Having trouble viewing this? Visit the updates archive |
||
 |
 |
Other Music Digital Affiliate Program We are very excited to be launching our new Affiliate Program. You can earn money by sending your web traffic to Other Music Digital for downloads. Click here for more details.
Tonight: Florida LP Opening Reception Other Music
This Week's Free Song Download
This week's Free Song Download, "Ellen Save Our Energy," is taken from Windmill's new album Epcot Starfields, also available on Other Music Digital. Inspired by a boyhood trip to Disney's Epcot Center, Matthew Thomas Dillon's unearthly, lonesome voice (think Wayne Coyne meets Jad Fair) leads this space rock opera of sorts, a suite of songs that moves from intimate to soaring and back again, filled with underlying themes of hope and loss as a child's wide-eyed imagination is reshaped by technology, love and the tightening grip of mortality. This Week's Featured Downloads
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! -John Twells
Whoa, here's a record I didn't ever think I'd see reissued -- the debut album by French art-punks Les Tueurs De La Lune De Miel, a/k/a the Honeymoon Killers. Originally released in 1977, this album is a MUCH different beast than their wonderful self-titled second album; while that record somewhat sweetened their ferocious punk leanings with the battered remains of French ye-ye/chanson styles and a bit of no wave bluster, the sound on the debut is much more in-your-face. Taking cues from the Captain Beefheart/Mothers of Invention/Rock-in-Opposition school of avant rockers, this album is more in line with the sort of Do-It-Yourself ethos championed by the likes of ReR/Recommended Records in the 70s and 80s -- the band deconstructs everything from Brassens to "Oh Suzanna" to Neil Sedaka(!) with slightly shambolic but always angular and satisfying results, throwing bits of doo-wop, avant-jazz, and prog moves into the mix. The band's a lot "sloppier" here, and that's part of the charm; the group seems to be fooling you the whole time, giving you the impression that they can't play a lick when in fact, the tunes are quite thoughtfully arranged, and the horn section tears into every song with equal parts rancor and swing. This record is definitely not as easily accessible as the follow-up, but it's just as fun, and if you can get with its joyful noise, you'll be rewarded with underappreciated Gallic brilliance. -Mikey IQ Jones
An excellent, excellent compilation of incredibly rare funk hailing from the Bay Area, circa 1968- '75. Ace raided the studio vaults of Golden State Sound, which was run by house engineer Leo Kulka. Many of these tracks were previously unreleased, but all are great funk tunes from bands with colorful names like Snook & the Cosmic Flowers, the San Francisco TKO's and 87th off Broadway. That big sound of Bay Area heroes Tower of Power, the Family Stone and the like is prevalent throughout, so expect loads of brassy, backbeat heavy and slightly psychedelic-tinged floor fillers. Highlights include Jimmy Bee's "Vida Blue" Pt. 1," a JB's-styled tribute to the legendary Oakland A's leftie pitcher (the song opens with the line, "The best thing that happened since Sandy Koufax"), the frenetic funk workouts of "Why" by 87th Off Broadway and the Love Experience's "Are You Together for the New Day?" No sultry ballads here folks, just pure adrenalinized funk for your feet. Fans of Daptone, Keb Darge and the Funky 16 Corners comps, take note. -Duane Harriott
The curators at Soundway really struck gold when they began digging up all sorts of variegated vinyl slabs from down in Nigeria. And it's paying handsome dividends for open-eared listeners. The High Life 2CD set is one of the most stellar African comps period, and the follow-up Rock and Disco sets aren't too shabby either. Now the label follows all that up with a handy one-disc overview of guitar dandy Sir Victor Uwaifo. If the sight of the young African pork-chopped guitarist bedecked in a white jumpsuit tearing into his Fender on the front cover doesn't draw you in, the 19 tracks will. For us in the west, Uwaifo was a heavy on the Nigerian scene, his trajectory including poetry, sculpture, ambassador, and even Commissioner for Culture! This set documents Uwaifo's return to his home of Benin City after a stay in Lagos spent absorbing the musical culture there. Searing leads, tough chops, playful tugs at the polyrhythms, and all other sorts of six-stringed incandescence are on display throughout. -Adrian Burkeholder
It's a sad reminder that you're getting old when you're seeing reissues of things you remember buying the week they came out. I still vividly remember my excitement at the prospect of these three experimental behemoths collaborating: Jim O'Rourke, Christian Fennesz and Peter Rehberg (a/k/a Pita) -- you could barely have come up with a better trio of artists in the genre. Luckily the collaboration was just as arresting as the line-up of talent would suggest and the recordings managed not only to fuse each of the artist's specific styles, but their love of all forms of music. Both albums were made up of edited live performances at variously successful and unsuccessful shows. The Magic of Fenn O'Berg, released ten years ago in 1999, was notable for polarizing live audiences who were expecting something quite different from Jim O'Rourke, with one show resulting in him being forced to play a short acoustic set before the artists were allowed to leave. It's easy to hear why they might have caused upset -- these tracks are almost gleefully obtuse using jump-cut samples, chattering electronics and the shards of icy noise Rehberg made his calling card. It is all done, however, with a rare sense of humor and there is almost a nod to plunderphonics in the trio's incessant sampling and trickery. Fennesz, Rehberg and O'Rourke were three of the first musicians to tour simply with laptops, but at no time does either of these albums feel as staid and factory-farmed as so much of the electronic music that would follow. Instead there is an excitement and suspense to the record, and when we hit tracks such as "Fenn O'Berg Theme" and "A Viennese Tragedy," you could almost be forgiven for finding them, dare I say it, beautiful. The sheer scope of these two albums is unsurpassable, and anyone out there with an inkling of desire for abstract electronic music just needs to have this double pack in their collection. These were albums that defined a generation of experimental sound, and to my mind they still haven't been bettered -- classic. -John Twells
I'm sure you're all familiar with the rich musical history of Manchester, England and all of the cutting edge rock and electronic artists that hail from that legendary town. Well, you can add up-and-coming house producer David Wolstencroft to that ever-growing list of talented musicians that call Manchester home. The Mancs have always championed the house and techno sounds of Chicago and Detroit, and artists like 808 State, A Guy Called Gerald and New Order have taken the arpeggiated acid sounds of the Midwest and spun them into mainstream gold. Trus'me, however, takes his inspiration from the deep, organic house of Moodymann, Theo Parrish and the digital soul of J Dilla and Carl Craig. Working Nights is a collection of Trus'me's 12-inches. Here, they're presented as a layered, seamless journey, similar in scope to Moodymann's classic debut Silent Introduction. Samples of Marvin Gaye, GQ and others are treated with live instrumentation and warm keyboards while movie dialogue snippets are interwoven within the tracks. The centerpiece of this album is the epic 12-minute masterpiece "W.A.R." (my pick for single of the year in '07). Built around a sample of a vintage Marvin Gaye interview and a live performance, the track builds into a melancholic, deep house anthem, moving into dark Burial-like territory and then out again. One of the best electronic record I heard last year, and any fan of the aforementioned should pick this up immediately. Awesome! -Duane Harriott
EXCLUSIVE ADVANCE: Two Pocket singles this week featuring two DC staples. This one finds Pocket (a/k/a Burnside Project's Richard Jankovich) collaborating with Shudder to Think/BABY's Craig Wedren, whose unmistakable falsetto soars atop a chiming wall of guitars and electronic beats. Also includes three remixes of "Someone to Run Away From" and "Beautiful Gray," which features vocals from Dag Nasty/Down by Law's Dave Smalley. ("Beautiful Gray" is also available separately as a five-track single, with remixes from the likes of Styrofoam and GD Luxxe.)
The three British ladies that make up Pens are the latest in a seemingly endless string of new-school, lo-fi, ramshackle punks that are popping up everywhere these days. While that ship seems as though it's fast getting ready to sail, the tracks that make up Hey Friend! What You Doing?, their debut for the De Stijl label, prove that there may just be a berth left for them when it eventually does. Loose and tinny in all the right ways, the fourteen tracks gathered herein seethe with a certain hardcore ferocity, shot through with naïve melodies and a gleeful irreverence that makes the bashing pop moves of tracks like "High in the Cinema" sound surprisingly fresh. Trading off on keyboards, fuzzy guitars, and percussion, Pens don't just lean on an aesthetic. Rather, as shown by the interlocking vocals of album opener "Horsies" and the simplistic yet effective breakdowns of "Cry Baby," they slide some well-crafted songs into the buzz and tumble. That goes double for the pounding, keyboard and distortion drenched "Freddy," a track that ably proves that Pens debut has far more to offer than just another run-of-the-mill take on the latest flavor of the month. -Michael Crumsho |
|
|||||
|
We Also Recommend |
|||||||
|
|||||||
|
|||||||
We'd like to invite you to the opening reception for a new photo show that we will be displaying at the shop by Other Music's own Amanda Colbenson. Entitled Florida LP, the exhibit will include nine photographs that reveal the landscape of New Smyrna Beach, FL, as well as some of her record collection. 
