As well as being one of the best looking pieces of picture disc vinyl I think I’ve ever seen this is a record thick with atmosphere. Matt 'MV' Valentine and his collaborators melt distinct moods into strands for a journey that goes from hash den to wasteland. This is the best thing Valentine and his regular collaborator Erika Elder have ever put their names to.
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10218 Hits
After a few years of absence, Tara Jane returns with only a four song EP, but it's beautiful enough to wet my appetite in anticipation from her forthcoming release that's currently being promised later this year.
13841 Hits
Douglas Lilburn was already an award-winning composer when he turned from conventional music to focus on electronic music, founding New Zealand’s first electronic music studio at Victoria University of Wellington in the late 1960s. The three CDs and the DVD comprising this collection contain many valuable pieces that highlight Lilburn’s contributions to the electronic form.
12777 Hits
For the sixth Numero release, the group plunges the archives of music from the small Central American nation of Belize, a country which tends to associate itself more with the Carribbean countries than the surrounding Mexico and Guatemala and nearby Honduras. Its disco, R&B, and funk captured here more resembles reggae and soul influenced tourist-friendly party music.
6309 Hits
Beefed up to a more rhythmic trio for this release, Religious Knives do their best work so far as part of the so far untouchable No Fun Rotten LP series. Mouthus’ Nate Nelson joins Maya Miller and Mike Bernstein in bringing a secular adhan audience to a matinee horror performance.
7783 Hits
Nadja is the heavy guitar-driven project between Aidan Baker and Leah Buckarell. Listening to the overloaded intensity and slow, but forceful grit is like trying to stand firm while being deluged with gigantic buckets of shockingly cold water.
10220 Hits
Floret Silva is a pure 70s art rock project, from concept to execution, a progressive folk adaptation of the 13th-century medieval songs collectively known as the Carmina Burana. Remarkably, it does not collapse under the weight of its own concept, and holds up quite well nearly 30 years after its recording.
12744 Hits
Graveyards are the most organic and traditionally structured of all of John Olson’s (Wolf Eyes) side projects. With improvisational jazz relying more these days on chemistry than the highs and distances of what’s left to explore, this trio are consistently drawing me ever closer, and deeper, to the heart of their sound.
5979 Hits
Dwayne Sodahberk's latest for Tigerbeat6 pushes some of the glitchy electronics with which the artist is often associated to the background, allowing the simple pop melodies to rise to the fore. Though perhaps less experimental than some of his other work, Cut Open wins by being direct.
8668 Hits
Anticipating a new full length, Sonig reissues every side of non-album Lithops material on one disc, with unreleased tracks from the same time period. At least three of these singles have been long out of print, and as bittersweet as it is to see my $2 copy of “Tubino-see-through / Filterabend” (Static Caravan 1, clear-vinyl, hand-stamped sleeve, decal insert) swiftly devalued, having the rest of these immediately available is almost better than a new record from Jan St. Werner.
8105 Hits
Maybe it’s a bit too early to call, but right now I’d say it is safe to say that Stay Afraid, the latest release from Brooklyn noise-rockers Parts and Labor is the first great fist-in-the-air rock record of 2006. With all the instruments jacked up within an inch of their lives, the band goes flat out on every song here, and comes up victorious for the most part.
6669 Hits
2nd Gen mastermind Wajid Yaseen also works under the alias Uniform with partner Alice Kemp, and Protocol is their latest effort for Planet Mu. Despite Planet Mu's ruptured dance tendencies, 2nd Gen's reputation for heavy break beats, and Uniform's first album for Ad Noiseam of abstract beat compositions, Protocol takes a hard left turn into unexpected territory.
6517 Hits
Japanese instrumental group Anoice cherish melodies over everything. This, their debut release, doesn’t redefine music but it does carve out its own little space somewhere near the sea and sets up its own nest of ideas.
11887 Hits
With their sixth full-length album, Drew Daniel and M.C. Schmidt once again approach their music from the conceptual level, hitting upon a brilliant idea and elaborating it perfectly. The ten "audio portraits" that comprise the album evidence a precision of concept and working method that is almost fetishistic in its exactness, but nonetheless provides an engaging, humorous and often illuminating listening experience.
9133 Hits
Numero Group's fifth number covers the output of this southern gospel/country singer, a collection of recordings that, unlike the other Numero releases, was recorded for a major record label, however equally challenged with facing extinction as the others. Fern's album Singing a Happy Song was recorded for Paramount's Dot imprint but it soon became the property of MCA following a buyout and basically layed dormant for 25 years before being returned to Fern Jones after a lengthy letter campaign.
11278 Hits
Not unlike 2002's Amore del Tropico, the focus on The Spell is on love. Devastation, remorse, seduction, memories, and a whole host of emotions ranging from despair to anger occupy every thought and every syllable of every song. Whittled down to a five piece, now including The Album Leaf's Jimmy LaValle, the band sounds forceful. The entire album buzzes with a apprehensive energy, summoning the spirit of Alfred Hitchcock with equal parts lone poet and repenting sinner.
7615 Hits
This mysterious UK noise collective bring out the torture chamber intern side of Thurston Moore and get Jim O’Rourke as pumped as your average everyday metal teen. The omission of Chris Corsano's name, however, seems like an oversight as he deserves credit for the five and a half minute hardcore percussive finale.
9507 Hits
Numero 004 is named after Yellow Pills, the magazine that Jordan Oakes began publishing in 1990, dedicated to the power pop sounds discovered through obscure 45s from bands he thought of not as "has-been"s or "never-were"s, but "could-have-been"s. That, however, is up for debate.
9729 Hits
Out of all the stories of small indie record labels that vanished almost without a trace, none screams more for a cinematic representation than the Bandit label out of Chicago. Founder Arrow Brown was more than just a producer and visionary, he was like a polygamous cult leader, who lived with with his singers, who he referred to as his daughters, all in the studio and label HQ.
10542 Hits
Antena was a French trio whose adoration for Brazilian samba/pop combined with a mastery of synths and guitars could easily be sited for the blueprint of Pizzicato Five or Stereolab, however, in 1982 the audience simply wasn't there. Numero Group issued this collection featuring their 1982 mini LP Camio del Sol in 2004, expanded to include tracks from other singles and compilations originally issued on Les Disques du Crépuscule, and now LTM, the primary label issuing the old Crépuscule and Factory Benelux catalogue has issued their own version boasting two more tunes.
7925 Hits
