Other Music New Release Update
February 28, 2001

In This Week's Update:

Breakestra
Compost Community comp.
Eddie Prevost/Music Now Ensemble reissue
Ravish Momin
Funk Spectrum III comp.
Grazing in the Trash: The Soul Fire Funk 45 Collection comp.
George Harrison reissue
Kit Clayton
Joseph Nothing
Luigee Trademarq's porn soundtracks
Moreno Veloso
David Thomas and the Two Pale Boys
DJ Food EP
Restock: Bertrand Burgalat

This week:

BREAKESTRA "Live Mix Part 2" (Stone's Throw) CD $14.99
RealAudio: /ramgen/othermusic/GetchaSo.rm
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True funk is dying. Sure, hip-hop culture has preserved it in
fragments, but the beat-digging aesthetic hasn't encouraged others
to pick up the bass and be their own Bootsy -- youngsters would
rather cut Clyde Stubblefield up on the 1s and 2s than pick up a
pair of sticks. But that's why this album is so special, because
Breakestra is made up of hip-hop DJs and producers who actually
decided to play and master the funk they've been collecting on
wax. The structure of the album is one long medley of famous
breaks ("funky drummer", "humpty dump", "sing a simple song")
played like a DJ cutting them up in a club. This album is so
significant because of its recognition of the funk as an integral
part of hip-hop. This is every bit as hip-hop as the newest Nas or
Wu-Tang, but don't buy it because of its social significance. Buy
it because it swings harder and faster than the NASDAQ index and
because it's funky as ..... [DH]
/perl-bin/OM/CD_Add_To_Cart.cgi?sku=65945720352&refer_url=email

[V/A] "Compost Community" (Compost, Germany) CD/2xLP $15.99/$19.99
RealAudio: /ramgen/othermusic/TrubyTri.rm
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This is the first compilation from Compost records to contain
tracks entirely from their own roster, and (as usual) this is of
the highest quality. Featuring tracks from Truby Trio, Fauna
Flash, Voom:Voom (Peter Kruder and Truby Trio), Procreation, Les
Gammas, and more, this compilation has a huge range of styles.
With tracks spanning all genres, from the '70s disco style of
Syrup's "Chocolate" with funk guitars, cheesy keys, and the
smoothest horn section since Stevie Wonder. Then onto last year's
classic "A GO GO" from the magnificent Truby Trio, a fabulous
amalgam of Latin and Brazilian rhythms, drum and bass, and funk
horns that made many a foot tap and booty shake! We are then
transported into the world of Procreation and their downtempo
masterpiece 'Citizen,' a track that any DJ could drop between
Boards of Canada and Kruder and Dorfmeister and still keep the bpm
at a snail's pace. So for all of you Kruder and Dorfmeister,
Jazzanova, and Thievery Corporation fans out there, pick this one
up before you hear it in every cafe and salon from NYC to L.A. [JS]
CD /perl-bin/OM/CD_Add_To_Cart.cgi?sku=66754850212&refer_url=email
LP /perl-bin/OM/CD_Add_To_Cart.cgi?sku=66754850221&refer_url=email

EDDIE PREVOST/MUSIC NOW ENSEMBLE "Silver Pyramid" (Matchless, UK) CD  $16.99
RealAudio: /ramgen/othermusic/SilverPy.rm
In 1994, my life was forever changed when I had the experience of
witnessing an AMM performance. Never entirely identifying their
source, sounds were travelling, mingling, melding, sometimes
challenging, then sustaining, or maybe falling. Even when staring
directly at the musicians and instruments as they played, I was
still uncertain who exactly was making the sound I heard. Those
of you already familiar with AMM will pick up on the vocabulary,
but this is a different beast entirely. For this recording all the
members of the then-lineup of AMM were present (in addition
to at least one future member), but the ensemble is much much
larger (in retrospect, this helped serve as a catalyst for the
formation of the Scratch Orchestra a few months later), all
gathered to perform compositions from the brightest minds in
New York and England. For four days in 1969 the Music Now Festival
was held in a cold dank warehouse in Chalk Farm, known as The
Roundhouse (a legendary venue of the English psychedelic scene).
This recording documents Eddie Prevost's contribution, which
received its name from the large fabric sculpture that served as
the centerpiece to the circle of musicians that performed it. The
pyramid provided an obstruction that helped deter performers
from making eye contact, allowed the sounds to surprise
participants and audience equally: created a forum for a freer
from of improvisation. This recording, like others of improvised
music, only offers an echo of what actually transpired, but it
does contain something that will intrigue and inspire with each
listen. This is a document of a time and place where everything
came together in a cohesive, almost magical way. A must for any
fan of AMM or for that matter, improvised music. [AG]
/perl-bin/OM/CD_Add_To_Cart.cgi?sku=78649744412&refer_url=email

RAVISH MOMIN "Sound Dissolving Sound" (Sachimay) CD $14.99
RealAudio: /ramgen/othermusic/RMomin1.rm
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Momin is a one-man puppet show of sticks. His drums and gongs and
bells hold conversations with each other, abstract confidences
made public to an audience. He has medium-to-light hand on his
instruments (somewhat like Susie Ibarra, who he's doing a record
with next), a broad array of metal and skins and wood. But the
rhythms are not all -- he adds vocals, of the syllabic, drum-
imitating variety ('ta ta tikka ta ta' is a representative line),
as well as those done in faux-Kecak (Balinese monkey chant). One
piece sounds like hollow, way-slow irregular breakbeats, another
has a chant tempered by gongs and cymbal shimmer. He even gets
funky, his kit springing between speakers while a contrabass
(guest D. Zanker) sits in the middle of the flitting frame. His
work, though young (this is his first release), already has drawn
wide for influences -- this solo percussion album taps rhythms
and other sounds from four continents. [RE]
/perl-bin/OM/CD_Add_To_Cart.cgi?sku=6874702052&refer_url=email

[V/A] "Funk Spectrum III" (BBE, UK) CD $14.99
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If the three volumes of Keb Darge's own funk 45 reissue series
isn't enough, here's the third volume of the Funk Spectrum series,
the CD equivalent to being a fly on the wall while two well-known
musicians or DJs play their favorite old 45s for each other. This
one is Pete Rock and Keb Darge (Vol. 2 is Kenny Dope and Darge,
Vol. 1 is Josh Davis [DJ Shadow] and Darge -- when is Keb Darge
gonna run out of rare funk 45s to share?), and calling them all funk
would be stretching it. Instead you're really getting some awesome
deep soul from all corners (but primarily American), wherein a
funk strain or two can be found. With 22 tracks and nearly 70
minutes of material, Rock's tracks are the better-known (Lee
Dorsey's killer Nawleans drawl, the so-smoky shouts of Betty
Lavette), but are actually more spectacular than Darge's decidedly
funk uber-obscurities (most of which are instrumentals, the kind
where an organ or guitar provides the funky line to funkily focus
upon). Anyway, well worth it, another one of those funk comps.
that makes me wish I had a special line in my personal budget
JUST for funk comps. [RE]
/perl-bin/OM/CD_Add_To_Cart.cgi?sku=80164713382&refer_url=email

[V/A] "Grazing in the Trash: The Soul Fire Funk 45 Collection" (Soul Fire) CD $12.99
RealAudio: /ramgen/othermusic/solfire1.rm
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Soul Fire records is another arm of the retro label that also goes
by Pure and Desco. They've released a number of 45s under this
umbrella, ones that attempt (and oft succeed) to catch the glory
of late '60s funk. It's still rare to find groups of musicians who
want to replicate this sound live (and, ironically, there are two
in this week's newsletter alone!) but the French gentlemen at
Desco knew where to look in NYC for musicians who were well-
dedicated to funk-as-craft. These, of course, sound as if they
came off of 45s originally dug out of cardboard boxes at estate
sales. This captures releases 1-8 (though, mysteriously, #2 is
missing), amidst primarily instrumentals of tight, galloping
hammond funk or novelty jams, Lee Fields (a soul singer who
indeed goes way back) does a vicious JB impression -- not his
usual form-- in the reverberating man-and-horns duet 'I'm The
Man'. Derivative, to be sure, but also gleefully detached from
time, wallowing in a fine past with blinders to the present. Don't
wait for the LP, because these tracks will only be available in the
45 form or on this CD. [RE]
/perl-bin/OM/CD_Add_To_Cart.cgi?sku=63793703012&refer_url=email

GEORGE HARRISON "All Things Must Pass" (Capitol) 2xCD $24.99
RealAudio: /ramgen/othermusic/harriso1.rm
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If you took the best songs from the first three post-Beatles
albums, you'd have a record that stands up to any of their others --
the difference being that the most memorable moments would belong
to Harrison. With a melody that defies time and gravity, 'I'd Have
You Anytime', the leadoff track, is probably as good as Harrison's
other masterpieces 'Here Comes the Sun' and 'Something'. And
there's no question it's better than 'Yesterday '-- again and again
Harrison proves himself capable of Lennon's candor and McCartney's
indelible melodies, but mostly he's himself -- and it's not just
that he's operating at a creative peak. "All Things Must Pass" is
the last great record produced by Phil Spector. From the density
of 'Wah Wah' to the gorgeous, spare pedal steel line in 'Behind
That Locked Door', this is Spector's most varied work, too. Maybe
he ran out of ideas after "ATMP." Revered as it is, it's still
underrated. As double-albums go, only "Tusk" and "Exile on Main
Street" exceed it for consistency (and "ATMP" was originally a 3-
LP set, here on 2 CDs). With a remastering job that actually means
something, and some killer bonus tracks, this reissue is about as
essential as digitally-captured music gets. I even like 'My Sweet
Lord 2000.' [MH]
/perl-bin/OM/CD_Add_To_Cart.cgi?sku=72435304742&refer_url=email

KIT CLAYTON "Live on Shortwave Radio" (Pthalo) CD $13.99
RealAudio: /ramgen/othermusic/klayton1.rm
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Clayton's booming staticscapes ping-pong between speakers, and
come and go in tiny increments, as if you were scanning down a
radio dial and didn't get any speaking, singing or recognizable
music. Funny, because this was recorded live on the radio, on KALX
in 1999. Yet the human voice isn't absent here, it's just buried in
dust -- there are lots of sounds like the dull milling murmurs at an
enormous banquet hall or conference. And there is music, it's just
been sent down 50 fathoms or up 3,000 feet. There are sounds
that you can tell were guitar chords, but are now shrouded in
interference. Lots of mild rumbling, crackling like the digitized
version of Saran Wrap, and sounds the TV makes when you adjust
the antenna. Yet, in three tracks and 36 minutes, Clayton makes this
all tuneful! His sonic spaces are backgrounds with no foreground,
amplified termites chewing their way through wires instead of
wood. Which is quite nice, but takes some time to get used to. [RE]
/perl-bin/OM/CD_Add_To_Cart.cgi?sku=63600100172&refer_url=email

JOSEPH NOTHING "Dummy Variations" (Planet Mu, UK) CD $16.99
RealAudio: /ramgen/othermusic/jnothin1.rm
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Nothing, aka Tatsuya Joseph Yoshida, makes an album with a
strange conflict. While it's a nice trip through, it has no center to
speak of. This is Yoshida's first album solo, but he's worked in
Japanese studios for a long time. His work is all texture and no
form. He arranges textures (and hundreds of them, not just twenty
or thirty) into complex arrangements that build into rhythms, but
not simple ones. He'll make a formula for a five-second interval,
then start mutating it, compounding mutation on mutation. Which
sounds, by description, very alien, but it actually has a
jauntiness to it that reminds me (of all things!) like Brahms in
structure (only Brahms rearranged pitch whereas Yoshida is solely
timbre). When there is melody, it's on a 1-2 or 1-2-3 level,
waddlingly simple and, sadly, too fragmented to stick to the walls
of one's mind. His patterns breed, die, or circle each other
menacingly. From a mid-'90s Aphex Twin sound, to Art of Noise in
an intensely hyper mood, to a vocoder amok in a pachinko parlor,
to a field recording of toyland dubbed to an off-center piece of
vinyl, you might also say this is like hearing either Aaron
Copeland, your own national anthem or "Oklahoma!" fed through
something that converts melodies to beats and samples and then
makes it go drum'n'bass. There's often so much going on that it's
not noise, but still would be impossible to separate into single
lines. Instead the sounds replicate at an increasing rate -- he
leaves no breathing space -- Dummy Variations is very rug-like,
inventive and thick. [RE]
/perl-bin/OM/CD_Add_To_Cart.cgi?sku=503670600037&refer_url=email

LUIGEE TRADEMARQ "Bande Original" (Rectangle, France) 3xCD $24.99
RealAudio: /ramgen/othermusic/Luigee1.rm
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Monsieur Trademarq (c'est psuedonyme, non?) and his small
ensemble (that includes some Rectangle records noisemakers, even
Noel Akchote) provided soundtracks to four small-budget French
porn films. And the quality of the music here I would hopefully take
as an indication of how advanced the French porn industry is?
These are great, well equal to some of the famous MPS porntrax,
only with a wider range of inspiration. Trademarq takes slinky sleaze
sounds from the '60s, '70s and the '90s in his endeavors, from
exotica to psych to disco to trip-hop and back. And each track
usually has its own gimmick be it touches of hillbilly, Japan,
Francophilia, space sounds, roadhouse rock, angry videogame music,
thundering guitar blasts, Waxtrax, ska, Gainsbourg, Love Unlimited
Orchestra. Goofy yet sophisticated, these usually roughly swing
and have wordless vocals or just plain sighs and moans as
embellishment, amidst ethereal mooginess and swanky horn parts.
Thank god you can buy this through the mail because the cover is
just plain low-budget -- a bunch of naked multi-culti babes groping
at a smugly aloof Mr. Trademarq. ugh. [RE]
/perl-bin/OM/CD_Add_To_Cart.cgi?sku=335535007007&refer_url=email

MORENO VELOSO +2 "Music Typewriter" (Hannibal) CD $15.99
RealAudio: /ramgen/othermusic/MVeloso1.rm
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Everyone will compare him to his very famous father on this
recording, so I won't. And, in fact, it isn't applicable! Moreno
Veloso, for his debut record, does try to draw in the sounds of
Brazil of the last 40 years, but not those of dad. A strangely-
structured record, he starts with a number of tracks of soft,
almost flaccid samba. While pillowy, they seemed to me sticky,
stuffed with yucky fiberfill rather than the down of Jobim. As he
moves to the center of "Music Typewriter", it's obvious which
Tropicalia giant he was most inspired by (as if it weren't obvious
by the title)?Tom Ze. Veloso's grabbed together sounds electronic,
sounds rock, and sounds samba and squished them together tightly,
yet, as those styles don't fit neatly together, he ends up with
nicely disjointed , unexpectedly jerking songs that vary in rhythm
and sound. Shovels, sandpaper, metal coils and even snores are
worked through and into his mixes, and while what he's doing with
them isn't revolutionary, these sounds still make, if not literal
sparks, than at least some metaphorical ones. A debut that makes
more promises than it delivers (don't read the English
translations of the lyrics), but one whose promises are likely to
be delivered upon later. I like this CD much more than it seems
like I did -- its high points cast large, lovely shadows over the
rest. [RE]
/perl-bin/OM/CD_Add_To_Cart.cgi?sku=03125714562&refer_url=email

DAVID THOMAS AND TWO PALE BOYS "Surf's Up!" (Thirsty Ear) CD $14.99
RealAudio: /ramgen/othermusic/DT2Pale1.rm
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Though David Thomas' work of late leans towards histrionics (and a
fairly painful pompous attitude), here he has the insight to
neutralized these negatives, turn them into something beautiful by
setting them perfectly. He's been gloriously smart to hook up with
Two Pale Boys, Andy Diagram (Spaceheads) and Keith Moline. Thomas'
work, for at least the last ten years (and much before) has had as
the theme the alienation of the individual in America, esp.
American suburbia. Here he buries this theme in a more generic
context, plunging the cliches of his own making into a roiling
soup of sound -- this is not a tempest in a teapot, but contains the
greater tension of chaos in a paper cup. Diagram's trumpet is a
diva in brass, Moline's guitar runs through a pamphlet's worth of
coarse textures. Thomas does use his erstwhile melodeon, but
sparingly this time, and usually through filters, unrecognizable.
Each track develops over time, turning through beautiful dark mood
after beautiful dark mood, petering out near the end. It's sad,
but if Thomas weren't a big scary guy and instead was some frail,
wispy dark-haired gentleman, he'd be (and really should be, by
this time) absolutely worshipped by goths. But they like anorexic
foreigners rather than the strong, modern American form of gothic
that Thomas' work displays. He's just too edgy, too unpredictable
for them. Silly goths! [RE]
/perl-bin/OM/CD_Add_To_Cart.cgi?sku=70043570962&refer_url=email

DJ FOOD "Quadraplex EP" (Ninja Tune, Canada) CDEP/12" $7.99/$7.99
RealAudio: /ramgen/othermusic/foodquad.rm
Not what you'd expect from Food at all -- this is a quiet, eerie and
metallic recording. From a track that sounds like it was made by
needles running over metal plates of different kinds -- tingling,
ringing, spiky, and notably calm, to tracks that integrate finger
thrumming and steady beats into the above formula. In fact, each
track builds on an element of another (the third starts with the
beat of the second, then moves on it with watery bleeps like
droplets and a thicker rhythm section, the fourth used the ringing
metal plates as a base) -- a very simple idea, but one that ties the
fifteen minutes here into an unbreakable circle, a ring so tightly
interconnected it would be hard to stop if you put it on 'repeat'.
[RE]
CD /perl-bin/OM/CD_Add_To_Cart.cgi?sku=62597830912&refer_url=email
12 /perl-bin/OM/CD_Add_To_Cart.cgi?sku=502139222716&refer_url=email

Restocked:

BERTRAND BURGALAT "The Ssound of Mmmusic" (Tricatel, France) CD  $16.99
RealAudio: /ramgen/othermusic/MaRecont.rm
/perl-bin/OM/CD_Add_To_Cart.cgi?sku=72438499322&refer_url=email


This week's n'letter by: Robin Edgerton [RE], Andrew Giles [AG],
Matt Hanks [MH], Duane Harriott [DH], Jeremy Sponder [JS].


The Big Picture:

To see a complete list of Other Music new releases for the week
ending February 27, 2001, use this link as a shortcut:
//february27.html

To see a list of new releases from previous weeks:
//newreleases.html

To see new release updates from previous weeks:
//updates.html

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the links following each review or visit our website at
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