NEW RELEASES 2015 WEEK #47 NOV 27 THROUGH WEEK #50 DEC 18

NOVEMBER 27, 2015 (WEEK #47)

1.    CIRCLES AROUND THE SUN (NEAL CASAL)-“INTERLUDES FOR THE DEAD” [2-CD] (11/27) (Those lucky enough to score a "miracle" ticket to the Fare Thee Well concerts this summer were treated to some potent psychedelic jams during the shows' intermissions. The mysterious group behind those freewheeling tunes was Circles Around the Sun, a band convened by guitarist Neal Casal specifically for the project.The songs were composed and recorded during a two-day jam session. The results were so captivating, and the audience response so overwhelmingly positive, Rhino decided to give the music a proper release as a 2CD apart from the complete versions of Fare Thee Well.)

2.    DANZIG-“SKELETONS” (11/27)

3.    DEEPCHORD-“ULTRAVIOLET MUSIC” [2-CD] (11/27) 

4.    ETHAN JOHNS-“SILVER LINER” (WITH THE BLACK EYED DOGS) (11/27) 

5.    HEATHER LEIGH-“I ABUSED ANIMAL” (11/27) (I Abused Animal is Heather Leigh's first solo album for Ideologic Organ, following solo albums on Kendra Steiner Editions, Golden Lab Records, Not Not Fun, Fag Tapes, Wish Image, Volcanic Tongue's label, and more. Renowned as a fearless free improviser, Leigh showcases her songwriting prowess on I Abused Animal, foregrounding her stunning voice and her innovations for the pedal steel guitar. Warmly recorded in a secret location in the English countryside, the album transports the power of her captivating live performances to a studio setting, capturing her tactile playing in full clarity while making devastating use of volume and space. Leigh explores themes of abuse, sexual instinct, vulnerability, memory, shadow, fantasy, cruelty, and projection. I Abused Animal is a personal, idiosyncratic, and deeply psychedelic work, ranging from almost Kousokuya-scale black blues through the kind of ethereal electro-ritual of Solstice-era Coil. At times the intimacy of the recordings makes you feel like she's singing directly into your ear, playing just for you. Leigh has performed and released music since the 1990s as a solo artist and with a wide range of uncompromising collaborators including Peter Brötzmann and Jandek, and has toured extensively throughout the US, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Her playing is as physical as it is phantom, combining spontaneous compositions with a feel for the full interaction of flesh with hallucinatory power sources. With a rare combination of sensitivity and strength, Leigh's steel mainlines sanctified slide guitar and deforms it using hypnotic tone-implosions while juggling walls of bleeding amp-tone with choral-vocal-constructs and wrenching single-note ascensions. She's played, performed, and released music with Ash Castles on the Ghost Coast, Charalambides, Scorces (a duo with Christina Carter), Dream/Aktion Unit (a group with Thurston Moore, Paul Flaherty, Chris Corsano, and Matt Heyner), Taurpis Tula, Jailbreak (a duo with Corsano), Termas (a duo with Lynda), Annihilating Light (a duo with Stefan Jaworzyn), Richard Youngs, Blood Stereo, MV & EE, Robbie Yeats of The Dead C, John Olson of Wolf Eyes, Smegma, Jutta Koether, Kommissar Hjuler & Mama Bär, and many others. I Abused Animal was composed and performed by Heather Leigh. Recorded and engineered by Joe Gubay in Surrey, October 2014. Cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering in Berlin, July 2015. Photographs by David Keenan. Spiritual adviser: Dean Roberts. Ideologic Organ curation and art direction by Stephen O'Malley; manufactured and distributed by Editions Mego.)

6.    MEKONS & ROBBIE FULKS-“JURA” (11/27) 

7.    MOTORPSYCHO-“SUPERSONIC SCIENTISTS: A YOUNG PERSON’S GUIDE TO MOTORPSYCHO” [2-CD COLLECTION ON RUNE GRAMMOFON] (11/27) 

8.    TY SEGALL-“TY REX” [EXPANDED EDITION OF HIS T-REX COVERS] (11/27) (2015 release. The Ty Rex corner of Ty Segall's oeuvre represents the nom-de-rock behind which the artist puts his spin on favored Tyrannosaurus Rex and T. Rex compositions. With previous releases now dwelling in out-of-print nether-regions, the album compiles the six-song Ty Rex EP (a.k.a. Ty Rex I, originally released by Goner as a limited edition 12-inch for Record Store Day 2011) and the two-song Ty Rex II 7-inch (RSD 2013). As if this wasn't enough of a corrective gesture, Ty Rex is expanded to include a previously-unreleased cover as a bonus. The compilation showcases a nice balance between T. Rex's '67-70 psych-folk incarnation under the name Tyrannosaurus Rex and the better-known pioneering and perfecting of glam-rock that defined the initial '71-73 era under the shortened T. Rex moniker.)

9.    SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE-“HEXADIC II” (11/27) (Sounding forth from a resonating body, the music of SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE seems to reach us from an ancient remove. BEN CHASNY's 6OOA vehicle is a wide-ranging craft, spanning over a dozen albums whose gaze is always shifting, but whose focus never wavers, descending through a labyrinth of contrasting lexicons (both linguistic and musical) in an attempt to resolve existential codes while engaging the listener and the musician in shared pursuit. With Hexadic II, Ben Chasny's unique touch on acoustic guitar is brought back to our ears after what feels like a kind of forever. What may signify to some ears as folk music is caught in an equally compelling undertow of powerful subterranean energy. Ghostly vocals of divergent timbres sing over the fluid interplay of guitars, harmonium, violin--and pure space, as the reverberant room around the sounds plays as much a part in the experience as the music.)

10. SPOON-“TV SET” [RECORD STORE DAY 10” VINYL] (11/27) (A stunning psychedelic version of The Cramps' "TV Set" originally in the Poltergeist movie remake, and performed on a recent episode of Conan, and making its exclusive phsical debut on this 10". B-side is a haunting rework of fan favorite "Let Me Be Mine" from their latest full length They Want My Soul, also exclusive to this deluxe color 10" in spot gloss jacket with printed inner jacket and sleeve. Track List "TV Set"/"Let Me Be Mine (Nighttime Version)"

11. SUPERGRASS-“I SHOULD COCO” [20^TH ANNIVERSARY COLLECTOR’S EDITION 3-CD] (11/27)

12. VAMPIRE BELT-“UNFIT STRUCTURES” (11/27) ("Formed in 2002 in Western Massachusetts, Vampire Belt is Bill Nace (Body / Head, x.o.4, Ceylon Mange) on guitar and electronics and Chris Corsano (Rangda, Joe McPhee, Evan Parker) on drums and electronics. Early on, they self-released a couple of ultra-limited CDRs of lo-fi blow-outs, something like a mangled car wreck at the intersection of hardcore and free jazz. Unfit Structures, Vampire Belt’s first LP, is high-energy improvised outbursts with spontaneously structured forms imploding just as soon as they begin to solidify.")

13. WHITE OUT WITH NELS CLINE-“ACCIDENTAL SKY” (11/27)

DECEMBER 4, 2015 (WEEK #48)

1.    THE BLACK WATCH-“HIGHS AND LOWS” (12/4)

2.    DEERHOOF-“FEVER 121614 – LIVE IN JAPAN” (12/4) 

3.    DISAPPEARS-“DAVID BOWIE’S “LOW”: LIVE IN CHICAGO” (12/4)

4.    DAVE DOUGLAS AND MONASH ART ENSEMBLE-“FABLIAUX” (12/4) 

5.    JONNY GREENWOOD-“JUNUN (WITH THE RAJASTHAN EXPRESS & SHYE BEN TZUR)” (12/4) 

6.    HURRICANE #1-“FIND WHAT YOU LOVE AND LET IT KILL YOU” (12/4) (Former Creation Records act Hurricane#1 are back! After battling cancer, frontman Alex Lowe has emerged triumphant and resurrected his old band for their first album in 16 years, following 1999's Only the Strongest Will Survive. The original line up included ex-Ride guitarist and vocalist Andy Bell, Alex Lowe (vocals and guitar), bassist Will Pepper and drummer Gareth Farmer. The band split up in 1999 after releasing two full-length albums and several singles on Creation Records. Their anthemic sound was influenced by classic '60s rock 'n' roll, soul, and country rock, but with a contemporary edge. Superstar DJ Paul Oakenfold remixed their debut single, and UNKLE's James Lavelle revamped "Only The Strongest Will Survive." After the demise of Hurricane#1, Lowe concentrated on his solo career, and in 2013, released an album under the name Gun Club Cemetery on Alan McGee's 359 Music. McGee has been the driving force behind bringing Hurricane#1 back from the dead. This time around, Lowe is joined by Brazilian brothers Carlo and Lucas Mariani on guitar and bass and Chris Campbell on drums. Find What You Love and Let It Kill You came about when Lowe was in hospital undergoing cancer treatments. He recalls, "I would sit there on the bed for hours just thinking, staring out the window, then I thought if I'm spending my time in here doing nothing, I may as well try and keep busy, so I wrote most of the album in hospital... When you are wired up to chemo and radio therapy, the last thing you want to do is wallow in it and feel sorry for yourself so I had the idea that the album should be happy and not too dark. I knew I wanted it to be a very organic album, back to basics type of sound, nothing fancy, just good tunes played in a good rock 'n' roll manner." The album was recorded in Turriff, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, where Steve Ransome, an old friend of Lowe's, runs a studio. During the recording sessions Andy Bell contributed the backward guitar sounds on "Think of the Sunshine." For the artwork the band hunted down loads of ideas, but couldn't find anything they liked, so Lowe painted it. "It's all original artwork I did for this album, a bit what like John Squire did for the Roses, I think it works great.")

7.    MARCUS MARR & CHET FAKER-“WORK” [EP] (12/4)

8.    MARGOT AND THE NUCLEAR SO AND SO’S-“THE BRIDE ON THE BOXCAR – A DECADE OF MARGOT RARITIES, 2004-2014” [BOX SET] (12/4)

9.    MILK LINES-“CERAMIC” (12/4)

10. A NEW LINE (RELATED)-“OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL FUCKING SUCCOUR” [12” EP] (12/4) (The first music from Andrew Johnson as A New Line (Related) since his 2014 debut under the alias (HAM 009LP) and its accompanying 7" (which included a remix by Miles Whittaker (Demdike Stare). The title-track draws upon Detroit producer Terrence Dixon's simple hypnotism; the second track recalls Huerco S.'s experimental, grainy house. The B-side opens with percussion stabs over effervescent, Deepchord-style loops, and the closer is the absolute apex of Johnson's creativity, with billowing, distorted loops over a simple drum machine.)

11. PARQUET COURTS-“MONASTIC LIVING” [EP] (12/4) 

12. THE PIXIES-“DOOLITTLE 25: B-SIDES, PEEL SESSIONS AND DEMOS” (3-CD) (12/2)

13. PLACEBO-“MTV UNPLUGGED” (12/4)

14. SUNN O)))-“KANNON” (12/4) 

15. TUNE-“IDENTITY” (12/2) 

DECEMBER 11, 2015 (WEEK #49)

1.    CLAY RENDERING-“SNOWTHORNS” (12/11) (***Perhaps the most compelling of all the many projects started by one-time members of Wolf Eyes, Clay Rendering came to life in 2013 and have since released a trio of singles for Hospital Productions that have gained them the admiration of followers spanning both electronic and metal communities.Their material occupies unique terrain, recalling The Cure's widescreen Disintegration-era instrumentals, cut through with a Black Metal palette and an appreciation of electronic music that imbues their production (notably assisted by Dominick Fernow) with an end-of-world quality that's impossible to pin down. Evoking Nine Inch Nails one moment, you find yourself in a smoke-filled, strobe-lit Road House the next; bleary-eyed, head spinning, coming down.Guitar, Accordion, Piano and electronics underpin these songs, opening with the whirling death march of 'Maps on The Floor' and the funereal trudge of "Swallow The Century" before the grinding fuzz of "Sight From Up There" changes pace with the addition of a forlorn piano melody and Becka Diamond's distant vocal zooming in on half-remembered songs, rendered here with hazy definition."Fall Of The Bed" and "Memory Loses Momentum" find Clay Rendering at their most visceral and catchy; a reminder that they are first and foremost a band that write incredible songs, often submerged in fuzz and atmosphere, but here left exposed, bare, on display.And yet the title track "Snowthorn", "River Without" and the incredible album closer "Night To Perish" edge the album from the bleak and into the sublime, turning away from the snowy landscapes their music so often evokes, instead pulling you deep into night...)

2.    THE FOREST FIRES-“BROTHER NATURE” (12/11) 

3.    MARK LANEGAN-“ONE WAY STREET: THE SUB POP ALBUMS” [BOX SET] (11/11)

4.    RINGO DEATHSTARR-“PURE MOOD” (12/11) (Texan shoegaze revivalists Ringo Deathstarr return with their fifth studio album, ''Pure Mood.'' ''Pure Mood'' oozes all things dank, dark and dreamy. The 12 track LP presents a vivid and searing collection of songs that re-imagine the shoegaze genre, allowing Ringo Deathstarr to soar beyond their contemporaries. The aptly named opening track, ''Dream Again,'' is sung by bassist Alex Gehring, whose delicate voice echoes eerily over the spectral, otherworldly chords that pluck underneath. ''Heavy Metal Suicide'' and ''Stare At The Sun'' contain the same cathartic droning that has been previously celebrated by genre forefathers, My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive. Tracks like ''Never'' and ''Boys In Heat'' plunge the band and listener alike deep into the uncharted sonic depths of unadulterated, decadent sound. Elliott Frazer's vocals accentuate the eruption of noise behind his anthemic lyrics, dipping in and out of brief moments of clarity before bursting back into the manic grit of songs like ''Big Bopper'' and ''Frisbee.'' There's a daring clash of fury and fragility throughout ''Pure Mood'' that demonstrates Ringo Deathstarr are not just reliving a scene, they're re-inventing it with their shattering use of chaotic guitars and haunting voices.)

5.    SMASHING PUMPKINS-“MONUMENTS TO AN ELEGY” (12/9)

6.    TEENAGE JESUS AND THE JERKS-“LIVE 1977-1979” (12/11) (LP version. "Teenage Jesus and the Jerks began to formulate their visionary brand of aural catharsis sometime during the first half of 1977, amidst the sordid ruins of a then fully down-and-out Lower Manhattan. The mastermind behind this juggernaut of sonic libertinage was a barely pubescent but world-weary runaway who called herself Lydia Lunch. Influenced strongly by the Marquis de Sade and Henry Miller, Lunch shrewdly decided to graft the existential horror of her own writing onto harsh, atonal music after being exposed to the room-clearing live output of other contemporary rock-music deconstructionists like Suicide and Mars. With an agenda of conjuring nightmarish intensity in lieu of technical instrumental ability, Teenage Jesus instantly made the supposedly 'nihilistic' and 'raw' current wave of so-called Punk acts sound like slick, good-timey pop music by comparison. Teenage Jesus and the Jerks were The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS, and Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, transliterated into a blatant mockery of the increasingly tired, basic rock-band format. Posthumously, there have been numerous reissues of the primary Teenage Jesus corpus, namely the first side of the Lydia Lunch double compilation album Hysterie (CD Presents, 1986), a very incomplete anthology titled Everything (Atavistic, 1995) and Shut Up and Bleed (Cherry Red/Atavistic, 2008), which also featured Beirut Slump tracks. These less-than-fastidious documents contained reverb-laden transcriptions of the studio cuts directly from vinyl copies, as well as random live tracks of mediocre fidelity. This particular collection about to be released on Other People is meticulously edited and mastered from rare bootlegs taped during the initial 1977-1979 period of the classic band, and only one title ('Crown of Thorns' from January 17, 1979) has been legitimately released to date, albeit in a completely different sound quality. Almost every known Teenage Jesus and the Jerks composition appears on this compendium and Ms. Lunch herself is quite satisfied that this just might be the final nail in the coffin... If it is the sound of deliberately organized and deployed agony you are seeking, your bath has been drawn and the razor awaits." --Weasel Walter, Brooklyn, NY, June 30, 2015)

7.    VARIOUS ARTISTS-“PARALLELOGRAM: FIVE ALBUM-SET” (12/11) (CD1: HISS GOLDEN MESSENGER & MICHAEL CHAPMAN) (CD2: SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE & WILLIAM TYLER) (CD3: KURT VILE & STEVE GUNN) (CD4: THURSTON MOORE & JOHN MOLONEY – ALAN BISHOP, BILL ORCUTT, CHRIS CORSANO) (CD5: BARDO POND & YO LA TENGO)

DECEMBER 18, 2015 (WEEK #50)

1.    BARONESS-“PURPLE” (12/18)

2.    HURTS-“SURRENDER” [DELUXE EDITION] (12/18) 

3.    CASS MCCOMBS-“A FOLK SET APART: RARITIES, B-SIDES & SPACE JUNK, ETC.” (12/18)