COLLEY, JOE 8 Phased Loops (Mixer) 2 x 7" 14.98
For this double 7" set, sound artist Joe Colley (who recently dropped his longstanding Crawl Unit moniker) presents an exercise in conceptual minimalism, even if the end results aren't entirely keeping in the minimalist tradition. On each composition, Colley manipulates only two tape loops, allowing them to phase in and out of rhythm, slowing them down, speeding them up, and crossfading between the two. Considering that his source materials are ominous electronic field disturbances and hotwired drones, the cross-pollenization of the two loops creates a sonic friction that is intentionally caustic and mechanical. Even the drones are noxious enough as to create a very tense environment for the mantra of looping crackle and hum.

COLLEY, JOE Anthem: Static For Empty Life (Crippled Intellect) 3" cd 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
While he may have permanently dropped his industrialist moniker Crawl Unit, Joe Colley continues to impress with his ominous compositions of mistreated electronics, tonally pleasing feedback mantras, and abrasive physicality. "Anthem: Static For Empty Life" lifts itself out of deep rumblings with streaming, cold gray ribbons of electrical fizzings that subtly phase across the stereo field. These physically active drones build up to a sublime chorus of electrical field hummings, which abruptly jump-cut to throbbing mechanical stabs of low-bit-rate noise. Often alluding to less specific metaphors of urban decay or social collapse, Colley's aesthetic choices are just as strong as work by John Duncan or Francisco Lopez. It's a bit of shame that it's 18 minutes long, but it does make for a great ride!
RealAudio clip: "Anthem (excerpt 1)"
RealAudio clip: "Anthem (excerpt 2)"

COLLEY, JOE Desperate Attempts At Beauty (Auscultare) cd 11.98
If you hold the cover at just the right angle, a misanthropic and self-loathing text emerges from what might appear at first to be simply just another austere, all white package housing another austere album of micro-glitch minimalism. This well-executed design strategy (courtesy of Randy Yau) works to complement Joe Colley's subversive agenda, which even ends up undermining his own intentions. For all of the macho posturing of the text (e.g. "REMEMBER HOW WE DESTROYED THE THINGS THAT MADE US HAPPY AND HOW WE STILL DO? LETS DAMAGE EACH OTHER BEYOND REPAIR..." and so on) and the opening 8 second jolt of unneccessary noise, Colley's sound constructions speak of an inquisitive spirit. Throughout this record, Colley pokes and prods various sonic-making situations that often hold fascinating textural detailings. The most obvious example of this is found in his recordings of water being absorbed by modelling clay, which results in a dense chorus of tiny squeaks and squiggles. Colley almost allows himself to be seduced by these sounds; but just before he does, that misanthropic urge deep within his being instructs him to obliterate those curious textures though harsh digital noises, piercing arpeggiations, and noxious jump-cuts. This strategic hammering of sound certainly keeps the listener alert to what may be coming next; thus making the intricate detail work far more enjoyable... if "enjoyable" can in fact be a description attributed to Colley's solo output or his earlier work as Crawl Unit.
MPEG Stream: "January Broken Statis"
MPEG Stream: "Claysound 07.02"
MPEG Stream: "Headache (Diagnostic Testpulse For Blown PA)"

COLLEY, JOE Hive (Ferns) 3" cd 9.98
A few months ago, the French label Ferns published a brilliant 3" CD from mnortham who created an homage to his father, the race car driver, through a ecstatic droning collage of racetrack recordings. The very next release from the label happens to be from the Bay Area's Joe Colley, who in turn, composed a unsettling piece dedicated to his father as well, the beekeeper. We simply could not help notice the coincidence of the fatherly inspiration found on these two recordings, and wonder if the next couple (i.e. Small Cruel Party and Giancarlo Toniutti, if you must know) will follow the same pattern in creating sonic portraits. As you probably could ascertain, Colley's Hive is sourced from beehives, with many of the recordings processed and mangled. With the resultant sounds being much less destructive / misanthropic than those heard on Psychic Stress Soundtracks or Desperate Attempts At Beauty, Colley pursues a relatively subtle composition through the anxious energy of bees rattling within a hive and swarming drones that have been hushed into a peculiarly dreamy cloud of soft white noises. Hive is incredibly well executed, but the lack of anything overtly abrasive, toxic, or downright meanspirited in a Colley piece can be a little unsettling, as we had braced ourselves for the swarm of bees to erupt from the speakers in a nightmarish attack of razor-sharp distortion. But after the second and third listens to Hive, we sank into the rich buzzing sounds wondering if this is how it sounds to have a colony of bees placidly crawling over one's head. Very nicely done.
MPEG Stream: "Hive 1"
MPEG Stream: "Hive 2"

COLLEY, JOE Psychic Stress Soundtracks (Antifrost) cd 15.98
Once known as Crawl Unit, the Californian misanthrope Joe Colley has never been as prolific as many of his contemporaries such as Francisco Lopez, Daniel Menche, and The Hafler Trio. While this is not to say that none of those artists exhibit much in the way of quality control (quite the contrary!), Joe Colley's constant fussiness coupled with a self-identification with failure lends his recordings to readings as these fringe elements of sound research touching on psychological issues into the nether regions of the human psyche as well as mechanical engineering gone awry. It's been a little over two years since Colley's previous album Desperate Attempts At Beauty, and we have to say that Psychic Stress Soundtracks is a step up from that impressive piece of work. Refreshingly devoid of digital effects and techniques, the Psychic Stress Soundtracks feature five lengthy compositions in which a handful of surplus electronics, motors, and mechanical objects have been rewired to exaccerbate their collapse. Within the hiss of circuits meltings and gears jamming, Colley coaxes a toxic array of hums, clicks, pings, and drones, and in turn, sculpts them into an amazing set of electro-shock minimalism confounded by numerous compositional detours and ruptures. This is well worth checking out!
MPEG Stream: "A Melody of Failure"
MPEG Stream: "Rehersal For Highspeed Paralysis"

COLLEY, JOE Waste Of Songs (Oral) cd 16.98
Earlier in 2006, Joe Colley won an Award of Distinction at the 2006 Prix Ars Electronica in Digital Music for his album Psychic Stress Soundtracks. The jurors of Ars Electronica grafted a political sentiment onto Colley's work by drawing parallels between Psychic Stress Soundtracks and the use of extreme sound as a method of interrogation pushed to the brink of what can be defined as torture under the Geneva Convention. While Colley's previous work has intentionally blurred the boundaries between noise, sound research, and psychology, all of his investigations (including Psychic Stress Soundtracks) appear as exercises in self-negation and existential failure manifested through maltreated electronics (as opposed to what those at Ars Electronica saw in his work as a mimetic work of external horror). Waste Of Songs is a blunt follow up to Psychic Stress Soundtracks, and true to Colley's demeanor, he's not particularly inclined to resolve any questions about the intentions of his album or its relation to the outside world. Rather, it's another brilliantly executed album of his own "negative reactions to an environment" as realized through jittering electronic feedback, overdriven servo-motors smoldering with too much voltage pushed through their dynamos, volatile drones extracted from the ether, and field recordings rendered toxic with choice use of DSP treatments. The exact synthesis between Xenakis' precision and Wolf Eyes' malaise; yeah, that's close enough to describing this. Highly recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Internal Apocalypse and Half Asleep"
MPEG Stream: "Lung Crack and Tuning Sickness"

COLLEY, JOE & JASON LESCALLEET Annihilate This Week (Brombron) cd 15.98

MPEG Stream: "Prayer"
MPEG Stream: "Nervous Laughter"

COLLEY, JOE / CRAWL UNIT Sound Until the World Ends (Staalplaat / ERS) lp 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is not a split release as Joe Colley is the individual behind Crawl Unit, and perhaps should be seen as an indication that Joe is phasing out his Crawl Unit moniker. Regardless, "Sound Until The World Ends" is another great addition to the often overlooked / underappreciated catalogue of Mr. Colley, whose work has always been as good / if not better than Francisco Lopez, Zbigniew Karkowski, and other manipulators of physical sound. This vinyl only LP (as is the case for everything released so far on ERS) is broken into discrete sections which begin quite benignly with low-end drones and the delicate flutter of delay pedals feeding back upon themselves. But any tranquility these sounds offer quickly dissipates amidst noxious distortions and chopped white noise that steadily build up into a crescendo and quickly drop off into an abyss of deep tonal floats. This is the pattern that Colley follows through 4 or 5 sections throughout the record. Constructed at Colley's base of operations in Sacramento during the much ballyhooed California power crisis in the summer of 2001, "Sound Until The World Ends" alludes to the hyperboles of apocalyptic literature (found in the title and the pseudo-luddite note that this album was "mixed by hand (without a computer)". Given how incredibly hot Sacramento can get in the summer, such references may be warranted. Nevertheless, this is a great album.

COLLINS, BOOTSY Anthology (Rhino) 2cd 30.00
'70s/'80s funk icon Bootsy gets a double cd best of set courtesy Rhino, 25 cuts of psychoticbumpschoolin' from the Bootzilla. Includes personal fave "Mug Push". Would-be funkateers lacking these tracks need to rectify that lapse immediately.
"Got the munchies... for your chocolate star"???

COLLINS, BOOTSY Ultra Wave (Collector's Choice) cd 13.98
Mug push!!

COLLINS, NICOLAS Devil's Music (EM) 2cd 26.00
Some experimental music is more experimental than other experimental music. Nicolas Collins' Devil's Music, it's safe to say, was (and is) an Experiment. One that tests a theory described in the liner notes: "I have long assumed the radio to be the world's cheapest, yet most powerful synthesizer: you can find any sound out there; the only question is, can you find the sound you want when you want it?" Naturally, the results of this experiment fall into that realm of unusual sounds that would be reissued by Japan's ever-eccentric EM Records label, and glad we are of EM's diligent efforts to dig up such artifacts!
Devil's Music hails from the heyday of sampling music (late '80s), so it bears some similarity to the works of Christian Marclay and Steinski, but Collins is (as per his theorizing) using radios, not turntables. It also reminds us of stuff by John Oswald, the Tape-Beatles, and other "plunderphonic" artists, but in John Cage like fashion, Collins has introduced an element of chance into the genre of sample-basic music making. Inspired also by hip hop DJs, Collins' music here is performed live, in a spontaneous, improvisatory mode, at the mercy of whatever he can snatch from the local airways at that very moment to weave into his stuttery sound-collages. Every performance was thus very different in audio content, if not structure and rhythm.
Further explanation, from the liner notes to the original Devil's Music LP (1986): "[F]ragments of radio broadcasts are digitally sampled, looped, re-triggered and occasionally reversed or de-tuned. All material is taken from FM and AM transmissions occuring at the time of the performance. The performer plays off of certain musical ground-rules intrinsic to the sampling system (which consists of two modified inexpensive effect devices) to develop the quirky rhythmic interplay that characterizes the piece."
Conceptually (and chaotically) interesting, definitely, but difficult listening too. You know best your own tolerance for this sort of thing. People into rhythmic noisiness ought to like it. The density of this "music", and the element of repetition, makes it mesmeric, maybe. But for many, it might be maddening - ferinstance, hearing some anonymous announcer man say "outdoor swimming pool" over and over and over again, nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nineteen style, amidst a barrage of (drum machine?) beats, before the track shifts, ADD-like, to another non-sequitur sample randomly snatched from the airwaves, is sure to drive some folks nuts!
Though the first side of Devil's Music is supposed to be "dance" oriented (he tuned into his favorite of New York's urban dance stations, like a DJ looking for breaks), the inclusion of voices from radio advertising tends to dominate. The second side of Devil's Music is maybe a bit more, um, musical seeming in its source material. "More rock, less talk" would be the motto, except it's not rock, actually easy listening and classical radio stations being plundered. Both sides are featured on the first disc of this two disc set, along with a previously unreleased 1988 tape music piece utilizing lots of voices scanned from police band radio, ship-to-shore transmissions, taxi dispatch, etc., which aren't all cut up and stuttery like on Devil's Music, but patched together into more of a "narrative" exercise.
The second disc here consists of yet more delirious variations on the Devil's Music concept, realized at live concerts in Europe and the USA, originally released on a 1987 cassette release entitled Real Landscape. And also, in addition, on this disc you'll find a computer program Collins wrote recently that's essentially a software "recreation" of his original hardware set-up and compositional strategy so that YOU can plug a radio into your computer and try making the Devil's Music yourself!! There's both Mac and PC versions provided. (Not included on the vinyl format, obviously.)
And there's extensive liner notes (complete with footnotes) from Collins about his ideas, methods, and equipment (with color photos of the latter, for all you tech geeks). EM, as always, has certainly done a thorough job with this release, which deserves the attention. Difficult listening it may be, but put into historical context, you can see how some consider Collins a bit of a techno pioneer, and certainly hear how his work foreshadowed the digital "glitch" music of Oval and Lesser and the like later on.
MPEG Stream: "Devil's Music A"
MPEG Stream: "Devil's Music B"

COLLINS, NICOLAS Devil's Music (EM) 2lp 32.00
Some experimental music is more experimental than other experimental music. Nicolas Collins' Devil's Music, it's safe to say, was (and is) an Experiment. One that tests a theory described in the liner notes: "I have long assumed the radio to be the world's cheapest, yet most powerful synthesizer: you can find any sound out there; the only question is, can you find the sound you want when you want it?" Naturally, the results of this experiment fall into that realm of unusual sounds that would be reissued by Japan's ever-eccentric EM Records label, and glad we are of EM's diligent efforts to dig up such artifacts!
Devil's Music hails from the heyday of sampling music (late '80s), so it bears some similarity to the works of Christian Marclay and Steinski, but Collins is (as per his theorizing) using radios, not turntables. It also reminds us of stuff by John Oswald, the Tape-Beatles, and other "plunderphonic" artists, but in John Cage like fashion, Collins has introduced an element of chance into the genre of sample-basic music making. Inspired also by hip hop DJs, Collins' music here is performed live, in a spontaneous, improvisatory mode, at the mercy of whatever he can snatch from the local airways at that very moment to weave into his stuttery sound-collages. Every performance was thus very different in audio content, if not structure and rhythm.
Further explanation, from the liner notes to the original Devil's Music LP (1986): "[F]ragments of radio broadcasts are digitally sampled, looped, re-triggered and occasionally reversed or de-tuned. All material is taken from FM and AM transmissions occuring at the time of the performance. The performer plays off of certain musical ground-rules intrinsic to the sampling system (which consists of two modified inexpensive effect devices) to develop the quirky rhythmic interplay that characterizes the piece."
Conceptually (and chaotically) interesting, definitely, but difficult listening too. You know best your own tolerance for this sort of thing. People into rhythmic noisiness ought to like it. The density of this "music", and the element of repetition, makes it mesmeric, maybe. But for many, it might be maddening - ferinstance, hearing some anonymous announcer man say "outdoor swimming pool" over and over and over again, nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nineteen style, amidst a barrage of (drum machine?) beats, before the track shifts, ADD-like, to another non-sequitur sample randomly snatched from the airwaves, is sure to drive some folks nuts!
Though the first side of Devil's Music is supposed to be "dance" oriented (he tuned into his favorite of New York's urban dance stations, like a DJ looking for breaks), the inclusion of voices from radio advertising tends to dominate. The second side of Devil's Music is maybe a bit more, um, musical seeming in its source material. "More rock, less talk" would be the motto, except it's not rock, actually easy listening and classical radio stations being plundered. Both sides are featured on the first disc of this two disc set, along with a previously unreleased 1988 tape music piece utilizing lots of voices scanned from police band radio, ship-to-shore transmissions, taxi dispatch, etc., which aren't all cut up and stuttery like on Devil's Music, but patched together into more of a "narrative" exercise.
The second disc here consists of yet more delirious variations on the Devil's Music concept, realized at live concerts in Europe and the USA, originally released on a 1987 cassette release entitled Real Landscape. And also, in addition, on this disc you'll find a computer program Collins wrote recently that's essentially a software "recreation" of his original hardware set-up and compositional strategy so that YOU can plug a radio into your computer and try making the Devil's Music yourself!! There's both Mac and PC versions provided. (Not included on the vinyl format, obviously.)
And there's extensive liner notes (complete with footnotes) from Collins about his ideas, methods, and equipment (with color photos of the latter, for all you tech geeks). EM, as always, has certainly done a thorough job with this release, which deserves the attention. Difficult listening it may be, but put into historical context, you can see how some consider Collins a bit of a techno pioneer, and certainly hear how his work foreshadowed the digital "glitch" music of Oval and Lesser and the like later on.
MPEG Stream: "Devil's Music A"
MPEG Stream: "Devil's Music B"

COLLINS, SHIRLEY Adieu To Old England (Fledg'ling) cd 16.98

COLLINS, SHIRLEY False True Lovers (Fledg'ling) cd 16.98
Sad old songs sung in the beautiful, pure voice of the incomparable Shirley Collins, the UK's "first lady of folk". This cd is a reissue of her very first album from 1959, recorded by her then-boyfriend Alan Lomax (with whom she travelled the American South on his field-recording expeditions) and released on the American Folkways label. Accompanied by banjo and guitar, she sings a variety of British and American traditional folk ballads (including "Scarborough Fair", about which Lomax's thoughful and informative liner notes say "The survival of this ancient piece of folklore is assured by the fact that all the couplets in this song contain gentle, but evocative erotic symbols"). A Shirley Collins disc like this might make a good gift for the Gillian Welch fan in your life.
RealAudio clip: "The Spermwhale Fishery"

COLLINS, SHIRLEY False True Lovers ( Vinyl Lovers) lp 25.00
Newly reissue on vinyl, this Britfolk treasure.
Sad old songs sung in the beautiful, pure voice of the incomparable Shirley Collins, the UK's "first lady of folk". This is her very first album from 1959, recorded by her then-boyfriend Alan Lomax (with whom she travelled the American South on his field-recording expeditions) and released on the American Folkways label. Accompanied by banjo and guitar, she sings a variety of British and American traditional folk ballads (including "Scarborough Fair", about which Lomax's thoughful and informative liner notes say "The survival of this ancient piece of folklore is assured by the fact that all the couplets in this song contain gentle, but evocative erotic symbols"). A Shirley Collins record like this might make a good gift for the Gillian Welch fan in your life.

COLLINS, SHIRLEY Fountain of Snow (World Serpent) cd 18.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Traditional English folks songs recorded in the sixties and seventies by Shirley and her sister. Guitar, flute-organ, and one of the clearest voices we've ever heard. So beloved by David Tibet of Current 93 that he was involved with reissuing this...

COLLINS, SHIRLEY The Power of the True Love Knot (Fledg'ling) cd 16.98

COLLINS, SHIRLEY The Sweet Primroses (Topic Records) cd 15.98

COLLINS, SHIRLEY & DAVY GRAHAM Folk Roots, New Routes (Fledg'ling) cd 16.98
There's been quite a few Shirley Collins reissues lately, and they're all pretty great if you've got a soft spot for this British singer's sweet voice and the trad folk she celebrates. We should get 'em all reviewed one of these days, but we thought that we absolutely had to provide a little write-up for this one, originally released on LP in 1964. Amidst the many wonderful Collins discs, this one is just a little bit different and special because it finds her collaborating with pioneering jazz/folk guitarist Davy Graham. It was some record company's notion of getting folk vet Collins and up-and-coming guitarist Graham (a fellow turned on to both Thelonious Monk and Indian raga) to make a "folk-swinging" record, but one that worked out well, even if they were somewhat of an odd couple -- Collins a responsible young mother with two children, the younger Graham a decidely bohemian character with vices that extended beyond merely smoking pot. But despite their differing lifestyles, Collins and Graham's Folk Roots, New Routes is quite a wonderful one-off work, blending old fashioned folk and modern jazz and strains of non-Western music into arrangements both innovative and lovely.
MPEG Stream: "Hares On The Mountain"
MPEG Stream: "Rif Mountain"

COLLINS, SHIRLEY & DOLLY Love, Death & the Lady (Fledg'ling) cd 16.98

COLLINS, SHIRLEY & DOLLY Snapshots (Fledg'ling) cd 16.98
This compilation of unreleased recordings and demos from 1966-1979 was released as an addition to the Fledg'ling label four cd Shirley Collins box set Within Sound. This 22 song set of traditional fare accompanied by sister Dolly on organ is sweet but a bit lackluster, perhaps for completists only. While this is meant to be a tribute to Dolly who passed away in 1995 (as well as a final career rounder for Shirley herself), for anyone new to the Collins sisters stunning musical power, we recommend 1970's apocalyptic folk epic and Current 93 fave, Love, Death and the Lady as a more proper introduction.
MPEG Stream: "Poor Murdered Woman"
MPEG Stream: "The Banks of Sweet Primroses"
MPEG Stream: "Black White Yellow and Green"

COLLINS, SHIRLEY AND THE ALBION COUNTRY BAND No Roses (Castle Music) cd 12.98

COLLINS, WILLIAM FOWLER Perdition Hill Radio (Type) cd 15.98
We were big fans of William Fowler Collins' debut album, Western Violence & Brief Sensuality, so we're very happy to see that his follow-up, Perdition Hill Radio is being released on one of our favorite experimental labels, Type. Fitting right at home between Koen Holtkamps's dreamy effervescent drift and Svarte Greiner's darkly spectral shipwreck atmospherics, Collins offers an intense nocturnal Western counterpart to the unrelenting Southwest heat of his debut. And from the image of a dim moon behind a dark looming hill on the cover, it's obvious this is a much more doom-laden outing than before. Like slow motion black holes opening in the dark desert sand, the guitar drones that Collins conjures undulate and pull us down into a nether world of enveloping starless night, the air electric with magnetic activity and static radio transmissions that churn and dissipate in an infernal ebb and flow of sonic waves. Like moving indiscernible shapes in the dim light, uncertain sounds peek out through the din, prowling animal growls, ghostly disembodied dialogue like EVP transmissions buried under sheets of noise that at times conjure images of passing trains, horse-led stagecoaches, mysterious Native American rituals, and swarms of flies. The song titles like "Grave Robbing In Texas" and "Slow Motion Prayer Circle" only add to the dread and mystery of what those fleeting sounds could allude to. On the album's 21 minute centerpiece, "Dark Country Road", the far-off echoing twang of a slide guitar can be heard fading into the distance before a mountainous dronescape rises out of the still air and crests tunnel-like into an inky pool of uneasy shimmer for much of its length (the vinyl version ends in a locked groove!). Only on the last song, "The Ghosts of Eden Trail", does the sound brighten up into a beautifully levitating and expansive drifting ambience offering just a glimpse of torturing hope. The limited double vinyl version contains a side-long bonus track, "Saturnine Reverie" not on the cd. We have often said that Earth's later records are Cormac McCarthy novels in song, but Perdition Hill Radio is the closest comparison to an imagined soundtrack for The Road that we have ever heard, and that of course means this has our highest recommendation!!!
MPEG Stream: "Grave Robbing In Texas"
MPEG Stream: "Dark Country Road"
MPEG Stream: "On Perdition Hill"

COLLINS, WILLIAM FOWLER Perdition Hill Radio (Type) 2lp 23.00
We were big fans of William Fowler Collins' debut album, Western Violence & Brief Sensuality, so we're very happy to see that his follow-up, Perdition Hill Radio is being released on one of our favorite experimental labels, Type. Fitting right at home between Koen Holtkamps's dreamy effervescent drift and Svarte Greiner's darkly spectral shipwreck atmospherics, Collins offers an intense nocturnal Western counterpart to the unrelenting Southwest heat of his debut. And from the image of a dim moon behind a dark looming hill on the cover, it's obvious this is a much more doom-laden outing than before. Like slow motion black holes opening in the dark desert sand, the guitar drones that Collins conjures undulate and pull us down into a nether world of enveloping starless night, the air electric with magnetic activity and static radio transmissions that churn and dissipate in an infernal ebb and flow of sonic waves. Like moving indiscernible shapes in the dim light, uncertain sounds peek out through the din, prowling animal growls, ghostly disembodied dialogue like EVP transmissions buried under sheets of noise that at times conjure images of passing trains, horse-led stagecoaches, mysterious Native American rituals, and swarms of flies. The song titles like "Grave Robbing In Texas" and "Slow Motion Prayer Circle" only add to the dread and mystery of what those fleeting sounds could allude to. On the album's 21 minute centerpiece, "Dark Country Road", the far-off echoing twang of a slide guitar can be heard fading into the distance before a mountainous dronescape rises out of the still air and crests tunnel-like into an inky pool of uneasy shimmer for much of its length (the vinyl version ends in a locked groove!). Only on the last song, "The Ghosts of Eden Trail", does the sound brighten up into a beautifully levitating and expansive drifting ambience offering just a glimpse of torturing hope. The limited double vinyl version contains a side-long bonus track, "Saturnine Reverie" not on the cd. We have often said that Earth's later records are Cormac McCarthy novels in song, but Perdition Hill Radio is the closest comparison to an imagined soundtrack for The Road that we have ever heard, and that of course means this has our highest recommendation!!!
MPEG Stream: "Grave Robbing In Texas"
MPEG Stream: "Dark Country Road"
MPEG Stream: "On Perdition Hill"

COLLINS, WILLIAM FOWLER Western Violence & Brief Sensuality (West Mountain Road Recordings) cd 14.98
Known as "The Land of Enchantment", the romantic appeal of New Mexico also harbors a thinly veiled sinister quality. Despite its prominence as an epic desert monument heralding incredible vistas and inspiring a nature-based spirituality from its large population of Native Americans, New-Agers and even Catholic Hispanics who flock to the sanctuary of Chimayo every year to take a bit of holy soil said to be blessed with healing powers, the western expansion of the US has also brought to the land massive genocide, toxic pollutants, and covert Government operations. On William Fowler Collins debut CD, the former Mills College graduate who recently relocated to New Mexico, explores the paradoxical perspective of his adopted home through his experimental guitar compositions that are equally beautiful and jarring. Collins' varied use of the guitar with the help of filters and computer programs evokes a wide range of electro-acoustic tropes, many reminiscent of field recordings. The bristling sheets of loud distorted drone that open "Dawn at McDonald Ranch" come across like an air-raid siren or a swarm of locusts before it diffuses into waves of pensive yet gossamer shimmer. The industrial crackle and whirring machine drones of "Untitled Dream 2" recall the metallic toxicity of Superfund sites, and the staticy build-up of broadcast transmissions retains a warm shifting undertone that eases the tension slightly by invoking the bucolic domiciles where such threats live in uneasy harmony. Images of magnetic storms, train engines, electrical lines, and the high-powered industry that Collins evokes through his guitar work are tempered by quietly restrained passages that harbor introspective reflection over the vast and contradictory landscape of mountains, arid deserts and broken mesas. Having previously played with Matmos, Aero-Mic'd, and in his former band Mire, it's nice to see Collins coming into his own on this amazing and accomplished debut. Fans of Tim Hecker, Steven R. Smith, and Flying Saucer Attack should check this out. Recommended!!
MPEG Stream: "Dawn At McDonald Ranch"
MPEG Stream: "Foothills' Ghost"
MPEG Stream: "Over The Mountain"

COLOPHON Spring (Dreams By Degrees) 10" 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Having put their post-rock orchestrations on hold for the time being, the members of San Francisco's Tarentel have been exploring a number of divergent musical ideas. Guitarist Jefre Cantu has spent his sabbatical from the group exploring the arenas of digital abstraction in tinkering around with Max / MSP. Sometimes Cantu has been found working under the moniker Joshua Torres for more rhythmic pursuits and under Colophon for the atmospheric work. "Spring" - a 10" released on the promising Dreams By Degrees label - is the first recording that Cantu has done for either project, blurring spartan piano clusters and acoustic guitar samples from the other Tarentel guitarist Danny Grody. Following the lead of fellow dreamy code-slingers Ekkehard Ehlers and Stephan Mathieu, Cantu transforms his source material into a beautiful pixelated ambience haunted with residual melodies and distant rhythms. While this artful 10" is a very nice addition to anybody's collection of Ehlers and Mathieu, its scary to think about how good Tarentel will be if they manage to synthesize Cantu's newfound laptop abilities with Tarentel's rock expansiveness.
RealAudio clip: "Bouganvilla"
RealAudio clip: "Night Falls On 15th Street"

COLOR FILTER Sleep In A Synchrotrom (Fuzzy Box) cd 12.98

COLOSSAL YES Acapulco Roughs (Ba Da Bing!) cd 13.98
We love when folks usually associated with a certain sound and style step out and show off a different part of their make-up. Best known as the drummer for the mighty Comets On Fire, Utrillo Kushner lets his breezy sunny side shine through with his new project Colossal Yes. Perfect for those lazy days when all you wanna do is lay in the grass and stare into the rays of the sun. With really well crafted songs that incorporate lush piano into a more traditional folk/rock mix, this has made us think of the prime pop of Elephant Six related bands, early Mercury Rev, a dash of Beachwood Sparks' relaxed twang, a hint of Vetiver, the blissed out mellow hooks of Mojave 3 and the warmth of early 70's Beach Boys. There is a level of confidence in the playing that helps make this record flow so seemlessly and rise above so many others outfits going for this same sound and style with less satisfying results. Nice stuff!
MPEG Stream: "Just Like A Mademoiselle"
MPEG Stream: "A Titan's Buffet"

COLOSSAL YES Charlemagne's Big Thaw (Ba Da Bing) cd 13.98
Here's ten more piano-pop gems from Colossal Yes. Both catchy and somehow laid back, this is a record for outdoor barbeques and conversations with old friends. Not overly sappy, the record walks right through sweetness and sentimentality and emerges on the other side without the ickyness of either. The ubiquitous vocal/piano/guitar combination is fleshed out nicely with the occasional flute, organ or horn, especially noticeable in "They Feast on Us / We Feed on Them" and the penultimate jazzy track, "Outskirts of Radiant". Listening to the album on headphones (always recommended) allows the give and take between guitar (panned left) and piano (panned right) to stand out. Although at times the mix feels like the piano and guitar are fighting amongst themselves for sonic hegemony, they usually compliment each other in a way that shows quality musicianship and songwriting.
MPEG Stream: "The Fraudulent Singer"
MPEG Stream: "They Feast Upon Us/We Feed On Them"

COLOSSAL YES Charlemagne's Big Thaw (Ba Da Bing) lp 13.98
Here's ten more piano-pop gems from Colossal Yes. Both catchy and somehow laid back, this is a record for outdoor barbeques and conversations with old friends. Not overly sappy, the record walks right through sweetness and sentimentality and emerges on the other side without the ickyness of either. The ubiquitous vocal/piano/guitar combination is fleshed out nicely with the occasional flute, organ or horn, especially noticeable in "They Feast on Us / We Feed on Them" and the penultimate jazzy track, "Outskirts of Radiant". Listening to the album on headphones (always recommended) allows the give and take between guitar (panned left) and piano (panned right) to stand out. Although at times the mix feels like the piano and guitar are fighting amongst themselves for sonic hegemony, they usually compliment each other in a way that shows quality musicianship and songwriting.
MPEG Stream: "The Fraudulent Singer"
MPEG Stream: "They Feast Upon Us/We Feed On Them"

COLOSSAMITE Economy of Motion (Skin Graft) cd 13.98
After a couple of EPs, Colossamite has released their first full album of mutant hardcore/jazz-rock. This collective features Nick Sakes, the former vocalist for the Dazzling Killmen, and Chad & Ed from the Iceburn Collective. Odd angular guitar riffs and irregular time signatures played through a precisely calculated intensity. Very nice!

COLOSSAMITE Frisbee (Skin Graft) cd + frisbee 6.98
A brief but exhausting 9 minute burst of muscular noiserockskronk from these ex-members of Dazzling Killmen. Includes an unrecognizable Die Kreuzen medley--and, of course, a small frisbee.

COLOSSLOTH Antipathy (Doom-Mantra) lp 17.98
Another entry in the ever expanding field of sound making we've dubbed doomdronedirge, from a group called Colossloth. It's a sound we've come to love, we just can't get enough of that creepy downtuned crawl, that sprawling rumbling ambience, it's doomy, but not metal, heavy, but not riffy, it's more like dronemusic infused with a degree of menace, an ominous blackness, think Blue Sabbath Black Cheer, Wicked King Wicker, R.Y.N., Amort, Haptic, Grief No Absolution, and yeah even SUNNO))) to a certain degree.
Colossloth add their own twist to the proceedings, injecting their sound with a hit of industrial ambience, and some haunting piano, the result is entrancing, totally bleak and beautiful, a single epic doomscape, split into two side long drifts, all simple looped pounding rhythms and layered feedback, laced with muted bits of crunch and whir, rumble and creak, while throughout, a piano plays out a mournful melody, strings are plucked, melodies surface and unfurl before slipping back into the miasma, a mysterious minor key sonic dirge, some sort of funereal martial industrial doom drone trudge, mesmerizing and cinematic, this would be the perfect soundtrack for some Italian horror film, with the main character, in some sort of fugue state, hallucinating, wandering through an old empty house and out into the black forest...
Gorgeous and creepy and intense, but also weirdly pretty, the hushed melodic creep constantly battling with the crunch and hiss of the gloomy industrial drift, woven into a perfectly ominous dirgedronedoomdreamscape. AWESOME.
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!!!!

COLOUR HAZE Tempel (Elektrohasch) cd 16.98
Customers have been bugging us for a while now to track down some music from German psychedelic stoner rock outfit, and boy are we glad we did. Huge Hendrixian guitars, sun baked and lysergic, like someone snuck into Kyuss's old practice space and swiped THAT guitar tone, but then somehow managed to make it even MORE druggy and fuzzy. Furious blown out space rock jams, that are HUGE and THICK with snarling psychedelic guitars and pounding drums. But Color Haze balance these drug fueled freakouts with long stretches of jazzy shuffle, shimmering cymbals, muted riffing, simple throbbing bass, but it only sets you up to have you head caved in when the hammer falls. And fall it does, hard and heavy and so gloriously downtuned and freaked out.
And the Hendrix thing is actually not all that far off, we might mention Santana too. Color Haze are a weird mash up of epic heart-of-the-sun space rock a la Monster Magnet and Hawkwind, super overblown acid fried stoner rock a la Kyuss, but with plenty of that classic Hendrix guitar fuzz, and dreamily psychedelic Santanian stretched out jams.
Not sure exactly what it is about these guys, but when they lock into a jam, we get totally lost, completely carried away, and when the track finally winds down, we sort of shake our head, all bleary eyed, and try to remember where the hell we are and how we got there. Which probably tells you all you need to know about the potency of these super stoned, drug drenched, space rock freakouts for sure.
MPEG Stream: "Aquamaria"
MPEG Stream: "Fire"
MPEG Stream: "Tempel"

COLOUR HAZE Tempel (Elektrohasch) lp 19.98
Customers have been bugging us for a while now to track down some music from German psychedelic stoner rock outfit, and boy are we glad we did. Huge Hendrixian guitars, sun baked and lysergic, like someone snuck into Kyuss's old practice space and swiped THAT guitar tone, but then somehow managed to make it even MORE druggy and fuzzy. Furious blown out space rock jams, that are HUGE and THICK with snarling psychedelic guitars and pounding drums. But Color Haze balance these drug fueled freakouts with long stretches of jazzy shuffle, shimmering cymbals, muted riffing, simple throbbing bass, but it only sets you up to have you head caved in when the hammer falls. And fall it does, hard and heavy and so gloriously downtuned and freaked out.
And the Hendrix thing is actually not all that far off, we might mention Santana too. Color Haze are a weird mash up of epic heart-of-the-sun space rock a la Monster Magnet and Hawkwind, super overblown acid fried stoner rock a la Kyuss, but with plenty of that classic Hendrix guitar fuzz, and dreamily psychedelic Santanian stretched out jams.
Not sure exactly what it is about these guys, but when they lock into a jam, we get totally lost, completely carried away, and when the track finally winds down, we sort of shake our head, all bleary eyed, and try to remember where the hell we are and how we got there. Which probably tells you all you need to know about the potency of these super stoned, drug drenched, space rock freakouts for sure.
MPEG Stream: "Aquamaria"
MPEG Stream: "Fire"
MPEG Stream: "Tempel"

COLOURED BALLS Ball Power (Aztec Music) cd 21.00
We recently reviewed a batch of badass Buffalo reissues courtesy of Aztec Music, an Australian label that's been mining the rich ore of that country's rock n' roll history back in the '60s and '70s. Of the other Aztec releases we've checked out so far, the two albums by a band called Coloured Balls stand out as being crucial to connoisseurs of loud guitar rock. This one's their debut from 1973, and it reveals a high energy band revelling in the oldies rock n' roll of years past (witness their cover of "Whole Lotta Shakin'") while revving up the raw, anti-hippie energy that would explode in the UK circa '77... Yeah, while Buffalo were a proto-metal outfit, sort of the Aussie uncles of Monster Magnet, the Coloured Balls, while heavy, we'd have to describe as being more punk, or proto-punk. And there's a definite dose of boogie bar band bluesiness a la George Thorogood, or better yet, UK blues rock greats the Groundhogs, circa their progressive masterpiece Split. But with much more of a hooligan, kick-yer-head in edge, that's for sure. Some other early '70s acts with similar tendencies with which Coloured Balls could be aligned include the Pink Fairies, the MC5, Crushed Butler, and, not long after, AC/DC.
Apparently they had a lot of trouble with their "anti-social" image (sorta skinheadish "sharpie" haircuts, violence at their shows) but this music's got a lot more going for it than that. The recording simply sounds fantastic, powerful. Real rock n' roll guts and gusto, played by guys who knew what the heck they were doin' -- Coloured Balls were the brainchild of an already-veteran guitar hero named Lobby Loyde, who is all over this album (as well as a bunch of other Aztec reissues as well...).
And we gotta hand it to Aztec, they do a great job in the reissue dep't. This digitally remastered cd comes in a beautiful digipack, with a thick booklet full of pictures and liner notes, including a pro-Balls blurb from Pavement's Stephen Malkmus of all people. There's even also an essay explaining the "sharpie" subculture phenomenon of the times. Plus, the cd features a slew of bonus tracks: six songs from singles, plus a sixteen minute, freeform freakout of a live track from '73 entitled "G.O.D." aka "Guitar Over Dose"!
MPEG Stream: "Human Being"
MPEG Stream: "Mama Don't You Get Me Wrong"

COLOURED BALLS Heavy Metal Kid (Aztec Music) cd 21.00
2nd album, not quite as great as their first. But the title track is a up-up-uptempo proto-glam stormer.

COLTRANE, JOHN Africa / Brass (Impulse) cd 12.98
This was Coltrane's debut for the new Impulse label in 1961 and what a first impression! His quartet at the time: McCoy Tyner, Reggie Workman and Elvin Jones, were backed by a large brass orchestra conducted by Eric Dolphy (though there has been conflicting reports over the years that actually give more credit for the orchestration to Tyner). The 16 minute opener "Africa" is one of Coltrane's most masterful compositions (and that's saying a lot!). It features two basses with Art Davis joining Reggie Workman as Coltrane wanted to create a piece using African rhythms instead of 4/4 or 3/4, so he spent lots of time listening to African music for rhythmic inspiration and came up with something that forty years later still sounds so damn soulful and pleasing.
While we sometimes dig all the bonus tracks that come on reissues, it often can get a bit tiresome so we're actually glad this was reissued just as the original album was released with just three songs, a short sharp 30 minutes of true musical genius.
MPEG Stream: "Africa"
MPEG Stream: "Greensleeves"

COLTRANE, ALICE A Monastic Trio (Impulse) cd 16.98

COLTRANE, ALICE Eternity (Sepia Tone) cd 12.98
We recently listed the new vinyl reissue of this, and so we thought we'd highlight the previously available cd version again here this time too! Alice plays it all on this reissue of her forceful and eclectic 1976 album Eternity - she wields the harp and organ, a Fender Rhodes electric piano, even cymbals and vocals on a couple tracks. Each song is different in mood and instrumentation, with the first track "Spiritual Eternal" featuring a veritable big band of brass, reeds, and strings.
Occasionally some manic timbales and congas accompany her meditative organ explorations. And what mind altering organ explorations they are, she commands the instrument as if she's channeling a force from outer space, coaxing from it sounds that are mind-blowing and completely transcendental! Eternity is one of those records that you put on and just surrender completely to. So moving and powerful. It will take you on a journey rife with every kind of sonic twist and turn you can imagine. From harmonic and peacefully blissed out voyages, to tripped out and jamming cosmic explosions, it even ends with her amazing version of "Spring Rounds" from Stravinsky's Rites Of Spring. It's a record that reminds us that Alice Coltrane didn't just play 'jazz', it was music that crossed boundaries of genres, nations, and even galaxies. Eternity is the work of a truly gifted artist able to create mystical sounds that never fail to induce a transcendental state of consciousness in the listener. Highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Morning Worship"
MPEG Stream: "Los Caballos"
MPEG Stream: "Spiritual Eternal"

COLTRANE, ALICE Eternity (Warner Bros) lp 14.98
Alice plays it all on this reissue of her forceful and eclectic 1976 album Eternity - she wields the harp and organ, a Fender Rhodes electric piano, even cymbals and vocals on a couple tracks. Each song is different in mood and instrumentation, with the first track "Spiritual Eternal" featuring a veritable big band of brass, reeds, and strings.
Occasionally some manic timbales and congas accompany her meditative organ explorations. And what mind altering organ explorations those are, she commands the instrument as if she's channeling a force from outer space, coaxing from it sounds that are mind-blowing and completely transcendental! Eternity is one of those records that you put on and just surrender completely to. So moving and powerful. It will take you on a journey rife with every kind of sonic twist and turn you can imagine. From harmonic and peacefully blissed out voyages, to tripped out and jamming cosmic explosions, it even ends with her amazing version of "Spring Rounds" from Stravinsky's Rites Of Spring. It's a record that reminds us that Alice Coltrane didn't just play 'jazz', it was music that crossed boundaries of genres, nations, and even galaxies. Eternity is the work of a truly gifted artist able to create mystical sounds that never fail to induce a transcendental state of consciousness in the listener. Highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Morning Worship"
MPEG Stream: "Los Caballos"
MPEG Stream: "Spiritual Eternal"

COLTRANE, ALICE Huntington Ashram Monastery (Impulse) lp 15.98
This is one of those records that was nearly impossible to track down for years, so we are beyond happy for this vinyl only reissue to finally surface. Recorded in 1969 right after her great debut, A Monastic Trio, Huntington Ashram Monastery is an album that ranks right near the top of the amazing legacy of music that Alice Coltrane left us. Playing piano and wielding her majestical harp in a magnificent trio that featured Ron Carter on Bass and the wonderful and sadly recently passed away Rashied Ali on drums and percussion. So much thought, love and devotion was put into every single note that Alice Coltrane recorded, and Huntington Ashram Monastery is such utter proof of that. No wasted notes, or throwaway moments. You can't lay the needle down on these grooves and not be moved and transported to another plane of consciousness. This is truly sacred, essential and transcendent music. Beyond recommended!

COLTRANE, ALICE Journey In Satchidananda (Impulse) cd 15.98

COLTRANE, ALICE Journey In Satchidananda (Impulse) lp 21.00
Essential Magical Mystical Harp Majesticness!

COLTRANE, ALICE Lord of Lords (Verve Japan) cd 33.00
An incredibly spiritual album by Alice Coltrane from 1972 reissued a little while ago by Verve Japan. Her music reaches some of the most "Godly" moments on here, aptly named Lord of Lords. Highlights are her excerpt of Stravinsky's "Firebird" which she performed after a "ghostly visitation" by Stravinski who offered Coltrane musical and spiritual advice and blessings, and her orchestral version of the gospel spiritual "Going Home". An amazing and important addition to the Verve Japan reissue collection.
MPEG Stream: "Excerpts from The Firebird"
MPEG Stream: "Going Home"

COLTRANE, ALICE Priceless Jazz Collection (GRP) cd 12.98
A nice collection of tracks by composer Alice Coltrane taken from albums recorded 1968-1971. Eastern spirituality and the legacy of her late husband figure prominently.

COLTRANE, ALICE Ptah, the El Daoud (Impulse) cd 16.98
The first record by Alice Coltrane to feature horns on the entire album. She enlisted both Pharoah Sanders and Joe Henderson as her sax players and decided to separate their playing in the mix. Sanders is in the right channel and Henderson in the left. She viewed them as representing two different perspectives: Henderson being the more intellectual side and Sanders being the more free and transcendent side. The album is a great example of how well Alice Coltrane understands creating a sense of mood and ambiance in her recordings. There is a fierce intensity that carries throughout the four tracks on the album. An essential recording in the legacy of Alice Coltrane. p.s. check out the totally prog-metal looking cover art.

COLTRANE, ALICE Radha-Krsna Nama Sankirtana (Wounded Bird) cd 15.98
Last year, a few months before her passing a few of us here were lucky enough to see Alice Coltrane live at one of her last performances ever. It was a night we will never forget. She is one of the few people whose mere presence gives us goosebumps and effects our soul in such a tangible way. We thought it would be nice to shine some light on one of her lesser known albums which we feel is one of the best records she ever made. Alice Coltrane would always be the first to say that she was not just a jazz musician. There was a higher calling to her music making, a wider sphere of influence she was drawing from. Radha-Krsna Nama Sankirtana is one of the most beautiful examples of her extraordinary range. While much of her music had a huge Eastern influence it's on this record where she really let the spiritual side flourish with most amazing results. A series of devotional chanting songs, with Alice backing a vocal choir on Fender Rhodes and organ along with a couple traditional Indian songs, Coltrane absolutely soars on these tracks. One number here is a short but stunning song with her majestic harp accompanied only with Tamboura and the albums closer is an 18+ minute fantastical odyssey with Alice on her Wurlitzer organ channeling outerspace sounds like only she could, with John Coltrane Jr. on drums. The chanting songs are fantastical psychedelic hymns with elements of pop mixed in, throbbing and pulsating, elevating the songs to a greater place. We can imagine that this record has had a huge influence on folks like Noah Lennox (aka Panda Bear) as it's a striking example of using vocal chants, repetition and melody to reach harmonic bliss!
Radha-Krsna Nama Sankirtana is an album from the heavens. While words like soulful and spiritual are used so much that they often lose their meaning this is the real deal. These are sounds that not only uplift the spirit but also move us in a way few artists are ever able to. Alice Coltrane was one of the truly special ones. Of course we have to urge you to get many of her other albums too, as they are some of the best records ever made (all hyperbole aside, really)! Check out Journey In Satchidananda, World Galaxy and A Monastic Trio which are three of our all time favorites... We will miss her so much but luckily her spirit lives on within her amazing music.
MPEG Stream: "Govinda Jai Jai"
MPEG Stream: "Prema Muditha"
MPEG Stream: "Om Namah Sivaya"

COLTRANE, ALICE Transcendence (Sepia Tone) cd 13.98
A welcome reissue of Alice Coltrane's 1977 album Transcendence, this is a sort of unlikely (although if you know Alice Coltrane's work then you know not to expect the usual) yet LOVELY album. On three tracks Coltrane's harp leads the way down an ethereal, Asian-tinged path, and is accompanied by the Satori Quartet -- three violins and a viola filling out the very light, floaty compositions. Doesn't sound jazz at all. Nor does the latter half of the record, for that matter, which is four traditionals arranged by Alice. It's more like gospel music than anything else, with handclaps, organ, multiple voices singing/chanting in Hindi (I think), for Coltrane was a serious student of Asian religions.
RealAudio clip: "Transcendence"
RealAudio clip: "Sri Nrsimha"

COLTRANE, ALICE Transfiguration (Sepia Tone) 2cd 14.98
Although Alice Coltrane released few recordings back when she was performing regularly in the '60s and '70s, several welcome reissues have come to light in recent years. This is the first time on cd for Transfigurations, a live performance from 1975 at UCLA, and her last official album (except for later selfreleased cassettes). Most of the material is performed with just a trio -- including Roy Haynes on drums and Reggie Workman on bass -- and it's quite varied: some of the tracks feature long jams of Alice's extremely weird 'n warbly organ sound, and some feature five-minute long drum solos. But the best track is, in my opinion, "Prema", a meditative, melodic piece that has just gorgeously creepy strings overdubbed onto it, including no less than six violins, two violas and a pair of cellos. Also includes a 36-minute, two-part version of her late husband John's "Leo".
RealAudio clip: "Prema"
RealAudio clip: "Affinity"