The Other Music Update



	January 17, 2007


			In our first eBay auction of 2007, Other Music is offering a batch of CDs by Italian composer Giacinto Scelsi and other hard to find items, including titles by Dead C, Guided by Voices, La Monte Young, Morton Feldman, Coil, and Current 93. Click here to bid. Also note, Other Music will be closed for inventory on Monday, January 22nd. We will re-open the following day, under normal business hours.


	FEATURED NEW RELEASES Arbouretum Silverbird Casino (Various) Holger Czuckay The Twilights No-Neck Blues Band Shimauta Pops in '60s-'70s Syreeta Mogwai Who Will Buy These Wonderful Evils 3		Lydia Kavina Jan Dukes De Grey ALSO AVAILABLE Sally Shapiro BACK IN STOCK Extradition

JAN

Sun 21

Mon 22

Tues 23

Wed 24

Thurs 25

Fri 26

Sat 27

The Earlies The Enemy Chorus

Explosions in the Sky All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone

THE EARLIES & EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY LISTENING PARTY AT K&M
Other Music's upcoming listening party at K&M will be a double header, featuring the soon-to-be released Earlies album The Enemy Chorus (out Tuesday, January 23rd on Secretly Canadian) and Explosions in the Sky's upcoming All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone (out Tuesday, February 20th on Temporary Residence). We'll play both albums in their entirety and afterwards Other Music DJs Amanda and Gerald will take over the decks for the rest of the night. As always, there'll be lots of give-aways, not to mention drink specials all night long!

THURSDAY, JANUARY 25
10 P.M. to Last Call

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

JAN

Sun 28

Mon 29

Tues 30

Wed 31

Thurs 1

Fri 2

Sat 3

Joakim

OTHER MUSIC PRESENTS...
Join us at the next Other Music Presents party, when we welcome French DJ/producer Joakim (Versatile, Kitsune, !K7), along with My Cousin Roy (Wurst Edits) and our very own Scott Mou. Sponsored by XLR8R, it's guaranteed to be a fun night of electro, techno, disco, post-punk, punk-funk weirdness!

THURSDAY, JANUARY 30
APT: 419 W. 13th Street NYC
$10 Advance Tickets available at Other Music

JAN/FEB

Sun 29

Mon 25

Tues 30

Wed 31

Thurs 1

Fri 2

Sat 3

FEB

Sun 11

Mon 12

Tues 13

Wed 14

Thurs 15

Fri 16

Sat 17

Adem

UPCOMING OTHER MUSIC IN-STORE PERFORMANCES
ADEM
Former Fridge member Adem Ilhan will be making a special stop at Other Music to perform a cozy set of his modern UK folk.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 1 @ 8:00 P.M.

ARBOURETUM
Arbouretum will be swinging by Other Music to play a special in-store in support of their terrific new album, Rites of Uncovering.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 12 @ 8:00 P.M.

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


	$13.99 CD		ARBOURETUM Rites of Uncovering (Thrill Jockey) "Pale Rider Blues" "Ghost of Here and There" I'll be danged if I didn't spend the better part of "Signposts and Instruments," the first song off of Arbouretum's Rites of Uncovering, mistaking it for Will Oldham. A bit of research turns up that singer/guitarist Dave Heumann has been a part of the Anomoanon and touring bands for Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, so that Oldham influence has definitely rubbed off here. And yet Arbouretum's bombast of drums, the dynamic interplay of instruments, their assured slow pace, their ability to turn incandescent at a chord change, all suggest a galvanized band with a strong singular voice. Fans of BPB and Songs Ohia will definitely want to check in, as will those looking to relive the slovenly glory of Neil Young and Crazy Horse. [AB]


	$17.99 CD		VARIOUS ARTISTS Silverbird Casino (DNP) "Toyah" Cassy "Recycled" Sleeparchive Probably overlooked because of its strangely '70s rock Trans-Am cover design, Silverbird is another compilation that marks a chapter within a 12-inch series; this one being a series of long-sided split singles, most recently featuring Henrik Schwartz and Ricardo Villalobos. The nine-track CD includes some of the most notable names familiar on Perlon soil: Dimbi, Luciano, Matt John (with Britta Arnold), and our girl Cassy. The reigning sound, however, is refreshingly different from Perlon. These are long distance, deep and FAT tracks that connect minimal house with a bigger room sound (less microhouse-style sound trimming), but it DOES NOT sacrifice any abstract funkiness. Imagine a more energetic, thumpier combination of Perlon and Cadenza that remains tasteful and doesn't get too busy. Thankfully, there's space between the beats and sounds that give the songs that essential whiplash-inducing S-N-A-P. Excellent tracks, especially by Cassy, M. John/B. Arnold and Sleeparchive's stomping live cut based off of his Radio Transmission double pack. [SM]


	$16.99 CD		HOLGER CZUKAY Canaxis w/ Bonus Tracks (Revisited) "Boat Women Song" "Canaxis" It is hard to believe that this record was made nearly 40 years ago. In 1969, shortly after the formation of German super group CAN, Czukay and cohort Rolf Dammers made this tape music tour de force by combining and manipulating recordings of everything from Pierre de la Rue and Medieval choral music to Vietnamese singers, Japanese Koto, Tibetan Oboes, and Australian Aboriginal music, mostly taken from listening to shortwave radio broadcasts, which were a major preoccupation of Czukay's at the time. Czukay was then a student of Karlheinz Stockhausen and as legend has it, Czukay and Dammers, frustrated with the inability to alter the tape speeds on their own machines, made intensive preparations and snuck into the master's studio to record Canaxis in a single night. Full of paradoxes, Canaxis is at once a deeply meditative and disorienting listening experience that somehow manages to coax the earthy spirituality of ethnic field recordings and the mechanical experimentation of musique concrete into a kind of radical musical symbiosis. Czukay's juxtapositions of East and West, and the humanist and technological, are as enjoyable as they are important, and are infused with a sense of idealism and curiosity that have always characterized Czukay's work. The reissue, by Revisited Records, is a beautifully repackaged affair that comes in a three-panel digipak with cover art from the original 1969 private press edition, as well as some good additional liner notes. Remastered by Czukay and Andreas Torkler, it sounds markedly better than previous issues and includes two quirky bonus tracks taken from the CAN solo edition concerts in 1999. [CC]


	$19.99 CD		TWILIGHTS Once Upon a Twilight (Aztec) "Once Upon a Twilight" "Stop the World for a Day" Stoner psych-pop. For a genre like "psych-pop," a genre obsessed with swirling colors and paisley shirts, and kings and queens and regal imagery in general, and then even more paisley shirts, I'm frequently surprised how "un-druggy" most of the '60s psych-pop jams actually sound. No matter what anyone will tell you, the Left Banke cared way too much about girls to be true stoners (e.g. "Pretty Ballerina"). And don't even get me started on how unabashedly fresh-faced and, dare I say it, "emasculated," a song like "Carrie Anne" sounds to this day (a la those high ass, prepubescent vocals on the hook). Hell, to my ears it took "psych-pop" all the way to the AOL age to come up with some records that managed to equal the exuberance of their poppiness with pure unabashed drug-induced cynicism, weirdness, and malaise -- we bow down before thee Elephant 6. But of course, the reissue comes to rear its should-a-been classic head again, and proves to me that, among other things, the weed in Australia must've been pretty serious around 1968 -- the time fellow Aussies the Twilights kicked out Once Upon a Twilight. More sinister in its otherness than Odyssey & Oracle, more cocksure and experimental than the Bee-Gees, and as accessible as the Beatles, it would be shortsighted of me just to say that Once Upon a Twilight was like the fifth best pop record that came out in the summer of love. Maybe it's because they're from Australia, but the Twilights infused a sonic nonchalance that few other bands of the period ever really achieved. On Twilight, vocals are coated in wacky and insistent layers of effects. Tape speeds are tinkered with and slowed-down, baroque pop stompers transform into country-folk barnburners, and then transform again into heavily-orchestrated doomsday symphonies. There are multitudes within this little unassuming record. It's no wonder that Mojo called it one of "the great unheralded world Psych albums," whatever the hell that means. Better: Grade A drug music for people who like something to sing along to. For fans of the Zombies, the Hollies, Honeybus, and Olivia Tremor Control too. [HG]


	$15.99 CD		NO-NECK BLUES BAND Nine for Victor (Victo) "The Cacao Grinder" "Four Head Fool" Those out to solve the riddle of the No-Neck Blues Band may not find their newest release very revealing; though it won't be for lack of clues. Recorded at the "International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville," in 2005 -- a festival also graced that year by Wolf Eyes, Anthony Braxton and Thurston Moore's Dream Aktion Unit, to name a few -- Nine for Victor is a dense and disorienting record of swarming, swirling sound. Rhythms and tones surface and submerge, with electronic and acoustically generated sounds functioning in strange and sometimes highly unlikely combinations. As is always the case with No-Neck, many of the sounds found on this record are unidentifiable, but all seem to share an organic, handmade quality. Nine for Victor is full of noise to be sure, but it is not without its grooving moments. Highlights include "Brain Soaked Hide," the album's second to last track, which opens with a wordless vocal invocation reminiscent of Linda Sharrock before lumbering into what might end up being the heaviest 10 minutes of psych you'll hear all winter. [CC]


	$29.99 CD		VARIOUS ARTISTS Shimauta Pops in '60s and '70s (Polystar Japan) Track One Track Four A fantastic collection of wonderful, chameleonic Okinawan pop music from the 1960s & '70s, Shimauta Pops showcases brilliant early examples of the collusionist aesthetic that makes Okinawan pop so much fun while being rather forward-thinking in approach. Featuring tracks by the Hoptones, Four Sisters, Yara Family, and Aiko Yohen (though unfortunately none of the info is translated into English), this disc shows the artists fusing traditional Okinawan island melodies and instrumentation with more "modern" western styles -- R'n'B, bossa, Tin Pan Alley, even some wild banjo/fiddle hootenanies! -- though in all honesty what is achieved here proves to be rather modern in itself while maintaining that gorgeous nostalgic questing tone that I love so much in the melodies. The final product often sounds like a much less frenetic cousin to Indian "Bollywood" film music, and as testament to their true pop nature, many of the songs are as infectious as influenza. The overall sound had a BIG influence on Haroumi Hosono (fresh out of Happy End but not yet on his way to Yellow Magic Orchestra) and his excellent mid-'70s trilogy of "tropical" albums -- Tropical Dandy, Bon Voyage Co, and Paraiso -- with shamisens and shakuhachis backed at times by New Orleans or Detroit Soul rhythm sections, steel pans and vibes, and doo-wop harmonies... track 7 even features a shamisen/Moog duet with primitive drum machines plonking away in the back! Overall, this is beautiful, innovative, and best of all, totally fun. Any record that simultaneously makes your head spin and your butt shake gets top marks in my book! [IQ]


	$21.99 CD		SYREETA Syreeta / Stevie Wonder Presents... (Hip-o Select) "To Know You" "Spinnin' and Spinnin'" Despite having an illustrious singing and writing career, this uber-talented Motown vocalist is best remembered for being Stevie Wonder's first wife. But what you don't hear about is Syreeta Wright's huge influence on Stevie. Remember that it was Syreeta who was assigned as his writing partner when he was a teen at Motown, and together they wrote "It's a Shame" for the Spinners, "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" and "If You Really Love Me." She also introduced him to transcendental meditation and Wonder has often credited Syreeta as being the inspiration behind the spiritual direction of his music on his Talking Book and Music of My Mind albums. Her self-titled debut was recorded shortly after they married in 1970, and the album was very much a collaborative effort, with Syreeta co-writing four of the nine songs with Wonder and one on her own. This also marked the first time that one heard a young Wonder finding his own unique voice in his production and arrangements, and it would prove to be a direct link to the synth- and Rhodes-drenched spiritual soul of his aforementioned records. Syreeta's voice here is disarmingly sweet like Minnie Riperton's, and the overall mood of this album is one of deep optimism and joy, especially on the standouts "To Know You Is to Love You" and "Baby Don't You Let Me Lose This." The album was critically acclaimed and had modest commercial success in the UK, but unfortunately, US sales were poor. By the time they started on her follow-up album some three years later, Wonder's star had risen all the while their marriage was in turmoil. Amazingly enough, this album was recorded while they were in the process of divorcing, and the optimistic mood of the debut was replaced with a slightly schizophrenic suite of songs documenting their tumultuous relationship. The candidness of the lyrics suggests a couple using this record to air each other's grievances out for the whole world to hear. There is the childlike, reggae-tinged reflection on puppy love ("Your Kiss Is Sweet"), the mournful lament of "Cause We've Ended As Lovers" and the topsy-turvy, passive aggressive nature of "Spinnin' & Spinnin'." Amazingly enough, they remained close friends until Wright's unfortunate death from breast cancer in 2004. These records were cherished throughout the years by the people who did get to hear them, and have long been acknowledged as some of Motown's most underrated releases. Syreeta Wright was an amazing artist in her own unique and unsung way; her work has influenced a whole generation of musicians and artists, whether they know it or not. Required listening for fans of amazing songwriting, or any fan of early-'70s Stevie Wonder. Well, I guess that's everybody then, huh? [DH]


	$25.99 CD		MOGWAI Zidane: A 21st Centruy Portrait Soundtrack (Pias Import) "Black Spider" "Terrific Speech 2" Had this been a soundtrack for a documentary on an American sports legend, one might have expected the cliched jock jams or any of that generic hi-energy techno that typically accompanies the highlight reels on Fox Sports. But no, we're speaking of French football hero Zinedine Zidane, best known on these shores for finishing his career with that infamous chest butt in last year's World Cup final, and here we find a very restrained Mogwai behind the film score. The movie won't be reaching America until the end of this month when it comes out on DVD, so it's hard placing the music in context as a soundtrack; but judging by this somber instrumental score, I can only imagine that the documentary will be very reflective. Not once throughout the disc does Mogwai crescendo into the eardrum-splitting wall of sound that they've made a career of. Instead, the music remains softly melodic and moving, with only subtle climaxes. While this is by no means an essential album in the band's discography, it is a lovely footnote which Mogwai fans will want to check out. [GH]


	$22.99 CD		VARIOUS ARTISTS Who Will Buy These Wonderful Evils Vol. 3 (Dolores/EMI) "Vampire" Bjorn Famne "Sagitarius" Scorpion Another installment in this great series that compiles the cream of the Swedish '60s/'70s garage/psych crop. Number three is the most obscure so far, meaning you're not going to find any of these records ever unless you have an unusually large trust fund or extraordinary budgeting skills. Where the first two volumes were garage/beat oriented, Evils 3 takes greater liberties, including a few heavy rippers and some delicate psychedelic pop, as well. There's a multitude of highlights, including Bjorn Famne's heavy fuzz monster "Vampire," Harambee's repetitive folk blues (no, really), the gorgeous pop psych of Fruit, Uppat Vaggarna's "Jag Hatar Politik," which manages to combine a confusing political message ("I hate politics, I hate racial prejudice, but most of all I hate you...") with a groovy psych-funk backing, and Match's totally inept but irresistible cover of "Sympathy For the Devil." I could go on. Yet another document proving that Sweden was one of the hotbeds, along with the UK and the Netherlands, for music in the '60s and '70s, and hey Dolores, thanks for yet another "kulturgarning"! You won't find a better comp this year. [AK]


	$15.99 CD		LYDIA KAVINA Music from the Ether (Mode) "Mouvement Elecctrique et Pathetique" "In Whims of Wind" It's a UFO! A haunted house! Star Trek! The Theremin is an instrument that always brings a bit of baggage with it, but we can't help but get behind a disc from the leading Thereminist on the international stage. Lydia Kavina is even related to inventor Leon Theremin and was his last protege. More recently, she handled all the Theremin solos on Tim Burton's Ed Wood soundtrack. Here she conjures neither Martians nor ghosts, her instrument intimately working with piano and string quartet, crafting an ethereal sound that accentuates this clutch of Eastern European compositions for this instrument. One composer, Joseph Schillinger, taught scoring for everyone from George Gershwin to Earle Brown, and in Kavina's hands (ha), we can finally glean the device as more than just a one-dimensional sound effect. [AB]


	$17.99 CD		JAN DUKES DE GREY Sorcerers (Wounded Nurse) "High Priced Room" "Dominique" When it comes to sinister, experimental folk music, Jan Dukes De Grey's second album, Mice and Rats in the Loft, is right up their with Comus' First Utterance and Simon Finn's Pass the Distance. So if this is all you've heard from this UK folk group, forget what you know. Jan Dukes De Grey's first and only other album, Sorcerers, was originally released in 1969, when the band was just the duo of multi-instrumentalists Michael Bairstow and Derek Noy. The songs here are much shorter and devoid of any of the sprawling progressive experimentation of '71's Mice and Rats, with simpler instrumentation like acoustic guitar and lots of flute and other woodwind passages. Though the lyrics are plenty weird with a fair share of Medieval references, the acid damage has yet to take its toll. It kind of reminds me of a young Incredible String Band jamming with Jethro Tull. [GH]


	$19.99 CD $17.99 LP		SALLY SHAPIRO Disco Romance (Diskokaine) "I Know" A crafty slice of Italo-inspired Swedish synthpop that's blowing up all over. It's full of gorgeous melodies and paperback melancholia, and there's something about the whole package (the cover art, the lyrics) that suggests this is electronic music made by twee pop kids. Fortunately it's the workmanship that is so crafty, this is guaranteed to appeal to the Kompakt crowd, and fans of Annie too.

$24.99 CD

EXTRADITION
Hush
(Vicious Sloth)

"I Feel the Sun"

Mixing the delicate acoustic textures of British folk legends such as Pentangle and Mellow Candle with a freer more open-ended approach, Extradition (ex-tradition) recorded their sole album Hush in 1970 for the tiny Sweet Peach label in their native Australia. While the album revolves predominantly around main songwriter Colin Campbell's carefully understated guitar and piano playing and singer Shayna Karlin's beautifully lush vocals, it's the sounds and instruments that exist between these elements which make this record so unique. Water, palm leaf, sticks, stones and tree are featured instruments alongside harpsichord, dulcimer, harmonium, organ, cello, and various drums and gongs. The album balances moments of almost hummable catchiness and full on orchestrated arrangements with darker patches of sparse percussion and experimental texture in such a seamlessly effortless manner, the dynamics never feel jarring or forced.

Extradition was created as an outlet for its members to extend out of the increasingly conservative traditions of the folk music scene at the time. Though not for purists, Hush is an outstanding document of a group exploring new sonic territory. Also included on the disc are several live performance tracks from a Folk Festival in Sydney in 1970. Recorded shortly prior to the album, the live tracks show a tighter more upbeat side of Extradition with covers of Leroy Carr and Tom Paxton as well as several Extradition originals, none of which were included on the original vinyl edition of Hush. While I've heard this record compared to Linda Perhacs' psych-folk classic Parallelograms (there are certainly similarities in Shayna Karlin's almost spooky vocal delivery) it has a much sparser British vibe overall. Need I say highly recommended? [KH]


	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 [AB] Adrian Burkholder [CC] Che Chen [HG] Hartley Goldstein [GH] Gerald Hammill [DH] Duane Harriott [KH] Koen Holtkamp [IQ] Mikey IQ Jones [AK] Andreas Knutsen [SM] Scott Mou THANKS FOR READING - all of us at Other Music

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