The Other Music Update

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	November 28, 2007

	OTHER MUSIC ON EAST VILLAGE RADIO Did you know that Other Music has its own radio show? Every Monday afternoon from 4 to 6 p.m., our staff takes over East Village Radio's Internet airwaves, and just like being in the shop, you'll be sure to hear an eclectic mix of music. During the first hour, we'll be highlighting the week's new arrivals -- a sneak peek at our upcoming email update if you will -- and then the second hour is total free form with our staff DJing their favorite tracks. Like all of East Village Radio's programming, Other Music Radio is archived, so you can listen to past shows at your convenience, and if you didn't catch an artist or song name, just check out the playlist.


	FEATURED NEW RELEASES Les Rallizes Denudes Six Organs of Admittance Michael Harrison The Gist Boris with Merzbow Major Stars Kraftwerk Bonnie 'Prince' Billy Chaz Jankel Pinch Delphonics Beans Richard Crandell James Murphy & Pat Mahoney (Fabric Mix) Sonic Chicken 4		Gruppo Di Improvvisa Melodii Tuvi (Various) Black Mirror (Various) Andy Votel (Mix CD) Jose Maceda Achim Reichel King Khan & BBQ Show Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour Box of Dub 2 (Various ALSO AVAILABLE Expansion/Contraction (Various) Valerie Project Pole COMPLETE LIST OF THIS WEEK'S NEW ARRIVALS

NOV

Sun 25

Mon 26

Tues 27

Wed 28

Thurs 29

Fri 30

Sat 01

DEC

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OTHER MUSIC IN-STORE CONCERT SCHEDULE
CELEBRATION - Friday, November 30 @ 9:00 p.m.
RICHARD HAWLEY - Monday, December 3 @ 8:00 p.m.
WHITE WILLIAMS - Thursday, December 6 @ 8:00 p.m.

OTHER MUSIC: 15 East 4th Street NYC
Free admission / Limited Capacity
Other Music closes for shopping an hour before all in-stores

NOV

Sun 25

Mon 26

Tues 27

Wed 28

Thurs 29

Fri 30

Sat 01

WIN TICKETS TO ONE STEP BEYOND W/ JUAN MACLEAN
Other Music has two pairs of tickets to give away to Flavorpill's upcoming One Step Beyond party, this Friday at the American Museum of Natural History! This month's line-up is killer once again, with a DJ set from DFA's Juan MacLean and JDH & Dave P cranking out the electro and techno. In addition to cocktails and dancing, party goers can enjoy complementary screenings of The Search for Life: Are We Alone?, narrated by Harrison Ford, and also receive a free pass for a future trip to the museum. Enter to win by emailing tickets@othermusic.com, and please leave a daytime phone number where you can be reached. Winners will be notified Friday morning, November 30th.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 30
American Museum of Natural History, The Rose Center for Earth and Space: Enter at the 81st Street entrance, right off Central Park West
Tickets are $20 and can be purchased in advance at Other Music and at the Museum, and at the door, or on-line at: amnh.org/rose/specials/


	$17.99 CD		LES RALLIZES DENUDES Yodo-Go-A-Go-Go (10th Avenue) "Field of Artificial Flowers" "Otherwise My Conviction" A formidable influence on the likes of Fushitsusha, High Rise, and a host of other blown-out psychedelic rock bands from Japan and beyond, the legendary Les Rallizes Denudes has managed to achieve such critical acclaim with hardly any official releases in their on-again, off-again forty-year history. Lately, labels like Univive have been dropping pricey boxed sets that document various live and in-the-studio stages of the band's history, plugging gaps in between the few "official" live and studio sets that seem to pop every once in a while. But with all this stuff trading hands for silly price tags, what's a relative newcomer to do to get their fix of these black-clad, amp-destroying balladeers? As if to answer that very question, a more widely available edition of the oft-bootlegged Yodo-Go-A-Go-Go thus arrives, capturing on a real compact disc this veritable best-of/beginner's guide to all that Les Rallizes Denudes has to offer. Be it in the dreamy guitar heroics of the classic "Enter the Mirror," the chugging black hole noise that is "Smokin' Cigarette Blues," the corrosive six-string blasts that punctuate "Flames of Ice," or the driving fury of "Field of Artificial Flower," these eight tracks provide a necessary (and affordable) way to sample and skim one of Japan's most highly regarded, and yet paradoxically underdocumented, founding psychedelic rock acts. [MC]


	$13.99 CD $9.99 mp3		SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE Shelter from the Ash (Drag City) "Jade Like Wine" "Shelter from the Ash" Never one to rest for long on his laurels, multi-tasking singer, songwriter, and guitarist Ben Chasny returns again with Shelter from the Ash, his third Six Organs of Admittance record for the Drag City label in the past three years. Outside of that singular body of work, the man has remained remarkably busy as well, be it with his continued contributions to Comets on Fire and Badgerlore, and his occasional collaborations with David Tibet and Current 93. All told, it's hard to believe Chasny's been at work for a mere decade now, as his collected output thus far would be enough to keep most other musicians busy for a lifetime. One thing Chasny's always been great at is establishing a pretty cohesive identity for each successive Six Organs of Admittance, whether it's the improvised percussive clatter that punctuated the genteel sway of School of the Flower, or the dark, almost metallic dronescapes that dotted last year's The Sun Awakens. In that respect, then, Shelter's unifying theme is its reliance on pure, Brit-folk by way of SoCal drenched songforms. Save for the scorching blast of "Coming to Get You," nearly every track here cascades with an effusive yet still somber glow that suggests bits and pieces of Jackson Frank mixed with a little touch of early David Crosby. Aided and abetted by Matt Sweeney, Tim Green, Elisa Ambrogio, and Noel Harmonson, tracks like the aching "Goodnight" and the ominous "Jade Like Wine" succeed both as some of Ben Chasny's most accessible and best written songs to date. [MC]


	$17.99 CD $9.99 mp3		MICHAEL HARRISON Revelation (Cantaloupe) "Night Vigil" "Finale" Michael Harrison's Revelation is one of those rare pieces of music that is both uncompromisingly radical and infinitely listenable. Composed and performed by Harrison himself on the "harmonic piano" -- a modified piano of his own design, Revelation is simply awe-inspiring for its spiritual depth and for the specificity and power of its conception and execution. The result of several decades of studying Indian music and an esoteric tuning system called "Just Intonation"-- Harrison was a long time student of both Pandit Pran Nath and La Monte Young, to whom one section of the piece is dedicated -- Revelation functions just as well as a discourse on pure physical phenomenon as it does as a beautiful piece of solo piano music. A thorough explanation of just intonation won't fit here, but basically it is a tuning system wherein in musical intervals are determined by ratios of whole numbers. Two notes in a 2:1 ratio, for example, create an octave, 3:2 a fifth, 4:3 a fourth and so on. The music of ancient Greece, early European music, and the classical music of Persia, India, Indonesia, China and Japan all use forms of just intonation as their basis. In the West however, these pure intervals and resonances were gradually sacrificed in favor of the ability to move easily between chords and scales via a system, still in place, called "Equal Temperament." Equal temperament, while allowing great flexibility in terms of chord changes, required that the mathematically perfect intervals of just intonation be taken slightly out of tune. Thus, the specific resonances of just intoned intervals, which are more vibrant and pure than those in equal temperament, were lost. Harrison's use of the piano as his main vehicle for creating music in just intonation is ironic in that the piano was the instrument that led to the spread and dominance of equal temperament in the West for hundreds of years. His harmonic piano is adapted to accommodate for 24 notes to the octave instead of the usual twelve. The resulting music is full of harmonic overtones that interact and combine with one another to dramatic effect -- often a dense, rhythmically activated cluster of notes, which Harrison refers to as a "tone cloud," will yield a spectral mass of recombinant pitches. Often these halo-like apparitions will sound like other instruments playing independent parts or even a choir of voices harmonizing with the fundamental tones. This effect calls to mind the shimmering, wave-like sound fields of Charlemagne Palestine's piano music, but while the two composers may share an interest in the piano's inherent resonances, and even a sense for the romantic, Harrison's approach is far more varied, moving deftly between complex resonant chord formations and passages of percussive, arpeggiated lines. And Harrison's understanding of the minute subtleties and dramatic clashes his tuning system makes possible is astounding; certain notes hang in the air like struck gongs of an Indonesian Gamelan, while elsewhere vigorously played chord patterns create something akin to a harmonic avalanche. Like an ever-shifting mandala, Revelation just gets deeper and more intriguing the more one listens. [CC]


	$15.99 CD		THE GIST Embrace the Herd (Cherry Red) "Light Aircraft" "Public Girls" First things first, no B.S. -- this is one of my favorite records from Rough Trade's salad days during the post-punk boom, and I am unabashedly psyched that it's finally available again. After the Young Marble Giants split in 1980, YMG's main songwriter Stuart Moxham got depressed, did a bunch of drugs, and released this album in 1982 to virtually no fanfare or success. That's a damn shame, because Embrace the Herd is a stunning, beautiful record of stylistic variety and melancholic beauty that had few parallels at the time. Eschewing the stark contrasts of YMG's Colossal Youth for a sound that mixes the pastoral ambient soundscapes, arty Germanic grooves, and lyrical non sequiturs of Eno's Another Green World and Before & After Science albums with the heartbreaking desperation and bedroom bossa novas of early Everything but the Girl and the Marine Girls (whose second LP was produced by Moxham), he assembles an all-star crew of Rough Trade pals to contribute -- both of his YMG bandmates make appearances, as do members of This Heat, Swell Maps, Essential Logic, and the Flying Lizards. Though I love the album as a whole -- best experienced from beginning to end as a suite -- the disc is worth buying for the album's lone single "Love at First Sight" alone. Any fan of Young Marble Giants, the aforementioned Eno LPs, or of the more introspective side of the bedsit indiepop scene should check this without hesitation. Highest recommendation! [IQ] )


	$14.99 CDx2		BORIS WITH MERZBOW Rock Dream (Southern Lord) "Rainbow" "Ibitsu" Just in time for Boris's exponentially growing American fanbase to suffer symptoms of withdrawal and/or regain partial hearing, Southern Lord has released Rock Dream. Seemingly a commemorative forget-me-not gift, this limited edition (5000 hand-numbered) double disc emerges less than a month after the conclusion of the trio's 22-date US tour, on which they shared the stage with inimitable Ghost guitarist Michio Kurihara. Rock Dream immortalizes an even earlier, yet enduring collaboration -- that of Boris and Japanese "God of Noise" Merzbow. Surely the only artist to ever be celebrated in the form of a 50-CD box set, the prolific Masami Akita has collaborated with Boris on at least three albums previous to Rock Dream. This live recording, which took place at Earthdom, a 100-capacity-or-less basement in Tokyo, chronicles what was, in retrospect, a pivotal era for Boris -- just five months after the release of Pink, their critically-acclaimed stateside "breakthrough" record, and a mere two months before starting recording on Rainbow, their most recent full-length. Accordingly, while the two discs boast one hour and fifty minutes of material, only the title track from Rainbow makes the setlist; more fast-paced and impulsive than the patient studio recording, Merzbow's intermittently sizzling electronics dislocate this sultry duet between Wata's calmly crooned lullaby and Takeshi's minimal, hypnotizing bassline. "Feedbacker," the sprawling 35-minute opening track of the first disc, reflects the dynamic between Boris' masterfully sludgy, psychedelic compositions and Merzbow's pummeling blocks of fuzz and explorative journeys through frequency. On the second disc, however, Boris rips away at their heavier, louder garage punk, performing half of Pink. It is here that Boris with Merzbow sound their strongest, turning "Woman on the Screen" and "Nothing Special" into back-to-back sonic nightmares, the plateau'd noise on the latter emphasizing the raw chaos of Boris' totally unleashed, gong-bashing, double-neck bass-shredding, mosh-inspiring live experience. Instead of completely synthesizing, Boris with Merzbow finds two distinct auditory presences uniting to complement one another. This new live recording is further evidence of the infinite possibilities of adding evolutionary layers to Boris elemental rock; but predictably, in spite of added complexities, the trio's basic instinct still dominates. [KS]


	$13.99 CD $9.99 mp3		MAJOR STARS Mirror / Messenger (Drag City) "No More" "East to West" Besides running the excellent Twisted Village label and record shop, Wayne Rogers and Kate Biggar have made all varieties of psychedelic guitar music over the years, from twisted garage-psychedelia with Crystalized Movements, to hazy pop-psych (with collaborators Damon and Naomi) in Magic Hour, and touching all points in between. What holds these disparate sounds together is Wayne and Kate's soaring, triumphant guitar interplay, as whatever form the song takes, their music generally detours sometime after the three-minute mark into six-string abandon. Major Stars have been around for about ten years, with varying lineups exploring the heavier side of guitar freakouts. But this current group (the same as on last year's excellent Synoptikon), with longtime bassist Tom Leonard moving over to third guitar (of course), and one-time Other Music Cambridge employees Casey Keenan shredding on drums and Sandra Barrett howling on vocals, is the most dynamic and invigorating yet. The reference point would be early '70s hard rock, with sweaty, pounding rhythms and melodic, wailing guitars bursting out from the punishing chords, and Barrett creating a focal point in the maelstrom that was tough to achieve when Rogers was handling lead vocals. This is surely the group's finest recording to date, coming as close to capturing the thrill of their live performances as a recording can, and hopefully the Drag City association will make a few more folks tune it in and turn it up. [JM]


	$28.99 CDx2		KRAFTWERK Kraftwerk / Kraftwerk 2 (Germanofon) "Ruckzuck" "Strom" Like it or not, Kraftwerk, your early recordings are as ripe for rediscovery as ever. A contractual reissue by Vertigo in 1973 brought the group's first two albums, originally released by Philips Germany, to a wider audience, and the lasting appeal of the group's early, non-roboticized works has been validated by countless bootleg issues over the years, despite being disowned by its creators. 1 & 2 are the products of the early '70s and fit somewhere in between the loose, wild streaks of experimentation of Damo Suzuki-era Can, and the streamlined motion-oriented works of Neu! (to be sure, Neu's Klaus Dinger plays drums on 1). Mostly composed and performed on woodwinds, keyboards and "electric percussion," these works find Ralf and Florian finding their feet, hinting at the graceful, gliding machinemusik of their imminent future, and providing the more adventurous with breaks to spare (check the end portion of "Vom Himmel Hoch" for a crunching, flatulent funk the band would reinvent on future releases, and the gentle tumble of "Ruckzuck," appropriated for years as the theme to PBS's series "Newton's Apple"). It's a jam, albeit a sideways one, but there's no denying the originality and unique focus presented within. [DM]


	$11.99 CD-EP		BONNIE 'PRINCE' BILLY Ask Forgiveness (Drag City) "I Came to Hear the Music" "The World's Greatest" Ask Forgiveness features Will Oldham in one of his more subdued states, accompanied by Meg Baird and Greg Weeks (both of Espers as well as solo artists), musing on a handful of songs written by a diverse cross-section of his favorite artists, from Phil Ochs to Bjork to Glenn Danzig to R.Kelly to Mickey Newbury to Frank Sinatra to the Mekons, plus one new original. Obviously that is a pretty eclectic bunch of songwriters working in a broad swath of styles, but Ask Forgiveness is not hokey or jokey, as Oldham makes the music his own with a straightforward Bonnie 'Prince' Billy take on the simple underlying songs. Backed up mostly by quiet acoustic guitar, ambient feedback, organ and Baird's sweet harmonies, this is a record without jagged edges or sharp turns, just the warm comfort of Billy... save the creepy pencil cover portrait. [JM]


	$15.99 CD		CHAZ JANKEL My Occupation (Tirk) "You're My Occupation" "Oh You Pretty Thing" Chaz (a/k/a Chas) Jankel was a Blockhead. To be more specific, he was Ian Dury's chief Blockhead, co-writing and arranging many of Dury's best tunes over the course of the Blockheads' entire career; he also continues to lead the band since Dury's unfortunate passing back in 2000. What most people don't realize, though, is that he had a fairly successful, more dance/disco-oriented solo career on A&M Records in the early '80s, scoring a few club-chart hits and a butt-load of film scoring work. Curiously, though, only one of his solo records has ever made it onto CD -- that'd be his first, self-titled album, featuring "Ai No Corrida", a song made popular on the R&B charts by Quincy Jones's cover version on his 1981 album The Dude. Aside from that, most people know Jankel's 1984 track "Number One" from '80s film Real Genius (Netflix that sht!), used during the requisite "workin' hard to accomplish our goals" montage sequence which plays out in nearly every '80s youth-oriented dramedy. Both of those songs are included on My Occupation, a fantastic compilation of Jankel's best dancefloor-oriented tunes, most represented in 12" mixes which hold their own against your best Mutant Disco (Not Disco)* tracks. If you're a fan of Larry Levan/Paradise Garage flavored jams with soulful (yet slightly off-kilter) vocal turns, electro flourishes, clavinets, and rock-solid ass-bumping foundations, you need this. It's tough to pick highlights on a disc that's filled with 'em, but "Glad to Know You" (co-written with Dury), the aforementioned "Number One," the proto Derrick May/Larry Heard monster "3,000,000 Synths" (self explanatory), and the teach-Jamie-Lidell-a-thing-or-two "Get Myself Together" are all instant party rockers. Turn on the disco ball, grab your tambourine, and spike the punch -- this is quality. [IQ]


	$20.99 CDx2		PINCH Underwater Dancehall (Tectonic) "Brighter Day" ft. Juakali "Gangstaz (Instrumental Version)" Run by Rob Ellis (a/k/a Pinch), the Tectonic label offers some of the best selections of dubstep, ranking right alongside Burial's Hyberdub imprint. Much of his two-CD debut comes off as what the title suggests: "underwater dance hall." What Ellis brings to the dubstep arena is a homegrown brew made from Bristol's marriage of reggae vocals and "techno" beats -- from early Shut Up and Dance and More Rockers to his contemporaries Skream and Burial. Ellis' style of production is soaked in his love of dancehall's bass potential when digitally maneuvered for the adventurous dance floor. There aren't any shredded beats here, as his style is more rolling bass, loopy yet not repetitive. With rubbery low end, wet snares, shimmering cymbals, waves of low end tones, you do feel submerged as the sound moves like a school of fish darting in, out and around in Pinch's sonic ocean. It's a great marriage of soul/dance hall/reggae and digi-dubstep. This two-CD set includes both raw and strong vocal versions and another disc of more aquatic, instrumental versions, giving the listener a choice as how to digest the music. Want more? Well, he's also featured on Box of Dub 2 and both of the new Planet Mu comps. Making a splash for sure. [DG]


	$18.99 CD		DELFONICS LA LA Means I Love You / Sounds (Kent) "La La Means I Love You" "A Lover's Concerto" Philly's Delfonics earned their place in history by ushering in that city's evergreen compositions of soul back in the late '60s and early '70s. Working closely with producer-arranger Thom Bell, the group helped to define the template for R&B for their times, fabricating a gossamer swirl of strings, sitar, muted brass and a truckload of reverb around buttery falsetto street-corner vocal group styles that, after the release of the group's hits "Didn't I Blow Your Mind This Time" and "La La Means I Love You," would forever associate themselves with this style of music. Still played the world over on oldies and dusties radio stations, the Delfonics enjoyed a resurgence in popular interest throughout the late '80s and into the following decade, finding champions in everyone from Prince Paul to Quentin Tarantino. No one sounded quite like them in their heyday, and this release does well to sustain their legacy as the catalyst for pop innovation in a new decade. [DM]


	$11.99 CD $9.99 mp3		BEANS Thorns (Adored and Exploited) "Thundermouth" "In Effect" Former and "future" member of Anti-Pop Consortium (word is the group are reuniting and will be releasing a new record), the illmatic Beans returns with a new solo album, Thorns. Now that his relationship with Warp has dissolved, the New York rapper goes back to his independent roots with a more personal outing. Thorns is mostly self-produced with one song by Detroit producer Dabyre and a few songs featuring backing by Holy F**k. Less of an electro-tastic journey than you might expect, his beat production now feels more organic and intimate. Not to say that the rapper is growing soft over the years, his vibrant verbal skills and unique delivery still makes him one of the most original emcees to walk the city streets. [DG]


	$14.99 CD		RICHARD CRANDELL Spring Steel (Tzadik) "Inner Circle" "Beckoning" Spring Steel finds minimalist composer Richard Crandell once again crafting lucid, and by turns, infinitely deep melodic compositions for mbira and percussion. His control over the mbira (a thumb piano of African origin) is masterful and rich, the instrument producing a polyphonic mélange of gorgeously reverberating bell tones. In Crandell's hands, the mbira proves to be the link between the music of Africa, east Asia, and Latin America. Backed with sprightly, deft contributions by Cyro Baptista on traps, brushes, metal, and all manners of hand percussion, Crandell has created a deceptively complex and ultimately centering musical work for our times, perfect for meditation and the earlier part of your day. [DM]


	$16.99 CD		JAMES MURPHY & PAT MAHONEY Fabriclive 36 (Fabric) "Like Some Dream" Daniel Wang "Love Has Come Around" Donald Byrd James Murphy may have sung a lament to the Big Apple on the latest LCD Soundsystem album, but this DJ mix for the esteemed Fabric series sounds like Murphy's aural blood oath to the city he hates to hate. Murphy and Pat Mahoney take us on a historic tour of NYC dance floors of yore, deftly mixing the quirky, avant disco of Mudd Club faves Gichy Dan and Was (Not Was) with the blissed-out jazz disco of Donald Bird's Paradise Garage anthem "Love Has Come Around." Every track is re-edited and presented in a fresh context, incorporating tracks from fellow keepers of the NYC disco flame like Daniel Wang, Still Going and Detroit's Theo Parrish. As opposed to Lindstrom, Glass Candy and the like, James Murphy is a fan of the organic. Handclaps, cowbells, screams of ecstasy, foot stomping and live bass lines are what it's all about for him, and it defines the disco sound for him. The dance floor isn't a place to float away, but a place to root right in and get sweaty with the stranger next to you. This mix personifies that feeling through and through. Highly recommended. [DH]


	$13.99 LP+CD $9.99 mp3		SONIC CHICKEN 4 Sonic Chicken 4 (In the Red) "Sexiest" "I Had Too Much to Drink (Last Night)" It's been a banner year for In the Red, with the success of Jay Reatard and amazing rock n roll albums by Demon's Claws, King Khan, and Mark Sultan. And now, feel free to add France's Sonic Chicken 4 to the list. After innumerable 7"s, the band finally gets an opportunity to spread out over two LP sides (fear not, every LP comes with a free CD), and the end result is a red hot mix of '60s punk, pop melodies, the chime of Velvet Underground, and revved up rhythm & blues. I give this Sonic Chicken 4 out of 5. The most irresistible, carefree, and FUN record since Black Lips' Good Bad, Not Evil. And that is obviously praise of the very highest order. [AK]


	$16.99 CD		GRUPPO DI IMPROVVISA Nuova Consonanza (Bella Casa) "Eflot" "Scratch" For all the Ennio Morricone records out there, his involvement in the Italian Gruppo D'Improvvisazione is probably the least well-known aspect of his career. The Gruppo was founded in 1964 by Franco Evangelisti -- a student of both Luigi Nono and Karlheinz Stockhausen -- as a collective of composer/improvisers devoted to developing a radical new form of improvisation. Improvisation, of course, was nothing new, but the Gruppo was intent on creating a form unrelated to jazz or any other style of music, or even to the most basic Western theories of melody, harmony and rhythm for that matter. Like much of the avant garde music of the '60s, Gruppo shifted its emphasis away from musical form and structure and towards the material, physical properties of their instruments and the sounds that came from them. Extremely disciplined, the Gruppo's approach involved rigorous pre-performance exercises and the drawing of strict parameters for each member's contribution. These parameters more often than not included a moratorium on making sounds bearing relation to any tonal system and forbid the participants from creating rhythms or any other recognizable or repeatable patterns of sounds. Gruppo was instrumental in founding the tradition of free-improvisation in Western music and unsurprisingly counted among its ranks many musicians who became well-known composers in their own rights, Ennio Morricone foremost among them. Aside from an illustrious (and expensive) 2CD/DVD box released by Die Schactel, little has been made available by this extraordinary group, a problem this album should go a long ways in remedying. [CC]


	$14.99 CD		MELODII TUVI Throat Songs and Folk Tunes from Tuva (Dust-to-Digital) "Bayan-kol" Oorjak Hunashtaar-ool "Pesnya Pro Igil" Kara-sal Ak-ool Anyone who has heard the peculiar sound of Tuvan throat singing, perhaps in the Paul Pena documentary Genghis Blues, will most likely never forget it. For the uninitiated, it is a style of singing found in the remote Republic of Tuva (between Russia and Mongolia), which seemingly defies the laws of physics by allowing a singer to vocalize two separate tones at the same time. On the surface, the sound is similar to a high pitch whistle or flute accompanied by a gruff, bass drone vocal line, but further attention reveals the great control and complexity that those capable of throat singing can achieve. Liner notes dutifully written by compiler Dr. Pekka Gronow of the University of Helsinki describe three distinct styles of Tuvan throat singing (khoomei, sygyt, and xoomei) featured in these 1969 Russian recorded tracks, all heard for the first time on CD. It is refreshing to also get a taste of non-throat singing music from Tuva, which this collection does a nice job of providing. Incidentally, similarities to Scottish and Irish folk music (particularly piping) can easily be heard. One can imagine that the shepherding life of the musicians from such diverse cultures might have played a role in the development of these sounds -- an answer to the ever-present question of how to best keep the flock appeased. Not surprisingly, Dust-to-Digital has again given the flock of fans of music something to appease. [KC]


	$14.99 CD		VARIOUS ARTISTS Black Mirror: Reflections in Global Music (Dust-to-Digital) "Drowsy Maggie" Patrick J. Touhey "Songs in Grief" Sinkou Son & Kouran Kin Record collector, musician, and record store owner (The True Vine / Baltimore, MD) Ian Nagoski is an oddity to say the least. He began collecting 78rpm records while a teenager, but not just the typical fare of white hillbilly, country blues and jazz. Instead, his interest, partially because of what was available to him, became gospel and world music, the latter especially, acquired and learned about through much trial and error. Taking his cue from the likes of Pete Whelan's Really! The Country Blues on OJL, Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music, and Pat Conte's Secret Museum series, Nagoski has officially entered the world of the compiler with the release of Black Mirror through Atlanta, GA stalwart label Dust-to-Digital. Like those collections mentioned, it does an excellent job of encapsulating an individual's favorite songs from their collection as the sole barometer for what to include -- no filler, only the musical gospel according to Nagoski. Among the standout stops on this expedition are Cameroon, Lemkos, Ireland, Ukraine, India, Vietnam, Greece, Serbia, Indonesia, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, and Japan. These are sounds that astound, perplex, charm, soothe, sadden, and sometimes scare, but always engage. Nagoski's insightful notes on the individual songs reveal a palpable passion to learn what these strange sounds (recorded between 1918 and 1955) mean and from whence they came -- not an easy task when English is one's only language and so little is known about these rare sides to start with. A sacred Buddhist prayer, a fervent Serbian nationalist propaganda song, a 10-year-old Swedish musical prodigy, a gorgeous Indian soundtrack number reminiscent of Puccini's Turandot opera with an Eastern twist, a Ukrainian wedding song that sounds more like a death march, a Vietnamese instrumental number that, at the time, was deemed too "hot" for the female ear, a Greek Rembetika number with some painfully woeful lyrics, the earliest Andalusian flamenco music, recorded at Spain's equivalent to Tennessee's "Bristol Sessions," and a Sudanese art song which sound like the inspiration for much of Harry Partch's cannon are the kind of things you get looking into the Black Mirror. The lesson that forms as you listen to this CD is to look for your reflection in seemingly unlikely places; you'll find they're not so unlikely after all. [KC]


	$24.99 CD		ANDY VOTEL One Nation Under a Grave (Fat City) When not presiding over the B-Music stable's impressive catalogue of little known reissues and releases from modern savants, Andy Votel moonlights as a globe-hopping DJ with a taste for exotic, increasingly far-flung psych beats and breaks. With willful obscurity as his constant calling card, Votel has released a handful of mixes thus far, including a deep collage of old Vertigo Records releases, and Music to Make Girls Cry and Songs in the Key of Death, a pair of discs spotlighting more random global crate digs and holy grail finds. Back again with One Nation Under a Grave, Votel once more shows off the cream of his enviable record collection, spinning over an hour's worth of Turkish psych breaks, fuzzed out prog, amped up South American burners, Eastern European also-rans, low slung funk and R&B grooves, and even a couple of kooky covers of popular favorites. And while his technical skills might be a little rough around the edges from time to time, the glee with which he rams his selections up against each other more than makes up for it. All told, One Nation Under a Grave machine-guns countless amazing breaks before it's through, continuing with Andy Votel's proven track record of crafting mixes that are as danceable as they are dense and deep. [MC]


	$14.99 CD		JOSE MACEDA Drone and Melody (Tzadik) "Strata" "Music for Two Pianos and Four Percussion Groups" The music on Drone and Melody, the second release on Tzadik by Philippine composer Jose Maceda, is the result of a life spent exploring the sonic and humanistic dimensions of music making. After studying in Paris and the US and a career as a concert pianist, Maceda devoted himself to more than a decade of ethnographic field work focused on the music and languages of Southeast Asia and his native Philippines. Maceda made thousands of hours of recordings of Philippine music, going to great lengths to seek out pre-Spanish forms and styles (some of these recordings were issued as Folkways LPs in the early '60s) as well as compiling an extensive archive of recordings of over 60 Philippine linguistic groups. The use of gongs, temple blocks and choruses of bamboo buzzers and sticks will attest to the indelible impression that Philippine, Indonesian Gamelan, Chinese and Korean court music made on him. But as much as he was interested in the unique timbres and structures inherent to these forms, Maceda's music is most radical for its re-conception of collective musical creation as a non-hierarchical activity, one that he describes as humanizing and co-operative -- "a complement to individualism, a deterrent to its abuse." These ideas, many of which were inspired by the communal value systems Maceda observed in Southeast Asian agrarian societies, permeate the pieces collected here, from the sharing of musical parts between instruments/individuals, to the organization of players into independently operating units, to the use of Western instruments in roles not traditionally assigned to them. As rich for its tonal palette as for the social metaphors built into the music's structure, Drone and Melody is -- much like the court musics that inspired it -- full of a profound sense of dignity in which the barriers separating East and West, ancient and contemporary, social and individual collapse. One of the most rewarding new music albums this year. [CC]


	$17.99 CD		ACHIM REICHEL AR3 (Germanofon) "Tarzan's Abenteuer Im Sommerschlussverkauf" "Die Eigentumer Der Welt" Achim Reichel is far from legendary in the Krautrock pantheon, though that's not for any real lack of effort on his part. Originally a member of the paint-by-numbers German beat rock band the Rattles, Reichel would ultimately break out on his own to explore far more experimental textures and timbres. Beginning in the early 1970s, he christened his solo work A.R. & Machines, and, along with a few close collaborators, unleashed a handful of albums that traced echoplex-laced guitar figures, manic percussion, occasional horn sections and orchestral sweeps, and dazzling synth baubles through tracks that mixed frantic rock moves with tranced-out instrumental passages and intricate prog measures. AR3 is Reichel's third solo album, and though sporadically available over the years, it's presented here with a revamped mastering job. Far more accessible than Reichel's more celebrated works, AR3's nine tracks are relatively brief, self-contained examinations of the man's recurring motifs. Tracks like "Tarzan's Abenteuer Im Summerschlussverkaul" charge ahead with chaotic zeal, all fierce polyrhythms climaxing in time with lysergic guitars and occasional horn blasts. Elsewhere, Reichel approaches jangly folk-pop with "Die Eigentumer Der Welt," while the sitar and tabla-imbued "Alles Geht Nach Goa" brings the album to a close, seguing from near ambience to stunning guitar heroics. More than just another excellent reissue of Achim Reichel's key solo work, AR3 is one of those records that fans of Can, Ash Ra Tempel, or even stuff like the Far East Family Band should check out post-haste. [MC]


	$13.99 CD $9.99 mp3		KING KHAN & BBQ SHOW King Khan & BBQ Show (In the Red) "Hold Me Tight" "Shake Real Low" King Khan & BBQ Show's long gone debut album (originally released on Goner) finally re-sees the light of day, courtesy of In The Red. The duo (Khan and Mark Sultan) churn out an unpretentious mix '50s rock n roll and '60s garage, and the album has an authentic old, chalky sound retaining every ounce of the mischievous elements that make them so likeable. Watching the Macy's Day Parade, I thought, what if King Khan & BBQ Show had their own party-machine float complete with a circus big top, collapsing boys and girls flood onto Fifth Avenue, dancing dementedly in the streets to their infectious jams. While you're at it, also check out their Christmas 7" split with Black Lips, which is guaranteed to get you into the festive mood! [KP]


	$19.99 CD		VARIOUS ARTISTS Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour (Chrome Dreams) For a year, Bob Dylan hosted a weekly show on satellite radio, each with a different theme (ranging from "Alcohol" and "Guns" to "Texas" and "New York"). What we have here is a two-disc compilation featuring one track from each show, and essentially it's a mixtape from the man with the world's best taste. Focusing on the soul, blues, and rock n roll of the '50s and '60s, with 52 tracks in total, artists range from blues greats such as Little Walter and Blind Willie Johnson, early rock n roll masters Carl Perkins and Chuck Berry to Duke Ellington and Dinah Washington, and everything in-between. Much cooler than your buddy's crappy "Best Mix Ever!" CD-Rs, and with a 16-page booklet to boot, this should serve as a standard-setting compilation. [AK]


	$18.99 CD		VARIOUS ARTISTS Box of Dub 2 (Soul Jazz) "Tamil Dub" King Soly "Soul-Jah Boogie" Sub Version Box of Dub 2 continues down the minimal electronic road with a reggae-inspired collection of digi-dub and dubstep. Rising producers within the genre like Kode 9, Pinch, Skream and Digital Mystikz offer up the best tracks, and get multiple slots, while newcomers like Ramadanman, King Soly and Sub Version play catch-up. Not as good as the first, but if you're still trying to figure out what all the current talk of dubstep is about, this primer may help. [DG]


	$14.99 CD		VARIOUS ARTISTS Expansion/Contraction (Minus) "Risk Assessment" Plastikman Expansion/Contraction Torchbearers of minimal techno and binary mathematics, Minus Records (who you might remember from the excellent Minimize to Maximize and min2MAX) are back with Expansion/Contraction, which is, in the Minus tradition, intellectual yet eminently listenable. Tracks by Plastikman, Marc Houle, Troy Piece, and Dubfire are among the highlights, all focusing on devastatingly precise and minimal sounds.


	$13.99 CD $9.99 mp3		VALERIE PROJECT Valerie Project (Drag City) "Torchlight" "Burned at the Stake" Last year, Greg Weeks and an ensemble of underground Philly musicians played a few much-talked-about live performances of their reimagined score to Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, with the film projected behind them. Though the music was created to accompany this Czech cinema classic, this recording stands on its own, a mysterious Byzantine journey that respectfully pays tribute to Lubos Fiser's original soundtrack.


	$15.99 CD		POLE Steingarten Remixes (Scape) "Winkelstreben" Ghislain Poirier Remix "Achterbahn" Frivolous Remix Pole's most recent album gets re-imagined in all sorts of different shapes and varieties. From deep house and techno to dubstep and dancehall electronics, the set includes mixes by Shackleton, Deadbeat, Gudrun Gut, Frivolous, Peverelist, and more!


	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 [CC] Che Chen [KC] Kevin Coultas [MC] Michael Crumsho [DG] Daniel Givens [DH] Duane Harriott [IQ] Mikey IQ Jones [AK] Andreas Knutsen [JM] Josh Madell [DM] Doug Mosurock [KP] Kimberly Powenski [KS] Karen Soskin THANKS FOR READING - all of us at Other Music

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