August 6, 2009

		$27.99 CD Pre-order $39.99 LPx2 Pre-order   BUY EARLY GET NOW: YO LA TENGO Yo La Tengo's forthcoming album, Popular Songs, gets the Buy Early Get Now treatment! In addition to the CD or double LP, customers who pre-order the album will also receive: July 27 - Album stream goes live August 18 - First Bonus MP3 September 1 - Second Bonus MP3 September 8 - CD or 2xLP will be shipped to arrive at your door on or before the September 8 release date, along with the exclusive live LP of the Adventureland soundtrack and a bonus poster. Questions? Email: orders@othermusic.com

		FEATURED NEW RELEASES JJ (Just In) Air France (Just In) Jay Reatard (New LP in Stock) Anchiskhati Choir Muslimgauze (Limited Reissue) Pictureplane YACHT Julian Plenti (Paul Banks Solo Album) Sian Alice Group Francisco Lopez (5CD Box Set) Pan Sonic & Keiji Haino Mika Vainio Mike Westbrook Concert Band Optimo Presents (R&S Mix) Moderne (Minimal Wave 2LP) Faust (LP Reissue) Ivan Wyschnegradsky Smith Westerns Circuit Des Yeux Raks Raks Raks (Iranian Garage & Psych)   Yim Yames (a/k/a Jim James) George Jones Bert Jansch (3 Reissues) Kool and the Gang (Live) Kath Bloom (Tribute) ALSO AVAILABLE: Antony & the Johnsons Japandroids Nurses Robert Henke VINYL PRESSING Desire OUT OF PRINT Cold Cave (Last Call!) Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/othermusic

		ESSENTIAL REISSUES ON VINYL Has there ever been a better time for LP reissues? The vinyl coming in as of late has been incredible, and we've had more limited reissues than we can get a handle on. Hopefully none of the records below needs much in the way of an introduction to our erudite clientele; suffice it to say, each is simply indispensable, and you don't want to miss out like you did the first time around! MOONDOG: Moondog ($17.99) & Story of Moondog ($17.99) ERIC B. AND RAKIM: Follow the Leader ($17.99) RED HOUSE PAINTERS: Songs for a Blue Guitar ($21.99 - 2LP) CHARLEY PATTON: High Water Everywhere ($21.99), Jesus Is a Dying Bed Maker ($21.99) & Electrically Recorded Prayer of Death ($22.99) BLIND WILLIE JOHNSON: If I Had My Way I'd Tear the Building Down ($21.99) BLIND WILLIE MCTELL: Sacred Day Blues ($29.99 - 2LP) SANDY BULL: Fantasias for Guitar and Banjo ($17.99), E Pluribus Unum ($17.99) PETER WALKER: Rainy Day Raga ($16.99)

		AUG Sun 09 Mon 10 Tues 11 Wed 12 Thurs 13 Fri 14 Sat 15 Sponsored by   AKRON/FAMILY IN-STORE: SUNDAY, AUG. 9 @ 7PM We are excited to welcome Akron/Family, whose live shows are always thrilling. Like their great, recent album Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free, you can expect to hear plenty of celebratory communal sing-a-longs, but it'll be far from a typical stoned love-in. These Brooklyn beardos channel the incredibly soulful poly-rhythms of '70s African groove merchants like Fela Kuti, and combine that with a wild mix of Sun Ra, Animal Collective, Grateful Dead, Fleet Foxes, Funkadelic and of course, most of all, pure Akron anarchy. Don't miss it! OTHER MUSIC: 15 East 4th Street NYC Free Admission / Limited Capacity

		AUG Sun 09 Mon 10 Tues 11 Wed 12 Thurs 13 Fri 14 Sat 15   TICKET GIVE-AWAY TO TV ON THE RADIO Next Tuesday, August 11, Celebrate Brooklyn Benefit! Concerts Presents TV on the Radio who will be performing at the Prospect Park Bandshell, with part of the proceeds benefiting the Scott Hardy Trust and Sweet Relief organizations. Joining the hometown favorites are two other great Brooklyn bands, Gang Gang Dance and Chin Chin. Other Music is giving away two pairs of tickets to one of the hottest bills of the summer. To enter, email tickets@othermusic.com. We'll notify the two winners tomorrow afternoon, Friday, August 7. TUESDAY, AUGUST 11 PROSPECT PARK BANDSHELL 5:30PM Doors / Tickets $30 adv & $35 day of show Tickets can be purchased online at www.ticketmaster.com, by calling 800-745-3000, and at the Mercury Lounge box Monday-Saturday noon to 7PM or the Music Hall of Williamsburg box office Saturdays 11AM to 6PM.

		AUG Sun 09 Mon 10 Tues 11 Wed 12 Thurs 13 Fri 14 Sat 15   WIN TICKETS TO THE FRIENDLY FIRES The UK's Friendly Fires will be bringing their blissed-out dance-punk sounds to the Le Poisson Rouge stage next Wednesday, August 12, with the funky New York-based collective Phenomenal Handclap Band opening. A fantastic pairing, Other Music has two pairs of tickets up for grabs. You can enter by emailing contest@othermusic.com, and We'll notify the two winners on Friday, August 7. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12 LE POISSON ROUGE: 158 Bleeker Street NYC $16 dollar tickets available at Other Music / On-Line at: lepoissonrouge.inticketing.com/

		AUG Sun 09 Mon 10 Tues 11 Wed 12 Thurs 13 Fri 14 Sat 15   TICKET GIVE-AWAY TO SEE THE XX Wednesday, August 12, also finds another great English band, the xx, playing across town at the Mercury Lounge, in support of their forthcoming debut album on Young Turks. Joining this soulful teenaged group will be Free Energy, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes and Sean Bones. A solid line-up, email enter@othermusic.com to put your name in the hat for a pair of tickets. We'll notify the winner on Friday, August 7. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12 MERCURY LOUNGE: 217 East Houston Street NYC

		$24.99 CD   JJ No. 2 (Sincerely Yours) "Ecstasy" "From Africa to Malaga" Well, here it is... JJ have been burning up the blogosphere for a hot minute, and we are the only shop to have their No.2 CD in stock. This incredible debut album is chock-full of Balearic house beats, highlife guitars, and the twee-est vocals this side of a Sarah Records comp. One of the year's best debuts, and sure to be on many-a top ten list come December. Essential summer record? You know it!

		$18.99 CD   AIR FRANCE No Way Down (Sincerely Yours) "Maundy Thursday" "No Way Down" Hot on the heels of the Balearic fun time yet highly educated sounds of JJ, Studio, and Tough Alliance comes Air France. Everybody knows all the coolest dudes come from Gothenburg, Sweden...but this many?? Jeez. No Way Down draws on St Etienne's "Only Love Can Break Your Heart," sunshiney, twee pop, and a baggy, Happy Mondays-inspired aesthetic (much like some of the Studio tracks), and the aforementioned sun-bleached sounds of Ibiza. Throw some nature sounds, congas, woodwinds, and snippets of film dialogue into the mix, and out comes a winner. Gothenburg might be a depressing, dull sh*thole for much of the year, but this EP will lead you to believe it's a beachy paradise. And that alone speaks volumes. As with most Sincerely Yours releases, this one comes highly endorsed!

		$15.99 LP   JAY REATARD Watch Me Fall -180 GRAM (Matador) "It Ain't Gonna Save Me" "Wounded" The new, long-awaited Jay Reatard album continues in the grand pop tradition of the later 45s in the singles club from last year. It's no secret that Reatard's discovery of Flying Nun was a major personal revelation, Chris Knox/Tall Dwarfs in particular, and that shines through on a few tracks here. Combined with a batch of hooky pop hits and a couple of punky rippers, Watch Me Fall plays a lot like the singles compilation on Matador, and thus is a success. Only on LP for now, the CD version comes out on August 18.

		$17.99 CD   ANCHISKHATI CHOIR Polyphonic Voices of Georgia (Soul Jazz / WAF) "You Are a Vine" "Alito" Utterly mesmerizing and beautiful polyphonic chant on Soul Jazz's great new imprint, World Audio Foundation, performed by the Anchiskhati Choir, a male-only ensemble devoted to maintaining a musical tradition whose roots extend to pre-Christian times. I first read about these guys a few years ago when they toured the States, but their albums have been extremely difficult to come by, and it's thrilling to finally have the opportunity to have this music at home. Hailing from Georgia, a mountainous country located in the Caucasus who have had a pretty turbulent century or so dealing with the Soviet Union, and more recently Russia, the Anchiskhati Choir is led by Malkhaz Erkvanidze, a singer and ethnomusicologist devoted to rigorously preserving and performing this remarkable music. Georgia has an intensely musical culture (see the stunning two album set Songs of Survival: Music of Georgia on Topic -- available for download on Other Music Digital), and its folk and religious musics have long been closely intertwined. Georgia was one of the very first European nations to adopt Christianity as the official state religion, but their remote location stymied much in the way of outside influence from Byzantine and Greek Orthodox musical cultures. As such, they have a very unique system of tuning, and utilize a three-part polyphonic chant that is mostly particular to Georgia, with a wonderfully earthy sound that nevertheless remains entirely mystical and shrouded in mystery. I love that Soul Jazz has taken on a project so far from the hip precincts they normally haunt, and this is a music of rare power and beauty that you may not otherwise have a chance to get wise to, and it is simply stunning. [MK]

		$21.99 CD   MUSLIMGAUZE Zuriff Moussa (Staalplaat) "Haaretz Pulp" "Thief of Sand" A limited reissue (800) of a 1997 Muslimgauze release on Staalplaat, with nicely printed covers in copper-gilded paper stock. Plenty of gurgling sitars, bubbling tabla and Middle Eastern B-boy breaks, as yooj. It starts off pretty smooth and actually I've been skipping track one,"Turquoze Jabel," to avoid thinking someone slipped me a Natacha Atlas album. But somewhere around the mid-point of the record things start to break down, getting nasty and really interesting. A little more A.D.D. is a good thing when it comes to Muslimgauze, and that's exactly what the second half of this album is about. Volumes shift up and down periodically like struggling communiqués' in a war zone, and everything falls apart in the best possible way. Listen to track 23, "Hindustani Wireless Blackout," in its entirety to get a sense of what I'm talking about. Bryn Jones lives! [SM]

		$12.99 CD $9.99 MP3   PICTUREPLANE Dark Rift (Lovepump United) Preview Songs on Other Music's Download Store Walking past clusters of drifters and ducking into Rhinoceropolis, Denver's leading alt-space, means being greeted with a bear hug from a charismatic, scraggly boy with a mullet named Travis Egedy. The much-needed d.i.y. venue that he helps operate is first and foremost the living space of young artists like himself, with tiny compartments for rooms literally built in stacks on top of each other, a maze-like path through the space lined from floor to ceiling with still-wet psychedelic paintings and packed out with excited kids, and the back of the house entirely open-ended, with easy access to skate-ready industrial obstacles and a view of bright downtown Denver, which feels very much off in the distance. This loose creative hub is the unlikely breeding ground for Travis Egedy a/k/a Pictureplane's glamorous, runway-ready dance hits, which blend dizzying '90s trance and house, '80s pop diva vocals, and a kitchen-sink aesthetic of manipulated sounds and samples, sometimes irreverently shredded into unrecognizable blips and screeches of noise. Pictureplane stops at nothing to achieve pure electro-fantasy, and excels at mixing hot beats from dubstep and hip-hop with reverb-soaked, come-hither vocals into a gauzy shoegaze dreamscape. Picture if Nite Jewel had a little brother who was a producer; there's huge appeal for darker subcultures here, and Dark Rift surely seeks out closet goths and '80s Victorian fetishists with all those harpsichord synth sounds. Folks who lose it for Crystal Castles (check out Pictureplane's remix) will be hooked on this second full-length, a sublime descent into guilt-free retro dance music -- guaranteed to get the party started! [KS]

		$13.99 CD $9.99 MP3   YACHT See Mystery Lights (DFA) "The Afterlife" "Summer Song" From his magician pose on the album cover to "See a Penny (Pick It Up)," a quirky ode to superstitious good fortune, it was natural to assume that Jona Bechtolt was just playing around with a little supernatural shtick on 2007's I Believe in You. Your Magic Is Real. Now signed to DFA, however, YACHT's fourth full-length ups the mystical ante; apparently Bechtolt and vocalist Claire L. Evans (whose earlier status as a collaborator has since blossomed to fulltime member) set up shop to record their latest album in the town of Marfa, TX, where the unexplained phenomena of glowing basketball-sized orbs floating above the ground is said to take place every 10 to 20 years. Sure enough, reoccurring themes of afterlife and the paranormal are sprinkled throughout YACHT's See Mystery Lights, but it's quite the opposite of the snooze fest of a new age lecture or a bad X-Files movie; not forgotten is the oddball fun we've come to expect from anything that Bechtolt waves his magic wand at. The Compass Point-gone-digital opener "Ring the Bell" quickly ascends from breezy Tom Tom Club-inspired art-pop into a celestial 4/4 pulsing cloud that contradicts the song's chanted refrain of "Will we go to heaven or will we go to hell? / It's my understanding that neither are real." The lyrical theme carries over into "The Afterlife," which comes on like an impossible pairing of Love and Rockets and day-glo punks Fuzzbox glamming up Desmond Dekker's reggae classic "The Israelites." Following a funky poke at T-Pain's expense -- autotune and all -- with "I'm in Love with a Ripper," See Mystery Lights heads into proto-DFA territory, Bechtolt channeling his inner James Murphy through the machinic, bass-driven groove of "It's Boring / You Can Live Anywhere You Want" and soon after, "Summer Song." Both tracks are sure to get the hips shaking from Brooklyn to Marfa, where we certainly hope to see some of those mystery lights illuminating the high-desert dancefloor. [GH]

		$12.99 CD $17.99 LP w/MP3   JULIAN PLENTI Julian Plenti Is.... Skyscraper (Matador) "Fun That We Have" "Unwind" As with Thom Yorke's solo outing of last year, the first thing that probably comes to mind when you hear that Interpol frontman Paul Banks has a solo album may well be, why? He gets to sing and write songs in his main band, and nobody but a few teenage girls with too much invested in them would fault Interpol for loosening the formula a bit if Banks was feeling constricted by the group's Italian suits and well-scripted sound. Maybe he missed the indie life, maybe he was ready to hit the studio when his band was ready to hit the beach, or maybe he just wanted more of a hand in crafting the instrumental tracks. I don't really know, and while the mysteriously titled Julian Plenti Is... Skyscraper should please most fans of the man and his band, it won't answer those lingering questions. Though Interpol are notorious for their tightly focused, meticulously assembled, angular post-punk, Banks does let his hair down some here, with more acoustic guitars, piano, string arrangements, and a little more warmth in his generally cool, reserved vocal delivery. But he's also got driving metronomic drums, densely overdriven hypnotic guitars, and on several of these tracks -- like the circular chug of "Fun That We Have" or the pulsing sing-a-long crescendo of "Games for Days" -- the sound is just so Interpolian, you are practically spooked by Carlos D's leering mug. In many ways it's the perfect gift to his fans, a solo outing that stretches the boundaries, but not too much, so only the haters will complain... and they're haters, so there you go. Good stuff, and really, we don't care why Banks does it, 'cause he does it pretty well. [JM]

		$14.99 CD $16.99 LP/MP3 $9.99 MP3   SIAN ALICE GROUP Troubled, Shaken, Etc. (The Social Registry) Preview Songs on Other Music's Download Store Album number two for this sprawling British post-rock band is another stunner, with an inventiveness as if it came straight out of the era of Stereolab, Broadcast, Moonshake and Pram -- albeit without the production trickery and fetishism for analog synths, Krautrock, and Carnaby Street chills, which the six-piece group (featuring Social Reg pinch hitter Mike Bones) trades in for polyrhythmic percussion, strings, and a buzzing, warm interplay that makes these songs snap to attention. Those looking for easy shoegaze thrills or Godspeed-style arpeggios will be let down (effects pedals don't swell up until the last track), but everyone else should have a ball with their effective, effusive, highly structured pop. There aren't too many bands like them, and their humid, busy sounds will help you to finish out this wet summer with a shred of dignity. Very highly recommended! [DM]

		$24.99 CDx5   FRANCISCO LOPEZ Through the Looking Glass (Kairos) Intensely visceral, and refreshingly affordable five-CD box set of field recordings by sound artist Francisco Lopez, captured on his travels over the last fifteen years. There is a hugely diverse range of sound-landscapes here, including tropical and sub-tropical locations in Costa Rica, Brazil, Argentina, Senegal, Gambia, China, as well as the more arid regions of Spain. The third disc, Buildings (New York), will certainly resonate with local customers, as it is the fruit of a Creative Time commission from 2001, and documents environments ranging from an apartment building in Brooklyn, to Sotheby's, to the then still extant World Trade Center. Expect much spatial disorientation. [MK]

		$17.99 CD   PAN SONIC & KEIJI HAINO Shall I Download a Black Hole and Offer It to You (Blast First Petite) Track 4 Track 10 This genius pairing of technically different yet spiritually like-minded collaborators synthesizes the artists' darkest improvisations into one of the best listens in improvised music this year. This is the kind of collaboration I would jokingly dream up to describe some extremely esoteric recording I've heard (i.e. "like if Yoshi Wada and Keith Rowe made an album with Oren Ambarchi"), but this one is real, and was recorded in Berlin in 2007! Listening to Shall I Download a Blackhole and Offer It to You brought me to the edge of my seat; the vastness of sound explored in this performance achieves a purity of expression that is breathtaking. Keiji Haino's alien howls beckon otherworldly terrors against the deeply buried low-end and transitional drive of the Finnish duo's malignant digital drudgery. No collaboration has ever placed Haino's abilities in a more perfect foundation. Vainio and Vaisanen do not disappear by any means, but this performance raises Haino's sound to strikingly singular depths both vocally and musically. His voice convulses over the top in achingly harsh overtones while his guitar feedback pierces through the whirling buzzes and haze of constructed sound. Listening to this reminds me of the way outside music opened my mind when I first heard La Monte Young and Charlemagne Palestine. Contextualize those classics in modern electronics and improvisation and you begin to get the picture. Immediately the music sounds extreme, yet the recording achieves a pendulum state, swinging between sensitive psychedelic exploration and harsh tactility. For fans of extreme music, it is of brilliant fortune that this was put to tape at all. And if the recording isn't harsh enough for you, Stephen O'Malley did the artwork! Enjoy, this one's the real-deal Holyfield! [BCa]

		$15.99 CD   MIKA VAINIO Aineen Musta Puhelin - Black Telephone of Matter (Touch) "Roma A.D. 2727" "Swedenborgia" As half of the venerable Pan Sonic, Mika Vainio crafts bold soundscapes with uncompromising vision. On his Touch label releases, Vainio appears to strike out in fearless departures from the familiar, and he does so to our benefit. With many recordings in/as Pan Sonic, Endless, O, and Philus, it's under his own name that Vainio is a true pioneer. Isolating sine waves and oscillating drones in sparse dissemination, he displaces the listener and challenges one with his tactile impressions. Spatially, Black Telephone Matter is akin to AMM, digitally reminiscent of Keith Fullerton Whitman, and sensually familiar to Christian Fennesz. Imagine the bleaker moments of micro sounds in Fennesz's Black Sea, and piece them around longer compositions with extremely streamlined and efficient functions. With an impact that is ultimately jarring, closely listening to this album opens up its aural possibilities. Notes take on vibrant undulation, songs singe in dark and drowning ambience, and the breadth of the album reaches far beyond immediate responses. Black Telephone Matter plays like a private instillation of soundscapes in your mind. As far as the tenuous genre of modern sound art is concerned, this is music to my ears. [BCa]

		$15.99 CD   MIKE WESTBROOK CONCERT BAND The Marching Song Vol. 1 & 2 (101) "Waltz (For Joanna)" "Marching Song" Hugely ambitious and brilliant anti-war epic composed by British pianist/arranger Mike Westbrook, originally released as two separate albums by Deram in 1969. Truly one of the greatest British jazz records of the 1960s, if not ever, Westbrook's stunning concept LP featured the cream of the U.K. jazz scene, people who more than realized his vision to translate the folly and emotion of warfare into raw sound. Graced with the striking cover art of a child's drawing of military battalions at war, the music is at turns sprawling, raucous, strident and intensely lyrical. There are dozens of memorable themes here, the soloing is wholly original, and the entire piece remains totally engaging throughout. I'd actually say it's on par with long form masterpieces of Ellington, or Mingus' Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, and I think it's actually much better than its more famous U.S. analogue, Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra. Totally thrilling, and hugely recommended. [MK]

		$19.99 CD $9.99 MP3   OPTIMO PRESENTS In Order to Edit (R&S) Preview Songs on Other Music's Download Store R&S has put out some of the most important and influential dance music of all time and during its early-'90s heyday, the Belgian imprint released essential records by young artists such as Aphex Twin, u-Ziq, Kevin Saunderson and Juan Atkins. At a time when people were still trying to fit their heads around the concept of house and techno, R&S was pushing boundaries, offering highly imaginative, genre-defying (and genre-defining) dancefloor releases -- several electronic subgenres such as drum'n'bass, trance, hardcore and IDM can literally be traced back to specific records on the label. In spite of their incredible catalog, R&S went quiet in the late '90s, making many of these classic tracks impossible to find. Fortunately, their almost 10-year silence was broken when the label formally re-launched in 2007 and this wonderful retrospective mix was lovingly sliced and diced by edit master JD Twitch of Optimo fame, to celebrate the record company's 25-year anniversary. R&S hit its peak during Euro rave's golden age in the early '90s and listened to in that context, these tunes sound like something of a completely different world than today's dance scene. One thing you'll notice is the variety of tempos, styles and rhythms that are represented here. Electro beats sit alongside bleepy techno, proto drum'n'bass rhythms and deep ambient techno. This is the soundtrack to adrenaline-fueled dancefloor abandon and druggy disorientation; much kudos must be extended to Twitch for successfully recreating a true-to-form soundtrack to what those parties actually sounded and felt like. From start to finish, Twitch extends, layers and cuts up classic tracks like minimal techno anthem "Energy Flash" by the teenaged Queens-bred wunderkind Joey Beltram, the sinister acidic bass buzz of Mondo Muzique's "Acid Pandomonium" and u-Ziq's "Phi*1700," which pointed the way to a burgeoning drum'n'bass scene. Hell, Capricorn's "20 Hz" and DHS's "House of God" predate the minimal percussive sounds of Villalobos and Pom Pom by 10-plus years. Overall these tunes still sound fresh and it's great to see this music starting to become available again. Seminal stuff! [DH]

		$36.99 LPx2   MODERNE Moderne & L'Espionne Aimait La Musique (Minimal Wave) "Seduction" "Sans Signalement" The always-solid Minimal Wave label treats us to another treasure. On the platter this time around are French robots Moderne, a group active from 1979 until 1981, who released a handful of singles and two LPs before biting the dust. OM customers may know Moderne via the inclusion of their track "Switch on Bach" on the somewhat infamous So Young But So Cold compilation of French cold/new/synth wave from a few years back. If your appetite was whetted, this beautiful 2LP 180-gram gatefold vinyl set reissues in full the band's two long players (1980's Moderne and 1981's L'Espionne Aimait La Musique), and includes a huge poster and even a pin-up photo to put above your bed like a true moody new romantic. So how's the music? In a word, fantastic. The most obvious comparison would be a French Kraftwerk circa Computer World or The Man Machine (the albums were in fact mixed at the same Dusseldorf studio Kraftwerk used to record The Man Machine back in '78), but I get reminded quite a bit of groups like Marc Moulin's Telex or many of the artists for which he wrote and produced songs, like Lio and Miharu Koshi. The music is lean, economic, and incredibly catchy, with more warmth than the usual Teutonic textures of this sound, and as such the results are beautiful. There are dancefloor killers ("Sans Signalement," "Sé duction," "Eldorado"), some lonely bedroom laments ("Histoire Ordinaire"), and spades of cinematic flare, particularly on the second album. These records have been absurdly rare for quite some time, and I'm going bonkers at finally being able to hear both of these albums after only knowing the singles for so long. As with most Minimal Wave releases, these won't last long, so if you snooze, you probably lose. Definitely on my list of the year's best reissues. [IQ]

		$19.99 LP   FAUST So Far - 180 GRAM (4 Men with Beards) When that tom rhythm of Zappi's opens Faust's second classic album, So Far, it remains one of my favorite beats of all-time. A simple 4/4 pounded into infinity as his band intones the song title "It's a Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl," adding and subtracting analog synth squiggles and horn shrieks, building up to one of Krautrock's finest moments. Such little epiphanies bloom throughout this record, making for Faust's most uncanny and pop effort, not to mention a classic of the era. What makes this vinyl reissue even sweeter is that the 4 Men with Beards folk have even gone the extra distance to recreate the color inserts that accompanied the original edition. Krautrockers and adventurous listeners alike, rejoice! [AB]

		$19.99 CD $9.99 MP3   IVAN WYSCHNEGRADSKY Etude Sur Les Mouvements Rotatoires 24 Preludes (Col Legno) "Prelude No. 2" "Prelude No. 21" Incredibly unique and fascinating piano etudes from the early half of the 20th century by the relatively little known Russian composer I. Wyschnegradsky, apparently one of the first classical composers to explore micro-tonalities, long before La Monte Young, Harry Partch, Lou Harrison, et al. Super woozy and almost drunk sounding, with weird atonalities that nevertheless remain within the realm of the accessible. You've probably not ever heard piano music sound like this before. We only have a handful of this peculiar album, and may not be able to get more, so if it sounds interesting (which it certainly is), I'd snap it up. [MK]

		$12.99 CD $13.99 LP $9.99 MP3   SMITH WESTERNS Smith Westerns (Hozac) Preview Songs on Other Music's Download Store Yes, the Smith Westerns are another new group creating immediate, jangly garage rock about teenage wistfulness, all with today's popular lo-fi bent. Yet after just wrapping up a tour as both the opener and backing band for labelmate Nobunny, these Chicago natives sound surprisingly atypical. The entire group is under-aged, freshly brought up on Nuggets and Back from the Grave compilations as well as a healthy dose of Marc Bolan. And, honestly, who better to create hooky garage-pop tunes about frustration, parties and pining for love than teenagers themselves? It's their age that allows them to pull off the overt musical influences with such a youthful and unaffected attitude; their songs are not a pastiche of the music they've been force-fed, but are reworked into a more original sound as funneled through their low-flying scraps of guitar noise and echoing textures. Plus, and most importantly, the songs are really, really good. The melodies are distinct and memorable, reminding of an early, but more glam-tinged Black Lips, when that band still cranked out simple, power-chord heavy tracks with an unwavering excitement and eagerness. Highlights include the longing "Be My Girl," the strident "Tonight" and the slow burner "Diamond Boys." A great debut. [PG]

		$17.99 LP $9.99 MP3   CIRCUIT DES YEUX Sirenum (De Stijl) "Folk" "Penance Blues" Here's the second full-length from Haley Fohr, a woman in her late teens/early 20s from Lafayette, Indiana d/b/a Circuit Des Yeux. It's a stunning and utterly singular record, glued together (or thoroughly unglued) with bent electronics, delayed vocals, drifting percussion, piano, and acoustic guitar, under the guise of low fidelity but clearly working to pry the generation gap apart even further, at least to the extent of people expecting songs vs. those who don't care, so long as the emotions presented are truthful and heartfelt. It's a confusing, soul-baring stare-down against repression and isolationist activities, the proverbial knife in the hand with the following action yet to be determined. Shocking in both its presentation and delivery, hers is an otherworldly tumble through fallen-angelic vocalese, obscured beyond comprehension, across murky, decaying soundscapes in which ideas grow wild and of their own accord, and die on the vine. There seems to be no limit to her imagination, or to her abilities to convey wholly original sonic ideas that drift in and out of conventional understandings of what music is supposed to do. Comparisons could be bridged to Grouper, Inca Ore, early Magik Markers, Danielle Dax or certain Pink Reason recordings, but even those could be considered a stretch. Sirenum will dazzle some listeners and infuriate many more, but in no way is it possible to feel nothing once it crosses your ears. Most of all, it's a challenge, and that's something that very few of her contemporaries in lo-fi and underground music are able to engage. You'll remember this one long after the year has passed. [DM]

		$24.99 CD   VARIOUS ARTISTS Raks Raks Raks: Golden Garage Psych Nuggets from the Iranian 60s Scene (Raks) "Meekshi Manoo" The Flowers "Respect" Googoosh Garage bands. In the 1960s, most developed countries had them, a fact of which we're periodically reminded by some new collection of unearthed rarities from some previously under-considered clime. And often, Samuel Johnson's hoary comparison of a woman preaching to a dog walking on its hinter-legs applies: the remarkable thing is not that it's done well, but that it's done at all. Raks Discos' bombshell of a '60s Iranian nuggets comp, though, is another story, providing not just interesting musico-sociological perspective on a freer, happier period in Iran's history, but also an exceedingly enjoyable, often hilarious, and sometimes beautiful document of that, for all intents and purposes, ancient time. The baseline for most of the acts gathered here is the Stones-Beatles-Shadows continuum, run through plenty of Echoplex and recorded in questionable fidelity. In that it's a familiar kind of nuggets collection. But then add nods to the Ventures, gleanings from U.S. girl groups and French yé-yé, penchants for extended percussion and sax breaks, and the fact that nearly everything is sung in Farsi, and you're in wonderful and uncharted territory. Highlights abound: "Hadjme Khali," featuring a tough-as-nails rhythm section pounding away behind Koroush Yaghmaee's gentle but urgent vocals, anticipates his sublime 1970s folk-rock releases. Penahi's "Dance Music" takes a kitchen-sink approach to its subject -- a pile of percussive objects all astir while a singer gasps and moans over surfy guitar. Some of the covers are too good to be true: "Daydream Believer" becomes Zia's giddy "Man Kiam?" and "Atal Matal" is Zinguala Ha's Farsification of "Woolly Bully." Although admittedly you never want to hear anyone else do another version of "Respect," Googoosh, one of pre-Revolution Iran's most popular singers, does one so lively, so heartfelt, so imperfect in its English ("Your kisses sweeter than honey / but guess what: kiss my money") that you might even want to hear it again. Here's some "House of the Rising Sun," there's some Ennio Morricone, now here's a Bruno Lauzi summit with the Big Bopper. Originally released as a 17-track LP, the 27-track CD goes on in this fashion for over 76 minutes. You won't love it all, but you'll be awfully glad you heard it. [NS]

		$7.99 CD $12.99 LP   YIM YAMES Tribute to Yim Yames (ATO) "Behind That Locked Door" "My Sweet Lord" It's a bit of a no-brainer that Yim Yames' more famous band My Morning Jacket has basically based their sound on the George Harrison-penned "Long Long Long," all lonesome sound and reverb. And now this little EP makes that connection explicit, with Yames laying to tape solo versions of six Harrison songs in the immediate aftermath of Harrison's passing. A stark, spare, and harrowing tribute gets paid to the Dark Horse. A portion of the proceeds go to the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary, so do the right thing and pick this up! [AB]

		$15.99 CD   GEORGE JONES Blue and Lonesome (101) "Just Little Blue Boy" "Seasons of My Heart" Great to have this classic George Jones collection that gathered some of his most forlorn and heartsick tracks back in print, as it's possibly the best introduction to the greatest voice in country music you could ask for, and an album that had a significant impact on the likes of Gram Parsons and the Byrds further on in the decade in which it was originally released. Before becoming a drug-addled mess prone to missing shows, getting arrested for D.U.I. while riding lawn mowers, engaging in wrestling matches with the highway patrol and performing entire gigs while only speaking in Donald Duck's voice, George Jones laid down some outrageously soulful honky-tonk country blues. The rough and ragged tunes collected here were all recorded for Mercury, before he adopted a much more countrypolitan sound, and remain pretty true to a formula perfected by Hank Williams. It's a blue and lonesome collection certainly, but never a bummer, as Jones tells these stories of love and loss with the certainty of a man that knows the natural condition of humankind is one filled with absence. Just about as good as it gets folks. [MK]

		L.A. Turnaround $13.99 CD Santa Barbara Honeymoon $13.99 CD A Rare Conundrum $13.99 CD   BERT JANSCH L.A. Turnaround (Drag City) "Stone Monkey" "Open Up the Watergate" (Alternate Version) BERT JANSCH Santa Barbara Honeymoon (Drag City) "Love Anew" "Buckrabbit" BERT JANSCH A Rare Conundrum (Drag City) "Doctor, Doctor" "Lost Love" Come 1973, Bert Jansch had reached a cul de sac of sorts. He had already been one of the leading luminaries in the UK folk scene, influencing every British folk-rock guitarist to come down the pike, from Eric Clapton to (most overtly) Jimmy Page. But unlike peers such as Davy Graham and Wizz Jones, Jansch was able to adjust to the rock market and enjoy critical and commercial success via his work in Pentangle alongside fellow guitarist John Renbourn. But when that group fell apart, Jansch wasn't quite certain what direction to head in next. Or what label to move to, after realizing that Reprise wasn't quite on the same page as he was any more. Signed to Tony Stratton Smith's "Famous Charisma Label," Smith flew former Monkee (and country-rock force in his own right) Michael Nesmith out to England to produce. The story goes that Jansch appeared at Smith's bucolic country home unaware that he'd be recording there and got deep into a night of brandy-drinking, only to have a mobile recording unit appear the next morning. With pedal steel session man Red Rhodes in tow, a makeshift group formed around Jansch that somehow welded UK folk roots to a more laconic SoCal country feel, and L.A. Turnaround was born. The results are nothing less than exemplary, with Jansch rising to the occasion with one of his most focused album efforts. He even recasts his classic "The Needle of Death." The follow-up, Santa Barbara Honeymoon, was a bit of a head-scratcher. Jansch added a pop sheen that confounded critics and fans alike, even dropping a bit of steel drums into the proceedings, though it might be worth the price of admission alone to hear the man take on Jackson C. Frank's epochal "The Blues Run the Game." For those who still might scratch their head at this effort, the bonus tracks are not to be missed, with live cuts that include Jansch tackling Davy Graham's classic "Angie." The third and final album for Charisma, A Rare Conundrum, fell on deaf ears at the time of its release, but is well worth another spin. Recorded as punk was ascendant, it features Jansch stripping off all of that pop veneer for something approaching audio autobiography, full of nostalgic turns and reflective folk instrumentals that harken back to his boyhood, moving beyond the present moment for something that still feels timeless, even thirty years on. [AB]

		$14.99 CD   KOOL AND THE GANG Live at P.J.'s (Polygram) "N.T." "The Penguin" This gal is old enough and of the correct color that I often use the expression -- half jokingly, half sincere -- "...that's Kool and the Gang." It's a handy cultural artifact from a '70s urban, colored childhood when streetwise grown folks smoked Kools, that summertime staple Kool-Aid was real red, and we still had bands heroic enough that not only could you roller-disco to 'em but they made you feel (pan-African) pride. So it's mighty hard to ken that Jersey City, NJ's stalwart Kool and the Gang played a 40th anniversary gig here in El Gran Manzana mere weeks ago. Makes that era seem far, far away -- but ain't it grace that you can acquire the classic Live at P.J.'s to bring it roaring back? Y'all probably don't want to hear / wouldn't give credence to the notion that once the big bands of the '70s faded away -- with Maze and the Gap Band perhaps being the last early-'80s holdouts to stir the same power pot -- the spirit of the 'hood withered on the vine, but my wholly unscientific observation is that the '80s, '90s, and now '00s when folks darker than blue generally have no bands, is when (from many facets) we have been at our worst. Think Obama needs a backing band and expert, funky, Afropean theme music right about now. So for these ears to process the Isaac "Black Moses" Hayes tribute "Medley: Ike's Groove / You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" or the Spanish-tinged glory "Dujii" is rather bittersweet. However, if you're like 98% of people and music carries no sociological weight, Robert "Kool" Bell and 'nem's live disc is still the move. It's what ought to be a standard addition to your vaults, from a time when -- beyond contractual padding -- live albums were also quasi heroic and signifiers of song-and-blood-knit community in renaissance America. [CH]

		$17.99 CDx2 $15.99 MP3   KATH BLOOM / VARIOUS Loving Takes This Course: A Tribute to the Songs of Kath Bloom (Chapter Music) Preview Songs on Other Music's Download Store Despite having crafted some of the most heart rending music I've pretty much ever heard, cult female singer-songwriter Kath Bloom remains relatively unknown, but this star-studded indie tribute may go some ways towards rectifying that situation. I know tribute albums are about a dime a dozen, and most negligibly interesting, but Australia's Chapter Music has really done right by Kath here, with the first half featuring some really high caliber artists performing sympathetic interpretations of her songs, with the second half being a fine compilation of her greatest recorded moments, and a superb introduction to her work. It's a similar format to that great Daniel Johnston comp from a couple years back, and just as successful. For those not familiar Kath Bloom, she is a Connecticut-based singer with a frail, haunting, and vibrato laden voice who made a handful of stunningly beautiful avant-folk records with Loren Mazzacane Conners in the late 70s and early 80s. In the past few years she's returned to performing, and has released a couple of remarkable solo albums that seem to pick right up where she left off. Highlights and contributors here include great performances by Bill Callahan, Devendra Banhart, the Dodos, Mark Kozelek, Mick Turner, Josephine Foster, Mia Doi Todd, Meg Baird, the Concretes, and others. [MK]

		$7.99 CD $7.99 45 $1.99 MP3   ANTONY AND THE JOHNSONS Aeon / Crazy in Love (Secretly Canadian) Preview Songs on Other Music's Download Store This short and sweet summer single from Antony & the Johnsons reintroduces us to the heart-stopping "Aeon," a gem from this year's excellent The Crying Light. On "Aeon," Antony Hegarty and a mournful electric guitar trade sadnesses atop sparse orchestral flourishes, while the flipside features the Johnsons' cover of Beyonce's "Crazy in Love," with Hegarty perfectly channeling the unhinged tension that the song's lyrics evoke.

		$11.99 CD $13.99 LP w/MP3   JAPANDROIDS Post-Nothing (Polyvinyl) "Young Hearts Spark Fire" "Wet Hair" This Vancouver-based guitar/drums duo bring a pretty solid version of that thing guitar/drums duos do these days. They make loose, fuzzy rock and roll that is simple, powerful, lonely and liberating, but their secret weapon is solid songwriting and a heavy bag of hooks.

		$14.99 CD $14.99 LP $9.99 MP3   NURSES Apples Acre (Dead Oceans) Preview Songs on Other Music's Download Store As melancholic as the Pacific Northwest tends to be (just ask Tiny Vipers or David Bazan), the region has also been the birthplace of some of the most euphoric, nostalgic music to date. Case in point is Portland's Nurses, whose first release for Dead Oceans is a kaleidoscopic rocket pop of color and sound. Traditional rock instruments fall back to whistle onslaughts, bright clangings from other worlds, and joyous electronic squiggles.

		$11.99 CD   ROBERT HENKE Indigo Transform (Imabalance Computer Music) "Indigo Transform" Mr. Monolake was asked if his track "Indigo" could be used in an art instillation, but rather than simply looping the track ad infinitum, Henke deconstructed and isolated several elements of the original, and fed three slightly different versions into three different sets of speakers throughout the gallery. This recording is mix of the three, and the result is a haunting, atmospheric full-length.

		$12.99 LP $12.99 CD $7.99 MP3   DESIRE II (Italians Do It Better) "Miroir Miroir" "Oxygene" Italians Do It Better appear to have access to a veritable disco goldmine with producer Johnny Jewel on board. Desire is the Chromatics/Glass Candy man's latest project, and this time he comes accompanied by Nattie (also of Chromatics) and Canadian vocalist Megan to produce some of the finest slo-mo disco of his already estimable career. With Chromatics he exorcised his love of Goblin and Claudio Simonetti's Italo excursions, with Glass Candy it's all a little more Blondie-centric, and with Desire, Jewel has allowed himself to go 'cosmic.' Forging long, sprawling tracks with silky smooth hooks and gloriously deadpan vocals from Megan (occasionally sounding more Debbie Harry than Debbie Harry herself these days, this one has some Blondie too) he's hit on a winning formula, and while it's not so far removed from his previous projects, II manages to be his most refined full-length to date. The album reaches its boiling point quickly when it gets to potential single "Mirroir Mirroir," a track that excels thanks to the charming American inability to pronounce the word 'mirror.' With slippery vinyl-sampled disco percussion and a sing-a-long chorus, the track somehow manages to hit that middle ground between dancefloor-friendly and home listening. I'm expecting hip re-edits to emerge on Hypemachine sometime soon, but I would be very surprised if any of them achieved the same effortless vibe as the original. The band hit another winner with "Don't Call," a track that brings back buzzing memories of mid-'80s chart hits but without the needless pomp and gloss. The inherently cheesy vocal melody from Megan is somehow elevated from sugary syrup into hip credibility. In the wrong hands it would simply buoy up the current trend for pointless retro nostalgia, but with Jewel at the reigns we instead have a track you'll want to leave on repeat for a worrying length of time. Packed with darker moments to offset the pop excesses (check the basement vibe of "Under Your Spell"), there's enough here to easily push II into the "best of 2009" lists come December. Fans of Nite Jewel, Chromatics et al. (I know you're out there), you'll kick yourself if you miss this album. I'm off to play it some more. [JT]

		$12.99 CD $13.99 LP   COLD CAVE Love Comes Close (Heartworm) "Life Magazine" "Love Comes Close" That's right, Cold Cave's debut full-length Love Comes Close is officially out of print. We've still got a handful of both the LP and CD in stock, but once they're gone, they're gone. Undoubtedly a pop band at its core, Wes Eisold and his revolving cast of characters (Dominic Fernow of Prurient/Hospital, author Max G. Morton, Xiu Xiu's Caralee McElroy, etc.) have a definite knack for crafting the perfect three-minute pop song and then piling on layers of fuzz, static, grime and rust. There's an underlying industrial/early Factory Records/minimal shoegaze wave vibe, and combined with equal parts nihilism and undying romance, Love Comes Close is a true success. Check out the sound samples if you don't believe me, but don't wait too long... [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 [BCa] Brian Cassidy [PG] Pamela Garavano-Coolbaugh [GH] Gerald Hammill [DH] Duane Harriott [CH] Crazy Horse [IQ] Mikey IQ Jones [MK] Michael Klausman [AK] Andreas Knutsen [JM] Josh Madell [DM] Doug Mosurock [SM] Scott Mou [NS] Nathan Salsburg [KS] Karen Soskin [JT] John Twells THANKS FOR READING - all of us at Other Music

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