Descargar

Devendra Banhart : Somkey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon

Sello: Beggars XL Recordings
Estilo: Freak Folk, Folk, Singer-Songwriter, New Weird America, Naturalismo
Para Fans de: Joanna Newsom, Vetiver, Akron/Family, Beirut, Grizzly Bear, Espers

Tracklist:

1. Cristobal

2. So Long Old Bean

3. Samba Vexillographica

4. Seahorse

5. Bad Girl

6. Seaside

7. Shabop Shalom

8. Tonada Yanomaminista

9. Rosa

10. Saved

11. Lover

12. Carmencita

13. Other Woman, The

14. Freely

15. I Remember

16. My Dearest Friend

Corre el minuto 2’21’’ de esa delicada y deliciosa “Samba Vexillographica” y se escucha un sonoro “coño, la cagué”. Ese es Devendra Banhart, un artista tan peculiar, impredecible y ácrata como inteligente y profundo conocedor de la herencia musical que atesora.

Un bagaje el suyo que bebe de un buen número de fuentes: bandas que ejemplificaron los años hippies con base en San Francisco como Moby Grape, Jefferson Airplane o Grateful Dead; el folk de la otra costa (de Joan Baez a Paul Simon, pasando por el sacrosanto Dylan); bandas británicas como Moody Blues, The Beatles o T-Rex, pero también de toda la tradición latinoamericana de Joâo Gilberto, Caetano Veloso o Atahualpa Yupanqui. Y el genio de Devendra Banhart consiste precisamente en saber combinar toda esa tradición con tanta habilidad y pericia como por ejemplo Ry Cooder, imprimiéndole además ese sello tan particular que le otorga una voz tan dulce como hipnotizante a la que hay que añadir ese clásico finger picking de su acústica y los grandes músicos que le acompañan.

Si ya su anterior “Cripple Crow” era todo un alarde de collage estilístico, su nuevo trabajo no hace más que ahondar en ese camino, ampliando aún más la paleta de estilos, pero sin descuidar en ningún momento esas melodías que parecen salir del inconsciente colectivo de ese universo místico que como buen hippie le rodea. Por eso puedes encontrar esa preciosa balada soul con coros gospel que es “Saved”, el ritmo dub del espiritual “The Other Woman”, el funky festivo de “Lover”, la psicodelia folk-rock a lo Traffic de ese anti-single de más de ocho minutos que es “Seahorse”, la bossa más delicada de “Rosa” y, en definitiva, canciones enormes de una delicadeza y belleza tal que sitúan a su autor entre lo más sólido, interesante y capaz de los cantautores de la escena actual.

Tarentel - Ghetto Beats Under The Surface Of The Sun

Descargar Disco 1
Descargar Disco 2

Sello: Music Fellowship/Temporary Residence
Estilo: Post-rock, Psych-rock, Experimental, Ambient, Drone
Para fans de: Labradford, GY!BE, Landing, Tim Hecker, The Dead Texan, Esmerine, Vibracathedral Orchestra...

Tracklist
DISC ONE:
1. Everybody Fucks With Somebody
2. All Things Vibrations
3. Dreamtigers
4. Ghost Trees
5. Le Trash Can
6. Ghetto Ghosts
7. Sun Place
8. Donkey-Bunny
9. Tied To A Tree In A Jungle Of Mystery
10. Cosmic Dust

DISC TWO:
1. Stellar Envelope
2. A Crystal The Size Of Our Moon In The Heart Of A Pulsating White Dwarf
3. Mirrors, Gardens
4. As Quiet As Silentifically Possible
5. Warm Glass
6. Fever Sleep
7. Sleep Map
8. Whistle In The Wires
9. Somebody Fucks With Everybody
10. Where Time Forgot
11. Isalais Delay
12. You Do This. I'll Do That.
13. Lake Light

Tarentel fueron a finales del siglo pasado uno de los principales grupos que dinamitaron la escena rock en lo que se dio por llamar post-rock (junto a Mogwai, GY!BE, DMST, EITS...). El calificativo ya había sido usado antes pero con la llegada de estas bandas su popularidad aumentó exponencialmente. Desde From Bone To Satellite (Temporary Residence, 1999) y a diferencia de otras bandas no han parado de evolucionar y experimentar. Las claves en la última etapa de su evolución han sido la incorporación de Jim Redd (Sonna, Lazarus) a la batería que ha cambiado por completo la forma de componer de la banda, se puede apreciar desde el sobresaliente We Move Through Weather (Temporary Residence, 2004) y la construcción de un estudio propio que les proporciona mayor libertad a la hora de componer y grabar. Si a esto unimos que Jefre Cantu-Ledesma (guitarra) dirige Root Strata no es de extrañar la evolución de la banda en los últimos años con un ritmo de ediciones imparable y una mayor tendencia hacia la experimentación y la improvisación.

Este descomunal Ghetto Beats Under The Surface Of The Sun con sus cuatro volumenes en vinilo ahora reeditados en un 2xCD por Temporary Residence, confirman la evolución. Aquí el principal protagonista es el ritmo, hipnótico, cortante, denso, demencial por momentos. Las capas de beats y baterías superpuestas son protagonistas de los mejores cortes: All Things Vibrations con su comienzo frenético es un buen ejemplo de lo que nos encontaremos, las trepidantes percusiones dan paso en los últimos minutos a un tranquilo paisaje ambiental construido por guitarras, violín y drones espectrales. En el siguinte LP Sun Place brilla con luz propia, una jam de percusiones hipnóticas casi infinita con guitarras intuitivas, sonidos y efectos espe(a)ciales que entran y salen y que se acaba delizando hacia un oscuro espacio de distorsión. Espeluznante! Al igual que la otra pieza larga del 2º LP Tied to tree in a jungle of mystery, dónde la electrónica -cercana a Tim Hecker- tiene una mayor presencia que se acentúa en los siguientes volúmenes. El festín sigue, la experimentación continúa, a medio camino de todo en una fusión imposible de Can, Neu!, This Heat y No Neck Blues Band pero con su propia personalidad, la banda de San Francisco vuelve a expandir las fronteras del rock con su mejor y más completo trabajo hasta la fecha. En noviembre podremos disfrutar de sus improvisaciones en el Tanned Tin.

Extraido de andtheworldsmileswithyou.

Immediately following the release of their acclaimed 2004 album, We Move Through Weather, Tarentel built on their forward momentum by recording another several hours worth of material, its fate to be determined at a later date. Tarentel don't follow up their albums so much as follow through them. To that end, Ghetto Beats On The Surface Of The Sun is more of an exploded view of the world the band has built and un-built for over a decade, each track acting as a map to an increasingly cosmic landscape. Originally released as a limited edition series of vinyl albums, Ghetto Beats is collected here on two CDs - a full two and a half hours of music. It is a sun-baked cluster of ragged rhythms, splintered sound and scorched shimmer. The production is a caustic mix of hi- and lo-fi, creating a strange sense of timelessness, like discovering a black and white photograph of the future. Available in a numbered, limited edition quadruple gatefold jacket, Ghetto Beats On The Surface Of The Sun is a widescreen projection of unspeakable charm and unlikely beauty. (Temporary Residence)

Sandro Perri - Tiny Mirrors

Descargar

Sello: Constellation
Estilo: Singer-songwritter, Experimental, Folk
Para fans de: Polmo Polpo, Molasses, Glissandro 70, Black Ox Orkestra, Eric Chenaux...

Tracklist
1. Family Tree
2. City Of Museums
3. Double Suicide
4. The Drums
5. Everybody's Talkin'
6. The Mime
7. You're The One
8. White Flag Blues
9. Love Is Real
10. Mirror Tree

This is the first full-length recording by Sandro Perri under his own name, following an E.P. on Constellation last year (on which Perri re-interpreted songs from his critically-acclaimed Polmo Polpo instrumental/electronic project). Working with some of Toronto's finest avant and improv players, Sandro has fully re-invented himself as a singer, lyricist and guitar player, and Tiny Mirrors is the culmination of this transformation - a highly personal collection of songs, shaped by an utterly original approach to composition, performance, and melodic and vocal phrasing.

Tiny Mirrors incorporates elements and sensibilities - albeit in subtle hues - as diverse as Vanguard-era Skip James (and his weary falsetto), post-tropicalia Caetano Veloso (the compositional twists), and the 60s-era axis of hybrid songwriters like Tim Buckley, Tim Hardin, Harry Nilsson and Fred Neil (whose "Everybody's Talkin'" is covered here, re-cast as a rumination on the 'epidemic' of second-hand experience). Perri's simultaneous guitar and kick drum playing is complemented by the cracked wah guitar of labelmate Eric Chenaux on several tracks, with brass, reeds, woodwinds, keys and percussion filling out the arrangements, courtesy of regular bandmates Ryan Driver, Marcus Quin and John Jowett. A handful of other Toronto players contribute on drums, trombone and cello.

Crucial to the album's sound is the fact that Perri gave up much control to the group dynamics, allowing some of the arrangements to develop out of the players' natural tendencies towards improvisation. "Love Is Real", for example, set to a fluid and amorphous backdrop of heavily phased 'neo-soul', was altered substantially by Chenaux's rhythmic re-configurations, while "Double Suicide" (of which the original version has not yet seen proper release) is presented here in an alternate form. Anchored entirely by drummer Blake Howard's in-studio restlessness, the original gets transformed from a brooding slow-burner into a strangely fractured bossa nova; a tricky polyrhythmic delight. Ending the record is a re-working of the lead-off track "Family Tree", here renamed "Mirror Tree" and consisting of only the core band, sans Perri altogether - a testament to the group's interpretive power.

Overall, Perri strikes the perfect balance of sophisticated writing (melodically and as a lyricist) and, with the help of his band, deceptively effortless, relaxed, unconstrained performance. These songs abound in subtle texture and flourish, and the burbling swirl of instrumental work is a through-line to his earlier recordings as Polmo Polpo, where a similarly simmering brew of interweaving melodies yielded such an original and seductive take on 'electronic' music. Perri brings the same originality, warmth, energy and intelligence to his eponymous singer-songwriter work; Tiny Mirrors pulses and froths and lounges and glides with inimitable ingenuity, genuineness, substance and style.

The album was beautifully recorded by Jeff McMurrich (Hidden Cameras, Constantines, Bruce Cockburn) at Hallamusic in Toronto. Two songs, and various overdubs, were recorded at Sandro's home studio, The Honey Pot.

The CD format of this recording comes in a felt-finish cardstock package with bronze foil-stamp printing. 180gLP comes in same paper, with a silkscreen print.

The Holy See - Fucking Physics

Descargar

Sello: Foxglove
Estilo: Drone, Noise, Experimental
Para fans de: Tarentel, Axolotl, Mouthus, Burning Star Core...

This is the second release we've listed from The Holy See, the ferocious Tarentel side project featuring two members of that ambient bliss rock ensemble. But you won't find any ambience here, or rock for that matter, but plenty of bliss, that is if your idea of bliss is blown out white hot slabs of coruscating feedback and dense squalls of shimmering guitar skree. Which if you're anything like us, most certainly is!
The opener is just that, a 25 minute ur-drone, massive and throbbing and pulsing, it's like 100 Skullflowers and 100 Sunroof!'s all playing at top volume through the same amplifier. Beautifully distorted and in the red, overblown melodies swallowed whole by thick sheets of metallic shimmer, everything cracking and crumbling before your very eyes, a soothing sonic shower, like dunking your head into a pool of molten sound.
The brief two minute blast of the second track is more of the same, a lightning bolt of grinding blown out electronic buzz, but it's the last track where everything changes.
The corrosive skree of the first track is dialed back a bit, so it's more of a low level sea of glitches and grinding malfunctioning electronics, but beneath, is a strangely serene soundscape, gentle melancholy melodies hover and drift, a warm and languorous shimmer wrapped in dense swirls of fuzzy sonic psychout, eventually building to a fever pitch, but managing to not become 'noisier' just more dense and intense.

Xeltrei - Litotes

Descargar

Sello: Symbolic Interaction
Estilo: Minimal, Electronica, Experimental
Para fans de: Library Tapes, Nancy Elizabeth, Early Songs, Yasushi Yoshida

Tracklist
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　01. letargi
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　02. frugal
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　03. litotes
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　04. korossion
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　05. trampolin
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　06. karuseller
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　07. porslin
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　08. sicksack
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　09. landfotografi
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　10. granser

Litotes are, as Webster’s states, “understatement[s] in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of the contrary.” In plain English, litotes are phrases, such as “not bad” or “not that wonderful,” where the opposite meanings of the adjectives (bad, wonderful) are put forward (not bad = good; not that wonderful = awful). Xeltrei’s “Litotes” is an incredible exercise in restraint which lives up to the aforementioned concept as an amazing piece of musical understatement that still bursts with memory and meaning. Not bad, indeed.

Xeltrei hails from Sweden and consists of Erica on piano and David (of Library Tapes) on piano, field recordings, and computer. Their short album is made up of ten tracks of delicate, muffled piano melodies mixed with an array of crumbling sounds. Xeltrei explains their collaboration as “lo-fi piano music made with love.” Indeed, each song is quite simple, but extremely heartfelt. The music sounds almost like a forgotten, homemade cassette where each melancholy note on the piano is allowed to resonate before it fades. Additionally, some of the shorter tracks play like small, salvaged fragments of song that fade or cut out quickly, adding to the lost and found quality of the music.

Piano is only half of the story, of course. The various found sounds and effects, add to the atmosphere. These manipulations enhance the feeling that this is a lo-fi recording affected by incidental noise. The real success of “Litotes” is that it draws the listener into this simulated space with its sonic quirks. It is extremely easy to become lost in thought listening to this album, placing yourself inside the sound and remembering your own versions of the personal moments reflected in the music.

Truly, it is rare that an album can say everything it needs to say so subtly. “Litotes” is the perfect compliment to memories of days past with its dual senses of history and melancholy. It’s a credit to the music that something so minimal and understated could brim with so much feeling and thought. Xeltrei has succeeded in creating an essential piece of mood music that is both achingly beautiful and timeless. 10/10

Astral Social Club - Neon Pibroch

Descargar

Sello: Important
Estilo: Drone, Psych-rock, Experimental
Para fans de: Burning Star Core, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Flower/Corsano Duo, Axolotl, Ashtray Navigations

Tracklist
Tripel Foment
Neon Pibroch
The Big Spree

Astral Social Club is the pseudonym of one Neil Campbell, a man whose involvement in the UK's experimental music scene has been well documented. Through his work with the Vibracathedral Orchestra and the Sunroof! guise he has consistently amazed and enthralled listeners, not only bringing together a huge legion of fans but also managing to influence countless young acts. This latest work sees the astral traveler moving into further realms and finally putting a capital 'c' on club, bringing in 4/4 beats into the psychedelic fold for a change. You think I'm kidding, I can tell, but I'm being deadly serious, pitted head-on against the shimmering beauty of Campbell's synthesized pads and patented drones are pounding warehouse beats, the sort of beats you'd expect to hear at some disused Birmingham lock-up, not in the recorded output a man best known for making jams that out-psych Sunburned Hand of the Man. It's no bad thing though, and as you can probably imagine this ain't your ordinary dance music as Campbell uses the teutonic beats to inform the path of the devastating drones and noise that grows around them. Elsewhere on the album we are treated to two long-form and more typical pieces of blissful dream-drone, but my money's on the first track. Excellent stuff.

Televise - Strings And Wires

Descargar

Sello: Drifting Falling
Estilo: Electronica, Experimental, Shoegaze, Dream pop
Para fans de: Slowdive, Mahogany, Port Royal, Ulrich Schnauss

Tracklist
Mezzo
Koto
Resonated
Perfect Sound
Fist
This Is Whatever (Mole Harness Remix)

Strings and Wires falls into that category of recordings that appear out of left field and instantly disarm for being so fully realized, prompting one to wonder how one could have been unaware of the composer and his material before. Simon Scott certainly brings a storied CV to the project. The Cambridge-born producer occupied the drum chair in The Charlottes and Slowdive (on the albums Just for a Day and Souvlaki), did session stints with Chapterhouse, Saint Etienne, and Jewel, and toured with bands like Ride, House of Love and Swervedriver. An encounter with original Pink Floyd member Syd Barrett prompted Scott to form Televise in 2003 and the debut, three years later, of Songs to sing in A&E (plans are underway to release mixes of the album's tracks by Isan, Port Royal , Mole Harness, Sebastien Roux, Ulrich Schnauss, and others).

Strings and Wires isn't shoegazing; instead, Scott shapes his material into warm, cloud-like masses at the center of which occasionally recognizable guitar sounds can be heard. Though there is unanimity, each of the album's six songs explores different stylistic terrain. “Koto” loops granular tones into machine-like rhythms before blossoming into rippling patterns. In the melancholic “Resonated,” the cry of electric and acoustic guitar melodies pierce the billowing haze while guitar lines gracefully unfurl like flower petals during the eleven-minute meditation “Fist.” A haunting melody forms the nucleus of “Perfect Sound” and, though a thick blanket of hiss muffles the sound, the guitar's ponderous theme and bell percussion are still able to declare themselves. It's entirely fitting that Mole Harness should be present as a contributor, given the superb caliber of James Brewster's own recordings (All Your Memories Return At Once, A Present From the Future). Brewster's Mole Harness remix of “This is Whatever” morphs stuttering loops into a drone of speaking voices and wavering tones that grows progressively denser over the course of its seven minutes. The album's most beautiful piece may be the opener “Mezzo” where two tonal surges see-saw, punctuated by starbursts of crackle; Scott manipulates his warm sonic fields so deftly here, one could miss the submerged cry that wails so softly within the oscillating mass. Kudos to Scott for bringing a unique voice to the electronic sound-sculpting genre. (textura.org)

Tarentel: Home Ruckus Double Sided Double Air

Descargar

Sello: Type
Estilo: Post-rock, Experimental, Psychedelic, Drone, Ambient
Para fans de: Landing, Labradford, Eluvium, The Dead Texan, Stars Of The Lid...

‘Home Ruckus : Double-Sided Air’ is the latest emission from San Francisco’s shape-shifting Post Post Rockers Tarentel and is one of their most thoughtful moments to date. With references to the clattering percussion of Chris Corsano, the droning ambience of Mirror or Stars of the Lid and the almost spiritual improv of Sunburned Hand of the Man the band have totally sidestepped their previous sound and found a fresh and desperately involving voice. Made up of two tracks, both part of one all-encompassing whole these are home-recorded gems, improvised without being directionless and experimental without losing sight of the fact that people might want to listen to the music. Strictly limited to 500 copies, this is the perfect follow-up to the band’s long-sold out Home Ruckus LP on the Root Strata label, and is sure to be snapped up by eager fans very quickly. Cosmic!

V/A - Bound With Skin

Descargar cd1 - cd2 - cd3 - cd4 - cd5

Sello: Skulls Of Heaven
Estilo: Psych-Folk, Psych-Rock, Experimental, Drone

Tracklisting:

1-1	Tomutonttu	Samman Aikaan Toisaalla (9:58)
1-2	Skaters, The	.:-:-:. (10:56)
1-3	Ashtray Navigations	The Winking Halogen Devil/Lazy Screens/Bunnys With Bullets In Their Mouthes (13:26)
1-4	Zodiac Mountain	Hinge Hex (8:33)
1-5	Wooden Wand & Vanishing Voice, The	Djin Rummy: The Poetry Of Lunacy (7:35)
2-1	Pengo	Moats (9:22)
2-2	Maths Balance Volumes	Elegy For Breeze Von Goodyear/The Gravediggers Dance (8:20)
2-3	Brothers Of The Occult Sisterhood	<<.!.>> (12:08)
2-4	White Dog (2)	Answers Never Questioned (9:20)
2-5	Armpit	Grunge King (9:25)
3-1	Fursaxa & Zaïmph	Sword Forest (11:54)
3-2	Axolotl	Anola (For ERA) (8:01)
3-3	Astral Social Club	Uroo Uroo Uroo (11:00)
3-4	Excepter	Cruel Sensation (5:41)
3-5	PW Best	Sundogs (13:33)
4-1	Uton	Universumista Soremenpaihin (8:07)
4-2	Watersports	Elemog (5:07)
4-3	Anla Courtis	A-642170/43 (8:09)
4-4	Pan To Scratch	The Southern Gate (10:04)
4-5	Taikuri Tali	Kello Rittui (7:09)
5-1	Wolfskull	Builder (9:33)
5-2	United Bible Studies	The Black Lighthouse (11:33)
5-3	Kyrgyz	Ghosts Of The Winter Run (12:14)
5-4	Navy Black	Kids Are The New Pets (5:20)
5-5	Clixcx	Ygrycsil (11:16)

(skull001) V/A - Bound with Skin ( 5 X CD compilation) {an experiment in social obfuscation and dynamic metaphysical acoustics} After three whole years of shifting plans and unusual exchanges, Skulls of Heaven is proud to finally present: Bound with Skin 5 X CD compilation. In the Summer of 2004 we started asking our favorite artists to send us some of their most challenging and unusual work, with the only guideline being that their piece had to be 6 - 13 minutes long. After all this time, we receivd many submissions, and here we have compiled the 25 best, most unsual and stimulating sounds. What results is 5 very unique and disturbing CDs, each in black slip (each with art by Shayde Sartin). Bound with cardstock obi strip and leather cord. With a balance of these humors and your good fortunes to feast here, witness our accumulation of great sonic dilemma... such as:: The spliced tribal frenzies of the Tomutonttu, raw and intimate portraits of the Skaters astral beginings, triptych portrayals of the Ashtray Navigations, a split journey backwards down the Zodiac Mountain, and fucked wwvv more than a non-horse could carry. and // Synth fried elegies from the sick as Pengo, a post apocalypse waltz with the Maths Balance Volumes, until the fried and breaking cast of Brothers of the Occult Sisterhood bare down, to hear the first howling death of the White Dog, and the unhinged knighthood of the Armpit responds. while // reUniting the elemetal forces here called Zaimph and Fursaxa, Axolotl scribed sensations for era, a further triolgy from albion's Astral Social Club, the seer describes the tight rope lunacy of Exceptor, and the sounding of the great solar call by ghq and pelt veteran warrior master PW Best until // Uton opens a forth still universe, where Watersports lay bathing in soothing stasis, Anla Courtis plays a solar shaman's lullaby, courting the southern realm by the spirits of Pan to Scratch, and the earthbound mantras of Taikuri Tali where // now ends the great sonic architecture of the Wolfskull, with haunted lighthouse rituals and United Bible Studies, Kyrgyz buzzing meditations posted scripture to the silence, as silence captures Navy Black, and Clixcx revolts at their own analog prophecy. __._,_.___ Limited to 500

Nancy Elizabeth - Battle & Victory

Descargar

Sello: Leaf
Estilo: Indie-Folk, Singer-Songwriter
Para fans de: Tunng, Marissa Nadler, Colleen, Efterklang

Tracklist
1. I’m Like The Paper
2. I Used To Try
3. Off With Your Axe
4. The Remote Past
5. Coriander
6. 8 Brown Legs
7. Electric
8. Hey Son
9. Weakened Bow
10. What Is Human
11. Lung
12. How Can I Stop?
13. Battle and Victory


With an intuitive understanding of melody and dynamics, Nancy Elizabeth brings a refreshingly Northern turn of phrase to her debut album, Battle and Victory. The Lancashire-born singer’s down-to-earth songs are brought to life by her warm and unaffected voice. Unpretentious but effortlessly ambitious, Nancy turns the retro, less-is-more aesthetic of the current acoustic revival on its head. Not content with writing and singing all the songs herself, the 23-year-old also plays most of the instruments, including guitar, khim, Indian harmonium, Appalachian dulcimer and bouzouki, amongst many others.

Prominently featured is a 22-string Celtic harp, which she first picked up a little over two years ago, after an inspirational chance meeting with a harp player at a Liverpool gallery. Not long afterwards she received a modest award from a music foundation, and within days had spent it all on the perfect instrument, which has become a cornerstone of her performances.

The album was recorded in a 17th Century white stone cottage in the remote Welsh countryside, and a village hall outside Manchester, resulting in an intimate, uncontrived gem of a record. Using a minimum of recording equipment, the heartfelt honesty of her songs is revealed, extending to grander, more complex arrangements when the occasion calls, and bringing in friends to add cello, horns and percussion. While her work is never in thrall to any particular artist or genre, Nancy’s music calls to mind aspects of artists as diverse as Nina Nastasia, The Incredible String Band, Radiohead, Jackie McShee, Mogwai, Talk Talk and Led Zeppelin.

Immersed in music from an early age (“music has always seemed more natural than talking,” she says), Nancy has been writing songs since she was 14, and has performed live for six years. In the last twelve months she has appeared at the Green Man Festival (where she will appear again this August) and played alongside A Hawk And A Hacksaw, Tunng and James Yorkston among others. She is currently putting together a small touring group to augment her already muchloved acoustic ‘one-girl-band’ shows which feature primarily acoustic guitar and her beloved harp.

Nancy’s debut EP, The Wheel Turning King, was released in 2006 by Manchester’s Timbreland Recordings, under her full name, Nancy Elizabeth Cunliffe (she recently dropped her family name, on the grounds that “no one beyond a two mile radius of Wigan can pronounce 'Cunliffe' properly”).

Preceding the album release will be two limited edition 7” singles, ‘Hey Son’ and ‘I Used To Try’, both with exclusive B-sides.

Kuupuu - Unilintu

Descargar

Sello: Dekorder
Estilo: Free-Folk, Avant-Folk, Psych-Folk, Drone
Para fans de: Islaja, Terracid, Thuja, Fursaxa, Kemialliset Ystävät

About half a year ago, in the exact same publication, I was raving about the first compilation LP of Kuupuu tracks that were reissued by the Dekorder label from Germany. “Unilintu” follows that compilation and revives some more (maybe even all) of the previously “lost” tracks by Jonna Karanka that she released on CD-Rs and one cassette. The 12 tracks on “Unilintu” are culled from the same releases as the ones on its predecessor “Yökehrä”. Judging from the info provided by the label, the tunes on “Unilintu” represent the more solemn side of Karanka´s output. While there is some truth to that, the overall innocence of her music evens out any uneasiness that could arise while listening to Kuupuu.

That said, pieces like “Myrskylaulu” which was taken from the most recent CD-R “Kulta Sulta” are pretty spooky. You hear some thunder in the background and Karanka´s double-tracked voice over a picked guitar melody, and the mood seems not as positive as on some of her other tracks. The same goes for the instantly following piano piece “Onnenkuelaa”. It´s a good thing that there are also tracks like the nature sound filled “Linnut”, the deeply meditative “Lintupolku” or the acapella track “Taivaankotiin” that are more soothing for the soul.

Overall, it´s impossible to say that either “Yökehrä” or “Unilintu” is the better of the two releases. Both LPs taken together can definitely considered classic releases from the Finnish underground that seems to have slown down a bit regarding the speed with which releases had been put out in 2005 and the first half of 2006. While listening to “Unilintu”, it becomes more and more obvious that those lo-fi CD-Rs and the cassette with Kuupuu tracks just had to be saved from being forgotten. The only thing that´s missing now is new material by Kuupuu. 9/10 -- Stephan Bauer (20 February, 2007)

A Perfect Friend - A Perfect Friend

Descargar

Sello: Still
Estilo: Folktronica, Indie Pop

Meeting A PERFECT FRIEND is a full introspection into dream lights and slowcore shadows. The decision of pushing play has to be done while knowing you have to fully jump from A to Z in a world of beauty created by these two overtalented Sweds. CJ LARSGARDEN and THOMAS DENVER JONSSON'S music could be ranked among the quiter moments of SIGUR ROS, the icy electronics of RADIOHEAD and the lyrism of JOHANN JOHANNSSON. It is more a story to live on its own than an family album, with its own personnal way to evolve, seduce and choke our hearts. A PERFECT FRIEND will release their selftitled debut album on Belgian label STILLL this summer in Europe/US/Japan/China.

Their homespun mix of electronica, indie, post-rock and folk is a secret ready to be revealed. APF is mainly a recording project, but will do shows as well. The album was recorded early summer 2006, partly inside the studio, partly outside on numerous field recording excursions. The result is eight songs, from psychedelic folk tunes to deep suggestive electronica, a 45 minute indietronic experience. Sweet pop melodies, purring cats, quacking ducks, glockenspiel and finger picked guitar are streaming through warm layers of organic and electronic sounds. After the recordings, Thomas and C-J has been busy with different projects but has also been collecting ideas for new APF activities. A new APF album will be recorded during 2007.
-- Dot.se

Castanets - In The Vines

Descargar

Sello: Asthmatic Kitty
Estilo: Indie Folk, Indie Rock
Para fans de: Vetiver, Akron/Family, Devedra Banhart, Califone, Six Organs Of Admittance, Espers...

Tracklist
1. Rain Will Come
2. This Is The Early Game
3. Westbound, Blue
4. Strong Animal
5. Sway
6. The Fields Crack
7. Three Months Paid
8. The Night Is When You Can Not See
9. Sounded Like a Train, Wasn't a Train
10. And The Swimming

THE STORY
Ray Raposa of Castanets had almost finished his follow-up to First Light's Freeze (2005) when three men in strange masks mugged him at gunpoint in front of his home in Bedstuy, Brooklyn. Stealing Raposa's rent money, iPod and security, the three thieves climaxed a year of depression and nomadic, nocturnal dislocation. Not long after the mugging, Raposa completed In The Vines.

If the Castanets' debut, Cathedral (2004) was a road narrative and First Light's Freeze a malaise of longing, In The Vines is an attempt to reconcile the fear of the spaces between the journeys. Says Raposa, "There is a definite rootlessness. Not so much pursuit as just waking up somewhere else, then somewhere else again. I have had to halt production and/or writing and/or thinking about this album repeatedly due to actual, incapacitating depressions. Totally crippling. The bad kind. Off of the road, it's been a pretty bad year."

Appropriately, the album he was struggling to complete is based on a Hindu fable about being trapped in an inescapable fate, with death and the limitations of our physical lives closing in from all corners. The story is half of the inspiration for In The Vines. The other half is the wandering that's typified most of Raposa's life. From years on the road faking Greyhound passes, to moving to the Virgin Islands as a parentless teenaged professional surfer, to keeping tabs on expatriate journalist parents (father residing in Saudi Arabia and mother in Mexico), Raposa's life has been one of back seats and rest stops. In the fable story, "The Well of Life", a giant net stretched out by a giant woman surrounds a Brahman lost in the forest. The frantic Brahman runs in circles attempting to escape until he falls halfway down a pit and is entangled in vines. He discovers some bee hives halfway between the flesh-hungry six-faced elephant at the top of the pit and the waiting serpent at the bottom. As bees buzz around the Brahman and rats gnaw at the vines holding him up, all he can do is gorge on the sweet honey.

Heavy stuff, yes, but it isn't all peril, and darkness. The songs are sung with such intimacy and earnestness that In The Vines "sways" somewhere between the serpent, elephant, bees and rats, the honey representing a strange sense of hope and delight in the brief moments of beauty that sustain our lives.

THE SOUND
There is community within the music of Castanets, one that keeps Raposa safe and sane while dangling in the pit. In this instance we have near-shipwreck-mate Jana Hunter, Nonhorse (Vanishing Voice), Rafter Roberts, Nathan Delffs (Shaky Hands), Viking Moses, and Matthew Houck (Phosphorescent). Recently the live Castanets' community has included such folks as good friend and labelmate Sufjan Stevens, Nick Delffs (Shaky Hands), Rob Lowe (Lichens) and Annie Clark (St. Vincent).

This ever shifting cast makes it is necessary to drop preconceived notions about "bands" and "singer-songwriters" when approaching the Castanets. Castanets is always a "we," no matter if Raposa plays alone or with dozens. This collaborative effort spawns a paradoxical sound indebted to both AM Gold and the idiosyncratic fringes of music theory. He mines both to reveal treasures. The template may be country music, but the collective energy conjures up elements of noise, free jazz, black metal and electronic abstractions. "Following up a Kitty Wells cassette in the van with a Brotzmann disc or a Lichens disc or Hot 97” says Raposa.

The album is a snapshot of an extended period of intense work, devoid of live audience but blessed by the detritus of players, city, country, ghost audiences, and improvisations of water, smoke and night. Raposa is the curator of his own art, seeking out potential collaborations to infuse the situation with multiple colors, subdue his ego-rule, and unearth the song's own personality. Raposa plays music with folks as an extension of enjoying and eating the honey.

Spokane - Little Hours

Descargar

Sello: Jagjaguwar
Estilo: Slowcore, Sadcore, Indie-rock
Para fans de: Ida, Low, Gregor Samsa, Early Day Miners

Tracklist
Singing
Minor Careers
If There Is Hope, It Lies In The Proles
Thankless Marriage
Building
Middle School
Addendum
These Things
Leases & Promises
Tell Me

Little Hours is the patient sheen of stillness after a short, violent burst of intention. The lingering, resonant decay of a nail being hammered into wood. A piano laden marriage of small hopes and quiet violence.

In Church Hill, a borough of Richmond, Virginia, there is a small yellow cottage. Next to the cottage is an austere replica of a mid-nineteenth century, white Federal period house. The members of Spokane hand built the structure over the course of 2006 while recording and revising their first new album in four years, Little Hours. The record is both a document of and an aural parallel to that difficult, meticulous process. In the emotional vein of folk singer Jackson C. Frank with the textural emaciation of composers Zbigniew Preisner and Morton Feldman, the songs themselves are hinged on concepts of failure and stillborn ideas, on the conflicted process of building or birthing a cerebral image into the world. There are the echoes of insistent cats running through the skeletal frame of the house, pillaged, infant birds in their mouths, left half-dead at the foot of the hole where the stair would be. The brutal gutting of the earth to build a foundation wall of concrete and brick, by sheer will and intent and arrogance. There is the crude muscling of lifted walls that block out the sun and obscure the trees. And the thought of future inhabitants, laughing and arguing and sitting, each alone, the ghosts of these songs wilting and remnant in the air.

Little Hours is packaged in a vinyl sleeve with both record and CD inside, 50 of which are handmade and numbered. It features the core ensemble of 2003's Measurement, which MOJO magazine called "a uniquely enthralling treasure", along with contributions from members of Brooklyn's orchestral, minimalist band Gregor Samsa.

Magnolia Electric Co. - Sojourner Box Set

Descargar Nasville Moon
Descargar The Black Ram
Descargar Sun Session EP
Descargar Shohola

Sello: Secretly Canadian
Estilo: Alt-country, Indie-rock, Folk
Para fans de: Wilco, M. Ward, Bonnie Prince Billy, Okkervil River, Calexico, Smog, Damien Jurado

Disc 1: Nashville Moon

1 Lonesome Valley
2 Montgomery
3 Don't Fade on Me
4 Hammer Down
5 No Moon on the Water
6 Nashville Moon
7 What Comes After the Blues
8 Don't This Look Like the Dark
9 North Star
10 Bowery
11 Texas 71
12 Down the Wrong Road Both Ways

Disc 2: The Black Ram

1 In the Human World
2 The Black Ram
3 What's Broken Becomes Better
4 Will-O-The-Wisp
5 Kanawha
6 A Little at a Time
7 Blackbird
8 And the Moon Hits the Water
9 The Old Horizon

Disc 3: Sun Sessions

1 Talk to Me Devil, Again
2 Memphis Moon
3 Hold on Magnolia
4 Trouble in Mind

Disc 4: Shohola

1 Steady Now
2 Spanish Moon Fall & Rise
3 Night Country
4 Shiloh Temple Bell
5 The Spell
6 Take One Thing Along
7 The Lamb's Song
8 Roll the Wheel

Magnolia Electric Co.'s Sojourner is a kind of "love for the fans" offering. It comes encased in a wooden box, with a sliding top, with the band's logo imprinted on the front. Inside are four different CDs, containing four different sessions (and corresponding postcards), recorded in as many different places with four different lineups. There is also a short DVD documenting the band's 2005's Canadian tour in 2005, by Todd Chandler, Tim Sutton, and Ava Berfkovsky. There is a folded poster as well. Inside a small black velveteen pouch there is a pewter medallion with the band's logo engraved on it. It's a memento mori of a time spent traveling through these songs with the journeyman guide. It is limited to 5,000 copies and is available from the band's label, Secretly Canadian, for $37 postpaid. Some of the material on the four recorded discs -- three albums (entitled Nashville Moon, Shohola, and Black Ram) and an EP, Sun Session (recorded at Sun Studios in Memphis) -- has appeared elsewhere before. That said, many songs are here in very different incarnations, recorded, re-recorded, or demoed by Jason Molina himself. But this is no mere odds-and-sods collection. In fact, it feels like Molina must be exhausted, by being so prolific.

Fading Trails, released in September of 2006, contained nine of the songs from these different sessions, giving it its rather schizophrenic character. Nashville Moon was recorded with Steve Albini at Electrical Audio in Chicago. It contains 12 cuts, and only "Lonesome Valley," "Montgomery," and "Don't Fade on Me" were included on Fading Trails. This is a full-band set, with Molina accompanied by six other musicians including Jason Evans Groth on lead guitar, Mark Rice on drums, Michael Kapinus on keyboards, Jonathan Cargill on backing vocals, Mike Brenner on lap steel, and bassist Pete Schreiner. Given its title, this is the most "country" set in the box. But Molina's country music is more haunted than hunted. Some of these tunes, like "Hammer Down" and "North Star," appeared on What Comes After the Blues but in radically different, stripped-down versions. They feel more like road songs performed in a smoky barroom than late-night back-porch confessionals. These full-on band treatments add heft and dimension, and underscore them somehow as "definitive."

The Sun Session EP, just over 15 minutes in length, was recorded in a single day while the group was on tour in 2006. The band received payment in studio hours from the venue that hosted them. "Memphis Moon" and "Talk to Me Devil Again" were issued on Fading Trails, but the other two tracks, "Hold on Magnolia" and the band's reading of the traditional "Trouble in Mind," are new. Shohola contains eight cuts with Molina accompanying himself on a guitar. Nothing more. It is the spookiest of the four recordings for sure. While the What Comes After the Blues album may have been spectral in its minimal approach, this set feels positively skeletal. Again, the hints were on Fading Trails in "Steady Now" and "Spanish Moon Fall and Rise," but they only lower the shroud. A slow, lonesome guitar frames Molina's sense of desolation in the lyrics of "Night Country" -- "I have to live this way/Be the builder of no house/Oh lone pine on the fading trails/I join you now/The night country comes...." This disc is only 25 minutes long, but any more would be oppressive.

The final album in the set -- or first depending on the way you decide to listen to them -- is Black Ram, another full ensemble set with David Lowery, Andrew Bird, Molly Blackbird, Rick Alverson, and Miguel Urbitzondo. It begins mournfully with the slow, meandering 4/4 of "In the Human World," but the mix swells even as the tempo continues to drag. The refrain empties out into a wave of Mellotron and harmonium, as guitars unwind. And just as it all becomes nearly full-bodied, the tune just ends. Each tune has a way of beginning with less than it closes. The title track commences as a mutant blues with tinny acoustic guitars, but almost as soon as Molina opens his mouth with his strange incantatory chant, referring to both a person and the person's reflection in the natural countryside, eerie sounds, electric guitars, and reverb envelope it. It's all so disembodied it can barely be called a song. Black Ram is the place where this collection should either begin or end. It doesn't belong in the middle because it's the most physical of the four discs, and because there's at least the determination to find resolve, even if it ends in a kind of lyrical, philosophical, and first-person failure. In other words, the same spirits who have dogged Molina on every previous recording are still here, shape-shifting to meet his every challenge. There's nothing left to do but welcome them in. Sojourner is an aptly titled monolith, one that invites fans of Magnolia Electric Co. with a "thank you for believing," even as it urges them to take in more of the picture than ever before.

White Rainbow - Prism Of Eternal Now

Descargar

Sello: Kranky
Estilo: Post-rock, Psychedelic, Experimental, Ambient
Para fans de: Yume Bitsu, Jackie-O-Motherfucker, Landing, Raccoo-oo-oon, Growing, Dirty Projectors, Windy & Carl

Tracklist:
1. Pulses
2. Middle
3. For Terry
4. Mystic Prism
5. April 25th 11:14PM
6. Warm Clicked Fruit
7. Guitars
8. Waves
9. Awakening

After years of outer space exploration in Yume Bitsu and Surface of Eceyon, as well as stints as a hired gun for a multitude of artists including Dirty Projectors, Jackie-O Motherfucker and Devendra Banhart, Adam Forkner decided to turn his focus inward and began to record solo material. And focus he did, working at a dizzying pace that culminated in the production of the 5CD/1DVD White Rainbow Box (2006 Marriage Records). The remarkable thing about that album was not that it was 4.5 hours long, but that the overwhelming majority of it was of extraordinary quality and not mere filler.

With the release of …Eternal Now, White Rainbow has surpassed typical solo project territory and is now a virtual elemental force. At a somewhat brief 71 minutes, his kranky debut pulses and flows with mantric chants, clattering percussions, sighing sustains and guitar leads unashamed of their scorching transcendence. He breathes new life into archaic sub-genres such as progrock, new age, and hippie folk incantations, while never stooping to the negative aspects of any of them, and at the same time remaining a step ahead of the technologically crippled and virtuosuo-less looper pedal scene. Prism of Eternal Now leaves behind the bounds of gravity for a free floating meditational headtrip of inner space exploration.

Note: the vinyl edition of ‘Prism..” is available via Marriage Records

context: White Rainbow is the solo moniker of Adam Forkner. He runs the Yarnlazer cd-r label with Honey Owens [Valet]. He works, lives and plays in Portland, Oregon, a small rural village near the bustling metropolis of Astoria.

track listing: 1. Pulses 2. Middle 3. For Terry 4. Mystic Prism 5. April 25th 11:14PM 6. Warm Clicked Fruit 7. Guitars 8. Waves 9. Awakening

quotes: "The real treasure in Adam Forkner's work is his innate ability to capture the perfect tone of sounds, whether it be a flanged guitar or an ancient drum machine." indieworkshop

"Warm synths and reverbed-out layers of guitar pave a solid foundation for drum loops, vocal tracks, and various other instruments to weave in and out of at their own pace. Tinymixtapes

"Each movement of ambient sound and melodic drone becomes impossible to dissect. It becomes a part of your memories." Tinymixtapes

Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala

Descargar

Sello: Secretly Canadian
Estilo: Singer-Songwritter, Indie Pop
Para fans de: The Magnetic Fields, El Perro del Mar, Belle & Sebastian, Architecture In Helsinki, Suburban Kids With Biblical Names

Tracklist:
01 And I Remember Every Kiss
02 Sipping On the Sweet Nectar
03 The Opposite of Hallelujah
04 A Postcard to Nina
05 Into Eternity
06 I'm Leaving You Because I Don't Love You
07 If I Could Cry (It Would Feel Like This)
08 Your Arms Around Me
09 Shirin
10 It Was a Strange Time in My Life
11 Kanske Ar Jag Kar I Dig
12 Friday Night at the Drive-In Bingo

Jens Lekman opens Night Falls Over Kortedala with the sure step of an artist in complete command of his creative self. Imbued with epic grandeur, "And I Remember Every Kiss" fades in with a melancholy timpani roll, a stirring string section and Jens crooning with every wistful bone in his body. After the first verse, the strings passionately swell into a wall of sound and - with one gravity-defying pass-through - Jens delivers his death blow to cynicism by declaring, "And I would never kiss anyone / Who doesn't burn me like the sun / And I remember every kiss like my first kiss;" illustrating just why many consider him one of the most important of the hopeful broken hearts coming of age in contemporary music. Like a modern day Chet Baker, Jens absolutely loves to sing about heartache.

On "Sipping On The Sweet Nectar", Jens introduces a dance beat to his string, horn & croon combo. And it only gets bigger from there with the tableside backbeat of "Opposite of Hallelujah" to the live favorite "A Postcard To Nina", and the slender hooks of "I'm Leaving You Because I Don't Love You" to the Frankie Valli purity of "Shirin" - an epic ode to Jens' barber which is reminiscent of a Mexican folk ballad.

Jens arduously labored over the songs on Night Falls Over Kortedala over the last three years between relentless tours (which ranged from full blown 8-piece ensembles to just Jens alone with a ukelele at the mic). Kortedala refers to a neighborhood in Jens' hometown of Gothenburg, Sweden, where his studio Koredala Beauty Center is located. It also refers to a vague musical pop sound with hints of tropicalia that has been coming out of Gothenburg's clubs over the last few years. Having more in common with Paul Simon's Graceland, Jens' latest is a response to more than an engagement in today's Kortedala music of his Swedish peers. An exercise in insularity, Night Falls Over Kortedala has achieved its specific sound not from going out but from Jens staying in and coming to grips with the sounds he had in his head, or as he said, "from the sound of my own voice reverberating off my home's old '50s brick walls, from the ghosts of everyone who's lived here before me clapping along with their little ecto-plasm hands. My record basically never leaves the 30 square meters that I live on until the very last song when i takeÝa shortÝbus ride to the countryside in 'Friday Night at the Drive-in Bingo'."

Jens further elaborates on his home of Kortedala:
"What a depressing suburban hell this place is. Everyone goes to bed at nine, after that you can't see one single window lit up. You can walk for hours without meeting one single person. I used to like that, cause it meant I could go for endless walks and pretend the world was my own and I was the only one in it. But after a while I found out the hard way that there were others who couldn't sleep at night. On my way into town I got beat up and mugged one night three years ago. Since then it's happened so many times I've lost count. It's never been that bad, I've never ended up in the hospital or lost anything too valuable really. But it's the atmosphere and the small incidents that scare me. The guys who yell faggot at me when I pass their balcony, the nazis hanging out in a nearby open garage, the old men with their binoculars who sit in their windows looking for anything suspicious to report, the dead cats that show up on the lawn outside my kitchen, the knock on my window at 4 am this summer followed by a whispered 'when he opens you hit him in the head,' the neighbour I constantly find passed out in the staircase, the flicker of a million tv screens against the livingroom walls, the smoke from a million chainsmoking moms, the fact that the guy who lived in my apartment before me lay dead in the bathtub for three months before they found him. In Kortedala everyone's minding their own business. And I'm slowly turning into one of them so as soon as I've finished this record I will get the hell out of here."

Night Falls Over Kortedala features Jens friendlies Frida Hyvönen and El Perro Del Mar.

Grouper - Tried 7"

Descargar

Sello: Type
Estilo: Ambient, Drone, Experimental, Shoegaze
Para fans de: William Basinski, Lichens, Jessica Bailiff, Charalambides

Tracklist:
Tried
Everyone in turn

In a short space of time, Portland-based Liz Harris has become the name on the lips of the underground music world having captured hearts worldwide with her distinct blend of noise, ambience and a dream-pop sensibility. She submerges her songs in a shimmering haze of hiss, looping chorals and decomposed guitar feedback, but somewhere in there you can hear the ghosts of My Bloody Valentine or possibly Slowdive. This latest 7” takes her sound one step further still; ‘Tried’ is one of the most overtly dense pieces Harris has produced to date, but flip over to ‘Everyone in Turn’ and you are treated to simply vocals and piano, a piece of music which has to be one of the most affecting Grouper tracks to date. Sounding like a lost track from beneath a 1950s pier somewhere this affirms the reason why we’re all so obsessed with Liz Harris’ unique productions – they just sound like nothing else on earth.

Hrsta - Ghosts Will Come and Fill Our Eyes

Descargar

Sello: Constellation
Estilo: Post-rock, Experimental
Para fans de: HangedUp, Esmerine, Fly Pan Am, Set Fire To Flames, GY!BE, ASMZ

Tracklist:
1. Entre la mer et l'eau douce
2. Beau Village
3. The Orchard
4. Tomorrow Winter Comes
5. Haunted Pluckley
6. Hechicero del Bosque
7. Saturn Of Chagrin
8. Kotori

Hrsta (her-shta) is the brainchild of founding Godspeed You! Black Emperor guitarist Mike Moya, who is joined on this third album (the band's second on Constellation) by Brooke Crouser (Jackie-O Motherfucker) on organs, guitars and various effects. Brooke has emerged as the core second member of the band, joining Mike on live dates since 2006, and contributing to composition and arrangement on this new record. The ever-faithful rhythm section of bassist Harris Newman and drummer Eric Craven provide additional backbone on select songs.

Ghosts Will Come And Kiss Our Eyes is a collection of gently foreboding psych-folk, anchored as always by Mike's unique guitar sound and otherworldly, cracked vocals (think a sedated Daniel Johnson or Wayne Coyne). With Hammond and pump organs now featured prominently in the mix, much of the new material here sits on a thick, saturated foundation of shifting tones, drones and sustained chordings.

Alternating between vocal tunes and instrumentals, the album creaks and cascades through hazed visions of cataclysm and calm, worry and wonder. "Beau Village", a dirge-like, slow-motion sea-shanty, offers an unsettled promise of safe harbour - quickly undermined by "The Orchard", which conjures a hallucinatory confrontation amidst burning fields. "Haunted Pluckley" is a twangy, twilight lullaby (the album title is pulled from this track's lyric), "Hechicero Del Bosque" finds the full band building to a controlled climax, and a brilliant Bee Gees cover ("Holiday") closes the album. In between these singing songs are a clutch of gorgeous instrumentals forged from Mike and Brooke's guitar and organ interplay.

Superbly recorded by David Bryant (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Set Fire To Flames) at The Pines, his studio-cum-performance space near the old port in Montreal, Ghosts Will Come... brims with eerie atmosphere and intimate sonics, and is the most focussed Hrsta record to date.

Available on CD and 180gLP, as always in our cardstock packaging, with artwork featuring the photography of Lea Grahovac.
9. Holiday

The North Sea - On the Endless Golden Skyway

Descargar

Sello: Black Petal
Estilo: Folk, Experimental, Psychedelic
Para fans de: Fursaxa, Charalambides, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Jackie-O-Motherfucker, Sunburned Hand Of The Man

This is much more song-based than previous North Sea cds, Brad's breathy post-midnight drawl amid the lovely lazy string sounds, with autoharp being added to the usual bouzouki, banjo and guitar. This is made even more special by the appearance of the wonderful valerio Cosi on saxophone.

Visitations - Visitations

Descargar

Sello: Time Lag
Estilo: Acid-Folk/Psychedelic
Para fans de: Charalambides, James Blackshaw, Wooden Wand, Fursaxa, MV & EE

Well, here you have it. Maine's cosmic mystery trio captured in vinyl for eternity, just for you... while everyone & their mother seems to have some sort of bedroom folk/psych project going these days, you'd be hard pressed to find another unit as pure in spirit & process as these here bodies/buddies. One of those rare vortexes of creation existing totally apart from all hype, pressure or pretense; in other words, timeless. Always balanced on that fine and beautiful line between cosmic joke & aching depth. A simple & unadorned unfurling of strummed & fingered instruments, heartaching female vocals, woodland creatures, earthy male vocals, contrasting half-written & totally spontaneous songs, twisting lyrics, haunted melancholy, lysergic joy, and a heavy dose of spooked New England lore. In a way, the recording scene itself is an almost perfect parallel to the sounds & vibes captured here: three shadowy figures laugh & sing around a dim campfire. No one's slept in days. They're nestled amidst ancient stone buildings, creeping foliage and mounds of exotic flowers. The sun is setting over the mountains. But it's all frozen in time. The clouds aren't moving. And that campfire, it's a microphone, isn't it? And all those flowers: plastic. The stone: paint. Is it all fake? Well, it is an ancient stone church. And those three really are making some very sweet sounds. In fact, it's almost hyper-real. Almost impossibly so... is that reel-to-reel rolling? Yes, it sure is.

Vic Chesnutt - Northern Star Deserter

Descargar

Sello: Constellation
Estilo: Singer-Songwriter/Folk/Alt-Country
Para fans de: Lambchop, Bonnie Prince Billy, Howe Gelb, ASMZ y los grupos de Constellation

Tracklist

1. Warm
2. Glossolalia
3. Everything I Say
4. Wallace Stevens
5. You Are Never Alone
6. Fodder On Her Wings
7. Splendid
8. Rustic City Fathers
9. Over
10. Debriefing
11. Marathon
12. Rattle

We have been massive Vic Chesnutt fans for many years. Prior to starting Constellation together in 1997, among the first records we bonded over was Is The Actor Happy, a slab of vinyl played so often (and so often late at night) that its grooves are well chewed.

Our friend, Brooklyn-based filmmaker Jem Cohen (Benjamin Smoke, Instrument, Chain), has known Vic for many years. When Jem proposed that Vic make his next album at the Hotel2Tango studio in Montreal, with various Constellation musicians (along with a couple of American friends) as players for the session, we were thrilled. When we heard the results, we were floored. When offered the opportunity to release the record, we were honoured.

Vic Chesnutt is one of the finest songsmiths we know. His words knock us out, his voice is like no other, and the two combined can deliver lyrical phrases that echo in your brain for weeks, months, years...that you find yourself adding to your quotidian vocabulary of sardonic asides, devastating metaphors, witty rhymes. Words that are never clever for their own sake, but smart and substantive as all get out.

The songs on North Star Deserter are some of the most bracing and intense we've ever heard from him: macabre and fearless, playful and funny, at times deeply personal and at others, incongruously hopeful. Stripped-down songs like "Warm", "Rustic City Fathers", "Over" and "Marathon" are juxtaposed with explosive rockers like "Everything I Say" and "Debriefing", while "Glossolalia" and "You Are Never Alone" feature wonderful arrangements and group singing.

The broad cast of players - all seven members of Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band, along with Guy Picciotto (Fugazi), Chad Jones & Nadia Moss (Frankie Sparo), Eric Craven & Genevieve Heistek (Hangedup), Bruce Cawdron (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Esmerine) and T. Griffin (The Quavers) - offered influences and approaches to Vic's music that yielded a record unlike any other in his substantial discography.

Recorded over the winter of 2006-2007, at one of the last sessions to take place at the original Hotel2Tango location in Montreal (the studio moved in spring 2007), we believe North Star Deserter is the very best album Vic Chesnutt has yet made (while humbly acknowledging the boldness of such a statement). The sessions were orchestrated by Jem, who also oversaw production (along with Efrim and Thierry of Silver Mt. Zion, and Guy from Fugazi). The album was recorded by Howard Bilerman. The record is available on CD and double 180g LP, with artwork by Michael Ackerman and Jem Cohen.

Akron/Family - Love Is Simple

Descargar

Sello: Young God Records
Estilo: Indie-Folk, Freak-Folk
Para fans de: Grizzly Bear, Animal Collective, Panda Bear, Six Organs Of Admittance, Devendra Banhart, Angels of Light

Tracklist:
01 "Love, Love, Love (Everyone)" (1:46)
02 "Ed Is A Portal" (7:30)
03 "Don't Be Afraid, You're Already Dead" (4:36)
04 "I've Got Some Friends" (3:08)
05 "Lake Song/New Ceremonial Music For Moms" (7:24)
06 "There's So Many Colors" (8:11)
07 "Crickets" (3:58)
08 "Phenomena" (3:44)
09 "Pony’s O.G." (5:20)
10 "Of All The Things" (7:41)
11 "Love, Love, Love 2 (Reprise)" (3:07)

Through seemingly constant touring and regular work with Michael Gira's Angels Of Light, the urban folkies in Brooklyn's Akron/Family are a (mostly) bearded (always) busy bunch. Which is why it's hard to believe the watch-worthy quartet's forthcoming Love Is Simple is just their second full-length release. No way that's possible … Let's recount: There's the self-titled debut, Gira backup band spot on The Angels of Light Sing (Other People), and that excellent split album with Angels (half their songs, half them playing behind Gira) – all of that appeared in 2005. Then came a seafaring backup spot for Baby Gramps on Letterman (they appeared on ANTI-'s Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, and Chanteys), and 2006's mini-album Meek Warrior. Okay, all set ... well, actually, they also lend one hell of a muster to Angel's forthcoming We Are Him … Now that we're pretty sure our math's correct, we finally get a listen of "Phenomena," the first taste from the Family's forthcoming LP.

The song starts off chirpy, lonesome (vocals, acoustic guitar), but before you know it, folks you hadn't noticed in the room are rattling percussion, ringing bells, plugging in, laughing, exhaling some greens, and singing along. The lyrics are playfully profound ("some think rice is white," later "some think Christ is white," and later still "some might think this isn't the right sound"). You know, it's easy being cheeky when you can unleash rootsy licks as an afterthought or swarm into hot-to-trot guitar solos and boogie organ swells just like that. Safe to say "Phenomena" is a total doozy...

Love Is Simple is out 09/10 on Young God (limited quantities will include a DVD that features live footage from the last four dates of their last tour.) The band begin a tour in Detroit this September, which ends in Portland at the end of October, so get out there and rally 'round the Family. Below, a sure shot candidate for cover of the year. Cotton heart? Loves it.