The Monks

One of the strangest stories in rock history, the Monks were formed in the early '60s by American G.I.s stationed in Germany. After their discharge, the group stayed on in Germany as the Torquays, a fairly standard beat band. After changing their name to the Monks in the mid-'60s, they also changed their music, attitude, and appearance radically. Gone were standard oldie covers, replaced by furious, minimalist original material that anticipated the blunt, harsh commentary of the punk era. Their insistent rhythms recalled martial beats and polkas as much as garage rock, and the weirdness quotient was heightened by electric banjo, berserk organ runs, and occasional bursts of feedback guitar. To prove that they meant business, the Monks shaved the top of their heads and performed their songs -- crude diatribes about the Vietnam war, dehumanized society, and love/hate affairs with girls -- in actual monks' clothing.

This was pretty strong stuff for 1966 Germany, and their shocking repertoire and attire were received with more confusion than hostility or warm praise. Well known in Germany as a live act, their sole album and several singles didn't take off in a big way and were never released in the U.S., it was rumored, because the lyrical content was deemed too shocking. They disbanded in confusion around 1967, but their album -- one of the most oddball constructions in all of rock -- gained a cult following among collectors, and has ironically made them much more popular and influential on an international level than they were during their lifetime. Bassist Eddie Shaw's 1994 autobiography, Black Monk Time, is a fascinating narrative of the Monks' stranger-than-fiction story.

The Monks' only album, "Black Monk Time", is packed with angst anthems on the order of "Shut Up," "I Hate You," "Complication," and "Drunken Maria." One of the strangest recordings of all time, it's now finally available in the U.S. as a 1997 CD reissue on Infinite Zero. The repackage is made all the more appealing with the inclusion of their two later non-LP singles, the live 1966 "Monk Chant," and a couple of 1965 demos, making it the definitive document of the Monks' recorded legacy.

Fly Girls!

‘Fly Girls!’ celebrates the 30th anniversary of female rap on record!



This double-CD (and limited edition two volumes of super-loud double-vinyl) narrates the story of female rap from its birth in the tenement block parties in New York City’s outer boroughs through to the dizzying career heights of Queen Latifah, Missy Elliott and other modern day power brokers. ‘Fly Girls!’ also discusses the influence of an earlier generation of black female poets whose ideals (both in their art and how they established career paths) helped lay the foundations for birth of the genre.

The history of female rap on record begins in 1979 in New York City as the clamour of the city’s artists, record companies and producers strove to make it onto vinyl in the wake of The Sugarhill Gang’s squillion-selling hit, ‘Rappers Delight’ – released that year on the former soul singer Sylvia Robinson’s Sugarhill Records. It would be the Winley family - comprising sisters Tanya, Paulette - who made the first female rap record produced by their mother Ann and released on their father’s label, Paul Winley Records.

Aside from the singing/rap styles that earlier soul artists such as Aretha Franklin, Shirley Ellis, Millie Jackson and Laura Lee would occasionally adopt in their songs, female rap (like rap itself) had its antecedents in the groundbreaking black poetry of the 60s and 70s with radical, free-thinking poets such as Nikki Giovanni, Camille Yarborough and Sarah Webster Fabio - all of whom are included here – vocalising hitherto unheard expressions of female and black self-determination in their work. These strong, educated, political women not only led the way stylistically but also helped define how a female artist could make their own career path - weaving creativity, politics and family in a way that Missy Elliott, Queen Latifah and others have since followed - establishing the boundary-breaking career paths of many female artists in rap. Hip-hop is a culture of which music is only a part; nowadays (and to an extent from the very beginning) the most successful female hip-hop artist is often singer, DJ, actress, manager, political and social agitator and more in multiple combinations.

Hip-hop’s story begins in the tenement blocks and community centres of the South Bronx. In the first three years-or-so history of hip-hop (1976-9) - before the first rap records were made - aspiring female artists could watch onstage the early female MC role models of Sha-Rock (the first female MC in the group The Funky Four plus One) or the Mercedes Ladies (the first female MC and DJ crew). With Tanya and Paulette Winley’s ‘Rappin and Rhymin’ on vinyl by 1979 it would not be until the following year that the first all-female crew made it onto vinyl when Sequence (featuring a then unknown Angie Stone) was astutely signed, once again, by Sylvia Robinson to Sugarhill Records.

Robinson was not the only woman on the business side of hip-hop. There was Kool Lady Blue who first brought rap out of the Bronx and into downtown NYC at the Roxy nightclub and also later managed The Rocksteady Crew. Monica Lynch who rose to head of A and R and president of Tommy Boy Records, and later vice-president of Warners, comments that because hip-hop was new it did not have the hierarchy of the traditional music industry and women were thus able to move more easily into executive roles. Later, as we shall see, many of the artists moved into the business themselves taking control of their careers and aiding others.

Roxanne Shante is certainly the first female rapper to make a career out of her music. Shante and fellow Queens-resident and producer Marley Marl fought their corner for both their borough (taking on Boogie Down Productions and the Bronx) and anyone else who dared call themselves ‘Roxanne’ in a slanging-match known as ‘The Roxanne Wars’. This verbal jousting had its antecedents dating back to the ‘dozens’ of the playground and tower-block (‘Your mother is a …’, ‘No, your mother is a …’) and to th e Griot storytellers of Africa. Roxanne Shante, and many others here, effortlessly subverted this - and many other - male-dominated traditions to create and re-write new histories.

Female rap is thirty years old (yes, thirty) and it just don’t stop. Here is a snapshot of that history. The album includes so many firsts – first solo record, first crew on record, first number one, first grammy winner, that it would be easier to list the few records featured here that are not historical landmarks in the ongoing tale of female hip-hop.

Palace Music

Lost Blues and Other Songs is the name of a 1997 album by Will Oldham, released under the moniker Palace Music. It collects various singles and rarities Will Oldham released under the Palace names during the early 1990s. "Ohio River Boat Song" is an adaptation of the traditional Scottish "Loch Tay Boat Song", and "Horses" was originally written and performed by Sally Timms of the Mekons on her 1988 solo album Somebody's Rockin' My Dreamboat.

Intrusion

The Intrusion full-length is finally here - a massively anticipated follow up of sorts to 'The Coldest Season' album and without question the most fully-realised Echospace project since that album came out 18 months ago. Steve Hitchell reserves his Intrusion moniker for his rich and sumptuous dub experiments, more Rhythm & Sound as opposed to the to M-Series or BC references more commonly associated with the Deepchord axis. Referencing the Caribbean on 'Montego Bay' the padded, heady structure of the music infuses the massive sense of space with a warm and breezy pulse that sets this music apart from so much of the rubber-coated preset teasing that passes for dub techno these days. Paul St. Hilaire, meanwhile, adds a typically righteous vocal presence alongside luxurious Fender Rhodes on 'Angel', a beautiful cut exclusive to this CD issue. The best tracks from the 12"s are compiled with 'Intrusion Dub', 'Seduction', 'Reflection', 'Tswana Dub' and 'Twilight', in addition to the glorious 'A Night To Remember' inspired by his travels to Japan. Crazily limited to a mere 300 copies only, the cd is now completely sold out!

Arzachel

Collectors of rare psychedelia recognize Arzachel's sole LP as being one of the most desired (and pricey) relics from the late '60s. The record was initially released in England on the obscure Evolution label and later in America on Roulette. Unlike most monster psych collectors' albums, however, Arzachel had two things which helped transition it to the CD era: the music is a head above most other psych rarities, and the four musicians later achieved marginal success within the '70s progressive rock "Canterbury scene."

The band initially called themselves Uriel and formed in December, 1967 after guitarists Dave Stewart (not the one from the Eurythmics) and Steve Hillage met in math class at the City of London School. After recruiting lead vocalist/bassist Hugo Montgomery Campbell (Mont Campbell), Stewart soon realized Hillage was the better axeman and switched to organ. Drummer Clive Brooks was discovered via an ad in Melody Maker magazine. Uriel then secured a summer residency at an Isle of Wight hotel called Ryde Castle. They also were filmed for an English sex education film and came close to jamming with Jimi Hendrix after meeting him on a London street.

According to Hillage, their one album was "done for a laugh really. Somebody gave us a day in the studio, and we made a psychedelic album!" But the record wasn't released until after Hillage quit Uriel to attend college in Canterbury (he later played with both Kevin Ayers and Gong before going solo). Stewart, Campbell, and Brooks carried on as the classical rock trio Egg. The Uriel album made with Hillage was released in 1969 under the name Arzachel, with fictional names and bios of the musicians to avoid contractual difficulties. The record itself featured some of the most explosive psychedelia by an English group, but without any promotion, it quickly plunged into obscurity. It was years later before collectors started depleting their bank accounts to obtain what few copies of Arzachel were originally released.

Timber Timbre

Timber Timbre stops you. The elements are deceptively simple: a confident, but hushed voice, understated guitar, strings and keyboard flourishes, and a subtle percussive beat. Timber Timbre front man Taylor Kirk is making pop as if it was meant to sound haunted.

The Yellow Moon Band

More Hillage than Gong, more Hacket than Genesis, more Thompson than Fairport and certainly more Velvet Jacket than Leather Jacket.
The Brothers dropped some mushrooms one afternoon after decided to experience the love behind the record of the year. Yes they would plot a histogram using Jaffa-cakes and pink wafers. During a distracted moment they pondered over the other important events in music. The Weeley festival 1971 (Juicy Lucy, demon fuzz and Hackensack and all for just 1-50); dancing in the mud in your underpants at Bickershaw to the Greatfull Dead; Cheech and Chong and Haydock Brass Band. Or what about climbing on army tanks to catch Roy Harper at the St. Helens Show. Great days with the endorphin rush of pure music jammed out by buzzing musicians.

So here we have the debut album by The Yellow Moon Band'Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World'. It follows two sold out sevens and some crazy shows at the Green Man Festival. Eight tracks of Instrumental wonk thats as darn exciting as discovering that rare side of wax thats sorta Anatolian led rare groove in a bare chested wrestle with Be Bop Deluxes Sunburst Finish and pressed up on Vertigo. Well it might exist in the car boot of your dreams.

James Ferraro

Limited Europe-only album from James Ferraro of The Skaters/Lamborghini Crystal et al, the first run ever presented under his own name. Clear presents some of his most transparently beautiful synth work in the vein of Klaus Schulze, JD Emmanuele, early Krautrock et al… the first half is pure unanchored tonefloat bliss while the second brings in fast hand-drum rhythms and a kind of modal 1980s casio/bass guitar feel that makes it sound like a weird DIY new wave group’s take on Popol Vuh’s Affenstunde. Very beautiful and highly recommended.


Discovery is packaged as a companion volume to Clear and feels like an extension of the modes first extrapolated there, with hypnotic rhythms driving crystal-complex keyboard patterns through endlessly reflective hall-of-mirrors style sonic environs. The album becomes progressively denser as we approach the second half, with what could almost be a backwards re-staging of Faust’s “Krautrock” fed slowly into the nearest wormhole. Another monster. Highly recommended.

MIXOLOGY

I made a mix for you. I hope you enjoy it. Its nice to listen to lying down.




1.Black Mountain - Shelter
2.The Spires - Everything And Nothing At Once
3.Roland Bautista - Gone
4.Undisputed Truth - Down By The River
5.Buckingham Nicks - Frozen Love
6.Total Issue - Dis-Mais-Dis
7.San Un Lin - My Soul Lies On Silk
8.Cold Cave - Our Tears Help The Flowers Grow
9.James Ferraro - untitled
10.Wavves - Spaced Raider
11.Mark McGuire - A Matter Of Time

Circle

Review by Brian Way

Circle is a band that loves to keep its fans guessing; some of their forays into unexpected genres tend to confound, but a true fan will always find what they love about these Finnish experimentalists no matter the direction they take, be it psychedelic, noise, drone, folk, free jazz, or their self-coined genre, the New Wave of Finnish Heavy Metal. They always manage to sound like Circle, in that their musical motifs are always circular, cyclical, repetitive... and extremely hypnotic. Do not attempt to operate heavy machinery while listening to Circle! The majority of their work, be it the motorik "speed kraut" drive of the bulk of their earlier material, the prog leanings of Katapult, the absurdist experiments of Arkades, the damaged folk-blues of Forest, the dronescapes mixed with oldschool punk (?!) of Panic, or even the metallic edge of Sunrise (so sincere it's almost indistinguishable from Judas Priest!). But this diversity never comes off like a gimmick - in this case Circle has delved into a realm not far from the much-maligned genre of New Age music, albeit closer to the kind associated with avant gardists like Steve Reich, Terry Reilly or John Cage, over this expansive 2CD set. Again, the effect is trance-inducing, only instead of relentless pummeling they take the opposite tack with lengthy, sprawling, amorphous pastorals, with nary a drum kit or distorted guitar in sight. The instrumentation - consisting of tinkling crystalline keys, exploratory piano musings, spare simplistic guitar and bass lines, in addition to various samples, drones and found sounds both disorienting and soothing - is subtle yet insistent enough to fully involve the listener rather than allowing itself to be relegated to the background. And while this collection is less immediate and takes more patience than most Circle material, it is no less rewarding to listeners who allows themselves to be transported and lulled into dreamy contemplation. It's the perfect soundtrack for a couple lost hours sitting by a placid pool in an enchanted forest watching the reflective water slowly eddy and the fairy dust float through sunbeams. It's that mesmerizing. Miljard is not the best place for the uninitiated to start (that would be Meronia or Andexelt), it nevertheless suffices as yet another captivating guise for this chameleon-like enigma of a band.
Disc1
Disc2

Valerio Cosi

Valerio Cosi may be young at only 22, but his talent is undeniable. He may be mostly known for his exquisite saxophone playing, but this Italian wunderkind doesn’t stop there. Cosi composes strings of magic using all sorts of instrumentation and production tricks.

Rubies

Danceable folk, homemade disco, and lost love laments; these are just a few facets of California-based Duo, Rubies. The poised and dynamic range of songwriting keeps the listener excited by offering fresh and honest versions of future dancefloor and living room classics. Simone Rubi (lead vocals, keyboards) entices the crowd while Terri Loewenthal (bass) keeps them dancing. Add some shimmering guitar, the harmonies and beats provided by machine or borrowed man, and try to resist. While it could be in a crowded avant-garde discotheque in NYC, a motorik infused warehouse in Berlin, or the pine-needle carpeted redwoods of Big Sur, you will be easily moved by the conviction that Rubies offers. Both huge and intimate moments make the live show a beautifully creative experience.

For our debut album, "Explode from the Center," we were lucky enough to have helping hands from Eirik Glambek-Boe (Kings of Convenience) and his new group "Kommode", Leslie Feist, Karl-Jonas Winqvist (Blood Music), Dan Judd (Sorcerer), Lars Skoglund (Laakso, Lykke Li), Maria Eriksson (The Concretes) and a small army of other talented folks from all over the world. Simone and Terri also play in the pop group "Call and Response".

Gala Drop

Gala Drop's s/t

Gala Drop are from Lisboa. Their music has evolved into a blend of tribal/latin-American influenced rhythms, kraut-rock synthesizer jams and much more.

Flying Saucer Attack

Seemingly emerging out of nowhere following an initial single or two, Flying Saucer Attack's debut album crystallized an incipient 1990s underground as in thrall to folk music as to feedback blasts and Krautrock influences. The description the band members themselves used, also considered by some as an alternate title to this album, was "rural psychedelia," and rarely has form so readily followed function. The original duo of Pearce and Brook, with some help from friend/Third Eye Foundation mainman Matt Elliott on percussion and clarinet (thus creating an even more alien atmosphere on "Moonset"), created a thick, evocatively haunting collection of modern mind-blowers. If any one thing could be singled out about the album, it's the continual contrast between Pearce's soft, reflective singing, often sunk deep into the overall mix and treated with heavy-duty echo, and his often tremendous guitar work, electric squalls, and drones piled atop one another. Songs like the exultant "Wish" and "A Silent Tide" are the breathtaking results. Initial comparisons were made to My Bloody Valentine and the shoegazing crowd, but they're misplaced -- it's a consciously different style employing some similar elements, but with notably varying results. Two astonishing drone/tribal instrumentals are named "Popol Vuh 2" and "Popol Vuh 1," both open tips of the hat to the long-lived German experimental group. The completely out-of-left-field number, though, is the cover of Suede's "The Drowners" -- changing nothing about the pace but overdriving the feedback and relentlessly toning down the vocals, FSA turn the neo-glam piece into a noisefest beyond description. Compared to later albums, Flying Saucer Attack sets more of an immediately consistent mood -- some numbers aside, the dreamy singing, the seemingly straightforward guitar parts that get more involved the more one listens, and more continue from track to track, generally speaking. The end results, though, are more than worth it.

The Present

The Present is the new music project of legendary New York musician
and producer Rusty Santos (Panda Bear ‘Person Pitch’, Born
Ruffi ans ‘Red Yellow & Blue’, Animal Collective ‘Sung Tongs’). Described
by one band who worked with him as a hyper boy genius,
Rusty has always fi xed his attention on producing music that is
experimentally rich whilst remaining accessible. By attempting to
create music that arises unconsciously through improvisation, The
Present’s debut album ‘World I See’ hauls this ethos over its shoulders
as it tramples on musical boundaries and preconceptions, whilst leaving an album that is still capable of relating musically and emotionally to a wide audience.
After many years and variant modes of collaboration, Rusty
formed together with Mina and Jesse who bring a plethora of
extra dimensions to the sound of The Present. Mina’s background
in classical piano and the love of japanese traditional songs
meets at intense and imaginative levels with the expressive attitude
of the band, whilst the long standing musical partnership
between Jesse and Rusty, which began when they were in high
school together, provides the cemented sound giving the songs
one voice and the band the sound of a single instrument.
Though the instruments on ‘World I See’ aren’t necessarily new (the basic elements are piano, guitar and drums), guided by intuition the band attempt to make timeless music by using the
most minimalist methods in innovative new ways. The result of capturing and developing these sounds is the beautifully elegant yet emotionally powerful sound of The Present.

Flavor Crystals

During the coldest week of the '07 Minneapolis winter, Flavor Crystals holed up in Flowers Studio with the amazing underground producer, Kramer (Galaxie 500, Low, Bongwater) to record the follow up to their 2005 debut "On Plastic."

The entire album took shape and was completed in 4 crazy days of recording and 2 days of intense mixing. Many of the songs were captured in a primordial state. The album has a spontaneous looseness that captures perfectly what this band is about... Flavor Crystals are constantly getting lost in the moment. As its cover art suggests, "Ambergris" hearkens back to early 70's kraut and psychedelia, but the band's late 80's/early 90's indie/shoegaze vibe has not gone away. The
album is still spacey and dreamy like its predecessor, but goes deeper with an eerie intensity and insistence that is magnified by Kramer's unique approach to production and mixing. This album is filled with unrepeatable moments...it lives and breathes with spooky beauty.

Arthur Russell

Four years ago, Audika Records began releasing the exceptionally varied, long sought-after music of Arthur Russell, and in the process has succeeded at helping the beloved, late artist find the broader audience he always believed he would reach. A new generation of listeners and critics has come to appreciate Russell as a visionary and an influence upon a broad range of today's most compelling musical artists. On October 28, Audika will bring to light an as-yet-unavailable side of Russell's body of work—the most rare and, at the same time, arguably the most accessible part—in Love Is Overtaking Me, which comprises 21 demos and home recordings of unreleased pop, folk and country songs from his vast catalog.
While much critical and popular affection for Russell's music has come about well after his untimely death from AIDS in 1992, many fellow artists believed in his genius and were drawn to collaborate with him during his lifetime. The legendary producer John Hammond (Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen) recorded Russell on several occasions; a number of these recordings will finally heard on Love Is Overtaking Me. So, too, will songs recorded with various incarnations of The Flying Hearts, a group formed by Russell and Brooks whose shifting lineup included, by turns, Jerry Harrison, Rhys Chatham, Jon Gibson, Peter Gordon and Peter Zummo as well as Larry Saltzman and David Van Tieghem. Several other Russell projects are represented on Love Is Overtaking Me, including The Sailboats, Turbo Sporty and Bright & Early.
Compiled from over eight hours of material, three years in the making, Love Is Overtaking Me reaches back further to Russell's first compositions from the early ..70s and spans forward to his very last recordings, made at home in 1991. Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear contributed mixing, restoration and editing to the album, whose tracks were selected by Audika's Steve Knutson, Ernie Brooks and Russell's companion, Tom Lee. A number of the songs feature prominently in Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell, Matt Wolf's film, which had its world premiere this year at the Berlin International Film Festival and will be released theatrically and on DVD this fall by Plexifilm.
Love Is Overtaking Me is the fifth release of Russell's material by Audika Records, whose work has proven that the music remains as contemporary today as when it was first recorded. The label launched with the disco/new wave collection Calling Out Of Context (2004) and continued with a reissue of the cello-and-voice masterpiece World Of Echo (2005); the instrumental compositions double-disc First Thought Best Thought (2006); and the hip-hop-inspired Springfield EP (2006), which includes a DFA remix of the title track.
Extensive Love Is Overtaking Me liner notes by Tom Lee provide an intimate perspective on Russell's diverse catalog, which spanned an extraordinary diversity of styles and won the love of artistic communities that would seem utterly disparate, from Philip Glass, John Cage and Allen Ginsberg to rock bands like The Talking Heads and The Modern Lovers; the pre-Studio 54 disco-party scene of Nicky Siano's Gallery and David Mancuso's Loft; and DJ-producers like Francois Kevorkian and Larry Levan, among others.

Peter Broderick

Peter Broderick is like the Swiss Army Knife of musicians; compact, elegant, multipurpose. What sets him apart is his restraint. With an arsenal of talents at his disposal, he prefers to reveal only one or two at a time.

With Home, Broderick may have performed his most impressive feat yet: breathing new life into the most pedestrian arrangement in modern music. He turns the open-mic night connotations of guitar and vocal on its ear with layers of vocal washes, x-acto finger-picking figures, and his deceptively simple compositional style.

You’d think working with as many as five different bands in recent history (Efterklang, Horse Feathers, She & Him, Loch Lomond and Norfolk & Western) simultaneously wouldn’t allow Peter to pursue any kind of solo career. Likewise, his easygoing, unassuming demeanor might lead you to believe he didn’t have aspirations being accessible and available to lend a musical hand. But in late 2007 a steady stream of solo instrumental releases on respected labels Type and Kning Disk has all but established Broderick as the young composer / pianist / string player to watch.

Home is a collection of folk songs recorded at the end of 2007 and beginning of 2008. In late 2007, Peter Broderick toured all around Europe with the Danish ensemble Efterklang, playing violin with them, and opening the shows as a solo act. His recorded work up to this time had been primarily instrumental, but as he began to play live shows, he discovered he also had a passion for singing. And so, when he had a break from touring at the end of the year, he set out to make an album that was the opposite of his other instrumental, piano and string based recordings. With Home he has made and album with neither of these instruments. The result is an album based around layers and layers of vocals, and guitars. Recorded in various places in various parts of the world, it is an album about finding a home. Written, performed, recorded, and produced by Peter himself, and mixed with his good friend and sound wizard from Efterklang, Mads Brauer.

Mark McGuire

mark mcguire - "let us be the way we were"
from insane epic haunting ghost guitar to streams of pure crystalized infinity music. to be alone in the dark and guided by moonlight, searching until sunrise and forever. stunning music.

The Litter

The Litter's debut album was disappointing in the sense that there are only a couple of songs that were not covers. However, they were one of the few garage bands to invest enough energy and imagination into their interpretations to make a cover-heavy LP worth hearing. "Action Woman" is here, and they go about tackling, and sometimes dismantling, numbers like the Small Faces' "Whatcha Gonna Do About It" and the Who's "A Legal Matter" (both of which were barely known in the U.S. at this point, incidentally). "I'm a Man," though based on the Yardbirds' version, gets into some pretty incredible feedback/distortion swirls in the closing rave-up section. Distortions has been reissued a few times, but the 1999 CD on Arf! Arf! is the one to get, as it includes two outtakes ("Hey Joe" and the 25-second, hardly worth noting "Harpsichord Sonata #1") and seven songs, mostly previously unreleased, recorded live at Chicago's Electric Theatre in August 1968. This was the music that the band played while filming a scene in Haskell Wexler's film Medium Cool (although none of the music was used in the movie), and it's in a heavier, bluesier hard-rock direction than their 1967 recordings, but still retains some of the punky spirit of the Distortions era.