V/A Barry 7's Connectors (Lo Recordings) 2lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Continuing in Lo's series of today's electronic artist's selections of "classic" unheard music (the first being Luke Vibert's Nuggets), Add N to (X)'s Barry 7 scours the libraries of Chappell, Southern and PIL for some rare gems screaming to be heard. For those unfamiliar, these libraries house music created by top session musicians in the 1960's and '70's specifically as background music for television and radio, and never intended for commercial release. This excellent collection covers everything from breezy, lush pop to wicked moog exotica (and to my limited knowledge on the subject) mostly from France, Italy and the UK. There's the playful giddiness of Jiri Bezant / Jiri Malasek. The jarring echo-laden creepiness of Georges Teperino's "Weird Sounds No. 1". Lush exotic orchestrations ala Morricone courtesy of (another Italian film composer) Nino Nardini and Paul Piot / Paul Guiot. The spacey minimal electronic oddities of Cecil Leuter, The Johanna Group and J. Matthews. Straight up Moog exotica from Anthony King and France's largely recorded, but rarely acknowledged Roger Roger. Again, an excellent collection not just for seekers of prime "library music", but also for adventurous music enthusiasts looking for tweaked out exotic and early electronic music! Smooth!

V/A Barry 7's Connectors 2 (Lo Recordings) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
For those who devoured the first delightful volume of Barry 7's Connectors: Rare Italian Library Tracks, here's an entire second volume! A cornucopia of sonic frolics very much in the same spirit as Luke Vibert's Nuggets and many of the Crippled Dick Hot Wax compilations. Unfamiliar with any of those? Well then, strap on your seatbelt 'cause you're in for a treat! Over the top Euro kitsch, melodrama and campiness! So perfect if you're on the lookout for a diverse array of rather flamboyant theatrical music 'cause these tracks - originally catalogued for '60s and '70s television and radio production backing use - are overflowing with bontempi-esque organs, analog synthesizers, choral singers, and flutes! And four of them come from a gent named Ennio Morricone (very much of the delirously wonderful Danger Diabolik period). Curious who this Mr. Barry 7 is who wants you to hear the unheard music? Why, he's one third of that analog synth jammin' UK group Add N To (X) who clearly have drawn much inspiration from these works. Splendid!
RealAudio clip: BONESCHI, GIAMPIERO " New Situation"
RealAudio clip: MORRICONE, ENNIO "Stato Confusionale"

V/A Basementsville (Misty Lane) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is a Brazilian garage comp of 1960's 45's. It has covers of the classics that we know so well, if not a bit too well (My Generation, Paint It Black, Time wont let me, Daytripper, I Cant Get No Satisfaction), for the most part sung in Portuguese. In addition to the well known garage/rock n' roll hits, there are some songs I've never heard that were great. I liked them best. Brazilian garage, how rad is that. Oh and the boys on the back cover are foxes.

V/A Basic Channel (Basic Channel) cd 15.98
Finally re-pressed and back in stock!
Basic Channel had a short existence, but was incredibly influential on the future of techno. Between 1993 and 1995, Basic Channel released nine singles that infused the jack hammering acid tracks of Detroit Techno with the ghostly hiss that accumulated on Lee Perry's dub productions in the '70s. However, this was not the electronic dub of Pole or Kit Clayton, although both were obviously huge fans of Basic Channel. Rather, Basic Channel offered a hyper-abstract vision of techno that never sacrificed the integrity of the rhythm. Amidst the aerosolized sounds, gray modulations, and purposefully murky timbres, the Basic Channel producers Moritz von Oswald and Mark Ernestus (who would later go on to form Rhythm And Sound) always centered their work along the skeleton of a propulsive techno beat.
This Basic Channel compilation is now in its FOURTH pressing; the original came out in 1995 in a fittingly non-descript cardboard sleeve and later in the metal tin designs that were used for their later Chain Reaction series. This compiled the more ambient and abstract and blissed out cuts on those singles while some of the heavier Chain Reaction tracks were compiled on the "Scion Arrange and Process Basic Channel Tracks" cd (now unfortunately out of print).
But if you just want to bliss out and drift off and be narcoticized by throbbing pulses and fuzzy grit, you can't do much better than this.
MPEG Stream: "G Loop"
MPEG Stream: "E2E4 Basic (Reshape)"
MPEG Stream: "Mutism"

V/A Basic Channel 2 (Basic Channel) cd 17.98
Basic Channel began in 1993 and produced nine 12" singles of hyperminimal techno, with very little information on the labels, very little of what information there was being easily legible, and no real marketing campaign to speak of. If anything, the Basic Channel duo of Mark Ernestus and Moritz Von Oswald seemed to propagate the mystery of anonymity behind their project, aggravating rumors that Basic Channel productions were based out of Detroit (and possibly by Mad Mike of Underground Resistance) rather than their native Berlin. By 1993, both Berlin and Detroit had formed an unusual axis through their mutual appreciation for the other's techno sound, so such a claim wasn't impossible; but over time, Ernestus and Von Oswald had to fess up to authoring these singles. Between then and now, Basic Channel (the label) re-emerged as Chain Reaction which released works outside of the Ernestus / Von Oswald collaboration; and Basic Channel (the ensemble) transformed into Rhythm & Sound for an equally hypnotic form of hyper-minimal dub. As such, Basic Channel became something of a godhead with the techno mythology. They promoted an aesthetic that always worked on the dancefloor but never dated, and always sounded adventurous without being too weird. In other words, Basic Channel made perfect techno.
In 1995, the duo released their first cd, consisting of exclusive edits and remixes from a handful of those 12" singles, mostly highlighting their abstracted ambience highjacking the 808 rhythmic underpinnings. Some 13 years later, Basic Channel has finally unleashed a collection of complete tracks from those nine singles! Despite the full 80 minutes of music you get on this disc, there are only 6 tracks (each track well over 10 minutes); hopefully leaving the door open for future compendiums. But the chosen tracks are all corkers. Throbbing techno 4/4 beats cut through the clouds of accumulated metallic hiss, reverb, and delay which have all been processed in accordance with the percolated patterns of acid house electricity. Often times, Ernestus and Von Oswald set their electronics in cruise control, just letting a small squiggling refrain and walloping beat run before they tweak their arsenal of filter banks or slide in a high-hat in the mix. It's breathtakingly hypnotic and endlessly propulsive.
Along with the Gas 4cd box, this Basic Channel compilation is an absolutely essential techno album.
MPEG Stream: "Phylps Trak"
MPEG Stream: "Inversion"
MPEG Stream: "Octagon"

V/A Basic Replay (Basic Replay) cd 17.98
Oooh. A great dub/reggae comp always brightens our day. This one had us smiling all week. As the title indicates, it comes to us from Basic Replay, the reggae reissue subsidiary of Germany's Basic Channel techno label (shared with another great imprint, Honest Jon's of the UK), who are dedicated to bringing back crucial Jamaican jams (both hits and obscurities) that align with Basic Channel's dubby aesthetic, whether in the raw dub or digital dancehall genres... Over the past few years, they've brought out a bunch of great recordings from the '70s, '80s and '90s, and this is essentially an essential sampler of the label's releases, featuring 16 killer tracks from 13 artists, all of it (except for the White Mice and Keith Hudson cuts) on compact disc for the first time, as most of Basic Replay's releases have been 12" vinyl only. So now the turntable-impaired can get in on the action - or those who simply missed the 12"s. We should have been listing them all along, but didn't, though we have stocked a few in the store. This cd provides a convenient way to get with the program.
Straight out the gate, Basic Replay proves how fierce this can get with the machine gun mayhem of Ackie's catchy "Call Me Rambo". Tough indeed. The rest of the disc's sixteen tracks are put on notice, and rise to the occasion. It's all such solid stuff, ranging from uptempo bangers like Professor Grizzly's even catchier "Fight The Professor", to mellowed out, slinky soulful cuts like Ijahman Levi's "I Am A Levi" (parts 1 and 2)... There's laidback instrumentals with echoing percussive dub effects exploding like depth-charge distortion detonations (Tenastelin's "Burial Tonight Version") and blissed-out Spaghetti Western stylings with melodious vocals (keyboard king Jackie Mittoo's "Ayatollah") and tick-tock electronic Geiger counter beatscapes (Prince Jazzbo's "Replay Version") and all sorts of other treats that fans of dub and reggae (and probably dubstep too, even though that's not what's on here) ought to swoon over.
The other names on the comp we haven't yet mentioned: Chuck Turner, King Culture, Courtney Melody, Gregory Isaacs, Andrew Bees. We're not expert enough to explain how and why all these artists fit together historically and/or stylistically, maybe they don't, but the selections on this cd flow so nicely together. Superb, recommended!
MPEG Stream: ACKIE "Call Me Rambo"
MPEG Stream: PROFESSOR GRIZZLY "Fight The Professor"
MPEG Stream: JACKIE MITTOO "Ayatollah"

V/A Bats' i Son: The Music of the Highlands of Chiapas, Mexico (Latitude) cd 14.98
Another new collection on the Latitude label (Locust's new international sublabel) takes us this time to the Chiapas region of Mexico. The tracks here were recorded between 1971 and 1974 by Richard Alderson (legendary sound engineer involved in recording Albert Ayler, Ornette Coleman, et al in the late sixties). Alderson, who had emigrated to Mexico, devoted his time to documenting the music of the Indians in the region. Along with beautiful trios of harp, guitar and violin there are intense, dare I say, rocking numbers with drums are horns, exploding fireworks (that sound like canons being fired) and some truly bizarre acappella vocal counterpoint. The guitars and harps here are particularly cool sounding. Most of them produce strange overtones such that they almost sound like electric instruments and on some songs, when there's an orchestra of the things playing at once, it's like as impressive as any wall of sound. The tunes here will have you alternately weeping in their beauty and gritting your teeth with their intensity. Originally released by Smithsonian Folkways in the seventies, all the tracks here have here been restored and digitally remastered by Alderson. Highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Navidad-Mitontik"
MPEG Stream: "Rezo Por Ano Nuevo"
MPEG Stream: "Fiesta de San Sebastian"

V/A Bay Area Funk 2 (Luv N' Haight) cd 16.98
Oh yeah! With so many great collections of golden-era soul/funk coming out in the last couple years chronicling the wonderful sounds that came out of scenes in different parts of the country and abroad it makes perfect sense that there should be some collections detailing the amazing soul & funk that came out of our very own backyard, right here in San Francisco and throughout the bay-area during the '60s and '70s. Like their great collection of soul & funk from Michigan on the Searching For Soul comp, Luv N' Haight have once again hit solid gold with a totally stellar collection of should have been big time hits that mostly slipped under the radar on a more national scale. From the heartbroken soul of Mary Love, the always reliable Sugar Pie DeSanto, the tripped out funk of San Francisco T.K.O.'s, the charismatic hip shaking sounds of Little Denise Stevenson and the gut wrenchingly gritty funk of Primevil, this collection is pretty much super solid from start to finish. We can't get enough of the raw good stuff, from a time when Soul & Funk was done so totally right. Fans of the Eccentric Soul series and of all vintage soul & funk, this is a definite must have!
MPEG Stream: MARY LOVE "Born To Live With Heartache"
MPEG Stream: LITTLE DENISE STEVENSON "Hip Breakin'"
MPEG Stream: PRIMEVIL "Stop Look Listen"

V/A BBC Radiophonic Music ['60s] (BBC Worldwide) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Originally released in 1968, this disc brings together pieces composed during the first decade of the reknowned BBC Radiophonic Workshop, a groundbreaking sound laboratory that provided British radio listeners and TV viewers with avant-garde musique concrete interludes and wacky sound effects -- Dr. Who being their most well-known client. There's no Who here, but a broad range of other stuff, including music from a War of the Worlds dramatization, experimental radio plays, documentary soundtracks, and signature tunes for local radio stations. Back before computers and sampling, these recordings represent many hours of painstaking, clever work: 33 tracks composed by Workshop electronic music pioneers Delia Derbyshire, John Baker, and David Cain. Their heroic efforts are historically interesting, and a good listen to boot, which was always the intent. The cd booklet contains extensive liner notes and evocative photos of Workshop staffers amid their tape reels and sundry noise-making objects. The Workshop's second decade saw the introduction of synths, output explored on this disc's companion reissue, 1975's "The Radiophonic Workshop", reviewed elsewhere on this site/list.
RealAudio clip: DELIA DERBYSHIRE "Blue Veils And Golden Sands"
RealAudio clip: JOHN BAKER "The Frogs Wooing"

V/A BBC Radiophonic Workshop (Rephlex) 4 x 10" 27.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Super limited quadruple 10" set that compiles tracks from both the BBC Radiophonic Workshop records, up until now only available on cd. All the artists get one side, except Delia Derbyshire who gets a whole record to herself. Here's what we had to say about the cd versions:
"BBC Radiophonic Music"
Originally released in 1968, this compilation brings together pieces composed during the first decade of the reknowned BBC Radiophonic Workshop, a groundbreaking sound laboratory that provided British radio listeners and TV viewers with avant-garde musique concrete interludes and wacky sound effects -- Dr. Who being their most well-known client. There's no Who here, but a broad range of other stuff, including music from a War of the Worlds dramatization, experimental radio plays, documentary soundtracks, and signature tunes for local radio stations. Back before computers and sampling, these recordings represent many hours of painstaking, clever work: 33 tracks composed by Workshop electronic music pioneers Delia Derbyshire, John Baker, and David Cain. Their heroic efforts are historically interesting, and a good listen to boot, which was always the intent.
"The Radiophonic Workshop"
The classic 1975 album reissued, chock full o' quirky and/or moody cutting-edge compositions from the the madmen (and women) who inhabited the legendary BBC Radio Radiophonic Workshop in its heyday -- you know, the folks responsible for all the electronic music on the Dr. Who TV show. So, you get all the mysterious whooshes and percolating scifi bleepage you'd expect. Sound effects and music converge here, utilizing the most advanced synth technology of the day (such as the EMS Synthi 100 'Delaware' machine, described as "massive"), and a lot of imagination. Combining electronically-generated sounds with tape loops and live instruments, tracks here range from spritely, happy video arcade pop toons to spooky, creepy soundcapes (or the disturbing gastrointestinal ambience of "Major Bloodnok's Stomach", track 8). Clever montage, music box melodies, and assorted mad-computer sounds abound. Pretty neat.

V/A Beans & Rice / Psychological Operations in Guerrilla Warfare (Beta Bodega) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The Beta Bodega collective has issued this confusingly entitled compilation, officially called "Psychological Operations in Guerrilla Warfare" but our daft policy of qualifying titles as the biggest words on a cover will call this "Beans & Rice." Confusing titles and political agendas aside, this experimental electronica compilation features Jake Mandell, Takeshi Muto (Schematic), Datathief (Skam, V/VM), Goem, :leekon (Musik Aus Strom), and more taking on Cristian Vogel / Supercollider stylings of mutant house, dark UR / Skam electro grooviness, and microsonic squiggly laptoppery.

V/A Beard, Bread & Bear's Prayers (Bastet) cd 14.98
Latest musician curated compilation on Arthur Magazine's Bastet imprint. Curated this time around by Ethan Miller of Comets on Fire, it of course features songs from both CoF and Comets off-shoots Colossal Yes, Six Organs of Admittance, and August Born. But there is also lots of other new and old noisy and folky weirdness from Albert Ayler, 7 Year Rabbit Cycle, Michael Yonkers, Ghost, and Brother JT among others. One of the most interesting tracks is by the mysterious Shit Spangled Banner, a band we couldn't find much information on because the page in the booklet is oddly missing (although a few AQ'ers have some old SSB tapes!). Beard, Bread & Bear's Prayers is of course equal parts noisy and folky, soft and harsh, given the penchants of Miller's musical dichotomy with Comet's noisy psych and seventies west coast rock. Sweet!
MPEG Stream: ALBERT AYLER "Truth is Marching On"
MPEG Stream: SHIT SPANGLED BANNER "Cuntshine"
MPEG Stream: AUGUST BORN "Providence"

V/A Bearded Ladies (B-Music) cd 15.98
Like the freak circus entertainments of a bygone era, so too does this new B-Music compilation mine the fringe of far-flung female folk from the recent past and immediate present. Starting where the Folk Is A Four Letter Word comps left off, Bearded Ladies features many of the same B-music 'vixens' such as Wendy and Bonnie, Turid, Susan Christie, Selda, Heather Jones and Brigitte Fontaine joined by their more contemporary equivalents, Speck Mountain, Misty Dixon (Jane Weaver), Lights, Lispector, Emma Tricca, and Magpahi amongst others. Not as "Old Tymey" as the cover would suggest, Bearded Ladies excavates the rare individual artistry from pigeon-holed genre conventions as the contemporary artists are just as unfettered and original as the older artists, and not merely new retreads of folk motifs made popular in the last few years by Joanna Newsom and Cat Power. Another winner for B-Music. Ladyfolk lives!
MPEG Stream: SPECK MOUNTAIN "Hey Moon"
MPEG Stream: WENDY AND BONNIE "Paisley Window Pane"
MPEG Stream: BRIGITTE FONTAINE "Le Goudron"
MPEG Stream: MISTY DIXON "Are You Lost"

V/A Beer Frame Presents Object Lessons: Songs About Products (Inconspicuous Records) cd 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
At "Beer Frame" editor Paul Lukas' behest, five indie-rock bands celebrate the wonders of the products near and dear to them...Men & Volts get to sing about the Brannock Device, Vehicle Flips provides an ode to the Honeywell Round Thermostat, and Nothing Painted Blue gives Miracle Thaw its musical due. Also, tracks by The Mountain Goats and The Scene Is Now...

V/A Belly Of The Whale (Important) cd 13.98

V/A Below the Radar (ROIR) cd 14.98
Collection of dub tracks originally released on the Wordsound label. Those who are already familiar with Wordsound and the "Crooklyn" dub sound probably have most of the tracks found here, but this make an excellent introduction to the unique world of Wordsound. Includes tracks from Spectre, Slotek, The Weakener (Mick Harris), Bill Laswell, Dubadelic and much more.
RealAudio clip: WORDSOUND I-POWA "Dungeon of Dub"
RealAudio clip: SPECTRE "Mayday / Nightstalker"

V/A Benytt Denne Glimrende Anledning Til A Ta En Titt Inn I Musikkens Virkelige Skattekamre Gjennom Den Dor Som Humbug Holder Apen For Deg (Gold Soundz) 2cd 15.98

V/A Berkeley Guitar (Tompkins Square) cd 14.98
The Tompkins Square Label focuses its spotlight locally on the next generation of Northern California acoustic guitarists -- Sean Smith, Matt Baldwin and Adam Snider. Hailing from Berkeley, where John Fahey's label Takoma was (as well as where Windham Hill first began to blossom), these three young and very talented players have been playing in local clubs and cafes for a few years now. Sean Smith, whose stunning debut on Isota we reviewed a few list back and was also featured on the second Imaginational Anthem compilation, is the "elder" of the group, while Baldwin and Snider have their recording debuts here. Lovely and melancholy with beautiful cover art by John Baizley of Baroness (which looks remarkably Pushead-like), this is a great introduction to the local acoustic guitar scene.
MPEG Stream: SEAN SMITH "Die Until Tomorrow, Sleep"
MPEG Stream: ADAM SNIDER "Swamp Angel"
MPEG Stream: MATT BALDWIN "She was a Girl, She Was In Love"

V/A Berkeley Guitar (Tompkins Square) lp 14.98
The Tompkins Square Label focuses its spotlight locally on the next generation of Northern California acoustic guitarists -- Sean Smith, Matt Baldwin and Adam Snider. Hailing from Berkeley, where John Fahey's label Takoma was (as well as where Windham Hill first began to blossom), these three young and very talented players have been playing in local clubs and cafes for a few years now. Sean Smith, whose stunning debut on Isota we reviewed a few list back and was also featured on the second Imaginational Anthem compilation, is the "elder" of the group, while Baldwin and Snider have their recording debuts here. Lovely and melancholy with beautiful cover art by John Baizley of Baroness (which looks remarkably Pushead-like), this is a great introduction to the local acoustic guitar scene.
MPEG Stream: SEAN SMITH "Die Until Tomorrow, Sleep"
MPEG Stream: ADAM SNIDER "Swamp Angel"
MPEG Stream: MATT BALDWIN "She was a Girl, She Was In Love"

V/A Berlin Super 80 (Monitorpop) dvd + cd 68.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
BACK IN STOCK! We were told this first edition, which comes with a cd and book as well as the dvd, was limited, not sure how limited it is, but we managed to get a handful more just in case.
In the late '70s and early '80s, Berlin developed a caustic community of avant-punk musicians, filmmakers, artists, and hangers-on, whose aesthetics of alienation, angst, bewildered ecstacy, terminal revulsion, etc. were certainly impacted by the wall that seperated their city. Einsturzende Neubauten is clearly the most respected export from this community; but it could be argued that Neubauten (or any of the original members from that once close-knit community, for that matter) haven't quite the compulsion to make the magnificently explosive music as they did when the Berlin Wall was still standing. While likeminded bands such as Malaria!, Die Todliche Doris, and Sprung Aus Den Wolken have been served well by recent reissues of their work from that time period, much of the accompanying visual ephemera (film, performance, painting, photography, etc.) has rarely been seen outside of its original context, barring a few exhibitions in art-spaces and festivals.
Fortunately, Berlin Super 80 offers an extraordinary glimpse into the community of existential expressionists who erupted in Berlin during the late '70s and early '80s. Neubauten, Doris, Malaria, and Sprung Aus Den Wolken offer some of their quintessentially great pieces. YThe discovery of previously unknown (although not unreleased) tracks from Mona Mur, Mono/45 UPM, Kosmonautentraum, and Flucht nach Vorn with their propulsive death-disco grooves and skeletal synthesizes make Berlin Super 80 well worth the price of admission.
MPEG Stream: MONA MUR "My Lie"
MPEG Stream: SPRUNG AUS DEN WOLKEN "Akcan La"
MPEG Stream: KOSMONAUTENTRAUM "Stolze Menchen"

V/A Berlin Super 80: Music & Film Underground West Berlin 1978 - 1984 (Monitorpop) 2lp 25.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A few weeks back, we listed the CD & DVD set of Berlin Super 80 with the caveat that the set was strictly limited, with a second edition of the DVD to be made available shortly. Well, now there's a double LP set, which will be the only way to get the musical program from that aforementioned CD & DVD set. Of course vinyl goes out of print pretty quickly too... Here's what we wrote earlier:
In the late '70s and early '80s, Berlin developed a caustic community of avant-punk musicians, filmmakers, artists, and hangers-on, whose aesthetics of alienation, angst, bewildered ecstacy, terminal revulsion, etc. were certainly impacted by the wall that seperated their city. Einsturzende Neubauten is clearly the most respected export from this community; but it could be argued that Neubauten (or any of the original members from that once close-knit community, for that matter) haven't quite the compulsion to make the magnificently explosive music as they did when the Berlin Wall was still standing. While likeminded bands such as Malaria!, Die Todliche Doris, and Sprung Aus Den Wolken have been served well by recent reissues of their work from that time period, much of the accompanying visual ephemera (film, performance, painting, photography, etc.) has rarely been seen outside of its original context, barring a few exhibitions in art-spaces and festivals.
Fortunately, Berlin Super 80 offers an extraordinary glimpse into the community of existential expressionists who erupted in Berlin during the late '70s and early '80s. Neubauten, Doris, Malaria, and Sprung Aus Den Wolken offer some of their quintessentially great pieces. YThe discovery of previously unknown (although not unreleased) tracks from Mona Mur, Mono/45 UPM, Kosmonautentraum, and Flucht nach Vorn with their propulsive death-disco grooves and skeletal synthesizes make Berlin Super 80 well worth the price of admission.
Be warned, the 2LP is LIMITED to only 1000 copies!
MPEG Stream: MONA MUR "My Lie"
MPEG Stream: SPRUNG AUS DEN WOLKEN "Akcan La"
MPEG Stream: KOSMONAUTENTRAUM "Stolze Menchen"

V/A Best Bootlegs In The World Ever (No Label) cd 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It's crass and laughably simple; but when done well, it's damn good. This is, of course, the current 'bootleg' phenomenon of plunderphonics which drops a hip-hop / top-40 club a capella track on top of a vastly different (but instantly recognizable) instrumental track, all the while perfectly matching both tracks' rhythms and sometimes harmonies. The origin of these culture jamming pisstakes can be traced back to the Evolutionary Control Committee's infamous "Whipped Cream Mixes" in which the a capella tracks from Public Enemy merge perfectly with the swingin' horn-y grooves of Herb Albert. The success of the ECC (aka Mark Gunderson) was principally based upon the lack of hi-tech gear, just two turntables and a mixer.
This import compilation - released on the anonymous No Label - features the current onslaught from likeminded DJs and MP3 wranglers lacing the vocals of one track with the instrumentals of another. While not all of the tracks on "The Best Bootlegs In The World Ever" live up to the compilation's name, about half of them do. The tracks that work best are the ones that manage to not only have the same rhythm, but also match chord progressions. The aforementioned ECC "Whipped Cream Mix" that spots PE's "Rebel Without A Pause" with the Tijuana Brass Band is simply perfect and is prominently featured on "The Best Bootlegs." Other gems include the Christina Aguilera / Strokes mix by Freelance Hellraiser, the Dead Kennedys / Destiny's Child mix by DJ French Bloke, the Girls On Top mix of TLC and Human League, the amazing fusion between The Cure's "Lovecats" and Missy Elliott's "One Minute Man" by Kurtis Rush, and the Sigur Ros / Celine Dion mix that justifies Aquarius' belief that Sigur Ros is nothing but Muzak fodder. Aside from a few duds and a couple more "Funk Soul Brothers" than were ever needed to sampled, this record is brilliant.
These have been really hard for us to track down, due to its odd popularity and its willfully underground distribution. So, when we run out of this... please don't be mad, we'll try to get more.
RealAudio clip: KURTIS RUSH "One Minute Lovecat"
RealAudio clip: GIRLS ON TOP "we don't give a damn about our friends"
RealAudio clip: FREELANCE HELLRAISER "Smells Like Booty"

V/A Best Foot Forward (Pussyfoot) cd 18.98
Smooth and mellow, crowd-pleasing electronica on Howie B's label.

V/A Best Of Black Jazz Records (Universal Sounds) cd 20.00

V/A Best Of Shaft (Hip-O) cd 15.98
16 tracks from the soundtracks to the various Shaft movies, some material otherwise not easily available on cd. Isaac Hayes (with his classic theme of course), The Four Tops, Bernard Purdie & Johnny Pate all contribute.

V/A Best of Twist-A-Rama (Norton) cd 14.98
Twist-A-Rama was a '60s teen talent show which broadcast in upstate New York. This compilation subtitled "Crude 1965 Garage Sounds From The Mohawk Valley: New York Garage Bands Vol. 1", is certainly packed full of the raw garage and surf sounds of the time, but is far from crude. Quite an impressive array of original songs from cleancut teen bands such as The Toffs, The Brix, and The Galaxies. Note: this cd was mastered from a mint copy of the LP which was released 35 years ago, and includes all the original liner notes... and surface noise. Yay!

V/A Better Than The bBeatles: A Tribute To The Shaggs (Animal World Recordings) cd 13.98
A tribute to the Shaggs, what a weird idea. When I heard about this release I wondered if the bands on it were going to attempt to emulate the musical ineptness that was what made the Shaggs who they were, and if so, then why bother. Or would they turn the crazy songs by the Shaggs into their own style, which could be interesting. Thankfully it is the latter for the most part. Ida does a pretty, soft Ida-like version of "Philosophy Of The World". The Thinking Fellers do a great ethereal version of "Who Are Parents" and the best part is that they enunciate each word so the rad crazy lyrics are quite clear. I must admit there were some songs that bugged me like crazy, songs that were wacky and essentially just bad versions of bad songs, but without the demented innocence that made the Shaggs the Shaggs. But you know anything that reminds us how great and pure the Shaggs were is worthwhile in my book.
RealAudio clip: IDA "Philosophy of the World"
RealAudio clip: THINKING FELLERS UNION LOCAL 282 "Who Are Parents"

V/A Between Heaven & Earth (Silva Screen) cd 11.98
Specially priced cd sampler of three different Balinese music genres - Gamelan Jegog, Gamelan Semar Pegulingan, and Gender Wayang. Jegog is the relatively recently developed bamboo gamelan found mostly in West Bali. Absolutely stunning and LOUD, the aesthetic of Jegog is an attempt to recreate the tone and volume of gongs and metallophones with bamboo. Semar Pegulingan (so named after Semar, the god of love) is the gamelan that traditionally played outside the king's chamber in the afternoons and evenings while the king slept with the queen (think of it as make out music) back before the Dutch got their dirty paws all over Bali. Gender Wayang is the music which accompanies Balinese shadow puppet plays (Wayang Kulit.) Consisting of four gender - metallophones, each with ten flat bronze keys suspended over bamboo resonators - Gender Wayang is considered the most complex and technically difficult music in Bali.

V/A Between Or Beyond the Iron Curtain (Crippled Dick Hot Wax!) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
From the masters of dredging up obscure euro-pop and jazz, Crippled Dick Hot Wax takes you on a time warp behind the iron curtain to listen to late 60's & mid 70's jazz grooves -- mostly tracks from Poland and Czechoslovakia are represented here, though there is one from East Germany. The music on this disc generally ranges from electro-jazz funk, to lite prog rock and for some reason I can't get episodes of CHiPs out of my head whenever this gets put on. It's like a parallel universe where Ponchski and Johnovich must stop the decadent imperialist no goodnik from lowering the workers' productivity level. Includes several pages of detailed liner notes on the bands and tracks featured on this collection.
RealAudio clip: MARTIN KRATOCHVIL'S JAZZ Q "A Dance"
RealAudio clip: WOJCIECH KAROLAK "A Day In The City"
RealAudio clip: LABORATORIUM "Funky Dla Franki"

V/A Between Or Beyond the Iron Curtain (Crippled Dick Hot Wax) 2lp 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
From the masters of dredging up obscure euro-pop and jazz, Crippled Dick Hot Wax takes you on a time warp behind the iron curtain to listen to late 60's & mid 70's jazz grooves -- mostly tracks from Poland and Czechoslovakia are represented here, though there is one from East Germany. The music on this disc generally ranges from electro-jazz funk, to lite prog rock and for some reason I can't get episodes of CHiPs out of my head whenever this gets put on. It's like a parallel universe where Ponchski and Johnovich must stop the decadent imperialist no goodnik from lowering the workers' productivity level. Includes several pages of detailed liner notes on the bands and tracks featured on this collection.

V/A Between Or Beyond The Northern Lights (Crippled Dick Hot Wax!) cd 17.98
Sometimes you just have to know when to say "No Corky!" and lift the needle from the record or press 'eject'. This compilation is one of those times. Hate to say it, but it seems ol' Crippled Dick have let us down this time with Between Or Beyond The Northern Lights. A shame considering how we've applauded and eagerly anticipated their ecclectic array of artists and compilations (including the super groovy, kitschful Pop-Shopping and Shake Sauvage collections as well as releases from Oxbow and Peter Thomas). Subtitled "Rare Fusion From Scandinavia 1967 -1978, this sort of sounds like the bland jazz you'd hear seeping out of the cocktail lounge of a '70s hotel. A bevy of poodling saxophones and muted trumpets, an occasional burp of analog synth, omnipresent tik-teeek-tik hihats, and tootily flute... you get the idea! Eck.
RealAudio clip: STAFFAN ABELEEN QUINTETS "Mr. Minor"

V/A Between Two Points (12K) cd 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
"Between Two Points" is yet another compilation of electronic glitches and lowercase music. Disc one is more rhythmic in its nature with morse code bleeps and rhythmic sine wave modulations from Noto, Taylor Deupree, Sogar, Mikael Stavostrand, Komet, Dan Abrams, Kim Cascone, and Vend. Disc two is barely there with Bernhard Gunter providing the most activity of sound amongst the likes of Richard Chartier, Steve Roden, Immedia, Roel Meelkop, *0, Miki Yui, and Duul_Drv.
Please will somebody issue a moratorium on compilations as predictable as this one? I'll give you 20 bucks if you make it happen. Well, maybe just 10. But it's gotta happen.

V/A Beyond Amsterdam: Baltimore Tracks From The Wire (Nonesuch) cd 13.98

V/A Beyond Istanbul: Underground Grooves Of Turkey (Trikont) cd 19.98
While only one of us here has actually been to Turkey (that would be Allan, the lucky bastard), we'll all pretty obsessed with Turkish psych/prog/folk music for quite a while now, as is evidenced by the fact that we review pretty much everything we can get our hands on. Edip Akbayram, Erkin Koray, 3 Hur-El, Mogollar, Bulent, Selda as well as comps galore, Love Peace And Poetry, Turkish Delights, Hava Narghile, we just can't get enough. The one aspect of Turkish music we haven't really explored is 'club' music. Could be that we generally don't even like American club music, as none of us are or ever were really what you might consider clubkids. Or it could be that there was never any really comprehensive collection of Turkish club music. Probably a little of both.
But leave it to Germany's mighty Trikont label to set us straight. With such a big Turkish population in Germany, the Istanbul music scene has a following there too, and Trikont asked popular DJ Ipek Ipekcioglu to put this collection together. Underground Grooves Of Turkey covers a wide expanse of Turkish sounds, from straight up dance floor pop, to weird guitar heavy grooves, to dub and hip hop, and pretty much every stop in between. While the sound veers dramatically all over the sonic map, there are definitely aspects that seem to be present in most, if not all of these tracks. We hear LOTS of Bollywood music stylings. The more playful upbeat tracks, the ones with big beats, wild rhythms and strings all over the place, it's hard not to imagine huge big budget dance scenes, dancers twirling, epic and massive and WILD. The more low key, laid back tracks alternately remind us of Muslimgauze, Dead Can Dance, and Jaz Coleman and Anne Dudley's Middle Eastern themed Songs From The Victorious City released several years back. As well as obviously all of the vintage Turkish music we have been digging.
Every single one of these songs is totally unique in its own way, and distinctly Turkish, incorporating all manner of other sounds while managing to sound fresh and original. The first track on the comp, The Night Session's "La Mirage" had us at hello. Imagine 50 Cent's "In Da Club" with its loping laid back swagger, mashed up with haunting minor key, Eastern tinged strings, fluttering flutes and soaring Arabesque vocals. Pretty kick ass. Could definitely be a club hit here. Surprised this track hasn't already been snapped up by that whole Sounds Of The Asian underground scene. With a comp this varied, probably the best way to approach it is track by track. Worth it for the opening song alone, but the rest of the disc is dense and dizzyingly wonderful as well:
-- A soundscape of dense swirls of playful, festive Bollywood exuberance, with amazing vocals from Sivan Perwer, one of the most famous Kurdish vocalists, now living in Germany.
-- Cay Taylan from Vienna, doing a more modern take, a downtempo triphopped version of a traditional Turkish dance, with lots of strings, Eastern percussion, lots of spacey FX and some groovy dubbed out rhythms.
-- A super pop gem from Nil Karaibrahimgil. A mix of drum and bass and hip hop, a childlike rhyme about the weaknesses of men, a sort of Eastern version of the Spice Girls or M.I.A., kind of sassy, and playful, fun, and funky,
-- Baba Zula mixes traditional jazz with Eastern psychedelia, a heady swirl of dreamlike vocals, traditional percussion and melodies, and plenty of late night jazzy shuffle. Some of his past recordings were produced by Mad Professor!
-- Orient Expressions are from Istanbul and carry on the musical tradition of Alevites, a religious minority of Turkish Islam, with a track based on a Kurdish folk song, taking traditional religious music and giving it a dubby electronic makeover, with washed out atmospheres, lilting vocals and super laid back beats, almost like a much more Eastern Enigma or Dead Can Dance
-- Ayhan Sicimoglu is the first Latin musician in the Turkish music scene and offers up a bad ass dancehall jam, a stuttery funky beat over a buzzing kazoo-like melody played on a Zurna, a traditional Turkish folk instrument with just a hint of the dreaded Reggaeton sound (which sounds KILLER here)!
-- dZihan & Kamien are a Swiss / Bosnian duo from Vienna, who craft epic trip hop dubscapes of shuffling slithering rhythms, minor key strings, strange vocal snippets, all wrapped into super catchy laid back grooves.
-- Ceza is one of the biggest names in the still developing Turkish rap scene. He gets compared to Eminem all the time, cuz of his rapid fire flow and whiney voice, and that's not far off the mark. If you can imagine Eminem rapping IN TURKISH over a killer bed of swooping Bollywood strings, fuzzy bass, and skittery almost dancehall rhythms... Wow!
-- The music of Burhan Ocal is really hard to describe, VERY Bollywood sounding, epic and dense, lots of funky rhythms, strings soaring and stirring, elements of Turkish traditional folk music, and some really strange female vocals from Emal Sayin, "the dame of Turkish art-music". She has a strangely strangled sounding mewl that goes from guttural growl to throaty croon, all over super dense and complex string parts and skittery electronic drums. Cool!
-- Baba Cay unfurls a groovy laid back ambient chillout groove, a sort of blissed out R+B, a little hint of new age swoosh, and plenty of Turkish filigree BUT it's not sung in Turkish, instead he sings in a made up language a la Magma or the Ruins.
-- The band with the very un-Turkish sounding name of Brooklyn Funk Essentials are all about super festive party music, equal parts USA and Turkey, with elements of Klezmer, ska, acid jazz, funk and hip hop, a wild block party groove, with loads of horns, that go from ska bounce to dizzying Klezmer swirl in the blink of an eye. Almost like a Turkish / Klezmer version of Jurassic 5!
-- Burhan Ocal is a famous Turkish percussionist, who weaves an intricate percussive backdrop over which traditional instruments like saz and oud buzz and swirl, a droning gorgeous rhythmic ritual, simultaneously ancient and modern, near the end a drum kit kicks in and then it sounds like some modernized Zakir Hussein jam. So good. Very reminiscent of Muslimgauze.
-- Goksel is a modern Turkish pop singer, with a breathy passionate voice, very melodramatic, performing here some sort of displaced modern American pop ballad, filtered through a distinctly Eastern vibe, reverbed guitars and traditional percussion mixed into soft focus Turkish moody pop, with a slight Western (as in country and western) twang. Her voice actually sounds remarkably like Nina Persson from the Cardigans!
-- Replikas are a guitar heavy underground rock band, who have been written up in the Wire and have even worked with Sonic Youth (and downtown NY) producer Wharton Tiers. Big distorted guitars, pounding drums, driving rhythms, sprinkled with distinctly Turkish bits here and there, soaring vocal melodies, moody strings, all makes for a gorgeous and strangely affecting track...
Not sure how this fits in with the rest of these "underground grooves" but pretty cool nonetheless.
-- Finally, the last track comes from Taner Demiralp, a young conductor / composer who delivers an almost liturgical sounding piece based on a traditional poem, praising the sultans, composed in the style of court music from the Ottoman Empire, including the lyrics and vocals, which are sung and composed in a traditional style no longer in use. Gorgeous crooned melodies over mournful minor key strings, all over a shuffling stuttering electronic beat. creepy and quite beautiful.
Absolutely essential for fans of Turkish music, and anyone who loved any of the Turkish psych compilations we've listed in the past. And all you folks who dig stuff like Kruder And Dorfmeister, Tosca, Peace Orchestra, Kid Loco and the like and just might be open to something a little more exotic, might really dig this stuff.
Like all Trikont releases, Beyond Istanbul is packaged in a full color digipak, and includes a massive set of liner notes, with a history of modern Turkish music, notes on each song and artist, as well as lots of photos!
MPEG Stream: THE NIGHT SESSION "La Mirage"
MPEG Stream: NIL KARAIBRAHIMGIL "Butun Kizlar Toplandik"
MPEG Stream: BURHAN OCAL & TRAKYA ALL STARS "Tekirdag Karsilasmasi"
MPEG Stream: REPLIKAS "Omur Sayaci"

V/A Big Apple Rappin' (Soul Jazz) 2cd 23.00
We know with the flood of calls and questions we got that lots of you have been really excited for this proto-hip-hop collection to finally arrive. While the recent New York Noise comps did a great job of taking us back to the heyday of the NY post-punk/noise scene, Big Apple Rappin' takes us to that same era in NYC but this time its the early exciting years of hip-hop culture that gets the oh so nice elaborate, thoughtful and tasty Soul Jazz treatment. It had been so hard to get hands on tracks by pioneers like Cold Crush Brothers, Spoonie Gee, T Ski Valley. The Jamaica Girls, etc. These are the sounds that would soon influence the next generation of hip-hop like Run-DMC, The Beastie Boys, Kool Moe Dee, Eric B & Rakim. Something so wonderful about how these sounds really do evoke such good feelings. Every time we play this in the store we notice how customers start tapping feet, then we see their necks start to move back and forth and next thing you know they are pretty much full on dancing. We've even caught some booty's shaking in the metal and experimental sections. So much of the early NYC Hip-Hop scene had such a great sense of freedom, you can hear a much more feminine touch in lots of these songs that would later be a little more scarce to find in the hip-hop scene. You can feel the influence that gay disco and the entire melting pot of NYC had on this exciting era of hip-hop as well. Wax collectors check this out on vinyl as the contents of the double cd can be had on two slabs of double vinyl split into two volumes.
MPEG Stream: SPOONIE GEE "Spoonin' Rap"
MPEG Stream: BROTHER D & COLLECTIVE EFFORT "How We Gonna Make The Black Nation Rise"
MPEG Stream: SPYDER D "Big Apple Rappin'"
MPEG Stream: SUPER 3 "Standing On The Top"

V/A Big Apple Rappin' Vol 1 (Soul Jazz) 2lp 24.00
We know with the flood of calls and questions we got that lots of you have been really excited for this proto-hip-hop collection to finally arrive. While the recent New York Noise comps did a great job of taking us back to the heyday of the NY post-punk/noise scene, Big Apple Rappin' takes us to that same era in NYC but this time its the early exciting years of hip-hop culture that gets the oh so nice elaborate, thoughtful and tasty Soul Jazz treatment. It had been so hard to get hands on tracks by pioneers like Cold Crush Brothers, Spoonie Gee, T Ski Valley. The Jamaica Girls, etc. These are the sounds that would soon influence the next generation of hip-hop like Run-DMC, The Beastie Boys, Kool Moe Dee, Eric B & Rakim. Something so wonderful about how these sounds really do evoke such good feelings. Every time we play this in the store we notice how customers start tapping feet, then we see their necks start to move back and forth and next thing you know they are pretty much full on dancing. We've even caught some booty's shaking in the metal and experimental sections. So much of the early NYC Hip-Hop scene had such a great sense of freedom, you can hear a much more feminine touch in lots of these songs that would later be a little more scarce to find in the hip-hop scene. You can feel the influence that gay disco and the entire melting pot of NYC had on this exciting era of hip-hop as well. Wax collectors check this out on vinyl as the contents of the double cd can be had on two slabs of double vinyl split into two volumes.
MPEG Stream: SPOONIE GEE "Spoonin' Rap"
MPEG Stream: BROTHER D & COLLECTIVE EFFORT "How We Gonna Make The Black Nation Rise"
MPEG Stream: XANADU "Sure Shot"

V/A Big Apple Rappin' Vol 2 (Soul Jazz) 2lp 24.00
We know with the flood of calls and questions we got that lots of you have been really excited for this proto-hip-hop collection to finally arrive. While the recent New York Noise comps did a great job of taking us back to the heyday of the NY post-punk/noise scene, Big Apple Rappin' takes us to that same era in NYC but this time its the early exciting years of hip-hop culture that gets the oh so nice elaborate, thoughtful and tasty Soul Jazz treatment. It had been so hard to get hands on tracks by pioneers like Cold Crush Brothers, Spoonie Gee, T Ski Valley. The Jamaica Girls, etc. These are the sounds that would soon influence the next generation of hip-hop like Run-DMC, The Beastie Boys, Kool Moe Dee, Eric B & Rakim. Something so wonderful about how these sounds really do evoke such good feelings. Every time we play this in the store we notice how customers start tapping feet, then we see their necks start to move back and forth and next thing you know they are pretty much full on dancing. We've even caught some booty's shaking in the metal and experimental sections. So much of the early NYC Hip-Hop scene had such a great sense of freedom, you can hear a much more feminine touch in lots of these songs that would later be a little more scarce to find in the hip-hop scene. You can feel the influence that gay disco and the entire melting pot of NYC had on this exciting era of hip-hop as well. Wax collectors check this out on vinyl as the contents of the double cd can be had on two slabs of double vinyl split into two volumes.
MPEG Stream: SPYDER D "Big Apple Rappin'"
MPEG Stream: THE JAMAICA GIRLS "Rock The Beat"
MPEG Stream: SUPER 3 "Standing On The Top"

V/A Big Mon (Skaggs Family Records) cd 15.98
Contemporary bluegrass star mandolinist Ricky Skaggs put together this tribute to Bill Monroe, the universally acknowledged father of bluegrass. While this record shouldn't substitute for a Monroe record in your collection, there are nonetheless several standout tracks worth the price of the disc, including Dolly Parton's verison of Cry, Cry Darlin' and songs sung by the Dixie Chicks (uh huh) and Charlie Daniels. Also appearing: Dwight Yoakam, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Travis Tritt, Patty Loveless, Bruce Hornsby. And Skaggs plays mandolin on every track!

V/A Biggest Dancehall Anthems 1979-82 (Greensleeves) 2cd 16.98
Good old Greensleeves comes through with a brand new series of collections. Along with their Biggest Ragga Dancehall Anthems of 1999, 2000 & 2001, they've rolled back the tape 13 years to throw together a double disc (or two part double LP if that's your preference) of their top picks of chart topping dancehall tracks from the birth of the genre in 1979 to 1982. 40 tracks in all from some of the original heavyweights of the genre like Barrington Levy, Johnny Osbourne, Yellowman, Eek-A-Mouse, Michigan & Smiley, Dennis Brown, (old timer) John Holt, Don Carlos and much more. Being on the cusp of the advent of full-fledged digital studio dominance of the Jamaican recording industry, there's lots of steam roller bass lines, phasey-chorused guitars and the occaisional synth percussion hit.
We can't let this one go without a word about the cover. We're used to seeing dancehall collections with cheesy covers consisting of chicks in thongs, so we were kind of disappointed that Greensleeves backed out of an otherwise excellent cover photo for this one. A vintage snapshot of a stud posing in front of his Mercedes would be perfect save for Greensleeves' decision to plaster his body from neck to manhood with the album's title. Small grief we concede, but it had to be mentioned.
RealAudio clip: GENERAL ECHO "Bathroom Sex"
RealAudio clip: CLINT EASTWOOD & GENERAL SAINT "Another One Bites The Dust"
RealAudio clip: RANKING TOYAN "How The West Was Won"
RealAudio clip: NICODEMUS "Bone Connection"

V/A Biggest Dancehall Anthems 1979-82: Part 1 (Greensleeves) 2lp 16.98
Good old Greensleeves comes through with a brand new series of collections. Along with their Biggest Ragga Dancehall Anthems of 1999, 2000 & 2001, they've rolled back the tape 13 years to throw together a double disc (or two part double LP if that's your preference) of their top picks of chart topping dancehall tracks from the birth of the genre in 1979 to 1982. 40 tracks in all from some of the original heavyweights of the genre like Barrington Levy, Johnny Osbourne, Yellowman, Eek-A-Mouse, Michigan & Smiley, Dennis Brown, (old timer) John Holt, Don Carlos and much more. Being on the cusp of the advent of full-fledged digital studio dominance of the Jamaican recording industry, there's lots of steam roller bass lines, phasey-chorused guitars and the occaisional synth percussion hit.
We can't let this one go without a word about the cover. We're used to seeing dancehall collections with cheesy covers consisting of chicks in thongs, so we were kind of disappointed that Greensleeves backed out of an otherwise excellent cover photo for this one. A vintage snapshot of a stud posing in front of his Mercedes would be perfect save for Greensleeves' decision to plaster his body from neck to manhood with the album's title. Small grief we concede, but it had to be mentioned.

V/A Biggest Dancehall Anthems 1979-82: Part 2 (Greensleeves) 2lp 16.98
Good old Greensleeves comes through with a brand new series of collections. Along with their Biggest Ragga Dancehall Anthems of 1999, 2000 & 2001, they've rolled back the tape 13 years to throw together a double disc (or two part double LP if that's your preference) of their top picks of chart topping dancehall tracks from the birth of the genre in 1979 to 1982. 40 tracks in all from some of the original heavyweights of the genre like Barrington Levy, Johnny Osbourne, Yellowman, Eek-A-Mouse, Michigan & Smiley, Dennis Brown, (old timer) John Holt, Don Carlos and much more. Being on the cusp of the advent of full-fledged digital studio dominance of the Jamaican recording industry, there's lots of steam roller bass lines, phasey-chorused guitars and the occaisional synth percussion hit.
We can't let this one go without a word about the cover. We're used to seeing dancehall collections with cheesy covers consisting of chicks in thongs, so we were kind of disappointed that Greensleeves backed out of an otherwise excellent cover photo for this one. A vintage snapshot of a stud posing in front of his Mercedes would be perfect save for Greensleeves' decision to plaster his body from neck to manhood with the album's title. Small grief we concede, but it had to be mentioned.

V/A Biggest Ragga Dancehall Anthems 1999 (Greensleeves) 2cd 16.98
Budget minded double disc dancehall collections from Greensleeves which feature the label's top picks for the years 1999, 2000 and 2001. What with 40 tracks on each one, they're a bit of a mixed bag. But with contributions from the likes of Capleton, Ward 21, Elephant Man, Sizzla, Lexxus, Barrington Levy, Mr. Vegas, Bounty Killer, Beenie Man, Buju Banton, Merciless and more, there's something for everyone here.
RealAudio clip: BURRO BANTON "Boom Wha Dis"
RealAudio clip: BEENIE MAN "Who Am I"

V/A Biggest Ragga Dancehall Anthems 2000 (Greensleeves) 2cd 16.98
Budget minded double disc dancehall collections from Greensleeves which feature the label's top picks for the years 1999, 2000 and 2001. What with 40 tracks on each one, they're a bit of a mixed bag. But with contributions from the likes of Capleton, Ward 21, Elephant Man, Sizzla, Lexxus, Barrington Levy, Mr. Vegas, Bounty Killer, Beenie Man, Buju Banton, Merciless and more, there's something for everyone here.
RealAudio clip: WARD 21 "Blood Stain"
RealAudio clip: BUCCANEER "Tight & Right"

V/A Biggest Ragga Dancehall Anthems 2001 (Greensleeves) 2cd 16.98
Budget minded double disc dancehall collections from Greensleeves which feature the label's top picks for the years 1999, 2000 and 2001. What with 40 tracks on each one, they're a bit of a mixed bag. But with contributions from the likes of Capleton, Ward 21, Elephant Man, Sizzla, Lexxus, Barrington Levy, Mr. Vegas, Bounty Killer, Beenie Man, Buju Banton, Merciless and more, there's something for everyone here.
RealAudio clip: SIZZLA "Pump Up"
RealAudio clip: LEXXUS "Bounce A Gal"

V/A Bilongo (Comet) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The third volume of unearthed African music treasures from the 1970s, tracks so rare that they originally only appeared in TV shows or in library archives. Yum! Of the three volumes of this stuff that Comet has reissued, this the jazziest of the lot, filled with boogieing organ and piano. This is true "rare groove" for people who get off on using phrases like that (you know who you are). Here we have music from Cameroon, Ghana, South Africa, Nigeria, etc, and includes a great track with the Art Ensemble of Chicago!!
RealAudio clip: EKO "Kilimanjaro My Home"
RealAudio clip: SERGIO OTANAZETRA "Gislaine"

V/A Bilongo (Comet) 2lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The third volume of unearthed African music treasures from the 1970s, tracks so rare that they originally only appeared in TV shows or in library archives. Yum! Of the three volumes of this stuff that Comet has reissued, this is the jazziest of the lot, filled with boogieing organ and piano. This is true "rare groove" for people who get off on using phrases like that (you know who you are). Here we have music from Cameroon, Ghana, South Africa, Nigeria, etc, and includes a great track with the Art Ensemble of Chicago!!

V/A Bip Hop Generation v.3 (Bip Hop) cd 14.98
Third in the series of international blip-bleep compilations from this French label. This edition features 14 tracks of previously unreleased music from six electronic musicians: AQ-fave Neotropic from England, Austrialian "lowercase" artist Pimmon, Bovine Life (UK), Novel 23 (Russia), Zonk't (France), and Atau Tanaka (Japan).

V/A Bip Hop Generation Vol 1 (Bip Hop) cd 16.98
From one of our favorite labels, France's Pandemonium (home of Hint, Guapo, and others) is born a new all electronic label called Bip Hop. Their first release (actually a series of releases) "The Bip Hop Generation" looks to be an interesting collection of experimental electronics, digital glitch worship, and IDM abstractions. The first in the series compiles tracks from Marumari, Schneider TM, Massimo, Goem, Phonem, and Ultra Milkmaids, and ranges from darkish, abstract, drum & bass to sinewave based techno minimalism to ticklish pop electronica. Really Nice.

V/A Bip Hop Generation Vol. 2 (Bip Hop) cd 15.98
Of the increasing volume of electronic music compilations that continue to flood the markets, the two "Bip Hop" compilations hold the unique distinction of being more than a document of who's hot and who's not in electronica. Instead of cramming 20 tracks into 72 minutes of space, "Bip Hop Generation 2" only features 6 artists -- Bernhard Fleischmann, Arovane, Warmdesk, Kohn, Wang Inc, and Laurent Pernice -- who are each given much longer amounts of time to showcase their wears, often with several smaller contributions which allows the artist to stretch out a bit and flex some musical muscle.
Fleischmann, Pernice, and Warmdesk generate off-kilter techno similar to early Aphex Twin and Plaid, while Arovane continues down the Boards Of Canada path of moody melody. Wang Inc and Kohn offer a handful of wistful and melodic analogue sketches.
Even for those of us who think there should be a moratorium on electronica compilations, this is worth checking out!
RealAudio clip: BERNHARD FLEISCHMANN "Aube"
RealAudio clip: AROVANE "Plecq"
RealAudio clip: WARMDESK "Nynl Square"

V/A Bippp: French Synth Wave 1979 - 85 (Everloving) cd 14.98
Ah those French and their electronics, if there's one thing we've learned, they're really good at busting out catchy synth lines and addictive dance tunes. France in the late '70s to mid '80s particularly, held an abundance of innovative and distinct synth-based cold-wave acts, many of whom where under the radar and less popular than the likes of Jean Michel Jarre or Richard Pinhas, but still rich in texture and just as brilliant. We read somewhere that Ruth sold just 50 copies of their (amazing) album released in 1985. The fact that we know next to nothing about any of the artists on this comp makes it even better!
If the Tigersushi Collection, So Young But So Cold that we listed a while back tickled your fancy, Bippp will not disappoint. The folks here at aQ have been eating this up! This compilation, put out by Everloving, licensed from the French label Born Bad, is a marvelous collection of raw futuristic energy and minimalist beats. In it you hear the beginnings of cold wave, dark-wave, post punk, and electro pop. Act's "Ping Pong" suggests everything from The Police to early New Order while the quirky efforts of "Touche Pas Mon Sexe" by The Comix is fast, spastic and bouncy with minimal drum machine effects, slicing synth stabs, and swirly, grinding melodies similar to Kraftwerk or early OMD. CKC's "20h25", catchy as all hell, stands out the most with backing robotic vocals, eerie Casio lines, and a somewhat random slap bass break mid-song. In the pulsing, metronomic works of "Pretty Day" by Mary Moore, another gem in the collection and one of the only two tracks with English vocals, Mary sings about love and death in equally coy tones. TGV's "Partie 1" is sort of a punk anthem (as are a couple others in the collection) with interlocking key patterns and quick, nervous yelps.
Seems a little out of place that the last song, "Rainbow Man", is a tune by Ed Banger (present day French electro monarch) label frontman Busy P (who samples the "Touche Pas Mon Sexe" track by The Comix listed earlier on in the comp) though the Collection's title suggests French New Wave "1979-85"..?? Still a damned good track regardless. And maybe the bait to get some of the young 'uns interested in this cool old stuff. Really it's astounding how fresh in quality the bulk of these songs are as well, as if they could've been released within the last five years, on a label like Ed Banger...
Most of the bands on the compilation apparently released vinyl runs of 1000 or less the first time around. Lacking an aboveground hit by a homegrown version of Depeche Mode or Soft Cell, the scene portrayed on Bippp remained largely hidden. As brilliant and often catchy as the tunes are, they remained weirdly confidential. We can only hope that the release of Bippp leads to reissues of full albums by these acts! We already knew we needed that Ruth record back in print.
MPEG Stream: CKC "20h25"
MPEG Stream: MARIE MOORE "Pretty Day"
MPEG Stream: DEUX "Game And Performance"