NEW RELEASES / NEW RE-ISSUES
Animal Collective: Honeycomb / Gotham 7”
The Chi-Lites: Give it Away
Codeine: Frigid Stars
Codeine: White Birch
Domingo Cura: Tiempo de Percusion
Hollins & Starr: Sidewalks
Ilaiyaraaja: Fire Star
Nicolas Jaar: Don’t Break My Love 10”
Perry Leopold: Experiment in Metaphysics
Radioblue: Take Me Home 10”
The Sea and Cake: The Fawn (20th Anniversary Limited Edition)
Tex Soul and the Bayonets: Uto Nwa / Osi Na Ngada 7”
Moritz Von Oswald Trio: Fetch
Wheedle’s Groove: Kearney Barton

NEW ARRIVALS / RE-STOCKS
Air: Moon Safari
The Apostles: Onye Akpa / Oshi Onwu 7”
Bibio: Mind Bokeh
Bonnie “Prince” Billy: I See a Darkness
Casiokids: Topp Stemning Pa Lokal Bar
mewithoutYou: Ten Stories
Betty Davis: s/t
Betty Davis: They Say I’m Different
Do Make Say Think: Other Truths
Do Make Say Think: Winter Hymn Country Hymn Secret Hymn
Do Make Say Think: & Yet & Yet
Do Make Say Think: Goodbye Enemy Airship the Landlord is Dead
Futurisk: Player Piano
Ghostface Killah: Supreme Clientele
Julia Holter: Ekstasis
Loose Fur: s/t
Jim O’Rourke: Insignificance
Bernard Purdie: Lialeh (OST)
Reichmann: Wunderbar
Silver Mt. Zion: Horses in the Sky
Smog: Knock Knock
Stoneface and Life Everlasting: Love is Free/Agawalam Mba 7”
Tortoise: Standards
Various Artists: Eccentric Soul: An RBG Production

FEATURED VINTAGE ARRIVALS
The Band: The Last Waltz (3 LPs)
The Byrds: Preflyte
Country Joe and the Fish: CJ Fish
The Cramps: Songs The Lord Taught Us (Original CA)
The Doors: Morrison Hotel
Brian Eno: Discreet Music
Charles Lloyd: Geeta
Kraftwerk: The Man Machine
Lindisfarne: Nicely Out of Tune
Mandrill: s/t
Paul Simon: s/t
Pere Ubu: Dub Housing (Limited Red Vinyl Re-issue)
Alexander “Skip” Spence: Oar
Small Faces: First Step
Toe Fat: s/t (CA Original)
The Who: The Who Sell Out (CA Stereo Original)
*Plus many more…

COMING SOON… (RE-STOCKS AND RELEASES)
Baths: Cerulean
Coke: s/t
Alice Coltrane: Eternity
California Funk: Funk 45s from the Golden State
Serge Chaloff: Blue Serge
Tino Contreras: El Jazz Mexicano De Tino Contreras
Spencer Davis Group: Their First LP (Import LP w/ Bonus tracks)
Spencer Davis Group: The 2nd Album (Import LP w/ Bonus tracks)
Dirty Projectors: Swing Lo Magellan
Eric Dolphy: Out to Lunch
Donnie and Joe Emerson: Dreamin’ Wild
Feelies: Crazy Rhythms
Funkees: Dancing Time
Guided by Voices: Class Clown Spots a UFO
Headhunters: Survival of the Fittest
Eddie Kendricks: People…Hold On
Kraftwerk: Autobahn
Mercury Rev: Boces
Minutemen: Project Mersh
Mr. Oizo: Stade 3
The Roots: Rising Down
Jim O’Rourke: Bad Timing
The Sea and Cake: Nassau (20th Anniversary Limited Edition)
Secret Circuit: Jungle Dogs, Jungle Bones (12”)
Wayne Shorter: Speak No Evil
Nina Simone: Little Girl Blue
Martial Solal: Breathless (Original soundtrack)
Wicked Lady: The Axeman Cometh

STAFF PICKS OF THE WEEK: NEW ARRIVALS



Ian’s pick of the week:

Ilaiyaraaja: Fire Star - Synth-Pop And Electro-Funk From Tamil Films
(Bombay Connection - Netherlands) 2LP
This is a super fun compilation of Indian film music. Fans of 80’s new wave inspired electronic synth-pop built from foundations of funk and dance grooves should consider this double LP.  Most of the allure does come from the campy-cheesy component of this anthology, coupled with the inadvertent appeal of musical choices that are now more in-vogue due to retrospection.  So if you don’t have a sense of humor avoid this record.

Godspeed and good hunting,
Ian

Dennis’ Pick of the Week:

Tortoise: Standards (Thrill Jockey - USA)
Ian got all High Fidelity on me and accused me of picking something as ubiquitous as Beethoven’s 9th, but I couldn’t resist talking about how great Standards is. For the first time in years, Thrill Jockey is re-issuing Tortoise’s 2001 album Standards, a free-flowing whirlwind of post-rock madness. Based in Chicago, Tortoise is a six piece band of musicians rooted in jazz, alt-rock, electronic and the avant-garde. Arguably Tortoise’s greatest musical attribute, however, is their two-drummer arsenal that is showcased heavily on this release. This, combined with their knack for beautifully treated synths and guitars, gives Standards both a bombastic and sonically exploratory quality. Great on headphones and on a stereo, Standards is perhaps the apex of Tortoise’s catalogue as well as the late 90’s and early 2000’s post-rock sound.

Dig it,
Dennis

FEATURED NEW ARRIVALS / RE-STOCKS
Domingo Cura: Tiempo De Percusion: An Anthology, 1971-77 (Em Records)
Despite tremendous political upheaval, Argentina in the 1960s and 1970s witnessed a remarkable musical flowering in which traditional “folklore” styles were embraced and updated by a new generation of musicians who fused traditional Argentinian rhythms and musical forms with elements of rock, soul, funk and jazz. Percussionist Domingo Cura was at the center of these exciting musical developments. Born in 1947 in Santiago del Estero province in northern Argentina, he moved to Buenos Aires at the age of 18, where he joined the band of harmonicist Victor Hugo Diaz. In the 1960s, Cura became the rhythmic heart of much Argentinian music, playing with Ariel Ramirez, Mercedes Sosa, Astor Piazolla and Gato Barbieri. Cura also worked closely with Eduardo Lagos, playing on every track of Lagos’s 1969 debut album Asi Nos Gusta, a landmark of the modern Argentinian folklore sound. This release is a compilation of the finest moments from Domingo Cura’s four solo albums released during the period 1971 to 1977, featuring Cura’s propulsive mastery of the traditional bombo drum as well as other percussion instruments. The music ranges from DJ-friendly percussion workouts to piano-dappled rhythmic fantasias, Afro-Latin sax grooves to pieces with a more typically “South American” feel, featuring guitars and flutes. But it all coheres, driven along by Cura’s percussive vision, magnificently displayed on the opening track “Percusion,” a groundbreaking multi-track groove monster. For all percussion lovers and fans of world music. Featuring a lovely collage cover by Finnish musician and artist Kuupuu.

Perry Leopold: Experiment in Metaphysics (Guersson Records)
First-ever official vinyl reissue. The absolute cornerstone of acid folk and psychedelic folk, 1970’s Perry Leopold masterpiece still remains today as THE ONE to compare with when new psych-folk vintage records are discovered. Still no one beats him, and they probably never will. Pressed on 180 gram vinyl with newly-remastered sound. Includes a repro of a 1973 promotional flyer and an insert with liner notes by Patrick Lundborg.

Reichmann: Wunderbar (Bureau B)
Bureau B reissues Wolfgang Riechmann’s Wunderbar, originally released in 1978 by Sky Records and an absolute gem of German electronic music. This album, however, is beautiful and tragic in equal measure, as Riechmann became the random victim of a knife attack just three weeks before the LP went on sale. Wolfgang Riechmann’s career as a musician went all the way back to 1969, which was roughly when he met Michael Rother (Neu!, Harmonia) and Wolfgang Flühr (Kraftwerk), who would be his colleagues in the Spirits Of Sound Group. Later on (1973 to 1976) he played with Phönix, before going on to record two albums with Streetmark, who enjoyed great popularity at the time. From November 1977 onwards, he devoted his full attention to the Wunderbar LP. On his first and, regrettably, last recording as a solo artist, Riechmann went eclectic. Distant echoes of the so-called Berlin School (Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, and the like) can be detected on Wunderbar, as well as the clear influence of the so-called Düsseldorf School (Neu!, Kraftwerk, La Düsseldorf) — not that Riechmann was attempting to copy their styles in any way. While contemporary influences need not be denied,Wunderbar hints at the direction he would take in terms of sound and composition, reflecting a powerful, independent musician’s personality, one which would have caused quite a stir, had it been given the chance to unfold. This optimistic music is characterized by simple sequencers and drum patterns, with Riechmann adding his own individual layers of harmony. And then there are the melodies: simple, sometimes to the point of being simplistic, but never naive. Wunderbar is modern, electronic pop, perfectly and permanently frozen in time. Printed inner sleeve featuring rare photographs and liner notes by Asmus Tietchens, one of the original pioneers of electronic music.

Smog: Knock Knock (Drag City)
The only thing familiar about Knock Knock is the now familiar Smog sensation of being somehow completely unfamiliar! At this point in his illustrious career, there certain styles he feels comfortable with. But who’d’ve guessed that super-sexy space cowboy would be one of them? Several ballads on Knock Knock are of the spirit of Bill Callahan…a record with a divide of hard and soft ones, a record with a torn curtain inviting you to look inside. It is a real-life opera, a story told in song — the story of a kid named Smog. A real tour de force.

Moritz Von Oswald Trio: Fetch (Honest Jon’s Records)
After two previous studio albums and one live album through Honest Jon’s, the Moritz Von Oswald Trio — Moritz Von Oswald, Max Loderbauer (NSI/Sun Electric) and Sasu Ripatti(Vladislav Delay/Luomo) — returns with Fetch, their most fully-realized voyage yet. The Trio operates at the bleeding edges where musical lineages collide. Feeling for the shared heartbeat that pulses through dub, techno and jazz, it seeks out points of contact before exploding them outward into hypnotic explorations of rhythm, texture and tone. Fetch further cements the Moritz Von Oswald Trio’s status as a unique voice in modern electronic music — as supple, intuitive and alive as the most exploratory of jazz. Recorded in August 2011, Fetch finds Von Oswald, Loderbauer and Ripatti in a darker and more driving mood than on previous albums. Joined by ECM’s Marc Muellbauer on bass (from second album Horizontal Structures) and Tobias Freund (for the first time since debut Vertical Ascent), to add live effects in real time, they laid down the foundations swiftly, with the entire recording completed in around four hours. Later, instrumental overdubs were added by Jonas Schoen (flute, bass clarinet, saxophone) and trumpeter Sebastian Studnitzky. As with their previous recordings, at the roots of the Trio’s third studio album lie the same concerns which informed Von Oswald’s pioneering work with Mark Ernestus as Basic Channel, Maurizio and Rhythm & Sound. At once umbilically connected to and completely distinct from all the musics that they draw from, the Trio’s subliminal musings on the connections between musical forms are expressed by Fetch as a series of beguiling contradictions. Rigid vs. fluid; playful vs. deadly serious; machine vs. human; sensual vs. austere: all of these seemingly opposing forces are allowed to intermingle across four longform tracks. This is crackling, charged music — electronica performed live, the players’ neural impulses flowing into their instruments. Play loud through large speakers, and allow it room to breathe: these are sonic worlds that reach out and swallow the listener whole.

Wheedle’s Groove: Kearney Barton (Light in the Attic)
Magic that could only have been seen on a small stage, in a packed theatre, in August of 2004. That was when Light In The Attic released a landmark compilation called Wheedle’s Groove: Seattle’s Finest In Funk & Soul 1965-75, and to celebrate brought together many of those original Seattle funk and soul artists for a one-night-only reunion concert, led by young blood music director and KEXP DJ Johnny Horn, and featuring Robbie Hill, Overton Berry, Patrinell Staten, Ron Buford, and KYAC’s very own #1 boss-jock Robert Nesbitt. The following day, still on a high from the show, LITA, Horn, DJ Mr. Supreme, and lead-producer Dynomite D (Beastie Boys) birthed the idea of cutting a new album covers and originals - with some of these local music legends. So the choice was made to record all analog at the very studio where it all began — Audio Recording — with the man who not only fostered an original Northwest sound but engineered a handful of the original Wheedle’s Groove tracks — studio wiz Kearney Barton (The Sonics, The Wailers, Black On White Affair). And now, 5 years later, Light In The Attic is happy to put forth Wheedle’s Groove — Kearney Barton, an album of 9 new earth shaking, head nodding grooves, including Patrinell (Pastor Pat Wright) Staten and the Total Experience Gospel Choir’s interpretation of Soundgarden’s ‘Jesus Christ Pose,’ Overton Berry’s keyboard led ‘Humpty Dumpty’ (originally recorded by Placebo/Marc Moulin), and the long overdue reunion of Ron Buford with Ural Thomas — the talented pair behind the 1965 local smash ‘Deep Soul.’ Far from retro cash grab rehash, this is a serious funk throw down and original work of art, shaming musicians half their ages in the process. Super sonic Seattle funk and soul, it’s time to let the world know the score!

*write-ups from June staff and various web sources.