SCIENTISTS, THE - 'FRANTIC ROMANTIC / SHAKE (TOGETHER TONIGHT)'

Formats

• IMSO005 - 7"

  N/A

Details

A repress, repro, if you want, of one of the greatest 45rpm 7" records of all time: the debut Scientists single..."Frantic Romantic/Shake (Together Tonight). 32 years after it first came out on the DNA label from Perth/Australia, this feral stab at Punk / Power Pop still cuts deep. So, with the blessings of Kim Salmon and James Baker, Agitated is very pleased to announce this pressing: One of our all time top singles, a holy grail of 7" vinyl, the opening bars of Frantic Romantic still get the pulse racing, a proper love song, a proper snarling pop song. And the New York Dolls styled "Shake (Together Tonight)" is truly a wild rock and roll beast.... The Scientists went on to become one of most important bands of their land, inspiring many many bands. 500 clear for RSD jamboree sold out, heres that 500 on black vinyl.

Tracks

N/A

Press

its a repress of "Frantic Romantic"...YEAH!!!!! who cares about the press....

Audio & Video

WOODS - 'SUN & SHADE'

Formats

• WOODSIST053 - LP

  655035015316

• WOODSIST053CD - CD

  655035015323

Details

"Woods is a two-headed dog asleep on the porch and a butterfly on the windowsill... a Janus, a Gemini and a screen door. The sun won't fade and the earworms will not leave, but the jams go on too long for the girl in the back who wonders if her friends are at another bar. Still, the ballads always make her cry. Woods is up there relaying the Woods-feel: Folk-rock, fuzz, tambourines, tapes and raw lunch pulled straight from the yard. Pop songs and other things: Sun and Shade." -Glenn Donaldson

Tracks

1. Pushing Onlys
2. Any Other Day
3. Be All Be Easy
4. Out of the Eye
5. Hand It Out
6. To Have in the Home
7. Sol y Sombra
8. Wouldn?t Waste
9. Who Do I Think I Am?
10. What Faces the Sheet
11. White Out
12. Say Goodbye

Press

uk PR handled by Goldstar (SWANS / Yeasayer), recent session on BBC6 Music for Marc Riley was well received.
European tour in September, including a slot at End Of the Road, plus UK dates with Kurt Vile.

?Loose, shuffling and tuneful, the abridged Woods experience
sounds more like Wowee Zowee than Workingman?s
Dead, but it hits just the right contradictory note of tight
arrangements and breathing-room playing to get that backporch,
weird America vibe.? ?Pitchfork

Audio & Video

HERBCRAFT - 'ASHRAM TO THE STARS'

Formats

• HS005 - LP

  N/A

Details

"One of the most gifted abstract sonic pilots from the Vacationland stable, Portland, Maine, artist Matt Lajoie enjoys a larger-than- Sasquatch reputation for his free folk personality and unpredictable takes on Spectrasound techniques. Although he and his merry band are one of the most charismatic tribes of the New England underground- you gotta see them live-they blossom from psychedelic occurrences that lead to bursts of pacifist oblivion which can only be redeemed inside their studio output. The momentum Lajoie deploys in his polar expressions indicates a supply of time-manipulated balance. An accretion of bucket brigades warping wildly at first breath, generally considered a condition of primitivism, this is searchlight abandonment with purely spirited jams more akin to the tapers pit than slam continuance. In fact, the only thing slammed here (other than the muted poetry echoing like buoys in Golowin's harbor) are the 'in the red' meters on fire signs from fire music providing ease with earth, wind and air. Long may we inhale. ? Second LP for Woodsist's sister label ? Limited edition of 500 copies

Tracks

1. Fleet Guru
2. Altar 2: Across the Abyss
3. Freak Flag
4. Altar 3: Birth?d
5. Get Esoteric
6. Mass
7. Jupiter Trine Sun

Press

?This is a heady atmosphere, an atmosphere for heads, and it not
only delivers the contempo dreamlike aspect at the apex of its form,
but transcends it to those revolving with them. Take this fucker for a
spin.? ?Matt Valentine, Vermont, 2011
?... stunning navigation of druggy Matthew Valentine / Spectrasoundstyled
psychedelic folk, with a thick smoke of F/X masking some fantastic
rural rock that at points sounds like a ?90s underground take on
Skip Spence?s Oar or a Dead bootleg on Majora. Either way this is a
solid winner.? ?David Keenan, Volcanic Tongue
?Meandering in the best possible way, Herbcraft?s Road to Agartha
sounds like it bloomed fully formed from a thick wall of weed smoke.?
?Sam Hockley-Smith, Fader
?Pure psychedelic indulgence in the greatest of terms and a great extension
of Lajoie?s work in Cursillistas.? ?Raven Sings the Blues
?... blissed-out, bonged-to-the-eyeballs psych-rock of the highest calibre.?
?Norman Records
?... exactly the kind of thing one might hope to stumble upon while
wandering the forest alone.? ?Altered Zones

Audio & Video

CIAN NUGENT - 'DOUBLES'

Formats

• VHF125 - LP

  783881012514

• VHF125CD - CD

  783881012521

Details

Doubles, the first widely available release by Irish guitarist Cian Nugent, showcases a major talent in the audacious setting of two side-long epics. Clearly inspired by the Takoma classics and the recent generation of greats (Jack Rose, Glenn Jones, etc.), Nugent delivers a pair of perfectly formed takes on the classic steel-string sound, one (mostly) unaccompanied, the other an expertly arranged full-band throw-down. "Peaks and Troughs" is a slow-building solo piece in the style of Fahey's "Fare Forward Voyagers," with each part perfectly connected to the previous. Nugent has ample technique, but the virtuosity here is all in service of the mood and the build-up. His guitar has a darker, more intimate sound than many current players, without the brittle ring common to fingerstyle. The emergence of a deep drone after fifteen minutes shakes up the track, like a swarm of bees spilling out of the speakers. In contrast, "Sixes and Sevens" is a percolating jam in the style of Jim O'Rourke's classic Bad Timing LP, with Nugent's steel-string riding an inventive wave of drums, organ, viola, woodwinds and brass in an ambitious, filmic masterpiece. The main tune of the song is instantly memorable, building momentum before a subdued interlude that resets things for an elegant, orchestrated finish.

Tracks

1. Peaks and Troughs
2. Sixes and Sevens

Press

N/A

Audio & Video

MATT VALENTINE - 'WHAT I BECAME'

Formats

• WOODSIST052 - LP

  N/A

Details

If string theory is correct, this is approximately the thirteenth album Matt Valentine has released that definitely shouldn't be filed under a group name (Tower Recordings, Bummer Road, Golden Road, etc.). On the other hand, if string theory is correct, this might also be his 11,000th album. The truth, one suspects, is somewhere in between. Since bedding down in southern Vermont at the dawn of the century, MV has been as cussedly prolific as anyone. The gout of LPs, cassettes, CDRs, singles and 10-inches emerging from Maximum Arousal Farm has dwarfed the output of everyone 'cept maybe Sunburned or Thurston. Regardless, there can never be enough MV LPs in the world, and What I Became is a beaut. Most of it is as solo as Satan, apart from percussionist Jeremy Earl (of Woods fame), whose presence is sometimes felt more than heard. Erika "EE" Elder and Mike "Muskox" Smith also pop up on a track, but the general approach here is as naked-and-loaded as the soul of Icepick Slim. As usual, MV's tunes and procedures beggar easy generification. Elements of deep forest psychedelia brush against Crazy Horse guitar / vocal flourishes that explode to reveal volk-based form mayhem at its hickiest. My particular fave here is "PK Dick," a paean to nth dimensional logic in the form of a Swedish psych-folk readymade. My son prefers the haunted-Harvest-vibe (his words) of " Ave. B." My wife goes for the Seventh Sons approach offered by "Sweet Little Indian Girl" (always a fave with the ladies). And my daughter nods in the direction of "Continuing the Good Life" for reasons she will not explain. I suspect it's the hooty vocals, reminding her of teen pop giants like The Shins and Of Montreal, but she ain't sayin'. All this just goes to show that What I Became is a fun album for the whole family. It will soothe your savage breasts. It will turn your evil mother-in-law into a porpoise. It will wash yr dishes and darn yr socks. Darn them! Motherfucker, who else would do that? Nobody, Jack. 'Cept MV. This guy has the magic touch. And it has never been displayed better than here. Just get the fucking rec. Or prepare to go sockless. Kind of a no-brainer, eh? -Byron Coley ? Latest solo album from current / former member of MV & EE, Tower Recordings, etc. ? Limited to 500 copies with full-color jackets and inserts

Tracks

1. Continuing the Good Life
2. Hit the Trails
3. PK Dick
4. Stay
5. Ease My Eyes
6. Ave. B
7. Sweet Little Indian Girl

Press

N/A

Audio & Video

HUMAN GREED - 'FORTRESS LONGING'

Formats

• OMIC2 - CD

  5060174952524

Details

Human Greed's fourth album " Fortress Longing: The Internal Campaign for the Safe and Complete Return of the Sleeping Egyptian to the Desert" is night-music at its most acute ? unsettling, uncanny, beguiling, bewitching, and often profoundly moving. Founder Michael Begg releases the work on the back of an exhaustive wave of activity. The last 18 months have seen him pack out cathedrals with the sonic swells and squalls of Fragile Pitches, his collaborative project with Nurse With Wound's Colin Potter, contribute to releases by Blind Cave Salamander, 48 Cameras and Laura Sheeran, and also play a core role in the emergence of the debut album by Fovea Hex, Clodagh Simonds's cult ensemble, with whom he has performed and recorded since 2007. Rather than thin the mix, however, the insights and juxtaposition of the various disciplines exerted by all this extra curricular activity have helped forge Fortress Longing as the definitive work of melancholic extremism. (A term coined by the Polish press during the band's 2008 tour of that country) Begg is joined, once more, by erstwhile visual artist Deryk Thomas, and a handful of other performers and friends: Antony and the Johnsons cellist Julia Kent once more lends grace to the proceedings, whilst Fovea Hex colleague Laura Sheeran provides vocal arrangements and harmonies. Nicole Boitos ? who painted the blue lamb featured on the cover of the recording also provides a reading voice to Begg's texts, as does the Norwegian singer Tommy Aashildrod. Further vocal chants and singing bowls are provided by Charlemagne Palestine collaborator and 48 Cameras leader Jean Marie Mathoul. The record makes stunningly effective use of the broadest palette of acoustic and electronic tools yet proposed by Human Greed. Pianos (treated, bowed, prepared), cellos, violins, dulcimer, autoharp, guitars, singing bowls, glass armonica, gamelan, all fold, dovetail, and swap identities with synthesised, processed and eroded digital files and field recordings gathered from the trips Begg undertook in researching the record to Ile de Re, Athens, Heraklion, Frankfurt, London and Poznan. A number of formally spoken texts even allow Begg to seemingly make peace with the written word after almost a decade of self imposed silence. The work moves as a single mass, shedding skins and identities as acoustic instruments increasingly take on the role more commonly occupied by ambient electronic beds, whilst the electronics, synths and signals, and manipulated samples and field recordings are teased into releasing their hidden melodic potential. Again and again in Fortress Longing, the discipline of musical form that Human Greed has so thoroughly deconstructed and undermined in their decade long journey, rises out of the boiling, roiling landscape of restless foreboding. The effect ? particularly on the elegiac cello arrangement by Julia Kent on The Green Line - is simply heart breaking. Human Greed has delivered a singular and hypnotic work of disagreeable beauty, and Begg the composer, author and producer, is in complete control of his craft.

Tracks

N/A

Press

Reviews in the Wire, MOJO, and more tbc

Audio & Video