The Other Music Update

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	February 28, 2007


			OTHER MUSIC GOES DIGITAL! Coming Soon! Other Music steps into the Digital Age with the launch of our new download store! We'll be sending out more details via e-mail; you can sign up to this list by going to digital.othermusic.com. Interested labels, distributors and bands should contact labels@othermusic.com.


	FEATURED NEW RELEASES Dr. Dog Afflicted Man Group Doueh Omar Souleyman Explosions in the Sky Cornelius Joakim Madlib Gandalf Lee Hazlewood Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath Elvis Perkins Richard Swift Lucinda Williams Tujiko Noriko Boredoms Kenneth Anger Kings of Reggae Marnie Stern Mick Barr		Milton Henry Charlie Louvin Pop Levi Jesse Rose (Get Physical Mix CD) VINYL PRESSING Animal Collective (People single) ALSO AVAILABLE Panda Bear (12" single) Jesu Besnard Lakes Dean & Britta Shining P.G. Six Calla Black Lips

FEB/MAR

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El Perror Del Mar

UPCOMING OTHER MUSIC IN-STORE PERFORMANCES
EL PERRO DEL MAR
The sweetly soulful El Perro Del Mar is one of our favorite pop exports from Sweden!
TONIGHT! WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 28 @ 8:00 P.M.

MARISSA NADLER
An intimate setting for Marissa Nadler's beautiful, mysterious folk songs. Surely not to be missed.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7 @ 8:00 P.M.

OTHER MUSIC: 15 E. 4th Street NYC
Free Admission/Limited Capacity

FEB/MAR

Sun 25

Mon 26

Tues 27

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!!! LISTENING PARTY AT K&M THIS THURSDAY
This Thursday, we'll be featuring !!!'s upcoming new album Myth Takes (out March 6th, on Warp Records) at our monthly listening party. It all gets underway at 10:00 P.M. when we'll play the record in its entirety, and then aftewards, Other Music DJs Duane Harriott and Dan Hougland will take over the decks. As always, there'll be lots of give-aways, not to mention a $2 beer special with Butternuts Heinnieweisse all night long!

THURSDAY, MARCH 1
10 P.M. to Last Call

K&M BAR:
225 N. 8th Street (Corner of Roebling)
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
*NO COVER*

FEB/MAR

Sun 25

Mon 26

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Thurs 01

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WIN TICKETS TO SEE GRANDMASTER FLASH!
This Friday, Duane Harriott (Negroclash/OM) and Other Music welcomes Grandmaster Flash to APT, just 10 days before he becomes the first hip-hop figure ever to be inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. We have a pair of tickets to give away to this very special night! To enter, send an e-mail to contest@othermusic.com. The winner will be notified on Thursday, afternoon, March 1st.

FRIDAY, MARCH 2
GRANDMASTER FLASH w/ DUANE HARRIOTT
APT: 419 W. 13th Street NYC
$10 Adv. Tickets at Other Music

MAR

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WIN TICKETS TO THE DECEMBERISTS
Later this month, Colin Meloy and his mighty band of Decemberists will be playing two shows at Jersey City's Landmark Loews Theatre, joined by My Brightest Diamond. Other Music has a pair of tickets to give away for both nights! To enter, send an e-mail to tickets@othermusic.com and make sure to leave a daytime phone number where you can be reached as well as the date you'd like to be registered for. The two winners will be notified on Monday, March 5th.

WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY, MARCH 21 & 22
LANDMARK LOEWS THEATRE: 54 Journal Square Jersey City, NJ


	$13.99 CD		DR. DOG We All Belong (Park the Van) "My Old Ways" "The Girl" Holy Magical Mystery Tour! Surely, at this point, throwing another Beatles reference in the face of The Dog is as easy as calling the Pipettes "The Next Big Thing," but thankfully it holds. These guys just know how to craft immaculately psychedelic retro-pop jams with a so very nice, vaguely slacker sensibility, which is funny, considering just how lush We All Belong (the follow-up to the Dog's starmaking turn, Easy Beat) sounds. The band may still have been recording in a barn, but I'm not so sure the term "lo-fi" can still apply; every track sounds positively epic with walls of kitchen-ware percussion, and gooey harmony-soaked backing vocals, fuzzy guitars and plodding double-time McCartney pianos and harpsichords and Hammond organs and cowbells and god knows what else too. However, standouts like the groovy-as-f*k "The Girl" and the disarmingly Robbie Robertson sounding slow-burner "Alaska" belie an understanding of the '70s demographic of pop music's past that's just about awe-inspiring to hear. And though they may not break that old semantic post-modern conundrum (Is imitation the highest form of flattery? Are they even imitating anything? Are they just being themselves and end up sounding like the Fab Four anyways?), Belong* marks that sometimes the simulation can be as delightful and engaging and inspired as the "real thing." And on We All Belong, Dr. Dog sounds damn like the "real thing." [HG]

$20.99 CDx2

AFFLICTED MAN
Complete Recordings
(Senseless Whale)

"I'm Afflicted"

"Get Stoned 'Ezy"

Not much is known about Steve Hall and the Afflicted Man. Outside of including their entire recorded output, this two-CD package doesn't offer much more insight. The early singles embody a sort of "runnin' through the backstreets yellin' DIY!" vibe and that weirdness gets better with each listen. With the first LP, The Afflicted Man's Musical Bag, there is a willingness to stretch out and let the songs go where they need to go. You've got repetitive bass, sparse and possibly improvised lyrics and, on top of it, Hall's skeletal blues pysch guitar. Here the scales start to tip a bit to the DIY side of things, especially the track "Musically Insane," but overall there is more umph! than your normal DIY records, and the Pink Fairies and Deviants comparisons made in the sparse liner notes (by Australian SWA fan and blogger Dave Lang) start to make a lot of sense.  

Disc two starts with the second album, I'm Off Me 'ead, which takes the template of the first album and refines it a bit into a slightly more concise statement (but I use that term very loosely). Fast forward a couple of years to the third and final album Get Stoned 'Ezy, credited to High Speed and the Afflicted Man (no word on who "High Speed" is but in listening it possibly just means they were high on speed, who knows?). You've still got the simple bass patterns and lyrics, but the guitar is kicked up to "hectic jamage" levels to the extent that some of the only references to this record over the years have mentioned such heavyweights as High Rise II. So even though more info would be great and the whole thing is obviously mastered from vinyl it is great to finally have access to this stuff. It is all good-to-great and the Get Stoned 'Ezy album definitely puts this package over the top into the must have realm. [DMa]


	Group Doueh $23.99 LP Omar Souleyman $15.99 CD		GROUP DOUEH Guitar Music (Sublime Frequencies) OMAR SOULEYMAN Highway Hassake (Sublime Frequencies) "Leh Jani" "Arabic Dabke" The most recent offerings from the Sun City Girls' record imprint are the first releases I've seen that focus on particular artists, as opposed to the compilation or radio collage aesthetics of the label's previous releases. This is not to say that the cultural hunter-gatherers at Sublime Frequencies have gone and gotten PhD.'s in Ethnomusicology, nor is it to say that you'll find these records gracing the counters of Starbucks any time soon...this is still subjective, obsession-driven, transcontinental crate digging in its dustiest, street level incarnation. Sublime Frequencies first ever vinyl long player features the transcendent, desert-family jams of Group Doueh. Hailing from Western Sahara, a disputed coastal territory nestled between Morocco and Mauritania, Group Doueh takes its name from leader/guitarist Baamar Salmou, or, as he is more commonly known, "Doueh," a man who taught himself guitar on a homemade instrument and absorbed the traditional music of the Western Sahara and the imported music of Jimi Hendrix and James Brown with equal enthusiasm. This record is full of uplifting vocal choruses, infectious, handclap punctuated grooves, and a deep, feel good vibe that seems to allude to being in the midst of struggle without ever really succumbing to it. And then there is Doueh's guitar playing, which is as incredible for its intricate, elliptical melodies as it is for its apparent effortlessness. Doueh is sheer pleasure to listen to, fusing the complex and the laidback like two sides of the proverbial coin. The Hendrix influence pops up on several, though its been filtered through a distinctly unique lens -- if you can imagine Ali Farka Toure playing through a phase shifter, it'll give you some idea...Vocals provided by Doueh's wife Halima, and Bashiri, and keyboards played by Doueh's son Jamal only sweeten the vibe. Highly recommended. Often playing at breakneck speeds, Omar Souleyman and his band have created an ecstatic party music that fuses elements of regional folk forms with lo-fi drum machines, phase-shifted Arabic keyboard lines, and unidentifiable spurts of electronic noise, over which Souleyman sings and chants with palpable energy, often in feverish call and response with the aforementioned bevy of electronic sounds, but equally as often with virtuosic displays on traditional Middle Eastern instruments like the oud, spike fiddle, saz, or nay. Pictured in the liners in what has become his signature look -- thick mustache, dark aviator shades, and red and white checkered khaffya -- Souleyman is an intriguing, imposing character capable of impassioned, frenetic vocalizations that are as much about rhythmic invention as they are about delivering the lyrical goods. Interestingly enough, Souleyman doesn't write his own lyrics, but sees himself more as a conduit, leaving the word-smithing to long time collaborator and full-time band member, Mahmoud Harbi. Harbi is Souleyman's silent, chain smoking alter-ego who allegedly stands shoulder to shoulder with the singer during live shows and -- get this -- whispers the verses in Souleyman's ear. Equally at home singing dance floor ass-shakers and mournful calls to prayer, Souleyman is a musical icon in his native Syria and has reputedly released more than 500 studio and live cassette albums since 1994. For Highway to Hassake, Sublime Frequencies regular Mark Gergis (aka Porest, who also compiled 2006's equally great Choubi Choubi: Folk and Pop Sounds of Iraq) has culled some of the highlights from Souleyman's vast cassette catalog with blessings from the man himself. [CC]


	$14.99 Limited CDx2		EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone (Temporary Residence) "The Birth and Death of the Day" "Catastrophe and the Cure" Cresting dynamics, crashing cymbals, and intense riffs -- it's no secret that post-rock staple Explosions in the Sky are more than intimate with the beauty and power of the crescendo, with their subtle, quiet movements being equally as piercing as the louder, thundering moments. These instances of musical eruption and tantalizing stagnation are now expected from EITS as they showcase their known ability and stamina on their long-awaited fourth release, All of the Sudden I Miss Everyone. They never relent, continually playing varied, undulating rhythms via constantly bending, collapsing, and sometimes-distorted guitars, all complemented by pounding drums. With each song serving as both a heartrending and uplifting venture, All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone evolves into an emotionally moving, cohesive whole -- the band's craftsmanship coupled with their energy creates an intriguing mix of satisfaction and anticipation. Additionally, guitar-heavy EITS has added haunting piano to "What Do You Go Home To?" and the album closer, "So Long, Lonesome," eliciting goose bumps as the music delves into grittier territory. Each listen guarantees the discovery of fresh nuances missed the previous go-around and the limited edition's bonus disc of six remixes by Jesu, Eluvium, Mountains and Four Tet, amongst others, doesn't hurt either. So, let's just be honest: the album delivered just what we expected and we really didn't want it any other way. [PG]


	$21.99 CD		CORNELIUS Sensuous (Warner Japan) "Fit Song" "Music" Keigo Oyamada's been a busy guy in the time since many American listeners last heard from him -- that'd be Point way back in 2001. The man remixed everyone from the Avalanches, Moby, and Beck to Sting (twice!!) and k.d. lang (and truth be told, that lang remix is GREAT), compiled most of those remixes on a Japan-only follow-up to the CM album, released two Point filler/fodder stopgaps, and then remixed, recorded, AND toured with none other than Yellow Magic Orchestra in their recent Sketch Show/Audio Sponge guise as well as on Sakamoto's last record. That Sketch/Sponge band was killer (check YouTube, kids!) -- the Hosono/Sakamoto/Takahashi trio augmented by Oyamada, Fennesz, and Steve Jansen of Japan/Nine Horses. He also married Takako Minekawa and had a child with her. What have you done in the past five years? Why is all of this important? Because Oyamada's a master collusionist -- for better of worse, he tends to be regarded less as a traditional songwriter and lauded more as a producer, editor, and synthesist -- and he's seemingly managed with Sensuous to successfully fuse together ALL of these aforementioned social, occupational, and -- most importantly -- personal influences into his best, most personal album thus far. While the album is brimming with new sonic elements (amazingly, he'd been recycling and reusing samples on all of his records and remixes prior to this one since the last Flipper's Guitar album back in 1991!), there's not as much of a drastic change in sound here from Point as there was between that record and Fantasma. Rather, Sensuous sounds like a Technicolor version of Point's stark black, white & blue sound palette; it's even acknowledged in the primary colors overflowing from the top of the record sleeve art. While the abundance of tasteful synth textures throughout (akin to the sort of thing YMO was rocking on records like BGM) and the slightly mathy, pop-locking bass grooves on tracks like "Breezin," "Fit Song," and "Beep It" are surprising, perhaps the record's biggest surprises are the beautiful pop-ambient instrumentals that make up nearly half the record. "Toner" is a wonderful duet for piano and inkjet printer, "Wataridori" takes the Krautrock autobahn-motorik groove and re-jigs it for the Osaka bullet train, and "Like a Rolling Stone" compacts 25 years of Eno's ambient music (but NOT the Dylan song, mind you) into a perfect three-and-a-half-minute Cliffs Notes version. The only concession to balls-out rocking you get is "Gum," which simplifies Lightning Bolt into Bubbilicious and spits it out into a mash-up of the "Star Spangled Banner" and "Kimi Ga Yo," of all things! The album closes out with a beautiful rendition of Dean Martin's lullaby "Sleep Warm," followed by a reprise of the wind chimes which open the record. Oyamada's mellowing a bit, sure, but he's maturing as well -- as are many of his longtime fans. This is one of the best records of the year (it was one of my faves upon its initial release in October of last year -- check our Staff Picks list), and it still boggles my mind that after six months, this record still has no worldwide distribution. What the hell else can I possibly say? Buy it. [IQ]


	$16.99 CD		JOAKIM Monsters and Silly Songs (!K7) "I Wish You Were Gone" "Lonely Hearts" Joakim's sophomore album is a collection of playful electronic romps and serene, almost new-age instrumentals and explorations that represent one of the fullest and most diverse albums of dance music that's come down the pike since his debut four years ago. There's a level of mastery over the craft here that he and his band have taken to task in the most satisfying of ways, able to add detailed layers of emotion to the fun (see the ridiculous single "I Wish You Were Gone" and the loopy, messed up ring mod tabs of "Drumtrax"). So good, it's sort of ridiculous -- and definitely raises the bar for a lot of Johnny Five-come-latelys to the dance game. A deep and satisfying listen and a warning to all new jacks. [DM]


	Volume 4 $17.99 CD Volume 5 $17.99 CD		MADLIB Mind Fusion Volume 4 (Stones Throw) "Telegraph" "Sirens" MADLIB Mind Fusion Volume 5 (Stones Throw) Our main man from Oxnard, CA, Madlib resurfaces with two new mix CDs. Continuing his Mind Fusion series, the latest volumes offer a further glimpse into the bumping, dusted and blunted world of one of our generation's most prolific producers. Nineteen tracks in all, the beginning of Volume 4 incorporates his cut-up style on a few choice remixes, and then moves into a Nas vs. Jay-Z throw down, and finally connects the dots with a few more exclusive remixes. Volume 5 features two 35-minute tracks (an "Around the World" mix and a live session), where Madlib digs deep into his crates and conjures up a smoky brew of his eccentric, eclectic soulful favorites and oddities, twisting through jazz, funk, cartoon music, soundtracks, and beyond. Another choice selection from an inspired selector, they don't call him the Beat Konducta AND the Loop Digga for nothing. [DG]


	$13.99 CD		GANDALF 2 (Sundazed) "Days Are Only Here and Gone" "Bad Dream" One of the most captivating and unique psych-pop records of the '60s had to be Gandalf's sole, self-titled album. This record's atmospheric production, coupled with Peter Sando's emotive, mysterious lead vocals, reminded one more of Galaxie 500 and Spacemen 3 than say Pink Floyd. The album always left the listener craving for more and up until now there wasn't a fitting addendum to this tremendous yet barely heard release. 2 is a collection of demos and live material culled from the vaults of the Gandalf singer and is a welcome follow up. Stylistically, the music isn't as atmospheric as the eponymous album, but Sando's rich vocals sound awesome and for anyone wanting to hear more of his original material than the two songs on the first record, then this is a godsend. Highlights include the break-heavy "Bird in the Hand," the gentle ballad "Ladyfingers" and the country rock-tinged "I Won't Cry No More." If you haven't heard Gandalf's first album, I wouldn't necessarily start here. But for anyone already familiar with the genius of the band, there's a lot to love on 2 -- not a bad song in the bunch. Recommended. [DH]


	$14.99 CD		LEE HAZLEWOOD Cake or Death (Ever) "Nothing" "Baghdad Knights" It's not often that an artist gets the opportunity to write his own eulogy, and it's even more rare that at a ripe old age he would still have the skills and taste and critical distance to draft anything of relevance. So it is with deep sadness but moreover joy that we receive Lee Hazlewood's final farewell, recorded mostly as he is fighting a losing battle with renal cancer (as Lee would likely crow himself, he ain't dead yet!). Hazlewood has been a successful and iconoclastic producer, songwriter and recording artist for over 50 years, and his career had many critical and popular touchstones, without ever being easy to label or pin down. Best known for pop prowess making the careers of Nancy Sinatra and Duane Eddy, his solo albums from the '60s were alt-country blueprints and songwriting tours-de-force on par with contemporaries like Fred Neil or Glen Campbell, whose 1974 hit "Please Come to Boston" is delivered here as a gorgeous duet with Scandinavian jazz "star" Ann Kristin Hedmark, one of several low-key but wonderful guest spots on the album. This is just one more irresistible aspect of Hazlewood's charm, his quirky, almost willfully obtuse refusal to cow-tow to the status quo. Rather than load up his final farewell with big name stars to duet with and marquee producers, Lee runs the show himself and collaborates with a cross-section of old friends like his songwriting partner Tommy Parsons and Mr. Eddy, and young unknowns like the German chanteuse Lula, with whom he shares the sexy bounce of the purring, swinging album opener "Nothing." This is vintage Hazlewood through and through, a mix of dark, playful, swaggering yet understated and infectious originals, great covers just for the fun of them, a casual stab at a couple of his best hits (but always with sly irreverence), and quirky production flourishes throughout that give the record the feel of an offbeat '60s soundtrack. Even when he takes a couple swipes at the political, with the playful anti-redneck two-step "Anthem" and utterly silly "White People Thing," Lee manages to keep his humor and joie-de-vivre front and center. In the end, Cake Or Death is a great album without need for qualifiers or back story, full of playful, poppy, joyful tunes, and a spontaneity and sexiness that no man his age (and condition) should possess. Cake Or Death is a truly fitting victory lap for a hugely important artist, but remarkably the album can proudly stand with some of his best work of any era. [JM]


	$17.99 CD		CHRIS MCGREGOR'S BROTHERHOOD OF BREATH Brotherhood (Fledg Ling) "Do It" "Think of Something" Recorded in London and originally released in 1972, the second album from pianist and bandleader Chris McGregor was a more open and freer jazz/blues affair than the South African jazz roots of the ensemble's self-titled debut. Opening with the piano and brass-driven stomper "Nick Tete," the song quickly takes a more improvisational turn with meandering pianos, splashy drums and exploratory soloing clearly previewing the direction that his music would take in later records. I hear a repetition of motifs and drawn-out blues that reminds me of Ornette Coleman or Albert Ayler; that said, much here is underpinned by the African rhythm and modality of his past. It's the push-and-pull of these two modes that makes this music dynamic and gives it its strength. [GA]


	$12.99 CD		ELVIS PERKINS Ash Wednesday (XL) "May Day" "While You Were Sleeping" There are some records that no matter how brilliant they are, remain simply impossible to write about. No salacious back-story or celebrity tie-ins. No famous session players or key "seminal" reference points. Elvis Perkins' star-making turn of a debut, Ash Wednesday, is not one of these records. It is fraught with meaning, inescapable bouts of semantics and signifiers, and back-story context. Elvis' father was the late-great actor, Anthony Perkins. So there's that. However, there's also the little bit about Elvis' mother passing away one day before the ninth anniversary of his fathers' death, which just so happened to be aboard American Airlines Flight 11 on 9/11. And yet, no matter how much the literal rears its head threatening Elvis' creative impulses, Ash never fails to retain a certain enigmatic wonder. As a matter of fact, the last album that so won me over with the power of its sheer rag-tag, panoramic evasiveness was In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. When faced with such an overbearing presence of realness it's no surprise how marvelously Perkins builds his songs under shrouds of implication and allegory and metaphor. It's transfixing to hear. But poetry alone doth not a classic debut make. However, as rousing sing-a-longs like "May Day" and "Without Love" and languid Astral Weeks-referencing numbers like the title track prove, Perkins has a keen ear for a memorable, belly-stirring melody. Moreover, the arrangements and production on Ash Wednesday (courtesy of Ethan Gold) are spot-on. The record exudes a busking-style Tin Pan Alley cool, with radiating upright bass notes, vibes, operatic choruses, string-y beds of acoustic guitars and beaten-brush drums. The album seems to exist in some mutt netherworld space; I could see fans of the Decemberists geeking out over Perkins, however, Elvis is nowhere near as anachronistic as those guys are. Perkins has been touring feverishly opening for everyone from Okkervil River to My Morning Jacket, to Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. He's as wily and peripatetic as all of them put together, and deservedly as talented too. '07's first great debut. [HG]

$14.99 CD

RICHARD SWIFT
Dressed Up for the Letdown
(Secretly Canadian)

"Dressed Up for the Letdown"

"Most of What I Know"

As a preface, I'd be remiss if I didn't state that the topics of confusion, love, and fear of failure have been considerably exploited within the music industry -- suffice it to say, the territory is well-worn, begging for originality. That being understood, the themes singer/songwriter Richard Swift intones on his sophomore effort, Dressed Up for the Letdown, could easily become cliched if they were place in less capable hands; the album has the potential to come off as kitschy, but, thankfully, Mr. Swift really gets it -- all those lonely nights with his four track were worth it -- and does right by his songs with titles like the catchy "Kisses for the Misses" and "P.S. It All Falls Down."

Basking in imperfect production, Swift makes it obvious that he's harkening back to a more bygone era. And while it would have been no stretch to assume that, following his first lo-fi album, Richard Swift Collection Vol. 1, Swift would take up the current experimental folk trend, he throws a curveball with this sometimes upbeat, sometimes slow and sweet as molasses, pop affair, equipped with horns and hooks, evoking more of a John Lennon aesthetic than poster child Devendra Banhart. The end result? Surprisingly refreshing. [PG]


	$14.99 CD		LUCINDA WILLIAMS West (Lost Highway) "Are You Alright?" "Unsuffer Me" Lucinda Williams circa 2007 may indeed be easy to pigeonhole, with that gruff, expressive voice, warm rootsy production, dustily poetic imagery and struggling, flawed character sketches. But her talent and vision and songwriting are as strong as ever, and West is amongst her finest releases. Hal Willner's distinctive production gives the album a deep, haunting melancholy and dark ambiance that perfectly represents Williams' Southern-Gothic dreams, and while visiting all her well-trodden themes of loneliness, misguided love, randy lust and formless small-town ambition, she has crafted a great new batch of heartache. If the characters are simple and well worn and the sound is familiar and comfortable, the results are no less heartfelt and honest. West is a fine addition to Williams' well-loved catalog [JM]


	$15.99 CD		TUJIKO NORIKO Solo (Editions Mego) "Ending Kiss" "Magic" We first fell in love with Tujiko Noriko's first Mego record a few years back, though "love" may not be the right descriptor, but the discombobulation that comes with flipping head over heels fits her music perfectly. Sparkling, coy, rhythmic, her music beguiles and confounds, unfurling and evolving with an almost subconscious sense of order. Since that debut, she has hopped around to numerous labels, be they Tomlab or Room40, but Solo finds her back home with Mego. We can't quite say it's an about-face or a return to form, as Noriko's singular music remains as refreshing, winsome, and slightly askew as it did the first time we swooned over her, but Solo is making us do backflips once more. [AB]


	Super Roots 6 $14.99 CD Super Roots 7 $11.99 CD Super Roots 8 $11.99 CD		BOREDOMS Super Roots 6 (Vice) "11" BOREDOMS Super Roots 7 (Vice) "7 (Boriginal)" BOREDOMS Super Roots 8 (Vice) "Jungle Taitei" Vice completes the Super Roots reissue program (minus the elusive volume 2) with numbers 6, 7, and 8. The only full-length of the bunch, Super Roots 6, originally released in 1996, is less noisy and not as much of a spazz-out as the other Boredoms albums up to this date. The wildly imaginative studio trickery remains intact but there's some sort of control to the proceedings, and 6 is all the better for it. There's an undercurrent of minimalist funk to most of the album, the kind of throbbing pulse you'd find on a Krautrock album, and mixed with surreal synth interludes and drum machine work-outs, this might just be Boredoms' very own Faust Tapes. Definitely a favorite and an obvious precursor to Vision Creation Newsun. On to 7 and here's where things really get awesome. "7 (Boriginal)" is a massive 20-minute beast which sees Boredoms in full-on motorik mode. In all its heavenly, motorik glory, it sounds like a punk band playing a Neu! track (although it's actually a reworking of a Mekons song) for the first 13 minutes, and then the band ups the tempo and the gates of heaven burst open and swarms of angels appear, only to bring it back down into a woozy haze for the final minutes. 7 also includes two remixes by Eye which are pretty brief compared to the original but great nonetheless. I'd get this if I were you. And now for something completely different. Super Roots 8 is a re-imagining of the theme tune to the Japanese anime show "Jungle Taitei." The original version sees the band in blissed-out drum circle mode, not unlike what they've been doing recently. The rain forest vibe is so heavy, you'll be able to spell out your name in the condensation on your windows. The Eye remix takes it into cut-up gabber territory and Yann Tomita's version slows the track down and adds cascading waterfalls and even more lush psychedelic greenery. [AK]


	$18.99 DVD		KENNETH ANGER Films Volume One (Fantoma) This DVD is a long time coming, and well worth the wait. Compiling five of Kenneth Anger's earliest (and most stunning) short films -- 1947's Fireworks, 1949's Puce Moment, the full 16-minute version of 1950's Rabbit's Moon, 1953's Eaux d'Artifice, and the 1954 motherbomb Inauguration of the Pleasue Dome -- all with restored picture and sound quality by UCLA Film Archive with the help of NYC's own Anthology Film Archive, plus a thick booklet with stills, production info, and notes by none other than heavyweights Martin Scorcese and Anais Nin. Anger is often thought of as a godfather to modern music video with good reason -- his works are visually stunning with an oft beguiling, proto-psychedelic use of colors, tinting, editing and scoring where doo-wop jukebox pop rubs elbows with Vivaldi; he's also a forefather to modern gay cinema, a purveyor of hedonistic mind-expanding magickal love fests (all caught on film, of course), and a true lover of and believer in Hollywood's golden age. I'm not sure it's possible to stress the importance of these films and the effect they've had on almost any filmmaker since, whether they're cognoscente of it or not. This is an essential document of the American avant-garde, but at the same time it's entirely accessible and jaw-droppingly beautiful. [IQ]


	$17.99 CDx2		DAVID RODIGAN & STING INTERNATIONAL Kings of Reggae / Various Artists (Rapster/BBE) "To the Foundation" "Informer" BBE's Kings series has covered techno, hip-hop, jazz, house, and even comedy. For the latest, they've enlisted the talents of London-based reggae DJ David Rodigan and the NY via Jamaica soundsystem, Sting International. On this double-disc set, the two cover a wide spectrum of reggae history, from the roots sounds of the early-to-mid-'70s and into dancehall and digital reggae of the '80s and '90s. (The compilation does seem to lean heavily on the slower, drier rhythms of this latter period; if you're familiar with the production outfit Roots Radics, you get the picture.) For those unfamiliar with reggae beyond the obvious stars, this would be a really good place to expand your palette. Featured among well-known artists like Dennis Brown, Aswad, Tenor Saw and Yellowman are less familiar names like like Sammy Dread, General Echo, Toyan and Little John. [GA]


	$13.99 CD		MARNIE STERN In Advance of the Broken Arm (Kill Rock Stars) "Vibrational Match" "Logical Volume" Marnie Stern's debut disc is an irrepressible juggernaut, shredding guitars and soaring vocals and most likely some banging heads too, from the sound of things. Produced by Zach Hill of Hella, who also pounds the drums here, you can hear that band's sense of exhilaration and abandon throughout, as well as elements of noisy groups like Melt-Banana or the tightly wound intricacies of Don Caballero and the like. First and foremost, Stern's fluid two-handed guitar fretting is impossible to ignore, both brutally raw and thrillingly technical. And her herky-jerky, intricate songwriting, and adrenaline-charged vocal delivery makes for a sound somewhere between an air-raid siren, a jackhammer, and pure bliss. A great album of metallic, melodic, pop-infused noise, and is it so wrong to add that in genre dominated by misfit boys, it is a thrill to hear a beautiful young woman taking such pleasure and showing such prowess, and her songwriting and vocals bring a level of humanity to her debut that is too often missing from the noise. [JM]


	$14.99 CD		MICK BAR OCTIS: Iohargh Wended (Tzadik) "Iohargh: RR-1" "Wended: Iomm-1" In the liner notes to his half-comedy, half-banjo album The Steve Martin Brothers, comedian Steve Martin claimed that, with the amount of notes in each banjo composition, the music was one of your best musical values for your dollar. Serious or not, he's going to have to hand that title over to guitarist Mick Barr, whose virtuosic metallic sonatas are some of the most note-dense, finger-twisting and fretboard-blistering of any era. He's part of the duo Orthrelm, and a similar motif to that group's hyperspace-metallic skree is at play here. OCTIS is Barr's solo moniker, replacing his percussionist with a drum machine (or simply playing solo). In either case, his rapid-fire delivery is self-taught and free of the unbearable, learned touches of any sort of guitar institute hamminess. John Zorn himself saw fit to include Barr in Tzadik's composer's series with this release; when you hear its raw attack for yourself, you'll clearly understand why. He's loaded with intrinsic, bright ideas about how music can be played, and he's got serious enough chops to realize his vision. [DM]


	$14.99 CD		MILTON HENRY Who Do You Think I Am? (Wackies) "Who Do You Think I Am?" "Let the Sunshine In" We first had singer Milton Henry blip up on our radar with his deep cut from the Blood & Fire comp, Darker Than Blue. His devastating version of "Gypsy Woman" made us all forget about Derrick Morgan and the Mighty Diamonds take on the Impressions cut, but we forgot to follow-up the man's trajectory. He cut sides with the mighty "Scratch" as King Medious, but this solo album for Lloyd 'Bullwackie' Barnes made in 1985 is choice indeed. Usual suspects like Junior Delahaye and Sly Dunbar appear, as does the late Jackie Mittoo, on a sweet swaying session full of praise and glory. In answer to the question the title posits, as long as it's got the Wackies lion on the sleeve, it almost doesn't matter, but we won't be forgetting Henry after this. [AB]


	$14.99 CD		CHARLIE LOUVIN Charlie Louvin (Tompkins Square) "Must You Throw" "When I Stop Dreaming" Charlie Louvin found success in the 1940s and '50s with his brother Ira and their close-harmony country hit-making duo the Louvin Brothers (their 1956 full-length debut "Tragic Songs of Life" fully lives up to the promise of the title), and he scored a couple of solo radio hits throughout the '60s. The Brothers had a series of charting country originals with both gentle honky-tonk and darkly redemptive religious music (their 1960 epic "Satan Is Real" is a twisted and intense country gospel classic). For his first new record in 10 years, Louvin reaches out to his many young (hipster) enthusiasts by hooking up with Lambchop producer Mark Nevers, who invited down a full cast of guests, including Will Oldham, Jeff Tweedy, George Jones, Elvis Costello, Tom T. Hall, Mac McCaughan, and Kurt Wagner. The material is a nice cross-section of the Brothers' mainstays, other period classics, and a couple of new titles, and Charlie's voice, while a bit weathered by the years, is still that of a master. [JM]


	$12.99 CD		POP LEVI The Return to Form Black Magick Party (Counter) "Singer Assault Me" "Blue Honey" Pop Levi was a member of Super Numeri and played bass in Ladytron for several years, but neither of those groups' output will adequately prepare you for The Return to Form Black Magick Party, a debut album of grand and often shocking scope. Glammed out to almost comic proportions, the Los Angeles-via-UK outfit projects a deliriously raucous, unstable tribute to garage stomp, eyeliner, feather boas and psychedelics. Sumptuously rich and dense, the album ricochets between blissed-out T. Rex cosmic dancing, sticky-sweet bubblegum pop, and that epic sort of psych-pop that the Flaming Lips perfected. Pop Levi has that larger-than-life quality that is normally a divisive factor to fans of traditionally more "serious" music, but if you get past simple problems like not needing to take every piece of music that crosses your path as you would a Stockhausen composition, this is going to become your new favorite record. As the winter thaws and spring blossoms, you're going to need music like this to snap you back into the deliriousness of warm life. [DM]


	$15.99 CD		JESSE ROSE Body Language 3 / Various Artists (Get Physical) "Gotta Get Up" Solid Groove & Sinden "All Over My Head" Jesse Rose The always-solid Get Physical label hits us with another good DJ mix of the particular brand of neo-jack house they've been championing since their inception. This time around, the talented DJ/producer Jesse Rose is behind the decks. First thing you'll notice is that there is a lot more junk in the trunk and more of an '80s funk element than you'd find on any Kompakt comp. The sound is a lot closer to the slippery, digital funk of Chicago, and fans of Derrick Carter, Matthew Dear, and Cajmere should take note. [DH]


	$6.99 12"		ANIMAL COLLECTIVE People (Fat Cat) "People" Vinyl Pressing! Originally released late last year on CD as an Australian import, one has to assume that Animal Collective's latest single consists of recordings from the Feels sessions since it shares the same exuberant pop sensibility. The title track is breathtaking, and the others aren't far behind. Can these dudes do no wrong?!


	$6.99 12"		PANDA BEAR Bros (Fat Cat) Similar vibe to the "I'm Not" / "Comfy in Nautica" 7" that came out a while ago, this is huge sounding music. You hear some of Animal Collective's Feels-type pop in there but it's constantly f**ked with, to sound like a dub version of the Beach Boys or mutated girl group pop. A mindblower.


	$13.99 CD		JESU Conqueror (Hydra Head) "Conquer" Led by ex-Napalm Death/Godflesh mastermind Justin Broadrick, Jesu has been taking "heavy" into new, unexpected melodic directions these past few years. The trio's latest album picks up where 2005's brilliant Silver EP left us: file under My Bloody Sabbath.


	$14.99 CD		BESNARD LAKES Besnard Lakes are the Dark Horse (Jagjaguwar) "Disaster" Meet your new favorite band! The second full-length from Montreal's Besnard Lakes (their first for Jagjaguwar) brings together rich orchestration, Beach Boy harmonies, and eerie atmospherics making for a highly listenable album of cerebral pop. Recommended.


	$16.99 CD		DEAN AND BRITTA Back Numbers (Rounder / UMGD) "Singer Sing" Another lush and delicately cinematic album from this generation's Nancy & Lee. Dual harmonies, strings, and washes of soothing synths (courtesy of Sonic Boom) without none of the retro damage. As with Galaxie 500 and Luna, Dean Wareham's got tunes for miles and miles and miles. Beautiful album.


	$15.99 CD		SHINING Grindstone (Rune Grammofon) "Winterreise" Norway's Shining have abandoned the prog jazz stylings of their debut album in favor of, well, prog. Instead of spazzed-out jazz flourishes, Grindstone is full of incredibly elaborate rock and metal, and reveals a closet full of Yes and ELP albums. Thrown in a few tinkling interludes and some all out thrashing, and here's one of the most bewildering, and quite excellent, records of the year so far.


	$13.99 CD		P.G. SIX Slightly Sorry (Drag City) "Cover Art Reprised" Patrick Gubler returns with an album on Drag City. Where his previous records were chock full of nods to primarily British folk singers (Bert Jansch in particular), Slightly Sorry is more beefed-up and self-assured, with Byrds-ian/Neil Young-inspired country rock ghosts haunting the studio. While the experimental folk elements are still present, it's a welcome change to hear PG this structured because you had a feeling he had these tunes in him.


	$12.99 CD		CALLA Strength in Numbers (Beggars Banquet) "Stand Paralyzed" Calla deliver another dose of heavily melancholic, and sometimes gloomy, indie rock with Strength in Numbers. Straight-up pop songs and a few psychedelic numbers share the stage with the band's trademark moody numbers which inevitably tug at the ol' heartstrings. Solid and infectious.


	$11.99 CD		BLACK LIPS Los Valientes del Mundo Nuevo (Vice) "Sea of Blasphemy" Totally bananas live recording by one of today's great rock n roll bands. Recorded in Tijuana by John Reis (Drive Like Jehu, Rocket From the Crypt), Los Valientes del Mundo Nuevo is part greatest hits cavalcade and part barely controlled, liquored-up chaos. At their best, Black Lips sound like Nikki Sudden fronting the Seeds playing a party that is being busted by cops. Live records suck but this one doesn't.


	PHONE ORDERS Phone orders are accepted at (212) 477-8150 (ext. #2, mailorder) Mon-Fri, Noon - 7pm EST EMAIL For general inquiries or other information please email sales@othermusic.com. Do not reply to this message. REMOVE This is an automated list. If you would like to be removed from it for any reason, please send an email from the address you wish to delete to list@othermusic.com and make sure the word "Remove" is included in the subject line.		THIS WEEK'S CONTRIBUTORS [GA] Geoff Albores [AB] Adrian Burkholder [CC] Che Chen [PG] Pamela Garavano-Coolbaugh [DG] Daniel Givens [HG] Hartley Goldstein [DH] Duane Harriott [IQ] Mikey IQ Jones [AK] Andreas Knutsen [JM] Josh Madell [DMa] Dave Martin [DM] Doug Mosurock THANKS FOR READING - all of us at Other Music

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