September 1, 2011

		FEATURED NEW RELEASES Balam Acab Clams Casino Beirut Omar Souleyman Rev. Charlie Jackson (Limited LP) P.G. Six Blood Orange Motor City Drum Ensemble YACHT Stone Coal White Erkin Koray Corky Carroll & Friends Roedelius Bohren & der Club of Gore DJ Diamond     Male Bonding Dirty Beaches (CD Pressing) ALSO AVAILABLE Hella Jacuzzi Boys Razika Philip Cohran (Now on Vinyl) Follow us on Facebook: facebook.com/othermusicnyc Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/othermusic

		SEP Sun 11 Mon 12 Tues 13 Wed 14 Thurs 15 Fri 16 Sat 17   NEON INDIAN: Tuesday September 13, 6PM-8PM Alan Palomo releases his highly anticipated second Neon Indian album, Era Extraña on September 13, and he decided to celebrate at Other Music.  Palomo will be DJing, signing records, and hanging with the fans all evening -- please stop by to pick up a copy of the great new album, hear some of the music that influenced Palomo, and show the band how much NYC loves Neon Indian! OTHER MUSIC: 15 East 4th Street NYC Free Admission | Limited Capacity

		$15.99 CD $18.99 LP $9.99 MP3   BALAM ACAB Wander/Wonder (Tri Angle) "Motion" "Now Time" The sludgy, dreamy and seductive music that 20-year-old Pennsylvania resident Alec Koone crafts as Balam Acab really stands out when compared to the countless "hypnagogic" indie projects that have been hitting our shelves and taking up so much Internet bandwidth in the past year or two. See Birds, his debut EP from 2010, was and still is a blueprint for that scene and it's arguably the crown jewel in the Tri Angle catalogue. Needless to say, there's been a lot of anticipation for the new Balam Acab full-length and it delivers on the expectations. More of a suite than a collection of distinct, separate songs, Wander/Wonder is chock full of blissful moments. Engulfed in an indescribable ambience, the album's 36-minute run time feels like a full day -- it's whole and complete. Playing like some free-flowing mutant-dub album, there's a subtle sway-and-tumble element to the beats that makes them bob like apples in a barrel of water, half-floating and half-submerged as waves of synths surface from field recordings of dripping faucets, running streams, splashing ponds and open atmospheres. Though at times W/W seems stoic and focused, there's also a lighthearted attitude present; every element of darkness that appears is surrounded by an emerald forest of sparkling textures, almost akin to, say, the glowing 3D vegetation in Avatar. Though Koone has been lumped into the witch house subgenre, on W/W, he distances himself from the dreary and morbid and, instead, reaches for a place that's inviting and hopeful. Nothing is rushed, hurried, or pushed -- the rhythms are all way under 100 BPMs, but they maintain a strong sense of movement throughout; it's as if slowing things down makes every motion more pronounced. Integrated, soulful and organic, Wander/Wonder is built on mood and melody and it's refreshing in the pure sense of modern outsider music; the R&B influence is there, but it's coupled with a more classical theme. The album just might be the next evolution in the Thom Yorke, Panda Bear, Bon Iver, James Blake continuum as Koone has created something lonely, weird, beautiful, soft and alien with a skewed pop aspiration that's destined to make a mark. I've said it before, and it's still true here, Balam Acab is like Burial, but prettier. Highly recommended. [DG]

		$25.99 LPx2   CLAMS CASINO Instrumentals (Type) Clams Casino has been making quite a splash in 2011, crafting beats from his mom's attic in Nutley, NJ (home of Martha Stewart!) for the likes of Lil B, Soujah Boy, and Main Attrakionz, scoring attention for his excellent, sensual, detailed soundscapes that seem almost haphazard on paper (he allegedly types random strings of words into LimeWire search engines to determine his sample sources), yet which all coalesce into tracks which live, breathe, and throb with intensity. It's no wonder he was commissioned by buzz-worthy label Tri Angle for a new EP earlier this year; his collusions often upstart anything else the label's yet released, ably balancing bloody-minded experimentalist textures, pitch-warped vocal samples slurred into oblivion, and epic synth washes, which all rub up against heavy, sluggish drug beats. The results are often psychedelic in both a post-punk and hip-hop mentality, echoing the likes of Adrian Sherwood and Robin Guthrie as much as Endtroducing-era DJ Shadow or Diamond D. Type Records does us all a massive favor in issuing Clams' instrumental mixtape from earlier this year, offered as a free download via the man himself, as a limited edition 2LP set, pressed with care at Dubplates + Mastering and featuring instrumentals over which the aforementioned rappers spit their rhymes. The tracks on Instrumentals more than hold their own sans lyrics, in fact, they display an emotional weight that feels genuine, exploratory, and entirely arranged. These aren't just interlocking samples waltzing around one another for four to five minutes; these tracks flirt with dub aquatics, gentle classicist beauty, chest-thumping bass bounce, and a double-take-inducing "did I just hear that!?" hubris that populates his choices for vocal samples. One of the standouts, "Illest Alive," cuts up Bjork's "Bachelorette" with a squealing, whirring nervousness, while its sister track, "Realest Alive," slows the mom-soul enunciations of Adele's "Hometown Glory" down to a molasses-thick bellow and clap, the vocal moans surrounded by schools of twittering birds and synth strings so epic, you'd think it was Oscar night. Janelle Monae even turns up like a wind-up toy walking into a wall on almost-closer "Cold War," her vocal virtually untreated, just chopped and looped, and therefore so startling in its immediate conspicuity. Elsewhere, things tap into the mechanics of the UK bass scene ("Brainwash by London"), and the sort of minimalist rap-pop pioneered by the Neptunes ("She's Hot"), but make no mistake, hip-hop is the lifeblood here, and it's that dedication to head-nodding tempos that anchors Clams' wildest impulses. This is a standout release, one of the year's best electronic records, and absolute essential listening for anyone who has been seduced by the hex of folks like Jamie xx, Burial, Flying Lotus, the entire Tri Angle roster, and James Blake. This is music filled with craft, emotion, and rock-solid beats, and it's damn good. [IQ]

		$12.99 CD $16.99 LP $7.99 MP3   BEIRUT The Rip Tide (Pompeii) Preview Songs on Other Music's Download Store Up until now, Zach Condon's album output as Beirut has played like an old scrapbook filled with sepia-toned photographs of journeys across time and place. 2006's exotic, horn-fueled Gulag Orkestar found the then 19-year-old daydreaming of cavorting in a Gypsy caravan across the Balkans with members of Neutral Milk Hotel. Then, a year and a half later on The Flying Cup Club, he was recasting himself as a Parisian street singer performing a set of newly imagined chansons on the Left Bank. So, it was no surprise when Condon enlisted a 19-piece Mexican funeral band for 2009's March of the Zapotec EP. Of course, there's a fine line between sincerity and gimmickry and, over the years, Condon has commendably stayed on the right side. In fact, what's best about Beirut's music is how Condon is able to effortlessly channel the yearning croon of Rufus Wainwright or borrow a page or two out of Stephin Merritt's timeless pop craftbook while, at the same time, exploring the sounds of far-away lands. These strengths have never been more apparent than they are on Beirut's latest, The Rip Tide, a record which finds Condon successfully honing his songwriting rather than searching for a new flag from yet another distant locale to plant into his troubadour hat. An ode to his hometown, "Santa Fe" taps into a similar sort of Magnetic Fields-esque electro-pop as Gulag's "Scenic World." Yet, here it's more polished as Condon's anthemic proclamation of "Sign me up Santa Fe" is answered by the confident swell of brass. It's perhaps Beirut's most accessible moment to date, and throughout the rest of the album traditional pop structures continue to play a bigger role than in past recordings. Sure, there's still plenty of rollicking Gypsy horns, mournful strings and wheezing accordions, but in melancholic ballads like "East Harlem" and "Goshen" or the jaunty "Vagabond," it's a piano that's anchoring the arrangements and not the other way around. There's a sense of restraint to this 33-minute set that puts Condon's expressive baritone melodies under an even brighter spotlight and simultaneously reveals the singer to be more introspective than ever. During the title track he confesses, "This is the house where I can be unknown, be alone," an honest sentiment that unknowingly signals not just the maturing of a songwriter, but that he's reached a new stage in his still-young adult years. Condon's pangs of wanderlust seem to have been tempered by the realization that there really is no place like home. [GH] First edition CD and LP pressings housed in special packaging, while supplies last.

		$15.99 CD   OMAR SOULEYMAN Haflat Gharbia: The Western Concerts (Sublime Frequencies) "Gazula/Shift Al Mani (I Saw Her)" "Haram" Omar Souleyman has had a spotlight of the brightest intensity shining on his career for the past few years in a fashion almost unheard of for most international performers of his nature; he began as a Syrian wedding singer and has ended up one of the most highly respected figures of the international underground. After a hugely successful series of recent concerts in Europe and the Americas, not to mention an excellent studio collaboration with superstar Bjork, he's offering up this document of recordings from those Western performances, and it's not only a total doozy, but also a great place to jump on to the bandwagon if you haven't yet become a convert. Those familiar with Souleyman's high-octane Dabke beats will know what they're in for here; the rhythms are dizzying, and the interplay between multi-instrumentalist Rizan Sa'id's fluttering synth splatter and electric saz player Ali Shaker's hypnotic riffs gives these tunes a fluid yet rock-solid backbone that needs to be heard to be believed. This is probably the most hi-fi release yet offered by Souleyman aside from the Bjork collab, and as I stated in my review of that record, it's fantastic to be able to hear his soulful voice bear full fruit over such clear music. While the lo-fi techno vibes of those previous releases is great unto itself, there's a different power at work here, and it is given an excellent, respectful package thanks to Sublime Frequencies. These tunes kick with the force of a house night in Detroit or Berlin, but at the same time display the instrumental dexterity of jazz virtuosos at a Village Vanguard residency; crowd noise is filtered out and every song slays, for an all-killer, no-filler experience. Tempos generally hover in the usual upper BPMs, but the overall feeling seems just a smidge slower, allowing for some breathing room not only in the arrangements, but also in the audience, and that extra oxygen gives these recordings a sensuality one may not have felt in the lo-fi jams of old. Souleyman's earlier releases were also compiled mostly from live recordings, but here they pack a punch that had been previously missing from the equation. Longtime fans are definitely going to need this, and if you're a newbie who just grabbed the Bjork EP and need some more, this is the fix that will get you through. The man is unstoppable; don't stand in his way unless you're ready for one hell of a night! [IQ]

		$19.99 LP   REV. CHARLIE JACKSON You Got to Move: Live Recordings, Vol. 1 (50 Miles of Elbow Room) Lordy, Lordy, Lordy... the first spin of this album didn't just bring me to my knees, if flat laid me out on the floor! Not to take the Lord's name in vain and all, but GOD DAMN!!! Comprised of live recordings taped to cassette, You Got to Move: Live Recordings, Vol. 1 captures famed guitar evangelist Rev. Charlie Jackson at his rawest, most fervored and visceral best. Do you remember that awesome comp of Jackson's obscure gospel seven-inches that Case Quarter reissued in 2003, and how rippin' that was? Well, this goes beyond even that, for the most part capturing the man in a number of different pulpits throughout the years with a single mic as he lets fly all manner of guitar pyrotechnics and ecstatic singing. I mean truly, it must be heard to be believed! And I won't lie, the sound here is raw and rawer, but I find it nothing short of miraculous that a teensy little cassette tape can nevertheless capture the vast sound of a man's soul soaring unto heaven. Highly limited, this release is clearly a labor of love for Adam Lore's 50 Miles of Elbow Room, with a gorgeous tip-on sleeve and a beautifully designed and informative eight-page pamphlet insert. Seriously cannot wait for the next two volumes, but for now this is with out a doubt one of the greatest archival releases of the year. [MK]

		$13.99 CD   P.G. SIX Starry Mind (Drag City) "The Month of January" "Wrong Side of Yesterday" Whenever you get tired of what you're listening to, cleanse yourselves with the new P.G. Six record. On its strength you will remember the purity in changing leaves, the purge of everything less than stellar you did this summer, the perennial folly of Northern Hemisphere living as we race to the cold end of another year in exchange for the passion stored in a colder day. On Starry Mind, Pat Gubler and company (NYC rock stalwarts Bob Bannister, Robert Dennis and Debby Schwartz in tow, with guest spots by Zachary Cale, Antietam's Tara Key and the Court & Spark's Scott Hirsch) project the stern harvest of late '60s/early '70s rural folk and electric rock in a manner so true and righteous as to reawaken the form altogether. These eight songs are stately, loud, elegant, and stirring, always returning to the compass point no matter how far they wander from the beginning, Plymouth Rock in full view. We share more with one another than we ever have as a society. Gubler and band are doing their part to ensure that the bridge to nature and the work that they do in the service of their genre, and its mainstays -- Fairport, Pentangle, even early Jethro Tull -- will remain intertwined for at least a few more years. This record will turn your head and the live show will (very properly) clean your clock. Time to check in with them once again. [DM]

		$13.99 CD $19.99 LP+MP3 $9.99 MP3   BLOOD ORANGE Coastal Grooves (Domino) "I'm Sorry We Lied" "Forget It" My first encounter with Blood Orange was actually through a customer who recommended that I check out their 7" released on Terrible Records. The song "Dinner" (not included here) from that single quickly became a favorite on my playlist as a splashy and soulful throwback reminiscent of many Prince imitators from the '80s, as well as more recent decades -- think of a mix of Twin Shadow, Inc. and Autre Ne Veut with a hint of Ariel Pink. Needless to say, I was definitely intrigued and, upon further digging, I came across a downloadable mixtape, DJ Exotica Sage Presents: Blood Orange Home Recordings, which featured more of this lo-fi indie funk. I was a little surprised, then, when I learned that Blood Orange is actually the latest incarnation of Devonte Hynes (Test Icicles, Lightspeed Champion); never a huge fan of his former work, he's got me hooked with his new project. Though his single and mixtape amped up the electro-synth-funk angle, his new full-length, Coastal Grooves, seems somewhat more traditional in comparison. Less overtly Prince-y, Hynes has stripped his occasionally overindulgent music down to a barebones minimum, going for more of a soul/rock-meets-new wave vibe, which gives the album a nice raw, nostalgic and personal sound. Since his last Lightspeed album, he's been writing and producing for a number of women artists (including Solange Knowles) and many of the songs here are written from a female perspective, lending Hynes an effeminate edge. That element, coupled with a recent throat operation, has opened the door for Hynes to a new way of singing; his vocals here are delivered in a higher register, breathy and coy, resulting in an androgynous zone few dare to journey. Dedicated to legendary underground trans-woman performer Octavia Saint Laurent, the whole album feels gender bent, a mix of softness that's queer and sensitive, with an intimate and odd sexuality present throughout. Filled with sparse and spiky guitar, analog drum machines, bass and vintage synths, the sound here cuts across the spectrum of '80s acts -- from Bowie to Andre Cymone, the Fine Young Cannibals to Scritti Politti, Tom Tom Club to YMO -- with enough soulful rock and pop melodies and the occasional chill wave accent to sway the haters. Whatever your opinion was of his previous projects, you should approach Blood Orange with a fresh perspective; you might just be surprised. It's amazing what one can do when inspired to change things up. Nice one. [DG]

		#3 & #4 $13.99 12" #5 & #6 $13.99 12"   MOTOR CITY DRUM ENSEMBLE Raw Cuts #3 & #4 (Self-Released) MOTOR CITY DRUM ENSEMBLE Raw Cuts #5 & #6 (Self-Released) Hot on the heels of Motorcity Drum Ensemble's kickin' cross-genre mix CD for DJ Kicks comes a much welcomed vinyl repress from his killer Raw Cuts series of 12-inch EPs. Feeling more "live" and "real" than so-called tech-house, the series really impressed us with its blend of soul, disco and Detroit house, with its well-placed bits of soulful vocals, excellent arrangements and an overall genuine thumpiness. We managed to snag copies of Volume 3&4 and 5&6 and I can't stop saying this over and over: I can't believe this kid is German!! "Raw Cuts 3" features a fat, thumpy snap with warm chord timbres and a "Yeah, aight" vocal sample interwoven with some soulful "oooooOOOOooo"s here and there. It's got that same kind of chordy thump that made John Roberts' "Hesitate" single so special, but in a less subdued way and with more layers and umph. "Raw Cuts 4" is energetic yet still Detroit beatdown-esque, but with more clappin' and thumpin', and it remains in the pocket with a warm Moodymann synth vibe, complete with bits of vocals that seem like pitch-shifted Diana Ross samples. "Raw Cuts 5" borrows the trademark Moodymann party crowd samples, but throws in stuttery tone stabs and wonderfully layered soul vocals while "Raw Cuts 6" is a straight-up slow burning bliss track heavily reminiscent of Theo Parrish's classic "Moonlight," but with an added soul vocal expertly laid on top. Great vinyl cuts...still really feeling these even though it's the second time around. [SM]

		$14.99 CD $21.99 LPx2 $9.99 MP3   YACHT Shangri-La (DFA) "Utopia" "One Step" Never ones to shy away from mixing party jams with concept, YACHT's fifth long-player finds this Portland duo continuing their long obsession with the mystical and paranormal, here calling for human enlightenment via a communal experience on the dance floor. (Of course, YACHT's notion of dance music as a spiritual ritual is viewed through a secular lens -- paradise can be found on earth.) Yet even with science theorist Claire L. Evans -- who teamed up with Jona Bechtolt as a fulltime member for 2009's See Mystery Lights -- making precocious call to arms like "Into the battle now, here we go/ And even in Arcadia, ego, ego, ego!" and quoting Jim Jones' sermons to make a case against zealotry, high concept is ultimately trumped by the fun card. Opening trifecta "Utopia," "Dystopia (The Earth Is on Fire)" and "I Walked Alone" are sassy, prime slices of DFA disco-punk a la glistening synths, elastic bass and funky, incessant grooves. (A few songs later, you can easily imagine Evans' rant in "Paradise Earth" being recited by James Murphy in his trademark frenzy over the clattering lockstep beat.) Though the quirky stop-start charms of past tracks like "See a Penny (Pick It Up)" have been mostly replaced by four-on-the-floor rhythms, YACHT are still electro-pop's brainiest oddballs. One could imagine that if psychedelic philosopher/rave guru Terence McKenna were still alive, he'd be meeting up with the band to discuss UFOs and the afterlife, as well as the afterhours. [GH]

		$14.99 CD $16.99 LP   STONE COAL WHITE Stone Coal White (Cali-Tex Records) "Hell Below" "Peoples" Just when you thought that there were no more hidden funk jewels to be excavated, DJ Shadow's Cali-Tex imprint offers up one of the grimiest, nastiest unheard rock-n-soul masterpieces of the '70s. Hailing from the unsung soul mecca of Dayton, OH, and led by gang member Jesse Chandler, Stone Coal White was a bona fide black motorcycle gang who also happened to be one helluva heavy psych-funk outfit. Originally unearthed by noted collector Dante Carfagna and showcased on his seminal psych-soul mix Chains and Black Exhaust, SCW delivered a scuzzy mix of rust-belt rock-n-roll grit, pedal-to-the-metal wah-wah guitar, and heavy primitive funk backbeats. Imagine Curtis Mayfield and Funkadelic jamming after two tabs of brown acid and you're almost there. Although they never gained any popularity outside of their hometown, the band acquired a loyal, local fanbase, which says a lot considering that their Dayton peers included Zapp, Slave, Ohio Players and Lakeside at that time! In 2005 Shadow and Carfagna tracked Chandler down in Dayton and were able to get their hands on the masters of Stone Coal White's two locally released 45s (which now command prices of $1000 or more on eBay) and four other unreleased tunes, all of which make up this album of complete recordings. Sadly, Chandler never lived to see his catalog released to a national audience; he was tragically shot outside of his home late last year. This long overdue record, however, insures that he and his band will get their deserved spot in the annals of underground funk history. Any passing fan of Funkadelic, the aforementioned Dayton groups, heavy rock and roll, and effin' s**t up need to get their hands on this one, ASAP! [DH]

		$15.99 CD   ERKIN KORAY Mechul: Singles & Rarities (Sublime Frequencies) "Mechul" "Krallar" Erkin Koray is one of the icons of Turkish psychedelic music. His records have been slowly reissued and compiled in the West over the past few years, giving new listeners a chance to hear the man who essentially brought rock music to the Anatolian country. Sublime Frequencies adds another jewel to his crown with this excellent CD collecting single tracks and rarities heretofore mostly unavailable on previous reissues of Koray's work, many of which were unauthorized bootlegs. Koray himself assisted in the track selection, offering material from his own archives, and it's nice to know the man is getting some royalties for this, as it's one of the best compilations of his work I've heard. He ably combines rock instrumentation with Turkish folk forms, amplifying traditional Anatolian instruments and processing them through psychedelic effects, often with heavy, funky beds of rhythm underpinning his fuzzed-out riffs and soulful vocals. If you've enjoyed reissues by the likes of Selda, Ersen, or either volume of the Turkish Freakout series, you'll find much to love here; the grooves are hypnotic, the vibes are thick with incense, and there are few characters in international psychedelia who deserve more attention from the wider turned-on, tuned-in, dropped-out masses. Fans of everything from Hendrix to the 13th Floor Elevators to Amon Duul II should check this out post-haste. [IQ]

		$21.99 CD $36.99 LP   CORKY CARROLL & FRIENDS Laid Back (EM) "Haleiwa" "A Walk on Hot Sand" I for one am stoked to see Japan's EM Records resurrect their series of obscure surf-related albums (Tully, Farm, Tamam Shud, etc.) with this most appropriately titled LP from famed pro-surfer Corky Carroll, recorded in 1971 with a gaggle of his surfer pals (including Denny Aarberg from the Innermost Limits of Pure Fun album). The very definition of easy breezy, Laid Back captures a series of mellow recording sessions Carroll staged at the various participants' -- surfers all -- homes along the coast of California. Mostly acoustic, there's a heavy Hawaiian slack-key sans gloss vibe happening on a lot of the tracks, linking it to the roots revival Gabby Pahinui and Peter Moon were popularizing in Honolulu at the time. The sound here is really easy to get into, super-mellow, fingerpicked guitars, the occasional laconic vocal, and a warm fidelity you can simply bask in. An absolutely essential accoutrement to the waning days of summer as far as I'm concerned. [MK]

		$17.99 CD $9.99 MP3   ROEDELIUS Wasser im Wind (Bureau B) Preview Songs on Other Music's Download Store It's funny to think back to just a few short years ago. One had to scour record bins and online auctions to secure rare, out-of-print copies of Kosmische vinyl. Now when you pay a visit to a decent record store, the presence of a bin full of so many legendary records of the genre has become almost run of the mill -- were they not so stunning. Bureau B can take credit for a great deal of Moebius and Roedelius' work as Cluster and in various other solo and collaborative incarnations. 1982's Wasser im Wind finds Hans-Joachim Roedelius not in his solo piano mode -- which often locates him in a pastoral space between Debussy, Satie and Windham Hill -- but rather acting as though Moebius and his electronic textures were there with him in the room, playing the foil to his own intuitive keyboard musings, notably more so than perhaps any other Roedelius solo record. In fact, you'd be forgiven if you mistook opener "Der Ruf deer Ferne" for a track from Cluster's landmark Zuckerzeit, with its clavé drumbox rhythm. Meanwhile, the repetitive strains of "Am Stadtrand" evoke the off-the-cuff feeling speediness of Musik Von Harmonia. "Zwei Sind Eins" repays the homage Eno and Bowie paid them on Side B of Low, a minor chord analog pattern chugging along quietly and dissonantly, unsettling in its near-Orientalism. "Auf Des Tigers Spur" veers closer to the minimalism espoused by Chris & Cosey's early-'80s work, a Simmons-like drum pad and a particularly '80s-sounding guitar "solo" confirming what decade we find ourselves in. "Immergruen" charts a different kind of landscape, closer to the spiritual free jazz of Don Cherry's tense soundtracks for Jodorowsky. The lovely, haunting "Heilsamer Brunnen" may be Wasser im Wind's highlight, conjuring Popol Vuh and standing toe to toe with Cluster's best, most mysterious work. Notwithstanding the fact that we may have started taking for granted that so many of their records are now available, Wasser im Wind, like the other classics that have preceded it, confirms it really doesn't mean we should. [AGe]

		$15.99 CD   BOHREN & DER CLUB OF GORE Sunset Mission (Wonder) "Street Tattoo" "Black City Skyline" When the first Demdike Stare album came out, I remember thinking, "Hmmm...interesting noir-ish soundtrack stuff, distinctive sound quality. Kinda dark and mysterious, but also laidback and inviting without just being lounge." The particular balance of elements was familiar to me, but it took a minute to remember exactly why. Then it struck me. "Oh yeah...Bohren und der Club of Gore!" Now, I'm not saying they sound the same by any means, there's just a certain specific and rare balance of mood, sparseness and allure that exists in both groups. Add to that the fact that BUDCOG have a very David Lynch/Angelo Badalamenti-type eeriness that's both romantic and tragically beautiful and you'll have to agree that these guys have a certain amount of overdue credit that's been accruing interest over the last 10 years or so. When this stuff originally came out in the late '90s/early 2000s, it arrived right when the bloated wave of jazzy electronica had begun dying its slow, miserable death. So at the time it was natural to dismiss these moody, Twin Peaks vibes, and yeah...the name wasn't the coolest either. Yet in hindsight, the strong sound and sense of mood developed from a special level of restraint certainly sets BUDCOG far apart from your average "lounge-tronica" act. This is the kind of stuff that, when played at the right moment, is the only thing that can hit the spot. The time is now to give credit where credit is due! Check out Bohren und der Club of Gore's Sunset Mission and then go back to the even moodier Black Earth or Geisterfaust. [SM]

		$14.99 CD $9.99 MP3   DJ DIAMOND Flight Muzik (Planet Mu) Preview Songs on Other Music's Download Store Planet Mu continues its mission to expose the talents of Chicago's footwork scene with this debut full-length from DJ Diamond. Flight Muzik features a speedy set of clipped loops, synth stabs, bass bumps, rev-up chants and other sound effects (from TV dramas to sci-fi themes) that are designed to hype up whatever unfortunate dancer finds himself in a battle. As an extension of the current chopped-n-screwed mentality infecting the dance and indie scene, this is some next level beat science. Many of the tracks clock in at around the two-minute mark, and that's about as far as these loops need to go -- anything longer might possibly induce a seizure. Like jungle was in its infancy, this is primitive and tribal, guttural and raw. DJ Diamond occasionally expands the skeletal blueprint into more melodic passages, yet it still never really grows into anything totally fulfilling. As outsiders continue to be inspired by the newest Chicago export, its originators have yet to come up with a groundbreaking masterpiece and, devoid of the cypher atmosphere that gave birth to this modern, cutthroat version of a b-boy showdown, these tracks do lose a little of their power. However, with each release from Planet Mu in the series, they seem to be getting closer. Fans of Starkey, Rustie, Zomby's Where Were You in '92? and hyper-primal dance music in general will probably understand. [DG]

		$13.99 CD   MALE BONDING Endless Now (Sub Pop) "Tame the Sun" "Before It's Gone" The "new new wave" of British pop bands continues with Male Bonding, a trio of young Londoners who ply the pop-punk formula in wide-eyed and appealing fashion, hearkening back to a day when bands like Snuff and Leatherface were running alongside the initial shoegaze timeline, throwing eggs and downing pints. Male Bonding acts as the patched up relationship between those two disparate genres, with weekend custody of the dreamy vocals harmonies but work-week precision and pride against its speedy, substantial power moves on guitar, bass and drums. Twelve songs hustle along with restless intent. Great fun that will get you movin' in the mornin', when many of us need a game face. Might as well make it a big smile. Cool stuff! [DM]

		$13.99 CD   DIRTY BEACHES Badlands (Zoo Music) "The Lord Knows Best" "Sweet 17" We haven't been able to keep Montreal-based Alex Zhang Hungtai's Badlands LP on our shelves, but thankfully his Dirty Beaches full-length is now avaiable again, this time in CD format. Hungtai's setup is relatively simple yet effective; over eerie, looped samples that sound grave-robbed from old 1950s records pockmarked by a switchblade, he croons, yelps, and sweats himself into a frenzy that often recalls Suicide's Alan Vega, particularly on Vega's early solo albums. There's no question that this approach isn't particularly new, but what's remarkable is the clear efficiency and effectiveness he gives his muddy productions, setting up a mood and building the tune from there. And tunes there are aplenty, from the galloping shimmy of "Horses" to the overdriven doo-wop fuzz of "A Hundred Highways." Some of the record's true highlights, though, come in the album's two slow dances, the aching ballad "True Blue" and the outstanding waltz "Lord Knows Best" -- each sound like something that'd play on a barroom jukebox somewhere in the town of Twin Peaks. The record closes with two spooked, warped instrumental slices of doomy ambience which nod towards Hungtai's beginnings making more avant/noise abstraction, and by the end of this 26-minute temporal displacement, you're left with more questions than you have answers. This is arguably one of the strongest, oddest, yet most accessible debuts I've heard in a long time, and while its muddy sound quality may not be to everyone's liking, he's got the songs, and they hit you where it counts. Top marks all around for this one. [IQ]

		$13.99 CD   HELLA Tripper (Sargent House) "Self Checkout" "Netgear" The last time we saw Hella was in 2007 when the group had expanded into a five-piece band for There's No 666 in Outer Space. Tripper, however, is a return to form; the band has stripped back down to original duo drummer Zach Hill and guitarist Spencer Seim and together they create the frenetic "mathy" noise rock instrumentals they're so well known for.

		$11.99 CD   JACUZZI BOYS Glazin' (Hardly Art) "Vizcaya" "Libras and Zebras" Miami's Jacuzzi Boys give us their take on scuzzy, garage rock with Glazin', the trio's second album. Not unlike contemporaries Black Lips or Hunx and His Punx, it's a fuzzy, sun-soaked romp on the beach that's nothing short of charming. Recorded in an actual studio, the boys clean up the production a bit as they sing about girls, long drives on the beach and "raspberry feelings," all with the goofy swagger of some neon glam rock and the hooks of 60s/70s pop to match.

		$17.99 CD   RAZIKA Program 91 (Smalltown Supersound) Norway's young female foursome put their own spin on the C86 indie pop revival on their debut, the bright, bubbly and upbeat Program 91. I t's an enjoyable affair as the band sing about those first romances of teenage girlhood with both the naiveté and musical chops required to pull it off. Clean as a whistle and in debt to the girl groups of the past as well as the Ramones -- a band the ladies admit they worship -- Program 91 is a promising record of young talent.

		$21.99 LP $12.99 CD   PHILIP COHRAN & THE ARTISTIC HERITAGE ENSEMBLE Armageddon (Katalyst) "Creation of the Beast" "The Window" Archival release of a blistering ensemble session, live in Chicago at Cohran's own Afro Arts Theater circa 1968. Phil Cohran was an early member of Sun Ra's Arkestra, but quickly decided to pursue his own intellectual interests as a bandleader, introducing his theories of the harmony of all matter, or what he has dubbed, "sphereology." The conceptual arc of his compositions, by nature of their grand focus, gives Cohran's music a verisimilitude not often found in other spiritual jazz artists, who can tend toward the forced and costumey. Cohran's works are malleable and fluid, harmonic lines searching for their corners in each sphere that the band's interplay creates. There is almost always some kind of drone in Cohran's work, whether vocal, bass or brass, and nowhere is this more evident than on this performance's centerpiece, "The Window." With a haunting and hypnotic rhythm kept throughout the track's 11-plus minutes on the amplified kalimba (or in Cohran-speak, the Frankiphone), instruments gradually appear and descend, doubling back on themselves in ebbing harmonic conjunctions. "Creation of the Beast" and "The Warning" play out ominously, as if calling an audience to action, surely aided by the energies in the room, full of sympathetic supporters. The track "Armageddon" is the show's most fiery moment, with some scathing LeRoi Jones-esque Afro-centric incantations laid over machinegun drums and Morse code bass patterns, giving way to a majestic convalescence that is a tenet of Cohran's work to this day. With each of these Cohran releases, we get another window into a truly unique creative American spirit, and one who is long overdue to take his place among the countercultural jazz legends of the 60s. [SG]

		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 [SG] Simon Gabriel [AGe] Alexis Georgopoulos [DG] Daniel Givens [GH] Gerald Hammill [DH] Duane Harriott [IQ] Mikey IQ Jones [MK] Michael Klausman [DM] Doug Mosurock [SM] Scott Mou THANKS FOR READING - all of us at Other Music

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