CD Releases: May 2004 updated:12/05/2004

 

ANOTHER COUNTRY 2 Various CD/2x12"
(Agenda Music)
File Under: Alt Country
AGN008CD/VAGN008LP
Opting for the subtitle Songs of Dignity and Redemption from The Other Side Of The Tracks is brave, but the vibrant and viral strain of alt-country has consistently provided some of the most interesting album length projects of the last ten years. Three of the moving forces behind some of this scene are represented here. Tellingly the oldest recording comes from Richard Buckner, the most talented songwriter and performer to have emerged stateside since Townes Van Zandt. Featured here is Buckner's majestic A Goodbye Rye from the transcendent Devotion & Doubt - locate and buy everything by this guy - seriously. Howe Gelb's Giant Sand have been something of an institution these last nigh-on twenty years - and to be honest you can never have too many Giant Sand recordings. The other is the criminally underrated Greg brown, whose Ella Ma' tune evidences the considerable wordsmithery on show here. Valuable support to these pioneers comes from Songs:Ohia's effortless melancholy, the ethereal Hope Sandoval, some shit-kicking delta styles from Brooklyners The Boggs as well as tracks from Damien Jurado, Azure Ray, Ryan Adams and more. A great starter for ten - and an invaluable antidote to the corporate mulch clogging up Nashville. Think not country, but moving songs, good tunes and buckets of love, loss, anguish and death. Great stuff.

 

THE BOOKS Lemon Of Pink CD
(Spunk)
File Under: spunktronica
URA128
"The rare sort of album that convinces you that original music still exists" Alternative Press
"#2 best album of 2003" Pitchfork Media
"when the fragile mixture of field recordings, samples from radio broadcasts and twanging folk instruments comes into focus, the results are quietly fascinating". Q Magazine
In 2002, The Books surprised everyone, including themselves, with their debut release Thought For Food, which found wide acclaim in small circles across the globe, ending up on many end-of-year Top 10 lists. Now they return with their new Lemon Of Pink album. Their sound has been described, as music that comes from everywhere yet remains warmly personal and intimate. Critics agreed that it found a compelling balance between instrumental innovation, silence and space. Confounded reviewers attempted to categorize The Books' music as electro-acoustic sound collage, laptop, glitch, folktronica, cut-up indie bluegrass etc, but we prefer to think of it as forward thinking spunktronica.

 

LUCIEN & LUCIANO Blind Behaviour CD
(Agenda Music)
File Under: Electronic
PFG052CD
Lucien Nicolet aka Lucien-N-Luciano has DJ’ed from the tender age of 15 and has been producing music since 1997. In the mid-90's, he began promoting club nights in Santiago de Chile in the company of many initiators of the Latin American electronic music scene: Senor Coconut aka Atom Heart, Ricardo Villalobos, Dandy Jack and brother Adrian Schopf. Luciano is the missing link between his fellow chillean operators Atom Heart and Ricardo Villalobos - Blind Behaviour perfectly realising his aspiration of approaching dance music through a complex, innovative but at all times openly warm and accessible route to perfection. The opening Alain Brito is perhaps the most overtly "pop" moment on this incredibly good album – a more disciplined variant on Atom Heart’s long-perfected glitch-vocal-pop hybrid that’s at once insanely catchy and hard to pin down. Tracks like La Dance Des Enfants and the stunning title track Blind Behaviour expose the underbelly of Luciano’s glamorous weltanschauung (philosophy of life), deeply engrossing downbeat explorations of electronic principles within House music structures – something that only Ricardo Villalobos and Claro Intelecto have managed to develop with similar supremacy. A glorious piece of work.

 

TZU Position Normal CD
(Liberation Music)
File Under: hip hop
LIBCD6122.2
This is the debut album from Melbourne’s hip-hop heroes TZU! Just like here, it seems hip hop is everywhere, and Australia like us is experiencing a huge wave of talented new acts and releases from their hip hop community. This magnificent album highlights everything good about Australian hip hop; TZU have combined attitude, humour, grit and wit, added a liberal dose of ‘shake-your-ass’ and put it down on disc. Great music, excellent songs, strong performances, and a killer recording… Position Correction, is jammed full of beats, scratches and lyrical skills that represent TZU’s pure essence distilled onto a CD. Cutting out the hype and glamour, no mess, no fuss, straight up good time, good rhyme, bad arse beats for your backyard barby!

 

CRAZY PENIS
24 Hour Psychedelic Freakout

"24 Hour Psychedelic Freakout is like a comfy pair of old dancing shoes that you just have to slip into one more time" Pavement Magazine
(Shiva Records)
File Under: Dance / Crazy Penis
SHIVACD01
Following the release of the acclaimed album The Wicked Is Music, the artistes that could only be known as Crazy Penis have gone from strength to strength, taking their humour-filled, funk-infected Northern floorshow into the world to wow audiences from Manchester to Moscow and from Sydney to San Francisco from Aldershot to Auckland and back again. In addition, founder members Chris Todd and Jim Baron have seen their remixing skills put to consistently excellent use by peer labels such as Naked Music, Guidance, Faith & Hope, Shiva and Shaboom. 24 Hour Psychedelic Freakout represents a 60+ minute rollercoaster ride through the mixed-up world of Crazy Penis. Instinctively groovy, occasionally laid-back and always rocking, 24 Hour Psychedelic Freakout is a flash-fried, new season collection of brand new Crazy Penis tracks and exclusive Crazy Penis remixes joined at the hip by mixers du jour Chris Todd and Jim Baron. Blissful, elegant and an essential listening experience for all!

Tracklisting
    • The Time Is Right
    • Mid-Lounge Crisis
    • Listen to the Music (Crazy Penis Remix)
    • I Think I Like You
    • The Rite Place (Crazy Penis Remix)
    • 13th Movement
    • Magical Progression
    • Show Me (Crazy Penis Remix)
    • You've Lost That Loving Feeling
    • Summer Song (Crazy Penis Remix)

 

DICK MAGIK JOHNSON joins singles club
NRK SINGLES COLLECTION 6 Various 2CD
(NRK Sound Division)
File Under: NRK /Dick Johnson /Dance / House
NRKCD014
Maybe he didn’t get a valentines card this year, but in 2004, Dick "Magik" Johnson joins the elite NRK Singles club, with the honour of mixing the Bristol imprint's finest 12" releases from the last 12 months. "NRK Singles Volume 6" is a killer double CD, which showcases NRK’s ear for a killer house record, and this compilation spanning the last 12 months includes such tracks by Joey Negro (under his Akabu guise as well as remixing Q-Burns), Nick Holder (also remixed by Ian Pooley), Rocket (the awesome Chicken Lips mix), Miguel Migs and Peace Division. A bonus mix CD is included on Singles 6 mixed by man of the moment, Magik Johnson. Known as Dick Johnson down this way, the New Zealand based producer is on fire right now with a remix of Neon Heights (championed by Pete Tong), his Del-5 release on The End Recordings, new EPs forthcoming on H-Foundation’s Hipp-e’s Nightshift label, Red Melon and remixes on Paper and Shaboom. A superb package at a bargain price, NRK Singles 6 is the perfect companion for house music fans as well as a great introduction not only to the NRK label but also to the genre as well. A superb package at a bargain price, NRK Singles 6 is the perfect companion for house music fans as well as a great introduction not only to the NRK label but also to the genre as well.

 

PAPA M Hole Of Burning Alms CD
(Drag City / Spunk)
File Under: Ariel M / Papa M / Spunkrock
URA120
"All these instrumental singles and B-sides make [DAVE PAJO’s] sonic trajectory clearer and easier to organize-- when taken together, they chug hard like [his] career, shifting chronologically from Slint-ish guitar surges to acoustic country hymns to traveling beats to scummy rock songs." Pitchfork
Dave Pajo, Tortoise and Slint man and an associate of Will Oldham and Billy Corgan, has been quietly releasing records for some years now as Aerial M and Papa M, and this collection of singles, B-sides and rarities is a welcome retrospective. Even if you are aware of his work, the chances are you won't own even half of the pared, pastoral instrumentals on offer here. From the two-chord trick of debut single Safeless to the banjo and tambourine of the lovely Up North Kids No.2, it all hangs together beautifully. Surprise treats come in the form of the over-compressed vocal of Last Caress and the nifty, retro step programming of Travels in Constants. Understated, excellent and essential.

 

BONNIE PRINCE BILLY Greatest Palace Music CD
(Drag City / Spunk)
File Under: Bonny Prince Billy / Will Oldham / Palace / Spunkrock
URA121
"a frequently uproarious, deeply affectionate record full of good jokes worth sharing with everyone" 4./5 Uncut Mag
'With new arrangements and a more traditional approach Oldham just may open
the doors to the masses that have left him largely a cult figure.' XPRESS’ (7/4)
'A polished version of rambling country/folk'. *** Daily Telegraph 28/3
'It's lovely when the gospel kicks in'. *** SMH (16/4)
You just never know what you're going to get with Will Oldham. Having released albums under a bewildering number of different names, mostly some variation on the word Palace, the self-styled Bonnie 'Prince' Billy has now decided to re-record a selection of his favourite old songs with some top country session musicians. This might seem like a typically perverse decision, since Oldham's rather creepy tales of loneliness and sexual jealousy are about as far removed from contemporary Nashville as you can hope to get. In the event, however, the experiment turns out surprisingly well - songs that originally saw the light of day on scratchy, lo-fi recordings sound just as good dressed up in their shiny new clothes. If anything, the hillbilly guitars and jaunty violins only serve to highlight the staggering bleakness of Oldham's nihilistic lyrics. So, if you're sick to the gills of cheesy pop music, get your hands on this - it's the unlikeliest greatest hits collection you'll ever hear in your life.

 

BRAZILIAN BEATS VOL 5 Various CD/2x12"
(Agenda Music)
File Under: Brazilian Music / World
MRBCD032/VMRBLP032
Woah now boy! Hold on to your horses as the next Brazilian Beats instalment hits our shores! And what classics do we have this time round I hear you ask? For one thing you get two formats, 18 tracker CD or 14 tracker double on vinyl. Including the massive Beatfanatic re-edit of Jackson do Pandeiro's Eu Balanco, the genius of Jorge Ben Jr's Take It Easy My Brother Charles, Jorge Ben Xica Da Silva, Sasso's Tudo Bem, from hiphop to electro to carnaval - it's all on here. Mr Bongo Records continues to set the pace for new innovative sounds originating from Brazil. This edition is more urban carioca hip hop meets break‘n’bossa action courtesy of a nice old style selection. Funk parties, Brazilian hip hop, car adverts… could be one of the baddest volumes yet, you'll have to be the judge of that!

 

VENETIC Ambient Headroom CD
(Independent)
File Under: NZ Music
CDWSMKSS002
"Venetic is the brainchild of Wayne Stuart McCallum. "Eastern Variations" and "Distortion is Beautiful" set the tone here with scratchy, meandering guitar figures and whispered vocals. Subsequent lo-fi pop structures address metaphysical questions facing a young man trying to make sense of the world and are clothed in folksy and beatnik-noodle instrumentation, articulated in an even-tempered conversational manner. [...] The Spanish language "Segue" swings in a tic-tacky fashion, and touches of recorder, harmonica and organ throughout lend a down-home ramshackle charm. Wah-wah squalls are balanced by vanishing-point delayed guitar strumming." New Zealand Musician, February/March 2004
Ambient Headroom witnesses the return of Venetic with a second album, radically different from the acoustic garage debut CD. This time around, Venetic delves into electric guitar, wah wah pedals, keyboards, synthesisers, recorder and precorder and miscellaneous effects, including a phased filing cabinet, with musical influences encompassing from the East, Latin America, Eastern Europe and even Jamaica. Ambient music meets psychedelia? Supporting the CD’s release is a new video of the song "She Walks Away", directed by Richard Bell, who has produced music videos for international artists including U2, Nick Cave, Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, Henry Rollins, Johnny Cash, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Depeche Mode and The Pixies to name just a few. A very rewarding listen.

 

THE RAINY DAYS Hot Shit! CD
(GICSN)
File Under: The Rainy Days / Rock
GISCN02
The Rainy Days first came together as the members of Gestalt found themselves embattled in recording their Motherlode album. They were looking for an outlet to perform live, in a setting that did not require the personnel for their increasingly bizarre arrangements and strict instrumentation demanded by their principal songwriter Davy G. Since forming in 1993 they have released a 7" single Uh-Huh! on Flying Nun (1995) and released Spongomumagummabullybeef + Microchips an album on Honest Tooth Records in 2003. Following on from this is the current incarnation of the band. The album features ten new tracks from the band.

 

WWIV Rock N Roll Point Of View CD
(GICSN)
File Under: Rock
GISCN01
"Included within the ranks of the WWiV are the full compliment of the super trio Rock 'n Roll Machine…. Throw another guitar and a bunch of new rockin' tunes into that already heady mix and you've got yourselves a super-size can o' kick ass. Neanderthal is just a stellar rock tune no mistake and of the others It Ain't Paranoia, Rok In Rol Ram Raid and No Rulz all sit quite comfortably beside any of the rest of the shit hot 'garage rock' that's blasting the airwaves at present." The Fix Magazine
10 tales from the meat-side of the cyber-divide. A hard-rok dissertation on the post-new world order from the perspective of post-September 12 Auckland (New Zealand, the other side of the dateline). A 3 man 1 woman crew playing with electricity and kinetics; fashioning an antidote to nu-metal and the nu-m.o.r

 

 

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