June 11, 2009

		$12.99 CD w/Ticket $16.99 LP w/Ticket   MAJOR LAZER PRE-ORDER COMES WITH OTHER MUSIC IN-STORE PERFORMANCE TICKET Major Lazer is the super-producer duo of Diplo and Switch, whose collective production resume' includes the likes of M.I.A., Santigold and Bonde do Role, to name but a few. As you might have guessed, Guns Don't Kill People...Lazer's Do is a reggae and dancehall explosion, featuring guest vocalists like the aforementioned Santigold and Amanda Blank, as well as reggae and dancehall mainstays like Nina Sky, T.O.K. & Miss Thing, Busy Signal, Prince Zimboo, and many more. Your party soundtrack for Summer '09!! On Monday, June 15 at 8PM, we'll be celebrating the release of Guns Don't Kill People...Lazer's Do (which comes out the following day) with an in-store performance from Diplo and Switch together as Major Lazer! To get your laminate which will guarantee you a spot in the shop for the release party, just pre-order the album at Other Music or off our mail order Web site. Each CD or LP purchase is good for 1 ticket -- limit 2 purchases per person, while supplies last.

		FEATURED NEW RELEASES Dirty Projectors Lula Cortes Deerhunter Hypnotic Brass Ensemble Liechtenstein Black Meteoric Star Milky Disco 2 (Various) White Hills Sonic Youth The Present Dub Echoes (Soul Jazz Comp.) Tectonic Plates 2 (Various) Panama! 2 (Various) Screaming Females Biosphere Ben Reynolds Pisces Satyajit Ray Cheap Time 7" Blank Dogs 7" Robert Hampson   ALSO AVAILABLE Mos Def Trentemoller Headdress Telescopes Acid Dreams Epitaph (Various) Current 93 Captain Beefheart Cosmos (Robert Pollard/Richard Davies) The Horse's Ha Chicks on Speed BACK IN PRINT Miami Sound (Soul Jazz Comp.) BACK IN STOCK Colette Magny Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/othermusic

		JUNE Sun 07 Mon 08 Tues 09 Wed 10 Thurs 11 Fri 12 Sat 13   WIN TICKETS TO THE WAR ON DRUGS/ENDLESS BOOGIE/VIRGIN FOREST/DOUG PAISLEY The first ever Northside Festival kicks off tonight, with venues throughout the Williamsburg/Greenpoint area of Brooklyn hosting four days of music and art. If you haven't already, you'll want to check out the schedule which lists a slew of great musicians performing, as well as special art shows and parties. We've got a couple of tickets to Northside Festival-related concerts up for grabs, starting with this solid Saturday evening showcase at Union Pool, curated by our friends at Chouette and No Quarter, featuring the War on Drugs, Endless Boogie, Virgin Forest and Doug Paisley. To enter, email tickets@othermusic.com, and we'll notify the winner on Friday, June 12th. SATURDAY, JUNE 13 (9PM-MIDNIGHT) UNION POOL: 484 Union Avenue Williamsburg, Brooklyn $10 or get an All Access Badge

		JUNE Sun 14 Mon 15 Tues 16 Wed 17 Thurs 18 Fri 19 Sat 20   SEARCH AND RESTORE BRINGS JAZZ TO THE NORTHSIDE FESTIVAL - WIN TICKETS While there's no shortage of great rock talent from New York and beyond performing at the Northside Festival, the fine folks at Search and Restore are making sure that the city's jazz scene is represented by hosting a showcase on Sunday afternoon, June 14th at Public Assembly. Featuring Steve Coleman and Five Elements, Kneebody, Andrew D'Angelo's Gay Disco Trio (with Trevor Dunn and Jim Black), and Ken Thomson's Slow/Fast, this is an exciting line-up and the perfect opportunity for lots of new people to sample the great things that Search and Destroy have been doing for the local jazz/improv community. Enter to win a pair of tickets by emailing giveaway@othermusic.com. We'll notify the two winners on Friday, June 12th. SUNDAY, JUNE 14th (DOORS AT 2PM) PUBLIC ASSEMBLY: North 6th Street (between Wythe and Kent) Williamsburg, Brooklyn $16 / $13 for College students with ID

		JUNE Sun 14 Mon 15 Tues 16 Wed 17 Thurs 18 Fri 19 Sat 20   WIN TICKETS TO METRIC AT TERMINAL 5 Metric features frequent Stars and Broken Social Scene collaborator Emily Haines and Broken Social Scene's James Shaw, and these synth-driven, new wave-influenced indie rockers will be hitting New York City's Terminal 5, performing in support of their new album, Fantasies, with special guests Sebastien Grainger and Smile Smile. You can enter to win a pair of tickets by sending an email to contest@othermusic.com. We'll notify the two winners on Friday, June 12th. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17 TERMINAL 5: 610 West 56 Street NYC Tickets available on-line

		$12.99 CD $18.99 LP $9.99 MP3   DIRTY PROJECTORS Bitte Orca (Domino) "Stillness Is the Move" "Remade Horizon" As the stars align (Bjork, David Byrne, TV on the Radio, et. al.) and the hype machine coughs and sputters to life behind this unusual Brooklyn group, Dave Longstreth returns with his fifth full-length release under the Dirty Projectors moniker, his first for Domino, and easily his most accessible and cohesive album thus far. Bitte Orca is the kind of refreshingly obtuse, yet strangely soothing record that seems destined to open this band up to legions of new fans, and I can honestly say that there is no artist more deserving or able to live up to said hype in recent memory (e.g. live they are without peer). Longstreth has reeled in his sometimes-jarring vocal delivery a bit and gracefully passes the mic to the ladies of the band (Amber Coffman and Angel Deradoorian) to great effect. The experimental forms and deliveries, wickedly close vocal harmonies, airtight rhythm section, and Malian guitar spasms are all carried over from previous DP records, but what is new here is the sound of the band jelling as a singular organic entity. Despite the reality that none of the music was recorded live in the same room, there is no denying that keeping the same core members of the band (guitarist/vocalist Coffman, bassist/vocalist Deradoorian, and drummer Brian McOmber) has paid off in aiding Longstreth in realizing his twisted and beautiful musical vision. There is no filler on Bitte Orca, which I will posit has one of the strongest side ones in rock music perhaps since Led Zeppelin III. Seriously. The similarities between the two records are striking too: male vocalist who is unafraid to sing in falsetto (all songs on which he sings), thunderous and perfectly economic drumming ("Useful Chamber"), unabashed world music fandom as worn on the band's collective sleeve ("No Intention"), killer and willful guitar solos ("Temecula Sunrise"), jaw-dropping arrangements ("Remade Horizon"), and super-catchy riffs and alternate guitar tunings ("The Bride"). One major substitution seems to be DP's '80s and early'90s R&B worship, a la Prince for Zeppelin's Chicago blues fascination. The R&B love is in full effect on the album closer "Fluorescent Half Dome," with its retro synth patches, chamber string interjections, lilting swing, and echoed snaps. Despite the questionable back cover artwork, I'd be shocked if there will be a more satisfying new album this year. [KC] All tickets for our June 19th Dirty Projectors in-store have been allotted (and you should have received your confirmation email by now.) Sorry if you didn't get yours, but you should still pick up the record, it rules!

		$15.99 CD   LULA CORTES Rosa de Sangue (Time Lag) "Rosa de Sangue 2" "Rosa de Sangue 7" A few years ago, Other Music and its customers became enchanted with the work of Northeastern Brazil's Lula Cortes and an incredible psych-folk double album he made with the musician Ze Ramalho in the early '70s, entitled Paebiru. Seemingly sprung from out of nowhere (and having no connection to the prime Tropicalia movement that characterized and informed much of our favorite late-'60s/'70s Brazilian pop/rock music), a little more digging revealed more treasures of this scene: albums by such folk as Marconi Notaro, Satwa, and Flaviola, all individualistic, rebellious, and uncanny privately-pressed transmissions from an artists' collective that somehow carried on amid the crushing military dictatorship of Brazil of that era. And just when we thought that those four albums were all that remained of that time, Time Lag unearths one last nugget, Cortes' final self-pressed album, Rosa de Sangue, and his first "solo" album (though many of the above artists lend a helping hand here). The disc really touches on everything (to quote the label's own estimations), "from crazed ethno folk-rock, to magical, gentle, jungle folk-psych zones, to hard hitting, coke-dusted fuzz-rock, to insane mutant disco dance floor groove, to tweaked Americana, to acid vocal raga trance, and way beyond." Couldn't put it better ourselves. [AB]

		$8.99 CD $4.99 MP3   DEERHUNTER Rainwater Cassette Exchange (Kranky) "Rainwater Cassette Exchange" "Game of Diamonds" I must admit I have forgotten whether Deerhunter are trendy at the moment. I'm pretty sure that when Microcastle was going through its controversial many-covered leak they were the height of cool, but now, well I just don't know. Good thing then that this economically sized EP is just about the best thing the band have ever committed to... err... tape. Yep, although the EP is available here in more "traditional" (read: boring) formats, Rainwater Cassette Exchange is also fittingly issued on tape to coincide with the band's tour -- so you'll have to go catch 'em live if you want your own cassette copy. So maybe they are cool again, what with the Dirty Projectors jumping on that bandwagon too -- but who on earth cares when the music is this blisteringly good? The near forced pop of Microcastle is all but gone, and Bradford Cox seems to be fixated on the great 7"s of his youth -- this is a five-track record of A sides with songs taking me back to the days of fanzines and vinyl-only compilations. I could imagine having found any one of these stompers on a Fierce Panda disc or being waxed over by one idle teenager or another (in print, no less). There is a mourning and a melancholy to Cox's voice, but this is gloriously offset by an unusually light hearted production effort. I don't want to say it's stripped down, but we're back to the bare essentials here; there's no gloss, just great instruments, great sounds and a lot of pedals. I don't want to get blasted for stating the obvious but to my mind it seems that Deerhunter are best when nobody's expecting anything of them -- just as with the EP's predecessor Flourescent Grey, they seem perfectly suited to short, shock releases. If they keep up the level of quality reached on Rainwater Cassette Exchange, however, they'll be on the way to a truly phenomenal full-length. Essential stuff. [JT]

		$17.99 CD $21.99 LP   HYPNOTIC BRASS ENSEMBLE Hypnotic Brass Ensemble (Honest Jon's) "Gibbous" "Hypnotic" Here's proof that the take-it-to-the-streets attitude is alive and well and sometimes pays off. Originally from Chicago, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble are the sons of the unabashedly underground jazz trumpeter Phil Cohran (whose solo albums are favorites among our staff and customers). The ensemble started at a young age, playing a mix of original compositions and covers of R&B, hip-hop, and jazz standards on the big city streets of America and the UK, injecting their tight, flavorful horn arrangements with a youthful funky energy. Thanks to an impromptu, traffic stopping performance in London, the fine folks at Honest Jon's have seen fit to release Hypnotic Brass Ensemble's first official full-length which features 11 originals, highlights including "Marcus Garvey," "War" and "Flipside," as well as two versions of Moondog's "Rabbit Hop" -- all have since become Times Square crowd pleasers. While the proper band is made up of four trumpets, two trombones, sousaphone and a euphonium, the line-up is expanded here with celebrity guests like Tony Allen, the Heliocentrics' Malcolm Catto and Sola Akingbola all taking turns behind the drums along with appearances from the one and only Flea on bass and world music aficionado Damon Albarn on the Moog. The album is a great introduction to a fresh young band whose fanbase has rapidly grown well beyond the starry-eyed tourist who might have stopped to snap a picture and throw a couple of bills into the trumpet case for a self-released CD to take home as a souvenir. If you're a fan of El Michels Affair, the Roots, and/or simply enthusiastic funky horn music, this is exactly what you're looking for. Highly recommended. [DG]

		On Sale $8.99 CD $10.99 10" $5.99 MP3   LIECHTENSTEIN Survival Strategies in a Modern World (Slumberland) "Postcard" "Roses in the Park" Swedish all-female pop trio Liechtenstein finds a new home on Slumberland, and a modern era in which their beautiful, unhurried tunes can perhaps find their way into the hearts of American youth. Borrowing from post-punk pioneers like the Raincoats and Dolly Mixture, Liechtenstein's take on things seems a bit more studied and cautious than, say, that of the Vivian Girls, but ultimately both bands are following a similar sonic trajectory -- buttery-sweet harmonies, mannered musicianship that doesn't forget the punk rock and girl groups it descended from, and a joyful ringing out of voices and gossamer beauty that connects the old days of Slumberland's indie/twee pop with the music of today. Nine songs, 23 minutes, absolutely pure. [DM]

		On Sale $12.99 CD $9.99 MP3   BLACK METEORIC STAR Black Meteoric Star (DFA Records) "World Eater" "Dream Catcher" We've been big fans of New York (now Berlin-based) artist Gavin Russom for a while now, both in the visual arts world and for years in musical partnership with Delia Gonzalez, culminating in their analog synth freak-out album The Days of Mars from a few years back, which harkened to lone-programmer luminaries like Klaus Schultze, Jean-Michael Jarre, and the like. But deep down, we also knew of Gavin's great love for primitive acid and early house and kept wishing that such influences would seep into the mesmeric sine wave folds of his own music. Enter Black Meteoric Star: a serrated, dark, ever-cresting, truly spaced-out melding of his handmade analog components and Phuture's "Acid Tracks" across six epic cuts. This disc collects three separate twelves recently pressed up and sold out by DFA and quite honestly, the trip is far more intense listening to each side back to back. Heavy acid squelches are here again! [AB]

		$14.99 CD $9.99 MP3   VARIOUS ARTISTS Milky Disco 2: Let's Go Freak Out (Lo Recordings) "Leave Your Earth Behind" Soft Rocks "Otherness" Chilled by Nature Lo Recordings dispatches a follow-up to their much loved Milky Disco collection from a few years back with a 2CD helping of contemporary dubbed-out dancefloor experimentalists. Featuring tracks by Glass Candy, Soft Circle, Nite Jewel, Kerrier District, and Black Devil Disco Club (among many others), this set delivers a series of druggy beatscapes with one foot in the Krautrock pool (think Zuckerzeit-era Cluster and Computer World-era Kraftwerk) and the other steeped deeply in the lush dub tropics of the Compass Point sound (Grace Jones, Tom Tom Club, etc). Disc One starts things off in slower tempos, with nearly all of the artists trapped in a swirling psychedelic K-hole, seemingly shaking off the previous night's debauchery for another night fresh on the floor. This disc is much heavier in dub atmospherics, hazier vocals, and an overall upward-building momentum. Disc Two turns the tempos and the sequencers up a notch, bringing the grooves to a more brisk strut -- though Nite Jewel's killer "What Did He Say," a strong summation of the first disc's hazy downtempo vibes, sneaks into the middle of CD-2 for a bit of subversive disruption. All in all, this set's got quite a lot going for it; even I was surprised at how much I dug the lesser-known names in the liners, and overall, the more dubbed-out atmospheres help make this a nice modern cousin to the recent Night Dubbin' mix and compilation that's been going down like gangbusters here at OM. If you dug recent efforts by any of the artists mentioned earlier, or that recent Lindstrom & Prins Thomas album, you'll find much to love here. [IQ]

		$16.99 CD $13.99 LP w/MP3 $9.99 MP3   WHITE HILLS Heads on Fire (Thrill Jockey) Preview Songs on Other Music's Download Store White Hills have been releasing some remarkable music for over five years now, but unless you've been entrenched in the world of Internet micro-distribution, getting your hands on one of their recordings was pretty unlikely. The New York group's Heads on Fire was originally released in 2007 as a small CD pressing on the UK's Rocket Records, but thankfully Thrill Jockey are seeing fit to offer the world a chance to experience their searing, expansive sound in all its heavy psychedelic glory. White Hills manage to roll the menacing grooves of Hawkwind, the stoner sludge of Sleep, and the sawing guitar power of Earthless into one totally satisfying stoner rock masterpiece, and here's your chance to smoke up! Kicking off with the fuzzed-out, wah-wah powered "Radiate," serious Krautrock drudgery drives the shorter cuts while spaced-out bliss heads towards the euphoric in the middle with "Don't Be Afraid," an epic, 26-plus-minute trip into the forbidden darkness of the psychedelic underworld. White Hills finally drives the album home with "Eternity," their most intense song yet that leaves you catching your breath as you reach for the repeat button. [BCa]

		$12.99 CD $31.99 LPx2 w/MP3   SONIC YOUTH The Eternal (Matador) "What We Know" "No Way" For their 15th album (and their first studio full-length in 20 years for an independent label), NYC's most celebrated rock band dims the lights a bit, and melds the punkish snarl of the last couple of efforts (Sonic Nurse, Rather Ripped) with the placid, ominous overtones of A Thousand Leaves to create a work of plangent tension. While not as far of a cry from the artsy drift of more divisive works like NYC Ghosts & Flowers as you would think, The Eternal finds the five-piece (now with Pavement's Mark Ibold firmly integrated on bass, as Kim moves to third guitar) learning, worrying, and even exalting these times, melancholic and ferocious in natural and believable ways. No matter how far these tracks drift away, there's always a path back to the group's chiming, buzzing melodies -- tracks like "What We Know" and "Poison Arrow" reveal themselves as earworms with repeated plays, while longer efforts like "Anti-Orgasm" and closer "Massage the History" run deep with the kinds of abstract charms you've come to expect. More than any of Sonic Youth's most recent albums, The Eternal uses subtlety to bring its darkened points across in a way that works. [DM]

		$14.99 CD   THE PRESENT The Way We Are (Loaf) "Saltwater Trails" "Press Play" Although he may be better known for his work behind the boards (having had a hand in records from folks like the Animal Collective and White Magic), New Yorker Rusty Santos has also maintained a parallel career as a performer. With a few solo records already under his belt, last year Santos convened the Present with collaborators Jesse Lee and Mina, and released an abstract album that traced stream of consciousness piano, guitar, and drum fragments across some beautifully ambient pop textures. Now, just months after releasing their first record, the Present return with a sophomore effort that shows the band developing at an amazingly rapid clip. Despite its freeform approach, World I See retained some trace elements of conventional band structures, but the follow-up Way We Are is more immediately experimental, highlighting more than ever the importance of Santos and co.'s post-production expertise in the sculpting of these six pieces. Tracks like "Saltwater Trails" and "Space Meadow" deal less in overt melodies and rhythms, and more in the reshaping of familiar tones into what sound like field recordings of synthetic terrains, with robotic birdsong chiming in against vague ocean sounds that at some point were sourced from acoustic instruments. Better still is the closing title track, a thirty-minute collage of ebbing and flowing dronescapes that are slowly punctuated with drums and distant piano, creating a richly crafted piece that not only accentuates the band's strengths, but serves as perhaps the Present's greatest (extended) moment in their brief history. Coming on like some strange hybrid of GAS' laconic drones and Brian Eno's inventive soundworlds (with a little bit of grimy New York noise thrown in for good measure), Way We Are is an excellent listen from end to end. [MC]

		$23.99 CD   VARIOUS ARTISTS Dub Echoes (Soul Jazz) "Creation Rebel" Rebel MC / Congo Natty (feat. Spikey T) "Ruffer Version" King Tubby and the Aggrovators Bridging the past with the present, Soul Jazz offers up another musical time warp that the British label is so renowned for. Dub Echoes is a CD companion to the label's feature-length documentary of the same name, and like the film draws a line between early Jamaican dub purveyors and their contemporary counterparts. Book-ended by the Walworth Road Rockers' dub mix of Roots Manuva's "Witness" and "Rejoicing Skank" by Lee Perry's Upsetters, over the course of two discs we find a nice balance between historic landmarks and modern explorations of the dub genre. Touching upon roots, rockers, ragga jungle, and of course any sub-genre with the "D" word (dubstep, digidub, dubby downtempo), featured artists include: Dub Syndicate, Kode9 and Spaceape, U-Roy, Rhythm & Sound, Francois Kevorkian, the Congos, Rebel MC, King Tubby, and many more. Surprisingly, there aren't any liner notes, which would have certainly provided some insight into the music timeline that's sketched out here, but I guess that's all the more reason to keep us hungry for the documentary that's currently traveling the film festival circuit. The music does speak for itself, however, and there's certainly no lacking of sun-drenched and reverberating vibes to soak in. [DG]

		$21.99 CDx2   VARIOUS ARTISTS Tectonic Plates 2 (Tectonic) "Kontrol" 2562 "Answer Me" Mala & Sgt Pokes When the first volume of the ongoing Tectonic Plates series dropped, it defined a certain flavor of the burgeoning dubstep genre. What had begun as a simple enough slow beat and low bass had quickly splintered into subgenres, and Tectonic were there to represent a darker, more serious side. This was the credible edge of the genre, and now with artists like Caspa and Rusko taking dubstep into the stadium, Tectonic are back to claim their slice of the pie. This time around they're focusing their efforts on the 4/4 end of the spectrum, a fracture of the dubstep genre Tectonic helped to popularize. With their very own 2562 in tow, they have contributions from Martyn, Flying Lotus, Benga and Skream to keep things flowing and show off their enviable address book. While it's not all strictly top-drawer material (Martyn fans might be better served by Great Lengths), when the compilation hits, it really hits -- most notably with Joker's "Untitled_Rsn," which flatters his nu-crunk style perfectly. It's not strictly dubstep, but that almost makes it better as he straddles wonky, techno and hip-hop without making his apologies to anyone or anything. It's artists like Joker that sound to me like they are likely to outlast their peers; his music, while being heavily influenced, feels totally alien. Elsewhere, Flying Lotus shows he's not a one trick pony with "Glendale Galleria" which melts his signature post-Dilla stutter into a fudgey mixture of low bass and near-jackin' beats. Tectonic Plates Vol.2 might not have the foggy grandeur of its predecessor but the label has maintained a relevance as the genre has changed, and what better to represent that than a collection of some of its best tunes? [JT]

		$15.99 CD   VARIOUS ARTISTS Panama! 2 (Soundway) "Ese Muerto No Lo Cargo Yo" The Exciters "Juck Juck Pt. 1" Sir Jablonsky A veritable archipelago of 20th century popular music, Panama is a textbook case of the good that cultural miscegenation can do for how we listen to the world. This, of course, has everything to do with location, location, location: the isthmus that connects North and South America, and the man-made waterway built there, experienced an influx of U.S. and European presence, along with traditional Latin, Cuban and tropical ways of life. The resulting music that came from the tiny country drips with the excitement of ideas being shared and new sounds being made. Culled from archival 45s, this is the second collection of Panamanian music assembled by Soundway, and it's every bit as thrilling as the first installment, from Papi Brandao's merger of Panamanian "tipica" with salsa, to the Soul Fanatics' percolating, syncopated read of Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine," to Sir Jablonsky's jarringly funky "Juck Juck, Pt. 1." Perfect for those looking to discover something new, be inspired, or simply something exciting to play at the next BBQ. [DM]

		$12.99 CD $13.99 LP   SCREAMING FEMALES Power Move (Don Giovanni) "Sour Grapes" "Adult Amy" There certainly aren't a lot of bands out there booking their own diy basement shows in the same week they are opening for Dinosaur Jr. or Throwing Muses at big-ticket rock clubs. Screaming Females seem to have struck the perfect balance -- they've racked up cred in both underground and mainstream circles -- and damn but they've earned it. Over the past three years, the trio has played over 300 shows, self-released two full-lengths, and lured us like zombies on day trips to bowling alleys in New Jersey just to bounce and slam to their infectious, upbeat, pioneering blend of pop-punk. Their third record, Power Move, showcases the band in top form, plowing through ten songs which, on paper, shouldn't work as well as they do. "Skull" kicks off with a riff you'd swear was authentic Southern rock, then parades into an epic, Woods-era Sleater-Kinney head-bang, only to deflate into a countrified Pink Floyd-style ballad. What follows is one of lead singer/guitarist Marissa Paternoster's famous guitar solos -- surely you've heard the buzz about her superhuman capacity for shredding -- on Power Move, these solos surface again to cleanly drop-kick you right back to the infectious hooks. The band still showcases their unabashed love of '90s indie/alternative -- "Sour Grapes" channels both Weezer and the Breeders -- but the ghosts of classic rock and blues dominate on this one, and there's even a playful jab at angular post-punk/disco ("Starving Dog"). Closing track "Buried in the Nude" sums it all up; blasting off in dark, discordant experimental rock territory, Paternoster bellows and bleats in her trademark vibrato, then the tune explodes into cheery pop-punk and Paternoster unleashes the best part of Screaming Females: one of the most bone-chilling screams in punk/hardcore. It's about time folks get behind these super-gifted, youth-posi New Brunswick kids! Don't miss 'em live in July, opening for Jack White's new band Dead Weather. [KS]

		$14.99 CD $9.99 MP3   BIOSPHERE Wireless: Live at the Arnolfini, Bristol (Touch) Preview Tracks on Other Music's Download Store Now, I've never been a fan of live albums and I know I'm not the only one. For most artists the 'live album' has been a way to either cash-in or a way for fans to claim superiority over each other -- I spent far too long in my youth trawling record fairs for the Holy Grail of Nirvana or Maiden shows (often on VHS) and I've been burnt too many times. So I can't really say I was ecstatic at the prospect of a live album from Biosphere, an artist who I seldom equate with live performance. Then I noticed the small print -- recorded by Chris Watson (possibly the world's finest recordist) and mastered by BJ Nilsen. The main issue with most live albums is the pathetic sound; either it's too clean or not clean enough, so these credentials intrigued me -- and for good reason. The album is sonically stunning, as if you're almost standing in the theater itself; the sound breathes through the speakers with an organic quality that's impossible to recreate using standard recording methods. Wireless is one of those rare cases where the music actually sounds better than the original studio recordings -- as Geir Jenssen steers us through his esteemed career (up to and including tracks from 2005's Dropsonde), the tracks almost take on a life of their own. Most fans will have probably heard them before, but not like this as the synthesizers and drum machines echo and throb through the performance space, as cleanly as ice water. It's a joy to hear from beginning to end, working as a distillation of Jenssen's catalog, picking and emphasizing the best points of his influential career. More than just a curiosity, this is Touch's suitably regal take on a 'best of' compilation, and what more could we expect from the label than them doing it in a way that nobody else could even attempt? Fantastic. [JT]

		$12.99 CD $9.99 MP3   BEN REYNOLDS How Da Earnt Its Night (Tompkins Square) "Death Sings" "Risen" This wonderful Tompkins Square release places Ben Reynolds' steel-string guitar in the good company of contemporaries like Jack Rose and Glenn Jones, while simultaneously paying homage to forbearers like Davy Graham and Bert Jansch. For some time now, Reynolds has been releasing droves of fantastic guitar music through some of the most trustworthy independent labels in the psych-folk/avant-improv underground (Time-Lag, Digitalis and Last Visible Dog), and his recent work with Trembling Bells received overwhelmingly positive acclaim. How Day Earnt Its Night is a mellower acoustic side of Reynolds playing, but a mesmerizing and dazzling side at that. Leaving manipulated, droning improvisations behind, the Glaswegian guitarist tackles traditional folk ballads from both sides of the Atlantic, and he performs them with delicacy and impressive ease. While some arrangements follow more standard renderings, Reynolds makes masterful play with the melodies and structures in songs like the title track and "Death Sings;" and his acoustic improvisations embellish on motifs found in music from both folk traditions, highlighting essential melodies and construing them through his interpretative visions. Fans of Fahey, Basho, Jansch, and American primitive guitar styling in general better get on your horse and check this one out! [BCa]

		$14.99 CD $9.99 MP3   PISCES A Lovely Sight (The Numero Group) "Sam" "Circle of Time" Straight outta Rockford, Illinois, Pisces were a loose affiliation of musicians who seamlessly traversed the various trends of '60s psychedelic rock, exploring diverse sounds without sounding like carpetbaggers. A Lovely Sight, the name of the masterpiece they never released, kicks off with the Jefferson Airplane-esque "Dear One," in which chanteuse Linda Bruner sings about nymphs and the like over a spaced-out dirge of orchestral crunch. Bruner, who appears on a number of the album's tracks, shows shades of Joplin, though her folk edge feels more Joni that Janis. The Pisces sound is comprised of dynamic churning percussion, electronic textures, and even found-sound samples, in addition to experiments ranging from inverted drums to Morrison-esque poetic recitations. Lyrically, their pop skews haunting and religious, from philosophical rumblings to acid trip revelations. On "Motley Mary Ann," Jim Krein and Paul DiVenti's smooth harmonies may even bring the Monkees to mind, but the lyrics reminding that "your mother's gonna die tonight" should let you know you're in prog territory. The band members ran a studio, and seemingly recorded for the fun of it in their downtime, never commercially releasing any of the recordings they made, yet these mature Beatles-era nuggets come as a welcome surprise. It's a Numero release, so you know the liners are comprehensive and the presentation is pristine. A jubilant album of fuzzed-out virtuoso musicianship, a song like "Elephant Eyes" goes down like a cold shot of absinthe. Make sure to check out this forgotten gem, and don't sleep on the folked-out bonus cut "A Flower for All Seasons." [MG]

		$18.99 CD   SATYAJIT RAY The Masterworks of Satyajit Ray (Navras) "Devi (The Godess)" "Mahanagar (The Big City)" Far away from the crass spectacle of Bollywood, Indian auteur Satyajit Ray has been busy crafting some of the most spectacular and moving cinematic works of the 20th century. His deeply personal storytelling and influential imagery has left film buffs like myself with their jaws on the floor for years, but it wasn't just his direction that left an indelible mark on our minds. Ray also composed the music that accompanied his movies, and while he didn't use much of it (preferring to show it on screen than have it used as merely "background accompaniment") what he did use was haunting and timeless. He not only took influence from the ragas that characterize Indian music, but also from Western classical music (he was a huge admirer of Mozart and Beethoven), folding them into his compositional style and creating pieces as memorable as the films themselves. Here we are presented with a selection of Ray's work, which spans his filmmaking career. We begin with a piece from possibly his best known film Pather Panchali, the first part of the Apu trilogy, and we are instantly transported into Ray's world -- rich Bengali landscapes, tropical monsoons and wrought human emotion. Musically we are treated to a plethora of Indian instrumentation; sitar, tabla, santoor, flute and sandoori, among others, are recorded with a charming lo-fidelity hum giving it a genuine character that is impossible to fake. All in all, this is an incredible if all-too-brief collection of work from one of India's true originals, fans of all things Honest Jon's should look no further for their fix. Essential. [JT]

		Cheap Time $5.99 45 Blank Dogs $5.99 45   CHEAP TIME Woodland Drive / Penny (In the Red) BLANK DOGS Waiting / Splitting (In the Red) It's good, good times when two of the best bands of '09 release new 45s in the same week! If you checked out the Cheap Time LP from last year and/or Jeffrey Novak's solo LP After the Ball, which disappeared way too quickly, but is coming out on CD later this year, this new 7" takes the best bits from both of those releases (Plastic Bertrand/Elton Motello-inspired glam punk and Big Beat-era Sparks rock-n-roll) and distills it into two killer 2-minute pop songs. I just played this eight times in a row and I'm not planning on stopping anytime soon. And hot on the heels of the new album on In the Red, Blank Dogs releases a single on the same label (the dude is quickly outdoing Billy Childish in the proficiency stakes) and it might just be his best stuff yet. There's a little bit more time and money put into the production here, and a sound that approaches the full-band attack that Blank Dogs offer live. Dark punk, not goth, with pop hooks and an ear for melody. If only all post-punky stuff sounded this way. [AK]

		$14.99 CD   ROBERT HAMPSON Vectors (Touch) "Ahead - Only the Stars" "Dans le Lointain" Robert Hampson will be better known to most of you out there as a key member of psychedelic overlords Loop and the man behind Main. That's some pedigree, but it might surprise you to know that Vectors is his first solo record under his own name. Sure, the Main project became solo work in all but name, and definitely leads into Vectors in terms of sound, but there's something very solid, assured and focused about this record which feels like a different project entirely. Made up of processed field recordings, it probably wouldn't surprise listeners to find out that two of the three pieces included here were commissioned by the legendary GRM studios. This should give some indication of the scope and quality of the pieces, but it's not all crunches, clicks and bumps in the night -- Hampson manages to reign in his academic extravagances enough to make Vectors an intense and very 'listenable' collection of sound. We might be dragged through digital hiss, low bass tones and the kind of ghoulish noise more readily associated with Peter Rehberg's KTL, but this is framed in a subtle ambient sheen. The noises crawl and hop through the soundfield like chattering insects and gongs rattle beneath, giving a solid base to these potentially irksome sounds. Vectors might not be as instantly pleasurable as Fennesz's Black Sea or a Biosphere record, but it's an album which grows on each listen and embeds itself in your psyche. Play loud, and trust me, you'll enjoy the journey! [JT]

		$15.99 CD   MOS DEF The Ecstatic (Downtown) "Auditorium" "Pretty Dancer" It's funny how perspective shifts over time; not long ago it seemed Mos Def was a great underground rapper with a burgeoning acting career. These days he's an actor who likes to rap, and in some ways the difference is indeed substantial; 2006's True Magic practically flipped a bird at his backpacker fans, with what sounded painfully like a contract-fulfilling kiss-off to Geffen. Now on Downtown, the new album is far more engaging, with great grooves from the Stone's Throw stable: Bollywood beats nabbed from Madlib's Indian explorations, as well as excellent tracks from Oh No and the late J Dilla, who seems to be working more than ever. We're not entirely sure how much time the great thespian spends on these productions himself, but his flow is fresh, his rhymes are smart, and The Ecstatic features some of Mos Def's most engaging tracks in years.

		$17.99 CD   TRENTEMOLLER Harbour Boat Trips 01: Copenhagen (HFN Music) "I Got You on Tape" Sommersault This Danish tech-house producer brings an inspired mix, which wanders far and wide, touching on many Other Music favorites, and rarely explores Trentmoller's own signature sound. This new series takes the great harbors of the world as its raison d'etre, and Trent's tour of Copenhagen's waterway is soundtracked by the likes of Grouper, Beach House, the Raveonettes, Suicide, A Place to Bury Strangers, Caribou, Two Lone Swordsmen, Khan, Rennie Foster and Soft Cell (and much more). A haunting mix that segues from early morning haze to the gentle throb of a workboat's wake against the docks.

		$13.99 CD $13.99 LP $9.99 MP3   HEADDRESS Lunes (No Quarter) "Lunes" This hazy guitar and organ duo craft dark psychedelic blues that draws on the minimalist drone of La Monte Young as much as it does Spacemen 3 and mescaline. An excellent follow-up to their Mexican Summer released LP from last year, Lunes delivers its haunting fuzz in intricate detail.

		$15.99 CD   TELESCOPES Singles Compilation 2 (Mind Expansion) "The Perfect Needle #4" "Psychic Viewfinder 2" Ten more great hard-to-find songs from this seminal UK shoegaze powerhouse, featuring previously vinyl-only 7" tracks originally on the Transmat and Hungry Audio labels, as well as from the rare 2005 live 10" and the handmade tour CDs. Probably for the fans only, but these are top-notch songs and if you love the group like we do, you need them.

		$17.99 CD   VARIOUS ARTISTS Acid Dreams Epitaph (Past and Present) "My Soap Won't Float" The Regiment A nice collection of U.S. garage-psych 45s from the '60s, total obscurities from a bunch of no-hit wonders. But therein lies the beauty of this stuff, raw, explosive music from the American rock and roll underground, back when there really was such a thing.

		$14.99 CD $9.99 MP3   CURRENT 93 Aleph at Hallucinatory Mountain (Nife Records) One of the heaviest albums in many a dark moon from David Tibet and company, this one is a haunting psychedelic rock album whose power is hard to deny, with many layers of guitar noise and pounding drums offset by elegant strings and some occasional electronic interludes. This band is always interesting, but Tibet had delivered one of the best from Current 93 that we've heard in awhile.

		$17.99 CD   CAPTAIN BEEFHEART Magneticism (Viper) "I'm a King Bee" Sort of a live "best of," this career-spanning compendium brings together tracks from two previously released collections, Magnetic Hands - Live in the UK 1972-80 and Railroadism - Live in the USA 1972-81, and wonderfully captures the chaotic, ecstatic stage show of this iconic performer.

		$14.99 CD $14.99 LP   COSMOS Jar of Jam Ton of Bricks (Happy Jack) Hmmm, Robert Pollard and Richard Davies, together? It's an intriguing collaboration from two of indie rock's best pop songwriters, and it works remarkably well. This is the first project of Pollard's in some time where he lets another singer/songwriter in on the fun, but who would want to silence Davies, who takes lead on four tracks and harmonizes on many more? Cosmos is exactly as good as the sum of its parts... and that's pretty darn good!

		$14.99 CD   THE HORSE'S HA Of the Cathmawr Yards (Hidden Agenda) "Rising Moon" The debut album from the Horse's Ha, a new Chicago outfit combining the earthy, melancholy vocals of Janet Beveridge Bean, of Freakwater and Eleventh Dream Day, and the songwriting and guitar of the Zincs' Jim Elkington. Supposedly born out of a desire to earn some loot playing standards in wine bars, the group's original compositions retain that classic jazzy pop-folk sound, aided by the cello of Fred Lonberg-Holm and others.

		$19.99 CDx2 $21.99 LPx2   CHICKS ON SPEED Cutting the Edge (Chicks on Speed) "Buzz" "Sewing Machine" They lost one member since their last album release, 2005's Press the Spacebar, and their pioneering art-school wail has slipped a bit from public consciousness, but the Chick's model has not wavered. A sometimes ballistic collision of art, fashion, music, politics and feminism, with a spastic electro beat and a ton of attitude.

		$18.99 CD   VARIOUS ARTISTS Miami Sound: Rare Funk and Soul from Miami, Florida 1967-74 (Soul Jazz) "90% of Me Is You" Gwen McCrae "Fantasy World" James Knight and the Butlers Back by popular demand, Soul Jazz has finally re-pressed their much-loved Miami Sound compilation. A collection of soul and funk found throughout that city during the late-'60s to early-'70s, classic songs from George McCrae ("I Get Lifted"), his sister Gwen ("90% of Me Is You"), and Miami's first diva, Helen Smith ("A Women Will Do Wrong"), mingle with the lesser-known to provide you with the perfect warm weather soundtrack.

		$24.99 CD   COLETTE MAGNY Vietnam 67/Mai 68 (EPM Musique) "Vietnam 67" "L'ecolier soldat" It's sort of shocking that we've never run a feature on Colette Magny before, a remarkable agit-prop chanson singer who passed away in 1997, and a person whom I think would be greatly interesting to a large number of Other Music customers. She was born in France in 1927, and her formative influences were American female blues singers of the 1920s like Bessie Smith. Her performing career began in the early sixties, and she had immediate mainstream success with her debut album Melcotonon, but as the sixties wore on she became increasingly radicalized by the situation in Algeria, the civil rights movement in the United States, the Vietnam War and numerous other left-wing positions. Her lyrics became much more politically strident, and her instrumental backing moved further and further beyond the typical French chanson trappings as she sought out France's most gifted musicians from the experimental jazz scene, whose freewheeling tendencies she would reign in to provide incredibly sensitive and unique instrumental shading. Magny absolutely prefigured, and sits comfortably alongside of, longtime Other Music favorites Brigitte Fontaine and Catherine Ribiero, although there is always an earthy, bluesy undercurrent to her performances that those two singers generally lack. The trajectory of her career and sound bears comparison with that of Nina Simone as well, as both worked in a Brechtian mode while utilizing tremendously powerful voices and a rousing political consciousness. The album at hand is simply outstanding and includes some of her greatest work, being a twin meditation on the morass of the Vietnam War and a resounding show of solidarity for the student movement protests in May of 1968, replete with what sound to be field recordings from the barricades. At turns moody, angry, and tenderly sympathetic, this record is quite simply a masterpiece and never less than completely gripping. [MK]

		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 [KC] Kevin Coultas [MC] Michael Crumsho [DG] Daniel Givens [MG] Max Gray [IQ] Mikey IQ Jones [AK] Andreas Knutsen [MK] Michael Klausman [DM] Doug Mosurock [KS] Karen Soskin [JT] John Twells THANKS FOR READING - all of us at Other Music

Copyright 2009 Other Music

Newsletter Design Big Code