LOWER DENS - 'TWIN-HAND MOVEMENT'

Formats

• GONG17 - LP

  655035051710

• GONG17CD - CD

  655035051727

Details

Swarming guitar fuzz, bass waves, insistent drum throbs and Jana Hunter's redolent, charred voice are the core components of Baltimore's Lower Dens. Hunter, sometimes known for intimate, ghostheavy weird-fi, now writes and plays with a group that might get filed under new wave, or drone pop, or post-punk. With due deference to her solo work, we're very glad. The band's debut full-length record, Twin-Hand Movement, is eleven perfect songs long. From opener "Blue & Silver" (anxiety mounts at a quick clip until the final climactic release) to "Plastic & Powder" (a churning, narcotic slow-burner) to "Hospice Gates" (penultimate album cut, proud weirdo anthem, possible creative zenith), not one is a space-waster. They're rife with the survivalist paranoia one expects from residents of a post-urban port hole (and this particular songwriter), crafted methodically and beautifully, and carry the listener enthusiastically out into the rolling breaks of industrial filth-water. Lower Dens formed in early 2009, when Hunter set about finding a full-time band. They spent the rest of the year sweating in attics and basements, and only stepped out of the shadows to do a quick tour and record. Twin-Hand Movement was recorded by Chris Freeland (ex-Oxes drummer; proprietor of Beat Babies, Baltimore), mixed by Chris Coady (at his DNA, NYC), and mastered by Sarah Register (of the Lodge, NYC and the band Talk Normal.) Debut album from Jana Hunter's new band Eleven tracks of post-punk drone pop. Vinyl includes digital download coupon

Tracks

1. Blue & Silver
2. Tea Lights
3. A Dog?s Dick
4. Holy Water
5. I Get Nervous
6. Completely Golden
7. Plastic & Powder
8. Rosie
9. Truss Me
10. Hospice Gates
11. Two Cocks

Press

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RICHARD YOUNGS / SIMON WICKHAM-SMITH - '20 YEARS'

Formats

• VHF109 - LP & 3XCD

  783881010916

Details

20 Years celebrates two decades of music from Richard Youngs and Simon Wickham-Smith, featuring four previously unreleased albums. The set includes the first new vinyl from the pair in almost 15 years, plus three other projects (presented here on CD) that were all completed and intended for release by the duo in the '90s, but fell by the wayside for various reasons. 20 Years, the newly recorded LP, is one of the heaviest, most uncompromising records of the duo's long career. It consists of eight electro-acoustic reworkings of their first (unreleased) recording from 1987, and is a blistering set of tracks as wild and weird as anything they've ever done. The SMIRR CD features four epic instrumentals in the vein of classics such as LAKE and Asthma and Diabetes, flowing with extended grandeur, mixing drone and eccentric instrumentation in the duo's immediately identifiable style. Songphase's ten simple, lovely tunes are a reminder of their considerable "trad" songwriting and performing prowess. While Youngs has worked in this style on his solo efforts, hearing Wickham-Smith match him track for track is a revelation. "Dream Song" is among the former's most moving pieces. Finally, LIVE!!! is a head-scratcher of an album, recorded live in-studio in fullon Dadaist style-extended clavinet mania, Casio jams and plenty of outr? expression. This set is packaged in a gatefold jacket with essays by David Keenan, Neil Campbell, Marc Masters and Jon Dale and an extended interview with Youngs and Wickham-Smith. The CDs are housed in a custom-binded insert in the pocket opposite the LP, with each disc held snug in its own die-cut pocket, and the audiophile-quality LP was cut by John Golden. "Magnificent and ridiculous." -Neil Campbell "In its own way, 20 Years is a testament to another form of resistance, one that is polite, well-behaved, English-eccentric but still as bloody-minded, anti-corporate and determinedly individual as the most radical punk rock." -David Keenan "Call 20 Years a film shot on wax, a book printed on plastic, an uncontainable career folded inside a hairless gate. I think you better turn off your cellphone- addled brain and clamp your fists to your chair for this one." -Marc Masters: Massive four-disc release features the pair's first new vinyl in almost 15 years, plus three unreleased works recorded in the '90s

Tracks

1. Violin
2. Rhythm
3. Silence
4. Coffee
5. Book
6. Typing
7. Sing
8. Ektara
SMIRR CD:
1. Sark
2. Fast Rise After Low
3. Sandeti
4. Fischer Mix
Songphase CD:
1. Everydayness
2. Trudy Po
3. West of the City
4. Lament for North Weald and Organ
5. Talking About Death at the Leisure Centre
6. As If
7. Emergency Exit
8. Quiddity
9. Things Like Abandonment
10. Dream Song
LIVE!!! CD:
1. IIIIIIIV
2. Autumn Leaves
3. Medtner Grooves on Etna
4. Tame Take One
5. Tame Take Two

Press

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Audio & Video

VARIOUS - 'WELCOME HOME / DIGGIN' THE UNIVERSE'

Formats

• WOODSIST043 - LP

  N/A

Details

A scene (of sorts) defining compilation of major proportions, Woodsist has consistently released great record after great record, 2010 in particular has vintage stamped all over it because of the new Woods album, the Moon Duo album, and now this comp snapshots a label in its ascendancy: exclusive tracks from Fresh And Onlys, Woods, Run DMT, Moon Duo, Skygreen Leopards, Nodzzz, Ducktails, Art Museums, City Center, The Mantles, Alex Bleeker, and Cause Co-Motion. "It's true-the sons and daughters of Homestead, Xpressway and first-wave Drag City (et al.) are now making good music. The '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s and '00s are all there, bound together by shitty tape machines, reverb and easy chord changes, but melody is back and so is the joy of jamming a perfectly mangled pop song. Welcome Home might hit some new kids the way Human Music or Nuggets did back in their day. In any case, it's one of those rare compilations you can play straight through and over again." -Glenn Donaldson

Tracks

1. Woods ? I?m Not Gone
2. Run DMT ? Richard
3. White Fence ? The Love Between
4. The Fresh & Onlys ? Heel.Toe.
5. The Mantles ? Bad Movies
6. Skygreen Leopards ? Catch
7. Alex Bleeker ? Gettin? By
8. Moon Duo ? A Little Way Different
9. City Center ? Box of Rain
10. Cause Co-Motion ? Over You
11. Art Museums ? Darling Are You Out of
Your League Again
12. Nodzzz ? Old Clothes
13. Ducktails ? Sun Out My Window

Press

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Audio & Video

FABULOUS DIAMONDS - 'FABULOUS DIAMONDS II'

Formats

• SB135 - LP

  655030113512

Details

The second full-length outing from Fabulous Diamonds is a continuation of the lush and mesmerizing electro / percussive landscapes explored on their self-titled debut LP (released on Siltbreeze in 2008). Jarrod Zlatic and Nisa Venerosa spark lots of musical embers along the way: dub, trance, house, ambient, minimalist, hints of Suicide and Terry Riley-basically everything from Silver Apples to Silver Apples of the Moon. Fabulous Diamonds are equally at home in indie gulags, art galleries or disco gullies. Fans of the more esoteric side of Siltbreeze-Blues Control and US Girls, especially- should be mightily chuffed by the beauteous hypnotic (hypnagogic?) pop Fab Ds are laying down here. Look for the band to tour Europe in mid/late 2010. "Part minimalist drone, part dub, and part pagan sleepover incantation, Melbourne, Australia's Fabulous Diamonds specialize not so much in songs but in pools of unease.... They embrace bass frequencies instead of treble, easy tempos instead of manic energy, and a full-bore penchant for the macabre. But where similarly minded Southern Hemisphere contemporaries like Naked on the Vague brandish sharp edges and jagged textures, Fabulous Diamonds songs are smooth enough to run your fingers over." -Pitchfork Sophomore album from Australian duo Touring Europe later this year Vinyl includes free digital download coupon

Tracks

1. Track One
2. Track Two
3. Track Three
4. Track Four
5. Track Five

Press

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