July 20, 2011

		FEATURED NEW RELEASES Motion Sickness of Time Travel LP Wiley Lost Sounds Pelican Daughters Destroy All Monsters (Book) The Telescopes Theophilus London Laurel Halo Invasion of the Mysteron Killer Sound Soul Braza (Various) Augustus Pablo     ALSO AVAILABLE Pictureplane Brilliant Colors Jackie-O Motherfucker Follow us on Facebook: facebook.com/othermusicnyc Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/othermusic

		JUL Sun 17 Mon 18 Tues 19 Wed 20 Thurs 21 Fri 22 Sat 23   Sun 24 Mon 25 Tues 26 Wed 27 Thurs 28 Fri 29 Sat 30   OTHER MUSIC WEDNESDAYS AT ACE HOTEL RETURN Back by popular demand, members of the Other Music staff are DJing the gorgeous lobby of NYC's Ace Hotel every Wednesday this summer, through to the end of August. Tonight, Amanda Colbenson is behind the decks playing a great mix of rock, soul and international pop, and then next Wednesday, Gerald Hammill will be packing his record bags full of funky leftfield hits and misses. You can get a sneak peek at some of the stuff he'll be spinning on Other Music's download site. See you at the Ace! JULY 20: AMANDA COLBENSON (8PM-2AM) JULY 27: GERALD HAMMILL (8PM-2AM) ACE HOTEL: 20 West 29th Street NYC

		JUL Sun 17 Mon 18 Tues 19 Wed 20 Thurs 21 Fri 22 Sat 23   WIN TICKETS TO CASS MCCOMBS While we haven't even made it through summer yet, it's not too early to predict that Cass McCombs' latest album, Wit's End, will be topping many Best of 2011 lists at the end of the year. It's a record filled with some of McCombs' most personal work yet, and one that moved his name into the "timeless" column of singer-songwriters. He'll be performing at the Music Hall of Williamsburg tomorrow night (Thursday), with another great act, Lower Dens, opening. Domino Recording Co has given Other Music a pair of tickets to give away and you can enter by emailing tickets@othermusic.com. We're drawing a winner's name at noon, so don't hesitate! THURSDAY, JULY 21 MUSIC HALL OF WILLIAMSBURG: 66 N. 6th St. BKLN

		JUL Sun 24 Mon 25 Tues 26 Wed 27 Thurs 28 Fri 29 Sat 30 Charles Bradley   CHARLES BRADLEY & BEANS AT FORT GREENE PARK The second and final show in our 2011 Greene Music series with the Fort Greene Park Conservancy is this coming Tuesday, July 26, and we hope you'll join us. The free concert is headlined by one of our absolute favorite artists these days, Charles Bradley & the Menahan Street Band, whose stunning classic soul debut on Daptone/Dunham, No Time For Dreaming, is one of the very best records we've heard this year, and we can assure you the live show is a thriller. Add to that an opening set from Beans, and DJ Todd-O-Phonic-Todd spinning classic 45s, and it's sure to be another great night in beautiful Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn. TUESDAY, JULY 26, 6PM-9PM FORT GREENE PARK ON THE MYRTLE LAWN: Enter at Myrtle and N. Portland FREE | ALL AGES

		JUL Sun 24 Mon 25 Tues 26 Wed 27 Thurs 28 Fri 29 Sat 30   WIN TICKETS TO ANN CALVI Anna Calvi's self-titled debut on Domino has stayed on (or near) our turntable since its January release, and after having to abort her first US tour due to a back injury, she floored us at the Bowery Ballroom in May. Needless to say, we're thrilled we'll be spending another night with Calvi when she returns to NYC on Wednesday July 27, for a performance at (Le) Poisson Rouge. Other Music has two pairs of tickets for LPR, just email giveaway@othermusic.com to enter to win. MONDAY, JULY 18 (LE) POISSON ROUGE: 158 Bleecker Street, NYC

		$22.99 LP+CD   MOTION SICKNESS OF TIME TRAVEL Luminaries & Synastry (Digitalis) "Synastry" "Day Glow" Digitalis continues their recent winning streak with a gorgeous new album by Motion Sickness of Time Travel, a/k/a Rachel Evans. On this stunning work, Evans channels spirits from beyond with a mix of unsettling electronic drone textures, ethereal vocal harmonies, and soft, subtle rhythmic pulsations, at times evoking the likes of Grouper somewhere between her Dead Deer and A I A albums, while also swimming in shifting waves of Krautrock classicism and new age/black magick bliss. While it never really sounds like them, I'm also often reminded of what I loved about Trish Keenan's vocal seances on the last Broadcast album, where her voice acted as both a grounding anchor and a kite gently floating though the atmosphere. Evans also practices the same kinds of electronic textural hauntology perfected in Aphex Twin and Boards of Canada's ambient, beatless interludes, yet here the pieces are stretched out into aquatic fever dreams as gentle as Brian Eno's "Deep Blue Day," with flickering arpeggiations spiraling outward as Evans gently whispers from the center, her voice thickening via a series of overlapped vocal drones. This is a subtle record, perhaps a grower for some, but anyone captivated by the sounds of dream-pop bliss and gentle ambient synthscapes needs to check this out ASAP. This limited pink vinyl edition includes a CD of the full album featuring two extra tracks not on the LP, and is already out of print (there is a standard CD edition to follow in the coming weeks); if this sounds good to you, don't waste time, because these are the last copies. I love when albums emerge from the ether and grab my attention when I'm not expecting it; this one's cast a hex on me, and I'm in no hurry to break the spell. [IQ]

		$12.99 CD $21.99 LPx2 $9.99 MP3   WILEY 100% Publishing (Big Dada) Preview Songs on Other Music's Download Store The self-professed creator of grime, Wiley returns with his fourth official full-length, 100% Publishing. After a dispute with his manager last year, this London-based producer and MC emptied his hard drive online, flooding the net with a ton of unreleased tracks, songs, snippets, and remixes. Now just under a year later, his new album for Big Dada features all new material, with his hands behind the boards and holding the mic. Despite the fact that Wiley basically originated the UK hip-hop subgenre, through the years his efforts have been outshined by Dizzee Rascal and the Streets; now that those artists have either sold out or simply bowed out, he is releasing the best music of his career, and continues to stand strong and firm. Wiley's strength, aside from his deliriously delicious, bassy beats, is the way that his slightly cheeky and deeply accented rhymes and flow ride the rhythms. While many British MCs get lost either in speedy tempos, too much growling, or too muffled of a delivery, Wiley has always been clear, intelligent, and very listenable. He's been one of my favorites of the UK scene for years now and 100% Publishing is another successful execution in soulful electronic beats, paired with insightful, funny, and always original, spitfire rhymes and a viewpoint all his own. The CD version is enhanced with instrumentals and acapellas as a bonus for all those inspiring producers and remixers out there. [DG]

		$13.99 CD $14.99 LP   LOST SOUNDS Blac Static (Fat Possum) "Black Coats/White Fear" "Energy Drink and the Long Walk Home" Bridging the gap both musically and chronologically between the explosive teen destruction of the Reatards and Jay Reatard's (somewhat) more refined pop-punk, Lost Sounds is probably the least-known of Jay's main projects, but not due to lack of quality. The band, of course, played raw, searing garage punk, but with a generous helping of synth-drone that Jay would sometimes explore on his later recordings. There is also some great boy/girl vocal action, as he squared off with co-frontperson Alicja Trout who managed to go toe-to-toe with Jay while pushing him towards a more melodic singing style that his later work so successfully exploited. The group formed in 1999, with Trout and drummer Rich Cook, and over the next five years cycled through a series of bassists and a hell of a lot of beer, releasing albums with Big Neck, Empty, and In the Red, and touring both the US and Europe several times before imploding like all of Jay's bands eventually did. This best-of set adds little for longtime fans who already own the records (except for one unreleased demo, "I Sit I Watch I Wait"), but it's a great collection of 14 of their best tracks, and absolutely any fan of Jay Reatard's solo stuff needs this. [JM]

		$21.99 LP   PELICAN DAUGHTERS Fishbones + Wishbones (Forced Nostalgia) The fledgling Forced Nostalgia label continues its promising run of obscure post-punk/experimental reissues with this excellent LP from Australia's Pelican Daughters. Fishbones + Wishbones was first issued on cassette in 1988, then discovered by renowned electronic artist Kim Cascone after a trip to AU and reissued on CD in 1991 via his Silent label. This, however, marks the first time any of this music has been released on vinyl, and it's been well worth the wait. Dark, droning clouds of sound waft across the airwaves as the group conjures skeletal, almost primitive pulsations and hypnotic junkyard voodoo rhythms that evoke everything from the more rhythmic side of the Fetish or Industrial Records stables, to early Muslimgauze, to the more sedate moments of This Heat, who used a similar fusion of anything-goes rhythm science, kitchen-sink tape loop and electronic processing, and a vanguard approach to mixing. This album blew me away the very first time I heard it, and I've listened to it at least once a day since first scoring a copy for myself; they pull off a sound that quite a few groups of the era reached for yet only occasionally succeeded in grabbing hold of. Everything is used with restraint and respect for the whole; from the clattering junk metals, the popping funk bass licks, the congas, the creepy loops, and even the vocals, everything seems to fall into place EXACTLY where it's most effective, and I'm hugely impressed. The album is made up of nothing but highlights, but if you're not a convert by the time the proto-minimal techno beat and chiming keyboards of "Visited" drops on Side B, evoking prophetic visions of ambient techno, you need to stop drinking decaf and switch to the hard stuff. This gets my absolute highest recommendation for folks who salivate at the sounds of any of the aforementioned artists, not to mention those who dig the Coil/World Serpent axis of black beat magick or the urban industrial funk of NYC's Gray. It's pressed in limited numbers, so don't sleep if you know what's good for you! [IQ]

		$27.99 BK   DESTROY ALL MONSTERS Destroy All Monsters Magazine 1976-1979 (Primary Information) Destroy All Monsters was a pretty legendary collective in the '70s. Based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the group released a bunch of really cool cassettes and 45s that took cues from free jazz, the Stooges (a later incarnation of the band featured Ron Asheton) and movie soundtracks. An informed brand of noise music if you will. Perhaps even cooler were the seven issues of the Destroy All Monsters Magazine that were published between 1976 and '79, and are compiled here in all their complete and original glory. It's a dizzying, kaleidoscopic and densely packed 278 pages of pop art collages, psychedelic artwork, flyers, photography, cartoons, and drawings -- the ultimate Destroy All Monsters manifesto, always executed with a heavy dose of humor and a counter-cultural stance. It predates many of the punk zines and is an excellent early example of do-it-yourself publishing culture. Highly recommended to the arthouse crowd and to those with even a marginal interest in oppositional art, as well as to adventurous punks. [AK]

		$13.99 CD $17.99 LP   THE TELESCOPES Taste (Bomp!) "The Perfect Needle" "Suffercation" If you funneled Spiritualized through the grittier moments of My Bloody Valentine and the Jesus and Mary Chain, you'd get a taste -- no pun intended -- of what the Telescopes' debut full-length is like. After seeing a few of the later albums from these British rockers get the reissue treatment over the past couple of years, it's great that the record with some of the group's best work is finally getting some love. Taste was originally released in 1989 on the short-lived What Goes On. But before the label went under and the band toned it down to go a new direction with Creation Records, the Telescopes left us with an album of full of freewheeling, hypnotic, almost-psych rock. And, man, can I just say it already? I love this record. I still remember the first time I heard Taste. It had everything I wanted to hear at the time -- touches of dreamy shoegaze a la Loop (their very first release was, fittingly, a split flexi with them) -- as well as everything I didn't even know I wanted yet: brain-melting guitar riffs imploding into hyper-abrasive walls of sound. And, lead singer Stephen Lawrie, all scratchy snarls and trance-inducing croons, had the perfect visceral vocal attitude to match. Yes, this record can get a little hhhheeavvvvvyyyyyy, but one of the best parts about Taste is that underneath all those battling, distorted guitars, you really can detect a measure or two of pop tunefulness when all the fuzzy feedback dies down -- think about smashing Chapterhouse together with MC5, Husker Du or the Stooges. Standouts for me are "The Perfect Needle," which made the UK Charts in the early '90s, "There Is No Floor" and "Please, Before You Go." Easily recommended, plus, Bomp! sweetens the deal by including all the tracks from The Perfect Needle 12" as extras. [PG]

		$12.99 CD   THEOPHILUS LONDON Timez Are Weird These Days (Warner) "Wine and Chocolates" "Why Even Try" Having made a name for himself over the last few years with a series of self-released mixtapes and albums, Trinidad-born, Brooklyn-raised rapper/singer Theophilus London makes his major label debut with Timez Are Weird These Days. Much like recent albums by Mark Ronson and Maximum Balloon, on which London has appeared, this is a radio-ready fusion of guitars, Euro-beats, and self-conscious rhymes. Coming loosely from the same Williamsburg camp that gave way to Santigold, it's a slick and ambitious album where London seems to be setting his sights on Times Square, namely MTV (by way of Stockholm and LA, and an endorsement from Cole Haan). With production from David Sitek (TVOTR/Maximum Balloon), John Hill (Santigold), Ariel Rechtshaid (Foreign Born) and Jocko (the Teddybears), there's a bright and stiffly funky indie-crossover vibe across the record. This is pop-soul-rap, easy to digest and with a broad appeal, if not much of an edge or any weighty content. Vocally, London sounds like a mix between the TVOTR vocalists and Kid Cudi. Guests include Holly Miranada, Sara Quinn, Zeb, and Diplo. Honestly, I prefer his slightly more adventurous underground downloads, but this one goes down easy, that's for sure. [DG]

		$13.99 LP $5.99 MP3   LAUREL HALO Hour Logic EP (Hippos in Tanks) Preview Songs on Other Music's Download Store Brooklyn-via-Michigan experimental songsmith Laurel Halo first caught attention last year with her King Felix EP, a mix of funky, retro synth-pop song stylings and vocal acrobatics that owed a great deal to folks like Kate Bush and Dead Can Dance. She throws an impressive curveball with her follow-up; Hour Logic's 35 minutes are almost devoid of vocals in a lyrical-driven sense, and she moves her time machine forward a decade from '80s synth to early-'90s IDM bleep and wobble. She blends throttling, relentless rhythm textures with liquid ambiences and acid techno squelches, creating a refracted take on the sorts of post-house dance sounds perfected by the likes of Plaid/Black Dog Productions and early Aphex Twin, not to mention the cloudy minimalism of the Basic Channel school. Her vocals, meanwhile, are sucked into these vortexes, their ghostly coos, wails, and pleas spinning and multiplying amidst the storms she conjures; they add a human element that left many vintage releases of this type cold, all the while retaining an alien quality that would make her forefathers proud. I'm really enjoying every minute of this EP, and while it still throws back to a much-loved time in electronic music, it uses those ingredients in ways that are instilling vitality in this artist's body of work. Anyone interested in the psychedelic properties of rhythm science, or those simply pining for some quality IDM who've over-played their Autechre EPs should check this out. I'll be honest, I was more skeptical at first than anyone, but I'm feeling this... it's a killer. [IQ]

		$21.99 CDx2   VARIOUS ARTISTS Invasion of the Mysteron Killer Sounds (Soul Jazz) "Diplo Rhythm" Diplo "Fat Thing (Version)" King Tubby Soul Jazz continues their exploration of bass heavy digital music with Invasion of the Mysteron Killer Sounds, a double-disc set compiled by Kevin "The Bug" Martin and Stuart Baker, featuring dancehall tracks stripped of their vocals, leaving the bleeping, primitive and infectious rhythms to run wild. The songs are mostly gathered from the last twenty years of Jamaica's digital era, with a few connecting points via tracks by Diplo, Stereotyp, Harmonic 313, and Team Shadatek. This is similar to the classic Mo' Wax compilation, Now Sound, or several of the previous dub/dancehall/bass comps Soul Jazz has catalogued, yet structurally and stylistically it reminds me of the Bang & Works set on Planet Mu, if you replaced the hip-hop and house loops with dancehall, filled with sparse dub-sonic grids, rumbling bass thumps and Casio synth chords. Like playing a game of Space Invaders in an arcade in Kingston with rude boys playing paint ball outside, this is color-splashed tropical electro propelled by wacky space beats, and speedy rump shaking grooves -- the various producers really know how to get the most out of the cheap instruments. The packaging includes a graphic novel from Italian artist Paolo Parisi, and though it's cool, some true liner notes would have been great here for context. [DG]

		$23.99 CD   VARIOUS ARTISTS Soul Braza (No Smoke) "Sempre Existe" Trio Ternura "Que Isso Menina" The Pop's This latest entry in the "Brazilian rarity compilation sweepstakes" focuses on the era of this country's early assimilation of American R&B and soul influences. Overall, it plays like a comp made by your friend who has been buying this stuff enthusiastically on eBay and downloading it from specialist blogs and has made an iTunes playlist and burned you a CD. The sound quality bears this out, a few tracks being obvious mp3s, but that said, the selection is interesting, with classic nuggets from Antonio Carlos & Jocafi, Trio Ternura, Toni Tornado and Tony & Frankye. Notable inclusions are several Lena Rios tracks and a Flavio Kurt single so rare only two copies are known to have surfaced in the last five years (though it HAS been previously compiled by one of its two owners). So, audiophile quality this ain't (this is the modern digital equivalent of buying Studio One 45s knowing they sound like vinyl hockey pucks), but it should be enjoyed by those who found the Baile Funk 1 and 2 CDs I released on Black Betty a few years back a revelation. [GC]

		$16.99 CD $22.99 LPx2   AUGUSTUS PABLO Message Music (Pressure Sounds) "Ammagiddeon Dub" "Run Come (Yah Version)" Who knew that the king of the melodica, Augustus Pablo, whose classic recordings from the '70s are so integral to the sound of dub reggae, made great music up until his untimely death in 1999? He is perhaps the best-known lead instrumentalist in Jamaican music, for his use of piano, synthesizer and his beloved melodica, and albums like the 1973 Lee Perry collaboration Rebel Rock Reggae, 1976's King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown and East of the River Nile from '77 are all essential listens for even the casual reggae fan. But here, Pressure Sounds gathers music from the last era of Pablo's work, collecting productions released on his own Rockers International imprint between 1986 and 1994 (he was an astute businessman as well as a great musician and producer, and ran several labels and studios), and while the forward-thinking Pablo embraced the modern digital production of the time and continued to work with young, cutting-edge artists, the music here showcases his ongoing commitment to ethereal instrumentals in the wake of Jamaica's growing love of harder-edged pop sounds. Having gone from choice session player for hire to an in-demand producer and label owner, by the 1980s Pablo was established enough to build and control the studio and the sound he envisioned. Based in a light and free-flowing atmosphere, Pablo's work has always had an earthy and organic feel, and his later use of drum machines and synths doesn't distract from his ever-present mythology. This is a great selection of instrumentals and dubs from an era usually more associated with primitive and brittle experiments in electronics; Pablo never seemed to let technology get in the way, nor does it become a crutch. He has always been a solid artist with his hands in dozens of classic albums, and these later recordings show what he learned as well as what he brought to the overflowing music scene in Jamaica. Recommend. [DG]

		$10.99 CD $14.99 LP $9.99 MP3   PICTUREPLANE Thee Physical (Lovepump United) "Black Nails" "Breath Work" The second full-length from Travis Egedy's Denver-based old-school house/electro project is a subtler, more melodic take on the genre, delivered with some help from HEALTH's Jupiter Keyes. It's less of a speaker-destroyer than its predecessor, as Egedy allows more melody and actual songwriting into the fold, but have no fear, this thing still wrecks via overloaded synths AND aching melodies; it's a combination that works great, and this album is a floor-filler and an absolute winner.

		$10.99 CD $9.99 MP3   BRILLIANT COLORS Again and Again (Slumberland) "Hey Dan" "'Round Your Way" The second full-length from this SF-based all-girl trio adds a touch of summery sheen to the indie-pop of their debut, without straying too far from that sound. It's a decidedly '90s K Records vibe, in the best possible way: heartwarming melodies, strumming reverb guitars and pounding tom-tom beats, delivered with a loose, unstudied abandon. We've heard it before, but nobody these days is doing it quite as well as Brilliant Colors.

		$17.99 CD $23.99 LP   JACKIE-O MOTHERFUCKER Earth Sound System (Fire) By our count, JOMF have released about 15 albums since 1995, so maybe longtime fans can forgive Tom Greenwood and Co. for changing their sound a bit over the years; the band is best known for shape-shifting, psychedelic noise-jazz improvisation, and frankly, sometimes shape-shifters shift! The current incarnation of the group split their time between more of a droney, song-oriented Americana sound and some nice freeform freakouts; Earth Sound System finds Greenwood singing some of the best songs of his career, and it's one of the more satisfying albums of their current era.

		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 [GC] Greg Caz [PG] Pamela Garavano-Coolbaugh [DG] Daniel Givens [IQ] Mikey IQ Jones [AK] Andreas Knutsen [JM] Josh Madell THANKS FOR READING - all of us at Other Music

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