Willard
Grant Conspiracy
Everything's Fine CD
Call them a 'gem in the rough', call them the 'unknown currency', call them a 'sleeper'... whatever, there's always a couple of amazing bands that somehow duck under the radar of mass popularity, only to end up something truly special: a cult favorite, who consistently deliver the goods - unaided by hyperbole, freed of cliche and rigor mortis. Ouch, baby... Welcome home alt-country mainstays, the Willard Grant Conspiracy! Damn right - Everything's Fine!!
CD 14.98
John Zorn
The Gift CD
Are you in the mood for love? John Zorn is. And what is his amorous gift, his expression of love? Why, some lounge-noir-rumba-surf music, downtown New York style. Obviously informed, even better played; it doesn't get much sweeter than this Imagine, Zorn that goes down easy, real easy. And, as usual, old hands join up to make this lascivious and beautifully laidback soundtrack that much better. Featuring the sultry and talented Marc Ribot, Cyro Baptista, Joey Baron, Dave Douglas, Greg Cohn, and then some. And yes, we think it's lovely stuff, at times even sexy, if never raunchy, but please, however, make up your own mind about the cover art, thanks. By the way, this is the third release in Tzadik's Music Romance series. Yes, that's right, a series for those who love music. Nope, you can't go to jail for that.
CD 16.98
Howe Gelb
Confluence
CD
There's only one thing more famous than Arizona's big cactus - the talents of that state's Giant Sand!! The Sand's Howe Gelb is a man, a crazy man, with a penchant for beautiful ballads that stumble past you like lonely tumbleweeds. Do you know what I'm taking about? Have you ever felt that way? There's nothing more lonesome than having a face speckled with sand, a belly full of booze and the desert lying before you, naked. Huh? Well, maybe there is something more lonesome. Stop by and ask Howe. Enjoy responsibly.
CD 18.98
Various
The Giga Single CD
The consensus on innovation: to create 'progress' within a genre, musicians have to nibble on the crumbs of more nutritious musical feasts. Allow us to present a piece of auto-cannibalism that disproves this myth of eclecticism as de facto futurism. Without deviating much from the basic language of recycled beats and ragged rhyme flows the Anticon collective (for which The Giga Single is a budget-price sampler) has managed to take hip-hop above and beyond itself. By using the broadest possible vocabulary within the available language, artists such as Sole, Dose One and Vancouver's own Josh Martinez, have renewed many a jaded head's interest in rap music. This shit, which is - by any standards - mad dope, comprises what we believe 'the kids' are defining as 'the real ish.'
CD 12.98
Various
Comfort. Labor Presents Scape CD
As Pole, Stefan Betke has inspired the style and form of a particular stream of contemporary electronic music; his rich, deep, crackly dub has been influential to many likeminded producers (not to mention many pale imitators). In response, Betke has wisely released music by some of the best that are digging around the same area on his label ~Scape. Celebrating this spirit of dialogue and exchange, Betke has remixed a select cadre of producers, featuring ~Scape label-mates Kit Clayton and Jan Jelinek, as well as material from Matthew Herbert, Vladislav Delay, Flanger (Burnt Friedman/Atom Heart), Maus & Stolle and more. Recommended.
CD 19.98 AVAILABLE APRIL 8th
Kinski
Be Gentle With Me Warm Turtle CD
Sonic fuzz comes in droves over the ocean... I'm hearing the stray electricity of oceanics Mogwai and Sigur Ros, perhaps also fellow Pacific Rim free-psych luminaries High Rise and Acid Mothers Temple. And so like forced bulbs, Kinski's debut takes root, with the predisposition to bloom pedals of high volume ecstatic noise! This we dig. Loud, brooding and less self-consciously dynamic than the Godspeed camp, Kinski's soundtracks are more about the lateral movements of dense sound shards... you know stuff that peels off the axis' of reception.
CD 18.98
Saint
Etienne
Interludes CD
Saint Etienne's music leaves a trail of broken hearts wherever it goes, whether it takes you for a walk through a field of bright red poppies, dancing under the strobe lights in a chic London disco or just staring out your window on a rainy Sunday afternoon. The many moods of Etienne are revealed via this Canadian-only release of breezy B-sides and radiant rarities.Stand-out tracks include their version of Brian Wilson's 'Stevie', the wistful 'Le Ballade de Saint Etienne' (Madamoiselle Cracknell takes a stab at singing in French!)and endorphin-releasing Trouser Enthusiast re-mix of 'Lose That Girl'. Having said that, you won't find any filler here. As all Saint Etienne fans know, Sarah, Bob and Pete always deliver pure excellence.
CD 14.98
Red House Painters Old Ramon CD
We implore you... expose a nerve. After a couple of beautiful solo albums, Mark Kozelek returns with the sixth Red House Painters release! A fine, lush listen that offers up an emotional testimony to the power of the post-modern folk song, Old Ramon is a collection of emotive ballads that perfectly blend acoustic instrumentation and the detached cool lyrics of today's post-existential protagonist. For heaven's sake, enjoy them today, as Kozelek, Phelps, Callahan and a few others are the Nick Drakes, Scott Walkers, etc., of the contemporary period. True flowers of this painful world!
CD 16.98 AVAILABLE APRIL 10th
South From Here On CD
London looks its best at around 3:00 AM. Street cleaners flush the vacated streets, which dry slowly before an audience of empty milk bottles...so serene! Enter South, London's new pop darlings, recently touched by the hands of Mo Wax's James Lavelle. There is a certain amount of desolate passion associated with their DJ Shadow-meets-Money Mark sounds. Pure early-'90s oceanic rock updated to UNKLE standards. Recommendation implied.
CD 16.98 AVAILABLE APRIL 6th
Guided
By Voices
Isolation Drills CD
The sting is on. Our agents are ready to reveal their true selves - to shed the cloak of double identity. Captain Robert Pollard, we await your sign. Operation Isolation Drills: shed your high school English professor and exercise your pop star mantle of power to crack down on corrupt lyricism, butchered riffs, and weak-kneed image. Awaken the captives from their chloroform sleep; undo the mediated bandages that cripple our melody senses. Alter-authority. The Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame is under siege!! Let's melt the Wax Museums! Sixteen new songs!!
CD 16.98 AVAILABLE APRIL 3RD
Bonnie
"Prince" Billy
Ease Down The Road CD/LP
Having recently shared the stage with Sir Johnny Cash, Will Oldham returns to the comforts of his Kentucky home, to renew his song craft. Home, to be still, to ramble, to concentrate, to create with friends songs fast approaching the realms of fragile perfection. In the workshop hang Palace's new odes to the introspective dramas that animate Oldham's universe: songs that start out from the porch and venture into a world of dark beauty. Recommended!!
CD 18.98 LP 14.98
Neil Hagerty
s/t CD/LP
Exiled on Main Street, Neil Hagerty sets out like a Trux alone to steal the mascots of the soft-touch music industry. Ransom... to be discussed! Drop point... to be revealed at a later date. Come with us, we got the Ape-oven blues. Leave them hanging heavy in the skyscrapers - the new prisons - this is the skeleton of the blues, the anatomy of future ghosts. Neil's words: a record made up of "shoe sounds on a basketball court, boxes getting kicked around by bored kids, mama snoring like a pig". Show up and win.
CD/LP 18.98
