October 25, 2007

		FEATURED NEW RELEASES Yeasayer Vampire Weekend (single) Karen Dalton White Magic Ricardo Villalobos Supersilent Prefuse 73 Ghost Lee Hazlewood Black Dice Phosphorescent Babyshambles Saturday Looks Good To Me   FEATURED DOWNLOADS Hey Hey My My (Other Music Digital Exclusive) Four Songs of Arthur Russell (various) ALSO AVAILABLE Tom Brosseau iLiKETRAiNS Randall of Nazareth Daniel Higgs Venetian Snares BACK IN STOCK Skull Disco (download available) COMPLETE LIST OF THIS WEEK'S NEW ARRIVALS

		$14.99 CD $9.99 mp3   YEASAYER All Hour Cymbals (We Are Free) "Sunrise" "2080" Brooklyn's Yeasayer follows up their amazing "2080" single with one of the great debuts of 2007. All Hour Cymbals contains 11 prog-influenced, Eastern-flavored psych pop gems. I'm not sure that does Yeasayer complete justice, probably not, but what I do know is that this quartet creates great music that in addition to the traditional staples of guitar, bass and drums, also incorporate various forms of percussion, mandolins, perfect four-part harmonies, and a vocal delivery not unlike Peter Gabriel ("Sunrise" is one of the best album openers I have heard in a long while, and it could easily have been left off one of Gabriel's early albums) or For Your Pleasure/Stranded-era Bryan Ferry. "Waiting for the Summer" could be the bastard child of Akron/Family with its chanting chorus and jam band mentality, while "2080" is probably one of the finest songs this year thanks to its mesmerizing guitar lines and ultra-catchy chorus. For a relatively new band, the chemistry between the members is amazing and the production on All Hour Cymbals is impeccable. If you are a fan of any of the aforementioned artists or are looking to explore a great new group, then look no further than Yeasayer, for they have released an album that people will be talking about for a long time to come. [JS]

		$3.99 45 $1.99 mp3   VAMPIRE WEEKEND Mansard Roof (XL) We feel a special pang of joy announcing the release of Vampire Weekend's proper debut single. It was just a few short months ago that we fell for this young NYC band, and it's been a wild ride. Their self-released EP (now unavailable) topped our charts for weeks, and subsequently they were signed internationally by XL Recordings, and after a stellar in-store at Other Music last week during CMJ, the band flew overseas to tour Europe and the U.K. opening for the Shins. "Mansard Roof" is a great track from their forthcoming album, due early next year, with one exclusive b-side. (Preview sound clips on Other Music Digital.) [JM]

		$26.99 CDx2 w/ DVD   KAREN DALTON Cotton Eyed Joe (Megaphone / Delmore) "Down and Out" "Pallett on Your Floor" God, we were shocked and elated to find this on the release schedule. A never before heard two-CD live set of one of our all time favorite female singers, Karen Dalton, rescued from the crumbling remains of an ancient pair of reel-to-reel tapes. Seriously, this is a big deal, the woman only cut two albums in her lifetime so this set essentially doubles the known output. I can hear the continually growing legions of Dalton's cult screaming already, "SOLD!!!" We've detailed Dalton's back-story for this update before, describing her reticence to record, the awe with which she was looked up to in the Greenwich Village folk scene, how she came undone due to chemical dependency and ended up homeless and lost in obscurity. During her best days, however, she was a self-possessed woman, a single mom given to rambling and doing things her own way. These recordings find her living in Boulder, Colorado in 1962, a full seven years before her debut album was to be released. The small scene of hipsters in Boulder congregated at the Attic Club, a coffee house run by folk music enthusiast Joe Loop. He too was bowled over and in awe of Dalton, and he had the good sense to have a tape recorder on hand to capture the earliest known recordings of her. It's astonishing to hear that her idiosyncratic take on both obscure blues and popular ballads was fully formed at this early date, her voice achingly laconic and laden with pathos. The repertoire she covers here spans the gamut from Jelly Roll Morton to Fred Neil, to key tunes from Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music. Only four songs from her debut turn up, and the renditions are typically devastating. The biggest surprise from this package though was to learn the degree of fierceness she was capable of, and what a force of nature she must have been to watch. They've done a stellar job mastering these tapes, and while the sound isn't one hundred percent pristine, it's more than enough to capture even the most subtle nuances of her performance. Included is the DVD that came with last year's reissue of It's So Hard..., now in an NTSC format. I gotta tell ya, I just wrote this review and I'm STILL staggered these recordings exist! WOW!!!! [MK]

		$11.99 CD-EP $3.99 mp3   WHITE MAGIC Dark Stars (Drag City) "Shine on Heaven" "Winds" The music of White Magic almost seems to define its own physical space, a chilly yet embracing landscape seemingly built on the cycles of the moon as much as it is Mira Billotte's serene and lovely piano figures and haunting vocals, and Doug Shaw's swirling guitars and organ groan. On the hypnotic new Dark Stars EP, the duo is again joined by Jim White on drums (and Tim Koh on bass), whose fluid, melodic playing keeps these slowly unfolding stories always on track. This group's music is so hard to pigeonhole, a hazy psychedelia that never rocks and never folks either, Dark Stars brings to mind solo productions from John Cale, Kendra Smith and Robert Wyatt without really sounding like any of them (although the set closer "Winds," featuring Shaw's lead vocals, could be a Paris 1919 outtake). But whatever it is and wherever it lives, this is another intriguing look into the world of White Magic. [JM]

		$16.99 CD   RICARDO VILLALOBOS Fabric 36 (Fabric) "M.Bassy" "Won't You Tell Me" Producer & DJ Ricardo Villalobos has been courting equal parts praise and controversy over the past three years since his last proper LP (The Au Harem D'Archimede) with releases which, when taken in the context of the house and dance community, seem rather unorthodox. Releasing one 37-minute single (Fizheuer Zieheuer) and two 12" double packs with sides clocking in at near 15 minutes each, all three of these could qualify in time trials as albums proper, yet Villalobos steadfastly refuses that these are albums and insists that we accept them as what they are and for the contexts in which they can be listened and played. Villalobos backs down none with his newest release, a mix for the acclaimed Fabric series which has gathered much buzz since it debuted in 2005. Unlike the average DJ mix, usually featuring an artist/DJ's favorite tracks by others peppered with the occasional self-production, Villalobos eliminates the middle man and cuts right to the chase with an entire mix of self-productions. That's right, Fabric 36 consists of nothing but NEW tracks by Ricardo Villalobos. The catch? Well, this being a DJ mix, they're all mixed together as one long piece unto itself and divided into three thematic/rhythmic "suites" if you will, so there's often no telling where one piece ends and another begins. In regards to highlights of the mix -- well, there are plenty. "Perc and Drums" dissects a Buddy Rich or Max Roach style jazz groove, all brushes on snares and sizzling hi-hats, and weaves it into Villalobos' as-always dense but never stifling fabric (pardon the pun) of timbres and rhythms. The suite centered around "Andruic & Japan" takes samples of what sounds like Japanese taiko drumming and weaves it together with a rant/come-on by a terrifying, nightmarish dancing queen. The whole thing caps off with one of Villalobos' most talked about tracks, "Primer Encuentro Latino-Americano," which samples and incorporates the chanting of what sounds like football (i.e. soccer, not NFL) fans into one of the man's best grooves yet for an epic finale to one of the most rewarding sets he has yet recorded. There's no easy payoff, and the mix deserves (and requires) repeated listens on both the biggest sound system you can manage, and the best pair of headphones with which you can curl up and get lost. One of the best records of the year -- Villalobos is in a class of his own. [IQ]

		$15.99 CD   SUPERSILENT 8 (Rune Grammofon) "8.3" "8.5" For their 10-year anniversary as a band, Norway's Supersilent has decided to release a new record, their first since 2003's 6 (7 was a revelatory concert performance DVD). A treat for the initiated and future fans alike, 8 continues the shrouded-in-mystery audio research that trumpeter / electronics guy, Arve Henriksen, tape manipulator Helge Sten (a/k/a Deathprod, and the band's Teo Macero figure), drummer Jarle Vespestad, and keyboardist Stale Storlokken have conducted how and when they see fit. The method hasn't changed (no rehearsal, no songs or song titles, no overdubs, only improvisation), but the sound continues to morph as it enters new realms as the train rolls on. Probably the group's most difficult to describe work, 8 has soundtrack-y moments not unlike Louis and Bebe Barron's Forbidden Planet played during a disconcerting hail storm, something of Talk Talk's much lauded use of space and texture, Popol Vuh's trance without being "trippy, man", castratos singing Gregorian chants, savant teenage headbangers rocking out Albert Ayler tunes for the first time in a garage, and Autechre's spasms minus the sequencer. Without reducing it to background music, because it is quite the opposite of that, 8 is a fantastic companion to the air and mood of Halloween: creepy and unpredictable, as all the scariest things in life are. "That sound coming out of the speakers seems organic and alive, but totally unnatural. I can't help but listen more closely. I hope it doesn't try to..." Boo! [KC]

		$14.99 CDx2 $17.99 LP   PREFUSE 73 Preparations (Warp) "The Class of 73 Bells" "Preparation Outro Version" Since his debut, I've felt like each Prefuse 73 release played like a mix tape from that weird DJ friend you had in high school. You know, that funky mad scientist type with a low attention span and a high caffeine intake. Through the years, Scott Herren experimented with beat constructions in a mind-bending yet melodic and accessible way, each record growing in scope and range. The first thing I noticed while listening to this new Prefuse 73 full-length is that there's not a guest rapper in sight. Despite the misleading cut-up intro of MCs giving P-73 shout outs, Preparations is more stripped-down in comparison to his last album, Surrounded by Silence, which found him collaborating with someone on nearly every track. As such, Preparations feels like a breath of fresh air and a welcome, mature return to (mainly) instrumental form. These days on stage Herren spends much of his time behind the drums, and in this live setting Prefuse 73 has morphed into a tightly woven unit of electronics, turntables, bass, and actually two drummers; needless to say, Preparations feels a lot like that. Although he's still pulling rhythmic inspiration from the world of hip-hop, his incorporation of elements feels more worldly this time around. Orchestral strings, splashy psychedelic drums, Middle Eastern flavors, jazzy breaks, and prog rock chord progressions sit alongside his usual sound palette and editing techniques. This is an accomplished if seemingly scatterbrained collage of original playing and programming, reflecting and absorbing the sounds and melodies of the current shifting music scene. For more of a glimpse of what Herren is preparing us for, a bonus 15 track CD of orchestral compositions titled Interregnums is included and it finds him further exploring similar territory to that of Steve Reich and Brian Eno, or contemporary electro-acoustic assembles such as Efterklang an Amiina. This may be the final journey for Herren's Prefuse 73 project, and if the rumors are true, this would be the perfect goodbye. [DG]

		$16.99 CD w/DVD $9.99 mp3   GHOST Overture: Live in Nippon Yusen Soko 2006 (Drag City) "Overature" "Overature" This long-running Japanese psychedelic band is one of the few who really can live up to such a simple and over-used tag as "psychedelic." They are not psych-rock, or pop-psych, or any other derivation that really means "lots of guitar solos" or something similar; Ghost's music is a free-flowing, often mind-altering living organism that can transport the listener from the moment you drop the needle. But as with most bands of this ilk, as great as their albums may be, there is little doubt that the live experience can move on a whole different level, as there is something almost cosmic that happens when this band performs. Their live shows can take on many different forms, and even when they're performing well-known songs from their albums they tend to improvise and rethink old ideas on a nightly basis. The group's excellent live Temple Stone album from 1997 took a certain type of theoretical approach as its leaping-off point, collecting the best of a series of concerts the band performed at temples and other sacred spaces throughout Japan, reinterpreting songs from their catalog, taking the tracks to dramatically different places. This new live opus, Overture: Live In Nippon Yusen Soko 2006, has a far different premise, however: Set up in an aging stone warehouse on the Yokohama Bay, Ghost embarked on an hour-long journey of pure free improvisation. With guitar, voice, saxophone, flute, piano, percussion, voice, tape loops, and contrabass, slowly evolving moods echo around this cavernous space as the group lets the music dictate their direction, playing the silence as much as they do their instruments, and the results, even coming off the cool confines of a hard plastic disc, are intoxicating. The CD version is accompanied by a full-length DVD of the performance, in stereo as well as 5.1 surround sound, with understated multi-camera shots of the musicians and the light and video show that accompanied the performance. [KS]

		Very Special World of... $15.99 CD Its Cause and Cure $15.99 CD Something Special $15.99 CD   LEE HAZLEWOOD The Very Special World of Lee Hazlewood (Water) "So Long, Babe" LEE HAZLEWOOD Lee Hazlewoodism: Its Cause and Cure (Water) "The Girls in Paris" LEE HAZLEWOOD Something Special (Water) "Stone Cold Blues" Once again the San Francisco reissue label Water delivers the goods, this time with three excellent albums from Lee Hazlewood's classic mid/late '60s output on MGM. Hazlewood had already released a couple of great solo records with middling commercial success when his L.A. clout was significantly upped by his songwriting and production hits with the trio of Hollywood junior royalty, Dino, Desi & Billy, and more significantly that other Rat Pack spawn, Nancy Sinatra. He scored a new solo deal with MGM, and these three albums, from 1966, '67 and '68 (although Something Special never saw the light of day until many years after its original slated release date), all arranged by Billy Strange, feature Hazlewood's own take on the sound as well as many of the classic songs of his that were popularized by the chart-topping artists he produced. With a long and storied career, it's tough to say which of Lee's many great records were his BEST, but these three are all clearly amongst his finest, blending his smart, sharp-as-a-tack songwriting with that laconic drawl and off-beat production style to great effect. Released in 1966 with protege Nancy Sinatra riding high on the charts, The Very Special World of Lee Hazlewood features Lee working through a number of his early hits, including a goofball version of the breakthrough "These Boots Are Made for Walking" single, a lovely bossa take on "Not the Loving Kind," the pop bounce of "So Long, Babe," and many more. The album moves from pop to country to lounge grooves or dramatic ballads effortlessly, held together by the top-notch songwriting and Billy Strange's dramatic and cinematic arrangements, but given real spirit from Hazlewood's quirky production choices and his rich, if somewhat odd, baritone singing voice. Add to that the creepy cover photo of Lee lounging in the grass in a sheepskin coat, looking frighteningly like the Addams Family's butler Lurch on a Colorado holiday, and you have a delectable piece of pop history here. Lee Hazlewoodism: It's Cause And Cure is perhaps, for a poker-faced joker like Lee, a bit of a melancholy affair. The album holds less overt pop and more Western-themed drama that is accentuated by Strange's orchestrations and the full-tilt choir that appears from the ether to bolster the choruses throughout. Great tracks like the epic "Jose," a tale of a poor Mexican boy who dreams of bigger things, show Lee stretching out a bit, more akin to a grizzled cowboy troubadour than an L.A. pop producer. As that song segues into "The Old Man and His Guitar," a song nostalgic for nostalgia itself, and the mind-boggling story song "The Nights," a dramatic tale of the hard life of the "red man" in the old west, and a young white woman who gives herself over for love, and for the beautiful nights, it becomes clear that Hazlewood's passions ran much deeper than simply crafting pop perfection for teenage America. Apparently that was becoming pretty clear to the good folks at MGM as well, because his intended follow-up, the aptly named Something Special, never quite made it to the stores as planned. Originally intended for release in 1968, the record already had a catalog number and cover art when the label decided to shelve the project, despite its author's considerable pull as a Hollywood songwriter and producer, and it would be more than 20 years before these recordings saw the light of day. It's another Hazlewood release full of great songwriting and beautiful arrangements, but also full of goofy humor and stylistic contradictions that must have been hard to reconcile for an artist being marketed to pop and country audiences. There are hooks and love songs too, but overall this record is one of his most melancholy, as well as one of the silliest in the catalog, notable for, among other things, Strange's odd parody of scat-singing that resurfaces several times throughout, and Hazlewood's wry couplets, like the telling bit of self-parody from "Stone Cold Blues;" Lee asks forlornly why Hollywood industry hot-spot Martoni's "call the steak Sinatra, and the hamburger Hazlewood." Why indeed. [JM]

		$13.99 CD $9.99 mp3   BLACK DICE Load Blown (Paw Tracks) "Kokomo" "Drool" An unbelievable focus has overtaken Black Dice, one that has drawn together the concerns with individual sounds on their past few sprawling efforts and applied them to the most natural, most interesting rhythms of their career. Orbiting somewhere out on Saturn right now are the essences of these ten songs, the collection of three 12" EPs released in the past year (the third installment of which coincides with the CD and digital release in question) embraces an overall approach in love with electric Miles, Brainticket, Cabaret Voltaire and island music. It's also the most overtly psychedelic thing Black Dice has done since Beaches and Canyons, and some of the headiest head music you're likely to find these days -- a real backscratcher for your mind, if you will. [DM]

		$14.99 CD $12.99 LP $9.99 mp3   PHOSPHORESCENT Pride (Dead Oceans) "A Picture of Our Torn Up Praise" "Wolves" With every wail and yip and howl, the sweet, country-tinged songs on Pride, Matthew Houck's third album as Phosphorescent, fill up the room. A solo album yet by no means spare, Houck bolsters the acoustic instrumentation with loops, echoes and blurring drum machines as well as contributions from Jana Hunter, Dirty Projectors, and Castanets, producing a warm, hazy recording that is comforting in its many sounds but also in its subtle arrangement of them all. Bringing all this together is Houck's voice, slightly tarnished yet very patient in delivery, each lyric is delivered with the same sincere importance as some of the best -- Willie Nelson certainly comes to mind, maybe the swagger of Kris Kristofferson; more obvious to some might be his similarities to Will Oldham or the softer side of K Record's Little Wings. Despite (or because of) all these familiar strategies, the eight songs on Pride are some of the best I have heard from anyone in a long time. [AC]

		$14.99 CD $37.99 CD w/ PAL DVD   BABYSHAMBLES Shotter's Nation (Parlophone) "French Dog Blues" "Deft Left Hand" Pete Doherty and his most vocal supporters would have you believe than every new album from the drug-addled, supermodel boy toy may well be his last, so listen hard and hang on for the ride of your life. Clever marketing for sure, and no doubt the man is a mess, but hell, it takes more than dope to kill most rock stars, and quite a few have tried. Shotter's Nation is, in many ways, Doherty's most even-tempered, least volatile album to date. It is still full of simple three-chord punk rave-ups and tales of wild nights and misunderstood, much-maligned dreamers fighting against the haters and the doubters, but with the help of onetime Smiths and Blur producer Stephen Street and the somewhat stable current lineup of the 'Shambles, Doherty has delivered his most consistent, if not always most electrifying album to date. Perhaps most noticeable is Doherty's singing, which has always been his roughshod calling card of yelps and mumbles, but Street has done a great job of coaxing out Doherty's most enigmatic vocals to date, full of raw passion, tension and emotion, but also full of melody and beauty. And in the same vein, songwriting and arrangements herein are the most fully fleshed-out and best realized of Doherty's career, making clearer this group's debt not just to late '70s punk rock, but also bands like the Kinks, or early garage a la the Seeds, or even more recent Britpop posturing...and talk about depth, the set closer finds Doherty accompanied by none other than Bert Jansch on guitar. The limited version of this disc comes with a DVD featuring some beautifully shot segments with the band smoking and talking about recording the new album, and their art in general, plus a short set from Babyshambles' stand at the Boogaloo Pub in London, and the video for "Delivery." [JM]

		$14.99 CD $9.99 mp3   SATURDAY LOOKS GOOD TO ME Fill Up the Room (K) "Money in the Afterlife" "Hands in the Snow" Fred Thomas will never stop writing, producing and recording the songs of Saturday Looks Good to Me, a project he started almost ten years ago when living Ypsilanti, Michigan. Thomas usually gathers a loose cadre of friends and foils, and the best musicians and singers around, to participate in the recording of a new album, and Fill Up the Room is no exception, with its eleven backing members on organ, saxophone, violin, glockenspiel, bass, and much more. Unlike the two past SLGTM albums, the vocals are primarily Thomas' own with the one exception being the sweet solo by Betty Marie Barnes on "Hands in the Snow," who also sang on the Every Night album and still plays live with the band. But the main difference devoted SLGTM fans will note from previous works is a sober new maturity, as the twee aspects of the group have been scaled back and replaced perfectly by an offering of new songs that will draw you in with their hooks, insight and subtle musicianship. [AC]

		$9.99 mp3   OTHER MUSIC DIGITAL EXCLUSIVE HEY HEY MY MY Hey Hey My My (Sober & Gentle) Other Music is pleased to offer a North American digital exclusive on the excellent debut from the new French rock duo Hey Hey My My. The group is named, of course, after one of Neil Young's fiercer pop nuggets, and while they share a knack for hook-filled melancholy with the great Shakey, in fact their music is quite a bit more pristine than most of Mr. Young's output. At times the self-titled debut reminds us of a band like Doves, with acoustic guitars bolstered by simple, powerful rhythm tracks that are so subtly assembled it's tough to tell what is live and what is looped, resulting in laidback, groove-oriented folk-rock that also draws on American indie influences like Magnolia Electric Co., or even Beck's more sincere stuff, to great effect. Available only in their native land on the cool Sober & Gentle imprint, the band is starting to make some ripples in the U.S., and we imagine that this is not the last you will hear from Hey Hey My My. (You can preview sound clips off of Other Music Digital.) [JM]

		$3.99 mp3   VARIOUS ARTISTS Four Songs by Arthur Russell (Rough Trade) With the much deserved hubbub that has been percolating around the late Arthur Russell these last few years, and the many great reissues and collections that have been popping up making this iconoclastic and wholly original musicians' catalog available to a new generation of listeners, there has been a lot of talk of the breadth of Russell's productions, from his groundbreaking dance music, to arty punk explorations, and avant-classical cello compositions. But underneath the varied and inventive production, Russell was above all a stellar songwriter, and his deeply emotional poetry and melancholic turn of a pop melody were the glue that held together his disparate output. To that effect, Rough Trade has issued this wonderful little record featuring four new takes on Arthur Russell's songs by four very different, but relatively straightforward singer/songwriters, including Jens Lekman's jazzy, open-ended approach to the heartbreaking love song "A Little Lost" (with an amazingly dead-on Russell vocal impression) and Victoria Bergsman's Taken By Trees impossibly intimate version of "Take 1, 2." (Listen to sound samples on Other Music Digital.) [BC]

		$13.99 CD $9.99 mp3   TOM BROSSEAU Cavalier (Fat Cat) "Amory" Tom Brosseau's Fat Cat Records debut is actually his sixth full-length release in as many years, and that speaks to the sort of plainspoken, journeyman songwriter and musician that Brosseau is. Hailing originally from Grand Forks, North Dakota, Brosseau is a modern wandering troubadour in the mold of Woody Guthrie or Mississippi John Hurt, spinning beautiful, moving traditional-style (but original) folk music with his high reedy voice and simple acoustic guitar strum, with occasional low-key instrumental flourishes. In our new folk-friendly times, it's rare and refreshing to hear an artist who crafts such honest, unadorned and thought-provoking songs.

		$12.99 CD $9.99 mp3   ILIKETRAINS Elegies to Lessons Learnt (Beggars Banquet) "We Go Hunting" "The Voice of Reason" With comparisons to '90s shoegaze, post-rock, and Ennio Morricone, iLiKETRAiNS continue to draw lyrical inspiration from history, and on Elegies to Lessons Learnt, their proper debut album, the main inspiration is humanity's failure to learn from its own mistakes. Not music to get the party started by any means, iLiKETRAiNS will satisfy those who prefer to dim the lights, put on a record, and get fully absorbed into it. Dark and hypnotic stuff.

		$13.99 CD $9.99 mp3   RANDALL OF NAZARETH Randall of Nazareth (Drag City) "Read Your Name" Randall Huth, of weirdo boogie-rock kingpins Pearls and Brass (and also of Nazareth, Pennsylvania, by the way), has taken a few steps back from his wicked rock and roll ways on this excellent solo debut, crafting a subtle, bluesy acoustic folk album that is both warm and foreboding. Huth's guitar squall has always been his calling card, but his acoustic playing, a quick-fingered and dreamy web of notes that swirl around the chords with joyful, precise abandon, accompanied only by his own quavering voice, is revelatory, and these tracks, in the vein of Bert Jansch and the like, are immensely satisfying.

		$14.99 CD $9.99 mp3   DANIEL HIGGS Metempsychotic Melodies (Holy Mountain) "Love Abides" Another intense and iconoclastic solo album from Daniel Higgs, the shamanistic singer from Baltimore legends Lungfish, as well as a fiercely talented graphic artist, poet, and all-around original personality. Raw, overtone-rich picked acoustic guitars dominate, but Higgs' powerful vocals and poetry are also in effect, and this unclassifiable album is mesmerizing. Although Higgs' solo work sounds nothing like Lungfish on the surface, it has the same intensely focused, transporting qualities that make that band's music so hypnotic. Powerful stuff for sure.

		$14.99 CD $9.99 mp3   VENETIAN SNARES My Downfall - Original Soundtrack (Planet Mu) "My Half" We don't think there is actually a film to accompany this, but without a doubt Venetian Snares have delivered another powerfully cinematic album, and a strong follow-up to the much-loved Rossz Csillag Allat Szuletett. These tracks are dark and foreboding, deeply rhythmic although the string section actually gets more play than the rhythm section, rich with piano, choral arrangements and other deft orchestral touches. Without ceding an inch on the cacophonous manifesto, Venetian Snares (a/k/a Aaron Funk) has kept his nose to the grindstone and has found a way forward for this glitchy, driving music that is vibrant and creative and very much alive.

		$13.99 CDx2 $9.99 mp3   VARIOUS ARTISTS Skull Disco - Soundboy Punishments (Rough Trade) "Hamas Rule" Shackleton "Gold and Silver" Appleblim Following several excellent 12" releases, the Skull Disco label brings us this excellent dubstep compilation, Soundboy Punishments. Culled primarily from the work of Shackleton, as well as a few selections from Appleblim and Gatekeeper, this is a mysterious yet engaging collection of deep, dark and danceable dub. The style of Skull Disco could best be described as a mix of Muslimgauze, DJ Rupture (without the shredding effects), Badawi, or even Basic Channel. Earthy sounds like finger cymbals, dumbek and hand percussion form the skeletal framework for the lean yet bubbling rhythms and adds a fresh, Middle Eastern spin on melodies that are usually associated with digital music. As the title suggests, this is punishment for any sound boy expecting the same ol' thing. Yeah, you might think, "Oh, yet another dubstep comp..." but this one is worth the money. (Check out the 18-minute Ricardo Villalobos remix of a Shackelton's "Blood On My Hands" -- who says dubstep and minimal techno can't be friends?!) If you thought Tectonic Plates was a banger, this one is its organic cousin. Recommended! [DG]

		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 from it for any reason, please send an email from the address you wish to delete to list@othermusic.com and make sure the word "Remove" is included in the subject line.   THIS WEEK'S CONTRIBUTORS [BC] Baxter Cardona [AC] Amanda Colbenson [KC] Kevin Coultas [DG] Daniel Givens [IQ] Mikey IQ Jones [MK] Michael Klausman [JM] Josh Madell [DM] Doug Mosurock [KS] Karen Soskin [JS] Jeremy Sponder THANKS FOR READING - all of us at Other Music

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