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Mister Saturday and The Danger present a New Year's Eve Loft Party: Win Tickets! This Week's Free Download
This week's free song download is taken from Jeff Phelp's obscure, electro-soul classic LP, Magnetic Eyes. Recorded in 1985 on a Tascam Portastudio 244, Phelps penned "Don't Fall Apart on Me" specifically for Antoinette Marie Pugh, a young singer with a soulful voice that perfectly complements his bubbling synth work. The full album is featured below. This Week's Featured Downloads We were thrilled when Tomlab remastered and repressed this obscure but no less legendary slice of electronic soul from the Houston suburbs -- this is the first time the LP has been in print since 1985 when only a few thousand copies were initially released on a vanity imprint run by the artist and his neighbors. A nuclear engineer by day, Jeff Phelps recorded Magnetic Eyes on a 4-track in his bedroom, and the resulting album is endlessly listenable -- solid gold spun from limited and primitive resources. A mix of sincerely endearing vocal tracks -- sung by Phelps and two guest spots from then teenaged Antoinette Marie Pugh -- and instrumentals, the LP moves through funky groovers, jazzy synth excursions and even a couple of slow jams, all crafted from not much more than a Rhodes piano, a few budget keyboards and an early Boss drum machine. A precursor to the recent revival of electro-boogie-funk as well as R&B-tinged glo-fi, it's no surprise that Dam-Funk and Nite Jewel are big fans. If you're into those names, as well as Gary Wilson and Ariel Pink, then you need this in your life too. Also available in LP format for $15.99 on Other Music's mail order site. -Gerald Hammill
Apparently, prior to the release of their debut LP, Jatoma were rumored to be the experimental work of a few well-known pop-stars, or maybe the minimal electronic equivalent of, like, a Maurice Starr kind of production. With only their combined age (68) and a great contribution to Kompakt's Total series to go on, it's no surprise that the speculation got a little wild, as the sound hatched by the Danish trio of Tomas Barfod, Mads Kolding, and Jacob Littauer expertly conjures its own wide-eyed sense of wonder. Taking the standard dancefloor thump into terrain that's almost uniquely psychedelic, Jatoma is full of tracks that bounce and sway to their own beat. Thus, while there are cuts like "Manipura" that revel in marrying a stately thump to otherworldly melodic blasts and interludes, even better tracks like "Dust in Wong" really showcase the group stretching out. Here, delicate notes wind around each other and graft themselves to an arching beat, ultimately crafting a piece with its own sense of infectious bounce. While no two tracks really sound alike, songs like the ebullient "Helix" and the slyly infectious "Paper Lights" go a ways towards establishing Jatoma's identity as a playful crew of tricksters with a keen sense of melody and unorthodox beats. All in all, a great debut from a group I'll definitely be keeping my eyes on in the future, and one for those hoping for a little reinvention in Kompakt's ranks. Also available in CD format for $15.99 on Other Music's mail order site. -Michael Crumsho
At a quick glance, the Type label seems like a weird match for the geographically disparate (they count New York, Oregon, and Vermont as home) Heavy Winged. After all, that trio has spent the better part of their lifespan exploring the limits of blistering, improvised, more-than-a-bit psychedelic rock, a form that hasn't been particularly representative of the Boston imprint's sound. Generally preferring to crank it to eleven and jam to a four-track, Heavy Winged have thus far bequeathed a series of raw, almost lo-fi releases that retrace the sound of early Dead C through a filter of hardcore and latter-day noise/drone. However, given that the two-track Sunspotted is the band's first actual studio album, it makes sense that one group's stylistic detour should become another label's catalog anomaly, especially when the headspace in which both travel is a pretty cool match. And so it goes that "Breathe Life" and "Vapor Trails" are two of the most immediately satisfying tracks that Heavy Winged has ever brought to pass, maintaining the sheer sonic ferocity for which they have become know while upping the clarity just enough so that all instruments manage to peek out the murk a little more. The former is more immediately propulsive here, working through some frantic drums before settling into a methodical groove matched to some monstrous riffing. The latter is even better -- a lurching start and stop set against crunching feedback that gradually develops into a nice, slow burn to carry the piece home. A nice effort overall from this shadowy trio, one those in the know and those interested in learning more would both be well-served to check out. Also available in CD format for $15.99 on Other Music's mail order site. -Michael Crumsho
Now-Again Records deliver a wicked, stunning collection of Zambian psych-rock king Rikki Ililonga's early years, appropriately titled Dark Sunrise. This set collects the debut album of Ililonga's first group Musi-O-Tunya, as well as his first two solo albums, which see the man regarded as the Godfather of Zamrock kicking out his jams in a one-man band, recording all of the parts and playing all of the instruments himself. Musically, this stuff is KILLER, fusing together the junkyard funk of the Chrissy Zebby Tembo record so beloved amongst OM staff with a strain of dark voodoo psychedelia similar to 1970s Donald Byrd or electric Miles Davis records like Dark Magus or Get Up with It, which were in turn influenced by the voodoo boogie of Jimi Hendrix. This music also carries important cultural significance, as these three albums were the first pop albums released in Zambia after its independence; the sound of liberation is all over these recordings, and the songs cry, scream and shout as much as they rejoice. This stuff is deep, funky, and trippy as hell. If you've banged your head or shook your ass to the sounds of Zebby Tembo, Witch, or Amanaz in the past year, this is required listening. It really doesn't get much better than this, folks. Also available as a double CD for $19.99 on Other Music's mail order site. -Mikey IQ Jones
An essential record from these early purveyors of space rock. Originally a trio known as Kluster, soon after Conrad Schnitzler departed the ranks, Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius replaced the "K" with a "C" and continued to explore their beat-less, factory-inspired ambience. Recorded with Conny Plank, the album would be the first record released as Cluster and showed the German duo moving away from noisier, earlier experiments, all the while embracing a minimalist approach to their kosmische music. Made up of three lengthy tracks, 71 is built around guitars and organs, all processed to sound otherworldly and completely unrecognizable from the original sources. Moebius and Roedelius were still a few years from integrating the drum machine and more direct melodies into their music, so unlike later collaborations with Michael Rother and Brian Eno, these pieces float without shape, focusing more on the musicians' reactions to each other's improvisations by way of eerie alien-machine pulses and laboratory buzzes. Still, there's something very human about this record, perhaps mimicking the mysterious sound of the body as heard from the confines of the womb. This is ambient music in its rawest and most challenging form. -Gerald Hammill |
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The FELA! band, star of FELA! Sahr Ngaujah, and the FELA! dancers will be performing at the Knitting Factory Brooklyn on December 31st, for a special New Year's Eve performance and party. With just days left to see the hit show on Broadway (it closes on January 2nd), the 
This New Year's Eve, 
