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

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!

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.”

“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