July 16, 2009

		FEATURED NEW RELEASES Cold Cave (Just In!) Blues Control Ariel Pink Keletigui et ses Tambourinis Orchestra Baobab Silk Flowers Oneida The Dead Weather Marino Formenti Horatiu Radulescu William Fowler Collins Stelvio Cipriani (Femina Ridens OST) Dirty French Psychedelics (Various) Subway Nosaj Thing Es Kiila   Ty Segall A Bolha Jack Rose & the Black Twig Pickers Tetragon Suck Mack Allen Smith Holger Zilske Krazy Baldhead Brain Lapse (Magazine Issue #1) ALSO AVAILABLE Deer Tick Bowerbirds Summer Cats Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/othermusic

		JULY Sun 19 Mon 20 Tues 21 Wed 22 Thurs 23 Fri 24 Sat 25   THE MIGHTY BOOSH DVD RELEASE & MEET-N-GREET Next Tuesday, July 21st, BBC Video will be releasing on DVD the first three seasons of the hilariously bizarre English television comedy The Mighty Boosh, which currently airs in the U.S. on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. We'll be celebrating at Other Music with series creators/stars Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding who'll be stopping by the shop that evening from 6PM to 8PM, to hang out and autograph your DVDs, which will be available for purchase. Not your usual Other Music in-store event, but we're huge fans of the show and we hope you are too... please join us! TUESDAY, JULY 21 - 6PM to 8PM OTHER MUSIC: 15 East 4th Street NYC

		JULY Sun 19 Mon 20 Tues 21 Wed 22 Thurs 23 Fri 24 Sat 25   WIN CONCERT TICKETS TO DEER TICK Deer Tick will be performing live at the Bowery Ballroom a week from this Friday, July 24, in support of their new album, Born on Flag Day. Constantly touring, the band is probably one of the strongest live acts that you'll find playing the circuit, as they blur the line between indie rock and their love of Americana, a la Hank Sr., Dylan and Uncle Tupelo. Also appearing on that night's bill will be Dawes and These United States. This show is almost certain to sell out, but you can enter to win a pair of tickets by emailing giveaway@othermusic.com. We'll notify the winner on Monday morning, July 21. FRIDAY, JULY 24 BOWERY BALLROOM: 6 Delancey Street NYC

		AUG Sun 09 Mon 10 Tues 11 Wed 12 Thurs 13 Fri 14 Sat 15   AKRON/FAMILY IN-STORE: SUNDAY, AUG. 9 @ 7PM We are excited to welcome Akron/Family, whose live shows are always thrilling. Like their great, recent album Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free, you can expect to hear plenty of celebratory communal sing-a-longs, but it'll be far from a typical stoned love-in. These Brooklyn beardos channel the incredibly soulful poly-rhythms of '70s African groove merchants like Fela Kuti, and combine that with a wild mix of Sun Ra, Animal Collective, Grateful Dead, Fleet Foxes, Funkadelic and of course, most of all, pure Akron anarchy. Don't miss it! OTHER MUSIC: 15 East 4th Street NYC Free Admission / Limited Capacity

		$13.99 LP   COLD CAVE Love Comes Close (Heartworm) "Life Magazine" "Love Comes Close" Just in! Philly-based noir merchants Cold Cave finally deliver on the promise that their 7"s and EPs showed with Love Comes Close, the debut full-length. Undoubtedly a pop band at its core, Wes Eisold and his revolving cast of characters (Dominic Fernow of Prurient/Hospital, author Max G. Morton, Xiu Xiu's Caralee McElroy, etc.) have a definite knack for crafting the perfect three-minute pop song and then piling on layers of fuzz, static, grime and rust. There's an underlying industrial/early Factory Records/minimal shoegaze wave vibe, and combined with equal parts nihilism and undying romance, Love Comes Close is a true success. Check out the sound samples if you don't believe me. [AK]

		$13.99 CD $9.99 MP3   BLUES CONTROL Local Flavor (Siltbreeze) "Good Morning" "Tangier" Queens (Ridgewood scene!) duo Blues Control are back with their third full-length album and they come flying out of the gate with possibly the most aggressive track they've ever done, "Good Morning", which hammers away at a monster riff and gets some sixth boro support on horns from Kurt Vile on trumpet and Jesse Trbovich (Kurt Vile & the Violators) on saxophone. Before too long the riff fades away and you're floating through a haze of keyboards, pianos, dirty tape loops, treated guitar and who knows what else. The first side/half of the record is a great song suite, with the tracks bleeding into one another, and the second side/half features the 16-plus-minute album closer "On Through the Night" which, frankly, could even be longer it's so nice. Blues Control can fill a space with sound in a way that has been rarely achieved since the heyday of Krautrock and Local Flavor is the perfect soundtrack to the summer heat. [DMa]

		$21.99 LPx2   ARIEL PINK Loverboy (Cooler Cat) Finally a proper reissue of Ariel Pink's Loverboy! Recorded in 2001-02, and originally only released as a bonus disc accompanying the first edition of the House Arrest CD, this version is spread out over four LP sides, and while it's all a bit overwhelming to take in with one sitting, it features some of the best all-out pop stuff he's ever written (with assistance in particular by John Maus on here). As usual, he borrows heavily from all decades (60s-90s) and whether it's 60's garage, outsider/loner/DIY psych (R. Stevie Moore is covered), New Order, Guided by Voices, or Pink Floyd, it almost always works. Sure, the pop genius is shrouded in tape hiss and obscured by shoddy 4-track production at times, but it's really the only way we know Ariel, right? Most people know and perceive him as some kooky oddball novelty but I say it's time we put Ariel Pink in the front room of the pop pantheon. Check out "I Don't Need Enemies," which later ended up on the Holy Shit album, the title track, "Let's Get Married," "Don't Talk to Strangers" etc., and then tell me this guy wasn't onto something. At a time when your buddies sat at home and got stoned to Geogaddi and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, no less. Five stars. [AK]

		$22.99 CDx2 $17.99 MP3   KELETIGUI ET SES TAMBOURINIS The Syliphone Years (Sterns) Preview Songs on Other Music's Download Store Hot off the presses! Afro Jam of the Week! Keletigui Et Ses Tambourinis were a Guinean band founded at the outset of the young nation's independence who, along with their contemporaries and artistic rivals Balla Et Ses Balladins, were one of the most prominent bands of the scene. Led by saxophonist Keletigui Traoré, the group recorded for Syliphone Records and were recently featured on the label's Authenticite collection; they are given the deluxe two-CD treatment here, featuring jams from 1960-1976 all recorded for Syliphone. Hazy guitar melodies, fuzzy, buzzy bursts of brass, and upbeat percolating grooves are the focus of this set, hands down one of the best reissues Syliphone has yet offered. Anyone who has picked up the aforementioned Authenticite comp, or any of the other Guinean reissues from Syliphone will find much to love here -- the jazzy, at times almost avant-garde touches in the arrangements give the tunes a bit of grit, and the vocal harmonies are, as to be expected, pure bliss. Summer listening seldom gets better than this. I said it before and I'll say it again: Afro Jam of the Week! [IQ]

		$26.99 CDx2   ORCHESTRA BAOBAB La Belle Epoque (Syllart) "Samaxol Fatou Diop" "El Vagabonde" Adopting the title that Sterns Africa has applied to their three recent Super Rail Band reissues, Syllart has struck gold with these two discs of prime cuts from Senegalese nightclub kings Orchestra Baobab. Just as much an institutional creation as the Rail Band, Baobab was cobbled together by a clutch of government ministers, drawing on various ethnicities and nationalities, to serve as a reflection of an enlightened, modern nation. And if Rail had a peer in terms of popularity, ability, and sheer size, it was Baobab. Fifteen members strong, the group fused the Latin rhythms of rumba, son, and soukous with Wolof, Mandingo, and Toucouleur griot vocal styles, and featured hugely creative and innovative players like the Togolese Barthelemy Attisso on guitar and Malian Issa Cissoko on sax. La Belle Epoque is bookended by great recordings from 1971 and 1977, with the first disc consisting of blistering live recordings from the Club Baobab in '71. It's an unmitigated thrill to hear the band live in the club where they cut their teeth and that gave them their name, playing to the Dakar jet-set that adored them. The second disc reissues material originally released on two 1978 Baobab a Paris LPs. Produced in 1977 by Ibrahim Sylla for his Abou Ledoux label, the deftly, delicately engineered sessions were the first Baobab had made outside of the Dakar studio circuit, and were the among the best iterations of a style that would soon be eclipsed by Youssou N'Dour's mbalax craze. Orchestra Baobab has since reformed as a globe-trotting Afro-pop headliner, and 2002's Specialist in All Styles was a completely serviceable, pleasant offering. But for the group at its best, La Belle Epoque delivers. [NS]

		$11.99 CD $9.99 MP3   SILK FLOWERS Silk Flowers (PPM) "Flash of Light" "Fragmented Mirror" Who could have imagined that from the ashes of Soiled Mattress and the Springs and Car Clutch, would rise something quite like this?! Silk Flowers strike an unusual balance, making synthwave that is simultaneously, dark, doomed-out, and remarkably, FUN!!! There's just something about the ridiculously deep baritone of Aviram Cohen's vocals plus the melodic basement synth sound that make this band so mock-morbid and awesomely good at the same time! Its like Cohen is making fun of all the Ian Curtis wannabes and showing them how it should be done at the same time! This is NOT part of the dreaded 'hipster-goth' movement (mark the date, you heard it here first folks) that has been bubbling up lately. Instead I like to refer to Silk Flowers as 'Outsider Coldwave'. It has the 'so wrong, yet so right' quality that makes stuff like this charming rather than humorless and shallow. It's so unlikely, the whole package just screams happy accident, but as with the best art, who knows? Three dudes more likely to wear plaid than all-black, they recorded an indie coldwave record with Fred Thomas (City Center), released it on No Age's PPM label and play shows with Cold Cave, Blank Dogs, Further Reductions, etc. Whut?? A P.R. agent couldn't have orchestrated a better, or more unlikely resume’ to save his life! And more importantly, the album is great. I see this stuff as appealing to fans of the Knife, the Human Ear Music label and Martial Canterel all at the same time. A broad swath to be sure, but one that somehow works for me. I am dumbfounded!!! Excellent and recommended! [SM]

		$14.99 CD $24.99 LPx3 w/MP3 $10.99 MP3   ONEIDA Rated O (Brah / Jagjaguwar) "What's Up, Jackal?" "Folk Wisdom" The second installment in a triptych whose provenance and point could only mean something to the band members themselves, nonetheless, Oneida have delivered an overstuffed new album (triple-LP, close to two hours of sounds!) that is as intense, original and oftentimes brilliant as anything this Brooklyn band has ever done. They continue to push boundaries -- I genuinely thought I had mistakenly popped in a new dubstep disc when opener "Brownout in Lagos" began to pummel my speakers -- and that's why we love them. The Krautrock/Can vibe is everywhere, but Rated O proves this band could just as easily be stars of hard rock or minimal techno if they weren't inextricably superstars of that odd subgenre known as Oneida. [JM]

		$17.99 CD $24.99 LPx2 180 Gram   THE DEAD WEATHER Horehound (Third Man) "60 Feet Tall" "Hang You from the Heavens" After a brief hiatus (relaxing with his supermodel wife, we hope), Jack White is back with a new band and a new cast of characters. The Dead Weather's highly anticipated debut album features Kills frontwoman and goth-punk icon Alison Mosshart, Raconteurs bassist Jack Lawrence, and Queens of the Stone Age keyboardist/guitarist Dean Ferita. Of course, the major difference from his other major projects is that White has let go of his guitar for a bit (save a couple of well-placed solos) and returned to his first instrument, the drums. The 11 tracks on Horehound exude a somewhat grungy, southern gothic rock and roll ambience, one that is greatly intensified by the fuzzy bass line effects and the steady, tuneful drumming style of White. Mosshart's sexy rocker attitude and co-song writing duties with White prove to be a winning combination here, as she firmly takes on the role of frontwoman, but leaves room for White as well; the duo exchange verses and White sings some straight leads too, as the band toggles back and forth between blues and fuzzy rock and roll. He always brings his own angle, but as long as Jack White is making records, classic rock lives! [BL]

		Marino Formenti $22.99 CD Horatiu Radulescu $15.99 CD   MARINO FORMENTI Kurtag's Ghosts (Kairos) "Modest Mussorgsky: The First Punishment" "Henry Purcell: Round O Z.T 684" HORATIU RADULESCU Lao Tzu Sonatas (CPO) "IV. Dance of he Eternal" "IV. Abyss" Two interesting and beautiful albums of works for piano, one brand new and the other originally issued five years ago. First up is Kurtag's Ghosts, a double CD issued this year by the always dependable German label Kairos, that attempts to map the centuries-spanning web of influences that motivated Hungarian composer Gyorgy Kurtag. Kurtag, along with Ligeti, is certainly one of the greatest composers to emerge from post-war Hungary, and his work has long dealt with expressions of modernism while exploring and referencing the past. Italian pianist Marino Formenti has come up with an incredibly fascinating project here, where he seamlessly interlaces a wide survey of Kurtag's works for piano with that of his forbearers. Reaching as far back as Guillaume De Machaut, and arriving as modern as Karlheinz Stockhausen, Formenti is playing with the idea of "positioning a mirror within the interpretive experience." Passages, or often simply quotes, from Bach, Bartok, Beethoven, Boulez, Chopin, Haydn, Janacek, Ligeti, Liszt, Machaut, Messiaen, Mussorgsky, Purcell, Scarlatti, Shubert, Schumman, and Stockhausen alternate with those of Kurtag to create a stunningly beautiful and engaging exercise in memory and reference. Next we have three sonatas for solo piano composed in the early nineties by the radical Romanian composer, Horatiu Radulescu. One of the first composers to engage in Spectralism, his rigorous analysis of sound resulted in early works that often called for turning the piano on its side and playing the strings as a "Sound Icon." These three sonatas, however, marked a return to a "normal" piano, and as such are relatively more accessible, despite their advanced structural designs. All three were inspired by 5th century B.C. Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu (a central figure in Taoism), with the first (second sonata) on the album probably being the most dissonant. The second (third sonata), entitled "You Will Endure Forever," is simply astounding, Radulescu himself has likened it to a "cosmic Scriabin," but from where I'm sitting Scriabin was already pretty cosmic to begin with, so you can imagine. There's an almost sculptural quality to the piece, full of interlocking sonorities across its five movements from which Radulescu intended to invoke the "happiness, beatitude, and dizziness of Eternity." The final (fourth sonata) is a luminous exploration of auto-generative pitch patterns, which pianist Ortwin Sturmer more than ably graces with dynamic resonances. [MK]

		$15.99 CD $9.99 MP3   WILLIAM FOWLER COLLINS Perdition Hill Radio (Type) "On Peridition Hill" "The Hour of Red Glare" Perdition Hill Radio is an expedition into the netherworld, a sonic ring of hell composed of processed guitar, field recordings, and AM radio sounds. This is not your mother's new age ambient music. I've seen the "black ambient" label thrown around to describe Collins' work, and that's a fair moniker, as this is haunting stuff. But it's also complex, sophisticated music, and Perdition Hill Radio grows with repeated listening, and will keep you coming back to decode the ghostly sounds that make up the chilling mood. Returning for his second full-length, Collins turns out a decidedly more cohesive album. As much as 2007's Western Violence and Brief Sensuality displayed a wide array of influences and ideas, Perdition Hill Radio uses these influences precisely and deliberately, to startling effect. A song like "Grave Robbing in Texas" could be the score to a Cormac McCarthy novel, a sound-artist's collage of the foreboding landscape of the American southwest. His field recordings and radio sounds form the aural protagonist that is his location, as the deeply brooding ambience of these ingredients forwards the inhospitable desolation of the soundscape. Scratching, scathing, and clanking resonate through the metallic burn of his guitar. Just as the burning sounds begin to disorient you, Collins pulls out some recognizable major chords that float across the top, like stumbling across a familiar marker in an alien landscape. Clearly Collins has skills, and also has a resume’ to back them up. He studied at Mills college under brilliant players and composers like Pauline Oliveros and Fred Frith, and has collaborated with Matmos, Brightblack Morning Light, and Barn Owl, to name a few. Currently he curates a sound art series at the University of New Mexico. For his debut on the beloved Type Records, he traverses an introspective study of black metal's ambient shadows, lurking in the nooks and crannies of comparisons to Burzum and Xasthur while fostering sonic technique and mind-spinning low ends that liken him to Tim Hecker and the Alps. On the album Collins plays a Tibetan singing bowl and all kinds of other odds and ends through his guitar; add to that his mixing with mini-cassette recorder and laptop and the thunderstorms begin. Highly Recommended! [BCa]

		$21.99 LP   STELVIO CIPRIANI Femina Ridens OST (Vadim Music) Piero Schivazappa's Femina Ridens or The Frightened Woman, had everything you could want from a late-'60s Italian sexploitation film: horror, kitschy violence, tongue-in-cheek humor, and more suggestive symbolism than Freud could shake a stick at. And along with this cult masterpiece came Stelvio Cipriani's masterful score, which has just been reissued in LP form by Vadim. Cipriani's name may not be as familiar to you as his contemporary Ennio Morricone, but the man's extensive scoring work has led many collectors and beat diggers to shell out serious cash. One of whom, Quentin Tarantino, even included a Cipriani cut in his most recent Grindhouse flick. The standout track on this album is called "Sophisticated Shake," and its mixture of spaghetti western-style builds with breathy moaning vocals is worth the price of admission. On the more campy side is the title track featuring a chanteuse named Olimpia singing provocative lyrics in delectably phonetic English. Altogether, the complex arrangements and orchestration are much like any great film score, presenting pop music with a classical sensibility and baroque symphonies informed by contemporary musicianship. These days you'll have some trouble getting your hands on the film, but the soundtrack is a delight in its own right. The record comes highly recommended, especially if you're down with Johnny Trunk or if the names Picconi, Umiliani, Nicolai, or Travajiol mean anything to you. [MG]

		$15.99 CD   DIRTY SOUND SYSTEM Dirty French Psychedelics (Dirty) "Long Song for Zelda" Dashiell Hedayat "Tape Tape Tape" Jean Marie Sens With the resurrected interest in Serge Gainsbourg's Histoire De Melody Nelson and Gerard Manset's La Mort D'Orion (thanks to recent reissues), this compilation presents a really welcome look at a rather under-anthologized segment of French music. Dirty French Psychedelics is precisely just that -- crazy Gallic jams mostly from the early to mid 1970s, with an ear towards freakouts caused by sensual tension and emotional turmoil rather than overt headtripping freakouts. Musically, the tracks owe much to Melody Nelson and D'Orion, with plenty of jazzy electric bass grooves, quiet but menacing acoustics, vocal lines focused on poetics and spoken monologues, and orchestral flourishes that only add to the mood and atmosphere with subtleties that are often thrown out the window in so much psychedelic music. There's a heavy artiness that borders on prog-rock theatrics at times, but on the whole, this collection is fantastic, featuring a few names I wholeheartedly love and whose records I cherish and quite a few who were new discoveries even to a Francophile freak like myself. Highlights and personal favorites include Brigitte Fontaine's wonderful "Il Pleut," a collaboration with Jean-Claude Vannier from her essential first Saravah LP, Dashiell Hedayat's totally bonkers "Long Song For Zelda" which was a collaboration with Gong, Nino Ferrer's trippy funk bomb "Looking for You," and Jeanne-Marie Sens's "Tape Tape Tape," a gorgeous, loopy folk groover from one of my favorite, most cherished Frenchies -- imagine a hybrid of Francoise Hardy and Linda Perhacs and you'll get an idea of the magic being conjured here. Fans of the ever-growing international freakbeat reissue scene from Lion, Finders Keepers, etc. will definitely find much to love here, and anyone who's been digging the Gainsbourg or Manset records, be it for weeks, months, or years, should check this out. It's great because it features both classic faves and totally obscure selections, and the thing is perfectly sequenced; in fact, it's the first compilation I've heard in ages that actually works as an album proper in its own right. You WILL try to hunt down at least one record by one of these artists if you dig this comp, and that's what these are all about, aren't they? Take the plunge and expand you mind. Highest recommendation. [IQ]

		$17.99 CD   SUBWAY Subway 2 (Soul Jazz) "Persuasion" "Harmonia" This London-based duo of two former record store clerks have been making leftfield electronica for almost a decade now. Over the years their sporadic releases have explored chunky disco-house, raw space-age Detroit-influenced techiness, and analog soundscapes. Their debut full-length from '05 saw the band explore their Kraut-influenced motorik side with impressive results, and with II we see the duo continue down this same path. With song titles like "Harmonia," "Monochrome" and "Horizons," you pretty much know what to expect, and the band does it well -- tight, analog instrumental Krautrock jams, propelled by arpeggiated pulses of rhythm. This album doesn't threaten to float above the clouds though. Tracks like the opener "Persuasion" and "Lowlife" are great Balearic-styled instrumentals that wouldn't sound out of place on a Prins Thomas or Baldelli disco mix. "Delta II" is a lovely tribute to classic Detroit and boasts a half-time dubstep referencing rhythm. Fans of Italians Do It Better, Lindstrom, John Carpenter soundtracks and the aforementioned should definitely give this a whirl. [DH]

		$12.99 CD   NOSAJ THING Drift (Alpha Pup) There is a new sound developing out of L.A. that is one of the most exciting things to happen to electronic music, stateside, for what seems like decades. Among talented players like Flying Lotus, Daedelus, and Nobody comes a new eccentric name to watch: Nosaj Thing, the alter ego of a producer named Jason Chung. What NT brings to the arena with his debut full-length, Drift, is a wonderfully shimmering collage of head nodding beats, melodic and warm synth passages, and swirling digital textures that call to mind the best moments of DJ Shadow, Prefuse 73, and obviously the instrumental work of J-Dilla. But for all the reference points that can be made, mostly to fit this magnetic new style of production into some sort of lineage, Nosaj Thing's sound is original and imaginative with a simple structure that leaves enough air to breathe, while still providing you with enough thrust to get your body moving. Not a collection of sleepy beats (that was the era of trip-hop), here the sounds are rich and clear, shifting and looping in and around themselves with a great push and pull effect that comes across as elastic and bendable. Chung has a great ear for sonics and his synths shoot and jab, and smear and wash, feeling alive and fluid. Much like the digitally constructed paper planes that make up the album's artwork, sounds soar, glide, ascend and fall, all with a light touch. Having first heard Nosaj Thing when he remixed "Camel" on the Flying Lotus L.A. remix EP, I was awfully curious to hear how his own work would fare, and the sound is all Chung's own. Where FlyLo tracks mirror the L.A. expressway, sounds colliding, starting and stopping, almost to the point of creating claustrophobia, Nosaj Thing feels more like the beach; ocean waves in constant motion, an overall tranquility is achieved. So here I'll stop all the gushing and just say that if I had to recommend an album to an open-minded listener wanting something new and fresh, this one fits the bill. So far this one is solidly in my top ten for 2009. [DG]

		$17.99 CD $9.99 MP3   ES Kesamaan lapset (Fonal) Preview Songs on Other Music's Download Store Sami Sänpäkkilä is something of a key figure in the world of experimental music; his Fonal label introduced the TFT-dazzled blogosphere to the frozen northern expanse known as Finland and a tiny revolution was started. With the mischievous Paavoharju taking most of the critical clout and Islaja demanding the attention of the more adventurous folkies, Sami's own project Es maybe hasn't got the attention it rightly deserves, but no matter -- with each album his loop-heavy style has become more assured and more refined. Kesämaan Lapset is his latest statement and builds on the style he's made his calling card, but it also manages to push the sound forward introducing elements of synth-heavy kosmische music and also, surprisingly, pop. I shouldn't really be too shocked given Fonal's genre-hopping remit, but within seconds of the album's opening track, "Ennen oli huonommin," we're catapulted into a world of thick bubbling synths and a good humor rarely seen in the usually staid world of experimental music. The synthesizers eventually give way to vocals, and through the glistening long-form compositions you can almost hear fragments of real songs -- carefully placed hints that there's a twisted web of influence at work inside the mind of Mr. Sänpäkkilä. The album's "eye of the duck" moment comes when we reach "Säteet sun sielusta" (don't ask me for a translation), and gentle, meditative piano reminiscent of Brian Eno's "Thursday Afternoon" gradually becomes engulfed in a viscous sea of strings and looping drones. This subtly shifting tide of harmonious sound acts as a perfect centerpiece to the record and creates a balance between Sami's light hearted synth-play and his more grandiose, melancholic statements. These days it can be hard to sift through the mass of contemporary drone, but what Sami has managed is to give his sounds a humanity and more importantly a humor which is all too often ignored in favor of academic prowess and stuffy scene-huggery. There is absolutely no pretentiousness in Sami's production, and for this to be combined with some of the most beautifully meditative work since, well, the last Es album, results in Kesämaan Lapset being an absolutely essential purchase. Press play and drift into bliss... [JT]

		$17.99 CD $9.99 MP3   KIILA Tuota tuota (Fonal) Preview Songs on Other Music's Download Store Meaning "well, well" in the band's native Finnish, Kiila's third full-length is a delightfully light hearted affair. Where many other similarly placed bands have drifted off into avant-folk weirdness, Kiila have instead opted to go high budget and have produced their glossiest record to date. In fact, if you didn't know better you might confuse Tuota Tuota for a mainstream Finnish pop record, folk-pop for sure, but there's little in the way of abstraction or the discordant thrum we've come to expect from the Fonal imprint. These are proper songs -- jingly, jangly and everything in between with all the good feeling to boot. It's charming too, with hooks that drag you out of your technological grind into a world of seas, sun and cloudberries, and the kind of lilting vocals you can only imagine to understand. But understanding the lyrical content was never the charm of Kiila -- rather we drift into the tones and the syllables, listening to the voice as simply another instrument rather than a storytelling device. In time you'll even forget you're listening to another language at all, and the unheard words will make perfect sense. Finnish folk finally freed itself from the forest. [JT]

		$11.99 CD $9.99 MP3   TY SEGALL Lemons (Goner) "Standing at the Station" "Rusted Dust" Last year, San Francisco youngster Ty Segall showed up on a lot of folks' radar with a really great album on the John Dwyer (Thee Oh Sees) affiliated Castle Face label, and he seems to be quite the multi-tasker because in addition to his own records and playing in the Traditional Fools, he is also reportedly now drumming for Sic Alps. So it's a bit of a stretch to say he's come out of nowhere, but Segall's solo stuff has a lot more going on than the T.F.'s juvenile garage slop (compliment) ever hinted at. On Lemons, Ty seems to have found a magical balance of songs with total pop hooks like "Favorite One" and distorto-grit brilliance of a track like "Can't Talk," which has a riff so insistent that resistance is futile. The whole record clocks in at just over 25 minutes, which is really the perfect length for something like this, so by the time you get to the Captain Beefheart cover, a trashy run-through of "Drop Out Boogie," the ride is almost over, and a lot like the Coney Island Cyclone, you very well may want to just stay where you are and go again. [DMa]

		$14.99 CD   A BOLHA Um Passo a Frente (Lion Productions) "Um Passo a Frente" "Sem Nada" Super excellent, jammin' and heavy Brazilian rock album, circa '73, from a gaggle of former Beatle-maniacs who ditched their teenybopper sound and persona after managing to take in the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970. Getting their start in the late sixties as a teenage dance band specializing in covers called the Bubbles, their style started to evolve following the Tropicalia explosion, and especially when they were tapped for a stint as Gal Costa's backing band. Invited by Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil to come visit London during their exile, the group had their lids blown by the much heavier sound going down at Isle of Wight. Taking cues from the likes of King Crimson and Humble Pie, they flipped their name to its Portuguese counterpart and beefed up their music considerably. Back in Brazil they released their debut LP, Um Passo a Frente, whose tunes were all self-penned. It seems they kept many of the lessons learned from their cover band days, as the songs are all quite memorable while still being remarkably tough and driving. I particularly love the drumming and guitar interplay on this LP, and as usual it's up to Lion Productions' exacting reissue standards, with a super informative liners and bonus tracks. [MK]

		$13.99 CD $21.99 LP $9.99 MP3   JACK ROSE & THE BLACK TWIG PICKERS Jack Rose & the Black Twig Pickers (VHF) Preview Songs on Other Music's Download Store "We swing like a motherfucker," Jack Rose proclaimed in a recent interview. He was attempting to explain why Jack Rose and the Black Twig Pickers should not be classified as "free folk," and is just plain better music than the vast majority of poorly-played hipster nonsense encompassed by that fashionable subgenre. After all, the man is playing dance music, and he plays it mighty fine. This is a jug-swigging, toe-tapping, and uproarious album of Appalachian booty rap. Backed by the Black Twig Pickers, Jack Rose standards like "Kensington Blues" receive royal reworking, fleshing out the implications of one of Rose's staples. Rose and the Black Twig Pickers are no strangers, as they've worked together for Dr. Ragtime & Pals on Tequila Sunrise, and Rose and Mike Gangloff used to play together in Pelt (in fact, this record features a sweet return to the Pelt song "Ayahuasca"). Rose is building a deep and diverse catalog, but I can say definitively that this one is amongst his best. There is a tangible energy coming out when these guys play together, and you can't help but be swept up by it. As far as old-time, true, original bluegrass is concerned, this is peerless. The songs are tight, Gangloff, Isak Howell, and Nathan Bowles shine in accompaniment, with banjo, fiddle, and harmonica reaching far back into the Blue Ridge Mountains to accompany Rose's finger-picking six string. The wax is heavy and sounds impeccable. This is real, genuine down-home music at its very best, and these boys swing like a motherfucker. [BCa]

		$14.99 CD   TETRAGON Nature (Lion Productions) "Irgendwas" "Doors in Between" A pretty weirdly haunting yet virtuosic concept LP about ecology recorded in an old farmhouse, and originally released in a miniscule edition in Germany back in 1971. It's probably the proggiest album we've reviewed in a long time, but there's this strangely compelling interplay between the members' musicality and the probably less than optimal circumstances under which the music was recorded. There also seems to be an interesting tension going on between the various musicians' influences, with electric era Miles Davis vibes co-existing with Bach fugues played on the electric organ, a judicious use of flange, and the best part of Soft Machine's tendency to get free. I gotta say, it'll really take you there. [MK]

		$17.99 CD   SUCK Time to Suck (Shadoks) "Sin's a Good Man's Brother" "I'll Be Creeping" There may be no way to lower the bar on your record by slapping the words "TIME TO SUCK" on the front cover. The fact that it's an album almost entirely made up of hard rock and revisionist covers is baffling. But this South African hard rock band (circa 1970, early times for this style of music as it stands) is impressive, as it's one of the earliest examples of a band adapting a modern style. As it goes, it's a pretty impressive set: "21st Century Schizoid Man," "I'll Be Creepin'," "Season of the Witch," "War Pigs," two Grand Funk covers, and a version of Deep Purple's "Into the Void" so new at the time that the band could have learned it in the studio, are all given the Suck treatment, a burly and boisterous sound with a lot of toothy, live room dynamics. Not too many surprises, but it satisfies. Face it, some of you are in the mood for a very respectable, thoroughly above-average proto metal album. This one does the job. [DM]

		$13.99 CD   MACK ALLEN SMITH The Early Years: 1962-1967 (Fat Possum / Big Legal Mess) "Snake-Eyed Woman" "I Got My Mojo Working" A killer new twenty-one track comp devoted to obscure rockabilly singer Mack Allen Smith covering the years 1962-1967, and a remarkable example of someone pursuing their passion while barely conceding to shifting tastes in popular music. Smith was born in Mississippi and heavily influenced by Delta blues and country rockabilly, he recorded tracks for Sun in the late fifties that have since been lost, led a band for thirty years while making a living as a night club owner, and even penned a thinly veiled novel about his life called Honky-Tonk Addict that managed to get banned by his local library. Strangely enough, there's a high school student's book report online about it, and the student interviewed a local librarian who is quoted as saying it's "filth, and we're not going to have it here." (I've got to get a copy of that!!!) 1962-1967 may not sound like the golden years of rockabilly, but there were always folks keeping the flame alive between the genre's various periods of resurrection, and Mack Allen Smith did it as good as anyone. It's not the wildest or most abandoned rockabilly I've ever heard, but Smith placed a higher premium on songwriting than many of the genre's artists, perhaps not unsurprisingly for a man whose written a couple of books, and as such it perhaps wears itself out less easily than most rockabilly LPs. Regardless, there is some great, smoking country boogie to found here, along with his many ingenious adaptations of Delta blues numbers. [MK]

		$15.99 CD   HOLGER ZILSKE Holz (Playhouse) "Mes Yeux" "Have a Cup of This" Because of the vibe of Smash TV, Holger Zilske's knockdown/dragout party project on Bpitchcontrol, I figured that his debut album for Playhouse would just be hard, clubby, dirty, party-Party-PARTY!! house, and was thrilled to hear something different. Instead, it's surprisingly close to the sound found on the label's recent My My/Lee Jones records, just a wee bit more forceful so that it's even more dance floor friendly -- all the bouncing, funky, but ultimately melodic German house that Playhouse has an ear for, but with that little bit of extra 'umph' similar to what is found on the recent two-CD AUS compilation. (Incidentally, AUS also released the Lee Jones EP/CD.) With Holz, it really seems like Zilske needed to take a break from the madness, take a deep breath and focus on some no-nonsense, fresh-sounding minimal house. [SM]

		$15.99 CD   KRAZY BALDHEAD The B Suite (Ed Banger) It's been awhile since the French label Ed Banger released a full-length, but it's worth the wait with the debut from mainstay producer Pierre-Antoine Grison, a/k/a Krazy Baldhead. With a background in jazz as well as sound engineering, Baldhead's style is not that of a DJ turned producer, more of a jazzman turned beat conductor. The B Suite lives up to its name, a suite of sixteen tracks broken into four movements. Moving from beats to beatless, hip-hop to digital classical, Grison is deft and seamless at structuring rhythms so it all flows. He keeps in the tradition of the label, yet things feel more under control; rarely do you get the screaming synth punches or shredded dance floor aesthetic. Instead, Grison focuses on building and deconstructing beats like they are digital Lego blocks, so the feeling is like a mix tape where themes resurface and styles shift from pop to the avant-garde. Of course the production is heavy on the electronics, yet the use of human voice and treated acoustic instruments adds a nice counterpoint. Definitely new school French dance music, so if you are a fan of the Ed Banger view of the dance floor or need something more mellow to replace your overplayed Justice CD, this might be for you -- many of the same highs without the headaches. Check the track "3rd Movement Part 3 (Sweet Night ft. Outlines)" for some nu-school glitch pop, a surprise hit waiting to happen. [DG]

		$11.99 MG   BRAIN LAPSE Magazine Issue #1 (Brain Lapse) From the minds behind Rock Mania magazine comes Brain Lapse! In glorious full-color throughout (it's the visual equivalent of an intense sugar rush), the debut issue features a massive 12-page article on the Equals, including an epic interview with Eddy Grant, and complete with pictures of about 50 different Equals 45s and LPs. Elsewhere, there's a lengthy story on NYC powerpop legends Marbles (including a centerfold and a cartoon!), a Titan! Records expose, introductions to French punk and Japanese rock n rollers Carol, the Bomp newsletter highlighted, and tons of reviews and other interesting bits and bobs. The best looking and most well-written magazine I've seen in ages, and a Tiger Beat for the 21st century, Brain Lapse is pure gold for punk and powerpop nerds like you and I. [AK]

		$13.99 CD $21.99 LP   DEER TICK Born on Flag Day (Partisan) At the tender age of 23, John Joseph McCauley III is a tortured old soul -- that's at least what his songs would have you believe. Born on Flag Day finds the whiskey-rasped singer working with a group of seasoned musicians and leaving behind some of the gritty production of 2007's War Elephant. Deer Tick is still clearly McCauley's show though, and his odes are as lonely as ever, well suited for chain smoking and late night drives across the dusty highway. They even made a fan out of NBC Nightly News anchor and self-professed indie-rock fan Brian Williams, who recently interviewed Deer Tick for the premiere episode of his music vlog, BriTunes.

		$14.99 CD $9.99 MP3   BOWERBIRDS Upper Air (Dead Oceans) "House of Diamonds" Upper Air indeed seems to hover in the clear, quiet regions above the fray of our daily grind, a lilting acoustic set built around Phil Moore's heartfelt songs, fleshed out with acoustic guitars, organ, piano, autoharp, violin, percussion, upright bass and more. With haunting harmonies and great playing throughout, this band has far more in common with classic British folk than any modern freakers.

		$13.99 CD   SUMMER CATS Songs for Tuesdays (Slumberland) "Hey You" "Lonely Planet" Australia's Summer Cats keep the fires lit for a modern-day indie/twee pop revival. Like labelmates The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and the Vivian Girls, Summer Cats dust off ideas from proven formulas and dress them up with youthful energy and inventiveness, reaching out to bands like Superchunk and the Go-Betweens with equal fervor.

		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 [BCa] Brian Cassidy [DG] Daniel Givens [MG] Max Gray [DH] Duane Harriott [IQ] Mikey IQ Jones [MK] MIchael Klausman [AK] Andreas Knutsen [BL] Brian Levine [JM] Josh Madell [DMa] Dave Martin [DM] Doug Mosurock [SM] Scott Mou [NS] Nathan Salsburg [JT] John Twells THANKS FOR READING - all of us at Other Music

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