LA PLANETE SAUVAGE (OST) (DC / Intoxica) cd 18.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Long out of print and heavily sought after sound track to Rene Laloux's 1973 Cannes Grand Prix winning animated feature "La Planete Sauvage." Until now, securing yourself a copy of this soundtrack on lp would set you back a couple of Franklins. If the film itself is a hallucinatory masterpiece, the soundtrack -- composed by Alain Goraguer (long time arranger for Serge Gainsbourg) -- is as fitting as it is brilliant. Like an LSD dosed Isaac Hayes score, the music herein is at the same time both reminiscent of classic early seventies drama soundtracks and completely surreal and strange. Lots of recurring leit motifs recast in ever building and changing arrangements, including marimba, theremin and bird whistles as well as the standard orchestral elements, guitars and funky organs. For you vinyl lovers, the lp version of this is quite handsomely packaged in a beautiful, matte finish gatefold cover with full color stills from the film and lots of liner notes, including an extra foldout black and white insert with more info.
RealAudio clip: "Deshominisation"
RealAudio clip: "Le Bracelet"
RealAudio clip: "Ten Et Tiwa"

LA PLANETE SAUVAGE (OST) (DC / Intoxica) lp 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Long out of print and heavily sought after sound track to Rene Laloux's 1973 Cannes Grand Prix winning animated feature "La Planete Sauvage." Until now, securing yourself a copy of this soundtrack on lp would set you back a couple of Franklins. If the film itself is a hallucinatory masterpiece, the soundtrack -- composed by Alain Goraguer (long time arranger for Serge Gainsbourg) -- is as fitting as it is brilliant. Like an LSD dosed Isaac Hayes score, the music herein is at the same time both reminiscent of classic early seventies drama soundtracks and completely surreal and strange. Lots of recurring leit motifs recast in ever building and changing arrangements, including marimba, theremin and bird whistles as well as the standard orchestral elements, guitars and funky organs. For you vinyl lovers, the lp version of this is quite handsomely packaged in a beautiful, matte finish gatefold cover with full color stills from the film and lots of liner notes, including an extra foldout black and white insert with more info.
RealAudio clip: "Deshominisation"
RealAudio clip: "Le Bracelet"
RealAudio clip: "Ten Et Tiwa"

LA PLANETE SAUVAGE (OST) (Fanclub) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Repressed and BACK IN STOCK (for now...).
Super limited, lovingly presented fan club edition of this legendary record. Long out of print (minus the briefly available reissue on DC / Intoxica, now also out of print) and heavily sought after soundtrack to Rene Laloux's 1973 Cannes Grand Prix winning animated feature "La Planete Sauvage." If the film itself is a hallucinatory masterpiece, the soundtrack -- composed by Alain Goraguer (long time arranger for Serge Gainsbourg) -- is as fitting as it is brilliant. Like an LSD dosed Isaac Hayes score, the music herein is at the same time both reminiscent of classic early seventies drama soundtracks and completely surreal and strange. Lots of recurring leit motifs recast in ever building and changing arrangements, including marimba, Theremin and bird whistles as well as the standard orchestral elements, guitars and funky organs. So great!

LA REPRODUCTION INTERDITE D'UNE PEINTURE DE CRISE s/t (Kids Eat Free) cd 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A dark, spartan work of sonic disintegrations and accumulations. At times, very much akin to Village of Savoonga or Godspeed. Metallic abrasions, clouds of hiss and static, field recordings (of birds and airplanes), and short purring loops surface, mingle and dissipate. The two lengthy tracks are punctuated by the occasional appearance of frail A haunting and lovely 24 minutes from the duo of Dorothy Geller and Douglas Wolf, recorded in 1999.
RealAudio clip: "Excerpt 1"

LA REVOLUCION DE EMILIANO ZAPATA s/t (Dynamic) cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Here's a nice digipak reissue of something that's reputed to be one of the best ever psych albums from south of the border, right up there with Los Dug Dugs (who'd be our personal pick). And oh yeah, it's from 1971! If you've got the "Love, Peace and Poetry: Mexican Psychedelic Music" comp then you've already heard some La Revolucion De Emiliano Zapata, though their track on that comes from their second album, Hoy, not this their debut.
First off, there's plenty of stinging acid rock guitar awesomeness here, big time FUZZ action. But there's also mellower, more melodic side to them as well. Basically they cover all the bases of badass rockin' and rollin' California sixties psych influenced garage freakdom here. And they sing in English, whereas on Hoy they switched, mainly, to Spanish, which was a radical move as the conservative Mexican government/society of the '70s apparently would tolerate a lot of things sung in English but not in Spanish. Considering that two of the song titles here are "Nasty Sex" and "Shit City" maybe that's understandable...
Hopefully Dynamic will be reissuing Hoy as well someday, it's also a good one!
MPEG Stream: "Si Tu Lo Quieres"
MPEG Stream: "Todavia Nada (Still Don't - Not Yet)"

LA REVOLUCION DE EMILIANO ZAPATA s/t (Therapeutic Records) lp 32.00
And the cool (if not cheap) vinyl reissues of vintage psych stuff roll on: we reviewed this album when there was a cd reish a few years ago, now here's an lp version...
This is a record that's reputed to be one of the best ever psych albums from south of the border, right up there with Los Dug Dugs (who'd be our personal pick). And oh yeah, it's from 1971! If you've got the Love, Peace and Poetry: Mexican Psychedelic Music comp then you've already heard some La Revolucion De Emiliano Zapata, though their track on that comes from their second album, Hoy, not this, their debut.
First off, there's plenty of stinging acid rock guitar awesomeness here, big time FUZZ action. But there's also mellower, more melodic side to them as well. Basically they cover all the bases of badass rockin' and rollin' California sixties psych influenced garage freakdom here. And they sing in English, whereas on Hoy they switched, mainly, to Spanish, which was a radical move as the conservative Mexican government/society of the '70s apparently would tolerate a lot of things sung in English but not in Spanish. Considering that two of the song titles here are "Nasty Sex" and "Shit City" maybe that's understandable...
Comes with poster insert.
MPEG Stream: "Si Tu Lo Quieres"
MPEG Stream: "Todavia Nada (Still Don't - Not Yet)"

LA SERA Never Come Around (Hardly Art) 7" 5.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Debut release from this Vivian Girls side project, and it most definitely sounds like it, gorgeous hazy Phil Spector-ish production, lush jangly guitars, simple stripped down drumming, and reverbed vocals, but La Sera does stand out in several ways, one is the addition of some strange (and lovely) synth melodies, which seem like they would clash with the overall throwback vibe, but somehow just make it sound more distinctive, and the other is the vocals, Katy Goodman aka La Sera sings here much more cleanly, her voice more ethereal and angelic, and the sounds definitely reflects that, conjuring up that nineties Slumberland vibe which meshes pretty perfectly with the Spector girl group sound. So nice!
MPEG Stream: "Never Come Around"

LA SERA s/t (Hardly Art) cd 12.98
After a fantastic single, the full length finally arrives from this Vivian Girls side project, and like the 7" (whose A side "Never Come Around" is present here too) this definitely sounds a lot like the Vivian Girls mothership, the sound is washed out, gauzy, softly reverby, that Phil Spector-ish production, the opening track is fantastic, ethereal and dreamy, guitars shimmering and jangling, lush vocal harmonies, all hazy and otherworldly, with crunchy guitars here and there, but for the most part, just gorgeously fuzzy soft focus drift, with some unexpected psychedelic guitar crunch and swirl near the end. Which is quickly followed by the single, all lush jangly guitars, simple stripped down drumming, and reverbed vocals, and even more of that Spector wall of sound, but as we mentioned in the review of the 7", La Sera takes the VG sound and adds some strange (and lovely) synth melodies, and the vocals of Katy Goodman aka La Sera are much more clean and pure, her voice more ethereal and angelic, which perfectly suits the sound, the overall feel like some mix of primitive K Records girl pop, nineties Slumberland shoegaze, and of course that classic sixties girl group song. There's nothing ramshackle or garage-y really about La Sera, instead it's much more polished, WAY more lush, hazy, shimmery, a lovely fuzzy, soft focus dreampop, that will no doubt appeal to fans of all the 'Girls (Vivian, Dum Dum and At Dawn) but also fans of the Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, and the sonically similar groups that came before like the Lilys, Velocity Girl, My Bloody Valentine, Heavenly, Pastels, etc.
MPEG Stream: "Beating Heart"
MPEG Stream: "Never Come Around"
MPEG Stream: "You're Going To Cry"

LA SERA s/t (Hardly Art) lp 13.98
After a fantastic single, the full length finally arrives from this Vivian Girls side project, and like the 7" (whose A side "Never Come Around" is present here too) this definitely sounds a lot like the Vivian Girls mothership, the sound is washed out, gauzy, softly reverby, that Phil Spector-ish production, the opening track is fantastic, ethereal and dreamy, guitars shimmering and jangling, lush vocal harmonies, all hazy and otherworldly, with crunchy guitars here and there, but for the most part, just gorgeously fuzzy soft focus drift, with some unexpected psychedelic guitar crunch and swirl near the end. Which is quickly followed by the single, all lush jangly guitars, simple stripped down drumming, and reverbed vocals, and even more of that Spector wall of sound, but as we mentioned in the review of the 7", La Sera takes the VG sound and adds some strange (and lovely) synth melodies, and the vocals of Katy Goodman aka La Sera are much more clean and pure, her voice more ethereal and angelic, which perfectly suits the sound, the overall feel like some mix of primitive K Records girl pop, nineties Slumberland shoegaze, and of course that classic sixties girl group song. There's nothing ramshackle or garage-y really about La Sera, instead it's much more polished, WAY more lush, hazy, shimmery, a lovely fuzzy, soft focus dreampop, that will no doubt appeal to fans of all the 'Girls (Vivian, Dum Dum and At Dawn) but also fans of the Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, and the sonically similar groups that came before like the Lilys, Velocity Girl, My Bloody Valentine, Heavenly, Pastels, etc.
MPEG Stream: "Beating Heart"
MPEG Stream: "Never Come Around"
MPEG Stream: "You're Going To Cry"

LA SERA Sees The Light (Hardly Art) cd 12.98
Katy Goodman, aka La Sera, aka one third of dream pop trio Vivian Girls, returns with here second solo full length, and as we mentioned in our review of the first, the fuzzy, Spector-ish, jangly musical apple doesn't fall far from the VG tree, although Sees The Light definitely takes the sound of the La Sera debut, and hones it even further, sonically more polished and lush, but without losing any of it's raw urgency or DIY charm, but it's quite obvious Goodman is becoming a pop songsmith to be reckoned with, whether she's weaving hazy old timey reverb drenched pop balladry like on opener "Love That's Gone", or kicking out the rambunctious fuzz-pop jams like on "Please Be My Third Eye", wrapping woozy dreamy jangle, and ethereal angelic vox around an almost punkish pound, or offering up hook-heavy Pixies/Breeders style indie rock on the should-be-a-hit "I Can't Keep You In My Mind", with Goodman ditching the reverb, and revealing her surprisingly powerful voice, as well as whipping up the sort of chorus/main hook most other bands would kill for, and crafting a song that sounds so catchy and immediately familiar it's hard to believe it's not a cover.
From there on out, Goodman never lets up, song after song, hook after hook, pretty much every song on Sees The Light is a total mixtape dream pop gem, deftly mixing the soft and fuzzy, with the buzzy and jangly, and at times, even a little bit of the dark and heavy (just check out the dreamy almost doom-pop dirgery of "How Far We've Come Now"), into an irresistible sonic concoction!
MPEG Stream: "Love That's Gone"
MPEG Stream: "Please Be My Third Eye"
MPEG Stream: "I Can't Keep You In My Mind"

LA SERA Sees The Light (Hardly Art) lp 13.98
Katy Goodman, aka La Sera, aka one third of dream pop trio Vivian Girls, returns with here second solo full length, and as we mentioned in our review of the first, the fuzzy, Spector-ish, jangly musical apple doesn't fall far from the VG tree, although Sees The Light definitely takes the sound of the La Sera debut, and hones it even further, sonically more polished and lush, but without losing any of it's raw urgency or DIY charm, but it's quite obvious Goodman is becoming a pop songsmith to be reckoned with, whether she's weaving hazy old timey reverb drenched pop balladry like on opener "Love That's Gone", or kicking out the rambunctious fuzz-pop jams like on "Please Be My Third Eye", wrapping woozy dreamy jangle, and ethereal angelic vox around an almost punkish pound, or offering up hook-heavy Pixies/Breeders style indie rock on the should-be-a-hit "I Can't Keep You In My Mind", with Goodman ditching the reverb, and revealing her surprisingly powerful voice, as well as whipping up the sort of chorus/main hook most other bands would kill for, and crafting a song that sounds so catchy and immediately familiar it's hard to believe it's not a cover.
From there on out, Goodman never lets up, song after song, hook after hook, pretty much every song on Sees The Light is a total mixtape dream pop gem, deftly mixing the soft and fuzzy, with the buzzy and jangly, and at times, even a little bit of the dark and heavy (just check out the dreamy almost doom-pop dirgery of "How Far We've Come Now"), into an irresistible sonic concoction!
MPEG Stream: "Love That's Gone"
MPEG Stream: "Please Be My Third Eye"
MPEG Stream: "I Can't Keep You In My Mind"

LA SOCIETE DES TIMIDES A LA PARADE DES OISEAUX Le Combat Occulte (Beta-Lactam Ring) cd 13.98

LA VAMPIRES FEATURING MATRIX METALS So Unreal (Not Not Fun) lp 14.98
Imagine Ariel Pink, if he was a she, and crafted twisted warped lo-fi late night seventies FM radio, drug party, sci fi sexy soul music, and you'll begin to get an idea of what to expect from LA Vampires, teamed up here with fellow lo-fi beatscaper lo-fi groove architect Matrix Metals (of Outer Limits Recordings).
The two have created a haunting neon lit late night landscape of Casio keyboards primitive beats, warped warbly melodies, fractured synths, fuzzy bass, new wavey soundtrack swirl, loads of FX, the whole thing sounds like some warped disco 12" being played on one of those battery powered turntables and broadcast through a transistor radio, but then the whole thing plugged into some retro futuristic sound system, that somehow transforms the whole thing into some sort of twisted Goblin / Carpenter future disco, all of which is simply a backing track for Miss LA Vampires to croon over, her vocals, smokey and monotone, a sort of reverbed icy croon, more spoken than sung much of the time, you can almost imagine her as some sort of painted up cyber chanteuse, perched on a light up pyramid, wreathed in dry ice smoke, while all around her, gorgeous sparkly ladies and buff cybernetic boys shuffle rhythmically to here haunting coked up midnight jamzzzz. Dig it!
MPEG Stream: "Make Me Over"
MPEG Stream: "How Would U Know"

LA VAMPIRES GOES ITAL Streetwise (Not Not Fun) 12" 14.98
So interesting to see what new directions people take when faced with similar turning points. Out of the ashes of Pocahaunted, Bethany Cosentino embraced her love of pop and girl group garage glory, forming Best Coast. On the other hand, her former bandmate Amanda Brown went the other way, riffing off the layers of fractured/damaged sounds that Pocahaunted were creating into something more dubbed out and beat orientated. What's so cool is they both created such great music while taking utterly different paths.
LA Vampires seem to thrive on collaboration. Her record with Zola Jesus last year was a narcotic dubbed out slow burner and she also collaborated with Matrix Metals and shared a slice of vinyl with Psychic Reality. Ital is the new left-field dance project by former San Francisco resident Daniel McCormick (Mi Ami, Sex Worker). We were super excited when we heard McCormick was working on a new project focusing on weirdo electronic dance tracks. We knew he had such a great ear for the underworld of damaged dance sounds and damn does this collaboration between him and LA Vampires kill! Dubbed out, tripped out, swirling with infectious yet hazy melody and sensual rhythm. It's a 12" that merges the steaminess and sexiness of Throbbing Gristle's "Hot On The Heels Of Love" with the Chromatics "I Want Your Love." We've been playing this nonstop!

LA VAMPIRES MEETS ZOLA JESUS s/t (Not Not Fun) lp 14.98
Rumor has it that Nika Danilova will be moving to Los Angeles upon completing her studies in Madison, WI. Perhaps a precursor to things to come for Zola Jesus when she does land in SoCal is this 12" with Nika laying swoonsome goth vocals upon slow-motion codeine-dub tracks provided by Amanda Brown (here in the guise of LA Vampires, but perhaps better known as half of Pocahaunted.) Much like the last few Pocahaunted records with their ghetto-tech downer dub, casting an evil eye on any sunshine vibes, Brown's production comes across like a lo-fi, home-built Scorn with basslines that sulk and stalk from the nastiest of noir alleyways and beats that could be lifted straight from a Chopped & Screwed remix. It's well suited to what Zola Jesus has delivered on her earlier constructions of equally lo-tech industrialisms; and her voice as always is frigid, strong, and operatic. Many of the songs clock in at less than 3 minutes, which is pretty much just right for these looping skeletal tracks. The seven track ep ends with an incredible cover of Dawn Penn's "No No No" taking the already zombified rocksteady ballad to a narcotic, love-sick zenith (or nadir, depending on how you look at it) of woozy, chemically zonked dirge-n-dub.

LABELLE, BRANDON Automatic Radio (Fringes) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
"Automatic Radio" is collection of three performances from LA sound artist Brandon LaBelle, which (as always) includes complete notes on the work at hand. The first piece is a series of closely mic-ed human utterances mimicking animal speech, with the intention of locating the tension inherent in "speaking as a body (sensuality)" and "speaking as an individual (social behavior)." The second piece starts out with a noisy recording of LaBelle walking through the streets of Vienna with contact microphones on the soles of his shoes, capturing a specific element of the social space and collaging it with the sounds found 5 to 6 feet higher, the crowd noise of those public spaces. The final track is the most interesting as it embraces two external aesthestics that LaBelle cannot control but tries to force into a specific conceptual context. This piece was recorded with his long standing collaborator Loren Chasse at 7hz in San Francisco while John Hudak was performing in the same room. With Chasse quietly rubbing contact microphones on the glass of the second floor mezzanine of 7hz's cavernous space, and with LaBelle literally sticking a metal funnel in his mouth to resonate Hudak's performance, the duo captured two parallel "translations" of the tonal drones that Hudak created below. Really nice.

LABELLE, BRANDON Music On A Short Thin Wire (Ground Fault ) cd 8.98
"Music On A Short Thin Wire" is another conceptual excercise from LA experimentalist Brandon LaBelle, who seems to have recently run into the problem of favoring intent over content. On this album, LaBelle has amplified the first eight releases on the experimental sound art label Ground Fault through a simple system of speaker cones, contact microphones, and thin copper wires, to create a "sympathetic translation" of the original's in the vibrations of the copper wire. As Ground Fault has an unfortunate custom of label each release based upon its intensity (this one finds itself in the 'quiet' catagory), Brandon's album is a well needed critique of Ground Fault's taxonomic bracketing. In running these records (some gentle like Eric LaCasa, some brutally noisy like Government Alpha) through a process which completely disguises the original, LaBelle dissolves the unneccesary categories imposed upon the original music. However, the album doesn't really explore much further. LaBelle's work does have a fantastic array of tonalities and textural details, from muffled oscillating drones to nervous metal striations, but LaBelle's leash on "Thin Wire" is far too short to allow for alternate readings or deeper investigations into this music.

LABELLE, BRANDON Shadow Of A Shadow (Selektion) cd 15.98
In the extended essay that accompanies his second album for Selektion, Brandon LaBelle offers a semantic argument about his work being located at the border between private and public, the real and the cultural modes of production, field recordings and composed music, the natural and the artificial. Even the title itself seems to imply the allegory of the real and the non-real as found in Plato's cave, but with the body (both as an objective and a subjective agent) as the site where the real and the non-real cross each other. The sounds found within "Shadow Of A Shadow" rumble through the crackling of textual grit alongside unwavering electric buzzes and quiet bell tones with distant metallic strikes, sounding much like a more static version of LaBelle's occasional work with Loren Chasse as Id Battery. It almost always seems to be that LaBelle is intentionally limiting his palette to only two sounds per composition, to force the issue of his border theory within "the slippery fold of meaning." Whew!
RealAudio clip: "The Body Is An Instrument"
RealAudio clip: "Buildings Are Bodies"

LABELLE, BRANDON / CHRISTOF MIGONE Writing Aloud: The Sonics of Language (Errant Bodies) book+cd 20.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
"Writing Aloud" is the second massive publication from experimental musician Brandon LaBelle's Errant Bodies Press, and is a collection of writings about the semiotic slippages between sound and language. His introduction states: "in speaking about language, grammatical codes undermine syntactical rules, vocalizing speaks through the sonicity of utterance, all extending and contracting against individual desire, memory and the urgencies of speaking, writing and hearing. Yet it is precisely this circling, this reflexivity that 'Writing Aloud' aims to enter, not with the intention of repeating indefinitely, but rather to locate the tension and volition inherent to language. 'Writing Aloud' as a project aims to 'enact' language -- and by extention the form of the book -- by scratching away at its surface, reflecting on histories of its usage, and by turning up the linguistic volume." Contributors for the written portion include Achim Wollscheid, Vito Acconci, Robert Ashley, Alvin Lucier, David Dunn, Gregory Whitehead, Jocelyn Robert, and many others. The CD features some great work from Michel Chion, John Duncan, and Randy Yau, as well as contributions from Yasunao Tone, Gregory Whitehead, Achim Wollscheid, and many more. This is required reading for those who understand (or pretend to understand) why Semiotext(e) has a parenthetical clause within its name! In other words, not light reading, but if you're interested in the experimental musics and philosophies of any of the abovementioned contributors, you'll relish wrapping your brain around this.

LABELLE, BRANDON / STEVE RODEN The Opening Of The Field (Digital Narcis) cd 17.98
The latest from LA sound artists Labelle (of id battery) and Steve Roden (aka in.betweeen.noise), sees them collaborating with the care and intellect that they are both known for in their work. "'The Opening Of The Field' presents a series of live studio improvisations that move quietly through the intimate surfaces of objects to the fragmented landscapes of field recordings. In this movement, from textured scrapings to electronic manipulations, the distinctness of objects and the processes of recordings clouds over to create a highly detailed sonic flow. The spaces of sounds and their origin are transposed onto an imaginary space where listening leads to many openings." -- from the liner notes. Need we say more? No? Good.

LABRADFORD A Stable Reference (Kranky) cd 13.98
Upon a single listen, this second record sounds noisier, more dark and less new age than Labradford's debut.

LABRADFORD A Stable Reference (Kranky) lp 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Upon a single listen, this second record sounds noisier, more dark and less new age than Labradford's debut.

LABRADFORD E Luxo So (Kranky) cd 13.98
The fifth studio album from Labradford finds the band incorporating instrumentations of dulcimer, string section, and tape loops alongside their atmospherics for guitar, bass, and piano. Labradford may have beaten Andee (in his first solo project after A Minor Forest, Pee, and Tic War) to the punch with a blatant appropriation of George Winston / Shadowfax / Windham Hill onto a record for Kranky.
Beautiful, none the less.

LABRADFORD E Luxo So (Kranky) lp 10.98
The fifth studio album from Labradford finds the band incorporating instrumentations of dulcimer, string section, and tape loops alongside their atmospherics for guitar, bass, and piano. Labradford may have beaten Andee (in his first solo project after A Minor Forest, Pee, and Tic War) to the punch with a blatant appropriation of George Winston / Shadowfax / Windham Hill onto a record for Kranky.
Beautiful, none the less.

LABRADFORD Fixed :: Context (Kranky) cd 14.98
Brand new album of laid back, minimal, Bernardo Bertolucci-esque instrumentals from Labradford, including a slightly disturbing number that sounds a little too much like the Modern English's "Melt With You". There's really nothing new or different here from them on this one except that there's absolutely no singing on this album, not even mumbling buried in the mix -- which is a good thing. The bad part is that this album, though priced as a full length, clocks in a little short of one at 38 minutes.
RealAudio clip: "David"

LABRADFORD Mi Media Naranja (Kranky) cd 13.98
Their fourth record is way melodic, very nice.

LABRADFORD Mi Media Naranja (Kranky) lp 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Their fourth record is way melodic, very nice.

LABRADFORD Prazision LP (Kranky) cd 14.98
The one frustrating thing about the list, and the AQ website in general, that sometimes drives us crazy, is that it only really began in earnest in the mid nineties, thus there are SO many records that we love, and that we reference all the time, that we just always assume MUST be on the list, but aren't, so we try to review those records anyway once in a while, if they're still available, but even better is when one of those discs gets reissued, giving us the opportunity to shower it with the praise we would have back in the day. Which brings us to the gorgeous debut from Labradford (which was also the very first release on Kranky!).
Originally released in 1993, the sound of Prazision LP was so prescient, the current crop of cd-r noisemakers have nothing on these guys, in fact, almost anything you hear now on some super limited cd-r, you could hear on Prazision LP more than a decade earlier. A gorgeous blend of shimmering ambience, fractured folk, minimal pop, sculpted noise and experimental soundscapes that seems to be constantly in flux, a fluid, organic collection of sounds and songs, a murky melancholy mood music rendered in soft strummed shimmer and haunting abstract ambience.
The opening track is the perfect send off, as we depart on our journey, dark billowy drones, keening distant high end streaks, a strange almost mechanical non-rhythm hovering in the foreground, beneath it all deep dark sonic swells, a muted mysterious melody, everything seemingly drifting weightless in a hazy expanse of underwater sunlight. But before we can settle in and float weightlessly into the ether, the second track introduces an actual song, simple strummed steel string guitar, melancholy Jandekian sadboy vocals, over a haunting multilayered drone. The next track is more pop, but even more druggy and unhinged, vocals buried in a murky muddy swirl of effected guitars and sprawling minor key melodies, reminding us of an even less propulsive Spacemen 3 or a way druggier Galaxie 500, no beats, just the voice and the various smeared sounds floating heavenward. In fact the whole record has that vibe, sort of wasted, bleary eyed, druggy, dreamy, drifting, on the verge of simply fading away, or floating into the sun to be consumed and turned to ash.
The rest of the record is balanced pretty evenly between Velvets style lo-fi downer pop, lazy and languorous and laid waaaay back, guitars glistening and glimmering, and thick mesmerizing slabs of slow shifting glacial whir, often a breathtaking combination of the two. Absolutely gorgeous and so forward thinking. One of our favorite records ever, a dark and doleful experimental abstract ambient pop masterpiece.
For the reissue, both tracks from Labradford's first 7" are included, and both tracks are just more of that haunting mysterious beauty. Totally recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Listening In Depth"
MPEG Stream: "Accelerating On A Smoother Road"
MPEG Stream: "Splash Down"

LABRADFORD s/t (Kranky) cd 13.98
Their third full length.

LABRECQUE, PAUL & VALERIE WEBB Trees, Chants And Hollers (Eclipse) lp 14.98
This reissue of a long out of print super limited (100 copies) edition, comes from two relative unknowns, Paul LaBrecque and Valerie Webb, but Trees, Chants And Hollers, recorded a few years back, finds the duo deftly navigating similar sonic terrain as the rest of the new free folk movement and the oft referenced new weird America. But unlike the clattery primitive ritualism of groups like No Neck Blues Band and Avarus, or the straight up Fahey worship of folks like Jack Rose and James Blackshaw, LaBrecque and Webb incorporate bits of both, dense fingerpicked neo Appalachia, and drifting fluttering free folk, into much more expansive soundscapes. Banjo and steel string guitars, flutes and ethereal vocals. Some tracks are almost traditional sounding, Appalachian hoedowns slowed down into dark contemplative moodiness, while others are super abstract, the guitar becomes a noisemaker, letting strange scrapes and sounds drift into the ether, huge swirls of smeared shimmer, melancholy melodies, deft complex picking, rendered totally indistinct. And just as quickly the duo will reel it back in, and offer up a near liturgical meditation, simple banjo and intertwined male female vocals, everything bathed in glistening reverb. So beautiful. Fans of Blackshaw, Rose, Ahmed, Bishop, Schmidt, DeGennaro, Valentine as well as groups like the Tower Recordings, P.G. Six and the like should definitely pick this up.

LABYRINTH s/t (Century Media) cd 14.98

LABYRINTH Sons of Thunder (Metal Blade) cd 16.98
Yet even more silly (but awesome) Dungeons & Dragons / Lord of The Rings metal. This is like the almighty Children of Bodom (blazing fast, duelling lead guitars AND duelling keyboards) but swap the harsh death metal vocals for high melodic New Wave of British Heavy Metal style vocals. Maybe a bit cheesy but still pretty fantastic.

LABYRINTH OF ABYSS The Cult Of Turul Pride (Sun & Moon) cd 13.98

MPEG Stream: "The Curse Of Impaler"
MPEG Stream: "Nihilistic Decadent Earthly Lifeform"

LABYRINTHINE Evoking The Multiverse (self-released) cd 10.98
First full length from this East Coast one man black metal band, who trafficks in some awesomely epic spaced out buzz drenched cosmic atmospheric symphonic blackness, a sound that falls somewhere between Velvet Cacoon, Wolves In The Throne Room, and Paysage D'Hiver. Six looooong buzzscapes, that drift from midtempo lope, to blurred black blast, the programmed drums skeletal and buried in the mix, a murky throb in a swirling sea of dizzying layered woozy riffage, washed out and psychedelic, the guitar parts spidery and minor key, the sound super atmospheric and depressive, haunting and otherworldly.
Much of Evoking The Multiverse is spent drifting through the sonic aether, the black metal barely black at all, instead, the sound seems to manifest itself as a streaked field of kosmische shimmer, lush layers of warm whirring buzz and smeared soft focus dreambuzz, "The Planetary Dream Of Infinity" most notably, seems to eschew the traditional tropes of black metal entirely (minus the vocals) offering up slow smoldering streaks of prismatic doomic drift, unfurling long burnished tones, sprawling chordal streaks, the entire track, bathed in some sort of soft celestial light, so melodic, and drifty and soft focus, if it weren't for the vocals, it could almost be some sort of blissed out blackened psychedelia, and much of the record exists in this black metal limbo, slipping just as easily into the heaven of warm otherworldly melodicism, as the hell of grim blasting black buzz, but more often then not, situating itself somewhere right in between, the heavy fast black metal parts rife with strange psychedelic filigree and subtle melodic shadings, and the pretty parts occasionally swallowed up by harrowing bursts of pounding frantic heaviness.
MPEG Stream: "The Eldritch Voyage"
MPEG Stream: "Telepathic Vengeance"
MPEG Stream: "Arcane Orbiter"

LACK OF KNOWLEDGE Grey (Southern) cd 11.98

LACY, STEVE The Forest And The Zoo (ESP) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Recorded live in Buenos Aires in 1966, 'The Forest And The Zoo' is one of the first records Steve Lacy made after permanently relocating to Italy. Lacy who was considered the first 'modern' musician to specialise in the soprano sax, played with Cecil Taylor, Gil Evans, Thelonious Monk and others before he moved to Europe and formed a semi-permanent group. The quartet on this record is Lacy, Enrico Rava on trumpet, Johnny Dyanni on bass and Louis T. Moholo on drums. Two sidelong tracks of gorgeous, squealing melodies and skittering percussion. Essential.
RealAudio clip: "Forest"

LACY, STEVE The Forest And The Zoo (ESP) cd 13.98

LACY, STEVE The Forest And The Zoo (ESP / Get Back) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Recorded live in Buenos Aires in 1966, 'The Forest And The Zoo' is one of the first records Steve Lacy made after permanantly relocating to Italy. Lacy who was considered the first 'modern' musician to specialise in the soprano sax, played with Cecil Taylor, Gil Evans Thelonious Monk and others before he moved to Europe and formed a semi-permanant group. The quartet on this record is Lacy, Enrico Rava on trumpet, Johnny Dyanni on bass and Louis T. Moholo on drums. Two sidelong tracks of gorgeous, quealing melodies and skittering percussion. Essential.

LACY, STEVE The Gap (America) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
WOW. And do we mean WOW!! Fifteen classic free jazz records from the late sixties / early seventies, long out of print, finally getting the ULTRA deluxe reissue treatment. Incredibly limited, these will probably be out of print before you know it.
Comes in a gorgeous diecut fullcover three panel sleeve, with new artwork, as well as a huge booklet with the original album sleeve notes, new liner notes in french and english as well as a bunch of cool photos. So nice!

LACY, STEVE QUINTET Esteem (Live in Paris 1975) (Atavistic) cd 15.98

MPEG Stream: "The Crust"
MPEG Stream: "The Uh Uh Uh"

LADD, MIKE Negrophilia [The Album] (Thirsty Ear) cd 16.98

LADD, MIKE Vernacular Homicide (Likemadd / Ozone) 10" 7.98

LADDIO BOLOCKO As If In Real Time (Hungarian) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We've been championing Laddio Bollocko since we first heard their mighty 'Strange Warmings' album (which we finally managed to get back in, review later in the list) and inexplicably they have managed to elude the superstardom we predicted for them. But with their hyper-distorted-This-Heat-fronted-by-Albert-Ayler sound, they were definitely an acquired taste. It's been a couple years, and it's two releases later, and Laddio is kind of a different beast. This cd compiles the 'In Real Time' ep and the 'As If By Remote' sort-of-full-length, and shows an amazing amount of growth. They've all but completely abandoned the bludgeoning, pounding shrieking bombast, and instead stretch out, and explore rhythms and textures, creating lengthy krautrock jams, and hypnotic drones. And their noisey, in your face, live recording has been replaced by what sounds like a serious exploration of the studio as instrument, with at least half the record full of innovative production and gorgeous textures. Also, the sax, which on 'Strange Warmings', was more textural and not immediately identifiable as a saxophone, is more of a presence here, giving it more of a sort-of-jazz feel on several tracks.
Their sound these days is much more in the vein of This Heat and Circle. In fact, everyone who was blown away by the recent Circle releases should definitely check this out.
RealAudio clip: "Karl"
RealAudio clip: "As If By Remote"
RealAudio clip: "A Passing State Of Well Being"

LADDIO BOLOCKO Strange Warmings Of (Hungarian) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This record is one of the most amazing we have ever heard, and of course, it's been practically impossible to get back in stock. But now we have it, and you should buy it. It's pummelling and heavy and beautiful. Not sure how long we'll have this in stock.
An ex-Dazzling Killmen (Blake Fleming) takes his penchant for angular discordance a step further, forgoing the ferocious heaviosity of his former outfit, and instead, explores lengthy semi-improvisational psychedelic freakouts and repetetive hypno-krautrock instrumentals ala Circle. Post rock jamscapes littered with shrieking and droning Albert Ayler-ish sax, jabs of no wave guitar, an overwhelming over-saturated super-distorted production and absolutely crushing drumming. Totally essential.
RealAudio clip: "Nurser"

LADDIO BOLOCKO The Life And Times Of... (No Quarter) 2cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally re-pressed and back in stock!!
We have been championing this band since the very first time we heard their mighty 'Strange Warmings' debut years ago but continually faced the problem of all three of their releases being practically impossible to get. And my (Andee's) only possible complaint about this comprehensive career retrospective collection is that I WANTED TO PUT IT OUT ON tUMULt!!!! Arrrrgghhh. But kudos to AQ pal Mike who runs the mighty No Quarter label, for his amazing taste (Earth, Pharoah Overlord and now LB!) and ability to unearth/rerelease these out of print gems.
Laddio Bolocko were absolutely one of the most amazing bands we have ever heard, taking the bloated corpse of 'post rock' and filling it with squirming, ultra complex, super dynamic kraut rock and out rock and...uhhhh trout (mask replica) rock? Or whatever. Imagine a modern day This Heat, but with bigger amps, more lo-fi production, free-jazz scud missle saxophone, unlikely melodies, relentless rhythms, ear-ringing dynamics and a sound unlike anything you've ever heard. Sounds good huh? Well, it is. In fact. as far as I'm concerned LB were probably one of the most important and most original rock bands of the last 20 years. High praise indeed, but once you hear this stuff you'll be hard pressed to argue.
The Life & Times Of collects all three Laddio Bollocko releases, their devastating debut Strange Warmings Of and the two follow up eps, In Real Time and As If By Remote. Also included is a video playable on your computer (which, along with the nice digipak packaging, may even tempt those lucky enough to already have Laddio's hard to find releases).
Disc one is Strange Warmings Of, a pummelling and heavy drone rock masterpiece, in which an ex-Dazzling Killmen (Blake Fleming) takes his penchant for angular discordance a step further, forgoing the ferocious heaviosity of his former outfit, and instead, explores lengthy semi-improvisational psychedelic freakouts and repetetive hypno-krautrock instrumentals a la AQ faves Circle. Post rock jamscapes littered with shrieking and droning Albert Ayler-ish sax, jabs of no wave guitar, an overwhelming over-saturated super-distorted production and absolutely crushing drumming. Anyone into Circle or This Heat or Acid Mothers Temple or Faust or any or any of that, will be completely blown away.
Disc two containing the two later eps find Laddio Bolocko in a new space with a new sound. Showing an amazing amount of growth, LB have all but completely abandoned the bludgeoning, pounding shrieking bombast, and instead stretch out, and explore rhythms and textures, creating lengthy krautrock jams, and hypnotic drones. And their noisey, in your face, live recording has been replaced by what sounds like a serious exploration of the studio as instrument, with at least half the record full of innovative production and gorgeous textures. Also, the sax, which on Strange Warmings, was more textural and not immediately identifiable as a saxophone, is more of a presence here, giving it more of a sort-of-jazz feel on several tracks. This later, less ROOOOOOOAAAAARRRR sort of sound puts them even more comfortably in the sonic realm occupied by Faust, This Heat and Circle.
MPEG Stream: "Nurser"
MPEG Stream: "Karl"
MPEG Stream: "As If By Remote"
MPEG Stream: "A Passing State Of Well Being"

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE FABULOUS STAINS (Paramount / Rhino) dvd 16.98
Yes, you need this! One of the most awesome new wave girl band themed movies ever - Ladies And Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains! It's got it all: teenage angst, a foreshadowing of '90s grrrl power, media manipulation and music industry machinations, awesome punky make-up and fashion, and catchy songs to boot! It stars a very young Diane Lane, Laura Dern, The Tubes' Fee Waybill, and Ray Winstone as well as The Clash's Paul Simonon, and The Sex Pistols' Steve Jones and Paul Cook. Plus cameos by Black Randy, E.G. Daily, and Brent Spiner (aka Data of Star Trek The Next Generation). Yeah, they really packed 'em in there.
And while we're diggin' low budget '80s movies about awesome punk rawk girl groups, you just might also wanna check out another recently unearthed treat, My Degeneration. It's a considerably more bizarre film by Jon Moritsugu from 1989 which often gets mentioned in the same breath as this one by indie flick aficionados. It finally got released on dvd recently, and we've got it in stock now too!

LADIES AQUARIUS T SHIRT Ladies' fitted light green T shirt with dark green logo - Extra Large T shirt 13.98
Ladies' fitted light green T shirt with dark green logo.

LADIES AQUARIUS T SHIRT Ladies' fitted light green T shirt with dark green logo - Large T shirt 13.98
Ladies' fitted light green T shirt with dark green logo.

LADIES AQUARIUS T SHIRT Ladies' fitted light green T shirt with dark green logo - Medium T shirt 13.98
Ladies' fitted light green T shirt with dark green logo.

LADIES AQUARIUS T SHIRT Ladies' fitted light green T shirt with dark green logo - Small T shirt 13.98
Ladies' fitted light green T shirt with dark green logo.