CAROLA BAER - 'THE STORY OF VALERIE'

Formats

• CC001 - LP

  843563137260

Details

The discovery of a cassette of Carola Baer’s early ’90s private home recordings was like finding a needle in a haystack. Made as a one-off mixtape of newly-recorded songs, and given to a long-since forgotten recipient, this cassette was found in 2017 at a Goodwill “bins” location in Portland, Oregon. These chaotic, by-the-pound thrift stores contain thousands of unsorted items in constant flux, which are only available for the public to buy for a limited time before they are discarded. The prospect that this obscure relic would be rescued from its untimely fate is nothing short of a miracle. As this tape was the only one in existence, with no back up versions of many of the songs, it’s more than likely that this music would have been lost forever. The Story Of Valerie is made up of songs culled from that cassette, with a few additional tracks from the time, and is the first time Carola Baer’s solo material has been heard by the public. The intense emotion of the music is brought upon by the primary themes of the album: the cruelty of humanity, isolated life as a British immigrant in the US, and the pain of doomed relationships. Despite being inspired by classic 4AD acts like Dead Can Dance and Cocteau Twins, Baer’s home recordings have a sound and style that is uniquely her own. Many of the tracks feel like musical exorcisms, with Baer’s spine tingling voice soaring above minimal arrangements for Yamaha DX-7 and Casio CZ-101 synthesizers. Like finding a stranger’s diary, the listener is granted access to music that is emotionally raw and deeply personal.

Tracks

1. Maker Of Me
2. Golden Boy
3. Save Me
4. We Already Feel
5. Springtime
6. Doors Talk
7. Solemn Cattle
8. Nothing Left To Say
9. See The Lights Again
10. Dreams
11. On Top Of The Mountain

Press

Reissue of 2018 sold-out archival release
of early 90s home recordings by British
singer songwriter living in the USA
For fans of Dead Can Dance and Cocteau
Twins

Audio & Video

GUIDED BY VOICES - 'CRYSTAL NUNS CATHEDRAL'

Formats

• GBVI111 - LP

  733102723613

• GBVI111CD - CD

  733102723620

Details

The mighty Guided By Voices are set to unleash upon the world their 35th and quite possibly…best album, Crystal Nuns Cathedral. How do they do it you might ask? Well we have no idea how they do it, but we certainly do know why they do it. They do it because quite honestly we need them to do it. The world needs The Rock, and we need loud guitars, we need anthemic songs, we need a reason to raise a rock fist in the air and give a “Hell Yeah”! On Crystal Nuns Cathedral, the band delivers all of this and so much more. Just four months since It’s Not Them. It Couldn’t Be Them. It Is Them!, comes this latest, twelve songs determined to challenge for the title of greatest Guided by Voices album of all-time. Hyperbole you say? Not this time. The guitars are bigger, the arrangements are more ambitious, the songs are uplifting, epic, and as incredibly hook-laden as always! Pure power pop perfection like lead single “Excited Ones” mix perfectly with the slow burning “Climbing A Ramp,” which reaches its climax on a stunning guitar lead before dissolving into the fist pumping anthem “Never Mind the List,” which serves as the beating heart of the entire album. Do you still need convincing? Listen to the one-two punch of “Forced to Sea” and “Huddled” and marvel at the epic scope and vision of an incredible band on full display. This record is a statement, a challenge, a monument, a call to arms. Top this one if you can, this is the new benchmark. Who will best it? Who will try? Listen to Crystal Nuns Cathedral, and report back to us. We will be eagerly waiting.

Tracks

1. Eye City
2. Re-Develop
3. Climbing A Ramp
4. Never Mind The List
5. Birds In The Pipe
6. Come North Together
7. Forced To Sea
8. Huddled
9. Excited Ones
10. Eyes Of Your Doctor
11. Mad River Man
12. Crystal Nuns Cathedral

Press

35th album by beloved rock band might possibly be their best!
Bigger guitars, more ambitious arrangements, uplifting, epic and hookladen!

Audio & Video

ROY MONTGOMERY - 'AUDIOTHERAPY'

Formats

• GY11-4 - LP

  600197611418

• GY11-4CD - CD

  600197611425

Details

Roy Montgomery, a pioneer of the NZ underground, believes there is always new sonic terrain to investigate. His latest series of albums for Grapefruit marks forty years of rigorous exploration in which he has managed to navigate disparate genres, scenes, and atmospheres, always at the forefront of experimental independent music. To commemorate, Grapefruit will be releasing four new Montgomery albums in 2021, which can be purchased individually or via subscription. For his fourth album, appropriately named Audiotherapy, Montgomery builds his compositions from the subconscious, breaking down form and inviting in new techniques. “Audioramble” features call-and-response singing between him, Emma Johnston and Arnie Van Bussel, both of whom act as a Greek chorus to Montgomery’s reflections. “Occlusione” sets a sturdy musical bed under Maria Eleanora C Mollard’s whispered spoken word, like a voice in one’s head that risks getting drowned out in the noise. For the sublime “Audiotransport,” guitars shimmer up the sides and weave through one another, reconciling the inner voices of doubt and worry into a meditation on the beauty of existence. The last track, “Imperfect Intense”, builds on disbalance as Johnston’s vocals meet Montgomery’s in broken harmony; both singers move at their own pace despite the other, embodying how uncertainty lies at the heart of how we live. Audiotherapy is the most intuitive and experimental entry of Roy Montgomery’s 2021 (and—cough—2022) releases, closing out the series with introspection and transcendence.

Tracks

1. Audioramble
2. Occlusione
3. Audiomemory
4. The Expedition Across Your Skin
5. Audiotransport
6. Imperfect Intense

Press

Audio & Video

VARIOUS - 'PATCHED IN: SOUNDS OF THE STROUD UNDERGROUND'

Formats

• SNDREC001 - LP

  0604565686688

Details

Whether folk, rock, jazz, electronica or hip hop, Stroud's musical innovators are united by a love of improvisation, experimentation and collaboration. This record is the first attempt to capture the key sounds of the scene and features acts as diverse as the haunting electronica of Orbury Common, the post-punk jazz of Mermaid Chunky, the etherial cello of Simon McCorry and glitchy hip-hop of Fidel Cutstro. The record also features a track from Blancmange legend Neil Arthur in his Near Future guise as well as the first ever recorded track by Wooolheads, a collaboration between Sound Records' own Sean Roe and artist Uta Baldauf. Other acts involved are Mahon Sounds, Little Metropolis, Unicorn Ship Explosion and Phonsonic. The record is limited to just 500 copies and is likely to become a collectors item given the interest in the project. Artwork is by locally respected artist Adam Hinks (Good on Paper) and insert sleeve notes are written by music journalist Rupert Howe

Tracks

Side 1
1/ Orbury Common - Ectos Chasm
2/ Unicorn Ship Explosion - Noisy Flag kid guitar
3/ Simon McCorry - Pieces of Mind
4/ Phonsonic - 4th of June
5/ Near Future - Ideal Home

Side 2
1/ Fidel Cutstro - Coyote
2/ Mahon Sounds - Ron
3/ Mermaid Chunky ( Feat Rorshack/JSSO ) - Slabs
4/ Wooolheads - Invisible Systems
5/ Little Metropolis - Ghosts

Press

Audio & Video

SYSTEM EXCLUSIVE - 'S/T'

Formats

• CF140 - LP

  733102722012

• CF140CD - CD

  733102722029

Details

“Often when music is constructed with synths and other electronically generated sound makers, their level of exactitude and control is such that the vocalist will either wittingly or otherwise seek to emulate the relative artifice of the soundscape. This is often done to great effect, think Kraftwerk. But what if there was a unit whose music was synth-generated but the vocals were coming from a hot-blooded, singing-for-the-cheap-seats approach? If done well, it’s a case of two great tastes that taste great together, which brings me to System Exclusive. Their multi genre/time period collision is like a car accident where all parties walk away not only unscathed but sure they had a great time, like two different recording sessions sharing the same space and making it work. Vocalist Ari Blaisdell (previously of Lower Self, The Beat Offs) co-exists excellently amidst the driving beats and synth waves and her guitar further helps to jailbreak the tunes from the often sterile entrapments that synths provide. Matt Jones (previously of Male Gaze, Blasted Canyons, and continuing Castle Face behind-the-scenesman)’s smart use of live drums bring great juxtaposition against the machines. Ari’s irony-free sincere delivery is the perfect closer on this very cool record, recorded ably by Enrique Tena Padilla (Osees, Wand, Beach House) in their backyard studio mid-pandemic and adorned with original artwork by Miles Wintner (L.A. Takedown, Mr. Elevator, Devon Williams). If you don’t get this slab of goodness, well, that act of non-compliance will confirm you as the pain-in-the-ass that many have described you to be in great detail during Zoom chats. How dare they! Prove them wrong! Reduce their snark to mere pseudo-intellectual piffle! Your lifeline arrives in March. Grab it.” - Henry Rollins It’s out on Castle Face Records March 4th

Tracks

1. We Follow
2. Close Encounters
3. In An Instant
4. Game of the Fool
5. Magdalena
6. Inline Online
7. Carole Anne
8. Stay With Me
9. Not Too Late
10. :59
11. Maybe It?s Better

Press

Audio & Video

FRANCESCO MESSINA - 'REFLEX'

Formats

• SV190 - LP

  857661008902

Details

Francesco Messina is perhaps best known for his collaboration with fellow composer Raul Lovisoni on the album Prati Bagnati Del Monte Analogo, originally released on seminal Italian label Cramps in 1979. Along with contemporaries Franco Battiato, Juri Camisasca and Giusto Pio, Messina would help reshape the world of modern composition with an organic rawness and haunting beauty. In 1979, Messina was asked to perform at the Teatro Quartiere in Milan. As the composer writes in the liner notes, “Due to the limited availability of key technical features, it would have been too complicated to perform Prati Bagnati, and therefore I opted for these three pieces instead. We had never actually tried them all together, so I thought about renting a recording studio the previous afternoon. In that way, we could rehearse in a suitable place and use the opportunity to record the music on tape.” Unreleased for over thirty years, the recordings on Reflex have an unadorned, almost improvisational feel. “Untitled” (featuring Lovisoni’s plaintive flute) and “I Nuovi Pescheti” are full of meditative piano passages that lend an aura of new age, while the title track is more insistent with unfurling chords layered in real time via a reel-to-reel tape machine, resembling Steve Reich’s mesmeric phase-shifting works of the ’60s. A central figure within the Italian avant-garde, Francesco Messina gracefully expands his country’s contribution to Minimalism. This first-time vinyl release is recommended for fans of Joanna Brouk, Luciano Cilio and Charlemagne Palestine.

Tracks

Press

Rare 1979 recordings from Italian avant-garde pioneer

Recommended for fans of Joanna Brouk, Luciano Cilio and Charlemagne Palestine


First-time vinyl release

Audio & Video