STAFF PICKS

kimber – nels cline
lindsay – the frightnrs
dario – patrick watson
jeff – angel olsen, goblin cock

THIS WEEK’S NEW RELEASES
BIBIO – Serious EP (Warp)
Bibio is the folk-meets-electronica project of self-taught producer/multi-instrumentalist Stephen Wilkinson, from England’s Black Country (aka the West Midlands). As a student of sonic arts at London’s Middlesex University, Wilkinson was first inspired by ’90s electronic acts such as Aphex Twin, Autechre, and especially Boards of Canada, but became equally intrigued by mid-20th century British folk. He combined these sounds in his own music, along with found sounds and field recordings, for a unique mix of organic and synthetic atmospheres. Boards of Canada’s Marcus Eoin handed Wilkinson’s demos to Mush Records, which released Bibio’s debut album, Fi, in 2004, and its more song-based follow-up, Hand Cranked, two years later. Wilkinson also released the limited-edition Sheila Sets Sail/Tribio on the Artist’s Valley imprint, part of a collective Wilkinson has with producers Andy Harber and Richard Roberts. The Ovals and Emeralds EP, which featured organ instead of Bibio’s usual acoustic guitars, arrived in 2008; Vignetting the Compost followed in 2009. That summer, Bibio moved to Warp for the eclectic Ambivalence Avenue, followed several months later by the release of a remix-heavy album, The Apple and the Tooth. For 2011’s Mind Bokeh — named after the term for the blurry area in a photograph — Wilkinson moved further away from folktronica and deeper into the meticulously sampled electro/hip-hop direction he began on Ambivalence Avenue. For Bibio’s sixth album, 2013’s Silver Wilkinson, he balanced the pastoral leanings of his earlier work with a more experimental electronic bent. The Green EP, which featured Silver Wilkinson’s “Dye the Water Green” along with several older, previously unreleased tracks, arrived in early 2014. That year, Bibio’s original score for the Jason Reitman film Men, Women & Children was also released. On 2016’s Mineral Love, Wilkinson dug deeper into his flair for nostalgia, taking inspiration from sources as diverse as TV show themes from the ’70s and ’80s and ’90s dance music. Though the album’s sounds seemed sampled, Mineral Love consisted of entirely new recordings by Wilkinson and collaborators including Gotye and Wax Stag. ~ Heather Phares

 

TIM BURGESS + PETER GORDON – Same Language CD/LP (O Genesis)
The Charlatans frontman originally met New Yorker Peter Gordon in 2012 and they decided then on a music collaboration. Burgess had been a long time fan of Gordon’s work with Arthur Russell and The Love Of Life Orchestra. The album was produced by Gordon in New York and features many of his and Tim’s previous collaborators: Ernie Brooks who played with Arthur Russell on the first Modern Lovers album, trombone player Peter Zummo, conga player Mustafa Ahmed and Nik Void from Factory Floor. “What I love about working with Peter is that in the late 70s with Peter Zummo and Arthur Russell and all the New York cats at The Kitchen, they were all making futuristic records,” Burgess enthuses. “Now Peter in his mid-60s is still looking to do that. It’s the world that I want to be in.”

 

STEVE BUSCEMI + ELLIOTT SHARP – Rub Out The World CD (Infrequent Seams)
Two significant figures in the formation of New York s so-called Downtown scene, multiinstrumentalist/ composer Elliott Sharp and actor/director Steve Buscemi have teamed up intermittently throughout the years to perform together. On April 21, 2014, the pair met up at Issue Project Room to kick off the final week of WSB100, New York s month-long celebration for the 100th anniversary of the birth of iconoclastic American writer William S. Burroughs. Taken from the recordings of that performance, this CD features a series of collaged sounds and spoken texts from throughout William Burroughs s written output.

 

MIKE + RICH Expert Knob Twiddlers CD/LP (Rephlex)
Expert Knob Twiddlers is a 1996 studio album by Mike Paradinas and Richard D. James. It was released in 1996 on Rephlex Records.

 

ONRY OZZBORN – Duo LP (Fake Four Inc)
For over a decade, Seattle based emcee Michael S. Martinez aka Onry Ozzborn of the group Grayskul (Rhymesayers Ent) has been known for a brooding style of hip-hop. Today, Onry preps his fifth–and boldest–album to date, called DUO on Fake Four Inc. With a guest on each track, Onry’s features range from Homeboy Sandman and Aesop Rock to the indie musician Nathan Quiroga (of Iska Dhaaf).

 

NATHAN BOWLES – Whole & Cloven CD/LP (Paradise Of Bachelors)
Nathan Bowles may be best known as a banjo player, but he’s not just a banjo player. Aside from playing drums, piano, and organ in Steve Gunn’s touring band as well as supporting roles in Pelt and Black Twig Pickers, Bowles’ solo albums cover a wide terrain. On 2014’s Nansemond, guitarist Tom Carter nearly stole the show. His solos helped bring Bowles’ compositions—which recall both early American folk and more contemporary revivalists like Jack Rose—to thornier and heavier places. Nansemond positioned Bowles as a crucial force in folk music, showcasing his ability to interweave the genre’s communal spirit with chilling moments of ambient introspection.” – Pitchfork

 

GOBLIN COCK – Necronomidonkeykongimicon CD/LP (Joyful Noise)
The band’s upcoming release invokes the spirit of Pure Fun while appeasing their love of Doomed Art. Necronomidonkeykongimicon is an auditory tome of such importance that it needs to be experienced before the Secret Bastards find a way to marginalize it out of existence forever. Goblin Cock is a band from beyond time, beyond space, beyond your naive concept of dimension in METAL. Since before your pathetic “god” had supposedly “created” you and your kind, Lord Phallus was hunkered in a cybertimeship/fun-dungeon skating the layers of what was considered “true metal” in all societies and in all generations. Eventually His Majesty realized that he really didn’t care and launched a full-scale war against bland metal with an emphasis on ACTUALLY HAVING A GOOD TIME!

 

CHILLS – Kaleidoscope World LP (Creation / Flying Nun)
Kaleidoscope World is an compilation by New Zealand group, The Chills released in 1986 on Flying Nun Records[3] in New Zealand and on Creation Records in UK.[4] The album was a compilation of early singles, plus all the Chills’ tracks which featured on the Dunedin Double EP and The Lost EP. It was reissued in 1987 by Flying Nun with a bonus 7-inch single, “I’ll Only See You Alone Again”/”Green Eyed Owl.”

 

ANGEL OLSENMy Woman CD/LP/CASS (Jagjaguwar)
Anyone reckless enough to have typecast Angel Olsen according to 2013’s ‘Burn Your Fire For No Witness’ is in for a sizable surprise with her third album, ‘MY WOMAN’. The crunchier, blown-out production of the former is gone, but that fire is now burning wilder. Her disarming, timeless voice is even more front-and-centre than before, and the overall production is lighter. Yet the strange, raw power and slowly unspooling incantations of her previous efforts remain, so anyone who might attempt to pigeonhole Olsen as either an elliptical outsider or a pop personality is going to be wrong whichever way they choose – Olsen continues to reign over the land between the two with a haunting obliqueness and sophisticated grace.

 

ELUVIUMFalse Readings On CD/LP (Temporary Residence)
False Readings On is the new album from renowned experimental composer, Eluvium. Its creation was originally inspired by themes of cognitive dissonance in modern society. By its conclusion it had become a mirror rather than a magnifying glass, evolving into an hour-long meditation on self-doubt, anxiety, and separation from one’s self. There is an emotional lucidity and melodic ingenuity to Eluvium‘s music that has made him increasingly stand out from the sea of ambient artists that his earlier albums no doubt helped inspire. Sounding like an orchestra ceaselessly performing even as it sinks beneath an ocean of distortions and tape noise – with the occasional operatic voice piercing the surface – False Readings On is assuredly the most daring, dynamic, and distinct album of his luminous career.

 

JAMES VINCENT MCMORROWWe Move CD/LP (Caroline)
Written in constant transition – and recorded between Toronto, Dublin and London – ‘We Move’ is James Vincent McMorrow’s most expansive, generous and ambitious record to date. There is, on the other hand, something more stripped-back – vulnerable, even – surfacing for the first time: far from the dense, protective imagery at the heart of ‘Post Tropical’, ‘We Move’ is ultimately a record open in its portrait of anxiety and social unease. For McMorrow, it’s about celebrating mental fragility – and how we move forward in life – rather than “people listening to my songs and believing that I’m out in the forest all day long, thinking about trees. Because I’m actually at home, trying to convince myself to go out and get milk.”

 

PATRICK WATSON9th Life Of Louis Drax Soundtrack CD (Varese Sarabande)
2007 Polaris Prize winner Patrick Watson has carved a career out of creating celebrated, ambitious indie-rock albums, including “Close To Paradise,” Adventures In Your Own Backyard,” and “Love Songs For Robots.” Now the artist is expanding upon his film-score work, tuning up Alexandre Aja‘s “The 9th Life Of Louis Drax.” Starring Jamie Dornan, Aaron Paul, Sarah Gadon, and Aiden Longworth, the film follows Louis Drax (Longworth), who plunges off a steep cliff on his ninth birthday, following eight previous near-death accidents. While police investigate the cause of Louis’ near-fatal fall and the whereabouts of his violent father Peter (Paul), acclaimed neurologist Dr. Allan Pascal (Dornan) uses unorthodox techniques to try to tap into the boy’s unconscious mind and reveal the truth about the events that led to his condition. But as he’s drawn deeper and deeper into the mystery of Louis’ seeming ability to cheat death, the doctor finds himself falling for Louis’ mother, Natalie (Gadon). As new clues emerge in the case, a shocking revelation changes the fates of Louis Drax and everyone around him.

 

SLIM CESSNA’S AUTO CLUBCommandments According To SCAC CD/LP (Glitterhouse)
Engaging, riveting, sad and humorous; demanding the audience to participate both live and while listening to their albums; Slim Cessna’s Auto Club has been branded with every musical description possible. This seems fitting, as SCAC describes their music as American (Is that not what America is and has been, a mixture of every one and thing resulting in something new?); and after two decades of working and living as SCAC, they have created their own genre.

 

MOZES + FIRSTBORN – Great Pile Of Nothing CD/LP (Burger)
Mozes and the Firstborn are to release their second record on September 2nd 2016 via Burger Records. The Dutch four-piece came out with their debut album on Burger Records two years ago. After that they toured extensively through Europe and the United States. Since its foundation in 2010 Mozes and the Firstborn has played almost 500 shows. The past two years the band have been busy crafting new songs. A fresh musical direction was initiated earlier this year with the ‘Power Ranger EP’ and a European tour alongside long-time Burger buddies together PANGEA. The new material is less garage rock oriented and has a more 90’s alternative high school rock vibe to it. The band recorded the album over a three-month period in the winter of 2015/2016 with drummer Raven Aartsen as producer. “It’s a pretty contemplative album”, says singer Melle Dielesen.

 

SOUNDWALK COLLECTIVE (PATTI SMITH) Killer Road CD/LP (Sacred Bones)
Killer Road is a sound exploration of the tragic death of Nico, Velvet Underground vocalist and 60s icon, while riding her bike on the island of Ibiza in the summer of 1988. A hypnotic meditation on the idea of perpetual motion and the cycle of life and death, the composition features Patti Smith lending her unique voice to the last poems written by the artist. Soundwalk Collective uses a travel log of field recordings and samples of Nico’s signature instrument, the harmonium, to create a magnetic soundscape.

 

ZOMBYUltra CD/LP (Hyperdub)
Zomby marks his first new gear on Hyperdub in eight years with the elusive club constructions of Ultra. Fourteen tracks that sculpt a neon-lit blend of eski grime, hardcore junglist futurism and cyberpunk UKG blues.

 

THE FRIGHTNRSNothing More To Say CD/LP (Daptone)
The Frightnrs escort Daptone Records into the world of long-playing reggae with both the sweetest and the roughest record of the decade.
Crafted under the meticulous eye of black-belt reggae mastermind/producer Victor Axelrod (AKA Ticklah), Nothing More to Say is a rocksteady masterpiece the likes of which has not reared it’s head since the golden era of Studio One. However, you’ll find no imitation here – none of the faux-jamaican cliches of lesser reggae bands. Like all things Daptone, this record is above all soulful and honest. With the exception of two soul covers (both from the Daptone catalog: Bob & Gene’s “Gotta Find a Way” and Saun and Starr’s “Gonna Make Time”,) the record is populated by original compositions of the highest order. They are simply great songs, and though their treatment here is masterful, each one of them has the melodic and lyrical substance to hold it’s own in any genre. “Till Then” invokes the coquettish hyper-rhymes of top-form Smokey Robinson, while “Hey Brother” sounds like it fell off the desk of Gamble and Huff, and “Purple” defies any comparison at all. From the first cracking snares of “All My Tears” through the final pulsing echoes of “Dispute,” the murderous rhythms of Rich Terrana (drums,) and brothers Preet and Chuck Patel (bass and piano, respectively) can be heard chunking mercilessly towards oblivion as Dan Klein pours his endearing poetry over over the top like some other-worldy falsetto potion. The combination is a sound birthday-suit raw, mesmerizing, infectious, and above all, lovely. This record will long be treasured by lovers of reggae, lovers of soul and lovers of love.

 

CHATHAM COUNTY LINEAutumn CD/LP (Yep Roc)
Hailed by All Music as ”one of America’s best acoustic groups,” Chatham County Line will release their seventh studio album, Autumn, on September 2, 2016. Drawing upon a broad array of American roots influence, “Chatham County Line is much more than your average banjo-playing, fiddle-fueled combo” (Blurt). With poignant songwriting and inventive acoustic arrangements, highlighted by trademark three-and four-part harmonies, the veteran ensemble is “well-deserving of inclusion on a list of America’s best modern string bands” (The Bluegrass Situation).

 

WARLOCKSSongs From The Pale Eclipse CD/LP (Cleopatra)
To date, Californian psychedelic rockers The Warlocks have released six full studio albums as well as a number of EPs, the first album proper being 2001’s Rise And Fall. As to be expected with any musical genius, founder and frontman Bobby Hecksher amassed a plethora of tracks written in bouts of prolificacy that remained on demo tapes that for whatever reason never quite took hold enough for a full release. Enter album seven, Songs From The Pale Eclipse, where Hecksher has trawled through these old tapes to resurrect some of his better ideas from the past and given them the full band treatment as a unique one-off release where, in his own words, “not everything fits like it’s one cohesive album”.

 

HELMS ALEEStillicide CD/LP (Sargent House)
Helms Alee’s latest is also overflowing with riffs, though it’s significantly harder to categorize. The Seattle based trio seem to revel in this, and have somehow managed to carve out a very distinctive sound for themselves without ever confining themselves to any particular style. They’re often compared to the Melvins, despite not really sounding anything like the Melvins – presumably it’s because both bands love big, sludgy riffs but refuse to be defined by them, anchoring their madcap antics with an encyclopaedic knowledge of classic rock and punk and an inherent knack for song writing (of course it could just be because every slightly off-the-wall guitar band that’s formed in the last two decades is invariably compared to the Melvins, but hey, just go with us on this one, OK?).” – The Quietus

 

PEARL JAMNo Code LP (Epic)
Reissue of the fourth studio album by the American rock band Pearl Jam, released on August 27, 1996 through Epic Records.
PEARL JAMYield LP (Epic)
Reissue of the fifth studio album by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam, released on February 3, 1998.

 

SOCIAL DISTORTIONWhite Light White Heat LP (Epic)
Reissue of the fifth album by American punk rock band, Social Distortion, released on September 17, 1996, by Epic Records.

 

NELS CLINELovers LP (Blue Note)
“I have been dreaming about, planning, and re-working my rather obsessive idea of this record for well over twenty-five years, and it was always going to be called Lovers. It is meant to be as personal in its sound and in its song selection as it is universal in its endeavor to assay or map the parameters of “mood” as it once pertained, and currently pertains, to the peculiar and powerful connection between sound/song and intimacy/romance. In this, I hope Lovers offers something of an update of the “mood music” idea and ideal, while celebrating and challenging our iconic notion of romance.” – Nels Cline

 

NEXT WEEK’S NEW RELEASES
TEENAGE FANCLUB – Here CD/LP
TITUS ANDRONICUS – S+@dium Rock LP
WILL BUTLER – Friday Night LP
SNEAKS – Gymnastics CD/LP
THE CURE – Faith LP
THE CURE – Pornography LP

THE CURE – Seventeen Seconds LP
THE CURE – The Head On The Door LP
THE CURE – The Top LP
THE CURE – Three Imaginary Boys LP
WILCO – Schmilco CD/LP
THIS WILD LIFE – Low Tides CD/LP
FUDGE – Lady Parts CD/LP
GUIDED BY VOICES – Under The Bushes Under The Stars 2xLP
ANTHONY GREEN – Pixie Queen CD/LP
DANIEL LANOIS – Goodbye To Language CD/LP
A-TRAK – Parallel Lines 7″
RAY SPEX – Germfreee Adolescents LP
GODFLESH – Selfless CD/LP
JARVIS COCKER – Likely Stories 7″
AARON DESSNER & BRYCE DESSNER – Transpecos OST CD
PSYCHIC TWIN – Strange Diary CD/LP
LUCY DACUS – No Burden CD/LP
GROUPLOVE – Big Mess CD/LP
JOSHUA REDMAN + BRAD MERLIN – Nearness CD/LP
THE HEAD & THE HEART – Signs Of Light CD/LP
FAITH NO MORE – Album Of The Year LP
FAITH NO MORE – King For A Day…Fool For A Lifetime LP
NEW ORDER – Singles LP