APRIL 14, 2015
(WEEK # 15)
1.
AKKORD-“Hth035” (4/14) (Following the monumental success of HTH030 (HTH 030EP), on which The
Haxan Cloak (co-producer on Björk's 2015 album Vulnicura) and Hospital
Productions' Vatican Shadow reworked tracks from Manchester duo Akkord's HTH020
EP (HTH 020EP), Akkord (Synkro and Indigo) return with another handpicked
curation, bringing together two more producers at the top of their game in
their respected genres. Fis (Tri Angle, Loopy) conveys the experimental drones
of sound design and left of center D&B abstraction in his reworking of
"Gravure" and "Continuum," while techno originator Regis
(Downwards, Sandwell District) reassembles the same two tracks, looping sludgy
dub techno atmospherics and placing emphasis on the space in between. HTH035
also includes Akkord's originals of these tracks, the originals of the tracks
remixed on HTH030, and the remixes from HTH030. This CD brings together some of
the most exciting producers in experimental electronic music on one release.
Mastered by Matt Colton at Alchemy and presented in Houndstooth's distinctive
spot-varnished PVC outer sleeves.)
2.
TORI AMOS-“LITTLE EARTHQUAKES” [DELUXE
EDITION 2-CD] (4/14) + “UNDER THE PINK” [DELUXE EDITION 2-CD] (4/14)
3.
AVA LUNA-“INFINITE HOUSE” (4/14)
4.
TIM BERNE-“YOU’VE BEEN WATCHING ME”
(4/14)
5.
CALEXICO-“EDGE OF THE SUN” [DELUXE
EDITION] (4/14)
6.
THE DAMNWELLS-“THE DAMNWELLS” (4/14)
7.
DARKNESS FALLS-“DANCE AND CRY” (4/14)
8.
EELS-“ROYAL ALBERT HALL” (2-CD/1-DVD)
(4/14)
9.
GALLOWS-“DESOLATION SOUNDS” (4/14)
10. THE
LILAC TIME-“NO SAD SONGS” (4/14) (A
prose poem, which Stephen Duffy composed especially for the release of the
ninth album by his band The Lilac Time, contains the lines, "I was a
flower child, now I'm a flower man." It took a long time before one became
the other. When viewed from space, Duffy's path may well appear labyrinthine,
filled with loopholes and trapdoors. Yet a sober perspective reveals the path
of a musician and poet who is independent in the very best sense of the word.
Nevertheless, a lot has happened since the young boy kept his Praktica camera
trained on street scenes in the Birmingham of the Cold War. Back in 1979, an
18-year-old Duffy was a founding member of Duran Duran. Yet he did not board
the train to superstardom. The visionary instinct of the young artist had other
intentions. He might have had Bob Dylan, Nick Drake, and The Incredible String
Band in mind, but he himself was not allergic to success. He quickly understood
that a songwriter with an acoustic guitar had little access to the
merry-go-round of the charts in the early '80s. Instead, he formed the band Tin
Tin, trading his guitar for a synthesizer and making chic, clever, and
sparkling pop music. The young man with the melancholy expression even landed
two international hits with "Kiss Me" and "Icing On the Cake."
But before the record company was able to put their plan into action and turn
Duffy into the next Rick Astley, he took flight. He mothballed his pop persona
and founded a band with his brother: The Lilac Time. On their debut in 1987,
they made what Duffy had long dreamed of: flower music. The 1988 single Return
to Yesterday conjured visions of Simon & Garfunkel. In an era of slapping
basses and smacking snares, the instrumentation was exceptional: mainly
acoustic, with guitars, banjos, fiddles, and accordions, all beautifully
arranged by Nick Duffy, who was also responsible for composing the instrumental
pieces on the record. Keep in mind that the new acoustic movement, which
brought forth bands like Belle and Sebastian and Kings of Convenience, was still
more than ten years away. Often in diametrical contrast with this melancholy
folk pop were Stephen Duffy's lyrics, with descriptions of suburban tristesse
placed seamlessly alongside biting commentary on the issues of the times and
courageous reports of the singer's moments of excess and aventures amoureuses.)
11. LOCAL
H-“HEY, KILLER” (4/14)
12. PALAXY
TRACKS-“WILDERNESS” (4/14)
13. THE
REPLACEMENTS-“THE COMPLETE STUDIO ALBUMS 1981-1990” [RHINO 8-CD BOX SET ]
(4/14)
14. RUMER-“B-SIDES
& RARITIES” (4/14)
15. SUPERPOZE-“OPENING”
(4/14)
16. TRICKFINGER-“TRICKFINGER”
(4/14) (The latest chapter in the electronic
evolution of guitarist John Frusciante features a new project under his
Trickfinger guise and has him utilizing the classic hardware that spawned the
eternal acid template. Frusciante's desire to cede control to machines has
paradoxically allowed him to present a singular take on elemental dance music,
a brilliant and unexpected entry into Acid Test's growing canon of modern,
303-focused dance music. Frusciante writes, "I started being serious about
following my dream to make electronic music, and to be my own engineer, five
years ago. For the ten years prior to that, I had been playing guitar along
with a wide range of different types of programmed synthesizer- and
sample-based music, emulating as best as I could what I heard. I found that the
languages machines forced programmers to think in had caused them to discover a
new musical vocabulary. The various forms of electronically generated music,
particularly in the last 22 years, have introduced many new principles of rhythm,
melody, and harmony... Programmers, particularly ones fluent on machines from
the early '80s and/or tracker programs from the '90s, clearly had a theoretical
foundation in their employ but it was not the theory I knew from pop/rock,
jazz, or classical. The hands' relationship to the instrument accounts for so
much of why musicians do what they do, and I had come to feel that in pop/rock
my mind was often being overpowered by my hand, which I had a strong desire to
correct... In 2007 I started to learn how to program all the instruments we
associate with acid house music and some other hardware. For about seven months
I didn't record anything. Then I started recording, playing ten or so synced
machines through a small mixer into a CD burner. This was all experimental acid
house, my skills at making rock music playing no part in it whatsoever. I had
lost interest in traditional songwriting and I was... so excited by the method
of using numbers much in the same way I'd used my muscles all my life. Skills that
had previously been applied by my subconscious were gradually becoming
conscious, by virtue of having numerical theoretical means of thinking about
rhythm, melody, and sound. In summary, acid served as a good starting point for
me, very gradually leading me to be able to combine whatever styles of music I
want, as a one-man band.")
17. VATICAN
SHADOW-“DEATH IS UNITY WITH GOD” (4/14) (***Death Is
Unity With God finds DOMINCK FERNOW returning to the kind of feral, burned-out
productions that dominated 2012's Ornamented Walls. This double LP includes 12
of the 20 tracks included on the original 2014 limited six-cassette release of
Death Is Unity With God, in advance of Modern Love's triple-CD edition
compiling all the material. It clocks in at an hour and a half and features
some of the most compelling productions from Fernow yet. Nodding to classic
Muslimgauze, but also inspired by the parallels between religious
fundamentalism at home in the USA and abroad, the oppressive atmospheres and
destroyed rhythms isolate the gutted toil and drone in "It's to
Come," while "F.B.I. God" reduces the drums to scorched blasts
against some harrowing, darkside chords. The quasi-speed torment of
"Manufactured Silencers Under Direct Orders" ends the A-side with
dread, flowing into the haunting chorales and chiming percussions of
"Living On and Off At the Shadows Motel" and the scything techno roil
of "Small Explosives and Blasting Caps Inside the Pages of a
Phonebook," before a particularly effective chamber-like meditation,
"McVeigh Figure," draws aesthetic lines between ambient black metal,
Coil, and early Autechre. "Waco Postmortem (Murrah)" ends the set
operating nearly out of earshot with those incredible, sashaying synth motifs
persisting in their struggle against the patina of hiss and exasperated rhythms
blurred around the edges.)
18. VILLAGERS-“DARLING
ARITHMETIC” [DELUXE EDITION] (4/14)
19. KYM
WARNER (OF THE GREENCARDS)-“EVERTHING THAT BROUGHT ME HERE” (4/14)
20. WAXAHATCHEE-“IVY TRIPP” (4/14)
21. THE WOMBATS-“GLITTERBUG”
(DELUXE EDITION) (4/14)
22. DWIGHT
YOAKAM-“SECOND HAND HEART” (4/14)
23. ZERO
7-“EP3” (4/14)
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