Give Me Take You

2008 year-end list in the works, until then another update of releases to buy or be curious about.  

MODE

CARDEW, CORNELIUS: Treatise (Prague Version, 1967) 2CD (MODE 205CD) 25.00 Featured work: “Treatise (Live Recording, Prague 1967).” Performed by: QUaX Ensemble (Petr Kotik, Director). “This performance of Cardew’s monumental 193-page graphic score ‘Treatise’ was recorded live in Prague in 1967 by the Czech QUaX Ensemble, directed by composer/flutist/conductor Petr Kotik. This historical recording offers a unique perspective to hear ‘Treatise’ as interpreted by Cardew’s contemporaries. Kotik met Cardew in Warsaw in 1962, and they began exchanging scores by mail, including ‘Treatise,’ which was a work in progress. Upon meeting again in London (1966), Cardew provided Kotik with additional portions of the score and insights. Fresh from this encounter, Kotik started the QUaX Ensemble upon his return to Prague in 1966. The first thing QUaX did was to rehearse ‘Treatise,’ working through the pages Kotik had: ‘The piece was very important for getting all of us together, musically speaking, besides having a lot of fun working out individual pages by having all the musicians contribute ideas and suggestions. We worked regularly over a long period of time, ending up with a 2-hour version of the piece — only performed once, at the concert on October 15, 1967 in Prague.’ It is presented here. Cardew said: ”Treatise’ is a continuous weaving and combining of a host of graphic elements (of which only a few are recognizably related to musical symbols) into a long visual composition, the meaning of which in terms of sound is not specified in any way. Any number of musicians using any media are free to participate in a ‘reading’ of this score, and each is free to interpret it in his own way.’ Liner notes by Petr Kotik and Cardew’s friend and colleague John Tilbury. Tilbury says of this performance: ‘There is much to admire in this 1967 version of ‘Treatise’ by the QUaX Ensemble from Prague: the feeling of spontaneity, its uninhibitedness, the rough-hewn sounds, the accidental, the half-intended, the blurred.’ High resolution 96khz, 24-bit remastering from the original analog tape.”

RCA

FRIENDSOUND: Joyride LP (LSP 4114LP) 11.00 Exact repro reissue; originally issued on RCA in 1969. This is a true classic curio in the RCD catalog, with a look signifying a shared attitude with early Jefferson Airplane — is an experimental free-jam LP with real musique concrete zonk… Officially the group was made up of ex-members of Paul Revere & The Raiders — Drake Levin, Phil Volk & Michael Smith — who had formed a group called Brotherhood who released two albums for RCA. In between those two releases, the trio teamed up with a few session musicians as Friendsound, releasing Joyride. This record isn’t as good as After Bathing at Baxter’s — because, frankly, nothing is. But it’s got the same spirit and a lot of the same effects — swiped a year and a half later. A tribute? Or just an annoyance to JA (who could never realistically follow up Baxter’s?? If you want acid rambling about rhubarb pie, this record delivers in spades. Why it exists, or why it has been reissued — the mystery continues.

COLD BLUE MUSIC
	LENTZ, DANIEL: Point Conception CD (CB 028CD) 13.00 Featured works: “Point Conception (for nine pianos);” “NightBreaker (for four pianos).” Performed by: Arlene Dunlap (piano), Bryan Pezzone (piano). “Point Conception is Lentz’s wild nine-piano tribute to the octave. It amasses and bubbles over with incessant streams of octaves (harmonic and melodic) that run the length of the keyboard. Through a ‘cascading echo system,’ long-time Lentz Ensemble pianist Arlene Dunlap performs all of its parts. Presented with ‘Point Conception’ is Lentz’s previously unrecorded ‘NightBreaker,’ a kaleidoscopic and explosive tour de force for four pianos. An exciting roller-coaster of a work, it ambles, jumps, careens, pauses, and flings itself forward. Through overdubbing, noted Los Angeles pianist Bryan Pezzone performs all of ‘NightBreaker”s parts. Both pieces revel in and comment on the conventions of late-19th-century harmony and harmonic motion.”
	SMITH, CHAS: Nakadai CD (CB 029CD) 13.00 “Nakadai, which KPFA Folio/Other Minds Radio called ‘one of the most explosive LPs of the ’80s,’ is a set of five works that offer a catalog of musical ‘waves’ — from ripples to tsunamis. It features Smith playing pedal steel guitar solo, overdubbed, and with a mallet percussion quartet made up of Bob Fernandez, John Fitzgerald, M.B. Gordy, and Theresa Knight. This first CD reissue of Nakadai allows today’s listeners to hear prototypical Smith — music composed when his present style was in its nascent state. In addition to the original Nakadai tracks, this release includes two ‘bonus’ tracks: 2008′s evocative ‘The Ghosts on the Windows’ and 1991′s ‘Joaquin Murphey,’ a tribute to the legendary pedal steel guitarist of the same name.”
	ROBERTS, CHRISTOPHER: Trios For Deep Voices CD (CB 030CD)13.00 Performed by Christopher Roberts (double bass), Mark Morton (double bass), James Bergman (double bass). “The five trios that comprise this work evoke — sometimes directly, sometimes indirectly — the composer’s experiences of the life and sounds he found in the mountain jungles of Papua, New Guinea. Some of this music came to Roberts in his dreams while living there. The third movement, ‘Kon Burunemo’ (‘trembling leaf’) was written in memory of the extraordinary bassist and teacher, David Walter. The composer writes about Trios For Deep Voices: ‘In 1981, I ran off to the jungles of Papua, New Guinea to study the natural prosody of music. I lived with the people of the Star Mountains and introduced them to my double bass, while they introduced me to their songs. I took part in drumbeat initiations and listened to the sound of hornbills in flight. I was overwhelmed. I had a dream in which I moved my bow across the strings of the bass in an entirely new way that recreated the drums, and the hornbills’ wings, and the voices of the people whose every song tells a story. The sounds in New Guinea and their constant shaping and recurrence hit me right away as a deep signature of a place, the way the water moved through its gorges, the tone of the insects, the way people there would sing, and the particular choruses of the birds. In fact, I cannot imagine the vocal music without the environment surrounding, as my house was as open as a woven basket, and the sounds of the rivers and insects followed the cycle of day and night, drought or deluge. To remember songs, I stand near streams. The Trios describe being in New Guinea, as the strings of a bass would tell it. Hearing the hornbills in a mist-shrouded forest moving across the unseen world just above you — the atmosphere of being outside at dusk with the insects screaming and the water rushing — initiation ceremony music, when men as “hornbills” beating only taro enter the ritual house to become “birds of paradise” and emerge beating actual drums. In the composition of music, I work with the medium of a written score, and the natural idiomatic way of a given instrument, following the technical inclinations of resonant strings . Over time, over years, the impressions, the motifs most resilient in improvisation and memory unfold their stories to me in a developing variation proportionately whorled like some sort of topography across the score paper. The first trio describes the initiation, and what it was like to be there in it. The harmonic lyric contours describe the echo of the initiates singing as they approached the ritual house at a dead run straight up the mountain. [In the booklet] my photos of the houses up in the Star Mountains evoke every sensation of being there, where you would be if you were singing in the way of the slow movements. Some trios begin as lone preambles, and all are gathered into contemporary chamber music forms that I could relate to my friends.’”

DRAG CITY
	ROYAL TRUX: Twin Infinitives 2LP (DC 003LP) 20.00 First vinyl pressing of Twin Infinitives since the original LP issue in December 1990. Gatefold sleeve. “Neil Hagerty: We wanted to let things happen. I took all the tapes I had: rehearsals, studio stuff that survived, other random shit like shortwave recording etc and cut that together in a long collage. Then I broke that into short segments arbitrarily, about the length of a good rock song. We dumped those segments onto multitrack, called them songs, and just started putting little patchwork bits here and there for the next year and a half or whatever it was.”
	ROYAL TRUX: Royal Trux LP (DC 005LP) 16.00 “First vinyl pressing since the original 1988 Royal Records LP issue. First time on Drag City.”

DUSTY GROOVE

MCNEIR, RONNIE: Ronnie McNeir CD (DGA 3020CD) 12.00 “The first album from Detroit soul genius Ronnie McNeir — a ’70s mellow masterpiece all the way through! The record’s an incredible blend of electric piano, soulful vocals, and flowing rhythms — an amazing accomplishment for the young Ronnie, and a record that we’d rank right up there with ’70s classics by Stevie Wonder, Leroy Hutson, and Donny Hathaway. Bits of dialogue are interspersed with some of the tracks, making the set a really unified full-length effort — not just a batch of groovers and ballads, but a well-conceived album that’s quite unique. McNeir’s vocals are wonderful — powerful, yet very personal, too — and his keyboard work really supports the album’s righteous vibe. Hardly a hit in 1972, the record’s ripe for rediscovery these many decades later — years ahead of its time, and finally getting its due! First time on CD — and never reissued on vinyl.”

EREBUS RECORDS (UK)
	GEDO: Gedo CD (EREBUS 002CD) 19.00 “Superb limited edition card digipak containing 4-page booklet with band info and photos. Gedo’s first and self-titled album from 1974 was recorded live and is mostly hard rock with some psychedelic touches. A good mix of old-style rock’n'roll and heavier high-energy guitar rock with the occasional lighter, almost morose moment. A furious ‘Born To Be Wild’ rush of proto-Ramones. Gedo is a trio led by the charismatically androgynous guitarist/vocalist Hideto Kanoh, ex-The M, Masayuki Aoki ex-Too Much (bass) and Ryoichi Nakano (drums). Gedo had a big biker following and were a very popular act at the festivals that were a major feature of 1970s Japan rock culture. This album features at number 30 in Julian Cope’s Japrocksampler Top 50.”
	KAWACHI & FRIENDS, KUNI: Kirikyogen CD (EREBUS 021CD) 17.00 “After the release of the Challenge album in 1969 by the proto Flower Travellin’ Band, Yuya Uchida brought in Kuni Kawachi, organist and leader of The Happenings Four. They spent the early part of 1970 putting together a series of recordings which were very melodic, but psychedelic and strung-out. This project surfaced as Kirikyogen by Kuni Kawachi & Friends, after the demise of The Flower Travellin’ Band. Julian Cope rates Kirikyogen at number 25 in his top 50 Jap rock albums of all time: ‘An entire album of classic songs, featuring the aforementioned Flower Gods in pole positions throughout. (Akira ‘Joe’ Yamanaka on lead vocal and Hideki Ishima on guitar). Moreover an early version of Flower’s non-LP single ‘Map’ lurks within, hiding behind the title ‘Music Composed Mainly By Humans.’ While dry, spaced-out and highly original hard rocking ballads occupy side one, side two is possessed of a hitherto unseen acoustic side of Hideki Ishima’s playing in the highly catchy ‘Graveyard Of Love,’ ‘Classroom For Women’ and the late Velvets-styled ‘Scientific Investigation.’ And while Joe’s tonsils never get the same rigorous overhauling that his Flower cohorts demand, even his most gentle contributions herein showcase ‘that’ voice to perfection.’”
	YONIN BAYASHI: Ishoku-Sokuhatsu CD (EREBUS 025CD) 17.00 “Yonin Bayashi made its studio album debut with Ishoku-Sokuhatsu in 1974, when all of the members were 20. Their virtuoso performances and experimentation in the studio were exceptional and impressive at the dawn of the Japanese rock business. The sound was a mixture of Pink Floyd, Yes, Deep Purple or Frank Zappa with Hendrix-esque guitar and Procol Harum-like drumming. Yonin Bayashi broke up in 1979. Julian Cope rated Ishoku-Sokuhatsu at number 49 in his top 50 Jap rock albums of all time: ‘From mock Italian harmonies and bossanova rhythms, they’ll thrust straight into pure Van der Graaf Generator as played by the first Alice Cooper band, then off into some American guitar epic treks, perhaps with a 13/8 moment thrown in for good measure. This album is progressive pop music in a similar manner to that of solo Todd Rundgren or even the Zombies’ experimental LP Odyssey & Oracle.’”
	HAPPY END: Happy End CD (EREBUS 027CD) 17.00 “Presented here is Happy End’s eponymous first album that was originally released in 1970 on URC. Happy End was a Japanese folk rock band which existed between 1970 and 1973. The band’s pioneering avant-garde sound is highly revered, and they are considered to be one of the most influential bands in Japanese music. In fact, Happy End is listed at number 4 in HMV Japan’s list of the top 100 Japanese popular artists of all time! Happy End was formed by ex-Apryl Fool’s Haruomi Hosono and Takashi Matsumoto and after its demise, Hosono went on to form the Yellow Magic Orchestra. Unlike most contemporary Japanese bands of the time, Happy End also refused to sweeten their albums with scatterings of Western rock covers, even presenting their songs in the Japanese language. Happy End’s music is most reminiscent of soft rock such as Wheatfield Soul-period Guess Who, a slightly heavier CSN&Y and Badfinger.”
	KAPLAN BROTHERS, THE: Nightbird CD (EREBUS 041CD) 17.00 “The ultimate lounge-rock extravaganza. A self-proclaimed ‘electric symphony’ that mixes Ennio Morricone with King Crimson as recorded by a Holiday Inn/bar mitzvah band from outer space. Crooner vocals soar on top of overly-elaborate keyboard arrangements as the music abruptly throws you from one intense mood into another in true psychedelic fashion. No ideas are discarded as the meaning of life unfolds in glitzy Z-grade fashion — if there’s a bad, cheesy move to be made, they’ll go for it. These guys probably thought they’d made the greatest LP of all time, and in a way, I guess it is — even regular folks with no interest in this scene are blown away by the Kaplans’ unsurpassed pretense and lack of reality-checks. Must be heard to be believed, preferably on acid.” –Acid Archives

EM RECORDS (JAPAN)

WICKED WITCH: Chaos: 1978-86 CD (EM 1080CD) 18.00 First-time ever reissue of rare evil psycho machine-funk from ’80s Washington, D.C., including previously-unreleased mixes. Now is not the time to doubt your senses — the Wicked Witch does exist. Born and raised in the musical magical cauldron of Washington D.C., Wicked Witch combines elements from alchemical mentors Parliament Funkadelic, Sun Ra, ESG, Run DMC, James Brown and Jimi Hendrix to cast a crazed spell on the innocent listener. An evil mass of machine-funk with lashings of rhythm and blues and fusion delivered direct from the heart of the Witch, a misunderstood psycho-genius weaving his solo web deep within the dark studio walls. Trained by masters at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, Wicked Witch is in full control; he plays all, knows all, tells all. His message will not be denied. Believe your ears, believe your eyes: the Wicked Witch does indeed exist. First-time ever re-issue, remastered from the original master tapes, including rare photos.

RANDLE, DOUG: Songs For The New Industrial State CD (LITA 034CD) 16.00 “‘A stunning collection of new songs for and about the time we live in,’ billed the text on the backside of composer Doug Randle’s 1971 release, Songs For The New Industrial State. In 2009, the same holds true. Doug was, and still is, a writer, arranger, musician, and conductor with roots deep in the Canadian jazz scene of the 1950s. After a lengthy spell working in England during the first half of the 1960s, he returned to Toronto and took up an in-house position at the government-sanctioned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), where in 1970 he recorded his very own ‘What’s Going On.’ Commercially released by the short-lived Kanata Records label, Songs was an introspective look at ever-dominant corporations, the cutthroat advertising world, our consumer society, decaying environment, and his own personal condition. The results crossed the epic studio creations of David Axelrod’s Capitol output (or Spanish folk-rock fuelled Pride LP) with Free Design vocal harmonies from notable vocalists Tommy Ambrose and Laurie Bower (Billy Van Singers, Mutual Understanding, Laurie Bower Singers). Randle himself describes his long-forgotten efforts as, ‘my bitter and twisted Simon & Garfunkel songs,’ and though the lyrical content is indeed weighty, Songs’ backing tracks successfully merge swinging sunshine pop and atmospheric orchestrations with a groovy backbeat performed by the cream of Toronto’s heralded studio scene (Moe Koffman, Peter Appleyard, Rob McConnell, and Guido Basso, to name a few). It’s an album like you’ve never heard, and one under the radar of even the most dedicated crate-diggers. Songs For The New Industrial State’s much-needed re-release was spearheaded by Canadian music historian and Jamaica-Toronto series producer Kevin Howes (aka Sipreano) and comes replete with OG liner notes from legendary jazz scribe, one-time Downbeat editor, singer, and songwriter Gene Lees, archival images courtesy of Randle, audio taken from the original CBC master tapes, complete lyrics, and stellar art direction courtesy of Vincent Cook (2Step Tokyo, Jamaica-Toronto) that remains faithful to the period issue. In spite of the reductive pop sensibilities and fashion-conscious trends that dominate our modern marketplace, we are ecstatic to reintroduce Songs’ insubordinate cry to a global audience. Let’s all ensure Randle’s lost letter gets read nice and loud on this go-’round.”

NEW WORLD RECORDS

POLANSKY, LARRY: The Theory Of Impossible Melody CD (NW 80684CD) 15.00 Performed by Jody Diamond, Chris Mann (voice); Phil Burk and Larry Polansky (live computers, fretless electric guitars); Robin Hayward (tubas). “Among the lineages of knowledge that Larry Polansky (b. 1954) has woven together in his creative work, as both a composer and theorist, have been mathematics, intonation theory, cybernetics, systems theory, artificial intelligence, musicology (both Western and non-Western), American Sign Language, and Jewish mysticism. He has combined these and many other fields of study together into some of the most important music written by anyone of his generation while retaining status as the composer who is most worthy of being called a true theorist. In many ways, his compositions are themselves injunctive demonstrations of his theoretical insights that stand as critiques of the theoreticism that is now endemic to the art world. This intellectual integrity and facility has also been responsible for one of the most interesting characteristics of Polansky’s compositional output. His music is one of the most successful, and rare, examples of a confluence between two, generally conflicting, 20th century musical streams. Like his mentor, James Tenney — and many other late 20th century experimental masters who were inspired by the aesthetic innovations of Cage — Polansky creates musical expositions of phenomenal reality. Sometimes these are based in psychoacoustic science, and sometimes they are grounded in mathematical formalisms. Sometimes they explore both at once. What he also manages to do — and this is where he succeeds at the above-mentioned confluence — is so often reveal these concepts within an expressive musical frame that is strongly linked to more traditional musical values.”

YAZOO
	VA: The Secret Museum Of Mankind Vol. 1 CD (YAZ 7004CD) 16.00 …Ethnic Music Classics: 1925-48. This series of archival 78 transfers originally came out in 1995. “Compiled here are many of the greatest performances of world and ethnic music ever recorded. This volume represents a trip around the world, stopping at each port to sample one of that country’s finest recordings of its indigenous music. Each of these recordings was captured at a period during the golden age of recording when traditional styles were at their peak of power and emotion. Included inside are extensive notes and beautiful period photographs that work together with the music to communicate an exciting sense of discovery.” “One of the most consistently rewarding world music compilations in years, the cuts range from Macedonian fiddle jaunts to Puerto Rican Christmas tunes, from Abyssinian religious chants to ominous Japanese court music. The instruments include Ukrainian sleigh bells, Sardinian triple pipes, Vietnamese moon lutes and Ethiopian one-string violins…a profound artistry lurks beneath the alien vernaculars.” — Village Voice; Vol. 1 contains music from Nigeria, Sardinia, Russia, Ceylon, Rajahstan, Cuba, Rumania, Vietnam, Macedonia, Morocco, and more. Includes a 15-page booklet with liner notes on each track and photos.
	VA: The Secret Museum Of Mankind Vol. 2 CD (YAZ 7005CD) 16.00 …Ethnic Music Classics: 1925-48. 1995 release. Early 20th century recordings from Bulgaria, Puerto Rico, India, Mozambique, Ukraine, Trinidad, Kazakhstan, Ceylon, Tibet and elsewhere, compiled by archivist Pat Conte. “Contains some of the most simply beautiful performances you’ll ever hear … the material here is almost entirely unself-conscious, culturally uncompromised and solely concerned with being the best version of itself that it can be … this album is designed to dazzle and delight.” –Vibes; Includes a 15-page booklet with liner notes on each track and photos.
	VA: The Secret Museum Of Mankind Vol. 3 CD (YAZ 7006CD) 16.00 …Ethnic Music Classics: 1925-48. 1996 release. “No world music fan should be without these packages which are full of unadulterated, pre-Westernized exotic delights.” –Jazz Times; “A punch-drunk medley of everything from Chinese zither to Spanish bagpipes to Indian seven-string violin to Laotian mouth organ.” –Commercial Appeal. Includes a 15-page booklet with liner notes on each track and photos.
	VA: The Secret Museum Of Mankind Vol. 4 CD (YAZ 7010CD) 16.00 …Ethnic Music Classics: 1925-48. 1997 release. Music from Sweden, Bolivia, Crete, Italy, Madagascar, Pakistan, Kuwait, Albania, Serbia, Hungary and more. “Some of the most intense musical experiences available come from outside the Western musical sphere, and from a time of our ancestors … one of the most fascinating world music series … something akin to a revelation.” –Jazz Times; Includes a 15-page booklet with liner notes on each track and photos.
	VA: The Secret Museum Of Mankind Vol. 5 CD (YAZ 7014CD) 16.00 …Ethnic Music Classics: 1925-48. 1998 release. Music from Peru, Rhodesia, Martinique, Sardinia, Armenia, Syria, Finland, Mississippi and more. “The most captivating repository of exotica … this compilation is a window into a distant past, resuscitating vintage forgotten recordings… like an overwhelming musical atlas.” –Toronto Now; Includes a 15-page booklet with notes on each track and photos.

ALGA MARGHEN (ITALY)

GOLDSTEIN, MALCOLM: Early Electronic/Tape Collage Music LP (MARGHEN 025LP) 27.00 “Alga Marghen proudly presents an LP edition including some of the seminal electronic/tape collage pieces by Malcolm Goldstein, created in close connection to the sulphuric New York pre-Fluxus environment of the early 1960s. The 1960s downtown New York City, rich with activities, doors opening upon a world fertile with possibilities: the delightful unknown. Malcolm Goldstein first worked at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, then joined the Judson Dance Theater with dancers, musicians, poets, and visual artists all interacting in the common ground of improvisation/exploration. Most of the music on this recording was created for the Judson Dance Theater, ‘Sheep Meadow’ (1966), a collage of two musics, folk & court music, was realized on a very cheap single tape recorder that offered its own electronic distortion embellishments. It was created for an anti-war demonstration to be held in that meadow of Central Park, with a dancer on top of a flat-bed truck and with loudspeakers. ‘Images Of Cheng Hsieh’ (1967) was for a dance by Carol Marcy at Judson Church, simultaneously with an instrumental ensemble performing from the calligraphic graphic score, with the name of Cheng Hsieh. ‘It Seemed To Me’ (1963) was composed for a dance by Arlene Rothlein; a collage of traditional musics chosen by her to be incorporated with electronic sounds. ‘Judson #6 Piece’ (1963) was for Ruth Emerson, using only electronic sounds. Finally ‘Illuminations From Fantastic Gardens’ (1964), the only composition for a vocal ensemble on this recording, was composed for Elaine Summers’ ‘An Evening of Fantastic Gardens,’ a multi-media event of dance, music, film and visual projections, as part of the Judson Dance Theater concerts. It is the first music notated by Malcolm Goldstein with graphic renditions of the words of Rimbaud and without traditional music notation. Two performers were trained singers, while the others were a visual artist and an actor; two women & two men, all in the spirit of the times, sources coming together, as art & life blended in an overflowing of exploration. Edition limited to 350 copies, also including a 12-page large booklet with the reproduction of the complete ‘Illuminations From Fantastic Gardens’ graphic score.”

DUST-TO-DIGITAL

VA: Art Of Field Recording Volume II 4CD BOX (DTD 012CD) 60.00 Subtitled: Fifty Years of Traditional American Music Documented by Art Rosenbaum. This is volume 2 of Dust-to-Digital’s robust and highly-acclaimed Art of Field Recording series, assembled by esteemed archivist Art Rosenbaum. This impressive 4CD set includes ballads, blues, spirituals, work songs and slave songs, religious singing and other traditional folk music from Georgia, Arkansas, Texas, Florida and elsewhere. Housed in a 10″x10″x10″ color cardboard box containing a 96-page perfect-bound book with over 100 illustrations and photographs, and four CDs with a total of 107 tracks. Founded by Lance Ledbetter in 1999, Dust-to-Digital’s mission is to produce high quality cultural artifacts which combine rare, essential recordings with historic images and detailed texts describing the artists and their works. Art is a painter, a muralist, and an illustrator, as well as a collector and performer of traditional American folk music. He has been collecting and studying traditional American music for over 50 years. His focus covers Appalachian banjo tunes and ballads, Southern and Midwestern fiddle tunes, blues and spirituals. Rosenbaum began seeking out traditional performers while in his teens, rediscovering and recording the great blues guitarist Scrapper Blackwell and fiddler John W. Summers, both in his then-home state of Indiana. His fieldwork has produced archival material in the Indiana University Folklore Archives, the University of Georgia Libraries and the Archives of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. His Art of Field Recording Vol. I was nominated for an Award for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research from the Association for Recorded Sound Collections. “Rosenbaum is a folk revivalist of the old school. He believes that traditional ballads, blues, spirituals, and fiddle tunes are among the glories of American culture, and he wanted to help preserve and disseminate them. Ledbetter, forty years younger, was less interested in preservation than in inspiration — the best he could do for folk music, Ledbetter seemed to feel, was to research, remaster, and repackage it as beautifully as possible to make the old songs seem new again.” –The New Yorker, “The Last Verse: Is there any folk music still out there?”

ELICA (ITALY)

FERRARI, LUC: Presque Rien Avec Luc Ferrari DVD (ELICA 4290DVD) 19.00 “The first DVD release on Elica is a beautiful 50-minute portrait of composer Luc Ferrari made by his friend Jacqueline Caux with Olivier Pascal, which is fully informative and acutely representative of Ferrari’s spirit. Featuring Elise Caron, as Luc Ferrari and herself, and Luc Ferrari, as himself only, going through archive documentation, intriguing dialogues, invented autobiographies, music performances, evocative installations, sidewalk accidents, encounters with sound-sculptor Christof Schläger and electro musician eRikm, etc. Documenting the work of one of the most groundbreaking and seductive composers of the 20th century, this film also shows Luc Ferrari’s ‘extremely libertarian personality: his spontaneity, his inclination towards hedonism and sensuality, his curious and open character, his rejection of all kind of power and of all stable position within institutions, his pronounced taste for games, his sense of self-derision and his ferocious refusal of all dogmatism.’ Jacqueline Caux is a writer, film-maker and organizer of live events, who is the author of the essential interview book with Luc Ferrari (same title as the film) as well as books on Anne Halprin and Louise Bourgeois, and is the author of several experimental films and remarkable documentaries, which include the highly-acclaimed Detroit: The Cycle of The Mental Machine on Detroit techno and a brand new film on the performance of Ferrari’s ‘Symphonie Dechirée.’ Olivier Pascal has collaborated, among others, with film-director Claude Duty. Original French version with English subtitles; NTSC region-free DVD in large format digipak cover with notes in French and English by Jacqueline Caux.”

ROBOT

FERRARI, LUC: Archives Génétiquement Modifiées/Société II CD (ROBOT 039CD) 16.00 “Robot Records is honored and pleased to present two historic compositions for the first time on CD by the late, great Luc Ferrari. The programme opens with ‘Archives Génétiquement Modifiées’ (Genetically Modified Archives), a work for ‘memorized sounds’ from 2000. This composition (subtitled: ‘Exploitation des Concepts No. 3′) was the third in a series of later pieces in which Mr. Ferrari revisited aspects of his early concepts and compositional strategies to create wholly new works. The result here is a very bizarre, sensual, and beautifully-paced electroacoustic work of aural memories and (re)collections created by Mr. Ferrari utilizing sounds from his vast archive of musical activities. After a short intermission, the program continues with a true highlight of Mr. Ferrari’s early instrumental work entitled ‘Société II’ from 1967. Subtitled: ‘Et Si Le Piano Était Un Corps De Femme’/'And If The Piano Were The Body Of A Woman’ (for 4 soloists and 16 instruments), this composition appeared opposite ‘Presque Rien’ on the legendary Deutsche Grammophon LP. ‘Société II’ may be viewed as an erotically-charged piece of musical theater where the soloists ‘compete’ for the attention of a woman (the piano). This concerto, with its gestures and a fantastic kaleidoscope of styles and color, shows the extravagant qualities of the piano in its ‘harmony, imagination, and brutality.’ Packaged in a full-color digipak with a 20-page bilingual (French/English) booklet featuring Mr. Ferrari’s early artwork, notations, and program notes, along with an extensive commentary by Jim O’Rourke and Jay Sanders. Remastered sound with audio restoration by fellow INA GRM alumnus, Jean Schwarz. A wonderful glimpse into the world of one of the most legendary, unique, and inspiring musical figures of the 20th century.”

CHANGE RECORDS

PRAN NATH, PANDIT: Earth Groove: The Voice Of Cosmic India LP (CHANGE 033LP) 14.00 Gray-area reissue of the first Western LP release from Indian vocalist Pandit Pran Nath. Originally issued on the Douglas label in the U.S., in 1968. “Classic, late ’60s performance by the master of Indian vocal music. Two sidelong pieces grace this record. A morning raga and an evening raga. Vocals with sitar and tabla accompaniment. Not easy listening by any means, but rewarding in the end.”

ACME (UK)
	HOWELL & JOHN FERDINANDO, PETER: Alice Through The Looking Glass LP (H&F 001LP) 26.00 “For the first time ever, here’s a vinyl reissue of the mega-rare and legendary UK acid-folk private pressing from 1969. At the time, only a handful of copies were pressed, and so, as an original, this is a £1500-plus top of the league rarity! This official reissue has come from the original masters and directly transferred by Peter Howell himself from the original machine that recorded the album and comes with an exact reproduction of the original album sleeve for the very first time since 1969! A strictly limited edition of 500 copies only on deluxe DMM vinyl, shrinkwrapped and stickered.”
	TOMORROW COME SOMEDAY: Original Soundtrack LP (SNP 097LP)26.00 “For the first time ever, here’s an official reissue of Peter Howell/John Ferdinando’s soundtrack of the film Tomorrow Come Someday from 1970. Like Alice, only a handful of copies were made back then, and this is now a £1000-plus mega bucks item. From the musicians who made the legendary Agincourt and Ithaca albums, here is the second album that this duo made. The short film was given a limited release at the time, and the folk flavor throughout the soundtrack feature male and female vocals. This superb reissue has come from the original master tapes, directly transferred by Peter Howell himself from the original machine that recorded the album! A strictly limited edition of 500 copies only on deluxe DMM vinyl, shrinkwrapped and stickered.”

SWEET DANDELION (UK)
	SOM IMAGINARIO: Som Imaginario LP (SWDDL 713LP) 29.00 “Som Imaginário’s 1970 debut is one of the most acclaimed albums from that era in Brazil, for those who know it. Even upon its release, it drew the attention of international stars such as Herbie Hancock. As Tropicalist as Os Mutantes, and as psychedelic as Modulo 1000, this will be one of your favorites from the moment you listen to it. The album is full of psychedelic effects and pounding beats, all blended with traditional Brazilian styles like samba and bossanova, and with that special magic that music out of this country has. Finally reissued in vinyl, this is the key to completing your Brazilian psych collection. Limited to 500 copies, with remastered sound and preserving the original artwork.”
	THEM: Them LP (SWDDL 714LP) 29.00 “After the departure of Van Morrison, the legendary Them reformed in the U.S. where they released a couple of albums for Tower as well as a bunch of singles. In 1970, with only bassist Jerry Cole left from the original formation, they recorded this rare album for the money-laundering label Happy Tiger. Allegedly counting on contributions by guitarist Ry Cooder and well-known composer/producer Jack Nitzsche (whose worked with the Rolling Stones, Phil Spector, Neil Young and many others), this album is, in our opinion, the best of Them’s American output. With a much rawer sound than their psych-pop Tower efforts, here you’ll find snotty garage-punk, waves of fuzz, strong vocals and pounding drum breaks (just listen to the opening track!), with a style ranging from garage punk to trippy psychedelia, a spoonful of Eastern music and a brief hint of country (‘Take A Little Time’). Limited to 500 copies, with remastered sound and preserving the original artwork.”
	ZOMBIES, THE: Begin Here LP (SWDDL 715LP) 29.00 “No need to introduce them — nobody will disagree that The Zombies are one of the seminal bands from the ’60s. Before their pop-psych masterpiece Odyssey & Oracle, containing ‘Time of the Season,’ a worldwide hit still known to younger audiences today through numerous TV spots, in 1964, they released their debut album Begin Here as a follow-up to their hit single She’s Not There. The record is a perfect showcase of the Zombies’ unique early style combining R&B, beat and even a hint of jazz. Every track here is a winner. 14 perfectly-executed compositions by 5 dedicated musicians. It’s really hard to describe such one-of-a-kind music, but let’s just say, if we had to burn all our records and save only five of them, this would stay on the shelf. Now reissued on vinyl after many years of being unavailable. Get it now, before you need to wait another decade! Limited to 500 copies, with remastered sound and preserving the original artwork.”

HARMONIA MUNDI (FRANCE)

LIGETI/HEPPENER: Lux Aeterna CD (HMC 901985) 20.00 “Both György Ligeti and Dutch composer Robert Heppener belong to the generation born in the 1920s that formed the basis for the post-war avant-garde. The 1966 premiere of Ligeti’s Lux Aeterna (now best known from its use by Stanley Kubrick in his film 2001: A Space Odyssey) marked nothing short of the birth of a new musical language. His later ‘Sonata For Solo Viola’ simultaneously evokes the polyphony of the 14th century and certain varieties of ethnic music. Written in the 1990s, it continues to emphasize complex mechanical rhythms, but in a less densely chromatic idiom. Heppener’s ‘Im Gestein,’ a cycle of lieder to poems by Paul Celan that won Heppener the Matthijs Vermeulen Prize in 1993, is here recorded for the first time.”

NEW WORLD RECORDS
	JOSEL, SETH: The Stroke That Kills CD (NW 80661CD) 15.00 Performed by Seth Josel on electric guitar, electric bass. Works by Eve Beglarian, Alvin Curran, David Dramm, Michael Fiday, Tom Johnson, and Gustavo Matamoros. “Over the past twenty-plus years, Seth Josel has established himself as a leader in helping to shape the electric guitar’s burgeoning future as a ‘classical’ instrument. This album is a statement not only of his artistry as a performer, but also as a curator of new music for the guitar. The six pieces on this recording demonstrate a variety of means and approaches spanning the reified electric flamenco of David Dramm to the sound-art abstractions of Gustavo Matamoros. David Dramm’s (b. 1961) ‘The Stroke That Kills’ (1993) is rooted in the fierce rhythmic strumming of the flamenco style, but its translation to the electric guitar propels the music to a harder, more vicious place. Michael Fiday’s (b. 1961) ‘Slapback’ (1997) is inspired by a live recording of The Who in which the guitarist Pete Townsend plays a duet with himself as his sound echoes off the arena wall. In ‘Slapback,’ the guitar performance –heard in the right stereo channel — is repeated, by means of an electronic delay unit, one eighth-note later in the left stereo channel. Like ‘Slapback,’ Eve Beglarian’s (b. 1958) ‘Until It Blazes’ (2001) utilizes an electronic delay to augment the guitarist’s performance, but unlike in the Fiday, Beglarian’s use of echo does not create a separate contrapuntal line. Rather, it helps create a soundspace in which the delay effect promotes a sense of ambient depth and a more subtle sense of syncopation. Tom Johnson’s (b. 1939) ‘Canon For Six Guitars’ (1998) is a process piece where rigorous adherence to its initial conditions of pitch and rhythm ultimately produces something of a commentary on itself. The idea of building a composition around a formalized exploration of the guitar as a harmonic medium is also taken up by Alvin Curran (b. 1938) in ‘Strum City’ (1999). The first movement is relatively straightforward and presents a long series of chords, not unlike a chorale, through the aural gauze of the strum. While ‘Strum City”s first movement is uncritically and unabashedly strum-centric, the second and third movements break apart the strum’s dual temporal nature, each focusing on one of the strum’s dual aspects. Gustavo Matamoros’s (b. 1957) ‘Stoned Guitar’ (2005) comprises two separate sub-pieces: ‘Stoned Guitar’ and ‘TIG Welder.’ ‘TIG Welder’ is a recording of the eponymous device that is played simultaneously with the performance of the ‘Stoned Guitar’ score. The balance between guitar and recording is determined by means of external electronics as stipulated by the composer.”
	MUSICA ELETTRONICA VIVA: MEV 40 (1967-2007) 4CD (NW 80675CD) 60.00 A fourty-year overview on 4 sprawling CDs. MEV were and still are: Alvin Curran, Frederic Rzewski, Richard Teitelbaum, Karl Berger, Allan Bryant, Steve Lacy, George Lewis, Garrett List, Carol Plantamura, Gregory Reeve, Ivan Vandor. “Musica Elettronica Viva (MEV) was begun one evening in the spring of 1966 by Allan Bryant, Alvin Curran, Jon Phetteplace, Carol Plantamura, Frederic Rzweski, Richard Teitelbaum and Ivan Vandor in a room in Rome overlooking the Pantheon. MEV’s music right from the start was also totally open, allowing all and everything to come in and seeking in every way to get out beyond the heartless conventions of contemporary music. Taking its cue from Tudor and Cage, MEV began sticking contact mics to anything that sounded and amplified their raw sounds: bed springs, sheets of glass, tin cans, rubber bands, toy pianos, sex vibrators, and assorted metal junk; a crushed old trumpet, cello and tenor sax kept us within musical credibility, while a home-made synthesizer of some 48 oscillators along with the first Moog synthesizer in Europe gave our otherwise neo-primitive sound an inimitable edge. In the name of the collectivity, the group abandoned both written scores and leadership and replaced them with improvisation and critical listening. Rehearsals and concerts were begun at the appropriate time by a kind of spontaneous combustion and continued until total exhaustion set in. It mattered little who played what when or how, but the fragile bond of human trust that linked us all in every moment remained unbroken. The music could go anywhere, gliding into self-regenerating unity or lurching into irrevocable chaos — both were valuable goals. In the general euphoria of the times, MEV thought it had re-invented music; in any case it had certainly rediscovered it.” –Alvin Curran. “This 4CD set, covering the years 1967-2007, comprises the best surviving recorded documents from four decades of performances, personally curated by its three core members — Alvin Curran, Frederic Rzewski, and Richard Teitelbaum. As such, it is an invaluable historical anthology of one of the pioneering and truly legendary exponents of live-electronic music.” Features: “SpaceCraft” (1967), “Stop The War” (1972), “Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Pts. 1 & 2″ (1982), “Kunstmuseum, Bern” (1990), “New Music America Festival” (1989), “Ferrara, Italy” (2002), “Mass. Pike” (2007).

BASTA (NETHERLANDS)
	VA: Anthology Of Dutch Electronic Tape Music, Volume 1 1955-1966 2CD (BASTA 9182) 22.00 “The two-volume Anthology of Dutch Electronic Tape Music was originally released in the late 1970s on limited edition vinyl by the Donemus Composers’ Voice label. Compiled by electronica pioneer Dick Raaijmakers, the series offered an authoritative survey of electronic tape music composed in the Netherlands from 1955 to 1977. Those LPs are long out of print and highly sought by collectors. Basta has now reissued this historic series on CD. In 2004, Basta collaborated with NEAR (the Nederlands Elektro-Akoestisch Repertoirecentrum) and Donemus on Popular Electronics: Early Dutch Electronic Music from Philips Research Laboratories. This 4CD boxed set with seven booklets presented vintage tape music recorded from 1956 to 1963 by Dutch composers Dick Raaijmakers (aka Kid Baltan), Tom Dissevelt, and Henk Badings. In Holland, as in other countries, electronic music produced up to 1966 was often prepared for concerts. After 1966, electronic music expanded as advanced computer technology was developed, live electronic music received more attention, electronic music was accorded a place in conservatory and university curricula, and private studios were set up by and for groups of improvising musicians. Therefore 1966-1967, a pivotal period in the history of Dutch electronic music, marks the dividing line of these collections. Volume 1 includes tape music from 1955 to 1966, and Volume 2 documents tape music from the ‘open studios’ from 1966 to 1977. The new Anthology reissues were compiled from the original source tape recordings, which have been well-preserved and meticulously remastered. The packages (each contains two CDs) include the original liner notes from the Composers’ Voice releases, including an extensive historical overview by Raaijmakers. These releases launch a series of new anthologies spotlighting electro-acoustic music composed and recorded in the Netherlands during this seminal era. Electronic musicians have been intensely active in the Netherlands since 1955, and the variety of this activity is reflected in the large number of studios devoted to electronic music. Anthology Vol. 1 illustrates both the work of legendary studios and of individual composers — the latter represented by their earliest and most characteristic pieces. The majority of the works are exercises and étude-style compositions.” Artists include Hans Kox, Ton de Leeuw, Jan Boerman, Jaap Spek, Rudolf Escher, Henk Badings, Dick Raaijmakers, Ton de Leeuw, Frits Weiland, Tom Dissevelt, Axel Meijer, Robbert Jan de Neeve, Peter Schat, Ton Bruynèl, Bilthoven, Will Eisma, Klaus Gorter, Luctor Ponse and Berend Giltay.
	VA: Anthology of Dutch Electronic Tape Music, Volume 2 1966-1977 2CD (BASTA 9183) 22.00 “This second volume of the Anthology of Electronic Tape Music contains works composed after 1966, when electronic music broadened its horizons and established links with other disciplines, as studios opened their portals to influences and involvement from outside. Although electronic music after 1966 became very fragmented and took many new forms in Holland, Volume 2 of the Anthology aims to provide an overall survey of pure tape music. Other movements, such as computer music, and their links with each other are discussed in the liner notes. We have attempted to offer groundbreaking and influential works as well as first electronic works by pioneering composers. Volume 2 presents composers not represented on Volume 1.” Jacob Cats, Tera de Marez Oyens, Jos Kunst, Gilius van Bergeijk, Frans van Doorn, Thomas Arras, Simeon ten Holt, Victor Wentink, Louis Andriessen, Peter Smith and Tony van Campen.

ANALOG AFRICA (GERMANY)
	VA: African Scream Contest: Raw & Psychedelic Afro Sounds… CD (AACD 063CD) 22.00 …From Benin & Togo 70s. Early 2008 release, now fully available; including a 44-page booklet and slipcase packaging. The mission of Analog Africa is clear: searching in dusty warehouses for forgotten music to keep it alive. All tracks have been officially licensed, usually from the artists who label-head Samy Ben Redjeb also met with for detailed research. He conducted 16 interviews in various cities in Benin and Togo with artists, producers and sound engineers to reconstruct the history of the ’70s music scene for the booklet which also includes many rare photographs directly received from the artists. Like most modern music in French-speaking West African countries, the music of Benin and Togo was influenced by a few main musical currents: Cuban, Congolese and local traditional music, as well as Chanson Française. Additionally, the geographical location of Benin and Togo — sandwiched between Ghana and Nigeria — exposed Beninese and Togolese musicians to highlife music. The cultural and spiritual riches of traditional Beninese music had an immense impact on the sound of Benin’s modern music. Benin is the birth place of Vodun (or, as it is known in the West, Voodoo), and some of the rhythms used during traditional rituals — sakpata, sato, agbadja, tchenkoumé and many others — were fused to soul and Latin music as early as the mid-’60s and later to funk. That fusion is the essence of this compilation. In the late ’60s and early ’70s, rock and soul music started creeping into the region. In particular, the music of James Brown and Johnny Halladay became immensely popular with university students. It was then that the music scene in Benin really started to take off. What made this musical revolution even more interesting is that most of the musicians could not read music. Often the music they made sounded one semi-tone away from being out of tune, but somehow they always managed to bring all the elements together into something new and exciting. One of the greatest bands of their era, Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou, who are featured on this compilation, took the Afro sound to another level by showing their musical versatility in many forms. Although they were consciously copying Western artists, they would always inject a dose of psychedelic Afro grooves that would make their music unmistakably Beninese. Their biggest song, “Gbeti Madjro” is believed to have revolutionized the music industry in Benin in the ’70s when the country went through a period of political turmoil. The song is full of raw breaks and hypnotic rhythms, as well as screams à la James Brown. After this song, many bands in Benin started screaming on their recordings, hence the title of this compilation. Latin-influenced sounds are present on this compilation, too. Ouidah, a city on the Atlantic coast of Benin, is home to a large Brazilian community, or, as they are called in Benin, “Agoudas.” Members of that community are descendents of slaves who returned from Brazil at the end of the 19th century. Their dances and songs are still being performed and fused into the traditional Beninese rituals. That, too, can be heard in modern Beninese music. The proximity of the giant neighbor Nigeria can be heard on the track “Djanfa Magni” which features the amazing trumpeter/ saxophonist Tidjani Koné fronting the Orchestre Poly-Rythmo. Koné, whose career started in Mali as the founder and band leader of the Rail Band de Bamako, had played with Fela Kuti for a short while, hence the strong Afrobeat influence. There are countless stories to be discovered in the extremely well-researched booklet and the music is truly mind-blowing. So delve into the forgotten raw and psychedelic Afro sounds from ’70s Benin and Togo and experience the African Scream Contest.
	ORCHESTRE POLY-RYTHMO DE COTONOU: Volume One — The Vodoun Effect CD (AACD 064CD) 22.00 …Funk & Sato From Benin’s Obscure Labels 1972-1975. Following the highly-acclaimed African Scream Contest: Raw & Psychedelic Afro Sounds from Benin & Togo ’70s — which featured several tracks by Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou, including the ground-breaking “Gbeti Madjro” — this new Analog Africa collection now focuses entirely on Orchestre Poly-Rythmo. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou is arguably West Africa’s best-kept secret. Their output, both in quantity and quality, was astonishing. During several trips to Benin, label-head Samy Ben Redjeb managed to collect roughly 500 songs which Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou had recorded between 1970 and 1983. With so much material to choose from, he decided to split it into Volume 1 and 2. While Volume 2 will be material the band recorded under an exclusive contract with the label Albarika Store, the band also “secretly” recorded with an array of smaller labels based around Cotonou, Benin’s largest city, and the capital city of Porto Novo. It is those tracks (all officially licensed) that are presented here on Volume One. The producers of those labels were genuine music enthusiasts, some of them ran these labels as a part-time occupation, with very limited budgets. They couldn’t afford high-quality recordings — all they had to work with was a Nagra (a Swiss made reel-to-reel recorder) and a sound engineer — courtesy of the national radio station. These sessions were recorded in private homes using just one or two microphones. The cultural and spiritual riches of traditional Beninese music had an immense impact on the sound of Benin’s modern music. Benin is the birthplace of Vodun (also Vodoun, or, as it is known in the West, Voodoo), a religion which involves the worship of some 250 sacred divinities. The rituals used to pay tributes to those divinities are always backed by music. The majority of the complex poly-rhythms of the Vodun are still more or less secret and difficult to decipher, even for an accomplished musician. Two Vodun rhythms dominate the music of Orchestre Poly-Rythmo: Sato, an amazing, energetic rhythm performed using an immense vertical drum, and Sakpata, a rhythm dedicated to the divinity who protects people from smallpox. Both rhythms are represented here mixed in with funk, soul, crazy organ sounds and psychedelic guitar riffs. In the 44-page booklet, full of rare photographs and record covers, Analog Africa introduces three important producers who were collectively responsible for some of the most amazing music released in Benin: Gratien K. Aissy, of the Echos Sonores du Dahomey label, Bernard Dohounzo, of Disques Tropiques, Lawani Affissoulayi, of Aux Ecoutes, the label behind El Rego & Ses Commandos’ fame, as well as an encounter in Niamey with Honliasso Barnabé, Poly-Rythmo’s producer in Niger. Samy Ben Redjeb also interviewed Vincent Ahehehinnou, the man responsible for composing some of the funkiest stuff ever to come out of Benin, and Kineffo Michel, the sound engineer of Poly-Rythmo’s legendary Nagra “home” recordings. None of these tracks (except one — track 14) have been distributed outside Benin before. Because of financial considerations, most, if not all, of these recordings had very limited pressings that rarely exceeded 1000 copies total and many labels rarely produced more than 500 copies of any given record. The music on this compilation is not only rare, but illustrates how Orchestre Poly-Rythmo, with the support of a number of local record labels, thrived by mixing the coolest parts of funk, soul, Latin and vodun rhythms into a new sound that not only reflected the musical culture and heritage of Benin, but also transformed it and turned the small country into such an incredible musical melting pot. Packaged in a super deluxe slipcase, with a large 44-page illustrated booklet.

MODE

CAGE, JOHN: 49 Waltzes For The Five Boroughs DVD (MODE 204DVD) 27.00 “A complete video realization by Don Gillespie, Roberta Friedman, and Gene Caprioglio. Cage’s 49 Waltzes For The Five Boroughs gives its executants no clues about how they might perform it. Originally created as an invitation by Rolling Stone magazine in 1977, as part of a gala issue celebrating the magazine’s recent move from San Francisco to New York, which featured literary and art contributions honoring its new home. Cage constructed his ‘waltzes’ as a series of 49 multi-colored triangles superimposed on the Hagstrom map of New York City, each point derived by the use of chance operations. The finished composition is a design of singular beauty. Cage was an inveterate New Yorker, and even after his death in 1992 his most unequivocal composition about the city, the 49 Waltzes remained totally neglected. Wanting to celebrate Cage’s memory, Don Gillespie (who worked with Cage at his publisher, C.F. Peters) decided to collect the sights and sounds from all the locations specified in 49 Waltzes. This ambitious project of filming Cage’s 147 specific locations in New York’s five boroughs took a year to complete (1994-1995). It is a film whose subject is the unintentional music made by people, birds, planes, automobiles, police and fire sirens, and countless other debris of sounds. Tidbits of hectic Manhattan contrast with glimpses of quiet outer borough streets, parks and cemeteries. Deciding that two hours was an optimal length, composer Andrew Culver was asked to determine the durations of the 147 locations. Using Cage’s computerized I Ching software, Culver arrived at a string of durations ranging from 16 seconds to 3:44. The results proved tantalizing and also somewhat frustrating, since some of the most interesting locations were very brief and some of the more prosaic were lengthy, forcing one to accept their ordinariness. The film is also an amazing video time capsule document of a New York that has long changed, disappeared and evolved. The video and the audio has been restored for the DVD release, and this is the first time that all of the waltzes are shown in their full duration with previously-cut footage (due to time constraints) restored. Additional features: Actual waltz location viewing, a 16-page booklet with an essay by Don Gillespie and a complete list of each Waltz location; bonus audio realization of ‘Waltz #9,’ recorded by Gillespie in March of 1979. Region 0, NTSC format DVD. Total running time: 2 hr, 7 mins (Feature: 122 minutes, Waltz #9: 6 minutes); Production year: 1994. Aspect ratio: 4:3. 2.0 Dolby stereo. Liner notes: English, German, French.”

SUB ROSA (BELGIUM)

OLIVEROS, PAULINE: Four Electronic Pieces 1959-1966 CD (SR 185CD) 15.50 Sub Rosa presents Pauline Oliveros’ early and definitive tape and electronic music of the late fifties and sixties — all released for the first time ever! Born in Texas in 1932, Pauline Oliveros is more than ever an important American composer. Her accomplishments speak to an array of disciplines: her pieces for accordion; the creation of the Deep Listening Institute, a center dedicated to fostering artistic creativity through workshops, performances, and new technologies; her approach to improvisation in relation to meditation; and her numerous and varied collaborations with, among others, John Cage, Morton Subotnick, Terry Riley, Sonic Youth, Erold and Andrew Deutsch. Each piece on this release exemplifies her systematic exploration of electronic sounds, which was fundamental to this period. “Mnemonics” prefigures her meditative and breathing pieces. “V of IV” structures sound as noise. “Time Perspectives” is among her first variations on silence. Finally, “Once Again” develops a wild energy that out-strips itself, a frenzy the likes of which is hard to find even to this day. As Oliveros explains, the detailed methodology behind her work offers a unique inquiry into the process of artistic invention itself. “My work with electronic music began in 1959. My first tape piece was an ambitious four channel work called ‘Time Perspectives.’ The piece was made by recording small sounds from objects resonated on a wooden wall and changing the tape speed. I used cardboard tubes as filters by inserting the mic into the tube and recording sources through the tubes. I used my bath tub as a reverberation chamber. Sections of the piece were improvised and then subjected to speed changes. When the San Francisco Tape Music Center was established together with Ramon Sender and Morton Subotnik there was a pool of equipment to use and I began to work with electronic sound. Rather than cut and splice small pieces of tape together to make a composition I chose to work in real time. I used two tape machines with the tape running across both machines to make a delay system. I used two or more oscillators at high frequencies to produce different tones. These tones would also interact with the bias frequencies of the tape recorders. I would play the oscillators into the tape recorders improvising my way through the piece. My system of composing in this manner was my own invention.” –Pauline Oliveros

SYNTAX
	CALE, JOHN: Suicide Theme From Process OST 10″ (SYNTAX 35163EP) 14.50 Limited three track 22+ minute 10″ taken from the Process original soundtrack recording by John Cale for avant-garde filmmaker CS Leigh. Haunting solo piano pieces, limited to 500 copies. Originally released in 2005.

MODE

XENAKIS, IANNIS: Electronic Music 2 DVD-AUDIO (MODE 203DVD)27.00 “Mode continues its Xenakis Edition with the second volume dedicated to his electronic works, again restored from the best quality source materials. Both works are commercially released in Surround Sound for the first time. New high-resolution transfers were made of ‘Polytope de Cluny’ (1972-74) from the original analog master tapes. ‘Hibiki Hana Ma’ has been restored from the existing digital masters. ‘Hibiki Hana Ma’ was created for the Expo 1970 World’s Fair in Osaka, Japan, where it was experienced by thousands. It was designed to be played on a tape loop in a hall which boasted state-of-the-art acoustic equipment, with some 700 speakers scattered under the floor, plus 128 surface and suspended speakers symmetrically distributed throughout the pavilion’s amphitheater. Both works have been remixed for Surround DVD by Gerard Pape who worked closely with the composer as the former director of Xenakis’ CCMIX studio in Paris. Dedicated stereo 96khz/24-bit high resolution mix included. Also available on CD (MODE 203CD). Special DVD features: The first commercial release of the experimental film Vasarely, directed by Jacques Brissot and Nicolas Schoeffer, from 1957. The music to this film, focusing on the work of Op-Art artist Victor Vasarely, was scored by Xenakis. This score for ensemble by Xenakis is unique to the film and has never been published elsewhere. The film has been restored and the audio remastered from a 16mm film print for this release. Run time: 51 minutes. Region 0, NTSC. 5.1 Surround, Dolby Digital, and DTS. Aspect ration: 4:3, color and b&w. Essays by Sharon Kanach and Makis Solomos.”

$14.99 CD

LOREN CONNORS & JIM O’ROURKE Two Nice Catholic Boys  (Family Vinyeard)  ”Maybe Paris”   ”Most Definitely Not Koln”  Two Nice Catholic Boys is the striking culmination of a collaboration between two of the avant-garde’s most well-loved sons. Loren Connors is an artist who has spent most of his life being largely unknown and Jim O’Rourke probably wishes sometimes that he was largely unknown; but nobody can deny their resounding influence on modern music. Over the years O’Rourke has spread his work across a plethora of genres, from classic rock to uncompromising experimentalism, and he has served to amaze in much of what he has turned his hand to. Connors, on the other hand, has spent years honing and perfecting a sound that is undeniably his own. There is a tone and a spirit that can only belong to Loren Connors, and his well-received anthologies have proved this point beautifully. This album then was difficult to predict — how would two very distinctive sounds work when pitted against each other? Well, Connors allows himself to explore the noisier end of his oeuvre, with the record moving into far more psychedelic territory than one might think from a usually very measured, softly picked player. The two sound at times like they are battling through a dense cloud of distortion that slowly splits to reveal passages of immense beauty and restraint. The loud-quiet-loud technique is effective, giving balance to a distinctly unwieldy bashing of talent and allows both artists to shine in their respective singular styles. Two Nice Catholic Boys is a thunderous yet melancholy experience and a testament to the skill and dedication of two lynchpins of modern guitar music. Need I say more? [JT]

INSTITUT DU MONDE ARABE (FRANCE)

HOMSY, IMANE: Lord Kanun CD (IDMA 321085) 20.00 Performed by Imane Homsy, kanun and vocal. "The kanun is traditionally used to accompany singing. It repeats the musical phrase and is played with two fingers. Here, we see it in a new light: accompanist-interpreter-soloist on a par with any singer. The kanun as a 'complete' instrument, in fact, revealed in all its glory by Imane Homsy and the ten fingers technique developed by her, a technique that conjures up new ambiences and colors. The kanun has at last found the place it deserves at the heart of the classical Arab orchestra."

LONG HAIR (GERMANY)
	RUFUS ZUPHALL: Phallobst CD (LHC 030CD) 24.00 2008 repress. "Reissue of the second Rufus Zuphall longplayer originally released BASF Pilz, in 1971. Additionally as bonus tracks the second part of the Farewell concert Aachen 1972 (pt1 is on LHC 29). Cool photos….Belongs to most legendary progressive Krautrock LPs from the '70s."
	ET CETERA: Et Cetera CD (LHC 071CD) 24.00 Heavy, crazy and amazing Wolfgang Dauner album, reissued for the first time ever. "First ever released on CD, Et Cetera's eponymous album (1980 reissue on Brain titled Lady Blue), originally released in 1971 on Global is an extraordinary album of weirdly trippy fusion that rides somewhere between instrumental Amon Düül II, Embryo and Dauner's own earlier classic Output. Full of ethnic (Arabic and Indian) spice with lots of the ethnic color added by legendary guitar and sitar (et. al.) player Sigi Schwab (Embryo), odd keyboard sounds by Wolfgang Dauner, dreamy bass patterns by Eberhard Weber and driving percussions by Fred Braceful and Roland Wittich, this is spacy, crazy, Krautrock and — a bit jazzy. Alan and Steven Freeman (The Crack In The Cosmic Egg) present this album in their The Krautrock Top 100. Maybe the album was originally planned as a double-LP because there are three more titles from the same recording session, which really knock you out. 'Kabul' is a killer, especially because of Schwab's exploding electric guitar and Weber's driving bass. 'Tau Ceti' is a wonderfully dreamy delight presenting Schwab's gorgeous acoustic guitar playing. Last but not least, the bonus track 'Behind The Stage' connects Schwab's special electric guitar with the band's atmospheric but rhythmic fundamental playing. This album will be a masterpiece for all time. It's unique. Digitally remastered from the original master tapes. The sound is brilliant. CD comes with informative booklet." Includes 3 bonus tracks.

LOVELY MUSIC
	GORDON, PETER: Star Jaws CD (LCD 1031) 13.00 Digitally remastered reissue of an old Lovely Music LP from 1978. "Peter Gordon and 'Blue' Gene Tyranny are long-time Lovely Music stalwarts, having contributed their talents to many a LML release: Peter Gordon has acted as producer for a few early Robert Ashley recordings; 'Blue' Gene Tyranny is Robert Ashley's go-to pianist. Gordon and Tyranny have also collaborated in Gordon's Love of Life Orchestra (aka LOLO) and on Jill Kroesen's Stop Vicious Cycles. So, it's only fitting that when we dug into our vaults to give some classic Lovely LPs a new lease on life, we decided to release these three en masse. Star Jaws is a panoply of art-pop, '60s folk revival, and '70s funk; an amalgam of downtown minimalism, new-wave synthesizers, and soulful sax solos; a musical snapshot of late '70s New York City."
	BLUE GENE TYRANNY: Just For The Record CD (LCD 1062) 13.00 Digital remaster of this Lovely Music LP from 1979. "Just For The Record is a musical snapshot of West Coast post-classical music via Mills College: multiple-keyboard works by Robert Ashley, Phil Harmonic, Paul DeMarinis and John Bischoff."
	BLUE GENE TYRANNY: The Intermediary CD (LCD 1063) 13.00 Digital remaster of this Lovely Music LP release from 1982. "The Intermediary gathers all of 'Blue's' musical impulses together in one, sweeping work for prose, improvisation, electronics, and piano. A program records, processes, and plays back the changed sounds so that 'Blue' Gene must act as an 'intermediary': both the sender and receiver of information."

MANTRA (FRANCE)

HEDAYAT, DASHIELL: Obsolete CD (MAN 806191) 21.00 New remastered CD version (from original tapes according to the cover info), in cardboard sleeve (aka "vinyl replica" packaging); edition of 999 copies. "When Obsolete was published in November of 1971, the reporter from the magazine of reference, Superpop Hebdo (Superpop Weekly), questioned the repetitive aspect of this disc. He couldn't know that this musical approach would take flight thanks to English and German groups like Hawkwind, Amon Düül, and soon after, Gong, in France, whose founding members (Daevid Allen, Didier Malherbe, Pip Pyle, Gilly Smith, Christian Tritsch) accompany Dashiell Hedayat. From this space-rock album is torn 'Chrysler Rose' — a little known masterpiece in its day, but which has today become a cult anthem to the 'joint' at all hip celebrations, revered by multiple generations of partiers. Humor and derision exist alongside the unreal on 'Love Song for Zelda,' realized with the help of William Burroughs, author of the hippies' must-have bedside book Junkie. Drugs are omnipresent in the hallucinatory texts of Dashiell Hedayat. The musical and lyrical composition date from the autumn of 1969, from whence the choice of the title Obsolete. An avant-garde disc so cool, it'll never go out of style! After having composed a second, very rare, opus under the pseudonym Melmoth (the beginning of intoxication), Dashiell Hedayat has since adopted a different type of writing, and today has authored novels and Hollywood screenplays under the name Jack-Alain Léger."

SHOWBOAT/SKY STATION (JAPAN)
	KIYOKO, ITOH: Woman At 23 Hour – Love In CD (SWAX 058CD) 28.00 "Identical and deluxe reissue of this deliriously mega-rare and hardly known Itoh Kiyoko record. Normally if you want to score a copy of the original vinyl you are required to donate most of your vital organs to some yakuza-typed black marketer, but luckily enough, this one here is easier to attain without ripping out a lung or a liver to pound off. The CD is housed in an eye-popping foldout jacket. It was the final album Itoh recorded in 1971 and on this effort she got backed up by again a bunch of Tokyo underground heavy weights such as J.A. Seazer and Kuni Kawauchi of the Happenings Four. On this album, Itoh's talent is fully flowering and apart from merely eargasmatic songs, she hushes into being, atmospheric city-life field recordings and well-balanced sound snippets find their way in and between her compositions. These flashes of cosmopolitan Tokyo city life grandeur and the feeling of desperate desolation it tails along elevate her impeccable melancholic love ballads and softly erotic excursions to even higher levels of artistic expression, catapulting the whole affair towards eerie, stratospheric, heavenly, delightful realms. Sadly enough, both of her albums failed to catch on, not poppy enough, too melancholic, way too creative, artistically too advanced, hard to categorize and probably even too erotically sophisticated without degrading herself to mere carnal sonic one-hit wonders. In one word, a delicate, soft, psychedelic wonderland avenue of an album that will entrap simple airhead listeners into a deadlock without giving them the chance to fully explore the absinthial pleasures it conceals. If one only cares to listen to what lies underneath its surface layer, a new form of aural addiction will commence to besiege you. One of the greatest underrated delicate psychedelic female vocal albums to seep out of Japan. Original copies just never surface and if they do, you have to trade in — in most cases — a limb in order to take one home with you. So this eye-popping delicately crafted reissue might be just the thing you need. If you got entangled into Kaji Meiko's sonic universe, you should try Itoh Kiyoko. All-time highest recommendation and forget about original vinyl copies, they are even scarcer that all your Blues Creation, Too Much and Oz Days records together. Highest recommendation."
	SHUJI, TERAYAMA: Roujin To Garigarihakase No Hanzai CD (SWAX 070CD) 28.00 "Tenjosajiki-related, Dixieland-styled madness out of 1972."
	SHUJI, TERAYAMA: Aesop's Fables CD (SWAX 078CD) 28.00 "Tenjosajiki-related CD, reissue of a rare 1973 album, edition of only 500 copies."
	MASATO, MINAMI: The Tropics CD (SWAX 080CD) 28.00 2nd CD reissue from Showboat of this classic Japanese underground folk-rock album, originally released by RCA Japan in 1971. Great mini-LP gatefold packaging, but very few made and not long for this world. "The Tropics was Minami Masato's first record on which he got assisted by Mizutani Takeshi of the Rallizes Denudes, his only appearance on record ever. Minami Masato was one of Japan's first beatnik hippie scum singers, who before venturing into the music world, spent some time in Mexico where he indulged himself in the narcotic goodies the country had to offer, went to America and witnessed in 1964 the rise of the beatnik movement and saw one of Bob Dylan's early performances. Minami's life would never be the same again. He crossed the Atlantic Ocean, criss-crossed through Europe and returned to Tokyo in 1966. He participated at the 1968 Kyoto Folk Jamboree Festival. However, his debut single did not appear until October 1969, followed by a second single in 1970. This album, his debut appeared in July 1971 for which he got assisted by a loose collective of fan musicians and befriended artists. Hadaka no Rallizes' Mizutani Takeshi was such a fan collaborator since he was quite in awe for what Minami stood for, being the unattached beatnik and drugged singer-songwriter he was. He let loose some ear shattering electric guitar on the album's closing track. This is the sole recorded output of Mizutani on disc. At least officially, if one ignores the dozen bootlegs and unofficially released music of his (like the Arthur Doyle-Mizutani 2LP set that was released without his consent). An unbelievably valuable document of the early Japanese underground. Hyper-rare and demented all the way. For lovers of Hadaka no Rallizes, Tomokawa Kazuki, acid folk, Jandek, and obscure and psyched-out sounds."

SOUL JAZZ RECORDS (UK)

ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO: Les Stances a Sophie LP (SJR 191LP)24.00 "To coincide with the release of the Les Stances a Sophie DVD, Soul Jazz are re-issuing the Art Ensemble of Chicago's Les Stances a Sophie as a one-off super-luxury U.S.- heavy card gatefold limited edition LP edition (strictly limited to 1000 copies). The album features the epic 'Theme de Yoyo,' the Art Ensemble of Chicago's finest ever moment featuring the soaring vocals of Fontella Bass and the super-heavy funk drums of then current newcomer to the Art Ensemble Don Moye. The Art Ensemble of Chicago were living in Europe in 1970 when the film was made along with a host of other US jazz émigrés such as Archie Shepp, Ornette Coleman and more."

SPACE AGE (UK)

SPACEMEN 3: DJ Tones CD (ORBIT 028CD) 16.00 "Spacemen 3 have a limited edition (2000 copies) five track mini-album released by Space Age Recordings in cardboard sleeve wallet which features two previously-unreleased Spacemen 3 tracks, a radically different mix of the classic Spacemen 3 cover of the Red Krayola's 'Transparent Radiation' and appearing for the first time on CD, the ultra rare remix of 'I Love You' (originally only 50 promo white label vinyl copies were ever pressed). Rounding off this mini-album is a studio version of 'Ecstasy Symphony.' Track listing: 'These Blues, 'Transparent Radiation (violin mix),' 'Modulated Tones,' 'I Love You (remix),' 'Ecstasy Symphony.' Spacemen 3 consisted of the core duo of Jason Pierce (Spiritualized) and Somic Boom aka Peter Kember (Spectrum & E.A.R.) who formed the group in Rugby, Warwickshire, having met at art college. Other members of what would become a fluid line-up over the years included Pete Bain (Bassman, also of The Darkside), Natty Brooker, Sterling Roswell (Rosco), Will Carruthers, Jonny Mattock (Slipstream), and for the final few shows, Mark Refoy (also of Slipstream). From the outset, Spacemen 3 had a very defined set of aesthetic principles. They based almost their entire sound on their own concept of minimalism — droning guitars, feedback, as few chords as possible, pounding drums — with their motto 'Taking drugs to make music to take drugs to.' Their minimalism bled into their stage show as well. Sitting down to play their guitars and covered in the spinning colors of a cheap psychedelic light show, their stage 'act' was very anti-performance. Another striking aspect of Spacemen 3 was their willingness to cover and share their influences. Song titles, lyrics and interviews were peppered with references to bands and artists they believed shared their 'minimal is maximal' aesthetic. The Velvet Underground, the Rolling Stones, the Stooges, the MC5, early Captain Beefheart, free jazz musician Sun Ra, the Silver Apples, 1960s garage punk such as the 13th Floor Elevators, Red Krayola, the Electric Prunes, the Beach Boys, Jan and Dean and other surf bands, 1980s rockabilly groups the Cramps, the Gun Club, Tav Falco, blues and gospel acts like Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, the Staple Singers and John Lee Hooker, and the production techniques of Joe Meek, Brian Wilson and Delia Derbyshire were just some of the names mentioned by the band."

WORLD ARBITER

VA: Japanese Traditional Music: Gagaku, Buddhist Chant… CD (WA 2009CD) 17.00 …Kokusai Bunka Shinkokai 1941. First in a series of 78 restorations, this one focuses on gagaku & Buddhist chant. Beautiful, lost-in-time recordings — produced to perfection from one of the world's greats . In the words of World Arbiter's Allen Evans: "Current gagaku sounds brittle, easily cracked, very delicate. And in 1941 they used fewer performers but have a solidity, a weight. They were carrying on a tradition that was part of an immortal empire, a vision of permanence. Four years later it was over." "In 1942, a set of sixty 78 rpm discs documenting the most authentic traditions in Japanese music was privately issued. Due to the war and neglect, few copies survive. This disc marks the beginning of its restoration."

MODE

XENAKIS, IANNIS: Electronic Works 2 CD (MODE 203CD) 15.00 "Featured pieces" "Polytope de Cluny" (1972, for 8-channel tape); "Hibiki hana ma" (1969-70, for 16-channel tape); "Fer Chaud" (1957, original film soundtrack). "Mode continues its Xenakis Edition with the second volume dedicated to his electronic works, again restored from the best quality source materials. New high-resolution transfers were made of 'Polytope de Cluny' from the original analog master tapes. 'Hibiki hana ma' has been restored from the existing digital masters. 'Hibiki hana ma' was created for the Expo 1970 World's Fair in Osaka, Japan, where it was experienced by thousands. It was designed to be played on a tape loop in a hall which boasted state-of-the-art acoustic equipment, with some 700 speakers scattered under the floor plus 128 surface and suspended speakers symmetrically distributed throughout the pavilion's amphitheater. Both works have been remixed to stereo by Gerard Pape, who worked closely with the composer as the former director of Xenakis' CCMIX studio in Paris. The experimental film Fer Chaud (1957), directed by Jacques Brissot and Nicolas Schoeffer, focused on the work of Op-Art artist Victor Vasarely. It featured a musical score for ensemble by Xenakis. This score is unique to the film and has never been published elsewhere. It has been carefully remastered from the film soundtrack and presented here." Also to be released on DVD-audio format.

TAIGA

DEEP LISTENING BAND: Then & Now Now & Then: Celebrating 20 Years 2LP (TAIGA 005LP) 27.50 The Deep Listening Band is an improvisational group founded in 1988 by Pauline Oliveros with members David Gamper and Stuart Dempster. Now, 20 years later, the trio celebrate an anniversary of improvisation, innovation and commitment with their first-ever vinyl release. This vinyl-only document contains four side-long tracks, one reissued and three previously-unreleased. "Cannery Row" was originally available on the Troglodyte's Delight (1990) album and captures the band in Tarpaper Cave, which Dempster recalls as "an old limestone quarry near Rosendale, New York that had lovely dripping water sounds and Valhalla-like mists." The previously-unreleased tracks were gathered from three separate live performances at the Sounds Like Now Festival, Sound Exchange American Composers Forum, and Engine27, a 16-channel installation of special speakers. The audio was mastered for vinyl by James Plotkin, cut direct to metal and pressed on 200 gram virgin vinyl in a limited edition of 500. The records come packaged in a custom-designed slipcover and a jacket with doublewide spines. The slipcover features two exquisite photographs and is dual-finished with a gloss front and matte back. The jacket is printed on a cardboard brown stock with the pocket flooded green and features three rich essays including: an introduction by David Felton, a short history by Dempster and information about the Expanded Instrument System (EIS) from Oliveros.

IMPORTANT RECORDS
	ELEH/PAULINE OLIVEROS: The Beauty Of The Steel Skeleton/Drifting Depths LP (IMPREC 206LP) 19.00 "Important Records is quite pleased to be presenting this split release consisting of two new drone works from Pauline Oliveros and Eleh. Oliveros, an early American minimalist who has pioneered the technique of 'deep listening,' has created a new work exclusively for this release. 'Drifting Depths' is a new improvised piece made on a harmonica being processed through Pauline's Expanded Instrument System. Eleh's side, also exclusive to this vinyl only release, is super slow melodic drone full of stillness, tension and relief. Vinyl only, handmade and handassembled, letterpressed jackets. Limited edition. A central figure in post-war electronic art music, Oliveros is one of the original members of the San Francisco Tape Music Center (along with Morton Subotnick, Ramon Sender, Terry Riley, and Anthony Martin), which was the resource on the U.S. West Coast for electronic music during the 1960s. The Center later moved to Mills College, where she was its first director, and is now called the Center for Contemporary Music. Oliveros often improvises with the Expanded Instrument System, an electronic signal processing system she designed, in her performances and recording. Eleh was formed to specifically to pay tribute to early experimental minimalist pioneers especially La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Eliane Radigue, Pauline Oliveros and Charlemagne Palestine. Using an enormous vintage modular analog synthesizer, a battery of glowing HP tube test oscillators and occasionally guitar/piano, Eleh creates highly minimal and deeply spiritual pure analog drone music with emphasis on the physical ultra-low end. Incorporating tones as low as .05 hz (well below the range of human hearing) Eleh is as much of a physical experience as it is an audio one. This engaging record was created as a tool for meditation and to be heard/felt correctly the listener must be sitting with ears at speaker height at least 7 feet away from the speakers. Volume reveals detail."
	ELEH: Floating Frequencies/Intuitive Synthesis III LP (IMPREC 207LP) 19.00 "Deluxe pressing of 500 copies packaged in letterpressed covers designed by Important and printed by 23rd Parallel. Mastered by James Plotkin. Hand numbered/hand assembled. Eleh's Intuitive Synthesis/Floating Frequencies III is the third release in their Intuitive Synthesis series (Volume 2 was released over a year ago) and it is being released simultaneously with an Eleh/Pauline Oliveros split release. Both are limited edition and LP only. Meticulously minimal analog drone. Eleh was formed specifically to pay tribute to early experimental minimalist pioneers especially La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Eliane Radigue, Pauline Oliveros and Charlemagne Palestine. Using an enormous vintage modular analog synthesizer, a battery of glowing HP tube test oscillators and occasionally guitar/piano, Eleh creates highly minimal and deeply spiritual pure analog drone music with emphasis on the physical ultra-low end. Incorporating tones as low as .05 hz (well below the range of human hearing) Eleh is as much of a physical experience as it is an audio one. This engaging record was created as a tool for meditation and to be heard/felt correctly the listener must be sitting with ears at speaker height at least 7 feet away from the speakers. Volume reveals detail."

PLAIN RECORDINGS
	MY BLOODY VALENTINE: Loveless LP (PLAIN 105LP) 17.00 Repressed! "The greatness of this classic album proved that MBV was inimitable…a true masterpiece…audiophile remastering from the original master tapes…180 gram HQ vinyl…original artwork…gatefold sleeve." Originally issued in 1991.

SUNDAZED

ANIMATED EGG, THE: Guitar Freakout CD (SC 11172CD) 18.00 "The late L.A. session guitar genius Jerry Cole has long been worshipped for his work with everyone from the Beach Boys and the Byrds to Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley and by surf fans as the leader of the Spacemen. But unbeknownst to many, Cole was also the driving force behind the Animated Egg, a fictitious band whose lone, self-titled LP is one of the greatest psychedelic exploitation records ever to hit the budget bins of U.S. chain stores — and eventually the want lists of big-spending DJs and collectors. Comprised of splashy, fuzz-drenched 'now sound' instrumental groovers, The Animated Egg easily lives up to both the eBay hype and the promise of its evocative track titles: 'Sure Listic,' 'Sock It My Way,' 'Sippin' and Trippin',' and — yes indeed ? 'I Said, She Said, Ah Cid.' In addition to the rare self-titled LP by the Animated Egg, this collection also includes cuts by other related Cole projects: the Projection Company, the Generation Gap, T. Swift & the Electric Bag, and the Stone Canyon Rock Group. Sourced from the original analog masters, Sundazed's glorious CD and high-definition double-LP vinyl editions of this hallowed prize are a must for turntablists and brain-trippers alike." Extensive liner notes by Mike Vernon.

MILLENNIUM, THE: Begin CD (SC 6260CD) 13.50 "The Millennium looms large in the hearts of fans of the '60s sunshine pop genre. The studio group was the creation of legendary tunesmith/studio genius Curt Boettcher, who had previously been instrumental in the formation of the fabled '60s cult acts the Ballroom and Sagittarius. In 1968, Boettcher assembled a group of talented California singers and musicians (including singer/guitarists Lee Mallory, Sandy Salisbury, Joey Stec and Michael Fennelly and Music Machine drummer Ron Edgar) to record the Millennium's sole album, Begin. Begin, produced by Curt Boettcher and Keith Olsen, with assistance by California rock legend Gary Usher, is an exquisite progressive pop opus, combining breezy melodies, ambitious baroque arrangements, stirring psychedelic touches and angelic vocal harmonies to create a suite-like concept album that perfectly captures the optimistic mood of the time in which it was made."

SAGITTARIUS: The Blue Marble CD (SC 6261CD) 13.50 "The shimmering follow-up to Present Tense, 1968s pop-psych cult classic by producers Gary Usher and Curt Boettcher's studio-only project Sagittarius ('My World Fell Down'), 1969s The Blue Marble once again finds Usher crafting still more sunshiney, Beach Boys-esque dreamscapes. As he did for Present Tense, Usher called on the cream of L.A.'s studio pros as well as members of the like-minded Millennium, and the results are once again magnificent. Layered with creamy vocal harmonies, brass, flute, and Moog synthesizer, The Blue Marblewill have fans of the Millennium, the Association, the Yellow Balloon, and similarly grandiose baroque pop acts positively floating on air. Sourced from the original Together Records analog masters, these editions contain four bonus tracks on the CD and two bonus tracks on the LP."

AUDIKA RECORDS

RUSSELL, ARTHUR: Love Is Overtaking Me CD (AU 1010CD) 15.00 "Four years ago, Audika Records began releasing the exceptionally varied, long sought-after music of Arthur Russell, and in the process has succeeded at helping the beloved, late artist find the broader audience he always believed he would reach. A new generation of listeners and critics has come to appreciate Russell as a visionary and an influence upon a broad range of today's most compelling musical artists. Now, Audika will bring to light an as-yet-unavailable side of Russell's body of work — the most rare and, at the same time, arguably the most accessible part — in Love Is Overtaking Me, which comprises 21 demos and home recordings of unreleased pop, folk and country songs from his vast catalog. While much critical and popular affection for Russell's music has come about well after his untimely death from AIDS in 1992, many fellow artists believed in his genius and were drawn to collaborate with him during his lifetime. The legendary producer John Hammond (Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen) recorded Russell on several occasions; a number of these recordings will finally be heard on Love Is Overtaking Me. So, too, will songs recorded with various incarnations of The Flying Hearts, a group formed by Russell and Brooks whose shifting line-up included, by turns, Jerry Harrison, Rhys Chatham, Jon Gibson, Peter Gordon and Peter Zummo as well as Larry Saltzman and David Van Tieghem. Several other Russell projects are represented on Love Is Overtaking Me, including The Sailboats, Turbo Sporty and Bright & Early. Compiled from over eight hours of material, three years in the making, Love Is Overtaking Me reaches back further to Russell's first compositions from the early '70s and spans forward to his very last recordings, made at home in 1991. Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear contributed mixing, restoration and editing to the album, whose tracks were selected by Audika's Steve Knutson, Ernie Brooks and Russell's companion, Tom Lee. A number of the songs feature prominently in Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell, Matt Wolf's film, which had its world premiere this year at the Berlin International Film Festival and will be released theatrically and on DVD by Plexifilm. Love Is Overtaking Me is the fifth release of Russell's material by Audika Records, whose work has proven that the music remains as contemporary today as when it was first recorded. The label launched with the disco/new wave collection Calling Out Of Context (2004) and continued with a reissue of the cello-and-voice masterpiece World Of Echo (2005); the instrumental compositions double-disc First Thought Best Thought (2006); and the hip-hop-inspired Springfield EP (2006), which includes a DFA remix of the title track. Extensive Love Is Overtaking Me liner notes by Tom Lee provide an intimate perspective on Russell's diverse catalog, which spanned an extraordinary diversity of styles and won the love of artistic communities that would seem utterly disparate, from Philip Glass, John Cage and Allen Ginsberg to rock bands like The Talking Heads and The Modern Lovers; the pre-Studio 54 disco-party scene of Nicky Siano's Gallery and David Mancuso's loft; and DJ-producers like Francois Kevorkian and Larry Levan, among others."

KRANKY

CARTER, CHRISTINA: Original Darkness CD (KRANK 122CD) 13.00 "The latest album from the longtime Charalambides mainstay follows her Electrice album from late 2006 on Kranky as well as a split album with Pocahaunted from early in 2008. Christina Carter has a gift. In a world where most people shy away from the truth, from honesty in emotion, Christina has the strength to address those feelings head on through her music. Within the songs of Original Darkness, she confronts loneliness, self doubt, inadequacy and desire. She bares these emotions in a sometimes tender, sometimes forceful, sometimes pleading voice, a voice in which you can hear her vulnerability, her trepidation. Christina's words, and the mournful sound of them, stirs a melancholy that is supported and framed by her gently plucked guitar notes, notes that echo the sadness in the world she sings of, as well as the words she sings. These 10 new songs are effective at painting pictures, exposing the underbelly of what we all really think but most will not say, of what we all really feel but push away. With the addition of gentle bells and occasional keyboards, Christina reminds us of what it means to be honestly human."

BASTA (NETHERLANDS)
	SCOTT AND HIS ORCHESTRA, RAYMOND: This Time With Strings CD (BASTA 9187) 19.00 "Raymond Scott's reputation as a 20th century musical maverick has grown in the 21st century. Sometimes considered the 'Man Who Made Cartoons Swing' because dozens of his melodies were enshrined in classic Warner Bros. animation of the 1940s and '50s, Raymond Scott was a man of numerous accomplishments: chamber-jazz composer, big band leader, electronica pioneer, intrepid audio engineer, music visionary. Scott's 100th birthday is celebrated in 2008, and Basta is planning a series of compilations of unreleased archival recordings, reissues, and remix projects. Scott (1908-1994), who was both musician and inventor, musically re-invented eleven of his compositions for full orchestra and strings on the 1957 album This Time With Strings. It is now being released as part of Basta's Essential Reissue Series — the first time the album has appeared on CD. Many of these tunes were originally recorded by Scott's novelty jazz six-man Quintette in the late 1930s; others date from the 1940s and '50s. All get a spectacular makeover under the baton of the legendary maestro. This Time With Stringscontains some of Scott's most famous works, including Quintette favorites 'Powerhouse,' 'The Toy Trumpet,' and 'Twilight in Turkey,' retooled for an expanded setting. 'There are many of the old Quintette things in this LP,' said the composer in the original liner notes. 'Also some older things for dance band, material written for Broadway and the screen, and some of my more recent writing. Indeed, a potpourri given hi-fidelity dressing, and a certain vividness in string treatment.' The CD booklet includes the complete original liner notes by jazz historian Burt Korall. The album was recorded in glorious monophonic sound, which is retained on CD. No artificial processing. Crank up the hi-fi!"
	HARRIS AND THE POWERHOUSE FIVE, DAVE: Dinner Music For A Pack Of Hungry Cannibals CD (BASTA 9189) 19.00 "Dave Harris played tenor sax in Raymond Scott's legendary late 1930s six-man 'Quintette.' Over a long career as a sought-after session musician in New York and L.A., Harris (1913-2002) released only one record as a bandleader. That was Dinner Music For A Pack Of Hungry Cannibals in 1958, and it was a tribute to his old boss, for whom he held deep respect. Harris and the Powerhouse Five recaptured the manic elegance and rhythmic wit of twelve classic Scott tunes. Nostalgia was the inspiration, but sharp musicianship and a celebratory gusto mark this album as a missing link in the Scott legacy. Basta presents the first CD reissue of this long out of print album. When Raymond Scott organized his Quintette, he recruited CBS Radio Orchestra compatriot Harris. The group was short-lived — in 1939, Scott expanded the group into a swing orchestra. However, the original RSQ created a sensation during its brief existence, and left a lasting impact on music history. Scott composed 'portraits in music,' programmatic novelties with eccentric titles like 'War Dance for Wooden Indians,' 'Reckless Night on Board an Ocean Liner,' and 'In An 18th Century Drawing Room.' A dozen tunes from this group's repertoire were later adapted by Warner Bros. music director Carl Stalling in hundreds of classic Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons. Thus was the RSQ's legacy — quite apart from the bandleader's own efforts — preserved for future generations. One title, 'Powerhouse,' has become a staple of cartoon fare, having been used in The Simpsons, Ren & Stimpy, and Animaniacs, as well as in forty anarchic WB shorts and several major motion pictures. In addition to leading a succession of orchestras, Scott composed a Broadway musical in 1946, conducted orchestra on TV's Your Hit Parade in the 1950s, and was a pioneer in electronic music development. But in late-life interviews, he professed that his 1937-1939 Quintette was his favorite band. That opinion was doubtless shared by Harris, who always spoke fondly of working under Scott. Such was Harris' affection for this band that in 1958 he organized a sextet, called his sidemen the Powerhouse Five, and recorded an album of RSQ favorites in modern high fidelity. After the RSQ, Harris remained with Scott's first swing band, then compiled an impressive résumé as a session player on radio and TV, and in the recording studio. In a career that extended into the 1970s, he worked with Billie Holiday, Gene Krupa, Eddie Cantor, Mickey Katz, Stan Webb, Russ Case, Bob Haggart and countless others. As a director with a musical pedigree, Harris, on Dinner Music For A Pack Of Hungry Cannibals, maintains the high standards set by his old boss, recapturing the spunk, energy, and humor of the original RSQ. While there's an obvious element of nostalgia at play, don't underestimate the joyfulness and craftsmanship of these performances."

LITTLE AXE

CLEAN, THE: Compilation LP (LA 002LP) 14.00 "Compilation collects many of the greatest tracks by New Zealand legends The Clean, including songs from their first single and first two EPs. Very catchy pop with the energy and rawness of the best punk rock combined with a strong psychedelic feel. An amazing collection by one of the best bands of all time!"

MATCHLESS RECORDINGS (UK)

TILBURY, JOHN: Cornelius Cardew (1936-1981): A Life UnfinishedBook (MR COPULA4-HC) 110.00 Limited hardcover edition. "Cornelius Cardew was a musician of genius for whom life and art were as one. He was a radical, both artistically and politically, becoming a tireless activist and uncompromising Marxist-Leninist. Passion and imagination governed all he did: his boldness and humanity continue to intrigue and inspire. John Tilbury, whose close friendship with Cardew dates from their first concert together in January 1960, has worked for many years on this biography, and brings his subject vividly to life. In doing this, he has drawn extensively from Cardew's journals and letters, and obtained first-hand accounts from friends and colleagues. The handling of this material is thoughtful and meticulous. Tilbury is a master story-teller and this particular story is of epic scale and character. We begin in 1932, appropriately on May Day, with the first meeting of his parents. Later, we encounter the intrepid schoolboy and student, who impressed sufficiently at the Royal Academy of Music to receive funds to study in Cologne with Karlheinz Stockhausen. The narrative during this period is delightfully picaresque, a colorful prelude to the years of family responsibilities and extraordinary musical endeavor and achievement (AMM, Treatise, the Scratch Orchestra and The Great Learning). As events unfold, discussion of the music is given due weight, but is never unduly weighty. Towards the end, there is an implacable gain in momentum as Cardew's political work makes increasing demands on his time and apparently limitless reserves of energy. A life unfinished? The final chapter is entitled '12/13 December 1981' and eloquently 'vibrates in the memory.' 1071 pages (230cm x 153cm), including 16 photographs and numerous musical illustrations. Published in 2008 by Copula, an imprint of Matchless Recordings and Publishing."

PSF (JAPAN)

HAINO, KEIJI: Koitsukara Usetaitameno Hakarigoto CD (PSF 8029CD)19.00 The return of the "21st Century Hard-y-Guide-y Man"!

WATER
	LA DÜSSELDORF: La Düsseldorf CD (WATER 227CD) 15.00 "Upon the break-up of legendary Krautrock duo Neu!, drummer Klaus Dinger formed La Düsseldorf with his brother Thomas and keyboard player Hans Lampe. This, their self-titled debut, was recorded in 1975 and is a staggering mix of Dinger's trademark motorik rhythms, glammy synths, pulsing organs, and urgent guitar work that altogether create a sound that, at times, predates both punk and post-punk, no small feat. Featuring their European hit single 'Silver Cloud,' La Düsseldorf's debut record is classic Krautrock on par with the best offerings of Neu!, Kraftwerk, and Can."
	LA DÜSSELDORF: Viva CD (WATER 228CD) 15.00 "Viva is the second release from Klaus Dinger's post-Neu! group. Originally released in 1978, Viva is a stunning combination of washed-out synthesizers, swirling guitar work and Dinger's trademark motorik rhythms. Featuring the classic 'Cha, Cha 2000,' Viva is another fine effort from one of Krautrock's legends and stands as a testament of just how gloriously ahead of their time the German progressive rock scene of the '70s could be. An essential record, released domestically for the first time ever."

NEW WORLD RECORDS
	DAVIS, ANTHONY: Amistad: An Opera In Two Acts 2CD (NW 80627CD)30.00 "'Amistad is an opera that was ten years in the making. Thulani and I first discussed the idea of making an opera on the Amistad Rebellion in 1986, after the premiere of our opera X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X. We were drawn to the drama of the story, a successful uprising of captives on a slave ship, and the implications of the Amistad incident in an understanding of ourselves and the American experience. Through the Amistad, we could revisit the story of the Middle Passage, the contradictions implicit in the ethos of America, and also explore the emergence of the African-American as a cultural entity. Amistad is my most ambitious work to date and gave me the opportunity to expand upon what I learned from my previous operas as well as the chance to explore new musical areas.' — Anthony Davis. The music of Anthony Davis (b. 1951) embodies an intercultural approach, drawing not only upon traditional and current African-American sources, but upon Javanese gamelan, American minimalism, and the European and American avant-garde. Amistad, Davis' fourth, is an opera in two acts with full orchestra, double chorus, and an integrated jazz ensemble with trap drums that drives its motoric rhythmic flow. In many ways, Amistad revisits aspects of Davis' previous operas, X and Tania, but in a form that exhibits maximum focus and a tightened compositional practice. The musical language is marked by constant motion and kaleidoscopic permutation of the same elements, including a four-note ending cadence that appears constantly, but in ever-shifting guises. This recording is drawn from Lyric Opera of Chicago's 1997 world-premiere performances."
	IVES, CHARLES: The Light That Is Felt: Songs Of Charles Ives CD (NW 80680CD) 15.00 "Charles Ives composed nearly 200 songs throughout his life. Wiley Hitchcock, in the thorough introduction to his 2004 critical edition 129 Songs, described the Ives song canon as 'the contents of a kind of scrapbook or commonplace book or chapbook, or even a desk drawer. Into such a receptacle Ives tossed irregularly, if not casually, his reactions — in the form of songs — to memories, personalities, places, events, discoveries, ideas, visions, and fantasies in his life.' Whether popular tale or personal reflection, this concept of the songs as memorabilia is realized in a most powerful way: the songs emotionally and viscerally evoke memory. Captured memories — real or idealized, distant or near — are the materials for the music. From cosmopolitan incident ('Ann Street') to pastoral stroll ('The Housatonic at Stockbridge') Ives's songs describe a range of experience: a child's playtime, a commuter's observations, a courter's hope. His songs exhibit reverence for the populace and pop culture, daring adventure, and family devotion; life and death. This new recording of 27 songs features superlative performances by soprano Susan Narucki, renowned for her authoritative interpretations of contemporary American music, and Donald Berman, whose recordings of Ives's piano music have been critically acclaimed."

EM RECORDS (JAPAN)

WADA, YOSHI: Off The Wall CD (EM 1078CD) 20.00 More Yoshi Wada from EM Records! The long-awaited reissue of Wada's 1985 LP Off The Wall, recorded in Berlin and originally released on the esteemed FMP-subsidiary SAJ label. A minimalist yet majestic monsterpiece ("massive," as Tom Johnson declares in his perceptive liner notes), Off The Wall features Wada and Wayne Hankin on bagpipes, Marilyn Bogerd on adapted organ, and percussionist Andreas Schmidt-Neri. The original album consisted of two side-long pieces recorded on successive days by Jost Geber, who captured the power and dynamics of the quartet without losing the meditative delicacy of the bagpipes and the intricacy of their interplay with the homemade organ (constructed by Wada), resulting in a slowly-evolving mosaic of combination tones and overtones. Simultaneously static yet changing, rooted and ethereal, homespun and alien, ancient and very modern, the music is created entirely with acoustic instruments but has "electronic" textures at times, yet is very warm and human, always pulsing, shifting and mutating. Em Records is pleased indeed to release Off The Wall for the first time ever on CD, with the bonus track "Die Konsonanten Pfeifen," a slightly earlier recording with Wada and Hankin on bagpipes and Kevin Newhoff on percussion, originally released as a cassette.

OMNI RECORDING COMPANY (AUSTRALIA)
	WAGONER, PORTER: The Cold Hard Facts Of Life/Soul Of A ConvictCD (OMNI 118CD) 18.00 "Here for the first time on one CD are two of his very finest 'concept' albums (both originally issued in 1967) The Cold Hard Facts Of Life and Soul Of A Convict plus a number of rare 45-only tracks and versions. Superb showmanship and earth-cracking sincerity abound as Porter's cast of inebriates, cutthroats and troubled souls are captured on wax in all their moribund glory. Remastered from the original tapes and complete with original artwork and exclusive liner notes, these albums were recorded at a time of great tumult in Porter's personal and professional life and are without doubt the darkest jewels in country music's crown. 30 tracks on one CD including the hits 'The Cold Hard Facts Of Life,' 'Julie,' and 'Be Proud Of Your Man.'"
	CLAYTON, PAUL: Sings Homemade Songs And Ballads/Folk Singer!CD (OMNI 120CD) 18.00 "The late Paul Clayton is the great 'could have been' of folk music — the 'missing link' between Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan. Possessed of a strong voice and driving intellect he spent many years researching traditional songs and writing his own superb originals. Bizarrely neglected by history, Clayton is often cited for his profound inspiration on Bob Dylan yet his own sterling and pivotal recordings are all but forgotten. Among his varied and splendid discography the two LPs he cut for Monument Records are rightly considered the best and are presented here for the first time in over four decades. 28 remastered tracks from 1959-1965 released on CD for the first time. Includes four non LP singles."
	ROSE, BIFF: Biff Rose CD (OMNI 121CD) 18.00 "Biff Rose is well known as a wordsmith, satirist and vivid prankster. A 'flower-power' Tom Lehrer exploding across rollicking canvases of song best illustrated on his 1968 album The Thorn In Mrs. Rose's Side and 1969's Children Of Light. What is far less well known is that Biff Rose also had a serious side. Divorced and cast adrift his self-titled 1970 album is solemn, heartfelt and an undiscovered gem in his catalog. Grand orchestrations swirl around lyrics awash with loss and contemplation as they ride above Biff's dexterous tickling of the ivories. 14 tracks remastered and on CD for the first time."

WATER
	BRIGGS, ANNE: Anne Briggs CD (WATER 199CD) 15.00 Reissue of the first Anne Briggs album, originally issued on Topic. "The first full-length album from the legendary folk singer, originally released in 1971. Anne Briggs was a huge influence on the entire British folk-rock movement, especially other female singers such as Sandy Denny, Jacqui McShee, and Maddy Prior. Anne Briggs is a strong collection of traditional folk songs and original material and one of the most important releases of the British folk revival. Despite the fact that Briggs had been on the folk scene since the early '60s this was her first full-length effort, delayed by erratic behavior and studio fears, and she would record only two more records before dropping off the scene entirely. Thankfully we have this, her first and strongest record, reissued for the first time with the original cover."
	WALKER, SCOTT: 'Til The Band Comes In CD (WATER 226CD) 15.00 "In discussions of Scott Walker's body of work 1970's 'Til The Band Comes In is unfairly left out or, even worse, derided as excruciatingly saccharine. However, the first ten songs on this album, all Walker originals, are on par with his finest work on classic albums Scott 3 and Scott 4. While the covers that close out the album (with the notable exception of 'It's Over') do feel like additions that reek of label pressure, it shouldn't detract from the rest of the record. Scott Walker's fifth solo album is a fine example of the early work from one of pop music's most idiosyncratic geniuses, reissued on CD for the first time domestically."

TOUCH (UK)
	IKEDA, RYOJI: Matrix 2CD (TO 044CD) 20.00 Touch reissues Japanese electronic composer Ryoji Ikeda's 2001 release, Matrix, without postcards. Matrix is the final element in a trilogy of CDs that began with +/- in 1996. When it was first released, +/- came like a bolt out of the white. Nobody had used digital recording processes to produce sound as pure, as intense and as exhilarating. Since releasing 0° in 1998, Ryoji Ikeda has progressively refined and enhanced the distinctive sonic fields and microsounds that have strongly influenced post-digital composition, resisting the transitory cycle suggested by the term "glitches," creating compositions that deeply probe our relationships to time and space, sound and light. That's the only forewarning of what awaits you on putting the first CD into your player. The layers of sound that make up Matrix transform both the listener and the listening environment into another dimension. The dimensions change as you move about the space, or simply turn your head around the sound like surveying the angles of a building. Matrix has much in common with the work of La Monte Young, Tony Conrad, and Alvin Lucier, but, poised closer to the imminent and auto-interactive virtual world we are promised, Ryoji Ikeda's new work pushes the parameters of the drone to ask timely questions concerning our relationship to our own perceptions, and to our existing living spaces. Double CD in gatefold wallet.
	O'ROURKE, JIM: Despite The Water Supply 7" (TS 007EP) 7.00 American musician and producer Jim O'Rourke continues the Touch Sevens 7" vinyl-only limited edition series with an epic, two-part track recorded at Tokyo's Steamroom, May 2008. This series is a non-digital statement that cannot be applied to digital formats — the sonic texture, the use of a locked groove, the A & the B. The label chose not to specify the RPM, encouraging listeners to experiment with playback options and personal preferences. Artwork and photography by Jon Wozencroft.

BROKEN HORSE (UK)

PLUSH: Fed CD (BKH 015CD) 19.00 "Six years after its Japan-only release on the After Hours label, Broken Horse is thrilled to announce the first European release of the much-talked-about but seldom-heard Fed, the second album by Liam Hayes' Plush. Since Plush's debut 7", Three Quarters Blind Eyes / Found A Little Baby was released to universal praise in 1994 on Drag City, the tale of Plush has been one mostly concerned with the promise of new recordings, scrapped sessions, rumor and speculation concerning Hayes' quest to match the songs in his head with the recordings in his hand. What has been vastly overlooked is the music. It was four years before Drag City released Plush's debut album, More You Becomes You. Few albums can be described as being truly unique, but More You Becomes You is, without doubt, one of those albums that can actually put in a serious bid for that description. While a full-blown orchestral pop album was indeed planned, Hayes instead delivered a uniquely minimal set of intimate piano & vocal ballads, which somehow managed to present a unique, first-take feel despite the incredible attention to detail Hayes applied to the performances and recordings that had actually taken place. Although upon completion Hayes found himself without a label in either the US or Europe, the artistic success of the album could not be denied. Throughout its 14 tracks, from the roaring opening track 'Whose Blues' to the epic 'No Education' to the pop-masterpiece 'Born Together' to the closing lullaby 'The Woods,' Fed remains spectacularly melodic and inventive throughout. Upon its Japanese release, Uncut called the album 'the dazzling symphonic album he always threatened to produce,' whilst Rolling Stone called it a 'soulful symphonic masterpiece' suggesting that its non-domestic release was further proof of the decline of American culture."

LE CHANT DU MONDE (FRANCE)

ELAHI, OSTAD: Destinations 2CD (CDM 7741626) 24.00 This is the 9th volume of Elahi recordings on this label, documenting his dedication to "the art of oriental tanbur lute". By European standards, this is somewhat budge-priced for 2 CDs. These previously unissued recordings date from the early 70s (with one track from the late 50s!). It's worth saying again: for music of transcendational quality via stringed instruments, these are some of the most important releases of recent vintage. "A mystic amongst men, Ostad Elahi's profound reflection on the relationship between music, the soul and god enabled him to transmit an entire musical heritage of popular origin through transforming it into music of the most classical type."

Awesome to see these Lovely Music Ltd. records from Peter Gordon and "Blue" Gene Tyranny available again on CD.  My personal favorite of the bunch is "Blue" Gene Tyranny with Joel Ryan The Intermediary.  This record is an unconscious precursor to the Fennesz/Sakamoto collaboration Cendre, with something up on it to boot.  The popular favorite from this bunch will be Just for the Record for the Phil Harmonic piece "Timing" which has sustained a cult note over the years.  Search for "Life is Boring" and "Lullabye" for some excellent sleeper mixtape jollies on Peter Gordon's Star Jaws.

The albums are available as of now via Lovely in an excellent deal running through November 15th. All three discs for $27, or $10 each.  Full details and ordering at Lovely Music Ltd.

According to New Music Connoisseur these discs are being done in a limited run, with limited distribution and promotion.  So grab them direct from Lovely while they've still got them, and help spread the word.  Perhaps this will encourage further small run wonders.

Looks like Daniel Johnston and his “Hi, How Are You?” alien will make their way into space via Ukraine.

I really didn't see this one coming.  Not only that I really would've preferred David Foster Wallace stay alive and write for many more years.  If that sounds selfish it probably is.  David Foster Wallace was 46 years-old at his death, young for a major writer, with what will now look like a small body of work.  In his lifetime he published one insignificant youthful novel, two short story collections, two essay collections, and one precocious major-length novel.  His body of work was small but gave the impression of boundlessness, and the best seemed yet to come.  Possessing a scattershot brilliance that committed to nothing and understood everything, or tried, Wallace certainly hit (or gave the impression of hitting) the mark more often than not.  That was inspiring enough to make him looked up to by at least a couple of generations, his own and the younger (mine), during his own lifetime.

     I think it's safe to say that I believed in David Foster Wallace to a certain degree.  Believing in him perhaps had less to do with the actual books he wrote and more to do with what I perceived him doing with them.  I could attribute that to style, but that wouldn't really get at the stabbing-at-everythingness that his writing seemed to me to accomplish – more so than anyone else of the present era and not just as "the voice of a generation" or something as facelessly cliché that.  It was far more real and ridiculous, superhero like.  DFW was out there struggling to make sense of everything we were and probably more.  Probably some things were going on we as a culture hadn't even been able to see yet.  It was that he was out there and writing about it all in an extremely personal way.  He was doing it on a massive scale, and yet he didn't seem nearly so hard to get at as a Neal Stephenson or Thomas Pynchon (science doesn't pervade nearly every sentence in Wallace as it does with these two).  So with all that exceptional doing, I can best describe noticing on Facebook a friend with the status "Jane is David Foster Wallace R.I.P." as a halting moment.  Though I wasn't thinking on these terms exactly then, I understood that my confusions and insecurities were no longer possibly part of the watch of a superhero-like figure.  If David Foster Wallace was stopping, something in me had to as well.  I will embrace the cliché that "when he died, a little piece of me did too."  If it's safe to assume we all have ongoing personal diaries (some might call them dialogues, others histories) for themselves, somewhere built into mine was David Foster Wallace as a free agent, able to write his own dialogue into mine in a totally enriching and, in fact, life-affirming way.  So ya my concern over Wallace's suicide was immediately personal, selfish, confusing.

     I went back immediately to one of my favorite stories "Good Old Neon," a story from the perspective of a suicide, from his last collection of fiction Oblivion.  Prescient huh?  "Good Old Neon" was one of my favorites immediately upon its publication because of the inspired rambling quality of it.  As cheap a trick as this might sound in this discussion, it's effectively from the perspective of a successful golden-boy type who has committed suicide largely due to his fear of being a phony.  According to his own labrynthian reasoning he chronically uses the situations to present himself disingenuously, usually based on some input he's had from the recipient of the phony self.  David Foster Wallace is a character introduced at the end contemplating this person's death, and it seems to be based on a real life acquaintance of Wallace.  I read the story looking for answers, admittedly, or at least an inspiring new perspective considering Wallace's own suicide.  Essentially the story story offered none of that, but is still astounding for it's insight and spiritual even-handedness in dealing with one's own mortality.  At the end the only thing I believed I gained was having read an beautifully heartfelt and eloquent rant that showed there are an infinite number of ways to be conflicted and unhappy and that there are no easy answers for anyone's life.

     Now would be a fine time to have a quality perspective on this country – crumbling economy, an impending presidential election that that seems less like a potential turning point than opportunity to further prove how doomed we are, an fearsome political landscape overall.  I cannot help but think, to any-old obvious degree, of hanging yourself in your apartment being a fitting response in itself.  Wallace was on the campaign trail with McCain during the race for the 2000 Republican candidacy.  On assignment from Rolling Stone (Wallace is clear to point out he's not a political reporter, and that's what they were looking for) his experience was first published there in abbreviated form and then later as an unedited online publication titled "Up, Simba" (later re-published twice more, first in the collection Consider the Lobster, and just this summer on it's own as McCain's Promise).  If you can remember what McCain was like that far back, he was getting a lot of press as a man who could draw the young vote in record numbers.  He was a "straight talk" man and took a lot of stances that for a politician were quite rebellious:  banning soft money from his campaign, calling bullshit on a variety common cheap political campaign promises that can never be met, pointing to major political bodies as complicit in healthcare fraud, and so on.   He was as Foster describes him an "anticandidate" and that held a lot of appeal for people at that time.  We all can see how McCain has changed for this election.  He went from having the most backbone, to having none at all.  He appears to have given himself over completely to his campaign advisers.  Recently that's meant saying completely opposite remarks in a matter of days.  Instead of "straight talk" he's clearly on the floor now as just another politician desperate to be elected.  And the terribly sad thing is, it's working very passably well for him to be so fickle and underhanded.  Whatever bit of humanity this man had ten years ago on the campaign trail has mostly been bled out of him, likely by old age.  A friend of has a 15 year old poodle named Fudge that is so old and close to death that he's allowed himself to limit interaction with humans to his most sincere desire, he begs for food.  McCain looks a lot like Fudge to me.  At 72 he's near the end of his rope, solely wants to be president before he goes, and really doesn't care how pathetic and contrary he looks in the process.  Every once in a while it seems like McCain shows good reason to want to be president, and yet it's so fleeting I can't tell if he's remembering what he really holds to be true or if he's just forgetting what he's supposed to be saying.

     To be perfectly transparent, I read "Up, Simba," looking for answers also.  Perhaps Wallace had foreboding insights into McCain?  Was the prospect of his camp coming to power was one of the many back-breaking needles I'm sure he was dealing with?  Well, again, Wallace proves himself to be too good a writer for anything that easy.  "Up, Simba" is across-the-board very objective and fair, and even largely approving (his job was to show what was attractive about the man).  I learned not very much except that McCain's life showed some signs of a truly exceptional person somewhere in there.  Still, the closing sentences of the essay present a poignantly accurate, perhaps shamelessly honest paradox.  In the end it's not about what McCain, or any candidate is about, especially on the campaign stage.  What it ultimately comes down to is what's in our own hearts and minds.  McCain is not any more free of us than the suicide.  In the face of oblivion, potential or actual, reflecting on how ultimately responsible for everything about ourselves we are, it doesn't seem like that silly of an idea to live with.