Latest release: 02 Apr 2021
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THE GORDONS - 'S/T + FUTURE SHOCK'
Formats
197208 - LP+7"
852545003882
Details
The Gordons crashed upon the do-it-yourself scene of early 1980s Christchurch with torrential force, self-releasing two foundational planks of the vibrant New Zealand underground. Future Shock, a three-song 7-inch released in 1980, is a wild-eyed rampage, as staggering as any feedback-addled punk then being recorded at Southern Studios. The Gordons LP, which followed in 1981, matches the abandon with motorik churn and livewire dissonance, evoking New Zealand antecedents as divergent as This Kind Of Punishment and the Dead C. Brought together on this release, they’re a noise-rock landmark anticipating fans such as Sonic Youth. Flying Nun Records, the storied Christchurch label and symbol of the island nation’s rich independent music scene, re-released The Gordons and Future Shock together in 1988 following the formation of Gordons outgrowth Bailter Space, which frontman Alister Parker founded with Clean drummer Hamish Kilgour. Bailter Space, which would also come to include founding Gordons members Brent McLachlan and John Halvorsen, settled on a droning shoegaze sound, drawing comparisons to Dinosaur Jr. and the Pixies. The Gordons and Future Shock, however, represent the trio’s unreformed id, as startling today as upon release.
Tracks
1. Spik And Span
2. Right On Time
3. Coalminers Song
4. Sometimes
5. I Just Can?t Stop
6. Growing Up
7. Laughing Now
8. Future Shock
9. Machine Song
10. Adults And Children
Press
Future Shock 7-inch came out in 1980
while The Gordons album followed in 1981
. Original copies of both releases go for lots
of money right now
Audio & Video
THE OUTSIDERS - 'CALLING ON YOUTH'
Formats
197207 - LP
852545003875
Details
Before fronting classic post-punk group The Sound, Adrian Borland was a Wimbledon teenager enamored of Iggy Pop and the Velvet Underground. With friends, he formed The Outsiders. In 1976, they home-recorded Calling On Youth, a searching full-length that straddles nihilo-punk argot (“Terminal Case” and “I’m Screwed Up”) as well as smudged glam balladry (“Start Over” and “Weird”). Its release in 1977, on the group’s own Raw Edge label, with Borland’s cityscape abstraction on the cover, marked the first independent punk full-length in the United Kingdom. The Outsiders, featuring bassist Bob Lawrence and drummer Adrian “Jan” James, were punk in the moment before punk cut ties with solos and five minute songs. (Close Up, released in 1978, is more streamlined.) Like the Saints or Crime, they still trafficked in rock ’n’ roll. Calling On Youth, though, announces Borland as more than a precious teenage bandleader. The nervous introspection, wiry leads and negative space that he would refine solo and in The Sound, Second Layer and Witch Trials glistens throughout Calling On Youth, beckoning rediscovery.
Tracks
1. Spik And Span
2. Right On Time
3. Coalminers Song
4. Sometimes
5. I Just Can?t Stop
6. Growing Up
7. Laughing Now
8. Future Shock
9. Machine Song
10. Adults And Children
Press
Features Adrian Borland, later guitarist /
singer in The Sound and Second Layer
Audio & Video
WOODS - 'REFLECTIONS VOL: 1 (BUMBLE BEE CROWN KING)'
Formats
WOODSIST102 - LP
767870666001
Details
With no touring in 2020, and possibly this year, Woods decided to take a deep dive into their archives and put together the first volume of their much discussed archival series, Reflections. Featuring rare and unreleased recordings from 2009 - 2013, including a ghost town desert jam off the side of the highway, their first live performance in Big Sur, the first recorded version of “Bend Beyond” and some shelved diamonds in the rough that were finished up during quarantine. Their hope is that it plays like a “lost record” from an extremely strange and fruitful period in Woods history.
Tracks
1. Bumble Bee Crown King
2. Midnight Moment
3. Be Kind My Love
4. Skull
5. Party In The Pines
6. Space and Time
7. Ballad Of Jim Jones
8. Bend Beyond (First Version)
Press
Audio & Video
BLACK TWIG PICKERS - 'FRIENDS PEACE'
Formats
VHF153 - LP
783881015317
Details
Following a series of records with Thrill Jockey (including the sensational Seasonal Hire with Steve Gunn), the Black Twig Pickers return to the VHF mothership to continue their charming and original take on old time and Appalachianinspired string band sounds. Together since 2001, and a continuous presence in the music’s true home of Southwest Virginia, the Twigs represent the actively working evolution of the traditions—learning songs from other locals, playing dances at the Floyd Country Store, etc—without retroartifice or nostalgia. The ragged-but-right performances and recording (and Sally Ann Morgan’s perfect cover design) sit at the ideal intersection of DIY / “underground” and local string-sound values. On Friend’s Peace, the band travels a range of styles, from the lovely harmony on the trad-classic “Moonshiner” to the racing fiddle / guitar / banjo on the “Money Musk” medley. Mixed in with the traditional songs are several perfectly-placed original tunes, including Mike Gangloff’s keening “Cara’s Waltz” and Isak Howell’s solo guitar spotlight on “Barnswallow.”
Tracks
1. Moonshiner
2. Money Musk/Icy Mountain/
Tommy Hawk
3. Cara?s Waltz
4. Sheets Of Rain, Streams Of Sun
5. Will You Miss Me When I?m Gone?
6. Roan Mountain Sally Ann
7. Knight On The Road
8. Barnswallow
9. St. Valentine?s
10. March Elliston Joy
11. Dan Friend?s Piece
Press
Old time and Appalachian-inspired string
band sounds from long-running band from
southwest Virginia
Audio & Video
VARIOUS - 'UNDERCURRENTS'
Formats
BUTR39 - LP
Details
16 electronic, atmospheric, global & groovy delights from the Josef Weinberger Theme Music library compiled by Alan Gubby (Revbjelde, The Delaware Road). In 2015 I picked up around sixty JW Theme Music LPs in a local record store. They looked rather sad unloved in their generic, beige & brown covers but closer inspection revealed several established composer names & intriguing equipment listed on the sleeves such as the Fairlight CMI, Mini Moog, Yamaha CS80, DX7, ARP Axxe, Prophet 5 & Roland CompuRhythm. Some of the albums appeared to be reissues of older & sought-after Programme Music & Impress LPs, so with my interest piqued, I bought the lot. Undercurrents is a selection of moods & styles from those LPs, recorded for the JW libraries between the late 1960’s and mid-1980s. There are shimmering synth arpeggios by Tim Cross (Mike Oldfield, Hall & Oates, The Adverts), fretless ambient grooves by bassist & producer Mo Foster (Scott Walker, Dusty Springfield), dusk till dawn meditations by classical Indian composer Naresh Sohal, fuzzy orchestral funk by German library don Peter Thomas, strutting electronic rock by keyboardist Derek Austin (Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, David Shire) saccharine soul and an Eno homage by library supergroup Midas Touch, a bold as brass porno-Moog theme by Pete Smith (used in 1970’s skin flick Highway Hookers) plus film-noir suspense & percussive jams by avant-garde UK jazzer Bob Downes.
Tracks
Press
'a timely selection of world music, library grooves & electronics' - Jonny Trunk
Audio & Video
MONOSHOCK - 'RUNNIN' APE LIKE FROM THE BACKWARDS SUPERMAN'
Formats
CFUL0177 - 2xLPs
Details
**VERY LTD COPIES** Cardinal Fuzz (Europe) and Feeding Tube Records (N.America) present to you - A vinyl issue of the killer CD comp that SS Records released way back in 2004 with a couple of added treats. Brace yourself for some steller hair singeing full throttle wipe outs across 4 slabs of heavy black vinyl. Comes with a folded A3 double sided insert. Monoshock was one of THE best bands of the 90s and if they were from Seattle and not Illa Vista & Oakland, California you would already know that. During their six years they released a handful of 7"s, served as a backing band for Von Lmo, and created one of the classic psych albums of all time, Walk to the Fire. In the last few years they received praise from around the globe, raved up by Julian Cope as one of the great unknown bands of the 90s and cited as an influence by current heavy faves, Comets on Fire, as well as a whole slew of Japanese psych bands. Monoshock is fuzz-fuel, wah-wah damaged, riff-crazed punk rock which draws in Hawkwind, the Stooges, Simply Saucer, and other psych-punk gods. This double LP collects all their 7"s and comp tracks together with 7 previously unreleased tunes and two songs from their ultra-rare 1989 demo tape and 2 added digi bonus Live tracks from their reunion shows. Fans will be overjoyed. Virgins will become fans. The band's stellar Walk to the Fire has been acknowledged as one of the classic psych albums of all time.