PHILIP JOHNSON - 'YOUTH IN MOURNING'

Formats

• SV057 - LP

  857176003577

Details

Philip Johnson, a lost figure in the dark waters of early industrial music, self-released over 25 tapes starting in the late ’70s. As a part of the “cassette culture” in the UK, he produced ethereal soundscapes, damaged electronics and undanceable drum patterns, along with homemade j-cards. For his first and only LP, 1982’s Youth in Mourning, Johnson further refined his approach with mesmerizing audio collages and Mark-E-Smith-ian vocals to make one of the most unique documents of the era. The song “C81,” commenting on NME’s compilation of the same name, expresses contempt with know-it-all indie culture that was similarly reflected 20 years later in LCD Soundsystem’s “Losing My Edge.” Fans of the degenerate tale in The Velvet Underground’s “The Gift” will appreciate Johnson’s “The Karate Kicking Girl of New Invention.” Youth in Mourning is a personal record, yet fearless. It pulls back the bedroom curtain, revealing (as Johnson writes in the liner notes) “the sound of a warm-air heater on a cold afternoon and a cassette being pushed into the deck and switched on.” This first-time reissue comes from the original master tapes. Recommended for fans of Cabaret Voltaire, John Bender and The Shadow Ring.

Tracks

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PIP PROUD - 'A BIRD IN THE ENGINE'

Formats

• SV062 - LP

  857176003621

Details

In the late ’60s, Pip Proud recorded two of the oddest records ever to come out of Australia—Adreneline & Richard and A Bird in the Engine—before vanishing into obscurity for the better part of three decades. Often called the “Australian Syd Barrett,” Proud actually released his second album in 1969, a year prior to The Madcap Laughs, and developed his indigenous psychedelia in virtual isolation. A Bird in the Engine is even more rare than his debut. From the extraordinary “Eagle-Wise” to the remarkable title track (which includes the uncredited performance of a friend hitting a cardboard box with a microphone), Proud’s unrestrained genius is laid bare, a delicate tension of simple melodies and maddening form. While other compilations of Proud’s music have been released in recent years, this is the first time A Bird in the Engine has been reissued in its original format. Recommended for fans of Alvarius B., Donovan and Jandek

Tracks

1. Marie
2. Hey Sue
3. A Fraying Space
4. Empty
5. She Says to Me
6. She Dwindles Her Fingers
7. A Bird in the Engine
8. Eagle-Wise
9. French Girls
10. Vida
11. There Is No Rest
12. Nancy
13. Lover Lover

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PIP PROUD - 'ADRENELINE AND RICHARD'

Formats

• SV061 - LP

  857176003614

Details

In the late ’60s, Pip Proud recorded two of the oddest records ever to come out of Australia—Adreneline & Richard and A Bird in the Engine—before vanishing into obscurity for the better part of three decades. Often called the “Australian Syd Barrett,” Proud actually released his second album in 1969, a year prior to The Madcap Laughs, and developed his indigenous psychedelia in virtual isolation. To quote Byron Coley, who like a handful of underground luminaries discovered Proud in the ’80s via collector mail-order lists, Adreneline & Richard features “weirdly strummed barre-chord guitar, monotone vocals that occasionally [try] to pass way beyond their known range, oddball lyrics that [combine] nursery rhymes with druggy imagery. It [is] a hell of a cool record.” While other compilations of Proud’s music have been released in recent years, this is the first time that Adreneline & Richard has been reissued in its original format (including inner sleeve with lyrics). Recommended for fans of outsider and lo-fi pop from the US, UK, New Zealand and beyond.

Tracks

1. Adreneline & Richard
2. The Tennis Player
3. There Was Melancholy
4. Latin Version
5. To Mother While Dying
(Into Elizabeth?s Eyes)
6. Sounds
7. Purple Boy Gang
8. De Da De Dum
9. When Each Descends
10. We Crossed the Atlantic
11. An Old Servant
12. Laughter and Laughter

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NEGATIVLAND - 'IT'S ALL IN YOUR HEAD'

Formats

• SEELAND030 - 2xCDs

  753762003023

Details

Negativland’s new album finds the group tackling their biggest subject ever: why humans believe in God. Millennia-in-development, this ambitious and densely-crafted double-CD is packaged inside an actual Holy Bible which has been appropriately repurposed into a “found” art object. It’s All In Your Head intends to entertain, inform and provoke, mixing found music, found sound, found dialogue, guest personalities and original electronic noises in a compelling and thoughtful musical essay that looks at monotheism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, neuroscience, suicide bombers, 9/11, colas, war, shaved chimps and the all-important role played by the human brain in our beliefs. Reading the attached Bible is optional. The audio is presented as a live radio broadcast (modeled after Negativland’s weekly Over the Edge radio program on KPFA FM in Berkeley, CA) that, in an effort to gain listeners, proposes that there is no God. This theater-of-the-mind project has been carefully crafted from basic tracks recorded live in front of blindfolded studio audiences, and documents the unique style of live collage performances that Negativland has been presenting on stages, and on radio, since the formation of the group in 1980. Following its last major release, the Our Favorite Things compilation DVD in 2008, Negativland has kept busy with its weekly radio program, lectures, art gallery shows and live performances in the US and Europe. Currently in the works are several different studio albums, including Negativland’s allelectronic Booper Symphonies, two brand new Over the Edge album releases, and a new touring live show with upcoming performances at festivals such as Bumbershoot (2014) and Moogfest (2015).

Tracks

Acts I:
I. Sign-On II. In the Beginning
III. Relatively Optimistic Notions
IV: The Way We Know Things
V: Jar the Ear VI: Alone With Just a Story
VII: Viewpoint VIII: Time Can Do So Much
IX: Wildlife Tonight
Acts II:
I. New Management
II. We?re All Mohammads Now
III. Holy War IV: This Thing Is Not Good
V: Right Might VI: Antinomian Phase
VII: Push the Button VIII: I Gotta Be Me
IX: The Smell of Onions
X: Sign-Off

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RADIO BIRDMAN - 'LIVE AT PADDINGTON TOWN HALL 12TH DECEMBER 1977'

Formats

• CITLP582 - 2xLPs

  9326425808900

Details

This 19 track release engenders a previously unreleased live concert recorded at Paddington Town Hall (Sydney Australia) in December 1977 onto 16 track tape just prior to the band's departure for the UK to promote the Sire release of their Radios Appear album. This live recording has been mixed from master tapes that have languished forgotten for decades. The result is a totally wild and raw release that captures the band?s true primal energy perhaps in a way that other recordings haven't. The songs represent a wide selection of their originals along with covers of Blue Oyster Cult, MC5 and Bo Diddley.

Tracks

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