J. MCFARLANE REALITY GUEST - 'TA DA'

Formats

• LSSN070 - LP

  5060446123607

• LSSN070CD - CD

  5060446123614

Details

“Ta Da” is the debut full length from J. McFarlane Reality Guest, the collective name for the trio headed by the eponymous McFarlane. As a member of the group Twerps, McFarlane has traversed guitar-centric, melodic pop music for some years while honing a highly unique, personal musical language. Ta Da is the first recorded unveiling of McFarlane’s affecting, oblique songwriting panache. Originally released in her native Australia on Hobbies Galore, Ta Da will be released worldwide by Night School in June 2019. Wheezing into view with a troubled reed instrument set against a s of whoozy synth lines, Human Tissue Act is a foggy curtain the listener is invited to peel back. The dissonant notes are left to dance entwined, with clarinet heralding a Harry Partch-esque mallet percussion interlude. It’s a mood. With no resolution in sight, an audience dragged closer into uncertainty is suddenly drenched with the light of inter-weaving wah wah synth and saxophone. I Am A Toy introduces us to McFarlane’s vocal, an effortless and matter-of-fact, accented statement that quietly takes the reins. While McFarlane’s previous work in Twerps might reference 80s UK and antipodean guitar pop, Ta Da showcases a different influences immersed in psychedelic music and synths. It’s a brilliant, deft concoction swimming in Young Marble Giants-type minimalism washed with bare pop and harmony similar to Kevin Ayers making sense of a Melbourne suburb full of faces half-recognised in the blanching sun. What Has He Bought begins with a Casio-keyboard rhythm pattern, palm-muted guitars and immaculately enunciated vocal give way to a burnt melodica part that elevates the spirits. Simple patterns repeated, like a well-tempered pop song that does what it needs to do and no more, build into the sound of summer leaking orange juice. They’re moments of joy, layered on top of each other like a melting cake. Do You Like What I’m Sayin’ recalls Marine Girls covering a classic ‘66 Garage nugget, organ lines fighting funk with guitar chords played just behind the percussion. “In a talking world, meanings are the same. Words want to hold on to the people they contain. Do you like what I’m sayin’?” We’re in a Beckett play perhaps, obtuse absurdities rendered pretty. Alien Ceremony is a heart-melter, given a melancholic timbre by bowed double bass it’s a tragi-comic piece that almost reeks of Robert Wyatt at his mid-whimsical twisting a fugue completely out of shape. Beneath the layers of harmony and twinkling instrumentation you sense there’s a genuine sadness somewhere even if it remains veiled. Through out Ta Da, McFarlane plays with counterpoint and contrast to sometimes delirious effect. On Your Torturer, a simple, upbeat chord progression is hard panned, underpinning a flute solo which seems out of place, hence making it completely in place on this warmly surreal album. My Enemy is a slowly swinging eulogy to a failed relationship punctuated by analogue synth burbles, with our protagonist simply asking, in the aftermath, “can we be nice?” Here McFarlane’s vocal is straight forward, lyrically conversational but still not completely in focus, a surreal kitchen sink drama filtered through a dream where everything is in the wrong place. It’s a fine precursor to Heartburn, which similarly borrows BBC Radiophonic Workshop-style noise synths and the use of space to carve up the simple “You Will Make My Heart Burn” line. At this point, the listener has been in such close proximity to McFarlane’s show, the reality guest in a performance where they’re the sole audience member, that when Where Are You My Love rises on the horizon as a sleepy, psychedelic send off it’s uplifting. The vocal drifts away into the sunset, simple and direct. It leaves the listener slightly confused, perhaps, but grateful for the gentle surprise.

Tracks

1. Human Tissue Act
2. I Am A Toy
3. What Has He Bought
4. Do You Like What I?m Sayin??
5. Alien Ceremony
6. Your Torturer
7. My Enemy
8. Heartburn
9. Where Are You My Love?

Press

Audio & Video

PRETTIEST EYES - 'VOLUME 3'

Formats

• CF114 - LP

  647603405513

• CF114CD - CD

  647603405544

Details

Last year’s Pools having taken up a sizable chunk of Castle Face’s cold dark hearts, the label was delighted to hear that LA post-industrial trio Prettiest Eyes have a new gang of crowd-stirrers. None too early, either; once one’s become accustomed to their clanging synthetic orbit, it’s hard to find other tunes that truly scratch the same itch. Volume 3 bursts at the seams with chrome-dipped timbres and surprise sharp edges, alien klaxon-calls and wailing dissonance offsetting the ziplock’d grease of their insistent drum and bass grooves. Prettiest Eyes are one of the most exciting live bands going on right now, and Volume 3 catches them in fine fettle.

Tracks

1. Johnny Come Home 2. It Cost?s To Be Austere 3. I Don?t Know 4. Mr. President 5. Nekrodisco 6. The Shame 7. Another Earth 8. Marihuana 9. Summer In LA 10. No More Summer 11. Strange Distance 12. La Maldad

Press

? LA post-industrial trio return to burst at the seams with latest alien klaxoncalls wedded to insistent drum and bass grooves
? For fans of Screamers, Suicide, Chrome, and the Birthday Party

Audio & Video

PELT - 'PEARLS FROM THE RIVER'

Formats

• VHF76 - LP

  783881007619

Details

VHF presents the first time on vinyl for Pearls From The River, the all acoustic epics album from the “classic” Pelt trio lineup of Jack Rose, Mike Gangloff, and Patrick Best. Recorded in a single March 2003 session in Virginia by Mikel Dimmick, this was a superb distillation of their interests at the time (both alone and together—Rose’s first solo records, the emergence of the Black Twigs as a busy working band, etc). “Up the North Fork” is a trio for banjo, baritone banjo, and cello—after the snakey bowed introduction, the fast thwacking of the banjos and forcefully strummed cello take over and whip up a storm. The other two tracks are lengthy ragas (one in C, one in D) with the virtuoso modal guitar of Rose front and center. The title track features Rose on twelve-string, dueling with Mike Gangloff on esraj. Best’s thick, sonorous double-bass bowing anchors the duet between the lightning thrumming / plucking of Rose’s guitar and Gangloff’s arcing, sharply bowed half-time melody. “Road To Catawba” has Rose on six-string, with Gangloff moving to tamboura. Best’s bass is again the foundation, with whistling overtones rising from his bow over the low drone. Liner notes by Byron Coley. “Join Pelt in celebrating the ecstatic joy that results from refusing to accept the alleged primacy of shit-culture. It does not exist if we will not believe in it. And we must refuse it on all levels always. The proof of its surrender is at hand. Yr hand. Right now, motherfucker!” —Byron Coley 

Tracks

1. Up The North Fork 2. Road To Catawba 3. Pearls From The River

Press

First vinyl issue of drone / psychedelic / folk trio?s album from 2003 featuring the late guitar virtuoso Jack Rose

Audio & Video

CARWYN ELLIS & RIO 18 - 'JOIA!'

Formats

• B&L003 - LP

  8437018437047

• B&L003CD - CD

  8437018437054

Details

*VINYL BACK IN STOCK* Carwyn has spent much of the last two years touring the world as a sideman with the Pretenders, and it was Chrissie Hynde herself who noticed how many records he was buying while on tour in South America in early 2018 and suggested he make a Latin-flavoured Welsh language album.“I've been a big fan of Brazilian music for many years now, having been introduced to the music of Joao Gilberto initially, and then via him to Baden Powell, Vinicius de Moraes, Quarteto Em Cy (myfavouritevocal group) and eventually a multitude of other wonderful artists from the Bossa Nova and MPB era through the Tropicalia, Samba Soul and funk styles to the anything-goes hotbed of influences that is current Brazilian alternative music,”explained Carwyn.“The tour with the Prentenders was my first time on the continent and it had a huge impact on me.”She then introduced him to Kassin, the legendary Brazilian producer and multi-instrumentalist. The two hit it off immediately when they met in London in the Summer of 2018, and Kassin suggested that Ellis travel to Rio to work together on an album, along with some of Rio's finest musicians. This they did,and Ellis took the resultant recordings back to Wales to add some further Welsh magic to them.“Last October, Kassin called to tell me he had a week free in November and would I like to come to Rio to record. Yes, I said-of course! So, we had the dates. Now I just had to write something,”explained Carwyn about the start of the process of working with Kassin.“So I rocked up in Rio last November with a batch of fresh songs, all in Welsh, and began recording with Kassin at his Audio Rebel studio. He'd assembled a team of phenomenal musicians to join us:Domenico Lancellotti(the +2's, drummer with Gilberto Gil and brilliant artist in his own right), Andre Siqueira (incredible percussionist and member of Ivan Lins' band) and the magical Manoel Cordeira,mercurial guitarist from Belem in the Amazon Delta in the far north of Brazil. Amazing musicians and wonderful people every one.”Having finished off the album with sessions in London and Wales with the great producer and multi-instrumentalist, Shawn Lee,Carwyn shared Duwies Y Dre, the first fruits of the sessions, earlier this year.The track was accompanied bya documentary film on the making of the album, 'Carwyn Ellis: Ar Y CeiYn Rio' (named after a famous poem by T.H. Parry Williams), which was broadcast on S4C in March. Directed by Griff Lynch, it follows Carwyn to Rio and shows him meeting and working on the new songs in the studio with Kassin and the other musicians, who together have since become known as Rio 18.A truly unique and original collection of songs Joia! looks set to be one of the summers more surprising and joyous albums.

Tracks

Press

BBC IPlayer 'Making of' documentary currently screening. **** MOJO. One of the best records i've heard all week, ALL YEAR! - Gilles Peterson

Audio & Video

WILLIAM HOOKER - '...IS ETERNAL LIFE'

Formats

• SV166 - LP

  857661008667

Details

Drummer, composer and poet William Hooker has been a tireless force in free improvised music for over 40 years. He emerged from New York’s loft jazz scene in the mid-’70s, part of a generation of artists fueled by the social, political and cultural frustrations of their era. This second wave of American free jazz would push relentlessly into new territories—collaborating in a variety of non-traditional settings, establishing their own labels, venues, etc.—all in an effort at creative self-determination. While William Hooker’s output extends past 70 albums as leader, it all began with the double LP ... Is Eternal Life. Recorded in 1975-1976 and released privately on the artist’s own Reality Unit Concepts imprint, ... Is Eternal Life is nothing short of visionary. Filled with tension, intricacy and raw fury, these extended compositions feature the playing of David Murray, Mark Miller, David S. Ware, Hasaan Dawkins and Les Goodson. 

Tracks

1. Drum Form
2. Soy: Material / Seven
3. Passages (Anthill)
4. Pieces I & II
5. Above And Beyond

Press

Private press free jazz album recorded in
New York City between 1975 and 1976

Audio & Video

SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE - 'FOR OCTAVIO PAZ'

Formats

• HH04 - LP

  647603404615

Details

Hermit Hut is pleased to announce their first Six Organs Of Admittance release with remastered For Octavio Paz, on vinyl for the first time since it’s original pressing of 500 on Time-Lag records in 2003 (which sold out in 24 hours). This new edition has been re-mixed and remastered from the original four-track cassettes to bring out the resonant tones of the acoustic guitars that were lost in the original transfer (2019 analog-to-digital technology has come a long way since early 2000 16-bit DAT machines, remember those?). For Octavio Paz is considered by many to be a high point in the early Six Organs of Admittance catalog. Almost wholly instrumental, it is the only Six Organs record that sounds fully dedicated to touching the edges of an acoustic finger-style world that was still quite underground back in the first few years of the new century. The songs here utilize a variety of approaches to the acoustic guitar, both steel string and nylon, solo and overdubbed, but always in the service of atmosphere. The record ends with a side long solo steel string piece that sounds equally at home next to modern guitar players like Tashi Dorji (who released his first LP on Hermit Hut) as classic American Primitive players such as Robbie Basho. When released on CD in 2004, For Octavio Paz earned an 8.0 from Pitchfork who said, “Though they vary from melancholy to warm memory in between notes, the emotions that Chasny creates on For Octavio Paz are always stark and imagistic.”

Tracks

1. Fire On Rain
2. When You Finally Return
3. Memory, Memory, Memory
4. The Night Knows Nothing At All
5. Elk River
6. They Fixed The
Broken Windmill Today
7. Rain On Fire
8. The Acceptance Of Absolute Negation

Press

Vinyl reissue of classic early album by
experimental folk guitarist Ben Chasny
(Comets On Fire, Rangda)

Audio & Video

THE HIVES - 'I'M ALIVE'

Formats

• TMR626 - 7"

  813547027825

Details

 It’s been nearly two decades since the Swedish rock-n-roll heroes The Hives unleashed their debut album on the world and almost 5 years since new music has been released. Now, they will drop TWO intoxicatingly brash new songs I’m Alive and Good Samaritan on a limited edition double A-side 7” via Third Man Records. Both tracks were produced & mixed by Dave Sardy (LCD Soundsystem, Wolfmother) in Los Angeles. The band explains: I’m Alive is a song about crawling up from under a rock and obliterating all resistance that sounds like crawling up from under a rock and obliterating all resistance because it is a band crawling up from under a rock and obliterating all resistance. Use it in your own life to help you obliterate your own resistance! Musically slower and with more chords than usual, but heavy man. Real heavy. Good Samaritan is a song about helping people help themselves by not helping them? Are they sarcastic or do they hate people now? Is this punk? You never know with these Hives and it’s been a while since I saw them so let’s all go see them again and see what they are on about? Musically faster than usual but a surprising dive into the chorus that feels like going into hyperspace. Now it’s not surprising anymore. Oh well. In the twenty years since the Hives exploded around the world, they have sold out stadiums and shared stages with everyone from AC/DC to The Rolling Stones. SPIN calls The Hives “the best live band on the planet” and frontman Pelle Almqvist “the greatest frontman in rock,” and the BBC dubbed the band “a force of nature.” Rolling Stone named ‘‘Veni Vidi Vicious’ one of the Top 100 Albums of the decade and “Hate To Say I Told You So” earned a spot on Pitchfork’s Top 500 Songs of the 2000’s. They sold millions of albums world-wide with multiple RIAA Gold-certifi cations. Just ended run of sold out shows with Arctic Monkeys in Mexico & in USA with Refused. European festival run is coming this summer and the band will fi nish recording this fall. 

Tracks

A1. I?m Alive
B1. Good Samaritan

Press

Audio & Video