This album should've been huge, but unfortunately the record company closed its doors mere weeks after its release and the band subsequently broke up to focus on other ventures. After years of un-credited sample use and bootlegging, it's great to see this record get a legitimate reissue. Highest recommendation! Oh yeah, Skull Snaps is touring again and if they ever pass through your town go see them. They still got it! [DH]

CLUSTER
Sowiesoso
(Water)

"Sowiesoso"

"Zum Wohl"

Having already reissued such peaks of kosmische music like Cluster & Eno as well as the more barbed Cluster '71, we just presumed that the American reissue imprint Water was done with their affordable domestic cataloging of the work of Moebius and Roedelius. Now comes 1976's afternoon idyllic, Sowiesoso. Translating as "So not so so," this disc follows up on the poppy pleasures of their finest (in my humble opinion) moment, Zuckerzeit, with a more temperate and languid pacing. Songs remain brief and succinct, tracks more like snapshots of gently gurgling synth motifs, murmuring drum machine patters, and every once in awhile, a squiggle of electric guitar. Fans of Jan Jelinek, Boards of Canada, Morr Music, Stereolab, dig the daddies of analog ambient brilliance. [AB]

NIC JONES
Game Set Match
(Topic)

"Flanders Shore"

"Jolly Bold Robber"

A confession. Nic Jones is my favorite British Folk singer of all time. As an interpreter, he is quite simply beyond compare. Like a more sentimental, less dour Bert Jansch, Jones' ability to play so fast and loose with his source material, his ability to be so courageous musically, twisting and turning the historic and the familiar into something greater, and something all his own -- this sets Nic Jones far apart from all the rest of those so called folk revivalists.

To revive. So no longer a trend, the past few years has seen a revival of the revivalists like three times over at this point. And shockingly, yet still, you'd be forgiven for thinking, Nic Jones who!? Out of five records Jones recorded between 1970 and 1980, only an alarming one is in print. That album, Penguin Eggs, was voted Folk Record of 1980 by Melody Maker, and many in the cognoscente rank it as one of the greatest folk albums ever made. It's only a testament to Jones' abilities that Penguin Eggs isn't even close to his best work in my opinion; his debut, Ballads and Songs, and '78's unheralded masterpiece, From a Devil to a Stranger, prove every bit as nuanced and mind blowing. Even his session work on a record like June Tabor's classic Airs and Graces is powerful enough to get you to stop and take note -- that is, if you even knew someone else was playing on that record with her. And it's an important point; maybe Jones' modesty in his own music, and as a session man with others, hurt his career in the long haul. It may be why so few people recognize him for the great that he is to this day.

Game Set Match is the latest collection of Nic Jones material to be released on CD. Considering there are already two previous collections of Jones' material on CD, it's sort of frustrating nobody will put out the man's full albums already. However, you need not have read every word of the last two paragraphs to know that I'm gonna tell you Match is essential. A near-fatal car accident ended Jones' performing career in 1982, and this comp. collects some of the man's final, beautiful live performances. While most of his contemporaries seemed to peak creatively in the early-'70s, Jones, typical to himself, was the exception, hitting the height of his powers right around the time of these performances in '78 and '79. Many of the songs played here are off the impossible to find From a Devil to a Stranger, and it's literally breathtaking to hear how seamlessly complex, and yet emotionally charged Nic's playing was live. The recording quality is a little iffy at times, which I guess is to be somewhat expected. Any Nic Jones stuff on CD is a gift. He is a true master. And one of the few artists whose untapped discography still has so so much to share with us all. Thank you Topic. [HG]

INTERNATIONAL HARVESTER
Sov Gott Rose-Marie
(Silence)

"Skordetider"

Those of you who regularly read our update may actually be sick of hearing how fantastic these albums are… But, for those who are new to the delectable Swedish psych titles that Silence reissued in 2001 (which have been out of print for awhile now) or who have been trying to hunt down the pricey originals on LP, the time for rejoicing is upon you. These albums are filled with truly enlightening experimental communal music from late-'60s early-'70s Sweden: organic, acid-soaked, free jazz-influenced, heavy-on-the-psychedelia rock music. One of the highlights of my life (in terms of witnessing live music) was the completely improvised OM in-store a few years back which included some of the legendary and fabled musicians involved in these groups (Bo Anders Persson being at the helm of this movement).

My personal favorite of this batch is International Harvester's Sov Gott Rose-Marie, and it's more of a journey than an album. International Harvester is an incarnation of Parson Sound before they became Harvester (and later Trad Gras och Stenar). Much like the first track of the Parson Sound reissue, the opener on Sov Gott Rose-Marie is a mammoth to be reckoned with. "Dies Irae," a death hymn, bursts forth from hell. Its darkness, however, creates the contrast with which to recognize the shards of light within the murk -- you can hear the sunshine, as it's laced with soft voices and songbirds. Then comes the Rock. The album's an amalgam of juxtaposed auras: at once improvised free jazz, folk, and heavily-structured hard psych. Tribal percussions are collaged amidst speeding cars and radio transmissions. Primitive vocal calls permeate a sweet ballad. Driving repetitive patterns slip you into a delicate coma, only to wake you abruptly when these dualities crescendo into a stimulating musical expression. Included is an outdoor improvised recording featuring flute, chanting, acoustic guitar, dogs, drums, children laughing -- 14 minutes long and transcendental. [NL]

HARVESTER
Hemat
(Silence)

"Och solen gar upp"

Dropping International from their name, Harvester released Hemat (Homeward) in 1969, their second album of unbelievably fried trance-rock with traditional folk flourishes here and there. As essential as any Amon Duul I or Taj Mahal Travellers record I can think of offhand -- and that is very high praise indeed. Following Hemat, Harvester morphed into Trad Gras och Stenar for yet another four albums or so of sustained wonderfulness. Highest recommendation! [JG]

TRAD GRAS OCH STENAR
Trad Gras och Stenar
(Silence)

"Satisfaction"

A quick glance over the track listing may bring a wince at first. Ack! Not another version of "All Along the Watchtower" AAAAND the Stones?! Are they serious? Relax. Yes, you do need to hear these songs again cos' you have not heard them treated by progressive Swedish hippies reared on minimalism. [NL]

MORE G.D.M. 6
My Bloody Valentine "Soon" - Weatherall Remix
(Pandamaki)

Hey, it's been a while but here's volume six in Tigersushi's No G.D.M. 12"-series, and it's one that was way ripe for reissue. Andrew Weatherall's remix of My Bloody Valentine's "Soon" is one part early-'90s baggy, one part MBV scree, and one part Weatherall trickery. Sounds like it came right off of Screamadelica and it makes us want to do the Ian Brown monkey dance over and over. Top recommendation in other words. Krikor does a decent acid squelch banger on the flipside but that's almost beside the point.

REVOLVING PAINT DREAM
Flowers in the Sky: The Enigma of the Revolving Paint Dream
(Rev-Ola)

"Flowers in the Sky"

Rev-Ola continues to mine the Creation archives, this time for the positively mysterious Revolving Paint Dream. We know Andrew Innes of Primal Scream was in the band, Creation co-chair Joe Foster had something to do with it, and so did Alan McGee. The music ranges from the Paisley Underground sound of the first single, to pretty great '60s-damaged psych-pop and mind-boggling pop-art instrumentals. If you dug the Biff Bang Pow! reissue this is definitely for you.

LADYBUG TRANSISTOR
Here Comes the Rain
(Green UFOs)

"Everybody's Missing the Sun"

New 4-song EP by Ladybug Transistor, where they cover Trader Horne, John Cale, Kevin Ayers, and Grin. It's an all-star cast, with guest appearances by Jens Lekman and members of Architecture in Helsinki, Calexico, and Aislers Set. Perfect pop.

VARIOUS ARTISTS
In-Kraut Vol. 2
(Marina)

"Run Away" Joy & the Hit Kids

Another great collection of swinging go-go grooves from Germany in the form of the second In-Kraut volume. Most of the names are total obscurities (if you're already down with Dometown Gang, Klaus Weiss, and Joy & the Hit Kids, you probably need to get out more) but a few of you out there will have already sampled James Last and Ambros Seelos. Anyway, it's packed with funky organ jams, mod dancers, and psychedelic novelties, all with a slightly bizarre Teutonic twist.

RADIO SLAVE
Radio Slave Presents: Creature of the Night Pt. One
(Eskimo)

"III" Osmonds

New DJ mix on Eskimo (who's given us great sets by Ivan Smagghe, Glimmers, Optimo etc.) by Radio Slave. Matt Edwards reaches pretty deep into the crates here, and pulls out an awesome all night party mix. Includes everything from DJ Hell, Joe Smooth, and Green Velvet to Dennis Parker's "Like an Eagle" and a sick extended disco mix of an Osmonds track!

PIXEL
Set Your Center Between Your Parts in Order To
(Raster Noton)

"Lion"

RICHARD CHARTIER
Incidence
(Raster Noton)

"Incidence"

The minimal electronics by Danish artist Jon Egeskov that, true to the Raster aesthetic, are highly detailed and seemingly meticulously arranged, but the twist to the Pixel recording is that it's all improvised with no overdubs or edits. Fans of Ikeda and the likes, rejoice. Sound artist Richard Chartier forges an even more minimal path on Incidence, with a textured soundscape that conveys an overwhelming sense of isolation. In some of his previous compositions, Chartier utilized silence as a pivotal instrument but here he draws on deeper sounds and static. Reference points would be Basinski, Hafler Trio etc. Both highly recommended.

GESCOM
MiniDisc
(Or Only)

Track 81-85

Re-mastered reissue of a MiniDisc-only release by Gescom (a/k/a Autechre) from 1998. The idea was to use the MiniDisc's shuffle function and jam out randomly to the 88 different tracks, and here it is on CD for the iPod generation. The music? It's a dizzying mix of everything from banging hip-hop beats to fuzzy ambience. One of the oddest releases in their catalog.

MY LATEST NOVEL
Wolves
(Bella Union)

"Pretty in a Panic"

Debut release by this hotly tipped Scottish quintet, whose dreamy and melancholic pop epics are fleshed out with violins, cello, xylophone, and clever vocal arrangements. There is an intangible vibe here that is similar to all those great Chemikal Underground records of the past (Arab Strap, Delgados), combined with Sigur Ros' grandeur.

THIS WEEK'S CONTRIBUTORS

[TA] Tim Annett
[AB] Adrian Burkholder
[LG] Lisa Garrett
[JG] Jeff Gibson
[DG] Daniel Givens
[HG] Hartley Goldstein
[DH] Duane Harriott
[IQ] Mikey IQ Jones
[NL] Nicole Lang
[DM] Doug Mosurock



THANKS FOR READING
- all of us at Other Music