SARAH MARY CHADWICK - '9 CLASSIC TRACKS'

Formats

• SB167 - LP

  655030116711

Details

As moving as Kim Blackburn, Sarah Mary Chadwick is back with her second official full-length release following her debut solo LP Eating for Two (Bedroom Suck Records, 2012). While preserving her distinctive traits of bare-skinned honesty and visceral delivery, 9 Classic Tracks sees Chadwick venture into decidedly more lush territory—her unmistakably raw vocals present this time through a vaseline filter and with an air of reflection indicative of both artistic growth and intimate evolution. In a new collaboration for Chadwick, 9 Classic Tracks was recorded and produced by Geoffrey O’Connor (The Crayon Fields) and mastered by David Walker. “Where do I fit in?” she inquires on the opening track “Ask Walt,” setting the tone for what soon becomes clear is an album of great introspection. But rather than alienating the listener with inward-facing questions, Chadwick’s astute observations on relationships and the utter messiness of love are both deeply idiosyncratic and universally relatable. In the thick of the album, the mercurial fifth track “Same Old Fires” moves from a hymn-like whisper into an uncharacteristically sunny backing beat layered contrarily behind emotional cries of “I’m tired of feeling the same old burns / From wandering through the same old fires,” before transitioning into a similar lament in the sixth track, “I’m Back Where I Was.” 9 Classic Tracks reaches a turning point with “I’m Like an Apple with No Skin,” a song that will resonate with anyone who has walked away from a relationship in the name of self-preservation. Closing with “Until the Grave,” Chadwick repeats the refrain “Until the grave I’m fighting.” As hopeful and irrepressible as it is depressing, that confusion and acceptance is present throughout the entire album, summed up in a line in “Lying Down”—“’Cause every human here / Is a prism dark and clear / First glass, then dust.”

Tracks

1. Ask Walt
2. Am I Worth It
3. I?m God I?m Fate
4. Lying Down
5. Same Old Fires
6. I?m Back Where I Was
7. Aquarius Gemini
8. I?m Like an Apple with No Skin
9. Until the Grave
Bonus Tracks on Digital Download:
10. You Said I?m Buying
11. Rain It Down On Me

Press

Audio & Video

ZNR - 'BARRICADE 3'

Formats

• SV071 - LP

  857176003713

Details

ZNR was the French duo of Hector Zazou and Joseph Racaille (hence, Zazou ’n’ Racaille) active in the mid to late ’70s. Their 1976 debut, Barricade 3, is an anti-pop masterpiece that truly defies categorization; it makes perfect sense that ZNR appears on the infamous Nurse With Wound list. Featuring an array of seemingly dichotomous instruments (piano, synthesizers, woodwinds, electric guitar and more) as well as genuinely bizarre vocals, the album is composed of fifteen odd experiments using a loose framework of analog electronics, avant-garde rock, jazz influences, and post-structuralist études. As The Shadow Ring’s Graham Lambkin writes, “The debut ZNR LP has long remained one of my all-time faves. A collision of eccentric Satie-esque miniatures, strange keyboard / synth explorations and the occasional song, delivered in a mixture of French and Spanish tongues. I always think of the creepy, over-ripe vocals on ‘Seynete’ as one of the LP’s most memorable moments, but there are many.” Despite its schizophrenic mystique, Barricade 3 is very witty and surprisingly accessible with hints of Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers and Perrey-Kingsley. This long out-ofprint vinyl reissue reproduces the original gatefold design including illustration by Don Van Vliet

Tracks

1. Droumier Assai Per S?Amourousis
D?Un Moustre
2. Trop De Douceur Ou Les
Trois Soeurs: 2e Soeur
3. L?Armoire
4. Le Grand Compositeur Vu De Dos
5. La Pointe De Tes Seins Est
Comme Un Petale De Pavot
6. Solo Un Dia 7. La Vieio Mostro: Part II
8. Espelisoun D?Uno Ribambello
D?Evenimen Espetaclous Valentin Bilot
9. Armistice Couronne De Feullages
10. Le Grand Compositeur Vu De Face
11. Seynete
12. Editioun Especialo
D?Uno Grino De Jardin
13. Annie La Telie
14. Naive Descrption De La Formation
15. Avril En Suede

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ARESKI / BRIGITTE FONTAINE - 'JE NE CONNAIS PAS CET HOMME'

Formats

• SV044 - LP

  857176003447

Details

Following their groundbreaking collaboration with the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Comme à la Radio, Areski and Brigitte Fontaine began recording almost exclusively together as a duo. Originally released in 1973, Je Ne Connais Pas Cet Homme is their first record billed under both names. Deeply rooted in North African and European folk traditions, the album features evocative vignettes with breezy vocals and minimal accompaniment of classical guitar, strings and woodwinds. As always, there is a mercurial quality to their lyrics. The title track (translated as “I Do Not Know This Man”) suggests at once Apostle Peter’s denial and a poetic acknowledgement. On “C’est Normal” Fontaine playfully questions the status quo while Areski offers satirical answers. What makes Je Ne Connais Pas Cet Homme one of their best-loved albums, though, is its remarkable sense of intimacy—as if Areski and Fontaine beckon listeners into their strange and beautiful world. This first-time domestic release continues Superior Viaduct’s reissue campaign of Fontaine’s classic ’70s catalog.

Tracks

1. Depuis
2. J?ai 26 Ans, Madame
3. La Fille Du Cur?
4. Comment Ca Va
5. Montparnasse
6. La Recherche De L?Hiver
7. Les Blanchisseuses
8. C?est Normal
9. Dis-moi 10. Insert
11. On N?est Pas Des Arbres
12. La Renarde Et Le B?lier Touffu
13. Insert
14. Je Ne Connais Pas Cet Homme
15. Nous Ne Pourrons Plus Dormir
16. La Morvien 17. Le Silence
18. Final

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Audio & Video

CROCODILES - 'BOYS'

Formats

• ZM026 - LP

  655035052618

• ZM026CD - CD

  655035052625

Details

Crocodiles have always traveled their own particular road of excess; playing, recording, dreaming and scheming in various far-flung corners of the globe. For their fifth album Boys, the boys decamped to Mexico City where producer Martin Thulin captured this psych-pop masterpiece. Trashy in some places and beautiful in others, this colorful album sees the band revisiting familiar Crocodilian themes that have earned them worldwide acclaim while also cooking with many new flavors. Take the salsa-punk of tracks like “Crybaby Demon” or “Kool TV”; noisy guitars mesh with Latin rhythms to create a new sound that can only be described as “muy chingón!” Beautifully lush soundscapes on “The Boy Is a Tramp,” “Don’t Look Up” and “Blue” are sure to seduce the listener. “Foolin’ Around” is a bonkers car-crash of influences, something the punks can do The Hustle to. Crocodiles’ bizarro-pop craftsmanship shines brightly on “Peroxide Hearts,” “Transylvania” and “Hard.” Boys is an album for boys and for girls and for boy-girls and mutants, back-alley poets, thieves, space cadets and alien babes, righteous tricksters, sonic deviants, and everything in between. But most of all, Boys is an album for you.

Tracks

1. Crybaby Demon
2. Foolin? Around
3. Do the Void
4. The Boy Is a Tramp
5. Hard
6. Blue
7. Kool TV
8. Peroxide Hearts
9. Transylvania
10. Don?t Look Up

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Audio & Video

SALLY DIGE - 'HARD TO PLEASE'

Formats

• LSSN032 - LP

  5060174958489

• LSSN032CD - CD

  5060174958496

Details

Consolidating 2 years of solo work, “Hard To Please” is the debut album by Canadian polymath Sally Dige. First coming to prominence in the synth-wave scene with an elusive, meta-persona in a blur of homemade costumes, Dige’s world has grown to encompass visual art, theatre and design elements. Most surprising on her long-awaited debut however is the occasional removal of the various masks and characters Dige has played to date, revealing something more tangible and fragile underneath. “Hard To Please” still revels in a darkly thrilling, Italo-disco pop music, awash with dry ice and hidden in shadow, most personified on the instant classic Immaculate Deception. However, on the long, nocturnal walk home Dige begins to sing of loneliness, being lost, the transience of our relationships. Attention to detail is paramount. On the title-track the crisp early-80s, swooning bass line duets with Dige’s desperate plea to a lover fading into the distance, a presence lamented with even more pathos on the towering, early-4AD-esque, slow-burner Your Girl. It’s a new fragility that effortlessly manages to convey a luxurious, inescapable sensuality at the same time. Indeed, Hard To Please portrays a clear narrative, with electronic body movers like Doppelganger portraying an out-of control, self-obsessed persona at the beginning of the record. Breaking down into the foggy murk, the more hopelessly romantic album closers “A Certain Beauty” and “Dance Of Delusion” burn a ghostly image into the listener’s mind, as Dige, or someone like her, over Cure-like swooning reverberations entreaties the powers that be to let her dance. Dige never fully reveals her hand, but the game is worth playing endlessly. STREAM HERE: http://bit.ly/19ZOrCl

Tracks

1. Hard To Please
2. Immaculate Deception
3. So Far Away
4. Doppelg?nger
5. Losing You
6. Your Girl
7. A Certain Beauty
8. Dance Of Delusion

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Audio & Video

HOLY SERPENT - 'S/T'

Formats

• EZRDR046 - LP

  603111987811

• EZRDR046CD - CD

  603111987828

Details

Holy Serpent arise from a verdant antipodean heavy guitar scene, sounding like they recorded in 74, and amped up to keep up with the Kyusses and Goblins' of the world, this is as heavy as a ton of bricks sludge rock. In the 90s, it would have been released by Man's Ruin in the 00's it would have been on Rise Above, seems apt that its gettign released on Riding Easy in these current climes. Honest, over amped and speaker shaking songs that evoke, Sabbath, Beatles, Purple, and the likes…but also adept enough tuneage to put them up with Uncle Acid / Orange Goblin etc… yeah! TURN IT UP!! Selling Point: Opening for the likes of Truckfighters, Red Fang, Beastwars the band cut a demo and uploaded it to Bandcamp. RidingEasy Records caught a listen and offered the band a deal the next day. Now, 2015 sees them release their five-song self-titled first opus. FFO: uncle acid, Kadavar, Witchcraft, The Beatles, Black Sabbath

Tracks

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