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Ten Reasons to Work at a Record Store
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1. The Alps- Le Voyage (Type Records). Italian and Euro Prog,
all clean and Analog Blissful. This record keeps growing on me
every time I listen to it. It's got Pink Floyd Ummagumma-era guitar
flourishes crossed with the Ghostbox experimental mentality. All
excellently recorded and magically separated. This one puts you
at the park in the dappled sunrays on a bed of eider-down. And
it's legal. Let the Sons of Prog reign supreme! My number one
album song of the year has to be 'Le Voyage', a 9 minute epic
slice of Heaven.
Here's a review from Boomkat which almost does it justice: "Still
comprised of the core threesome of Jefre Cantu-Ledesma (Tarentel),
Alexis Georgopoulos (ARP) and Scott Hewicker (Troll), The Alps
return to Type in full force for their fourth sprawling long player.
Buoyed by the praise lavished upon its predecessor ‘III’,
the band were adamant that ‘Le Voyage’ would be bigger,
brighter and better than anything in their catalogue to date,
and we can report that they have been successful in their quest.
The sun-bleached European movie soundtrack sentiment that underpinned
their previous records is still here in full force, but it comes
rolled up in something defiantly more psychedelic, and in turn
more unpredictable. Sewn together by vignettes which bring to
mind Delia Derbyshire’s Radiophonic hiccups or Luc Ferrari’s
tape collage, the band have put together an album which genuinely
takes you on a journey. Surely it can’t be a mistake calling
the album ‘Le Voyage’ then, a title which simultaneously
brings to mind the work of Serge Gainsbourg and Alejandro Jordorowsky
– something deeply visual but effortlessly beautiful.
With propulsive, break heavy rhythms sure to appeal to any diggers
out there and a blissful, sunny outlook to wipe the frown from
the faces of all you dour experimental types, ‘Le Voyage’
is a crack of light in a dark room. A mysterious record, it is
punctuated by the same energy that gave us space rock and psychedelia,
and while the band are quick to demonstrate their wide-ranging
musical knowledge, there is something incredibly unique about
their sound. This is not a lazy soundtrack to a film which might
never be made, rather ‘Le Voyage’ is a journey for
the listener and one you will want to take over and over again."
Convinced?
2. Emeralds- Does It Look Like I'm Here (Editions Mego) I don't
need to ramble here. This is actually a pop record disguised as
advanced Frippertronics-meets-the-noisy-set. With melodies you
can actually hum. Our boys from Cleveland can do no wrong (other
than maybe releasing too may limited run side projects). It's
ok if Ed doesn't need this. We forgive him.
3. Sufjan Stevens- All Delighted People EP (or at 60 min, is it
an LP) (Asthmatic Kitty). It is wonderfully inventive, beyond
anybody working out there today, and Djohariah, is a 17 minute
genre-bending epic of utter beauty. We've already discussed this
to death. Someday you'll get it...
4. Mark McGuire- Must Not Have Meant That Much (CDr, self released,
limited to 90 copies, go download it!). Lapping softly picked
guitars blend into layers of warm digital synthi-ness, mutating
and shifting so that it's never boring, always beautiful and subtly
psychedelic. There are children's voices buried so low in the
mix that when you recognize you've been on the merry-go-round
a while, it's already over. I want to hear this 33 minute slice
of bliss when I make the transition to the bright white light.
Whoever remembers to play it for me in the nursing home gets all
my LPs. It's his best work yet, hypnotic, pastoral, warm and experimental,
melodic and subliminal. Did I leave anything out?
5. Arp- The Soft Wave (Smalltown Supersound). Minimal Prog? Is
that an oxymoron? This one has a great cover, and it's very reminiscent
of Rodelius. Cluster and our other Krauty pals. There are references
to Another Green World era Eno even, but there is something new
and vibrant that brings to the form. AND lorts of Arp keyboards,
fittingly enough. The Autobahn calls...
Here's part of a review from Dusted hits this on the head: "In
the long run, however, the meticulously paced Arp sounds like
no one else; he just manages to convince you that you’re
in familiar territory by soundtracking a parade of his own influences.
Forget about kosmische: this is earthbound music, and its abstractions
are rooted in musical neoclassicism and indirectly informed by
conceptual art. The cyclical time of Daniel Lopatin’s Oneohtrix
Point Never is the opposite of Georgopoulos’s ruthless linear
plotting and sense of restraint. As on In Light, the synthesizers
on The Soft Wave sound live, not sequenced, and never bloat into
drone (though the roiling “Catch Wave” is the closest
Arp has come to this style), which gives another shade of meaning
to the album’s slow builds. " This is type record Charles
needs to be playing for his new-age chicks in his parents back-yard.
6. Barn Owl- The Conjurer (Rootstrata). I said I wouldn't do it,
but I'm listening to this right now and there is no way to avoid
it. This is the best merger of John Fahey and Doom to come out
of the drone-ster slums. Conjurer came out late Nov 2009, but
the vinyl sold out immediately and we had to wait for the discovery
until the Spring 2010 CD release. Atmosphere, Ennio Morricone,
etherial chanting, harmoniums and acoustic guitars drenched in
reverb. And the squalls of radioactive dust! The end is near.
Get the sage burners going....
7. Mono- Hymn to the Immortal Wind (Temporary Residence, Ltd.)
Slow on the uptake, this was technically released Oct. 2009, but
made it to my turntable only recently, in fine swirly aquamarine
and inky transparent vinyl. This is Mono's masterpiece, fusing
spacious desert westerns with classical and epic PROG Rock. There,
I said it. If there was one welcome trend from 2010, it's been
the rehabilitation of Prog by those pointy toed hipsters.
8. Solvent- Subject to Shift (Ghostly International). Pop IDM
with the programming that Charles adores, used properly! It's
all just simple little melodies. They used to play this stuff
on 1190. Super-saccarine pop-IDM that mixes "Tainted Love"
era '80s crap with Speedy J. and comes out clean. You listening,
Charles?
9. Caleb Klauder- Western Country (West Sound Records). We had
him in the studio live, and this guy's the real deal. Kicking
up a storm in the Americana/Revivalist circles, Caleb Klauder
is a rough as dry singer playing modern honky-tonk. With lots
of tasty songwriting and a Townes Van-Zandt vibe. No black leather
here.
10. Alasdair Roberts- Too Long In This Condition (Drag City).
It's really a Fairport Convention record (sans Sandy Denny), transported
to Scotland, but it is also Alasdair Roberts most accomplished
to date. Guess hanging out with Will Oldham has taught hinm how
to capture the loose and improv feel in the recording process,
and this one would be a real treasure to experience live in a
Scottish pub in the Hinterlands by a peat fire with some good
highland scotch. Humm, guess what Uncle Jeff is gonna do to help
him finish this book-report?
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Reissues - Rediscoveries - Re-Re-Ree
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1. To Scratch Your Heart (Early Recordings From Instanbul) (Honest
Jon's Records)
2. Bob Dylan- The Witmark Demos (1962-1964) (Columbia/Legacy)
3. Hank Williams- Nashville Sessions (Doxy)
4. Mortika- Recordings from a Greek Underworld (Mississippi/Canary
Records)
5. Pop Electronique (Les Sons electroniques de Cecil Leuter) (Vadim
Music, France). Wacked out Space-Age Batchelor Music with Moogs
way up in front and the kind of drumming that only someone sneaking
into the Future and taking back a bin of drum and bass records
coulda coughed up in 1965. What was in the water at the BBC studios
in France?
6. Willkommen im Weltraum- Nostalgia for an age yet to come (Weltraum)
I wish I coulda bought one of these for each and every one of
you, but it's Russian, limited, silkscreened with silver and gold
inks on black paper, awesome, and it's gone... It's where I first
heard of Cecil Leuter for you fans of the Pop Electronique lifestyle.
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Single of the Year
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Cee Lo- F**k You / Instrumental mix. The 12" single of the
year, a reason to drag yourself out on Record Store day. This
is the catchiest song of the year, insidious in it's worm-hole
accuracy in targeting the those pop loving neurons that have been
so carefully submerged in the quest for ultra-uberness. Go ahead
and make fun of Father Time dancing in his Depends with the neon
flickering. Tomorrow never knows. Write something this good and
you won't have to work at Walmart.
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