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Special Announcement Coming off the holiday weekend, we'll just be sending out our download picks this week, but we'll be back to our regular update schedule next week. So you can look for the next CD/LP update in your e-mail box on Thursday, July 16th, and it will no doubt be packed, with two week's worth of staff recommendations! Have a great rest of the week and hope to see you in the shop. This Week's Featured Downloads
Liz Harris' one-woman Grouper project has been gathering a lot of steam of late, with the haunting Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill sneaking into some pretty diverse top 10 lists last year, and continuing to build momentum. Not unlike her songs, I guess, which surreptitiously churn their way into your consciousness, blending the hallucinatory slow-building swirl of psychedelic experimentalists like Popul Vuh and Flying Saucer Attack with a more generous pop sensibility. This album could be seen as a throwaway, recorded in 2006 it was originally released as an ultra-limited vinyl LP that disappeared long before you ever knew you wanted it. But want it, you did, or should have at least. Cover the Windows and the Walls is a gem, containing some of Harris' best moments. It's a bit less refined than Dragging..., but no less satisfying, with a wash of sound that encompasses some of Harris' finest flowers, and a pop sensibility that is positively shoegaze. -Josh Madell
This is technically a re-release of a cassette issued on a short Grouper tour with likeminded one-woman drone cathedral Inca Ore. The material, though previously available to maybe 50 people who gripped a tape at the merch table, is brand new to even those lucky few, as the CD mastering strips away easily three generations of tape hiss and unintentional fuzz. Grouper comes with four pieces of moody and drifting murky tones, with a couple piano-based experiments. The standout "Poison Tree" is a small-scale epic of understatement, easily the "hit" of the record. Inca Ore's pastoral and/or quirky vocal drones swim similar reverby waters, but stand apart a bit in feel, cultivating some obscured hippie vibes and lingering less in the 4AD ether. A percussive element comes out of the vocal tones, a sound which snaps us awake and reminds us of itself after floating down a river of sleep for the first half of the record. While this disc doesn't quite reach the majestic heights of either artist's last proper release, it's a great companion piece, and a must for anyone who, like me, flipped completely for the last Grouper record. -Fred Thomas
Although it's still early on, I'm going to go out on a limb and give these guys "most improved" for the season. After a promising but uneven 12" on Woodsist just a few short weeks ago, Ganglians have rallied back hard with a full-length that succeeds in great part by taking a surfeit of ideas and honing in on the best one. What Ganglians emerge with is a spectral bubblegum pop album that feels timeless while remaining very much in the present musical zeitgeist. There's a unique affability at work here, an ambition leavened with naiveté, that brings to mind everything from early-'70s Beach Boys to latter-day Clean, particularly the lazy surf 'n' sun bliss of David Kilgour's solo records. Unlike much of the Woodsist output, the production here is surprisingly free of obfuscation, allowing the layered vocal harmonies and chiming guitar melodies to shine through. To point: Monster Head Room has quickly become my sunny day summer strutter. This one may not blow doors on your definition of pop music, but it WILL remind you why you fell in love with it in the first place. -Jonathan Treneff
A Motown session musician and small time producer, Dave Hamilton seemed to be one of those guys who operated on the fringes of Detroit's soul scene. The busy studio he ran for 30 years fed off of the infinite number of aspiring singers and musicians eager to cut sides in the shadows of Motown. Kent has devoted at least four volumes to Hamilton's productions and session work, culled from hundreds of acetates found in his studio. Most of these tunes were released on teeny labels, barely any of them making an impact even on a local level, but the quality of these recordings are quite astounding. Detroit Dancers, concentrates on Hamilton's northern soul productions and sessions. Early Motown was definitely an influence on many of the cuts here, several almost sounding like interpolations of well-known ditties from the Motown vault. But like Detroit Funk, all of these songs have a raw drive to them and the musicianship is topnotch. The stars of this collection have to be O C Tolbert, Tobi Lark and Little Ann. All three were unsung Detroit singer who acquired a reverential audience in the UK amongst the northern soul steppers. The gospel-shuffle of Tolbert's "I'm Shooting High (Reach for the Sky)," Lark's "Talking 'Bout Love" and Little Ann's "What Should I Do" are some of the best of the genre, and all three tunes are included here. But honestly, there ain't a song on here that won't get you clappin' and stompin'. Fans of the Eccentric Soul series, Keb Darge, or any of the aforementioned should check these out with a quickness.
The second installment in the Detroit Dancers series focuses again on the Motown-influenced movers in Dave Hamilton's catalog. Most of these songs are Hamilton-produced demos that never saw a formal release and these tunes seem to originate from the late '60s and early '70s. Once again, Hamilton's protégé Little Ann delivers the strongest material; "Who Are You Trying to Fool?" was a well known underground northern soul classic and it's one of the producer's finer productions. His strong vibe playing and Little Ann's sassy vocal turn, accented by the background handclaps and the dirty guitar leads in the intro, should get anyone with a pulse tapping their foot. Little Ann also turns in a gritty performance on the Ike & Tina-esque "One Way Street," and there's also some strong orch-soul courtesy of the Mar-Key's "My Sweet Baby" that features a great honey-drenched falsetto, and Tobi Lark's lovely song, "Challenge My Love."
Most of the tracks on the third volume of Detroit Dancers sound like rough demos from around 1967-73, with one great gospel-disco cut from the early '80s. The best material here is represented from his protégés; Little Ann makes another strong appearance with the mid-tempo ballad, "The Smile on Your Face." It's an impressive demo, boasting a great arrangement accented by Hamilton's trademark vibes. Tobi Lark's up-tempo "True True Love" is an infectious dancefloor number for the northern steppers, highlighted by Lark's huge pipes and gutsy vocals. There's also the beautiful Delphonics/Love Unlimited-styled bedroom soul courtesy of Elayne Starr's elegant "In the Morning, Will I Rise," and loads more to check out. -Duane Harriott
Nice To Meet Miss Christine was basically a vanity LP as far as I can tell, albeit one that featured a lot of noteworthy musicians and a well-known producer, and came out on a small but legit label that was distributed by CBS. I'm not entirely sure if Chris Harwood's vocal and songwriting talents were all that spectacular on their own, but her boyfriend had a lot of music scene connections (and money, one would assume) and somehow managed to get her into a studio with Miki Dallon behind the board and a band that included Peter Banks (Yes), Dave Lambert (The Strawbs), Tommy Eyre (Joe Cocker, John Martyn) and Ian McDonald (McDonald & Giles). So, even though the songs on here aren't necessarily killer, the backing tracks absolutely burn. There are some very cool sounds on this record, which more than justifies the reissue and the ridiculously high fetching price for original copies. -Rob Hatch-Miller
We recently featured Eight Lost Tracks in the Other Music Update, so we thought we'd re-run the features for two other essential Monoton albums which we recently acquired for our download store: Blau (1980) and the black-covered self-titled Monotonprodukt 07 (1982) from media, light and sound artist Konrad Becker. Apparently these re-masters achieve an audio quality that fully realizes the artist's intentions for the first time, so they've been renamed with the number of years that have passed since the original issue dates tacked on to the original titles: "26y++" and "20y++," respectively. Monoton's Blau is the more melodic album of the two; its scope of ominous and pleasantly eerie atmosphere is beautifully done, the full range of the analog sounds controlled with masterful restraint. The somber, minimally rhythmic, and somehow naturalistic soundscapes of "Ein Wort" and "Wirklichkeit" reminds me of a sparse Mouse on Mars soundtrack, but with that pure analog intensity that creates a physical presence. "Teil 2" has barely-there wolves howling, drowning in drone swells that coax tears. Blau is an album's worth of ahead-of-its-time music that surprises in its ability to cover so much ground with such limited means.
Considered to be Becker's masterpiece, the second album is the more subterranean, moodier one, and it's also the one that I personally prefer. Not to stress the Suicide connection, but at times the tracks really have a gentle Suicide feel softened with a Kraut expansiveness (slowly ever-shifting) that doesn't completely erase the angst underneath. "Water" has an undulating bass synth melody that is later connected to a higher pitched, repeating chirp and some distant, dubbed-out, spoken, slo-mo New Deutsche Welle chant vocals. "Fire" has a bass line that sounds like a throbbing cello and slowly becomes a dark soaring master jam, while "Vibration" could almost be La Dusseldorf on a big hit of Basic Channel. Monotonprodukt 07 really comes across as a Vinyl on Demand-type release, but with better quality and early innovations in a form that you always wanted to hear. And again, tracks are way ahead of their time; it's not just another raw, early and obscure synth album. Both of these records are essential listening for those who are well-versed in minimal sounds that actually get 'somewhere' and become 'something,' and are into being overwhelmed with things that only have the bare necessities. The perfect albums for Krautrock fans that love techno and modern minimal stuff. Highly recommended. -Scott Mou
The singing Dedrick's, a/k/a the Free Design, were a wholesome New York-based sunshine pop group from the late '60s and early '70s who put out seven extraordinary records, six of which were issued on Enoch Light's well-regarded Project 3 label. These twenty-somethings who sang and wrote earnest odes to flying kites, pre-teen siblings and blowing bubbles were quite the anomaly and probably didn't stand a chance on Billboard -- especially at a time when Led Zeppelin was storming the charts and the Manson murders dominated the headlines. But in hindsight, the Free Design's music displayed highly sophisticated vocal arrangements that were written and arranged by group leader Chris Dedrick, as well as impeccable production provided by Enoch Light. Over the years these records have become highly collectible all the while influencing the music of luminaries such as Stereolab, Stephin Merritt, Dangermouse, Koushik and Madlib. At the time of the release of their debut album, 1967's Kites Are Fun, the Free Design was a trio consisting of Chris, Bruce and their little sister Sandy who was only 16. The title-track is probably their best-known tune, a mind bogglingly light and sincere ode to flying kites. But juxtaposed against the sophomoric nature of the lyrics are sophisticated, three-part vocal harmonies that utilize jazz and classical scales to great effect. "Never Tell the World" is another great example of the complex vocal arrangements that the 20- year-old Chris wrote for this group. It's two-and-a-half minutes of insanely intricate classical counterpoint arranging, incorporated into a soft vocal pop format, and what results is definitely psychedelic. Other highlights include "Don't Turn Away" and a beautiful cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)." This is essential stuff for all fans of Curt Boettcher, Beach Boys and any of the aforementioned.
The Free Design's sophomore effort, You Could Be Born Again, was released in 1968 and finds the group expanding its sonic palette a bit and adding a fourth Dedrick sibling, teenage sister Ellen, to their lineup. Once again, Chris is responsible for the vocal arrangements, and he also contributes six original compositions to the album. The mood here is notably a bit more psychedelic and introspective than in their debut; "Ivy on a Windy Day" features ghostly vocal harmonies and psych production flourishes that contradict the light lyrics. You can also hear touches of Jimmy Webb-influenced orchestrations in the title track and "A Leaf Has Veins," while "Daniel Dolphin" is a fantastic piece of bright baroque pop reminiscent of the Left Banke. Excellent and inventive covers of "Eleanor Rigby" and Duke Ellington's "I Like the Sunrise" showcases the Dedrick family's celestial vocal harmonies to great effect, but the finest moment of the album has to be the closer, "An Elegy." A solo vocal tune sung by Sandy, this Chris-penned song is a moving, somber piece dedicated to their eldest brother, Dwight, who died while serving in Vietnam that year. It's probably the closest the group came to producing a "rock" track and it ends the album on a bittersweet note hinting at things to come.
Released in 1972, One by One was Free Design's fifth album and their last one for Enoch Light's Project 3 label. The mood of this album was a bit more somber and cynical than previous efforts, but the vocal arrangements are as rich as ever and there's more of a jazz-funk influence on tracks like their cover of "Light My Fire." Although this record's not as bright as their previous efforts, all of the things that people love about this band (vocal arrangements, songwriting and crack musicianship) are here in spades. -Duane Harriott
Truth & Soul rose from the ashes of the dirty revivalist funk label Desco that operated out of New York in the early '90s, and for the last five years or so the label has garnered a sizable international cult following and a boatload of critical acclaim. This compilation has been a fave for many of our Other Music customers, so it's great to see this available on our download store. True to the label's digger roots, every track on this comp was initially released as limited edition seven-inch vinyl. Along with Daptone, the Truth and Soul folks are keepers of the gritty funk flame, but the T&S releases tend to be a bit moodier in tone. There's also a strong hip-hop aesthetic that's present and often acknowledged in their records. The cinematic, eerie instrumental funk of Staten Island's El Michels Affair are brilliant re-imaginings of classic RZA-produced Wu-Tang Clan tunes, while the moody head-nodder "So Glad" is credited to the Evil D's, a reference to the brilliant, true-school hip-hop producer and DJ from Brooklyn. Other highlights include "Honey Love," a terrific ballad by the legendary Lee Fields that nicely recalls classic Willie Mitchell-produced Syl Johnson. Also not to be missed, NYC Latin collective Bronx River Parkway's lovely cover of Gilberto Gil's "Deixa Pra La" and the buttery, lo-fi instrumental "Easy, Easy, Easy" from Dallas based local legend Timothy Mcnealy -- an aural example of why labels like this exist in the first place. -Duane Harriott |
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