DAVID GRUBBS & RYLEY WALKER - 'A TAP ON THE SHOULDER'

Formats

• HPR010CD - CD

  687368313241

• HPR010 - LP

  687368313234

Details

You never know when that tap’s going to come. How about now? (Not for you to decide.) Or exactly what it means—except in the aftermath. Mutual admiration society and David Grubbs and Ryley Walker had been taking notes on one another’s playing for some time before they hit the stage together on a couple of blistering occasions immediately pre-pandemic. (One of these live sets was released earlier this year as Fight or Flight Simulator on Café OTO’s Takuroku label.) Studio sessions were clearly in the cards, and the result is A Tap on the Shoulder, a collection of duo performances that veers from crystalline instrumental compositions (“A Tap on the Shoulder,” “Accepting Most Plans,” “Dorothy Kept”) to animated alien chatterfests (“Leslie Steinberger”), and from ecstatic extrapolations charging this way and that (“Pump Fake on the Death Rattle,” “The Madman from Massachusetts in an Empty Bar”) to, I don’t know, words don’t do the trick (“Uglification”). Don’t think for a second that these shorthand descriptions suffice. Electric guitars make electronic music. Ryley’s hellion musical fearlessness lights a fire under the more typically Apollonian, chess-masterly Grubbs. What’s good for the geezer is good for the, etc. And where the duo’s live performances thus far have been set-length juggernauts, A Tap on the Shoulder toggles effortlessly between microscope, telescope, and Cinemascope, letting the smallest of gestures land in all of its sonic specificity before opening the scene up to disorienting panoramas. Listen to A Tap on the Shoulder in the context of Ryley’s glorious Course in Fable; listen to it in the context of Grubbs’s playing with Loren Connors, Jim O’Rourke, Taku Unami, and others; or listen to it as if you’ve never heard note one from these soulful odd birds, the two of them curiously, quixotically committed to working inside and beyond song form.

Tracks

1. A Tap on the Shoulder (5:42)
2. Accepting Most Plans (3:04)
3. Uglification (13:30)
4. Leslie Steinberger (4:27) [QZNL72100023]
5. Pump Fake on the Death Rattle (8:26) [QZNL72100024]
6. Dorothy Kept (2:50)
7. The Madman from Massachusetts in an Empty Bar (7:53)

Press

Audio & Video

MOONLOVE - 'MAY NEVER HAPPEN'

Formats

• CC-005 - LP

  843563137277

Details

Moonlove, a group who went unknown in their time except to a few locals in their hometown of Kent, Ohio, quietly released a masterpiece of melancholy, jangly pop called May Never Happen back in 1985, as a cassette in an edition of only twenty-five copies. Concentric Circles is proud to finally present this truly special album to the world, essentially for the first time. Arriving at a crossroads of the Undergrounds both Velvet and Paisley, with a smattering of the Dunedin sound, Moonlove managed to stand out at the time, both by wearing their folk influence on their collective sleeve and being somewhat more introverted than many of their peers, due to the reflective nature of the group’s lyrics. Even on first listen, the songs have the familiarity of an old friend that one hasn’t seen in years, the conversation never skipping a beat. May Never Happen was recorded on a primitive set-up consisting of a cassette deck and a Betamax videocassette recorder, which gives the album a lovely, warm DIY clarity. The guitars have a chiming, clanging lilt that echoes the primitive lushness of the best Flying Nun releases—think Look Blue Go Purple—and the melodies twist and tangle à la Beat Happening. May Never Happen is ten moments of miniature magic made real again, thirty-six years later, finally on vinyl. And it’s an absolute treat. Edition of 300 copies with twelvepage booklet of photos and reminiscences.

Tracks

1. Level Ground
2. All Your Mysteries
3. Cast Your Troubles And Dreams Away
4. Triangle
5. Goodbye
6. Venus
7. Blue Skies
8. Trying To Find
9. Moroccan Moon
10. Hearse On The Highway

Press

Reissue of cassette-only Ohio-based
band?s DIY jangle pop album from 1985
For fans of Look Blue Go Purple, Beat
Happening, the Velvet and Paisley
Underground, and the Flying Nun sound

Audio & Video

FINE PLACE - 'THIS NEW HEAVEN'

Formats

• LSSN081 - LP

  5060446129272

Details

Fine Place is a new duo comprising Frankie Rose (Vivian Girls, Crystal Stilts, Dum Dum Girls) and Matthew Hord (Running, Pop. 1280, Brandy). Based in Brooklyn, NYC together they’ve crafted a crystalline full length of nocturnal, electronic pop music that charts a way out the post-global, cyberpunk dystopian environment it was crafted in. Their debut album This New Heaven drenches minimalist song structures in post-industrial washes of sixstring delay and gothic post-punk synths. Presiding over it is the most evocative, emotive vocal performance Frankie Rose has committed to tape to date. Following Hord’s relocation from Chicago, the pair wanted to explore new avenues apart from their respective bands or solo projects. “The sound we were going for was an attempt to capture the dystopian feel of New York during a period of desertion by the wealthy. It was produced in a time-frame saturated in both uncertainty and serenity, and the soundscapes we created felt fitting and almost organic as a response to our surroundings. The title also reflects this in an arguably literal, maybe even satirical way.” Sonically, Fine Place references the pioneering mid-to-late 80s pioneers of icy melodrama The Cure and Cocteau Twins, while reflecting both the individuals’; music trajectories thus far. Modular synthesis triggers rhythm boxes and fluttery arps chirp around clanging 808-patterning as Rose’s reverb-laden vocal layering envelops the remaining headroom. The result is massive; a towering, shadowy music that embraces darkness while offering Rose’s bright vocal as chinks of light in the cracks; the production filling the head space of the beholder with preternatural imagery and emotional resonances that are real but not quite defined. The title song propels forth out of the fog, scintillating with delayed guitar before the reverb-immersed vocal injects the human drama. The chorus constantly teases a big release but holds back creating a taut, dynamic tension. Cover Blind’s slow march makes full use of Rose’s layered vocal sinking and emerging from Hord’s bank of synths. Stand out It’s Your House is pure honey pouring from the speaker on a bank of of arps and near-hymnal vocal layering, a syrupy light offering in the mist. It’s an emotive highlight that only increases as the album progresses; Impressions Of Me is the Lynchian ballad that glides onward into the sunset. The album finishes on a choice re-interpretation of the 1989 track The Party Is Over by Belgian group Adult Fantasies, one of the great over-looked ballads of the era given an almost ecclesiastical makeover by Matthew Hord and Frankie Rose in 2021. Says Hord: “This record was an incredibly challenging endeavor to make, as I had just come home from a European tour with another music project and wanted to invest into and focus on this collaboration with Frankie. I essentially reimagined how to approach writing basic sequences with the synthesizers I had been rehearsing and performing with for months prior to make something more accessible and pop- like for Frankie to build upon. Frankie is an unsung hero when it comes to mixing, and she was constantly mixing down and processing elements of the tracks to create different atmospheres as we forged forward with every song.” This New Heaven is an ecstasy of sorts, a half-dream in the border between sleep and daylight.

Tracks

1. I Cant Shake It
2. This New Heaven
3. Cover Blind
4. Tending to Twenty
5. Its Your House
6. Impressions Of Me
7. Tell Me A Second Time
8. The Party Is Over

Press

Audio & Video

TOTAL HELL - 'S/T'

Formats

• 176GONE - LP

  733102722517

Details

By way of some cosmic miracle, only one Total Hell pops up when the band moniker is searched on Discogs. And that would be the band responsible for the five-song blast of heavy metal sounds at hand. Now active for about two years plus change and exported from the very metal and punk fertile New Orleans, Total Hell is DD Deth (aka Drew Owen—Sick Thoughts wheelman, Trampoline Team etc) on drums / vocals, Henry Hell (John Henry of Static Static, Heavy Lids) on bass / vocals, and guitarists Jason “Panzer” Craft (Persuaders, Tirefire) and Michael Maniac (Michael He-man of Trampoline Team). If self-deprecation is beyond the listener’s processing skills, then please know that as self-described purveyors of the “New Wave of Shitty Heavy Metal”, Total Hell’s big-boy debut is not “shitty” in any manner whatsoever. These four recordings (“Desecrate”, “Clones From Hell”, “Violator”, and “Disfigured”) are melodic monstrosities that hit with a wall-to-wall, floorto- ceiling hugeness, while doing so in an economical manner. There will be no mistaking this for Broken Bones screeching out of an iPhone inside the vegan squat. On the flip, this is no Bob Rock joint. DD Deth elaborates: “Recorded on a Tascam 8-track cassette live at home (aka “The Parkway”) by Michael He-Man and the process was a nightmare. Original tape crapped out on us back in early 2020 so we had to redo the whole thing. Intros and interludes were done last minute by me with the cheapest midi keyboard on the net.” Well, color Goner Records impressed. One might get momentarily lost in the cavernous drums that introduce opener “Desecrate”, but soon the buzzsaw-riff-wall will crush one into a smudge on the bathroom floor. Without rocking some safety goggles and diving headfirst down a terminology rabbithole, this is punk jumping into the sack with metal and leaving black boots on the bedroom floor rather than white hightops. Xmas came early for fans of Anti-Cimex, Celtic Frost, pre-shit Discharge, Motörhead, Blitz, Midnight, Venom, Broken Bones and...one gets the picture.

Tracks

1. Desecrate
2. Clones From Hell
3. Violator
4. Disfigured
5. Outro

Press

For fans of Anti-Cimex, Celtic Frost,
pre-shit Discharge, Mot?rhead, Blitz,
Midnight, Venom, Broken Bones

Audio & Video

THULSA DOOM - 'AMBITION FREEDOM'

Formats

• DM150LP - LP

  7072696003767

Details

Their roots are firmly planted in heavy rock, melodic aggression and despair. They have conquered the stoner rock kids and breathed fiery life into the classic rock snobs. Now Thulsa Doom’s branches are growing with twigs of Kiss and Crimson; strong wooden arms hold Skynyrd, Ween and Bob Dylan, and progressive leaves of soulful, poignant, intricate gems cover the ground. And there are nuts, lots of nuts. ...and with the release of their new album “Ambition Freedom” the tree itself will stretch right in through your bedroom window and grab you. Just like the one in Poltergeist. Thulsa Doom’s debut album “The Seats Are Soft But the Helmet Is Way Too Tight” (2001) made a big splash in the stoner rock community with excellent reviews all around, including a 5 out of 5 at Allmusic.com. The band’s sophomore “…And Then Take You To A Place Where Jars Are Kept” (2003) earned them two Norwegian Grammy nominations, and is widely recognized as one of the best rock-releases from Norway ever. «A Keen Eye for the Obvious» was released in 2018 and was instantly recognized as the greatest comeback since Batman. The band that once was a cherished but well-kept secret has now become a national treasure because of the timeless qualities of their albums and unforgettable live shows. Relentlessly rehearsing and playing shows all over Norway and for dubious but welcoming crowds in central Europe has once again inspired Thulsa Doom to make new music. “Ambition Freedom” will not harm you in any way, but it might rearrange your heart and refurbish your belief in Rock. “Ambition Freedom” will confuse many, but for others it will lead the way. You will wish it never stops, and it doesn’t have to. It’s a record. Spin it again

Tracks

Press

RIYL: Mid 90s Detroit/Kiss worshipping scando invasion: Hellacopters (WHite Jazz Era), GLuecifer, Turbonegro (Hank era)... amped up action rock... tasty!!

Audio & Video

KELLEY STOLTZ - 'ANTIQUE GLOW (20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION)'

Formats

• TMR743 - 2xLPs

  810074420679

• TMR743CV - 2xLP (COLOURED)

Details

*LIMITED COPIES OF COLOURED VERSION** **BLACK VINYL BACK IN STOCK** Third Man Records is proud to announce the 20th anniversary expanded edition of Kelley Stoltz’s defining album Antique Glow, due November 19, 2021. The announcement is heralded by the release of bonus track "Too Beck". Limited-edition "rainy nights" UK exclusive vinyl will be available on release day. Originally self-released in minuscule vinyl-only quantities in 2001, Antique Glow has served not only as a template for the length of Kelley Stoltz’s twenty-plus year career, but has also served as a compass for other Anglophile, TASCAM 388 home recording acolytes. Original copies featured Stoltz’s clever, wry and fanciful hand-painted adornments overtop reclaimed thrift store LP jackets, Third Man’s release here utilizes some of those original unused images for a die-cut sleeve that ultimately gives the listener six different possible album covers. The songs are by-and-large masterpieces of bedroom pop magic. From the whispering “Here Comes the Sun”-adjacent acoustic underpinnings of album opener “Perpetual Night” through the fuzz-threaded leads of “Are You Electric?” Stoltz’s inspirations are impeccable and clear. Sixties Davies British Invasion through 80’s British Bunnymen post-punk, with appropriate off-shoots into West Coast American pop-psych, Velvets-indebted hooliganism and Drake/CSNY acoustic attenuations, the end result is pure joy. On the expanded version, standout tracks previously relegated to an Australian tour-only CD (like the breathlessly cinematic “Old Pictures”) see their first-ever vinyl and digital release while there’s an additional 10 songs from the Antique Glow-era seeing their first ever release in any format. The cutting room floor quality here is second-to-none, Stoltz clearly gifted with the curse of writing too many indelible songs, so the newly released “Too Beck” (originally cast off by Kelley because he thought “it sounded too much like Beck”) and “Umbrella” stand firm as some of the best, most timeless music Stoltz has ever released... a full two decades after he recorded them! With all instruments and vocals performed by Stoltz, the singularity of vision here is impeccably clear and executed.

Tracks

1. Perpetual Night
2. Crystal Ball
3. Jewel of the Evening
4. Underwater's Where the Action Is
5. One Thousand Rainy Days
6. Tubes in the Moonlight
7. 26th Street Floor
8. Are You Electric
9. Please Visit Soon
10. Listen Darkly
11. Fake Day
12. Mean Marianne
13. Mt. Fuji
14. Silver Lining

LP2
15. Old Pictures (Bonus Track)
16. Immobile Bones (Bonus Track)
17. You'll Find the Truth in the Frying Pan (Bonus Track)
18. You and Me and 100 Others (Bonus Track)
19. You're Making Me Yawn (Bonus Track)
20. Interplanetary Wisdom (Bonus Track)
21. Harmonica Makes the Doggy Go Wild (Bonus Track)
22. Dead John (Bonus Track)
23. Baby's Fingers (Bonus Track)
24. Too Beck (Bonus Track)
25. Discount City VU (Bonus Track)
26. Umbrella (Bonus Track)
27. Spilled Milk (Live on PBS) (Bonus Track)

Press

2 page feature in this months UNCUT !!

Audio & Video