January 5, 2011

		FEATURED NEW RELEASES Quantic Presents: Tropical Funk Experience Nihiti Bangs & Works Vol. 1 (Various) Said I Had a Vision: Songs of David Lee Disconnect: Leo Zero (Mix) Jatoma Ride (Nowhere LP pressing) Heavy Winged Borghesia   Talk Normal/Lower Dens (Cassette) Reading Rainbow Follow us on Facebook: facebook.com/othermusicnyc Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/othermusic

		JAN Sun 02 Mon 03 Tues 04 Wed 05 Thurs 06 Fri 07 Sat 08   WIN TICKETS TO SECRET IRON AND WINE SHOW Our friends at Overcoat Management have given us 15 pairs of tickets to a secret Iron and Wine show happening in Manhattan tonight, Thursday, January 6th, at 7 PM. If you are a fan and live in the area, email giveaway@othermusic.com and we'll pick 15 names at random and will fill these winners in on the details by noon. Entrance is not transferable. The new record, Kiss Each Other Clean, comes out January 25th. THURSDAY, JANUARY 6 SECRET LOCATION: Somewhere in Manhattan

		JAN Sun 02 Mon 03 Tues 04 Wed 05 Thurs 06 Fri 07 Sat 08   WIN TICKETS TO PETER GORDON'S LOVE OF LIFE ORCHESTRA On the heels of DFA's great overview of this downtown minimalist's disco band, Peter Gordon's Love of Life Orchestra are performing tonight at (Le) Poisson Rouge, along with Ben Neill, Midnight Magic, Justin Miller (DFA Records) and special guest Justine and the Victorian Punks! Other Music has two pairs of tickets up for grabs, so email enter@othermusic.com. We'll notify the two winners by noon today. THURSDAY, JANUARY 6 (LE) POISSON ROUGE: 158 Bleecker Street NYC

		JAN Sun 02 Mon 03 Tues 04 Wed 05 Thurs 06 Fri 07 Sat 08   BUNKER'S 8-YEAR ANNIVERSARY: WIN TICKETS This Friday, the Bunker celebrates 8-years as NYC's premiere techno party in fine style. Glasgow's Optimo (a/k/a JD Twitch and JG Wilkes) will be in the front room playing a special extended set featuring their diverse, signature selection of music that made their weekly party at Sub Club so legendary. In the back room, Donato Dozzy will spinning an epic, eight-hour set that will most likely cover everything from deep ambient to crushing dance music. Bunker alum Derek Plaslaiko, who relocated to Berlin last summer and has taken that city by storm, will be making a special appearance, playing an after-hours set in Public Assembly's loft. We're giving away two pairs of passes, which you can enter for by emailing contest@othermusic.com. We'll notify the two winners at noon on Friday. FRIDAY, JANUARY 7 PUBLIC ASSEMBLY: 70 N. 6th Street, Williamsburg, BKLN $10 Advance Tickets Available at Other Music

		JAN Sun 02 Mon 03 Tues 04 Wed 05 Thurs 06 Fri 07 Sat 08   ELECTRIC COWBELL RECORDS APAP SHOWCASE This Saturday, Entour Entertainment and Wax Poetics present an Electric Cowbell Records showcase, featuring Bio Ritmo, CSC Funk Band, Cheick Hamala Diabate, Debo Band, Slavic Soul Party and DJ E's E of NYC Trust. Other Music is giving away two pairs of tickets to this genre-bending, musical odyssey of sounds, which you can enter for by emailing tickets@othermusic.com. We'll notify the two winners this Friday. SATURDAY, JANUARY 8 92YTRIBECA: 200 Hudson Street NYC OTHER MUSIC'S FREE DOWNLOAD OF THE WEEK In conjunction of this special evening, Other Music is also offering a FREE DOWNLOAD of NYC Trust's remix of "Silbando" taken from the latest 7" single on Electric Cowbell. The A-side features the original version by Los Ribereños, and is also included on the second volume of the excellent Roots of Chicha series, this installment focusing on the coastal scene of Lima, circa 1968-81. Once associated by most Peruvians as the sound of the Lima slums, today this music is experiencing a bona fide revival, all around the globe. The single is made possible by an exclusive licensing agreement between Barbes Records and Electric Cowbell.

		Many of our customers have been enjoying the ease of texting their orders with their mobile phone. To take advantage of this option with the items listed below, go to subports.com where you can create your free Subports account. Afterwards, just text the corresponding subcode listed underneath each item to 767825.

		$12.99 CD   QUANTIC PRESENTS Tropical Funk Experience (Nascente) "La Danza de la Tanga" Pianonegro "Hiko-Iko" Little Francisco Greaves Quantic gives good compilation. His Caja Y Guacharacha mix for Mochilla was one of my favorite records of last year, and he's back with this excellent collection of funk-, jazz- and blues-inspired cumbia, palenque, and salsa from Panama and Colombia. There's some fantastic music here, including Abelardo Carbono's throbbing, galloping cumbia (not cumbia) "Muevela," which mixes the cumbia beat with highlife and soukous guitars and some great vocals, Little Francisco Greaves' stomping refigure "Hiko-Iko," and Sugar Ice Tea's "Palo Bonito," which combines a wah-wah heavy blaxploitation groove with cumbia bounce and heavy, passionate chorus vocals. You also get some wicked soul-jazz tunes by Victor Boa and Mauricio Smith, and a handful of excellent Fruko-related tracks, including the weird synth-string strut of Pianonegro's "La Danza de La Tanga," sounding like Walter Gibbons gone salsa, Afrosound's slow-burning cumbia "La Pava Congona," and Fruko's own epic "Full Salsa," represented here by a nine-minute excerpt! All in all, if you've sweated heavily to the sounds of the excellent Palenque Palenque, Cumbia Beat, or Panama compilations, you'll find much to love here. There's a nice diversity and variety that keeps it fresh, all the while keeping your head bobbing and your hips moving. It's cold outside; throw this on and get some heat in the house. [IQ] Order CD by Texting "omcdquantictropical" to 767825

		$14.99 LP   NIHITI Other Peoples' Memories (Lo Bit Lands) A mysterious duo hailing from the depths of Bushwick, Brooklyn, Nihiti has been kicking around the self-released, Internet-ready circles that many private artists must follow in this day and age. With Other Peoples' Memories, the group's most "public" effort and first vinyl side to date, a challenge has been thrown down to all project bands in the vicinity to top the careful construction and constantly shifting template of their sound, as well as the high fidelity and nuanced environment this music engenders. Best pegged as avant-garde pop, Nihiti's M.O. relies on the coexistence of electronic music with acoustic instruments to create a sound that is alternately tense, foreboding, and intricate in the most intriguing ways. Like some unearthed pallet of lost, meaningful art-rock from NMDS circa 1985, Nihiti plays to the mood through ingenious and avant-garde means, culminating in a suite of songs on side 1 that builds a dour, mechanical carapace of clockwork dread and malaise, through little more than piano, drums, strings and digital treatments. Nihiti's music can get excessively dark, as well as ferociously danceable within a single pendulum swing, and though it takes a bit of work to understand where it's coming from, most of the best things in life follow that path anyway. A cerebral effort in line with This Heat, late-period Talk Talk, Gastr del Sol, and other heavy hitters of recent decades, and a group that is worth the considerable effort to investigate. A beautiful cover design completes the package. Put this one on and watch your productivity skyrocket! [DM] Order LP by Texting "omlpnihitiother" to 767825

		$13.99 CD $9.99 MP3   VARIOUS ARTISTS Bangs & Works Vol. 1 (Planet Mu) "Jungle Juke" Tha Pope "Eraser" RP Boo While this is Planet Mu's third release documenting the innovative Chicago footwork scene, Bangs & Works Vol 1 probably should have been the first one issued. A 25-track compilation featuring fourteen of the scene's producers, this collection serves as a more varied and somewhat balanced introduction to the sounds of footwork than the previous installments by DJ Nate and DJ Roc, both of whom have tracks included here. The same dizzying plan of attack is in effect: Steve Reich minimalism meets jungle/drum'n'bass velocity meets syrup-sipping urban swagger. But many of the producers take different approaches to their similar ingredients, and in the end it comes off like an episode of Iron Chef. Notable highlights include Tha Pope's refigure of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" on "Jungle Juke," the neon-lit contributions by Traxman, the chopped up FM-soul broadcast "Itz Not Rite" by DJ Rashad, and DJ Elmoe's epic "Whea Yo Ghost At, Whea Yo Dead Man." Many tracks, like RP Boo's "Total Darkness," and "Kill Da Circle" and "Freddy Vs Jason," both by DJ Lil Rome & DJ Yung Tellem, carry a dark, unsettling queasiness in their wildly flailing technical percolations, much like the idea of Autechre scoring a giallo horror film. Overall, this stuff is dark, gritty, and completely devoid of pop crossover potential, despite so much highly recognizable sample source material. While many find the high-octane dance moves which tend to accompany these sounds rather difficult to pull off, I personally find this music completely hypnotic and relaxing while simultaneously kinetic and propulsive, and for all its darkness, there's no denying how fun this stuff is as well. If you've been intrigued yet intimidated by the DJ Nate or DJ Roc volumes, give this one a shot. This is probably the closest thing the scene will get to an all-encompassing overview, stuffed to the gills with tracks by many of footwork's founding fathers as well as its up-and-coming upstarts. I'd also highly recommend anyone who has been digging recent records by Salem, Forest Swords, Balam Acab, and the rest of the drag/witch house scene to pick Bangs & Works up ASAP -- the hazy, gothic thugishness hinted at in those records comes into full bloom here, with REAL street cred added, to boot. This is an important document, but in more relevance, it's a satisfying one, too. [IQ] Order CD by Texting "omcdvariousbangs" to 767825

		$17.99 LP+MP3   VARIOUS ARTISTS Said I Had a Vision: Songs & Labels of David Lee, 1960-1988 (Paradise of Bachelors) It's safe to say you've never heard of songwriter, producer, and record label impresario David Lee of Mooresboro, North Carolina. His output between the years of 1960 and 1988 consists of sixteen releases (two LPs and fourteen 45s) of R&B, soul, and gospel music on three separate imprints; a smattering of third-party productions; and one hit: a minor one, though albeit the first, for Southern soul singer Ann Sexton. Working out of his Washington Sound record and audio supply shop in Shelby, NC, Lee made ends meet by installing P.A. systems at local churches and keeping a second gig at Shelby's North Lake Country Club. It'd be a cliché to say he labored in obscurity, but it wouldn't be wrong. So in steps Said I Had a Vision: Songs and Labels of David Lee, a 14-song overview of Lee's oeuvre, and a tribute to his longevity, tenacity, and dedication to his craft in spite of the dead ends and disappointments that beset it. But unlike many releases of its kind, this is no revel in obscurity for obscurity's sake. David Lee made some outstanding records. In fact, with such a slim discography to his name, you could say that nearly all of his records were outstanding -- and all of them, of course, have been long out of print until now. Said I Had a Vision culls material from a diversity of groups from the Carolinas, produced -- and with material often written -- by David Lee and released on his Washington Sound, Impel, and SCOP ("Soul, Country, Opera and Pop") labels, c. 1961 to 1985. Sacred and secular, white and black, it's all killer and no filler: from the teenage boppers of the interracial Constellations (popular at schools, frats, and teen clubs throughout the Jim Crow South) to the nimble soul-funk of South Carolina's Yakety Yaks and Brown Sugar Inc., the latter equal parts Sly Stone and the Temprees; from the jaunty electric gospel of the Singing Mellerairs and the Gospel I.Q.s to both sides of Ann Sexton's debut 45. Most killer of all is a 1985 single that was the first to bear David Lee's name: a staggering country-soul wrencher called "I'll Never Get Over Losing You," sung by the man himself. The Paradise of Bachelors team has left few if any stones unturned in compiling their tribute to David Lee -- their extensive liner notes put the triumphs and travails of the Washington Sound principals in fascinating geographic and historical contexts, and what emerges is a charming, complex, and sympathetic portrait of Lee, who will turn 75 this year and who, judging by his reminiscences in the booklet, has no regrets concerning his career. Said I Had a Vision is a labor of love in the great David Lee tradition, and it made for one of this listener's favorite records of 2010. [NS] Order LP by Texting "omlpsaidsongs" to 767825

		$14.99 CD   VAROUS ARTISTS Disconnect: Leo Zero (Strut) "Silicon Chip" Basement 5 "VI Gela Gela" The Piranhas We're big fans of !K7's ongoing DJ Kicks series, ranging from fine mixes by Four Tet to the Juan Maclean and James Holden, so the idea that there might be a brand new series of DJ mixes from sister label Strut is a delightful surprise. What distinguishes Disconnect from Kicks might be a fine line, but its inaugural release comes from DJ Leo Zero. In the nu-disco world, Zero is an up-and-comer, remixing the likes of Florence and the Machine and Paul Weller; for his set here though, he stretches out and tightens up in equal measure, going into shimmering world grooves, African rhythms, Caribbean slinkiness, post-punk horns, and twitchy dark disco with equal aplomb. He even makes names as diverse as Essential Logic, Chris & Cosey, Brian Eno, and Can all cohere. Effervescent and shadowy all at once, this is a promising start for both Zero and the latest series from the !K7/Strut family. [AB] Order CD by Texting "omcdvariousleo" to 767825

		$15.99 CD $12.99 MP3   JATOMA Jatoma (Kompakt) Preview Songs on Other Music's Download Store 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. [MC] Order CD by Texting "omcdjatomajatoma" to 767825

		$17.99 LP   RIDE Nowhere (Rhino) Ride's debut album Nowhere surfaced in 1990, the Oxford group sandwiched in between the Madchester baggy pants scene and the nascent shoegaze explosions that would rock the UK (and subsequently America) for years to follow. Most people who hear this record seem to like it right away, as it makes for a very satisfying blend: shag-a-delic '60s pop shakers and darling indie-pop-twee melodies, married to ear-shattering volume, strobing feedback, and peals of distortion. Nowhere birthed a thousand and one indie pop DJ nights and served as the backdrop for untold scores of horny teens and college kids to fumble with bra snaps and zipper flys by. For a sound so married to its times, the music of Ride -- particularly the records up to and including their second, more polished LP Going Blank Again -- carries with it eternal qualities, second only to monsters like The Stone Roses and My Bloody Valentine's Creation EPs, and in some cases exceeding those efforts; anyone who can't relate to being a petulant, misunderstood adolescent with bangs in their eyes as "Dreams Burn Down" detonates around them probably isn't human. Nowhere scorched the UK charts upon its release, but it took Sire a good while to get the record prepped for US release. When it came out here, it was a CD/cassette-only affair, with extra cuts from the band's Fall EP tacked onto the end as a bonus for dragging their tails on the domestic version. The original release contained only eight monolithic tracks, reproduced here in Rhino's exact 180g vinyl reissue. (Diehards may wish to seek out a recent Japanese vinyl edition, which replaces the tracks from Fall along with four more from 1991's Today Forever EP). If you're not like me, and weren't lucky enough to have found an OG import Nowhere LP after years of trolling the Other Music used bins, here's your chance to redeem yourselves. [DM] Order LP by Texting "omlpridenowhere" to 767825

		$15.99 CD $19.99 LP $9.99 MP3   HEAVY WINGED Sunspotted (Type) "Breathe Life" "Vapor Trails" 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 known for while upping the clarity just enough so that all instruments manage to peek out of 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. [MC] Order CD by Texting "omcdheavysunspotted" to 767825 Order LP by Texting "omlpheavysunspotted" to 767825

		$14.99 LP   BORGHESIA Ljubav Je Hladnija Od Smrti (Dark Entries) Perhaps better remembered for their late-'80s output, Borghesia's first album, 1985's Ljubav Je Hladnija Od Smrti (Love Is Colder Than Death), is a brilliant minimal-industrial pop record which has been lovingly reissued by San Francisco's Dark Entries imprint. Emerging from the gay leather subculture of Ljubljana in the early '80s, this Slovenian duo's aesthetic here references both the dark underworld of the dungeon and the lights of the dance floor. Taking cues from the arty rhythms of post-punk bands like the Pop Group and the synth-funk of Liaisons Dangereuses or D.A.F., Borghesia work these influences into their industrial dance vision. Loaded with eerie samples, echoing synths and guitars, and a tight, rhythmic production, Ljubav juxtaposes disparate elements and sounds to awesome effect. Pressed on blood-red vinyl as it was when it was first issued in Yugoslavia back in '85, the LP is also packaged in an exact replica of the original six-paneled fold-out sleeve, complete with an enormous poster on the flipside. As an added bonus, Dark Entries has done the kind service of translating the lyrics, which for us non-Slovenian speakers only serves to strengthen what's going on here: the upbeat synth-pop of "On" turns out to be an homage to sadomasochism, while the melancholic synth jam "Nocne Setnje" speaks of the loneliness of late-night cruising. Overall, Ljubav Je Hladnija Od Smrti is one of the most essential synth reissues of late and completely reassesses Borghesia's contribution to industrial dance music of the 1980s. Highly Recommended! [CPa] Order LP by Texting "omlpborghesialjubav" to 767825 Other great titles now available from Dark Entries include: Eleven Pond's Bas Relief, Nagamatzu's Sacred Islands of the Mad, Pesteg Dred Years of Struggle Against the Lies, the Stupidity and the Cowardice and a split LP between End of Your Garden and Da Må Være Belgiere (full review next week).

		$4.99 CS   TALK NORMAL/LOWER DENS Split Cassette (Impose) Impose Magazine brings us the fifth cassette in their ongoing series: a split between Talk Normal, Brooklyn's post-apocalyptic noise-rock powerhouse, and Baltimore's Lower Dens, spearheaded by visionary Americana-psych-folk artist Jana Hunter. On the Talk Normal side, "Hot Water Burns" is a repeat player that disguises darkness and urgency in schoolyard melody and measure. Andrya Ambro and Sarah Register push forward with simultaneously-delivered prose while frequent collaborator Richard Hoffman from Sightings muscles in with a sinister bassline that gives the track an extra funkified crunch. The sum is casually threatening, but with a near-pop catchiness -- both one of their most accessible and avant-garde tracks. Talk Normal seem to be inching closer to joining up with Patti Smith as true "rock poets." I was happy to put a face to the name of the Lower Dens track "Submit," a minimal seven-and-a-half minute piece that grabbed me towards the end of one of the band's record-breaking 11 shows during last fall's CMJ festival. Recorded in the same sessions that comprised the Baltimore group's debut full-length on the Gnomonsong label, it must not have fit quite right with the frequent chug and shimmer of that wanderlust-filled country-rock record, even at its most brooding. This black sheep of a track smacks of the sparse vocal and acoustic sketches on founding member Jana Hunter's haunting solo records. Here, Hunter's vocal loops turn dirge-like and electric guitar boils up into abrasive, alarming tones. This single is assurance that Lower Dens will continue to follow Hunter's keen instincts, whether coolly reflective or timelessly majestic. Think of it like a split 7", but on cassette! Limited to two editions of 100, half with one band on Side A and their picture in the artwork and vice versa. A great match-up of two forward-thinking groups with huge potential. Flip it 'til the batteries die. [KS] Order Cassette by Texting "omcasstalklower" to 767825

		$12.99 CD $9.99 MP3   READING RAINBOW Prism Eyes (Hozac) Preview Songs on Other Music's Download Store You are forgiven for maybe not wanting to give a band that willingly selected the name Reading Rainbow a fair shake, but if you're a lover of indie pop and catchy/jangly melodies, you'd be doing yourself a great disservice by missing out on the Philadelphia group's second album, and first for Chicago garage powerhouse Hozac Records. Prism Eyes reheats the tension and snap of the classic boy-girl duo (she on drums, he on guitar, and both on vocals), and instantly recalls recent successes in angelic, tuneful pop time capsules like the Vivian Girls or Dum Dum Girls. Reading Rainbow mitigates those similarities by adding some lighter touches -- they sound remarkably full for a two-piece, maybe taking some cues from No Age, definitely cribbing some lessons in dynamic perfection from Unrest -- and come up with the sort of pristine pop effort that wouldn't have been out of place on the Teenbeat label circa 1997. Give them a shot; maybe come up with your own name for them, as this record will definitely surprise more of you out there than you might think. [DM] Order CD by Texting "omcdreadingprism" to 767825

		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 [MC] Michael Crumsho [[IQ] Mikey IQ Jones [DM] Doug Mosurock [CP] Chris Pappas [NS] Nathan Salsburg [KS] Karen Soskin THANKS FOR READING - all of us at Other Music

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