NEW RELEASES
Lula Cortes e Zé Ramalho (reissue)
Damon & Naomi
LCD Soundsystem
Folk Is Not a Four Letter Word
Camping (BPitch compilation)
The Insect Trust (reissue)
The Chosen Few (reissue)
Sugar Minott
Perfumed Garden (3 psych comps)

ALSO AVAILABLE:
Kiki & Herb
AFX
Om

BACK IN STOCK
Baby Huey
Luciano Cilio
Antony & the Johnsons (CD single)
Bill Fay

"Trilha De Sume"

"Pedra Templo Animal"

A remarkable reissue of Lula Cortes and Zé Ramalho's rarely heard and mysterious song cycle, Paebiru. Despite Ramalho's subsequent popular success as a Brazilian songwriter, little information can be found regarding the circumstances of this album's creation -- I'm sure due in no small part to the fact that nearly the entire pressing was destroyed in a flood (or according to some, a fire) before it had a chance to be distributed. What I can gather is that the movements of the double LP are divided between the four elements (Terra, Ar, Fogo, Agua) and that the narrative concerns itself with the creation myths and shamanistic practices of the indigenous inhabitants of Northeastern Brazil, and the enigmatic carvings to be found on the walls of their mountains.

Over a dozen musicians contributed to the making of Paebiru, amongst them Alceu Valença, who along with Ramalho has had a long career forging the folk idioms of Northeastern Brazil to contemporary rock and roll. And while the illustrious members of the Tropicalia movement had successfully integrated those two extremes previously, they never took their experiments to the radical heights that are to be found on Paebiru. Indeed, this record is more usually mentioned in the same breath alongside psychedelic folk fusions by the likes of Träd Gräs och Stenar and Amon Düül 1 than any of their Brazilian brethren. But even those comparisons are somewhat facile when confronted with the breadth of song and invention that Cortes, Ramalho and co. conjure across the four sides of the album. Joyful carnival songs, introspective ragas, beautiful group singing, spiraling and syncopated clapping, birdcalls, waterfalls, arsenals of percussion, full-fledged pop songs, and Faustian electric guitars spiritedly join hands in linking the communal elements that serve as Paebiru's unifying vision. [MK]

"A Second Life"

"The Earth Is Blue"

Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang have explored the hazy fringes of psychedelic pop for the better part of the modern era with Galaxie 500 and Magic Hour, as well as their own duo releases and collaborations with Japanese prog-stoners Ghost. It's been five years since their last studio album, but any changes in Damon and Naomi's classic vintage sound are incremental. As it has always been, their music evokes hazy Sunday mornings, late nights on the beach, or long forest walks. Simple chords, gently strummed acoustic guitars, vintage keyboards, bubbling percussion, and the abstract poetry and lazy sing-alongs are augmented by the understated fuzz and feedback guitar of Ghost's Michio Kurihara, and lovely horn arrangements on a handful of songs. The new album showcases some of the couple's most alluring tracks, with a fine take on Caetano Veloso's "Araca Azul" and a surprisingly hypnotic version of the Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" sitting alongside a timeless batch of originals. [JM]

"Daft Punk Is Playing at My House"

"Never as Tired as When I'm Waking Up"

Finally! With a stack of singles that measure up against any producers in the 21st century, DFA boss James Murphy stops cranking out 12-inches and 7-inches to realize his first full-length as the LCD Soundsystem. It would've been easy enough to simply slap a few new songs together to flesh out the singles already extant and just call it an album, but Murphy's got a different agenda. While his singles acted as acid house meets indie-rock at the precipice of the dance-punk zeitgeist ("Losing My Edge"/ "Beat Connection" and "Yeah" are collected along with the 7-inch "Give It Up" for the bonus disc), the album itself aims less for the discotheque and more for the rock venue.

Yes, it's more a rock record than the previous singles would hint at. But it's by a guy who would consider Remain in Light and This Nation's Saving Grace to be great dance records first. (It even has Andy Wallace of Nirvana and Slayer fame helping on the mix.) The songs are first and foremost now, lyrics concerned with more personal things other than people trading guitars for turntables, or turntables for guitars. Production is crisp on tracks like "Daft Punk Is Playing at My House" and "Movement," working a finite minimal set of gestures into a sweaty froth. And then there are moments like "Great Release" and "Never as Tired," the latter of which gently cribs the crescendo of "Dear Prudence" as its own. Both songs could've capped an album like Screamadelica or Second Toughest in the Infants, or any other such album of those days, when dance music and rock weren't so far apart. Leave it to New York to nail it though. [RB]

$16.99 CD

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Folk Is Not a Four Letter Word
(Delay 68)

"Warm Up My Lips" Breakout

"Gobaith" Sidan

Folk Is Not a Four Letter Word is an outstanding collection of wonderful acoustic obscurities from the late-'60s and early-'70s. Some of you will undoubtedly recognize tracks by perennial OM favorites such as Brigitte Fontaine, Linda Perhacs, and Wendy and Bonnie, as well as the recently reissued Barcelona quartet, Musica Dispersa. Most of the other artists on the disc are even further below the radar. Among the 15 artists included in the mix is Erica Pomerance, who released an album on ESP Disk that was recorded from start to finish under the influence of LSD. There's also a great song that Howard Werth recorded with his group Audience for the soundtrack to the cult film Bronco Bullfrog. And let's not forget about the prolific Polish band Breakout, who recorded 10 albums for the state-owned Muza label. They really are great, as are Sidan, a Welsh girl group who recorded for the same label as Meic Stevens.

This debut release from a new Cherry Red subsidiary called Delay 68 was compiled by Andy Votel, who runs the Twisted Nerve label with Damon Gough (a/k/a Badly Drawn Boy). Even some of our staff members who like to poke fun at those of us who get a little too excited about folk reissues seem pretty smitten with this release. If you fall in love with this CD, as I'm sure many of you will, then be sure to also check out last year's incredible Gather in the Mushrooms compilation. [RH]

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Camping
(BPitch Control)

"Stadtkind" Ellen Allien

"When Will I Be Famous" Sascha Funke

Beginning with its first release in 1997, Ellen Allien's BPitch Control quickly became one of Berlin's premier electronic labels. A half decade later, we're invited to celebrate record #100 (the catalog number is actually 101), which is also an introduction to a new compilation series named Camping. These songs would indeed be the perfect soundtrack to dancing the evening away amongst fellow nighttime revelers under a star-filled German sky.

Always keeping an eye on the dancefloor, BPitch helped steer electronic music out of its clinical IDM period by combining fun with style. The compilation's 20 tracks aren't placed in any chronological order, there's no need. Instead, Camping effortlessly flows through electro-pop, house, clicks and mutant Y2K+ disco. Features label mainstays like Smash TV, Kiki, Sascha Funke, Timtim, Housemeister, label boss Ellen Allien, and more. [GH]

"Hoboken Saturday Night"

"Somedays"

The Insect Trust is a strange beast, indeed. Formed in Memphis in the mid-'60s, co-founders Robert Palmer and Bill Barth were huge blues fans. Barth and John Fahey were the enthusiasts that sought out Skip James back in the early-'60s, and Palmer's scholarship led to two of the finest books about the blues and rock'n roll, Deep Blues and Rock & Roll: An Unruly History, not to mention an early championing of Junior Kimbrough and Otha Turner. Together with Nancy Jeffries, Luke Faust, and Trevor Koehler, the group relocated to Hoboken, New Jersey after the release of their first record on Capitol in 1968. Fluent in such musical styles as blues (obviously), postbop jazz, Memphis soul, sea chanties, Appalachian songs, and folk, the ultimate music they created is headscratching and fleet of foot, to say the least.

For their second album, recorded in 1970 and originally released over on Atco, they had crack studio session rats like "Pretty" Purdie and Elvin Jones interlocking with a backing bass pedigree that included stints with Albert Ayler, Buddy Guy, and Mickey & Sylvia, and there's no surprise that waltzes, Dixieland swing, country & western, and second-line marches are absorbed with equal aplomb and ease. They even incorporate Moondog songs, Thomas Pynchon prose (from his novel V.), and a song sung by Koehler's six-year-old son, Glade, into the stew.

But what does it sound like, exactly? Robert Gordon, author of It Came from Memphis, calls it "country blues-inspired free jazz." In his liner notes, Robert Christgau explains: "This was pluralistic tolerance in action, at once traditionalist, futuristic and entranced with the here-and-now." Which is to say it's a bit of everything. Fans of Jefferson Airplane (and San Francisco rock) will find plenty of folk-rock pleasures, as will people who sought out Jim Dickinson's Dixie Fried when it was reissued a few years back. [RB]

"Night and Day"

"Drift Away"

This is one of those holy grail type records that you always see on the wish list of people like Pete Rock or Kenny Dope. I only know of one person who has this album and he coughed up $500 for it! So big up to Trojan for having mercy on the rest of us and reissuing this lost classic. The Chosen Few were a four-piece, male vocal outfit assembled in the early-'70s by Derrick Harriott, the legendary reggae singer and producer. The idea was to fuse the sweet vocal soul stylings of the Delfonics, who were huge at that time, with a reggae beat. It worked, and for a couple of years they were one of Jamaica's biggest acts; but then due to tensions with Harriott, the group relocated to Toronto.

While they were there, Florida-based Jamaican producer King Sporty invited the group to Miami and it was there that they produced this amazing fusion of funk and reggae. King Sporty was producing for TK Records (home to Gwen and George McCrae, KC and the Sunshine Band, etc.), and got them a deal on the label. The Sunshine Band(!) backs them up on this record and the group tears through smoking covers of songs such as "Drift Away," "Daniel" and "In the Rain."

The original tunes are fantastic as well. The opening track, "Night and Day," is a stunner. It boasts an amazing, funky drum break intro before fluidly switching to a two-step reggae rhythm. Ironically, the versatility actually hindered the group, critics deeming the style too confusing and the album pretty much sank without a trace. But thanks to UK rare groove spinners, this record was always a sought after collectible and now, 30 years later, we have this amazing reissue. Any fan of soul music would find a lot to enjoy here. If you own any of the Soul Jazz Dynamite or Miami Sound compilations, you definitely need this in your life. Pretty damn essential mate! [DH]

"Come On Home"

"Try Love"

One of Jamaica's most beloved voices, Sugar Minott finally receives the golden Soul Jazz touch with this new compilation. Minott got his start as a selector during his childhood, and before the time he hit his teenage years he had his own sound system. At the tender age of 13 he stepped up to the mic, not as a DJ but as a singer in roots trio African Brothers, which also featured future dancehall artist Tony Tuff. In 1969, they recorded one single for Studio One and then the group disbanded with the members all pursuing solo careers.

Minott would stay on at Studio One working as an in-house musician. Here, he honed his craft singing new melodies over the studio's classic rocksteady and reggae rhythm tracks, something he had been doing since his early days playing on his sound system. His style caught the ear of Coxsone Dodd and the legendary producer was quick to make use of Minott's repertoire. This would not only cement the singer's career at Studio One, it would also usher in the dancehall era in Jamaican music. Minott's debut album, Live Loving, is considered by many to be the first record of this genre.

Minott's voice is one of reggae's sweetest, and this 17-track compilation shows him at his best. Culled from Studio One sessions during the late-'70s and early-'80s, highlights include Minott's first hit, "Vanity," which was reworked from Alton Ellis' classic "I'm Just a Guy," as well as the early Motown vibed "Never Give Up," a song built upon the rhythm tracks of the Heptones' "Pretty Looks Isn't All." This collection includes many of the singer's classic cuts as well as some obscure singles rarely heard outside of Jamaica. One of my all time favorite reggae songs, the Eternals' "Queen of the Minstrel" is magically transformed into "Come On Home;" Minott's soulful melody is as longing and heartfelt as the original. Just in time for the last few chilly months of winter, there's no better singer to warm your spirit. [GH]

"Magic Potion" Open Mind

"Sydney Gill" Smoke

When I first dipped my feet into the kaleidoscopic waters of psychedelic pop some 10 years back, these collections came highly recommended by the clerk at my local record store, so I'm kinda excited that I get to do the same thing for all y'all. These compilations concentrate on British obscurities exclusively, and the tunes here are a little darker with a bit more of a progressive edge than you would find on a volume of Nuggets or Pebbles. You'll get near classic material from some bands that you may already be fans of (Groundhogs, Smoke), and should-a-been classic material from groups you probably aren't familiar with (Actress, Vamp, Open Mind). It's really nice to see these available again and I think this is the first time they are offered on CD, so the sound quality has improved a great deal. If you fancy a bit more psych with your pop, check these classic volumes out. [DH]

"The Windmills of My Mind"

Recorded last year at their farewell show at Carnegie Hall, Kiki and Herb wave goodbye with a double-CD featuring a career spanning selection of music and hilarious dialogue. Includes booze-soaked renditions of songs like "Once in a Lifetime," "When Doves Cry" and "Love Will Tear Us Apart."

Two more volumes in the fantastic Analord series from Mr. Aphex, Richard D. James. Analord 03 includes four cuts: "Boxing Day," "Midievil Rave," "Klopjob" and "Midievil Rave 2." Analord 04 features: "Crying in Your Face," "Home Made Polysynth," "Halibut Acid" and "Breath March."

"On the Mountain at Dawn"

Pack yr bong! Al Cisneros and Chris Hakius, two-thirds of Sleep, return with a heavy dose of stoner rock. Like the title suggests, the powerful rhythm section offers three lengthy variations of one theme. Free of guitar, the bassist and drummer plod through 45-minutes of dense, lethargic and solidly repetitious d-rugged grooves.

"Hard Times"

Heavy D may be the overweight lover and Notorious B.I.G. was Big Poppa, but 30 or so years ago there was Baby Huey, the biggest and brightest of his time. This reissue brings his psychedelic soul back to life. Produced by Curtis Mayfield, The Living Legend includes covers of his "Mighty Mighty" and the much sampled "Hard Times." Sadly, a history of substance abuse took its toll and the 350-pound singer died from a heart attack shortly before his debut LP's 1971 release. An underground classic, this is raw, dark, and moody soul for those that can take the weight. [DG]

"Terzo Quadro da 'Dialoghi dal Presente'"

Repressed, but limited to 500 copies. Luciano Cilio's Dell 'Universo Assente is a truly singular work of intimate acoustic arrangements that reference many different musical genres. The 11 tracks in this collection represent the entire recorded output from the virtuosic multi-instrumentalist whose unfortunate suicide in ‘83 left few artifacts behind. Folk, modern composition, improvisation and various world musics are just a few of the musical genres that spring to mind when listening to Dell 'Universo Assente. But it's the kind of self-contained, confident and reflective work that transcends mere genre restrictions to become that rare thing which is truly unique. Easily my favorite release of 2004. [KH]

Originally released in 2000, the gothic cabaret angel followed his exquisite debut album with a selection exploring otherworldly romance. Rounding out the set are devastating cover versions of David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti's "Mysteries Of Love" and Current 93's "Soft Black Stars."

"Maxine's Parlour"

The tracks on this collection are virtually all demos that were rejected outright by Decca, which makes close to no sense at all because some of these songs are so brilliant. British singer-songwriter/psych-pop/soft-rock very rarely got much better than this. As these are demos, things are pretty stripped-down, but you can hear the beginnings of ideas for arrangement that would have been pretty incredible if they'd ever been properly executed. Fans of Emitt Rhodes, Badfinger, the Left Banke, Nick Drake's first album, and 2003's Zig Zag compilation, this one is for you. [RH]