June 18, 2009

		FEATURED NEW RELEASES Pajo Paz Lenchantin City Center Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto (DVD/CD) Rosalie Sorrels Purple Brain (RVNG MX7) Major Lazer Vocals & Versions Vol. 1 & 2 (Various) Skwee Tooth (Various) Lee Fields & the Expressions Sugar Pie DeSanto Jacques Dutronc   Bubble Puppy Golden Dawn Sleepy Sun The Nite-Liters Girls at Our Best! Zach Wallace Ganglians Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/othermusic

		JUN Sun 14 Mon 15 Tues 16 Wed 17 Thurs 18 Fri 19 Sat 20   TORTOISE LISTENING PARTY TONIGHT Come by Stanton Public tonight (Thursday, June 18th) where we'll be throwing a listening party for Tortoise's new album. It all gets underway at 9PM when we'll play Beacons of Ancestorship all the way through followed by Other Music DJs for the rest of the night. Of course, there'll be Thrill Jockey give-aways and drink specials from 9 to 10PM which include $2 PBR, $3 Bud Light, $4 Yuengling, $5 PBR+ Whiskey, and $3 Well Drinks. See you then! THURSDAY, JUNE 18 STANTON PUBLIC: 17 Stanton Street (btwn Bowery & Chrystie) Lower East Side No Cover / 21+ with ID

		JUNE Sun 14 Mon 15 Tues 16 Wed 17 Thurs 18 Fri 19 Sat 20 The Field   TICKET GIVE AWAY TO THE FIELD & THE JUAN MACLEAN THIS SATURDAY Other Music is giving away three pairs of tickets to what is no doubt the concert of the week, courtesy of Anti- and the Bowery Presents. With his great new album Yesterday and Today just released last month, The Field returns to New York City to perform a live set of his shimmering brand of shoe-gazey techno. Rounding out the bill, the Juan MacLean will be joining the Swedish producer in support of their new album, The Future Will Come, making this a pairing that dance music fans won't want to miss. To enter for a pair of passes, email contest@othermusic.com. We'll notify the three winners this Friday. SATURDAY, JUNE 20 WEBSTER HALL: 125 East 11th St. (btwn. 3rd and 4th Avenues) NYC

		JUNE Sun 21 Mon 22 Tues 23 Wed 24 Thurs 25 Fri 26 Sat 27   WIN TICKETS TO RUB N TUG AT SUNDAY BEST Sunday Best -- the easy-going, late afternoon, backyard barbecue cum dance party -- is on. This weekend, resident DJs Justin Carter, Eamon Harkin and Doug Singer will be welcoming special guests Rub N Tug, a duo of gentlemen who are always surprising. Garage rock, techno, disco, and so on, no matter what they play it's always good. Other Music is giving away two pairs of passes, and to enter, just email tickets@othermusic.com. We'll notify the two winners this Friday. SUNDAY, JUNE 21 THE YARD: 388-400 Carroll Street Brooklyn 3PM-9PM $8 in advance / $8 before 4PM with RSVP

		JUNE Sun 21 Mon 22 Tues 23 Wed 24 Thurs 25 Fri 26 Sat 27   WIN AU REVOIR SIMONE TICKETS Au Revoir Simone will be wrapping up the North American stretch of their Still Night, Still Light tour at the Bowery Ballroom on Saturday, June 27th, and then taking a well-deserved couple week break before heading overseas to play a string of European dates. Other Music has two pairs of tickets to give away to Annie, Erika and Heather's homecoming of sorts, and all you have to do is send an email to giveaway@othermusic.com to enter. We'll notify the two winners on Monday, June 22nd. SATURDAY, JUNE 27th BOWERY BALLROOM: 6 Delancey Street NYC

		$21.99 LP w/CD $21.99 LP w/CD   PAJO Scream with Me (Black Tent Press) PAZ LENCHANTIN Songs for Luci (Black Tent Press) "Three Six Five" "Montana Train" A pair of fine releases inaugurate Black Tent Press, who "put out limited edition art objects in the form of vinyl, press, and prints." And their first two offerings are nothing less than spectacular. Scream with Me finds David Pajo (Slint, Papa M, Tortoise, Zwan, Yeah Yeah Yeah's, etc.) recording breathtaking interpretations of Misfits songs on acoustic guitar, straight to cassette deck. The tape circulated underground for years, and after Chan Marshall heard it during a fashion shoot she brought it to the attention of Black Tent's Dirk Knibbe. Lathered in hiss, there's an oddly warm intimacy as Pajo sings, "I'll put a knife right in you" or "When I sin, I sin real good." Hearing Glen Danzig's disturbing lyrics of alienation rendered against delicate finger picking reshapes these disillusioned anthems into loner folk, revealing that this might be what these songs were about all along. In many ways this could be a throw-away, an accomplished artist just having fun doing some covers, but the collection is a high-water mark for Pajo, who has said he likes to obsess on one artist's work, learning their songs inside out as a means to prepare for a tour. This release is limited and expertly executed; the jacket is a serigraph print on extremely fine paper and even the inner sleeve is handsomely printed. Included is a CD version of the album as well. With an Ecstatic Peace/ Universal LP for the Entrance Band ready to drop in the coming months, bassist Paz Lenchantin may have finally found a permanent home after years of superb sessioning alongside RTX, Billy Corrigan (umm, why were all Black Tent Press artists in Zwan?), Brightblack Morning Light, Jenny Lewis and the Silver Jews to name but a few. Songs for Luci is a requiem she made for her late brother Luciano, recorded in the fall of 2003 in a rented room in Louisville. Fragile and lilting, her vocals rest quietly atop violin, banjo and sporadic percussion. Residing somewhere between Argentina and Appalachia, there's so much spirit and raw emotion in these tracks that little else need be said. The string instrumental, "Kentucky Hymn," is the loveliest of tributes. This release is also presented with the same gorgeous attention to detail, and includes a CD version as well. Be sure to grab both of these while they last; they're some of the year's best. And keep on the lookout for the forthcoming Black Tent Press release of Costa Mesa's coolest surf goths, the Growlers (who do not appear to have been in Zwan). [JR]

		$13.99 CD $19.99 LP $9.99 MP3   CITY CENTER City Center (Type) Preview Songs on Other Music's Download Store Fred Thomas, former frontman of Michigan's Saturday Looks Good to Me, debuts his new project here as City Center. In the past year Thomas moved to New York (and served some time with us here at OM), and the new solo endeavor takes his music in some new directions. City Center combines many different influences, many different textures, and many possible reference points; yes, there's some similarity to Panda Bear's Person Pitch and its dense layers of intricately detailed, sample-based latticework, and to the High Places' debut album, with its homemade, kitchen-sink sampledelica to be sure. This record, though, is a sonic landscape all its own, a dark, deeply personal document of the philosophical, emotional, and even creative struggles of a meditative individual against the increasingly disruptive and often disturbing environment that surrounds him. There has been talk about this being Thomas' "Brooklyn album" and yeah, of course it is, because in essence it's the construction of a shelter protecting him from the myriad of intensities that come with throwing yourself into the core of the Big Apple. Dude comes out alive though, perhaps not unscathed, and we're all the better for it in the end. Much like the great city itself, there are rock moves, post-Spector pop moments, gorgeous, chattering African-inspired beatscapes, whirlwinds of raga-like drones, fragments of gentle acoustic guitars, and the disconnected voices of records that perhaps comforted Thomas during those dark days and Brooklyn nights, feeling like the only recognizable references amid such density, such turmoil, and such disguised beauty. The devil is in the details, and I've not heard an album so deliciously detail-oriented in ages. That's what ultimately makes this record successful -- it's immediately engaging, but its true rewards come with work, with time, and with careful attention. As hyperbolic as it sounds, this album seems to be a document of the moment that the personal becomes the profound. Amidst the heaviness this record carries with it, nothing rings out more clearly amidst its ten songs than the sound of hope, and the invigoration one gets when they emerge from the wreckage, phoenix-like, with the insight and confidence to bring more beauty into everything they do. My favorite album of the year. Nice work, Fred. [IQ]

		$29.99 DVD w/CD $9.99 MP3   ALVA NOTO + RYUICHI SAKAMOTO utp_ (Raster-Noton) "Particle 1" "Broken Line 2" I've been to Mannheim, Germany and as with many 17th century European industrial cities, it's not the prettiest place in the world. Still, when it was founded four hundred years ago it was conceptualized as the perfect 17th century city, a "utopia" if you will. This brings us to utp_, titled in reference to the city's intent, and performed as part of the four-hundredth anniversary celebrations for Mannheim. Prior to hearing utp_, I was pretty sure of how it would to sound, having listened intently to the previous collaborations between Carsten Nicolai and Ryuichi Sakamoto; "twinkly," "pretty" and "spacious" were all words I was ready to throw around carelessly on reviewing. Surprisingly, however, this time around the musicians manage something quite far removed from their previous collaborations -- utp_ is stark, bleak and incredibly low key. In fact, the charming Sakamoto-patented piano melodies have all but disappeared entirely. Nicolai's signature processes are still audible, but the glitches are sparse and darker in tone, the character bearing more resemblance to musique concrete or early experimental music than the digital manipulations Raster-Noton have become renowned for. Ensemble Modern's delicate, slow-moving string parts filter slowly and gracefully through the digital murk until what sounds like electronic drones are drowned by acoustic sounds. The resulting ambience is not at all unlike Nicolai's recent Xerrox outings, yet there is something ruthlessly "modern classical" about these recordings. Restrained to the point of being almost invisible, this is an intriguing and haunting documentation of a truly singular performance. [JT]

		$16.99 CD   ROSALIE SORRELS If I Could Be the Rain (Folk Legacy) "If I Coule Be the Rain" "In the Quiet Country of Your Eyes" Rosalie should be here, I thought. It seemed like her kind of scene: A few fine songs and a bottle of Wild Turkey, with maybe some ice and a joint or so for the mellowness. But she was on the bus somewhere in the middle of Utah, rolling thru the night to the next gig, like always. - Hunter S. Thompson Some many months ago, I deejayed a bunch of old LPs out at Frankie's in Carroll Gardens with the exceedingly pleasant fellas in Vetiver, and can recall being gently upbraided for not being familiar with the recorded works of folk-singer Rosalie Sorrels. Now, those guys are known for nothing if not their great taste, and their enthusiasm regarding Sorrels was really to remain practically unmatched throughout the dozens and dozens records we shared that evening. I'll have to somewhat sheepishly admit to sort of forgetting about their recommendation for a while there though, no doubt due to the copious amounts of Six Point's Ale (and a joint or so for the mellowness - ed.) consumed. Anyways, many months after that night, followed by a move to Colorado, I started seeing her LPs around in all of the shops and began snapping 'em up, usually for a song. Goddamn if those Vetiver boys weren't onto something, as I can honestly say now that Sorrels cut a couple of albums I'd rank with the best of any folk album I've ever heard. While I don't think she's talked about in too many hipster circles these days, in her own she was in the thick of things, hanging out with and playing for the entire spectrum of beatniks, artists, writers, hippies and fellow folk singers. She's made a record for Folkways, been on major labels, as well as myriads of tiny independents, toured ceaselessly for years, and at age 75 has become an iconic presence to those in the know. And her personal story is filled with enough sorrow, trials and tribulations to just about make Judee Sill and Karen Dalton's troubled lives sound like a walk in park. Bracing stuff, really, but she came through, and it's given her songs a very unique and palpable combination of sorrow and fortitude. If I Could Be the Rain is probably my favorite of her albums, it dates from the mid-sixties and was the first of her recordings to mostly feature her own songs, along with a handful of brilliant renderings of tunes by labor activist and songwriter Utah Phillips. She'd previously specialized in arranging and interpreting obscure and forgotten American folk songs, and that presence and knowledge can constantly be felt in her own, much more personal material. She has just the barest of accompaniment here, and the tunes are all very low-key, deliberately paced and heartbreakingly moving. Like Karen Dalton, she's capable of channeling a bit of the forlornness you hear in Billie Holiday into a compelling country-folk atmosphere. Records this good are rare, and If I Could Be the Rain is way overdue for a revival; I just wish someone would have mentioned it sooner, preferably when I wasn't drunk! [MK]

		$10.99 CD w/7"   PURPLE BRAIN RVNG Presents: MX7 (RVNG) I've got to give props to my man Randall for bringing this one to my attention. This little set was unassumingly sitting on the 7" racks, when Curious Randall came up and asked me what the deal was. I hadn't heard it yet, so we threw it on, and damn! Here's the scoop: RVNG's new mix/re-edit series delivers this 7" with reedits of some heavy, tripped-out funky psyche/prog rock breaks, and to sweeten the deal, there's a 60-minute mix CD featuring some serious freaky, heavy, acid-melted jams. Mostly everything is taken from obscure Kraut/prog/psych records (I recognize but a handful of jams here), and the whole thing is interspersed with monster effects and creepy spoken bits that sound like they're from Giallo horror films. It's f-ing great. If you've ever wanted a DJ mix to sound like a Faust or Amon Duul 2 record, or if you dig the B-Music/Finders Keepers groovy end of the psych and prog spectrums, you're going to love this, it's quickly becoming a store-wide fave amongst the staff! Turn on, tune in, and drop the hell out to this one -- it's KILLER. [IQ]

		$12.99 CD   MAJOR LAZER Guns Don't Kill People...Lazers Do (Downtown) "Pon de Floor (feat. VYBZ Kartel)" "When You Hear the Bassline (feat. Ms. Thing)" Love him or hate him, there's no denying Diplo's ability to rock a party. Major Lazer sees the prolific producer team up with Switch (a/k/a Dave Taylor), the Brit DJ who also cut his teeth crafting songs for one Maya Arulpragasam, so between them the duo should, theoretically, be able to rock the party twice as hard. And rock they do, as anyone who attended the packed-out show at Other Music HQ a few days ago will know -- this is music which practically commands you to move. Guns Don't Kill People... Lazers Do finds the duo in full-on Jamaican dancehall mode, and Diplo & Switch are more than savvy about how parties go down in Kingston. A blend of thick dancehall riddims, bonkers emceeing, autotune and everything else you'd hear at a warehouse jam in the Carribean capital, Guns Don't Kill People... just manages to tick every box. Sure, the stripped down wonky synth lines and sparse 808s won't necessarily keep the haters at bay, but those of you following Diplo's every remix will be happy to know this is some of the best material to emerge from either producer for a while now. The stand-out for me is R&B crossover jam "Keep It Goin' Louder," which takes the essence of T-Pain and Rhianna and dribbles it over a liberal sample of Olive's '90s classic, "You're Not Alone." The fact that they could have mucked up one of my favorite pop jams of all time is quickly forgotten as fizzy synths and catchy hooks manage to make it easily as enjoyable as T.I.'s "Live Your Life," its nearest probable relative. For the rest of the record we're dragged kicking and screaming through sirens, air horns, choppy samples and emceeing that stays the right side of comedy. The only thing that's missing is the traditional accompaniment of "Booooooo" in the first few bars of every track, and that's probably a good thing. Notable is a brief appearance from the controversial Prince Zimboo, who shows up accompanied by Youtube meme the Autotuned baby. As he drops his trademark worldly wisdom and "Heh"s, it's hard to take it as anything but heavy. Ignore the hype, ignore the hate -- just grab a rum & Coke enjoy the party. [JT]

		Volume 1 $16.99 CD Volume 2 $16.99 CD   VARIOUS ARTISTS Vocals and Versions Vol. 1 (Senseless) "Focus" Sarantis feat. Sick Sense Crew "Warzone" Sasquatch (Billy Nasty Remix) VARIOUS ARTISTS Vocals and Versions Vol. 2 (Senseless) "Boom" DeVille & Sarantis feat. MC Sunkilla "What Goes Around Comes Around" Ghosttown feat. Smasha NEW DUBSTEP LABEL ALERT. The UK imprint Senseless Records delivers a one-two punch with two separate volumes of cutting-edge dubstep, grime, and nu-dancehall, showcasing great jams from their roster of producers and vocalists. Most of the artists featured are unfamiliar names (the exception being vocalists Warrior Queen and Asher Don), with the bulk of the productions coming from Sarantis, Sasquatch and DeVille. The overall sound is a collage of rough and bouncy rhythms, and the vocals and versions steer the songs from gritty pop to rave atmosphere, with lots of remixes from Starkey, Bill Hasty and MRK1. Fans of Planet MU, the Bug, and those looking for the next thing bubbling up from the dubstep underground will want to sink their teeth into these two discs. [DG]

		$13.99 CD   VARIOUS ARTISTS Skwee Tooth (Ramp Recordings) "Legend of Selda" Easy & Center of the Universe "La Moulette Enchantee" Wanker United Another day, another genre of electronic music. I guess we're used to it now; only recently the freshly monikered "wonky" was splintered into "purple" by Joker and his Bristol posse, and over the water in idyllic Sweden we have "skwee." So what is skwee? For that we have to ask Pavan, the Gothenburg DJ/producer who put together Skwee Tooth and has been chipping away at the genre for a fair few years now. Tired of being asked what it was all about, he answers and queries with this compilation, with its lineup of all the key producers and key traits of the fledgling genre. There are definitely lines to be drawn between skwee and wonky -- choppy, off-time hip-hop loops, big basslines and "those synths," but the sense of humor in this Swedish subdivision removes it from anything that London or Bristol might have belched out. Taking a liberal dose of influence from dubstep, hip-hop and dancehall, the Swedes have somehow welded this with a love of 8-bit computer game music (known to the wise as "chiptunes"). I'm instantly reminded of Werk's chip-stepper Disrupt, but where his productions were bound by '80s digital dub, the sound of skwee comes across more as a variant of mainstream R&B. It's not always successful -- Easy & Center of the Universe's opening track "Legend of Selda" unsuccessfully rewires Turkish folk-popper Selda's much sampled "Yaz Gazeteci Yaz," but once we're past here it starts to get more interesting. The 8-bit squeaks are as sparse and syncopated as Missy-era Timbaland, and it's all done with a sense of humor rarely heard in dance music (intentionally, at least). The more bombastic the tracks get, the more successful they are, with "Melkeveien" by Melkeveien being the clear stand out for me -- cheeky hip-hop samples, hi-NRG synths and tighter-than-tight beats make it an unmissable representation of the sound. It might have a funny name, but skwee could just about be the next big thing... hey, it's almost world music. [JT]

		$12.99 CD $9.99 MP3   LEE FIELDS & THE EXPRESSIONS My World (Truth & Soul) "Money I$ King" "Ladies" Lee Fields is here to funk. Much more than a semblance of soul is present, but funk is the agenda for this re-emergent living legend. Fields made some noise as a JB contemporary in the days of yore with a few 45s and a much-sought-after full-length. These days, with several members of the Dap-Kings filling out his ranks, he's following a path similar to Sharon Jones, bringing old-school spirit and groove to the new era. And like their Daptone brethren, the Truth & Soul label are bringing a heavy dose of soul to Brooklyn of late, with this wonderful LP, a ferocious Wu-Tang tribute album by label-mates El Michels Affair, and a forthcoming full-length by acclaimed crooner Aloe Blacc. But My World has a unique sound of its own that supersedes its scene and its pedigree. Lee Fields surpasses emulation by forging a cohesive blend of breakneck soul and buttery balladry on top of post-hip-hop melodies and subtle tinges of modern electronics. In particular, "The Expressions Theme" warrants at least one or two spin-backs, and Fields' cover of the Supremes' classic "My World Is Empty Without You" is a wonderfully weird and haunting interpretation polished off with a refreshing luster. For those who like their funk crisp and wish the Godfather was still around making records, this album is a can't-miss. [MG]

		$18.99 CD   SUGAR PIE DESANTO Go Go Power: The Complete Chess Singles 1961-1966 (Kent) "Soulful Dress" "Somewhere Down the Line" (Duet with Etta James) Now this is what I'm talking about! Umpeylia Balinton (a/k/a Sugar Pie DeSanto) is a five-foot-tall bundle of sass who cut some of the most infectious R&B dance tunes of the sixties. She was considered to be one of the most dynamic live performers of the day, even rivaling James Brown, who employed her as a show-stopping opener for over a year. She was and still remains a huge star in the UK, influencing the likes of Amy Winehouse in such a major way that most of Ms. Winehouse's stage stylings were lifted straight from old photos of DeSanto. But back to the music... DeSanto had been recording professionally since 1958, but her time at Chess has long been considered to be her creative peak, and this is the first collection to offer a complete document of that era. These are some raucous party songs, the most famous being "In the Basement - Part 1," a wild duet with label mate Etta James. This crazy soul stomper barely hit the R&B top 40 upon its initial release, but it's now considered to be one of the finest singles recorded of the genre, and has even received a remix treatment from deep house icon Theo Parrish. There are also some stellar ballads in the form of "Ask Me," "Love Me Tonight" and "Never Love a Stranger." In 2009, the 73-year-old DeSanto continues to tour and is still an amazing performer, so make sure you catch her when she comes through your town. In the meantime, don't miss out on this stellar compilation; it's some of the best R&B music of its time, and I mean that! [DH]

		$17.99 CD   JACQUES DUTRONC Et Moi Et Moi Et Moi -- 1966 to 1969 (RPM Records) "Et Moi Et Moi Et Moi" "Le Responsible" It's hard to believe, but French pop figurehead Jacques Dutronc has never had a CD release outside of his native land until now. To set things straight, RPM issues this essential collection of tracks from the master's late-'60s salad days, featuring every song from which he's built his reputation -- he's a national hero in France, and a monster cult figure here in the US and UK for rock'n'roll, freakbeat and indie pop enthusiasts. Give a cursory listen to any track on this set and it's easy to hear why; his tunes are catchy as hell (even if you don't understand his native tongue), the music mixing the primal urgency of '60s garage rock with the biting wit of Dylan, Gainsbourg, and Brassens. Dutronc's reputation tends to rest solely on the early EPs and first three LPs of his career, and that's exactly from where the 22 tracks on this set are chosen; it's about as fine an introduction as you'll ever find -- every hit, and every jam you've ever heard on a night out at a hip club is here, and there's a huge booklet filled with photos and great liner notes going into detail about the man and his fascinating career. If you've never heard this music before, you're in for a real treat; his sound has been oft imitated but never replicated, and if you've never owned anything by the man but always liked what you'd heard, well here you go. This is one of THE essential, cornerstone releases in our International Pop/Decadanse section, and if you've ever enjoyed anything you've purchased from that part of the store... you know what to do. [IQ]

		$17.99 CD $16.99 LP   BUBBLE PUPPY A Gathering of Promises (Charly / Snapper) "Hot Smoke and Sassafras" "Hurry Sundown (Mono Single Version)" I'm not a fan of the "they coulda been a contender" vibe that a lot of music journalists place on any band that even briefly breathed the same air as the Beatles -- their failure to become as popular as the Fab Four being one of the greatest oversights in music history. I might, however, be willing to make an exception for Bubble Puppy. Their record starts with "Hot Smoke and Sassafras," a song that is so mind bogglingly good that I didn't think it could get any better (and was a top twenty pop hit for the band), that is until I read in the liner notes that its title was inspired from a line on The Beverly Hillbillies!!! The record keeps going from there though, with an amazing mix of power, musicianship and songwriting that was almost unheard of at the time. Seriously, during an era where a lot of full-length records were still padded with cover songs or throwaways, the original-packed A Gathering of Promises really should have been paving the way to many more magical musical moments. Instead, as with pretty much every International Artists band (like label mates and fellow Texans the 13th Floor Elevators), the tale is about the road being a dead end, as IA just didn't have what it took to compete with more established labels and then made extra, awful choices (like not licensing the album to Apple Records). I guess the best way to not dwell too much in the mistakes of the past is to enjoy this record in the here and now, which makes even mores sense as this edition is lavishly packaged in a digi-book with great, in-depth liner notes and photos, not to mention eight choice bonus tracks, four of them non-LP songs and the others being the mono-single mixes of Bubble Puppy's two 7"s. [DMa]

		$17.99 CD   GOLDEN DAWN Power Plant (Charly / Snapper) "Seeing Is Believing" "This Way Please" It is basically impossible to evaluate the Golden Dawn without continually referencing the 13th Floor Elevators. For years they've been the subject of many glass is half-full/half-empty debates; either you see them as second-rate copyists, or fellow travelers and close associates of the band that helped create Austin's '60s psychedelic scene. If you go with the second option, and believe me you should, you're in for a trip of monumental proportions, as Power Plant is packed front to back with killer psychedelic-garage jams that do not disappoint. Originally recorded before but not released until after the seminal second Elevators record, Easter Everywhere (the source of much ill will from the band towards their label International Artists that ultimately led to their break up), Power Plant touches upon a lot of the same topics of inner spirituality and drugs, all propelled by sick, fuzzed-out guitar and topped with George Kinney's very Roky-esque (a bit more nasally) singing. I mean, just try to resist a song like "My Time," with its killer distorto-guitar breaks that go straight to the core of your brain. It can't be done. Also, although this record has been sporadically available over the years, this new edition is so over the top that it even warrants an upgrade if you already have it, with very nice sleeves (like hard bound books) and great liner notes featuring a band history and song-by-song analysis by George Kinney. [DMa]

		$15.99 CD   SLEEPY SUN Embrace (ATP) "Sleepy Son" "New Age" Sometimes a band just makes it sound easy. They come out of nowhere and take something that many worthy adversaries have diligently toiled over for years (in vain), and just nail it. In the case of Sleepy Sun, the whipping post is psychedelic rock, and they make it sound larger than life -- and twice as natural. Like Black Mountain, the list of spiritual forbears called upon is readily apparent, and voluminous, but where their Canadian brethren pull heavily from vintage UK stoner rock and prog, Sleepy Sun have set their sights on the American West, specifically California. These kids manage a seldom seen act, one that conjures the essence of so many things that have come before them, while not actually SOUNDING like any of it. Listening to this astonishingly confident debut, it's not hard to trace a straight line from the early greats of San Francisco psych-rock to today's modern indie practitioners. The fuzzed-out riffing and spacious (spacey) production bears traces of Haight St. luminaries Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jefferson Airplane, and West Coast Experimental Pop Art Band. From there, they just keep building, taking everything from the evergreen white-boy gospel reverie that Spiritualized branded, to a hint of Talk Talk's atmospheric density and bringing it into the present. This is an actual "modern psychedelic" record, in the same way that Brightblack Morning Light or Comets on Fire are uniquely modern, even as they implement material that should be obsolete and exhausted. An incredibly well-done and lovingly crafted effort that guarantees Sleepy Sun's right to hoist the Hammer of the Gods. Many are called, few are chosen. [JTr]

		$12.99 CD   THE NITE-LITERS A-Nal-Y-Sis (Dusty Groove) "Excuse Me While I Do My Thing" "Anything Goes" The Nite-Liters were a nine-piece funk outfit from Louisville, Kentucky, who were discovered and mentored by music industry legend Harvey Fuqua. As it would happen, Tony Churchill, the band's leader and sax player, grew up next door to Fuqua's mother, who watched the group evolve since they were in high school. Fuqua signed them to his production company in 1969 and the Nite-Liters served as the backing band for most of his artists on the road and in the studio. Furthermore, they were part of the brilliant, rousing, 17-piece blues/funk review known as the New Birth, an amalgamation of four distinct groups signed to Fuqua's production company. But as the Nite-Liters, between 1969 and '73 they released five scorching minimal funk records -- willfully obscure oddities that boasted no photos of the group and no real liner notes to speak of. The final Nite-Liters LP, A-Nal-Y-Sis is a monster, a stanky, stanky, horny, percussive affair that will appeal to the fans of the party funk of contemporaries like the Ohio Players, Earth, Wind & Fire and Funkadelic. The opener, "Serenade for a Jive Turkey," is a polyrhythmic, brassy blast of wah-wah madness and primal call-and-response wails that also boasts light touches of Afro-funk rhythms and swing. The band infuses a wide variety of styles throughout the record, ranging from the Latin funkiness of "Craaaashing" to the pimp stroll/gangsta funk of "Damn," which would be sampled to great effect on Dr. Dre's classic album, The Chronic. There's also an inspired piece of country funk called "Cowboy" that interpolates the horn line of Johnny Cash's recording of "Ring of Fire," and a jazz-fusion-inspired rhythm section showcase called "Drumology." While this would be the last release as the Nite-Liters, they were just getting warmed up as the New Birth. Within a couple of years that incarnation would release Birth Day and It's Been a Long Time, two landmark funk albums that would tear up the charts, and the heavy breakbeats within would be significant fodder for those early South Bronx scientists of sound, serving as some of the DNA code of hip-hop, but that's another story! [DH]

		$15.99 CD $9.99 MP3   GIRLS AT OUR BEST! Pleasure (Cherry Red) "I'm Beautiful Now" "Go for Gold" Let me start by saying this: I have, over the course of ten-plus years, gone through four copies of this record -- two on vinyl, two on CD (this makes my third CD copy, bringing the tally to five!!), all worn out and/or beat to hell simply by playing the damn thing over and over again. It's one of the first and only times I'd ever done such a thing to an album, lending it to friends, playing it for people, adding it to mixes constantly... you get the idea. This has been out of print for many years, and I'm ecstatic to see it on the shelves once again! Girls At Our Best! (don't forget that exclamation!) grew out of the offbeat punk scene of their hometown of Leeds, UK, also home to the Mekons, the Delta 5, and Gang of Four. Consisting of three lads and one girl put right up front, they recorded a handful of 7" singles and one sole LP which stand as some of the best, most blatantly tuneful relics of the post-punk scene. GAOB! stood apart because of this tunefulness and aversion to sour-pussed monotony; I recently described this reissue's sound to a customer as coming across like "the post-punk Mary Poppins," much to my coworker (and girl-band enthusiast) Karen's delight. She told me that she couldn't think of a better way to sum up what makes the group so great, and we've been sticking with it since! The guitars rip as raw as those of a band like the Buzzcocks or Magazine, the drums are often pounded with a bit of a martial bent, somewhat stiff but hard driving, and the basslines are used to help carry the melodies, all supplied by frontwoman Judy Evans' "spoonful of sugar" voice (plus an unknown Thomas Dolby makes a few appearances on keyboard). Their first two singles alone, which introduce the collection, are some of the catchiest, fist-pumping anthems of the post-punk era -- John Peel himself is quoted in the liner notes as saying that GAOB! were "one of the few bands who made the early '80s bearable for [him]". Their sound would also go on to inspire many key groups of the C86 movement (Shop Assistants, Talulah Gosh, etc.) that is being mined or referenced by the current crop of Slumberland bands making waves like the Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Lichtenstein -- even a group like the Vivian Girls stylistically owes something to GAOB!. On top of all that, opening tune "Getting Nowhere Fast" was covered by the Wedding Present on a 1987 EP. [IQ]

		$13.99 CD $9.99 MP3   ZACH WALLACE Glass Armonica (Root Strata) "2" "5" Zach Wallace is no stranger to experimental and improvised music, having gigged and recorded in groups like Sun Circle (with Greg Davis) and Memorize the Sky, to name but two. Glass Armonica, however, is the man's first self-titled affair, and a conceptually bold and brilliant one at that. Based solely on the sounds generated by his homemade (you guessed it) glass armonica, a haunting instrument that uses a series of graduated glass bowls to generate tones, Wallace's solo debut revels in dense drones that oscillate between warm, comforting tones and occasionally piercing sounds that manage to retain a certain familiarity while still evoking the otherworldly quality of the instrument. With a design based loosely on the work of Benjamin Franklin, Wallace built the armonica for an interactive gallery presentation in Michigan using thrift store wineglasses. Though it's capable of supporting as many as twelve players, the three unedited, unadorned performances featured on this disc are the work of only a few. All the same, the sound is full and rich, a beautiful aural snapshot, with tones slowly shifting and mutating over time. Hardly background music, Wallace and his ensemble's work here calls to mind the recent effort of folks like Andrew Chalk, as well as suggesting the fully immersive, site specific pieces of Yoshi Wada. Fans of either of those artists would be well served in checking this one out, as would anyone seeking a new set of drones on which to hang their ears for at least a little while. [MC]

		$12.99 CD   GANGLIANS Monster Head Room (Woodsist) "Voodoo" "100 Years" 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. [JTr]

		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 [MC] Michael Crumsho [DG] Daniel Givens [MG] Max Gray [DH] Duane Harriott [IQ] Mikey IQ Jones [MK] Michael Klausman [DMa] Dave Martin [JR] Jeremy Rendina [JTr] Jonathan Treneff [JT] John Twells THANKS FOR READING - all of us at Other Music

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