The Other Music Update

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	May 14, 2008

Mates of State
Re-arrange Us
$13.99 CD Pre-Order

MATES OF STATE SECRET SHOW TICKETS W/ALBUM PRE-ORDER
We've got a handful of passes remaining for Mates of State's upcoming secret show next Wednesday, May 21st, when the husband-wife duo will be playing at a still undisclosed location in New York City, celebrating the release of their new album Re-arrange Us, (out May 20th, on Barsuk). While supplies last, every pre-order of the new album will come with a pair of passes to the concert. This offer is now good for purchases made on-line as well as purchases made in our shop. Don't miss out!

In order to guarantee that everyone gets their tickets in time for the concert, we will not be shipping pre-orders. All customers can come by the shop on Tuesday and Wednesday before the show to pick up their CD and passes.


	FEATURED NEW RELEASES Sic Alps Bruno Pronsato Vetiver Group Doueh Radio Myanmar (Various) Daniel Givens Osborne Port O'Brien The Embarrassment Baris Manco The New Age Lau Nau Modey Lemon Ecstatic Sunshine Death Cab for Cutie		Das Kabinette Vladislav Delay ("Anima" reissue) Love and Circuits (Various) Black Stars (Various) Quiet Village Simone White ALSO AVAILABLE Essie Jain Kiki & Herb (DVD) BACK IN STOCK Cilibrinas do Eden

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MYAT MOONDOG HAGGART BENEFIT
This Sunday, May 18th at St. Mark's Church in New York City, decades of experimental performers from around the world will gather to buoy the spirits of two-year-old Myat Moondog Haggart. Confirmed acts include Captain Sons and Daughters, Vito Acconci, Scott Haggart and Lary Seven performing DISKONO 017 (announcing the rebirth and continuation of legendary Scottish Dada -- anarcho record label DISKONO), David Grubbs, Backworld, Little Annie, and DJs J.G. Thirlwell and Fabio Roberti. A door raffle and silent auction will take place. Donations include a package of Coil rarities, artwork by Michel Gondry, Vito Acconci, Terry Richardson, Senastian Mlynarski, Todd Fisher, Mae Fatto, Little Annie, Andrea Aimi, Shannon Lucy, Cameron Michel, Arik Roper, Raul de Nieves, Micki Pellerano. Nanette Lepore has donated clothing and there will be a puppet animated short film by Melissa Rocha. Myat Moondog Haggart is a hilarious, pugnacious, beautiful and beloved child beset by health problems. These problems are proving to be very difficult and expensive to diagnose. This event is a party to celebrate his life and journey to better health.

SUNDAY, MAY 18th
ST. MARKS CHURCH: 131 East 10th Street NYC
7PM sharp/$20 donation entry fee

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WIN TICKETS TO DEVOTCHKA
From their early days playing music on the burlesque circuit with the likes of Dita von Teese, to more recent soundtrack work on Little Miss Sunshine, the indescribable DeVotchKa's star has been on the rise. Next Wednesday, May 20th, the Denver quartet will be performing in New York City at Terminal 5, with Basia Bulat and Fancy Trash. Other Music is giving away two pairs of tickets. You know the drill, just send an email to tickets@othermusic.com, and we'll be picking two winners this Friday, May 16. Good luck!

TUESDAY, MAY 20TH
TERMINAL 5: 610 West 56 Street NYC

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UPCOMING OTHER MUSIC IN-STORE
MY BRIGHTEST DIAMOND: MONDAY, JUNE 9 @ 8PM
Shara Worden and Co. stop by the shop to perform an in-store in support of their forthcoming new album, A Thousand Shark's Teeth, out June 17, on Asthmatic Kitty. Download the first single, "Inside a Boy," off of Other Music Digital.

OTHER MUSIC: 15 East 4th Street NYC
Free admission / Limited capacity


	$12.99 CD		SIC ALPS A Long Way Around to a Shortcut (Animal Disguise) "Message from the Law" "Microcastle" And about damn time, all the Sic Alps vinyl from 2004-06 on one handy CD. Sic Alps is essentially two dudes, Mike Donovan who used to be in the Ropers way back when and Matt Hartman from Henry's Dress and more recently of Coachwhips fame. With the assistance of a revolving cast of assorted characters (the early line-up was Hartman-less), Sic Alps have been creating the best noise pop/weird psych/lo-fi rock n roll (I promised myself I wouldn't do that...ugh) for about half a decade now, with, now out of print, records on Woodsist, Skulltones, and Animal Disguise. From amazing Psychocandy rippers to timeless-sounding basement psych and scuzz pop, this is all over the place but always on point. Like the best of '80s British DIY, early-'90s American indie, and kids tripping in 1970 rolled into some of my favorite music on the 21st century. If you're looking for another, or maybe even better, Times New Viking or No Age, it's arrived. There's only 1,000 of these babies, and the label is all but sold out, so act now or forever cry into your bong. Best new slightly old music! [AK]


	$17.99 CD		BRUNO PRONSATO Why Can't We Be Like Us (Hello Repeat) "Slowly, Gravely" "Why Can't We Be Like Us" Finally available in the States! The buzz on the second full-length from Seattle's Bruno Pronsato was deafening back in January, even if it could only be heard in Europe, with no Stateside distro for it (though Amazon listed it for $48!). Once upon a time, Pronsato was a drummer for a Slayer/Venom-indebted speed-metal band, but now his emphasis is squarely on the quicksilver protean beats that fall more in the realm of Perlon/Playhouse folks like Dandy Jack and Ricardo Villalobos. Similarly, Pronsato is both adept and ambitious in what he sticks into his goopy bass lines and into the negative spaces, and it really works throughout. Nominally a Gang of Four nod, "At Home I'm a Tourist" is astonishing, perpetually mutating, while "Who is Sarah Stern?" continues to reveal new nuances and sounds with every listen. A contender for techno album of the year. [AB]


	$13.99 CD $9.99 MP3		VETIVER Thing of the Past (Gnomonsong) "Sleep a Million Years" "Hurry on Sundown" A revivalist scene like the recent folk resurgence stands squarely on the shoulders of its influences. While some heroes are obvious, oftentimes the obscure proffer the most tangible inspiration, with the thrill of discovery and romantic notions of a great artist lost in the scrapheap of history serving as impetus for the next generation to struggle on with their own explorations. Andy Cabic is an avatar of the new folk movement, with his band Vetiver, plus his close ties and collaborations with Devendra Banhart and many of the other stars of the scene, his burgeoning Gnomonsong label, etc. And thus the new album from Cabic's Vetiver comes as no surprise, and arrives with much anticipation. Although two years have elapsed since their great To Find Me Gone full-length, this new one holds not a single Cabic original. Instead, Vetiver have delivered 12 things of the past on Thing of the Past, a litany of mostly obscure 1970s singer-songwriters who serve as inspiration for the new-old sound of Vetiver and their ilk. As Cabic says in the notes, "I wanted to share songs which were favorites of mine and my circle of friends." The best known of the lot were penned by the likes of Townes Van Zandt, Michael Hurley, Loudon Wainright III and Hawkwind, while lesser known artists like Elyse Weinberg, Derrol Adams, Bif Rose and Ian Matthews were plucked from dusty albums picked up for a buck at the Salvation Army, or these days more likely $50 from the walls of collectors shops like ours. As with many young indie stars, Cabic is a super-fan even as much as a musician in his own right, and he has a great ear for an unsung classic, and the passion and talent to breathe new life into these songs. By no means is this an album of bold innovation, as the band basically recreates some of their favorite songs in the same style as the originals, but by ALL means is it a beautiful and haunting record. [JM]


	$15.99 CD		GROUP DOUEH Guitar Music from the Western Sahara (Sublime Frequencies) "Eid for Dakhia" "Wazan Samat" When the good folks at Sublime Frequencies decided to start releasing vinyl-only documents from around the world last year, they kicked off the series in impressive style with Group Doueh's Guitar Music from the Western Sahara. Spotlighting the virtuosic guitar playing of Doueh (and augmented by the vocals of his wife Halima and friend Bashiri), that LP focused on the trio's singular take on the traditional music of their native region as filtered through an impressive barrage of electric guitar that had as much in common with Sonny Sharrock as it did with any of their countrymen. Raw and noisy, and yet still imbued with an undeniably buoyant near-pop sensibility, Group Doueh ripped through joyous lo-fi burners like "Eid El Arsh" and queasy, near-psychedelic pieces like "Fagu." Elsewhere, the added percussion on tracks like "Wazan Samat" granted Doueh's strange, sun-baked melodies a simple, yet powerful sense of rhythm. Out of print almost as soon as it was released, Sublime Frequencies has thankfully seen fit to reissue the album on CD, granting those too slow on the uptake a chance to hear this set in all its glory. Recommended not only to those who had their ears bent by last year's great Tinariwen record, but also those curious as to what a Takoma-styled guitarist would sound like if he had grown up in the desert worshipping Jimi Hendrix. Guitar Music from the Western Sahara needs to be heard to be believed. [MC]


	$15.99 CD		VARIOUS ARTISTS Radio Myanmar (Sublime Frequencies) "Pop Music (Playboy Thein Than)" "Classical Music (Female Vocal #11)" Funny how the Sublime Freq. crew always pops up in the world's hotspots. After the tsunami hit Phuket, there appeared a radio collage from Thailand, and amidst the Iraq War, they released the cracking sounds of Choubi! Choubi!, Iraq's fine pop music form. Call it Cassandra or coincidence, but as we read about the post-cyclone situation in Myanmar now, from the shutting out of UN aid to weird broadcasts that show the junta getting everything back to "normal," so appears Radio Myanmar. It's another mind-warping collage of shortwave subterfuge by Mr. Bishop and cohorts, cobbling together staticky crackle and pop (oft-times in English) about that mysterious, shuttered state. And WTF, is that Avril Lavigne singing in Burmese? [AB]


	$14.99 CD $9.99 MP3		DANIEL GIVENS Egress (Aesthetics) "Handle It" "City Waves" Poet/beatmaker/OM staffer Daniel Givens comes forth with a new album that most successfully balances the sonics of his past collaborations and influences with a more focused vision and a more streamlined version of his sound -- a sonic salad made with bits of J Dilla, Larry Heard, Sun Ra, King Tubby, Alice Coltrane, and Arthur Russell, and seasoned with an Amiri Baraka dressing. As silly as that may sound, it's the most apt description I can conjure for the unique world that Givens conjures. A darkly psychedelic mix of Chicago house synths, loping, smoky beats, cut up fragments of whispered incantations floating in and out of the mix like incense smoke, and the cool, calm, and collected omnipotence of Givens' voice throughout give the album a "transmission from beyond" vibe that leaves the record ripe for both heavy bong hits and serious headphone scrutiny. While in the past these influences often bumped elbow to elbow with a heavy debt to 1960s free jazz aesthetics, here he is able to integrate the freedom and raw sonic emotion of fire music into the mix without suffering any of the stagnation of oft-forced "floetry" collaborations which jazz musicians and poets are frequently ill-advised to attempt. Givens' record is a success because it deftly handles the balance of street and domesticity, brain and brawn, left-brain and right-brain, etc. As he states in one of the album's best tracks, his soul is "open for receiving meditation and action/you've only heard a fraction of this abstraction." Well said, and well done. Recommended! [IQ]


	$15.99 CD $9.99 MP3		OSBORNE Osborne (Spectral Sound) "Evenmore" "Air Pistol" Ghostly International's techno loving brother-in-arms, Spectral Sound has released a lot of great records from luminaries like Matthew Dear/Audion, James T. Cotton (a/k/a Tad Mullinix) and Peter Grummich, but this one really caught me by surprise. Motor City-based DJ/producer Todd Osborn has a couple of guises, using his last name (with an added "e" at the end) for scratching his house and techno itch, and as Soundmurderer he records ragga-jungle tracks for labels like Rephlex and his own Rewind imprint. A little more investigation on the Spectral Web site reveals that music making is only one of his interests. Osborn is a pilot (he knows how to repair planes as well) who's recently been building a hovercraft during his spare time, and among his hobbies are Lego sculpting and peering through his electron microscope. Oh yeah, he speaks fluent Japanese too. This guy's passions obviously run deep and it really comes through on this record, which plays like a genuine love letter to old school house and techno. Written with music software that he created on a hand-built computer (!!!), the self-titled album covers a lot of ground. It's almost like his personal history lesson of electronic dance music, as tracks like "Evenmore" and "Ruling" effortlessly conjure the deep, halcyon days of New York house (Bobby Konders would certainly approve), while "L8" brings us back to Detroit complete with its mechanic pulses and some acidic belches from an old 303. There's definitely an '80s influence running throughout (check the "Hill Street Blues"-sounding electric piano which chimes over the faint, cut-up vocals and 4/4 beat in album opener "16th Stage"), but Osborn's approach is refreshing and playful. "Our Definition of a Breakdown" features some hilarious dialogue from Ed DMX, talking us through the breaks -- "As long as I don't have an aneurysm, this song is going out without a hitch!" The great thing about this record is that even while the album is very much an homage to early house and techno, Osborn's personality comes through in the melodies and his approach is completely devoid of purist pretension. It's a record that doesn't get old from start to finish, and one that's been in constant rotation at my house for the past few weeks. [GH]


	$12.99 CD $9.99 MP3		PORT O'BRIEN All We Could Do Was Sing (Self-Released) "I Woke Up Today" "In Vino Veritas" Theme-oriented bands can be dicey for sure; I mean, I do like the Zambonis, but how many songs about hockey can you listen to in a row? Yet somehow the old-man-and-the-sea undercurrent running through the music of Port O'Brien comes off as anything but contrived, and their proper studio debut All We Could Do Was Sing is a haunting and beautiful record as timeless and powerful as their muse. Port O'Brien is the brainchild of one Van Pierszalowski, the son of a commercial fisherman in the Pacific Northwest, who has spent every summer of his life chasing salmon off the coast of Alaska. The drama, the loneliness and the raw emotion of weeks spent on the high seas permeates Pierszalowski's songs, which take one part homespun folk, one part sea shanty and one part emotional indie rock for a winning recipe. Where the group's early EPs had a home-recorded hiss that enveloped their simple songs, the album has managed to raise the stakes without losing any of the intimacy that makes them so appealing. Simple combinations of acoustic guitar, banjo, fiddle, mandolin, piano and Pierszalowski's (and partner Cambria Goodwin's) emotional vocals alternate with churning electric guitar rockers, but in either case these stark and beautiful story-songs manage to come off as ancient, and as fresh as a clear new morning on the high seas. [JM]


	$17.99 CDx2		THE EMBARRASSMENT Heyday 1979-83 (Bar/None) "Patio Set" "Casual Man" While it would be a stretch to refer to the Embarrassment as obscure (at least here), it does seem that they are often either taken for granted or flat out forgotten about. Recently their name has been surfacing in reference to the fantastic Big Dipper Supercluster reissue, as following the break up of the Embarrassment, Bill Goffrier would finish up the '80s playing in Big Dipper, enjoying a bit more attention than his previous group (but not much.) Throughout their existence the Embarrassment were dogged by the question of what sort of band they were. Punk? New Wave? College Rock? (Indie rock was still years away from being a tag anyone would use). While they certainly were not punk in the urban or media sense, there was a rawness to their material that can still endear them to the Killed By Death set, and at the same time their songs are equally appealing to indie rockers the world over. It's a lot like how the first Feelies album functions. Anyway, this comp, originally released in 1995, goes a long way in shedding some light on what punk rock meant and the effects that it had in the heartland (Kansas specifically) of America. To open the first disc with the crunching guitars and killer hook of "Sex Drive" is a smart move (it was originally the b-side of their debut 7") as it is one of the best songs of the American punk, independent, whatever era. Then it is straight into the second EP with the after the fact hits "Celebrity Art Party" and "I'm A Don Juan." That is quickly followed by the Death Travels West EP and side two of the full-length album. Disc two, dubbed The Scarcities, is what really elevates this comp to must-have status, featuring tons of live and studio material that is either unreleased or was only released on cassette (including the bands own Retropective, Fresh Sounds from Middle America Vol 1. and two songs from early Sub Pop tape comps). Super-duper stuff. [DMa]

Dunden Bugune
$19.99 CD

2023
$19.99 CD

BARIS MANCO
Dunden Bugune
(No Label)

"Kirpiklerin Ok Ok Eyle"
"Lory"

BARIS MANCO
2023
(No Label)

"Acih Da Baga Vir"
"2023"

Baris Manco was a huge star in Turkey, right up 'til his death from a heart attack in 1999. For the past couple of years, Manco records have been in heavy demand amongst the beat digger and eBay collector elite, which is funny considering they were THE dollar bin staples in UK and NYC record stores less than 10 years ago. You could usually spot them a mile away. Manco was always wearing some kind of goofy jumpsuit, sporting a monster handlebar 'stache and a shoulder length shag, while staring at the sky. Easy enough to pass up, but once collectors started to check out these records, they found some interesting idiosyncratic, ethnic psych-rock with a treasure trove of drum breaks contained within.

Dunden Bugune was originally released in 1970 and contains his first big hit, "Daglar Daglar," which went on to sell an astonishing 700,000 copies. The album is pretty much a collection of his singles from that year, and they are mainly in the floaty, gypsy folk-rock vein, punctuated by Manco's lilting vocals. But it's tracks like "Kucuk Bir Gece Muzigi" and "Iste Hendek Iste Deve" that get the collectors excited. Both are heavy, fuzzed-out ethno-dance rock jams, complete with heavy drum breaks in the intro section.

2023 was recorded five years later and was the first record to feature Kurtalan Express, his stellar backing band that would play with him up until his death. Primarily an attempt at the popular prog-rock concept albums of Yes, King Crimson and the like, this is actually Manco's first proper album. Judging from his fly yellow coat and the crazy planetarium cartoon font on the cover, I gather the concept here is something about the future and space. There's definitely a fried La Dusseldorf aesthetic to the proceedings, but without the unhinged art rock pretenses. It's a dope synth-rock album, complete with breaks that have been lifted by Dilla, Madlib and Oh No. These are fine introductions to the vast catalogue of Turkey's biggest rock star. Any fan of Krautrock (namely Amon Duul, Can and Guru Guru), or break-heavy prog rock in general should check these. [DH]


	$21.99 CD		THE NEW AGE All Around (RD) "Dance Around the Sun" "The River" It's one thing for a band to put out a record or two and then disappear; it's a strange and different thing that happens when an unexpected turn of events causes an artist's work to slip sight unseen, all but forgotten by history. This is something like what happened to the New Age, a short lived musical group featuring the tightly knit duo of Patrick Kilroy and Susan Graubard, who met at Big Sur in California, and made music in Berkley, New York, and Los Angeles between 1966 and 1967. After building a musical and spiritual relationship, the free-spirited guitarist/songwriter Kilroy and the classically trained Graubard (viola, flute, Japanese koto) signed with Warner Music and created a new group with tabla player Jeffrey Stuart, and enlisted musicians Mark Levinson and Bruce Langhorne to bolster their Eastern sound. It's amazing that such an unconventional and exploratory group was ever signed to Warner in the first place, but it's simply unfortunate that the company would not release the material, as the New Age could not continue on to perform, promote, or follow up the record in the wake of Pat Kilroy's unexpected death of Hodgkin's Disease in December, 1967. (Graubard would later make music with members of the Mighty Baby and Action in the short-lived Habibiyya, recording an album for Island in 1972, which we reviewed a few months back: othermusic.com/2008january09update.html.) Released for the first time ever, All Around arrives forty years too late in presenting an incredibly daring and mystical record, one of the most pronounced and accomplished meetings of Eastern and Western musical traditions. No doubt privy to the experimental psych/folk currents of the 1960s Bay Area (the New Age played at the Human Be-in and Jabberwock gatherings), Kilroy and Graubard were, however, true students of the East, and their formal and informal relationships with Indian raga and Japanese classical music are the largest informants of their meditative and passionate music. Graubard's viola, in tandem with Kilroy's open songwriting and guitar/vocal style, and with Stuart's exuberant tabla playing, is often the main drone figure in the raga form, while the flute asserts the fantastical presence of the Japanese tradition. The Eastern elements surely dominate the record, but it seems experimental in a uniquely American fashion; meetings such as the dynamics of the electric guitar against that of the tabla on "All Alone in Wonderland," or the interaction of Indian drone and Japanese flute with electric bass on "Bhairavi" are all exquisite juxtapositions, a sound as exciting today as they might have been in '67. Fans of current lo-fi psych/drone music will find much to dig, as will fans of the raga form. All Around is the sound of intensely aware free spirits, deeply ensconced in traditions of the East -- a purely enchanting journey. Sometimes enlightenment must wait 40 years to be unearthed. (Comes with a CD-ROM which features band history, posters, pictures and details.) [JW]


	$14.99 CD $9.99 MP3		LAU NAU Nukkuu (Locust) "Lahtolaulu" "Maapahkinapuu" Finnish singer-songwriter Laura Naukkarinen's 2005 debut as Lau Nau easily placed her near the front of burgeoning national scene of bizarrely sweet folk and psych wanderers. Combining her winsome vocals with a ramshackle instrumental approach that betray an oft-haunting fragility, this occasional member of groups like Avarus and Kiila now returns with Nukkuu, her long-awaited sophomore release. While on the surface the nine songs collected here seem to traffic in the same sort of sounds that marked her first record, these tracks are deeper and more nuanced than anything Naukkarinen has managed before. Richly melodic and gorgeously textured, songs like "Painovoimaa, Valoa" balance delicate guitar plucks with gently sawing strings, while pieces like "Rubiinilasia" bask in the glow of grainy field recordings, spare drones, and detuned strums. Elsewhere, Naukkarinen turns up the volume for "Lahtolaulu," contrasting the grimy distortion of her electric guitar with increasingly sweet timbre of her multi-tracked voice. Easily building on the brilliant promise of her debut album, Lau Nau's Nukkuu presents a talented multi-instrumentalist dedicated not only to the pursuit of her experimental muse, but also to the creation of slyly sophisticated, off-kilter pop gems. [MC]


	$14.99 CD $14.99 LP $9.99 MP3		MODEY LEMON Season of Sweets (Birdman) "The Bear Comes Down the Mountain" "Season of Sweets" I've been a pretty big fan of the Pittsburgh-based Modey Lemon for some time now and as anyone who invests heavily in liking a band, there is always a fear that the new material might not quite do it for you. That coupled with the fact that for the past couple of years, the members of the Modey Lemon have been devoting time to some other projects. Guitarist/singer Phil Boyd put out two great acid folk records as the Hidden Twin; bassist/keyboardist, Jason Kirker busied himself making lamps (yes, lamps) and recording a solo record; and super drummer Paul Quattrone propelled the likes of Midnite Snake, Italian Ice and Babybird. While it may simply seem like they just forgot to officially break up, Season of Sweets has me thanking my lucky stars they didn't as it continues Modey Lemon's winning streak. While the earlier records were all action all the time, Modey Lemon, circa 2005's Curious City, had settled down a bit and weren't afraid to stretch out, with Jason Kirker being added as a permanent third member adding heft and body where it is needed. Boyd seems more taken than ever with themes of innocence, nature and linguistics, and Quattrone is still back there pounding his kit like there is no tomorrow, pushing the band to that next level that so few groups ever reach. (Seriously, he's one of a handful of drummers that truly deserves the tired John Bonham or Keith Moon comparisons that people can be too free with.) Opening track "The Bear Comes Back Down the Mountain" is classic Modey Lemon, with bass growls, bubbling, swirling synths, Quattrone's tribal pounding and an insistent guitar riff. Fanatastic! After that, the group's off to the races, with not a dud in the bunch and there are more than a couple of moments here ("Become A Monk" and "Ice Fields" in particular) that seem like the JB's trying their hand at being a Groundhogs cover band. A perfect spring into summer record. [DMa]


	$11.99 CD		ECSTATIC SUNSHINE Way (Cardboard) "B" "Perrier" Baltimore's Ecstatic Sunshine has truly kept us on our toes the past year and a half. The original dueling guitar duo of Matt Papich and Dustin Wong was responsible for one of 2006's most innovative debut albums, Freckle Wars." The follow-up, Living 12", hitting small record shops in the fall of last year, revealed more of an interest in effects and repetitive loops -- as well as percussion -- an unexpected addition provided by Jeremy Hyman of Ponytail, Wong's other project. Almost immediately after this release, the band announced that Wong was leaving Ecstatic Sunshine, and although he is no longer part of the Ecstatic Sunshine touring band, he is featured here for the last time on Way, together with Papich and newcomer Kieran Gillen on electronics. While Ecstatic Sunshine's Living EP leaned more towards the band's earlier calculated, fast-paced, suspenseful, art-punk songs, the band's newest three-song long-player gives Way to full-on experimentation with noise and sound loops. With salutes to Terry Riley, early Steve Reich, Glenn Branca, and even reminding us of a fundamental version of Brooklyn's sublime noise duo Growing, here Ecstatic Sunshine produce relaxed, chiming melodies not as a focus, but as a backdrop for blown-out, fuzzy guitar plateaus. The third and final track, "Perrier," which clocks in at over ten minutes -- in sharp contrast to their three-minute songs of yesteryear -- is the standout of the album, revisiting the band's knack for instinctive pacing, unpredictable development, and the blending of light, shimmering melodies and rich, intricate textures into awe-inspiring experimental pop compositions. Way is far more ambient and exploratory than its predecessors, simultaneously documenting a new era and the last chapter for an almost unrecognizable Ecstatic Sunshine. [KS]


	$17.99 CD		DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE Narrow Stairs (Atlantic) "No Sunlight" "Pity and Fear" Death Cab for Cutie's eighth album, Narrow Stairs, is a little darker and less ambient than previous albums -- at times more blues than emo. Lamenting the tragedy of adulthood, Ben Gibbard (now 31) apparently hasn't come to terms with the milestone of turning 30. But the adults fare no better in this set of songs than his younger subjects of the past. In "Cath..." a woman marries a man she doesn't love because she's getting older and has given up on finding true love, and in "I Will Possess Your Heart," a creepy eight-minute-long song with a haunting, four-minute long bass-driven instrumental introduction, a lovelorn guy stalks his crush. "Bixby Canyon Bridge" chronicles ennui ("It's hard to want to stay awake when everyone you meet/ they all seem to be asleep") and ends with some great Radiohead-like guitar distortion, while the short, sweet and poignant "You Can Do Better Than Me" is a confession on why people stay together out of fear (of dying alone?) well after the expiration date on their doomed relationship. During the album's best track, "Pity and Fear" (a song about a one-night stand), bongo-like drums carry a guitar riff that matches the cadence of Gibbard's voice, both of which speed up until an abrupt climax of a "fall," which one could interpret as a suicide. Every song on Narrow Stairs deals with loss or accepting defeat and every character lacks something: love, courage, hope -- it's Gibbard's own Wizard of Oz fantasy. Let's face it; if Gibbard ever started taking Zoloft, the indie scene would be the worst off for it. If you're not one to wallow in self-pity then this album is great background or driving music, otherwise, listen and repeat...and lock up the sleeping pills. [TL]


	$24.99 LP		DAS KABINETTE Spy Thriller (Minimal Wave) The newest offering from the vinyl-only reissue label Minimal Wave resurrects Das Kabinette's rare, sole release from 1983, a two-song single (the A-side "The Cabinet" was inspired by The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari), and tacks on seven more songs, making Spy Thriller a nine-song LP of vintage, obscure synthwave. Housed in one of the best Minimal Wave covers to date, the photo from the original seven-inch is printed on the inner sleeve while the black, printed outer sleeve is die cut to look like the figure of Dr.Caligari carrying Jane as viewed through a warped windowpane! The first few plays had me imagining Das Kabinette as simply an underground band with distant similarities to the Cure, but minus the ethereal elements and not as polished. ("Passionkiller" even uses some loping bass and Spanish sounding strums from a 12-string guitar.) But further listens made me realize that Das Kabinette's could be better described as a poppier version of early Legendary Pink Dots ("poppier" meaning that arty/precious way like the Bolshoi) with the macabre element intact, meets Comsat Angels, a non-funky Medium Medium and perhaps even Xymox. Spy Thriller is definitely one for hardcore fans of this genre as it consistently touches on familiar sounds and themes. [SM]


	$17.99 CD $9.99 MP3		VLADISLAV DELAY Anima (Huume) "Anima" Ten plus years ago, a record store clerk hepped me to a beguiling bit of ambient techno that featured on its cover a fractured Occidental woman in pink dress. It was called Anima and it opened with a sample of a coked-to-the-gills Sean Penn from Hurly Burly, and what followed was one of the most inscrutable hour-long listens ever. There were beats, sure, but they never fell exactly into a four/four, and whenever they threatened to cohere, they were just as quickly dashed and dissipated. It was somehow both pleasant and purgatorial, an ever-shifting ambiance set on unsettling. And while Delay continues to unleash albums under any number of aliases, nothing quite captures the drugged mindset as perfectly as Anima does. Now re-released on Vlad's own imprint, the CD version also features a ten-minute version that is (unsurprisingly) totally different from the original. A modern classic. [AB]


	$13.99 CD		VARIOUS ARTISTS Love and Circuits (Cardboard) "Ribs Out" Fuck Buttons "All of the Other Songs Remixed" Trey Told Em Over the past three years, Brooklyn's Cardboard Records has released a handful of high quality releases by underground bands integral to the local scene, namely Aa (BIG A little a), Pterodactyl, and label founders BJ Warshaw and Dan Friel's own project, Parts & Labor. On Love and Circuits, the hard-working Cardboard dudes attack an even more daunting curatorial project; in one of the most comprehensive attempts to document the modern-day underground to date, this 57-track sampler of punk, noise, experimental, folk, and electronic music provides listeners with musical highlights from Parts & Labor's relentless tours -- without all the hassle of flat tires and food poisoning. Love and Circuits is most likely the first chance a lot of us have had to hear bands like UK lo-fi noise-core outfit Hunting Lodge, or to be seduced by the addictive synth-pop of the un-Myspace-able Mr. Baby -- but there are plenty of groups on this comp that today's show-goers will recognize, and not only the string of Cardboard Records veterans such as Gowns (Los Angeles), Ecstatic Sunshine (Baltimore), and Big Bear (Boston). There are bumping tropical grooves by High Places (Brooklyn) and everyone's favorite NASA employee, Lucky Dragons (Los Angeles), as well as posthumous tracks by underrated San Francisco art-punk-turned-hypnotic-drone-pop trio Numbers and Brooklyn's sloppy, high-energy pop three-piece the Good Good. Appropriately, a ton of Brooklyn's most talented are featured as well, including USAISAMONSTER, Japanther, Matt & Kim, These Are Powers, Oneida, Vaz, and Zs -- and keep in mind, over 75% of the tracks on this compilation are exclusive. Don't expect to pick up Love and Circuits and see Health or Deerhunter on the alphabetized tracklist -- it's not as though they haven't contributed to the modern-day underground scene or that the Cardboard folks don't like their music -- but this stellar compilation is about as far away from a "best-of-according-to-bloggers" mix as you can get. By comparison, it's a confident, heaping buffet of past and present underdogs on the outskirts. [KS]


	$15.99 CD $9.99 MP3		VARIOUS ARTISTS Black Stars - Ghana's Hiplife Generation (Out Here) "Ahomka Wo Mu" "Sheriff Ghale" From the Boogie Down Bronx to the far corners of the world, hip-hop music and culture continue to cross-pollinate on an international scale. Much like the favelas of Brazil, the inner city is still the melting pot, where struggle, survival and the celebration of life are expressed through the embrace of hip-hop. Africa is no exception. Ghana has absorbed rapping into its already lively music scene, creating something they call "hiplife", which blends highlife's use of synthesizers, percussion, bass and familiar loopy guitar lines with the groove and verbal rhythm of hip-hop. Though not everyone raps, the delivery still feels modern, referencing dance music in general -- R&B and house, respectfully. If you've been fascinated by baile funk, M.I.A.'s world travels, or the softer side of dance hall, Black Stars fits in nicely, featuring some of the top artists from the scene. An interesting glimpse into a yet to be exploited genre, catch it while it's still fresh! [DG]


	$14.99 CD		QUIET VILLAGE Silent Movie (K7) "Too High to Move" "Circus of Horror" Quiet Village is the latest working project for UK electronica ace Matt Edwards, who previously released a slew of dance singles under the guise of Radio Slave. Their first full-length, Silent Movie, is a bit of a departure from Edwards' club-rocking roots, but a mellower, almost soft rock vibe should not sway you from giving it a listen. If the record smacks strongly of moody movie scores by the likes of Morricone, it's certainly no accident; film editor Joel Martin, who knows more than his way around the classic silver screen sound, fills the other half of the Village. With its airy soundscapes, cinematic bottlenecks of tension and heaps of sonic desolation, celluloid is burning at every corner of this record. Edwards and Martin make ample and diverse use of samples to give their compositions flair; from the narration accompanying the dreamy pianos of "Too High to Move" to the soft rock vocals on "Keep on Rolling," throwback cheese is all over Quiet Village's sound, but it's something that the duo will not apologize for. Quiet Village is an electronic group that wears their cinematic and easy listening influences decidedly on their sleeves, and Silent Movie asserts itself from the very beginning as their love child. [DS]


	$17.99 CD		SIMONE WHITE I Am the Man (Honest Jon's) "Word Was Wood" "We Used to Stand So Tall" Really, only a handful of competitors in the post-Cat Power femme singer-songwriter sweepstakes are worth more than a cursory listen, and unless you relish your days as a liberal arts undergrad, you're probably better off keeping a select few of the newcomers. Alela Diane, you should pay attention to. White Magic, natch. Diane Cluck, of course. Simone White's on the list now as well. Her wispy, delicate voice belies a resonant core which holds a good 40 years of pop-not-rock vocal traditions, and her plaintive guitar lines are framed by top Nashville session musicians (helmed by producer Mark Nevers, who lent similar charms to recordings by Lambchop, Low, and Bonnie "Prince" Billy). Think Petula Clark on a really personal jag, dressed up with intricate instrumentation that perfectly matches the mood: light, careful, classic. Keep this one near to you. [DM]


	$13.99 CD $9.99 MP3		ESSIE JAIN Theinbetween (Ba Da Bing!) "Here We Go" "You" The sophomore release from London/New York folk chanteuse Essie Jain is a dark and churning affair, not light year's away from her arresting debut, but with a bit more confidence and spring in its step, as well as more lovely piano. Jain manages to be sad and serious and playful too on the record's ten timeless tracks, and her growing comfort in the studio allows for her haunting alto to really shine, relying less on the multi-tracked vocals that were a staple of the debut. A great album throughout.


	$24.99 DVD		KIKI AND HERB Live at the Knitting Factory (Alive Mind) New DVD from New York City's drunken cabaret sensation, Kiki & Herb. Recorded in 2007 during their Year of Magical Drinking Tour, this definitive video document of the duo features 15 favorites including "Song Against Sex," "I'm Ugly (and I Don't Know Why)," "I Was a Maoist Intellectual," and "Moments of Pleasure." Also includes four bonus cuts of rare footage culled from their decade-plus long career.


	$24.99 CD		CILIBRINAS DO EDEN Cilibrinas do Eden (No Smoke) "Bad Trip (Ainda Bem)" "Gente Fina e Outra Coisa" Whoa! Where did this one come from?? An album's worth of totally awesome unreleased material from Rita Lee of Os Mutantes recorded for Philips in 1973! Cilibrinas do Eden consisted of Rita and friend Lucia Turnbull -- backed by the rest of Mutantes supposedly -- and these ten songs mix that band's psychedelic leanings with crazy Moog freakouts and straight up rock n roll that echoes of the Beatles and T. Rex. It's really hard to believe this material has been existed in complete obscurity for so long, as it ranks way up there with some of the best Mutantes stuff (and as a bonus, you get two great Mutantes outtakes). Limited to 500 copies so don't snooze on this genius. [AK]


	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 for any reason, please visit: digital.othermusic.com/subscribe.php		THIS WEEK'S CONTRIBUTORS [AB] Adrian Burkholder [MC] Michael Crumsho [DG] Daniel Givens [GH] Gerald Hammill [DH] Duane Harriott [IQ] Mikey IQ Jones [AK] Andreas Knutsen [TL] Tanya Leet [JM] Josh Madell [DMa] Dave Martin [SM] Scott Mou [DM] Doug Mosurock [[DS] Daniel Salas [KS] Karen Soskin [JW] Josiah Wolfson THANKS FOR READING - all of us at Other Music

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