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monade, "a few steps more"

Duophonic (UK) / Too Pure (US)
Despite being the first album with a full band lineup, the whimsical,laid-back sound of Stereolab singer Laetitia Sadier's Monade remainsintact. No longer recorded in her bedroom, these 12 melodies wererecorded on location in France at their Instant Zero studios.
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4310 Hits

SUNBURNED HAND OF THE MAN

This disc reissues a live LP from Sunburned Hand of the Man that wasoriginally released in 2003 in a small edition that was immediatelysnatched up by collectors. It is part of a trio of digital reissues oflimited live LPs by the Wabana label (the other two are from AcidMothers Temple and Wolf Eyes), all of which come packaged in genericpurple digipacks with a skull on the back and a clear sticker on thefront.
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6651 Hits

ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE, "BORN TO BE WILD IN THE U.S.A."

This was originally issued on LP in a run of 1000 copies, released tocommemorate the Acid Mother Temple's tour of America in the year 2000.Wabana's digital reissue in the generic purple digipack reproduces theexact same tracklist as the original, with no extras: just five tracksexcerpted from live shows at various venues across the land of the(mostly) free.
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4642 Hits

WOLF EYES, "FUCK PETE LARSEN"

This particularly cruel, sustained assault on the senses was originally issued in a run of 600 LPs in 2002. After listening to Fuck Pete Larsenthrough several times on headphones, then on my stereo cranked up loudenough to scare the entire apartment building and prompt a police call,I've come to the conclusion that it's probably not a good idea to pissoff Wolf Eyes the way Pete Larsen must have.
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5632 Hits

Judee Sill, "Dreams Come True"

After the great digital reissues of Judee Sill's legendary pair of 1970s albums on Rhino Handmade last year, and the superb vinyl facsimile editions on 4 Men With Beards, the Water label puts the icing on the cake with this outstanding double-disc set containing, among other things, Judee's never-before-released third album Dreams Come True.
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9198 Hits

Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-la-la Band, "Horses in the Sky"

Godspeed's caterwauling Efrim pummels out another Silver Mt. Zionrelease complete with an elaborated band name. Each subsequent releaseappends another piece on the original A Silver Mt. Zion appellation.
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4554 Hits

Magnolia Electric Co, "What Comes After the Blues"

Jason Molina seems to be getting all the wrong kind of attention. Pegged as a follower and adherent of any number of past songwriters, Molina's distinct voice and his band's broad musical range often goes ignored in favor of unnecessary name dropping and undeserved, negative comparisons.
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5155 Hits

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, "B-Sides and Rarities"

 The most notable quality of this Bad Seeds retrospective is howincredibly competent and comprehensive it is: with just a coupleexceptions, Cave and company have stuck to including only hard to find,rare, and unreleased material on each disc.
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3484 Hits

Hrvatski, "Irrevocably Overdriven Break Freakout Megamix"

There are nine albums worth of material on this one disc; KeithFullerton Whitman just doesn't bother sticking to any one idea, thereare too many new places to go for that. The Hrvatski debut forEntschuldigen records is 91 songs in 40 minutes.
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3782 Hits

The Angels of Light, "Sing Other People"

Followers of Michael Gira's storied career might have anticipated his latest work with The Angels of Light as a natural reduction of his emotional approach to songwriting to its most basic form.

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3107 Hits

LCD SOUNDSYSTEM, "YR CITY'S A SUCKER"

The third platter of stinky, petroleum-derived vinyl recently releasedon the painfully hip DFA label is this one from LCD Soundsystem. JamesMurphy's pet project has elicited some amazing, epochal dance singlesin the past—I'm thinking here of "Losing My Edge," "Yeah" and "BeatConnection"—which is why his long-awaited LP released earlier this yearon EMI could not help but come as something of a disappointment.
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6679 Hits

Roots Manuva, "Awfully Deep"

After releasing 2001's Run Come Save Me and its 2002 companion Dub Come Save Meto universal acclaim in the UK and deafening silence in the US, RodneySmith (as his mother calls him) has reportedly suffered several nervousor mental breakdowns, spent time in a psychiatric hospital at thebequest of his label, and nearly walked away from the music industryforever.
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3467 Hits

"Wasted: 2 Nights of Breakcore in Berlin, Feb 4th and 5th, 2005"

This all-star lineup delivers sensory overload of the most pleasurable variety. Wastedreflects compilers Pure and, especially, Jason Forrest's aesthetic of200+ BPM breakcore mayhem and silliness. These tracks pack so muchaudio information into each measure that it's truly overwhelming. Manyof these jokesters keep up the breakneck pace for the entirety of theirtracks. Terminal 11's "Blow It Out Yer Fuck" deals out drumrolls thatconnect in the same way as fists repeatedly hitting a punching bag atrapid speed.

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4093 Hits

Koda, "Movements"

M. Derrick's ten compositions on this record easily qualifies as someof the most relaxing music I've ever had the pleasure of hearing. Tentracks have separate names, but Movementscomes together as one cohesive picture built from shining strings andwarm, enveloping tones.
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4090 Hits

Marsen Jules, "Herbstlaub"

This new effort from Martin Juhls under the name "Marsen Jules" is apleasant meditation on plant life that easily reflects its intendedsubject matter without offering much commentary along the way.
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5824 Hits

25 Suaves, "I Want it Loud"

Not a single thing about this metal trio is particularly distinct ororiginal, but somehow that just doesn't matter. Peter Larson, FumieKawasaki, and Dave Sahijdak churn out destructive and catchy riffs witha powerful delivery, sticking to the straight and narrow path burnedopen years ago by other well-known guitar wizards and drunken partyfreaks.
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3823 Hits

out hud, "let us never speak of it again"

Though they are inevitably described as the weird, Funkadelic-stylelittle sister band to !!!'s Parliament, ever since the release of2002's Street Dad,Out Hud have always seemed like their own entity.
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4757 Hits

A Frames, "Black Forest"

Why does it seem to be necessary to remove any affection or humanemotion from a musical composition in order to sound modern orfuturistic? As of yet, the future isn't composed of robots or oiledhearts (well, ok...) and there's nothing particularly appealing aboutthis record's aversion to personal feeling or even soul. Lars Finberg,Erin Sullivan, and Min Yee play a distinctly steel and automatic brandof music marked by some ultra-repetitive drumming patterns and melodiesthat are pumped out monotonously and monophonically one after anotheron the bass and six-string.
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3346 Hits

AFX, "ANALORD 01-05"

Richard D. James may have made the most clever move of his entire,inconsistent career with the release of this series of twelve 12" vinylEPs. Only the first five are available as of this writing, but it isalready obvious that the grinning, tank-driving egotist is producingmusic that is unashamedly and resolutely anachronistic, kitschy andretrograde.
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6067 Hits

Dälek , "Absence"

Absence is the heaviest hitting release to date from hip hop'sloudest collective. For the first time, the words come close tomatching the sounds in weight. According to the eponymous frontman, therecord is a statement on hometown Newark, NJ, and suffice to say itwon't be promoted by the Chamber of Commerce.
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5591 Hits