April 16, 2009

		RECORD STORE DAY: SATURDAY, APRIL 18 This Saturday, April 18th, Other Music will be celebrating Record Store Day, a day in which record shops all across the country and the people who love them celebrate their uniqueness in the cultural landscape. Last year's event proved wildly popular and this year is looking to be an even bigger and better day. First off, we're going to start the celebration early with a 10% SALE OFF ALL MERCHANDISE IN THE SHOP & MAIL ORDER beginning Friday morning and lasting all through the weekend right up to close on Sunday. And on Record Store Day itself, we've got a great line-up of guest DJs and a live performance from Bill Callahan. Here's the schedule: 11:30AM-12:30PM: Bob Dylan Together Through Life listening party with bagels, muffins, and juice 1-2PM Telepathe DJ Set 2-3PM Obits DJ Set 3-4PM Grizzly Bear DJ Set 4-5PM Pains of Being Pure at Heart DJ Set 5-6PM Raveonettes DJ Set 6-7PM Prefuse 73 DJ Set 9-10PM Bill Callahan Live Performance *PABST BLUE RIBBON will be supplying the drinks during the Callahn performance - 21+ w/ID

		LIMITED RECORD STORE DAY RELEASES Many labels and bands are making special releases that will be exclusive to Record Store Day and available to purchase in the shop this Saturday only (sorry, no web orders). Here's a list of what we'll be carrying, but keep in mind, quantities are very limited! Akron/Family “Everyone Is Guilty” 7”, Black Kids “Wizard of Ahhs” 7”, Blitzen Trapper “War Is Placebo” 7”, Chicha Libre & Dengue Fever “Primavera en la Selva / Genjer” split 7”, Leonard Cohen “The Future” 7”, Cold War Kids “Live at Fingerprints” CD, Cursive & Ladyfinger 10” Picture Disc, Dandy Warhols “Earth to the Remix” CD-EP, The Decemberists “The Rake Song” 7”, Depeche Mode “Wrong” 7”, Dr. Dog & Floating Action 7”, Bob Dylan “Dreaming of You” 7”, Flaming Lips / Black Keys “Borderline / Her Eyes Are a Blue Million Miles” 7”, El Grupo Nuevo de Omar Rodriguez Lopez “Cryptomnesia” full-length LP, Flight of the Conchords “Pencils in the Wind” 7”, Four Tops “Reach Out” full-length LP, Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell “United” full-length LP, Guided by Voices “Hold on Hope” full-length LP, Iron & Wine “Norfolk” live CD, Jackson 5 “ABC” full-length LP, Rick James “Street Songs” full-length LP, Jane’s Addiction “Mountain Song” 7”, Jay Reatard & Sonic Youth split 7”, Jenny Lewis “Carpet Baggers” 7”, Loney Dear & Andrew Bird split 7”, Lykee Li & El Perro Del Mar “After Laughter / At Your Best” split 7”, Magnolia Electric Company “It’s Made Me” 7”, MC5 “Kick Out the Jams” 7”, My Morning Jacket “Celebracion de la Ciudad Natal” CD & double 10” w/CD, New Order “Temptation” 7”, Nickle Eye “Dying Star” 7”, Obits “I Can’t Lose” 7”, Pavement “Live in Germany 1988” LP, Elvis Perkins “Lorraine Lookout” 7”, Pretenders “The Break Up” 7”, Smokey Robinson “A Quiet Storm” full-length LP, Diana Ross “s/t” full-length LP, Arthur Russell “Love Is Overtaking Me” double LP, Silversun Pickups “Pikul” 12”, Slayer “Psychopathy Red” 7”, Sonic Youth & Beck split 7”, Charles Spearin “The Happiness Project” full-length LP, Bruce Springsteen “What Love Can Do” 7”,  Supremes “I Hear a Symphony” full-length LP, Temptations “Cloud Nine” full-length LP, The Smiths “The Headmaster Ritual” 7”, The Stooges “1969” f7”, These Arms Are Snakes & Russian Circles clear vinyl 12”, Vetiver “Wishing Well” 7”, Tom Waits Live from the Glitter Dome” 7”, Whiskeytown “San Antone” 7”, Wilco “Ashes of American Flags” DVD, Stevie Wonder “Songs in the Key of Life” full-length LP, Yeah Yeah Yeahs “It’s Blitz” full-length LP

		FEATURED NEW RELEASES Rudresh Mahanthappa Bill Callahan Thomas Mapfumo Ben Klock Telepathe The Juan MacLean Prefuse 73 Mulatu Astatke & the Heliocentrics Dukes of Stratosphear Shogun Kunitoki Micachu & the Shapes 100% Dynamite NYC! (Various) Sun City Girls 1970's Algerian Proto Rai Underground Gun Outfit   Marvellous Boy (Calypso comp.) Gloria Jones Dr. Boogie Presents: Cool Cats Crystal Antlers Wooden Shjips Acid Dreams (Various) Off the Wall 1 & 2 (Various) ALSO AVAILABLE Papercuts Dengue Fever (CD w/ DVD) DJ Koze Metric Score! (Merge comp.) Circus Devils

		STORE CUSTOMERS: ENTER TO WIN A LIMITED SILVERSUN PICKUPS EPIPHONE LES PAUL Following three years of near constant touring, L.A. powerhouse Silversun Pickups are back with a sophomore album that refines their emo/shoegaze hybrid with a dose of grungy growl (available for purchase below). The record features a swirling new batch of infectious hits that blend Smashing Pumpkins fist-pumping theatrics with My Bloody Valentine's dark swoon. To celebrate the release of Swoon, Gibson has crafted an ultra-limited Epiphone Les Paul reissue finished with the album artwork, and Other Music has one hanging on the wall just for you. Stop by the shop to enter our giveaway contest, and you could walk away with a new guitar! SILVERSUN PICKUPS Swoon (Dangerbird) $14.99 CD $24.99 LPx2 (180 Gram)

		APR Sun 12 Mon 13 Tues 14 Wed 15 Thurs 16 Fri 17 Sat 18   WIN TICKETS TO THE JUAN MACLEAN Tomorrow night (Friday), the Juan MacLean will be celebrating the release of their great new album, The Future Will Come (featured below in the Update), playing live at Le Poisson Rouge along with a live set from Black Meteoric Star and DJ sets from Holy Ghost and DFA's Matt Cash. Definitely not a night for wall flies, the dance floor is sure to be going from start to finish. We're giving away two pairs of tickets, so send an email to enter@othermusic.com, and we'll pick two names Friday morning (day of show). FRIDAY, APRIL 17 LE POISSON ROUGE: 158 Bleeker Street NYC

		APR Sun 19 Mon 20 Tues 21 Wed 22 Thurs 23 Fri 24 Sat 25   TICKET GIVE AWAY TO RATATAT New York's own guitar and laptop heroes Ratatat are playing two nights at Terminal 5, next Tuesday and Wednesday, April 21st and 22nd. As you can imagine, tickets are going pretty fast, the first night being sold out and the second on its way. We've got a pair of tickets up for grabs to each of the shows, so email giveaway@othermusic.com to enter, and please list the night you'd like to see if you have a preference. Good luck! TUESDAY, APRIL 21 & WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22 TERMINAL 5: 610 West 56th Street NYC

		APR Sun 19 Mon 20 Tues 21 Wed 22 Thurs 23 Fri 24 Sat 25   WIN TICKETS TO LOU REED'S METAL MACHINE TRIO Next week, Lou Reed is playing in New York City with his Metal Machine Trio on Thursday, April 23rd and Friday the 24th. The band features Lou Reed on guitar and electronics, Ulrich Krieger on tenor sax and live-electronics, and Sarth Calhoun on live processing and Fingerboard Continuum, and they will be performing the material off their first release together, The Creation of the Universe. Other Music has a pair of tickets to give away to the Thursday night show. To enter, send an email to tickets@othermusic.com. The winner will be notified on Monday, April19th. THURSDAY, APRIL 23 & FRIDAY, APRIL 24 GRAMERCY THEATER: 127 East 23rd Street NYC Show Begins at 7:30PM Purchase tickets here at www.livenation.com

		$15.99 CD $9.99 MP3   RUDRESH MAHANTHAPPA Kinsmen (Pi) "Kalyani" "Snake!" We've been trying to get a hold of this on CD for quite some time, one of the best new avant-jazz records that we've heard in years! It's rare these days that you find something new within a genre that seems so exhausted. Rudresh Mahanthappa, however, has succeeded in doing such a thing. With Kinsmen, the saxophonist blends the meditative, lyrical aspects of Indian classical music with the improv and structured playing of jazz. Utilizing violin, guitar, bass, mridangam, royal hartigan, drums, and two alto saxophones, Mahanthappa constructs something that, at times, moves like a raga, and at other times it grooves and swings like an ethno jazz ensemble. His playing often feels like that of a sitar, moving endlessly in, between, and through the scales. Think of the cultural blending that fascinated Dizzy Gillespie or Joe Harriott, yet coming from the other end of the spectrum, someone of Indian descent laying the foundation for merging into a truly American music form. Along with Vijay Iyer, whom Mahanthappa has supported on occasion, they seem to be issuing in a new fusion and era in the jazz world, and gaining much acclaim for their efforts. Kinsmen is the type of jazz record the richly diverse landscape of New York should be producing, and I'm glad to hear that someone actually is still interested in bridging the gap between the East and West. Recommended for not only jazz enthusiasts but for world music aficionados as well. [DG]

		$13.99 CD $15.99 LP   BILL CALLAHAN Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle (Drag City) "Jim Cain" "All Thoughts Are Prey to Some Beast" I think it's safe to proclaim that Bill Callahan has officially attained Wallabee status. Like a pair of Clarks, Chuck Taylors, or Vans, Señor Smog has become a symbol of effortless style and reliability, crafting something so timeless in its aesthetic appeal that it's quickly approaching "classic" status. But just as these classic shoes have come to be synonymous with taste and functionality, so have they become so culturally ubiquitous as to be almost invisible at a passing glance. A product so above rebuke that it's become the fail-safe, conservative choice in certain circles. So it is with the arrival of a new Smog/Bill Callahan effort. For those who've been paying attention, you know with some degree of certainty what to expect from a Smog-related record at this point: well-crafted country-folk songs with an acerbic lyrical wit. Like Drag City stable mate, Will Oldham, Callahan has steadily emerged from an insular lo-fi cocoon to assert himself as a unique and original voice, amassing an airtight, cohesive body of work in the process. In fact, listening to this new record in the shop, the inevitable Leonard Cohen comparisons sprang forth from both customers and OM staff. Beyond the obvious barrel-voiced similarities, both men have maintained a singular sense of purity and focus in their work, evolving, while remaining true to their artistic muses. You can polish the surface all you want, but underneath the hood lurks the same mess of greasy gears and wiring that have driven the machine from the start. It's this quality of subterfuge that continues to make listening to Callahan an intriguing pursuit. At first glance, Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle sounds like another step in Callahan's increasingly refined march towards maturity. The production is pristine, punctuated by stabs of strings and French horn, while the vocals emerge to the forefront, more direct and universal in their observations than ever. But underneath it all remains the same playful contrarian's sensibility that refuses to give in to easy platitudes. While a song like "My Friend" seemingly begins as a forthright rumination on the merits of companionship, ("My friend/ I'm not saying we are cut from the same tree"), it quickly takes a lyrical turn to the macabre ("But like two pieces of the gallows/ the pillar and the beam/ we share a common dream"). It's this willingness to roll out the red carpet while walking you into a pit of snakes that lends Callahan his peculiar appeal. Even though you know it's coming, you can't resist following your feet where they lead you, one more time. [JTr]

		$15.99 CD $9.99 MP3 $15.99 CD $9.99 MP3   THOMAS MAPFUMO & THE ACID BAND Hokoyo! (Water) "Hokoyo! "Murandu" THOMAS MAPFUMO & THE BLACKS UNLIMITED Gwindingwi Rine Shumba (Water) "Shumba" "Tinodanana" AFRO JAMS OF THE WEEK! Water Records delivers us two fantastic slivers of Afro-protest delight with the reissue of Zimbabwean star Thomas Mapfumo's first and second albums. Following his stint fronting the Hallelujah Chicken Run Band, 1978's Hokoyo! features 40 minutes of skittering, cymbal-led percussion and robust horn arrangements holding down the bottom end, but it's the details hovering atop of the grooves that are important both musically and historically -- this record birthed the musical style Mapfumo called "Chimurenga" ("struggle" or "uprising") music. Amidst the lyrics (sung in Shona dialect), which took Shona legends and essentially adapted them to fit the then-current guerrilla insurgency in what was then called Rhodesia, Mapfumo made one of the most clever and mesmerizing musical innovations in African guitar music for years to come -- he used the electric guitar to replicate the rhythmic and melodic patterns traditionally played on mbiras, or thumb pianos, and the resulting sound proved wildly popular. Indeed, the sound here is hypnotic and uplifting, loping but tense, fluid but with jagged, rough patches that display the punk-like urgency and disquiet in the music. The album is worth the price of admission for the title track alone, a jazzy groover with one hell of a horn line for a hook and repeated chants of "Hoykoyo!" ("watch out!") at the end of each verse. From there, the textures and melodies get a bit more complex and tense, but the intensity is matched with a relaxed cool -- you never hear Mapfumo settle into an aggravated militaristic tone the way someone like Fela Kuti loved to do. He followed the success (and subsequent jailing and interrogation) with 1980's Gwindingwi Rine Shumba, which introduces for the first time his most enduring and well-known band, the Blacks Unlimited. Released to coincide with Zimbabwe's recent independence, Gwindingwi takes the rough innovations of Hokoyo! and refines them into damn near perfection. Featuring a twin-guitar whirlwind performing in the aforementioned mbira-like technique, Mapfumo also sounds more impassioned and fired up here than he did on Hokoyo!. The band as a whole sounds more assured and confident, as if they are in full command of their powers... and indeed, at this point, they pretty much WERE. Both of these records are fantastic, gorgeous slices of passion and determination, and are not to be overlooked. Plus, the excellent packages feature liner notes from our own Michael Klausman! Highest recommendation! [IQ]

		$15.99 CD $9.99 MP3   BEN KLOCK One (Ostgut) "Goodly Sin" "Grip" Here's another dope album from the Ostgut label, this one being from Berlin's Berghain club resident Ben Klock, and once more the Motor City vibe is taken deeper into a modern day sound. Like Marcel Dettman, Klock manages to make minimal techno special again. There's lots of feeling, strength and sophistication here, reminiscent of Dettman's stripped-down tracks, but these cuts are a bit warmer with ear-tickling depth, a la Efdemin. Add to that Klock's ability to create music that's simultaneously stomping and expansive, moving with sharp focus but still having plenty of atmosphere to get lost in. I love how he takes the often-menacing vibe of Detroit and then deepens it to make the cuts more personal. Tracks like "Underneath" pump ever-forward with nice kling-klong piano stabs, but unexpected texture buildups rather than fatter beats are what develop the song. "Check for Pulse" has the deep textural house sound of Baby Ford's Klang-releases, but proves to be more propulsive without losing the dimly-lit, layered feeling. One is definitely one of my favorite new techno releases in a while and is also a nice fit with the great new Claro Intelecto album, not to mention the Tadeo release on Net28. Get this! [SM]

		$13.99 CD $12.99 LP   TELEPATHE Dance Mother (I Am Sound) "So Fine" "Drugged" For the past few weeks I've notice that a number of my favorite music blogs have been filled with amusing and pointed commentary regarding this female duo's gothic, crunked-up, art rock album debut. For whatever reason, Dance Mother seems to be one of the more polarizing records released in a long time, being labeled either "groundbreaking" or "frustrating and annoying." Even just last night, at my fave LES watering hole, I eavesdropped on two thirty-something strangers conversing behind me, trying to decide whether this was the best record they've heard all year, or the worst. In all honesty it's neither, but it could very well be one the most original sounding albums of 2009. Describing this duo can be quite a chore, and you'll most likely find Telepathe's sound being compared to Gang Gang Dance. But besides a shared appreciation for southern crunk, UK grime and ethereal lead vocals, the similarities pretty much end there. While GGD, TV on the Radio and Animal Collective find their inspiration in classic psychedelia, African music, soul and '80s goth pop, Busy Gagnes and Melissa Livaudais' influences are defiantly pop-based, and it seems like they're more enamored with effin' with mainstream form than anything else. Tunes like "Chrome's on It," "Lights Go Down" and "Devil's Trident" are closer in structure to hip-hop's hook-laced interpolations of world beat (a la Timbaland and Mannie Fresh), and the stutter-step sing-song flow of their vocals seem to be inspired more by Soulja Boy's rhythmic, indecipherable rhymes than African tribal chants. Telepathe's poppy, percolating nod to new wave disco, "So Fine," sounds more influenced by the hands-in-the-air escapism of Erasure and New Order than the dirty disco of DFA and Liquid Liquid. Tunes like "Michael" and "Can't Stand It" are beautiful, shimmery ballads that remind one of the warm, feminine sadness of Cocteau Twins, Slowdive and the like, but similarly to the aforementioned, there's a strong grasp and love for pop structure that emanates throughout. Kudos must be given to producer of the moment, TVOTR's David Sitek, for providing his strong guiding touch. Sitek's an expert at getting rid of the clutter and I doubt this record would seem so focused without his production. So in closing, I wouldn't necessarily call Dance Mother a "groundbreaker," however, even though Telepathe may not be the first female band to combine spooky, childlike vocals and hazy goth pop with dirty hip-hop inspired beats (see CocoRosie, Cibo Matto, etc.), to these ears, they're a rare band who's combined those elements resulting in an album that's not only a joy to listen to all the way through, they also have a sound that they can truly call their own. [DH]

		$12.99 CD $9.99 MP3   THE JUAN MACLEAN The Future Will Come (DFA) "One Day" "Tonight" Though it was cheered by many at the time of its release, the Juan MacLean's Less Than Human still felt more exploratory than anything else -- hardly a surprise given that it was among former Six Finger Satellite member John MacLean's first forays into synth-heavy dance music. Sprinkled with a couple of great tracks, that album was ultimately more notable as a sign of things to come, outlining MacLean's tremendous promise in a form with which he had limited experience. Back with The Future Will Come, his first full-length in nearly four years, MacLean presents an album that manages to simultaneously refine his previous impulses while still retaining that same sense of impending discovery. Across the album's ten tracks, MacLean (now aided more than ever by vocalist and songwriter Nancy Whang) bounds back and forth from spaced-out, extended dance tracks to more overt synth pop that calls to mind later Human League more than anything else (especially in the traded vocals of tracks like "One Day" and "The Station"). Elsewhere, he channels his inner Giorgio Moroder on album opener "The Simple Life," pays a not so subtle homage to LCD Soundsystem's "Losing My Edge" on the record's title track, and closes out with a great, long-form house workout in the form of "Happy House." All throughout, drum machines scamper and kick, synths spiral towards the night sky, and MacLean and Whang's vocals give off the air of a couple of increasingly confident musicians making a pretty great album. [MC]

		$14.99 CD $18.99 LP   PREFUSE 73 Everything She Touched Turned Ampexian (Warp) "Regato" "Violent Bathroom Exchange" In the warp-speed world of indie electronica, where sub-genres become fashionable and then inevitably fade into the background never to be heard from again, producers must constantly reinvent themselves if they want to last. While many thought Preparations was quite possibly the final installment in the Prefuse 73 saga, Guillermo Scott Herren has tuned up his MPC and two years later brings us Everything She Touched Turned Ampexian. Featuring 29 short slices of glitchy, pysch-hop, gone are the multiple guest appearances, choppy rapper edits, and hyper case of A.D.D. Though Herren's favorite slice-and-dice aesthetic is still present, it's smoothed out a bit and most often what remains are blissful guitar strums, big beats and lots of proggy synths. It's a bit lazy to liken this new release to the work of contemporaries like Madlib, Oh No, Four Tet and, of course, soul snippet king J-Dilla (R.I.P), but this particular outing does find Prefuse firmly reestablishing himself within the continuum. But Herren's quirky tastes give the record its own personality, as his love of psychedelic folk bubbles to the surface throughout, with a tweaked harpsichord synthesizer plug-in and his own voice, and that of frequent collaborator Claudia Deheza (School of Seven Bells), providing ethereal vocal atmosphere. And while countless producers use samples to pay homage to their impressive influences, Herren draws on classical music, hip-hop, soul, Krautrock, shoegaze, electro and, of course, IDM, but he often crafts this diverse sound collage sample-free, from the ground up. Much remains the same in the world of Prefuse 73, from his 2001 debut through this fine new album, but much has changed as well; if you've enjoyed the ride thus far, and have matured and mellowed a bit turning on to some Latin grooves, Japanese psychedelia, and British and/or American folk reissues while still liking your hip-hop beats, then my friend, here's where you need to be. [DG]

		$13.99 CD   MULATU ASTATKE & THE HELIOCENTRICS Inspiration Information (Strut) "Phantom of the Panther" "Addis Black Widow" Collaborations such as this one between Ethiopian jazz master Mulatu Astatke (the star of the Ethiopiques Vol 4 compilation and whose music was featured heavily in Jim Jarmusch's film Broken Flowers) and UK groove collusionists the Heliocentrics (whose debut record Out There was a surprising and inspiring mix-up of styles from Sun Ra to David Axelrod to '60s freakbeat rock) usually don't work. Sure, both parties come correct on their individual resumes, but how do they sound together? In a word, excellent. I'm honestly astonished by how great this record is -- not by any judgment on their talents, but rather by how mind-meetings like this, particularly by different generations of thinkers in the same idioms, generally become either overstuffed with ideas or anemic in delivery, or worse yet, both of the above. The Heliocentrics are obviously huge fans of Mulatu's work yet manage not to let creative intimidation overwhelm them -- they bring the noise, quite literally at times, with great arrangements of percussion, horns, synth noise, and even heavy fuzz bass at times enveloping Mulatu's trademark "Swinging Addis" sound, featuring other traditional Ethiopian instruments such as the krar, begena, and washint along with Mulatu's vibraphone playing. The grooves are thick and heavy, the atmospheres are dense and dark, and the sounds are a rousing success. Fans of either artist, of the Stones Throw/Now Again beat conglomerate, or of solid jams like the recent Getachu Mekuria & the Ex record that I raved about last year would be wise to cut themselves a slice of this. One of this week's best new releases, without question. [IQ]

		$16.99 CD $16.99 CD   DUKES OF STRATOSPHEAR 25 O Clock w/ Bonus Tracks (Ape) "25 O Clock" DUKES OF STRATOSPHEAR Psonic Psunspot w/ Bonus Tracks (Ape) "Vanishing Girl" The Dukes of Stratosphear emerged in 1985 with an EP called 25 O'Clock, a compositionally vibrant throwback to the hilt of British psychedelia that mimicked the then recently-released Rubble compilations to the extent that these guys might have been some lost band of the era, dredged up somewhere in between Pink Floyd circa "Arnold Layne," an acid trip involving Peter Cook, and staring into an eclipse with the Three O'Clock. In reality, it was the band XTC, along with producer John Leckie, who was soon to help realize the Stone Roses' recordings, out to make pitch-perfect tributes to the music of their collective youth. After years of meandering out of print, both the Dukes' releases -- the aforementioned EP, and 1987's full-length Psionic Psunspot, are reissued here, completely remastered and including demos, unreleased tracks, and even a reunion cut from 2003. Gorgeous and zany in ruffle-sleeved handfuls, Andy Partridge and co. throw down the gauntlet towards the buzzing void of modern bands with an impassioned plea to do more than sulk. [DM]

		$17.99 CD $9.99 MP3   SHOGUN KUNITOKI Vinonaamakasio (Fonal) "Vinonaamaka io" "Corda" Finnish prog supremos Shogun Kunitoki exploded onto the scene back in '06 with Tasankokaiku and quickly established themselves as one of my favorite acts on the fabulous Fonal label. Of course it's Finnish, so by default they should slot well into the varied Fonal catalogue, but something this electronic, and this full-on? Shogun Kunitoki were a long way from the pastoral, atonal post-folk of Islaja and friends, but no less successful in their respective genre, the genre being progressive rock. Stripping the sound back to all that was needed -- synthesizers and percussion -- they produced an album which was less an exploration of the retro than a celebration of harmony, melody and analog sounds. It would be childish to compare their music to Goblin or any of the well-known instrumental electro-prog set any more as their sound has developed to sound simply like Shogun Kunitoki. Arpeggios and gloriously emotive descending bass lines shift and shuffle beneath the kind of melodies that remind you why life's worth living. It's like La Dusseldorf and Jean Michelle Jarre had mischievous Finnish offspring with a love for the lo-fidelity naughtiness of James Ferraro, et al. Either way the results are terrifyingly jaunty -- at once as uplifting as early Mogwai or early Sigur Ros, but without the now putrid stench of post-rock in the air. By the time the album's carefully constructed early moments bind together for the joyous seven-minute "Holvikirkko," you should be left with no doubt that Shogun Kunitoki are one of the best things to happen to Finnish music since, well, Paavoharju. The track sounds as if Ulrich Schnauss and M83 ditched the computer controlled precision and decided to dub their records to tape instead, and in that the results are so much more lovely. When the sun sets on the album's final notes with the gorgeously haunting "Nebulus," you should have only one thing on your mind -- to press play once more. A clear highlight of 2009 so far -- life affirmingly good. [JT]

		$13.99 CD $14.99 LP w/MP3   MICACHU Jewellry (Rough Trade) "Lips" (With the Shapes) "Just in Case" Upon first listen of Micachu's Rough Trade debut, it may be hard to believe that Mica Levi spent her teen years producing tracks for some of the UK's best grime/garage acts and writing an orchestral piece for the London Philharmonic Orchestra. The 21-year-old Levi and her two bandmates, the Shapes (led by the charming Raisa Khan), use an array of unorthodox instruments including a modified guitar called a chu that Levi plays with a "hammer action," and they've created an album chock full of artful and deceptively complex pop-punk tunes. Produced by Matthew Herbert, the 30-minute, 13-song record is perhaps the ultimate paradox; the listener is taken on a trip through the mind of an artist who wears her influences on her sleeve, and then takes those influences and filters them quite literally through a Hoover vacuum (i.e. "Turn Me Well"). Album highlight "Calculator" playfully bridges noisy garage band guitar riffs, Wire circa 1977, and witty, yet childish lyrics ("Grab your calculator...'cause I don't think I can work this one out"). One of 2009's most buzzworthy acts, I still have yet to wear Jewellry out. One can only wonder how this former child prodigy will channel her musical energy in the future. [BL]

		$24.99 CDx2   VARIOUS ARTISTS 100% Dynamite NYC! Dancehall Reggae Meets Rap in New York City (Soul Jazz) "Supercat" Don Dada "Mack Daddy" Bobby Konders In their never-ending quest to chronicle the various directions that reggae has taken though the decades, Soul Jazz's latest installment in their Dynamite series spotlights the connection between dancehall and hip-hop, from Jamaica to New York. This could be considered a domestic cousin to the great Dancehall comp that the UK label recently released, or even a companion piece to their Nice Up the Dance collection; the focus here, however, is on the boroughs of NYC. With so many Jamaican families migrating to the city, the Big Apple became a rich, cultural breeding ground for the island's musical heritge, as these immigrants helped pave the way for hip-hop and eventually dancehall. Going back to Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Flash and Kool Herc, the musical influence of the Caribbean was set to usher in a new fusion of sounds. Across two CDs, Dynamite NYC collects famous and not so famous tracks from a who's who of the scene, with Shaggy, Shinehead, Jamalski, Red Fox, Bobby Konders, Super Cat, Born Jamericans, Mad Lion and Fu-Schnikens all making appearances, to name just a few. There are a lot of excellent songs and the energy level remains consistent throughout the 22 tracks. Once again, leave it to the British to notice, embrace, and repackage America's past and represent it in a new light. Needless to say, raise your lighters high for this one. [DG]

		$15.99 CD   SUN CITY GIRLS Napoleon and Josephine Singles (Abduction) "The Rhinemaiden's Palatial Mountain Retreat" "A Wake" These archival excavations of Sun City Girls back catalog and unreleased material wanders into your subway car and gets right up in your grill. Recorded in the time between the release of 1989's Torch of the Mystics and the baffling 1996 release Dante's Disneyland Inferno, a handful of the thirteen tracks presented here surfaced on some limited vinyl back in the day; the single from which this collection took its name, as well as the Three Fake Female Orgasms double 7" on Majora. The rest is all scraps and outtakes of the group at its most confrontational, centering around spoken word rants and contemplative piano. The scope of Napoleon & Josephine vacillates wildly, from the hopeful pre-millennial tension of "A Wake" (predicting what everyone in the world would collectively be thinking about in the last second of 1999) to the 22-minute opus "Reflection of a Young Boy Eating from a Can of Dog Food on a Shiny Red X-Mas Ball" (which pretty much speaks for itself). Conspiracy theories and an implicit demand for globalism drive the remainder of the collection, and will no doubt satisfy the alien fan base this outfit collected during its argument with the planet. [DM]

		$15.99 CD   VARIOUS ARTISTS 1970's Algerian Proto Rai Underground (Sublime Frequencies) "Li Maandouche L'Auto" Bellemou & Benfissa "Touedar Aakli" Groupe El Azhar The original LP version was a quick sell-out last year, so it's good to see 1970's Algerian Proto Rai Underground finally available on CD for a wider audience. Sublime Frequencies outdid themselves here with what may be, in my opinion, their best release: an outstanding compilation of raw Algerian Rai music from the 1970s, the period where Rai music really began to take on decidedly more modern sound characteristics -- brass sections (mostly trumpets), trap drums augmenting the hand percussion arrangements, and most importantly, electric guitars. A few of the cuts on display here use wah-wah guitars to dizzying effect; their slow burn & deep smolder add new layers to this protest music (the word rai actually translates to "opinion" or "point of view" in Arabic). The comp is all killer, no filler, and I have only two gripes -- the lack of female vocal talents (not uncommon in Rai) and that for once, there simply just isn't enough music here! Let's hope that Volume 2 is a double disc, should it ever see the light of day. [IQ]

		$12.99 CD $5.99 MP3   GUN OUTFIT Dim Light (Post Present Medium) "On the Beach" "Trouble Like Mine" It's always nice to get turned onto a band before any buzz or hype surrounds them, so you can experience the music without preconceptions. That was my experience with Gun Outfit. On Christmas day this past year, a friend of mine put it on and simply said, "Check this out. I think you'll like it." Sure enough, I was immediately taken by this band's effortless and unpretentious sound. it was one of those records that could have been made at any point from the early 80s to today. Listening to Dim Light even closer now, I hear the Gun Outfit's sound referencing the following bands, specifically in this order: Mekons, Feelies, Meat Puppets, a touch of Dead Moon, V.U. and Pavement. It's an odd blend of references, I know, but it's done so believably. There's just something in the way this band puts together that offbeat countrified indie sound with the chug of V.U., the classic rock sound of Dead Moon (there's also a guy/girl vocal here) and the alternately lazy crash of Pavement or the Grifters that just works. It's fully sincere, heartfelt and good stuff that has chops and harkens back to the days when a band's show made you wanna buy another beer!! [SM]

		$17.99 CD $9.99 MP3   VARIOUS ARTISTS Marvellous Boy: Calypso from West Africa (Honest Jon's) "Olubunmi" Roy Chicago "The Tree and the Monkey" E.T. Mensah & His Tempos Band Super hot and much needed comp of West African calypso from the fine folks at Honest Jon's in London. Calypso is of course an invention of Caribbean slave descendants, invented sometime during the first decade of our previous century in Trinidad and Tobago. No doubt many of its early practitioners were not too far removed from their West African origins, so it's interesting to see their invention head back across the ocean and take root. Some of the artists here, such as E.T. Menash, would eventually take what they learned from calypso and use it to develop what would become African Highlife. The worldwide commercial success of calypso in the 1950s has tended to obscure the revolutionariness of the music, with its abiding obsession with topical politics and sexual relations. The vast majority of the tracks here are in English, and even despite the presence of heavy patois here and there, you can more than grasp what these artists are getting at. Part of the genius of calypso is that it never operates with a heavy hand, employing instead abundant humor, clever wordplay, and jocular syncopated beats. As this is a comp of West African calypso you can expect some pretty remarkable percussive breakdowns as well. A truly stellar and highly enjoyable collection all around. [MK]

		$15.99 CD   GLORIA JONES Share My Love (Reel Music) "Share My Love" "If I Were Your Woman" The legendary Gloria Jones has lived an extraordinary life and in spite of not being a household name is arguably one of contemporary American music's most influential talents. Not only did she sing the original version of "Tainted Love," Jones was also an in-house staff writer for Motown from 1968-72, penning over one hundred songs during her time there, including "If I Was Your Woman" for Gladys Knight and "2-4-6-8" for the Jackson 5. She sang background vocals on sessions for the Rolling Stones and toured with Little Feat, Joe Cocker, Delaney & Bonnie and T. Rex. Even though Jones had a vibrant R&B singing career prior to joining Motown, she was primarily a songwriter for the company. It was only after successful stints touring with the aforementioned rock artists that Motown allowed her the opportunity to make a solo album, and what resulted is this great psych-soul record. Inspired by the edgy rock-n-roll she had been performing as a backup singer, Jones insisted on hiring musicians outside of the Motown circle; she turned to session player royalty like Earl Palmer, Willie Weeks and Don Menza in order to get that "rebel rock" sound and spirit that she had embraced wholeheartedly by this point. Jones also enlisted Paul Riser, who had arranged such psych-soul classics such as "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" and "Ball of Confusion." And thus, the standard was set with the slow building title track that opens the album, an extraordinary piece of '70s progressive soul, complete with a cinematic three-minute intro, funky strings and a gritty vocal performance from Ms. Jones. The grittiness doesn't stop there, however; "Tin Can People" is a great slice of heavy funk-rock while "Oh Baby" is fantastic, Spanish-tinged four-on-the-floor proto-disco. In contrast, "Try Love" and "What Did I Do to Lose You" are beautiful, heart-wrenching self-penned ballads, similar to the tunes she wrote for Gladys Knight. Share My Love garnered rave reviews at the time, but it failed to chart and ended up being the only album she ever recorded for Motown. Unbeknownst to a lot of people, Jones was in the midst of an affair with Mark Bolan and soon after this record was released, she left her husband, moved to London and bore him a son. Tragedy would strike soon after though, Jones being behind the wheel in the car accident that would cost Bolan his life. But she would release a few more albums (1978's Windstorm being dedicated to Bolan) and also became very involved in charity work. Today, Jones is revered by soul aficionados for the incredible contributions she's given to modern music, Share My Love being just a small example of her genius. Fans of Betty Davis, Yvonne Fair, or any other badass rock-n-roll soul queen should check this out. [DH]

		$15.99 CD $15.99 LP   VARIOUS ARTISTS Dr. Boogie Presents 26 Deranged and Smokin Cool Cats (Sub Rosa) "Doin' Alright" Eddie Cash "Money Is the Thing of the Past" Ronnie Haig The fourth installation of Sub Rosa's ongoing "Dr. Boogie" series continues its trajectory from raw female blues of the Depression era to 40's boogie. Now focusing on mid- to late-50s rockabilly, this set is a whiplash, switchblade, drag race of a time. Cars, grease, and the unleashed jungle cat that is teen love all figure in thematically, and this set has all the earmarks of rockabilly, but it also emphasizes all of its singular, mysterious, mushroom-growing-overnight qualities. We've never heard of most of these folks, yet from the oddly noir-ish and lugubrious vocalizing of Danny Verne's "Red Hot Car" to the gnarly no-fi no-wave guitar tones of Jimmie Dee's "Guitar Pickin' Man," this an uncanny set of rockabilly tunes. Union Pool denizens best queue up now. [AB]

		$13.99 CD $9.99 MP3   CRYSTAL ANTLERS Tentacles (Touch and Go) "Time Erased" "Swollen Sky" The last band in before lights out, Los Angeles' Crystal Antlers screech and caterwaul through their debut album, following Pitchfork props and blogger hype. Their modern blues definitely fills a much-needed niche, somewhat like the Walkmen or Rock*a*Teens in their scale, but younger and more rambunctious in its delivery. Lung-busting vocals rasp across a lively, grandiose sweep of pounding lead organ and infectious, repetitive melodies. The angst is out in spades, leavened by gentler elements (lucid female backing vocals on the tumultuous "Memorized," for example) until their vein-popping furor is forced into SALT talks with the time out chair before one last celebratory blowout on album closer "Several Tongues." This one's a bit of a grower, a responsibility this band shoulders with the kind of dignity you'd hope. [DM]

		$12.99 CD $9.99 MP3   WOODEN SHJIPS Dos (Holy Mountain) "For So Long" "Awuarian Time" San Francisco quartet Wooden Shjips caused quite a stir a couple of years back, as much for their potent (if not comfortingly familiar) blend of organ-drenched, feedback-heavy druggy psych as their decision to give away the first few hundred copies of their debut record to anyone who asked. Though they shone bright on their early singles, the band's self-titled debut full-length fell a little flat, as the band took their Doors-meets-Spacemen 3 sounds into territory that wasn't nearly as memorable as it could have been. Though nothing much has changed for Dos, the band's latest full-length for the Holy Mountain label, the five songs gathered herein somehow sound more urgent and fully realized than anything else the group has done to date. Maybe it's the fact that the tempos have been quickened by a few paces all throughout, or maybe it has something to do with the grittier, thicker recording. Either way, the songs are more realized here, as the band imbues tracks like "Aquarian Time" and the surprising, extended soloing of "For So Long" with a classic '60s garage psych vibe as interpreted by a band like Loop -- all droning, fuzzy guitars pushed along by urgent, locked rhythms that never deviate from their steady insistence. It might not be the freshest sound around, but Wooden Shjips prove that's still a good one, especially in their capable hands. [MC]

		$17.99 CD   VARIOUS ARTISTS Acid Dreams (Past and Present) "Suzy Creamcheese" Teddy & His Patches "1523 Blair" Outcasts Acid Dreams was one of the earliest 60s garage compilations, put together by a German record store owner in the late '70s and released in a miniscule run of 77 copies. It also helped define the term "psych punk," a microgenre of 60s rock n roll that bridged the gap betweens 60s punk and psychedelia (which wasn't even invented at the time). While these tracks have all the snottiness of your Pebbles favorites, there's a certain lysergic quality to these songs that is truly unique. Check out the initial one-two punch: White Light's "William" and Caretakers of Deception's "Cuttin' Grass" are bona fide psychedelic punk classics. Trippy and hard-driving but instantly catchy, from then on Acid Dreams just doesn't let up, from Mystic Tide's snarling "Frustration" and Painted Faces' LSD-induced "Anxious Colour" to Teddy & His Patches dazed and induced "Suzy Creamcheese." One of the best trips you'll ever take, with none of the repercussions. [AK]

		$24.99 CDx2   VARIOUS ARTISTS Off the Wall Vol. 1 & 2 (Past and Present) "Only Everything" Peter & the Wolves "Bad Woman" Fallen Angels From the same label who brought us the reissue of Acid Dreams comes a deluxe double-CD compilation of the two volumes of Off the Wall, some of the earliest US garage collections (originally released in the early '80s). While Greg Shaw's Pebbles series was the first and perhaps most important, most volumes had its fair share of clunkers; Off the Wall, however, is 100% solid. Chock full of fuzz-laden garage monsters (Del-Vetts' "Last Time Around," Magic Plants' "I'm a Nothing." Argh! Yeah!) and raving rhythm n blues workouts to moody, self-deprecating folk tunes (Drones' "I'm Down Today"), every single one of the 36 bands, from NYC via Texas and Ohio to California and Florida, provide killer tracks. Nice booklet as well, with plenty of photos and biographical info, and what more could'ya possibly want? Don't settle for lesser imitations, get "Off the Wall"!! [AK]

		$12.99 CD $9.99 MP3   PAPERCUTS You Can Have What You Want (Gnomonsong) "Future Primitive" "The Wolf" Three is a charm for Jason Quaver's Papercuts, the melancholy pop outfit led by this sometime Vetiver keyboardist, who have delivered a warm and woe-filled third album. The sound is heavy on vintage keyboards, reverbed vocals and gently plodding rhythms, sort of a twee-pop take on 60's dreaminess, and while the results are nothing really new, they are utterly endearing. (Full review next week.)

		$17.99 CD w/DVD   DENGUE FEVER Sleepwalking Through the Mekong (M80) L.A.'s East meets West meets East (or is that West again, or maybe West Coast) combo Dengue Fever entered some sort of a cultural feedback loop with their 2005 tour of Phnom Penh. It was a truly inspired and inspiring move to bring the multicultural group's indie rock take on '60s Cambodian pop, which was in turn inspired by surf and California pop-psych, back to its spiritual homeland (and the actual homeland of the band's vocalist, Chhom Nimol). The journey, including performances with several Cambodian masters and originators of the genre, is lovingly detailed in the film, and the soundtrack features some of Dengue Fever's best stuff, and that of their heroes.

		$13.99 CD $15.99 LPx2   DJ KOZE Reincarnations (Get Physical) "Guinea Pig" Ben Watt "Elementary Lover" Matthew Dear Stefan Kozella is a true master of the 4/4 groove, finding endless possibility in house music's hypnotic repetition. This 13-track collection of DJ Koze remixes runs the gamut of source material, from Matthew Dear to Wechsel Garland, Ben Watt, Lawrence, and Battles, and directions, from minimal to banging, trancey, acid, or loungey disco grooves. But the attention to detail is always breathtaking, the sequencing is superb, and Reincarnations is a great collection from start to finish.

		$13.99 CD   METRIC Fantasies (Metric) "Collect Call" "Help I'm Alive" Hats off to Metric for self-releasing their new one, and hoping they didn't spend the four years since their last album (and between Broken Social Scene gigs) fending off major labels, who surely were hounding the groovy Canucks. Fantasies delivers another batch of hook-filled, pristine electro-pop and melancholy piano ballads, and there are hits aplenty.

		$14.99 CD $9.99 MP3   VARIOUS ARTISTS Score! 20 Years of Merge Covers (Merge "Neighborhood #1" Times New Viking (Arcade Fire cover) "Santa Maria" Bill Callahan (Versus cover) Merge Records has become, in twenty short years, simply one of the most influential labels in indie rock. From label founders Superchunk through a stunning array of bands including Magnetic Fields, Neutral Milk Hotel, M.Ward, Spoon, Arcade Fire and too many more to name, they have released critical and popular favorites for two decades, and as part of their anniversary celebration, they asked some of the groups who love them to cover songs from their favorite Merge artists. Featuring exclusive tracks from the Shins, Broken Social Scene, Ted Leo, Bill Callahan, Death Cab for Cutie, Bright Eyes, St. Vincent with the National, Tracey Thorn & Jens Lekman, and so many more, 20 killer tracks for 20 years.

		$14.99 CD $14.99 LP $9.99 MP3   CIRCUS DEVILS Gringo (Happy Jack) Preview Songs on Other Music's Download Store GbV's ever prolific Robert Pollard is back, once again teaming up with the Tobias brothers for another record as the acid-tinged psych outfit, Circus Devils. Gringo is dense and agitated, rapidly shifting between moods and styles, but of course Bob's diverse, idea-packed songwriting holds it all down.

		PHONE ORDERS Phone orders are accepted at (212) 477-8150 (ext. #2, mailorder) Mon-Fri, Noon - 7pm EST EMAIL For general inquiries or other information please email sales@othermusic.com. Do not reply to this message. REMOVE This is an automated list. If you would like to be removed for any reason, please visit: digital.othermusic.com/subscribe.php   THIS WEEK'S CONTRIBUTORS [AB] Adrian Burkholder [MC] Michael Crumsho [DG] Daniel Givens [DH] Duane Harriott [IQ] Mikey IQ Jones [MK] Michael Klausman [BL] Brian Levine [AK] Andreas Knutsen [DM] Doug Mosurock [SM] Scott Mou [JTr] Jonathan Treneff [JT] John Twells THANKS FOR READING - all of us at Other Music

Copyright 2009 Other Music

Newsletter Design Big Code